24 February 2014

I'm leaving Mesa! 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What an exciting time this is...

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

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

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

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

Mesa has changed my life.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

....Noooooope...

We were sitting in our chairs DYING. 

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

I love you all! Thanks for your support! 

Love,

Elder Johnson

5 August 2013

Dear family and friends,

 

Well, I'm a Facebook missionary now! Friend me @ https://www.facebook.com/elderpaul.johnson. As a disclaimer, I'm there to do missionary work, send inspiring messages, and things along that line, not to catch up on old times. We get one hour of designated "internet proselytizing time" and then throughout the day for a few minutes at a time)

Yeah that's still kind of weird to say. I'm serving in Mesa too with Elder Harder, the companion I had for five days in Tempe before I got emergency transferred. Obviously we were meant to be together. I was excited to be with him again. He's a great missionary and you'd never expect he will be home in 5 weeks.

We had a cool experience last week. They put three companionships in the Ray 5th Spanish ward where I was the last three months. So they had to re-draw the boundaries to make it fit. We sat down with the zone leaders over there and looked some lines over and nothing seemed to fit. I offered a prayer and immediately the boundaries came to my mind and it made everyone happy. It was cool to see an answer to a prayer so quickly and so precisely. 

To be more specific on my new area. This is my new address: 922 S. Longmore #109, Mesa, AZ 85202. Use it lots! 

We cover two wards: the legendary Liahona 5th ward that baptized over 200 people in three years and the Kleinman Park English ward. Both wards are excellent and we're really excited to work in them. We have great potentials in both wards.

The members are all used to the iPads and iPhone 5s that we use. They've been in use in our mission for three months. There are only 100 iPads in the world being used and we are two of them. They call us pioneers of the digital age of missionary work. 

So, to explain what that means...

Each companionship has two iPad minis and one iPhone 5. They are all synced together meaning that all notes are auto synced, etc. They each have an Area Book application. Inside that is a record of who has been taught and who is being taught as well as addresses. Planning is way easy because there is an option to "find people nearby" and it gives you everyone in a certain area. 

I missed Siri. We've been reunited!

We have access to ward lists, callings, and more information. Staying in contact with members has never been easier. Facebook only makes that easier. Coordinating events, contacting investigators, sharing little status updates... It really is totally different. For example a lesson was taught last week to someone in France over Skype. Basic principles were taught and she was then referred to the local missionaries.

The sky is the limit.

There are some faults with it, clunky area book app, not being able to schedule reoccurring events, no access to LDS Tools app (we have a special one that is worse). They are really good at implementing our recommendations though!

Since the program is so new, we are writing the rule book. A new "white bible," or "white handbook" is coming out in the new future with updated rules. Salt Lake is in constant contact with us seeking input on features, wanted features, etc. It's a really really cool experience.

Since there are no real written rules (except filter everything to our purpose), we got together as a zone last week to make some ground rules about usage, specifically with the internet. The device is pretty well locked down but we established some baselines. I left kind of amazed at how a bunch of 18-24 year olds set self limits on electronic devices. We are different, I guess. I took notes of everything (on the iPad :)) and read it afterwards. President Toone looked at me and said, "will you be my executive secretary?? Those notes were great!" hahahaha

Moving on.

Transfers were this past week. The Phoenix zones have officially been incorporated into the Tempe mission. Every single companionship except like 5 in the mission were changed. There was some contention between mission pride at the start but it has died down. Hopefully that dies down since there's no reason for that. Having met a bunch of missionaries from the Phoenix mission at MTC I left with one conclusion: they're awesome. One of them spent the night with us and it was hilarious. 

We drive a 2013 Chevy Cruze. It has a, ah, what's it called.... a semi-automatic gear box if I remember. It has a shifter but no pedal so I can drive around shifting how I please. It is a quick little car with really weird gear ratios but it's fun. I mean it gets us to and from appointments safely.

Mesa is pretty great. I love it. Last week we were driving past a Circle K and I suddenly saw someone on a BMX bike come FLYING around the corner. Then a woman went running out of the Circle K swearing and screaming, then an SUV went flying by, and then 6 or 7 guys sprinted out of the Circle K and chased the guy. He had just stolen her bike and we had seen it all! So naturally we put the car into chase mode and followed looking for the guy. He got into some apartment complex and disappeared unfortunately. Exciting moment! 

The Mesa zone is a super "green" zone. 7 or the 9 companionships (excluding us) are training someone in their first 6 weeks. And that's why we're so excited - so much energy!

We heard a crazy border crossing story this week. Someone in the area was coming across with a  group when border patrol showed up. This guy ran and ran and ran and found a pole that he climbed 10 feet up. Everyone in his group was caught except for him because border patrol never looked up.

For one of our dinners this week we ate tacos. Not just any kind of tacos, but cow head tacos and cow tongue tacos. The tongue tacos actually weren't too bad. The head tacos were slimy and greasy and soft. Those weren't my favorite. Grilled steak tacos (carne asada) takes the cake. You know you have a good Spanish area when two of your first three dinners are carne asada tacos!!

Last night we met an awesome guy on the street. The first thing he told us was that he was atheist and that he was a bad man. We assured him that he wasn't either of those things (haha) and had an inspiring lesson with him. By the end of it he had accepted a Book of Mormon, accepted a return appointment, and accepted a baptismal date for the 24th of August! We are really excited to work with him. He asked me to pray for his kids right there and he said he was at seven. I couldn't even remember three names so in the middle of the prayer he said their names and then I finished the sentence haah)

We are also teaching an angel of a woman. She's older and struggles with an addiction to smoking. She wants to get baptized so bad and loves church. We asked her what time she is most tempted to smoke and told her we'd be there to visit her. She said 6am so we set up a lesson for 6 am but she had to cancel last night unfortunately. It has been fun to see her see how much we love her and how much we want to help her. She says she is alone frequently and we told her we'll change that! She asked for a calling in the church because she wants to serve everyone. More on this in the coming weeks!

Last night I set the other Elders' alarm for 6:02 am without them knowing. Well, that prank backfired and I was the only one to hear it and when it went off I thought it was 6:30 so I got up and started getting ready to exercise then realized it was 6:09 and flopped back on bed. Not doing that one again...

I traded two ties this past week for a silver Skagen watch. Score!

Thanks Andra, Tanan, Eric, Will, Mom, and Dad for the letters this week! 

I got a phone call this morning from my old area saying the 6 people I left on date with Elder Diaz are still on date. Made my day. 

Anyway, I'm really excited to be where I am with whom I'm with. This is a great area and the technology pilot program just makes everything more exciting! 

Thank you all for your continued support!

Love,

EJ