JOHNSONS AND THEIR MISSION

 HERE COMES WINTER

   I know that many of us look at the next few months with dread and others look at them with excitement and anticipation.  As I see pictures of people shoveling walks in Utah this past week, we must admit that we are excited to be in Canada.  Well, at least this part of Canada.   We arrived last february and we have seen some cold, rain, wind, but we have not seen any real snow.  Now we all know that there are no guarantees.  We had a member of our church show us a video from 'the storm of the century'.  In 1996 starting the week before Christmas, snow began to fall in Victoria.  And it just kept going. 9 days later there was nearly 5 feet of snow on the ground.  When you add snow to rain, you have some serious consequences. Especially when nobody has ever driven in it, when there are no snowplows in town, when nobody owns a snow shovel. Example: in a boating city where boats worth half a million dollars (in 1996!) were crushed and sunk when the boat docks couldn't handle the weight and collapsed. Roofs all over town collapsed because they were not built for this kind of  weight.   Ok, I know that I am going on and on, but I want all of us to be prepared for winter. Some of you live in Hawaii, some of you live in the Yukon.  Either way, be prepared for this coming season.

                                    NEWS FROM THE LAST MONTH OR EVEN TWO

   

EYES TO SEE

       I was trying to explain to my children and grandchildren the other day how much I want them to somehow experience what we are experiencing in the mission field.  I know that is not possible, but haven’t all of us had that experience?  Something incredible happens, your mind shifts, your heart expands, your very soul is lifted and you yearn to find a way to transfer the experience to your kids.  You come away from that ‘trying’ only to say silly things like “I guess you had to be there” or “you can’t know what you can’t know”.   Anyway, just like you, I ask God every day to help us to be blessed with the sight that Jesus speaks of when he talks about ‘vision’ that has very little to do with eyes.

OCTOBER /NOVEMBER MISSIONARY NEWS

I know that many of you watch or listen to LDS general conference every 6 months.  I honestly don’t think there has been a conference since 1970 when, at the end, I don’t say “that was the best conference we have ever had”.   Same thing happened a month ago.  We had the privilege of having a bunch of missionaries come and have breakfast with us and watch a session of conference together.

Once again, as transfers take place and we try to get to know new missionaries up and down Vancouver Island.  We attend church, district conferences, visit them in their apartments, work on memorizing scriptures with them, attend baptisms, perform service projects, attend stake missionary correlation meetings, etc.  But honestly, 6 weeks is not enough time to get to know 28 separate young people in a way that can add what we hope to add to their world. Then transfers happen all over again and the process begins of building a lasting relationship.

Valerie’s sister and her husband have gone to Ireland to service as missionaries. Eric and Tina McMurray from Calgary are now officially in the Scotland/Ireland Mission.   They loved the MTC, waited for an extra week or so for visa and flight plans to be in place, and are now ‘settled’ into their place.  We have communicated with them using Marco Polo while all of this was happening and it was just fun being able to be with them as they began that process. As they share their weekly blog it is a reminder that senior couples around the world are giving of themselves to build the kingdom.  We feel to thank all of them.

 As we have told you before, so many of these missionaries here in Canada Vancouver have come from different provinces in Canada.  We had lunch yesterday with 2 Elders who are actually from the same town in Alberta. They even attended the same high school.  We had one set of sisters when we first arrived here 9 months ago, who had been best friends in high school and ended up being companions.  Pretty unique stuff for those of us who were in the mission field in earlier years and had no connection to any of our companions.

We have mentioned this ‘project’ that we have taken on regarding the ‘island pioneer saints’ that we are recording their testimonies and their conversions.  That has been so inspiring to do.  For those of you who saw the Alberta/British Columbia fireside on October 15, you heard sister Renlund and Sister Watson talk about their Canada roots. Sister Watson is a Raymond Alberta girl and so many of these young people here in our mission come from Raymond or other places in Southern Alberta.  Sister Renlund talked about her Cahoon and and Lybbert grandparents and anyone in Western Canada knows that those names are of faithful people who have had a significant impact on the growth of the LDS church in Canada for generations.   As we work on this project and travel up and down this island, we see the strength of families who came, stayed, raised families, built chapels, made and kept covenants, and then died, leaving the work to the next generations.   Anyway, the experience of meeting and hearing the stories of these folks is inspiring.

In mid October I had one of those 'pioneer saints' call us to see if we could help to move a grandchild and friend.  They had gotten into a tough position and they needed assistance with packing.  We spent 3 days helping these 2 kids (one 29 and one 31) get moved from downtown Victoria to Dawson City, Yukon.  That is a 2000 mile drive north!  Go look on a map and get a feel for that drive. Beautiful but desolate.  Both of these kids have some disabilities and only one of them is capable of driving.  So  we finally got them on their way.  It took them 8 days to get to their destination, but they arrived.  I checked the temperature yesterday morning before we left for church.  Here in Victoria it was 39 degrees fahrenheit.  In Dawson City, Yukon, it was 30 below zero!  Welcome to Canada.  We will stay in touch with these kids as they keep trying to move forward with their lives.

I have also mentioned to you that we have reestablished a friendhip with one of Valerie's high school friends.  There were 4 or 5 girls in Sherwood Park Alberta that were in the church and were close during their high school years.  Reanna is one of those girls.  Wonderful person and the timing of our contacting now, is pretty impressive. Think about your history here. So in 1971 Reanna was the senior class president, female, 1st nation (indiginous or American Indian for those of us who didn't grow up with the Canadian lingo) and Mormon. That is quite an impressive combo.  She married another 1st nation guy and they moved to Yellow Knife, Northwest Territories.  They raised their family there and lived in that community for 40 years. Her husband has been a chief of one of the trirbes up there and has worked for the rights of indiginous people around the world.  He travels to all the nations who have populations above the arctic circle.  So he has spent a lot of his time in scandinavian countries, iceland, etc.  It is an issue that matters to these folks.  She moved back down south to be with her parents as they were aging and so is now down here in warmer country.   I only provide all of the detail because the first nation issue in Canada is HUGE.  Many of you watch the news and the Pope was here in Canada to specifically apologize for his churches involvement in the abuse and the terrible things that happened in the 'residential schools' here in Canada over a long period of time.  The original idea was to 'civilize' these kids by taking them out of their 'uncivilized indian' homes and teaching them the ways of the 'white man'.   Oh, what a problem it created in this country. They have now created a 'truth and reconciliation act' which has become part of modern Canadian life.  Example: look at your cell phone contract, or your monthly mortgage statement or your utility bill. Or walk into a restaurant here in Victoria.  Imagine at the bottom of that bill or on the wall was a 'disclaimer' that basically says 'we want to recognize that we are living on someone elses land.  We are grateful for the tribes and the first nations people who allow us to use their land'.  Interesting, eh?  Anyway, we had lunch again with her just a fews weeks ago.  It has been very educational to discuss this topic with those who have seen it first hand. Quite an education for us.

  The Elders and Sisters who serve missions anywhere on planet earth need to be thanked.  This is a lot of work and they do it so well.  We have learned to love and respect these missionaries.  With all of the other things that we do, when it comes to the young missionaries, we have a mandate from our mission president.  That mandate is to help the young missionaries to be 'lifelong disciples of Jesus Christ'.  In all of our contact with them, from apartment and car checks, to district and zone councils, to weekly encouragement messages, to teaching with them, to taking them to lunch,  everything is about them continuing to be disciples of Christ when they return home.  We are hoping that you will help us to do that.  It is going to take a team effort.

We had stake conference a few weeks back.  Wonderful music, fabulous talks, and for us being able to meet with so many of these "pioneer" saints to set up appointments to come and record them.  One of the speakers was a convert of 3 weeks.  Wonderful young man who actually approched the sister missionaries in a park, told them he felt they had something to share with him and he wanted to meet with them.  How is that for a golden contact.  Anyway, people who are joining this church are doing so because they feel something.  We call that the Spirit of God or the Holy Ghost.  I personally believe that all of us have felt it at one time or another.  Our prayer for all of you as well as for us, is that we will follow those promptings.  They bring peace, joy, unity, and love.

Thanks for taking the time to read our ramblings.

Till next time, please know that we are happy, and hope you are too.  God is good and he would like us to be good to one another. Happiness is the end result.

Scott and Valerie Johnson

(Elder and Sister Johnson)

CANADA VANCOUVER MISSION

THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER DAY SAINTS.

Hard to imagine that she is 90. (no not sister Johnson)

The beach that we live 6 blocks from

Great friends in high school - still great friends

A new missionary in our mission who happens to be great friends with Valerie's sister Tamara in Alberta.

Some of our 'Island Pioneers" are pretty senior and don't expect to be around for long.  Amazing people

We have told you that Butchard gardens is in our area.  Seasons changes and so do the Gardens.

Just fun to have missionaries over for lunch.  Sister Johnson is an incredible cook.

A private grade school right on the beach.  Even in the cold they will have field trips at the waters edge.

Just wanted to shock you here.  This is 5 ounces of local greens for $6.00.  Hey, it's washed ! 

Veterans are appreciated in ways that we can never really show.  Thanks for all who serve and have served. (he is 93)