No transfers!

Hello family!

How is everyone this week? I am doing good!! Me and sister Bitter are still companions so everything is great! I really love her so much. She has such a great testimony of this gospel, and she loves everyone that we meet, and they all love her. I learn so much from her about how to be a better missionary, and how to become a better person all together. She is great! I can't wait until you all can meet her. She is amazing. (:

So This week we had one of our best ward missionaries leave for her mission, the manila mission. She was such a great friend and she is going to be such a great missionary! I am going to miss her sooooo much! at her farewell, she asked me to play the violin. So i did. It was so terrible. haha, i am so rusty. But she said it was good still.

We had a baptism this past Saturday. Brother Rizalino was baptized!! He is going to be such a strong member of the church. He has been so happy since saturday. when he bore his testimony he was so happy he said, " finally i have accepted to be baptized. now i can finally enter into the celestial kingdom with my heavenly father, I get to meet heavenly father and see my wife again." how sweet and powerful. It was truely amazing.

Sorry I don't have much to share this week. But I just want to tell you all how much blessed I am. SO much am I blessed! I get to be here, in the philippines sharing the gospel to people that are so ready to hear and change to come closer to christ. They are so humble and so teachable. These people are a living testimony to me that change is possible, that God lives and loves all his children. The Atonement is real, it has real power to change people. It gives people hope, and comfort, and the strength they need to overcome addictions. The gospel blessed families, it blesses lives.

I am so thankful that I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I am so much blessed to be a missionary, a representitive of Jesus Christ. I am so much thankful for all the support that is givin to me from home. from all you that are reading this. I feel the comfort from your prayers to me.

Stay strong in the faith, stay active in chruch, don't be afraid of returning to church if you haven't been in a while. Just do all the things you need to do to keep the commandments! Yesterday in a lesson we were teaching an one of our investigators that has a problem with the word of wisdom... we taught about the 10 commandmnents and I promised her that if she came to church that her desire to use those things would be gone. and I know that is true. Liveing the commandments strengthens every aspect of your life. I promise you this.

I love you all, so much!

Love, your sister missionary,

Sister Young(:

EARTH QUAKES

 hhheeeelllllooooo!!!! This week has been so crazy!! Let me start off first by telling everyone that I DID feel the earth quakes, but we are fine. Nothing terrible happened here, that I know of... I'm kinda in a bubble.  I'll tell you the story. (:   So it happened on tuesday morning. The next day was Mission tour and we had other missionaries coming to our house to stay at 5 pm so we decided to go out procelyting that morning. on our way waslking out of our house place, we found a really cool plant that when you touch it it closes, so we were playing with it. Then I felt really dizzy, and I just thought that was normal.. but then my Companion said, "why is it so hard to touch it?" then we both stood up, and She said" oh my gosh, an earth quake!!" then we both knelt down in the middle of the road, and held each others hands. we looked around and there was people staring at us, and the building that is by us was moving... then sister bitter assured me that we were in the middle of the road, that we were safe! haha, it lasted about 40 ish seconds. it was sooo weird!!! then we just went about our day. no worries. we got back to our house and were doing studies, and then the house started shaking again. another one was happening. haha. sister bitter was scared. I was like "woohooo this is so cool!!!!! look at the picture on the wall, its moving!!!!(: " haha, then it stopped, and about 5 minutes later another one happened. they didn't last very long. but it was so cool.
    that night,i had a plan that if there was one while we were sleeping i would grab my companion and stand in our door frame, and wake the other companionship up and have them stand in the other door. cause that is waht you are supposed to do, right? I don't know. but it never happened. so Its okay.

so last week I told you about Sister Maribel and how she couldn't get baptized yet... Well, she had another interview on wednesday, and she had successfullly gone through the repentance process and now she was ready to be ba[tized!!! So on saturday, she was baptized. I am so happy for her! She is finally clean after al these years!! She has such a strong testimony, and such a great example to her family. We are actually teaching them now.  I am so exc ited!!!

We had Mission tour this week. Elder Neilson and his wife came and spoke to us and trained us. It was way cool. The spirit was so strong, and you could tell that he was a man called of god. It was so inspiring.

 Last week we contacted a less active member. Her Name is sister Rosaleah. We taught her and her house help and her friend. (they now have baptisim dates and came to church yesterday!!!)  She invted us over for dinner last week, she is such a good cook!! and then last night she invited us over again for dinner. Her and her husband are both less active, but their son is active and turning in his mission papers soon! So we felt impressed to encourage them to prepare themselves for the temple so they can go through with their son.  It was a powerful lesson. I was so blown away by how stong the spirit was.

Sister Rosaleah, she is special. I feel a connection to her and I don't know why. She is such a great lady! We took pictures, I'll hvae to send them home. She is great! If I ever come back, I am going to her house!! I love her so much.

So today is the day that we figure out whether or not we are being transfered. I am scared. I don't want to be transferred. I like my companion we get along so great and we ahve awesome companionshiop unity, and i love my area, and the people in it! We have another baptism this week, and I want to be there for it! Ugh, it is so sad...... maybe we wont get a call though(: that would make me happy. haha

OH! we also had another Less active that we ahve been working with since we got into this area come to church yesterday! Brother Oscar. He is cool. He is really tall for a filippino. and speaks tagalog, so i can't understand him., but.... its okay. (:

Wow, The work here is really progressing. I love it here. Oh, so funny story before I leave, last P-day, we walked outside right after I finished emailing, and it was like we were walking through a hurricane!!! there was soooooomuch rain, and we just walked down the street and we were both SOAKED!! even with our umbrellas.... it was insane!!!!  but it was awesome. ITs so much funner in the philippines!


Well I love you all. I pray for you all the time. And in Ilonggo even!!(: haha. I hope that you are all doing okay, and writing me letters and stuff, (:

Love, your sister Missionary,
Sister Young

It is so hot here

 Well, I'm glad that all you saw the pictures of when Sister Lopez, the mission presidents wife, worked with us! It was so much fun. She is a returned missionary and she has the sweetest personality. It was way amazing to see her in action though. She is sooooo great! It was good to get to know My "Mission Mom" better too. I can learn so much from her! And yes, ALL of the children or mga kabata-an know Sister Bitter and I and love us. It is way cute.

Later that night after sister Lopez left we went to an investigators house. They life ibabaw.. which is like... there isn't a word in english for it. It is like you crawl up these really steep scary steps to get to their house. And the wood is really rotted... anyways. We had just said the closing prayer and then my chair fell through the floor... IT WAS SO SCARY!!!!!! And I just kept appologising for breaking her house. 

We had a baptism this week. Brother Michael. He is going to be such a great member! He has so much fire in him. It is great! It was really sad though, he is the only member of his family, but it is okay cause he is so strong!!! I am so glad that I was able to help him come to know Jesus Christ and to take and make his first covenant. I am so Blessed!

We have another investigator that was progressing so well. I have grown to love her so much! She had her baptismal interview yesterday, but didn't pass... When I found out, I thought it was becuase we didn't teach her well enough, but it was really because a choice that she made when she was younger. I cannot describe the amount of sadness that I felt when She told me. I am so sad because she has had to live with that gyuilt for such a long time. I am so sad because she now cannot get baptized on the date that she was looking forward to so much. But I am so HAPPY that through the atonement of Jesus Christ she can be forgiven. I am so happy that She can finally rid herself of that guilt. I am so happy that she was honest with the lord and confessesd because she understands the principle behind being baptized worthily. She will get baptized in a couple of weeks i'm hoping. Don't worry, she is on the way to eternal life. (: I am so happy for her. Even though I am so sad.

So, General Conference was...... AMAZING!!!!!!! I didn't want it to end! It was so nice to feel like I was back in America even just a little bit! And to hear the Prophets voice. And to receive such great councils! wow! I LOVED it!!!!! I wish I could just watch it all over again... but I cant. But... I wish. 

It has been so hot here for this week. It has only rained 2 times. That is odd. I am so grateful that we havent had a brown out though(: hehe. 

The other night we came home and there was a GIANT spider!!! so I ran and got the permetherin and squirted it alot, and then we watched it burn(: hahah. take that nasty spider!

I love you all so much! and I hope that you are all doing well. (:

Love, your sister missionary,

Sister Young

Working with Sister Young & Sister Bitter

On our way to our 1st teaching appointment, no one was home

Prayer meeting with Pres. Cobing's daughter. We sang "Come, listen to a Prophet's Voice" and invited her to the upcoming General Conference Broadcast this weekend

15 minute member visit

It's good we have back up plans

We passed by and met Gigi

5 minute lesson (non-LDS)

We sang to Gigi " A Child's Prayer." We got a return appointment

Perla's 2nd lesson with the missionaries, she is progressing well. We invited her to the General Conference Delayed Broadcast this weekend

We (OYM) talked with these non-LDS sisters and taught 5 minute lesson, got return appointment

OYM-ing (Open Your Mouth) a brother

We got a return appointment with an older brother next to Sister Bitter

OYM-ing Doreen

Then we taught Doreen and invited her to the General Conference Delayed Broadcast this weekend

Children gravitate to our foreign sister missionaries

Day 110 of my mission

This week has been crazy!!

Last p-day, my companion and I went thrift shopping! you all know how much I love to thrift!! (: we found some old 70's dresses and we bought them and we wear them all the time. Everyone thinks they are cute.... they are kinda cute, but they are so comfortable too! I love them. I wore one to the baptasim that we had on saturday, so you can see one of them in my picture. My companion and I have so much fun, cause we both like to thrift shop(: THey are definately grandma dresses though, they all had shoulder pads that we cut out... yeah. they are groovy!

Then, haha, on Wednesday night at 11 pm... there was a brown out. So there was no electricity. we thought it would turn back on eventually, but it never did. and It was soooooo hot!!!!! you have no idea how hot it was. my companion and I finally in the middle of the night went out to the living room of our apartment and laid on the tile to try and cool off and get some sleep... but it was so hot. then we woke up and the power still wasn't on. And when the power isn't on we dont have water either... so... we used the rest of the water in the tank to fill up buckets and take bucket showers by candle light. the power had just turned back on by the time we got home that night at 8. it was seriously the worst. I am SOOO thankful for electricity. DOn't take it for granted. Electricity is so... awesome.

The other day we were out procelyting and teaching and then I got so sick! You know that feeling you get when you are going to throw up? and your body doesn't have any energy? yeah, thats what I felt liek and I was having hot and cold flashhes. luckily we were close to the chruch and bishop had just showed up and my companion asked him to give me a blessing. We went into his office and one of the councelors and the Ward Mission Leader gave me a priesthood blessing. It was so amazing how quickly it worked! During the prayer i was already feeling better and we were able to finish out our plans for that day. It was really funny hearing them try and prounounce my name though(: hahaha. "those letters are so hard to say when they are next to each other" thats what they said. And I kept thinking... but you speak ilonggo. haha. Just a little funny.

Lately, my companion, sister Bitter and I, have decided to take a new apporach to teaching our lessons. So for each principle we sing a song. So this week we focused on Prayer, or pagpangamuyo. We start the lesson by saying "we would like to sing a song to you, is that okay? sorry our voices are not good" and then we sing "a childs prayer" The spirit is there instantly and music just touches the hearts of these people! I can't tell you how effective it is! then after the song we let the spirit guide and we teach them to their needs that are about prayer. It is so powerful!!!! I wish we had started this earliesr!

We had a baptism this week! Her name is Sister Emelita. She is a single mother of 10. She is such a  special lady. We love her so much. She works so hard for her family and to provide for them. Her house is so humble. There is two rooms. the whole house is no bigger than My room at Grandpa and cc's. and the bed is just a wooden crate. They have no electricity. So we always teach her by candle light. But, she loves this gospel. She reads the book of mormon and the gospel principles book every night. She has such a strong testimony!! When she walked into the font the spirit was so strong and then when she came out of the water, she looked like an angel. It was so powerful! SHe is such a great example of what a dedicated member should be. I love her so much! We made here a cardboard scripture case for a gift. SHe is so special to me.

Family isn't important... its EVERYTHING. I am so thankful for my family. I love you all so much. I hope that I can see everyone of you in the celestial kingdom when we have all past on. (:

SO, are their any sister missionaries in camp verde yet? How is the work there? Tell me! haha.

So I have an assignment for all of you(: I hope you do it because it is amazing:

I want all of you to read 3nephi 8&9 and then write to me in an email or dear elder or by snail mail and tell me what you thought and what your impressions were. BEFORE I check my email next week. (:

This is where the Prophesies of Samuel the Lamanite of Christs death are fulfilled and when Christ speaks to the people in darkness. (: okay? can you all do that? I am counting on you!

Well that is all for this week. Actually, thats all that I can remember at the moment. I want you all to know that I know that this is the Lords work. And I am so blessed to be a part of it! To bring people to know the truth, to help them receive the gospel and the Blessings that Heavenly Father is just waiting so anxiously to give to them. This is the best thing ever! I hope you catch the wave.

Love, your sister missionary,

Sister Young