Whats up?!? How is everyone??? This week has been incredible. 3 huge things happened this week.
1. Manny's baptism. This was for sure the highlight of the whole week. It was a small baptism not too many people came. The reason why is because we aren't exactly sure which ward he is going to attend. He can't attend our ward because of his ex-wife. But it was very spiritual. It is always really good to see a grown man cry. He said afterwards that he felt clean and safe.
2. Zone Leader Council and Zone Training Meeting. We had zlc on Tuesday which, as usual, lasted all day if you include the 6 hour drive. We talked about all kinds of cool missionary things. Then we had to prepare a training for the missionaries just two days later. ZTM went pretty well. We had a roleplay of the perfect day and got everyone involved.
3. Transfers. So me and Elder Charleson were trying to decide if he was gonna leave or if we would stay. I used to make transfer predictions and stuff but with President Young it is all just up in the air. But Elder Charleson ended up getting transferred. He is going to the Eugene YSA ward. My last area!!! I'm so jealous. I miss those Eugenians soooo much. In his place I'm getting a new companion.......Elder Thompson! My boy. I've already been companions with him. I was his trainer and now we will both be zone leaders together here in the Temple zone. Since he is my "son," He's moving back in with his dad. He's been out for about a year and he's still living with his parents! It was really weird, Elder Charleson got transferred yesterday. I've never seen a transfer on Sunday. But I guess that's the way it worked this time. I'm really looking forward to this transfer.
Other than the 3 huge things we had a lot of really awesome things. For example we had 8 people come to church yesterday. We had this new family come who is on fire. Joe, April, and Alexis. Joe and April are engaged and Alexis is April's 12 year old daughter. So I'm going to have to back up and tell the whole story.
Ok so this one time we were driving in the car. It was one of those days where we had to drive a lot to different appointments. I hate driving a lot because when your driving your not doing missionary work. So the best thing you can do is call people. So I grabbed the phone and started calling people. In the phone there are always a lot of people saved in there from past missionaries so there's always a lot that we just don't know. Well in our phone was a name saved as Joe & April. We called them and Joe answered it. I told him who we were and he immediately said, "yeah I know you guys, can we meet sometime?" I was like yeah! So then we met with him the next day. April was in the other room and she didn't want to come out. Well we met with Joe a few more times and set a date with him. But then he left to California for a week so he and April could try to get custody of April's daughter, Alexis. Well they were able to get custody for....well I'm not exactly sure how long. All I know is she is going back to Cali in 3 weeks. So we met with them this week and I don't know what changed but they want to get baptized. They all are so ready. It was great they came to all three hours of church. We have a date with Alexis for Aug 16th. But not with Joe and April yet because they need to get married and they need to stop smoking so we got a few hurdles before they can get baptized. But I have faith that it will all work.
Man! Bill Johnson bore his testimony yesterday! Remember how I told you how this guy was the guy who like smoking, watching tv, and not talking to us? Well yesterday we witnessed something I never thought I would see. We saw this grown red neck man, walk up to the pulpit and weep. He cried because he was SO grateful for what the church has done for his family. He talked about how his relationship with his wife and his son have increased so much since they were baptized. He also talked about how he was trying hard to become a member himself. He is just so addicted to cigarettes and coffee. BUT he has been cutting back drastically. It is a miracle to see this family as they have come to Christ. It was really hard for Elder Charleson to tell them he was leaving. When Serena found out she said I want to tell you my story. She told us the whole story of her life and told us her conversion story. There was a lot more that went into this than I ever knew.
Well this is going to be an amazing transfer I can't wait. I love you all!
Elder Johnson
