....Poopy.  Plain poopy.  It all started out with one step.  One small step for (Ku)men, and lots of giant leaps afterward.  I happened to be walking down the road with a smile on my face, head turned, talking with my companion when I brought my foot down in the center of a huge pile of brown mud. Mud that really stank.  

I looked at the bottom of my shoe and only one that passed through my mind...`It doesn´t look like mud...it doesn´t smell like mud...IT´S NOT MUD!`  My companion began to crack up.  Immediately, I began leaping and kicking the curb to clean up the mess.  Finding a nearby patch of grass, I hurried over and commenced dragging my foot back and forth to resolve the situation.  Looking up at the other Elder, I saw them almost crying with laughter.  I stopped for a minute, then looked around me.  It turned out that I had been cleaning my shoe on the grass in front of a statue of Maria in close to the Catholic Church.  Furthermore, an older Catholic lady stood not 10 feet away with wide eyes, a pale expression, and the look of a person about to faint.  Stifling my laughter, I expressed my apologies and headed off with the rest of the missionaries.  

So it comes to this...when we have days that are just plain poopy (literally speaking included) do `we shake it off, shake it off` and smile and bring out the best of things.  For, after all, `at the end of the day it´s another day over` and we can´t go back in time to get it back.  Are we the ones that when `lost and alone and sinkin` like a stone, carry on` or just stay in our sad circumstances?  Many times in my mission I´ve sang the song, `I get knocked down, BUT I GET UP AGAIN, no NOTHING`S ever going to keep me down` to lift up my spirits and the spirits of my companion in bad weather, when an appointment falls, or something frustrating happens. I can promise each and every one of you that it makes a difference.  My investigators, companions, and random people in the street have seen this.  It makes a huge difference, for after all `men are that they might have joy`(2 Nephi 2:25)!

Elder Johnson  

Bom dia!! (por favor usar google traduzir para ler em sua idioma)

My first transfer has occured and man oh man does it hurt.  After 6 months in Castro, leaving was a dagger to the heart.I´d became so accostumed to the members there (especially the Caetano Family) that I felt like I was leaving brothers, sisters, and simply family.  On the bus, I was pretty much going through withdrawal. My face was an absolute mess of tears, red-puffy eyes, and runny nose when I arrived in my new area.  Speaking of my new area, I´m serving here in Campo Largo, Curitiba and it truly is Largo (gigantic).  Yay for more walking! For your information, I am district leader of 3 duplas (including my own), my new companion´s name is Elder Vasconcelos, and Elder Torres (my old companion that is crazy about excersizes and practically yells when doing contacts) is Senior in the same house!!  Also, all the Elder here are new in the area, so 99% of the time we´re lost in the city!  Awesome, Right?!

 

Well, I don´t have much time, so I´ll just bear my testimony.  

I know with all my heart, mind, and soul that Christ is my Savior and Redeemer.  I know that we all have potential and can´t even imagine what our Heavenly Father has in store for us.  As part of his grand and divine plan of happiness for us, he has promised that we can and will become future princes, princesses and future kings, queens.  I know that this church contains the fullness of the gospel of Jesus Christ, because I´ve seen its effect on my life and countless others that I´m serving.  I firmly believe that wherever God sends me, both on my mission and after, there are souls to save and brothers and sisters that are in need.  I know that I can help and that you all can too.  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. 

Elder Johnson

Looking on the heart is in many ways considered difficult because it requires putting aside our personal opinions to evalute ourselves and others.  HOWEVER, looking is quite a weak verb.  I´d like to use the phrase ACTING on the heart.  Life would be so much easier if everyone would truly display the same person that is written in the heart.  Nowadays, people wear too many masks.  Masks that distort reality and result in confusion, dishonesty, and sadness.  

In a recent district inventory, all six of us missionaries discussed our weaknesses and strengthsto try and resolve some of the problems that had occured. After everyone had shared, I stood up and wrote 3 word on a blackboard.  Marriage, Preach my Gospel, and Missionary Manuel. I then asked the question, `What would your husband/wife think about you right now?`  Dead Silence.  I then encouraged everyone to choose an attribute in preach my gospel or the missionary manuel to focus on for the week and improve.  By the end of that week, hearts were changed from ok to great!

Recently, Elder Torres and I had the chance to teach a 16 year old investiagor by the name of Tiago, Saturday.  The lesson of the Restoration of the gospel totally grabbed his attention and he promised to go to church the following Sunday.  Yesterday he went.  Yesterday was also Fast and Testimony Sunday.  Yesterday, he rose up in front of the congragation and bore his testimony of the truthfulness of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day-saints.  He also specifically gave thanks for me and my companion because he felt heartfelt, brotherly love when we conversed.  Now he has a baptismal date for next Sunday! When we act on our heart, wowowowow, others will know it. 

Elder Johnson     

Have you ever heard a story that made your hair stand on end or made you shiver on a hot summer day or made you kneel down in that very instance a offer a prayer to God??  If you haven´t, please, read on.

Just a few days ago, we headed to a road on the outskirts of our city, sharing stories, contacting those persons on the street, and searching for investigators to teach.  Unfortunatly, I felt like every house that we knock, every gate that we came to, contained a person of another religon that totally rejected us or began trying to sell his/her religon to us.  Man, religon is so different nowadays!  It´s more of a business than anything!  To those who are truely devote, it´s a way of life, but only to members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day-Saints is it the way of ETERNAL LIFE.  

Sorry, I got distracted.  Either way, a slight drizzle began and everybody began giving up and without second thought turned their backs on the houses in front of them and headed back home with excuses that `we can´t work in the rain.  We´ll be wet and miserable.  Other people won´t let us in.` Without asking questions, I turned and began knocking doors (to my surprise the other Elder were quite annoyed with me).  As a result, everyone began working again.  The rain turned into a torrent and thankfully Elder Torres and I entered in a garage and began to give a lesson on who we were and the importance of prayer and family.  As we spoke of the fulness of the gospel to this man and his family, the torrent outside became a tempest.  Everytime we said a phrase a lightning bolt would flash and a resounding BOOM would rattle our teeth.  Near the climax of our lesson, I saw out of the corner of my eye a burning white bolt heading in our direction...then suddenly, without explanation turn to hit the roof, under which we sat!  The noise was instantaneous and the force of the lightning reaction sent a wall of compacted air that almost sent us sprawling.  

As we finished the lesson we ended with a prayer and the lightning stopped.  We ran out in the rain and met up with the other couple of Elders under an overhang.  Elder Rojas acclaimed that he and Elder Anizio were almost hit by lightning (passing near his neck).  Elder Torres and I looked at eachother and immediatly teared up, recounting that we had been in the same situation with lightning falling all around us, being `blocked` by an unseen power. 

There are souls to save in that area and I honestly think that our common enemy was directing those bolts to impede or destroy us.  Yet God was truly on our side protecting us.  Without Him, I am without doubt that all 4 Elders of Castro would be in the hospital.  I give thanks to him everyday that I live.

Elder Johnson