Home Coming July 2022

 

Good Morning Brothers and Sisters of the Laguna Beach Ward. My name is Zack Johnson! I would just like to start off by saying that you are all witnessing history right now because if I am not mistaken this is the first homecoming talk given by someone who has served in both the Reno Nevada mission and the Asuncion Paraguay mission in the Laguna Beach Ward so yeah good job for being here. I take autographs they are like 5 dollars a piece. 

When one is serving a mission, well I don't know if this is normal but when I was serving my mission I always sort of envisioned this moment. I would often think about what I was going to say and experiences that I would share and that it was going to be awesome and everyone was gonna just fall in love with me after. I had two full years to prepare for it but I put it together this morning so yeah. Its actually better this way because it's just like all of the talks I actually gave on the mission. It's a pretty good representation of who Elder Johnson is. One of the 5 steps that our Prophet gave to us to maintain spiritual momentum is learn about God and how he works. I think if there is anything that I have had the chance to do on my mission it is that. I know that God works in very mysterious ways. One example of this is in the very first verse of Doctrine and Covenants. It says:  Hearken, O ye people of my church, saith the voice of him who dwells on high, and whose eyes are upon all men; yea, verily I say: Hearken ye people from afar; and ye that are upon the islands of the sea, listen together

In the spanish version of this they replace hearken with a word that means listen. I feel like I truly spent a lot of time listening or at least trying to listen to God the father throughout the whole time of my mission. One thing I have found out from the scriptures is that when you don't listen to God, he makes you listen. 

I had one companion who was a really good example for me. He was a hard worker, obedient, diligent. He would have finished his mission with me but he actually extended just because he liked it so much. But When my mission president told me that I would be his companion he told me that I would have to raise my voice a little louder. I was with him for 2 transfers. He was indeed a little hard on hearing but he at least always understood what I was saying. I would often think about the sacrifice he made. Missionary work is so focused on listening but he couldn't fully listen. I once asked him how he was able to keep going if it was such a challenge for him. He showed me a part in preach my gospel that talks about how missionaries regardless if they are new or have experience or don't know the mission language yet all teach and testify with the same language. Which is inspired from the Holy Ghost. It's something that has always stuck with me and it will come up later in my talk.

I figure the best way to report on my mission is to briefly inform about each area in the mission and what I learned from. 

I imagine a lot of you have never been to Paraguay so I guess I can start off from by giving a brief summary of what the country is like. I remember those first moments driving from the airport to the mission office--everything was  just a blur. I remember looking at destroyed buildings and fallen power lines and a ton of people on mopeds and just thinking to myself “what holds this place together?”.If it wasn't for the poverty and the ravenous dogs that roam the streets at night and the ravenous cows that roam the streets during the day it would be a tropical paradise. In fact about 30 years ago Paraguay was a growing country, almost even a boom town. Huge new buildings popped up out of nowhere with that 80s 90s style. The problem is these buildings just sat there and never got renovated. That mixed with the impossible to maintain and thick,growing jungle that lurks in each and every possible free corner gives the whole country a post apocalyptic vibe. Even in big cities it appears as though the whole country is slowly sinking into itself as vines and mango trees devour each building. It truly is a spectacle. But my mission didn't start there. Or Reno. It started in good old North Carolina.

I remember that trip from the stake presidents house back home. I had just been set apart to be a missionary. I felt like the weight of the world had just been put on my shoulders. It literally felt like I was physically carrying something heavy. I think all missionaries sort of go into it a little naive. I used to think, if my friends can do it, I can do it. It really cannot be that hard. Boy was I wrong. But I was glad I didn't know how hard it really was, because if I did, I don’t think I would have ever served a mission. Instead of going to a normal MTC like most missionaries, I had to do it online which sort of put me in a weird role. I kind of felt like a child again. But the HomeMTC taught me a lot. They say that the most spiritual place outside of the temple is the home. And it is true. One of the promises of the second coming is found in 2 Nephi 27

34 But when he seeth his children, the work of my hands, in the midst of him, they shall sanctify my name, and sanctify the Holy One of Jacob, and shall fear the God of Israel.

35 They also that erred in spirit shall come to understanding, and they that murmured shall learn doctrine.

I was someone that made a lot of mistakes before the mission. Someone that erred a lot. Someone that murmured. But it's interesting how the Lord works. He can take desert places and turn them into promised lands. Just like salt lake city for example… And if god can turn a salt lake into a promised land, he can turn an area into a promised land, and he can take an old fool and teach him doctrine and show him how he works.

I was reassigned for a time to Reno Nevada because of the pandemic. I had no idea what was going to happen in the end and I sort of thought I would just serve my whole mission there. Which was a good thing because I loved it there. It is sort of like the Bethlehem of my mission. It's where I started with virtually no spiritual knowledge and learned how to learn by the spirit and how to be a good missionary. My first companion was a stud. And I was in my first area for 3 transfers. One thing I can say about Reno is that there are a lot of crazy people. There are also a lot of homeless people. I think without realizing it it's kind of like Paraguay but without mango trees. But I loved Reno. All of my companions there taught me something. One story I have from Reno going sort of along with this theme is Christa and how she came to know the book of mormon is true…

Out of nowhere one day they told me that I was going to be headed off to Paraguay. It was a huge shock and I was not really expecting it. But after a few delays and some patience I did eventually make it there. My first area was a city called Encarnacion which would come to be a very important place for my mission personally. There is a story by Jeffery R Holland where…

I wasn’t in the actual city of Encarnacion for a very long time but I stayed in the zone for about  9 months. It was a long time. My second area was a little fishing town called Ayolas. One thing you hear a lot about the place is how there is no money in Ayolas. You would also hear about how there was not any fish either. They blamed the government for it. I have no clue what the government could do to kill of the fish but hey it's what they believed. Another thing that I heard from soooooo many people is that they would ask us “hey do you guys live in the church”. I'm still not really sure if that is like a catholic thing or its normal to live in churches but everyone like literally every person we taught would ask us that “hey do y'all live in the church” like yeah man it's great.

I sort of thought it was a stupid question but I learned to sort of be proud of it. Maybe I did not physically sleep in the church or lived there but I lived for the church. The mission slowly made me realize that the church is everything for me. It's a refuge, a safe place, somewhere where I can learn. I was having sort of like this lack of faith that success was possible until I met Gaby (church books)

Ayolas was a lot of walking, a lot people that didn't come to church. It was even at sometimes some very frustrating zeros on our weekly report. We worked hard but sometimes it didn't show. I remember leaving Ayolas thinking that I was going to be sent to a new area with more active members and maybe less of a fight overall to get people to come to church. Boy was I wrong…

Carapegua was my Gethsemane. It was marked by hard companions, members without faith, painful learning experiences, stress, being put in positions that made me grow. I could quite possibly write my whole talk on just Carapegua which means land of the short in Guarani. Luckily there was one experience that shaped all of it.

As I was writing this talk i came to realize that there is no possible way I could give you all of the information about my mission. There is no way I can give to you the many things I have witnessed and been a part of. It hard to even scratch the surface of things that where very meaningful to me. There is a quote that means a lot to me by Jeffery Holland that says

I testify that bad days come to and end, that faith always triumphs, and that spiritual promises are always kept 

That promise was kept when I was demoted from being a branch president in Carapegua and was sent back to Encarnacion. The sun was setting as my collectivo pulled into the terminal. One missionary I had known before said that the sun was smiling because it was happy you were back. Encarnacion took me in when nobody else did. It was always waiting for me. I sort of always knew I would make this triumphant return.