Elder Jace Yeoman: Yeo..man, I aint Lyon!

Hello Everyone!

Hope you all have had a great week and that everyone is enjoying this wonderful Christmas season. Today in the Light the World calendar is “Jesus taught others and so can you.” I would teach my brother how to shoot a basketball ;) haha, just kidding, Zach! But in all seriousness, I have seen that as we teach others, we end up learning a whole lot more, and in the process, help those we teach to grow in their testimony of Christ, or learn new skills, or whatever it may be! Jesus Christ always taught by example with the way He lived His life, and that is one thing that I always learned from my parents, teaching by example and love! We can all be examples, and help those around us to become better, and truly light the world!

This past week, I was walking down the street and felt that I needed to knock the door of a specific house, and when I did, someone came outside and we began to talk. We talked of course about Jesus Christ, and the faith that he had in Him. He told me something that caught my attention. Up until this point, he has never had a hope that through Christ, there is a life after this one. We kept talking and he told me that his mother had died exactly a year ago from tomorrow (the day after the day I contacted him), and that he really never thought that he could ever see her again. I felt very blessed to be able to testify to him that through the restored gospel and atonement of Jesus Christ, we are able to live eternally with our families. I helped him to learn that as he comes closer to Christ, and as he strives to strengthen his faith of Christ, he will have this same hope that we all share. I am very thankful for this opportunity to live with my family for eternity, and the wonderful and perfect plan of salvation. We have so much to be thankful for, and a great thing to teach for those who do not have this knowledge. The funny part of the story is after we were talking for a while I asked him if he would like to live with his mother again and he thought about it a little bit, then looked at me straight in the face and said “Pero está claro, sería como meter un gol de media cancha” haha. That means “Of course, it would be like scoring a goal from half field” haha, and he was dead serious! I thought that was awesome! Argentines always have to relate everything to soccer.

Yesterday, we had Stake Conference, and to start the conference they had 5 jovenes come up and speak that have received their mission calls recently. Then 6 more came up to speak after, that have returned home from their missions recently. It was my favorite part of the whole conference. I enjoyed hearing about some experiences they have had, how pumped they are to go out and serve. Something was similar about all of the testimonies of the returned missionaries, and it is the fact that they came to truly know Christ, and understand mejor the atonement, and that is something that can never be taken away! I am so grateful for this time that the Lord has given me to serve Him and truly come closer to Him and to becoming the person that He needs me to be!

Sunday afternoon, Boca and River played, the 2 biggest soccer teams here in Buenos Aires..and about every 20 minutes the whole city erupted with people shouting "Goalllll!!" I have been here a while so I know how it is, but yesterday was over the top..Elder Lyon and I had to take cover, haha. Every time we went to an appointment, they either weren't there because they went somewhere else to watch the game, or they didnt want to talk to us because the game was on, haha. It made it a little bit difficult to work, but that's just how it is sometimes. At one point we were walking in a part of our area that is a little more dangerous, and there was a bunch of people holding up a stick with fire at the end burning boca jerseys, haha. They took it too far. I just imagined it was a Duke jersey and it made me feel better, haha! But whatever you hear about soccer down here in Argentina is true!

Andrea is progressing really well and will be getting baptized this Saturday! We have also found some more couples we are working with, and also a part member family that just moved to our ward who have been inactive for a long time. We crossed them in the street and we are starting to work with them to get them back to church. None of their kids are members of the church, so we are hoping to be able to help them!

As a mission, we are reading Jesus the Christ with the focus of strengthening our testimonies on the atonement and also in becoming more Christ like. I am very excited about it because becoming more like Christ is something that we have to strive for every day, and Jesus the Christ is an incredible book that has already helped me gain more knowledge of the Savior. We had a zone meeting last week that was probably the best of my mission and we talked about the importance of consecration. We then fasted as a zone, so with the help of the Lord we could think about ways to be more consecrated. We are doing a fast of 40 days of these things that we need to give up to be more consecrated! I know as we are more consecrated to the work of the Lord we will see more miracles, and be the means of helping a lot more people! Consecration doesn't only apply to missionaries. I think we can all be more consecrated to the work of the Lord and His Gospel, and strive more to live always by His teachings. As we do so, all the blessings promised by the Lord will be poured out over us!

Jesus Christ lives and loves us! He is the Son of God, and has made everything possible through his grace and atonement!

I love you all! Thank you so much for all ya'll do for me! Have a great week!

Elder Yeoman