Merry Christmas to all my friends and family I didn´t get to talk to on Sunday!!

This week we have seen lots of miracles. We got to fast on Thursday and I don´t know why, but I am seriously always amazed at the power of God and the power of a true fast. I can honestly say that the purpose of all my fasts have been answered, and I have seen miracles. If it were physically possible, i would fast all the time. haha. but i know that i like to eat, and i know that food is healthy, so i don´t. And i´m super excited that this coming Sunday we get to fast again. It will be so good to fast about the new year´s goals that we want to make. Start the year 2012 off right.

And this week, in three days I complete 1 year as a missionary. It is sad to see it fly by so fast. I love being a missionary. I´m so greatful every single day that I am a missionary. I´m so greatful every single day for the experiences I have had that have blessed my life and strengthened my testimony. I´m greatful everyday that I have the opportunity to wear the name of Jesus Christ every single day and know that all I do represents Him and His church. The joy and the love one feels as a missionary, make it worth every trial. Make it worth every sacrifice.

Anyway, it´s a short one today, but I hope you have a happy new year and eat lots of yummy food!! haha. (They always say that here...."hope you eat lots of yummy food...") haha.

love, sister yingling

dearest family and friends,

hey guess what....president gave me permission to call andrew instead of you guys. sorry. i´ll call on mother´s day.

oh and this week was crazy. we lost a whole day of work because we had our zone conference and our christmas celebration on wednesday, and so it made some things complicated. And it was just a weird week to say the least.

ok, i can´t trick you all like that...i feel bad. haha. i´m NOT calling andrew...don´t worry. i wouldn´t give up calling home to call him anyway, so don´t even worry. but i should be calling Sunday at 6pm Argentina time. I think that is 2 or 3pm your time. I forgot how many hours difference it is there. anyway, super super stoked to call. :)

ok, so yesterday we went to church and the mom of the first couselor showed up randomly. we just met her friday at a ward activity that we had, and she isn´t a member. she told us that sunday morning she woke up and just felt like she needed to go to church. it was awesome!! i love the little miracles like that, that we experience every day. they keep me going. it is interesting where i´m at because it is a totally different ball game. Here we are so far away from the rest of the mission and from the neighboring area, that we doin´t ever get together with the other missionaries to have district meetings. i never thought that would be a big deal, but i realize that you have to trust in the Lord a LOT more to find your inner strength because you don´t have meetings that keep motivating you. It is just you and your companion. Sounds weird, but i´ve learned a lot more of my weaknesses, and i´ve learned that i have little faith.

we are in an area filled with people that are so ready for this message. so ready for the gospel, and yet we are having little progress. yes, we see miracles, but progress...hardly any. i have tried to figure out what we are doing wrong, but sometimes it isn´t that we are doing anything wrong, it is just not the Lord´s timing. I do have faith, that one day we will see the fruits of our labors, but pray that i will have more faith so that here in junín we can move the mountians (haha even though there is no such thing as a mountain here...). I studied a lot about faith, charity and forgiveness this morning in my studies. 3 things that are crucial. I love studying the gospel, because it keeps you from falling too far. it keeps you on the straight and narrow because it helps you recognize your weaknesses, because we have them all.

this life is to help us learn how to be more like God. to be more perfect like He is. i have a long ways to go. but i love the mission, because it helps you a lot in this battle...that´s why everyone should serve a mission!! haha. :)

anyway, so guess what, i got to play a violin for our christmas p-day that we did. because we are so far away, we didn´t get to do it this week with the rest of the mission, instead we did it with our zone. but it was super fun. and we got to go to a nice restaurant (all you can eat...yum) for lunch.

ok, i guess that´s all. i´m soo excited to call on Christmas!

love, sarah

p.s. Angela,
dress = love it
colors and cake = también
hair = it´ll be so pretty all wavy like that
ring = i do like the ring. and don´t even worry about what people say about the smaller diamonds. i figure in the future when you have the money you can send it in to be changed if you want one diamond that is bigger. for now looks pretty blinging to me! haha
ahhhhh...i will cry the day you get married. menos mal that i know the guy...haha. tell brooksie hi for me and thank you for the package!!!!

michaelanne,
ok, i haven´t forgotten about you. don´t even worry. oh and i´m so glad we went to nats!! woo go BYU XC! um, letter is coming asap. it´s super hard to write, but thank you for all your letters!! they seriously help me so much. love you!

dear peoples,

yesterday we saw some pretty big miracles. President Carter raised the number of Lessons with Members that we need to do every week. The only problem is that in our area, the members aren´t used to working with the missionaries because as i learned today the previous Elders rarely did lessons with a member present. Anyway, so it was super, super hard to accomplish the required 15 lessons with a member present for the week. Saturday night we had only had 4 in the whole week. We were so sad, because every single day we called tons of people trying to arrange to do visits with them and nothing came together. Anyway, we prayed lots. and lots and lots. We knew Heavenly Father had the power to arrange everything so we could accomplish the goal. So in planning saturday night, we put 11 Lessons with a Member as our goal, and prayed for a miracle, Because Sundays are shorter days and so it is harder to get 11 lessons in, let alone with a member present.

Anyway, we went to church hoping to find someone (of the 15 members that showed up) who could work with us the rest of the day. And guess what...we found him. A new member that recently moved to our ward. He is waiting for his family to move here from Córdoba and so for the time being he had no obligations. So he worked with us the rest of the day. And we accomplished our goal. Wow. Talk about miracle right. That is why we must ALWAYS rely on the Lord. He knows whats best and how to make everything work out.

anyway, no time left
love sarah

Dearest ones and those who care to read,

This week was crazy filled with miracles and i don´t even have a lot of time to tell you about them all. so quickly:

first, we went to visit a family on tuesday who told us that friday they were moving. we asked them where and they said that they had no place to move to, but that they were getting kicked out of their house and that they couldn´t find a house because they have really bad credit. (or however that works here...) anyway, so we made an return appointment for thursday. passed by their house thursday and they were packing all their stuff even though they still had no house. they were in a frenzie and we told them we just wanted to say a prayer with them. they said ok and let us in. we knelt down (us and the entire family) and prayed for a miracle. that they could find a cheap rental that day. well, we didn´t really have any other way to help them, so we waited, and prayed some more. at the end of the day we called and the son said, "hermana, we found a house! thanks to God. thanks to your prayer we found a house!" we were so happy. seriously, tears of joy fell as i experienced just a little bit of what that family (especially that mother) was feeling at that moment. i love how Heavenly Father at times tests our faith, but at the end of the test of our faith, He shows us miracles. Those who have faith are the only ones that can receive tangible evidence of God and his power. Those who need tangible evidence to have faith, unfortunately will rarely receive the evidence.

ok, only have time for two quick miracles more. this week we were worried about who would come to church, because we wanted to go looking for them. so and we were working, we passed by the house of a lady that originally was pretty cold with us. the same day that we first contacted her, we started teaching the neighbor and her son (10 yrs old) came out to listen. he told us to pass by another day but because his mom had been so cold, we didn´t go back that same day. anyway, this lady called to us from her window and said, "where is your church, because my son wants to go..." haha my companion and i looked at eachother like, wow, that never happens. :) anyway, he came to church with his cousin. now we are hoping to start teaching their families.