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