Transfer Calls and Branch Christmas Party

Hello everybody!!

Thank you everyone that wrote this week. I really appreciate it.

So we got transfer calls last night. I will be staying Elder Smith will be going up north a little farther. My new companion's name is Elder Bergquist. He started his mission when I went to Hermiston, he was there as well. Our zone is getting a little more shaken up this transfer but thats alright.

This week we also had our Christmas zone conference which was really fun. We listened to some musical numbers and some talks from President and sister ware and the Assistants. We also got to watch Monsters University as a mission. It was a pretty funny movie and it was good to relax a little bit.

So to the spiritual side of this week. We didn't teach a lot of investigators this week but we did have some success working with some of the Less-actives. A couple of them came to the branch activity as well as church on sunday. Also a former investigator showed up to church with 4 of her children. We were shocked and amazed and they stayed for the whole time. Hopefully we will be able to start teaching them again.

The branch christmas activity went pretty well. We invited an investigator a couple hours before it started and she showed up with a couple of her kids (different family). We also had another investigator there that moved from the sister's area to our area and he has a baptismal date. He has a couple problems so hopefully he will make the date.

I just want to say how grateful I am for the Atonement of Christ. It encompasses so much that it is difficult to comprehend but I know that because of his sacrifice that we will all be able to return to live with our heavenly father together as a family, we just have to accept his help. We can't rely on our own strength but rather the strength of the Savior. Something that has been going around in my mind for a while is in the Book of Mormon, it talk a lot about remembering the captivity of our fathers. Something interesting that hit me was that it was talking about more than just physical captivity but spiritual as well. I love to think about Christ breaking us out of spiritual captivity in the ways that Alma and his people were freed, how Moroni freed the prisoners and countless other ways found in the Book of Mormon. Sometimes we are removed from situations and other times we are given weapons and tools to fight sin and temptation in our lives. The Atonement is one of the greatest things available to us to be relieved of the burdens and weight of sin. I love my Savior and so grateful for what he has done for each one of us.

Hope you all have a great week!

Elder Young