Elder Chandler Young -- Richmond Virginia Mission: Reclaim and Retain Grind

First, sorry about last weeks post, it forgot to get published, so u get two this week

So if u couldn't tell, the past couple emails home were kind of downers, sorry about that. But the slums are over and it's back to the happy, party all the time missionary grind for the last 30 days. Wait, 30 days!! Still blows my mind, but until those 30 days are done, the missionary grind is only going to be picking up! We have had some awesome experiences this week! Honestly as this week went on I was like "man, I can't wait to write home about this." Idk might sound like a weird thought but it's what missionaries think about when something cool, interesting, exciting, or super boring happens.

First about the title of this post, "RECLAIM GRIND" for one reason of another we have been having some good luck with the less active members recently. One sister we found last week, then had two lessons with her this week. When we were calling to confirm the second lesson on the phone she asked us to make sure we could get her a ride to church. The next we actually found like a month ago..... We were knocking doors and she opens "I'm already a mormon, I am sick but would love u to come in" well fast forward a month later we finally are able to catch her again and have an awesome lesson with her and she sounds like she wants to just get back into church activity. She is great cause she just tells us exactly what she needs like, "I need you to find me a good friend I can have at church" and is not afraid at asking questions! I love love people. The Third is a family we have seen off and on, baptized like 4 years ago but have not come to church for four years...... do the math on how long they were active :) haha so when we have a discussion with them this week we showed the video "Approaching the throne of God" and by the end of they were just calling each other out for te things we need to do better. One tried to make the excuses for coming to church then the other was like "Did u just hear that man, we can't make anymore excuses!!" hahah it was sweet. Well, and He came yesterday!!! She was sick and will get her there next week but it is great to have these people rekindling there fire they all once had! Forth is our good friend Troy, I tell u his name cause i know he probably is going to find this blog somehow :) he didn't come to church this week (bailed at the last minute) but he is one that came to church, got baptized, then just dropped off the face of the earth. Anyway, we are best friends and actually went to his church with him on Saturday night which I will talk about later! But he is great! Last but not least we finally got in contact with this member that showed up on the ward roster. We are knocking on her door for probably the 6th or 7th time :) thats just what missionaries do when they really want to talk to someone. So we are able to sit down with her, turns out she is a convert at 19. Went on a mission at 25. Then after coming home she said lost her faith in Jesus Christ. Don't want to tell to much just scary to think that serving a mission doesn't mean u will always even have a testimony of Christ, let alone his church. So we set up a date to watch Meet The Mormons with her so i am sure that will wreck her!!.
Second comes the "RETAIN GRIND" All three of the people that got baptized so far in this ward this year are still active! Ahhh nothing makes me happier to see, and all are working on their family history work to make it to the temple soon. So just a shout out for them, I am so happy we don't have any fall offs like the others have been :)
The rest of these will just be experiences or lessons. The best one I have to talk about is LIFE POINT. hahah so this is a church in the area and we went to their Saturday evening service and it WAS A CONCERT!!! hahah no joke it was literally the craziest thing I have done as far on the mission as that concerns! We literally walk in, granted we are the only ones with a tie one, let alone a suit. Band starts playing, and this dude comes up and decides to put us front row. So let me tell u, this GIANT SPEAKER just rattled my heart for the next hour and a half. It was definitely similar to the concerts i used to go to where ur insides would hurt because the bass was so strong. Enough about the music, it was a decent service, projected on TV.... Didn't feel like a church service Christ would hold.... Definitely one of those "Draw near to me with their lips, but there hearts are far from me"
So it was my comps birthday this week, and what a better way to spend a birthday than getting a Root Canal!! :( It didn't seem to bother him to much but that was definitely an exciting part of the week.
Pranked other elders that live near by us. It included Fire crackers, Air Soft guns, and waking up at 5 in the morning :) yall get just figure it out from there what we did. We had it set up to be one of the better pranks I have done in my life but sadly wasn't.... I'll show yall the video when i get home.
Our Lesson with Ralph this week was great. i am pretty sure I have talked about him in a lot of my past emails cause honestly I love the guy. He is just this 60 old man who I just feel like best friends with! This week we watched Jeffery R. Holland's "The First And Great Commandment." And at the end he is just like, "so when is ur church?" It might be cheating but I love to just let the Apostles do the teaching.
I think it was on Friday this week, We literally lost the phone for 4 hours this week and thought our lives where going to end. Maybe cause we are just dumb but we had not idea what to do without a phone. Honestly feel like the Lord's work could not go forth with out a phone. But we did find it in my comps pants which he had not wore for like a month..... the reason it was there still boggles our mind. The Lord definitly played a role there, just trying to figure out yall :)
Our Buffalo Wild Wings experience was NUTS THIS WEEK! So we had to B-Dubs runs on Thursday. Total of 32 wings which include 6 Blazing, and 4 Mango Habanero..... I was wrecked. I would not wish that on anyone. Actually I vowed that i was going to go on a juice Diet my last 30 days but let me tell u, that already feel through :/
This is an awesome story, so our appointment fall through around our area so i am just like fetch the city, I love the country. So i get on the GPS and find this place in the middle of now where and push go. HAHA elder Clarkson thought i was taking him some place to kill him :/ But let me tell u, it was a great place to knock doors! It was one of those streets where house are close together, but still in the country so u get the benefit of nice people and close homes. We found a young couple and then a younger african-american lady that has a boy friend that says she wants to get back in her church but the church she's goes to is judgmental and rude..... DING DING DING we found a dime!
So while Clarkson was getting his Root Canal elder Lockhart and I went our to find a solid investigator for them. Well 3 doors answer, 2 talk to us, 1 in spanish only :) The first was a 19 year old kid named Pastor Pete. HAHAH honestly he was a really cool dude. Talked to him a whole bunch, gave him a book of mormon, and leave...... He calls us 30 minutes later and tries to drop up.... Lockhart takes over the phone and rips him and their return appointment still stands. :) he went on some anti website when we left but at least was a good enough person to talk through what he found on there instead of a lot of pricks out here we meet that just drop us and don't have the decency to tell us why. Mini-exchange to find Pastor Pete
I was on an exchange this week with an Elder Hudson. He is a great elder, I have actually served around him before, he is from Cali, a definite beach bum but I love him to death. We did some good work though, as u can tell from the pictures :)

Sorry I know this is a long email, I feel like y'all deserve one cause my recent ones blew. One last thing though :) a spiritual thought.

I want to close with one simply, important, and hardest concept in todays world..... PUT GOD FIRST IN ALL THINGS. So we have this inv. that is really struggling with this ************

Love, ELder CJ YOung

These pictures are from a Laser Tag place,