Dear Family & Friends,
It's yet again another Preparation Day! I'm super pumped for P-Day
today. Hoping it'll be a good day. We are down in Paris, Texas with
Elder Christensen & Elder Saxey so it should be pretty fun. I hope
y'all have had an amazing week! For me, it's been a really good one
full of a ton of memories!
On Monday, I was able to finish my goodbyes with the people of Gilmer.
It was very hard to leave that area. I loved it so much. The Ibarra
Family gave me a "Jesus Welcomes You to Gilmer" sign. They signed it
and gave it to me as I left. I was super grateful and it was a great
ending to serving there. We got up bright and early in the morning so
I could travel to Dallas for the meeting that all of the trainers
have. I was able to see a lot of missionaries that I'm good friends
with so it was pretty fun. The meeting was good although I was pretty
tired. When we went in the room we saw all of the new missionaries. I
looked around and guessed my new companion would be Elder Nigh. I
turned out to be right! My new companion is Elder Nigh from Pocatello,
Idaho! He's really cool. I enjoy being his companion. He's really
going to be a great missionary too. We opened up the Hugo area this
week so we didn't have anything! (Car, phone, contact info) so we
spent some time in Dallas getting all of that taken care of. Once we
got our car and phone we were off! We traveled through Paris, Texas on
the way. It took a while to get to our area but we finally made it!
Hugo, Oklahoma is so small! And we live in an even smaller town!
Sawyer, OK! We live on members property so we met Brother Thomas in
Sawyer and he led us to where we would be living. I was surprised to
see we live on top of a barn! Haha! It's awesome and unlike anything
I've ever experienced on my mission. Oklahoma is full of cows, wasps,
mud-dobbers, & ants. SO MANY BUGS. Our car got infested by ants this
week so we had to get them all out. The missionaries who had the car
before us left food in it and somehow ants found their way in.
We finally got settled in our little apartment on top of a barn and
planned for the next day! We spent the week finding all of the
investigators and members in the Hugo area. We met so many great
people! Our first lesson together we taught Ruth. She is good friends
with the Thomas Family. We were able to teach her about baptism and
confirmation and we set a baptism date with her for September 3rd!
We're so excited. We also set a couple more dates this week. Kevin
committed to baptism on September 24th and Derek committed to
September 10th! We're being so blessed right now. Derek is a very
interesting investigator. He loves the Book of Mormon and has a firm
testimony of it. He knows it forward and backward it's crazy! He has
studied so much and knows so much about it that his faith in it is
almost unshaken. We were surprised to see this because he still was
never baptized. Well, he had a few of the commandments to work on
before being baptized so that's why it hasn't happened yet, but we
were able to commit him to September 10th! He really is such an
interesting guy and I think he'll be great for the Hugo Branch. We
also were able to find lots of new investigators this week. Notably
Wilma and Wendy. We knocked on their door and we were able to talk to
them for a little while. They're awesome and we really hope they
progress! We gave them a Book of Mormon and invited them to read it so
hopefully something comes of it. We're meeting with them on Thursday
this week!
There is a member who goes with the missionaries a lot here named
Brother Terry. He knows everyone the missionaries work with and it's
super helpful! We spent a lot of time with him this week in order to
better get to know the area. One night, he took us to eat at an
Italian restaurant and it was super good food! Everyone here in
Oklahoma either lives on a ranch or in government housing almost!
We've run into so many cows it's insane! They're everywhere! We even
are woken up in the morning by the Thomas Family's cows. One night
this week, there was a big thunderstorm and it was pretty crazy being
on top of a barn for it! Our beds were shaking and the Lightning was
shining through the windows frequently. It was crazy! Also, we have
too many spiders and bugs where we live. We've killed so many wasps,
bees, mud-dobbers, and spiders in our apartment haha. Every time we
see a wasp we immediately jump to our feet with fly swatters and bug
killer! It's funny how quickly we react to it now!
It's been such a good week regardless of all of the wasps and ants
haha! I'm so grateful to be in the Hugo Branch. We don't have a
building to meet in so we all have to travel to Texas for church and
there is a very low attendance at church, but they are SO excited to
have us here. They kept mentioning at church how "The first ever Hugo
missionaries are here. Our very own missionaries!" Derek and Ruth came
to church as well. I'm happy to be around such humble people who just
want to serve the Lord. I hope we can find success this transfer.
I only have a little over 5 weeks left of my mission! I can't believe
how fast the end is coming. I hope to make this transfer one of the
best on my mission. I don't have much time left so I need to make the
most of it! I'll be in Gilmer this Sunday for the mission president's
fireside! So excited to see my Gilmer friends again!
I love you all and hope you have an amazing week!
Elder Joshua Needles
It's yet again another Preparation Day! I'm super pumped for P-Day
today. Hoping it'll be a good day. We are down in Paris, Texas with
Elder Christensen & Elder Saxey so it should be pretty fun. I hope
y'all have had an amazing week! For me, it's been a really good one
full of a ton of memories!
On Monday, I was able to finish my goodbyes with the people of Gilmer.
It was very hard to leave that area. I loved it so much. The Ibarra
Family gave me a "Jesus Welcomes You to Gilmer" sign. They signed it
and gave it to me as I left. I was super grateful and it was a great
ending to serving there. We got up bright and early in the morning so
I could travel to Dallas for the meeting that all of the trainers
have. I was able to see a lot of missionaries that I'm good friends
with so it was pretty fun. The meeting was good although I was pretty
tired. When we went in the room we saw all of the new missionaries. I
looked around and guessed my new companion would be Elder Nigh. I
turned out to be right! My new companion is Elder Nigh from Pocatello,
Idaho! He's really cool. I enjoy being his companion. He's really
going to be a great missionary too. We opened up the Hugo area this
week so we didn't have anything! (Car, phone, contact info) so we
spent some time in Dallas getting all of that taken care of. Once we
got our car and phone we were off! We traveled through Paris, Texas on
the way. It took a while to get to our area but we finally made it!
Hugo, Oklahoma is so small! And we live in an even smaller town!
Sawyer, OK! We live on members property so we met Brother Thomas in
Sawyer and he led us to where we would be living. I was surprised to
see we live on top of a barn! Haha! It's awesome and unlike anything
I've ever experienced on my mission. Oklahoma is full of cows, wasps,
mud-dobbers, & ants. SO MANY BUGS. Our car got infested by ants this
week so we had to get them all out. The missionaries who had the car
before us left food in it and somehow ants found their way in.
We finally got settled in our little apartment on top of a barn and
planned for the next day! We spent the week finding all of the
investigators and members in the Hugo area. We met so many great
people! Our first lesson together we taught Ruth. She is good friends
with the Thomas Family. We were able to teach her about baptism and
confirmation and we set a baptism date with her for September 3rd!
We're so excited. We also set a couple more dates this week. Kevin
committed to baptism on September 24th and Derek committed to
September 10th! We're being so blessed right now. Derek is a very
interesting investigator. He loves the Book of Mormon and has a firm
testimony of it. He knows it forward and backward it's crazy! He has
studied so much and knows so much about it that his faith in it is
almost unshaken. We were surprised to see this because he still was
never baptized. Well, he had a few of the commandments to work on
before being baptized so that's why it hasn't happened yet, but we
were able to commit him to September 10th! He really is such an
interesting guy and I think he'll be great for the Hugo Branch. We
also were able to find lots of new investigators this week. Notably
Wilma and Wendy. We knocked on their door and we were able to talk to
them for a little while. They're awesome and we really hope they
progress! We gave them a Book of Mormon and invited them to read it so
hopefully something comes of it. We're meeting with them on Thursday
this week!
There is a member who goes with the missionaries a lot here named
Brother Terry. He knows everyone the missionaries work with and it's
super helpful! We spent a lot of time with him this week in order to
better get to know the area. One night, he took us to eat at an
Italian restaurant and it was super good food! Everyone here in
Oklahoma either lives on a ranch or in government housing almost!
We've run into so many cows it's insane! They're everywhere! We even
are woken up in the morning by the Thomas Family's cows. One night
this week, there was a big thunderstorm and it was pretty crazy being
on top of a barn for it! Our beds were shaking and the Lightning was
shining through the windows frequently. It was crazy! Also, we have
too many spiders and bugs where we live. We've killed so many wasps,
bees, mud-dobbers, and spiders in our apartment haha. Every time we
see a wasp we immediately jump to our feet with fly swatters and bug
killer! It's funny how quickly we react to it now!
It's been such a good week regardless of all of the wasps and ants
haha! I'm so grateful to be in the Hugo Branch. We don't have a
building to meet in so we all have to travel to Texas for church and
there is a very low attendance at church, but they are SO excited to
have us here. They kept mentioning at church how "The first ever Hugo
missionaries are here. Our very own missionaries!" Derek and Ruth came
to church as well. I'm happy to be around such humble people who just
want to serve the Lord. I hope we can find success this transfer.
I only have a little over 5 weeks left of my mission! I can't believe
how fast the end is coming. I hope to make this transfer one of the
best on my mission. I don't have much time left so I need to make the
most of it! I'll be in Gilmer this Sunday for the mission president's
fireside! So excited to see my Gilmer friends again!
I love you all and hope you have an amazing week!
Elder Joshua Needles
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