Josh Mission Email May 25 2026: Happy Memorial Day!

Happy P-day to all of you around the world who celebrate. Kinda fun to say that, this email goes to people in 6 continents. I think I’ve mentioned that before, but now there’s a lot more people out or heading out soon. Anyways my little corner of the world out here is doing well. It was super hot here for like 3 days and now I haven’t seen the sun for the last 4, the bipolar weather is just like home 🥰.

This week we were studying outside an Asian market and we started talking to this very animated guy. I didn’t catch a whole ton because it was crazy fast Chinese, but basically he wasn’t a fan of our beliefs. He had his own philosophy about life and the universe which is totally chill, that’s what we talk about all day. He basically went back and forth for almost an hour between telling us how good our faith was and how we were such great young men, and telling us we had it all wrong. In the middle of saying something he didn’t like about religion he completely changes subjects and tells us again that we have grest hearts and he wants to take us to Costco for lunch. So of course we went with him to lunch. At Costco, we had to practically jog to keep up with him but we ordered a pizza, got the receipt, and then he zoomed off and told us to eat while he went and shopped for groceries. We ended up eating the entire meal alone, but he did come back and inhale the pizza we left for him before leading us out of Costco at lightning speed. That was also the second time that week we had been to Costco for lunch. It was a GOOD week. Mmmm chicken bake🤑.

We got to have dinner with the guy who got locked out of his car this week, but we didn’t get to go to Golden Corral 😭. The closest location was outside of our mission, and the next closest was almost an hour away. Instead, we went to the discount Chinese buffet near our house. I’ll let you guy’s imaginations do the heavy lifting here, but discount chinese buffet food quality is EXACTLY what you think it is. It’s like Panda Express and Golden Corral had a sick child with WAY too loud pop music and WILD graphic true crime shows playing from every angle.

But that’s not all. Not 2 HOURS before, we had just come from ANOTHER (much nicer) all you can eat restaurant with some people we are teaching. It was a matter of politeness to eat until we were stuffed there too, they know we’re 19 year old boys and making sure guests eat enough is important in Chinese culture. We had tried to reschedule for later, but Logi insisted we stick with the original time. This had been planned for over a week, so we couldn’t turn him down. We all walked in there, still stuffed, got hit with the good old classic fish smell, and just looked at each other. We tried our best to eat as much as we could yet again, and luckily Logi didn’t call us out on our small plates. He was too busy showing us magic tricks and trying to get us to solve an impossible logic puzzle. He told us he would give us the answer at church yesterday, but he said he was “too tired” to solve it last night.

We also had exchanges this week, and Elder Bennet who has been out here for 2 weeks came to Chinese work for the day. His only language experience in the past was one semester of middle school Spanish. Normally when that happens we try and plan a day where we can make sure there’s always english speakers around, but the day was already busy with some English class, a member meal, and a couple teaching appointments. Poor Elder Bennett didn’t get to do anything in English until like 7pm😭. Sounds like he got some good personal study in though.

Spiritual Thought🔥🔥🔥
Alma 22:18
This verse comes from when Aaron is teaching the king over all the land. He is still unsure if there is a God so he offers a prayer, saying,
“O God, Aaron hath told me that there is a God; and if there is a God, and if thou art God, wilt thou make thyself known unto me, and I will give away all my sins to know thee, and that I may be raised from the dead, and be saved at the last day. And now when the king had said these words, he was struck as if he were dead.”

Here the king has a powerful experience with prayer, and one thing really stands out to me. He says he will give away “all my sins” to know God. Drawing closer to the Lord always requires sacrifice. I know at times this has felt daunting to me, like growing closer to God will be a long and brutal process. In reality, as I’ve changed and grown closer to God it’s been easier to see how giving things up to better know God isn’t a burden to be taken on, but a weight off my shoulders that has made me more free than ever. I know we can all grow closer to God and experience this greater degree of freedom and light.

Happy memorial day everyone, eat some American food for me.

Love you all!
Elder Banks