Last letter of Josh's mission! December 2, 2013

Oh man it was quite the week! Another one of the bests of my entire mission! This week I had some more experiences that wrapped up some of my mission! I was able to go and work in the deaf branch for a night with Elder Stevenson. It was super fun! I was able to go to the Slade's for dinner and have a good time there! It was cool to experience the difference. My sign isn't as good as it was but it is still fine. But what was cool is that my lesson was way better than I have ever given one in ASL before. That showed me the change that has happened with me in the last year. My sign is worse but my gospel knowledge and ability to teach is way better so I was able to teach better! I was also given the opportunity to teach ASL class at the Institute again which was a lot of fun!

We had a really good Thanksgiving this week! We started it out with a turkey bowl with the ward over at the Palo Verde High School football field! That was super fun and we were able to have a good turnout! After that we went over to the Deverauox families for our first dinner! It was super good and we ate a ton of food. Then we joined them in their family tradition of using a water balloon launcher to see who can shoot them the farthest down the road! That was a different Thanksgiving tradition! Ha-ha After that we went straight to the Millers to have dinner with them and their family! That one was super good as well! I love being with that family! It is so much fun! They are great! By this time we were super tired and full so we went home and took a half hour nap and then it was off to the Hebert's for our THIRD dinner! Oh man we were stuffed! That was a ton of fun as well! It was a great day!

But of course the best part of this week was the baptisms of Destini and Lexi!! They were baptized on Saturday and it was fantastic! It was such a cool experience and the feeling there was wonderful! Both of the girls were super excited and had a great experience! They just smiled and smiled the whole time! Destini got up at the end and bore her testimony and it was wonderful! So sweet and pure! And the whole time she talked about eternal families which were awesome! The gospel has already been bringing this family a lot closer and it will keep bringing them closer! It was super cool to be involved in their confirmation as well! I love that part! The Spirit is so strong! This family and this experience was a tender mercy from my Heavenly Father at the end of the mission! It has been a miracle! I love it! The Gospel is true and it truly is the way to pure happiness!

This mission has been the greatest experience of my life! It has brought me closer to my God then anything ever could before. I have fully enjoyed my opportunity to serve him in the capacity of a missionary! I have loved being able to constantly bear testimony of Him, His Son, and the Atonement. I wish I could serve Him like this forever but I will continue to serve Him to the best of my abilities for the rest of my life. The Atonement of Jesus Christ is real. We can really repent of our sins and receive power to do anything through it. It is the only reason that I have been able to get through this. It is the only thing that has been able to touch so many people and give them the opportunity to change their lives. I have been incredibly blessed to find some of His best children here in Tucson. They have brought me closer to Him and it has been an amazing experience to be here. I love it! I love my mission! I am ready for everything that is forthcoming!

I love you all! It has been a pleasure writing you the past two years!

Elder Banner....signing off...

November 25th, 2013

Hello again everyone! It was another good week here in Tucson. The weather this week has been freezing! It rained for a few days which is abnormal and the temperature during the day was around 50 so we were all freezing! This email will probably be short because my fingers are too cold to type haha  

 

But it was a great week! We had a good experience this week being that Elder Paul V. Johnson of the seventy came and toured our mission! It was super cool! He came and we had two big half-mission conferences which he was the key speaker! It was super fun! It was really cool to hear him speak and to notice the way in which he taught. He spoke a lot in stories, parables, and analogies. It was really cool because everyone was able to learn what they needed to know in their own way. He was able to give me some good advice about making the transition home without really saying it! I love learning when the spirit is there so that those impressions can come. It was also cool to see all of the missionaries that I have become friends with again!

 

After we had the half-mission conference we had a MLC with Elder Johnson. That was even more cool because we were able to be in a pretty small group with him and just have a discussion! It was really neat! He was able to teach us some stuff there that I really wish I had understood at the beginning of my mission but it is ok because now I get to teach the rest of the zone and hopefully they can use it for the rest of their missions. It is not all bad learning all this at the end! It helps me to better understand the gospel which is the whole point! haha

 

It was a good and pretty normal week other then that! The Miller girls are doing great and are super excited for their baptism this week. We are happy to see them doing so well! We were able to have some very good experiences and lessons this week with Israel and his family and they are doing great and moving towards baptism as well. They will be awhile though. We have been very blessed with tons of people to teach! It is great to be a missionary and I love it! The Gospel is true! I hope you all have a fun Thanksgiving!

 

Love you!

 

Elder Banner

 

One more down.........one to go......