Hello everyone! I enjoyed seeing the photos that were sent this week. Unfortunately, I didn't take any photos this week so I apologize for that. We were really busy in our area! It's wonderful to hear from all of you and it sounds like you're doing good. Sounds like Tanner is raking as well, nice man, that's awesome! We had a pretty crazy week--we were able to get heaps done.
So, at the moment, in our neck of the woods--we are only covering Punuruku Ward. So, it's good to have just one area to focus on. This week we spent a day with Bishop and he showed us heaps and heaps of people and where they stay. I know you're thinking, why didn't you just get the addresses. Well, there is no such thing as addresses out these ways! So it was a heck of a mission, I'm tellin' ya! Two hours later, Elder De Kock and I were feeling very car sick because of these windy roads. We were able to get a lot of houses found and a great place to start! So, that's awesome. Bishop is the man though for taking us out. I really love that about this ward...they are all keen as to help with missionary work. We're really blessed to have the support from the ward out here.
I had a good experience last Wednesday. We were visiting a family in our ward, the Piripi whanau. The Dad, and husband, just passed away a couple of weeks ago. He was a chief so it was a pretty big deal. We went by to see how they were doing. Everyone seemed to be doing fine, but the wife. She is pretty old and very unwell. She asked if I could give her a blessing. I was happy she asked me. I love every experience that I have to give a blessing. This one I had a lot to say--I think too much to say, but the Spirit was just giving me heaps of things. I could feel how much faith that she had in our Father in Heaven. I know that she is going to be okay. It's cool to see Heavenly Father's love for people in their lives.
We were able to have some really wonderful lessons this week, a few more than we normally do, actually. On Saturday, we had an amazing lesson with Dave and Teresa at the home of one of our members, the Randell Family. They happen to be family to Dave and Teresa so it was a perfect place to have a lesson. We were planning to teach about the Restoration because that's where their concerns are at the moment, and the Spirit took the lesson whole different direction. We found out that they needed to be taught prayer. It was very powerful because Brother Randell was able to share his experience with prayer which led him to being converted. Then, I felt prompted to share my experience with prayer and my mission call. At the end of the lesson, we invited them to set a goal to be baptized. They said that they would pray about it. It was really good--that lesson. You just have to be careful with them because once they feel like they're being pushed or pressured, yeah, not gonna be good. I felt that that's how they've been feeling lately.....I've never been a fan of pressure teaching. They are so close though. I feel just maybe another week or two of good lessons and powerful testimonies and we should be able to set them with a date!
We also had a really good lesson yesterday with a girl named Arahia. She's a former that was being taught by Elder Larson and Elder Tibbitts. We met her for the first time yesterday and we taught her the Restoration. It was cool because Elder De Kock and I have been working on this fun and simple way to teach just using the photos in the pamphlets. We decided to practice on her and it went pretty good to be honest! I really think it's a good way to teach people. I'll have to show Tanner before he goes out on his mission. We got a return appointment for tomorrow, so we're killin' it with getting appointments with people, thanks to Bishop!
One of the highlights from the week was catching up with good ol' Faafetai aye! The man drove two hours up north just to come and see me. It was good catching up with him. It seems like he's pretty busy with life. He gave me some mean advice for my last three months. He said that it's pretty hard with everything going on, but if you finish the last three months strong you can finish knowing you served hard because you can reflect on the last three months. If you get trunky and just lose focus you're gonna feel like your mission could have been better. I don't know if that makes sense but I loved what he said. He's the man! He took me and my companion out for dinner!
We had a good week. We're going to be really busy this week. I love and miss you guys heaps. I hope all is well with everyone. Have a good, safe week! Ofa ke ke ma'u ha aho lelei! Ofa lahi atu moutolu!
Love,
Elder Johnson
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