Scott has been called to Serve as a Missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Kiribati Islands, part of the Marshall Island Mission, for a period of two years.
Join us in his journey of blessing the lives of others and being blessed by the people of the islands as well. You will see the Lord work miracles in many lives through this blog in the next two years. A demonstration of the great love that God has for each one of us.
I want you all to know how very grateful I am for your love and support of this young man. Thank you doesn’t seem to adequately express my appreciation for my son having such incredible friends, leaders and family who are always there. I sincerely thank you!
Monday, September 1, 2014
Mauri everyone,
Here I am on Tarawa. I leave to Aranuka on Tuesday (Today is Monday for me). This first week has been amazing everyone in my intake (came in on the same day) was paired with a zone leader, every but me. I got the better end of the deal though. I was put with a district leader (Elder Fausett), his companion (Elder Tapo'osi) and an Elder from Kiribati.
The area I'm in is called Bairiki. its one of the 11 cities on Tarawa. This is a strong area here with around 31 lessons a week. We go on splits and do two appointments at once.
To answer questions I got: I did get you letter Brody while I was in the MTC. thank you I blew most the money on food and soda on my way to Kiribati. I have missed caffeine. The people here are so kind. They have small homes, and most homes are very run down, but some how all of them have iPads, iPhones, Laptops, and flat screens TVs. We live in a nice flat. One room is air conditioned and it's fairly large. I'm surprised. I still haven't eaten any fish. I've had canned meat and rice and in actually surprised how good that is. Cool story; yesterday we had no food and no dinner appointments set up. When we got home there was only one Mountain house meal. We split it up and ate a small portion. After we ate, all of us where filled up though. The weather here is hot. There is rarely and its usually broken clouds. The music they listen to is anything up-beat. American, Spanish, Kiribati. It doesn't matter. If it's up-beat they like it.
These people are so chill on our way to town we flag any flat bed truck and it will give us a ride for free. Every appointment I've been to, the investigator has been late too because there's no reason to rush.
Will tomorrow I hop on a 4 person plane and fly out. Wish me luck and I will email again next Monday.
From,
Elder Scott G. Johnson
PS: I forgot to tell you don't send any more packages because they have tripled the price of packages. The mission home pays for packages, but its costing too much to send to Kiribati.
We are teaching a whole girls soccer team and 2 where baptized and 3 have a baptism day set
Thursday, August 28, 2014
Have landed safely in Tarawa and already have my call. I am going to Aranuka a few islands south of Tarawa. Good news is that I will have internet. This is just a message letting you know I made it safe. my P-day is on Monday so i will email then. I want to say something cool though; this group is the one opening all the islands. Every island will be opened and have missionaries on them by Tuesday. The Lord is hastening His work and we are a great part of it.
From,
Elder Scott G. Johnson
Friday, August 22, 2014
Mauri Everyone,
I've decided to start doing mass messages because it's been really hard to send emails to everyone that writes me in an hour. This is my final P-day here at the MTC! I am way excited to get in the field. My flight plan is that I leave on the 26th, we fly to LAX, after that we fly to Fiji and then to Tarawa. 22 hours of travel in all.
My last P-day was really good. I woke up early and headed to a temple session at 7am. After that I went to breakfast at the Temple and it's the best breakfast I've had scene I have been here. We also got a haircut. I've been told about how amazing the vacuum thing was, but it was even better then I was thinking it would be. This week was good. It was kind of long though with packing and all.
One thing I need to write though is that email is rare an the islands very few of the 17 islands have internet so it may take week of even months to hear from me. If I am in an outer island on Christmas they will let me Skype when I get to Tarawa. but if you don't hear from me next week it means I was sent to an outer island.
Will this is all I have to report. Mom and Tiff thank you for the bagels. my companions got to then before me but they left three. They where great. Dad thanks for the Dear Elder. The candy was great and it was great to here from you.
Will I got to go but I hope all of you have a great week.
From,
Elder Scott G. Johnson
Friday, August 15, 2014
Mauri Mom,
I got your letters and package and thank you. Also thank you Alan, and Diane and Mike. I got your letters and they where awesome. I will write and send you letters later today. Mom I know you've been worried because my emails haven't been to long, that's because the MTC is getting really boring and there isn't much to talk about other than the fact that I really want to leave. I should be getting my flight plan either today or tomorrow which makes me excited! I had a very cool experience this week that helped me out a lot. This whole week i've been struggling just making it day by day. I felt like the trials just kept getting harder and I wasn't getting any help. But I was listening to Elder Uchtdorf's talk on gratitude. He spoke about being grateful for trials in our life and said to trust that even though we don't understand right know that one day we will. After reading that I gave a prayer of gratitude and I have been getting blessings ever since. Oh! I forgot to tell you, you might be excited to hear that I joined the choir. Its been a great experience. Sorry I didn't write much but I don't know what else I can say. I love you and hope you have a great week.
Love,
Elder Scott G. Johnson
Here is the link to Elder Uchtdorf's April 2014 Conference Talk on Gratitude:
"Being Grateful in our circumstances is an act of faith in God. It requires that we trust God and hope for things we may not see but which are true. By being grateful, we follow the example of our befoved savior, who said, 'not my will, but thine, be done.'" ~ President Dieter F. Uchtdorf
Friday, August 8, 2014
Mauri Mom,
I get to go to the Temple once a week on ____ morning (Don’t think about trying to get in to the same session as me). Ha! Church at the MTC is kind of a 24/7 thing. It feels like one never ending church block. haha. But truthfully its pretty good. They are very short. We usually have one 10 minute speaker. The reason we have that meeting is only to partake of the Sacrament. This weeks been kind of crazy we have found out that the people are very lazy in speech so they have a lot of exceptions to the grammar. Also being away from the family has been hard, but almost every time I’ve prayed God has answered my prayers, and prays he doesn’t answer, if I take a step back, I find that what I was asking for was either selfish of unimportant. I have also found a way to up load photos! So here are some.
Love your son,
Elder Scott G. Johnson
Friday, August 1, 2014
Mauri Mom,
The weight gain has slowed. I’ve lifted everyday this week and only gained a pound. haha. The MTC is going well. We are now getting into the difficult language study. I’m having troubles keeping up but I’m sure that I will get it eventually. Anyways the MTC fells like it’s taking forever to get over. All I want to do is see the islands. I officially desired that the island zone is the party zone. When other zones are sitting around in their rooms we party in the halls, share food and play games. For example: we have FIFA Mondays. We can’t have Soccer balls so we put a roll of toilet paper in a rubber glove and kick it around. Also we do "freeze darts" where if you make eye contact you make an imaginary blow dart pipe and shot them. If no one touches them, they half to stay there. That's all for now but I hope your well. Love you
Love,
Elder Johnson
Friday, July 25, 2014
Mauri Mom,
I have some bad news. I've been taking photos but the MTC blocks all USB devises so I cant send pictures for the next five weeks. Also I found out that not to many islands out there have internet. So letters will be the only way of talking. Though I have found out a lot about the island. All of the outer islands are very kind and treat the missionaries as honored guests. There are no tree rats on the islands and let Dave know sea turtle is an uncommon dish...but dog is. There are so many other cool and weird things that I cant think of, but I am loving the people and the place already.
Here at the MTC things and getting boring and repetitive. My usual scheduled is wake up, eat, class, eat, class, eat, class, sleep, and repeat. Five weeks feels like too long and I just want to go serve already! I have been working out everyday (except Sunday) and have gained 4 pounds. Also this week I ran into "Sister Record" which was really cool. My district is doing well and I’m loving them. Last Sunday a Seventy came and spoke and it was really cool. I’ve also been reading in the Bible. In the New Testament, Jesus tells a young man to give up everything and serve him and the young man doesn't because he "had much.” Jesus has asked he the same. He asked me to give up collage, my job, and my amazing friends and family, and I answers, " I will.” I know I’m doing what God wants me to do and that not only me, but everyone I know will be blessed.
Thank you for your love and support you send me. Send my love to everyone
Elder Scott G. Johnson
Highlights from Elder Johnson’s last four emails:
Friday, July 18, 2014
Mauri Mom!
My first few days here have been awesome! There so much I want to say and so little time to say it. First off I will be learning the Kiribati here and will be staying for 6 week. I love my companions. There are 9 missionaries in my class and I was grouped with two other elders and was made senior companion. My companions are Elder Stone and Elder Musser. Elder Stone is a Samoan from Iowa and Elder Musser is from Las Vegas. i love these elders and I know God does too.
Kiribati is going better then i thought it would. I am already praying in the language. There are only 13 letters in the alphabet and most ever word is made of sounds. Today we will teach our first investigator. The Lord is definitely blessing all of us because we have learned so quickly the language. There are 5 Elders in our room and one of them is Elder Smith. He is the one helping us learn the language the most he has flash cards all over the room.
In 2 days I ran in to 5 people i know. there are over 2000 missionaries here, and to add to that thought where we got here we sang the song "We are as the army of Helaman," but we changed the word at the end from "We will be" to "We are now the Lords missionaries." There was a power in that room as we sang. I know that this is Gods work. I have felt the spirit more there ever before in my life. I know God will help you more with things back at home while I serve. I love all of you and I know God will bless you all.
Love Elder Johnson
