The Tree of Human Falseness

Hi Everyone!

This week was neat, we did a lot of finding and teaching, and are starting to see some fruits!

We set Jesus with a goal-baptismal date for April 25th, but I think we can move it up. He's still coming to church, and progressing in his gospel knowledge. He's awesome to work with, because he really wants to learn, and he's changing his life for the gospel and is progressing!

I think that's the coolest part about missionary work, is to be able to see that change in people, as they come unto Christ and really understand His plan for us.

We taught a really cool lesson this week to a 20ish year old girl as we sat on chairs in the balcony/hallway of a third story apartment, and what made it really cool was that she was completely engrossed in the lesson and understood it! We started our door approach by talking about how there's so many churches with conflicting teachings, and she opened up to us and told us that she's been really confused about that and finally came to the belief that God is real but she had no idea what else to believe in.

We explained about the original church that Christ established falling apart, and that's why there's so many churches, and then explained how to pull us out of the confusion, God and Christ called another prophet to restore the true church, and that we have a living prophet and 12 living apostles today.

She almost cried as she told us what that would mean to her if it was true, because instead of following men (like pastors) we'd be following God directly through his living servants.

We invited her to be baptized when she knew it was true, and gave her the challenge to pray and ask God for an answer. We're going back tomorrow to see how it went, I have high hopes and we're praying that she'll really pray sincerely and get an answer!

I'm learning a lot from my companion, Elder Acevedo (pronounced Ah-seh-vay-dough in Spanish, with the v sounding like a mix between a b and a v, in case anyone was wondering :), he is an excellent teacher and can pull examples from anything.

A recent one he did that I liked was he explained the way that all the churches formed after the death of the apostles as a tree, (he used a pine-tree that happened to be present as a visual aid), which the trunk was like the Catholic church, started 300ish years after the death of Christ, and from there the protestant churches came as the main branches, and from those it split further into sects (twigs) within the protestant churches, and from there even individual pastors teaching varying doctrines in their own churches (leaves).

Then he explained that since the tree itself was started by men, everything in the tree was a result of man's efforts, not God's divine wisdom. Then he called the tree the "arbol de la falsidad humana", or the "tree of human falseness", and explained how God had brought back His true church through living prophets in these last days. :)

I'm slowly progressing in my teaching skills, it makes it hard with the Spanish but I'm finding that people are starting to actually pay attention to what I say, to consider the points I make and so I'm more effective.

I love being out here and getting to share the gospel full time with God's children, the world desperately needs what we have and what God's willing to give them if they just ask.

I'm having so many experiences that keep building my testimony that God is really there, that He's our Father and will help us if we're willing, and even through I don't have all the answers I know that this gospel is true because God let’s me know that it is.

So many things have happened to me on my mission that couldn't have been coincidence, it seems like every day is a continual coincidence in what happens when we're working hard and doing all we can to have the spirit.

I hope you all have a fantastic week, I know I will!

Love,
Elder Damon Janis

26 Lessons, 19 Hours Tracted, 16 New Investigators!

Hi Everyone!

I'll have to be brief today because we planned poorly and have an earlier than expected dinner appointment, but I'll try to give a brief summary of what's going on right now in my mission.

First off, Elder Acevedo and I are tearing it up, we had 26 lessons and 19 hours tracted this week, also 16 new investigators. We're getting along decently with each other and the work is going to go forward quickly in the next few weeks. One day this week we went on team-ups with the zone-leaders, which was really neat for me since the one I was with didn't speak Spanish. I got to teach a couple lessons completely by myself, and it was a great chance to review my progress in how far I've come! I'm getting decent at teaching in Spanish, and although it's really tough to be learning the gospel in 2 languages and learning principles of teaching as well, it's coming and the Lord's helping me.

I hope you all have a great week, this church is true and the missionary program is directly led by God, I gain a stronger testimony of that every day!

Love,
Elder Damon Janis

Baptism Date Set on First Visit

Hi Everyone!

I'm with my new companion now, Elder Acevedo, who was born in Mexico but raised in Utah, so he's fluent in Spanish and English. He's a soccer player, he played for Orem high school and was ranked in the top 20 in Utah for his age-group. He's been on his mission the same time as me, although I spent 6 more weeks in the MTC, but he's learned a lot and is an excellent teacher. We're looking to take a fresh start and work really hard, the field is white already to harvest and we're in a position to take full advantage of it.

This week so far (so 2 days of working) we've had 9 hours of tracting and 12 lessons, which is the equivalent of 21 hours of work. We're motivated and working hard, so the Lord is opening doors for us and we're finding a lot of new people to teach. Probably the highlight of the week was yesterday, while we were tracting, one of the doors we got into. I did the door approach, and talked about why there are so many churches in the world today, and how confusing it is. The man became curious and decided to let us in so we could teach him about how to find out which church was true, and how all of the other churches came about anyway, so we got in and started teaching. He was so solid, he actually started teaching back principles like the apostasy, and he grasped the logic that the original church of Christ fell, and so there needed to be a restoration! When we finished the lesson, we asked him what it would mean if it were all true, and then challenged him to be baptized! He accepted, and we even set a date with him that we'd prepare him for! That was the highlight, but we've been teaching a lot of good lessons and the work is going forward really fast.

I love the mission, it's both the hardest and the most rewarding thing I've ever done. I love being close to God and having the guidance of the spirit, and more than anything helping to serve God's children! I hope you all have a great week, things are going great here and I wouldn't be anywhere else for anything!

Love,
Elder Damon Janis

“Hey, you’re cute!”

Hi Everyone!

Jose Jacob got confirmed this week, so we're a lot less stressed. He had to take off work and it made his boss mad, but it was the right thing to do and he'll be blessed for it. His faith is incredible, he told us that if his boss won't let him take off most Sundays, he'll quit and find a new one, even though he doesn't have many marketable skills and the economy is in the dumps, especially in Colorado's winter. The great thing is that the Lord has promised to bless us when we put him first, like it says in Matt. 6:33. I love that promise, because it gives us the ability to make tough decisions with full confidence that things will turn out alright if we follow God's direction.

We had our transfer calls last night, and it turns out I'm staying in the area and Elder Alcocer is moving out. He's on a special assignment to "follow-up-train", so he'll be put with a missionary in his 2nd or 3rd transfer who needs more help. We have no idea who'll come in and be my companion, but I'm hoping for someone with as much or less time than me in the mission so I can take the lead in the area. I'm getting to a point with my Spanish and experience that I can do it, and I feel like that's the way I'm going to progress more. Whoever comes though, I'm going to try and set a fast pace to start things off while my companion learns the area. I'm really excited, I think miracles could happen this transfer, we just need to seek out the Lord's will for us and then work as hard as we can to make it happen.

Our only investigator who's really progressing is Jesus, who has come to church twice in a row now and is still reading a lot. He told us that he's investigating the church seriously now because we were serious with him as missionaries, and so he's willing to start learning in earnest now. It's the coolest thing to see his family, all of them are SO much happier and are willing to learn and act! This is the first time on my mission where I've actually seen lives changed for the better because of my work, and it's the greatest feeling in the world! We're pretty sure that Jesus will be baptized this coming transfer, and even though it'll only count as 1 baptism on the records, we'll have the satisfaction that we really brought an entire family to the fold of God. We had the idea of showing Jesus a teaching record, which has all of the lessons/principles that a person needs to learn before getting baptized, and we're hoping to show him that he really knows most of it and that he's close knowledge-wise to baptism.

Funny story of the week: As we were going around tracting in a certain apartment complex at night, there was a small group of 8-9 year old girls that started following us and yelling "heeeey!!! You're cute!!!" and then laughed and ran off. They kept doing stuff like that for about an hour, following us into the buildings and distracting our doorstep conversations! They also all had jump-ropes, apparently they have a jump-rope club thing where they're all out there jumping rope at night. :)

I hope you all have a great week, thank you so much for your prayers in my behalf and for the missionaries in general! The Lord truly blesses us so much and I'm grateful every day for the help I get as a missionary!

Love,
Elder Damon Janis

Eternigators and Female Hogs

Hi Everyone!

This week's had some ups and downs, I'll get the worst out of the way right now. Our family of 3 kids and their mom who had a date for the 7th moved, and wouldn't answer their phone, then hung up on us when we called from a private number. The good news is, every time one door closes, another better one always opens. That's wise counsel my grandma gave me when I was 16, and it's proven to be true in my life. Although we had that rough spot in the week, we've been having a lot of success in tracting, including a lady and her daughter who were taught a few years ago by my trainer's trainer's trainer Elder Cerda! (on a tangent, his last name in Spanish equates to something like "female hog", and is unfortunate and really funny. :)

Also, one of our investigators came to church this week who hadn't been in over a year! It's a part-member family, the wife was baptized several years ago but went inactive, and her husband's been an "eternigator" since then. We finally realized what he needs, which is TONS of homework reading in the Book of Mormon/Bible/Gospel Principles book, because to him it means almost when somebody "teaches" him something, so lessons are useless, but he's a voracious reader and is on fire with feasting on the scriptures. He also took a massive step of faith by coming to church, which is super-hard because they have a 2 year old with more energy than a red-bull drink. :) He was running around and screaming the whole time, luckily at the end of church they found out that he'll actually stay in the nursery and be happy, so it's just sacrament meeting they have to deal with him. This is the coolest thing though, the entire family's reactivating and he's progressing towards baptism, and they're feeling the spirit and seem 5X happier! Also the ward stepped up and half the members said hi, including the bishop who took some time to talk to them! I never knew how big a difference it made to have people just come up and smile, shake your hand, say hi and leave, but this family was just glowing even that night when we visited them!

I'm coming to appreciate this opportunity of a mission more and more, and as I'm taking my mom's excellent advice to focus on the positive and let go of the negative I'm seeing so many more blessings than I realized I had. I'm finding it easier to love the people and lose myself in the work, and I'm starting to become a different person as a result. I'm starting to gain an appreciation for the 2000 stripling warriors who listened to their mothers, and then when they were out in the field they obeyed their leaders with exactness, and as a result miracles happened. That's a pattern for success in these times as well, and I'm just beginning to experience that.

I hope all of you have a great week, but more importantly that you stay close to the Lord and have His blessings in your life! I know that this church is true and that the gospel works, I've seen it in my own life and I get to be out here watching it do the same to others! This is the best and most important thing in the world, the church and work of God, and we get to be a part of it!

Love,
Elder Damon Janis

More Pictures!

Denver at dusk in front of the Invesco Field Stadium.

Denver skyline

Invesco Field where the Denver Bronco's play

Bowling anyone? Elder Janis and to his right, his former companion/trainer, Elder Francis.

Elder Janis and Elder Alcocer, his companion

Elders and Sisters

Modeling the Sweetheart cookies he got in a valentine package from Mama.

Baptism of Jose Jacob!