Monday, October 31, 2016

Happy Halloween!!

Happy Halloween Everyone!!
I hope that you all are having a great fall so far, even though I hear that it is still pretty warm there! These weeks are really starting to fly..everyday is pday it seems like haha!
This past week was pretty good, we found a ton of people during the week and we worked super hard but nobody came to church, which is something that has always been tough down here, but they will get there!! Something really awesome that happened this week was we had just left the office one day and we were walking in the street and 2 guys from the corner came up to us and were signaling us down (in Buenos Aires that means you should probably run, haha!) but we stayed to see what they had to say. So we started to share the Book of Mormon with them, then like 4 other people came up to us and my comp grabbed a couple and I grabbed a couple and before you know it we have the whole street around learning about the Book of Mormon. It's like one of those Mormon messages stories, It was pretty cool. From that, we found some families that we will be working with, so we are really excited about that!! All of them also passed us some references so we were able to blow that place up!
We have to flood the earth with the BOOK OF MORMON!!!!!!!!!!
Other than that, this week was pretty normal, we have changed some things in the offices to make our work more effective, which has been a great blessing but taking some time to get used to! We are already going into the last 2 weeks of the transfer which is crazy because I feel like I just got here, so time never stops flying!
I haven't been able to study as much as I would like to with all the crazy things that are going on, but I do the best I can. I have been reading in Mosiah, in chapter 14 and 15 it really has some great things about the Atonement that I love! These are the words of Isaiah in chapter 14:

For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of dry ground; he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him there is no beauty that we should desire him.


 He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
 Surely he has borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows; yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.
I especially love verse 5 the part that says and with his stripes we are healed. Really, there is no other way we could be healed if it wasn't for Christ's suffering. He was bruised for our iniquities and has carried our sorrows..and He knows us perfectly.  That is something that I wish everybody could truly know, that Christ knows us all perfectly, better than we know ourselves. Sometimes when we ask ourselves "How could I ever get through this?" Maybe we really don't know the answer, but Christ always will, and will be as ready to help us now as He was in Gethsemane when He suffered for all the pain and affliction in the world, anything we could ever go through, and is as personal as anything we could ever think of.
If everyone knew this, I don't think we would suffer nearly as much as we do, because we will know where to go and find peace, like President Nelson said ¨When the focus of our lives is on Jesus Christ and his gospel, we can feel joy regardless of what is happening - or not happening - in our lives."
I know that this is how it is because I live it every day of my life, and is a joy that nobody could ever take from me!
Les amo!
Elder Yeoman
My lunch today! Yes, I ate it ALL!!!
I ate this too!!!
We traded name tags for Halloween!! haha!

Monday, October 24, 2016

La Luz de la Verdad

Como andan??
Hope everyone has had a great week and adjusting well to the cold! This time of year is always weird because I am getting into the hot weather, and all of you are getting to cold weather! But you guys have it better...I promise haha!
This week was a good week, I had a lot of awesome learning experiences in the office and out of the office as well! One morning, I was studying a talk that was the "talk of the week" on lds.org, and in this talk there was a quote by President Eyring that really touched me. It said "I have had prayers answered. Those answers were most clear when what I wanted was silenced by an overwhelming need to know what God wanted." I reflected a lot on that quote this week, and I read it everyday, and I have seen a huge difference in my daily prayers, and how much closer I feel to my Heavenly Father. Sometimes we fall into the routine of saying repetitive things in our prayers, asking for the same things, and talking about the same things, whether it has something to do with the will of the Lord or not. And I had noticed that about my prayers, and I knew I needed to change that! So since then, my prayers have become so much more sincere and I have truly felt a difference! Things very simple can go a long way! If we pray truly wanting to know what God wants, we will always be answered, in various forms, but the answer will come!
I was studying as well in Mosiah 2, and that is probably one of my favorite chapters in the Book of Mormon, I would invite all of you to read it this week..as a family! King Benjamin is the man! There were a couple scriptures that really caught my attention in this chapter about service, and that we will always be indebted to Heavenly Father.

 20 I say unto you, my brethren, that if you should render all the thanks and praise which your whole soul has power to possess, to that God who has created you, and has kept and preserved you, and has caused that ye should rejoice, and has granted that ye should live in peace one with another—
 21 I say unto you that if ye should serve him who has created you from the beginning, and is preserving you from day to day, by lending youbreath, that ye may live and move and do according to your own will, and even supporting you from one moment to another—I say, if ye should serve him with all your whole souls yet ye would be unprofitable servants. (In spanish it says the word "useless" which is what really caught my attention.)
 22 And behold, all that he requires of you is to keep his commandments; and he has promised you that if ye would keep his commandments ye should prosper in the land; and he never doth vary from that which he hath said; therefore, if ye do keep his commandments he doth bless you and prosper you.
 23 And now, in the first place, he hath created you, and granted unto you your lives, for which ye are indebted unto him.
 24 And secondly, he doth require that ye should do as he hath commanded you; for which if ye do, he doth immediately bless you; and therefore he hath paid you. And ye are still indebted unto him, and are, and will be, forever and ever; therefore, of what have ye to boast?
Now, I would like to explain my thoughts on this. We could give the Lord all the thanks in the world, we could serve him with all of our souls and everything we had, on a justice standpoint we would still be useless compared to all that He has given us. But that is the thing, thanks to the Atonement, and all that the Lord has given us we can be carried up by grace, then comes verse 22 which says that the thing that He really requires us to do is obey the commandments. I want to focus on the 2 great commandments, that we love Heavenly Father with all our heart, might, mind and soul, and we love our fellow men like unto ourselves. Heavenly Father gave us everything, he gave us His Son, and that is what He asks of us in turn? That we love Him and serve His children, and obey his commandments?
Well, let's think about that. That is nothing compared to what He did for us! 
I am so incredibly thankful for my for my Heavenly Father, for providing me a Savior, who is His son, so that I may be able to live with Him again. This is far more personal than we could ever understand, but through service and diligence we can get a little taste!
I love you all and hope you all have a great week!
Elder Yeoman
Check out my name tag "Elder Gordo"  
The Office Elders and Sisters
Closer look at the name tag. I have gained a lot of weight! 
Even in Argentina, I've got to represent! 
Elder Lyon and I putting in late hours at the office! We did NOT mean to match!



Monday, October 17, 2016

Just Keep Going!!

Hello Everyone!! 
Hope you all had a great week and that you all are enjoying the fall season! Here it is starting to get real hot! Breaking out the short sleeves again already has been weird! Well, another week has passed by here in the offices and I think I have pretty much gotten the hang of things here, but of course there's still a lot to learn! It has been an experience very different than the rest of my mission, but one that I have been able to learn a lot even in the short amount of time I have been here. 

We played basketball a couple times this week for exercise in the morning and man, Zach still won't ever be able to beat me but I've lost a little touch haha! But that's okay! It's not important!

This week was a little tougher finding people who truly progress and are ready to hear the Gospel. There are a lot of great people who listen and who want to come closer to Christ and feel the need to change, but that just can't get themselves to do it. And that is sad. People that feel that  motivation but don't even want to try because they are so afraid to fail. There are a ton of great people that just don't act! The Gospel of Christ can change the life of anyone and will change the life of everyone that has the motivation to act, and then act! 

I remember I was thinking a lot about why do a lot of people get baptized and learn of the joy of the Gospel, and then fall away, or just stop acting. How could this happen? And this thought took me deep into the doctrine and thought of conversion. What is the difference between someone who stays in the Gospel and someone who falls away? We have a lot of great examples of this in the scriptures but for some reason this statement came to my mind, and I hope that this is drilled in all of your minds; "just keep going." 

We will always have trials, some of which may even lead us to doubt and to be very discouraged, but we must simply always keep going! If we keep going and always put in effort, everything that we are missing or every bit of help that we need from the Lord will be given to us! If we ever question ourselves about if we can go on, if we can get through this, the very next thing that comes to our mind should be "just keep going." Even if we don't know why we have to do something, why something is expected of us, or if we think that the Lord expects too much of us..just keep going, keep trying, and He will take care of the rest!

As I have thought about this, I have also thought about myself, and my own conversion and I have realized that the Lord is there every step of the way if we are willing to act, and always put forward our best effort! Maybe our best one day isn't very good, but we just have to keep going! A desire to do what the Lord wants you to do, accompanied by a good effort to do it will change your life, change your way of thinking, and help you to superar any trial or hardship that you can face in your life. Because that is something that no matter what, we will always take joy in!

I know life isn't easy, and it's not supposed to be either..but we are expected to just keep going! I always remember a phrase that elder Holland had in his talk in the april general conference to close the conference that says;

 "If we give our heart to God, if we love the Lord Jesus Christ, if we do the best we can to live the gospel, then tomorrow—and every other day—is ultimately going to be magnificent, even if we don’t always recognize it as such. Why? Because our Heavenly Father wants it to be! He wants to bless us. A rewarding, abundant, and eternal life is the very object of His merciful plan for His children! It is a plan predicated on the truth “that all things work together for good to them that love God.” So keep loving. Keep trying. Keep trusting. Keep believing. Keep growing. Heaven is cheering you on today, tomorrow, and forever."

And that is no promise from any man, but from the Lord himself! I know that this is true, I know that Jesus Christ is my Savior, and that He wants us to keep going always!

I love you guys!

Elder Yeoman

My Comp, Elder Lyon and I driving through the City!
This is me everyday!!
This is the awesome church building I attend. It is the newest in
the mission.
 
Villa 31! The biggest Villa in Argentina!
The cool buildings in Buenos Aires
The Argentine White House... "La Casa Rosada"
The stadium of my favorite soccer team... River Plate!



Monday, October 10, 2016

Que tal

Hello all! 

This week was a great week here in La Gran MisiĆ³n Buenos Aires Norte! I am starting to get the hang of the differences in the offices and things I need to do, so that has been nice. I also learned how to drive a stick shift..I kind of got thrown out in 5 o'clock traffic in downtown Buenos Aires my 4th time ever driving a stick shift so it was inevitable, haha. I figured it out pretty well after about an hour of scaring my companion. So that was a cool part of my week.

Right now we are starting to go into the summer season, and luckily I have an air conditioner..I don't know if you guys remember the air conditioner I made last summer, but this one works a little better, haha! 

We have a baptism coming up of a lady that her name is Alejandra. She has humbled me so much being a part of teaching her. The first lesson we had with her, we asked her at the end of teaching the restoration if we could do a kneeling prayer to ask the Lord if what we had taught her is true, and she did it. And in her prayer she said some things in a way so sincere that I don't think I will ever be able to forget. She said "Heavenly Father, I need to know the truth, I desire to know the truth," and with tears in her eyes she said "I just want to follow thee." And I just couldn't believe the sincerity of this prayer, of what I was hearing. And she ended the prayer and had felt the spirit so strongly she knew that it was true. It was an incredible experience.

During sacrament meeting, I have gotten into the habit of reading a sacrament hymn during the passing of the sacrament. It is "I Stand all Amazed", and it has grown to be my favorite hymn.

  1. I stand all amazed at the love Jesus offers me,
    Confused at the grace that so fully he proffers me.
    I tremble to know that for me he was crucified,
    That for me, a sinner, he suffered, he bled and died.
  2. Oh, it is wonderful that he should care for me

  3. Enough to die for me!
    Oh, it is wonderful, wonderful to me! "
I absolutely love this hymn, and every word cuts me to the core. The amount of love the Savior has for us is indescribable, but if we try our best to come closer to Him, we are able to feel it!

I love my Savior, and I know that He lives! Let us all find more peace, comfort, and joy in our Savior Jesucristo!

I love you all!


Elder Yeoman

The Elders and the Anderson's

We visited Tigre today! A very famous tourist attraction in Buenos Aires

Wednesday, October 5, 2016

Cristo La Roca

Hola!!!!!

I hope you all had a fantastic week and enjoyed conference this weekend. It was incredible! I mean when we really think about what conference is, words that come straight from Heavenly Father, we can come to realize the true importance and how lucky we are!!  I for one, have been extremely humbled about the Atonement and what Christ has done for me. I am so incredibly grateful for His atoning sacrifice and what it means in my life, and the eternal significance that it has for all of us!! 

This week I wanted to talk about some things that really caught my attention this past weekend! One was the fact that my mission has had a huge focus on the Book of Mormon, and the importance we have to flood the earth with the BoM! And there were about 4 or 5 talks that talked a lot about the Book of Mormon. Gary E. Stevenson gave an awesome talk on this. "As we look to the Book of Mormon, we look to the Lord." I love that quote, and I truly believe that, there is so much guidance in that book that comes straight from the Lord. Its like the short story of the people that asked for help from God and 5 ships came but they were waiting on something specific, then they got to judgement day and they asked God why he didnt help them and He said that he sent 5 boats. We may feel the same way, but He sent us the Book of Mormon so chances are that we are overlooking it! Every single word in that Book has eternal significance that was written for our day in the "wise purposes of the Lord". And it is all applicable to us and our everyday lives! "The keystone of our center of strength needs to be the BoM." The BoM as a keystone is so important, as it should be the keystone of our daily lives as well!

Another thing that really called my attention was the importance of sincere prayer. Now, this was not talked about a ton but it hit me everytime, so I have been thinking about that a lot! Sincere prayer requires a lot more than getting on our knees and starting to talk, and we need to prepare ourselves to pray! I have seen a huge difference between when I pray sincerely and when i just pray, and it shows a lot! Then I thought about an SYC challenge we had in High School that we only gave thanks in our prayers for one whole month! I remember that being a little tough for me, and I know I need to do that again, so I will be doing that again and I invite you all to do it along with me! Or who knows, maybe that is already the challenge for the SYC this month haha! But as we pray sincerely, we will always be more in tune with the will of God, and as we pray in according to the will of God, we will receive a lot more blessings. 

The talk by Russell M Nelson said "To get through our hardest trials, we must focus on the joy! We can suffer with joy in Christ." This is awesome, because we are here to have joy..we will never have a trial that we cant come out with joy after, but that depends a lot in our attitude, and where our joy comes from! If our joy comes from our faith and love of Christ, we will always have it, because that is something Eternal! And this joy is a gift from the Savior, for our obedience and willingness to follow him! Elder D. Todd Christofferson said that this love that Heavenly Father has for us is infinite, but His love has a lot to do with how we respond to his love! If we abide in His love, we can receive the grace of God through the teachings of Jesus Christ! With a focus on the plan of Salvation and the doctrine of Christ we are able to always have this joy! So lets do it!!

Something that M. Russell Ballard said also that I loved was "Sometimes we can learn, study, and know, but other times we have to trust, have faith, and hold on." I love this quote, because sometimes it is like this! Sometimes we may be super good and super high in our testimony and faith, and sometimes we have our lows, but the most important thing is that we are trying, and making the effort to hang on! We can hang on or we can fall, but if we really think about it there is only one option that actually works, so the decision we need to take isnt a hard one, but requires a lot sometimes!

Lastly, they talked a lot about the conversion of Alma the Younger, like at least 4 apostles said something about it. repentance is essential to the path of conversion! This was so key for many prophets in the Book of Mormon and for many people today! Conversion is the greatest thing that could happen in the life of any person, including my own life!

I know that this church is true, that Jesus is the Christ, and that through Him we may have eternal life! I love you all and thank you all for all you do for me!

P.S I'm in the offices now so any letters that come, I get them right when they get here, hint hint wink wink haha! I love you all!!!

Elder Yeoman

This was transfer week, so we didn’t hear from Elder Yeoman until yesterday. He was super busy organizing/coordinating transfers and getting all of the missionaries where they needed to be. It sounded like a crazy day. He said the Buenos Aires MTC was closed, so they had 5 different groups of elders and hermanas coming from five different places at five different times. They also opened 3 new areas this transfer and he was busy making sure each area had everything they needed. He also said that he is enjoying driving again. His first experience driving a stick shift was an hour drive from Derqui to San Fernando! He said it was a little crazy, but he survived!!  
The Anderson's (my favorite couple) and my new comp Elder Lyon
The Office Elders!
My new comp, Elder Lyon