"Take Care!"

Hello everyone!

This past week was transfers and Sister Ray and I are both staying here in Saddle Ranch. We got to help pick up the new missionaries from the airport this week which was super fun! It was a weird throwback to my first day in the mission but it definitely reminded me how much I've learned. 

Our zone and our district got changed up quite a bit with the transfer and it was sad to see missionaries go but it's looking like it will be an amazing transfer for the Highlands Ranch zone with all these incredible missionaries!

We were able to find 3 new people to teach this week! 2 were from Facebook and the other one is an old lady in our apartment complex who kept asking us questions about the church when we would go on walks! We also had 2 devotionals (one for the youth and one for the adults) about sharing the gospel through technology and we've gotten a lot of positive responses from that!! The work is moving forward!

Today we went on a hike at Roxborough state park and it was such nice weather! We also had to get up super early to go to early morning seminary.

I'm so glad to be here for another transfer with Sister Ray! Life is good! I love being a missionary and time is going by too fast.

Love, Sister Megan Young

Pictures:

1. Last district council before transfers

2. Sunset

3. Random selfie while we were trying to film a training video for the zone

4-6. Roxborough 

St. Patrick's Day Miracle

Hello everyone! It was a pretty good week over here in Colorado! 

 

 

We were finally able to meet with Jackson (the guy who showed up at church and bore his testimony) on St. Patrick's Day and we had such an amazing lesson on the Restoration! The Spirit was so strong and at the end we asked if he would be baptized and he said, "oh totally!" and when we asked him if he would prepare for April 4th (the date we had prayed and felt good about beforehand) he asked if that was Easter and we said it was and he said that was the exact day he had in mind to be baptized!! He is so elect! Unfortunately he is YSA age so we passed him off to the YSA Elders 2 days later and we don't get to teach him anymore but we're still super excited!

 

 

We found out transfer news and Sister Ray and I are both staying here in Saddle Ranch for another transfer!! This will be my 4th transfer here but I'm so happy because I love Sister Ray and I love this area! There will be lots of changes in our zone and in the mission though because we are getting a ton of new missionaries and people keep going back to their original missions so it has been pretty crazy. 

 

 

The weather has been pretty wild this week! It started out really cold and snowy and we were snowed in last Monday. It warmed up a lot throughout the week and on Saturday it was in the 70s and we were in short sleeves. But now it's snowy and cold again.

 

 

The lady who randomly gave us pillows and a rug a few months ago gave us some old shoes that she doesn't want. They're not in bad shape though and I might actually keep some that fit haha. 

 

 

We had a lesson yesterday over zoom with some cute kids in the ward and we read the story of Christ and Peter walking on water and talked about faith. Then we asked them what they could do to increase their faith in Jesus Christ and the youngest one who is like 4 said, "We could help someone learn how to swim!" haha we think she got confused about the story because we were talking about water and Sister Ray and I were trying so hard to hold back our laughter and after the lesson we lost it! It was super funny in the moment. 

 

 

We also had another lesson with the Bible basher which we were hopeful for since she told us she would let us teach this time, but she just kept interrupting us and she is super set in her own ways and not willing to listen to us or change at all so we won't be going back. After the lesson, Sister Ray and I agreed that it just strengthened our testimonies of prophets and modern day revelation. We're super excited for general conference coming up!

 

 

Shout out to my sister Erin! Today is her 14th birthday!!

 

 

Love, Sister Megan Young

 

 

Pictures:

1. Our district at district council

2. St. Patrick's Day outfits

3. Lucky Charms from a member

"Can You Sisters Get That To Us ASPZ?" -ZLs

Hello everyone! This week was pretty crazy and lots happened! 

First, we had exchanges and Sister Anderson came to the Saddle Ranch area with me. We had lots of fun and I was so impressed by her ability to testify with power in lessons!

This week I got an email saying I should start working on my visa for Ecuador! I already did all the visa application stuff like over a year ago but since it has been so long I have to redo most of it. They said it is a super long process (3 or more months) to get a visa to Ecuador with everything going on with covid so it doesn't necessarily mean I'll go there but we'll see! I would be happy either way.

We also drove a sister in our zone to the airport to go to her original mission in Chile! Luckily there were some other Sisters there from our mission doing the same thing so we were all figuring it out together. Their flight got delayed and church headquarters told them to switch airlines to another flight so we had to go get all the bags we already checked and it was pretty stressful but we did it and the sisters made their flight!

We also had zone conference this week which means we had to give another training with the zone leaders. It went super well!! The whole zone conference was very inspiring and it is always good to hear from President and Sister Rees. After zone conference, President Rees asked to speak with one of the zone leaders, Elder Barnes, and asked him to be the next AP (assistant to the president) starting 3 hours later because one of the current ones is going back to Brazil this week. The other zone leader will be in a trio with some other Elders in the zone until transfers in 2 weeks. We are super sad though because we had gotten into the groove of planning bomb trainings with the zone leaders.

We were told there was going to be a giant snow storm this weekend and to stock up on groceries and prepare to be stuck inside for a while. It wasn't as bad as they predicted but we still got a few feet of snow and church was cancelled yesterday. It's too deep for us to drive in so we are just hanging out at our apartment today. 

We had a lesson with some amazing members in the ward and we read the story of Christ and Peter walking on water. As we read in the Bible and discussed what we can learn from this story, I felt the Spirit so strongly!! We talked about what we can do because of Christ when we exercise our faith. It was so cool and when we walked out of their house, Sister Ray and I just talked about how powerful the lesson was and the Spirit we both felt! It's moments like that that make me so grateful to be a missionary and to have the opportunity to focus on the Savior 24/7. It truly is such a blessing and I love serving Him so much!

Love, Sister Megan Young

Pictures:

1-2. Exchanges with Sister Anderson

3. Running around at the airport 

4. The Highlands Ranch zone leadership (Sister Young, Sister Ray, Elder Sanchez, Elder Barnes)

5-8. Snow!

9 M O N T H S !

Hello everyone! This past week I hit 9 months as a missionary which means I'm halfway done. It was fun to be with Sister Ray since we came out at the same time and we hit 9 months on the same day! But we are also super sad because we love being missionaries and the time is going by way too quick! I've definitely learned a lot but I'm not ready to go home yet!

Since it was our 9 months, we of course had to take some pregnant pictures together haha. Enjoy those down below.

We also had an interesting lesson with a Bible basher this week. She offered to say the opening prayer and then said, "okay girls, get your bibles out" and then she proceeded to have us flip to and read bible verses for about 20 minutes. She was like. "I bet you never thought you would read this much of the bible in one day" even though we read it like every day haha. Then she tried to use those to prove our beliefs wrong. We were super polite and asked if next time we could teach her about the Restoration using only the Bible. She didn't seem to think that was possible so she agreed. 

We also went on exchanges this week! I was with Sister Beatty in her area and we realized we both had the same T-shirt AND the same dress so we're basically twins. 

Yesterday, the guy who showed up at church last week came to church again and bore his testimony!! He's been through a lot so he shared some pretty intense stories. All the members were super supportive of him though and they all wanted to talk to him after the meeting.

Love, Sister Megan Young 

Pictures:

1-4. 9 months!

5. A member got us In n' out

6. Modern Market

7. After district council when we coordinated our outfits and masks

8-9. Exchanges with Sister Beatty

"Perfect. Exclamation Point." -President Rees

Hello everyone! This week was AMAZING!! It has probably been one of the best weeks of my entire mission.

On Tuesday we went to Avon again for a special MLC with Brother Littlefield from the missionary department. He is a mission miracle-worker and he talked to us for 5 hours and I wasn't bored for a single second. He has been a mission president before and has so much experience! He was able to build up our faith so much and give us helpful tips to be able to baptize! There was a super powerful part when we were talking about being consecrated missionaries and giving up anything that may be holding us back or distracting us. One Elder stood up and said, "President, I'm going to step it up. Who's with me?" And then everyone else in the room stood up and the Spirit was so strong and like everyone was crying. It sounds super cheesy written out but it was so powerful in the moment. We all committed to step up and be better and it has been so cool to see the result of that!! I left the meeting feeling so empowered and motivated! One of my favorite lines he repeated a few times was, "there's always a way". 

Then we as zone leaders and Sister training leaders had to figure out how to communicate that same experience we had at MLC to our zones in a Combined District Council. We had to take his 5 hours of info and put it into 90 minutes. It took some serious planning but we did it and it actually went so well! President and Sister Rees were at ours so we were a little intimidated to train our zone in front of them because they were at the MLC. It was such a good meeting though and President Rees cried and the Spirit was so strong. At the end, we turned around the whiteboard to reveal all the missionaries in the zone with how much time they had left in the mission which was so powerful and really motivated them to be all in for the time they have left. Then we told them to look under their chairs to find some stickers we were supposed to give to the zone members that we got at MLC with our mission symbol. After, President Rees came up to us and the zone leaders and just said, "Perfect. Exclamation point" which was so good to hear. I had my interview with President Rees after that meeting and that also went really well :)

We also had exchanges this week and Sister Skidmore came to the Saddle Ranch area with me! We had lots of fun and it snowed a lot!

As we have implemented what we learned from Brother Littlefield, we have started to see miracles and have had some elect people fall from the sky. We had 3 people that we are teaching come to church yesterday in person and 2 other nonmembers showed up at church! We were able to talk to both of them. One was like, "so what should I do if I want to get more involved in the church and be baptized?" The other one is the friend of a member and we are hopefully going to start teaching her whole family!! Sister Ray was also asked to speak in church and she gave a super awesome talk about members and missionary work so now the ward is pumped. The work is taking off in Saddle Ranch!! I love this area and Sister Ray SO MUCH and I never want to leave. I wish I could stay here for the rest of my mission. Sister Ray and I will both hit 9 months this week and I'm honestly so sad. I love my mission so much and I don't want to come home. 

Love, Sister Megan Young

Pictures:

1. Sunrise on the way to Avon

2. Me and my first STL, Hermana Torgesen, at MLC

3. Us with Sister Larsen and her new comp at MLC

4-5. Exchanges with Sister Skidmore in the snow

6. Sister Ray and I with the zone leaders at combined district council 

7. The zone at combined district council 

8. Mission sticker

9. Walking a cute dog named Wynn for a nonmember

10. Face masks