Skip to main content

September 18, 2017 - Conference and more Conference and more...

Hello.

It was a crazy week. I spent most of this past week away from my proselyting area. My comp. and I left early Thursday to stay in an apartment 6 hours away to be close for zone conference the next day. Zone conference was once again a wonderful experience. I got to see my recent companion and my MTC comp again who are both awesome guys, just awesome. After Zone conference we drove back north 3 hours to stay in Sudbury where our Zone leaders and district leader and comp stay. A total of 12 missionaries stayed in that apartment Friday night, it was pretty fun. Saturday we all played sports together in the early morning, attended a convert baptism courtesy of the Zone leaders, had a stake sponsored dinner and attended the adult session of stake conference. After that we got some Dairy Queen and us 14 missionares stayed over night again in Sudbury. If you haven't served a mission then you might think all Elders are calm, well behaved and strictly obedient. Well that is false. We are far from perfect and most of us aren't that mature yet. The shenanigans that happened this past weekend proved that to me. After this weekend, I have gained a testimony why the white handbook says to refrain from gathering in large groups of missionaries...things happen haha. The next day we went to Sunday session of stake conference and drove him basically. I learned a lot from the conferences but I also felt pretty lazy. It'll be good to get back in the swing of things.

A cool thing happened today, my mission President and his Wife visited our area for the first time. They spent last night in a hotel and spend a couple of hours with us before heading back to other duties. We had lunch with them at a members house, showed them around our chapel and did interviews, and then showed them our apartment. They are amazing people and are definitely called of God.

One thing I learned from Zone conference was how critical the morning is in order to have an effective day. Some words from a speech by Elder Holland stuck with me: "You tell me how your morning schedule goes, and I can tell you the kind of day, week, month, year, mission, and life you are going to have." Our mission president compared our day to a 4X100m relay race. Every 100m leg in the race is important but if you start slow, or drop the baton (the spirit) in the beginning, it's hard to pick things back up. There's a phrase floating around, "Begin with the end in mind." I think starting full throttle is a great way to begin with the end in mind. In my life, I don't think I have ever regretted getting up early and starting strong; however, many times I have slept in and started slow and really regretted it. May we all start strong and stay strong.

I hope you have a great week and enjoy the fall season!

Elder Johnson

Pics show 9 of the 14 missionaries (plus me behind the camera) who were at the Sudbury Slumber Party Friday night.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

October 16, 2017 - Building the Kingdom of Sarnia

Greetings, I'm loving it in my new area Sarnia! There are so many good things happening in this ward. There's a 10 year old named Kari who's a daughter of a new convert. She's investigating the church and doing well with reading the Book of Mormon and coming to church. It's the first time for me teaching someone who's not an adult which is a great experience. Angela, an investigator in her 50's, came to church for the first time yesterday and brought her 11 year old granddaughter as well. She loved how she felt at church and enjoyed the gospel principles class.  Our residence is a guest suite connected to a members house only 1 km from the church, it's a perfect set-up. We only had one dinner appointment last week but we've got 3 this week, soon enough it will be everyday :) It was fun cooking lunch and dinner everyday (we do simple stuff for breakfast), my comp likes to cook as well, so we made some good stuff including a stake dinner. T...
Post a Comment
Read more

January 15, 2018 - Lego Restoration!

Hallo! (German hello) It's been a slow week. We weren't able to meet with the 2 investigators we found last week. They've been busy. It got cold again as well so that didn't help. I really enjoyed the messages that were shared at Pres. Monson's funeral service by his daughter and President Nelson, Uchtdorf, and Eyring. I enjoyed listening to the Motab sing Pres. Monson's favorite songs, and hearing the opening and closing prayers offered by Elders Ballard and Holland which is something you won't see at a General Conference session.  Recently, Elder Martin and I have been sharing the message of the Restoration of the Gospel quite often. We wanted to teach in a way so that kids would enjoy it and remember it. Thought, inspiration, and Lego collided bringing forth what I call the "Lego Restoration Lesson".  It basically goes like this: We teach all of the points of the Restoration lesson very simply. When we teach about the life of Jes...
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