A great week and a new companion

Hello everybody!

I hope that you have had a great week and everything went well.

Our week here was really good. We taught quite few lessons and we had 1 investigator at church. We have been teaching him for a little while but with a space in between because he some surgeries going on. We had an awesome lesson with him this week about the some of the commandments. We were talking about prophets and we were showing him a picture of President Monson and then we talked about how if he knew that Joesph Smith was a prophet, that meant his successors were prophets also. We he saw Joseph Smith's picture he kind of got excited asked if he was the one that was visited by God and Jesus Christ. He is our top progressing investigator right now. He has to do dialysis 3 times a week because of the surgeries earlier in the year and he has tubes in his chest that can't be submerged for a couple of months.

I really enjoy my new companion Elder Doman. We have a lot of the same goals and personality traits. We both feel that this companionship is inspired because we had pretty much instant unity. He came from an english area in wenachee so he had 6 weeks to learn spanish and then 6 weeks to forget it but he is learning really quickly. Tonight we are going to eat with a less active member and she said she is going to make some hot salsa to help him learn even faster. I took him to someone that always really hard to understand just to give him something to check his progress off of. The funny thing is that person is still hard for me to understand but it has gotten better. Elder Doman is from Utah and just graduated High School in June. Also we have the same birthday, just a year apart.

I'm super excited for General Conference this weekend! I love being able to listen and read the words of the prophet and apostles. I hope that you are getting prepared to listen this weekend! They have been inspired to speak about things that are important for us today and we are ready to listen with the spirit, then we will be taught so much more by the spirit.

Speaking of apostles, we are going to be having one of the apostles here on oct 26! We are super excited for it! We haven't been told who it is going to be but thats ok because they are all great men of god.

The weather here has been pretty rainy and cool. Still nothing like the Kansas storms. The days are getting shorter and shorter. It starts getting pretty dark around 7:45 and then people don't want to meet because they think its late. Hopefully as the harvest winds down we get busier.

I hope that you all see miracles this week and that missionary opportunities present themselves.

Elder Young

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Transfers and a miracle week

Hello everybody!

Thank you for the letters this week, I always appreciate it. I hope that you have had just as good a week as I had.

This week has been pretty good and we also got our transfer calls on saturday. I'm staying and Elder Hall is going towards Othello. We are really sure exactly where its at, they just said the wards and zone that he will be in. I will be getting Elder Doman as a companion. He just came in the mission 6 weeks ago so I'm a step-dad now and will be finishing his training. He also went to the Mexico MTC so that is pretty cool. It will be fun to help train a missionary.

We definitely saw some miracles this week. We haven't been finding very many new investigators this month but then the last 3 days we found 4. They were mostly people that had been potential investigators for a while but it had been difficult to find a time to meet with them again. Also there were 6 investigators at church. It seemed like they just kept coming and coming. We were super surprised that there were that many there. We were also able to teach 21 lessons which it has been hard just to get 15 or 16.

Translating was pretty rough yesterday. It was a new couple to the ward and they had most of their talks written out or quoting from articles but the thing that made it really hard was that they spoke really fast. I felt bad for the few people that had to listen. Hopefully they were able to get something out of it. That was a real test of our translating skills.

I hope you all have a great week and I hope that you are able to see the little miracles in your life.

Elder Young

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Hello Everybody!

Its hard to believe that 8 months have already gone by!

So last week I forgot to mention a miracle that happened. An old investigator came to church last week and was talking to the bishop after sacrament meeting. Come to find out her long time live in boyfriend moved back to Mexico so she can now get baptized. The bishop challenged her to have the lessons in her less-active daughters house to maybe try to get them reactivated too. We were talking with her yesterday and she really understands the importance of living correctly now and receiving the ordinances of salvation. I am hoping that she will continue strong and be a strength for the spanish group.

This week was a little long as people were still busy harvesting and didn't have the time or energy to meet with us but we didn't have some good lessons. We are pretty much teaching the whole Delafuente family or someone they are related to. There are 4 daughters with their spouses or boyfriends that aren't members and we are either trying to reactivate them and/or teach them the missionary lessons. Hopefully we will be able to see some progress soon as they continue to read in the Book of Mormon.

Last night we had a pretty crazy storm. We had just finished dinner and then the power went out. We finished up with a spiritual thought and then left. As we were leaving, the wind was picking up and throwing tons of dust and dirt in the air (the soil is really sandy here) and we could hardly see as we were driving. Branches and twigs kept blowing across the road as we drove to our next appointment. Just as we got in the house, it started down pouring and then it rained for a little while longer but not too bad after that. It reminded me of Kansas storms but not nearly as long.

Something that I have learned here is that serving in a calling is just like a mission. We serve because the Lord has asked us to and try to magnify the calling we are given because we love the Lord. Our success isn't based on numbers or stats but rather on our commitment to serve our Savior in the calling he has given us. The Lord has his reasons for the callings he gives to us and promises us strength to be able to complete the tasks he has given us, we just have to do it his way.

I want you all to know that I know the church is true because I know the Book of Mormon is true. There is a prophet on the earth today and I know he has the authority to receive guidance and revelation for the world. I know we can receive revelation for ourselves also, we just have to be willing to act on the things that we learn.

I hope you all have a great week and always be looking for the Lord's hand in everything and you will see many more miracles.

Elder Young

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A slow week but full of miracles

Hello everybody!

I hope that everything is going well at home and that you have had opportunities to share the gospel with your friends and family. Sorry I haven't been very good about writing hand-written letters but I will work on it.

This week was a little slower than normal because lots of harvests have been going and some more are starting this week. That makes it so pretty much no one is home during the day and really tired at night but we are still teaching a few that want to meet with us despite the late hour.

Someone that we started teaching this week wants to meet with us at 8:30 because his family owns a popular Mexican restaurant and they don't close until 8:00pm everyday. He is always really attentive and tries to apply what we are teaching. We left a Book of Mormon the last time and he said he would read the introduction. Something that really impressed me was that we had an appointment for Thursday night but it was his wife's birthday so he called the member who referred us to him to tell us he wouldn't be able to make it and he wanted to reschedule. Normally people just forget about the appointments we have with them and then give us an excuse. I feel like he has a lot of potential and he wants his family to start listening also.

On saturday we were pretty much running the whole day. We started off with a church tour for someone, then we went to a wedding (in a different church and very interesting preacher), then we went and met someone that some members used to teach english to, then an appointment canceled but we found someone and had a lesson, then a lesson with a couple that when they started reading the Bible they noticed some things that weren't right with their church and then the last lesson of the day was a doozy. We were just trying a couple back that we had tracted into and we started getting hammered with questions that didn't really make sense and really had no constructive purpose. Every time we would answer a question in a way that he didn't already think of then he would get kind of quiet and go to another question. He had a very weird perception of prophets that made the apostacy even more real. I'm so grateful for the restoration and the truths we have because of it. I know that God has called prophets from the beginning of time to lead and guide his children in the way that he wants it done. There are great blessing from listening to his chosen servants.

Last night we ate at an investigators house because it was their sons (he is 4 now) birthday. We had poblano mole. They are from puebla mexico and thats a traditional dish there. Its pretty much chicken with a sauce and then rice and beans. It was way good. Then they gave us some cake and jello. The jello we ate was like 5 different colors but it was pretty good. I don't know if I will be able to eat Tex-Mex anymore after eating authentic mexican food for so long.

Have a great week everyone!

Elder Young

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Short letter

Hello everybody!

Thank you for the letters and the emails. I appreciate the support and hearing how you all are doing. I'm sorry that I don't write back as much but just know that I really appreciate it.

This week was pretty good although harvests are in full force and people are way tired when they get home. It's nice when they still let us in even though are tired and probably just want to go to bed.

The language is coming along day by day. Its fun when people answer the door speaking a little english saying they don't speak any and then we just switch to spanish. 

Sorry this weeks is so short.

Thanks everyone and I hope you all have a great week.

Elder Young

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Slow beginning but Ended with MIracles

Hello Everybody!!

I hope you all have had a great week and thank you for the letters, I really appreciate it.

This week was pretty good but it started off pretty slow during the day time. Our nights have been pretty busy though. The last couple of days we have been teaching 4-5 lessons each day which is really good since harvest is starting. Hopefully this week we will continue seeing miracles like that.

A miracle that happened on Saturday was that we finally got to talk to a family we have been trying to meet for 2 months. They have only lived in the US for about a year and they had grown up catholic. In mexico they had a business so they didnt have much time for studying the bible but when they got here, some more time was available for religion. She started to notice that what the bible said and the catholic church taught were not matching up and she stopped going. They had super good questions and it seems like they really want to learn about the gospel. We are going back over next saturday to teach them again. Unfortunately thats the only day we can catch the whole family. We are super excited to keep teaching them.

The language is coming along nicely. Gospel terms come to me in spanish before english now. It gets easier to learn new words and to pronounce them. I still struggle sometimes because I want to say something one way but I have to say a different way because I forgot the right words. With time everything gets better.

Sacrament meeting yesterday was really good. A youth that just got baptized a few weeks ago passed the sacrament for the first time. Then the bishopric talked about missionary work in the ward. They were definitely trying to light a fire under the members to start opening their mouths and finding people for us to teach. The bishop also extended some goals for the ward that are pretty bold. The ward baptismal goal for the year was 8 and we have 7 right now but he wants to double the goal to 16 for the year. Then he also challenged the ward to prepare 200 names for the temple and have it done by the end of the year. The last challenge was to read the book of mormon by the end of the year. I was really impressed with how bold those goals are and hopefully the ward will jump on board with it. Also our ward missionary leader asked him to introduce a calendar for the members to sign up to be available to go to lessons with us. Hopefully we will start seeing some more progress from this.

I just want to say that the Lords work is going forth and its amazing to be a part of it. I know that many blessings come from serving a mission and at the same time there are great blessings from helping the missionaries around you. I challenge all of you to look for opportunities to share the gospel with your friends and family. It will bless their lives as well as your own.

I know this church is true. I know that Joseph Smith was called to be the Prophet of the Restoration and that his successors are called of God as well. I know this because I know the Book of Mormon is true.

I hope that you all have a great week and always pray for missionary experiences and ways that you can find people for the missionaries to teach.

Elder Young

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Transfer Week!

Hello everybody!

Thanks everyone for the emails and letters.

This week was really good and it was transfer week. Our trio got split up, so we are back to 2 again. There are Hermanas in Umatilla now which is a bit different but its really good. My companion also got made the District leader, which just means that he helps the Spanish missionaries here to achieve their goals and gives them training.

On friday we had a really good day of teaching. We were busy pretty much from when we left the house until about 8:00 unfortunately the last hour was a bit of a bust. The next couple of days were rough though. We did do a role-play for general stake priesthood meeting to help out the ward mission leader and ward missionaries know what  good correlation meeting looks like. Hopefully it was able to give them some direction.

It's exciting to be a missionary but the time goes by soo fast! This week and month just seemed to fly by! The month is already half over and it feels like it just started. I suggest to anyone that is on the fence about going on a mission, GO. It will be the best thing you ever do. You learn so much in such a little time about everything. You learn how to work with others, to listen and study and most importantly how to recognize the spirit. It is an amazing opportunity to serve and focus on the Savior for 2 years.

I hope you all have a great week!

Elder Young

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