It
is a crazy feeling to know that I’m weeks away from that plane trip home. It
kinda feels unreal, like I’m never really going to go home, I’m just going to
leave and continue my mission elsewhere! But until that day, like you said we
are working hard.
To
answer your questions, I don’t exactly know when I will be coming home. I know
it’s at the end of April, and I’m guessing on the 28th or 29th. That’s around
when transfers end. I’ll be letting my mission president know that I’m
returning to Denver in a week or so, when I start my last transfer. And
finally yes, there is a western union in my area – downtown I believe.
Well,
I’ve never seen (but have heard about past) exorcisms; instead we get kinda the
opposite. We spend time with general authorities! This week President Carl B.
Cook from the seventy who is in charge of all southeast Africa came and held a
zone conference with us on Thursday! If you remember way back then to the
beginning of my mission you’ll note that I had a zone conference with him at
the beginning in Pointe-noire, while I was still being trained. (I’m the only
one still out on my mission, who was there for that) When I shook his wife’s
and his hand they said, “Elder Johnson, have we met before?” I affirmed and
then he said, “I thought I recognized the name, I remember you!” SO SICK!
Well
as that was the highlight of the week, I’m going to write to you two stories
that they told us, (I figure that would be more exciting that hearing
about us walking around in the sun and getting ditched on by our amis).
The
first story comes from Sister Cook. I call it the “south Africa temple story”.
I’ll tell it from her point of view. “When my husband and I first came to South
Africa there was a problem. The temple was empty. This is a temple that serves
around 20 countries and so you would expect it to be over-flowing with people,
but it wasn’t. In fact there was once when my husband and I were the only ones
in an endowment session. So the area presidency decided to solve the problem.
They researched it a bit and learned that sometimes getting visas to come is a
bit difficult. So they sent out people from the office to go learn about how to
obtain visas quicker. After some talking and searching they had plans and knew
for the most part how to get visas easier. Then the next problem was patron
housing, the housing people stay at while visiting the temple. Sometimes there
wasn’t enough room for everyone. And that had discouraged people from coming.
So the presidency looked into it and they decided to rent out a motel across
the street whenever the housing was filled. They would use extra money from the
temple patron fun d to finance it. So that’s what they did. Again, was a
problem with the little children of people coming to the temple. Families would
bring kids to be sealed but didn’t have anyone to take care of them for the
time that the adults would do baptisms for the dead and endowments. Elder Cook,
gathered together all the senior couples serving in the offices and asked, who
would mind taking care of kids every now and then. Several sisters volunteered.
And actually last week, some sisters and I took a few hours to watch 20 little
kids while their parents did ordinances (none English speaking kids by the
way). The last problem was the need for more temple workers. If the temple was
going to be busier they would need more workers. So the seventies sent out area
seventies to go look for worthy couples that could serve and passed on recommendations
to the temple presidents. And now the South Africa temple is overflowing.
Sometimes you literally cannot get a spot in endowments because it is so full!
Some might say ‘yeah, that’s how you solve problems, it’s by getting the right
people in place’. But that’s not true, the presidency worked in unity and it
made all the difference.”
I
thought that was a pretty awesome story showing HOW to solve problems. Not just
making the necessary plans but actually going out and solving the issues. The
next story comes from President Cook, and it’s from his younger years. He
taught us about the gospel of Jesus Christ. And why each of us must use it in our
lives. He wanted us to see what it really meant to repent and change, so we
could help our amis have that same change. Again, I’ll tell it from his
viewpoint.
“As
a young boy I was just average, I wasn’t super awesome, I mean I made stupid
mistakes. Just like everyone else. So growing up on a farm, I had a ‘farm
truck’. And one day I was driving my truck and my friend pointed to a boneyard
and said ‘hey look there’s the same model truck as yours, but that one’s got
working head lights and yours doesn’t! Let’s go take those ones off and put ‘em
on yours.’ So not even really thinking about it we went over to the truck and
took off the lights and put them on my truck. I didn’t really think anything
about it. Then came time to go on a mission and I sat in an interview with my
stake president, who asked ‘are you HONEST in your dealings with your fellow
men?’ And I said, ‘yeah’ I mean I’m a good boy and I want to go on a mission.
So later I was on my mission in Germany and I was teaching someone about how we
need to be honest in all things, and that memory of the head lights came back
into my mind and I realized that I wasn’t honest. And it finally came full
circle and I understood. That night I said a prayer asking for forgiveness, and
explaining to God how I was sorry. But I wanted to make things right, but how?
I was out in Germany, how could I make it right? So I carried that thought for
18 months while I finished my mission. And when I went home I was determined to
make it right. I went to the county hall and found out who owned that property.
Then I drove to his house, ready to face any consequences that might follow. I
walked up to his porch and knocked. When the man opened the door, I said, ‘Good
morning, my name is Carl and many years ago I went onto your property and stole
some headlights off an old broken truck. I’m really sorry.’ The man simply
said, ‘huh, I didn’t even miss ‘em. Don’t worry about it it’s not a big deal.’
I looked at him and said, ‘sir for me it is a big deal’, because this isn’t
about me and you, it’s about me and God. I reached into my pocket and pulled
out $100 dollars and said, ‘take this money as payment for the parts I took.’
The man took the money and said, ‘ok thanks for being honest!’ I went back to
my car and just said a simple prayer thanking heavenly father and put an end to
that story.”
President
Cook wanted us to see what it really means to repent and how serious our
engagement to follow Christ truly is. Becoming a saint through the atonement of
Christ takes action and a serious engagement to be and do better.
Those
are the highlights of our week. It was awesome to get to be around another
general authority! I still remember what he said last time, “the pickings are
slim and you (the missionaries) are all we got!”
