We Worked Hard This Week

Hello Family!  Malo e lelei famili!!  Sounds like everyone is doing swell!  That's great news.  I hope everything goes well with baseball this week, aye, ha ha, cuttin' it close!  Sounds like there are heaps of injuries going down.  Hopefully the boyz can step up, aye!  The weather here is pretty useless at the moment.  It's starting to get pretty cold.  So, that's dumb!  This morning we had a pretty awesome game of touch.  We got up at 5:45 am, threw on the gears and met up with a lot of other missionaries in the zone.  It was going well until my companion was involved in a mean collision.  We had to end a bit early and he's  walking with a heck of a limp, but yeah--this week was really cool.  we got stuck on the beach for a good hour and a half so that was a great time!  Thank goodness the tide was going out!

Elder De Kock and I really worked hard this week.  It felt good to be honest.  We got to know each other pretty good and actually had quite a bit of teaching opportunities which is amazing for our area.  So, last week, Monday, we had a FHE lesson with the Leuluai daughters who have been going through some pretty hard times....well, one of them anyway.  We just went out and had a good lesson on hope, patience and love.  It was awesome.  I really enjoyed the lesson and I know they did as well.

On Tuesday, we had trade offs.  I was in my area with Elder Adams.  It was pretty fun.  We're good friends so we always have fun on trade offs.  It's hilarious because he gets really sick when we drive to our area.  We met at Bishop's house Tuesday night because he was coming to our lesson with Dave and Teresa.  We were trying to think of what to teach them.  Honestly, I had no idea at that time.  We said a prayer and we decided on the Plan of Salvation.  The lesson was awesome.  Normally, Dave asks heaps of questions, but we were able to teach simple and the lesson just slid on through.  I knew it was something that their family needed because they have experienced losing quite a few loved ones.  It was very powerful and such a wonderful experience.  So, Dave and Teresa are really close.  We really have to be patient with them.  I'm trying to help my companion realize that it's different work up here.  There are not at all as many people in Whangarei as there are in Auckland, especially in our area and he keeps getting stressed about our numbers.  So, we just need to work at their pace and they're doing awesome.

Elder Johnson and Elder Adams

We had an awesome experience this week while trying to contact a potential that Elder Tibbitts and I had found.  We went and knocked on the door on Saturday morning and this man opened the door.  He was pretty friendly and invited us in.  Right when we walked in I got smacked in the face with the smell of marijuana.  He apologized for the smell and tried to tidy up quick so we could have a sit and talk with him.  As we were talking, I was looking around the room and I noticed that he was heavily affiliated with gangs.  He was a member of the Storm Troopers.  He told us that he turned his patch in which means he left the gang and that he was trying to change his life.  We testified of our message and how he had a Savior that loved him and if he was willing to take the necessary steps that he could be forgiven of his mistakes and get rid of the useless feelings that he was having.  It was really powerful.  He was very humble and I thought it was awesome that he was describing the feelings he had while we were speaking.  He said it's different than how it is with most of the preachers that he has listened to before.  We set up a return appointment for this Thursday.  Hopefully that goes well.

One of our investigators came to church with his wife yesterday.  To be honest, I was so surprised.  He's a crack up alright and it was awesome to see him at church.  Things are looking really good for us here.  We had an awesome Come and See Fireside last night.  That went swell and we had an awesome devotional with the missionaries this morning to get them pumped for May.  I'm happy to be serving with awesome missionaries.  They're great!

Elder Duke and Elder Johnson

Elder Johnson, Elder Finau, Elder De Kock

I miss you guys!  I hope all is well.  Have a great week!

Ofa atu!

Love,
Elder Johnson