Hey everyone! This week has been another good one!

             On Saturday, Faye Melton was baptized. I'm so happy that she's chosen to face her life towards Jesus Christ and the scriptures. I know she's going to be blessed. I had the opportunity of confirming her on Sunday. In the blessing I said "may angels never be far." I know that angels will always be near her. She has really blessed my life and a huge reason I survived the homesickness. It was also Dustin Melton's birthday on Saturday! We all went to the ward party and had such a good time. It was awesome to see their family together and having a good time. Their kids (Noah and Olivia) are the most rambunctious, loving, happy, awesome kids. I love their family.

             After the ward party we went to the Robison's and helped put up their Christmas tree! Madi (Celeste Robison's daughter) sang for me! She doesn't sing for anyone (Not even Brother Robison) and I pretty much begged her to sing for me. I was lucky enough to hear her sing! She's got an amazing voice and she really could go places and fulfill her dream of becoming a singer. I was nervous all night about transfers.

              There was a good chance I could have been leaving Whitehouse, but luckily I get to stay! It felt like I was at state waiting to see them post finals again - I was that nervous. I was jumping up and down when I heard I get to stay! I'm so glad I get to be hear. I will be here for another seven weeks and there's a 95 percent chance I'll be here for another 13 weeks. Which is awesome! I love it here, and I'm glad this is where I get to serve on my mission.

             Only 10 more days until Christmas!!!!! 10 more days until I get to Skype my family! I'm excited for that day. I hope this Christmas season is going well for all of you! Remember Jesus Christ - He really has blessed my life and He is real, waiting for us to come unto Him. Do it! It's the best feeling in the world to know that Christ lives and loves us and is our Redeemer. Keep being awesome and try not to forget about me this Christmas either! I won't forget about all of you! :)

                                  _ELDER NEEDLES_

Baptism of Faye

Faye's cute little kiddos

The original crew

PEACE! Nice socks boys

Below is Elder Needles with his long time High School friend
Elder McAllister. Josh was so excited to see a familiar face
last week. They talked for 30 minutes and then Dallin sang for the
whole mission! Great day!

FIRST BAPTISM

Hey everyone! I'm glad it's P-Day, because I love emailing. It's one of my favorite parts of the day :) This week I had my first baptism on my mission. It was great! We're really happy for Zack and he is excited to finally be a member. This week has been a pretty good one. Not only did we have a baptism and confirmation, but it was also the Bullard Ward Christmas party! It was a lot of fun to go to, and the Kindle family is so musically talented. They're awesome. There are SCREAMING babies at this library. I'm going crazy. I thought libraries were supposed to be quiet. Anyway, we've had so many crazy things happen with investigators. One of our now "former" investigators doesn't like us at all anymore. He told us to come get our book back or he would burn it. You can say he's no longer progressing toward baptism.

              I heard about Rocky getting 2nd at state! I'm really happy for all of you guys! 2nd place is awesome! I'm overjoyed that you guys placed! I love and miss you all so much. The screaming babies are leaving thank goodness. This Saturday will be Faye's baptism! She's so excited (at least I think so). She made her own programs for it and they are beyond amazing. They look so professional! Everyone in the ward is so happy that she's joining. People are saying she's really going to be a great addition to the ward. We watched 17 Miracles with her family and the Robisons last night! I love that movie, and it was really fun to do that! I hope everyone has a good week! Remember - Jesus Christ is the reason for the season. HE IS THE GIFT :)

Happy December everyone! I'm so excited for the Christmas season. I hope everyone else is as well! Here's some moments of my Thanksgiving week that I feel are noteworthy to share.

         For Thanksgiving, we went to the Robisons! They fed us so freaking well. There was a ton of food and it was REALLY good. I was pretty full after haha. I didn't even have enough room for pumpkin pie. Faye and her kids came over to the Robisons as well. The Robisons have a Great Dane named Tiny (Ironic, right?) and Fayes son, Noah, loved the dog. That's all he wanted to do so I spent a lot of time playing with a Great Dane named Tiny on Thanksgiving haha.

        On Wednesday, Zack had his baptism interview! It was announced at church that he'll be baptized this Saturday at one! (noon for most of you guys - or as the Texans would say it "most of ya'll) We're really excited for him and he's also excited to be baptized. Faye's baptism interview is tonight. She seems a little nervous but we know she'll qualify for baptism without a doubt.

         One night I was walking through the hallway of my apartment and a HUMUNGOUS spider ran right by my foot. It took a while to actually kill it because it was huge. We later found out that it was a wolf spider. The bugs here are huge and there are a ton of them haha.

          You're probably wondering why the title of this email is "Don't Worry - I still love Dr. Pepper." Well, let me explain. The zone leaders went to lunch one day with one of their recent converts named Hannah. They noticed that she was downing Dr. Pepper and found that she (like I) had a love for that soda hahaa. They were aware that I drink Dr. Pepper all the time and that I love it too, so they said "We know a missionary that could drink more Dr. Pepper than you in a meal." Long story short I was at Buffalo Wild Wings sitting across from a girl named Hannah about to begin a Dr. Pepper drinking contest. I DRANK SO MUCH DR. PEPPER. I got really sick and full. I hardly even ate any food. I felt like I was going to puke and I had to pee so bad (which by the way was against the rules - we couldn't go to the bathroom until after the meal). In the end I won by drinking three more glasses than she did. I didn't drink any Dr. Pepper for the rest of that day, but my love for the soda still remains. :)

            I love you all and hope you all had a fun Thanksgiving and Black Friday! Keep me in mind throughout the week (:

JOSH

Elder Needles found his dream car!

Merry Christmas from Whitehouse, TX

Happy Turkey Day!

Hello everybody! How's it going? Life okay? I hope so, haha! So turns out my companion did get transferred and I took over the area. I was scared -- really scared. We went to the meeting and just waited to see our face pop up on the screen with our new companion. When my face popped up, I saw Elder Horrocks was my new companion. I really like him. We get along really well and I'm really happy that he's my second companion. The work is going really well here! We now have 5 baptism dates in December, and 7 progressing investigators. We have an investigator named Tina who has been trying to quit smoking for years so she can be baptized. As of right now, she hasn't smoked in 9 days! We are so happy for her! I love the people of Whitehouse and Bullard more and more each day I'm here. There is a 9 year old in the Bullard ward named Megan and she is so much like my little sister. I told her about a time when my little sister licked a pepporoni and tried to give it to my older sister, but a missionary took it instead and ate it. She thought it was so funny that she did the same thing haha. She's awesome and it's crazy how much she reminds me of Megan. Yesterday, we got the cops called on us. Some lady was really mad that we were proselyting after dark so she called the cops. He just told us to come back when it's light outside and said he appreciates what we're doing. I miss home still and heard that districts was cancelled. I would be going crazy if I were there. Don't know how I'd handle myself haha. I am becoming acting deprived more and more. I want to watch a musical so bad haha. But I love being out here and am excited to keep moving forward. I hope I get to stay in this area until at least March. That's what I'm hoping for. We'll see how that goes. Have a good week everyone. Stay warm! (Believe it or not, it's actually really cold here)

JOSH

Update on Transfer Week

Elder Needles will stay in Whitehouse, Texas for another transfer. His Companion Elder Ezzell was transferred and his new companion is Elder Horrocks from Midway, Utah. Below are a few pictures from Transfer week. :)

AN OFFICIAL TEXAN!

Elder Needles with his new companion Elder Horrocks

Zone Conference

Not sure who the young man is eating his brownie, but hey!

Transfer Week

Hey everyone! Another P-Day is here and I'm excited to read all of the emails and see what's going on in everybody's life. I heard the play at Rocky went well and that makes me happy! I miss RMHS drama a lot and I hope everything is going well with that! Being on my mission has made me realize just how much I love acting and music. I love it. Tonight is transfer calls and I'm pretty stressed out. Elder Ezzell has a very high chance of being transfered which means I'll take over the area and get a new companion. I'm worried that I might get transfered, because I don't want to leave, but there is a very low chance that will happen! This last week was one of the best of my mission. I love the people here. Lisa, one of my investigators, is so awesome. She has chickens, horses, cows, and lots of land. It's so fun to go to her house. Faye and Dustin are as amazing as ever. We played Phase Ten with them last night. I was on a role and thought I was going to win, but Dustin pulled through in the end and beat me haha. There were altogether 16 non-members at church yesterday. It might've been a record haha. We also hit standards for our numbers besides baptisms, confirmations, and contacts which was awesome. I love going to the Robisons still as well. They are truly awesome people. Tina started the quit smoking program with us and we hope that all goes well for her. I'm learning new things and coming closer to God and Christ and it makes me happy. I still miss home, but God is helping me through. This transfer has been unforgettable and I hope I get to stay for another transfer. We shall see tonight! Miss you incredible people a ton, have an amazing week.

JOSH

Halloween Week!!!!

Hello everyone! I hope your Halloween was awesome. Mine was pretty good. My companion and I went to a total of 5 Halloween parties. haha. yeah, we're party animals. There've been so many great moments and sometimes I forget to say them. Here's one I forgot to say last week: There is a lady in our ward who we didn't normally go see. One night, we didn't have much to do so we decided we'd just stop by her house. We parked outside then said "Well, what are we going to teach?" We knew she had been feeling sick the past couple of weeks, so we said maybe we'll give her a blessing. We went over how to give a blessing and prepared ourselves for that just in case. When we knocked on the door she answered and got very excited. She said she'd been praying today that God would send her someone to give her a blessing because she has a big decision to make for a surgery coming up. It was such a cool experience and God's hand was definitely apparent in that situation. On Sunday, our investigator (Zack) bore his testimony and said he wants to be baptized. We were jumping in our seats. He also has AN AMAZING voice. He played guitar and sang for us and I got the chills. He is so good. My companion has been teaching me guitar. Right now, I can play Hear You Me by Jimmy Eat World and Already Home by A Great Big World. There is a family with a son named Aryan. He is two years old and was born with a crushed windpipe. He can't really talk and has a trake (I don't know how to spell that) but he is a bundle of joy. I love going to meet with him and I've learned quite a bit of sign language. Every time we come to see them he shakes our hand then says "pray" in sign language. I love meeting with them.

I hope everyone is having an awesome week! I miss you all! Have a good one!

Elder Needles