May 21, 2012

 Hola mamá.
Haha hermana plummer´s mom was so stoked to find me haha. she was like "Ahhh! Your mom said I need to get a picture of you!" It was funny.  I was in a church activity when they showed up but I was in the bathroom and when I came out I saw this tall american looking guy and he said "Well hello Elders!" and I was like "hahah hola como esta" because I thought it was just some paraguayan trying to be funny and use his english but then when the guy didnt know how to respond to me in spanish I looked around and saw hermana plummer and I realized who it was. hahahaha.

Elder Tippets and Johnson at a ward Mother's Day activity.

Missionary Mom L. Plummer went to Paraguay to pick up her
daughter and ran into Vance and his new comp Elder Tippets.
It was a great surprise to get this in my e-mail on a random
Saturday night.

So yeah I have a new companion fresh from the states! I am TRAINING! His name is Elder Tippets and he is from Logan, Utah. He is pretty cool and we are working good together. His diligence and desire to share the gospel is inspiring and we are going to see miracles in this change. I am really excited to see the blessings that are waiting for us in the next 12 weeks. We had a bunch of lessons this week but one stood out that I would like to share with you. On wednesday night we had a lesson with the D. family. They are an awesome family of 4 and have been miracle investigators since day 1. So we had a really important lesson with them on Wednesday about baptism. Hermano D. had expressed some doubts and concerns about the difference between a baptism in this church and the baptism in the catholic church if they are both really symbolic. So we went into the lesson ready to teach lesson 3, the gospel of Jesus Christ. This lesson covers faith, repentance, baptism, the holy ghost and enduring to the end. We started the lesson and remember my comp doesnt speak barely any spanish and we just explained the steps really simply and clearly and slowly and the spirit just started to fill the room. When we got to baptism I was getting a little nervous but I knew what I needed to say to explain to this family the importance of baptism in the true church. I explained baptism and then bore the most straightforward testimony ever so that they couldnt get confused about how they need to be baptized in the true church of god to be return to live with Him after this life. It was such a strong testimony that if they werent feeling the spirit and if I wasnt following the spirit they probably would have been offended. Right after my testimony Hermano D. said "Thank you for explaining that. I know it is true. I can feel the spirit when you talk and I love it when the missionaries are in my house." That was the most open thing I have ever heard an investigator say and I was amazed. The lesson was so great. The most spiritual lesson i have had in my mission. I love that family and I cant wait for them to get baptized. Our goal is the 9th of June.

Vance in front of a house

Disgusting, right?  Notice that one tag is in spanish and the
other is in Guarani.  They are both official languages and Vance
is slowly picking up Guarani.

Elder Johnson and Elder Tippets

So that is basically the highlight of the week. I cant wait to write president callan and tell him the same story. The spirit that new missionaries have is amazing even when they dont speak the language very well. The basic testimony is the strongest.

 Oh yeah, Elder Tippets gets this awesome newsletter thing in the mail that I think would be awesome to get. Every month he gets a bunch of excerps (?) of emails from his friends that are on missions. I read them and they are so cool and got me stoked to do missionary work! It would be cool if you, mom, could copy and paste a bunch of paragraphs of emails from my friends into an email and I could print it out every once in a while. Just a suggestion. :) Thank you for all you do for me! I love my new coat!
I love you all! Have a good week!

Vance Johnson