CAMBIOS

Hi my WONDERFUL family!!!

I love you guys. I’m so glad to hear that you’ve survived this week and are feeling the Lord’s help and comfort. I can’t tell you how much you were in my prayers. Especially Tuesday morning when I knew you were going to the airport. You guys are strong... and I’m soo so excited to hear how Luke has been doing these last few days. I can only imagine how powerful he is :) It is such an honor to be able to be a missionary at the same time as he is. Thank you mom and dad for teaching and preparing us our whole lives for this. As hard as I can imagine that it is for you guys, know that we are doing great. We’re happy, we’re growing, and we’re learning about our divine nature... why we are really here in this life. There’s no better place to be. The Lord is looking over us. All of us.

So... first of all, sorry I couldn’t send out a big letter last week. I’m gonna try and write extra today if I can. We’ve had a great two weeks. Week 5 and 6 of our change, so I feel like we were seeing all of the blessings and miracles. 

We’ve been visiting a family that is AMAZING.. familia Cordova, and this next week their little daughter is getting baptized. The two parents were less actives and hadn’t attended church for over 13 years. Well, we found them, we’ve been visiting them, and they have turned around so much. They’re visiting church every Sunday and Xochi (their little daughter) is so excited to get baptized. They’re starting to be really excited about the fact that one day, one day soon, they’re gonna get to go to the temple to be sealed as a family. What makes it even cooler is that they’re probably going to move to Utah for a year to study soon, so they’re going to try and get sealed in the Salt Lake temple. That ALSO means that when I’m back in Utah, I’ll be able to visit them. Wahoo!!!

We’ve been working a lot lately with less actives. We’ve seen many miracles in finding new ones and helping them progress. One this last week.... We were walking down the street to an appointment we had and passed a store where a lady was just sitting there reading a magazine. I had a feeling that we should introduce ourselves to her, so we stopped, talked to her for a second, asked about her family, what she desires for her life... and we found out that she got baptized over 25 years ago in our church, but then never went again. Apparently she didn’t really realize what she was doing and now she’s listening to the Jehovahs Witnesses and is so confused about what she should do. We explained a little bit to her about the restoration and later this week we returned and were able to teach her and all of her kids (who aren’t members). There was also a less active who contacted US and said she’s been living in sadness and wants our help to return to church. It’s so amazing to see how the Lord puts the right people in our path. I LOVE working with less actives.

Some of my favorite ward members

We also had a super cool experience this week with one of our investigators named Veronica. Basically, she’s prayed about the church and knows it’s true, loves to listen to us and is reading the Book of Mormon. The only problem is that her husband has wanted nothing to with the church and because of that, she hasn’t been able to attend. Well this week, the husband started opening up to us and he sat with us during one of our lessons! That was SUCH big progress :) Even though he didn’t fully admit it, I could SEE that he was really touched by the spirit and is going to progress little by little. Cool little miracle.

Two weeks ago we also got to say goodbye to President and Sister Richardson and get to know our new president and his family, President Murphy. Man, such a bitter sweet time. First of all, family... I am soooo happy that you got to go the homecoming of Pres. and his wife. It means a lot to me. And I’m so glad that you got to taste a little bit of their goodness :) The last Friday we had a get to know you reunion with our new president. I think the number one thing that touched me... was LOVE. I was so amazed at the Love that he and his wife already have for us. They knew us by name, they asked about us personally and President Murphy got pretty emotional as he talked about how much he cares about us already. They’ve known that they were going to come to this mission for about 9 months and finally they were able to SEE all the missionaries they’ve been praying about. I instantly felt love for them also. President Murphy is such a spiritual man. Hermana Murphy has such a good attitude (especially about trying to learn a language that she doesn’t know), and I was able to talk to her for a good while about her, her family, and how much our faith can change us. 

Last week I sent a picture of a poster that we made with the Familia Altamiranda. It’s ALSO a family that has some less actives and some investigators. We had a really cool lesson about OLA Orar. Leer. Asistir (pray, read, attend) and we made a poster so that they could hang it up on their wall to always remember. The little girls were pretty excited about that :)

Yesterday we had a baptism in our ward. I love attending those and seeing how much support the ward gives and how much HAPPINESS people are able to feel as they choose to be baptized.

Ward Baptism

Waiting for changes....

And today.... were changes! I feel like they were JUST here, but here we are again. And... I’m staying!!!! Wahoo. And both of my companions are leaving. We did not expect that at all! Especially because they’ve both only been here for one change. Yesterday at church I was kind of saying my backup goodbyes and my companions didn’t say anything. And then... we got the call. Man, I guess you never know what’s gonna happen. My new companions name is Hermana Herman from Texas. She is sooo great. Already just in like 4 hours we’ve already become best friends. She’s been out one change longer than me and is just as sweet as sweet can be. I am soo excited to work with her and learn from all that she does :)

This week I’ve really grown from something that Hermana Richardson left with us. The last day that she was here, she talked about the importance of prayer and how we NEED to use it everyday to receive the blessings that we need. So I’ve put into practice what she said. 1. Visualize before the prayer... yourself with the Lord, in his presence. 2. Thinking about and writing down the things you want to pray about before you begin. 3. Saying your prayer out loud and really TALKING with the Lord. I have seen sooo many blessings from the past few weeks from making my prayers a set aside special time and SPIRITUAL experience. Anyone who is struggling... or anyone at all... if you feel like you need a little boost in the effectiveness of your prayers, I invite you to try this. It makes all the difference! I know without a doubt that our Father in Heaven is listening to us as we talk to him. He WILL send the help that we need if we show him that HE is important to us.

Another one leaves us and heads to Utah!! :(

Then... this week as I was reading in the scriptures, I found a verse that caught my attention...

"And by day have I waxed bold in mighty prayer before him; yea my voice have I sent up on high and angels came down and ministered unto me." 2 Ne 4:24

I KNOW that the Lord will surround us with angels as we ask for it. He will lift us in our trials. He will give us hope for the future and allow us to have more faith. Like a quote I love from Pres. Holland...

"Faith is for the future. Faith builds on the past but never longs to stay there. Faith trusts that God has great things in store for each of us and that Christ truly is the high priest of good things to come." 

Love you all!!! Thanks for the support!!!

Hermana Yorgason