Stay close to the Spirit FOREVER

Muy buenas tardes,

Me toca escribir muchos correos en español a diferentes personas que trabajan por la iglesia. Hay muchos miembros aqui en latino america que trabajan por la iglesia. Seria bueno, no tener que preocuparse de nada solo trabajo y iglesia, haha. Pero yo no creo que yo vaya a trabajar por la iglesia, no pagan bien. Me veo trabajando en alguna impresa de energia mientras estudio y busco una solución a muchos de los problemas de energia. Despues doy la tecnologia a la iglesia gratis para las capillas y el nuevo Jerusalen. Hahaha. Wow tengo buenos amigos aqui en la mision. Yo veo a Elder Josh Nilsen como una vez a la semana a menos. Es increible que estamos aqui en la misma mision. Yo se que seremos amigos despues. Tambien con Elder Alex P. Carnese. El es super bueno. Hay nuevos asistentes tambien y so buenos amigos. Elder Camren Applegate de utah y Elder Zuleta de Quito Ecuador. Tambien Elder Jativa tambien es de Quito. Ya tengo personas con quien quedarme cuando venga a visitar. 

Un gran deseo mio ahorita es llevar mas fruto a Dios por medio de las personas que se bautizan y se confirman. Estamos viendo que podemos tener 8 bautismos el mes de Julio. O mas. Pedro bautizo a 3mil personas en un dia. El Libro de Mormon habla de misioneros que bautizaron a mas que 100 en un dia. Si esta alli en el libro es porque es posible. No hay que dudar. El Señor vive y esta es su iglesia. Estoy en tierra prometida con personas que estan preparadas. Oren para que yo tenga la sensibilidad al Espiritu para reconocer los escogidos en la calle. 

Well, maybe that's enough Spanish. I don't know if you'll all be able to understand. What's important is that I am picking up the pace as a missionary. I have a little more energy now. There is a lot to learn still, but I can start by teaching other people what I do know and helping them make their first covenant with God. I am really excited to keep working. It's not that things are going easy, every day is a new challenge. But I am happy to keep learning something new every day. I wonder if the rest of my life can be like this. Learning something new every day. I refuse to say that it can't be like that. Why do people say that this is the only time in my life when I can be so close to the spirit? I don't think that is correct. Wouldn't that mean it was all for naught? Maybe it's just the way I am but I don't like the idea of lowering or lessening any part of the good things I am learning and doing. What do you think of that? A mi me parace correcto.

We can all apply the things we already know. Simple things. Small and simple things. By doing those things, great things are brought to pass. So many times we have the right answer but we just fight it off looking for an easier way. Like what dad said to me about shortcuts. There are none. We must all pass through the refining fire of the converting power of the Atonement and Holy Ghost and stay in communion with Christ for as long as we can until we die. And then we keep learning. We just need to teach these simple principles with love to those we love and we can live and learn and grow together. I am so happy to have the family I do have. we are all going to make it together. What joy! :)

Well I'd love to hear how you are all doing and I'd be glad to give advice or commentary on anything. I'm doing push ups like Michael told me, hahaha. Have a good week.

Love,

Elder Johnson

Happy Birthday Jenna

My dear sister Jenna Belle Johnson,

Your name is the name of a princess. You were my first and only little sister. I remember when you were first born, we were all so excited to see you and were a little bugged that we had to wait until July 4th to see you the first time. I remember being really surprised that you had so much hair, and you didn't cry but let all of us hold you. Michael was the best at holding you and didn't let us hold you as much but we were patient. I then remember one night where all of us brothers stayed in the living room with you until late so that mom could rest. You fell asleep on Christian's chest I think and we all kind of fell asleep on what were our new couches at the time. It was the first time I saw you yawn so big that it scared me because you looked like a little cute monster growling. I remember when you walked for the first time to each one of us as we all kneeled around mom and dad's bed, you were so happy to be walking and laughed as you fell into each of our arms. I remember when you came to visit me at BYU and I was so happy to see you and Jonathan, it was the first time I had left you for a long time. You are becoming such a little woman, a true princess of God. Remember that a Princess is nice to everyone and is friends with everyone, especially her brothers who love and protect her. I carried you to bed every night for my last years in High school as we shared a room, haha. Remember when you fell from the top bunk and I caught you? It was a blessing that I was there on the floor. I was stretching out my back that was really sore and tight from football I think. I am happy to have had that back problem just so I could be in the right place at the right time to catch you when you fell. I will always be there to protect you my dear little sister. And remember that you now have the Holy Ghost to protect you and help you learn. Read your scriptures and help mom in the house in cleaning and cooking. Have a happy Birthday! And be safe always. I love you so much.

Your big brother number 3,

Elder Jacob H. Johnson

ONE YEAR

Hola,

Me imagino que papa me escribio ahorita diciendome que yo puedo escribir en español. Haha, no he escuchado que me dice boo boo en mucho tiempo. Estoy tan feliz. Tuvimos 2 bautismos la semana pasada. Nos fue muy bien. Tendrè que enviarles fotos la proxima semana. Lo que pasa es que no tengo mucho tiempo. Creo que uso mucho tiempo para pensar y meditar las cosas. Mi entendimiento de la Expiaciòn ha crecido mucho y es tan real. Todo. Jesus es el Cristo, nuestro Salvador. Me encantò a mi la carta de michael a papa. Su ejemplo de la carrera de esta vido fue muy buena. Se me salieron las lagrimas. Wow, Jenna ya va a cumplir 9 años. Jenna, this is the last birthday party I will miss, I promise :)

Re-energized from the two baptisms we had, we will be having another baptism this next week. A humble man of about 60 years. He came walking into the church a few weeks ago alone and said he had always wanted to go inside. He felt peace when he came and will be getting baptized. 

Well a year has gone by since I left my humble home in Tujunga, California. In a way it feels as if it was yesterday. I can honestly say I have grown and learned so much. I am not the same person who left. I am happier and more sure of the divinity of our Savior and of the reality of His atoning sacrifice. This knowledge gives me peace and drives me to round up others into the pasture of the Good Shepard. This is my desire. It has become part of me. It was not easy or simple to arrive at the conversion I am now enjoying. The fruit has been tasted and it is desirable above all other fruits. It makes me happy and I want to share it with others. Thank you for your prayers. They make my faith stronger. I love when mom and Tia Patti remind me to pray for angels to protect me and guide me. I think that is a resource I will be striving to utilize from now on. That's all I've got to do, bring more souls to Christ. What a blessing to be able to do that for two years. Well, I only have one year left and I definitely need to bring more fruit. I will be grateful for tips and advice to help others accept Christ. If we really accept Christ, then we accept his command to bring others unto him. We are all in this work together. Continue to pray for me, as I continue to pray for you. 

With all the love of my heart,
Elder Johnson 

Timing is everything

Dear Family and Friends,

Well I must say thank you to Kelli, Dashawn, Bryan and Cara for your DearElders. I must say sorry for not writing anyone back yet. Time is shorter here in Ecuador. But I love you all and felt the love of your friendship in the letters. And keep them coming, haha. Try and imagine me responding to you. I will find time to write back. 

This week went by really fast. But at the same time it feels like it's been awhile since I've written. Sunday was great because Nelly came to church with her daughter. We taught a powerful lesson of the Restoration. I even pulled out the Bible, haha. I'm trying to find time to study the scriptures more. Sometimes there are things to be done in the morning that take away from my study time. I go to the government buildings and register the visas of the missionaries. I've made friends with all the workers there, even the security guards, haha. They even helped me out with a favor last week, haha. Nothing illegal, I just had to renew a couple visas of two Colombian missionaries but we had to do it in the afternoon because they were coming from outside of Guayaquil. The visas are only done in the morning but they let us do it in the afternoon. It's all about having friends, haha. I also met a white family of Jehovah's Witnesses there. Friendly people. 

Sunday afternoon we went looking for new investigators. I honestly believe that it is possible to walk being led in every footstep by the spirit. You've just got to listen. Really, you've just got to feel. So we went walking, and I was leading the way trying to feel out where to go. I felt impressed to talk to a few people and then the impression to leave them and keep walking. We got to a building where there was an inactive family, and entered. I stopped, "not yet" I said and we walked back out. We chatted with a lady seated outside of the building. She didn't want anything. The door to the building closed as we turned back to it to enter and maybe talk to the inactive family. 
The doors here all lock automatically because of robbers. Sometimes you get lucky and one is left open. A second later a man in his 20's shows up and opens the door with his key. "Can we come in with you?" we asked and he said "sure Elder". 

Then started a quick conversation on how he knew the Elders and he said he was about to be baptized when he lived in Argentina but his family moved to Ecuador and for 7 years he lost contact with the Church. He accepted the baptismal date for the 23 of June that night. We were blessed to have another lesson with him with the Elder's Quorum President and he committed more to come to church and be baptized. Se llama Bryan. His dad was a Pastor and that's why he never let him join the church. He's 25. It's a little hard to contact him because he has to work a lot so we need your prayers to help him progress. He knows a ton and knows the church is true. We are being careful to make sure he is genuine. 

Sometimes we feel like we are guided in one direction and we follow it and it leads to no results. We have to remember that we can't see the whole plan. If we keep following the spirit we will end up in the right place. I felt the impressions to talk to certain people before we found Bryan. But they weren't the ones I was looking for. But the timing was perfect because we did follow the earlier impressions. If we didn't talk to the lady outside of the building at the last moment we would have never met Bryan. It was part of the plan. You never know what is waiting right around the corner. With the guidance of the spirit, the timing will always be perfect. 

Sincerely,
Elder Johnson

11 Months

Congratulations to Spencer! wow I can't believe he graduated already. It feels like yesterday that we were playing hide and go seek in the clothes aisle of K Mart, with me ending up lost and crying. Haha, I feel like Spencer has never really gotten lost like I have. Have you all noticed that?

Congratulations Spencer :)

So now that I think about it, I haven't talked to you since Mother's day. Well, I got changed again. Haha, not from the office. Just changed in my area. But it was a good change. We were working in a sector with a pair of sisters and the assistants. So we got changed to the sector with the other two secretaries. The sad part was that it crashed any plans we had of having baptisms this month. 

But we were blessed this Sunday when a lady came to church with a member. We presented ourselves saying it was our first Sunday there and she said "Great, it's mine too". She accepted the message well. That same night we went to her humble home and met her daughter and invited them both to the next Sunday. They both accepted. 

That Monday we picked an elder up from the airport who was waiting in Bogota Colombia for his Visa to go through. He is a good guy from Santa Marta Colombia. A convert of three years but has a great foundation and is really ready and eager to learn. So I was able to mini-train him. He just left today to a sector that"s growing about 2 hours outside the city.

This last Thursday we were able to have a good lesson with that lady who came to church and her daughter of 19 years. We invited them both to be baptized. They both accepted. The mom has the date for the 9th of June and the daughter is the next week since she hasn't been to church yet. It was a great blessing coming from the other sector. We hope to be able to keep up the momentum. We are really learning how to manage our time better, but there is still a long ways to go. I love my companion. I'll try and send photos next time. 

Well I hit 11 months last week and before I blink I will have a year. I honestly did not believe anyone when they told me that the mission goes by really fast. But it really does. 

When ye are in the service of your fellow men, ye are in the service of your God. That's really true being secretary. I am finding new ways to serve the missionaries and make their lives a little easier so they can focus more on the work. And in return I can see the Lord's hand in helping me in my personal labor and discipleship. I love you all. May the peace of Christ be upon you. 

Love,

Elder Johnson

Mother's Day

Dear Family,

I will dedicate this letter to my mom. Instead of writing a general letter of how moms influence the lives of their sons and how important that is, I will express to MY mom the way she has influenced my life:

Wow, I always knew I had great parents, but until I came out here I never realized how great. I remember when our stake president told me I would realize how blessed I was to have parents like the ones I have while I served here on the mission. He was right.

Mom taught me how to express my feelings, how to share testimony, how to think rationally and critically, and how to act in the moment. "I know I've taught my sons to not be in the crowd and watch, but to stand up and do something." That's something she told me when I told her about a fight I had stopped in football practice one day.

She taught us to be peacemakers, to seek to be better and to follow the example of Christ. I know that this has helped me in the mission.

Haha, I remember turning 12 and being ready to leave the Primary. But because my birthday was in January I had to stay in the Primary being 12 years old for the rest of the year. I would be singing the Mother's Day songs with the rest of the little kids. Haha, I didn't want to. "Sing to your mother." She told me and I went up there to sing when all the little kids walked up. I was so tall to everyone else and felt too big to be there. I think I sang the first two lines of "Mother, I Love You" and then started crying. I don't think I understood the emotions at that time, but I was feeling love for my mom. The love of the Savior. Pure love. I love you mom.

Elder Johnson
P.S. We´ll talk tomorrow :)

Busy Bee

Dear Family,

This last week was pretty crazy actually. We had 11 missionaries go home and 11 come in. And I had to make sure everything went just right. I certainly learned something about airports, migration, and negotiating. I am trying to learn something from the stuff I have to do as secretary. I definitely have to have a mind that remembers everything, and I get to work on my Christlike attributes as I deal with many people and missionaries in many different situations. It was cool, the other day while waiting in line to register the visas of the new missionaries I sat next to an Italian Jehovah's Witness and taught him the Restoration. I also taught a French catholic guy. And a white lady who came here to live after her husband died. My life is a lot more busy. But I always have time to have a prayer for you guys. I hope and pray that you are being blessed. You were all part of my preparation to be here and complete this mission for the Lord. Pray for me, as I pray for you.

Love
Elder Johnson