Hi Josh,
My turn to write. We've been a busy bunch this last week. I've been very thankful for Sam and Ben lately as they have willingly pitched in and helped wherever I've asked them to. This has included moving heavy desks, putting up deck railings, installing stairs, and anything else to get us moved over to the new house. Mom has been working out the move logistics for mail, arranging for the gas line to get in, and making sure the budget keeps balancing. The girls were a big help painting and sealing the basement floor. In short it's been a family effort to get things in place for our move at the end of the month.
How's our favorite missionary? We enjoy your letters and the kids take your advice to heart. You are doing a great work and are a wonderful and powerful example for us. How are your investigators progressing this week?
In teacher development this week, we discussed preparing to teach by the spirit and discussed D&C 84:88 and the role of preparation in receiving inspiration and teaching by the spirit. It took me 18 months to really start to understand this on my mission and to really start teaching by and relying on the spirit to bring about conversion. Hopefully you are feeling that sooner than I did!
Grandma and Grandpa Bruce are up to help again. They are amazingly helpful to us. Steps called last night. She is coming up for a week or so before flying home Christmas Day to be with Tyler. Grandma and grandpa Smith called as well. Uncle Jeff just got called to be Bishop! They just got back from a vacation to Oklahoma to visit my uncle Richard.
Life is going to very busy for the rest of the school year especially for Ben. He will basically be leaving home at 630 am and getting back around 730 or later most days of the week. Praying we will be safe with all our travels. We are looking forward to this new phase of our life.
Happy year transfer! Don't get trunky. Best year of your mission is still ahead.
Love Dad
From Josh:
Hey Family! It sounds like a lot of work getting that house
ready and I am kind of excited to come home and see all the changes in
everything, though I am patient and I promise that I will do my best at not
being trunky, as of now I am super excited and love being a missionary, I can't
wait for Sam to experience the ups and downs of missionary life as well. It is
the hardest thing I have ever loved to do... though a lot of missionaries go
home because of one reason or another, so when going to serve a mission decide
now to stay out and work hard, it is important to maintain an eternal
perspective in all things throughout this life, a lot of people I meet in
California are super depressed and turned off from God because they think that
if God was really there then the world would be a better place, because how
could God let all this crap happen in the world... well the important thing to
know is that God will not impede on our agency and allows us to face trials to
gain experience in this life that will prepare us for the next, I have also met
a lot of Atheists who believe only in science and that there is no afterlife,
and to that I always think of a quote I heard once "it is better to
believe in God and find out he doesn't exist then to not believe and find out
he does" lucky for us we can know for sure right now if we exercise a
little bit of faith and read from the scriptures pray to know if they are true
and follow Gods commandment, God will never leave us clueless, Elder Maxwell a
quorum of the twelve in the past once said that "things have a habit of
resolving themselves" so any question we have if we go by faith we will
eventually be given the answer to what we are wondering about, and like Deiter
F Uchtdorf said once "Doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith"
this world is super confusing thanks to Satan and people using their agency in
bad ways, but if we rely on God the revealed scripture we have been given and
if we live the commandments which we have been given then in Gods own time it
will be revealed to us what we need to know.
Speaking of confusion we were exiting an apartment Complex
when we heard this voice call to us from the third floor "Hey!
missionaries! Come back up!" so we went to talk to him and he brought us
to his apartment and sat us down and told us he wanted to talk about Hitler...
which was weird so he put on this History tv show about the secrets of U.S
history... then we asked him if he had spoken to missionaries and he said yes
they had told him to look up the churches history but he mistook it as the
nations history, he went on to explain that he knew a lot about Mormon History,
we were based in Idaho and we originated in Salt Lake, we tried to explain that
we Originated in Palmyra New York and were based in Salt lake but quickly found
out that he was crazy and non receptive. So we excused ourselves and continued
on home... but it was quite weird.
Many things in life I have questioned one of which was that
if God was not a God of confusion then why was there so much of it in the
world, I have since determined that it is because the Truth will always be
apposed, Satan the master of all lies once convinced the world that God did not
speak to man anymore, but since Joseph Smith came and restored the truth Satan
has brought out more lies, when we tell people that there is a living prophet
on the earth everyone seems to take it as we can all be prophets, as well as
spiritual gifts in some churches people think that if you speak gibberish you
have the Gift of tongues... in the world so full of lies about everything,
people are losing hope in God and in everything that gives us stability and
foundation, Families, The sacrifice of Jesus Christ, Church leaders, The Bible,
everything that is important is being thrown in the trash can, so we need to
take a stand to help protect the things of God. We have a wonderful family, We
have The Book of Mormon that gives that second witness to the Bible, we have
direct communication with God and a Prophet to lead the world in the ways of
right and truth, People call us brain washed but our leaders in the church
encourage us to receive our own revelation as to if they are chosen by God or
not, because God will tell us all truths, I have learned that of myself as God
has answered everyone of my prayers in his own time, I know this church is
true, and i know that we must be Valiant in our testimony of Christ, and true
to the covenants we made at baptism, Standing as a witness to what we know to
be true, Keeping all the Commandments, Acting always as Christ would act.
Please be strong in the faith, even if your faith is small,
hold to it.
I love you all
Joshua.
Pictures.
Do you think I could pull off a gangster?
I just got pooped on by a bird!
Selfie:
From Mom:
Oh, Josh. I love you.
If I sent you a "currently" picture, you would see Sis. Kruyer in a hospital bed sleeping with her mouth open. I don't think she would appreciate that, so no picture. I brought her a Booster Juice to maybe tempt her taste buds as she has no appetite due to a skin infection that started to eat away at her calf muscle. She almost died.
As it is, they operated and removed the damaged tissue but now she has to learn how to walk again. It's been painful and a difficult time for her. I just love her though. Dad and Sam brought her the sacrament yesterday and we visited for a bit. My heart hurts sometimes watching people struggle, but I guess it's not such a bad thing to have empathy and love for our fellow travelers.
We will be out of our Leduc house in about a week. Busy packing and moving. I wish we had your cheerful attitude and muscle to help out but we would rather have you where you should be, which is serving the Lord on your mission. I love what you said about "the hardest thing you've ever loved to do."
Keep on, my boy. Life is amazing!
Mom
From Josh:
you are the best mom I have ever had. ;)
Everything that is on the
earth is meant to bring us down. Gravity, depression, money, work, wars, lust,
hate... and many other things, but the most interesting paradox I think is that
if we fall down before the Lord in more ways then one, in Humility, upon our
knees, then we are lifted to a place where nothing can bring us down. So take
time to pray, when life gets you down then let it pull you to your knees and
then let your voice be drawn to heaven. His arm is stretched out still ready to
bring you up to his rest.
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