Josh's Mission Oct 28, 2013

Things sound so good. and It's good to hear about what is going on. We are having a devotional for the 100 years of scouting, but we aren't really involved with it. It is great to hear of some of people in the ward trying to come back to church it is so important that they can realize that the reason we go to church is not because we are perfect, but because we are not perfect. We go to church to learn, feel the spirit, repent, and to draw closer to our Heavenly father. we have a few Less actives that have the same problem, they feel like they can't come to church because of the things that they have done. and some of them don't want to meet with us because they realize that they are not doing what they should be and they feel guilty for what they have done and feel like they can't repent, so thank you mom for the quotes, i really think those will help.

Hard to hear about those who don't choose to listen to the gospel!   We have a problem with that as well. We meet so many people that say, oh I don't have enough time, or that they are too busy. I think how sad that is that they don't realize what they could have. and then I was thinking. am i like that. do I make excuses and say that I can't do this because of this reason? how many of realize what we have? We have the restored truth of Jesus Christ. We know that He is our Savior and that we can live with our families with Heavenly father forever. We know that we can repent of our sins and feel our savior's love. Will you help someone feel that love? will you think about the many blessings that they Lord has given you and express that Love by helping someone? Please let me know what happens, i would love to hear about your missionary experiences.

Things are going good. This week has been better. We were about to meet with a couple member families and talk to them about FFT's. I don't remember if I told you about that, but it's that the members need to be Finders, Fellowshippers, and Testifiers. but hopefully that will continue to progress, because i know that we can not do this work with out the members help. We have talked about sharing responsibilities, the missionaries and members. we are all missionaries and we need to be to help everyone feel and know of this wonderful message that we have. 

I don't know if the missionaries there have this problem, but we have a hard time getting meals and lessons with the members. will you invite the missionaries over for dinner some time and have them teach a lesson? 

our area is really big. it covers only half of the ward boundaries though. we stay mainly in Dubuque because we don't have the car every week, we share with the sisters in our ward. so we don't get to see most of the area. we live in a really compact neighborhood. the streets hear are crazy. elder dragon described it like this, it seems like a blind man drew the layout of the city. that's exactly how it feel. it's not a bad neighborhood though. the people are good. there are some crazy neighborhoods, near by though.

thank you dad. I really appreciate that. i love you so much and i am so grateful for your example, love and prayers. 

that's really good to hear about Chad, i've been thinking about him. i hope that he gets better. and that's crazy about candice! (I mentioned to Josh that Kandice - who is Nicaragua - cannot drink the water there and they don't have bottled water, so she has to drink soda, which she isn't fond of.  I told Josh because he isn't a great fan of soda either) 

I love you all so much and I am so grateful for you. i am so blessed to have a wonderful family who loves me and who can write to me. One last thing, will you pray for our investigators and our ward. we have a few investigators that really need help right now. we committed one guy, Tom, to be baptized on the 30th Nov, but he doesn't think that he'll be ready. He is really struggling. He has so much desire though, it's amazing. He wants to find out if it's true, but he doesn't thin he has the faith. and he doesn't think that he has ever gotten an answer to his prayers.

again, I'm grateful for you and your love. I love the scripture in Moroni where it is talking about charity, "Charity never faileth. wherefore, cleave unto charity, which is the greatest of all, for all things must fail - but charity is the pure love of Christ, and it endureth forever...wherefore pray unto the father with all the energy of heart, that ye may have charity." I know that that is true and that we can have charity for everyone around us, if we do the things that the Lord has asked us.

Love

Elder Broadbent