Jesús!

This week was a fantastic week! And that is because we had a baptism! His name is Jesús Regules. I will put up some pictures so y'all can see him and his mom. His mom is going to get baptized the 19th when she gets back from her trip to west virginia. But Jesús decided to go ahead and do it without his mom! That actually took us by surprise. We have taught them both every time. But our focus had always been on Magdalena, and in Spanish. He can understand Spanish fairly well, but not when it comes to gospel terms. We tried hard to explain things in English as well. But he never really participated a whole lot in what we did. And at first he never read in the Book of Mormon. Then all of the sudden he was reading and he was praying. And he said he felt good. He either always says I feel normal or good. So when he had an experience and he said afterwards he felt better, it was awesome! He is a great guy and we were so happy to see him get baptized. I had the opportunity to confirm him in church yesterday, and it went super well. Especially since it was in English haha. But afterwards he told us that he felt like he could understand things better. I know that that is true! That is the holy ghost, and I testify that we all have that gift with the Holy Ghost.

Last Friday we had the most amazing activity! It was our noche hispana, and we had everyone bring food and decorations for their country. So we had the best food ever! But even better than that was that we had about 30 non-members at the activity! That was huge! Sadly I did not get too many pictures of it, but it was amazing! Hopefully soon we will get up with several of those that came to the activity. Andrés and Mike and their family were able to come to the activity as well. They seemed super happy to be there as well. That was a huge step for them. The parents expressed that they will be coming to church soon as well, and that they aren't just about the activities. That is huge, because the kids have not come, because they want to go with their dad to his church. We are very excited for them.

Well other than that, the main thing that is happening is that we are coming up on transfers on the 8th. It is highly likely that Elder Sullivan will get transferred. If so, he would be missing three baptisms that we have worked hard on with Magdalena, Gricelda, and Mia, who will all be baptized fairly soon. He's worked hard here and we are sad about the possibility of him leaving. Next week I'll let y'all know.

Thank you all so much for your prayers and your support. I know that the power of prayer and fasting is real. I know that the priesthood is real. I know that through the power of the atonement we can do all things. I love you all so much! Have an amazing week!

Elder Johnson

Me, Hno Regules, Jesús, Abril, Magdalena, Elder Sullivan

I promise Jesús and his uncle were excited for the baptism

 

 

 

Hno Regules, Jesús, Gonzalo, Elder Muñoz

Gonzalo was the other Spanish elder's convert. His baptism was one of the most spiritual experiences ever. Truly a changed person. Elder Muñoz was blessed to be able to come back to Cary to baptize him. 

 

What a crazy week

This last week was one of the most frantic weeks we have had! We have been running around going crazy trying to save the baptisms that we had planned for the 28th. Of the four of them, only one will be getting baptized as far as it looks right now. That is Jesús Regulez. Which, of all of them was the least likely haha. But basically what he told us was, "Why wait?" So now we are just hoping that his mom Magdalena decides to follow him, and do it the same day as him when he has his interview.

Although our goal for baptism for the 28th won't be reached, we definitely have investigators who are prepared to take that step. Our focus now is to help them fight the temptations that Satan throws at them, and the trials of their faith. We are super concerned for them all and that they recognize the spirit through all the confusion. Gricelda and Mia definitely need that spirit through the difficult decisions of divorce. Soon though, they will all be baptized.

Other than those four we also had a great week. We have a new investigator named Erica who is living with a returning less active. She is super interested. Baptism is definitely in their future, yet we are letting them make the decision right now to either live in separate places or get married before we can actually decide a specific date to do it. Travis barely knows any spanish, and Erica barely knows English, but somehow they met and care a lot about each other. We are very excited for them.

One of my favorite studies this week was in Mormon 9. I love this chapter! God is a god of miracles! I believe that in verses 27-29 it describes the gospel so well. It doesn't necessarily say faith, repentance, baptism, and the holy ghost. But as you doubt not, and be believing, you exercise your faith. You come to the lord with all your heart to work out your salvation through repentance. And the key word is work. We must act. We are not saved without works. And then be worthy and be baptized. And if we continue to be worthy and take the sacrament, then "ye will in nowise be cast out." The way has been spelt out for us. It gives me so much comfort to read the scriptures and see what I teach every day. It gives me a new "friend" as elder Scott describes.

I love you all so much! Find friends in the scriptures! You all amaze me so much with your fidelity to what you know is true, in such an astoundingly corrupt world. I hope you all have an amazing week!

Elder Johnson

Weekly Letter

Well I honestly do not know how to describe this week. It was quite the crazy week and stuffed with things to do. Even if the day before we had no plans set out for the next day. We were running all over the place this week.

Well the highlights of this week I would have to say was that we have a really firm date for Gricelda and Mia on the 28th of September. They are so amazing! We are so excited for them and the progress that they have been making in their lives. The blessing of Baptism and the Gift of the Holy Ghost is going to bless there lives in so many ways.

I don't have much time to write, but I wanted to share a quick story from the week.

We had pretty much run completely out of backups on saturday, and needed to make one more stop that night, so we decided to contact a less active that we had received information for just a few days earlier. When we stopped by she was sitting out on her porch. Turns out though that she is not a less active, but a nonmember! She and her daughter have received lessons from missionaries for a while, but never stayed in one place to truly get the message. And they know the missionaries, because she has several family members who are members!

The lord led us to Giovanna that night because she has been waiting for a long time.

Well my time is up. One scripture that I loved this week was Proverbs 3:5-7,11-13. We can truly do all things through Christ.

I love you all so much! Have a wonderful week!

Elder Johnson

Elided Ruiz-Uriostegui

Ellie is baptized!! :D The fruits of the labor come forth and they are sweet to the taste. Ellie's baptism went super well. We made sure to get there very early to get the font filling up, and to write the talks we would be giving haha. She is so happy and so much more confident. Her confirmation went super well the next day as well. Dean's family is amazing, and supported them very well. It so happens that elder Sullivan and I also gave talks the day of her confirmation! So she got to hear a lot from us. That was my first talk in spanish, and I hope it went well! But I am very grateful for the preparation that I had in school to prepare myself for spanish. I am definitely working on the comprehension of some very difficult people, but i feel very comfortable with conversing with people now. Though, I still have a long way to go with it.

Other than Ellie's baptism we had a slower week, but still a great one. We are continuing to find more elect people, who will be getting baptized in the future. Once again, I know that this is because of the member work that is happening here.

I don't have a whole lot of time today, but I would like to share a thought real quick. It comes from Elder Scott in the October 2011 conference, but I can't remember word for word. But the thought is that our character does not grow because of hard trials. Rather, our faith beforehand on correct principles and doctrine builds our character, which then carries us through our trials. We must always be acting on correct principles of faith and obedience so we can be prepared for the trials of life.
I know that this church is true. I know that the prophets have been called of God. They hold the authority and power of God.

Thank you all so much for your love and prayers! I love you all a ton!
Elder Johnson

Facebook!!!

Well this is going to have to be short, but oh well!

Facebook is here!! Elder Sullivan was just made district leader this last transfer, if I didn't say already, and because of that he as a leader is rolling out Facebook to our area. And so it begins. He is doing it while I have to watch him and make sure he's staying safe. And he's ironing out the wrinkles. But it's here! We have to start out by cleaning up our facebook profiles. We have to go back and hide basically everything before the mission. We are super excited!

But even more exciting than that is that Ellie is getting baptized on Saturday!!! WOOT! Clint, Andre, and Caleb that's for you haha. We are so excited for her! If you can pray for her and her husband Dean that would be excellent. And even more important than that, pray for our other investigators to make it to the baptism.

This week was an outstanding week. We set a baptismal date with Magdalena and Jesús for the 28th, and they basically said, "well you're going to have to come over a lot more then!" So we hope to meet with them 2-3 times a week!

Gricelda and Mia are still doing great! Love them to death!

I love the work here. It is amazing to see people's lives change. I miss y'all at home! You are all amazing! Be the best missionaries you can! Be the missionaries best friends! Have a great week :)

Elder Johnson