Hey Family and Friends,

This past week as been the Best week so far. We have had a lot of success. We have 2 gators(we call investigators "gators" because we are in Florida LOL) that have goal dates to be baptized! The first one is Curtis. He is doing great and is very interested in the Church. His goal date to be baptized is Feb. 16. Then we found a family that has one of their kids that is an unbaptized member. His name is Evan Nagy. We started teaching him yesterday and we are most likely going to baptize him on Feb 9 or Feb.10! So there is 2 so far with a baptismal date.

We have other gators that are really progressing.  Olivia, who really wants to be baptized, Brian, he also wants to be baptized, Jonathon Allen, he also wants to be baptized, and many others. Those are just some of the main ones we are really working with.

 Here is a very funny story that happened to us on Tuesday. We were driving to a Dinner appointment which lives on a dirt road( we drive on dirt roads A LOT just FYI) so we turned onto this dirt road called Robin Hood. All was great UNTIL it turned from DIRT to SAND!!!!!!!! So we have a car NOT a truck. So what happened? WE GOT STUCK!!!!  We were not thinking to much about it until it happened. So we were digging the car out for about 45 minutes or so. GOT NOWHERE!!!!! So we weren't to far from the members house that we were going to dinner for, so we called them to come help us get unstuck. Their son came with a 4-wheeler and a rope. For the first couple of times there was no success because the front end of the 4-wheeler wanted to pop wheelies and almost flip over. So it took 3 of us to hold the front end of the 4-wheeler down and then we FINALLY got it out. ;)

Anyways, I had my first Exchanges on Wednesday. That was fun. We did exchanges with our district leaders. So, my companion stayed here in Hudson and I went to the Palm Harbor A area. I put a picture of me and the elder I served with on the exchange at the end of this email. But, guess what was going on with them? They have a all car area too. BUT, their car was in the shop getting the bumper fixed. SO, we had to RIDE BIKES!!!!! That was a great Missionary Experience. I felt more like a Missionary that day. The one thing that sucked was the the seat was SO uncomfortable. But it was a great experience.

So, that is a brief overview of what happened this past week.

I love and miss all you guys so much and cant wait to see all your faces again after 23 Months and 1 week............. Well............ less than that because of the age change they cut the time at the MTC to 2 weeks now. So, Transfers will be every 5 weeks instead of 6 weeks now. So, i will leaving my mission a week early!!! LOL ;)

Love your best family member and best friend ever,

Elder Josh SImonson

Here is the picture of the elder I served with on exchanges. His name is Elder Hubbard.