Bellefontaine #13

Hello Family,

It is now winter in Ohio! We got some snow yesterday and a lot of ice from the rain that morning. This morning was 9 degrees and kind of slick on our way to Huber Heights for our zone activity which was fun. That GPS has been very nice not having to have maps on our iPads that don't seem to be very accurate. We have been getting a round nicely and I have been learning how to drive in bad weather in our Chevy Cruze, and I only slid twice yesterday. Been a lot of fun this week end!

One day during the week we met someone famous when I was on exchanges with the zone leader here in Bellefontaine. It was Louie Vito Sr.  dad who owns the local radio station. Louie Vito Jr. Is a Olympic snowboarder and lives in Utah and was on dancing with the stars. Any way Elder Baldwin who I was on exchanges was geeking out when we were talking to him. Very nice guy and interested in the church slightly so we will see what happens.

On Sunday when it snowed we only had the first hour and then they let us go because of the weather. We got some less actives to come though because we went to their house and made them pancakes and woke up some of the kids. So she came and so did two of her daughters and they got fellowshipped very well. So that was fun that they came and she hasn't been to church in like 6 years so it was a big step for her. 

It was a great week and we have high hopes because we are finding a lot of potentials and we are really starting to focus on the members to help them with missionary work. So we have some high hopes of getting some new investigators. We are looking forward to actually teaching people and seeing them progress. This area has been stagnant for way to long and we need to turn up the heat.

Anyway I'm doing good and I have been enjoying training and getting use to being a district leader. Sorry to hear about the sickness that has been plaguing the family. Hope you all continue to feel better and regain your strength. Love you all and wish you a happy week!

Love

Elder Young

Bellefontaine #12

Hello Family,

What a wonderful week gone here in the semi great state of Ohio! Elder Anderson and I have been working hard and have has some great success and so we have been blessed and seen many blessings. Sorry to here about this plague that has been ravaging the family back home and hope it goes away soon and that mom doesn't get sick. The weather here is starting to turn into winter and it is thinking about snowing today so we will see what happens. Hope that the snow doesn't keep you all cooped up to long. Happy to hear that you had. Great New Years with the family!

So this week we had the great fortune to find two people that said that we could come back and meet with them this week. Very excited about that and hope we get to teach them more than once. Elder Anderson is still adjusting to contacting on door steeps but has been steadily getting better at it. Training is very interesting and I hope I am giving him the knowledge he needs to have a great mission and doesn't have to be retrained to much after I'm done. But he is doing great so that's what is important.

Our new year was good but we did not see very many people. We however went and saw Brian and we taught him the plan of salvation while he taught us how to make a friction fire. It was fun because we widdling wood in his house and talking about the plan of salvation and it was the most engaged he ever has been in a lesson. It was cool and I almost got fire, instead I got bruised hands and a cut finger but it was worth it.

Summer did get baptized on the 2 and it went very well and she was so happy. It was fun to watch her full of energy and happy to achieve her goal of getting baptized. I hope that she continues to grow her testimony and continues to be active in the church long after I leave. She is a good girl and I for see her doing great things in her family. She was baptized and confirmed by her great Grandfather which I thing she was rare experience that few get.

All n all a great week and I have had a great time full filling my purpose as a missionary and to have these faith growing events in my life. I love you very much and miss you and pray for you everyday. Stay healthy and warm! Love ya!

Love Elder Young

P.S thanks for the pics.  

Bellefontaine #11

Hello Family,

Well it is finally happened the weather is going south and right now we are experiencing freezing rain and it's cold now. I really loved seeing you on Christmas and seeing all your smiling faces. I loved all the things you sent me and yes I liked the socks because they were funny and made me smile. Glad to hear that you had a safe trip and I'm jealous of dads drone thingy.

Well we are excited for Summers up coming baptism and for her to become a member and to receive the Holy Ghost. The branch mission leader will fill the font and sister Alexander will make the brochure things. I will be giving a talk on the importance of baptism because she asked. She is ready to go and has been interviewed and the paper work is almost filled out. 

Oh you asked me if we are leaning how to make funny things. Our investigator Brian said he would show us how to make glue with sap and rabbit droppings and something else from the woods. He is our mountain man friend who wants to show us how to survive in the woods off the land. It's really cool but will probably smell very bad.

I don't know what else to say but that I love you and loved getting to talk to you. Stay safe and warm in the crazy weather. Oh ya one thing that I really need but keep forgetting to ask is I need a gps for the really big area that I cover. Love you!

Love Elder Young

Elder Young and Elder Anderson being very unhealthy

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