17 December 2013

Time. They say time flies. That isn't true. Time doesn't fly. Time doesn't even exist. I was sitting in my chair this week and realized that I hit 18 months really soon.

Whatonearthhappened. 

From 10 months to 16.8 months, I honestly thought that the mission would be the rest of my life. That was all that I thought about. Nothing else even mattered to me. Well, nothing else DOES matter to me, but something weird happened yesterday and that's why I'm talking like this.

Yesterday was our mission's Christmas Party. It was awesome. More on that later. During the testimony meeting, all I could think about was college. No matter what I did, all the thoughts that came to mind were about college. 

This was not timely. We had just finished the most ridiculous week of my mission with over 60 lessons taught and 30 of them with members present. Ridiculous. So many. We worked so hard. Everyday we were doing everything we could to make everything possible happen. And we saw it. We have four people with a baptismal date and four progressing towards baptism and nine at church and seven new investigators and 15 referrals received. Obscenely good week! I was so in the zone!

And then that testimony meeting hit. Gah. Afterwards I went up to President Toone and asked him what I should do. He looked at me, grabbed my shoulders, smiling, and said, "Elder Johnson...the spirit is telling you that it is time to start planning for the future."

NO. NO NONONONONONONONO.

I'm not "trunky" at all, not distracted, but the idea of planning for myself rather than other people is shocking me. 

And then Elder Oscarson told me today that he and I are the ninth oldest missionaries in the mission. 

And that the sisters that came out with me are going home in three weeks. Today we went to the temple as mission and got the following pictures of the original District 38D from the MTC. 

Anyway, other things happened than me going into shock. 

The Gilbert Temple open house is approaching. The pass along cards have arrived. They're nice. They don't want us handing them out on the street; rather, praying over those that we are teaching and sharing a few. They're not giving us the 700 per companionship that I requested (surprise!) but rather more like 100 </3

We aren't allowed to go to the open house. We are expected to send our investigators to the temple with members. Not all that said considering that the very first sessions after dedication are reserved for missionaries. Hopefully I won't be too far from it for that.

It is a unique experience to meet on a monthly basis with the Stake Presidents in our zone. I don't know why they trust us as much as they do, but they do. I'm twenty and they're 50+ and very experienced. But these meetings are so inspiring. I learn about humility, patience, love, boldness, honesty with oneself and others, and effectiveness. I look forward to those meetings. They meet with us to discuss the state of the work and how the wards are doing, any concerns or miracles we're seeing, and offer us some guidance. It's awesome. They reach out to us warmly. 

It was especially cool to be in the temple this morning doing some initiatory work and find the high councilor over missionary work in one of the quadrants. That was also a special moment. Really, they're such powerful people and great examples.

Today has brought the first three trainings that I've been assigned to do on effective use of Facebook. Mom, I bragged about you again. I talked with President Toone last week about how I felt the mission has lost focus on Facebook as it has appropriately shifted focuses to help the younger missionaries. But I felt it was an important topic and as I sat talking with him he told me that he wanted me to meet one on one with every zone leader companionship and train them on how to train their stewardship. It has been highly effective so far and I've already figured out a ton about the state of the mission in regards to Facebook. Doubling every zones total teaching opportunities per week is my vision.

Speaking of vision, I want to comment on how inspired this has all been. The APs put together the zone conference and made "Vision" the focus. At the same time and without knowing, I put together the Facebook training and had vision as my focus! INSPIRED!

It is reasonable to say that between 60-80% of our mission is yet to teach their first lesson on Facebook. A missionary who isn't busy is a homesick missionary. And that's the big struggle of the mission right now. So we're expecting miracles out of this.

Ok, now I can talk about the christmas conference. It all started on Sunday night with a Mission President's Devotional. All the missionaries and as many investigators as possible were invited. Elder Gaspar, Anderson, and I played a special musical number on, respectively, Viola, Violin, Violin. We played, "Silent Night/Still, Still, Still" arranged by Sally DeFord and had someone on Piano. That was a lot of fun - wish I had recorded it.

The christmas conference continued all day on Monday, starting at 7:00am with a breakfast. Yum. That day consisted of some AMAZING talks by President Laney (one of the amazing Stake Presidents I previously mentioned in this letter) on how Jesus Christ is a healer and the difference between being cured and healed. He's a doctor and spent the time noting how doctors cure but don't heal. He used the parable of the 10 lepers and how it uses cured/healed interchangeably to refer to the nine and to the one. Amazing. If you want my notes just let me know.

The Mesa Arizona Temple President and wife also spoke to us. That was phenomenal and they gave us some great pointers for how to get a lot out of a temple visit. 

The rest of the day was full of some fun activities, lots of musical numbers, a visit from Santa (nice and naughty list for missionaries and the funny stories that landed them on each list). It was a fun experience.

The conference culminated in a temple trip this morning. We went extra early to do some initiatories -that was fun. Elder Gaspar missed the temple session so went through alone afterwards haha. And then he missed the mission picture because he went through a later session...

We went to the temple twice in two weeks since we were sneaky and planned the temple trip the first week of the transfer and got to go again. Genius! Normally we just go once a transfer. Inspired! 

The trip last week was super insane. We forgot about it. No, really, we did. We go to the 7:30 session and at 6:52, while exercising, we realized that we had a temple session in 40 minutes. So we RACED home, changed SUPER fast, met our ride 10 minutes late, and got into the session as they shut the door. That. was. Intense. I hate being rushed through the temple haha.

Anyway, MERRY CHRISTMAS to everyone! I hope everyone has a GREAT week! 

With love,

Elder Johnson

16 August 2012

Dear Family and Friends,

When does Mark get back? [October 2]

This week wasn't anything super special, just another super fast week.

On Thursdays, since Prep Day ends at 6pm, we go to something called TRC. Don't ask me what it stands for. But once there, we split off in our companionships and teach just a one timer lesson with volunteers. It has become my favorite part of the MTC. Last week we taught a native Chilean who had immigrated to the USA. It is way fun teaching and trying to understand Spanish, and even more fun when you do. Tonight we have our first 40 minute lesson. In the past, for week 2 and 3, we went into TRC (Again, these are in small rooms, 2 missionaries, 1 investigator) with lessons prepared. For the last 4 weeks, we have not [done this activity]. We walk in, get to know the person, and talk on a topic that is relevant to any questions or concerns the person may have. These lessons are usually twenty minutes long and tonight will be a challenge because we have to find a way to teach for 40 minutes. I think it should be fine. We'll probably spend a bit more time getting to know them and more and more time getting the investigator involved in the lesson as that has been something we have been working on improving upon. It has also started to be the case that we can teach with little to no preparation. That said, we try to prep as much as possible anyway.

Speaking of teaching, this week we did something we've never done before. Hermana Olsen, our teacher, has been out of town for 1.5 weeks and came back last week. One of the days she was back, the other three Elders had to go to the hospital for a non-serious problem. It was Elder Myler, both Hermanas, and our teacher for that whole class period. She bailed on her original lesson plan and we had her teach the four of us the first lesson. It was about 30 minutes long and unbelievably good. We were all a little bummed when it ended. The spirit was strong and we were all involved in the lesson. Afterwards, she had us teach each other, Elder Myler and I teaching the Hermanas one on one. Hermana Olsen said that before the Elders/teachers responded to anything the Hermanas said, we had to count to 10 in our heads. This, at the start, was awkward. In a society so dominated by noise, silence is very awkward. However, the more we did it, the better it felt. What it did was to force us to listen to the spirit and any small prompting we may have to take the lesson in a certain direction. We also worked to keep our minds blank while one of the Hermanas said something. It turned out to be the best lesson either of us had ever taught (it was also in English...). Hermana White, the person I taught, afterwards said that I took the lesson in the exact direction she wanted me to take it without saying anything, and the way I took it was different than I had originally planned. It was a very unique experience.

I ran into a sister missionary going to DC South. If you live there, keep your eye open for Sister Stone. Turns out that I am going to her home mission too. Small world.

This past Sunday our District of 7 people total had the opportunity to hold sacrament meeting for the cafeteria workers. Hermana White and I spoke, she on love, me on informal missionary work. I spoke on how casual it can be, even mentioning information at a workplace or school or to friends. It went well and it was a neat experience. On the way back, I saw a quote on the wall. I think that you, Dad, have paraphrased it before. It was, "When obedience ceases to become an irritant and becomes a quest, at that moment God will endow us with power." Elder Myler and I had to teach for district meeting later that night about faith and I used the given quote. I like how it says quest. Quest implies something grand with a great reward at the end. Monty Python and the Holy Grail comes to mind. People traveled far, sacrificed much, but at the end, got eaten by a rabbit. What a great reward.

Later on in that same lesson I mentioned that our district has been doing blind walks to build trust, although in reality it is more just for fun. We will walk all the way back from the classroom (~2 min walk) with one person guiding the other (who has their eyes closed) from a distance. It is tricky and builds trust in the other. I mentioned how that is like faith in God. We are guided by something we cannot see but in the end, we are assisted in getting to our destination. On the way back, people try to distract you and pull you off course. The same is true for temptation as it is ever-present but is there to slow and harm you. At one point I walked into a sign. Guess I can't trust that Elder again...

Every Tuesday and Sunday at the MTC, we have a devotional. I'm still waiting for when a member of the Quorum of the 12 or President comes, but the last one was pretty great. At one point, the speaker called for all who were baptized in the last 2 years to stand. He then said, "Now I want you to come up (pause........), I will choose two of you." One of these converts was standing up right behind us and in the time that he paused, his district yelled at him to go up and he literally ran up. In the meantime, the speaker chose the two. He interviewed each one and when he turned around and saw a third missionary there, he was quite surprised and said, "Now, I can't wait to hear from Elder _____, I'm sure he'll be the icing on the cake." We were all laughing in the corner. No one else in the room with 2300 missionaries knew why it was so funny. When the Elder was finally interviewed, he said things like, "I'm from the Garden of Eden," with a super awkward pause and many other very awkward things. It turned out to be hilarious but a strong message of faith on how prayers are answered.

So I still haven't figured out who sent me those shoes. Thanks again whoever did, they're like walking on clouds. I think my feet are still growing though since my toes almost touch the end of them...they're size 14.

Yesterday I officially finished my first mission planner. They last 6 weeks and you plan out hour by hour what you will do the next day in it. On to number two. I'm writing the dates that I used them on the front so that I know they're retired and that I can read them later.

We went to the temple today and performed sealings for the first time. Elder Myler and I went into a small room with two other missionaries from our zone and two proxy couples. I learned some interesting things. First, proxy work for those deceased is very clear in the Old/New Testament. I mean, Jesus Christ and the atonement was the epitome of proxy work because it applied to all people, anytime, anywhere, living or deceased. The second was something that the sealer said. He said, "If you cannot complete a two year mission, you cannot complete mortality or immortality with an eternal companion. I have been married for 53 years and it is easy! It's all about making and keeping commitments." The spirit was strong and it was a very peaceful morning.

One of the proxy representatives had the last name Lindberg. I went up to her afterwards and asked if there was any relation to Charles Lindberg. She said it was distant but they were indeed related. It was cool meeting a descendant of one of, arguably, the most important men in aviation history.

On our way back from the temple today, we stumbled upon a free tie box. Inside were hundreds of ties. I grabbed a bunch and plan on trading them if possible. I'm going to participate in the black market. Unfortunately, they're hideous ties. No wonder they were free. I'd want to get rid of them too.

I may or may not have torn/separated a muscle in my arm. We were playing soccer and someone corner kicked it. I jumped up to hit it away (which, just to get it out of the way, I did) while someone on the other team was running forward. He slipped and hit me while I was in the air and I fell hard on my shoulder.  I'm not planning on getting it checked out but I'll let you know if it is still bad in a weeks time.

20 days left!

Thank you Aunt Andra, Dad, Mom, Eric, Will, Natalia, Tori, Doug, and Grandpa and Grandma Johnson for the letters and package! It was a great week. Replies are in the mail. If I forgot anyone, sorry, I write down all I get but sometimes one slips past me.

Thank you all so much for the letters and care, it means so much and is nice to hear of the "outside world" and how family and friends are doing.

With lots of love,

Elder Johnson

PS: Romney chose Paul Ryan as a running mate? Why on earth... he was struggling with moderate votes, not republican votes. Ryan is Palin of the 2012 election, he doesn't need more republican-ness in his platform.