Last day before transfers!

Excerpt for Josh's email ApriI 29, 2013: I have been thinking a lot lately, and have kind of realized throughout my life I really don't know what I've been doing.  I have just been going through the motions of life. It's kind of weird. Now that I am out here I have learned so much about myself that I didn't know before. It's kind of scary. It's weird to think about. i don't think I understood quite fully how important the gospel is  and how real it is. It's not something we are to just do. It is something we are supposed to live. Something that we have t do in our own hearts. It does us no good if we are just going to church and doing the things we are asked or told to do, we have to want to do those things. I can't wait for the day that I can come home and apply these things in my everyday normal life. I am so very grateful that I am here. It was a hard and still is a hard road to get to where I am and the road hasn't ended yet. We have to continue in doing good and living the gospel to truly succeed. Life is all about self -mastery and overcoming the natural man and the influence of the adversary. I really liked the talk in conference that talked about the tools that Satan will use against us. He uses the one thing that he doesn't have to literally destroy us. It is crazy!! Satan can't destroy us only we can. We have to continually do good in all things in action and thought and in our hearts so we can overcome and conquer all things. Life is not easy  and it never will be. We just need to do the best that we can. We need to live the gospel. We also need to warn our brothers and sisters of the danger. Like it says in D&C 88:81 I believe. I am so grateful that I made it here. I hope I can continue in the things I have learned here on my mission for the rest of my life. I hope I can continually have opportunities to share it with others so they can have the same blessings that we have here in this life and in the life after. I am so very grateful for the gospel in my life and for this opportunity I have to be set apart from the world to take time away to open my eyes more fully to see the truthfulness of the gospel. I love you all so much! :)

Excerpt from Josh's email April 22, 2013: Hey i just wanted to email you all and let you all know that we had a baptism yesterday! It was awesome! we were super excited for her! I got the opportunity to give the talk on the Holy Ghost which i thought went pretty good! It was super cool to see her progression and to hear her bear her testimony. It was really cool. We also got to be the witnesses. The work has been going pretty good lately. we have a couple more people that we are going to start teaching and hopefully will help them progress towards baptism! I'm super excited. Also transfers are coming up and i will most likely be staying Elder Carly though will probably end up leaving :/ sad day. we had a really good system goin but it's always good to switch things up a bit but anyways I will send you all pictures :) Love you guys!

Excerpt from Josh's email April 15, 2013: Things are going pretty alright. It's kind of rough at times.The adversary has been working hard on me lately, Putting thoughts of fear and doubt into my mind but Im trying to rely on the lord more and read the scriptures more which is going well. We have a baptism coming up on Sunday which should be awesome.We are excited about that. We have some new people that we have found that will hopefully start to progress and then we have a couple that we are working with trying to help them receive and answer that they need to be baptized and then we are also going to start working on a lot of less actives and part member families that the bishop wants us to specifically work with. But it's been going pretty good.

Excerpt from Josh's email April 2, 2013:Hey! yeah Easter was good. I got the letter and pictures yesterday which was nice :) haha Yesterday we didn't email because we were in Lexington having a zone p-day. I got really wore out. I haven't run around and played like that in a really long time. It was a lot of fun. I have been so busy lately. It's insane! I have been able to read a lot lately though. I have been reading a lot more from the Book of Mormon which is really cool. I want to get a lot more familiar with all of the stories so that I can explain and share them easier with people. I really enjoy reading the scriptures. I think I might be ill... haha I told Geeb that I quit soda and he said "who are you and what have you done with my nephew?" lol I am a lot different now I feel sort of different. More like I am the same person, but with a lot more spiritual drive to better myself because that's what the lord wants us to do. I have been a lot more healthy lately. I have been drinking Orange juice a lot and have been getting a lot of good exercise it's been really good! I am gaining muscle. My one suit doesn't hardly really fit me haha. My arms are just getting too big! haha. Man my mission has taught me a lot of useful stuff, like washing the dishes right after I'm done using them. It makes them a heck of a lot easier to clean! haha I'm a lot more organized and clean too. It's kind of weird... It's pretty crazy. Well I have to hurry and go but I will email you all next week. Tell dad I said hi and love him and tell the rest of the family I love and miss them. I will talk to you all next week! Love you!

Excerpt from Josh's letter March 25, 2013

Hey!

It's been a while since I typed out an email to you all. I have sooooo much to tell you and I hope I don’t forget anything. Well first I want to tell you something pretty cool that I found out. Well last night we went to The Greens home for dinner. They cooked Lemon chicken piscada for me for my birthday and also made teri maszu (yeah I don't speak Italian). Well that was really cool, but we were talking and bishop Green was talking about his mission and all the water falls and cool stuff and how he "didn't" go swimming  but anyways he said he went to Guam and I was like hey! That's cool! My uncle served in Guam! Then he said in Pompeii? And I said yes!! And he asked when and I had no idea then I remembered it was around the time of 9/11 and he was like I came home in 2011!  I must know who he is! And I told him and he said he knew who Geeb was! Super cool! I have a Pompayan message for him Let’s see.... Well the Shepard’s sent me something which was super nice of them. They sent me the talk that has been going through my mind for a while now. The one by Jeffery R Holland about how missionary work is not easy because salvation is not a cheap expense. So that was really cool Tell them thank you for me please! :) I don't know if I told you all or not but I quit drinking soda. It's been good for me haha. I've been trying to stay a lot healthier lately, even though we live off of stovetop rice and hamburger helper hahahaha It's been good though. We have been working really hard lately trying to find new people. It's been kind of hard. It's always hard to find new people to teach. We have a couple really awesome investigators that I am really really excited about! I really hope I will be here to see them enter into baptism. I have been learning a ton!! I've been reading a ton too! I am on Mosiah 16 right now and I finished all of D&C and am on JS-Matthew in the Pearl of Great Price. I am going to start knocking out the Old and New Testament(pray for me) It's been super cool! I am so so excited for general conference to see what the Prophet and Apostles have to say. I look forward to General Conference now for a completely different reason haha. I’m pretty excited about my birthday this year too. It's weird though, I can't believe I am going to be 20 years old! That's insane! I'm glad you told Brother Curry that it's my birthday Tuesday, His wife is going to bring us a huge breakfast casserole! I'm really excited for that!! :) I have a challenge for you all too that Brother Curry(our ward mission leader) gave to all of us. He asks us What is the significance of Dueteronmy. 4:29? There are two key words in there and another one that I really, really like is Alma 7:11-13 and the question that goes with that is how do we limit the atonement? I really like those scriptures they are really good! well anyways I will write more next week I love and miss you all! :)

Excerpt from Josh's letter March 18, 2013:Hey guys! I'm doing pretty good, I don't have much time I wish I did! It's kind of frustrating at times because I have so much I need to say and don’t have the time to do it. I got my email from Caroline which was cool she talked a lot about section 88:73 I was telling grandma and grandpa about it was really good! Right now out here we are getting a TON of rain!! It has been raining pretty heavily since last night and we have flash flood warnings so that's been interesting. President said we can now email our friends which is awesome .I’m looking forward to that. Hopefully  I can get a couple of the other ones on missions and more active in church. The work has been going alright here. It has been kind of slow lately. It's going to be real slow this week because it's spring break on a college campus haha. I'm almost done with D&C! I'm on section 128 and I’m on Mosiah 9 which is pretty sweet! I have been learning a ton! I love you guys!!

Excerpt from Josh's email March 11, 201: Everything is going pretty well here. I am glad to hear that things are going well at home. I can't believe it's already march. Time just flies right by me now. I have know idea how but it does. We have some really cool investigators that we are teaching. Hopefully we can get them into the font soon I've been reading a lot and marking a lot in my scriptures. It's been really good! I am on D&C 103 and Mosiah 6 right now. It's awesome! I love studying the scriptures. I find such peace in it. It is rough at times out here. It's so weird just the concept of being a missionary. Leaving home for two years and talking to strangers about the gospel of Jesus Christ. It's kind of strange from other peoples points of view but it’s awesome. I’m learning a lot out here and am being tested ALOT out here. It is insane! I don't even know what normal life is like. It's super weird when you start singing hymns instead of songs on the radio and start reading scriptures instead of magazines and start teaching people about Jesus instead of hanging out with friends, and your prize possessions go from a car and cell phone to scriptures and notes. Missionary life is a different culture, but I love it. It is so nice to be here having the experiences that I am. I don’t know where I would be if I weren’t here in Kentucky. I'll try to write more next week too. I love you all! :)

Helping people move.

Excerpt from Josh's email March 4, 2013: Hey guys! I've had a pretty crazy week! This past week we were out of town from Thursday to Sunday! it was crazy! we went and stayed in Mt sterling then went to zone conference out in Lexington then we went back to Mt sterling that night and then we went to mission conference in Louisville where we got to hear from two apostles and hear from a couple from the 70! It was way cool! The Louisville Temple president and his wife were there as well. It was awesome!! Elder Perry and Elder Cook were the two apostles it was so cool! We got to go up and shake all of their hands and meet them! It was so nice to hear from them. I took a bunch of notes which I don't have with me right now but basically we had the whole mission there about 180 missionaries crammed into the chapel. You know it's crazy when the apostles say that they have never been to such a small meeting in their life were there are two apostles in one location. It was awesome! They talked on missionary work of course and talked about the influx of missionaries. They talked about how we will hit around 60k this month and then by august we will have around 90k!! That's insane!! They talked to us about our responsibility as missionaries right now and what a special opportunity it is to be a part of all of this. Something that really stood out to me was they said from their own mouths that the lord is hastening his work, which is something I have been pondering and reading a lot about in the D&C. Section 88:73 especially. That really stood out to me when I read that. That times is now. What a blessing and privilege it is to be serving the lord at this time. I'm loving it! With everything happening in the church all of the changes the church is making is the lord hastening his work. It's so cool!! But anyways our mission conference was good :) I got to see all of the other Elders I have gotten to work with. It was awesome! Elder Rollins told me that a guy got baptized the day before! I was so stoked! He was one of the only people Elder Rollins and I were teaching before I got transferred so that was awesome to hear! I got to see all my buddies from the MTC except one of the elders that went home. It was sad to hear but it was an awesome conference. After that we went out to eat a MiMi's cafe! It was super good! Make sure you tell mike I had the chicken gumbo again! I remember when mike took me out to Mimi's because we were going to have faijitas and my braces hurt so he took me there. haha also I want you to ask Caroline if she can type up the story about the patriarchal blessing. Anyways we went there to eat with our zone leaders and then we went back to Lexington to stay with them because we had stake conference where elder Clayton spoke about the same thing as the mission conference basically which was super awesome. After stake conference on Sunday we went home finally! It was pretty crazy being out of town for that long. We haven't had much time to do much work. Sunday night was pretty good for us though we went out and tried the best we could to have some numbers to report. It has been awesome out here so far. There are ups and downs but it's all good. Brother Gardener, he's cool. He is a cheerleader and so is his wife at the University here., He went to Chicago on his mission and he said that his mission was the best and worst two years of his life, and some days that is so true haha. Elder Perry was talking to us a lot about authority and priesthood keys which was pretty cool and he also talked about the lord hastening his work now with the influx and growth of the church from converts because of the new missions and new missionaries and all this the younger missionaries will have to start doing things a lot sooner like training and leadership and all that so I thought that was cool and also the growth of members in the church will increase dramatically because of converts and Return missionaries getting married and bringing up families in the gospel! It's super cool to hear that come from an apostle I love you all! Stay safe!

Excerpt from Josh's email February 25, 2013:Thanks for the letters. I always enjoy reading letters. I think it's funny that Megan(my sister) misses me so much. Every time she writes anything to me it's always, "I can't wait until you get home". I miss her a lot. I miss you all a lot.

Josh was transferred last minute and since he was moving and didn’t have much space he didn’t take much food with him from his prior place. At his new place they didn’t have much food at the time, they were out of money on their cards and Josh’s debit cards didn’t reach him because he was unexpectedly transferred and his cards went to his prior address. This is what he is talking about in this next section.

Anyways I am so glad that I have my cards now! I don't know if I told you all the story already about how we didn't have much food so we were basically just eating whatever we could find in the house but anyways we prayed and asked Heavenly Father to bless us that we might have food and the very next day we went to go do service which we do at a place called christian social services which is basically like a DI and all we do is move boxes around. They also do food. That day was the day for their food delivery. So we helped unload all of that and they had so much FOOD! and so they said we could all take a box of food! We had so much food! We had a bunch of bread! like Criossaunts, french baquetts, Ciabatta bread, all kinds of stuff! It was an answer to our prayers! Anyways that was super cool. My testimony grew a little. The lord really does hear and answer our prayers!

Every transfer I have been putting scriptures on the first page of my planner and last transfers scripture was Romans 8:18, this transfers scripture is Proverbs 23:7. They are both really good scriptures. I want you all to watch the mormon messages, Earthly Father and Heavenly Father is a really good one and also Mountains to climb and Sanctify ourselves. Those are three I watched the other day and I really liked them especially the Father one. That one is probably my favorite. All of the Mormon Messages are really good. I haven't seen a bad one yet. I wish I could watch them more often. Tell Everyone I Love and Miss them. I love you all!

p.s. Tell Megan(My sister) That I can't wait to come home and see her and that I love and Miss her and tell her thank you for her letter.
Also tell Jessie Not to be stupid and break her foot anymore. She gets her cast off tomorrow I believe that's cool. I wish I could have been there to sign it haha!
Tell Daniel I also love and miss him too.
Tell Dad to be careful with work and that I love and miss him.
Mom I also Love and miss you and I appreciate all of the letters and all that you has ever done for me! :)
Love You All!