The One Where Transfer Calls Came

Wowza. What a weeeeeeeeeek! 

I read the coolest quote in a talk this week. It talks about keeping the commandments and how it helps us, but I likened it to missionary work as well and it worked perfectly! The talk is called "Wherefore, Settle This in Your Hearts" by Larry W. Gibbons. He says,

"You lived with your Heavenly Father in a premortal life. You were there with Him. Your spirit knows what it is like to live in celestial realms. You can never be truly happy in an uncelestial environment. You know too much. That is one of the reasons that for you, wickedness never can be happiness."

I love this quote! It holds so much truth behind why our spirits can never feel at home in uncelestial environments, despite what the world tells us. It's important for us to know where we came from so that we can understand the magnitude of importance that our choices on Earth hold and how that will affect us in the life to come. It's really such a great talk! Read it! 

This week was filled with good stuff. Lots of service and lots of quality conversations! We have been working hard to get our numbers higher and we have felt the Lord's hand in our efforts. 

Mainly, our week consisted of service. We worked our tails off going from place to place, trying to find more service and more people to teach. We prayed about where to go and who to be led to and...... we doubled our quality conversation numbers, doubled our service hours, and found two new people! WOOOO!!

One of them is a boy who is unsure about being baptized and comes from a convert family who has been a little inactive. We went to their home and we seemed a little apprehensive but we had a pretty good connection and I told him that I really wanted to teach him something that I love more than ANYTHING and I know how to make it really fun. He thought about it for a second and was like," can we watch videos about it, too?" And I said "absolutely! I love videos!" So he got really excited! It was really fun! 

We had a three companionship exchange so I went with Sister Chaffin. She is the single coolest human this side of the Mississippi. She's so fun and such a hard worker! We worked our tails off doing service and having so many conversations and a couple people asked us to pray with them. It really was such a sucker punch from the spirit. So so cool! 

After we switched back, Sister Pierce had just met with our Baptist friends and they were finishing up their discussion. One friend had to leave a little early, so we finished up without her and then parted ways. As we were walking to our car, we saw the friend who left early and she was talking to a friend. I had a prompting to go over and talk to her so we headed over and met her friend. She was so kind and so happy to meet us. We learned that she has been investigating the church a little bit and was going to get a Book of Mormon from her friend! Sister Pierce shared a testimony and a little background about the Book of Mormon and we invited her to our discussions with our two Baptist friends and she said she was interested! 

It was such a great experience and it helped lift my spirits and solidify the testimony I had that working hard brings results. 

At church on Sunday, we saw a lady sitting by herself that we hadn't seen in a while so we went up and talked to her. She's been inactive since she was 10 years old and is now probably in her mid to late 50s. She told us this was the second week in a row that she came and she just liked the feeling. I asked her if I could sit by her in Relief Society and she said yes. When we were walking towards the Relief Society room after sacrament meeting, she was standing by the door, watching and waiting for us. We had the best conversation and I invited her to come to quilting with the Relief Society and asked if we could come by and visit and she said she would like that very much. 

I think one of the most prominent lessons I've learned is that all it takes is a kind smile and warm spirit and people can feel the love of God through you. It doesn't take grand gestures or copious amounts of compliments. Just love others enough to let them know you care and God will do the rest. 

I'm so grateful for the decision I made to serve a mission. I'm grateful for the joy it has brought and the growth it continues to push me through. 

Transfer calls came! Sister Pierce is leaving me. She is going to Mountain Home, AR and her new companion is none other than Sister Chandler, my MTC comp! 

I'm staying here in Bella Vista and I'll be getting Sister Kepler. She is the cutest bug and is from Pocatello Idaho! She is just finishing up her training so she is one transfer behind me. It'll be so much fun to have her and I'm so excited to be staying in BV! 

I love you all so much. Remember to read, study, pray, and be the light in others lives. If you do that, you will feel the power of God's love for you individually. 

Do your best, and be kind to one another! 

❤ Sister Young 

 Sister P and me with the Murray family; we live in like a separate apartment on their property. They're such a sweet family. 

 serving in the kitchen with our sexy hairnets 

                                               Gonna miss this tiny human. She's 5'1. 😂

                                                                   another car selfie 🤟🏻

                                                   great quote by President Monson! 

The One Where Mission Struggles Are Real

I made it through, everybody. 

Valentines Day as a single missionary is actually pretty awesome. 

So much love and friendship from everyone! It was the best Valentine's Day ever! 

This week was pretty awesome. 

As I have said before (I think) our mission presidents focus is on service hours (20 a week, to be exact) and quality conversations to share the gospel in a natural, normal way. We have been able to exceed the numbers each week and the more we get, the more we have a passion to work for! We want to have at least 100 quality conversations a week, which is a lot considering each conversation has to include their name, some background or getting to know them and leaving them with an invitation. It takes a good amount of effort, but it's possible! And we've been able to do it. It feels good to get out and love the people of Bella Vista in a natural and normal way! 

I spoke in sacrament meeting just this last Sunday and we invited one of our Baptist friends to come and she came! She sat in the back by her friend who is a member and recorded my whole talk. 😊 She loved it; she said she loved the feeling she got. Wahoo! The spirit is real, y'all! I spoke on the Grace of Jesus Christ and how we can use grace, the enabling power of Jesus Christ's atonement, to help us become better prepared for heaven and the life to come. It was so fun to get up and share a little bit about me and become introduced to the ward... as soon as the transfer is almost over. 😅 oh well! But it was great. 

All in all, it was a good week! 

I kinda want to change keys this week and talk a little about the realness of the struggles of mission life. I got an email from my wonderful aunt, the one who makes this blog so cute and updated, (thank you a million times, Leah! I love you!) And in the email, she said I could complain a little if I needed to. And it got me thinking that as great as missionary life is, it is seriously one of the single hardest things I've dealt with in my life. 

I thought that I could easily conquer a mission. Oh man, I thought I had this in the bag. I was going to be the best of the best; the elite. I know I had the strength and personality and confidence to do it and do it well. I was going to nail it! Soar! Beat expectations! Rise above and beyond! 

Then reality hits. Doors get slammed. People avoid eye contact. People decided that they no longer needed the groceries in that aisle the missionaries are in. They bash. They assume. They question our motives. 

On top of that, we deal with growing up with an influx of social media with an endless amount of influences and images and concepts and ideas of how to be better, look better, be accepted better, grow better; teaching us subconsciously that we are never good enough the way we are. 

We couldn't stop that. It's how the world changed. It's what we were born into with any choice of ours or our parents. It's just how times have changed. We have this constant question of "am I enough?"

There is truth that the restored gospel of Jesus Christ brings peace and hope and assurance in an increasingly wicked world, but as being a part of the Army of Helaman, being a missionary, Satan will use everything in his evil power to knock us down and draw us out. And, I'm sad to admit, he's successful. I have spent so many nights in tears, locked in the bathroom on the floor crying out to Him to help me be who I thought I was going to be out here. I have felt so alone, so helpless, so desperate to feel better. 

It doesn't come from God. It doesn't come from being out on a mission itself. It comes from Satan. He is working tooth and nail to break down the soldiers of this army of righteousness. It's real and it's hard. 

But I can tell you that I have never been stronger than when I stand up and move forward with serving the Lord the next day. With pressing forward with faith and diligence. With the humility and patience to follow by faith rather than by sight. 

I know this isn't happening just on missions. This is happening in a world that is growing in evilness and wickedness. No one is exempt. But I want it made known that I know that the more we turn to our Heavenly Father and our Savior, Jesus Christ and we take the time to listen and we are willing to do what they ask in their timing, we will rise above the dark mists and we will grow stronger in our faith and our relationships with them. 

Missions are hard. I would love to complain, I do my fair share. 😅 but I know that it is worth it. Because my testimony is tenfold what it was before and nothing and no one can take that from me. 

And I'm only 4 months in. 😊 

I love you all. I'm so grateful for all of you. Grateful for your love and support and kindness to me. Thank you for the prayers and the motivation, the letters, and emails. 

Heavenly Father loves you. Jesus Christ loves you. You are loved. You can feel that love when you turn to them. 

Reach out to those around you. Share your spirit with others. Try to have a gospel based quality conversation this week! Tell me how it goes. :) 

I love love love you all. Be kind to one another! 

- Sister Young

Brother and Sister Raby got us Valentines! They're the best!

 This was my view of the awesome workshop President Strong gave us. 🤘🏻 love that guy. 

The One Where My Uke Is A Blessing

And it shall come to pass in that day that the Lord shall give thee rest, from thy sorrow, and from thy fear, and from the hard bondage wherein thou wast made to serve.

2 Nephi 24:3

I found this scripture this week while I was going through a particularly difficult time. It's really amazing how the Lord can speak directly to us in our times of need. 

This week was a week, indeed! Not a lot happened so it might be a smaller email than normal, but it was still a good week! 

A couple things to explain first is that our mission has an objective to have 11 meaningful conversations with nonmembers a day. That means to get to know someone, a little background, learn their name, and leave them with some kind of invitation. We are encouraged and challenged to have 11 of these a day. That's been the push in our mission for about 2 months now. Another thing we strive to have is 10 hours of service a week. That also means that it has to be community service and not helping just members with things, but getting out into the community and helping that way. 

So, with that kind of focus, we have been looking for ways to serve the community and people to have conversations with. One of the places we are serving at is called Village House and it's a day program for elderly people and people with disabilities. We usually go quite early in the morning and sit and talk with them and spend time with them on Fridays and this last Friday, they invited us back for lunch and to come sing for them. So we left and I got my Ukulele and we went back and had pizza because it was national pizza day. We had learned 1 or 2 hymns on the uke so we played a couple other songs I know and ended with the hymns. 

There's this elderly gentleman who is there and he would clap for us after every song and then we ended on Count Your Blessings, from the hymn book, and he totally just lit up. He started singing right along! At the end, we were so happy that he knew that song and he asked what church we were from and we told him, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and he turned to the lady in charge and told her we were missionaries from his church! We didn't even know! That was the coolest moment and it happened because of the power of song! He then said that he wishes he could still sing and I said "you can and you did! You sounded wonderful! Do you want to sing it again?" And he lit up again and said yes. So we played it again and he loved it! 

As we were wrapping up, he asked us if we would learn hymn 223. I pulled out my phone and looked it up and clarified that it was "Have I Done Any Good?" And he got excited again and said yes. The lady was pretty shocked and just tickled that we knew what he was talking about and that it made him so happy. Another gentleman, sitting next to me, leaned over and tugged on my arm and asked me if I knew of Doris Day. For those of you who know me know that I do, in fact, know and completely LOVE Doris Day. He was pretty happy to hear that and asked if I knew any of her songs. I told him I would learn how to play Que Sere, Sere and play it for him next time. He was so excited to hear it. 

It was amazing and definitely a highlight of my week. Another highlight was one night, we were particularly short on conversations that day so we both felt like going to Walmart would be the best because it was already dark outside. So we headed over to Walmart and we were having conversations and doing our missionary duty, but nothing was really coming of it. Well, we checked out and were walking to the doors and I saw a lady sitting at the taxes booth up by the doors who kept making eye contact so I complimented her outfit (because it was super cute) and she just blurted out that she noticed when we walked in because she knew the Sister missionaries before! That was pretty cool! So we talked for a while and gave her our number and when we got to the car, she had already texted us. 😊 it was so fun to see her excitement by seeing us. It really lifted my spirits! 

There's not much else that has happened. But a lot of spiritual growth and developing a complete love for the scriptures and God's word. 

I will be honest, I did not like reading the scriptures for the majority of my life. It didn't make sense, the words are weird, there's not a whole lot of dialogue which helps with my novel reading, and there are no pictures... I didn't like it! But before I left on my mission, my love for the scriptures was so deep and profound. AND ITS ONLY GOTTEN BETTER! The Lord loves us SO MUCH!! He has given us everything we need to feel that love and all it takes is turning to him by turning the pages of His book. 

Everybody, read your scriptures. And then read them again. Take what you read in a day and double it. And then read while your eating, exercising, cleaning, using the bathroom, whatever! He is constantly trying to reach out to us and he can successfully do that if we are reading His words. I know that that is truth because I have done it. 

I love you all. Happy Valentines Day this week!! Make sure you show your love to all those around you. Smile, and be kind to one another. 

I love you! 

- Sister Young

Ps, I DYED MY HAIR! I couldn't keep up with my roots out here so I just went back to brunette. :) 

service selfie

another service selfie

for my dad, the ultimate bird nerd. A bright red Cardinal!

I have mastered the Lava Song on the Uke and Sister P illustrated what it looks like. 😂

The One With the Doctor Visit

Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, the King of creation! 

Oh, my soul praise him, for he is thy HEALTH and salvation! 

☝🏼☝🏼☝🏼

Love love love this hymn! 

Well, I wish I could report millions of miracles and hours of hard work and tons of people that we're teaching! However, my biggest miracle this week is that I didn't have to go to the hospital. 😅 Sickness has hit Bella Vista HARD and the missionaries are no exception. I was trying to recover from the head cold I had and about Monday night, we were determined to get up and just bust through but my restless, hacking-up-both-lungs coughing fit night and 101 fever the next morning begged to differ. We stayed in, studied, listened to every conference ever (not really, but I wish. I love GC talks!), slept, learned hymns on the piano and Ukulele (shoutout to the best mom ever! Thanks, you lovely human!) And drank lots of fluids and pumped meds! 

Then, on Wednesday, my ear was starting to hurt and my congestion was out of this world. So I called sweet Sister Wright, our mission nurse a third time in 3 days and the conversation went as such:

Me: Hi Sister Wright, this is Sister Young. 

SW: ........ Sister who? 

Me: Young 

SW: Goodness gracious, my dear! You don't even sound like a Sister! 

😂

I told her it wasn't getting better and she specifically asked if my ears were hurting and I said yeah and she said "that's it! You go to the doctor NOW." We went and he looked in my ears, my throat, checked my glands, and then said "Well, you've got ear infections in both ears and a chest cold and a sinus infection." 😅 oh man! It was pretty crazy. So I'm slowly getting better and slowly kicking it out of my system! 

Thursday was another rest day. Then Friday, we had Zone Conference. I drugged up good and prayed very hard and we headed out! I survived well and I got to see Sister Taylor, my trainer! We both miss each other so much, but we're doing so good in our areas now. It was so fun to see her and to see everyone. We had a great Zone Conference filled with goals, spiritual upliftment, dedication, and rejuvenation. I'm very blessed with a Mission President who is continually striving to help us become the best versions of ourselves. 

Saturday was good! We took it easy in the morning and afternoon and then that evening, we met with Nikki and Amber and had a great gospel discussion. It's wonderful to meet with them and to learn more about the Bible through their eyes and thoughts. We invited them to read the Book Of Mormon and to highlight all of the terms that reference to Jesus Christ, just like President Nelson challenged us last October. They accepted it and we felt like it will help them come closer to the Savior. 

Sunday was wonderful. I really love the Come, Follow Me curriculum. Such amazing discussions come from meeting together and discussing questions and insights and it has become a highlight of the week for me. I'm so grateful for a Latter-Day prophet to guide us through the trials in these days and in the days to come. I know his words and the words of the apostles and leaders truly provide safety for our souls. 

I also want to say how grateful I am for the Book of Mormon. I struggled with it for quite possibly, my entire growing up. It was hard to pay attention when reading and it didn't really pertain to anything I was going through and I just didn't like doing it. As I pour over the pages now, I am filled with sadness that I didn't take the opportunity to tap into the power and peace that comes from its pages. I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. I know that because I know that the Book of Mormon is truly another testament of Jesus Christ. I'm so grateful for the knowledge I have obtained through study and prayer and my personal relationship with my Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. 

I love you all, and I thank you, again, for the prayers on my behalf. I feel your love out here in Bella Vista and I'm very blessed. 

Be kind to one another, and take an opportunity to share the gospel this week. 🤗 

Love you! 

- Sister Young

reunited and it feels so good! 

Sister Pierce's outfit for a quick run to the church building was just too good to not share. 👌🏻😍 She's so stinking cute!