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

His Hairdo is Pretty Wacky Too

Yes, I'm back in a two-some! Elder Hyer is the man!!!!!!! Elder Karl was an incredible missionary and I miss him a ton. But the work goes on!

I seriously had such a great week! Maricopa is such great little town I'm just loving it. My companion is an amazing teacher and great example of quiet dignity (something I struggle with but am trying to develop) and has helped me learn a lot about leadership.

I wish you all could meet this man we met this past week named B. For our purposes i'll just call him Jimmy. We met Jimmy while he was pumping rap music from his garage late at night just before our curfew. He's a solid 240 pound guy about 6'4 with beefy hands. All his knuckles are crooked from fights as a kid growing up and especially from jail fights. He's spent 20 years of his 40 year life in prison starting from the age of 12. It's been 8 years since he's been in jail and he's made the changes so he'll never go back. His hairdo is pretty wacky too, the sides of his head are shaved and the hair on top is super long and wavy and he has it slicked back. That first night we met him he was pretty stoned but he told us we could come back so yesterday afternoon we did! This time he was sober and really opened up. He's got a lot going on in his life and is really wondering if there is a God or not. We told him what our purpose as missionaries is and promised we would be his guides to help answer his questions and find God. He was willing to offer a prayer at the end of our lesson which was really cool because he hasn't prayed in a very long time. One of my favorite things as a missionary is still to hear people pray to God either for the first time ever or for the first time in a long time. Repentance is a beautiful thing.

The highlight of this week was a big zone meeting with our mission president President Toone. He and 17 other mission presidents got together in Texas with Elder Bednar for 3 days and received training. President Toone is now meeting with all the zones and giving us the condensed version of the training. The main message was that we as missionaries serve two missions: one to the people here in our mission, and the other is to the missionaries we serve with. This world is about to get a lot worse and we all need to become converted. We discussed how very often even we as missionaries compromise rules to keep the peace with members, investigators, and even other missionaries. Peer pressure from companions and the missionaries we live with can often times be the toughest to deal with as a missionary. The message from President Toone's training was this: If you can't learn how to stand up to others with courage on your own two feet you will not be able to stand up to the opposition you will face when you return home. That hit me super hard and has caused me to reflect on my level of conversion and how committed I am to being loyal first to God and then loyalty to others second.

I actually had my year mark this past week. Funny how quick time flies. It has motivated me to pick up the pace and work even harder!! I don't want to waste a second!

Thank you for your letters and your prayers. It means a lot to me. I love you all and hope this is the best week ever!

Love Elder Janis

This is a picture of when me and my two comps became comps at transfer meeting. It was super funny because they called my name and usually you'd go give your new companions and hug and go sit down but these guys pulled these flags out, gave me one, and then we basically went up in front of everyone and took a selfie!! Priceless moment captured right here!

He Brought All the Color From the South With Him

Mom,

Sometimes I love reading your letters so much I wish I didn't have to worry about writing an email to go on my blog so I could just tell you what's going on and respond more fully to your letter. In fact that is mostly what I'm going to do today so I apologize if you don't get too much detail on my week. Just know that of course it was obviously the best week of my mission because it was the most recent :) I love all of it. Everything.

I love the word "warpath" you used to describe Dad and his research! That sounds just like him! I'm so glad you were able to find a place in Mexico that feels right. I feel good about it too and will support you as best I can! Here are some motivating quotes I've written on different diet and work out plans for missionaries:

"It's just like anything else, if you want it bad enough you'll get it." (Me)

"No pain no gain" (I'll claim this one ;))

"No victory comes without sacrifice" (Optimus Prime from Transformers)

"Aint nothin but a peanut" (Ronnie Coleman)

"If you want it, get it" (Me)

"Without goals there is no improvement. Without improvement there is no progress. Without progress there is no happiness. Hallelujah" (Elder Diaz)

"Doing hard things builds mental fortitude which is a God-Like attribute." (Me)

"Your body is the instrument of your mind and is the foundation of your character" (President Packer)

Hahahahaha funny story from last night. There is an african american guy named M W who gave a prayer at an Easter Devotional Elder Karl, Hyer, and myself organized for the Maricopa zone and stake. We had invited recent converts to share their conversion story and asked our bishop to finish with his testimony of Christ. It was a super awesome event and it was my first opportunity to conduct any sort of meeting like this. So back to M. He is one of our recent converts in this area and his background is southern baptist. He is all in with the mormons now and brought all the color from the south with him! By that I mean that he does the "Mmhmmmm's" and the "Praise Jesus" during meetings and prayers. He gave the closing prayer and in the middle of his prayer he said, "I just want to thank you Heavenly Father for the all the testimonies that have been born today and you know what? I want to bear my testimony too!" He then proceeded to testify of the love of Jesus and the gift of the restoration and the Plan of Salvation. It was my favorite prayer I've ever heard :)

It sounds like pass over was a huge success!!! I'm sure everyone loved it! You are so fantastic at pulling big events like that off and you do it flawlessly! Everyone can't ever tell if you had everything prepared hours in advance or if the final preparations were happening as the event was happening! I remember when you were the relief society president you did amazing things all the time. I am grateful for your example :)

Mom, you're the most amazing person in the world. I'm so thankful for you. You really are an angel in every way. I know that everything you're going through will be made right. Everything will work itself out. I'm learning that over and over again. For example with the devotional last night we didn't have anyone who could play the piano until the devotional had started. Also, one of the speakers was 30 minutes behind schedule and the first speaker was some brazilian guy and I wasn't sure If I knew how to pronounce his name. As people were coming in there was no one playing prelude music so it was honestly super awkward. So I got on the piano and busted out a couple hymns like choose the right and god be with you till we meet again (both of which don't really apply to easter but it worked :D). Once the meeting started a sister missionary who I knew could play some hymns walked in and I announced she would be the pianist and we'd be singing hymn 116. Without missing a beat she took the seat. Half way into the program I announced a special musical number followed by two speakers, one of which was the guy who was late and still hadn't shown up. Literally 60 seconds before the speaker before him finished he walked in, sat down, stood up, and took the podium. WHEW. So now I really can say that everything works itself out. All the stress, the sweat, and yes the tears (no i'm just kidding, I wasn't crying on the stage haha) was all for nothing because the program ran perfectly.

For the blog you can use whatever you want. Sorry again it wasn't as focused on my week but I felt like I should talk more to you today.

I love you so much and hope you have an amazing week!

Love Elder Janis

Optimus! Transform!

Mom, I'M SO HAPPY RIGHT NOW. I've worked harder this week and more intensively than I ever have in my life and on my mission. I LOVE MY NEW AREA. I'm convinced that the people in Maricopa are some of God's most choice and elect people on earth. We are teaching so many people that are soaking our message up. The gospel is healing people left and right! It's AMAZING what the gospel can do for the people who have soft hearts.

There are a few experiences that I had this week that will have changed my life forever. One of them happened last night. As we were walking into our church building to get stats for the zone, we noticed a car that was stopped by the entrance to the church parking lot. I felt the undeniable prompting of the spirit to go to the car and talk to whoever was in it. My incredible companion Elder Karl acted before I could making a B-line for the car in haste. (Elder Karl is a huge hero of mine for how quick he acts on promptings and how committed he is to serving with all his heart, might, mind, and strength. He also goes home in the middle of this transfer because he's finishing his mission.) We came up to the window of the car and asked the man in the drivers seat how he was doing and if he needed help. He was looking for his son but had just gotten off the phone with him and his son was on his way to meet him at the parking lot. The Dad got out of the car and we started building a relationship by asking simple questions about his belief. We shared a powerful scripture about faith getting us through hard times and that's when he broke down and cried. In a pained voice he asked us, "How do you explain all of life's suffering?" The spirit took over as we testified that before we came to earth we knew the sufferings we were going to have and we still chose to come. And we came so that we could become stronger people through life's challenges. 

At this moment his son was walking up to the car so I intercepted him to keep the other conversation going where it was at. His son was in obvious stress too and we didn't talk for long. I was able to get to know him a little and we friended each other on facebook. The conversation on the other side of the car ended a bit abruptly because the father had become too emotional to keep talking. His son offered to be the driver and they got in the car and drove away. As I had been talking to the son Elder Karl and Elder Hyer had been told by the father that his daughter had recently over dosed on drugs and had died. We meet people every day that have been through severe trials like this one but this one touched me more than the suffering of anyone else because of the love you could see this man had had for his daughter. I am sure this is not the last time I will meet this family.

Wow. It's tough to write about some of these experiences sometimes. To lighten things up I've got a really funny story for you! We were visiting a family coming back into activity and they had a little boy about the age of 4 running around in his underwear. At the close of our meeting we asked the little guy to say the closing prayer. He crouched down in a tight ball and loudly yelled, "Optimus!" Before we could react he yelled louder, "OPTIMUS!!!" and then leaping high into the air with legs and arms extended he screamed, "TRANSFORM!!!" When he landed on his feet he sprinted from the front room to the back of the house most likely I think to fight off evil.

Maricopa is a town of maybe about 40,000 people a few miles away from any big city. It's kind of by itself in the middle of the desert and it's awesome. There's a railroad that runs through the middle of town and there's an AM track that will park there for a half hour that will take people from California all the way to Louisiana. There are A TON of african american people here which is awesome because they're way funnier than the Caucasian people back in chandler. The neighborhoods here are quite nice and the homes sell for really cheap so people have nice houses but they're super humble. EVERYONE wants to hear the gospel. It is a huge blessing to be here.

I've been thinking a lot this week about how God calls us to fill assignments and helps us accomplish those assignments. It seems so obvious that if God would ask someone to do something, like serve as a bishop of a ward, he wouldn't set them up to fail but would actually help them accomplish the task. Can we all look at our lives like this? We knew what we were getting into before we came to earth because we talked about it and chose it KNOWING that God was the one inviting us go to earth. He didn't send us here alone. He gave us Christ and his atonement, the Holy Ghost also known as the comforter, and prayer. He is there every step of the way. As long as we don't give up we will be successful.

I love you all! Especially you Mom!!

Love Elder Janis

Elder Janis with his two companions: On the top "higher" (Elder Hyer), on the bottom (Elder Karl)