Burglaries and Baptisms

 

Good morning! This week was awesome. I've felt super motivated and excited all week which was awesome and I learned a ton. 

In reference to the title, the reason this email is coming so early in the day is because four Elders are going to use this phone today because their phone got stolen! Elder Bollschweiler and Elder Lungu are staying with us for now because last night someone jumped the wall into their compound, juked out the security cameras with a flashlight, found the spare key to their apartment, went inside their bedroom, and stole their phone! It was insane. They were literally feet away from the burglar. Luckily Elder Bollschweiler yelled when he saw the guy, so he got scared and only got away with the phone, but it was still a crazy day. The burglar also took their spare keys so President said they should come stay here until they get the locks changed. It's a blessing in disguise though because we've been enjoying ourselves. 

We had two exchanges this week, which was a highlight. On Thursday I was with Elder Guymon and on Friday I was with Elder High. They're both very capable and experienced missionaries and they taught me a lot. Elder Guymon taught me to just have fun with the work. He's very diligent but he also just enjoys himself. The whole day we just laughed and joked with people, then taught them the gospel. It was really awesome. All of our appointments fell through, but it was OK because Elder Guymon called me to repentance small for being lazy to find so we found like crazy people. It started up rain so we ducked into a lady's shop to wait it out. Like dutiful missionaries, we talked to the owner and set up a time to come share the gospel with her. The rain was still going, so Peace (the owner of the shop) said we should sit down and wait. I was like heck yeah, rest time. But then Elder Guymon leans over and is like, we should talk to this guy. There was another guy in the shop just kind of using his phone that we hadn't talked to. We talked to him and had a great lesson about families and the Gospel! His name was Richard. He didn't give us a return appointment but we were still able to teach him something and hopefully plant some seeds. And I was called to repentance for not being courageous. I repented and for the rest of the day we just found people to teach like crazy. It was awesome. 

Elder High was also great. He's someone I've looked up to my whole mission, and it was so cool to be able to proselyte with him. I met him while I was in my first area over a year ago and have been looking up to him ever since. It was a cool day. We were teaching Rosemary, one of our people, about the Book of Mormon and I felt the Spirit stronger than I have in a very long time while Elder High was teaching. It was wonderful. The Elders in our zone are so powerful.

Speaking of those powerful Elders, some of them got emergency transferred this week! Elder Lee and Elder Manga, two of our best Elders, got split up to go and train new missionaries. Elder Manga is staying here with a new missionary and Elder Lee was transferred to the deep jungle to go and train. Wednesday morning was spent arranging travel and luggage and stuff for them. They're good missionaries and they're going to do great things.

Speaking of great things, Anthony was baptized this week. YAHOOOO. It was such a wonderful day. I want to tell you a little bit about him. 

So Anthony first attended church in February, almost a year ago. His girlfriend Edinam invited him. He started being taught by missionaries and came to church off and on but then he traveled and the missionaries kind of lost track of him. 

Fast forward to September, he came to church. We talked to him in the sacrament hall, and then went downstairs for class. That day we were having a baptism, so the font was full. After church, Anthony was just kind of standing by the font. I went and talked to him. I asked him if he enjoyed church and stuff and how everything was going and he responded but then quickly asked who was getting baptized that day. I told him it was Blessing, one of the girls we were teaching. After hearing that he said, "You people just need to set a date and baptize me. I've kept too long." WHAT? That never happens. I was literally tongue tied but despite that we were able to set up an over-the-phone teaching appointment for the next day. 

It went very well, and we started teaching him. He was very open and ready to change, but also very, very busy. It took almost 3 months to get through everything because we could only meet over the phone and even then he was busy and couldn't talk very frequently, but we still got it all figured out. It was so cool. And yesterday he was baptized! 

God knows His children. He knew that Anthony needed more time. He knew that Anthony needed to come to church on that particular Sunday and see the baptismal font and everything so that he'd be in the right frame of mind for us to approach him and start learning again. God knew Anthony's desires to be a better man and gave him the opportunity to be baptized and enter into a covenant with Him. Everything fell into place just how God wanted it to. 

This whole work is true. Elder Guymon taught me a new twi phrase on our exchange. Nyame wo ho. It means "God is there." I've felt that so much this week. 

We also had 6 people come to church! Janet, Henry, Anthony, Juliet, Christie, and Lillie all came to church this Sunday. It was awesome. Christie is doing really well too. She's a Nigerian lady who is a single mom and is so powerful. She said she wants to get baptized! I'm excited for that to all shake down. 

Anyway, this email is long but the contents are true and well-intentioned. I love you all so much. 

Love, 

Elder Johnson

Pictures: 

1. I tried making egusi, a Nigerian food that I really love and was probably 85 percent successful. I put way too much oil in it but it was still really good. 

2-5. Pretty Ghana

6. Us, Elder Lungu and Elder Bollschweiler, and Anthony at Anthony's baptismal interview. Anthony and Elder Bollschweiler were so mean to us. They finished the interview and Elder Bollschweiler said Anthony had failed the interview and needed more time. I was shocked and hurt. What the heck? What could be wrong? Elder Bollschweiler left and we pulled Anthony into a room to find out what was wrong. After a few minutes, Anthony just started laughing and said it was a prank. They'd agreed among themselves to say that he didn't pass just to scare us! We do outside and Elder Bollschweiler is just laughing. It was really funny. 

7. Big brain. Thinking of you Elder Evans. 

8. Me and the legend Elder High on our exchange. 

9. Baptism! Elders Eaton and Ralijaona joined us with their friend Steven because the water at their chapel is broken.