Elder Bednar Visits!

Hey Everyone,

This was such an amazing week, i don´t know where to start. i feel like i could write 10 pages and it still wouldn´t be enough. Well the first big news i have is that i got my christmas package today with my christmas music, thank you! it only took 2 months to get here, but like you said i will just have it for next christmas, and by that time i will only have 5 months left in the mission.

The conferences with Elder Bednar were amazing! it was such a spiritual and motivating experience. He is seriously a spiritual and gospel genious, but i guess that is what happens when you are constantly in the presence of prophets and apostles for 5 and a half years. On Saturday, we had the mission conference with him, and i got to sit on the 4th row. he doesn´t speak spanish so he used a translater, but it was really good for the Americans. He only knows 3 words in spanish, ¨Espiritu Santo, hola, and uno por uno¨. every now and then he would say one of those words and make a joke of how it is the gift of tongues is kicking in. He has a great personality, and basically just had a 3 hour conversation rather than give us a talk. right when he walked in, he commented about how hot it was and then took off his jacket and rolled up his sleeves and just started talking with us and asking our oppinions on things or what we thought about other things. we were given two of his talks to read before he came and he first asked what we liked about them and what we learned, he wasn´t intimidating at all. He told us that we shouldn´t write anything that he says, but what the Spirit tells us. it was pretty much a 3 hour demonstration of how we should talk and teach with people so that they feel the Spirit and receive revelations and confirmations. I know that every missionary there received revelation for themselves and for their investigators. it was truly an inspiring experience. One of my favorite topics that he talked about was the Atonement. He explained that there are two parts of the Atonement. the first is to be cleansed of our sins. the second is that it gives us strength and power to endure burdens, or problems and endure to the end (mosiah 24, v.13-15). Many people pray to have the Lord take away their burdens, when they should be praying for strength to carry them. He also talked alot about prayer and how everything is in the will of the Lord, not us. About 2 hours into the conference, he told us that we have an hour left and the time is now ours to ask him whatever question we wanted. 3 of the 70 and their wives also came with Elder Bednar: Martinez, Costa (who in the the presidency), and Coleman. He told us that we would never have this much time in a group so small as us, to ask whatever question we wanted to an apostle and three 70. of course we all wanted to ask him a question, but he was only able to answer about 7 before the time ran out. There were some great questions asked, like how has the Lord shaped him throughout his life to become an apostle, how has he grown closer to the Lord being an apostle, and what has he learned from prayer. it was a very spiritual experience for all of us.
side note: he made a comment of one of the ¨stupid games¨ Mormons play. one of these games is guess whats in my head during church or meetings or whenever. this is when we ask questions and look for someone to say the specific answer we are thinking of. instead, we should ask for their opinions because maybe they understood something else that we never thought of. So if you play whats in my head, the word from an apostle is to stop.

The next day, Sunday, we had the stake conference with Elder Bednar. once again, it was amazing. he talked alot about the same things that he talked about with us, such as the atonement. He also talked a little bit about the earthquake in Haiti. he said the best way to help is to pay fast offerings. the system is already established, we don´t have to do anything more, just pay fast offerings. we are going to do a special fast for them so that they will be able to receive more supplies. Right now, we have 3 families that we teaching where only one person in that family is a member. all 3 families came and a couple other investigators to the conference to hear to words of an apostle. they all really enjoyed it and felt the Spirit. We are going to put some baptismal dates with some of them this week.

This wasn´t the only good part about this week, we had a couple amazing experiences when we were guided by the Spirit. About a week ago, my comp and i were walking to the church for a meeting. on the way there, we felt impressed to contact a house. we contacted it and the lady said she didn´t have time then but we could come back another day, so we put a day and time to come back. a couple days later we returned for our appointment, but she wasn´t there, surprise surprise. we started walking away, when a member who lived right across the street called us over. This member is active, but she works all the time and i have never visited her because she is always at work. this day she got home a little early and was cleaning in front of her house. she said she had a friend who wants a book of mormon. we gladly got the information of her friend and visited him that night an hour later. he knew a lot about the church and wanted to learn more. we gave him the book of mormon and he was very excited to read it and told us he wants to go to church. Just by following the promptings of the Spirit to contact a house that wasn´t interested, we were guided to someone who really wanted to learn more. Another story is, about a week and a half ago, the bishop and his wife gave us a reference. we taught the reference and everything went great and she was excited about it all. she also works alot and is really hard to find at home. we have passed by her house about 6 times since that first lesson and she hasn´t been there once. the last time we went to see if she was home, we found her neighbor outside her house. he is a 20 year old kid with an open heart. he started talking with him and put a time to return to teach him. 2 days ago we taught him, and it was an amazing lesson. he was so excited about everything we said and was even more excited when we gave him a book of mormon that he could read. at the end of the lesson, he put a time that we could come back and told us that he would be waiting and that he would definitely read the book of mormon. I don´t know if these two guys will progress (i hope so), but i know that we were guided to them by the Lord because they were ready to hear the gospel. The best story about this week is about a family that i have only met for 30 minutes. i can´t remember if i told you, but right before the end of my 2nd transfer with my trainer, Elder Earl, a lady in the ward asked us if we could go to the hospital to give her neighbors 2 little kids a blessing who had gotten Dengue (the really bad illness carried by mosquitos). we went and gave them a blessing, not thinking much about it, and then a couple days later we were both transferred out of our area. at the stake conference, a family sat in front of me. i knew they looked familiar, but i could remember how i knew them. about half way through the conference, i realized it was that family. i talked to the elders in my old area to see if they were teaching them. they said, after elder earl and i gave them a blessing, they healed almost instantly. this sparked their interest in the church. shortly after, they started receiving lesson from the missionaries and assisting church. the elders said the mom and daughter are ready for baptism, they are just waiting for the dad who is pretty close. I know that it was the Lord guided us then too and it was His power that healed them, and hopefully another family will be brought into the gospel.

Well, as you can see, i had an amazing week. This is no doubt the work of the Lord. i love you all and hope you have a great week.

Elder Johnson