Trust in the Lord With All Thine Heart

Dear Family & Friends,

Wow. I love each of you more than you know. Seriously. I miss you all

so much! I hope your lives are so great! I hope and pray that God is

blessing each one of you with so much! You all have blessed my life so

much I can't even begin to explain it!

This week was really good! It was the first week of the new transfer,

and it went pretty darn well! We were able to teach like crazy! We

taught 29 lessons, so essentially we were running all week long! I

LOVE it! We also currently have 15 baptism dates, so we need to be

going fast in order to help all of these people! Monday was a sad day

for me and for Gilmer! Nobody wanted Elder Westover to get

transferred! We went to say goodbye to some people that Elder Westover

had grown particularly close to while he was in Gilmer. It was

definitely very sad! I LOVED having Elder Westover as a companion.

After he left I realized how much I genuinely appreciated my time

serving with him. He taught me so much and helped me grow even though

I'm prideful and stubborn sometimes, haha. The next morning he was all

packed up and ready to go. The Mt Pleasant Elders came down to Gilmer

that morning to carpool with us to Dallas. Brother Tucker took us!

Well, we had a little more bags than we expected and ended up playing

tetris all morning with the luggage, lol! We got there, though, and I

was able to see Elder Casper in Dallas! Elder Casper is one of my best

friends IN THE ENTIRE WORLD and we hadn't seen each other since

October of last year! It was so cool to see him and briefly talk about

life! I was hoping to see Elder Hansen too, but he had already left by

the time I got there. /: Well, I found Elder Holst and we were on our

way back to Gilmer!

That night we were able to eat with Wendy and Little John (two recent

converts in Gilmer). Well, Elder Holst and I ended up being super

clumsy, haha. Elder Holst spilled ice all over the table and I

attempted to open the crackers which went all over the floor when I

did! Wendy and Little John thought it was hilarious so it brightened

our day. We then went and had our monthly meeting with the Stake

President! It was such an amazing meeting! The Gilmer Stake is so

amazing with the missionary work happening! They genuinely have a

desire to just help people come unto Jesus! I love it!

Thursday we were able to drive back into Dallas for Mission Leadership

Council! It was a lot of fun to be in the mission home again. I love

it there. President and Sister Taylor are truly remarkable people.

They inspire and lift me every time I talk to them. We had some great

discussions at the meeting and also some really good tasting food! :)

The next day a Hispanic member had us over to teach us how to make

guacamole! It was awesome and some really good tasting guacamole. Her

daughter (Ariell) has a baptism date, so we were able to teach her as

well. She is 11 years old, so she's a bit nervous for it. She loves to

dance though, so I showed her some pictures of my sisters dancing. She

asked if they had been baptized and I said yes! Her face lit up a

little more and got more excited about her baptism!

Saturday was a great day! It was Elder Holst's birthday! On top of

that, Meagan Pruett got baptized! It was so great! Meagan is hilarious

and has such a bright attitude about her! I was honored to be able to

baptize her. Elder Westover also got to Skype in to see the baptism

which made me super happy! The next day, Meagan was confirmed and was

able to receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. She was just so happy! We

were happy for her as well. I was able to bear my testimony in church

that Sunday. I talked about Aber and Meagan and how far they have

come. My testimony in the Savior has grown so much watching them

change and become better!

Later that day, Sister Howell and Sister Van Den Berghe had a baptism

in the 3rd Ward. The girl's name is Livia, and she's nine years old. I

met her on Easter this year, and she decided that she would like me to

baptize her! I was so honored to do that as well! It was a great

baptismal service and I know that her life is being blessed because of

the covenant she has made! We went to the Auld's that night. I love

the Auld Family. Their youngest daughter, Aly, ended up in the

hospital so we went over to give a blessing and teach a new member

lesson with Brother Yates. Well, on the way out I sort of accidentally

drove our car into a ditch. It was a small ditch, but it was big

enough to get us stuck! It's the closest thing to a car accident I've

ever been in, haha! Luckily the car had little to no damage and we

were perfectly fine! Hermano Ibarra came and pulled us out with his

truck. We were super grateful for him! I felt like an idiot, but the

Auld's said that so many people have gotten stuck in that ditch! It's

really hard to see at night and apparently it catches a lot of people!

Well, like I said, my testimony has been growing so much lately. I

love my mission. I love Jesus and all that He does for me. It's

because of Him I'm able to be away from all of you and still find

happiness. I've really had to learn to trust in the Lord with all my

heart. As I have done it, He has truly directed my paths. Thank you

for everything. I love each of you dearly.

Have an incredible week.

Elder Joshua Needles