Week 40 Letter

Week 40

All.

 

General conference was amazing this last weekend (gc.lds.org). The talks from the Prophet, the Apostles, and other church leaders never fail to edify and touch my heart and answer my questions. I particularly enjoyed Elder Holland's talk in the sunday afternoon session. The story he discusses is one of my favorite stories of the new testiment. I simply love the phrase "Help thou my unbelief". Sometimes we fail to remember that faith is a gift of the spirit that we can ask our Heavenly Father for. 

 

We're continuing to work with no quantifiable success. That's okay though. We are putting forth the effort. I know that God will help us and will guide us in his work. With all the talks on missionary work from General Conference and our own efforts with the ward, I think that the membership will start playing a more active role in helping us.

 

I think that I have just about perfected the art of packing a moving truck. That's what everyone says anyway, and I have to agree with them. We helped some more people move this week. One of them we had already moved all the stuff before (they had to store it before their new apartment was ready) and I packed it using considerably less space the second time around. We help a ton of people move, so we've got it down so we can work fast and I can fit everything in tight.  

 

That's about all I have to report on this week. Thank you for your prayers. Please write.

 

Elder Bryce Johns  

Week 39 Letters

Week 39 Letter

All

This last week has been fairly interesting. It's been a hard week, but those have become the usual so we've adapted and are staying positive.

We now officially have no investigators. But we're out working hard trying to find those that God has prepared. I think of  Alma 26:27 Now when our hearts were depressed, and we were about to turn back, behold, the Lord comforted us, and said: Go amongst thy brethren, the Lamanites, and bear with patience thine afflictions, and I will give unto you success.

Things will get better. If only we have faith and put in all the effort.

The stake president today told us that in a few months there will be two sets of missionaries for each ward in the stake. I have no idea how that will work. There isn't enough to do or enough physical-workable area (most of our area is commercial) here for us, let alone 4 missionaries.

Easter yesterday was very good. One of the talks yesterday in Sacrament meeting was given by a deaf sister in the ward (she was on the stand and a translator spoke into a mike from the front row) It was really cool to watch her bear her testimony with her hands that Jesus Christ is the Savior, and of her personal relationship with him.

After church we went and had Easter Dinner with the Robinson family. They are an awesome family. We got to help hide eggs for their grand kids (and snarf a few eggfulls of starburst jellybeans) it was fun to see them run around getting the eggs. Dinner was really good as well, we had crab-cakes, ham, lamb, and some other misc. stuff. They had some family and friends over which accounts for the mix of stuff. The lamb was really good too haha.

Last week we did a lot of service. We helped a few people move. Including about 500 lbs of ammunition, only most of which was legal in California, into the back of a pickup. The person moving was bound for Utah, his father really liked guns I guess, and bought everything in the 60's (so it was legal then).

We also helped go through a hoarder's house. It wasn't as bad as some of the places I've seen on TV, but it was full to bursting. We cleaned out an office. we couldn't see the floor at all when we started. Stuff (papers mostly) was stacked/strewed at least ankle deep throughout. Interestingly most of the papers were from 2004. It was rediculus. But we got all the way through that room, and took out the desk that she wanted to sell. I know that I can be a pack rat sometimes. But I will never, ever, EVER! let that much junk accumulate in my house, especially unorganized. 

I am almost out of time, but I feel i would be remiss if I didn't take a moment (since easter was yesterday) to testify that I know that Jesus Christ is my personal savior. That he went through everything so that he knows how I feel and can help me through any trials I have in this life. I know that he loves me, and that I can show my love for him through my faith. That it is through the redeeming power of the atonement, that I can be cleansed from my sins and return to live with my Heavenly Father and family forever. 

I leave these words with you in the Name of Jeus Christ amen

Elder Johns 

(look up the Mormon Message and none were with him)

Mormon Messages - None were with Him

Week 38 Letter

Week 38 Letter

All.

I don't have any time to write. This last week was very long. We only had two lessons. So we did a looot of tracting. I also got to borrow and drive a car to Riverside for a meeting. It was fun. I haven't driven since before December. We only almost died once haha.  

 

So, in lue of a long post I'll quote a very profound scripture. (Which I may have shared already)

Jacob 6:12 "O be wise, what can I say more?"

What can I say more.

Thank you for your prayers. Please write.

Elder Johns.

 

Week 37 Letter

Week 37 Letter

All

 There is never enough time to do everything I need to on P-day.

 

Anyway. So a few weeks ago...

I thought Elder Cheney and I were getting along pretty well. At least. Until he tried to kill me by burning the house down and/or gassing me... Only joking. We did almost burn the house down though.  

 

I had made some chicken and rice for lunch on our gas stove (I was feeling unusually ambitious that day.) After taking my portion I left the stove burning to keep it warm for Elder Cheney. Who proceeded to take the rest of the food and clean out the pot in the sink. I hadn't burned it, so the food was pretty good. After eating, we left to go about our day. 

 

At 9:00 that evening, we rolled into our apartment complex. Walking up to the door we noticed an odd beeping that sounded remarkably like a fire-alarm.   

"I hope that's not us" I said as I opened the door to the squacking alarm.

"BEEEP BEEP WARNING, CARBON MONOXIDE" sounding for all the world like something from a bad sci-fi movie. Anyway we walked in to discover that the burner had been on and burning for the 9 hours that we were gone...

We turned on the fan and opened all the doors to get the Carbon Monoxide out. We couldn't manually shut off the alarm either so we got to share the sound with our neighbors for awhile. 

 

Moral of the story: Don't cook lunch. Stick with microwaveable burritos, pop-tarts and pb&j sandwiches.

 

Not a lot of time. But, we were able to go to the (Redlands) temple last week. As always it was great. The spirit there is amazing. I was able to get some answers to questions I have about what we need to do in our area and for my district.

 

I don't have a whole lot else to report on, and I don't have time to anyway.

 

Thank you for your prayers. Please write.

Elder Bryce Johns 

 

 

Week 36 Letter

Week 36 Letter

All

 

Well, This last week has been full of tracting. We're working on the second time around most of the houses since I've been here in Murrieta. It's weird knocking on a door when you remember exactly what the person said last time.

 

We had several seemingly promising potential investigators not be home when we set an appointment which is always frustrating. Seriously people, if you don't want to talk to us, be honest and say so. You aren't going to hurt my feelings. Making me bike out to Egypt just to find out that there aren't enough digits in the house number or that no one is home es no bueno. It's funny. I have found that there is little to no correlation between the number of cars in the driveway and the possibility of people being home/opening the door.  

 

We haven't been able to contact either of our investigators. Hopefully we will be able to meet with them this week.

 

Last week wasn't a total wash though.

We talked with Tony Gonzales who told us some more stories about the Mafia. "My grandfather (a 4 foot 11 inch Mobster with a huge gun) always said, keep your friends close and your enemies closer. And that's what they did, they always killed with a smile. You could be over having spaghetti one night laughing and drinking and get whacked by the same people the next day. You'd never know what hit you. The mob don't care where you are or what you're doing. If you deserve to be whacked, you'll be whacked."  Pretty crazy stuff.

 

Something else he said as we were leaving really stuck with me though (and isn't mob related) "Be real, be yourself, and be honest." Those three attributes are really important if you want to do anything with people. No one likes a phony. I've been reading through the New Testament recently, and it seems like Christ is always calling the Pharisees out for being Hipocrites. I like to say if "you're going to talk the talk, walk the walk." We are imperfect people, striving to become like our perfect master and we need his help to do that. While we need to better ourselves, that doesn't mean that we are supposed to change our personality. We need to use the gifts that God has given us to become the person he wants us to be. We all have so much potential, if we would only fulfill the measure of our creation.     

Oscar and his family is doing really well. We were over there and they were talking about how the gospel has helped them become closer as a family. They want to keep growing and dping the things neccesary to be guided by the spirit in their life.  

Also, we ran into a really cool guy yesterday while tracting. We said a prayer with him on his doorstep and he invited us in for some water and cookies. He was talking about how important the love of Christ was, and how he had realized that where he was going wasn't good changed his life. You could certainly see that love in him. He's a young musician and one of the relatively few black people in the area. We shared a couple scriptures with him about the Atonement, and how Paul said that faith and hope are nothing if we don't have charity, the pure love of Christ. He said we could come back anytime. Super cool guy.   

 

Well, I'm out of time again. I will have to write next week about how we almost burned the apartment down... Or you could write me a letter for exclusive details 8D

 

Thanks for all the prayers and support. Please Write.

Elder Bryce Johns

 

Week 35 Letter

Week 35 Letter

Note from Elder Johns Dad: Sorry I am so late in posting to the blog.  Will be working on speeding up how often this gets updated.

All.

This will have to be brief.

 

I read over last week's entry. I was not in a very good mood. At least for the first half of the letter.

 

After Monday I pretty much got over myself. I took my own advice and realized "you're being stupid, the only person who dictates your happiness is you. So be happy". So that's what I've been doing.

 

This last week we were not able to meet with either of our two investigators, due to scheduling conflicts. But we had an amazing first lesson with a young woman we met. She's named Bronte and looks fairly similar to my cousin with the same name. We met her tracting and said a prayer with her on the doorstep. She said we could come back, so we did and briefly taught about the restoration. At the end I extended the invitation for her to read and pray about the Book of Mormon and if she found out it was true, be baptized. She said yes. The spirit was definently there, but she is getting married and moving to South Carolina next week, so hopefully we planted a seed.

 

Not much else to report on, and no time to do so anyway.

 

I hope you guys have a good week. Thank you all for your support. Please write.

 

Elder Bryce Johns