3-25-14 inconsistent power fun

Well sorry for not writing yesterday.  It's what happens when your in the pueblos, the power isn´t exactly consistent here... haha but hey we got permission to write today.

Well let me start by saying I have received my new companion. He´s from Mexico, and he is 20 years old and 16 months in the mission. Seems like a pretty chill kid, I think we will have success. Other news associated with this change, I am no encargado, or.. Charged? I think that's the word - With taking the numbers from the district, to give encouragement and serve in anyway I can to my fellow missionaries, or I've been called a district leader. I thought our Zone leaders were joking but.... no. They weren´t.

To get to the office on Wednesday we had to wake up at 2:30 in the morning and leave for the bus at 3:00, yeah not a ton of fun but we did it. There I said good bye to Elder Valencia and he left for the 4 hour journey and I stayed in a trio in Catacamas. He was in a trio with the Zone leaders. He is now a Zone leader in Comayagua. Funny how the world works, He will be excellent.

Other than that the power has been out more than normal around here and we  have to enter the house at like 6:00 which sucks. We have to enter the house because the streets are super dark and well, not considered the safest in the world but we try to make it fun by having alot of fire in our... well you could call it like a parking strip inside our house.. if that makes sense, don´t worry nothing bad has happened yet. :) hahah

Other than that we´re just looking for anybody who would be willing to go to church, we´ll find them this week. 

Love ya´ll hope you have great a great week!

paz y amor

 

Elder Johnson

3-17-14 Wisdom is learning from others mistakes

This week was good, very good, I am content.

Let me tell ya something about my companion. He is the model missionary, he does everything with exactness he strives to follow the spirit, he plans like a beast, and basically, is the example of a hard working, confident, missionary. And he has not baptized very much.

Sometimes he feels bad about that and wonders why, like what is he doing wrong, but he´s not doing anything wrong. Basically suffice it to say that he has had alot of bad luck with a few of his companions.

The good news, we baptized someone! It´s an amazing story, this investigator is famous around here for singing, he is the president of blind people of Honduras, he was a Jehovah Witness and he had his own church. But Elder Valencia found him and didn´t give up.

This Wednesday is changes so we don´t know if we are going to leave our areas. It´s probable that Elder Valencia will be leaving, it's just so cool to have the opprotunity to have success like that with him. He is a huge example to me.

Other news um.. this week we got pretty muddy, and I learned what wisdom is... learning from others mistakes hahaha I escaped the mud pretty much and my companion lost a shoe. It was fun.... um... but that's another story which I don´t seem to have time to write. haha oh well it´s in my journal.

This week I was studying in Jacob 4, man I really liked how he described blindness. I don´t know the exact translation but its definition has like overpassing the mark in like verse 12 I think, I don´t remember exactly, but it struck me that if we aren't focused on what we should be, don´t have our priorities, we will not see the thing we should. In other words we are blind.

Liked that alot. We just need to stay focused.

Also this week we had the opprotunity to listen to Elder Scott and Elder Oaks.  Who know Elder Scott speaks spanish?  But the other speaker didn´t so the missionaries had to take turns simultaenously (yes it is spelled wrong... I think) translating. What fun.... but yeah.

Today we´re going to some cave that the president just barely reopened kinda stoked..

That's it for this week,

Paz y amor

Elder Johnson

3-10-14 8 months! The best two years for my life

Welp.. another week has passed and we have a little more time in the mission, and a little less time with our privilege of a calling. (don´t judge the spelling. I´m walking lost around here. haha)

Anyways so remember how I talked about how we put boundries well yeah, it is so fun opening an area. Seriously.. :)

We have like one investigator right now. It´s sweet we decided to start doing a ton of activities and to begin to teach English. Just trying to involve the branch more and animate them so that they WANT to help. 

One thing that my very wise companion has taught me is about leadership. Basically if you were to look at Elder Valencia you wouldn´t think that he is a leader. But honestly he is the best leader I have ever known. He is very humble, and very knowledgable. He has like 10 months being a District Leader basically he has it down to the T. Everyone loves him! How does he do it? well He told me the other day, "a good leader doesn´t push, a good leader pulls".

If we each are members of this church, basically it means we are leaders, yeah maybe we don´t all have the characteristics of leaders but when we became part of this church that means we separated ourselves from the world, we have a different standard. We are in fact leading. 

As a missionary I shouldn´t push investigators I should pull them until they in turn push me (hopefully in the form of referrals). haha I love this work.

I don´t remember who said this but another thing my companion quotes to me all the time. "the mission wasn´t the best two year OF my life, but it was the best two years FOR my life. I know I´m here to be formed and tried in a way that God wants me to do. Like it says in the scripture from last week 2 Nephi 25:23 I have to do all I can and God will do the rest. 

Love you guys, Hope you are all doing well.

Peace out, love people!

3-3-14 Honduran directions

Another week has passed by and more adventures have happened. But honestly I dont remember much. Bad sign for when I'm old.

Basically the biggest news is we have decided to put new boundries in our area, we have alot of investigators but no one is progressing, and we realized nobody was working the other side of the area. So... well we are going to pass all of our investigators to the other elders in our area, do a bunch of interchanges (when you switch companions for a day) and introduce the new elders to our old investigators while basically just looking for less actives and contacting.

 

 

Here are directions to a reference: 

"ok so you know the 18 (a school) well on the street on the right of this you follow that street going down, like for or five streets then turn left. youll be going towards the stadium, then youll see like 4 big palm trees go to that house, in front of that house take the little way in front and youll arrive to a big area open, than look for a dog that is always laying in the shade to your left, the house behind this dog is the family."..... yeah thank you sooo much president. But thats how the missiion is and such an adventure love it!!!!!

Basically, we did find the reference by the way but usually, geez, we find less than half of our references.

 

My Companion is in a evangelical mood, he is always saying like, "so says the word, "yes or no", "We are the church!!!!" I played along falling on the ground and shouting hallelujuah, but after a while.. man what are our investigators gonna think? Thank goodness he hasn't said that to any investigators yet. I have been telling him that he embarrasses me alot, and well, he's happy about it.. hahaha Its pretty funny. 

 

 

Other than that just excited to start clean in this area. we are going to work. Jacob 4. Last verse really hit me this week. as well as 2 Nephi 25:23 just do all we can do.

God will do the rest.