Moving Miracles

Hi Everyone!

Baptism!!!! This last saturday we had the opportunity to hold the baptism of Seth Young, a 9 year old boy who was born in the covenant but because of work, procrastination, and several obstacles, he turned 9 and so we had to come teach and baptize him as a convert. It was a really good thing for the family though, which has been struggling a little bit, but the mom got up in testimony meeting and talked a little about it and the blessings God has given them as they've put the priority back on church and the Lord. The service went really well and the ward showed up to support, we couldn't ask for more.

I hardly have any time, server issues with the Presidents Letter took up most of my time, but quickly on Sunday we were out tracting and I'd been fasting for a miracle in the work. As we were going we saw a family moving into a house and so we offered to help, and they gratefully accepted. We finished up really quick what would have been a really long, hard task for them, and they were really grateful. The cool part is that the lady moving in has a bofriend who's an inactive member, and they've been praying to know what church to go to. While we were helping them, she called him up and told him that we were there, and he told her: Maybe that's a sign from God! Miracles do happen, the church is true!

We've got a third companion now, Elder Simcox, from here in Colorado, in a several week transition from Chile to Arizona, he got his call changed for medical reasons.

I hope you all have a great week!

Love,

Elder Damon Janis

Baptism Date Set and More Blessings

Hi Everyone!

 

I'd like to talk for a minute about the blessing of the Lord for faithful service. As me and Elder Gonzalez have been putting in everything we have to the work, we've seen some incredible things happen and I'm not sure I'll get it all in, time's a little short today. The first thing is that Trino, the investigator who's wife passed away recently and who we helped with the funeral arrangements, now has a baptismal date for March 12th! He's still been struggling with the passing of his companion, but we helped him realize that the next step to spiritual healing is his baptizm, making covenants with the Lord and progressing in his personal spiritual life!

 

This Tuesday we were at the church talking to the mutual kids and playing a little indoor soccer with them, and all of a sudden a brother in the ward came up to me and asked: i have a 9 year old son that we havn't baptized yet, and his grandparents are coming into town next weekend. When can you start teaching him and get him baptized? It was amazing, a baptism that just popped out of the woodwork, we'll be doing the service this Saturday and the kid is totally ready and prepared!

 

We've also seen an outpouring of support from the ward, bishopric, and mission, there are some big changes coming with our building situation and the referals from the ward have been pouring in. I feel so blessed to be here right now, this truly is the Lord's work and He really does bless those who serve with all their "heart, might, mind and strenght!" I love you all, have a great week!

Love,

Elder Damon Janis

Constantly Nourishing our Testimonies

iHola Familia! (iY los demas!)
 
I feel a little more Spanish today than usual, these past couple weeks I've been upping my effort to love the people and the culture I serve, I had a talk with my companion a while back that made me realize that while I've given it my mind, might and strength, I haven't given it my heart and so I can't access the trust of the people as well. It's been interesting to recognize that weakness that I have and work on loving these people, I've found that I don't have to love my own country or culture any less but to just really enjoy and appreciate the differences. It's mostly been just a shift of focus, I realize that when I pay attention when I'm in small cramped apartment with lots of people either teaching or socializing, or just out and among the people and sharing the Gospel with these amazing humble people, I really enjoy it and wouldn't trade it for the world! There's so many amazing things about the Spanish people and their culture, different foods and items of courtesy (like always offering food, fastest way to win over a Janis!), and I love being here with them, serving them.
 
So this past week was transfers, and I am now serving in the same area with Elder Gonzalez, who I actually served with before (deja vu in more than one way) in Carbondale/Aspen, and we're having a really good time! He was born in Mexico City, but moved to the states when he was less than 2 years old, and has lived in West Valley Utah for a while. He's a hard worker and we're getting a lot of good results, we're now both in the *ahem* "mature" parts of our missions (only a few months left), so we're giving everything we've got and we have the experience to be effective now.
 
For sake of a reminder, my current address for the next 5 weeks is:
1325 Garfield St. #111
Denver, CO, 80206
 
There's been some crazy changes in our area this transfer, basically they took out the Elders that covered the South of the ward and put in a pair of Sister missionaries, and we've eliminated the border so now both pairs cover the entire ward area! It's been a little stressful for all of us I think but it's already reaping huge results, the first and foremost is that we can now eat dinners separately and thus be much better in tune with the members. In the past we've had all 4 of us Elders at dinner each night, and not only is it a big burden for the family with food, but also it's hard to focus on the families because they don't eat at the table with you if there's 4. It's been working great and we'll be able to get a lot more referrals this way. Also, this frees us up to find the Less Actives in the entire ward, and it turns out that most of them lived in the south anyway, so my organizing impulses are going crazy and there's a ton for us to do finding the "lost sheep" and at the same time updating records of the people who've moved.
 
A cool thing that happened this week is when we went to find a former investigator in our records, and what we found instead was an entire part-member family! The daughter of the former investigator turned out to be a member (and was about our age and left my companion speechless in the lesson :), and had come back to live with her parents for a while! Her parents had investigated with some sister missionaries but hadn't really progressed, but we were able to talk to them and they're interested in hearing the lessons again, and accompanying their daughter at church! They didn't come yesterday, but we're hoping that with a little bit of a push they'll start going and have the entire family in the church!
 
Something else that happened is we found a less active family to teach that had been taught and baptized by Elder Gonzalez while he was here at the start of his mission, it's a couple of teenage girls and their mom who fell off the ward radar after they were baptized and without fellowship started going to a Christian church and have gotten confused. It's pretty sad, but luckily they still love the missionaries and want to learn again, so we're teaching them from scratch. I've found that the principle is true that's taught in the Book of Mormon, that when we accept God's will, we receive knowledge little by little till it becomes a fullness, and when we disobey God our knowledge is taken away little by little till we have nothing. This family at one point had a burning testimony and conviction of the truth of the Restored Gospel, but from neglect and time they hardly even remembered who Joseph Smith is. It's a testimony to me that we have to be constantly nourishing our testimonies or we lose them, there's just too much opposition in the world and the Adversary is too focused for us to ever just kick it into neutral and think that "all is well in Zion".
 
I'm so happy to be here as a missionary, I love the Gospel and I love this work! There are so many blessings the Lord has given me for my service, and the constant spiritual support and sometimes take for granted is going to be sorely missed when I go home. I'm so grateful for this opportunity right now though, the Lord has placed me in the highest potential Spanish area in the mission, and has given me the tools and companion to be able to effect "a marvelous work and a wonder" in a small way among these people. Thank you all so much for your support and prayers, have a great week!
 
Love,
Elder Damon Janis

Companion Transferred, plus Jorge and the Hernandez Boys

Hi Everyone!
 
The big news this week is that my companion, Elder Acevedo, is being transferred to a different area and I'll be staying! Also, the Denver 4th South Elders (we're the North Elders) are getting whitewashed (missionary jargon for both companions getting transferred at the same time), and they're putting in Sisters!

I got a call from the Mission President this morning telling me that I would be released as a District Leader, but also that with the new change in the the area I was the point man to keep him informed on the area's progress.

I'd better back up a little bit, because there's a lot going on in our ward because we're going to a really far away building, and basically we told the Zone Leaders about the problem this week (that our area has taken a huge hit with the move) and they told the stake president, and then he had a meeting with the mission president about it, so the upper leaders are now aware and informed and there could be action taken soon.

So President Maynes called me this morning to ask me to keep him posted by telephone every so often about the status of the ward and area, I'm going to basically be the medium for reporting the current progress. It's a lot of responsibility and I'm going to have to take it seriously, but I'm excited for the possibilities this next transfer has!
 
Man, I'm really not sure what to talk about! With the whole transfers going on it's been tough to be real productive and I don't have many exciting things to talk about. Actually, I just remembered, on Saturday we played indoor soccer with some kids from the ward, and they brought along their good friend Jorge with them, who's 15 and from an inactive family, but loves soccer and shows up every time we play!

I've been getting a lot closer with him, and he's asked me a lot of questions about missions and what being a missionary is like, I asked him if he wants to serve a mission and he thinks it would be really cool! I told him we'd take him with us next week to do some work, and he's down for it and excited to be a part of it!

I'm really hopeful that with some care and focus we can get him back to church and make a difference in the life of someone who has a ton of potential to do good! I'm really excited about him and will see if I have more news next week about him too!
 
Along with Jorge, we've been working with his friends, the Hernandez boys, to get them more spiritually involved and reading the Book of Mormon. They've been raised in the church but are at a point that they're starting to take it more seriously, and we're trying to focus on helping them to do it.

Our mission president gave us the challenge to read the Book of Mormon before the April Conference, and we gave the same challenge to them. We're all stuck in the Isaiah chapters right now, but enduring to the end! :)
 
I'm so happy being a missionary, I love this work and I love the Gospel! I've seen the changes and miracles in my own life and the lives of so many other people, and it's the most wonderful blessing that we have it! I hope you all have a great week, take care!
 
Love,
Elder Damon Janis

Trials and Blessings of our Investigator

Hi Everyone!
 
Before I start, transfers is coming up next week and we're not sure who's going or staying, so it would be good if everyone just sent mail to the mission office address : 999 E. Tufts Ave., Cherry Hills Village, CO, 80113. It'll save a lot of forwarding hassle if I do get transferred. Thanks!
 
This has been one of the craziest weeks of my mission, I've had to do things I never would have imagined! We're teaching a man by the name of Trino, who was found by the missionaries about a year ago and has been coming to church ever since, his 14 year old daughter even got baptized.

He hasn't been able to get baptized because he technically wasn't married to his partner, even though they'd been together for 19 years and had 4 children. For one reason or another they didn't want to get married, so he became sort of a "dry member", and life continued. We had been focusing on him recently, visiting the family more and seeing what we could do to encourage and help him, reading the Book of Mormon etc.

This Monday we went on companionship exchanges with some English missionaries, and while there my companion found someone that could quickly marry the couple, which was exciting news. Unfortunately, me and the other Elder were eating dinner at the bishop's house when he got a phone call that Sandra (Trino's wife) had passed away unexpectedly during dialysis, just from too much stress on her sick and weakened body. It was a shock to everyone, she left behind 4 kids from ages 18 to 7, and suddenly the family had to support the huge burden of the funeral costs and emotional shock.
 
When we visited Trino the next day, he was beside himself thinking about the cost of the funeral ($2500) which he couldn't pay for because he's jobless and doesn't have enough saved up, and that added to the emotional suffering from his wife's passing. Elder Acevedo had actually lived in a funeral home for a few months in his last area, and had become somewhat familiar with all the processes and costs associated.

After praying he had called his friend who owns the funeral home in his last area, and had gotten a contact for someone here in Denver who could do everything for only a few hundred dollars, so we told Trino we'd go over and talk to the funeral home that currently had the body. We found the place and started talking to the mortitionist, and discovered he was a total salesman, complete with gold chains and rings and stuff! We started asking about the costs involved and how we could help out Trino, and he wasn't being very helpful till we pulled out our leverage and said we were considering switching funeral homes.

He got a little defensive and told us that it would be about $700 we'd owe them if we switched right now because of work they'd already done, and when that didn't phase us he started to scramble and lowered the cost to $2000, then to $1500. He also "remembered" a government program that helps out people in Trino's situation in Denver County, and they pledged $800 for him.

The Bishop came too and said that he'd help with the rest, about $700 so Trino wouldn't have to worry about it! It was really a miracle, somehow we were able to beat a salesman at his own game and negotiate a funeral from $2500 to $677, and won Trino's thanks. He was overwhelmed when we came back to his house and reported what we'd been able to do for him, through his tears he looked up and thanked the Lord vocally!
 
Now that he's free to be baptized, we're hoping that Trino can set a date soon and prepare himself, he expressed his desire to us that he wants to once things settle down a little bit, we're excited to see him progress. I'm so grateful to be a missionary, and for the wonderful opportunities I've been given! I love the mission and I love all of you! Thanks so much for all your thoughts and prayers!
 
Love,
Elder Damon Janis

Sharing the Gospel Works When We Really Care About People

Hi Everyone!
 
Things are going well here in the Denver 4th ward, our recent convert Isauro just got the Aaronic priesthood this week, and he's still on fire for the gospel and is learning and progressing! It was actually a little surprising that it happened that quickly, because it was only 1 week after his confirmation and we hadn't really taught him a whole lot about the priesthood, but the Bishop took the initiative to pull him in for an interview before church and found him worthy and willing to hold the priesthood!

We'll probably try to have him bless the sacrament next week, it's always a great step in the progress of a new convert when they get more responsibility and are serving others! There's still a lot to do, like getting the ward focused on a re-activation plan instead of the missionaries working independently to find and baptize people, and we need some ward missionaries, but for the most part things are progressing nicely and we have lots of things to do!
 
This last week we realized the importance of salt in our food, because we didn't have any and the chicken quesadillas we made were severely lacking. Several verses of scripture came to mind about salt and savor, and as we forced down the tasteless food I thought about how great of a Sunday School example it could be, of how we're the salt of the earth and if we don't share the gospel (our savor) with people than their lives are bland and boring like a tasteless quesadilla.

Often we don't recognize how important the Gospel message is to us and those we care about, how much it can really bless people's lives and help them. I've realized that sharing the gospel naturally is a really hard thing to do, but it's possible when we really care about people.

In D&C 4, the Missionary Chapter of the D&C, the Lord tells us that "faith, hope, charity, and love, with an eye single to the glory of God, qualifies [us] for the work", and so when we share the gospel out of obligation instead of out of love, it's not natural and we lose friends.

One of the things our mission has been pushing is that we invite the members to think about someone either less active or non member who they know who could really benefit from having the Gospel in their lives, and then to pray for that person every day and pray for the opportunity to share the gospel with them. As we do that, it helps us love the person and have the correct motive for sharing the gospel with them, and when you do talk about it they'll feel that you're genuine and it won't damage the relationship even if they don't want to accept our message!
 
I'm so grateful to be a missionary, the Lord is teaching me so much and helping me become a better person. Sometimes I think back to my first few days in the MTC, or with my trainer, and think about how far I've come and how much more capable in the hands of the Lord I am now! The amazing thing about the Gospel is that we can always keep growing and progressing, learning from our mistakes as we repent and align our lives with God, I love the message we teach and I love being a messenger of the Lord on His errand! I love you all, I hope you have a great week!
 
Love,
Elder Damon Janis

Isauro was baptized!

Hi Everyone!

This week the highlight was definitely the baptism of Isauro Torrez, who finally got to those waters after a struggle to quit smoking, but the service was great and he was warmly welcomed into the ward, with the Bishop himself performing the confirmation!

I feel really good about the work we've done helping Isauro get baptized, because we did all we could to get the ward involved in the teaching and fellowshipping and I don't think he'll have a problem once we get transferred.

Retention is one of the hardest things here in the Spanish part of our mission, there are usually lots of baptisms if the missionaries work hard but the wards don't know how to fellowship the people and we lose a lot of them. It makes me happy though to see someone get baptized where I can have confidence that he'll stay active and have the support he needs as he learns more about the Gospel and continues in his journey!
 
Now with the baptism done, our attention is switching to other things like how to work effectively in our area when the church is 40 minutes away, and how to work better with the ward to reactivate and fill the chapel. We had a really good conversation with the Bishop about how when we get the current building full, we can divide the ward and have a new one closer to the downtown area. I'm motivated to make that happen, I think all the potential is there and we just need to tap into it, by working closely with the ward and using our time wisely and efficiently. I'm excited for what the future months hold, and I hope the Lord leaves me in the area long enough to see some of it come to pass!
 
One of the interesting challenges I've been learning from recently is leading my District, because the mission has had a lot of changes and we're doing things differently now, and a lot of the missionaries are having difficulties that we haven't had much of before.

The amazing thing about it is that as a district leader I'm entitled to revelation for my district, and that came this past week as I was on splits with the Zone Leaders. In my personal study I was reading Preach My Gospel and pondering on how to best help the 8 missionaries in the District, and I didn't get much until 10 minutes before my study ended, and when it came it came so fast that I had to scramble to get it all on paper before I ran out of time!

My mind was opened and I realized a couple things, one is that the district needs the right motives for doing the work (love) and the other that we need practical applications for how to find and teach effectively, because we've been getting a lot of good principles from the mission leadership but not much on the execution side.

I felt impressed to talk about ten different groups of people and things that we can use to better find, such as part-member families and recent converts who can give us referrals, and so we'll talk about those in detail in the District Meeting. I also felt impressed that I needed to involve my companion, Elder Acevedo, in preparing and giving the training to the district, I think to help him and also for the District to benefit from his experience.

It's an incredible feeling when you're trying your best to get the inspiration you need to help others, and the spirit comes and shows you what you need to do, then testifies that it's right! I love the Gospel, it really is the truth and God is still performing miracles in our times!
 
I hope you all have a great week, and enjoy yourselves as much as I am here in Colorado, doing the work of the Lord!
 
Love,
Elder Damon Janis