Pictures of his new pad, new comp and the view.

The Elementary School across from his apartment.

He's in Culver, Indiana, not Plymouth. Link below. Looks pretty sweet!

Hey Guys!

I am in my new area now! I got transferred to a lake resort town clear out in the middle of no where called Culver.....and I LOVE IT! It reminds me of home :) it is so beautiful and super small. Like we could tract the whole thing in a week, maybe less. Apparently during the summer everyone comes here and we have movie stars that live around the lake, so guess who is converting Hugh Jackman??? The Lord is ;)

I am in a branch now and they are freaking sweet! We have the most boss branch president. He isn't even in our ward boundries but was assigned here to help the branch. He is super missionary minded and helps out the missionaries a TON. We have missionary coorilation after church for about 3 hours... haha he fills his desk full of treats and junk food and we all eat till we are sick... its da best :)

My new companion is Elder Van Shaar from Arizona. He is awesome :) We have a lot in common and he is very obedient and loves the people and the work. We are excited to tear up Culver and bring souls to Christ.

This last Sunday we had a baptism, it was awesome! His name is Daniel Miltenberger and he is such a humble guy. That was cool to see him change his life.

At the moment we have zero investigators.... but we are going to change that! It is very different missionary work up here than it was in my other areas because we are literally in the middle of nowhere. There are numerous teeny tiny towns everywhere so we have to plan very strategically to go places so we don't exhaust our miles. We do a lot of driving :) We are going to work more closely with the ward though so we can get more refers cause the bright side is that since it is country out here, everyone knows everyone! Also Culver is a newly opened area, So we are excited to see this area grow.

Well Family, I love you all and thank you for all your love and support. you guys are the best!

Sincerely,

Elder Young

450 School St. Apt. 2

Culver, Indiana, 46511

Teralyn here: a link to where he is. Looks like good times! He is serving in the Plymouth Branch. https://www.google.com/maps/place/Culver,+IN+46511/@41.2149221,-86.4217655,14z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x8813e2adb55437a3:0xa626443dcbd3f98

Going to Plymouth, Indiana (a special shout out to Melisa Perry for delivering cookies and snapping photos!)

 Jake is now 2 hours and 13 minutes from the Hoogland's (his aunt and uncle and kids near Chicago).
M'Lynn is headed out there next week... :) He looks great, eh?? I love his silly faces and his laughing faces and pretty much his face!

Seminary Jake

Goodbye Jake

A sweet text...

Got a cool text and picture today from a family in Jake's ward in Greenwood:

"We loved having your son in our ward...He is very impressive. What a great young man. You have to be so proud. Thanks for raising a special guy. My family has blessed to know him. Bro. John Mann"

Sweet! :)

New pics....

I'm being transferred.....again! (but we don't know where till Wednesday)

Hey Guys,

I am so sad to leave Greenwood! This ward and area have been so wonderful. I am going to miss the people and the work here so much. I know that where I will be next called is where I need to be, though. The area is coming alive. 

On Sunday we had FOUR INVESTIGATORS at church! One of them was a potential investigator that we invited to come. It was a treat. After finding so many different potentials we have started running into those who you can tell have been prepared. 

We had an experience tracting where we ran into a lady who had a daycare. Her name was Heather and she was in her late 20's early 30's. She invited us in but we told her we couldn't cause there was no male. As we talked to her she told us that she had a friend who was Mormon and she recently got sealed in the temple. Heather thought that was so cool and it was something she wanted. She also told us that a few nights previous she asked her husband (who was a former Nazarene preacher) if they should become Mormon... haha he didn't like that very much :) Anyways, she was interested in meeting and it is such a bummer we won't get to teach her but I know the Lord is in charge and he is taking care of the situation. 

I am looking forward to a new area and new adventures that await, and I am hoping that I can continue to grow and become a better servant of the Lord.

Love you all and I will let you know how my new area is going and all that jazz.

Sincerely,
Elder Young

Hello again!

Last Friday I had the wonderful opportunity to attend the Louisville, Kentucky temple. We did some initiatories and 2 endowment sessions. It was an absolutely phenomenal experience. There is something special about going to the temple as a missionary. As a missionary, you have "a conduit from heaven opened to you" where you can receive divine knowledge and understanding and you can definitely tell that is true when you go to the temple... marvelous, simply marvelous :)

Our area is doing pretty good at the moment, we had to drop Richard ( it was sad :( but it was necessary) he has stopped progressing. On the bright side we have picked up new investigators and many new potentials. We are shooting to teach 21 lessons this week to reach our goal of 30 lessons taught the last 2 weeks of the transfer. Keep our goals in your prayers, would ya? I know that goals are inspired of God and are crucial to success as a missionary. They show your dedication and give you things to focus on, thereby helping your improve yourself more efficiently.Transfers are coming up next Wednesday. I am hoping I will get to stay in this area for a while, it is an excellent ward and area. There is so much potential here and the weather is just getting good!

Speaking of good weather, we have been riding our bikes this week and that has been a blast! I have loved being able to ride, didn't think I would love it, but I do :) A few days ago we rode out in the country to contact some referrals and visit some members and we road about 20 miles round trip. I LOVE RIDING IN THE COUNTRY! It reminded me of home and it was great to ride out there and breath in the fresh air. I am in surprisingly good shape too! I didn't get sore at all and I wasn't getting out of breath so that made my week :)

Yesterday at church, the Malone family (part member family we are working with) came to church and that made Elder Twitchell and myself jump for joy. We have really been struggling to get investigators to church (we have even had investigators promise they would come!) and so seeing the Malones there made our day and there were awesome talks and lessons given to really help and strengthen the family.

Thank you all so much for your love and support, I love you all very much and am very grateful for you. Keep on Rockin!

Sincerely,
Elder Young

Hi Everyone...

Things are going good here in Greenwood 1.2! 

Elder Twitchell and I are battling sickness but it should be conquered within a day or two (don't worry mom, it is just like a cold ;). Our investigator pool is growing and we have had many awesome spiritual experiences this week. I have loved seeing the Lord use us as His tools this week in finding some new people. We are excited to see the progress of these new investigators. 

The only problem we are running into is getting people to church! It is very different here in Indiana. People have a real hard time making it to church (if not on a regular basis), a lot of them just don't see the need to come to church. So Elder Twitchell and I are working hard to bring people and are looking for new ways we can help people gain the desire to go.

This week it has warmed up a lot and that has been WONDERFUL! People actually come outside now! Tracting and talking to people outside is way more enjoyable.

We had a cool spur-of-the-moment service opportunity the other day that made Elder Twitchell and myself feel really good. We were driving downtown to an area to proselyte and we saw an old man on one of those motorized wheelchairs. Well he ran into a little snowbank and got stuck right next to a super busy road and couldn't move. There was a car stopped and people were talking to him but it didn't look like they were going to help. So we turned the car into the near by parking lot and jumped out and ran over and helped him get out. It was a great experience and it brightened our day to help someone out.

That is about all this week. Thank you for all your prayers and support, I love you all! I pray for you.

Sincerely,
Elder Young

Update from Greenwood!

Hello Everyone!

This week has been a great week over in Greenwood! We got 3 new investigators and more on the way! I feel so blessed by the Lord for the success we have had this week. Two of our investigators are Anthony and Brittany, they are a young couple and new parents of a baby boy named Maverick. 

So funny story how we met them: first day in the new area, we are heading to an investigators house for a lesson and we get their early so we tract a couple apartments while we are waiting. The only appartment that awnsers is this new mom carrying her baby. It so happened to be Brittany! So we talked to her and she was interested in having us back so we said we would come by another time. Next time we came over her husband was there and it was the best cause we asked how Maverick was doing and Anthony said "He is doing pretty good, he just has some gas." and then I said "ya, don't all men?" haha after that he liked us a lot :) So we taught them just last Saturday and it was awesome! We found out that he used to live in Franklin and would turn down missionaries repeatedly (Franklin is our zone leaders area and it has been tracted like 50 times over and it is a booming town of missionary work) and then he thought it was funny cause when he moved he ended up meeting with us! We told him it wasn't a coincidence :) 

We also found a guy while doing "interval tracting" (we have to do laundry at another elders appartment across town and we have to do it during the week and since they are across the street from our area we made up this thing called interval tracting! we put in a load, tract, then come back and change the load and then tract some more!) his name is John and we had a short lesson in his garage, it was sweet! We gave him a Book of Mormon and he was very interested in reading it. We will be meeting with him this week.

Yesterday we had a good snow storm so church was cancelled and our district leader and his companion had a two night sleep over and we were stuck in for all of Sunday... It was fun but it was a bummer as well. As a missionary, church is your recharge for the week and when you don't have it, it stinks! 

Anyways, hope everyone is doing well and enjoying life! Love you all!

Sincerely,

Elder Young