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."