Disfrutar la mision

Hola familia!

It sounds like you're all having tons of fun! Tell Max and Scout and everyone that I say hi. It sounds like everyone is super busy. I guess that's just what happens when school's about to start. How does Cassidy think the band is gonna do this year? I can't believe you're actually selling the store. I've grown up with either Sports Outlet or Pedersen's. But change is okay. That's one of the main points of being a missionary.

Elder Charles is already leaving! He's going to be a zone leader up in Laredo. The rest of the district is staying the same though. Elder Charles has only had one companion for more than one transfer, but I guess that's because he has a lot of people to bless and a lot of work to do.

So we finally got some good rain this week. It was a nice break from the endless sun we've been having, but I don't think it's going to last more than a week or two. The only thing is the little family picture I had in my wallet got dead. The next time you send a letter, it'd be awesome if it had some laminated family photos in it. It's awesome showing a picture of you guys when talking about how the gospel blesses families and that families can be together forever.

My birthday happens to fall on P-day this year, so we'll probably buy some pizza or something to eat as a district. Plus, it's Mexican Independence Day, So I'm sure we'll be getting fed well that night. I really don't need anything from home. They've got all I could want right here. HEB (the Texan grocery store) even has Oh's cereal, which is awesome.

It's awesome that you're all putting so much thought and hard work into helping the missionaries. There's nothing more exciting for a missionary than a member who's excited about missionary work, except for like baptizing people. Did I mention we don't knock doors in this mission? Unless we find someone sitting outside, which doesn't happen too often in Texas heat, everyone we teach comes from member friends. We teach members a lot out of Preach My Gospel, different principles that we study all the time to help them have more confidence in their ability to spread the gospel. Maybe you could start doing family home evenings out of Preach My Gospel, since there's a ton to learn in there. Remember, if we have the faith to open our mouths, as long as we're continually treasuring up the words of the gospel, God will help us know what we need to say. God has chosen the weak things to overcome the strong, and the foolish to confound the wise.

There's a talk that they give all the new missionaries called "The Fourth Missionary." I wrote down who gave it but lost the paper; I think it was some mission president somewhere. (The talk was given by Lawrence E. Corbridge - here's the link: http://www.scribd.com/doc/34660140/The-Fourth-Missionary ). Hopefully you can find it. I've learned a ton from it, especially this week. It talks all about giving all of our heart, might, mind, and strength to God as we serve missions and what that really means. He says the only intelligent thing to do is to surrender our will, our every thought to God and only wanting to do what God wants us to do. Bringing our will in line with God's is the only way to "disfrutar la mision." Otherwise, we'll always be fighting within ourselves between what we want and what God asks, and even if we work hard in spite of that, we'll feel resentment and discomfort the whole time. He says this is the only way to grow and be changed during a mission. If we let Him, God will empower us, teach us, and shape us into someone so much better than we can become ourselves.

I love all of you guys sooooooo much and I pray for you each and every day. Always remember that we are children of God with more potential than we can imagine. Make every day an adventure!

~Elder Young

Ask, Seek and Knock

Hi family!

First of all, I'm really, really, realllllly sorry the letters aren't finished yet. There really is no time out in the mission field. They have progressed since last week, though. I'm going to stop guessing when they'll be done and just make them be a surprise. Don't be disappointed when they're not that long.

I finally got a hold of Rees over email, turns out he had been sending them to the wrong address. Thanks for all of the mission updates. It seems like everyone I know is headed out on missions!

Marching band sounds like it's gonna be crazy as ever. The show sounds sweet, and I'm so excited for Cassidy to be up front and center!

Man, the time flies. I can't believe school's almost starting back up again, or that Mitch and Eric are already heading out. It's awesome those old marching band palls were there for Mitch's talk! Did you tell them I miss them?

On one hand, it feels like I've been here forever, but on the other hand, it's almost been three months already. We always have to remember that every single day is a gift. We have to make sure to work hard and serve God every day, because time goes by so fast.

This week was kind of hard, but everything took off on Sunday. Our investigator Natzyelly and her less active husband finally made it to church; their goal is to be married in the temple, which is awesome. We got another investigator who has been coming to church with his member fiance, and he's super prepared to follow Christ. Miracles happen every day down here, and I know they happen up there as well. Always be on the lookout for those miracles and blessing you have in your lives. Write them down if you want so you can remember them when things get hard.

The importance of families is something we teach all the time down here. So many people have kids they are worried about or families they want to bring back together. Almost everyone recognizes that they could receive help if they had God in their lives, but the thing we need to get people to do is invite them to act. We have to put forth effort and make changes that might be hard if we want to receive more of God's blessings in our lives. Our missionary purpose isn't to teach people; it's to invitar a las personas a venir a Cristo, or invite others to come unto Christ. That's why we always leave people with a commitment or assignment, whether to read something, come to Church, or whatever they need to do.

One blessing that comes as we act is that we can receive more personal revelation. Preach My Gospel teaches that as we ask, seek, and knock, God will help us better recognize and understand the promptings of the Spirit. Asking means praying. We need to pray every day, even throughout the day, that God will help us to know what to do and say and guide us to people ready to hear. The best place to seek revelation is in the scriptures, by studying every day. Then we have to knock, or go and act on the promptings we do receive or even just think we receive, even if we don't know what's behind the door. I know as we do this, and as you do this, you will receive more and clearer revelation to help in any part of your lives.

I love you all soooo much! Keep on learning, keep on living, keep on laughing, and keep on loving!

-Elder Young

August 12, 2013

Dear Family,

Dang, I forgot you guys were going on an Alaskan cruise! I guess it's a good thing, though, since otherwise I would have been sad all week. It looks like it was super awesome! Was Spencer's "I hate fudge" as funny as "whales are dumb"? Did Spencer or Cassidy eat any of the fish they caught? I'm sure Spencer had fun with all of the cousins. The pictures are all super cute. There are a lot of families down here in the wards with super cute kids as well. Sorry I'm still so bad at taking pictures.

The good news is today we are not playing soccer. We might go bowling, or we might just hang out. Either way, I'm finally going to have time to write a letter home. I have one written already, but I want to have one for each of you four and send them all together. We're supposed to send a letter home every other week according to President Maluenda, so I guess form now on I'll just make really short ones if I have to.

This week has been another crazy one. There was a leadership conference Tuesday through Thursday that even trainers went to. Our district only had five of our twelve for most of every day. Three of us greenies took turns working one of our areas each day. Somehow, we avoided having to speak too much Spanish, and when we did, it was with members who talked really slowly for us.

There have been a couple big rainstorms, but we were inside during both of them. They do start really fast, pour for about an hour, and then stop. The canals probably fill up a lot during the storms. We actually bike along the side of them a lot when we need a shortcut. School does start pretty soon, I think. I did get the package, and we might make some waffles today. We hardly ever actually have to make our own food, though, since people feed us so much. The white shirts fit well, and my bike is covered with reflective tape. I'm definitely getting in better shape; Elder Charles bikes really fast.

During one of the rain storms we were in a zone conference. One of our zone leaders broke an egg on himself; it was hilarious. Both of them, Elder White and Elder Barrio Nuevo, are hilarious. One thing they talked about that I've been studying and thinking about a lot recently is love. Perfect love casteth out all fear. Even after a month out here, talking to random people on the street and even just contributing during lessons is pretty nerve wracking. But if I can figure out how to really love every single person that I see, then telling them about the gospel won't be hard at all. It's the same with talking to your friends about the Church. If you're telling them because you really, truly care about them, and they can see that, then the words will come easily and your invitations will be more likely to be accepted. I've begun digging into reading Jesus the Christ in order to better understand His life and the love he has for everyone. By strengthening your relationship with God, you'll be able to have stronger relationships with everyone.

One last thought is that God does not care where we are in life, or how steadfast or righteous we are. The only thing that matters is that we get a little bit better every day. Never stop learning. Always remember that every single trial, great or small, gives us experience and is for our benefit.

I wish I had some interesting stories, but it's just been another week as a missionary. I don't know if I mentioned we saw a house with a pet hawk. I'll bring my camera if we stop by again.

I love you all so much! Keep being awesome!!!
-Elder Young

Another Busy Week

Monday, August 5, 2013

I remembered pictures today! This one is from the last Sunday at the MTC:

And finally one of Elder Charles and me. I even cut my hair myself:

I've really tried to write some letters, but all of the Elders just want to play soccer all day on P-Days so I never get any time. I haven't gotten your letters or the shirts yet, but hopefully I will today. I'll still have a lot to talk about though, so don't worry.

The gear shifter on my bike snapped off the other day, but some members drove us down to Bike World and they replaced it for free since we bought it from them. So that was awesome. I'm doing well. The members are feeding us well, and I haven't gotten sick or had any injuries.

This week has been insanely busy because we got a couple mini missionaries. I don't know if they do that in Spokane, but the young men and women from 16 to 18 who live down here get to spend a week with the full time missionaries in other wards. We got Lico and Saul, and they were pretty awesome. It was stressful, though, because we divided our area in half and I took either Saul or Lico by myself every day. I had to plan and be in charge and not get lost and everything. It was only my third week and I had to be senior companion! It was really, really hard, but the only way to grow is to be stretched. I absolutely had to rely on the Spirit with everything we did.

The power of the priesthood is huge. God really has given His authority and the the responsibility to act in His name. I have given a couple blessings already (in Spanish), and I don't think I mentioned it, but my first Sunday here I confirmed a husband and wife that had been baptized just before I got here. They're awesome. We're hoping I'll get to do my first baptism sometime this month. I'm so grateful to have so many opportunities to bless others with the power of the priesthood, and I'm especially grateful to Dad for being a worthy priesthood holder all these years, leading our home and helping us grow up strong.

I think maybe a good missionary goal for back home would be just bringing people to Church. I say that because it's what we're struggling with right now with our investigators. We can invite them and remind them and make sure they'll have a ride, but it's so much more effective when friends and families bring people to Church. So I guess we can all work on getting people to Church this week.

A conference talk that has really helped me out this week is Elder Holland's "Lord, I Believe." Nobody in the Church has a perfect knowledge of everything, and everyone is going to go through difficulties, disappointments, and sorrows. But if we rely on and are true to the faith we do have, even if it's no more than a desire to believe, then we know that all things are possible, and if we endure, our knowledge will only increase. It comes step by step, little by little, but as long as we're progressing, that's what's important. We have to have patience with ourselves and with everyone, because we all have shortcomings. The Lord knew we would all have shortcomings, but he also knew we could overcome them, if we rely on Him.

I love all of you and I'm praying for you every day. Keep working hard and don't let you weaknesses or worries hold you back. The Church is true!

Con mucho amor,

Elder Young