Dear Family and Friends,
We got calls last night. Remember how I said there's a 50% chance
that Sawyer and I stay together and a 100% chance he goes ZL? Well, he
went Zone Leader and we are no longer companions. However, the 50% thing
was spot on. I'm getting inter-zoned to a different apartment just up
the block. I got the shaft of it all: lost our big apartment with an
amazing view, lost my swagger wagon (van), and lost my companion, and
it's looking like I'll get the worse Spanish area. They are putting 6 Spanish missionaries in the Spanish branch instead of four so our areas
will be moved around. I'll be taking over ours and to say I'm a little
nervous doesn't do it justice. I'm predicting a hard transfer. I will
know my new companion on Wednesday.
My new address is 1334 Ave B #174, Yuma AZ.
I'm close enough to my old house that any letters I haven't received
yet can be picked up any day. I'm seriously only moving 2 blocks.
This was a fun week. We ate Thanksgiving dinner at a member's house and had
a good time. I'm not a big fan of being painfully full but I'd rather
be that than painfully hungry. Afterwards we got invited to an
investigator's house for some food. They're going to get baptized.
Remember our recent convert to the Spanish branch a few weeks ago?
The one whose family is now investigating? The ones who were going to
get baptized by their recent convert father? Yeah, well things were
going really well with them. Really well. The daughters really wanted to
get baptized and the mother was overcoming her concerns. Then she asked
us for a triple combination so she could cross reference scriptures.
The next day we went over and she had clearly stumbled into some anti-Mormon literature. She was pulling out all these deep doctrine
scriptures that made everything seem terrible, commenting on the cursed Lamanites skin, etc. It was bad. I was on exchanges that day and the
Elder I was with didn't do much. The lesson went horribly and the rest
of the day was bad. We went home after that and took a 30 minute
breather so that I could recuperate from the stress. It was really bad.
Anyway, we've been working with them slowly and have found her real
concern which was that she was afraid of concern. We brought some great
fellow-shippers over and have settled most of her concerns. Now the trouble is putting them all back on date for baptism. I'll be doing that
without Sawyer and with my new companion.
We have one investigator who is progressing very quickly. We've
taught her probably five times and she has taken right to everything
we've said. She has a very strong understanding of the Bible. We will be
helping her overcome her addiction to smoking, the only thing standing
in the way. Not too worried about it, she has lots of faith. Our lessons
with her have usually been on the longer side since she's a talker;
around 45 minutes to an hour. We have been strongly encouraged to teach
15-30 minute lessons and get out so that you don't satisfy their
spiritual needs so they want you to come back the next day. Well, we
were getting ready to leave this week after an hour long lesson and she
said, in Spanish, "You guys always leave so early! Why? Every time you
come over I always feel...just better. I'm happier and feel like I'm
learning a lot. I'm drawing closer to God and understanding verses I've
never understood before. When you guys come you bring light with you.
Thank you. Thanks you. Thank you." It was pretty great to hear something
like that. She will likely be baptized the 3rd week of teaching her - a
fast one.
There were 3 baptisms in the district this past weekend, none of
ours. Elder Sawyer and I went to each one. Very....unique baptisms. The
first one was ridiculously long. It started off wrong when the other
Elders noticed that the baptism before theirs had drained the font and
locked the font doors. Bad start. It went on to start 30 minutes later
and have lots of people running in and out of it making loud, loud
noises. While they were changing, their ward suggested really weird
hymns to sing that no one knew. I almost requested #233, Nay Speak No
Ill, the song that no one knows. But the spirit was already gone haha.
The pianist was lost, the singing was terrible... I'm pretty sure the
Elders who baptized her were losing hair over it.
The next baptism was the Sisters'. They were baptizing an over age
youth with two less active parents. Actually, a less active father and
his girlfriend. Well, fast forward to after the baptism. The Bishop got
up to do his welcome and ended up talking for 30 minutes...to an 11 yr
old girl. And then for the closing prayer, the girl's father's girlfriend
(whew) got up and gave the most interesting prayer I've ever heard. She
bore her testimony in her prayer and spoke to the girl...all during the
prayer. The baptisms were great, just interesting.
The baptism was even better because Elder Boyd ripped a huge hole
in his pants. It was so bad that we had to take him to the library and
fix it. Since none of us can sew, we ended up taping his pants and
coloring the tape black hahaha. It was pretty ridiculous looking. It was
a pretty bad repair job because by the end of the service had ripped
twice the size.
There was a big debate in the YSA branch about legally wrong vs.
morally wrong and the thin lines between the two. Interesting
situation, that. You can make a good debate on either side I think
Last night I got to bless my first home. We went over to a members
home who is, according to her, Palestinian. Raised in Jerusalem a Muslim
and converted to the LDS church 2 years ago when she married her
Mexican husband. I think they're the most diverse couple in Yuma and one
of the coolest. He was watching a movie on his new 3D TV yesterday so I
got to see it just for a second. But then afterwards they told us about
a spirit that had been haunting their home and stuff. I kept an open
mind since I'd never... well, I kept an open mind about it. They asked us
to bless it and I did. It was definitely a unique experience. But
afterwards they taught me how to throw punches. Both of them were boxers
growing up and pretty competitive ones at that. They asked if I'd ever
gotten in a fight since I'm big and from the DC area and when I said no
he laughed and brought out all their boxing gear. Now I can throw a
sweet punch and a left hand jab. Unstoppable! "No unhallowed hand can
stop the work from progressing..." I'm basically invincible now.
Not a ton else happened this week. It was a harder week in the
mission - most of our lessons cancelled and things were just hard
finding people. I'll miss being Elder Sawyer's companion. We had an
awesome 12 weeks. We're both glad we'll still be in the same zone.
Thanks Natalia, Jamie, and the Arlington Ward Young Men for the
letters/package this week! [He left his mom out and Eric and William who write weekly letters. . .] You're all great! Letters will be sent to
everyone from last week and this week today, I promise.
Con amor,
Elder Johnson
No comments:
Post a Comment