July 1, 2014 Best two years. . . so far. Well done thou good and faithful servant.

Well this is a strange feeling...

Can you believe that two years has already passed? I cannot. That did not feel like two years. I'm so grateful it was though, because these past two years have been the best two years of my life.

This was a hectic week. We had a meeting every single day as I began to train my replacement to take over the "tech specialist' assignment and other things that I have had to train others on. We had half as much proselyting time as the week before and yet did better. That was a tender mercy.

This past week was my last MLC. 

I'd like to share a scripture that I feel very accurately portrays my personal feelings and the last 2 years of emails home. It's in the Book of Mormon in the book of Alma, chapter 28, verse 8.

"And this is the account of [Elder Johnson] and his brethren, their journeyings in the land of [Arizona], their sufferings in the land, their sorrows, and their afflictions, and their incomprehensible joy, and the reception and safety of the brethren in the land of [Phoenix]. And now may the Lord, the Redeemer of all men, bless their souls forever."

 Missionary work has brought the highest highs and the lowest lows that I have ever experienced in life. It has pushed me every single day. It has been a time of intense spiritual growth. I feel like I have  experienced pure joy on my mission as I have ignored myself and served those around me. That is something I want to do for the rest of my life.

I honestly thought I would die this last week. I had no energy and didn't think I could make it another day. But I felt the sustaining power of prayer and this week I was blessed with more energy than I've felt all transfer.

I was blessed with the ability to go to the Gilbert Temple this past week. Elder Myler and I, along with other missionaries "dying" with us, were able to attend a session with President and Sister Toone. That temple is magnificent. It is breathtaking from outside and out of this world from the inside. 

The chairs are much larger than those in the Mesa temple, and much more comfortable. We had 13 people in the room with us, and 9 missionaries. Seven "dying" missionaries and two visa waiters being sent to Brazil and India. Elder Chandroo, one of Mark's friends, was there. It was fun to catch up.

I will never forget the feelings of walking into the celestial room in that temple. 

I will never forget how I felt when I hugged President and Sister Toone. President Toone held me for a long time in a hug and wept as he whispered, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant. Your offering is accepted by the Lord. You have nothing to regret." I will never forget that. Ever. That was one of the most powerful spiritual confirmations I have experienced. 

There was almost no one inside of it and I walked in and saw Elder Myler looking at the GIANT stain glass window. I walked next to him and we looked at it together, in silence for a few minutes, and he said, "Are you ready?" ... "No. Are you?" ..."No. Lets make these the best last days ever."

They were.

Yesterday I was asked to speak in church. I spoke on experiencing a mighty change of heart. I think it went pretty well. I'm really going to miss Montana del Sur. This ward has changed my life. The people in it are absolutely amazing.

South Phoenix has proven to be a refiners fire for me. I came out on top. I kept the faith. I learned that faith is what you have when you have nothing else. I wouldn't trade it for anything.

I'd like to just take some time to share how I honestly feel. 

I feel like I have fulfilled my calling. I look back over these last two years and I have no regrets. I am completely sure that I was called to Tempe Arizona for a very specific reason. I know the reasons. 

I am not who I was when I left. I hope I don't go back to Paul, because Paul was mediocre. I'm not perfect and far from it, but I am better. I love the gospel; I have a passion for the gospel. I know my Savior. I know that what He did for me was done out of love and out of trust. We are all trusted with the ability to choose the right and we are all trusted with the ability - and responsibility - to repent when we fall short. 

I'm so grateful for the amazing members, missionaries, and investigators that I have been able to meet. They have all influenced my life. The lessons that I have learned as a missionary are lessons that will stick with me forever. 

I'm absolutely terrified for the future. I have a very good grasp on what I want to do and how I'm going to get there, but there are a lot of unknowns between here and there. 

But I feel ready.

I think the Apostle Paul summarized my feelings well in 2 Timothy 4:6-8. He said, 

6For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand.
7I have fought a good fight , I have finished my course, I have kept the faith:
8Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness , which the Lord, the righteous judge , shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing. 

 Thank you all for your support and prayers. I've felt it. I've felt it in the hardest moments and I've felt it in the best moments. 

I'm excited for the next best two years of my life and I hope that, for the rest of my life, I can confidently say that every two years is better than the two years that preceded it. This mission has prepared me for the rest of my life. I feel ready. I feel excited. 

Excited to see you tomorrow,

Elder Paul Johnson

Arizona Tempe Mission, July 2012 - July 2014

16 June 2014

I've been reminding myself a lot recently that anything worth anything is worth anything. 

I'm so exhausted. Every minute of every day I am so tired. I feel healthy. Two years are catching up to me, I think. Mind over body, mind over body, mind over body...

We had a hard week. Actually, we've had a hard few weeks. We just cannot find solid people. We have done literally everything I have ever done or ever heard of and never done. I even got on my bike and biked around in 105 degrees! I got a flat tire. 

As I have written before, President Toone made a promise at the start of the transfer that every companionship could baptize this transfer. As of last week, every companionship in our zone was on track to do so. Half of them already have, the other half (minus us) had someone on date. 

Every companionship was assigned another companionship to pray for. They pray by name for those they are teaching. This last week we asked the zone to pray for us so that we could find someone. Before my personal study on Thursday, I got down on my knees and begged for someone we could find, teach, and baptize before I go home.

During my personal study I had a strong impression that we should alter our morning plans and spend an hour calling former investigators. We have two phones and thus were both able to call. We set up around five appointments after over fifty calls. 

The first lesson we had set up was with a woman who had only been visited twice,  years ago. We visited her and I was blown away by how powerful a spirit they had in their home. We had a great lesson and as we sat there teaching, I reflected back on the last two years. It has been hard, but it has been amazing. I don't want to be released as a full-time missionary. We taught this family and they all accepted a baptismal invite. We were very excited.

The next day was our monthly ward visitors center trip. We took the daughter-in-law to the visitors center. Her answers were just perfect. When the sisters asked her why she came she said, "I see so much happiness here. I want it." She loved the Joseph Smith movie. Afterwards she said, "That book...where can I get it? I love reading and I want to read it." Afterwards in another display she said, "This is what I want."

She accepted a baptismal date for June 28th. That's a mighty fine birthday present. 

On the drive home we sat in the back seat, ecstatic, as our investigator talked and became friends with the member. Remember, we taught the daughter-in-law at the older woman's home the day before.

The member asked where she could drop her off and the daughter-in-law replied, "_____." 

She doesn't live in our area.

No.

No...

That was a hard moment. We had to refer her over to the sisters in a different ward.

That was a very hard moment.

Yes, she is still going to get baptized and that is wonderful. It's hard to put into words why it is so sad to lose someone to a different area. There are no words.

That was a hard night. I felt tried to my last straw. I felt ready to give up. I felt like the Lord was trying to break me. And I almost let him.

I opened my scriptures and stumbled upon something that changed my perspective. 

 15 And if it so be that you should labor all your days in crying repentance unto this people, and bring, save it be one soul unto me, how great shall be your joy with him in the kingdom of my Father!
 16 And now, if your joy will be great with one soul that you have brought unto me into the kingdom of my Father, how great will be your joy if you should bring many souls unto me!
When people try to tell me that God doesn't answer our prayers, I immediately think to the many many many times He has answered me. 

That scripture taught me that although we have not baptized in some months, I can find joy in my efforts. We're doing absolutely everything we can. Isn't that enough? We've frequently discussed what else we could do and we do it. 

Nothing worthwhile is easy.

Last night was the last Mission President's Devotional of my mission. Elder Myler and Oscarson drove up from Yuma to perform a musical number. They go home with me. Elder Sylvester and I translated. It was another unique experience of being lifted above our ability. It was smooth and felt natural. 

That was the last time I'll see many of the missionaries here. We only had five minutes after it ended to say goodbye since we had another meeting with missionaries right afterwards but it was a sad moment. I was happy to see a family I had baptized in Mesa there.

Exciting news! The church has released an electronic progress report that is accessed through lds.org! Gone are the days of spending time writing a paper progress report for the ward council! Stake and ward leaders can access an auto-generated progress report at any time from any device! 

President Toone got a cool new Tahoe. It's the only car he fits in. The Traverse he had was way too small for him. I offered to give him our Corolla for it but he sad no.

On the 27th of June we will be going to the Gilbert temple for one last temple session with all the missionaries that go home with me! There are six of us. President and Sister Toone will go as well. Can't wait.

I'm honestly toying with the idea of being a car salesman. 

A miracle we saw last week was that every single less active that we visited and invited came to church! One family works all night on Saturdays and used that as their excuse. We were bold with the parents and they came on Sunday with a big smile on their face! 

We were also surprised by a family of former investigators that showed up to church! There is still hope for a baptism before I finish my mission! 

If I've learned anything on my mission it is that happiness and optimism are choices we make. In the midst of a trial we decide whether to overcome it with a smile on our face or a frown. We control what happens most of the time, so why don't we? Why don't we take our happiness into our own hands more often?

Love you all!
EJ

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

20 January 2014

Well, this was the best first week of a transfer that I have ever had that wasn't a quadpanionship. We taught 20 lessons with members present, have five people progressing towards baptism, and found a ton of new investigators. We're trying to figure out how to raise the vision of the zone because it isn't high enough right now.

I think expectations play a huge role. On a daily basis, Elder Diaz and I expect to have fun. We expect to see miracles. We expect to teach a ton of lessons. We expect to meet people. And we do. It all works because we do everything we can to make it work. Life lesson learned.

Here's our new address: 950 W Obispo, Mesa AZ 85210. We moved. Again. But we didn't move where we thought they were going to move us. We moved into a members home. It is 4,200 square feet and about 1,700 of those are ours in a private apartment. It is two floor with a massive kitchen and living space. We love it. It's the nicest house in the mission and it houses the nicest members in the mission. Our first day, upon arriving, the woman said, "Elders! You're our sons now! There are fresh brownies for you on the table!" Ummm, ok, if you insist! 

Later on, the next day, we returned. "Elders! On the table is fresh homemade bread! Take as much as you'd like!"

If you insist!

Later on, "I just finished baking brownies! Come eat 'em!"

If you insist!

I guess it's time to gain the 35 pounds back that I have lost so far. Bring it on.

This past weekend Elder Diaz returned to the DMV to try to get his drivers license. The first time didn't work so well and ended with him failing the written test. He returned the second time full of confidence. And left with it all gone! hahahahahh I died.

I had a cool experience while I was sitting there, waiting for him . They kicked me out of the room since he had to be alone so I sat in the lobby and read the scriptures. A woman sat next to me. I looked up and said, "She isn't happy to be here, I'll let her sit in peace." The second I thought that, I thought about Mosiah 28:3, a scripture that I read every morning at 8:30. It says, 

Now they were desirous that salvation should be declared to every creature, for they could not bear that any human soul should perish ; yea, even the very thoughts that any soul should endure endless torment did cause them to quake and tremble . 

And I sat there and said, "I am not there yet if I am thinking this right now." I battled with myself for 1 minute trying to give myself a good excuse to not talk to her and I couldn't find one. Everyone there looked angry and I thought she would be too.

Well I turned to her and struck up a conversation about Elder Diaz failing the test and how I was pretty sure that he would fail it again. She laughed and said her son had failed it too. We talked about families. We talked about driving. We talked about how Elder Diaz was from Argentina and then tied it in to driving and then to missions. We talked about her Mormon friends and we talked about the Gilbert temple open house. 

In our five minutes together I was able to teach her a lesson about eternal families and temples. Elder Diaz walked out just then, having failed the test. Again.

The woman is going to take her whole family to the open house this week. Success.

Yesterday we went to eat with our recent convert and her husband who's getting baptized in three weeks.They're awesome. He's Colombian and invited us over for a Colombian dinner.

Oh. My. Goodness. It was amazing. I don't even know what I ate but whatever it was was delicious. We left very, very, very satisfied. And due to bad planning on our part, we left and drove to our second dinner. We are both very sure that God blessed us with more room in our stomachs because we were able to down two dinners and not die in the process. #miracles!

After that first dinner I asked if we could leave with a prayer. Right then the member that we brought with us who was baptized a few years ago chimed in and asked if he could share a scripture. He read in DC about shaking an angels hand. It had absolutely nothing to do with anything and Elder Diaz and I were dying. We're pretty sure he opened to a random page and read the first thing he saw. It was so absolutely random and unrelated that to this moment I think of it as one of the funniest moments of my life. And yet as he bore testimony it was very powerful. But still hilarious!

Two days ago a wonderful woman was baptized. We have been teaching her for almost two months and they've read the entire Gospel Principles book and are almost in 2nd Nephi. They are devouring it all. The baptismal service was the most stressful of my life.

And this is why:

Usually the ward is in charge of making the programs. Not in a spanish ward- we almost always do that. But this time we had to put it on the ward since we needed to go to the open house of the Gilbert temple. We decided to trust our ward and ask them to fill the font, set up the chairs, and make the programs. They readily accepted the challenge. We arrived at the building twenty minutes before the baptism to find that they had hand written the baptismal programs.

not ok. So we went to the computers to make a new one. It was 5:50, ten minutes before the scheduled start time. We had told all the members that the service would start at 5:45 so that no one would be late. It worked.

So 5:50, I finish the program and the computer crashes. NO! NO! So I remake it. It's 5:58 We run to the library to make copies. At 6:05 we finish. No worries, Spanish things always start late.

No, for some reason that decided to start the program without us and without programs. Ridiculous! That also meant that we never got pictures of the woman in the white baptismal clothing. We were FUMING. We both said a prayer to calm down and it worked.

The program runs smoothly up until the baptismal ordinance. When we had entered I had checked the water temp but not the level. They only had the cold water on so I fixed that but didn't look at the depth. The water was only a foot and a half deep. Not enough. But they tried anyway. It took five times to do it correctly. We were dying.

The program continues and ends with a hymn. Now, this is a Spanish ward, keep in mind. No one plays musical instruments so we didn't have a piano. Well for the closing hymn a 12 year old decided to be the accompanist. Bad idea. She played one hand and I still don't know the notes that she played since they were random. Everyone switched between singing the melody and watever the notes were that the pianist was playing.  I almost stood up after the first verse and stopped it. I should have. After the end of the second verse the pianist tried to do a cool ending. Nope, it sounded like the Mario theme song start. ASDLKFJAS:DKLFASK:DFJASKDFJAKSLDFJALKDJFAdf.

Life lesson learned.

But the spirit was definitely there at the baptism and we could feel it. It was relieving and peaceful despite the stress and anger that we felt.

The family of four that we are teaching are getting baptized this weekend! We love them so much. They are inviting EVERYONE to the serve. We're expecting every missionary in the zone to be there (26+), President and Sister Toone, the entire ward, and all of his and her colleagues and friends and their friends' neighbors. We're excited for the biggest turnout ever.

The Gilbert Temple open house was unreal. Check out the pictures: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151848833491906.1073741830.664426905&type=1&l=5be6cb3fbc

They started a tour every 60 seconds. The original plan was one every ten minutes. Nope, too busy. It turned into a silent tour since there were too many people. And the temple interior was loud! It was weird. 

That temple is AMAZING. It is HUGE inside. WOW. The celestial room has a chandelier that is 18 feet tall and 8 feet wide. The baptistry is unreal. There are deep deep brown woods. The tile is exactly the same as the tile piece that I have on my desk. Imported from Israel with hews of red, green, brown, silver, and gold. It is unreal.

There was a very special spirit inside. And the family that we took felt it as well. At various times in the tour, we heard them say, "This is where our daughters (5, 8) are going to get married." Later, "This is where we will get sealed."

Outside wasn't what I imagined. I was expecting a wile mob of people rushing in. it was very very organized and very well thought out.

We love that family. Tonight that invited us over to their home to have their first hosted FHE. We've had two with them in members' homes. We're stoked.

Yesterday we had the privilege of translating at the Mission President's Fireside. It was a fun experience and is getting way more fluid for me.

Last P-day I took the first nap I've taken in months. It was three hours long and was three hours of paradise. I felt so good when I woke up... Today for P-day we're playing bocci ball with the members that we live with. Victory, here I come!!

Thank you so much for the letters, Grandpa and Grandma and immediate family! It was great to hear from you!! 

I hope everyone has the best week ever!

Love,

eJ