Skip to main content

July 31 - Many miracles and many lessons learned

Good day!

I've learned a lot from my time in the area of Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, especially in this past week.

1st miracle from this week: we had 2 investigators at church! This is very exciting for this ward and branch, because it was the first time since the beginning of march that an investigator has come to church here (almost 6 months). These 2 investigators are member referrals/former investigators and 1 is ready for baptism. Her name is Leslie.

We were introduced to Leslie on Friday, she is a very special member referral. She is 63 and was almost baptized 20 years ago. Family difficulties and other things got in the way, it didn't work out. The Lord has been preparing her ever since: she has read and has a testimony of the 4 standard works and other church books. She loves it all. She basically keeps all of the commandments... when reminded about coffee she said, "Oh, well I can give that up no problem." At the beginning of our visit she asked, "What do I need to do to be baptized?" Put simply, she has been living a faithful LDS life for a while now, but just isn't baptized. At this point, it's just a matter of taking care of the logistics, re-teaching some lessons, and setting up the baptism. She will likely be baptized in August. Leslie lives in her cottage in the Algoma branch (a part of my assigned proselyting area next to the Soo) for July and August, and lives in southern Ontario for the long winter. She grew up in Sault Ste. Marie and said she plans on moving back for good soon but we'll see. It doesn't matter where she lives, I'm just here to help her prepare for baptism so she can enjoy the fullness of joy found by entering into Christ's restored church. She has plans to attend the temple and so forth...you could not find a more prepared investigator. It almost doesn't seem right to me to call her an investigator, she's already a convert!

I'll report on her progress as time goes on. It's pretty cool to know that people like Leslie are out there.

Another miracle happened this week. For the first time on my mission, we knocked on a door and were invited in and had a lesson! On Thursday, a young guy about mid 20's invited us in right away. He was very friendly and warm, he sat us down on his kitchen table and said with a smile, "Okay, so what are you guys about?" This type of situation was new for me, I was very excited, I didn't really know where to start haha. As Elder Fabiano and I began to teach we were a little shaky but we pulled it together and it was a very spiritual lesson overall. We learned that this guy is newly married and is a very faithful christian. He trully loves God and his Savior and the bible. He's felt some churches disregarded the word of God found in the Bible. His current faith is 100% dependent on what he reads and interprets in the bible. This is a good thing but also a challenge because our definition of the priesthood, knowledge of pre-earth life, and a couple of other things were not clear to him from his bible study. Despite his disagreements, we focused our lesson on the Book of Mormon. We testified of it and invited him to read and pray about it. He asked us to leave him with some important chapters to study and said he would read and pray about it. He was genuinely curious about the Book of Mormon and the prospect that it could also be the word of God. He said a beautiful prayer to close our visit. He texted us yesterday and asked if we could meet again this coming Wednesday. My companion and I have been praying hard that God will pour his spirit upon this man as he reads the Book of Mormon. I have a strong feeling that if this man (and his wife too) comes to know that the Book of Mormon is true and joins the church, he will accomplish some great things for the Lord.

Side note:
We found this man as part of our effort to give out 20 Book of Mormons in 10 days. 15/20 of those people who received Book of Mormons we're found through tracting in the evening. The Lord helped us accomplish that goal and it led us to meet this faithful man and other potential investigators. Meaningful goals increase our faith and God works with us according to our faith. I've learned that if efforts of full-time missionaries are combined with efforts of members, the work will hasten. Members need to do their part, full-time missionaries need to do their part, and they need to work together in order to hasten the work and bring many souls unto Christ.

I have a testimony in this work. Missionary work is so challenging because it is so rewarding. I have a testimony that being creative in the work brings in divine help from the most creative being of all. The divinity of the Book of Mormon is true, it is the Lord's primary tool to bring his children into the fold in these latter-days. I am so grateful for the opportunity to participate in this work full-time.

I hope you have a great week everybody. Enjoy everyday of summer! I hope my fam doesn't have too much fun without me :)

Elder Johnson


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

May 23: Loads of Service this Week and Golfing!

​​Hello! Yesterday was not our p-day because of Victoria Day. We missionaries do the opposite of everybody else: the Sabbath is definitely not a day of rest and holidays are go days!  My week started off pretty sweet. For p-day Elder Kohl and I went to the golfing range and also played on the chipping and putting green. We shared a $14 bucket of balls and played for close to 3 hours so it was absolutely worth it! I'm still good at golf :) We also helped out the members a lot this week. We have mowed and done weed whacking for a couple senior members, helped a sister pack stuff before she moves, cleaned out gutters, painted a bedroom, and de-cluttered a back yard. What would the ward do with out us?! Some might think that's too much service, I think I would rather be doing that than tracting haha.  We've been primarily working with the members to find people to teach. This way of finding basically looks like the following:...
Post a Comment
Read more

January 22, 2018 - The Iron Rod is a sure Foundation

Hi, We found a really nice lady this week through tracting. She really liked the Restoration message and we answered her many questions. She's married and in her 30's. She is just a really cool person so I'm excited to keep meeting with her. Elder Martin and I have been pushing ourselves to talk to more people recently. We set a weekly goal to give out a certain number of Book of Mormon's. Having the goal in mind has motivated me to get out and talk to people when I don't feel like it--it's a feeling I get a lot unfortunately. I've noticed there is always opposition before and after we do something important for Christ.  Getting up Sunday morning and going to church has never been difficult for me; however, living what I learned at church is a little more difficult. I've learned that the adversary is relentless at "following-up" with me shortly after I have a spiritual experience. Satan will do anything in his power to make me lose t...
Post a Comment
Read more

January 29, 2018 - No Longer Stuck in a Rut

Hello, We transitioned from flip phones to smart phones this week. Unfortunately for me, my phone has not been delivered yet so I have to wait a little longer. And unfortunately for Elder Martin, the software on his phone is glitchy and he can't get into it so he has to get the software re-installed by a Samsung specialist. Unfortunately for us, we are the only companionship in the mission without a working smart phone right now. Hopefully the specialist gets it fixed today so we can get on with things. We've just been using our old flip phone and it works fine for now. In my email last week I talked about a lady we found by knocking on her door.  Her name is Michelle, we had our first sit down lesson with her yesterday and it went very well. She has a catholic background but didn't stick with the religion (big surprise there, no offense to the Catholic church). She accepted the message of the restoration (she understood the apostasy and the need for priesthood auth...
Post a Comment
Read more