12th - 18th September 2015

Hey family! how is it all going!? I saw the photos of the basketball and I take it everyone lost :/ I hope everyone isn't too salty. I am going to be honest I was very sad when I found out that Richmond lost :( 3rd year in a row. It is okay for me though because no one knows about footy over here so it doesn't matter so much, I feel sorry for dad.

I got back from the temple about an hour ago which was nice, we did sealings which was also very nice I enjoyed it! It will be so cool when we can get get sealed as a family! I have sent lots of photos so I hope you are all happy with that :) I don't know what I'll be able to take over the next few weeks but I'll try to find something, the camera quality on this camera is so amazing, photos come out so well on it! I only got 2 emails this week, one from you and one from Teagan so I can write lots to you :D

This week has been pretty chaotic with one of my companions chipping a bone off in his femur he has to have surgery tomorrow which sucks, we have been in and out of the doctors all week, the only plus side is we got to go out of the MTC! There was a fast food restaurant called chick-fil-a across the street which is quite popular here and I can see why the nuggets were so good, not sure whether that was because I am sick of the MTC food or whether its actually good, but either way we went there for lunch.  It was weird because every time we are sitting in the doctors or walking around everyone is saying hi to us and saying thanks for serving ect.. it is so weird that people actually like the missionaries! I shouldn't get used to it though because it will definitely not be like that in Croatia. We realised after that we weren't suppose to go to anywhere other then the doctors, but that's okay, no harm done.

This week we did our first skype call to someone who actually is from Croatia and is living there, we actually ended up skyping someone from Serbia in the city called "Novi Sad" which in translation means "new now" her name was Tanya and she was about 60-70 years old and you could tell she had PTSD from the war big time, our teacher later told us that he baptized her and thought that she could of been saved by the grace of God and that baptism wasn't necessary, but she turned up to church every week, she met through the free English classes that missionaries hold at the chapel every week. It was so hard to understand some things she was saying, she spoke a little bit of english to us so that was nice. In the end we got our message across, and that is all that mattered.

So I heard that the medievil feast was on! I hope that was fun and you enjoyed that Rachael! I remember I was looking forward to that and I got gastro the day before the feast so I missed out on it :( that was one of the times where I was sick and I didn't want to be! I hope everything is going well at home, it sucks you got no pictures for me :P 

We have a couple of people going to Macedonia which is in the Bulgarian mission but they have to stay at the MTC as their visas haven't arrived, I think it is because of all the things going on in Syria ect... so they are pretty gutted that they have to stay longer and they had to watch those leave who they arrived with, I know I would go nuts if I had to stay longer then 9 weeks! This weeks devotianal was spoken by the president of the primary, sister Wixen, it's so cool to have someone high up in the church speak every week and they are right in front of you! 

I received your package with the scarf in it this week thanks for that! and the cream is really good. It would be really nice if you could send me a pocket dictionary, I know some of then will have mistakes but yeah we do kind of have a dictionary but it just has church type words in it and I want something that has normal words in it. If you order it from amazon you can get it sent directly to here within a few days. Elder Geertson loves that scarf that came as well! 

Apart from all the chaos with elder Matthews knee there isn't too much else that happened this week, we did get a new zone president which is cool, his name is president Wiseman. My companions also got called as zone leaders which is cool, I'm still online coordinator which means I continue to do nothing at all :) It is starting to get a little cooler here which is really nice, I'm sick of it being 35 degrees everyday, it's actually been raining too which is also good! I have met quite a few people here going to Sydney mission and Brisbane mission and they all seem pretty excited, they all don't know what  AFL footy is! quite surprising. 

Well it makes it so much easier to think that I only have 18 more days left here! we get our flight plans and itinerary in 7 days! apparently we go from Salt Lake to Chicago then from Chicago to Frankfurt Germany! then from there to Croatia! Then I'll find out whether I'm going to Serbia, Bosnia, Croatia or Montenegro. I won't be serving in Slovenia because that is a language taught on its own here, but nothing is impossible. 

This week my testimony of the power of blessings was increased after helping give elder Matthews a blessing for his knee, it was just me and elder Deleeuw, he had never given a blessing so he did and it was really cool, I anointed and you could really feel the spirit. Every week on a Tuesday night after the devotional we have our own little testimony / devotional review in our room and the spirit is always so strong in there and this week so no different, everyone usually cries, I don't but I definitely feel the spirit :) I am so excited to get out to the mission field and meet all the people of Bosnia, Serbia, Montenegro and Croatia!

Love all of you!

​1 converted 100000 to go

​this is elder McMillan he is going to Bulgaria

​This is elder Coleman he just left to Bulgaria as well, he is really good at baseball.

​everyone is sleeping during personal study!!! wowww

​more people sleeping

also Jex sleeping

me and Parko just chilling on p day!! 

--

Elder Winfield

Starješina Winfield

Старешина Винфилд 

Adriatic North Mission 

5th - 11th September 2015

Bok! Family!

This week was pretty boring to be honest I will give you a day by day run down on the fun and boring stuff I did!

Friday: To be honest I don't even remember Friday, I just remember it was a long day, we did have the tie draft which was nice I got a better tie then what I put in which is nice! it was a blue/grey/silver!! 

Saturday: We had a lot of studying to do on Saturday we taught our fake investigators like any other day, I chilled outside for personal study time which was really nice. Saturdays and Sundays are the worst because I can't receive dear elders on those days, I have to wait for Monday. On a Saturday night at 9pm we sing from 9pm till 9:30pm which I thought I would hate but I actually enjoy it! Liam would absolutely love it here there are so many opportunities for people with music. I'm pretty certain I won't be able to but there is a choir that I can join that goes to the general conference as missionaries so if I can get into that I will so then I will be able to go to general conference you might be able to see me! I'll tell you if I do. But I doubt it.

Sunday: It was fast Sunday so there was no breakfast or lunch which sucked but in the end it was good, I'm glad they had a good dinner. The temple walk we did was really nice as usual I like to relax and sleep. 

Monday: Monday was nice but a bit annoying at the same time, I couldn't get any of the dear elders because it was labour day and nothing was open at the MTC it sucked! But thats okay I got a lot done that day.

Tuesday: In the morning we had service for an hour as usual, we got all our jobs done early which was exciting! We had gym at 9am instead of our usual 3:30pm. I played basketball which was fun I played better then I usually do! That night we had elder Causse speak he is in church bishopric and from France, his talk was so good I really enjoyed it! It was about being bold and that being bold is being humble. He talked about opening your mouth and not being afraid! At the end of his talk he played a song on the piano, it was out of the blue and not what was meant to happen, you could tell he was only new at piano but he did well and it was cool to see someone live up to what they speak about. Now you might be thinking why the title of my email is "Geeeeeez is the pope catholic?!" Well me and my mate Parko (Elder Parkinson) had a funny experience! We were walking to the MTC store where a man in his 50's asked for our help lifting some lawn mower type thing on to the back of his truck, he had 2 people who were about 20 with him but they looked like they didn't know what they were doing , anyways so one of the guys were on the truck and the old guy was with us on the bottom lifting it up and his hand got caught on something, he was screaming and mad as! One of the workers said are you okay? and he replied in a really angry loud american voice  "GEEEEEEZ IS THE POPE CATHOLIC" wow it was so funny hahah 

Wednesday: Wednesday was pretty normal once again, although our district got assigned to be a host for new missionaries coming in. We met them at the curb where they said their final goodbyes we then took them to get their name tags, books ect.. then took them to their room where they drop their bags off then to their class! For those speaking a language it was so funny dropping them off at their classes where they get spoken the language at for the first time, their faces were priceless, because it was what I would of been like when I first arrived at the MTC. My first person I hosted was going to Sydney Australia! He is speaking some Samoan language so that was so cool to see, the rest were going somewhere in america. So that alone took up a good 3 hours, after that we just got back to studying. 

Today! Well today I went to the temple as usual, went to an endowment session, ate my waffle with whipped cream, maple syrup and 5 pieces of bacon. I am about to start washing my clothes after a basketball session with the Bulgarians because they are leaving on Tuesday, I get along with pretty much all of them, one of them will be serving with Myles Mits which is really cool! Nothing really special has happened today but yeah I have TRC tonight which is where we do the equivalent of home teaching to those who speak Croatian (usually its just RM's from our same mission) so I guess I'm looking forward to that.

I'm really sorry again I got no pictures! there is literally nothing to take photos of, I can't take bags or anything into the cafe I can't take pictures in class, I can't take pictures at gym and you have already seen my room, and I take it you don't want to see what the toilets are like... I'll definitely get some this week with all the Bulgarians that are leaving on our temple walk on Sunday.

Congrats to Faith on winning the netball grand final! That's so cool, the EH is coming along nicely dad it will be cool to see the finished product. I am glad that everything is going well and that rusty is doing fine :) You can send my emails on to Elder Rice! I'm sure you will all miss him! Its weird to think that we are fellow missionaries! I just saw about 6 people leave for Melbourne so maybe you will get one of them in our ward, one of them is friends with one of my comps he is kind of Asian looking with glasses you might get him, if so look after him.

I'm so excited to see how the tigers do this weekend! You should of gone to the game dad, I know we don't match up well against the roos but I think we can get up if we play our best!! you will have to send me and stats and things :P

I'm not sure what else to say, things are going alright over here, I have a few pimples coming up here and there which is annoying, it's because I'm sweating around my collar so much ect.. oh well... I'm pretty well used to the MTC life by now so nothing is really getting new at the moment, if anything special happens ill tell you all. I'm really just keen to get out of here and on to the field! I hope everyone in the ward is doing well and that they are all having fun! 

I Love you all and I am missing you heaps! if you reply to my email with any questions within the next couple of hours I will be able to reply so feel free to! 

LOVE YOUSS!

--

Elder Winfield

Starješina Winfield

Старешина Винфилд 

Adriatic North Mission 

28th August - 4th September 2015

Hey family it's me again! It feels like it was just the other day when I emailed you last, things are kind of flying by. I received your care package the other day, thanks so much! I know it costs heaps to send things over so after you send the last couple of packages don't worry about anything after that, I will be able to make it to the mission field in one piece! 

Thanks for the photos the cake looks very yummy and I love faiths face in one of the netball photos! what a classic! Today at the temple we did endowments which was nice although I nearly fell asleep during the video. Once I got back I had 2 hours sleep and now here I am waiting for my laundry to get done :)

So for basketball does that mean the grand final is this Monday? or the Monday after? It was good to see that the tigers are still doing great! I h'ope we don't play North Melbourne in the elimination final, they have the stick on us. 

This Sunday is fast Sunday so I'm not sure what is going to go on. I take it we won't have any breakfast or lunch though :( last Sunday my companions and I taught priesthood which went for 45 minutes and went really well, I didn't realise that teaching in english is so much easier then I thought!

We had a tie draft last Friday night and I saw a red tie which looked nice and it ended up being a Utah State College tie which apparently is awesome to some and hated by others, the rivalry between schools here are quite funny. By the sounds of it things are starting to get back to normal at home, I hope that everyone is getting over their colds ect... I am definitely over mine i just have to make sure that i stop eating so much food, I'm 75kg last time I weighed and that was at the start of the week, before I left I was around 68kg - 70kgish so I have put on a fair bit! Too bad its all going to my stomach, I figure I'll lose most of it when I get on to the mission field because I won't have that abundant choice of food.

This week we had an apostle speak! Dallin. H Oaks I was sitting about 10 meters from him, and when he left via his car I was even closer, I gave him a wave! He spoke on the importance of teaching people, not lessons. Making sure that you have that spirit with you and that you learn how to teach the plan of salvation off by heart and teach the why we are here and the why ect... before you teach things like commandments and the whats. I'll send some notes over from it, I think it could be a great help to the young men preparing for their missions and what they should be focusing on, most of his talk was from PMG so if they learn that they will be alright.

This week the language is getting more intense as we learn more and more grammar rules, I completely get pretty much every rule I'm just struggling to memorise words, cases and phrases. I am definitely not one of the smartest ones with the language in the class, I'm probably in the middle if anything lower. I just need help in remembering all my words and being able to put them into sentences a bit quicker, we do a language assessment this week so I guess I'll see where I am really at, I'm not too stressed though. talking to Myles Mits he said you'll learn more on the field then anywhere else and that he didn't know too much leaving either. \

I don't have really any photos this week I'm sorry :( nothing special happened and we couldn't take photos of the Elder oaks which kind of sucked! I know you will be reading this email at 7am just as the kids have left for seminary! I'm missing everyone so much. This week I spoke to some people and found out I get to call you when I'm at the airport before I leave to Croatia so look forward to that!! then on Christmas we can skype! I heard that Richard is leaving the the NT again which would suck :(

So I have some questions, what's going on at home? anything in the house changed? is Logan working with Callan? How is the red rago going does anyone drive it? What's going on in youth has anything funny happened? How is Oscar going!? 

Liam's stories at his ski camp were very funny! One thing you realise when you go on your mission is that the little things are the things that matter, the photo of the family on my wall that I see when I go to sleep, the absence of Rusty walking around the house and being a funny dog is something I miss so much, the background noise of kids screaming, the sound of the tv, the car starting, there is so many things to miss! Also mum I am brushing my teeth, in fact I look forward to it! There is nothing else to do in this place.

Hopefully this week I can learn a lot more words then I did last week, I'm really looking forward to working hard and really getting into it, I feel like I can get a bit slack at times and just kind of day dream about nothing. I am sure it will get better I just need to keep pushing on.  There is 11 others going to the same mission as me and there are about 50 missionaries already there so we are 20% of the mission! I get along really well with Elder Parkinson, Elder Jex & Elder Geertsen, we always go outside for language study as the weather is very hot! Elder Parkinson (aka. Joey, Parko) looks the exact same as Joey off full house! hence the nickname Joey! Ill send you a photo next week, His mum sent Dr. peppers for me and him, they have been in the fridge the last 2 days so they will be nice and cold! Elder Geertsen's mum sent the green shirt which will be in the photo I will send, it is the Philadelphia Eagles and that's the team that they support!

I dont know what else to add.... I really enjoy receiving the dear elders every night it lifts me up everyday. Hopefully this week will be a bit better and that I can get more done. Oh I forgot to add I got my calling! For the next 3 weeks ill be Online Coordinator which means I do jack all, So that was nice haaha I wouldn't want to be Zone or District leader that would suck. I make jokes about being online coordinator all the time and talk about how I have so much authority and that I can send missionaries home if they take more then an hour on the email! 

One thing I realise at this MTC is that they throw the word exact obedience around a lot and I can understand why they do that but sometimes I don't understand, there are a lot of stupid rules that I struggle to follow such as, wearing the same type of clothing as your companion ie. short sleeve or long sleeve or suit or sweater. Making sure that you are always with your companions 24/7. ect......

I have kind of ran out of time for emailing sorry it was so short! 

love you heaps!

--

Elder Winfield

Starješina Winfield

Старешина Винфилд 

Adriatic North Mission 

5th August - 27th August 2015

Hey mum, dad & family :D

Well I finally get to check my emails it was so good to read them and hear things that I actually know about. I arrived on the Monday I left (Tuesday for you guys) I think I got the cold that everyone had so the last week I have been sick, coughing heaps and most of my district has it now too it might not of been from you though. The plane ride was so boring I didn't get much sleep and didn't eat much for the next couple of days after I arrived.

It is all well now I am eating lots I feel fat :/ they have unlimited food for breakfast, lunch and dinner. So the way it works is there is a zone which is all the missions which are kind of close to us (Bulgarians, Macedonians, Slovaks, polish ect..) and the zone leaders are elder bednar and elder bebel who are both american and yes Elder Bednar is a relative of David Bednar. There is then districts which are the mission specific so our district has 11 people and they are all going to Adriatic north with me. I am the only non american in the district and I'm pretty sure for the whole zone, it kind of sucks but that's okay. I am in a trio companionship with Elder Matthews and elder Deeluew, they are both from Utah and they are pretty cool, being in a trio has its ups and downs but overall it is good. It is a bit weird having to be with someone 24/7.

The first language class was crazy, the moment I walked in the teachers were speaking Croatian at me and I had no idea what they were saying, they rarely speak english, maybe a sentence a class so its full immersion into the language. I am starting to get how the language works though it's just a matter of memorising words ect... they expect you to know 500 words and 150 phrases minimum before you leave the MTC. Next week I will be learning Serbian and what all the letters mean. We have already taught 4 gospel lessons to a Croatian "fake" investigator who we found out will be our teacher his name was Dabor, it is so hard as sometimes one word that you don't understand will stuff up the whole lesson.

The first devotional that we had was Russel M Nelson, it was so cool to listen to the president of the quorum of the 12 speak i learnt a lot from that!

I have learnt so much gospel based information on my mission so far and it has only been a week and a bit! I'm really missing you guys and its hard to walk around and hear no aussie accents or no funny saying from Richard, Asher and no Rusty chilling in the lounge room no Faith or Rachael teasing :D. I hope that Liam went well with his L plate lessons and that everyone is doing well. If you guys want it would be really cool if you could use the "dear Elder" thing it means I can receive emails on paper during the week instead of waiting till Thursday to check my emails, this will also give me more time to reply and give you better emails as I only get 1 hour. You can pretty much send me anything here at the MTC people get food packages and all kinds of things all the time, pretty much any letter or dear elders make the week so much better! I got one from Kim so if you have any questions ask her she knows how to use it.

Need some photos of that EH dad!

I have some photos but I can't take anymore as I can't charge the battery because I don't have a converter for american to australian power, by any chance could you send me one? I would absolutely love a package from you! all the other missionaries get letters, packages everyday I feel a bit out getting nothing but I know that you are thinking of me and that you love me and that is all I need. I can also send hand letters back and ill send you some things here and there. If you could also maybe please pretty please send a couple of normal shirts to wear, some lamingtons, shapes, smiths salt and vinegar crinkly, maybe some solo? and my favorite drink bottle of voss :D:D:D its up to you though. Oh and the external hard drive too, ill put the address to send to on the bottom of the email.

Now my schedule is pretty busy we wake up at 6:30 every morning to be at breakfast by 7 to then be in class around 8 and from 8AM - 11AM its personal study, comp study then language study then it's lunch for an hour then its 12PM - 3PM of language and lesson prep study then its gym for an hour then dinner, then we ave study again from 5PM - 9:30PM then bed. It's so hard for me to sit still in a classroom for all that time, I'm glad they at least have a little bit of spare time to get some exercise. P days are on Thursday for me I have temple in the morning which I just got back from that was cool, not too much different to the one in Melbourne just bigger, a lot more rooms and they have a cafe there too! So usually ill be email you at 11am - 4pm thurdays on american time so I'm not sure what that is exactly for you. 

I want to say a lot more its kind of hard to explain every little thing that happens at the MTC if you email a list of questions on dear elder i could write some replies during the week for you :) I want to upload some photos I took but it wont let me for some reason :(

Love from Starješina Winfield (pronounced Star - Yay - Shina)

3rd August 2015 - Send off at airport

Words cannot express who we felt that day as a family. So many mixed emotions but knowing that Elder Winfield was serving our Heavenly Father made it all worth while.
We hardly had any sleep the night before because we packed and named everything til about 2am or so.
Everything felt so surreal until we couldn't see him anymore as he passed through the gates.
When we got home, everything felt so empty. Our new normal was about to begin.

2nd August - Mission Setting Apart and last day at Church

ELDER  JOSHUA DAVID WINFIELD

MISSION SETTING APART - 2^ND AUGUST 2015

PRESIDENT VALDES

GIPPSLAND STAKE CENTRE

Brother Joshua David Winfield,

By the authority of the Melchizedek Priesthood which we hold and under the direction and assignment from the First Presidency, we lay our hands upon your head this evening and set you apart as a full time missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints assigned to labour in the Adriatic North mission.

We bestow upon you at this time Brother Winfield the rights, privileges and authority pertaining to this wonderful, exotic calling of the Lord as extended to you at this time through his voice and mouth piece and oracle - the Prophet of God. We bless you with the assignment to speak the Croatian language. We bless you with the ability to do so fluently in the coming weeks and months ahead of you. We bless you with the gift of understanding and perception to be able to quickly grasp the language and be able to quickly communicate as you arrive at your destination.

We bless you with health both spiritual and physical, that your body will be able to withstand the rigors of missionary labour, to be able to be obedient and follow the program and the schedule there set before you as given to you not only by your Missionary Training Centre President but as you arrive on your mission field by your Mission President and his wife.

We bless you with the gift of compassion. We bless you with the gift of charity as you walk among the people within your mission. The Lord will guide you and point out to you those that he has been preparing to accept His Gospel. As you develop these gifts, you will find guidance through the Holy Ghost, to know what to say and how to help and bless their lives.

We bless you that you will grow in stature before the Lord, that you will be able to magnify your Priesthood and exercise it in righteousness. We bless you with obedience to follow the counsel and guidance and guidelines and rules that the Mission President will give to you.

We bless you to love your companions, all those that you will come to serve with. You’ll care for them, serve them, you’ll be mindful of them and their needs and be able to comfort them in their time of need as well.

We bless you with strength of character but yet humble. You’re going to be able to serve the Lord to the fullest of your capacity.

We bless you to come to know yourself fully, to know who the Lord has created in you. To be able to fulfil the things that were announced in your Patriarchal Blessing. We bless you that later, those promises that are given to you will begin to be fulfilled.

We bless you Elder Winfield to grow in stature before the Lord in amongst those you are serving. We bless you that you will be able to work well with priesthood leaders and the auxiliary leaders in both wards and branches that you will come to serve in.

We bless you that you will be a powerful witness of the Gospel. We bless you that you will utilise the Book of Mormon as a tool to teach, to expound and to invite others to come unto the Lord Jesus Christ. We bless you with success in changing lives in those who will accept the Gospel and those that will return to his fold.

We bless that you’ll come to know the meaning of the plan of salvation and you’ll become resolute in the way you’ll live your life from here onward and you will return a man of God and you will continue to grow in stature before the Lord. We bless that through your obedience you will come also to know how the Lord protects each one of us in his service. We bless you that you will be able to lead others to do likewise.

The opportunities will be given to you to serve other missionaries both that are within your District as well as your Zone.

We bless you that the Lord will give you opportunities to associate with many others from different nationalities and nations, that you will come to appreciate cultures particularly the ones of those you serve. You will come to be enriched through this culture. We bless you to become one of them, one with the people. As you do so you will come to know the thoughts in their hearts and become as they are and have their hearts open to you. We bless you with the gifts of compassion and charity. That their hearts will be fully open to the spirit as you teach that the Holy Ghost will come unto their hearts, that they will be open to allow Him to come into their hearts.

We bless you with protection, that the Lords angels will be round about you as you remain faithful and obedient throughout this service.

We bless you to have enjoyment, to learn and to grow and to be able to have joy through this service and to know that He is with you as you remain faithful and obedient.

And these blessings we leave with you as you embark upon this great service for the next two years as a starwort and faithful servant of the Lord.

In the name of Jesus Christ.

Amen.