August 19, 2013

Family, This week was great, we had a chapel visitors center in our chapel. It´s one of the new things the church is doing to find more investigators and help people to be able to know more about the church. This weekend while we were having ours, some missionaries went out to the street to invite to peopel to come in and take the tour of the church. They invited this man named Leandro. He went in and took the tour. Our ward mission leader was with him the whole time, and afterward set an appointment with him for us. The next day (saturday) we went and visited him. We taught him about the restauration of the church and he told us that as we were talking to him he felt like he was being refilled spiritually. He told us that he had recently gotten divorced and has an 11 year old daughter who he misses a lot. He also recently lost his job. He told us that he had been filling out job applications online that night and just went outside to get some fresh air. Then he walked by the church and decided to go with the invitation. At the end of the lesson we invited him to pray, and taught him how to do it. In his prayer he said, "thank you for allowing me to be a part of this wonderful church" haha! He didn´t even ever attend the meetings but he already considers himself a member. It´s great. He told us that he loved how everyone in the building was so happy, that outside, in the world no one has time for you and doesn´t want to talk to you, or show you respect, but that when he went inside the church, he felt like everyone cared about him. He´s now preparing to be baptized on the 8th of september. I love the church! I´m so grateful for the plan of our heavenly father to help people be able to get to know it,a nd for softening the hearts of all the members so that we can be so friendly :). I know that God is always prepraing the hearts of people we know, and we can´t be the judges. We just have to invite them all the time, so that when there moment comes, the Lord will help them say yes. I invite all who read this to invite someone to church this week, or give them a book of mormon or something. Just never be afraid to let anyone know who you are, and what church you belong to. Be Mormon. Be Happy. :) I love you all! have an incredible week! :) don´t forget to read and pray every day, its the source of our happiness! Love, Elder Johnson

August 13, 2013

Hello! This new transfer has started, another one down, the time is giong by so quickly. I´m staying in palermo with my son for one more transfer. The Lord has also asked me to be a district leader, so now I have more responsabilities, blech! haha, but its alright, it will help me grow :) It´s really cold here, and im kind of getting sick of it, but I´m just thankful im not in arizona :) My companion and I had a very cool experience this week, things have not been going so great here. well things are good, except for the fact that we have no investigators. We´re trying hard, but no one wants to follow through, we have a lot of faith in the chapel visitors center activity were doing this weekend, but anyway, now I´ll tell you guys what happened :). Diligence is key! This weekend we had no investigators in church, as we went around inviting people and calling people no one wanted to go. luckily sacrament meeting is last. We left to the street an hour before sacrament meeting started and I told my companion we were just going to invite everyone to go to church. We invited and invited and everyone but everyone rejected us, but we didn´t give up. With my last pass along card in hand 5 minutes before sacrament was about to start I thought to myself that it didn´t matter, just go inside. But I prayed and asked Heavenly Father to put someone in our path to give this last card too. The next lasy I saw was a little bit older, and I approached her and gave her the card and invited her to the church. She said, ¨this church right here? I´ve always wanted to see what its like, but its never opened. I can go in and see real fast but I have to leave and go vote.¨ So we walked in with her and the members did their job. Everyone greeted her so lovingly, that by the time we got to the staircase she said, ¨This is beautiful, I want to stay for the whole thing, I can vote later today.¨ She stayed in the church and all through sacrament. Afterwards she told us that she went to salt lake city with her cousin who is a member and that she went through the visitors center and everything in temple square. We gave her a book of mormon and she is preparing to get baptized in 2 weeks. Through this experience I learned that no matter what the Lord asks us to do, if we work with all our strength and diligence it is possible. I love the work and I know the Lord is preparing people in all times and at all places! We just have to be willing to invite. No one can ever say yes to an invitation they never receive! Invite everyone! Don´t be afraid, everyone needs to receive the gospel and we are the Lord´s tools! He relies on us to do the work for Him and we are all able to do it! We just need to have faith. I love you all, and hope everything continues going well wherever you may be :) Thank you for your emails, and for your prayers. I don´t forget to pray for all of you either, dont worry! ;) Have a great week, and invite someone to church! Love Elder Johnson