A little video of Jake's days as a Special Needs Seminary helper.

Each day they would act out a scene from a super hero movie and then the students would have to guess the movie. We watch it often to hear Jake's laughter and also because it's so dang cute! :)

A few pics

Weekly Update

Hello Everyone!

 

This week has been a wonderful week full of miracles and growing experiences! This week Guila (our super solid investigator) not only helped us teach other investigators but has a new boyfriend who she gave a book of mormon to,  and brought to church this week. Turns out his name is Billy (how cool is that!!!) and he is a WONDER INVESTIGATOR! So in gospel principles at church, Elder Wilson (my companion) and Elder Willie taught the Plan of Salvation and apparently he was helping them teach out of the scriptures and told everyone that he knew that the book of mormon was true, ALSO in Elders Quorum he informed us that his only desire in life now is to be a servant of the Lord and serve him forever.... Elder Wilson and I were having spiritual poopies in our pants. :D 

So all in all it has been a great week! We have a quarterly goal of 7 baptisms and so far we have had 2. We are exercising great amounts of faith to accomplish that and we can feel the Lord working through us.

Hope everyone is doing well! My video diaries will soon be send home to be put on a blog for all to see. Ta ta for now!

Sincerely,

Elder Young

 

P.S.- Here are some picture of my apartment and other random stuff. and Elder Easter says hi!!

Weekly Update (a week late - mama's fault)

Helllooooooooo!

 

Life is going good over here in Shelbytucky! We almost had a tornado last night and that was awesome! I was bummed I didn't get to see one though :( We are still working dilligently with our investigators and loving everyone we come in contact with. I found out that the hardest part about my mission is myself. As humans we have so many weaknesses that we have to work to overcome that if you focus on yourself on your mission it will be hard. So my companion and I are working on becoming as humble as possible at all times and just thinking positive thoughts. With that said though we do have amazing experiences everyday and are thoroughly enjoying our time serving. We are pretty goofy in our apartment and that makes up for some fun times. 

We just had stake conference and that was amazing! The whole session was on member missionary work. It was really inspiring! My mission president spoke at it and he is such a boss! I love listening to him speak. He looks just like Riley too! So Riley, if you see a picture of him, that is what you are going to look like when you are an old geezer :) 

Also on Friday, Elder Wilson, Guila(investigator), Jeff Loper(Member), and I all went to movie night in Franklin. The ward there hosted it and we watched "Ephraim's Rescue". it was pretty cheesy at some parts but really good for the most part! very powerful experience! Guila is doing extremely well! she has a person of interest and she was so excited to tell us that she was talking to him about the mormons and how she is going to join and that she wants the missionaries to come and talk to him :D she is great!

 

Anyways, I am learning SO MUCH and LOVING MY MISSION! Hope everyone is doing well, love you all and I pray for you.

Love,

Elder Young

Weekly Update!

Hello everyone, 

I have like 10 minutes to write this before my time runs out so here I go!

 

This week has been one of great excitement and enlightenment. My companion and I are becoming better everyday and trying to maintain great attitudes everyday. I have been experiencing SO MANY MIRACLES this past week. its ridiculous! I will talk about them more in my video diaries which I am hoping to put on here.

It snowed today and it is so darn tootin cold out here I am scared for the next 4 months.... :) anyways other than that, I have been realizing how much food I actually eat each day.... to be honest its scary.... I don't know where it all goes! :) on the bright side I eat pretty healthy compared to Elder Willie who buys two two liter containers of mellow yellow each week and donuts and cheese... (that's literally all he bought yesterday for the week) :D haha we love to make fun of his eating habits! You would be proud of me mom, I buy a container of that weed mix salad and eat one of those every week! I just bought ceasar dressing, cherry tomatoes and parmesan cheese and make ceasar salads everyday, ITS THE BEST! 

Yesterday our zone got together to play games at the stake center and it was a ton of fun! I realized how much I stink at sports :) 

Also an update on our investigator Guila, she got released from jail a week ago for surgery and she is released till her trial in a week! so she is progressing in the gospel and the ward is taking good care of her.

Alright, well I go to go, my comp is waiting for me. 

Love you all!

Elder Young

A few field pics

Another great week!

Hey Guys!

    This week has been a great week of learning and growing. I often have many spiritual battles in my mind every day as my natural man wants to take control and my spiritual man is constantly beating the natural man down. It can be a weary process sometimes but I am determined to win the battle!
     We have been so blessed to be led to several new investigators this week. We gained seven new investigators this week and now have 12, I believe. Many of these new investigators are hungry for the truth and eat it up as the spirit teaches them. Its a marvelous thing to behold. We are also thinking of new ways to work with members and we are finding success in our new methods. I can feel the members starting to feel that fire of missionary work and are trusting us more and more. I feel that the spirit is about to take us over the brim of major spiritual success and it is simply our jobs to stay as close to the Lord as possible and be courageous in all our efforts.
     Some funny stories this week. So there is this guy that apparently EVERYONE in Shelbyville knows, and his name is Carl Bond. Well I haven't met him but the other set of missionaries have been over to his place a few times and the stories they tell us about him are hysterical! They say that he is about 65 years old, has the hair of Einstein and looks like Elton John and Ozzy Osbourne. He also has 7 pianos in his tiny house (he fixes and tunes pianos). Well the other missionaries said that went they went over to his house he went on and on about how awful and wretched the people of Shelbyville are and how he pities anyone that has to come here (which is ironic cause he is probably the biggest goober in the area) and he also had a gay roomate that feels the same way about this place. He is a less active member and I guess that he plays piano and organ for like every church in Shelbyville... except the church he belongs to... :) Oh and also I guess he talks and talks and talks for hours. haha last time the elders went over they were there for 2 hours and they said they literally said 2 words, HA! Every time the other missionaries come over and tell us stories about him it makes me want to meet him more and more! We went over to visit him and my companion was going to play him a song he is writing (my companion is this freaking amazing composer) and if Carl came to church he would play the rest of the song for him at church. But when we went over there he wasn't home but his house totally matched what I thought a person like himself would live in! it made my day!

    I am loving this work. It feels my heart to see the gospel start to take root in these people's lives. Elder Wilson and I are making leaps to become creators of circumstances and not creatures of circumstances.
The things I am working on to become a better missionary is first, of course, staying very humble. Secondly, I catch myself in my free time often day-dreaming about my future and how weird it will be when I return home in two years... I am working on quenching those thoughts and strictly focusing on the work at hand. I want to be a missionary who is completely involved in the task that is before me. I am confident that through diligence and relying on the Lord I can continue to better myself in these areas.
Thank you for your love and support!

Elder Young

P.S. oh and Guila got out of jail!! She got out this week and came to church. She is doing good and the ward is taking good care of her. She got out because of surgery and then they just released her for no reason until her trial in a month. she is recognizing the Lord's hand in her life and relying on him. she said she prayed like 50 times a day in jail and finally said her will was his and then a few days later her gall bladder acted up so she got out for surgery! I love the Lord!