6 January 2014

When Elder Diaz and I are together, miracles happen. Everytime. It's ridiculous. We both just have the expectation that we're going to see miracles and we do everything we can to qualify ourselves for miracles.

One of the miracles from this past week was putting a very prepared woman on date for baptism. She and her husband have come to church for over a month, have read the entire gospel principles book (in two weeks), and read the Book of Mormon daily. They're past chapter 8 and LOVE it. It's awesome. But they were hesitant to get baptized since they wanted to wait until the husband's family from Colombia arrived. 

But they're read now.

We had a powerful lesson with them this past weekend. Their children (10, 14) live in Mexico and are members. The daughter called the mother before the lesson started and we had the daughter, 10, on the phone for the whole lesson. IT was awesome. She said she wanted her parents to get baptized. She also said she wanted to serve a mission, "and teach all the Catholics!" We laughed super hard.

We watched, "On the Road to Damascus," and talked about acting in faith. Now, the mother is on date for two weeks from now. The father is still wanting to wait for Feb. That's ok, we feel. She is so ready and so excited for baptism and we are sure that he will be baptized when she does. They are an amazing family and the result of much prayer.

Another miracle that we saw this past week happened on Friday. Oh man. It. Was. AWESOME! Here's the story:

 We had both just done an exchange with two other missionaries (changing companions for 24 hours as a learning experience). We both had awesome exchanges and specifically looked for miracles. Two of our miracles included getting two twenty dollar bills from random people.  Another one was finding a very prepared Muslim from Fiji who wanted to get baptized.

After our exchange, we realized we had inadvertently taught and focused on the same exact things. Inspired! We were excited and when we got home we decided to check the mail. To our surprise we found a referral inside.

I looked at it and said, "This is going to be a family of four who wants to get baptized."

We opened it...

And it was! A family of four who wanted to get baptized! We called them immediately and set up an appointment for the next day. The father referred themselves. They go to SLC twice a year, every year. They're surrounded by members and have been for years.They go to the temple lights every year and already own church DVDs. 

Our first visit was inspiring. They're an amazing family. As soon as we entered that home, we felt something special. It was powerful. They accepted a baptismal date ten minutes into our first visit. He quickly said, "But wait, I still want to have these lessons!" I replied, "Haha, don't worry, we do too!!" 

We love that family. They came to church and LOVED it. The five year old didn't want to leave the mother and so she sat through primary with her. She loved Primary. They both loved Primary.

And behind this whole story is a man who has been offering help for years. Their close friend who lives some miles away. He has always been there for him. In fact, this family has had inspiring encounters with Mormons for years: one included a random wrong phone call that turned into a friendship from a member of the church. 

Members, you don't know when your efforts will come to blossom, but they do and we love you for it!!!! 

The funny thing about this story is that the father that we were teaching is the one who invited his member friend to church. He called him up one day and said, "Hey, friend, I'm going to church tomorrow! Will you come with me?" Hahahaha. I responded, "Wait, wait, wait, so YOU invited your member friend to church?" I died, so funny.

This family is the most elect family I've ever seen. They're all ready. They're all progressing. And after 24 hours they commented to us on the changes they're already seeing in their family and their happiness. They're putting the gospel to the test and making it happen!!! 

We love them. After that visit we made a frantic phone call to President Toone and said, "YOU CAN'T TRANSFER US." He laughed and said he doesn't want to split us up and will do everything he can to not. That means 7.5 months in Mesa for me! Elder Diaz and I will have had over 15 baptisms together. That's a good companionship...

Our Bishops are calling and requesting we stay too haha. WHATEVER IT TAKES! When we walked through the door with the family last week, the bishop pulled me aside and said, "I just got chills! Good work Elders!" 

And that's just one ward...we have another family of 3 in the Spanish ward that, "want to get baptized" and it will be a February baptism.

Life. Is. So. Good.

And you know what goes behind it? President Toone, in their zone conference trainings, has been making this promise to all the missionaries. "I promise you that if you're obedient, you will unite a family in the gospel in these next few months."

Well, we're doing everything we can and we have found two families in both of our wards who want to get baptized! And President hasn't even come to Mesa to do those trainings yet, the promise is just working! We're getting the members super involved and every visit we have, the members invite the investigator family in the Spanish ward to get baptized. One said, "It was great to see you today! I'll see you on Saturday at your baptism, right?!" 

Spanish members have no shame! They're all converts and they're all super bold! It's awesome.

We've been developing a game this past week to use with members. It was Elder Diaz's idea and was super inspired. The game is called, "Many are called...many are chosen." The idea is that we visit member families and get the competitive side out. We sit down, go over some rules, and then give them two minutes to write every name they know - members, family, friends, whatever it could be. After two minutes we see which team has the most. That team chooses someone to say a prayer. Afterwards, we sit in silence and look over the names and see they feel inspired to visit/call/Facebook/whatever. We have those members call/contact those people right there on the spot while the spirit is super strong.

It works. We're seeing miracles now because of it. And the whole zone is catching fire! 

In January, that will be our focus. Miracles, miracles, miracles, and miracles. We are envisioning that each companionship can get 20 referrals per week (15x what we're at right now) and help fourteen people come closer to Christ through baptism. There are 17 who are working towards a baptismal date as of last night, 17 at church, and 17 progressing towards that date. 

It's just all coming together.

And if I get transferred away... idontevenknowwhatiddo!

I've got a good feeling that I'll be here for nine months. We'll see though! It might be safest to send any letters to the mission office if you can't send them by Wednesday.

Thank you, family, for the letters this past week!

Con mucho amor,!

Elder Johnson

30 December 2013

Well, Christmas has come and gone and with it it has brought many miracles! 

It was nice to be able to Skype home. I'm still waiting for you to put the pictures on Facebook! It was a fun conversation! Thanks family, you're the best!!

Speaking of family, I was able to do something unique this past week: Skype Mom and Mark into two separate lessons that I had! We were teaching two separate lessons at the church building that night and had wifi and thought, 'hey, Mom speaks spanish...lets get her into this lesson!" and then, "Hey, Mark barely speaks English, lets get him into this lesson so he can learn a little more english!" They both went great.

And they were both baptized two days ago :)

We've recently decided that we aren't going to visit people anymore. This last week was our first time doing that for an entire week.

To clarify: our investigators come to us. We have their fellowships pick them up and take them to the church where we meet and talk. For new investigators, it is a great opportunity to give a tour of the chapel. For current investigators, it is a great opportunity to get away from the many distractions we so often run into: TV, music, cars, angry family members, birds, chihuahuas, and drugs. It works.

Mom, remember the awesome woman that you met over Skype? She and her entire family went to her son's baptism and to church the next day. They loved it. More on that later.

Christmas week is always a hard week to find people to teach. On Christmas Eve we worked until 1:00pm and then had P-Day until 6. At 6, we went caroling as a district. Those are always great memories. We got in our "drug rugs", santa hats, and went and visited some great people. We never said we were great singers but it was an awesome experience.

After the caroling, we met together as a zone and had a testimony meeting. It was a highlight of the week.

Christmas day was fun. We got up and did our morning studies and then the rest of the day was a P-day. That's when I skype'd home, had a nice lunch at a member's home, and then got together as a zone to play floor hockey. Fun times.

Like I said, we had two baptisms this last weekend. They're both amazing people who have developed strong testimonies. One was found, taught, and baptized in a grand total of 18 days. The other has been about three months. One of them was baptized amidst intense family opposition. Preachers got involved, anti literature was shared, and negative things were said. Regardless, this person stayed strong to the testimony she had received and was baptized. She said, "God has told me this is for me. I must do it." She's an awesome example for us all. 

It always makes me sigh when family members say, "HEY, BEFORE YOU GET BAPTIZED COME LEARN ABOUT MORMONS FROM MY PREACHER!" What? How is that even logical? I would never go to a Buddhist to learn about Catholicism. I would never go to a Mormon to learn about Wickens. To. The. Source.

We have changed how we do baptismal services. Historically they go, 

1. Opening hymn

2. Opening prayer

3. Talk on baptism

4. Ordinance of baptism

5. Talk on holy ghost

6. Welcome to ward

7. Closing hymn

8. Closing prayer

I've never liked that. When I was with Elder Harder we threw away the welcome to the ward's because they drag on and chase the awesome spirit that follows a baptismal ordinance away. But we tried something new this past weekend and it was AMAZING. The new baptismal program went like this:

1. Opening hymn

2. Opening prayer

3. Talk on whatever

4. Talk on whatever (don't need two)

~~hymn~~

5. Ordinance of baptism

6. Recent convert shares testimony

7. Closing hymn

8. Closing prayer

BAM! No refreshments. End on super high note, leave. The service only takes about 30 minutes then and it is so much more powerful.

I have another exciting announcement! Elder Holland is coming to our mission in a little under two weeks! And President Toone asked if Elder Myler and I would be involved in a violin/vocal/cello/piano musical number for him and two mission's worth of missionaries! We'll be performing, "Because He Lives," and it's super hard. I spent three hours getting five measures down...and I'm still not confident about it. It'll come together though, it always does somehow. It is so much fun to practice together. Mom said on the Skype call, "You're playing more violin on your mission than you did in your last year home!" 

That's sadly true....At least more in Mesa than I did back home.

Mesa Zone ended the month with nine baptisms. Seven of the nine came from member referrals and the other two came from mormon.org self referrals. Interesting how that works. Elder Diaz and I sat down yesterday and prayerfully put some new ideas together for the month of January; things we can and need to improve on to do better. We know we can! All those nine people have such strong testimonies and are so grateful. They have the desire to share the gospel too because they've seen and felt the change that it has made in their lives.

Anyway, HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE! Thanks family for the letters!

Con amor!

Elder Johnson

19 August 2013

Dear Friends and Family,

Elder Cardon of the Seventy came to our mission this week. 

He did a special fireside for all investigators in the mission on Saturday night. We were asked to translate from English to Spanish and it was an interesting experience. Before the fireside we went and knelt to pray and ask for help translating. I was nervous since what he would say would be powerful and I wanted to be able to convey it to the audience in words just as powerful but in Spanish. It was a humbling experience as I was able to translate far above my skill level. There was definitely much divine help involved in that. I was using words I didn't use any conjugations I didn't know. 

The next night he held a special missionary leadership council and sat down with 14 of us in a small room on ASU campus to talk about "the Work of Salvation." The church is moving away from "Missionary Work" and is going to be using the words, "the Work of Salvation" more since it is more inclusive and is more inviting. It was a really cool meeting and it got really really intense at one point. He is a powerful man and not scared to say what's on his mind haha. Much revelation was received. 

I was thinking this week about missions. It struck me that I think we go on missions for more than just other peoples' benefit. Duh, I don't know why this hasn't hit me before but it hadn't. It struck me that missions are a huge benefit to our personal salvation as well. I was just thinking about where else I could be and what else I could be doing and nothing seemed half as important for my own well being as well as of others. I then thought about how much the church membership is blessed by full time mission service, not just during the mission but for the rest of their lives and eternity. The principles you learn as a missionary are for far more than 24 months: planning, dedication, concentration, how to love, serve, lose yourself to help others (and then find yourself), the list could go on. 

It was also really cool to teach a lesson over Facebook with Mark this week! I've been trying so hard to find ways to be effective on Facebook. I had a meeting with President Toone this week while on exchanges with the Assistants and we talked about the progress of the iPads, Facebook, and the technology initiative. He mentioned some really cool things that I won't repeat but also mentioned that the missionary department isn't getting as much feedback as they wanted. So this week I made a survey and sent it out to the missionaries using the iPads and Facebook - kind of a self assessment. This morning I got all the results back and they were really interesting. Most people didn't understand how to be effective. So today I'm going to put the results into a presentable document and send it to SLC and the Director of the Missionary Department and President Toone to let them do whatever they wanted with that information.

I've been in contact this week with the Director of Proselyting in the world (he's awesome!) about Facebook asking for ways we can be better and other missionaries' success stories. He mentioned that one mission tripled their weekly teaching opportunities because of Facebook. I told him I set a goal to help two people get baptized through Facebook before I get transferred away from it. But maybe it'll go mission-wide before that, we'll see. Just these past two weeks we've seen hundreds and hundreds of new missionaries get on Facebook.

 It's beginning.

We had a really awesome experience this week. One of our most amazing investigators was reading "for fun" in the Lorenzo Snow manual this week and discovered that he lived in the same city as her great great etc grandpa! She hopped online and did some family history. Turns out she loves family history and has gone back more than 500 years into her family history. Crazy!! 

She is so prepared for the gospel. She's getting baptized next week and was interviewed yesterday. It will have been two  weeks since we met her and she was ready for baptism on day one. Yesterday she taught me an amazing principle during our lesson. I was getting ready to teach a commandment and commit her to it and before I even presented it she said, "ok, I'll live it!" She has received her personal testimony and it continues to grow everyday.

I left thinking, "am I willing to accept  so quickly the words that come from the living Prophet today?" I'm not a prophet, by no means, but what I mean was her willingness to accept something new from someone called to teach it. The Prophet is called to teach it. So, are you willing to commit to live a commandment before you even hear it? Is your faith that strong? I hope we can all get there and be like this wonderful woman we are teaching.

But it gets better! She repented in the lesson we taught! We told her something, she mentioned she did it, and without a direct invitation from us she prayed and asked for forgiveness during her prayer. Ah, so much faith.

At a family home evening activity this week I won a laser pointer pistol that shocks you when you pull the trigger. Needless to say, I shocked many people this week :)

Oh, I forgot I haven't even written about the anti that punched me this week! Ok, here goes!

After translating for the meeting with Elder Cardon we hopped in the Cruze and started driving home only to realize we were out of gas. Oh no! So we pulled into a Circle K and went inside to buy a drank. As we walked inside a woman approached us and immediately started to anti us. I'm not going to write everything she said but needless to say she was an excommunicated woman who had been through the temple. She went off and off about things she shouldn't have and said things that didn't make any sense. Among some of her claims were that the Catholic church founded the LDS church, that we are Masons, that Mormons run the government, that we are connected to the mafia and the iluminati, and that she was a descendant of Christ and was Christian royalty. She followed us outside and continued to talk to us. In an attempt to change the topic, Elder Harder said, "This is a good milkshake!" She promptly took it and drank it. She told us to follow her home and see her Porsche and how she was connected to the highest ranked Jews. She said because I'm 20 she will know more than I will ever know since she was 45. Ok. I started to testify to her and she talked over me. So then I said, "Listen, these conspiracy theories don't -" and then she cut me off. "CONSPIRACY THEORIES? KENNEDY HAD HIS BRAINS BLOWN OUT TO BRING THESE FACTS TO LIFE!" I smiled because it didn't make any sense and I had heard enough and then she went berserk.

Like really, she went insane. More than previous, which I didn't think possible. She walked really really close to me and started screaming in my face what my name means, how I'm iluminati, and then she did what made me most mad; she flicked my name tag twice. At this point I was starting to get pretty angry so I just turned around and walked away. I didn't want to say anything I would regret. As I walked away she screamed obscenities at me and then ran at me from behind as I was walking and looking forward and punched me in the back.

A bunch of people saw and heard her since we were in public.

Anyway, I forgave her and moved on but it was really intense. If she had had something to hit me with other than her fist I'm sure she would have used it. I've never seen anything escalate so quickly.

And it turns out that Elder Perez was anti'd by her a year ago at Walmart! Small world! I mentioned her name to him and he just looked at me and laughed and said, "I know her!"

So that was exciting. 

We have two baptisms coming up next week. We were supposed to have one on the 17th but something intense happened. 

We fasted as a zone yesterday for miracles and in the middle of the fast we got a text from the Ward Mission Leader saying, "Prepared family of three ready to be baptized!" followed by address and information. 

Miracles, man.

Elder Harder's flight information for his flight home arrived this week. He leaves in twenty days. He is hanging in strong and I frequently thank him for that.

What mission is Arlington in now?

Thanks Mom, Eric, Will, and Elizabeth for the letters!

Hope all is well with all,

Love,

Elder Johnson

29 July 2013

President Toone called last night. He talked to both Elder Diaz and I. Elder Diaz is training. The second he said he wanted to talk to me my heart dropped since I knew it would mean I would leave. He asked me to 'step up' and then later to pack my bags. 

I have loved this area. I've loved this district. District meetings were always so much fun and I loved preparing the training and whatnot. I was hoping to stay there for a long time since it is a more personal calling. I'm still working on making myself be excited because mostly I'm just sad to leave.

Right now we have six people getting baptized, easily, in August. Six! Ahhh! This is what happened to Elder Sawyer, he got transferred right before six people he taught got baptized. I'll be sad to miss the baptisms.

So in short: I'm getting transferred. Three months of happiness here in Chandler serving in one of the best wards. I'm going to miss the members, the recent converts, and our roommates and Elder Diaz.

Yesterday at church we finally saw the fruits of all our labors with the members. Members had brought friends to church! There were 5 there that members had brought all on their own! After our talks last week and all our visits it's finally paying off. When we got to this area the members didn't trust the missionaries and there was nothing going on. I'm so happy I got to see it turn around and am devastated not to see the amazing results that are just around the corner. 

Speaking of results. We had two baptisms this past Saturday!! They were awesome. We started fifteen minutes late since one of the soon-to-be-recent-converts roommates started fighting him and threatening to call the cops. Baptisms are never easy....

And then during the service the person who said the prayer only prayed for one of the two and then the first speaker forgot one of their names....Ahhhhhh I was dying! But fortunately a comic relief saved the day. When one of them came out of the water (baptized by the bishop) he did the catholic cross thing with his hands and everyone started laughing. I got to baptize one of them and it was an amazing experience. Ahhh, I love baptisms. One we had to do after since he was super late ha. 

At church when he got the gift of the holy ghost he just sat in his chair afterwards and looked up slowly and said quietly, "what peace....what happiness..." and then gave us all hugs.

That was the most amazing sacrament meeting I've ever been to. There was a missionary returning, leaving, and the two confirmations. In between the talks the mother and her friend got up to sing to her departing daughter (Chicago, Illinois) and choked up and had to stop while her friend kept singing. For the last few lines the mother turned around and just looked at her daughter while she sang. The lyrics were all about handing her daughter over to the Lord and watching her grow etc etc. The spirit in that room was tangible. 

Someone asked us this week if we had horns.

We had a pretty cool experience with an investigator. She is going to ask her mom if she can be baptized. We had her pretend that Elder Diaz was her mom and she practiced what to say. In that little role play she bore her testimony and it was super super powerful. Dangit I'l miss that baptism too! 

One of the Sister Training Leaders (STLs) from the Mesa zone was over at our dinner appointment doing exchanges. She did the dinner message but used her iPad Mini to show a video clip from President Eyring. It was waaaaay cool. Jealous! 

Chandler is being taken over by Tesla Model S's! They're way sleek.

This week Elder Janis is working me out hard this week haha. Last monday I told him to make me an exercise plan that I can do everyday for the next months. He took it to heart. He was a fitness trainer back home and is watching everything I eat and making us get up at 6 to do 30 mins of cardio and 30 mins of weights. I'm eating about 1700 calories a day and lots of Chia seeds. They taste terrible haha. I gave up chocolate. I know, crazy, right?

A little bit of background real quick. Mexicans love Novelas. Soap operas. This week we were teaching someone who said, "You know, I think the scriptures are a lot like Novelas." He stopped talking because I was laughing too hard. He never explained it hahahahahahahahhahaa.

We had an amazing meeting this past week. The Chandler East stake called all the ward council members, bishops, and missionaries in the stake together for a training. President and Sister Toone came and they trained on how to focus ward councils and meetings on missionary work. It was an amazing meeting. 

But I think my favorite part was when P. Toone spoke. He shared some awesome stories in response to some questions about the iPads. He said that while he was in the MTC being trained they had a training on the iPads and Tracy Watson, director of global proselyting, took out his iPad and said, "Hey, want to see where the missionaries in the Texas ____ mission are?" He then opened it and had real time tracking on them. But he quickly clarified and said, "Tracking them isn't the point." He said the Brethren and the Mission Presidents have complete access to lively monitor iPad usage. They can see when the last time the electronic area book was updated, the plans for the day, etc. Then he said again, "But tracking them isn't the point." He went on to tell some stories of the power behind the technology. The first story goes like this:

A woman calls the 1-800 referral number requesting a Book of Mormon. The missionary at HQ on the other line notices she lives in an area that is piloting iPads. The missionary sends a text to the mission president who sends one to the zone asking if any missionaries are nearby. One missionary, using the iPad, gets all the information, coordinates with the missionary at HQ, and replies, "I'm two doors away. I'm on my way over now." Before the woman calling HQ hangs up the phone, the missionary is at the door with the item she requested. Her response, "How did you do that?!" 

True story.

Another one. A husband is married to a member. He isn't a member. He decides to take missionary discussions but is a truck driver so never has time. The missionaries commit him to pull out Skype at rest stops. Over his 10 day trip they taught him everything over Skype as he traveled from Utah to New York. They coordinated church building locations and then skyped with him and his family after church. The man was amazed that the lessons in New York were the same in Utah and they shared thoughts on the lesson  10 days later the man returned, ready for baptism. 

True story.

The concern came up about missionaries abusing it. President Toone said, "We know. But the Brethren have said the Lord has created this for the spreading of the Gospel. The Brethren said it is too powerful not to use and if there are problems, they will deal with them as they come and they will learn better ways to control them, but "this tool needs to be used now."' 

In the next 6 months we should have them mission wide. 

This Wednesday the mission is receiving 41 new missionaries. 1/3rd the mission will be training. 

I set a goal for myself to read the Book of Mormon in 6 weeks. That's about 115 pages a week. I'm 60 pages into it and it's going really really well. 

One of our recent converts told us the funniest story this week. His friend was baptized a Jehovah's Witness and they said that when he comes out of the water he should, "see Jehovah standing." So the first time he got baptized he said he saw nothing. They baptized him again. Again he said he saw nothing. Four to five times they baptized him and then finally he came out of the water gasping saying, "Yes, I saw them!" The newly-baptized JW  told our recent convert that he felt like he was drowning and so he just told them. Our recent convert was dying of laughter while telling us the story aahha

This week our recent convert told us, "Science has a limit. God doesn't." It was super insightful. He was telling us about the opposition he received in deciding to be baptized. His other pastor started anti-ing him. Just like last time, our recent convert anti'd him back and won haha. The story was super intense and our recent convert said words were coming to him and he didn't know where they were coming from.

We have been having a big problem recently at church. We have too many investigators to sit with and we don't have time to talk with them all? I love that problem. It's my favorite problem to have. Last week we had 8 at church and this week we had 6. We have really good relationships with our members. When we walked into ward council meeting they all got up and gave us hugs. Ah I'll miss this ward.

Last night someone freaked out at us and started screaming at us. We were talking with a woman in an apartment complex and a very heavily tatooed man ran at us screaming TONS of obscenities, calling us names, and telling us we can't solicit. We don't solicit, we invite. By Arizona law that is recognized but no one knows that. So he screamed and screamed and threatened to call the cops on us. I wanted to tell him to do it because they'd be on our side but we just walked away. I was worried for our member, an 85 year old. Later his neighbor apologized and explained that we can't be there for soliciting. We explained to her that we're allowed to be there and then left.

Anyway, this has been an awesome three months. I've learned a ton and have grown a ton. I'm excited for what's ahead!

Thanks for all your support everyone! Thanks for writing Eric, Will, Mom, and Natalia! 

With love

EJ

Random question: Why do the monsoon clouds only come in in the afternoon?

Random question: Can someone tell me more about Madasa?

Random question: is there a way to produce darkness like we produce light?

22 July 2013

Dear Friends and Family,

Before I begin... This is week five! If you don't send a letter by this Wednesday to me in Chandler you should send it to the mission office at :  
1871 E. Del Rio Dr, Tempe AZ, 85282

Ok.

No one will ever guess what happened this week. No one. Except maybe someone who is familiar with miracles in the Bible.

With that introduction, I'll give a little background on a family we found this week. We were walking to visit a referral (who wasn't home) when a man yelled us over. We went over and he asked for a blessing for his wife. We were short on time so we set up an appointment and returned the next day. 

As we walked into his house he sat down and talked to us a bit. His mother was there, his son, and his wife was elsewhere. He told us a devastating story about his wife about how she has bone cancer and how she has had seven strokes recently. She has lost major control over her body and has not walked since January. He told us that he has so much faith and that he knows God can heal his wife. He told us that if it wasn't us that it would be someone else. Then he told us that he had talked to missionaries the week before, set up an appointment with them and then they never came back. Grrr. He said that when he saw us something told him he had to call us over, that he felt it in his heart. We prayed together. The spirit in the room was ridiculously strong. There was so much love there too.

He left to bring his wife over, to carry her to her wheel chair. It was heart breaking to see. He put her in the chair and we gave her a priesthood blessing. We left with a return appointment for the next day. 

We returned the next night. The whole family was outside.... and the wife was walking. She was walking. For the first time in almost eight months she was walking on her own. Her muscles shouldn't have been able to do that. It was a miracle. Through a priesthood blessing she had been healed. There was not a dry eye in that room that night. Not a single one. I'm still kind of in awe thinking about it - not surprised, but impressed. Impressed at priesthood power. 

After that lesson they gave us all their beer, all their cigarettes, and all their lighters and said they are never going back to that. They are on date to get baptized August 3rd.

They went to church yesterday and told the story in the gospel principles class and in priesthood. There was not a dry eye. 

That was what Jesus Christ did. He healed people. We were able to be a part of that this week. A miracle that Christ did. I don't really know what to say.

But you know what's crazy? That's not the only amazing miracle we saw this week. As a zone we have zero baptisms this month. ZERO. We are a brand new zone and not having a good start. So we fasted, all 14 of us, Saturday through Sunday. 

The first miracle of that fast was having eight investigators at church just in our companionship. I've never heard of a companionship having so many at church in just one ward. We had eight. Among some of investigators at church was our investigator who has supposed to get baptized July 1st who cancelled. He hasn't progressed much since then and we haven't visited him much. But during a torrential downpour on Saturday night we went by, soaked, and visited. We shared one scripture and invited him to church. He went. 

At church Elder Diaz and I spoke. It was probably the best talk I've ever delivered which was interesting since it was in Spanish. I put a lot of prayer into my talk and it came out pretty well. I spoke on "a mighty change of heart." After sacrament meeting he pulled us aside and the Bishop and said, "I'm sorry, but God has spoken to me." We thought he was going to drop us. He continued, "and I'm sorry, but...I want to get baptized next Saturday." BING BING BING BING! As a zone we fasted for a miracle and we had a miracle. We are going to be having two baptisms next Saturday to finish off the month and the transfer. We are very excited and are rushing to get everything figured out. That's my favorite problem to have!!! 

Everything is going so well right now. Of the eight we had at church, five have a baptismal date for the next three weeks and seven are progressing. EVERYTHING is going well. We're teaching in unity, we're finding, we're inviting, they're accepting, and it's raining! Things couldn't be any better! 

Which is a shame since transfers are next week. I'm pretty sure we're getting split up. Everyone is telling me I'm going to Phoenix or Coolidge. It would be fun to go to Coolidge since Elder Myler would be my companion again but I want to stay at least one more here with Elder Diaz to get all those baptisms and see these miracles turn into baptisms. But I go where I'm called.

This past week I was super tired as I wrote about. President and Sister Toone found out and each individually pulled me aside at Zone Conference to ask how I was doing. I was amazed how much they cared and then they mentioned they had prayed for me specifically and I felt even better haha. Ah, such great leaders.

It was interesting to watch President Toone at zone conference. While he wasn't talking, he was getting up every 30 seconds it seemed like to answer a phone call or respond to a text. They do so much in that calling; I'm convinced it's the hardest in the church. He gave us a little insight about what he's doing and how busy he has been since transfers are coming up. We talked about meshing the phoenix zones with the Tempe mission and he said, "both have unique mission songs, I don't even know which mission song to use!" It let me realize and appreciate a bit more the stress that he's dealing with right now.

Our other baptism this week is the funniest guy in the world. His name is Jesus and he always uses it jokingly and quotes the Bible but puts himself in for Jesus. Soooo funny. What's even better is that his wife's name is Maria = Mary. We asked him in a lesson this week what, "the door" was after reading a scripture describing it. He went off on a tangent and said, "AND IF YOU SEE A LIGHT, IT'S EL SENOR!!!!" Completely unrelated but so funny. 

Oh, there was another miracle this week! The housing coordinators brought me a waffle maker so I'm feasting on waffles for breakfast! Lesser miracle, shhhhh.

After one of our lessons we realized that we hadn't chosen a commitment to leave with one of our investigators. In a moment of inspired forgetfulness I asked her what her favorite number was and what her friend's favorite book in the Book of Mormon was. We came up with Alma 7. Perfeccctttt! That's a good chapter. She read it and received lots of great insights.

We street contacted this guy this week who said he didn't believe in the Holy Ghost. We quoted Christ and he left questioning what he believed. Success. 

Then we ran into someone who didn't believe in a judgement. We talked about how no unholy thing can dwell in God's presence and asked if I killed someone if I could live with God. She said no and then realized she contradicted herself. She goes to Cornerstone, the church that has anti-mormon classes during church. She was actually super nice though and left with a Book of Mormon and Restoration pamphlet in hand and committed to read them.

I'm going to baptize a Jehovah's Witness. The only problem is she doesn't speak Spanish and we don't cover an English ward. She is the third JW I've given a Book of Mormon to (miracle in and of itself) and committed to read it. She's amazingly nice but lives with an anti-mormon JW.

At dinner this past week, well one in specific, we were given a TON of food. Elder Diaz was too full to eat all of it (but ate dessert regardless) and offended the member. So, taking one for the team and doing what the members love to see, I asked if she had any chiles. She pulled out a bag and handed me a Chile de Arbol. I munched slowly on it and her husband came out and said, "Take notes!" and ate the whole thing. So I did too, not wanting to be one-upped. Her husband saw my eyes watering and started laughing and said, (all in Spanish), "DONT CRY!!" then turned around and ran to eat salt and limes to keep the hotness down. He hid in the corner of the kitchen with his eyes watering haha as I sat in my chair getting a feel for what hell is like. That was one of the hottest chiles I've ever eaten! Not as bad as the habanero, but eating it + being so full was dangerous. I had to sit for 4 minutes trying to keep myself from throwing up as everyone laughed at us haha. It was successful and we left with more trust than was lost! I felt sick the rest of the night.

Thanks for the letters Will, Mom, Eric, Scott, and the young women!

We got a ride last night in a mini cooper. Not a bad car! Lots of road noise though - probably wouldn't buy.

On that bombshell,

Thanks for all your support!

Con amor,

EJ

10 June 2013

I got in a car crash this morning. Well, it wasn't really a car crash but this metal pole jumped out of NOWHERE and broke our right side rear view mirror. Ahhhh, my driving record isn't perfect anymoreeeeeeeeeeeee. We've already called it in and will be dropping it off later today to get fixed and whatnot. The ONE time I park next to the pole...the ONE TIME! I hit it backing up at 2mph, if that. 

Gah.

Before I forget, THIS WEEK IS THE LAST WEEK OF THE TRANSFER. I don't know where time has gone! So, if you're not planning on sending a letter by Wednesday to me, you should probably send it to the mission home (see side bar  on blog for address). I'm 98% sure we'll both stay in Chandler but you never know. Since we're both new here, since I'm training, and since we have so much work it's almost guaranteed we'll stay. I hope. 

This was an awesome week. We didn't find as many as we did last week but now we have 4 people with a baptismal date in June and they're all progressing. We're pretty excited. 

Speaking of baptismal dates, you'll never believe what happened. The person that was supposed to get baptized June 15th got anti'd....

....

But it didn't go bad! Our investigator actually anti'd the guy back! It was actually his old pastor from his old church and our investigator went off on him! The investigator was at church yesterday and we had him meet with our Bishop for a bit. 75 minutes later they came out of the room - both happy. This baptism will be the first baptism this ward has had for almost 10 months now and we will have found and baptized him in 3 weeks! He is crazy prepared and there have been some unbelievable miracles in his conversion story that I can't write here. Unbelievable. Almost. He also did the commitment from the sunday school lesson from last week to compile his four generation family history chart haha. 

We had a pretty cool experience with him this week. We planned to go over the 10 commandments with him but the spirit prompted us otherwise and we talked about the Book of Mormon for the whole time. He has struggled reading it since he has such a strong testimony of the Bible. The lesson changed things and he's doing really well now. At the end of the lesson he spent 15 minutes thanking us for being so supportive and loving and how he feels something different from us etc. It was pretty humbling to hear him testify about the role that we have been able to play in his recent life. 

The Mesa Mission President told some stories recently about how their missionaries were stalked. But by who? But members of the Cornerstone church. They have anti Mormon classes in their church, offered during services on Sundays, and they send people to follow LDS missionaries around and knock on the doors that the missionaries visit. We had the same guys in Queen Creek and looks like they're hitting the Phoenix area hard. They anti all the investigators they can find. Usually I wouldn't put the church name in the email but these guys take it too far.

The temple this week was awesome. I learned Elder Myler got red lighted from Tiwi (in-car GPS) hahahahaha

We met someone who had a "Chweenie dog" this week. What a terrible creation.

This last week we were visiting with some investigators from Dominican Republic, and Chile. They all said where they were from, Elder Diaz said Argentina, our member said Chile, and then it was my turn. Naturally I said Brazil but for some reason they didn't believe me.

I walked up stairs this last week for the first time in months! We never go up stairs because there's nothing upstairs of any building that we ever need...

So it's officially hot. 113-115 was the high this week and we were out on bikes. I think the most depressing thing is when we're biking home at 8:55pm and see one of the giant screens with the temperature and it says 107' F. Kills me.

I thought Arabs might have been onto something for the heat. Nope. Still hot.

Speaking of bikes and car crashed, I almost got hit again this week. We were biking up north to visit someone and this car was pulling out of a parking lot to turn onto the road. This person decided that she didn't need to stop for the stop sign and  plowed through. I swerved out of the way and my pedal just about his the front of the car. 

On Sunday yesterday I was getting ready to sit down when I was approached by one of the members. He asked me, "will you translate?" There are some English families that were present and the normal translator wasn't there. I said yes and got ready and was pretty nervous. Everything went perfect until the youth speakers got up. They spoke so fast and mumbled into the microphone. I looked at the Bishop on the stand and he looked at me and laughed. I just whispered, "sorry!" into the microphone and the people with the translators on just laughed. It was a pretty fun experience and I was a lot more attentive than usual. There were some awesome talks. My favorite was on an experience from girls camp where they blindfolded some of them and had them walk an obstacle course holding onto an "iron rod." There were people without blindfolds walking around trying to lead the people with blindfolds astray. One of the leaders (blindfolded) told of one girl who tried to "tempt" her by saying, "Help, I'm lost!" The leader then responded, "Come and walk with me, we will go together!" The youth 'tempter' then said, "aren't you a leader?? Help me, I need your help!" The leader told us that she couldn't tell if the girl actually needed help or not and was trying hard to decide whether or not to check (which would have disqualified her. She likened it to people who may have wandered who need help but aren't willing to come where the good is and she said we can't leave the path to help them but we can invite them and encourage them to come walk with us. It was a pretty touching story and excellently delivered. Our investigators loved it.

We are teaching a woman who is from (I'm going to butcher the spelling) Guahaka, Mexico. She speaks a very interesting dialect that has some similarities to spanish and sounds awesome. She also speaks some spanish.

We are taking a recent convert out with us to visit some people. He has been looking for a new house to move in with his young child and pregnant wife. We took him to visit the above-mentioned investigator who had just that day put her house up for rent and is the perfect price and location for our member. The blessings of missionary work!

I think I love spanish wards so much because the overwhelming majority are converts. It makes taking people out with us more personal for a lot of our investigators.

Right now we're teaching a young husband and wife who are expecting their first child. The father is drinking a lot and the wife broke down in tears telling us how she worried for him as a result. We had a member with us who was a convert and had been through the exact same thing  and he bore super bold testimony to the husband about how he needed to change now. It was pretty cool to see how bold we can be with the spirit and if it's loving. They didn't make it to church since someone stole the husband's identity in Mexico and was doing some money scam.  The family is going through a lot and there's a lot of stress in their relationship but they both said yesterday that they think this can save their relationship and their family. It's awesome to see people change, I'd say that's my favorite part.

We ran into an unbelievably drunk man yesterday. He was too drunk to even shake my hand and we told him that was the last drink he should ever have again in his life. I thought he was going to punch me, he looked so mad haha.

Remember the Jehovah's Witness I wrote about last week? Well we ran into her again. By ran into her I mean we knocked her trailer door. She answered and was surprised to see us. She had told me to research some anti thing she told us last week which I learned about (thanks Sister Hines!) and told her the real story. She told me she had more for me and would give it over next time we saw. Anyway, that wasn't the point of stopping by. I told her I had read her magazine and found it interesting and offered to give her one of ours again. She declined and said, "Jehovah already has spoken to me, I won't read it." I left it on her doorstep by her door with our phone number on the back. She gave me four more magazines and a book. She couldn't comprehend that I was genuinely interested in what she believed and that I like to understand the people I teach. Her question was, "if you believe you already have the truth, why are you reading this?" I told her that if we aren't willing to put our testimonies to the test then we don't trust God. Anyway, those little magazines did the same as the one last week  did - just strengthened my testimony of the restored gospel. It still blows my mind that they never talk about the role that God plays in their church today. Never. Not once. I think she thinks she's going to convert me. I have a lot of respect for their beliefs but not the way they go about sharing them. I think the religious zeal goes a bit too far. We talked to someone this week who said that some Jehovah's Witnesses that stopped by three years ago talked so strongly to her about how she's going to hell that she tried to kill herself. Too far.

It has been a good week and next weeks letter will have a baptismal picture attached!

Thanks Katie, Jamie, Sister Hines, and Eric for the letters this week! 

Hope you all have a great week!

Love,

Elder Johnson