Ward Activity and CHANGING our Hearts

Hi family and friends!!!

First of all, I’m so glad you are all safe from the tornado! Earthquakes, tornados… we’ve sure had some excitement lately! I guess we just have lots of good stories to tell. This is our last week of the change here in Imbaya. As slow as it seemed at times, I cannot believe that in one week I may be in a different place. Lots of prayers and faith that the Lord will do what is very best for us. Cuz we’re sure enjoying our companionship.

So... we’re here in Otavalo running from cyber to cyber trying to find computers that work. Literally, we log on, sit for a few minutes, realize it’s not going anywhere, so we scoop up our bags and run down the street to the next. The clock is flying.. so we’ll see how much I can get typed here.  I am sure living the simple life. Small houses, flies, washing dishes outside, no computers, and zero cleanliness. My legs are covered with bites from... some kind of bug and we’re down to no clean clothes (we have a meeting with president tomorrow. Wish us luck) But it’s simple. Out of anything worldly. And this week I really realized how much I love it and am in no way ready to return to the craziness of life.

This week we decided to do no sugar until we’re done with our mission. I know.. we’re crazy. Sugar is actually a highlight of my day here.... It’s actually in no way to lose weight or be fit, (we would go off of rice if that was the case) but I was talking this week about how I did no sugar for a year in 4th grade and honestly doubted if i could do it again. And I really didn’t like that.. so my comp and I realized it was time to show our bodies that WE are stronger. I just know that if I can say no to sugar… something I want so badly right now.. I can definitely walk up hills, continue to read the scriptures every day and say no to Satan’s lies. I want to be stronger. So I guess thats the reason why we’re doing it. So far so good.

The highlight of this week was the ward activity that Hermana Israelsen and I put on with our ward mission leader. It was a hit.. I was laughing the whole time. We did "Lehi´s Dream"... we started out by reading in the scriptures and talking about what we were going to do. The young women were the angels and the young men (and us two) were the devil trying to drag people off the rope. Oh man, is it hilarious watching Otavalian people clinging to a rope, blind folded and confused about what is what and where is where. Some of them made it to the tree of life where candy was waiting for them. Everyone got into it! Even some of the older ladies that walk around barefoot. At the end we had a cool testimony meeting about what everyone learned and how, in this world, it is so important to cling to the iron rod with both hands. We did it to find new investigators and.. although not a ton of new ones came, I still saw such a unity in the ward. And that is a start.

Ward Activity!

We keep falling here so Hermana Israelsen and I are all scraped up. I totally biffed it the other day and when I got home, I realized that my knee had been bleeding all night. Luckily I have a great companion that worked magic with her oils and I’ll be good as new in no time. I also learned that it may not be the smartest idea to get your hair cut at an Otavalo salon. They pulled my hair back and just cut it, one snip, straight and then took off my cape and told me I was good to go. I tried to explain that the front looked a lot longer than the back, but they seemed to think they had done a very fine job and moved on to the next customer. At least I know someone will be able to use my four dollars.

This week my eyes were really opened to CHANGE. That I, we, are here in this life to become different people. I was reading in Mosiah 13 and Abinadi reminded people that they won’t just be saved because of the law, or even obedience to the law. The reason we have rules is to "keep us in remembrance of God and our duty towards him." The whole reason we have commandments is not to just be able to say we completed them, but for the change that comes as a result. I am not here on the mission just to be able to be called an RM, but to change. We walk miles each day and knock a million doors not to be able to report to our district leader, but to become more faithful. We go to school not just to graduate and get a certificate, but to learn and change. The Lord gives us a trial not just to get through it, but to learn about his mercy, to rely on him, to become changed. So why would I serve my neighbor if my heart wasn’t in it? Why would I be obedient if my heart was kicking and screaming the whole time? It hit me that the whole purpose of my life really is just to become like my Savior so that when I see Him, I will know Him because I will be more like Him. So instead of focusing on my actions, I want to focus on my heart. Instead of working for position, recognition or perfection, I want to work for progress and change.. so that my nature doesn’t just LOOK good, but IS good. That is the blessing of the atonement. It allows us to change from the inside first, so that when we return to the Lord one day, we will be filled with goodness and light. "The miracle of the atonement isn’t just that we can go home, but that we can FEEL at home there." And THAT can be our goal.

I love you all!!! Thank you for your support

Love,  Hermana Yorgason

IMBAYA

Hi Family!!!

We all say hi from Imbaya Ecuador!! Really, I think I’ve showed our family picture to more people here than I have in my entire mission. They all seem to get a kick out of seeing a big family of blonde haired people together. It’s not a very common thing here. But I sure do love you guys. It makes me really happy to talk about you… whenever I can.

This week I saw a change in Imbaya… or maybe in myself. Or maybe I just opened my eyes a little more and saw all of the blessings that the Lord is giving us. Hermana Israelsen and I focused a lot on gratitude these last few days, and you know what? It really does make a person a lot happier. Even if they still are hiking mountains and eating mountains of rice. We’re starting to overcome those mountains and see sunny skies through the hard. At the beginning of last week we decided that we need to do SOMETHING different.. so my companion started asking me about all the things that make me happy and the blessings that I saw during the day. And although that was what we made ourselves do at first, its became our go to conversation, and has really brightened our spirits.

Some of my favorite things about being here in Imbaya…

-We are meeting some of the HUMBLEST members

-I’ve been able to learn a LOT about faith and hope in the Lord

-I’ve learned how to eat anything and everything and love it

-We haven’t gotten sick yet. (That’s a miracle… you should see how they cookJ)

-Laughing is good for the soul

-We have NO homework and classes to worry about!

-My bed just seems to feel more comfortable every night

-I’ve gotten better balance from crossing rivers on thin logs

-I get to live with one of my best friends and learn from her example

-I’m learning another language.. pagie pagie kiakama

-It’s my calling to ride buses to the middle of nowhere in hopes of finding a new person to get to know.

-I can guess half of the peoples names before I talk to them. Maria or Jose. (haha we get a good laugh about all the Mary and Joseph couples)

I truly am lucky to be living in the middle of the purest Lamanites that there are on the earth. And although rejection still is a very common thing, I’m starting to fall in love with it here. Again. I’m starting to realize that enjoying the ride is a lot more important than having a perfect ride. As Hermana Israelsen and I talked a lot lately, we both felt like we’ve needed to work more with the ward members to see the work progress. So we had the idea of putting on a ward activity with members and nonmembers to get them more excited and ready to share the gospel. We made invitations and all week we’ve been passing them out and telling people about the activity that were going to have in one week. We’re really excited and I think the ward really is too. We’ve also focused a lot on little acts of service that we could do throughout the day, we’re trying to leave little thank you notes with the members at lunch and we give out some of our American candy to the ward council each Sunday (shout out to both of our moms for sending great packages!) I saw them really open up this week.

One lesson that we had this week was really cool. I guess it was just a big eye opener to see how some people live. We rode a bus like 20 minutes out into the boonies and from there, just started walking down a dirt path and up a mountain to try and find a less active. After walking for awhile we found a little village… of about 20 houses and people just outside playing or talking with each other. As we taught this family a lesson the mom was trying to make lunch which included about 30 minutes of spinning corn in a bowl, then she had to go out and cut wood with her saw to be able to start a fire and cook their soup. They have no electricity and there’s about nothing. You could tell their clothes were old and falling apart and I’m pretty sure the sticks and dirt were their favorite toys. It’s sure humbling to see how the rest of the world lives.

This week we also saw one of our investigators start progressing really well. She’s been reading the Book of Mormon, she actually sleeps with it now and has been praying to know if it’s true. One night as she was sleeping she had a dream where she was in our church, but she said it was bigger and more fancy and sparkly and someone was giving her a blessing. She told us that she feels her spirit being drawn to our church and wants to go this Sunday.

This same investigator got sick at the end of this week so we went with a member to go give her a blessing. It was a really cool experience and we were especially amazed at how willing the member was to walk a long time, hike a mountain and leave his family to help us. As we were leaving he turned to us and said, “ok Hermanas, I have to run. Its my 2^nd anniversary and I’m sure my wife is waiting for me at the house. See ya”. We just turned to each other like… whhhat? Man, we felt bad, but I know the Lord blesses  those who sacrifice for his work.

A line that I read from one of my studies this week… “You will hear faith promoting stories about others. That will inspire you. You will see the Lord’s hand working wonders in the lives of others. That will encourage you. But, I witness that the saving kind of faith in Christ is a very personal, sweetly private, first person kind of faith developed only in the process of personal involvement in life’s challenges.” I know that all that I go through on my mission, or all that we are going through in life is because the Lord is smart enough to know how developing faith works. We aren’t allowed to see the end always… because that wouldn’t require us to completely rely on the Lord. I know that He loves us and knows exactly what we need to help us grow.

I hope you have had a fantastic week! Les amo much!

Love,  Hermana Yorgason

One Week of NO Complaining. :)

Hi family!!!! 

First of all, our President cut our emailing time down by 30 minutes, so I’ll have even LESS time to reply. Sorry if I can’t get to everyone, but I just want you to know that I love you all and appreciate your letters. Second. Wow, can I say you have been to heaven and back. That cruise looked AMAZING! Its actually quite comical that as I was reading about your trip, my companion and I turned to each other and agreed that our week couldn’t be any more opposite than the week you had. But... I know my turn will come one day. 

Well, this week... this week I think my companion and I got down on our knees in the dirt to call for heavenly help more than I ever have in my life. Actually... I think it’s the first times in my life. Our knees have been really dirty. But that’s the least of our worries right now because actually... our whole bodies seem to be covered. I really didn’t think I got called on a hiking trip but these last few days, haha oh i just wish you guys could see what we are working in. (The pictures don’t do justice, but you can get a taste)

Last Sunday we got to the point where it was dark and late, but we still had a lot of time left and had NO idea where to go. So that’s when we got on our knees, with a pack of hovering dogs around us... we seriously were just laughing because we were so desperate that we didn’t even fight off the dogs with sticks and rocks like we usually do. They are super feisty here. But there under the stars, we realized what it means to feel completely humbled and 100% reliant on the Lord. We expressed gratitude for our sector, the fact that we were kneeling in the dirt, scared for our lives, not knowing who to go to, the fact that it was hard to smile and that our bodies hurt. We gave thanks because that’s whats pulling us through right now. It maybe didn’t change our circumstance, but it sure changed my heart and made me realize that even if this is hard, I am blessed and this is helping me grow.

On Saturday during morning studies we decided that we wanted to work together to strengthen our faith. So after talking about things to do, Hermana Israelsen and I decided that for one week, we were not going to complain. None. We’ve even had to walk down the street doing a smiling contest to replace the words that would come to our mouth :) (One day I’ll never have a negative thought. but... I’m working on that:)) Well I’m pretty sure we jinxed ourselves because that was one of the most patience trying days that we’ve had. After eating lunch we decided that we wanted to visit a less active family that we have who lives way out in the boonies. It’s like a 30 min bus ride, but we felt like it would be worth it. So... we started waiting for the bus, waving down every one that came by to ask if they were going out to the boonies and all of them said the bus was almost there. Well, after an hour and fifteen minutes of waiting, the bus finally came that said "Gualsaqui".. obviously we were excited so we got up with all our stuff and waving our hands so that it would stop. As it came close, the driver just looked at us, shook his head like... "sorry guys, I’m full" and drove away. It was one of those... wait, whha whaat just even happened moments. Haha we couldn’t believe it... so many people  who had seen us waiting were laughing at us. So we crossed the street to call the family to tell them we couldn’t come and our saldo (calling points that you buy here) said that it was out. We had just bought five dollars worth two hours before. I think we were in between laughing and crying and Hermana Israelsen was on the ground, when all of the sudden we looked up and saw the bishop right there. Hahaha! Kick us while we’re down. We were supposed to be GAINING the trust of the ward. Anyway... we’ve recovered from that, but the Lord really wanted to test us to see if we wouldn’t complain.

I got a good break this week to go to Quito for consejo. That was heaven. I loved seeing so many mission friends.

Mission friends

Keeping up with this sweet lady was a challenge

This tuesday we were going out to another city called Tangali and a lady that we were talking to on the bus said that we could come and teach her. Score :) She told us that it was a little walk to her house, but that we could just follow her. Well... long story short, we spent the next 30 minutes walking up and down mountains, through rocks and barbwire fences. It was probably a harder hike than I’ve ever been on and we were trying to do it in our dresses and church shoes. I’m pretty sure I almost fell down a cliff like three times. But what made us feel even worse is that the lady with us was doing all of this, no problem, and with a baby on her back. Haha we were sure laughing at ourselves. But at least we got to teach her in the end! We didn’t realize that night that there weren’t taxis back, so we started walking and praying and hoping that we would get home safe. Out of no where a taxi passed, an American got out, looked at us and said “Lost in Tangali, huh?" and called a taxi that came and got us 15 minutes later. We were sure blessed. 

I honestly don’t think I’ve ever worked so hard in my entire life. I’ve also never felt so rejected. We’ve gotten into the rhythm of walking to a lesson, it failing, praying and thinking of someone else, trying them, not being home, etc. It is a little tough, but honestly, I know that if all my sectors were like San Pablo, I could never come home better and a different person. We’ve had to really recognize that consecration isn’t proportionate with numbers and baptisms, but diligence and never giving up. 

The scripture that has inspired me this week and reminded me that I shouldn’t complain is 1 Nephi 18:16 after Nephi has been tied with cords and I’m sure tired and hurting. He says, "Nevertheless, I did look unto my God and I did praise Him all the day long, and I did not murmur against the Lord because of mine afflictions."

If Nephi can do it, I definitely can. And so can you. God knows us and I love trusting in the promise that He will never give us more than we can bear.

Love you all!!!

Hermana Yorgason

We. love. rice...

Hi friends and family!!!

We made it another week. Man, I am just so happy to be with Hermana Israelsen! We have gone through sooo much together! I think the theme of this week was HAPPINESS IS OUR CHOICE. We talked a lot about how we as humans spend so much time waiting for more. For the weekend. For one more investigator. To be a little skinnier or be done with a big trial. But as we live life like that.. we miss some of the sweetest moments. That was our theme because it has been very easy to be wishing away the week until P-day... but I don’t want to do that. We had to embrace ALL of the weird, hard and crazy.

The way we get through everything is laughing. I have never laughed so hard. Literally... our lives right now are so comical because I never thought that so much could just seem to not be on our side. I actually feel sore because we are laughing probably more than half of the day. We want to make a comedy film of life in Imbaya when we get back.

Amidst the rejection and sore legs, we really ARE loving being in Otavalo and enjoying the culture here. I was sitting in sacrament meeting yesterday behind a group of people all wearing braids and I thought to myself... "I am going to MISS this". The people here are so humble. The men wear white pants and ponchos, braids and white shoes. We can’t understand church because it’s all in Kichwa... so we just try and listen and nod and pretend like all is well and dandy. We’re lucky because every now and then they add a word of Spanish in there. I wish I could take a picture in Relief Society and send it to you. All the women are wearing their Otavalo outfits, dirty faces, long braids, babies tied to their backs... but just lots of attention and love and humility. The members are so good to us and they’re patient as we’re trying to learn Kichwa. (I forgot how hard learning a language is!!) 

We’ve kind of accepted the fact now that our food will be lots of carbs and little flavor. But.. its ok because the members are so kind to give us all they’ve got. We had many days this week laughing through mouthfuls of rice trying to shove it in and make room in our stomachs… while listening to another language and being surrounded by dogs and chickens.

This week we found a new part of our sector. We thought we knew where we were... nope. I’m not kidding you guys... I live in a girl’s camp campsite. We walked up to one of our lessons this week.... And I felt like I was on a 20 miler. I’ll send some pictures of our feet and how the dirt was up to our ankles. We are absolutely FILTHY when we get home at night... but it’s gotten to be normal because then we go out to do it again the next day. We’ve found some pretty cool things though. Very humble homes, llamas tied to houses, cliffs and people washing their clothes in the river, etc. I love it.

I had SUCH a tender mercy this week. On Tuesday we did intercambios with the Hermanas in San Pablo, so I got to go back to my old sector. And guess who I got to see??? Familia Casco! Man, I really think it was one of the best moments of my mission. We all just ran up to each other and were SOO happy to see each other again. What makes it even better is that they are so strong in the church. They go every week, they are reading their scriptures, fasting, and preparing to go to the temple to do baptisms for the dead. As I was able to share a message about patriarchal blessings with them, I felt the spirit so strongly and just a complete and pure love for this family. They literally are shining. I needed that day :)

My familia Casco!!

We had another cool moment as we were walking up to their house. The hermana I was with and I saw a family outside playing so we decided to go contact them. Long story short, we were able to share a lesson with them and the mom started crying because she said that she’s been having a really hard time and was praying for a tender mercy. We found out at the end of the lesson that it was the sister of the dad in familia Casco, and she wants to learn more because she’s seen such a change in her brother. Soo cool :)

This week I was listening to a talk from Elder Holland about troubles and happiness. He said something that really stuck with me. Troubles and discouragement are not related. Discouragement comes from another germ. As I listened to those words, I realized that so many times in my life, I have almost given myself permission to be discouraged because my circumstances are hard. But how crazy a thought. I know that no trial is too hard that it FORCES discouragement to come. As we truly focus our lives on Christ and his hope, he can chase away any doubt or fear or sadness. Although we know that we will always have trials, we can alway know that our future is as bright as our faith.

Love you all!!

Hermana Yorgason

Adventures crossing rivers!