December!!

So it has been quite the week i sure would say!! I dont have alot of time here in internet cause we have a zone conference today and we gotta go get everything set up... but I was able to rest a little bit last week but ive been on overload haha but its going good ya know? 

Anyways sounds like an awesome class you guys had with your old seminary teacher. I LOVE THE SCRIPTURES SO MUCH. Really everything everything every little thing and big are in the scriptures. Keep on studying and i hope the kids can follow your guys awesome example!!  

Anyways i did see the Christmas Devotional as well!!! I loved it! It was so good and i agree with you guys i loved Elder Bednars talk about the Americas and the lights. Super cool! ApostleBeastMode. 

 also our mission has a weekly bulletin and me and my companion were featured on it for our experience with David!! It was awesome!!! Haha felt really good. 

Anyways yea so with facebook and everything my account is publishing stuff by itself because we cant be in the internet everyday so we preprogrammed the posts...but i chose everything so dont worry!! My feelings are still there and share the stuff with EVERYONE! haha :D also the 25th my accoutn will publish a video we are gonna do as a mission and you can search for me in it :) haha

Anyways this week was good. We had stake conference and we brought David and the espinosa family with us and they are doing great!!! David told us this week that he is gonna stop smoking and we brought him a white shirt and tie on sunday and he was happy to look like us for the day. Cool stuff!! and when he prays he thanks God for his "new friends" ahha. Its awesome. Also we are teaching a new woman named Rita who is the mother in law of Alonso (who is getting baptized the 19th) and she said she is willing to get baptized as well and we were like WOOOO!!!! hahahha that was awesome. 

 But this is my last Christmas season in the mission and ive been reflecting alot. But i want you guys to do all you can to make it a memorable Christmas. Share teh gospel, love someone serve someone just simply be a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ. He who has given us ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING. He loves us. He knows us. His Father and Our Father sent Him here nearly two thousand years ago and he truly is "Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

 7 Of the increase of his government and peace there shall beno end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and withjustice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the Lordof hosts will perform this."

Have a good week guys TEAM MEDEIROS I LVOE YOU ALL SO MUCH AND THANKS FOR EVERYTHING!!!!!

Elder Joshua Chad Medeiros

Ya es Diciembre REGOCÍJENSE!!! :D

Happy Late Thanksgiving!

Well yea HAPPY LATE THANKSGIVING! haha i hope it was good for all! I love love the photos!! Looks like it was a lot of fun!! I miss the traditional thanksgiving but looks like things are going well! And you guys went to the play and dad could go to the BYU game! Nice!!! Next year ill be going hard in the paint and those BYU games haha and eating all the turkey and stuffing and what not haha. 

Well this week was pretty hard honestly. We focused a lot in helping the zone since the previous week we found a bunch of people in our own area. On wednesday we traveled out to Villa Ahumada which is a little town like an hour and a half from Juarez. The Elders are struggling out there so we went out there and helped them find some new people to teach and what not and it was good so we are hoping that they can turn things around. So yea we came back thanksgiving afternoon on a huge omnibus and it started to smell really bad like halfway through and then i realized that the lady in front of me was changing her kids (note the plurality of that word) diapers and i thought oh how lovely... yea it was really bad haha no shame but then we ate with and investigator and she gave us DRUM ROLL.... TURKEY MASHED POTATOES AND STUFFING. I was so happy then we ate pumpkin pie oh man i had like 34256 plates and they had football on so we saw a little of the Carolina Dallas game. good stuff.

Then on friday we traveled to La Cuesta (another ward) to help them with a baptismal interview but we got there and said ope he cant today so we were all...uhm ok we will come tomorrow so we came back on saturday and waited 4 hours and didn't even get back to our area till like 5 but its ok we helped out and the guy got baptized over there. But yea The Espinosa family is still going really well!!! Doris (the mom) is a beast. She is all over the activities and she has already looked up the Joseph Smith movie and Meet the Mormons and all that good stuff its incredible. She told us she is willing to give up drinking so she can leave a good example and that she wants to go to the temple and me and my companion just went like open mouthed. So yea its sick. We are gonna put a baptismal date with her and her kids this week. And David is still progressing this week as well! He's pumped for his baptism on the 2nd of January. For contacting we usually use little cards or books of mormon and we just straight up talk with anyone anywhere haha. and yesterday we had 10 PEOPLE in church!!! sickness. But yea it was a long sacrament meeting because it was of testimonies (next week is stake conf and the next is the temple dedication of tijuana) so of course theres always those 2 people who turn their testimonies into talks haha but it was nice. 

Its getting cold but all is going well. Again this week was tough and im feeling run down but we are pushing through to Christmas!!! SKYPE SOON!!!! woo!

Anyways i found a scripture  i really liked this week and its in D&C 45 3-5 and 5 says

 5 Wherefore, Father, spare these my^abrethren that ^bbelieve on my name, that they may come unto me and have ^ceverlasting life.   

 And i love this because in this part Jesus is pleading unto the Father our cause and in verse three it says he pleads our cause not that "he will plead our cause". Or its not future its present. Every prayer we lift towards heaven Jesus is ALWAYS there pleading our cause before our merciful Father in Heaven. They fight with us everyday!!

TEAM MEDEIROS!!!!

LOVE YOU ALL!!

Elder Joshua Chad Medeiros

The Elders from Villa Ahumada!!

An adorable little cat and we named him medianoche hahaha how clever!

Train track goods!

        

Good ol' Monday Morn!

GOOD MORN! haha

man these weeks sure do seem to be going by real fast am i right or am i right? Craziness. BUT SO EXCITED CAUSE THE HOLIDAYS NOW START!!  :D Im so glad to hear you guys are gonna host thanksgiving this year!! Sounds like its gonna be sick. Some good stuff. But im glad to hear all is going well at home!! Good stuff and love seeing all the holiday traditions and what not. 

But man oh man this week was cray cray and we had some cray cray experiences. I' ll onlytell the good ones lol  haha

but first of all we had 9 INVESTIGATORS in the chapel yesterday!! It was sick!! 

Well ok FIRST FIRST of all on monday i went to La Cuesta and i visited Elder Kofford! He is a beast. In their ward they only have 30 members but he is doing great. Thats where we met teh scooby doo dog. It was humongous i thought it was going to eat me for sure but i got the best of him and got the photo. ftw. And we ate some good quesadillas. ALSO we found and contacted a woman that was the lead pastor of her church and she told us that she was the prophet because the Lord spoke to her in a dream and i was like uhmmm.... thats not how it works.. haha

THen i came back on tuesday but we contacted a woman who is part of the Pentecostal church and she ws saying how she only believes that Jehovah is the Father and in Jesus and the Holy Ghost.... so we kindly took out our scriptures with her and helped to explain the Jesus is Jehovah and that God the Father is different and so literally five minutes after affirming her stance she declared "I knew Jehovah was Jesus i have ALWAYS said that!!" then we taught the Restoration and showed her how it is possible for a prophet to see God. That was cool. BEAST MODE 1

We also contacted a guy named David. Hes 22 and super super shy but we taught him prayer and he did his first prayer and thanked God for his "new friends" and said he would ask work off to go to church with us. So he did and he went with us!!! Then we taught him lesson 1 and he ACCEPTED A BAPTISMAL DATE for jan 2!! BEAST MODE 2 hahaha. 

ANOTHER family we found this week is the Espinosa family! So here in Juarez there is something called the Segundas. They are like street stores and on the weekends everyone puts up their stands and sell food or clothes or anything like SUPER cheap. (btw we love the segundas) anyways we saw a woman who is always in her house selling stuff so we went and talked to her (this is saturday night btw) and we were talking and she said her kids used to go to a church so we called the kids out and watched the He is the Gift video and the kids loved it and wanted to go to church with us and then the mom said ok thats fine ill take them tommorrow and we were all "we want you to go to!" and then shes all oh if i take my kids im going too! So they went the next day to church and we hadnt even taught them yet!!! BEAST MODE 3

and then we got to church and the 2nd counselor asked us to speak on the spot so i spoke on the grace of Jesus Christ beast mode 3.5 haha

anyways so yea good week and we finally got a heater for our house and thats kind of good actually thats really good cause our house is colder than it is outside so yea. also just doing all my duties as ZL and this week is busy cause we have the leadership meeting then a zone meeting we have to give on saturday so....yipee... haha. 

anyways. that was my week!!! In my talk i shared Moroni 10:32-33... i know its a really known scripture..but i love it and the fact that we are imperfect and we have weaknesses but we can be sanctified and made clean and perfect through Him and His grace. Amazing. If we mess up...its ok.. He has paid the debt. Thats why He lovingly tells us "Follow thou me" or "Keep my commandments" . He is the best. haha

LOVE YOU ALL AND HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

Alma 34:38 Live in thanksgiving daily. Also if you can see the talk by Elder Nelson from 2012 i think called let us give thanks to God...something like that hahaa

TEAM MEDEIROS!!

Elder Joshua Chad Medeiros

Cute little Jumex....the best 125ml I've ever had

Awesome interchanges with Kofford...he's from Kearns

We found Scooby Doo! I'm standing up!

P-day probs...we had jam toast with Fruit Loops....it actually wasn't too bad!

Playing with Play-doh

Cute puppy from our investigators house

I'm certainly not in Casas Grandes anymore...

Hey guys! 

Well... indeed transfers have come and gone and here I am in Juarez....again..haha and i feel like I'm in Tierra Nueva again haha... the loud band music coming from every other house... EVERYONE drinking on friday saturday and sunday... the tamale cars that drive through the neighborhoods shouting through a megaphone...and yea hahahaha. But yea haha good stuff. 

Anyways I'm glad you liked the scripture from last week!! It honestly helped me out a lot too. Really NEVER forget the doctrine from that passage!! And i love the one Andrew chose! Im excited! haha

And darn too bad I'm not back to be there for the auditions... :/ haha and I'm glad you guys could visit kaden this week!! Ill be praying for him. 

Haha I'm glad you like the pictures mom!! haha we have some water jugs in the house that we use to exercise but now its super cold in the morning so its super hard to do exercise haha..  and I'm glad things are settling down with the church policy thing. Thats good. And i heard about paris... so sad  :((( 

And my release date is July 18th! As far as i know but thats crazy!! 8 months!! thats so crazy... O.o

Anyways so yea... i packed all night Monday and took the good ol omnibus here to Juarez again at 5 in the morning on Tuesday.. and yea.. as i was saying I'm here in Juarez again... hahah not quite as cuddly and nice and safe as casas but its all good here haha Im in Jardines which is like the opposite side from where i was in Tierra Nueva. That was in the East and now I'm on the west border of Juarez. But I'm here with Elder Camargo from the state of Mexico!! He's sick! he has 19 months in the mission!! and its CRAZY because we both got here as news!!! so this week has been absolutely crazy just trying to get to know everything and everyone and yea. Not gonna like its been pretty stressful... and also trying to keep up with our duties as leaders and what not its pretty cray cray. The ward from what i heard is a little..weird..idk its fine so far. The area is HUMONGOUS and we have been contacting like beasts and what not. But yea as Zone leader i had to report to president last night and that was pretty intense I'm sure you could picture my fear haha. Just kidding. 

But yea this week actually guess what... we put 3 BAPTISMAL DATES with an old investigator from here. we are going to have 4 baptisms in december!!! i hope they pull through.. that would be sick but its been going good. Its easier and tougher here...just different.. haha 

But anyways this week i read from Alma 30 to 40 and i really liked the classic super super well known chapter of the faith being compared unto a seed.(32) its a chapter we share with investigators a lot and i love verse 27 that says 

 27 But behold, if ye will awake and arouse your faculties,even to an experiment upon my words, and exercise a particle of faith, yea, even if ye can no more than desire to believe, let this desire work in you, even until ye believe in a manner that ye can give place for a portion of my words.

REMEMBER. S.E.E.D. Spiritual Exercise Every Day. always take care of your seeds!! and then this morning a scripture impacted me in Alma 37 

 17 For he will fulfil all his promises which he shall make unto you, for he has fulfilled his promises which he has made unto our fathers.

The Lord is always aware of us and of our covenants. We see how He has worked with our fathers.. will He not fufill unto us this same happiness? I love it. 

Thats this week!!!! LOVE YOU ALL!! TEAM 
MEDEIROS!!!

It sure is fall and it's coldish...ha ha

Good morning!!! how is it in the ol 801? 

This week im feeling a little bit better. Just ramping up for the winter and gettin all accustomed. But is should be interesting..haha last winter in th emission! no puede ser!! haha. But i still have vitamins..i think... i should probably take those again. THankfully i havent gotten sick much here in the mission so thats good. But yea we changed the hour last week and THAT EXTRA HOUR OF SLEEP WAS HEAVENLY. Well... i mean i woke up at 5:30 cause i was used to getting up at 6:30 every day and so i kind of layed there and received revelation and what not haha jk. 

But again i love the photos and videos of this week!! Love seeing all the costumes and what not haha it all makes me laugh. I love the hover hand hug as well in the bike pictures hahahah. But good job dad for biking!!! You went beast mode and gave it the goods. 

But yea this week every one was freaking about Hurricane Patricia..we got the news and the tail of the hurricane was actually gonna hit us as well because Casas Grandes is almost in the middle of Chihuahua and more to the west but it lost its power thank goodness. haha. I heard it was huge...

And the Garcia family... well this week we went to their house and they were all uhmm..yea we actually dont want to go to church anymore because they say its too hard and they dont wanna keep all the "rules of the church"....and we explained they are commandments from GOD for HUMANITY regardless of religion and they want to keep going with their Saints and the Virgin Mary and what not... oh well haha. so yea when we drop a family or an investigator we usually leave them for a few weeks and let the members take over and then down the road we pass by and see how they are doing but who knows. 

The Martinez family is still going great!! Yesterday they got their interviews to receive their patriarchal blessing and they are so excited!! Laura told us this week that she got an answer in a dream. She was with her sisters and then I showed up and took them to some place and that i was teaching and talking to them and i took them to a place with a table and at the table she saw two personages that were telling here to come and to not fear. So that was real intense haha. 

BUt yes btw we are running low on nutella....................hint 

haha but i love the ponderizing idea!! lets do it! Ive been meaning to do it but i never got around to doing it but im totally in on it!! I love that scripture! Ill memorize it in english and spanish haha. 

But another cool experience from this week was we found a member who just moved here with her three daughters. She doesnt go to our ward because her ex husband is here so she goes to another ward but she felt really bad about all that happened and she asked a blessing and i gave it to her and i as i gave it i just felt like my mind was working on a whole other level and i dont remember alot of what i said but after she was crying and was super happy we came. I hope she feels good in her new house! well that was my week. Just realizing more and more that this church is true. There is NO OTHER church or organization that does or claims what we do and claim. This is eternal and im doing my best day after day to strengthen my testimony cause thats what we can do. Keep reading and praying and being amazing like you guys already are and i now that you will "have angels at your right hand and left hand to bear you up" D&C 84:88. LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH! 

Soft in the paint? oh plz

HARD IN THE PAINT

TEAM MEDEIROS!!

Elder Joshua Chad MEdeiros

Making breakfast for the Martinez family

Hey family!

HEY JENNA! im so good thanks for asking. im a little tired but im happy! how are you? im so glad you felt the spirit strong at church! never ever forget that feeling because that is how Heavenly Father communicates with you specifically. How cool! I was thinking about families and missions too! I really miss you too jenna! Ill see you for christmas in skype! If you forget how i look ill send you some pics ;) haha i wanna see the goosebumps movie! Its sounded funny!! hahaha love jack black. I LOVE YOU JENNA!!

Josh

Hello hello hello!!! how are we all today!  Im glad you were able to do some stuff with Jenna! dont worry haha you are a fun mom for sure. hahah im sure they enjoyed the time. and ooo! sounds like the new flooring is going along well hahha the dead animal carpet. haha. And yes as far as Josh goes im still praying for him.. 

and nice on the ghost tour!!! haha sounds like a lot of fun and even BETTER TACOS! Id love for sure to go with you guys when i get home!! but yea its been rainy and cold some days and other days its really warm... but weird. and yea clara said yesterday was her birthday!! shes doing good! She has lots of midterms right now she told me and she is going to the byu games and having a fun time in college it sounds like !! and also dad GOOD LUCK with the race this week!! I know youre gonna kill it!! #beast mode uhn. and also i cant believe we have michael vick haha

 well man it was a normal week..pretty tough..lots of walking and i feel pretty worn down. man. yea this week was one of the harder ones and i can definitely feel it. Also today i have exactly 9 months left! crazy right? 

anyways this week like i said we did our best to try to find new people and we found a couple of people but they didnt go to church. We had to drop the Bolivar family because they dont want to leave their christian church..its called the Good sheperd or something..who knows... anyways  One really good thing was this week moved here a family from another ward that is investigating the church and they went!! its the Garcia family and they are really interested but they are still pretty unsure about baptism so we are trying to see waht to do with that. This week i also did divisions with Elder Riding! he´s from payson as well!! haha it was really fun and we got some good work done and we talked about church stuff and spanish and life all night haha. He goes home in november. 

Also another cool thing that happened this week was yesterday in the morning we went over early before church to the Martinez famlies house and we made them breakfast!! I did it with nutella and they really appreciated it!! It was a nice time to talk and see how they are donig and what not. But other than that not much happened this week..

but along with my reading of the BoM and the New Testament ive been trying to read more of Doctrine and Covenants. I absolutley love the History of the Church and its incredible what the first saints did. I found a seminary DVD guide of D&C in the house and ive been going through it and i really enjoyed a part i found in D&C 10. Joseph had given the 116 pages of the original manuscript of the book of Lehi to Martin Harris who then in turn lost them. Joseph had his translating power taken away for a short season and was reprimanded but the power was soon restored after Joseph repented. In section 10 the Lord says that NOTHING can frustrate the work of God. No army or plot or plan or scheme or accusation or tiredness or opposition can stop this work. And obviously we know Jospeh became the prophet as we know him today. I was thinking about that and i know that if the Lord really wanted to He could do the work Himself. But He wants US. His children, normal people like you and me to participate because 1. The Lord is going to win and Satan will fail and 2. so we can progress and become more like Him and more fit for His kingdom. So this week we are gonna go at it again knowing we cant fail! You all do the same! In school, in work, at home, in your callings with friends or family do the right the Savior is surely with us!Pray and read the scrips! 

Anyways hope this week goes better! LOVE YOU ALL TEAM MEDEIROS HARD IN THE PAINT!!

Elder Joshua Chad Medeiros

Divisions with Elder Riding from Payson! Holla. Holla. He goes home in November!

Mission leadership meeting

Why hello there! Ha! Ha! Now I'm old!

HOLA SARAH cómo estás?  Cómo te va? espero que estés bien. Te amo. Tu español es muy bueno. Wow look at your spanish!! Very good haha im impressed keep it up!! my bday was fantastic thanks for asking!! I love you sarch and miss you alot! Im excited for dat Day of the Dead business. Let me know how all is going! Love you sarah!

Hey jenna! Im doing very very good thanks for asking!! I saw your talk and it was amazing! Made me cry! very good haha keep it up!! I cant believe im 20! Haha we are getting old! Love you!!!!

HELLO!!!!
Well first of all thank you for thinking of me and singing on my birthday hahah too nice :) it was really really good!! I loved everything you guys sent!! haha we especially love the music. and i love the ties! haha thanks you very much!! #teammedeiros
It was fantastic. and im glad to here things are going well there at home as per usual! haha im glad sarah is working hard in school and andrew has been telling me he is keeping busy as well!! awesomeness!! and I LOVED Jennas talk!! That was awesome!! It made me so happy and proud to be a part of this family.
And wow still super weird to think that Lexi is married. HAha what. anyways i will also keep sister Stout and Caden in my prayers for sure!!! and Wooo dad keep it up with the Yoga!!! hahaha awesomeness beast mode. and love hearing about young mens and the training meetings!!

Anyways this week was good! We celebrated on monday whenwe had more time and ate the mini cakes and what not haha it was a good time. My actual birthday we didnt do much...well we worked but yea haha it was a good day. 20!!!! WHAT. haha anyways thursday and friday we were in Juarez to receive the leadership information for the zone meeting. then on friday night we ate with th eMartinez family (maryanna and her sisters and mom) and they surprised me with a mini party and they sang and gave me a box of cookies and cake. haha it was SUPER SUPER nice and they said we are like family to them now haha. it was so cool.
Then on saturday Adrian got baptized finally. Haha this kid is infamous for being stubborn and hadnt wanted to get baptized for the longest time. he has gone thorugh like 5 companionships of missionaries and never has wanted too and he finally got excited and asked me to baptized him and when i baptized him and he came out of the water he said "que chido!!!" which is how cool!!!! hahah it was so cool to see him get excited.

but its going well. Sunday we went to a meeting with all the stake presidents of the mission and Elder Martinez from the 4th quorum of the 70 and we received some cool instruction. He talked alittle about Monson and how he had a hard time on sunday. He said he was there and even though it couldnt be seen, something very touching happened behind the light he said ". I was on the floor, just a few rows from the very front of the Conference Center with a clear view of the scene. You might have noticed that President Monson really struggled to finish the last couple minutes of his talk and especially the last 30 seconds. I was afraid for him. I thought he might faint, pass out, or something worse.
And then, my heart melted when I saw behind President Monson was President Uchtdorf – on the edge of his seat, almost half-way standing up, with his arms stretched  out, ready to catch the Prophet at any moment if he fell. You could see the worried expression on President Uchtdorf’s face as well as focused determination. He was on high alert and ready to catch him. As soon as President Monson said “Amen”, President Uchtdorf was immediately at his side and carried him back to his seat, safe and sound.”

I loved that!!

The tenderness that is shown between the prophets and apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ is so pure and powerful. What a beautiful demonstration of love from President Uchtdorf, as he in very word and deed reached out to lift and sustain his friend and prophet Thomas S. Monson. What a beautiful parallel to the love and concern that God Our Heavenly Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ have for each one of us.

 “I will be on your right hand and on your left, and my Spirit shall be in your hearts, and mine angels round about you, to bear you up.”  D&C 84:88 Next time you are going through difficulties, and your afflictions leave you a little wobbly and short of breath, don’t worry if you aren’t able to see anyone by your side, because God has your back!!!
HAve a good week!!! TEAM MEDEIROS!!!
Elder Joshua Chad MEdeiros

Sister Elisa made me a birthday cake! I'm with Elder Riding.

Adrian FINALLY got baptized! Stubborn kid but he went beast mode and entered the waters of baptism!