Week 20 Pictures

Week 20 Pictures

Yay, Smog!

a Sunset (yay, smog!)

The Lincoln Shrine

The bust that is the centerpiece of the shrine. 
 (There's are really long story about why it is a "shrine" and not a museum.)

A flag at the shrine. 

In the 1800s the government only mandated the stripes, 

whoever made the flag got to pick their own pattern of stars. 

So this regiment went with a star pattern.

The Lincoln Shrine

Most of our Zone

Can I tell you about the Mormon Church?

The Lincoln Shrine

Week 20 Letter

Week 20 Letter

All,

Well, it's the last week of the transfer. I think that I will get transferred this time. I've finished being trained and I've taught Elder Everett the area. We'll find out where the Lord wants me now (or if he still needs me in Highland)

This week has been fairly uneventful. We only taught less-active members. Went on exchanges which was fun, first with Elder Graves, and then with one of the Zone Leaders.

Last week I think I said that the weather has been in the 50's through 60's. I meant 50's - 80's. It was 90 one day last week. pretty crazy stuff.

My brain is kind of in a fuzz right now. I'm wiped out from basketball this morning (I'm still horrible but I'm improving, mostly I just run all over the place). So sorry about the brevity of the letter. 

I'm not exactly sure what we are doing for thanksgiving. I'm sure It will be okay. I'm worried that this week (being the week of thanksgiving) won't be very productive. But people will probably be home at least.   

Today I went with Elder Villalobos and most of the zone to the Lincoln Shrine in Redlands. It was fascinating. It's the largest repository of lincoln and civil war manuscripts west of the Mississippi river. We were there for a long time (the tour guide talked forever), but I had a ball. Did you know that only 500 californians (and only 1 known to be from So Cal) fought on the battlefields of the civil war? They were veterans from the mexican american war "the best" of the union cavalry and had the lowest casualty rate. They had to be shipped down to panama and then to massachusetts, where they fought in a massachusetts regiment (and after the war they had to make their own way back to california). There were a lot of cool artifacts and information. I think it was boring to most of the other elders though.

Here's some random food for thought. (courtesy of Bro. Smart)

Good conversation boils down to at least one of three things:

Mutual edification

Obtaining/clarifying information

Searching for solutions   

If your conversation isn't doing one of those three things It is probably not worthwhile (gossip, whining, etc).

Alma 8:10

Hoping to receive some letters. Thank you for your prayers and support.

Elder Bryce Johns.

Week 19 Letter

Week 19 Letter

(This was from Tuesday Nov 13)

All.

 

Okay, to finish the story.

 

So, Tex was faced with a decision. Does he stay an Eagle, soaring freely in the air; or does he go back to being sage hen on the ground...

What do you think?

 

 

 

He went back to being a sage hen. That was what he knew and was comfortable with. Most of the time people are like that. We go and teach people how to be eagles. How to live up to their potential. But because it is unfamilar they don't want to change themselves to improve.

 

So remember, You want to be an Eagle. Not a sage hen. Stretch yourself to become the person your heavenly father wants you to become. It may be difficult, but after all "why should we think to earn a great reward if we now shun the fight?" Following our heavenly father is always worth it. No matter what the seeming cost.

 

Do you think that you can bless your own life more than the Lord can?

 

So there you go.

This last week was pretty good. We did some service and had a couple good lessons. Mostly with Recent converts and less actives.

 

We are basically out of investigators at present.

Our Fijian clan seems to have fallen off the face of the earth. We haven't been able to get in contact with them for over a week despite our best efforts.

 

Remind me to share the story of how we rescued a giant tortoise last week.

 

We also have a new contacting method that is really cool. Which I will have to share next week.

 

Hope to recieve your letters soon. Thank you for your prayers and support.

 

Elder Bryce Johns

 

Week 18 Letter

Letter for Week 18:

All.

Busy busy busy. Unfortunately, or number of lessons and investigators is starting to slack off.

No one is coming to church, and it is starting to get hard to meet with people. Consequently we are focusing on finding people.

It was kindof funny, we were tracting on "Temple ST". We ran into a Born-Again who just wanted to argue ("Are you followers of Joseph Smith? The trinity, etc other anti rubbish. His parting "shot" if you will was "My God's stronger than your God... It's sad how people don't get it.), A dude who offered us a "bowl" and lightly heckled us, and a bunch of cranky people (suprisingly a rare thing in Highland). There were a couple of people who were interested, but It was still ironic.

 

Our Haloween wen't pretty good. We had a good lesson with Daisy and Abraham, and did a lot of contacting. We aren't allowed to proselytize after 6:00. The span-m's invited us over to their branch president's house for pizza. We also got permission from president to watch the Lion King! It was a lot better/funnier than I remember haha. After the movie we went and played basketball/volleyball at the stake center. The Yuciapa zone also came (I'm in the Redlands zone). It was pretty fun all round.

 

Here's a cool quote I heard from a talk:

"When it comes to religion, question with boldness. Question everything. Honest questions, fix reason firmly in her seat. For if there be a God, he must surely prefer honest questioning over blindfolded fear" ~Thomas Jefferson.

 

Okay, I also have time to write out a story (courtesy of Brother Smart, ward missionary extraordinar) So here goes. (I would normally make it prettier but I don't have the time, so you get the bare-bones)

 

There was once an eagle. She would soar from mountaintop to mountaintop over the desert looking for food to bring back to her nest. She had four eggs there to take care of.

 

One day while the eagle was away from the nest, a vulture swooped down and stole one of the eggs. He knew that he had to fly away as fast as he could or else the eagle would get him. He sped over the desert, not taking the time to look back. Eventually, he figured that he had gone far enough and landed on the desert floor. He set down the egg and looked over his shoulder and WHAM! the eagle got him and took his body back to her nest to eat. 

 

The eagles egg was left forgotten on the desert floor. It was there that a mama sage-hen found it. A sage-hen is a fairly small flightless bird, also called a prairie chicken. This mama-sage hen being a fairly maternal bird took the egg home and cared for it like her own.

 

In time, the baby eagle hatched with the sage-hens. His "Mother" named him "Tex" because he was so big. Tex grew up and was taught the way of the sage hen, he pecked around on the desert floor, flipping over rocks and things looking for worms. He would look up from time to time and see the eagles soaring overhead and think "man, I wish I could do that."

 

Eventually one of these eagles looked down and saw Tex on the ground. Curious, this eagle swooped down to see what was going on.

"What are you doing here on the ground with all of these sage hens?" he asked.

Tex was startled, "What do you mean? I am a sage hen. Please don't eat me!"

The eagle was perplexed, "what do you mean you're a sage hen? Look at how tall you are! Look at how long your wings are. You're an eagle!"

Tex looked at himself. He was pretty tall, his wings were pretty long. He was an eagle!

They spent the rest of the afternoon teaching Tex how to soar from mountain top to mountaintop. It was the time of Tex's life doing the thing that he had never though possible.

 

however, Tex had to make a choice at the end of the day. Would he stay an eagle, or would he go back to being a sage hen?

 

Learn what happens next week. I'm waaay out of time.

 

Thanks for the letters and prayers.

Elder Johns.