Elder Dallin Johnson's Mish: August 2013

Sawubona!

So I've been trying out a new hair style this week. It's called the "my-barber-forgot-to-cut-the-hair-on-half-my-head." It's stylish, but probably a li'l too cray cray for mission standards so Sister Carlile's gonna fix it this week.

Man...this week has been stellar though! Vusi committed to be baptized October 13, and Elsa did as well! She came to church Sunday and the sisters did a great job fellowshipping her. She loved it! Speaking of church...we offered to walk with some less-actives this week. 8 kilometers from the township! So Elder Kruger and I woke up at 5:30 Sunday morning to be able to make it on time. It was tough, but I guess you really can't ask people to walk to church if you're not willing to do it from time to time. It was actually pretty nice. Lekker, as the Afrikaaners would say. We didn't walk back though. We took a taxi, and taxi here has a completely different meaning than taxi back home. Basically they're vans packed full of people that drive like they're a fat kid driving to buy the last Twinky. Fast and crazy.

We tried out something new in Kimberley this week. We set up a table at the local Pick N' Pay and had pamphlets for people. It was nice. An Afrikaaner named Gert came up and asked us for all the DVDs and he's coming to church September 1 to tell us about the Giddeons, sooo...we'll see what happens with that.

I've been thinking a lot this week and came to a pretty cool realization. Blind obedience is something I will never do, so I always get a little nervous when people say "obedience with exactness" while on mission. But when you're following the mission rules, it's not blind obedience like I sometimes thought it was beforehand. Every rule has a reason, even the silly ones like "no chewing gum while proselyting." And I've started to notice it as well. The missionaries who are a little more lenient tend not to work as hard, and therefore tend not to find as much success. It's not blind obedience. The mission handbook is inspired. If everyone followed the rules with exactness, EVERYONE would find success with enough faith.

P-day today was probably one of the coolest non-spiritual experience I'll have this two years, and it happened all thanks to the Carliles! We planned it out at Zone Conference last week (which by the way, was SPECTACULAR! I've said it before and I'll say it again, I absolutely LOVE President Zackrison. He's inspired and he knows so well how to work with people and inspire them to work hard). They drove the Rocklands elders to Kimberley this week for exchanges, and because of that, we were able to have enough allotted kilometers to drive three hours to Kroonstad to a lion park. The activity got approved by President Zackrison, and everything just sort of fell into place. The Carliles came with the rest of our district and we got to play with lion and tiger cubs. It was hands down one of the coolest experiences of my life, and it's going to make going back to the Hogle Zoo so fetching hard. My mama should be uploading some pictures. When people ask me how I ripped my jeans, I can tell them "Oh, I got attacked by a lion the other day" and not be lying. Wuddup.

Well I'm about out of time, but I love you all. Stay safe, have some fun this week, stay positive, and LOVE YOUR LIVES! Positivity will work wonders for you, remember that.

Much love,

Elder Johnson