"SANS TITRE"---because I don't know what to put as a headline

Bonjour everyone! 

This week was really good... just like the rest of them. I haven't had a bad week in a while (knocking on wood). Things are just dandy here in Albi, France. We have a lot of good things going on right now. 

NOS AMIS

So, I guess I will start with Eda (because her baptism is this Saturday!). Eda is so great. I really love her. She cracks me up. She doesn't joke or try to make us laugh but the way she says things is just too much sometimes. For example... she is in LOVE with Moroni. (Moroni is a great leader in the Book of Mormon) If Moroni was living today, she would probably try to marry him. I need to explain why...

So, after Eda's husband passed away, she had a dream that Moroni was in it. Well, she didn't know who it was at the time but he looked really familiar to her (because her mom has a huge picture of him in her house) SO, she wakes up the next morning and sees the picture and realizes that it is him and feels like it is a sign that she needs to "go back to her roots" and be baptized (because all of her family is in the church.) Ever since then, she has been in love with him. When we are were going over the baptismal interview questions we asked her if she believed that Joseph Smith had been the prophet who restored the gospel to the earth? And she said, "You know, I like Joseph Smith but Moroni is way stronger." hahaha. Her exact words. She went on for like 10 minutes talking about how strong and awesome Moroni was until we finally re-asked the question and she is like "Oh yeah, for sure! Of course Joseph Smith restored the church. " hahah. Maybe she understood the question as "Who is your favorite hero in the Book of Mormon?" 

She is so excited for her baptism. There are actually going to be four baptisms the same day. The Rodez elders (who come to our branch) are having a baptism, along with two equipes in Toulouse. It is going to be a really cool day. She has invited around 20ish people, not even kidding. And they are all coming. Some are coming from PARIS. Yes, PARIS. She called me the other day to see if we wanted to go to the temple in Suisse with her after her baptism. We explained we couldn't go but she is already planning her trip! lol. I also told her that we had to teach all of her friends after her baptism and she was like "Pas de soucis!" "Not a problem!" She is really cool. 

Brigitte is also doing well. We were only able to see her once this last week because she had a friend that came up from Marseille so they spent time together. She is currently looking to move closer to Albi, which will be good. Pray that she finds a house soon! 

Meethel, our Chinese amie is probably one of my favorite people on planet earth. She is just so stinking open to new ideas. We invited her to church this last week and she said she is excited to come. We hope to give her a baptismal date this week. Whenever you are teaching her she just nods her head and says "Hmm. Hmm. Hmm. Ok. Hmm." Does that make sense? "Yes. Perfect sense!" She told us she really wants that what we teach her to be true. She is awesome. 

ZONE P-DAY

We had zone p-day last Monday. It was nice. All of the equipes in the zone went to Toulouse and we ate together, talked and just played some fun games. It made me think about how incredible it is to be a missionary. There are so many people that I love so much that I would have never met had I not come on a mission. Missionaries, members and amis. All thanks to the mission. 

After playing around we had to drive back to Albi to get all of our other p-day stuff done (clean, wash the car, groceries, emails). It is too bad we live so far away from Toulouse. It is a pretty cool city. Very pretty. 

LES AUTRES CHOSES 

We had an apartment check this week (it is to see if your apartment is clean). We passed with flying colors. The senior couple told us it was one of the cleanest. Yeah, I'm pretty proud. 

We did gardening work with Soeur Delouche this week. I love working in the garden so much. It is nice to change the type of work you do on a day to day basis. It is kind of a stress relief. She was impressed with our gardening skills. 

We should be getting iPads this Friday if everything goes well. I'm not getting my hopes up just because I've been hearing about our mission getting iPads for about a year now. I am excited to get them though. They are really going to change the work. I'm a little worried about carrying one around all the time though. I mean, once one bad person finds out missionaries have iPads, a lot of bad people could. But I mean, we are in France, it isn't like people get stabbed in the butt everyday. 

PENSÉE SPIRITUELLE

So, spiritual thought of the week. I was studying for certain amis of ours and I came across the scripture in Corinthians 10:13:

 13 There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.

This scripture is a real comfort for me. To know that I'm not destined to fail because of weaknesses or "favorite sins" that I have won't stop me from overcoming temptation. God loves us and wants only the best for us. He wants us to succeed and will allow us to as we learn to put our trust in Him. There is always an "escape" and He will never be ashamed of us for what we have or have not done because His love in unconditional. 

So! That was our week! I love you all! Thank you for your prayers :) 

Que Dieu Vous Bénisse!

Elder Johnson

Landmines and Spiritual Break Throughs

District meeting

Dear Family and Friends, 

This week has been a great one! Despite one huge disappointment, I will cover it later. Anyway, we taught a lot this week! And we had a lot of good rendezvous with the amis that we do have. 

LA DÉCEPTION 

SO! I will start with the most terrible event of the week to get it over with ever since the very beginning of my mission I have always been absolutely disgusted in how much dog poop there is in the streets here in France. Literally you always have to be looking down to not step in it. So, knowing me, I set the impossible goal to not step in dog poop my whole mission. At first I just kind of set it as a joke but the longer that I was not able to step in dog poop, the more serious the goal became... 

24 Janvier 2015, Périgueux, France. It is a cold winter night, rainy and just absolutely horrible. It is dark and the sidewalks are just full of biological landmines laying in wait to be stepped on in the misty darkness. Elder Brill and Johnson are contacting. Whilst contacting, Elder Johnson takes a blind step into the darkness and with panic, realizes he has stepped in a huge pile of dog crap. 

Elder Johnson, to the alarm of his companion, screams out in horror---knowing that his record of one year and three months of not stepping in dog poop have come to a very unfortunate end. He fought a good fight. 

GOSH I was so mad that I stepped in dog poop after making it this far! 

LE BOUDIN 

Sooooo.... This last Monday we have a soirée familiale with all of the single members in the Branch and we have a member who is from the West Indies (her name is Magguy). Magguy made blood sausage for family home evening for us! I was a little hesitant to try it but I know how hard it is to make so I decided to make her happy and eat some. It wasn't actually bad! I wouldn't run back to eat some but it wasn't bad. It had a very mild taste to it. 

Before Elder Brill realized he didn't like blood sausage.

Elder Brill on the other hand, couldn't stand it. He took two bites and then whispered to me, "I'm going to puke if I eat any more of this stuff." So then I took his and ate it too. I'm a very charitable person. Right before the family home evening Magguy called us and asked if we wanted her to bring more for us so we could take some home after the soiree was over. I told her that I didn't know if I liked it and that Elder Brill is a pretty picky eater so I told her that it wasn't necessary. She then told me that she had talked to Elder Brill and he said that he loved it! I was all confused because Elder Brill doesn't really speak French yet and I knew that whatever conversation he had, he didn't have any idea what was going on... I asked him about it and he said that Magguy asked him if he liked "Black pudding" and he said YES! I love pudding. Little did he know that "Black pudding" is blood sausage in the UK. LOL. It was pretty darn funny. I laughed so hard when I realized what had happened. 

NOS AMIS

Our amis are doing really well and, as I said we are starting to teach a lot more! It is great. I really think that it is because we are really giving it our all. We are doing what the Lord would want us to do and he is blessing us abundantly for it. 

Yin-He is our Chinese ami. I love him so much. He is really funny. As much as I love him, his questions are always so hard and logically based sometimes I want to pull my hair out. But we have realized we have to teach him with members if we want to have a good lesson with him. The highlight of the week for me was one of the lessons that we had with him. 

Elder Brill and I were kind of stuck on what we needed to teach him next. When suddenly, Elder Brill said that we should watch a church DVD called "Finding Faith in Christ". Normally, I don't like showing amis this DVD because it is before the church put so much effort and quality into media. The film is pretty cheesy in some parts, but it can still be a good tool. Anyway, I thought about it and I was about to say no when I just felt like we should watch it. At the church later that evening, we watched the film with Yin and Soeur Matthieu (who served a mission in Utah so her English is the bomb). 

When the film finishes, the room goes all quiet and the spirit is unmistakably there. We all just sit in silence for about a minute when Yin asks what I think of the movie and I tell him that I think it is kind of old but that it is really touching and then I ask him what he thought. He kind of just shrugged off the question and tried to start talking about a study where they found Chinese people can't be spiritual and all this n'importe quoi (nonsense). When Soeur Matthieu asks Yin if the things that the stories in the movie depicts could be true.. and he says, “I want them to be true”. 

The room is quiet again for about a minute when Yin asks me what I like about the movie. At the end of the movie, there is a man that is talking to Thomas (the apostle) who says that he wants to believe but he doesn't know if or how he can. I start to get really emotional and tell Yin how he and this man are in the same situation and how God just loves us so much. It’s that instant, I just felt so much love for Yin it was almost crushing. I feel like I felt the love that God feels for him. The lesson continues and we are all just weepy because the spirit was so present. Yin was extremely touched. 

He has been praying, reading, and coming to church and he says he hasn't felt anything yet... and in that moment, I know he felt the spirit. We engaged him right then and there to pray to know if God was there and that if He loved him. Saying the closing prayer, Yin probably said one of the most genuine prayers I have ever heard. In the prayer I he asked "Please help me know this is true so I can share this knowledge and truth with the people of China." After he said that, I got the most distinct impression that he will eventually be baptized and become a member of the church so he can share the gospel with the people in China. 

It was a very tender mercy of the Lord to have such a powerful lesson with Yin. I know without the slightest doubt God loves Yin and wants him to know the truth. After a lesson like that, you are just so happy! It is like a runner's high only way better and more edifying! 

My temporary legality papers until I get the actual card.

 Anyway!!! That is it for this week! I love you all! Transfer calls are this week---I don't think anything will change this transfer but we shall see. 

Que Dieu soit avec vous!

Elder Johnson

Pain in the Butt, Turn the Other Cheek... I've heard them all!

A mothers note:  I received a phone call from the mission president the day before Thanksgiving letting me know that Cameron and his companion had been mugged/attacked and he had been stabbed but was fine and in good spirits.  Not a call you want to get when your son is so far away.  With that said, I did have a little break down after the call but realized how God had a hand in protecting him and his companion from it being much worse.  Cameron is on his mission for a reason and it’s not time for it to be over.  Thanks to all of our friends and family who ask about him and pray for him, we appreciate all of your support.  The rest is going to be a breeze after this, right? -  Amy J

Well. I'm not really sure how to begin this email. I will say this week was no less than eventful. I venture as far to say that this week has been the hardest week of my mission... and hopefully the hardest it ever will be. 

My companion and I were assaulted and I ended up getting kicked several times and stabbed once. I'm perfectly fine now. It isn't that serious... I mean, getting stabbed is kind of serious thanks to the fact that I got stabbed in my right butt cheek it wasn't that big of a deal. 

Elder Lapointe and I had planned on passing a less active member that had just moved into the ward from Lyon. We had never visited his house before so we didn't really know where it is but we got directions from him to walk from a certain metro stop. It is about 6:30, rainy and dark already. We step outside of the metro station and I can tell it is kind of a sketchy area but I'm not too worried because we have directions. We turn left going out and realize that we have turned the wrong way, so we turn the other way and go back to the metro station look at a map just to confirm that we are going the right direction. I see a bus stop and know that there are always maps on those so Elder Lapointe and I start looking at them and talking. There are a few people around. There is a girl sitting at the bus stop and a few people milling around underneath the cover of the entrance of the metro. 

Anyway, I'm looking at the map and saying something to Elder Lapointe when I hear someone say "Videz vos poches." which means to empty your pockets. I look to the right of me where Elder Lapointe is standing and I see a guy who is holding Elder Lapointe's wrist and has a knife with his face covered. So, there are two guys with Elder Lapointe, which are starting to take his stuff and my first instinct is to run but I realize that there is a guy behind me AND Elder Lapointe wouldn't be able to get away. 

At this point I haven't understood the reality of the situation. I remember thinking, "We are seriously being robbed at knife point right now." So, I start to take the phone out of my pocket when the guy behind me grabs it out of my hands. After he grabbed it he said "C'est quoi ca?!" Which just means "What is this?!" I guess he was disappointed in our really crappy missionary phone. Anyway, at this point, I’m facing the guy that took our phone and without even thinking I step back, arc my umbrella as far back as I can and whack this guy's face. He ran back a few feet holding his face. I looked at him and he wasn't interested in bothering me for the moment. 

Elder Lapointe and the two other guys weren't aware that I was "free" and that I had hit this guy's head so I turn my attention to the other two guys who are in the process of taking off Elder Lapointe's watch. I yelled at them to stop and then coming from behind wielding my umbrella, whacked one of them as hard as I could. After that he ran away. I wanted to hit the one with the knife but Elder Lapointe was in between him and me so I settled for the one closest to me. 

After I had whacked this second guy (who ran away) the first one I whacked took courage and came at me. As he did, we both fell in the street (it was wet so it was pretty easy to slip). Now that I'm on the ground, the one with the knife and the one that fell with me start kicking me. This part of the story is a huge blur for me because each time I was about to get up I would get pushed down and kicked so I was kind of disoriented. Before I fell I saw the one with the knife come at me and I was really hoping that he wouldn't be able to stab me.

Once they kick me a few times (and apparently stab me, at this point I am not aware.) Elder Lapointe snaps out of his shock and pulls the guy with the knife off of me, who then runs away and before Elder Lapointe can get to the first guy that I hit, he runs away too. 

All this went down in about a minute…if that.

I stand up, I feel like I've just been beat up but I don't feel that it is super serious. I wasn't sure if I had gotten stabbed when I stood up but I thought, well, it isn't THAT serious if I can't feel it right now…even with the adrenaline. Then I hear Elder Lapointe say "Elder! You're bleeding!" And, sure enough, there is a ton of blood seeping out of my pants. It looks pretty serious with the amount of blood that there is but we are both pretty calm. 

As soon as the three guys ran away, all of these nice Muslims come up to us and ask us what is going on and what happened and if they can help us. They let us use one of their phones and we call President Roney. He contacts the other equip of missionaries and senior couple to meet us at the hospital. 

We take the metro to the hospital (because it is faster than waiting for an ambulance) and we go into the emergency room to see a waiting room full of people, at least 40. Yikes. I go up to the front desk and I can't speak French anymore. The woman doesn't understand a word that I'm saying and the shock hits me like a bucket of cold water as I realize what just happen. So, I start getting upset but luckily Elder Lapointe started talking to her in English and we got things sorted out. 

We sit down and wait for about 10 minutes before I go into the "screening" to see how serious it is (basically to see how long they can make you wait). The doctor looks at it and luckily it is only about an inch and a half long and probably two inches deep. So, they put some gauze on it and then send me out to wait again. The other equip of Elders gets there and we explain what happened. We call president again who tells us that Bishop and the Zone Leaders are coming to the hospital. 

After waiting for about 40ish minutes I finally get to go into the room and they stitch me up... Three stitches. That's it. They prescribe me some pain medicine because I got kicked all over. We tried to call the police but they wouldn't start a case until after we had documents from the hospital.  

After I come out the bishop and the zone Leaders are there. They are happy to see me. We get some paper work done and then bishop starts to drive us home when he says, "Lets go to McDonalds." Lol. So, he buys us all McDonalds and ice-cream and gets me my pain meds from the pharmacy and when we finally get home we all crash because it is about 30 passed midnight. And that is how it went down. 

Honestly, I just look back and realize how lucky I was to have been not seriously injured. I mean, yeah I got stabbed but they stabbed me in my butt cheek. It could have been a lot worse. The doctor said that if he had to choose where to get stabbed, he would get stabbed in the butt. lol. 

The few days after the actually incident, it was super hard to do missionary work. It just throws your whole game off. Literally the first thing I thought of when I stood up after getting kicked and stabbed was:

1. I don't want to tell my family about this.

2.Thank you for protecting me.

3.I'm not mad.

I just decided that right of the bat this experience wouldn't be something that ruined my mission or how I viewed other people. It was a really unfortunate and dangerous situation but it could have been a lot worse and I could have decided to get angry about it but I realized how that wouldn't change anything and the only person that it would affect is me. 

This Sunday was Ward Conference and there were a lot of people from the stake in the chapel, so we ended up sitting on the front. Half way though the program, Bishop and Stake President start talking a little bit. And I realize that they are taking up the time and how there is going to be a lot of time left... so I immediately put my head down but as bishop stands up I know that I'm going to get called up to bear my testimony or something like that. And sure enough, I get called up. 

It was probably the best experience of the entire week. I was able to testify of God's love and His help. As terrible as the situation was, I have already overcome it thanks to the gift of God's love. I prayed SO much. I prayed so that I could forgive the guys that did this and I prayed that it wouldn't affect the work. I was able to testify of forgiveness and the power of the Atonement. Never have I understood more clearly the power of the Atonement of Christ. It isn't just for when we sin---it is for situations where we cannot overcome a trial alone. 

This experience was terrible and I would never wish to live it again. But if I had the choice, I don't know if I would NOT live it. I've grown and I know that the knowledge and thankfulness that I have gained is worth the pain I experienced. I was reading in the Book of Mormon and I came across a scripture that really helped me. 

2 Nephi 4 20-24:

20 My God hath been my support; he hath led me through mine afflictions in the wilderness; and he hath preserved me upon the waters of the great deep.

 21 He hath filled me with his love, even unto the consuming of my flesh.

 22 He hath confounded mine enemies, unto the causing of them to quake before me.

 23 Behold, he hath heard my cry by day, and he hath given me knowledge by visions in the night-time.

 24 And by day have I waxed bold in mighty prayer before him; yea, my voice have I sent up on high; and angels came down and ministered unto me.

I prayed to Heavenly Father and received His help. I know that it would not have been possible for me to get back to work the way I did without His help. And I know with resoluteness that He protected me. Never take for granted the blessings you have. And never doubt that you have a Father in Heaven that cares about you. Because He is there, and He loves you.

I love you all. Thank you for your prayers. Continue to pray for me

Avec amour and reconnaissance,

Elder Johnson