Elder Josh Terry--September 26, 2011

Hey everyone!

Its been another week.. crazy how fast the weeks go by and how slow the days go. i love it out here but i am definatly excited for christmas and things where i can hear your voices and see you all. :) so mom to answer your list of questions.. :) my health is okay. im still a little sick... i got my eyes checked and they said that they are almost perfect so they dont think that is the problem.. however them being off a little might be. so as of now i dont need to get contacts! that was some really good news. the bad news was i still didnt have any idea what the sickness was. I went to the doctor and he said i have a pretty good sinus infection. so i think that could contribute quite a bit. also i talked to another member and he said when he first moved here he got sinus headaches from allergies to something that was only in minnesota.. he described to me the exact symptoms of everything that i have been feeling. so i think that might be it. im going to go get some claritan stuff or whatever its called to see if that will help any. but im honestly doing okay, its hard to work all day bein real sick but ill be fine. so dont worry about it :) My comps favorite colors are red, dark blue and yes he likes paisley. yes i did get the calendar that you sent. it is pretty funny! haha


So, our lessons have been going pretty well. we have two people that are pretty golden and some others that the lord will have to work on a little more. the first ones name is lynch. He is such a nice guy. he has gone through a divorce recently but has full custody of his kids. so thats good. but we have taught him the restoration and part of the plan of salvation. he is really understanding it. He is the type of person that has been searching for the gospel his whole life. The spirit that we felt there as we were teaching made it all worth it to be out here. i think that he will make it. the next ones name is tim. He is a friend of one of the guys in the ward. he is 19 or 20. i feel really bad for him. when he was little he got ran over by a car so his legs are really messed up. what comfort it could bring to him to know that in the next life his body will be restored and he will be able to run around and be free of that trial. we taught him last night and he committed to reading the book of mormon. he said he would read a chapter or 2 a day until we met next. so i really hope that holds true.

Before i forget i have to tell you a story about last Thursday. This less active lady in our ward asked us if we would come and dedicate her home that she just moved into, so we agreed and headed over. well we got there about an hour early so we decided to tract for an hour. This is the story of Tulip Street. its in a part of town that is just below middle class. not to bad. So we walk up to the first house and they answer the door and its this black guy in just his underwear. before we could even say anything he told us to come on in and talk. . anyone who has been tracting knows that this is rare so we ran in. we sit down and we get talking and after like 5 minutes of talking he tells us he is a member of the church he just hasnt gone for years. It was crazy. He had somehow slipped through the cracks and was forgotten. but we found him and he agreed to let us come and teach him all the lessons again and to teach some of his family that hadnt heard the gosped. he is a nice guy. so we leave his house and start walking to the next house. there is this lady goin for a nice powerwalk so we stopped her and started to talk. she accepted our card, but then my comp said " we believe that throught the prophet joseph smith god has revealed more scripture" and before he could finish she chucked the card at his face and said that God would never do that and ran off. i was absolutely shocked at how rude a "christian" would be towards that. oh well. we moved on to the house we were going to and in the window it was painted all sorts of bright colors.... yup they were gay. needless to say they told us to leave and didn't want anything to do with our church.


Then we knocked the next door.... And this is where we get the story of Lennart Larsen.... So we knock on the door and he comes out wearing a robe.. just a robe. and some moccasins, and holding a bowl of some kind of soup. so he walks out and says "hey your lookin sharp what are you sellin" haha we told him we were the missionaries and he told us a story of when he was young his mom would always yell for all the lights to be turned off and everyone hide when the missionaries knock on their door. ohh by the way lennart is like 60. he is all stumbling around i swear he had just taken meds or was drunk or something. but he started talking and forgot he was holding his bowl of soup and it slowly poured all over his feet and he had no idea because he wasnt all there at the time (i think) then he leans up against the door and as he is talking his eyes glaze over and he falls asleep mid sentence. i couldn't help but laugh. i honestly lost it and started laughing. eventually we did the loud clear our throat thing and he woke up and continued talkin like he had never fallen asleep. wierdest thing i have ever seen! well we gave him a book of mormon and a restoration pamphlet and he gave us his card, and we left. we decided that we shouldn't knock any more doors on that street. they were all crazy! so we went and dedicated the sharps home and left :) that was a good experience. another interesting thing happened. we were driving down the road and we passed this car that was on fire in the middle of the road. . the people were all safely out of it thank goodness but i have a few pictures ill try to attach to this email..

That was all probably to much information but it was a really funny day. Nate and natalie thank you for the emails. you are all awesome. some of the funny words you use :) haha anyways yes nate i do remember that part of Hot Rod and that will be the first thing that i do to you when i get home! haha dont let me forget. thank you everyone for all the emails that you have sent me it means so much to me! nate and nat i will get you your letters as soon as they get here. :) i had a couple interesting thoughts that are random but i liked them from study today. so ill share a few
"Character is not developed in moments of great challenge or temptation, that is when it is intended to be used"
"Humility isnt thinking less OF ourselves, it is thinking less ABOUT ourselves."
"Happiness isnt getting something, its becoming something"


i wont bore you with all the other quotes ive found that i really like but i wanted to end with a story i read this morning. I was reading about Abinidi. He went and told the whole city that they would die if they didn't change there ways, and eventually they all killed him. When he died he must have thought that he didn't make a difference, seeing as they put him to death. but alma was converted. basically thats a long story short but as a missionary that story really helps me. as we are out here we get made fun of and looked down upon and some days feel like we didn't make a difference. but we dont always know the influences that we have left on people, even if it is just planting seeds. I love how though he only converted one person look what came from it. We really need to put it in perspective that even if you only effect one persons life, think of all the peoples lives that they will effect. its an on going chain. i regret that i didnt share this gospel with other people back home. i challenge you to do so. find ways that you can help bring other people unto christ. as it says in DC 16:6 the thing that will be of the most worth unto you in this life will be to bring others unto christ. i want to leave my testimony with you that this is true. the happiness that you feel when you see someone come unto christ is incredible. well i have to go but i love you all and i hope to hear from you this week! stay strong in your faith.