Johnson, Ethan

Robbed of what exactly? Robbed of everything we could possibly imagine. We keep our equipment in our apartment, simply because there isn’t a better place to keep it all, and as we entered the place we’ve called home for the past four(ish) months, these were our exact thoughts. Everything was thrown all over the ground, our tables had been taken, our bunk beds as well, and we were on our knees. Only to realize that Elder Christiansen (a senior missionary) had told us he was going to come repossess our tables and bunk beds because we were the only people who lived in the apartment and didn’t need three extra beds and four extra tables. I filmed like four ads this week and I wanted to kill myself. Never catch me making commercials or ads for anyone ever again, including the Church. Two of the ads were with members. One with my Abuelito Cubano who gifted me a personalized tie pin and another with a member in Katy who knew Barret and Ashley Schoenrock because they literally lived in Ashley’...

This week has felt like an entire transfer but smooshed into seven days. We started up “Phase 2” of Seal Team 6 with so many projects in the work–my anthropological training is paying off. Our goal this transfer is to continue to change the culture of the mission for the better: to make the THSM truly utilize all three fishing lines in the water (i.e. Missionary work, member work, and media work) and to make sure that what we are teaching, what we are implementing, sticks. Each mission has a distinct culture, but each revolve around a six week cycle where–at the beginning of each cycle or transfer–a new focus is announced by the Mission President and the Assistants. Whether that be a specific thing, like extending baptismal invitations, or a broader principle or topic like consecration, the focus is distributed from the Mission President to the Assistants and then to the Zone Leaders and Sister Training Leaders and then to District Leaders and Trainers. This is how the mission is organ...

Our Seal Team 6 apartment is eerily quiet. Throughout the course of the past 3 months I have lived with five people, and then four, and then three, and then two, and now one other person. The apartment’s light has been lost and in its place, a calm serenity resides. It’s just Elder Phan and I against the world now. But that’s not all. We have expanded Seal Team 6 to have three new members. Our entire district (including the AP’s) is now Seal Team 6. We’ve added two incredible Hermanas, Hermana Lundberg and Knight (who I was in the mtc with) and an equally amazing Elder named Elder Hammond (who I also came out with) to the team. We’ve entered “Phase 2” of Seal Team 6 where we plan on ramping up everything that we have accomplished in the past two transfers but to a greater extent and scale. As I write this, Elder Scott is on his way home and Elder Sanford is AP. This feels like a change that needed to happen, yet it’s hard to forget everything about “Phase 1”.  This week has been cr...

What a week. What a day. What a time to be alive. We had one of the biggest events in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saint culture this weekend called General Conference. It’s basically where we hear God speak through His living prophets and twelve apostles. The conference is always an edifying and uplifting experience and I cherished every single one of the talks and testimonies that I heard this weekend. Some of my favorite speakers were Elder Andersen, President Freeman, Elder Christofferson, Elder Kearon, Elder Gong, Sister Yee, Elder Budge, and the prophet, President Nelson. I also correctly guessed that there would be temples built in Maputo, Mozambique and Dublin, Ireland–two of my favorite places on the planet. I learned so much from this conference I can’t even begin to list everything that I gained from it. Let’s just say, revelatory visions of my future have been gained and I cannot wait to continue to live this Gospel of joy and grow closer to my Heavenly Father a...