7 April 2014

WE'RE STAYING TOGETHER!!! WOOOOOOOOOOOO!

 

Somehow we are going to be together for another transfer! I'm pretty sure we will be able to "kill each other," or, finish our mission as companions! Aweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeesomeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!

 

The transfer rocked the mission. The transfer isn't actually until Wednesday but on our weekly conference call some things slipped. (No complaints here.) Lots of zone leaders are "stepping aside" because everyone is "dying" (finishing the mission) soon. Somehow Elder Myler and I survived unscathed.

 

Our zone didn't though. Three companionships whitewashed and every single companionship got a change. Except us.

 

So, we're ready to make some changes this next transfer and move forward even more enthusiastically into our last two transfers in the mission. #workingharderthanever

 

This past weekend I finished my reading of te Book of Mormon. I set a goal to read it in 6 weeks and was able to accomplish that. It was awesome. Amazing. Inspiring. Lifechanging. Comforting. Directing. Exciting. There's just something so special about that Book. If you are reading this and have not read the Book of Mormon...read it. It brings me such peace and joy and I want everyone to be able to experience that in their life. Here it is online (https://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm?lang=eng). Start with the introduction. And to get your own paper copy, which I would recommend, go here (http://www.mormon.org/free-book-of-mormon.) The Church of Jesus Christ also has an awesome free app. Check that out here (https://www.lds.org/pages/mobileapps).

 

Read it. It's true.

 

This past week was a soccer match between Mexico and the USA. It just so happened to happen here in Phoenix! We had lots of investigators cancel on us for it. There was absolutely no one in the street. That was a frustrating hour. We visited one family that we were planning to stop visiting because they're not doing anything and as we walked in we saw out of the corner of our eye the USA score the first goal. Naturally we said, "WE'LL WIN!" The family told us never to come back.

 

Haha no they laughed about it. We told them we couldn't watch it and left. As we walked down the street, reveling at how empty and quiet it was, we heard a man say, "goal" with absolutely no emotion but loud enough for us to hear it in the street. We had no idea what house it came from but it was the funniest thing I've ever heard in my life.

 

There is a store in South Phoenix  called, "Ranch Market." Imagine all of Mexico packed into a smelly grocery store. That is it. It has THE BEST carniceria (meat shop) ever and you can buy the most amazing burritos of Carne Asada (grilled steak) and the best horchata in the world. Horchata is heaven in a cup. It's like a cinnamony rice milk drink. Ohhh my goodness it is HEAVEN. You need to learn how to make it.

 

As many of you are aware, this weekend was General Conference. It was awesome! We took a lot of questions and concerns into it. I've never experienced what I experienced there to the degree that I experienced it. It seemed like the afternoon session on Saturday was exactly for me. It was perfect. It increased my conviction that those men really are Apostles and Prophets. What a cool experience.

 

For the Saturday morning session we were able to help an investigator family get there with  us. By family I mean wife and kids. The husband is, almost non surprisingly, out of the picture and unsupportive. Men are the worst. He won't talk to us, won't talk to his wife about what she loves about the church, and isn't being a supportive husband. It is sad to hear her troubled talk about her possible options.

 

The conference was perfect for her. Her children are insane though - they can't sit still. We had her go sit in the front and tried to distract the kids with iPad cameras in the back. It worked for a bit. She's so patient with them. It's inspiring.

 

You learn a lot on a mission by watching how people interact and act when out of their comfort zone and when they're inside it.

 

Anyway, conference in Spanish isn't half as good as it is in English. Maybe it's because I have an emotional attachment to the voices of the speakers in English but the Spanish translators seemed to be so monotonous. It's a hard thing to do though, especially for millions and millions of listeners.

 

I want to re-emphasize what I have said a few times: some of the greatest moments of joys and greatest moments of sorrows in missionary work come as you see missionaries succeed or fail.

 

We had the weirdest experience of my life this week. There was a day that seemed to just be filled with problems. We were driving to a lesson, reflecting on how unexpected everything was, when an SUV with two 40 yr old women pulled up next to us. I glanced to the side as I saw their window going down. They asked what we were up to and we told them that we were helping people get closer to Christ. They weren't too interested in that and asked if we were married. Luckily the light changed to green a couple of seconds later and we were able to shoot off into the sunset with looks of terror on our faces and laughter filling the car. South Phoenix, man...

 

We are teaching another amazing family. This last week we were very bold with one family member who is slowing the family's progress down by his lack of effort. As we testified to him, the wife turned to this person, and in a mixture of passion and impatience, told this person, "these missionaries have been so patient with you! This isn't a game! You need to commit yourself!"

 

She is converted. And she's being an amazing person and trying all she can to help this other family member. We love them both but that was another moment where it hurt to watch how much families can impact each other, either for the better or for the worse. In a lesson yesterday, as their five year old daughter prayed, we looked up afterwards to see the mother in tears.

 

The gospel does great things for families. But Jesus Christ's gospel is not a gospel of inaction. Every moment you sit there doing nothing is a moment where you have hurt someone by missing out on growth opportunities. We're being given opportunities in every instant to bless someone in the future. We can either accept, act, grow, and serve, or sit and waste life away in unproductivity.

 

Raise your vision.

 

Another family we are teaching has another husband who isn't as involved as he should be. Actually, he isn't at all. Last night we taught about families and had the Primary president with us. She shared a powerful testimony about how her lack of action negatively impacted her family and how she is doing all she can now to save other families the pain that she experienced. Elder Myler and I both showed pictures of our families. I showed the one where everyone went to Peru without me (not bitter, not bitter, not bitter, not bitter :) ). It touched her. I told her no family is perfect but the gospel fixes the imperfections, step by step. She sat there and told us, quite frankly, how hard it is because she wants what we share but her husband's extended family is anti-ing her. She pulled out the, "By their fruits shall ye know them"  that Jesus talks about, and says that she sees the good fruits of the gospel and wants it.

 

But her family is holding her back.

 

Are you doing all you can to help your family members reach their potential? I'm grateful for great parents who did all they could to help me reach mine. I'm still trying to get there but I wouldn't be where I was without them. Thanks!

 

Anyway, a new transfer, some new plans, a new vision. We're putting everything on the line for our last two transfers. We've got a vision, goals, and plans. And we'll hit them.

 

Thanks for the letters this past week John and family!

Happy April 7th!

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

6 January 2014

When Elder Diaz and I are together, miracles happen. Everytime. It's ridiculous. We both just have the expectation that we're going to see miracles and we do everything we can to qualify ourselves for miracles.

One of the miracles from this past week was putting a very prepared woman on date for baptism. She and her husband have come to church for over a month, have read the entire gospel principles book (in two weeks), and read the Book of Mormon daily. They're past chapter 8 and LOVE it. It's awesome. But they were hesitant to get baptized since they wanted to wait until the husband's family from Colombia arrived. 

But they're read now.

We had a powerful lesson with them this past weekend. Their children (10, 14) live in Mexico and are members. The daughter called the mother before the lesson started and we had the daughter, 10, on the phone for the whole lesson. IT was awesome. She said she wanted her parents to get baptized. She also said she wanted to serve a mission, "and teach all the Catholics!" We laughed super hard.

We watched, "On the Road to Damascus," and talked about acting in faith. Now, the mother is on date for two weeks from now. The father is still wanting to wait for Feb. That's ok, we feel. She is so ready and so excited for baptism and we are sure that he will be baptized when she does. They are an amazing family and the result of much prayer.

Another miracle that we saw this past week happened on Friday. Oh man. It. Was. AWESOME! Here's the story:

 We had both just done an exchange with two other missionaries (changing companions for 24 hours as a learning experience). We both had awesome exchanges and specifically looked for miracles. Two of our miracles included getting two twenty dollar bills from random people.  Another one was finding a very prepared Muslim from Fiji who wanted to get baptized.

After our exchange, we realized we had inadvertently taught and focused on the same exact things. Inspired! We were excited and when we got home we decided to check the mail. To our surprise we found a referral inside.

I looked at it and said, "This is going to be a family of four who wants to get baptized."

We opened it...

And it was! A family of four who wanted to get baptized! We called them immediately and set up an appointment for the next day. The father referred themselves. They go to SLC twice a year, every year. They're surrounded by members and have been for years.They go to the temple lights every year and already own church DVDs. 

Our first visit was inspiring. They're an amazing family. As soon as we entered that home, we felt something special. It was powerful. They accepted a baptismal date ten minutes into our first visit. He quickly said, "But wait, I still want to have these lessons!" I replied, "Haha, don't worry, we do too!!" 

We love that family. They came to church and LOVED it. The five year old didn't want to leave the mother and so she sat through primary with her. She loved Primary. They both loved Primary.

And behind this whole story is a man who has been offering help for years. Their close friend who lives some miles away. He has always been there for him. In fact, this family has had inspiring encounters with Mormons for years: one included a random wrong phone call that turned into a friendship from a member of the church. 

Members, you don't know when your efforts will come to blossom, but they do and we love you for it!!!! 

The funny thing about this story is that the father that we were teaching is the one who invited his member friend to church. He called him up one day and said, "Hey, friend, I'm going to church tomorrow! Will you come with me?" Hahahaha. I responded, "Wait, wait, wait, so YOU invited your member friend to church?" I died, so funny.

This family is the most elect family I've ever seen. They're all ready. They're all progressing. And after 24 hours they commented to us on the changes they're already seeing in their family and their happiness. They're putting the gospel to the test and making it happen!!! 

We love them. After that visit we made a frantic phone call to President Toone and said, "YOU CAN'T TRANSFER US." He laughed and said he doesn't want to split us up and will do everything he can to not. That means 7.5 months in Mesa for me! Elder Diaz and I will have had over 15 baptisms together. That's a good companionship...

Our Bishops are calling and requesting we stay too haha. WHATEVER IT TAKES! When we walked through the door with the family last week, the bishop pulled me aside and said, "I just got chills! Good work Elders!" 

And that's just one ward...we have another family of 3 in the Spanish ward that, "want to get baptized" and it will be a February baptism.

Life. Is. So. Good.

And you know what goes behind it? President Toone, in their zone conference trainings, has been making this promise to all the missionaries. "I promise you that if you're obedient, you will unite a family in the gospel in these next few months."

Well, we're doing everything we can and we have found two families in both of our wards who want to get baptized! And President hasn't even come to Mesa to do those trainings yet, the promise is just working! We're getting the members super involved and every visit we have, the members invite the investigator family in the Spanish ward to get baptized. One said, "It was great to see you today! I'll see you on Saturday at your baptism, right?!" 

Spanish members have no shame! They're all converts and they're all super bold! It's awesome.

We've been developing a game this past week to use with members. It was Elder Diaz's idea and was super inspired. The game is called, "Many are called...many are chosen." The idea is that we visit member families and get the competitive side out. We sit down, go over some rules, and then give them two minutes to write every name they know - members, family, friends, whatever it could be. After two minutes we see which team has the most. That team chooses someone to say a prayer. Afterwards, we sit in silence and look over the names and see they feel inspired to visit/call/Facebook/whatever. We have those members call/contact those people right there on the spot while the spirit is super strong.

It works. We're seeing miracles now because of it. And the whole zone is catching fire! 

In January, that will be our focus. Miracles, miracles, miracles, and miracles. We are envisioning that each companionship can get 20 referrals per week (15x what we're at right now) and help fourteen people come closer to Christ through baptism. There are 17 who are working towards a baptismal date as of last night, 17 at church, and 17 progressing towards that date. 

It's just all coming together.

And if I get transferred away... idontevenknowwhatiddo!

I've got a good feeling that I'll be here for nine months. We'll see though! It might be safest to send any letters to the mission office if you can't send them by Wednesday.

Thank you, family, for the letters this past week!

Con mucho amor,!

Elder Johnson

29 July 2013

President Toone called last night. He talked to both Elder Diaz and I. Elder Diaz is training. The second he said he wanted to talk to me my heart dropped since I knew it would mean I would leave. He asked me to 'step up' and then later to pack my bags. 

I have loved this area. I've loved this district. District meetings were always so much fun and I loved preparing the training and whatnot. I was hoping to stay there for a long time since it is a more personal calling. I'm still working on making myself be excited because mostly I'm just sad to leave.

Right now we have six people getting baptized, easily, in August. Six! Ahhh! This is what happened to Elder Sawyer, he got transferred right before six people he taught got baptized. I'll be sad to miss the baptisms.

So in short: I'm getting transferred. Three months of happiness here in Chandler serving in one of the best wards. I'm going to miss the members, the recent converts, and our roommates and Elder Diaz.

Yesterday at church we finally saw the fruits of all our labors with the members. Members had brought friends to church! There were 5 there that members had brought all on their own! After our talks last week and all our visits it's finally paying off. When we got to this area the members didn't trust the missionaries and there was nothing going on. I'm so happy I got to see it turn around and am devastated not to see the amazing results that are just around the corner. 

Speaking of results. We had two baptisms this past Saturday!! They were awesome. We started fifteen minutes late since one of the soon-to-be-recent-converts roommates started fighting him and threatening to call the cops. Baptisms are never easy....

And then during the service the person who said the prayer only prayed for one of the two and then the first speaker forgot one of their names....Ahhhhhh I was dying! But fortunately a comic relief saved the day. When one of them came out of the water (baptized by the bishop) he did the catholic cross thing with his hands and everyone started laughing. I got to baptize one of them and it was an amazing experience. Ahhh, I love baptisms. One we had to do after since he was super late ha. 

At church when he got the gift of the holy ghost he just sat in his chair afterwards and looked up slowly and said quietly, "what peace....what happiness..." and then gave us all hugs.

That was the most amazing sacrament meeting I've ever been to. There was a missionary returning, leaving, and the two confirmations. In between the talks the mother and her friend got up to sing to her departing daughter (Chicago, Illinois) and choked up and had to stop while her friend kept singing. For the last few lines the mother turned around and just looked at her daughter while she sang. The lyrics were all about handing her daughter over to the Lord and watching her grow etc etc. The spirit in that room was tangible. 

Someone asked us this week if we had horns.

We had a pretty cool experience with an investigator. She is going to ask her mom if she can be baptized. We had her pretend that Elder Diaz was her mom and she practiced what to say. In that little role play she bore her testimony and it was super super powerful. Dangit I'l miss that baptism too! 

One of the Sister Training Leaders (STLs) from the Mesa zone was over at our dinner appointment doing exchanges. She did the dinner message but used her iPad Mini to show a video clip from President Eyring. It was waaaaay cool. Jealous! 

Chandler is being taken over by Tesla Model S's! They're way sleek.

This week Elder Janis is working me out hard this week haha. Last monday I told him to make me an exercise plan that I can do everyday for the next months. He took it to heart. He was a fitness trainer back home and is watching everything I eat and making us get up at 6 to do 30 mins of cardio and 30 mins of weights. I'm eating about 1700 calories a day and lots of Chia seeds. They taste terrible haha. I gave up chocolate. I know, crazy, right?

A little bit of background real quick. Mexicans love Novelas. Soap operas. This week we were teaching someone who said, "You know, I think the scriptures are a lot like Novelas." He stopped talking because I was laughing too hard. He never explained it hahahahahahahahhahaa.

We had an amazing meeting this past week. The Chandler East stake called all the ward council members, bishops, and missionaries in the stake together for a training. President and Sister Toone came and they trained on how to focus ward councils and meetings on missionary work. It was an amazing meeting. 

But I think my favorite part was when P. Toone spoke. He shared some awesome stories in response to some questions about the iPads. He said that while he was in the MTC being trained they had a training on the iPads and Tracy Watson, director of global proselyting, took out his iPad and said, "Hey, want to see where the missionaries in the Texas ____ mission are?" He then opened it and had real time tracking on them. But he quickly clarified and said, "Tracking them isn't the point." He said the Brethren and the Mission Presidents have complete access to lively monitor iPad usage. They can see when the last time the electronic area book was updated, the plans for the day, etc. Then he said again, "But tracking them isn't the point." He went on to tell some stories of the power behind the technology. The first story goes like this:

A woman calls the 1-800 referral number requesting a Book of Mormon. The missionary at HQ on the other line notices she lives in an area that is piloting iPads. The missionary sends a text to the mission president who sends one to the zone asking if any missionaries are nearby. One missionary, using the iPad, gets all the information, coordinates with the missionary at HQ, and replies, "I'm two doors away. I'm on my way over now." Before the woman calling HQ hangs up the phone, the missionary is at the door with the item she requested. Her response, "How did you do that?!" 

True story.

Another one. A husband is married to a member. He isn't a member. He decides to take missionary discussions but is a truck driver so never has time. The missionaries commit him to pull out Skype at rest stops. Over his 10 day trip they taught him everything over Skype as he traveled from Utah to New York. They coordinated church building locations and then skyped with him and his family after church. The man was amazed that the lessons in New York were the same in Utah and they shared thoughts on the lesson  10 days later the man returned, ready for baptism. 

True story.

The concern came up about missionaries abusing it. President Toone said, "We know. But the Brethren have said the Lord has created this for the spreading of the Gospel. The Brethren said it is too powerful not to use and if there are problems, they will deal with them as they come and they will learn better ways to control them, but "this tool needs to be used now."' 

In the next 6 months we should have them mission wide. 

This Wednesday the mission is receiving 41 new missionaries. 1/3rd the mission will be training. 

I set a goal for myself to read the Book of Mormon in 6 weeks. That's about 115 pages a week. I'm 60 pages into it and it's going really really well. 

One of our recent converts told us the funniest story this week. His friend was baptized a Jehovah's Witness and they said that when he comes out of the water he should, "see Jehovah standing." So the first time he got baptized he said he saw nothing. They baptized him again. Again he said he saw nothing. Four to five times they baptized him and then finally he came out of the water gasping saying, "Yes, I saw them!" The newly-baptized JW  told our recent convert that he felt like he was drowning and so he just told them. Our recent convert was dying of laughter while telling us the story aahha

This week our recent convert told us, "Science has a limit. God doesn't." It was super insightful. He was telling us about the opposition he received in deciding to be baptized. His other pastor started anti-ing him. Just like last time, our recent convert anti'd him back and won haha. The story was super intense and our recent convert said words were coming to him and he didn't know where they were coming from.

We have been having a big problem recently at church. We have too many investigators to sit with and we don't have time to talk with them all? I love that problem. It's my favorite problem to have. Last week we had 8 at church and this week we had 6. We have really good relationships with our members. When we walked into ward council meeting they all got up and gave us hugs. Ah I'll miss this ward.

Last night someone freaked out at us and started screaming at us. We were talking with a woman in an apartment complex and a very heavily tatooed man ran at us screaming TONS of obscenities, calling us names, and telling us we can't solicit. We don't solicit, we invite. By Arizona law that is recognized but no one knows that. So he screamed and screamed and threatened to call the cops on us. I wanted to tell him to do it because they'd be on our side but we just walked away. I was worried for our member, an 85 year old. Later his neighbor apologized and explained that we can't be there for soliciting. We explained to her that we're allowed to be there and then left.

Anyway, this has been an awesome three months. I've learned a ton and have grown a ton. I'm excited for what's ahead!

Thanks for all your support everyone! Thanks for writing Eric, Will, Mom, and Natalia! 

With love

EJ

Random question: Why do the monsoon clouds only come in in the afternoon?

Random question: Can someone tell me more about Madasa?

Random question: is there a way to produce darkness like we produce light?

1 July 2013

Dear Family and Friends,

Gilbert, Scottsdale, Mesa....the Tempe mission has been cut into pieces! Today President Toone starts as the new Tempe mission president and the day that President Howes hangs up the tag. I'm going to miss them but we're all excited about what lays in store for the future.

We're teaching a young couple expecting their first child. The husband struggles with alcohol and the wife is all ready to get baptized. It's the worse when we go over there and see him struggling with a beer and see her in tears because of it. We sat down with just her last week and taught just her and then the next day just him. It was a pretty bold lesson but, again, it's great to see how bold we can be if the spirit is there. Things like, "you're letting your future family down," don't offend people if the spirit is there. And it helps them change. They've committed to get baptized on the 13th and we're going to get them married the same day! The next day when we taught them, they held hands and asked, "What do we have to do to get baptized?" MUSIC TO MY EARS! Afterwards we knelt in prayer and had the him say it. It was such a sincere prayer and afterwards we knelt in silence and they were beaming with joy as they continued to pray in their minds. At church yesterday the soon-to-be-wife said, "I'll never stop coming here."

Speaking of weddings...one of our investigators got married this week! He was supposed to get baptized this Saturday but they planned their honeymoon on top of it...Bah! I realized this was the first wedding I've ever been to. 

We are also teaching someone who told us a crazy story about how he had been involved in some bad things and got on a truck to "do a job" and the people kicked him off the truck in the middle of the desert. He wandered in the desert for two days without shoes and lost 20 lbs. His feet were all bloody by the time he finally got back to his family. He had pictures to prove it and all. I've heard some of the craziest stories of my life these last few weeks...

We moved to this apartment complex near an Intel factory. Tons of Indians live near us. We taught one a lesson the other day and asked her to pray. When she prayed she chanted/sang something in her native tongue - it was awesome!

For my birthday this past week the Bishop and his family called and all sang happy birthday, it was great haha. They were out of town on vacation too!

This past week I got a package full of gummy bears. But they weren't bears. They melted into gummy globs hahahaha. Arizona!

The bears weren't the only things melting this week. 117 degrees on Thursday and since then it has been over 110 every day. Not fun. Especially on bikes. I think the worst part is biking at night because for some reason my eyes just dry out and tear up. Whoever decided to settle Arizona was crazy.

Our apartment complex has a tiny gym inside. We've been going in the morning and leaving super super super sore. 3 days later and I still can't raise my arms. 

Remember the guy who was supposed to get baptized two weeks ago who cancelled the day of? Well, we hadn't seen him since then. We hadn't even gone by after he told us his path was elsewhere. But two days ago I felt like we had to go see him and so we did. As we knocked on the door, he opened it slowly and we saw his TV. The "Special Witnesses of Christ" DVD that we gave him was playing and he was listening to the testimonies of the 12 Apostles. The Restoration DVD was also out and open and he had seen it too. In the time that he had decided not to get baptized, he had been fired from his stable job where had was payed more than anyone else for the same amount of work (that he found after we started teaching him), his family is going through a crisis, his house has fallen back into a mess, the cockroaches are back, and he hadn't left his house in a week. We talked to him, helped him recognize the difference between having the gospel and not, and invited him to a baptismal service and church. He went to both! We're going by tonight and will invite him to get baptized this next Saturday. Miracles! Every week!

We've been really bold with lots of people this past week and we're seeing the blessings. 

Someone we're teaching told us another crazy story. He lives with two people, we'll call them Jose and Pedro. Jose is a drunk but also 'is very religious.' Pedro is his brother, very religious and doesn't drink. Two nights ago our investigator and Pedro woke up because Jose was screaming, "I'M THE DEVIL, I AM GREATER THAN GOD!" They told him to quiet down but Jose got violent and tried to kill them. He told us that his said his eyes were all red and he was stronger than normal. Pedro and our investigator tackled him to the ground and yelled, "In the name of Jesus Christ, in command you to be gone!" Immediately Jose quieted and apologized. That's a crazy story eh?

Last night I finished the Book of Mormon. 5 weeks exactly! That book is true. I think my favorite part of being a missionary is seeing people gain a testimony of it. There is so much power in those pages and I know that it was translated by a Prophet of God.

Yesterday morning we had a meeting at 6:30am with the stake presidency, the high counselor over missionary work, and all the Ward Mission Leaders in the stake. Ours was in Mexico. They trained on how to get the members involved and use the video segments we saw in the broadcast from last week. It was awesome. The ward mission leaders spoke about programs they're using. Some of the ones that stuck out are, "let your mormon swagger shine," a program where the missionaries and ward missionaries visit members and give them arm bands with "mormon swagger" to remind them to share the gospel. They hand a tie off to a family each week to remind them daily to do missionary work. Other programs included getting the missionaries to speak in church, perform musical talents, and more. They talked a lot about ward council and how it needs to be focused on missionary work and have the 15 name program working constantly. It was super inspiring to see wards so organized and the members so involved in missionary work. We heard stories of wards with historical yearly baptisms of 3, 4, or 5 jumping to over 50 due to involvement from the members. We left inspired. We have been praying for ideas and yesterday we got an answer. The Gospel Principles teacher came to us and said, "Elders, I've been praying a lot about what my family can do better to help you and I thought of this idea for a ward activity! We used it in Mexico and it worked miracles!" She then went on to explain it and called it, "Trip to Hawaii," or something like that. Sounds great!

Spanish wards have a reputation for not being so organized and members being not so involved. It is an unfortunate reputation that in many cases is earned. Well, we're going to change that. We met with the Sisters and we're making a plan for what we can do to get the work moving. For two hours yesterday we brainstormed and finally have a basic rough draft for our plan of action. It will take lots of refinement and practice but we know the ward can do it. It's going to be really hard to follow up and stay on top of things but we're committed to it.  Bring it on!

We also met with one of our members, a branch president who implemented a plan like it and had 50 baptisms his first year. We talked a lot with him and his overarching advice was, "help them set goals." Duh! Why didn't we think of that?! He said that they as a family set a goal for how many families they're going to help come to the church per year. This year their goal was one. Not a high number but a number they committed to. Want to know how they're doing? They are the fellowships for the young couple we're teaching. I don't mean we just take them to the lessons, I mean they've become true friends. Yesterday they had them over for dinner. Last week they took them to the temple, took pictures, framed it, wrapped it in gift wrap (with a bow!) and gave it to them. They visit with them during the week and give them advice, help, and are there for whatever they need. They're helping our investigators find a car so the soon-to-be-husband can get to work and church. Take notes! They're the best fellowships I've seen or heard of in my entire mission! We asked him how we could help others catch the same spirit and his answer was humbling. "I'll never be able to pay the Lord back for what he did." And then he said, "When you ask the members to fellowship someone, say, 'will you take this person with you to exaltation?' Then they won't be able to say no!" Hahahahahah. Ah, such a great family. He gave us a ride last week and when we thanked him his reply was, "I made a promise to give all I had to the Lord. I intend to keep it." No words can describe how great he is. And then said, "behind every man is a better woman." Just an exemplary family. 

We had four investigators at church yesterday and a family we helped return to activity. The ward is getting excited about missionary work and things are going great! The Sisters had an investigator there and a family they are also reactivating. The ward hadn't had more than 2 investigators at church for 'many months' months and now the work is flourishing. 

How do cars make cold air for the AC? How does an AC work?

Thanks Sister Hines, Mom, Dad, Eric, Will, and Brother Aegerter for the letters this week!

Love you all lots and thanks for all you've all done for me! 

Elder Johnson

3 June 2013

The big news of the week is...

It's hot!

Ok, the real big news is that we have someone on date for June 15th! He came to church for the first time yesterday and really really loved it. Sometimes it seems like the hardest part is getting them to church. We've been working to talk about church with them from Monday to Saturday so they know we expect it all week and not just tell them on Saturday night. I'm pretty confident he will get baptized but we will have to talk on the word of wisdom since last night he told us about his past with other substances. Probably won't go into detail here on that but he gave us a little of his life history - it could be a movie.  

But to rewind to earlier in the week... On Monday I realized that my the fabric that covers my belt loops is wearing off and is white. So in a stroke of inspired GENIUS I colored over the white part with a sharpie. Ta-da! Good as new. 

We went to Carls Jr this past week and I ate a hamburger (only the third time on my mission) and root beer for the first time. It was weird haha. That's not a big part of Mexican's diets.

President Howes changed the district meeting calendar. For the next 5 weeks, instead of training, as a mission (but individually) we will be reading the Book of Mormon focusing on the Doctrine of Christ. It has been awesome to reread it focusing on one topic. I've learned a lot. We read from 9-11:30 and from 11:30 to 12 we share thoughts on what we read. Everyone else commented on the overall theme being "faith" but I found tons more instances of "enduring to the end." I guess that's something I need to work on.

My favorite spanish phrase is, "no manches." Literally translated it means, "no stain," but in mexican slang it means "no way!"

We had interviews with President Howes this past week. These were his last interviews before he goes home. I was prepared to ask him some intense questions but instead, for my last 15 minutes with President Howes, we just talked about ties haha. It was a fun conversation and culminated with him trading me a tie and me giving him the one around my neck. He doesn't trade ties very often and I made sure he wrote on the one he gave me. He told me that if I ever saw him wearing the tie I gave him in a meeting I can't say, "hey, that's my tie!" Guess that means it passed the test.

This past week we were biking around talking with people and this guy on a bike biked past us. We followed him and tried to talk to him. He said, "NO BRO, I'M RUNNING, I GOTTA GO!!" and biked really quickly ahead. Unfortunately for him we were biking the same way. After about 15 seconds of bike sprinting (word?) he slowed down again, looked behind him, saw us again, and started pedaling as quick as he could again haha. This happened about 3 times. 11 months ago I might have thought it was uncomfortable but I live for those moments now.

We talked with someone this week who lives in Maricopa, where Elder Myler is serving. I got to call him to pass it off to him and it was fun to talk to him. Love that guy. Near the end of the call he said, "oh, I have a referral for you!" Sweet, I thought! He gave me a name then the address. The address was, "866 u-s-m-e-l-l." He pronounced it oosmuhl. I read it out loud to him and said, "that's a street!?" Then I realized that it spelled out "you smell." Ah, gets me every time! 

We get to go to the temple on Wednesday for the 7:30am session. 

We were hoping for a new car this past Wednesday. On Friday night the APs texted us and said, "will you be at home at 9? Stay focused!" I was so sure we would be getting a new car! Turns out it was some sick joke haha. 

We stole a dog this week. 

Maybe stole is the wrong word. We were walking around a trailer park and there is always this little pug that never moves so I approached it to see if it was alive. It got up and ran at me. Thinking my life was in jeopardy  I got ready for the worst. 60 minutes later it was still following us around. Eventually it ditched us to chase a cat but we're hoping it found its way home. The trailer park isn't that big.

In that same trailer park we ran into someone we had seen before. She told us about how she wanted to change and would have to quit smoking after her surgery. I told her that if she wanted to change she would have to start now. After some pushing and prodding I convinced her to give me her lighter and in return I gave her a picture of Christ. Victory! The lighter is now a trophy on my desk. That's the second lighter I've taken. 

I have reached a milestone. I've gone four weeks now without getting an "aggressive driving" or speeding violation. I've been a little more careful since I'm yellowlighted and if I get more violations I'll get red lighted and not be able to drive haha. It's probably Yuma's fault. I got four aggressive drivings in one day once...and I didn't even drive crazy! 

We OYM'd a woman this week who was very quick to tell us that at death the family is dissolved. She told us all of this in front of her kids. We don't get that point of view very often but I've heard it all. Thanks Queen Creek!

I talked to the first white Jehovah's Witness this past week that I've found in Chandler. She was very quick to attack Joseph Smith. I don't think I've ever met one who went at him so quick. We managed to keep it a cordial conversation and she went on about some court cases about plagiarism and the Book of Mormon. I found it ironic that that was her argument since they believe all government is corrupt. Keep in mind this entire interaction was less than two minutes. She brought up the God's name thing and I asked her just a question, no more. My question was, 'if we're supposed to pray to God by calling him Jehovah, then why didn't Christ do that in any of his prayers.' She couldn't answer the question but that was fine since I wasn't trying to attack her. I offered her a pamphlet which she declined then asked for some of their literature to study. I like to understand the people I teach. She returned a few seconds later with a copy of a magazine with their basic beliefs.By the end of the conversation we both respected each others beliefs and she had a better opinion of LDS missionaries. It was a nice exchange.  I read it that night and used their given scripture resources to see how they support what they believe. But after I had studied their basic beliefs I left knowing one thing: the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has the fullness. The member that was with us for that OYM wasn't happy that I took their literature but I see no problem.

It's really hard to teach a lesson with cockroaches crawling all over the place. We have a lot of investigators in this one area and there are 50x as many cockroaches as people. Ahhhhh.

For some reason there is a store in Chandler that sells Hot Tubs. I can't imagine why. There is always a "SALE" sign outside.

It has been really interesting to serve in different wards and see how the members react to new investigators at church. From what I've seen, the Spanish wards are far better. The great great members introduce themselves to the investigators, sit with them, and socialize with them. They walk them around and explain little things to them. I love the Spanish wards but I wish I knew how to play piano haha. 

 

[From mom:  interesting to see that last comment.]

Thanks Eric, Annie, Sister Hines, Natalia, and Mom for the letters this week! 

I got locked out of my account again for refreshing too many times. Lost the story about eating fish and getting sick (fish ew). and some other comments. 

Thanks so much for all your support! 

Con amor,

EJ