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