Thappy Hanksgiving!!!!

Hello Friends and Family,

I hope you all had a wonderful and Thanks filled giving. Thanksgiving is different here in the MTC. We got to hear from Elder Anderson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles which was an amazing experience! I'll speak more about what he said later. Then, we had a big turkey lunch which was super good! Then we watched "Ephraim's Rescue" an awesome movie about the struggles of different groups of Pioneers, definitely recommend watching it. Last, we participated in a giant service project of packing and sealing meals for starving children throughout the world! By the end, we had packed 359,000 meals for starving children and it was great to serve on a great day like Thanksgiving. 

This week was really pretty good! My German has been coming along pretty quickly and I am satisfied at where I am now, so I'm excited to keep learning and leave the MTC in 2 weeks and 2 days!! It has for sure flown by up here. BUT I'm insanely pumped to get out into Germany!

I hope you all had a good week and a great Thanksgiving and had time to ponder what you are thankful for. I know when someone asks me that, I say the usual things but there's one thing I have never realized I should be thankful for and that is our Trials. Elder Anderson quoted a great scripture which I thought I should share. In 2 Nephi 2:2 "thou knowest the greatness of God; and he shall consecrate thine afflictions for thy gain." 

I have never thought of it like that before but I realized that we all go through trials in our lives and we can receive help through Christ and His Atonement. Although, like in the Parable of the 10 lepers, we're not all quick to go to our Father in Heaven to thank him for his help and I know for me, it is hard to see how we have been changed and become better through them so I invite you all to try to think of how you have changed through them! Have an awesome week everyone!

Pic 1: Me and my men Elder Wright and Elder Brown​​

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Pic 2: The awesome drawing Sister Lopez made for us!! 

Pic 3: Me and my best friends (left) Elder Lien and (right)   

  Elder Huang! Love these guys they are so fun to talk to!

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Year 3 of the MTC

Here's a note just to give you an inside look at what Glenn is experiencing in the MTC branch of 20 or so German speaking missionaries. They are under the direction of their Branch President, who is a former Mission President in Atlanta: Last Sunday, Glenn played the piano for Sacrament meeting, blessed the Sacrament in German, accompanied the special musical number, gave a talk in German, and taught the lesson in priesthood meeting (in English)!

Not really year three but it kinda feels like it haha. So this week was a pretty alright week! I'm trying to stay positive no matter how boring it may or may not get here. Just kidding it's great. I love talking to the new missionaries when they come in every Wednesday it's so fun. 

But this week, me and my Companion Elder Brown taught our 3 new "investigstors", Christina, Marvin, and Stefano. Stefano is an Atheist so it has been tough to teach him that there IS a God that loves and knows him. All of them we committed to come to church with us this week so that's good! Even though it's fake, there's still a special Spirit that is present in the meeting that is helping me with my German, because I know there's no way I could speak such good German in a lesson without the Spirit. 

We also had our first TRC appointment this week, which is a real live person who volunteers at the MTC and me and my companion teach them a short little message and mostly try to get to know them and see what their needs are. We taught two groups of two people and we mostly focused on getting to know them, and we learned about them and left them with a short message on The Atonement of Jesus Christ and the Spirit was the strongest there that I have ever felt it in a German lesson! It was awesome.

On a less serious note, something funny happened this week. For those of you who know me, I'm like a pro at throwing different things up in the air and catching them behind my back. Well, being myself, I did that with my name tag, and obviously my name tag lands on the roof of our Residence Hall building. I was maddd haha but later that night, me and Elder Wright went out to go try to retrieve it, and him and a random other Elder lifted me up and I climbed up there and got it. Needless to say it was quite the sight to see for people walking by. The good ending of the story ius that I got it and nobody got hurt, probably the funniest thing to happen at the MTC so far. 

To end more spiritual, I'd like to share a scripture I like. In Mosiah 2:17 it says "And behold, I tell you these things that ye may learnwisdom; that ye may learn that when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God." I know especially on a mission it's hard to understand why we do some of the things we do, but I know that serving your fellow men, whether it be your sibling or Mother or the people of Berlin, you are serving God.

Have a good week I love you all! Don't forget to write

--

Elder Johnson

Germany Berlin Mission

It SNOWED all day Thursday!! Cold stuff​​.

Our district! Elder Wright, Elder Santo, Sister Lopez, Sister Spencer, Elder Brown, and Me.

           

2nd year in the MTC!! .....or maybe just 2nd week...

Hello beautiful friends and family,

This honestly has felt like 2 years already! We have been non stop studying in classrooms about 90% of our lives here. But I do know that the gift of tongues is real! This week we have been teaching a investigator (teacher acting like one), named Julia, who had been baptized into the Catholic Church, and we taught her the first three lessons! In all German! I definitely said things in those lessons that I haven't ever learned before and never planned on saying, it was an awesome experience. 

Me and my companion just received 3 new investigators for our next lessons! Marvin, Christina, and Stefano! It's going to be tough planning three lessons in one day but I have learned that as I plan my lessons to center around Christ and leave room for the Spirit to give guidance, the lesson goes alot smoother and the Spirit is a lot stronger! 

Anyways, me and my man Elder Wright, from my district, go play 4-square every day in the MTC gym and everyone get's mad when we're in with them because they know we're about to get them out hahah.

We are working hard out here trying to stay sane while getting ready to go to Germany! 

From preparing my lesson in Sacrament meeting tomorrow, I have been diving into the New Testament learning as much as I can so my lesson will go as good as it possibly can! I was particularly impressed by the scripture at the end of all the writing of what Christ when through and his crucifixion and everything the very end of the book it says: Luke 22: 47 "And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem." 

This directly applies to all the missionaries and future missionaries and, like they said, every member a missionary! So I know that Christ died for us for us to receive a remission from our sins, temptations, trials, and everything! Feed His sheep! Love you all

Pic 1: My awesome Cousin and Mom beat the system and got us some caffeine!!!

Pic 2: My man Elder Bates (went to Highland) and Elder Schnebly (went to Mesa High) were my zone leaders and we were the AZ crew but they are off in Frankfurt now doing the Lord's work.

Pic 3: well ya its just pic 3

Pic 4: all of our jackets chilling

Pic 5: P-day trip to the temple Saturday

Love you all! Feel free to Email or send a Dear Elder letter I'm always down for a good read! Tchau!

MTC Arrival - November 5, 2016

Hallo everyone,

These three days I have been here have got to be some of the most long, challenging, but rewarding days of my life. The MTC is 9 or 10 hours of classes a day with few breaks to eat meals. My companion, Elder Brown, is from Springville Utah and his Dad is the MTC doctor so we get special privileges (not really lol). He's like a health and fitness nut though and that's gonna take some getting used to. He is really cool though and our other two elders in our district, Elder Wright and Elder Santo are also awesome. We all like to joke around and have a good time so I got lucky to be in their District. Today we went to the Provo Temple and it was a great spiritual experience! I'm going to keep today's letter short because it's only been three days but I love you all and I will talk to you guys next week!

Also, I forgot to share a scripture in my last letter. The scripture we read in German to our fake Untersucher is James 1: 5 which says "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him" So all of you if there is something you're not sure about, no matter how large or small it may be, go to prayer and scripture study and you'll receive your answer.

Writing the first letter home!

Elder Johnson

Germany Berlin Mission

P.S. if anyone would like to write me personally, you can do so through glenn.johnson@myldsmail.net, or at dearelder.com you can write a letter and I will receive it that day and not have to wait until Saturday to read it! It will make things go faster but whatever you want to do is fine. Instructions for dearelder.com: go to the website and open a new account and enter your information. 

Select:

Provo MTC, Same Day Delivery, Write Letter, 

Elder Glenn Johnson, 

Unit number 190, 

Mission Code GER-BER,

Estimated MTC Departure Date: 12/13/16.