This week I killed a man with my bare hands.
His name was fear. He smelled like potato chip grease stains and BO. He put up a pretty good fight but in the end my companion Elder Reynoso came in clutch and we finished him together.
Jesus Christ once said that "perfect love casteth out all fear." Remember that, I'll come back to it in a sec but first I have to confess about a pretty dumb fear of mine.
I am a little bit scared of inviting people to church. Even as a missionary. Wild, right?
It's for a few different reasons, like I don't know how good the service will be or if the kids in the pew behind us will be screaming and throwing soggy cheerios my friend or not, but most of all I think the initial fear of inviting them comes from my desire to be liked by that individual as a friend and I don't want them to think I'm just being friendly so I can lure them into my church like I'm just another white-shirted henchman working for my institutionalized religion.
Well I'll tell you upfront that this fear is irrational and it 100% comes from Satan trying to stop you from doing something good/potentially life changing for someone else.
I made a new friend here who I'll call Roberto and he's just awesome. He's got this one little 5 year old kid who's an absolute gangster, always pimped out in a different pair of Jordans and a gold chain on his neck with a $500 lookin haircut with the stripes buzzed in tu sabes.
But Roberto. He loves his kid so much. Their father-son relationship really is something special.
So my companion and I were talking to him in the street and I thought about inviting him to church but I hesitated because I was like Nah I don't know if we know him enough to do that, he'll prolly think... You can fill in the excuse with literally whatever you want because it didn't matter. I was fighting a good impression and you know what, it is a dang good thing I have a companion who's faster at following the Spirit than me because he straight up asked this guy the question I should've asked, "Yo Roberto, we're going to church on Sunday! Would you like to come with us?" And Roberto was like sure and that was it.
Then Sunday rolled around and we took the long way to church meaning we went to Roberto's house first and knocked on his door and asked him how he was doing and oh hey it's church day today remember today we're going to church. So with Roberto and mini gangster Roberto we pulled up to church and lo and behold it's the freaking primary program which I totally forgot about and all the little kids were going to sing songs about Jesus. We took a seat towards the front and the kids started singing and bearing their testimonies about their Heavenly Father and the love that he has for us and only two kids broke down into tears and I'm pretty sure none of them knew quite all the words to the songs but if there was anything "wrong" with the program it did not matter. The spirit was so strong in that meeting. I kept glancing at Roberto to see how he was reacting to it all and his focus was just fixed on those little kids the whole time. I wondered if he'd ever seen a little kid testify of Jesus Christ before. I wondered if he'd ever seen faith like those primary directors had, just a couple of moms who had done their best to teach them the words to those songs and learn enough to gain their simple testimonies that yes, they really had a Heavenly Father who loved them and sent them to their families to learn and grow.
I betcha there isn't a single parent in the world who wouldn't want their own kids to start out life with that kind of divine knowledge and confidence in themselves and in their future and very purpose in living.
So yeah it was awesome and Roberto made a lot of new friends with good people at church and I was just left wondering, how on earth could I have ever thought it would be okay to not invite my friend to church? I love Roberto! I want him to be happy! I want his kid to grow up to be wise and successful and happy! You know what makes people happy? Participating in church.
Fear keeps us and our friends from growing, but perfect love casteth out all fear. So basically to grow and improve as a person you have to keep tapping into the source of perfect love (Jesus Christ) to gain more love to cast out more fear until you're a fear-less monster that terrorizes the forces of evil in the world by being a genuinely good person to everyone no matter what dumb excuses try to hold you back.
And that is my devotional for you today thank you for reading now during this wonderful holiday season where we've just gotten lots of stuff go give or do something good and selfless for someone else you'll feel really good just trust me on this one. Oh and trust Jesus because He taught us to do that too.
From someone who's really trying to love you with his entire soul,
Elder Johnson
1. I had the unique privelage of attending all 3 zone conferences in the mission to give trainings in Spanish on how to use social media to reach and teach people better and ultimately bless more lives. Peep the dude in the center very back, Elder Catanni. My TRAINER! We've come a very long way.
2. Elder Ashby y yo rocking our new totally authentic Gucci glasses comprados de la calle for 300 pesos which is like 5 dollars.
3. Graciano was baptized a few weeks ago actually ahahaha but here's the pic with him and his incredible family!
4. Xamira WAS baptized just last week and I don't have a pic from her actual baptism day on this phone but, uh, I know it exists somewhere so here's a different pic for now of us all at her friend's house for one of our Christmas dinners (she's the one in green). She is so awesome. Her faith has already worked SO many miracles in her own life in the short two months I've known her. She's a cold blooded killer in taco cat goat cheese pizza, loves twenty one pilots and is a new lifelong friend of mine FOR SURE.
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