(On February 11, 2016, Elder Johnson's brother was married in the Salt Lake Temple. This is his entire family now with his new sister-in-law, Kate.)
(However, since Elder Johnson wasn't able to attend, his family made a giant cut-out of him to be in some of the pictures!)
(Elder Johnson with his parents.)
(Elder Johnson's sister, Izzie, and his brothers, Tyler and Luke at Tyler's wedding.)
This week has been so good.
I
think I have learned more about myself and my mission experience this
last week than any other week on my mission. I feel that I have received
much inspiration and guidance to thoughts and prayers throughout this
week. I feel blessed and supported in all ways by so many amazing
people.
This week I want to share two quick experiences:
The first happened about 2 weeks ago.
We
had just finished eating lunch and were out on the street talking to
people and we had about an hour and a half before our next appointment.
We wanted to try to set another appointment up before the other one but
couldn't find anyone to meet. We had been out on the street talking to
people and met a few good people but no one that would listen to our
message right then, (which is usually the case.) My companion and I
were standing at the bus stop with many people surrounding (even the
Jehovah Witness missionaries) hah! and many other people telling about
their church. We decided to sit down on the bench real quick and offer a
pray to ask the Lord where it was that we needed to go. We decided to
leave the area we were at and walk to an area we weren't very familiar
with. As we went to this area, there was nothing there. We came back into
the area we were in before (with lots of people), but this time we came
back a different way. (It was like we made a big circle.) We came in the
back way and started talking to a guy that was working parking lot duty
who had seen missionaries before. As we were talking to this guy, I
looked right and saw someone pass that I thought I had seen before. I
had the feeling we needed to quickly leave and follow him. We hurried
and ended a conversation with this other man and I looked at my comp and
told him I saw someone pass that I felt we needed to talk to. As we
hurried down the street, about 300 ft down we were now walking next to
this kid that passed us. We said Hello and we quickly realized that we
had met last week outside of the subway station, and he asked us if we
had time to meet right then! He didn't have any plans and was just
walking around, so he asked if he could learn a little bit about our
church. It was great! We were able to meet with him for about 45 minutes
until our next appointment and teach him about the messages we are
sharing. It was a great experience. We gave him a soft baptismal
invitation and he told us he wanted to learn more.
I
don't have much time but the second experience was similar to the first.
My companion and I were exhausted because we had a lot of appointments
through out the day. It was about 7:45 pm and we had about an hour and 15
minutes until we had to return. We decided to pray and ask the Lord to
lead us. After many thoughts and many suggestions, we just decided to
move! We went to a place we had gone to before but the person there
rejected us, (but the timing on this experience was just perfect! That
guy rejected us for the perfect amount of timing). As we kept walking
down the street, we came to a 4-way road. (This road was leading to a
bigger road.) Anyway, right when we got to the middle of the end of the
road that was connected with the 4-way intersection, we crossed paths
with a man who was smoking a cigarette. We said hello to him and started
talking... He started listening... He told us that we needed to go to
his house to talk about this. We immediately went to his house and he
told us on the way that his father had passed a way a while back and he
has been thinking about how he can see him again. He had a lot of great
questions and we were able to teach him. He is now an investigator and
is a super great man! He is from China but grew up speaking Korean. He
is 28, lives alone, and is working here! He is a great guy.
I
know the Lord hears and answers our prayers. I know and am sure that,
that man from China we met was one of the only ones who would have met us
on the street that night and taken us straight to his house to hear our
message. I know the Lord leads us to him and is leading us through the
Holy Spirit every day.
We set two baptismal dates
for March 20th. They were huge miracles! And we invited one more of our
investigators to be baptized. He accepted, but hasn't accepted the date
yet. One of the investigators with a baptismal date is the other Chinese guy that I have talked about a few times.. We have been meeting
for a long time and the other is the kid I sent a picture home with last
week that came to church.
All is well and the Lord is pouring blessings down.
Have a great week. Be safe. LOVE YOU.
Elder Cole Thomas Johnson
PACE.
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