Gratitude

Hello good people! i have got to tell you all, this has been the most trying week of my mission , hands down. I'm grateful to be in the library today and grateful that my sweet sister Haley Hoooo asked the questions today :) let's get to it. 

WHAT ARE YOUR TOP 10 THINGS YOUR GRATEFUL FOR?

what a great question! 

1. A loving heavenly father, who is aware of me. (this includes the restored gospel and the atonement of our savior, Jesus Christ) 

2. My family!!! all of you, blood, Stahuras, the people that have always and will always be there for me, and I for them. i love you guys!!! 

3. my friends! i've been so blessed to associate with the people that are in my life! i love you all and i'm grateful to know yaaa.

4. music! 

5. Golf

6. technology

7. the great outdoors! 

8. Missionary Service! mine and everybody elses. helping people come to know that God is truly aware of them and loves them individually brings so much happiness. i love it! 

9. dogs. i love em'. 

10. Utah! there's a reason Brigham Young said "this is the place."

WHAT ARE YOU DOING FOR THANKS GIVING?

My companion and I will be attending a thanksgiving dinner with the sister missionaries in our ward @ a families home that they have been working with. The Gonzales family! After that we will be spending time with one of our investigators, Scott, who has to be out of his house by Black friday... :\ we will be helping him prepare the house.

WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM SANTA?

a freakin' treadmill! okay just kidding. maybe a sweater and a scarf? it's gettin' chilly here!

HOWS THE WORK GOING?

it has it's ups and it's downs! it depends on the week how i would respond to this question but the work istelf is always good.

WHAT WAS THE HARDEST THING YOU DID THIS WEEK?

Well my friends, this is why i had such a difficult week. Scott was set to be baptized saturday the 23rd. we saw him smoking a cigarrette and we had to let him know on tuesday that he couldn't enter into the waters of baptism with an addiction to tobacco/alcohol. he had been informed of this before.. he knew there was a 2 week period that he had to show his loyalty to the Lord prior to getting baptized. well to spare a bunch of painfuldetails i will tell you that he said he made a deal with the Lord.. and he would quit everything right after baptism. well when we went into his house, my companion was mute and i had to be very assertive with him in letting him know the lord has these requirements that anybody needs to follow in order to make this covenant. well we saw him many times this week.. and the reason this was so difficult for me is that Scott thinks it was my decision to stop him from getting baptized. he's a great guy, a heart of gold, but he will not let go of the fact that i stopped him from moving forward in his life. each visit we have with him since then has been a little better.. he's starting to understand that he's not ready. but for him to tell me over and over again that i had done this to him.. i had taken this away from him.. was so hard. and i dind't get any back up from anyone. amidst many other things piling up this week. so that was hard.

WHATS THE BEST THING YOU DID THIS WEEK?

We had a great visit with a Less active woman and her non-member daughter. scott is their next door neighbor so when he saw we were there (saw our car) he came into their house, cocktail in hand.. and began to give me more grief. anyway he ended up leaving after a long time and we were able to share a scripture with these ladies from mosiah 24:14 .. i've talked about it alot and it has applied a lot to me this week.. but they were very receptive and grateful.. and we will hope to begin teaching the daughter the missionary discussions soon.

WHAT SCRIPTURE(S) STOOD OUT TO YOU THIS WEEK?

modern day scripture. i read a chapter in the teachings of lorenzo snow that really helped me out this week. it is chapter 7. i wanted to  quote a paragraph from it but i left it at the apartment. it is talking about why the LORD allows us to go through hard things. i won't do it justice so look it up on lds.org and enlighten your minds!

WHAT DO YOU NEED?

i need to hear from don, stan, and nick. holler bros! you ain't down!

WHAT ARE SOMETHINGS WE CAN PRAY FOR? two things this week. PRay that scott's heart will be softened.. and that he will be receptive to what we teach him. and! don't put this part on the blog.. but pray for my companion, Elder Pinney. he has no desire and he wants to go home. he's having a really hard time!

okay folks, i hope that wasn't too much of a buzz kill for y'all. i recieved a priesthood blessing that was incredible yesterday. it helped strengthen my testimony that the Lord is very aware of me and my circumstances, and i know he loves me. after the most difficult week, there is nothing more assuring than that. also, transfers are tomorrow and we are both staying. keep the mail coming. i love you guys! hope you have a stellar week!

-Elder Sykes

Joe's letter 11-12-13!

Hello family and friends!! another week has come and gone.. just blows my mind! it was a pretty good week. let's get to it! 

DO YOU GO TO THE LAUNDRY MAT?

negative! we have a washer and dryer in our house, lucky us! everyone in the zone pretty much comes over on p-days to do laundry (free) and it works out well because for the past 3 weeks we have been BBQing. it's the best! 

WHAT KIND OF CAR DO YOU DRIVE?

Chevy Maliboat! or malibu.. it's not the worst car in the world but it has a boat's turning radius.. hence the mission-given nickname. the heater is kinda bunk too.. it takes forever to warm up. but!!! we have a car. what a blessing :) 

WHAT WAS THE MOST SPIRITUAL MOMENT THIS WEEK?

i say the most spiritual thing of the week is church most of the time when you ask this question.. but it always is!! we had our investigator scott at church on sunday and it was the primary program. it was just so well done! the cutest little kids you have ever seen teaching all of us about the restoration of the truth and our heavenly father's plan for us, through word and song! the spirit was so tangible, i loved it! there are a lot of things that we can get hung up on in the gospel.. a lot of questions and things that really don't pertain to our salvation.. but the program just reminded me and strengthened my testimony of the simplicity of the Gospel. the Savior wanted it to be simple! Faith, Repentance, Baptism & Holy Ghost, Endure!!! that's all it takes. i love it! 

WHO DID YOU TEACH ?

we did a LOT of service this week. we helped some missionaries in the other ward build shelves for a less active/ part member family and they got a few new investigators out of it.. awesome! and we spent some time with Scott and with his next door neighbor who's a single mom (Less active member) and her 3 non member daughters. she has to move out of her house so we were with her home teacher in our ward doing dump runs and helping her with moving stuff/ cleaning out the attick. i love service! sometimes people dont' see missionaries as real people and that frustrates me! getting in my service clothes and just rollin' the sleeves up gives people a different perspective of missionary work and sometimes it's so needed! plus! i wear a shirt and tie every dang day.. wearin a T shirt sometimes is a good change of pace ! :) 

WHAT WAS THE BEST THING YOU ATE THIS WEEK?

haha.. well i might be partially biased to the BBQ in which i cooked all the food.. but we always eat so well here! last night we had some delish pork chops w/ mashed potatoes and Gravy at the butchers house. the night before we were at the jongsmas and had fried chicken! we always eat well so.. everything? 

BREAD OR RASPBERRY JAM?

i'm confused by this.. but i love bread and rasberry jam. 

WHO SENT YOU MAILBOX LOVE?

this week was insane!!! i'm sorry if i miss anyone.. Grandma and grandpa (sue and Monte) , my dad, Shannon, Sam seth sadie shad and rob stahura, fox landon del and amy , Kenzie willes, the sherwin family, and i believe that's everyone! i' had written back to a few of you yesterday and i intend to respond to all y'all so keep your eyes peeled for ze mail man! thanks as always for the love and support. i'm so grateful for you guys!!! 

WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU HAD A PRAYER ANSWERED?

well.. when we were doing dump runs with the less active woman in our ward and her home teacher.. i was relatively sure it was the end for me! the guy (who i love to death) was swervin all over the dang road .. had we gone off the road the truck would have done some flip action and blown us all to pieces. well i prayed.. really hard.. that we would all last the day. * Jesus, take the whee-he-heeel - take it from his hands....* 

truly frightening!! but.. i live to tell about it. prayer was answered!!! 

WHAT DO YOU KNOW FOR SURE THIS WEEK?

My testimony has been strengthened this week that there are NO coincidences. i truly believe that we are all in the set of circumstances now that we need to be in, in order to shape us into the discples of our savior that we need to be. I know that when times are tough we can learn the most! simply put, I know that with the right perspective and an eye of faith, forward looking, we can rely on the Savior to carry us through our hardships and help us learn the things we need to learn! we are learning heaven! this idea never leaves me. and i'm grateful for it! i also believe that the lord provides us with opportunities every day to learn and grow.. i know that having Scott attend church the day of the primary program was no coincidence! the Lord has been preparing him for some time now and in a tangible way he gave him an opportunity to feel the spirit so strongly! the Lord is mindful of all of us and it is his wisdom and love that we should turn to in hard times. we are where we are fora  reason! i truly believe this.

so, fam and friends. another week!! it's crazy to me. Thanks as always for your love and support. i love to hear from you so keep the letters coming! funny story for y'all to end this weeks session. i'm sitting in corellation meeting with our Ward mission leader and a few ward missionaries, then us and the sister missionaries in our ward. well one of the ward missionaries (brother Ingham) is the best! they are all awesome but i've always liked this guy. he has a super good sense of humor and we just get along. anyway he shoots this look at me and it made me wonder if i did something wrong.. and after the meeting he asks " elder, do you have a girlfriend? " i said no.. he's like " i have a grandaughter .... i think you're the one for her." hahaha! i loved it! he said she's at BYU-I and that he's going to work something out. haha i had to tell him i still have about 16 months (at least) before i need to worry about anything like that.. so we'll see what happens :P he's a persistent guy.. haha. anyway.. thought you guys might get a kick out of that. things are good here! i hope you all are doing super well! until next week.

-Elder Sykes ze stoooz