Praising God for our Trials and Weaknesses.

Dear Family and Friends!!!

Thank you everyone for writing me! I love hearing updates on your lives! Just so you all know, I can print off my letters and read them, so feel free to write as much as you want... Don’t even feel bad at all :) Family, Sounds like you guys have so many great things going on. Busy busy time of life! Good luck this week with the wedding, preparing, cleaning, cooking and everything that comes with that. I cannot believe that is this week!! Wow, send me lots of pictures and Dallas and KC, I wish you the best of luck!! Sydney, it sounds like your plays went so well and Chad and Mckay, way to go on football! That is definitely one thing I miss here, but it makes me so happy to hear you guys are loving it!

This week was a great one! We had our first capacitacion, zone conference, with President Richardson and his wife, we also had our regular district meeting, lots of lessons, an activity at the church, more lessons, good food, and lots of studying and learning.

Zone Conference

I love loved being with President and Sister Richardson. Just being around them.  They really carry and spirit and are so so inspired. A big part of this conference was about self reliance and being prepared. Apparently there’s a volcano here (that is pretty close to my area) that is going to erupt within one to six weeks. I don’t really know what that means for us, but I’m really not scared because I know I will be protected and we have a plan to keep us safe. But I am pretty interested in what is going to happen. I’ve always wanted to see a volcano, so maybe this will be my chance! :) We also talked about easy, cheap and healthy foods week can make, we have emergency backpacks, learned about water, etc.  At the end we talked about how important prayer is in conversion, both for us and our investigators. My testimony was really strengthened that we really won’t completely know the truth unless we pray, believing we’ll receive an answer. I’ve had the chance to pray more here on my mission than I ever have in my life and I love that I get to teach people that there is ALWAYS someone we can talk to. ALWAYS.

Something I’ve really had to get used to while being on a mission is talking. To EVERYONE. In the street, on the bus, in the store. It’s been so interesting to see the different reactions of people.. some who are so kind, receptive and offer you whatever they have, and others who try and act like you aren’t there. We were at a bus stop waiting for our bus one day this week and a family walked by so we decided to start talking to them and walk along side them. It wasn’t far into the conversation that we could really tell they were not too interested. But my companion kept talking and walking, so... I did the same thing. We tried asking them where they lived, who they lived with, and if we could share more about our message sometime. My companion asked if they had a cell phone so we could contact them later and she told us, nope, none of us have cell phones. As she was telling us this, I looked down and clearly, her cell phone was right there inside her pant pocket. Hahaha. We had a good laugh about that. I guess some people aren’t quite ready to hear our message. 

I also had quite the experience riding the bus last week. It was actually Monday right after I got done emailing you guys. I think I’ve explained the buses here. There are lots of them and lots of people who want to ride them. But since school just started, there are even more people and there are times when they are literally PACKED. By biggest concern is that I make sure I always know where Hermana Mortera is because getting lost here would be bad news. Anyway, we were heading out to one of our areas and the bus that we needed to take was full. Completely full. We both stepped onto the bus (I was thinking somehow people would squish in more and we’d be able to actually get IN the bus) But, apparently not. The bus started to go, the doors were open, and I was on the last step, literally holding on for dear life. Hahaha I was laughing so hard (and partly scared to death), because if I were to let go, I don’t think it would be a pretty sight. But we made it to our area alive with smiles on our faces. 

One of our great investigators

This morning I had a GREAT experience! Sister Richardson called me during personal study to see how I was doing. She likes to talk to the new missionaries and share a few thoughts because she knows that the first little while is just hard. Like I said, she is so inspired and has a way of just making life seem good. Mom, she honestly reminds me a lot of you. We ended up talking for about 45 minutes about life, the mission and she shared some really cool scriptures with me. She first had me read 2 Samuel 22:2-4 which talks about the Lord, how he literally is our rock and that we need to praise him. She went on to tell me about something called the Praise Principle. She said that when we go through hard times something that will ALWAYS help us to feel better is to praise the Lord. That seems kind of backwards. We would usually think that Praising during Hard times wouldn’t be the answer, but as we read many many more scriptures, I realized that right here is literally the answer to every problem in our lives. We read in 2 Nephi 4 about Nephi. Nephi, a prophet who was so so great, had a time where he felt discouraged, depressed and really down on himself. A PROPHET. At the end of that chapter Nephi says that he knows the Lord is there and will give him strength. As I read the verses in between, I realized that these feelings changed when Nephi praised the Lord. We talked about how tricky Satan is. Satan knows us so well and wants us to think everything opposite that the Lord teaches us. He WANTs us to be discouraged. The hard thing is that Satan knows our weakness so he knows HOW to get us discouraged and down. We then read Ether 12:27 about weaknesses. That the Lord gives us weaknesses. He gives us these weaknesses because he loves us, he wants to help us to be humble and he wants us to reach our full potential. Satan... makes us think that weaknesses are a bad thing, but I learned from that verse that the Lord GIVES us weaknesses. The Lord likes weaknesses, he uses weak things. And we are STRONGER when we see our weaknesses. Hermana Richardson tied this back in to the praise principle. If we need weakness to grow stronger, shouldn’t we praise the Lord for our weaknesses? At first, this does not make sense, but the more we talked, the more I realized what we can do. What I need to do. Satan has a great way of making weaknesses look like a bad thing, but Hermana Richardson promised me that as we thank the Lord for our weaknesses, for our hard times, he WILL be there and we will realize that we need him and that he really does want the best for us. This conversation literally changed the way I think about trials and weaknesses. And I think I won’t look at things quite the same, maybe the rest of my life. I am so so grateful for the comfort of the scriptures and what we can learn from them. Our weaknesses, and insecurities, our hard times and trials are gifts from God. And although they are not fun, we will be happier when we praise God for these things. Wow. I really really learned a lot this morning!

Sorry that this was so long. Haha they always seem to be long, but I just wanted to share something that helped me with the rest of you guys. Hopefully you can learn something too. Thank you thank you for your love and support. I love you guys and feel so so blessed to be surrounded by such great people. Have a fantastic week!

Love, Hermana Yorgason

This is one of the members.  I was sick and she gave me her scarf and some herbal tea. :)