May 7, 2012

Me and Elder Minquiz had a rough go this week. We didn't have any investigators at church this week. The family Montanyas had their interview this past week but it did not go to great. They are living the commandments but are now starting to express some doubts. The dad is a member of the Jehovah's witness and I think he is getting some flak from them. The son said he is not sure if it is right to leave his catholic faith. I said to him ¨but you don't even go to the catholic church and you said the times you went you didn't like it.¨ He still said he wasn't sure if he wanted to be baptized. Because of that my new goal is try and get the gift of discernment to try and resolve concerns. Resolving concerns can be pretty complex, Preach My Gospel describes it as a iceberg we only see part of it above water, they may have deeper concerns that we cant see. I hope we can fix what ever problem they have but its not looking to good. We have a new investigator named Alberto, he is 60 and use to live in San Diego for most of his life but got deported. He use to be a stained window glass maker but is out of work. We taught about the restoration and the gospel. This past week we taught him the word of wisdom. I was a bit worried about teaching that to him. The man smokes like a chimney. What makes us worried is that he also revealed that he has problems with coffee, alcohol, drugs, tea and tobacco. Right now our goal is to try and get one thing down at a time. He smokes 3 packs a day so we are trying to get him down to 1 and half. We want to slowly dwindle it down. He really wants to start changing though so I have high hopes. The only thing I think that would stop him is his wife. When we tried to visit him once she came out side and told us he wasn't home, 2 seconds later he walks out. She had a hard time looking us in the eye after that. We also have found a new investigator who is a seventh day Adventist, unlike most investigators he is familiar with gospel terms, at the end of our first lesson we tried to invite him to be baptized but he said he didn't need to because he had been baptised already in his church (this was after we explained priesthood authority). As a missionary you need to be careful not to get frustrated with people. I feel like I see everything clearly and its sad to me when people don't progress because of their spiritual blindness by things of the world. Church members really do have more of a eternal perspective while most people i teach have a ¨¨here in the now¨perspective, I feel that sometimes as missionaries our job is to try and stretch peoples minds more and get a new perspective. 
This week our new plan is to try and get more investigators by working through members. We have tried contacting and we are just not having the success needed. But I know that this week will be awesome. I just need to focus on the work.
Love Elder Micah Johnson

last two weeks

April 23, 2012

This last sunday I had to give a talk in Sacarement meeting. It definitly was not one of my better ones. Me and Elder Minquiz found out about it when we got home at night. We were both pretty tired, entonces I did not do as great of a job as I should have. I rushed through and sat down. I realized right after that the microphone wasnt on so not many people heard what I said. oops. Elder Minquiz gave a great talk and they fixed the mike. More importantly though we had the same family in church the Monsalvos. They are probably going to be baptized this week. The only thing that worries me is that at our last lesson, thier son said that this saturday was too soon and wanted to push it back. When we asked why he said he felt bad about leaving the Catholic church. Honestly that confuses me a little. He hasnt gone to Catholic church in years and says he doesnt like the church service much. So I wonder if that is the real reason.

We have a new investigator named Gallerno. He used to live in the United States but was then incarerated and afterwards deported here. He was put in prison for stealing cars. Here in TJ you find a lot of people like him. Ex-convicts who have turned there lives around and want to come closer to God. He is making good progress.

We are teaching another family too but they are not making good progress, when we taught them the law of chasity the son said ¨but our teacher says in school that those things (adultery and fornication) are natural and not bad.¨ I was a bit flabergasted by that. ¨they really teach you that¨ I was just thinking about how if that happened in Utah parents would be extremly upset and how differently they think here.

We got to do a little service this week. We went to go teach a guy we street contacted and we got to help lay some bricks. We helped him lay a row of cement and bricks. It was a lot of fun and we got to teach him some gospel principles.

I learned a bit more of Elder Minquiz background, his parents seperated when he was 16 so during his high school years he lived with his brothers. He was also converted to the gospel when he was 16, his mom did not approve of it but his dad gave the okay. He doesnt get any emails from his mom or dad just his brothers, one of which is in military school now. With all he has been through he has come out with a strong testimony of the gospel.

I found out Elder Guzman(elder Mayo companion) is from Kennwick Washington. He says there are a lot of spanish speakers there so Blake may get a chance to use his spanish skills.
Love- Elder Micah Johnson

April 30,2012

This week has been a little tough for getting teaching opportunities and the ones we have had are people who are not completley interested or didnt believe the things we taught. We didnt have any investigators at church this week either. But its always important in the mission never to loose hope, some where out there is somebody waiting and looking for the gospel.
One of the things we are trying to improve on is comunication with the leaders de la rama. Most of them work in the United States and usually only come back on weekends. So its been difficult to get a hold of them.
This week we were teaching a family who were recent converts about the importance of doing family genealogy work. When ever this happens I always like to pull out the pedigree chart of our family and show it to them. They thought it was pretty neat and that they wanted to get started on doing genealogy work for their family.
This week we have been showing a lot of DVDS to people, specifically the Joseph Smith story and the Testaments. Both are great. This past week I have been trying to focus more on testifying in lessons, I felt I had become sort of a robot in lessons, when that happens most likely your investigators will feel the same way. That your just regurgitating what you have told others 1000 times. its important to teach for them and not just teach for a number. It can be easy to loose sight of that. One thing that kind of sadens me is how seeing the poverty here doesnt suprise me any more. Some of the conditions people live in are completley horrible, we taught a family of 4 who lived in a cinder block building about the size of my old bedroom. I asked one of the ward members who works at a Mcdonalds how much she makes, she only gets 12 pesos a hour. thats about 1 dollar some days its less. Even with the poverty some people are in, they are still a happy and spiritual bunch.
Sorry I dont have much to report on for this week, I will write a bit more next week.
Love Elder Micah Johnson
Dad-That experience has taught me to be a bit more preparred with talks, I am definitly going to carry some talks with me just in case. Im looking forward to calling home too :) Elder Minquiz said we can choose either the 10th or the 13th. He is planning on the 13th so I will plan for the same time. The plan is to use a computer of one of the members that has a skype account. So get skype soon!  

Mom- Thank you for your words, I had been feeling a little less confident in my abilities, but Your words reminded me that the lord is here to help me I can always have him for support. I really like the part were you said walk with some swagger in your step. I can see myself with some swagger "yeah I'm a missionary for the lord...whats up? hahaha thanks.

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4/9

I forgot to mention last week that we would be having cambios (transfers) this week. I have left  to a new area leaving Elder Alvarez back in Los Pinos. He will always be one of my favorite companions. I feel kind of sad leaving, I really like all the ward members. It is a great ward. With Elder Alvarez we only had the family Gutierez to teach but they are making progress. They showed up late to church this Sunday, but they came- which was awesome. The past week they invited us over for tacos which were really good. There was a lot of food. One thing I should probably mention is that they live in a area called Terrazas de la presa its probably the richest area of our sector, few missionaries actually get investigators there. The father Javier, makes his living by buying cars in the US and selling them here in TJ. He also buys houses and fixes them up and sells them. Flip man. We started teaching them about the palabra de sabiduria (word of wisdom) and when we finished we felt we should talk about the law of chastity. That's when we found out a problem. They have 4 kids and are not married. 
It was kind of surprising to me to hear that. They have plenty of money and the proper paper work for a wedding. Usually the reason people don't get married is because its too expensive for them. The mom said she wants to get married and Javier said so also but he sounded less sure. 
We have doing a lot of contacting, when you do that you start to notice that a lot of peoples answers sound a lot alike. A lot of them say that as long as you know Jesus Christ is your saviour it didn't matter what church you go to. When that happens I think of in the New Testament when Jesus Christ cast out demons from people, when he did the evil spirits would cry out asking to be left alone "for we know that thou art the Christ" The lesson I learn from that (with the help of Jesus the Christ By James talmage) is that just saying or even believing that Jesus is our saviour wont save you. Elder Mayo just told me of the scripture that tells about this in James Chapter 2 verse 19. We believe in Christ but so do the demons. This knowledge didn't change their evil ways. We must take action for our salvation. 
Sorry back to the transfers. I am now with Elder Minquiez in Florido. We were in a chapel with a bunch of other Elders waiting for the president to announce were we were going and who with, I was pretty nervous but I wanted to leap for joy when the president said my name with Elder Minquiez. I am really excited to be with him. He was with Elder Mayo in my district with my first 6 weeks. He is very funny and relaxed. I am also in the same district with Elder Mayo again so that's good. There are not many members in our area so we just have a branch and we don't have a chapel. I think we meet in a ware house. We are trying to focus are efforts on bringing more youth to the ward. 
My new apartment is the best. Its really big and clean. We have a washing machine so now I wont have to haul my clothes and pay to clean them. Its great. 
Love Elder Micah Johnson
I'm happy to hear Blake got his mission call, tell him congrats from me. You never know, maybe his Spanish will help in that mission.

the last few weeks!

last week-

This week we had another baptism and confirmation. Tereza, she had been having problems with alcohol and coffee but this week she was ready for baptism. She actually needed two people to help baptize her, she is kind of big and has problems with her spine. So me and another ward member helped in the baptismal service.

I made a new language plan, I'm trying to memorize 5 words a day, one scripture, read a page in the book of Mormon in Spanish and write a paragraph of what happened in Spanish. I'm trying to do these things to better master the language.

I got a bit frustrated with Elder Llaguno. Yesterday we ran into 2 sister members outside are apartment. they both close to our age. I kept trying to say things like "oh well we need to go.." "we need to make plan for tomorrow bye" but he kept talking to them. They asked for some water so I went a got them two glasses of water. One of them said she had two go to the bathroom. Elder Llaguno looked at me as if he were unsure and I just said "NO, sorry" Even though she didn't ask i made it clear she could not come into our house. Finally they both left. But today I got mad again when we were going to write our families he didn't have any money. He wanted to go to female members house to ask if we can use her computer. I had to remind him that the rules say we cant use members computers and say I would pay for it. Those things just make me mad because he knows the rules. He is ending his mission in 4 months but is disregarding the rules. He should be setting the example.

This week we are going to look for more investigators we are really out of people to teach.

 

Love Elder Micah Johnson

 

this week-

Well...I have some bad news. Elder Llaguno has decided to go home. I will try to explain what happen.

You remember those two girls from last week? Well when Tuesday came around while we were studying my companion told me that he wanted some cookies so we stopped by a small store but he lied to me and instead decided to use their telephone booth. We have a cell phone so their is really no point in using another persons phone unless you want to do something your not suppose to do. We went back to the house and I was feeling mad that he had lied to me like that. When we were done he said that we had reimbursements and wanted to get his money. So we went to the ATM at the market and guess who happened to be there? The girls. They were talking fast and I had no Idea what they were saying. They were talking about a person they knew who was a member in our sector so i thought we were going to visit them so we got in the car. It turns out we were going to the Macroplaza for food. Its against the rules to leave your sector with out permission of the leaders. I finally put it together that he had planned this and was feeling worse and worse by the second. We got to the Macro plaza and I was feeling just horrible. They wanted to go eat Pizza but they needed to go get money so Elder Llaguno said we would meet them there but on the way there I told him I didn't feel good about being there and before I knew it my voice was getting raised and I was yelling that so we ended up ditching them which made me happy but this really made Llaguno mad. He started walking really fast trying to make it difficult for me to catch up and all the while talking about how if I wanted to obey the rules I needed to be at his side at all the times. Later we got a call from the zone leaders and we explained what happened. One thing I am thankful for is that Elder Wilkinson wanted to get my side of the story so I got to tell him. The next day when we had district study I went and explained to the zone leaders what happened. The next day we had interviews with the president. I just told him what happened. Llaguno told him he wanted to go home. He managed to persuade him not too but yesterday after having a hard day with rain he decided to go home. Part of the reason he wanted to go home I believe is that his family is inactive and are encouraging him to come home. Also after our two baptisms we don't have many people to teach. The Other part is that we have been having communication problems due to my struggles with Spanish and he had little patience .When I learned he wanted to go home I felt some pain in my soul, I wish he would have changed his mind. Even though he was unkind I know he is going to regret this for the rest of his life or if not now in the after life. When I was driving home with my new companion I was feeling pretty down but as soon as we got home I already felt 10 times better with him. While I feel sad this has happened this has just strengthened my resolve to study Spanish and to complete my mission with honor. I will not loose sight of why I am here. I still remember something dad said in a old email and I have decided to make this my theme: Give me this mountain.

Love Elder Johnson

2/20/2012

This week we have been doing a lot of walking and visiting members. Some interesting things have come up in are lessons though.

As I said earlier we have been doing some tracting, people here react a lot differently then what I expected. In the US if a person is not interested in hearing your message they will say it. For some reason that is still strange to me, some people will just lie, por ejemplo we were trying to visit a person we had given a lesson to before but had not seemed too interested. We came back and her husband was there and told us that he was there by himself waiting for a telephone call. Right after that his son came out of his room and came to the door to say hello. He got really stiff and nervous like we had just caught him doing something really bad. I don't understand, maybe there conscience gets pricked or something.
A excellent experience we had was with Ana Marie. We decided to teach her about temples and doing work for dead family members, this is normally a lesson that the ward missionaries teach. But we felt impressed to teach it. This was also my first time teaching this principle. First we asked if she had been reading and praying about the Book of Mormon and about Joseph Smith. She said yes and we asked if she had received an answer. She told us of how she felt a lot more calm and peace in her life since she has started to do these things and said that she took this to be a YES!. It was amazing feeling knowing that an investigator has demonstrated the faith and received an answer. Whats also amazing is that she started to express how she wanted to quit drinking coffee, this is even before we had taught her the Word of Wisdom. The lesson just got better from there. I was teaching her about how important it is to do family history work when I felt something tell that I should testify of the blessings my family has received from doing family history work. After I said that though I thought to myself "why did I say that?" After our lesson she said that when I testified she felt that doing family history work is important and is going to the classes to learn about how to start. Best lesson ever.

We also have a new investigator who came to church named Brenda her husband is a less active member and she asked and we gave her a blessing. She has a lot of questions so I look forward to teaching her again.

Love Elder Micah Johnson

Dad- Tell the Southwick's congrats! Keep giving me updates on them. I wont be able to see there fare wells but I will be there for there homecomings. Yo memrizo cuando Jose smith tiene vision con Dios y jesucristo. verses 16 and 17. sorry I don't know how to do the accent marks on this computer.

Grandma and Grandpa-thanks for your email! Sounds like snow was in short supply this year. People complain that its cold here but it feels pretty warm to me. Jazz need to rev up there game it sound like. I think about you guys too and am grateful for the emails

Thank you for all the prays and support everybody

Last Sunday we had a interesting experience. At church its really common for people to just come into the church walking off the street, this one guy we met named Israel just decided to come over and he had never even met the missionaries before. We sat with him and talked for a bit. His family had been taking lessons from the Jehovah Witnesses but he said he did not like their views about God and their other religious practices. We went and taught their family about the restoration. They were all listening very well. When talking about the great apostasy I talked about how they had in their house 3 different bibles with different wording and told of how people started to interpret it differently. We had to close pretty fast though because...Jehovah witness came and had an appointment with them. We invited them to read and pray about the book of Mormon. We scheduled a lesson for next Saturday and left. When they showed up though they did not look pleased to see us. oh well. We will see what happens. But I have high hopes for them.

Elder Mayo and his companion also baptized this week which was cool to see.

This week we have also received excellent references of people that want to be baptized. One named Kathy who is the daughter of a former bishop who is now inactive really wants to get baptized so we are going to have a lesson with her later.

A key indicator we have is lessons with members. For the most part having a member there can make the lesson 10 times better. But I learned this week that we need to be very careful in who you invite. One of our investigator is named Anna Maria, we brought her next door neighbor who was a member but she started going off on how other churches were bad and evil. She also kept cutting us off and binging up topics that we did not want to get into. I have to admit during the whole time I wanted to tell her to be quiet. Luckily by the end she had become silent and we were able to testify with the spirit.

Are other investigator Elvieta did not feel good enough to come to church, la gripe, the flu. I hope next week she feels better and will come to church.

Love Elder Johnson

This maybe a bit random but I find it interesting how when I tell some people I'm from Utah they say"oh so Mexico" I say "no Uta- ah yes Mexico". This Friday is a zone conference so I expect some letters then. Yeah I have gotten better with conjugating. Right now I just get frustrated with the boot verbs or the irregular. Tell me in the next email the Southwicks mission calls, okay? 

Lydia-we teach so many people that I am having trouble keeping track, my companion is really nice. He is very caring and is very cool. I love you too.

Me and Elder Guevara are keeping our apartment a lot cleaner now. It easier and helps us do the things we need to do. I feel better with the language, but I have some days were I am doing really good and other days were I don't do to good. With some people its easy for me to talk with them and understand them. If its somebody new I usually have problems. But I am always getting better each day. We mostly have done service by helping people move from different houses and little random acts of service by helping people who get their cars stuck. I'm very happy here

This week has been what I would call the Refiners Fire. Me and Elder Guevara feel like we got slapped. But in a good sort of "wake up!" sort of way. First the AP came, Elder Smith and Morales. It was a big surprise for me and my companion. They took a quick look around are apartment and chastised us about how the place was a mess and the spirit wasn't here. We went around for the next hour directing about what needed to be clean and where things needed to be. I´ll be honest 95% of the stuff around the house belonged to Elder Guevara but I could have helped clean up a lot more before by putting his stuff away. The APs also told me that I should help to organize his stuff and that I need to get a part in my hair. That specifically is not a rule the president requires but the old president did. But because they are my APs I'm going to start doing it. This has proven to be more difficult, my hair does not like to do the things I want :) but I will keep trying.

The next day we had an area conference with the president we did some practices, but the defining moment was when he showed us a graph of how our key indicators were all going down especially baptism for the past 6 months. Our district only baptized one and that was the Zone Leaders. We have received a new key indicator, contacts, we need to contact 15 people daily. Hopefully this will help

We also had exchanges that day. I was with the leader of our zone, Elder Wilkinson in my area. He came in our house too and was a bit annoyed at how messy the stuff was. He gave me some tips on how to learn the language better. Later that night I woke up to him talking in his sleep...in Spanish. cool.But what he told me I think he is a little crazy with the Spanish, he said he use to wake up at 4 to practice and study Spanish. So he only got 5 1/2 hours of sleep. When the president found out he quickly put a stop to that.
That same night however we had to go with the president to the hospital. He was surprised to see me, and I think he wished that Elder Guevara was there. Guevara was in the offices as a secretary so they are pretty close. Anyway the reason we went to the hospital was because his daughter had a weird growing lump which might be cancer, that's what it sounds like I could be wrong, they didn't explain it well. But I got to help out in giving her a priesthood blessing with the president and Elder Wilkinson which was very powerful, the spirit filled the room.

The next day we cleaned out our house and now it looks spotless. Me and Elder Guevara have a goal now to keep it clean. He is worried a lot lately about the lack of results and is now putting forth more effort to obey all the rules for which I am extremely grateful for.

This week none of are investigators came to church, this surprised me since the day before we had taught Yohida, Cindy and Guadalupe (family of 3) about the importance of attending church and did it with powerful testimony. Free agency.

Now with the new month approaching me and Elder Guevara have become regenerated and ready to get those baptisms.