Hi Josh,
We had a wonderful week this week taking Sam to the temple for the first time. He looked fantastic all dressed in white and I am so proud of you, Sam and Steph for choosing to enter into eternal covenants with the Lord and receive those great and marvelous promises of the endowment. I imagine if we all stopped to think about it for a few minutes we could identify times when we have experienced that endowment of power we received in the temple. I believe that if we remember it more and have faith in the Savoir's ability and willingness to bless us because of this choice to covenant with him, we would see even greater miracles in our lives.
Sam got laid off this last week and so has been able to drive the kids around a bit. On Friday, he got Cody and took the girls to meet Ben after school and went to the Movies and saw the latest Thor movie. After they left, Mom and I looked around and realized we had the house to our-self for 6 hours! So we had an in house date and it was awesome. We made an amazing meal together and watched a fun movie on Netflix and ate some of the girl's Halloween candy. I sure love your Mother and hope you and Sam and Ben can find someone like her who loves the gospel and listens to the Lord.
Sam has decided to try out Dungeons and Dragons with some of his free time and he has been helping all the kids create characters as well as Cody. D&D always has had a bit of a reputation but I think it is a fun way for the kids to interact with each other and is more interactive than video games. All things in their proper balance and life is good. I actually played D&D a few times with junior high friends. It's an old game.
Ben is getting into full Musical Theater mode as they have to spend from 2-8 pm every day and 4 hours on Saturdays up until the performance in December. Too bad you'll just miss it. It is "Joseph and the Technicolor Dream Coat". He absolutely loves musical theater (even more than basketball :|).
Abby and Mia continue to grow up and you are going to be shocked I think at how much they've grown and matured. Circle of life keeps turning. They are enjoying the snow and we even have a skating rink on our very own dug out! Life is good!
I've been pondering a lot lately about the power of good habits and have been thinking how I need to develop some more of them! Specifically I'm working to bring back reading the Book of Mormon daily into my life. As you and Mom have mentioned, I find that it brings a purpose and direction into my day that is missing otherwise. I also really enjoyed D&C 76 a couple of mornings ago as I pondered on the great mercy of the Lord. We are are religion that believes that 99.9999% of the Lord's children will go to Heaven and receive a degree of glory! Of course healthy eating and exercising habits always top the list of wanting to improve, but still sporadic there.
It comes back to the principle that when desires come up against self-discipline, desires always win. So the solution is to change our desires... but how do we do that? Elder Ballard suggests that this can be done with the help of and as a gift of the spirit. So I need to change my true desires from the cravings for sugar and my favorite foods and comfortable desk job to desires for health and strength and increased energy and mobility. I guess I know what I'll be praying for if I want to do this!
Keep sprinting to the end, my beloved son. You are doing a great work, not the least of which is building your self into a man of God.
Question for the week:
What habits have you developed on your mission that you hope to carry forward when you come home?
Love,
Dad.
From Josh - Missionary shenanigans:
So President Henrie is either a genius or a little crazy, my new companion Elder Lorensen is an older missionary in fact he goes home the transfer after me, Pro's and Con's to this companionship....
Pro's
We both know pretty well what we are doing.
We both have been through enough companion's that we know how to First adapt to each other's teachings styles, and Second learn to get along despite our differences.
We both can work together and have a lot of experiences to share and knew a lot of the same people, so never a lull in conversation.
Con's
We are both trying not to think about home, but both are losing fire, I am doing my best to keep trucking on, it is difficult with so little time on my mind.
Well other then that not too much, that is the biggest one.
One of the cool experiences of this week happened today, we were heading to email but a potential investigator had said that the only time she had was today at 10 so we went over.
She had previously implied that Her husband would be able to show us a thing or two about the bible... and also that her dad had converted to christianity from mormonism... a few things that a missionary who just wants to help people come to Christ does not want to hear, but we said we would come by so we went fully expecting a bash session that would probably last 2 hours (that is how long they usually go for) My companion came fully ready for a bash, he brought his quad with so many sticky notes and book marks that you could not see the pages. Needless to say, we were prepared. So we walked in not knowing what to expect, and we sat down and her husband asked what our purpose was as missionaries, and we told him that we were to help others come unto Christ, and we started sharing how after centuries of being lost the fullness of the gospel has been brought back by a living prophet. We talked about Christ and his setting up the original church and talked about how it was lost and brought back, we testified of the truths and simplicity of the gospel and after we asked if they had any questions, it was interesting because this ladies husband didn't bash us he just said that it was pretty interesting, because the bashing question came from the lady, she asked why we think that we can add to the bible with the Book of Mormon, and I saw a gleam in my companion's eye and he started whipping out the Bible, I didn't want to get into anything too deep so I just simply testified of Gods love for all his children and how he wanted to speak to all his children. Elder Lorensen was super awesome and came in clutch with the spirit and used the scriptures to explain the reality that God speaks in all ages, and explained what Revelation 22:18-19 meant using also Dueteronamy 4:2 to explain that God simply wants his gospel and his teachings unmixed with error after that we testified of the truth of the Book of Mormon and gave them a copy.
Other then that this week has been a little bit of a drag, we have been really trying to get out and find people but not too many people are that receptive, we had a ward scout fundraiser it was a big luau and the young women of the ward did a hula dance, and the scouts did the haka which was hilarious, we were able to help set up and had a good time meeting people and eating the food.
It is weird how the spirit works... its been directing me recently like a wave pool, when i am in a place where I don't need to be (not that its a bad place its just not where I am needed at that moment) I don't feel the spirit, and I keep thinking that I am not a good missionary... then the thought comes to move to a different area, and I know exactly where i need to be as soon as the spirit comes flooding back. I think the spirit works differently with each one of us, to guide and direct our paths, it may not be a loud voice... though I have heard its voice before... but mostly it is a quiet feeling. It comes in feelings of peace, love and calm, it speaks through other people and helps us to understand truth, I am grateful for the knowledge that we have of the reality of God being able to speak to all of us individually through personal revelations... a lot of people we talk to don't have that and are very confused.
Habits that I have developed as a missionary has helped me to grow closer to God then ever before, a few of the habits that I have developed is reading in the scriptures, i would love to keep that going because there is so much more to learn then just on the surface layer, there is symbolism and analogies, parables and doctrine, I want to maintain a habit of personal study everyday.
Another habit I would like to keep would be to wake up early and exercise, I have woken up early pretty much my whole life (thanks mom and dad! But seriously... thank you) The one thing I lacked was a steady habit of exercise, after exercising I have a lot more energy then before and it prepares me for the day.
Another thing would be maintaining healthy eating... this isn't so much a habit I have formed on my mission (Its kind of hard sometimes as a missionary) but I would like to develop it because of my mission.
I love you all so much tell everyone that I love them and can't wait to see them.
Love Josh
P.S.
Sorry I don't have any pictures this week I am emailing at a place where I can't plug any pictures in.
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