Week 3 in the field.

Hello Everyone!

 

This week has been yet another great and glorious week. I have seen the Lord do some miraculous things and I am just honored to take part in them. We recently had our ward halloween party and Elder Wilson and I had two of our investigators come and it was a blast! they loved it and we all played touch football. One of our investigators name is Lovell, he is a huge black football player. He is 18 and wants to be a chef. He also plays the snare drums in the marching band. Before he moved here he lived in the getto in downtown chicago. He is pretty much a boss :) When he read the Book of Mormon he cried! lots of great things are happening down here. These past few days my testimony has been tested and tried but I know the Lord is over me and is helping me become stronger in my faith in him. I am out of time but I love you all and next week this will be my first email so i will write more! Love you all! Go out and share the gospel with someone!

Sincerely,

Elder Young

Snippets from Jake's 2nd week in the field. (The rest of the letter are things he needs...:) )

Hi Mom!

so i literally have no time this week. things are going hectic with investigators and its taking up all of our time. Things are actually going wonderful here. the ward is great. the work is great. the investigators are great. haha i hate writing letters cause it never gets what a want to fully say. honestly i have NOTHING to complain about and i am super scared that there is like going to be like a week straight of hellish days because i haven't had a bad day yet and i am just loving it so much.  i just love life here and i feel like i am truly needed here. There are definitely things i can work on and i am working on them everyday.

We have several awesome investigators but there is one that i thought was worth sharing about. her name is Guila. She is a single mom with two little kids. she is one of our investigators with a baptismal date and when i first met her she was in the hospital, pregnant, with gall stones.... ya this woman has had so many bad things happen to her since i have gotten here it makes me sick inside. after she got out of the hospital she was still very sick and her boss fired her from her job and because of that her land lord is going to give her a notice on her apartment. she also didn't have money after that event to pay rent on her bed(she was renting her bed from someone) so they took the bed but luckily some of the members who have become friends with her, got her a bed so that was super cool. but it gets worse. so on Sunday she came to church with her two adorable kids and we were able to teach her and go over the baptismal questions with her during the second hour. the poor girl cried and cried about her the crap she was going through and i wished i could just give her a hug. anyways when we offered to move her baptism date back she got tears in her eyes and said "i want to get baptized." and so we told her to pray about it and let us know when she felt it would be best. anyways we were excited that she was still fighting but that night we got a call from her..... she was in jail. turns out that earlier that evening her ex-husband came over with his girlfriend and he had a big bruise on his face and they called the police on her and blamed it on her... and the only witness was his girlfriend. so she got put in jail and is now has no money to post bail and if she doesn't she will be in jail to the end of November and lose her house and all her stuff... it has appalled me all the crap she has had to go through. we are hoping Bro. Craig Sr. can post her bail and so she can get out. he is a member of the bishopric and has been a huge help. i wish i could just give her plane tickets and send her to live in Rexburg but that can't happen.... anyways its a sticky situation.

(I remember clearly as a missionary wishing I could send everyone back to Rexburg where they would be safe and okay... :) -Jake's Mom )

First Week in the Mission Field

Hey Everyone!

 

Life is going great here in Indiana! I am in a town called Shelbyville. It pretty much consists of farmers and factory workers... oh and homeless people! haha but I am loving it here. Believe it or not, I have not tracted yet.. We have had full day after full day after full day. The missionaries before I got here really did some good work. My new companion is Elder Wilson. He is an insanely hard worker and a really caring person. We get along great! His companion/trainer before me was very different from him and they struggled pretty bad so he is still detoxing from that. But he is learning to become more relaxed. Also I have been getting more ripped since I have been out here!!!! I never thought that would happen. They refer to me as the buff elder in our area. Another elder in my area, Elder Easter, came up to me when we were shopping on preparation day and said "You are so freaking buff... its sick." haha and he was dead serious! it made my day :) my traps have gotten pretty enlarged :D ANYWAYS, the work is moving on down here in Shelbyville. Its coming slowly but steadily. Many of these people live in poverty or just have bad thing after bad thing happen to them. I often wonder how they can get out of the bed in the morning. One of our investigators name is Guila, she is about 26 and she is pregnant with her third child, divorced, and just got out the hospital with gal stones. She has to go into surgery in a few days and her boss fired her today because she has missed to many days being in the hospital.... thats a glimpse of the lives people live down here. Also we have an investigator named Maria who is about 45, has some kids, missing half her teeth, works in a pizza dough factory, and is living with a less active member boyfriend. Her husband slept with her mom so she is still traumatized by that (who wouldn't be) and yet she has the sweetest spirit. There is many more stories just like these I could tell you, it so sad because we have a message that can change their lives and yet they don't accept it. But we are working hard and won't give up. I am growing so much out here, its ridiculous. My testimony is growing so much everyday and it is from absolute obedience. My companion and I are so obedient sometimes it bugs me for no reason... haha but we are so blessed from it. We also pray literally 24-7... like today my companion prayed over a bowl of cereal, then after he finished that he made a sandwich and prayed over that too.... (he's crazy! haha jk :) I am loving relying on the Lord so much. Anyways, there is so much to tell but not enough time. Just know that I love you all and will write you next week.

Love,

Elder Young

 

P.S.- I didn't write Monday because it was Columbus day and they closed the library. But my preparation days are on Monday so expect letter then!

A text I received today:

Your son has arrived in Shelbyville, IN!  We just had them over for lunch.  Elder Wilson is his trainer and a super missionary!  We'll take good care of him here.
Susan Loper ( a member who had them over for lunch) 

(I LOVE TEXTING and I LOVE COOL MEMBERS!)

)

And he's....outtahere!

Unprepared, I got a phone call this morning and when I said, "hello" I heard, "Hi momma." WOW! I wasn't expecting the rush I got from hearing Jake's voice. I can't imagine what people go through who haven't heard from loved ones for years. I felt so emotional; proud, sentimental, happy, longing, excitement, tender. It was so great to hear my sons voice mainly because he sounded so upbeat and excited!

He said his district had the best time together. All except Jake were from Utah. He loved his companion. There are 20 Elders flying out today for Indiana. There was one creepy Elder that he would be scared to be comps with. Jake said this Elder flirted tirelessly with all the Sister Missionaries, touching their hair and so on. He reminds Jake of this guy:

I told him now that he's expressed his anxiety about having him as a comp, he will. :)

He said he has not been homesick. He said all the Elders in his district/apartment cried the first night saying, "I miss my mom." Jake never did cry and the Elders told him he didn't love his mother and Jake told them he was raised to be a big boy. THAT'S MY SON! There's no crying on a mission!! (see A League of Their Own) I told Jake he should buy them all pull-ups. :)

He called Ira and M'Lynn this afternoon. He was in INDIANA! He had tried to pass out pass along cards but everyone in the airport and on the plane was Mormon.

Well, here we go. I don't know how to express how proud I am of Jake. He is so great!! Can't wait to be part of this great work again, even vicariously!

Last Day in the MTC

Hello!

Today is my last day in the MTC! We had an absolute amazing weekend here with conference and all the Sunday evening devotionals and church movies. What was everyone's favorite talk?? I had so many I don't think I can pick one. I did really love Elder Uchtdorf's talk on getting up. Last night we watched the Joseph Smith movie before checking in for the night and it was sooooo powerful!! our district was so pumped after we watched it, we all wanted to go proselyte right there! It was a grand old time :) Today we are just getting packed and getting ready to depart. Our last classes are this afternoon and then we leave for the airport tomorrow morning around 4:30 am. I should be in Indianapolis around 2pm. tomorrow so that should be exciting! Hope everyone is doing well and I am looking forward to hearing from you guys! Getting emails here is way more exciting then it was back home. Love you guys!

 

Elder Young

MTC Week 1

Hey Everyone!

I have now been in the MTC just over a week and it's been going great! I absolutely LOVE all of the power packed spiritual experiences. All day long it's like you are absorbing all of this gospel knowledge in. I love it! My comp is Elder Palmer, he is awesome! He loves to tease everyone so we pretty much get along just fine :) our district is six elders and we are all roommates. they are so awesome! we are actually all nerds except my comp so it is a hoot and a holler! sometimes we laugh too much and it gets out of hand so we always have to calm each other down and feel guilty about it :P We are actually not staying at the MTC, infact we are at the new campus called Wyview. I haven't been to the actual main campus since day one. Its so much nicer down here though. We got spoiled and we are sooo blessed. Also I am just going to put this out there, I really hate the age change for girls right now because there are so many beautiful sister missionaries here! all of us have to keep coaching ourselves to stay away. haha its hard but we are keeping strong :) We are teaching three different Investigators right now and they are all so different! its also very humbling cause once you get comfortable teaching you get totally smacked down and have to humble yourself again... we were meeting with one investigator yesterday and we were really confident with him but when we came to teach he had all these doubts and we didn't even get to teach him... It was really hard on me cause I had no idea what to do but then my teacher read this scripture "The Lord chaseneth whom he loveth." and it made me feel a lot better. Anyways, things are going dandy out here and I am striving to be the best missionary I can be. The food here is pretty sweet, its pretty much a buffet for all three meals :) But i am not gaining any weight and actually I am getting more and more muscle from the micro workouts i do throughout the day! its great. I am increasing my push up number every day and today i did 40 in one set. so i am hoping to do 100 before this year ends! so i am hopeful that i will remain in good shape for Marines :) Love you guys and before I leave I want you to all tell me how you guys feel the spirit. does it come as a whisper in your heads? or just a good feeling? I would love to know cause I am trying to become better at recognizing the spirit.

Talk to you guys soon!

Elder Young

P.S.- these are some pics i took this week, the one with all the elders is my district, my comp is standing to the right me and the other picture is my apartment.