Monday, January 7, 2013

7 January 2013


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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