23 December 2013

Chocolate Never Faileth. Never.

This last week was the realization of much prayer. A man came from another state to get baptized here in our ward. It was a happy day.

As I sat there during the baptismal service, I thought to myself, "I've done absolutely nothing for this baptism. I've met him once before today for 30 seconds." And then the thought came, "You've been obedient. What more can I ask of you?"

It was an interesting moment. I realize that, as we read in Job, the disobedient may still flourish in some regards, true growth and progress comes to obedience. 

This was a special baptism too. His family came from all over the country to the service. He had such a great support group. He, his wife, and his kids will be in the temple in 363 days. None of his direct family knew until the day before the baptism that he was getting baptized :)

I was spiritually chastised at the baptism too. We were to be the witnesses at the service. The person who baptized him said the baptismal prayer just a little off and then quickly when he came out of the water went to change. I stood there trying to justify to myself that it was ok. One of the high councilors approached me as soon as we shut the curtains and said that he thought they may have said it wrong. We ran into the changing room and invited them to do the baptism again behind the closed curtains. We poked our heads around the stairs and wall to witness it and make sure it was done correctly. It was.

I sat in my chair feeling terrible afterwards. It was such a minor thing he did incorrectly (he said "commissioned by"). I'm not quite sure what I would have done if that high councilor hadn't pulled me aside but I sat in my chair repenting as soon as they had correctly done the baptism. Lesson learned.

This past week was, "THE MEETING." Brother Lee Donaldson came back from Salt Lake City to do some trainings with the MLC and some other missionaries chosen "at random." That meeting blew me away. He talked about teaching more effectively and "staying in our lanes of responsibility/stewardship." It was enlightening. I sat in my chair thinking, "For x months I've been teaching this lame way when I COULD have..." I resolved then and there to change everything so that I can teach better. It has made a HUGE difference already.

One of the things he invited us to do was change the way we teach about the Book of Mormon. Instead of teaching the entire restoration and introducing Book of Mormon in one lesson and then inviting them to read it before our next visit, we are moving some things around. He said that the average college educated recent convert reads 8 pages in the Book of Mormon before being baptized. "That is not enough."

So, to help them read more, we do this.

In our first visit, we teach the "Restoration" in 8 minutes using the pamphlets, focusing primarily around the pictures. Invite them to read the pamphlet between visits. End the visit with, "Next time, we're going to bring you a gift!"

In our second visit, follow up. Pull out "the gift" and talk about this amazing book that _____ to us or whatever. Emphasis its value in our lives. Relate the characters to our investigators. Help them learn how to liken the scriptures. Don't read every verse of a chapter, pick and choose some that illustrate a point. For instance in 1 Nephi chapters 1-4 we can talk about faith, prayer, and acting in faith, overcoming trials. Wow, that sounds a lot like what many people today do!

I left that meeting enlightened and excited. We put it to test yesterday, obviously changing that basic outline I just drew to help the needs of those we teach. It. Was. Amazing. The spirit was so much stronger and he left saying, "I can't wait to read this!"

The other part of that training that day wasn't so exciting. One of the internet proselyting people who works with Mormon.org came to talk with us. He said that we should not connect with people we do know personally know over Facebook. 

I disagree. He said that the week after I had just finished doing one on one trainings with all the zone leaders emphasizing the power and potential of connecting with people everywhere, not just our proselyting areas in Mesa or Tempe. I wasn't very happy. I used 8 hours of my time to do these trainings. He sat in on one and said he loved it. Then later he went in front of everyone I had just trained to tell them the complete opposite. Not cool.

He told people to refer those we do not know to local missionaries then move on to finding local people. I totally disagree. 

I talked to this man and President Toone afterwards about it. I told them the miracles I'm seeing through it. President Toone talked to me later and said, "You're the exception, Elder Johnson, not the norm." 70% of our mission hasn't even taught a lesson on Facebook yet. And with them being pushed strongly to teach locally, that number will stay that way since they can't look outwards for investigators. 

I see online proselyting differently than SLC. They see it as 99% your own proselyting area. I see it 50% 50%. I am teaching people that live in Mesa over Facebook that we can't visit due to family situations. But I am also teaching people in Africa, Europa, etc who are meeting with missionaries, going to church, and setting goals for baptisms. When Facebook was introduced we were told that we were called to the AZ Tempe mission but our area now also includes the world. That was an inspired statement because I've seen it become a reality. 

Anyway, I have President Toone's complete support to continue doing what I've been doing on Facebook and other tools. The vision that that side of the proselyting department has right now isn't high enough.

Good thing the gospel is still true!

Elder Gaspar is home now. This mission couldn't get rid of him though! He went to the airport for his flight and, once dropped off, realized that his flight was cancelled. So he got a ride back to the mission office and hung around an extra 40 hours waiting for his next flight haha. Poor guy.

We had a neat experience this last week as we were driving to visit someone. We were in a really sketchy part of Mesa and drove past this apartment and I felt immediately that we needed to knock the door. I turned the car around, drove back to the apartment, and knocked the door. A heavily tatoo'd man answered and said, "JOAN! THE MORMONS ARE HERE FOR YOU!" I said, "We're here for you too!" 

They let us in. I was already surprised! Turns out they were a member family (part less active, some active) that had just moved in and needed to know where church was and at what time it was. 

God works in mysterious ways.

Anyway, I'm excited to Skype this week! Merry Christmas everyone!

Thanks Grandpa and Grandma for the package! Love you!

Con amor,

Elder Johnson

25 November 2013

That was the fastest 6 weeks of my life. Daaaang.

The highlight of this past week is this picture. She was finally baptized! President Toone came to teach her with us a few weeks ago and they hit it right off. It was only natural that she ask him to do it. That in and of itself was pretty special.

The service was powerful. President Toone's voice is as deep as he is tall and it made the baptismal prayer super intense. Our baptismal talk cancelled since her husband had to go to the ER so Sister Toone filled in and did a wonderful job. One of the local members gave the talk on the gift of the Holy Ghost and did the best talk I've ever heard.

He had served in the military for some time and was a paratrooper. He spoke about how sitting in that plane waiting to jump is a nerve racking experience and it is very loud. He said that as soon as you jump, you are surrounded by comparative silence. Everything just fades away and "for a brief moment you have the view of the angels." Ah, it was so great.

There was a great turnout at the baptism, including several missionaries who had originally taught her. 

That was a powerful powerful baptismal service and one I'll never forget. Her conversion is so deep, I wish everyone could have seen and felt her smile. I've never seen anyone so happy.

I confirmed her yesterday in church and, to our surprise, President and Sister Toone showed up for that as well! Pretty cool.

The church is trying to decide whether or not to equip these "hastening devices" with mobile phones that have hotspots. In our area we have an iPhone and an iPad, but the rest of the mission outside of Mesa zone uses just the wifi iPads. For my 4 months here we have been making the case for getting hotspot enabled phones in every area. 

We had a miracle happen that hopefully helps the Brethren make the decision. On Tuesday morning, I think, during our breakfast, we were able to teach four different lessons to people in four different countries. These were people we had been struggling to make contact with due to time zones. Well, we decided to forward that experience on to our contact in SLC. He texted us back an hour later,

"Your experience has been well received. Will you text me your mission, area, and names so I can  copy and paste the info in an email message that will get forwarded to department leaders and the Brethren. Thanks!"

Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?!?!?! They're sending OUR experience to the Apostles?! With OUR names?! That shocked me, I thought someone would just summarize the story for them! How cool is that?!?!?!?

We went to the temple this past week. Always a very uplifting experience. There were lots of missionaries there and it was nice to see everyone again.

I got super stressed this past week while thinking about the future. A lot of wards in the area are way too unorganized. I was sitting there thinking about who was going to take care of the people we were baptizing into the area... We aren't going to be here in Mesa forever...

So the next day I took Elder Gaspar out to a Chinese buffet for lunch to relax. I stumbled upon some money I had hidden from myself from last Christmas. Miracle! That meal was just perfect and it did the trick. 

I have the best brothers in the world. 

We went to the visitors center this past weekend with the woman who got baptized. A year ago, she walked in there and was taught by the sister missionaries. She frequently tells us of her first experience seeing the picture of the First Vision (the one with Joseph Smith facing away from us and Jesus Christ and God the Father facing towards us) for the first time. She said she couldn't sleep that night because she felt the spirit so strongly. She didn't want to sleep.

It is "the picture that started it all" for her so we managed to find a copy of it from a member and gave it to her in a frame at her baptism. It is hanging in her home.

But we went back to the visitors center with her and she had another amazing experience. We went the day before her baptism and, again, she couldn't and wouldn't sleep at all that night! She is so excited to go inside the temple. This is a deep deep conversion that will bless the lives of her family forever. She has already referred her friends and family to missionaries. I wish all members had that kind of enthusiasm...

Apparently Elder Gaspar and I are famous in the Mesa Alma stake. News that we both play violin has gotten everywhere and people keep commenting about it. We played in church yesterday with the choir and the high counselors that were there mentioned before hand that they had already heard about us haha. Hopefully we don't get split up at transfers - playing together is way fun.

Yesterday after church Bishop told President Toone that he should leave us in the area. "As of now there aren't any plans of moving," he said. Five or so minutes later as we were talking to Bishop, President Toone walked by and said, laughing, "He told me to transfer you too!" hahaha

SLC sent a researcher to our mission last week to interview missionaries on how they're using the "hastening devices" and whether or not it is working. We had a nice two hour interview with him right before he left. He summarized some of the feelings that some missionaries had and asked for our views, as well as advice, on certain issues. It was a neat experience. It is a really unique place to be in here. This program is rolling out to 6,000 missionaries now and they're asking us how to do it since this has never ever been done before.

Cool.

This was a good week. Every week is a good week. I've never felt so optimistic before. Life is good. Bad things happen but life is good.

(I'm not going to be able to write anyone today - P-day ends at 1PM since we'll be staying in most of Thanksgiving day.)

Thanks for the letters family! 

Love you all!

Elder Johnson

4 November 2013

This is going to be a quickly typed letter. President Toone has asked me to do another write up on the mission's facebook page about some things...

A few weeks ago I sat down with President Toone and he asked me to be the technology specialist. "I'm asking you to do something but I don't know what I'm asking you to do," is what he said. I said ok, left the room, and nothing happened. Facebook had just gone mission-wide and I was getting so many ideas I didn't know what to do with them. He told me that all these ideas I presented to him were answers to his prayers. That was humbling. This past Monday night at MLC he made the assignment official. 

And with that assignment the week became un poco loco. 

This was a crazy week. No, this was a hectic week. No, this was an insane week!

Why?

Because iPads went mission-wide. 205 iPad minis arrived in the mission on Sunday night. The church got a killer discount from Apple. 

2%.

On Monday from 5pm-9pm we had a mission leadership council meeting (MLC) where we talked about the needs of the mission. On Tuesday from 8am-12am we had a special training for the MLC about how to use the iPads. Lee Donaldson, Director of Proselyting, came as well as the other leaders to introduce the technology and how to use it. From 1pm-4pm, three zones gathered, including ours, to receive the iPads and the training. 

 

 

 

President Toone and Lee Donaldson asked me to be present at all the meetings. After the first day, Lee Donaldson came over to me, pulled me aside, and said, "Do you think you could do all of this?" At first it sounded like a job offer hahaha. He continued and said, "Can you replace all of us and do these trainings? We don't feel we need to be here since you can do this for us."

And so they all left. 

They left me in charge of the training on how to enroll the devices in the program, how to train on the AreaBook app, and so forth. They downloaded the presentations onto a flash drive for me and said adios. 

All day on Tuesday we were doing trainings.

All day on Wednesday we were doing trainings,

All day on Thursday we were doing trainings.

I've never spoken so much in my life. The phone has never rung so much in my entire life. Missionaries from every zone and area have been calling us with questions. 

On Thursday morning we woke up at 5am to prepare to go to Casa Grande and Yuma. We were at the mission office at 6am preparing the car with 80+ iPads, four routers, a 100 foot long ethernet cable, a projector, laptop, and dozens of other materials. 

At 6:15 we realized we had lost the 70$ cable that connected the iPad to the projector. The cable was one that the SLC reps had given to me and said, "send this and the routers back to use in a month." The presentation would be very difficult without it.

President Toone gave us his credit card and sent us to Walmart to buy a new one. Yesterday we found the old one and sent it back to SLC today.

At 8:00am we arrived in Casa Grande. There wasn't enough bandwidth and the internet was super slooow.

At 1:00pm we left to Yuma. At 4:00pm we arrived. 

President Toone surprised us and the APs by putting us up in a hotel for the night. It. Was. Awesome. It was also the first time in 16 months I had been on an elevator! That was the best night sleep I've had in my entire mission.

The training in Yuma went smoothly. 

I was fortunate enough to run into someone I had taught months ago in Yuma. When I had left something big had happened in his life and it didn't look like baptism would happen soon. Well in Yuma last week he told me that he had married a member and had been baptized. It was heartwarming and made the trip 5x better.

The drive there and back was a nostalgic experience. 

We spent the night in the hotel, woke up at 4:50 the next morning, took pictures by the California state line, and started our journey back to Mesa. We arrived 1 minute before our Friday morning planning meeting started.

So yeah. Hectic week. Less than 12 hours of sleep in two days and each of those days was over 17 hours long. 

I was reflecting on how cool this experience was the other day. It was one of the highlights of my mission. I got to train alongside the director of proselyting, someone who I have deep respect for. He was the Mission President in the District 2 videos and apparently a close friend of Grandpa and Grandma Johnson! He made a nice comment about them to me.

We also had the opportunity to go to dinner with President and Sister Toone and the assistants. That was a very special experience.

The vision of the AreaBook app is amazing. The ward mission leader and bishop will have access to the app and the missionary's planner. He will be able to make plans for them. All information will be streamlined and clearly visible. A progress report will be generated automatically and submitted to ward leaders. 

We are already seeing miracles from the AreaBook. The sisters were putting in a former investigator from long ago and felt inspired to call him. He wanted to meet immediately. He is now on date for baptism. We found two new investigators in the home where one of our former investigators used to live but recently moved from. We never would have found them without looking at that sheet and digitizing the data.

Miracles. Miracles everywhere.

At church we only had one person we are teaching there. A decline from eight or so the week before. Not surprising since we barely worked our area this week. But he loved church. He got up and bore his testimony. He's from Kenya and everyone loves his accent. He offered one of the most powerful prayers I've heard in my entire life and we walked out of the lesson shell-shocked. BAM.

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

24 June 2013

Dear Family and Friends,

This week was awesome. The best week since February. Why?

We taught her for the first time on Monday and she was on date for July 6th. On Thursday we invited her to move it to June 29th. She said no since they would be out of town and suggested....that Saturday! So in two days we organized the entire baptism and invited everyone. She had been to church before for quite some time. It was a great turnout and the first in the ward for 10 months. The work is picking up with the Hermanas having one next week (who lives in our area...), and us in two weeks again with someone else. 

So that was definitely the highlite. But there were other things that made the week great as well! 

A dog bit me this week. We were walking over to someone and this dog got loose and ran straight at me. It was a 1 year old chihuahua that couldn't get its mouth around my shoelace if it had wanted to so no damage was done. Regardless it made talking to the person a little difficult since I was busy kicking it off me with my foot... In that same conversation her 13 year old daughter came out and said, "I LOVE your eyes Elder....Johnson!" It was a really weird OYM.

We moved this week. The night before transfers at 10pm they called us and said, "Pack your bags, you're moving down near Queen Creek!" I sat there for a second in silence thinking to the Queen Creek zone and Gilbert mission but he clarified and said Queen Creek Road. So we stayed up till 12am packing our bags and moved everything that next morning. They said we'd stay in the Chandler zone.

But that didn't happen either. At transfers they split all the zones and opened 4 or 5 new zones as well as made all the new zones for the Gilbert mission. We are now in the "Gilbert West" zone despite the fact that we live in a different part of Chandler still. They're going to rename the zone on July 1st when the mission split takes affect to either the Gilbert zone or the Ray Zone. I'm hoping for the latter. We still cover the same ward and same area (thank goodness) so we cover two zones now. 

Transfers was CRAAAAZZZYYYYYY. 240 missionaries in that room all singing Called to Serve was pretty sweet. It was the last chance I had to see some of the great people I've met as the Tempe mission gets split into the Scottsdale, Gilbert, and Mesa missions. Bittersweet. Luckily my whole MTC district is staying together in the Tempe Mission. We thought we'd take a picture to commemorate. 

Happy as always.

The mission actually got Jeep Compasses, not Grand Cherokees, for the missionaries in the mountains. They're pretty cool.

Speaking of cool, I got to see some of the old members from Yuma at transfers! It was awesome! Brother Borgerson and Brother Allen were both there giving rides and it was great to see and talk to them again. I told them I'd be back there next February. Apparently the work has slowed quite a bit down there.

Does anyone in the DC South mission know Elder Payne? He's best friends with Elder Janis, our roommate.

I ripped my first shirt this week. We walked up some steps to visit someone and my shirt caught on the window. It ripped about a 7" hole along the left sleeve. I was pretty bummed at first then I went back to look at the corner and realized that if my arm had been 1/2" closer it would have cut my arm open pretty deep. That window was super sharp. Blessings in disguise...

The apartment we live in right now has one room. There are four of us there. There was some miss communication somewhere and now we're sleeping on the worst beds in the world. We're moving next week on July 1st... So, after June 26th you can send letters to this address:1889 W Queen Creek Rd #1115, Chandler AZ 85248. We have a private lake we can't use. 

Anyway, because our apartment is so small (we have two chairs) we put our desks outside on the patio and study there. It's miserable since it's so hot. I'm not unpacking. We've moved 3 times now since May and once more next week. 4 times in 7 weeks... Ridiculous. We joke about how they just move us to clean up the apartments.

We got some time to spend with the missionaries in the Mesa zone at transfers to talk about iPads and iPhones in missionary work. As we saw in that stellar broadcast last night they're upping the amount of technology in missionary work. In Mesa zone, every missionary has a personal iPad Mini and each companionship has an iPhone 5. It's super sleek. They're also given permission on Faceboook to "proselyte on Facebook." They are even allowed to be friends with family. 

This week someone asked us what we were doing there. I felt the situation was right so I quoted Paul (more or less) and said, "we're here to help you repent and be baptized!" I was a little nervous about what they would say but they just said, "hm, ok" and walked away. 

I was reflecting on the last year I've had here with President Howes. I was also thinking about my first interview with him that I wrote about in my first few weeks. I remember not liking what he told me. But I realized that that first interview changed my entire mission for the better. Looking back on it that was the single most trans formative event in my entire mission and all I had to do to realize it was humble myself. I'm so grateful for the time I've had to learn from President and Sister Howes and will miss them both dearly. They have less than a week left.

I found an Ensign from the June 1976 issue and read an awesome section in the "I Have a Question" section about rebellions. Informative.

I'm approaching 3rd Nephi in the Book of Mormon. We have a week left to finish it. From the last 300 or so pages what has struck out to me is the major difference between the Lamanites and the Nephites. I think it's obviously connected to their faith in God but it's a bit deeper than that answer. I've come to see that the principle difference between the two is the capacity to forgive. The lamanites hold grudges for centuries and it consumes them whereas, for the most part, the Nephites learn to forgive and forget and as a result they're, for the most part, blessed. Good life lesson there.

I've filled my first journal!

And now for the elephant in the room...the broadcast last night! I hope everyone watched it. And for those who didn't, go to lds.org right now and watch it. I was hoping for some huge announcement which never came but nonetheless it was awesome! They re-stated what has always been said but also showed how to do it. I think my favorite part was Elder Anderson's. Unfortunately not many in the spanish ward went and we're pretty sad about that but we'll take what we learned and teach the members. If any ward can implement it, the Ray 5th ward can!

We love that ward. Last night we had dinner with the Bishop and his family. Ahhhh, they're the best. They made a chocolate cake for me and a Key Lime pie for Elder Diaz. They have such great love for the gospel and last night it felt like we were home again. Such a great family and such great leadership for the ward. We're so blessed to serve with them.

Last night someone threatened to call the cops on me. Some people just ignore us when we speak to them and pretend we're not there. I don't like that so I usually stand there in silence with them waiting for them to tell me something. This person said nothing and then when I stood there in silence for a bit she said, "I'm going to call the cops on you if you don't leave!" 

We also talked with someone last night who told us right away that she wasn't interested. I said, "do you know what we share with people?" She said no and I asked her, "How can you not be interested if we don't know what we do?" She laughed and we invited her to visit mormon.org then headed off when she said she had to go.

We set our baptismal goal for 3 in the month of July. Bring it on.

Thanks Susie, Tanan, Eric, Will, Mom, and Sister Hines for the great letters!

Thank you all so much for being so supportive! 

Con mucho amor,

Elder Johnson

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