We Looked Like White Ninjas

I am now serving in the Tempe Zone with the awesome Elder Glencoe!! We're having a blast!!! He's been very positive and has helped me a lot in getting to know the area. I think I'll learn more from him this transfer than he will from me!

There are some sister missionaries serving in Tempe that found a family of 5 while riding a public bus that started taking the lessons and began preparing for baptism over the course of 3 months. They live in our area though so about a week ago the sisters turned them over to us and just this last week we finished up the lessons and baptized them on Saturday. The mom is in her 50's and she has two sets of twins that were baptized with her. The twins ages are 9 and 10. I asked the mom what her favorite thing about the gospel has been as she's been meeting the missionaries and going to church and she said, "One of the sister missionaries explained that the gospel is a process that we go through, not a one time event." I feel like that was a very profound comment. We don't just learn about a principle once and then move on. We review over and over again and continue to grow.

30 minutes before sacrament meeting started our bishop called me and asked if I would be willing to speak as one of 2 speakers. That meant I would have to speak for about 15 minutes :) This is the first time I've been put that much on the spot! It went really well! I shared some of the things I've learned from members of the congregation and investigators in the area already and I felt like it was well received. I made a joke at the beginning of my talk I had to repent of and ask forgiveness of the bishops wife for after. Our bishops wife is in her late 60's and has stark white hair. In fact, many of the members of the congregation have gray and white hair so I commented how wonderful it was to have so much gray and white hair in the congregation. I mentioned that in High School I thought it would be really really awesome to dye my hair white and so I was going to ask sister addison after the meeting where she got her hair dye. Everyone laughed except sister addison who looked like she didn't know how to respond. I apologized after and she was very forgiving and said she was just happy to get some sort of a shout out!

I'm in a bike area again! Whoopie! It's the worst. Arizona is hot. I'm not used to biking. My legs are sore and my glutes are probably bruised. The huge positive is that we get to talk to so many different kinds of people in the street all day long! I REALLY enjoy doing that. It's fun to street contact people and pass out copies of the Book of Mormon. Despite the negatives, I'm thoroughly enjoying this new area and new chapter of my mission. Our Mission President talked about how important moments are in our lives at the transfer meeting last week and he challenged each of us to fully enjoy and appreciate each moment as they come, the good and the bad. They all become good memories after awhile. I challenge each of you the same thing.

This church is true! I know it with all my heart!

Love Elder Janis

From left to right S, Ch, D, C, H (yes, h is a boy. He looks like the football player Troy polamalu.)

My jump-suit makes me look chunky. It's lying. I still have a six pack ;) on the far right is elder glencoe and our bishop, bishop Addison.

I had the privilege of baptizing S and C! C said we looked like white ninjas so here's the ninja pose!

After everyone had changed! Beautiful family!!!

We Were Sharing the Sidewalk With a Million Elementary School Children

I'm doing great!!! This last week was amazing!!! It was the last week of the transfer and we had transfer calls last night. I spoke with President Toone earlier this week and knew what my assignment would be. I'm leaving Maricopa but taking with me the incredible lessons learned. I will never forgot these wonderful people. I'm taking a special assignment to help a missionary who is having a tough time right now and wants to go home. My goal is to make the last year of his mission the best year of his life! I know I can do it.

Earlier in the week Elder Richards and I decided to save some miles and bike to our appointments and get in some extra street contacts. 5 minutes on the bike and I ran into difficulty.. While Elder Richards was up ahead a ways my front tire popped. School had just gotten out and we were sharing the sidewalk with a million elementary school children (which is a very awkward situation for a missionary to be in). Elder Richards assumed I was behind him and kept going to the house we were headed to. I got off my bike and started walking. About 15 minutes later two missionaries in our zone drove past and saw me. They turned around and asked what the heck I was doing "lone wolfing" it! I explained the situation and we laughed about it. They went off ahead to see if they could track down my companion. I was wondering how Elder Richards hadn't noticed at this point I wasn't behind him! Finally I got to the house and made a joke about Elder Richards forgetting he was on a mission and we went in and taught the lesson.

There are many opportunities in front of me! I'm excited for the challenges and experience I'm about to have.

Love Elder Janis

I Felt the Unmistakable Prompting

This was the quickest week of my whole mission!! It's been such a huge, busy week that I've been looking forward practically the whole week to when I could tell everyone about it!!

I had one of those crazy spiritual experiences this week that missionaries who come home always talk about that make all the young men and women want to go on missions. We had had a very crazy day and after dinner we didn't have any set appointments so we had the opportunity to decide what exactly we wanted to do the whole evening! A large (but hardly populated) area of our ward extends south of Maricopa into the desert. Pretty much all that's out there is a couple of large cattle farms and houses for the workers of the farms. We decided we'd explore the desert a little bit and stop by an inactive man who we've seen before. 

There was a little beaten up dirt road off the high way we were traveling on that I was prompted to go down (honestly the prompting was more for the adventure of off roading than looking for the elect). We saw a lot of cool cactuses but nobody lived out there so we turned around to go back to the highway. On our way back there was another small dirt road (it looked more like a trail to walk down than a road to drive down) and I felt the unmistakable prompting from the Holy Ghost to drive down that path. I immediately acted and a minute down the road we found a house. There was a big "No Trespassing" sign out front but I drove in anyways. Whenever the spirit tells you to do something you should do it. I bet Satan put that sign up anyways ;) We got out of the car and were greeted by about 10 angry little dogs!! The owner of the house opened the front door and came out and called out across the yard to us, "Are you guys Mormon?" I yelled back, "Yes sir! And we have a message for you!" He hollered back, "Well come on over then!" 

He's an older man and he introduced us to his grandson and his girl friend who are about in their early 30's. They told us they had some cool goats in the back and asked if we'd like to look at them. We agreed and went around back to see the goats! They confided in us that they are very unhappy with the baptist church they're currently attending and have been looking for another church to go to. They had so many questions about why Christ seemed to have left us without direction and we were able to teach them about the restoration and prophets! It was such an ah-ha moment for them and by the time the grandson finished the closing prayer he felt like God was already speaking to him that this was God's true church. I can't wait to see how the rest of this plays out! They will be coming to church with us this next week and we've had one other lesson since this one.

Earlier this week we had just started an exchange with one of our District Leaders and his companion when President Toone called us and asked us to make the 2 hour drive to Ajo where the companionship serving there had gotten into a big fight and weren't speaking to each other. He needed us to go down and make sure everything was okay and resolve the conflict. When we got there one of the missionaries was laying on his bed stiff as a board with his mouth shut as tight as it could be. His companion had opened the door for us and seemed a bit mellower. Apparently they had gotten into an argument about something silly and now they were at wits end with each other. Step 1 was to get the missionary on the bed to open up and talk. It took a lot of coaxing but he finally opened up and we were able to talk things out. After 3 hours of "He said this" and "He said that" they had forgiven each other and were ready to go back to work. I learned that a lot of things about us don't change when we get out on our missions.. I can guess the same thing about marriage. We won't all of a sudden become super patient and understanding and mature. It's a process that starts with a decision that needs to happen long before the commitment is made.

I wish I had more time to tell you more stories! It kills me sometimes how much I'm not able to write about! I think I have had the most rewarding and fulfilling mission anyone has ever had up to this point. Every week there are new opportunities and experiences that stretch me to the limit and help me become a better person.

I love you so much!

Love Elder Janis

Oh, I forgot to mention that I had to hold a king scorpion and tarantula to get a kid to take the missionary lessons! I did it and now he's preparing for baptism on August 30th! I'll try and send some pictures! 

I Was Sent To Arizona To Find Him

This was a remarkable week! We saw so many blessings! The greatest blessing of the week was being able to baptize a man that's nick-named Moose. He's an AWESOME guy. Me and him have created a special bond and I know I was sent to Arizona to find him! We have been teaching him for about 2 months. When he was 19 (10 years ago) he took the lessons and couldn't quit some addictions. For the next 10 years he led a very worldly life and acted on any temptation that came his way. 

About 4 months ago he went through a really tough break up and hit rock bottom. He decided it was time to start listening to his heart which scared him because he had never had the will power to listen to his heart before. The lessons helped him build faith in himself and in his savior. Through attending church he was able to feel the spirit and feel loved. Finally he was able to throw his addictions behind him and get baptized. The light that always comes into the eyes of new converts stands as a testimony to the freedom from guilt he now feels. 

Tonight he will be going with us as a member present to teach others how to gain a testimony of the truth of this church. It reminds me of the words in Luke when Christ says to his senior apostle Peter, "when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren." That lays our purpose out very simply. If we aren't converted then that should be the goal we are working towards. If we are converted, we should be strengthening all around us.

I apologize my letter is so short today! I wish all of you could spend a week out here doing what I get to do with me so you could see first hand all the miracles and blessings God is pouring down on us!! I know I'm doing the right thing at the right time for the right reasons and for the right people and that makes me very, very happy :)

I love you all!

Love Elder Janis

I'm a Chocolate Chip Cookie and Vanilla Ice Cream Guy

Elder Richards is awesome. We're having way too good of a time together! We're on the same page on just about everything except which cookies and ice cream we like. I'm a chocolate chip cookie and vanilla ice cream guy and he likes everything but plain chocolate chip and vanilla. 

On Saturday night we had a lesson with a guy I'll call Greg for confidential purposes. Greg grew up in the R-LDS church (now called the community of christ church) and has been meeting with us for about 2 months. He has been out of town for a family reunion and a wedding reception in his home town. He has a few children from a previous relationship and his new wife has a few kids from her last marriage. She is LDS and before they left we were really close to setting a baptism date for Greg. Since it had been awhile we asked Greg how he wanted to move forward with the lessons, baptism, and church (we always had a tough time getting him to church). He told us, "Well, I believe God gave me an answer and you aren't going to like it. God told me I've been saved and I need to start going back to my own church." I told him that was his decision and we would respect it but inside I was ticked because his church didn't make any sense to me so I decided I would question him a bit. I told him there were a few things I didn't understand about his church. 

For example, they believe that Joseph Smith was a prophet but they believe in the Trinity. I asked him, "If you believe Joseph was a prophet, do you deny the first vision which teaches that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ are separate beings?" He looked a little confused and didn't say anything so I kept going. "Your church doesn't believe in baptisms for the dead but that came as revelation to Joseph Smith. Also you believe that the prophet has to be blood related to Joseph Smith but your leader isn't even blood related anymore! How do you explain that?" Greg couldn't answer our questions so he changed the subject. After we left Elder Richards and I were a little discouraged because he was set on going back to his church and his member wife seemed like she was just going to do whatever he did. The next morning at church we were very surprised to see them both walk through the doors into sacrament meeting!! I greeted Greg and expressed how glad I was to see him there. He looked a little embarrassed but smiled and took his seat.

We had interviews as a zone with our mission president this past Tuesday. It was a very powerful meeting! While individual missionaries were interviewing with our mission president our Sister Training Leader, Sister Segura, gave a training, Elder Richards trained, and I finished with a training. Sister Segura focused on finding families to teach and had a few missionaries come to the front and hold their breath as long as possible. The example she made was that we need to want this as bad as we want to breathe. Elder Richards trained on using the pictures in the front of the Book of Mormon to teach people what the Book of Mormon is about. 

In my training I focused on personal conversion. On the chalk board I drew a line representing the pre-mortal life, mortality, and the post-mortal life with an arrow pointing both directions to show eternity. I then compared that graph to another graph depicting pre-mission, mission, and post-mission. I made the point that our missions represent a very insignificant amount of time but how consecrated we serve will largely determine the rest of our lives. I shared the story of Cortez who landed on the Mexican coast in 1519 to conquer Mexico. The first thing he did when he landed was command his men to burn their ships so that each man would be 100% focused on their mission. The only option was victory. Although the odds were 300 to 1 they conquered. I then gave each missionary a piece of paper to write something down that was holding them back from giving their missions their all and then we went outside and burned all the papers on a paper boat I made and named the S.S No Retreat :D

Thank you everyone for your prayers, love, and support!!

Love Elder Janis

His Street Name is Blaze

I had an amazing week! It wasn't an easy one but it was one of the most rewarding. A lot of our solid members who go out with us to teach lessons were out of town for the 4th of July and a lot of our investigators were gone too. It was a great opportunity to talk to a lot of new people and invite them to hear our message. As a result we have more people to teach!

Half our zone is brand new this transfer! Almost every companionship had a change and some areas have 2 new missionaries serving! My incredible new companion is Elder Richards from Sandy/Draper Utah. This is his 3rd mission and he only has 3 months left before his accumulative 24 months has finished. His first mission was to Taiwan where he served for a month before family challenges took him home. His second mission was in Oregon where he served for about 11 months and was sent home for a mistake he made at the beginning of that mission that other missionaries were using to justify their disobedience and the mission President decided it would be best for him to go home to be an example for other missionaries. Now he is here serving as a zone leader and is amazing. He's an awesome teacher, really hard working, very personable, and has fun while working. President Toone always gives me the best companions! 6 days into the transfer and we're close friends. Because our relationship is awesome and we both are pumped up and excited the whole zone is becoming even stronger and is catching the contagious enthusiasm!

We had a very interesting lesson this week with a young man who is trying to decide if he wants to be baptized or not. His main concern is that he isn't sure if he's ready to make such a big commitment and leave his old life of smoking and drinking behind. Just so you have an idea, his street name is Blaze. He wanted us to show him where the bible said he has to go to church or where it says he can't do drugs. As we talked things through Elder Richards said to him, "If I held in my left hand a bag of drugs and in my right hand I held the gospel, and you could choose one or the other, which would you choose? One would bring temporary pleasure and one would bring eternal joy. What would you choose?" As Blaze thought you could see the struggle in his face. As I watched him think deep and hard about what he would choose my testimony of the commandments grew so much. How is it possible the decision between 2 hours of pleasure and an eternity of pleasure can be so hard? And yet it is. We all make this very choice at some point in our lives. The temporary pleasure is so appealing and tempting. Satan makes it seem so much greater than it is, to the point where it looks equal to the blessings of the gospel or even more rewarding. Finally Blaze answered that he would ultimately choose the gospel over the drugs. I can only imagine the joy Heavenly Father feels when his children struggle to make this decision but overcome and choose the right. These are our most powerful moments in mortality. That is the test: will we, of our own free will, choose God's plan? Or will we yield to the devils plan?

I love you all so much! Remember that we walk by faith and not sight.

Love Elder Janis

We Needed To Knock On That Door

This week went so fast! The transfer went even faster! My second transfer in Maricopa will be finished this Wednesday and a lot of changes are coming. Elder Hyer got called and will be transferring to who knows until the meeting! Elder Naeata, the Tongan missionary who's been living with us is also getting transferred. Our ward has us and a companionship of sister missionaries and they're both getting transferred so I'll be the old dog for the 3 new missionaries coming to our ward. I am really excited for everything up ahead! Our area continues to be blessed and we're teaching so much! 

We had a special experience a few nights ago 20 minutes before it was time to go in for the day. We didn't have any more appointments to go to so it was up to us what we wanted to do. It would have been really easy to call it good because it had already been a really successful day. We decided to follow the Spirit on where we should go and after a few minutes of driving we felt prompted to park the car and walk down a certain street. It was dark outside and Maricopa doesn't believe in street lights so when it's night time it's pitch black. My ipad had died so I was just going to plan on not needing to read any scriptures. The spirit rebuked me and I took my Book of Mormon with me even though I didn't see how I would even be able to read it due to how dark it was outside. 

As we walked we passed by a house with open blinds and in the family room there was a large gathering of people who looked to be having a good time. We kept walking hoping to run into someone on the street to have a gospel conversation with but I kept feeling like we needed to go back and knock on the door. I will admit I was afraid and I really didn't want to bother anyone late at night. Finally I couldn't take it anymore and I turned to Elder Hyer and told him we needed to knock on that door. He agreed and we walked back. After we knocked, we could see that the lady coming to the door was actually a lady in our ward. 

She welcomed us in and introduced us to everyone sitting around the living room. This included her husband and three kids, and some family friends who were visiting for the week from Show Low. We talked with them a minute before the husband got up to leave. After he left the wife told us that he had left the church 13 years ago. This was a source of great pain to her. The family friends visiting also had similar challenges with their husbands and we learned further that they were there in town to get special treatment for a daughter that was very sick. I was so grateful I had grabbed my Book of Mormon because the scripture I wanted to share with them was Alma 36:3: "And now, O my son Helaman, behold, thou art in thy youth, and therefore, I beseech of thee that thou wilt hear my words and learn of me; for I do know that whosoever shall put their trust in God shall be supported in their trials, and their troubles, and their afflictions, and shall be lifted up at the last day." As we talked about trials and Christ's ability to help us, the Spirit filled the room and comforted many hearts. Each of the women shared their testimony of how Christ has been helping them through their current struggles which was very powerful. We left with a prayer and a memory I will not soon forget.

A 9 year old young man we've been teaching was baptized this week! His Dad baptized him and after coming up out of the water, he asked his son to go back under to pull the plug for the font.

Things continue to move forward! I love you all! Have a great week!

Love Elder Janis