We are Disciples of Christ

Hi Family!!!

Man, another email where time is just NOT on my side. Thank you for the letters and pictures that I received. I surely love you guys. And even a year into the mission... letters still make my week every time. I’m glad to hear that everyone is enjoying the summer. Can’t believe that August is almost here! Wow, didn’t that fly by!

"He aqui, soy discipulo de Jesucristo, el Hijo de Dios. He sido llamado por el para declarar su palabra entre los de su pueblo a fin de que alcancen la vida eterna." 3 Nefi 5:13 

This scripture was the theme of my week. Its the theme of our mission. And it sure gave me energy during those times where I felt like I had none left. I am a disciple. THINGS ARE NOT ALWAYS SUPPOSED TO BE EASY. Thinking back over my week... it was a hard one. Hard, missionary work wise. Hard because Satan knows that every time we see miracles, he has to enter with his wrecking ball and cause all sorts of disappointments. That’s his goal and purpose.. and I don’t like that. But what gives me strength is knowing MY goal and purpose, and that if I am on the Lord’s team, I can’t fail. Spiritually, this week, I was so strengthened and supported, which makes all the hard easier to bear. Easier to see it with faith.

First of all, we were out of our sector A LOT this week. Almost every single day we had to travel to Quito for some sort of meeting. I think it was every single day but one. Which means we barely got any studies this week... Sad, sad because they’re my favorite part of each day. But we did have lots of reunions and uplifting messages. 

One thing I have to say.... I love my new president. He is one of the most inspired men that I have ever seen. Every time he stands up to speak, we all pay attention to every single word, and we learn so much. He doesn’t use notes, he doesn’t have a designed outline, he just says what the spirit tells him to, which means that its exactly what we need to hear. This week he talked a lot about 2 main things. Discipleship and trust. Our goal as a mission is to become disciples, not just servants or missionaries, but DISCIPLES who serve and teach about the Lord because we LOVE him. He focuses a lot on the SPIRIT of the law and that first and foremost, we should always teach the PRINCIPLE before we say the what. The principle of obeying because we want to follow Christ. He’s also told us this week that he has lots of trust and confidence in us. He has changed a few of the rules because he wants to help us to become agents of ourselves. Responsible. Obedient. Something that he said was.... One can’t choose to become consecrated if he’s never given the chance. So he’s giving us the chance.. And we as missionaries respect him so much.

Hermanas

I still am LOVING my time with Hermana Herman. She is one of my best friends that I’ve had on my mission. Together we had lots of disappointments... The sister that I talked about last week who accepted baptism and attended church, we found out Saturday morning that she moved to the other side of the country. There were also many people who never answered their phones or don’t want to listen to us anymore. Lots of appointments fell through, some of our busses got lost and took a two hour detour. But..... luckily, we know that the Lord is a God of Miracles. Luckily we’ve read this scripture in 3 Nephi 5 almost 50 times this week so we know that we are the Saviors disciples. Luckily we know that Heavenly Father is ALWAYS on the other side of our prayers. I have learned a lot from her and her happiness and faith.

We’re excited to see the blessings that the Lord gives us this week. To quote Luke... as long as were worthy and obedient, the Lord will help us with the rest :) (Thanks Elder Yorgason for your wise and encouraging words) I’m praying for you lots and lots. Thank you for your support and love.

Hermana Yorgason

Great First Week

Hi FAMILY!!!!!

Parece que todo esta muy bien!!! Me hace feliz :) Another great week with LOTS going on it sounds like. Man, I think the Highlight of MY week was getting to read Luke’s letter. He is so great :) Also it’s so weird to hear that all of my friends are getting home from their missions. Wow, time is sure flying. It’s a weird thing here on the mission.

Well, here in Calderon it was a big and long week. It felt longer than most have. Probably because we did soo many things and its always a little more stressful the first few days of a change... especially when you’re the one showing around the sector. But I feel like this week was like 3 combined. I have LOVED working with Hermana Herman. If I didn’t tell you last week, she’s from Texas and has been out a little longer than I have. She reminds me a ton of Heather Adams. Super sweet, super fun. And man, we have worked HARD. I’m pretty sure every night I hit the pillow and then 5 minutes later the alarm is ringing. We have had absolutely zero extra time... (phone calls with the Hermanas, zone leaders, planning, organizing our sector) My journal has kind of suffered :/ I’m hoping to get caught back up on that. 

The very first day she was here, last Monday, we saw a huge miracle as we started work after emailing. We returned to a family that we had contacted (they wanted help with English) and we ended up sharing something short with them and they all accepted a baptismal date. Then, later throughout the week we found like 6 more people who accepted fecha. BLESSINGS. That doesn’t mean that it’s going to be smooth sailing from here on out because there were a lot of them that weren’t able to attend church for one reason or another, but it means that we at least have potential. Lots of people to work with.

On Saturday we had the baptism of Xochi! I think I talked about them last week... we’ve been teaching the family for about a month now. The parents have been less active for many years... So we’ve been able to see a big change in them these last few weeks and now their next goal is the temple. Such a happy day! She looked like a little princess :)

Baptism of Xochi!

Yesterday I got the opportunity to give a talk in church. I think it was more like.... they forgot that there was an open slot and no one to do it, so as sacrament meeting was starting they asked me if I could do it. I give lots of credit to all my morning studies and the spirit. I talked a lot about trials and prayer and the atonement... and somehow was able to get out pretty much everything I was wanting to say. And in Spanish. I’m a big believer that the Lord sends lots of help to those who pray hard and need it :)

One of the families that we found this week were some evangelicos that really wanted to listen. But... as we talked to the mom, she told us that she’s living with her boyfriend, and has been for 7 years, but doesn’t really feel much love or anything for him. We didn’t really want to tell her our opinion straight out that she should leave him.... Plus we knew that living like that, she wasn’t going to be able to be baptized. Well, we went back the next day to read the Book of Mormon with them, and she said that he had just decided to leave and said that he was not coming back the night before. She didn’t even seem sad about it... more relieved. We knew it was just a blessing from Heavenly Father that things are going to fall into place so that she can be baptized :)

We found another new investigator this week that I LOVE: And she was one of them who came to church. Like one change ago, she was a reference that one of the members gave us. We’ve passed by her house, called her many times, but we’ve just never been able to find her and have a lesson. Well FINALLY after about a month of trying, we had a lesson with her on Saturday. At the end of the lesson, she looked at me and said... I can’t believe how persistent and loving you have been with me. You don’t even know me, but go out of your way to make me feel good every time we talk. Because of that... I decided to listen to you guys. She accepted a baptismal date and loved church yesterday. I am so so grateful for the different ways that the Lord uses us to help investigators.

I have more things that I wanted to say... but that’s how limited email time goes for ya. Hope you have a fantastic week!! Remember that the Lord loves you. And that his plan is absolutely perfect!

Love Hermana Yorgason

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

Letter to Luke

Elder Yorgason! (Oh, how weird it is to type that)

Well you’re finally there. You’re in the MTC. You’re a missionary. HOW COOL. Just think about how long we’ve been waiting for this… practically all our life. We’ve sung “I hope they Call Me on a Mission”, we’ve studied, prepared, prayed. I can’t tell you how EXCITED I am to be a missionary at the same time as you. I know we’re going to be able to help each other as we share our experiences and keep each other in our prayers.

So I’m not sure how you’re feeling right now. Maybe super excited, maybe nervous, maybe alone, maybe calm. But if you’re anything like me, the mission is an adjustment! It is, and I hope that you know you are NOT alone.

Luke, I am soo excited for you. Right now I’m thinking about all of the experiences I’ve been through, and man, I have grown so much… spiritually and emotionally. You are going to become refined. The Lord is going to shape you even more into the person that he knows that you can become. He’s going to help you see even more the reason that we are here on this earth. You’re going to learn to rely and trust in Him, because some days, He’s really the only help you’re going to have. You are going to learn, you are going to change. But as we know with all growth, there comes difficulties. Gold can’t be shaped into a beautiful ring without heat and a lot of pressure and molding.

A mission is so so good. I’m sure you’ve seen that already. It’s one of the best things that will ever happen to us. A mission is also hard. I know we’ve all heard that before and it’s the truth. It’s a stretch out of your comfort zone in every way possible. Satan will try and make you feel like you’re not good enough, spiritual enough, cool enough, a good enough teacher, etc. If you’re anything like me, you’ll have your good time of homesickness and aching to be with the family. The language takes lots of patience, the schedule is an adjustment, sometimes companions just don’t have the same ideas as you do. The food is weird. The culture is different. It’s just super hard some days… especially at the beginning. But the thing is… its ok to feel that way. The Lord doesn’t expect it to all be smooth sailing for us. In fact, it never was for some of the greatest missionaries there were in the Book of Mormon. I love Alma 26 when the Lord told those missionaries to be patient in THEIR afflictions. I can’t imagine how hard it would be for Ammon, Alma and Aaron. They were thrown in prison, didn’t have much food, I’m sure they were made fun of many times and felt discouraged about the missionary work. But the Lord doesn’t tell them that they’re being whimps or having bad attitudes… he tells them that he understands that that was the plan and that he will never leave their side, no matter how hard it gets. Always remember that on your mission. In those times of discouragement or sadness, know that it is OK. It’s ok that its hard and its definitely ok that you’re not perfect. Its not a bad thing to struggle a bit. I sure did. I remember nights where I literally didn’t know if I was going to make it. I remember just laying on my MTC bed with tears running down my cheeks wondering how I got so far from home, wondering why I felt so weak. But it’s interesting to see what happened as I got to that point. I started praying like I’d never prayed before. I started TALKING to my Heavenly Father and expressing how it was for me. I started putting more trust and confidence in Him than I ever had in my life because that was my only option. Ever day that’s hard, every time you feel alone, know that it’s a blessing in disguise. It’s a blessing because its at THIS point in your life where your relationship with your Father in Heaven is going to grow the most. Just remember that you can always talk to Him.

Language. I’m sure by now you’re starting to learn Spanish and you’re starting to realize that there’s a ton you don’t understand. Man, Luke, Spanish was hard for me. I remember thinking that I was probably going to be the only missionary to never learn Spanish. It was so hard for me to remember everything. But know that it DOES come. Don’t expect yourself to be perfect at first, and count your blessings that you’re gonna be in the US where there will still be lots of English around you.  Pray for the gift of tongues, study hard, and then just trust in the Lords help.

Homesickness. Oh man, this is so real. The blessing of having such a great family does come with a price… It’s hard to leave. Sometimes it physically hurts, I know.  But something that helped me is to always keep the perspective in my mind of how short a few years really is compared to being with them FOREVER. Also remember the “normal-ness” of their every day schedule. Being away, we feel like we’re missing so many big things (at least I did), but I always had to remind myself that normal life includes jobs, homework, getting up early, cleaning, etc. We’re getting to have more fun on the mission anyway… ;)

Teaching… It all comes. Teaching will come. Just remember to study, practice, ask questions, and always bear your testimony of Jesus Christ. That will ALWAYS invite the spirit and help the investigators feel your love.

Companions. All my companions have been girls (obviously), so I’m not exactly sure what its like to be companions with an Elder, but I can guess there are a lot of similarities. Really, companions can be so great. We always have a partner, someone to laugh with and someone to learn from. But… certain companionships can also be super tough. I’m hoping that there in the CCM there are enough people to talk to that your companionship isn’t hard. When you’re in the field and you have a tough transfer, remember that every companion is preparing us to be better spouses, parents and friends. You will learn patience, but like dad has told me… every single hard companion we go through… it will be sooo so worth it in our future life.  Just always remember which way you’re facing. The most important thing is not how much we are liked by our companions, but how the Lord sees us. Disobedience will always be disobedience no matter what kind of exception other people want to make. Never be afraid to stand up for what you know is right (yes, even sometimes on the mission). I promise you, you will never regret being obedient. Just decide now to keep being the Luke Yorgason you’ve always been and be exactly obedient… and you will be in good hands.

Negative an discouraging thoughts. They will come. They’ll come because satan knows that what we’re doing is so important. He will try to get us down through our thoughts… but something important is to recognize where they’re coming from. If it’s a thought that makes you feel bad about yourself or discouraged, it is from satan. Ask the Lord to help you, hum a hymn or read your patriarchal blessing. Satan would have you think that there is no hope for the future. God will always remind us that our future is as bright as we want to make it. Living with our Heavenly Father is our destination.. our potential.

Luke, I love you. I wish you could see through my eyes how much potential I see in you. You are honestly one of my heroes, one of my role models. One of the things that I love most about you is your pure desire to do what’s right. I really don’t know if you have a rebellious bone in you. You know what’s right and you strive to always follow the spirt. You are someone who really is “conquering the natural man” and I sure do admire that. I also know that you have a gift of making people feel loved and important. People feel this way around you because you put yourself last and put the needs of others first. I can’t tell you how often that it was that people would find out that you were my brother and tell me how lucky I was. People love you Luke. I also love that you are so so selfless… whether it’s with your friends or our family, you always want to help make other people happy. I love that habit that you have of reading your scriptures and I can see by the way you live that your testimony is so strong. I could go on and on, but Luke, these qualities are exactly what are going to help you be a successful and powerful missionary. They will help you serve the Lord and be such a helpful instrument in his hands. Don’t ever let Satan tell you any differently.

You are starting the greatest ride of your life. We are disciples of Jesus Christ and are here to proclaim the truth to the world. Every morning look at your name tag and remember that Christ is on your side. He is your teammate, your friend, your brother, your Savior. I know without a doubt that what we are doing is of eternal significance. This church is true. We have a living prophet, we have the spirit, the book of Mormon, and the knowledge of the plan of salvation. We are here to become more like Christ and this is our time to focus completely on that. I love you Luke. I am praying for you and know that the Lord will fulfill his promise and send angels round about you. Have a fantastic day.

Love your sis.. Hermana Yorgason 

Families we love

Nails for P-day

Big Week!

Hi family!!!!! 

I hope it was a great week for you guys! I can only imagine how busy it has been with Luke’s farewell and having family there and everything. I can’t believe that July is almost here. Man! Enjoy all the last days you have together. Play extra volleyball for me and send me lots of pictures :)

This week was a great one. Like I said last week, we are really starting to see more progress here and have had lessons with some awesome families that want to progress. Like I always say... teaching families is one of my favorite things here! Maybe I love it so much because it makes me think of my family... and how much I want other people to be able to have that happiness.

24 hours with Hermana Hull!

Well, from the beginning of the week we had lots going on. Guess what I got to do on Tuesday? I got to work with Sister Hull for 24 hours!!! Jenika! We work semi close to each other, so Tuesday we got to do divisions and I got to learn her sector. Man, it was such a great day. We worked hard, we laughed a LOT, and at night, we had some really good talks about life and how we’ve gotten to where we are. It was so cool to think about growing up together in young women’s, always being in the presidency together, planing activities, going through troubles, having the BEST leaders in the world.... leaders that have helped us reach where we are right now. Leaders that helped us set our sights on the temple and serving a mission.... and there we were, laying in bed across the world on our mission. Together. It was a super cool day. Hermana Hull is such a good missionary and I literally can feel the light of Christ beaming from her. I’m hoping to see her again before she comes home in August. Mom, she’s gonna bring a hug to you!!!

Wednesday we gave a tour of the church to one of our investigators, Diana, that has a baptismal date. I love being able to see the light in people’s eyes as they come to know the Church of Jesus Christ. It’s like everything starts to make sense to them. We talked about the classes we have, baptism, the temple, activities, and then we ended the tour in the chapel talking about the sacrament and the importance of the atonement. We all sang a hymn together and ended it with a prayer, asking for help that they can receive an answer about the church. It was such a spiritual experience to see them understanding and really FEELING the truth. I know Diana is going to get baptized. I know that the Lord is going to help her. 

After the tour we had to go to Quito so my companion could take her final English test. So while she was taking it, we got to spend time with Hermana Richardson in her house just talking about life and how she feels about ending her mission. I am going to miss her so much. She sure has impacted the way I think about life and what I want for my future family. It was one of the first times on my mission where I could just sit on a couch in a clean home with spiritual music playing and relax for like 30 minutes. :)

Sis. and Pres. Richardson

I had a cool experience on the bus coming home from Quito. There weren’t too many seats open, so I just took the first one that I could find, and about 5 minutes into the ride, struck up a conversation with the man sitting next to me. When he found out that I was a missionary of our church he started asking a lot of questions. When we found out that we both had a while on the bus (because we both lived far away), he told me that he just wanted me to teach him. Anything that I wanted, anything that I had to say. So.... I started out with bearing my testimony about the love that Heavenly Father has for him. I went right in to the first lesson, and... before I knew it, had taught him the whole thing... with questions, examples, stories. I even was able to give him the baptismal invitation right there on the bus. As we talked, he told me that he agreed with everything I was saying and that he saw a light in us missionaries. As we got ready to leave, I asked for his direction (assuming that he lived in another sector) so that the missionaries could visit him. And.... I found out that he lived in my sector. Oh the miracles that come in times that you don’t expect it. We’re hoping that we can visit him this week so he can be a new investigator!

I’m getting really low on time, and wish I could talk more about the rest of the week but here were the highlights....

We had our final reunion with Pres. and Sister Richardson because they go home this Friday. Our zone prepared a special musical number for them, and it was super emotional. I know it’s going to be hard for them to go home... but I can’t wait to see what’s ahead.

We also got our phone robbed this week. Someone took it out of my companions bag... nothing too scary. But we found out what its like to live without a phone for a few days.

Our shower also exploded. Like with fire and everything.

I got to see Hermana Potter and her family!! They came back to visit and I’m in her old sector. Sooo fun to see her. And thanks mom for the candy!!!

Hermana Potter and her family

We also got to sing in church with the primary... the song “ We’ll Bring the World His Truth". We saw many parents crying. Good flashback to my farewell.

Well, that’s about it for this week. Thank you all for your support and love. I am so happy to be here in Ecuador and know that the Lord’s hand is in our work everyday. Love you!!!

Hermana Yorgason

Happy Father's Day

Dear Family and Friends!!

Sorry, it may be another short letter this week... but I’ll try and type fast. First of all, Happy Father’s Day. Dad, I love you! I thought about you a lot yesterday and am sooo so grateful for your example!. We saw many blessings this week. We also had a few difficulties and set backs, but that’s how the work goes. I don’t think I’d ever appreciate the successful lessons without stressful days.

I think my number one highlight is that we had sooo many people come to church yesterday. It was the most that we’ve EVER had in this sector! People just kept walking in and it made me feel so excited. I feel like Sundays are kind of the measurement of how the week was. When lots of people come to church, all the lessons and hard work pay off. The ward was so great with all of the new investigators and less actives that came. Every single one of them had a friend and left smiling and happy. Now its just our turn to follow up and try and fill our schedules wisely.

This is an investigator that we're teaching...and her brothers :)

Last night we also found a family super prepared and receptive. Earlier that day someone in our ward had asked the elders to go with him to give one of his family members a blessing. Well, after church we felt like we should go visit them and explain more about the restoration and the priesthood, so they could understand more about the blessing that they received. They were super happy to see us and said that they had felt something really warm and peaceful when the elders were there. Something new that they had never felt in their lives. At the end of the lesson they accepted baptism and want to learn more. :)

Hermana Thomas

This week I also got to do divisions with Hermana Thomas and go back to my first sector again. It was soo great because we got to have lunch with two of our converts, Rosa and Jose, and they are still doing great! They told me that they still read the Book of Mormon everyday and make sure they get to church extra early so they can sit in the front. I had a great time with Hermana Thomas! She goes to BYU I, but we want to figure out someway we can end up close to each other... Maybe I’ll convert her to Provo :) It was such a fun day to learn from her, talk about life and what we’ve been learning.

Rosa and Jose

We also had some pretty funny moments in the street this week.. going from lesson to lesson. Hermana Cardenas got bit by a dog. But don’t worry, it was funny because it didn’t go through her skin, more just super startling, and she was laughing too. It was the most random thing. Talk, walking, no dog. All of the sudden she screamed and almost fell to the ground, the dog ran and I looked around.. no dog again. We were just grateful that it didn’t do anything more serious. Another day, we were running down the street to another lesson because we had to get their quick and we didn’t have much time left. All of the sudden Hermana Cardenas hit a rock, tripped and fell and all her stuff went flying. She fell so gracefully though that I picked up her planner and books, Hermana Diaz helped her back up to her feet and we just kept running. Haha I’m sure we were quite the funny sight. But we had to get to our lesson.... sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do :)

Pizza on our bed.  Ooh, it's the best after a long day in the sun!

Like I always say... I've really really enjoyed my studies this week! (when we get them in between traveling and meetings and such).  I loved this week reading about the Liahona and how it guided Nephi and his family. Something that I realized and started thinking about, is why the Lord used a Liahona to help them instead of just giving them a map. A map would be easy. It would show them their whole path, from the beginning to the end. They certainly wouldn’t have gotten lost so much. But I am certain that they also wouldn’t have grown and learned so much. On the other hand.. the Liahona guided them, but it just showed them one step at a time. It directed them, gave them what they needed to know, but didn’t show them their end product at the beginning. I’m sure it required a lot of faith and a lot of patience. Also, as we know, the Liahona didn’t work if they were being rebellious… so it required obedience also. I am amazed at how much I learned about real life and how the Lord is going to guide me and my investigators. I think so many times we just want to know. We want to know where we’re going to be in 10 years. We want to know were we’re going to live, how much money we’re going to make, or what the outcome will be of our problems. We want the Lord to give us a map.  I think sometimes it seems scary to us to have to exercise our faith. But I love that the Lord is more wise. He knows what will help us in the outcome. He knows that guiding us step by step and day to day (like the Liahona) will produce stronger, happier and more faith filled people. I am confident that as we DO exercise faith and ARE obedient, the Lord will give us all the guidance we need. He will lead us step by step.

Thank you all for your examples and love! Talk to you in a week!!!

Love Hermana Yorgason

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!!