District Leader - 27 June 2016

This week was transfers. Green and I will stay together for a total of twelve weeks. And a transfer is 6 weeks. So we have one transfer left together. Yesterday the APs called me and asked if I would be a district leader, so of course I said yes. Just a little bit more responsibility along with the training. I'm nervous but I've been DLB
(district leader buddy, or comp of a district leader) pretty much my whole mission, so I'm not terrified like I was for training. But it's going to be a little harder. Not a whole lot happened his week, numbers were low again. I wouldn't say I'm getting comfortable with kinda low numbers, but I've accepted that the work is at a lull and it will pick up. I miss you guys

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20 June 2016

The weather here has been very similar to Seattle the last couple of days.  It made me sad when I saw the pictures of granddaddy. He is tiny. He does not sound well. I miss him. Even his teeth and smile didn't seem like his teeth and smile.  I loved getting emails from you in the middle of the week. It is always very nice. And I got the trousers. All the other Elders say you rock because of all the treats you sent. Haha! So thank you.  The pants are a little bit too long now! But it's fine. And there are definitely people here who can fix pants.  My companion and I are doing better. We are opening up and being honest with each other. Not that we were like holding back our feelings, but I have been able to tell him more things constructively and I think he has realized that it's because I'm trying to help him. It was a weird week. We had a meeting for trainers and trainees and it was really good. Again numbers were kind of low this week but I feel better this week. I only have about 7 weeks left in Chico. The president told me they need me down south, whatever that means.  So I'm kinda looking forward to that. I miss you guys. And love you.

-Elder Yule

13 June 2016

So this week was pretty good for me. Not a whole lot happened. I feel like we did some pretty good missionary work this week though. I don't know I just felt good about our week. On Saturday for some reason, I just hit a wall. Just like a big wall of depression. I didn't know why. I just didn't want to do anything. I wanted to be anywhere but
the mission field. I wanted to listen to music I wanted to be with my family, or just lay in bed. So I took a nap during our lunch hour. I don't know where this kind of wall came from but it wasn't welcomed. It's often hard to keep a positive attitude. Not that people are mean, it's all just in my head really.

We had zone conference this last week. It was really good. We talked a lot about how the spirit has prompted is and how we were able to receive those promptings. Elder Kelly played "A Poor Wayfaring Man of
Grief" on the guitar for the musical number. It was incredible!

5 June 2016

Now this week for me was alright. First, on Tuesday morning we went and got haircuts.  Most places were closed for Memorial Day on Monday. We pass this place called "Bushwackers" just about every day and it looks super fun and unique and it was always a joke that we should go to Bushwackers for haircuts. Well Tuesday we did it! And I got the worst haircut I have ever received! No joke! The Elders volunteered me to go first.  So when they saw my head they all made an excuse to the women and we all left! Haha!  So then went to a place called "Gearheads" in downtown Chico. I asked the guy if he could just clean me up and make it look better if he could. I explained the situation, how we tried this new place, and I didn't have the heart to tell the old women she did a crap job, and I paid her 12 dollars for a no good haircut. So this guy fixed me up and I went to pay and he said I was good. He didn't even make me pay. It was so cool! Now I'm going to Gearheads anytime I need a haircut.  The rest
of the week was pretty boring and quite frustrating honestly. Numbers were not good this week for Green and I. And yes I know "numbers don't show how hard you are working" but they are a pretty good indicator of how effective you are and how well you're planning and stuff. So I was quite frustrated and quite mad if I'm honest. And I didn't know if the numbers were all correct because our area book app wouldn't sync right.  And elder green still doesn't know 100% how to put in lesson reports.  I keep showing him, but I guess he still needs to be shown more. So some lessons weren't counting towards numbers.  But I feel pretty good and I think next week will be better. So that's always good.

20 June 2016

The weather here has been very similar to Seattle the last couple of days.  It made me sad when I saw the pictures of granddaddy. He is tiny. He does not sound well. I miss him. Even his teeth and smile didn't seem like his teeth and smile.  I loved getting emails from you in the middle of the week. It is always very nice. And I got the trousers. All the other Elders say you rock because of all the treats you sent. Haha! So thank you.  The pants are a little bit too long now! But it's fine. And there are definitely people here who can fix pants.  My companion and I are doing better. We are opening up and being honest with each other. Not that we were like holding back our feelings, but I have been able to tell him more things constructively and I think he has realized that it's because I'm trying to help him. It was a weird week. We had a meeting for trainers and trainees and it was really good. Again numbers were kind of low this week but I feel better this week. I only have about 7 weeks left in Chico. The president told me they need me down south, whatever that means.  So I'm kinda looking forward to that. I miss you guys. And love you.

-Elder Yule

8 Months

This week pretty much rocked! I'm starting to get used to being a trainer. I can't think of a whole lot that happened.. On Tuesday or Wednesday we were riding around and we thought we should stop intothis man named Kenny, he's not very interested, in fact he's a bit crazy. He thinks Joseph Smith saw aliens and kinda weird stuff like that. But he's cool and fun to talk to. So we get there and we see these little kids like 9-10 year olds playing basketball so we stop and play with them. We've played with them before.  So we're playing basketball with them and one of their moms comes out and gives us some water and orange juice.   She kept telling us how thankful she was and how good we are to the community and a bunch of crazy stuff. It was awesome! So she invited us to have a bbq with her and her family the next week.  So this week we went to her house and had some burritos and tostadas and a bunch of stuff with her and her family! It was awesome! Then we taught her the restoration. She is so interested.  I can't really tell if she is just the perfect investigator who wants to know everything or if she's just being nice because we play with her son.  Either way she is always telling us how great we are and asking questions. It rocked! 

On Sunday I had a very spiritual experience. We had a Hymnimony in sacrament meeting. Which just means instead of going up and bearing your testimonies you go up and share a hymn that means something to you and then the congregation sings 2 verses of that hymn. I felt the spirit so many times. The spirit was there throughout
the whole meeting but there were times where the spirit just really hit me. Then Brother Jones went up and shared an experience with the song Be Still My Soul.  Whenever I hear that song it, of course, always makes me think of Grandma (since we sang it at her funeral) and I get a frog in my throat, but I can usually make it through the song. Well on Sunday within the first 5 words I couldn't hold my tears back. At first I was a little bit embarrassed honestly. I was sitting in the middle of sacrament meeting crying. But then I had this feeling that I was ok. My crying was
because Grandma was with me. It was very special. And yes, I wrote it in my journal. It's hard to explain how awesome it was. It was an amazing day. And now you guys went and visited her grave today, which makes
things so special. I miss going grave hopping with the cousins. Tell them I'm doing great and I'm training! And tell them some of my favorite memories were grave hopping with them on Memorial Day. 

I miss and love you mom. Tell the others I miss and love them too.

23 May 2016

Elder Green the Greenie and Elder Yule the Trainer

Alright, so my new companion. Straight out of the MTC. When you're brand new you're called a greenie or you're green, of course you know that. His name is Elder Green.... Yup Elder Green!  Green the greenie. He seems nice! I've only been with him for 4 and a half days so far. He's a skinny little guy. He's from Ogden. MTC  And he's pretty green. In the greenie sense. Which is good. He's all gung-ho about working.   And of course I'm certainly not an expert on how to work, but I've had good companions who have taught me a little bit on how to do our work. It's definitely weird being the senior companion and training him. I'm just going off of kind of my basic knowledge I guess. President Marston said he was going to get me a book or a paper or something called "You Know Enough", so hopefully he does that pretty soon, haha. I'd also like to tell you how incredible president Marston is. When I was in the mission office picking up Elder Green we had a little meeting with the trainers. There were about 6 of us. When we finished that meeting and we were walking out and president walked up next to me and kind of gave me a little shoulder push and said "Elder Yule, how are you!?" With a big old smile on his face. I said I was doing great! I told him I was pretty nervous, but I was excited. Then he said "I have all the confidence in the world in you Elder Yule. There more things in store for you, but you have to train before you do those things." He is an incredible man
who has so much love inside him. 

Email sent to me from Elder Yule's companion

Hey Marianne! It's Elder Phelps.

I just wanted to send you an email to tell you how amazing your son is, and how much I loved being companions with him! It was some of the best 13 weeks of my life. We had so much fun and worked so hard. We have the same sense of humor and we were always laughing. We had many great spiritual experiences together.  I just want you to know how thankful I am that I was companions with your son. I was begging President Marston to leave us together. I hope we can serve together again. I was so happy that instead of just leaving him on Tuesday, he was able to come down to Roseville with me and we could drop him off at his greenie meeting on Wednesday. He will be an awesome trainer! I'm so excited for him. I miss him and everything and everyone else in Chico very dearly.
Your son is awesome. He is a great missionary. He changed my mission and helped me improve so much! I will always be grateful for him and for you for raising him. 
Thank you so much, Mama Yule!

Elder Phelps

16 May 2016

Transfers were this week! Elder Phelps is leaving which makes me very sad. We really hit it off he and I. We have honestly become great friends! When I was with Elder Bates president told me that you weren't called to be companions to be best friends, you were called to be companions to spread the gospel. Elder Phelps is going down to Roseville to be a zone leader. President calls you on the phone when you are called to be a zone leader or a trainer. So we get the call and Phelps answers and president tells him
to put it on speaker phone.  He calls Elder Phelps to be a zone leader and then he says ............... "and Elder Yule, I'd like to call you to be a trainer. Will you accept this assignment?" I'm going to train a new guy! I'm really quite scared. I'm kind of honored that president trusts me with a greenie. I don't know how to do this though. I hardly know how to be a missionary myself! How am I going to show a new guy how to do it? So that's probably the biggest update.

9 May 2016

I asked Calum what the start of his days are usually like...

Let's see.. So I start my day waking up at 6:30.  Elder Phelps has a Jillian Michaels dvd from another missionary, and we work out for 30 minutes.  It is awesome! Haha! Then Phelps usually showers then I shower. Then we eat breakfast. I usually just have a bowl of cereal. Golden Graham's to be specific. Or some chips and guac. Then personal studies then companion studies. I have gotten better at my scriptures but I'm still not very good. The iPad is very handy.  I can just search the little phrase I'm thinking of.  But I wish I could just know where I was going to find the scripture. And lessons, really we just wing it. I mean we don't memorize a whole discussion.  We memorize the principles of the lesson but then just wing it.  Which I think works pretty well. I study the little cards that Cousin Jay gave me.  Those are so helpful!  Like he put a ton of effort into those on his mission. They have scripture references and everything. Still no news on Phelps leaving or staying. Everyone wants him to stay. We have even been praying for him to stay. 

I miss the calm presence of a mother! I especially thought about that yesterday. And I miss my whole family. I
always do. I love you guys. I will do a big long email next week. I love you mum.

18 April 2016

This week was great! Jessika and Maxx were baptized! Jessika's father in law baptized them and Elder Phelps confirmed her and I confirmed Maxx. It was incredible. One thing I have found is that when I give a blessing the way I feel the spirit is, when my eyes are closed I get dizzy.... At least I'm pretty sure it's the spirit. Yeah I think it
is. But it was an awesome day. We had some awesome lessons and some weird ones. For some reason this week we met a lot of weird people. They would just walk up to us and talk to us. 

4 April 2016

This week was alright. Missionary work wise it was awesome!  Emotionally it was a bit weird. I was very homesick a few times. I don't know why. Seeing how big Riley has been getting and thinking that I can't give him a hug and a kiss when he gets up in the morning has really been getting to me. I've just missed home. But on the other hand I hit my 6 month mark this week! We taught some really great lessons and our investigators watched conference and all sorts of stuff. The work, like last week, is going great in Chico! Transfers are this week. Elder Phelps and I are staying in Chico, which is great because we work very well together. From conference this week the thing that
hit me most is that I need to follow Christ more to be a better leader. In the priesthood session a guy talked about how to be a better leader.  He said the key to being a better leader is to be a better follower. Christ was the best leader of all and He followed perfectly Heavenly Fathers plan. In my patriarchal blessing it says people will look up to me as I am modest in my behaviors. While I've been out here I've been talking a lot with other missionaries, making a bunch of silly jokes and running around or whatever.  Not that I am acting inappropriately, but I'm going to try to be more modest and follow the Savior even more, so that others will
look up to me.  Not that I'm in a leadership position, but I still think it's a good thing to do.