Hola From the Field!

Hi everyone!

Thank you all so much for your prayers and thoughts, God answers those and I'm so blessed by your faith.

I have my new address, it's:

Elder Damon Janis
1418 Cedar Ave. Apt A4
Grand Junction, CO, 81501

A lot has happened in the last week. I survived the excruciating flight from Salt Lake to Denver, and although it nearly killed me being on a plane that long I made it. :) I got a really bad cold from not having much sleep, so when I arrived in Denver I was exhausted and could barely function. We had a long day with a lot of training from the AP's, President and sister Christison, and the senior couples. We spent the night at the mission home, where I had my first good meal in 9 weeks. :) There were about 15 new missionaries in the group, including other elders and 2 sisters going Spanish. They had all done the 3 week program at the MTC though because they were already fluent, so I had never run into them. We got more personal instruction from President and his wife, and I think I'm really going to like them. They're very spiritual, good people, and they have a lot of experience and practical counsel. The next day I found out where I was going for my first area, and who my trainer would be. Turns out I got to go out west, to a city called Grand Junction, and our area covers pretty much the whole city and a few towns to the west of it. My trainer is Elder Francis, and he's really cool! He's really laid back and easy to get along with, and has about 4 months left in the mission.

This week I've been getting to know the branch, the investigators, other missionaries, and learning the ropes of missionary work. The first few days were really stressful for me because I couldn't understand anything anyone said, but I'm starting to get used to how people say things and I can follow most of what goes on in lessons and gospel conversations. I don't remember the first door that I knocked, but I do remember our first rejection, we knocked on a door and a man came to the peep-hole and said loudly: "GO AWAY! IS THAT CLEAR?" It was kinda funny, I actually didn't really even care about it, I though I would probably have a more difficult time with the slammed doors and such, but so far it hasn't phased me.

So far I've mostly been listening to my companion work, and I haven't been involved in the planning or teaching much. I'm learning Spanish faster now than I was my last couple weeks at the MTC, which is good but I still have a really long way to go. There are still a few members who I can't understand literally one word they say. Those are hard appointments, because my companion enjoys talking to people and so I have to sit there and try to pick out what I can. I'm really learning a lot, and I'm figuring out what my style of missionary work is. Right now I'm just going with whatever my trainer says, but when I get more comfortable and experienced I'd like to do some things a bit differently. I'm loving the experience so far, it's really challenging but it's really good.

I'm so grateful for this church, for this gospel and for this opportunity. It's the greatest thing in the world that all we have to do to know if this church is true is study the Book of Mormon and ask God through prayer. That's our invitation to everyone, and I'm so glad that I've done that and I can bear testimony that I've felt the witness of the Holy Ghost.

I love you all, thanks so much for your prayers!

Elder Damon Janis

P.S. Thank you so much Aunt Becky for the Email! I'd respond but I don't have your address, if you could get that to me it would be awesome!

Last Letter From the MTC

Hi family and friends!

This is my last email from the MTC! Wow, I'm leaving tomorrow morning and going to Denver. My whole district except me left this morning to Houston, so I've been put in a three-some and I'm enjoying p-day.

I feel like this week has been my best at the MTC, with all kinds of things happening every day such as Elder Holland coming and speaking to us last tuesday. My whole district has really become close and it was sad to say goodbye to them today. We had a member of our district go home this last week, and I'm not sure if I can talk about it much more than that, but it was a really interesting experience and our district really rallied together after that. We all had to self-evaluate why we're out here, and it's been a very good thing for all of us. In our last class period, we discussed our purpose as missionaries and spent about 3 hours talking about it and sharing insights. It was very spiritual and I'm SO excited to get to the field and start working! One of the things we talked about was that there's absolutely no reason to be apoligetic about interupting people's lives to share the gospel with them, because no matter how important the things they're doing are, the gospel is more important in their life and will bring them so much more fulfillment and  joy anyway. Also, we should be excited to serve and work, because we've literally given up everything for 2 years to be able to give people the same happiness and peace that we've individually experienced through the Atonement of Christ. It is literally the greatest thing on earth, and it's touched my life so much and given me  so much happiness that I want  to give that to other people. That's why I'm out here, and that's the only reason I would be out here. If I didn't feel the forgiveness and peace and joy that everyone talks about, I would never have the motivation to work so hard, obey so many rules, and put my life on hold to preach the gospel. The church is true, Christ is real, God is real, and the Atonement works. If you have any concern, are going through any kind of hard time, are struggling with doubts, sins, or stress, the Atonement covers those too. Read Alma 7:11-13, and you'll see that Christ didn't have to suffer for our pains and afflictions as well as our sins, but He did because he wanted to truly understand us and know how to succor His people. If you have any kind of doubt about this church or the reality of God, try it. Pray and ask for the Atonement to be applied in your life for whatever pain, affliction, temptation, sin, or trial you're dealing with right now. I promise that God will hear you and answer your prayer. This church is so true, and it's the greatest thing on earth!

I love you all, thank you so much for everything!

Elder Damon Janis

An Investigator and Harshest Judges

Hi everyone!

Another great week has gone by for me in the MTC, and I'm continuing to have a great experience. Spanish is hard, but I keep learning more and more and hopefully with God's help I can speak well enough in a week that I can be usefull to the Lord in the field.

Probably the most significant thing that happened this week is that we almost had an investigator through the RC. She let us call her back a few times, and we didn't do a great job because we didn't know how the RC worked for personally calling someone back (Referall Center, it's where missionaries call to confirm people recieving Bibles and BoM's and such that they've ordered from the church). The lady's name was Joanne Hughy, and she lives in San Francisco. My first talk with her I was just confirming that she'd gotten the "Lamb of God" DVD that she'd ordered from the church, and she had, but didn't have a DVD player so she couldn't watch it. I asked her if she attended church and she said she didn't because she'd recently been in a car accident and her car was totaled. Then I started asking her about what she belived and also if she wanted to hear more about what our church believed, and she said she did but couldn't talk right then, so we set up a time to talk the next day. So the next day me and my companion went back to the RC, and found out that there's a proccess to do personal callbacks, and both companions have to be on the phone. We hadn't really prepared too well either because of timing and not have personal study time before we had to go to the RC, and we really fumbled around and didn't really go anywhere with the conversation. She suddenly started saying that her phone was about to die, and we needed to call back another time, so we set up for Monday. So this time, before we called her back, we had a few hours for personal study, and we used the time to prepare a lesson and try to follow the spirit for her needs and how to help her best. When we actually called her on Monday, right after the hello's she said that her phone was dying again and so we needed to call back, so we set it up for today, Tuesday. We havn't gone to the RC yet, and because she used the same thing to get off the phone with us as she did last time, we're not too sure that we'll be able to talk much today, but we're going to be persistant as a part of "all we can do". It's been a really cool experience, and even though we didn't get to teach the lesson we'd prepared, it was still really good preparing for the actual needs of an actual person who there was definitely a good chance we'd teach.

Something interesting I learned this week in a couple meetings is that gaining the trust of the members is imperitive to missionary work. Members are your harshest judges, and they won't give you their referals unless they see that you're the type of missionary that takes his calling really seriously and works hard. People won't give you the friends they've been working with if they think that you won't do a good job with them, because a lot is at stake for them. One thing I realized though is that God works the same way. We know from multiple apostles that God is preparing thousands of His children in every mission in the church. But, for God to give us those people, He has to be confident in us that we're obedient, hardworking, will follow the spirit, and so on. He's not going to give us his children to work with if we're not taking it seriously, because too much is at stake for them and for Him because of how much He loves them.

Thank you all so much for your love and support and prayers, I love you all so much, and this church is true!

Love, Elder Damon Janis

Pictures

The 600 Pound Gorilla

Hi everyone!

Does anyone remember that story in the Old Testament where a prophet and his helper get surrounded by this massive army and they have almost nobody on their side, and then the assistant is freaking out because they're about to get killed, and then the prophet tells him that "they that be with us are more than they that be with them" or something, and then the assistant's eyes are opened and he sees chariots and angels pouring into the valley to wipe out the army? Long question, anyway I feel a little like that assistant right now (pre-eyes opened but having been told that I'll be ok) while contemplating going out into the field. It's exciting, but at the same time I feel like it's a 600 pound gorilla waiting in the closet for me to open the door. :) I guess that's where faith comes in, because I'm realizing more and more how terribly unqualified for this work I am on my own, my skill sets and abilities aren't even close to what they'd need to be for me to undertake this on my own, but I have to trust the Lord that He'll take care of me, and I do.

Does anyone remember those youth activities where you'd have a day with a paper nametag on and have classes and a fireside with a slideshow at the end of the day? Well, I'm starting to think that those are good, but might be more effective in helping prepare the youth for the MTC if they fed them chili, stuffed them in a small room with 12 other people including girls, and tried to teach them about a month's worth of Spanish 1 in about 8 hours (with a small lunch break), and then had the fireside with the slideshow and keynote speaker. As far as the actual mission, it would probably be best to just slap the nametags on them and have them go talk to real people in the street, because that's pretty much what it feels like the transition is. I really haven't been taught any magical words to say or non-awkward ways of approaching people, and pretty soon I'll be out there knocking doors, feeling probably about the same as if I was in a youth activity with the paper tag. Of course, now I've been set apart and I have the full support of the Lord behind me, but the way you feel doesn't really change much. Missionary work is really intense stuff, and I'm not sure it gets full credit for that in the youth program. It's the hardest but most rewarding thing I've done so far in my life, and by that I mean at times it's been agonizingly painful and stressful and exhausting, but also at times some of the most powerful experiences with the spirit and growing in knowledge and faith and all the other Christlike attributes from Preach My Gospel Ch. 6.

I'm out of time, but thank you all so much for your support and prayers, God is real, Christ is real, and God answers prayers.

Love, Elder Damon Janis

Teaching in Spanish and the Blessing of an Apostle

Hi everyone!

Thank you all for your love, thoughts, and prayers! It really makes a difference for me and I can see the blessings in my life that result from it. I definitely couldn't have learned this much spanish in 6 weeks at any other point in my life, it's becoming more and more obvious how much the Lord has been and is helping me!

Yesterday I had the realization that I'm way excited to get out to the field, even though I can't speak spanish very well and I have a feeling that it's going to be the most challenging thing I've ever done, I'm excited to share the gospel with people. I realized that it doesn't really matter how well I can articulate my message, it's all about my attitude and getting the spirit there to touch the hearts of those listening. I have about 3 weeks left here, which I plan on using as well as I can to finish my preparation, but when the time comes for me to leave I think I'll be ready.

Yesterday I was teaching the first lesson with my companion to the sisters in our district (all in spanish of course), and it was a cool experience because I was really excited to share the message of the gospel with them and my spanish was flowing well. They had stepped out to think of a scenario as investigators, and they decided to be sisters whose mother had died and their dad had remarried, and they didn't like the new woman. When we started teaching about eternal families they brought up their concern, but while doing so they used a couple words I didn't know and I thought that their dad had killed their mom, which was really funny after the lesson but didn't really change what I would have said. :) Also at one point in the lesson, I think we had just been discussing prophets and dispensations, I got excited and jumped straight to the restoration through Joseph Smith, but I haven't had the time to really study the spanish from that part of the lesson, because my companion usually does it, so I started struggling with which of the 2 past tense forms to use and whether to use Ser or Estar, (both mean "to be"), and just then my teacher came to the door to observe the lesson, and of course my mind completely froze at that point. Then my teacher started laughing, I'm not sure if it was me or if it was a couple elders in the hall telling a joke (Elder Carter and Scavo, were out there, and so this is quite likely :), but I was completely thrown off and my companion had to pick up the pieces and go back to the earthly ministry of Christ. :) It was a really good lesson though, considering, and I really felt energized again about sharing the gospel. Most of the pretend investigators we practice on here have about the same scenario, they're catholic, read the bible a little bit, and have a small problem with the word of wisdom. It gets a little bit old teaching them, because it's a really boring scenario and so nobody can kid themselves that it's a real teaching appointment. So it was after this that I realized how excited I was to go into the field and preach the gospel even if I couldn't speak very well. :)

Last Tuesday we had our regular fireside given by Elder Richard G. Scott. It's the first time we've had an apostle since I've been here, and it was an incredible experience. Elder Scott asked the congregation to raise their hand if they were currently learning a new language, and probably 80% raised their hands. Then he said that to make it easier for us, he bestowed upon us with his apostolic privileges the gift of tongues. That was really cool, and it's made a noticeable difference. He also blessed us with protection from harm and death on our missions conditioned on our obeying our rules, commandments and covenants, and using good judgment. That's really comforting too, and it gives me a really good reason to avoid doing stupid things. :) It was so cool to have an apostle there, his comments were so much more specific and directly applicable than in much larger meetings, and I got a lot of really good notes that should help me throughout my mission.

I love you all, the church is so true! I'm doing great, again thank you for your prayers and thoughts!

Amy, thanks so much for the letter! I wish I had more time to reply!

Also, thanks to the Roark Janis family!

Todo es bien!

Elder Damon Janis