2 December 2013

Transfer calls were last night!!

Annnnnnnnndddddddddddddddddddddddd

I'm not leaving. Elder Gaspar and I are staying together here in Mesa. By the end of this transfer it'll be six months here. I'm ok with that. It's a little weird though since Elder Gaspar goes home in three weeks. We're suspecting we get a third missionary on Wednesday but it's all up in the air. President Toone has been asking a lot of zone leaders to change assignments to provide more support at other areas in the mission. We're not sure who changed but a bunch did.

Well I've officially finished the book of Job in the Old Testament! I'm working on reading the standard works in my last seven (SEVEN?!) months of my mission and it's about 6 pages a day. Easy. Job was a pretty cool book. It reads differently than the other ones in the Old Testament do. It was different than I had expected - I've read parts of it through the years, but I didn't expect Job to talk so much about his trials. For some reason I thought he had endured them all silently. Nevertheless it was a good experience and I gained some good insights on keeping an eternal perspective things while going through trials. On to Psalms! 

This past week I went on exchanges with a missionary in the zone. Their area, and district, had been struggling with teaching people and getting their OYMs. I put my Queen Creek OYM hat back on and went at it. In one hour we trippled their week's worth of OYMs and doubled their lessons taught. So much of the success of an OYM and a lesson on the street has to deal with those first thirty seconds.

So many missionaries start those contacts with, "Have you ever talked with LDS missionaries before?" Not even a hi. We talked about that and set some goals together. As the quality went up, so did the number. It was pretty cool to see.

After a while we were heading back to our car to move on to another area. We had a really cool experience. Here is what I wrote about it on my Facebook page:

Two days ago we were walking in an apartment complex. We were talking with as many people as possible and inviting all who would listen to come to the Christmas Lights at the Mesa Arizona Temple and Mesa Arizona Temple Visitors' Center!

As we were walking across the parking complex, I looked across a field and saw someone 150 yards away. Immediately I felt that we needed to talk to him. My first thought was, "Move on, that's too far. He'll be gone if you go that way. There's no reason to waste that time."

But again, the prompting to talk to him came back.

So we power walked 150 yards across the grass, hoping we would get to him before he got in his car.

"Hi, how's your day going?" He quickly replied, "Terribly."

Three minutes later we were sitting on a bench with him and teaching the message of the #restoration of the #gospel of #Jesus #Christ and he loved everything he heard.

God puts people in our paths for a reason. I also believe He puts us in their paths for a reason as well!

You can touch someone's life and all you have to do is cross your personal "150 yard field" to get to them. He will provide the words for you and He will prepare the hearts of those that you speak with.

I know that we can be instrument's in #God's hands. I know He loves us all and wants us ALL to be happy! If you're not happy, drop down on your knees and ask if He loves you.

I promise you He does.

~~~~

The story took an interesting twist. Yesterday as we were at the Mesa temple lights, I got a text from those Elders. It read, "

Good thing we stopped ____. He was planning on taking his life.

I read that and thought for a moment, "God let me take a part in saving someone's life." If I hadn't followed that impression from the spirit, this man may or may not have taken his life. He is on a different path now; a better path. That was a humbling moment in my life.

We were seriously 150 yards away. And we had been a little more lazy, things could have gone completely different. Wow.

Yesterday I saw another miracle on Facebook. I posted it on the mission Facebook page since some people are losing faith in it as a proselyting tool. This is what happened:

I posted a status a week ago about someone's baptism. She liked it and shared it on a Christian page for me (someone who isn't a member.) Yesterday I got a message from someone saying she has loved what I've been posting. Within five minutes she said, "We need this in my country." The process to get her in contact with local missionaries has begun. She is prepared for the gospel. I wrote this on the mission Facebook page:

Next time you think what you're doing on Facebook isn't working, remember that people are reading what you type even if they don't "like," comment, or, "share," it right away!

Sometimes it takes time for your fruits to come forward. This person was touched by a post I made a week ago and initiated a conversation with me about it today! 

She is in the process of being referred to local missionaries. She's prepared for the gospel. There are tons of people on Facebook just like her for you to find them! Be proactive and productive and you'll see miracles!

It's also great idea to start Facebook hour with a prayer :)

 Fun stuff is happening. Everywhere.

We have a recent tradition here of having people send "Oh Yeah Moments" in via text of miracles that they see. We then send them out to everyone so we can all enjoy miracles we see daily. Yesterday, as a zone, we fasted for a miracle. Or two. Or three. For an hour straight we were getting text messages every few minutes from people seeing miracles. From one homeless man that was OYM'd, "I'm sorry I couldn't make it today! I will next week and can we meet this week?" From a set of missionaries, "Someone jogging past the church felt inspired to come inside and loved it!" From our own area, a whole FAMILY just showed up to church and loved it. 

Miracles are happening everywhere! President Toone told us to prepare for a spiritual Pentecost as the Christmas lights open and the Gilbert temple open house goes on. I'm glad I'm here for that! 

So yeah.

Yesterday we went to the Mesa temple lights. Super cool! You know what's cooler? I saw someone from EVERY area that I have served in! Even Yuma! The picture is of a very special man that I taught. I can't write all the details about it, but when I left he was working on baptism but had some things to work around. In the past 6 months he has gotten married, baptized, and the priesthood. He is amazing. He is proof that you can change and that your past doesn't need to hold you back.

We also found out that there are grapefruit trees around the property of the temple and they're free game! I had one this morning. "A holy grapefruit" for breakfast. Yum.

Anyway, all is well! Thanks for the letter family! I'll write back today!

Love you all!

Elder Johnson

11 November 2013

Dear everyone!

This is the first full week that the mission has had iPads. I've felt it from all the phone calls and Facebook messages...

The big problem this past week was making sure that stats are accurately added up (lessons with members present, others, etc). It's too complicated to explain right now but we spent a lot of time typing tutorials to go on the mission Facebook page on "How to do ____" and had to make sure everything worked before hand. That occupied way more time than I wish it had.

Having the Facebook page has proven to be super useful for getting news across the mission quickly.

This past week we set really intense goals to help us be more effective than ever on Facebook. One of our plans is to involve local members more with teaching appointments and helping encourage them to make statuses (stati?) about the gospel. It really isn't hard. We've been sharing the statistic that we were given by SLC (how only 2% of wards worldwide do missionary work) and it seems to be motivating people. Guilt is the best motivator :) haha

We've set daily goals for referrals received on Facebook, lessons taught, and more. This should be a good week.

Which would be nice since last week was kind of heart-wrenching. We're teaching a part member family. The husband was supposed to get baptized on the 9th. The day of he cancelled and then dropped us and asked us never to come over again. That was a surprise.

What had happened is that they were in a tough financial setting. They asked for help so we gave them the Bishop's executive secretary's phone number. They got offended since their last missionaries set everything up for them and we weren't caring enough about the situation. He never even called the guy.

Garbage. This is what happens when missionaries or members overstep their boundaries.

Nevertheless we're maintaining contact over Facebook and maybe he'll give the number a call and call us back.

But not all was sad! We had some really really cool OYM experiences this past week with inviting people to get baptized on the street. We picked up some great people that we are now teaching and got an amazing referral from the Mesa mission who's now on date for November 30th.

We fasted together as a zone yesterday and as a result we had someone who had disappeared on us show up to church, and other missionaries found amazingly prepared people. I totally have a testimony of fasting.

For two months I've been thinking about how I could fit Formula 1 into a status and tie it into missionary work. I did it this past week hahaha. Success! 

I also saw a B24 flying over Mesa. That was a surprise. It did a couple of giant circles and then flew off into the sunset.

And the new 2014 Corvette Stingray. Thhaaattttt's a car. That was a fun OYM to do. 460 horsepower, his was $76,000. So I creepily snapped this picture. #Never4get

I was in an interesting scenario this past week. I'm teaching people in the Philippines and it was way unique to be able to communicate with them as the storm passed and share the gospel with them in such a hard time. Luckily everyone I'm teaching is safe.

Mesa zone had three bikes stolen in two days and all in one district. One missionary locked the bike tire to the frame and walked inside and two hid theirs behind a car. Both of those thefts in two days! Unbelievable.

Last night we got a funny phone call from President Toone. He called me and asked me what the rules were for using YouTube haha. That was a weird phone call haha. 

We are so excited to be teaching one of the new people we found this week. She was investigating the church in the Mesa mission for four months and then moved here. She LOVED church yesterday and ran into a bunch of her coworkers. She has a young son and they are super super prepared. We're working hard to make a support group of people to reach out to here - that's really what makes the difference in a lasting conversion.

Thanks to those that have been sharing missionary stories with me on Facebook! Keep that up!

Thanks Mom, Mark, and Will for the letters! You're the best!

Con amor,

Elder Johnson

16 September 2013

This week was the most amazing week until Sunday. 

We found 11 new investigators, more than we found all of last transfer combined, and 7 of them had accepted a baptismal date for Sep 28. But 5 of them fell off date for various reasons last night which was way unfortunate...more on that in a bit.

Last week I said goodbye to Elder Harder. I was sad to see him go but I'm excited for what's ahead of him.

This past week started off perfectly. I got bit by a pitbull. I was on exchanges with Elder Mack (since his companion went home as well) and we saw this guy that we decided we'd talk to. I should have taken more notice of how the dog's leash was tied around the man's waist. Anyway, we talked to him and I asked if I could pet his dog. "Make sure you're sure of yourself!" Whatever that meant I walked toward the dog and all the sudden in a thrash of teeth, blood, gore, and pain the pitbull was dragging me behind it to what I thought was my sure death.

Ok, maybe it didn't happen like that but it did jump up and grab my knee and bite my knee! I stepped backwards in shock and the guy said, "well, you should have been more sure!" and then walked away. KSJDFLAKJSDFAKSJDFKALSDFA. I could have gotten his dog taken away if I wasn't so nice! Oh well. 

We had an awesome experience finding a family to teach this week. We OYM'd into a woman outside an apartment complex and we talked with her a bit and had a nice conversation. We asked her if we could return the next day at a certain time and she accepted! When we went over we were surprised to see 7 people inside the house! We sat down and had an awesome conversation with them and they all accepted a baptismal invitation. They're doing really well and a wedding and a baptism are in the mix for the future. A really faithful, open, and genuine family. 

That has been my goal in OYMs. I want to leave every OYM having gained a new friend. I talked about that last week but people need to see us as people not just, "HEY WE'RE THE MISSIONARIES FROM THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS, WOULD YOU LIKE TO HEAR MORE?" And then if the answer is no, "OK, DO YOU KNOW ANYONE..." etc. There's so much more to these street contacts than that!

On Wednesday I picked up my new companion! His name is Elder Gaspar and he was in the Phoenix mission before! He's great and guess where he's from? Stafford, VA! Small world! I've had two companions in a row from the East Coast! His family is from Peru so he's 100% Peruvian blood and fluent in both english and spanish. Obviously I'm supposed to learn spanish or something since I've had three native speaker companions which I've never heard of happening before. And he plays violin too! AND HE HAS SEEN KUNG POW ENTERS THE FIST AS WELL! He's super humble and a powerful missionary so we're going to have a lot of fun together. 

Another small world story. For the Dewey family in Washington...Renee Taylor, your babysitter, is in the Arizona Tempe mission! I met her this past Wednesday. The one who babysat your kids? Craaazzzyyyy.

One of our recent converts is really struggling right now. I don't want to go into too many details but the state has picked her up to keep her safe from herself and they won't tell us where she is. no one knows where she is and they won't let us contact her. She needs the ward now more than ever and we can't do anything. Super frustrating.

We're really excited for a different investigator who has accepted a baptismal date for two weeks from now! She is so prepared but her health problems are going to present a challenge. She has had some amazing experiences getting her to where she is now and she is more ready than ever! 

It's hard to see people struggle. Whether it be spiritual, financial, physical, whatever. And it is even worse when people say, "they brought that on themselves, I'm not going to help." This past week we got to spend some time with an amazing person who is struggling with one of those three things. This person commented to us about all the judgement he has received and how it is really making him question things. Just be aware that little acts of kindness make a world of a difference. Do something good for someone today. Help someone in need. You never know who's hurting and you never will unless you try. 

Oh my goodness this last week I saw a Fisker Karma! If you don't know what it is then google it. It drove right through Mesa (of course) and on probably to Scottsdale but it was sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet. 

One of the stakes in our zone is tiny. Four square miles by four square miles. An entire stake! They're on the Gilbert side, quite a ways away, but we had an awesome meeting with the stake presidency the other day. It is always really humbling and inspiring to see these powerful men make time at 7am to meet with us and listen to the work we're doing. This particular stake president comes very prepared to these meetings, complete with an agenda and both his counselors. The missionaries in that stake are working very closely with their leadership and miracles are around the corner.

And that's something that we're working on - a smooth connection from the top down. Facebook is making that possible as more and more stake presidents, counselors, and bishops get on Facebook. It makes the connection and the correlation between all levels seamless and easy. 

We had our correlation meeting this week over Skype. Information was shared via email and text and video conferencing provided all other interaction needed. The wards and members are getting really reallly excited about this new technology as are we.

We just need to help the mission be effective. Our teaching opportunities almost trippled this past week because of an hour a day on Facebook. We just had a conference call with President Toone addressing some of his concerns and talking about some success we've had as a companionship over Facebook.

This past week I committed someone to baptism over Facebook. This person lives in Texas and I was able to teach her twice: once with my first companion Tanner Sawyer and the second time, yesterday, with Mark, my brother. She brought a lot of concerns up yesterday and kind of fell away from the commitment she had made to baptism but it was a special experience to be able to teach and testify with both of them, especially considering I haven't even seen Mark in three years and won't for one more. I'm in contact with the mission president where the person we're teaching over Facebook lives and he is super excited for this. Their mission isn't on Facebook until February. Apparently President Toone brought this experience up at the conference all the missionaries had in Texas this past weekend with Elder Neil L. Anderson! Wooo!

It was also really cool this morning to see Tracy Watson, the director of proselyting for the world (for the church) comment and testify on my status in response to a nonmembers comment. Everything is so connected! It's cool to have a connection to leadership of the church through Facebook since we're testing out this new stuff. Fun fun fun fun fun.

Thanks Eric, Will, Dallin (In France!), and Grandpa J for the letter this week!

Thank you all for your support, for liking and sharing posts on Facebook, for sharing your own testimonies on Facebook, for being great friends and for being great family!

Con amor,

EJ

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