May 10, 2012

***New Pictures***

These are photos of the very beautiful and touching Jacksonville, NC Memorial Park.  Included are memorials to the Beirut, Lebanon victims, a Memorial Beam from the 9/11 disaster, the Vietnam Memorial  listing everyone who died in that war and a group of marines gathered at the Vietnam Memorial.

Love, Sister Johnson

May 3, 2012

Dear Family and Friends,
We are 36 feet above sea level here and the only way you can see above the trees is to go over a bridge or overpass. On the way home from church we do go over an ocean inlet (New River) which is always so beautiful-especially at sunset.  Miss those mountains and valley views. The new food of the week is mustard greens.  Had it with fresh flounder and a sweet potato.   Does that sound southern enough.

I forgot to tell you about a miracle for me last week.  I started having a lot of pain in my right hip all of the sudden and within a few hours I could barely walk.  I took a non inflammitory pill left over from my shoulder surgery, said a heartfelt prayer and went to bed.  We had volunteered to help a sister clean her base house for inspection the next morning and I didn't see how I could possibly do it.  By  morning I was mobile again and able to help.  I called the mission doctor who lives in Atlanta, Georgia and he diagnosed it over the phone as bursitis.  I am most grateful for healing.

Tuesday we had 10 young adults show up for Gospel study night at the church.  The topic was our Heavenly Father and refreshments was strawberry pie.  They consumed both with great vigor.  What a great group of young adults.  Two sisters drove here from Wilmington to see their boy friends. Most are planning on driving to a YSA dance in Raleigh this Friday.

P day was spent getting registered at the base hospital so I could get some booster immunizations I needed and shopping at the MX (base exchange) and commissary. Sign on the wall in the hospital registration office reads: "A call from the operating forces is not a disruption of our daily routine." The Camp Lejeune title says: Expeditionaroy Forces in Readiness.  There are 19 Military Commands at the base including one Navy unit.  The base has 80 live fire ranges.  Military personel in this area are greatly affected by decisions by the President to deploy.

We meet weekly for a district missionary meeting and a great J2 ward missionary correlation meeting.   The 6 elders and 2 sisters in our district work very hard.  We give them rides occasionally.

I need to correct something I said last letter.  Brother Copelands from Smithfield received the Navy Cross not star.

That is all for now.   Love, Sister and Brother Johnson



the May 3 moon as seen from NC.



Our apartment is the ground level one with the light on.  It faces east but seems like it faces south.  

April 24, 2012



Papa at the beach



Sister Baldy and Sister Walsh enjoyed gathering shells



pelicans following waves to catch fish



an inland shark.

It was P day yesterday and we took the two Jacksonville sisters to North Topsail Beach.  We are lucky because it is within our mission area boundaries. Sister Baldy and Sister Walsh enjoyed gathering shells.
Papa at the beach, pelicans following waves to catch fish, the sisters on the beach, an inland shark.

April 15. 2012

Favorite road sign

April 14, 2012

****Pictures finally****

This is of us with our district which consists of left to right the Crawfords from Cedar City going to Uruguay, Brother and Sister Johnson, our trainer sister Angie Zitting Cluff, the Hawkins from Rexburg going to Anchorage, Alaska and the Grahams from Springville going to Santiago, Chili.



The beautiful flowering trees at Adam-ondi-ahman

On our way thru the Smoky Mountains

Elder Johnson at the beach in North Carolina

With the other mission couples at the North Carolina Raleigh Temple

April 11, 2012 Letter to Friends

April 11, 2012
Dear Friends,
If you want to continue to receive updates let us know. Also- would someone forward this to the Anhders and Slades and send us their e-mail addresses.  I have misplaced them. 
Some of you might not know but we are transplanted for the next 18  months and growing roots in beautiful North Carolina where the evenings are a little cool and the days just right for now.  Blue skies, lots of green trees and grass, and the Atlantic ocean borders this area. 
We have been called as Military Relations Represenatives for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at Camp Lejeune Marine Corps Base by Jacksonville, North Carolina.  It is a huge base with several different camps within the area.  It took the first week to learn where things are located and then drive to them.  Sunday night we took a marine home across the base and it took 1 1/2 hours of driving.   It is a biiiiiiiiiiiig base. We are glad we brought our Prius because of the gas prices.  There is only one strait street going thru town by the base so I think I will be permanently turned the wrong direction in my mind the whole mission. The sun sets outside our bedroom window so I am sure about that direction but only here.  Our I-phone GPS system has really helped.   
It has been a very busy week getting our apartment outfitted with the basics, finding and giving rides to marines, conducting a young single adult institute night, going to the Raleigh temple for a session with sisters from the mission, giving marines a ride and attending two wards on Sunday and helping conduct an abbreviated Sacrament/RS/Priesthood meeting on Camp Geiger Sunday evening, attending both a district conference here and zone conference in Wilmington and a ward mission correlation meeting this evening.  Denny is asleep on the sofa- he earned the rest. 
We feel blessed for the safety we have had in our travels and have a great love and appreciation for the marines we have met so far- both male and female.  We have learned much from them. 
We have been shopping at the big MCX and Commissary at Lejeune and found other nice  new facilities at Camp Geiger just 10 minutes away from where we live.  There has been a lot of new facilities built on the base and in town in support of the military.  There is a barber shop on every block (marines get haircuts every week) and a tatoo business on every other block. 
A LDS Marine Chaplain Vance has been kind to show us the ropes and invited us to his family's Easter dinner late Sunday night which was very nice. 
That is all for now.  It is getting late.  We are on Eastern Standard Time here.  We have the same phone number.  Love, Sister Johnson   
____________________

April 9, 2012

April9, 2012
Dear Family,
So much water has passed under the bridge (literally andfiguratively) this past week it is hard to know where to begin. Wegot our internet connection today and can finally write.  We took 4 1/2days to drive here.  We especially enjoyed going to Adam-Ondi-Ahmanwhere we listened to President Uchtdorts talk in that beautiful peaceful andquiet setting.  Only one other car was there with us.  The next daywe stopped in Paducah, KY where I went in Hancock Fabric (the biggest fabricstore I have every been in) and the National Quilt Museum.  We noticeddifferent road kill once we got further East- (don't read this if youare queesy)- a baby pig, fox, turkey, possum and raccoon. 
We did see many deer and antelope at play in Wyoming. 
Continuing our several  month breakdown-a-week tradition- the water heaterwasn't working when we got here so we bathed in cold water for a day beforethey replaced it with a new one and today the dishwasher stopped working.We have a nice apartment on ground level on the west end of town. We havea large kitchen, medium sized bedroom with a 1/4 size bathroom (the sink andtoilet are kids size), another bedroom which we use as a workroom, a normalbathroom with shower and a good sized living room.  We have plenty of storagespace.  The apartment had some furniture in it but that is all so themission president asked us to furnish it since part of our mission fee pays forthat.   So.......we have been shopping, shopping, shopping thisweek.  Never spent so much money all at once onfurnishings.  Our place is actually not in thecity limits.  Our neighbors above us got a new litter of 4 kittenslast night from one of the wild cats roaming the neighborhood. 
Our address is
Elder David and Sister Carol Johnson
117 Cordell Dr.
Jacksonville, NC 28540
We got here Tuesday night, met the bishops of the two wards weserve, had district meeting the next day, went to the sister's mission dayat the Raleigh temple on Friday where we met the mission presidentand wife.  We are going to get a new mission president in July- differentthan the one we met at the MTC.
Sunday we left home at 7:30 a.m. to pick up marines at two different camps totake them to church. The plan was to drop me off at the church so therewould be more room in the car but the church was not opened so wewent to plane B. One marine was a 6'6" returned missionary fromWyoming so he was crunched to fit in the back of the Prius with two other youngmen.  We attended two wards, met a lot of members, then went to CampGeiger to learn how to conduct services there with Chaplain Vance (a churchmember) at a base chapel. We will be in charge of this meeting everySunday in the future.   I led the singing and Papa and I boreour testimonies.  Captain Vance gave a short talk after the marinesblessed and passed the sacrament.  There were three LDS marines and onenon member investigator there.  The Chaplain then taught a RS/Priesthoodshortened lesson and it all ended in an hour.  It was hard to hear becauseof other services being held in the main chapel in the same older buildingbut the spirit was strong. We were touched by the marines eagerness topartake of the sacrament on Easter and the investigators willingness to betaught. One marine had ridden in a base bus for 1 1/2 hours to get thereand we took him home later and it took us 1 1/2 hours to drive him to thefar end of Camp Legeune but he said it was worth it. Chaplain Vanceinvited us to his neighborhood west of here for Easter Dinner so wetook the marine and went.  There was the chaplain, his wife, daughterand husband, another couple and a mother and her three daughters whosehusband was deployed overseas there for dinner.    
Jacksonville is quite a bit larger than Logan and is spread out between aninlet and the New River.  So there are a lot of bridges over waterand no streets that go straight for very long.  We would be lostwithout our GPS on our phone.  I have been turned around 45 degrees everysince we got here and don't know if I can get reoriented ever.  I do know ourapartment faces east because the sun sets behind us.  There is abarbershop on every block (marines have to get a haircut every week) and atatoo parlor on every other block plus lots of eating places and cardealerships and other businesses that cater to marines. We see a lot moretobacco stores because we are near where they grow it. Local strawberriesare on and the azaleas are in full bloom and they put flowers onevery grave in the cemeteries for Easter.   
It has been beautiful weather our whole time traveling and since we gothere except for one morning of rain. Gone are the coats. 
Well that is enough for now. I need to retire for the night.   Love,Mom, Carol