Wicked OZsome

December 2, 2015

Good morning everybody. For those who don't know me, my name is Elder Tyler Johanson. I guess I will give you a little introduction of who I am. I have been in the Stamford Connecticut ward for almost 5 weeks now. My companion Elder Casela and I first met on transfers 5 weeks ago when President Smith assigned us to be together. I am really nervous to be up here in front of all of you and email you this morning so I hope you will bear with me. The topic I have been asked to email on is missionary work..... ok I am done with that haha.

Sorry I didn't email last week. In the last six weeks of our mission, we have the opportunity to go see an approved Broadway play. Last week I went and saw "Wicked" on Broadway. It was "OZsome". Ok but seriously I don't even normally like musicals really but this one blew my mind, and I don't just think it was because I haven't indulged in gentile entertainment for the last two years. I went on a split with AP Elder Gore and the mission President’s son William! President and Sister Smith have three kids and they love to hang out with the missionaries. President and Sister Smith somehow allowed their 12 year old son to come and hang out with Elder Gore and I, despite all of our shenanigans. It was a party.

Elder Gore, William and I before we embarked to Wicked. We made a legendary trio!

Outside the Gershwin Theatre with the boyz after the show lolz!

Thanksgiving was a good time. A member had us over. We ate turkey. It was fun. Before Thanksgiving dinner we volunteered at a church that was giving a Thanksgiving dinner for less fortunate members of the community. They got to sit down to a nice dinner and we basically played waiter. Every week on Tuesday we offer service for a few hours at another church’s food pantry. Some weeks it gets out of hand there. Like last week the homeless people were getting into fights so they had to call the Po Po to be crowd control. Despite the couple arguments and tussles that occurred it was mostly a good experience. We were able to give out over 300 thanksgiving meals that day at the food pantry. Good times. 

At church on Sunday we had a family named the Jensen's invite us over ‪for lunch on Tuesday. The funny thing is that there are three families with the last name Jensen in our ward. When we showed up ‪for lunch on Tuesday to what we thought was the Jensen's that had invited us over we quickly realized that we had entered the wrong "Jensen’s" address into our GPS. We were at the wrong house. It was too late now though, what were we going to tell them? "Oh, hey Brother and Sister Jenson we had no intention of stopping by your house whatsoever! We meant to visit somebody else, thanks for letting us into your home we are just going to leave now." Haha we couldn't have done that. So even though in our minds we were embarrassed about our foolish "mistake" we just started to talk to them for a minute about how life has been for them, trying not to mention that we weren't planning on being there.

They told us first of all that it was a miracle that we had come by at that moment because Brother Jenson had come home from work for an hour for lunch and he doesn't usually do that. Because he was home, we were able to go in because otherwise it would have just been Sister Jenson home and that is not kosher. Then they told us that the child that Sister Jenson is pregnant with has a very rare health condition that will make it so the baby will only live for just a few hours after birth. She had just gotten back from a checkup and the doctor told her that they wanted to put her on some medication that would speed up the birthing process which means that this young family would be witnessing the birth and most likely the death of their child within the next 24 hours. They told us that this was a hard time for them. They weren't expecting it to happen this quickly.

Elder Casela and I were able to share "A Savior is Born" video and testify of the goodness and hope that Christ can bring. We discussed the reason why Christ came for us individually. It wasn't a long message we shared, but it was just enough to supply the Spirit in their home. We prayed with them, and they were touched in this moment of trial by the Spirit. They continued to thank us for coming by and kept telling us how perfect the timing was that we came by at this time. After we left their house we ran to our car and hustled on over to the Jensen's house that we were originally supposed to be going over to. 

We felt a little bad we were late to the lunch appointment, but not really at the same time because we were able to be tools in the Lord’s hands. He had a greater purpose for us than we had for ourselves. We reflected about how what originally seemed to be a stupid mistake turned out to be a great miracle that Elder Casela and I were able to bring to pass. It might have appeared to be a coincidence that we just so happened to go over to the wrong household and the perfect time but I know that God’s hand is in those miracles. He is aware of each and every one of his children's situations even if the people he is having perform his miracles are not. 

Peace in the middle east,

-Elder Tyler J Johanson