October 21, 2013
Hey ya'll! Just gotta tell
you.... it never goes away. EVERY SINGLE TIME I answer "North Carolina" to the question,
"where are you from?" people respond with these exact words,
"where's your accent?"
Can anyone think of a witty
response? I am tired of the ones that I have been resulting to!
I am getting on to email later than
I use to, I know! It’s due to the fact that we have a mandatory VC choir
practice every Monday morning at 9:30, right during email time! VC choir
is a lot of fun though, and we get to sing such beautiful and unusual Christmas
arrangements! A few of them are, "One small babe, Candlelight carol,
angels carol, and all the stars shone down."
Sister Beaudette and I are singing
Christmas songs each day to start off our companion study as well! We are
dying for Christmas music to listen to! (hint hint, nudge nudge! :)) WE
are hoping we stay together in this area through Christmas, so we can get a
little pink Christmas tree!
A lot of little things happened
this week. Nothing too terribly interesting, but we are staying so
busy! First off, we had inspections! When missionary apartment
inspectors come in, they have a checklist of items they have to go through
thoroughly with each apartment. This list even includes things like, a
white glove test on the top of the fridge and on all ledges in the home,
clean walls and carpets, dusted light fixtures and lamps, no crumbs in the
toaster, etc etc. This gets super stressful when you inherit a grimy
apartment from Elders that had somehow escaped an apartment inspection for 4
transfers. ( therefore they didnt have to clean that whole time!) The
fridge was quite a task as we scrubbed it thoroughly out and wiped layers of
black grime from the bottom and drawers. We also had a fun time scrubbing
the walls, carpet, and our tubs! Despite the hours and hours and hours
that took, we now have a clean apartment! It feels WONDERFUL! We
have officially turned it into a sisters apartment, and we will do the
finishing touches today with flowers and yummy smelly sprays! We love our
apartment, no matter how old fashion it is! The fridge still doesn’t
work, even though they had someone come in to "fix" it this
week. So we still can’t have frozen foods, which is sad. Frozen
foods are the majority of the foods that Sister B and I have lived off of thus
far on our missions.
Our car also has a quirk. It
is a brand spankin new car, but for some reason, the air smells like stinky
feet! Sister Beaudette was embarassed and was convinced it was her feet!
She threw away her shoes when she got home and washed herself. When we
got back in the car, it smelled even worse! We are wondering if someone put
dirty socks in our air vents? Pee yew! Stinky feet car!!!
WE are teaching Lexi, a 9 year old
girl, along with her less-active mom, and 5 year old sister! The grandma is
active in the Church and the grandpa has been less active for many years,
though he often takes over in the lessons and shares his testimony often! Just
this past week, the Mom held her first Family Home evening ever! WE had not
even talked to her about it, but they couldnt wait to tell us about it during
our lesson yesterday! They also told us that Lexi had taught 10
neighborhood kids about the plan of salvation using the same visual that we had
made her, and she even asked the exact same questions we had asked her during
our lesson! How cute! She loves learning about the Gospel, and you
know they are listening if they can teach other people about it as well!
We also had a great lesson with a
mom and daughter from Zambia, Zamiwe and Chamiko. They are so prepared
and Zamiwe has such amazing insight! Only Chamiko made it to church
yesterday, but we have high hopes for both of them! WE shared the entire
talk from president Uchtdorf, "Come, join with us." I had some doubts
that I had made the right choice in talks for her while we watched it together,
but that soon dissipated as she shared that she had been captivated and
inspired by the talk. She has watched it a few times since then :)
Never doubt yourself when you act on spiritual promptings!
We are reading Preach My Gospel as
a mission right now! I encourage you all to teach FHE from it and read it
regularly. The Doctrine of Christ is simple, and we all need to know it
so that we can be ready to share it!
I have to go! I love you so
much! Thank you for the letters, they mean so much to me! Mwah!
October
28th, 2013
Whelp! It has been exactly 1
year and 1 day since I decided to serve a mission! It has been the best decision
that I have ever made.
I have learned so much as I
prepared to serve a mission, and the lessons I have learned while on the
mission are priceless! I can’t imagine how my life would have gone
without this experience!
While there are so many spiritual
experiences that I get to have here, there are also an abundance of hilarious
ones that serve as comic relief on the roughest of days! I am so grateful
for them and the opportunity we have to laugh daily. Life is too short to
not find joy everyday!
Sis B and I also got to attend our
first, and probably ONLY stake priesthood leadership meeting! It was so
great to hear our stake president speak about the Savior. He has such a
strong testimony.
I love the leadership in this
stake, and I was excited to find out that the whole stake presidency comes from
our 2 wards! They are all so warm, loving, and they have amazing
testimonies that they share with us.
We also got to start teaching this
young man, Jordon, this week! He doesn’t live in the area, but we are
hoping to get an exception to teach him. He is so ready and SO
amazing! I will update you on the status of that next week :)
Sis B and I both have realized that
we are sometimes feeling less than dilligent and fulfilled. We struggled
with that feeling for a few days, then we came to the realization that WE ARE
TO ACT AND TO NOT BE ACTED UPON! We are free agents. The only way to get
out of our rut was to take one step forward. Each and every action we
took would put us closer to who we want to become, and we have that ability to
become better each and every day.
Since it is at the end of the
month, SIster B and I are out of miles! We walked EVERYHWERE yesterday
and it was FANTASTIC! I have lost some weight since going full-field, and
walking everywhere just makes us feel so great!
I hope you all can make time to go
out and enjoy the fall weather outside. Its good for our souls!!!
I love you all! How is your
Book of Mormon reading going? What is the weather like?
Mwah!
Sister Younce
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