Bellefontaine Ohio #23

Hello Family,

Its good to hear from you and to hear whats going on in your lives. So you are experiencing the life of empty nesters are you, that must be exciting and fun new adventure. Emma going to Utah for a week of fun in Zion National Park with Hope, Jackie, Tyler, and Dallin. Sorry also to hear that the neighbors didn't make it to the BBQ with the missionaries. Maybe another time they will get to meet them and be able to hear about the restored gospel. Missionary experiences are never seem to go the way you want them to, but they do happen eventually.

I cant really tell you what has happened this week to much but that we had some good lessons and that we were busy. What I really remember is that on Sunday we were at church for our early morning meetings and we got a text to come and wake up one of our investigators to get her to church. So we ran over as fast as we could and were loud and annoying and got her and her sisters friend up and while they were getting ready we made them pancakes. She just had the best birthday morning ever! We knocked on her door a lot and also sang happy birthday, then bribed her with pancakes. It was good fun but we got 4 people to church which was awesome.

Then the next day my life on the mission got worse, I woke up Monday morning with Flu like symptoms and had a terrible day. I tried to sleep all day and almost did but I just felt like I had been hit by a semi truck. Then Tuesday I felt better but I still didn't feel good at all, but now I feel decent enough to venture out of the apartment. Anyway transfers is going to be fun this week since I am still recovering.

Anyway I think I am going to leave the email at this and say that I love you and miss you all. Wish mom was here to take care of me. Elder Anderson and Elder Rasmussen have been very kind to me and patient though but there not like a loving mother. Anyway I hope you have a great week.

Love 

Elder Young 

Bellefontaine Ohio #22

Hello Family,

I was thinking about sending another video but my iPad has a lot of problems with sending videos, the church's wifi is not the best. I'm glad to hear that you liked my video though and that you are all feeling better and not sick. I'm also excited for Emma and her trip to Utah. I had a great week as well and hope to answer all your questions.

This week was really good and we were able to get a lot of good lessons with some part member families and also there were no unexpected meetings. we are now teaching a girl named Kaylien as well as a boy named Nick and his brother Jonathan. We are also been working on the opportunity to teach a girl named Ashlee who is a step sister to Nick and JonJon. We were able to get Kaylien to activities and  she said she had fun but she didn't really talk to anyone. They are all doing good but they are all at very basic levels of understanding of God and religion in general but we are working on them. They all came to church and I think that they had fun which was great.

The funny thing about who we are teaching is they are all related to each other. Kaylien is second cousins with Nick and JonJon through there moms. Ashlee is related to Kaylien through her dad and Ashlee's dad some how. We are slowly working on these families and are getting there parents to church. Kaylien's mom has been less active for a long time but she came to church this Sunday and hopefully she continues to come. But there is a weird family friction but I think that she is slowly working past it, I hope.

Anyway those are the people we are working with and it has been fun because they are almost always home so we can see them everyday which is what we are suppose to do. Now on to the other questions you had which was about our big knifes. Well they were really cheap for there size and Elder Anderson wanted a knife because I have a few. So we went to the store in town that sells things that may have been damaged is shipping and they sell a wide variety of knifes. So we went and got the big knifes that were not even the biggest knifes they sell there. It was just another way to bond with Elder Anderson plus I just have a thing for big knifes.

You also asked if I am in touch with Ammon, Nolan, and Preston while I have been out on the Mish. I have not really kept in contact with all of them the best, but mainly I have kept in touch with Nolan. Preston involves me in his weekly email I just forget to email him back. Nolan is the best at responding to my emails. Ammon has not responded to very many of my emails so I have just stopped emailing him. I will make a better effort at emailing them.

Now the fun things that happen this week while we were out doing our normal everyday work. We went to a town that we knew had a dairy farm so that Elder Anderson could talk to them. The farmer was really nice and gave us a tour of there farm which was a robotic farm which was really cool. They had the robot milkers that clean the cow and place the suckers on. They told us that it has doubled there milk production. They had about 80 cows so they were a small dairy farm. They make there money from feed because they own and run 3000 acres. Probably grow mainly corn and soy. That was one interesting experience.

The other experience was that we went and saw one of our older investigators and met her transgender brother. I may have accidentally insulted him. We went over and she said we could come in because there was another male in the house. When we went in there was a girl sitting at the computer facing away from us. I later was confused about who the other male was in the house. So I asked and she pointed at the what I thought was a girl and said my brother. It was a little weird and I hope I didn't insult any one because that was not my objective. Oh and I know he is a transgender because on an earlier visit she told us about him, not just a cross dresser.

Anyway I'm happy to hear from you and hope that you have a great week and that Emma does good on her finals. love you all very much and wish you a great week.

Love

Elder Young

Bellefontaine Ohio #21 The letter

I don't know if you got my video of my week so I will write it out so you get something this week. My week went good and we worked really hard and saw our investigatiors Dave and Daisy. We were not able to meet with anyone else this week and we are a little bummed out because of it. This week however has been very productive and we have several new investigators and have had really good lessons.

Last week we went and spent the day I Huber Heights with the zone leaders and that was a long day, and the ZL's were sick😝. We spent the night on reclining chairs and didn't sleep much and had a really slow following day. Also just have been taking the time to go out to the many small towns around Bellefontaine and have enjoyed beautiful Ohio.  Anyway loving the mission and working hard. Love you all and hope you are feeling better, also i liked the fairy house thing you made. Stay safe and healthy.

Love Elder Young

Bellefontaine Ohio #21

 These are probably out of order but it is good to hear his voice and see him :)

Bellefontaine Ohio #20

Hello Family,

Sorry about the whole zombie thing it wasn't very nice, and it was not nice to mention your condition in that way. I love you just the way you are zombie or not. I'm glade to hear that your week went well and that you had some fun activities. Hope you have some fun in your new calling as assistant librarian in the Forest Grove 1st Ward. You all are getting involved in the church one way or another.

Well this week went well but sadly we were not able to have many lessons with investigators it just didn't happen. We also did a lot of good old knocking doors but not many people were interested so no new investigators from that. We however were able to have some really good lessons with less actives and this Sunday we had a large group of less actives that have not come in a long time. So the branch was really excited about that, in branches the best thing you can do is bring less actives back. As well as to find and baptize but less actives can be great finding activities because there friends are not members usually.

Anyway this one family we visited had a dog I really want to get when I get older and I will send you a picture of it. The Larsen's are a great family and Brother Larsen does high end wood work like cabinets and other wood work, his shop was very impressive. I love the members here because they are just great people they just got into some bad habits.

We are working with a family the Heaberlin's and they are great and they want to be baptized but  they have not come to church so we are working on that. They are very nice and have been meeting with missionaries for at least five years if not more but we will be seeing what there commitment level is. I hope they do feel that his is something they want and start progressing toward baptism. Anyway keep them in your prayers.

Love you all very much and hope you have a great week and that you stay safe. Tell Mike good luck for me. Have you been asked to give a talk yet about me on my mission yet? Anyway have a great week!

Love Elder Young

Bellefontaine Ohio #19

Hello Family,

Sounds like you had a great week and that you had a lot of exciting things happen. Mom working on a new quilt, dad at work, Emma dating and going to work. You are all very busy! I hope that you aren't all turning into zombies that do the somethings over and over. I guess I can't say anything my life probably changes less then yours what with the mission schedule. Ah life is life and we do what we have to.

This week was a good one as we were challenged by the President Daines to focus on finding as many people as we can and teaching lessons and extending baptism extensions. So we worked very hard on the goals that we set for our selves in those categories and strived so hard to achieve them. We however came up short but we worked very hard and we were very tired this last week. I had a lot of fun with this as we were knocking doors several hours a day as it gave Elder Anderson and I time talk.

Something that is cool that happened is that we learned about how this area is starting to get involved in a church program called Just Serve. It is a cool service program that will give us the opportunity to serve those who live in the areas we serve. It will give people a chance to see a different side of members. It will also give us missionaries another focus and to do service every day and to just be our selves. The told us that while we are out we are not to teach or to try and contact people but to just work and answer questions about the church if we are asked. The main focus is to make friends and if they are interested we set appointments to meet them at there homes.

Anyway that was our week and I am very excited to see how this new program will change how the church is viewed in this area. I think that it will open a lot of doors and let people see that we are normal people that care about our communities. I home that you have a good week and that you are all safe. Also take a look at just serve and see if you can serve in some way in Forest Grove or surrounding towns. Love you all and hope you know that I think about you a lot. Stay safe!

Love

Elder Young

Pictures

Elder Young and Elder Anderson being unhealthy and playing with knives :)