Exchange with Elder Maguet

A few days ago I had the chance to go on exchanges with my old companion Elder Maguet! It was pretty fun to walk the streets of Cheney again just like old times. We had a pretty cool experience with this couple named Damien and Brooklyn. There is a bit of a back story for them though. When I very first came to Cheney they were referred to us by the YSA Sisters here in Cheney. We talked to them several times in the parking lot of their apartment complex but they were never seemed very interested and we could never get an appointment with them. Then when Elder Leavitt got here we decided to visit them one more time before we stuck their names in the area book. We knocked on their door and surprisingly they opened it up and let us right in. We had a sweet lesson with them! I think I wrote about it before. They were put on date for baptism and things were looking good. Well we lost contact for a few days and when we saw Damien it was apparent that he had been exposed to some anti material. Well we resolved some of his concerns but we knew that Brooklyn still had some. 

Well for the next 2 to 3 months we've been stopping by here and there but they have been super hard to contact. Eventually about a week and a half ago we talked to Brooklyn. At first she said that they had talked about it and they just wanted to go to a "normal" Christian church. But by the end of the conversation she was very interested in looking more into our church. And she said she would talk to Damien about it. Well a few days ago on exchanges we stopped by and Brooklyn was the only one home. She said that she really did want to look more into our church. Then Damien got home and came up to us and said, "ya we just want to stick with a Christian church" We could see Brooklyn in the back uncomfortable because she had just barely told us that she wanted to look into our church. Ha ha I was laughing pretty hard on the inside. But we had a good talk with Damien and by the end of it I think he forgot what he said at the beginning because he said he felt really good as we were talking to him and he really wanted to come to our church. So we were pretty excited. We'll see how it goes with them! Its obvious that the Lord has been working on them for quite a while now. They have been looking for a church to go to.

We had some other cool miracles that happened this week but it takes to long to write them all. It was a crazy week to though. We had two meetings that we had to set up for which is a pretty difficult process because we have to haul tables from one church building to the other and every time we use them we have to ask someone to borrow their truck. Although on the bright side we just found out that our car will be replaced with a truck! Boo yah! We are going to go pick it up in about 30 minutes.

The week was also crazy because we did two exchanges in a row. From Thursday to Friday night I went to Spokane 2nd ward and Then from Friday Night to Saturday Night Elder Maguet came to Cheney.

Well I got to go now. I love yalls

-Elder (Andre) Johnson

This is Elder Bowring and I

This is Sprague

Severus the Salamander

Two nights ago our nightly planning session got interrupted by this little guy running through the apartment. This is Severus the Salamander is what we named him. How a Salamander got into our house I have now idea.

Well Elder Bowring and I have seen some awesome miracles this week.

1. Last Saturday we had 3 investigators invite themselves to church. Two of them we had been teaching for a while. The other was a guy we met on the street. With each of the we simply taught about how Jesus Christ can help them. We read 3 Ne 27:16 and testified about how God can help them. When they really understood it and believed it they didn't need an invitation to church they just asked where the church was and what time it was at. Obviously the three different contacts didn't go exactly the same but they all had that desire to go to church.

2. Westfall Family. The Westfalls own the only Motel in sprague. Heres a picture of it.

They're an awesome family that has been meeting with the missionaries on and off since last summer. The family is a Mom and Dad and a Teenage Daughter. For most of the time I have served in Sprague they weren't really progressing very well. But last week we went over with Bro Thompson (recent convert) and had a great lesson. We resolved a few of the concerns they had. Then we committed them to read Helaman 5:12 before we came back in 2 days. Previous to this we had invited them to read the Book of Mormon everyday but they had never done it. Well when we showed up 2 days later they were very excited to tell us that they had read the verse and 16 more! Then we had a great lesson and now Brother Westfall and the Daughter are on date for baptism! Sister Westfall is getting there she just has a few more concerns. They all came to church up in Cheney this week and they made lots of friends.

Awesome Miracles.

Love you people!

-Elder (Andre) Johnson

Sad, happy, sad

I have like 2 minutes to write this.

Sad: Elder Leavitt is on the airplane home back to southern Nevada right now. Happy: he went out with a bang. Us, Brother Thompson (recent convert), and Jeff Smith (investigator) sang "Ye Elders of Israel" in Sacrament Meeting. Then Elder Leavitt bore his testimony.

Happy: Transfer calls were last night. I am staying in Cheney 2nd ward! My new companion is named Elder Bowring. He's been out 6 months. I will be senior companion! Thats new for me. I'm pretty excited.

Sad: I don't know if I told you last time or not but the Smiths moved. Not to far but they are on the other side of Cheney which means they will be in Cheney 1st ward, which means that I will no longer be teaching them. It stinks but at the same time it will be ok. The Smiths are determined to quit smoking and be baptized. 

Happy: I love you!

-Elder (Andre) Johnson

Bye Elder Leavitt :(

We saw some cool miracles yesterday. Rick and his daughter came to church. We had a lesson in Gospel Principles about tithing and fast offerings and he asked us if he was allowed to pay tithing before he was baptized. He was really excited about it. He also participated in Elder's Quorum a lot. This was great progress for Rick because he hardly had any Christian background growing up so its hard for him to participate because he doesn't understand a lot of the things we talk about at church. It was awesome to see the way that he soaked up everything he could yesterday. It was also really cool to see the way that he interacted with members. He looks like he's been going to church for years.

We were disappointed that Sebastian and Janita didn't come to church. Later that night we went by to find out why. Sebastian told us that he and Janita had a lot of stuff they had to do in Spokane that day and they also spent some family time at the mall. But then he told us that they still wanted to go to church so they looked up the locations on their phone and went to church out in Spokane. It was sweet! I mean I still want them to come to our ward but the fact that they made church a big enough priority to go to a different church even though it was inconvenient was pretty exciting.

Elder Leavitt is going home in 1 week. Its really weird. Last Thursday we had our weekly planning session. They way we do it is we write down our schedule for every half hour for the week on our whiteboard. After we were done Elder Leavitt looked up at it and said, "My entire mission is on that whiteboard" AHHHHHHH. Missions go by way too fast!

Transfers are coming up in a week. I probably won't leave but you never know. I sure hope I don't. We found out that we only have 3 new missionaries coming into the mission and about 30 that are going home. So basically this transfer a whole bunch of areas will be combined. It will be interesting to see what happens.

That's whats goin on in Cheney.

Love Ya!

-Elder (Andre) Johnson

District Destruction

My District is getting destroyed. Sister Frye (center of sisters) isn't in my district but she was last transfer. She is going home because of medical reasons. Sister Crowell (furthest to the left) and Sister Nemrow (Furthest sister to the right) got their visas to their original missions and are going to Taiwan tomorrow. Sister Pope (second sister from right) is finishing her mission at the end of this transfer. And Elder Leavitt is also going home at the end of this transfer which leaves only Sister Jenkins and I. And because we only have 3 missionaries coming into the mission this transfer we are predicting that Cheney 1st will be combined with the YSA. We'll see. I'm gonna miss my district. Its been fun. 

Oh yeah and this picture is a really good description of Mine and Elder Leavitt's companionship.

 

Well the Smiths are diligently working on quitting smoking again. They could really use prayers. Sebastian and Janita are planning on being married this friday and baptized on Saturday. 

Rick will be baptized very soon but we aren't sure on the date yet. 

There are several other Part Member families in the ward that we are focusing on and we feel will be baptized within the next few months.

This is a picture of Sprague Church. Are you allowed to take pictures at church? I don't know. Sprague Church happens every other week. Its in the Sprague Community Hall. There is a super cool spirit at Sprague church. Almost everyone there was either baptized or returned to activity in the past few years. Yesterday we got to see Brother Marquis receive the Aaronic priesthood. It was awesome! Especially because Brother Lee was the one that did the ordination. Brother Lee returned to activity last summer and just recently received the Melchizedek priesthood.

Service seems to work pretty well in Sprague. Last summer the ward took on a huge project. A former pastor owned an old building that fell down so the ward members went out everyday for two months and helped him clean it up. Now that former pastor holds the Melchizedek priesthood. His name is Brother Thompson. Well brother Thompson introduced us to a man named Bob. He was recovering from open heart surgery that he had a few months back. He was living in this super old house that was very ugly. Before his heart problems he had purchased new siding to put on his house but now was unable to put it up. So the ward has been taking a few hours every Saturday to go out and put siding on his house. I'll send a picture once I get one. Bob has been much more receptive to our teaching ever since we started the project. 

Well that is some of the cool stuff happening up here in Eastern Washington.

Love ya!

-Elder (Andre) Johnson

Holy Moley 1 more thing! Our district does a "game night" every Saturday night that we can bring investigators and members to. One of the YSA members found out that I went to PG highschool so she was asking if I knew this person or that person. Then she asked if I knew Marci Johnson... Uh ya thats my sister. She was like no way I played on her soccer team! She plays on the EWU soccer team now. Crazy connections.

bye

No soliciting or Missionaries

This past Sunday was an adventure. We pulled into the parking lot at the church an hour and a half before Sacrament meeting for our usual meeting to see that there were only 3 cars in the parking lot where usually there is a ward worth of cars parked out there. We walked inside to see that the church was dark and there were only a few people in the building. That morning someone had run over a transformer box and made the power go out in half of Cheney. So we had church in the dark. It was sweet! We had a member bring some flood lights then they set up lanterns all around the chapel. There was no microphone so the speakers just spoke really loud. The spirit was super strong though!The Smiths came to church! They've really struggled the last month to get to church but to our pleasant surprise they showed up!!!!!!!!!!!

Rick is doing great and should be baptized in the next 2 weeks! Sebastian and Janita need prayers. They have the desire to be baptized but in order to do so they are going to have to make some sacrifices.

Some people love us so much that they put signs on their door about us.

Nuff Said.

We went to the temple this morning. It was da best!

Love Ya!

-Elder (Andre) Johnson

Epic

Howdy!

Sprague is still Sprague

 I'm an epic Missionary. Boo yah!

Sebastian and Janita taught part of Gospel Principles class this week! They were freaked out but they did awesome! They are scheduled to be married later this month and be baptized the next day! The ward is going to be helping out with the Marriage ceremony. "Weddings I love weddings... Potential investigators all around!"

Love you!

-Elder (Andre) Johnson