WEEK 52 And 53 - Merry New Year

The past two weeks have been amazing. I have seen so many miracles. I have been in the midst of angels who have delivered me to those we needed to find, those we needed to teach, and those we are going to baptize. Let me break it down for you.

The day after the Rudy event, Elder Phan and Elder Moss became AP’s. That meant I could no longer be companions with Elder Phan and Elder Hammond could no longer be companions with Elder Moss, so come Wednesday of that week, we did a straight swap of companionships. Elder Hammond is now my companion and we are opening an area in the Houston 8th ward. In this area, there are three different overlapping ward/branch boundaries and now I have served in all of them. First, the Memorial Ward, then, the Vietnamese Branch, and now the Spanish, Houston 8th Ward. That’s right. I’m back in Spanish. And I couldn’t be any more happier. Especially since I’m on bikes because of the cop who hit me.

On our first day in the area, we looked at our areabook (where we have all the contacts, appointments, lessons, etc.) and it was completely empty. Mine, even more so than Elder Hammond’s because I couldn’t even see where any members lived or any of their contact information. So, we set out by trying to visit as many members as we could, finding people around them in the process. It worked, and it worked exceedingly well. By the third day in the area, we had found almost ten people and by the first Sunday, fourteen. We had filled our areabook simply by visiting members. On that third day in the area, we had the H8 Ward Christmas party and I knew that this party was going to be vital to create lasting ward relationships for however long I would be serving in H8 (which is hopefully a really long time). So, I grinded talking to literally everyone I possibly could, meeting and creating relationships with inactive families, joking around with active families, and becoming friends with other missionaries’ friends they were teaching. By the end of the party, after starving myself so that I could talk to everyone, a family waved Elder Hammond and I over to ask us a question; they were inactive. The mom asked us if we could baptize her ten year old son. I think we just stood there with our mouths agape for a second because she asked us twice before we were able to push the word, “yes” out of our mouths. We later met with the son and the family and discovered that they are trying to become more active in the church and that this son, and his baptism, is going to be a way for them to come back. Josiah, one of the smartest ten year olds I have ever met, is going to be baptized on January 12, 2025. And that’s only the beginning of the miracles we saw over the past two weeks.

So, we had one person on date for baptism after only being in our new area that we just opened for five days. Crazy, huh? Well, on our second day in the area we met this amazing guy who had just come out of prison, was currently under house arrest, and wanted to change his life for the better. We met him en route to one of the member’s houses that we knew we needed to meet. His name was Ricky. By that Sunday, on the fifth day of being in the area, we asked Ricky to be baptized. He said yes enthusiastically and wanted to make the step to show God and everyone else that he was a different person and a budding disciple of Jesus Christ. He’ll be baptized on January 12, 2025.

Ricky has been struggling with anxiety, specifically about coming to church and so yesterday, 12/29/2024, we had decided that we were going to come to his house and walk him to church with us. We got there, and he was asleep–even after we had been texting him before we arrived. We urged his grandpa to wake him up for us but, to no avail, he didn’t get up for church. As a companionship, we decided we were going to get this man to church by all means possible. After H8’s service, there is the Memorial Ward that meets, so we invited him to that and tried our best to get him to go to that but, because he has to get approval from his officer about leaving the house, he wasn’t able to come. We then tried to get him to come to night church (one of the only night services that the church offers in the entire world) at 7PM, but he was super hesitant, once again. The fear of the unknown overtook him. We then called some Hermanas who we knew were going to the night service and asked them if there was a zoom link, they told us there wasn’t, so then we asked if they would FaceTime us in, to which they said yes. Then, we rode over to Ricky’s house and plopped him in front of my computer for an hour and a half so that he could watch the night church and we could teach him about the Sacrament and resolve any fears and anxieties he had about coming to church. After the spiritually empowering and soul-bonding experience that we had while watching, we decided to go and make some other contacts for the night and as we biked away from Ricky’s house, the Spirit impressed upon me that we needed to turn back and knock the member’s door who lived in his neighborhood–the members that we had tried to get in contact with from the very first time we coincidentally met Ricky. So, we turned around and biked back to his neighborhood, only to find that the members were home and that they had just gotten back from Mexico earlier that day. The miracles didn’t end there. As we sat around their living room with mother, father, son, and girlfriend, we came to find out that the son had recently become reactivated by his girlfriend and was progressing to the point where he could be a worthy temple recommend holder and that he was best friends with Ricky in middle school but had lost contact with him because Ricky had started down a bad path in life. We were shocked. The son then realized that God had been preparing him for this moment, as He had been preparing Ricky, so that he could help Ricky have friends in church and defeat the anxiety that he had about coming to church and knowing no one. The son said that he would join us for a lesson with Ricky and that if we had found him here three months ago, he would not have said yes because he didn’t believe in the church. Then, to make matters even crazier, the mother spoke up and explained to us that Ricky’s mom was a member of our church that had fallen away a year ago. She was baptized two years ago but had fallen away. It all was starting to make sense why Ricky, and his family, were so accepting of Elder Hammond and I, and now our prayers have been answered. The son is going to help us get Ricky to come to church and then he’s going to go on a vacation from the 3rd to the 11th only to return home and baptize Ricky on the 12th. I know that he will and I know that this will change not only Ricky’s life but the life of the returning member son. 

God continues to work miracles here on Earth. Miracles have not ceased. I know the words that Mormon spoke to his son Moroni are true. “...have miracles ceased? Behold I say unto you, Nay; neither have angels ceased to minister unto the children of men. For behold, they are subject unto him, to minister according to the word of his command, showing themselves unto them of strong faith and a firm mind in every form of godliness.” (Moroni 7:29 and 30) I have seen them. I have seen the blessings of trying to be a clean vessel, an instrument of God, with the faith that He will perform miracles in our area. My joy is overflowing every single day I am in this area. I love my friends, I love my members–the members who fed us every single day last week, giving us Christmas presents and loving us, just as we loved them–and I love being a missionary. These past two weeks also marked a milestone in my own timeline: I have been a missionary for exactly a year. I am excited for what this new year has to offer me, a year full of service to my Lord and my God, and a year that I have placed upon the altar of God, trusting that in His own time and in His own way, I will be magnified for the rest of my life. I love Houston with all my heart but I love the people I have met and will continue to meet even more. I know this Gospel is true and I know that there are no coincidences on God’s timeline. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. 

-Elder Johnson

HOUSTON, WE HAVE A PROBLEM:

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If you want to see just these weeks’ pictures go here. 

WEEK 52 and 53: 

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