Forever Changed

Hi family!!!!

Well, the final week on my mission has already had one earthquake, one tarantula, I’m sure lots of caroling, looking for opportunities to serve and this weekend we have a baptism. A few letters ago I talked about the Mendez Family. I also sent a picture with them last week. We’ve been working with them for quite awhile... part of them were less actives and part of them weren’t members. Well, they’ve been coming to church for a while now, they’re reading their scriptures, doing family night, and this Saturday the daughter is getting baptized :) Truly a white Christmas. The best present I could ask for. Although I’m coming down to the end, it still doesn’t feel real. I feel like Hermana Yorgason will be me forever and it certainly hasn’t hit me yet that I’ll have to leave these indigenous people soon... truly my new family. People I care about so much.

Mendez Family

This week was really a great one. We went back to Betti and her family and they accepted to come to church this week and be baptized when they receive an answer that this is the true church. Kati (the one that had the dream) is coming to church and loving it. Oscar and Edgar are also progressing and said that they received their answer. They know its the true church <3. It was a spiritual week because we’ve been focusing on Christmas and studying about Christ. Fun because we’ve gotten pretty creative with our "iluminar el mundo" services... everything from doing laundry in big round buckets, sweeping people’s grass (yes, they do that here), and helping with English. It’s interesting how when you’re serving others, you’re really doing a service for yourself… I've never been happier. 

I think the highlight of the whole week for me was something small... but that meant a lot. Yesterday our zone went to a park to carol for a few hours and to hand out pamphlets and contact. I noticed a single lady sitting on a bench and paying attention to our little choir thing that we tried to attempt :) I introduced myself, sat down next to her and didn’t realize how much our 20 minute conversation would impact me. She just got divorced, doesn’t have a lot of money and started expressing to me how she feels completely alone and separated from God. She doesn’t know where to turn... and said that everyday she wakes up with a weight in her chest. I was able to bear my testimony of the love that God has for her, how perfect and complete it is. How un-alone she is and how much Christ understands her. As I was sitting there, in the middle of a big park, I was completely filled with love for this Hermana. Her situation hit my heart. Her humbleness. Her desire to become better. I could just see in my mind how bright her future is going to be (especially because the elders in that sector are going to go visit her:)) It was sad when she had to leave because I hadn’t heard her whole story or shared even 1/4 of what I wanted to say. I know that no matter the past, the gospel truly is the answer to have a faith filled, meaningful and happy future. Who knows what her future will hold, who knows why she came to that park and decided to sit down... but something that I do know is that I needed to meet her. For me. To help me see someone a little more like how God sees them and realize how much the gospel has blessed ME... not just in these 18 months, but my whole entire life.

Singing Christmas Carols at the park

Faith in the gospel has carried me during this year and a half. If you have read some of my letters, you may know that the mission hasn’t been all smooth sailing. In fact, its been a lot of a bumpier ride than I thought it was going to be. I’ve had many nights on my knees pleading with the Lord wondering why it WAS so hard. (I can imagine that every single person reading this has experienced something similar) I’ve felt weak, I’ve been dirty, bug bites, dog bites (oh I forgot to tell you about that. same dog, but it was real this time. I’ve recovered :)), dirty bathrooms, mistakes in Spanish, loads and loads of rice, and sickness... Through that all, I have come to know who my Savior is. I have come to know that the mission isn’t easy for me because it wasn’t easy for Him. I have come to know that TRUE faith in Him and his promises can’t come when life’s circumstances are easy, with good food, and parents to call and cars to drive. It comes when you feel like you have no more and HAVE to put it in His hands. I can now say that trials truly are blessings in disguise. "Joy isn’t the absence of pain but the presence of God."

It’s interesting as you go throughout your mission and one by one, see other missionaries go home. As I have continued to try and walk and come to love this work, I have seen how coming to the end of the mission is not the goal. We don’t come just to say we finished, but we come to change. We come to be more like Christ and help save souls. Just as in the mission, the goal of this LIFE is to help God in this amazing work of salvation... "that we may become the sons and daughters of God that when He shall appear we shall be like Him." and we will be able to look to God at that day with a pure heart and clean hands, having the image of God ENGRAVEN upon our countenances.

I know without a doubt that He loves us. He loves us more than we could ever imagine. He has so much more prepared for us than we could ever believe. But he asks US this question. "Do you love me more than everything else? More than what you have and more than what you do?" It’s a hard question. It’s hard because we’re human and we have flaws and selfish desires. But I hope to be like Peter and tell the Lord with my words and my actions, "Yes Lord. I do. I do love you. More than all of this". And what he will say to us in response is "Then feed my sheep. Leave your nets and follow me forever. I asked you to be a missionary and a disciple of Jesus Christ forever." He doesn’t just ask us to feed His sheep as a missionary. But the rest of our life. 

I love my Savior. I would not have been able to do these 18 months without him. Because my strength alone isn’t enough. And my words alone couldn’t convert children of God. But through Him, I know I am strong. And I know that every single one of you is and can be strong because we have the Lord on our team. He is everything to me. I love being a missionary. 

... And I can’t wait to do it for the rest of my life. 

Merry Christmas and I’ll see you on Wednesday!! Love you all!

Con amor, Hermana Yorgason

Iluminar El Mundo

Hi family and Friends!!

Another amazing week in December. I love this month. I love it even more being here with the Lamanites. And even more because #iluminarelmundo. I think we’ve handed out a million and one little christmas cards and invite EVERYONE we see to watch the video that the church has. Taxi drivers. People on the streets. Tiendas. Restaurantes. We’ve gotten some funny looks because we really are just so excited about this! :)

This week we were blessed to find a lot of new FAMILIES. Dad, mom, kids. Its always the best to teach a family as a whole because testifying about eternal families applies directly and powerfully. We were in a lesson with one of our investigators named Betti. She’s progressing well, loves the Book of Mormon and feels that our church is true... but has told us that the reason she can’t come to church or get baptized is because her husband doesn’t want anything to do with it and is pretty distanced from religion. We’ve been trying to plan a time for a while when we could meet her husband, but we’ve never found him home. Well... as we were in the middle of our lesson, the gate opened and a few minutes later walked in her husband. I was expecting to get a good talking to... or at least a gruff, unfriendly man. We introduced ourselves, asked a few questions and kept going with the lesson, now teaching both the husband and wife. I really felt the spirit strongly and as we finished her husband told us that he was really feeling empty and like he’s been needing God more in his life. He thanked us for coming to his home and wondered when we could come back to teach them more. Wow. The iceberg became the... strength and this week we have a lesson to go back with them. 

We had a cool experience with prayer on Wednesday. We had to go to Quito for a doctors appointment for my companion... which is about 3 hours away. We thought we left on time, but the bus went slow, there was traffic and we started to get a little worried... because its super important to get to the appointments on time. After awhile we decided that the best option was just to get a taxi, ask him to put the petal to the metal and hope to get there on time. We had 25 minutes until we were supposed to be there and when we asked the taxi driver, he said it would at least be 35 minutes if the traffic was good. Well. That was a little stressful. Hermana Bybee and I decided to say a prayer in the back of the taxi that somehow we could see a miracle and arrive on time. A while later, the driver took a turn to go on another road that he forgot about, the road was super fast, we started sharing part of the restoration, and before we knew it, he pulled up to the doctors office and it was 5 minutes before we were supposed to be there. Little experiences where the Lord tells you "I AM listening. I WILL help you. I DO love you"

I live in an amazing, beautiful place. With amazingly humble and grateful people. Isn’t it interesting that those that have the least, often times are those that are the MOST happy. We were in a lesson this week in a rather poor and smaller home. The dad was telling us that as a child he went many days without food and normally had rice and eggs for their meals. He said that sometimes he gets frustrated with his kids when they don’t eat everything on their plate because they might not have a lot, but they do have a lot more than some people. I began to think about life at home. How ungrateful are we at times. We don’t finish our food because its not the right flavor. We go back into McDonalds and demand a new one when they put ketchup on our hamburger instead of mayonnaise. Haha. I’m guilty of some of these things in my life. But obviously... when we’re dwelling on the things we DON’T have, we won’t be happy with the things we DO have. I sure am learning a big lesson from these people. I think we all could. That joy comes when we smile and give thanks. Joy doesn’t come from having THINGS, but from having a grateful heart. The Lamanites sure have figured out that one a lot faster that some of us. :)

I’ve also felt this week the JOY that comes from simple service. It’s so exciting to me to hear about all the services that you all are doing at home. Service truly does change us from the inside out. I think that’s why missions are so happy. Not because its all skipping and rainbows (speaking of... we saw a Gorgeous rainbow this week! I’ll try and send a pic next time), but because 24/7 you’re here to serve and think of others. I’ve seen that the greatest, most inspirational people in my life are those who serve. Those who think about the happiness of other people before themselves. "Even as the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many." Matthew 20:28. HE is our perfect example. So grand and great, yet so humble and kind. He LOST His life for others, so in return, He truly found it. And so can we. I know with out a doubt that life has so much more meaning when it is spent in the service of our brothers and sisters.

May we all ILUMINAR EL MUNDO this month. Its the very best way to spend Christmas :)

Love you!!!

Hermana Yorgason

Ejemplos Para Mi

HI family!!

At the moment we just walked into the internet cafe, I sat down and feel like I’m going to pass out because we’ve literally been RUNNING from place to place today and for our zone activity today... we went to an American’s house and had a late Thanksgiving dinner! And if you can imagine.... a year without eating anything american, I may have had third and fourths on the food. And I’m just starting to realize what a bad idea that is to try and walk to all sides of Otavalo with that in my stomach. So.. forgive me. :) But I’ll try and highlight a few of the things that happened this week.

Our Zone - Late Thanksgiving dinner

Again.. it seemed to pass by so quickly. I think my favorite part is that a general authority came this week and we had an AMAZING reunion with him on Friday. The biggest thing that I took out of it... WE ARE DISCIPLES FOR LIFE. When we learn about this gospel and experience the changes that it brings, we literally CANNOT go back to who we once were. I know we’ve all had spiritual experiences before. Amazing. Inspiring. Times where we just KNOW that this is all true and that the Lord has a certain plan for us. Well... Satan also knows that we have these experiences. He doesn’t like that. And he will try and do everything he can so that we forget, doubt or ignore these amazing experiences that the Lord gives us. But our job is to never let the doubts of satan weaken and damage the roots that we have gained. He can’t if we don’t let him. Something that I’ve been doing the last few weeks is writing down my very favorite spiritual experiences from my mission (and the rest of my life) and wow... I am amazed at all of the ways that the Lord has and continues to show me that THIS is His gospel. THIS is the truth. If any of you feel like Satan has been working hard at ya lately, it’s something you should try. I know that the Lord blesses us with MORE as we show Him that we value the things and experiences He HAS given us. 

Well, the general authority did something interesting. He had all of those in their last change stand up. (Honestly, I didn’t stand up for a while.. halfway because I forgot that was me and halfway because... I don’t know if I’m quite ready to accept that yet). But he had us stand and said "you might think you’re going to go back to real life soon. But you’re not. THIS.. is real life. You can’t return to who you were." Like President Holland said... being commissioned by Jesus Christ to be his servant for 1 year and a half or two will change a lot of converts... but it HAS to change us. It has to change us forever. I love knowing that the Lord needs servants everywhere in the world and every one of us can be changed forever because of our baptismal covenant to serve the Lord. WE can’t go back.

We also saw some cool miracles this week.

Remember Oscar from last week? He and his brother came to church this week. For all three hours. And the ward was sooo awesome with them!! They’re practically family now and have a billion friend. That makes one happy missionary to see that :) They both want to get baptized and are praying and reading the Book of Mormon.

We also had a super special lesson with one of our investigators, Jose, whose wife and daughters are members and he wants to get baptized this month. He accepted the goal of the 24th and wow... he sure is doing his part. Every time we return, he’s so happy to tell us about the things he has ready (even though he doesn’t understand Spanish very well) but he is trying so hard. The obstacle is that he’s been having to travel to Quito a lot lately for work, so time could be hard, but we’re praying a lot and seeing lots of blessings.

Kati - My friend

Another of our investigators, Kati, told us yesterday after reading a chapter and praying that she received her answer and knows that the church is true. My companion asked her how she received her answer and she told us that it was through a dream. The next night she dreamt that the Church is true and she needs to join it. She was so happy. Just smiled through our whole lesson and told us that she is ready to obey any commandment that the Lord has for her. She’s 24... more like a best friend to us than anything. She came to church yesterday and LOVED it

On Wednesday we went to a new mamita named Clara. A lady in our ward. We got to her house and wow... she lives alone. Her husband left her and her kids won’t talk to her. She’s sick and breaking down, barely has any food and her job is selling in a teeny store that she has in her house that no one really ever comes to. We asked what she was doing for Christmas and told us... I have no one. Just the Lord. I’m gonna be here alone. So we planned to come and have a FHE with her Christmas day. Her example is so inspiring. She sits in her store all day everyday with her scriptures open, trying to learn how to read, and just reads and prays and reads some more. But somehow... she’s one of the happiest people that I have met because she knows WHY she is here.

Another family that we’re teaching.. Family Mendez. The mom and dad are separated (because of some drug problems) the mom has 6 kids and just lost her job. She told us that there are some days that they don’t eat because they literally have no money. And boy, can I imagine how hard that would be, but she trusts. She trusts that God won’t leave them alone, even though they truly are surviving day to day.

I can’t even begin to explain how grateful am I to be getting to know such great people. Its stories like these that make you think... wow, my life is so good. We are so blessed, and especially during this month, we get the opportunity to lift others who are in the midst of big trials like these.

I hope you all know how much I love you. How much I love the Lord. He truly is the reason that every single one of us can have hope... no matter how lost or alone we feel. Thank you for your love and support!!

Con amor... Hermana Yorgason