Week 50 Letter and pictures

Week 50 Pictures & Email

Pictures:

My MTC group: Elders Figuroa, Dains, and myself. Elder Daines is getting sent to the Redlands mission.

me and mostish of the southern part of my area

Letter: 

All:
So the big news. Elder Webb is getting transferred out to Twentynine Palms (which is waaay out in the middle of the desert) to be with Elder Plaster, my old companion. They are getting banished into the Redlands mission along with another friend of mine. Elder Cheney is staying in Murrieta and therefore is getting annexed into the Carlsbad mission. So all the companions that I've had for the last 7.5 months or so are going to other missions. Lame. The official split is happening July 1st, but we're all in the areas we'll be in until then. 

Also, I'm going to be training a new missionary... I must not be humble enough . It's funny because I'll be training in pretty much the same situation as Murrieta. In an affluent area with few, if any, investigators. (no updates on that front) This time though the hills are massive.

This is masters hill. The main big one in our area. Everything (pretty much) you can see is in our area and that's only the southern quarter or so. 

We also met Kirby Hayborne this week. He was at a member's house for a party. He's apparently famous in the LDS community for acting in The Best 2 years and other such films. He is also a very good singer. ( Parents: if you ever come across his cd at deseret book or something i'm sure you'd like it. I would too incidentaly lol). 

I know that God guides us in his work. I don't have time to write them out, but we've certainly seen his hand in our last week. We spend a lot of time planting seeds, but soon enough we will start harvesting the seeds already planted. Maybe some "greenie fire" is what this ward needs. 

Thanks for everything, please pray for me and write me a letter. 

Elder Bryce Johns

Elder Johns Address (Please Write)

Address to write to:

Elder Johns (Bryce) has asked that I re-publish his address, as he is not getting the volumn of letters that he likes, so he thinks that there might be people that want to write him but don't have his address, so here it is:

Elder Bryce Johns
California Riverside Mission
5900 Grand Avenue
Riverside, CA 92504

The missions will be changing at the beginning of the month, we will let you know if there is a new address for him after the switch.

Elder Johns Dad (David)

Week 49 Letter (Elder Johns is now 20!)

Week 49 Email

(Sent June 10)


All.
This last week has been an... interesting one.

Our phone was lost and stolen this last week. Having a phone is super helpful in missionary work.
It fell out of my companion's pocket after a meeting at the stake center parking lot. We went about our day, and couldn't find it anywhere. So we had our homeshare call the number so we could listen for it vibrating and someone picked up.There was some construction going on in the parking lot so apparently one of the workers found it and picked it up. The lady who answered was in Los Angeles, but her husband would be in Corona working the next day. We figured out where and when, but when we showed up the next day no one was there. So yeah. We have a new one now. Unfortunately it's the same model which is a piece of junk. We call it bipolar phone, because it will drop calls all the time, or fail to send texts no matter how many bars it claims to have... While it is very frustrating (especially since we have no service where we live) it is still great to have. We use it a lot to set things up. Now we have to regather everyone's number.

On that note, can I just shout out to all the mormons out there: Make sure your contact information is updated and accurate in the ward records!!! It is super frustrating when it isn't. It seems like half the ward has moved around within the ward and failed to update their address. We show up to an active member's house, or even one of the auxiliary president's houses and find out "whoops, they don't live there anymore..."
.
I also turned 20. Yay, I'm old.

We had a lesson with an investigator as well, I think I've mentioned Joanne before. She's an older black lady. Turns out she's the co-chair of a local church, and studying to become a minister. Anyway we had a pretty good lesson with her. After the lesson, her sister walked in the door. Joanne said "These are the missionaries from the church of... uh.. mormon..." (her sister was quite the character herself, she kept saying "amen" and "praise Him") Joanne said the closing prayer and blessed us in our work "please bless these young men as they go out and minister using a door to door witnessing process..." I am never saying "tracting" again, but rather that we are utilizing a door to door witnessing process...

We also found out from a 12 year old recent convert that three turtles = one dog. Apparently, her mom has inadvertantly killed all three of their pet turtles, so they are getting a dog instead.

Cool scripture I found:
 Isiaiah 48: 22 There is no peace, saith the Lord, unto the wicked.

That's all for this week.
Please write, thank you for your prayers.

Elder Bryce Johns

Week 48 Pictures

This is Galloway, one of the steepest, but shortest hills in our area.  It looks a lot worse when you are climbing it, and you can't even see the top.

Elder Ringwook, Hanks, me, Webb at the Redlands temple.

This is us almost burning the church down trying to make a zone breakfast today.  There was grunge in side the burners that caught on fire... It happened twice.

Week 48 Letter

Week 48 Letter

(Sent June 3,2013)

All:

So Deb and Cameron moved today. Some elders in Santa Anna are going to get a really amazing referral. But aside from them we don't have really any promising investigators. We're working on it though.
Please write. 
On Saturday we had a cool miracle experience. It was time for us to go out tracting, so Elder Webb and I prayed where we needed to go. I felt impressed to go to Sawgrass Creek ln. So we biked down there and started tracting on Castle Pines which hooks into Sawgrass. We reached the bottom of Castle Pines and I was feeling a little burnt out from tracting. Elder Webb reminded me "the whole reason we came down here was to knock Sawgrass..." so we did. As we were walking we ran into a father riding bikes in his driveway with a few kids. We talked with him for a little bit. He said his name was David, and that he was a less-active member. He told us about how his parents had the missionaries over all the time and asked us when church was. We talked for a bit and he said that he'd come next Sunday to church. As we were walking away Elder Webb heard him turn to one of his sons and say "hey, do you want to get baptized?" It was really cool, I love it when we can see the Spirit guiding us where we need to go. 

Please write. 
Also on that street a super old guy talked to us for an hour. I would like to emphasize the "HE talked" part. He just kept going and going and going. We were standing there being blinded and baked by the sun. He was super nice, and had some cool things to say about how awesome God is and whatnot but I can't say that it was an overly pleasant experience. He wouldn't accept any invitations either, he just wanted someone to talk to, which is okay.

Please write. 
We also found out what Elder Webb's problem with his back is. He went to see a chiropractor (waaaay over in Rubidoux (look it up on a map it's north of Riverside) so getting there has been an issue. Anyway, he has a "subluxation complex with acute radiating myocytis"... which interestingly enough is not caused by the wind.Practical applications of this. he needs to go back to the chiropractor a few more times this week (so we have to bum rides from members), not bend over, and ice his back 9 times a day! NINE times for 20 minutes with an hour in between. That's three hours by itself! It is really hard for us to do that on bikes because we live at the top of our area and no matter where we go it takes awhile to get home. We'll see how things work out.

Please write. 
We also got to go to the temple this week (i sent a picture along) As always it was awesome, and I received some answers on what to do with certain things in our area. Which is great. I love the spirit of the temple. You can feel all of the stress just lift away when you walk in the doors.

Please write. 
On the way home from the temple our ride wanted to take us to "The Hat" which apparently has "world famous pastrami sandwiches". I don't know if they were world famous or not but they were really good. The fries came in a huge bag too, like Five Guys but more. We were driving there on the freeway when I looked out the window and read the sign "Entering Rancho Cuchamunga (i can never spell it)" which incidentally is quite a ways into the San Bernadino mission... oops. Well, at least I can say that I've been to Cuchamunga, a very wild and exotic city deep in the urban jungle of California...

Anyway, I'm out of time. Thanks for reading this, and for your prayers. Please write.
Elder Bryce Johns 

Week 47 Letter

Week 47 Email

(This was sent on May 27, 2013)

All

Not a whole lot to report on this week.

Just want to plug member missionary work and how important it is to have the courage to invite people to do things and trust the missionaries. Ask the missionaries, they can help you!

Also everydaymissionaries.org Check it out.

Thank you for your prayers, please write.

Elder Bryce Johns

Week 46 Letter - From Corona

Week 46 Letter

(Sorry all, I forgot to hit publish on this one from May 20th)

All

Weeks fly by super fast out here. Especially if you are having fun. It's funny, Elder Webb and I are very similar and get along great so even when we are biking up the monstrous hills we are cracking jokes and having a good time. We also teach well together. Everything works out better when you work in Unity.

It's the same way with our Heavenly Father. He has a plan and direction for us in our lives. As we sin, or do our own thing. We distance ourselves from that path, and we encounter the opposition created by our consequences. As we give up our pride and develop a "thy will be done attitude", by obedience, we become unified with God. That unity is ultimately the easy way in life, and the most fulfilling. For Christ says

 28 Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

(yay formatting hassle)

 

We found a new investigator this last week. Joanne. She's a big black lady who we have been trying to set up a time to meet for awhile. We left a blessing with her and she said she was interested to learn more. She's very involved in the leadership of a local Christian church, so it should be interesting.

 

We were able to meet with our two most promising investigators as well. Deb and her son Cameron. We had a good lesson with them this week. However they are moving on June 3rd, which is a problem.

 

Want to know the magical cure all for back pain?

Elder Webb has been having a lot of neck and back pain (I wish you were here mom), so finally we went to the doctor's to have it checked out. Apparently elder Webb has a super high deductible so there was a $150 co-pay. He went into the room and came out less than 15 minutes later. "What did he say" we (me and the missionaries who gave us a ride) asked.

Elder Webb replied, a little sheepishly: "He said that my back pain was caused by the wind (something about the temperature change when he's biking causing muscle spasms)... and that to make it better I need to wear a windbreaker..."

We sat in stunned silence. Finally: "Does he realize how hot it is?"

So, the miracle cure for back pain is to wear a windbreaker. (apparently his backpack doesn't do a good enough job...)  

The doctor also gave him two bottles of muscle relaxant pills. (which haven't been helping) We laughed for a long time while Elder Webb fumed.

Later we got a call from their office. They had given him too much drugs! And they wanted it back. Right then! We had no way to get back (the doctors office is too far to bike) So they decided to come and pick it up, which they did. So we may now be complicit to the illegal sale of prescription drugs... 

The other day we were thirsty so we knocked on a member's door to get some water. A less active lady opened the door and brought the water. She was talking to us and was totally trying to hook her daughter up with Elder Webb. "She has red hair, is 5'4", slender. She's paying her own way through school rigth now. She has a boyfriend though. You should write her." She then asked him "How long have you been out?"

"3 months". Her face dropped, and she looked at me with a "well, he isn't so bad I guess" look on her face. "how about you?" "10 months" "oh..." and then she turned back to elder Webb. "You should get me your address so she can write you..."

So yeah, Elder Webb is still getting girls on the mission haha. It's because he's a ginger I'm, sure.

 

Well, I'm out of time. Thank you all for your prayers. Please write.

Elder Bryce Johns