What a week to be alive! It was sure something, I'll tell you that much 😂
This week was just so nuts, I don't even know where to begin. I guess I'll just do my best to go down the line.
Tuesday- I think that this week was one of the most muggy and humid weeks of my entire life. We're 100% in Summer, and the sun isn't going to let me forget it. I think I've found a new and greater appreciation for AC than I thought was possible.
On Tuesday, we had a lesson with a couple in a town about 40 minutes away named Bethel, so we decided that it'd be best to go to the town in the morning and have the lesson with him in the afternoon. As we were walking around, trying to find people who had met with missionaries before, we had some pretty...... fun(?) people to talk to.
Including:
1. A crazy guy who was sitting on the porch of an apartment, just drinking away. He told us to come over, and he grabbed our hands and started to very quietly say a bunch of NONSENSE. I won't burden you with the details, but, after he was done asking us to bless this "cursed apartment", he told us (again, very quiet and super strange) " All I know, is that I'm talking to two, very good looking young men." squoze our hands, and let us go. Coming out of the apartment, we avoided that man LIKE THE PLAGUE!
2. A really salty guy who was working on his house. When I tried to make small talk by asking what it was he was working on, and he just looked at me, turned to his house, pointing to it with his hands and exclaimed " HOUSE!" and went back onto it. Obviously when we continued to try to talk to him, it was to no avail. So that was cool👍
Then we stopped by the house who's stairs I fell down one day after it was raining. I promise I bare no hard feelings against the stairs (😒)
Wednesday- We met President and Sister Ensign on Wednesday. They're a cute couple, and I'm excited to see what we can learn from them.
When we met them, our zone was all circled up in the chapel, and they came around and shook our hands and talked with each of us for a little bit. They had an introduction talk, the other DL's and I had a training from the AP's while the rest of the zone got a training from the STLs and ZLs. It was a good time!
After we had our meeting, we went home and had dinner. After said dinner, we went out to try to contact a few people and ended up running into one of the members of the ward! We went and talked with him for a bit and he invited us inside. We helped him move a desk, he asked for a message that would help him out so I shared 1 Nephi 1:20 with him, then we got on the subject of temples. He's working on getting his endowments right now, so we showed him the video of the apostles Elder Bednar and Rasband giving a tour of the Rome, Italy temple. That was really cool
Thursday-4th of July- We got yelled at. A lot. Basically the whole day. It was.... nah, it wasn't fun. Thursday started off with us sending a SICK patriotic message to a bunch of people. That was cool. Thursday was probably the most unpatriotic 4th of July I've ever seen, but we tried to fix that. After Lunch, we headed out, and the battle began. From 12 - 6pm (because that's when we had to go inside for weekly planning and because it's a nuts holiday) we just got absolutely hounded by basically everyone we met. Our religion, our beliefs, our attitudes and ourselves, were attacked for hours and hours. When we went to the apartment to plan, we could barely do a thing because the whole day was so draining that we just felt to exhausted to even move.
But, I'm going to count myself lucky to stand with those who are and have been persecuted, even though mine is small, I hope that the great men and women who've stood up for this church will let me stand with them.
I did see some fireworks tho. That's nice.
Friday- Much better than Thursday. Most of the day left a lot to be desired, but by the evening, we met some people who were really nice to us and it was great! It helped a lot because we were pretty worn out from Thursday and that morning. When we were heading to the apartment at the end of the day, we passed a few kids at the mailbox just across the road in our car. As we were about to get ready for bed, we heard a knock on the door (that's not a usual thing if you didn't know). I opened the door, and a little girl, maybe 7 years old, stood there. She handed me a little flower crown that she had made. I asked her name, and introduced ourselves, she told us to have a good night, and she hurried off. You know for a fact i have that little crown hanging on our fridge right now.
I'm going to leave it on that highlight, mainly because of time, but I know that the Lord sees our struggles, and knows us perfectly. This little girl helped us more than most would think is possible, but i know that it was in continuation of the promise that more often than most, God will answer our prayers through others, even if their a little 7 year old girl.
I know that our Father in Heaven hears and answers our prayers, and that we can receive these answers through many different ways, whether it be through the scriptures, personal revelation, or through those who are around us. Don't forget his love for you.
The Church is true,
sure love you.
Elder Johansen
