Wednesday, June 25, 2014

I Almost Became Tipsy

K. So. Ya. This week was good/hard/interesting. So I am going to stop this greeting part of my letter and start writing my email to you guys if that's ok.

I thought I should warn you that this letter might be "all over the place". On the way to the church this morning we were driving along, listening to our favorite EFY CD, when all of a sudden I see a bush on the side of the road start to shake. Out of the corner of my eye we see this family of 4 squirrels make a beeline across the street. With no time to slow down we hit 2 of them. One of them passed on and the other one that was hit was able to stumble off the road. I am still a little shaken from this traumatic experience so please forgive me for any imperfections in this letter. 

We met a haggard man on the streets in White Plains. He kept saying that our church was started by the Illuminati. When we told him we weren't part of the Illuminati, he told us that we should, "really find out about the history of our church." There aren't too many things more interesting than a haggard man that thinks he knows more about your life-long religion than you do.

As I was checking out of the grocery store I caught a glimpse on a magazine that Emily from the Bachelor is getting married?! I had been thinking that my chances with her were slim, considering she hasn't written me yet, but that was really the salt in the wound. 

We had the opportunity of doing service at another church this weekend. There is a church that feeds breakfast to the homeless people in White Plains once a month. The church loves us missionaries because we love to help people so they invited us. I had the glorious job of serving the bacon. There were extreme amounts of bacon there, so much that I don't even think Josh Jensen could have downed it all. Of course since my table had the bacon, it was poppin’. Errybody wanted that bacon. 

We have this one investigator named Frank who is a man. When I say man I don't mean that his chromosomes are XY, he is a boy who is old. I mean he is an ex-Marine that fought in The Battle of the Pacific during World War 2 as a 17 year old. He served as a Sheriff and he drinks a glass of Scotch before bed every night (I am not making this up). He is 89 and reminds us of the old guy from "UP". Anyways, we were teaching him about The Plan of Salvation. Teaching The Plan of Salvation to a man that is nearing the end of his life, not knowing what his purpose is or where he is going, is a cool thing. The lesson went great, when all of a sudden he said he needed a drink. He asked us if we wanted some apple cider. Of course I accepted because it was a muggy day and what is better than drinking a cold apple cider with a really cool old guy? He handed the cold apple cider to me in a glass bottle and it looked delicious. A lil too delicious if you know what I mean.... because as I went to drink it, I noticed the label said, "HARD apple cider". In my mind I was thinking, "Oh no, I have to break the news to this man of a man that I am a young, little Mormon boy that doesn't drink." I told him that I was grateful he fetched it for me but I couldn't drink it because I don't drink alcohol. He kept saying that it only had a little bit of alcohol and that it wouldn't affect me but I had to stand strong.

The story of being offered alcohol got me thinking. At The Sermon On the Mount, Jesus taught us that we need to, "Be ye therefore perfect…" That is the standard that God has set for us, we need to be perfect. It wouldn't have mattered if that apple cider that I had been offered had a little alcohol or a lot. It would still be a sin to partake. It is the same with other sins. It doesn't matter if, for example, we tell a little lie or rob a bank. That little lie we told is a sin and God cannot and will not stand for that. Just because we don't commit huge sins does not mean that we shouldn't take advantage of the Atonement. We can use the Atonement as much as we need to! I invite you all to repent of even the little sins, because a sin is still a sin no matter how small.

Luv U guys.

Elder Tyler J Johanson


I accidentally almost drank alcohol!!


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