2 Miracles

Don't have time to say something clever.

Miracle 1

We went on exchanges this week. Elder Maguet left me here with Elder Horn (one of the Russian Elders). This meant that it was going to be a test of how well I knew the area. As we left that morning there were a few names that we had planned to visit that I had no idea where they lived. So we just skipped those names. One of them wasa girl named Charlie that I had never met. As we walked to Corey's (hopefully soon to be investigator) house I noticed that someone was walking about 10 feet behind us. I stopped turned around and brought up family history with her. After talking for a bit she told us that she had talked to missionaries before. I asked her her name and she said charlie. WHAT! THE CHURCH IS TRUE! We had a great lesson out on the street with her. 

Miracle 2

Last week we had a lesson with a Less active couple named the Gibsons. As we walked out the door we saw that the YSA Sisters were right there talking to a lady they saw out on the sidewalk. They knew that she would be under our jurisdiction so they introduced her to us. Turns out she lived in the basement of the Gibson's house. We invited her to church. She said she would love to come but she didn't have a ride. No problem we said! We went back up and knocked on the Gibsons door and asked if they could give her a ride to church. Both the investigator and the less active showed up on sunday. It was sweet!

There were many other miracles but I don't have time to write about them. 

Love Y'all

-Elder (Andre) Johnson

It has been too long my friends!

It has been too long my friends! In fact it has been so long that I don't remember what I said last time. So I may end up telling you things I have already said before.

I am in Cheney Washington. It is a little college town about 30 minutes West of Spokane. It is home to Eastern Washington University. Its awesome! I love this little town. It is super pretty out here. I know I said that about my old areas but this one is much more pretty. Its got that small town feel. On the edge of the town there are very active railroad tracks so we have to stop and wait for trains all the time. Just outside of the town there are lots of rolling hills and pine trees. 2nd reason why Cheney is awesome: there are lots of people walking around even when the weather is cold (which it very much has been). Its sweet! Its really easy to street contact. Plus its a small town so you see people that you know all the time and its a great way to build relationships with them and follow up with them on their commitments. 3rd reason why Cheney is awesome. Almost everyone here has a Book of Mormon! I have no idea how or why but it is sick! About half the people that have one have read a least a little of it. Its really easy to start teaching about why it is so important and why they need to read it. 4th reason. The ward is awesome. Family History is key in the ward mission plan out here which is how it should be. I didn't know that family history was so important in missionary work until fairly recently. Now I don't know how I did so much of my mission without it. It is our number one way of contacting people on the streets and getting return appointments. It is also one of the first things that we commit progressing investigators to do because it sets the expectation that baptism is just a step in the ultimate goal of getting to the temple. Once investigators become recent converts they get to be the heros for their family by baptizing their ancestors.

This week was intense. For lots of reasons. I taught more lessons this week than any other week on my mission! And it was freezing cold all week and we spent hours outside walking in it. 

But now for the story of my first District Meeting as a district leader. Several days before Wednesday (the day of D-meeting) I began putting together a plan for what we would train on. Wednesday morning at about 8:30 (personal study time) I was putting the finishing touches on my training, when we got a text from the Assistants to the President that all district leaders needed to be infromed that today in district meeting they needed to have a church tour with a real investigator or less-active member.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHA! My district meeting was in 2 hours. So I started calling people like crazy. By the way the my companion was feeling pretty sick that morning so he wasn't much help to me. Which was a problem because I'm so new to the area so I don't know a lot of the people in our teaching pool yet. Well after 30 minutes of no one answering we called a lady named Cindy and asked if she could help us out with a training we had to do for other missionaries and she said she would be willing. Fast forward to 10:45. I had just told the missionaries in my district that we were going to practice church tours by doing one with a real investigator that will be here any minute. We got a call from Cindy that she and her son had arrived at the church building but they had a flat tire. So we changed plans again and went out and fixed her tire. Then we came inside and did the church tour. It went super well though! They are both on date for baptism! It was a crazy first district meeting.

Missionary work is the best. You should all be really jealous. 

Love you!

-Elder (Andre) Johnson

No time!

I don't have time to write my weekly email. Cheney is sweet, if you are wondering. My companion is AWESOME. It is super pretty here. It is a little college town west of Spokane. 

Love you!

-Elder (Andre) Johnson

Transfers!

What is this a picture of you ask? This is a picture of one of my favorite families here in the Bowdish ward. 

Why are you taking pictures with one of your favorite families you ask?

Because I'm leaving! 

Transfer Calls this time were crazy!

First of all Elder Folu was the Zone leader so he got to find out my fate Saturday night but I didn't get to find out till Last night. Working on Sunday with him was super hard because he kept teasing me by saying stuff like oh don't worry you don't need to write that down... or do you?

Anyway Elder Folu and I are both leaving. Elder Folu is just going to the ward right next to us so he can be with his zone leader companion.

I will be going to the Cheney 2nd ward and be the new zone leader in the West Spokane zone as well as a district leader! I will be with Elder Maguet. AHHHHHHHHHHHHH! I haven't held any sort of leadership position so far in my mission I've just been good old Junior Companion so it will be an adventure. 

I have heard that Elder Maguet is a super hard worker so I'm really excited! I'm going to miss Elder Folu though. He is a great missionary and just really nice guy. We had tons of fun singing to people and playing the Ukelele. 

Random: I've met a ton of people recently who have either lived in Lindon in some part of their life or close to Lindon: Close Random

Well I can't think of anything else to write. Love you guys!

Halloween was sweet! I trick or treated more than I ever had before!.... not

Bye

-Elder (Andre) Johnson

#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