The Forgotten Keys!

Hello my WONDERFUL family!!!!

Another great and busy week for you guys. Hahaha I laughed out loud thinking about Mckay and Isaac trying to eat and finish a kitchen sink by themselves. Congratulations for finishing :) I thoroughly enjoyed the pictures. Also, congratulations Luke for everything big going on in your life. And Breiyon and Tyler.. I can’t wait to see pictures of your new baby! Good luck!!!

This week seemed to go by really fast!!! I’ve decided though in the last few days, or realized I guess, why Heavenly Father wanted me to come to Calderon. To learn. To learn about patience, about dealing with setbacks happily, about faith, about feeling so much love for the members. About myself. It was a good week...we had lots of difficulties and hard lessons, but nonetheless it was good, because we are learning about how we can react and keep ourselves cheerful.

First of all, we had a great Monday last week. We printed off our letters and then decided to go to a Chinese restaurant because none of us had been yet in Ecuador. It’s definitely not the same as in the United States, but man, I was sure enjoying myself. Reading letters from you guys, chow mein noodles and not feeling stressed with having to rush off to a lesson. In the evening at 6 we left to go start working, and as soon as we got out of the door and closed it, we realized that we didn’t have the keys. Well, we realized that I had left the keys inside on accident. Haha ooops. But... we knew we had to start working so we left and called the zone leaders in the taxi to see what we could do. They told us that they had an extra set, so after our lesson we got on a bus to go meet them. All was well. That night we got to the house and went to open the door...... wrong keys. They didn’t work. Haha so... we knocked on a lot of doors in our apartment complex to see if we could find the owner. Eventually we did find him, but he was very sure that there was nothing he could do to help us and we were all pretty sure that he was a bit drunk, not all there. So we tried to start thinking... Climbing up the wall. No. My companions tried to lift me up but.. hahaha that definitely didn’t work. We thought about breaking the door. But after about 30 minutes, we found someone that thought they knew where a ladder was. After trying about a million keys, they finally found the right one to let us into an empty room with a few ladders. We carried it around the house, set it up to our window, and this same guy climbed up it (almost tipping like 3 times), he got to our window, climbed through and finally brought our keys out to us. Hahaha, man it was quite the adventure. We definitely learned our lesson because now every time we walk out of the house we show the keys to make sure we have them.

On Tuesday, we had our last Mission Counsel with President and Sister Richardson. Man, I’m going to miss them so much. The mission is sure going to be a lot different without them. I’m sure a break is going to be good for them, but they also expressed how much they’re going to miss the life of being missionaries. Every time they talk, I am so inspired and I don’t think there was a dry eye in the room as they gave their final testimonies and expressed their love and the potential that they see in us. They leave this month on the 30th and the new president starts on the 1st. 

While I was at the Consejo, I heard some news that probably made my whole week. I was talking to the zone leaders who are in Otavalo and they were telling me about my old sector San Pablo. I found out that the son in our miracle family got baptized last week. Oh how happy I was! That means that their family is complete and will get to go to the temple in one year! I also found out that one of the contacts we had in my last change just got baptized and the families are attending church and doing well. That sure gave me a lift. I will always love San Pablo :)

We’re still working well as a trio... learning that different personalities require work and love and patience, but I’ve enjoyed my trio companionships. One thing random but fun about this companionship is that the other two like to sing so every time we sing hymns (a couple a day) we sing in harmony. It’s like our little choir inside our apartment :)

The family of Dunnia.  I love them!!!

Salchipapas with Dunnia.  (French fires and a hot dog with ketchup and mayonnaise.  They're big here!)

At the beginning of this week we had quite a few people with baptismal dates but.... a bit of adversity hit. Our investigator that was going to get baptized this week wouldn’t answer her cell phone all week. Another family didn’t answer and weren’t at their house... and then didn’t come to church. We found another lady last week with so much potential. She accepted everything right away and was so happy to hear about the restoration. She committed to go to church on Sunday and when we called her that morning to go pick her up, she told us that her husband had talked to her and told her that she needs to stop meeting with us and can’t go to our church. Man that was hard, because we are SURE that she’s one of the people that God is preparing. But... I know it will all come in its time.

We also had one of the saddest lessons this week that I think I’ve had in all of my mission. We went to visit one of the recent converts here. We got to their house, started talking and the dad told us that he needed to talk to us. He went on to say that he’s been doing a lot of investigations on the internet and now knows that the Book of Mormon isn’t true and that Joseph Smith was just a smart guy. Wow, it was sure a surprise to hear that after seeing how much he has grown. He was really strong in the gospel. But from that experience.... I learned and came to realize how lucky I am to have a testimony of my own. That what I know can’t be shaken from comments like that. And although we all left super sad, it reminded me how important it is to constantly be renewing and strengthening my testimony.

But we also saw a great miracle this weekend. My companions and I have been praying a lot and did a fast so that we can find new people, especially a new family that the Lord is preparing. I just have the feeling that I KNOW there is someone really special that we are going to find. So we’ve prayed this whole week to find a family that will progress. Yesterday in the afternoon we called a family... references from a lady in our ward. We went over to their house and learned that the mom and dad both are baptized but have been less active for over 13 years and want to return to church. They have two daughters and the older one is 8 years old and hasn’t gotten baptized yet. We had a really great lesson last night as they expressed their testimonies and desire to feel the Holy Ghost again... and now we have a new family that is going to progress. Maybe not all of them towards baptism, but to returning to church and living the gospel. The Lord sure does answer prayers.

Something that really stood out to me in my studying this week was the difference between Nephi and Lehi and Laman and Lemuel. And obedience. I can only imagine how hard it was for Lehi to leave his "abundance of precious things" to go to the desert and live in tents. His obedience sure took a ton of faith that the Lord would make up for their sacrifice. On the other hand, a few verses later it talks about Laman and Lemuel. Their dad was talking to them and because they were filled with fear, they eventually obeyed him. They did... they obeyed him. I realized that although maybe they DID the same thing, the two ways of obeying were completely different. We can obey because of FAITH, or we can obey only because we have FEAR. Even though it looks the same on the outside, I know that the only real obedience is obedience because of Faith. I want to be more like Lehi... live my life based on my faith.

Thank you, thank you for all you guys do for me. Love you lots!!!

Hermana Yorgason

Getting filmed for English homework.  I'm famous!!