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

Hello everyone! Sorry I didn't email last week! We had transfers, and
I am now finishing training another Elder and we are now on
bike....sooooooo, last week was just a 'hot mess' as Mr. McCarthy
would say! So I have 2 weeks of cool stories and experiences to share!
So first story....when we were shopping 2 weeks ago, as we were
checking out there was a guy buying over 100 watches next to us. It
was just interesting. Just had a cart completely full of 'em! Story 2.
As we were checking out, an awesome Samoan guy from church, who just
stopped smoking and drinking decided to come out ver and pay for our
groceries. A solid $70 when all was said and done. The Lord truly does
look out for His missionaries. That is just a simple example of the
many experiences I've had similar to it. I recently had the
opportunity to play at the Korean Branch Christmas party with elders
Shawcroft and Choi! Elder Choi is an incredible pianist. I gave him
the piano accompaniment part and he sit read it flawlessly. So I gave
him an even harder piano accompaniment to my favorite violin piece
ever (all creatures of our God and King) and he sight read that
flawlessly too. Completely mind blown. In other news....TRANSFERS!!!
Elder Young is no longer my companion. I am staying in good ol' P3 and
have been called to train! Actually to finish the training of.....none
other than ELDER JOHNSON!!! It is quite confusing, so I now have to go
by Elder Hunter. We are on bike, so it is CRAZY! I love it. We have
done a lot of extra loops and stuff because I'm still figuring out the
quickest ways to get places. And where the places are. The first 2
days on bike we had a total of 6 or 7 flat tires. One night I got a
flat tire and an appointment fell through. Our mission leader was
going to come in about half an hour, so instead of waiting we just
went home! Elder Johnson rode his bike and I ran next to my bike! Let
me tell you, running 3 miles in nice clothes while holding a bike is
no fun. My zone leaders saw us and decided my bike either had problems
or I just wanted to run. Some other zone leaders in our same complex
saw us and laughed at us after deciding I had been mugged.

Anyhoo, it's CHRISTMAS!!!!! The best time of the year! Angie, (age 16)
one of the girls we've been teaching is getting baptized on the 27th
of this month! She is super excited about it. Other than that, we are
working ourselves into the ground! Mostly pumping up flat tires, but
still......

I want to wish all of you a very MERRY CHRISTMAS and remember what
Christmas is really about. Since I can't send everyone a present,
although I'd like to, I will give you all something much more
valuable, and that is my testimony. I want to testify of a number of
things, the first of which is the reality of the divinity of God, our
Heavenly Father and His Son Jesus Christ. I know they are both real,
tangible, immortal beings of flesh and bone. I know Jesus Christ is
the greatest gift our Father could ever give us. I know Joseph Smith
was a prophet called directly by God to restore the Kingdom of God on
earth. I know that the Book of Mormon is proof of that. I know our
Father continues to show His love for us by giving us a prophet just
as He has done throughout all time and apostles as he instituted in
Jerusalem. I know these things are true, not only because they make
logical sense to anyone who takes time to think it out, but because
our Father has given me His witness of these things through the power
of the Holy Ghost. I've been called by God and set apart by someone
who has authority to do that, to be a representative of Jesus Christ,
and to testify, as that representative, of these things. And so, this
Christmas, I leave you all with my gift and witness, and do it in the
name of Jesus the Christ, the Greatest gift our Father has given us.
Elder Hunter

Hullo everyone!!! This week has been kind of normal, so I'm just going to write as stuff comes to my head!!! Nothing particularly crazy happened, but....I made some awesome cookies!!! I am getting SUPER good at cooking. I mean, I was alright before but now...jeez, I'm amazing! That's just me being modest. We had our ward Christmas party on Saturday, and it was THE BOMB!! Someone in our ward is a caterer, so whenever we have parties, they are parties. Everyone wanted chocolate cheesecake for dessert though...what's with that? Because we're missionaries and we are obviously starving for want of food, we got about 10 pounds of rice and carrots and green beans from leftovers. So now we don't have to worry about what we're having for breakfast, lunch, or dinner for the next month!! Sooooo many leftovers....we still haven't finished the pumpkin pie... 

I jumped over a bush and got scratched by it when I was on a run...N, the 94 year old we're teaching wants to get baptized on January 2nd. She (and we) hope she lives long enough! R relapsed...again....

I went on splits with one of the guys from the ward and.....2/2 of our teaching appointments fell through!! Just our luck. But it was in Cinnamon Tree, so we had 18 other people to choose from to visit. So we visited the E!! Sister E is super nice. She has 2 kids. Brother E has some drug problems.....He's a great guy. He doesn't like Christmas, birthday parties, celebrations of any kind. He thinks it's all kind of fake. A show. I've never met someone who doesn't like Christmas before. I'm still trying to get over it. A small part of me died when he said that Santa Claus didn't actually exist. Speaking of Christmas!! There is an awesome Christmas video the church made. It's about....(drum roll) you'll have to find out by watching it!!! It's at Christmas.mormon.org. Hopefully we will get to go caroling sometime in the near future......if anyone has any questions or suggestions of things I could elaborate more on, please tell me because I'm not sure what to write about.

Grosses Bisses!!

Elder Hunter Johnson

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!! You may now start listening to Christmas music! I don't know what it is with pumpkin pie. Everyone is giving us pumpkin pie. So either it's the only pie anyone buys around here and they just had too much, or no one likes the pumpkin pie so they use us as a food disposal squad. This last week has been uneventful except for the sickness that has plagued my companion. He's been completely out of it for a bit over a week, but is feeling better today!! I forgot to mention in my letter from last week that I was able to ride a motorized bike. It was pretty cool. It did about 25 mph and matched Southern Cali. in it's run down, ghetto demeanor! Interesting things that happened this week....1. we are now teaching a lady that turns 95 on Jan. 2nd!! She asked to join the Mormon church, and she just hopes she lives long enough to. 3. It rained for the first time in forever yesterday!! It's been about a year since this place has had a good rainstorm. So now the temperature has dropped to a frigid 65 degrees!! Better get those winter short sleeve shirts ready...3. A guy gave me a guitar.That's really all that's happened this week. I feel like I'm forgetting something, but I always feel like that. I love you all!!

Elder Hunter Johnson

Hello everyone! This week has been awesome! Now that our area has doubled, we have twice as much work to do, so we're getting twice as much done, so I'm twice as happy! Even though my companion got me sick. But whatever! I met another guy that had gotten stabbed yesterday! Jeez, it's just happening to everyone around here....I was able to do a 3.5 mile run in 19.5 minutes again, so it wasn't just a one time wonder! On my pday run, I found a lime, so I picked it up and when we finished I ate some of it! And then I attempted to get others to try it as well. It was the sourest thing I've ever tasted. We are teaching so many people right now, it's crazy! In Cinnamon Tree (for those of you getting my emails for the 1st time it's...the ghetto place and lots of interesting things go down there) one of the kids (8th grader) wanted a book of Mormon, so I brought him one. He said, Actually I don't need one anymore! I found one laying around on one of the benches so I took it! That's how often we're there. There's probably 100 of them floating around that place. It's awesome! I haven't had a chance to take a pic. with gang buddies, but hopefully in the near future...That's really about all that's happened. There are so many people eager to hear what we have to say here, and equally unfortunately, there is an even greater number that have no idea what we're gonna say and don't want to have an idea of what we're gonna say. We could be offering them a million bucks for crying out loud!! I have time to send pictures, so that is what I shall do !!!! 

Elder Hunter Johnson

 

1. Sister S with Elder H and I

2. me and Brother A

3. Brother P and I

4. Me and Elders in MTC!!

So, I had to send this to myself in order to send it...this was the one that was supposed to go out 2 weeks ago, but it didn't work for some reason...

Hey everyone! This week was somewhat less eventful than last week. To lead into the first story, I forgot to mention a few weeks ago that we were talking with our ward mission leader one night. And then a rat
ran from underneath his car straight through the front door and into his house. It was sooooooo funny!! Then this past week there was a rat at the church....elder U almost stepped on it, so Elder C
and I chased it away. We were so brave. Rats are fast.....jeez. My dog deserves more credit for catching and killing 2!! On Thursday last week I got to go on splits with Elder C, and it was awesome! Not only did we get to ride bikes around but at one of the houses I just
got this feeling and asked the teenager at opened the door "are you M?" And he was!! It was really funny. I also had the opportunity to make some rice crispies and banana bread that were the bomb!!!
They were perfect. There's this guy in the ward that's a cop. He showed us this green eggs and ham book. In it he had put a sticker of the Book of Mormon over all the places where there was some green eggs and ham. All the words were changed so Sam was a Mormon trying to get
someone to read the Book of Mormon. He's going to make me one for Christmas. :) I'll send pictures of it. It is sooooo funnnnyyyyy!!  Halloween was interesting. Everyone goes all out here. Craaaaazy. I'm enclosing some pictures of me at our ward haloween party. That's really all that went on this week. Ill try to have better stories next week!
Elder Hunter Johnson

The pictures are of 4 generations of trainers, me and one of the kids
from he ward at the Halloween party...notice what my tie says....and
Elder U!

Note:  I could not read what the tie said.

Hey yall!! How's it goin? Sorry I didn't email Monday, I had a zone conference, so p-day got moved to Wednesday!! I got to play a violin again!! A nine year old girl decided she wanted to get baptized, so Elder Uchida and I sang/played Savior Redeemer of My Soul. It was pretty sweet. A few days ago a lady, probably early 40s came into our mission office and asked if some missionaries could talk to her. She was freaking out about the end of the world and so we talked a while. She was just so scared of the influence the devil has in todays world. And it's true. In so many subtle ways. There are so many counterfeit paths around us and we have no idea we're on them. Just one quick example. This story might sound familiar to some of you because I wrote about it recently. This is more of what I learned....last night in fact! Some 19 year old moron got someone's 15 year old daughter pregnant after 4 restraining orders were filed. He had shoplifted, and almost killed the dad of the 15 year old by stabbing him with a knife (and we're talking a big hunting knife. The stab wound was about 1.5 inches/4-5 cm.). He went to court and got a wopping 3 months in prison. Hmmmm....Anyway, this next story is somewhat more lighthearted. At zone conference Elder Cardon of the 70 wanted to do a role play. My comp. and I volunteered and then we got 2 sons and 2 daughters and together we made up the "Young" family. (at this point you might have realized that elder young and I were the 'parents'. He and President Taggart were pretending to be the missionaries and they were teaching us about prayer. Near the beginnig Elder Cardon said something along the lines of 'you and you're....(guesturing to me...and then after a pause everyone else)...family'. It was mildly amusing. Then near the end he asked, 'how has prayer helped you in your life?' Elder young being as robotic as he is started playing as a person from the District videos (for those of you unfamiliar with that, they're videos about missionaries teaching people) and said, 'well I love my family, and when we got married we knew we would have trouble having kids...' and at this point everyone (including President Taggart) lost it completely. It was soooooooooooooo funny!!! Elder Cardon wasn't too amused though.....he's a great guy, he just needs to loosen up a bit....kinda like my comp!! Anywhoo, also this week a new elder came into our district! Elder C was replaced by Elder J who is being trained by Elder U! It is extremely confusing to everyone in the ward, they are making up names for us or calling us Elder H and Elder Z

These are the most recent pictures we recieved from Hunter.  Including pictures of him in the MTC and his trip to the mission home.

...or Elder HoJo and Elder ZoJo. I ask you....yup, that's about all that's been interesting this week. I'm sure I've forgotten some things, but this weeks been extra long. Hard to remember. Sorry I didn't email last week! My email was messed up. It was weird.

Elder Hunter Johnson