August 24th, 2015 Service for days!

Hello everybody!

It was a sweet week and we are continuing to help Byron get ready for
his baptism. He has been doing awesome with the word of wisdom and
it's cool to see how he's changed. He's still just crazy Byron but he
is very diligent!

We did an awesome service project up in Trinidad which is way up there
like 30 miles from us. The Mckinleyville sisters invited us all to
help their member blaze a trail from her house down to the beach. I
say down because unlike Florida beaches, there is a huge drop off
right next to the beach. Kinda weird. Haha but it was so fun! There
were like 12 missionaries there and we were all raking and pulling and
hoeing everything to make it. We didn't do it all but it was sweet!

I have pictures from our hike up at Strawberry Rock which is around
that same place. It was super fun!

At one of our lessons this week with a member and her recent convert
grandson who is like 10, we had fun playing on her old people scooter
haha. It was quite hilarious. He is pretty cool but we just got to
help him get out to church because his grandma isn't always in the
best health to go. He's definitely rambunctious.

Met a guy who was pretty interesting. He had his records removed a
while back but is super cool with us and loves having us over. We
talked about his views and he has some issues with the church that I
think are lame but I shouldn't judge haha. He's pretty funny and
introduced us to all of the people in his little neighborhood he
called the ghetto. Haha we met one of his neighbors named Desirae and
her son Oliver who is blind but they want a Braille Book of Mormon!
Pretty sweet. We are going to keep meeting them!

Well I love all of you and hope your week is sweet! Keep strong in the
faith my people!

Love, Elder Janson

 Out on strawberry rock with the other missionaries!

Me and Sister Asay matching tie/scarf at district meeting. Sister

Aguilar gave them to us

The place called Humboldt county that s lot of people think is

beautiful... It's alright haha

Us playing on old people scooter

More strawberry rock

Our service in Trinidad (last four pictures)

August 17th, 2015 Alright!

Hello family!

Well today marks my 11 month mark out on the mission! Pretty exciting
huh? You know what that means!? Nothing it just means I have a lot
left :). Haha anyways we had a sweet week! I got a sweet package from
the family and the Burkes I love you guys!

We had a blitz, which is where a lot of missionaries go to one
missionaries area for about 2 hours and go work there to help out that
companionship. It was pretty fun as always! It was for the Eureka 1st
ward, the sisters in my district. It was the bomb diggety fun! We met
this lady who had talked to missionaries and said it would be fine to
have the sisters by again. What was funny about this lady was she had
a pet.... Pig! Haha and when we asked her name she said, "Emmy" and
brilliant Elder Moua who I was with thought she said "Hammy." So he
says, "come here hammy!" Hahaha we were laughing so hard. It was
pretty fun as we went about walking making dumb songs and raps. I
haven't changed a whole lot in that aspect.

Saturday night was the most fun though! We decided to go out and see
one potential we had way out in the outskirts of Eureka. It was a
sweet drive out there. Then we went to go see a member we didn't know,
and it was WAY out there! Before we knew it we were out on some
country road between these hills covered in Redwoods! It was so
awesome!!! I love hills and creepy forests at night! Haha it was a
great adventure. Didn't even know we had that cool stuff in our area.
We were disappointed when we had to go back to the town of Eureka. But
that's all good. I show some pictures of that.

We're going out to Strawberry rock to go hiking today! It's way up
north past mckinleyville and we got a member to riders up there. It's
gonna be awesome! A bunch of missionaries are going to go hiking. You
know that will be crazy.

Anyways, continuing to help Byron get ready for baptism. He quit
smoking Friday! He's doing well and your prayers are appreciated. You
all are the best!

Love, Elder Janson

 Hammy, I mean Emmy the pig!

A cool table our members have

The view of the majestic redwoods as we went on our middle of

nowhere excursion. Dark, but you get the point.

A totally knarly covered bridge we crossed!!!

August 10th, 2015 Temple trip

Hello everybody,

Well it was a pretty sweet week. We got to go to the temple on
Wednesday, and had to pay for it with a 4 hour drive up to Medford,
Oregon, the nearest temple to this destitute place! It was very long,
but boy was it fun! We rode with the Fortuna elders, and their bishop
drove the four of us. His name is Bishop Wecker, and he knows so much
about the gospel and the scriptures and the symbols relating to the
temple and everything you can think of! He is also a Freemason, and
knows a lot about symbolism from that. We got to the point of just
asking him to talk about a gospel topic, like baptism, and he would
pick it apart and say every way it is symbolic. My mind was blown!
He's the kind of person that talks so much, but instead of being
annoyed, you want him to keep going after 4 hours! Anyways, the temple
was awesome, and very small! About the size of the Palmyra temple. The
zone temple trips are always fun.

I had the opportunity of giving 3 blessings to the sisters in my
district this week! They just all needed one, Sister Siufanua, the
greenie, was sick. And the other sisters just needed one, probably due
to the craziness of this county hhahaha. Anyways, it was cool to be
able to help them out with that. And one of the sisters wasn't
actually in my district, but they are the Hermanas, who go to church
with us so we see them all the time.

We got to teach Richard again this week, who pretty much describes the
people in Eureka better than I could put in words. He was some mental
problem, and he laughs at all the unexpected times. It is hilarious!
I've emailed about him before, you might remember. Well he's been to
church twice, but he is surprisingly quiet at church, which is
probably good. I swear half the people we talk to you wonder about
their accountability! Haha I'm not trying to be mean, just stating a
fact of Humboldt county. Anyways, everyday brings surprises which is
good for missionary work. It can become rote and boring if you aren't
exciting yourself haha.

Anyways, it was a sweet week, and I hope you all are doing amazing! We
are still up and running up here in the mission. Byron is planning to
be baptized on August 29th, so keep praying for him.

Thanks! Love, Elder Janson

Here's a comical photo from our long drive to Medford. Elder

Sutterfield and Grange.

Some sweet pictures of the west coast while we drove south from

Medford to Eureka again.

The eerie sky due to the fires south of us in Lake County. The sun

was red and dimmed from the smoke.

Some words of wisdom :).

The Zone at Zone meeting

August 3rd, 2015 What a week!

Hello Family!

There were many interesting experiences we had this week. One day this
week was so sweet! We were teaching for days!! We got 7 lessons in one
day, which was my mission record! We had such a sweet day. Sometimes
the lord blesses you with cool stuff like that :).

This morning at Winco foods we had a man who obviously wasn't all
mentally there and he starts yelling in the store at us, "maybe the
Mormons can solve all the drug problems here! Have you guys read your
bible? It offended me! Jesus couldn't have come to South America!" And
so on and so on. It was super awkward and funny cause we just tried
walking away but he was following us and cussing and stuff and I
honestly was trying to withhold laughter. We escaped and a store
security lady came and apologized to us. We're like... "Well we deal
with it a lot, but thanks!" Haha it was an interesting shopping
experience.

We had another experience one night when two guys and a woman stopped
us and started talking to us, eventually they just were bashing and if
any things changed on my mission since the beginning is I don't just
stand there and bash. I was like, "well honestly I don't know all
these answers, but all we want to do is invite you to read the Book of
Mormon and pray about its truthfulness." They weren't too excited
about that haha. I've kind of gotten to a point when I'm pretty good
at just leaving those situations because it feels like such a waste! I
even went so far to one lady when I invited her to read the Book of
Mormon, she said, "well why would I do that?? Why would I waste my
time??" I simply said, "well now you're wasting our time, and we have
to go." Hahaha it worked and we left. The spirit can pretty much tell
us pretty quick whether this person has real intent to change, or just
to tear us down. The most frequent question I've gotten in eureka is
concerning us believing we become gods. Once they ask that question, I
know it's time to leave haha. You can't make a baby swallow a 1 pound
burger, when they won't accept the baby food! Haha nice visual for
you. If we can't understand e simple truths, how do we expect to
understand the deepest of gods truths?

Anyways,mom the good note, Byron, our main investigator is trying to
get baptized on the 15th, and we truly wants to, he just needs to work
on word of wisdom issues. He's an interesting guy, but he reads the
BOM and is sincere. Can't say he's not!

So it's nice having a car and everything. I've recently found out that
I have gained about 30 pounds on my mission... I was 180 pounds when I
checked the other day. I didn't know my body was capable of that! I
don't look any different, so I'm puzzled haha.

Hope you all have a sweet week, and remember all the savior has done
for you. He loves you!

Love, Elder Janson

Thought this was humorous :)

Us at  Arts Alive in eureka, a community arts event. My past

companion Elder Hastings!

Pictures of the fires in Northern California, couple hundred

miles south of us

Thought this piece of art looked oddly like Joseph Smith....

Heaven is above Eureka!

Deseret News posted this, they are now my favorite.

July 27th, 2015 The life is good

Hello!

It's been a pretty good week for the most part. Elder Smith is a super
goofy kid from San Antonio, Texas. I'm stuck with another Texan.
That's fine. Anyways, we had some interesting experiences of people
yelling at us across the street, and a very sketchy woman who was not
in her right mind asking us for a Book of Mormon. I've heard and seen
some very sketchy things, these being just a couple. It's definitely
an adventure talking to random people on the street up here.

We had some super cool splits with members on Thursday and we had two
lessons simultaneously, which is really the most ideal situation for
that. The members here are way nice and we've been getting fed which
is always a plus. We had a ward picnic out on the peninsula type thing
across the bay from Eureka. It is called Samoa, which I find amusing.
It's nothing like Samoa. Anyways, it was way fun and the Polynesian
guy brother Vainuku in our ward made a whole pig and BBQ chicken for
it. It was fantastic. Great for us missionaries! Then we went to a
wedding reception like right after that, and we had just had our Ward
mission leader correlation and had root beer floats! I was not hungry
for reception food. But I still ate haha.

The district is still a bunch of sisters, but they are all super fun
and love the work. I hope you all are doing awesome, and let me know
how you are doing. I miss you all!

Love, Elder Janson

 Me and Elder Sutterfield at the booming Eureka Mall

Us again chalking with the sisters!

District service!!

Elder Smith being an object lesson in Gospel Principles :)

July 20, 2015 Sad end of transfer :(

Hello everybody,

Man was it a sad day! Last night we had our last leadership meeting of

the transfer and it just hit all of us at once who was leaving and

such. Sister Day was the STL in my district and she was awesome and

now she's going home and I'm gonna miss her a bunch. Elder Delgado is

going home as well. And elder Merrell up in Crescent City. I get quite

attached to people quickly and it's the worst! Haha Last Monday when

we had to figure out our own laundry, our dryer didn't work so we

asked the sisters to use theirs and so they ended up just doing it. So

first of all, the fact that the sisters did that is amazing and they

are the best! But that. I got they brought our laundry by and we look

at it and they had folded it! We almost shrunk back in fear/surprise

at such an act of goodness! Hahahaha the pat whole night we couldn't

stop exclaiming THEY FOLDED OUR LAUNDRY! They are truly angels from

above.

So on that note I'm going to miss the missionaries leaving. I mistyped

and sister Saavedra is leaving no Sister Aguilar. Luckily Sister

Aguilar is sticking around along with Sister Asay. It's gonna be

great! Good news for the transfer, our area gets a car! That will be

amazing. Also, my new companion is Elder Smith, and Sis Aguilar tells

me he is funny and weird. Sounds like we will get along. With 30+

missionaries going home and only 22 coming in, the mission gets

smaller again! They ended up closing the entire zone of Woodland and

making it a district in the Davis zone. Now the mission has 12 zones.

That is a crazy change for sure! I am not training though (yet). It

has to happen soon haha.

We had an absolutely hilarious lesson with a guy named Richard we met

outside his house. He is definitely in some type of home for mentally

disabled and we taught him about the Book of Mormon. It was so funny

because he laughs at the most unexpected times. We asked him to read

the first two paragraphs in the intro to the book and upon reading

"Nephites and lamanites" he started laughing hysterically. I tell you

now, that is the only time I have ever full out laughed my hardest in

a lesson. It was the funniest experience ever and I couldn't hold it

in! He is a really funny guy and loves what we have to say, so we

should see him again soon.

It was a crazy week and although I'm kinda bummed about losing people

this transfer, I know the lord has a plan for this zone, and it's our

job to help him. I just hope I can do my best to put my district's

needs and my investigator's needs before my own. I hope we all can

learn to do this Christlike thing as well. It's hard, but that's

exactly why we have him. I know he lives and loves us.

Love you all! Elder Janson

My relief society/district! Sister Asay, Sister Saavedra, Sister

Aguilar, Sister Day, Me, Elder McKinley. I'm gonna miss sister day and

Aguilar and Elder McKinley! :((

When we get bored at a door approach

Service!

Me and Sister Titensor, both born in the same hospital... Lived in Hillsboro

 Last sister car photo! We get a car finally this transfer!

Saying bye to these sisters and this Elder. Elder McKinley

awkwardly putting his arm around the sisters but not touching them :))

I'm gonna miss them wayyyy too much