Sup Zeek,
Thanks for the letter. I'm doing quite good, thanks. I
was quite befuddled and flabbergasted to receive a letter from you, I
must say! You must understand, Zeek, I was quite astonished! Everyone
thought you had died in the big gas explosion. It was all over the
news! They said that all that was left of you was a charred piece of
your tail! Nevertheless, old friend, I am glad to hear you are happy
and well. Remember when you ate that entire block of cheese? Those
sure were some good times. To answer your question, Zeek, I haven't
seen Theo for over a year now. You may be shocked to hear this, but
after I left to serve a mission, some bad people got their hands on him
and sold him to one of those awful slavery camps like you see in the
movies. I truly am sorry to be the one to tell you this, Zeek. Theo
was a friend to us all. And I know you two were particularly close.
That's why I feel like I should let you know. It makes my face burn hot
with angry tears every time I think about what those people did. Never
lose hope, Zeek. It is hope that keeps us alive. There's still good
in this world, Zeek, and it's always worth a fightin' for.
Anyways
Z, this week was actually pretty good. On Tuesday we went on a split
with the mission president. That was interesting. We got a call the
day before from the APs saying that the mission president was going to
split with us for the whole day. So, of course, we cleaned the house
mega good and spit shined everything really clean. I even got
dehydrated from spitting so much. But I guess it wasn't a very good
idea cause the mission president asked why there was spit all over the
walls. No worries though. We were quick on our feet and came up with a
good excuse: "It was already like that." Nah. But really it was
actually super good. He came in the morning and we did our normal
studies and then we went out and did visits. It was pretty normal.
Most of the time the mission prez didn't even talk, only rarely really.
But it was good. I actually learned a lot from him. Our mission
president is a way cool guy. I accidentally called him "bro" once. He
asked me to back him out and I said, "Yeah, Bro, I gotcha" without
thinking. But he's dope though--he just laughed. And we forgot to take
down the picture of the Backstreet Boys on the fridge that Katie sent
me. Under it my comp had written in dry erase marker, "I love Nick
XOXO--Johansen." And when the president got here he was like, "Who's
Nick?" I think he was just kind of weirded out actually. It seemed
like he was split between laughing or chastising us. But he ended up
just not saying anything about it. Haha. But really other than that,
nothing crazy happened. He gave us a lot of good advice and stuff, so
it was good. I feel like I learned a lot.
Also this week we
picked up a new investigator, Fran. Fran is way tight. I'm stoked on
Fran. How we found her is that we went to go visit this less-active
family just to see how they were doing. But we get there and nobody was
really there, but we heard someone out back. So we went back there and
there was Fran. I guess it turns out she lives at the house. We just
didn't know. So we pretty much just talked to her forever and
eventually she started asking questions and stuff and it sort of just
turned into a lesson. She speaks really good English too, so it was
kind of weird. At first I was kind of freaked out cause I don't really
know how to teach in English and I had no idea what to say so mostly I
just spoke in Samoan cause that's what I'm used to. But anyways, the
first lesson was pretty good. We ended up sharing with her the message
of the restoration, so the first lesson was okay. I was pretty happy
with it. But it was when we came back on Saturday--that visit was the
bomb. I could go into tons of details, but I can't really remember.
Pretty much the first little bit was just a lot of bible bashing (she's
Seventh Day Adventist) and arguing and stuff. And I wasn't really
saying much. I was kind of just sitting there, but I was praying to
know what to say and I felt impressed to share with her the scripture
from Alma 32 that talks about faith. And so we each read a few verses
and went through most of the chapter. It was mega good though. You
could just see the difference when the spirit was present. And I
especially emphasized verse 27 that says to just exercise a little of
your faith to experiment on the words. Cause the first visit with her
we invited her to read and pray, but she hadn't kept the commitment. So
then we re-invited her to read and pray, to use her faith and
experiment on our words to see if it's true. At the end of the lesson
she said she really hopes that it is true and agreed to read and pray
sincerely to know for herself. There was a ton of other stuff that
happened. It was actually a really long lesson, but it was just
awesome. The spirit was just so strong--you could really felt it. It
was super good. So I have high hopes for Fran. Really right now we're
just working with her to gain a testimony of it herself because she
actually has a ton of other problems and issues. And Satan is working
really hard against her because she said she feels the spirit when we
visit, but there is something that keeps telling her "No." She said
it's like an internal struggle pulling her both ways. So you can
definitely tell the adversary wants to drag her away.
Also, a
lame thing that happened during the lesson--the member guy that lives
there came in and interrupted the lesson and started asking pointless
questions and talking about stuff that was irrelevant. And then he left
and right after, his wife came in and did the same thing and was sort
of just taking everything lightly and making it like it was a big joke.
Fran was sort of just confused and she was like, "what are they talking
about?" And my companion was just like, "Oh, I don't know what she's
saying." Cause the lady was like, "when are we gonna take her up and
get her baptized?" But we hadn't even talked about baptism yet.
Anyways, it's not a big deal. Fran is just super sensitive to anything
little like that and until she gains a testimony of it herself, even the
littlest stuff is gonna pull her away. So yeah, members are good most
of the time, but sometimes they do more damage really. No worries
though. I'll let you know next week what happens though. I'm really
hoping and praying that she will have the faith to read and pray.
So
yeah, that was good. Also this past week we did the baptisms for Edna
(Ena) and Faletolu. Apparently Ena's name is actually Edna. It's just
hard to tell the difference in phonetic terms in Samoan. It wasn't
until I looked at her birth certificate that I saw it was actually
Edna. Anyways, the baptisms were really good. That was a good day. We
had a tight lesson with Fran, and then right after we went to our
baptisms, so that was defcool. Pretty much this week was just a good
week overall--just really spiritually uplifting.
Also, a weird
thing that happened--we went and visited this old dude in our Aleisa 2nd
Ward one of the days this week. I forget his name. It was the first
time meeting him. But as I go to shake his hand, he holds it for a half
second longer and then leans his head in slowly and gently kisses my
hand. Haha, he was just this crazy old guy. It was pretty funny
though.
Also, I saw my family from my first area in Samaka on
Saturday--I was so stoked. They just randomly drove by when me and my
companion were parked on the side of the road. It was sweet though.
They gave me a bag of mangoes. I guess the guy, Paulo, had to go give a
talk at a conference for one of the other stakes on behalf of the
mission president cause he's the first counselor, I think. But anyways,
so that was cool. They said they miss me and Jackson cause sisters
live there now and they're not nearly as cool as me and Jackson.
Anyways, this letter is way too long. Be a good boy, okay, Zeekie?
Spank it easy,
Elder Johansen
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