December

Hi Family!!!

Happy December! Ah this is my very favorite time of the year. Thank you for your letters, support and love this week.. as always. So very grateful to hear that you guys are doing well and that Heavenly Father is truly looking out for you. I pray for you everyday and I am so so grateful to know that life is going on, and you guys are happy.

This week... was probably the fastest week so far of my mission. It flew! And we had a few extra devotionals, meetings, (and a party:)), so that could be part of the reason. We also had a baptism this week which was so so good! I’ll talk about that in a little bit..

One of the highlights of this week — our zone conference/Christmas party. For Christmas, President and Sister Richardson invite each zone to their house for a dinner, talking and some games. They have to get through lots of zones, so they start early, and lucky us, we got to go on the 3rd of December so we’ll be in the Christmas spirit the whole month :) Man, I love every single time that get to be around my mission president and his wife. They have such a special spirit about them, and make me want to be more like that. Hermana Richardson is one of the sweetest people I have ever met in my entire life, and has a love for every single one of us. She makes us ALL feel like we’re the most important.. Not quite sure how :)

So before going to their house we had a short zone conference in the stake center. We talked about what it means to be a consecrated missionary and also watched the Christmas clip from the church. Loved it!! The whole month of December we’re passing out cards with this website on it, and I’ve loved getting to talk to people about Christ and the true meaning of Christmas. 

Anyway, after this, we walked to President Richardson’s house and wow, so beautiful. Like I said in my letter last week, there’s just something about being in a home with a great family that is so special. We had great food!! (Thanks to Hermana Richardson. Moms seem to know how to make EVERYTHING taste good!) It was so fun to see some of my great friends there (including Hermana Nielson and Hermana Pingree). We had dinner, sang Christmas songs, Hna Richardson made us all an ornament, took pictures, and did a white elephant gift exchange. Ha that was a blast. The night before, my companion and I didn’t have time to buy anything because we were in a lesson, so right before we ran to a gas station and bought lots of candy bars (American ones!!!). Haha I actually just wanted my own gift so bad, but I got some medicine and a band-aid from the mission nurse, so I’m probably better off anyway :) We also played Christmas songs with color coded bells (kind of like our chimes at home!!) I don’t think it sounded quite as good as it does at home, but nonetheless... super fun :) It was weird because we were gone from our sector all day! But we enjoyed it. 

The other highlight of my week. Our baptism on Saturday. Ok.. meet Guido (see picture below). I know I’ve talked about him in a few of my other letters, but he is my favorite, and it was a special day on Saturday to see him be baptized. We actually found him all the way back when I was with Hermana Mortera, so we’ve been teaching him for quite awhile. I have seen such a big change over these last few months. Guido is in a wheelchair (from a swimming accident about 10 years ago), he lives alone, sells chocolate bars to earn money, and is one of the happiest people I know. His life is difficult. So so very difficult, but he has such faith that the Lord will bless him if he does what is right. He is one of my very favorite people to visit. He plays us music on his little flute that he made, we always end up buying a chocolate bar, and every time he wants me to help him practice his English. 

Our recent converts.  They are the funniest people I know. :)

Saturday. I couldn’t have asked for it to go better. Even though we don’t have a phone right now, and there were SO many things to coordinate, (including HOW to do the actual baptism) so many people stepped up to help and the spirit was really strong. I’m happy for him. Happy because I can see how much the gospel has affected his life and how much he LOVES the Book of Mormon! He is definitely an inspiration to a lot of people here in our ward!!

I’m also so happy because I got to see his baptism before transfers. Yes, that’s how missionary work goes... some teach, others baptize.. its like a big group effort. And I love that. But this baptism was extra special to me. So I was very grateful to be here for it. Yep, transfers are this Sunday night and I’ve been here in this area for awhile so most likely I’ll move somewhere else :( But I guess we’ll see. I’d be happpppyy to stay but, getting to know another part of Ecuador sounds great also. We’ll see.

I learned lots in our zone conference. Lots and lots. I recommend EVERY missionary to read that talk. It really changed my perspective of what Heavenly Father wants of us, and how I can improve to be totally dedicated and focused on my mission. Here are a few of the highlights.... One quote that I loved from the talk said… "One day we need to not only read the stories in the Book of Mormon, but live them." It talked about consecrating ourselves, not only on our mission, but all of our lives, and doing what the Lord wants from us. A good indicator of our conversion is when our will is the same as the Lord’s will. Then we need to LIVE the story of Nephi, Enos, Moroni and look for what the Lord wants from us. I really loved that thought. Especially when I think of Mosiah 3:19 that talks about the natural man being an enemy to God. And it’s pretty easy to follow the natural man. But what we are here to do, is overcome those desires and look for what the Lord wants from us. Definitely something we can always be working on.

We also got to watch a small part of the Christmas devotional last night. I didn’t hear much, but I did feel the spirit and realize once again... how important the birth and life of Christ is. 

So so grateful for this gospel and the things I’m learning. Love you all lots.

Hermana Yorgason