Favorite Scripture: 3 Nephi 5:13

Behold, I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. I have been called of him to declare his word among his people, that they might have everlasting life.

Friday, October 29, 2010



This picture of Josh and his companion was taken by a sweet member in Josh's area. It was so fun to get this email from her.

Hello Jamie & Theresa,

I am so blessed to have your amazing sons in my ward that I had to take this picture of them last night. So being a Grammy with a Grandson serving in New Mexico I just have to send this to you. Somehow I think you will be pleased to see their smiles.

Tonight my home and visiting teachers were going to take them to dinner but agreed to have dinner here so that we all could enjoy our evening. What a blessing this was! Since we had leftovers I just took them to your sons.

Truly you both have raised sons that are such a delight to be with. I am very sure that they will bring much joy to our ward as they serve the people here in the Westpark ward.

If there is anything I can do for you just let me know. I live close to them and love being able to help where I can.

Love,
Bobi Rush


MY TWO ROOMIES! Elder Kato & Elder Schwenke


My cool district. My MTC companion is Elder Long from Ogden,Utah. He is center of picture with the spiral in back of his head.


My District in the MTC

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

I'm so excited to finally get this blogspot for Josh. I will post weekly letters and pictures. Here is his first letter since he arrived in California.

October 25, 2010

Family and Friends,

I got off the airplane on Oct. 19. I was expecting Sunshine but it was really long walks in the rain. ha ha. I thought that it was going to be better than Utah but I guess our district brought rain ha. I met President and sister Waltrous and they are amazing sweet people. You can tell they are into missionary work. President Waltrous has a good sense of humor. We all got to the mission home and learned about the mission and we just had an interview with the President to get to know us. After, all the trainers came and we had lunch. That was good I didn't eat any breakfast ha ha. President Waltrous is very strict with a sense of humor. Holly Crap he is WAY STRICT!!!!!!!!! Everything I thought I could do I couldn't basically. My head hurts with so many rules its ridiculous. I thought to myself am i going to be a 100% obedient or am I going to be partially obedient and kind of Bend the rules. I decided right then and there. While I am serving The Lord I am going to be a hundred percent no exceptions obedient. I will be a successfull missionary if I do That. Also all mail goes to the mission office at 2500 North Bristol St. Santa Ana CA 92706. The Zone Leaders get the mail on Monday and give it to us on Wednesday at district meeting. So plan accordingly. One of the rules. ha ha After they assigned us our area and who our trainers are. My companions name is Elder Bannister from Pocatello Idaho. He has been out for a year and is bilingual Spanish speaking. We have the same exact birthday but one year apart. He is very obedient and works hard and he is awesome. We got called to Irvine (the most southern part of the mission) West park Ward. Its a biking mission and we are white washing it because Elder Bannister was in the Fullerton area first. So we have no clue what the area is like and don't know any of out investigators and we have no bikes. ha ha already had trials. So we got dropped off and I didn't even unpack we went straight to work. We open the area book and wrote down people we need to get to know investigators and less active members. Then we went tracking at 7:30 it was kind of freaky but Irvine has one of the lowest crime rates in California. It was so weird knocking on people doors and seeing who was opening it. I saw people from all over the world just in that one night. Koreans, Persian, Indians, Chinese people and white. So it was interesting to see all the different cultures. Irvine has mostly Asian people probably 60%. I knocked on this door that was cracked open and I got hit by a wall of smoke. Felt like I was drowning and this guy was totally "hot boxing" his house and we talked about the Book of Mormon and he said he was not interested and we left and i felt very different ha ha. That was crazy seems like every where we go in California it smells like that ha ha. then we came to a door with this lady who only spoke Spanish so my companion talked to her and she accepted for the Spanish Elders to come by and teach her so first night we got a potential investigator even though she was out of our jurisdiction. It was crazy to me to be in California teaching the Gospel. We traveled with the Chinese speaking Elders to go to district meeting the next day and all the Elders are very welcoming. We were able to meet up with one of the members of the ward who is a biking family the Kimball's and they are lending Elder Bannister and I a bike until we find out what we are going to do so I am very thankful for them and how nice they are to us. We met a less active family of a part member family and its amazing what situation families are in and having them tell us as 19 and 20 year old men is kind of weird. There was things i did not want to hear but as a representative of Jesus Christ I needed to help them and get their family to become happy and live the Gospel. After we tried to contact some investigators on Ibiza Aisle but they were not home and we went tracking again and we knocked on a 21 year old female who took our message well and wanted to read the Book of Mormon. I was really excited when she said "Now I have something to read at night." So we set up an appointment to teach her which was awesome. she thought we were 17 years old so that was kind of interesting when we told her we were 19 and 20 years old ha ha. But we have to give her information to the single ward elders because she is out of our jurisdiction also. The rest of the week after Wednesday has been tough. I have accidentally breaking rules with out even knowing. A member stopped me on a bike and gave me a 20 and said you elders get lunch on me. I took it and showed Elder Bannister and I guess we weren't suppose to take money so I did and we put it into fast offering ha ha. Also we have to wear church clothes on p-days and that's pretty frustrating also. ha ha. But I know that if I will be obedient to all the rules I will be bless and the lord will provide a way for me to help people come unto Christ. We met a mother of two children who also wanted to come and teach her kids so we are finding a lot of investigators and I am excited to teach them this upcoming week. I am doing well trying to lose myself in the work love you all.