I Will Go and Do: January 2014

Mission log 1.27.14

Dylan has started a Mission Log that many of you probably receive but I decided that I'll post his logs plus excerpts from his letters to us too.

Mission log 1.27.14:

This was a fairly normal week. What I love about Texas is that every single member you visit will give you food. What I hate about Texas is that every single member you visit will give you food. Some of it's really good, like chorizo con huevo (sausage and eggs with tortillas). Some of it not so much, like menudo (cow intestine soup). But we get by.

I love how for the fifteen minutes we were biking home Thursday night, it was pouring rain. Only those fifteen minutes. When I took off my backpack to look for my sweater (only to realize it wasn't there,) I could feel my back get completely drenched in three seconds flat.

We took a 17 year old out with us to help with a lesson we had planned. It went really well, he has a super strong testimony in the power of baptism and the changes it can bring to the home. As we were leaving, he told us that he recognized their teenage daughter. She's had a crush on him since 1st grade. Flirt to convert!

The mission is wonderful though. It really helps us see everything in such a bigger perspective, especially our own lives. We're out here to serve the Lord with all our "heart, might, mind and strength." These 2 years (or 18 months) are for us to give all our will to the Lord. Every day we should look for things we can give up, or things we can change, in order to become more like Christ. Because when we give everything to the Lord, He can in turn shape us into the people He knows we can be. And if we let Christ help us to reach our full potential, that's when we'll find true joy and happiness knowing we've done and become all we were meant to.

Les quiero mucho!!! <3

Agent Elder Young, over and out.

Love those Texas downpours!

Hola Familia!

The lds.org Bible videos are awesome, they really bring the scriptures to life. You can send as many copies as you want. We've been using the mormon messages and the mensajes mormones a ton, and we've started to get a lot more referrals from members. All it takes is to feel the Spirit and people will realize how much they want to share the Spirit with others.

The Parable of the Talents is a great Family Home Evening lesson. Actually, just this morning I was studying my patriarchal blessing and thinking about talents. Part of it was I left my backpack in a member's car and didn't have my scriptures, but I also like to go through my patriarchal blessing once every week or two. It's super powerful and just helps me find more motivation and spiritual strength. I think I have found some of my missionary talents like maybe organization and knowing scripture references. What I've learned even more, though, is that we need to "seek ye earnestly the best gifts." The Lord wants us to pray and ask and strive to develop not only the talents we have but those we need. "And if men come unto me I will show unto them their ^aweakness. I ^bgive unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my ^cgrace is sufficient for all men that ^dhumble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make ^eweak things become strong unto them."

It's great to hear that you have some investigators in your ward! Man, if someone down here wanted to go pull a handcart for three days without being a member of the Church... well we probably would have baptized them by now. Nah, actually we have started finding more people who really put forth the effort to investigate. Including a golden family that are friends of some members who have been coming for weeks, and they're cool with us, but I guess kind of afraid of actually having the lessons. Pretty soon. Well, after all, like you said that Elder Oaks said, no one should get baptized without first receiving a spiritual confirmation that this church is true. I guess maybe the Mexican heritage is just super spiritual or something.

In other news, we had a baptism! Kinda. The family moved a couple weeks ago to the other side of the street which is our border. But we taught mostly everything, while the Sisters gave the final push. Manuel is 11, and he's super smart and super into the gospel, the scriptures, and everything churchy. We first found their older sister, who had been baptized years ago in Honduras and had recently moved here. So we started bringing the whole family to church.

Well, that's about it. I love you all so much!!! Thanks for being the best family ever.
Elder Dylan Young

Slowly But Surely

January 21, 2014

Hola familia!

Yep, we got the box. Elder Miller was super duper excited about the Mormon Messages DVD's. And the cookies are super good.

Our apartment's fine, we got the window fixed the very next morning. We don't have a new DVD player yet, so we haven't been able to listen to any of the new CDs or watch the Mormon Messages, but we'll get one eventually. We haven't had any other problems with break ins or anything. There was a little while where the toilet tank stopped refilling, and we were using one of those plastic pipe things you sent us for Christmas where you swing them around to make noise to connect from the sink to the toilet so we could flush. But now that's fixed.

The week has been picking up, slowly but surely. We have a bunch of people kind of floating around, with a lot of potential and desires to learn but for one reason or another we haven't really been able to teach a lot. Whether it be for work, funeral arrangements, or... they're kind of afraid of the missionaries. But I know that if we just blew through the mission with a ton of success, converting everyone we saw, we wouldn't learn anything. We're definitely learning a ton these past few weeks. We've been trying harder and harder to rely on the Lord, as well as working more and more on strengthening our knowledge of the gospel.

The zone leaders came over one day and talked to us about working with the members. Our area has the majority of the leaders in both wards, especially in the English ward. Plus the number of less active members in the wards is monstrous... after more than 6 months I still haven't met them all. The Lord isn't going to bless us with more people to bring into his fold if we're not already taking care of the sheep we do have. And a great way we can do that is by working with the leaders. The missionaries don't have enough time to take care of everyone, and neither do the leaders, but the church leaders have all the people in their quorums and groups that they can motivate and inspire to reach out to the lost sheep, both those who have wandered off and those that have yet to find the Good Shepherd.

I love you all sooooooo much!!!!!!

~Elder Young

Something Exciting. . .

January 13, 2014

Hola familia!!!

It's good to hear everyone's back into the routine. It's Cassidy's last semester of high school - Has she started getting senioritis super bad yet? Just wait until after the AP tests. :P

Man, we find out about more mission calls every day. It's crazy! I'm just waiting for someone I know to get sent down here to McAllen. I mean Rees and Kellsey both went to Montreal, and down here my district leader Elder Merica has a cousin here as well. What if I got to train Elder Facer or someone? That'd be crazy.

Thanks so much for the Mormon Message discs! The other missionaries are already super excited. They even wrote you a thank you note:

"Dear Elder Young's Mom, thank you for being so awesome, and sending the coolest stuff. You are a great example of what all missionary moms could be like! Le Quiero, Elder Miller

P.S. Your son is an awesome missionary. He is doing great work, is a spiritual Giant, y'all did something right at home! "

This week has been pretty tough trying to find people to teach. Not too many people want to listen to us, and most of the people who do are kind of completely insane. We talked to one guy who told us he has dementia and that he "saw Jesus flying" the other day. We were talking with one guy on the street when the the city judge pulled up in his car to make sure we were okay, because he recognized the guy from court several times. It's been kind of a frustrating week, but we've been learning a lot about patience and trusting in the Lord. We can't let our faith fall even a little bit. All these trials, no matter what happens, are for our benefit to give us experience and to bring us closer to the Lord if we allow it. We had interviews with President Maluenda on Tuesday, and most of what he said was to enjoy the mission and not to be too hard on myself. We've got some big miracles coming up, I can feel it.

Well, something exciting did happen to us on Thursday. We got back to our apartment at the end of the day, put our bikes away, used the bathroom, and when I went to the bedroom to put my jacket away... I saw that my bed was covered in broken glass and the blinds were all torn down. There were two holes in the window right above the latches, and two small rocks on the ground. Someone had broken in! Thankfully, all they took was the small, barely-functioning DVD player, my little speaker, and an extra backpack we had lying around. They left the extra bike, the washer and dryer, and even Elder Flores' wallet which he had on his desk. Whoever this crook was, he wasn't the brightest one around. My only regret is that we forgot to get a picture of the crime scene before we cleaned up. We were just too surprised.

Other than that, it was a pretty normal week. I did an exchange with Elder Solis, it was my first time out of my area for what seems like forever. A nice little break.

I love you all so much and I'm so grateful for all your prayers and love!!! Keep on keepin' on!!!

~Elder Young

To Be Worthier Servants of the Lord

January 6, 2014

Hola Mama!!!

The time definitely flies no matter what's going on. The Mormon Message DVDs are awesome. There's actually another missionary in the district that wants me to ask you if you can make him some.

The Old Testament is pretty cool. Sometimes I wish we had more time to study every day. An hour of personal study isn't quite enough sometimes. It's good though. The Book of Mormon is definitely awesome. Plus I bet more people like to read in Spokane than here. I'm sure there are tons of people who would love to give it a read some time.

The missionaries down here haven't been knocking on doors since before I got here. We talk with everyone we see on the streets, but other than that we work with the members a lot or go by former investigators or potential people whose information we have in the apartment. We haven't gotten a hold of the man who had a seizure recently, but we'll definitely go by every once in a while. There's one family we found with a 13 year old guy named Giovani and his aunt Dora. Giovani loves Minecraft and Pokemon and everything Nintendo, and wears a Pikachu hat all the time. They're super cool.

New Years Eve was great, getting to watch Mulan with the Zone. Now "Be A Man" is stuck in all of our heads. Thursday wasn't so great since I had to stay inside all day with some kind of flu, but I'm all good now. We've made a bunch of New Year's Resolutions as missionaries to be worthier servants of the Lord for 2014. It's gonna be great.

I love you all so much!!! Keep of praying and staying true to the faith!

Hola Cassadah!

Rees always wanted me to read the Belgariad but I never got around to it. I've never thought about it being our duty to be joyful, but that's definitely true. That's part of sharing the gospel, letting others see how blessed and happy we are. And it's also part of showing gratitude for all the blessings we have.

I don't quite know the names of everyone in the Spanish ward, since it's huge and everyone is speaking Spanish plus we don't have as many Spanish members in our area. It's awesome you're doing the gratitude journal. I'll admit I haven't been writing in my journal as much as I should be. I'll get better for sure.

Are you excited for college??? You're getting sooooo big! I love you so much too!!!

Hola Papa!!!

It's awesome that Brazil has grown so much while you were there. I can't wait until there's a temple announced here in the Rio Grande Valley. A root canal sounds awful, I'm taking good care of my teeth down here. I had a cold last week too. It was pretty bad on Thursday but now I'm all patched up, with lots of Dayquil and everything. I definitely need to write in my journal more. Not only will I want it years from now to look back on the mission, but it'll help me to see and recognize the hand of the Lord every day here in the mission. I love you too!!!!!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Mom's Note: I got a little behind posting letters to the blog. The highlight of our Christmas was definitely being able to Skype with Dylan for 45 minutes and 30 seconds on Christmas Day. Here are Dylan's last 3 letters and lots of photos:

DECEMBER 16, 2013

The Christmas season has been flying by. I'm sure the Christmas party went awesome and I wish I could have heard the songs. I wish I could hear all the concerts too! I've been missing band the more and more I listen to all the awesome Christmas music. Maybe I'll look back into it when I get back. We'll see how well I can pick the clarinet back up.

I'll definitely read your talk during study time tomorrow. Really the idea that we are truly sons and daughters of God is something that they've wanted us as missionaries to teach better. Every one of us has infinite potential and is more loved than we can imagine.

Thanks so much for all the boxes and CDs and everything! I love all the Christmas music!!! We've been blasting out to Piano Guys and Josh Groban every morning, lunch, and dinner, plus whenever the other Elders give us a ride in their car. In fact, all this Christmas music has made me miss my ocarina. It'd be awesome if I could add that to my Christmas list. :) I've got enough treats now I don't think I have to go shopping till January. It's awesome though. I think the cold spell has left for now. We'll be having a nice warm Christmas. Poor Rees is stuck with -40 degree weather in Canada, plus I can't imagine how cold it is in Russia right now. It's good I like the warm weather, though.

So for Christmas we just need to ask a member that has Skype to let us come over and use the computers. We'll figure it out this week and then let you know the username and everything. Make sure you send me your username too, just in case. Well I guess when Christmas comes around I can actually call if we need help figuring out the computers. Craziness!

Don't worry, headaches have been a lot fewer and farther between since the mission started. As missionaries we even fast at least a couple times a month, whenever we need extra miracles with certain people. And it always pays off.

We had a huge missionary conference with Elder Callister from the Presidency of the 70 on Friday. He talked a lot about the Atonement. It's important that everyone understands well how powerful the Atonement is and what it means personally for their lives. It covers everything that could ever be wrong in the world or in life. Christ provided the means for us all to be saved from death. To overcome and make our weaknesses into strengths. To make fair every trial or disappointment we pass through. And to make us clean so that we can return to live with our Heavenly Father and one day become like Him. He also talked a lot about becoming a consecrated missionary, which he gave a talk on; our Ward Mission leader gave us not long ago. The biggest thing from that I learned was that in order to give everything to the Lord, we also have to sacrifice our fears. Only then can our faith grow, by trusting completely in the Lord.

I love you all so much!!! Have a Feliz Navidad!

~Elder Dylan Young

DECEMBER 23, 2013

Merry almost-Christmas! You really just barely got snow? That's crazy. We're definitely not expecting snow any time soon. But we got the box and the stockings and everything. We're trying really hard not to open anything until Christmas. We'll see how that goes.

Well even with Christmas coming along the missionary work keeps moving forward. I love seeing all of the Christmas lights on the houses. I saw one house that had a ton of cardboard cutouts of the characters from the old Rudolph movie, even Yukon Cornelius and the Abominable Snowman. Then there is another house that has Santa riding in a tractor and there's a big glowing Texas that says "Ho Ho Y'all." It's awesome.

For Christmas down here, everyone loves to make tamales. I'm not sure why. But, the onslaught of tamales has already begun. I'm excited since I love tamales.

I love you all so much! Thanks for everything you all do for me all the time, for your prayers and for your love. Have a Merry Christmas!!!!

DECEMBER 30, 2013

Hola familia!!!

Yep, I've definitely gained a few pounds, but I'm not sure how many since we don't have a scale. I haven't weighed myself since the MTC, where I gained 7 pounds.

The rest of Christmas was pretty awesome. I'm not sick of tamales yet, and I'll never be sick of tamales, although we didn't actually get taught how to make them like it was planned. The family that invited us over for Christmas did have a ham as well, so that was more Christmasy. The week was a little slow missionary-wise for us. Everyone we are teaching went out of town, and almost nobody was outside for us to talk to, plus we were super busy just with the members and all the meetings and things we had. But it's okay, since we're going to start the new year off right.

We got transfer calls Sunday morning, and the verdict is: I'm staying! Elder Flores and I have 6 more weeks together here in Weslaco. It's weird since all the missionaries who were here when I started will be gone tomorrow. This will be my fifth transfer here, and the next oldest missionaries will only be on their third. I was feeling before that a fresh start in a new place would be a great way to start the new year, and that it would have given me more fire as well, but obviously I still have work to do here and things to learn here in Weslaco.

It's good Cassidy's wisdom teeth extraction went well. Did she say any crazy things? We should have recorded me after my operation.

Crazy story for the week: We invited a man to church a few weeks ago. The first Sunday he came but he was super drunk. The next Sunday he had a seizure on the couch before church started and the paramedics had to take him home. Definitely a Sunday to remember! He's doing okay though.

That talk sounds awesome. The newest talk that Edgar printed for us is "His Grace is Sufficient" by Brad Wilcox. It's probably one of my favorite talks. It's all about the amazing power of the Atonement, how Christ has already paid the price for us in full. He asks us to do our best not to qualify for His Grace, but to be changed by it and become holier, more like Him.

I love you all so much and I'm so grateful for everything you've done and keep doing for me. I know I already failed my letter every week resolution, but today half the missionaries in the district are at the doctor's so I should have time.

Mucho amor!!!

~Elder Young