Light > Darkness

Oh my wonderful Family and Friends here we are yet again on another

P-Day emailing each other during the Christmas Season. What better

thing could I be doing?! So happy that I get the blessing of emailing

you all weekly. I thank my God every day for you. Don't ever think I

don't.

What a week this one was! We are so happy with the people God has

prepared for us to teach! We set a baptism date with Ruby this week!

She is going to be baptized on January 2nd. That's now 10 new baptism

dates for our areas in just three weeks! I'm astonished at the

blessings God has sent our way.

This week we had one of the most memorable discussions of my mission.

We walked up to this lady outside of her house while her kids were

raking leaves. We just started up conversation with her and it

eventually led to us asking if we can share our message with her. She,

of course, said yes as she was already curious. She asked if her

husband could sit in as well. We said yes! He came and sat down and

before we began he informed us that he is a Baptist Preacher and that

he would not agree with our message... We knew it didn't start off

right because of the assumption that he would not accept our message.

We asked to pray and he said he didn't want to pray with us because we

don't believe in the same God... We then knew this could be rough. It

was very difficult. Just sharing the initial point that God is our

loving Heavenly Father already lead to a contentious attitude with

them. They began to argue with us in the nicest way possible. Their

friend suddenly showed up and sat down to listen. She began to tell us

some hurtful things. We were told we reject the Bible, Our religion is

false, the Book of Mormon came from a false prophet, we are only

following in our parent's footsteps, and that we don't accept Christ's

grace through he atonement. I'm not trying to make them sound like bad

people. They truly are great people. Very kind, unless it comes to a

religious topic. I was crushed. I was so sad that they were so

unwilling to accept this amazing message centered on our Savior, Jesus

Christ. (Now, just so you know, I don't normally cry in lessons.

Hardly ever). We had never said anything negative about what they

believe and didn't retaliate when they said those things toward us. I

just started sobbing. I've never cried like that in a lesson. I was

sobbing and bore testimony of the Book of Mormon. I know it's true

with all my heart and it was literally hurting me inside that they

would not consider that God actually does still speak and that He has,

in fact, revealed more light and truth for us. I walked away from that

knowing that I did what God would have me do. It was a testimony

builder! It ended well. We actually prayed together and they offered

to feed us sometime. Not sure if we will end up taking them up on that

offer.. Maybe if we're desperate. ;)

We got to go to Tyler, Texas this week! I was so happy! I LOVE Tyler!

We ate at the best place to eat in Tyler... Stanley's! If you don't

know what Stanley's is, it's this AMAZING BBQ place that has the

legendary sandwich - "The Mother Clucker." Now, my personal favorite

is called "The Ex-wife." Which of course I got! It was so great to be

back in Tyler! In Zone Meeting that day, we had a discussion about how

light overcomes darkness. I love the whole concept of light and truth!

The discussion we had as a zone can be (for the most part) summed up

in this scripture:

D&C 50:24

24 That which is of God is light; and he that receiveth light, and

continueth in God, receiveth more light; and that light groweth

brighter and brighter until the perfect day.

It was so great!

We got to Athens on Friday. This weekend it has been storming like

CRAZY! There were so many flash flood warnings and so much water! It

was scary to drive in! BUT, it didn't stop us from a great weekend. It

was the Ward Christmas Party! It was so much fun! We wore our ugly

sweaters, ate tons of food, played lots of "minute to win it" games,

and got to know so many great people. The Athens Ward is truly a great

Ward. So blessed to be serving here.

The next day was church and we arrived to no electricity because of

the storms. So, for the first time in my life, we had church with no

electricity! It was so dark in the Sacrament Meeting room I could

hardly see the speakers. It wasn't just the church, though. It was the

whole city of Athens! All day, Sunday, they had nothing! The stop

lights weren't working. No houses had electricity. It was insane! It

looked like a Ghost Town! Especially in the rainy and foggy darkness.

It truly made me appreciate LIGHT so much more! ;)

Well, I hope you have a great week! Only 11 more days until Christmas

everyone! I love you all.

Elder Joshua Needles