Craziest Week of my Mission!

This has easily been the craziest week of my mission up to this point. And unfortunately I have a very limited amount of time to tell you about it. 

First. MLC last tuesday. This is a meeting that Zone leaders go to prepare them to train their zones on the following friday. Tuesday night we went on exchanges with spokane 2nd ward. I went there this time. That late that night we get a call from Elder Maguet saying that he just got off the phone with president and that he was called as the new Assistant to the President! I was happy for him but lets be honest. I'm also ticked at him. I was super excited to spend one more transfer with him. Ha ha oh well. He got picked up and taken to spokane valley the following morning. Since them I've been hanging out with other missionaries. That whole thing was a big surprise. The second big surprise was that I realized that with Elder Maguet gone, I would be giving the zone training by myself! This is only my second one! So that had me stressed out for a while. Next crazy thing. The missionaries I've been with decided to spend saturday working in my area. We went and visited lots of people. One of the families we visited was the smith family. Usually when we go over there the father is the only one that listens. But for some reason the whole family wanted to sit in on the lesson. The smiths have been investigating the church for a long time. In our lesson we talked about recognizing the spirit and recognizing whether or not they have received and answer as to whether this church is true or not. It was a sweet lesson. The next day I was able to go to my church because brother Lybbert (Ward Mission Leader) was my companion for the day. That was an interesting experience to be companions with an 80 year old. The Smiths came to church though. Halfway through Brother smith told me that he and his family would like to be baptized on the 24th of January. He said that that morning he had received his answer! I tried to act calm when he told me this but on the inside I was screaming YEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSS! Last crazy thing was that this sunday was transfer calls. So there were some changes in the zone with that. My new companion will be Elder Leavitt!!!!!!!!!!! I don't know if I have ever talked about him before but he is one of my favorite missionaries! He was my Zone Leader when I first came out on the mission. I am super excited about this next transfer! 

This week has been insane! But it was a really great growing experience for me.

Love you guys!

-Elder (Andre) Johnson

Miracles and a moose!

Dear Mom, you looked great! I enjoyed pointing out who you were to my investigators. I'm spoiled. I get to see my mom like 4 times as much as other missionaries!

This week was a crazy cool week!

Miracle 1:

Went to the temple this week. We get to go every two transfers. It was amazing! That day we had p-day. At about 5:30pm as we were finishing up our p-day activities we got a text from President Mullen. He was wondering what lessons we had that night. We were super surprised! This is a normal occurrence when you are serving in Spokane Valley because you live so close to President he will often come out and teach with you. But we live about 40 minutes from the Valley and we also knew that that day he had given a training over in Coeur' D Alene (not spelled right) so he was even further away. We started freaking out because while having President with you is a great learning experience, its also super intimidating. We told him the appointments that we had set up and he said that he would be there soon. It wasn't very much longer after that that we drove by the first appointment's house and all of the lights were off. We texted them and they canceled the lesson. Now we were desperately trying to set up a lesson so that we wouldn't spend all of our time with President having doors shut in our face. Fortunately one of our investigators that we have hardly got to visit this transfer answered his phone and agreed to have us over. The lesson went amazing!!!!!!!! The spirit was super strong! Jeff is the name of the guy we taught. He is so close. He has been investigating the church for a very long time. He loves the Book of Mormon and the other things we teach. We had a great lesson where we found out where he was at spiritually and determined what we needed to teach in future lessons.

Miracle 2:

Last Saturday we had a ward Christmas Party. For the last week and a half we have been inviting people to come. People actually came! We had 15 investigators show up to the Party! We were going from one table to the next saying hi to people and making sure they felt welcome. Two of the investigators that came were the couple we were originally going to teach the night that president came out with us. Their names are Sebastian and Janita. They are sweet! Sebastian grew up Catholic but left the church because he disagreed with a lot of things. He has investigated a lot of different churches but didn't feel comfortable with them. He likes the Mormon church because his aunt joined the church and he saw that it changed her life for the better. They loved the christmas party. They made lots of friends and felt the spirit. Afterwards we took them on a tour of the church. And invited them to come the next day. At the end of the tour we showed them baptismal font and invited them to be baptized. They have a date for the beginning of January! But it just keeps getting better. They loved church! Made a lot of new friends! Then they took us to the First Presidency Christmas Devotional. By the end of the night you could see that they had really opened up to the church. When they went to the Party on saturday night they looked like investigators. But by the end of Sunday night they looked like they had been members for years.

Lots of other miracles but I'm out of time. 

Love you guys! Watch "He is the Gift" if you haven't already!

-Elder (Andre) Johnson

​I know you can't really see it. Those two dots are the eyes of a huge moose that decided to lie down in the back yard last night.

Three Dinners!

Happy Thanksgiving! Next year.

We had an awesome Thanksgiving! We had three dinners! The first one was at the ward mission leader's house and guess who was there, the wml's daughter and son in law who happened to be back in the Bowdish ward! So It was pretty cool to be able to see them again. While the dinners were good, they were also tough. Our first dinner was at 1:00. The second one was at 2:15. The third was at 4:30. It was killer! By the third meal all I could manage to eat was pie. And the other cool thing is that even though it was thanksgiving we still got to teach a few lessons. One of the dinners had two nonmembers there. And we also got to visit with some of our investigators that night. 

But now even more important than Thanksgiving, Christmas! For this Christmas season the church has put together a website to promote the true meaning of Christmas and also help other people know more about our religion. The website is Christmas.mormon.org. Its sweet! I invite each of you to go to the website, watch the video, feel the spirit, then do what the video tells you to do. Discover the Gift, Embrace the Gift, and #Share the Gift. You can share it on facebook, twitter as well as give your friends the pass along cards that came with your ensign. (if you live in Utah and don't have any non-member friends then give them to your member friends who you don't think will watch it. And invite them to do the three things as well)

Miracles:

1. Sherry. The Sisters that work in the Cheney 1st ward found and started working with a lady that lives in our ward. About a week and a half ago they passed her off to us. We weren't that hopeful after we visited her for the first time. She was very drunk. We couldn't even have a normal conversation with her. We visited her several times but it was the same every time. Some how we managed to set a date with her to work towards for baptism. Finally we told her that if she wanted to be baptized she was going to have to get sober. Between us, some help from the sisters, and obviously God, Sherry stopped drinking! She hasn't drunk in about a week! Two days ago we had another lesson with her and the difference was incredible! She was a completely different person! Fortunately she still remembered that she was on date for baptism and is working toward that day!

2. He is the Gift Pass along cards. They work! They are the easiest card to give away! I know I said that about Family History cards. Everybody thinks that we could all use a little reminder about the true meaning of Christmas. Whether you like mormons or not. Our district's number of new investigators doubled since we started using the cards!

3. Last Sunday we had 8 investigators who committed to come to church. Guess how many came. Zero!(miracle?) Yes because one of the less actives we had been working with showed up for the first time in about a year. It was Sweet! 

There were lots more miracles but I can't remember them right now. 

Suggestion:

If you are ever bored. Do missionary work. If your not bored. Do missionary work. Its up there with the most important things you'll ever do on earth. Same goes for Family History work.

Love you guys!

-Elder (Andre) Johnson

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