MIRACLES!

Hola Familia y amigos!!!

Birthdays birthdays and more birthdays. Good thing mom has everything down and can make breakfasts, dinners, wrap presents, like a pro. I remember always loving this week of the year because there’s so much good food! But it’s okay... in celebration of all of that, we found a really good burger and fries place today and obviously, had our traditional banana split that we always buy on P-days. :)

Me and Hermana Sanchez

This week. This week I learned what it means that there needs to be opposition in all things. But mostly I learned about the blessings that come after the test and hand of the Lord in everything we do. On Thursday in our Zone meeting we talked about the trials that we WILL have as we try our best to work hard. We talked about an arm wrestle without the resistance of the other person or a stick-pull with just you and the stick. We discussed the game Mario.. what makes it fun, what’s the point, and how it feels to conquer a level. But.... how there would be no point if there were no obstacles. No Bowser. No hole or no pillars to cross. And so it is in life. How would we feel the joy of succeeding and being like Christ if there was no Satan. How would there be a miracle if there was no need for one... no suffering, no opposition. Well, this lesson prepared us well because the next day was a slow one. Very few people were home. A few people that we thought were progressing didn’t show much interest, and our investigator that has his interview for his baptism next week, didn't show up. At the end of the day we were feeling a bit bummed.. But it didn’t last for long. The next day turned around and was about the opposite. Lots of blessings.

Members in our ward

But... much more than trials, we saw sooo many blessings this week. Blessing after blessing after blessing. We decided that it was our week of miracles. Which is interesting because it was our last week in our month of faith. Sure cool to see how the Lord works. This week I felt like a real missionary, seeing real help and real miracles from the Lord.

Some big, some small. But they all made me stop and think about how blessed I am.

On Thursday, one of the Elders had given us a reference of a family in our area. He told us that they lived in a yellow house, sold salchipapas, and were across the street from a college. Well.... considering that our sector is HUGE and there are a lot of people and a lot of yellow houses, I wasn’t so sure how we’d find them. But... we had it in the back of our mind. That day we were on our way to the house where we were going to each lunch... a house we’d never been to before. We got off the bus at the stop that we thought was right. As we crossed the street, I looked up a saw a yellow house, looked in their window and it had a sign that said.. Salchipapas Aqui, and… I looked back. Yep, there was a college. We went inside and sure enough, it was the family we were looking for. Who knows what will happen, if they will progress or want to listen, but it was a small moment that showed me yes... for sure the Lord is helping us with his work.

Tuesday we also had a cool experience. We had a few lessons planned, but as we called all of them, they weren’t home or were busy. We had a few hours until our next appointment, so we decided to pray and then just walk and follow what we thought was right. As we got done praying, one of our investigators came into my mind who lived fairly close by, so we decided to walk over there to see if she was home. We knocked and knocked. No one. So we decided to do something that we had read about and talked about in PMG and contact the five doors around this house. At the second door we knocked, a lady opened it and welcomed us right in (which was kind of surprising because that doesn’t happen very much). As we started talking with her we found out that she was a single mom, wanted SOME change in her life and actually listened to the missionaries a few years ago. We felt the spirit strongly in this lesson as she explained how she wants to find more direction in her life, and at the end, accepted a baptismal date for this month. I know that the Lord led us there. 

These last two weeks we’ve also found a lot of people who have accepted baptismal dates. In our district meeting we read a scripture in Helaman about him and his challenge to take care of a huge amount of cities with few numbers of soldiers. Because of all the blessings we’re seeing in our district, our leader told us that that’s how we are right now. We’re finding lots of people with potential, but our challenge is figuring out how we can take care of them all and help them progress. Ya, I guess it’s not the worst problem we could have. Haha but I know it all comes from the faith we’re trying to show.

We also had a baptism this week of a girl named Rubi.. and it was so cool to see how many people from the ward came and supported her. She said afterward... "I feel more bright inside and like all the bad things left my heart." :)

Rubi's baptism

But I think the biggest miracle of all was yesterday. Man, we had an experience that I will sure remember for a long time. An experience that told me… don't worry, don’t doubt, just trust and know that the Lord is in charge.

I don’t know if you guys remember, but back in November we got a challenge from our mission president to look for families. To pick a number, pray about that number and that we WOULD find a family to baptize that the Lord was preparing. Well a few months have passed since November, but this challenge has very much been in our minds and in our prayers every day. For the past couple of weeks, we’ve made a goal to pray about our family in every prayer and look for people we can contact. Both my companion and I felt good about a family of five, where four people would get baptized. Kind of random and specific, but that’s what we decided on and felt good about. Well, yesterday we found our family. After waiting and praying. We had a lesson with a family a five where four accepted a baptismal date for the 26th of March. During the lesson they told us that they’ve been looking for a church to join and want to find a church to stay in. There were a few members in the lesson with us and they have family and lots of neighbors that are members of the church. The whole night was a testimony to me that the Lord doesn’t just answer prayers, but he answers MY prayers. Helps me with MY worries and MY desires. Earlier in the month we DREW our family (of five) to help us envision and BELIEVE that the Lord would help us find them, and as we were leaving, we saw a drawing on their wall of their family.. that looked the same and in the exact order as our picture in our apartment. We are being so blessed.

My scripture that I’ve been meditorizing this week fits perfectly. 2 Nephi 27:23  "For behold, I am God; and I am a God of miracles; and I will show unto the world that I am the same yesterday, today, and forever; and I work not among the children of men save it be according to their faith."

Miracles are real. They were in the scriptures, they are right now, and they will continue to happen if we have faith that the Lord will help us.

Thank you for your love and support! Love you all!!!

Hermana Yorgason

Listening to the Words of Elder Holland!

Family and Friends. 

Hola hola. Glad to hear all is well in good ole Utah. And an update about Ecuador... all is well here also. Very well.

I think I may have just finished one of the best weeks of my life. For many different reasons. But right now I just feel blessed, happy, and fully aware of the miracles that our Heavenly Father works today. In our lives. Here and now. Hoy.

I love my new companion, Hermana Sanchez!

It’s been a week full of blessings. And it all started with getting to listen to Elder Holland speak twice. I’ll just say… that he seems to be even more powerful in person (which... I didn’t think was possible), he says things as they are and cuts right to the heart, and is so cute when he tries to bear his testimony in Spanish. Even with the limited vocabulary that he has… still so strong. For the most part he had a translator, which meant that I got to listen to everything he said two times :) There is definitely too much to retell it all, but a few of the highlights. Things that really struck me. 

Elder Holland speaking to Octaval members.

Tuesday was in Otavalo with two stakes. It was in a stadium sort of place and was so cool to see so many Otavaleneon members in one place. Elder Holland talked about missionary work and laid it down hard. He said that there are not enough members here. That he wants to see 30, 40, 50% of Otavalo members of the church. So we have lots of work to do! 

He said, ”We can’t take this casually. We’re not walking anymore in the church headquarters. We run. And we’re asking you to do the same."

He also shared a scripture with us from the bible that touched me. In a big way. (Sorry, I’ll bring the scripture next week.) But it said that if we will live our life speaking of Christ, he will speak of us before the angels of heaven. And I can’t imagine a greater promise. One day, we are all going to return to our Father in Heaven, and in that day, I can’t imagine the feeling that we will have (if we were righteous) when Christ speaks for us, pleads our case, gives us a hug and says well done. NOW is the time to act. There is so much to do. So much that the Lord expects us to do.

And Wednesday...

Ah, Wednesday was fantastic. All of us missionaries went to Quito to have a special meeting with Elder Holland. Just the missionaries of our mission :) He talked to us for two hours and ohh, I could have stayed there MUCH longer. We were in a chapel and he was walking up and down the isles, so many times I was about two arms length away from him. If I hadn’t come away with anything else, there is one thing that I know without a doubt. And that is that he is a servant of the Lord. Just being in the room with him. You could feel it. I also learned that he has a super funny personality. There were a few things that he said that I thought... “Can an apostle really say that??” But I also realized that yes, of course he’s a real person and loves to make jokes and laugh.

Listening to Elder Holland was amazing!

I think the number one thing that stuck with me from Wednesday is his statement. "You are in this for life." He told us over and over again how blessed we are. That right now, we do the same thing as the apostles. That we are literally representatives of Jesus Christ. But that we can’t know what we know, and do what we do, and then go home and act like it never happened. 

"I would have you on a mission if no one was ever baptized because of your opportunity to live the gospel, study its principles, love the Lord and purify your life."

We (members of the Yorgason family or members of this church) are beyond blessed. But because we know what we know, the Lord expects us to stay in it for the rest of our lives. 

"You will never be able to repay the Lord for what He did, but the least you can do is deliver your own conversion."

THAT is how we can show the Lord that we love him and THAT is what we should always remember… in the good times or the bad. Our own conversion and obedience is the biggest gift that we can give.

This week with Hermana Sanchez has been soo good. She makes me want to work even harder. We laugh, make jokes, talk to everyone we can, pray harder than ever, and I am learning from her how to truly give it your all.

Making breakfast....

....and eating! :)

Ok.. I don’t have much time left, but we had a really cool zone activity this week that I wanted to share. Obviously, this is our big month of faith. Everything we are doing relates to how we can strengthen and develop more faith. Well, we got to our zone meeting this week. Sang the hymn, they gave the announcements, and then handed out blind folds to everyone and told us to go up onto the stage with our companions. They took us one by one, led us backwards to the edge of the stage and told us to fall. Uh.... what? Ya, faith falls on the ground are hard enough. But they told us to fall. That we were ok, they were there, we just needed to fall. Some did it right away. Others took many minutes. Others were literally crying. (Yes, some of the sisters) But eventually, everyone did it. They had brought a mattress, blankets and tons of pillows, so we fell off the stage into that... but it was sure a few seconds of pure terror. It was scary, for sure. But surprisingly, it was easier for me than earlier in the month when we just had to walk forward onto tables off the stage. I literally felt my faith growing. I know for sure that just like this activity... the Lord ALWAYS has something prepared for us. Something good. Sometimes, we just have to fall and hope and pray and trust.

I’m out of time, but I love you all. Thank you for writing me and making me feel loved.!!

Hermana Yorgason

And more eating....ice cream! :)

New Companion and Carnival

Hi my WONDERFUL family!! 

My new companion - Hermana Sanchez

I hope you all had a fantastic week!! Here in San Pablo we had lots going on! Big week with interviews, meetings, a baptism, and also... I have surprising news. Last night when we called the district leader to give our daily report he told us get ready… that yesterday were cambios intermedios and Hermana Choque... was leaving the sector. We were not expecting that at all, but... I have a new companion!!! This morning we went to the bus station, traded, and all day we were in our apartment unpacking, writing letters, relaxing. It was fantastic. So.. my new companion’s name is Hermana Sanchez. (Yes, the same name as my last companion... but no, not the same person) She’s from Chicklayo, Peru, has a family of 7 people and from what I can tell so far, is super super great!!! I’m really excited to learn from her and work hard to find new people to teach. The funny thing... she was only in her other sector for three weeks, half a change. So we decided that there’s definitely someone in this sector that the Lord wants her to find.

Like I said... we had a lot of things going on this week. Monday and Tuesday were Carnival, like I said in my last letter. I’d like to announce that I went both days with only getting hit by foam once. I was very proud of us... our sprinting, hiding, and avoiding all the right places :) 

Carnival.  I was lucky...didn't get it too bad. :)

Because it was Carnival.. our president told us to stay inside for most of the day. Which meant... lots and lots of good studying, with a few homemade banana splits in there. It was interesting how much I was able to learn and how strongly I was able to feel the spirit during those two day. Anyone.. if you are ever feeling down, pick up a New Era or Ensign and just read. I promise you... you will find answers and guidance. I found so many great stories in the Liahonas that we have pilled up in our house :)

This week we also had a meeting with President and Sister Richardson and interviews with President. Man, I always LOVE seeing those two. It’s like they open their mouth and just automatically I can feel the spirit.

My family -- In the mission life.

We also had a baptism this week. Walter.  He is so so great. And so strong.  He's 19 years old and really wants to go on a mission in a few years.  We've been teaching him for about a month now, and I can really see him as a great leader one day.  He bore his testimony at the baptism and it was like from someone who's been a member all their life.  It was a great day :)

Walter's baptism

This next week.... I think may be the best week of my mission. We are going to get to listen to Elder Holland. TWICE! Once tomorrow. He’s coming here to Otavalo to talk to two stakes so we’re taking some investigators, and going early with them to get seats. Everyone here is preparing.. going crazy that they get to listen to an apostle. It is suuuch a blessing. Something that they´ll probably never get again in their lives. Maybe more than being excited for me, I am soo so excited for all the members that live here. Then, on Wednesday, all the missionaries are going to Quito for a conference with Elder Holland, and all of us. I feel so blessed to have this opportunity and can’t wait to hear the counsel he has for me personally. Definitely going to remember this for a long time!!

Don't worry....I didn't miss Valentines Day :)  Us and the Relief Society President

This week while I was studying I found a quote that I loved... and wanted to share with you guys. It’s from Parley P. Pratt when he was called on ANOTHER mission after serving for 25 years. He said, "When the Spirit of God is upon me, I think it matters very little what I suffer, what I sacrificed- whether I secure the honor or dishonor of men, or where I die. If it so be that I keep the faith, fight the good fight, and finish my course with joy, I have all eternity before me, in which to enjoy myself." I think he says it all. And is such a great example of true service and devotion to the Lord. Our time here really is so short. I can’t even imagine the day that we will get to see our Heavenly Father, and have ETERNITY to live with Him and our families with complete joy. Remember... righteousness is so worth it. 

I love you all!!!

Pray for me tomorrow night. I’ll make sure to take good notes so I can tell you all about it.

Oreos fritos.  No hay nada mejor.
Translation:  Fried Oreos! There is nothing better!

Hermana Yorgason

Turquoise Door and Notebook of Faith

Hi Family!!

Happy February. Happy Monday. Thanks for writing me and sending pictures of your lives. I love love it. Everyone looks good.. like life is going well. Love to see that :)

Well we are officially in our FE de FEBRERO. We had a meeting about what were going to do, focus on, how were going to work hard, and are promised that we WILL see MILAGROS en MARZO. Each of us are studying extra hard and diligently this month (we have a cute chart that we get to color each day:)), we can only listen to music from the Tabernacle Choir (thank you ipod. I have LOTS), were also all making different sacrifices.  We’re not have zone activities on P-days this month, and we each get to choose a personal sacrifice or something we want to change. I’ve decided on a few different things, but one of them is about email time. And I would love your guys help. I’m going to spend some of my time on the computer finding and printing off talks, so this month I probably will only have time to write my family. But I also would love to hear thoughts, from each of you. Your testimony, quotes, talks, feelings on FAITH (or anything else important that you want to share). I’m making a notebook of scriptures and thoughts on faith, and it would be even more special if I could add things from you guys. 

So this month.. is obviously going to be very special. I’m so excited to see the miracles that come along with our faith. But I’m also excited to exercise my faith... even in rejections and disappointments. We got to practice that yesterday when a few of the people we have with baptismal dates didn’t come to church (after passing by their house every day to talk, asking about what they’re learning, and reminding them about church on Sunday). But I know that the Lord works in HIS timing. And he will help us as we keep trying.

This week we got to do lots of random acts of service during the day as we walked from appointment to appointment and just talked to people. One of those was help someone paint their front door turquoise. (I wish more of us had turquoise doors in the USofA) But it was great to use our painting skills and share the first lesson as we did. The down side was they gave us a HUGE plate of lunch to say thank you, right after we had left our lunch appointment. I don’t know HOW I got it all down. But it was a good break during the day nonetheless. I’ll send a picture :)

Painting...!

Right now here in Ecuador is a huge holiday.. called Carnival. Everyone is out of school, and everything is closed (we finally found ONE internet open to write today). It’s pretty much one big water fight everywhere. It kind of reminds me of the water parade in Eagle. Today technically was the first day, but it’s been going on for about a week so we’ve had to be really careful walking around. People throw water balloons from their windows, cars driving by, there are water guns everywhere and tons of people have these bottles of foam that they squirt. Apparently during these few days no one has respect for anyone. If you’re out in the street, it’s fair game... so we had to stay inside all day today to protect ourselves. People also throw flour, eggs, paint... I think anything they can find. We’ve been lucky and only gotten a few water balloons and one big thing of wet foam thrown at us. But.. I’ll keep you posted about the rest of the week :)

Today, because we had to stay in for the day, I decided to start on my notebook of faith. I read articles from the Liahona, which took me to scriptures, which took me to True to the Faith, and back to another article. Man... if I could have more days like this :) I loved being able to sit on my bed for a couple of hours and just read, and think about the plan that Heavenly Father has for us. It’s times like that when it is just so easy to see it all.. Why we’re here, what we need to do, why we have trials, and where we can find happiness. But... it’s out in the real world when all of that is really put to the test.

Visits with a member in our ward.

I left my notebook at home.. but I loved a quote I read from President Uchtdorf that said something like.. "Sometimes it seems like our prayers aren’t answered right away. Or like they’ll never be answered at all, but we need to have faith that the one who knows all is in charge. One day we will look back and realize that our circumstances now were blessings from the Lord."

I know that the Lord has so much good prepared for us. I can just imagine that he’s up there saying... "Just trust. If only you knew what I have prepared for you." And that is faith, trusting that HE will help us in any circumstance we are in. It’s sure something I am trying to improve. 

Thank you all for your love and support. I know that the Savior loves us. I know that we really are never ever alone. He is shaping us into the people he knows we can and will become. 

Love you all! Don’t forget to send me your thoughts :)

Love Hermana Yorgason

February of Faith

Hi Family!!!

Thank you everyone for writing me! Snow snow and more snow it sounds like. Glad everyone is holding up. And getting lots and lots of practice with shoveling the driveway :)

Sometimes I feel like the weeks of the mission blur into one. But it was a good week. My companion and I both got over our sicknesses and got back to work. I saw both how the Lord helps us so much and also how Satan wants the ruin everything we do. Again this week... I learned so much from my studies in the morning. The sad part is my brain isn’t good enough to remember every detail of every scripture I read, but I love the spirit that comes from the Book of Mormon.

Mercedes' baptism.

This week we had a baptism of a lady named Mercedes. Ah, it was a great day, and (although she let us all know how cccold the water was), she was so happy. A few of her kids are members, and she actually has one daughter on a mission, and it was cool to see them all support her. The Lord really helped us, and helped her understand what we were teaching and her number 1 success... she learned how to pray. And she does it every night. I’m so excited to hear what her daughter that is on her mission says... I know the Lord helps the families of his missionaries. As you’ll see from the pictures... Mercedes always wears the clothes of Otavalo. Especially with the older generation here, that is the norm. So... my companion and I decided to celebrate the occasion and wear the little part of the Otavalian outfit that we have. (Someone in our ward gave us both skirts.. A blessing because they’re like 70 dollars). Anyway… I'll send pictures of that :)

Our Otavalian outfits.

We taught one of the part member families here how to make pancakes.
They had never cooked or eaten them... so they were pretty excited :)

We have a few different people working towards baptismal dates, but like I said, satan works hard and for some reason... attending church is just always a battle. I guess it’s because people like to sleep and our church is a little further away, but luckily we have a GREAT ward, and the members here are soo willing and happy to help, do visits, and become friends with anyone new we bring to church.

Right now we’re teaching a family of 9. The mom is 27 years old, their house is about the size of our kitchen, they have 7 kids, and the dad has been in and out of jail because his other wife wants more money from him. It’s such a hard situation, but so humbling to see that they still have faith that the Lord is watching over us. Reminds me to count my blessings.

February is starting, which means the month of faith in our mission is starting. "Fe de Febrero trae Milagros en Marzo." I am super excited to study, learn about and exercise just a bit more of my faith. We had a really cool lesson in our zone meeting to start off the month. We were all blind folded and one by one had to walk off the stage... onto a table, and then more tables, that we didn’t know were there. It was so cool to be able to physically FEEL what faith is like.

I am so grateful for the opportunity to know that the Lord.. really is guiding our lives. "Men accomplish marvelous things by trusting in the Lord and keeping his commandments- by exercising faith even when they don’t know how the Lord is shaping them." I’ve learned that having true faith, is trusting that the Lord will bless us, but letting him decide HOW he will bless us. 

Thank you for your letters and love. I know without a doubt that this is the Lord’s work. He is in charge, and when we trust in Him, he can do more with us than we could ever do on our own.

7 months yesterday!

Love you lots!!!

Hermana Yorgason

Oh the things you see walking down the street.  No wonder
we're not allowed to eat pig here.  It's a little more than unsanitary!

RAIN, RAIN and more RAIN...sooo, we stopped at a store to buy these really attractive looking
plastic bag/rain ponchos.