Wednesday, June 8, 2016

April 26, 2016 - A Great End To A Transfer!

Hello everyone! I'm running WAY out of time, so this will be really concise, sorry! I do have a lot of pictures this week, so hopefully that makes up for everything. I know, be surprised! I actually took a lot of pictures this week! :D

To start the week off, last Monday, we taught C.! He is coming along just great. His adoption court date will be June 6th, which means he will most likely be baptized on June 11th! Woo hoo! He is a great little kid. 

The next day, Tuesday, we were going to see the P.s, but C. Sr. had a Kidney Stone! I've never seen such a tough man in so much pain. Poor guy. Apparently it was 2.5mm wide. In his own words, "I'll never make fun of childbirth again. Something the size of a bb broke me." Hahaha, he's so funny. I probably shouldn't be laughing though. Elder Casey has had Kidney Stones before, and apparently they are nothing to play with. We did end up stopping by for like 15 minutes and shared a Mormon Message with them. It was good. Also on Tuesday though we met a guy named D.! We were walking along a back street and he asked us to come over to his garage and help him move his motorcycle. So we did, got talking about religion, and set up an appointment! More on that to come.

Wednesday we did the Soup Opera. Not a whole lot happened other than that though.

Thursday was a good day. We had the opportunity to teach Brother R., our long-term investigator who is a Methodist Preacher and is currently going to school to get a different job so he can actually investigate fully the gospel (and eventually join)! We chatted about his conversion to the gospel and how he feels about where he is. He showed us the newest book he is reading from Deseret Book, "To Become Like God," Yeah, he's elect. We also had dinner with Brother P. that evening. His daughter is a Returned Missionary currently in Utah, and he's a great guy. I'll tell you what, he made this Cookie-Crust Vanilla-Pudding Fruit-Topped DELICIOUSNESS for dessert. I need to get that recipe. We also made posters with the sisters for the Fair Saturday!

On Friday we had District Meeting! It was great. We all gave 5 minute talks, I spoke on the Book of Mormon, and it went really well. We also had our return appointment with D.! It went well. He talks a LOT and had a LOT of questions, so we stayed.... longer than we are supposed to (whoops!), but he is an awesome guy, we are blessed to be able to teach him. He is one of the FUNNIEST guys I have ever met. It's awesome. We also spent most of the day running around EVERYWHERE trying to get ready for the Fair that was on Saturday! It was CRAZY. Everything worked out though. (See pictures)

Saturday was the Spring Into Action Fair! It was AWESOME. There were a lot of booths there of a TON of fun stuff, and we had the most important booth there! We had 3 posters, one on Family History, one on Temples, and the big one on the Book of Mormon! We also had a TV that was set up to play a "Who Wants to Be A Millionaire" Mormon Version that kinda worked. We actually met someone and got their contact information in the first 20 minutes! It was awesome. We also got transfer calls that night. I'm..... STAYING!

Sunday was really great. Church was a great experience, we had some good discussions in all the classes. Lots of focus on Temples, mostly I think because the Stake had gone to the temple the day before, so it was fresh on everyone's mind. We also taught Brother P. about preparing for the rest of the temple, because he went to the temple on Saturday with the Stake!!! He had some really cool spiritual experiences too. So. Awesome. After leaving his house, the headache that I had had since the end of church was to the point where I could hardly see straight, so we went home, I drank a lot of water, and was going to rest for 15-20 minutes (this was 2:30). Woke up just after 5! But hey, no headache. It was great. We ate at the H.'s house and had a good discussion with them about strengthening our testimony, and we ate some delicious homemade pizza. We ended the night with the P.'s who dropped the bombshell that they are MOVING! :( Up to Masontown. Lucky Masontown elders, they get the best referral ever. Oh well, I still love him!

Yesterday we had another District Meeting where we all sat in a circle, shared our favorite scriptures, and then had a testimony meeting afterward. It was powerful and awesome. The Spirit was really strong. On that spiritual high we went to Brother F.'s house to do some service with him and his nonmember grandson! That's why we were there, to hopefully chat with him about the gospel. He wasn't terribly interested, but oh well! We still had fun hitting sidewalk with big sledgehammers. :) But the highlight of the day came when we tried T., a potential/former investigator! We had been previously unable to get in to the house with him before this, but somewhat surprisingly, he let us right in! It was awesome! We started by getting his background and religious history and then he asked the perfect question, "So I guess that's what I believe. What do you guys believe?" >:D The Spirit was perfect as we started to teach. We explained prophets, Christ and His church, and Apostasy. He readily accepted all those truths. We then taught about Joseph Smith and the First Vision and at the end there was a perfect "air" that you could see about him, "That would be nice, if it were true," he seemed to be saying. We talked about how life changing that would be to know that Joseph saw what he said he saw. I think he thought we'd end it there. BUT NO. The moment was perfect, and we introduced the Book of Mormon and testified that it is a witness that Joseph Smith is a Prophet of God. It was the most powerful lesson I've ever had on my mission. He accepted a baptismal invitation, and during our appointment on Thursday we are going to give him a date. It's going to be awesome.

So, I apparently was not going to be concise haha. :P It doesn't really work for me apparently haha. Well, thank you all for your support. I love you all dearly. Have a WONDERFUL WEEK!

Love,
Elder Brax Johnson

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