Rebeccas recent emails from Feb.17th back to Jan. 27th
February 17th, 2014
Hey y'all!
My southern side is still alive.
President is making sure of that by putting the southern belles together!!! You
have to see the members
faces when we say North Carolina
and Georgia. Then they notice neither of us sound like either of those states
but we are both talkative and smiley and completely in love with that part of
the country.
We live with the Spencer Family and
they are awesome! The house is huge, and we have a nice little suite
downstairs. When they originally viewed the house, they had no idea that
members could house missionaries. They loved the house and had identified a set
purpose for every room -- until they saw the rooms we now live in. Their minds
just went blank. So for the first 3 months they were living here in Mesa, they
just left these room completely empty. Finally one
night 8 months ago, there were
sister missionaries over at their house. Immediately when they found out that
it was possible to house missionaries, they knew that’s what they wanted to do.
They were on the phone with the housing coordinator that night, and a week
later, Sister Missionaries moved in! The Spencers have 4 kids, and they do
homeschooling. This allows them the freedom to travel to see their family around
the country often, and the family is extremely tight knit. They eat all
unprocessed foods, and they make their own soap, sprout their own sprouts, and
they do composting. It is an 8 bedroom house with a theater in the basement,
and pool, hot tub, and gazebo
out back. We mainly just stay in
our bedroom and study. They are SO generous to let us stay here! Little Ella is
the youngest and is the
only girl. She is 4 years old and
completely obsessed with sister Missionaries! She sneaks in to see us all the
time :)
The new area I have is pretty
similar to the area I was in during the Holidays, when I was in Ridge and
Harris Park wards. North ridge is
made up of about 6 small streets (3
small neighborhoods covering less than a half a mile). Much like Ridge ward,
they are so ready to do missionary work, and they have a 99% activity rate. The
Relief society president lives next to the Young Womens President who is
across the street from the Bishop.
Small world. They have 25 missionaries out right now as a ward! So they love
missionaries. We may not have too many people to teach in that ward, but we are
already getting opportunities to teach their friends that live in other areas
when they come over each weekend. Even if it doesn’t result in a direct baptism for us, it doesn’t matter! It is
sharing the Gospel, which is what everyone needs! Hurrah for enthusiastic and
loving wards ;)
Leonora ward is also pretty enthusiastic,
though their focus is more on bringing all within the ward at this time Closer
to Christ. I have really gained a testimony that wards really do have to be
cleansed and be worthy stewards before The Lord will send more people to them,
and I really admire the Bishop's dedication to his ward and strengthening them.
They are having us attend every single separate auxiliary meeting that we can
so that we get to know the real needs of the ward,
and so the people can get to know
us. Its a strong ward, and very down to earth. It reminds me a little of my own
family ward back home!
Both wards are awesome, and it’s
good to be back in more central mesa!
Being back at the VC has been
interesting. They have been putting in a new A.C. system, and it won’t be
complete till at least March. This is
not a good mixture with our
unseasonably hot temperatures ( all the sisters were sleepy and sick the day it
was 86 outside. Inside it was
at least 90, and we were on the
computers in little stuffy back rooms)! I have to count this as a blessing that
this is happening now however, before the summer comes around! That’s a
blessing! I have been able to start to get to know the Camerons (director of
VC) better this past week, and they are a very humble and sweet couple. I am
looking forward to serving with them! They asked me to be the VC's
administrative assistant, and I accepted. Its basically a paperwork, copy-making, and computer calling,
but Its always nice to be needed!
We got the handouts for the Easter
Pageant this week and the Art Exhibit to go along with it. IM STOKED!!! I have
heard that it is just a breathtaking experience, and I am so glad I get to be
here for the pageant this year! Ya’ll will have to visit mesa with me someday
when the pageant is happening. I hear it’s worth it. ;)
Before I forget, HAPPY BIRTHDAY
BROOKLYN RAE!!! You have a card on your way. I can’t believe so much time has
passed by! Life and
learning and growing is such a
miracle. I can’t believe how much God must love us if he gave us Brooklyn to
enjoy and to learn from! I love
you, B! You are such a beautiful,
funny, funky, bubbly, smart, happy, and loving big girl!!!!
I love you all so much! Thank you
for the package of goodies, I have enjoyed the little thoughts :)
Till next week!
Sister Becca Younce
ps. you would never imagine the
amount of trouble people have with our last name!! 95% of the time I have to explain,
it bounce with a y.
haha
February 10th , 2014
Well everyone, transfer time has
arrived again! I have never before been in one area or with a companion
only for 6 weeks, but its happening! I have finished my final full-field
transfer and I will probably be spending the next 8 months in the VC again with
an area closer to Central Mesa. Woot woot!
I have learned a lot from my time
here, and its hard to leave all the people that we are teaching and getting to
know. We found at least 6 new people to teach this past week which is
more than I have ever found in even a month here in mesa! I have never
gotten to teach a whole family (mom, dad, and kids) that could all be sealed
together and start their own righteous posterity. Finally I met a family
like that this week, and they even all came to church! I felt such a
connection with them, and it will be hard to leave them behind. Transfers
are a definite test of faith and trust in God as you entrust precious souls to
another missionary that is going to take your place, and you no longer have
access to seeing how they progress. The sister that is coming in to take
my place here is a very very quiet Sister (even more than Sister Remington!) so
there will be some sure changes in the near future. I am so glad I was
here for this short time. It has been a challenging, yet a miraculous
time. It is always so amazing to get to learn and grow as you are put with
extremely diverse companions and people. It really proves that if you
have Christ as your example and try to emulate him in your relationships, no
matter how the personalities might naturally clash, there will be so much
learned, and love can still be there in abundance.
We as missionaries tend to make
what we call "transfer predictions", where we predict who we will be
with and where we will go for the next 6 weeks. We get the call on
Saturday night with the news, and it is generally a very high anxiety few days
leading up to the news! However, I pretty much knew I wouldn’t be staying
here so far away from the VC, and that I would probably be going back further
west so I would be closer to the Visitor Center for my remaining time. My
prediction was that I would be put in Northridge ward with Sister Finau (she is there right
now) and that I would live in the Spencer's home. It was really just
wishful thinking, but it was my dream! That Saturday morning however I
woke up and the first thing I said to Sister Remington was, "ooo this is
my last transfer to be put with Sister Hamstead! It would be awesome!!"
Well..... we got the call and .....
I'm in Northridge and Leonora wards, living in the Spencer's home, and I'M WITH
SISTER HAMSTEAD!!! I am pretty darn excited!!!!
I have lived with Sister
Hamstead before, and we use to go on walks together each morning where we would
talk the whole time. We are already pretty close, and she has pretty much
been my "dream" companion in my mind for my whole mission! She
took over my first area when I left, and she trained Sister Remington! This is
also her last and final transfer before she goes home. Sister Hamstead is gorgeous, and is from Atlanta Georgia and
has a precious and close family as well. We joke around and say that
"the south is rising" a lot..... but its true here! My new Zone
Leader is also from NC! I will also be returning to my previous Zone where
Sister Beaudette is :) She will be a Sister Training Leader for
this 6 weeks, so I will be going on exchanges 2 times a week this transfer and
I will get to be with a lot of different sisters.
Last time I was at the Spencer's
home was when i was nursing a sick sister, and it is consquently where I also
caught my bad stomach bug from. Last time I saw Sister Spencer we talked
about how awesome it would be if I got to live there with them on my mission...
I never thought it would actually happen! I will tell you more about
their family next week after I move in, but I am so excited to live in a home
with little kids :)
I will be moving on Wednesday and I
will be back in the VC starting then each day! If you ever want to send a
letter or package, just send it there ;)
This past week we got to go to the
Mesa temple as well as the Gilbert temple open house! We ended up putting
all 3 older people we were with in wheel chairs and we toured the building in a
very slow and interesting manner ;) The lines for the elevators were
really long, and at one point we ended up squished in the elevator corner with
some Elders. It was HILARIOUS to see their freak out as one elder said
over and over under his breath "this is SO not okay. this is SO not okay.
this is SO not okay!" as he stood rigid. You should have seen how
fast is hand shot away from mine as I lifted mine close to his to push our
wheel chair! hahaha poor elders! I felt just fine -- but I guess that is
because in the VC we have any awkwardness like that weeded out of us in the
crowds! Maybe my transition once I get home won’t be so painful after all
;) Apart from the wheel chair experience, the temple is AMAZING!!! There
is a theme throughout the entire building, and the stained glass windows are
all so pretty! The dedication will be the beginning of March, and all of
the wards in Arizona are cancelled for it.
Also, We are all really trying to
concentrate on teaching on FB and focusing on our purpose in online proselyting
now. I hope you don’t get tired of my posts on there, but instead if you
ever feel inclined, feel free to share my posts! We are trying to get the
lessons to go Viral ;) If you ever have any suggestions or cool things you want
to send my way for posts or ideas for me.... PLEASE DO! I have pretty limited
resources, and I would love all the ideas I can get!
How is everything going with your
personal scripture reading? How are the scripture masteries coming?! Anything
ya’ll have learned recently you want to share with me? I hope you have a
wonderful Valentines day!!! It sounds like I missed quite a fun dinner of
mustaches and lip kazoos ;)
I love you all so much!! Happy
valentines day! I hope its the mushy gushiest of days for all of you ;)
xoxoxoxoxoxo
Sister Becca Ann Younce
February 3rd, 2014
Family,
I'm so jealous of all of you with
the little snowstorm in NC! I love the weather there and the fact that there is
just a taste of everything to enjoy :). Just a few days of snow on the ground
is pretty perfect, and I bet it was nice to have most everyone out of school
and off work (besides Ross?). I miss weather more than I can say. I would never
want the extremes (minnesota winters -- not what I
want!), but I miss having rain,
snow, fog, etc. It has been months and months since it last really rained here.
Oh well, thats what the
Snowbirds are here for, so I am
glad they are happy as clams ;)
It's funny to hear that Jacob
actually wanted to go back to school instead of stay home by the end of the
week ;) It sounds like he is
making some great progress towards
his Eagle! It was also good to hear about Brenda and how happy she is!!! She
deserves nothing less, and I hope I get plenty of pictures of her wedding! Way
to go Younce ladies with throwing a shower even amidst inclement weather! I bet
Hannah and
Rachel were cute little waddlers :)
(kidding!! but really... please send me pictures! I wanna see ze baby bellies!)
Diane was baptized on Saturday!
Sister Remington and I both spoke, and there was a wonderful musical number by
our opera-singer Ward Mission Leader. It was an extremely small gathering, but
it was just what Diane needed. The member of the Stake Presidency was so
impressed by her Testimony she shared
that it looks like she will be a speaker at Stake Conference next month! We are
excited to get her started with Family history work and for her to get to the
temple to do those ordinances for her deceased relatives! She is Jewish, so it
will be pretty interesting to start looking at her family! I even was able to
start looking at my family history work, and well.... we have
a lot of work to do in our
family!!! It took me about an hour to figure out that I was misspelling
"Wildie, Kentucky" and that it wasn’t a farce my family had been
feeding me since birth! No... "Wildee" does not exist!
We had some other miracle people
come out of the woodwork this week! I can’t wait to see where it all goes! I
love teaching the Plan of
Salvation. Even though it’s long
and easy to complicate, the Plan of Salvation itself is at the base of my
testimony of the Gospel. I have
had many questions about it and had
so so many doubts about it in my past, but I have an unwavering faith that has
developed in God's plan for us because of my consistent study, and prayers in
search of real answers while on my mission. I know now that it is not just some
fantastic thing that my family has
spoon-fed me, but rather God truly does have a plan for his Children and there
IS a real purpose to this life. Its exciting to get to see people come to learn
about this for the first time and to get to see where their thirst for
knowledge
takes them.
I should go now, but I love you
all! Is there anything in particular that any of you (even extended relatives
and friends) have for me?
Anything you have been wondering
about my mission, my purpose here as a missionary, etc?
Till next week! Mwah Mwah Mwah!
Have a PINK week!
Sister Younce
PS. I was trying to speak
parsletongue this past week with sister Remington right before bed, because
that is just what I do! I accidentally said instead "Sparkletongue"
when I tried to tell her
what I was speaking. Sparkletongue
is now a thing :) The ultimate compliment in Sparkletongue is "That's so
PINK!" (sister Remington came up with that one). This is what you get when
you have a girly Harry Potter finatic :)
Sister Becca Younce
January 27th
family!!!!
Sister Remington and I are doing
well right now! We had a great companionship inventory during weekly planning,
and we are feeling
more unified. We also made a study
plan/schedule for the week, and it has been great to start following that in
our companionship study! We are getting to know each other's teaching style
better, as well as
coming to understand each others
testimonies. I feel I am growing in Charity for her, and I am grateful for that
blessing. She is a very forgiving, calm (generally), and christlike person.
Although sometimes she lacks confidence, she has a great heart and is always
studying the scriptures and conference talks. She is willing to admit her
faults, and works to improve them, and I really respect that about her. She
also is great at seeing the good in people.
Since Jesus Christ is the only
perfect Human to ever walk this earth with us, we can assume all of us here are
imperfect beings. Even the
church itself is made up of
imperfect people, who often mean well. Recently, when anything is said or done
that is upsetting, I have been
working on immediately trying to
take step back and to evaluate where each person is coming from, and how/why
they might be acting a certain way. I still have a lot of work to go on that,
but it is a really beneficial exercise. You cant help but love people so much
more when you try to put yourself in their shoes.
Mike Organ is having his baptism
pushed back because his wife is unable to attend it still, but the ward is
trying to still get him
baptized this next week. Thankfully
though this a covenant he is making with The Lord, so no one can or should push
him into this. It
will all work out... just maybe a
few weeks later than planned :) He is so ready and faithful, and I am confident
everything will work out for him as he continues to put The Lord first.
Diane is getting baptized this next
saturday! This week I had the privilege of going on exchanges with Sister Tehai
( from New Zealand)
and we got to go to see Dianne,
Glo, and Paul. I realized while there with her that we hadnt been really
getting to know Diane as well as we
should be doing. Sister Tehai asked
her why she had decided to be baptized, and I was struck with awe as she bore
the most beautiful,
deep, and sincere testimony I had
ever heard from someone so new to the Gospel. She is so ready to make this
step, and I know she fully
understands the covenant she will
be making. I could see her serving a mission or working in the Temple in the
next few years for sure! She
is such an interesting person, and
she has so many Christlike qualities that emulate from her. Her baptism will be
February 1st at 10 am.
Something interesting about Dianne
that I found out this week is how long of a process this all has been. She had
been introduced to the
Church at a young age, but had
immediately judged it based off of what half truths and lies others told about
it. She was extremely
concerned when her best male friend
growing up who was the valedictorian of her school, joined the LDS faith. She
was convinced that he was being somehow mislead through a very grande scheme r
that he was going crazy. Still, however, she had never investigated the
Church and what they truly
believed, and continued to believe what others said. After the past 20 years of
living an absolutely
miserable life (her words not
mine), she met Glo and Paul. Never before had she seen such happy people going
through so many trials.
She was immediately attracted to
their happiness and wanted to know what they knew. She soon came to find out
that they were LDS, yet finally she was at a point in her life where she wanted
to find out the truth for herself. As soon as she started listening to our
simple message and reading the Book Of Mormon, she got the strongest
confirmation in her heart that this was truth. She truly knows now that this is
the same exact Church that Christ established 2000 years ago, and she is
witnessing just how much joy it can bring into
someones life as they embrace the
Gospel and decide to live it.
What a blessing it is to know just
how we can return back to God again, and how to truly be happy in this life. I
love you all!
Sister Younce
Sister Becca Younce
