November 29, 2011

Hello friends and family!

I am still alive, believe it or not. Also I only have 4 weeks left!!!!!! I know that seems like forever, and it is, but the weeks tend to fly by really fast around here. The days feel excruciatingly long though. Death.

So. Everyone keeps asking me if I've seen any cool famous Mormons, and I got double dose of Apostle love last week for Thanksgiving. Elder Christofferson AND Elder Nelson came last week. For my nonmormon lovely friends, those are two Apostles of the Lord. Yes, just like Peter or James or John. Not even kidding. Anywho, they gave amazing talks and I will only share what they said if you write me a letter.

Thanksgiving was the best day ever because I DIDN'T HAVE CLASS FOR ONCE. Also I got to sleep in a little bit. Also the food was gross, but I was sustained by the delicious treats my Grandparents and my parents sent! Thanks!!! Anyway, all in all it was pretty great. I had a lot of fun and experienced a lot of spiritual upliftment. Oh, and they let us watch "17 Miracles" before going to bed. Have you ever seen it? It's pretty cheesy, but oh well. It was a movie and we were dying.

Today the 4 other girls that my companion and I live with are leaving for their missions in the Phillipines. I'm going to be in the worst mood ever, I can already tell. They are so so so great and the best people to come home to every night. Poo! BUT they will be amazing missionaries and I am so excited for them.

Also I wore bright hot pink tights the other day and didn't even have anyone tell me not to, so HA! Now I'm the coolest kid on the block. Fo sho.

Ok so we had to practice "tracking" last week during class and so we'd knock on doors in our building and the teachers would pretend to be different people and we'd try to give them a short message and set up an appointment for another time. It was probably one of the more hilarious things I've ever done here. I met a Jehovah's Witness (who was actually pretty nice), a creeper who kept all the lights off in the room and only opened the door a crack, someone who was convinced that we were a cult and wouldn't stop shouting it, and FINALLY someone who was reluctant to let us in but did because we're AWESOME. Also he had some pretty tough questions but we promised we'd answer all of them. I love saying with confidence that we have all the answers to your questions. Because we DO.

Well my lovelies, I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving and I hope you have a fabulous week. Also, I sent out like 10 letters a little while ago and I've only heard back from 2 people. Can you at least send me a little "dear elder" telling me you got it? Because I'm worried. K thanks.

WRITE ME PEOPLE.

Love,

Sister Young

November 21, 2011

I am officially half way through the MTC!! Kind of. This is the start of my 5th week so I still have forever. But I'm almost there.

So. Guess what!!!! Another boring week. Sorry. I wish I had a lot of cool things to say, but I don't. Being a missionary in Provo is the most boring thing EVER. Just so you know.

Well half of our branch was shipped out to Germany this week, so now we're down to like...19 missionaries. And guess what!! We have more Sister missionaries than Elders right now. Obviously Germany prefers us. Duh.

So both of our "investigators" now have a baptism date. Oh yes, we're awesome. I know. And of course this is real life, so that means I'll have the same success over in Europe. Ha.

Also. Worst news ever. So I don't remember if I mentioned this before, but this Elder ended up finding me through like 5 people here and asked me to sing a song he wrote for one of the devotionals we have here. So for some STUPID reason I said yes and we auditioned and everything was great. So then yesterday I go to perform it and I lose my voice. Literally. It was gravely and low and weird. So I had to sing this song in front of a bunch of people and it was the worst thing ever. I cried for an HOUR after and wanted to die. My branch president's wife was the only person who managed to comfort me. So she spread around to everyone she could not to say ANYTHING about it to me because everytime someone did I started crying. Like when a girl in the cafeteria came up to me and said, "I study voice, so I know where you messed up. But I want you to know that everything else was amazing!" Maybe I punched her. A little bit. Jokes. But I thought about it. Obviously the MTC makes me ridiculously emotional. It's terrifying how easily I burst into fits of anger or just start crying without being prompted. I'm annoying myself, trust me. I'll work on this so this NEVER happens when I get back. I'll be [somewhat] normal, I promise!!

Best news of the week? A fellow Sister missionary in my district made me the happiest person alive. She ran up to me yesterday and said, "Sister Young! I have an inappropriate joke. I thought you'd appreciate it." Basically my life was made. And just for the record, it wasn't even bad. She's a missionary. Our sense of what "inappropriate" is has been dramatically warped. We think of ourselves as inappropriate when we sneak dance parties in the hallway or sit on the floor. I'm not even joking. But don't worry, we do it anyway.

So, lovely people. Keep writing me. PLEASE. Even if it's to say "poop" or to tell me how awesome you think I am. K thanks.

Danke my darlings. Love you.

Sister Young

Hellllllllllo.

So. MTC. I feel like I just keep repeating myself over and over and over. Oh well.

I forgot to tell everyone about this, but Elaine S. Dalton, president of the Young Women's program, came to speak here at Relief Society and it was AMAZING. That's really the only person you'd know that's come so far. I'll keep you posted.

So we have 2 new investigators named Eddy and Michael. Eddy is from Ghana and he freaking LOVES Jesus. More than anyone I know, I'm pretty sure. He's doing well except he keeps praying to Jesus and we're having a hard time trying to convince him that we need to pray to God haha. Michael is the most apathetic investigator EVER and I have no idea what to do with him. He never has any questions and never shows any emotion. Pray for us.

Also. You must know that the number 11 in German is "elf," so of course it would only be natural that all the German speakers got together here on 11/11/11 at 11:11 and had an Elf day party. The sisters tried to dress like elves, but the closest we got was wearing "woodsy" colors because we were forest elves, of course. I'm pretty sure my sense of humor as a missionary is ridiculous. I hope I'm normal when I get back.

Thursday was our first day at the TRC where we talk to real Germans and just practice getting to know them. The TRC used to be the place where we taught investigators, but now it's just for "member lessons." Anyway, so it was incredibly terrifying but the guys in our room were so so so nice. One of them said to me right after we had introduced ourselves said, "So you speak french?" Hahaha I laughed so hard and then was really embarrassed about my heavy french accent. But he said I speak really really well and he would never have guessed I had only been here 3 weeks! So yay. Also, if you speak German (Heidi and Andrew) it's on Tuesday at 3pm and 4pm. I don't know which time I'm at so stay for the 2 hours if I'm at 4pm. Please please please.

I don't know if I've already said this, but we have an incredibly conservative elder here that I LOVE to tease. Anyway, so I hadn't gotten on his nerves in a while so I decided to draw the Tree of Life vision from Lehi's dream (if you don't know what this is, ask the nearest mormon) and I drew the "great and spacious building" as corporate America. Needless to say, the elder just about ripped my head off. It was so great.

Also SOMEONE is spreading a rumor that I can sing and now 2 elders are trying to find me so I can sing with them!!!! What the heck?!?!?! So now I have to audition with one of them on Thursday and I'M GOING TO DIE. Poo.

One last thing. Thank you thank you THANK YOU for the letters!!!! I feel so special everyday. And also because I've gotten quite a few you'll have to give me a little time to write you back. But many many people are receiving letters this week. Ok? Ok good.

I love you all my little teddy bears. Have a lovely week!!

Sister Young

November 7, 2011

HEYYYYYYYYY.

So I miss all your guts. Just so you know. Also I'm really happy about everyone's effort to send me mail. Please don't burn out by the time I leave. This has to last for 18 months. OK?!?!?! Also, a lot of letters are in the mail for people who wrote me. So if you want one, WRITE ME.

Ok. Bragging time. Remember how I was telling you that we teach an "investigator?" Well, ours got baptized. We were the only ones to commit him!!!! Ha. So now we have 2 new investigators, and we'll have 2 more next week. Yikes. I can barely teach. We literally read everything word for word out of our german Preach My Gospel. It's pretty bad haha.

Funny story. So our first investigator actually ended up become our teacher at the end of our second week. Weird, right?!?! Anyway, he basically loves me and Sister Dean because we're so awesome at committing everyone to everthing, but then I ruined it and I think he hates me. We were doing role playing the other day so we could practice our door approaches and the introduction to our message and I was paired up with Sister Marquardt. This is our lovely conversation:

Me (as missionary, after she let me in and we're talking about life): So Helga (yes, she decided to go by that), how are you doing today?

Helga: Terrible. My cat just died and I'm really distraught.

Me: (whilst laughing) Oh I'm sorry! What was your cat's name?

Helga: Shelly.

So I suggested we say a prayer and I asked the Lord to bless her cat. DUH. But Helga totally lost it and we both started cracking up and our teacher came in and was like "Excuse me?? Where's the spirit?! I don't think this is appropriate." I explained to him that I really cared about her and her cat and the best way to show that is to pray for them. But I think he still hates me for praying for Helga's cat Shelly so now I'm in big trouble. And it's all Helga's fault.

I just want everyone to know that I'm losing weight and I am sooooooo proud of myself because everyone else is getting super fat hahaha. WIN. I only eat salads though. It helps.

I have hilarious pictures to give everyone, so if you want one write me. NOW.

Also, I have several letters waiting to be sent but I want to give you a picture so please be patient.

I love you all my darlings. Don't forget about me!!!!!

-Message from Lesa's sibling- P.S. Lesa's First message was unavailable to post, sorry for the inconvenience.