Hiki'i A Richardson Ki 'Olunga‏

Hello Family and Friends! I hope y'all have had a good week! This week
Elder Casper and I biked SO MUCH! SO MUCH! Also it's so humid and hot
so I sweat like crazy riding bikes around. BUT, We had an answered
prayer one day! One day this week we were riding our bikes from one
side of our area to the other. The church was about halfway, so we
stopped to rest a little bit and to sync our area books. When we were
about to leave I said, "Oh Heavenly Father I REALLY don't want to ride
my bike right now." Just after I said that one of the members in our
Ward ran into us. Then they said, "Elders! Do you need a ride
somewhere??" I just smiled from ear to ear and we didn't have to ride
our bikes! God is so good!
This week was a little hard, because my dog, Milo, passed away. He was
my best friend! I'm just glad he isn't suffering anymore, because he
had cancer. He was such a great friend to have and I was hoping he'd
still be there when I got back. It's okay though, I'll see him again!
Also this week we had one of the priests take us out to contact some
referrals. He was driving his car and HE RAN INTO A POLE! It was the
closest thing to a "car wreck" I've ever been in. I felt so bad,
because the front of his car didn't look too good. He dropped us off
after that and took it home to his dad.
We had a lot of people cancel on us or not show up for a lesson and it
sometimes gets hard, but we are keeping faith and hope and pushing
forward. We have faith that the work will continue to progress as
we're diligent! Elder Casper is still great! He's so funny. It makes
getting through hard times easier!
Next week is transfers and I'm so nervous! Y'all know how I get about
transfers! It stresses me out so much, but whatever happens will be
good. It always turns out well!
Kyle Webb leaved for college this week! It's so sad! We don't want him
to leave, because he helps us so much and he's also fun to be around!
Megan and Scott start school today! CONGRATS! Make the most of another
fun year in high school! I miss you all so much! Have an incredible
week!

Elder Needles

Eleven Months Today

Howdy Everyone! Guess what today is?? Today marks 11 whole months
since I've been on a mission. Almost a year holy moly! Elder Hafen
gave me a camel hat to wear on my year mark. It says "hump day" on it.
Then I have to sign it and give it to someone else who's about to hit
their year mark! It's awesome. I really can't believe I've been on a
mission for that long. I've been away from all of my wonderful family
and friends for 11 months. One day I'll be saying "I can't believe
I've been on a mission for this long... I'm about to go home!" That
day seems to come faster and faster. This week was a harder week, but
that's okay. We all go through good and bad weeks, but we just have to
keep pressing forward with a steadfastness in Christ. Even though it
was a more difficult week to get through, we still saw lots of
success!! We set TWO baptism dates and got FOUR new investigators. Nia
is being baptized on the 26th of September and Cooper is being
baptized on the 3rd of October. Cooper is awesome. We gave him a Book
of Mormon to read on Wednesday and he's ALREADY through half of 2
Nephi. It's amazing! He's really determined to find the truth and I
know he will! We went to Super Chix with Josh Parker again this week
and they said "welcome back!" when we walked in. We really have become
regulars lol. This week I found out that my amazing Sister and Brother
in law are having a baby boy!!! I'm soooo excited! They are going to
be such great parents and I'm so dang excited to be an uncle. I can't
wait to meet my nephew! I never wanted them to have a kid while I was
on a mission but now that it's happening I can't wait! A week or so
ago we had zone conference and I forgot to write about it in my email!
But it was so great. Elder Hafen randomly in the middle of the
conference asked me to stand up and bear testimony of the Book of
Mormon. I just went for it and it was amazing how the spirit spoke
through me. I felt so much power and love as I testified about the
Book of Mormon. I know it's true. I love it so much. Afterwards both
President and Sister Taylor came up to me and thanked me for my
powerful testimony. It really made my day. We also met with the
Spitzenbergers this week and they are flippin' awesome! We love them
so much and they are really kind and also really funny. ALSO - Gabby
And Shawn Martineau are getting baptized on the 29th!! I'm so excited
for them and happy that they are going to be baptized. I hope I get to
go, even though it's all the way down in Duncanville. It's so DANG HOT
in Texas. Seriously, I've been dying with all the heat on a bike. But
somehow I'm surviving.

I miss you all and love you so much. I hope you have an incredible week!

Elder Josh Needles

 When I was at zone conference I shared my testimony and some thoughts about light and truth, someone said that in an email.  Made my day

Thought this might be nice for you to hear about...from another missionary's email this week - Also, just wanted you to know that what you said about 'light and truth,' and your analogy was profound for me also. 

Love, Pres. Taylor

"But here is what I learned about my vision at zone conference. Elder Needles was talking about how light is the Holy Ghost. So I now think my vision has another layer to it because to be filled with light I must be filled with the Holy Ghost."

SUPERCHIX

Hello familia y amigos! I miss you all so much. Never forget it. I
pray for you all every night! Just love ya so much! This week was
GREAT! It went by really fast. We got 58 media referrals this last
week... 58 MEDIA REFERRALS! Never before have I had so many referrals
to contact! It makes it so we're always busy though so that's good!
Also, our numbers looked AMAZING this week! I'm not really a "numbers
missionary" but it does feel nice to see high numbers on your report!
The Lord is definitely sending us lots of things to do. There is this
place right by our apartment called Super Chix... We have become
regular customers there. They sell chicken and custard and they have
wifi so we go there a lot in order to sync area books and create
routes for biking! They also have fries that are made from IDAHO
POTATOES WHICH MAKES ME SO HAPPY. A member in our Ward introduced us
to it and it is so great(: Elder Casper is as hilarious as ever. It
seems like we're always laughing!! And living with Elder Langford and
Elder Hafen is always a party. It's been so fun! So I guess I'm just
happy. Life is good, I'm so blessed with so much, and I can feel my
testimony growing every day. I love this church. I'm so glad I was raised in it. My mission is changing me - making me better. The Lord
has somehow molded me into a better person. Praise to God! We also got
a new investigator this week(: and we taught a lesson to Liz (one of
our investigators) and she felt the spirit so much! She is opening up
more and more to the gospel and it's amazing. Kyle Webb (a member in
our Ward) took us out this week and it was awesome! I clicked really
fast with him when we got to this area! I'm so grateful he's in the
Ward... But unfortunately he's leaving in a couple of weeks for
college at BYU Provo. Being on a bike is hard, because we see a lot
more persecution. This week people took pictures of us laughing, some
held up their fingers like a gun pretending to do a drive by shooting,
some mock us, I got called a hypocrite! It's so crazy! It kind of got
to me this week and I had to take a second to cool down. I just have
to keep faith and hope! Also --> "10 And blessed are all they who are
persecuted for my name’s sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."
Love the scriptures! Also we taught the Jacksons this week and it was
hilarious. She works at McDonald's and she gets prank calls all the
time and she was telling us about all of them. Don't prank call
McDonald's people! Hope you all have a great week! I love and miss you
so much!
Josh Needles

 

Visits and Spring Valley Road

Hello Family and Friends! I love and miss you all so much. I hope you all know that! 

This week was great! A lot happened and it definitely wasn't boring! Story for y'all --- We were riding our bikes down Spring Valley Road which is a fairly busy road (one of the main roads in my area) and I saw a group of tree branches in the way of me up ahead. So silly me thought it would be a good idea to pummel through these branches. Welp, it was a bad idea! One of the tree branches hit my bike handle bars and made me turn my bike really quickly and fly right into Spring Valley Road face first. I fell right on the ground. I looked up and my companion didn't even see that I had literally just ate tree branches and asphalt. I got up and attempted to pull my bike back onto the sidewalk only then realizing that my back tire had completely fallen off and was dangling by the bike chain. It was scary and I definitely watch out for trees more! LOL. Also a tree branch got stuck in Elder Caspers helmet which made me laugh the whole day. Anyway, we got two new investigators this week which was great! We've been working very hard and it's paying off! On Saturday, the Martineau Family came to visit me. It was so awesome. We went to Torchy's Tacos then the LDS Bookstore. They were so kind to come all the way up to North Dallas to feed me. I love them so much! Also, ELDER EVANS IS BACK IN TEXAS! I'M SO HAPPY! Him and Lori came to feed us dinner on Saturday and he also came to some appointments with us! It was so great! I'm so glad that he came to visit! The Lord was definitely nice to me this week by sending old friends my way :) Also, it was Chris O'Neal's birthday yesterday! I was sad I couldn't be there because he is definitely one of my favorite people in the world, but I sent a gift back with the Martineaus to give him. Shout out to Whitney Hughes for having a birthday this week as well! I love you all so much! I miss you like crazy! Have an amazing week!

Elder Josh Needles