Surprise Christmas email!!

MOM DAD RACHEL JOSH CALEB AND CALIE!!!

 and friends family and all others who care about my life lol

 

surprise! i a half an hour to email everyone instead of getting to call you, so i will use it as best i can :) christmas, is absolutely unbelievably amazingly spiritual, i've never quite felt anything like it. last night we had a huge program of songs and a acted nativity, it was really sweet, we sang and there were solos and duets and music of all sorts. then we got to watch a christmas carol with (?) george s scott lol not sure exactly, but it was pretty fantastic, and if you have seen the movie or will now see it and remember the ghost of christmas present, know that i have a wonderful robe of my own, and i wore it in fantastic fashion the rest of the night. :D lol we sat as a district in my companionships room, and read through luke two, the story of the birth of christ, and we could feel the spirit so strongly, it was unbelieveable. we loved it so much.

 

this morning, we woke up early and had our district leader come into our room, we all brought our presents and opened them together, he's been having a rough time and we hit it off pretty well with him, he's leaving this wednesday so we wanted to spend some real time with him. it was a fantastic morning and i can't wait to send you all the pictures. :)

 

anyway, after that, we hit up breakfast, then a motab performance broadcasted, music and the spoken word, pretty sweet. :) then came sacrament. lol 2100+ missionaries.... we had thirty two elders passing, and sixteen elders blessed on four tables around the gym, it was kind of nuts to think about, but amazing how quiet and peaceful it was. :) great experience, probably the only time it will happen to me in my lifetime. :) huge. lol

 

so anyway, we kinda had a general authority at sacrament,

 

it was kind of an apostle.....

 

 

ELDER BEDNAR!!!! AND HIS WIFE!!! lol excitement up the wazoo just so you know. lol it was amazing! mind blowing even lol. here in the mtc you saw him in such a different light, lol in gen con he is funny, but he is also being broadcasted to the world, se he has to be fairly dignified, lol but here.... this is another story. lol :) he spoke of learnig to come unto christ, to learn of him and not just about him. it was an amazing talk, about shirking off the natural man, which he in very visual terms put the natural man similar too cookie monster, wanting everything now, wanting it to happen to him, always impatient and turned inwards. when he gets a cookie, instantly stuffing his face with it, crumbs flying every where and gone in a matter of seconds. He said that we must get rid of the desire of what we want, and learn of christ, to turn outwards and to constanly give to otheres. it was an amazing lesson, and i wish you all could have been there. the spirit testified with every word, that our purpose at a missionary is not to baptize people, we must not say, "i want baptism, i want investigators, i want i want i want, and i want it now...." we must learn that through christ people will chose that and they will want it. we must convert them, not just get them testimonies.

 

he spoke about how we must be converted, giving three points,

we must know that God exists and has a plan.

we must come to learn of the attributes, and the characteristics of Jesus Christ

we must consistantly act upon what we know to be true

 

in alma it said, in 23:6, as many as had testimonies and were converted did not fall away. elder bednar promised that if we became truly converted to the lord and turned away the natural man, we can not fall away. that with conversion, which is more than testimony, we will never be able to leave the example of Jesus Christ. and that is the message i want to leave most of all, the example of Jesus Christ and the importance of following him. whenever he turned outward and thought of others, when the scriptures say repent, they imply that you must leave the natural man in you behind and turn your thoughts outward, as Christ suffered on the cross, he thought of the soldiers, forgive them, he thought of his mother, take care of her, and he thought of the thieves, that they may dwell in heaven with him.

 

My purpose as a missionary is to invite others to come unto Christ by helping them recieve the restored gospel, through faith in Jesus Christ and his atonement, repentance, baptism, recieving the gift of the holy ghost, and enduring to the end. Inviting you to come closer to Christ, to leave behind the natural man which is an enemy to God, and instead of turning in towards yourself when things are hard, turn outwards, to others and helping them. life is tough, missions are tough, and leaving behind the natural man is hard. but all of these are reasons all the more why we should do them even more. that because we are sacrificing time and pleasure and world riches, we will be blessed forevermore. the son who returns service for the blessings which his father has given him, is all the more likely to recieve more in return for the gratitude, God wants to bless us, we are his children and he loves us every one. we have only the need to show that we love him back and are willing to listen to him. I ask you all that this season, not because i ask you too, but because God has blessed your lives, that you will do your best to shirk off the natural man and come unto Christ, remember him, and give thanks. there is no greater gift that God wants than our gratitude.

 

There isn't really much more than i can say, i've been typing for a half an hour straight and i think i'm beginning to bore you ;) I sure hope not, i may not say it all that well, especialy in spanish, but i have a message for the people of mexico, and i want to share it with you as well. I know that God lives, i know that he sent his son Jesus Christ to sacrifice and atone for the sins of his children. I know that Christ is my savior and my redeemer, and that i have the desire to return to him and praise him all the days of my life for giving me the joy and happiness i feel when i follow his example. I know that this church is the church of God, that we have the plan of happiness and that through our diligence and service, through how we come unto Christ, we too may be saved.

 

this work is my life, and i pray that when these two years are over i may continue on in a path of righteousness and following my brother and my salvation, the example and testimony of Jesus Christ, I pray i may be converted unto the Lord till the end of my days.

 

I love you all, and with the sincerest emotions i can express, i am so grateful for you.

 

Love those around you this Christmas season, and turn unto Christ.

Christmas Adam Letter

FYI, If you don't know, Dec 23 is Christmas Adam, because Adam came before Eve....lol bad joke I know.  Here's the letter:

dear mom and family lol i don't have too much time, the computer is acting all funny and not letting me in but is still counting down on the timer, retarded right?

 

anyway, that whole temple square trip sounds pretty awesome, wish i could be there for that dinner lol little america is pretty fantastic :) tell everybody how much i love them at the party, and i can't wait to get back and see all these parties! tell them i'm doing fantastic and just loving life here in the mtc,

 

as josh's haircut, sweet! lol i want to see some pictures lol and totally stoked for when i get back and can give him a buzz myself ;)

 

dear mom you will do fantastic with that accompianament (?) lol oops, you are fantastic and diligent and so so so hardworking, i love it :) keep it up and you will have no problems whatsoever. :)

 

I love you all so much and love to hear how you are doing in these emails, it means the world to me to know you are all still out there.

 

anyways, my life, lol study teach study more sleep study eat and that's just about it, i have a little bit of time everynight i like to just sit down and do a couple sudoku puzzles so i can just chill. i also listen to conference talks and el libro de mormon :) today, being p day we walked up to the temple, took some pictures and then we are just chilling for a little bit. :) we have to teach later tonight though. our investigator is coming along pretty well, he wants to baptize his son, and when he knows for himself that it's true and doesn't just believe it he wants to get baptized too.

 

Everything is going  along pretty well, language is still pretty tough, but it is coming along slowly, i hope to get some momentum going when i can start to fully understand the book of mormon in spanish and can learn to follow along better.

 

I just picked up a oil vial and bottle of oil, i have done a couple blessings for companions, one injury and one of our district elders is having a tough time so we gave him a blessing. it was pretty great and i was glad to have the opportunity to be a part of it. :) good to have some practice from before my mission.

 

lol our room is covered in sticky notes and we have everything translated into spanish, lol we are trying out speak your language, basically just say everything you can in spanish throughout the day, it's pretty tough though, not knowing everything makes a lot of things hard...

 

lol to calm down two nights ago we had a sudoku race, all doing the same puzzle, and i kinda kicked trash, completing two puzzles before they got either of theirs done. :)

 

thank you all so much for the christmas letters, i haven't opened anything yet, waiting for christmas lol should be awesome about six o clock we should get everything ready take some pictures and enjoy a christmas together. :)

 

dad, lol great job on the generator, that's super sweet :D always good especially out in eagle mtn, we have those outages and they are definitely worrisome...

 

rachel, good job at learning to drive, getting comfortable with that and just promise you shall be super duper careful this winter, it gets pretty crazy. good luck with getting a smith's job and have that income.

 

mom you too, hope your background check doesn't pull up that......illegal stuff you know lol.... ;)

 

lol and i saw brother glazier, he works here! says hey to everybody and he loves you all, gonna ask him for help with my spanish every once and a while. :) and before i came, at temple square with aubrey i saw the burnhams, it was such a random chance lol i got excited. :) and on sunday i caught austin stevens at the temple, he is probably leaving next week, doesn't have his visa though so he is probably going to texas or idaho lol :)

 

can't wait to see my presents lol open them all sunday morning :D

 

to the webbs, brother larsen, sister goddard and darren beck, and everybody else writing me letters dear elders or whatever, thank you so much for your support, your testimonies and how much you have cared for me throughout my life.

 

lol and of course as always, send me letters!! ;) i love hearing how everybody is doing and seeing what you are all up to :) send me pictures in the mail and letters and of course, dear elders :D Thank you all so much, i love you a ridiculous amount, growing more and more as the days go on. :)

keep posting everything lol fill in the blanks if you feel like i'm not writing enough, and if you want to know something, ask lots of specific questions. lol my life is kinda blending together so everything is just life, not this and that, too busy to remember everything lol

 

Hugs and kisses to the family, and warm handshakes to the other brothers and sisters, i'll write you again a week from now :)

Friday's Email

Alrighty everybody, especially mom and my family lol ;) life is just speeding up more and more here, we are constanly on a spiritual freight train. couldnt stop if we wanted to really... we study study study so we don't look like idiots in class, (just kidding) we actually study so we can help people, that needs to be your focus or nothing gets done. later today we are getting two new investigators that we will be teaching, so we have a lot to prepare for, not sure how it will go but, with any luck, pretty good.

a few lessons ago with abel we had a fantastic lesson, it just went perfectly we all spoke what we wanted and got the message across thanks to the spirit, a lesson after that though we didn't do so well, just trying to get the language distracted us from giving the right message. We got our first investigator to get baptized though, we could definitely tell that it wasn't us though that converted him, our lesson wasn't so great, but thatnks to his strong testimony that had developed, he got past our struggles and saw what we wanted to say. it was really exciting to see and it helped us get past our attempts to feel down about the iffy lesson. \

 

Haven't talked about the district much yet, we have eleven missionaries in total, which from the reactions is a bit of a bigger district, and only two of us will gleave, going to the peru mtc in two weeks. so that leaves nine of us instead of some of the districts i've seen with four or five left. all the rest are  going to mexico, with seven of the nine in my mission, and there are a few i have met that are in my mission that aren't in my district, so we should have a ton of missionaries going to mexico when we all go.

 

so, i did recieve a bunch of dear elders, i almost typed johns lol, weird,... but i really really appreciated them, right now, and i think the whole time i'm gone, a little letter really makes the difference when the district leader hands you some papers with messages from people you know and you know they care about you. lol it's exciting to get stuff. :)

 

any way, to save some time for later today i'll send this now and see if i get a reply by two to three ish lol

1st EMAIL!!

The MTC really is fantastic, I have been kept so so busy, I barely have time to even breathe really. I am learning a lot, enough to give an iffy prayer and my testimony basics in espanol haha. It's really exciting though, last night and today I am feeling a little more confident than I was yesterday. We got to teach our first investigator yesterday! it was a big three hour block of our district, we all taught the same investigator, so it may or may not be a teacher, he probably knows a lot or be fluent in english though because one of the other companionships was able to ask him how to say things in spanish. Oh, cool news, I got two companions! We are the only trio in our district, I get told it is kinda hard, but I'm not really seeing it yet, we get along really well and work on our stuff pretty effectively. Companions, Elder Grover and Elder Putegnat, (like Cute- Gnat) silent g. Elder Grover is pretty similar to myself, a little spanish, He's a bit taller, and we both play basketball. Elder Putegnat however, did all the cool stuff, lived in hawaii surfed, graduated early and did two years at byu, pretty awesome, plus he took five years of spanish so he isn't fluent but he follows pretty well. We rely on him a little heavily right now. other than study and eat, we don't do a whole ton. I try to sleep, having a bit of a hard time with all the things bouncing around in my head, but I think i'll get over it eventually. ignore the typos i decided not to use shift, easier that way.

I learned dear elder is pretty useful, next day letter delivery so i'll encourage you to use that, it helps to get a letter, makes me feel good inside, lol elder putegnat is the only one so far to get letters and he's gotten two, so hurry up ;) i think it's free, not positive though.

 

also, I got assigned as our senior companion, don't get all excited i think it was by alphabetical order lol not because i'm standing out in any way. 

 

 

things that are going on, mainly just getting to know everyone, studying constantly, both personally and to teach, and just to try and figure out the MTC. i hear that after sunday it will get a lot easier though, so i'm hoping that is true. well, maybe not entirely easier but we have our schedule for until we are ready to leave so our days are more consistant and no more introductions to new programs.

 

we only spend an hour or so in our room, the rest of the time is pretty much constantly in the classroom. imagine like nine hours to sleep and get ready for the day, then fifteen hours of studying and everything we have to do to learn the language. es loco! ;) see? i'm getting the important stuff lol. i have a feeling there is a reason that we are all going foreign, we all feel pretty comfortable just teaching, but, we are all learning the language pretty well. we could have easily gone domestic or just english speaking and just slipped into a comfortable pace. but we all feel really strongly that we will all get through this hard time together. We are a great district and can't wait to get out and teach.

 

I love you all and can't wait to get to talk to you again, send me letters!!!

 

FOLLOW UP EMAIL:

 

just, for everybody else, to add to what i already said, i'm doing fantastic, and i love you all. the mtc is a lot of work, and honestly, it's really hard too. so much studying and trying to learn, it's impossible to stay on top and always be focused. i find myself often praying to have help with paying attention and understanding what is going on, because complete immersion and trying to learn how a missionary teaches don't go so well in my head. the language is coming along, as well as the teaching. life is insane, but i'm looking forward to getting into a rythm and get moving consistantly. i've already noticed leaps in my level of knowledge, both with language and understanding how to teach a person and not just a lesson. again, out of time, but let me command you all to write me letters! lol they are a huge moral booster, even and especially when they just say good luck, i will appreciate them. i'm sorry i probably won't write back much, but i barely have a few more seconds to type. my mom has my address so get to it! till next week!

Andrew Austin

1st Companion

On December 6th we went to President Drapers office for Andrew to be set apart as a missionary.  What I hadn't realized or even considered, was that after he was set apart....he was actually a full time missionary and needed a companion.  So Josh was asked to fulfill that role.  He did a fabulous job.  Although the reality that there was no TV, no movies, no ipod, no radio or cds, no video games, no phone, no texting, there was companion study and early bedtime was a real shocker! 

I'm so proud of what a great companion he was too!  He was up at 6, had companion study again and then breakfast together before we got ready to leave.

Called to Serve!!

On July 21, 2011, we planned a fun BBQ for all our friends and family who could attend for the opening of his call.  Such a great time to celebrate the next step in this adventure.  Thank you again to everyone who came to support him! We love and appreciate you all so much!