"As Sisters in Colorado" : The Ups and Downs

Hello Everyone!

I will tell you about some of the most joyful days on my mission, so far! We really felt and saw the Lord showing us what we need to do here. I am so glad that we are finally seeing the work move! This week after district meeting, I love district meeting, we just got really pumped and excited! So we kept that positive outlook on life and started moving forward. We went to visit M, the Spanish speaking lady that we met, but she wasn't home. :( Bummer. But we did find another family, randomly this week. We were looking for a Less Active, and he didn't live there anymore but the family that answered the door said that the daughter had been baptized when she was little but wasn't going anymore but I don't think the rest of the family is baptized. But they told us to come back and they were really excited. So we stopped by with a member of the ward that speaks spanish, and they were having a family BBQ but they set up another time for us to come back for this week! So I will let you know how it goes. The kids speak English but the parents do not. Also that same night we saw a cute family outside raking and ended up driving by them multiple times trying to find another house. But we felt like we needed to go talk to them, but awkward, we had just driven by a ton of times and waved at them. But despite the awkwardness we parked our car and went over to talk to them. We just told them how great their family seemed and that we wanted to share a message on how their family could be strengthened an eternal. She was so touched by us stopping by and she said yes and we are going back this week. Also, randomly tracted into a lady who was an assistant secretary at GRHS my Senior year, she accepted a copy of the Book of Mormon. Crazy awesome connections.

Also, I don't know if I have told you before but we have a little town called Sinclair in our ward boundaries, so we go out there about once or twice a week and spend some time. This week we were able to contact the H family. We had just heard from another family that they had been invited to hear the gospel a little bit ago and said no but I just have been feeling pretty strongly about them. So this week we went over to their house. They let us in an we got talking and I told them that I went to school with their daughter and right then, she called her mom on the phone.(Weird things had been happening like that all day.) Haha. After she hung up we were able to just talk and get to know her and her family more. It's interesting how natural and normal we can make discussions about the gospel. We talked about her religious background and their family goals, her daughters baptism, her views on religion. And shared with them how the gospel can bless their family basically. Then we asked if she wanted to know more about what we believe. Right away she said yes! So we are going to work to schedule a set time to go back and start teaching her. It was so neat to see her heart softened. Pray really hard for this family! It would bless all of them so much. They are so neat.

Along with that neat experience, we have been finding tons of part member families! On the ward list, they only have a few listed but we have been finding more and more as we have been visiting people on the ward list that no one knows about. One day we literally found out about 4 or 5 part member families in a row just by stopping by. And if we didn't get them home, we used our detective skills and saw that they were married or had kids. One family that we found that is a part member family is the S family.

We caught them at home, which is a huge deal here in Rawlins, (hard to get people home, on any day of the week.) but they were all home. The mom of the family just barely started going back to church in March. She has been very less active for many years and went back on her own a couple months ago. Super neat story. She has 4 kids, 12, 10,6 and 2 and is married to a non-member. She really wants us to come over and teach her kids so that they can know the gospel better. She wants them to grow up with the church. She also wants her husband to start learning, but she says it will take baby steps. But we have a dinner/lesson set up with them this week. Should be super exciting! It is so neat to see the work moving forward! So many miracles every day! We were floating on air when we got home on a few of the days this week! It has been so neat to finally see what he has in store.

Our week at church was quite eventful. We performed, "Savior, Redeemer of My Soul" I sang, Sister Z played the piano, then we taught gospel principles, and then did singing time in primary again. I was worn out! But the church was so full this week that they had to open the back part, which never happens. We had a lot of Less actives there and also our investigator Sarah was there with her family. It was a good Sunday. Then we had an interesting experience. We met a lady who was a Born Again Christian, this week and set up an appointment with her for Sunday. Well, that was fun...haha. It's interesting to hear what they believe but it's hard for the spirit to teach and be there when the hearts of the individuals are not open. I've had some experiences like this before and was kind of prepared for what was going to happen, but it still was exhausting. They pretty much just grilled us with questions and didn't really listen to the answers. A bit frustrating just because they would disagree but then later they would basically say they believed in something so similar but didn't think that it was. Surprisingly I didn't get frustrated though. I just felt content and asked them a few questions too. I guess that is the closest situation to bible bashing I have encountered thus far though. But we didn't get contentious, but we knew we needed to just get out of there. But there were a few times that I felt the spirit speaking through me and they felt it too, I know they did. We can learn from all kinds of people though and their diligence in developing a relationship with our Savior. It made me think more deeply about my relationship with my Savior.

Well, I have typed a ton of random stuff today...I hope it somewhat made sense. Ups and downs happened all the time. Some times I wonder if I can really do this for 14 more months:)But then I think of my Savior and all He has done for me. Or I think of my family and how happy I am to be with the family I am with, or I think of the joy that I have found through the Atonement and covenants and it makes it all worth it. One thing that I have been doing in my personal studies every day is studying a Christlike Attribute in chapter 6 of Preach My Gospel. That has been really great for me. I am working on a lot of things and getting better little my little. I still have a long ways to go though. But it really helps me to get to know my Savior more and more. I think that there is no better way to get to know someone than by trying to become like them and emulate their traits. We can study and study all about our Savior but we won't truly know Him until we follow His perfect life and example.

Thank you all for all you do. Your prayers, love, and support. I truly love each of you and hope life is going well for you. Let the Lord be an active part of your life and He will make more out of it than you could by yourself!

Love,

Sister Young