Imagine the difference you can make.
Make the difference in a way only you can.
Begin forwarded message:
From: Timothy Johnson <timothy.johnson09@myldsmail.net>
Date: May 17, 2012 1:49:11 AM PDT
To: Craig N Doll Johnson <craigndoll@gmail.com>, Doll Johnson <arstklesc@gmail.com>
Subject: Hello!!! :)
How is the family doing?! P.S. My P-Days are now on Thursday (your Wednesday? This being in the future thing really throws me off) ;)
But really, though, how is everyone doing? Mom and Dad- It was SO great to talk to you two! I'm sorry that I couldn't talk longer or talk to anybody else! Mom- I loved hearing your "*gasp* Hey buddy!" It made my week, to say the least. :) And Dad I loved being able to talk to you. I had a few questions for you, but I didn't have time to ask them! The only one I remember is when you went to the LTM did you go to Hawaii??? I was watching a film of Elder Bednar at an old devotional and he talked about how the LTM for the oriental countries was in Hawaii!
So, I'm doing so well! :) Being in Hong Kong has been SO surreal!!! I love it here so much. :)
Right when we stepped foot out of the airport, we immediately started sweating...this was at night. :) BUT it reminded me of all of the summers we spent in Alabama, Georgia, and Florida. It made me so happy. :)
When we landed in LAX, we had NO IDEA where to go because we got off the plane into some random building not connected to the airport, but thankfully we found a "senior" (they really weren't "senior" looking) missionary couple going to Hong Kong. We latched on to them because we had literally no clue as to where we were supposed to go or what we were supposed to do. SO it was definitely great to meet them.
The flight really wasn't as horrendously long as I was expecting. Now that I'm 20 years old I'm able to calm myself down (well..more than I could when I was 14 going to mainland) I was able to sleep most of the way on that 16 hour flight! It was so great! :)
The drive from the airport to Kowloon Tong (where the mission office and home is) was so cool but kind of confusing. There were all of these bright lights, I was a slightly jet lagged, and we were driving on the opposite side of the road then we do in the United States. My body was hardly knew what was going on. ;)
The mission office is on the other side of the temple. The temple is SO beautiful!!!! I can hardly stand it. It's this sandy brownish color and it's somewhat of a skyscraper. The mission president and his family, the office elders, and the assistants to the president live in apartments inside the temple. How cool!
We stayed in the temple patron housing for those who have traveled far away (like from Mongolia, Mainland, etc.) to do their temple work or do their ancestors temple work. The housing is just above the mission office and there is a chapel and cultural hall on the ground floor. It's such a great building.
The second day we were here we had a lot of orientation meetings and then we went out to go finding.... You know how people say that they were so scared that their knees were shaking? That was the epitome of how I felt. I don't think I've ever experienced that sensation before, but my knees were definitely quivering. I was so scared to talk to real people in my broken Cantonese. I'm not sure why I was so scared, because the Lord is on my side. The more people we talked to the more comfortable I got. I still didn't know even half of what the people were saying, but I got more comfortable so I was able to love those I was talking to even more.
We were able to meet a man from Taiwan and he was really interested in the Book of Mormon. We talked to him for a bit, got his contact information and gave him a Book of Mormon. He immediately started reading it when we gave it to him. It was a neat experience. We also were able to teach a lesson to a man in on of the parks. He wasn't to interested near the end, but it was still a great experience.
While we were teaching that lesson, I looked around and noticed I was in the middle of this beautiful park with amazing oriental architecture and landscape. It was so neat to be able to see this all around me and know that this will be a fairly normal day in Hong Kong. :)
So for this scatter brained, really LONG email. I'm kind of just typing out all of my thoughts.
Today, I met my trainer! His name is Elder Brennan and he's from Perth, Australia. He's only been out for 9 months, but his Cantonese is excellent and he is great missionary. I'm in an area called Yuen Lohng. It's in the back country of Hong Kong. It's so far from Kowloon Tong that there is a certain part on the train ride to Yuen Long that we can see Mainland from there. It's pretty neat. There's a TON of sky scrapers that are all basically apartment buildings. It's super hot and humid here and I love it.
P.S. Can you send me my renewed license and some pictures of the familia? I don't have the address on me right now, so I'll send my address to you next week. It's not all that urgent.
Anyway, I'm sorry for such a boring email. I'll finish off with a spiritual thought.
So I've been thinking a lot about faith. There is a reason that faith is the first principle of the gospel. With faith we have hope. With hope we can endure to the end. We can overcome challenges for the Lord is on our side. The more faith we exercise, the more strength we can receive from our Lord. As we exercise faith we can overcome any obstacle or trial we have in our life. The enabling power of Christ's Atonement is so powerful. Being able to receive enabling power from the only perfect person that has been on this Earth, is such a blessing. All we need to do is just ask. God will help us. He loves. We are His children and we wants us to come back to Him. He loves us so much. He is so happy when we are happy. He is sad with us when we have trials. He has faith in you that you can overcome anything that life is throwing at you. Have faith in Him, for He has faith in you.
I love you all!!! :)
-Elder Johnson
P.S. How is everyone?!?!? I especially haven't heard from Sarah in a while. Are you doing alright, buddy? :)
P.P.S. I love you all! :)
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