Bellefontaine #10

Hello Family,

Well this week has been a lot of fun what with getting a trainee and the stress that but on my body. I'm doing good now and am having a lot of fun with Elder Anderson who is my new baby boy! He is from Newton Utah the same town as Elder Larsen. Elder Anderson is also a dairy farmer and is a lot of fun once he warmer up to me. The first day the poor guy was like a deer caught in someone's head lights. He is doing better now and we are doing really well.

So before the transfer meeting we meet the trainees that are coming in and role play with them. I guess after we role played and left the room Elder Anderson wanted me or an other missionary as his companion. So that was cool that he liked me from the very beginning. Since he has been here we have not had many lessons and we have been doing a lot of finding and we have been met with little success. He is staying strong though but he like all trainees is already counting down the days.

Sorry for the late notice on the skype call info, we will have dinner at a members home at 5 and we maybe done by 6 so the call will be at 6 sometime. So if you are in Utah that will be at 4, Oregon 3. Yes you can email me the information any day before then. I can receive and read emails all through the week I just can't respond to them till Monday.

I guess I will give the new thermals a go and see how they hold up to the dryer. So far most of my stuff is doing ok with the high heats except my sweaters they shrunk a little. It had to be done though, oh and we will be getting new mattress and box springs and new furniture soon. I just need to get some bed bug shields. So far I have not been able to find any. Can you look for some for me, you might get a better deal than I will. 

Having fun on the mission just trying to stay warm and to stay bug free. It will be warming up soon which makes me happy. It's going to be a warm Christmas in Ohio with no snow in Bellefontaine. Hope you all have a great week and safe trip to Utah if that happens and a happy Christmas. Oh ya by the way I'm the designated driver, pray for us to survive my driving. Love ya!

Love Elder Young

Elder Young and Elder Anderson

Pictures

Tayler decided to splurge apparently and buy enormous peanut butter cups! 

Bellefontaine #9

Hello Family,

Sounds like you week was full of ups and downs and lots of good things to keep you going. Sorry to hear that it's flooding a little and that work must be miserable for dad right now with all the rain. Weather is so unpredictable at times and seems to be against you at all times. The weather here has been very nice and we have seldom gone into the 30's, which has been nice for us. I have a feeling that we are about to get slammed with some really bad weather soon.

I did get you packages and I thank you so much for all you do for me to make my holidays a little more bearable. I hope he thermals work but one thing that concerns me is that they are supposed to be line dried and with bed bugs that's not a good thing. I have to be able to dry my cloths at high heat for at least 20 minutes to kill those dang things. Work in progress.

So this week has been a rush of excitement because I just leaned that I will be training a new missionary. So our transfer meeting is tomorrow and that is when I will get a new companion that is fresh from the MTC. I got the call on Monday from President Daines that this would be happening. Then Tuesday morning I went to the mission home and got trained for my new task I have been entrusted with. Then today is our p-day and then tomorrow the fun begins of being a shining example to this new missionary.

I am very excited and very nervous about this new path I am about to embark on. Just wanted to let you know that I will be receiving a new baby boy for Christmas and I didn't know I was pregnant. Oh papa Simkins will be so happy(Elder Simkins my trainer). We call our trainees our sons, president Daines has instructed us not to do that so I won't around him but I will refer to him as my son to you guy.

A lot of excitement and many emotions flying around and Elder Knudsen is probably not happy with me. I feel like the stereotypical pregnant women you see in the movies with mood swings galore. I will send pictures of him and me on Monday!

Love you all very much and wish you happy days and hope the rain stops soon. Hope you are safe and that you have fun doing what ever you do.

Love Elder Young

Getting a haircut :)

Bellefontaine #8

Hello Family,

This week went really well and I had a lot of fun and had some fun meetings with people. So the apartment got sprayed early in the morning on Wednesday and hope worked and they are all dead but only time will tell. I have all my stuff still in bags, we'll all but a few shirts and my bed sheets. I'm looking into getting bed covers that bed bugs can't crawl through, it's going to hurt the budget but it has to be done. That's what's up with that problem.

So this week we have been out and had some good meetings with people and felt the spirit. My favorite visit was to these potentials named Rich and Melissa Reynolds who we have meet one other time had us over for dinner. They are very nice and are curious but talk a lot and so we can't really teach them with out interrupting every few minutes. Rich is however reading the Book of Mormon and is retaining what he reads. So we are interested to see how that goes. Oh and for dinner we had venison which was really good because the deer here eat the corn and the soy from the fields. One funny thing that happened during dinner was there 2 year old grandson was running around naked, just one of those funny awkward moments of the mission.

We were not able to make our goals but we were able to have some great lessons anyways and we were trying to as hard as we could to make them. Goals are hard to set when there out come is dependent on the availability of others that are workaholics. But we try none the less. One cool thing is that we will be able to confirm Summer on the same day as her baptism which was a big answer to our prayers. Convert confirmations are suppose to be on Sunday's so the whole branch can be there but the President Daines said we could do it the same day because her mom was a member. We are just going to confirm with President Daines and then we will have talk to Summer and her mom. We are very excited!

Been a good week and the weather has been great and we have been very warm. When I got here last winter it was freezing cold and we are having light jacket weather lately. So either it's going to be a warm winter or we are about to get smacked hard with some terrible weather. Anyway hope you all have a great week and don't wear yourselves into the ground with projects. Thank you for the package you are sending. Love you lots!

Love

Elder Young

Bellefontaine #7

Hello Family,

Glad to hear that you had a great Thanksgiving with Julie and Alex up in Washington. Sounds like you have been staying busy getting ready for Christmas and that dad had a good Birthday. I'm so bad and forgot to wish him a happy Birthday, hope that he can forgive me. You all are doing a lot of fun stuff and I do the same old stuff everyday and meet some funny people along the way.

I had a good Thanksgiving day we first started by exchanging back because I was in Sidney with Elder Gardner who I came out with on the mission so that was cool. We then saw some less actives and had lunch with one of them. We then saw an investigator briefly and saw how he was doing. The we had dinner with a new young couple in the branch. It was really funny how everyone was asking if we had any meal plans but know one but the new family invite, and a less active family. Was funny how tons of people asked but no one invited us. We then saw another less active to end the day. We were told to get out and work and to treat it like a normal day. Mission President is really starting to get really strict, which is good because there are a lot of idiot missionaries out there( in Ohio).

I really am at a loss of what to talk about not much has been happening that is exciting to report on. We are going to get sprayed for bed bugs soon so we are getting ready for that, got some space bags for that. Gave a talk in church yesterday on the eternal perspective of the gospel. That was terrible and I hate giving talks. Also there is a family in the ward that does FLL so I have been able to get my robotics kick.

Well I don't know what else to say other than that I am still alive and kicking and having a good time. Elder Knudsen gets packages but not that often. I also do not know if he is going to be here for Christmas because transfers is the week before Christmas. You of course can still send him one to be nice. As for what I want for Christmas you can send me ties or something maybe a Bluetooth keyboard, I'm not picky just as long as I get to skype you I will be happy.

Hope you all have a great week love you all very much!

Love Elder Young

Bellefontaine #6

Hello Family,

Wow mom take a chill pill there bugs that spread like the plague it's no big deal here in Ohio, the third worst state for bed bug problems. We got it under control we have told the mission office and we are getting sprayed and fumigated sometime soon. We will also be getting permethrin from the mission office to spray on the beds to kill those little blood sucking bugs. Don't worry the senior couple is doing all the worrying for us. 

They say not to do your own treatments before they spray so I will a few days after just in case. I will also be buying more space bags and that's were I will but all my cloths for the next long while. I have not seen any bug bites for a while or have a seen one in a while, so this final spray should do it. Best part it won't cost the church a thing. 

Now to the questions I have to big of an area to cover on bikes so we have a full time car and Elder Knudsen drives. We have a washer and dryer in our apartment. It has frosted several mornings and it flurried a few days ago but no snow stayed. It has also gotten gusty these past few days. Winter is upon us here in Bellefontaine Ohio and it's only going to get worse we think. 

Judy is no longer on date to be baptized and we will have to move Summers back a little because we are not able to meet enough during the month to teach her everything. We also had the weirdest lesson teaching her the law of chastity because she is 9 and she doesn't know all that yet but we should some videos that went over it well enough for us. We were also able to get a new investigator named Kattie and we hope everything goes well the second time we meet with her. Other then that it was a normal cold Ohio week.

Everything is going well and I am having a great time here and can't believe it has been a year. Hope everything goes well with you all and that dad doesn't catch pneumonia in the rain. Love you all very much. Have fun in Washington with Jullie and Isaac. Tell him he doesn't have to wait to go to school. Anyways love ya.

Love Elder Young 

Bellefontaine #5

Hello Family from Orgone,

So this week for me was so slow and at the same time Sunday came really fast and I was extremely caught of guard. We were teaching Judy and she said that she would see us tomorrow and I was like why are we coming over again. Then later I had one of those light bulb moments of stupidity that shocked me that it was Saturday. Anyway it felt slow but we met some new cool people that's what is important.

So it has actually just warmed up slightly but we had some really cold windy days, we got some 50 mile an hour winds on Wednesday. So much for being at the highest point of Ohio at a whopping 1000 some odd feet. It's so flat here that it is not funny anymore especially when you are at the highest elevation you can get in Ohio. Makes good farm land though and that's what we got here. Now to answer your question I am mainly just gearing up because I have a feeling it is going to get really cold this winter, I'm just glad I'm no longer in Mansfield.

Sorry that you all felt busy and that you were rushing around doing stuff. How cold is it there if dad is wearing thermals to work? Hope that things get better this coming week and you don't feel rushed and overly busy with things. You will have to send me pictures of the Christmas stuff you are making.

So his name is Isaac is it and he sends his love does he, well tell him thanks and that it's good to know his name😄. Now tell him he can spend Sunday with his family at there house. Jk. Anyway good to hear that you are all safe at home and that you have not forgotten about me like Hope and Jackie😭. Hope you all have a great week, that includes Isaac because I'm sure he will be over soon.

Love Elder Young

 This is a bed bug that Tayler found :( Very unhappy about it and we hope they can get it taken care of!

 These are some funny signs that the Elders have been sharing.  The cornerstone one below is one that Tayler actually found :)

 They are gearing up for the winter cold that is coming.  The one above they are hiding behind a rock to get out of the wind and he just bought some more thermals so the one below is to show me how he is prepared :)