Water Bottles and Pass Along Cards

Our church building here is right across the street from an Elementary school. They have a deal that the parents can park in the parking lot to pick up their kids. So every day from 3:15 to 3:30 there are tons of nonmembers in the church parking lot. So we bought a ton of water bottles and taped pass along cards to them. Then we put them on a table outside with a "free water" sign. It worked pretty well! All of them were gone when we came back. 

We had some great lessons with our friends Karin and Carol. They're awesome. We had to bring over a whiteboard so we could draw out the differences between mainstream Christianity and our beliefs. They're awesome. Carol is almost done with 1 Nephi. And Karin is enjoying looking at her late husband's Book of Mormon with all the notes he put in it.

Love you guys! See you soon!

-Elder (Andre) Johnson

Here are some pictures of P-day last week. We decided to have the classic Coeur d'Alene experience by hiking Tub's Hill and going to Dockside restaurant for their famous Gooeys.

Coeur d'Alene's famous Gooey. It is a 14 dollar GIANT bowl of icecream. Its just about the size of my head. I only got about halfway through it and the head ache I had was unbearable! My fear of what I was about to experience is clearly manifest in my eyes!

CDA lake and the resort. Super pretty.

The week was great. Jason was going to attend a baptism with us but something came up not long before. We really wanted to go to this baptism but in our mission you can't attend unless you bring an investigator with you. So an hour and a half before the baptism started we were trying to figure out who we could bring. one of us suggested a former investigator named Sarah. We both laughed at the idea. Sarah had moved to Spokane about a month ago. We knew that her eventual plan was to move back but we had not heard word of it. So we didn't have a lot of hope but we just thought hey, why not. So we called her up and turns out she had moved back to CDA. And she was very interested in coming to the baptism! It was sweet!

We also had a great lesson with Karin and Carol. They are older ladies that are sisters living together. They are a hoot! They are super funny, friendly, Christian ladies. They always make us brownies when we come over and they take notes when we teach them. We are teaching them again tonight!

Love you guys! See you in a few years!

-Elder (Andre) Johnson

Short sleeves and sunburn

We wore our short sleeve shirts this week! It is a momentous moment! With the recent transfer we lost the car that we had so we're back to walking and biking for up to 9 hours a day. But fortunately its been nice and warm. In fact its been so warm that Elder Johnson got sunburned! Haha it was a surprise when we noticed that he was, because I literally forgot that sunburns were even a thing! Its been cold for a long time. So we are officially in short sleeve and sunburn season. I definitely prefer this over the winter.

This week we knocked on a lot of doors. It was super fun! We knocked on one door and we knew someone was inside because we could hear them. But they weren't coming to the door. However right before we we going to leave they knocked on the other side of the door... So naturally I said, "who is it?" They didn't answer so we just knocked again. And we were soon answered by another knock. After several times of this we left our unseen friends a mormon.org card. It definitely was a unique tracting experience. 

Jayson came to church this week! He's doing great! He's learning a ton.

Our zone is doing really great right now! If all of the people that we currently have "on-date" for baptism actually get baptized than by the beginning of May we will have passed our yearly goal for baptisms! 

Love ya!

-Elder (Andre) Johnson

Just right - and that's all

Perfect size

I'm sorry I couldn't think of anything to write. Love you!

-Elder (Andre) Johnson

Staying in Hayden

Transfers this week! I will be staying here in the Hayden 3rd ward and my new companion will be....Elder Johnson! Wait what!? Ya, you heard me, Elder Johnson. I've been waiting my entire mission for this to happen! Just think of all the awesome things we'll be able to tell random people when they ask us our names.

"Johnson and Johnson, a family company".

"I'm Elder Johnson. And I'm Elder Johnson. Join our cult and you can be named Elder Johnson too!"

"I'm Elder Johnson. And I'm Elder Johnson. We are living proof that Mormons did practice polygamy :)"

When I introduce him to the Bishop I'll be sure to say, "Elder Johnson is one of the BEST in the Mission!" 

If I ever mess up all I have to do is say, "It was Elder Johnson's fault!" ...I'm not lying

Now I have twice as much chance that members and investigators will remember "Elder Johnson" as their favorite missionary!

The opportunities are endless!

Elder Olson is going down to Pullman which is right by Moscow where I was just serving. I'll miss him. We had tons of fun together!

This week Jayson agreed to be baptized in April! He's awesome! 

Love you guys! 

-Elder (Andre) Johnson

P.S. the first initial of my new companion's name is also an "A" so Elder A. Johnson won't work.

We got a car!

We got a car! We will have it for 1 more week. Its pretty nice. Ironically it has been beautiful weather ever since we got it. And the day before we got it it was raining and hailing like crazy. But we're still grateful for it anyway. 

Yesterday we ushered at a Stake Easter event. It was located at the local college's performance hall. It was a performance of "Savior of the World" It was awesome! It was weird though because I realized that its been about 2 years since I've been to a concert. Our downstairs neighbor Paige and her son came. We got to sit by them! I love them, they're awesome!

This week we also found Karin, Carol, and Laura. Karin and Carol are older ladies who are sisters. They are very happy cheerful people and they love having us over. Laura is living with them right now because she recently had surgery so they are helping them recover. We were able to give Laura a Priesthood blessing the other day and it was a very spiritual experience for all of us. 

Happy Christmas Harry!

Love,

Elder (Andre) Johnson

Lots to talk about

Dear Family and Friends,

Now that I haven't written in 2 weeks I've got lots to talk about.

1. Justin. We met with a new investigator named Justin this week. This was our first sit down lesson. He started off by saying that he had researched lots of different religions he was just confused at how he could know which one was right. Luckily the Gospel has been restored so we could know how answer his question. The spirit was very strong when we shared the First Vision. He told us that he felt it as we were reciting the words. 

2. The Lee's are an active family in our ward who we visit a lot because they have a non-member sixteen year old girl that lives with them who is planning on getting baptized when her parents give permission. Courtney, who is the Lee's daughter has a non-member boyfriend. So one day we were bugging her and saying that we wanted to teach her boyfriend. She said, "No that would be awkward, he's not that interested in religion... But I could invite my friend Bryan?" That worked for us. So she texted Bryan and said, "the Missionaries want to talk to you. Do you want to come to my house for lunch?" he said, "Haha sure why not". So we taught him the Restoration and it went really well! He was very interested at the end and we are going to meet with him again next week.

3. Jason, who has been to church 3 times now stayed for all 3 hours. That was pretty awesome. 

4. We were asked to teach Priests quorum last second this week. We decided we would talk about our favorite thing... Missionary work! Deciding that we were going to talk about missionary work was the extent of our preparation. However Elder Olson and I teach so often together that it went really well. We kinda just made it up on the spot but we both were on the same page because we've been studying about member missionary work so much since we've been together. 

5. We had a pretty good first lesson with our downstairs neighbor Paige. At nights I play my Ukulele and her and her son can here it. She mentioned that they really like listening to it so we offered to come play them a song. She said "Yes!" So we had a great visit and we taught the Restoration.

6. We went on exchanges this week with the Assistants in Spokane. We had some pretty cool miracles. We had about 15 extra minutes so we pulled into an apartment complex and knocked on 1 door. A lady opened it up and we told her we had a message to share about Jesus Christ and his church. She said that recently she had met some Mormons which sparked her interest so she went and watched a documentary on the Book of Mormon on netflix. I don't know if it was a positive or negative documentary but doesn't matter. Anyway it wasn't long after that we showed up at her door and gave her a Book of Mormon. God is preparing his children.

Its been a great week!

Love you!

-Elder (Andre) Johnson