Man, I'm not sure how I let myself go this long without sending out a weekly email to you all.. But holy cow, a lot has happened! Let me see if I can sum it up quickly..
Nearly 3 weeks ago I finished my first transfer down here in Ontario.. It's been pretty great! Mountain View ward is awesome and full of some really great people. I do miss the desert, but I am enjoying the change. It has a little more of a So Cal feel down here ;) I'm sad to say my companion, Elder Gomez, got transferred; however, since he is very fluent in Spanish, President Taylor has switched him over to Spanish speaking! He was incredibly excited and is now tearing it up in the Spanish ward down in Chino!
This is my 3rd week with my new companion, Elder Golden, who is a freaking stud! I served with him a little bit before in the Victorville zone back when I was in Barstow, so I was pretty excited to hear I was going to be serving with him. We've had a good time and work really well together!
Just over a week ago we had to deal with one of the most bazaar situations that I've ever faced on my mission. We had an investigator that "blew up at us" to say the least after we offended him for having to leave to be home on time. He is always talking about how he has a "good half" and an "evil half," and boy we sure saw his evil half. After we arrived home we saw we had multiple missed calls from him that we missed because we were biking. He thought we had been ignoring him, which set him off even more. We called him back and tried to calm him down, but he cussed us out over the phone for a couple hours and kind of threatened to kill Elder Golden. Eventually he was telling us he had a knife to his throat and was threatening to kill himself. It was pretty scary in the moment trying to talk him out of suicide. It's the type of situation you never really imagine you'll ever have to deal with. I told him that I know that God loves him, has a plan for him, and that that is the last thing that He would want him to do. Eventually he calmed down and we were able to go to bed. We talked to our mission president the next day, and he advised us not to go back or contact him. He showed up to church the next Sunday, but only to give us his Book of Mormon and pamphlets back. It really is sad, but it's probably for the best.
Other than that craziness that went on, things have been pretty great! Our investigator, Valerie, has been coming to church every week lately and has a baptismal date for Nov 12, which is looking pretty promising :)
I really enjoyed General Conference, even though I know it's "so last week" by now ;) It seems like every time I watch General Conference I have a favorite talk that really stands out to me and.. and then it always turns out to be EVERYONE ELSE'S favorite too.. Well, the same thing happened again this conference with President Nelson's talk on Joy. I guess that just means it was a pretty rockin' talk, right? He says,
"Life is filled with detours and dead ends, trials and challenges of every kind. Each of us has likely had times when distress, anguish, and despair almost consumed us. Yet we are here to have joy?
Yes! The answer is a resounding yes!"
Everyone is going to go through hard times as President Nelson described; nonetheless, we CAN still find SHOULD still find joy. As President Nelson goes on to say, "when the focus of our lives is on Jesus Christ and His gospel, we can feel joy regardless of what is happening--or not happening-- in our lives."
Stay positive and love your life!
Aloha ke Akua
Much love,
Elder Johnson
<3
