Elder Joseph Janson, California Santa Rosa Mission: 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