 |
| "State Fair!!" |
Area: Anoka Minnesota
Companion:
Sister Macey Jolley
Hometown: Alpine,
Utah
Snail
Mail:
Minnesota
Minneapolis Mission
5931 West
96th Street
Bloomington,
MN 55438-1715
Email:
ashlee.young@myldsmail.net
Hey Ya'll!
So, today, we went to the famous Minnesota State Fair with Chad and Missy Fossum! The plan was to write in the car on the ride there and then back.
The State Fair was so much fun! I am literally drained though! There was everything and anything you could imagine fried on a stick. Not only that, whatever it was, the servings were H U MO N G O U S!!! There were so many people, rides, food, food and more food! Oh, did I mention there was food? Seriously, Minnesota has like a set space in St. Paul for the state fair. It's not like a park I have seen anywhere in Utah. It is “The Fairgrounds”! There were a lot of people. Many stared at us as usual. Some even asked if we were Mormon Missionaries! ha-ha! Got to love it! We were not the only fun thing to see at the fair. Would you believe me if I told you that there were “butter carvings?” Another cool thing was an animal birthing center! Anyways all in all it was a really good and fun day!
So, today, we went to the famous Minnesota State Fair with Chad and Missy Fossum! The plan was to write in the car on the ride there and then back.
The State Fair was so much fun! I am literally drained though! There was everything and anything you could imagine fried on a stick. Not only that, whatever it was, the servings were H U MO N G O U S!!! There were so many people, rides, food, food and more food! Oh, did I mention there was food? Seriously, Minnesota has like a set space in St. Paul for the state fair. It's not like a park I have seen anywhere in Utah. It is “The Fairgrounds”! There were a lot of people. Many stared at us as usual. Some even asked if we were Mormon Missionaries! ha-ha! Got to love it! We were not the only fun thing to see at the fair. Would you believe me if I told you that there were “butter carvings?” Another cool thing was an animal birthing center! Anyways all in all it was a really good and fun day!
I love you all… sorry I didn't get to email
any of you personally! (Shocker right?) With sharing the IPad, I hope you will enjoy
some great excerpts from Sister Jolley on our week:
"Monday August 24: Pday.
We went bowling with the Elders. Later we
had a great lesson with Murial. She is the mother of a recent convert who is
getting married in the Temple in January! Murial is hilarious, she is so great!
She wants to start taking the discussions, and learn more about what her
daughter really believes. We can totally see her getting baptized in the
future. She has a lot of questions, and uncertainties about the church, but she
is very open and doesn't judge.
Tuesday, August 25
We had District
meeting. We received a great training from Elder Anderton about having faith
while we find. He is a wonderful District Leader. After District meeting we
went to go see Murial again. We got to meet her two daughters, which was great.
We answered some more of her questions. Everything from tithing to temple
marriage; she had a lot of questions. Luckily we were able to confidently
answer all of them. We had dinner at the Taylor's, and Sister B (recent
convert) came. After dinner we had a lesson with Gladys and Yammah! Holy Cow!
This lesson was amazing. We brought a girl from our ward named Becca, who is
16. We decided to teach about the plan of salvation. We had already taught
Yammah that, but where she is only 8 years old we decided to review. Gladys sat
in the entire lesson. She received a couple of phone calls during our lesson,
but she ignored them, or told them she would call them back. That has never
happened before! Yammah was able to pay attention the whole lesson! Gladys not
only answered questions, but asked them. At the end of the lesson we asked
Gladys if she had any questions. She asked" Why does God let us
struggle?" (Keep in mind that she had just lost her job, she is moving
apartments, and she is a single mom, who is also trying to get her 3 other kids
over from Africa still). The spirit got so strong. I started telling her how
struggles help us to become more like our Heavenly father. Then I asked her why
she thinks God is having her go through what she is, and she said, "To
make me stronger." She started crying. People, SHE STARTED CRYING!!! We
felt so much love for her. Then I testified that God is aware of her, and her
family. That He is not letting her struggle without reason. I started holding
back tears, Sister Young was crying, and so was Becca. I wish I could describe
this lesson better. After a minute of silence, Sister Young invited Gladys to
be baptized. She was very open to it, and so we committed her to praying about
being baptized. Both she and Yammah together! I have never felt the Spirit as
strongly as I did in this lesson. When I first met Gladys, when we first started teaching Yammah, Gladys
would go into the other room, or play on her phone. Never did I think she would
pay attention. It’s amazing to see God work on those we are teaching. After the
lessons, we floated to our car, and couldn't stop smiling.
We had an appointment with the Ongoro's
right after, so we took Becca with us and went over. We taught Cate more about
the Book of Mormon. She is coming to church on Sept. 6th. She and her
family are super busy right now, but in the next week her two boys will be in
school, then life will calm down. It has been hard to set up solid appointments
with them, but we are going to keep trying. Cate likes reading the Book of
Mormon and is very interested. We haven't seen much of David. When we went over
he was taking a test for school on the computer, but he is still doing great.
They are a super cute family and we are excited to see them again!
Wednesday, August 26
On Wednesday we had
service at ACBC. We were at the front desk, so we got the easy job! It is fun
to sign everyone in because you get to meet everybody. After service we had a
visit with Sister Roades. She had a great birthday this week, which included
the chance to go shoot her new gun. Whatever makes her happy! She loves our
visits, and we love seeing her! After Sister Roades, we had Bishops meeting and
dinner with the Bishop. We walked into the door, and the Elders scared us again.
Ha, ha, Sister Petersen was cracking up! I can't believe the Elders turned the
Petersen’s against us. We had breakfast for dinner, which was delicious! We tracted,
with not much success, but we both like tracting so it was at least a little
fun! To finish off our night we had a great lesson with Mike. He is a Marine.
He unfortunately got Staff infection, and is in recovery. We invited a girl in
our ward, named Maddy. She is 17. We had a great lesson with him. We just
started talking about the restoration, and gave him a recap of what we taught
him the last time. Something cool was that he went camping with some of his
friends, and they started talking about religion. So Mike brought up Mormonism.
His friends were trying to tell him all of this made up, or just flat out
incorrect stuff. But Mike stood up for the church, and corrected everything
they were saying. That was cool, considering we have only had one lesson with
him. Unfortunately he is moving to St. Paul on Saturday :( So we will have to
give him over to those missionaries. He has some great potential! He is coming
to church on Sunday, so that is exciting. When we told him how long church was
he about died! He was like, "3 hours!!!" But he still wants to
come!
Thursday, August
27
On Thursday we had
another great lesson with Gladys and Yammah. A member of our ward named Tara
came along. She just graduated from high school. We had a great lesson about
baptism. Yammah really wants to get
baptized. Gladys didn't pray about baptism because she said she has been super
stressed out with everything going on. She told us she wants to pray about it
when she can calm down! But she is still very open, and is taking the necessary
steps to receive an answer to her prayers. We are super excited for them! We
had dinner with the Christy family. They are a super cute old couple. They have
their own garden, and they make great spaghetti. We saw Elvie, and had a great
visit with her! She is going to feed us dinner next week, so we are excited.
Herald (her nonmember husband) was actually super nice to us this visit!! To
finish off our night we had a great lesson with Pat and Sister B. We talked to
Pat about baptism, and what it means, and taught her about what covenants we
make with God.
Friday, August
28
Friday we had a great
lesson about the 10 commandments with Isabelle who is a 9 year old girl in
Saturday, August
29
Saturday was a day
for the books! We were so busy! We started out our day by seeing Bette of
course.
We love her so much! She loves our visits! I feel so loved when we go visit
her. We then went to go help Gladys move. Which holy cow was a project? She
didn't want to rent a truck, so we just stuffed everything in cars. Their
apartment was a disaster. So dirty! I had no clue it was that messy. Luckily,
the Elders were nice enough to also come help! She said they are going to try
and keep their new apartment clean! Funniest moment of the move had to be when
we were driving over to her new apartment, and one of her mattresses flew off
of her friend’s car, and landed in the middle of the highway. The Elders ran
out of their car, and carried it off the street; put it on top of their car,
then drove to the new apartment with their hands out the window holding onto
the mattress. It was hilarious! That night was Isabelle’s baptism. Pat and
Gladys both came to see it! Woot Woot! It was awesome! Gladys liked it, and Pat thought it was so
cool! We are so excited for our next lesson with Yammah and Gladys! After the
baptism we had a great visit with Tina. She had the movie Battleship on the
entire time, which made it hard to focus.
We were good, and didn't look! Ha-ha. It was a fun night, and we were so
happy about Pat and Gladys coming to the baptism. For the second time this week,
we just floated home!
 |
| "Elders saving the mattress!!" |
Sunday, August 30
Holly came to church!
Gladys couldn't come because she was so wiped from moving, which was
understandable but still a bummer. She sent us a really heart felt text though,
saying how much we mean to her, and how grateful she is! Bonus points! We had
dinner with the Moss family. Who love Ben and Jerry's…..so they bring out 7
pints of ice cream, and we got to pick whatever we wanted. They fed us steak.
Holy cow, (no pun intended) we were full and happy! We took opportunities that
night to find, and we met some great people. None with much potential, but we
will find those people in our area that are. They can't hide for long.
Overall, we had a
really successful week in the Anoka area!!!"
Love you all to
moonisota and back!
Sister Young and
Sister Jolley
