#PREPARED!

Hey Family, Friends, and Shallow Acquaintances! 

I apologize for my short letter last week. My only explanation for this can be found in scripture. "And only a few have I written, because of my weakness in writing" - Ether 12:40. 

Well this week we have seen some awesome miracles! Yesterday we met with Patrick. Patrick was baptized when he was 12 but hasn't been active for most of his life. But recently he has really desired to get back into it. A couple months ago he got on Mormon.org and ordered a Book of Mormon and a few days later the missionaries showed up. It was the missionaries that were in this area before Elder Folu and I. Yesterday we finally got to go in and teach him a lesson! He has just been super busy because he is taking 20 credits worth of classes right now. Man he is prepared! He is one of those guys where it doesn't matter how bad you fumble through the lessons he is going to progress!

The other day elder Folu were riding our bikes around the middle of our area. We had a dinner appointment coming up pretty soon that was on one end of our area so we had a bit of a bike ride in front of us. We started heading that way but was we were crossing an intersection we saw a lady walking down a street that was out of the way of our destination. But we decided we would go make one more street contact before we headed for dinner. When we first started talking to her she wasn't very open at all. The first thing she said to us was, "No, I'm Christian" Well we started a friendly conversation about I don't know what and eventually told her that we do believe in Jesus Christ. Then she asked us what makes us different from other churches. So we briefly told her about the restoration. She really opened up to us. She told us that she had a lot of misconceptions about missionaries. She said she was really excited to learn more but she was even more excited for her son to hear from us. She said that her son had been going to church on his own since he was 12 years old and he is now 19. Recently he has been asking her a lot of questions about his salvation because he feels like the church he has been going to hasn't answered his questions. It is sweet! #PREPARED! We are meeting with her and her son tomorrow so we will see how it goes. 

Well those were 2 of the many miracles that happened this week. The field is white and ready to harvest! I have seen that a lot this week! 

Have an incredulous (I have no idea what that means) Week!

Love you!

- Elder (Andre) Johnson

Singing in Church

Yesterday in Church Elder Folu, I and another member sang "If you could hie to Kolob" in sacrament meeting. It was sweet! The room was totally silent as we were singing including all of the kids. It took me by surprise. At the end we sang accapella and it was really powerful!

Bryan and Chris are now being taught by the Young Single Adult Elders but they are doing great! They are both on date to be baptized in mid November! 

Well my brain  is not working right now so I can't think about what else to write. If you were waiting all week for me to entertain you with a long letter with lots of clever phrases and inspirational stories, which i'm sure you all were, I'm sorry but you are going to have to wait another week.

Love you guys!

-Elder (Andre) Johnson

WARNING

WARNING: If you have a week stomach I suggest grabbing a bowl.

I saw some interesting things this week. First we have the name and address of this guy written down that we have been trying to contact. This bird was chilling on his front porch.

I'll be honest I was more scared of this bird than I have been of any dog I have seen on my mission. It had huge talons and it would look right at us and make noises. 

A few days ago I was on exchanges with Elder Braman and this is what we ended up doing.

Yesterday at church was super awesome! We had two investigators there. Their names were Chris and Bryan. They loved church! I was super surprised when the hymns started they were eager to open up their books to the right number and sing even though they had never heard the songs before. Bryan commented after sacrament meeting was over that his heart felt really warm. Bryan is awesome! He has committed to quit smoking and get baptized. After Sacrament meeting we went around and met a bunch of ward members and they were very excited. Then they stayed for the rest of church and made a lot of comments in the classes. It was sweet! But then unfortunately in the middle of church Elder Folu and I suddenly remembered something that hadn't crossed our minds up to this point. Bryan and Chris are in their 20's and single. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The singles ward Elders (who happen to be the Assistants to the President) will be taking over teaching them. I really wanted to teach them! But at least I know that they are getting good Elders to teach them. 

Things are going great up here in the Bowdish ward!

Love you guys!

-Elder (Andre) Johnson