Week 18

Hi All-
Well I'm saying goodbye to Manhattan. I am going to go to the Salina second ward with Elder Colemere and we are the Spanish elders. So that's pretty exciting to have some change. I will miss Manhattan though. The ward in Manhattan is so awesome! So a big change. Transfer day is Wednesday morning. Elder Colemere and I are getting whitewashed
in to. (mission lingo for both of them are new in the area)
It was so awesome to talk to you. I ate so much last night I literally couldn't eat another bite or I would have puked. The evening was good. The first family we went to was awesome and had a ton of food. And they gave us a each a nice tie and socks. The second family we went to had a ton of food as well and I was already full. We watched a little bit of the Grinch too. President said that we could watch a movie with members if it was PG or G on Christmas so that was fun. 
Elder Johnson

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas Everyone!

We were so happy to have an amazing Skype call with Elder Skylar today! He's doing so great and we are all so thankful for him and for his example. He has now been gone for four months. Transfers are coming up this week and we are excited to see if he'll be moving to a new area.

Reggie leaves in two weeks to go teach English in Thailand until May and we will be down to only Blake at home with us. It's hard to believe how old these kids of ours are!

We are so blessed to have the gospel in our lives. I've loved the Light the World Campaign that the church has done this Christmas season and hope that we can keep it going forever!

Our family Christmas Picture 2016:)

 Reggie and the cousins had some fun with snapchat while we were talking

Christmas Week

Hey this week has been good but it's been cold. I did get my packages.
I got the boots and the one with the stockings. And thanks so much! You are the best. I love the picture book. 

We speak some Spanish to each other but it's hard for me to speak Spanish and try to say exactly what I want. But I try. Elder Flores speaks some Spanish to me but mostly English. So not as much Spanish as I want but oh well.  

This week was slow. In Manhattan there are like 3 main types of people. Collage students, people that work at the collage, and military. And all of them get vacation time so everyone is leaving. Manhattan is turning into a bit of a ghost town.

 We had a big snow storm Saturday

Week 16

Hey Everyone! 

Merry Christmas! How are you all doing? This week started off really slow and to be honest we really didn't have a whole lot of success. Sunday we went before church with a member to pick up one of our investigators for church who is our only Spanish investigator. When we got there we knocked on his trailer door and he wasn't home. His roommate told us to go try another trailer to see if he was at a friends. We go over there and find him and he is not ready for church. While we were waiting for him to go get ready we started talking to two of his friends. One of the friends we had actually talked to before and he was interested but we couldn't ever find him again. While talking to them they wanted to come to church as well. It was awesome! We went to church and Elder Flores did some translating for them and they really liked it and want to learn more. One of them actually accepted a baptismal date too! The holiday season is good. It doesn't feel much like Christmas time yet due to lack of snow. It snowed once for a little bit. We have been listening to Christmas music. We don't listen to Jingle Bells and those kind. We listen to the ones in the hymn book and some LDS artists like David Archelaeta and Jame the Mormon. Have a great week.

Elder Johnson 

  

D&C 4:4 For behold the field is white already to harvest; and lo, he that thrusteth in his sickle with his might, the same layeth up in store that he perisheth not, but bringeth salvation to his soul;

The first and only snowfall so far..

 PDay shopping

 Johnny Kaw (mythical Kansas Settler) Statue in Manhatten

After raking leaves on PDay

Week 15

Hey Mom. 

I have been doing great! We are always busy so that's good. Spanish is very slowly improving (we are only teaching one guy in Spanish). It's been getting cold though especially at night. So I'm going to probably need some more thermals so if you could send me some that would be great. Cold days and bikes aren't very fun but I keep warm. We get the car Sunday-Tuesday and sometimes on Wednesday. I'd say that the holidays are harder due to the fact people are more busy and that it's cold so we don't really meet many people on the street. But we will see as we get closer to Christmas I haven't received a package other then a scarf this week. Maybe I'll get the package today. Thanks! And I have been drinking water. Make sure you are drinking water because it's good for everyone that includes dad haha. Glad to hear that Dallas won yet again. Be sure to keep the Super Bowl recorded on the tv so I can watch them win when I get home. I'm super excited to be able to FaceTime in 20 days! I've only ran in to two bible bashers. haha Sounds like you have been having a good time. And I like the pic of Bryson and Blake has changed a lot holy crap. I have some pics for this week I'll be sure to send. Love you tons!

Elder Johnson 

Zone pics

The Elders Christmas Tree

 Our ward priests sent this monkey with Skylar on his mission. It looks like the Elders are keeping him involved:)

Elder Johnson And Elder Flores

The District

                     

Week 14

This week was really good it's actually been one of our better weeks. Thanksgiving was good. The first one we had was alright but it wasn't super good. Mostly because the stuffing wasn't too good and there was a different kinda of yams. But it was still really good. The other dinner was awesome though the family that cooked it are like pro chefs. And they are Hispanic so they had some other really good meats along with the traditional stuff. I was really full.
Not sure what you want to know when you say to tell you everything haha. This week we met some new people so that's good. It was kinda hard because Manhattan was a bit of a ghost town this week. But mostly everyone is back home now. Glad to hear you had a good Thanksgiving. And especially now that Dallas is like 10-1!! I hope Luke is doing good now. I like all your pics you sent. I'll be sure to send some pics to you today. :) sad to hear about Bryson but when I talked to him last week he was really optimistic. Sounds like things are going good though with grandpa Ace, Zac, Reggie and all that jazz. Love you tons! Thanks for all you do you're the best! Less then a month away till Christmas I'm pumped to FaceTime you!

PDay shopping

Week 13

Hey guys! 

   These past couple of weeks have just been flying by. Its crazy to think I've been gone for like 3 months now. We had transfers last week and for me not much changed. Same area same companion. The biggest change is that now I have a new district leader. So like mostly everyone who lives in Manhattan is going to collage or they are military. And since a lot of students are home for Thanksgiving, Manhattan is empty especially in the morning because most of the military people are on base at fort Riley. It's really weird to see the town go from super busy roads and people everywhere to emptiness. And Saturday there was a football or basketball game and so everyone was at the game or watching it on tv. Even more empty. We would try to go see people and they would answer their door and tell us to leave because they were watching a K-State game. A little harder to find people haha. 

   The weather is weird because some days
it's hot and other days it's super cold. I got the packages! Thank you! Those earmuffs are magical. It's cold on bikes but all the winter stuff is making it good.     

   So yesterday was awesome. We had a zone conference in Topeka with Elder Wilford W. Anderson of the Seventy and he is so awesome. I learned so much from him. He talked a lot about the missionary purpose and the doctrine of Christ. He then also had a 2 hour Q&A. This is something awesome he said. "If you want to be fluent in the language of the spirit learn how to be reverent...The Spirit is what gives us desire. Testify to bring in spirit to change the desire of investigators" and it's true when you have spiritual experiences its motivates you to do good. And he said investigators but it's the same for everyone else. I have been learning so much these past couple of months and it's awesome. My testimony has grown so much. As missionaries we bear testimony all the time. And before the mission I wouldn't bear my testimony very much. But I've learned that the more you share your testimony the more it grows. The church is true! 

   I Don't have any pics :( hopefully they will send me the pic we took at zone conference with Elder Anderson

Elder Johnson 

Zone Conference with Elder Anderson

Week 12

So I'll start off by talking about transfers. I'm staying in Manhattan with Elder Flores so not much will change. But this week has been good. And election wise most people are happy out here. No riots. So I assume trump won Kansas. 

We have a couple investigators, we have 3 but they are all progressing slowly. One is a 12 year old and his parents don't want him to get baptized just yet. The other is a guy with a crazy past and has trouble when it comes to repentance and doesn't think God can forgive him. Kinda sad but he'll figure it out. And the other is a newer guy I don't know him too well but he is really interested. Have a great week!

Elder Johnson

We had a sweet district meeting up on this hill

 So every morning we do role plays and so I thought I'd make it fun and dress up. Little did I know elder Flores was taking pics

 Then he made this. Don't ask why. It's weird. 

Week 11

Hey Everyone!


This week has just flown by! This week nothing too eventful really happened but we have met a ton of new people that seem pretty interested. Many of which speak Spanish. So that's really cool. It's been helping my Spanish a lot even though some of them talk really fast and I don't understand a whole lot. This week we haven't had a ton of success but we have been meeting a ton of new people. We don't have any super strong investigators as of now except for this boy named Sean. He wants to be baptized really bad but his parents aren't very religious and are kinda holding him back. But I'm sure they will come around eventually. I'm in the Manhattan zone which includes Wamigo and Junction city. And I'm in the Manhattan 1st ward area. It includes like less then half of Manhattan and two small towns called Clay Center and Ogden. Last week I had my first zone conference. It was awesome. President McCuistion is awesome and we had such a good training on personal and companionship study. The Zone Leaders also gave a training on vision. They shared an analogy about a row boat. If you are stranded in the middle of the ocean and can't see anything in the distance you will row but you will eventually give up due to the fact you don't know where you are going or if you are going in circles. But if you see some land of in the distance you will have something to look to. And you will be able to make to land easier. It was super cool. I learned a ton. And I'm learning so much every day. Kansas is amazing! I hope that you guys are all doing good!

Elder Johnson

Zone Conference in Junction City

Week 10

Elder Johnson didn't have much time to email today. He's doing well, working hard and sent some great pictures. 

District Meeting on Hawaiian Day 

"Elder Flores and I found these flower crowns at the store"

District Meeting

Two Months Down

Hey Everyone!

This week was pretty good. The members here are awesome and we got fed good every day this week. So every 4 days we switch off the car with the second ward Elders. But this week the car was having problems so it's been a lot of biking. We hope that we will get it back this week. But the good thing is that now I don't have a broken Walmart bike, it's much easier.  It's fun biking down the big hills but not so much on the uphill haha. But my legs are getting nice and sore.
Elder Flores is a good missionary and we get along good. We are teaching a family from Puerto Rico I think I've mentioned them before. (The three kids speak English though but the mom only speaks Spanish). There is a big trailer park in our area that has a lot of Spanish people but we don't really have any solid investigators there. When we teach in Spanish I don't really say anything because I'm trying to figure out what is being said because I don't understand super well. But we always pray in Spanish. I don't think I've said a personal prayer in English since the 2nd day of the MTC. Even though my prayers are still like 20% English. This week we had zone training and it was such a cool and spiritual experience. Our zone leaders are awesome and taught some good lessons. They talked about how desire is really important, and how desire gives us a vision of what we want to become. And it's something we want to do. We all need to have desire in our callings in the church. I'm loving the mission field and I'm so happy I got called to Kansas it is the best.

Hi All-
What's up everyone? This week went pretty fast and was pretty awesome. We have been teaching a couple more Spanish people so that's really cool. I am not always too sure what's going on when we have a Spanish
lesson but I'm getting better. The ward that I am in is really cool.The people are super nice and they feed us good. The ward is pretty small compared to back at home. My district is really cool and so are our zone leaders.
This week we biked a lot and met lots of people. I have already met so many people with different beliefs. The weather is kinda weird down here though. Somedays it's really cold and the next day is super hot.
We are having a jolly good time down here. I have been learning so much and growing so much spiritually. I can't believe how much my testimony has grown for only being out in the field just two weeks.
Sorry but I failed again with pictures :( I can't send pictures on my camera because we don't have a computer so I'm going to try to take some pictures on my iPad. I love and miss all of you guys!!
Elder Johnson

A Member made this for Sky...It's a missionary made out of balloons. 

Hello From Manhattan Kansas!

We are so happy to get our Elder's first email from the mission field. He lives close to Kansas State University and is in a basement apartment. He said that the ward members are really cool and is looking forward to getting to know them better.

Hey Everybody-
So this last week has been awesome! Monday I said goodbye to my district and teachers (I have a lot of pictures I'll try to send those later) 
Tuesday I left the MTC to Kansas and when we arrived we went straight to the mission office and ate lots of good food. After the meal they had missionaries come in to go on splits for a couple hours. They told us that I had three hours to invite two people to baptism and my companion as well. So four total. I thought they would have us place a Book of Mormon or two but invite people to be baptized is a little more tough. So I was really scared to go right to work and invite people. But nevertheless I went forth. And that was a super awesome experience. So we went around and talked to a bunch of new people and we met our goal just in time! It was awesome to teach people that have never heard of the LDS church. We didn't get anyone on date but most of them said that they would read and pray about the Book of Mormon. The mission president and his wife are really cool. I'm living in a basement of some old couples house. Wednesday I met my new companion and found out where I'm serving. So my trainer is Elder Flores he is from Arizona, speaks both Spanish and English, and is awesome. Here is a pic we just took. 
So we are serving in the Manhattan first ward. And we speak English 90% of the time because there isn't many people that only speak Spanish. Although we meet a family from Puerto Rico and they only speak Spanish and seemed really interested we are going to meet with them again tomorrow. And it is awesome here! 
I was told Kansas is flatter then a pancake but here in Manhattan it's a pretty bumpy pancake. There are so many hills everywhere. We got to bike this week so my legs are a little sore haha. But now we get to switch off with the car with other elders in the area so that's good. The members here are really awesome and feed us good.  
Being out in the field is so much better then the MTC. I've been having lots of fun and have been learning so much I have seen so many miracles and I haven't even been out long!
Love, Elder Johnson

He Made it to Kansas

4 October 2016

Brother and Sister Johnson,

It was our pleasure to greet Elder Johnson upon his arrival in the Kansas Wichita Mission. The enthusiasm and humility of all of our new missionaries adds greatly to the work. We wish to express our gratitude for your willingness to support Elder Johnson in his desire to serve the Lord as a Missionary. We know that many blessings will be realized by you and him as he fulfills this sacred responsibility.

Your missionary will appreciate a weekly letter from home. It can be a valuable source of strength as you communicate your encouragement and love. He has been instructed to write home only once a week. The nature of missionary work is so demanding that time does not permit more frequent communication. Distraction can become a barrier to his spirituality and to the work. Please encourage family and friends to be thoughtful in this regard.

We also ask that telephone calls, both to and from your missionary, be limited to Christmas and Mother's Day. These calls are specifically for the parents of the missionary and should be brief, meaning no more than one hour. Please contact the Mission Office at (316) 260-1343, or the General Church Office (801) 240-2531, in emergency situations and we will relay the message to your missionary. Please refrain from sharing troubling concerns from home as this frustrates the missionary and makes him feel powerless to solve the concerns. But do discuss his missionary experiences and your encouragement for his service.

I will personally meet with Elder Johnson on frequent intervals. Zone and District leaders will see and work with him also. We will do everything we can to help him be successful in this sacred calling.

Sister McCuistion and I express our love and appreciation for the privilege of serving with Elder Johnson in the tremendous responsibility and privilege of being an ambassador of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. May the blessings of the Lord be with you.

Sincerely,

Mitchell D. McCuistion, President Kansas Wichita Mission

Elder Johnson, President and Sister McCuistion

at Keeper of the Plains Monument in Wichita

 The new Elders and Sisters

Last P-Day in the CCM

Its my last P day at the CCM and I am so excited to get into the mission field! It's going to be sad leaving my district because we are all so tight now. 

So this week has been really good. The other day we got our flight plans and all that stuff. I have to be at reception at 2:00 AM Tuesday and the bus leaves for the airport at 2:30 AM. Today we had to pack and weigh all of our suitcases and its crazy to look into my empty closet and think how I am pretty much done with the MTC. My spanish is so much better then ever and I can kinda understand when people talk in spanish now. But every day my Spanish is improving and my testimony is growing! 

Week 4? No Way!!

I'm doing great and having lots of fun! This week has been just a normal week. Thursday night we had a Mexican Independence Day celebration and it was real fun to listen to some mexican music and watch people dance and stuff.  
My Spanish is improving lots everyday. 
I cant believe that I am so close to being done with the MTC! My district is now the oldest in our zone and its weird to be the older guys of the bunch. 
I hear bangs all the time during the day and the night. I'm pretty sure they are just fireworks but some think they are gunshots. Im just glad I remembered to bring some ear plugs! 
This week has kinda been a little slow because its just the same thing everyday. But its all good, my district is super fun to be around and make the time go by faster.(we laugh a lot)
Braxton left the MTC monday morning and its sad to have him gone. From Sky View I think its only Ty, Jeff and me. But really just a typical week nothing too exciting.

So in my district its only Gubler, Hermana Pynes and me who are going to Kansas and we are leaving the same day. There are two other elders going to Kansas with us but I dont ever see them. 

Im all healthy! One night I woke up with a bad stomach ache and I went and threw up but then I was totally fine after that. It was weird (it felt almost like a dream) but my health is great and my teeth are pearly white:) 

Forgot to mention I got a hair cut today not from you. (you cut hair better)

Elder Johnson:)

 Mexican Indepenance Day

Los tres amigos 

 Los tres amigos riding a rollercoaster

Me posing on a random head statue 

CCM Week 3

Hey guys! Its been an awesome week we got to hear from 2 apostles! Sunday night we heard from M. Russell Ballard and it was awesome. He talked about how we need to realize how we are representing Jesus Christ. He also talked about lots of other things but a quote from him I really like is "Its all about what people (investigators) feel more than what they know" His whole talk was awesome and the coolest part was that he said he didnt even know what he was going to speak on when he got up to speak. Its awesome to see him speaking on the spirit the whole time.

Tuesday we heard from Quinten L. Cook. And his talk was on the fly as well! He talked alot about the importance of preach my gospel and love for your mission.

Yesterday we taught real people other then our teachers. We were told that they could either be an investigator, and inactive member, or just a member that has questions about the church. We ended up teaching two people that were members and had questions about prayer and why we are called the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints. It went well but they speak really fast and I only understood them like 50% of the time. we were able to teach and it was good! 

But other then that it was just a normal week at the CCM. Quite a bit of the Sky View clan left  monday and tuesday so sunday night we got a pick with almost all of us. Featuring two people that just hopped in the pic that I don't know.