Week 77 Letter

The p-day before Christmas and all through the city...

December 23, 2013

All:
http://www.mormonchannel.org/introduction-to-the-church

Some missionaries in Corona say that they found a letter addressed to me on the ground. It was in a pink envelope from June or July. Then they lost it. So, if anyone sent me a letter in a pink envelope 6 months ago, please let me know.  This is the second time this has happened...

This last week wasn't super eventful.

I got to go on Exchanges with Elder Coleman though (my old companion who is now an Assistant to the President). It was fun to spend the day with him again to talk and laugh about old times, and miss a lot of turns. I miss his guitar.

We had something of a funny experience yesterday. My companion while I was on exchange talked to a guy in our apartment complex who agreed to come to church. We swung by the morning of and confirmed that he was coming. But we didn't see him in sacrament. We stepped out to see if he was in the hall and a member of the stake presidency asked if we had a copy of the Book of Mormon. We asked why and he said "This guy and his girlfriend just showed up to church! They are in class right now."

We asked, "Is he black?"

"yes"

"yeah, we invited him. He's our investigator."

So it turns out, he showed up a half our early, caught the very end of the previous ward's sacrament meeting (they went way over due to their Christmas program) and then the Corona ward enveloped them, and took them to all the classes. Before we found them, they had been invited to two dinners, and two job offers! That's what I'm talking about! except it's the wrong ward...

Then our bishop thought that they were new move ins and gave them a form to get their records transferred over... <facepalm> but they had a good experience and we should start teaching them soon.

It doesn't really feel like Christmas is in two days. Perhaps that's because it was 90 degrees out the other day, but hey whatever, it's a little colder now.

Luke 2: 10-11 says:

 10 And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you ^agood tidings of great ^bjoy, which shall be to all people.
11 For unto you is ^aborn this day in the city of David a ^bSaviour, which is Christ the ^cLord.

Jesus Christ's atonement, preceded by his birth. Was the most important thing that has ever happened on the history of the earth. Let us all take a moment to ponder what Christmas really means, and what it means to us that Jesus Christ is our personal Saviour, and how we can in turn bring the "good tidings of great joy" to all people. Especially those that we come in contact with.

Merry Christmas, and a happy new year!

Love,

Elder Bryce Johns

Week 76 Letter

Corona round 2 week 3

December 16, 2013

All:

The weekdays were pretty average, biking around visiting people. There's a less-active lady in the ward that we've been meeting with who started her own Female Motorcycle Club "Heartless", She's pretty involved with that. But she came to church on Sunday! It was great seeing her there. 

We also ran into a man who didn't remember that he was baptized into our church. His mom joined the church when he was young, presumably he got baptized, and then she went back to being Catholic. He's an older gentleman so naturally, he told us his whole life story while we were there, which was at least mildly interesting it must be said. He wasn't interested though, and didn't really know why the "Mormons keep showing up."

The most exciting thing that happened this week was that I got to go back to Jurupa and baptize Bryan!

(I'm pretty sure I've talked about him in past emails, so I'm not going to go into background)

Elder Gordon called me up halfway through the week and said "Bryan asked you to baptize him, can you be here Saturday at 4?" of course, I said yes. 

The baptism went great, even though there were not a whole lot of people there. 

Bryan's a pretty big guy so I was a little nervous about baptizing him. But everything went smooth. When he came up out of the water, I gave him a hug and asked "how did you feel?" 

I feel "good, clean!" he said. You could feel the joy he was experiencing. A little later on he said "I feel like a new Bryan!" There was a special musical number, while the guy was singing I was playing over in my head all the scenes (good, bad, spiritual, frustrating) from Bryan's teaching process. The spirit that was present there was so sublime. I cannot describe it adequately with words.  

That is why I am here, to help people have that experience of coming to Jesus Christ. I know that he is there and that he performed the atonement for my sins. 

Thank you for everything, Merry Christmas

Elder Johns

The Corona Command Center:

My Companion Elder Wilkinson sitting at the kitchen table at our apartment. This photograph is a glimpse into the typical life(and kitchen table) of a missionary. Scriptures, Preach My Gospel, Planner, whiteboard with names, letters, the area book hiding in the background, dirty dishes, and a roll of toilet paper... 

 Guess what I ate:

That bottle, my friends is Dave's GHOST PEPPER hot sauce. The first ingredient is "Ghost Pepper", and the heat level says "insanity". We all put a couple drops on a chip and ate it. Needless to say, It was very, very, very  hot. I couldn't feel my mouth, I was sweating, and I could have sworn fire was coming out of my mouth. (we topped it off with some Habanaro sauce as well).

Obviously, I survived. And the effects wore off more quickly than I expected. I used to not like hot sauce. But. now I think that everything else will be chump change by comparison.  

Next time we go over to that member's house they are going to feed us Balut... Should be an... Interesting experience lol.

Week 75 Letter

Corona round 2 week 2

December 9, 2013

All:

This week has been pretty crazy. Since we were doubled into the area right before Zone Development Meeting (ZDM a meeting with the zone where we train on what we want everyone to focus on for this month, set goals etc.) we did a lot of administrative stuff; meetings, planning etc. Both for our own area and the zone. We certainly were tossed into an interesting situation as a zone. 

We didn't inherit any Investigators from the previous missionaries. So we've been biking around in the freezing cold visiting a bunch of people who have investigated the Church before, and part-member families. 

We did see some cool miracles though. One of which involved my companion's bike. 

Elder Wilkinson rides a Giant (fitting, I know) which has been wrecked pretty badly a few times (not all by him either). Anyway, so he's been riding around with the back break off because the axle was bent. Miraculously, I happened to have a spare axle. When I started my mission 17 months ago, my bike was missing it's front axle (I want to send a shout out to my grand-uncle Kim who gave me the bike: Thank you! I cannot tell you how awesome that bike has been all these months.) A little later, they sent both a front and a back axle. I only needed the front, but I decided to keep the rear one just in case. Everytime I have been transferred or even looked at it, the thought has run through my head: "I don't need that, I should toss it... Nah we'll hold onto it." Time and time again, almost every time I looked at the thing. This last week, I was able to fix my companion's bike. His rear axle was horribly bent, and I had a spare one which fits his bike. The bike still needs some repairs, but it's a lot better than it was. 

More than once this week, we have showed up to visit someone, knocked, discovered they weren't home, went back to our bikes, and then the person pulled up and we were able to talk to them/share a lesson.

I know that God is in the details of our lives. 

God is in the details of our lives.  

The ward here is pretty good. There are 80 part member families... Which is a ton! About half live on our side of the ward. There are some interesting Characters as well. Such as "Cowboy Bob". Cowboy Bob has recently started coming to church. He seriously looks like he walked out of a John Wayne movie. He wears a big black cowboy hat over his long, wispy white hair, black cowboy shirt/pants/boots and even one of those little ribbon tie/cravat things. He is very quiet and sits way in the back.

That's all I got for this week. Merry Christmas everyone! 

Love, 

Elder Bryce Johns  

Week 74 Letter

Corona Round 2 Week 1

December 3, 2013

All

Thanksgiving went pretty well. It wasn't quite as relaxing as I would like it to have been. But it was fun. We played in our ward's turkey bowl as well. Jurupa 2nd (us) vs Jurupa 1st. We won barely. Our team had a noticeable lack of big people, we had a lot of small fast people, which was good. However, the other team had a bunch of big dudes. Somehow I got stuck on the line up against this massive guy I swear he was 6'4 and over 250 lbs. He ate me for breakfast lol. But it was fun I guess. We had thanksgiving with our homeshare's family for lunch and then with another family at dinner time. I rationed myself very well so I didn't feel gross afterwards. I haven't had any leftovers for dinner with people since which is a little odd. 

I have some bad news about Junior. While his dad said yes, his mom said no. It will only be a matter of time though. Elder Gordon and his new companion will help her see the light I guess you could say.

Aside from that, we had a pretty good week. In which we picked up a new investigator named Tony. He's friends with one of the young women in our ward. He's been to church a couple times, and we started teaching him. Elder Gordon and I taught an amazing lesson on the restoration. We've always taught well together, but this lesson was the climax of our teaching in unity. It flowed so beautifully, and was totally guided by the spirit. It was awesome.  

So, I was really surprised on Saturday when I was told that I would be transferred back to Corona. I'm in a different ward than I was last, but It's still weird to be back in the Circle city as a zone leader. 

They gave us an interesting challenge. My new companion, Elder Wilkinson (who is 6'7 and a college basketball player) is awesome and has a lot of experience as a Zone Leader (like 9 months or something crazy like that). We both are new to this ward (getting "doubled in" or "whitewashed" as it's called) our ward also got split, and the other half got doubled in and one of them is brand new today. Our zone is new (they split the old Corona Zone) the areas we have are mostly the wards that haven't had a whole lot of missionary work going on for awhile. That being said, we have a lot of great and experienced missionaries with a lot of enthusiasm. Things are going to start moving here. I can feel it. 

Oh yeah, the icing on the cake is that we're on bike... Which is rather annoying............. 

Anyway, the next few weeks should be fun. Prayers, Christmas cards, and packages are always appreciated. 

Photos:

Nuni and Chayo, our recent converts, were both sad to hear I was leaving.

As was Anne. She's so sweet and stubborn. She's like our Grandma. But, She's been coming to church for 5 years. She introduced two of her daughters to the church (they both got baptized), and knows everything. But wont get baptized... she knows she needs too, but won't commit to doing so. 

Week 73 Letter

Jurupa Transfer 2 week 6 (O.o)

November 25, 2013

All:

So apparently I haven't brought up Junior before. Little bit of background, Junior is our Recent Convert, Adan's 14 year old little brother. Who has been sitting in on our lessons with Adan and Maribel since their baptism (which he attended). He has gained a testimony, has come to church several times, and wants to be baptized on
the 30th.

To do that, however, he would need his parent's permission. They have been a little resistant to the idea because they feel that he'd be switching churches without studying about theirs (Catholic, even though they don't go or really know about it themselves). We asked Adan and Junior to talk to their parents about it this week. Adan did, and his mom warmed up a little bit to the idea, but didn't say "yes". We found this out on Saturday and were a little saddened about it. We've been putting a lot of prayer and faith into Junior parent's giving him permission to be baptized this month. But we knew that it was just a matter of time.

The next day, we went over to have a lesson with them. When we got there, their dad was in the front room watching TV. As a missionary, I have a firm belief that God puts us in the right places at the right times to move forward his purposes, "By small and simple means are great things brought to pass."
We started talking with him. However, he speaks very little English. So by "we" I mean mostly Elder Gordon and Adan (who chimed in at the right moments, and translated). We talked about why there are so many churches, prophets, how the Book of Mormon and Bible work together, the priesthood authority, we watched the movie "The Restoration" (in Spanish). The spirit was super strong, Elder Gordon was basically given the gift of tongues so he could teach in Spanish. By the end, Adrian (the dad) was talking about how important faith in God was, and how as long as you were following Jesus Christ, it's good. Finally I asked him. "Adrian, Will you allow your son to follow his faith in Christ and be baptized by someone holding the Priesthood authority of God?" Before Adan finished Translating, he smiled and simply said: "Si". It was a huge answer to a lot of prayers. And he might even be interested in learning more.

We left their house walking on air. The scriptures say, "Our God is a God of miracles." It's true. While big ones happen, usually they are small and simple things that the Lord gives us the strength to do, or the opportunity to do His will in His way. That way is through the Spirit.




We also had a miracle with Bryan, we hadn't been able to meet with him for awhile. We made an apointment earlier in the week to meet at the church in an evening, but he didn't show up for 10 minutes so we went over to his house with our teamup. He wasn't their either. His Mom was a little upset "If you make an apointment with him, and he's not here that is wrong? I will talk to him"

We decided to swing by Friday when I was on exchange with Elder Yeung. It had been one of those days when we had no set apointments, and no one seemed to be home. But we knocked on their door and Bryan was home, and was happy to see and talk with us. It turns out that we missed each other at the church, we had left a few minutes before he got there, We laughed about the mixup.
Then, we sat down in our usual place outside, and his mom (By the way, it was cold and rainy last week, and that evening was especially cold, so we were teaching through our shivers.) came out and talked with us. It was pretty intense. She talked about how she really respected what we were doing, but she didn't want her kids to be confused because we were teaching out of the Book of Mormon, and she was teaching out of the Bible, also that she didn't want her kids to become Mormon because we were dragging them into it, but that they wanted it. Thanks to the spirit, we were able to explain a lot of things, and resolve a lot of concerns (they were very similar to Adan's dad's now I think about it).
When she left (to go to her church), Bryan rolled his eyes a little bit at his mom, and re-affirmed that he wanted us to teach him, and that what we've been teaching has really helped him out a lot in his life. We talked about repentance, and baptism. The spirit was certainly there. We scheduled an apointment with him 5 days a week at the church (a couple blocks from his house) at the same time to eliminate any scheduling issues.
The next day was the test to see if he was committed. Bryan doesn't have a car, and we can't give him a ride, so he has to walk to the church. The appropriate time, came and went. My companion (who wasn't there for the previous lesson) was a little skeptical that Bryan would come. I had faith in him though and we kept waiting. Finally I saw him down the road. "he's coming!". He came, we had a great lesson on the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and the word of widsom.He committed to be baptized on the 7th of December. He really want's the blessings of the Spirit in his life, and I've seen a difference in him as we've been meeting with him.
He also came to church yesterday and loved it. I'm really excited for him. We may also start teaching his girlfriend.


Two awesome miracles that I'm super thankful for. I also want to say some other things I'm thankful for since thanksgiving is this week.

• I'm thankful for:
• A loving Heavenly Father, who has given me the opportunity to live, to learn, and to grow. 
• A loving family, that supports me in all that I do.
• The guidance that comes from the scriptures, and especially through the spirit.
• A good raincoat and fleece liner.
• And a long list of other things that I don't have time to enumerate 8(

I hope everyone has a great thanksgiving, thank you for all the prayers and support. Letters are greatly appreciated.

Elder Bryce Johns

Trying to teach my companion how to photograph... He's getting better ;)

Week 72 Letter

Jurupa transfer 2 Week 5 already!

November 18, 2013

All

 

This week has been pretty good.  Junior is doing really well. He has received an answer about the Book of Mormon and wants to be baptized, but we still need his parents permission. They are funny, they have said "You need to study our religion before you change" but they don't read the bible, or go to church, ever. We're praying that their hearts will be softened. 

 

We had a good lesson with a new investigator couple this week. Devin and his Fiancee Corey. They have a 1 year old son as well. We've been trying to meet with them for a long time to have an actual "lesson". But finally we did, we shared the message of the restoration, explained the Book of Mormon (which they've been reading) and invited them to be baptized in December. They said yes. Corey was really into it, she was smiling a lot and was talking about how she's willing to "try Christianity out again and see if it's something she should make a part of her life". Which was cool. She's been going through a pretty rough time because her horse died not too long ago and she was really attached to it. 

 

We played ultimate frisbee for p-day activity today, it was really fun. The field was all muddy (just like back home) which kept things interesting. We also had fun messing around on the playground equipment. They've really amped the things up since I was little.  

 

Maribel got called to be the young women's secretary in our ward, which she'll be great at. They are so awesome, and they are really good at talking to people about the gospel. 

 

 

We had a really great stake meeting last tuesday with all the Ward Mission Leaders in the stake along with the high councilman over missionary work, and representatives from the stake and mission presidency. Elder Gordon and I were asked to train on how to utilize the ward missionaries to visit members and commit them to have missionary experiences; based on a formula that I've come up with. The training went really well, we roleplayed a brief visit and then the HC over Missionary work left solid commitments with the WML's which should really help move the work forward in the stake. It was an excellent, spirit filled meeting which really drove home a big lesson that I was compelled to learn this week. Which I will have to talk about next week. 

 

Cool quote from church yesterday. "Cultivate a spirit of Charity; be ready to do for others more than you would expect from them if the circumstances were reversed" ~Teachings from the life of Lorenzo Snow manual. 

 

Thank you for your prayers. Letters are greatly appreciated. 

Love, Elder Johns

A typical patch of old town Mira Loma. Where we spend most of our time (people are outside more there, unfortunately most of them speak spanish. My companion speaks it pretty well, and I can say enough to offer a blessing so we can communicate at least halfway.)

The other half of our area, "Sky Country" looks like this.

 Jeff Foxworthy Might have something to say about these photos:

We helped this sister in our ward clean out her front porch, this is in the middle of the process. There was a LOT of spiders, and dust, and misc. junk. That we had to re-arrange so we could fit... 

 

A futon which was being munched on by a goat (that I would have sent a picture of if I could send more than one at a time <facepalm>)onto the porch. The futon was really disgusting, covered in dog hair and feces. We cleaned it up a bit, but you can only do so much with a broom. The porch looked pretty good when we left though.

 

The sad part of this story is that her son and his wife live in a tiny room in the garage and they don't help out at all with rent, or any of the yard work (which is why we help out a lot with stuff because the sister has a bad back and a lot of other health complaints). They just chill, drinking, smoking and watch tv. There is so much more to life! It makes me sad whenever we are there helping out with stuff.

 

We do a lot of service as missionaries, which is good.  

"Inasmuch ye have done this unto the least of these my brethren ye have done it unto me."

Week 71 Letter

Jurupa transfer 2 week 4

All

It's been an eventful week.

I went on exchange with the Chinese speaking elders last Wednesday, which was fun. I did a lot of smiling and nodding. They have an investigator out in Hemet (about an hour's drive away), which we went and taught a lesson with. Chinese work is rather different from English culturally. Of this particular investigator one of the Chinese missionaries said "He said he's down to be baptized, if he comes to believe in Jesus" and that's typical.

On the way back from that lesson, we passed by the Scientology world headquarters. It's in the most random place ever, just outside Hemet (which is not the nicest town ever...) against the mountain. They have a random fairytale style castle made with stucco, what looked like a pirate ship, a ton of blue roofed/trimmed cottages and a couple massive mansions. The land they bought had a bunch of houses on it already, which have been abandoned. The whole set up is really weird. But hey, whatever floats your boat.

I also helped with their English Class. I may have mentioned helping out with the UCR English class before, this time I went to the one in Eastvale. Which has a very different dynamic. While UCR is all young exchange students, the Eastvale one is all retired Chinese people, and is run differently. It was still fun though.

We had several lessons with Adan Maribel and Junior. Which went great. Junior really wants to be baptized, (we set a goal for the 23rd) but first he needs to get permission from his parents. So some prayers for their hearts to be softened would be appreciated.

Another cool thing, Maribel got called to be in Young Womens on Sunday! She's pretty excited. Adan and Maribel are so awesome! They have a super strong testimony of the Atonement, I can't believe how prepared they were to receive the gospel. They're about as "Golden" as they come. 

We got a really cool referral from the Spanish Sister missionaries as well. Her name is Jessica. They were walking by, talked to her, said a prayer for some things she was going through, and gave her a restoration pamphlet. They went back a few days later and taught the restoration. Jessica had read the pamphlet and believed what she read, and was even looking up the scriptures in the "additional questions" section in the back. However, she's more comfortable in English, so they handed her over to us. We had a great lesson on the Plan of Salvation. She's been reading the book of Mormon, and said (relatively out of the blue in the context of our conversation) "I believe that Joseph Smith saw God. She wants to get baptized when she receives her answer that it's true. Her sister walked by and it turned out that we had talked to the sister the day before in the Gas Station.

We also said a prayer over a really sick horse (which flopped over on the ground a couple times while we were talking with the family.) That was interesting. They had never even heard of Mormons before.

I recently discovered a jewel of Mexican food. We cover a predominantly Hispanic town (full of dogs, dirt, and dusty horses) so there are a lot of Mexican fruit salesman, ice-cream men, and "corn men". I love corn on the cob, Mexican corn on the cob is epic. They stab a big stick into the corn and then smother it in: Mayo, butter, Parmesan cheese (which I ask them to leave off), and chili powder. It is as amazing as it is messy. My companion really loves it. We'll be driving around and he's looking "where's the corn guy?"

We also met a less-active family in the ward who are pretty cool. They have a 7 year old son who wants to be baptized, but they need to come to church. Anyway, the mom is a hardcore couponer, and she loaded us up with stuff. She got 28 of the big powerades for $5, a nice pair of men's jeans for $0.10 some of the examples of the deals she's found recently.

Cool Scripture from this week
"... let us lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us" Hebrews 12:1
Also, "The Lord Chasteneth those he loveth" ~Somewhere in the Pauline Epistles, that's true too.
And one for you to look up Alma 26:22

Thank you all, letters are greatly appreciated.

Love,
Elder Bryce Johns     

Week 70 Letter

Jurupa transfer 2 week 3

(Nov 4, 2013 email)

All:

This week has been pretty interesting.

Sister Smith Our homeshare, is the sweetest old lady. Super kind, almost to a fault. We got our shower fixed, and we made spaghetti for her (and us) the other day. It went pretty well. (the fire alarm going off actually wasn't our fault, something had spilled in the oven and was burning when we put in the garlic bread). I do miss the apartment, but I'm happy about our living situation. 

We find the coolest random stuff as missionaries. Like this whiteboard.
We were going through the ward list visiting less-active members when we stopped by the house to the left in the picture. Out front were two dressers and the whiteboard (pictured). E. Gordon's said "dude, I want that whiteboard" and I agreed it would be pretty sweet. So we knocked on the door.... aaand no one answered. Dejected, we walked back to the car and began to write a sticky note saying "hey, we want your whiteboard, call us" when a van drove by and dropped off a kid in front of the house we had just left.
Elder Gordon jumped out, and yelled "hey! Are you selling that whiteboard?" and the kid said, "let me go ask my mom."
He walked inside, and came back. "two dollars". We only had a 5. He went back in to get change, and we saw his mom walking around to get her purse. We said hi. I hope she felt akward for not answering the door (So rude!)
Moral of the story, We scored a sweet whiteboard for only $2.

 Halloween was pretty good. We spent most of the day planning and preparing our zone meeting the next day. But we went out and talked to people in the afternoon.
Our beloved eterni-gator Anne took us out to dinner. She's 70 years old, and has been coming to church for 5 years. She believes everything, and wants to get baptized, but flatly refuses to set a date. We tease her relentlessly about it (and she reciprocates).
After dinner we went to the stake center and set up for our zone activity. We got permission to watch the movie "Ephraim's Rescue" (we got a projector, and hooked it up to the sound system in the gym, so technically it was about as close as we could get to a movie theater.) It was a great movie (granted, I haven't seen any for a long time, but still), I certainly recommend it. It's about the Martin Handcart company and one of the rescuers, a true story, and a tear-jerker. 

We had a little miracle that day as well. We were pulling out of the church before the activity started (we needed to run home and grab something) when we ran into Bryan and Jeffery walking the other way. We haven't been able to meet with them for weeks. We flagged them down, and set up an appointment. Bryan really wants the gospel in his life, he's been reading the Book of Mormon even though we haven't met in awhile. Unfortunately, his parents are... frankly, they're jerks. They've slammed the door in our face a couple times. But they didn't let Bryan come to church yesterday because they were cleaning. It's rather annoying.

I had the privilege yesterday of Conferring Adan to the Aaronic Priesthood. It was an awesome experience (although I messed up the wording and had to start over). They are progressing well in the Gospel. They also gave us a whole flat of Strawberries (Adan's family runs a farm out behind their house)!

I also got an email today from the Solis' (my recent convert family in Murrieta) They are doing great and are going to be sealed on the 25 of January at the San Diego temple. I've got permission to go from my mission president, and I am super excited (I'm looking forward to that even more than Christmas). It's crazy that it's almost been a year since Oscar's baptism.  It is amazing to know that I had the privilege of helping to bring that family together forever.

The Gospel is so true, I know it and see it day after day, time after time. Although we experience trials and hardships. The Lord will strengthen us, lighten our burdens, and give us the words to speak. And the Only way we can know is if we follow the invitation of the Savior "Come and see".

Thank you all for your prayers and letters.
Love,
Elder Bryce Johns

Maribel, Aden and I in their greenhouse.

Week 69 Letter

Jurupa transfer 2 week 2

October 28, 2013

Adan and Maribel's Baptism!

Elder Knudsen is ont he Left, and E. Coleman on the Right.

Sister Smith, our 80 year old homeshare, and I. 

All

 

My new companion is Elder Gordon. He's an ASL missionary (he's hearing), so he's been serving in the deaf branch for the last 6 months. He's really cool. He's from North Ogden, and went to Weber State for a semester. So we know a lot of the same places, and I would often drive by his house on the way home from work/school. we don't known anyone in common yet though. 

 

Our new homeshare is pretty good. It's a little odd living with an 80 year old lady. But the only complaint I have is that the shower's water output is litereally on par with that of a drinking fountain, and there is little in between the extremes of boiling lava hot, and ice cold. lol. 

 

Yesterday I was able to Confirm Adan, and participate in Maribel's Confirmation, it was such a great experience. The Spirit was super strong. They are so amazing! 

However, since they've become members, our investigator pool is basically back to zero. But the Lord will provide. 

 

We also had the ward Trunk or Treat on Saturday. it was really fun and almost all of our recent converts came and had a good time. There were a lot of non-members there as well. However, they don't live in our half of the ward, which is somewhat annoying, but good that they were there. 

 

Working hard down in Mira Loma, land of pitbulls/german shepards, horses, Mexicans and dust. 

 

Thanks for your love and support,

love, Elder Bryce Johns. e

Week 68 Letter

Transfer Day

October 21, 2013

Okay so hopefully I'll be able to come back and write a longer email. My companion just got a call that we have to go and be with a missionary because his companion is getting transferred. 

 

I'm staying, I have a new companion, Elder Gordan. But i'm moving into a homeshare with a different address which I don't have currently... Sorry, it's in my planner which I don't have on me.

 

Sad story. One of our recent converts, mark. He was super solid and then randomly stopped showing up to church and not answering our phone calls. He decided to go back to his old (born again) church... We bore down in pure testimony in one of the most intense lessons I've ever been in, and told him that us and the prophets in the Book of Mormon would bear witness to him at judgement day that what we say is true. We challenged him to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it. A few days later he called us a few days later and basically just bashed (well it wasn't really a bash because he doesn't know enough to bash) with us. "I opened up the BOM and the first thing I read is that the Book of Mormon is comparable to the bible, nothing is comparable to the bible..." It's super sad.

 

Happy story: Adan and Maribel's baptism went great, they have been really prepared. The day before and the day of their baptism they were having a really rough time but it all panned out. I also had to dunk Maribel twice, I almost cracked her head on the side the first time and she didn't go all the way under. It was a little embarrassing. But she took it well.

 I have pics but I can't send them from this lame computer at the apartment complex, they've locked the tower in so I can't plug in my jump drive and It's probably too slow to send them anyway. 

 

Hopefully I'll be able to write more later, I have some cool stuff to share, and I remembered to bring the girls letters, but b/c of Transfer day crazyness it may not happen...  8(

 

Love you all soo much! 

Elder Bryce Johns

Week 67 Letter

Jurupa Week 6 already!?

October 15, 2013

All

This week has been a blur. Scratch that, these last 5 weeks have been a blur. 

 

Most exciting news of the week. Adan and Marybell are all set for their baptism this Sunday. Elder Coleman will be baptizing Adan, and I will be baptizing Marybell. and we'll switch for the confirmations. They are so ready, we had a game night with some of the young families in the ward to help them get to know people. 

We also had a cool experience. Marybell had a question about whether or not we can eat pork (the Mosaic law forbids it), we explained about how Christ fulfilled the Mosaic law and how Peter was told that the meat was made "clean". I didn't know where that was though, so I told them that we'd look it up. She shared how the night after we left she couldn't sleep so at 12 or 1 in the morning she opened up her scriptures, found the verse we were talking about (In Acts 9 I think), and some other scriptures that answered questions she had. She told us that "I felt so good, I wanted to call everyone and tell them how happy I was, I slept well after that. God answered my prayer"

It's so awesome being a part of that.  

 

Not a lot else to report on, or time to do so.

 

Thank you for your prayers, and packages, please write,

Elder Bryce Johns 

Week 66 Letter

Jurupa Week 5

October 7, 2013

 I had a salad for two lunches this week (using fresh, organic spinach, carrots, apples, and roast beef. Yesterday I made home fries from raw potatoes. I felt very accomplished lol.

All:

So remember how last week I said we were praying (we also ended up fasting) for Adan to get work off permanently on Sundays? He did. He asked his boss (incidentally his dad. They run a small farm so they go to farmer's markets pretty much on a daily basis. Sunday is a pretty big day for that sort of thing.) and his boss allowed him Sundays off permanently. We were actually on exchanges that day so I wasn't there, but Elder Coleman told me about it.
Adan and Marybell attended the last session of general conference. They enjoyed it a lot and took a bunch of notes. They're super excited for their baptism on the 19th. We are as well.

Our other investigators Bryan and Jeffery (they're brothers and are 20 and 19 respectively) are also progressing in the gospel. They don't really have any religious background and come from a tough household situation, but they love coming to church, and they understand and want the blessings of the spirit in their lives. It's funny because the first thought you have when looking at them is "look at those punks..." but they are really cool. It's awesome to be able help people change and see them become happy. That's really what it's all about. Is helping people be happy, that's why I love being a missionary.

Cool quote from Elder Richard's training two weeks ago (I didn't catch the source)
"As a straw thrown up indicates the direction of the wind, even so the little things in our lives indicate the direction we're going" ~unknown

This last week Elder Coleman and I held our first zone meeting. It was my first one as a zone leader. It was a little weird coming up with the trainings and running the meeting etc. I'm not too sure how well it went, but hopefully the zone will start applying the things we talked about in their missionary work.

General conference was awesome as usual.  I really liked both of President Uchtdorf's talks especially His first one.
 I  really liked how bold the apostles were.

Well I'm out of time (as usual.)
Thank you for all of your support,
Elder Bryce Johns

Week 65 Pictures

Pictures from Jurupa

Nuni's baptism. 

Elder Coleman Being an amazing guitarist (literally). I love to listen to him play.

Elder Coleman making a phone call like a boss. This is probably my favorite photograph I've taken in a loooong time. 

"So, where are we going now Elder Coleman?"
"uhh.... Well... What do you think?"

One of the companionships in the adjacent zone pranked our car. It says "Just married". Some random person congratulated us earlier today. It's rather embarrassing. We'll get them back though. 

Week 65 Letter

Jurupa Week 4

(Sept 30th 2013)

All

This last week has been insanely busy.
On Tuesday there was a training for all Bishops, Ward Mission leaders and Ward missionaries (and Zone leaders). Elder Richards and Elder Hiam of the seventy spoke on hastening the work, and how to get the ball rolling.

On Wednesday we had meetings all day. Elder Richards of the seventy came and gave a bunch of trainings. It was pretty great and I learned a lot. I will bring my notes next week and share some of the things he talked about.

he talked a lot about simplicity in teaching. "Cutting the fluff" and teaching the fundamentals and testifying.
There are 4 fundamental truths that people must understand to gain a testimony.
   1st The Atonement of Jesus Christ
   2nd The First Vision
   3rd The Book of Mormon
   4th The Priesthood authority has been restored.

I'll share more next week when I bring my notes.

Two of our investigators, Marybell and Adan are progressing awesomely. We have several awesome lessons with them a week. They "get it". It's so cool, they recognize the spirit and the change that it's been making in their lives. Their holdup has been that Adan works on Sundays (an investigator has to attend church at least 3 times before they can be baptized). But he was able to make it yesterday and they stayed the whole time. They are super excited for their baptism the 19th. We all have been praying that Adan will be able to get work off permanently on Sundays.
I love being a missionary! It is so amazing to see the gospel help people's lives.

Another thing elder Richard's said which struck me was he presented an equation (it's not exactly an equation but w/e)
Happiness is directly proportional to having the spirit which is directly proportional to our Faithfulness. In other words. We are happy when we have the Spirit with us, we can have the spirit with us as we make good choices and do the things that God has asked us to.

I'm looking forward to General Conference this weekend. I invite everyone to watch it, and go with questions. I promise that those questions will be answered.

This transfer has gone insanely fast.

Thanks everyone! Please write, I'm still working on responding.
Elder Johns

Week 64 Letter

Jurupa Transfer 1 week 3

All
My goodness. So much has been happening!

We had a baptism last Sunday (I guess I didn't mention in my last letter). Her name is Nuni. I pretty much walked in on her baptism with the transfer. But it was still cool to teach her the week leading up to it, and since. She got confirmed a member of the Church and recieved the Gift of the Holy Ghost yesterday. It is so cool to hear convert's testimonies and the 180's people make in their lives for the gospel. Why do they do this? Because it is the truth. and "the truth will set you free." Free from the bondage of sin, and partakers of the cleansing blood of Christ. Simply put, the gospel allows people to feel true joy. I've seen and experienced that time and time again.

We also met with a part member family of "Bro's". We were talking to them as they were digging a pretty serious set of dirt BMX jumps next to their house. They were pretty cool, funny, and steryotypical. They were reminescing about all of their big crashes/injuries We even left a blessing with them that they wouldn't get hurt during their big ride that weekend.

Last sunday we had a couple investigators at church, including Bryan. He's in his 20's and has had a pretty rough life so far. We're teaching him, his brother jeffery, and their friend Anthony. Bryan is the most receptive spiritually, he loved church and has a strong desire for God to become a part of his life, he's on date to be baptized in October. Jeffery isn't quite as spiritual but is curious and wants to learn more. They weren't able to come to church Sunday though because their ride (Anthony) never showed up.

A few days ago we met with a recent convert, Mark. He joined the church about a month ago and is the only member in his family (so far anyway, we've been trying to meet with his wife). He's been going through a pretty rough time. He's been looking for work, his in-laws died, and his son recently got in trouble with the law. (It's kind of a crazy story. Long story short, his son inadvertantly became a getaway driver of a robbery. He ran for it when the police tried to pull him over. The cops shot the car a few times, and his son is in Jail awaiting trial). We swung by right after the police dropped off the car. It was pretty beat up, windows blown out, bullet holes, and the interior messed up where the police pulled it apart to get their bullets back. Obviously it wasn't the best time to have a lesson. But he wanted to pray with us. \
Mark said the most humble prayer I have ever heard in my life. It was a simple, submissive, and intimate plea for aid. The spirit was so strong, I was fighting back tears (I basically never cry, so that's saying something). Looking back, the words of the Savior come to mind: "Blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth." (Math 5:4-5). Standing there in his dusty driveway, next to a bullet torn car, amidst the whinying and clomping of horses was a little patch of heaven.

Well, I'm out of time

Thank you for your prayers. Please Write.
Elder Bryce Johns

Week 63 Pictures

Elder Coleman my new Companion and "Taylor" our Chevy Cruze.

Nuni Cerda's Baptism

Week 63 Letter

Well... I typed out a letter last week, and thought I sent it,,,

All:
Apparently Last week's letter not only didn't go through, but  for some inexplicable reason vanished into cyberspace completely (yay for technology).

I got transferred to be a zone leader over the Jarupa Zone. I'm now serving in a town called Mira Loma.
Mira Loma is VERY diffirent from my corner of Corona. The houses are much older, the lots much larger. People on horseback are everywhere. In fact, there are no Sidewalks, only horse trails and those are only in the nicer areas, usually the street is right up against people's chain link fences. There are lots of Hispanics, and lots of older people.

Missionary work wise, this area is awesome! We have a good pool of investigators and had a baptism yesterday, which was awesome. We also share the ward with another set of Elders.

My new companion, Elder Coleman is an amazing missionary. We get along really well. He's from Colorado and is pretty easy going personality wise, and knows the scriptures like the back of his hand. He is also a phenominal guitar player. He plays Classical guitar, along with blues and rock. I love to sit and listen to him play during lunch and in the evenings. We work well together.

We also live in the most expensive apartment in the mission (literally), with a trio of Chinese speaking missionaries, who are really cool. It's a blast and really nice. We even have a garage.

This last week has been insanly busy.

 My first night we had dinner with the Stake President (who's in our ward) and over the course of our conversation he asked me to give a training in stake Missionary Coordination Meeting on utilizing ward missionaries. Which is all well and good, except that the meeting was the next day (it went pretty well, although our ward mission leader wasn't there so we'll have to re-train him).
The Jarupa stake put on the play "The Fiddler on the Roof" with showings Thursday, Friday and Saturday. We went to opening night to usher and we got to see the play. It was really amazing, the quality of everything was exceptionally high and there were a lot of none-members there as well. During the intermission a teen-age girl (she reminded me a lot of my sister Lyndee, except black) came up and asked us a ton of really good questions. I've had a few of the songs intermittantly stuck in my head since then.
On Friday I went on exchange with one of the Assistants to the President. AP Moser. I went over to his area. He's a Spanish speaking missionary so for several of the lessons I was reduced to smiling and nodding. But it went well and I learned a lot. Especially the importance of being bold when extending invitations.
Sunday we had church (we had four investigators there. one of them, Brian, who elder Coleman met on Friday really liked it. He was nodding and really engrossed during the classes.) and a bunch of meetings.
Throughout the week we've been having lessons, having great gospel conversations with people we come in contact with, leaving blessings in people's homes. I've had about 4 people walk up and ask us questions, something that hasn't happened to me in months.

The bar has certainly been raised for me. We're responsible for 9 missionary companionships, 5 of which are sister companionships. I'm expected to be an the example and leader in pretty much every aspect of missionary life. But hey, the Lord qualifies whom he calls and I've certainly seen that. I've become a much better missionary in just a week, and have seen many tender mercies of the Lord.

"Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen." Matthew 28: 19-20

Thank you for your prayers. Please Write. I'm working on responding.

Elder Bryce Johns

Letter from Mission President

Letter from Mission President about Elder Johns being made a zone leader

12 September 2013 

Mr. and Mrs. David P. Johns 

Dear Brother and Sister Johns,

It is with great pleasure that I announce Elder Bryce David Johns's new assignment as a Zone Leader in the California Riverside Mission.   It is an honor to have your son serving in this position.  As a Zone Leader he will continue to be an example in all things for those missionaries under his jurisdiction.  His great efforts and example in his previous assignments have qualified him for this opportunity.  The experience he will gain as a Zone Leader will prepare him for future callings in the Church and in life.

It is a pleasure to work in the gospel with such fine young men.  May I again, thank you for sharing your son with us and for the support that you provide him.  May God's choicest blessings be with you.

Sincerely,   

 

Paul F. Smart, President

Week 62 Pictures

The "Relief Society" (my district for the last 6 weeks)


I think that I mentioned that I was the relief society president (district leaders over a district of sisters)
Left: S. Jenkins, Bateman, Jin, Tucker. me, Elder Blackburn
It's been an interesting experience being a district leader over only sisters. One thing I will say, there were a lot of health problems, and blessings asked for. But they are all hard workers and really love the people they're working with no matter how crazy they are.
This transfer sis. Jenkins, Bateman, and Tucker (who will now be on bike) are all training.

Three mission "generations"
My trainer Elder Clark (came back to visit) me, and my son Elder Blackburn and the wrong white balance...

Me, hot, sweaty, nasty, and ready to preach the word...

Me, Ed Parkin (who's started to come back to church after many years of being less-active), and "the lamp". He is one of those people who buys and sells stuff(antiques, Disney stuff, McDonald's toys you name it) online
(and does really well at it) 

Email from the Hackney Family in Elder Johns area

We received a nice letter from the Hackney family:

To the family of Elder Johns,

We wanted to drop you a line to let you know how blessed we are to have your son as one of the missionaries in our home. Elder Johns and Elder Blackburn have been so great to our family. They both bring exceptional qualities including leadership and of course they always provide the spirit. Elder Johns is a great senior companion as well. He works hard to have a plan going all the time!! My oldest son has been going on splits with them as he prepares to go to Indiana on his mission in November. I’m sure that your son will take this experience today that he will grow to lead others throughout his life as he is doing today!! Again, thank you for your son’s efforts to serve the lord and serve our family.

Sincerely, Dustin, Allison, Alex, Devin and Bryce.

Week 61 Letter

Week 6 of transfer 3 in Corona Possibly the last here 8S

Letter from 9/2/2013

All:
The weather here has been miserable this last week. It's been in the 100's/high 90's and with uncharacteristically high humidity for So Cal.  We actually had to take a walking day because it was too hot to ride our bikes.

We had a bitter-sweet experience the other day. Our home-share (the person whose house we live at, Bro. Higgins) hometeaches a less-active family that we've been trying to contact for ages. We had an appointment scheduled for Tuesday at seven. So we show up with him and no one is home (more likely, no one answered the door). Bro Higgins said let's get some cookies and leave a note. So we went to the store, and decided on a pie, left at the family's door with a note saying "Sorry we missed you, please give us a call to reschedule".

Figuring that would be the end of it for that evening, bro Higgins took us to Wendy's for a frosty. While we were waiting for our food, the family called, thanked us for the pie and invited us over.
So we went and had a great visit. They talked about their conversion story in Mexico, and how they went to such great lengths to go to church. Bro. Higgins did most of the talking on our end, but the Spirit was palpably there. We invited them to come to church. They accepted and prayed that they would be able to do so.
Fast forward to Saturday. We get a text "  BROTHER... I'M SO SORRY... I DON'T THINK WE;RE GOING TO BE ABLE TO GO TO CHURCH TOMORROW..."
Long story short, they didn't come to church. It's sometimes frustrating. They know they need to go, they feel the Spirit telling them they need to go, but they don't.

Unfortunately, I'll have to continue the bike analogy next week. Out of time again. I'll work on it beforehand so I can just type it out.

Thanks for the prayers, please write.

Elder Bryce Johns

Week 60 Email and Pictures

Week 5 of 3rd transfer Corona, El Cerrito
Letter from August 26, 2013

All:

Life lessons from my bicycle.

Lesson 1: Focus on what's in front of you

Recently, I bought a rear-view mirror that attaches to my helmet. Although my companion teases me about it, I think it was a great investment. I can look back and see cars coming, see how far behind me E. Blackburn is, and see whatever else is behind me (obviously).

Since buying the mirror I've sometimes become so distracted looking at things behind me that I almost run into something. This has happened a more than once.
The other day, I was looking straight down at my chain. It was making a funky noise or something. Then, to my surprise, I ran over a big branch (with lots of little twigs sticking up everywhere) and almost crashed. I had no warning because I was only paying attention to the exact spot where I was at, and a potential problem that I had. So much so that I missed a much bigger problem ahead.

So, as we ride through the vicissitudes (one of my favorite words) of life We shouldn't focus on the where we've been, nor should we focus on the exact spot we are at right now, even when we are having problems. As we look ahead, we are able to see where we are going, and avoid problems that we may have plowed straight into.
This also relates to faith. Faith is inherently forward looking (there's a better word, but whatever) as we move forward with faith we are able to avoid the problems of sin and self inflicted sorrows. This does not mean that things wont still happen (like flat tires, or chains locking, or people throwing coke cans at you), or that we know exactly where we're going. But as we look ahead with hope in Christ we succeed. "Trust God, and believe in good things to come"   

lesson 2: Life is like riding a bike in a hilly area. It's mostly uphill.

As I've been riding my bike around I've been paying attention to my speedometer. On average we ascend a hill at around 4-5mph (talking mostly about the steep ones, which is most of them. The baby hills we go 7-10mph). In contrast, we descend anywhere from 20-40mph. In other words, we descend 2-10 times faster than we ascend.

Some people seem to think that "well, at least it's 50/50 going up and down." When it really isn't. We spend the large majority of our time going up since it is so much slower. I'm too lazy to do the math, but probably around 70%ish uphill.
And I am out of time, so we get to finish that thought next week. Along with some more pictures.
Elder Clark(my trainer) came and visited on Saturday and some other really cool stuff happened which will have to wait.

Thank you so much for everything. Love you!

Elder Bryce Johns




The funny thing is that Corona street isn't even in Corona, It's in the unincorporated (county) part of our area. That whole area is odd because it's just a random section of county in the city. Nothing there is standardized, the streets are horrible in comparison to the rest of town, there's a random smattering of streetlights, some people get mail delivered to boxes at their driveway, others have to use community boxes super far away, there are speedbumps wherever the homeowners wanted them (when they paved the streets, they knocked on the doors and would put a speedbump in front of your house for $50) and all the houses are custom.



OH MY GOSH! ELDER BLACKBURN I HAS A KITTEH IN MAH HELMET!!!!



A (slightly) less retarded looking picture of the same incident. When your biking up crazy hills at speed in high temperatures you become all sweaty, nasty, and perhaps a little loopy (more so than usual anyway). Therefore one must take little rays of light (or fur in this case) when you can get them.

Also, if you look closely at my glasses, you will notice that they are a light mousey gray. They used to be black a year ago...

Week 59 Email

A letter from El Cerrito week 4 of the 3rd transfer

(August 19, 2013)

All:

So update with the wrist.
Went to the physical therapist he said that I probably messed up the cartilage in my wrist and gave me some exercises , told me to ice it and keep it in the splint. I go back on Wednesday.
Things are starting to take off in the ward as far as missionary work.
And that's all for today...

Week 58 email

A letter needing a typesetter... I never know how to title these lol

(Aug 12, 2013)

 

All:

So now that I've been out for 13 months, I finally got around to bringing my notes or "reflections" on my first year as a missionary. It only took a month to remember to bring it. So here are some thoughts:

"Trust God, and believe in good things to come"~Jeffery Holland

This has become my motto. In essence faith is looking forward with hope and actions to make that hope a reality.  A major lesson I have learned is to have patience and trust in the Lord's timing. Even though it seems like nothing is happening miracles happen every day. 

Like yesterday, we needed to call someone who we heard might be interested in the lessons. We were in an area with little to no service (like pretty much everywhere in our area. We said a prayer before I made the call. I dialed the number and waited for it to connect. "Dang, no service." I said and not a second later, we had full bars and were able to have a great conversation in perfect clarity. Tender Mercies. 

For people to change, you and/or they must change their experiences.

The Results pyramid:

Results: Seen

Actions: Seen

Beliefs: Unseen

Experiences: Unseen

People's experiences lead to their beliefs, which lead to their actions, which lead to the results of their actions. This has a lot of applications in business and social aspects but also for us as missionaries. We need to help people to have experiences with the spirit so they can feel that confirming witness of the truthfulness of our message and then act on it.

Never Pray for patience because if you do you will gain opportunities to exercise it (I still may be getting the ramifications of that one)

The Path to perfection is simply making our mistakes smaller and farther apart.

Teach with the spirit, testify with power.

If you talk the talk you must walk the walk

So, be honest and upfront about your shortcomings. 

That's all I have time for

Thank you for everything, please write

Elder Bryce Johns

Week 57 Email

El Cerrito's all the way across the sky...

(Email from August 5, 2013)


All

PSA:

Christian n. 1.(a) one who professes belief in the teachings of Jesus Christ. (b) disciple.

~Mirriam-Websters Collegiate Dictionary

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints:

We believe in God, the Eternal Father, and in His Son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost.

We believe that through the Atonement of Christ, all mankind may be saved, by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel

We believe that the first principles and ordinances of the Gospel are: first, Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; second, Repentance; third, Baptism by immersion for the remission of sins; fourth, Laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost.

We believe the Bible to be the word of God as far as it is translated correctly; we also believe the Book of Mormon to be the word of God.

~The Articles of Faith of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints: 1,3,4 and 8.

For the record, Mormons, Coptics, Catholics, Greek Orthodox, Lutherans, Seventh Day Adventists, Anglicans etc. All qualify as "Christian" not just Evangelicals/born-agains.

okay, any questions? No? Good. 

Just thought I'd share that, it's a common issue we run into.  

This week has been pretty interesting.

Our focus has been working with the members, and encouraging them to be missionaries. It's been really cool seeing the mood of the ward shift towards doing missionary work and being loving friends and neighbors.

We were leaving a house-blessing with a family in the ward who is British. We were asking each of them for things/needs that they would like to be blessed with. We got the four year old, "what would you like?"

"banaahnas" she replied in her little accent. It was probably the cutest thing ever. She kept saying random things that were hilarious. "...I've just been watching films"

We also discovered that "husbands don't always believe in life insurance, BUT WIDOWS ALWAYS DO!" At least, that is what I read...

Out of time

Thanks for everything, please write.

Elder Bryce Johns

Week 56 Email

Still in Corona for another six weeks

(Email: June 29, 2013)

All:

So this week was the end of the transfer. I'm staying in Corona to finish training elder Blackburn. However, they realigned the districts so that it's now just Blackburn and I and two sister companionships, which makes me the "relief society president" as the missionary parlance goes. It should be interesting getting used to the new dynamic. (I decided to go with a positive remark rather than the one I originally wrote out...)

On the subject of women. We were riding our bikes near a shopping center and rode past a woman who was obviously not very happy to be walking...
I asked her how she was doing,
"Not good!" she snapped.
"Can we help with anything?"
"NO!"
We rode on a bit and saw a car parked right in the middle of a right hand turn with it's hazard lights on. It was one of those yielded intersections where the right turn flows into the other street like a "Y". A very dangerous place to be stopped.
 We realized that the car must be the lady who was walking. we parked our bikes and waited for her to get back.
"hey, drop it into neutral and we can get it out of the intersection"
"I don't think I can do that..."
"why not?"
she went into this long winded explanation about how the engine was "revving" when she wasn't hitting the gas, so she didn't want to turn the car on.
"you can drop it into neutral without turning the car on" (in my experience anyway)
she tried, and couldn't figure it out. 
Her friend and another car showed up and they all said "drop it into neutral and we'll push it out of the intersection"
But this lady was adamant that she couldn't turn the car on, because the car could jump and crash into something... (that wasn't what was happening before she turned the car off, and there wasn't anything to crash into for 60 feet in any direction)
Finally the AAA guy showed up and we left.

There's no helping some people. There's probably a metaphor/life lesson in there somewhere. I'll let you figure it out.

So finally the story I've been hinting at for three weeks. I'm writing it first so I don't run out of time.

So we've been working with sister D'Amore for awhile, helping her to come back after years of inactivity.  We had a loose plan for our lesson, depending on whether or not her non-member husband was there. We show up and her non-member sister, Carla, is there, along with a member of the ward. And then the Spirit took over. It was awesome. We shared a Mormon message (And None Were With Him, youtube it) and had an amazing lesson on repentance and the atonement, Elder Blackburn bore super strong testimony, and we committed all of them to read Alma 36 and ponder about what things that they need to repent of.

A few days later we got a text from Sister D'Amore asking us to give her sister a blessing, it was an emergency. So we bike there as fast as we could. Sister D'Amore started by telling us about how hard Carla's life has been, especially recently. I wont go into detail, but nothing good. They had started reading Alma 36 but had trouble with the scriptural language. We opened up the scriptures and explained Alma 36, the joy of repentance, and then turned to Alma 7 and talked about the infinite nature of the atonement, and then helaman 5: 12, discussing the importance of having your foundation built on Christ. The Spirit was there overpoweringly strong. Something about the Holy Ghost, when he touches you he leaves an indelible mark that cannot be denied. Carla had hit rock bottom in her life and was looking for a way out, a way to change. Christ has that way, and wanted her to know it. We invited her to baptism and she said yes, because she realized that that ordinance was what she needed in her life to bring her closer to the savior. After the lesson, Elder Blackburn gave her amazing blessing. It was an awesome experience for everyone involved.

However, the catch is that Carla lives in Ramona, several hours away. Even though we wont be able to continue teaching her ourselves. It was amazing to see the Lord's hand move all the dominoes in place for her to be there at the same time we were. So, moral of the story: God's amazing.