Dick Cheney might be Satan

Friends and Family:

First off, I'm not getting transferred! I'm going to be here in Abilene with Elder Hebdon until he goes home. Because our new mission president isn't really into whitewashing in and out, I'll most like be here another transfer after as well making a total of about six months or more here in Abilene! I'm super grateful for my ward family here. The members are so kind and supportive of the missionaries. We had a ward Christmas party that we were able to attend this week, and I honestly had a blast. The members are so sweet. I've never felt like my ward has really been a supporting family until I moved here. They help us out a ton.

        While using the He is the Gift initiative set out by the church, we have been able to find a ton of people to talk to. The hard part is getting into their homes, teaching them, and getting a return appointment ): We only taught a few lessons this week and have 0 progressing investigators, mostly because everyone is just so busy this season. Our main investigators, Merri and Terrell are still just working as much as they can to try and give their kids Christmas. Most of the time their not home, and their kids are at their grandma's. We don't make much contact with them and have shifted much of our focus to finding new people to teach, while regularly checking up on our investigators to see if we can get in and begin teaching them again. It's tough, and numberwise we're not doing the best, but numbers definitely don't define success out here.

        We did a lot of service this week. mostly raking leaves for seasoned members of the Abilene community. btw Did y'all know this is the number one place in the US to retire? Yah, the majority of the people we talk to are old, retired, baptist or catholic folks. I'm not sure if this counts as service, but we also went caroling haha. From the hours of 7 pm to 9pm we usualyy have nothing to do because of a city ordinance that says we can't prosylite for those hours. So we decided to go carol to some of the members and we sounded terrible. I'm not a very good singer, but I was by far the best out of the elders in our ward that we went with if that says anything. We got to spend some extra time with the members, so I'm happy(:

        Last P-day I set a record: Three people asked me a question in wal-mart about where a product was located. Haha they see the shite shirt and badge and just assume we work there. It's hilarious.

        Any spiritual experiences this week? I've been feeling the spirit the most at church honestly. I've gained a testimony that answers from prayers can truly come from church attendance. We taught a lesson to Merri this week about how to receive answers to prayers. As we taught the lesson, the spirit was obviously present. As we taught, the spirit directed our thoughts and gave us inspired questions to ask her that really opened her up. We recommited her to reading and praying every day. We're going over there again tomorrow night to read with her some more, and if we're lucky, maybe her husband will grill some more pork chops (:

        Shout outs to my family, Bob Whitaker, Kelsey Rodman, Elise and Gerrit N., and Lisa, Shawn + Cody Heathcock for sending me letters for Christmas. I love hearing from y'all. Oh, and a shout out to Vincent, my favorite hobo here in Abilene who always tries to convince us that Dick Cheney is actually Satan lol.

I'm learning and growing tremendously and am grateful for all the love/support I receive while I'm serving. Thank you.

Elder Johnson