And Then There Were Two

Hi everyone!

This week Sister Wallin got emergency transferred to Highlands Ranch because another Sister went to her original mission. So now it's just Sister Syme and me here in the area! We miss Sister Wallin a lot but she'll be great in her new area. 

We had zone conference this week but it was all virtual since we got to have the whole mission together for our meeting with Elder Holland a few weeks ago. We talked a lot about teaching with power and authority and following the Spirit. We did a fast as a mission yesterday for more power in our teaching and it was super cool!

We've been teaching Myah a lot this week to prepare her for her baptism this Saturday! She had her baptismal interview yesterday and she can't wait to get baptized! She is amazing and has so much faith to do whatever the Lord asks her to do!

We went up to Golden, Colorado this week which is still in our area to visit the School of Mines campus and try to talk to people. It's a college where a lot of our members in the YSA ward go and it's an engineering school. Golden is such a cute little town and it was really fun to walk around the streets there.

Last Monday evening for our FHE activity we had a talent show which was so fun! People were just making up talents by the end but we had lots of cool musical talent, magic tricks, and stand-up comedy. 

We had a cool experience one evening where we prayed to know where we should go or what we should do to find someone new to teach. I felt like we needed to be out and about and Sister Syme felt like we needed to go to a park. So we went to the park and after a while a lady named Caroline walked by with her dog and started talking to us! We ended up talking to her for about an hour and she said she wants to have us over and talk about Jesus so we got her number. It was just really cool because she told us she was having a really bad day and she just felt like she needed to get out and go to the park and then she felt really prompted to talk to us. She said we definitely made her day!

Also yesterday in church, all of us missionaries in the ward were in charge of sacrament meeting. All of us spoke (3 Elders and 2 Sisters) and I did a musical number on the piano. We all coordinated our topics so we pretty much taught the first lesson. The talks were about God's love and prophets, the Savior's earthly ministry and Atonement, the great apostasy and the Restoration through Joseph Smith (that was mine), the Book of Mormon, and prayer/Holy Ghost/personal revelation. The song I played was an arrangement of Joseph Smith's First Prayer and everyone loved it!

Have a great week!

Love, Sister Young

Pictures:

1-3. Golden

4. Bible study crew

5. Us in front of a cool wall

6. The morning we took Sister Wallin to her new area :(

Back in the Ranch :)

Hello everyone!

This week was awesome!! We went on 2 exchanges, had 2 lessons where members brought their nonmember friends, Myah came to church, and Myah accepted a baptismal date for September 4th!!

So the most exciting thing of the week was definitely putting Myah on date for baptism! We went over to her apartment for a lesson and we taught her the gospel of Jesus Christ lesson. We asked if she would follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized and she said yes! She was so excited and it was the cutest thing ever! After she said yes and we were talking about a date, she put her hands on her heart and said "I feel it!!" And we told her we felt the Spirit too! It was so strong! She is amazing! She came to church yesterday and has been coming to all the activities throughout the week!

Last Monday night, we had such a good lesson with a member named Devon, his nonmember friend Zach, and Devon's cousin Morgan. We decided to have the lesson on the grounds of the Denver temple and it was amazing! Devon brought Zach to the temple a while ago when he was going through a difficult time in his life and ever since then, Zach has come to the temple when he wants to feel peace. We taught Zach about God's love and the peace that comes from the gospel. The Spirit was super strong and Zach said our closing prayer! We asked if he would like to continue meeting with us to learn more and he said he's not sure if he's ready to make that kind of commitment so pray for him!!

I got to go to my favorite place for an exchange this week! I went back to Saddle Ranch (my last area) with Sister Whiting and Sister Wallin! It was probably my favorite exchange of my mission so far! I absolutely LOVE Sister Whiting and it was so fun for Sister Wallin and I to spend the day with her. I also got to see a couple members from the ward and it was funny to see their reactions when they saw me again! For our other exchange, Sister Swasey came to the Belleview YSA area with me and Sister Wallin. She is a super good missionary too and we had a great time!

Today for P-day we played Pickleball with our district which was SO FUN! We also got Chick-fil-A :)

Pictures:

1. With Devon, Morgan, and Zach at the temple 

2. Exchanges with Sister Whiting and Sister Barker in Saddle Ranch

3. Exchanges with Sister Swasey and Sister Kubie from Eastridge 

4. Me with Sister Wallin and Sister Syme

5. Pretty view at a park

6. Our mission with Elder Holland from last week! 

"Go Astonish Someone!!" - Elder Holland

Hello everyone!

This week was incredible! Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, Elder S. Gifford Nielsen, Sister Rebecca L. Craven, and Bishop L. Todd Budge came to Colorado to visit our mission and speak to us!! All of the missionaries serving out west took a long bus ride so we could have the entire mission together. We had some Sisters staying with us in our apartment which was super fun! They arrived on Thursday evening and spent that night with us, then we all worked on Friday and had a mission dinner and devotional Friday night. It was so fun to have everyone together! During the devotional, the choir I put together sang an arrangement of "I know that My Redeemer Lives" and it went really well! 

Then on Saturday morning, we had the opportunity to hear all of the general authorities that I mentioned speak to us and it was SO AMAZING! Elder Holland talked a lot about becoming personally converted and how that continues after our missions and for our whole lives. He talked about how his mission changed his life and he told us to cherish every moment we have as missionaries because we'll never be able to do this again. At one point, he pounded his fist down and said loudly, "Go astonish someone!" because he had been showing us examples in the scriptures of missionaries who taught with power and authority and how those they taught are always astonished. He wants us to shake the earth and create a spiritual earthquake every day of our missions. It was just such a cool experience and the Spirit was super strong!! Also, while we were waiting for the general authorities to arrive, we sang some hymns together as a mission which was so powerful! 

We definitely had an earthquake yesterday because our friend Myah that we just started teaching this week came to church and loved it! She told us she's excited to keep coming to activities, lessons, and church which was so good to hear! 

Another cool thing is that someone came up to us at Walmart this morning and apparently he was taught by missionaries in the past and has friends that are on missions! We got his contact info so we'll see what happens. 

We also had exchanges this week and it we are both trios so I was with 2 different companions, Sister Carter and Sister Campa here in the Belleview YSA area. 

We haven't gotten the pictures with our whole mission and Elder Holland back yet so I'll hopefully send those next week!

Love, Sister Young

Pictures:

1. All of our sisters in the Highlands Ranch Zone

2-4. Me with Sister Syme and Sister Wallin

5. Exchanges with Sister Campa and Sister Carter

6. Some Sisters after the meeting with Elder Holland

Preparing For An Apostle

Hello hello!

This week we were able to see a lot of progress in the work! The lady named Selena at our apartment complex that we found last week has been meeting with missionaries almost every day! She is just soaking everything up! Since we're YSA, she's not technically in our area so some Elders have been working with her but we get to join lessons sometimes because she loves us and we live right by her. Her nephew is also living with her so the Elders have been able to teach him too! And all of this happened because we said hello to Selena when she walked past us :)

We were able to meet a few people on Facebook and have lessons with them! One came to our Bible study in person which was awesome! I also went on exchanges in Highlands Ranch with Sister Tuttle and we had a great time! She is a super good missionary and we got a ton of work done on Facebook.

We have some SUPER exciting stuff coming up this next week! Elder Holland is coming to our mission and we are all gathering together as a mission which like never happens because we cover such a large geographical area. My Mission President has asked me to put together a choir of missionaries and prepare a song for the devotional with Elder Holland so I've been working on that this week. It's pretty difficult because everything has to be done on zoom until our one practice the night before we perform. Trying to sing as a choir on zoom doesn't work very well haha. I'm sure it will all work out though :)

Time is going by quick! I hit my 14 month mark this week! Get ready for some awesome insights from Elder Holland in my next email! 

Love, Sister Young

Pictures:

1-2. We found a basketball at the park during our morning workout 

3-4. Exchanges 

5-6. Sunglasses 

Transfers And The Temple!

Hello everyone!

This week was pretty busy! It started off last Monday night when we had a BBQ and pool party for our YSA FHE activity and Hadadi came!! He also came to our Bible study this week! We had MLC in Avon on Tuesday and we got transfer news right after the meeting! I'm staying here in the Belleview YSA with Sister Syme and Sister Wallin for another transfer! We are excited to be staying together! The only different thing this transfer is that we are the STLs over the Columbine Zone (our zone which has no sisters except us) AND the Highlands Ranch Zone where I was before this! Highlands Ranch has 4 sets of sisters so that will be super fun! 

One of our ward missionaries invited her boyfriend Miles to a lesson with us this week so we got to teach him the Restoration! She wants to invite another friend to a lesson tomorrow so we are pumped! 

This week we've been watering plants and the grass in our member's backyard while they were gone for a few days for a wedding. We did companionship study while the water was going and also our weekly planning on one of the days. We got a little sunburned but it was still fun. Also, this family owns a running shoe store and when people return their shoes, they can't resell them so they told us we should take some that fit us. So I got some cool new running shoes this week!

Last night, we were sitting outside on our balcony doing some Facebook work and a lady named Selena walked by with her dog (literally EVERYONE in Colorado has a dog and if they don't have one, they have two or three) and we said hello and asked how she was doing. She seemed like she was having a hard time and she told us a lot of sad things she's going through right now. We asked if we could share a message of hope with her and she got emotional and said yes. She told us she'd been praying all day and that we were an answer to her prayer. We read a scripture from the Book of Mormon with her and gave her a copy which she was so grateful for. It was crazy to me that even though we couldn't help her with any of her temporal needs, telling her that Christ knows what she's going through helped her so much and was just what she needed. We prayed together and the Spirit was so strong!! We are going to talk with her again tonight :)

For P-day, we went to Cafe Rio and the Denver temple!

Love, Sister Young

Pictures:

1. Us with Sisters Ray and Whiting who we drove to MLC with

2. Car selfie 

3. Sunday selfie

4. Us with a recent convert named Brooke

5-9. Temple pictures 

10. Trying to get a good angle haha