Monday, December 28, 2015

Tiempo Pasa Muy Rapido


Hola Todos!

I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas! Christmas this year was a little different for me, but it was awesome! It was crazy though because they treat it like the 4th of July! On Christmas Eve, there were so much fireworks! It was really awesome..like Myrtle beach but times 100!! As far as you could see in every direction! They don't have any laws or restrictions about fireworks so they really go all out haha!

So here is how I spent my Christmas: I played basketball for 4 hours and talked to my family...probably the best Christmas I ever had haha..President switched our p-day to Christmas!

Something really caught my attention this past week when we had a Christmas devotional as a mission! It is the Primary song "He Sent His Son" I want to share a part of it.

"How could the Father tell the World of love and tenderness
 He Sent His son, a new born babe, with peace and holiness
 How could the Father Show the world the path that we should go
 He Sent His son to walk with man on Earth that we may know
 HOw could the FAther tell the world of sacrifice, of death?
 He Sent His son to die for us, and rise with living breath
 What does the Father ask of us?
To Live Like His Son"

This song hit me so hard, I really felt the lyrics, felt the words penetrate my heart..The Father sent His son for us, so that we may know all that we need to return back and live with Him again. He sent His son to walk what we walk, to go through everything that we will ever go through..personally for every person on Earth. And what does He ask? Live as Jesus did..strive to live His Gospel, so that we may be the sons and daughters that we came to the Earth to be!

A day in my life will never go by without me giving thanks to my Father for sending His only begotten son, to die for us so we may be eternally happy..and receive the fulness of the bendiciones that He is so willing and ready to give us. 

As His representative, I testify of Him...and of His atoning sacrifice for every single person that has, is, or will be on this Earth! And I know that He is there with open arms to help us, and He loves us unconditionally! I think about it this way..I know my parents love me more than anyone possibly could, and our Father in Heaven and His son love us even more than that! 

I love you all and am so thankful for every one of you. You all help me so much..and the little things go a long way!!

Les Amo mucho!!

Elder Yeoman

Rio de Plata and the city of Buenos Aires in the background!
Elder Yeoman and Elder Kelly


Saturday, December 26, 2015

Feliz Navidad from Argentina!



It was the best Christmas gift ever to be able to Skype with Elder Yeoman yesterday! He is doing so well and loving his mission! We love him so much and are so proud of him. I am so grateful for modern technology that allows us to feel so close to Jace, even when he is another whole continent away. Now, I will just count down to Mother's Day when we will get to see him again!

Our family "together" again!!

I love my handsome missionary!!


Argentina Buenos Aires North Mission Christmas Card sent to the families of the missionaries





Monday, December 21, 2015

Feliz Navidad!


Just to clarify some of the Spanish slang…. capo means “the man” or in other words, a really awesome guy. Rey means king. So, Antony is clearly the king of all great guys in Jace’s mind. :-)

Hola!
I want to start off by thanking everyone for all the support that you guys have given me! And I hope you guys can still have an awesome Christmas without me ;) haha. Christmas is an amazing time of year where our thoughts and feelings are directed on the Savior and our families! 

So, this week was really awesome! We had another baptism, Antony, and he is a capo...pero rey capo! He will be a huge help to the ward, and the Bishop is pretty excited to have him in the ward as well! We had the last Devotional of the Navidad yesterday, and it was really spiritual! All focused on the life and teachings of the Savior! 

The Savior really has given us everything, and he really doesn't ask for much in return..just to follow Him! And through His restored Gospel, we can! I always love explaining the simple doctrines of the Gospel, and how the Savior has layed out, through teaching and example, exactly what we need to do. 

This Christmas, I'm more than ever so incredibly grateful for the life of the Savior, and His atoning sacrifice..so that we can all find true happiness in this life and hope in the life to come.

Something that I have been focusing my studies a lot on lately is charity, the pure love of Christ. The Savior says "If a man has not Charity, He is nothing." President Ayre shared something with me this week, that I loved..and I'm sure you all have heard it before, but it hit me hard. He said "If you lose yourself in the work and love for the people, you will find yourself." I really thought about that, and it is so true..if we lose ourselves in the service of others, we will be who the Lord wants us and needs us to be, and reach our full potential..and with that, we will surely find ourselves.

Charity is probably a life long attribute to develop, but I know that if we have it..everything will be easier!

I love you all and I hope that you all have a wonderful Christmas! Never forget why this holiday is so important, and what it means to really have a Savior!

Se que Jesucristo vive, y El nos ama! 
Tengan una buena semana, sigan fiel!!!!!!!

Elder Yeoman

#NOMEPUEDENDEFENDER

Antony's baptism on Saturday with Elder Kelly


Monday, December 14, 2015

$33 Big Macs


I asked Jace what his subject line $33 Big Macs means since he offered no explanation in this email. He said that it is because he has probably eaten 10 Big Macs this past week! He says that the church members always feed them a huge meal at lunch since that is the main meal in South America…. and at night they are so hungry!! I also wanted to include a quote from one of his personal emails to me today. “I miss you guys too, please don’t think that I don’t. I would be lying if I said I didn’t….but it’s so AWESOME here!! I Love it!!” That is all this mama needs to hear! Even though it is the Christmas season and such a special time for families to be together, I have such great comfort in knowing that Jace is exactly where he wants to be, doing exactly what he wants to be doing and he is in great hands!  My heart is so full.  We are sooooo excited to Skype with him at Christmas! It will be the best Christmas gift ever!!!!
Alana

Holaaaaaaaaaaaa!

I hope everyone has had an amazing week and a great holiday season. My Christmas is a little different this year, since it is 110 degrees haha, pero bueno! But this Christmas will be one that I will never forget! A Christmas where I am able to share with all the people here in Argentina the importance of our Savior! Because Ha Nacido Un Salvador!,

This past week we had so many miracles. We really haven't done anything. The Lord is preparing the people and we are lucky enough to be at the right place. He doesnt just help us with this work. He is this work! It is His work, and people are prepared through Him. Someone stopped us in the street and basically said "Hey, I want to be baptized!" Okay! we can help you with that!  It's amazing! The rest of a part member family has decided to be baptized also!! Something My zone leader told me when I only had about a month in the mission was, "Elder Yeoman, the difference between a good missionary and a great missionary is a great missionary believes in miracles." That hit me hard, and I will never forget it. It's not important what our talents are. What is important is the realization that the Savior has His hand in all things, and it's up to our faith and what we truly believe! 

With that, I was thinking about these short past 5 months on my mission, and everything that I have experienced, seen, and been a part of. I have literally seen the purification power of the Gospel change lives, save families, and strengthen my conversion in a way that I will never be the same. It is something that I will forever be grateful for.  It has given me a perspective much more eternal and has increased my vision. The Gospel of Jesus Christ isn't a way of life.  It is the ONLY way of life that we can reach the level of happiness that our Heavenly Father espera of us! Through His plan, centered on families and the Atonement of Jesus Christ, I promise and testify with all of my heart that we will have all the happiness in the world..in this life and the eternities! And as we do so, we will feel of the love the Savior has for each and every one of us. We will begin to understand a little bit just what this plan means, and just how important the Atonement is in our lives. As a representative of Christ, I know He lives, and I know exactly what He wants from each of us. We will have difficulties, struggles, feelings of doubt and feelings of not being able to do it anymore, but our Savior, our Redeemer knows that feeling, and felt it for you personally..and we are all enabled to have His help..Venid a Mi!

This Holiday season, I want you all to think for a little bit about what life would be like without this knowledge that we all have, without the Savior..and then I want you to realize that there are millions of people who have those feelings every day, because they dont know what the Savior has done for them. But we do! We know exactly what He has done for us, and we need to Bring the World that Truth! 

I love you all, and I am so thankful for everyone's love and support for me. This season, come to truly know your Savior.. because it will be the best thing for your life, and for all of those around you!

Tengan Una Buena Navidad!

Elder Yeoman


Baptism this week!

Monday, December 7, 2015

Time is Flying!!

Hello Everyone!!

Hope everyone is having fun in the cold haha! Its starting to get pretty hot here, I step outside and start sweating haha, but its all good :).

So this week, Elder Kelly and I were working hard to find people to teach, and we were talking to a bunch of people but we really weren't getting any interest! We were contacting member references, working through members in everything, but nobody was showing interest. So we got to Saturday night and we didn't have anybody to come to church with us, so we were kind of bummed about that. There was someone that came up to talk to Elder Avalos and I a few weeks before, and we talked to him a little bit and invited him to church. We invite about 1000 people to church everyday, so honestly I didn't think anything about it. But then he came to church that Sunday. So we talked to him after church (a week ago) and he told us that he has a super busy work schedule and he got lucky to get off that week. He said he didn't know if he would be able to come again. So I thought to myself that he wouldn't progress if he doesn't come to church so I kind of just shut that thought out of my mind for the rest of the week. 

Luego, we get a call this past Saturday night..and it was him!! He called us and told us that he wanted to go to church. So we told him that we would pick him up for church Sunday. He came with us, and it was actually Stake Conference, and a member of the Seventy came because our stake president got released! So the meeting was super spiritual, and we committed him to baptism next week! 

This is the Lord's work, and it strengthened my testimony so much and helped me to realize that we just need to work hard. We need to always do everything we can to cumplir with what is being asked of us. And I know that if we can do that, we are entitled to endless blessings, miracles, and help from the Lord! In some of my hardest days on the mission, there is always something there pushing me and helping me along. 

I know that sometimes things are tough. Everyone has trials. Everyone has difficulties. If I could give any advice, among the many things I have learned in the past 5 months..TRUST THE LORD! Someone who has given us everything and paid the price of every sin of every person, only wants our best and our trust. And I promise that if we are doing our best to follow Him, and we put all our trust in Him, He will provide!

Turn that doubt into trust, and seguir adelante!

I love you all!!  (And I have received confirmation that ya'll still can't guard me ;) Haha!

Elder Yeoman

 (Jace is clearly forgetting some english words as he types his emails. I usually edit them, but just decided to leave the spanish words in there this week!)
Pday Fun with the whole zone today!!

Elder Yeoman and Elder Kelly's weekly selfie!!



Tuesday, December 1, 2015

Se Fueron las doce Semanas

Hola!!

Hope you all had an awesome Thanksgiving, even though it wasnt nearly as good without me...but still hope it was awesome!! And I hope ya'll ate an extra plate for me ;)

Well, I am done training!! So now I'm a normal missionary haha! I'm pretty excited about being able to work in the mornings now too! Elder Avalos left, which I'm pretty sad about! I learned a lot from him and I will definitely miss him. My new companion is Elder Kelly from Las Vegas. Here is the funny part. He trained Elder Ayres (My companion in the MTC)! He is awesome and I know we will have a lot of success together..and work super hard! Also, he is a huge college basketball fan..like huge!! Just a side note ;)

Now I will be leading the area for a few weeks until Elder Kelly gets used to it! So Im a little nervous about that, but the Lord will help me through it all, and lead us to where we need to be! Richard, who was baptized 2 weeks ago is now preparing to serve a mission..and comes out with us to help teach a lot! I'm so extremely happy for him and just thinking back on how much of a miracle it was that we even found him, I can really testify that this is the Lords work! There are miracles all around! 

Something that Presidente Ayre told us in a mission conference this past week is that our faith can soften hearts and help prepare them to hear the Gospel! This really hit me..that the faith that we have can prepare the hearts of others so that they are ready to recieve the truth. Faith is something that I study a lot as a missionary, and it is so true. If we have faith, we have hope..and if we have faith and hope..it leads to charity! And that Charity is what can realmente change the hearts of those around us! 

I am so incredibly blessed to be a part of the Work and Glory of the Lord, and I glory in Him..and testify that it is only through Him and His Gospel that we can be saved. I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior..and that through Him, everything is possible. 

Any struggle, hardship, trial you all are going through..just dont worry about it, it will all work out, because the Savior is ALWAYS with us!

I love you all!! Hope you all have an awesome week!

Elder Yeoman

Saying goodbye to Elder Avalos  
Elder Yeoman with his new companion, Elder Kelly
Elder Yeoman was excited to see his MTC companion again, Elder Ayres 
Another Chacabuco Zone picture