Diligence, Obedience and Love


Hola familia!

The Holidays are definitely around the corner. I think I have enough Christmas CD's, but if you have more cool ones I'd love to have them. I'm sure Spencer's piano recital will be super awesome! And I bet you and dad will have fun planning the Christmas party - I'm sure it will be great too. Is Dad going to be Santa Claus then?

Yeah, I remember the Riley's. I bet the Spirit was super strong as you sang. Our district has already sang at a few funerals, usually for people who aren't members but have a daughter or son who is. The Spirit has always been so strong as we sing and the members bear their testimonies of the plan of salvation.

I can just imagine how awesome The Spirit of God sounded live with the Spirit so strong and everything. Those youth conferences were a lot of fun. Was there a dance too? Did Cassidy like it?

Well, this transfer is coming to a close again. Our district all became super tight, and it kinda hurts to see us getting split apart now. We named ourselves "the UNiT," came up with like a hand signal and even made T-shirts. We'll get a picture of us all wearing them today to send next week. But yeah, we found out transfers yesterday. One of our Sisters is going to Corpus and one of our Elders is leaving for Hidalgo. My companion is leaving too, to be a zone leader in Edinburgh. 
Our District - "The UNiT"


So that means I'll be staying here another transfer, which is cool since I'll get to be here for Thanksgiving and Christmas where I already know the members. It's crazy though since I also found out I'm going to be training!!! AAAAH. I'm getting a greenie. A verdecito. I'm gonna be a dad. I've been kind of freaking out since I found out. I just need to remember that no matter what happens everything is going to be okay. This is the Lord's work and he will not allow us to mess it up. As long as we do all we can, try our best and have faith, He not only will make up our difference but shape us and build us into the missionaries and the people that he knows we can be. It all depends on the three basic principles of missionary work: diligence, obedience, and love. Meeting these things is really how we see miracles as missionaries. And everywhere else in life.

The work keeps rolling onward and it's a wonderful opportunity to be a part of it. I love the Lord and I love you all sooooo much!

~Elder Young

TIE HAMMOCK
We made it out of ugly old ties while I was staying with the other Elders last week.


Miracles Are Everywhere!

Dear family,

That's super awesome that Lexi got baptized! I bet the whole ward was just super excited and the Spirit was so strong.

It's good that your tooth is feeling all better mom. I'll try to remember to take care of things before they get too bad. I think that's something that missionaries just have trouble with in general. I know our Mission President's wife has talked about it a couple times, and one of the Assistants to the President had an ingrown toenail a while ago that he ignored for way too long.

I still don't believe you're actually moving. Something is bound to come up and stop it. I don't know what, but until I see the house with my own eyes I'm not going to believe it. It will be awesome for Spence to be right by Ronnie and Nathan and Olivia. It'll be a lot of fun for everyone.

That's cool that Sister Roderick (a friend from BYU) and Sister Webster (a friend from home) are companions in the Philippines. I did hear about the typhoon, but not until Sunday at Church. Man, it did a lot of damage. We'll definitely be praying for all of them, and it sounds like the Lord has a lot of work for the missionaries there to get done.

You asked if I used the sewing skills that you taught me to fix my companion's pants. 
They were beyond either of our abilities to fix. 

Thankfully, one of the Sister Missionaries volunteered to fix them. The Sisters are the boss. Which reminds me of a rap song some Sister Missionaries recorded called "The Sisters are the Boss." There was a member that wrote it and recorded them. It's awesome.

I think I remember dad's story about when his companion ripped his pants. I feel like he has a lot of stories about people getting hit by cars on his mission. Is that just a common thing in Brazil or what?

We got completely destroyed by mosquitoes the other day. We sat outside for almost an hour for a lesson, and afterward my arm looked like extra-large bubble wrap. I had mosquito bites on top of mosquito bites. We do have bug spray, we just didn't think we'd need it that day.

This week was crazy since there was a three day leadership conference in McAllen. I spent most of the week up in another area in our district. Thankfully they have a car, so it was a nice little break from biking. The biggest thing we're focusing on now from the training is talking to every single person we see. Even if we're in a rush and all we can do is leave a pass along card. When we make plans, we are telling God where we're going to be and when. He'll do His part to lead people to us who are ready to receive the gospel. All we have to do is open our mouths.

We saw this happen last night after church. We told God in prayer who we were going to visit, then set out in the dark. When we got to the house we remembered they were having a Quincenera that night, so we kept biking. We stopped to talk to some people who were heading out, and they randomly pointed us at a house across the street. We went and knocked and ended up finding some former investigators from about 15 years ago. They really loved their missionaries and even still had Books of Mormon, in English and Spanish. It was awesome!

Another thing: We decided to do a district fast yesterday, because that's another thing they taught at the Leadership training was to fast more often. (They tell us to still drink water when we're fasting, so don't worry. Between water and Excedrin I do just fine.) That Sunday, three people showed up to Church who had been a lot in the past either with family or friends. Miracles are everywhere!

Well, I'm all out of time. I did lose the original white deedee at Osh Kosh B'Gosh, but I had two extra ones that eventually filled the whole in my heart. I don't know where either might be, though.

I love you all so much!!! Just keep spreading the gospel every way you can!

~Elder Young

Another Great Week


Querida Familia!
Man, time just keeps flying by back home. Were you super excited to get that text? (Halloween night, we received an anonymous text with a photo of Dylan, his companion and their amazing Jack-O-Lantern.) We carved the pumpkin with the symbols of the four elements from Avatar, since we decided that best described our companionship. 




On Halloween the missionaries weren't allowed out past 6, so a couple from our ward invited all 12 of us over for a barbecue and to carve pumpkins. They had all kinds of cute Halloween treats. They do this every year since all their kids have grown up and left. They're super cool.

I'm excited for those scriptures! (We just sent Dylan the new 2013 mini-quad so he can fit a little more in his backpack.) I think I figured out what I want for the next package you send, too. My companion convinced me I should have Pupilodicus and my white deedee here because he's had his big Cowboys blanket since he was like 2.
Pupilodicus (Dylan's favorite stuffed animal since he was born.)

Yesterday we had some representatives from the stake come talk to us about family history. Using family history to find new people has been something that not a lot of missionaries really know how to do. It sounds like the stake is going to be ordering some genealogy pass along cards, and has some training videos we can watch to get the ball rolling there. It'll be great putting that pedigree chart to use!

Missionary work is definitely a lot of work, but that's really what it takes. Some of the Christlike attributes the Preach My Gospel talks about are diligence, patience, and hope. We just have to keep working through whatever comes our way, patiently believing that as long as we do all we can do, the blessings will come according to the Lord's time.

On Saturday we helped unload a truck full of clothing bundles for the distribution center here. We're all still sore. But while we were there a member told us a crazy story about his mission. He served in New Zealand and knocked on the door of an old man, like 90 years old. They started talking (in the native language) about genealogy and stuff. Somehow, Hagoth got mentioned and the guy said, "He's my ancestor." He went over to a back room he had with family history records stacked floor to ceiling. He could trace his family all the way back to Hagoth, then all the way to Lehi in Jerusalem. President Hinckley happened to be in New Zealand at the time, so the next day he went and visited the man while the missionary translated for him. They invited him to be baptized, taught all the discussions, and he was baptized and confirmed that weekend. The very next day, the man passed away. He had so many records, though, that Church headquarters is only 1/4 of the way through from when it started in the 60s. The story just blew my mind and made everything so real. The Book of Mormon isn't just an inspired book of scripture, it's all completely real, the stories and the people, and everything they wrote was for us in this day. It's so awesome.

Also, we had a baptism this Monday!!! They are two daughters of a less active member. Out of the blue they decided they wanted to start coming to church and be baptized. Their active uncle baptized them. The baptism was crazy. For some reason, our ward hardly has any baptismal suits and we couldn't find anything that fit one of them very well. After about an hour of thinking of solutions, they found a pair of pants in the stall. All she said when she put them on and came out was, "The Devil lost." The baptism was amazing, though. A lot of people were getting emotional, their mom and less active uncles and aunts were there, plus their dad made it just before they got baptized. Everything went perfectly.

I'm definitely out of time but I love you all so much!!!!!
Elder Young