Elder Kent Richards

Hello everybody!

Hope you all had a great week!

Sorry about not emailing yesterday, our p-day got switched to today because we were visited by Elder Richards from the 70. It was an awesome time to be able to talk with him and get some training about what we need to do better as missionaries. He talked a lot about having true faith and that means that we act on that faith. He also taught us a lot about teaching truth simply instead of using analogies to teach a  principle. That hit all of us pretty hard because we all do it and we don't realize that it distracts them instead of helping them.

So last night when we got back into moses lake, we decided to put it to the test. We visited a couple of less actives and instead of just asking how their reading went, we listened and taught simply and they understood a lot better and also opened up to us as well. I know that instruction from Elder Richards was exactly what I needed to become a more effective missionary.

The work is going well here in the Moses Lake 9th branch. There are a few people ondate in our district which is awesome because we set a goal of 10 baptisms as a Zone for December. We have been working a lot with the less actives in the Branch to help them get reactivated again. We have been finding a couple of new investigators each week which also helps keep us busy. Hopefully as we apply the principles that we learned from Elder Richards that they will progress towards baptism.

I just want to say again that I know the church is true. Miracles happen everyday and thats because this is the Lords work and he is directing. It is just our decision to work with his will or against. I can testify that if we seek his will and ask his help to know what to do, he will guide us where we need to go, and what we need to say. I know the Book of Mormon is true and because its true we have a prophet on the Earth and he leads and guides us today. If we do the things that he asks of us then we won't go wrong

Have another great one everyone!

Elder Young

Moses Lake

Hey everybody

This week was pretty good. It took a long time to get from hermiston to moses lake on transfer day. We left at 12 and then had a meeting in kennewick for an hour and then went to yakima for about an hour and then quince and then to mose lake and each time we had to move our bags from trailer to trailer. It was pretty fun getting to know more missionaries. So on the way from quince to moses lake our zone leaders got a phone call from the assistants telling them who the new district leaders were and I got chosen. Our district is our companionship and 2 sets of sister missionaries. I'm a sistrict leader or relief society president, however you want to call it. We all attend the same branch as well.

Church was really interesting. It was about half english and half spanish which was really weird but it was nice not having to translate. The branch president is really excited about the work and is really supportive of the members doing member missionary work. It will be really awesome to be able to work with them some more.

Today was the first day that we have really seen any sun since I got here and we have spent most of the time inside. We went to a gymnastics gym and played around there for a couple of hours which was really fun but now I'm really sore and will be even more tomorrow. We live in an apartment with another set of Elders so we have to do our laundry at a laundromat which just brings back memories of living in Lawrence in the tiny apartments.

I like my area so far. I'm still unsure of which way is north so that makes it hard for me to know where anything is. There is a lot of work to do here, we just need to find it. We have a few investigators and hopefully we will be able to find more and the ward will find some as well. I'm sure I will have more to say as we go through this week.

Hope you all have a great week!

Elder Young

Transfer calls and miracles

Hello everyone!

I hope you all have had a great week and have seen many miracles.

This week we got transfer calls. I'm going to moses lake 9th spanish and my companion will be Elder Smith. I don't know a whole lot about the area but I'm excited. Elder Doman will be training a new missionary too which is pretty cool. He will do a good job, he's just a little nervous but that's understandable.

This week was really good we taught a bunch of lessons and found a couple of new investigators. We knocked on a door this week and we ended up having about an hour lesson on the doorstep with a couple of guys that don't really go to any church but still have a really good knowledge of the bible. Hopefully we can help them truly accept the gospel in their lives so they can feel the blessings of it. Also someone that we are teaching that we had a really good lesson with last night is named Lupe. We taught her the restoration and watch the video as well. When we introduced the Book of Mormon to her, she asked if we had a copy for her and when we said that it was her's, she got all excited. She also told us about when she first came to America, she had a teacher that is from the Church that really helped to learn english. The power of someone's example is amazing and should never be underestimated. It's amazing to see the Lord preparing people to receive the gospel and to be a part of it.

Something on a less spiritual note. We have had a little mouse running around our house for the last couple of weeks so last monday we set up a trap to get rid of it. We filled up a bucket of water and made a ramp and a shakey bridge as the trigger. When we got back from playing basketball on p-day,  we had a drowned mouse in the bucket. We were super surprised that it worked and we haven't had a problem since.

Hope you have a great week again and go out and look for opportunities to share the gospel.

Elder Young

Elder Ballard, Elder Maynes and Elder Risenmay

Hello everyone!

Thanks for the letters and the emails again. They are always appreciated.

This week was awesome! We had a couple of slow days but that's ok, it happens every now and then. We had some miracles happen again as we were visiting with a part-member family this week. They opened up to us about some struggles they have been going through and then they committed to come to church and they actually did. We had one of his member co-workers come to church with him to fellowship him.

Now the big highlight for the week was on saturday when Elder Ballard, Elder Maynes and Elder Risenmay came and talked to all of the missionaries in the Washington Kennewick Mission. They talked a lot about working hard and setting goals to help push us. It was really cool to shake their hands and to listen to the things they felt inspired to tell us. Afterwards we took a big group photo and then headed to another stake center to have lunch. It was a lot of fun to see a bunch of old companions again and other people from my MTC district.

I just want to say how grateful I am for the gospel. It gives so much direction and comfort to know where the straight and narrow path is and to know that Christ always has his hand extended when we fall off. The Atonement and repentance are wonderful things that allow us to fix things from the past and gives us strength and determination to do whats right despite difficult times. The Book of Mormon is true, there is no doubt in my mind that it is true and because I know its true then we have the true church and a prophet is leading and guiding it today.

I hope that you all have a great week and go out and talk to someone you could share the gospel with!

Elder Young

Miracles

Hello everyone!

I hope that everyone has had as good a week as I had. Thank you for the letters and support. I'm always grateful to hear how things are going.

This week has been really good. Full of Miracles! So a couple of saturday's ago we got a call from someone asking if we would be able to come over. At first I was really confused because I thought that I didn't know the person or where they lived. We had an idea of where it was because he told us the street and the number for his trailer. The thing was that there are 2 trailer parks on that street and we went to the wrong one at first. We ended up calling him again and then we figured out which one it was. It turns out he was someone we had talked to before and he wanted to start changing his life around since his marriage is going through a rough patch. We had felt impressed to give him a blessing because he had been sick for the last few days and then we left. We came back that saturday again and he was all better and excited to listen. We taught him the Gospel of Jesus Christ and when we got to the picture of Christ being baptized, he said he wanted to do that. Long story short, we put him on date and then he also came to church with 3 out of 4 of his kids. Also yesterday we had a little extra time to knock a few doors and the second house that we went to, told us that their son had been wanting to go to our church, they just didn't know anyone so they wouldn't go. She told us that they would come to church on sunday and we are really hoping and praying that they do. The Lord is hastening his work and it's amazing to be a part of it!

 Right now our mission is doing a "40 day fast" to sanctify ourselves to be more in-tune with the spirit. So what we did is we started it off with a normal fast and at the end of that we write down things that come to mind that may be distractions or things we would like to work on and then you pray for the strength to work on those things in the morning and report it to heavenly father at night. I feel like it will benefit the mission and myself a lot as we turn over all of our "weapons of rebellion" and allow the savior to hasten the work. Sometimes there are things we don't realize that keep the spirit from being really strong with us and it takes some effort to get rid of them.

We are trying to work with the members more. We have been meeting with more than just the people in the Hermiston ward to find more referrals. We actually had a dinner with a few people at a members house. There was a couple part member families there and we actually got a return appointment with one of them. She is an old investigator but when she sat down to eat, she asked why we hadn't been by. I guess that showed she still wants to learn some more which will be good.

I just want to say to all those that are on the fence about serving a mission. It will be the best thing you ever do. You will learn so much about everything, about yourself, how to work with others, sometimes a new language and so much more. And best of all you get to help others have the same happiness and joy that you get from living the gospel. You will not regret serving a mission. Also to those that may not be able to serve right now, help the missionaries in anyway you can. When they ask you to think of someone and that name comes to your head, just say it. There is a reason that name popped in you mind.

Go out and share the gospel in anyway you can and you will be blessed.

Elder Young

Very fast week

Hello Everybody!

Thanks for the letters and emails for those that sent some. I would love to hear from the rest of you as well.

This week was pretty good. We are starting to stop tracting now. We felt that it was super important that we start working with the members more despite the challenges. We actually saw miracles happen. We were able to exceed a lot of our goals and had some really good lessons. We also met with a few members of other wards to get them thinking about people they can share they gospel with that speak spanish. Hopefully in time we will have more work than we can handle.

So this past week I have been studying about the articles of faith since Elder Perry talked about them and it has been really cool to see the scriptures behind our beliefs and then at the same time feel the spirit confirming the truthfulness of it. It has helped this week as people bring up concerns and it ends up what I had been studying about that morning or the day before. I'm only about halfway done with the 3rd one but I still love studying them. As I have been studying the Atonement, it has given me a deeper appreciation for the Savior. I know that he suffered for more than just our sins but for our afflictions, sicknesses, pains, sorrows, everything so that he would know exactly how we feel and how to best help us overcome them. The Atonement more than just a passive thing, it allows us to overcome trials and tribulations and overcome the natural man.

This week went by so fast that it feels like it was yesterday that I was writing a letter. Something interesting that we ran into this week was as we were knocking on a couple of doors trying some potential investigators, we came across a very less active spanish member. At first he wasn't very warm to us but after a few questions we couldn't get him to stop talking. He had left the church because he got offended (don't ever throw away your salvation because someone made a silly comment) and then he told us that he baptizes himself every time he takes a shower or a bath (not sure how that works). We were super confused by that and how someone could fall so far away. It's like what our mission president has told us. Don't open the door a crack for satan because he will fill it and open it wide.

Remember everyone that the Lord takes care your family when you take care of someone else's. Try to share the gospel with everyone you come in contact with and you will be blessed for it. Oh and help the missionaries serving in your ward. They will really appreciate it!

Hope you all have a great week!

Elder Young

GENERAL CONFERENCE

Hello everybody!

Thank you for the letters and emails this week. I really appreciate being able to see how things are going on outside of the mission.

This week was kind of slow but we still worked hard. They are really suggesting that we work with members more to move the work forward faster. We kind of have a unique situation here since we only have 2 or 3 active spanish members and almost no leadership. We have talked with a few members (english and spanish) to see what we can do to help the group get reactivated and have a more concerted effort with the stake. Our group covers all of Hermiston and Umatilla so we need help from the other wards to find the hispanics in other parts of the city. We have a plan to get started and hopefully we will see some results as we put it into action.

Conference was amazing this weekend! We watched most of the sessions at the church but we did watch one at an investigators house. He said he felt like it answered some questions and that he needed to study the scriptures more (saturday afternoon session). I was impressed at how much they talked specifically about member missionary work. Right now I'm wishing I would have helped the missionaries out more at home because now I know what it feels like to be out here. The nature of missionary work is changing. The members have to get more involved and we have to help them get more involved. I also loved how they would take simple things like a couple of the 10 commandments and go deeper with it and apply it to the work. We are living in scary times but we have the hope of the gospel to lead and guide us.

The language is coming along still. It gets easier to learn, speak, listen and read every day. The gift of tongues is real. There is no way that I could have learned a new language this fast on my own. The Lord blesses his missionaries everyday.

I just want to say that I love being a missionary. It's true that there are hard times and people have their agency to accept or reject the message of the gospel but I still love them anyway. I have definitely learned that there are good things in everyone and the gospel can bring it out of them. I know that the people in the church are not perfect but that doesn't mean that the gospel isn't. We can't allow ourselves to choose to reject the Savior because of the silly mistakes of others. I have seen too many people throw away the blessings of regular church attendance because of an offense. I know this is the true church. God's kingdom is on the Earth again and we are a part of it. We (each one of us) should be on the front lines trying to build it up where we stand. Its like what Elder Uchtdorf has said "Lift where you stand."

I hope that you all have a great week and that you see the Lord's hand in your life.

Elder Young