Well hello family! It was a very merry Christmas Week

Well, hello everyone! How are you all doing this week?? I can imagine that things have got to be pretty crazy at home for all of you and I wish that I could be there to be with ya!

 

This week was a pretty busy week but didn't quite give us all of the results that we wanted to see. But all in all it was a pretty dang good week! We were able to set a baptismal date with one of our investigators for the 27th of January and I am way excited for that. He is progressing well and we finally pinned him to start working for a date. We've talked about Baptism quite a bit but he always was like "I have to think about it..." so this week we were a little more looking to help him overcome his "I will think about it" attitude and pinned a date on him and gave him the steps to start to come to know this is true (he already knew them all but ya we reviewed).

 

We also had a pretty large miracle in that one of our awesomest investigators (our Chinese super atheist). He was able to come to church this week! And he did!!!! It was awesome. I really enjoyed having him there and I translated the meetings for him into English. However, his gospel understanding is still getting there so I am working with one of the members in our ward to get the meeting translated for him into Chinese. It will be pretty good. I did get him a Gospel Principles Manual in Chinese so he's in pretty good shape as far as it goes for understanding the doctrine. We did also work with him this week to help him recognize the spirit this week and it was a pretty good!

 

So in other news I just got a fun phone call in the which my stress level went up a LOT. President Furniss will be coming to my district meeting tomorrow!!! I'm nervous haha. But ya. I've thought about what I am going to talk about but haven't quite got it all the way figured out yet. However, I am confident that it'll be a good meeting!

 

Let's see what else..... I talked to ya'll over the phone like a week ago so I don't know exactly what else I need to tell ya.......!!!

 

Ahhhh

 

Although I will tell you about our investigator that has a baptismal date and something that he said that I thought was really cool. We have been meeting with him for a while and we were teaching him the Gospel of Jesus Christ last week. When we got to the Gift of the Holy Ghost I made sure that we really went over what it feels like. We shared the scipture Moroni 7:13, 16-17 and then talked a little bit about recognizing the spirit. We asked him if he thought that the things we were teaching him were good or not. He said: "ya I think they are good, the things that you teach are things that help me to be just a better version of myself." I thought about just the things that I have experienced and it's so true. The reason why the things that we live are hard is because they invite us to do exactly that. They invite us to be our BEST selves. No settling for less (만족하면 안되지!!!!) always trying to be our best.

 

I really thought that was a true statement and I just love knowing that as I try to live the gospel, although I am not always perfect, when I do live it I am being my best self! And like Mom always tells me, we gotta be our best selves :)

 

So ya this week as far as actually for once responding to something you said in your emails about the newsletter just go ahead and say: Josh says this: 힘들아야지 발전하고 발전해야지 기쁨을 경험할수 있다.(It's gotta be hard for us to grow, and we have to grow if we wanna experience joy)

 

That's the story of my mission from day 1. And the great thing is, it's true...but God is gonna help us through it!

 

Love it. Just absolutely love it here. Please pray for my investigators, my district, my companion, me (if you get the chance). Ask that we can have the spirit and do the things that God wants us to do.

 

Love ya'll! Have an awesome week!!

 

Elder Josh

Merry Christmas

Just wanted to let you all know that I love you!!!

 

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

 

즐거운 성탄 보내세요!!!

This was a good week filled with Miracles!

Dear Familia!!!

 

안녕하세요!!! 장 지내시죠? 제가 여러분들을 너무 사랑해요!!! [Hello!  How are you?  I love you too!!!]

 

Anyway this week was awesome! We just worked hard all week. It started off with District Meeting on Tuesday which was absolutely awesome. I prepared pretty hard in advance to make sure that all of everything just went the way that I wanted it all to go! And it just was good. We had the spirit with us as I was able to talk about focusing our purpose on that of sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Not only do we share it but as President was telling me this morning in our District Leader Training call we have to be living that as well. Continuing to have faith to exercise it to repent, although we can only be baptized once we can partake of the sacrament receive the holy ghost and then to continue to endure to the end. I know pretty simple to say but truly as we live it I know that we will see huge blessings. That's how it has been for me in missionary work and it has been the best!

 

Wednesday we saw a huge miracle in working all day then just before we were about to go in we decided to go visit a former investigator and they were totally willing to listen and invited us in and they actually both became investigators. They also introduced us to their son who is currently living in America and I got to call and talk to him and refer him to the missionaries in that area! It was pretty sweet

 

SO ya then we went ahead and went to the Christmas Party on Thursday. We all went up to 대전 [Daejeon] and had a big old massive party! It was the best. I had a great time. It does help that I am in the older part of the mission these days so I have a lot of people that I enjoy hanging out with and talking to... although I am starting to realize that I am more close with the Koreans than the Americans.... weird.... anyway! Ya that was fun, we actually got to watch a movie (Madagascar 3) and I laughed so much. It was hilarious, I forgot just how funny movies can be, haha. But ya then after that we had a sweet devotional where we got to think about Jesus Christ and it was just awesome.

 

Then to go ahead and finish off the week we had a baptism on Sunday. Brother 송 and his daughter were both baptized and next week they will be confirmed. I am way excited for them, they need this gospel so much and it is just bringing their family together. Although I didn't do any of the teaching (like literally all I did was follow up over the phone and at church) but it was still sweet to see the members take this one on their shoulders and get him and her baptized. Our ward mission leader baptized them and it was awesome!

 

All in all things are going well. I am having a good time training Elder Miller. I am learning a lot and discovering that as I train him on the things that he needs to learn that I am retraining myself to become a better missionary.

 

It has just been a really good experience. I hope ya'll know that I love you all. I sent an email to Mom about the Skype next week and I will send you a quick one next week just to make sure that all the details are confirmed and then we will go ahead and talk to you on Christmas Eve!

 

Love ya'll!!!!! Looking forward to next week!

 

Love,

Josh

크라우더 장로!!!

My first week as a trainer/district leader!

It is quite the week we have had! I have been really REALLY focused on trying to do a good job with all the responsibilities that have been put on me. I know that I'm going to make some mistakes eventually but I'm trying my best to make it a good experience for Elder Miller and for my District.

 

It has been just a busy week. Running all over the places to meet with people and to pick people up and to just do the things that we gotta do as missionaries. We have been having a really good experience teaching one of our Investigators! He has been meeting with the missionaries for a while now and I have been encouraging him to read the Book of Mormon every day. Which resulted in me starting the Book of Mormon again! (So now I'm reading it in two places at once!!) But its such a blessing the Book of Mormon. I love the many blessings that it brings into my life and I love that I can learn about the Savior through it!

 

This week I have really been learning a lot about the feeling of being inadequate. To explain a little more I have just been stressing about how I am going to try and lead this District and then also somehow train a new missionary. I am fervently praying for assistance and I feel like God is guiding me through little things. I just hope that He will keep it up! I need all the help that I can get.

 

But ya as far as things go I'll just tell you about Elder MIller. But before I do that I would just like to say it is kinda funny that we have the coincidence of me starting my mission as a Greenie with Elder Miller and the First time that I train I train Elder Milller.... WEeird righT??

 

Elder Miller is from Missouri and is an only child. He's a really hard worker and is learning Korean like a boss (in fact he's studying right now while I am emailing) It is just a blessing that I have someone who is so excited to get out and work. It is just great. He is learning how hard it is to learn Korean and I am kinda getting an opportunity to fill in those areas of my Korean foundation that were missing! SO it is a great experience for me. He's teaching me a lot!

 

Anyways I did want to talk about one thing...... Brother 송 got his Baptism Interview!!!! and he passed! BUT he delayed his baptism this week because he wanted his wife to be there! SO he will be getting baptized next week! I am excited for him and am planning to be on him this week before he get's baptized so that he continues to keep the Word of Wisdom because he needs to. But I am confident that he will be good!

 

So ya, that is the week. Exciting right!? I have been very grateful for all the Letters. From Brother Kahn, from Sister Lysenko, from the family, it has been awesome! It's been great!

 

Love ya'll so much. Hope you know that! Have an awesome week and I will look forward to hearing from ya'll next week!

 

Josh

Another week in 전주 [Jeonju] plus this week it is TRANSFER CALLS

Well, hello there family it has been a fun week here in 전주 [Jeonju] serving in this threesome with Elder 황 and Elder Benson. It has been an interesting week culminating with fast Sunday yesterday and just another fast Sunday miracle (cause for some reason Miracles ALWAYS, without exception, happen on fast Sunday).

SO I'll tell you about our miracle. First 3 of our investigators came to church this week! It was so cool we have been working really hard with a couple people and hopefully they will make the commimtent soon to come out. But three people did come and we had a chance to do a member split and talk with them. Me and Elder Benson went together and talked with one of our investigators and then Elder 황 went with our ward mission leader to talk with the other one. The spirit was so strong in our meeting it was awesome. I could feel that the spirit was in the room and Elder Benson (he hasn't been on his mission very long so still working on the language) said that he could feel it too. Also our member that was present said that he felt it and I talked with the investigator later that day and he said he really could feel something.

Long story short that was really cool, but that wasn't the miracle.

The miracle happened with Elder 황 who went and taught one of the part-member families in our ward who's husband has been one of my investigators. The Ward Mission Leader has been taking the lead in teaching him (because of the Korean culture he doesn't feel like he needs to listen to 20 year old's even though we are called of God...?) but ya. So he has been coming to church for a while and this week they decided that it was time to get baptized. So they set up a date for next week and that is looking like it is going to go through! It's a father and his daughter which is way cool! We just have to really diligently follow up with the father this week to see to it that he can quit smoking.

Pray for him please (His name is Brother Song).

Anyway the other interesting thing is the phone call that I got this morning from President Furniss. As I mentioned in the Title of the Email today is Transfer Calls. And I got some responsibility thrown on my shoulders. President asked me to train a new missionary... and he also asked me to be the district leader here in this district. So it is going to be an interesting time to have to try and help a new missionary learn how to do missionary work and then also to try and help this district to be successful. WOW... prayers would be much appreciated

But ya it is really cool. I am going District Leader here and Elder 황 is going Zone Leader of the 전주 [Jeanju] zone. So the two of us will be in the same house which is fun. 

Also just to add a fun little thing. Elder 조 my companion before the emergency transfer is going senior and he will be serving with Elder Benson (Elder 황's trainee). So it will be really good. Elder 조 will do great I think. He's a stud and helped me to stay on top of things. Wahhh!!! I'm excited.

Anyway I just wanted to let ya'll know the same testimony that I shared yesterday with our invesigator (and cooly enough the same testimony that Jenna shared in her Email to me today!)

I know that God lives. I know it. He has established a plan for us to be happy. Sometimes it is really hard to do everything that we have to do to be succesful in this plan. Sometimes God asks us to stretch and to do more than we think we can. But he's there every step of the way. And all we gotta do is reach out for His help. All we gotta do is look for it. He's there, he's promised us help. He said: "Ask and ye shall receive" go read the scriptures and see how much you find that phrase. You think God is kidding? He loves us and he's gonna help us whenever/whatever/however. 

Love ya'll tons, I am loving the Christmas package. I am thoroughly enjoying the letter a day thing (you have no idea). I thank all those who wrote to me. It means a lot :) I love ya'll and hope you are all doing awesome!

Take care have a great week.

Love,

Josh