The Word of Wisdom - makes ya or breaks ya

Hey Everyone,

So this week was a descent week. unfortunately, we didn´t baptise Joan because he drank coffee twice that week. he forgot that you can´t drink coffee and keep the word of wisdom and the same time, and he was really sad that he had to put off the baptism another week. we have been contacting him everyday to make sure he hasn´t drunken anything during the week and he has been really good so far. he is really excited about his baptism and talks about it with us and is even getting his nice clothes ready for this saturday. even his mom (who is not the best person on keeping the word of wisdom) is getting her nice clothes ready to support him on saturday. I was a little sad that we had to put it off another week, but the good news is that my comp and i are both staying here for the transfer so we will be able to baptize him. everything is going good so hopefully i will have baptism pics for you next week. on New years eve, we went by to see Joan to wish him a happy new years and he was dressed like a gangster ready to go out so we were really nervous and prayed a lot for him. we later found out that he didn´t go out at all, he just stayed at home and babysat his nephews. he really has a good testimony and we feel good about his baptism this saturday, i am just glad that we didn´t baptise him when he wasn´t ready.

For transfers, almost our whole district is staying the same. one of the dominicans is leaving and a new american straight from the mtc is coming, which will make me the 2nd oldest missionary in our district with 7.5 months.

We have this family that has been receiving lessons from the missionaries for over a year now. the father is an active member, but the mom smokes and is not a member, and they have a 12 year old daughter who isn´t a member and a 6 year old son. with my old comp, we would just always talk about the word of wisdom, but with my new comp we changed it up a little. we would teach them 2 or 3 times a week but for only about 15 min each, but we would have a really spiritual lesson. we hardly ever talked about the word of wisdom, but about topics that could help her quite, such as the Atonement, Faith, the Book of Mormon, etc. when i first got here, she was smoking 5-6 cigarettes a day, and now she is down to 1. she wants to quite before the 17th so she can go see Elder Bednar clean. We were so excited when she told us this because we really haven´t been asking her about it. she prayed during that lesson she told us, and it was the first time i have ever heard her pray for help, and really have that desire to quite and keep this commandment. we have a really good feeling that she will quite smoking and be baptized withing the next couple of months.

i don´t remember if i told you this other story, but i will tell you again. a couple of weeks ago, the other missionaries in our area gave us a reference for someone at the very end of our area (about a 40 min walk). one day we had a couple hours free so we went looking for him. we didn´t end up finding them, but we found this lady, Yanel, who is an active member, but goes to a different chapel. she has helped us so much these last couple of weeks, its amazing. she told us a couple days ago that she needs blessings, so she is helping us as much as she can. we will show up at her house 1-2 days in the weeks and she will just take us around to teach all of the people she knows (and some people who she has never met before), just because she knows how important the gospel is and wants everyone to hear it. one of the families she showed us is really progressing. the 22 year old daughter reads the Book of Mormon and goes to church with yanel, and the mom has a lot of questions and really likes talking to us. they are a really special family, and have a lot of potential. they also have two little boys who are physically and mentally handicapped. they can´t talk, walk, and have no control over their body. its really sad, but the family has a good attitude about it and have a lot of faith. i know that we received that reference, so that we could find these other people.

Well, the parties have died down a little bit here which is really good for us. we have a really good feeling about this transfer and about the investigators we have. We really didn´t do anything for new years. we went home about an hour early because it was getting a little dangerous outside with drunk people and guns. we were tired so we just went to bed and woke up the next morning. Really not much too it, just an average day. Hopefully you all had a great week. i love you..alot.

Elder Johnson