Hello Family & Friends!
It's P-Day again! I'm happy I get to email y'all and see what's
happening in all y'all's lives. I love and miss you more than you
know! Seriously! This week was pretty amazing. We had a lot of fun
adventures and a lot of new and exciting things have been happening in
our mission!
The beginning of the week was full of teaching and finding. We were
able to teach quite a bit win the first two days of the week which was
awesome because it was sure to be a really busy week. Wednesday was
pretty cool because we went and ate at the Dodd's for dinner. It was a
lot of fun, because they have a ping pong table, so of course, we all
had to play against Elder Lu. He said he wasn't very good but he was
haha! I'm not good at ping pong at all. They also have chickens and
Elder Lu wanted a picture with one really bad so they brought it in
for him to hold and take a picture with. I was surprised at how weird
chicken feet are, haha. Then it started to storm like crazy! Texas
storms sometimes can get pretty wild! It was raining so hard it was
difficult to drive in! We traveled to the Ibarra Family's home in the
storm in order to teach Jan another one of her new member lessons.
The lesson with Jan went really well although there were loud cracks
of thunder throughout. She is doing really well. She is just so into
all of it! The gospel has really enhanced her life and helped her feel
closer to Christ and I love watching it happen! After we left Jan's we
traveled to Mt Pleasant for a couple of reasons. We found out that we
would be having Mission Leadership Council on Wednesday so we had to
do some exchanges with the Paris Elders since the other zone leader is
in Paris. So Elder Lu and Elder Saxey came to Gilmer for Wednesday,
and Elder Christensen and I went to Dallas for Mission Leadership
Council.
This MLC was super exciting because it was all about... FACEBOOK!
Sister Taylor calls it "Faith-book." We learned all about it and how
we as missionaries would be using it in our efforts. I seriously got
so excited about it! After the meeting, we took the long journey back
to Gilmer Zone haha. We stopped in McKinney at a Chinese Buffet and it
was a lot of fun. There was a girl named Danny who was from mainland
China. Elder Lu had taught me how to write my name in Chinese so I
wrote it out and showed her! She thought it was so funny that my name
is Needles. She also was really excited and drew her name for me! We
were able to get her contact information and send it to the Chinese
Elders in Plano which was super exciting! I hope that it might work
out that they can teach her.
We got back to Paris and I stayed the night there since we would be
introducing Facebook to our zone the next day. Our Zone Meeting went
really well and we were able to get everyone excited for using
Facebook. There are so many ways to reach people and to share the
gospel through social media. It's so exciting! We were able to
download the app after our meeting.
Later that day, I found out that Elder Brower (a missionary who served
here in my mission) got in a car accident and passed away. I was
floored to hear about it. I served by Elder Brower in my first area
and we were able to go on an exchange together. I didn't know him very
well, but he would always run up to me at meetings and catch up. It
was always good to see him! He changed a lot of lives and I truly
believe he is continuing to do so. My thoughts and prayers are going
out to the Brower Family.
Saturday was awesome because we were able to teach Belinda! I've been
super excited about Belinda and have just felt like she would be so
open to receiving the gospel. Well we were able to set a baptism date
with her that night! I was so excited! She'll be baptized on August 27
if all goes well. I really hope I'm here for it. Transfers are next
week and I'm going into my LAST transfer! I've been here for six
months though so it's very possible I could leave. Any guesses? Pray
for me and wish me luck! Haha!
This week really turned out to be such a great week. I'm happy to be
serving in Gilmer. No place I'd rather be serving at this time! I love
and miss all of you and can't wait to see you again. Watch me on
Facebook! You might see some posts from me periodically throughout the
weeks.
Have an amazing week everyone!
Elder Joshua Needles
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