Ridiculous!

HELLO Everybody, and HAPPY THANKS GIVING! Well this is it, what a great time of the year and its time to start breaking out the Christmas music! :) #JBiebalbum To be real I don't even know where Time has gone this past year, I feel like it was just a few months ago I was up in Staunton loving life during the Holiday season and now I am in the heartland of Virginia! LOVE IT! This week has been, Well you could just say interesting, very similar to my week like 2 weeks ago with lots of fun miracles all during the week and then the weekend came and things got really. So hey, I guess i will just tell you all of Tuesday. So

at 10 the Zone leaders call and say that they are going to be a hour late coming down to us to exchange (ps missionaries are always late and let me tell you that grinds my gears). So Me being my antsy self decide to finally go to the church library and go print off something I have been meaning to print off for the past like 6 months of my mission. I made little insets from the page in Preach my gospel titled "The Book of Mormon Answers Questions to the Soul". So I print these off to put in the Books we are going to give out to people.  

So I am on exchange with elder Malone, he is from Box Elder and I guess knows many of my cousins up there so that was cool! #smallworld! We have a pretty average day, you know; teaching, healing, baptism :0 hahah but the best part was the end of the day!

The last few minutes of the day we go to find this former investigator and the GPS leads us right to a apt complex. Now let me tell you a little about Dillwyn Va. THERE IS NOTHING HERE! So to find a apt complex for us was like heaven. Se we park, stoked out of our mind and the first door we knock on let us in. We give them the spill, the ladies BFF is a member that lives up in Richmond so that was great. well when we present her with the Book of Mormon and show her the Questions. We ask if she has asked any of those recently, and she just started crying. She goes on to tell us a great story about how she has truly been searching for truth!

I do have to attribute this golden find to my mom, she taught me always be doing something and even though most of the time I didn’t love her for it. But hey, She is the reason i went to the church during that hour to print off those questions! So lesson for this week, Be Anxiously Engaged! Thanks for reading, sorry no pics. I promise they will come next week! Love you and good luck with life!

Elder Young

Buckingham week 4

Well everyone, I can not believe it but I am already on my fourth week in Buckingham Virginia. Time is flying so so fast! Sometimes I want it to slow down, some times to speed up but then i realize hey, Just enjoy it as it comes. We had a couple of good training this past week in the mission about making sure to have the spirit when u are visiting with people. And the first requirement usually for them to feel the spirit is for them to be comfortable. Good lesson I guess i learned there. :) anyways, as far as the week was concerned it was great!

- So we were in a lesson this past Saturday with couple who has not been to church in some time, when out of the blue these 4 hunters come in and..... well lets just say they were not doing much hunting, instead just social drinking. But anyways they are all like what are u guys doing, what's going on, and we try and explain but hey, how much can u do when people are like that. I do have to admit that it was sad to see the lack of care those men had. On one hand they could be building up the kingdom of God, but instead they opt out and go with the world. Well, news flash! The world is failing to "Come, join with us." :)  

- i went on exchange this week with a great elder by the name of Crowley. he is a great missionary and we had lots of fun. It was cool cuz most of the day we spent with the youth of the branch. Seeing the examples that we can be to those kids is just awesome, makes me think of my many good examples and leaders growing up.

- We got in contact with this preacher from another denomination the other day and it was great. This guy you could just tell has been prepared his whole life. He told us a little about how he found God and then about how a few years ago he just felt like he needed to study more and more into religion. Also so go along with that many of his friends in his past home were members of the church so he is totally down for our message. At one point in his life he even had to stand up for our church against his pastor in criticizing us.  He is sweet! I will definitely keep u updated on the progress on him. We will call him Todd for privacy sake :)

- This past week has been awesome as far as service. We have been able to help out lots at the food pantry's in the area and I love it. Just on Friday morning alone we were able to give out food for more than 500 people. What a great feeling that is!

- Best part of the week was when we got a call from this unknown number. elder Miller was on the phone with him and I guess he just starts apologizing a ton and is is just so so so  sorry. Come to find out, we knocked on his door probably like a week ago and he just waves and slams the door. And now he is just feeling so so guilty and calls us. i feel bad for the guy cuz I am sure that God worked on him pretty hard that week.

But hey, that is a great lesson for the week! Never be afraid to share the gospel. One, Because I know that when we get in thee spirit world we will have those we invites come and thanks us. 2, God will make them feel guilty for not accepting the message, sometimes it doesn't come as fast as this guy but that seed will always work in those people!

Thanks for all ur love and support and have a great week!

@Chandles_iluvu

Wild Wild Buckingham

HOLY SMOKES WHAT A WEEK IT HAS BEEN AS A MISSIONARY. K, I will just start off by saying this has been one of the most emotional, stressful, and intense weeks as a missionary for myself. SO, if this post doesn't make complete since I am sorry, haha a little scattered brained!

I'll tell you all what we did this morning, So every P-day we go to this member ranch to do our laundry and today we were asked if we could go and split some wood. so we go down there to the spot and we see just this deer leg hanging in the fence..... :( sad day. So we call the owner over and we get it out, but it can't run so we elect to shot it and put it out of its misery...... So you could stay my day started off on a sad but interesting note.....

Also so i totally forgot to shave for a few days this week and I started growing facial hair, LIKE WHA? hahah i didn't even know that was possible :0 well to bad I can't grow anything out while out here, so I will have to wait till I get home to see how I look with it :)

Mainly I guess this week I will talk about church yesterday, It was the primary program! Let me just tell you all, even though I am in a small branch with not a lot fo primary kids, those kids knew how to sings and did great. It was so so so cute! It was all about families and we had a lot of part member families there whose kids where in the program, and I know they felt it! I guess I had totally forgot how awesome kids primary songs about families are! One of my favorite lines from a song; "God gave us families to help us become what He wants us to be."

So lets all just step back and think about this for a sec, even if this church is not true, this church would still teach the best morals and standards for kids now days. Well, I am here to tell you all that it is true and this church is the only way you can find anything close to complete JOY

Hope u all have a FABULOUS WEEK!

Love, Elder Young

PS. Well sorry for the short email this, week but hope you enjoy all of the pictures!

Some of my good Friends

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Elders Apartment in Farmville

Gotta love me some Elder Crauley

This was the sweet sister that reminded me of my mom :)

Selfies for dayzzz with these cutiezzz

love these two. Great examples

This picture COULD even be more blurry, AND it would still be my favorite!!! Cuz these people are seriously the Bomb missionaries I hope to be. #greatexamples

Sleepin Selfie

I definitely trimmed this beautiful hedge :) 

Eating my feelings away :0

Love this place

Hang loose and enjoy

I love being on a Ranch :) never thought I would ever say that. 

To the left of me is that poor baby deer! 

Log splitting all day errday :) 

Some sweet long-horns on the Ranch

Hope You all enjoyed the pics!

McLovin it :)

Wow, wow, wow what a week it has been here in Buckingham Virginia. Even though I feel like I am out in the middle of no where I have already grown to love it! The peace and beauty out here is what gets me! Elder Miller and I have had a great week meeting new people, providing some service and sharing some great experiences!

- The title of this blog is because there is only one fast food restaurant in our area and it just happens to be McDonalds so that is always fun. Talk about the super-size me diet :( 

- Most missionaries in Virginia right now I am sure are doing lots of leaf racking and such, well instead out here in Buckingham we do log splitting and wood cutting :) so what is great fun. I feel like I have been sore most of the week here just from the affects of that. But it is a great service we get to provide!

- One of the great people I got a chance to meet this week was a very nice homosexual guy. We just knocked on his door and he was a little stand-off-ish. We introduced ourselves and he just responded with well i think you guys are just going to judge me and I am not wanting to hear that. It was just great chance for me to bear my testimony that "HEY, you are a son of god, we are not here to judge you, just to help build you faith." After that he gladly accepted a Book of Mormon and said we could come back in a few weeks to see how his faith has grown. 

- I learned how to change the car battery this week. i know most carsit is pretty easy to do. But we changed it in an old Buick and well it was a challenge, but with the helpand guidance of a member we were able to do it!

- I don't know what it is but a lot of the people that we come in to contact with are older people and so it makes u wonder..... Are we just preparing these people to be "completely converted" in the spirit world. That is just a thought that runs through my head sometimes. Guess we will just never know the full effect of our efforts. 

- This week elder Miller get the feeling that we need to see this member that we were already planning on seeing the next day. But we go the day he gets the feeling and as we pull into his drive way he is out by his mail-box and passes-out! So we get him inside and he calls the EMTs to come and get him. We sit with him to make sure all goes well. Glad we were there to be able to help him out cuz he was alone! Spirit definitely working through us :) 

- we stopped by this former investigator this week just to see how things have been. I guess she was meeting with the missionaries about two or three years ago. Well we get taking to her she just complains about how she went to church with us for 3 Sundays in a row and all she heard was Joseph Smith, Joseph Smith, Joseph Smith. I apologized to her and we talked about how the main focus of our church really is Jesus Christ and building faith unto repentance in him. 

But now as I look back at it I realize that having a modern day prophet is a BIG THING! Not that the whole meeting should be about it, but that it is not a bad thing; we should be telling EVERYONE about it! Someone that god has as a mouth piece on the earth at this time, what could be better? FLAUNT IT :) not really but do realize the importance of it! 

- So this past Saturday we go over to this members house to to met him and get to know him and I guess he has been letting a friends mom stay over for the past 3 weeks while she is figuring stuff out. But guess what!?! The lady is my next best friend, hahah IDK why but we just get along so great and we have been able to tell her all about the church and she even came to church on Sunday! She is from Atlanta Georgia but hey, I am so lucky I got to meet her. Actually she reminds me a lot of my mom. This may sound weird but I have meet a few people that remind me of my mom and we get along amazing :0 hahaha

- There has been a lot of sad experiences since I have been here. in the past month there has been over 6 house fires and personal we have come in contact with two of the families. It is so so sad to see the devastation that has gone on :( I am glad that the Lord has sent me here to hopefully help these families out! 

- So lastly just wanted to mention a little more about what I wrote about last week. As we have been looking through old records and meeting member I have seen 3 things that is going to improve the work in this area. Not that there is one solution that can get everyone back to church but these three things I feel can move the work along in the area rapidly! BEING RESPECTFUL, CALM, AND LOVING. These three things I have seen are what soften peoples hearts. Honestly most people here just need a friend and to feel loved. Well, I guess that is one of our callings as missionaries :) I LOVE IT

Well thank you for reading! hopefully you enjoy and please keep me in ur prays!

Love Elder Young

P.S. Lots of Pictures next week :) 

Heart of VA

Well I don't think any of you could ever guess where I am! I am literally in the middle of Virginia in BUCKINGHAM!!!! Let me tell all of you something, this is a crazy experience for me cuz I am out in the middle of NO Where! I don't know how many of you follow my fellow friend and missionary Keegan Christensen, but like him I am now out in the middle of no where. I guess they send people like us out here to spice up the place :) So much good stuff has gone on this week and I dont even know were to start cuz I also what to mention some of the good studies in the scriptures that i have had!

So I packed everything up and headed to transfer meeting this past Tuesday and boi was I nervous for some reason int he back of my mind I have been having this feeling like I really need to prepare for this next transfer cuz it is going to be a struggle for me. Like I said I was reassigned to labor in the Buckingham Branch with elder Miller. He is from Idaho and has been out just a little bit longer than me!

The first 2 family or people of the ward that I meet in Buckingham each had about 10 Dogs and 5 cats.... so as many of you that truly tickles me :)

This past Friday they did have a trunk or treat at the branch so that was super duper fun. I got to meet all the members before they were in there shirts and ties which made things nice I would say. I will just have to say that it is comforting to know that where ever you go in the world there is always members of the church that u can rely on :) and that is the same in this area.

As for fun adventures that I have already had here;

- I got to help out moving horse fencing and got to be around lots of farm animals. Definitely reminded me of Staunton :)

- Was able to give out candy to car as they went through the "Haunted Forrest" and say " Thanks for supporting Historic Buckingham" hahah

- So on Saturday, after being here for 4 days and feeling uncomfortable but almost getting over it we are doing service for our Branch Mission leader when he tells us he wants to take us to Farmville for dinner. So we go and I always thought farmville was going to be similar to Buckingham cuz lets be real. Farmville sounds like lots of farms and buckingham sounds like the name of a nice city. Anyways Farmville is a city and I can not put into the words the relief I felt when I was it. To know that I am only 25 minutes away from a walmart, chick-fila, Buffalo Wild Wings, and shopping definitely gave me peace to my heart. I don't know what I would have done with out that city! Lets just say I slept more peaceful that night now that I know I have shopping at least decently close to me!

- We also had the coolest experience up at this place called Yoga-ville. i dont have any pictures but we will definitely be going up there again! It is like this secluded retreat where people go to find them self and become more peaceful. i will be real that I definitely felt very peaceful there. I We meet some really nice people there and I could totally see myself going there after the mission for a couple week stay! the Coolest part was there temple of all different kinds of religions. Definitely check out the website, well worth it! http://www.yogaville.org/

As for my studies this week they have been so great. Maybe it is because I am away from the city and able to focus more :) things that I would like to share with you!

- People recognize us as missionaries and members of the church by the love and peace that we show to people and bring them.
- This life is a time for us to purify ourselves. We can onyl truly purify ourselves through the atonement of Christ. We us the Atonment in our lives by strengthening our faith and repenting on the daily. We build our faith by learning about GOD.
- The easiest way to build faith is to learn what your building faith in. Now I am building faith in God so i am personally studying him.

So that is the jist of my week. Hopefully at least some of that made since. Thanks for all of your love and support and prays, plz keep them coming cuz I will know I will need them! and send me letters :)

- Elder Young

PS The Pictures from the Ranch are from a members place here! SOOOOO NICE. #trill #Lavish

Sure is hard saying bye to this kid, Sure will miss him!

These two have turned out to be some of my best friends here! Love them

Sure going to me Elder Goold and Campbell, Both exception elders

Love these two and there cute daughter!

Woods Cross 4 Lyfe

Peace out from Buckingham, VA Love u ALL!

This is the temple at Yogaville

HAVE A GREAT WEEK!

The time has come, I Honestly would be totally okay if this time never ever came, But I am being transferred out of the Swift Creek Ward. Boi can I just say that the past 7 and a half months have truly been some of the best times of My life. I have meet some of the greatest people and hopefully have been able to touch the lives of those here,as much as they touch mine. I just want to say thanks for everything the people in the Colonial Heights and Chester Area have given me! I was able to bare my testimony on Sunday but again I just want to let you all know that I love this work, and especially love this work when I am able to work with the members in the Swift Creek ward. So much I have learned in the past 7 and a half months I feel I could never give it all back :)

With that, I am excited and a little nervous to see where the Lord wants me next. We find out tomorrow so hopefully I can get the new address on here asap. I know I will definitely need those encouraging letters these next couple weeks. Sorry it is short but HAVE A GREAT WEEK!

Wild on the East Coast

HAHA, So sorry everyone that it has taken so long for me to get on here and write another email. monday was a holiday, Tuesday we emailed for a little but had lessons, so here we are today. Boi has it been the craziest past couple weeks ever! From people going to jail, to going and coming from psych wards, all the way to teaching intoxicated people, a man recently baptized had a stroke, then some people having babies. It has definitely kept me on my toes :) and so much I have learned!

- Been doing lots of Family History, since we don't spend lots of time on technology and I'll admit I go through some withdrawals from it. Doing Family History allows you on a computer to do the Lords work. So now I have just grown to love doing family history for anyone and everyone!

- So sad story this past week. As we were knocking on a members door one morning, she is like "what happened to your car"..... There was a huge dent and scratches on it! Like really. I guess someone must have side swiped us while we were parked at a lesson the previous night and not had the dignity to leave a note..... PEOPLE these days!

- I don't know if any of you have seen the pamphlets that we use as missionaries. I always thought they were nice but never really use them until this past week. With our goal to find the 'Ones God has prepared" We began giving people these to read before the Book of Mormon and boi did it help out. When we came back, those that actually read it were so excited for us to give them The Book of Mormon and it was great to see the commitment. Commitment is one of the hardest parts of a mission, not only always being 100 committed to the mission, but discerning the commitment level for those you work with.

- Now for the hardest lesson of the week, and we honestly get these lessons every so often. A member invites us over to teach there friend. I really like to ask questions just to track where people on with their spirituality. Well lets just say that teaching people that don't have a desire to go anywhere after this life makes things really hard!  I have not find out how to really touch these peoples hearts yet, I guess it will come to them in time. But I do have to say it totally grinds my gears when people don't care about life. I guess they don't realize how much of a privilege it is!

- We meet this sweet guy this week. He is head of finances for the Department of Agriculture. he is literally the one that takes money in and out of the economy, and if any of you were wondering. He is a very religious guy! Always goes to church, loves God, but very busy. Hopefully we can continue to share more with him though!

- Many of you have asked, How the weather?? Well this week the weather has been so awesome! Actually the past couple of weeks have been so great! Nothing beats doing missionary work when the weather is nice outside. It really does make people happier!

- Last, with getting done with the Book of Mormon reading and back into "normal" study, I have loved studying even more! This past couple weeks have been some of the best studies of me mission! to share a few things of what I learned;

Time Heals All. This has come up in my studies so much this week either while reading the scriptures, Preach My Gospel, or out teaching. God's timing is everything, and we just have to do our best to find it out!

We are to all raise a voice of warning! This was a great study that I had all about it is our DUTY to raise this voice of warning. This a responsibility and I am sure God will hold us accountable if we warned our neighbors. Hit up Warnings in the Topical Guide for a good study.

As members of the church we are only building their knowledge. Should not be taking any away. We are adding to it and maybe sometimes we do have to mold it. I have found this to be so true as we teach. Showing people this is not totally new, but just NEW AND IMPROVED (if that makes since).

Last today I studied about the Work of Salvation, specifically the Less-Active work that we do. It is true that members of the church are held to a higher standard than the world. We have made the promise at baptism and even more in the temple. it is my goal to remember this. WE HAVE TO LIVE TO A HIGHER STANDARD. And I hope that u all can strive to do the same.

Well thanks so much for reading, It was nice and long :0 There will be some more pictures up here soon. Sorry it has taken so long! Oh, and it is transfers this week and there is a chance i will leave. So maybe wait to send letters, but still write them in preparation to send :0 love you all and Good Luck with your week!

- Elder CJ Young

Loved Conference

I do not even know where to start this week! It really has been a trip, haha! BUT I LOVED CONFERENCE SOOOOO MUCH! The Prophets definitely spoke some true words there. I don't have lots of time to email this week just cause of lessons to teach. But we were able to watch the upcoming movie Meet The Mormons. It is a good movie. I would recommend it. I am excited to see what kind of impact it will have on people and on the church in the worlds eyes. The stories told in it were true. This gospel is true and that why those people live such peaceful lives in this cray cray world.

I will write a  nice email next weeks with the details of this week but till then, LISTEN TO THE PROPHETS VOICE.

LOVE elder young

Roller Coster

Well. This week has been one GREAT week. I was just thinking..... I don't know how i could measure how one specific week goes as a missionary. I guess that I look at it as more, if there were more good things that went on than poor! If thats the case, this week was so great!

To start off i want to tell yall a little bit about what we are doing in the Richmond Virginia mission this week. To help strengthen our love for the Book of Mormon, and our testimony of it..... WE ARE READING IT ALL THE TIME. Like for reals, any time that we don not have a set appointment, we are reading. We started this yesterday with a special fast and it goes until General Conference weekend! I am so excited to see my testimony grow and what new stuff I learn. Definitely invite any of you to join along and see what we can learn. I definitely know that it is the best book I could read in this life :)

I have to say that we found a sweet new sister that is looking into the church! She is 19 and moved up to the area just 6 months ago. She is super excited to learn what this church is all about and she even wants her dad to come along!!! YEAH YEAH!!!!

We had one day this week where we literally had perfect weather! It was so great! And, to add to that excited it was a great day as far as missionary work goes also! This is such a great time to be in Virginia, I LOVE IT! If any of you want to travel somewhere with nice weather right now, COME HERE!

Remember that lady that i told you about maybe last week. The one that cussed me out 6 months ago? Yeah she has read almost 10 chapters in the Book of Mormon and is now ready to receive this gospel. I can say that God put me in this area for a reason. I am the type of person that has trouble letting go of things, so when I met someone I try and never give up on them..... Well look what has come with it :0 The Lord's timing means everything!

Oh, and that girl that I wrote about above..... Yeah she dropped us after going to the woman's meeting on Saturday night because she wants to be BAPTIST! Like really?? How about u be more Christian instead? Anyways i was bummed about that one but life moves on!

HAHAH Thanks for reading, sorry it was short. Have a good week and GoodLUCK!!

- Elder Cj Young

Ups and Downs

Hey everyone, I am so grateful for the week that I had to be a missionary this week in the Chester area of Virginia. If you would have asked my half way through this week I would have probably said the total opposite but hey; Always got to end the week on a good note!

Cool experiences and life lessons learned throughout the week;

• We were taught in a Stake general Priesthood session last night about how we always have to be striving. Realizing that we are not perfect is one thing, but always striving to be in another. WE HAVE TO STRIVE. One of my favorite teachers in High School had on her Web page, "never let it rest, till you good is better, and you better is best." I see this to be totally true, if I personally am not constantly pushing myself, than God is going  to start the Humbling process :)
• To go along with that; that the Lords work that is going on right now in the earth was and is on his timing. if he wants his work to hasten it is going to hasten with or with out us. haha I saw a Webpage titled how to stop the Mormon Media Increase :) fun to see all these people that THINK they can do something against the hastening of this work! We as people that are on gods team have to be the ones to keep up with God. he is moving at an ever increasing speed and we have to step up to the level he wants. The stake Presidency applied the specifically last night to the work of salvation at a whole. If you don't know what it is u can hit up this past ensign! 
• Taking something not intended as an insult, as an insult...... is your problem. Get over things and move on with life. There are always bigger and better things ahead! 
• I beat this drunk guy in horse shoes the other day :0 that was cool cuz i dont even think I have ever played a legit game of horse shoes in my life. Haha then the first thing he says after I bet him, "I can't believe I just lost to a minister!" Classic Missionary moment #godonmyside
• We went and talked to the sweetest lady yesterday. She lives next to a family in the ward and the last time we talked to her she just cussed me out and was pissed, well needless to say, after 3 months of not seeing her; we had the greatest lesson with her ever! She began to cry and was just so happy that we never gave up on her! The greatest Part of the mission is seeing the Lords timing in things. This was totally in the lords hands and now she is humbled and ready to feel the spirit more in her life!

I am so grateful for this chance that I have to be a missionary, especially at this time in the world when the lord is requiring more and more of us each and every day. I am so grateful for all the great example that I have in my life. Looking forward to the "war" that will take place in the future, I am glad to have you all on my side. I would love a letter more than anything from each of u, and your prays! Thanks for reading and have a great week! Good Luck!!!


Ps this is my new favorite Video!



http://bcove.me/0djeoayt