Last Email

Dear Family,

Well, this is it.  I won't even have another chance to email, this time next week I will be in Adam-Ondi-Ahman and with my returning group getting ready to go home, so this is it.  My last email.  I hope you'll be okay if glance through my week as I can tell you about it in person in a couple of days :-)  It was good though.  Lots of miracles, we set Maria and her two daughters on baptismal date and found probably the most solid family I've found on my mission, I literally went back out to the car from contacting them and cried because I won't get to teach them.  Her name is Theresa, and she and her three kids are so prepared it left me giddy inside.  We had zone conference this week and I bore my testimony (it's a tradition in our mission that departing missionaries bear their testimonies at their last zone conference) and I could barely choke the words out.  We had some other funny stuff happen that I will tell you about later, but I just really want to reflect on my mission in this email and also thank you for your love and support these past two years.  Two years seems like such a long time!  I haven't seen you in two years!  Sometimes it feels like that, and other times it feels like it's been a couple of months (depending on the temperature outside and the receptivity of the people I'm talking to :-P) But either way, a lot has happened in this time and in this place.  I  don't really know how to talk about it, it's too much to really fit into an email or a conversation or even a lifetime.  We were teaching a guy in McDonald's this morning, and he asked him how long I had been doing this, I told him a week shy of two years, and he was blown away that I would spend that much time away from family.  Then he asked how much I had been paid, and I told him that my family and I sacrificed and saved for a long time to actually pay to do this.  That blew him away too.  Then he asked how much time I had off, and I told him eight hours a week, and that only because we need to do laundry and clean and shop, and he sat down and stared at me.  He asked about a girlfriend, about movies and tv and family, and I told him I left it all behind for a time so I could serve God.  He stared at me more intently and asked in all sincerity "why in the world would you do that?" And I was able to smile and tell him "Because I love Him."  I have spent the last two years in full service to my Heavenly Father, because I love Him, and in exchange He is making me into the man I want to become, because He loves me.  I have a LOOOONG way to go.  I'm nowhere near perfect, and I've made a lot of mistakes in my service.  Sometimes I would stay awake at night and cry and plead with Heavenly Father that He would find someone more kind, more thoughtful, more diligent, more patient, more like Christ to take my place because I felt so weak and simple, and then He would remind me what He told Enoch, Moses, Alma, Moroni, and anyone who will ask Him, that He uses weak things to do His mighty work, and that in the process those weak things become strong things in His hands.  That is why being anxiously engaged in the work of God is so crucial to our ultimate exaltation, because intimate friendship and partnership with the Savior Jesus Christ results in men becoming more like Him.  I will forever be grateful for the two years that I spent in complete service to Christ, and for the grace that He offered me in exchange for my slivers of perfect faith.  I haven't been a perfect missionary, but I have been perfect in one thing: I've been perfect in trying.  

I want to thank you, my dear sweet family, for all the love and support you've given me, and the sacrifices you have made to keep me here.  It hasn't been easy, on any of us.  I've missed you so much at times it made my stomach hurt.  Homesickness was never a trial that was taken away from me.  I'm sure (at least I hope :-P) that you missed me too, and that it was hard not to have the whole family together for special occasions or holidays.  We've saved up money, and you've sacrificed much, to pay for my mission.  We've had to see each other struggle a little bit, and have had that horrible sensation of only being able to say a few comforting words and stand back and pray that everything will work out.  We've wept, prayed, worked, and tried our hardest together, and even though we've been far apart, we've grown together these past two years in ways I would never take back.  I want to thank you for that growth.  I could not have done any of this without you.  I couldn't have even thought of doing this without you.  You have been my cheerleaders, my coaches, my inspiration, my "happy thought" on dark, dark days, and the thing to which I could testify most deeply to those I taught:  I have an eternal family, the gospel has made it possible, and it can be the same for your family, too.  You have encouraged me to try my hardest, to reach deep down and to work with all that I had, and you have been there with me through every up and down. Thank you. I love you so very, very much.   

Lastly, I want to bear my testimony, one of the last times that I will be able to as a full-time missionary.  I know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that God is my loving, forgiving, caring Heavenly Father.  I know He has a purpose for my existence, and that if I will seek Him out He will guide me along in that purpose.  I know that He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to stand as a perfect, infallible example of how to return to His presence, and that Christ suffered the penalty for my sins and transgressions so that I could be clean and I could change my nature to become more like Him.  I love Him.  He is my Captain and my King.  I trust Him with all my heart.  I know that He called Joseph Smith as a prophet, seer, and revelator, and that through that great man His Gospel is once again on the earth in beautiful simplicity.  I know, deeply and wholeheartedly, that the Book of Mormon is the word of God.  I love that book.  It has changed my life.  It has the power to change the world.  I know that through the restored ordinances of the Priesthood, I can be cleansed of sin, be given the gift of the Holy Ghost, be endowed with Priesthood power, and be sealed to my beloved family for time and all eternity.  I know that Thomas S. Monson is a prophet of God, and under his inspired hand the gathering of Israel is underway and the knowledge and power of God is expanding into all nations.  And overarching and all encompassing, I know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is God's very kingdom here on earth.  I know it and will never be swayed.  Christ stands at the helm of the "old ship Zion", and will lead us to life and light and hope, not only in this life, but for the eternities.  

I love you all, so much.  I'm super excited for the activities we have planned when I get home, and can't wait to hug you and squeeze you (and call you George maybe?)  and really just to sit down with you and look at your faces.  Sometimes I forget you're all real it's been so long.  But for now, know that I am going to be working my hardest this last week that I get to wear Christ's name on my chest, and that I'll be there at whatever time I fly in (I don't know what time I'm leaving or even where I'm flying in to, I guess I'll find that out later?  Hope so! :-D) excited to see you and share with you in person what a wonderful two years it's been.

HOORAH FOR ISRAEL!

All my love,

Elder Porter Jared Young     

For the rest of the story.. (or email)

Dear Family, 

We had to run around Kansas City but we found another library :-)  I think it was funny I started off saying "I don't want to write a long email" and wrote the shortest one I've ever written haha!  

I can't believe that happened to Spencer!  What in the world?  I really hope he'll be okay, I'll be praying for him.  Do they know exactly what's happening and how to stop it?  Will he make a full recovery?  I didn't know the flu could do that, I might go and get a shot now.  They've been telling us to, but I've resisted, but if the flu can be that terrible I probably should.  He's a tough little guy though and I know he'll be okay. 

 

I still don't have a lot of time at this library, but I'll give you the rundown of my week.  We went back to the KC zoo on p-day, it's HUGE and last time we didn't get to see even half of it, so we went to the other half this week and it was a lot of fun.  There were literally kangaroos just hopping up to say hello all over one side of the park.  One hopped up and almost touched me, but I couldn't get a picture before he hopped away, it was pretty cool.

We had my last mission leadership council this week, it was pretty surreal.  We talked about a baptism goal for December and all I could think was "I won't be here, I won't be here".  I'm really excited for the mission, though, we have a goal of 500 baptisms before new years, and we are so close.  We just need I think 85 more and we have the means to do it, and it will be awesome.  That's like two or three large wards being added to our mission in one year.  We talked a lot about accountability and goal setting, and I learned so much from the meeting.  I've always loved those meetings, they are probably my favorite part of being a zone leader.  We trained on what we learned on Friday, and it was really fun.  None of the areas in our zone touch, we are just four floating areas surrounded by other zones, so it has been hard to build zone unity, so we brought cake and ice cream and for the first forty minutes of the meeting we played get to know you games and laughed and opened up, and then had a great, spiritual meeting afterward.  This week was one of the most successful weeks I've seen in this zone, we set five more people on baptismal date and our new investigators went up, so it was a big testimony to me that unity brings blessings.  When we feel like we are a part of something bigger, it is easier for us to work hard and feel the spirit, and that is why we meet together as brothers and sisters as wards and don't just bless and partake of the sacrament every sunday as a family.  That unity is what helps us to grow.  

We set Joseph back on date, he was the one from Africa that has a hard time understanding english, but he is so sincere and really wants to be baptized.  On Monday he told us he had read the Book of Mormon and he knew it was true, and so we invited him to be baptized and he said yes.  His mom really doesn't want him to, and even though he's like 25 in africa it's a big cultural no-no to do anything without your mother's blessing (as it is here, don't worry, Mom :-P) So we're really praying that her heart will be softened and he can join the church.

We also set Maria on date, I think I mentioned her in my last email but she is the mexican lady who lost her husband a few years ago.  She really likes what we have to say, and agreed that when she came to know the church was true she would be baptized.  We're at the point that no one can be ready to be baptized before I go home, but I'm working my hardest so that this area can take off and a lot of people can at least get on the road that leads to baptism.  I love being a missionary!

Like I showed in those pictures, we went to Oklahoma Joe's on Tuesday.  I'm not going to lie, it was the highlight of my week.  Yes, I have a problem when food excites me more than anything else, but I'm working on it :-)  It was SO good!  We definitely have to go if we ever make it out this way.  I had the z-man sandwich, smoked brisket, barbeque sauce, a couple of onion rings, and smoked provolone cheese, it was heavenly!  I bought a tee shirt to remember it.  It was included in the top 13 places you have to eat before you die by the new york times, and I can see why!  But really though, I'm going to need your help when I come home.  I'm not a whale, but I've for sure gained weight on my mission and I'm going to need some help to get it off.  I wake up early and run every morning, but nothing is coming off.

Well, m time is up, but I sure love you.  I'm so excited to see you again, it's been a long two years and I've learned a lot, and it still doesn't seem real to me that I'm almost done, but I'm so glad I get to be with you so soon.  I love you and hope you have a great week!

I love you more than I hate emailing in public :-)

Love,

Elder Porter Jared Young  

Ape spit and barbeque

Dear Family,

I am fighting myself to write a decent sized, "this is what I did this week" email because all I can think of is, "you have 14 days left, you can tell them about it in person." 

Oh crap the computer is kicking me off, I guess there is a lot of people waiting for a computer. Stupid public libraries!  I'm going to try to get to another library, but in case I don't, I love you all very much, I'm worried sick about Spencer but fear and faith can't coexist so I'm going to pray my heart out for him, we had a great week, set two people on date, I got spit on by a monkey and had delicious barbeque, I'm sad and happy and scared and excited to come home so soon all rolled into one, and I love you all so very much.  I'll try to get on another computer!

Love,

Elder Young 

Zoo

Barbeque

This stupid orangutan spit in my face!  Literally, it came up to the bars, hawked a big one, and expectorated it into my face!  It was disgusting! 

Happy Birthday, Halloween, Hobos, and Hope for this area!

Dear Family,

Hello!  Happy November!  I can't believe it's here, it's so surreal.  I look at the calender in the morning to see if we have any set appointments or meetings and now I stare at a big circled "NOV 25TH: GO HOME!"  That I used to have to search for.  So crazy.  I'll only email two more times... I bear my testimony in zone conference in a week... I'm going to Adam-Ondi-Ahman in three weeks from today... This is all happening too fast!  Let's just make the most of it.  Last week we went to a fireside by the 1st councilor in the mission presidency, and he showed some movie clips to help talk about his topic.  He showed one with John Travolta as a dying guy living in a little town, there are this kids that don't want to talk to him because he's dying and it scares them, and he goes up to them with an apple and says something to the effect of 'you know, this apple will rot in a couple of days if you leave it alone.  Staring at it or leaving it be in hopes of making it last longer will do nothing but waste it, so you have to (takes a bite of the apple) make it a part of you while it's still here.'  And I think that's the same way with life.  God gives us mortality to learn and grow, and wishing for long gone days does nothing but hold us back from taking a bite out of each day.  We can either take a bite or let it rot, but we can't choose to keep it forever. 

This week has been CHALK full!  So much crazy stuff.  I'll try to fit as much in as I can, but if I miss something, hey, I'll see ya in a few weeks :-)

Elder Dunn got hit in the face playing basketball on p-day (why I usually don't participate) and got a HUGE gash right under his eye.  We had to go in and get him stitches on Tuesday morning, and it kind of set our week off bad and it was hard to get back in the swing of things.  We did find a new investigator on Tuesday though, an AWESOME AWESOME X50 lady named Maria.  We knocked on her door and she was super nonchalant about it, just "come in boys. I've been waiting for you."  She has been meeting with the j dubs and hates most of what they had to say, but it's made her think about religion and gave her a bunch of questions that we're really excited to answer!  She only speaks Spanish, too, which I love :-)  Please keep her in your prayers.

Wednesday was my birthday!  Thank you so much for the cards, they made my day :-)  It was so fun to hear from you and feel like you were a part of the day.  I had a bit of a hard time, I hate birthdays away from family, but in my morning prayers I felt the prompting to get up, go out to the front porch, and watch the sunrise, and I kid you not it was the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. I could see all the way to the hills south of Independence, all the trees were oranges and yellows and reds, and the world was so fresh and clear, like it was a painting.  the sun came up and illuminated everything, and I felt how much Heavenly Father loved me and was happy that I was His son doing what He wanted me to do, it was like a Heavenly birthday card.  Then I opened yours and felt loved all around :-)  We had a pretty standard day after that, didn't get to go to OK Joes because we didn't have miles for it, but the member who fed us that night's son had had a birthday the day before and she had tons of cake left over, so I got to have some birthday cake!  And we set up a time to come and teach her husband, which we're really excited about.  Her little boy came up to me as we were leaving and tugged my pant leg and said "I heard a voice that said that my daddy will go to church someday." and I just hugged him and cried and said "yeah, buddy, he will."  Please keep brother Loya in your prayers, we're meeting with him this Friday and I want to baptize him before I go home.

Thursday was the ward halloween party and it was a lot of fun.  We had pinatas and mexican halloween music and chili and tons of games, it was a blast.

Then Friday was halloween, and soo much fun!  We went to a super cool Mexican restaurant in the super nice part of downtown called the plaza (I left my camera so I couldn't take pictures but it was SUPER cool, all kinds of fountains and old buildings and shops) and there was a "waitress" who I kept seeing walk by that I thought was kind of cute, then HE came and took our order, and it was a guy dressed up like a girl!  I almost died I was so embarrassed!  Stupid Halloween!  Then we went and met with a few of our investigators, had a really good lesson with Maria, and went home to prepare for the scare of a lifetime }:-)  I can't explain it all over email, it was too intricate, so I'll just have to show you the video and let it speak for itself, but basically we found a SUPER SUPER creepy cellar below our house with a hatch door, so we set up all kinds of creepy stuff down there (we put a knife in that dead rat and put "blood" all around it), got the assistants to come and, well, assist us, and we scared the living daylights out of a companionship in our district (the ones in the pictures with the root beer floats.)  We got mugs up, ate candy (I got more candy than any other halloween in my life, it was crazy!  I got a package from Shaneece with a bunch, Elder Dunn got a bunch form his family, we got a bunch at the ward party, and the mission office gave us a bunch.  That's four bunches!) and told scary stories, then told them we'd been hearing weird noises in our apartment and that we found a cellar that morning we wanted to check out with them.  We had one of the AP's down there in a crevice in the foundation, and the other one waiting outside for a cue to slam the cellar door shut.  We lured them down, they found the scary stuff, went to run out, then the cellar door slammed shut and the AP down in the cellar screamed a bloodcurdling scream that scared me, and I knew he was there.  I've never seen two men so scared in all my days, it was so awesome!  Then they went to try and get out and the AP outside was standing on the door so they couldn't escape, and the hopelessness on their face was priceless!  And the best part is that Elder Dunn and I were screaming and running, too, so they didn't suspect us until we bust up laughing watching the video later, for two hours they thought our basement was haunted!  It was AWESOME!  Probably not mature but so awesome! :-) Happy Halloween, Independence 2nd Ward Elders }:-)

We went on exchanges with the AP's on Saturday, and it was fun to be with Elder Purser again.  We went and tried a lot of his old investigators (he was here a year ago) and half of them were either dead or in prison. Good ol' Riverview :-)  But it was really fun and a good change, and we found a couple of leads that hopefully will be solid new investigators.  We're still kind of struggling, we haven't had a member to come with us to teach for weeks and are still trying desperately to find, but we are so close.  I'm working my hardest and I'm really excited to see how this week goes, we already have some really great plans.  

I love you all so much, and am so excited to see you again soon.  It's going to be an adjustment, but I can't think of a better family to come home to than you :-)

I love you more than I love caramel apple suckers :-)

Love,

Elder Porter Jared Young 

Dissolving ward and using the priesthood

Dear Family,

We've had another rough week.  It seems like every time I get the hang of things, something new comes up and puts me right back into the "I have no idea what I'm doing" corner.  We had some great plans to get the members fired up, get some solid referrals and find some new investigators to teach, and were super excited to get the ward fired up.  Then the ward dissolved.  We were sitting in a stake correlation meeting on Sunday morning (which no one told us we had until9 o'clock the night before, we stayed up until midnight working on it and then had to wake up at five thirty to get ready) and the stake president announced that he had gotten a call from Elder Bednar and that our ward needed to be dissolved, all the hispanics who were going to the ward from other wards were to not continue attending, and that a branch would be organized from whoever was left.  Our ward over the last 20 years has unofficially become the spanish ward of the stake, so a lot of the members lived outside of the boundaries but their records were in our ward and they held callings here, got temple recommends, etc.  So now they all have to go back to their own wards, leaving only three or four hispanic families left.   We went to church and no one had any idea what was going on, and we'd pass people in the hall and in our head think "he's gone, she's gone, they're gone, and they have no idea."  Then the stake presidency showed up and announced the change, and people were crying, some people were angry, and it was one of the weirdest sacrament meetings I've ever been to. I was really frustrated.  Not because of the change, I knew that was a good thing to help the area grow on its own (there hasn't ever been a bishop from inside the boundaries), but I felt like I had finally been given a chance to use my spanish and improve it, and now it was gone.  I couldn't help but think "why the heck now?  Why couldn't they wait 29 days?  What would be so wrong with that?"   But I've done a lot of soul searching the past few days, and I realized that I needed to be here for a reason.  I love helping struggling wards and branches, I've done it numerous times and I can do it again.  A lot more work?  Yes.  A lot less "success"?  Usually.  But something to help me grow?  Absolutely.  We realized that we are here at the start of this branch to give it a great foundation so that in a few more years it can be it's own ward again, but without any training wheels this time.  We can go out and work and sweat and wear ourselves to the ground so that we can find the next hispanic bishop so that this branch can be a spanish ward again.  It won't be easy, but it will keep me working hard until I come home and give me the best chance to grow even more.

I've had a lot of little tender mercies this week, too, things to help me know Heavenly Father is there and He loves me. We were supposed to go to the vc with some investigators on Thursday, but they cancelled on us out of the blue.  I was frustrated, but then an hour later they asked if we could go the next day at 7.  Well, we went Friday at seven, and my really good friend that I served around in Platte Woods, Sister Erikson, had randomly decided to come back to the mission with her family, and I got to see her!  It was just too coincidental that I showed up at the vc for the first time in weeks and just happened to catch Kylie for the ten minutes she was there. Heavenly Father knew it would make me really happy to see her and so he made sure I was there.  Then we got a referral to go give a little baby in Children's Mercy hospital a blessing. They were in a car crash, his mom had died, and he had cracked his spine and was in the CICU.  His aunt is a member and asked us if we could give a blessing, and so we went over to the hospital, anointed his little arm (we couldn't touch his head because of his injuries) and gave him a blessing.  It was just us and him in the little ICU unit, but as we gave him the blessing the roomed seemed to fill to bursting with love.  He opened his tiny bruised eyes and looked around the room and smiled, and I just started bawling.  His mother, who he will never see again in mortality, and who knows what other family and loved ones, were coming to make sure he was okay.  His Father in Heaven was pouring out His love to His little son.  And we were privileged to be there to use His holy priesthood to heal him.  Elder Dunn told him he was pure and innocent before God and that God would bring him to a full recovery, and I left the hospital still weeping.  It was one of the sweetest, tiniest little experiences I've ever had, and it reaffirmed that God loves me and will use me to help bless others, and in the process continue to bless and guide me.  

I love you each so much, I can't believe I have less than a month before I see you again, but I hope you have a great week in the meantime :-)  Happy Halloween, I hope you have a fun time (we're pulling a prank on some other elders in the zone halloween night, hehehehe!)  And I'll sure be thinking about you on October 29th, wishing I could be with you.

I love you more than I love Halloween Egg Nog!

Love,

Elder Porter Jared Young