Ya'at'eeh!! This week was supper cool! We saw so many people this week and got more done than we usually do. Our lessons are going up and more people are coming to church. Last Monday after emailing we went hiking with the other two missionaries and had some fun. We found a bunch of old tires at the bottom of the mesa so we threw them in our truck and rolled them down the mesa again. That's everyone's favorite past-time around here so there is a decent sized pile of tires at the bottom of the mesa for us to chose from. It was funny watching the tires bounce down the mesa and catch air. Elder Nicholson won with the longest distance. His rolled twice as far as any of ours. We have some good pictures of that and some cool pictures of our hike. On Tuesday we taught the girl with a baptismal date and had a good lesson with her. We are able to have the lessons at a members home and it really helps. We also had a really cool lesson with a less active member and it was a very powerful lesson. Her and another less active member ended up coming to church yesterday so it was super cool! On Wednesday, I went to Lukachukie and stayed with an elder there for the day. Because, Elder Nicholson is the District Leader he has to meet with all the elders in the district and do exchanges for a day. It was fun and it was cool to see the stuff that has worked in other elders areas. On Thursday, we went to Rough Rock and got to chop wood for the mountain man that we teach. He was baptized a year ago but he doesn't have a ride to church every week. There aren't many members with cars out there who can take him so we are still working on it. Thursday was an overall happy day and it was good to be back in Many Farms. On Friday, we saw a lot of people and was able to teach a few lessons in Valley Store. We started Basketball nights on Friday nights at the church and it has been a big success! The people here love Basketball and every Friday more and more people show up. It is a great finding tool and we are able to show people how LDS people know how to have fun too. Three new investigators have come from it and it is great to see how people will listen to what you have to say when you can play ball with them. Friday and Sunday were great teaching days. The 17 year old in the ward who wants to go on a mission came out with us all day Saturday and Sunday. We told him he can take a break anytime he wants but he refuses and keeps asking to go out teaching with us. He is a really good kid and it is fun to have him with us. Well, I ran out of computer time so that will have to be it for this week. Talk to you next Monday, Love ya!

Be excellent to each other!

This week has been the best/least productive week so far on my mission haha. Last Monday the six of us elders in our district went on a hike to the top of a mesa in Lukachuki. It was so cool because you could see Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, and Many Farms from the top. But... I forgot to take my camera :P I will have to steal some pictures from the new elder in Many Farms. His name is Elder Cook and he got some good pictures of the hike. On Tuesday we had and awesome day for teaching. We have so many people who are doing so good in the gospel I cant help but feel exited! It's great to see Heavenly Father and his love for these people and to see the blessings that come from Praying, Reading the Scriptures, and Coming to Church. The members of the Church here have truly blossomed as the rose like it says in D&C. On Wednesday, Elder Nicholson and I got sick and stayed inside all day. We watched the hour long Joseph Smith Restoration movie and it was awesome! I don't think I have seen that all the way through before. We used the time that we had to think more about our area and I had a chance to learn more Navajo. I can almost make sentences but my pronunciation of the words are not the best. On Thursday we packed up some things and drove to Window Rock, New Mexico, for Zone Conference. All day Friday was spent at Zone Conference and it was really good. President Batt talked about the Atonement and it was cool because afterwords we did a question and answer with him and he gave some really profound answers. I like President Batt. We had interviews about 6 weeks ago and I told him about Jared missing me while I am on my mission and he prayed for Jared! He told me that he prays all the time for our families :) Zone conference is like a big spiritual motivation boost and after I just want to go out and do God's Work. On Saturday we had a funeral for a relative of a family in the ward. It was done here at the Many Farms building and it was super sad. After we went to the Chinle cemetery to lay the body to rest. They didn't have anyone to be the pal-bearers so they asked us missionaries to do it. We lowered the the casket into the ground and buried it. Never want to have to do that again, not a fun experience. Yesterday was the first day in 4 days that we were able to go out and teach. It was so fun! We took out a 17 year old kid in our ward all day. He wants to go on a mission when he turns 18 so it was good for him to see what being a missionary is all about. He loved it and wants to go out with us more often! So, there's my week. It was different, but I wouldn't give it up for anything. I think I have grown more this week than I have in the past two weeks combined! Well, I sure Love you guys! Keep up the family bonding stuff  and don't forget to Choose the Right! Be excellent to each other! haha Talk to you guys next Monday

Ya'at'eeh!  .....I didn't tell you last week but transfer news came last Saturday and both Elder Nicholson and I are staying in Many Farms another transfer. That means that elder Nicholson will be here in his first area still for at least 9 months and we will have been companions for 6 months. The running joke is that I will leave Many Farms before he does and he will stay his whole mission. Last week we went way out in the middle of no where and he still knew all the houses we drove past. We actually ended up getting lost out by Many Farms Lake last Tuesday and drove around for 30 minutes or so looking for a main road and the way that we were able to find our way back was by houses that were familiar. We have focused our efforts on finding new people lately and it has really started to take affect. We have met some really cool families and have started teaching allot of them. Seems like there are plenty of people who are ready to accept the gospel and all we have to do is find them. Yesterday the convert we have been teaching got the gift of the Holy Ghost and it was awesome to see how happy he was. You can almost see it in people's face when they have the spirit with them. So a member in our ward showed us a video that the missionaries showed her family back when she was baptized and it was almost exactly how it is on the reservation. The video is called "Bitter Winds" and it was made by BYU and the church back in the day to show what drinking is like on the reservation. She gave us all a copy and I might send mine home so you can watch it. It was filmed in Chinle which is 20 minutes from many farms! Well I'm almost out of time so I better send my picture for the week. Talk to you next week, Love ya!

I gained 80lb this week!!

Ya'da'la! (What the heck!)

Ya'da'la! (What the heck!) Maybe he will get used to braces soon. Otherwise it's going to be a long 2 1/2 years! Ok, so this week was a little slower because of Christmas and the baptism yesterday. We didn't get to go out and teach as much but it was still a really cool week! The two days before Christmas we went out and delivered some toys that we got from a ward in Utah and gave all of them to little kids we ran in to. It was a great way to get our foot in the door and talk to people and it was also great because a lot of the kids here don't get much for Christmas because of the poverty on the reservation. You should have seen the reactions we got from the kids when they got a gift! Yesterday the guy who competes in rodeo's who we have been teaching got baptized with two other converts from the other two missionaries area. It was cool to have 3 people all at once and the turn out was really big! They all have cool members who are there to welcome them into the ward. The funny part of it all is that we tried to fill up the font in Many Farms so we could have the baptisms here but the water was all yellow and gross so we moved it to the building in Chinle. That building is bigger anyways so it worked out well. It's awesome to think how far all of these converts have come since we first met them and my companion and I have nothing to do with their conversion processes. We joke around all the time and say that the Lord borrows our mouth when we teach and that all we have to do is be there. So to see the spirit speak to someone through us and then see that person join the church is something amazing! Well I have a picture for you and then I'm done for today. I will talk to you next week. Love ya!

...we have WAY too much fun all the time...

Things are really good here =) Sorry it took so long to have the picture sent to you. The Anderson's and us are on Mormon/Navajo time these days haha. I told you last Monday that I was going to write letters to you guys but it never happened because we got crazy busy with Elder McCarry and I left in charge of two areas all day. I helped someone move in though  last Monday and it was good. This week was super awesome! The guy we have been teaching who use to be a youth minister has his baptismal interview tomorrow and his baptism this Saturday! He is super awesome and Is going to be a great member of the Church! So.. Elder Nicholson and I have come to the conclusion that we are obviously not doing this mission thing right because we have WAY too much fun all the time haha. The other two elders must think we are crazy because we are always laughing. We have done a lot of finding this week and we have met some really cool people. The craziest part is that we have a really good success rate when we knock on people's doors. We pray all the time for the spirit to lead us to those who are prepared for the gospel and it works just about every day. It's incredible. Anyways, thank you for all the pictures this week and talk to you next week! Love you guys!

More proof that I don't do anything on my own.

This week it snowed for the 3rd time and it stuck to the roads finally. It's was a cool view from the church because you could see the mountains in the distance covered in snow and all the mesa's were white with patches and streaks of red! It all melted already and made mud, but in the morning and evenings the mud freezes. It's easier to drive on the frozen mud. Church yesterday was good! A member asked the bishop if he could share an experience he had last week so he spoke for a little bit in sacrament meeting. He saw an older homeless lady in Burger king and he felt he should give her money to buy some food. She thanked him and walked into the bathroom and he waited at his table for 2 hours and she never came out. He said he thought she was an angel and god had sent her to test his Christmas spirit. He also said that everyone else didn't see the lady like she was invisible or something! It was crazy! A member of the high council talked about the true meaning of Christmas and compared Santa to Jesus. Elder Nicholson and I were driving in Valley Store south of Many Farms and we took a wrong turn and ended up knocking on this awesome lady's door who is super prepared for the gospel and talked with us for a while. It's cool because we don't know why we ended up finding her but I know God does. More proof that I don't do anything on my own. It's all him working through my companion and I. Anyways, Thank you for all you guys do and I will talk to you next week!

view from Josh's "house" :)

Thanksgiving dinners :)

My thanksgiving was spent eating at three different people's houses. I was so stuffed it hurt! The first house we went to was an investigator's home and we had a very traditional Navajo food choice with a bit of regular thanksgiving thrown in. We had blue corn mush with steamed corn stew and mutton with sheep ribs and fry bread and tortillas. They also had potato, turkey, ham, and stuffing. The other two homes we ate at were members and the food choice was more like a regular thanksgiving. I enjoyed it all though! I'm glad I'm not too picky with food because I can eat all of it. We had a 4th dinner appointment but when we showed up they were just about done and they saw we were full haha so we just sat and talked to their family. SO! That Youth Minister we teach is asking people from his old church to come to the LDS church here in Many Farms! He has been busy the past 2 weeks so we pushed back his baptism to the 21st of December which is the same date as another one of our investigators (This guy is a roper and he goes to allot of rodeo's. He has placed 5th and 2nd in city rodeo tournaments in the time we have been teaching him.) Both of them came to church so we are more than likely to have two new converts on the 21st! The ward is doing really well and I love it here!

Here is a picture of our truck after it got stuck...

Josh's companions details of thanksgiving : ... we figured since we knew we were going to be eating a lot and it was going to probably hurt quite a bit, we thought we should have a contest. We weighed ourselves in the morning and we weighed ourselves when we got back into the house. The person that gained the most weight was the winner. I won. I gained 10 pounds that day, Elder McCarrey gained 8, Elder Petersen was 7 and Elder Beck was 5. After a few days we all got back down to normal, but man it was terrible! We could hardly move after that. .... We are on pavement a little bit, but most of the time we are on dirt roads. And when I say dirt, I mean that it's pretty much clay, some places more than others. And so when it snows or rains really slowly, the water sinks into the clay/dirt and makes the roads SUPER slippery. And it washes them out really really bad. ....Anyway, in one spot, it was so washed out that there was like a four foot hole in the road. And when little cars or vans tried going through, they got stuck and it takes a while to get them out. We were about to go on this road, cause our pickup made it just fine, and we saw a family out there shoveling sand and taking it over with buckets and dumping it in the hole. We stopped and helped cause we had shovels too and we filled in the hole pretty well and it was all good!"         Elder Nicholson