Hey everyone! This week has been crazy and fast and slow all at the same time. I think we taught 10 lessons this week, which is more than last week and especially impressive since this week was Christmas! Biking takes up a lot of time, but I am now intimately familiar with my area.....I know it like the back of my hand! 

Note from Mom:  Here is another letter from Hunter to his Dad.  This is the missionary we know and love!  He now has to go by Elder Hunter because his companion is Elder Johnson.  Saturday the 27th one of his investigators, A, was baptised.  It was a beautiful day!  Sorry we don't have pictures. 

Hey Dad! I definitely enjoyed seeing the Christmas devotional. It was super cool. I especially liked President Eyring's address. Afterwards, my comp and I were talking to a guy that had converted 30ish years ago or something. He told us some really cool stories and gave us some insights to the minds of investigators. Mmmmm, yeah, the burke choir wasn't the best, but the people were!! I miss VA. I still get the monthly emails the Annandale Stake sends out to the missionaries of the stake. That's a really cool quote by Pres. Kimball. There's one guy we're teaching that could use that. He's got huge drug problems. And he doesn't really have a huge desire to stop. He's just about droppable. But we're trying to stick it out. It's so true though. With some sins, they become an addiction, so part of repentance is having the desire to stop, which leads to doing everything in your power to distance yourself from the temptations that you know you are still susceptible to.

I also love that quote by Joseph Smith! It's when a couple guys from church were over at his house and they were talking about the persecutions of the saints and of how many of the persecutors were former members. The Brother Joseph was talking to said that if he left the church he would basically go and live in the mountains all alone and forget about it, which is what inspired Joseph to say what he did. It's so true! There are many Less actives we are trying to re-enlist to serve God, who have just lost their testimonies completely. Our investigators are many. And extremely frustrating. We will hopefully have a baptism this month and at least two next month so far. A is going to be baptized on the 27th of this month. All her older siblings have been baptized, and we are teaching her older sister who is returning to activity. They are going to be awesome!! A is completely ready to get baptized. She and her returning sister came to church yesterday. N is 94 and turns 95 on Jan, 2....her baptismal date!! She wants to join the church to do something more meaningful with...what she has left of her life. She prayed about it and felt it was the right thing to do. She has a hard time hearing and I'm not sure if she completely understands everything because when we ask her a question she mishears it and goes on some tangent. Sigh. But she understands the commandments at least....the only thing we really have to worry about is her understanding the significance of baptism!! that it's not JUST joining the church. Then we have M. She has a date for the 10th of January. She had a son that died a year or two ago. He would be about 18 now, and he was born on Jan, 10. So it's extra special to her. She came to church along with her 6ish month old and her 10 year old and her extremely less active husband/boyfriend. Unclear on that right now. She is so open and willing to do anything to be with her son again. She's gotten over it, but like any mother would, she still aches for him. Those are all the ones I'm going to write about right now b/c they are the only ones with baptism dates. Hopefully we will have many more by next week!!!

We are both better right now...but Elder Y is just a tired guy. He has to take about an hour nap every day. I just have rough mornings. I'm not a morning person as you very well know. and it doesn't help that it takes me at least an hour to fall asleep. So I just don't talk until about 9:00 because that's when our comp. study starts. The best nights I had were when I was sick b/c I was taking some medicine that also made me sleepy. Might get some more today....it's just Niquill.

This fast sunday was awesome!! Some can be questionable...you know because you have people that will go up there and say crazy stuff, so I was a little worried about our investigators there, but it was awesome!! So many testimonies of families and temples, which is what our investigators and returning members needed!!! Fasting works!! As for Skype....yeah sure!! I have no idea what we're doing. It'll probably have to be sometime later in the evening. We still got almost 20 days...but I figure the earliest I could do it would be 6:00 my time/7:00 Justus time/8:00 y'all's time. Lots of love!

Elder Hunter Johnson