Ware, Josh P

Not gonna lie. This week was tough. It was super busy inside and outside of the office. Had a million bills to pay, reports to do, people to find, and no results. I seriously feel like the more we do, the less results we get. But I'm trying not to stay negative, so I'm going to focus on the positives from this week.  Our recently baptized friend, Micael, continues to grow as a disciple of Christ. He is doing visits with us three times a week, and he has started to mark his own visits to make with us. Yesterday, Micael received both the Aaronic Priesthood and his very own temple recommend! I am so happy with all of his progress! You can't even tell anymore that his parents are pastors of another church.  This week was the first time that I have actually gotten nervous to teach an English class. We had 18 people show up to participate, and I actually felt like a real teacher. And I literally didn't know what to say because there are some who don't know how to say ...

This week, I learned one very important thing: Christ is the answer. If everything that we do is centered around Him, we will never go astray, and we will always know the answer.  This week, my companion and I had the privledge of talking to someone with severe anxiety in the middle of an anxiety attack. She paced back and forth, screaming, grabbing her head, before falling to the ground and gasping for air. I did not know what to do. But I found that as we turned to Christ, He became her answer. We began to testify of Christ, and shortly after, pray in Christ's name. As the words of the prayer continued, she started to breath a little slower, until she gathered enough strength in her body to sit up. I know that God is aware of all of His children, and His son, Jesus Christ, is the cure and the answer to any problem or challenge.  This week, our ward gave me and my companion one responsibility: find all of the youth and children that were baptized in the last two years, teach ...

I'll start this email off by talking about your good friend Dilene. Dilene is 79 years old and full of faith. She works all day and every day (besides Sunday) to provide for her and her grown-up son (who's has plenty of his own problems). Since the first time that we met her, she has been nothing else but a light to everyone. Dilene walks 30 minutes to church every week by herself, and has invited all of her friends to visit with her. Well this Saturday was her baptism, and it was a super happy day for everyone! It was also a super unique baptism. Due to her health problems, she can't excert any abdominal force, and we needed three elders and a chair to baptize her. It was definitely a baptism that I'll never forget! Health Update: I'm still rocking braces on one of my toenails, but it's finally healing properly. I used shoes twice this week and only regret it a little bit. Since the new year started, I've been off soda, and I've actually felt so much be...

Quick Story... The other day, we were walking down the road, super discouraged because literally no one wanted to listen to our message. It was about 9pm, and we were praying for a miracle from God. We stopped to talk to literally the only person on the street. We start chatting for a bit, and we learn pretty quickly that she is atheist (not very common in Brazil). I had no clue what to say, so I just started testifying of God and His son, Jesus Christ. She immediately started crying, as she knew it was a sign of "some sort" from "something". We were able to hand her a Book of Mormon just before her bus got there to pick her up. I don't know if she picked up the book to read, or if we even were able to make a great difference, but I do know that God is aware of our every individual needs, and touched the hearts of both His daughter and His missionary that night.  It's little things like this that drive my desire as a missionary, that strengthen my testimony ...

Happy New Year everyone! Here in Brasil, the people celebrate this holiday like no other. Last night it seemed like we were in World War 2 with all of the fireworks and literal bombs that these people were throwing around. I was actually super scared that one of these "bombs" would get thrown into our window last night.  I hope that you all have had a fantastic Christmas and New Years! This week was amazing, and we were able to see the hand of God so many times in the work!   But first, I thought that for my last spiritual thought to wrap up this year, I would share with yall some phrases that I heard, read, or studied this week... - Are you really going to tell me that you are going to pass up the chance to put in the time to think about something, wrestle with something and learn something just because you know is it going to require work and focus? - Heavenly Father knows our divine potencial and is aware of what we did before this life, so he takes us out of our comfo...