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 ;)