Life as a normal person again

Hey everyone!

Its been a while since I have posted something and that's just because I started to get lazy about writing when I got home from my mission.

An update on my trip home. My flights got delayed for a long time as I was going through Denver but it was fun to talk with people in the airport about the gospel and to meet fellow members of the Church. Often times they would feel bad for me and let me use their phones to leave my parents a message of how things were going. Instead of getting to Kansas City at 8:30 in the evening, I got there are 1:00 in morning and then later that day since it was New Years eve I went to a singles dance with a friend. Everyone's reaction that I had got home from my mission that morning was hilarious.

It took a little bit of time to feel comfortable at home again. I still feel like that if I'm not doing something that sometihng is missing or I need to do something to fill the time.

Since I've been home I've gotten a job where I was working before doing heating and cooling. I've also applied to BYU and BYU-I and I was accepted to both however I decided to attend BYU-I because it is a better fit with my personality and my interests. I'm excited to start my college career in the fall.

Other than that not much else has happened in the last 2 months. I hope to have more interesting stories in the coming weeks and months so that I may share them with you.

Christmas Party in Brewster

Hey everyone!

This week was really good for us! It went really fast but we had some good things happen. We went on exchanges a couple of times and we had the Christmas party for the Branch. It was a lot of fun and some really good things happened. We had probably about 10 non-members there in total with the people that we invited and the people that the Branch invited.

Teaching was also really good for us. We invited our branch president to come with us for a couple of visits and we were able to have some good lessons with a few of our investigators to help them feel more comfortable coming to church more regularly. We were able to have a couple of investigators at church without having to wake them up but the others slept through their alarms however, they should be coming this next Sunday.

The Lord has been blessing us a lot lately as investigators have been keeping their commitments and new investigators are showing genuine interest in the gospel. For a couple of weeks it was hard to see any real progress in the area but I know it was just a trial of our faith. This morning I was reading about patience in Preach My Gospel and it had a little activity to study and it was in Mosiah 28:1-9 and it talks about the desires that the sons of Mosiah had to go share the gospel with the Lamanites. Then it referred to Alma 17:10-11 and Alma 26:27 which talked about the promises the Lord had given them if they remained faithful and persevered in patience. It hit me that over the course of the last couple of weeks were just us serving in patience and then the Lord fulfilled his promise to give us success.

Crazy to think that this is my last full week in Washington. The Lord has blessed me a lot and in a lot of different ways. The mission was not what I thought it was going to be but it has been so much more than I could have ever hoped for. 

Hope you all have a great week and this will be the last email that I send home from my mission. Crazy how time just flies by!

--Elder Young--

Busy Week!

Hey everybody!

This week was pretty good for teaching. We had some miracles with people we didn't think we were going to be able to teach very much. A family that we have been trying to teach for a while came to church on Sunday and they enjoyed it. Hopefully next Sunday they will come again. Also we were able to find out more about some of our investigators pasts so we know how we can help them overcome the obstacles in their life that are keeping them from progressing. The Lord has been blessing us with work to do and people to visit and help come to Christ.

Last night we stopped by one of our investigators to confirm an appointment for today and we ended up teaching her about the atonement because she had been going through a hard time for pretty much her whole life and she is trying to become better. It made me really appreciate having the gospel in my life and having two parents that care for and love me. The gospel really does protect and help us to be the very best that we can be.

So we have been doing service for someone named Pedro trying to help him change a movie theater into a rental hall. I thought I would send you a picture of him because he is a pretty funny guy. He calls everyone guero which means white guy and he is almost always talking in spanglish. He also owns half of Brewster.

Hope you all have a great week!

--Elder Young--

Why do the weeks go by so fast?

Hey everyone!

Hope you all have had a great week!

This week was kind of slow but fast at the same time. The weeks just go by too fast and it always seems like its just going even faster. Before I know it I'll be headed to tri-cities to get on an airplane. I don't like thinking about that because that means that my mission is coming to an end and I don't like to think about that at all.

This week was kind of slow for teaching for us but we did have a few good lessons with our investigators. On Monday we had plans to teach this awesome couple about the plan of salvation but as we were talking we could feel something was wrong with the guy and we felt prompted to talk about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and we could see a difference in his countenance by the end of the lesson. He was angry about something because they had been arguing about something. The gospel really does solve so many problems, we just have to let it work in our lives to do it.

There is a really good Mormon Message that we watched recently that I think applies to many members who think they are overworked. The Lord uses all of us to bless and uplift the lives of others. When we pray, its really to get our wills inline with God's and then to accomplish His will. Heavenly Father knows so much better than we do the things that we need to get done to bless the lives of others as well the things that need to happen to make us more like Christ.

Have a great week!

--Elder Young--

Thanksgiving week

Hey everybody!

The weather has been kind of crazy here with snow and rain and slush and then it got super windy and cold. Its kind of fun to step on the puddles that froze because the water under the surface is absorbed by the ground and it sounds like glass breaking. It makes walking in the cold a little more enjoyable and fun.

So this week was pretty good. We taught a decent amount of people and some of our investigators kept their commitments to read. Unfortunately no one kept their commitment to come to church so this week we are going to be focusing on helping people come to church and feel of the spirit that is there. We had a funny lesson with a couple that we are teaching about the word of wisdom. Both of them have something that they need to give up and both of them are willing however there are always those two or three excuses for throwing them away. Its amazing to see what a blessing it is to have learned about the word of wisdom as a young person so that I could be free of addictions.

Thanksgiving was pretty fun. We helped someone out cleaning up some stuff during the early afternoon. We knew it would be a hard day to find people home but doing service for a few hours worked out well. We had dinner with a member and then one with an investigator. When I woke up the next morning, I still wasn't hungry because there was so much good food. Unfortunately the lesson with the investigator that day didn't go like we thought it was going to and we are deciding to stop visiting that family as much. They just don't listen very well and they think they don't have to pray to receive answers. So we are just going to go by once a week for now instead of twice a week.

A couple of days ago I started to feel a little under the weather so right now I don't have much of a desire of writing but there is something that I need to share with you. The church has produced another video about keeping Christ in Christmas. Its a wonderful video that brings the spirit very powerfully and quickly. If you just click on the link, it will take you there. Please share this video with everyone. We need to spread the message so we always remember why we are coming together as families to remember the birth of our Savior. I know he live and loves us and wants us to be the best we can be so we can return to live with God again. I know the church is true and that the Book of Mormon is the word of God and that Joseph Smith was called to restore the church. Also I know by that same spirit that President Monson is a prophet of God and by following his council and the council of the twelve Apostles, we can reach exaltation!

Hope you all have a great week and that you see many miracles!

--Elder Young--

Zone Conference with Elder Arnold and Snow!

Hey everyone!

Hope you have had a great week!

This week was really long but really fast at the same time. We found a new investigator with a lot of potential. When we found him, he told us that he goes to church but he doesn't really get anything out of it and feels like it doesn't help him very much and he wants to go to a church that helps him get closer to Christ and where he learns more. We have planned to see him tonight and we are excited to see what kind of progress he will make in the coming weeks. Also we have been finding some really good potentials that want to learn more and want to read from the Book of Mormon. Its amazing to see the difference between the people that are prepared and those that are not. The Lord really is preparing people to receive the gospel at this time.

So on Friday we had a zone conference with Elder Arnold of the Seventy. I had a leadership session with him at 7:30 in the morning and then it went from there until 2:30 in the afternoon and I felt sad when it was over because I wanted more. He talked a lot about working with the ward councils and the members to do our finding. Also he talked a lot about being stronger with the commitments that we extend.

We were also supposed to go to Othello for a spanish conference with Elder Arnold as well but it started snowing and they decided not to let us go. I attached a picture of the snow the next day. It was inspired because it took us a long time just to get back to Brewster and it would have been even worse at 9:00 at night.

Something that I want to do better that Elder Arnold suggested is to FEAST from the scriptures. He turned his scriptures around to show us his marking and it was completely covered in notes. He said he spent 6 weeks on 3 Nephi 11 and 12 weeks on 3 Nephi 12. The scriptures contain so much knowledge and truth but our loving Heavenly Father allows us to grow our faith by searching pondering and praying.

Have a great one! and hope to hear from you soon! Happy thanksgiving!

--Elder Young--

Staying Brewster for my last one!

Hey everyone!

So we got transfer calls this week and all 4 of us in our apartment are staying so it looks like I'll be dying in Brewster. I love Brewster and we have been having some good success this past week.

Its been super cold but despite that we are still looking for more people to teach and teaching the people the Lord has given us. We were able to teach the family we found last Sunday because they were busy but the couple that we have been teaching came to church. Funny story. This whole we had struggled to meet with them because things just kept getting in the way so we decided we were just going to do everything we could to help them keep their commitments. We texted them Sunday morning to remind them about church and we didn't get a reply so we assumed that they were still asleep so we stopped by their house and knocked on their door a few times to wake them up. A few minutes before sacrament meeting we get a text from them saying that they are outside. When we saw them they asked if we knocked on their door and they said it woke them up so they could come. Then the sisters of the recent convert, Junior, came and also his niece. It was pretty neat to see so many non-members in church. The Lord is blessing us in so many ways.

Some funny stories from this week. One of the Elders found this huge pine cone and stuck it in my bed before I jumped in and pretty much we have been moving the pine cone around the apartment just trying to find place to surprise each other with it. It sounds kind of dumb in writing but its pretty funny to see.

Hope you all have a great week!

--Elder Young--