this weeks email 9/23/13

Hey ya'll! 

I am not feeling super well today, so this email might be on the shorter side.  I have been a little sick all week, as has most of the mission recently -- but we are trucking through it! 

I had my first week where I didn’t receive any mail at all!  That was a small challenge, but hey!  Its okay!  I know that I am supposed to be here, and really.... I wont always be able to have other people to comfort me!  As long as I have my Heavenly Father, I am figuring out that I really am A-Oh-Kay!

So I have some news.... Ken is getting baptized next Saturday!  No, he does not count as my baptism technically, but who cares!  It is a miracle!  We are so excited... and he has requested that his 5 missionaries sing at the 

baptism :).  Also, our VC investigator, Brittany, was baptized on Saturday, and our other VC investigator, Hope, is getting baptized and married next week! ( I wish I could attend it!)  Our stake has a total of 8 convert baptisms happening next Saturday! It is a record for the stake actually, crazy huh?

It was in the 100's most of the week, but then the past few days it has suddenly stayed in the 80's and 90's!  I am starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel!  It was amazing to actually feel a little chilly outside this morning!!! What is the weather like there in NC right now? 

So the past few days I have felt like I really need to study the Saviors words and his ministry.  I started by reading in John during our sacrament meetings yesterday.  Because I was actually reading the words of the Savior during sacrament, I had the most amazing experience!  I felt so close to my Savior and I received insight into his words that I had never had before.  I encourage each of you to study the Words of the Savior, in particular, John 13-18, and the Last supper found in Luke.  The sacrament is such an amazing opportunity we have to feel renewed and draw closer to our savior.  As we invite people to come to church, in reality we are inviting them to partake of the sacred ordinance, the Sacrament.  There is a great video that can be found on the LDS Gospel Library or else on LDS.org located in the Bible Videos section.  It is titled "the Last Supper".  I invite all of you to watch that short video this coming week!  As you then look back and remember that video this next Sunday, I know that you will feel an added spirituality that you have probably not felt in quite some time as you partake of that sacred ordinance!

I wanted to share some thoughts that I was having during sacrament meeting yesterday with you as well.  I have been thinking of Jesus Christ a lot lately.  I have been contemplating my relationship with him verses my relationship with my Heavenly Father as well a lot.  These are some things that I have come up with:

Becca Soapbox:  We have a DUTY and a calling to show and represent the Love that Christ would show if he was here.  As we decide how to react to anyone; whether they are sinning, wronging you, acting out, etc, we know the one thing we need to do -- look to our Savior!  He commands us to "Love one another, even AS I have loved you".  I am emphasizing the AS because I have misunderstood this statement in the past.  I thought he was just telling us to love others... but in fact he is showing us HOW to show and express that love for others!  He shows us how he is commanding us to love thoughout his life and ministry!  For more insight into this concept, read John 13-16!  As we love as and how Christ loves us, we will come to know our savior so much better, and others will feel God's love!

WE also must be careful not to define ourselves so as to retard our growth.  Satan would have us define ourselves by our sins and faults.   When we define ourselves, we often have the tendency to define ourselves based on our weaknesses and shortcomings and temptations.  We have a duty to always strive to see people through God's eyes.  Natures can be changed, as can temptations be overcome.  God has provided a way for EVERYONE to be able to live his commandments, though some are very hard to live at times.  God and his commandments are unchanging.  WE need to help people see their first and real identity is as a son or daughter of God with a divine potential of perfection!  Even defining ourselves first as an athlete could be a danger -- for that will change!  But what will never change is the fact that you are a son or daughter of God.  We can only attain perfection and overcome the temptations that we sometimes define ourselves by as we USE the atonement each day! 

Last soapbox point:  Jesus' teachings are not meant to be theoretical, they are meant to be acted upon!  Hence when he says, " Go and do thou likewise".  Study the life, words, and actions of Jesus Christ and follow him! 

I am so sorry for the choppy and soapboxy email today!  I am out of time!

How is everyone doing?!  I will write notes today in reply to the emails I received since I am out of time for emails!  I love you all! Check your mailboxes this week!

I love you all and miss you!!!

Dad, mom and hannah -- Ill reply via mail.  Mwah! 

email sent on 9/16/2013

Hey!  So like usual, I have trouble remembering what actually happened this week, since weeks and months here in the field blur together!  I do however know for sure of a few things that happened this week! 

Sister Rios and I went on exchanges last tuesday and wednesday!  Since sister exchanges are a fairly new thing, things are still being worked out with them.  We had to miss our VC shift on tuesday as well as wednesday so that we could go to our Sister Exchange Leader's area....  But I finally got to get out of Central Mesa!!!  It felt so good.  We went further east to Apache Junction!  There is so much more space out there and the ward sizes are much bigger.  The land is also much more diverse and pretty, and the mountains are super close!  The homes and apartments however, were a little scary.  I realized I had been pretty sheltered by my first and only area so far!

Jennifer, the lady from the plane, emailed back again!  She had a really cool experience where she had been running and crying, and then she stopped randomly and started to think of me.  Then she turned around and saw that she had stopped in front of an LDS church building!  Cool huh?  I will keep ya'll updated on progress with that!  She had been trying to get in touch with me for months, but she couldnt read my email address and emails kept getting bounced back to her... woops!  I need to take greater care in my writing.... 

I am still in charge of the posters and visuals at the VC!  There are so so so many birthdays in september so its actually keeping me really busy.  I get so dizzy as I look at all the patterns of paper for hours at a time! Then I see black spots the rest of the day.  Still worth it though :)

With the exchanges this week, and many many other meetings that took up hours of prime time, we didnt get too much time in our area and we were only in the VC 3 of the 7 days!  This next week we are hoping to really get to find some people that are prepared for the Gospel!  We have been going through our old are book and contacting everyone in there -- needless to say, it has resulted in a lot of mean rejections.  Sister Rios is having a little bit of trouble with rejections still, but I have figured out ways to just stay motivated.  Generally, I just think constantly, " its the next person that is being prepared by the Lord... the next one!"

Sister Rios and i have good days, but we also have rough spots to each day.  She is an amazing person and an amazing missionary, but I have learned that we are very different in our approaches and how we think!  Overall, this has been an opportunity for self reflection, and coming to terms with my own strengths and weaknesses.  Sister Rios and I have both been trying to reach out by doing little things or giving little thoughts or gifts each day -- and it has helped a bit!  I have also come to realize how much I truly appreciate my family and Jacob for vocalizing as well as showing love!  Communication is so key to everything, and I really appreciate now the great communication that I grew up with in my amazing family!  I hope to be able to bring that ability to communicate so well to my future family!

I am so excited to hear that there will be sister missionaries in your ward!!!  I just met a sister that is headed to the Raleigh mission in November that just got her endowments on saturday!  She will be spanish speaking... so who knows if you might see a sister from Mesa in Cary 3rd Branch! I cant believe there will be 2 sets of missionaries in Cary 2nd!  I hear that some places in the south are even getting 3 sets per ward!  Its funny how the member here are even excited that they only have to share us with one other ward... it use to be that in this area, the missionaries would be assigned to 5-6 wards!!!  Only one set of missionaries per stake just 2 years ago!!!

How are all of you preparing for General Conference?  I am already trying to really prepare myself!  I know that as we prepare ourselves to receive personal revelation, God will grant it to us!  Go ahead and start thinking about it and figure out how you can best prepare yourselves for an amazing conference experience :)  

I have to go now!  I love you all so much!!! Sorry I didnt share too many spiritual experiences this week or spiritual thoughts, but I will try to include extras in my email next week!  Love you and miss you all!  Write me and send me pictures please!!!!! Mwah!!!

Sister Younce

ps. I love my south American friends here!  I have gotten to learn so much about the culture recently and I might even be learning a bit of spanish :) 

Email from 9/9/2013

Oh my goodness, I am beside myself with glee right now!!!  MIRACLE!!! ARE YOU READY?!!!

So, I don’t think I ever wrote home about this because I figured that nothing would come of it.  Remember how I had less than an hour of sleep the night before I left for the MTC, and I had a lot of nerves!  Well, I ended up sitting next to a sweet woman named Jennifer on the flight from Atlanta to Salt Lake City.  Up till this point in my life, I had never talked to the stranger that sat beside me on a plane!  But Jennifer and I sparked up a conversation.  She was traveling to where she grew up in California to go to a singles retreat.  We talked for the whole 4.5 hour flight pretty much.  I let her know what I was going out to do, and how it was a very big day for me!  She was SO interested in the church and what I had to say.  She had some very brief impressions about the church but knew next to nothing about the church as a whole.  At one point she was reading from her book, and I pulled out the Ensign from that month.  She noticed it and started asking about it.  I decided to give it to her and near the end of the flight I put my email address in there and a brief testimony.  I can't quite remember what she said but I bore my testimony to her and invited her to learn more about the church.  She said something along the lines of, "she felt really good as she talked to me" and she was impressed by me.  She wished me all the best and I did the same as we hugged before we got off the plane. 

 I never heard from her again.... TILL NOW!!!  I figured she had thrown the magazine out... but oh my goodness what a miracle!  It has been over 5 months, and I had thought of her a few times with disappointment.  I remember feeling the spirit so strong as I bore my testimony to her, and I remember the connection we had.  I am so grateful that Heavenly Father strengthened me that day as I should have been asleep on that flight from the fatigue.  As I just arrived on my email account this morning, I was surprised to find a short email from her!  I had stupidly not thought of getting her information (which now as a missionary I would never ever do!!! Stay accountable!) but she kept the magazine the past 5 months and for some reason felt that she wanted to catch up with me and ask me about my mission!!! 

I am so excited to see what comes of this.  It has been a bit of a dry spell lately.  Sister Rios and I have been working so hard, but we have had an extreme "dry spell" in our area.  Miracles do happen and the Lord is mindful of us! 

Other than that, it’s been a rainy week!  It has poured multiple times this week! HALLELUJAH! 

Sister Rios and I have been dropped by our main investigator this past week, and some of our main potential investigators are having alcohol and other issues so we have been starting basically from scratch here.  IN the past 2 days, I have gotten to experience two big miracles though!  One was the email from Jennifer, and the other you might not see as a huge deal.... but it is!  V ( I will keep it at that and I will be taking out full names from now on in my emails) is a woman we have been trying to meet with since I arrived in my area 4.5 months ago.  I have prayed for her every day and she has been talked about and planned for in our weekly planning sessions for my whole mission, with no progress!  She has an amazing story that I might share at a later time as we get to know her better personally.  She has avoided us at all costs, though all the members in the ward have always told us she WILL be baptized!  They were all walking on tip toes around her, for fear that they would offend her.  It has been a huge frustration for the past 4 months. 

 Yesterday we had stake conference.  One of our Bishops spoke and shared the conversion story of a man in our ward.  Just a little background, this man, Brent, was baptized in February.  His first interest in the church was when he came with his inactive member wife to have their first baby blessed.  He felt that he was missing out on something as he watched someone else bless his child.  He was bothered by the fact that he couldnt be the one doing the blessing.  He still was not ready for the missionaries though.  He was invited by the Bishop over 10 times to meet with the missionaries.  Each time he either said "no" or "not yet".  Finally one day after more than a year of being asked, he answered, "I'm ready."  He started living the Gospel with his wife and was baptized last February.  I have seen him bless and pass the sacrament since I have been in the ward, and recently he was able to receive the Melchizedek priesthood. He was able to hold and bless his baby son 2 weeks ago.  It was the most beautiful blessing I have ever heard.   I felt the spirit so strongly and I looked around after the event and saw that every single person within my view had tears streaming down their faces as well.  Such a miracle!  I wish you could have heard the story told to its fullness.  Bishop told it with beautiful simplicity and with a great amount of feeling.  

After the meeting, Sister Rios and I both looked at each other and said, "V". 

We decided to stop relying on the members to give us the "Go" and we drove right to the house she is living at.  She is living with a wonderful family of members.  We entered the house and immediately asked if we could see V.  They were hesitant, but then the father confessed, "After that story in stake conference, Robin and I both decided we were going to start inviting V, starting today.  So yes, we will go get V."  You could tell they were both nervous but they eventually got her down stairs though she was very leery of us.  We just visited with her and the family and we shared a short little message!  We felt prompted to not ask her if she would meet with us for the lessons yet, but instead we talked about service. We invited her to team up with us on a service project.  Her eyes lit up, and she was so excited to help us!  She even gave us a hug goodbye!  She is so service oriented and I think that this will be the key to building a relationship of trust with her so that we can share the message with her.  It’s a miracle for us!!!!  We cheered and I was ecstatic to even have gotten to talk to her finally... let alone get a hug from her!

Yesterday at stake conference they had Faye and Ed F. speak and share their experience and testimony. It was sooo amazing to watch and hear Faye bear her testimony.  AHhhh!!!! The gospel changes lives!!! Yesterday and today were the boosts I truly needed.  The Lord is so mindful of us and our needs, I promise you that!

 Brother and Sister Moss brought by a huge thing of groceries for me Saturday night!  It really helped me to feel loved and know that people are thinking of me :)  They brought sooo much, but I have to say that those Chocolate covered caramels are the BOMB!!! Florence chocolates!!!!  There goes my diet plan!!! Thankfully they also brought by a lot of healthy foods :)  Don’t worry mommy!  People are taking care of me :)  Thank you Mosses!!!

Also, I never got to thank you -- mom and Rachel particularly -- for the great package last week!  Those hair accessories are sooo cute Rach!  All the sisters love them :)  And thank you mommy for sending so many things I needed and for being so thoughtful :) I feel so blessed having so much support! Also, thank you Jacob for sending a little note as usual :) You are such a funny little punk! 

I heard about Hannah's blog and how its been getting so many hits!  Hannah is the best cook and baker in the world!  I am convinced of that.  Everything she touches turns to golden manna from heaven!!!! Proud of you Hannah Banana! I brag about you and your food to everyone.

 I have also told people about the indescribable "manna from heaven" that Dani makes!  I miss those so much!  They are truly of an indescribable deliciousness! 

I hear dad wrote me a novel.... where is it?!  Love you daddy!  Can’t wait to hear from you!

Recently I have started to read the Bible and I will be getting through the standard works before I get home!  Oh man the Old Testament gives me a headache sometimes... but its a wonderful adventure! I am learning a ton. 

I love you all soooo much!  WE just got a flash flood warning..... yikes!!! 

Mwah! xoxo

Sister Younce

Transfer 4 already?!

9/2/13

It's a super busy p-day, like usual!  Started the day out with a service project where we go to work on Christmas lights for the temple (prepping the lights).  I am SO excited for Christmas here!  While at the service project, we were informed of how all the lights get put up and the massive effort by all the stakes in Mesa that go into it!  Each stake has certain assignments and lights each year so its just a big Christmas time project that everyone can participate in each year.  I hear its absolutely amazing to get to take part in beautifying Temple Grounds.  I know a few months ago when we did yardwork on the grounds right outside of the temple, it was the most satisfying yardwork I had ever done!  (not saying too much in reality :) )  The lights start going up in October, and considering it will be much cooler by then, October can't come soon enough!!!

So last monday after P-day was over, we finally got word that Sister Rios and I would be moving to a new place!  It was a little hectic getting everything together since usually pday is the day you get to pack and clean, but we managed it by staying up till 2-3 am 2 nights in a row! (yes, still 6 am wake up time!) We moved into a light, new, and bright apartment!   It's a pretty small place, but adequate for missionary needs.  The downsides are that we have NO dressers, drawers, any kinds of shelves... nothin!  So I have been getting ghetto-creative with some cardboard boxes and my suitcases.  Sounds fancy shmansy, huh?  We will be going to dollar tree to bring some life to our apartment today.  Oh!! The life of a missionary :)  Sometimes I dream at night of my lush, pink room :)  But then I remember.... this is AWESOME! I am so blessed to be able to spend 18 months serving the Lord.  Seriously,  I could be living IN a cardboard box as a missionary and it would still be awesome!

My new roommates are sister Hamstead and Gordon.  Sister Hamstead is a little southern belle from Georgia!  She is cute and has a laugh that lasts all day every day! Sister Gordon and Sister Hamstead are pretty goofy looking together because Sister Gordon is 6 3" and is pale with light blonde hair.  I'm no longer the palest, tallest, or blondest! Yayyy! She is from Utah and is hilarious!  It is actually her birthday today, so sister Rios and I tiptoed around last night before bed and managed to decorate the apartment with 3 banners, pom poms and some homemade signs :)  We wanted to make a cake since her mom sent her cake mix... but once again, OH the life of a missionary!  We can't even scrounge up an egg!  Our kitchen is so barren by the end of the month in missionary apartments because everyone is out of money and basically survives on dry cereal for a week! :)

Another little downside is that we are further from our area now -- about 2 miles, wheras we were about .1 miles away previously!

We had to hand over Ken to the other sisters that took Grandview 1st this week!  It was painful.  I felt so empty inside and like I was going through a big breakup during our last lesson!  But as time has gone on this week, I feel better and better about how things are now.  Sister Smith and Simmons are full field this transfer so they can really give Ken and Lynda the time, attention, and prayers they need!  They are in good hands, and thankfully President Jenkins actually asked me specifically to make sure I go on exchanges at least every other week with those sisters so Ken can still see me!  I will obey for sure :))

Sister Rios and I are finding the most fulfillment in teaching at the VC right now!  We have about 4-5 investigators that meet with us regularly there!  It's awesome to know that I can hold onto these people even if we transfer areas! I will hopefully tell you more about some people we are working with next week!  Alas, I am short on time today!

Before I go... 2 things!  First of all, it rained cats and dogs the other day!  I couldn't believe it! I thought I was dreaming that I was in NC again!  Its nice to know that the streets were finally washed clean.  It doesn't happen enough and it starts smelling bad outside here eventually!

Secondly, I got to talk on the phone to Elder Romney?! A Zone Leader from Tempe mission came in to the VC ( we work with missionaries from like 5 missions here) and asked me where I was from.  He asked me then if I knew Elder Romney, and I told him he was one of my oldest and best Childhood friends! ( I was pretty excited!) Then a few minutes later as I am starting a movie for him, he is on the phone and suddenly hands the phone to me.  I got to talk to Devin for 10 minutes! It was so awkward as we struggled to use "Elder" and "Sister"  but I was so awesome to hear a familiar voice!  I was in shock for the next hour after that, then suddenly Tanna came in!  So then I just was beside myself!  Love it! But its funny how much your emotions and feelings are heightened on your mission.  I shake with excitement over the littlest things, and I am pretty sure if my family or Elder Moss walked into the VC, I would probably just faint!

I have to go now, But I love you all!!!  Tell me how everything is going! Your weekend in Brevard looks awesome!

Sister Younce

End of 3rd Transfer

8/27/13

Well, we have come to the end of my 3rd Transfer out here in Mesa!  Transfers are 6 weeks long usually, and us Sister Missionaries are only out for 12 of them!  The Saturday before transfers are "transfer news" days.  They are the most anxiety-filled days for all missionaries in the mission!  We watch the Sister Training leaders work on "The BEAST" ( the Visitors Center schedule for the transfer) through the little window in the VC presidents office and our excitement is even worse than Christmas Eve Night.  You may or may not have been able to find me and a few other sisters standing at the door trying to listen with cups pressed to our ears and the door :).  The news comes at the end of the day after planning, around 9:30pm -- I suppose to cut down on distractions that might happen in the middle of the day.  We found out immediately that Sister Rios and I will be staying together!  We are staying in our area, but one of our wards is being taken from us!  We would normally rejoice at the news of only having 2 wards, rather than 3 ... but that ward was the one that had literally ALL of our investigators and potential investigators!  Ken was in the ward that was taken from our area, and I have to admit I am more than just a little sad because of that.  We will be breaking the news to him and his wife tonight at our last meeting.  Ken has progressed SO far!  Thankfully we will still be meeting in the same building as him each Sunday, so we might catch a glimpse of him now and then.  Also, President wants us to go on exchanges (switch companions for the afternoon, or even overnight sometimes) with the Sisters that will be taking over that ward so that Ken can still see us and feel our love!  I love President Jenkins and his suggestions and ideas :)

We will be working to get the other two wards going now!  There are some potential investigators in those wards that mostly have been there still on the same list since I arrive 4 1/2 months ago.... so we have our work cut out :)  We will still be at the VC this next transfer, and I am really excited about that.  We have some great investigators at the VC right now!  Richard and Jim are our newest additions.  Both of them are very open minded, and actually the thing that drew them in was the beautiful lit up Christus statue that is more than visible from the street, especially at night!  They are both artists of sorts, and have interesting stories.  Richard has studied pretty much every religion, and as I testified to him the first day he came in to the VC, he completely felt what we said ring true to him.  The Godhead, rather than the trinity, is what he believes to be true, and that man has the strongest testimony of Joseph Smith already!  He has recognized the pattern that God has for calling prophets, and he has prayed to know, and has recieved that undeniable confirmation.  We started working with their Ward already, and although they don't want the missionaries there yet, and are happy with us, we are trying to get them involved in their home ward.

 It's so great to be able to work with other wards and missionaries from not only all over Mesa while working at the VC, but even all over the country and world!  We are also teaching a man from Congo through SKYPE!  Though the language/accent barrier is a big one for me, Sister Rios can understand him better than she can understand me at times!  So I just sit back and try to follow whats going on while Sister Rios and the man, Alain, speak in half English, half French! Crazy!

We have had so many visitors the past few months in the VC!  There were more than 15,000 last month through the VC, and we might beat that by the end of this month!  (and this is OFF season!) Because of the crazy crowds, our equipment has been acting up a bit.  Wednesdays nights are by far the craziest night of the week because of mutual.  We get about 500 in each wednesday night from 7-9 pm.  One of our two big theaters' sound shut off in the middle of a movie, and one of our main exhibits also had the sound shut off in the midde of a big tour.  It was a bit of a fiasco, but we ended up keeping everyone happy one way or the other.  The poor Senior Couples on shift looked like they were about to pull their hair out in the middle of that!

Oh! I almost forgot!  Melanie Cottem, the head of all the VC's, came this last week!  We had 7 am meetings two mornings in a row.  We also have to be there 20-30 minutes before any meeting to study, so we had some very long days that started at 5 am last week!  The meetings were good -- we learned a lot about the first presidencies true vision for the VC's!  We also found out that..... MESA AZ VC IS THE TOP BAPTIZING VC IN THE CHURCH!!! (per capita -- of course temple square has a few more baptisms but they have 5x the amount of missionaries!)  This is such an amazing area to work it.  Everyone here is so unafraid to share the gospel with their friends and neighbors, and it just inspires me each and every day as they bring people in for the first time and we get to see them experience what the spirit feels like sometimes for the first time in their lives!  Also, Melanie went around and checked all the things that need work or updating here..... and it is A LOT! We will be getting all new carpet, new wall coverings, new couches, new appliances, and probably much much more in the coming months.  The bigger things will be done after Christmas, and we can expect a 6 week period where ALL the VC sisters will be full-field during renovations!  We shall see!

Is it weird that I am already getting super excited for Christmas season here?  We started practicing our Christmas music in VC choir a month ago! August with Christmas music?!!! I love it!!!  There was one song in particlar that we tried to sing a few times, and finally they had to adjust the pitch pretty drastically.  The entire soprano section spent the song looking around guiltily as the one Sister that was classically trained in Opera sang a soprano section solo! 

It is starting to cool down more from time to time here at last!  I can't wait for the late fall weather! I won't be missing the summer time, I can promise you that :)

Although this has been a really challenging 6 weeks, I am so grateful for the experiences I have had!  This mission is truly the most humbling experience I have ever been through.  I am by far weaker than I expected, but God is SO mindful of me.  I have come to feel the Love of God more fully than ever, and I know for a fact that whom God loves, he chastens and challenges.  He sees us not as the weak people that we are, but each time that he looks at us he gives us our next challenge with our potential in mind!  He has given us each the path with its own set of challenges made individually for us.  He knows where we need to get to, so he adjusts our path accordingly.

I love you all SO MUCH! Thank you for the outpouring of love I constantly feel from you!  I am truly blessed. 

Keep me updated all of you!

Sister Becca Ann Younce

A Great Week in Mesa!

8/19/13

Why 'ello poppets!

Yesterday I had the pleasure of meeting some senior missionaries that are in the Tempe mission.  I asked about Elder Romney, and well ... then it was a fun conversation!  I can't believe Devin is almost done with his mission! I got to tell them some about the fun history we have through childhood, and it was great to remember. 

So this week we got to go to the temple!  I am so glad that we have a temple in our mission.  So many missionaries don't get to go to the temple for a whole 18-24 months!  Going to the temple session is always such a much-needed boost!  It was an amazing experience, and I want to be able to go every single week!  Once every 6 weeks is just not often enough! :)

It's often really hard to write these emails about the previous week.  It's nearly impossible for me to remember when things happen.  Things have merged together at a rapid rate, and I feel like I am still brand new, but pretty soon I will be 1/3 through my mission! Crazy!  (Hannah informed me of that fact it made me nearly pee my pants!!!)  I feel like I havent done anything yet!   I feel like I am being called to repentance daily, and honestly it's not a scary thing!  Repentance is an encouraging thing.  I have truly developed that knowledge that I can become better every single day, and the mission is really a time of a lot of self-examination!  I think I know myself better than I ever have before -- and that is a more valuable blessing than I ever expected. 

We had a lesson in church on sacrifice yesterday.  It caused me to ponder a lot.  People often thank me for my sacrifice and for my service, but I usually get a strange feeling after that. I hardly look at this mission as a sacrifice.  Yes I am not at home doing exactly what I want to be doing every day and sleeping as much as I want... or even wearing clothing that I love... but it's honestly insignificant.  Just because I am willing to serve in this capacity, the Lord gives an outpouring of spiritual blessings.  I instead go to bed feeling completely indebted to the Lord and all I can see is what he is doing for me, and I am blind to the things that I am "sacrificing" as some say.   I have come to know that our relationship with God is to be valued above all else.  There is truly nothing better that I could be doing with my time.

I don't think I would ever have imagined myself saying this, but I would rather be here on my mission than even in Florence, Italy in an art history study abroad program.  Shocking, huh?  I still love my art history deeply, but there is so much to be learned and experienced on a mission that I don't think I could even learn over the expanse of 20 years.  Needless to say, the Lord humbles you daily.  But just like Ether 12:27 (my mission scripture!!!) says, " And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness.  I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them."  What a promise is that?!!  I have seen this fulfilled time and time again, and I testify of its truthfulness.  Because God loves us, he gives us our weaknesses.  He gives us that opportunity to turn to him and grow.  What a blessing it is!

No longer can I just notice a weakness of mine and turn a blind eye to it and become complacent, but the mission truly pushes you to face those weaknesses, to humble yourselves onto your knees in a plea for help, and the Lord gives you an outpouring of spiritual blessings.

Heavenly Father really is the best.  I love him so much!!!!

Just a few other little updates -- Ken is progressing so beautifully!  I am so excited for him and for his wife, Lynda.  I was able to experience the most powerful lesson so far on my mission the other evening.  It is the greatest feeling to completely feel the spirit take over and no longer am I, Becca Younce, but instead I am just a tool in the hands of the Lord for the welfare of his child whom he loves.  The spirit takes over and the power you feel within yourself as you testify is stronger than any sensation you have ever felt.  Times like that, you know you arent imagining it.  You are affected for sure, but you can see that it is felt by all in the room.  Ken has felt it, and he recognizes it for what it truly is.  Thank you Dad for the help with him!  I followed what you suggested and we really made some wonderful progress! What amazing experiences with that couple!

Also, the heat is back!  It kills me to have an iphone with the weather app.  I see the cool weather in NC .. sometimes its 45 degrees cooler... and I die a little inside!  Send it over this way, okay?  We could also use some of that rain! Thanks!

I love you all soooo very much!  I miss you dearly.

Sister Younce