Monday, March 27, 2017

PUMPED!

Hello Everyone!!

Hope you all had a wonderful week and are excited for General Conference! I'm pretty pumped for it! I just cant believe that 6 more months have already passed, but that is nothing we can control! In these transfers, I received a new companion, Elder Sureda from Chile! He is the man, and he is finishing his mission this transfer! We are working really hard and seeing a ton of miracles! We have some big goals set for this transfer and I know they will be met!

I don't have much time but I just wanted to share with you guys one thing that caught my attention this past week in a district meeting. Our district leader asked us the question "How do we know that the Lord is pleased with us and that we are doing our best?" And my mind of course went directly to Preach My Gospel, that says that we will know that the Lord is pleased with our work if we can feel the spirit working through us. But another elder in the zone said "When we feel and see that we are progressing every single day!"

I loved that! I think it is a more relatable answer to life than mine. I can assure you guys that if we are consistent in the little things, and that we truly feel and see that we are progressing every single day, the Lord will be pleased with us! Maybe we are going through a rough time, and we feel like the world is falling apart, but the Lord will be pleased with us not thinking about the things we can't control around us, but for our consistency and obedience!

One of my favorite scriptures in the Book of Mormon has a lot to do with this! Nephi at this time was very set back because of the wickedness of those that he was teaching, and he felt that he was useless because of the things that were happening around him, but here is the response that the Lord gives him in Helaman 10:

And it came to pass as he was thus pondering—being much cast down because of the wickedness of the people of the Nephites, their secret works of darkness, and their murderings, and their plunderings, and all manner of iniquities—and it came to pass as he was thus pondering in his heart, behold, a voice came unto him saying:
Blessed art thou, Nephi, for those things which thou hast done; for I have beheld how thou hast with unwearyingness declared the word, which I have given unto thee, unto this people. And thou hast not feared them, and hast not sought thine own life, but hast sought my will, and to keep my commandments.
And now, because thou hast done this with such unwearyingness, behold, I will bless thee forever; and I will make thee mighty in word and in deed, in faith and in works; yea, even that all things shall be done unto thee according to thy word, for thou shalt not ask that which is contrary to my will.
The Lord was not upset with Nephi because of the wickedness of the Nephites, or because of what is going on in the world around him, but blessed him because of his "unwearyingness to do the will of the Lord." Despite any hardship or circumstance, that is something we can always strive to do..be obedient and consistent in doing the will of the Lord! And if we do, we will be extremely blessed! We can't keep ourselves up at night thinking about things we can't control!
I know that Christ lives, that He has descended below it all to be able to give us peace and comfort in the times of desperate need! And so that through Him, we may have everlasting joy and happiness! I love my Savior, and His gospel, and all that He has made me become!
Que tengan una buena semana y disfruten de las palabras de nuestros profetas :)
Les amo!
Elder Yeoman
P-day today at Paraná River
 
The Parana River, the second largest in South America!
P-day at Parána River, where we also played soccer today! 
My new comp, Elder Sureda from Chile!
Goodbye to Elder Andrade at transfers!



Monday, March 20, 2017

Transfer Week!

Hello Everyone!! 
I hope you all have had a great week!! This week is transfer week, but I'm almost positive that Elder Andrade and I will stay together for his last transfer! It is going to be a good one!! We had a good week. We have a ton of investigators, and little time to teach them so we have been talking a lot about what we can do to improve this so that they can all progress towards baptism! We have been focusing way too much on finding new investigators and we haven't been focusing enough on teaching so that the investigators we have can progress... which is something that is very sad! So just like all things, we learn from our mistakes, repent, and change! So the focus that we have this week will be to teach and help our investigators to progress instead of finding people like crazy! There needs to be a balance in all things! 

Something that I have seen a lot in my mission is the lives of people change, but the difficult process of that taking place! For example, when we have a baptismal date set for the 8th of April, something will always come up on the 7th to make it hard. Or if a couple is set to get married, the adversary will attack even harder so that their family will never be formed! It is something that will always be present in our lives... the opposition of the adversary, who will always be working against what is right and what the Lord wants us to do! When we are in the process of getting better, and coming closer to Christ, the adversary will be working overtime to try and inhibit us from progressing! And we will know it! And when we know it, we can attack even harder by doing what we know is right!

The saddest thing that I see is that some people feel the spirit, know the church is true, know that this is the plan that the Lord has prepared for them, but don't want to fight against the adversary, and they let him win! They don't want to fight for their salvation. They would rather have it easier now and suffer later!

When we know what to do, and how the Lord wants us to live, we must do our very best to power through and do it! If the adversary is working hard, we must work even harder, and we will always come out winners..like my Tar Heels (It's March.. I had to😉) if we endure to the end, because that is a promise from the Lord!

If you guys feel lots of opposition, that is good! Work against it and you will progress towards eternal life!!

I love you guys a lot! Have a great week!!

Elder Yeoman



Zárate!!
The coolest pictures I have ever taken!
My good friend, Elder Dote just finished his mission today!
He will be missed!



Monday, March 13, 2017

Everything Testifies of Christ!

Hello Everyone!!

I hope you all are doing well! It is starting to get a little cooler here, not cold at all but a little cooler, getting to fall! Everything is going well here in Zárate! I am loving it out here!

I am focusing a lot of my studies on the Book Jesus the Christ , by James Talmage, and oh my gosh it is incredible!! It is hard for me to put it down! But something that I read this past week that really caught my attention was that everything in life and in this world testifies of Christ! Even the trees, as their leaves fall, and then grow again in spring when Christ was resurrected. There were a lot of examples like that that I read...like when we sleep and wake up every day. It is very interesting to think about, and something that I have been thinking about a lot. Everything is meant to testify of Christ. It is no coincidence that this is how it is!

We found a couple this week that live out in the deep country, pretty far away from where we normally work, but we contacted them and we began to talk about their religious beliefs, and hope, and what they believe about eternal life. Neither of them believed in the possibility of eternal life, and thought that they were never going to be able to see their family members again that had died, that there was nothing after this life. Testifying of the great plan of salvation is something that is so incredibly special. Testifying that Jesus Christ lives and loves us, and has made it possible that we can live eternally with our families is a knowledge so important and life changing! I always am grateful because I have had this knowledge my whole life. But when I put myself in the shoes of someone who does not have this knowledge, that is when I realize how blessed we truly are, and how much I want them to know that the plan of salvation is real! I think that testifying of Jesus Christ and the plan of salvation is something that brings the spirit into our lives more than almost anything else! This time I have had to serve and testify of our Savior has brought the spirit more fully into my life, and has changed my life forever!  

I don't take enough time to tell you all how much I appreciate all your support and love, and for everything you guys do for my family and I!

I hope you all have a great week!!

Cuídense 😀

Elder Yeoman

At Hernan's Wedding 
Ice cream shop today celebrating Elder Twitchell's bday and last Pday
for Elder Dote! He will be missed!
I found Brock on a billboard here playing the guitar! Y'all didn't tell me
he had made it international already!


Monday, March 6, 2017

Bautizárate

¡Hola!

Hope you all have had an awesome week! So this past week was my first full week back in the mission field! However, I forgot that even being out in the field there are still a lot of meetings! We had zone interviews with President and then my companion and I went to this place called Baradero to meet with President Smith and the stake president of Zárate to discuss the missionary work in the zone. Then we did divisions with the elders out there in Baradero! So you remember how I said that we are in the northern most zone in the mission, well Baradero is an hour more north in the car, so they are almost out of the province of Buenos Aires and all there is are fields and cows and horses! It was fun going to meet that place! I enjoyed it! We talked a lot about vision and desire with President Smith, which was awesome and I learned a lot! It is awesome seeing all the missionaries in the zone pumped to work and bring souls to Christ! 

My companion and I have been teaching a lot of people, and for the first time in my mission I am having a hard time keeping up with them all...which has been my favorite problem I have ever had, haha!! It has been awesome! We are teaching a family of about 8. The parents came to church and the members here in Zarate 1 did a great job of making them feel very welcome and at home, so I was very thankful for that! They are not married but we are going to the Registro Civil to help them take out a turn to get married. We are very excited for them and they will be progressing very soon! We have also been working with a couple part member families that have baptismal dates and they are doing well! We have a part of another family that we are teaching that had baptismal dates as well but they did not come to church this past week so we have to see how much desire they really have! We are teaching another family that is from the Dominican Republic and they are awesome! We have not met the father yet, but the mom and kids are golden so we are very excited for them as well. They have a lot of desire to know Heavenly Father's will for them and receive and answer from Him about the truthfullness of the Book of Mormon. They are very humble and she braids hair for a living! 

A recent convert family that my companion baptized last month has a couple friends that we are teaching, I am going to add a picture to show you guys where they live, they are out even farther into the country. It's about an hour walk from the church..it is super awesome! 

The work is progressing well here and we are very excited to keep it going! 

"A perfect love casteth out all fear"

I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week!!

The church is true and we have so much reason to rejoice! I hope all can comprehend a little more this week all that we have to be grateful for!!

Elder Yeoman

We walk so much! I Love it!
This is where one of the families we are teaching lives. It's an hour walk
to get there.