Week 93

San Jacinto transfer 2 week 3 

The Noodle Incident + Hippy Cult Commune

Email Date: April 21, 2014

Bryce at the Temple

The Noodle incident

All

This has been a really, really eventful week. 

Starting with...

The Noodle incident:

Last P-day, my companion and I went to our old apartment (that we had moved out of) to do laundry. We still had the key, and the lease wasn't up yet. So we were there doing a load of laundry and playing a card game. After a while, my companion needed to get a drink so he went into the kitchen and 

saw the right side of the sink overflowing with foul water. It looked and smelled like someone had puked into our sink. It flowed into the second sink and filled that one as well. We ran the garbage disposal which made a horrible sound and quit working. It did at least get all the water down. 

We went back into the other room and heard the water spilling over onto the floor. Unfortunately we had appointments, so we had to leave it (there were no supplies in the apartment to try to clean it anyway.) 

We returned to the apartment a couple hours later to the scene in the photograph. What you cant tell is that the floor is under about half an inch of water. Noodles were everywhere. Luckily we had armed ourselves with a plunger, a mop and a bucket. Elder Snider bravely dove in. He began bailing out the putrid sink, and plunging it. Noodles and other half dissolved foodstuff was EVERYWHERE! After three buckets full of noodle water Elder Snider cried in despair "Where the 'fetch' did all these noodles come from!?" We were dumping the buckets out into the yard, as I tried to mop up all the water. At the end of the evening we had emptied the sink, and got most of the water off the floor.

The next morning we returned and saw that our efforts were in vain for the sink was again full, the floor flooded, the carpet saturated, and noodles everywhere. A member of our ward (a plumber) came by and told us that the main line was clogged so whenever the people upstairs sent anything down their drain it came out of our sink. He went outside and unscrewed a cap so that instead of coming up our sink it flowed into the backyard. Then we went to the temple. 

The next day we got our roommates and began the long, arduous process of cleaning up. Later, the plumber came and roto-rooted the drain out and reprimanded our upstairs neighbors for dumping noodles, and rice down the drain. 

So moral of the story, Do not dump noodles, rice, or egg shells down the drain otherwise it will cause noodlepocalypse in your downstairs neighbor's kitchen. 

In the midst of the noodle incident, I went to the Redlands Temple for the last time as a missionary. It was a great experience as always and received some answers I was looking for.

On Wednesday, Tommy (our investigator who has been waiting for first presidency approval to be baptized) had an interview with our mission president. We had to wait for the other zone to finish their interviews as well so we were there for awhile. THen Tommy went into his interview and was in there for a loooong time. (the interview before was only about 20 minutes). Finally, President and Tommy came out. Something was off. President Smart was beaming from ear to ear (usually he is very stoic) and Tommy was teary eyed. Before I had time to process this information Tommy told us, they got the letter. He can be baptized! We were so excited! He has been waiting for so long, and is so ready. Every time I am over there I think of the Anti-Nephi-Lehi's. That is Tommy to a T. Converted to the Lord. He tells us about how he is constantly repenting, he will roll out of bed and start repenting. He understands the atonement so well. He was telling us "I feel like a snake, shedding off all of this stuff". He is getting baptized this Saturday, I am so excited. 

I had my second to last interview with President Smart. It was good, as always. It is weird to think though that the next time I will have an interview it will be my outgoing interview. 

Saturday was also very eventful. We moved last of the appliances out of the old (now really smelly) apartment. and later in the day went to the Calvary Chapel Easter pageant. Calvary Chapel is a major born-again church in the area and noted for being anti-Mormon.  One of our investigators was in it and invited us to come. We showed up at the outdoor amphitheater it was at and the guy at the door asked us "why are you here?" We stuck out like sore thumbs and everyone was giving us funny looks. We were only there for 20 minutes or so (we had another appointment which I will tell you about next) and saw a few scenes and songs. It was about as cheesy/well acted as most Mormon productions. However we saw the scene when Nicodemus comes to Jesus and talks to him in John 3. They have the conversation about "how can a man be born again when he is old?" but they skip the "Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be ^aborn of ^bwater and of the ^cSpirit, he cannot ^denter into the kingdom of God.

and went straight to "Ye must be Born again"

 So that was pretty funny. Baptism guys, it's necessary. 

Then we left and got a free NKJV New Testament. 

Remember the benevolent cult, the "Family of Christ" that I wrote about a few weeks ago? Well the Zone leaders and us were invited to go to their Sabbath (which for them is Saturday) service. So of course, we went. It was really interesting. There were about 20 people there dresses mostly in white and wearing white hats. We had a all vegetable meal. Homegrown beets, carrots, potatoes, millet, sprouts and some other miscellaneous vegetables. It was really good. They are really nice. They told us some stories about their travels "on the road" and showed us their bus that they used to tour in. It was really cool on the inside, they built a deck with removable panels for storage and they had a kitchen in the back. 

After the meal, they sang. Everyone had a hymnbook full of songs that "Brothers and Sisters" had written. There was no music, just the lyrics. Everyone took a turn picking a song and they sang that song. It was all acapella and there was no real tempo or rhymes to the song. They just flowed and sang. It was a pretty interesting experience. Some of the songs were really fun and catchy, except for the ones singing the praises of Lightning Amen. It was a fascinating experience, and a glimpse into a very relaxed and Christlike lifestyle. 

Easter went well, nothing really special to relate though. This week (a midst all the craziness) I have been studying Christ's last week in the Gospels. Something that really stood out to me was John chapter 15 where Christ teaches that He is the Vine and we are the branches. Everything we do that bears fruit is through him. We must bear fruit in order to be saved at the last day, and he tells us how to do that later in the chapter. Love one another. How do we show/develop that love? Serving others. I've been really focused on serving others as often as possible. 

Also, we have been sharing the "because of him" video all the time. The message in there epitomizes the message of the atonement. http://easter.mormon.org/ 

 

This week has been crazy but a testimony builder all the same. As we use the Atonement of Jesus Christ in our lives we can have second chances, clean slates, and there is no such thing as "the end".

Week 92

San Jacinto week 2

Email Date: April 14, 2014

David's (investigator from Pradoview) baptism

Remember my investigator David from Pradoview? I got called back to go to his baptism. The baptism was on Sunday, and the day before he married his girlfriend (the one in stripes). The is getting baptized in a couple weeks. 

David has been so determined to do whatever it takes to be baptized. The two weeks prior to his baptism he lived in a tent outside his house to keep the Law of Chastity. He said after his baptism that he just felt light, jittery and like laughing. I'm so glad that I got to be a part of his teaching process even if it was only for the beginning. He has made such a dramatic swing. From Satanism to Mormon in 10 weeks, all of his own will and drive. 

Taylor's baptism

Taylor's baptism! The talks were done by primary children in the ward and were super good. The baptism itself was a little scary. Grandpa hadn't baptized anyone in a long time... So he didn't know how to do it. On top of that he started shaking real bad. He tried to dunk her the first time, and she didn't go down all the way and then Taylor said she didn't want to do it anymore. After some (slightly awkward) negotiating, she got baptized.... That is an Interesting family...  I'm glad that everything panned out for Taylor to be baptized. I hope that we can keep them going.

So this last week was a little tough. But the Coolest parts I sent with the baptism pictures. We are back in finding mode. We've baptized our main investigators that we are not waiting on outside influences for. But we have some good potentials. 

Just continuing to work hard and finish strong.

I had the best breakfast burrito ever today. A Recent convert took us out for breakfast. 

Funny story: So our new apartment is great. However, three or four times this last week I have been awakened at the wee ours in the morning. Twice, our neighbor was making very loud phone calls in an Asian language right outside our window at 4 in the morning. Also, an alarm clock accidently got turned on set for 4 in the morning so that woke me up. This morning, our carbon monoxide detector decided to fall off the wall at 2:30 in the morning. I was awakened by it beeping every 30 seconds. I thought it was the smoke alarm. So I took the battery out, and had it dangeling from the ceiling. The beeping continued, but because it was so high pitched I couldn't tell where it was coming from. I was running back and forth between the two fire alarms on the ceiling trying to locate the beep. I was furious with the thing, I was taking the battery in and out, punching the fire alarm until finally after running in circles for what felt like forever I noticed that the CO detector was on the ground and was the source of the mysterious beeping noise. I slammed it back into the wall and stormed to bed. I looked at the clock and it said 3:20... 

Easter is this Sunday. This week preceding the Savior's death and Ressurrection. I plan on reading the accounts of that week in all 4 gospels. I will write about this study next week. In the meantime though. Check out Alma chapter 7. I know that the Atonement of Jesus Christ is real, and is there for each of us to use, if we so choose. For it is given unto man to Act, and not be acted upon. 

Determination is a Caterpillar Climbing a Mountain. 

Also, Share the video and webpage mormon.org/becauseofhim with everyone! The Church is trying to make the video go viral for Easter. 

Love,

Elder Bryce Johns. 

Week 91

San Jacinto Transfer 2 Week 1

Email Date: April 7, 2014

Before I talk about this week I want to write out a funny experience from the week before that I forgot to write about. 

So, I learned a very big lesson on the importance of cleaning up. If you ask my mother, she will tell you that I am not the most cleanly person in the world, and I totally admit to that. However, there is a point (much sooner than it used to be mom, I promise) where it is time to clean up. 

I went on exchanges a couple weeks ago, and we went to help someone move. They were in some apartments in a bad part of town and were moving within the complex. 

We went into the house and were greeted by an overwhelming stench of cat urine, followed closely by a scene of utter devastation. There was garbage and nastiness, literally everywhere, on the floor and every surface. The carpet and kitchen floor was disgusting, the entire kitchen was full to the cabinets with anciently dirty dishes. So we started cleaning up and moving. Our main job was moving their heavy objects so we started with their freezer, and discovered that underneath was entirely covered with cockroaches. The scattered as the freezer was moved. We moved some other furniture and I felt cockroaches literally crawling on my hands. It was super bad. The worst was the fridge. I was standing next to the fridge levering it onto the dolly. We lifted it up and it was like a scene from the Mummy, or Moses parting the cockroach sea, they scattered in a tsunami wave across the kitchen, up the wall, over my shoes and everywhere. It was one of the most disgusting things I have ever seen. We tried to spray the bottom of the fridge with Raid, but it was the wrong type. They didn't seem to mind that they were infesting their new apartment...

The best part was the comment made by the lady we were helping about all the cockroaches "when your neighbors have bugs, you do too" .... I honestly don't think that she realized that all of the food left on the floor, dishes in the sink, soda cans everywhere, cat food all over the place made for a perfect cockroach habitat.

So, moral of the story. Keep your apartment clean, realize when you have a problem, and don't dumpster dive. 

General conference was really good. I especially enjoyed elder Holland's talk, elder Uchtdorf's and Elder Eyring's in the Priesthood session. It was really cool. I went in with a few questions and each of them was answered, including the very specific non-gospel related one. Yay spirit! It is such a testimony builder that prophets are again on the earth. The purpose of the Scriptures, and general conference is to open our hearts to the Spirit so we can receive revelation. Questions questions questions, ask them! 

Someone in conference said that the things of true importance cannot be taught, only learned by the Spirit. It's all on us, so go and do. 

We also moved out of our ghetto apartment full of noisy and smelly neighbors into a nice new, clean apartment. Moving was a chore though. The old place had had missionaries living there since 2011, so was pretty bad, and it had a lot of junk. We got everything moved though, and it's really nice. I've been lucky on my mission and I've opened 3 new apartments. 

No updates on investigators. 

Thank you everyone! I love you and are praying for you.

  

Love,

 Elder Johns.

Week 90

San Jacinto week 6.  Bailing for Baptisms

Email Date: March 31, 2014

All

This week was really good. My district has been doing really well. Two of the three companionships baptized this last week, and we all have really solid investigators set for the next couple of weeks. 

We've had a really good week and a couple of good stories. 

For starters I went on exchanges with one of the Elders in my zone, and we had a really spiritual lesson with a member lady who was moving. It was really cool to see how the conversation was guided by the Spirit. Even though the main message was for the Lady and for the Elder I was with (we were talking about overcoming depression and whatnot) but I was there merely to provide scriptural backing to what they were saying. I felt the spirit super strong confirming that people are placed in the right place at the right time to do the thing that God needs them to. 

We helped the Sister move the next day which was one of the best moves ever. Super organized, everything packed and ready to go. 

On Saturday we had Jason and Cheyenne's baptism. It was something of a fiasco, but it all worked out in the end. So we don't have keys to the baptismal font (bad Idea, missionaries should have them.) but when we got the building reserved. I told the WML that we needed to make sure that we have the key. He wasn't able to come so he had a ward missionary go in his place. We reminded everyone about the key. An hour before the baptism we went to the building, expecting the ward missionary to be there filling the font... We opened the gate, and showed up into the empty parking lot. Bad sign. 

Anyway, to make a long story short. We didn't have a key. We made a bunch of phone calls, and the guy with the key was in Riverside. Made more phone calls and got somebody to come out and unlock the font. So 20 minutes before the baptism was supposed to start we started filling the font, and it's a slow filler. 

We found a galvanized steel trash can in the custodial closet and filled that up along with some buckets, and made a bunch of trips too and fro dumping the trashcan into it as the program was going on. 

Miraculously, we got the font filled on time, and the baptism ended 15 minutes after 4. The room was packed, and everything went well. The Lord Provides a way. 

  

This morning Elder Hanson and Plotkin and I went hiking (Elder Snider has bad allergies so he couldn't come). We had a good time, I don't have time to send pictures unfortunately. 

It was really weird getting my travel plans today.... It's so weird that I'm going home in 3 months 0.o

Thank you for everything, Love you guys!

Love, Elder Bryce Johns

Week 89

San Jacinto week 4

Email Date: March 24, 2014

Elders Perez, Agular, Snider and myself react to the eternally empty mailbox.

Elder Blackburn (my trainee from El Cerrito) and I back together on exchanges. In a Car!

Anyway, this week was pretty good. 

I got to go on exchanges with the zone leaders in their area today. They cover parts of Hemet, and a town called Homeland. Homeland is... and interesting place. Nearly all the houses are mobile homes in various stages of disrepair. The few houses are old and beat up. It reminded me a lot of Mira Loma, but less horses and more sketchy. We were trying to visit some less actives and we ran saw a yard with a sign over the gate that said "The House of The Lord"

I had heard about this from a couple of my companions. 

"dude, this is a cult's commune..." I said. "Do you want to check it out?" Elder McConkie asked. "Sure" I said. There was a  broken down bus, the license plate said 4Jesus.  We came to an outdoor kitchen, with room for a lot of chair in the front and a main house in back. We halloo-ed a couple times and then walked up to the house, where there was more chairs. The whole place was pretty eerie. We saw someone on the otherside working outside. He was wearing all white. We knocked a couple of times and no one answered. 

So we walked around the block to the other side of the property. No one was there. We walked up to the house again, and a woman got out of an RV behind us. Didn't see us and started watering some plants. We walked over and said "hi"

When she saw us she said "Oh Good" and proceeded to tell us about the place. She showed us in and waved down Gary. The guy we had originally seen. They both were wearing all white, had a rag on their head and a hat on top of it. While their clothing was white/cream it was very well worn, and their hats were very battered. Gary had what I could only describe was a homeless beard, and a big smile. 

They call themselves "the family of Christ" and their catchphrase I guess you could say is "No violence, no sex, no materialism." They all renounced everything for Jesus. In their 20s, they wore sheets and walked barefoot for Christ. (Now they do wear shoes) They said that they all have a different story, but they all "were called" somehow they all ended up together. They told us about"Lightning Amen" who they believe was a manifestation of Christ in the flesh who they followed until he died recently. 

We sat down and talked for awhile, they explained what their beliefs are and how they have sabbath meetings (sabbath to them is from when the sun goes down friday to when it goes down saturday). The basic gist was that everything is all about building love. Love for God, and your fellow man. Building a relationship with God, you don't need religion for that. Giving up everything and relying on him. It was pretty cool overall. You could tell that they were happy, and receiving the blessings for living according to the light they have. It is always cool to see people living the things they believe. It was a fun experience to talk to people who live in a bus and organically farm for their food (and do financial planning for seniors... lol)

We had some lessons with Tommy. He's our investigator who is waiting on 1st presidency approval to be baptized. He is super converted, all of our lessons with him are super solid. He has already finished the Doctrine and Covenants and is halfway through the Pearl of Great Price. 

One of our recent converts Trent had a great missionary experience and asked us for some advice on how to tell people about the salvation of the dead. 

So that launched me into a really fun study about it. It built my testimony about how Christ is the universal savior of all. Not just those who happen to hear about him. 

Unfortunately I've got to run. But Thank you so much for everything!

Love, Elder Bryce Johns

Week 88

San Jacinto Week 4

Email date: March 17, 2014

This week has been pretty good

I did get pie on pie day. A member took us to a place called "Polly Pies" which is basically Sherries, but with more of a homey feel. A member also gave us a whole pie, which I've only had one slice from. 

This last week we had a multizone conference which was pretty good. Our mission president gave some good training on staying focused and using our companionship studies effectively. 

We haven't had any luck with our college friends, they flaked on three appointments in a row, so we'll be waiting for them to reach out to us if they want to move forward. So that's sad. 

Aside from multizones we haven't had a whole lot of spiritual experiences or notable lessons this week. We've been pounding through the ward list visiting a looot of people. Trying to find people to teach. We do have a couple of return appointments to follow up on this week.   

Although, I went on exchanges with Elder Blackburn on Thursday. It was really weird being back with him again. We stayed in my area (with the car, because we have already done our time on bike haha) He's doing well and has grown a lot since I trained him over 6 months ago. 

Investigators to pray about

Micah (9): That his less-active parents will get serious about their son getting baptized.

Taylor (9): That she will be able to be baptized on april 12 as planned

Davian and Dylan: That their parent's hearts will be softened and allow them to be baptized

Shannon: That she can look for and recieve a testimony about the BOM

Tommy: That he will get permission to be baptized.   

Love you guys, thank you so much for all the love and support you give me. 

Elder Johns