7/13/15 Too Many Little Hills

Family, it was another crazy week here in Eureka. Me and Elder
McKinley were busy beyond anything on Wednesday and Thursday, I've
never been so tired biking! There are too many little hills here, and
some very large ones! It gets a little crazy after a while. We went
all over and have to organize rides to parts of our area we can't bike
too. It's a real struggle with no car, but we've been managing
anyways.

I hope you saw our amazing video of me and Elder McKinley on the
dinosaurs at the park. That is the result of our tired minds and
bodies. We get to such levels of awareness :).

We had a crazy lesson with Sister Dade again and she expressed her
same irrational concerns about prayer and such. At the end was the
highlight. Elder McKinley suddenly speaks up and says, "I feel
impressed to share something with you." He goes on to say that the
lord needed her for his work, and he needed her now. The spirit in the
room was beyond tangible and I knew right then it was the lord
speaking to her. What a sweet experience! She is pretty hardened to
the spirit, but I know she felt something.

Last night I thought me and Elder McKinley had our suit coats stolen
out of the relief society room, and I was very distressed! Then at the
apartment I decided to write down all the blessings of the day. I was
having a bad day for sure. Right then our Bishop, bishop tulmau, calls
and explains he saw our coats in the room and took them into his
office just in case. I was so relieved, and found it as a direct
blessing for counting my blessings! It was sweet!

I hope all of you remember to count your blessings when everything can
be irritating you. It is hard, but you will be blessed for it. I can
testify to that!

Have a wonderful week!

Elder Janson

Sweet zone pictures at zone meeting!

 We might have enough BOMs for awhile

Eureka sunset

 

Me.... Scaring someone I guess

 

"Elder Janson being weird" in Sister Aguilar's words

"Elder Janson being weird again

7/6/15 Week of July 4th

Hello!

So it was quite a busy week to say the least. July 4th was a blast! As
you can see from the beautiful photos :). We went to hand out Otter
pops downtown, which worked surprisingly well even though the
Popsicles were pretty much kool aid in a tube. But we talked to so
many people, and again, I wonder, why is it so crowded in a place such
as Eureka?? What are people doing here!? Hahah it was fun.

We met our mission president on Saturday morning as well! We all went
to McKinleyville and him and a couple of his kids were there, as well
as his wife of course. He is such a nice jolly guy! His daughter
recently got back from a mission and she and her fiancé were there...
We're all just like 😑. Hahaha it was awesome though! It's an odd
feeling to have a different mission president, but he even said
himself, "if you need it or not, you now have a clean slate!" So here
we go!

Earlier in the week we taught a sister who is so incredibly stubborn I
couldnt believe it! She is a member, and we went with Bro Richards,
our ward mission leader to see her. We literally talked to her for 10
minutes trying to get her to say the opening prayer!!! She simply
would not. She was trying to be all joking about it but inside im
thinking, "your a grown woman and you are arguing about saying a
prayer!? Are you 5!?" Haha I understand people are afraid of what they
don't know how to do, but she knows how! Anyways it was a good lesson
in patience for me, because boy did she get on my nerves!

I was able to go on exchanges! I normally can't because, well, all the
people I have stewardship over in my district are sisters haha. Can't
really work that one out. But I was able to have Elder Green, the
other district leader come to my area for a day. It was so fun!! He
was one of the guys in my MTC room and we may be too close friends
haha. But it was one of the best exchanges. We went on splits with the
members that night and I had the coolest experience. I was with Bro
Timmons going to see some members, and I asked him about a particular
member we had down as being taught. Right then, brother Dement texts
us about that very members wife, who was in the hospital! It was
crazy, but I know the spirit was just leading us to someone who needed
us. So we went to the hospital, and I got to meet this lady's family
and everyone and participate in giving her a blessing, she's a super
nice Hawaiian lady and it was an amazing experience where I felt love
for someone I just met. I thoroughly believe only the spirit of God
can do that. I thank him for that!

It was a sweet week! I hope you all are being the amazing people I
know you to be.

Love, Elder Janson

Me and Elder Green contacting downtown, Elder Sutterfield snuck

some pics in, so many people!!!!

Taking pictures with street performers...

Hermana Figueroa and me and Elder Sutterfield

So patriotic

Elder McKinley lookin good

More patriotism at Bro Cowden's

Us and Jared, coolest kid!

Almost ate a dead lizard :)

Driving selfie!

Elder green pretending to be Elder McKinley, who is a roper

Thought you all would like this, what angles protect us from on the mission

Handing out lemonade downtown

Meeting new mission president!!!! President Wright

#westcoast

6/29/15 President Alba leaving today :(

Family,

Well we had our all mission conference and it was pretty sad to see
sister Alba and President Alba speak to us for the last time. I've
never cried twice in a meeting hahaha. It's weird how close you get to
them, and now it's all changed. The new mission President, President
Wright is here today, officially the president at 5. Pretty weird. I'm
looking forward to a new experience, but I will miss all that
President Alba and his wife did for us. They truly love the Savior.

I was able to get music on my iPad so I'm not dying in silence
anymore! Motab for life I guess haha. I also want to thank my parents
for the very patriotic tie, I'm excited to rock that. Ties are the
only thing we get for excitement. Kind of sorta kidding :).

We got to meet this man named Clay, who is amazing! He called a member
of our bishopric and asked to have missionaries come. He technically
is under the sisters area in 1st ward but we met with him to see what
his plan and expectations were for us. He is one of the most humble
men I have met and has addiction problems, but his ex wife is a member
and he knows the gospel and atonement will help him. Hopefully he can
feel the spirit through the sisters and eventually make that change in
his life.

Overall, the biggest news is the change in the mission president. Our
area is doing well and we are working with a lot of members trying to
get them to church! Got a couple older ladies to come and it was
awesome to see them there. We are trying as a district to step it up,
as well as our zone. It is not the easiest work way up here, but as we
keep trying and relying on him, we will have success!

I love you all!

Elder Janson

Saying bye to president :(

 Me and McKinley modeling in Humboldt county :)

Chick-fil-a life

6/22/15 What a week ...

What a week...

So this week literally started in quite a terrible way. Literally
right after emailing you all. We decided it would be a great idea to
to China Buffet for lunch! So we did! And ate some food, I didn't eat
a bunch, but we ate. Well that night we had dinner with the Hermanas.
The member happened to give us some really greasy tacos, that tasted
good then. Well that night we both just felt super queasy. We were
like what's going on!? We get home a little early because I couldn't
take it anymore. Well after a bit I just throw up everything and it
was nasty! So for the next three days I felt like crap and was never
hungry at members dinners. Not a fun experience getting food poisoning
form a Eureka China Buffet. Sometimes we are so smart haha. I drank a
lot of Pepto Bismol for a little bit, but I'm ok now :). What's
amazing though is now I'm pretty grateful to have 4 sisters in my
district and sisters in my ward as well, because they both came and
brought me sprite, Gatorade, crackers, and ginger ale! I was like,
wow! I'm good to go! Hahaha when Sister Day and Aguilar brought some,
as they walked away we were like, "did it hurt!?" "What?" They say.
"When you fell from heaven!!"  I think they really appreciated that.
Hahaha

A couple days ago Sister Day got sick as well, so we went to their
rescue and got her Pepto and gave her a blessing. It was pretty cool
to be able to help her when she needed it. We biked all the way to
their apartment and it was awesome! Our district is pretty awesome.

So I had another stake conference here! I just had the one in
Fairfield and now up here in Eureka! It was a bonus I suppose. We had
Marcus B. Nash and another Seventy here for this stake conference. The
stake presidency was being reorganized because the president was
moving. At the Saturday night one Elder Nash brought such power and
spirit to the meeting. It was just an interactive thing on ward
councils and then he brought President Alba and some missionaries and
others up, and testified of the power that we as missionaries have.
The spirit basically hit all of us like a ton of bricks. I loved it!
Elder Nash is basically my new favorite general authority. :).

We had our last interviews with President and Sister Alba. It's really
sad that they are leaving but it will bring a lot of changes! I don't
know what to expect, but then what do we really expect serving a
mission!? A bunch of unknown pretty much!

I love you all and hope you have a sweet week!

Elder Janson

  What the sisters see when they pick us up

Elder McKinley pulling a bike alongside him, had to borrow it while

he got his fixed

Me in little chair

Building an absolutely disgusting chicken coup. Now those clothes

smell like chicken poo.

6/15/15 First Week in Eureka!

Hey everybody.

It has been an interesting week to say the least. Up here in the
boonies there are some interesting people. We taught a man named Byron
who randomly came to church and wants to be baptized. The only twist
he is a bit crazy he told us many things I can not publicly say, and
he desperately wants to confront Dennis Quaid and Meg Ryan in Beverly
Hills because they hurt him and his family. He wants us to go with
him... Welcome to Eureka I guess. It was quite the interesting lesson.

We don't have a car... In Eureka 2nd ward! Which happen to be the
smallest up here in the stake, but it is still too big! So we got
permission from president to ride with the sisters in our zone, we
have Hermanas (Spanish sister missionaries) in our ward so they drive
us to dinner a lot :). It feels kinda funny riding with two girls
around town, but I ain't complaining I guess. Hahaha. It's interesting
being a district leader as well, especially when my district is me and
my companion, and 4 sisters... Hahah. I call them every night and see
how they're doing. It's pretty funny sometimes. I taught my first
district meeting on Friday and boy was I scared to teach a bunch of
missionaries about missionary work that have almost all been out
longer than me! But it's fun at the same time. I have to teach a gain
tomorrow... It's a constant struggle. But I'm doing good :).

We went to this community event up in Arcata called "Arts Alive." It
was just a bunch of people walking around and looking at art and music
and dancing that we couldn't partake of. We had a little table with a
board with a picture of a tree on it. Then we had sticky notes. We
called it our "gratitude tree!" They could put whatever they are
thankful for on it! I met a guy from Gainesville, FL and we talked for
a bit as well. All I've been wondering for a week is "why do people
live here!?" Haha it's such a random place and we've met like 10
members when we were just out contacting, they were on vacation! We're
like, "wow that's cool I guess!" It's such a weird little town and
they still have movie rental places, NO REDBOX. Like really! I'm
living in the 70s it feels like because it just has that vibe. It's a
cool little town though. Lots of one way roads... But there's like not
enough traffic to justify it. It's quite funny actually.

We've taught this guy named Sean who is super cool and he knows a lot
about the church and has talked to multiple missionaries. He is super
funny and makes a joke about everything. Hopefully we see him at
church pretty soon.

Well I hope you all are doing amazing! I miss and love you all a bunch!

Elder Janson

The Bozeman's, staunch Warriors fans :)

Me and Achal

Sister Majors and me at transfers! Best sister ever! Gonna miss her.

The Williams!

The doers of our laundry for 4.5 months! The VanWeerd's the best

people in the world.

Sisters, well Hermanas technically, givin us rides cause we lame

and don't have a car...

 Us being amazing

6/8/15 District Leader in Eureka!

Family!

So it has been the craziest and best week in the mission! I've never
been closer to a zone, and we had so much fun together. There's so
many members I don't want to leave and missionaries and everybody! But
I am moving on to go to better things. As you can see I'm going up to
Eureka, the northernmost zone in the mission. It's 4 hours from Santa
Rosa. Fun stuff! But I am also going to be a district leader, so I
can't act like I don't know what I'm doing anymore hahaha. 

It's pretty funny because my district consists of me and my companion and 4
sisters... People call it being relief society president. So that will
be full of awesomeness! I'm going to be companions with Elder
McKinley, and we went into the MTC together! He's super cool, and also
Sister Aguilar from my MTC district is in my district up there. I'm so
excited! They are the coolest people ever. I'm pretty nervous to be
district leader. On Thursday you get a call from president if you are
getting a leadership assignment, and our phone rang and president was
on it... We all freaked out haha. But I'm excited at the same time.
Definitely a new experience.

It's been another week full of sirens in the wonderful city of
Fairfield, and hearing of robberies and theft and all that fun stuff.
I've noticed while ice been here as well... I've never seen so many
ice cream trucks (or heard so many) in my life! It is really quite
creepy when we're walking around and you just hear eerie music
everywhere and creepy white vans drive by. Definitely makes it fun :).

We went to dinner at a Hmong members home, and they make way more food
than is needed. Luckily they don't get too offended if you don't eat a
bunch, or I would offend all of the Hmong people in the world. Me and
Elder Young were together on exchanges and Sister Clawson and Thomson
came as well. After dinner the sisters found a girl and talked to her
for a bit, then they wanted to say a prayer. They called us over, and
this girl wanted everybody to hold hands, and of course I ended up
next to Sister Thomson. I haven't ever held a sisters hand for so long
hahaha. It was pretty funny. Then after that, a poor little boy was in
a corner with his mother blocking our view of him. Sister Clawson,
trying to be all friendly, says in her loud voice, "Are you playing
Hide and Seek!?" The mom turns around and freaks out. It turns out the
kid has his pants down to his knees and was peeing in the corner. Oh
my gosh we lost it and we still haven't let Sister Clawson forget
that.

Because of transfers, we like to write in missionaries journals and
sign it and stuff. So I ended up with the privilege to have 4 sisters
journals on my desk one night and they all literally said, "it better
be heartfelt!" So I sat and wrote a bunch of heartfelt journal
entries. It was loads of fun.

The other night a representative form salt lake came to do some new
pamphlet training in our stake center. He also ended up coming to
watch us as we nightly planned at 9. So that was interesting! He just
watched and took notes as we did our thing. We usually just plan for
what we do the next day and what we will teach. Then he asked us
questions. He works at the MTC as well. It was cool having the big guy
in our apartment :). We planned very well that night needless to say.

I watched a video I've seen many times before, called "The Savior Want
to Forgive." I loved the message of the man who was involved in crime
and drugs, and felt like he had no right to Christ's grace. It was
really needed for me because recently people have been challenging our
idea of grace and the enabling power available to us from it. I know
that Christ love us and simply want s us to just acknowledge him and
accept his sacrifice, and he will make up the rest. We can't sit and
do nothing. We must do our part. But that doesn't change the fact that
without him, we would be lost. I know Jesus Christ lives. I know the
atonement is there for us if we only turn to him, and don't reserve
anything. I still need to read the full talk, but I recommend it for
sure.

I love all of you guys!

Elder Joseph Janson

 Had fun at the food bank...

You know what that is ...

 WML Ben Nelson and his wife!

 He's helping us watch our preach my gospel DVDs.

The Fairfield Zone

Saying bye to Dominique!

Me, My "sister" elder Huff, and my "dad" elder roper

06/01/15 Its better than you think

Dear Family,

We had a sweet week! Taught like 21 lessons is week, so that was
rather surprising! Most of the lessons were not even planned by us.
The lord pretty much just put people into our path that would listen
to us. We had so many lessons yesterday and we were fasting, so it was
quite the grind.

We had an interesting experience on Friday I believe. We met a guy who
used to go to church in the past, but has now gone to a different
faith. The conversation turned into him condemning church history and
saying that Joseph Smith was dishonest, we are a cult, and all kinds
of ridiculous things. He even went so far to say he got something from
You-Tube. I was trying to be respectful, but at that point I said, "oh
wow, YouTube is a great source definitely." He completely ignored me.
We ended up just bearing our testimony and leaving, but something cool
about this was I felt the spirit even through the contention while I
bore testimony. When we got in the car, the song that happened to be
playing in our car, was "Praise To The Man." It was so cool! Then
later that day we taught a new family, and the guy was arguing saying
that we believe grace is only achieved after denying all ungodliness,
so he thought it sounded impossible to achieve grace. We finished the
lesson and testified, and got in the car. The song playing was none
other but "Amazing Grace." We freaked out! It was the coolest thing
ever. God was saying basically, "it is all true what you are teaching
and testifying of.

So living in Fairfield is interesting. If you don't know, our car
window got smashed in while we weren't using it and were with Elder
Young for about 9 days. Luckily nothing was taken, but you can't
really go one day without hearing sirens in this beautiful place haha.
It's definitely fun.

We saw a young woman from our ward sitting in our car in this one
neighborhood we were in on Saturday. We went and talked to her and
she's super cool and we asked where her friend was she had talked
about that had seen us walking a lot. She was about to meet her! So
her friend came out and we introduced ourselves and talked for a
second. They were both like 17. It was super funny to see them and
then their other friend named Joseph was dropped off, and we had been
trying to see him for weeks! We set up a lesson with him and got to
know him better. Members helping out definitely is a plus :). You
never know who the lord will send you too.

Overall it was an amazing week and I'm sad I will probably get
transferred next week. i love this ward! It's huge and has a bunch of
awesome people who are all about helping us. Dominique is doing great
and we have almost finished her new member lessons she still has top
notch questions for us and texts us whenever she does.

I'm grateful for all of your prayers and support, and good luck to
everyone like Jake and Corey going on missions soon! It's closer than
you think, but better than you think as well.

Love all of you.
Elder Janson

More Chalking ...

Yo Sushi!