Moose

This week was AWESOME. Hands down AWESOME. Let me start with one of the top 3 sweetest experiences I've had so far on my mission which happened last night!

Every month our mission president holds a Mission President Fireside and invites all the missionaries within reasonable distance to bring investigators, less actives, and recent converts to listen to two recent converts share their story and hear a message from President Toone. We brought a man we just started teaching this last week who goes by "Moose" but that isn't his real name. He's been through a lot in his life and feels like he can't get baptized because he isn't worthy or good enough. The two converts who spoke last night had the exact same concerns and shared what the atonement meant to them and helped them change. One of the converts was an ex hell's angel biker!! Moose was very affected and is ready to change. After the closing prayer a young man tapped me on the shoulder and low and behold it was a young man named O that I had found and started teaching while I was with Elder Jolley in Chandler!! After Elder Jolley and I had been whitewashed out, O fell through the cracks and never got baptized. All contact was lost and I honestly felt like that transfer I hadn't accomplished anything because all our work in that area was burned out by the new missionaries. Well O GOT BAPTIZED just last saturday! To me that was one of the biggest miracles I've seen on my mission. I can't describe the love we feel towards the people that we teach and to hear him share his testimony and talk about the change that is happening in him trumps all other experiences I've ever had. WOW.

Also this week T was baptized!!! It was an amazing baptism! Now the whole family has joined the church and is on fire! Her husband D was baptized 3 weeks ago with her brother D and they're all preparing to go to the temple to be sealed in a year from now! The ward has really reached out to them to make them feel welcome and I'm confident they will stay active and strong. I love that family so much.

The miracles continue to come. Some people don't believe in miracles. I do. I have seen things that go way beyond anything Elder Janis could have done.

I love you all and wish you another wonderful week!

Love Elder Janis 

Pictures:

The family!!!

He Flexed His Arms Like an MMA Champion

"Ben" was baptized this week!!! It was one of the best baptisms I've ever been to! Right after coming out of the water, he turned and looked at everyone observing and let out a yell and flexed his arms like an MMA champion achieving the victory! Everyone laughed and I believe the Holy Ghost waited a little bit longer to descend upon him then he did when Jesus was baptized by John and immediately descended. :) The next day in church was his confirmation which he had asked me to perform. We were running late while waiting for a few of our investigators we were giving a ride to and as soon as we walked in the building, the congregation turned to the foyer we were walking in from and everyone was pointing so I knew it was game time. We walked into the chapel and right up to the front where "Ben" was already seated and everyone invited to participate were standing around him. We confirmed him a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saint and bestowed the Gift of the Holy Ghost and a Priesthood blessing. After the confirmation our Bishop told us we had walked in just when Ben had sat down so it was perfect timing!

Earlier this week Elder Hyer and I had the amazing opportunity to go on an exchange into Ajo Arizona which is located very close to the Mexican border and is about as small town as it gets! Since it is so far out we both went to do missionary work in Ajo with the tri-companionship that is serving there rather than one of us going there and the other coming back into our area. It was so different from anything I've seen so far on my mission! There is a huge drug problem in Ajo and just about everyone is addicted. The people are so humble though. No one has very much but everyone is willing to share what they have. I loved the experience and it was a highlight for me. While in Ajo we saw what the locals call a "Javelina" which is a rodent that looks like a boar. Think of the rodent in the movie "Princess Bride" and that's about it. It was sweet!

This was the best week ever! I can't wait for this coming one! We are preparing Dameyon's wife for baptism this weekend and she is super excited! So are we!

Love Elder Janis

Picture: K and A's baptism which was a week ago. Their mom is standing in the middle. We're working on helping her get ready for baptism.

Obviously He Was a Man of Religion

There is this lady in Pakistan that I've been teaching on Facebook that is super awesome! She is Christian and receives a lot of bullying for her beliefs and she reached out to me on facebook because she saw that I talk of Jesus Christ. As we've talked she's downloaded the book of mormon on her computer and is making great headway. Every day we have awesome conversations about what she's read and how it is helping her. All her family is Catholic and they are treating her very badly for her decision to read the Book of Mormon and talk with an LDS missionary on facebook but she doesn't care because she is fascinated with what she is learning. Hopefully this week she can meet with local church members!

So much happened this week! There is a family that we have been teaching and the two girls were baptized this week. They are an awesome example to their Mom and are really the pioneers in the family. It's incredible to see the faith of these two girls as they lead as examples in their family.

There's a man that we've been teaching for several weeks now that I will call "Ben". Ben first met Elder Karl and Elder Hyer at Walmart over 6 months ago. They found him in an aisle with his hands in the air looking around at cans of chunky soup saying with a loud voice, "Praise God for all this food!" Obviously he was a man of religion and didn't mind people knowing it! He got into a conversation with Elder Karl and Hyer and while people would walk past he would raise his voice and say, "all these people need to appreciate what God has given them and repent!!!" Very unusual kind of guy :) He is very spiritual and very opinionated. His most common words are, "Praise God" and "God Bless". Whenever he says these he takes a moment to look up into the heavens before continuing on with what he was saying. Ben is such a great guy and even though he's going through some financial difficulty he's a very giving person and took some food out to a man who lives an hour away who was penniless. During our first lesson with him (after the missionaries met him in Walmart and got his contact information, he slipped through the cracks and recently came back up) he told us he already believes Joseph Smith is a prophet and was eager to come to church. He's been coming for the last 3 weeks and is preparing for baptism this next Saturday! I'll be sure to send pictures of the baptism and I'll include one from this morning right after he passed his baptismal interview.

I'm having the best mission ever! This was an amazing week filled with miracles! Earlier this week our Spanish Elders got a call from the bishop informing them a girl that had been baptized when she was 8 had never been confirmed and since it had been so long they needed to do the baptism again and confirm her. This was a big miracle for them! It's amazing this transfer to see the miracles that are happening for missionaries as they exercise faith in President Toone's promise that every companionship can have a baptism.

Love Elder Janis

This is a picture from this morning with a new missionary Elder Naeata, Elder Miller, Me, "Ben", and Elder Hyer. Ben is Jewish by the way! My goal of baptizing a Jew will happen this Saturday!!!!!!!!!!! ;)

Focus On the Positive

This was the best week of my mission!!! We are seeing incredible miracles DAILY! At the start of this transfer our mission president issued the challenge for each companionship to have a baptism in this 6 week transfer period. Already our zone has had 3 baptism and some really awesome finding stories. Let me share a few:

Dameyon and Desmond were baptized on Saturday which was the most amazing baptism I've witnessed. At the end of the service they both had the opportunity to share their testimony. Dameyon shared how there were so many things that were uncoincidental that led to us meeting him and him accepting the gospel at this time in his life. His father recently passed away and that was devastating to him. The lessons and church have brought peace back into his life. Desmond testified that the first time he met us he felt something that he couldn't describe. Over the weeks he's come to recognize that it was God's love that he was feeling and he hadn't felt that before. He feels lighter and feels joy now, something he hasn't felt in a very long time.

One of the sister missionary companionships in our zone have been teaching a man who has been taught for the past 2 years and won't commit to being baptized. He was planning on leaving town for the summer in two weeks but the other day during a lesson he told them that church is more important than his summer job opportunity and he wants to be baptized!!

Two weeks ago me and Elder Hyer gave a priesthood blessing to a young boy who had rashes erupt all over his body causing pain and doctors couldn't figure out what was going on. We stopped by a week later after the blessing and there wasn't even a trace of the rashes left. That was a very powerful experience for us to see the power of the priesthood!

I'm learning so much every day. One of the lessons I'm learning is to focus on the positive. There is so much negative. BUT there is more goodness in this world.. Gordon B. Hinckley said, "I have seen much of ugliness in this world. Most of it is the work of man. But I think I have seen much more of beauty. I marvel at the majestic works of the Creator. How magnificent they are. And they are all the work of the Son of God." How true that is! Light always overcomes darkness. In our personal lives it is our decision to allow darkness to creep in our to allow Christ to erase it with his light.

I pray that all who read this will allow Christ to erase the sadness with his joy. You do that by living the commandments and by living the principle of faith. Having faith is an active characteristic. It is something you demonstrate.

I love you all so much! I'm having the greatest time of my life!!! I hope you all are too!

Love Elder Janis 

 Pictures!

1: Group picture with some members that helped in the teaching!

2: Elder Janis, Desmond, Dameyon, Elder Hyer

3: Desmond!

Low and Behold Spencer Was There!

Hi Mom!!!

WOW. Your schedule is almost as crazy as mine I feel like! ;) All of that would wipe me out! In some ways it must be very nice to have the time to sit down and read books and things! That is something I REALLY MISS!!! In homeschool you taught me to love reading and as a missionary we only get an hour of personal study every day and that just isn't enough time for me!! I want to soak the scriptures up and read conference talks and pray and read preach my gospel!! I've been having extremely powerful personal studies lately that have really brought the spirit and increased my knowledge of the gospel and how to help people repent and change their life. Today I studied the topic of people who are "past feeling" as Nephi put it. It is very easy for us who live in this physical world to become desensitized to the feeling of the spirit and the only way to become sensitive again is to repent and live the gospel. 

Maricopa is so awesome! As a zone we were the most productive in our mission this last week as far as finding new investigators and teaching member present lessons. The week previous was a little lower so Elder Hyer and I set a goal with our zone to reach a certain number of member present lessons by the end of the week and we had each companionship text us each night how many member presents they had had and when a companionship hit their goal we would send a forwarded text to all the missionaries announcing the success. The result was a massive increase and a huge boost of excitement and energy!!! As a mission we care about numbers but not because they're numbers. We use them to set our vision higher and to help us reach more of God's children each week. President Toone could care less if any of us baptize a single person on our mission. He cares about the personal conversion of each missionary. He also understands that if a missionary has a baptism it will definitely pump them up and strengthen their faith.

Last night we had a mission presidents devotional where missionaries can bring people they're teaching to come hear two converts testimony and listen to President Toone speak. The event is held at the ASU institute building and low and behold Spencer was there!!! It was awesome to see him and introduce him to President Toone, my companion, people I've taught throughout my mission, and previous companions. In so many ways I feel like my mission has been closely linked to my family.

The family that we've been teaching and preparing for baptism on the 24th is doing amazing!! They were able to come to church and to the mission presidents devotional this last week and loved all of it. Our members really love them and have welcomed them in as family.

There's a youth we're teaching who is currently on probation and house arrest and in the middle of a lesson with him in the front room of the house, the front door opened and his 6 year old brother with his friend walked in. The little brother pointed at the young man we were teaching and said to his friend, "He's on house arrest." Then like nothing happened they walked out of the room. L threw his arms in the air with a face that said "What the heck! Go tell the whole world why don't you?!" It was so funny to me! 

Earlier this week we went on exchanges with two awesome missionaries in our zone. I got to go into the other missionaries area and serve for the day with Elder Coyle who is from Alaska and has only been on a mission for a month. It was really fun to be with a new missionary again. It was a great reminder to me of how I was when I first got here and how much I've changed over the last year. For the exchange we focused on talking to everyone that we saw. We ran into these two guys out in the garage drinking some beers. We initiated a conversation and became best friends quickly. One guy was sober but the other was a little drunk. The one who was sober asked me if his friend was going to go to Hell for being an alcoholic. I responded that I'm grateful to not be the judge and only God could judge him but I promised that if we can't quit our addictions here on earth they will follow us to the next world. Then just for fun but also to raise a voice of warning I read to them Alma 34:32-34 and told them not to procrastinate the day of their repentance. I came down pretty hard on the guy who was drunk and his friend was backing me up trying to get the guy to toss the beer right then and there. Elder Coyle I think was pretty shocked at what was happening and was mostly observing. In the end both guys wanted a copy of the Book of Mormon and wanted us to come back. The lesson learned is that if the spirit is telling you to be bold with someone and rebuke them, DO IT. Because that person may need a loud voice telling them they need help. They also need to know that your motive is love and not anything else. That's what these two guys needed and now they're investigating the church. 

The mission is the best. Nothing can compare to the experiences I'm having out here! I LOVE MY MISSION.

Love Elder Janis

Pictures!

pic 1: funny old lady that likes to punch missionaries in the arm. Met her at the Easter Pageant and got a picture with her :D

pic 2: Joelouise guzmans baptism!!! I got permission to go back to Gilbert for the baptism.

pic 3: at the mission presidents devotional. Left to right: Sister Walker, Brother Walker, Sister Crandell (awesome member who makes great food), Dameyon (He and his family are preparing for baptism on the 24th!!!), Damia, Elder Hyer, Stephan Bailin (awesome young man in the ward who goes out to teach with us all the time)

1: Typical.....

2: The boys

3: We have a good time

MiracleCopa

Yes, things continue to "explode" in Maricopa!! Maybe a better word to use would be "increase" or "progress". There are so many people who literally are waiting around for the truth to be delivered to them because they have searched and searched and haven't yet found it. So when two young missionaries meet them on the street and share the truth with them they are ready to listen. Or, when a friendly neighbor invites them to partake of the joy of the gospel with them, they don't refuse. Sometimes we call Maricopa "MiracleCopa".

The second best experience this week was helping a family commit to live the Word of Wisdom. There were smoking problems and alcohol problems that none of the victims wanted to participate in but had become so dependent they could not overcome the addictions by themselves. This week we stripped the gospel down to the basics and focused on Faith in Jesus Christ unto freedom. As they studied the scriptures and prayed and allowed Christ further into their lives, they were ready this weekend to dump the alcohol down the drain and hand over their packs of cigarettes, ashtrays, and lighters. So far they are doing AWESOME! We also had them sign a paper titled, "Declaration of Independence" which talks about independence from addiction. It was awesome to see how happy they were to give it all up and then feel the spirit confirm the decision was right in God's eyes. The whole family came to church this week which was really exciting for the ward and it was fun for us to introduce them to everyone.

My testimony of Jesus Christ continues to grow. Preach My Gospel has a chapter dedicated to Christ-Like attributes and how we can acquire them and I've made it a focus to work on them. As I've done this I have developed a greater relationship with Him. I look at Him as my teacher and example and the more I grow the more I recognize the need for improvement.

Earlier I paraphrased my story by calling it the second best experience of the week. That is because the best experience was talking to my Mom, Dad, and WONDERFUL sister Emily!!! It was great to see their faces on skype and catch up!! They looked amazing even though they seemed tired and VERY hungry (due to an awesomely extreme diet!). I love my family so much!

Love Elder Janis

Find the Lambs, Feed the Sheep

This is the title of my letter this week: Find the Lambs, Feed the Sheep

Hahaha in companionship study this morning my companion Elder Hyer was sharing what he had learned in his personal study and he had read a talk by President Hinckly with the same title and it just seemed like a motto or something so we both committed to using it as the title of our weekly email.

The work in Maricopa progresses! We now have a solid teaching pool and lots of members in the ward are FIRED UP about missionary work! It's like a chain reaction, as soon as people start seeing success in missionary work it becomes contagious and all the fears of finding and teaching people melts and every member becomes a missionary. The struggle for most wards is getting that kick start to ignite the chain reaction.

I've never been happier in my life. I know I'm doing what I should be doing and the work is blessing in me in countless ways. One of the greatest blessings is the friendships that I'm developing with the people I'm teaching and the members here in the Maricopa 4th ward.

I got a super cool experience to go on exchanges with the one and only Elder Diaz! I've mentioned him a few times in past letters. Me and him came to Arizona on the same day although he is a spanish speaking missionary and I'm English. He lives in Argentina and since Houston airport is a huge south american HUB we are both assuming we'll be flying home to Houston on the same flight :) We're super close friends though so it was really exciting when I came to Maricopa and learned he was a District Leader in the zone. His area is way way out in the boonies. He covers the little town of Gila Bend and Ajo which is a total of perhaps 500 square miles. It's HUGE. Me and him spent the day in Gila Bend and had a great time teaching the gospel to EVERYONE. As a zone a big focus for us is to live up to our call as missionaries and open our mouths and be teachers. Preach My Gospel says that we should avoid the habit of asking people if they have a minute we can share a message with them but rather just start teaching them so they can feel the spirit. One of our opening lines in conversations with people that day was "Are you the Golden's?". People were pretty confused so we just explained that we were looking for the Golden family but then proceeded to teach them. It was funny for us and left them a bit confused but it kept them from just shooing us away so it worked well :) The blessing of it was was that we found a golden family they just had a different last name :D

There's a young man we're teaching here in Maricopa that is a blast to teach. He loves football so we make a lot of sports analogies. The fellowship we have for him is a priest in the ward who is the funniest kid ever. He's super energetic and a little quirky but so cool to take out with us. Before one of our lessons with L, we asked our priest to invite him to church with him at the end of the lesson. He agreed and we went in and taught. At the end I said, "Now Stephen has an invitation for you L." Stephen looked at me all funny and then said, "I hate it when the missionaries do this to me..." He paused for like 5 seconds and then said, "It would be a huge privilege to me if you would let me baptize you." Me and Elder Hyer were so confused but L said yes and so we put him on date for the 24th! After that I invited L to church which he also agreed to. Hahaha it must have been the spirit giving Stephen a stupor of thought which kept him from remembering that he was supposed to invite him to church and not baptism.

(I'm inserting a portion of Elder Janis' letter to his dad here):

"I had a really great week! We taught a TON of lessons and had some really great experiences! Since I got in the area we focused a lot on finding and now we're preparing multiple people for baptism which should all happen in the next few weeks. I love the people that I'm teaching so much. We're becoming close friends. Here are some of the people were teaching and working with:

L: 15 year old kid who's had a tough life but wants to play in the NFL one day and wants to be a mormon. He's getting baptized on the 24th this month. His lessons are super fun because we try to make football analogies to any principle we teach.

D: 30's and is super sincire and wants to find truth. He's been looking his whole life and has never been satisfied with what he's found. He is hard core studying the Book of Mormon which is really inspiring to see his commitment. If he finds a testimony he will be baptized on the 24th as well.

G: 40's grew up in the R-LDS faith and is now married to a latter-day saint. His lessons are fun because his beliefs and doctrines are very close but in some areas are slightly off. It would be easy to get into arguments about little doctrine with him but if we play it off then he bends and accepts our doctrine as the truth. It's hard to fight the spirit :) He'll be baptized near the beginning of next month. We're working on nailing down a date.

M: 30's played basketball in college at University of Wisconsin. Super cool guy and hasn't been very religious in his life. He's married to a mormon lady as well and has been to church with us twice. He's interested in learning more and is seeking for a testimony.

Mrs. B B: 82 and is the sweetest lady EVER. She has never heard much of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and is excited to be meeting with the "Mormon Missionaries". We love her and she has a very open mind for her age."

This week was amazing! Next week will be even better! I love you all!

Love Elder Janis