September 17, 2018

Fam, 

The mission was visited by Elder Kapischke of the Seventy this week. I truly love when the senior brethren of the church visit. They bring a powerful spirit and energy. He instructed us for about an hour and a half before lunch which was fantastic then four straight hours after lunch - it was fantastic, long, but fantastic. 

He told a bunch of funny stories about his time as a mission president in Berlin. He also spent a significant portion of time expounding the scriptures with us. President Brennan does extremely well and is always the highlight in zone conferences, but the assistant and zone leader trainings in zone conference for the last 6 months to a year really have decreased in quality, with the exception of our current zone leaders. 

We left conference with a new energy to go out and help the people we teach. There was one moment that really stuck out. Very expertly taking from the instruction in D&C 121:43 Elder Kapischke rebuked one of the Elders who mentioned something he was doing that wasn't strictly bad but wasn't in accordance to one of the rules in the missionary handbook. It was not grandiose but was very simple and direct. Elder Kapischke seemed very happy. He was an incredible and effective teacher, really pretty awe inspiring. It's a pretty close tie between when President Nelson came to visit the mission. The only thing I didn't appreciate were the questions he would extend which were not really PMG questions, namely non-specific questions looking for specific answers. All in all, a great visit. 

Good news for the week is that Patricia is getting baptized this Sunday. We briefly stopped teaching her but Elder Guerrero and Elder Berry have picked the teaching back up and have been doing great. We anticipate a great service this next Sunday. Our friend Carlos in Lansing is also doing well. He works Sundays which would be the only delay on his baptism but beyond that he is doing great. We ran through the baptismal questions with him during our last lesson and he is pretty ready. It's really nice when people just read the Book of Mormon and pray sincerely about if it's true or not. 

Two other notable events that passed this week were our lessons with a woman named Nuvia and a man named Jorge. 

Nuvia we met about a week or two ago. Despite seemingly everything fighting against our progress, she is doing pretty good. We teach her and her 8 year old son, normally outside on their porch. Our past lesson we drove up and she is outside like normal. As we walked up it was apparent that something had just gone down. Their house was beaten up and their windows were smashed in. We spoke with her and figured out what had happened and basically were with her waiting for the police to arrive. About 20 minutes into our visit this guy parked his car on their lawn and with his meanest face on strolled up to us looking very angry. I remember thinking, "Wow, we are about to get beaten up." Luckily the guy pretty much walked up to us and seeing who we were turned and left. I think it wasn't an accident that our appointment was at the moment it was. Whatever would have happened wasn't going to happen with us there. It reminded me of a moment we had with an investigator named Carmen about 14 or so months ago. Miracle. 

Jorge's lesson was also great. We taught a few principles out of the Restoration and focused on the necessity of prayer a little more directly. The last few lessons with him have been pretty intense, but I think he has made some progress.

The Book of Mormon more than the Bible really helps us discern things that are good and true. While the Bible explains "ask and ye shall receive" (James 1:5) and later explains the fruits of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-25) but the Book of Mormon takes the cake. To name a few, these scriptures outline one or more ways that we can know for our selves if something is true. 

1 Nephi 15:11
2 Nephi 31:3
2 Nephi 32:3-5
2 Nephi 33:1,10
Jacob 4:13
Mosiah 5:2
Alma 5:45-46
Alma 32:27-29
Moroni 7:13, 19
Moroni 10:3-5

The Book of Mormon really speaks for itself, challenging any and all readers to find out for themselves. I really know it to be true. There really isn't anything we can do to convince someone aside from allowing the spirit to confirm what we teach. Endlessly we are bashed and that is terribly annoying and it's exceedingly unfortunately because those people have hardened their hearts and refuse to think or test things out beyond the words of their pastor. The Restoration of the Gospel truly is a miracle. 

God has not changed, revelation does not have some prescribed ending after the revelation of John. If that were to be true then everything after Deuteronomy 4:2 is void and if their Bibles are anything like mine there can't be prophets after the old testament because it says "the end of the prophets." Lastly, if there weren't going to be prophets in the lasts days why did Jesus take time give instruction on how to figure out if someone is a false prophet instead of saying, sorry guys I'm the last one! 

Being a missionary is pretty great. The Gospel is true. 

-eric

September 10, 2018

Eric Henry Johnson
12:24 PM (2 hours ago)

Tuesday Elder Rencher and I went on trade-offs. I've literally served my entire mission with Elder Rencher in the same district. It's a little weird watching him die (in missionary lingo, that means finishing the mission) and go home. 

Wednesday was a pretty good day. Last Friday I got the scriptures dad and mom sent me. Elder Magalei and I added our testimonies to both the Book of Mormon (triple combination) and to the Bible. We printed off a few pictures of his baptism and glued them right in. When we met with him we talked about some longer term discipleship goals. He wrote them into his triple combination. He really, really appreciated the gift.  

Our mission is striving to "flood the world" with the Book of Mormon. We use the Book of Mormon simply because it's the keystone that establishes the truthfulness of the Restoration of the Gospel. In the words of Bruce R McConkie, "Either the Book of Mormon is true, or it is false; either it came from God, or it was spawned in the infernal realms." Trying to use the Book of Mormon more in our finding efforts we've had some fun experiences. 

The first was with this one lady on Saturday. We spoke with her and briefly explained the Book of Mormon and read with her Moroni 10:4-5 and 3 Nephi 11:3-7. Moroni explains that one has to pray to gain a testimony by the power of the spirit, and 3 Nephi 11 contains the moment when Jesus appears in the Americas. Truly powerful scriptures. As we read with the lady we all could feel the spirit testify that the record was true. She asked for a copy which we happily supplied her with along with a return appointment. 

The other cool moment happened yesterday. We pulled up to the home of someone we are teaching. Outside was a hispanic family of 10 or so people so we walked right up to them and started talking with them. We introduced the Book of Mormon to them. Unfortunately people began to slowly filter away until we were left with just one person. We spoke with him and testified of how the Book of Mormon was written for our days and contains the fulness of the gospel. You could tell something clicked and he was extremely interested, he wanted to make changes in his life and we promised that through the gospel of Jesus Christ and the authority of the priesthood that has been restored he could receive the ordinances of the gospel that help in that process. 

The Book of Mormon truly speaks for itself. Occasionally we get people who try to be faith shakers but without exception they haven't really done that with the Book of Mormon. No argument stands up against truth. The spirit I feel reading the stories of Jesus in the Bible is the same which permeates the pages of the Book of Mormon. Though there are a bunch of cool things which have been learned after the printing of the Book of Mormon that support the veracity of the truth of the record, my testimony is founded in the power of the Holy Ghost. Truly, it is by the power of the Holy Ghost by which we may know the truth of all things. 

On the same train of thought we had a lesson with Jorge this week. He is very intelectual, which isn't bad (2 Nephi 9:29), but has given up in part on the Book of Mormon. He has allowed, or pins an unexpressed concern, on one small insignificant detail which has eclipsed the magnificence and miraculousness of the Book of Mormon. We planned out a lesson which if it carried a title, would be, "seek learning by study and by faith," using the principle found on D&C 88:118. We used a bunch of scriptures and it was pretty direct. We outlined how truth is the knowledge of how things are, were, and will be (D&C 93:24) and that while study is necessary it is incomplete without the spirit of truth to accompany any finding. Jorge seeks out to prove or disprove the Book of Mormon by the current understanding of the American continent between 600 BC - 400 Ad (the time period of the Book of Mormon with the exception of the book of Ether), but shies away from trying to accompany that study by seeking the spirit of truth. Moroni 10:5 is pretty clear, we can know the truth of all things by the power of the Holy Ghost. "All things" is a lot of things, and it's not going to be until he accepts that principle that he will find the answer that satisfies him. 

We watched the face-to-face yesterday and it was really impressive up to one point. They seemed to have practiced their responses significantly. The point I referred to was when poor Elder Quintin L Cook misspoke when he said that "the Savior was martyred in Carthage jail." Surely someone has already taken advantage of taking this out of context. It's comforting to know that God will still work with imperfect people. 

-eric

September 3, 2018

Fam,

Turns out this never got sent! 

Today marks twenty months of missionary service. 2.7 months were spent with Elder Guerrero, 1.5 with Elder Waters, 9.3 of those months have been spent with Elder Magalei, and 8.2 of those months have been spent with Elder Rencher. It's crazy to think how young the district was when I first got here. Elder Waters, the district leader had 6 months. Elder Guerrero had about 4 months and Elder Rencher had just finished training with about 3 months. Elder Rencher and Elder Guerrero will also be finishing their missions together at the end of this transfer. Time really does fly. 

Monday evening we had a great lesson with Wilfred and William. They really are two amazing guys. They are humble and a joy to teach. We brought our new Branch missionary leader and his wife with us and we had planned to teach the Plan of Savation. We knocked the door and could see Wilfred was reading and after we walked in we had asked what he was reading. He described the first few verses of Alma 32 and the spirit made a clear impression that we should continue reading with him. We did so and had a stellar lesson with them. Alma 32 is just full of goodness. We read that and the spirit was very strong. Outside of the quality of how the lesson turned out, something that struck me was the fluency and proficiency of the members who came out with us. Obviously they know Spanish and grew up speaking it, but for whatever reason that night the separation of my own Spanish abilities and that of theirs really stuck out in my mind. It was pretty awe inspiring, language learning really is the process of a life time to be able to dominate a language like a native speaker. 

We've slowly been working through the new member lessons with Edin. He is doing great. We taught a lesson on tithing this last Wednesday. The presence of the spirit is dependent on all parties involved. If there is unity the spirit much more capable of being able to testify of truth. Edin's teaching has exemplified this truth. Every lesson we have with him is a spiritual highlight of the day. He is so receptive to truth that it really is a joy to teach him. 

We had another good lesson with him where we reviewed the gospel of Jesus Christ. We hadn't really covered why we don't baptized infants so we decided to use Moroni 8 to cover the topic. Moroni 8 really is a pretty great chapter on baptism, specifically verse 25-26. He explained that he had always thought what the chapter teaches was right but found no support on that idea in his previous church. It reminded me of when we taught the 10 commandments and how he was blown away by the first commandment, "Thou shalt have no other gods before me." He explained that he had always prayed to other people and never realized that that was blatantly against the very first of the 10 commandments. 

Friday we were stopping by a person we had lost contact with. Their neighbor was home so we talked with her for a few minutes on her porch. We were able to share with her a shortened restoration lesson. As we taught about the first vision I was watching her reaction. Joseph Smith had a question about which of all the sects of his time was right and which he should join. He brought his question to a grove of trees and asked God in sincere prayer that he would reveal to him what he should do. He was answered by a personal visitation from God the father and Jesus Christ. They instructed him in what to do. Nuvia was surprised. She said, in reference to the painting depicting the first vision, "but there are two people in the photo?" We smiled and explained that the first revealed truth in the process of the Restoration of the Gospel Jesus Christ is that the non-biblical doctrine of the trinity was false. God is a personal God who knows his children and cares for them, he has a body of Flesh and bone, only glorified. Jesus Christ is his son, the Savior of the world. Previously she was left confused by the doctrine of the trinity and didn't really know how to pray because of that. Thankfully, first and foremost, the restoration just makes sense (Deut 32:17). 

We also have pictures of the two elders coming in next transfer! We also heard that the transfer after that there will be another Spanish Elder. Another! There is the danger of me leaving the branch before I finish my mission............ I really don't want to. I'd rather train two greenies at once. 

- Eric