Well! Dad got me all stoked with His worldy updates on BYU and also with His amazingly inspired spiritual reminders....thanks Dad. Do you think you could send a cool BYU newspaper article in a letter or something? Like you did with Paul Millsap? I would love you ... ; ) haha.
Oh family. I think about you, but just enough to remember how much I love you. I think about how it will be leaving this amazing work and I can't help but see that it will be a little devastating. Dont get me wrong... I LOOOVE you all : ) It was a great week and I thank you all for everything! Heidi I havent looked at your e-mail yet but I am going to and I will try and save all the pictures I can on my USB drive!
I love you, you love me, we're a happy family...with a knick knack patty whack, give a dog a bone, .... the other part can wait!
-Elder Johnson
Dad, yes I did say that this is the highs baptising mission in the world! And I thought about something cool this week . . . Our zone is the highest baptizing (I don't know how to spell baptize or baptising) in the world, and our district was the highest baptizing in the zone this week with 14. . . That would have to mean that we were the highest baptizing district in the world! WOW that is sooo cool!
ALL-
New transfer and a new companion! Elder R. Ferreira. Stud of a missionary from Curitiba. We have exactly the same amount of time on the mission and we will be headed home together! We will also hit the one year mark this transfer! wOAAh. I love you all. . . But when I think about how the flight home would be, I know that I will be losing a part of me...having to leave this fulltime work behind... but I have a long year ahead of me with much to do!
We were blessed with a strong last week of the transfer being able to baptise 6 people. I would like to talk about two of them. Anatalia and Mateus. Anatalia met the missionaries 3 months ago... and did NOT like them by any means. She always hid and denied any form of a lesson. But, as her family members began to go to church and a few were baptized, she softened her heart a little bit, enough to listen to them. When I got to the area, the visits were still a little hard with her, but she was willing to listen. We made goal after goal and used a calendar (thanks to my old comp. elder stocking) to track her progress. As she began to pray, study, and visit the church, she was able to stop drinking coffee, and stop drinking. It took some more time and effort, but she also stop smoking cigarettes. Her last problem was that of cocaine. She struggled until the last week. I know it won't be easy, but she drew upon the power of prayer and has been able to keep herself clean. She knows it destroys her life. She told us of the changes in her family and how their house of impacience and frustration has slowly became more of a haven for all. Her and her 5 siblings are all now baptized, now we need to let the spirit touch her mom! A miracle of a baptism and a life changed if you ask me.
Mateus. He started going to church with a friend, never having talked to the missionaries. We were never able to talk to him about the church, because he was always in his bike coming and going... but one day he and his friends showed up and told us that they were going to be baptized. While speaking with him later, he told has that everything had started to randomly improve in his life in the last two weeks that he has spent time at the church. Sometimes I wonder how the things we ask people to do, being SO SIMPLE, will be able to changes their lives... I just dont understand it, but it happens, and it is unfaltering. The night of his baptism, His dad was drunk and wouldn't let him leave the house, so it was postponed a day. Long story short, we visited his dad, left him a message, asked him if he was going to stop his son from doing something that would improve his life, and he said NO of course. He signed the paperwork and Mateus was baptised last night : )
We see miracles here. We are his instruments. I have to remind myself daily that this is true and that I am trully capable of doing that.
Love you all.... be strong, believe in yourselves.
-Elder Johnson
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