Feeling the Spirit

April 26, 2010

Well my life has officially been changed. This mighty change of heart has certainly taken place. What sealed the deal this last week was our Zone Conference with Elder Kevin Pearson of the quorum of the 70 as a guest speaker. He blew my mind in so many ways. Like it was truly amazing how great of a speaker he is, but also just how many things that he said that will directly help us as missionaries carry out the work. He was not only a powerful speaker but really related with us amazingly well. Words cannot express exactly how amazing the conference was, but I have changed and I can boldly declare that I am a disciple of Jesus Christ. ...not simply because of my name tag, but because that is what I want to be. I want 3 Nephi 3:15 to be my life long creed. What he said was so motivating for me its hard to describe...I feel like as long as I am relying on the Lord, anything is possible. There were so many amazing principles that I will not only apply in my day-to-day as a missionary, but also for the rest of my life. Basically, general authorities are awesome lol.

Anyways, the week was still good without the life changing conference...but it seems like in comparison everything else just falls so short of the level of amazingness. And I wish the above words did the conference justice, but I feel almost like Moroni because I am weak in writting to be able to describe exactly how powerful that meeting was... One really cool experience was with a member (Bro. Chocho) just last night. We stopped by his house, just kinda cuz we had nothing else to do and called so he could let us in. He said that he had been feeling super sick and asked us to give hm a blessing. We did, naturally. But the great part about it was the fact that his family members (non members who never join us while we are there unless we are watching a movie about Christ) came an joined us for the blessing. Afterwards the Spirit was strong, as it always is after an ordinance is performed through priesthood power, and I began to bear strong testimony to his family. Testimony about what we had just done (a blessing) how we could do it (the priesthood) and what they were feeling (the Spirit) ...and why all of that was possible (God's love for each and every one of us). It was a truly powerful experience...and then I felt inspired to sing "The Spirit of God" ...for sure not something I thought of on my own, it had to have been a prompting lol. It was a great experience and hopefully it leads to more interest in the church for Bro. Chocho's family.

It has kinda hit me this last week how crucial the Spirit is in everything that we do as missionaries...when its there the lessons are powerful and lives will be changed. Elder Pearson helped point this out and I have been trying super hard to invite the Spirit into my life every chance I get...I am noticiing a diff. 2 different lessons this last week tears were shed by those we were teaching because of the powerful feelings of the Spirit that we could feel in the room. ...And no doubt I have just scratched the surface of this power and authority that I have the opportunity to use.

......random kinda funny fact...this wildly drunk man we taught for the 1st time on sat. showed up to church. He was drunk, but he came. We were shocked...we had seen him in the street a couple of times and each time he said he'd come. But this time he actually did. Maybe even through the haze of inebriation he was able to feel something during our lesson. But it was the first time I've seen a drunk man talking about how the bible says its okay to drink during the sacrament =S ...Jose is his name. We'll see what happens with him lol

Hope you all are doing great... till next week!

Elder Johnson.

ps-Can you believe April is almost over already? ...what happened to the time?

Blessings/Pictures

April 19, 2010

Hey everyone :)

Well hopefully I get to ramble a bit longer than I did last week to give everyone a little heads up of how things are going over here in New Jersey... I was kinda rushed last week =/

This week has been great. First and foremost is the fact that we got 3 investigators to come to church with us. ...so far in my near 3 month stay here in the Newark Spanish Ward we have only gotten 1 investigator to come to church 1 time. So it was quite the accomplishment. Normally the difficulty with getting them there is the fact that the chapel is a ways away from where our area actually is. Its about a 30 minute drive in the car and over an hour if you take the bus.And for the most part, nobody we teach has a car. And I just feel terrible asking that these investigators take over 5 hours out of their weekend to come to church...its simply too long of a time commitment for anyone that has a life or family that doesn't already "think to sing the song of redeeming love" as Alma says in the Book of Mormon. So normally every week it is a giant battle trying to find people who can help with rides and that sort of thing, and normally it is a giant struggle, but this week was different. Everything just fell right into place. Even a brother in the ward that we hardly know was able to pick up the Charriz family for us. ...It just worked out all too perfectly. Whats great about it is the fact that it is no coincidence. This month has had a focus on exact obedience and these blessings (among many others) are surely from this effort by my companion and I to live by absolutely every rule of the mission. It is by no means easy, but it is so worth the effort. Sacrifice truly brings forth the blessings of heaven.

This focus on obedience has been a part of a "Change of Heart" month that the mission has been having. The month is not yet over and mine has been changed. Just simply the motivation to teach has been changed...I feel as if the missionary purpose as described in preach my gospel has truly begun to sink into my heart and drive the work. Not only that, but obedience has become a pleasure and a quest rather than a burden or hindrance. With these changes the whole tone of our lessons has changed and we are able to invite The Spirit into the lives of those we teach in more abundance. And that really is the key... I have nothing to do with the conversion of those that I teach. No matter how eloquently I can phrase an invitation to be baptized or how simply I can explain the principles of the gospel (and in spanish I cannot do either that well lol) it truly doesn't matter if The Spirit is not there...without this precious member of the Godhead those that I teach will never be able to make any progress or know for themselves of the truthfulness of this gospel. All we can do as members/missionaries is bring opportunities to feel of that Spirit into the lives of others so that they can feel the difference and begin to develop desires to have it in their lives continually...and it is desire that leads to hope belief and later faith.

I really do love the fact that technology makes it possible to talk to so many people at once through a blog...and I thank all of you for reading my rambles on a weekly basis :) I hope you all have a great week and cant wait to hear from you all sometime soon :)

Elder Johnson

Enjoy more pictures :)

mmmm....good

In West New York

Oh Yeah...

yummy

Thinking of my bro Preston...

Loving the Members

Change of Heart Month - Miracles

April 12, 2010

Well hello everybody. I feel like I have been terrible about sending out updates since getting here to Newark. The library situation just isn't as good as back in my old area and it makes it tough to get letters off to the family and still be able to write an update.

But anyways this week has been pretty sweet. The mission is having a "Change of Heart" month and so far things have been going really well. We are focussing on obedience with exactness to every rule...even the little ones. And the blessings are just pouring in. Its been great to see it happening right before our eyes. Every morning and night as an apartmentship we pray to be able to find a new family to teach and to have a baptism this month and so far prayers have been answered. Its been amazing to see families just falling into our laps.

And as for the baptism we had a great experience with an investigator named Leticia. We have been teaching her since I came into the area and she's been progressing but when we had brought up baptism before she said she wanted to know for sure before she made any decisions like that. Because if she does get baptized, she wants to be a member forever, not just leave.... A very worthy goal :) ...But when we went to teach her last week she was really broken up about something...my companion and I kinda did what we could to try to help her feel better before we started the lesson, but then began what we had planned. ...as I started talking about the ten commandments tears were welling up in Leticia's eyes and I could tell it was because of the recent incident with her land lady. ...so I stopped and said that I know we ask you all the time if we can do anything to help you out. But I'm going to ask you again, is there anything we can do to help you out? ...she said no (everyone always says no lol) ...But then I went on to explain that because of the priesthood authority that Joseph Smith restored to the earth we can give blessings of comfort to those in need. We asked if she would like one and she said yes... We gave her the blessing and the Spirit was super strong. We then explained that the feeling (The Spirit) was evidence that what we had done and what we've been saying are true. Shortly thereafter she accepted a baptismal date for the end of this month :) ...It was great. A true answer to our prayers to have a baptism this month and nothing short of a miraculous answer at that.

Anyways I have to go (gotta love these libraries =/) ....but I did wanna get a short update in :)

Hope all of you are doing great!

Elder Johnson