28 January 2013

Si bueno!

 

So there's a pretty good chance that Cassie talked to one of my recent converts. He and his girlfriend went to the San Diego visitors center and he said he talked to a sister missionary with the last name Rasmussen. Haha small world.

 

This week was the Tormenta Blanca, or white storm. Every 2 months there is a training for all the spanish missionaries. I had never been to one since Yuma is "too far away to make it in reasonable time." Psh. Well for this training, all the Spanish missionaries came to Yuma and San Luis for an evening to visit all the less active members in the branches. Hence "white storm." Our mission president came down and said, "Usually the church discourages 'blitzs,' but that's not what we're doing...we're inviting!" Haha that got a good laugh out of everyone. It was fun to finally meet the other spanish missionaries, including one who was at my farewell my chance as he was passing through on vacation. He, Elder Myler, Harder, and Norton all stayed at our tiny apartment that night. The highlight was probably tricking Elder Myler into eating a Chil te Pin (spelling?). But that wasn't as funny as Elder Mackay getting tricked into eating an Habanero haha. Good times. For the blitz, I mean night of inviting, we all split up with new companions for a bit and had a list of people to visit and went out with a member. A lot of people got visited and a lot of lessons were taught. Unfortunately there were not many new faces at the spanish branch that weekend.

 

Which in one sense was a relief since I was asked to speak. I spoke on trusting in the Lord and not being afraid to walk forward in the dark since the light of christ will light the way. It was alright, my throat was really dry and was tripping over my words. I only had 5 minutes to deliver 15 minutes of material since Sister Escobar took 20 minutes. I was more than happy to shorten my talk haha.

 

We tried to OYM a guy this week (street contact) and we said, "Hey! We're missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and..." and he interrupted and said, "CONGRATULATIONS!" and walked away. Haha he wins the award for quickest and funniest rejection.

 

This week we got surprised dropped by an investigator, the one who helped us with our tire last week (the practicing catholic). We went over, he warmly welcomed us in, sat us down, and said, "I read Moroni chapter 8." He handed us the book and said he would hear us out but that he was done listening to us after that. (Chapter 8 is about infant baptisms and why they're not needed.) We spoke to him about why we are baptized: for the remission of sins and to enter into a covenant with God. We told him that Christ always taught that we should be as children, pure and clean and how we are not guilty for the transgression of Adam. I asked him why he believed infants needed to be baptized and he said he didn't have a reason other than that was what he was always taught. He was pretty offended by the chapter. I understand why he feels how he feels and am sorry for him. He's an increadible man and is remarkably christlike. Hopefully some day he will come around. We left the Book of Mormon with him and told him if he ever needs us to call us. We left a little dissapointed; the plan for the lesson was to extend a baptismal date. Didn't happen. But we left on good terms. That was evident the next day when he drove past us on our bikes and yelled out the window, "GOOD AFTERNOOOOOON GENTLEMEN!" I have so much respect for him.

 

It's the end of the month and, as expected, we are out of miles in our car. Of course the one week we start biking this month is the one week it rains! I can count on one hand the number of times it has rained since I've been here and one of those times were while we were on bikes this week. It was refreshing but we got really dirty. Biking through rivers in the street didn't help either.

 

Yesterday at church I saw an amazing example of God-like sorrow. Someone we were teaching has been struggling with some things and yesterday told us we would have to push the baptism back. It was humbling to see how everything has affected her and the changes she has made in her life to get to where she is now and where she will be on the 7th when she is baptized. It's awesome to see how far people can come as they humble themselves. President Monson said it right (I'm going to slightly modify it), 'man is never taller than when humble/on the knees'

 

Here's a question I can't figure out: in 3rd Nephi 11:25 Christ gives the baptismal prayer. It not only differs from the one that John the Baptist used on Christ, but it also differs from the one we use today. As we do the baptismal prayer today, if we mistake a word or do not fully submerse, the ordinance gets repeated. Why then, if it has to be so exact, do the prayers differ?

 

Also, why 12 apostles and not 5, or 7, or 10? 12 is an even number, it's possible to get a tie "vote."

 

We set our Feb baptismal goal at 3. It's going to stretch us to work hard but I'm pretty sure we can get it.

 

Thanks Doug, Mom, Eric, Will, Katie, Jamie, and Lyle for writing this week! Glad to hear you are all doing well and staying, for the most part, out of trouble!

 

Other than that, this was a pretty slow week. The blitz took out 2 days. We did teach a lot this week, 31 total lessons, 8 of them to less actives, and 13 to investigators with a member present. That's the most total teaching opportunities I've had on my mission far.

 

Photos:

 

goat/ram: this picture was taken right before it tried to eat me

lake: that's a park. It sprinkled all night and there was 6" of rain in all the little parks around Yuma. The city smells like a pond. Also, the sprinkling caused the power to go out and the streets to flood.

 

But again, thank you all for the continued support!

Con amor,

Elder Johnson

 

10 September 2012

Dear Family and Friends,

I caught the 3:10 to Yuma!more on that in a bit, though.

Two things: I don't speak Spanish and it is really hot.

My Address:
Elder Paul Johnson
1600 W 12th Street
#3422
Yuma, AZ 85365

What a crazy few days it has been! Left the MTC at 5am, plane left at 8, and landed at 10. On the plane, I fell asleep for the first ~20 or so minutes then woke up to find Elder Jacobsen talking to the guy next to him. I was in the aisle. The guy, named Mark, was a grad student at ASU studying communications. I butted into the conversation and we had a great discussion about communication, our plans for the future, and what missions are. It was a very relaxed conversation and flowed well.

Once we landed, we were quickly scurried up by the mission presidents, assistants, and his wife. We all somehow squished into two MAVs (Mormon Assault Vehicles - long vans) and went on our way towards the mission home. Luckily, it was only a 20 minute drive. Once there, we unpacked some things and threw it into a room in the Church. We had a short brunch where we got to meet people and talked for a bit. They split us up into two groups: one that went and OYM'd (Open Your Mouth, contacting random people on the street) and one that was interviewed and did a short orientation. We were in that second group. Interviews were nice and short. After that, Elder Myler and I were dropped in a random trailer park and told to go pass out some copies of the Book of Mormon and talk to people -- in Spanish. We were still companions because we had not received our companions for the field yet. We walked around and talked to some people. Our first contact...words cannot describe how bad it was. We walked up to a woman cutting Cactus for dinner and tried to talk. Words didn't really come out. She just sat there laughing. It was way too awkward. We opened to a scripture, gave her the book, and just left. After that, they slowly got better.

The rest of the day were meetings with the staff and whatnot. We had dinner at a members house, taco salad, and then we dispersed to spend the night with a member. We all stayed in the Tempe area. The one who Elders Jacobsen, Myler, and I stayed at were awesome and very welcoming. We talked a bit and then fell asleep at 8. It had been a long day. Since they did not tell us where we were going or who our new companions were, we were all dying that night. The next day was the day!

We woke up at 5:45 to get ready and then left to the church to have the transfer meeting at 7:15. Once there, we talked a bit with the misison president and his wife about things I can't remember but were doubtlessly important. You could sense the excitement in the room. They moved us into the chapel after 2 hours of meetings to meet our trainers and learn where we were going. When we walked in, all the trainers (companions that help introduce new missionaries to the area) were sitting on the far left side of the room. We were told to sit on the far right. One by one, President Howes, the mission president, read off a name of the trainer, a name of the trainee (us), and the area they would be serving. Lets see if I can remember: Elder Jacobsen is in Skyline, Elder Myler is in Chandler, and... I can't remember where the Hermanas are. Woops. They read everyone's name off and eventually I was sitting by myself on the right. They had saved me for last. I was dying, but, naturally kept a cool face, yo. I heard my name, my trainers name (Elder Sawyer, 16 months in, form Meridian, ID), and then Yuma! I had been saying that if there was one place I wanted to serve, it was in Yuma. Yuma is the border zone. Then they said we were whitewashing into Yuma.

Whitewashing means that they take both the missionaries who were there out and put two new ones in. They do it to put a breath of fresh air into the area if it is struggling a bit. Whitewashing and training means that both he and I have no idea what we are doing here haha. The first couple days we spent ~6 hours planning and looking through the Area Books. It was hard. Furthermore, when we walked into our apartment, it was a mess. They had had a "party" the night before. Lots of things were on the ground, there were burnt papers (?!), and more. Mom, if you thought MY room was bad... We spent 3 hours a couple days ago cleaning out one room and found 3 garbage bags full worth of trash. We have a lot to do today. There are also cockroaches and bed bugs have come back. I haven't seen any bed bugs yet...Mmhmmmmm

Our apartment is nice, size wise. We have a sweet view (I forgot my camera in our room...I'll have pictures next week..) of a trailer park and then the desert right after it followed by some grande mountains. Ooh, and a small canal/stream/river!

Yuma is hot. Hot. Hot. If you leave a water bottle on the ground it melts. If you leave a CD case on the dashboard, it melts. It is dry, too. Luckily, we've had two days of showers and awesomeeeeeeee thunder storms. Thunder that shakes houses, lightning that is everywhere. Anyway, they give missionaries a car down here (we drive a swagger wagon. Dodge van, can't remember name) a car and give 1000 miles a week. We bike once a week (picked up bike, by the way. thanks!). They say being sent to Yuma is like banishment. We don't get to go to a temple even though we're close to San Diego, we don't get Dear Elders often, we don't get to go to mission meetings, it's really really really hot. It doesn't really feel like the US here. Lots and lots of trailer parks and Mexicans. The city isn't tall and the landscape is quite literally a desert. There are stray dogs, chickens and roosters running around the streets. The poverty is unbelievable yet the people are so welcoming. More on that in a bit... Just real quick, Yuma is large geographically but few people. There are only 4 companionships here, one of which are the Zone Leaders (ZLs).

I made it through the entire MTC without ironing once. On our first day, I started ironing but Elder Sawyer told me that there's a dryer on our balcony. Never ironing my shirt again!

I've joked about how it rains when I leave or go places. It rained for 3 days before we left the MTC, it rained when I got here! Move over Schumacher,there's a new rain master in town. [Schumacher is an F-1 car racer who must have the rain follow him too.]

Food. We eat at a members home 6 nights a week. We've had Pizza, Beans, Shrimp/Cervichi and ALMOST Menudo. I think I'm going to die in Yuma. I eat it but every time it almost comes up. Of everything we've eaten, I'd say Pizza is the best but I wouldn't go out of my way to eat it still. Cervichi is the devil. Bane of my existence. It's like shrimp and..other stuff, I don't even know what. We ate at this one members' house. It was a trailer without a table and a tiny couch and two chairs. The Sisters in the area eat with us so we stuffed in. There was room for the two sisters and Elder Sawyer and me sitting near each other, no more. She fed us cold Cervichi. I ate about half and while the host stepped out to grab something, Elder Sawyer, like a boss, switched plates with me. He ended up eating mine, a Sisters, and his own. Como un jefe [like the boss]. Did I mention it was cold? Straight out of the fridge. They didn't have power in their trailer. Their willingness to help out was humbling though. Menudo is what I'm most scared to eat. It is the stomach lining of cow in a soup.

But first, let me explain the last two days. We have given five blessings in 1.5 days. For some reason everyone has been asking recently. Two have been in English, three in Spanish. Elder Sawyer takes those ones. They take a lot of time out of our day since three were at the Hospital (2 year old girl had top lip bitten off by Dog, needs surgery, older less active woman asked, and  third was a woman who wanted one also) Let me preface the story with this: I've been praying a lot for my taste buds to just die for 2 years. On the way out to our dinner apt I was saying a prayer in my heart that the food would be spaghetti or something. As we are driving out, a huge storm comes in. We're talking 40+ mph winds, rain, LOTS of lightning, and sand! (There are lots of dust storms here, like hundreds of feet tall walls of dust coming at you. Waiting to get a picture of one...). Anyway, we're driving there and then we see power go out everywhere. Since the desert is flat, you can see everything. We pull up to the house and they said since the power went out, they couldn't cook the Menudo and instead had to order Pizza. I've never been so happy to eat Pizza in my life. Little blessings like that keep you going. I doubt that will work for two years, but we'll see. I think between my prayers and the willingness to give so many blessings, we got a little one in return.

While we were in the hospital, a nurse asked us to go visit a woman who just got transferred in. As we were walking in, a Border Patrol dude/agent/guy stopped us and said, "Who are you and what are you doing with my convict?" He was pretty intense about it. we told him our business and he let us go. Inside we learned (Or Elder Sawyer did. Remember, I can't speak Spanish) that she had been in a group coming across the border illegally and the coyote left her behind in the desert to die. US Border Patrol found her and saved her. I can't imagine knowing that I am about to die and being alone in 110 degree weather. It's kind of crazy how close we are to all the action. Unfortunately we're not ON the border (That's the San Luis district, we're in Yuma, ~15 miles north) but we see everyone coming through the Yuma hospital.

We cover three wards for our mission area. An English, a Spanish Branch, and a Young Singles Adult. Not sure why that last one since they usually send ZLs  [Zone Leaders] there but we have it. The English branch is pretty large, the YSA [Young Single Adults] has about 25 and the Spanish branch has about 40. It seems dead. I leaned over to Sawyer and mentioned that and he said, "We're here to save it."

In the 6 days we've been here, we've taught 3 lessons, 2 of which were yesterday. Everyone listens but no one follows up. Must be a cultural thing. Most people are really nice.

But some aren't. We were walking around this one trailer park and went up to these guys. Lots of tats, cigarettes. They were angry with us and told us that we were in their gang zone. We mentioned what we were doing and they lightened up. Intense stuff. One group had a shotgun pulled on them. I love Yuma!

Selective poverty is also clear. Nice cars, nice phones, but living in a tiny powerless trailer. Sad.

Lots of homes have solar cells. Makes sense. It's so bright... I'ma need to find me some shades.

For one of our investigators, we're teaching him to read. That officially starts tomorrow. Never taught anyone to read before...especially in a language I barely speak.

I should clarify a bit. I understand about 25% of what people say but since they mumble and talk so quick I can barely get that. I can usually speak relatively well for being so 'young.'

That's all I have time for, expect some sweet pictures of a dust tornado thing, rain storms, a gross spider, desert landscape, and more.

Thanks Tori, Natalia, and Doug for letters and brownies! Quick note on Dear Elders: since I'm in Yuma, I get Dear Elders once every 3-4 weeks. We're 3.5 hours from the mission home which is where they go.

 What causes time to slow near a blackhole? Can someone look up the etymology of Apostle and Apostasy and tell me why the words are so similar?

"It's so hot up in dis club that I ain't got no shoes on"

With love,
Elder Johnson

23 August 2012

Dear Family and Friends,

Whew, time at the MTC FLIES by. We have 11 days left as of today and we're all starting to get excited to get out of the MTC.

Earlier this week I stumbled upon an Elder with a tiny Preach my Gospel. It is about the size of 2 notecards with all the pages, pictures, notes and everything of the full size one. I asked Hermana Olsen where I could get one (Since I'm worried about weight for my bags when I fly out. I planned on sending the full size ones home to save weight.) and she said since the Church didn't publish them, you have to go around and buy them and technically they're illegal. Well, I walked into the bookstore yesterday and apparently the church has just started publishing the "pocket sized" P my G's (Preach my Gosepls). I quickly bought one for an obscenely expensive $3.20. A steal. Spanish copies are coming this week and I'll buy one of those too. I will then send my English and Spanish full size P my Gs home to family where they can read whatever notes I have (I'm transfering mine over). I haven't taken a ton because I figure I still have 1.9 years left, no point over marking it now. Anyway, they're awesome and way more convenient.

At the MTC, Apostles, or Members of the Quorum of 12 Apostles (Think James, John....modern time though) try to make it to the MTC every 9 or so weeks. The week before we came to the MTC, there was a huge conference here where almost all the apostles came and all the mission presidents. All the missionaries here got to meet their presidents. I'm jealous. Anyway, we are running out of days here and we still had not had an apostle come speak at a devotional. On Monday night, in my nighly prayers, I asked if we could be blessed with the opportunity to hear an Apostle of God speak to us. I ended my prayers and thought nothing of it. The next day, devotional day, as we were singing in the choir, someone walked on stage. Immediately, the whole room stood up. I recognized the person as Elder Anderson, one of the 12 Apostles. Elder Myler leans over to me and goes, "Why is everyone standing up?" I excitedly said, "Elder Anderson!" He then said, "Who's that...OHHHHHHHHH" We won't let him live that one down. He delivered a great devotional about 10 things President Monson would have said if he was there (it was his birthday that day.) I don't remember them but one was, "Since you are on the Lord's errand, you are entitled to His help." Entitled to His help.What a powerful idea. Anyway, my prayer was very much answered. God knows the desires of our hearts before we do. Prayer is showing that we care enough to ask and have enough faith that we can receive the answer.

We just got back from the temple. We went an hour earlier than our scheduled time because there are lots of lines there. We did initiatories today. The spirit was so strong and I felt great feelings of peace as I was there. Since next week is our last P Day, we're toying with the idea of doing initiatories, endowment, and sealings in one day. That would be special.

For the entire time I have been here, I think as I have mentioned before, I have had a hard time sleeping. A couple of weeks ago Elder Myler and I went to the onsite doctor and I asked if I could get sleeping pills. He said no at the time but if it continues to come back. His concern was that I would wake up sleepy....which I did already since, you know, I wasn't sleeping. On Monday night I got a solid 3 hours of sleep which was enough proof for me to go back to the doctor. I had also woken up that night standing in the hallway. I told him it was time for the sleeping pills and he agreed. As I was walking to pick up the perscription, I ran into none other than Sister Wood, Roland's mom. She was driving up and pulled over and said hi and that she had just dropped off a package my mom sent. I said thanks, hi, and goodbye. What were the chances that I would see someone from Virginia while walking on a small sidewalk outside the MTC in a small city in Utah. It was a fun experience. Anyway, since I got the pills I have slept wayyyyyy better. Tropozene I think are what they're called. Supposedly they're anti depressants (spelling?) but I get a smaller dosage. I'm definitely not depressed. He told me to take one a night, two if absolutely necesarry. The first night I took two pills just because I wanted to sleep quickly. Within 20 minutes I was having a hard time walking since I was so dizzy. I fell asleep so fast and slept like a baby. I took one last night and didn't wake up tired at all. I think one is the magic number.

Elder Myler and I are the new Zone Leaders for our zone. For those who don't know, there is a, I hesitate to use this word because it isn't really applicable, hierarchy on the mission. Not in the sense of power, but in the sense of responsibility. You get a mission president who is in charge of 100-300 missionaries in an area and his two counselors. You have an Assistant to the President. Idon't really know what they do. Next, you have Zone Leaders who are in charge of all the missionaries in a large geographical area and then district leaders and then "regular" missionaries. Zone Leaders are responsible for helping maintain order, helping new missionaries, and more. In the MTC their responsibilities are a bit different. We help with new missionary orientation, help resolve conflicts and more. For the sake of time I won't go into much detail. Moral of the story is that we're now the missionaries in charge of ~60 missionaries in our zone. It's a lot of work but very rewarding.

Yesterday was an exciting day, too. We got to be "Hosts" for new missionaries which essentially means we escorted the new missionaries when they got dropped off at the door to their rooms/classrooms etc. It brought back memories of the first day I was here, or what is left of them. That was a crazy day. Lots of crying. Lots more than I remember. Elder Myler also had to go to the Orthodontist to get his retainer re-glued. As such, we got to go off campus via shuttle to the place. I had forgotten there was a world outside of the MTC, Temple, and soccer field.

It rained last night! Finally.

I finished Jesus the Christ this week. What a book. 5 weeks later I finished the most dense 780 page book I've read since the Count of Monte Cristo. Maybe I shouldn't compare those two books but both were great, relatively hard to read. I learned so much about the life and ministry of Christ. Everyone needs to read it. The climax, in my mind, was the last two days of His life. He knew it was coming and was very ready. I learned some really interesting things about Pilate, the Roman governer who sentenced him, officially, to death. I've always heard about how guilty he was of that action but the more I read it the less I thought it. He tried five times to stop the people from sentencing him, four more times after he tried, and twice during the lashings. His wife had a dream that he should not do anything with ¨¨this just man¨¨ and he even said, "my hands are clean of the blood of this just man." His responsibility to his job and the guilt of his life beforehand came back and he was, in my mind, almost forced to do so. I do not view him as half as guilty as the Jews who gave him an illegal trial and killed him. He was the man who "signed the paper" but it was with regret. He is obviously accountable for his actions as agency comes in at some point, but he is the "less of two weavils" (who can quote that movie)

I met an Elder who watchs Formula 1! We geeked out about it for a bit. He's serving in Montreal. He told me F1 is the 5th largest GDP on Earth since they spend over 3 trillion a year on it. I haven't heard that number but I wouldn't be surprised seeing how Ferrari alone spends 500,000,000$ on engine research alone.

Spanish is making me REALLY good at Charades. Good luck when I get back trying to beat me.

On Sunday, for no reason at all, we tried to see who could go the longest without speaking. Elder Myler went 5 minutes, Elder Jacobsen went 3 hours, Shreeve went 6, I went 8, and Thorsen went 8.1. It was a long day.

Mom, Dad, Grandpa and Grandma Wolthuis: Do you know a Bonkemeyer family from Sweet Home Oregon? One of my good friends here is named Bonkemeyer. He told me his father worked in the logging industry in South Africa (they're Americans but he runs a business down there) and I mentioned my grandpa owns a tree farm. He asked where, I said a little city near Sweet Home Oregon where they live. He got all excited and said his Dad worked in logging in Sweet Home in the 80s. I don't know his Dad's first name but the last name is Bonkemeyer. I said my Mom's side is named Wolthuis. The two are not very common names and he said he recognized Wolthuis from stories his parents have told. Think hard, it would be awesome if you knew them.

I heard a story about a man who was asked what his biggest fear was. He said, "I live in constant fear that I will offend someone." - J. Reuben Clark.  

Thank you Aunt Carmen, Mom, Dad, Eric, Will, Mark, Natalia, Manda, and Aunt Andra for the great letters this week! I'm writing this at 9:50am, a little earlier than usual which means if I get any mail today it won't be able to be included in this. Thanks in advance.

Thank you all so much for your continual love and support,

With Love,

Elder Johnson