Elder Johns in Florida: August 2016

Monday, August 29, 2016

{8.29.16} #ReceiveTheHabanero

Before:

This week has all been a blur. I honestly can't remember it very well, a lot of stuff happened! So I'll just throw down the things that I do remember.

After...

-Tuesday we had Northern Zone Conferences. We made a animation in the powerpoint about finding those that will receive the message of the restoration. I will try to attach it.

Tuesday night we drove across the state to the West coast for the central zone conferences. We slept over at the Naples Zone Leaders. Elder Jones (from Mexico) had some Habanero Peppers that we all tried. A couple of us got wrecked! My tolerance for spicy has definitely gone up a lot

Pre-Naples RoadTrip

-Wednesday we gave another zone conference, and drove back across the state.

-Thursday we gave the southern zone conference annnnd then started on MLC for this week. It feels like we are giving a training every week this transfer

-Friday Elder Adams and I saw some cool miracles on exchange. We went to follow up with a potential and found someone else setting on their door step. Her name was Tabesha, and she was super lost and sorta having a break down. The area we work can be really sad sometimes because of the circumstances people are in. There's a lot of odds stacked against them to make it out of the neighborhood. But she accepted the prayer and instantly felt way better. She committed herself to take the bus all the way to the chapel, and even remembered she's been before when she was younger.

-Saturday we taught the Reyes family. They're doing so well! They're really struggling with finances right now, because they just barely got jobs and lost the car and the school won't send a bus for their kids because they live "too close" to the school (2 miles). So they've been getting a cab every day. Ed has been walking everywhere for job interviews (3 hours in the storms you've been seeing on the news.) He already has a job but he is so driven to better himself and his family that he will sacrifice anything and everything.

-Sunday we got wrecked by the rain! but it was a good Sunday in the branch. A lot of people are stepping up in our little congregation and it's exciting to see the growth!

Today we had to do an emergency transfer, so we woke up at 5:30 am, drove to downtown miami, picked up an elder, drove him all the way up past fort laud, out to alligator alley, then up to Belle Glade (by lake okeechobee) and then we drove all the way back here to start play hahaha. It's always exciting! Even if it is tiring. I'm honestly so tired all the time now that one of the days I'll probably just shut down.

I can't really think of anything else. I had a lot of stuff in my mind earlier, sorry for the scatter brained email!

Elder Juanes

Monday, August 22, 2016

{8.22.16} 15!

This week was filled with so many miracles. We found 15 new friends that we started teaching this week. We got blessed so much!

Tendrick came to church again. He loved it. Sacrament meeting was really spiritual, because a recent convert, Sis Elvira, spoke. Since being baptized, she's faced more trials with health, her kids,jobs, family, deaths, then most people face in an entire lifetime. She's stayed SO strong in her testimony throughout the whole thing. But recently things have been getting even harder for her, so before she left for church (after finding someone to watch her daughter who just got chickenpox), she said a prayer, and in her own words kind of "challenged" God, for the 2nd time in her life, and basically said, "if you're still there, and you're still in control, I need a sign." The 1st time she said that prayer, the missionaries showed up to her door. The 2nd time was yesterday, before her talk, and Elder Hayward--the missionary who first knocked onto her door--surprise visited the branch to come hear her give her talk. It's a huge testimony that God is involved in EVERY detail of our lives.

The Reyes family, from the Bronx, are so cool! We've been teaching them and they're progressing really well. Ed is eating up the Book of Mormon. His wife is loving having us come over as well, but she's really busy with the 3 kids and she's 8 months pregnant, so she hasn't read as much, so that's our big focus with them this week so that she can receive a sure answer from God that this is what He wants for her. They had to sell their Car in order to move into their new house, so they were going to sacrifice and pay for a cab to get to church yesterday. we stopped by and they were all dressed up, but for some reason they didn't show up! We were a little discourage, because they were so committed and ready to go when we stopped by before. We stopped by after church, and Ed came outside, still dressed in a white shirt and tie. You could tell he looked frustrated, and he told us sorry, and then explained how long his wife took to get ready, and then she redid all of the girls hair, etc, and then turned to us and laughingly said "can you teach me how to have patience living in a house with 4 girls?" We all laughed, and set up a game plan so the whole family can get rides with members next week.

We found a lot of other cool people as well. CP is jamiacan, and used to be a cab driver up in NY. He used to deal & use heavy drugs about 15 years ago, and found God and turned his life around with the help of a local church. He found us through a church campaign. We taught him about Joseph Smith and the 1st Vision, and he's already read a lot in the Book of Mormon. He's a truck driver and was up in Atlanta this week, but he called us why he was driving and wanted to ask if he could come teaching with us next week. He's solid!

We also found the Ward family. I honestly don't know how many are in the family... there's uncles, aunts, cousins, then L & R (the parents) and all their sons. They haven't been taught very much, but they're coming to the Church wednesday for a chapel tour and are excited to learn more! they mostly want a strong family centered on the Gospel of Christ.

There's a lot of other people as well, but that's about all I have time to write about this week. It's so true that the plans of God cannot but frustrated, only the plans of man. His plan is always superior, and his grace is sufficient.

Have a great week!

Elder Juanes

Elder Jace Johns

Florida Fort Lauderdale Mission

7951 SW 6th Street, Suite 110

Plantation, FL 33324

Monday, August 15, 2016

{8.15.16} 4 in the AM, Downtown Fort Laud

I thought the subject might catch some attention. And we were out ALL NIGHT Tuesday this week, for Greenie day. I'm sure some of you heard about Delta getting shut down globally for 6 hours and it wreaking havoc on air travel... well it also wreaked havoc on all 23 of our greenies coming in last Tuesday. Instead of flying in 2 large groups... they flew in 8 small groups, at all hours of the night. Here's some pics of the experience.

I took pictures with each of our 8 Stops to the airport. The final group came in at noon... the next day. Transfers started at 1. I felt realllly bad for those greenies.. they'd been up for 2 days straight in airports and immediately had to transfer to there new areas. It was a crazy experience!

This week was great for our area too. We've been working with Tendrick and Aime from the Marshall Islands, but Tendrick has been dodging our calls for the last week. He's been having a hard time getting work off for church, and this saturday was stake conference and finally at a time he would be able to make it. We finally got in contact and went over. He answered in a blanket, and told us he's been sick for the past week and hasn't been able to do anything. We taught him about Priesthood blessings and asked if he wanted one. As I was giving him the blessing, I felt impressed to promise him that if he would sacrifice to go to Stake Conference (which was in less than an hour), God would heal him. After the blessing, it was silent for a good 2-3 minutes of no one saying anything. The Spirit was very tangible in the room. Tendrick finally looked up and said "I go change now. I will see you at church." We asked how he felt, and he said all the pain was gone. He came to Stake Conference for all 2 hours, and he really enjoyed it. He finally told us what's been holding him back afterwards, and now that we know the real problem, we can help him better progress towards baptism. It's going to take at least a month due to legal complexities with marriage, but we have a gameplan to help him get there now.

We also saw a HUGE miracle this week. We found a familiy that we've been praying for. We knocked on Edwin's door. He's from the Bronx, and his family moved down to South Florida a couple weeks ago. They've been hit with a lot of trials lately. Many Friends have turned their back on them, frauded them out of money, and they've had to essentially restart with their small little familiy down here (3 daughters, 9, 5, 2, and a son on the way). Edwin thinks he was baptized when he was young, but he's not sure. He remembers all the primary songs. He was even a boy scout! We taught him and his wife last night, and she is super excited to come to church and learn more. They're a direct answer to prayers! Seeing how excited they were to find the church after all they've been going through, and after searching and visiting many churches that didn't feel right and didn't allow them to feel the Spirit was a huge testimony. God definitely prepares people to hear his Gospel. His church really is here on the earth. I know that, somehow I always have known that, but it continues to grow each day as I seek to increase in my Faith.

Have a great week!

Elder Juanes

Elder Jace Johns

Florida Fort Lauderdale Mission

7951 SW 6th Street, Suite 110

Plantation, FL 33324

Monday, August 8, 2016

{8.8.16} Elder Christensen is checked out

Oh yeah. He's been done for a week. Still love him though. He's definitely ready to go home, and we've spent a lot of time in the office this week for transfers so it's been hard for him to stay focused. lol.

So yeah, this week was great! We found a ton of people. Again, we're really struggling to get people to church. We're meetin a lot of people with great desires and no drive. It's caused a lot of self-reflection on where my commitment level is on a lot of things, and i've set some personal goals to improve on my commitment level in small things, which is what I focused my fast on yesterday for fast sunday.

Tomorrow is greenie day! Best day of the transfer. We get to pick up the new missionaries from the airport, take them to presidents, give them an orientation, train them, take them knocking, all that good stuff. It's the greatest, because they're so excited, nervous, tired--takes me back to my first day everytime. We get them super pumped about being in the mission, especially the FFLM, and then get to watch them progress as their training occurs. You can see who is gonna be great too, who is going to have to overcome certain things, and then there's always a few who change so much, so quick, it surprises you. The most amazing progression I've seen in my mission is the progression of missionaries, including myself. It's monumental.

Sorry there's not much to report on. It's gonna be a busy week! We're getting a new AP to replace Elder Christensen, Elder S Adams. I've served around him a lot; he was district leader in my zone and we recommended him for Zone Leader. He's gonna be great; he's extremely focused, and he's just barely over a year into his mission. Elder VanCott's mission is winding down too, so we need someone young/focused like him to make sure VanCott and I don't check out too early...