February 8, 2016 Miracle week

Hey family and everyone!

Well it's now the last week of the transfer. We find out this Saturday
who stays or leaves next Tuesday. I'm unreasonably nervous for it this
time. For some reason I've had a lot of dreams I'm staying here for 6
months and I gotta keep my streak going of 4.5 months in every area!
Haha I'm ready to move on but we will see.

Monday night we had the funniest dinner! We had this big salad with
crazy dressing and chicken. It was at the Enfields and they have like
4 girls and 1 boy. We both had finished eating when their girl says,
"why is there a slug in my salad??" The mom says "that's not a slug..
Oh wait it is..." Hahaha there was probably about a one inch slug in
the lettuce! Good thing we had finished eating! When we left we
thanked them for the slug salad :).

We continue to see Ron and Wendy, and we realized they need to pray
about the Book of Mormon. We had asked him if he had and he said no!
This is the investigator who comes every week with his wife and knows
more deep doctrine than most of us. And he hasn't prayed to know the
BOM to be true! We just threw down on how important that is and
challenged to explicitly ask. Sometimes that is the hardest thing for
people, learning to get personal revelation like we talked about in
elders quorum.

We have been finding lots of new investigators for the YSA sisters
here and they are thrilled! We had taught this guy Chiko and his
friend the whole restoration and they both took a BOM. So we went back
with the sisters and they taught a lesson with us there. After it,
they said, "we haven't taught an investigator lesson in 2 weeks! Haha
so we were glad to help them out. We also have taught the girl Breanna
who lives with our members and she doesn't want to meet with the
sisters in YSA! We are like.. Ok we can teach you but you need to have
them teach you eventually. She insists we teach her I guess. But she
is wanting to be baptized so we've seen so many doors open and people
talk to us. I'm convinced it's just because we keep trying!

Saturday night is when we taught Breanna, then later we found a
family! This Hispanic lady Alicia and her two kids. We gave them two
BOMs and are seeing them tomorrow! Again another open door after only
two knocked doors after our previous lesson. Pretty crazy. Last
miracle was last night was clearly the super bowl, and we knocked on a
former investigators door, Marie, and there's like 15 people there
partying and watching the game and drinking, and they all say, "come
in!" Haha so we went in and met them and watched the last ten minutes
of the super bowl, plus talked to the investigator for like an hour, I
count that as a miracle! Haha she's baptist and not changing anytime
soon, but it was sick!

One tragic thing did happen. The man me and Elder Thomas baptized,
Byron, passed away this week. He was only about 31. All I know is his
heart stopped and they found him behind a store in Eureka. I saw it on
Facebook and contacted Elder Thomas. I was thinking out of two people
I have been there to baptize, one is now in the spirit world. It's
crazy to think, but I am comforted in knowing his effort and where he
is. I know he is learning more, and who knows, maybe I could do his
temple work!

I know this gospel is true, and that the Book of Mormon is the book
that will bring in the most power to change us, and I can see it
changing me and others as they apply it and the gospel of Christ, our
beloved savior. I love him, and love you all.

Elder Janson

 Elder Adamson fixing our hoop in the stake center haha

Us picking oranges for members in the stake

February 1, 2016 Crazy week of awesomeness

Dear Family and friends,

This week was an eventful one to say the least, on Tuesday we had
district meeting and such things, that's always a good time and we are
pretty weird together so that is a relief from normal mission life
haha. On Wednesday me and Elder Waites went with our member to help
this older lady set up her email and learn how to use her computer
better. A member in the bishopric had thought she wasn't a member and
is her realtor so knew her that way and told us to go help her out.
Turns her and her sister are members but we couldn't find their
records, and they haven't been to church in forever. It was pretty
interesting trying to teach someone how to simply click a box to write
their name down. Elder Waites was like, "I can't teach so simple like
that!" So I was stuck doing most of it haha. Anyone who knows me knows
that I don't like explaining processes like that, so it was a good
exercise of patience I guess.

We had our last lesson with Ian this week, a younger guy with a wife
and little boy who has been reading in the Book of Mormon and came to
church last Sunday. The Nordfelts, the senior missionary couple over
military relations has been coming with us. This week we felt that we
needed to drop him because he simply said he was not going to be
baptized, that it wasn't his time. So we thought what else do we need?
He was reading the Book of Mormon, but he wasn't getting anywhere, I
could tell the nordfelt's wanted to stop going over haha. We will keep
in contact, but we won't go back again. It's weird when you yourself
has to tell the investigator, "well we can't come anymore, because
you're not ready!"

On Thursday Elder Waites had a doctors appointment in Fairfield, so we
went there after studies and after we had a lunch with the Fairfield
zone! I know lots of missionaries there so it was cool to see them,
and I cracked down on Sutterfield and Hawkins to go see our
investigator Christina who moved to Fairfield. She's the one who got
ran over by a truck. So hopefully they see her soon! During that time
we saw this guy in a car who had this knarly beard, he dark long hair
on top, but his beard was extremely groomed and gray and looked like a
paint brush! Haha so me and Waites said it was a weird "beard" day.
Whenever we see a man with a crazy beard, we see it as a sign that the
day will be weird. It turned out true! We went to our dinner that
night and the mom totally forgot! So her son Tyler says, "shes up
there counting money..." She comes down with 16 dollars, 9 of it
quarters! Haha so when we got Panda Express that night I just handed
him it and said, "sorry man." Haha it was a great day

Saturday we planted a bunch of grass for is group doing a restoration
project near there church. It was pretty fun and I got to use a
dibble! Look it up, it's a real tool, with a ridiculous name. Then we
helped a member paint and such and we did like 6 hours of service that
day! It was pretty sweet.

The only thing not good I have to say is the truth is, sometimes we
get pretty annoyed at random rules and members who can tend to be
judgmental about us missionaries. I am tempted to get irritated at
them for saying we aren't working hard, when really they have no place
to even do that. So it's been tough trying to deal with that. The good
thing is the members are very aware of the missionary work going on,
so we get lots of help. I guess I need to work on being more humble,
but don't we all. I hope I can improve on little things like this,
because this is how we get better, through the gospel. It is not meant
to be comfortable, for sure! If you get anything from this, realize
that when we are out here working it is not all fun and games. It gets
boring and discouraging, and many missionaries are not good examples.
But we are doing best to only judge ourselves and how we can get
better. I pray we can remember the savior and how would want us to
improve ourself and not judge others. Anyways, I love you all!

Elder Janson

 Since we have vegetarians in our zone we showed this to them.

Thought it was pretty funny

 Two elders in our mission saw Lindsay Stirling in Petaluma. I'm

pretty jealous. But the purpose of this picture is directly behind the

missionaries is our investigator Ian, in the colorful jacket! He told

us about how excited he was! Hahaha

Me at zone meeting..

An older picture of us at Buffalo Wild Wings!

January 25, 2016

Hello friends,

This week consisted of some service on Saturday with the zone leaders
in 1st Ward. We helped a family clean up their house to get ready to
move. It was great and a difference in schedule for us. Lately it's
been a lot of monotony! Service is what breaks it. On exchanges this
week I was with Elder Lohman one of the zone leaders who also happens
to be in my MTC room, so we are buds basically. During that day we all
started asking each other nonstop, "wait, what's goin on?" For some
reason we thought it was absolutely hilarious, so we still say it
whenever we don't know what to say. We are pretty weird when we get
bored, but the zone is getting a lot closer. That's one of the best
things about being a missionary, is helping each other out.

We had a sweet lesson with Ron and Wendy, and I just felt prompted to
tell them that if they kept reading from the Book of Mormon but also
prayed, they would never lose what they have gained in these studies.
Ron was worried that he might back out and not get baptized. They are
some of the most cautious people I've ever seen, but when they do
choose to get baptized they will be rock solid. But he hasn't prayed
about the Book of Mormon, so that was a focus of the lesson.

We are teaching this girl who is 15 and her brother is 17. Sara and
Zach Ormand, and they are so cool! It is an interesting situation,
because their dad is a member but has separated himself from the
church. Zach told us he asked if he could go to church, but his dad
said no, and told him the Book of Mormon doesn't have any authority
behind it. What a misled man holy cow! But we do get to go see them
and Sara is way interested as well. We will keep being their friends
and try to get some priests and laurels in the Ward to step up.

Anyways, thank you all for your prayers and your steadfastness. I miss
and love you all.

Elder Janson

January 18, 2016 New Ipad

Hello everybody!

Well it turns out I had to get a new iPad and it is now here. I have
some pictures and video of us having fun destroying the old one. It
was quite the occasion. We had a sweet time on Saturday when YSA had a
baptism for this guy named Andrew. Ron and Wendy came, our
eternigators you could say. They are doing great but have missed
church a couple times. We are not sure what is holding them up for
baptism, but we just keep meeting with them and the Ward is
fellowshipping  them great.

Not much has happened, we just are working and trying to see people in
our area book and it is raining quite a bit now, and California says
its in a drought! Good thing we are in car or we would always be
soaked, like I was last year in Santa Rosa. It's good for this area
though.

Don't forget how important each of you are to your Heavenly Father, he
loves you individually and infinitely, I promise you. I see it
everyday when I talk to people, and don't get discouraged yourself. It
can be easy, but don't let it happen. The Holy Ghost isn't the one
telling you that you are worthless. I hope you all are positive and
think how you can be better than yesterday. That's the goal of the
gospel, individual progress to bless others around us.

Love you guys!

Elder Janson

California has weird roads

The insides of an iPad!

January 11, 2016

Dear Family,

Well I'm emailing on a computer because i have to get a new ipad! Craziness it is. We have a new investigator named Rob Perkins, his wife is a member and he has been coming to church forever, and now he finally wants to be baptized! just happens to be with us i guess. The ward is super excited about it. and it all came definitely not from us! It is a pure blessing.

We have a zone conference and zone meeting this week, and we are getting pretty close as a zone. that is the best part of the day man when we work together and have success together. It's sad because Elder Adamson broke his collar bone and has to get surgery when we were playing flag football. He did get my flag though.. And I broke my iPad, and sister Christianson, who went in the MTC with me, also has a broken iPad! It is a broken year folks so get ready for it! I'm not gonna write too long today so I apologize, but i do know that the savior lives. We had a cool meet and greet with the stake presidency and Brother Beauchamp in my ward who is high councilor over missionary work. They taught about the atonement and let us ask many deep questions and i love it! You learn a bunch. I am looking forward to a week of a lot of new lessons! Love you guys!

Elder Janson

January 4, 2016 Transfers already!

Dear Family,

If you haven't figured it out yet, this Friday we had a very
interesting day. First of all in the morning we had football with
members from third Ward and Elder Adamson and his companion came, they
are in 2nd Ward. Well the last play I intercepted it and ran down the
field, Adamson was quarterback for the other team and so he was trying
to pull my flag. He dove at me sideways and hit the ground on his
shoulder. He then stands up and says, "I broke my collarbone" and we
all laugh like he's joking and say next play! But he's not joking. He
says, "no really I broke my collarbone." Bishop from 3rd Ward had the
funniest look on his face after that. He is doing good, he is in the
room with all of us, soon he has to get surgery though. Then later
that night I made the brilliant choice to set my Book of Mormon and my
iPad on top of our car as I put stuff in the back. And guess what? I
never took them off. We were leaving dinner with our member who lived
in the outskirts of Vacaville, so we were driving 60 down this country
road. I didn't know until we got to our next destination, where I
realized it and freaked out. We drove all the way back out there and
there it was, in the pitch black we saw it on the middle of the road.
It was pretty messed up, the screen was toast. But the miracle? It
still worked. The lesson? The Book of Mormon stayed on the car! Talk
about a firm foundation.

So the iPad is fixed so I'm alright haha. Transfers are tomorrow and
me and Elder Waites are both staying in this Ward. I'm so happy
because that means I will be in each of my areas for 3 transfers! 4
areas and 3 transfers in each and every one. Quite an accomplishment.
I am still district leader here, so I've been district leader forever,
at least it feels forever.

We had a lesson with Ian our investigator who is very speculative and
studies pretty much everything religion. We brought the military
relations senior missionaries and  they helped a lot. After the lesson
Elder Nordfelt tells me he understands why we didn't quite know what
we would talk about, because Ian talks forever about whatever. He
asked if they should come to the next lesson, and sister Nordfelt
says, "no!" Haha I thought was so funny, she realized the reality of
many of our lessons, they are painful sometimes because people are not
on the same page as us obviously. Sometimes they get as off topic as
you could think of. It's funny stuff.

Well I love you guys and hope your new year is better than our zone's
has been! We've broken many things, like collarbones and iPads. Just
remember the atonement fixes broken stuff! :)

Elder Janson

 Jones eating some bdubs wings. He is going to Santa Rosa Peterson

lane, my greenie area! Pretty excited for him

 My iPad after it fell off our car.. At 60 miles an hour. It is

fixed now lol

December 28, 2015 After Christmas

Hello!

Well seeing as I just talked to the family this week will be a bit
shorter.. Sorry everyone! Haha we didn't do much on Christmas, well,
because who wants missionaries knocking on their doors on Christmas?
Who wants us knocking on their door anyways!? Haha it exponentially
decreases on the holidays. So we chilled a lot and planned and stuff.
I got pretty bored not gonna lie!

We ate with our members on Christmas and they have like 6 little kids.
What kinda crazy person has 6 kids!? Oh... I guess some people do. It
was fun haha. They tried to use their new little toy that puts whipped
cream in our face but it didn't work.. Haha I was prepared with my tie
and jacket off, but we didn't get creamed so we good! The Ward was a
little more empty except a bunch of visitors, so we are gonna try to
get back in the groove of seeing our investigators again. We had an
amazing dinner with Ron and Wendy, they grilled some steaks out in 40
degree weather, that's how much they like us! Haha jk but it was
amazing.

Well I will talk to all soon, and have a great New Years! We will
celebrate as much as we can possibly do as missionaries :)

Love you guys!

Elder Janson

Me wearing my stockings!

December 21, 2015 Interviews and such

Family and friends,

Well today Elder Waites wanted to go to the huge Asian market here and
look around. Everything was very... Asian and very expensive haha. So
we did that. We had a sweet week of visiting a bunch of members and
showing them the Christmas video. We went to go see Bro Alvarado and
he is wanting to get back into being active and bringing his family
back. He is so cool and the spirit was there for sure. I love visiting
members when they aren't annoying! Haha

We had interviews with president this week and I told him I want to
sing in zone and mission stuff! Haha I'm turning over a new leaf and
I'll sing sometimes. President Wright is such a funny guy, everything
we say he just laughs with a pure old guy laugh! Haha I say that with
the most respect. It was good to see him and his wife, they are super
cool.

So sister Randall, a missionary in our Zone has a twin sister. Haha
Sister Randall in our zone, her name is Taylor Randall. And her
sisters name is TARA DAWN Randall. I thought you would find that
interesting mom... Haha I freaked out when she told me that. Our zone
is full of awesome missionaries. Well I would say full but there are
only 12 of us which is very small. But we rock it!

Well I will see my family Christmas Day! But for all of you other
folks, talk to ya soon! Have an amazing time celebrating the savior
Jesus Christ's birth. He is the bomb talked about in the BOM! (Book of
Mormon) in other words, he is the reason we celebrate. Check out
Christmas.mormon.org before it is too late!

Love you all!

Elder Janson

Reunion of missionaries at our Christmas party!

Went Christmas chalking!

Check out the expiration date! Same as my ministerial certificate hahaha

December 14, 2015

How's the life?

Merry early Christmas! This is a great time of year to share our
testimonies and people won't look at us totally crazy! So take
advantage of it. We are doing a new thing that I got the idea from a
random missionary in Canada. He randomly sent a finding packet out to
any missionaries he saw, and I happened to be one of them. It has all
these awesome ideas to find people to teach. Anyways, one thing it
says is #TOAST, talk out awkward situations together. In case you are
misinformed, missionary work can awkward as mess! So we are going to
text in our best awkward moment with that hashtag in effort to break
the awkward bubble. It gets kinda fun sometimes!

Recently we have been seeing every member possible, in response to our
bishop's challenge to give every member a Christmas initiative card.
EVERY MEMBER HOUSEHOLD. That's about 215 in our Ward. We 80 left so we
are rolling! The other day we walked forever and saw members, then a
random 15 year old kid was chillin with his girlfriend (we assume) and
he yells, "are you guys missionaries?" We of course respond and were
like, "you wanna learn form missionaries?" He's says yea! We get his
info and walk away and hear he girl say, "why did you do that!?" Haha
that's great. We went by and his dad told us to go away :). Worth a
shot.

In our lesson with Ron and Wendy we simply invited them to read from
the Book of Mormon everyday and pray about it. They have been coming
to church every week for awhile but are going their own slow pace on
the road to baptism. I felt they needed to get serious about the BOM
reading. Hopefully they do! They are the coolest couple ever and are
so sincere. Keep them in your prayers.

We are getting ready for our Christmas party next week with a couple
other zones and I get to see Elder Johnson! My daughter! Haha it
should be good. It is busy these days so time is flying and it's
pretty weird. I just keep chugging!

I hope you all are being bosses and have a good Christmas break.

Love you all!

 Did a 1st Ward ministry night here in Vacaville stake and went to a

less actives home who had the train set from heaven! Reminded me of

when I used to watch toy trains and trucks drive around for fun as a

kid

Elder Waites had family friends that sent him this bomb diggety tree!

December 7, 2015

Family,

This zone is crazy! Today we all got nerd swords and a nerd gun and
played this zombie game in the cultural hall hahaha we had quite a
time. We have so many crazy characters in this zone!

This week we had a sweet lesson with Charles and he brought up some of
the same concerns about the world we are in. It just seems to keep
getting worse! And so many I talk to get very discouraged, but
something I've noticed is that I'm not discouraged at all, I know is
isn't it, this isn't just a little life and then it's over, there's a
point to it! Charles seems to be overwhelmed by this world and we are
trying to help him get a better relationship with God and he said,
quote, "I'll read the whole thing!" About the Book of Mormon haha. He
is pretty golden.

This week we went on exchanges with 3rd Ward so I was with Elder
Jones, in my area. We have the challenge from Bishop to see every
member, that is household, and give them a #ASaviorIsBorn card. Every
household! That is about 215 doors here in Vacaville. So me and Jones
started doing that, and we got three little lessons showing the new
video, and the members gave us a referral for someone to go see. We
were texting the zone a bunch trying to bug when with all of our
miracles hahaha we had like three positive door experiences in a row,
which NEVER happens! Hahaha miracles happen man!

Other than that, it's just the norm, we are gearing up for Christmas!
I love all of you guys, and during testimony meeting yesterday our
member we go see every week, Tommy, got up, and I feel the spirit so
much when he goes up there, he has been through a lot more than me,
and I know the savior has changed his life. I know the atonement is
real, and what other witness do I need? The gospel is true! You know
the truth of a work by its fruit, and I see people change every day.
That is truth. That is light. That is Christ! #SpreadTheLight!

I love you guys!

Elder Janson

If you look close it says Janssen tree, close enough!

Festival of trees put on by the stake here, they donate trees and

people buy them for others, this is my favorite, in honor of Star

Wars.