Isauro has quit smoking!

Hi Everyone!
 
First off, I'd like to thank everyone for making my Christmas wonderful, I received lots of gifts, cards, letters, etc., and of course talking to my family on the phone! Christmas as a missionary can be great, even away from home, thank you!
 
The exciting news is that I'm staying in my area, my companion is leaving and I'll be serving with Elder Acevedo, who I served with about 9 months ago in the other Denver Spanish ward! It's going to be great, since we already know each other there won't be so much of a transition period of getting acquainted, and he's a good missionary and will work hard. So at the beginning of the new year both sets of missionaries in the ward are having the companion with more time transferred out, and me and the other Elder (who's pretty new, only a couple months in the mission) will have to lead everything! I'm really excited for the challenge, I think the Lord's going to work some miracles here and help us have a lot of success!
 
Another really exciting thing is that Isauro, our top investigator, has successfully quit smoking and is ready to be baptized! He was hesitant to make the commitment, but with encouragement from us and members and then daily support through the first few days, he's made it through and is a completely different person! He looks self confident and has an amazing spirit about him, he's helping and doing service at every opportunity and is loving the Gospel! He's going to be a very strong and committed member, he has everything in place with fellowship, responsibilities, and being nourished by the good word of God and we don't have to worry about retaining him! That's one of the hard parts about a Spanish mission, but I've found that by devoting more time and thought to the individuals and preparing them well, retention isn't a problem even if you don't baptize quite as many.
 
I'm so grateful for the gospel, it's a wonderful blessing we have and I know that the Lord's hand is in our work! I love the church and I love being a missionary, I'm deeply humbled and grateful for this opportunity, the Lord has been teaching me so much and it's amazing!
 
Have a great week!

Love,
Elder Damon Janis

No Less Nerdy

Hi Everyone!
 
I'll have to be short today, the library is packed with people so I only have a few minutes, I might not get a chance to respond individually to Taylor, Emily, and Heather, but I'll talk to y'all on Saturday!

Speaking of that, I'll do my very best to make my call in the morning sometime, we're still working to get a family finalized to help us with the call but have several options. They've asked us to try to keep the call to 40 minutes, so I'm thinking that we can do about 10 minutes of a group chat, have some questions ready for me and I'll answer them, and then I'll take about 4 minutes individually with each of the family. :) I don't think they adjusted the time limit for Mormon families....
 
This week has been fairly interesting, I'm finally feeling comfortable with the ward, the confusing streets, and the investigators that I can lead here, but with that comes the challenge of making joint decisions with my companion who is now used to being in charge.

If there's one thing I've learned on my mission about relationships, it's that you have to treat the other person's idea's with just as much value as your own, otherwise there'll be conflict and hurt feelings. It's a really tough one to put in practice, but fortunately the Lord is giving me a 2 year seminar with daily practice to get the hang of the idea.

I'm grateful though for the opportunity to serve with so many different people with so many backgrounds, interests, and even cultures, because it's broadened my perspective and I've developed a lot in my interpersonal relationship skills (and apparently haven't gotten any less nerdy looking at the way I phrased that!) The mission is a wonderful opportunity to learn.
 
We're working with Isauro, an older gentleman who is having some trouble quitting smoking, we're going to try some drastic approaches tomorrow and I don't have time to explain much, but I'll try to report on it next week and see if it works.
 
Thank you all so much for your thoughts and prayers, this truly is the Lord's work and even in the tough times the Lord is always close and really supports His Missionaries. Have a great week!
 
Love,
Elder Damon Janis

Pictures!

Elder Janis and Elder Alvarez and Jesus

Jesus on his baptism day!

Elder Janis' mom sent a wall decoration for a Halloween party if they decided to put one together for their branch. They put it on their door.:) Elder Alvarez leaving for a good days work!

Goodbye Elder Alvarez!

Hello Elder Bustos! And Happy Birthday!

Taylor said to Damon "He's in the zone!" Elder Janis replied that this was the third dinner of the evening and he is sitting next to Elder Bustos, hanging on and feeling too full for comfort!:)

Feeling grateful

Hi Everyone!

We'll see how I do on emails today, I'm under a little time pressure with a far-away dinner and 4 baptismal interviews right after, plus a companionship exchange for 24 hours with Elder Hurtado, but I'm excited to be busy, it makes missionary life a lot more fun!

I'm getting a lot more comfortable about the changes coming with our ward, we've talked to most of the active members on our side now and they're almost all committed to going to the new building.

With that at a little more rest, I'm going to try to focus on getting new investigators because our teaching pool is a little stagnant right now and my teaching skills have gotten rusty. We've got a couple investigators who are progressing well but I think we and the area can handle a lot more.

A cool thing going on is that a family being taught by the South Elders (the other side of the ward) decided last week suddenly that they wanted to get married and baptized, and do it as soon as possible. They were married by the bishop the day after they made their decision, and their baptism is scheduled for Wednesday!Those are the people I'm interviewing tonight to make sure they're ready, and I'm excited for it!

It's only the second time I'll have done a baptismal interview, the first one was for the Zone Leader's investigator last Thursday, and she was awesome and really prepared for her baptism.

The spirit really helped me out, which is good because all day I was worried and stressed that it was going to be really awkward and that the one-on-one setting would throw me off (you wonder when you've been within sight and sound of a companion for more than a year), but it went smoothly and I found out a lot by just a few inspired questions and listening.

I think it's really cool how they have missionaries do the interviews for baptisms, in a real sense it's preparation for being a bishop or branch president by being a "judge in Israel" and deciding if a person is really prepared and worthy for something. It was a very spiritual experience for me, and strengthened my testimony of the Lord lifting and supporting us when He needs us, because I was pretty sick with a mild flu and normally wouldn't have been able to do it.

The mission leadership asked us to tell our families to send any packages straight to our missionary apartments, not to the mission office, so just the normal address:

1325 Garfield St. #111
Denver, Co, 80206.

Thanks!

The Christmas season always brings a little bit of reflection about home and family as a missionary, my personal quart of eggnog doesn't replace it well and neither does actually having snow, but it's also one of the best times to be a missionary as you reflect on the spiritual blessings both you and your family have received from the Lord. I reflect on the sacrifice of our loving Heavenly Father and His Son, the things that it does for me and those I love.

Thinking about it that way I feel grateful and close to my family spiritually, if not in person, and it helps me understand the true meaning of Christmas. I hope you all have a great week!

Love,
Elder Damon Janis

How Tired I am From Rapid Tapping Noises and a Regular Thumping Noise

Hi Everyone!

So the thing currently on my mind is how tired I am, which has sort of a story behind it so I"ll start with that. We live on the bottom floor of an apartment in the metro Denver area, surrounded by busy streets and lots of people (homeschooler's nightmare! :) We have either a neighbor or something that at all hours of the day makes rapid tapping noises right above my bed, which can be quite loud and bothersome at times. My companion is convinced that it's our neighbor (although imagining someone tapping their floor rapidly at 3 in the morning for whatever purpose is strange) Personally I think it's just a weak spot in the building and as the weight of the building shifts it causes a really loud creaking. Also, our fan is off-balance, which makes a regular thumping noise, and last night it all culminated with another neighbor taking a shower and my companion snoring, so I didn't sleep as well as expected. Usually it's not too bad, but I'm going to be buying earplugs for the not-usual nights. :)

The work in the ward is going great! We've been helping the members dedicate themselves to attending church in the new building we're moving to, which is far away, and the attitudes have been changing gradually with our visits, testimony, and persistance. For the most part we're seeing people grow in their committment, with the exception of a few stubborn families who we're still working with. I'm really excited though, because as the people excercise their faith to follow an inspired priesthood leader, this ward is going to unite and become so much stronger!

A cool thing that happened this week was a breakthrough in working with the ward organizations. I had an idea that since almost nobody is doing home teaching, we as missionaries can be paired with home teachers and help them do their visits and at the same time motivate and train them how to do it. Instead of taking my plan to the Elder's Quorum President and trying to convince him to accept it, instead I had a chat with him and explained how the missionary effort is trying to not be so separated from the wards anymore, and that we're looking for ways to help the Elder's Quorum. With a few choice words and questions, I guided him to my idea and helped him shape and craft it as his idea, and he got really excited about it. I praised him for his plan and idea and pledged our help to do whatever he wants us to, and this week he'll be personally sitting down with us to assign us families and companions to help! It was really neat, it's a principle I learned in a book called How to Win Friends and Influence People, and because I presented it as his idea he's totally on board and motivated to make it happen! I felt inspired with the idea, and then the way to do it was "brought to my rememberance" and now we have an incredible opportunity to strenghthen our ward relationships and win the trust of the members!

We have an investigator progressing well, who loves church and wants to be baptized, but is overcoming economic problems as well as word of wisdom challenges, but hopefully we'll have him with a date soon!

I'm so grateful to be a missionary, I love the work of the Lord and I'm so happy to be here! I hope everyone is doing well, have a great week!

Love,

Elder Damon Janis

“I’ve been smoking longer than you’ve been alive!”

Hi Everyone!

This week has gone by fast, there's so much to do here in the city and we're busy all the time! I'm going to focus these next couple weeks on changing the work attitude here a little though, we're busy but we could be more productive with our time, and I've now been in the area long enough to observe what's going on and I'll probably start doing more change from now on.

Our top investigator is a man named Isauro, he's in his late 50's and is so solid! He's completely changing his life, and is totally committed to the gospel! He's come to church the past 3 weeks, and he participates and strives to really understand what's going on!

His one holdup is smoking, which he's had for more than 40 years and is struggling to drop. He constantly reminds us that he's been smoking for longer than we've been alive. :) He's really dedicated though and because of that we've been able to help him overcome little by little, and will continue to do so. He quit coffee cold turkey once he found out that it was against the Word of Wisdom, and he's really focused on getting himself ready for baptism.

He understands, better than any other investigator I've had, the importance of baptism as a covenant and as a rebirth, he's always talking about making that change in his life and becoming a part of the church family! I'm hoping that he'll get baptized this transfer, I'd be really excited if he decides to!

This last week the stake president visited our ward and announced that the ward will be moving to a different chapel. He said that while the new building would be a lot closer to many people, there would also be many who it will be a lot further away. He asked us to make the sacrifice and stay united as a ward, and we'd receive blessings.

We've been talking to a lot of the members about the change and it's alarming what we've been hearing. A lot of people are upset because the church is so far away (it's about 8-12 miles further for most members) and they're talking about going to other Spanish and English wards that are a lot closer.

Some of the strongest, most active families in the ward have been insinuating that they might not make it because of transportation challenges and might go partially or fully inactive. Of course as a missionary that's the last thing you want to hear and we've been doing all we can to support the members and give them the strength to dedicate themselves to the change.

It's tough, but the Lord has promised us that he will "give no commandment unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way that they may accomplish the thing which he hath commanded them". It takes faith. Sometimes it takes a few steps into the darkness, like Nephi wandering around Jerusalem at night not knowing beforehand what he should do, but trusting in the spirit and the promises of God, and as a result we have the Book of Mormon.

My personal testimony of obedience has been growing as I've studied the topic to help our members and I know that if we follow our spiritual leaders we truly will be blessed and God will provide a way.

I'm so grateful to be a missionary, to have this chance to help my fellow brethren to understand the wonder of the Gospel, it's truly the greatest work in the world and I love it! I hope you all have a great week, take care!

Love,
Elder Damon Janis

New address, new companion

Hi Everyone!

Sorry to email early again, they threw another weird p-day at us on a Monday, and actually from now on they've changed our p-day officially to Monday. So, this will be a usual thing now.

I'm writing this email from the Denver Public Library in the downtown of the city, i got transferred to Denver 4th ward, the east side of our mission which includes downtown! The directions here are killing me, it's a foreign world here and I'm having a hard time keeping up, but I'm super excited to be here and to be in a full Spanish ward! At church yesterday we had a few investigators show up, and the fellowship and the atmosphere were amazing, I'm really excited because we'll be able to do so much work here!

My new address is:
1325 Garfield St. apt 111
Denver, CO, 80206

Sleeping has been kinda fun here, we have someone upstairs who somehow makes loud rapid tapping noises that come through the ceiling, and the fan has a wobble that sounds almost like a drum-beat, and you can hear car traffic. :) I'm adjusting, but it's pretty different from quiet Carbondale!
 
Hmm, just had a conversation with the guy at the computer next to me, talking about Joseph Smith and stuff, he was more interested though in talking about how great the bible was than anything else. :)
 
Anyway, I'm really excited to be here in the city, to be serving the Lord, speaking Spanish, and helping people come unto Christ! It's the best possible thing I could be doing, and I love the gospel. Thank you all so much for your prayers and support, have a great week!
 
Love,
Elder Damon Janis
 
P.S. My companion is Elder Bustos, a great guy from Utah, who's pretty new in the mission but is doing a great job of showing me around and leading the area.

After seven months, a transfer!

Hi Everyone!

I'm getting transferred tomorrow although I still don't know where! I'm really really excited, I love this area I'm in and I'm sad to leave but I feel like I've accomplished the work I was sent to do.

It's a strange feeling to realize that the Lord wanted me to come here the Rocky Mountains and serve the people in Spanish, that this is the place He's prepared and this is my specific mission, and although I never would have though of that possibility I would never trade it or give up the experiences now.

In this area especially I feel like I've been trained and developed by the Lord more than any other time in my life, I feel much more capable and confident to take on anything the Lord asks of me and I'm comfortable with myself and my standing with the Lord. It's a wonderful feeling, I hope to continue serving in that strain.
 
I'll be continuing to serve as a district leader, this time going to a new district where I might not know many of the Elders, it'll be an interesting experience but I'm excited to see what I can do to help out.

Because of so many big changes going on in the mission right now it's becoming more and more important that the district leaders step up and really lead and train the missionaries because in the midst of change missionaries either become stronger, better, and more obedient, or they get discouraged and become idle and problems develop.

I've been seeing that in my own area and district over the past month or so, it's challenging because of increased opposition, the key is understanding that increased blessings are gained as we overcome that opposition and move forward in faith. I think that'll be a focus of my trainings and leadership this next transfer.
 
This past week we came across a 19 year old youth who's been inactive for a long time but is starting to meet with the missionaries after getting into some trouble, but he's got his heart in the right place and it's been really fun to see the beginnings of the big changes he'll make in his life!

We're teaching him the Book of Mormon and helping him receive the power of reading the book and living by it's precepts. He's eating it all up, you can see the spiritual hunger he has and the way the spirit comes and touches him as he reads the words of the prophets. We'll be inviting him to play basketball with us and the other missionaries to fellowship him, it'll be fun. (As a side note, I haven't gotten much better at basketball, I much prefer soccer and other sports but with the snow pushing us indoors I've been forced to try again. :)
 
I'm so grateful for the opportunity of a mission! This is the best decision I've ever made, I love serving the Lord and serving His children! I've discovered that it's also the hardest thing I've ever done and in reflection I agree with the pioneer from the Martin handcart company who declared that the hardships they endured were the price to know God, and that he'd never trade that for anything. I'm so grateful to be here, we'll see what the Lord has in store for me during the next couple months!
 
Love,
Elder Damon Janis

The Centrality of Love in Missionary Work

iHola a Todos!

I feel like speaking Spanish today, not sure exactly why. I've been very blessed by the Lord in my language abilities, and have been able to pick up more and more fluidity with time. A couple weeks ago I had a landmark event in Spanish, a lady actually asked me what country I was from after hearing me speak! I'm amazed at how the Lord has blessed me even though I don't speak much Spanish most days. I talk in English with my companion because he's a native Spanish speaker and it helps him with his accent so he'll be more comfortable with the intimidating Americans in Aspen. It's amazing though that even with that, I've been able to continue learning and becoming more familiar with the language. I never would have believed it possible even a year ago.

We've had more spare time than usual lately, and we've used some of that to clean out all of our records that the missionaries in the past kept. It's been interesting, we discovered that about 75% of the teaching records created for investigators never should have been created in the first place, because they're mostly spanish people who let the missionaries in to teach 1 lesson, to "hear the word of God", and then never can be found again.

So, I spent about 4 hours transfering all their information to a different form, the "potential investigator" sheet, and we've been working off of that list now to contact these people who at one point let the missionaries in but never really investigated. We've had a couple lessons off of that so far. They weren't the people we were actually looking for, but we did find some of their neighbors who were interested in hearing us, hopefully they'll progress a little bit and we'll have more investigators!

I had a cool experience this last Thursday at a District Meeting. I had an elder train about the role of prayer in conversion, which is one of the 8 Preach My Gospel trainings we've been given, and then I was going to train on the centrality of love in missionary work. I'd been inspired to train on that topic right after I recieved my call to leadership, but I hadn't had time to do it, and this last meeting I was only left with about 10 minutes, so I shortened it and gave it anyways.

As I was teaching, the spirit filled my mouth and started teaching truths that I'd never thought about before, and gave me some answers to questions I'd had for a while. In your missionary call letter, the 1st Presidency tells you that "more joy and happiness await you than you have ever before experienced as you lose yourself in the Lord's service", or something to that effect. I'd wondered before how that was possible, because a lot of the time I find missionary work to be hard and not always joyful.

What the spirit taught me as I was speaking is that when we truly do lose ourselves in the work, and when we have charity for and love the people we teach, we recieve more joy and happiness than we've ever experienced when they make decisions to progress and change, and that's how it works. You get out of it what you put in, because if you really make the effort to seek for the gift of charity and really love the people, their progress will fill you with joy.

I love being a misisonary right now, in these last days, and I'm so grateful for the blessings I've recieved from the Lord! This is truly His work, and He's carrying out His plans for His children, and it's awesome to be a part of it! I love you all, have a great week!

Love,

Elder Damon Janis

What does auto body work, reactivity, and repentance have in common?

Hi Everyone!
 
This has been a great week, we're seeing more of the blessings from our focus on service.

There's a less-active family in the branch that we've been working with since I got here but haven't made much headway, well the other week we started telling them about our emphasis on service and offered our time to help them in any way. They have a truck that their 14 year old son crashed while trying to impress his friends, he slammed straight into a tree and bent the front of the truck in almost perfectly, as if the front of a train had hit it.

Well, the engine was mostly untouched, but the front part of the frame was pretty messed up, so my companion offered his expertise in cars to help them get the frame straightened out. So, we went to the local ACE hardware store and bought 2 small propane tanks with a flame attachment, as well as a pull-cable thing (like what you'd use to get a truck out of the mud)  and we went with the 14 year old to start rearranging the shape of the steel.

It was pretty fun, we got permission from our Zone Leaders to use the torches, so we set about heating up the metal to several hundred degrees and using the pull-lever attached to a tree on one end and the bent metal on the other to make it straight.

It worked like a charm, I was actually amazed that we were able to get it so well. I forgot to take pictures, I was too focused, but I'll take some of the finished product still because you can see where the damage was.
 
The cool part is that when the father of the family came home that night (he'd previously been pretty discouraged about coming to church and getting active again) he went out with his wife to see what we'd done, and he broke down into tears.

We found out that the truck (their van is currently out with a broken transmission, we're helping fix the truck so they can get to church) was actually a gift from some members a few years ago, and it had been given to them then so they could get to church.

When the father realized who was fixing their truck now, and for what purpose, he was overwhelmed by the spirit because he realized it was a message from God telling them how much He wants them in His church.

This is so exciting for me, because this is one of my favorite families here and they're finally on track to get back into activity, and in the process we're helping out the almost 15 year old kid, who's taking the chance to re-evaluate his life and the power of repentance!
 
I'm so grateful for this gospel, I'm so glad I'm able to be a part of it and to share it with others! There's nothing in the world more satisfying than helping another person who you love receive the wonderful blessings our Heavenly Father has in store for us!

I love the church, the doctrines of the Restoration, the Plan of Salvation, and the Temple. This is God's work, this is His church!
 
Love,
Elder Damon Janis

The Importance of Being "Exactly Obedient"

Hi Everyone!

I don't know how much I'll get off today, I'm at about half speed due to frozen fingers. Temperatures have been in the low 30's and high 20's the past few days, and the library feels about the same. :) We had our first snow fall of the season, and the mountains here are beautiful and the world looks brighter. The downside is that our car will soon have resrictions as the roads fill up, but this is a beautiful place to serve the Lord and help people in these small mountain towns!

We're seeing some results of service. This week a less-active family came to church for the first time in months. We have been helping them fix their truck that was slammed into a tree, and just needs a couple new parts to run again. It was an exciting day at chruch, we had 26 people in sacrament meeting!!! That's the highest it's ever been since I've been here. I hope we can keep the motivation level high and maintain there.

We also taught a small lesson to a lady who is fighting cancer. We did a little bit of service tracting and offered to help her with anything, after which she incredulously looked at us and said: "Really?" We assured her that we were serious, that we were just there to help in any way possible, so she gave us a couple rakes and set us to work on her lawn! It was a great feeling to help someone out, and afterwards we answered some of her questions about the church, taught a little of our beliefs, and invited her to be taught by the English missionaries! It was a great experience regardless whether or not she follows through, we were able to help someone in need and helped resolve some doubts and misconceptions she'd had of the church!

This morning I was preparing a training for a district meeting tomorrow, and I thought I'd share a little of what I learned. I was inspired to spend a little time on the importance of being "exactly obedient" and helping the missionaries understand a little better what it really means. We can look first at the story of Laman and Lemuel, who in 1 ne. 3 become angry with Nephi and Sam and start beating them with a rod. An angel appears and instructs them that they need to repent, and go do the Lord's commands. In the 4th verse of chapter 4, we learn that Laman and Lemuel remain angry, but go anyways to fulfil the commands of the angel. What's interesting is that they were obedient, they performed the action with "exactness", maybe even "perfectly". However from later chapters we learn what they eventually did and became, in spite of that obedient act.

In Alma 53 we learn of the 2000 Stripling Warriors, and how they chose for their leader a spiritual man, the living prophet actually. In 57 we read how their exact obedience to his commands kept them protected and safe from their enemies, and was the key factor that won the battle. We can contrast the rest of their lives and the change that occured with the lives of Nephi's brothers, after critical points of exact obedience, and at first it's confusing, because both did what was expected, both fulfilled and the blessings followed (getting the brass plates, and winning the battle). They key though is that their hearts were different. And so Laman and Lemuel remained unchanged, while the stripling warriors continued faithful the rest of thier lives.

When we give ourselves to God and follow His chosen prophets "with exactness", and our hearts are right and we give willingly, that is when God can change us and make of us more than we could ever imagine. That's the difference in obedience, it's not whether or not we drink coke, or if we do or don't watch the game on Sunday. It's about our hearts, and the sacrifice we make to follow Him willingly, and then we get the blessings, and we're changed people.

I love the Gospel, I love being a missionary! I hope you all have a great week!

Love,

Elder Damon Janis

Ammon-Based Approach: Serving and Softening Hearts

Hi Again!

Sorry this is coming a little early this week, we got a surprise zone conference that's on wednesday, our p-day, so we had the day shifted to Monday. It's a little weird, it doesn't feel like an official p-day yet.

We've decided to shift our approach in missionary work to serving the less-actives in the branch and softening hearts, sort of an Ammon based idea. We helped a family move on saturday that's been inactive for about 5 years and they've invited us to come by any time and share the gospel with them! (Apart from that they also gave us a free pair of sweet baseball shoes, they used to sell them but went out of business, but they still have a whole shed full of stock that we had to move) We're excited for them though because they're a young couple and really neat people, and if we can get them active again they could be excellent youth leaders!

This coming week we have the opportunity to help out putting in new windows, fixing a car (my companion used to work on cars a lot), putting in blinds (thank goodness for the cypress canyon rental, I'm a pro!), and doing landscaping for various people! We're actively looking for any kind of service at all. We actually went up to aspen one day and just wandered around in our p-day clothes looking for hospitals, rest homes, or anything to do service! It's exciting, it feels really good to serve and know that you're blessing the lives of these people. I hope it turns out some results and we can fill our time with teaching these people too!

Well, not too much more to report, I hope all is well with all y'all. I'm so grateful to be a missionary here in the mountains of Colorado. I love the gospel and I wouldn't trade this experience for anything! I love you all, have a great week!

Love,

Elder Damon Janis

Jesus Gonzales Baptized and Investigator Bears Testimony

Hi Everyone!

This has been a really interesting week, the highlight of course being the baptism of Jesus Gonzales, which was very spiritual, organized, attended, and a wonderful experience for a new convert!

We had to spend most of Saturday before the baptism cleaning the baptismal font, the one place in the whole building that wasn't cleaned up after the remodeling they've been doing, so we had to clean the drywall powder from off the glass, tile, and changing area.

In the end though everything went really well, Elder Alvarez did a great job performing the ordinance and the spirit was strong!

The following day he was confirmed in church, and by chance an investigator we've had who we'd found drunk showed up to church that day, and him and Jesus just happened to be from the same part of Mexico City and struck off an immediate correspondence!

It surprised the entire branch, but at the end of the fast and testimony meeting Philemon (Filemon, the investigator, biblical name!) got up and shared his own testimony, talking about how we'd found him, how he feels like it's a message from God telling him to change, and also he thanked everyone for welcoming him and asked for their support! He closed in the name of Jesus Christ, amen, and the spirit was so strong and it got the members more excited about sharing the gospel and fellowshipping people!

We're doing what we can to help Filemon stop drinking, it might be a long road but he seems dedicated and is a great guy!

Another thing that happened is that our mission president completely changed the way we do missionary work, by changing the indicators that we report. Now we're using the number system that's in Preach My Gospel and in our planners, and we received instructions that we are supposed to focus more on less-actives and helping the wards and branches that way.

I'm really excited for the changes, I've tracted out my entire area literally 3-4 times, and it produces almost no results. Now we can be more focused on getting the less-actives back, and be more creative in our missionary efforts!

So to answer a few questions Mom asked me, I have 2 other companionships in my district, 1 Spanish and 1 English. We are having weekly district meetings where we're focused on the 8 lessons the brethren have given us to make us better missionaries, and it's fun to be able to direct those. I get to follow up every night with both companionships, talk about their efforts and plans, and help inspire them to be better. It's a great opportunity!

I love being a missionary, have a great week!

Love,
Elder Damon Janis

"I know what I'm getting into and I'm committed to following this path for the rest of my life!"

Hi Everyone!

The big news this week is that I'll be staying in my same area for my 5th transfer, staying with Elder Alvarez! I'll also be serving as the district leader here, a humbling call that I'm not quite sure how to fulfill, I trust though that the Lord will magnify my efforts.

I'm really excited at the prospect of staying, even though figuring out where to tract will become tricky. I'll be tracting some of these apartments and trailers for the 5th or 6th time, now when I tract people recognize me and it's fun. :)

This last weekend we watched the conference with some of our less-active members, the family of a brother who takes care of his two sisters and another less-active family. One of the sisters brought her boyfriend to the two Sunday sessions, which led him to ask her about why she believes what she does and also brought her to tell him that she wants to raise her kids in the church and be married in the temple, which shook him up a bit but they've decided that he'll start talking to us (the missionaries) and see what happens.

I'm really excited that I'm staying and can be a part of that, because I've known the guy and have been talking to him for 3-4 months, so there's already a relationship of trust which will help a lot as we help him find his own testimony of this wonderful gospel!

Another exciting thing is that we have a baptism on Saturday, a man named Jesus Gonzalez who just walked into our sacrament meeting and liked what was taught so much that he came to stake conference, started taking the lessons, and committed to be baptized after the first lesson!

We had his baptismal interview Monday, which he came out of saying that "I know what I'm getting into, and I'm committed to following this path for the rest of my life!" We're so excited about him, he's going to be a huge strength here and I think will motivate the members, this is the first baptism in the area for a solid 6 months!

One of our most staunchly inactive families is starting to melt, their daughter who is 18 and her boyfriend who's an investigator are getting excited and motivated to get active and furthermore participate and contribute, the daughter wants to have some sort of responsibility with the Young Women so she can help reactivate, motivate, and organize activities for the many inactive young women in our area!

We're excited for her help and with that are seeing part of a general and gradual change in atmosphere at church, people are coming back and others are getting more actively involved, and despite the efforts of the adversary the Lord is working a miracle here!

I'm so glad to be a missionary serving here in the tops of the Rockies! I love this area and these people, and I'm so grateful for the inspired call to serve through a living prophet! I know the church is true, I know that Thomas S. Monson is a prophet of God and that Joseph Smith was called as the prophet to restore the gospel in these last times! I pray that the Lord blesses each of us as we strive to apply the gospel in our lives, have a great week!

Love,
Elder Damon Janis

Baptismal date set for Jesus

Hi Everyone!

This has been a really exciting week, probably the highlight is that we have someone on a set baptismal date! It's Jesus Gonzalez (American guy, going to the English branch) (just kidding :), he's the one who just walked in off the street and then wanted to learn about the church and join!

He's so solid, he's reading, praying and coming to church, and he doesn't have any issues to keep him back from baptism! The service will be on the 9th of October (Happy Birthday Dad!) which is after transfers so it's likely I won't be here to witness it.

Another thing that happened is that we've had a couple more visits with a family of 5, all of the kids being boys (16, 11, and 8 years old) and the parents have decided that they don't want to force any set of beliefs on their kids, but let them decide for themselves.

The kids got really excited about the prospect of listening to a modern prophet this weekend at General Conference, and they are progressing rapidly in testimony and desire to learn more! We found out that the 16 year old is actually in a leadership class with one of the Spanish youth in the branch, and he's good friends with her so we have built-in fellowship!

I could definitely see the kids getting baptized this coming transfer, and be a huge strength to the youth and primary programs here in the branch.

We have a less-active couple (actually dead inactive for 10 years) that's starting to come back to church and meet with the members and missionaries! They're a sweet older couple that were offended several years ago by a tactless missionary, and have just been in the habit of inactivity for so long that they never came back.

We tracted into them a couple weeks ago, and after a few visits by us and one where we brought the 2nd counselor, they finally came to church and loved it!

Last night we went to see a less-active family who've recently gone through some hard times and it's softened the husband, who in the past wouldn't even speak to missionaries or have anything to do with the church. We taught a family home evening, singing hymns and having prayers, and did a lesson about the Gospel of Jesus Christ (basically the principles and ordinances of the 4th article of faith) and used a cool object lesson to explain the Holy Ghost.

They have 3 girls, one 10, one 8 and the other 4. They loved the lesson, and afterward we were able to talk a little more to the parents. We told the husband that he could actually baptize his 8 year old daughter, which he really liked, and they committed to coming to church in spite of any obstacles that the Adversary would put in their paths. We're really excited about them, they could be a huge strength to the branch as well and would really benefit from the Gospel!

Basically things are going great here, I feel like the Lord has blessed us for being obedient and working hard, and although I might not be able to see everything come to fruition here I think I'll be content knowing I did my best in this area and was able to help in the cultivation of this field so that the real harvesting can occur!

I love the people here and I love this little Spanish branch, I'm excited about where things are going here and I know that the Lord will continue to pour out his Spirit here!

Have a great week, stay close to the Lord! I love you all, thanks so much for your prayers, love and support!

Love,
Elder Damon Janis

We’re teaching Jesus!

Hi Everyone!

This week has been crazy, we've had all kinds of scheduling hiccups that have made us frantic at some points and stuck with long hours of tracting at others.

We're being blessed immensely by the Lord, He's put several investigators in our path that could be part of a miracle in this area. One man named Jesus Gonzalez (we're teaching Jesus!) just walked into Sacrament Meeting 2 weeks ago and then actually came to the Stake Conference the following week, even bringing food for the luncheon afterwards!

We were a little concerned that he would be scared off after realizing that we're not just a typical mainstream Christian church like he was probably expecting, but he just fit right in with all the members and was quickly accepted into the social aspect.

Since he followed through with going to conference his second week, we're going to start teaching him in earnest this week and will probably try to schedule several appointments a week. We're hopeful he'll progress quickly and might even get baptized before the transfer if all things go well!

As much as I'd like that result, what's important for me is to leave this area organized and ready for the work, with my companion well-trained and the branch leaderships prepared to take the area to the next level.

I've been focusing my study time on the Book of Mormon, with an emphasis on the doctrine of the lessons in Preach My Gospel. It's been a wonderful journey for me, and it's a study program I'd recommend to anyone. I've just been going through all 5 lessons, and in all the scripture study boxes I've been looking up and pondering all the Book of Mormon references, and thinking about how I could use the principles and scriptures to explain the doctrine to investigators, less actives, and members.

The spirit has come powerfully as I've done this, and my understanding of the doctrine has deepened, especially in relation to the Atonement. The Book of Mormon is full of the Plan of Salvation, and especially the centrality of Christ's atonement. I love the Book of Mormon, it's truly the tool God has given us in these last times to accomplish His work, and it can bring the spirit into our lives better and faster than any self-help book or any other method.

I know that it's a true book, and I know that the religion and organization that rely upon it for the keystone are also true, that this is the kingdom of God on earth and that it's rolling forth, a marvelous work and a wonder.

We got to teach our Portuguese investigators the last couple of days, and introduce the Book of Mormon in their native language! It's really cool, they're great people and are progressing, keeping their commitments by reading and praying and I think will be the key to starting the work in Aspen!

Once the members can see, know, and fellowship investigators found by the missionaries tracting, I think it will do wonders to boost the energy, trust, and spirit in the area and we'll see referrals and baptisms. The Lord can do His own work, even in Aspen!

We'll be moving apartments on September 30th, and just a few days afterwards is transfers, so it would be a good idea to start sending mail to the mission office till I'm sure of what'll be happening. It'll be nice, we found a perfect apartment space that's a lot cleaner and nicer and bigger, it's a place more fit for missionaries to live and it won't have bed bugs! :)

We haven't gotten many bites lately, but we're still really excited for the move. The way we found the new apartment is a story of itself, but I'm out of time so I'll tell it later! I hope you all have a great week, thank you so much for your thoughts and prayers! The Lord truly does answer prayers!

Love,
Elder Damon Janis

Bring back DHT!

Hi Everyone!

Things are still going great here in the Rockies, we're working hard and seeing the Lord bless us in many ways. We coordinated with the mission, and we'll be changing apartments in a couple more weeks.

We've been getting bit less and less, due to moving our mattresses to the living room (I'll take a picture :)) and also repeated treatments by us and the exterminators. Things with the contract and the situation worked out nicely, we found out that if our contract hadn't expired at the end of this month we basically would have been stuck here, because bed bugs aren't a good enough reason to break the contract for medical reasons.

We're told it's because it's at an epidemic level right now in the US, and it's not anywhere near under control. Bring back DHT!

We taught the Word of Wisdom to Esteban and Lourdes, our top investigators, and they completely committed themselves to living it, even though she has a coffee habit and he likes an occasional tequila. They're really progressing and dedicating themselves to the Lord, I'm really excited for them!

It'll be a little while before they go to church and can get baptized, because Lourdes works on Sundays and right now can't get out of her contract, we'll see what the Lord has prepared but we're going to start bringing members with us so they'll be a part of the branch before the even go!

We want to get them a really easy transition, a lot of times it's hard for people to get used to such a small branch.

We're having our mission toured by one of the Seventy, that'll happen in about a month and so to prepare us, we've been instructed to only listen to hymns, MoTab style and appropriate for sacrament meetings.

We're being obedient to that, the only challenge is that we don't have any hymn CDs. We'll get our hands on some soon though, and I think it'll be really good preparation spiritually.

My trainee, Elder Alvarez, is progressing really well and is learning a lot. He's a really good missionary and wants to work hard and be obedient, he's soaking up the experience here and is becoming effective quickly.

He's 22, and comes from Bakersfield California, born to Mexican parents here in the US. His extra age and experience are making it a fast adjustment to mission life, he's a great companion and we'll be accomplishing a lot together!

I hope you're all doing well, have a great week and stay close to the Lord! He's in charge of this work and this church, and the blessings He promises for obedience are amazing and really are fulfilled!

Love,
Elder Damon Janis

P.S. My companion has latched on to the idea that I'm a Jew, it's kinda fun. :) We meet lots of my kinsmen in Aspen, so far I haven't converted any though. :)

“I’m Hungry” in Portuguese

Hi Everyone!

Things are starting to happen quickly here, with the energy and spirit that my new companion, Elder Alvarez has brought, we've been able to find some new investigators that are starting to progress, and at the same time our branches are getting more organized and structured and are gearing up for some big things!

The ward mission leader that was covering both the Glenwood ward (English) and our little Spanish branch just got released and will be able to dedicate all of his time to the Spanish, and he's getting meetings and correlation organized so we can be efficient with forms and keeping track of the reactivation/proselyting efforts!

This motivated me to spend a few hours spitting out all of the information I have in my head about the less actives and members onto the Branch directory, so there'll be a major update and we'll have current info on almost everybody.

I've been here a really long time now, I have a lot of knowledge about what's going on here and I'm starting to transfer all of that information to the area book so that if I get transferred in about a month the new companionship can keep going without missing a beat.

Records are really important, I've been starting to appreciate that aspect of the Lord's Kingdom as I've had to almost completely restructure everything organizationally in my time here! If nothing else, I think the Lord put me here to build the foundation for the area so that others in the future have a plowed, fertilized, cultivated field to harvest. I think we'll see at least the beginning of that though in these coming months, and I'm really excited about it!

3 of our investigators committed themselves to a baptismal date a couple weeks ago, and although they haven't been able to come to church because of work, they're still committed to progressing towards that as they give their 2 weeks notice and will be able to progress easier!

We'll be visiting them several times a week to keep them motivated and learning, they're starting the Book of Mormon from the beginning and you can see their lives starting to change!

It's wonderful to see people who are really committed and willing to follow the Lord's will, and as they feel the spirit directing them in their journey are becoming better people! I'm really excited to have them as part of the branch, they'll add a lot of strength and energy there I think, and their level of commitment already is something that'll help the branch a lot!

We found a new investigating couple, the husband is from Portugal and his wife is from Brazil, they both speak broken English and broken Spanish but we can communicate decently in Spanish!

It's been so cool to teach Portuguese speakers, we'll be ordering some copies of the Book of Mormon in that language so they'll understand better, and I'm hoping to take one also and learn some Portuguese from it!

The only things I remember are the words "paralalipipidu" which is "cobblestone", and "yo estoy con fome" which is "I'm hungry" if I remember right. It's been about 10 years since I learned those things, but for some reason they stuck! :)

They're amazing people and just welcomed us right into their house, where they talked for a long time and then we had a really powerful lesson! I have a lot of hope that they'll progress to baptism, we're hoping to bring them to the Aspen branch in English because they'll probably find more support there and will motivate the branch to start work in earnest to find people for us to teach.

I'm so grateful to be a missionary right now, I love the Lord and I love His work! The field really is white ready to harvest, and I feel blessed to be counted among the laborers.

My testimony of the gospel grows all the time, this really is the Lord's true church, restored through a living prophet, and led today by that same authority. Things are going great here, I hope that all of you are doing good as well wherever you are!

Love,
Elder Damon Janis

Elder Alvarez, the 6’3” Companion

Hi Everyone!

I am now serving with Elder Alvarez, (All-ba-dess) who comes from Bakersfield California and knew Spanish all his life. He's fresh and new from only 3 short weeks at the MTC and is ready to learn and ready to work!

He's about 6'3", which is really interesting because we look funny with me being the trainer, but he's confident and social and doesn't have a problem with opening his mouth.

He's a great guy and is very teachable, I'm enjoying being able to show him a good example of how to be obedient and invite the spirit. I'm doing everything I can to give him the best possible training, so that he'll have full agency and responsibility for how he decides to be as he develops as a missionary.

We're working a lot on teaching the first lesson (the restoration) in English, because he's much more comfortable with the gospel in Spanish and even spoke purely in Spanish at the MTC (he's fluent in English, was born here in the states, but always went to a Spanish branch so his gospel vocabulary in English is smaller).

I'm excited to serve with him because we'll be able to bring the spirit to our lessons and really make an impact on the area! I'm so glad I got to stay here for another 6 weeks, I think the Lord has more for me to do and I'm excited for the opportunity!

Probably the most exciting thing that happened this week is that I got the chance to go to Denver to be trained by the Mission President and the AP's on the new 8 lessons, the trainings that the Brethren are giving all the missions right now.

It was an incredible experience, with 12 hours of classes on Monday and 7 more on Tuesday, and the spirit was strong and told me some things I can improve on and how to help my area. I'm excited to implement the instruction and become a better teacher, this is exactly what I've needed to get to the next level of missionary service.

Something Dad would be interested in is that the format they taught us for asking questions is almost the same as the system he's developed, asking a search question before the principal or scripture, then a question to analyze it, then an apply question, then a testimony question, where the investigator ends up sharing his own testimony about the principal.

For example, talking about prayer you can teach it to where they end up bearing testimony that God can answer prayers, and after that you can commit them to pray if what we've taught is true.

It's pretty cool, I've been trying to use the principal since Dad told me about it, and it really does work!

We've finally got an investigator in Aspen! It's the friend of the 2nd counselor, a lady in her 50's who's searching. She's got a lot of questions, we met with her at the beginning of the summer and had a good talk but she's been on vacation for months, but we have another appointment for next Tuesday!

I think she might be the key for opening up the work here, if she's baptized the branch will get more motivated and see that it's possible!

We're going on splits with the Branch president in Spanish regularly, also with the 2nd counselor who served a mission in Ecuador 14 years ago and is loving the chance to do missionary work again. We put a family of 3 on date this week, hopefully we'll be able to prepare them and help them get ready, the spirit told us to invite them to be baptized but there's still a few commandment issues to work out.

We're excited, God is really blessing us and helping us in the work, I'm so grateful to be a missionary and I love the gospel! It's true and it's the most amazing thing in the world, keep praying for us that some miracles will happen!

Love,
Elder Damon Janis

More Pictures!

Elder Janis on the left and his companion, Elder Arangua on the far right.

Elder Arangua and Elder Janis eating a birthday cake that was delivered on his birthday.

He got a birthday package from Heather and she sent him a dinosaur. She said when she saw it, it said "Damon!" He loves it, named it Hugo and he and his companion use him as an investigator and practice discussions on him in the mornings.:)

Package from Mom, with a tie and socks.

More ties from his birthday

Birthday card

The bed bugs. Yuck!

Ouch!

Brand New Comp, an Involved Branch President, and Killing Blood Sucking Mini-Cockroaches

Howdy Everyone!

Big changes are here, and I'm not talking about saying howdy instead of Hi this time!!!

I'm going to be training a brand new missionary, who's coming from 3 weeks in the MTC (already fluent in Spanish and English), and I'll be picking him up on Thursday! I'm SUPER excited, this is exactly the change that this area needs and it's what I've been hoping and praying for during the last few weeks!!!

The two branches we work in are on the point of exploding in the missionary work, and I think my new companion might just be able to catalyze that change!

We're going to be going on splits tonight with the branch president in Carbondale, to visit a bunch of inactive members in the Glenwood area (our biggest part). The President is finally making some real effort to help us get the inactives back, that after a meeting where we'd asked him before-hand to pray and ask for inspiration for what we need to do with the branch, and so now we have the priesthood keys in charge and I think it'll make all the difference.

Pray for us, a lot's going to be happening in the next few weeks and with the Lord's help we'll see some miracles!

We've gotten the first 4 lessons now of the 8, which are basically to focus us on the important aspects of the work. We've learned about our purpose, the role of the spirit and the Book of Mormon in conversion, and have been having role plays to practice what we're learning. It's nothing new or revolutional, but I'm learning a lot about how to be more focused on teaching people instead of teaching lessons, and I'm realizing more the importance of charity and the spirit in teaching.

Unfortunately, because I'm staying I can't talk about the bedbugs yet, so that nobody freaks out because we've had them in our apartment for a while and the entire apartment building will be sprayed on Friday.

I suppose I'll have to talk about the mini-cockroach looking things that suck your blood at night and that the fact that the only chemical powerful enough to get rid of them completely is DHT, the one that was made illegal in the 60's, but since I don't want to scare anyone I'll hold off for a while.

Then again, I'll be sending pictures soon and you'll see for yourselves, so it won't be much longer I'll bet. :) In reality though, we do have bedbugs but it's not because we live in a dirty place, they're just hard to control pests that even infested the Rockefeller theatre in New York and have been going around the apartments in our mission as well.

The worst of it is over though, they've already sprayed once and it helped, and now they'll be spraying the entire building about 5 different times to get them out completely. Kinda makes me feel like a foreign missionary though! :)

Things are going great here, I'm really excited for the change and I love the way the Lord works to prepare members, missionaries and areas for His own purposes, in ways that we don't always comprehend. I'm so grateful to be a missionary, I know that this church is true and I know that this is truly the Lord's work! Keep us in your prayers, have a great week!

Love,
Elder Damon Janis

The Missionary Work is Going Great!

Hi Everyone!

I'm starting to think i might change the Hi Everyone title. I came up with it in the MTC under enormous pressure to get all my communications done in 30 minutes, but it's stuck and I haven't changed it yet. :)

We'll see what happens, unfortunately I still have a similar time limit for communication and it takes too much effort to be more creative.

Anyway, the missionary work is going great! We'll be meeting with both of our branch presidents in the next 2 days, to engage the priesthood keys and get the Lord's direction for what needs to happen here. We have transfers next week, so we'll see if I'm staying or leaving, so send everything to the mission address please for a while.

I've been so blessed to be able to serve in this area, I've grown so much and have learned so many valuable lessons I'll use for the rest of my life, including motivation to never let myself become inactive for someone offending me.

We taught a family yesterday who had lost their house in Utah because of a biased Mormon judge, and so they decided to be mad at the church and are missing the blessings that they need more than ever in their lives.

Hopefully they'll come back, they seemed receptive to our message about the church being perfect, but not the people.

I'm out of time for today, I got cut short by a bunch of people being in the library today, but thank you all so much for your prayers and thoughts, God is blessing me so much and makes me so grateful to be a missionary! Have a great week!

Love,
Elder Damon Janis

The Day of Jehovah’s Witnesses

Hi Everyone!

I'd like to share an experience I had this week on Monday, which starts with a lot of frustrating tracting in some rich neighborhoods in Basalt.

Basically we tracted for 3-4 hours in houses that were easily a half-million a piece, and we weren't finding much success or many happy people (interesting how that works, isn't it? :), but we did happen to run into a lot of Jehovah's Witnesses!

In total we ran into them 4 times, and each time had a conversation with them and had to pretend we didn't realize they were prodding us to bible-bash, instead just bearing testimony and being polite. Getting near the time of our dinner appointment, we decided to take a break and tract in a trailer park, so we did and found a variety of people, which is the great thing about trailers.

We talked to an English lady and offered service, and she said she didn't need anything but there was a lady across the street who was sick with MS and might need a hand. So, we went over and talked to her, and as luck would have it she was a Jehovah's Witness and although she didn't need any help she was so excited to be able to talk about religion with someone that we decided it was a form of service to listen to her and take the Bible and magazines she was trying to give us.

I threw the bible into my pack and forgot about it, but left wondering why we'd been talking to people of that particular religion all day.
After that we went straight to our dinner appointment, a family of a brother and his two teenage sisters who's parents live in Honduras and haven't been with them for a long time.

The youngest sister, she's like 15, went to California to be with her aunt and her family for a few weeks, and she'd gotten back like 10 minutes before we got there. We started talking to her about how her trip had been and she told us that her aunt's family were Jehovah's Witnesses, and that they'd been trying to shove their religion at her non-stop the whole trip! She'd even been to their church a couple times, and had a couple funny stories about it all.

We started talking about our experience from the day, talking to so many people of that faith, and pulled out the magazines and bible we'd gotten. She recognized one of the magazines, which she'd been given and had actually just been looking through!

Being a little concerned about it, for the spiritual thought after dinner I pulled out the Jehovah's Witnesses bible I had and shared two scriptures, one in 2 Thessalonians 2:2-3 about the Apostasy, and the other in Acts 3:20-21 about the "restitution of all things", in other words the Restoration. I showed how even in their bible it was clear that there would be a time without the truth, and that God would eventually have called a prophet to usher in this final dispensation.

Then I bore my testimony that I knew the church was true, not because I'd proved it with the bible but because I'd prayed and received answers that it's true and so it doesn't matter how persuasive the arguments of men are, we can be sure of the truth and not have to worry.

The spirit was really strong in the room, I felt it bear witness as I gave my testimony, and I realized why we'd had all those conversations and been put through a hard day!

It was so worth it to feel that sweet confirmation of the Spirit of the truths of the Gospel, and I knew that it was exactly what the girl had needed to hear and feel after that faith-testing experience!

Everything is going pretty well, we're hoping to get more of the inactives back to church soon as the summer tourist season comes to a close, so many people can't get off Sundays and it's really been a challenge for the missionary effort. I know that the Lord will bless us though as we keep trusting him and working hard, He has plans for these people and will use us as instruments in His hands if we do our best.

I'm so grateful to be a missionary, and I love the Gospel! I hope you all have a great week, don't hesitate to share what you know to be true with anyone, because this is really what brings the greatest joy and happiness in the whole world! Take care!

Love,
Elder Damon Janis

PICTURES! -Summer in Aspen and Carbondale

Elder Janis and his companion, Elder Arangua

Panorama gorgeous world

And for your viewing pleasure, some videos!