Roll with the Fruit Punches

Wed, Sept 16, 2015                                

Hey, 

Sorry in advance but I don't have a lot of time because it is transfers today.

Shot Calls came this weekend. They are supposed to come Saturday night, but the Assistants straight up forgot to call us haha. They forgot about us. They called us Sunday morning and we found out then that I would be staying a fifth cycle here in Olmstead and getting a champ named Elder Buckley while Elder Wallace would get sent to South Manhattan for his last transfer. I was kind of in shock because I definitely didn't think I would be staying, but all is well in Zion. You know how what they say, "You just gotta roll with the fruit punches." Ok maybe nobody has ever said that but....

Olmstead Zone

Since I don't have a ton of time I will just share a crazy experience and a miracle with you. 

Crazy Experience: there is a park across the street from the church, and by "park" I really mean a small field of concrete with benches, and there is a group of homeless people that live there. The missionaries have gotten pretty close to one of the homeless people here because he is friendly and nice to the missionaries. He knows the church fairly well because he actually panhandled at Temple Square in Salt Lake for 2 years or something like that. He is a really friendly guy and loves the missionaries.

On Sunday a member who had some extra food at home decided she would give it to Robert (the homeless guy). She asked a Elder Wallace and I if we could give it to him because she had to run inside the church real quick. We agreed so we walked over there to a small group of homeless people and offered the food to Robert. He accepted and was very grateful for it. We swapped some small talk and as soon as we told him goodbye another one of the homeless guys comes riding up on a bike and yells,"Hey get outta here! This isn't a freak show!" Along with some other words I will not include. He then got off of his bike like he was going to fight us. It was funny cuz this is actually the same homeless guy that came up to us on the street a couple months ago in a drunken stupor and said that he was going to knock us out. When he started yelling that all the other homeless people in the group started yelling at him and telling him to knock it off. It felt kind of cool to have a group of homeless people have your back. Those guys are cool cats. 

Miracle: We got a media referral and so we gave her a ring and she said that she wanted to meet with the missionaries at the church. A couple days later we met up at the church and started talking to her and she said how she had a boyfriend who lives in Brooklyn that is a member and she was interested in learning more. We told her we could do that and we asked her if there was anything specific she was interested in. She told us that she wanted us to teach her all about the Law of Chastity. It was kind of a weird place to begin teaching her but she insisted so we taught her an impromptu lesson about the law of chastity and she loved it! I can't tell you how many times I have been heckled out here because of our Church's, or should I say Gods view on the law of chastity. But she loved it and committed right away to live the law of chastity. Like, who does that? Then she told us that she was going to see her boyfriend later that night and he told her he wanted to talk about the law of chastity with her so she wanted to learn about it before talking to him. Missionaries work with people for years and can't get them to live the law of chastity but she committed right away. I thought that was kind of a miracle. The sisters will be working with her now so hopefully it all goes good. 

Also last thing, if you haven't watched the videos that the church has released for the Addiction Recovery program I highly suggest you watch them even if you don't have an addiction or even know anybody with an addiction. There are 12 videos for each of the 12 steps of recovery. All you have to do is go to LDS.org and type Addiction recovery in the search bar and then on the side click videos and they should have them. We get to help out with the addiction recovery program that is held every week here and to see how the gospel enables people to overcome their addictions is incredible. Seriously doe watch dem vids. 

Gotta go! Love yuh.

Elder Tyler Johanson