Twenty minutes ago the mission office called and gave me my, "Trunky Call."
...it's really called that...
They
asked me where I wanted to fly into (Reagan National) and about sending
my bike home. Apparently it's free through some awesome member so
that'll be happening.
Weird!
We almost got
stabbed this week. Alright, maybe that is a HUGE exaggeration. First,
some background. President Toone asked us to go on an errand late one
night and as we were walking to our destination (through a weird alley)
we suddenly saw a camera flash. It caught me off guard - it was pretty
late and there was no one around. It was dark. *FLASH* it went again. I
looked around and then looked up. 20 feet off of the ground was a small
camera that the city installed to keep an eye on who was walking around
that alley at night haha. Hopefully that picture doesn't come back to
haunt us.
10 minutes later we got to the canal. It was dark.
There was nobody around. Suddenly we heard footsteps and saw a kid
sprinting at us! We only noticed him about 10 feet behind us. I thought I
was dead. He ran really close to us, yelled, "'sup whiteboiz!" and then
continued. Two minutes later four cop cars came screetching out of the
intersection he had previously been at.
Hmmmmm...
Transfer meeting was
this last week! It was HUGE. The entire mission was invited in and Yuma
skyped into the meeting from their stake center. President called
everybody into a room to have a special meeting with them and had Elder
Myler and I go and help the new greenies get all situated with their
iPads.
It is always an interesting experience doing those
meetings. It's just the group and us. You learn a lot about the
missionaries in the way that they can follow instructions to set up an
iPad. It's almost hilarious.
Because of that little meeting we missed the big
meeting! As we finished we walked out and heard the end of it. "If
you're not willing to step up then I am going to release you as a
district leader, a sister training leader, or a zone leader!"
We had missed an hour and a half of throwing down, P.
Toone style! I heard it was super super awesome. There were a TON of
changes in leadership as he fixed a lot of the problems from the
transfer before. Every companionship except for 10 in the entire mission
got changed. Elder Myler and I were one of very few to stay together!
We're pretty sure we'll "kill" each other!! (finish missions as
companions)
At the transfer meeting it was fun to see all of the 50
or 60 missionaries that I had served with while in Mesa. That was a fun
reunion. It was fun to see Elder Diaz again. He and Elder Myler are my
last surviving companions.
At every transfer meeting the greenies go up and
introduce themselves and say where they're from. Usually you hear states
like Utah, Idaho, California amidst cheering from the missionaries from
that state. In my entire mission I've heard one missionary say he was
from anywhere near me: Maryland. When he stood up and said that I yelled
as loud as I could because no one is EVER from the east coast! I was
the only one to make a sound for him haha. But at least I was able to do
it once on my mission!
Phoenix South zone got rocked. And something big happened.
Something very big.
We have more sisters in our zone than elders. I have NEVER heard of that happening before!
We told the STLs that they were the new ZLs and that we
would be the new Elder Training Leaders. They didn't like that joke
haha. We have 10 sisters and 8 elders. For our weekly planning meeting
we all meet together in the gym and plan separately but in the same
room. It was the quietest and most spiritual planning session of my
life. Elder Myler and I couldn't stop smiling. Sisters are pretty
different...
Elder Nelson is serving here in Phoenix South now! He
randomly showed up to my departure talk 2 years ago and now we're
finally in the same zone!
There is a building in
South Phoenix that is Mexico in a store. It is called Ranch Market and
is the most amazing place in the world. Everytrhing from the music to
the signs to the food just screams Mexico. They have an amazing
restaurant inside that sells the best horchata and burritos in the
entire world. We took the zone there this past week and everyone left
with big smiles on their faces. There's only one of those places in the
entire mission! #phoenixsouthswag
We found a family this last week. Where? Circle K!
(That's a gas station.) The family of four came to church with us
yesterday and the children all want to get baptized and the mom is ok
with it! que hubole! They made a lot of friends at church and the kids
are going to the Easter pageant with the youth on Tuesday!
And we'll be hitching a ride with them! On Sunday
night we went to the Spanish night. It was amazingly beautiful. We were able to get over 20 people to
the Spanish Easter pageant. And by "we were able" I mean one of the
families we are teaching took 14 of her friends haha. She said, "I
really feel like God wants me to share what you're teaching me!"
One of the families that I baptized in Yuma is doing
amazingly well. So well, in fact, that all of their extended family is
getting baptized or learning about the church in other parts of AZ,
Yuma, and Mexico!
Sometimes you can't see how far what you do will go...
Elder
Myler and I are teaching a ton. We're having a ton of success right now
but for some reason it's super hard to get people on date for baptism!
We're teaching over 20 lessons a week on average with members present
for 7 weeks now, we're getting tons of people to church, and we're
finding tons of people. But they're just not getting on date! These
people have real concerns and they're future leaders in the ward.
They're all looking to the temple.
Things are going super well here! Thanks for the letters family, it was great to hear from you!
Happy Easter!!
Love,
Elder Johnson
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