Monday, April 3, 2017

April 3, 2017 - Last week of Transfer

From Josh:

Wow how time flies, it is interesting how things just blow by in the work of the Lord, I have loved getting to know Elder Nelson and serving in Tarzana ward I hope I get to stay as well as hoping I leave, it is an interesting feeling, I can't wait to start up a new adventure or even to continue the adventure I am having.

So far this week has blown by, we have been able to find two amazing investigators, one of them we kept trying by and kept missing her and catching her family, this one time we met her husband and I was a little nervous because usually the husbands aren't too fond of us, but he was really chill and got us water, when he was gone we heard our investigator shouting at him and we were worried that she was telling him to tell us that she wasn't interested anymore, but he came back with his younger daughter and she told us that her mom was busy and that she wanted us to come back Thursday of this week and that her daughter was interested as well that gave us a pretty great feeling.

General Conference was amazing! I loved the feeling I got that you were all watching the same time as me and that gave me a sense of closeness. I loved each of the talks especially the one given on light in the Saturday morning session, I loved how Elder Uchtdorf talked about not being entitled, I feel like that was something I definitely need to improve on I carry a lot of pride in my heart and have been trying to rid myself of it throughout my mission and it has helped when I have put my trust in the Lord, when I remember how great he is and my own nothingness, as we focus on how we can align our wills with his and listen to the first prompting that the Spirit gives us we can more effectively be his messengers and servants, one of the talks that stood out to me most was D Todd Christophersons talk on sharing the gospel and how important it is to warn our neighbors. I am grateful for loving parents who shared the gospel to us as we have grown up, and now that we have the truth of the fullness of the gospel we need to warn our friends and neighbors.

Story of the week! 

We were knocking doors in a pretty rich area and we knocked on this one door, after a few moments the door was flung open showing a bunch of highschool girls holding a sign that said prom and they all shouted, "WIll you go to prom with us!?" and they had their phones out and were videoing us and I had to say, "sorry but we are missionaries from the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints" and that kind of deflated them and they all walked away leaving this one girl looking really awkward and we talked to her for a little and one of her friends came up and we found out that they were either agnostic or atheist, we had a good conversation on faith and God and we left her with a Book of Mormon

besides being asked to prom that was the week.

Love you all!

Josh

we had a good weekly planning and found a pretty big flamingo, the one with the house beside my head, that house was huuuge, and it overlooked a Golfcourse and with the size of the house I wouldn't be surprised if the person owned the Golf course.






From Mom:

Here's a story for you...

An old family friend passed away and I felt prompted that I should go to the funeral in Sparwood. As I was leaving yesterday to drive down, I called my Dad to let him know I was on my way and he counselled me to stop and pray for safety, which I did. The roads were clear so I wasn't worried about it at all, but just outside of Okotoks, I hit a sudden blizzard. In fear, I drove to the nearest gas station and had another prompting to text Jamelyn Stephan, who said I could stay with her. As I was driving towards her house, the weather suddenly cleared and I decided to keep going. I should've listened to the prompting to stay because the blizzard hit me again on the Longview road. For two hours I drove slowly in the thickly falling snow at night. All I could see was 20 ft in front of me, the lines were covered in snow so I followed the tire tracks and even then I almost drove off the road. It was so scary, but I kept getting the impression to take my time. Slow progress is still progress. My nerves were shot by the time I got late into Sparwood though.

But guess what? When I came out this morning, one of the tires was flat in the car. Heavenly Father answered my prayer that I would drive safely despite the fact that I didn't listen to the prompting to stay at Jamelyn's. Imagine me with a flat tire in the middle of a blizzard? I felt very grateful for prayer's of safety and maybe I'll be a better listener in the future.

LOVED Conference. I was thinking of you the whole time. Have a fantastic week.

Love forever,
Mom

From Dad:

Hi Josh,

Every General Conference since you've been on your mission, I think of you listening and remember how wonderful it was as a missionary to go to GC and just soak in the words and feelings of the prophets and apostles. Hope you had a great experience!

It's been a good week! Our yard is still full of mud but it is slowly getting better. We are really looking forward to having a good driveway!

Mom had an interesting experience she may tell you more about this week-end when she heard about a family friend (from when she was young) who passed away. She kept getting the prompting to go to the funeral but kept pushing it off since it wasn't convenient. Over and over she wrestled with it right up until the Sunday morning session even the afternoon session. Of course there were so many talks about heeding the promptings of the spirit that she kept getting hit with the prompting. Finally, I had to totally confirm that we could handle things at home and she could go. So after the Rectors left (they were visiting to listen to conference and have supper) she headed out for Sparwood at 6 pm and got in at midnight. We are interested to see what experience she has or whether she'll ever fully know why that prompting kept coming. The promptings of the spirit are often not for normal or comfortable things since we will do those anyways! They are often inconvenient, require sacrifice and bring forth the blessings of heaven!

Sam is getting his mission papers together and we just got most of his Doctor's appointment finished. He's healthy at a whopping 124 lbs! Skinny as a rail that boy!  He's really excited to go on an adventure with Steph and Tyler and James this month in California to do some rock climbing! Maybe they should stop by and say hi :)

Not sure if you'll get this this week as I forgot to finish in time, but in any case, know that I love you and am proud of you.

Have a great week!

Dad.

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