31 March 2014

That was the fastest 6 weeks of my LIFE. How is it already week 6? Next Sunday are transfer calls. I am pretty sure we are both staying here together. But to be safe, if you can't send a letter by Wednesday or Thursday, send it to the mission office!

Mexican Spanish kills me. I've mentioned 'words' like yarda, shinear the zapatos, etc before. This week I learned how to say "sprinklers" in Mexican. "esprinklers." GENIUS!

There have been a number of times on my mission where I have gone somewhere and just knew that we were not supposed to be there. Elder Myler and I both experienced that this past week. It was around 8:00pm and we drove into "the Box" to visit some former investigators. As soon as we crossed the "line" into it, we both had this terrible terrible terrible feeling. I told him we needed to leave and he said that he felt the same way. We gunned it out of there and felt inspired to go to the church...

But the church was 5 miles away and out of our area. But, we followed the prompting.

When we arrived at the church we had another impression to drive to a missionaries house. We quickly found out why we were not supposed to be where we were.

One of the missionaries opened up to us a little later about some concerns he had with obedience with his roommates. We made a mental list and left to think about how we were going to solve it. We set a time to visit them the next day to talk about the things but that got interrupted by a phone call from President Toone.

President asked us to present at MLC about Facebook and iPad effectivity. We counseled together and came up with three things that we were going to focus on:

1) Standardization/uniformity of rules

2) Break down the rule book paragraph by paragraph

3) Motivate

The next day we set up a time to visit him and share our ideas with him.

But bad things happened that day...

Dinners are usually pretty great. But not dinner that night. I do not know what I ate but I know that crushed up shrimp was in it somewhere. Oh man. Just thinking about it makes me sick. I ate 2/3 of it and then had to throw in the towel. Every time I have eaten seafood on my mission I have gotten sick.

This was no exception.

I left dinner feeling weak. We worked the rest of the night. At 8:30pm we visited President and ran our ideas by him for our presentation the next day. He loved them. Feeling queezy, we drove home.

Seconds after walking into the house, dinner came up again.

And then it did five more times that night. I couldn't sleep. I couldn't think. I couldn't move. It was one of the worst nights of my life. At 4:00am I woke up Elder Myler and the other ZLs that we staying with us from Yuma to travel with us to MLC the next day and asked them to give me a blessing. Still I did not improve.

At 7:30am I stood up off the couch to get ready for the presentation. I still was very very sick and worried that I wouldn't be able to present. I could barely stand.

As we drove to the mission office for MLC I honestly contemplated just turning back around and sleeping at the house all day. But how could I? I've been praying for an opportunity to share what I've come to learn about Facebook with the mission for months. We had prayerfully prepared inspired plans. There was no way that that sickness was giong to stop me!

I can honestly say that I suffered through the first hour of MLC as we waited for our turn. Sister Toone graciously brought me some medicine but it didn't help. I stepped out a number of times to close my eyes and drink water. I had been praying all night and all morning that I would be healed.

But 15 minutes before our presentation I changed my prayer and asked that I could be healed just long enough to present.

Specific prayers yield specific answers. When it was our time to go up, I felt 100% better. I felt fine. I felt healthy. We stood up there and nitpicked every single rule and then we took the rules that had been outlined and motivated the MLC about how to be effective. We were up there for over 1.5 hours.

Afterwards, many of the missionaries approached us and thanked us! They said they had never been more motivated to use Facebook before. It was rewarding.

But as soon as we finished, I felt sick to my stomach again. I felt terrible. I asked Elder Myler if he would be willing to sit in the door to the room on a chair so that I could go into the hallway and sleep on a chair. Like a boss he said yes.

A chair has never been more comfortable before. I was out for two hours.

When MLC ended, a bunch of people came up to me and thanked me and said they hoped that I would feel better. I wasn't sure why so many were until later...

Apparently while I slept President Toone talked about me for 30 minutes. He trained on diligence and used me as an example. I was glad I was in the hallway asleep for it and didn't have to hear it. He was far too kind. I left embarrassed, humbled, and grateful.

There's something I don't understand: Men. Men are so stubborn haha. It seems like every family we teach struggles because of the husbands/boyfriends. We visited a man this last week who just gave excuse after excuse after excuse about why he cannot change and that God made him how he was for a reason. We were so bold with him that I was surprised he didn't throw us out of his house.

While learning Mexican slang, I'm also learning Mexican English slang. Apparently intense music is called, "Juice" here in the south side.

Someone I taught in Mesa got baptized this last weekend. We were planning to go until the day of. We had not had very much time to proselyte all week and three hours before I told Elder Myler that we would skip it so that we could work our area. That was a hard sacrifice to make but it was worth it. I had taught this women for two months and loved her and her family.

Two days ago we finally had time to go and talk with the missionaries about their obedience problems. I have hesitated to write much about experiences with correcting on my mission because they're problems I wish that no one had. But this experience was very unique.

Some background first: every transfer we have been invited by President to do iPad checks. One missionary accidentally left theirs in our car and we took that moment to make sure he was following mission rules. We were shocked to find videos of two missionaries dancing in their home to techno and rap. It broke our hearts.

That night we visited with each companionship in that house and showed them the video. We took a different approach. Instead of the "guns blazing" approach, we went in with the "we're so disappointed, you broke our hearts," approach. It worked. So well. The whole house was humbled. We left the house with six CDs with classic rock and a vinyl record.

From what we've heard, they have taken it well. The two in the video were broken after we talked to them about it. They've committed to doing better and we have seen night and day difference in just one day.

I'm convinced that the best leaders do not lead by fear or terror. The best leaders lead by love, example, and boldness. Who are the best leaders? A mother and a father. Why? They are genuinely interested in the success of those they lead: their families. And they love them enough to fix problems when they arise. Thanks, Mom and Dad. Luckily you didn't have any problems to fix with me, right? :) Haha

Anyway, thanks for the letters Tanan, Simmons, family, and Natalia!

I hope that everyone has a brilliant week!

With love,

Elder Johnson

PS: Big dust storm hit!

24 March 2014

I've officially heard my first six gunshots in South Phoenix! pop-pop-pop...-pop-pop-pop.

 

President Toone told me this last week that he was considering calling SLC and requesting that Facebook be withdrawn from the mission. Luckily I was in front of him when he told me that and was able to show him some of the miracles that I am seeing on Facebook.

 

One of my investigators went to church in London. Twice now! Another wants to get baptized. Another wants to go to the temple. Another is receiving missionaries. Another is returning to church activity after being on the no-visit-list.

 

And it goes on. Facebook is a direct fulfillment of many promises in my patriarchal blessing.

 

We have used Facebook to connect with one family in particular that lives here in our area. They. Are. Amazing. The wife is totally ready to get baptized after the three weeks that we have been visiting her. She loves it all. In fact, in three weeks, she has read almost to Jacob. And comprehends everything. She reads to her husband and children every night. She is nothing but respect and love for her husband who isn't progressing as quickly though. It is inspiring to watch them interact. You learn something from everyone...

 

Anyway, our lessons with them in person are usually focused around him. We use Facebook as a means to teach her and help her specifically. It is so good for her, she loves sharing what she is learning.

 

We love that family so much.

 

Wednesday from 6-9 I felt very sick. Elder Myler, being the super diligent and awesome missionary that he is, called and coordinated members for the rest of the week. Que hubole!

 

We invited that very family to a family home evening with our Bishop last Monday night. It was amazing. They built a great relationship. Tonight they're coming to another family home evening with anther family in the ward.

 

We LOVE that family so much!

 

On Thursday we are having a meeting with President Toone to determine how we are going to solve the Facebook problems that have sprouted up. Here are some of my thoughts:

 

Facebook is being treated as a separate proselyting tool. Actually, it's not being treated like anything at all. There is no emphasis on it on a mission level. There is no training. It is a directionless hour. The "what-not-to-do" has been illustrated but we are lacking  a "what-to-do." It has fallen off the radar and as it has fallen away missionaries have fallen into the "scroll" trap where they just flick through the news feed and do nothing. This is a tool that can change everything, if we let it. There are many things the mission needs to focus on but this one has been neglected for six months. It is hard to train on because it cannot be done in a group setting, I feel. In those six months I've met with every single Zone Leader and talked a little about being productive but that training didn't get anywhere - it never made it to their zones. Frustrating.

 

Solution? I am not entirely sure. I had a very strong impression to offer to not have a proselyting area for my last three months and just train missionaries. But I don't know how feasible that is. I think I would run out of things to do. My nightmare is that Facebook dies when I die.

 

So we'll discuss these ideas/concerns/thoughts more on Thursday. We'll see whazzup.

 

Crazy story time. Our Bishop is THE MAN. This ward loves missionary work because he loves missionary work. He is a missionary 24/7.

 

THIS WEEK I ATE THE MOST DISGUSTING ICE CREAM I HAVE EVER HAD IN MY LIFE. CUCUMBER FLAVOR WITH CHILE. I've never almost thrown up from ice cream before that moment.

 

The people in South Phoenix are so humble. On an exchange this last week I had a humbling experience. One of the members really wanted to go out with the missionaries. So they scheduled him and I went out with him and another missionary. He drove an ice cream truck. Seriously. We sat in the aisle behind the drivers seat on coolers full of drinks and in a truck surrounded by candy and ice cream. He insisted that we eat some. It was a fun experience but one that really made me reflect on how much members sacrifice to come out with us. I asked him what hours were the best. He replied, "right now." At one stop some children ran up to the truck, money in hand, and he turned him down because he was, "with the missionaries!" We told him he should sell and he said no.

 

These people sacrifice so much for their faith. Are you?

 

This last week we taught almost 30 lessons with members present! We met many of our goals.

 

Things are going great here. We are praying for another transfer together. Praying. You should too!

 

Thanks for the letters, family! It was great to hear from you!

 

With love,

EJ

28 January 2014

Overall, this was a relatively uneventful week and will thus be a shorter letter.

I don't like being sick. Especially not for five days. No no no no no no. . . 

Our week started out so well. We visited an amazing family on Monday and the wife was a little sick. The next day, Elder Diaz was sick. The next day, I was sick. The next day, the other missionary that we live with was sick. I think I was sick the longest though and it went from Tuesday night to Saturday night. 

On Saturday I thought I was fine again. We went out and worked that day and then I made a terrible mistake: we went our to Chipotle with some members. Big steak burrito with salsa = terrible idea. I was sick again within three hours. I made it to our baptism that night and then went back and died at the house.

But I'm fine now! Wooooooooo! 

I learned a lot from that experience. My timetable isn't the Lord's. On Sunday night I was analyzing our previous week and was looking back on how good  it was and said to myself, "We'll repeat this every week!" Nope. We were then sick for five days haha. I learned a lot about patience and trust. I was beating myself up for being inside and feeling guilty for the first two days. I was so antsy to get up. Brother Burton, the sealer that we live with, told us that there is a season for all things and that really struck me. Sometimes we need to move slower than we want to for the right things to happen.

That baptism was the best service that I have ever been to. Ever. We announced it for two weeks before hand at church and got permission to get every missionary in the zone there. We set up over 60 chairs and had to set more up due to the crowd. The family getting baptized invited friends and coworkers and they came in force. It was awesome.

The ordinance itself was performed flawlessly for all three of them. As they were changing the Bishop bore his testimony. When they came out after changing each one shared their testimony and opened up a little bit more to the members. It was POWERFUL. The final testimony was the eight year old. That was the highlight. The closing hymn was "families can be together forever," and during the closing prayer I laughed a little bit at the number of people sniffling. 

In the post prayer moments the 8 year old approached me and said, "I don't know why, but I feel really peaceful right now!" Later at church the next day she would pull us aside and say, "Last night I had a moment with God. I felt so good."

It was a pure moment of innocence and love.

We love that family. Their baptism was one of the happiest moments of my life.

This past week we said goodbye to the Lamberts, a senior couple that we both served with in Gilbert. They covered the reservation and we love them. They went home on Thursday and on Wednesday we were able to go have lunch with them. We shared mission stories and "what we've learned so far" and it was an uplifting experience. Fun times. 

Last P-day we spent the day with the couple that we live with. We played a fun card game with them and then bocci (sp?) ball afterwards. They are temple workers and a wealth of knowledge. They're hilarious and energetic - we love them!

Elder Diaz and I have been making some plans for this next month, at least trying to. Nothing feels right. We have so many things to focus on and every missionary is at a different level. It's hard to put a blanket statement on the needs. Being so close to Tempe gives us the unique ability to go and visit President Toone and get some counsel from him. We talked and talked and he said he has felt the same way about the mission. None of us got answers but we got direction. That's better than nothing, right? February is going to present some unique challenges but we're ready for them! 

Well, a new week has began and with it will come new experiences! Thanks to everyone for their continued support!

Love,

Elder Johnson

26 August 2013

Yesterday was an obscenely stressful day.

One of the people we're teaching told us a week ago that she would be kicked out of her home tomorrow. She is 150% genuine. I'm not going to go into too much but we put it on the ward to take care of it and it stalled and nothing came of it. We finally had had enough of it and did all the phone calls to make things move again and yesterday it got all figured out.

I think the combination of stress and work got me sick. I came home with a fever of 101 and had the worst night sleep I've had since the MTC. I got up this morning planning on doing studies and got all ready, sat down to study, studied for 15 minutes then realized I was still too sick so I went back to sleep.

Ugh.

I had the really cool opportunity to do a baptismal interview this last week for a baptist preacher that is getting baptized into our church this weekend. We sat down and I knew instantly that he was prepared. We went through the questions and I invited him to share his testimony. He did so very powerfully. We talked after for a bit about the spirit and he told me of his conversion story. He was a car window panel salesman and going door to door knocking and trying to sell. He knocked one door and a woman answered and said, "I want you to do my car, my husbands car, and both my children's cars. But, first I want you to come inside and listen to a message about Jesus Christ!" He did. He left with a Book of Mormon but threw it away soon after. He said he felt so guilty for that and his soul was "racked with guilt." A few weeks later the missionaries knocked his door, he opened up, read the Book of Mormon, decided it was true, and is getting baptized next weekend!

And all of that started with a member boldly testifying. Are we taking the opportunities, formal and informal, to testify of the restored gospel to those we come in contact with?

He told us of the opposition his family is giving him but he said, "when you know, you know." What a great example he is of humility and faith.

This past week were interviews with President Toone. These were his first rounds of interviews since he started and they were great. We did a training while missionaries went into the interview room. I trained on love and Elder Harder (for his very last interview training) trained on teaching people, not lessons. The spirit was really powerful that day and everyone was involved in one way or another.

My interview with President Toone was pretty intense. He told me of the new responsibilities I'm going to have next transfer and some other things that have been on my mind a lot since then. It was an awesome experience. I just wish we had more than 15 minutes per interview.

And how could I wait until this point to write about our baptisms?!

What a great spirit that was there. The turnout was a little low but when President and Sister Toone showed up you could feel the excitement that entered the room. They're so genuine. Anyway, watching the first person get baptized was a humbling experience. She came out of the water pure smiles and walked very thoughtfully to the stairs where she waited to see the next person get baptized. She was all smiles for him as well. The second was super special because his older brother got to baptize him, a newly ordained priest. Way way cool.

Walking to teach a lesson this past week we bumped into a couple of men working on a car. We started a conversation but it was clear that none of them were interested. A few minutes later one of their friends walked to us and started talking to us. He was sincere and wanting to know what we did. So we taught, testified and invited. He has a baptismal date for September 14th now.

I looked at Elder Harder and said, "pretty crazy that we just put someone on date for after you go home..." He's hanging in there really well. The wards wouldn't stop talking about it at church yesterday though haha. "ONLY TWO WEEKS LEFT?!"

I feel like this last transfer I've become the best missionary I've ever been. Everything has kind of just clicked and it's all going really well.

Thanks Mom, Scott, Grandpa J, and Mark for the letters! Normally since it's week 5 of the 6 week transfer I would say send the letters to the mission home but President Toone told me I'm staying here another transfer.


Love you all lots!
EJ

17 June 2013

Dear Family and Friends,

We're both staying in Chandler and together! Wooooo! The phone calls didn't come until this morning. More on that later.

This was a tough week. Elder Diaz got pretty sick so we stayed inside for two days and we didn't teach many lessons. Fortunately he's feeling better now, a CT scan, ultrasound, and several blood tests later. They were pretty worried about his liver but fortunately he's good to go. Somehow the relief society found out and we got some concerned phone calls asking if we needed anything. It was cool to be on the other side of the phone and feel the love of the ward.

We didn't have a baptism this week...He cancelled the morning of. Three times now I've had a baptism cancel within 24 hours of the baptism. Here's the full story:

We have taught him every day for three weeks and his entire life has changed for the better. From his personal life to his apartment which has been cleaned up and refurnished, his life has done a complete 180. The gospel has saved his life in more than one way. He loved church. He loved the members. On Friday we went to the temple with him and he loved it. LOVED it. "I'm bringing my kids here in a year!" Friday night he was all good to go for the Saturday morning baptism. He asked me to baptize him and Elder Diaz to confirm him. The ward was getting pumped. 

And then at 9am we got the dreaded text. :( The first thing we did was drop to our knees and say a prayer then we called him, no answer. We went to his house, no answer. His roommate wouldn't call him for us and so we waited for 1.5 hours for him to get home from work. He never got home. We called him probably 10 times that day and no answer. I was starting to get worried.

And then yesterday we finally found him at home before church. Long story short we got him to say a kneeling prayer and then afterwards we waited for 2-3 minutes in silence, us praying intensely mentally for him and him sitting with his eyes closed and 'listening.' After a time he looked up to us and said, "It's true. The Book of Mormon is true and God has restored his church to the Earth!" I was beaming, reveling in the miraculous change of heart we had just seen.

And then he said, "but my path is elsewhere." Devastation. We sat in silence for 5 minutes waiting for him to clarify. He sat his job is to help his old church. 

Sigh.

So we invited him to the mission president's devotional that night - President Howes' last one. We showed up at 6pm, the allotted time, and he wasn't there. Agh! We can't go without investigators. We ran around the area visiting some of our other investigators there and desperately trying to invite them to come with us. They were all busy. On a whim we stopped by our investigators house once more to see if he was home. Nope. But his roommate was walking to the door with groceries in hand. We ran over to him and helped him carry them inside and said, "hey, come to a devotional with us!" He said, ".....ok!" Whew! Miraculous! We went with him and it was an incredible devotional. Two people who were baptized the day before spoke and shared their testimonies and then President and Sister Howes spoke. Elder Heathcote (served with me in Yuma for my first six weeks) came back to visit and it was fun to see him there. 

Anyway, we were pretty sad about that baptism falling through. At church the Bishop came up to us and told us that someone in the ward who isn't a member whose family is all active decided that she wanted to get baptized in two weeks. So now we have someone who is on date for July 6 out of nowhere! He mentioned she may prefer Sister missionaries. Nope. That's not happening. 

Elder Diaz's birthday is this week, his first in the field. His is June 24th. Last night we had dinner with the relief society president and in a moment where he was in the restroom I mentioned to her that his birthday was next week and asked her if there was anything we could do. She promised a cake on Sunday night. I told her not to tell him - I want to surprise him. There's not much we can do for him but I'm trying to think of something to make it better than it's bound to be haha. I did not tell her mine was just four days after. 

We had a pretty unique experience this week. We found a Navajo Book of Mormon in our car trunk 6 weeks ago and just left it there to admire it on occasion. Well, this past week we found two Navajo women and spoke to them for a bit and then ran to the car to get the Navajo Book of Mormon. What are the chances! After much prodding we convinced them to say a prayer in Navajo - It was AWESOME. 

Our senior couple in the zone, Elder and Sister Lambert, got anti'd this week by someone in the grocery line at Costco. Apparently it was so bad that even the other people in the line told the guy to get lost. Sad, the Lamberts are an inspiring and very very humble. I also whispered to them that Elder Diaz's birthday is next Monday so maybe we'll get two cakes?! Haha

I'm pretty sure Arizona has damaged my eyes. I can barely walk outside without sunglasses on since it's so bright.

I almost died at a dinner this week. No, not because of the food. We ate with someone who was studying for his citizenship test and we asked some questions. Elder Diaz asked, "who's Benjamin Franklin?" Two people who will remain unidentified said, "oh, he invented electricity!" 

Almost.

We had just finished talking about how most American's can't pass the citizenship test haha. Classic.

We also had the most intensely meat packed meal this week of my life. Elder Diaz has told me for weeks about Argentine Asados and this week an Argentine member made us a five course meal. Of meat. Started with some type of port, then steak, then pork, then chicken, then something else that I'm still unsure of what it was. We ate this salad of beats, raw eggs, and ham and it was actually really good haha. I couldn't eat two of those three ingredients 12 months ago.

This week I realized I've been out for almost 12 months and I was dumbfounded for a bit. Where does the time go?!

Though these past six weeks haven't yielded any baptisms, we have had success in other ways, the most profound of which was being able to help someone return to activity in the church. We got a referral from a member for a less active to visit and after the first visit she said, "Ok! I'm coming back! And I'm bringing my whole family with me!" Yesterday the youngest daughter sang with the youth in the fathers day program and I just sat there smiling and thinking about how all this family needed was the invitation and they're back and they're happy. 

We were visiting someone this week and I took a drink out of my camelbak. The person looked at me and said, "are you smoking?!"

We took our car to the dealership this week to get that mirror that broke itself replaced. While waiting a salesman came up to me and I asked him some questions about the Scion FRS, their sports car. That car is pretty sleek! The guy just about sold me on it and as I was reaching into my pocket I remembered I only have $20 dollars left for the month, a little less than the $25 thousand that I would have needed. He wasn't willing to trade for our 2010 Corolla either. I could only imagine what President Howes would say if I showed up to transfers in a red race car revving the engine at 8,000rpm  instead of our silver corolla.

Laura Johnson, if you read this, I met Elder Benson. Small world!

I talked with Elder Boyd last night to verify that we'll be able to wear polyester ties with the new mission president. He said President Howes is making policy adjustments next week including something with ties. Woooo!

Every single missionary is invited to transfers tomorrow. It's going to be 4 hours long including a social afterwards. This will be the last chance I have to see missionaries I've met that will be in the Gilbert mission. Last night I got it confirmed that there will be four Spanish missionaries in the entire mission and they'll have one companion for basically their entire mission. Those four Spanish missionaries are based out of Queen Creek. Whew, that was a close call!

So we cover all our daily planners with pictures to make them less boring. I've always spent way too much time looking for really unique pictures that no one else has to make my planners different. Well this week I looked through the 20+ watchtowers I've collected and found two sweet pictures of Daniel in the Lion's Den and a picture of Lot running from flaming meteors. Elder Diaz doesn't approve hahaha. I'll send a picture of it next week.

Speaking of pictures, here are some I took this week.

Dang, that one came out really well... It took a couple tries to frame it just right.

During the hour and a half we waited for our investigator to come home from work (the one who was supposed to get baptized.) We felt like cops - we were just missing some newspapers with eye-holes cut out.

Thanks Natalia, Annie, Mom, and Will for the letters this week! It was great to hear from all of you!

Love you all so much! Happy fathers day!

Elder Johnson

30 August 2012

What a crazy week. I've said it before, I'll say it again, time flies.

 

Last letter from the MTC!

 

We had a great devotional on Sunday. I can't remember who spoke but it was all about obedience and how we can be better if we do everything spot on. He told some crazy stories about lawsuits associated with missionaries separated from their companions just for a few minutes. He spoke with power. Right before he spoke he asked us all to say a silent prayer so that he could be directed via the spirit on what he should speak about. Obviously someone needed to hear about obedience.

 

He made some funny comments about food on his mission. He said he was a picky eater and that he struggled for his whole mission. Similar to what Cassie said (thanks for that forward, mom), he swallowed his food haha. That came up the next day in class and Hermano Angel touched on some tactics he used (Ecuador). Some were jokes. They were: drop the food into the backpack, swallow, spread, "fake spill," feed the dog, put under plate (a joke, I think, and drink lots of water. He told some hilarious stories about some of those. He said that during his mission he went from praying like, "please bless them to make good food," to, "please prepare my stomach and taste buds..." He told some crazy stories about getting really sick, like losing 25 pounds over the weekend sick.

Surprisingly, this week has had some thefts from adjacent rooms of ours. The MTC is a place full of pretty honest people. Two elders from the new district had a stamp book and SD cards stolen from their room as well as their clothes dumped on the ground. They told Elder Myler and me about it and we filed the police report. I haven't heard any news on it yet. Our room hasn't been touched, partly because we have a nerf basketball hoop on the door which makes it really hard to open. That may also explain why we haven't had a cleaning check for two weeks. No complaints from me!

 

Interesting experience this week. EVERYONE in our zone is getting sick.  I mean everyone. There is an entire district of 10 elders sick right now not to mention ~8 others in the zone and 3 in my district. Somehow I haven't gotten sick. With my history of a super strong immune system, it comes as now surprise (sarcasm.) We had a leadership meeting last Tuesday and my stomach was pretty painful all night. I was not in the mood to be sick. I said a quiet prayer to get better or feel better. When we sat down for the meeting, as soon as we started the opening prayer I felt 100% better. That stayed that way throughout the entire meeting. As soon as we said the closing prayer, I felt just as bad as before. I was strong long enough to get what I had to get done and then felt poor again right before bedtime. Pretty cool experience for sure.

 

You hear so often about the grace of God is the only reason we're saved, that through grace we can be saved. Yes, that's partly true. Hermano Angel made an interesting point this week. He said, "Grace is a sustaining process that helps us through it all." That really puts things in perspective, I think. Grace isn't the ability to completely overcome, it is the blessing of being helped. There's that quote by someone I don't know that, "God takes us to our outermost extremities then carries us the rest of the way." I think those two quotes complement each other very well.

 

Elder Myler and I watched Elder Bednar's first talk as an apostle this week. He looked terrified and repeated over and over how weak he was for the job ahead. It's cool to see how much he has grown as a result of his calling. We can be the same way. We're never really adequate for the job but through faith, we can accomplish anything.

 

There are these videos we watch in the MTC called, "The District." A camera crew followed these missionaries in California around and recorded all their lessons. Some were obviously better than others. Anyway, we've seen enough of these videos that we always laugh at the people in them. Apparently they're all still working at the MTC (They served their missions 2 years ago.) One such, Elder Christensen, we saw the other day. When we saw him, we all went to shake his hand because he's a "super star" at the MTC. Not really but it's the only thing we can really get excited about other than leaving. When I went to shake his hand, I had to walk after him. He wasn't very excited. I don't think he likes being a "celebrity." Regardless, we got a good laugh out of it.

 

Another good quote that I'll leave up to you to analyze. "Repentance isn't something you do, it is something you become."

 

Elder Thorsen still has not received his visa for Lima, Peru. He was supposed to leave for the Lima MTC 6 weeks ago. He has been a great example of faith through trials. Today he got his temporary reassignment: Chicago, IL. It is an awesome reassignment. Hopefully he gets his visa soon since he has no winter clothes. I told him to get out to Wilmette, IL asap. Too bad Grandpa and Grandma Johnson don't live there anymore. Chicago is an awesome place, though.

 

I got a letter from my Mission President today. He sent all of us Tempe missionaries a letter with the first day itinerary. He seems very organized. No one else going to other missions got something like that. It essentially said how excited he was to meet us and what we should prepare. The first day is crazy. I hope they throw nap time in there somewhere!

 

We got to host again yesterday. Our district hosted a lot of the international missionaries. It was cool to hear where some of them were from. One Sister was from Italy. I asked her if she followed Formula 1. She said yes very enthusiastically. Always funny to run into people who do follow it. People here have never heard of it but as soon as you get out of the USA, many people know it. I met some Tongans. Apparently it's not "tawnGa," but "tawnga," with a very quiet and unpronounced G. Who knew. Again, lots of tears as families said goodbye. It's crazy how rushed that first day is. I still don't remember a thing about it.

 

We had four elders in our zone try out to sing in the big devotional, the one that all 3100+ people watch. They qualified but it was all full on Sunday. Unfortunately, Sunday is our last day. Too bad. Last devotional I took my camera just to see how far I could zoom in. From the very back row of a "gym" that holds 4 full sized basketball courts, I could zoom in past everyone in the bleachers and get close enough to read the sheet music (blurrily) of the pianist. It helped keep me awake since it wasn't the most interesting of devotionals (Tuesday). When it is very hot int he room, they sometimes tell the Elders to take off their jackets. I got a picture before that of all the people in black jackets and right after with everyone in white shirts. It added a TON of light to the room. We were singing in the choir so I had a pretty good view. For some reason we sit in the back left. Mom, we've sung every week we've been here. It's really cool and is, "the only choir to not have enough women."

 

Question time: How did Michael and his hosts of Angels win the war in heaven? Spirits can't die... what defined "victory?" Also, what happens to your conscience when you're sleeping?

 

As I was reading Alma 7:23 this week, a word stuck out to me (Mom, quote it in here). The word "submissive." When I think of that word, I think of someone who caves in and who isn't firm in whatever it is they are doing. In the New Testament, Christ often says be as children. Children are submissive, they are humble enough to get in trouble and learn from it. I think that's a lesson for all of us to humble ourselves and be able to take critique.

 

Our district has been talking about how lucky we are to have the two teachers we have. Hermano Angel and Hermana Olsen teach superbly and have funny stories. Funnily enough, neither graduated High School but both got into BYU, Hermana Olsen at 16 years old. I think we're the only missionaries to have two teachers who didn't graduate HS who go to BYU. Hermano Angel came to the temple with us this morning as a sort of farewell. It was a great experience.

 

Thank you Eric, Will, Mom, Sister Hines, Susie, Uncle Ivan and Aunt Rebecca, Natalia, Grandpa and Grandma Johnson, and Grandpa Wolthuis for the great letters and package this week! I felt so loved. Replies are en route but they will be shorter than usual due to the hectic nature of these last few days at the MTC.

 

The next letters I write will be from Tempe!

 

Love you all,

Elder Johnson