Josh Mission Email July 27 2026: 6 months woah

Hey guys! Not a super crazy week, but I got a couple fun stories today

I met a homeless lady on the street a week or so ago and she wasn’t that interested in what we had to say. However, she must have changed her mind because she managed to track down my number from just calling missionaries until she got someone who knew me. She called me just about every day this week to tell me about all the people on the streets of Baltimore who are out to get her. We’re working on finding her a shelter but she’s not a big fan of the other people at the shelters or the government so it’s been tricky. Pray for AJ.

Got to go on exchanges with my district leader and it was a ton of fun. He’s a great guy, and the work went well. He is EXTREMELY knowledgeable in 2 areas: Disneyland and dead bodies. His family opened the very first mortuary in Utah, and it’s grown over the years to have more locations and all parts of process. He’s been involved in the business since he was like 14, so he knows all the ins and outs. I asked about what he wanted for his funeral, and he already has everything planned out. He said so much of that stuff sounds so spooky to people who aren’t in the business, but after a while it feels normal. He also loves everything Disney and Disneyland, and he told me all about maximizing efficiency while in the park and hotel/flight planning to get out without destroying your bank account. They live in Utah but have season passes and make it worth the money it’s awesome. Made me appreciate my mom – the master trip planner. I knew a lot of planning went into trips, but the scale for a perfect trip to Disney is beyond me.

Our area is huge, so it covers just about every demographic. The contrast is really funny sometimes. We spent just about all of Friday up in southern Baltimore in a rough part of town, we witnessed a couple small business transactions and ran into a lot of tweakers. On Saturday we were in the other end of our area where the houses are all probably $1M+ and the only people out on the streets were joggers and dog walkers.

In the last 2 weeks I’ve gotten to use my Chinese twice! I saw the guy at the jewelry stand at the mall was watching a Chinese show, and he was shocked when this white blonde kid pulled up and started talking to him in Chinese. It was good to see that I can still speak enough to hold a super basic conversation. On exchanges we also knocked a house looking for a guy and his mom answered. We asked if her son was home, and then she asked her granddaughter in Chinese to go get him. I got to bring out the Chinese again, and we talked about church for a little bit. She’s not religious, but has been to a Chinese church before. Her son didn’t ever come out, but I left her with the Chinese missionaries number in case she wanted to learn more.

Spiritual thought 🔥🚨
Matthew 19:26
“But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible.” Here, Jesus is specifically talking about gaining salvation, but all things are possible as we trust in God. I’ve found that things almost never turn out the way I think they will, but that’s for the best because God plan is greater than what we can imagine.

Next week is transfers so P day is going to be on Tuesday.

Love you guys!
Elder Banks