Pulling Through the Clutch

My first week in Middletown has been a good one! My new companion Elder Judd is what the kids call a "homeboy". He was quiet at first but he is coming out of his shell and now we laugh ALL the time. He is a funny guy and we have a lot in common too. For example we both died a little inside this last Saturday when we remembered that college football was on.

Church on Sunday was schweet! The ward is the cats pajamas. My new ward is an English and Spanish ward. There's not enough people for two separate wards so they just clumped them together. It makes the dynamic of service a little weird. The talks are usually in English and then one of the Spanish missionaries in the ward translates to all the Spanish people with headsets on. Our opening prayer was offered in Spanish and the hymns are sung in Spanish and English. Pretty krump stuff if you ask me.

The mission had the opportunity to have a special viewing of Meet the Mormons. I would advise you all to see it. Definitely the best movie I've ever seen thus far on my mission.

The worst thing about being transferred out of Scarsdale is that last Sunday Elder L. Tom Perry visited the Westchester 1st Ward in Scarsdale. The week I leave he decides to show up!! It stunk. Like, a lot but the pain will eventually pass I'm sure. On Sunday since Elder L. Tom Perry was in New York he gave a fireside in Manhattan and we got to see a broadcast of it all the way up here in Middletown. In the fireside, it was mentioned that just a short while before conference, Elder Perry had hip replacement surgery. He recovered so fast he didn't even have to walk up to the pulpit with a cane or nothin' #PullinThroughInTheClutch

I've been realizing lately that leadership in the mission is not as big of a deal as a lot of missionaries crack it up to be. Yes, it is a big deal in that you have the opportunity to serve those in your district or zone but it's not a big deal in the sense that it reflects how much you know or anything. When I was first made district leader in Scarsdale, we had a young district and it was great being able to help the new missionaries out there. Here in Middletown, I'm still the district leader but the district is older. Other than Elder Judd and I, everybody else goes home within the next 4 months. There are some great missionaries here. You aren't called into leadership because you are better than anyone. You aren't called into leadership because you know more than anyone. You are called into leadership to learn. You are called as a leader to serve. You are called as a leader to be a humble example. I need to be better.

During studies this last week, I was studying up on Romans in the New Testament. In my studying, I found that one of the reasons Paul wrote the letter to the church in Rome was to address a conflict between the Jewish members of the church and to the gentile members. Apparently there was discrimination going on in the church because of the different backgrounds of the members. In Romans 3 he says, "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;" Basically meaning that it doesn't matter if you are Jew or Gentile, black or white, male or female. We all sin, we all fall short and therefore we must ALL have faith in Jesus Christ. We should all stop judging others for what they do and focus on what we can do. That's my story and I'm sticking to it!

Elder Tyler J Johanson

Don't have any pics of my own, but how about Thomas S. Monson repping the skinny tie???