Elder Travis D. Johnson: May 7, 2012 - B-ball mornin` and tear gassed!

Hey family! This week was epic! It was great!

Tuesday we had District Class and it was sweet. Everyone was giving comments so we all left stoked ready to take on the week! What I usually do is prepare a theme for us. Something that we are struggling with, and then I write a bunch of questions down. And then the whole class pitches in! It’s way funner and more edifying. I’ve been in District Classes where we just read and the DL talked the whole time. But we’ve got some great Elders and everybody talks. And then we did a bunch of practices. You always gotta be sharpening those skills you know! And to start off District Class I was standing up there and everybody was waiting and then I licked my fingers a little bit and said it tastes a little buttery. And then I whipped out Butterfingers for everyone! So we were all stoked! That’s the biggest thing just staying animated. If you have a missionary who isn’t animated and always bummed out it’s gonna be hard to have success. But we all stay stoked because we are doing the Lords work here in Chile!

And then after class we did a mini combio and Elder Brule came here and we went to Subway because our lunch got canceled. And Elder Glazier and I were walking back to the office to eat because we went to a Liquor store to buy some drinks and chips and we were walking through this big plaza in front of the office and there was a huge riot! The huge police water tank trucks and jeeps were there trying to tame everything but everybody was huckin rocks and stuff and we walked right into it! So we were like uh-oh and we started to turn around to go around a huge building and then the huge water tank shooter trunk takes off down the street and launches a tear gas bomb right next to us. So I was like oh man its game time! So we high tailed it out of there, and my eyes were watering and my nose was going crazy! But we finally made it into the office and got upstairs and continued to watch kids get tackled by cops in full body armor it was sweet! They tackled this one kid into this big fountain! I learned a new lesson this week, that when there is a huge riot in Chile its every man for himself!

But the mini combio was sweet! I did an interview and we talked to a bunch of people! And at night we bought Churrascos. They are like Carne asada sandwiches with guacamole, super good!

Then I did another mini combio with one of the office Elders, Elder Egan. It was cool. We taught some great lessons to some of our most important investigators. We taught Ines about prayer and it went good. And we taught Marcos about the Sabbath and the importance of going to church, so that was cool. And then we taught Lucas about the restoration! Lucas is like 45 and he recently got divorced and has a little 4 year old kid. He’s super funny we get along good, and we can just see the change that the Gospel is making for him. So it was a great mini combio!

And then the next day on Friday we switched back and did some weekly planning Elder Arancibia and I, then went to lunch. And then after when we went out to work we chopped some wood for some German girls who are doing some Social Work for their Lutheran church in Germany. But we couldn’t go into their house because they were alone so that was a bummer, they seemed really nice and were super stoked to have a huge nice pile of firewood. I hooked them up they thought we were just gonna chop the wood and bail but we stacked it and then we cleaned their patio. So we are gonna pass by with a member so we can teach them one day.

And then Saturday morning we played some basketball. I bought a ball at the store because we have a court right by our house. So that was fun. All 4 of us Elders played. And then after we went to a service project to paint a school. We got up on the roof and painted it and then we had to put up a scaffolding to paint the sides so it was pretty cool. The principal guy of the school seemed pretty happy. Our whole Zone went so it was cool!

And then that night we left with a member named Sister Salazar to do some visits. And we visited this one family who is half less active and half nonmember and we passed by with the Bishop early on in the week. But by the end of the lesson the mom had a huge change of heart and said to her son .... hey lets go to church! But they didn’t end up coming because her daughter was sick and probably because it was raining. But well stop by again and see if we can get them animated to go again. And then we stopped by Lucas and taught him about the Word of Wisdom. He always offers us tea and coffee but we say no so we shared with him why and it helped him solve some doubts, and the sister that came with us really helped out. I have a huge testimony of bringing members to lessons because their way of seeing things gospel wise always helps out the investigators, so it was way sweet. And on Sunday I shook Sister Salazar’s hand with a Reeses in it she was super happy! So thanks Dad for sending the candy it’s being put to good use!

And then Sunday finally came around and we went to Ines´s house early to eat breakfast and it was sprinkling. So we had some bread with cheese and we shared a scripture and then a member came and picked us and Ines and her granddaughter up. We showed them around and the granddaughter was super happy, we showed her the piano and got super stoked to bang on it!

But Ines was the only one to show up to church Lucas didn’t end up coming because he was sick, but he’s planning on getting baptized this month! So pray for him. But Ines loved church. But later on that day we went to her house to see if she had gained a testimony of the church because she is super Evangelical. And was having trouble because she was having trouble receiving an answer to her prayers to know that this is His church, but she said she wouldn’t get baptized again in the church of Jesus Christ. We did our best. We shared about the Restoration more than once but she was just a hard egg to crack. So we had to drop her. She has a great family, her husband Julio is blind and her granddaughter loves us. But we are praying that with time she softens her heart and calls us back.

Today for P Day we hiked to the top of a hill, and we took some sweet pictures. I’ll send them, and then we went to Subway and then came to internet! So it has been a sweet week so far. This week I think I might do a mini combio with the Assistants since they are in my District! So it’s gonna be great! I’m living it up still in Chile, we have a lot of great things that are gonna happen. We have some activities planned this week to find more people and to get our ward more animated to share the gospel!