November 11, 2015
Howdy,
Howdy,
No
Shave November has been going really good actually. I made it a full 24 hours
without shaving. It was nuts.
Today
for P day we went to the mall. We had to buy a coat for Elder Casela so he
could survive the winter here. He has never had to wear a coat in his life
being from the Philippines and stuff so it was quite the experience. It was
super hard to find a coat for him because he is a classy man and likes to dress
nice but he is so small that the only sizes that he can fit into are the
children's sizes. The only coats we could find had Star Wars and stuff on it or
had bright colors, or had bright colored Star Wars stuff on it haha. It seemed
like we were never going to find a coat that would work but we finally found
one at Macy's. Now he looks fresh to death without being frozen to death. It's
kind of funny because he starts to shiver whenever we go outside but it's only
like 50 degrees outside. I'm going to be scared for him when it starts actually
getting cold.... I'm sure he will take it like a champ though. He always does.
I love this guy.
 |
| My companion, Elder Casela |
The
week has been full of finding. Elder Casela and I have been trying a bunch of angles to jumpstart this area. There is a ton of potential in this area for a lot
of really good work.... It's just not quite there yet. But we just opened the
area 2 weeks ago. We got our hands on the ward list and have been going through
that trying to find all the prospective elders and unbaptized children over 9,
as well as trying to find all the less actives that are willing to meet with
us. The problem is that it is super hard to find people home. A lot of the guys
here are super busy with work and aren't home during the day. This is one of
those areas that once people have gotten fed up with New York City living they
move to. But a bunch of the guys still work down there. With all this finding
we have found a couple solid potential investigators to try to work with. It's
all Gucci.
Random
funny story from when we were doing some finding. We stopped by the house of a
man that had requested a bible online. A woman came to the door and we told her
that we were missionaries coming to drop a bible off and honestly she was kind
of rude to us and started shutting the door. We asked if the guy was home so we
could give him the bible and she said, "Nope I'm not interested."
Clearly not even listening to what we had just said. I asked her what her name
was so I could thank her and she said,"I'm here." (Side note: I don't
know if it's an east coast thing or just not a Utah thing but a ton of people
are super paranoid for whatever reason and won't even tell you their first
name.) so then she started shutting the door and I said, "Pleasure meeting
you "I'm here" have a great day." Elder Casela and I thought it was
pretty funny but clearly the way the woman slammed the door, she didn't agree.
Soooo I kind of felt bad a little that she didn't seem to like that but I have
come to the conclusion that one day in the spirit world I will have the
opportunity to teach her the gospel and we will be laughing at the time......
Hopefully.
I
gave a training in district meeting on being genuine this week. I'm pretty sure
that I get more out of these trainings by studying and preparing for them by
any missionary in attendance haha. The thing with being genuine is that being
genuine doesn't just stem from our actions. It stems from the very core of our
thoughts and desires. If we want our outward actions to be pure we have to
"keep it real" and be pure from the source of our soul.
Moroni 7:11 For
behold, a bitter fountain cannot bring forth good water; neither can a good
fountain bring forth bitter water; wherefore, a man being a servant of the
devil cannot follow Christ; and if he follow Christ he cannot be a servant of
the devil.
If
our thoughts and desires are impure so will our actions. The benefits of being
genuine spiritually are that we can't be fake with God. We can't with our
actions profess to be one way but inside we are another way.
A
cool quote: "Men imagine that thought can be kept secret, but it cannot;
it rapidly crystallizes into habit, and habit solidifies into
circumstance."
If
we are genuine with our Father in heaven it allows us to have the spirit flow
through us more easily. Think of a drain. When there is a drain on a sink and
it is clean from the inside it allows the water to flow through it nice and
smooth. When the inside of the drain is clogged with gunk or your sisters hair
or whatever it may be, the water can't flow through easily. After a while if it
keeps building up nothing is going to be able to flow through the drain. We
have to be clean in the very core of who we are so the spirit can flow through
us. So yes, being a genuine person, especially genuine with our Father in
Heaven can help us feel the spirit more easily.
So
basically what I'm trying to say is, keep it
Luvs
Elder
Tyler J Johanson
