Elder David Johnson: Letter from David

Hello everyone!

This week has been (and I can't really lie about it) a bit challenging, but nonetheless amazing as it always is! I've been a little bit humbled this week due to some crazy things that happened. Here we go...

Tuesday: Elder Ward and I taught an investigator named Dawn. She is stellar and she had a baptismal date set for this Saturday. She had some concerns for us about the temple, and we tried to the best of our ability to answer her questions. When we were teaching her, we saw a roadrunner, and i couldn't get a super good picture of it, but I will include it in the pictures. We also prepared for exchanges.

Wednesday: We went to Amarillo for exchanges! I was with Elder McKenzie and we went tracting and we found 2 new people to teach. While we were coming back to the truck, i saw a humongous caterpillar. I took a picture of that as well.That night, we taught a little family named the Dengs. They are from South Sudan and the mother doesn't speak English very well, so we had the little kids translate. When we got home, we settled in for the night, and Elder Ward was hunkering down in his bunk bed when he discovered 4 little black dots moving around in the corner of the room, which we all identified as BED BUGS. Yep, thats right. Bed bugs. The thing everyone jokes about until you actually get bitten by one. We all had to sleep with the bed bugs that night, I got destroyed on my left arm, and it was not pretty. The zone leaders were not happy at all. Bed bugs are bad news, because they are just soooooo hard to get rid of, and absolutely grody to the max. They will hide in your mattresses and covers during the day, and they come out at night to feed on your blood. You can't kill them with your hands, you have to kill them with heat or poison. Either way, it's no fun. We had to let the bed bugs bite that night, we didn't have a choice.

Thursday: We were planning on going to do an awesome service project at the animal sanctuary, but instead we spent 4 hours bombing their apartment with anti-bed bug spray. We also had to vacuum everything, run the fans, roll down the windows...Texas is a pretty hot State. Hooray for bed bugs to ruin the day. We had Dominos pizza for lunch. We had some coupons for the pizza, and we couldn't find them until we got home with the pizza. Well, can't really help that, can ya? And when we were washing and drying the pillows and blankets, the washer broke down and water got absolutely everywhere. We decided to take a break and eat some ice cream because ice cream helps make everyone feel better, right? Well, we found bed bugs in the ice cream as well, so no frozen treats. In fact, a lot of the bed bugs were hiding out in their freezer. They were also hiding under duck tape, in the shower, in the dirty clothes baskets, in the trim of the walls, in the refrigerator, in the couches, in the vacuum, they were everywhere. Wherever you went, there were bed bugs. So exchanges ended, we went home, and it was raining. I left my bag wide open in the rain. All my stuff got sopping wet, and I just about had it. We had to wash and dry our stuff 3 times in a row (plus one more cycle just to be sure), and we checked all our stuff to make sure we didn't have any stowaways. My day got a whole lot better, though, when we taught dawn again and we played basketball that night. That day was rough, but we got through it. We were rewarded with a glorious sunset, it was just gorgeous, I think if I looked at it any longer, my face would've been frozen there.

Friday: We went and did some more finding, but no one answered the door, which was ok. That night there was a primary party at one of the members homes, and that was pretty fun. I talked to a lot of people about Cheyenne and how the people there are so amazing.

Saturday: Elder Ward and I went to the museum to help reorganize some stuff, and we were there for about 2 hours. The guy helping us out was Allen. He told me to carry a lady mannequin to their basement and it was really embarrassing because 1 the mannequin was not was wearing clothes and 2 halfway to the basement her arm fell of and when i went down to grab it, she just fell apart in my hands. Allen jokingly said, "need a hand?" And I also forgot to take a picture of the petrified wood flower bed last time, so I took a picture of it on Saturday. I had to break up some clay next to the bed with a pickaxe and I felt like I was in the old West mining for gold or something like that.

There was a baptism for an 8 year old member, he is a Romriell. Dylan Romriell turned 8 and his baptism was amazing. His dad was filling up the font while elder ward and I were teaching a lesson to dawn. We went inside to put up some chairs, and we saw that brother Romriell had left the font water running at full power, and the font was going to flood. Now, the door to the font was locked, and there wasn't another way in, so I had to climb over the glass and walk along the edges of the font to stop the water. I nearly fell in a lot of times, Elder Ward had a pretty good grip on me. We were able to stop the water, and when we stopped the water we saw a whole bunch of dead roaches and bugs floating in the water. We had to clean those out too. I played the piano at his baptism, and it was a really neat experience, I'm super proud of him. Turns out the water was stone cold and the heater broke down so the baptism was done in cold water, which was unfortunate. Afterwards, we saw a light that looked like a star but it was actually a hot air balloon, it was still in the sun. It was really neat, I couldn't take any pictures though.

Yesterday: Dawn didn't come to church, which was a little sad because me and elder ward had to change her baptismal date from this saturday to octobter 13th, but we are in no rush here. I was a little sad because Dallin H. Oaks told us missionaries to teach repentance and baptise converts. But my success as a missionary isn't measured in baptisms, its measured in invitations. Elder Ward and I taught the youth about acting the same around everyone and staying the same person around everyone. I played some more piano for the primary, I have come to adore and love the primary children. There aren't very many children in that primary, but they are still just so happy and ready to learn. I love them so much and I can truly understand that when we receive these little ones, we receive Jesus. We went finding again, and we came across a tree that was completely caterpillar infested. Those little furry beasts were going to town.

This morning at 8, me and Elder Ward went to the ministry of hope and unloaded an entire semi trailer stuffed with moderate sized boxes filled with clothes into another semi trailer. It took about us 2 hours to complete, and by the end I was pretty darn tired.

My visa still hasn't come yet, but I'm not super worries about that right now, because I have been called to labor, not to a place, and assigned to labor, not to an area. It doesn't matter where I am, the work is still the Lord's work. And I am just fine with staying here in the Texas Lubbock mission if that means I have to, and I am also ok with going to Madagascar. I am just so grateful for the people of Tucumcari, they are so generous and kind, they are a little rough, granted. But once you have their trust, they become your best friends. I am going to miss them so much.

One other thing I noticed was that my scriptures are now riddled with highlights, tabs, and pen marks. Before I entered the MTC, my scriptures were blank and that's a fault in my part obviously, but now it's just amazing to see how far I've come, and how far I still have yet to go.

Next week is the last full week of my first transfer of my mission, and to be honest, it has went so fast. When you do missionary work, you get busy, and you don't stop until the work for that day is done. Hopefully my visa does come, but like I said it won't really matter. I'm grateful for all of you and your support. I hope everything in Wyoming and Utah is going ok, and I hope y'all are staying safe and warm.

Malagasy scripture

Helamaná 5:12

Ary ankehitriny, ry zanako, tsarovy, tsarovy fa eo amin’ ny vatolampin’ ny Mpanavotra antsika, dia i Kristy, Ilay Zanak’ Andriamanitra, no tsy maintsy anorenanareo ny fototrareo; ka rehefa handefa ny rivo maheriny ny devoly, eny, ny zana-tsipìkany ao amin’ ny tadio, eny, rehefa hamely anareo ny havandrany rehetra sy ny tafiotra maheriny, dia tsy hanan-kery aminareo izany mba hisintona anareo hidina any amin’ ny hantsan’ ny fahoriana sy ny loza tsisy farany, noho ilay vatolampy izay iorenanareo eo amboniny, izay fototra azo antoka, dia fototra izay tsy ahafahan’ ny olona mianjera raha miorina eo amboniny izy.

Tiako Ianareo! (Love y'all!)

~Elder Johnson~