Do Everything You Can To Love The Lord

Hola familia,

I'm going to start off with the answers to all those questions:

Where do you go to use the computer?

We use the computers at the South Texas College mid-vally campus, which is in my area.

Do you talk with both ward mission leaders all of the time?

Yeah, we have two coordination meetings each week, one for each ward, with all 12 missionaries in the ward, the ward mission leaders, and often a member of the bishopric and/or some auxiliary leaders.

Where do you go to do your laundry?

We have a washer and dryer in our apartment, which is super convenient.

How is your morning study time set up?

During personal study, we try to study according to our investigators' needs. I usually read a chapter from the Book of Mormon and then go into Preach My Gospel to really dig into specific topics, whether it's from the lessons or stuff to help us teach better. I'm also slowly but surely reading through Jesus the Christ, which is super cool. I've learned that the more you understand about Christ and His life, the more you can appreciate all He did for us and the more love you'll have for Him, which leads to becoming more like Him as well as having more love for the people all around us.

What is your typical schedule on any given day?

Every morning we get up at 6:30 am and work for a half hour. We eat breakfast and shower and everything and begin personal study at 8. At 9 the companionship study begins, where we go over lesson plans and stuff, and then it's spanish study at 10, lunch at 11, and then we head out to work until 9 or 9:30 pm. A lot of days have some kind of meeting or something to break it up, either in the morning or in the afternoon, like coordination or district meeting.

Also, each companionship does get the Ensign every month, but last month we only got the Liahona so maybe it would be good for you to send one.

Whew. Well, this Tuesday was crazy. We got a call right after studies started and we were told that the whole McAllen zone had to go down to the mission office because we were having interviews with President Maluenda. Yikes! We were all freaking out but also all super excited. President Maluenda is just super inspired. We got in and said a prayer, he asked como estaba yo, and then kind of looked up and behind me for a few seconds before shooting me with super deep, personal questions. My companion described his almost like there was an angel standing behind him with cue cards. It got me super pumped up though.

Someone's phone just went off and the ringtone was the jazzy version of "Still Alive" from Portal. I just thought I should say something about it before I forget.

It sounds like you've all been busy like always. How does Cassidy feel with marching band being over for good? Did they do hackfest, and did she remember how to conduct the Sparticus show?

What's Dad gonna do without the store to run? Just play with Spencer all day?

We had the Spanish ward Halloween party this past week. The Sisters made the Elders little cards that said "Hermana" ("Sister") on them for us to tape to our plaques. They also gave us bows. It was silly. But there were two members just in our area that brought friends that we met, so it was super cool.

Man it's super cool we're gonna have a baptism in good old Spokane!!! I'm super excited for her. What you have to do now is use this to get the fire going. The most important thing that determines how much missionary work gets done in a ward is how excited the members are about sharing the gospel. Everyone's gotta get involved, but definitely it starts with the leaders, which is why all the work you're doing in the stake, Mom, is so awesome. And it's awesome that Kenna wants to come to church!!!! I'll be praying for all of you and everyone in Spokane to find and seize missionary opportunities everywhere they go.

That's about it. I love you all so much!!!!!!! Just keep doing everything you can to love the Lord!

~Elder Young

Another Crazy Week in Texas

October 21, 2013

Querida Familia,

It's been another crazy week here in Texas! I can't believe marching season is almost done. There's a pretty big football stadium in our area for the Weslaco and Weslaco East high schools. Not near as awesome as Joe Albi, but you can't really have basements here plus there aren't any hills, so it couldn't be built into the ground like that. Also, the mascots are the panthers and wildcats, so that's kind of weird.

It is cooling down a little bit, so I don't mind as much when we ask people for a glass of water and they give us a Coke instead. We still make sure to drink plenty of water though. It's weird because tons and tons of birds have starting to come south for the winter, which means they're all coming here. The telephone poles are just covered in birds, all super loud and making weird Mexican-jungley noises. The butterflies are back too, so many you sometimes can't avoid smashing into some on the bikes.

Yeah, I got the Halloween package. The card was super funny, too. And the candy was only a little bit melted. I think our wards are gonna have a trunk-or-treat this week, which is cool. And it turns out the Zone leaders will be doing an exchange with us on Halloween, so I have no idea what that will be like. Whenever people ask if we get to dress up, we just say that a missionary is already the scariest thing you could see out on the street. I wonder how many people will know who Rosie Cotton is. Does the new Hobbit movie look super mega awesome? Also I saw a Sonic the Hedgehog costume at Walmart and realized what I had been missing my whole life. Too bad they didn't have one in my size.

I definitely wasn't expecting to see a .gif in the email. I made sure to send it to all my other missionary friends.

There was just a lot of food this week. I didn't throw up in my mouth again, even though I almost did when a member took all the missionaries in the ward to Golden Coral. I just didn't want to stop eating, you know? Also, we made a huge breakfast for district bonding. Here's a picture of one of the huge piles of waffles. We threw just about everything in the batter: raspberries, blueberries, strawberries, even an entire banana. It was fun.

So yesterday was super crazy. The other missionaries were baptizing 5 people, 4 brothers and sisters plus their cousin, all kids of less active members. One of their moms was too sick to make it to Church, but she and the rest of her family wanted to make it to the baptism. We had a member drive over to pick them up, but she couldn't find them at home. They tried a bunch of their other relatives and friends and finally found them. Then, while they were speeding back down to the church, we got a call saying "Hay policia, oren por nosotros." They got pulled over and the policeman was threatening to deport them! Thankfully he calmed down, gave them a ticket and let them go. Everyone got baptized and it was awesome!

I'm out of time, but I love you all so much!

Elder Young

We have to be meek and humble in order to learn & improve

Monday, October 14, 2013

It's been another great week here in Texas! It still feels crazy hot outside every day, but it has probably cooled down some since I first got here. We had a bunch of transfers this week but my companion and I are still here. Now we have lots of new missionaries. They're all super cool. We already might have too much district unity for our own good, but we get work done for sure.

So my companion's pedal fell off on Thursday, and we still haven't gotten around to fixing it. He had to go one pedal for a while until we got back to the apartment. We've just managed to get rides everywhere we need to go between then and now. Hopefully we'll take care of that today or tomorrow. 

Last Monday the conference talks weren't available for print yet, but now I'll print some out to study for sure. I think my favorite talk though was President Uchtdorf's from the priesthood session. The Sister missionaries hid in the mother's lounge during the priesthood session and listened to the whole thing, so it's probably okay for Mom and Cass to listen to it too.

It sounds like you all had another awesome trip! With the zoo and the show and everything. I'm sure Cass had a great time too. I can't believe she's already sending in her BYU application! I'm sure she'll get right in to New Heritage. That'll be super cool, she's gonna have a blast.

We had a baptism on Sunday! Her mom and a bunch of her siblings were baptized months ago. She's been taught a bunch and been to Church a few times, then suddenly out of the blue decided to be baptized. Even though she felt pretty sick, she still came and it was super cool. 

Here's a picture of our last district meeting before transfers. 

And this one one is a picture that's been in our relief society room for a long time. It cracks me up every time. Here's a hint: one of those words is not like the others.

 

I've learned so much on my mission so far. Even though it is insanely hard a lot of the time, it wouldn't be worth it if it wasn't. We have to be meek and humble in order to learn and improve. Just like that poem you sent me in my greenie package, through storms and wind and rain, in both trees and men, good timber grows. And to quote Batman's dad, "Why do we fall, Bruce? So we can get back up again." I know the Atonement is real and that it's only through faith in Christ and His power and sacrifice that we can become the people we are meant to be.

Another thing I learned is that you should always get Little Caesar's pizza with crazy crust. It's life changing. 

I guess to close, each of you really is as awesome as I said in those letters. Even better, actually. I can't thank you all enough for how much you've all helped me in life. I love you all sooooooooo much!!!!!

Elder Young

Subtle, Tender Mercies of the Lord

Hola familia!

I loooooooooooooooove you all!!! Man, general conference was super awesome. The spirit was so strong and I learned so much. I'm definitely going to be printing out a bunch of the talks and studying them like crazy the next, I don't know, 6 months. It was all so good and mind blowing I don't even know what to share. Next week I'll have picked some of it apart and be able to share more. One thing though that really hit me during Elder Bednar's talk (I'm not sure if he actually said it or not) is that we should pray to be able to recognize the subtle, tender mercies of the Lord, pray to be more grateful in life. As we do this, the worries and stresses of life will fall into the background as we have the Spirit reminding us of how good life is.

It's awesome that you've managed to have such a great missionary opportunity! For sure, after missionaries bring people to the Church, it's the responsibility of the members to make sure they're cared for and "nourished by the good word of God." That's why it's so important that we magnify our callings as home and visiting teachers, so we can bless people's lives and help them feel the Spirit, the love and priesthood power of God in their lives.

It's great Dad had fun in Maine. I was wondering what he'd be doing with all his time now. And I'm sure Cassidy had fun at Calvacade. I can't believe I'm gonna have new cousins when I get home! Spencer will definitely take good care of them. I learned this weekend that Elder Stirling in our district is actually like 2nd cousins with Lindsey Stirling, the violinist that dances around on YouTube. Also, my old roommate Andrew is in a ward at BYU with Hannah Ferris. It's a small world for sure!

Transfers are this week, but Elder Bellavance and I are both staying for at least one more. He's convinced that after this he's going to be leaving and I'll be district leader as well as training. Yikes! We'll see what happens.

I'm super jealous of Rees eating French Toast Crunch in Canada, though why he'd ruin it with sausage I have no idea. It's okay, because I've discovered the joy of Good Morenings Waffle Crunch.

So we're trying to teach a family where the mom works all the time, but never knows her schedule, and she doesn't have a phone. So, using a gift card some members gave to the missionaries, I got some walkie talkies that hopefully I'll be able to put into good use throughout the mission since so many seem to not have phones.

Here's a story. It's kinda gross, but worth sharing. The other day was the last district meeting of the transfer, so we all went out to Texas Roadhouse for lunch at like 3:00. Later that night we went to a member's to eat, and I was already stuffed. We had a whole bunch of fish (which I kind of actually liked) plus beans and rice and these super thick tortilla things. We were running late and I was devouring the fruit salad dessert before the closing prayer when suddenly... I threw up in my mouth. I guess my stomach had had enough. Nobody noticed but my companion, who just looked over and saw my cheeks full. I had no idea what to do, though. I panicked a little bit. During the closing prayer, I decided I couldn't go spit it out... so I started swallowing it back down. Elder Bellavance was watching me the whole prayer, and he couldn't believe what he was seeing. I got it all down right when the prayer ended. We left right away since neither of us could hold in our laughter: laughter from relief, disbelief, and shock. The next day we got fed three dinners, but it didn't even phase me; I could handle anything after that. Well, at least until Thanksgiving...

I think that's it. I love you all a ton! Keep on praying and relying on the Lord!

Elder Young