Christmas wishes

Here is picture of us after the play! :) I hope you all take the time to remember the sacrifice of the Savior for you in this time. He gave us the greatest gift of all, more wonderful than any other, and that is the Atonement. :) If you don´t fully understand how great of a gift it is, then let your gift to the Savior be learning and applying His gift to us in our lives. He wants us to come to Him and use his gift! Christmas is the best!! :)

Christmas wishes (1)

So here is a bit about my week, Elder Corrales and I participated in a stake activity in our ward, Pirai, we did a little theater/play. It was about the birth of Christ. There was a grandma talking to her grandkids about the importance of the Savior in their lives. So there was a scene of a millionaire and his wife, an artista (movie star or other famous people) and a Politico (politician) I was the artista, E.C. was the Politico :D I had some cool shades and my hair was done up and i had jeans and t shirt, (and my plaque of course :D) So all these people were entering a hotel, and the desk person kept commenting on how important these people were, then the next scene was of us three all searching for someone. Someone way more important than us. Then the next was us worshipping the newborn Jesus. and it was just about how even all these super important people even worshipped the Savior. That He was far more important. Then we ended with Away in a Manger, I sang one verse solo, and it was super fun :) we found out after it was a competition, and that our ward got 1st place! We left early because our 9 o'clock bedtime :D ´There were a total of 8 wards too. Haha also a miracle because we only practiced like one time and hour and a half before :D It was super great. Every day here is better. :)

 

And in response to an email I sent:

I actually sang a song here too! La Primera Navidad with Elder Corrales and the Hermanas in our zone. It was really good. We sang it for our Christmas conference as missionaries and also for our ward (we have a trio of sisters in our ward).

 

And here is a picture of Elder Corrales and I, and the Hermanas that sang La Primera Navidad with us. Hermana Johns, Segovia and Huaman. They are the ones in our ward. But in the other district. Tons of fun :)

12-2013 pictures

12-16-13

Here is as string of emails from Josh this morning, along with a great
bunch of pictures showing where he lives (pictures aren't posting, so I'll try to post them later )!

So this week there isnt too much to talk about I don´t think.. all of
our original dates for baptisms fell through. But apparently that
happens all the time here. This particular area is really rough. Elder
Corrales has only had 2 baptisms in the 4 months he has been here. In
his other area he had 10. The ward doesnt really help us here, and
haha it is barely functioning by itself. So we´re having to spend most
of our time working with members of the ward and the inactive members.
Did I tell you that I started a class for english?? I had 9 people
come yesterday! It was way fun. And half of those nine were inactive
members! :) How is everything going for you all there??

I havent heard from any friends except from Walker one time. I did
know that sam was doing that :) Not the clogging, but the guitar.
Thats super cool. We have to clean our house, but its not hard because
it is tiny :D No i like food too much to only eat once :D haha i find
a way usually. People will just feed us, or ill get some bread. Its
super cheap anyway. And yes ive definitly lost weight :D My pants are
all loose hahaha not sure how much though. but im also working out
every morning and that helps.

Here are some more of our house. And yes, the walls are just blankets
:D in the front at least :D when I first saw it I was like, what in
the world am I doing here :D Thats it, im going home. haha but its all
good now :) the blankets are in front, then there is a small hallway
with our room and bathroom. Super tiny. we are living above the
apartment of a member family. But no everything here is gated. Like
with big locks and everything. So not much of a problem. Yeah no air
conditioning, so on the nights that it is really hot, it is rough. I
just sleep on top of my blankets and am fine. I do sit ups and push
ups in the mornings. I really focus on sit ups right now though. Its
pretty great.

Elder corrales is from Santiago, Chile. haha :D all my companions so
far that ahve been latino have been chileans :D

Who told you wealthy? But yes, a part is. There are mansions and huge
gates. They are gorgeous. But we dont go there. Ever. We stick to the
regular people :D We walk. And walk. And walk. Buses for far away
places, and seldom taxis. The people here are so warm and inviting.
All super nice. :) And I told you the challenge. The ward isnt
functional :) haha but we are working on it!

street pics and the front of our house. We live in the back though so
you cant see it.

The people here are all very humble. Not much money. For example, i
bought a really nice pair of jeans for 10 bucks in american dollars.
All my groceries for the week cost like 70 bolivianos, which is about
10 dollars. :D

No that is the familia Rojo. They are awesome :) I´ll get a pic this
week for you. Its nice because we have paved streets for sure :D
everywhere else is just tons of sand :D yeaaaaah our part of the house
isnt nice. ive been to two other missionaries homes and ours is the
most sketch by far :D Alrighy my time is up so love you all! :) Have
a wonderful week.

11/9/13

Hey everyone! How's it going! I cant believe how fast Christmas is coming right now. It is also really weird to be in the Christmas season and have it be so hot. like it is killer. As for the news of the week there isn't really too much. Elder Corrales had to go back to the clinic a whole bunch of times for extra treatments and we had a couple really long meetings. It was mostly just slow. And on the days we were working, not a single person hardly was home so we had very little success :D One interesting thing, President Willard has announced that for our mission, knocking on doors is no longer allowed. We have to meet more with members, active and non, get references, and current investigators, oh and street contacts. So this will be interesting. Oh yeah! I started a class on Sundays teaching English to encourage investigators to come to church. It was actually a lot of fun :D This Sunday though, there was seriously on like a third of the ward there :D So missionaries have only been in Bolivia for 50 years, so the oldest members here remember the very first missionaries ever here. How wild is that :D The mission is kinda in a slump right now though. There aren´t many areas having a lot of success. But its all good! Hope you all have a great week! :).

Happy Thanksgiving (12/2/13)

Hey Happy Thanksgiving!! :) Tell me all about it! I remembered, and celebrated it with Elder Corrales by going out for some chicken! It was fun. It is soooooooo hot here. Like about 105 everyday. I've never sweat so much in my life. Its good though. The days are really long, but the weeks are pretty short. I dont have a ton of time today, so I promise pictures are coming next week! The reason for that is kinda scary, right after we returned to our apartment last night, all of a sudden E Corrales had tons of pain in his stomach. Like insane amounts. We ended up having to go to a clinic. As I walked him out to the taxi, he started to lose the feeling in his arms, and be really dizzy, I now know it was because he was hyperventilating, so I'll know how to help next time. They did a whole bunch of tests on him, we had to stay the night there, I was up until around 3. It was a long and miserable night. Mostly because I had no idea what in the world was going on :D He ended up having kidney stones, probably because every family in the whole world gives us soda when we visit. So he needs to drink more water in the future.

The work is going great though! We have three investigators with baptismal dates, and tons of wonderful investigators. The family who feeds us everyday for lunch is the best :) So all is well here. What's been happening there?? Funny side note, for Sacrament yesterday, they had two primary aged girls bring violins, and they played the music with those instead of the piano. Hahah is was soooo slow :D

11/25/13 - letter from Josh

So everything is awesome here. I absolutely love the people. They are so nice and friendly. They are just awesome. All of our investigators are the best. So my companion Elder Corrales is from chile! He is seriously awesome. The Lord knew that I would need him. He is 23 and has been out in the field for 10 months

He is an awesome missionary. He cares so much about every investigator. He keeps up working really hard, and is the district leader. So im serving on the outskirtish area of santa cruz. The 3 and 4 ring around the city.

The ward is really small. only 90 to 100 people. And the chapel is tiny! Every day at lunch we go to what is called our pension, and its a family in the ward that feeds us every day. Its usually the only meal we get too.

The week we taught a whole bunch of lessons, and I got to commit someone to baptizm! :) Any questions from anyone??

 

We are emailing from an internet place. There are tons here. Also there are pharmacys like everywhere in the city. Every street just about. Its weird. Also I want to ask all of you guys to do something, they have asked and asked and asked for us to work with the members. It is being pushed a ton. So will you guys maybe once or twice every other week go and teach lessons with the missionaries?? Ive gotten to have members come with me, and the difference is staggering. It is so much better. The missionaries need members to have success. Honestly the difference is amazing. :)

 

Ive had the opportunity here to feel the spirit here like never before. It has been incredible. So I feel like ive had a couple of manifestations of the spirit. Giving me advice :)  Eternal life in the top kingdom of the celestial kingdom is where i want to be. :) and it will require that I find a companion as determined, and willing to work towards it as much as I want it. And that is alot. It will require willingness to change, humbleness, love for others, and a desire to constantly have the spirit as a part of your life. And its hard. So my standards need to be as high as the young woman I will want to marry. Working in our life towards this goal will put our life into harmony with the gospel and bring us nearer to Christ. And you´ll be able to overcome anything :) But you need to have a companion with the same goal! It really is a perfect system the Lord has set up for us :) My testimony has been so strengthened since coming out. And I know its only going to get stronger!  ¨Look unto the Lord in every thought. Doubt not. Fear not.¨ D&C 6:36 follow this scripture and everything will fall into order :)

Love you!
Elder Evenson

 

 

11/25/13

 

11/23/13

Here he is with his companion Elder Corrales.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "Kimberly Lynn Willard" <kwillard@ldschurch.org>
Date: Nov 23, 2013 2:00 PM
Subject: Elder Joshua Evenson
To: "Elder Joshua Evenson" <bemagnificent@gmail.com>
Cc:



Dear Family,

We are so happy to have met your wonderful missionary! We are so honored to work with him here in the Bolivia Santa Cruz Mission. It is obvious in his countenance that he has been prepared to serve the Lord at this time of the hastening of His work.

"And blessed are they who shall seek to bring forth my Zion at that day, for they shall have the gift and the power of the Holy Ghost; and if they endure unto the end they shall be lifted up at the last day, and shall be saved in the everlasting kingdom of the Lamb; and whoso shall publish peace, yea tidings of great joy, how beautiful upon the mountains shall they be."(1 Nephi 13:37)

Every time we look into the face of Elder Evenson we are reminded of the great love that God has for him and also of the great love, that you at home, have for this great missionary. We know that you pray for him every day. We also feel great love for him and pray every day for his well-being, spiritual growth, and happiness. We know that God hears and answers these prayers.

We have two daughters that are serving missions at this time. We also know of the tender feelings that come with having a missionary out in the field. We know that your influence will continue to be a great strength to your missionary. Your favorite scriptures, spiritual experiences, and expressions of love in weekly emails and handwritten letters will help them feel confidence in their ability to do this great work.

We thank you for all you have done and all you will continue to do to bless the work of the salvation of God's children here in Bolivia. How grateful we are to have Elder Evenson here in the Bolivia Santa Cruz Mission. We love him so much!

                                                                            With love,
                                                                            President and Sister Willard

11/19/13

Alrighty so I'm in Bolivia now!!! We left last night at 1:30 in the morning! :D It has been a really really long day. Bolivia is amazing though. SOOOOOO hot though, and the older elders said it is just getting started. :( hahaha It is super beautiful. It is really flat though! No mountains anywhere. President and Hermana Willard came to the airport to get us, and I just got done with an interview with the president. They are the coolest!! :) They are so nice, and just absolutely happy to be here. I can already tell I am going to love it. I can't wait to get out there and serve! Hope everything is going alright with you guys :)

11/16/13

Tell Mckade congratulations for me! That is way exciting. I knew he was a beast at wrestling. So I've gotten to go to the temple like 4 times since being here. The Bogota temple is super beautiful. So awesome. I actually got to see the old video too! :D In Spanish though. The Spanish is kinda hard to understand but not too bad. I love it here in Columbia, I am definitely coming back here someday. So this next week on Tuesday or Wednesday I'm leaving for Bolivia! Finally! I am so ready to start preaching the gospel. I'm so excited. I'll admit there have been some really hard times in the last month, but I know i'm in the right place. The next two years are going to fly for me. I can already feel it. :D

11/05/13

So the last four days here have been fine. Nothing really new to report. I'm so ready to leave the CCM though. I just want to get out of here! Actually tomorrow we are getting new companions. All of the North American Missionaries are going to be getting Latino Companions. I'm pretty nervous. We all are. The last group of latinos knew absolutely no English. At all. So we're a bit nervous. 

Oh man though, Columbia is soooooo beautiful. I am for sure coming back here after my mission. I have loved it so much. Its so green, and it storms all the time, and the weather is fantastic. The drivers are crazy though. Insane actually. We fear for our lives every time we drive somewhere :D 

So all is well here!

Love, 
Elder Evenson

11/01/13

Hey!! Sorry I couldn't email you on Wednesday, the schedule is crazy here! Sorry for the grammar as well, the keyboards are in spanish and so some things are difficult to do. My flight went really well! We woke up at 3 in the morning to catch our flight, and then didnt get to the MTC until 10 that night. It was a long day. I have a new companion whos name is Elder Fruehan. No new calling, but the new district leader is awesome. His name is Elder Gallagher, and he is the coolest. Hes from California, like the bang up, gangster, shoot it up kinda place. And that was what he was like. Hes overcome soo much to get here, and you can really tell. He is so cool. Columbia is absolutely gorgeous. I love it sooo much. The weather is just fantastic, and it is unreal pretty. The MTC is way smaller. Probably like an eighth of Provo. Haha you get to know everyone! :D The Spanish is coming along fine I think. Although I know that I have no idea whats going on once I get to Bolivia. I just love it here. The food is great too. So much better than at Provo.

So I already placed a Book of Mormon!! On the very first saturday we were here they sent us out tracting on the streets. Elder Fruehan and I went out and talked to people, said hello, shared our message a few times, and one lady wanted a BoM! We bore our testimony to her, and I could feel the Spirit so strongly. It was awesome. We got her contact info and stuff and sent it to the missionaries so I really hope they can get to her!

 

 

 

Josh's P-days

A note to everyone who is following: Josh has been transferred to the Columbia MTC and now has P-days on Wednesdays. He should be there for approximately 3 weeks. I am hoping for a letter from him tomorrow. He didn't have much time last week so he just let me know he made it and that he was having a very difficult time typing on a Spanish keyboard. He was frustrated with the capitalization, grammar and punctuation of his letter because he prides himself on his writing skills! :) 

Hopefully those frustrations won't equate to very short letters every week...

Pictures of my Provo MTC Zone

My whole zone:

On Fri, Oct 18, 2013 at 2:07 PM, Joshua Evenson <joshua.evenson@myldsmail.net<mailto:joshua.evenson@myldsmail.net>> wrote:

Hey Mom! All is well :) Here is just a quick important message for you. I'll email you more later when i have pictures. but here's the news! On wednesday we got our itinerary for Columbia! We are leaving Tuesday at 3:30 am. Our entire group going to Bolivia, so ten of us are all going together. We were so excited. I'll send you another later, will you pass this on for me? Thanks! :)

Love, Elder Evenson

Still at the Provo MTC, but scheduled to go out to Columbia on October 22

So this Tuesday we had Dallin H. Oaks come and talk to us! It was so cool. He was an amazing speaker. They broadcast his talk to every MTC in the world! I sang in the MTC choir, so that was way cool. There was a total of 500 missionaries!! How cool is that. We sang a version of Praise to the Man that was written for the BYU men's choir. It was so good. The spirit was incredible as we sang it.

Days here last forever, and yet I can't believe how long it's been either. Time just seems to fly! I've learned so much. I've never had to learn so much in such a crammed period before. And yet I learn it all. My spanish is so much better now than when i first got here. The growth that happens here is incredible. I'm pretty sure the Spirit is constantly here. it's been really amazing too, my district feels like my family. I've only know them for 9 days, but it seems like we've know each other for forever! I love them all! :) Also we are the coolest district by far. Like no contest. We have nightly devotionals, no one told us to, we just felt inspired, and those devos have the strongest spirit. Those discussions are led by the Spirit for sure. We learn the most amazing things. Every person adds just the most profound thoughts, and they come from everyone! 

I went through an endowment session at the Provo Temple this morning, and it is so beautiful. It is huge! The celestial room is super beautiful. I'll send a couple pictures. 

I am just loving it here. There is no where else I would rather be. I know our lives are being led by the Spirit! It's the most incredible thing. Being a missionary so far is pretty amazing.

Mom-Will you share this with everyone? thanks :)

Love, Elder Evenson

Companions

These are my companions! Elder Lohmeyer, Robison, and Pacheco. All great Elders :)

First report from the MTC

Hey Mom! All is well here! :) So Friday is my P-day so that's when you'll be getting emails from me. I've absolutely loved being here. The spirit is just so strong. I have three other companions that are rooming with me, and they are all also going to Bolivia. Their names are Elders Pacheco, Lohmeyer, and Robison. Elder Pacheco is my companion. He's 20 and is a new convert to the church as of 2 years ago. All four of us get along really well, and we all share a great love of the Gospel. The food is great, and the gym is really cool. We went to the temple this morning and did intiatories. The grounds of the Provo Temple are just amazing! The beds aren't the best, but good company sure makes it better. I really spaced on a few things as far as stuff I needed. Like pants. and white socks. and bodywash. haha i was able to get that at the bookstore though. I am really loving it here. I hope you're all doing well :) I'm sure I'll have tons more to tell you next week! haha oh yeah I was also called to be the District Leader yesterday, and I thought that i had a lot to do before! :D Love you tons!