Bonjour!

So. Tons of stuff has happened this week. I think I'll start with the most exciting thing. A couple weeks ago the four Elders in my district were asked to bless and pass the sacrament to the missionaries during two combined sacrament meetings yesterday. We were having a weird schedule because 173 new mission presidents are at the MTC right now being trained for a week. However, about a week later Elder Wade and I got a notice that our assignment had been changed, but they wouldn't tell us what it was and we had to go to a meeting on this past Wednesday to find out what we were doing. Once we got there, they told us what we'd be doing and impressed that this was totally confidential and we could not tell anyone what we were doing and afterwards. We went back on Friday and Saturday for rehearsals of what we'd be doing (it wasn't singing) and then met again yesterday morning for one final rehearsal and setup. We seriously spent about 5 hours practicing and getting ready for this, which is a ton of time in missionary time. Yesterday, I was part of a group of 48 Elders who blessed and passed the sacrament to all the new mission presidents, every General Authority serving in the US, the entire Quorum of the Twelve minus Elder Hales, and the First Presidency. That was an incredible experience. We were only in the room for about 5 minutes, but even so, it was amazing to be in the same room with them. 

 

While I was passing the sacrament I started thinking about the lyrics to Hark All Ye Nations: "Chosen by God to serve Him below, to every land and people we'll go. Standing for truth with fervent accord, teaching His holy word." It suddenly hit me that I have been chosen by God to serve Him below and I'll be going to different lands and peoples to preach His word to them. That was a very spiritual experience for me.

 

Another exciting thing was singing in the Choir for the broadcast yesterday! Did you watch that? It was really good and extremely interesting! Did you see me when they showed us? I'm in there! :D Since it'd be practically impossible to find me otherwise, I'll tell you to go the recording of the broadcast on lds.org and go to 3:03 (three minutes and three seconds) into the video. It's a shot of a whole bunch of missionaries, but I'm in there. Let me know if you find me. :)

 

That was a wonderful experience as well! I felt the spirit so strongly when I was singing testifying to me that what I was saying was true. That was wonderful!

 

Have you heard of DearElder.com? It's a website where you can go online and write a letter, address it to a missionary like you would a normal letter, and then submit it. They print it off in the MTC and put it in our mailboxes. It's a really cool way to send mail because it's free and doesn't take a few days to get there. So in case you'd be interested in that I wanted to let you know.

 

 

 

Je sais qu'Il nous aime et il veut pour nous à retourner vers lui. Je sais que nous pouvons devenir prôche à lui si nous gardons les commandements, prier, et lire les écritures.

Je vous aime!

Elder Johnston