tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22277675625293133362024-03-19T00:45:14.680-07:00ELDER JULIUS JOHNSONAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00721862569938640306noreply@blogger.comBlogger116125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2227767562529313336.post-2059966951846003342015-04-21T17:06:00.004-07:002015-04-21T17:06:51.834-07:0004/20/15 Suiting Up to Come Home
<br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 107%;">I don’t really know what to write. I mean
I’ve only got one week left and you all seem to know how missionary work runs
out here. I mean nothing too new. I did get the money which I can’t thank you
enough for - but that is awesome that you all did some family history work. You
have no idea how pumped I am to do family history work when I get home. I
figure that will be the equivalent to "missionary work" as well as
working with the full time missionaries.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 107%;">So I got a suit to come home in! And
because the dollar is stronger than it was when I got here the exchange rate
was even higher than normal, so with that I used the extra money to get Elder
Mbikayi a suit as well, all that remains are the souvenirs. Thanks for the
list, I’ll organize it and get all that I can next Monday.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 107%;">As for the work, we've just been working
super hard and I’ve been having a fun time dealing with all the amis and
teaching them - just doing my best to help them progress. Early this week I
kinda got "depressed" you could say. Just watching the calendar and
seeing that all this was ending. It felt like I had no control over what was
happening and the clock was ticking too fast! We often refer to the end of
the mission as someone "dying" - at sometimes it felt like I was
actually going to die or something. So finally Thursday night, I read a
conference talk by elder Holland and thought about the whole situation and I
decided I need to square my shoulders and think positively. The next morning I
woke up and accepted the fact - I thought to myself, "my mission is ending
and there is nothing I can do about it, but it’s necessary that it ends. After
all, if the mission doesn’t end I could never get married or do temple work or
raise a family. So yes, the badge is coming off soon - but for now it’s still
on, so keep working, Johnson". That day I pulled out my suitcase and started
arranging things. It just felt so much better to accept the fact and move
on. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 107%;">Another life lesson I learned from my
mission, it’s often better to accept what is happening in life and move on than
stay stuck in the past. Elder Holland said in a talk a long time ago, that we
look back on the past to reclaim our burning embers of experiences both good
and bad, not the ashes. BUT then we look to the future and move forward. How
true that is, living in the past, even the happiest and best past shouldn’t substitute
living in the "today". So that’s what I’m trying to do, living in the
"today". But I’m really grateful that today I’m still a missionary
haha.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 107%;">Well I wish you all a very happy last
week of separation. I'll be on my way home, as my companion put it, in the
"twinkling of an eye". (That’s a lame missionary joke by the way,
y'all better get prepared because I’m full of them haha). I love you!<o:p></o:p></span><br />
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00721862569938640306noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2227767562529313336.post-37256947026598615222015-04-21T17:05:00.002-07:002015-04-21T17:05:29.599-07:0004/13/15 Africa to America; Church-Ball is the Same<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">Sounds like life is insanely exciting for all of you,
and just in time<br />
for my return; I’m excited to jump back into the mix and help out.<br />
It’s obviously weird that I’ve got 2 weeks left and then - done - it's<br />
over. So as we need to organize some stuff for my return, let’s start<br />
there.<br />
<br />
The Baileys told me about the money situation, which will be awesome.<br />
I know there are western unions here but not really sure about the<br />
address, there is one in a place called grand-Marché. (I think). I was<br />
really grateful when I heard that you all were planning on doing that; <br />
thanks so much. Whatever you send
I’ll be more than happy with! </span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">
As for the school problem, don’t even worry about it. I’m not<br />
stressing; I’ve learned on my mission that you just do your best and<br />
go along with whatever happens. Sounds like a loaded schedule for that<br />
first month – which is perfect! For the family dinner, I don’t really<br />
care – now, I literally eat anything, ANYTHING haha.</span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">So to the missionary part of the email. It’s a cool story about<br />
repentance. There is this young man, named Desty. I think he is pretty<br />
awesome. Well Mondays down here we play basketball, as the church has<br />
a basketball court on its property. A lot of people know we play<br />
Monday so a good group always shows up. Well last Monday, we were<br />
playing some games and things got a little heated. Obviously a lot of<br />
rules are broken because no one really knows the way the game should<br />
be played, and because it’s a competition we all got kind of intense.<br />
Well, in one of the plays this young man, Desty, got elbowed in the<br />
ribs. The offender excused himself and the game continued. Desty said,<br />
“I said it was alright; but inside I didn’t want to let it go and I<br />
was angry.” the next play this same offender was going for a dunk<br />
(because the hoops are basically little Fischer-price children size<br />
hoops we can dunk on them) well while he was in the air Desty thought,<br />
“ohh this is the perfect time to give it back to him.” So Desty ran<br />
into him while he was in mid-air, causing this young kid to lose<br />
control and smack his head on the pole holding up the hoop. Well that<br />
was the end of the game.<br />
<br />
I didn’t learn about any of this until that night during an FHE when<br />
Desty told us what happened. Desty said; he went home with a broken<br />
heart. He flopped on his bed and didn’t leave his room for the whole<br />
day. All he thought about was “why did I do that?” “Why didn’t I let<br />
it go?” He acknowledged that what he did was wrong and decided to be<br />
better next time. During the closing prayer at FHE he asked for<br />
forgiveness for what he did. The point of this story and why I was so<br />
touched by it is the fact that Desty was mature enough to acknowledge<br />
a small sin and fix it the best he could. I think it would’ve been<br />
terribly easy to simply shrug it all off thinking, “huh, that’s what<br />
happens in sports.” or “ohh it was just an accident.” But he knew what<br />
happened, and he knew it was wrong. I’ve learned time and again on my<br />
mission that ALL sins small or big need reparation and repentance. I<br />
wrote in my journal that night, understanding what sin is shows our<br />
spiritual understanding; but recognizing it in ourselves shows our<br />
spiritual maturity. The best part is once we repent the guilt goes<br />
away, sure the memory stays but the guilt of what happens is gone –<br />
all because He lives. In fact that was the church’s theme for this<br />
Easter, Because Jesus Lives. Go onto Helives.mormon.org and watch the<br />
video, I know you’ll like it if you haven’t seen it already.<br />
<br />
Well tonight we are watching conference – finally! I have one question<br />
that I want answered, “What do I do with all my time when I get home.”<br />
Not really what kind of job or which school or hobbies. But what am I<br />
suppose to do church wise. Temple, dating, callings, family history, <br />
FHE, and all the other things. As a missionary you kind of only do one<br />
big thing – preach the gospel. A lot of things members do regularly<br />
are things that we don’t get to do. So the life of Brother Johnson<br />
will be different from that of Elder Johnson and I want to know what<br />
I’m expected to do.<br />
<br />
Off I go for another week. I love all of you and thank you for your<br />
support and love. Saying I’ll see you soon, is actually pretty serious<br />
this time around!<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
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<!--[endif]--></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00721862569938640306noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2227767562529313336.post-1461579305484333852015-04-21T17:03:00.002-07:002015-04-21T17:03:20.256-07:0004/06/15 The Right Reasons<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">Well closer everyday but still not there yet. I've
been trying so hard<br />
to catch up on my journal so far, we are just working really<br />
effectively and every day is so filled with rendezvous that we don’t<br />
have much down-time. I think if I had to give a theme for this<br />
transfer in this sector it would be the title of the email. As I<br />
written in my journal I’ve been noticing that it's been a reoccurring<br />
theme. I think at the end of the mission it's a good time to test the<br />
integrity of your reasons for serving, obviously there is that<br />
temptation at the end to slow down and coast through the little bit of<br />
time that’s left. it’s easy to rationalize that "I’ve done enough"
and<br />
"anything I do now won’t really make a difference", and I think if I<br />
was out here to just fill in the time, it'd be pretty easy to give<br />
into those ideas. So that's what I’ve been learning and reminding<br />
myself of these past few days, doing things for the right reasons.<br />
<br />
Obviously the right reasons in missionary work are based on Christ.<br />
It’s all about him and everything returns back to that starting point.<br />
The best example was yesterday. Church was good but as always a little<br />
frustrating with the branch and other things that kinda just took the<br />
energy out of me. As a missionary Sundays are easily the busiest<br />
days of the week! After church we had one lesson with a recent convert <br />
(who was actually baptized Saturday by none other than me - I was<br />
terribly nervous about screwing it up but it all went really well!)<br />
But anyway that one lesson was it. It was really tempting to call it a<br />
day and go get some much wanted sleep. But then I remembered that it<br />
was Easter; a day we celebrate the
resurrection of Christ. I reminded myself that I am supposed to be
representing Him to others, that's my job, and I don’t really think he
would've called it a day at 4pm. So with that in mind I rededicated to<br />
go serve and do ALL the work I had to do that day. Turns out yesterday<br />
was a good day of work! Anyway my testimony has grown these past few<br />
weeks that Christ is our reason in all things.<br />
<br />
I heard about conference and I’ve heard that they talked a lot about<br />
the family! Also 3 new temples announced! I’m excited to watch it as<br />
soon as we get the discs - which I’m hoping to be right before I leave.<br />
I love all you guys and hope spring is nice!<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
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<!--[endif]--></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00721862569938640306noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2227767562529313336.post-32984898528461916832015-04-21T17:02:00.002-07:002015-04-21T17:02:24.998-07:0003/30/15 I Bet Elder Perry Talks about Obedience<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">Getting a car is definitely on the list of things I
want to do when I<br />
get back; but we will see how thing work out. Everyone out here asks;<br />
"what are you doing when you get back?" And my response is always<br />
"Working to make a bunch of money so I can prepare for school!" good<br />
thing I’m learning to work out here cuz within the first week back I’m<br />
getting a job.</span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">
Maybe if I do buy a car I can get an old 1990 Toyota van; put an<br />
unsafe number of homemade benches in it; paint it blue with yellow<br />
vanity stripes; and have a friend or Maya and Gabbie hang of the side<br />
yelling "Fon tie-tie! Fon tie-tie! cent francs fon tie-tie". That
will<br />
help me remember Africa and I can start a bus business haha.</span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">
I’m glad you got the flight plans, I really hope all the siblings and<br />
dad can be there at the airport. Did you see the pit-stop in some<br />
Arabian country or the 6 hour layover in Germany? I love traveling!</span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">
Now to the work. Despite the closeness of the end, I’m proud to say I’m<br />
still working hard. Don’t worry I’m not checking out yet. It’s nice here<br />
because there are so many lessons and so our days are always filled.<br />
it's also nice because I don’t really have to worry about learning the<br />
sector, because I’m here kinda on passage I just get to tag along to<br />
teach and focus on the amis - no others worries! We had a baptism this<br />
week. It was for a young man named Wernel. I taught him maybe 3 times<br />
before Saturday, so I kinda just helped make sure he was totally<br />
ready.</span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">
It's really nice here as well because Sunday we teach ALL the lessons<br />
at the church! So we do studies and then go to the church from 11 am -<br />
7pm. we go to church and then have fun teaching people who came.</span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">
General Conference is this weekend! I’m sure y'all haven’t forgotten. We<br />
will be watching the priesthood session on Monday with all the other<br />
missionaries. This week I’ve been studying extra hard all the talks<br />
from last conference. Here are some suggestions I learned from a talk<br />
by Elder Anderson and personal experience about how to make conference<br />
better: </span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">
1 - make sure you know the names AND faces of ALL the members of the<br />
quorum of the twelve and the first presidency. We hardly pay attention<br />
to people we don’t notice, learning who these people are is a good way<br />
to make it easier to focus. An idea to help is go onto<br />
LDS.org/prophets and read the biography about these men. You’ll get a<br />
kick out of learning things like Elder Bednar played as a quarter-back<br />
in high school. And especially President Uchtdorfs military photos!</span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">
2 - Can you tell me the subject on which each of the above brethren<br />
spoke about in the last conference? If we didn’t pay attention last<br />
time, you probably won’t this time. if needed go on to LDS.org and look<br />
up the talks of each person that you couldn’t remember; read a talk or<br />
two a day and you'll be ready for Saturday. This also helps us see<br />
repeated messages by single apostles and groups as well; example, in<br />
the last conference Eyring, Nelson, and Ballard all talked about<br />
sustaining the prophet.</span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">
3 - Most importantly, can you tell me of something you changed in your<br />
life thanks to counsel from one of these men? By far this is more<br />
important than the others. If we have acted to change before, we will<br />
probably change again or more. If you can’t think of something, I<br />
encourage you to find something and change for the good. Trust me, <br />
even Elder Johnson will be looking for things :) a good way to do this<br />
is have a piece of paper with all your questions written on it. Things<br />
like, "does god exist?" or "how can I fulfill my calling as a
____?"<br />
Or "what should I do with my girlfriend?" (On second thought I think
a<br />
better question would be "what should I do to GET a girlfriend?"
haha)<br />
I promise every question will be answered. Maybe not by what is said, <br />
but by what the spirit tells you.</span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">
Enjoy conference! I love listening to the prophet and apostles. I also<br />
love you guys. Keep working hard and I’ll be back to add my help and<br />
cheesy missionary jokes soon enough :) I love you, thanks for all the<br />
support and sacrifice.<br />
<br />
PS - I successfully made African beans by myself the other night. I<br />
call cooking the first week home so you guys get to taste what I’ve<br />
eaten for the past two years: African food and badly cooked American<br />
food haha.<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
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<!--[endif]--></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00721862569938640306noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2227767562529313336.post-14171564200354078352015-04-21T17:00:00.000-07:002015-04-21T17:00:09.847-07:0003/23/15 Back to the Future
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">I forgot how underdeveloped Congo is. Compared to Cameroon -
very! In fact this computer I am typing on is sooooo slow and the keyboard doesn’t
change into English so, this might be a shorter email. I have safely arrived
just as the senior couple told you, they are very nice. I’ve only been here a
few days (although it feels like a few weeks already). I’m still trying to get
a grasp on what is going on down here. It doesn’t help that Congolese have some
of the craziest names ever - like; wernel; or ristelle; and princelly. But the
best so far has been "it's fine by me"! (In French: ça m'arrange)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;"></span> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;"></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Well I’ll just tell you about one awesome experience. Saturday
there was a party for the relief society, and all the members were invited. Well
we played the role of usher and greeted people as the meeting started. Well in
walked a 13 year old girl. And I knew that I had seen her before but I couldn’t
remember where. She came up to me and without reading my name badge said
skeptically, Elder Johnson! Now sadly I could not correctly remember her name
and failed on my first attempt. (So embarrassing). We continued to stand in the
hall; us the missionaries, and I kept trying to remember who she was. Finally
it came - DELICIA!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;"></span> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;"></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Delicia was this absolutely amazing amie I taught my first time
here. She was only 11 back then and she wasn’t ever baptized because her mother
was very very sick and her life wasn’t really stable. No one to bring her to
church and her family had lost their house so they split up until that got
arranged. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;"></span> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;"></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">As soon as I realized who she was I grabbed Elder Etherington,
who works in my old branch, and I asked rather excitedly, "is there a girl
named Delicia in your branch?” he said, "yeah, why?" As soon as I got
my answer I was ready to throw open the sacrament hall doors and run to where
she was sitting haha. I almost did! But walking as fast as possible I found her
in the congregation - knelt down beside her and almost shouted; "You're
Delicia!!! I remember now! You’re Delcia!" Then noticing the woman next to
her I got even more excited "And you're her mom! I remember. You're both
members now?" yup, both are now members. Saturday night I ran into
multiple people that I knew from before. By far happiest day of my entire
mission. I haven’t been able to talk with Delicia since to figure out what
happened after I left and how she was finally baptized; but I’m planning on it
before I leave. Doctrine and covenants says that our joy will be great if we
bring but one soul into the kingdom of God - I felt that joy when I realized
Delicia Saturday night. I was also thankful that I worked hard to teach her -
even though things didn’t work out then they eventually did.</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00721862569938640306noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2227767562529313336.post-65567380226843966002015-04-21T16:55:00.002-07:002015-04-21T16:58:07.908-07:0003/19/15 New Senior Couple - The Bailey's<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi40FoZMy6nAUGvsobRKSgRD9VUgX38adeAxmWZAd-07B8QHI6A0SbVZJ0ffeu-z5HmNwlmQpwA_I2bef7TQaawQ9m9pkQnv1kBrqdvPCAyCS4bqobza7aR0Tlpqsk8uiEhK-Eg2PEar608/s1600/jj.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi40FoZMy6nAUGvsobRKSgRD9VUgX38adeAxmWZAd-07B8QHI6A0SbVZJ0ffeu-z5HmNwlmQpwA_I2bef7TQaawQ9m9pkQnv1kBrqdvPCAyCS4bqobza7aR0Tlpqsk8uiEhK-Eg2PEar608/s1600/jj.jpg" height="320" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">We are the Baileys and are the couple here in Pointe
Noire. We received Elder Johnson here last night to work until he will go
home next month. We are looking forward to serving alongside of him and
Elder Mbikayi . He looks happy and so willing to get to work.
We have four Branches here and he will be serving in the Aéroport
Branche. We are very close to being made a District which we hope will
happen before we go home in July. We have a blogspot that we update
each week and are working on it for this week. We wanted to send a
picture of your son and companion and let you know if you have any worries or
concern please feel free to e-mail us.<br />
<br />
Sincerely, <br />
Elder and Soeur Bailey</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<!--[endif]--></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00721862569938640306noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2227767562529313336.post-82986717610480088902015-04-21T16:53:00.002-07:002015-04-21T16:53:31.380-07:0003/16/15 An "ice cream sandwich" Mssion
<br />
<div class="yiv1974305390msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">I' TRANSFERED AGAIN!
So for the last 6 weeks of my mission I will be going... (drum roll)…back to Pointe-Noire!
Yup, back to my “birth-city” to the sector “aeroport”. Which is the branch that
meets in the church built building. I’m really excited to go back and live in Congo
for the end. I feel like the first time I was there I was too busy with the
language and being trained and girl-friend problems. But now I can go and
simply enjoy the work and have no worries. I’ll be working with another African,
I can’t remember his name, and I’ll be living in an apartment with only 2
missionaries. The apartment is actually right above the apartment of the senior
couple, so it’ll be fun to get to hang out with the couple more than normal. So
anyway, that is why I said this is an “ice-cream sandwich” mission, cuz it
started with Congo, filled in the middle with Cameroon, and now another layer
of Congo! It’ll only be six weeks but I’m pumped. I will also be excited to see
some of my old converts (hopefully they have stayed active for the past 2
years). </span></div>
<div class="yiv1974305390msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">This week was a good
week of work, kinda slow for all the elders and we are just working our
hardest. We have been teaching this little family, I’ve told you about their
four boys that I absolutely love. Well they had their baptismal interview
yesterday and all of them passed, which means in the coming weeks they will be
baptized. I’m super proud of them and loved teaching them – one of my all-time
favorite amis. I will attach a photo.</span></div>
<div class="yiv1974305390msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">Congratulations on
reading in the book of Mormon! Keep it up and I’ll join in the family reading
once I’m back. As for the weather, I’ll be honest, I was kinda hoping for a
long winter with massive storms when I got home – you guessed it, I’m tired of
endless heat. But either way, I’ll take the climate as it is. Well that whole situation
with BYU, just proves what is written in 2 ne 1:20. When you keep commandments,
things work out temporally. Awesome! </span></div>
<div class="yiv1974305390msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">In keeping
commandments, I’ll share with you a fun story from our missions. The other week
we paid fast-offerings from our food fund. And as we our counseled we decided
to give an amount that would be generous. Well, that week we were a little low
on money. Not a lot, just at the point where you have to watch what you are
buying and keep a budget. Because there is no shop that sells reliable meat in
Bonaberi we asked the senior couple to bring us some meat and cheese from town
– which they happily did. When they gave us the food they only asked for 5000
francs. Now meat and cheese, especially in the quantity asked for by 4 teenage
guys, is expensive in Africa. So we were kinda astonished, but gratefully paid
the 5000.</span></div>
<div class="yiv1974305390msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">Later, we examined
the packages and saw that the cheese alone was 5000, but that the meat was
another 6000! That is a lot of money for a missionary budget. I’ll be honest,
my first thought was, “awesome, because the senior couple made a mistake we
have more money to spend on ourselves! Maybe this is God’s way of blessing us
for paying a generous offering?” But then Elder Larson said, “Yeah, I thought
to myself it’d be awesome to keep the money, but then I realized ‘what, no! That’s
a terrible idea – it’s not honest’.” </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">And
here is the point of the story. I felt guilty, and realized that I was going to
be dishonest – definitely not a part of the gospel. So we all determined that
next time we placed an order of food we would pay back the senior couple. And
that’s what we did, we put money aside and next time we saw the couple, we gave
them back the money. And it just felt good! All we got in return was “thanks so
much for being honest.” So keeping commandments, big or small, is important.
And keeping commandments makes you feel good. That’s the principle, King
Benjamin in the book of Mormon said, “Remember the blessed and HAPPY state of
those who keep the commandments.” (Mosiah 2:41) It’s true, I’ve seen it as a
missionary working with others and in my own life – things are simpler and
sweeter when commandments are kept. So keep commandments, in this there is
safety and peace.</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00721862569938640306noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2227767562529313336.post-3378831893137417142015-04-21T16:52:00.000-07:002015-04-21T16:52:18.053-07:0003/09/15 Old Crow (That's what we call the old missionaries)
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Sounds like life for all of us if pretty much the same. Out here
nothing is changing too much. We are just working our hearts out and trying to
get people baptized. Sadly, 3 of our 7 baptismal candidates turned out to not
be that awesome after all and still need A LOT of preparation. I guess it took
5 weeks for them to show their true colors. But we have 4 that are still
awesome and going to be baptize soon. (4 brothers that are so fun to teach,
teaching children is just so much better! They don’t ask stupid questions and
they don’t listen to criticize, they just listen and ask when they don’t
understand). </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;"></span> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;"></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Transfers are coming up this next Sunday (Already!?) So next
week I should have news as to where I will be ending and even possibly when!
I'll let you know, I’m hoping I don’t get sent to Brazzaville, Congo. I’m kinda
hoping for an American companion to end things with - but I’m not counting on
it.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;"></span> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;"></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Today the other elders and I were talking and I told them, I’m
definitely trying to not think about home. And I am definitely not excited to
leave the mission. I mean it's not like I’m itching to rip off the tie and
throw the badge to the ground, but the reality that it is ending is on my mind
more and more each week. Kinda scary! </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;"></span> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;"></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Thank you for the sacrifices so I can
serve a full time mission!</span></div>
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
</div>
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">
</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00721862569938640306noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2227767562529313336.post-62869267243068620462015-04-21T16:47:00.002-07:002015-04-21T16:49:46.808-07:0003/02/15 Truck Lights and the South Africa Temple
<br />
<div class="yiv2466252314msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">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.</span></div>
<div class="yiv2466252314msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">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.</span></div>
<div class="yiv2466252314msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">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!</span></div>
<div class="yiv2466252314msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">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).</span></div>
<div class="yiv2466252314msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">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.” </span></div>
<div class="yiv2466252314msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">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.</span></div>
<div class="yiv2466252314msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">“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.”</span></div>
<div class="yiv2466252314msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">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. </span></div>
<div class="yiv2466252314msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">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!” </span></div>
<div class="yiv2466252314msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span> </div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00721862569938640306noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2227767562529313336.post-56505567465513550522015-03-07T18:59:00.001-08:002015-03-07T18:59:11.546-08:0001/26/15 A Week of Faith<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Helvetica;"></span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Helvetica;">
<div class="yiv6242609957msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">So this “Week of Faith”,
as I’m calling it, didn’t work out too well. I think as I’ve already explained,
all of our amis have disappeared. Their phones don’t work or they have moved
away without leaving a single trace. That means that every day we fix a plan of
houses we will pass by and simply hope that they will be there – most of the
times that doesn’t work out! <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I think in
total we had 9 lessons this week. Yeah, pretty low. And the worst part is its
dry season, which means it’s SO hot out here, and we spend most of the day
outside walking from place to place. Seems like I’m in for some hard work until
the end.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="color: black; font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span>
<div class="yiv6242609957msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">Flipping through my
agenda I’m not seeing any crazy stories or lessons that we had. So instead,
I’ll tell you about some cool lessons I learned. One important lesson that I’ve
learned from my experiences this week – making and acting on plans is
important. The reason I say that is because this week we attended Branch
Council. I should explain, that lately the branch has had too many problems.
One could say it’s “dysfunctional”. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As
missionaries we’re trying to work hard with leaders to kick it into gear – and
that’s why we went to branch council – to help with the plans that the leaders
are making. Now to give the setting.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="color: black; font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span>
<div class="yiv6242609957msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">In the new building
there is no electricity, so no wall fans or air-conditioning, and as previously
explained it’s dry season, so it’s hot. Well the meeting starts late and
everyone is a little on edge to begin with. We spent an hour and a half
listening to people complain and murmur and do all manner of things other than
making plans to fix problems. Conversations went like this: “Ohh, this church
is so disorganized, all these electrical problems. Why do we have to be in this
building!?”; when they should’ve gone like this “Ok we don’t have electricity,
Brother --- will you please call temporal affairs and inform them of our
problem.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="color: black; font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span>
<div class="yiv6242609957msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">Another conversation
went like this, "We don’t have our manuals for 2015! <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Your leaders (branch presidency) are so
unorganized. Where are our manuals?" Well if you were listening you
would've heard the missionary couple say that the manuals have been at the
airport since October 2014! <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>BUT the
government isn’t releasing them from customs. So what do you want us to do?"
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These kinds of conversations really didn’t
lead anywhere.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="color: black; font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span>
<div class="yiv6242609957msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">So that’s why I said,
I learned that making and acting on plans is so important. How can you ever fix
problems when you don’t make plans? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It
does no good to simply talk about problems. Like the expression goes, “don’t
cry over spilt milk.” That lesson even applies to us as missionaries. For
example, I said at the beginning that none of our amis are available (problem),
and to fix it I need to make plans. The plan that came to mind was something
that Elder Ballard told missionaries, talk to at least 10 new people every day.
So there we go, I’ve got a plan – talk with 10 people on the roads a day. Now
the hard part is following up and accomplishing the plan; which is what I’ll be
working on this week!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="color: black; font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">Another experience
that I had was, learning to accept correction. The assistants came to visit us
this weekend, which is a first for my mission - thus far, I hadn’t ever seen
them in person. From the get-go I was not a fan of the senior assistant. Just
the way he acted and talked with other missionaries wasn't working for me.
Well, Saturday we hold a meeting and basically it was a meeting to remind us of
all the things we are doing wrong. Ohh boy, can’t wait to go to that one! haha<o:p></o:p></span>
<span style="color: black; font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: Times New Roman;"></span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">We were asked, why we
aren’t writing full in-depth reports to the mission president. Being totally
honest, I raised my hand and said, well I get the impression that the president
doesn’t even read what I write. So if he doesn’t care, why would I write him a
full on report? Now, in my head that was a flawless argument haha. Then this
senior assistant responded (remember, I’m not a fan of this dude). “Elder
Johnson, the mission president isn’t obliged to respond to what you say, but
it's your responsibility to write him a report of your progression!”<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span>
<div class="yiv6242609957msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">Critical hit to my
pride - and in front of all the other missionaries - even worse! I sat there
for 10 minutes or so, thinking that this meeting was pointless. But then, I was
reminded of something Elder Oaks said in a general conference, "It's time
we stop thinking about our rights, and start thinking about our priesthood
duties." I remember underlining that in the magazine and thinking, ohh
that's nice advice - then storing it away for some later time. And that is when
I realized - "Hey Elder Johnson, you really need to give better reports to
the president, after all it is your duty, even if he doesn’t respond." </span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span> </div>
<span style="color: black; font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">Well, humbly I
internally admitted that the assistant was right and resolved to do better.
Definitely a hard lesson to learn, no one ever wants to admit; yeah I am wrong.
But correction is necessary to grow. Especially when the spirit confirms that
you need to change. <o:p></o:p></span>
<span style="color: black; font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span>
<div class="yiv6242609957msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">Well that’s a bit of
what I’m experiencing with the work out here. It was good to get an update from
all you guys. Sounds like everyone is doing good stuff! Let the siblings know I’m
proud of all their recent achievements and successes. Keep working hard in the
family and I’ll keep you posted on my progress out here. I love all you guys!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="color: black; font-family: Times New Roman;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpnJ5RWGWdJH93Oepw7PRmRHiT1QdQTsJWk7BDhkWC5rWuMNy4VlAO6-Z9D9IE3ED0-cT6KsjbAbnbQ7b_n1o9xHMY99BCKdqp9KB_rwCh-kP9VAjeH_2Bl2FSY7d1zEHYbmbpfOu300Zx/s1600/IMG_3229.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpnJ5RWGWdJH93Oepw7PRmRHiT1QdQTsJWk7BDhkWC5rWuMNy4VlAO6-Z9D9IE3ED0-cT6KsjbAbnbQ7b_n1o9xHMY99BCKdqp9KB_rwCh-kP9VAjeH_2Bl2FSY7d1zEHYbmbpfOu300Zx/s1600/IMG_3229.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></a></div>
<br /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">One the new church
building. It's kinda hard to get a good picture because there isn’t a lot of
space between the house and surrounding walls. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="color: black; font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span>
<div class="yiv6242609957msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in 0pt;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXOrZzTLXZfmmCUZEgriBQa_1GFJeAy5Vo_3uGv2AsvGtoF6rXYWsQspZ6WRoWG_fcILxuT_k0l-IlluCTry9FkyvOS8fB4lPkrZxrbtx3-jMDnY1sNpy6mGCzsvg8evDsQGSVR2Nt7mHz/s1600/IMG_3230.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXOrZzTLXZfmmCUZEgriBQa_1GFJeAy5Vo_3uGv2AsvGtoF6rXYWsQspZ6WRoWG_fcILxuT_k0l-IlluCTry9FkyvOS8fB4lPkrZxrbtx3-jMDnY1sNpy6mGCzsvg8evDsQGSVR2Nt7mHz/s1600/IMG_3230.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<span style="color: black; font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><div class="yiv6242609957msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">And two, the
Basketball court at the American school! I called Jim, and he set up a time for
us to come play. So Monday night around 7pm we got to play some sick games of
b-ball! Jim actually knows a lot about the church, apparently he played church
ball as a young 18 year old. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="color: black; font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span></span><br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00721862569938640306noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2227767562529313336.post-42651247384042111622015-03-01T15:26:00.001-08:002015-03-07T19:08:05.982-08:0002/23/15 Working Hard for the Last 9 Weeks of 2 Years<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">Sorry
I didn’t get a chance to send an email to y’all last week – no internet! Well
that happens sometimes but, I’m perfectly fine health-wise! <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s good that the siblings are doing well and
having fun together – like you said I’m excited to join in when I get back. </span></div>
<div class="yiv8905907281msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">The
work out here has been very good. After the first week of “white-washing” we
have mastered the sector and met the majority of the amis. In fact, last week
we had almost a perfect week of rendez-vous! That means pretty much everyone
who fixed a rendez-vous with us kept it – which has been nice. We are currently
teaching this little family. The dad is a member but the others aren’t. So we
are teaching his four little boys. Wellingstone, Christian, Edward, and
Godlove. They are 15, 13, 11, and 9 years old. It reminds me of when we were
taught by the missionaries just that now I’m on the other side : ) <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They’re planning to be baptized on the 21st of
March. We have some other amis that are preparing for baptism, but we need to
iron out some problems. </span></div>
<div class="yiv8905907281msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">The
biggest problem we have been facing with amis AND members is personal scripture
study. NO ONE is reading the Book of Mormon. Our amis just don’t really care
for it and were never taught the purpose of reading it. Obviously someone can’t
be baptized if they aren’t reading this book because how can they say “I know
Joseph Smith is a prophet and this church is true” when they have never read
the proof that holds it all together? It’s like someone who can say “1-2= -1”
but doesn’t really understand why that’s the case. (They are just repeating
what the teacher told them). So with that I’ll take some time to congratulate
you and encourage. Good job on reading the Book of Mormon - Ferious and Maya
and Mom and Robert and I hope Gabbie, Drew, and Kaleb! I’m proud of you for
taking the initiative to do so and I know your testimonies of the Savior will
grow. Now if you ever stop reading this book or become weak in your engagement
I invite you to reengage to read it! I’ve noticed that everyone who I’ve met on
my mission, who has some struggles with the church or worthiness or inactivity,
has one thing in common –they stop reading the Book of Mormon. So keep up the
reading :)</span></div>
<div class="yiv8905907281msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">Some
things in this mission have changed since I last emailed you. First we are now
getting up at 5:30 and going to bed at 9:30. So our days are super fast paced
because once we get home we have to make dinner and eat and then it’s bed time.
As well we have a new rule on emailing. Only 1 hour as opposed to 2 and we are
no longer to write ANYONE OTHER THAN OUR IMMEDIATE FAMILY! That was a really
unpopular rule at first haha. But gotta be obedient. So my emails might get
shorter and let anyone know that if I’m not responding it’s because now I
literally can’t!</span></div>
<div class="yiv8905907281msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">Also
about BYU, So I went onto the site and learned that my Ecclesiastical
Endorsement was expired, which could’ve blocked a lot of things in the
registration process. I emailed my mission president and he took care of it –
so now I have an endorsement and hopefully that is all taken care of. As long
as I can register for classes then it’s all good :) I love all you guys
bunches! I’ve started caring around a photo of all the siblings in my
scriptures and everyone we teach loves seeing our family haha. Although I’ll
say we need to take a new family photo when I get home because in the one I
have, I look like a little baby haha. Well. have a fantastic week. And be safe
– remember Kaleb, you gotta stay alive at least until your graduation so I can
see you get the diploma. So no more car accidents. I love all you guys.=</span></div>
<div class="yiv8905907281msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">Ps
– Please keep the blog updated for the LAST 9 WEEKS!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwL61vLr5nMmpREKm_9IG_kbreP4BCXMjw2fua8thIMkGHgRAw7UiIerIDPMgmU8nnbPof3BgUBo1XUXzvhgPz_MAkTUonwrZgjPXiPIl17RsbkK4DLJn5HB-zoWamGj3SzPWPRaabq4CE/s1600/IMG_3237.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwL61vLr5nMmpREKm_9IG_kbreP4BCXMjw2fua8thIMkGHgRAw7UiIerIDPMgmU8nnbPof3BgUBo1XUXzvhgPz_MAkTUonwrZgjPXiPIl17RsbkK4DLJn5HB-zoWamGj3SzPWPRaabq4CE/s1600/IMG_3237.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt;">Our zone right before Elder Colindres left. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggeevhkAklkASTGY-pC5JoxZuQRNuNgx6_2uagEWtaNtKRKEgL4OGqQER4B23kNdx-NgxtVlFvvn1ooKCiayaE6FkNqUJpVUxSHKQKO8hy_Ob22CF3IYCSqKUro0RaYhNidCKpPIYY0GGd/s1600/IMG_3243.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggeevhkAklkASTGY-pC5JoxZuQRNuNgx6_2uagEWtaNtKRKEgL4OGqQER4B23kNdx-NgxtVlFvvn1ooKCiayaE6FkNqUJpVUxSHKQKO8hy_Ob22CF3IYCSqKUro0RaYhNidCKpPIYY0GGd/s1600/IMG_3243.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt;">My poor shoes - they should be thrust down to "heel" haha. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmKoXLtmTkh4iJfgnNSZ62pOURbGR4oHYHA1A9POqUHvgVU02MPrVzU7TfAT7eXtwVZZMLvflNZH1Do0hTg9AvmpnwEuISFeQ3nGE7LhSecNuPx7I7hyfky8xfXIyJiTCS2v5JinqTg-ZB/s1600/IMG_3248.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmKoXLtmTkh4iJfgnNSZ62pOURbGR4oHYHA1A9POqUHvgVU02MPrVzU7TfAT7eXtwVZZMLvflNZH1Do0hTg9AvmpnwEuISFeQ3nGE7LhSecNuPx7I7hyfky8xfXIyJiTCS2v5JinqTg-ZB/s1600/IMG_3248.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="font-size: medium;">My new sector</span><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span> </div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKIJhPUbOeSuaNcFnUgnzq-cgeTDP7Ana-xZAFYqZuUaCkk56UdY8oUFL19TpCteIKGq9aIJOM7QJQ22T-F6nOS502paQb4G0pDTbjIwJOTPGxAUgmh3xVqryOrTDNQLCRfuR_Tdkuvkmo/s1600/IMG_3249.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKIJhPUbOeSuaNcFnUgnzq-cgeTDP7Ana-xZAFYqZuUaCkk56UdY8oUFL19TpCteIKGq9aIJOM7QJQ22T-F6nOS502paQb4G0pDTbjIwJOTPGxAUgmh3xVqryOrTDNQLCRfuR_Tdkuvkmo/s1600/IMG_3249.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="font-size: medium;">A cool tree. </span><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span> </div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxhK-2kXw-1P1rYKLYc53KyDmoQP6dTQEoD4znJWPIOPnP5swEroM447qi9UTaKYZHsi8u5I97r5sXY5d6SLvfOuHtldUiX28uuCv0r0cDPmtzRqkymNKvBVTkC6J4j9F0RWEWOjotFMGQ/s1600/IMG_3251.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxhK-2kXw-1P1rYKLYc53KyDmoQP6dTQEoD4znJWPIOPnP5swEroM447qi9UTaKYZHsi8u5I97r5sXY5d6SLvfOuHtldUiX28uuCv0r0cDPmtzRqkymNKvBVTkC6J4j9F0RWEWOjotFMGQ/s1600/IMG_3251.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Banana leaves</span></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span> </div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBxQBg6KZYtjxbRD35ONRcEerhQyB8pt2wCzcIkPOXNPtb_fGbuVWNCaVLbz3kprv8GSIe04puN-pPoVmUTXieo50_YmJ6Ye69WgiOc82mQ6Gg1x6XlZbUqnqitOy4-QrXWQ-UzTFgsAvW/s1600/IMG_3254.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBxQBg6KZYtjxbRD35ONRcEerhQyB8pt2wCzcIkPOXNPtb_fGbuVWNCaVLbz3kprv8GSIe04puN-pPoVmUTXieo50_YmJ6Ye69WgiOc82mQ6Gg1x6XlZbUqnqitOy4-QrXWQ-UzTFgsAvW/s1600/IMG_3254.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt;">And a cool abandoned house by the river.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span> </div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsQ96fC_HtbSTdzSpZ3dLuI-DBk4M_w8wvvmoWNtJWELydpWHzZ_ypO18bJ95V8UTxl9q0uhClS3dktw_RfUci0v_Y9O90ninbZ3riFJVP0UteCbJwh7eupDsiAW7FOvLIIBMvBPU8DDg2/s1600/IMG_3255.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsQ96fC_HtbSTdzSpZ3dLuI-DBk4M_w8wvvmoWNtJWELydpWHzZ_ypO18bJ95V8UTxl9q0uhClS3dktw_RfUci0v_Y9O90ninbZ3riFJVP0UteCbJwh7eupDsiAW7FOvLIIBMvBPU8DDg2/s1600/IMG_3255.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="font-size: medium;">So walking around we found a sign on a house that read "neighborhood of Johnson". Who knew I had my own neighborhood out here!</span><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span> </div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsPBkwetvk05PXUceANtim7NJMTISAXC5rRrxcwBIRBJ9QtAsgutcOazYCa6BBhPMSEkAV4HbFoMpKq50m1j5KsP0KtBOC5NacSvphWVXnlAOLivIFgBt-lUYRyUX-lIsJwZC-X1AVkB2M/s1600/IMG_3239.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsPBkwetvk05PXUceANtim7NJMTISAXC5rRrxcwBIRBJ9QtAsgutcOazYCa6BBhPMSEkAV4HbFoMpKq50m1j5KsP0KtBOC5NacSvphWVXnlAOLivIFgBt-lUYRyUX-lIsJwZC-X1AVkB2M/s1600/IMG_3239.JPG" height="640" width="480" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt;">A really nice family that I left in the other sector.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span> </div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00721862569938640306noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2227767562529313336.post-18011527233097687542015-03-01T15:18:00.002-08:002015-03-01T15:18:28.770-08:0002/09/15 Just Mandefu
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">The
news about the Book of Mormon, is probably the best thing that I’ve heard all
week! That’s awesome that you guys are trying to finish the book of Mormon
before I get home – I’m actually working on the same thing out here. So it’ll
be perfect, our next read through will be a as a family! The Book of Mormon is <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>definitely a powerful book and I always feel
the spirit when I read it, so I hope you feel the same. To get you even more
pumped to read the book, I suggest you go watch a talk given by John Bytheway
titled “Heros of the book of Mormon”. I’m sure you can find it on youtube,
it’ll get you even more excited and pumped to finish the book! Best of luck on
the endeavor.</span><br />
<div class="yiv7077682088msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">So
with my new sector, I’m still with the same senior couple – the Colemans. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All because I’m still in the same city, just
another branch and new area. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As for the
work it’s been HARD! <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We’re doing what is
termed a “white-wash”. That means that both elders are new and don’t know
anything about the area. Luckily it’s a smaller area, so it’s less likely that
we get lost. Because we are both new, we have been working really hard to meet
as many people as possible before this week started. It’s been good fun though,
we’ve met some people who are awesome and others who are just there. But I’ll
keep you updated on how that progresses. The new companion is whatev’s. Not
really leaving any serious impressions on me. I really wanted to finish with an
American but it looks like that won’t be the case. His name is Madefu and he is
from the same village as some other missionaries out here. Strangely all the
missionaries from this village are similar in their loudness, reasoning,
speech, and obedience. The branch is better than what I left, but it’s a branch
which means it’s got some work to do. Yesterday, church went over by 30
minutes. Just people going on and on with these long sermons. Well we have one
person who is preparing for baptism soon, like I said I’ll let you guys know. </span></div>
<div class="yiv7077682088msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">Cool
experience from the week came yesterday, we had been at church (which is kinda
frustrating, if you haven’t gotten the hint yet) and then went to teach this
guy named Lobé. Lesson starts good and I’m thinking that we would have a sweet
rendez-vous. Well this guy and his friend just start mocking everything we
taught and are acting stupid. Times like that just upset me for the rest of the
day. Our lesson was on prayer and how God answers prayers, to which they
laughed. Well the day ended later, having been a stressful one. While making
dinner – power goes out! And sometimes the power can stay out for the night.
Well dinner paused and I flopped onto a foam mattress in the living room – at
this point I was just ready to go to bed. Ohh, did I add it’s the hot season so
even at night it’s hot – and no power means no fans or air-conditioning.
Flopped on the mattress, I said a prayer that went something like this “Heavenly
Father, it’s been a really long and stressful day. Could you please just give
us power this night, so we can make dinner and rest from the long work of week
we’ve had? In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.” And as soon as I said amen, the
power came back on! Absolutely incredible. Proof from the lesson I taught 4
hours earlier that day – God hears and answers prayers. Another tender mercy of
the Lord.</span></div>
<div class="yiv7077682088msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">Well
thanks for trying to take care of all that BYU mess over there. I went on today
and got my ecclesiastical letter form ready and sent it to my mission president
today as well. I guess we got to get serious about preparing for back to school
already. Well do whatever you can reasonably do now and I’ll come home and take
care of the rest. Thank you for all the financial support on dealing with this!</span></div>
<div class="yiv7077682088msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">Hope
that this week is exciting and enjoyable. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00721862569938640306noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2227767562529313336.post-79266603471471778432015-03-01T15:08:00.003-08:002015-03-01T15:08:50.090-08:0002/02/15 Grandpa Johnson<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">This
has been another week of work – nothing too incredible. But I do have news! I
got transferred again – WOOOOOHOOOOO. Although I have been more than happy to
work with the members in this branch, change is always good. Especially after
having walked the same streets for 8 months day in and day out. So I’ll be moving
to Bonaberi, the side of the city on the other side of the river. Now that is
the good news I have. The bad part of this transfer, is that I’m working with
another African. Honestly, I don’t know why I’m so surprised, I mean this is
the fifth time this has happened! (I would venture to add, maybe even a mission
record)</span><br />
<div class="yiv2877383403msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">Well,
all that change will be taking affect Wednesday. As well, Elder Colindres, a
good friend of mine, will be going home Wednesday – officially making me the
oldest missionary out in the field. Or the “grandpa” as we call it! <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you’ve lost count, I’ve got two more
transfers left (12 weeks). So not long at all. As well, I heard that the
mission president wants all the missionaries to spend there last transfer in
Brazzaville Congo. If that is the case – then this mission is going to end
soooo fast. I guess we’ll find out together.</span></div>
<div class="yiv2877383403msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">This
week I’ve had some good experiences – just small things that you pick up
throughout the mission. One was what I talked about last week. Making and achieving
plans. Well, this week Elder Mwehu and I made and achieved amazing plans.
Although the work didn’t change immediately, I was proud of what we did. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00721862569938640306noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2227767562529313336.post-379936345988688712015-03-01T14:46:00.000-08:002015-03-01T14:46:01.929-08:0001/12/15 Nothing of Special Report
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">There’s
always so much news every week. Especially coming from Maya and Kaleb! So how
exactly did Kaleb crash his car and is he alright? That reminds me of that time
I almost drove the van off the freeway entry ramp while driving to seminary in
the snow! <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Good thing the insurance is
willing to pay for the repairs. Congrats to Kaleb as well on finishing school
(and finishing early even).</span></div>
<div class="yiv1996579130msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">The
week out here was less stressful with my companion and overall just a good week
of work. I don’t recall any amazing stories or incredible lessons. We just
worked.</span></div>
<div class="yiv1996579130msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">So
I love teaching people, but if I had to choose I would rather not teach Adventists.
I believe I’ve told you guys about this church before. It’s also known as the
seventh day church. And basically the doctrine that makes them special is: the Sabbath
day is on Saturday (the seventh day of the week) and not Sunday. The problem is
no matter what you try and talk about the conversation is always drawn back to
Sunday and Saturday. This week we started (and also stopped) teaching two Adventists.
Our conversations usually went like this,</span></div>
<div class="yiv1996579130msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">“Alright,
like we said Joseph Smith was a Prophet.” – missionaries</span></div>
<div class="yiv1996579130msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">“What
was so special about him?” - investigator</span></div>
<div class="yiv1996579130msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">“Like
we said, he saw God and Jesus and received the power of God to baptize.” –
missionaries</span></div>
<div class="yiv1996579130msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">“What
did he say about Sunday?” - investigator</span></div>
<div class="yiv1996579130msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">“We’ll
talk about that later, but right now you need to pray to learn if his story is
true. Because once you know he is a prophet, you will know his teachings are
from God as well.” – missionaries</span></div>
<div class="yiv1996579130msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">“If
he said the Sabbath is Sunday, then he Isn’t a prophet because God doesn’t
change his words.” - investigator</span></div>
<div class="yiv1996579130msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">“The
way to know if really he was a prophet is to read the book of Mormon…” <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>– missionaries</span></div>
<div class="yiv1996579130msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">“God
said Saturday is the Sabbath day and Sunday comes from a pagan holiday.” - investigator</span></div>
<div class="yiv1996579130msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">“Right
we understand what you are saying but, just focus on Jospeh Smith right
now…”“Why are we talking about Joseph Smith?” – missionaries</span></div>
<div class="yiv1996579130msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">“Because
if he was really a prophet, everything he said for us is true, even Sunday
worship.” – missionaries</span></div>
<div class="yiv1996579130msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">“Yes,
I believe Joseph Smith is a prophet but Sunday…” - investigator</span></div>
<div class="yiv1996579130msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">“No
you don’t believe he is a prophet, if you truly believed he was a prophet, then
you would accept everything he taught. So you need to pray and read the book of
Mormon to learn.” – missionaries</span></div>
<div class="yiv1996579130msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">“NO,
Joseph Smith is a prophet from the devil!” - investigator</span></div>
<div class="yiv1996579130msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">And
so went all of our lessons. I think you can see why we dropped them as
investigators. It was a fun “sparing match”. It helped us come up with new ways
to explain the Gospel and fight ridiculous logic, but they weren’t progressing
and we were wasting time. That’s one thing I wish I would’ve known at the
beginning of my mission – when people aren’t reading the little 10 page
brochures we give them, and especially when they aren’t praying between
lessons; just drop them and move on, they aren’t serious. It’s one thing for
amis to have a tough time believing or feeling the Holy Ghost, and another when
people can’t even put in an effort. Well the work is fun and I enjoy it.</span></div>
<div class="yiv1996579130msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">We
finally have a bualding that is ready for our meetings. We went searching for
it yesterday and it is really nice. I think that will be good for members to
have a building so they can feel the spirit. Holding church in the “basement”
has kinda thrown the little order that there was in the church, out the window.
So it’ll be good to formally hold church at our church building. </span></div>
<div class="yiv1996579130msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">9am
church is the best! I’ll be happy to keep that schedule when at home. As well, I’m
excited for the snow/cold. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On the issue
with the lost credit card and western union card, I think the best way to do it
now is just send it through western union directly. I can go to a western union
here and pick it up. Missionaries in the past have done that and it seems to
work pretty well.</span></div>
<div class="yiv1996579130msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">Well,
I’m glad everyone is okay and Kaleb isn’t dead. Keep working hard everyone : )
Thanks for all the support, I’m proud of all your accomplishments over these
past 2 years. </span></div>
<div class="yiv1996579130msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">ps
- Because I’m serving in the best city to buy souvenirs, start sending me all
your requests so I can make a full list. Whatever you want I'll try and find in
my free time. </span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00721862569938640306noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2227767562529313336.post-25969023253152276552015-03-01T14:30:00.001-08:002015-03-07T18:54:08.750-08:0001/05/15 Some Weeks<br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">Some weeks are
stressful as a missionary. Especially when working as Elder Cook put it, "On
the front lines, where the pickings are slim and you (the missionaries) are all
we got." <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Like I said over our skpye
session, working in a tiny branch is frustrating most of the time. The church
is moving locations, our old lease was up and the owner wanted to sell us the
building for an extremely high price - so the church bailed out of that
situation. Which meant that Tuesday, we needed to move all the chairs, benches,
and pulpits out of the old building and into the new. So just like our family
always did in the "good old days", I participated in another church
move.</span><br />
<div class="yiv8482887379msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">Tuesday we arrived at
the church at 10am. Within a few minutes a handful of members showed up. With
no moving truck or priesthood leader to tell us how to do it, we decided that
we would at least move all the furniture out of the building and onto the
driveway. We figured that at some point or another everything would leave the
building, so why not get a head start before the truck arrived. For the next 2
hours we moved out the majority of things, putting my moving talents to good work!
And then...we waited. Waited for the truck and further direction.</span></div>
<div class="yiv8482887379msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">To our surprise, we
learned that the new building in Bali (a neighborhood) was not yet open. The
old renters had yet to leave! Well, where are we putting everything? The branch
president showed up and explained that we would be storing everything in the
Bonaberi branch. Now to explain what that meant, Douala (my current city) is separated
into two major parts. Douala and Bonaberi. The two sides are separated by a
river, and there is only one bridge to get across. As such, we have two
branches - one on each side of the river. The distance isn’t terribly long, but
the traffic is horrid! Last p-day we played soccer with the Elders from the
other side, and it took over an hour to cross the bridge. So when our branch
president told us of the plan, we were a little less than excited. But as I
think the expression goes, we squared our shoulders and got to work.</span></div>
<div class="yiv8482887379msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">Now the complications
didn’t end there. Before the moving truck came, the owner of the building
showed up. He was angry for some reason - declaring that we owed him money,
even though the contracts had all been finalized and signed. His intent was to
literally stop us from leaving! To give you a mental image, think of a narrow
alleyway. At one end was our church building, then in front all our stuff, then
the owner's car, then the moving truck. HEY YOU CRAZY MAN, MOVE YOUR CAR SO WE
CAN LOAD OUR TRUCK! After some stupid argument, we gave him a choice. Move your
car so we can leave or we will put everything back inside and stay here without
paying. He opted to move his car and take his keys.</span></div>
<div class="yiv8482887379msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">Well around 6pm we
finished the move. A full day of service. And although we didn’t teach any
lessons, I think this was one of the most productive days of my mission. Every
hour was filled with a meaningful activity - moving the branch. As of today,
all our stuff is still in storage at the Bonaberi branch. Our building in Bali
is clear, but the church is making some modifications on the house, so that we
can have rooms for all the different auxiliaries. Which means, we will move all
the stuff from storage to Bali next week. (hopefully)</span></div>
<div class="yiv8482887379msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">For the time being,
we’re holding church in a hotel! <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hotel Piano.
We rented out the conference room and held Sunday School and Sacrament Meeting
yesterday. The room, in the words of Elder Colindres, “is like a basement.” Yeah,
pretty accurate.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">Now, I said this week
was stressful, and it wasn’t the church move that was hard. No, it was
yesterday. As well as working in a tiny branch, being with a companion not of
your own choosing can be rough. And it gets tougher, when that companion
doesn’t speak the same language and has a culture almost completely opposite
from yours. All week, I was getting annoyed with my companion. Just a bunch of
little things that rubbed away at my patience. I tried to support it well, and
just keep to myself. As you’ll learn from this story that isn’t what you should
do. If someone is constantly annoying you, talk with them about it otherwise
it’ll build up until you go crazy on the person!</span><br />
<div class="yiv8482887379msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">Well, I didn’t really
believe in that counsel when the week started, so when Sunday came around I had
a long list of complaints. Then this happened – the young men called us to the
sacrament table after church and asked, “Can we eat the blessed sacrament bread
after church?” I boldly said, NO! They shouldn’t eat it and others shouldn’t
eat it either. I spoke pretty boldly because this is an ordinance – something
of big importance. Now, I’ll just say my companion then told them something
different than what I said…ohh, I was livid.</span></div>
<div class="yiv8482887379msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">So there goes Elder
Johnson, «full-on-battle-mode» as it were, against his companion. We argued for
a while over this question. I was determined to not let my companion say
something that was «false». In the words of Elder Colindres again, «I’ve lived
with you (Johnson) for almost a year now. When you get angry, you mean it – and
today you were pissed!» At the climax, Elder Mwehu was walking away from me and
I ran up behind him and pretended to kick him in the butt haha! True, I’m a
missionary, but I guess I’m still a human. (and only 19)</span></div>
<div class="yiv8482887379msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">I smile now, because
looking back it was pretty funny J Okay, so here is the lesson of the story, it
comes in the after-math. For the rest of the day I was upset, but also
regretful for having blown up. I decided that we would talk about what
happened, when we got home. I wasn’t going to let this one go. I felt inspired
to do the following. We got home and ran our numbers for the week, then I said,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>«okay, before we close for the day we need
to talk about what happened.»<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">First, I had us both
explain our position on the question. Elder Mwehu said what he thought while I
listened without interrupting. Then I did the same. After I grabbed two Church
manuals, and said «we are going to read what the official church policy is on
the sacrament, after we will not discuss it. We are just going to read it
together.» <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So that’s what we did. After
we discussed that next time a question on church administration is asked to us,
we will direct the members to the branch president, who is called to take care
of the administration aspects. I gave Elder Mwehu a hug and all was worked out
–no more hard feelings.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">Lesson number 1 –
Follow the promptings of the spirit and things will work out. The things we did
in that discussion were things I felt like we needed to do. All three of them.
True, it was a little awkward to kick off, but it worked. Follow the spirit and
things work out.</span><br />
<div class="yiv8482887379msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">Lesson number 2 –
Resolving problems in relationships is necessary. I remember a Liahona that
said, « some people destroy their marriages (in this case it applies to a
missionary companionship) because they avoid talking about the weightier
matters.» Talking about problems sincerely and openly helps. I think this one will
apply to me more fully when I’m married! </span></div>
<div class="yiv8482887379msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">Lesson number 3 –
Lift where you stand. It isn’t our duty as missionaries to tell the branch how
to function. That is the branch President ‘s calling. We are there to teach
doctrine, not run the branch. Had Elder Mwehu and I directed the young men to
their leaders, we would’ve avoided the whole situation. But in trying to do
something that wasn’t our responsibility, we shot ourselves in the feet. Now,
if I ever become a bishop, I’ll be making sure that NO ONE eats the sacrament
bread as a snack. Those are my feelings on the matter – but for right now, I’m
not a Bishop. I’m a missionary. So I’ll do as the primary song says, « teach
and preach and work as MISSIONARIES do. » Lift where you stand in the church –
it’s much better that way!</span></div>
<div class="yiv8482887379msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">Hopefully no one
thinks I’m trying to preach to you guys. These are just things that I, Elder Johnson,
learned this week from my experiences. There were many other things that
happened this week. Like the New Year’s parties, but these stories were the
best! <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Happy New Year (out here people
will be saying that for a few months), best of luck on all the resolutions.
Elder Colindres and I wrote our resolution for 2015 – marriage haha. I love you
guys bunches –honestly I do. Make it a good week!</span></div>
<div class="yiv8482887379msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">ps – on New Year’s
Eve people threw «Flash-bang-like» flares in the air all night. It sounded like
shot guns being fired all over the city. But around 12am, a fire-work went off
right outside our balcony. It was so loud that it scared me enough to make me
fall out of bed. haha. </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="yiv8482887379msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in 0pt;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0g_MopUuoh_gI-VMRXH2RNzfSKEXumYna51w3hDY219DaAETNKD393MuqbWdHIo_YaoR2N79K0xpJEwCciSfyq8ckhnkNY2Ncg4JQ6LbfdsvoWQ7dpqW7Pcp6SW343-iBiTgzON_6Jjsz/s1600/IMG_3219.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0g_MopUuoh_gI-VMRXH2RNzfSKEXumYna51w3hDY219DaAETNKD393MuqbWdHIo_YaoR2N79K0xpJEwCciSfyq8ckhnkNY2Ncg4JQ6LbfdsvoWQ7dpqW7Pcp6SW343-iBiTgzON_6Jjsz/s1600/IMG_3219.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Our church building "threw up" haha</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<o:p></o:p> </div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEjpdQVDooCxVyZkVqZ0hHwn1And72m-v_LWEJ7VyIUiwgW0zEFAxjuZnp29Lm3AKPioz0fX1x9ssxIyvTH82yeyl49FUemiHHEq-pWU36J67pPbTOg44CrWdEbt8ZT6yf4NRXKb-8YxvT/s1600/IMG_3220.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEjpdQVDooCxVyZkVqZ0hHwn1And72m-v_LWEJ7VyIUiwgW0zEFAxjuZnp29Lm3AKPioz0fX1x9ssxIyvTH82yeyl49FUemiHHEq-pWU36J67pPbTOg44CrWdEbt8ZT6yf4NRXKb-8YxvT/s1600/IMG_3220.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
A really pretty leaf, wanted to show you guys some of the beauty in Africa</div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiW1D3UkUxrlj8prXzyH9YNQzCCJ-Sff7pkEfDqA4wjy4ro-KqwDQ9Ei5SU3UKVFZP7_6GUOzbdDwDQd-Zi0AYbivDIIcRpwDbycTfD6GO_-TCVN8sgHXjcAZGc3s9lJOu81JnY2vE1eU9M/s1600/IMG_3221.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiW1D3UkUxrlj8prXzyH9YNQzCCJ-Sff7pkEfDqA4wjy4ro-KqwDQ9Ei5SU3UKVFZP7_6GUOzbdDwDQd-Zi0AYbivDIIcRpwDbycTfD6GO_-TCVN8sgHXjcAZGc3s9lJOu81JnY2vE1eU9M/s1600/IMG_3221.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
January 1, the town was empty, cuz everyone was partied out. </div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEii2bgJ-ZXoPtoTwByBwikNMYEWbn_ZIwyUG2DXQ0PXE2MoDhUN-kl6sgoYGIr8WOABjYpsSqrVBv3rpCb0ONjBaCYTuLSzp6mWoROmjSbv3zBfvNyjGj2DW6HjcNVjf48bv1ppObmGXKLl/s1600/IMG_3226.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEii2bgJ-ZXoPtoTwByBwikNMYEWbn_ZIwyUG2DXQ0PXE2MoDhUN-kl6sgoYGIr8WOABjYpsSqrVBv3rpCb0ONjBaCYTuLSzp6mWoROmjSbv3zBfvNyjGj2DW6HjcNVjf48bv1ppObmGXKLl/s1600/IMG_3226.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span> </div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">There are trees
around town that are full of little yellow birds. like 50 nests in one tree.</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00721862569938640306noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2227767562529313336.post-57112909286823250912015-03-01T14:10:00.000-08:002015-03-01T14:10:14.296-08:0012/29/14 Active in Activities<br />
<div class="yiv3779448852msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">It
was fun to skype with you guys on Christmas, even though I couldn’t see you.
Now that all the parties are over, it’s back to work. Luckily, the next time we
talk face to face will be at home!</span></div>
<div class="yiv3779448852msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">After
skyping, the week continued with some fun activities for us. We had a ward
talent show on Saturday and they told us, the missionaries, that we had to do
something. As well as being forced we felt like we should participate because
we weren’t sure if too many members would do anything – and we didn’t want it
to be a flop. We kept putting off our sketch until Friday night, which reminded
me of the many late night school projects I’ve had. We decided to write our own
“church history rap”! <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>4 hours after we
started, we had rehearsed and polished a pretty sweet sounding rap. </span></div>
<div class="yiv3779448852msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">I
tried committing my part to memory, and thought it’d go over well. Saturday
night came around and a lot of people were participating in the talent show.
Even without us, it was a quality activity. But our turn came around and we
took our place in the middle of the floor. Our rap started and it was good. BUT
I FORGOT ALL MY LINES! Absolutely terrible stage fright. I managed to get out
the first 2 or 3 lines but after that, I just drew a blank. Now here were my
thoughts; “okay elder Johnson, what are you going to do? You are being watched
by the whole branch and you forgot the lines to your rap. Up to these first 15
seconds, no one is too enthralled by the song. You are already in the middle of
the floor so there is no going back.” </span></div>
<div class="yiv3779448852msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Well I decided to just go crazy with my dance
moves!! If I couldn’t rap, I could at least dance while Elder Colindres raped
his lines (Luckily, Elder Colindres raped all his lines and saved the song we
wrote). So I started shuffling…and everyone went crazy!!! After that it was the
Moon Walk, some Jerking, the Cranky Frank (a dance made up by elder hatch). The
members got so excited to see me dance. In fact little primary children came on
the stage with us and started dancing. In the words of Elder Colindres, “you
know it’s good when the primary kids join in with you.” In the end we were
happy and the branch was clapping and laughing. I should say, I’m so thankful I
invested hours upon hours in church dances, cuz if I hadn’t I wouldn’t have
been able to bust out all those moves haha.</span></div>
<div class="yiv3779448852msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">I
thought it was such a neat experience and also a good lesson. Looking at our
skit, it was looking like a failure. We simply didn’t do what we had planned. I
admit I literally FAILED at raping. But even though I failed at raping, we
didn’t fail in the end. Our skit was actually a success. A big success. I think
that erased some of my fear on criticism. Friday night, I was so scared that
people wouldn’t like what we planned and that we would be embarrassed. But as
soon as I decided that I was just going to do something no matter what, that
fear of criticism went away, and people actually enjoyed it. </span></div>
<div class="yiv3779448852msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">It’s
kinda the same in life – right? We plan various activities from real
performances, to dinners, to dates, to work, to service, to church lessons, to
recreational activities, and it goes on and on. Sometimes we feel these
activities are linked to our self-esteem and it’s possible that they might be
criticized. True, we might fail in perfectly executing the plans (just like I
failed my rap) – but when we simply do our best and go all out (like I did with
my “white boy” dancing) things will work out. I remember watching a Mormon
message where a young father basically said, I learned from my service in the
church that I could put in my very best and that was always acceptable. This is
just one of those fun life experiences you have on a mission.</span></div>
<div class="yiv3779448852msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">Later
on Sunday, I was asked to give a talk, 30 minutes before sacrament meeting!
First time I’ve ever given a talk on my mission. Let’s just say I’m grateful
that as a missionary you are always studying gospel topics, so they are always
in the front of your head. Again, I had a little bit of stage fright which is
normal, but did my best and people said it was a good talk!</span></div>
<div class="yiv3779448852msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">I
know you guys still have a week of vacation, so first off, enjoy the New Year’s
Eve dance for me! Practice your Shuffling, because you never know when you
could be in a third world country and need to entertain a big crowd. haha. And
second, when school restarts have fun with your studies and at work as well.
You’re going to fail in some aspects – but you can still be successful in the
end :) I love you guys, like I said; talking with you was the highlight of the
week. Keep safe and have some fun adventures this week!</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00721862569938640306noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2227767562529313336.post-90470415345488225522015-03-01T13:58:00.001-08:002015-03-07T19:17:04.587-08:0012/22/14 Syping Soon<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt;">So life is just continuing out here as well, nothing too
different from the last email I sent. To arrange some schedules. We’ll be
skyping on Christmas and I will be on at 5pm Cameroon time which means 9am for
you. I figure that gives everyone enough time to get up, open presents and be
alert for skyping haha. I think that the couple will send you the skype account
info so you can add them on your contacts. But nonetheless, 9am!</span></div>
<br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt;">As well the couple will be home December 28th until January 8th
(not sure when they get back). Their youngest daughter had her first children
and so they wanted to be there to support her. We will be all alone while they’re
gone. But that's ok, we’re big boys! </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt;">As I will be talking with you all in three days, today's email
will just be pictures. But a picture is worth a thousand words, so sorry the
email is so long haha.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span> </div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00721862569938640306noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2227767562529313336.post-79198890213962802382015-03-01T13:54:00.000-08:002015-03-01T13:54:24.563-08:0012/12/14 Bonjour, nous sommes missionnaires pour l'église de Jésus-Christ des saints des derniers jours<br />
<br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt;">So
I flipped through my agenda, and sadly nothing exciting happened this week.
Unless you want to state the obvious and say "every day as a missionary is
exciting." True. In which case I had a very exciting week. But nothing out
of the ordinary. The work has been alright, we sadly lost the majority of our
amis. It got to the point where we had given them more than enough time to
react and nothing - so we move on. And moving on means contacting! <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ohh how I love contacting. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt;">Tuesday
started with what might be a personal record of 5 hours of contacting. The good
thing about dropping lame amis is all the amis that are left are serious and
golden. So we had two lessons that were awesome and then started walking around
for the rest of the day. Contacting the "American way" - door to
door. This pattern of work is what we did ALL week. Teach a few lessons, knock
doors. Hence the title of this email, I got really good at saying that phrase. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt;">There
is one really cool thing about contacting. It's getting to be guided by the
spirit directly to people that are "prepared" as we like to say. For
example, we were contacting in a mainly Muslim neighborhood. Our sector is
really small and I've already hit up all the This week it's like we are serving
in Saudi Arabia" haha.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt;">Walking
around after 3 minutes it was apparent that no one would be accepting our
brochures - so praying that God would give us someone to talk to - we continued
to walk aimlessly through the neighborhood until we passed a little shop and a Nigerian
man shouted after us. Turns out Stanley (the Nigerian) knows the church and his
brother served a mission in Ghana!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt;">Another
person is Samuel. In this same Muslim neighborhood, there is a really nice
apartment building and it has Christmas decorations on the patios of some
apartments. I felt like it would be fun to go contact it, so we entered the
gate and talked with the guard (Samuel). Turns out no one was home, but he
accepted the brochure! Even better, he read it all after we left and we had a
good lesson with him yesterday. Stories like this go on and on. Proof that we
are inspired by the spirit when we do missionary work!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt;">I'll
let you know what happens with all these new amis we’re finding. But for the
moment we'll just keep on trucking along. Like you noted, these last months are
going too fast. Hope you have a good week at work and school. I love ya guys!</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00721862569938640306noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2227767562529313336.post-73841711170488575562015-03-01T13:45:00.006-08:002015-03-01T13:45:54.346-08:0012/08/14 Two for Two<br />
<br />
<br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt;">Dang, so much is happening back home! Sounds like everything is
going well though. Kaleb has a car, man so jealous haha. That's good that Drew
also came down and hung out with everyone – can’t wait to hang out with
siblings again. Seems like everyone is growing up and the world is changing,
it'll probably be a bigger shock than I think when I see you all again. Tell Maya,
I appreciate that she’s taking care of the family and serving others (way to go
sista!)</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt;">This week was a good week of work if I had to put it simply. We
dropped a bunch of our amis, like 14/26 of the amis weren’t doing anything. So
we’re now left teaching the quality people and at the same time, contacting a
lot - not a bad mixture.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt;">Even though we’re missionaries there are always those things
that prove that we are still young men - for example - this week we started a
water drinking contest between ourselves. It was planned to go for 2 weeks,
until Elder Hatch finished his mission, and the prize was a chocolate bread and
a break soy (soy milk drink that comes from heaven. haha). The first day I
totally forgot about the competition and drank 1.5L of water, kinda a bad
start. But Thursday I came back by drinking 4.5L, 1.5 of those liters being in
one sitting after dinner! Sadly, even such a great feat wasn’t enough to
overtake Elder Hatch who drank 10L!! We talked with the senior couple and they
explained that you can get water poisoning from drinking too much water. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ohh, well that was the end of that competition
haha. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Fun while it lasted.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt;">Now instead of just telling you about all the random lessons
I've had, I decided this week to give you a walkthrough of a Sunday in the life
of a missionary. And possibly the most exhausting Sunday of my life.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt;">Yesterday started as usual, got up and went to church around
9am. Church started on time for a change, 10 minutes early in reality! Elders
Quorum starts and it quickly goes as normal. 30 minutes of exhortations and
point-less "Jesus-talk", as I have come to call it. Just saying vague
things about Jesus and being saved that don’t help us become better people and
are used as aimless fillers. Even some of our amis use "jesus-talk",
usually when they don’t care or want to escape a hard question. But anyway,
back to elder's quorum, the lesson was good but lacked energy, and those types
of lessons suck all the energy out of you. Luckily, just before it ended, Jean,
a 70 year old ami came to church for the first time! Woohoo, keeping
commitments! With Jean, we go to the gospel principle class, and to our
surprise, 6 people in total. We being two of them. Ohh boy, another long
draining lesson about the Sabbath day. Jean is almost falling asleep, and no
one really participates but the young man did a good job teaching and put in an
honest effort - so no criticism - way to go Brother Elvis! </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt;">Finally we go to sacrament meeting and it’s a fast Sunday. Side
note, I loath fast Sunday testimony meetings. Not because the idea, but because
I have never attended a fast and testimony meeting that was 100% testimony
bearing. Someone always gives a long story or has to thank people - why? Just
get up and say what you know, that's it, nothing else. But to my great delight,
the first testimony was amazing! Brother Mbengé, who was conducting said, "I
know this is the only true church on the face of the earth. I know Joseph Smith
was a prophet and that the Book of Mormon is true. In the name of Jesus Christ Amen."</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt;">So amazing! First solid, perfect testimony I've ever heard on my
mission. The rest of the meeting was good and went as usual.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt;">Now after church there was a meeting for adults. It’s a program
called interweave. It's a program that teaches basic management skills so that
members know how to start little businesses and run them themselves. Some successful
businessmen from Kinshasa and America came to give the class. Really cool
thing, but because all the adults were together in the class, who watched the
kids? Elder Johnson!!</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt;">Now I think God inspired this, but every Sunday one or two kids
sit next to me during sacrament, and I never have anything to entertain them
with. Usually I give them a blank paper from my planner and they draw. So this
week I was one step ahead. I pulled out all the coloring pages from old Liahona
magazines. We have an archive! <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So I went
to church with 8 pages and my colored pencils. As Elder Hatch noted, "Ohh
no the Daddy Johnson Sunday bag is already starting!" haha.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sitting outside church I called 4 little
girls to come sit next to me and told them they could color while their parents
were busy. It was all under control, these girls were older, maybe 7 and only
four of them. I had a system going with the pencils, they used one at a time
and if they wanted another they had to trade me. Man, I thought I was hot
stuff! Taking care of kids isn’t that hard, I smuggly thought to myself...until
all outer-darkness broke loose!</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt;">More younger children soon saw the pencils and stormed our
arrangement. The worst part is they are so young they don’t talk yet, so
absolutely no reasoning with them! One little girl just had to have 3 colors in
her hand at a time, or she would scream. Another kept wandering off. And trying
to evenly distribute the coloring pages almost started a war haha. Not to
mention all this was outside in the heat of the day. Adding to the needs, the 7
year olds kept needing to trade pencils and tried to talk with me while I’m
trying to calm these fussy toddlers. About 30 minutes after all this, reinforcements
came, Elder Hatch and Colindres finished with a lesson and joined in on the
fun.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt;">A full hour later and VICTORY! We successful entertained all the
kids. But Sunday didn’t end there. After, we had meetings of our own. I think
you can see why Sunday was so tiring? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But
it didn’t stop there either, I almost forgot, after church I was waiting for a
taxi to come by. And some punk tried to pick pocket me again! I had my white
handbook and transport money pouch in my shirt pocket. He was walking towards
me and I moved over to give him more than enough room to pass, but he pushed straight
through me (hey when you walk straight towards someone when there is no crowd
you kinda alert them. Common' basic pick-pocketing 101). Well, he tried pulling
out the handbook, but everything flopped out from the pocket. So in typical
Elder Johnson fashion, I grabbed him by his arms and started shaking him up and
demanding "What was that about uhh?"</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt;">So thus the title of my email. Pick-pocketed twice on my
mission, BUT i've always caught and stopped the thief - two for two!</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt;">That Sunday took everything out of me, emotionally, spiritually
and physically. I was really happy that night to go home and eat and sleep. But
that is missionary work - serving others and working. And I absolutely love it!</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt;">I’m sure we’ll talk about more interesting stories over our
skype session - which isn’t too far away. Think of some sweet stories you guys
can share with me as well. Don’t worry if you forget to email sometimes, I know
y'all love me and are probably just busy. I love you guys, have fun in the
snow!</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt;">ps - I never got a western union card, but luckily the senior
couple is taking a trip to America to visit grandkids in Utah the 28th Dec
until January 8th. They offered to bring anything back for us if our parents
wanted to send it to them in Utah. So possible solution, get a western union
card and mail it to them. They can bring it back. I don’t want to add things to
your plate, but a possible solution? </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00721862569938640306noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2227767562529313336.post-57781980193451294082015-03-01T13:21:00.003-08:002015-03-01T13:21:36.967-08:0012/02/14 Christmas Season <br />
<br />
<br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt;">This week was full of meetings, interviews and zone conferences
with a big Thanksgiving dinner to add in the mix. Our mission president came to
visit us and we had a very good conference together. I learned a lot about
myself and how to become a better disciple of Christ.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt;">For this week I'll just tell you one amazing story/testimony. I
have been concerned for Elder Mwehu, my companion, because he is the only African
in the apartment and he doesn’t speak English. So naturally sometimes he is
isolated from the group and doesn’t talk that much - and I know it's not
because he’s shy, it's just hard with the language and culture difference. So
all week I have been praying to know what to do to help him. What subjects
should I talk about with him? How do I make him feel like he fits in? For the
whole week it didn’t seem like an answer was coming. I prayed and prayed and
nothing.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt;">So we keep working like normal - Sunday rolls around and we go
out teaching. Just TERRIBLE. No unity in any sense of the word. Every lesson it
seemed like we weren’t on the same wavelength. I felt like something was
missing from our teaching, and obviously it was the Spirit. So Sunday night I
kneel down and pray to know what to do - the idea came that we need to create
lesson plans. To explain something about this mission, we don’t ever do lesson
plans! With over 30 amis at a time and 7 lessons a day, 1 hour of companionship
study in the morning isn’t enough time to thoroughly plan out every scripture
and question and point of doctrine that you want to teach that day. But the
thought came that we needed to make a lesson plan.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt;">Like I said last week, we moved our p-day to Tuesday, so Monday
(yesterday) came around and we went to work like usual. In companionship study
I told Elder Mwehu that I felt like we needed to create a lesson plan for at
least 1 rendezvous (the most important lesson of the day). He agreed and we set
out a very simple lesson plan. During that planning, yes, there were times when
we didn’t see eye to eye and had to discuss our points of view without being
offended. But it all worked out and we felt good about the plan. Leaving the
apartment that day had a whole other feeling to it. We seemed a little happier
and knit together. We never got to teach that lesson we planned out - the young
girl canceled on us, but the rest of the day was filled with the spirit and we
taught with such unity. In fact we taught 2 lessons in English that day, Elder
Mwehu didn’t follow what I was saying, but he contributed in French
appropriately and helped bring the spirit.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt;">Sunday, we couldn’t even teach a lesson in the same language. Monday
I followed an inspiration that came as a response to many prayers, and we
taught very spiritual lessons in multiple languages (during one rendezvous, a
sister couldn’t speak French really well, so she spoke in a tribal language).
The moral of the story is PRAYER WORKS! <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Answers do come and they solve problems.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt;">That simple idea to make lesson plans didn’t only help our
teaching, it also helped Elder Mwehu open up and be willing to start
conversations with me. Like I said, in the planning, we had to discuss our
opinions, we were forced to talk. Later because we taught together in unity,
Elder Mwehu and I talked more about life. He shared things about himself and we
were overall happier.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt;">Now because it is officially December I thought it would be
appropriate to put up decorations. Lucky for us, we have a fake Christmas tree
(thanks be to which ever elders bought that! haha) So putting the thing up
became a good group activity. We all helped fluff out the branches and untangle
the 3 light strips and put up ornaments on the tree. Again, another answer to
my prayers, Elder Mwehu participated and we talked about Christmas traditions
in our lives. It was a fun activity and for the rest of the night we laid in
the dark with the Christmas tree lit up, listening to Christmas music! <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ahh, the Christmas Spirit, and more
importantly, the Spirit in general.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt;">So keep praying and if you don’t feel like you’re getting
answers keep moving forward with confidence and keep praying - you'll get an
idea at some point or another. Those ideas may be small (like making a lesson
plan) but as the scriptures say - by small and simple things are great things
brought to pass. Or in the language of Elder Hatch, "If it seems stupid
but works, it's not stupid." : )</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt;">I hope you all are enjoying the holiday season and feeling the
spirit at home. Enjoy the snow for me! It's really hot over here, like 95
degrees during the day and 80 in the morning!</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00721862569938640306noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2227767562529313336.post-21353086193048879102015-02-24T21:42:00.001-08:002015-03-07T19:09:42.925-08:0011/24/14 Emailing Home - a Missionary Tradition<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Helvetica;"></span><br />
<br />
<br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt;">Well
another week of work and experiences under my belt. The appointments we have
had haven’t been too special or extraordinary. Just moving forward as best we
can. Some amis (investigators) are progressing and others aren’t. Some are
getting ready for baptism and others are giving us no reason to keep teaching.
Overall, it's been a week of work. And I've learned a lot while doing it.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt;"></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt;">The
biggest news we have this week was an Africa Southeast Conference. Basically
President Uchtdorf and Elder Bednar, Elder Gay and Sister Stephens delivered
messages that were tailored to this area of the world. They recorded the
meeting and sent out the discs to all the branches asking us to watch it. It
was SO SICK! (cool)</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt;"></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt;">Elder
Gay explained that sometimes we need to stop doing things out of tradition if
it impedes us from living the Gospel. He gave the example that in Ghana
President Uchtdorf went for a visit and noticed that all the churches had
basketball courts built on the property. He asked an inter-regional seventy out
of surprise, "How many people play basket-ball in Ghana?" The seventy
replied, "No one." <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>President
Uchtdorf asked, "Then why are we building basket-ball courts at every
church building?" <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The seventy answered,
"Well that's how we always do it.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The lesson was in President Uchtdorf's response, "Do we always have
to do things out of habit?"</span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt;">The
counsel that was given to members here was to stop participating in habits that
destroy our capacity to follow the gospel. Things like excessive partying at
funerals and marriages that drive families into debt. Or giving preference to
people of the same tribe. And the biggest - stop holding a Dote for your
children. And Elder Gay wasn’t the only one to hit on these points.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt;"></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt;">Sister
Stephens talked about helping children learn the gospel. She explained that
children need to participate in the family and need to be TAUGHT BY THE
PARENTS. Families need to have Family Home Evening each week and scripture
study every day.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt;"></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt;">Elder
Bednar explained that we need to make sacrifices. That not paying tithing is
unacceptable. And when we do pay it needs to be with a willing heart.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt;"></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt;">Now
President Uchtdorf's talk was the best. He basically talked about the same
things are Elder Gay. He told a story of a village whose well-pump broke. The
church sent representatives to fix the problem and train villagers so they
could later fix problems with the pump. When the engineer arrived he found that
villagers were walking down to a little river to get water while they waited.
When he went to see the river he said it was full of mud and dirt and infested
with bugs. It was in no way clean water. The engineer stopped two boys and
asked, "You’re not going to drink this water are you?" They replied,
"Of course, our fathers drank this water, and our grand-fathers, and our
great-grand-fathers drank this water. If it was good enough for them, it is
good enough for us." The engineer explained if they just waited for a
while they could have clean water from the well, and that it would even taste
better, the pump would be fixed soon - they just needed to wait. They boys
returned home with their dirty water saying it was fine and jokingly told the
engineer that he should try some.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt;"></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt;">President
Uchtdorf explained that all traditions are not always good. All things become
new after baptism in the church - ALL things. He encouraged members to embrace
the "Gospel Culture". He also said in clear words that could not be
misunderstood by anyone, "We encourage families, fathers and mothers, and
additionally will be giving directions to priesthood leaders to encourage
others to STOP the DOTE." YEAH!! <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It
would be so awesome if that practice stopped.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt;">P</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt;">resident
Uchtdorf also encouraged that fathers to treat their wives and children as
people they love and not objects. Finally he closed by explaining that as a
young man he often thought of himself as superstar. He was a young jet pilot
who finished 1st in his class. But when he went to the temple he was reminded
that no one is more important that another in the church. That was a good
lesson for me as well. No one is more important than another.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt;"></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt;">It
was an amazing conference and I learned a lot for myself as well. It was like
an add-on to general conference which we just watched two weeks ago.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt;"></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt;">Well
those are the big things we learned this week. FYI, next week our p-day is on Tuesday
because we’re going to a maritime museum which isn’t open on Monday. This week
is Thanksgiving! <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What a great tradition
that helps us live the Gospel! <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So have a
happy Thanksgiving and be safe if you participate in black Friday (maybe a
tradition that doesn’t really help us live the gospel haha). I’m thankful to
have an awesome family like you guys! I love you. Have an amazing week. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 12pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 107%;">So the city is split into two sections,
and this is the river that separates it. And because it's the dry season now we
get these crazy thunder storms in the evening. Because it's incredibly hot
during the day, like 92 degrees and then the cold air at night causes these
storms. It's pretty sweet!</span></span><br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00721862569938640306noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2227767562529313336.post-54978737963529624772014-11-19T16:26:00.003-08:002014-11-19T16:26:49.778-08:0011/17/14 I’m on a Boat<br />
<br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Although I started on
the Mission on the 15th of May, I’ll actually be ending on the 28th of April.
It's just the way transfers will work out - either go home a bit early or stay
for an extra 5 weeks. So the church opted for the first! <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But hey, no complaints.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">But for the time
being, I’m still out here and here is what we did this week.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Monday started off
with an amazing FHE chez-les Mbengés (with the mbenge family). This is an
amazing family! The two parents are just incredibly Christ like people. Their
story is that they found the gospel through missionaries a long time ago. They
were a brand new couple and they were extremely poor. To give you some idea
Brother Mbenge said, there were times that they went two weeks without eating.
Well they embraced the gospel and it took it's affect. They starting growing
their family and now have a son and two daughters - the son is on a mission and
the daughters are at home, Falon and Pauola. Just the sweetest girls on the
planet!</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">But their family didn’t
stop there. Throughout their life they've interacted with nephews and cousins
and sometimes even neighbors, who have felt the spirit in the Mbenge home. One
of these former neighbors, a young boy named Junior, told us on Monday that he
felt so positive about life when he was with this family that when the moved
away, Junior begged his father to let him go live with the Mbenges! The father
allowed him and since then Junior has become an "adopted" son.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Another niece now
lives with them for schooling and has joined the church. The way the parents
interact with these kids is so compassionate that it's almost impossible to
know beforehand that they aren’t one biological family. Just incredible!</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">We enjoyed spending
time with them and had some good laughs that night. We, the missionaries, also
made a great discovery. A snack called - BreakJoys! It's a caramel flavored soy
milk drink that comes in a little packet. They cost 50 cents and are
incredible! Instantly addicted. In fact we had a chocolate bread and breakjoy
for breakfast this morning. I don’t know if we have something like that in
America, so I’m going to bouff (eat) a lot of them before April.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">On Tuesday we had a
neat experience that I probably won’t have again. I was with Elder Hatch and Colindres
because my companion had left and I was waiting for my new one to arrive that
night. So I just tagged along with the others. Now there is a recent convert
from Ghana that they baptized and he is a boat captain. So he lives on this
boat for the time being cuz rather than sitting at home he can get paid if he
is on board every day. Well, we went to go teach him on his boat! <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Totally allowed, so we headed down to the
docks. I was imagining like a massive cargo ship but he actually work on a
private security vessel. Basically these military looking yachts! What they do
is they take contracts to protect other vessels, like oil tankers, and then
bring along soldiers who provide the weapons.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">We literally climbed
aboard and got to take a tour of the boat. (when I say literally, it's like
literally, we climbed up a ladder) <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>IT
WAS SO SICK! We sat down in the mess hall and taught the ENTIRE crew - all 15
people. Later all of us agreed that we felt like we were on an episode of
Deadliest Catch haha. While aboard we also met a member from Nigeria. Who
would've thought - members are everywhere...and so are the missionaries.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Well that same night
my new companion came. Elder Mwehu! But he came really late. We were waiting up
for them to arrive, but we fell asleep. So at 1 am, I wake up and see Elder
Coleman (senior couple) and some Africans entering the living room where we all
sleep. I sprang out of bed as fast as possible - feeling kinda bad that I fell
asleep - and greeted them. Half asleep this is all I told them. "Bonjour,
il y a trois lit...uhhh, oui." (good morning, there are three beds...uh,
yeah) And then promptly retook my spot in bed. I was tired but with that warm
welcome my new companionship started!</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I'll close the email
by telling you about a sweet finding experience I had. To set the stage Elder
Mwehu and I had a round of contacting and had been pretty successful. We got
some numbers and found a few interested people. After giving out the last
brochure we had we decided it was time to head home. We start looking for a
route that can lead us back towards the house. Just thinking about heading home
we took the first route we found. 100 yards later I saw a young girl cutting
wood and something told me to help her. (that something was the Holy Spirit, as
I later learned) I decided to offer to help. After a minute of insisting to
help, she finally handed over the saw and let me have a go! I'll have to admit,
my first attempt was embarrassing. We all got a good laugh, the missionaries,
the girl, and the crowd that had now gathered to watch the white man cut wood.
The girl gave me a demonstration of how it's done and then I took my 2nd
chance.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Jokingly, I felt like
the reputation of America was resting on my shoulders - I had to show the crowd
that us Americans work! So I did my best to cut the wood and what do you know -
I did it! In fact so well that I became like a chain saw. I went through ten to
fifteen pieces of wood during the service. And I would've done more but that
was all she needed for the moment.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Well here's the
spiritual part of it all. As I’m cutting, I get talking to this young girl and
turns out she has a name - Emily. Not only does she have a name but she already
knows our church. Emily's older sister use to take the lessons with the missionaries
but sadly Emily never had a chance to sit down with the elders. But she wanted
to and was more than willing to have us come back later. Sweet! That had to be
the spirit leading us that day. No way would we just happen to be at the right
place at the right time to help a young girl cut wood, who also happens to be a
girl that knows the church and wants to speak with us. No way that is just
chance! The lesson is the spirit will guide you as you serve others. And of
course, I felt so good after giving service.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Have a great week at
school and at work. Look for some chances to serve others and I promise you'll
feel happy as you do it! I love all you guys.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span> </div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00721862569938640306noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2227767562529313336.post-35071010557034874322014-11-19T16:25:00.001-08:002014-11-19T16:25:43.327-08:0011/10/14 The Crazy Things we Hear<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I’m glad you all got a
kick out of that story! <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On transfers, we
got changed around again. So Elder Okon is leaving me to go to Brazzaville. And
I’m receiving ANOTHER African companion. What!? This will be my fourth African
companion. Literally 4 of 8 companions have been African. That is almost
unheard of out here. To give you some idea, there are usually 2 Africans in an
"American" city at a time. Figuring that there are 25 Americans on
this side of the mission and maybe 6 Africans. Everyone usually works with an African
once in a while, but back to back to back - never. I’m obviously surprised, but
regardless I’m going to just work so hard these last 6 months. So hopefully my
companions can keep up.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">This week there was
nothing too special. So sorry to not give another gut busting story. Maybe
that's how the mission works - one exciting week for a boring week? BUT Elder Okon
has kept track of some of the funniest stuff people tell us.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">So I present you the
"List of ridiculous things that missionaries hear in Africa!":</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Symbol; font-size: 13pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"They are
missionaries, that's their problem! Sharing the word of God." - Augustine
(Augustine is an Anglophone. this shows generally how English is spoken here.
and yes the Gospel is our problem haha.)</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span> </div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Symbol; font-size: 13pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"God is a humble
God." - said in sunday school<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Symbol; font-size: 13pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Someone was giving a
contribution in Elder's quorum, when another member tries jumping in. The
member already talking says, "Ferme!" or close your mouth! (I think
elder's quorum is the biggest place of arguments ever - like in the history of
the church)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Symbol; font-size: 13pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"If 4 people
found the book of Mormon in the ground the world would accept it, but they don’t
like the idea of an angel bringing it." - Elder Coleman<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Symbol; font-size: 13pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"I read a lot, to
the extent that I can’t even explain it to you. But if you like, you can tell
me more." -Emmanuel (okay, what does that even mean!)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Symbol; font-size: 13pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"The bible says
that alcohol gives us courage and food gives us strength." - Daniel (I’m
sorry, I think my bible is missing that verse. can you show me where?)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Symbol; font-size: 13pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">During our missionary
training last week, "There are people looking for the truth and they can’t
find it. That's why they build churches and that's why they can go to the
mosques and make noise." - President Monga<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Symbol; font-size: 13pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Watching these TV
prophets perform miracles and discussing it with an Ami, "Their prayers
are really effective. They pray and people vomit." - Idrich (why does that
make their prayers effective? haha)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Symbol; font-size: 13pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In speaking with Daniel
about the word of wisdom, he started giving us terrible reasons why he needed
to drink. Here was the best, "In engineering school they taught us that we
are special people. That if our calves start itching then we can drink some
beer and it'll start to rain. And that rain helps others. So we need to drink
beer." (I’m sorry did I just forget all my French - because if I heard you
right, you think that drinking beer when you have an itch causes it to rain?)</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Those are just some of
the many things we hear all day - and I love it! <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It makes the work so fun and interesting. This
world has some characters to offer and I think we might just run into the best
of them! Like I've said before, I love my job! Well the work continues this
week and I'll let you know how it goes. But for now have another great week in
school and work. I love all you guys! <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Don’t
worry, I’m safe out here - even when jumping on bandits! </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Keep working hard - je
vous aime, vous tous!</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Don’t think I forgot
about your birthday this week - cuz I didn’t! Happy 23rd Birthday! Thanks for
being a great brother and an even better friend. I love you and can’t wait to
hang out with you again after the mission. Start setting aside the best anime
series that we can watch together. And prepare yourself for some serious
airsoft as well. For the time being have a happy birthday! I love you bunches.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">ps - start prepping
your questions for the skype session! :) </span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00721862569938640306noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2227767562529313336.post-54845514805561568802014-11-19T16:24:00.002-08:002014-11-19T16:24:27.602-08:0011-03-14 Cops and Robbers<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="yiv2693578079msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt;">What a week! This is going down in the record book as one of the
most exciting weeks I’ve had on my mission so far. And from the email it sounds
like everything is going well “chez-nous” as the French would say. That’s sad
that no trick-or-treaters came to the door. I was reminded on Halloween that I’m
pumped to have a family in the future cuz it gives me an excuse to go do things
like trick-or-treating, as well as dress up in a costume. But even in Africa I
found a way to celebrate –but I’ll get to that in the email.</span></div>
<div class="yiv2693578079msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt;">To answer your questions. I think I was honestly sent to Africa
to learn how to simply relax and go through life without complicating things.
Now hear me out on this one. On a mission there are a bunch of formalities, and
procedures, and politically correct things to say, and “wrong” ways to teach.
And if you’re not careful you’ll start to worry about following the procedures
so much that you don’t focus on the people. For example, you’ll go into a
lesson worrying more about perfectly presenting a scripture than helping answer
someone’s question.</span></div>
<div class="yiv2693578079msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt;">Another way to explain it is kinda like those kid pageant shows
they put on tv. Do you guys remember those? How the moms are perfectionists and
go crazy psycho! And if the little kid makes a mistake the moms get furious.
And for us watching it’s like: “wooo woman, calm down it’s a little 5 year old
girl that simply tripped –I mean you put her in like 10 inch heels – what are
you expecting?” So you see, sometimes in life we go psycho when things just
don’t work out (like those kid pageants). Maybe when a date isn’t as romantic
as we expected, or we fail a test, or we don’t get a promotion at work, etc etc
etc. The list is endless. And I don’t think that that is how God wants us to
view life. In the perfectionist view – if it isn’t perfect, it’s a failure. I
think being out here gave me a MASSIVE reality check.</span></div>
<div class="yiv2693578079msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt;">In this mission, I like to think that we simply work. That’s the
general attitude of the Americans here – we are here to work and that’s that,
let’s not complicate it. We go out in the morning and do our best, then come
home, share fun stories and laugh at the failures we had. Obviously we don’t
want to sit in imperfection – but all of us get that we are imperfect for the
time being. So you see, out here in Africa it is like the “front lines of the
church” and because it’s such we aren’t worried about “political correctness”
and perfect formality – we’re just looking to baptize and help others with the
gospel.</span></div>
<div class="yiv2693578079msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt;">Maybe that explains why I think I’m out here in Africa and not
anywhere else. As well, I’m still so excited that I got to go to Africa and
here is why:</span></div>
<div class="yiv2693578079msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt;">So Monday of last week, the Yemin family invited us over to eat
dinner with them. And this is a pretty well off family. So we go over there and
have just an amazing meal with the family. Fish and Pork and Ndolé and manioc!
The family has 6 kids, and 3 of the daughters formed a dance group –and they
are actually pretty good. They dance at festivals to sponsor new products and
such. While, we ate the dad showed us some of their videos. They’re a fun little
family.</span></div>
<div class="yiv2693578079msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt;">On Tuesday and Wednesday we had a bunch of meetings with the
Mission President. We received two new Elders which meant a lot of meetings on
training and welcoming. I think on Wednesday (there first day here) I heard
“Welcome, we are excited to have you in the mission.” Almost 100 times. It’s
like, ok guys, I think they feel welcomed enough! <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Well they seemed a little shocked and
overwhelmed, but it’ll be fun to get to know them in the coming months.
President Monga had 3 big announcements he brought with him. One, Brazzaville
(the Captial of Congo) is opening up to white people this next transfer which
is in one week! <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So Monday, I’ll let you
know who the lucky Americans are. Two, by the end of the year we will receive
10 new missionaries! Three, if members don’t pick up the participation in
missionary work – the missionaries will be removed from Douala (my current
city)! Okay – confirmation – our mission president is crazy haha. But it’s
exciting to see that he is putting some fire under the members to get them
moving. Well after our minds blew up with all those announcements the week
continued.</span></div>
<div class="yiv2693578079msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt;">I heard another witch story that I thought I’d share with you.
We crossed paths with a woman from California – well she is from Cameroon but
lives in America currently. She told us that she had a friend here, and the
friend never use to eat at people’s houses. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Every day she would go to restaurants and eat
there. Until one day a friend of this friend convinced her to come over for
soup. The young friend sat down and was really hesitant to take the soup.
Finally after a bunch of persuasion the friend drank the soup and immediately
felt sick. She cried, “What did you put in the soup?” The host replied,
“babalou!” Which is a poison that comes from roots of a plant found in Nigeria!
(Okay, pause, what?! A woman poisoned her friend. Why?) The host continued,
“The poison will only kill a witch. I give it to every guest in my house, to
keep myself safe.” Now, I don’t really believe African folk-lore, but I can buy
this one, especially for Africa. Well the story continued and the girl friend
was fine in the end – yeah!</span></div>
<div class="yiv2693578079msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt;">As well, to go along with folk-lore, while in the marché some
black magic went down. Some young lady wanted to get her hair braided and
stuff. She asked for a very complicated hair style that was supposed to take
hours. (some hair styles can literally take all day to finish) Well on this
occasion the hair was styled in 30 minutes. The young girl exclaimed to the
stylist, “How did you finish so fast? Did you just do a terrible job?” She
picked up a mirror to look at it, and saw that the stylist had multiple arms!!!
AHHH!!! No this isn’t a scene from “men in black”, just another crazy story.
They make me laugh so much.</span></div>
<div class="yiv2693578079msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt;">Now sometimes, these folk-lore make it into our lessons with Amis
and then things go bizarre. I’ll have to tell you about another story next
week.</span></div>
<div class="yiv2693578079msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt;">Later on in the week. To celebrate Halloween, I had a brilliant
idea. I wanted to carve an orange. It’s orange season here so you can buy a
massive orange for 75 francs (less than 20 cents). So I bought the biggest
orange I could find and went to work. My equipment consisted of a knife or two,
and a spoon. And wouldn’t you know, it worked! So well in fact that Elder Hatch
made one as well. We lite them up and in the dark, read a scary Edgar Alain Poe
story that the senior couple printed off for us – “the tell tale heart”. I’ll
send you a picture of the yellow-green-O-lanterns! (we call oranges,
yellow-greens because they aren’t actually orange) I think I just created a new
Halloween tradition for myself!</span></div>
<div class="yiv2693578079msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt;">Now for the main story. This happened yesterday. Now the story
will be in normal type and I will put my comments in parenthesis and italics.
So I suggest you read the story first, skipping the comment, to understand well
what happened. Then go back and read it with my comments. Alright here we go.</span></div>
<div class="yiv2693578079msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt;">Sunday 2 November</span></div>
<div class="yiv2693578079msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt;">It’s a normal fast Sunday as Elder Okon and I walk through
marché central to arrive at our next teaching appointment. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now Sundays in Africa are a little different
than America. Everything is just void on the streets. The shops are closed and
there isn’t that much traffic, or people for the matter. Today in the marché
there are maybe 50 people spread out on the streets. On a normal day I make
sure my camera is zipped inside my bag so it doesn’t get stolen while I walk
through the marché. But today I rationalize; my camera is safe in the outer
pocket of my bag. And as I can see there are no crowds of people. I can see
everyone. </span></div>
<div class="yiv2693578079msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt;">(Moments before entering the marche I had the idea that we
should take a taxi, but rationalized again, that we didn’t have enough money)</span></div>
<div class="yiv2693578079msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt;">Well, we keep trucking along and as we our leaving the marché
territory I feel a slight bump on my side and a tug on my bag. Just ever so
slight.</span></div>
<div class="yiv2693578079msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt;">(At this moment I was literally thinking about wanting to take a
picture of how empty the roads are to show you guys what it‘s like. That was
obviously an inspired thought from God)</span></div>
<div class="yiv2693578079msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt;">I quickly brush my hand over the pocket to check that the camera
is there, and to my surprise it is not! In that very moment I turn around to
see if it dropped and to my surprise even more, I see a 30 year old 6ft tall
African man slipping it into his back pocket. He is 10 feet away from me and we
are walking in opposite directions.</span></div>
<div class="yiv2693578079msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt;">(now pause and consider the situation, my companion is walking
in front and didn’t know what was going on, so he would be no help. As well
this man is considerably bigger and older than me. He isn’t massive but he is
definitely bigger and older. As well, I’m the foreigner in the situation. I
think, in my head the following event was purely instinct. The reaction was
literally instantaneous. When you read the story it might sound like two separate
actions, but it was more like one fluid motion. In my head I had only one
thought. If I lose that camera, I just lost a lot of memories !)</span></div>
<div class="yiv2693578079msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt;">So there goes Elder Johnson. Full on sprint after the man, not
knowing what he will do, only that he will get his camera back. Getting closer,
the man is alerted to my pursuit and starts running as well. But, it’s too late
– I’m in striking distance. Continuing the chase, I reach out and grab the
collar of his jersey, determined that he isn’t leaving. I pull him back, as I
continue my full on sprint forward, causing the jersey to rip, slighty.</span></div>
<div class="yiv2693578079msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt;">(Again pause, I have a number of choices here. The best option
is probably to just pull the camera from his pocket and let him be. That would
be the most non-combative option and it wouldn’t make me look like a bad guy.
But, what do I do? Probably the most aggressive option. Yeah Johnson, that
sounds like a good option haha !)</span></div>
<div class="yiv2693578079msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt;">I literally jump forward and instinctively wrap my left arm
around his neck. The physics behind it all causes us to get some air time! Now
on the sidewalk, I have this big black man in a head lock and I’m yelling,
«Donne-moi l’appareil ! »</span></div>
<div class="yiv2693578079msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt;">(Okay, well I’m committed now. I just started a fight with this
man. Before he probably wouldn’t have harmed me, but now a little white boy is
attacking him and he might think I’m trying to kill him! If that doesn’t give
him a reason to punch me, I don’t know what would. So I decide, there is no
going back now. If I let him go I might get hurt – so you just keep him there)</span></div>
<div class="yiv2693578079msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt;">I keep holding him in this head lock as he squirms to get free,
repeating the same demand. At this point he gets twisted around and grabs my
shirt by the abs.</span></div>
<div class="yiv2693578079msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt;">(Well I just lost that advantage on him. The first thought it
this – he might have a knife and he is going to stab you any second. Get
ready…set…okay, this is stupid! BUT MY CAMERA!)</span></div>
<div class="yiv2693578079msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt;">(that night in telling the story to the other elders, we joking
said « god was watching that fight and thought, ohh well I guess I better make
the knife in this guys pocket disappear so Elder Johnson doesn’t die » haha.)</span></div>
<div class="yiv2693578079msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt;">Afraid of being stabbed, I push him off me and demand the
camera! In the chaos of it all he had thrown it on the ground behind me. «
C’est la » is his response.</span></div>
<div class="yiv2693578079msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt;">(Telling Elder Okon about it later, he told me that the man most
likely threw it on the ground to make me look like a fool. You know, a young
kid drops his camera and over-reacts by jumping on a random black man and
choking him.)</span></div>
<div class="yiv2693578079msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt;">I quickly took my camera and walked off, making sure to keep
looking at him as I go.</span></div>
<div class="yiv2693578079msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt;">(Now, I may or may not have done the « come at me bro » gesture
in walking past him haha !!)</span></div>
<div class="yiv2693578079msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt;">Unnoticed before by me, all 50 people in the marché are now
looking at me. Cheering and congratulating me haha! The old mamas are saying
“c’est ca mon fils!” (that’s how you do it, my son) and the punk moto-taxi
drivers cheering and giving me thumbs up! I’d be lying if I said I didn’t feel
like a total boss. That night I prayed and said, “God thanks for keeping us
safe, even when we do really stupid stuff”. Well I got my camera back, and
earned some major street cred.</span></div>
<div class="yiv2693578079msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt;">(So it looked like those CQC (close Quarter Combat) practices
paid off. SO SICK! While walking away, this was my thought – maybe law
enforcement could be my career path – that was kinda fun! Haha)</span></div>
<div class="yiv2693578079msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt;">I don’t know if I’ll ever have a story more intense than that!
Hopefully that doesn’t scare you too much. Just know that I’m safe out here and
I’m extremely happy. I doubt God would let anything happen to me. I love all
you guys and can’t wait to share all those memories I saved! <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Keep safe, especially when jumping on big
people’s back haha. I love you guys, once more and wish you the best for the
second term of school!</span></div>
<div class="yiv2693578079msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt;">Ps – maybe God sent me to Africa to learn how to become a good
story teller?</span></div>
<div class="yiv2693578079msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt;"></span> </div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8FfkAjnNhrCGDiHrtKKWbe3V5bcGXnGg6Du8hfctPZ9Ao3dvz3LibouzoGo6ohIPQnkFrwWT7xI7BQQSM60EkwFQRXlG3e7_RITVT-KxGyC4EMCX3aKxy47wR-fKrv-R5clllslkEXqUG/s1600/110314+c.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8FfkAjnNhrCGDiHrtKKWbe3V5bcGXnGg6Du8hfctPZ9Ao3dvz3LibouzoGo6ohIPQnkFrwWT7xI7BQQSM60EkwFQRXlG3e7_RITVT-KxGyC4EMCX3aKxy47wR-fKrv-R5clllslkEXqUG/s1600/110314+c.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><strong>And
we came across a bunch of tires burning in a cemetery. Kinda strange.<o:p></o:p></strong></span></div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuiUdYV8Pu17BVbgXrim2gHd_ryTM_q2418AoOk0mF1L_xSs2qTZ0n2ecONjEX31CSmF70DZcZNUVuY9aiHitRFlVXbvmrfjCOxHv3b5FMXzwKN07hKLg-vVZ-P2IIjzV-BqRy8zYuj2L3/s1600/110314+b.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuiUdYV8Pu17BVbgXrim2gHd_ryTM_q2418AoOk0mF1L_xSs2qTZ0n2ecONjEX31CSmF70DZcZNUVuY9aiHitRFlVXbvmrfjCOxHv3b5FMXzwKN07hKLg-vVZ-P2IIjzV-BqRy8zYuj2L3/s1600/110314+b.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 12pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><strong>A highway we walk on sometimes.<o:p></o:p></strong></span></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdDIh8ftAgBta4hA48mH45ooicBC2De_qU2xSv-ITYIBuWvURlKysYZPaLIInjmOhCt63Cbtpy8DeE4daZtA92VN8fwK-p3CmqCvUBbW9HorFLdg8W-nd1fOQmDaZsHOXrA2-KcZh-KfwW/s1600/110314+d.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdDIh8ftAgBta4hA48mH45ooicBC2De_qU2xSv-ITYIBuWvURlKysYZPaLIInjmOhCt63Cbtpy8DeE4daZtA92VN8fwK-p3CmqCvUBbW9HorFLdg8W-nd1fOQmDaZsHOXrA2-KcZh-KfwW/s1600/110314+d.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 12pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><strong>Our
yellow-green-O-lanterns. Mine is on the left.<o:p></o:p></strong></span></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTUGPfbQyY6q7CmgfsNQVbTQyCSfDBgAYuLeAd0iiiSJaAoGr0GjvmFc7PvAwKITdtB8U84eOaUJNaPIZ2hC7jG5MagiB2INPZGrDequLa9Ppkol2SuLjbpNMzYqi6jZlxH3uuBc8LxKOR/s1600/110314+a.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTUGPfbQyY6q7CmgfsNQVbTQyCSfDBgAYuLeAd0iiiSJaAoGr0GjvmFc7PvAwKITdtB8U84eOaUJNaPIZ2hC7jG5MagiB2INPZGrDequLa9Ppkol2SuLjbpNMzYqi6jZlxH3uuBc8LxKOR/s1600/110314+a.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="yiv2693578079msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">
</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><strong>A cow in a dumpster.
Cow! Whatcha be doing?<o:p></o:p></strong></span></span></div>
<div class="yiv2693578079msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">
</span></div>
<div class="yiv2693578079msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt;"></span> </div>
<div class="yiv2693578079msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span> </div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00721862569938640306noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2227767562529313336.post-71739429250796814682014-11-19T16:18:00.002-08:002014-11-19T16:18:38.867-08:0010-27-14 Hot Porn ??<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">So that whole getting
people to do their home-teaching initiative isn’t working. Out of the three rendezvous
set this week none of them worked. Either the visitor wasn’t there or the
family canceled on us. Well we'll keep trying to help the branch but maybe
we'll need to find a new way.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I can’t really
remember any spectacular stories from this week, so I’m just going to bombard
you with a bunch of random things that happened to us. We came home one night
and the other elders had a massive rolled up poster that they were cutting up.
They told me it was a pornography poster they confiscated from a member and
they planned to burn it. (Hence the title of the email, get it - it's a pun) We
put all the pieces in a pan and drenched it with petrol. Placed it out on our
patio and then tried for 5 minutes to lite the stupid thing with terrible cheap
matches. I’m proud to say I struck the match that finally ignited it! Might not
sound like anything too fun, but we all got a good kick out of it and it helped
a member live the commandments. So, win win.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">A lot of our Amis just
aren’t coming to church, which is really sad. We are currently teaching about
30 people and 5 come to church. And they aren’t even regular! Well it was the
same this weekend during general conference. Let me just start by saying,
Conference is so cool, and it's becoming even better every time I watch it!</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Saturday was just
filled with really awesome talks. Such good counsel. I think I liked Elder
Christofferson's talk the best from Saturday. He talked about being accountable
for our choices and being in charge of ourselves. I remember him saying, God
will never force you to do something. It was fun being in a foreign branch for
conference because you can see when the members get excited and which speakers
they like. During priesthood session everyone was pretty excited and awake.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">President Uchtdorf's
talk got a lot of head nods and "yes, exactly" shouts from the crowd.
As well all the men loved President Monson's talk about the Bismark and how we
can avoid enemies that would stop our progress. I talked with one member about
it after and he said, "Monson spoke like a general - you could just feel
it. He spoke with authority!" It was good to see all the members get
excited to hear the prophet.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Another crazy thing I
noticed. Sunday morning, 3 talks back to back about following the prophet! 3!
Then in the afternoon, Elder Ballard mentioned it again! 4 talks telling us to
do what the prophet says. I think there is a message they're trying to give us.
I remember when I was in middle school all the talks were about pornography and
sexual sins. We (the missionaries) noticed that there was no pornography talks
this time around. None, not even from the sisters that spoke! That's obviously
a good thing - it means we have fixed that problem, but it looks like the new
problem is following the prophets. Elder Hatch jokingly predicted that when
President Monson dies, there is going to be a sect that splits from the church
and follows a new self-proclaimed prophet! We'll whatever the case I'll be in
the church for the 17th prophet.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">We'll instead of just
continuing to type out random stuff that doesn’t make a lot of sense I’m just
going to wish you all a great week! Man, fall break already. Enjoy yourself and
be safe. Hey, I got your post card. Thanks for the notes Maya, Mom, and Gabbie.
I loved the picture. When all the members saw it they asked "is that
you?" haha. Well I love you guys bunches! Keep working hard and enjoy
Halloween. What are the costumes? I suggest Captain America!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00721862569938640306noreply@blogger.com