Short and Sweet

Bonjour à tous!

I don't know what to talk about this week. We had a really good week. I've been blessed to have a lot of good weeks lately.

I guess I'll start with our Amis this week! Guess what?! We fixed a baptismal date with Moïse and his wife and family! We scheduled it for the 14th of November. It was so cool. They really want to come to church but because of general conference we will be in Toulouse. When we set the baptismal date, it made me sad how I wasn't going to be there but then I really thought about it and I felt really dumb. I still feel super happy that they are going to be baptized even though I'm not going to be there. It's the same joy.

I didn't realize how fulfilling being a missionary was going to be. As hard as it is, it is so rewarding... Anyway! Brigitte is doing pretty well. Her daughters are still being super annoying. Brigitte said a really good prayer in front of us for the first time ever. She is so shy she thought it was going to kill her. But afterwards she felt so good because she realized that she has been capable of doing it for a long time. The spirit was super strong after she said her prayer. It was cool because she realized how much progress she has actually made!

... Hmm what else happened this week? Oh! We went to Bordeaux zone conference, which was pretty cool. We had an area seventy come. He was really cool. It was kind of weird just because a lot of the counsels given to me where good but it is hard to apply everything knowing I only will be applying them for a couple of weeks. It has also been hard with all of the changes that president has made. It's not bad that he is changing things because he is moving the mission forward but I'm just like… I've been doing it this way for so long. But anyway! I got a lot of good stuff out of it. One of my favorite quotes from the conference was "the atonement leaves no trace."   After this life, we won't remember the sins that we committed if we have repented of them. I never really thought about that. God is that merciful that he is going to take away the guilt completely in helping us forget!

Elder Johnson reunited with the first Elder he trained, Elder Acheson.
Elder Acheson has been very ill with a lung infection and has not been able
to get out and work.  Please keep him in your prayers.  

I don't have a ton of other stuff to talk about. I'm working hard! No dreams with Johnny Depp this week but I'll keep you posted if I have another one.

I love you!

Elder Johnson

''Je suis prête! Baptises-moi!''

Elder Johnson & Elder Strong in Albi

WOOO! What a week! This week was so good but also so hard. It is funny how that happens. Things are just going good and then all of the sudden opposition just comes up out of nowhere. There is a quote from an apostle that says something like "When everything is going good... just wait." haha. It's true! Anyway, I'll explain.

LE BAPTÊME D'EDA  

So! This week we had the awesome occasion to baptize Eda! It was a really neat experience. There were four baptisms that all went down on the same day. Up until this point in my mission I haven't ever been to a baptism with more than one person being baptized so it was a very special occasion for everyone that came. The two men in the middle are from Toulouse Capitole and then the two sets on the outside (me, Eda, Elder Gossel, and Mde Gil) are all from Albi. 

There was a really good turn out at the church despite the baptism being an hour drive away from where we normally meet for church. Eda invited five friends, who all really enjoyed themselves. One of them thought we were a sect before she came to the baptism and then afterwards she said she felt a peace come over her as soon as she walked into the building, the spirit :D We hope to start teaching her friends soon. She is on a spiritual high right now and we are going to ride the wave of that. 

Super cool tender mercy... Okay, prepare yourselves. Eda is from the Island of Maurice, which is near Madagascar. Her family there is in the church. Her mom is super well known over there for loving missionaries and always feeding them and whatever. Anyway! The bishop of Toulouse Capitole Ward came up to Eda after the service to congratulate her and they started talking and somehow they got onto the subject of where Eda is originally from. The bishop served his mission in Maurice and he ate at Eda's mom's house like every week! He said that she was one of the best members there. Okay, so already cool tender mercy,  the world is small and with the church it is even smaller but it gets better. The bishop calls his wife over and then the wife is like,  you look familiar.. do you have any sisters in the church? Eda says yes and she lists off the names. The bishops wife looks super surprised and then covers her mouth with her hand and she says,"When I was a missionary in England, I served with your sister!" HA! How crazy is that?! They both started crying and hugged. lol. It was super sweet. Eda had family that was going to come to the baptism but then something happened to where they couldn't anymore. She said this is a way the Lord allowed her "family" to come to her baptism. It was so cool. 

Something kind of funny. As we walked into the water, I got all ready to do the baptism and say the baptismal prayer and then Eda said... "Je suis prete, baptises moi!'' (I’m ready... baptize me!) and starts to bend her knees and lean back... lol I was like wait, wait, wait! lol 

LES ÉPREUVES

So aside from Eda's baptism this week was really hard. Our amis have kind of just fallen like flies. We are no longer seeing Axel. He is in the hospital and he said he can't see us for at least two weeks. The Family Leroy is still super cool and open to have us but because of Stan's work and the new baby, we have been put on hold for the moment. Meethel text us yesterday saying how she was too busy to see us for at least two weeks. So... we are looking at square one pretty much (except with Brigitte). 

I don’t know if it is because summer has started or what but suddenly people have been SO stinking mean. I hadn't been yelled so violently in public in a really long time. I don't know if it is because we stick out a lot easier with our white shirts or what but man, people have just been awful. But! We know it is just because we need to find new amis right now and someone wants us to be discouraged and give up. HA! NEVER! 

Our numbers were pretty bad this week but they should be better this next week. We just hope to find new people. That is our man focus right now. 

FUNNY FRENCH BLOOPER

Elder Strong and I went to the Yonnet's house and Soeur Yonnet had made some hummus and she was like "Do you like spicy?" In French it is "Vous aimez épicé?" and Elder Strong didn't understand and he repeated back "J'aime pisser?" which means "I like to pee?" but kind of in a vulgar way. The Yonnets tried so hard not to laugh but I exploded with laughter and they gave up as soon as they saw my hopeless case.... it was too funny. I love being with a bleu. 

MIRACLE DE LA SEMAINE

So, we probably had our best lesson we have ever had with Brigitte this week. We prayed and fasted before and the spirit was so strong. We know she is ready to fix a date and she does too but she is scared. 

I probably made the boldest promise I have ever made my entire mission in that rendezvous. We promised her that if she fixed a date, she would find a new house without a problem IF she fixes a date. Then we said, "After you see Eda's baptism, we are going to fix a date, and you are going to find a house." She got all quiet and said,"Ok". Usually when we try to fix a date she is like.. noooo, I don't want to... I hate dates...etc. But this time she didn't fight it at all. It was so cool. 

I know that if we hadn't prayed and fasted then we would not have been able to bring the spirit to the lesson like we did. Our amis have so many needs and concerns and for us, it is impossible to know all of them, to find the silver bullet so to speak. There isn't just one thing that you can say that will help them. The silver bullet in that sense doesn't exist. The spirit is the silver bullet. It changes hearts, minds and notions. I am so thankful for power of the spirit in conversion. 

SOOOOO. That was our week! Pray that we find new people! 

I love you all!

Love,

Elder Johnson

Albi France

Curb call? And a Baptism!

Getting caught in the rain... and hail.

Alors! This week was really good! It was super stressful and I was kind of freaking out for a little bit of it but then it all turned out. Jean Luc's baptism was part of the cause because the branch wasn't sure if there was going to be a very big turn out and there were some other things that weren't really missionary related that we had to do this week that just complicated things. But, in any case!  It was a great week.

EXCHANGE WITH ZONE LEADERS

Well! We had a super fun exchange with the Zone Leaders. Elder Miner (who was in Périgueux when I was in Bergerac came on exchange with me). It was awesome because we were able to pass a bunch of less-actives and old amis that Elder Miner knew from when he served here. We saw some cool miracles. 

One in particular is when we decided that we should pass Danny. Danny is a less active. I've tried passing him a few times but he is never there and the missionaries from before had warned us saying that his wife is super mean and wants nothing to do with the church. 

When we passed, he was there! He let us in and was happy to receive us. He is going through a super tough time right now. He looked really sad. His wife has been in a coma for three months now and he has been having some serious health problems as well. For the entire rendezvous, we probably said three or four sentences and he just told us all of his problems and trials. At the end of the rendezvous he wanted to pray and he thanked Heavenly Father for sending us over when He did, because he needed it. 

I was touched when I listened to his prayer because the only thing I did was sit there and listen. I didn't preach or tell him anything. I just listened. In that moment, I realized how powerful our calls as missionaries actually are. We represent Jesus Christ. We bring just a sample, maybe a .0001 percent of the peace that Christ brings. And being a conduit of that is a source of immense joy. 

ZONE CONFERENCE

We also had Zone Conference! Which was super awesome. I love seeing all of the other missionaries! It is always a highlight of the transfer. Also seeing president and sister Roney is always a nice thing. They love us so much. They love us like their children and we love them. 

Elder Miner and me

One of the highlights from Zone Conference was watching "Meet the Mormons!" President was like, you've been working hard so we are going to watch meet the Mormons! I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it. It was a very feel good movie. I was surprised at how touching a lot of it was. Oh, especially the candy bomber! That got me. 

Elder DuPre, Elder Palmer, and me

Watching the movie made me think a lot about my family because the last family/person that the movie features is a family sending off a missionary and the events leading up to it. It was kind of like reliving the last few weeks before becoming a missionary and then the day you get dropped off. It seems like it was yesterday I was getting dropped off at the MTC. I remember looking forward towards all of the time that I had left for my mission and just thinking, I'm never going to finish! 2 years is so long! But looking back at the time that I have served has passed in a heartbeat! 

Elder Taylor and me

Anywayyyy...You should watch "Meet the Mormons" if you haven't. I give it a good rating. 

LE BAPTÊME DE JEAN-LUC

The highlight of the week was the baptism of Jean Luc! It was a really good service and a lot of people were actually able to come. I was stressing out because everyone was like, “Nooo, we can't come, sorry” and we had to organized little refreshments afterwards and no one was going to come. So I was freaking out. And then last second everyone could come! It was a miracle. I thought we were going to need to move the baptism to next week because of how few people could come but turns out that quite a few were actually able to. I'm kind of wandering, going on and on babbling but I'm just super happy people were able to come because it really was a huge stress. 

Jean Luc's baptism

 Jean Luc was so happy. He was taking all of these pictures and saying "I can't wait to show all of my friends and my mom!" then he was like "I can't wait to be a missionary!" WOO! He has to become a little less “gansta” to be a missionary but I see it happening! 

I was able to confirm him a member on Sunday. It was pretty awesome. :) The branch really likes Jean Luc and suddenly the branch leaders have been a little bit more disposed to listen to what we have to say or needs that we have probably because we had a baptism. But hey! Whatever you have to do!

LES AUTRES CHOSES

So, I probably had the worst thing I've ever had said to me this week, in French and English. HA! It was kind of funny but really disgusting too. Anyway... we are walking down the street and this car pulls by, never coming to an actual stop, just rolling slowly. ANDDDD, basically what happened is that we got a curb-call. Two guys asked us for certain services that any decent human being would not agree to and certainly no missionary would agree to. It was an experience to say the least. After I said no and starting walking off, in pure shock, Elder Acheson is like, “What did they say! What did they say?!” I'm just like "You don't want to know, you don't want to know!" Haha...  It was quite shocking. 

On a lighter note, I taught Elder Acheson how to play Chubby Bunny with the marshmallows you sent to me. :) That was hilarious. 

ANYWAY! That was our week! It was good! Working hard. Enjoying life. Nothing could be better. 

I love you all! Que Dieu vous bénisse!

Avec amour,

Elder Johnson 

At a members home who is from Texas for dinner.
American food = Hamburgers.