Josh's Journey

I'm feeling pretty lazy today so this will be a shorter email. Some highlights were: 1. We delivered some Chick-fil-a to the district since they were low on food and couldn't buy any (due to quarentine) 2. A couple days ago for Light the World we delivered brownies and fudge to our district (as well as some mail) 3. We filmed our video on Saturday which was lots of fun. We had to pick some locks to get some things we needed but we put everything back afterwards. I will post it on Facebook when we get it edited. It was a blast to do though. 4. District Council I finally was able to get to something I had wanted to talk about the last 3 or 4 weeks. 5. We had a mission wide question and answer with Elder RONALD A RASBAND. For anyone who doesn't know who that is, he is an Apostle of Jesus Christ which is pretty dope. He answered questions we had and it was super awesome! He invited us to open the "sealed section" of the scriptures (the topical guide) and u...

We survived quarantine so far! Tuesday we had a lesson with a family who are helping another family come back to church and hopefully we will be able to start teaching their whole family. We called all of our Ward Mission Leaders and told them we would be quarantined for 2 weeks as we had been exposed to another missionary with covid. We also watched a Christmas thing from the missionaries serving at Temple Square as they celebrated the start of the Christmas season with lights and music.   Wednesday we had Zone Conference over zoom which was really good. It was the best Zone Conference we have had in a while. We talked about lots of things but probably my favorite part was at the end when we discussed all together Matthew 11:28-30. 28 Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is li...

  Tuesday we were able to do service and trim bushes at a house. We did it with a guy who is leaving on his mission in a week and he was really fun to chat with. Later we had interviews with President McConkie and we talked about focusing on the things we can control and how the other things will fall into place which was good to hear from someone besides me telling myself that. Wednesday we prepped for and had our Uplifting Thoughts stand next to a Spring Water Well that lots of people come by. We were able to have some good conversations with people. One lady started to cry after we shared one and she said she had been having a hard time since her husband had died recently. We also started to make plans to go caroling in December to people. Thanksgiving! In the morning we had a couple lessons with people for a short time. We had a panic when we had some change of plans last second so we ended up having to run around in a panic trying to get a knife that would work to car...

 Tuesday we were able to have in person District Council which is always much nicer than doing it over zoom. It was really nice to see people in person and talk to them. We had a panic in the evening when midlesson we discovered that someone had scheduled another appointment at the same time but on our old calendar (which we don't look at) making us double booked. We were freaking out when they hopped into the waiting room. We got it figured out though and and rescheduled them for the next day. They had a mission wide zoom call at night and told us our thanksgiving plans which I was surprised they told us this far in advance. Wednesday morning it was nice outside and we knew it was going to get colder as the day went on so we went on a walk. When we were starting I told Elder C we would make sure to talk to someone we saw with a purple shirt on. When we were almost home, we saw a lady with a purple shirt on so I tried to talk to her but she said hi and then ignored us. Darn. I di...

  Another fat thumb caused me to send the other email without anything else aside from pictures. Tuesday Morning we had District Council and talked about leaving powerful invitations which went pretty well. We weren't given a topic to talk about so I was kinda freestyling as far as what we were going to talk about but the Zone Leaders came and they said it was good. We also had half our appointments cancel and some of our appointments got deleted from the calendar so we ended up calling people and asking them when the lesson we had set up with them was which was pretty funny. People had some funny responses to us telling them what happened. Wednesday we were able to meet with the Stake President and the high councilors over missionary work which was great because one of them was new. Then we had a great council with some of the ward mission leaders. Thursday was pretty funny because while calling people not a single person I called picked up after around an hour of calling an...

  Tuesday was transfers and I got transferred to Centerville. My new companion is Elder C who is from Arizona. I am also district leader again and they gave me a 2020 Chevy Equinox that had 800 miles when I got which I have been enjoying (especially because of the snow). My one gripe with it is that it does not have seat warmers but that is very much a first world problem so I'm not complaining. We live across from a mountain spring water filled well which is really fun and we have very pure water very close. Moving in took most of the day but later we had a lesson in person with some people preparing for baptism who we later found out were not in our area since we weren't sure where our exact boundaries are. Wednesday we were invited to a Q&A with a small youth group which was a lot of fun. They had some really good questions for being 13-15 years old which I was pleasantly surprised. Overall it was really good and the spirit was very strong during parts of it...

 Halloween was super fun. We got together and had a dinner with pulled pork and ribs which was great.   I am getting a new companion tomorrow since Elder V is going home.   If you have any questions please email!

  Zone Conference was on Wednesday which was great as always. We had some great training on teaching with power and ideas for studying the Book of Mormon which was great as I finished the Book of Mormon a couple days after and started again in the way that was shared. Afterwards they had flu shots available and then gave us KFC which good. Especially since I didn't have to cook it. We also walked into our area and had a lesson with a couple who used to be missionaries serving in the mission office and who finished just before I arrived. They were super fun. Thursday was pretty normal until the evening where one of our wards had a social distance Trunk or Treat. There were some creative ways of delivering the candy including launching it into the air and having them catching it. Friday we had service in the morning with the couple that used to be missionaries. We helped them with landscaping as their house was pretty new. A couple days ago we were on walk and talked to someone o...

  On Tuesday we had a couple meetings in person including a new ward mission leader. We were able to bring him up to speed on what is going on and he seems pretty awesome. He had a super nice backyard with a fancy stream going through it. We also had a Youth Devotional with one of our wards and that went pretty well. After we spoke, the bishop got up and told an awesome story about this lady he taught and baptized in Europe who 40ish years later came and tracked him down a couple years ago.   Wednesday we had someone came to paint our apartment which made the whole place smell like paint. The guy who did it only spoke Spanish for the most part and so one of the other missionaries in my apartment who was a Spanish missionary until recently was chatting with him. We had a youth fireside today in someone's backyard. It was a really nice yard with a pool and a koi pond as well as a fire pit and they had a BBQ and afterwards we spoke to everyone. It was a lot of fun and we were a...

  Tuesday we spent lots of the day in the area which was a good time. We had an in person lesson with an old couple who were pretty fun. After we went next door to an Italian cafe for dinner which was good but a little expensive. Wednesday we had a youth devotional in the evening so we planned everything for it. However Elder V had a fever and a headache so we ended up cancelling a couple hours before (I felt bad for throwing the bishop under the bus to deal with that but we didn't have any other options). The other lessons we had that day I did with other missionaries as Elder V was incapacitated.   Thursday Elder V still had a fever so nothing too crazy happened. We did a lot of planning and K passed his interview. On the recommendation of Evan I marinated some pork chops and had them. 10/10 would recommend. Friday went and got Elder V tested for covid. He felt better today but had already scheduled the test and was like might as well just in case. Saturday Elder V w...

 On Wednesday we got to do service and help remove roots from a massive tree stump so they could pull it out of the ground. We had a lesson with a couple and the husband shared an insight to a scripture that I really liked. We were talking about General Conference and he shared part of Mosiah 2:9 which was "you should hearken unto me, and open your ears that ye may hear, and your hearts that ye may understand, and your minds that the mysteries of God may be unfolded to your view". He said this is describing 3 ways to listen to General Conference. First, we can just listen and hear. Second, we can listen with our heart and we will understand what they are telling us. Third, can listen with our mind and receive revelation from God and learn things that weren't directly said but taught to you by the Holy Ghost. Thursday we grabbed some snacks for General Conference and for those of you who know about Bearman's and ice cream, I was buy 1 get 1 free for my favorite ice c...

Tuesday we were able to go to Pace's and I got a very good rainbow (slushie with ice cream in the middle) which was very good. We had a lot of lessons so we were pretty busy. Wednesday we had another lesson with K. It has been so cool to see how he has grown in the last couple weeks. Despite normally having a hard focusing he has been locked in and really paying attention which is great. Thursday we had our first day of Mission Conference. Elder Gonzalez of the Utah Area Presidency joined us in a mission-wide zoom call taught us. One great thing that he brought up and reminded us of is to always remember to bring our conversations to Christ who is our Savior. Unfortunately since it was over zoom it was a little hard to understand him sometimes since the connection was sometimes spotty. We also did more service cleaning up trees from the wind storm a couple weeks ago. We also helped get a basketball hoop out of a foam pit which is a lot harder than it sounds. Friday we had the...