Dear family,

Ok, so I guess I have a lot to write.  I guess I dont have words to write about the mission.  I was doing pretty good about being strong and not crying until Sunday, and then I broke.  I cried, but what can you do.  I only have 3 days left to be a missionary, and I just want to use these days the best I can.  Im the only sister traveling home so im companion less.  This is weird.  

This morning was craziness.  Last night Hermana Reales and her companion (hermana Soria) moved into our apartment because there arent enough missionaries to keep two areas open in Junin.  So, basically the whole apartment was filled with suitcases...haha. Anyway, then we almost missed our bus to get into Buenos Aires, but we were blessed to get on with all our stuff.

Hermana Reales and Hermana Rios are now companions and are staying in Junin.  Im leaving the area happy to know that Martin and Sabrina are working towards getting married in the temple.  Victor finished reading 1 nefi.  And one of our investigators, Martina, finally set herself a day to get baptized and is working hard towards that goal.

I will miss that place a lot.  The work has been hard, but so worth it.  You know when something really, really awesome has happened and you dont know how to describe it...well, thats the mission. haha.  So ill just leave it at that.  

I learned a lot and it gave me desire and energy to work hard for what lies ahead.  

I am so excited to see you all real soon!

Love, 

Hermana Yingling

p.s. thanks for all of the letters and emails that you all have sent me.  i have cherished and appreciated every one.

Dear family and friends,

HAPPY 9TH OF JULY....haha it is the Argentine Independance Day.  I celebrated the 4th of july by eating ice cream. haha.  We called our district leader Elder George (because he is a Marine and USA crazy) at 6:40am and sang the national anthem. haha it was awesome.

The mission is winding down and we are seeing HUGE miracles and changes here in the Junin Branch.  Actually the whole mission is changing a lot, but they are all really, really good changes.  I´ve learned a lot about how the mission is helping people change their bad habits.  Not just those who don´t live the gospel, but those who are trying to live the gospel but have learned how to do some things incorrectly.  I really have a testimony about diligence and enduring to the end. I´ve realized that it is hard work enduring to the end, but it always pays off.  The lessons I have learned on the mission i hope to carry over into the rest of my life.  I have one week left and i am super, super excited to work super hard.  I´m hoping and praying that i see my goals achieved.  Today we were talking to a sister and she said that we need to be grateful for the opportunity that we have been given to be able to work full-time in the Lord´s work.  And it is so true.  It is such a blessing.  

Last week we struggled finding new people and families to teach and we finished the week sad because we had 4 frusting days in a row.  But this past week, we saw that our dilligence did pay off.  It was easy.  We found tons and tons of really awesome families to teach!!! :) I got to speak in sacrament meeting about personal revelation and it was cool.  I love that topic.  I learned lots about revelation and how i can better apply the principles of preparing to receive revelation so i can receive more personal revelation and how i can better intune myself to the voice of the spirit.  that is key in our lives.

oh yeah, and my companion fell on her bike like 3 times this week.  the third time she landed pretty badly on her wrist and i thought she might have broken it.  but i worked the magic that i learned in school....(sunday school....aka prayer) and it got better pretty quickly.  haha.  but i realized that i´m super rusty on my first-aid/ injury management skills. haha.  i´ve got lots to study up. 

welp, that´s all.

love you all!

hermana yingling  

what a week!

 

on Saturday president and sister Carter came to junín.  we got to go out to dinner with them saturday night which was super fun.  then sunday president used the time of the classes to teach the members here how to work with the missionaries.  it is something that we are really working on in the whole mission.  i learned a lot about how to teach members the importance of working and actually doing visits with the missionaries.  it is of vital importance.  we have seen huge blessings as far as the participation of the members goes. 

 

it has gotten a lot better since the other sisters came because we have been able to stop by the members house to be able to teach them how to work as well as get the "normal" work done. haha.  there have been huge blessings here in junín and a lot of changes.  I was thinking about how junín was when i first got here.  it has changed lots.  not because of just my efforts.  but they have been combined efforts.  without the combined efforts of our "team"  this work does not move forward.  we could be working for 100 years and not have progress if just a few work.  it requires the work of everyone. 

 

i´ve gotta make this email a good one because it is one of my last emails.  one thing i´ve learned to love on the mission is change.  change is good because it forces us to learn.  it puts us in difficult positions that help us to grow.  like becky just told me in her email, changes force us to walk without the crutch that we thought we could never live without.  changes are hard, but the hard things in life are also the things that we learn to appreciate more than anything else.

 

i love the mission.  i am grateful every single day for what i get to learn during this experience.  i will miss it a lot.  but, i´m excited to go to work in the other missions that Heavenly Father has waiting for me.  I can´t be sad about the change, because it is inevitable and it is necessary....so I´m just happy!  Don´t get sad, get glad!!!  hahaha.  

 

Anyway, until next week!

 

love, sister yingling

uerida familia,

So, we went to the lake again today.  I just have to say that Junín is a lot more fun with 2 companionships of hermanas.  haha.  it has been fun.

This week was cool because there were 41 people in church yesterday!!!  wow.  it was a huge blessing.  2 investigators came to church. one from our area, and the other some kid that we found a couple weeks ago that lives in the area of the other sisters.  i was happy to see him show up.  and the other one is named gladis. pray for her.  she is 72ish and is awesome.  she is reading in the book of mormon and she walked with us to church (more than 20 blocks).  she is catholic like lots here, but we feel like her greatest challenge will be her family.  so far so good, but pray that she won´t have many problems with her family rejecting and that she will be strong through the trials that are sure to come her way.  she is super, super awesome and we are trying to help enter into the waters of baptism on the 14th of july. 

also, 3 inactives went to church yesterday!!  i´m super happy about that one too.  i hope they will continue enduring to the end.

oh, mom, my fake tooth chiped so if you could sign me up for a dentist appointment for as soon as you can when i come home that would be awesome.  luckily you can hardly tell that it chipped because my real tooth was underneath it. haha   and dad i do want that job.  i can turn anything down at this point. haha. 

faith i do not even believe that you are engaged because i don´t even know the name of the kid.   so you´d better not be. haha.  if you are, i just might not ever forgive you. that´s all.  i´m not as forgiving as jacob was with erik. haha.

um, well, that´s about all. 

lots of love,

hermana yingling

p.s. jacob.  eu sei que a igreja de jesus cristo é a igreja verdadera.  sei que o livro de mórmon é verdadero.  sei que jesus cristo é meu salvador e que vive.  espero que entendeu meu testimunho...jaja  tinha muitas erros e minha companheira teve que corregir muito. jaja. 

dearest ones!!

so, tuesday we were working like normal and we get a call from the assistants.  i thought that was weird and answered the phone.  elder steele told me, "you sisters need to be in the bus terminal at 5:30 pm to wait for the bus that is traveling from Buenos Aires."  i asked if that was all and told him it was all super mysterious.  he laughed and that was it.  we didn´t know what or who was coming, but we were excited.  we guessed a whole bunch of things none of which were right.  we got there and every time a Pullman bus pulled up we called the assistants only to find out that the first two weren´t the right bus.  haha we were super excited.  probably the biggest surprise of my life.
then, the bus came. haha.  and guess who got off.....HERMANA REALES!!! haha with a mini missionary as her companion!  haha yes!  now in junín we are 4 sisters!  i don´t know how it is possible, but i have basically had the same mission as sister reales. no just kidding, but all of my companions pretty much have been her comps and we served together 3 transfers, and out of my 3 and her 4 areas, 2 have been the same.  haha but anyway.  i´m feeling super good about it all because i feel like i can leave Junín in good hands.  :) at least hna. rios and hna. reales are staying when i leave.

anyway, so now i am working half of what i was working before (area wise) and it has made the work not easier, just much more possible.  i am super grateful.

we found a lady named Rosa this week.  the night we knocked on her door she let us in and we started teaching her.  she told us a bunch of stuff and said, "i´ve never told my pastor this, but i just feel like Jesus is telling me that i can trust you because you are His servants and will help me."  then she said that we remind her of her daughters that she hasn´t seen in a really long time and she said she feels like what we have taught her is the truth.  so, we invited her to be baptized and we invited her to church on sunday.  she showed up, but because of some complications had to leave early.  basically we are seeing a whole bunch of miracles. 

oh yeah, speaking of miracles.  i didn´t catch the lice that my companion brought me from transfer changes. haha.  it was disturbing how many she had on her head.  i saw them one day in the street and that night i got to comb them all out of her head.  i´m glad they make special combs here to remove lice because they are pretty ugly things. haha.  that was seriously a blessing, because she had so many and we had already been together one week and so i thought for sure i had them too.

anyway, it has been a week full of miracles, changes, and blessings too.

lots of love,

sister yingling


p.s. happy father´s day dad!!! you are the best dad i have ever had!  :)  oh yeah, and this applies to my grandpas, my uncles and my brothers too...

photo: 867  hermana rios and i

ok, here is the letter,

so, let´s see.  i had a cool experience on Sunday.  we were sitting in Gospel Principles and Francisco, Monica, Juan and Estela (a lady that got baptized the saturday right before I got to Junín) were all there.  They all participated and it was cool to see how they have grown and how much the Holy Ghost has helped them learn and change in their short time as members.  They are all reading daily in the scriptures and attending church every Sunday.  I felt so blessed for the opportunity that Heavenly Father has given me to be a missionary and to be able to participate in their spiritual growth.  it is so beautiful and it makes me super happy. 

there are lots of hard things going on here, but, when i think about the growth and the good things that happen, it makes it all worth it.  i realize that God had His hand in all things even during those hard times when it seems like there is nothing going right, and when i feel like i´m a terrible missionary because i can´t achieve what I think is success.  but then every time i´m overwhelmed with the trials Heavenly Father shows me that I am fulfilling my purpose as a missionary.  after all, i just need to help others to come unto Christ through faith, repentance, baptism, the reception of the gift of the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end.

That is a hard process, because that process brings the salvation.  and salvation never was never easy.  Christ paid everything and suffered everything to bring about the salvation of all men.  why can´t we then suffer a little bit to help a few progress towards the salvation?  and at the end of the day we realize that the experiences we have had weren´t "suffering" at all, but rather blessings that we cherish more than anything.  we realize that we are even more in debt to our God than ever before and we realize that we can NEVER pay Him back enough.

so, that´s why i keep serving, trying to pay Him back. haha. i´ll never get there, but i´ve gotta give it the best i can.  love being a missionary. 

love you all, lots.  i pray every day for you guys.  i´m forever grateful for how you have supported me and prayed for me every day.  i feel the strength of those prayers.

love, sarah

foto 1119:  we slept in the church because we didn´t have anywhere to stay before our zone conference.  haha. i actually slept really, really well on that bench.  i must have been tired. haha.

o my faithful blog readers,

 

ok, so there is no time ever. haha.  yesterday we had transfer changes.  and what happened?  i´m still here in junín, i´m dying here.  and i´m dying without training ever. haha.  but i´m totally ok with that.  i was worried about leaving junín to someone who is new to the mission and doesn´t have a lot of experience, because basically it could destroy everything that has changed here.  anyway, so when president told me he was sending a sister that is young but has some experience, i was super happy. 

we left yesterday morning 8:30am and didn´t get back until 1am.  haha.  but i´m super excited because i finally got the brazilian! haha.  yes!  she is awesome.  speaks english, spanish, and obviously portuguese.   i´ve always felt like she was a good missionary, and from what i´ve seen so far, i believe she is.

 

jacob, some of her friends served in your mission.  one was elder madero and elder carvalho...if you know any of them.  could be a cool small world connection.  oh and by the way............happy 24th!!!  don´t worry, i didn´t forget.  wait, you are old.  what in the world.  i hope you had a good birthday, it sure sounds like you did.

 

anyway, basically we are super excited to get to work.  and that´s why i don´t even have any time because today is not p-day, but i didn´t have any time yesterday (literally zero) so the assistants told me to write today. haha.   

 

this last week has been interesting because i got sick and lost my voice.  but completely. i had to speak in a whisper because i couldn´t speak correctly.  it got pretty cold these last couple days and everyone got sick and i was one of them.  and i was like that for 5 days. haha.  today i can speak better. so that is a huge blessing.  

 

basically i just want to say that i believe in miracles.  we are seeing a lot.  things are hard (like always) but they are looking up.  it is really cool to see that have gotten baptized, get up and bear their testimonies, and start to work in the church.  it is cool to see them leave their old life behind and begin a new one.  it is cool to hear the family of those who have been baptized talk about how many wonderful changes they have seen in that person.  it is true joy. 

 

the mission is changing a lot of things and i´m loving all the changes.  i wish i could stay to see how it all works out, but i know they are God inspired.  President Carter is truly inspired. and everything is super exciting here now that the temple in Buenos Aires will open up in August for the open house and be dedicated in September.  Too bad i won´t be here because it is going to be awesome!!

 

anyway, that´s all the cool news from down south.  hope you are all enjoying all the hot weather and doing fun stuff outside.  

 

love, sister yingling

 

p.s. angela, i don´t know when you´ll read this, but congrats girl!! say hi to brooksy for me...haha  oh and i finally got your letter and your announcement.  the day before you got married. haha.  you are beautiful. 

dear family and bloggers,

ok, so i don´t have lots of time today because there was a power outage and we couldn´t use the computers for a long time.  this week we had lots of miracles.  we finally had our branch activity that we have been planning for a super long time and it turned out super well.  we saw lots of fruits from the activity.  what we did:  we divided junín (the most populated part, the are that we are working) into 12 areas and wrote down all the names from the list of members who lived in those zones.  then we had 8 missionaries come to our area to help us out and the members came and we did divisions with the members.  we went and visited almost every single member on the list!  :) we left them a letter from the branch presidency and saw what their needs were etc.  we did that all day saturday.

and sunday, we saw results!  a less active member came to church with his great-granddaughter.  she is 14 and told us that she wants to get baptized. :)  so, now we are helping her prepare to be baptized on june 16th.  her name is martina. pray that she´ll keep going to church and that she can make it to her baptisimal date.

anyway, there is lots more to tell, but no time.  but i do have something very, very important to say............


happy 17th abby!!  love you!

i know it´s kind of a lame present, but that´s about all i´ve got right now....


oh and andrew, i have no idea if you have moved or not because i only get your dearelders like once a transfer.  anyway, facebook my sister face to let her know what´s up so that she can tell me.  i have a letter to send you, but don´t want to send it if you have moved again...haha

ok, that´s all for now folks!!  last week of this transfer....time to work it!!  wahoo!

love, sarah

fotos:
1084:  we went to the lake today.  i´m super out of shape.
1106:  we played on all the jungle-gym stuff there and then we ate lunch and afterwards i looked up and saw the sign that said, "toys, only children allowed"...hahaha.  oops.

Ok, dear family, This week was a surprising week. Full of blessings. First of all, I got to speak with you all on Sunday…. . J Then Monday we had a sisters conference which was awesome. I got to speak about emotional well-being. It was super good, the conference, and it was super good to see all the sisters again because it had been a really long time since I last could talk with anyone. It is always fun because that is how you hear news about the wards and the converts in the areas where you have been. Oh and we got to eat corn bread for lunch. It was a true American meal, and I loved it. Some of the latins didn´t like it so much, but they are just picky like that sometimes. Then we got up early Tuesday morning to travel to a different city because we had our first district meeting….haha. it was fun. Then we finally got to our area about 5pm on Tuesday to start working. That night we went to Francisco´s house and we didn´t have time to really teach him anything, so we just read him a scripture on the door-step. I was thinking that I should ask him when he wanted to be baptized. So I did. He said, “i´ll let you know a couple of days before hand when I want to get baptized. Or, do you need to know one week before?” so then I said, “well if you want to get baptized this Saturday, you can, we just need to do the interview and find the clothes and that´s all…” he said, “ok”. So Wednesday we did the interview and he was good to go. Then Wednesday during our companionship study we felt like Monica (a girl who has wanted to get baptized but has struggled having a true change of heart) was ready to get baptized. So we went to her house and invited her to get baptized on Saturday. She said she wanted to, and so we did the pre-interview. Then she had her interview on Thursday and she was good to go. Both Francisco and Monica showed up on Saturday for their baptisms and it turned out really cool. I was super happy. Then Sunday, both of them went to all three hours of church and were confirmed and Francisco was given the Aaronic Priesthood and is now a priest. He was super happy afterward. That night we went to his moms house with him to teach her and we are hoping that she will progress too. Welp, that´s all Love you lots! Sister yingling p.s. becky, the other day we went to a sisters house (she was just baptized in oct) and she told me that the other day she prayed for you to get better soon. J

ok, it was good to hear your voices yesterday. and thanks for the lemon bar recipe mom. it looks good and we´ll have to try it out. everyone here is going to love it. i just know it. so, today we had the first sisters conference with all the sisters in the mission. it was cool. we got to go to the mission home and we ate a completely american meal. yum. a chicken chili soup with corn bread and some beans. i loved it. i got to speak on emotional well-being in the mission. haha. it was kind of a weird topic, but it turned out pretty good i guess. im feeling weird because i realized that i hardly know any of the sisters now. being in junin you are just a long ways away and you hardly ever see or talk to any sisters at all. it was fun to feel like we were part of the mission again. haha. i learned a lot about the importance of our purpose as missionaries. how we need to focus ourselves in the mission (but this applies to life too) on the important things. it reminds me of the talk by elder oaks (?) the good, better, best talk. it is so important because you could focus on a million things and not get anything done very well, but you need to focus on the most important to reach your potential in life. anyway, thats all i have time for. love, sister yingling NOTICE: This email message is f

Dearest familiares, So, guess what!? We moved! Yes! I´m so happy too. We moved from an apartment that had paint falling off the walls, no hot water and plumbing problems to a way better apartment. and it is awesome because there is a whole bunch of storage space so everything can be way more organized! :) Now we just have to travel further to get to the church, but still, it is so worth it. Now we just have to clean 2 apartments instead of only one. haha Weird story, when we were organizing some things in our apartment i came across an english hymn book that was left behind. the funny thing was that when i saw the word "hymns" i was like, "that looks weird. it looks wrong. i looks like it is missing a letter" haha i´m just super used to the spanish hymn books that say "himnos" And my companion is awesome because she is willing to wake up at 6am with me so that we can go running. So for this week we are going to see how 3 times this week works. We have so much stuff to do, so the past week we were getting up at 6am (after being sick for a while i hadn´t been getting up at 6am...so now i am again, but my companion is too.) to work on stuff that we have to do. i´m excited to start running a little bit again. i´m super out of shape. speaking of running, that is cool that you saw coach shane. Yesterday was a fun day because Francisco our investigator accepted the law of tithing which at first was difficult for him. Also, he hasn´t smoked for 1 week now and is getting baptized this coming saturday! :) He is awesome (un capo)! And we got to eat lunch with a missionary family that came to our branch on sunday. It is always fun to be other missionaries, they feel like family. oh and we also finally completed with our goal of 15 lessons with members in one week. it has been a battle the last couple months, slowly getting better, but it was so nice to finally get there. we are hoping and praying that we can keep the members involved. things are turning around here and i´m hopeful for the future. my companion is great and is helping a lot and i´m super grateful to my Heavenly Father that she is my companion. i have seen how Heavenly Father answers prayers but in ways that are very unexpected. but i know that He does answer. and i had a really cool experience this week that built my testimony of our prophet Thomas Monson. i know that he is a prophet and i love being able to see how things change in the church according to the prophets and how they receive revelation. love this gospel. it is the truth. ok, lots of love, sarah p.s. becky, i´m really hoping and praying that you will recover quickly. just know you are in my prayers. love you!

Dear family and friends, I love holidays. Argentina has a million and two holidays. any reason to close their businesses...haha. Anyway, due to the holidays, i am writing you today....sorry. So, I got my new companion and she is from argentina. Actually she is a mini missionary and her name is Hermana Martinez. She is from the Merlo stake which is the stake where i was in my las area. haha. She is awesome. She will be finishing her mini mission at the end of this transfer, so i will for sure be getting a new one. Don´t know if i´ll be staying here until the end, but it kind of looks like i will be. Anyway, it is amazing how good of a missionary she is. seriously. having zero experience she is awesome. she is only 18 yrs. old and she wants to serve a mission. i think she will get to because it just seems like that is what she was made for. haha. but needless to say i am so grateful for her help here in junín. this weekend, we should be moving apartments and i´ll be super happy because then we´ll have hot water and a heater....yes! believe it or not, i am showering. funny story of the day. it is funny how Heavenly Father works...always setting up little surprises for our lives. We just barely got done teaching a lady and we had to go to a tire place to pump up my back tire. Anyway, as we finished, i looked down the street and there was this kid who we were working with when i first got here. his family had lots of problems and had to move (remember when i told you about the miracle when we prayed with them as a family that they would find a house?). Anyway, so we basically lost track of them because they moved to a different town kind of far away. Anyway, it was way weird. It is funny to be in an area for a long time because you see lots of weird stuff that you normally would never see. we´ll see what happens. anyway, we are seeing a lot of things looking up right now. still have a lot of struggles, but it is because i´m hard and Heavenly Father needs to teach me somehow...haha. But seriously, i have learned lots of stuff. And my companion is teaching me lots of stuff. i hope and pray you are all doing well. especially becky...she is in my prayers. Good thing we get to fast this upcoming sunday. love, sarah p.s. andrew, i sent you a letter a couple weeks ago and then got your letter that you had moved right after...haha. so, i don´t think you´ll ever get it. but, just fyi. i have one written and sealed. just need to send it....haha ?s.z,e-r!e,t.l?ek hope you got my secret message...haha

Dearest ones, So, I am fine. It must have been some strep related thing i had. I had called sister cox (the sister that takes care of all our health concerns) and she talked with the doctor and he said he thought it was viral. but due to your emails mom, she called me back up and told me to buy some penicilin. so i did. i took it and now my throat feels just great. :) i didn´t think it was bacterial either because i never had a fever, but maybe if i would have let it go on a little bit longer i would have gotten a fever. i´m just glad it is gone. sorry mom, i didn´t mean to worry you. it really wasn´t anything too bad. ok, so ironically, today we have transfers so i got to travel in to BA. that means i got mail. and the day i read that kati webb got my letter, you can tell her that i got her announcement and i loved it. i´m super happy for her. speaking of transfers, i am staying in junin. when they called us up they said, "hermana yingling is going.......to stay". haha what? i´m going for 7 1/2 months in Junín. maybe i´ll make it to the end of my mission. we´ll see what happens. i´m not sure what i have to offer, but i sure know that i am learning a lot from my experience here. still don´t know who my new companion is, but we will see. oh yeah, and the missionary couple that was in junín for 1 1/2 years is being transferred. so last night they did a farewell party and it kind of turned into a farewell party for H. Nordhagen too. She is great and i´ll miss her. I was hoping for a 3rd transfer with her, but i guess the Lord has other plans in store. as far as the work goes in junín, things look to be brightening. the number of people in church is now averagely about 30 people. almost double from what we had a couple months ago and i´m happy to see it. francisco is really joining in with the branch and it is cool to see. he just needs to quit smoking and it is resulting harder than we had hoped. pray for him and our investigator monica. so they can both be worthy to make the sacred covenant of baptism. oh and i got your easter package!! thanks for the hand warmers. they are going to be just perfect for winter coming up. it gets even colder in junín. it has gotten pretty cold the last couple of days. but i guess it is supposed to warm up next weekend. being on bikes is good because you get your blood going a little bit more, but at the same time, the cold wind gets through the clothes more easily. oh face, thanks for the chocolate!! i´m super excited to try it. it got here in better condition than the reese´s. haha. yum! you always know how to brighten my day. :) oh and i love the ring. it is real pretty. i´m wearing it right now. and mom, i especially loved your letter. thank you so much. anyway, let´s see. there is so much work to be done. seriously. not enough time to do it all. but as long as i am doing the best i can do, i can´t expect anything more. All we can do is work our hardest so that when we face the Lord we can tell him that we did all that we could do. ok, love you lots. hermana yingling p.s. i never got the letter from angela. i recently sent her one, but i don´t know if it got to her. sad day.

dearest ones,

anyway, i just got the package of all the letters that ym and yw did for valentine´s day. :) i´m sure it has been sitting in the office forever but i just got it today because i don´t get mail unless someone goes to Buenos Aires and we somehow meet up with them. But, if you can thank everyone from the ym and yw, i would really appreciate it.

so...i don´t have lots of time, but i just want to tell you about the big things that have been happening this past week. Sunday we got to church and the missionary senior companion here told us that they were being transferred to a different area. They never expected that because they have been here for 1 1/2 yrs. and they only have 6 months left. But it is good because now we have a member that is the branch president and it will force that the members need to start working more. I´m happy about all the changes too. For now they are preparing the area to be split, but we will see what happens. I don´t know if i will be leaving to a different area or if i will stay here until the end of my mission. i´m fine with either way. I know all the changes that happen in the mission are God inspired and that helps me feel comfortable and safe with every change that we have had and will have. The gospel is all about progress and that requires change.

oh and some more good news about fransisco. he is progressing really fast and it is fun to see. :) he told us on sunday that he doesn´t smoke any more because he wants to get baptized on the 28th. so we will see. he dropped from 40 cigarettes per day to nothing in only 1 and 1/2 weeks. wow. that is how God helps those who really have the desire to change. it is the same with every single one of us in our lives. if we have something that we want to change, He will help us if we put our part in and if we really, truly have that desire.

anyway, until next week. love you all lots, and i´m praying for you too.

love, sarah

dearest ones,

anyway, i just got the package of all the letters that ym and yw did for valentine´s day. :) i´m sure it has been sitting in the office forever but i just got it today because i don´t get mail unless someone goes to Buenos Aires and we somehow meet up with them. But, if you can thank everyone from the ym and yw, i would really appreciate it.

so...i don´t have lots of time, but i just want to tell you about the big things that have been happening this past week. Sunday we got to church and the missionary senior companion here told us that they were being transferred to a different area. They never expected that because they have been here for 1 1/2 yrs. and they only have 6 months left. But it is good because now we have a member that is the branch president and it will force that the members need to start working more. I´m happy about all the changes too. For now they are preparing the area to be split, but we will see what happens. I don´t know if i will be leaving to a different area or if i will stay here until the end of my mission. i´m fine with either way. I know all the changes that happen in the mission are God inspired and that helps me feel comfortable and safe with every change that we have had and will have. The gospel is all about progress and that requires change.

oh and some more good news about fransisco. he is progressing really fast and it is fun to see. :) he told us on sunday that he doesn´t smoke any more because he wants to get baptized on the 28th. so we will see. he dropped from 40 cigarettes per day to nothing in only 1 and 1/2 weeks. wow. that is how God helps those who really have the desire to change. it is the same with every single one of us in our lives. if we have something that we want to change, He will help us if we put our part in and if we really, truly have that desire.

anyway, until next week. love you all lots, and i´m praying for you too.

love, sarah

family and friends,

haha i hope you liked the subject of the email...

actually, my life wasn´t at risk at all, but apparently in Buenos Aires (where the rest of the missionaries are) there was a big storm that was really dangerous. the worst we got was some wind and some power outage. nothing else. here is what the president wrote us...

Dear Missionaries,
This last Wednesday night Buenos Aires was struck with a rare weather condition that included high winds and lots of rain that impacted some parts of the city more than others. We are grateful that all missionaries were safe and accounted for following this event. However, the resulting loss of electricity and water in many parts of the mission became a concern to me near the end of the second day (Friday) after the storm. Having directed relief efforts for the Church in Central Florida following a number of hurricanes in the last ten years I am familiar with the difficulties that result from the loss of essential services like electricity and water. Promptings from the Spirit and direction of thoughtful Priesthood leaders resulted in us moving 54 missionaries out of their areas on Saturday during the daylight hours for their safety. I believe it is important that we all learn from such experiences and you appreciate how the Church works in time of crisis.
First, it is important that you realize that moving 27 companionships out of their areas was the last thing I wanted to hap-pen at the beginning of this month. It is also important that you realize that my first priority after my own family is the health and safety of those missionaries the Lord has entrusted to my care. Late Friday evening I was prompted to inform the Area President of my concern for the health and safety of the missionaries in the mission as a result of the loss of essential ser-vices in various parts of the mission. President Arnold immediately responded to my message with a scheduled meeting with all key Area staff personnel and the Area Presidency for the next morning. An interesting note is that unknown to me was that the mission president in the South mission was expressing similar concerns to Salt Lake City officials at the same time. Following a one hour meeting with the Area Presidency, President Arnold asked for my suggested course of action. He asked for counsel from his counselors and then he decided to follow my suggested course of action, however, he wanted the removal of the missionaries to take place faster than what I had proposed. Together with the assistants we then set forth to carry out the direction of our priesthood leader. This was all done within what I call the order of the Church and the Priesthood and with the guidance and direction of Priesthood Keys. “For all things must be done in order…by the prayer of faith.” (D&C 28:13)
The decision was made to move the entire zone of G. Catan from their areas, 2 companionships in Marcos Paz, 5 com-panionships in Merlo, 4 companionships in Moreno and 5 companionships in Lujan. By 18:00 on Saturday all missionaries had been relocated to safe areas. Reports of what was accomplished were made to the Area President and Salt Lake City. All missionaries are currently living with other missionaries in various zones or in the apartments near the office in Ramos Mejia. The President of the country has called out the military to asset with maintaining order in the affected areas throughout Buenos Aires. We have reported cases of looting, robbing and other acts of civil disobedience. In addition to these security issues, there is the issue of health concerns with the sustained loss of water and electricity to maintain a healthy environment and provide food and water to many people. This situation will remain a crisis for many until all services are restored to the affected areas in our mission. We love and appreciate those of you who were asked on short notice to leave your investigators, members and areas for your own safety. We hope to have you back in your areas as soon as possible....
Les Amo,
Presidente Carter


a little crazy huh? but i really am greatful for how the Holy Ghost works in small ways for the health, protection, and happiness of those who are worthy of His companionship.

this week was a good week because of Easter. Love remembering Jesus Christ. It is the best. haha. It was also really cool because you felt a special spirit on Sunday and it was nice to fnally have a couple investigators in church to feel that spirit as well.

also, we taught a family on Saturday that seems very receptive, so we will see how things go with that family.

so, fluffy has passed on. i´m glad i know about the eternal truth that families are forever...haha sad day. but, it makes me happy to know that he lived for so long. i will miss him. i´m guessing he lived for about 15 years. that is a long time for a lizard. not even dogs live that long lots of times. thanks for trying to keep him alive. maybe we need to buy another lizzard....he was the perfect pet. you didn´t even have to feed him every day. haha. just once a month and he was good. haha jk.

well, that´s about all for now. gotta go work hard!!

love, sarah

oh p.s. Shalle mulliner, congrats on your mission call. it´ll be the best experience of your life!

oh, and tell katie oliverson hi for me and that i wish i could be there. i´m sending her a letter in the mail. and take lots of pics to send me. :)

Dear ones,

Wow, love conference. But who doesn´t right? It was so good. And the first time that I listened to all of it in spanish. haha it is because here in junín we didn´t have the english option. but that´s ok i suppose. I just love hearing their voices. Oh and by-the-way Elder Scott does his own spanish translation. haha. Just a fun FYI fact. Oh and that David Archuleta is going on his mission to Chile (i´m sure you all already knew that a long time ago...). I wonder if he sang in the MTC choir during the conference. I´m sure he did. haha I sang in that choir...which means i´m famous too!!! haha. But I remember practicing that second song that they did when i was in the MTC choir. It is hard. Especially when you can´t breathe because your skirt is too tight from eating too much at dinner. haha Anyway, that was fun to see.

So, this week was a week full of miracles. I can´t even tell about all the miracles we´ve seen. Seriously, so many. Ok, so our zone has been struggling lots. So as a zone we did a fast. And well, it was answered. I feel like I have written so many times about the power of a fast. But it is so true. It is one of the most powerful tools that we have to put our lives in line with God´s will and see the miracles that come from it.

It is amazing to me how the mission changes from week to week. Last week we struggled a lot. And in everything. This week, we worked just as hard, but finally saw the answer to lots and lots of prayers and lots of fasting. We finally have an investigator. :) haha. And he is progressing real well. He went to the conference and he is reading and gaining a testimony of the Book of Mormon. His name is Fransisco. Pray that he will be willing to accept the commandments and live them.

I´m so grateful for our Savior. I´m grateful that we have the truth. I´m happy to be a missionary, and i wake up every morning grateful for the opportunity that i have to be a representative of Jesus Christ. Remember that with faith on Him, everything is possible.

Love, sister Yingling

k, so about my week:
We had a new family move into the branch last week and they came to
church this past sunday. :) i was super happy about that. We had a
branch activity that turned out really great and we had some of the
inactive families come to the activity. that was super good. and
Juan Suarez was ordained a teacher in the Aaronic Priesthood. :)
That was really, really nice to see. :) He is great, and is going to
help lots of people find the truth someday. :)

ok, that´s all.
love you all lots.
hermana yingling

Dear ones,

Sorry I couldn´t write yesterday. I was traveling all day. We had to travel in to Buenos Aires to do some business to make my companion legal here. haha. We left at 3am and didn´t get home until midnight. Good thing the bus was comfy so i could sleep a little.

i´m getting super excited for general conference. it is always so good, and always comes just in time. This past week we have seen some huge improvement in how the members are working in the branch and with us.

My poor companion got sick and so we spent all day friday inside. We asked for permission to do divisions with a sister in the ward. My companion went for a couple hours to a sisters house and i went with another sister to visit some people. It was SO WEIRD not being with my companion.

Um, things are looking more hopeful. I really have a testimony of having patience and waiting for answers to our prayers. But patience doesn´t mean just wait and not do anything, it means keep working hard expecting the blessings to come. That is hard to do sometimes, but it always pays off, because God will bless. So, keep pressing forward with a steadfastness in Christ and all will turn out just dandy. :)

ok, love all of you!

Hermana Sarah Yingling

p.s. Lisa Drury, if you read this, I just wanted to let you know that I just found out yesterday that my zone leader is Brett Steele. Actually was, he just got transferred. But, super good missionary just FYI. :) haha miss you!

Dear family and friends,

Ok, so Abby loved your stories about your miracles. Those are the tender mercies of the Lord. Speaking of getting sick, I got sick too this past week, but not too bad. I could still work so I was super greatful for that. Last week we had our zone conference (which is always a treat here in campo because we don´t really get to see other missionaries ever). We talked a lot about working with the members. Because we are in a District, President Carter has more responsibility because he is pretty much the "stake president". Anyway, so we talked a lot about how the members are struggling here. Not that they don´t want to work, but that they have "fallen asleep" and don´t realize it. They are not helping in the work. The other things in their personal lives have all begun to take higher priority than their callings and helping the missionary work.

So, the president has been really worried because there hasn´t been too much improvement. So the other day he called Elder De La Cruz (he is the branch president and him and his wife are senior missionaries in our branch) and sent him to every active member reminding them of their duty to serve in the church. We immediately have seen results.

I tell you this story to remind us all how easy it is to become "lazy" in the things of the church and in the gospel. sometimes we don´t do something one day because we are tired, or because we don´t feel very well. sometimes we fill our days with too many other activities that are also really good, but that aren´t service in the church, or that aren´t gospel related. This is how satan works to slow the progress of the church. Just the little things in the individuals works to take down a community, and pull lives away from the path to eternal life.

our branch is in a crucial time right now. i want to thanks all of you for your prayers and for putting my name in the temple, because i know that those prayers are being answered. i feel it. i see it. keep praying that i will be able to and have the courage to follow the promptings of the spirit.

anyway, about the transfers. i am obviously staying here in junín. wahoo! i would love to end my mission here, but because i want to, i´m sure i won´t. haha. i only have 3 transfers left. i will be here in junín for at least 6 months. more than in any other area that i have been in. i don´t know what will happen, but i hope i can work super duper hard here in junín so that if i do leave, i can see it getting better.

and yeah, that´s about all.

love, hermana yingling

photo: 908- We had to go to Capital to renew my visa. We found a Subway. My first time eating turkey in 1 year. YUM! love subway... :)
914- there is a tree in capital that is HUGE. 230 years old.
916- and the tree from a distance.
918- we were given yeast and so we decided to make pizza. we were supposed to only use 1 kilo harina...but messed up with the water and had to use 3 kilos. haha we will be eating pizza for a month!! haha.
921- and it was raining lots today, so we did an indoors picnic with our homemade pizza. :) turned out surprisingly delicious.


ok, mom, thanks for all the info. i´m going to talk to President Carter tomorrow and see if I can register for my classes and everything. Thank you so much for all that you are doing for me. and all that you have always done. :) ahh no time to write today.

faith, thank you so much for your letter and your pics. loved them. i always laugh real hard.

erik, thank you so much. enough said. tears of gratitude were shed. and it was just in time.

basically those pictures are the events of the week. it has actually been really, really dead here. to travel to capital, we left at 3am. Did all the business that we needed to to. Just a lot of waiting in lines. Ate at Subway. Then we traveled back to Junín and we got there at 10 pm. haha a whole day of travel. I was getting a little car sick by the end of it. haha

and we found a lady named Elsa. She is the only person that we have found so far that could possibly progress. So please pray for her so she´ll go to church.

congrats to Katy Andrews!!! wow. I seriously will be my only single friend when i come home. and Congrats to Steve Jensen as well.

and i guess that is all. Love fast sundays, enough said.

I have no more time sorry!

love, sarah

photos 893: Juan Suarez with his mom and his siblings...
895: Me and Juansito

Dear family and friends,

Well, this last week was........interesting. Terribly humiliating in many ways, and incredibly edifying in other ways. We were so blessed to see Juan Suarez get baptized this past Saturday. He is so awesome. He really is changing his life a lot, and was one of those souls that was very prepared by the Lord. He just needed a little understanding and to feel the Spirit, and he chose to act. he chose to change his life. He chose to follow Jesus Christ, and I as super duper happy.

I don´t even know what else to say. Um, basically, just pray for the members here in Junín. Please. The only reason they don´t close the branch is because we have a beautiful chapel, but besides that, nothing is happening. The members are asleep. It is a great battle here in Junín, and I am too weak. Good thing the Lord is on my side, because, well, I alone could not change anything. Pray that the members will recognize what they can do to help the work. Pray that they will be willing to sacrifice of their time, money and energy to work a little bit.

Although there a lot of difficulties in missionary work, I have a lot of hope. I love in Daniel 2 where it talks about how this work will roll forward. No matter what. We are in the last days and it doesn´t matter what anyone does to fight against God and His kingdom, God will win. I love being on the winning team. haha. Sometimes it feels like after all that we can do, it isn´t enough. Because the truth is that it isn´t enough. But, God recognizes our efforts and blesses us for them. And after time, we finally see the blessings and we recognize the wisdom of God in all that has happened. I have a huge testimony of having patience through the trials, and trusting in the Lord. Because it ALWAYS works out.

Keep being the best family and friends that you are. Love ya´ll lots....haha

Hermana Yingling

Dear family and friends,

This week was a hard one. Nothing seemed to go right. Usually that happens but just for a day or two. Not a whole week. Ok, that is a little bit of an exaggeration, but it was frustrating. But in the end, we still saw lots of little miracles and blessings from Heavenly Father.

We are going to have a baptism this weekend!! yay! His name is Juan Suarez. His is 14 years old, and he is awesome. we taught him about tithing this week and he came to church and paid his tithing! :) love seeing that. makes me super duper happy to see people start keeping the commandments. pray for him please so that he won´t have doubts and that he won´t fall to temptation so he can be baptized.

and yes. that´s all. no lot´s of time to write because that´s just how the mission is. sorry. love you all lots!

sarah

oto 62: Me and H. Nordhagen from Sandy, Utah on our first bus ride together.
photo 69: this is what we did for our p-day today. a picnic and played in the park. don´t know why, but i have always liked that. don´t worry, i definitely did some pull ups on the monkey bars. haha. isn´t the park pretty? actually i don´t even know if you can see what the park looks like from the picture, but it is beautiful.
photo 70: i liked the teeter tots. they are fun.
photo 79: we went with Miguel Medina and his mom, sister and neices. it was fun with the girls.



Dear family,
Ok, so this week was a good one. We have been working a lot in the part of our area that is harder. I don´t know why, but I just feel like we are going to be able to find some good people. It has been an adventure, because we haven´t seen tons of success, but we are trying to put our trust in the Lord knowing that all will work out if we are following the promptings of the Spirit. but, maybe not in our time, but it´ll all work out.

ok, funny story of the week. yesterday in church the branch president came up to me and said "did H. Nordhagen prepare her talk?" and i was like... "what talk?" i guess he had asked her to speak, but she didn´t understand what he had asked her and so she didn´t prepare anything. so, i was so lucky because i got to speak. haha that is the fun thing about being a missionary is that at any moment you will be called on to give a talk in church or at some church function. and you don´t get any time to prepare. haha.

anyway, there isn´t a whole bunch to write, plus i hardly have any time at all to write. pray that i will be guided and recognize the whisperings of the spirit, because i need that. LOTS. thanks for everything. and HAPPY VALENTINE´S DAY to everyone tomorrow!

love, sister yingling

Dearest dearies,

Ok, so, I know it hasn´t been too long since I last wrote. Better that way right? haha. I´m really learning how to speak english again. no jk. i try to speak as much spanish as i can, because it will probably be the only time in my live that i will have the opportunity to speak 100% spanish. I´m trying to help H. Nordhagen with her spanish too. We are so similiar and it is fun to watch her because i know that i was just like her when i first got here. She is a really good missionary. We have fun together talking about BYU and stuff that i haven´t talked about in the longest time because none of my other companions understood or even cared. haha.

I was sad to hear that my cousin has Leukemia. :( How bad is it? and since when did we ever find the where-a-bouts of Ruth? I hope she is doing well and I hope that she can find strength in the Lord during this difficult time. I will be praying for her.

Ok, let´s see what else. Oh, this past sunday was great, because I really saw a lot of blesisngs. I can testify that the Lord blesses us for our patience in trying times. I´m not talking about the success in numbers that we could have had, but rather other blessings. When the Lord gives us trials, they are to strengthen us and inspire us to fight and work for better. According to how well we can trust in Him with all our faith, he will bless us for our patience and for relying on Him during those trying times.

Anyway, i have no more time to write. Back to work. Back to the battle. Pray that I can be guided in my every action, because without His guidance, I won´t get anything done here.

Love, sarah

oh p.s. oscar is almost there. keep praying for him. i know your prayers are working because he is just about there. just about ready to make the decision. he has to wait for some roadblocks to get out of his way, and then he will be a free birdy to get baptized, so keep praying that his roadblocks will be removed. thanks for everything!

Ok, sooo dun dun dun. do i stay in junín? do i get a new area? do we even have changes at all? am i training?

Those are the thoughts that go through my head when we have transfer changes. haha you never know, because the Lord always has some sort of surprise waiting for you. The good thing was that I pretty much knew that i´d be staying in Junín because the president told me that H. Azcurra would be leaving before I would. But we didn´t know if she would stay one more transfer. Then she said that the president basically told her that she would be leaving, so we kind of were planning on that. Then she started saying that I would get a greenie because i´m the only sister that has time in the mission that hasn´t trained yet. Anyway, so she was set on that. Then we got the call. H. Azcurra was leaving.

So, we got up at 2:15am to get to Ramos Mejía wednesday morning. And we got to see all the changes. I´m not training. My companion is from Utah and I am super duper happy. Turns out she was in my ward winter semester my freshman year at BYU and we didn´t even know each other. Shows how involved i was right? haha. But i´m happy to have an american. And someone that likes sports. And someone that understands me and pretty much likes the same kind of food that i like (as far as we know). She just got to argentina the last transfer (1 1/2 months ago) and so the language is still a little bit difficult, but she is smart, and she´ll get. It´s going to be so fun! and we are going to work so hard and so good together. It is incredible how Heavenly Father knows exactly what I need and gives me what will help me most, and not necessarily what i think is better.

so basically, that is why i didn´t write monday because we had our P-Day yesterday instead of monday because of transfer changes. and i totally forgot to warn you. so don´t get all worried. Yesterday I couldn´t write because i spent all day traveling. haha. and monday we get to travel again, so i don´t know if we will get to do internet on monday, but i will do my best to write again. Anyway, there is a whole bunch that we need to do, so my time is short.

Love you lots!

Trust in the lord with all your heart....because it always ends up way better then you could wish for.

Love, sister yingling

p.s. super glad that faith is feeling better. i´ve been praying for you face! and maxwell too. poor little guy.

oh and abby. good for you not doing hw on sunday. i really have a testimony of keeping the sabbath day holy. and i know Heavenly Father provides ways and miracles to accomplish everything that we need to do, if we sanctify that day. i know. i´ve seen it in my life...time and time again.

dear family and friends,

well, it sounds like last week was full of worries and stress. I was sad to hear that faith is still sick. FACE. YOU ARE MY SISTER AND YOU CAN´T BE SO SICK. :( make sure you pray lots and read your scriptures to keep you spiritually healthy. i have learned lots about that fact that when we are healthy spiritually, it helps us be more healthy physically as well. not that it means that we won´t ever get sick, but that we will feel better even if we are sick. and i hope that maxwell gets lots better real soon. poor little guy. i have no idea what croup is, but i think i´ve heard it named, and it sounds horrible. i´ll have to ask andrew what it is. haha.

and abby i was imagining dad´s face when you had to tell him that someone rear-ended you and when the car almost exploded. hahaha it made me laugh. poor guy. we break everything and he has to fix everything. he will earn the celestial kingdom just for his patience. haha. the good thing is that we know that material things really aren´t that important. when you can afford them they are nice and useful, but they aren´t necessary...especially for our salvation. which is the purpose of this life so in the long run those things don´t mean anything.

ok, so this week was great. the much changed and converted Miguel could enter into the waters of baptism this past saturday and sunday was confirmed. then sunday night he did some visits with us. he will be a great tool in the work of the Lord. It looks like we will be having changes at transfers the following Monday, and we are praying that he will stay strong if one of us has to leave. It is always a trying time for the recent converts when their missionaries leave. that is why it is so, so important the help of the members.

speaking of members, our prayers are being anwered and we are getting the support of our members more. our mission leader in the branch came to church this past sunday, and it seems like he is wanting to start up again with his calling and reactivate himself. that is really good because we need a branch mission leader.

so there is a guy here named oscar. he used to be an evangelist pastor a lot of years ago, and is a "dry member" as they say. i want to ask you all to pray for him. he has a testimony and knows that this is the only true church, he goes to church every week and goes to the branch activities. he knows the doctrine and is ready to be baptize. he only lacks the decision. we have arranged for him to have his baptisimal interview on Tuesday and we are hoping this will help him make his decision. so if you could keep him in your prayers, especially the family prayers, that would be very appreciated.

and, i don´t have very much time today, so i´ll write you next week!!

love, sarah

ok, as for the good news of the week...

wow. erik, i liked your email a lot about fasting and prayer. it is so true, and i´m learning a lot about the miracles that come from these two powerful tools that we have. this last week we had the opportunity to fast for our investigator Miguel (who will be baptized this coming saturday!!) and another investigator Oscar. Oscar is pretty much a "dry member" as they say. We have been trying to figure out what his worries are about being baptized. Anyway, sunday he came to church and for some reason wanted to talk with the branch president. then the branch president told us that as they were talking he told him why he didn´t want to get baptized. it was amazing because we were fasting and praying to be able to figure out what he needs. And we got the answer so straight forward it was a pure miracle. now we just need to figure out how we can help him resolve his worries. because it is a little complicated. but i know it isn´t impossible.

and another miracle. From the first day we met miguel, he had told us that he wanted to change but that he was afraid of falling. or not being able to change completely or being able to change, but not be consistent in the church and not be consistently strong to not smoke or drink. he is really humble and we told him time and time again that if he did what we asked him to do and put forth the effort, Heavenly Father would bless him and he would be able to change completely. Anyway, we stopped by not yesterday, but the Sunday before and he didn´t look so good. it showed in his face. he was really nervous and worried and told us that he came out of his house with desires to tell us he couldn´t change and that he didn´t want us to stop by anymore because he was too weak and didn´t want us to be sad when we saw him fall. anyway, we testified with the Spirit and we left him a little better. a little bit more sure. but we were still really worried for him. So we prayed and prayed and prayed for him. Then when we stopped by thursday (because of a job that he had for the week we couldn´t pass by earlier) and he came out to greet us, his face and his countenance had changed completely. He wasn´t the same Miguel that we had known for the past 3 weeks. He told us about how he "fought with God" as he put it, because he wanted to change. He said that he prayed so earnestly to be able to change. And he said that he told God that if he couldn´t change, he didn´t want to live anymore. He didn´t want to wake up the next day if he had to continue living how he had been living for his whole life. He told us that he fell asleep expecting to not wake up the next morning. He said he put his life in the hands of God. He told Heavenly Father to do what He wanted with his life. Then he told us when he woke up the next morning he knew God was telling him that he could change. He didn´t have the desire to smoke or drink alcohol anymore. He said he spent the day (because he isn´t working right now) reading the scriptures and writing his thoughts and feelings.

I will admit, I shed some tears of thankfulness because I was so touched. Those are the stories you want to hear from every investigator. That is TRUE repentance. The change has been miraculous. This is why I know the power of prayer, because it never fails. I know that I cannot help anyone, but the gospel can. The only way that I can see miracles as a missionary is relying on the Lord 100%. I´m learning every single day how to better rely on the Lord. I know our Heavenly Father is all powerful. I know that Jesus Christ is our Lord and King. I know that He sacrificed for all of us so that we could have the opportunity to experience the joy and happiness that Miguel is experiencing. And thanks to the atonement, we all will live again. How blessed we are to know these truths.

love,
hermana yingling (o sheen-leen how they say it here...haha).

p.s. a picture for fun....this is me with my hat that i get to wear. we asked for permission from the president so we don´t get skin cancer from being in the sun all day...haha. when the president saw my hat he laughed and said, "that hat is perfect" haha. i still am getting used to using such a big hat, but i´m learning to like it. haha it will be good to use after ward to teach swimming when i don´t have to be in the pool. :)

Ok, so this week was an interesting one. I´ll start off with yesterday. we had 27 people in church!! :) And this past week a family in the branch went to the Uruguay Temple to be sealed. Oh how I wanted to go with them...miss the temple lots. I hope the temple here opens up soon. I would love to go. But not just so I can have the opportunity to go, but also because there are many, many saints here in Argentina who need the temple to open up. Trips are limited to the temple in Uruguay because it has to serve many people, and it is a lot further away. Those who live in Buenos Aires have it better because it isn´t too far away. But some people that live in the other provinces have to travel very dangerous roads for a long time to get there. Once they get there. They stay for one day and go home. How greatful I am for the many temples that we have in Utah, but not just utah....the Unites States. It has been such a blessing in my life. The week I come home, we should plan a family vacation to visit all the temples in Utah...haha. That would be AWESOME!!

Ok, let´s see what else. Oh yeah, we had a surprise visit by the President Saturday. haha. The assistants called us last monday and told us they would be passing by saturday but they didn´t know when or anything. so saturday they called us and said, "hey we are coming to your apartment...do you sisters wanna make lunch for us?" men...always thinking of their stomachs...haha jk. anyway, so the president and the asistants came over to eat lunch with us in our apartment. we made empanadas (because you eat them with your hands and we don´t have any plates...haha). so easy and so yummy. i will definitely be making a lot of these when i come home because they are so practical. ok, anyway, so they came over and the president said, "lets do interviews.." haha. surprise. anyway, so we talked about the work here in Junín. he presented us a plan to help the members here work. They are used to not working. They are used to the missionaries doing it all, but it can´t be that way. i know from experience that the work isn´t working if the missionaries try to do it all. First of all, because they can´t. Second of all, because many who get baptized will just go inactive because they are converted to the missionary and not the gospel. That´s why members are so important. That´s why i get proud thinking about my brothers and how they have done so much for missionary work since they have returned home from their missions. :) hopefully i can follow in their footsteps.

and it sounds like i´m in for the long-haul. president told me that i´m staying in Junín forever. haha. i´m never going to be released. sorry. i´ll see you in the eternities. haha. jk. but i´m excited that i´ll at least be staying for one more transfer, because i feel like we are just getting the hang of working here in junín and there are always challenges and there are always things to make better. i hope i stay for a long time so i can see the change in the branch. that would be nice. but i told the president that the Lord knows best, so whatever He wants, that´s what i´ll do. i pray to make my weaknesses become strengths. I have so many. every single day i hope to achieve the potential the Lord has given to each of us, and every single day i fall short. But, with His help, I´m learning. I´m growing. and i´m improving. only to learn of more things i can improve. haha. that´s why this life is fun. because we have something to work on ALWAYS. it is never ending. but it is fun to change and set goals and accomplish and work towards goals.

i set a goal for new years to not eat anything that would be considered a dessert for the month of january (like cake, cookies, brownies, ice cream, pudding, etc.) i have a lot of stupid reasons why i decided to do that, but mostly because i wanted to learn more self control and have a challenge. the only exception is if not eating something will offend someone (because that happense here...). anyway, so far so good.

and, i got all the letters from the eigth ward!!! yay! you can tell who ever is in charge of all those, thank you soo much!! i´m very greatful for everyone that wrote me (even though all the yw thought i was serving in brazil...haha). mom, you can tell sister slothower why i decided not to take my violin, but tell her that every opportunity i get, i play the violin and i teach people too. i usually get to play like once a month (on average) and i love it. miss my violin. and i got some christmas cards from people in the ward. i´m soo greatful.

anyway, that´s all i guess.
love, sister yingling

Happy New Year 2012...weird. Oh and i´ve been a missionary for more than one year...even weirder. Time has flown.

Ok, this week has been a good one. We are working with a guy named Miguel. He has really progressed a lot. He is quitting smoking and went to church on Sunday. It was a miracle that he came to church. Because of the holiday, we only had 12 people in church. sad day! but even though Miguel went out partying for the New Year and came home not in the best conditions at 6:30 am, he got up and went to church with us. He told us that if he didn´t go, then there would always be an excuse not to go. And good thing he went to. He felt the spirit real strongly as everyone shared their testimonies. It was really satisfying to see the spirit working in his life.

It has been a real dry last 2 months. Not just because it hasn´t rained in a while here, but also because no one has been able to make sacred covenants with Heavenly Father through the waters of baptism. for 2 whole months. i will admit. i´m super concerned. usually from my experience, Heavenly Father blesses us for our efforts and a member of a family decides to be baptized, as long as we are doing what we need to do and being obedient. But, that hasn´t happened yet. I´m sure that Heavenly Father is trying our patience and our faith.

I know Heavenly Father puts challenges in our lives to bless us. To strengthen us. To develop more Christ-like attributes. I can definitely say that I have learned lots from the challenges of the mission. It has been interesting here in Junín because the members don´t know how to work with the missionaries. It isn´t something they are not used to doing. We are basically trying to restart the branch from scratch. The members that we have, are not willing to make changes in their lives to come back to church, and the few that do come are not willing or not able to do much to strengthen the saints in this area. The sad part is that like 10 years ago there was an attendance of 100 on average every-single week. Now we get about 20 on average. We are learning more and more why things have changed so much in these last 10 years, and it is a processes changing things around. I´m sad because it seems to my companion and i that I will be transfered at the end of January and i will be really sad, because we are just starting to see some changes in the members and in the branch.

But the good thing is, that i know planting seeds is the first step to producing fruit. We are at the point of harvesting the fruit of missionaries from years ago. It just shows that God works in mysterious ways. Lots of times, the missionaries will pray that an investigator will go to church, or that they´ll get married, or that they´ll quit smoking, or that they´ll get baptized. And lots of times the missionaries get sad because they don´t get to see the investigator go to church, or get married, or quit smoking, or get baptized. But little do they know, that 5 years down the road, other missionaries stopped by, and that same investigator has had a change of heart and wants to go to church, or has since gotten married, or has quit smoking, and those missionaries have the opportunity and the blessing to see the miracle of a conversion. To see the miracle of someone enter into the waters of baptism.

That is my consolation and my hope. I know that is how God works. So, I continue praying, because yes I do wish they would change now, that is always so much better, but the most important is that they change; in the timing of the Lord.

Anyway, love being a missionary. and

love you all,
sarah