Dear Family and Friends!!
Things are going great here in Cumbaya and wow, its almost October! Mom, that means its your birthday soon. Don’t worry, my companion and I already decided that we’d buy ice cream that day to celebrate for you. Really, it’s the least I can do :) I’ve had a GREAT week with my new companion, Hermana Ettinger. Wow, we’ve had a lot of fun and worked, worked worked. Her motto is "work hard play hard" (yes mom, I’ve heard that from you before:)) So we try and do just that! A little more about her... she’s from Washington and has been out for 9 months. She reminds me a lot of Abby and Jessica Freeman, super fun and outgoing and friendly and sweet. Her Spanish is great so that gives me hope! Although my Spanish has improved so much this week and I feel like I received so much help from the Lord. It’s not perfect, or close, but people can understand me and I can usually teach any part of the lesson that I want... so that’s happy news :) I am learning a lot from my companion about loving and serving the people here. One day we even started helping two ladies wash all their laundry and ended up teaching them a lesson because they were grateful for the help and interested in what we were teaching. Service works!! I’ve been showing her around the sector, she’s been showing me everything else. Good team work and I’m loving it. We even went running a few mornings this morning and man, I loved that!!!
We had another baptism this week. It was a girl named Jennifer, who I was able to contact one of my first few weeks here, so that was SO cool to see that change and happiness in her. You always hear of those people who are just "prepared", and she is definitely one of those. Her faith is SOO strong and every time we have a lesson, she is so interested, so excited and so ready to hear all about the church. It has been a little difficult because her mom and the rest of her family are Catholic "and Catholic they will be the rest of their lives", but she was so ready and such a great example to me.
We also had an interesting experience at church on Sunday. We were in the middle of fast and testimony meeting and heard a loud bang and lots of yelling right outside of the chapel. I had no idea what was going on, but like half the people in the chapel started running outside... I literally thought the world was ending or something! The bishop got up and was trying to calm everyone down and we just went on with sacrament meeting (although it was very noisy and people coming in and out) We found out later that apparently there was a robbery and a few guys robbed computers out of two different cars in the parking lot. Very different than I have ever experienced in the US. The joys of church here in Ecuador. Its different, but I love it .)
We were also able to watch Women’s conference on Saturday, IN english and I absolutely LOVED it! I had written down a few questions before it started, and every single one was answered. These people are truly inspired and man, it was definitely a highlight of my week! So excited to have eight more hours of that this week!!! I think Elder Uchtdorf’s talk was my favorite and I love that he said "Your forever is made up of NOWS". My companion and I were talking a lot this week about how it is so important that we can learn to love life, no matter where were at. I am for sure going to read that talk again and again, but his message of seeing the good in life really hit me. So so true. It’s our choice to see our blessings and be grateful for even the small things we have :)
Well all... Hope you have a fantabulous week and enjoy conference. Its true that General Conference is more like Christmas when you’re on a mission. Can't wait! Thanks for your love and support!!
Hermana Yorgason
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