This week was awesome. The best week since February. Why?
We taught her for the first time on Monday and she was on date for July 6th. On Thursday we invited her to move it to June 29th. She said no since they would be out of town and suggested....that Saturday!
So in two days we organized the entire baptism and invited everyone.
She had been to church before for quite some time. It was a great
turnout and the first in the ward for 10 months. The work is picking up
with the Hermanas having one next week (who lives in our area...), and
us in two weeks again with someone else.
So that was definitely the highlite. But there were other things that made the week great as well!
A
dog bit me this week. We were walking over to someone and this dog got
loose and ran straight at me. It was a 1 year old chihuahua that
couldn't get its mouth around my shoelace if it had wanted to so no
damage was done. Regardless it made talking to the person a little
difficult since I was busy kicking it off me with my foot... In that
same conversation her 13 year old daughter came out and said, "I LOVE
your eyes Elder....Johnson!" It was a really weird OYM.
We moved this week. The night before transfers at 10pm
they called us and said, "Pack your bags, you're moving down near Queen
Creek!" I sat there for a second in silence thinking to the Queen Creek
zone and Gilbert mission but he clarified and said Queen Creek Road. So
we stayed up till 12am packing our bags and moved everything that next morning. They said we'd stay in the Chandler zone.
But that didn't happen either. At transfers they
split all the zones and opened 4 or 5 new zones as well as made all the
new zones for the Gilbert mission. We are now in the "Gilbert West" zone
despite the fact that we live in a different part of Chandler still.
They're going to rename the zone on July 1st
when the mission split takes affect to either the Gilbert zone or the
Ray Zone. I'm hoping for the latter. We still cover the same ward and
same area (thank goodness) so we cover two zones now.
Transfers was CRAAAAZZZYYYYYY. 240 missionaries in
that room all singing Called to Serve was pretty sweet. It was the last
chance I had to see some of the great people I've met as the Tempe
mission gets split into the Scottsdale, Gilbert, and Mesa missions.
Bittersweet. Luckily my whole MTC district is staying together in the
Tempe Mission. We thought we'd take a picture to commemorate.
Happy as always.
The mission actually got Jeep Compasses, not Grand Cherokees, for the missionaries in the mountains. They're pretty cool.
Speaking of cool, I got to see some of the old
members from Yuma at transfers! It was awesome! Brother Borgerson and
Brother Allen were both there giving rides and it was great to see and
talk to them again. I told them I'd be back there next February.
Apparently the work has slowed quite a bit down there.
Does anyone in the DC South mission know Elder Payne? He's best friends with Elder Janis, our roommate.
I
ripped my first shirt this week. We walked up some steps to visit
someone and my shirt caught on the window. It ripped about a 7" hole
along the left sleeve. I was pretty bummed at first then I went back to
look at the corner and realized that if my arm had been 1/2" closer it
would have cut my arm open pretty deep. That window was super sharp.
Blessings in disguise...
The apartment we live in right now has one room.
There are four of us there. There was some miss communication somewhere
and now we're sleeping on the worst beds in the world. We're moving next
week on July 1st... So, after June 26th you can send letters to this address:1889 W Queen Creek Rd #1115, Chandler AZ 85248. We have a private lake we can't use.
Anyway, because our apartment is so small (we have
two chairs) we put our desks outside on the patio and study there. It's
miserable since it's so hot. I'm not unpacking. We've moved 3 times now
since May and once more next week. 4 times in 7 weeks... Ridiculous. We
joke about how they just move us to clean up the apartments.
We got some time to spend with the missionaries in
the Mesa zone at transfers to talk about iPads and iPhones in missionary
work. As we saw in that stellar broadcast last night they're upping the
amount of technology in missionary work. In Mesa zone, every missionary
has a personal iPad Mini and each companionship has an iPhone 5. It's
super sleek. They're also given permission on Faceboook to "proselyte on
Facebook." They are even allowed to be friends with family.
This week someone asked us what we were doing there. I felt the situation was right so I quoted Paul
(more or less) and said, "we're here to help you repent and be
baptized!" I was a little nervous about what they would say but they
just said, "hm, ok" and walked away.
I was reflecting on the last year I've had here with
President Howes. I was also thinking about my first interview with him
that I wrote about in my first few weeks. I remember not liking what he
told me. But I realized that that first interview changed my entire
mission for the better. Looking back on it that was the single
most trans formative event in my entire mission and all I had to do to
realize it was humble myself. I'm so grateful for the time I've had to
learn from President and Sister Howes and will miss them both dearly.
They have less than a week left.
I found an Ensign from the June 1976 issue and read
an awesome section in the "I Have a Question" section about rebellions.
Informative.
I'm approaching 3rd Nephi in the
Book of Mormon. We have a week left to finish it. From the last 300 or
so pages what has struck out to me is the major difference between the
Lamanites and the Nephites. I think it's obviously connected to their
faith in God but it's a bit deeper than that answer. I've come to see
that the principle difference between the two is the capacity to
forgive. The lamanites hold grudges for centuries and it consumes them
whereas, for the most part, the Nephites learn to forgive and forget and
as a result they're, for the most part, blessed. Good life lesson
there.
I've filled my first journal!
And now for the elephant in the room...the broadcast last night! I hope everyone watched it. And for those who didn't, go to lds.org
right now and watch it. I was hoping for some huge announcement which
never came but nonetheless it was awesome! They re-stated what has
always been said but also showed how to do it. I think my favorite part
was Elder Anderson's. Unfortunately not many in the spanish ward went
and we're pretty sad about that but we'll take what we learned and teach
the members. If any ward can implement it, the Ray 5th ward can!
We love that ward. Last night we had dinner with the
Bishop and his family. Ahhhh, they're the best. They made a chocolate
cake for me and a Key Lime pie for Elder Diaz. They have such great love
for the gospel and last night it felt like we were home again. Such a
great family and such great leadership for the ward. We're so blessed to
serve with them.
Last night someone threatened to call the cops on
me. Some people just ignore us when we speak to them and pretend we're
not there. I don't like that so I usually stand there in silence with
them waiting for them to tell me something. This person said nothing and
then when I stood there in silence for a bit she said, "I'm going to
call the cops on you if you don't leave!"
We also talked with someone last night who told us
right away that she wasn't interested. I said, "do you know what we
share with people?" She said no and I asked her, "How can you not be
interested if we don't know what we do?" She laughed and we invited her
to visit mormon.org then headed off when she said she had to go.
We set our baptismal goal for 3 in the month of July. Bring it on.
Thanks Susie, Tanan, Eric, Will, Mom, and Sister Hines for the great letters!
Thank you all so much for being so supportive!
Con mucho amor,
Elder Johnson
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