24 February 2014

I'm leaving Mesa! 

It was a good run here. I've become the best I've ever been and yet there is still much room for needed growth. I've seen amazing miracles. I've met amazing people. I've grown my testimony. 7.5 months of joy and stress and exhaustion and peace. It has been a good experience. 

I am happy to say that I am leaving it better than I found it. Right now we have three people with a baptismal date. In the past months I've been blessed to see many come closer to Christ through baptism and know that this area is better than it was 7.5 months ago. I'm (righteously) proud that I have not fallen into a rut in that time: the area has been growing progressively and I haven't gotten comfortable. You can't grow if you're comfortable.

This was a very strange transfer. Elder Diaz is also leaving Mesa...which means we're getting whitewashed! Logically I can't wrap my head around it since we've had so much success, both measurable and non measurable. Oh well, I'll go where He wants me to go!

I'm 99.9% sure that I'm going to Phoenix South with Elder Myler! We'll find out! 

Until then, keep sending letters to the mission office 1871 E Del Rio Dr, Tempe AZ 85282.

As per our hope, Mesa zone is being torn apart. There are many here who need a new start somewhere else, a new environment, and a new companion. This has been a hard transfer and a new area will definitely help those.

I'm sad to say goodbye to everyone. I'm sad to say goodbye to Elder Diaz. We've seen amazing miracles together. He's the best of the best and has helped me so much. I love serving with him. We have so much fun and we see amazing things happen.

Well, I weighed myself this past week on a scale at the hospital. I've gained 10 pounds in 6 weeks! Not surprising, I guess, since we live with the best members in the world. How can you say no to homebaked goodies? I can't. 

To combat that, the Elders Quorum President in one of our wards has graciously offered us personal training from 6:30am to 7:00am everymorning at his CrossFit gym! OH MY GOODNESS IT HURTS. An hour after the first workout I couldn't move. The next day every step seemed to destroy me. And the second day was just the worst experience ever. I biked on an exchange and was in agony. The next day I was back in our area and getting in and out of the car has never hurt so bad.

Dad, this one is for you. Does the Arlington 2nd ward cover the hospital? Here's why:

(Elder) Corporal Boyd Haskell was sent to Arlington Hospital after being injured in combat in Afghanistan in late February/early March of 2013. This last week we went on an awesome exchange together and he mentioned to me that the local members of the congregation, including the Bishop, had visited him in the hospital! That's one of the two Arlington wards! So, Dad, do you remember a Corporal Boyd Haskell, 19 years old, from Iowa? Small world! 

It has been an exciting week for the Missionary Department with Facebook going live in at least one Japan mission. Jared Hall, my cousin, is serving there and connected with me this past week about Facebook! There mission seems to be rolling it out a little more cautiously than we did; we just put everyone on from day one, they only have three on right now testing it. Smart. I was able to share some tips that should hopefully save them and their mission president from much heartache. 

What an exciting time this is...

Last night was the Mission President's Fireside and was, I think, the last time that I will be translating there since I will not be in Mesa anymore. It's always an amazing experience to do that. I learn so much about trusting in God rather than my own (lack of) abilities. 

I was also able to say goodbye last night to Elder Egbert. Elder Egbert was one of my favorite missionaries. Today is his last day. Elder Egbert was my zone leader in Queen Creek during a hard time in my mission. I will forever be grateful for the sacrifices that he made to help us through that dark time. I'll forever be grateful for him.

The more that I think about transfers the more I get sad. I'm going to miss our recent converts. I'm going to miss them so much. I love them all so much.

I am going to miss the members here as well. There are some who have impacted me forever, who have taught me profound things, and who have showed me by example the kind of person that I want to be.

Mesa has changed my life.

We are continuing with our Book of Mormon read-a-thon! I am very far behind and in Jacob but it's coming along! It is amazing to see focus on how the prophets of old taught effectively! So inspiring! 

The Arizona Tempe Mission has changed so much. As I watch more and more people that I came out with and came out before me go home, it is a very very strange feeling. The culture of the mission has changed completely. Everything is different. New boundaries, new mission president, new zones, new missionaries. But I do believe that it is better than ever.

President Howes always said, "If this mission falters when I leave, I will be devastated. That will mean that it was not founded upon the right cornerstone. The best legacy that we can leave is that our successors/posterity will do better than we did." 

Words of wisdom, President Howes. He always had good ones...

To bid me a nice farewell, Mesa gave me the best sunset I've seen in a long time. See attached.

And to bid me an even better farewell, Mesa blessed us with our last baptism here. Uniting a family. She was baptized in January. It was flawless and a powerful experience.

Ehhh, maybe flawless is an exaggeration... You see, spanish wards are extra special. I will never forget them. Ever. And maybe not for reasons that I like haha.

Last night at the baptism, one of the members spoke on the gift of the Holy Ghost. When he got up there he started it off about the holy ghost and then for some reason taught about Adam and Eve and God senior, God junior, and the Holy Ghost. About God Junior is Heavenly Father. 

....Noooooope...

We were sitting in our chairs DYING. 

There really is no such thing as a perfect baptism. But that's ok :)

I love you all! Thanks for your support! 

Love,

Elder Johnson

17 February 2014

Transfer week! Please send any letters not sent by Wednesday to the mission office!

I haven't had a bad day in a very, very, very long time.

But a bad day and a hard day are completely different. I believe that a bad day is the result of something we do or do not do. A rough day is something that is controlled by the agency of others. 

This was a rough week.

I don't want to go into too many details, but this last week we did random iPad checks in our zone. We ended up having to cancel all of our appointments on Monday because the first checks we did yielded negative results. An iPad was confiscated for a time and needed direction was given.

Tuesday we had to confiscate two. That broke my heart. It gave me a glimpse into what it feels like to be a wayward parent and watch children fall away. 

We are taking a missionary to the airport today and might have to take another later this week. 

On Wednesday we had two more serious problems to deal with. 

On Saturday our recent convert passed away. We baptized him together in Chandler six months ago and he was faithful until the cancer took him.

All in all, we had about two to three days to proselyte. But the missionaries are our number one priority and we are happy to sacrifice for them.

On Sunday, yesterday, was stake conference. We were ECSTATIC to hear that the husband in the family that we baptized three weeks ago was invited to speak at stake conference! He got up, did it like a PRO, gave us a shout out, and then taught, testified, and invited the congregation. It was honestly one of the best talks of the weekend. 

Immediately afterwards, the stake president stood up, came to the pulpit and said, totally serious, "It seems like we have a great potential for a high councilor!"

Next week a high councilor space is opening up since one is moving...

He's AWESOME! The whole family is AWESOME! 

This morning we got special permission to go to the temple as a companionship. This will very likely be our last week as companions. I've been in Mesa for 7.5 months and we have been together for a total of 6 months. But in those 6 months we have had 16 baptisms and nothing but pure joy. Elder Diaz has made me a better person.

So in this week of such chaos, we were very blessed to have our members step up and do the finding for us. We were referred to an entire family to teach who "weren't interested." We went in with the goal of making new friends.

Their last words to us were, "please come back and visit me!"

Sister Burton, the wife of the fasmily that we live with, made us cinnamon rolls this last week. Oh. My. Goodness. I love cinnamon rolls. 

We are working with a woman to help her quit smoking. I was planning on telling her that if she gave up cigarettes, I would give up chocolate. I really believed that I was addicted to chocolate. But then she moved away so I never had to do that.

But as I thought more about it, I really became scared that I was addicted to chocolate haha. I committed myself to not eat chocolate for an entire week. Of course the week that I do that is the week that everything goes crazy. But I gave it up! I did it! Hahaha, it's the little thigns in life, isn't it...

This past week we did an exchange with some missionaries whose area is completely and utterly dead. They have no hope for it. But as we sat down to pray I told him to expect miracles and that we would do all that we could to find them! 

That night we found them. We found prepared people. We had a great experience. We both grew from it and it was a successful evening. His vision is now raised and he is more excited about the work! Success! 

Thanks Tanan and family for the great letters this week!

I'm short on time today for this letter! Today is not going to be a P-Day for us. In twenty minutes we are going to the airport and then afterwards Elder Diaz has an eye exam. He thinks he may need glasses.

But that's ok - we got to go to the temple! 

Life is good! Love you all!

Elder Johnson

10 February 2014

Compromise and adaptation are always good. This week we are helping our ward and stake and mission make some adjustments.

We'll start with the Gilbert Temple Open House. The missionary aspect of it (which isn't supposed to be called that but whatever) is not run well. The tent that people go in and are supposed to visit afterwards to sign a comment card is out of the way and the sister missionaries who aren't allowed to proselyte stand at the entrance and talk to each other. 

We were expecting referrals everyday from the open house. In our companionship we haven't gotten a single one yet. The zone has received six in three weeks.

So we made some phone calls to the committee chair and talked to him about making it more productive. The missionaries are under strict instruction not to proselyte. But the ushers are not. We threw around the idea to have the ushers standing by the exit of the temple and the entrance of the tent to invite people in.

They called us later and said they would make the change but that was the extent to which they could go. The church does not want people to feel pressured with the open house. That's probably why Elders aren't invited- we'd baptize too many people :)

This last week reaffirmed why I love the Latino culture. We had a meeting in a member's home with a part member family that we are teaching. I asked them all to consider a miracle that they have seen in the last 24 hours. We sat in silence for a couple of minutes and the wife said, "I wake up breathing everyday."

The way she said it was so sincere. I think their culture is so much more aware of the small things that they have been blessed with. I love it. 

Gringos...

I broke the churches new referral website this last week. I told you how a couple of minutes ago I accessed it when I wasn't supposed to and got five missed phone calls from SLC. Well, they gave me the go ahead to try it out for a while. This last week I figured out how to break into the global referral pool, giving me access to every single mission and area's referral pool! Woops!

I called them and let them know. They thanked me and got right on fixing it. I suppose they haven't found the fix yet since the website has been down for two days. 

While skimming through the list of referrals in the DC South mission I found someone that I knew from high school! How cool!!

I had a really cool experience with planting seeds a while back. At our last mission-wide meeting two missionaries from Yuma came up to me and said: 

"Did you serve in Yuma?"

"Yes! Six months of heaven!"

"Guess what? We got a phone call this last week from a random guy in Yuma who had found a pass-along card in his couch with Elder Sawyer and Elder Johnson written on it!"

Pause. Elder Sawyer was my trainer and we were together 19 months ago. And this guy just found the card.

So, never lose hope when something you do doesn't work instantly! This man stumbled upon something I gave him almost two years ago and he is only now ready to act! 

How cool!

We got dropped by three people this past week :( One of them moved, another got anti'd, and another got evicted.

Ok, returning to my "thesis" statement of this letter, things are changing.

For the better.

I went on exchanges this past week with the APs and to their ward. I left in awe. Their ward has the following organization (see picture)

The paper is a rough draft of our plan but it is basically the same.

The idea is to split the load and reduce the burden that the ward council has. The ward mission can do everything they do and more. The ward in Tempe has 40 ward missionaries. Each sub-committee is in charge of things like baptismal programs, teaching, fellowshipping, temple trips, invitations to activities, activity planning, etc.

It is genius. It is inspiring. And we're going to make it work here!

We're working on selling it to the bishops right now. They are correct when they say, "We are undermanned right now!"

You know what? You will always be undermanned until you baptize more people. I've been thinking about the story of the St. Thomas branch in Canada that baptized the architect, plumber, etc to build their church. I have enough faith for that.

"If missionary work is the number #1 priority, everything else will come." - the Bishop of that ward in Tempe. Member conversion deepens, members have missionary opportunities, ward members are involved, retention increases, and ward efficiency increases.

I'm willing to sacrifice to make it happen and I hope that our wards will be too! Every transfer the work stalls because of transfers. With this system in place, that will not happen because the ward, as they're supposed to, will be leading the efforts.

Good things happen to those who adapt. Success comes to those who compromise.

Anyway, I appreciate all of your support!

Love, Elder Johnson

3 February 2014

Elder Diaz and I have been thinking a lot about deepening the conversion of missionaries, members, and people. We have had a series of events in the last month or so that has made us reflect a lot on why individuals serve missions and why they act the way they do or don't act. I'm not going to write specifics or probably even details here, but it has been a unique experience. I'll probably be thankful for it in 10 years. Things have been...exciting.

This last week we had MLC (Mission Leadership Council.) We focused on making it more of a council rather than just a "here's the direction of the mission, apply it to your zone and make it work." It was an exciting experience as we all learned from each other and shared things that do and do not work. Elder Diaz and I went into it with the idea to destroy zone baptismal goals. I've been thinking a lot about effective missionary work and a zone baptismal goal doesn't fit into it.

From a business point of view or a leadership point of view, to get someone "onboard" for something you need to sell it to them. Well, there isn't time to sell ideas to missionaries whose areas need something else. So, what we are focusing on this month, is sustaining the ideas and direction that the individual missionary has. Sustain their area baptismal goals. Sustain their district baptismal goals. And then do everything we can to help them learn how to achieve those goals. Zone goals just happen. We don't control those, it is the result of the efforts of an individual companionship. 

So I presented the idea and it sparked an hour long debate. No official conclusion was made but everyone left with something to think about. 

This last week I heard someone say, "I can be just as experienced living in ____ for my whole life than someone who travels the world. Everything they experience I can find in a book."

No. No. Noinonononononono. Nonononononononoonononononoo.

I was able to see some exciting miracles this past week through Facebook proselyting. I haven't had time to use it much for three weeks due to the...things that have been happening around us, but this past week I was able to get back to speed. Three people came out of nowhere and asked me how they could meet with missionaries in their countries (Tanzania, Ghana, and Pakistan.) Referrals were sent and missionaries were contacted. 

Just because I haven't written much about Facebook efforts in the last weeks doesn't mean it is slowing down :) Great things are happening. I've been talking to missionaries a lot about getting out of the habit of looking at the News Feed. Nothing destroys time and productivity faster than that page. Put your line in the water? Nah, I'll drop the net.

This past weekend we were able to go to the Gilbert Temple Open House again! President said that missionaries in Mesa are allowed to go since we're close. WORD! The very day he announced that was the very day that we went. It was a marvelous experience. We went in a Spanish tour which was much smaller. The family we took loved it and left with an increased desire to get sealed. This is the second family that we have brought.

Mesa zone interviews were this past week. The planned time was from 8:00am to 12:00pm but it went until 3:30. President always does us last. 

I was readmitted to BYU this last week.

At MLC President told us a crazy story about the new Stake President in the Tempe Stake. The stake is 50 years old and last week they called a new president.

He is 27 years old. Home from his mission for 6 years, never a bishop. WOWOWOWOOWOW. Part of me thinks, "Poor guy. His secular life will be stagnant for 10 years. No more school, no more work, no moving, no vacations..." The other side of me said, "This is a great man being prepared for great things." I haven't been able to stop thinking about him all week. During MLC, President said some pretty intense things about the future.

Spanish wards, Spanish wards, Spanish wards. Sometimes it is hard to be patient in Spanish wards. Yesterday during church someone got up and said, "And I am grateful for a living prophet, President Ezra Taft Monson!" 

NONONONONONONONONONON THAT IS NOT HOW THAT WORKS.

Hahaha. Goodness. I need to be patient with them since they're all recent converts. But even our investigators at church were like, "Wait, what? Did I miss something?"

No, you didn't miss anything...That person did though!

This was a tiring week. We went to WORK since we were sick two weeks ago. We finished with twenty lessons with members present - the third best week of my mission. It was exciting but it was exhausting.

Girl scout cookies are the worst. Well, they're the best and that's the problem. I bought two boxes from a family in the ward and 12 hours later the first box was gone. I felt so disgusting but so good....

This past Saturday we went to the visitors center with a family. I had forgotten about a lesson we set up for that night and totally missed it. Later that day it hit me! We called her and said, "We are so sorry!" She was a referral that we had called and she waited for an hour in the "cold" for us and we never showed up.

I felt so bad...

We set up another appointment for Sunday night and she was there. She is amazing. Super prepared. And I am 100% sure that that miracle came from our fast. 

Anther fasting miracle was a man showing up to church saying, "I want to get reactivated and I want my wife to come with me! She isn't a member!" 

We taught both yesterday and found them to be a great couple with a great future. 

We have been worried as things have been slowing down and the fast yesterday is what qualified us for more blessings and those two people were exactly that! 

I discovered a website this last week that I apparently wasn't supposed to discover. SLC is working on developing a website that missionaries access to manage referrals and their status. It is designed to replace the IVR system, the telephone based system that is currently in place. Well, I found it and told the entire mission about it.

The next day after MLC I looked at the phone and we had five missed calls from SLC.

28 January 2014

Overall, this was a relatively uneventful week and will thus be a shorter letter.

I don't like being sick. Especially not for five days. No no no no no no. . . 

Our week started out so well. We visited an amazing family on Monday and the wife was a little sick. The next day, Elder Diaz was sick. The next day, I was sick. The next day, the other missionary that we live with was sick. I think I was sick the longest though and it went from Tuesday night to Saturday night. 

On Saturday I thought I was fine again. We went out and worked that day and then I made a terrible mistake: we went our to Chipotle with some members. Big steak burrito with salsa = terrible idea. I was sick again within three hours. I made it to our baptism that night and then went back and died at the house.

But I'm fine now! Wooooooooo! 

I learned a lot from that experience. My timetable isn't the Lord's. On Sunday night I was analyzing our previous week and was looking back on how good  it was and said to myself, "We'll repeat this every week!" Nope. We were then sick for five days haha. I learned a lot about patience and trust. I was beating myself up for being inside and feeling guilty for the first two days. I was so antsy to get up. Brother Burton, the sealer that we live with, told us that there is a season for all things and that really struck me. Sometimes we need to move slower than we want to for the right things to happen.

That baptism was the best service that I have ever been to. Ever. We announced it for two weeks before hand at church and got permission to get every missionary in the zone there. We set up over 60 chairs and had to set more up due to the crowd. The family getting baptized invited friends and coworkers and they came in force. It was awesome.

The ordinance itself was performed flawlessly for all three of them. As they were changing the Bishop bore his testimony. When they came out after changing each one shared their testimony and opened up a little bit more to the members. It was POWERFUL. The final testimony was the eight year old. That was the highlight. The closing hymn was "families can be together forever," and during the closing prayer I laughed a little bit at the number of people sniffling. 

In the post prayer moments the 8 year old approached me and said, "I don't know why, but I feel really peaceful right now!" Later at church the next day she would pull us aside and say, "Last night I had a moment with God. I felt so good."

It was a pure moment of innocence and love.

We love that family. Their baptism was one of the happiest moments of my life.

This past week we said goodbye to the Lamberts, a senior couple that we both served with in Gilbert. They covered the reservation and we love them. They went home on Thursday and on Wednesday we were able to go have lunch with them. We shared mission stories and "what we've learned so far" and it was an uplifting experience. Fun times. 

Last P-day we spent the day with the couple that we live with. We played a fun card game with them and then bocci (sp?) ball afterwards. They are temple workers and a wealth of knowledge. They're hilarious and energetic - we love them!

Elder Diaz and I have been making some plans for this next month, at least trying to. Nothing feels right. We have so many things to focus on and every missionary is at a different level. It's hard to put a blanket statement on the needs. Being so close to Tempe gives us the unique ability to go and visit President Toone and get some counsel from him. We talked and talked and he said he has felt the same way about the mission. None of us got answers but we got direction. That's better than nothing, right? February is going to present some unique challenges but we're ready for them! 

Well, a new week has began and with it will come new experiences! Thanks to everyone for their continued support!

Love,

Elder Johnson

3 February 2014

Elder Diaz and I have been thinking a lot about deepening the conversion of missionaries, members, and people. We have had a series of events in the last month or so that has made us reflect a lot on why individuals serve missions and why they act the way they do or don't act. I'm not going to write specifics or probably even details here, but it has been a unique experience. I'll probably be thankful for it in 10 years. Things have been...exciting.

This last week we had MLC (Mission Leadership Council.) We focused on making it more of a council rather than just a "here's the direction of the mission, apply it to your zone and make it work." It was an exciting experience as we all learned from each other and shared things that do and do not work. Elder Diaz and I went into it with the idea to destroy zone baptismal goals. I've been thinking a lot about effective missionary work and a zone baptismal goal doesn't fit into it.

From a business point of view or a leadership point of view, to get someone "onboard" for something you need to sell it to them. Well, there isn't time to sell ideas to missionaries whose areas need something else. So, what we are focusing on this month, is sustaining the ideas and direction that the individual missionary has. Sustain their area baptismal goals. Sustain their district baptismal goals. And then do everything we can to help them learn how to achieve those goals. Zone goals just happen. We don't control those, it is the result of the efforts of an individual companionship. 

So I presented the idea and it sparked an hour long debate. No official conclusion was made but everyone left with something to think about. 

This last week I heard someone say, "I can be just as experienced living in ____ for my whole life than someone who travels the world. Everything they experience I can find in a book."

No. No. Noinonononononono. Nonononononononoonononononoo.

I was able to see some exciting miracles this past week through Facebook proselyting. I haven't had time to use it much for three weeks due to the...things that have been happening around us, but this past week I was able to get back to speed. Three people came out of nowhere and asked me how they could meet with missionaries in their countries (Tanzania, Ghana, and Pakistan.) Referrals were sent and missionaries were contacted. 

Just because I haven't written much about Facebook efforts in the last weeks doesn't mean it is slowing down :) Great things are happening. I've been talking to missionaries a lot about getting out of the habit of looking at the News Feed. Nothing destroys time and productivity faster than that page. Put your line in the water? Nah, I'll drop the net.

This past weekend we were able to go to the Gilbert Temple Open House again! President said that missionaries in Mesa are allowed to go since we're close. WORD! The very day he announced that was the very day that we went. It was a marvelous experience. We went in a Spanish tour which was much smaller. The family we took loved it and left with an increased desire to get sealed. This is the second family that we have brought.

Mesa zone interviews were this past week. The planned time was from 8:00am to 12:00pm but it went until 3:30. President always does us last. 

I was readmitted to BYU this last week.

At MLC President told us a crazy story about the new Stake President in the Tempe Stake. The stake is 50 years old and last week they called a new president.

He is 27 years old. Home from his mission for 6 years, never a bishop. WOWOWOWOOWOW. Part of me thinks, "Poor guy. His secular life will be stagnant for 10 years. No more school, no more work, no moving, no vacations..." The other side of me said, "This is a great man being prepared for great things." I haven't been able to stop thinking about him all week. During MLC, President said some pretty intense things about the future.

Spanish wards, Spanish wards, Spanish wards. Sometimes it is hard to be patient in Spanish wards. Yesterday during church someone got up and said, "And I am grateful for a living prophet, President Ezra Taft Monson!" [should have been President Thomas S. Monson, not Ezra Taft Benson-a previous latter-day prophet]

NONONONONONONONONONON THAT IS NOT HOW THAT WORKS.

Hahaha. Goodness. I need to be patient with them since they're all recent converts. But even our investigators at church were like, "Wait, what? Did I miss something?"

No, you didn't miss anything...That person did though!

This was a tiring week. We went to WORK since we were sick two weeks ago. We finished with twenty lessons with members present - the third best week of my mission. It was exciting but it was exhausting.

Girl scout cookies are the worst. Well, they're the best and that's the problem. I bought two boxes from a family in the ward and 12 hours later the first box was gone. I felt so disgusting but so good....

This past Saturday we went to the visitors center with a family. I had forgotten about a lesson we set up for that night and totally missed it. Later that day it hit me! We called her and said, "We are so sorry!" She was a referral that we had called and she waited for an hour in the "cold" for us and we never showed up.

I felt so bad...

We set up another appointment for Sunday night and she was there. She is amazing. Super prepared. And I am 100% sure that that miracle came from our fast. 

Anther fasting miracle was a man showing up to church saying, "I want to get reactivated and I want my wife to come with me! She isn't a member!" 

We taught both yesterday and found them to be a great couple with a great future. 

We have been worried as things have been slowing down and the fast yesterday is what qualified us for more blessings and those two people were exactly that! 

I discovered a website this last week that I apparently wasn't supposed to discover. SLC is working on developing a website that missionaries access to manage referrals and their status. It is designed to replace the IVR system, the telephone based system that is currently in place. Well, I found it and told the entire mission about it.

The next day after MLC I looked at the phone and we had five missed calls from SLC.

....

....

RUN! was my first thought.

I called them back and they told me to get off of it since we weren't part of the beta testing. I never told them that I told the entire mission about it.

Later that day the guy in charge called and authorized us to be in the beta test. Hahah woops....

As a mission right now we are putting a focus on the Book of Mormon. President has given every zone space on how we do that. We will be dedicating all District Meetings in Feb as a get-together-and-read-the-BookofMormon-privately-for-three-hours. We will be learning from the great prophets of the Book of Mormon on how to teach effectively and how they taught using the fundamentals of preach my gospel.

The last month of President Howes' mission we did that and that was the month that the Arizona Tempe mission set a record for the most baptisms in a month. Lesson learned. President Benson's time as prophet was the time of the highest convert baptisms. What was his message? "Flood the Earth with the Book of Mormon." Lesson learned.

That is our plan on deepening the conversion of the missionaries, members, and others. It's what we need and it's what we'll do! 

Speaking of fundamentals, we are starting a weekly workshop with the Spanish ward members where we teach them how to use the fundamentals of preach my gospel to be effective member missionaries. Expecting miracles.

Miracles, miracles, and more miracles. Life is good!

Thanks for the letters this last week family! Love you all!

Elder Johnson