Returned With Honor

Is there anything better than greeting a returning missionary at the airport!!!

Katelyn and Paige were adorable.  Such great sisters.

Friends forever.

They drove up from St. George this morning and will be home again tonight.

Jamie and Challis brought their little ones.  

Paige made this great sign. 

Here he comes!

Greeting with love from Grandma Bonnie. 

Randy and Hayden with Spencer

All together again.  For a little while.

Chantel, along with Paige and Katelyn helped with the lunch.

Wayne gives Spencer another hug. 

It was so great to have Lauren here.

Katelyn and Luke made this day so much fun.

Katelyn was so excited at the airport she could not stand still.  

It's been over three years since she has seen Spencer.

Now Spencer, Luke and Katelyn can all speak Spanish together.

It was great having so many of the St. Johns come.

Julie had to work, but made it to greet Spencer at our home.

Love this missionary beyond words.

CU Soon

So this was my last hot week in Juarez. Pretty sad to think about it. But it's cool to think that in just 2 short days I will be back in good old Bountiful and I'll see all the people I love all over again! I hope you all still like me just as much as I like you! But this letter will be short,, sorry.. 

But I was basically trying not to think about going home this week and did great untill the president called a meeting on Thursday for all the missionaries who are going home and it was pretty cool, but made me realize I can't avoid it, so I just mentally prepared myself to go home and see all of you. And of course I worked harder than ever, we contacted and we taught and we had investigators at church and it was all fun. Working was the best way to spend my time this last week. But the time has come and in 2 days we will be reunited. I can't wait too see everyone! 

I love you all. 

Untill we meet again.

Love,

Elder St John

Still Love Saint Rose

So all is well here. This last week we worked a lot with the members.  It was really fun. 

Wednesday we took an 18 year old with us to do visits and we ended up contacting. But it turned out great! We contacted one family that let us in right away! I was excited. We shared the restoration and they loved it.  We should be back this week to visit them!  We also contacted another family and they told us to come back Thursday, so we did and the WHOLE family listened to us, and we will be back this week as well. I love contacting.  I hope I can still find investigators and continue being a missionary at home.. because I love it soo much! And that's about it for the week.. Sorry for a short letter, but good news. I now have pics!! Hope you enjoy!

Love,

Elder St John

Elder Christensen with Elder St. John

Me and a horse.

Pic of Elder Gonzales next week por que no tengo! Perdón... 

Week Two in Saint Rose

So It's been a week since I got here to Santa Rosa, and I like it here a lot! It has a lot of hills and it's pretty high up.  If you ever look at pictures of Ciudad Juarez there is a mountian that says "La Biblia es verdadera Leala".  It's written in big letters on the mountain.  I'm basically right under that.  It's soo cool here, and the food is delicious.  I'm trying to load up on enchiladas and mole before I go home so that I don't miss it soo much.

But the highlights of this week are: 

Contacting, a lot. We are always looking for those new investigators. 

DIvisions, I went with Elder Lenis to an area called Mauricio Corridor, an even more hilly area.  It was soo pretty, you could see El Paso from the house and it was beautiful. But we had some funny experiences in divisons, like a guy looked at his wrist and said, "Well it's time for me to go."  And he left.  But the funny part was that he wasn't even wearing a watch.  And he stared at his wrist like 3 seconds flat.. Lol But we also contacted this girl in her house and she wouldn't let go of my hand and stared at me the whole contact.  And when I shook her hand to say goodbye she WOULDN'T let go of it so I had to pry her hand off of mine. Also we went to a store to go to the bathroom and on the way out this crazy old woman grabbed my arm and started asking me if I lived in the white house and if I was related to Obama.  So lots of weird things happend on Friday and Saturday.  But it was really fun. 

Another funny thing about being in Mexico right now is that people always bug me about Donald Trump. Many think I'm related to him and many just complain to me about him, and the funny part is that I probably know less about him than anyone else.  So it's pretty weird.  But if you thought racism was dead, it isn't, because everyone stares at me and calls me gabacho, I think it just means white person but its pretty funny. I love Mexico.

Anyway, that's about it for this week, just thought I'd share with you some of what goes on in my everyday life here in Mexico. 

Love,

Elder St John

Saint Rose

So this was an eventful week!

Monday I had an awesome experience with the Spirit. We were walking through a park and I saw a woman sitting on a bench and felt like I should talk to her.. I though it would be awkward and I wanted to go to the appointment we were going to instead so I kept walking and I felt the same thing even stronger, and I thought that it would still be uncomfortable to bug her and kept walking till i passed her.  Then I felt an impression too strong to ignore that I HAD to talk to her. (I guess I was being a little too stubborn...) So I thought, well I guess I have no choice. And instead of the awkward conversation I was expecting, it was a very comfortable talk with her. Her name was Emilia, and she opened up to us and told us that her grandaughter who was playing in the park had had a seizure the week before and she told us that her daughter was sick, and that she had no idea what to do. So we talked to her about prayer the the gospel and she accepted it with an open heart. She was very excited to hear about it and so we got her information and were going to visit her this week. 

Tuesday we had interviews with President Derbez and I gave him a large picture of me and him (the one we took during Christmas time) and he seemed happy about it. The interviews went really well and I got to say my goodbye because the president is leaving this Friday. 

Wednesday was just a normal day full of normal things.

Thursday was also a normal day full of normal things. 

Friday was Irmas baptismal interview and it went really well! She passed great and is super ready for her baptism. 

Saturday I got a very sad phone call. The zone leaders told me that I had a special changed and that I was going to a ward called Santa Rosa with Elder Gonzales. So that's where I am now.  They called us at 11:00 and told us to be at the offices at 12:30. Elder Christensen and I were very sad to get the news because we got along really, really well. And I'm sad to be away from him and the ward.  It was heart breaking.  But after 2 days in Santa Rosa with Elder Gonzales I feel better and it should go pretty well here for my last 3 weeks. 

Sunday I met the ward and everyone accepted me pretty well! Oh and I forgot the coolest part about Elder Gonzales, Do you remember Elder De Olarte? He is the only missionary i have trained.  Well Elder De Olarte started the training of Elder Gonzales and I will be finishing the training of Elder Gonzales! So that's pretty cool.

So that's about it for this week! I hope you all have a great last week of June and I hope you all have a great start of July!! 

Love,

Elder St John

Hacienda Fun

So I don't have much time to write so this will be quick.

This week we worked really hard, even though it was hot. It got up to 106 on Saturday! But that didn't keep us down. we visited Irma and she is super ready for her baptism next week and we also got to contact some really good references like one from the sisters and one from a member who brought a friend to church. So work is starting to come out. 

We are very happy, and a cool story is that yesterday a member gave me a challenge to eat a Carolina reaper chilie... so I did. And I regret it very much. It was hands down the spiciest thing I have ever eaten and I think I almost died. I have a video but you will have to wait till I get home to see it. lol. But it was a good week!

I love you all and wish you a great late Father's Day and a great week. 

Love,

Elder St John

Workin Hard in Hacienda

This was a pretty good but normal week. We continue contacting as always, and we are focusing our attention on Irma because she will be baptized very soon. We also try working with the members, even though it is hard with their busy schedules and sometimes the members don't want to work with us, but we keep on trying to have them help us the best that we can. 

We had a big event yesterday with the members. We had a meeting with all the members and we talked to them about the missionary work of members. So it went well. We showed them a video, and after went out with the members to visit. it went great. We met many new people and we also had a lot of success. We visited lots of people and the members seemed very happy with the activity! 

But sad to say that's about the only thing worth talking about. My new companion Elder Christensen is very cool. We get along great. He will be a great last companion. 

Well thats all for today. Love you all.

Love,

Elder St John