Uncle Josh!

Dear Family & Friends,

Wow, this week was one for the books! So much happened I don't even

know where to begin! Well, on Monday night, we found out that Elder

Parry had to go home for a time! :( I was so sad! He was pretty sad as

well, but he definitely will be back out in his mission as soon as he

can. It was an abrupt ending, but I am so grateful to have been

companions with him! I learned so much from the transfer and a half I

served with him. He's truly inspiring! We had to drive into Dallas on

Wednesday. I still had no idea what was going to happen to me. You can

definitely say I was VERY anxious to hear the news! I waited at the

mission office with the mission vehicle coordinator (Elder Gilbert)

while President Taylor took Elder Parry to the airport. Eventually,

the assistants came and picked me up. I hadn't eaten in a long time so

I asked if we could go to Panda Express because we don't have one in

our area! I LOVE PANDA EXPRESS! Haha. They told me I'd be staying the

night in Dallas and asked where I wanted to serve... I asked them if I

could serve in the Dallas 4th Ward (which was my last area) and they

let me! I was so excited! I was with Elder Vang and Elder Fonua (who

is from Tonga and is AWESOME). Then we also had another missionary

(Elder Kenworthy) with us because his companion had recently gone home

as well. I was so happy! I saw so many great people that I love! We

went on splits with the members and I asked if we could go see Quay

Mercer! It was so good to see her and her family again! I also got to

see Bishop Monroe, The Spitzenbergers (WHOM I LOVE), Brother Erickson,

Brother Wood, and so many others! The only thing that would have made

it better is if Josh Parker was there! He was one of my favorite

members in the Dallas 4 Ward, but he moved to Utah. It was such a

bittersweet day, but I'm grateful for the blessings the Lord sent my

way. That night President Taylor called and informed me that my new

companion would be Elder Kenworthy and we would stay in my area

(Palestine & Athens). So my new companion is Elder Kenworthy from

Missoula Montana! I feel bad that he had to get emergency transferred

out of his area, but I'm glad to know the Lord had a hand in

everything that happened. There are no English missionaries in Elder

Kenworthy's last area now, because his companion went home, so we had

to help transition his investigators over to the Spanish missionaries.

We finally got to go back to Palestine the next day!

We drove up to Athens on Friday. I'm happy to be in Athens! We went to

lunch and got all settled in when I realized... I left all my ties AND

my two suits in Palestine! I could not believe myself! Elder Kenworthy

offered for me to wear his ties throughout the week, but then later

realized... He left his suits in Palestine as well! So we asked Tim

Brewer if the next morning he would drive us to Palestine and back to

get all those stuff, which (thankfully) he said he would. The next

morning we drove up to Palestine, but I wasn't paying attention to

where Brother Brewer was driving and he drove 20 minutes THE WRONG

WAY! So we had to drive 20 minutes BACK to Athens then drive another

hour into Palestine! Holy moly! Haha. We, finally, got my ties and our

suits and got back into Athens. That day, we had so much success! We

contacted a lot of referrals and got two new investigators! We also

visited the Lang Family. They have a daughter named Hanna who has not

yet been baptized. We went and invited her to be baptized! She said

she would! So her baptism date is April 2nd! We're so excited for her!

On Friday this week, I found out that I BECAME AN UNCLE!!! :) I'm so

happy for my older sister and Brother in law! Their baby's name is

Keaton Garrett Kundis! He was born on January 22nd, 2016. And he's my

nephew! I love him so much even though I've never even met him! I pray

every night for him, though. He's very blessed to have two wonderful

parents, aunts and uncles who love him, and incredible grandparents! I

can't wait to meet him in September! That will be the best day ever!

I'm so glad everything went well and that we have a new addition to

our family.

Mike (in Palestine) is very excited about his baptism on the 13th of

February! It's coming so fast! We are a little behind schedule on

teaching the lessons with him, but we're going to do our best to get

him baptized on the 13th! He really wants to be baptized and is

excited for it... We are too! :) Dave and Ruby are still doing really

well. I'm so glad they are. They don't miss a day of church! Haha.

This week I was thinking about all of the amazing people in my life.

I'm so incredibly blessed. I can't even describe the immense love I

feel for my Father in Heaven for surrounding me with the most amazing

people in the world (HINT: THAT'S ALL OF YOU). I always think of the

times Brianna and I would eat Taco Bell at midnight (which now if I

did that I'd gain ten pounds what is metabolism). Or when Sam and

Garrett would go to Applebee's with us and get the half price

appetizers. Or when I would go on walks after work with Kara. Or every

crazy stupid thing Bryan and I did. Or singing Wicked with Megan in

our kitchen at the top of our lungs. Or playing Call of Duty with

Scott. AND MY MOM AND DAD I JUST LOVE THEM MORE THAN ANYTHING. I'm

serious. I have the best parents. And oh, my cousins. I love every

single one of my cousins. And my aunts and uncles and grandparents and

everyone I've met on my mission and all my high school friends and...

Sorry, I just love you all way too much. Just feeling blessed.

I hope you all have the best week. I hope you all look to Christ in

every thought. I testify that that is where you will find true joy. He

will give you rest. I promise! He's done it for me time and time

again. I love each of you dearly.

Your Stressed but Blessed Missionary,

Elder Joshua Needles

A.K.A Uncle Josh

It's official! 16 Months!

Dear Family & Friends,

It's officially been 16 months since I left you all to serve the Lord
in Texas. I'm so shocked it's been that long! These last 16 months
have shaped me and helped me learn and grow so much. I'm so grateful
for that! I still miss each of you terribly, but that also makes me
happy. Thanks for being worth missing. (:

This week was great! A lot of great things happened! On Tuesday, we
went to a funeral for one of the ward members in Athens. It was a
really good service. The lady who passed away had a great impact on
the Athens Ward. Her son spoke at the service and it really touched
me! He talked about all of the things that he learned from his mom and
I couldn't help but feel so much love toward my own mom. My mom has
taught me so much and I love her more than she knows! I always think
of the stripling warriors in the Book of Mormon. They were so valiant
and so faithful and it was because of their mothers. It says, "They
had been taught by their mothers, that if they did not doubt, God
would deliver them. And they rehearsed the words of their mothers,
saying: We do not doubt our mothers knew it." Moms are the best!

Wednesday we had a lot of success! We went out with a member who is
hilarious! He was recently re-baptized in August. He's been through a
lot in his life, but it helped him level with so many of the people we
saw! We met a part member family and asked if they wanted to take the
discussions... they said yes! We're excited about that and can't wait
to see where it goes. We also went to an inactive member's home. We
just dropped by and caught him by surprise. He had empty beer cans ALL
OVER. I could tell he was feeling an immense amount of guilt. I
genuinely think the spirit led us there that night for a reason,
though. Because the member we went with is a person who helps people
quit addictions. He does the 12 step program that the church has and
he was able to come into this person's life and possibly help him. We
also shared a message with him that had him in tears. I know he felt
the spirit and I hope and pray that he finds happiness in life. He was
so sad and looked so worn down. I just wanted him to feel God's love
for him and believe that there are good things to come.

The next day, the Bishop had something planned for us! Since we were
staying at his home, he wanted to have a fireside and invite people to
come who live around the lake. We agreed to do it, thinking it would
be fun and a creative way to get to teach. We were inviting people and
so was he. We honestly weren't expecting very many people to come,
especially because the majority of the invites were to members who
don't come to church very often. We were shocked to see the turn out!
We had almost all of the people we invited show up! We even had TWO
non members there! We had fun with everyone, answering "get to know
you questions" that Bishop Bridger had come up with. It was really
fun! Some of the less active members really came out of their shell
sharing funny stories and interesting facts about themselves! We then
taught a lesson. We shared the third missionary discussion, which
talks about faith, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy
Ghost, and enduring to the end. The spirit was there! I know that even
the non members were truly feeling it. Then Sister Bridger had made
amazing deserts for everyone. It was such a great night!

We drove back to Palestine on Friday. That day we got a call from the
zone leaders that they wanted us to give a training the next day for
mission interviews. We had little time to prepare, but it turned out
well! We had to wake up at 4:30 AM, because interviews would be in
Longview, Texas. That's at least 2 hours from where we live. We drove
into Whitehouse (which was my first area on my mission) and met with
those missionaries, then we carpooled up to Longview! It was a good
meeting! There were a lot of good trainings given, and my interview
with President Taylor was great! He's such an amazing mission
president. Unfortunately, my interview was right during lunch. So I
gave my card to Elder Denos to get me some lunch from Chick Fil A. I
was excited to get a spicy chicken sandwich from there, because we
don't have one in my area! So after the interview, I come out and look
for my food (because obviously everyone is eating). Come to find
out... ELDER CHRISTENSEN ACCIDENTALLY ATE MY FOOD INSTEAD OF HIS! I
was so sad, haha. There was still a sandwich, though, so I was going
to eat that one when I accidentally hit it off the table and onto my
favorite shoes! THEN, to top it all off, I bent down to pick it up and
I RIPPED MY DANG PANTS. Hahaha, it wasn't the best lunch I've ever had
on my mission. We drove back to Whitehouse so we could get our car,
and I decided to just stop to see if one of the people I used to teach
when I served there was home. (he lives right by the Missionaries'
apartment). He was home! His name is Dustin! I was so happy to see him
and his two kids, Noah & Olivia. We were able to baptize his wife
(Faye) when we were there. She unfortunately wasn't there so I didn't
get to see her, but it was still awesome. Brought back a lot of
memories!

That night, we were able to teach Ruby and Dave. They were great
lessons and they both are feeling happy after just being baptized last
Saturday. Church was great the next day and we had a good Sabbath Day
sharing the restored gospel with others.

I only have 8 months left on my mission! Wow! I'm guessing that time
will just fly by and I'll be home before I know it. I can't wait for
the day I get to see you all again! I also love my mission. I'm so
grateful I had the opportunity to do this. It's truly an amazing
experience to be had. I hope you all are doing well. Keep praying and
push through your tribulations!

Romans 5:3-5
3 And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that
tribulation worketh patience;
4 And patience, experience; and experience, hope:
5 And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad
in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.

Have an amazing week! Love you all.

Elder Joshua Needles

Dont you QUIT! You keep WALKING!

My Family and My Friends,

I love each of you. I love that I can email you weekly. Thank you for
all of your continuous love and support. I truly appreciate it! This
week was... well, stressful. But it was so great at the same time!
Transfers happened all around the mission so a lot has changed from
only a week ago! Luckily, Elder Parry and I are still here serving in
the good old Palestine & Athens Wards.

One of the reasons this week was stressful was because of a situation
with Dave (one if our investigators who got baptized this week). He
misunderstood one of the questions during his baptism interview. So,
we all thought he had to have a second interview because of an answer
he gave to one of the questions. We got a hold of the East Texas
representative, and he told us he couldn't do the interview until
Sunday morning. The problem with that was, Dave's scheduled baptism
day was on Saturday. Which meant we had to last minute call the Ward
and tell people Dave could no longer get baptized on Saturday. There
was no way he could do the interview earlier. When we explained the
situation to Dave, we went over the question that caused him to have
the second interview. When we did that, we all made the connection
that he misunderstood what was being asked. He actually did NOT need a
second interview and could be baptized on Saturday like we had
originally planned. So, we once again called the ward to tell them
Dave in fact was getting baptized on Saturday. Haha, messy situation.
But it was all figured out!

Ruby (our other Investigator who got baptized this week) made us pork
chops on Wednesday... Yuuum! She is such a good cook. We told her she
should open up her own restaurant and her response was, "Oh I already
have done that. It was a lot of fun." Apparently she had a Restaurant
named "Ruby's Homestyle Cooking." When we were on our way back, we
found a Texas Flag painted on the side of a building. So, of course,
we took a picture by it. (:

We had district meeting on Friday. It was cool to see that Elder
Murphy is in my district. Elder Murphy is from Meridian, Idaho just
like me! We actually went to the same high school. He even was in
choir! I didn't know him very well, but it's always fun to talk about
people we knew in high school. He said he had a class with my little
sister, and that she's crazy. I said, "Yep, sounds like her." ;) Love
you, Megan. The District Meeting was really great. I trained on joy. I
think it was much needed for our district as a lot of us have been
going through hard times lately! After the meeting, we went to lunch.
There is this dip at the place we went that has avocado in it (and
it's really good by the way). Well, none of us knew Elder Murphy is
allergic to avocado... And he ate some of it. So I was sort of
panicking. But he said he'd be fine. Luckily, no trips to the hospital
were made!

That day we got two new investigators! We taught this lady and her
brother the Restoration. They were open to it, because she especially
has been searching out religions trying to find what she believes. It
was a really good lesson. The spirit was there and they said we
answered a lot of their questions. So glad we get to teach people
about the Gospel and Jesus Christ. I love Christ with all my heart!

Saturday was the day. We went to the church first thing in the morning
and began to fill the font for the baptismal service. Dave and Ruby
came and got changed, we took pictures, and the service began! It was
a really great day. I had the incredible opportunity of baptizing them
both. It was such a great experience. Ruby was confirmed that same
day, because she had a death in her family and had to go out of town
right after. Brother Denmon provided lunch for everyone afterward! He
got Shep's BBQ which is so good! I love that place!

That night we had a lesson with the Loviette Family. They made us
dinner and it tasted so good. We then watched "Joseph Smith: The
Prophet of the Restoration" with them. The spirit was very strong. I
just know that Joseph Smith truly was a Prophet. I sure hope they feel
that way too. Lynn (the husband) is a member of the church, but Tammy
(the wife) is not so this is all new for her. It has been a great
experience introducing Joseph Smith & The Book of Mormon to her. She
is very open and is truly seeking with a sincere heart. I love it!

Sunday, we confirmed Dave a member of the church and he received the
gift of the Holy Ghost. Church was so awesome for me, because it was
Ward Conference. That meant that people from the stake came to the
Palestine Ward. Which meant I got to see a lot of people from the
Bullard & Whitehouse Wards! That was my first area I served in when I
was at the start of my mission. It was so good to see them! Some of
the people who were there were Brother Huckabee (who's son had his
farewell talk when I was there and now he's been on his mission for a
year), Brother Stegall, Brother Acker, Sister Otero (AND I LOVE HER
AND HER FAMILY SO MUCH. One of their daughters said she is counting
down the days until stake conference so she can see me. She's like 9
years old so don't be getting any ideas in your head, lol), and
Brother Link was there too! I LOVED THE LINK FAMILY WHEN I SERVED
THERE. They are such amazing people and it was so good to see him! Him
and Sister Otero took pictures to show their families and make them
jealous. (; lol. It was such a blessing that they were all there and I
could see them!

We packed up and made the long drive into Athens after that. We are
staying at the Bishop's home this week. I'm glad to be here. (Even
though he actually lives 35 minutes from Athens.) They got two new
puppies so I'm constantly entertained. :)

Well, I love you all so much. Keep praying. Always read your
scriptures. Obey the commandments. YOU WILL BE BLESSED!

Your Missionary Friend,
Elder Joshua Needles

I GO HOME THIS YEAR!

Dearest Family and Friends!

I love and miss you all so much!! HAPPY NEW YEEEEAAR! 2016 is going to
be such a great year! I go home this year! It's so weird to be able to
say that! Crazy stuff! This week is the beginning of a new transfer.
And the news... Elder Parry and I are BOTH staying here in Palestine
and Athens. How exciting! We're so excited to start another transfer
together. Great things will happen.

Like this Saturday is Dave and Ruby's Baptisms! We're so excited for
them! Dave gave us a scare this last week and almost backed out, but
he prayed on it and felt that it is the right thing for him to do!
We're so glad they've both made the choice to be baptized! What a
great day it will be!

We had a good week this last week. The holidays make it hard sometimes
to do missionary work, but we did our best given the circumstances! We
went to Tim Brewer's home on New Year's Eve and it was a lot of fun!
He made us steak (heavenly) and we had a great time eating there.

On Tuesday, Elder Ezzell (my mission trainer) came to visit me! It was
so good to see him! We ate at Jalapeño Tree (which I love). He's been
home for a long time so it was crazy to see him! I'm glad I got too,
though.

We had our last district meeting of the transfer on the first. It was
a great meeting! I talked about eternal marriage because Elder Miles
is going home! Lol. We also made New Year's Resolutions and goals. One
of my goals is to finish The New Testament and The Pearl of Great
Price by the end of my mission. (Possibly even the Old Testament as
well we'll just have to see).

We drove back to Palestine on Friday and had a lesson with Dave. Ruby
also made us food this weekend and it was SO GOOD! SO GOOD! Elder
Jones and Elder White drove up for her baptism interview. (Typically
the District Leader does baptism interviews, but because I'm the
District Leader and it's my Investigator, one of the zone leaders has
to do the interview). So Elder Jones is one of our zone leaders and he
gave her the interview! It was great! I love Elder Jones and Elder
White! They're so awesome and it was a lot of fun seeing them.
Especially because we are in the middle of nowhere and see NO
missionaries. It was great to see some for a change :)

One day this week, Elder Parry filled a box full of trash and thought
he could carry it out to the dumpster all on his own... Well the box
broke and old food went all over the sidewalk! It was hilarious! (But
not fun to clean up, I had to help with that lol).

On Sunday, we started getting plans solidified for the baptismal
service. We are just so happy and excited. It will be Elder Parry's
first time on his mission having a baptism! It's fun to see younger
missionaries get so excited when we see success! It motivates you!

Well, I am still a missionary... But the difference now is that I can
say I go home this year! How excited I am to see my family and friends
again. You all mean the world to me. Never forget it.

Your Missionary Friend,
Elder Joshua Needles

Stormin' Mormons!

Hello Family & Friends! I love you all so much. We've reached yet
another Preparation Day in the mission! Woo! I get to email all of
you!

This week was crazy! So much happened! It was a really good one
though, because it was Christmas! I LOVE Christmas so much! It truly
is the most wonderful time of the year! It definitely is hard being
away from family during it, but Christ is great so I was fine!

On Tuesday, we ate dinner at the Hillstead's which was great! We made
these DELICIOUS reindeer candies. It's just a pretzel, a rolo on the
pretzel, and an m&m on the rolo. Then you bake it for a little bit and
it's SO DANG GOOD. That was fun. After, we went and had a lesson with
Dave Davis (one of our investigators in Palestine who is getting
baptized on January 9th) and it was a really good lesson. He's
definitely excited for his baptism! We're excited for him too!!
The next day, Lori Bierschwale (the member in Irving who I LOVE) drove
2 and a half hours just to eat lunch with me in Palestine! It was so
great and I was so happy! We ate at Applebee's... Yum! That night, we
had a lesson with the Loviette Family. I truly love that family! They
are so kind and fun to be around.

Thursday was CHRISTMAS EVE! It was a good day. We ate at Shep's BBQ,
which is this INCREDIBLE BBQ place in Palestine. It's so good! Texas
has some dang good food, haha. We made Christmas Candy Canes to hand
out to people with "A Savior is Born" pass along cards attached. We
then ate dinner at the Nye Family's Home. That was great. We had a lot
of fun. The best part about Christmas Eve, though, was that we got to
drive into Bullard & Whitehouse!!! My first area!!! Aagh I was so
happy! I got to see the church building I went to, my old apartment,
and best of all I got to see the Robison Family. Brother & Sister
Robison, Madi, and Sydney were there! We had so much fun seeing them
on Christmas Eve. It definitely was a night to remember. We drove all
the way back to Palestine that night so we could open our Christmas
Eve gift! Elder Parry and I both got PJs! I got Batman ones! They are
so comfy.
That morning, of course, Santa came. ;) We opened all of our gifts
which I am so incredibly grateful for. Then we headed off to the
Hillstead Family's for breakfast. It was so fun to spend the morning
there! I played my ukulele for them (the one I got for Christmas from
Kara) and they loved it! Then we got to TALK TO OUR FAMILIES. YES.

It was so good to see everyone. It was what I needed! I hadn't talked
to them all since May! We opened up our secret Santa gifts over Skype.
My Dad got me these awesome looking shoes. I love them so much! And
some sweet looking socks. :) It was so great. That night we drove into
Athens so we could have dinner at Tim Brewer's home! That was so much
fun, too! He gave me a copy of Shrek! The Musical! for Christmas.
Haha! I'll have to send it home cause we can't watch it on the
mission. But I really appreciated that.

The next day was the day the storms began. I don't know if you all saw
on the news, but we had some pretty bad storms here this last weekend.
It honestly just ended this morning. It was night time, and we had
gotten five tornado warnings on our phone. It was about to die, but we
were on our way toward the lake (which is like 40 minutes give or take
from Athens). As we were driving out, we saw just a group of really
dark clouds come together. And there was lightning only in those
clouds. It was spooky looking, so we decided to say a prayer. As we
said the prayer I just kept thinking about our phone and how it was
about to die. I then thought we'd been given all these warnings about
tornados and it might not be safe to drive out there. Elder Parry felt
the same way, so we turned around back toward Athens. On our way back,
the whole mission got notified by President Taylor to get inside now.
My district was to report to me when everyone was inside and I was to
report to the zone leaders and so on and so forth. I realized that if
we would have drive out there, the phone could have died from us
using it, and we wouldn't have gotten the text to get inside, AND we
wouldn't have responded. So we would have the whole mission freaking
out not knowing where we were! It was definitely a blessing from God
that we turned around. Especially because a tornado hit right where we
were going. There were a total of 5 tornados that night. The biggest
ones were in Dallas and I think I heard that a total of 11 people lost
their lives that night. Keep the people of Texas in your prayers! Some
of them need it right now! The next day we went to church and got
notified again that we were to stay inside. We couldn't leave the
whole day! It definitely felt like I was home relaxing after church on
a Sunday, haha. Different from a typical Sunday as a missionary! It
was good though, because I got to play the ukulele, listen to the
storm outside, study my Scriptures, and sit by the warm fire in the
member's home we stay at. The electricity was out because of the storm
so it was dark inside. But it was really calm. I enjoyed it!

Now we're back at Monday after a crazy week. I'm excited because my
Trainer is back in Texas and we are going to lunch with him today!! So
exciting! Also, it's the last week of the transfer, so transfers are
next week! Crazy stuff! Time flies!
I hope you all have an amazing week and push through all of your
storms in life. Christ will help you!
Helaman 5:12

I love you all! Have a Happy New Year! Happy 2016!
Elder Joshua Needles

P.S. I'll be home next Christmas :)

Some my mom's favorite people that she has never met! :)

Another one of my mom's favorites! :)