Hit the hyperdrive Chewy.
This title is because the last 7 months have gone by lightspeed. Or as Jacob would say: "The time passed away with us, and also our lives passed away like as it were unto us a dream."
Sorry I have not sent anything nor responded to anyone in this time.
I blame it slightly upon the business of office pdays.
I cannot say nay even in the least part, the amount of things that happened while assigned to serve as general secretary in the mission office.
Lots of random things like being sent to open a safe in president's house at 9:30AM while he is speaking in conference, minutes before a missionary has to leave to catch his flight. Sending house keys to missionaries at 9PM who are locked outside. Temple trips.
But probably the biggest sándwich to swallow was transfers.
It means looking at 2 transfer boards of where every missionary is currently at, and one of where they all need to get to, and then creating a document to align (for example, in October it was:) 14 bus routes, 7 car routes, with a total of 113 stops, each with a time to arrive and a Google maps location attached, communicated to the missionaries and to the drivers, and negotiating prices with the providers in a period of less than 48 hours, in order to bring missionaries and their luggage to their new areas with their new companion.
And then after staying up till 2AM finishing that you wake up to a call at 6AM that one of the buses who has their route starting 2 hours away, has broke down an hour from their first stop and needs to be there 30min ago. My working calm under stress xp bar got severely overloaded. I’m very happy I had that time to learn and grow a lot.
But after 6 months there I trained a son to take my place there, he's Elder Choc. Super cool compañion from guatemala. He was my first Chapín. Now im on my third. Elder Prach is now AP with Elder Frias. That makes 5/7 of the office stuff my ex companions. I love the mission right now.
I am now in Ciudad Arce. Probably going to finished here. I will complete 23 months in the mission in 1 week. I finish on my 21st birthday, the 12th of Febuary.
In my last area Paraíso, some incredible stories of faith gotta share before taking about my current area:
- First off, I gotta tell you about the new bishop they called while I was there, Obispo Mena.
He was baptized 10 years ago and has always loved visiting with the Elders. I've met a lot of incredibly pure hearted, consecrated souls here, but he's gotta be in the top 3.
He works as an ambulance driver so he's got fast and furious driving skills and is extremely calm under pressure, yet super nice.
A bit of his conversion story, 10 years ago he was an athiest and lost everything and was a very bitter person and loved to knock down whatever religious person that came to his door with what he believed was some very bulletproof cold hard facts for why God didnt exist. He felt like science didnt leave room for God to exist. One day a pair of Elders showed up and he thought they'd get scared off too, but they kept coming back. He went to church just to get them to leave him alone, but then he realized when he got there and saw the meetings that this was something he wanted his kids to have, so he helped his kids get baptized. When he decided to see what the Book of Mormon was he read the entire thing less than a week, and when he finished, he realized he had been wrong about God this whole time. There was no way God couldn't exist. Aside from the book of mormon, the Plan of Salvation blew him away. This gospel was able to explain how he existed before this life, why he was here, and exactly what happens after. He started leaving to go teach with the Elders while he waited for the legal process of marriage and then he was baptized. He's been studying the restored gospel of Jesus Chirst and he's loved visiting with the missionaries and sharing the gospel ever since.
Something that really stuck with me from my time with him was seeing a very real moment of the hope of the plan of Salvation in action in his life. Not even 2 months after he was called as bishop, there was a heavy rain that hit Santa Ana one day that caused severe flash floods. His daughter happened to be driving home from work at that moment in that place, and she suffered a violent death when she was taken in the flood on her motorcycle. It was devistating for the family. His daughter was so well known in the community for her good works that the people didnt even fit in the building at her funeral. What blew me away was when we went to visit his family to comfort them he somehow was so calm. Instead of us comforting him, he started telling us about how he had seen God's hand in his life. Anybody could've gotten angry at God and asked why, when he was doing everything right and trying to serve the Lord, something like this would happen? But instead, he looked for where God was.
He told us how the week before this happened, he had a clear message come into his mind one night. It was so clear and so powerful, he pulled out his phone and posted on Facebook that night. "Never forget the nature of my plan."
It wasnt until after this event that he found he had posted that and remembered. He saw it as Heavenly Father trying to prepare beforehand with remembering the truths he had first learned in the church. God's plan is of Eternal nature, his purposes are about far more than just this life. And he has eternal promises for his family. He will see her again. He talked about how Heavenly Father must have a purpose in giving him charge of his 6yr old and 11yr old grandaughters who now didnt have their mom to take care of them. He saw it as a merciful chance God was giving his family to try again in involving the whole family in their family home evening and scriptures studies. They needed to do everything with their grandkids that they hadnt been doing with their daughter while she had gone away from the church. He saw God's hand in the several innactive families who came to the funeral and had a chance to invite them to come back to church.
He still left with us that week to teach people and when he bore testimony of the peace that God's Plan of Salvation brings, he was able to speak it with 100% authority, being a living example of someone who had found incredible empowering peace beyond understanding.
His humble example, his attentive leadership and his selfless love for others brought many souls back to the fold. We went from averaging about 70 people attending sacrament meeting per week, to by my final sunday there, it was about 130.
- Marco Tulio.
It's tuesday night at 8PM. We're in a small colonia called la empalizada.
Elder Choc and I paused in the street as I kneeled to tie my shoe.
We talk to a little old man walking up to a tienda in front of us. He tells us that he's sad because his kids all left to the US except for one, and that he's going to buy some alcohol.
We told him we have a message from Jesus Christ that can give him peace without having to drink that. He told us his kids were baptized in our church but he'd always refused to go, but that now he wanted us to come visit him. We asked him to show us where he lives. 2 weeks later he read every pamphlet we gave him and didnt drink again since that day we met him, and had come to church twice with his daughter and grandaughter. He was baptized the day before I left the area.
God has prepared many souls to hear this message. Sometimes you just gotta talk to everyone to find them. Even the little old man going to buy a beer while you tie your shoe.
Well I thought I'd get further than this but 2 stories is already super long so I think ill leave it at this for now.
I love you guys. The gospel is true. You gotta try it to believe it. It is awesome.
In the name of Jesus Christ, Amén.
-Elder Johnson.
Comments
Post a Comment