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 :)
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 :)
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| Some my mom's favorite people that she has never met! :) |
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| Another one of my mom's favorites! :) |
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