Lily Exposed Me

Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen,

I would like to extend you a warm welcome back.

You must be asking yourself, what’s happening with the legendary companionship that was Elders Johnson and Hillyard of the Wilhelmsburg area in Hamburg? Well, apparently it’s the will of our leaders that we get split. Elder Hillyard is being ripped away from me and being taken to Neukölln, a suburb of Berlin. Good thing he learned enough Turkish here to fend for himself out there in the Ghettos of Berlin. I am being tied down here and given a new elder called Morrell. The legends are being separated though after a good 5 months and it’s just downhill from here. Just kidding, haha, but we’ll see how it goes with the new companion and everything.

Legendary District

Other than that, we had a great week. We had an awesome lesson with Faiz, where we focused only on tithing—what it means, where the law comes from, and why we do it. To our surprise, he didn’t have anything against it, understood it very well, and agreed to pay it after he’s baptized. Much more legendary gets it not. Unfortunately he didn’t make it to church, because he pulled a Hillyard and broke his screen and couldn’t use his phone so he didn’t know where the church was.

Chewy?

We had another couple good appointments this week, one in which something pretty funny happened. We had an eating appointment with our Bishop and his family yesterday, and it was time for us to give our little spiritual thought. Well as many of you don’t know, a member in Brandenburg gifted me a deck of magic cards and showed me a few magic tricks, the perfect way to lead in to the tricks of Satan and how to see them. Well I prepared for my magic trick before we started so nobody knew, I hid a card inside of a nearby book, to use as my final trick. Right as I am starting the magic for the family and their small kids, one of the little babies, Lily, is walking around doing some nonsense when she reaches for the book. Nervously, I reach over to kinda nonchalantly stop her, but there was no stopping her. She opened the book, revealing the card, exposing my trick. We all had a good long laugh over that one, and the rest of my tricks worked except that one haha.

my boy

Well folks that’s about all for this week, stay lit and have a lot of fun these next 7 days.

Bye

Elder Glenn Johnson

Kirche Jesu Christi

Heckengang 55

21079 Hamburg

Germany

Arizonans..the new wannabe Utahns?

Welcome.

I feel to address first the subject of this email. Yesterday my companion, Elder Kevin Oliver Hillyard explained to me of his strong belief that „Arizonans are wannabe Utahns“. He explained further and narrowed it down to mostly Mesa and Gilbert have the wannabe Utahns, and this is all based off his judgement of the <20 citizens of Arizona he has met. I just thought this was the most absurd statement I’ve ever heard come from his mouth, so we had a good hour long friendly discussion on why he is absolutely wrong. You could say I won, as he at the end admitted that I was correct.

Anyways, great to have you all back. This week was a fun one for us. We had yet another Zone Conference, in which we learned that Elder Robert Nay and some other Römer guy created an app. It’s like a translation app for members of the church to help us when we meet people who don’t speak any normal languages like German, English, or Persian. It’ll be interesting to see the app start off and see if it works.

Hamburg and Neumünster Zones

After the conference, we had a great lesson with Georg, which President Fingerle asked if he could come to. After Georg roasted us a little bit, we had an awesome lesson about the Plan of Salvation and we were able to give him a sick blessing and it was overall awesome. The spirit was strong at our lesson.

Me, Elder Hillyard, Georg, and President Fingerle

We also had the blessing to have another appointment with Faiz this week. We went through a lesson we’ve already taught, but with pamphlets in his language, so that was great. He seemed to grasp the concept even better, and strengthen his faith. He is about halfway finished with the Book of Mormon too, which is awesome. He also told us that he’s doing really well with not drinking coffee. He said his friends and girlfriend are like what da heck you’re crazy! But he has told them his beliefs and not succumbed to peer pressure, which is an awesome miracle!

Anyways, no crazy storms or anything this week. We had a district Pday and me and Hillyard destroyed at volleyball like usual. We also find out this Saturday about transfers. It’s likely that Elder Hillyard leaves me, but we’re hoping to break the norm so he can finish his mission in the best city with the best companion he’ll ever have.

Anyways stay thirsty my friends, bye!

Elder Glenn Johnson

Kirche Jesu Christi

Heckengang 55

21079 Hamburg

Germany

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Winter storm means madness

Belcome Frack Wiends,

Glad to see us all gathered together once again for a few words of information from the great city of Hamburg, Germany.

Scary Storm

This week was freaking cold. We were blessed with the opportunity to be hit with a winter storm called Friederike, but luckily we were in the mild part. Actually we heard that a couple people in Germany actually died because of the storm, and the train system was pretty messed up again like every time such a storm comes. All we got here was cold temps and lots of snow. Me and Elder Hillyard took advantage of the snow during one of our lunch breaks and made a snow man and had an epic snowball fight. Like usual though I destroyed him and, as winner, I got to drop a snowball as big as I could make on him as he made a snow angel.

Taking some time to play in the snow

We spent an entire day of the week going out to small villages where the bus lines are very seldom, so we spent a lot of time waiting. All of the referrals we had of people that were apparently interested in learning more about the church, actually had no idea what our church was, had never gone on the internet, and had no interest to learn more. But it is okay, because now we don’t need to waste time going out there and not getting an answer. Something pretty good came out of one of the days we were in a small village place trying to visit an earlier investigator (that wasn’t home). We were out, after trying his house, doing some door knocking and street contacting, and we saw a tv store playing a handball game, so we stopped and watched for a bit. Let me just tell you, handball seems like a crazy weird but fun game. Anyways, afterwards we saw this guy walking our way, talked to him, and he had legit interest to learn more. We got to talk to him all the way back to the train station, at the train station waiting for the train, and the train ride home. We got his information and hope something good will come out of it.

Our two baptismal candidates, Faiz and Georg, are doing awesome. Georg gave us great news, he got everything figured out so that he can finally be baptized on March 31st! It’s in a while, but the important thing is he hasn’t given up and really understands the importance of baptism. Faiz is also still excited to be baptized, and his baptism will be on February 11^th most likely. Legend broke his finger playing basketball for the professional team he’s on, but that won’t stop him.

Well sons, it was great to write to you once again. I’m really excited for the new First Presidency of the Church and what greatness will come out of it. This is the true church. Peace out!️

Our church building got tagged...

Elder Glenn Johnson

Kirche Jesu Christi

Heckengang 55

21079 Hamburg

Germany

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Hafen Station

Greetings fellow weekly readers.

Welcome to our next chapter of this 104 chapter novel of my mission.

Well, you guessed it sons; another busy as heck week. It started off with us meeting with a referral of a friend from Afghanistan, who was quite interested in receiving a Bible in Persian. We met with him, I started to explain what we are and what we do in Farsi, and after I say that we’re from America, he says „You’re American?“ in an impressive American accent. He then explains to us how he was a translator for American troops in Afghanistan, so can speak fairly good English. We then jumped right on that opportunity and introduced the Bible and Book of Mormon in the best language in the world. He was sincerely pretty interested, which was awesome. Later that day me and Elder Hillyard destroyed some chumps in volleyball.

We also met ourselves with Faiz this week, our Indonesian legend who is a basketball baller. We had another great lesson with him going through the commandments and what God’s expectations are for us, and he was down to work on following them all, so we were super happy about that. He then continued afterwards to break Elder Hillyard’s ankles every time he had the ball.

We received a referral from an Elder in the London England mission, who spoke with someone from our area online who would love a visit from us. This guy lives about an hour away from us in a small village outside of Hamburg. So we head on out to go visit him after treating ourselves with wonderful Döner with 6 different sauce selections. The bus ride was 45 minutes, and then we waited for a different bus, that went classic and fell out and never came for some reason. We were left with the choice to either wait for an hour for the next train home, or walk an hour to his house. Being the bockfull missionaries that we are, we choose the walk in -1 degree weather. It was cold, but we were excited because we knew the Lord wouldn’t let us do all this for nothing...we get there, ring once....no answer. Maybe he didn’t hear it. Ring twice...... still no answer. After about the 5th ring we gave up and decided to knock on the doors in the area, from which we didn’t have much success. Right before we started the long walk back to the train station, we rang one more time, and the guy’s parents were there. They had no clue what we were talking about but were interested in what we do, so we got the chance to introduce ourselves. The father said, „well I’m a lost cause, you won’t have any success with me, but good luck with my son.“ And we came back yesterday and he wasn’t there again. Hopefully one of these days we’ll get in contact with him.

Stade is a cute city 

President Monson was a man who learned the lesson to never refuse to act to a prompting from the Holy Ghost. He has had an insane amount of experiences where he followed just the smallest prompting, and became a life saver or a soul saver. He and his amazing ways of living will be truly missed, but he’s in a much happier place now.

when you’re freezing at a member's house and find a blanket that matches your personality 

Probably one of the hugest blasphemies I’ve ever seen. This painting is in a train station here and says „United We Stand, Divided We Fall“ on a picture with the American flag and the twin towers.

an ICE passing through, along with a surprise at the end

Well thanks for readin' that’s all folks 👍

Elder Glenn Johnson

Kirche Jesu Christi

Heckengang 55

21079 Hamburg

Germany

Von meinem iPad gesendet

Who’s Brian?

Hello sons,

Welcome back to the favorite part of your weeks, getting to read my weekly.

This week was quite busy full of appointments with legends, being ripped away from my boy Elder Hillyard twice, a baptism, and a confirmation.

First, we can slide right in to the lessons we taught. We taught a legend called Christoph who is quite busy, too busy to read even the smallest of pamphlets, but it’s alright. He’s got 2 lizards which he’s quite proud of.

We also later met with our friend from Indonesia, and it was an amazing lesson. We talked about the plan of salvation, what the purpose of life is, where we go after we die, etc., and he accepted it very well. He actually told us about how he read and prayed about the Book of Mormon and had a, „warm feeling of joy“ from it. This was awesome to hear. Hopefully we can help him come to baptism by the end of this month.

We also met with Jason, prepared him for the baptism and answered last minute questions, and read some of the Book of Mormon.

Hmmm we also met with Georg again after a while, he’s also ready and excited to be baptized, and should hopefully be there by the end of the month too.

Saturday was a busy day, we had Jason’s baptism!! We started off real nice and early in the morning heading over to play soccer, and then right after, showering and going to visit a Persian family. There we had some great food, and Elder Neale gave his first 2 sick blessings in Persian, and I attempted to do my best to make myself seem entertaining in Persian. Then after, we sprinted for a bus we needed to catch—and wouldn’t have been able to catch if the bus driver hadn’t stopped for us in the middle of 2 stops!

We headed back to the church for Jason’s baptism. The legend came having not tried on any of the baptismal clothes, but luckily they all fit. The talks were great, it only took one try to baptize him, and it was overall an awesome experience that we won’t forget.

Like I say lots, the Lord is blessing us like crazy up here with so much success. I’m so grateful to be on a mission and to see so much of the Lord’s hand in His work.

Have a fun week,

Byyeeeeeee

Elder Glenn Johnson

Kirche Jesu Christi

Heckengang 55

21079 Hamburg

Germany

Where is my boost?

Moin everybody,

I just barely wrote you legends so imma keep this email quick this week.

First and most importantly, I’m honored to announce that we received a large case of root beer and cream soda this week from a member. Oh and Jason also passed his baptismal interview but ROOT BEER AND CREAM SODA did you see that??? Nah just kidding haha, we are really excited for Jason and that we’re so close to his baptism on Saturday! So far everything’s going perfectly, hopefully it stays that way.

We also had a great lesson with our investigator that we got from the sisters in Cologne, Germany, named Faiz. We went through the teachings of Christ more specifically the specific doctrine and he was loving it. It’s awesome to see him actively asking questions, just a real desire to learn. We invited him to be baptized on January 27^th—if he gets an answer that our church is true—and he was suuuper down so that’s awesome. He’s also super into basketball and is really good so I got another legend to destroy me in basketball.

Basketball cr3w

Well sons we are blessed with lots of success here in Hamburg and it’s great. We also had a lot of fun not sleeping at all last night with the ongoing fireworks till 3am....but it was great.

As the Germans would say, have a good slide into the New Year!!

Bye sons 

Elder Glenn Johnson

Kirche Jesu Christi

Heckengang 55

21079 Hamburg

Germany

Von meinem iPad gesendet

Is dat possible?

Well friends,

It’s an honor to be able to greet you in the middle of this Christmas—New Year’s week where everyone’s trying out their new gifts and usually where I’m dying to light my fireworks off early—but I’m forced to wait until New Year’s…

I have no clue where to start because it feels like a month since I’ve written last, when it’s only been a week and a few days. I will go through the highlights with you. 

On Tuesday night, I got a call from Elder Neale, the Persian group leader, in a quite panicked way asked us if we were home. We had just gotten home to change so we could head over to play volleyball, so I replied hesitantly yes, and then panicked, he asked me if I could translate for a lesson for Elders at that exact moment.

I wasn’t going to back down, no matter how trash I think my Persian is. I said okay and got my notes, got my trusty comp in the background with google translate on--ready for words I didn’t know--and just went to town. Classically, the elders were teaching a lesson I had no complete notes for, but we didn’t have any time to doubt. Listening to the elders teach in German, I had to translate it in my head from German into Farsi without trying to get English mixed up in there, it was quite interesting! The guy luckily understood me well and I was able to say everything the elders were trying to say, just in a different way.

We received a referral this week from sisters in Cologne, Germany. This new friend of ours is from Indonesia and is truly pretty golden. He has never really been into religion, doesn’t know much about the Bible or Jesus, but has already started praying and reading in the Book of Mormon and seems really interested and it’s awesome.

The rest of our investigators are still doing great and the 3 who are going to be baptized soon are doing awesome.

Christmas was wonderful. On Heiligabend (holy evening, Christmas Eve) we were with a family in our ward who had every type of German cookies and crackers there is. We sang lots and went through the Christmas stories, played games and it was overall a great time. 

Christmas Fun Times

Christmas Day, we were with a family that my dad had been with in Christmas 1981, when he was on his mission in Germany. That was really an awesome experience, and a great fun night as well. 

Christmas Dinner with the Krugs in Hamburg - flashback of Christmas 1981

Also my family was blessed with the opportunity to Skype me so that was fun for them I believe (and me ).

my family I think?

Then on the second day of Christmas (yes, Germans celebrate Christmas for 3 days), we were with another family and had some wonderful food and a good time. Later we went and hung out with Jason, our legend, who’s getting baptized on January 6th, and we watched a great ole Disney movie with him.

Christmas is over, but we need to remember the words of a pastor we talked to while caroling, „We should be thinking about Jesus ALWAYS—not just at Christmas time!“ which is true and great.

Have a good New Year and do some good fireworks in my Name.

Cool, see you, 

goodbye cool Christmas Market

don't mess with us

carolingggggg

Train Station Announcement - Notice all of the references to Star Wars--Hans Solo, Obi-Wan, Vader, C3PO and lastly, Yoda speak: 3 Minutes Waiting You Must

Nice

Elder Glenn Johnson

Kirche Jesu Christi

Heckengang 55

21079 Hamburg

Germany

Von meinem iPad gesendet