Here we are. It's yet another week in the Texas Dallas Mission serving
in Gilmer, Texas. I miss and love every single one of you! I hope each
of you know that. This week was, well, stressful! It was a good week,
but the stress of handling 13 baptism dates has gotten insanely crazy
and difficult. We're doing our best, though, and trusting that these
will happen how and when the Lord wants them to happen. This week I
hit 18 months on my mission! I never thought I'd get to the day where
I could say "I've been on my mission for 18 months." It's crazy! My
mission has been flying by recently. Soon enough, I'll get to see all
of you again! That'll be one of the happiest days of my life!
So on Monday this last week (after I emailed) we spent the rest of our
Preparation Day getting ready for Zone Conference the next day. At
Zone Conference, there are "break outs" in which the Zone Leaders go
to different rooms to train, and all of the Missionaries go from room
to room to receive the training. We were tasked with training on
"finding" and how to get at least 1 Gold Member Referral every single
day! We came up with a pretty fun training. Because of the new
Hallelujah Video the Church recently released for Easter, we had
everyone shout "Hallelujah" any time we said "Hashtag." So throughout
the day we would shout "Hashtag!" And it would be followed by a group
of voices shouting "Hallelujah!" It was pretty fun, haha! The Zone
Conference was great, and President Taylor is amazing! He trained on
repentance and it gave Elder Westover and me a lot of ideas pertaining
to the people we are currently teaching.
Wednesday was scheduled for Jessica, Brandon, and Edwin's baptism
interviews. We were scared Edwin wasn't quite ready so we had a
discussion with him that afternoon. We taught completely on repentance
with him. We used a lot of what President Taylor had taught us at Zone
Conference and Edwin just completely understood it. He said, "I've
made my decision. I'm for sure getting baptized!" We were so happy! It
was definitely one of the most memorable lessons I've ever had on my
mission. That night Edwin came to his interview and passed it! We were
so excited for him! Jessica and Brandon were late and so we called
them and Jessica was freaking out. She was so nervous for the
interview and she was trying to fix her water heater that of course
broke on the day of her interview. Luckily, we had two extra elders
(Elder Brown & Elder Whiteley). Elder Whiteley is the District Leader
so we needed him to give the interviews. So Elder Westover and Elder
Brown ran to Jessica's house. Elder Brown luckily knew a little bit
about water heaters and was able to calm her down enough to get her
and Brandon to the church. They came and they passed their interviews!
It was so crazy stressful!
Thursday was fun, because if the District Leader has a person who
needs to be interviewed for baptism, then the Zone Leaders do the
interview. Well, the Elders in Hugo, Oklahoma needed an interview so
we were able to go to Oklahoma that day! We were able to pass through
Paris, Texas! Paris has a Texas Eiffel Tower! We found it on the way
and took a picture with it, because if you go to Paris you HAVE to see
The Eiffel Tower! ;) we got up to Hugo and the Family we met was so
awesome! It's a single mother with five kids. And let me tell you,
those kids have swag! They wanted to show us their talent. We said of
course and the next thing we know the whole family is dancing the Whip
and Nae Nae. It was hilarious! And the kids were so good at it! That
made my week!
Friday and Saturday were slower days for some reason. Nobody was home
or could meet so we did a lot of finding. We couldn't get a hold of
Jessica and Brandon which scared us, because they needed to come to
church one more time in order to be baptized on the 26th of March.
Well, they didn't come. :( It was very sad for us, because we've been
working so hard with them to help them get to this point! The
adversary has just been working SO hard in Gilmer it's unreal! We
haven't heard from Edwin either and he didn't come to church, and Aber
told us yesterday she doesn't think she wants to be baptized anymore.
She doesn't want to be labeled "Mormon." So she wants to be baptized
but not be a member of the church. It has all been heart breaking for
us. On the bright side, Meagan is doing really well. We're almost
positive she will be baptized on April 9th. And, Tanner and Austin
should be baptized this Saturday! So things are going fine! Also, a
guy named Randay came and found our church. He found us and asked for
a blessing because he is sick, then asked if he could learn more and
if he could be baptized! Wow! That was a huge blessing. We are
starting to teach him now!
Life is just crazy and full of ups and downs. I'm learning to not
stress over things I can't control and to trust that whatever happens
is a part of God's plan. He knows what He's doing! All things have
been done in the wisdom of Him who knoweth all things. I love Jesus.
He is really the only important thing in life. My eye is on Him. I'm
seeking Him. I'm anxiously awaiting the day that I will meet Him face
to face.
I love each of you. Sometimes we fall. Sometimes we lose. Sometimes
things don't go our way or like we planned. But because of Jesus we
can get up. We can win the important battle. And we can trust that
when things don't go our way, well, it's just a part of the plan.
Have an incredible week,
Elder Joshua Needles
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