May 7, 2012

Dear Family, I sure hope that you all had a good week. I know that I felt the love of God present in my life this past week. Well, I have learned so many things over the course of this past week. We had a Zone Conference this past Tuesday. It lasted for 4 hours and 1/2. Apparently, there was a lot of straightening out to do in our zone. I felt a little reprimanded afterwards, but you know what the good thing is? I made the changes that I had to make, and immediately we saw the blessing fall upon us. That was a really great experience. Then, we had a Conference this Friday with President Cantu, and the Elder Tenorio of the Seventy. In preparation for this conference they had us read chapters 12-16 of Mosiah. These chapters are super powerful, because it is the last predication of Abinadi before his death. I learned many things while reading these chapters, and it really prepared me for the conference,... but not in the way that I was expecting. The Elder Tenorio is a way super man. I really look up to him. I was expecting something completely different from him. He taught and instructed us with such love and respect, that it made us want to change, it made us want to be better. One of the things that I learned from the conference is that we must be looking for real converts, not just people to baptize. This has been a big problem, not just in our mission, but in all of Mexico. To give you the gist, this year past, there was like 38,000 new members of the church in Mexico, but the average church attendance just increased by 4,000. What does that mean? It means people are being baptized before they are truly converted to the gospel. He extorted us to be like Abinadi. Abinadi did not even know that he had converted anyone, before his death. We, can see from 50/50 hindsight that the conversion of Alma the father came directly from Abinadi. Alma, the great prophet, who baptized and converted hundreds was the result of Abinadi’s last speech. The Elder then taught us how to pray for things specifically. I love you all so much. I really pray that you have been able to feel the comfort of God this past week. I look forward to your call this week end. Sunday at 7:00 I will wait for your call. (Tel. 016677890192) If there are any problems please notify me before Wednesday morning. Love, Elder Johnson