Happy new year!
Last night we got transfer calls. Sat around the house from 9-10:45
waiting for it and then it finally came. Elder Valdez and I are staying
together. Only two people are leaving Yuma, Elder Gutierrez and Sister
Drake. That's about all the changes for our area. We got news last night
that the Spanish branch in Show Low was dissolved. There go my dreams
for going to Show Low... vamos a ver...
The week started out great. We had a baptism scheduled for every
week of the month. However, things have slowly changed a bit and now
we're going to have three on the 19th of January. Turns out there is
also a stake activity from 2pm-10pm (something about pioneers), two
temple trips in the morning, and scout camp in the morning. Talk about
bad timing. We will still move ahead with the baptisms and try to find a
way to schedule them all in. We might just do one at 9am, 11am, and 1pm
haha. We'll make it work. We should be getting two baptisms in the Yuma
Valley Ward and one in the Cibola Ward.
Hopefully one of those for the Yuma Valley goes through. The person
is struggling with an addiction to smoking and drinking. We pushed her
pretty hard and she got up and left for a bit during a lesson. Woops.
The following lesson was really good though; we focused on the atonement
and being strengthened through our trials. We have an awesome
fellowshipping family who has done so much for us and for her.
The other baptism is for an over age youth. She was the miracle
find I mentioned a few weeks back; how we were driving in a car behnid a
member and he pointed out the window to a house on a whim and we
stopped by and found out the daughter wanted to be baptized. We were
originally planning to have that one on the 12th but they are too busy
that day so we will be planning for the 19th. The grandma went out of
town last week and is planning on coming back into town for the baptism.
We are still working to resolve some of the mothers' concerns but I'm
not too worried. She has some awesome fellowshippers as well.
This week was really when I got a testimony of awesome
fellowshippers like the aforementioned ones. We had one family of
investigators who weren't progressing so we reached out to the bishop
for help who then reached out to the appropriate auxilliaries. Since
getting them involved, we've been teaching them so much more frequently
and have committed them to baptism whch they have accepted. You can help make all the difference that someone needs in order to better realize and understand the gospel. You
can be the answer to their prayers. Be able to willing to help your
local missionaries with their investigators, and that goes beyond just
going to lessons. We have one who stops by multiple times a week just to
talk with one investigator and now they're close friends who didn't
even know each other a few weeks ago.
On a different note, my bike had a catastrophic failure this week.
Both tires popped within 5 minutes. Walmart doesn't sell my size
innertube...guess the tires on my bike are too awesome, or something.
Our neighbors got busted by drug dogs and the fuzz this week.
We went to teach a lesson this week to someone that we "OYM'd." She
wasn't super interested but we went by anyway. When we were walking up,
she pulled out her phone and sent a message. As we got to her driveway,
she said we could share a bit of time. So, just as we were getting
ready to pray with her and have the lesson her son slowly walks out and
says, "mom, he's throwing up." She ran inside and sent her daughter
outside and said her mother was too busy. Haha classic bad excuse. I've
seen worse though, like, "the screen door is locked so you can't come
in."
We had a baptism this week into our spanish branch. We found her
off an OYM back in December. She had just quit smoking for "some
reason." Her boyfriend is...one of the most strange people I've ever met
haha. During the baptism he was sitting in the back rocking to and fro.
When she got out of the dressing room and was walking back to her seat
after the baptism her boyfriend stood up and yelled, "UN APLAUSO!" and
clapped by himself for a solid 6 seconds. Super awkward, I was dying
haha. I'm pretty sure he's always drunk but it keeps things interesting.
There's some drama going down in the branch right now. Since we
have been baptizing more than they ever have in the branch before, the
members have been a bit more involved. And they're not happy about it.
In their meeting yesterday they spent 20 minutes complaining about us
asking for too many rides. All the stake needs to do is buy a bus so we
can pick up all the investigators and recent converts who can't drive...
I turned 6 this week.
We ate Rosca cake (spelling?) this week. My goodness that stuff is
goooooood. It's the cake with the little toy babies inside. I don't
really understand why they're there but if you find one it's, well, I
don't really understand, all I know is I got three haha. The branch
president invited all the missionaries over and we ate the entire thing.
It was a big cake too.
We taught more lessons this week with members there than I ever
had. Out of the 25 that we taught, 15 of them had members present. It
makes a massive difference since they can relate to the investigators
and help them have a friend in the congregation. I think the most I had
in a week before 15 was 12. We did work this week. Usually the last week
of the transfers are a bit slower but we wanted to end this one with a
bang/baptism. And we did! It's still looking like we can get 4 this next
month.
If anyone has any questions abuot anything, lemme know so I can answer them.
Picture captions: 1) Baptism picture
2) Elder Mackay wanted a picture on a big wall. Other side was the marine air corp land.
Thanks Mom, Eric, Will, Tanan, and Natalia for the letters this
week! Life sounds good for all of you. Mom, Eric, and Will, you sent
your letters to my old apartment (like the one from 2 months ago). Lucky
they're just two blocks away.
Thanks so much for all your support,
Love, Elder Johnson
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