June 13, 2011

This picture came from Elder Erhard's parents. Mark's on the left, Elder Erhard is next,, his companion, and then Elder Mateus.

Jessica Silva and Edwardo Palomino baptism along with Mark and Elder Mateus

Dear Family and friends,

We learned a ton this week. We had an interesting curve of results graphed by time that showed lots of faith at the start, and then a large drop, and a huge rise Sunday. We need to try to not have these drops. Sunday we found 4 new people to teach and [it] was basically the best. This week we have been inviting everyone [to learn about the church].

This process of inviting many more people has helped me a lot. I feel like I'm talking to them with a real goal of the conversation, to help them repent and make covenants with God. In the course of the week, we invited 62 people to be baptized [on] the 25 of June or the 2 of July. About 11 of them we will continue looking for, although all said yes. We invite so many people because we know that they need it and that by the means of preparing for the 25th or the 2nd, reading the Book of Mormon every day, pondering the message, and praying and asking God if it is true, could be one of the greatest blessings for them in their life, and for all their descendents. Inviting so many times per day also makes you think a lot about how to be more like the prophets and apostles.

So this week we had the great blessing of baptizing Jessica Silva and Edwardo Palomino. Brother Palomino asked me to baptize him and Sister Silva asked the second counselor of the bishopric. It was a really awesome baptismal service. The primary sang, two sisters from the Relief Society sang too, Elder Mateus directed, and the spirit was very strong. The wife of a contact from a few days ago came too and she even invited a few members to her future baptism. It was very wonderful. Every Saturday I want to do that. We had arrived in the early morning to fill up the baptismal font and try to warm it up a little, trying everything from heating up buckets on the stove and pouring them in, to putting an iron in a pot and floating it in the water, but entering [the font] it was quite frigid. Nevertheless, Sister Silva and Brother Palomino bravely entered (after overcomming the shock)

Last night we were walking back to the house and a man called us out and asked if we remembered him. We went over and remembering him started to begin to talk. Three men passed us and both Elder Mateus and I felt that it was the time to go. Three seconds later the guy who called us said, "Careful, they are thieves, and we saw that one had a metal pole, the other a knife, and the other something else. Unfortunately as we abruptly left, they heard the remark and turned heel and started arguing. Turning the corner a police truck passed us and we flagged them, sending them to try to do something for the man we know and his friend. I'm glad we knew we had to leave right then and weren't in the area even one second more...

Stake conference was yesterday! The Temple presidents came from Lima and were the best. We had brought an investigator named Jesus who wanted to talk to them. Wow, very cool. They talked about temples. Haha but also about the reality that they [temples] are the House of the Lord, Houses of Miracles. And about the 5 things that we must do to live with God again.

Wow I just received 17 Dear Elders. Muchos [many] thank yous for the packages and letters from family and friends!

I think I shall be writing a letter today, and I will take my shoes to be re-soled so that I have two working pairs. It costs about 20 soles for gringos, probably about 10 for latinos. I'll send my compañion in front.

Love Elder Johnson