{9.26.16} (Almost) Baptizing in the Keys

This weekend, we went to the keys. We got a referral for maybe the coolest lady I've met on my mission. She's studied the church for 8 years, but never met with missionaries, and has literally just been waiting to get baptized. SHE ALMOST DID. When I say almost did, I mean we had the baptismal fount filled. But, she has a huge family (husband and 6 kids) who are recently blended together with her and her husbands marriage, and they know next to nothing about the church (besides what they've heard in the book of mormon play lol) so her decision was to have her family receive a little more exposure first. She will be getting baptized VERY soon, and she wants us to do it. We've gotten permission to stay in contact with her (bc there's no missionaries in the Keys currently) and a chill RM who's off-track at BYUI is in charge of teaching her family some of the lessons, so she's in good hands. We're gonna make it happen! #HuntFor100

But in other news, we DID baptize in our area! Shavonne is the newest member of the Sunrise Branch!

She's solid as a rock. Her Husband was able to baptize her, which a crazily unique experience. Gavin is also big on supporting her and receiving the the Melchizedek priesthood, and says that as a couple they're shooting for "the perfect attendance award" hahaha. 

In Key West, we had a lot of fun fishing. This fish definitely wasn't the biggest of the trip (to put it kindly) but it was the first, which is why I'm repping it so proudly.

Despite what it looks like, we DID do missionary work in the Keys. We went with the Branch Mission Leader of the Year, Herman, and visited a ton of less-active in the branch. He's probably the most solid, funniest, friendliest old cuban man I've ever met. Everything that comes from this man is GOLD, and he has a way of relaxing people and making them laugh that only an old Cuban can, but unlike most old Cubans, he doesn't share apostate doctrine in lessons hahaha.

All in all, it was a successful trip. One of the members we visited hadn't been to church in 5 years, but when we showed up he was mourning the recent loss of his brother. We shared with him briefly the power of the Savior, his plan of Salvation, and promised him coming to church would re-confirm what he already knows to be true. It's a true testimony of God's timing.

Of course, another testimony of God's timing is Sunny, the lady we visited and taught who is preparing for baptism. She knows the church is true, and she's found out on her own. God prepared her on her own, we just happened to come down at the right time, and as I had the opportunity to interview her, she realized and the Spirit confirmed that she IS ready for baptism, and she was/is SO excited to become a member of Christ's Church. More so than anyone I've probably ever met!

The church is true, and God is preparing people to receive the truth even on a little island called RamRod 50 or so miles East of Key West.

Elder Juanes

Elder Jace Johns

Florida Fort Lauderdale Mission

7951 SW 6th Street, Suite 110

Plantation, FL 33324

{9.19.16} Elevator OYM's.

half mission conference

Had an awesome week in Deep Side again this week! I have a lot of thoughts, but unfortunately no time. Here's some recaps.

Tuesday & Wednesday we had half-mission conferences! We unveiled our new push in the mission--"The Hunt for 100." We related to the story of Nephi breaking his bow, and take about Faith, Heed, and Diligence and why we need to apply those principles in order to achieve our mission goals. People responded positively-- and people have really adopted the "hunting" theme with Camo, hunting analogies, and applying Jeremiah 16:16 to the fullest. 

With our investigators, Shavonne is getting baptized this week! She was sick but still came to church, and was participating a lot in the classes and is really excited for her baptism this wednesday. Her Husband is coming back to church and he is going to be the one to baptize her--she was really excited about that.

We found a lot of new friends this week. After the conference, we found Marie. She's from the bahamas and she had been praying right before we knocked on her door. She came to church with her baby girl and loved it! Next week she's bringing her 14 & 15 year old kids, who were with their dad this week.

We had a boss FHE at Elder and Sister Packs house on Saturday, and taught Leo about the Book of Mormon. He's still too down to get baptized, but he's still waiting for his answer from God. He's really busy and we can't see him too often, but he's at church every week and he knows this is what is going to bless his family. His answers in Sunday School and Elder's Quorum are honestly money--the Gospel just comes super easy for him. He for sure will be a future leader in the church!

Funny story of the week. We've been working in this tall apartment complex with doors for days. We finished one of the buildings late Saturday night, and had 10 mins or so before 9. Instead of heading home, we decided to try and knock a few doors in the next building over. As we got in the elevator, a family got in as well and we explained the restoration to them in 15 seconds and invited them to church. We got a return appointment from it! so for the next 10 mins we rode the elevator up and down and talked to everyone who got in. It worked really well hahaha, the people can't ignore you. One of the times we hit the call button to send the elevator back to us, the door opened and there was a huge guy with dreads and a snarling pitbull. We decided to take the stairs.

Hope everyone has a great week!

Elder Juanes

Elder Jace Johns

Florida Fort Lauderdale Mission

7951 SW 6th Street, Suite 110

Plantation, FL 33324

{9.12.16} Will you stand back up?

 If you can't avoid it, enjoy it right?

This week was probably one of the coolest weeks of my mission, probably one of the most rewarding, and also one of the most disappointing. I guess that's how you know when life is good--opposition in all things.

Some Zone leaders promised their zone if they hit their goals
they could pie the APs in the face...they just forgot to tell us
until we showed for the Zone Training.

2 really cool experiences happened this week!

1. I got to drive for 2 hours alone in a car with President Richardson as my companion for the day. 

2. Elder Adams and I got invited to eat breakfast with Elder Golden of the Quorum of the Seventy. 

Both experiences were fillled with tons of revelation and very strong promptings from the Spirit. God definitely calls men, and he qualifies them!

A quick update on some friends we've been teaching:

Gav & Shav: I can't remember if I put them in my email last week, but they are the COOLEST. Gavin is the branch relief society president's son. He hasn't been to chuch in years, and has been living down in South Miami. He works at Chili's, but a month or so ago some missionaries came into this work and talked with him, and gave him a big desire to come back to church. He got transferred to the Chili's up here in our area. He's living with him mom for the time being, and he's been at church the last 2 weeks. His wife, Shav, comes from a big Christian background--her mom is a pastor, her dad is a devout and active catholic, and she has been LOVING church and the lesson. She searches, prays, reads, basically does everything with real intent. She's getting clear answers, and she can get baptized any day--we're just helping her at this point feel 100% cemented to her decision and knowledge that this is what God wants.

Leo-  He's honestly one of my favorite people I've ever met. He's coming to church every week, participating openly, making great comments, loving all the principles of the Gospel--he's just a little iffy on his committing to anything too soon. He's been making a lot of big changes lately: getting married namely hahaha, which he struggled with for a lot of years. He will get there as well, because he also searches and prays and has real intent in all he does.

Reyes Fam: This is the big heartbreak of the week: the told us they love what we do, that we've helped their family sooo much, but they don't want us to come by anymore and they're going back to the Church of God. That's been a really hard one to accept. One of the hardest things in being a missionary is accepting that not everyone will act on your message, and even when you see people receive answers, and they TELL you they receive clear, unmistakable answers, they turn their backs on it. Our last visit was very positive, and we left them with the invitation of what to do if they ever feel that something is missing. The difference in this situation was again, real intent. One person in the family had real intent--and got answers. The other didn't have real intent, and therefore did not act, and therefore receive no witness. Without action, God will not respond. as Neal Maxwell said, "It is up to us. God will facilitate, but he will not force." 

That's my thought I want to leave this week. God loves us infinitely, and his power is infinite. Faith is the power by which God works, but without the action of faith, God cannot respond with his power. Of course, none of us will ever be perfect in our actions--not in this life. But, we can act with real intent in all we do. If we earnestly seek, ask, and act, with urgency, God will direct our paths. If we don't do those things with true intent to act on how God directs us, then he'll eave us to our own understand and our own strength. I've recently become obsessed with the powerful principles in Proverbs, 3:5-6:

Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.

In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.

Sometimes we think we have it figured out, and that we don't know to counsel with the Lord. But if we Trust in him, he'll always lead us exactly to where we need to be! Sometimes it may some like we've been lead the wrong way, or that we've fallen down too far. But like Presdient Uchtdorf (i think) said in a couple conferences back, God isn't so much concerned with the # of times we fall, but the number of times we get back up.

Elder Juanes

Elder Jace Johns

Florida Fort Lauderdale Mission

7951 SW 6th Street, Suite 110

Plantation, FL 33324

{9.6.16}

Hope everyone is doing well! It's been a great week here in the FFLM.

This week we had MLC, and it was "hyphy" in the words of my greenie, Elder Alexis. People were amped on the training we gave! A couple missionaries told us that it was "the most excited they'd been in their whole missions." The stars are aligning for great things to happen in October. We'll be revealing a big push in the coming weeks in the FFLM.. stay tuned.

ED came to church! We got him a ride with members, and the whole family is excited to prepare for baptism. His wife and daughter will be getting baptized, and we still haven't been able to figure out if he was baptized when he was a kid or not.. so we'll have to see what happens with him. Either way, it's been a huge blessing seeing him learn about the Gospel. It comes natural to him.

A member got married to her boyfriend last week. Leo is homie! He's honestly the nicest person I think I've ever met in my life. Lots of missionaries have tried to teach him in the past, but now he's eating up the Gospel. It's like a switch clicked on in his head when he got married of how much the Gospel will bless his family. In his words, "it's brought a completeness that I didn't know was missing."

We also had another miracle show up to church. Gavin hasn't been to church in a long time, but moved back up here into the ward he was raised in. His wife has a TON of awesome questions (her dad was a pastor, her mom a DEVOUT active catholic) but she loved church and said she learned a lot of new things.

Not much more to say than that! Hope everyone has a great week.

Elder Juanes

Elder Jace Johns

Florida Fort Lauderdale Mission

7951 SW 6th Street, Suite 110

Plantation, FL 33324

{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

{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

{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