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June 19: Cruisin in the Soo

Greetings everybody! 

Happy Father's Day yesterday to my dad, my brothers and others! Keep up the good work in the home. I don't know what it's like to be a father yet, but I imagine there is more to it than meets the eye. Thank you dad for everything you do for me and our family every single day. The way you have lived your life as a father has taught me more about true fatherhood than anything else. I am blessed to be your son.

Life is fun in Sault Ste. Marie.

We had a very interesting experience on Wednesday. We received a phone call from an unknown number at about 6:30 in the evening while we were out and about. He sounded like a middle aged man, he said he sought out our number because he had some questions for us. He then asked, "What is your church's stance on gay marriage and abortion?" I paused for a second. I had an initial thought to try to answer him over the phone, but instead I said something like this: "We'd love to answer those questions in detail, and do so in person. Could we meet with you sometime and discuss things?" He said, "Ya absolutely." He was free that evening so he gave us his address and we drove over to his place. 

As we were driving over, I was thinking: thank goodness I didn't try to answer over the phone. I tried interpreting the tone of his voice over the phone, but I couldn't discern whether or not this man had differing views from us and just wanted to argue, or he was actually curious and wanted to discuss things. Gay marriage and abortion are obviously very sensitive subjects so I thought to myself, this is either going to be really bad or really good.

We pulled up a couple of doors down from the address he gave us; we said a prayer to receive the Lord's guidance in answering his questions. As we walked towards the house a middle aged man came down from the front porch and walked towards us. He was wearing casual clothes with shades and an old baseball cap on. In his hand, he held a wooden cross about 10 inches tall. I thought to myself, "Oh boy...here we go."

And the story stops there...

I will tell the rest of the story next Monday because it's too long to write. I will spoil one thing by saying that I must have come out of that meeting alive or else I wouldn't be writing to you today. :) 

Anyways, missionary work is awesome! The work has been going good: we have found 2 great investigators in the past 2 weeks and 2 other investigators came to a ward pancake breakfast on Saturday. On Sunday we drove 40 minutes east to visit the branch for my first time. There was about 25-30 people at church, about a third of those being children. The members are so strong in the gospel, I was uplifted by their love for the gospel and missionary work. There is a ton of country for us to cover in the branch proselyting area but man it is beautiful. The forests are dense here and lakes and rivers richly populate the map. This part of Ontario is the maple syrup land of all lands (I will send pictures of the landscape next week). I've decided that I can't be happy in a place for more than 2 days if I can't see even a glimpse of the beauties of nature. I am so grateful for this beautiful earth.

For a spiritual message check out this Mormon msg about fatherhood. Even if you have seen it before, I think its easy to be uplifted by its great message again.


I hope you all have a great week and can get out and enjoy nature every day!

Till next time,
Elder Johnson

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