My family was a religious family. They belonged to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS), and faithfully lived up to the church’s teachings. They had already begun raising my three older siblings, Cyndi, Carrie, and Matt, and knew theirs would be the privilege of raising more children unto the Lord. My family prayed and fasted for many years to have a new child. Matt was especially earnest in his prayers and wouldn’t let the family rest until they had prayed for a little brother. One day he stopped praying for a brother. His parents questioned him and were startled by his reply: “Because he is already coming.” Sure enough my mom was pregnant with me. The family was just wrapping up and preparing to move to Mt. Home, Idaho, where I was born.
I grew up in a wonderful family. My dad and mom were married in the Los Angeles temple on May 29, 1971, preparing the way to have an eternal family. My dad, Douglas Johanson, was born into a rich pioneer heritage. He had served a mission in Germany and for most of my childhood worked in the Air Force. He was a perfect example of the priesthood in the home. He led our family in righteousness. He gave us father blessings when we were sick. He baptized and confirmed me on October 22, 1988. He ordained me to all the offices of the priesthood in the proper time. He taught me how to use and honor my priesthood. He honors and serves my mother, thus teaching me to do the same when I get married.
My mom, Janice Johanson, was a convert to the church. Missionaries came to her home in Ishpeming Michigan and taught her the truths of the everlasting gospel. She accepted, and after a while was baptized. After graduating from high school, she went to BYU, where she met my dad. She always puts family first and sacrificed a career to raise six children. She spent time to nurture and teach us. She taught us to love the Lord, develop our musical talents, and value an education.
The oldest is Cyndi, born in 1972. She has taken her role as the oldest seriously and has been an example to her younger siblings. She is a dedicated wife and mother of five. During my freshman year at BYU she was the only member of my intermediate family in the state. She took me shopping, gave me advice, supported me in my activities, and in all aspects made the transition to college life easier for me.
The next oldest is Carrie, born in 1974. She was the first in our family to go on a full time mission. She went to Vienna Austria. She is kind a generous. One of my best memories was when she flew me to Washington D.C. to spend a week with her. I spent the time seeing the sites of our nation's capital and visiting my sister. This is typical of her generosity and the importance she gives to her family.
The oldest boy is Matt, born in 1976. My favorite and only older brother, he is someone I always look up to. He inspired many of my interests, including computers. He helped me to understand the importance of Family Home Evening and Home Teaching through his zeal to follow the gospel.
After me, my parents were blessed to have Adam in 1983. He was the closest to me in age and we did a lot of the same things, like play the piano, be valedictorian, and go to BYU. Even though he is my little brother he is still an example to me. He is kind and considerate, and knows how people want to be treated. Jacob is the youngest, born in 1985. He is very generous. Like the rest of the family, he has a testimony of the gospel and lives according to its teachings.
My parents stressed the importance of hard work and a good education. I took that challenge upon myself and worked diligently during school, eventually becoming valedictorian. I took all of the honor and college preparation classes that I could, earning several credits towards college. However, I made sure to make time to have fun and become well rounded. I became involved in many extra-curricular activities; such as band, track, scouting, honor society and student leadership. On top of all of these activities, I was able to manage a part time job working in the back offices of a bank.
Under all of these obligations, I made sure that I made the gospel top priority in my life. Every morning I went to early morning seminary and studied the scriptures, preparing to go on a mission. I became involved in the leadership and was designated to be the morning side chair. Even as a teenager, I was given several callings in my ward, including printing the bulletin and playing the piano in priesthood.
It was during this time in seminary that I truly gained a testimony of the gospel. I started thinking about everything my parents had taught me during my life and wondered if it were all true. I thought it was highly unlikely with six billion people on the planet I just happened to be one of the select few that was born into the true church. If I were planning on spending two years of my life sharing my testimony with others I decided I needed to find out for my own.
I had been taught since I was little the importance of gaining a testimony. I had already been reading my scriptures, but I was treating it more like a duty than a yearning to know the truth. I began pleading with the Lord that He would help me to know for myself if these things were true. I read and read and prayed and prayed and still I felt like I hadn’t received an answer.
On my third time through the Book of Mormon, while I was reading in Alma 32, I ran across something that caught my eye. While teaching the people, Alma challenges them to “exercise a particle of faith, yea, even if ye can no more than desire to believe.” It caught my attention because I had that. I had a desire to believe. He then challenges them to “let this desire work in you, even until ye believe in a manner that ye can give place for a portion of my words.”
I had not been allowing this desire to work in me. I wanted a hard core logical answer to my questions, not a hope or desire. However the next verses gave me a logical reason on which to build my testimony on faith. Alma compared the word to a seed that you plant. The only way to know if a seed will grow is to plant and see. You can take all the scientific measurements, uncode the DNA, run simulations, do all the scientific analysis possible, but you still will not know if the seed is good until you plant it and watch it grow. The same is true with our testimony. We can study all the literature, read all the arguments, but it is not until we plant the seed and allow it to take hold upon our hearts that we will truly know that it is true.
It was then that I had realized that the Lord had been answering my prayers the whole time. I felt the seed “enlarge my soul” while I was listening to church songs. I felt it “enlighten my understanding” as I studied about Joseph Smith and the restoration of the gospel. I felt it “begin[] to be delicious to me” as I realized the great mercies of the Savior as He sacrificed His own life so that I might be forgiven of my sins and return and live with him again. Truly this fruit was sweet. My prayers had been answered. I always knew, but now I knew that I knew.
Fortunately I didn’t have to make any life changing adjustments to my life. I continued going to church, reading the scriptures and attending seminary as before. But now I did so with more determination and confidence that I was on the right track.
The little seed that I planted during seminary would soon blossom and grow with a reception of mission call. I graduated from High School and I went through my first year of Brigham Young University. During finals week, the long awaited document arrived. The Lord had called me to dedicate two years of my life bringing news of eternal life and salvation to the people of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. I entered the Provo MTC on November 24, 1999 and the São Paulo MTC on December 29, 1999.
My mission was an experience that changed my life. I learned to rely on the Lord like I never knew was possible. I prayed, listened for answers, and then did my best to act upon those answers. I learned the great joy of souls changing their lives to come in alignment with eternal happiness and bliss, and have seen the sorrow of those who had given up because of the difficulty of the path.
I have chosen to relate one story that stands as a symbol to the myriad of experiences I was blessed with on my mission.
Edna Gerhein lived in Juiz de Fora, MG. She was a single mother and had just run out of options. She was unemployed and out of food. She had sunken in the depths of despair and only found solace in a drunken oblivion. Her aunt, a recent convert to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, saw her in this sorry condition and realized she needed the gospel in her life. She was invited to a family home evening and loved it so much that she asked to hear the discussions. By the time I met her, her life was already changing and she was smiling again. Her enthusiasm grew as she learned the eternal truths of the gospel. She gladly gave up her vices and her sins to become a disciple of Christ through baptism. She was ecstatic and life couldn’t be better for her, except she didn’t have a job.
She lived in a small suburb up in the mountains, and the church was below in the valley and she didn’t have bus fare. It was a grueling half hour walk through mountainous terrain to get to church with her young daughter, but she didn’t complain. The church and her aunt were helping her out with food, but that didn’t pay for the bills. She knew that if she prayed, the Lord would provide. Soon that coveted job became a reality with one drawback; she would have miss church and work on Sunday. She asked us what she should do. We told her it was a decision between her and the Lord. We told her to pray about it and ask what she should do. Her response came, and she didn’t accept the job. I was surprised, thinking surely this could be an exception. For whatever reasons, she felt that she should not accept the job. The church had meant so much to her that she couldn’t leave it.
I didn’t understand what caused her to be so faithful until I taught her sister. Edna was so excited she wanted to have her sister hear the gospel. Her sister was also unemployed and hungry, but without a child to support. We came to teach her, but she wasn’t together enough to listen to us. She broke up without hearing a word we said. Edna started crying too. It was one of the saddest sights I had ever seen; someone who was so deep in despair that she could barely go an hour without breaking into a fit of tears for no reason. As she went to comfort her sister, she looked at us and told us that this was how she was every day before the gospel entered her life. She spent everyday crying and wishing she would die. It was the gospel that brought her out of her depression. It was the gospel that taught her that there was a purpose to life, and a Father that loved her so much that he would send his only begotten Son to die for her, so that she would not have to bear the heavy cross by herself. She learned to use the atonement in her life with such faith that it surpasses my understanding.
I learned the power the gospel has to change lives. All of the sadness and misery in the world can be abated through simple obedience to the gospel. The gospel is the one true source of happiness. I saw that it was difficult to live life without knowing where you are going to sleep the next day or what you are going to eat, but I literally saw someone choose the peace and happiness the gospel brings over food, and she is one of the happiest people I have met in my entire life.
This is just one of the many lives I was able to see changed by the hand of the Lord. Every baptism was another story of faith and humility. My mission was an awesome experience and I am forever grateful to the Lord for allowing me the privilege to embark on that learning experience. Too soon my two years were over and I was back at Brigham Young University.
Hopefully I have retained a good portion of the habits I gained on my mission after my mission. I continued to go on exchanges and fellowship new members. I frequently volunteered at the MTC and was able to work in the call center for a while. I continued to grow and develop in the church, serving in such capacities as ward mission leader, elder’s quorum president and executive secretary. But my time for fulltime service had ended and I returned my focus to school.
I had done the prerequisites for a degree in computer science before my mission and quickly slipped back into the routine after my mission. I learned to love programming and got a job programming in artificial intelligence in a research lab at BYU. I took all of the artificial intelligence classes I could and enthralled myself in the study. I found it fascinating and I excelled in all the classes. I became involved in many research projects.
I decided I wanted to use my talents to help others. But how could I use programming in humanitarian aid? The answer came with the announcement of the Perpetual Education Fund. A school started up called Fundet and needed programming teachers to help teach returned missionaries from Central America who would be using the fund. The position would not be paid, but they would provide transportation, food and shelter. Plus it would be an opportunity to learn Spanish. I had learned some Spanish in high school and was looking to perfect it.
I taught four classes. In the morning I taught an advanced class of Java for the professors of Fundet, who already knew Pascal. Afterwards I taught the students beginning programming. I went to lunch and afterwards taught an English class. In the evening I taught Java for local computer programmers. They programmed in Visual Basic, but were finding a great need to know Java basics. I thoroughly enjoyed my time as a computer professor I felt that I did some good. I met people whose lives were changed because of the fund. While I was there I was able to go sightseeing with some of my students and see some of the ancient Indian ruins.
I was also called to be Young Men’s President in the ward. That was interesting because I was quite young and didn’t speak Spanish very well. We worked on the new goals the church had put out, went on hikes, organized dances and performances. It was a great experience that put me in a leadership position early in my life.
To be continued.