Christmas!!

Hello everyone!

This week was so good! We got spoiled by our members with gifts, money, and so many treats! This is the place to be at Christmas haha. We had a district council on Christmas morning and then wrote a bunch of thank you notes to all of our members for dinner and gifts.

I got to talk to my family which was fun! We had a zone devotional and I played the piano for the musical number. At the end we all shared our testimonies of Christ and it was super powerful! Ah missionaries are so cool! We also had a devotional that night as a mission over zoom which was awesome! There were some musical numbers and scripture chases. 

It didn't really feel like Christmas normally does but it was still really good. I've loved the opportunity to focus completely on the Savior, His birth, and what He means to me. I love Him and I'm so grateful to be serving Him!

Unfortunately it didn't snow on Christmas and it was actually pretty warm. It's supposed to snow today and tomorrow though so our in-person MLC was canceled since it's up in the mountains. Doing it on zoom will be rough since it's like 6 hours straight. It would have been nice if the snow came on Christmas and then it was warm for MLC but oh well.

Other than Christmas it wasn't a super exciting week but we did find someone on Facebook! We are still trying to work with members who have told us about their friends but they are really bad at getting back to us. Hopefully it will be better once things get back to normal after the holidays.

Transfers are this week but we don't find out what's happening until tomorrow! I can't believe I've already been here for a whole transfer. It has gone so fast!

Thanks to everyone who sent Christmas cards and letters!! I felt so loved! Love you all!

Love, Sister Megan Young 

Pictures:

1. Hot chocolate in a llama mug

2. Foot bath we got from a member haha

3. Crumbl cookies

4. CO shirts 

5. What we found outside our door one night

6. Our little tree

7. Us in our pjs

8. Sister Larsen and I on Christmas 

Christmas Zone Conference!

Hello everyone!!

First of all, this week is Christmas!! We are so excited and we've been doing so many member lessons on zoom about Christ and His birth so it has been super fun! We are now allowed to have more people in person at church so we can have 1/2 of the ward instead of 1/4 of the ward there. It was so good to see everyone and hear Christmas musical numbers and talks. Also, a member invited their nextdoor neighbors to church so we had a family of 4 nonmembers attend church in person! Unfortunately we didn't really get to talk to them and the member isn't responding to us.

We had a lesson with Phillip who I found on Facebook last week and he turned out to be a Bible basher so that was an awful lesson. We definitely won't be calling him again haha. Right after we finished that lesson though, a member called saying her daughter's friend might be interested in meeting with us! We haven't been able to set anything up with them yet and she is also being slow at responding to us. But there is potential there!

We weren't able to find any new people this week or get anyone we are currently teaching to attend church so it was a slow week in terms of numbers. Angie had to cancel our lesson this week which was also sad.

The members keep spoiling us with money and Christmas gifts so we don't even know what to do with it all. This is like the opposite of what I was expecting on my mission when I was called to Ecuador but I'm not complaining haha. 

We had to drop off some missionaries at the mission office who were done with their missions to go home including Sister Rosa (my previous companion). It was sad to say goodbye to all of them and not have them in the mission anymore. One of the zone leaders in my zone went home too which was weird. He was actually an AP when I got to the mission and met up with us at the airport when we got here so it's strange to have him gone. 

We had zone conference this week which was AMAZING!! Sister Larsen and I and the zone leaders planned a Christmas game that was like a trivia/obstacle course thing. President and Sister Rees participated too which made it so fun! As a mission we have all been reading the Book of Mormon together so at zone conference, we all shared our experiences and testimonies of Christ and the Spirit was SO STRONG. It was amazing and I loved it so much!! We also got pictures of Christ drawn by an Elder in our mission who is an amazing artist. Sister Rees also made everyone some peppermint popcorn:) Everyone made an ornament that represented them and presented it to the zone. Sister Larsen and I coordinated our outfits for zone conference so I wore red and she wore green. We took a picture and Sister Larsen made it look like a Christmas card so I'll attach that at the bottom.

A fun fact is that we actually live pretty close to the Denver temple! Sometimes we can see it in the distance and whenever we do, I get super excited and pull out my phone to try to get a picture but you can't really tell what it is through the phone camera. But I love seeing the temple every once in a while.

Today we went to Trader Joe's and Cafe Rio so it was a good P-day :)

I hope you all have the best Christmas this week!! 

Love, Sister Megan Young 

Pictures:

1. Christmas card

2. Dropping off Sister Rosa and Sister Burger at the mission office

3-4. Some pretty Colorado skies

5. If you zoom in you can see the temple!

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas!

Hello everyone!

This week went by pretty quick! The days are starting to get super repetitive and blend together because we basically just zoom, study, and do Facebook stuff all day every day. 

It snowed this week so it feels a little more like Christmas is coming!! We have a cute Christmas tree from a member and it is collecting presents from our families and other ward members.

My Facebook success for the week is that I posted a video of me playing the piano in a Colorado music group and lots of people reacted and commented. I was able to message back and forth with a few of them and I had a good conversation with a guy named Phillip! Apparently he has met missionaries before when he was teaching an English class in Korea. I sent him the Christ Child video (which you should all watch) and we were able to set up a lesson with him this week! He lives in Colorado Springs though so that's a bummer. We will have to pass him off. 

We had a good lesson with Angie and her daughter Audrey. We planned to teach the whole Restoration but didn't make it past the first point (God is our loving Heavenly Father) because they were super interested in our beliefs about God and the Godhead as opposed to the Trinity. Angie also told us that God answered her prayer this week as she prayed about the Plan of Salvation and He told her it's true!! 

We did 3 virtual exchanges with our sisters this week! I still wish we could do it in person but it is always good to talk and spend time with the sisters :)

Yesterday we got to teach part of a mission prep class for some youth in our ward over zoom of course. Sister Larsen and I were SO EXCITED!! Only 3 youth joined haha but it was still so fun! It made me realized how much I absolutely LOVE missionary work, even though it's hard and repetitive sometimes. I realized that there isn't anything I would rather be doing right now. The youth didn't seem to be as hyped as we were about studying Preach My Gospel... but it was a good reminder for me that what I am doing is worth it and that I really do love it. Being a missionary is the best!!!!

Love, Sister Megan Young 

4605 Copeland Loop Unit 103 Highlands Ranch, CO 80126 United States

Pictures:

1. Presents and dinner from a member

2-4. Sunday walk to get outside!

5. Cupcakes one of the young women made for us

6. What we look like in the camera when we kneel to pray before every zoom lesson 

6 MONTHS!!

Hi everyone!!

This week I hit 6 months as a missionary which is pretty crazy!

On Tuesday, we got to go on a 2ish hour road trip to Avon which is like a ski resort town in the mountains for MLC (mission leadership council). We met there with all the zone leaders, sister training leaders, assistants, and President and Sister Rees because it's in the middle of the mission. It was so fun to see all those missionaries in person!! There are some incredible missionaries here and I am so blessed to learn from them! The meeting lasted from 9:30am-3:30pm and we weren't allowed to eat inside. We took our lunch break outside in the parking lot and we were all freezing but just happy to be together :)

For some reason, members keep giving us Chick-fil-a gift cards so we have a bunch of them which is pretty sweet.

We got to do virtual exchanges this week which was pretty fun! I was with Sister Knorpp who is new to the mission! She was originally called to Chile so we got to study Spanish together which was awesome! 

Our mission has been experiencing miracles with finding people to teach! This week, President Rees gave the mission an invitation to have EVERY COMPANIONSHIP baptize someone in the month of February, 2021. This means that we would surpass what we have been talking about in the CDSM for months... vision 100. This is a goal we have as a mission to have 100 baptisms in one month which we have been very far from hitting these past few months. President Rees encouraged us to work harder than ever and exercise as much faith as we can.

The bummer is that we weren't able to find someone new to teach this week. We tried SO HARD though and I don't think there was anything more we could have done. I feel like for our area we have a lot of people we are super close with but we just haven't officially picked them up (started teaching them). Sister Larsen and I are working super hard every day and we hardly have time to eat haha. We feel like we are so busy and have so much to do. But I am grateful because I would much rather be busy than bored. We barely leave the apartment though because everything is on zoom these days. 

There isn't much to do on P-day in Highlands Ranch besides waving to other missionaries at Walmart haha. Today we did go visit the Highlands Ranch mansion which just looks like a giant haunted house. All the houses here are giant though so it wasn't too exciting. It's really fun when we get to drive at night because a lot of people here go all out with Christmas lights. 

We've been talking a lot about Light the World and getting super excited for Christmas!! I hope you all have a good week!

Love, Sister Megan Young

Pictures:

1. The Highlands Ranch zone leadership at MLC (Sister Larsen, Sister Young, Elder Diviney, Elder Barnes, and Elder Barton) with some photobombers 

2. Us in the parking lot at the Avon building 

3. Mountains on the road trip 

4. Chick-fil-a to celebrate 6 months!

5. Sister Larsen decorated the wall for me

6. Highlands Ranch mansion

7-8. This is where we do all the zooms calls

9. Driving home from combined district council

10-12. And some fun angles

13. In front of a barn at the Highlands Ranch mansion

Thanksgiving Week!

Hello everyone!

Since we've been mostly quarantined, this week was pretty boring so this will probably be short!

On Thanksgiving, we had district council, a district service project (folding paper into dresses and shirts to make thank you notes), a zone devotional that the mission President and his wife showed up to, and a mission devotional over zoom. We picked up Thanksgiving dinner from a nice member in the ward and I got to talk to my family:)

Luckily we can still go to church in person and do things with missionaries but we just can't be with members or other people. So we've been doing LOTS of zoom calls.

On Friday, our mission President gave the mission a pep talk and encouraged everyone to find a new person to teach by Sunday. We worked so hard and we found someone on Facebook on Sunday night! It was definitely a miracle and all of our hard work paid off.

Love you all! 

Love, Sister Megan Young 

Pictures:

1. Thanksgiving selfie

2. Our district in paper form

3. Doing the hoorah shout we do with our mission at the end of mission zoom meetings

4. Our Thanksgiving dinner

Saddle Ranch!

Hello everyone!

This week I got transferred to a new area called Saddle Ranch and my new companion is Sister Larsen! She was actually companions with my trainer, Sister Smith when they were in the MTC. She is from Farmington, Utah and is super awesome! We are the Sister training leaders of the Highlands Ranch zone. Highlands Ranch is south of downtown Denver and is a super nice area. All the houses are huge and the members are willing to give us anything. They take great care of us! This ward also has a ton of families and youth which is awesome because Red Rocks was like only old people.

Saying goodbye to Red Rocks and my companions, Sister Goldsberry and Sister Rosa was very hard and I miss them a lot. The night that I left, they put 2 people on date for baptism that we were teaching so it was sad that I couldn't be a part of that. Also, Sister Goldsberry is training a new missionary so there will still be a trio in Red Rocks! 

I'm still getting used to the new area and being an STL and everything but I'm super excited to be here and I think this transfer is going to be good! This area has a lot of potential and the members are really good about being involved with missionary work!

Right after I got here, we got new covid restrictions. We can't be with people in person anymore so all of our lessons are now over zoom. Luckily we can still go to church and have meetings with our districts in person! I'm bummed because in person exchanges aren't allowed anymore and that is probably what I was most excited for about being an STL. The Sisters in the zone are awesome though and I already love them so much!!

Hopefully you were all able to watch President Nelson's video about gratitude this week! It was so awesome! I hope you all have a good Thanksgiving!

Love, Sister Young 

Here is my new address!

4605 Copeland Loop Unit 103 

Highlands Ranch, CO 80126 United States

Pictures:

1-2. I'm going to miss this view!

3. Us in front of some Christmas lights at a member's house

4-5. Pictures before we said goodbye :(

6-7. Cecil Paxton
8. Laurel Shelley
9. Shane Grosch

10. Michael and Michelle Perdue
11. Sister Andrus (my granddaughter)
12. The quad
13. Saying goodbye to Sister Goldsbury
14. Barb Matthews 
15. Relief Society activity at Jacquie Pearson’s house

16. Sister Larsen!

17. Sisters Hunter, Young & Larsen in a Zoom lesson with Delanee