The One Where I Chopped My Hair Off

Here's a little joke to start it off today!

What did the chicken say to the farmer?

Bock bock. 

Haha. You're welcome. :)

This week was so good! We had such a fun week getting ready for Christmas and spending time to feel the spirit and enjoy the feeling that Christmas brings! ALSO, I want to thank EVERYONE for their emails, letters, packages, and their thoughtful words of encouragement and support. There's nothing more special and heartwarming than getting something in the mail. So thank you, everyone, from the bottom of my heart. ❤

The work here is going good. We have been meeting with members, trying to get into their homes and establish a good relationship with them to open up their hearts to finding others and doing missionary work. We can feel the spirit so strong when we meet with them and the passion has grown. We have worked on getting a ward mission plan and working with all the auxiliaries on how they want to work on the missionary work in their area. There hasn't been a lot of finding and teaching on our part, but just like its been started before, our focus has been on getting in with the members and spreading the Christmas spirit. We've discussed a lot about the #LightTheWorld initiative and to spread the word about it. It's been great! We went to the park and asked people questions about what Christmas means to them and what some of their favorite traditions are and then had them write down their answers on the whiteboard! It started out really bad; people did not like to be bothered! So we decided to sit on a bench and ask people as they walk by and that worked out better! They liked having the option to stop and join in if they wanted. We had little chocolates on the cards and shared the spirit of giving that way. It was very fun to see all the thinking about the favorite parts of Christmas and to see the kids light up talking about it. I'm very thankful for this season and for the joy it can bring to others. 

Sister Taylor and I made a gingerbread house! We were having comp inventory and we had to keep our hands busy because we're both fidgety, and we went all out! haha Our companionship inventory went by fast because we love each other so pretty soon Sister Taylor was reading self-help books out loud to me while I decorated. It was awesome! Probably my best gingerbread house yet.

IT was a members birthday this week and I told her I would make her a cake! I also volunteered to make cupcakes as dessert for interviews this week so I spent all Wednesday baking a cake and cupcakes. I had just pulled out the cake and was freezing it to decorate it later when the member called and canceled on us! Sad day. So I spent all the time decorating the cupcakes and the next day, we had interviews with president. They went well and we felt the spirit strongly. I don't know what it is but whenever missionaries get together, the spirit feels so strong! Saturday, we spent the day in Springfield with the district because a couple of us missionaries were struggling with homesickness and hard times so we all got together and helped each other get through hard stuff. It was fun! We just talked and helped each other get motivated. 

Sunday was wonderful! We loved both of our sacrament meetings! So many carols and songs about the Savior. I loved the feeling there. 

I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas and I will talk to you next week!

I love you all! <3

1. Our Gingerbread house!

2. The cupcakes!

3. I got a fat lip from playing softball with the Elders! You cant really tell. But it's there.:) Haha 

4. Elder Findlay really feeling the Christmas spirit this morning. 

Our Gingerbread house!

The cupcakes!

I got a fat lip from playing softball with the Elders! You can't really tell. But it's there.:) Haha

Elder Findlay really feeling the Christmas spirit this morning. 

The One Where I Sang a Solo Already

Merry Christmas to all! 

I'm so happy it's the Christmas season. It's seriously the most wonderful time of the year. All because I got to see my mission president dress up and perform "What does the fox say" LOL! So stinking funny. 

 

We had a giant zone conference in which we all came early in the morning and had a spiritual meeting at the beginning. I sang "Mary, Did You Know" (I know that's your favorite, ma. Haha ) and I had to sing SO HIGH. I was so scared. I don't think I've ever sung that high of a note in front of other people ever in my life. But I did it! And I lived afterward! After the spiritual time in the morning, we had lunch and changed into clothes that we could play games in and they had dodgeball, spikeball, gingerbread houses to build and a game room and we all just played and laughed and had such a fun time! Then we had a talent show and it was really good! There was a lot of talent shared and it was fun to get to know more and more missionaries. 

Not a lot happened this week, lots of spiritual discussions with members and talking to potentials at church. There's this time period before we teach people who are interested where they have to make the decision to be taught and when they're in that time frame, we have to really be hands off and that's difficult because we want to work with them immediately! But we have to be patient. 

We had a mission farewell yesterday and he invited multiple people who weren't members to come and we got to stop and talk to them. I asked one guy if he'd be interested in having us stop by and learn more but he politely declined. He then thanked me for asking and said that he loved how dedicated we are to go out and to share what we believe and spread light. He said that he believes that if more churches did that, the world would be a better place. I thought that was pretty awesome! So I gave him an articles of faith card and a card with our info and sent him on his way. I hope he can turn to that and find strength in that encounter.  

The Christmas season is a perfect time of year to reflect on the year and the ups and downs. But it also is a time to reflect on the relationship we have personally with Jesus Christ. While being on my mission, I have grown a deeper understanding of what my Savior has done and as I have grown that understanding, my love for him has deepened and has become a core of who I am. I love my Savior and I'm so happy that I've made the decision to turn to Him over and over again and that my testimony of His forgiveness and kindness has become a knowledge and not just a belief. I know that Jesus Christ lives and that He invites us to all partake of His atonement and follow his example of happiness. When we live with Him as the example, we are happy. 

I love you all and I thank you, again and again, a million times, for the love and support. It makes my heart full to hear the kind words and thoughts. It has been felt here time and time again and it continues to bless me each and every day. 

 I love you all! ❤ 

The One Where We Went On Roller Coasters

That's right, you read it right! Last Wednesday, our district got permission to go to an amusement park that is in Branson. It has about 5 or 6 roller coasters and the theme of the park is like 1880s miner and old-timey stuff. It's really pretty cool! And they open during the winter because they have live shows and they do tons of Christmas stuff so no one was going on the roller coasters! Our whole district got to go and we had a great time! As it got colder, the rides began to close down so we went around the whole park and looked at the AMAZING  Christmas lights! They were beautiful! And then we finished up the night with dinner at Cracker Barrel. 😊 it was a pretty awesome p-day! 

Sister Taylor and I are staying together for another transfer! We are hoping it's two more 🤞🏻 but we're so happy we get more time together! She has helped me so much and we work really well together. I am a little worried about bawling my eyes out when she leaves. 😅 but we've got another 6 weeks until that happens. 

In Springfield, which is about 25 minutes north from us, they have a huge Nativity program every year that has been going on for years now. 19, to be exact. It was 4 days long, Thursday through Sunday. They have a live nativity outside with actors and music and narration and then inside the cultural hall, they have hundreds and hundreds of nativity sets that people from all over the stake have brought to be displayed and they set up the gym to be like back in the time of Mary and Joseph. They have live entertainment every night from Branson so people come from far away to see them and the nativity. It was pretty fun and they did an amazing job with decorating. 

All the missionaries were there to meet people and to talk to them. We met a lot of really neat people and had great discussions. We met a girl and her mom and they are from our area. They've been beginning to read the Book Of Mormon together but just aren't ready to meet with the missionaries so we got to meet them and get to know them and show them that we're not scary! We're just normal humans who love Jesus just as much as everyone else. 😁 They were both very kind and warm and I hope things work out with them! 

WE SAVED A KITTEN! Sister Taylor heard a meow and looked outside but didn't see a cat but saw some rustling in the leaves outside our door and saw a baby kitten climbing inside! We went out and got a towel, wrapped it up, gave it some tuna and water, and then drove to the humane society and they told us they probably won't have room for it but to wait until the lady in charge got there. While we were waiting, we learned that it's a girl and that she waited the whole time she was on my lap in the car to pee until she was on a hard floor! Bless her heart. 😊 But when the lady showed up, she told us they miraculously had a kennel open to take her. #blessings 😺 she was so stinking cute. 

Well, that seems to be about all in the last 5 days. It seems like the time is flying past. There's not a lot of teaching going on in our area, but more people have told us that they are blessed and strengthened in our presence so we know we are not failing. We have a couple of people that are moving along but are being bombarded with trials before they meet with us. I know it's the adversary trying to withhold them so we're working on how to overpower the strength of the darkness without overstepping our bounds. 

Thank you to all for the wonderful notes, letters, and thoughtful prayers and words of comfort and strength. They help push along on this journey of ups and downs and I'm so thankful for the blessings of wonderful people. I love you all and I will have more next week. 😊🤟🏻❤

The coolest district this side of the Mississippi.

Light tunnel!

The most amazing Christmas lights!

me, Sister T and Elder Barr

I met David Osmond! My mom loves David Osmond! And so do I. :) he's actually a big goofball! Haha :) 

The One Where We Froze Our Rastafarian Nae Naes Off!

This week was packed with travel, it seems like. And it was pretty funny because with road trips before missionary life, music jams would be vital and specific music jams. (Celine Dion, Queen, Kelly Clarkson, Josh Turner, and many more) And as a missionary, obviously, we can't do that. But! I love gospel music so much that I can pretty much jam out to anything! So that's something new I learned about myself! 

Things here in Ozark are going good! Both of our wards had their Christmas parties and we went to both. We had a specific part in our Highlandville on where we were going to read a  Christmas book to the primary kids and then speak a little bit about Christ. So we were given the book a couple days earlier and we read over it and just decided to share our testimonies of Him. 

So we had dinner with a family in the other ward before the Christmas party but we totally lost track of time because it's so easy to get talking and laughing and discussing that we were running late to the party! 😬 so we rushed over there and there were basically 2 minutes between getting out of the car and starting to read the book. The kids all came over to us and she handed me a MICROPHONE. I was reading it to everyone! 😅 and my chubby face is red from running everywhere and I'm still trying to catch my breath AND the little girls in the Highlandville ward love me and Sister Taylor so they're climbing all over us and stuff. So I finally accepted my fate and read the story. Then handed the microphone to sister T but she couldn't get up because she had about 4 kids overpowering her tiny body and everyone's sitting there waiting so I spent another 3-4 minutes talking about Christ until Sister T could get free and then she spoke and bore a powerful testimony. It was a pretty cool experience. 😄

Since transfers are on Thursday this week, they have p-days on Wednesday so Monday was district council. We decided that we wanted to do a district activity and we decided on ice skating in which Sister Young would sit out because my feet can't handle that. They wanted to get me a bucket to sit on to slide around the ice, which I was all for. :) we planned it for Wednesday and we were all excited! Then, that night, we get a conference call from some elders in our district and they said they had free tickets for all of us in the district and the okay from the president to go to the amusement park in Branson!! So today, we're heading to Silver Dollar City for p-day! So excited!! 

As Light The World has come upon us, Sister Taylor and I have made plans each week to follow the ideas given! If you haven't already looked, you can go to lighttheworld.org

Light the World This Christmas | Mormon.org Light the world with us this Christmas season. Click to find ways that you can #LightTheWorld. lighttheworld.org

and watch the videos! But we decided to hand out free hot cocoa in front of Walmart. :) we called the elders and told them the plan and we gathered all the stuff and made it happen. At first, people thought we were crazy (it honestly feels like -13 when it's only 28 here with the humidity 😱) but a lot of people stopped and thought it was so wonderful. We had been having a tough day emotionally so to be out bringing smiles to others helped lift our hearts. 

One woman thought it was so wonderful that she took our picture, added us on Facebook, and then is going to post about it! She thought it was just amazing! 

Another woman stopped before going in and got some hot chocolate and we talked a tiny bit. Then, after she came back out, she stopped by again and with tears in her eyes, told us how much of a blessing we were on a dark day. She had been having a hard day and the drive to Walmart was difficult and our kindness was a light. #lighttheworld! Bless her heart! I gave her a big bear hug and our hearts exploded for her. ❤ 

Another person who stopped was a police officer who was a little snobby to us when he walked in but when he came out he came over and then saw that it was free and got a cup. He then told us that we were rare to be spreading that kind of kindness. He thanked us for serving his community! So very cool. 

Not a lot of teaching new people. The work in Ozark is very slow and sometimes non-existent. We are doing our best to stay positive and find motivation to go out and get doors in our face and skepticism. But we also know that we have members of our wards who love us and because they love us, they are more dedicated to helping us reach our goals. The members have changed from snubbing and ignoring to hugging and inviting. This last transfer, the miracles of members has been exemplified. I'm so grateful for the blessings that have come from our diligence and patience in the work. 

I listened to a talk recently by Jeffrey R. Holland called The First Great Commandment. I invite you all to listen to it. Reading it is good, but listening to it comes with much power. In listening to it, I could help but have a passion to rededicate myself to missionary work and true discipleship. We can all learn something from Peter's example and follow the Savior, even when we cannot feel his presence. Choose today, choose this very moment, to never forget Him and to always strive to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. 

I love you all and I'm so very blessed to have your love and kindness. Thank you for the prayers and thoughts. They help in ways that simply couldn't be done any other way. Have a wonderful week this week and light the world with the kindness that only YOU can give! ❤🤟🏻

Elder Findley and Elder Hahn in their natural habitat.

Sack dinners that a lovely family dropped off for us because her family got sick! It was so sweet! 

selfie 😁

free hot cocoa!

The One Where Puke Was Present at the Thanksgiving Table

Happy Thanksgiving, y'all! 

I am thankful for YOU! All y'all! And for the sugariest sweet potatoes, I've ever eaten. I don't know what it is but the people of Missouri love to add some sweet potatoes to their brown sugar and butter... my teeth were hurting afterwards. But was there regret? None. Not at all. It was fantastic. 

This week started out with some fuuuuun. We pranked the Elders. 😁 we decided that we wanted to do something harmless but fun to lighten the mood! So we rallied the mission counselor and we found their car and blew up a balloon, some with glitter inside 😈, tied them to the inside of the car and filled it with balloons, then saran wrapped the outside! It was hilarious. However, we accidentally turned the lights on so when we got the call from them when they saw it, their car was dead! Oops. But they took it well. :) 

Light the World is upon us and we're so excited to keep it going! We were coming up with ideas for how to get the word out and how to be successful and we came up with the idea to make little Christmas lights out of paper and Hershey's kisses! We spent a solid 2 hours putting them together... just to be told that they look more like ice cream cones. 😅 oh well! It works! We also came up with the idea to go hand out free hot cocoa, to go caroling or play games at the nursing home, and to spot light other churches in how Christ is important in their lives. What are some ideas YOU have to light the world this year? 😊🎄

Sister Taylor is hot stuff, everybody. We were tracting and we saw two guys playing basketball so we went over and started talking to them and she drove right in like a pro and seemed to be just nailing it! They accepted a Book of Mormon and said they'd read it! Whaaaat?! So then she asked if they'd be interested in having lessons and he sat there and thought about it for a minute and then said "Naw, but I'll take your digits though." And then winked! LOL 😂😂😂😂😂 I'm dying laughing and totally not incontrol of being professional and she seriously is awesome because she was like, "that's great! We can talk all about Jesus Christ! So here's our digits; let's have a meaningful discussion about Christ." And he knew he got shot down and then just laughed it off. Hahaha so awesome. Hopefully, they read still! 😁 

THANKGIVING!!! THE FAT KID INSIDE ME WAS SO HAPPY!!! We had 3 dinners. 3! I've never been so happy to wake up in the morning, looking forward to three Thanksgiving dinners. 😍 Haha You're probably wondering about the title of this email! Well, it's because the first dinner was with a family in our ward and their extended family. They had a little fiery 4 yr old girl who was fabulous, in all sense of the word. (She performed Let It Go without us asking. She's going places, people.) Well, we said the prayer and were eating and she's talking, talking, talking and at one point she has so much food in her mouth that she cant talk anymore. Haha so we start a conversation on the other side if the table when all of a sudden we hear "OH MY GOSH" and we look over and her mom had tried to help her spit some out but she threw up all over her plate... then they were moving the plate and she just spews everywhere, down her shirt, on her chair, on the table.... and Sister Taylor can't handle that so she's hiding behind my shoulder, gagging, and I'm just watching with horror in my eyes because I can't handle that but there's NO WAY I'm puking at the table. Man. It is seriously so funny thinking about it now. What a memory for my mission! 😂😂 

We went to two other homes that night and really connected with a family that we had been wanting to connect with but just hadn't. Had wonderful conversations and really just had a great love-filled day. It was wonderful! 

Friday and Saturday, we had exchanges! We went down south to Branson which is like live-show central. There are live show theatres everywhere and just a very tourist town! It's pretty fun. :) we went with the sisters there and had so much fun. Played games and laughed our butts off. It was great! 

Then Sister Taylor and I got home and prepared our talks for the next sunday; we were speaking in sacrament meeting! I was asked to speak on a talk by president Bednar titled "Called To The Work" and I spoke about the correlation between ministering and missionary work. And then we witnessed a miracle. 

After I give my talk, Sister Taylor, being the legit coolest chick this side of the Mississippi goes up there with no notes or anything and wings it because she felt she needed to speak from the heart and just NAILS her talk. The spirit was so strong, you could scrape it off the walls. 

Fast forward to after sacrament meeting and we're in the foyer and meet this woman with her husband and 2 kids and we ask all the get to know you questions and she just tells us "we might be looking to convert. I'm not sure what the answer is yet." 😲❤ and then her son grabs her arms and says passionately, "The answer is yes!" 🤯🤯🤯❤❤❤❤

She told us that she connected with Sister Taylor's testimony and story and felt like the sacrament meeting was just for her. 

I LOVE THE SPIRIT!!! 

They want to set up a time to meet with us at their friends home where we were for Thanksgiving. We're so excited to meet them more! The gospel is so amazing and true, everybody! 🙏🏼❤

Missouri is great and the work is picking up. We're so happy here and loving the people more and more. Theres been so many times where I just stop and think "THIS is what return missionaries talk about." And I've only been out almost 5 weeks! So crazy!! 

Transfers are on December 5th. I'm praying I get to stay. :) I love the people and the area so much. Thank you all for the emails and love and support! You are blessed people and I'm so grateful for it! 🤟❤ 

- Sister Young

Pranksters! #sorryforthelightselders

Sista T working hard at service

These are our little ice cream light candies!

Thanksgiving morning at our ward Turkey trot 5K! That I totally walked a portion of! 😊 

Last night at our favorite place. The mental home. With Charles and Byron. They're seriously the sweetest souls. ❤

The One Where Elder Kopichskie Came To Visit Us!

Hello, real world.  

Ah, what it would be like to put on pants in the morning, not have to track your daily miles you drove, jam out to Kelly Clarkson and Celine Dion, and use those blessed iPhones. 

But ain't nobody got time fo dat! I'm busy serving the Lord! 🤘

Last Monday was the start of a very cold week. We had snow and chilly weather for about 4 days and everyone was freaking out. They canceled things and went into hiding almost and Sister Taylor and I weren't even phased. This snow ain't got nothin on Idaho. Haha :)

On Tuesday, we had Zone Conference. That was incredible. Elder Kopichskie came and spoke to us about so many things but the spirit was SO strong, he even commented a couple of times that it was such a powerful spirit that was felt there. He talked about the importance of helping others on their path and being there to assist them through the steps; reaching out to them rather than making them come to us. He talked about being human missionaries; that we need to relate experiences from our own lives and talk about what we know to be true from our own discovery. We need to preach our truths along with the Lord's truths. He opened up the floor to ask questions and I asked one that I thought was pretty dumb but I kept feeling it come to mind so as I asked it, I started to cry. He locked eyes with me and gave me the most profound, loving answer I honestly didn't know I needed. It was a great experience for me. Afterward, I was talking with some Sisters and President Strong while Sister Taylor got interviewed by Elder Kopichskie (so cool!) And I didn't even realize that a sister had written a note and put it in my bag about how much she loved me and how she wanted to reach out in love because of my question. It was so amazing and lifted my spirits that I didn't know needed lifted! It was an awesome day. Truly amazing. 

The rest of the week has been spent locating and getting to know members, but with little luck. We seem to always find members homes and they're never home. So we'll knock on doors around and the rejection is strong here. 😅 man, people aren't just rejecting the gospel, they reject humans at all cost. No one likes people knocking on their doors! It's so weird. I just want to ask them, " THEN WHY DO YOU HAVE ONE?" I just want people to love each other, assume the best, and believe in the goodness in people! It's not that hard! But, we're still making the most of it. 

We were walking around an apartment complex and had just gotten shut down even by a members mom so we were getting more bitter and then we saw some people moving things out of the back of a truck. We walked up to them and asked if we could help and they told us noon the next day, thinking it was a joke. They were very surprised to see us waiting in the parking lot the next day at 12:45 to help them! It was a recently single mom with two little girls. She was moving out of her home with her girls to get away from her ex. We left her with our information and asked if we could come back later and check on them and she happily agreed. It was awesome! 

Church was all day yesterday. From 8:45 to 5:30. But the wards are getting fired up for missionary work and it's going to be great. I'm so happy with the progress we have already made in getting closer to the members and the families. They don't see us as a nuisance anymore! They give us hugs and are happy to see us! So I'm very grateful for them. :) 

Thank you for all the letters and emails and love. It's such a blessing to me to receive advice, love, and support from all those in my family and ward family and friends. It means so much to me; I can't stress my thank yous enough. :) I love you all and I'm grateful for you! 

🤟❤

SISTER PYPER IS FROM REXBURG! A lot of missionaries are actually from Rexburg, but she had my dad as a teacher in seminary!! So so cool!! She saw me and just asked if I was from Rexburg and pieced it together. So cool! IRA YOUNG SR. Brynn Pyper, you taught her sophomore year. So probably 2013-2014. 

Elder Hahn and Elder Findley came to help us with a service project, those blessed humans. They didn't complain once, for a whole 4 minutes. 😂 

Zone Conference picture. (:

Winter has hit and Sister T and I are happy about it! 

A picture from interviews from 2 weeks ago. I love these people. :)