Wow! I
have so much to tell you all! I feel like I haven't emailed in forever but
really it is just because so much has happened this week. This past week seems
like it was SO long but again, that's just because there was a lot of stuff
that went down!
NICE CONFERENCE WAS
QUITE NICE
Okay, honestly, this has
probably been the best week of my entire mission thus far. A little bit about
the Nice Odysses. So, the bus ride was
really, really, really long. But it was good because that gave me the
opportunity to study a lot. I was planning on reading the entire Book of Mormon
but the zone leaders gave us a packet with the biographies of Elder and Sister
Andersen and all of the talks he has ever given as a general authority. So I
decided that it would be better to study that.
Anyway! The bus ride
down was interesting in the fact that we had been invited to not bring any
games, talk loudly, or do anything that would disrupt the spirit. It was very
interesting to see, mainly because I know the bus ride could have been VERY
different from what it was.
So we get into Nice
around 6 and go directly to our hotel rooms. The Zone Leaders delivered pizza
and gave us our breakfasts to keep until tomorrow. The other three hours we had
before bedtime we used to write in our journals, talk a little bit louder than
we had on the bus, and just relax and read scriptures.
The next morning we got
to the conference center around 7.30ish so that we could practice all of the
hymns we were going to sing and study more. We had been told to not talk to old
companions or missionaries that we hadn't seen in a long time. That was
hard---but it was really good because we were able to preserve the spirit that
was about. After practicing the hymns the AP's came in and told us that
Elder Anderson would be in shortly. They weren't joking because he literally
walked in 5 seconds later.
We all stood, took a
picture, and then started with the actual conference.
THE CONFERENCE
Let me tell you, this
conference has probably been the most spiritual experience on my mission thus
far. It was absolutely incredible. I wish I could share everything that I
experienced and felt but it is simply impossible. I have neither the time nor
the ability to convey what I felt.
In short, I learned
things that are going to help me throughout my mission and more importantly, my
life. Something Elder Andersen shared that I really just hit me was the
importance of faith in our lives. He told us "what a privilege" it
was to serve as a missionary in France because here you must learn how to act
in faith. In France, I am learning to battle the evils of discouragement and
learn to have unwavering discipleship.
The things that I learn
here as a missionary, will carry throughout my life.
My absolute favorite
part of the conference was at the very end. Elder Anderson finished speaking,
we sang the closing hymn and after the closing prayer, we all just sat in
silence for about five minutes. As president Roney said in his weekly letter to
the mission, "my heart burned."
RIDE HOME
The ride home was pretty
funny. At one point, I looked around and I would say about 90 percent of the
bus was asleep. Hahaha. Everyone was so exhausted. We took two days to get back
because we left on the same day as the conference. Our bus driver took us on
more scenic ways which was cool. After staying the night in Montpellier we got
back on the road and got into Bordeaux around 2ish. Our train was supposed to
be around three but unfortunately, there is a huge train strike going on so only
the main, important lines are running. Who would have thought a train to
Bergerac wasn't essential? SO! We had to take another bus after riding a total
of 20ish hours on a bus the days previous.
We also had an exchange
in Bergerac the next day with our district leader because we needed to do the
baptismal interview for Juan Antonio. So we got into Bergerac around 8:00 and
went back to the apartment exhausted.
BAPTÊMES
Well! I feel like I have
kind of dropped the ball on telling you how Antonio is but he is great! He got baptized Saturday! I was super happy
for him. The baptism was really cool too because it was in the Dordogne River!
Frere Benito baptize him because he could do the ordinance in Portuguese.
After the actual baptism
Juan Antonio came out of the river and he waved his arms around super happily.
Elder Sanchez asked how he felt and he said that he felt great. It is always
cool to see how happy God makes people.
OH! And a tender mercy
of the Lord, Annick (the sister of Rachelle, who was baptized when I was in
Lyon) got baptized this week! It was in the mission newsletter! That made me
SUPER happy. I'm glad she finally made the steps necessary to be baptized. I'm
going to ask president if I can send her and her sister a letter.
OTHER THINGS
So, in the mission
newsletter president told us that Elder Andersen said that we were the
"most prepared" missionaries that he has ever met. President Roney is
super proud of us :)
So I also kind of
dropped the ball on this too, but right now we are having a mission wide
competition called "THE WORLD CUP OF THE FRANCE LYON MISSION" and
lessons, baptisms, and other things all count as points for your zone that you
are serving in. But, the goal of this game is to have as many baptisms possible
on July 5th at 6.00 PM. We are working towards a mission wide baptism! As a
gift to Elder Andersen, we gave him a list of all the people who we thought
would be baptized before or on that day. We have been working hard, and
apparently there are 125 names on the list we gave him so it will be cool to
see how our hard work turns out.
I think that that is it
for this week! I love you all so much! Always trust the Lord, even when you
can't quite balance it out in your head.
Que Dieu vous Benisse!
Elder Johnson
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