Saturday, June 26, 2010

Vuvuzelas, Baptisms, Soccer, and Teaching

These are the scriptures Michael mentions in his email. Thought it would be nice to know what he was referencing.

Jacob 1:19 And we did amagnify our office unto the Lord, taking upon us the bresponsibility, answering the sins of the people upon our own heads if we did not cteach them the word of God with all diligence; wherefore, by laboring with our might their dblood might not come upon our garments; otherwise their blood would come upon our garments, and we would not be found spotless at the last day.

Moroni 9:6 And now, my beloved son, notwithstanding their hardness, let us labor adiligently; for if we should cease to blabor, we should be brought under condemnation; for we have a labor to perform whilst in this tabernacle of clay, that we may conquer the enemy of all righteousness, and rest our souls in the kingdom of God.

Sent: Tuesday, June 22, 2010 2:02 AM

KEVINS GOING TO BYU WHERE THE GIRLS ARE GIRLS AND THE BOYS ARE TOO!!!!
hahaha
That's awesome i'm proud of him! his roomates sound..... interesting... it sounds like someone needs the RMTC..... Cough. BROTHER MISSIONARY RAZOR COUGH
Some missionaries don't get the concept that there is life after mission....
But as far as my life on mission is going now... it's great! we're going to have a baptism this week! and july as i have said before is going to be stellar! We taught the nene's on wednesday! it was awesome! they are a great! family we are going to see them again this Wednesday!
Norman and Jermina are good. Norman came to church but jermina didn't... they'll get there for sure though!
My new companion is from UGANDA his name is Elder Higenyi! He's an interesting guy. Ugandans are renowned for their stubborness. But so far he's been great. He's very bold. which is good. He has knee problems though which makes it hard to ride bikes so we're gonna be doing a lot of splits throughout the weeks we're together!
We've had some awesome lessons the past few days though we finally had a breakthrough with one of our families... aptly named the Smiths! They go to a church that was founded by the baba's family but he's now starting to see that things are wrong with the church and that there is contention and false doctrine.... elder higenyi then jumped on that and powerfully (and boldly testified) that such things are not part of the church of christ. it was awesome i gave a 15 minute discourse about the restoration of the priesthood and then boom! elder higenyi dropped the spirit bomb! It was an awesome lesson!
It's crazy though, mission does start to take a toll on you.... i've been sick for the last week and haven't had time to rest, i'm quite sick of being tired and tired of being sick, But if i have strength to work...i must work. if i stay at home i will have Moroni 9:6 and jacob 1:19 haunting me. but it's been amazing to see the hand of the lord in all these things cause with out him i wouldn't have made it anywhere close to where i am now.
World cup is crazy... when possible we do ask investigators and member to turn off the games but if not possible we'll do what the brazillians do and teach between breaks!
Elder Higenyi loves soccer! too much. It's quite a distraction so i'm working on helping him with that!
But i hope that everything is great back there! The family sounds awesome...as always!
the church is true!
-elder johnson
p.s. i cannot for the life of me, remember my password.... i tried to see if i could get it sent to me from Byu.edu but the question that i left for myself to answer to get it, i cant remember the answer to!!


Sent: Monday, June 14, 2010 4:21 AM

Once again... kevin looks so awesome in his rugby uni. Just make sure there is no ketchup around..... haha And the neices and nephews.... i am so pumped to see those kids!!
Yes world cup is officially here.... it's crazy!!! Oh my word... VUVUZELAS(THE HORNS) EVERYWHERE!!
And yes it is quite hard to teach i'm pretty sure i've seen parts of everygame so far generall you get to the appointment have a friendly chat for a minute then when its time to teach they say "Ah, we'll watch first then we'll teach...." so usually we can convince them that they can watch later but other times...not so much. We're working the best we can around games so we'll see how it goes over the next week!
But we got to see the bafana game! it was awesome! we had an activity with some of the members in the ward!
AND THE USA.... what can i say... we looked pretty good from what i saw and heard!
But ya i can get lots of memorbilia! it's all on the streets! i can get a scarf and jerseys and flags and vuvuzelas and whatever! So i'll pick up a flag this week and i'll work on the scarfs later!
I haven't seen too many tourists but i know that they are here. Noone really comes to the township... except the people who live there and.... us.
I can't wait for kevin to be on mission he's gonna be an awesome missionary!
But yes...i'll definately be home before he goes! I would lose it otherwise i'd miss that kid too much!
As far as the work goes.... Norman and Jermina are still doing well however we missed them at church because one of norman's friends got attacked and was in the hospital.... so that wasn't too great. But we're gonna see him tonight!
As well we had a random father and mother and two kids just come to church! it was sweet! so we're gonna start teaching them on Wednesday!
We had a good lesson with Rachel last night... she's a cool lady we teach she's the sister to a member in the ward!
This other guy named sibusiso tracked me down two weeks ago before email in Kempton. and Asked me where the church was in tembisa! and i told him and he didn't come to church that week.... so we forgot about him but then he came this sunday and was super pumped!!!
so that was really cool. I'm thinking july is gonna be a sweet month for us here! oh and elder van vuuren is being transfered this week! So i'll have a new companion! i don't know who it is yet though so you'll find out next monday!! :)
Ohh and charmaine the girl who we met last week who hasn't been baptized will be baptized on the 27th of june! :)
That's awesome that mr. simmonds is coaching football.... freshman team??? eish! haha
I CAN'T BELEIVE MCSHEA GOT ETERNALIZED! yikes!!
Well hopefully this email was sweet for you guys! a bit longer than last week eh??
Things are great! i'm very well aside from a nice bit of flu last week!
THE CHURCH IS STILL SUPER TRUE!
-elder johnson
ps. music that is needed... motab..... classical! NO EFY! I CANNOT STAND EFY MUSIC!! if i hear one more efy song i will end my hearing abilities for life! THANKS!

Sunday, June 6, 2010

DON'T BE LOSERS! SPEAK UP! OPEN YOUR MOUTH!



May 31,2010
HEY HEY HEY!
Jeffrey Got Baptised! it was awesome! (picture attached)
I'm pretty sure his favorite person from the scriptures is the apostle paul....because every time he makes any public statements in church he starts by saying "Greetings in the name of the lord jesus" it's awesome as well.
We have some awesome new families that we're teaching! We're teaching this guy Norman and his wife Jermina. Norman is friends with this dude in our ward and he was invited to church the past two weeks and then came this last week as well anyways when we had our first visit with him last week wednesday he said " I've come to church the last two weeks, so far, so good. I'll probably get baptized in a few weeks" So all we did was give him a date and now we're gonna work on having his wife ready as well! it's gonna be sweet!
We also did an acoustic guitar duet of "Lead Kindly Light" for the baptismal service and the chapel burst into applause.... At first i was taken back but then i realized....T.I.A. (this is africa) it was great!
It's been really crazy being in township the last few months and just seeing how many people can be prepared for the gospel in humble circumstances.... it's amazing.
So it's been a very great week! Oh man i'm pumped for that package! usually stuff takes 3-4 weeks to get here!
Well not too much else to say we're keeping busy and working hard! i'm loving it here!
The Church is True!
-elder johnson!

May 24,2010
Wow... i really hope that i won't be called as a bishop for a long long long while. It sounds so hectic!!! Every week i either get "It's been a long day, or i am very tired" Maybe i'll just get called as a door greeter, Ward Aerobics Instructor or 3rd counselor in the ym's presidency or some other awesome calling that we get to have in the states due to our large membership numbers! Maybe i'll be ready for it in the millenium, i'll be bishop of the Boise 1,679th ward!
Eish it sounds like the ward is changing dramatically! I'm glad Kevin loves and respects me! I knew that if i "bore with patience mine afflictions" that he would come around! he's a stud. i love that kid.
Well Jeffrey passed his baptism interview! so we'll be having another baptism this week! which will complete our may goal of 3! June we're going for 4. so hopefully we'll get there!!
Siphiwe's little sister came to church on sunday and she loved it! the young women fellowshipped like mad and it sounds like she's gonna come back next week. As well Brother & Sister Shipilane (siphiwe's parents) both say that they know that what we're teaching is true! so now comes the process of separating them from their church and bringing them into christ's! So we're definately excited for that family!
Church is still getting awesome!! right now we are functioning with only a bishop and first counselour they released the second counselor because he was effectively less active. :/
But the bishop is really putting forth his best effort and it's making a huge difference! The ward is slowly coming alive!
But i'm definately loving it here! and i'm looking forward to that package!
Keep up the good work!
Have a Baie lekker week!
-elder johnson

"When i go home i'm going to adopt 10 kids and make them work on the farm, we just really need people to work on the farm."
-elder sande
Just as the Sande family needs help on the farm so does the lord need help in building his kingdom. hopefully as members we can put forth the effort that the effort that the lord expects of us in all aspects of our membership. let us not only magnify our calling but also magnify our membership!

May 17,2010
Well....what can i tell ya???
the work continues to press forward!! Our recent convert siphiwe is killer right now and is a missionary machine! He came out teaching with us twice this week and we taught so many sweet new people! We did splits which is awesome because we can do twice as much work in the same amount of time!
Oh man, once again. the neices and nephews sound awesome!
I'm glad to hear that stake conference was powerful!
WE had a cool sacrament meeting. i was asked about 5 minutes before sacrament meeing to give a talk about the aaronic priesthood... so i a.s.d'd(as the spirit directs) a sweet talk! it was great. there were also some leaders from the stake there both of which are from Bedfordview and Edenvale wards so that was interesting! it was crazy hearing other white people give talks in sacrament meeting. I heard the first 5 syllable words that i have heard in a long long time!
But the ward here is improving so much the chapel is actually starting to look full. This is really an area where i've been feeling that we've been making a difference. most area's i just teach and baptize some people but here we're are seriously building the lord's kingdom! it's been awesome! We've set a lot of goals and have been able to achieve many of them. it's been great!
WEll i'm going to attach some pictures on this one! from last weeks baptisms!
We're hoping to have one more in the month of may on the 30th! so we're very excited about that!
I have also continued to have some amazing expereinces as i have begun reading the book of mormon again! it's been awesome! i love that book!
Well the church is true!
have a good week!
-elder johnson
p.s. here is my elder sande quote of the week! elder sande is this hilarious elder from Zimbabwe in our flat.
" I remember when i was at home and i was a loser, i was always hiding my identity. When i go home i will never be a loser again i will never hide my identity as a member of the church." -elder sande
DON'T BE LOSERS! SPEAK UP! OPEN YOUR MOUTH! -elder johnson