Well Family. Hello! I hope you are having a fantastic week and had a great Easter yesterday!
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| This is what "beautiful Ecuador" looks like. |
To be honest, it didn’t feel like Easter here at all. I guess people don’t really celebrate it much, and it actually wasn’t until the middle of the day that I realized that it WAS Easter. But I always ALWAYS love thinking about Christ and the amazing sacrifice that he went through. On Saturday we watched Finding Faith in Christ with a few of our investigators, and it was one of those moments where my heart was so touched with everything the Lord went through. It felt like I could have been there with Him... seeing the miracles He performed and hearing His invitation... "All that are labored and heavy laden, come unto me and I will give you rest." If there is one thing I know, it is that the Lord can help us during trials because he knows EXACTLY how we feel. Every sadness, doubt, insecurity, failure, pain. He knows because He felt it. And for that reason, when it seems like there is no one else to turn to, He will always always have his hands outstretched to us. I think that is one of the number one most important things we can know and share with other people. And I’ve come to realize on my mission that that is my favorite thing to share in any testimony that I give. That the atonement is so real.
Well, an exciting week for sure. Besides a few challenges... a lost camera, I’m still sick (can’t remember what its like to be feeling normal:/), and a few minor injuries, we had some GREAT highlights.
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| Adventures with Hermana Ettinger! |
Highlight number one. Divisions with Hermana Ettinger. (If some can’t remember, she was my second companion... and we just click) Oh man, it was a great 24 hours... filled with lots of talking, lots of remembering the good old times, finding some new investigators, and some great adventures. It was a good journal entry that night. :) First of all we were at a bus stop talking to a few people and I almost got hit by a car. They almost backed up right into me. But... luckily Hna Ettinger is quick on her feet and we’re all fine :) After that, we rode the bus about 30 minutes up to the house of Family Casco. It was getting late and there are only buses there up to a certain time so we knew we had to give a fairly short lesson so we could make it back home. We talked about the family, shared a few scriptures and man... they are just such great people. As we headed out the door and started to leave, we heard the bus coming down the hill and oh man... all we did was put on the burners and start booking it through their field. It was pitch black (besides the moon), so I’m sure we were a pretty funny sight. Lesson number one... it’s probably not the best thing to run when your not sure what’s ahead of you, because the next thing I knew, I was flat on the ground. Completely. There was a stake in their yard that I didn’t know about, haha and... I sure took a good spill. But all that was in my head was that we were going to miss the last bus, so I got up, half wobbling, half crying I think, half laughing, and half trying to run with Hna Ettinger. Well we were about 10 seconds short of the bus. And definitely short of breath, because running down a mountain isn’t something we do a lot here. So we went to plan B... tried to find a taxi, or someone that knew the number of a taxi. We also called everyone we could think of who had a car to come pick us up but no one was answering. So... after thinking and calling, and trying to wash all the blood off of my foot (I’ve got a good battle wound from that stake), we said a prayer and started walking. From Angla to San Pablo. And I know that doesn’t mean much to any of you... but like I said, its about 25 or 30 minutes in a bus. It was quite funny to think about.. 2 North American girls, walking through a mountain/canyon in the middle of no where Ecuador, under the stars, hoping that we could find our way home. But.. the great thing is, we weren’t scared at all. I just saw it as a lot more time to talk and a good experience we’ll remember. I know that the Lord protected us and we got home just in time :)
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| My battle wound....! |
This week we also spent a lot of our time looking for a new apartment. The secretaries called us and said the in the next transfer, president is going to split our sector and bring in elders. We looked for a few days and found a GREAT apartment (it’s almost too great for a missionary living in Ecuador:)) and today we finalized it all. The sad thing is since I’ve been here for 3 changes, it’s likely that I’ll leave, so I’m trying to not get too excited, but we’ll see what happens.
Another highlight is we found a family this week who are soo great! Probably the friendliest family I’ve talked to here and they have soo many questions, so excited to learn. That was definitely a blessing from the Lord.
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A family in our ward let Hermana Sanchez and I borrow their ponchos.
It gets so cold here!!! |
Another highlight. Yesterday I was sitting with Vanessa (got baptized two weeks ago) in sacrament meeting. I was explaining to her about testimony meeting, why we have it, what we can do, and asked her if she wanted to go up. Towards the end of the meeting, she turned to me and said that she’d go up if I went with her. So we both had the opportunity to bear our testimonies in sacrament meeting and it just made my heart so happy to see how much her testimony has grown even in two weeks.
We also watched the General Women’s Conference this Saturday and boy... was it great. It was so cool how every single talk was about service and being more like Christ. Something that really hit me was the example of the mirror and the window. That we, as children of God and having made a covenant in our baptism, should always look through a window, focus on others and forget about our own problems and insecurities.
And our course, the biggest highlight of the week was the baptism of Familia Casco. Wow. It was one of those days where I could just see so clearly exactly why a mission is so worth it. Lots of people from the ward came and the meeting focused a lot on the goal beyond baptism. The temple and eternal families. Each of them had chosen one elder or the bishop to baptize them, and as they each went into the water one by one, they literally looked like angels. The first thought that came into my mind was that THAT is how they are going to look when they are in the celestial kingdom as a family. I know I say a lot that I miss you guys... my family. Very much. But having an experience like we did on Saturday makes every pain, every sadness, every day out here worth it. The gospel truly blesses families and I want everyone to have the happiness that our family has.
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| Baptism of Familia Casco! |
I love you guys. I know with out a doubt that the Lord has such a great plan for us if we will only rely on him and put him first.
Hope you have a great week!!!
Hermana Yorgason
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