Well last Monday evening the rain began to hit really hard. We had FHE with a member and they brought their non-member friend Savannah. It was awesome. Afterwards we had another appointment but we had to go over a hill. We have started to name all the hills in our area. This particular hill was named Mount Doom. It was pretty big. So as we were riding down Mount Doom in the pouring rain all the sudden Elder Phair's brakes stopped working. This was incredibly inconvenient. Especially because there was a car that was driving at about the same speed right next to us so Elder Phair couldn't swerve around. All the sudden I hear him scream, "ELDER!! ELDER!!!" I didn't know what to do, so in my genius I did nothing. He had no choice but to slam into me and we both crashed to the ground. It's the first bike wreck of my mission. We were surprisingly just fine. The only thing that happened is I got two holes and some dirt on my pants, and some bruises. We ignored them and went back to work.
Besides bike wrecks we taught a lot of lessons. We are really starting to get some progressing investigators which is always so fun. We helped Kirsten this week in her yard. She had 3 bushes that needed to be taken out. It was really invigorating using a shovel and getting muddy. We got those bushes out in an hour and asked her whats next. She said, um I don't know. So we set up another lesson which was yesterday and went great. She works on most Sundays which is annoying.
During our weekly planning session we were trying to think of what we could do to teach Matt a 17 year punk. We ended up deciding we would bribe him with candy. So in our next lesson with him we brought a bunch of oreos. We said if you get the answer right you can have an oreo. It was like primary all over again. But it worked! He got way into it and really wanted to get the next oreo. It was neat.
We taught Natalie again and she is still amazing. She always asks the best questions. We went into the lesson planning on setting a date with her and teaching her an awesome lesson. BUT when we came for the lesson she hadn't read from the Book of Mormon like she promised so we read with instead. We will hopefully set a date with her this week.
Then we went on exchanges. It's incredibly weird going on exchanges and not being the one in charge. It was pretty relaxing. But not really because i went with Elder Palmer who didn't have anything planned. I looked at the day we had planned which was pretty full and sadly erased it all. We ended up trying to fill our day with good things to do and we were richly rewarded. The Lord blessed us with people to teach and we found some new investigators.
I wish I could tell you about all the people we taught this week. There just isn't enough time and I think about them all and I get overwhelmed. But I will tell you this, This is the best time of my life I love it. I love Elder Phair he is fantastic!!!
Love You All,
Elder Johnson
Monday, October 22, 2012
Thursday, October 18, 2012
The saga of Natalie and Kirsten
Had an excellent week. We set a goal this week to get 8 lessons with a member present. We went throughout our week and one by one many of our appointments cancelled. By Saturday if all our lessons went through we would have had 13 but so far only 3 went through. We were pretty down because 10 of our scheduled lessons fell through. Then on Sunday it was fast Sunday. We fasted that our investigators would be there for their appointments. We had a miracle yesterday. We got 4 lessons with a member present more than doubling our whole week combined. So we ended up being just 1 shy of our goal of 8 but the Lord really helped us out in the end.
One of these lessons on Sunday was Natalie. Last week I explained how we began to teach her because Elder Phair needed practice with the lessons. We taught her the first half of the second lesson on Friday. Then she came to church yesterday and we had a lesson after church. We taught about the spirit world and the kingdoms of glory. She had some great questions and really seemed to understand. At the end of the lesson we invited her to be baptized if she came to know the Book of Mormon was true. She said yes. We talked about how she can receive her answer and she offered the prayer at the end.
This last couple weeks the weather has been stupendous but this last week, the rain began. Usually in Oregon when the rain begins it doesn't tend to stop for a long time. So needless to say when we were studying that morning and we heard the dripping outside, our hearts sank. It poured that day. And we weren't really prepared because since we ride bikes it requires us to be in the rain a lot. But during this day of rain we went tracting. Some people were down right annoyed that we were dedicated enough to tract in the rain. We talked to a bunch of older folks and they told us to get inside. We just kept going. We were about to quit when we received the impression to try a house on the other side of the street. We knocked and a lady named Kirsten (spelled and sounds the same way as Kirsten Moody) answered the door. We explained the Book of Mormon and gave her a copy and set up a return appointment just as we had many many times before. The thing that made this person just a little different than the vast majority that we give a Book of Mormon to was that she was there for the return appointment.
We sat down with her yesterday and we had an awesome lesson. We asked her if she read the chapter we left with her. She said, "yes but it didn't answer the question I had. What I was wondering is why do we need the Book of Mormon when we have the Bible? So I decided to open the Book of Mormon to a random page." She explained that she opened it up to 2 Nephi 29. This happens to be the chapter where it says, "A Bible a bible we got a bible." This is the chapter every missionary wants to read with people who say they don't need the Book of Mormon but we're always scared that they might get offended. She, however, was not offended but took it as an answer from God to her question. She then commenced in reading from the beginning whenever she had the chance. She made it all the way to 2 Nephi 10. It was awesome! In our lesson yesterday we invited her to be baptized and she said, "I'm open to the idea but I've already been baptized." So we explained a little bit about the priesthood. We have another appointment with her this week on Thursday.
Really excited for these next couple weeks we are seeing miracles daily and the Lord is providing us with strength. Thank you for all your continued support. Love you all!
Elder Johnson
One of these lessons on Sunday was Natalie. Last week I explained how we began to teach her because Elder Phair needed practice with the lessons. We taught her the first half of the second lesson on Friday. Then she came to church yesterday and we had a lesson after church. We taught about the spirit world and the kingdoms of glory. She had some great questions and really seemed to understand. At the end of the lesson we invited her to be baptized if she came to know the Book of Mormon was true. She said yes. We talked about how she can receive her answer and she offered the prayer at the end.
This last couple weeks the weather has been stupendous but this last week, the rain began. Usually in Oregon when the rain begins it doesn't tend to stop for a long time. So needless to say when we were studying that morning and we heard the dripping outside, our hearts sank. It poured that day. And we weren't really prepared because since we ride bikes it requires us to be in the rain a lot. But during this day of rain we went tracting. Some people were down right annoyed that we were dedicated enough to tract in the rain. We talked to a bunch of older folks and they told us to get inside. We just kept going. We were about to quit when we received the impression to try a house on the other side of the street. We knocked and a lady named Kirsten (spelled and sounds the same way as Kirsten Moody) answered the door. We explained the Book of Mormon and gave her a copy and set up a return appointment just as we had many many times before. The thing that made this person just a little different than the vast majority that we give a Book of Mormon to was that she was there for the return appointment.
We sat down with her yesterday and we had an awesome lesson. We asked her if she read the chapter we left with her. She said, "yes but it didn't answer the question I had. What I was wondering is why do we need the Book of Mormon when we have the Bible? So I decided to open the Book of Mormon to a random page." She explained that she opened it up to 2 Nephi 29. This happens to be the chapter where it says, "A Bible a bible we got a bible." This is the chapter every missionary wants to read with people who say they don't need the Book of Mormon but we're always scared that they might get offended. She, however, was not offended but took it as an answer from God to her question. She then commenced in reading from the beginning whenever she had the chance. She made it all the way to 2 Nephi 10. It was awesome! In our lesson yesterday we invited her to be baptized and she said, "I'm open to the idea but I've already been baptized." So we explained a little bit about the priesthood. We have another appointment with her this week on Thursday.
Really excited for these next couple weeks we are seeing miracles daily and the Lord is providing us with strength. Thank you for all your continued support. Love you all!
Elder Johnson
Tuesday, October 9, 2012
(no subject)
This week we had several really funny things happen and then also some miracles. Conference was amazing as usual.
The funniest thing is really just embarrassing. We went over to our investigators house Tatiana, but she wasn't there. We talked to her dad who happens to be a member. It was really hard to understand him in his broken English because he is Marshallese. He was telling us he wanted us to give his grandchild a blessing. He just turned one. We weren't exactly sure what he was asking so we kinda just went for it and agreed to come by the next night and say a prayer for him. Well when we got there the next day it turns out that the entire family was there. They have a huge family there was like 25-30 people there. And they had all gathered for this prayer. Well not many of them spoke English so we just kinda sat in the corner awkwardly. Then he brought out the baby who had just turned one and it was his Birthday. We were just confused. I was "voluntold" by Elder Phair to give the prayer. I asked what the baby's name was. He didn't really understand my question at first so I repeated and he responded "john ball." I thought to myself that's a weird name for a Marshallese baby. But I went for it and thanked God for John Ball and asked that he would bless him and things. Immediately after the prayer there was the question that left everyone's lips to their neighbors as they whispered to each other, "Who's John Ball?" Apparently his name was Tiem. To this day I have no idea why in the world he told me the wrong name.
Another funny thing that happened was we were tracting in these apartments and knocked on this door. Before we know it a cop answers the door flash light in hand. Me and Elder Phair were stunned for a few seconds. Then we decided to just go for it. "We're missionaries from the Church of...." Then he cut us off and said, "I can assure you we don't need missionaries here. We got some crime happening." In the back there was another cop in the back examining some substance. "Alright! Wellp see ya."
Amoungst the funny things that always happen we also had some really cool miracles happen this week. We have continued teaching Keith. He's awesome. This week we taught him about the addiction recovery program. Which he was all for. He also read our skeleton version of the Book of Mormon. We left him about 20 of the most important chapters to read in the Book of Mormon and he read it all and loved it. We talked with him about coming to conference and church but he refused. He said I won't come until I quit smoking. I think he's using that as an excuse. But he is solid and he will come around.
We taught a lady named Abisha. She was found by the missionaries who were here before. She has a 12 year old son named Wesley. Well they are doing great they were able to watch conference this week. She is very friendly.
Ok so miracle of the week. The first couple weeks we got here we went to try and contact a part member family. The information we had about them was that the father was less active and the wife was not a member. We got to the house and Elder Phair looked at me with bewilderment in his eyes and said, "what are we going to say to these people?" I thought about for a second. I have been so used to just doing it that I have forgotten how good it is to plan what to say before. I thought about it for a second. Then we came up with a great idea. We knocked on the door and the member answered. After our intitial greeting I said, "you know Jake, Elder Phair here just barely became a missionary. He really needs some practice teaching the lessons. Could we come by some time this week and teach you and your family the message of the Restoration?" It worked. He said sure and we went by just yesterday. We got in and met the wife who is not a member but she has come to church many times and even watched conference. We taught the message of the Restoration. We actually weren't being deceptive though because Elder Phair and I really did need practice teaching the Restoration. The lesson went awesome! We gave her a Book of Mormon. Funny enough the Book of Mormon that Elder Phair pulled out was an older one that had been lying around our apartment when we first got here. We opened it up and discovered that in the back some random people had written their testimonies in it. We said well some random person wrote their testimony in this so you can read it. They asked who it was. We looked at the signiture and out of pure "coincidence" that person was their babysitter growing up. WOW!
But it doesn't end there, at the end Natalie started asking us some excellent questions like, "Do people who are a different religion like me ever convert to mormonism?" and "Do you guys believe people from other religions can go to Heaven?" To the latter question we responded "Well you know we have a lesson that teaches all about life after death. Can we come by this week and teach you about it?" They agreed. Wonderful!
Well the work is really progressing it's super exciting. I love this ward this companion this mission. Everything. And I love you all too. Thanks for being there for me.
Elder Johnson
The funniest thing is really just embarrassing. We went over to our investigators house Tatiana, but she wasn't there. We talked to her dad who happens to be a member. It was really hard to understand him in his broken English because he is Marshallese. He was telling us he wanted us to give his grandchild a blessing. He just turned one. We weren't exactly sure what he was asking so we kinda just went for it and agreed to come by the next night and say a prayer for him. Well when we got there the next day it turns out that the entire family was there. They have a huge family there was like 25-30 people there. And they had all gathered for this prayer. Well not many of them spoke English so we just kinda sat in the corner awkwardly. Then he brought out the baby who had just turned one and it was his Birthday. We were just confused. I was "voluntold" by Elder Phair to give the prayer. I asked what the baby's name was. He didn't really understand my question at first so I repeated and he responded "john ball." I thought to myself that's a weird name for a Marshallese baby. But I went for it and thanked God for John Ball and asked that he would bless him and things. Immediately after the prayer there was the question that left everyone's lips to their neighbors as they whispered to each other, "Who's John Ball?" Apparently his name was Tiem. To this day I have no idea why in the world he told me the wrong name.
Another funny thing that happened was we were tracting in these apartments and knocked on this door. Before we know it a cop answers the door flash light in hand. Me and Elder Phair were stunned for a few seconds. Then we decided to just go for it. "We're missionaries from the Church of...." Then he cut us off and said, "I can assure you we don't need missionaries here. We got some crime happening." In the back there was another cop in the back examining some substance. "Alright! Wellp see ya."
Amoungst the funny things that always happen we also had some really cool miracles happen this week. We have continued teaching Keith. He's awesome. This week we taught him about the addiction recovery program. Which he was all for. He also read our skeleton version of the Book of Mormon. We left him about 20 of the most important chapters to read in the Book of Mormon and he read it all and loved it. We talked with him about coming to conference and church but he refused. He said I won't come until I quit smoking. I think he's using that as an excuse. But he is solid and he will come around.
We taught a lady named Abisha. She was found by the missionaries who were here before. She has a 12 year old son named Wesley. Well they are doing great they were able to watch conference this week. She is very friendly.
Ok so miracle of the week. The first couple weeks we got here we went to try and contact a part member family. The information we had about them was that the father was less active and the wife was not a member. We got to the house and Elder Phair looked at me with bewilderment in his eyes and said, "what are we going to say to these people?" I thought about for a second. I have been so used to just doing it that I have forgotten how good it is to plan what to say before. I thought about it for a second. Then we came up with a great idea. We knocked on the door and the member answered. After our intitial greeting I said, "you know Jake, Elder Phair here just barely became a missionary. He really needs some practice teaching the lessons. Could we come by some time this week and teach you and your family the message of the Restoration?" It worked. He said sure and we went by just yesterday. We got in and met the wife who is not a member but she has come to church many times and even watched conference. We taught the message of the Restoration. We actually weren't being deceptive though because Elder Phair and I really did need practice teaching the Restoration. The lesson went awesome! We gave her a Book of Mormon. Funny enough the Book of Mormon that Elder Phair pulled out was an older one that had been lying around our apartment when we first got here. We opened it up and discovered that in the back some random people had written their testimonies in it. We said well some random person wrote their testimony in this so you can read it. They asked who it was. We looked at the signiture and out of pure "coincidence" that person was their babysitter growing up. WOW!
But it doesn't end there, at the end Natalie started asking us some excellent questions like, "Do people who are a different religion like me ever convert to mormonism?" and "Do you guys believe people from other religions can go to Heaven?" To the latter question we responded "Well you know we have a lesson that teaches all about life after death. Can we come by this week and teach you about it?" They agreed. Wonderful!
Well the work is really progressing it's super exciting. I love this ward this companion this mission. Everything. And I love you all too. Thanks for being there for me.
Elder Johnson
Monday, October 1, 2012
A lot of referrals
We got a lot of referrals this week. Our ward is just incredible. I mean it when I say that this ward is the most missionary minded ward I've been in yet. This week we tried really hard to talk to as many members of the ward as possible. Whether they are active or less active. We had great success in doing so. Because every time we meet a new member we ask them if they know anyone we could teach. This week we ended up with 10 referrals. And lots of these are the kind of referral that the member wants to contact them rather than us which is more than ideal.
One such referral came from a pretty odd source. We were invited to activity days (8-11 year old girls) this week to present a message from the Book of Mormon. We were a little taken aback. I have never done anything like that before. We didn't have a whole lot of time to prepare. We were going to have a whole bunch of props but then we didn't have any time to get them and no way of bringing them to the church (because we're on bikes). So we made due with what we had. We had the girls illustrate the story of Nephi and Laban. The leader who played Laban wore my bike helmet and my back pack for his armor. The brass plates were my scriptures and the money they used to try to buy the plates was....my wallet. It was pretty fun. Right afterwards one of the leaders came up to us and said, "I have someone for you to teach. One of my friends has been asking a lot of questions about the church." We were like yes.
We had a cool miracle happen this week because of bikes. I love riding bikes. We ride around to our appointments and can talk to everyone along the way. On the way to one such appointment we met a man named Keith. When me and Elder Phair first got here we tracted into Keith and he said he was not interested because he was too busy. But when we saw him on the street that day something had changed. He asked us "hey do you guys remember me?" We were like no. He was like, "well....do you guys have a Book of Mormon." Ummm yes! We proceeded to give him a BoM and explained it. He all the sudden was way interested. We just taught him again yesterday. He asked us a lot of questions and we answered them and invited him to be baptized. He said maybe.
We also had zone conference this week which was spectacular. Elder Peterson my old companion is the new assistant and he's great. We talked about how we should practice winning. So we went home and roleplayed baptizing one of our investigators. Then we set the goal to get 2 baptisms this transfer and also to get one of those baptisms on Oct 20th. We wrote this goal on two posters and we hung them up in strategic places throughout the house. We know God will provide a way.
Yesterday we were asked to give a 10 min talk for Sunday school on the 5th Sunday. It was cool. We showed a quote of President Monson and Elder Bednar and then we bore powerful testimony about the importance of missionary work. We then took a big box of Book of Mormons and put them out on a chair and invited them all to take one and write their testimony in it and hand it out. Our ward graciously accepted this challenge. They are the best!
The work is really going great. I am thirsty for a baptism. We know the investigators we have will soon begin to progress and move along. Love you all and have a great week.
Love Elder Johnson
One such referral came from a pretty odd source. We were invited to activity days (8-11 year old girls) this week to present a message from the Book of Mormon. We were a little taken aback. I have never done anything like that before. We didn't have a whole lot of time to prepare. We were going to have a whole bunch of props but then we didn't have any time to get them and no way of bringing them to the church (because we're on bikes). So we made due with what we had. We had the girls illustrate the story of Nephi and Laban. The leader who played Laban wore my bike helmet and my back pack for his armor. The brass plates were my scriptures and the money they used to try to buy the plates was....my wallet. It was pretty fun. Right afterwards one of the leaders came up to us and said, "I have someone for you to teach. One of my friends has been asking a lot of questions about the church." We were like yes.
We had a cool miracle happen this week because of bikes. I love riding bikes. We ride around to our appointments and can talk to everyone along the way. On the way to one such appointment we met a man named Keith. When me and Elder Phair first got here we tracted into Keith and he said he was not interested because he was too busy. But when we saw him on the street that day something had changed. He asked us "hey do you guys remember me?" We were like no. He was like, "well....do you guys have a Book of Mormon." Ummm yes! We proceeded to give him a BoM and explained it. He all the sudden was way interested. We just taught him again yesterday. He asked us a lot of questions and we answered them and invited him to be baptized. He said maybe.
We also had zone conference this week which was spectacular. Elder Peterson my old companion is the new assistant and he's great. We talked about how we should practice winning. So we went home and roleplayed baptizing one of our investigators. Then we set the goal to get 2 baptisms this transfer and also to get one of those baptisms on Oct 20th. We wrote this goal on two posters and we hung them up in strategic places throughout the house. We know God will provide a way.
Yesterday we were asked to give a 10 min talk for Sunday school on the 5th Sunday. It was cool. We showed a quote of President Monson and Elder Bednar and then we bore powerful testimony about the importance of missionary work. We then took a big box of Book of Mormons and put them out on a chair and invited them all to take one and write their testimony in it and hand it out. Our ward graciously accepted this challenge. They are the best!
The work is really going great. I am thirsty for a baptism. We know the investigators we have will soon begin to progress and move along. Love you all and have a great week.
Love Elder Johnson
Monday, September 24, 2012
Salem 5th
So all the trainers gathered in Eugene last Monday. There was 20 of us in all. We all gathered to listen to President and learn how to be a better trainer. I was totally unprepared and forgot my suit coat. Let me tell you I've done some pretty humiliating things in my life but being the only one in a room of 25 people without a suit....man I was embarrassed. My great friend and previous companion Elder Peterson, who is now serving as the assistant, came to my rescue and grabbed my suit coat for me.
But then the next day the new missionaries came in. It is a very dramatic event to meet them all. One of them, Elder Gabbitas, is related to me through Bruce and Katrina. We were all trying hard not to think, who of all these new missionaries is going to be my next companion. Then President began the process of interviewing each of the new missionaries one by one. When he finished we all gathered together and he called on the trainers one by one. Eventually he called me, "Elder Johnson! Elder Johnson has just been released as a zone leader. Elder Johnson what area are you serving in?" I told him Salem 5th. He said, "Do you know anything about that area?" I told him no. He said Why. I said cuz I've never been there before. Then he said well you are going to have a great time there with.......Elder Phair! And that was it. My new comp (pronounced "fair").
Everything that happened after that is kind of a blur. I remember getting our luggage and putting it on a van. Then we drove up to Salem and just remember LOADING Elder Phair with info about missionary work. He eventually had to tell me, "Elder I'm super tired and I'm never gonna remember any of this stuff." Alright Phair enough. Haha.
We got to the transfer spot in Salem and no one was there to pick us up so we had to stuff all our luggage into a mini van with the zone leaders (which happens to be Elder Hackett and Elder Thomas [who's my son] who were two of my previous companions.) Then we got to our apartment. We got our stuff in it really quick. Then we gave ourselves a tour of our new house. We quickly discovered that we had NO food and that we didn't have enough chairs. After our tour I sat on my suitcase and he sat our only chair and we commenced our first daily planning session.
The next day during our companionship study we studied hard and prayed hard. By the end we were filled with the spirit. We set the goal to invite someone to be baptized that day. Even if they didn't say yes just someone, anyone, that we could invite to be baptized. We went throughout our day and had some good success but we only had one thing actually planned on our scheduled. That was to meet the Elders quorom president Brother Moulton. So me went by and met their family. We shared a message about the Restoration and asked them if they knew anyone we could teach. Sister Moulton said, Savannah. It was their son's nonmember girlfriend. She said, "she told me she wants to learn how to become mormon. In fact lets go there right now." So we did. We went by and it turns out that she did want to become Mormon. So the Lord in his mercy allowed us the chance to invite someone to be baptized. And she accepted. It was a miracle. We called president and told him about it. She ended up coming to church yesterday and we have another appointment tonight.
Another really cool miracle we saw was we had dinner with the Skeltons. We asked if they knew anyone we could teach. Brother Skelton said, "ya know there is a name of a less active guy in the ward that keeps coming to my mind. Why don't you try to stop by. His name is Bradley." So we looked it up in our ward list. In our ward list it said DNC which means Do not contact. We probably wouldn't have stopped by. But we did because Brother Skelton told us to. And he was really pleasent and we set up a return appointment with him.
3 things that I love:
I love being on bike! This is quite contrary from what I thought I would think about bikes. But when you ride bikes you have the chance to talk to everyone as you ride by. This allows you to talk to way more people and as such have more success. Then you also can get better exercise. And you are seen more. We have been honked at by members more than my whole life.
I love Salem 5th ward. This ward is amazing. They have a little plaque on the pulpit that says "please mention missionary work in your prayer." So all the prayers were geared toward missionary work. Then all the classes were geared toward missionary work too. We had a random investigator show up at church named Cory. AND we had 2 members ask us for a Book of Mormon to give to their friends......this ward is great.
I love Elder Phair. He is the most sincere and humble missionary in the world.....like literally. He is catching on so quick. Whenever he talks I just want to stop and listen to him. He is a little soft spoken but it makes it more meaningful when he teaches. He says things quitely and simply. He is fantastic.
I'm so excited for this transfer we will have a lot of success. Love you all with all my heart
Love Elder Johnson
But then the next day the new missionaries came in. It is a very dramatic event to meet them all. One of them, Elder Gabbitas, is related to me through Bruce and Katrina. We were all trying hard not to think, who of all these new missionaries is going to be my next companion. Then President began the process of interviewing each of the new missionaries one by one. When he finished we all gathered together and he called on the trainers one by one. Eventually he called me, "Elder Johnson! Elder Johnson has just been released as a zone leader. Elder Johnson what area are you serving in?" I told him Salem 5th. He said, "Do you know anything about that area?" I told him no. He said Why. I said cuz I've never been there before. Then he said well you are going to have a great time there with.......Elder Phair! And that was it. My new comp (pronounced "fair").
Everything that happened after that is kind of a blur. I remember getting our luggage and putting it on a van. Then we drove up to Salem and just remember LOADING Elder Phair with info about missionary work. He eventually had to tell me, "Elder I'm super tired and I'm never gonna remember any of this stuff." Alright Phair enough. Haha.
We got to the transfer spot in Salem and no one was there to pick us up so we had to stuff all our luggage into a mini van with the zone leaders (which happens to be Elder Hackett and Elder Thomas [who's my son] who were two of my previous companions.) Then we got to our apartment. We got our stuff in it really quick. Then we gave ourselves a tour of our new house. We quickly discovered that we had NO food and that we didn't have enough chairs. After our tour I sat on my suitcase and he sat our only chair and we commenced our first daily planning session.
The next day during our companionship study we studied hard and prayed hard. By the end we were filled with the spirit. We set the goal to invite someone to be baptized that day. Even if they didn't say yes just someone, anyone, that we could invite to be baptized. We went throughout our day and had some good success but we only had one thing actually planned on our scheduled. That was to meet the Elders quorom president Brother Moulton. So me went by and met their family. We shared a message about the Restoration and asked them if they knew anyone we could teach. Sister Moulton said, Savannah. It was their son's nonmember girlfriend. She said, "she told me she wants to learn how to become mormon. In fact lets go there right now." So we did. We went by and it turns out that she did want to become Mormon. So the Lord in his mercy allowed us the chance to invite someone to be baptized. And she accepted. It was a miracle. We called president and told him about it. She ended up coming to church yesterday and we have another appointment tonight.
Another really cool miracle we saw was we had dinner with the Skeltons. We asked if they knew anyone we could teach. Brother Skelton said, "ya know there is a name of a less active guy in the ward that keeps coming to my mind. Why don't you try to stop by. His name is Bradley." So we looked it up in our ward list. In our ward list it said DNC which means Do not contact. We probably wouldn't have stopped by. But we did because Brother Skelton told us to. And he was really pleasent and we set up a return appointment with him.
3 things that I love:
I love being on bike! This is quite contrary from what I thought I would think about bikes. But when you ride bikes you have the chance to talk to everyone as you ride by. This allows you to talk to way more people and as such have more success. Then you also can get better exercise. And you are seen more. We have been honked at by members more than my whole life.
I love Salem 5th ward. This ward is amazing. They have a little plaque on the pulpit that says "please mention missionary work in your prayer." So all the prayers were geared toward missionary work. Then all the classes were geared toward missionary work too. We had a random investigator show up at church named Cory. AND we had 2 members ask us for a Book of Mormon to give to their friends......this ward is great.
I love Elder Phair. He is the most sincere and humble missionary in the world.....like literally. He is catching on so quick. Whenever he talks I just want to stop and listen to him. He is a little soft spoken but it makes it more meaningful when he teaches. He says things quitely and simply. He is fantastic.
I'm so excited for this transfer we will have a lot of success. Love you all with all my heart
Love Elder Johnson
Thursday, September 20, 2012
WELL!
WELL! On Friday I got a call from President Young. He said, "Elder Johnson I want to thank you for your service as a zone leader in the Temple zone. I am now releasing you as a zone leader and calling you to be a trainer in the Salem 5th ward."
And so here I am typing a letter in the 18th street building in Eugene awaiting further guidance tonight how to be a trainer. Ah transfers, it is always such a crazy stressful time. I am, as always, extremely sad to leave my area. Jacksonville has become a sacred place. I think of all the change that took place. If I had a prize to give away to the area with people in it that went through the most improvement, Jacksonville would be it. I think of Serena and Bill, and Manny, Alexis, Paul, Patty, Frank and Beth, Joe and April. All these people!
Man I don't even remember what we did this week it all seems so far away.
This is going to be an awesome transfer! So I will also be "whitewashing" or "double transferring." Which means that I have no idea who anybody is in the ward or in our investigator pool and neither does my companion. And my companion doesn't know how to be a missionary yet either. But hey we'll make the best out of what we got. Oh yeah and my entire mission I have managed to be in a "full car" area. So I've always had a car. Well now I'm going to a full bike area. I don't even have a bike. Elder Thompson is letting me borrow his bike though so it's all good.
I'm sorry this is short. I will let you know who my new companion is and everything next week.
I love you all!
Elder Johnson
And so here I am typing a letter in the 18th street building in Eugene awaiting further guidance tonight how to be a trainer. Ah transfers, it is always such a crazy stressful time. I am, as always, extremely sad to leave my area. Jacksonville has become a sacred place. I think of all the change that took place. If I had a prize to give away to the area with people in it that went through the most improvement, Jacksonville would be it. I think of Serena and Bill, and Manny, Alexis, Paul, Patty, Frank and Beth, Joe and April. All these people!
Man I don't even remember what we did this week it all seems so far away.
This is going to be an awesome transfer! So I will also be "whitewashing" or "double transferring." Which means that I have no idea who anybody is in the ward or in our investigator pool and neither does my companion. And my companion doesn't know how to be a missionary yet either. But hey we'll make the best out of what we got. Oh yeah and my entire mission I have managed to be in a "full car" area. So I've always had a car. Well now I'm going to a full bike area. I don't even have a bike. Elder Thompson is letting me borrow his bike though so it's all good.
I'm sorry this is short. I will let you know who my new companion is and everything next week.
I love you all!
Elder Johnson
Monday, September 10, 2012
Zone Leader Council
So this week we had Zone Leader Council. It was really quite fun. Unfortunately it is an all-day affair and we don't get much time to work in the vineyard. The big change just took place in our mission. President Young no longer wants us to count tracting hours as a key indicator. That means that we will not keep track of how many hours we tract. That probably doesn't seem like that big of a change to you which it really isn't. But now we are trying to focus on finding rather than just tracting. So on the week we have zlc we also have to teach ztm which is zone training meeting. We really wanted to help everyone make a change. We had everyone think about and write down all the things that are holding them back. Things like obedience, skills and faith. We all wrote a list of 15 things that are making us mediocre missionaries. Then at the meeting we talked about the law of moses and through Jesus it was fulfilled. Then we all went outside and lit our list on fire and "sacrificed" those things. It was cool. We also set the goal for our entire zone to find 200 new investigators in september. We are very far off track right now but I have faith that we can make it.
The most amazing miracle you see as a missionary is the miracle of conversion. To see someone who starts out not interested and then change to getting baptized. I think of people like April. Last year she played a joke on missionaries who came to her door she pretended to be crazy. Those missionaries may have walked away depressed thinking there was no hope for her. But just one year later she is preparing to enter into the waters of baptism. Joe and April's baptism was going to be this week but they are still struggling quitting smoking. So we pushed the date back a couple weeks.
I also think of people like Jennifer. When I first got here she was the least solid investigator we had. We dropped her shortly after I got here. Then just a few short months later we call her and she asks if we will teach her. We come over and last night we just had a super spiritual lesson where she agreed to be baptized if she found out its true. Tonight we have another lesson with her in a member's home. It's awesome!
I think of people like the less active member, Paul Rock. Who, when I first got here had no intention of ever going to church again. The next time we stopped by he had planned to tell us to never come by again. But with God anything is possible. He has now come to church many times and has given up, perscription drugs, chewing tabacco and tea all so he can prepare to enter the temple. It's fantastic!!!!
There is absolutely no doubt in my mind, God can change people. If he can move mountains and change the course of rivers, he can move a person. And he has done that many times here in Medford. I know that through the atonement of Jesus Christ everything can be made right and a persons weaknesses may be made strengths.
Love Elder Johnson
The most amazing miracle you see as a missionary is the miracle of conversion. To see someone who starts out not interested and then change to getting baptized. I think of people like April. Last year she played a joke on missionaries who came to her door she pretended to be crazy. Those missionaries may have walked away depressed thinking there was no hope for her. But just one year later she is preparing to enter into the waters of baptism. Joe and April's baptism was going to be this week but they are still struggling quitting smoking. So we pushed the date back a couple weeks.
I also think of people like Jennifer. When I first got here she was the least solid investigator we had. We dropped her shortly after I got here. Then just a few short months later we call her and she asks if we will teach her. We come over and last night we just had a super spiritual lesson where she agreed to be baptized if she found out its true. Tonight we have another lesson with her in a member's home. It's awesome!
I think of people like the less active member, Paul Rock. Who, when I first got here had no intention of ever going to church again. The next time we stopped by he had planned to tell us to never come by again. But with God anything is possible. He has now come to church many times and has given up, perscription drugs, chewing tabacco and tea all so he can prepare to enter the temple. It's fantastic!!!!
There is absolutely no doubt in my mind, God can change people. If he can move mountains and change the course of rivers, he can move a person. And he has done that many times here in Medford. I know that through the atonement of Jesus Christ everything can be made right and a persons weaknesses may be made strengths.
Love Elder Johnson
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