El quinto!

Here I am in Henderson for a fifth transfer once again! :D I don't know exactly how often this happens, but this is only my second area, and I'll be here for another month and a half. That puts me at being here for about 7 1/2 months. Which I am super happy about! We have some great investigators here in Henderson that I believe will be baptized by the end of the transfer. First of all will be Teresa. Right now we have a baptismal date for the 9th of August! We think we're going to have to push it pack a week just to help her learn everything, but she is still going great! Her parents are returning less actives who are doing great.

Another family that I am really excited to work with right now is the Nuci family. They work seasonally here and in Florida. They are only here for about four months though. They have 7 boys and another one on the way. They are having a hard time keeping up with work and the church, and feel pretty discouraged. But they have such sweet hearts and such great desires. Just yesterday we taught the parents and the kids were going crazy. I couldn't help but think of the fact that Mom and Dad once had to do that with 11 of us as well!

The great miracle of this week was that Marisol came to church! It was such a huge miracle! We weren't actually able to teach her last week because of the rain, and when we texted her to ask if she was going to be able to make it to church she never responded. We really thought that she was losing interest and didn't want to come. Then two minutes before sacrament meeting started she called us and told us she was there. Booyah! She has been telling us basically the whole time we have met with her that to know for sure she needs to come to church. Even after a church tour she still needed to come to church. Well obviously we agree. But the thing was that we were caught off guard. And there were no hispanics there! We have been working so hard to help her to have a good experience at church with great friendshipping from hispanics, and no one came! We were super nervous that she wasn't going to enjoy church because of it.

My nerves definitely got to me, because I was translating terribly. I was praying and praying for the gift of tongues, but simply it didn't come. But the Lord knew the situation. Marisol decided to go without translation and listen in English the best she could. I kept translating just in case she wanted it, and in the end the spirit calmed my nerves and told me to not translate. I calmed down, and I could see that Marisol felt perfectly fine. 

To make the whole experience better, we had an amazing lesson in gospel principles about prayer. She shared with us that on Saturday she was praying a lot to know if this was the true church, and if this was the Sunday that she was going to go and not give any excuses. And she said that finally she felt the simple peace that it was the day. Her testimony about prayer was so strong! I am so excited to teach her again tomorrow!

Our other investigators are doing well too. And I wish I had time to tell you about them, but time's about out!

I love yall so much! Have a great week!

Élder Johnson

Henderson!

I love Henderson! Simply it's the greatest place ever. The culture of Henderson is it's completely own culture. If you don't have chairs on your porch then you don't belong here! This week we had some great experiences contacting people and building up our pool of people to teach. It's amazing when you have been going to the same places for four months straight how you can still find someone else to teach! This is week six, so I'm going to find out whether I am staying here in Henderson or not, but I am about 90% sure that I am going to be staying. I've been here for four already, but it seems like President Bernhisel wants to keep me here another. Which is totally fine! I love it here! And we have great potential here! 

Speaking of potential we had some really great lessons this week. First of all we had a church tour with Marisol which went really well. She is super shy, and she was able to come to the church! She didn't make it out to church though. But we'll get there. 

After the lesson with Marisol though we went to Nancy's house with a recent convert and it was the greatest lesson ever! Brandon, the recent convert, comes from a very catholic family and was almost disowned. Nancy has been feeling more and more sure of herself about baptism, and it's been making her nervous and sad about leaving the family tradition. Brandon was able to help her so much. She wasn't able to make it out to church this last week sadly. But we are super excited to work with her this week to keep progressing!

Sorry today was so short! I love yall so much!

Elder Johnson

Follow up Follow up Follow up!

I just recently read once again the talk that Elder Ballard gave about following up, and it is absolutely amazing! I have really been trying to focus on that principle this last week, and well really this last transfer. We meet sooo many people on the streets and there are only 24 hours in the day. We cover four counties, and have about 40 miles a day to use. Let's just say that it's difficult to want to follow up with someone when to get to their house it's a 20 mile trip both ways! But following up is soo essential. This week that is what made all the difference! We have been coming up short on finding investigators to teach recently, but this last week we were able to do some great follow up with potential investigators and we found 6 new investigators! I think that they all have great potential and I am excited to work with them!

This week we had a great lesson with Nancy where she accepted baptism 100%! And then to confirm it she came to church!! It was so good to see her there! She didn't quite make sacrament, but we'll work on that haha. We have a lesson with her tonight with a member and recent convert who are super great missionaries. With the testimony that she has now of the church and the Book of Mormon we feel she is ready to change her life by living the commandments. We've still got some time we'll have to work with her, but she's going to make it! :D

We had a great lesson with Marisol as well this week! She is super timid and takes time to get to know, so it is natural that she is really timid about coming to church, even though she really wants to go. We have a church tour set up with her as well this evening with the same two members who are great friendshippers. So we are really hoping to help her out today to feel comfortable with people there.

I wanted to say real quick that what has been super important this week with both Nancy and Marisol is that we have had really great follow up, and it makes so much difference!

Oh on a sad note, Briahn discontinued us. :( That always hurts so much! But we most definitely grew so much from that experience. :)

We had a great lesson as well with the Hernandez crew. Alicia, Sonya, and Cynthia. Alicia let us know that she would go to church every day if it weren't for her husband. She is nervous about him not wanting them to go to church. We are starting out this next week by getting them out to mutual. This has been kind of our last concentrated effort to keep them going, and I think that it will work for them. Patient perseverance is key :)

Are little group is getting up on it's feet and it's really awesome to see! We've maintained our group for over a month now and we are praying we can lay the foundation for continual growth!

Just real quick in follow up with yall, what have you learned in Preach My Gospel what have you been able to share with your friends and family?

I love yall so much! I love the area of Henderson! The people here are so great! Elder Rose is the greatest! And I hope you all have an fantastic week! :D

Élder "Juanhijo" Johnson

:)

Asoleado

Happy 7th of July everyone! Oh and happy 4th of July three days ago! I couldn't believe that the fourth of July was already here! And come to find out that so many people were gone! We had the weirdest Sunday because of it, because there were 0 hispanics at church! It was crazy! Elder Rose and I don't know what to do! What else to do than fill in someone's class that they didn't get a sub for haha. 

So for the fourth of July we had a great time. We had a full day of proselyting ready to go, but with the precautions of staying away from iffy situations and such, and then we got a phone call to do some service! I love service! So we changed quickly and got picked up, the four of us, and went to a members home to build a deck! I never really understood how much I love to get outside and work on projects like that. But after a year of not doing it at all I had a blast! We all had a blast! And we all got great sunburns. Ouch. But hey, as missionaries we are deprived of living in the sun. We live in cars and houses! So I have a great tan line of my watch right now, and a huge farmers tan. I love it!

The deck was for Brother Jester's mother, and we were building with all of his sons and sons-in-law. I felt right at home in a house of 25 people not including us! One of the wives actually is family to the Rodriguez family in Cary, so I was so excited to see her and ask her about the area. It's exploding! It's great! Other than that we simply ate dinner and had other items of business to get done.

This week we as well did a service project for the Hernandez family. We came for a lesson, and instead they were upstairs painting. We went and talked for a little and then said, "We'll be back in 20 minutes. We are helping you paint!" They kindly and awkwardly protested, but we went anyways. It was great! I think that it really helped us to keep going with them to recognize their potential to accept the gospel and live it.

Probably the greatest lesson that we taught this week was to Nancy. We taught her about the Plan of Salvation, and really helped her to understand why Baptism is so important. We helped her to understand why reading the Book of Mormon is so important as well, and that she really can and needs to know through the spirit if these things are true. We are anxious for our next lesson with her to see how she is doing with her reading and seeking that answer.

One of the greatest things that I learned this week was in chapter 6 of Preach My Gospel about charity. Charity is a gift from god. And the first and great commandment is to love the Lord thy God. We are able to receive the gift of love and charity for the Lord, from the Lord. That Love for him enables us to greater appreciate the Atonement and what he did for us. We love him more for it. I am praying to deepen my Love for the Lord, so I can love those around me with a more deep understanding of what the Lord has done for them. 

I love the Gospel! I am so grateful that it is the way that we live and that I can keep using it every day to change. I've got a long ways to go so I might as well live it every day to go the furthest I can. 

I love yall so much! You are the greatest!

Élder Johnson