Hello everyone!
We had a baptism yesterday! Woo hoo! S. has entered the
waters of baptism and will be confirmed next Sunday (by myself)!
The week started out pretty rough. After emailing on Monday, we
headed up to Hillsville to be with the other elders so that Elder Larson could
take a break from the house. We chilled with them for a while before spending
the next two days inside. (Tuesday and Wednesday) We didn't do a whole lot for
those two days. I studied a lot, we organized a Whiteboard (A very large
whiteboard), and hung around. Blessings were given, medicine was taken, and
patience was had. That's all we could do, right?
Thursday we had Zone Meeting in Princeton! It was a lot of fun.
I got to see Elder Bingham again, whom I came out with, and also got to see a
couple other missionaries I know and say hi to them! It was awesome. Elders
Rueda and Trujillo and Sisters Hutchings and Francis (The Sister Trainer
Leaders for our Stake) gave a great Zone Meeting! A lot of rules were initiated
in this Zone Meeting, which was kinda sucky, because you know that rules only
come about because of dumb missionaries. Anyway!
The last half of Zone Meeting we just focused the whole time on
how to be more effective and better missionaries, how we can learn the Gospel
of Jesus Christ better, and how we can love each other and love the people
where we are serving. :) It was a great Zone Meeting. Very enlightening.
After returning home, we were pretty tired of sitting in the
apartment all day, and Elder Larson said he was feeling better, so we went out
and actually did some work! We had dinner with the V. family that night,
and Brother V. took us out to see some families after we ate. We saw the
Gr. family, an older Recent Convert couple of around 6 months now, and we
also saw S., to get her prepared for Sunday. All things went well. We
shared a few scriptures, and laughed a lot.
Friday was a slower day, but for the end of the day we were able
to go see D. and her husband D.! D. is a Less-Active, and we were
able to have a good gospel conversation with her and get them excited about
church. It was great. She's an awesome lady. Hopefully if all goes well, we
will be able to teach D. about The Gospel and unite their family in this
awesome church.
Saturday morning we were picked up by Brother V. to go
back to the G.'s house! Their trailer is aged and it was around 60 degrees
inside it when we went on Thursday, so we went back to put plastic over all the
windows so that air couldn't seep through and freeze them to death. It was a
fun little service project, and we got lunch afterward. :)
We also saw S. AGAIN that evening, along with Ch. (who
would be baptizing her) and Sh., Ch.'s returning-to-activity sister.
S. and Sh. are living together at the moment, so Sh. invited us
over for dinner and a lesson with S. It was great! She's a good cook.
Sunday was AmAzInG!!!
Church was great! We had three great speakers, and the last man,
a fairly new guy to the area, living in the other elder's area, Brother W.,
absolutely killed it with his talk. General Conference level. All about loving
each other and having charity. 30 minutes of love and charity. How awesome is
that? He's a cool guy.
After church we went out, as we regularly do, with Brother
Wh. to go see people! So awesome. We got to see and strengthen a lot of
people, and it was great just to sit down with them and read a few scriptures
and talk with them about their trials and troubles. I think that's what
missionary work is all about, right? That and baptizing people.
Speaking of baptizing people!
The highlight of the week was obviously Sunday right after
church. The baptism of S. went perfectly (other than having
to be baptized twice (keep your feet on the ground dang it!) and us forgetting
to turn the font off so it was still going while they were standing there lol).
The baptism and Holy Ghost talks were absolutely amazing (a lot better than
mine was at E.'s baptism (oh gosh the flashbacks)), and the turnout was
great. A lot of people came to support her, including a couple non-member
extended family members!
It was a really good day. We see, as missionaries, a lot of
rejection and heartache. It just kinda comes with the work. We get firsthand
experience to how hard the Savior's ministry was. We are able to relate to what
Isaiah said about the Savior (in a very small way):
but it is made worth it by watching people choose to change
their lives. Seeing the Spirit work in them to the point where they change
their life is the #1 best feeling this calling has to offer. In this Spirit,
before I sign off, I want to leave you with a scripture from Moroni's final
Testimony in Chapter 10:
3 Behold, I would exhort you that when ye shall read these things, if it be wisdom in God that ye should read them, that ye would remember how merciful the Lord hath been unto the children of men, from the creation of Adam even down until the time that ye shall receive these things, and ponder it in your hearts.
Just think about it for a little while, and realize that life
has it's thorns, but also has it's blossoms.
I love you all! Have a fantastic week! Talk to you next time!
With love,
Elder Brax Johnson
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