the one with pictures........

Mon, Oct 7, 2019

I know what you're thinking,
It's Monday, around mid day, the crisp autumn air is blowing past at a hurried pace and the bright fall foliage of leaves that have a bright yellow and red hue seem to glow in the midst of an active crowd going to and from in their constant movement, resembling beez as they pass in frenzies. General Conference has once again ended in it's splendor of revelation and zeal towards good works. But there's one thing on your mind. You're thinking it, and I'm thinking that...
it's time to write another letter........

HELLO THERE!!!
It's great to see you all again! You look fantastic!
It's been a wonderful weekend hasn't it? Really, the rush of listening to the Prophets and Apostles of God is really a thrilling treat that you can't get anywhere else. How lucky we are to be able to listen to counsel from the Lords Oracles on the earth in this wonderful time of the ongoing Restoration of the Gospel.
So far, it's been a pretty busy week in the Ohio, with lots of changes and meeting to discuss those changes and much more. Conference was a great way to top off the week, that's for sure.

This week wasn't all that exciting, except for a couple of really good meetings that we had. Pretty much the majority of our week was having meetings, making reports, and setting goals. Closing the week off, we went to a suburb of Cincinnati, Liberty, and had a meeting at the Mission Home with the other leaders of the mission. After the meeting, Elder Robinson took Nate and I through Downtown Cincinnati! A member of the Cherry Grove ward who returned home for a surgery and is now getting close to to getting back to Brazil. I was able to get to know him while I was in Cherry Grove so it's been cool to run into him from time to time and he's pretty stinkin handy if you want to save some miles 😁 There are gonna be a lot of changes to the mission so that's stinkin weird.
We went to conference with some awesome members this last weekend and it was really nice to spend some time with them.
All things are well over here in the great Ohio, and I bet that it's going to keep being stinkin great! Have the best week of your lives!

Sure Love Ya
~Elder Johansen

Oct 14,2019

Hello hello hello!

This week's been a fun one full of some pretty crazy changes.

Starting the week off with an awesome exchange with one of the Elders in my zone, we started having little miracle after little miracle. We got some new friends to teach, had some good food, and are experiencing one of the more exciting changes to mission policy: Grouping!

Grouping is when you and another/several Companionships are together and for my whole mission, this has been a no go for us. BUT, with the first Presidency releasing a new Handbook that will replace the old White Handbook, being in groups of missionaries has been approved WORLDWIDE! How cool is that?! So of course, we just had to play volleyball last week and snatch the perks while we could. Today we're going to go to Chuck E. Cheeses and then go play volleyball again which is going to be stinkin' sweet.

Here are the weekly highlights!

- Volleyball of course 

- Hangin out after District Council with Elder Merchant, one of the APs

- I got to see my Dad, Elder Conrad

- Elder Robinson and I went to a river to plan and skip rocks , thought, hey, there's a lake nearby, we should try to find it. We followed the trail by the river and came to a HUGE hill. At the top there was a sweet lookout over the lake. Then we went and had a really good lesson with someone. 

- We had interviews with the President and his wife which was really nice. They're a really nice couple. 

- Of course this would happen once the weather starts to drop, but while we were walking around talking to people, we were skipping rocks at a pond, and out of the corner of my eye I see my tag, drifting down to the bottom of the water. 20 minutes of searching, tag retrieved. 

- Transfer Calls were last weekend. Turns out that Elder Robinson is heading out to be an AP, and I'm receiving two Elders, that's gonna be nuts. 

- I slaughtered at pool 

- We blew our goals out of the water this week 

Overall, it's been a good week with some good memories and an annoying head cold. Since general conference was last weekend, we've been talking with the members of the ward about their favorite stories, and the personal revelation that they received which gave them something they wanted to work on that we could help them with. It's really helped me realize that everyone can get something new and personal to themselves that will help them in their struggles and give them new goals to improve. When we have these goals, we show God the desires of our hearts and he helps us to become "new creatures in Christ". So keep on keepin on!

Sure love ya!

~Elder Johansen

retrieved my tag :)

Elder Conrad and I...

Oct. 21, 2019

Looks like I'm more illiterate with technology than I thought because my whole weekly email dipped on me 😅
To cover what i talked about in the Email that i was going to send:
I'm at a year this week
I'm in a trio now
We saw the batmobile
I met a legend of the mission field, a member we all call G-Storm
We've been given a lot of really good food which i'm a big fan of
We had a missionary broadcast featuring Elder Christopherson and President Ballard which was really stinking cool.
And we really need your help right now because the mission is struggling right now with finding people to teach, so we need your prayers as we try to fulfill our purpose to teach repentance and baptize converts.
I love you all and thank you so much for your support not only for me but for all the missionaries that are surviving alongside with me. 

Sure Love You!!!!!
~Elder Johansen

A small one.....

SEPT 16, 2019

Hey guys😁

Not a whole lot this last week. Zone conference went pretty well. We got President Ensign to read a "Bedtime Story" to the Zone for a training we did on the Book of Mormon and that was fire 🔥. Planning for ZC is finally over so we can finally get back into the swing of things which is going to be a really nice change. We have a lot of exchanges so that's really nutso. We have a lot of really great Elders here and I love spending time with them because they're all really nice. I'm having a bit of a difficult time connecting with my companion, but I know that that'll all be figured out soon enough. It's pretty cool, he's really good at basketball and so when we find people playing we join in. Well, I watch when we kicks their butts and it's awesome. He wrecked one of his shoes while he was playing so he had to hop on one foot and he still beat like, 3 guys! WHAT A BEAST!
We went over to a members house with a recent convert and had her and Elder Robinson teach us about the restoration. Little did we know that she was going to teach her Mom and now she's accepted taking the discussions!
As I was doing a baptismal interview for the Cherry Grove Elders, Elder Robinson went with Elder Goodwine to have a lesson with a young man we're teaching, they put Jim on date for baptism 🏊 on October 26th!
This week we're getting back into the Living Waters of Missionary work so wish me luck!
Sure love you!

SEPT 9, 2019

GOOOOOOOOOOOD MORNING VIETNAM!!!
I lied, you're not Vietnam your my family 😁
     So there's another week down. Feels pretty nuts, not going to lie. I finally started to use the phrase "A little under a year" when people ask how long I've been out. That fact keeps on getting crazier and crazier to think about.
     Last week, we found out that I would be coming here to Eastgate and be in charge of the missionaries in the stake out of the five zones we have in the mission (We have the Cincinnati East stake).
     This week was my first week testing the waters of zone leadership and as I'm over here being confused, I'm also trying to remember my social skills! But you know what, I'll figure it out at some point 🤣
     For the last week we've been rally busy. Elder Robinson is super on top of things and he makes me look like a straight up SCRUB because he's so good at what he does! He has some really great ideas about how to do missionary work in unique and effective ways. I'm just over here lookin like a new missionary cause I don't know what to do and I'm just being nice and quiet and trying not to let my mind melt. We've been doing a LOT of planning for Zone Conference and exchanges and blitzes and meetings that we barely even have enough time for our area, but we're praying for some straight up MIRICLES.
We've been going pretty much everywhere in the Zone and it's only been a week. We're planning on being with every elder in the Zone which isn't something we usually do, but I am so down. We have a lot of really good guys in the Zone and I'm just plain ol excited to learn what I can from them.
     The ward here is friendly and I still get to see some people from the Cherry Grove ward because it's literally the same building! The apartment's nice and cozy too. Just a lil' one bedroom and guess what, we have a stinkin'
🔥 fireplace🔥 and Elder Robinson has a lava lamp. We're gonna get RELAXED!
     Things are a little different now, that's for sure, but I'm excited to see what change it brings me. I know I have a lot of growth to do and the Lord's put me here to do it so we'll see how it goes. Wish me luck!
Sure love ya!
~ Elder Johansen

Elder Robinson and his basketball shoes :)

President Ensign reading a bedtime story.