Max is in Taiwan! Thanks for his letter, he looks so happy, our family is so cool!
I cant wait for the snow!
Its strange, we are in a transfer week again, it happened so fast, I will be staying here in the office as well as Elder Talanoa, he will be training Elder Moran on the finances and I'll keep training Sister Moran on the mission secratary duties. They are from Draper, like a block away from our house, they live off of willow springs drive, Gilly Olsen is in their ward, Its really strange that we didn't know them, they are so nice and its been fun to see them adjusting to mission life.Each transfer day we have seems to come faster and faster, After 6 weeks, we will be the oldest group of missionaries in the mission
Wow, everyone looks so good!
So the week went so well we have been slammed with things to do, we had a Mission Leadership Conference, Training of the new office couple and still carrying the load of doing those things we haven't yet taught them, and opening and refurbishing of several apartments in Preparation for transfer day on Thursday. Its been alot, I never really realized how much it takes to keep a mission afloat. Its good when you see that you're doing good.
The first really great experience we had was in a little town called Victoria Laguna, In it is a small branch of the church that hasn't had missionaries in it for nearly a decade. There were some problems in the past with several different gangs and drug lords causing trouble in the area, so the missionaries were pulled and the Elders from a neighboring city were able to come and try and support it for the past while. President Mangum decided he wants to put missionaries back in, so we went, we looked at several apartments, keep in mind this is a small town that has an economy that runs off the fishermen from the nearby Laguna Lake, so none of them were great, but we went to one more, and it turned out to be a winner, not only because of the quaint little apartment that was rented out to us, but because of the Landlord and his family. He was very kind, and very very wealthy, usually the wealthy tend to shy away from anything that has to do with another religion here in the Philippines, but he seemed very open, and as we were talking about contracts, it led to who would be living there, the missionaries, their job, and why they do it, he was really impressed at how well our volunteer organization functions. He was excited to have us in his home, he said he was a former government employee along with his wife here in San Pablo, and knew exactly where the church was, we invited him to learn more, and hopefully over the next few visits we can get a book of Mormon in his hands and get that family as the core of this small branch in Victoria
The second came as we attended a baptism of an entire family that came as a result of the newly engaged office referrals program here in San Pablo Mission. The referral system has always been there but no other office Elder wanted to put the effort in, but Elder Talanoa and I hit it hard and got it up and running, It was amazing to see as 7 of them went down into the water, as we watched the restoration DVD, I really reflected on how great of a work this really is, Its amazing, to think that a 14 yar old boy saw god and it started all of this, if its just a story there is no way, in the logic of those who believe that it was such, that that story could spread as it has and change so many peoples lives, its true, theres so much in store, and I 'm so excited to keep seeing it roll forth. Its fun to be a part of.
I love you
Elder Johnson
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