Elder Josh Carlile's Mission Blog: July 3, 2017 -- A "Sweet" Week and a Baptismal Date

Hey hey hey everyone!!! Boy has a lot changed this week!! One of the biggest changes has been getting a new companion on Wednesday! His name is Elder Rice. He's fresh out of the MTC and I get to train him for the next two transfers.... I'm excited. I get to teach him how to missionary!! He's from Palmdale, California and grew up in the Church. He's about 5 foot 8 so there is a huge height gap between us:) He enjoys music and can play the piano. He went to BYU for a semester and is going into their mechanical engineering program, so we get along. He is a really genuine guy and has a good heart.

One cool experience for this past week -- we started teaching this lady named Shannon. Elder Rice and I taught her about the Restoration on Wednesday. It was Elder Rice's first lesson in the field so he got off to a killer start. She was very receptive to the message. She wouldn't let us leave until she fed us some of her cheesecake. So we got to eat a sweet treat to go along with the sweet message of the Restoration of the Gospel. It was pretty neat how we found Shannon. Elder Thomas and I were doing service at some apartments. It was a food pantry that branched out to the people in the apartment building once a week. We give them fresh fruit and vegetables. Anyway, this one lady name Shannon came down to get her food. She was in a wheelchair because she lost her left leg and asked if someone could help carry her bags of food upstairs. Elder Thomas and I volunteered. As we walked up to her room, we talked with her and got to know her a bit. The conversation turned to her talking about how she is looking for direction in life and doesn't know where to find it so we told her we could come back and share a message that would help her find her way. She was very open to it and was very thankful for our kindness to her. It's still so sweet to see how the Lord places his prepared children in the missionaries paths. We just need to be ready for it.

Another really sweet thing that happened this past week is James chose a baptismal date!!!!!!! He's going to be baptized on the 12th of July and I can't wait!!!! Overall, it's just been a sweet sweet week.

The sky is blue, the Church is true and life is good.

Elder Carlile