Hello!
I made it to minnesota safe and sound! I cannot explain how many wierd looks i have gotten here. i got off the plane and you wouldve thought i wasnt wearing clothes or something cuz EVERYBODY stares at you. After i talked to you at the airport i got on the plane. seemed to be the longest plane ride ever! i was so excited to go to minnesota but at the same time it was hard to make that step knowing how far im distancing myself from my family and friends. Odd thing is i have never felt closer to you all in my life. So just a quick message to nate and to natalie, DONT TAKE MOM AND DAD FOR GRANTED! I thought i loved and appreciated you before. My respect and love for you has grown so much since i have realized all that you do for us each day. mom with her taking care of us and a spotless house and dad with his selfless service working everyday to provide. so guys just make sure you appreciate it cuz one day when you are gone you will regret every mean thing or act of disrespect that you have ever done towards them. i sure love you all! anyways, i got off the plane and it is very humid. it was nice to be greeted by a familiar face (Pres. Clements). i am glad that we got to see him before he left. After that we headed to the mission home and did some orientation then decided to go out street contacting. i told you a little about that early. It was pretty scary. ive always felt comfertable just talking to random people but sharing something as important and sensitive as the gospel with them is a little hard. We then went to the assistants apartment for the night and returned back to mission home in the morning where i met my companion. he is a stud. His name is Elder watkins. He is from California and his family just moved to hawaii so he has to go back there. mom dont get any ideas... :) anyways after i met him there was a couple hundred missionaries outside and one of them ran up to me and gave me a hug and said angie koski says hi. she is such a nice lady!
We made the drive to andover! my new area which im sure you already new. anyways it is a nice area, definatly some ghetto parts but we do okay. yes i got the bike. its so nice! thank you. we are in a car area but i will be biking a lot once i am not sick to save miles. yes mom i am going to the doctor this week just to be careful. haha. So our area has just been white washed. which means both my companion and i are new here meaning we don't know where anything is! and we just got a new ward mission leader. it is the koskis brother! small world in the church :) so basically we had started with absolutely no investigators, and no idea where anything was. basically starting completely from scratch. there hasnt been a baptism here in over a year but we hope to change that! we have already tracted in to a few people and taught a few lessons. so we now have 2 investigators and about 4 that are possibilities. It was crazy the first 2 doors we knocked on gave us their info and said we could come back. i was thinkin to myself this wouldnt be as intimidating and hard as i thought. we then got every single door shut in our face for the next 2 days straight. just about being in the right time at the right place. we will get things moving it will just take some time. funny story, we were talking to this 22 year old girl on her front lawn and her husband pulls up and jumps out of the car and runs over saying you better not be hitting on my girl. he is a body builder. so kinda intimidating. however we left him with a book of mormon and restoration pamphlet and went on our way. hopefully he reads! thats the thing if you can get them to read and sincerely pray about it they will know. another funny story, we tracted into this inactive ladies(sister rutherford) house and she had been taken off the ward list so no one could find her. we found her :) haha anyway we left her our number and she said she would call us later and the next day we got a call. elder watkins answered and then i hear "oh hey is this jeremy?" turns out sister rutherford has a pretty deep voice hahaha. we have a sister who is from grantsville that knew jake howard too. crazy. oh btw HAPPY ANNIVERSARY MOM AND DAD! we have already recieved a few member refferrals as well so things are picking up. i hope to turn this area around.
Im sending my SD card home so be looking for that. i have a little video of a ringtone i thought nate would really like so expect that soon :) let me know when you get that. Im glad you have our address, i dont know if it matters but some of the random mail our apartment gets says Andover as the city. and some say Coon Rapids. we technically live in coon rapids. but its right on the border. so hopefully i still get your mail! keep me updated on nicki and lanes baby. i still want to know how close i am to being an uncle! haha i was very happy to hear mom has been visiting with the mckenna and momma sherri a bunch. i hope you continue to do so! they are so great huh??? told ya. not that you ever doubted or anything. that is way cool about the whole pratt reunion. good call natalie :) haha how is nate doing with school? being president and everything! ahh i miss that boy. haha i miss all of you. dont ever fight because you will regret it when your gone. deal? if you ever have an argument just blame it on me :) haha i hope i get your letters that you have sent soon. they really are so important here!!! its a way i can know that their is still a real world out there haha. i am getting more comfertable talking to people and hopefully im better at teaching! we have a bunch of appointments this week so i will have to let you know how it goes then. its kinda nice to have a little more time to email out here. in the mtc its 30 minutes and it cuts out haha. know that i love all of you so much. mom take comfort in the promise in DC 84:88. the lord is helping me out here. i really do appreciate all you have done for me. oh i forgot to tell you about the apartment! so, we walk in and literally mom would have dropped dead from the sight/smell of the place. it smelt like fungus, and just so so filthy. i guarantee no one had cleaned any of it especially the bathroom in a long, long time. so we get there and we get a knock on the door with a flier that said apartment inspection is in a few days. wow. so we have been deep cleaning that place. it is so nasty. really mom i should have takin pictures. but its clean now. and i have a little video of it on the chip im sending home. did you get those ties off to jake howard? sorry this email has been all over the place i just keep remembering things randomly. know that i am in good hands. we have a really nice ward here. they are taking care of us. and they trust us enough to give us some referals. thats good. i will probably be here for 3 or 4 months. i love you all so much. thanks for all the letters. thank you mckenna and momma sherri for the letters you have sent to me, i miss you so much! but this is going to be so good for me. im definately glad you havent forgotten me! haha i hope to get the letters in the mail soon :) after this im going to send you one. Well until next week!! LOVE YOU!
Josh
On Mon, Sep 12, 2011 at 2:06 PM, Joshua Terry
P.s family you are the greatest family ever. i love you all more than you can imagine. one of the biggest things my mission has already taught me is how important family is. i regret every argument and all the times we didnt get along. i hope when i get home we can change that. family really is our support system. without you i dont know where i would be in life. when times get tough i just think of the warm loving embrace i will get when i get home and see all the people i love so dearly. i am ever grateful for this gospel. it has changed me spiritually. i am grateful for the knowledge that my heavenly father loves me. and you. i know that god has a plan for us and the only reason i am able to make it out here is the thought that i will be helping people know that they can be with their families forever. that is so important. i am so grateful to know that i can be with you all forever. our savior loves us so much that he has provided a way. never forget that. so be strong, and be true. and know that i am praying for you and love you so much. thank you for all you have all done for me.
P.s.s sorry i forgot to put this in there too. mom, please write matt and corbin and tell them i am so sorry i didnt get to say goodbye. that was so hard. i wish i could have. tell them i love them. give them my address and tell them that they can write me letters. thank you. i love you so much.
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