17 June 2013

Dear Family and Friends,

We're both staying in Chandler and together! Wooooo! The phone calls didn't come until this morning. More on that later.

This was a tough week. Elder Diaz got pretty sick so we stayed inside for two days and we didn't teach many lessons. Fortunately he's feeling better now, a CT scan, ultrasound, and several blood tests later. They were pretty worried about his liver but fortunately he's good to go. Somehow the relief society found out and we got some concerned phone calls asking if we needed anything. It was cool to be on the other side of the phone and feel the love of the ward.

We didn't have a baptism this week...He cancelled the morning of. Three times now I've had a baptism cancel within 24 hours of the baptism. Here's the full story:

We have taught him every day for three weeks and his entire life has changed for the better. From his personal life to his apartment which has been cleaned up and refurnished, his life has done a complete 180. The gospel has saved his life in more than one way. He loved church. He loved the members. On Friday we went to the temple with him and he loved it. LOVED it. "I'm bringing my kids here in a year!" Friday night he was all good to go for the Saturday morning baptism. He asked me to baptize him and Elder Diaz to confirm him. The ward was getting pumped. 

And then at 9am we got the dreaded text. :( The first thing we did was drop to our knees and say a prayer then we called him, no answer. We went to his house, no answer. His roommate wouldn't call him for us and so we waited for 1.5 hours for him to get home from work. He never got home. We called him probably 10 times that day and no answer. I was starting to get worried.

And then yesterday we finally found him at home before church. Long story short we got him to say a kneeling prayer and then afterwards we waited for 2-3 minutes in silence, us praying intensely mentally for him and him sitting with his eyes closed and 'listening.' After a time he looked up to us and said, "It's true. The Book of Mormon is true and God has restored his church to the Earth!" I was beaming, reveling in the miraculous change of heart we had just seen.

And then he said, "but my path is elsewhere." Devastation. We sat in silence for 5 minutes waiting for him to clarify. He sat his job is to help his old church. 

Sigh.

So we invited him to the mission president's devotional that night - President Howes' last one. We showed up at 6pm, the allotted time, and he wasn't there. Agh! We can't go without investigators. We ran around the area visiting some of our other investigators there and desperately trying to invite them to come with us. They were all busy. On a whim we stopped by our investigators house once more to see if he was home. Nope. But his roommate was walking to the door with groceries in hand. We ran over to him and helped him carry them inside and said, "hey, come to a devotional with us!" He said, ".....ok!" Whew! Miraculous! We went with him and it was an incredible devotional. Two people who were baptized the day before spoke and shared their testimonies and then President and Sister Howes spoke. Elder Heathcote (served with me in Yuma for my first six weeks) came back to visit and it was fun to see him there. 

Anyway, we were pretty sad about that baptism falling through. At church the Bishop came up to us and told us that someone in the ward who isn't a member whose family is all active decided that she wanted to get baptized in two weeks. So now we have someone who is on date for July 6 out of nowhere! He mentioned she may prefer Sister missionaries. Nope. That's not happening. 

Elder Diaz's birthday is this week, his first in the field. His is June 24th. Last night we had dinner with the relief society president and in a moment where he was in the restroom I mentioned to her that his birthday was next week and asked her if there was anything we could do. She promised a cake on Sunday night. I told her not to tell him - I want to surprise him. There's not much we can do for him but I'm trying to think of something to make it better than it's bound to be haha. I did not tell her mine was just four days after. 

We had a pretty unique experience this week. We found a Navajo Book of Mormon in our car trunk 6 weeks ago and just left it there to admire it on occasion. Well, this past week we found two Navajo women and spoke to them for a bit and then ran to the car to get the Navajo Book of Mormon. What are the chances! After much prodding we convinced them to say a prayer in Navajo - It was AWESOME. 

Our senior couple in the zone, Elder and Sister Lambert, got anti'd this week by someone in the grocery line at Costco. Apparently it was so bad that even the other people in the line told the guy to get lost. Sad, the Lamberts are an inspiring and very very humble. I also whispered to them that Elder Diaz's birthday is next Monday so maybe we'll get two cakes?! Haha

I'm pretty sure Arizona has damaged my eyes. I can barely walk outside without sunglasses on since it's so bright.

I almost died at a dinner this week. No, not because of the food. We ate with someone who was studying for his citizenship test and we asked some questions. Elder Diaz asked, "who's Benjamin Franklin?" Two people who will remain unidentified said, "oh, he invented electricity!" 

Almost.

We had just finished talking about how most American's can't pass the citizenship test haha. Classic.

We also had the most intensely meat packed meal this week of my life. Elder Diaz has told me for weeks about Argentine Asados and this week an Argentine member made us a five course meal. Of meat. Started with some type of port, then steak, then pork, then chicken, then something else that I'm still unsure of what it was. We ate this salad of beats, raw eggs, and ham and it was actually really good haha. I couldn't eat two of those three ingredients 12 months ago.

This week I realized I've been out for almost 12 months and I was dumbfounded for a bit. Where does the time go?!

Though these past six weeks haven't yielded any baptisms, we have had success in other ways, the most profound of which was being able to help someone return to activity in the church. We got a referral from a member for a less active to visit and after the first visit she said, "Ok! I'm coming back! And I'm bringing my whole family with me!" Yesterday the youngest daughter sang with the youth in the fathers day program and I just sat there smiling and thinking about how all this family needed was the invitation and they're back and they're happy. 

We were visiting someone this week and I took a drink out of my camelbak. The person looked at me and said, "are you smoking?!"

We took our car to the dealership this week to get that mirror that broke itself replaced. While waiting a salesman came up to me and I asked him some questions about the Scion FRS, their sports car. That car is pretty sleek! The guy just about sold me on it and as I was reaching into my pocket I remembered I only have $20 dollars left for the month, a little less than the $25 thousand that I would have needed. He wasn't willing to trade for our 2010 Corolla either. I could only imagine what President Howes would say if I showed up to transfers in a red race car revving the engine at 8,000rpm  instead of our silver corolla.

Laura Johnson, if you read this, I met Elder Benson. Small world!

I talked with Elder Boyd last night to verify that we'll be able to wear polyester ties with the new mission president. He said President Howes is making policy adjustments next week including something with ties. Woooo!

Every single missionary is invited to transfers tomorrow. It's going to be 4 hours long including a social afterwards. This will be the last chance I have to see missionaries I've met that will be in the Gilbert mission. Last night I got it confirmed that there will be four Spanish missionaries in the entire mission and they'll have one companion for basically their entire mission. Those four Spanish missionaries are based out of Queen Creek. Whew, that was a close call!

So we cover all our daily planners with pictures to make them less boring. I've always spent way too much time looking for really unique pictures that no one else has to make my planners different. Well this week I looked through the 20+ watchtowers I've collected and found two sweet pictures of Daniel in the Lion's Den and a picture of Lot running from flaming meteors. Elder Diaz doesn't approve hahaha. I'll send a picture of it next week.

Speaking of pictures, here are some I took this week.

Dang, that one came out really well... It took a couple tries to frame it just right.

During the hour and a half we waited for our investigator to come home from work (the one who was supposed to get baptized.) We felt like cops - we were just missing some newspapers with eye-holes cut out.

Thanks Natalia, Annie, Mom, and Will for the letters this week! It was great to hear from all of you!

Love you all so much! Happy fathers day!

Elder Johnson

13 May 2013

Dear Family and Friends,

 

It was fun to Skype home yesterday! Especially being able to talk to you guys back home and having Mark skyped on a laptop at the same time...never done that before!

So I guess the big news is that .01% of the time I'm wrong and am not staying in Queen Creek. I was 99.99% sure I was staying haha. 

Chandler is a lot different than anywhere I have ever served. Yuma and Queen Creek had more farm fields than people it seemed. Our address is 1287 N Alma School Rd #174, Chandler, AZ, 85224

On Sunday night we were awaiting our transfer calls and as I wrote last week, they never came. Monday afternoon before the calls Elder Lanier and Sawyer called to say goodbye and told me I would enjoy this next few transfers, whatever that meant. That night as we were waiting around the house waiting for transfer calls President Howes called and asked me to be trainer among some other assignments. I was pretty nervous. Later that night the Zone Leaders called and said I was leaving (President Howes doesn't tell us if we're staying or leaving) which meant that I would whitewash train - just like how I started my mission down in Yuma. Whew I was pretty stressed out for that!

At transfer meeting we found out that five visa waiter Elders came in. Elder Myler was there as well as some other people I've gotten to know. "the Argentine" was slated to come in for 3 or 4 transfers but never came in due to visa problems. Everyone was fighting to get to train him since he is a native speaker haha. Anyway, long story short, I am training Elder Diaz, "the Argentine," and am having a great time. He is super energetic and very prepared to be a missionary. Already I've learned lots from him. I also realized that Elder Diaz is the first 18 year old spanish missionary here! Also the first one to come in for 3-4 transfers.

The rest of the transfer meeting was crazy. President Howes chose this past meeting to make all the changes for the mission split. All the missionaries in the valley/phoenix area were invited and told to bring all area books. They then changed just about everyone's wards, moved apartments, split zones and moved districts. Cars were swapped and taken away for some and weird changes were made to boundaries. They've moved districts from one zone to another zone now. I can't imagine prepping a mission for a split haha. I guess that's an accomplishment though, eh?

When we first got to our apartment, I walked in the door but was very very confused when I saw a TV that was on and a computer. I looked around a bit then realized I had walked into someone else's apartment! I quickly ran out of the apartment and opened the door next door (?) and walked into ours. Unlike in Yuma, it was clean and everything was put away. Lots of food too!

So far we have been speaking tons of Spanish. I talk to him purely in spanish and he talks to me in English. I help him with his English and he helps me with my Spanish, kind of like with Elder Valdez but I'm trying not to be as lazy and am speaking more Spanish this time. I've already seen tons of improvement in just six days!

We cover the Spanish ward here. It was probably the most energetic ward I've ever been in! The Bishop is from Bar(th)elona Spain and has the very unique accent. He is an awesome guy and very very energetic with a young family. The ward had us stand up in sacrament meeting to introduce us, in Sunday school, and gospel principles. Never had that happen before! There hasn't been a baptism in the ward since September (when Elder Myler was here) but we're going to change that. Having a native speaker in a Spanish ward makes a HUGE difference. Not to mention there are seven 'Diaz' families in the Spanish ward haha

I was flipping through the Ensign and saw a picture of someone familiar ..Jim Kabbani!? Ensign from Oct 2008. Cool story!

Finding our way around Chandler has been an adventure. Someone in a ward that we don't cover offered to give us a ride around Chandler to show us all the streets and whatnot so we did that our first night. We drove over 30 miles and it was super super helpful. The roads are relatively easy to understand.

We found out that we're getting moved into a bigger apartment next month. It seems like every time I unpack I get told I'm moving.

We've been biking a lot. In Yuma I had 1,000 miles per month, in Queen Creek I had 1,100 per month and here we get 650. The area is a lot smaller but the Elders before used a lot of miles at the start so we bike 15 or so miles every day. It's hot, too...

The chapel for our ward is nine miles away which doesn't help too much. 18 mile round trip before lunch time on Sundays.

Elders quorum on Sunday was pretty funny. The lesson was all about being a good husband - we sat there awkwardly. It felt like a marriage prep class. 

We have one investigator in our area that was on date before that fell off. She was supposed to get baptized on the 11th but called the Elders and told her that she didn't want to on the 5th. We went by and visited her and found out that the problem is that she works a lot and rarely gets to see her kids. Her kids don't want to go to church and she won't go unless they go. So we're working with the Young Women's leaders to get the daughter interested and involved. The woman is very prepared and has a strong testimony but won't commit without the daughter. Usually the kids aren't the set back. 

Our district goes down to the Native American reservation. I'll be doing like 6 baptismal interviews down there on Wednesday and Thursday haha. In our district is a senior couple of who cover the reservation. They're on fire! Really nice senior couple, lots of energy, and a good sense of humor. Our district has no other Elders, just two Spanish sisters, the senior couple, and us. 

The Spanish work in Chandler is "legendary." I've heard about this ward and area my whole mission. We see more Hispanics in one day than I did in 3 months in Queen Creek. We have been busy talking with people and orienting ourselves. Chandler is full of apartment complexes (not vertical ones) and trailer parks. Perfect! 

Driving down the main street is a pretty nice experience, visually, but as soon as you turn off of it things change pretty rapidly. Imagine my surprise when I saw this Ferrari!

I had almost the worst OYM of my mission but luckily saved myself. We went up to talk to someone on the street and asked her algunas questions. She responded that she wasn't interested. I offered to give her a card and she said, "I wouldn't be able to read it anyway!" I assumed she was blind and started to say, "Well if you see us and need anything..." but stopped myself at, "if you s-" Whew. To my defense, her guide dog didn't have one of the typical leashes and she didn't have a cane and was out with her kids. Disaster avoided! 

Anyway, we're in a good place doing good work in a good ward. Life is good.

Thanks for the letters: Andra and Grandpa and Grandma J!

Con mucho amor,

EJ

21 January 2013

This week started out dramatically. We were driving to our lesson and the tire pressure warning light came on. It was around 40 degrees outside so we thought nothing of it attributing it to the temperature. As we got out of our lesson and hopped in the car to pull around, something felt weird. We jumped out and found a 7" slash in our tire. Woops! So, at 9:45pm and in 40 degrees we changed out tire with the help of the investigator we had just taught and got on the road. 

Normally that wouldn't have been such a big deal but we were planning on leaving the next morning at 4:00 am to go to Chandler for a training. We called the mission vehicle coordinator and he told us to take it in to the shop (since we were supposed to get our vehicles inspected) and get to the training at 1pm, 5 hours late. We called the Assistants and asked them the same questions and they said, "I don't care what you have to do, be in your seats here at 8:30 am!" Not very helpful. So we hitched a ride with Elder Lanier and Sawyer and had a nice drive up at 4 am. The desert sunrise is awesome. 

The training was two days long. We spent from 8:30am-3:00pm both days in trainings learning various things. There was a lot of information and the long drive the first day made it very hard. After 3pm, we went on exchanges with missionaries in Chandler and spent the night at their place. It was a lot of fun and the first chance I've had to meet missionaries outside of Chandler for more than a few hours. Good times were had even though there was an intense argument between the missionaries that lived there that evening haha.

We were driving home at 8pm and as we were on Dead Cow Road we saw a light burning in the sky, a few thousand feet in the air. It was probably  miles away in the direction of the border. The light would sometimes brighten up and we could see a trail of smoke as it circled very slowly towards the Earth. Then, all of a sudden, it went out. I had no idea what it was. A little while late another one went off and we saw a giant white light on the ground at the same time. Seconds later, another one shot to the same altitude with the same brightness. I assume they were being shot up even though we could not see any trace of it being shot from the ground. So my question is this: what on earth were they? Someone mentioned they may be from trip wires on the border. So if anyone can find out, please let me know!

We had a pretty cool experience with an OYM this week. We were walking out of dinner, stuffed and feeling sick, and felt that we needed to talk to some guy outside. This wasn't our area but the other missionaries had already gotten to their car and left. When we said what church we were from, he said, "Oh, I already believe your church is true! Come sit around my fire!" We talked to him for a bit but then had to leave. We passed him off to the Elders who cover his area, I hope something comes of it.

Last Monday night or so had the baptismal interviews for the people we had getting baptized this week. Everything went well, we thought. When we had a lesson with one of them a few days later and she told us how she went home and had a nervous breakdown because of how stressed she was about it. Her mom, naturally being concerned, offered to let her push the baptism back because it was pretty quick. Eventually the girl came to the decision to pray about it. Up until this point she had struggled recognizing an answer to her prayer. Well, she told us that she locked herself in her room while crying and prayed. After her prayer she lay there and said she felt the happiest, most peaceful feeling she had ever felt. She decided to go ahead and get baptized on the day that we had scheduled it for. It was an awesome example of being watched out for by our Heavenly Father and recognizing answers to prayers.

The week was highlighted by not one but two baptisms. Technically three girls were baptized but two were over the age of 9 (meaning two counted as convert baptisms since the mother is a member). One was for the Cibola Ward and one for the Yuma Valley Ward. This makes another month of getting a baptism into every unit that we cover. The mothers or fellowshippers for both girls insisted on making the programs since we as missionaries don't make them pretty haha. So true. So we sat back and happily let them take care of all of the programs and whatnot. Wow they were amazing. But more on that later.

The first baptism was originally scheduled for 5pm but lots of the members couldn't make it since they work. Woops, forgot about that aspect. So we pushed the baptism back to 5:45 pm since we had another baptism at 7pm that night. It started with an awesome talk on baptism and then a musical number by the young women. Pretty great singing and the spirit was very strong. The baptism itself was great and the talk on the holy ghost was inspiring. The baptism ran without mistake and was fantastic. 

At 6:45 pm we shuffled all the people out of the room to prepare for the next one. This one started late as we were taking pictures in the hallway. Their grandmother is a professional photographer and insisted on many pictures. They told us they would print us some so we'll see how they compare haha. This is the one where I am not looking at the camera. Woops...

The second part to a baptism is the confirmation, or receiving the gift of the holy ghost, which happens on Sunday. The first one went smoothly but the second was a bit more stressful. At 11:05, they still weren't there (Church started at 11). Her friend told us that she was in another part of AZ and probably wouldn't make it. We started to frantically call them and as we did they walked in the door and the confirmation went well. Whew!

I had the chance to go on exchanges with Elder Sawyer this week. We had a relatively open day ahead of us as far as set up lessons go. A lot of them fell through although we put someone on date for next month in the spanish branch. From where we stand now, we will get a baptism in every one of our units again next month. We're doing work here in Yuma and we are baptizing more than has happened for a year here as a district. It was a great exchange and was fun to be back with him for a day. We were going to exchange back at Coldstone that night (easy excuse to buy ice cream) but when we got there it was way crowded and getting late so we passed on that. All in all, a good time. We taught one of the most powerful lessons I've had on my mission. We focused around gaining a personal testimony. At one point we were speaking on trials and I had the impression to open to Mathew 13 (or 14? Can't remember) and read the story of Peter walking on water. I likened that to our life on Earth and how the waves are trials and the "crosswinds" is Satan. Peter walked well and then when the waves hit, he fell. He started to sink and kept sinking until he found it in him to call out and ask for help. Then, as it says in Mathew, the Savior reached out "immediately" and saved him. How similar we are to that that when we fall short, all we have to do is ask and we are "immediately" supported. Afterwards Elder Sawyer said he had used that same analogy with an investigator a few days before. I had never heard it said before. It left a strong impression with our investigator and me. Then, after the lesson with her yesterday, she came to us and said, "You know... I think I need to be baptized!" Just what any missionary wants to hear! We will be extending a date to her when we see her later this week. 

I also had another pretty cool experience with a prompting this week. I was reading in 3rd Nephi in the Book of Mormon and for some reason felt that I needed to make a copy of my Priesthood Line of Authority and put it on a sticky note in my planner. So I did that and stopped my reading to do it. In a lesson we had that night to a recent convert, he randomly in the the middle of the lesson asked about the priesthood and if it can be traced back to Christ. Bam, I whipped what I had written on that sticky note out and showed him. He really enjoyed it and it helped him to understand a little bit more of the restoration of the Church and how there is an unbroken chain from Jesus Christ to me. Just a cool experience. President Monson said it well once: "Never procrastinate a prompting." 

Nothing else super significant happened this week. We were out of our areas for two days which hurt a bit but we made it up yesterday. 

Thanks Natalia, Mom, Eric, Will, Tanan, and Grandpa and Grandma Johnson for writing this week! It was great to get to hear from all of you and about what's going on in life!

Love,

Elder Johnson