LAST HOLIDAY JULY 4, 2016

Dear Family & Friends,

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!!!! I hope you all are having the best Independence

Day today! We're so lucky as missionaries that the 4th lands on a

P-DAY! I'm excited to see what the day brings. This is my last (big)

holiday as a missionary! Holidays are very bittersweet as a

missionary. I can't believe this is my last one! Then for Thanksgiving

and Christmas I'll be home with my family again. So excited for that!

This week was a really good week. We didn't get transfer calls until

the next morning (which unfortunately was and is incredibly stressful)

but we finally got the call! I'm staying in Gilmer ANOTHER transfer!

What! I've been here for quite a long time! Elder Alkonis and I had

gone and said goodbye to people he wanted to see before he left. We

gave Little John Kit Kats for his birthday. He was ecstatic. Then we

were off to Dallas for Elder Alkonis to go home and for me to get my

new companion! My new companion is Elder Lu! He is from Taiwan! He

speaks Chinese and is currently learning English here in the states.

He's really good at English even though sometimes it's hard to

communicate. He's awesome, though. He is 25 years old, already has a

degree in computer engineering, and served in the military in Taiwan

before he came on his mission. He's also been teaching me bits and

pieces of Chinese! I can now count to 7 in Chinese Haha!

This week was filled with a lot of finding. We don't have a ton of

investigators right now so we have been doing everything we can to

find new people to teach. We saw some miracles happen! We went to a

dinner appointment this week with the Dodd Family. They fed us fajitas

(super good food) and as we were leaving they mentioned their next

door neighbor, Chloe. We told them we'd go knock on her door and see

what happens! We went and knocked on her door and she was so awesome!

She went and showed us her cows and pigs that she shows at the

Yamboree! The Yamboree is a huge celebration in Gilmer. Kind of like a

fair. She has a cow named Fergie! Haha! Well, we were able to teach

her and tell her that her neighbor sent us by. We shared the

Restoration with her and invited her to be baptized. She accepted! Her

date is August 6th! We were so excited about it. Then, the next day

she texted us and said "Hey when we,wet again is it alright if I bring

my friend? She's interested too." We're so excited to teach them and

hopefully see them progress!

We also met with Jan this week again. Jan is just amazing! We had her

first new member discussion and set up an appointment with Sister

Breedlove (the family history consultant) so that Jan could do Family

History and print off some names to take to the Temple. She is going

this Saturday and we're so excited we get to go with her! It's going

to be a blast! We also were able to see Zack again and he met with

Bishop about receiving the Priesthood! Thursday we had District

Meeting with the new missionaries in the District. Sister Howell got

transferred so the new Sister is Hermana Schreiner with Sister Van Den

Berghe. It was a fun "get to know you" district meeting. After the

meeting. Elder Lu and I went with Elder Whiteley and Elder Lazenby to

get some fried catfish! There is a pretty good restaurant in Quitman

that has really good grilled and fried catfish.

The next day we ate so much food! Too much! The members here in Gilmer

sometimes give us a lot of food Haha. We went to Brother Alldredge's

home and his wife Sylvia made us some churiso. It's Mexican food and

it's so good! They made a ton and we stuffed ourselves. I seriously

felt like I was going to explode I ate so much food! It was so good

though, so it was worth it. And, Brother Alldredge is planning on

going to the Temple as well which is super exciting. Later that night

we ate at Bishop Sullivan's home. They made us these HUGE burritos and

they were so good too. After, though, I felt like I had eaten an

elephant. We taught Aber her last new member discussion. I've loved

teaching Aber on my mission! She's come so far from where she began

it's incredible!

On Saturday, someone from one of the Wards that the Sisters are in got

baptized! We were able to go to the baptism and do the missionary

presentation. It turned out really well and I was happy to be able to

go to a baptism. I always love attending Baptisms. The spirit is

always present and you always can feel joy all around! I'm so happy I

was baptized. Almost every single blessing I have, I can trace back to

my baptism! The next day, the teacher for Gospel Principles didn't

show, so Elder Lu and I taught! We taught about talents and how the

Lord gives each of us different talents that we need to share with

others! It was really fun and I'm grateful we had that opportunity to

teach.

Well, this week was pretty darn good. Sometimes I get stressed but I

don't need to! I love serving a Mission. I love all of you and am so

grateful for all of your love and support. I only have 2 fast Sundays

left before I see you all again! You're in my prayers!

Elder Joshua Needles