The End of an Era

Well transfer calls came...

And I am saying goodbye to my beloved Landover Hills. I really think
the goodbyes keep getting harder and harder. I'm not quite sure where
I will be going or who I will be with yet, so you'll all have to stay
tuned for next week to learn that. But this week has been a great one.
Obviously with lots of challenges, but I have learned so much and had
so many wonderful experiences as well. We got a new ward mission
leader and he is amazing. He is a returned missionary himself from
many years ago, and when he met with us on Wednesday he continually
expressed his love for us and the work we are doing. Then he said
something that I'm pretty sure I will make my motto for the rest of my
mission. He was holding our progress record and said, "Ahora, su
felicidad es esto." Or your happiness is this now. It really struck a
chord with me. It's true, my happiness is this, these people, this
area, their progression towards conversion. It's what I do and love
every single day. I feel so grateful for that opportunity to have this
happiness. It really is a greater joy than I have ever known. And
although I am so sad to be leaving this area, it has definitely been
my favorite so far, and I know no where else will be quite the same
(partially because I don't feel like I'm in America haha) but I know
Heavenly Father has other things for me to learn elsewhere, and I know
that I will find even more people to love and teach! I don't know that
I have too much else to say and I know if I start going into specific
experiences this email will take about 3 years to read, but I know
that the Lord has blessed me immensely, both in this area and in this
week. I have been able to feel the spirit working through me and
testifying to these people of the truthfulness and simplicity of the
gospel. I am so sad to be leaving Sister Rivas, but also so excited
that she will be taking over the area. I know it's in good hands :)
sorry this is kinda short mom. I'm sure I'll have a lot more to say
next week. But until then, espero que tengan una linda semana! Yo sé
que todavía tengo mucho de aprender, pero no hay una feliz andas más
grande que está que tengo ahora. Mi felicidad ES esto! Sé que cuando
realmente vivimos el evangelio con todo nuestro corazón, tenemos un
gozo natural. Jesucristo vino para que tengamos gozo! Les quiero mucho
y les invito que agradezca al Señor por el gozo que tienen en sus
vidas! Hasta la próxima semana y por favor oren por este área!

Hermana Yonson

Why I Believe with Judy! And lots of sisters

 We went to DC for the sunrise

 DC

Death by Cake

Thank you all for the happy birthday wishes, whoever said birthdays on
the mission aren't fun, never served Spanish speaking haha. No worries
mom, I ate about 5x more cake and food than I would on any normal
birthday haha. But we'll come back to that. First, I feel like I say
this every time, but time is going by SO quickly. I can't believe it's
been a year since I turned 19. I feel like the past year has just been
a time warp, but I have easily grown and learned more in this past
year than in any other, especially about our Savior, Jesus Christ. I
remember my MTC branch president saying that these next 18 months
would be my chance to become closer to the Lord than every before, I
just had to use them wisely. I am now very grateful for that counsel
and the progress that I have been able to make, and even more exciting
is the number of people that I have been able to help in their own
journey as well. As it is said, happiness isn't complete unless it's
shared with someone else!

So birthday........I hate my companion. Hahaha.

So she has the brilliant idea that in Relief Society last week, when
they sing to all the hermanas with birthdays, to announce that mine is
on Saturday as well. Well, any of you who know Spanish culture a
little, birthdays are often a big deal, and they love their
missionaries. Saturday also happens to be the day of a RS activity, so
they all make sure I am coming, and I thought I was going to get away
with just that, but no. Saturday rolls around, and every single
activity we did included a meal and cake. My comp has videos of all of
them. The final cake count: 5. My companion had made sure to inform
all of the people we were seeing it was my birthday ahead of time. But
she got her payback because she had to eat just as much as I did haha!
I have only felt that full before once in my mission, and I really
don't plan on it again. But all that said, I felt so incredibly
blessed to be loved by the members and investigators we saw that day.
I didn't feel far from family, because I had family all around me. I
love these people so much!

On another note, one of my favorite moments this week was church the
next day. We had 3 of our investigators show up, and two less active
families who had promised to come, but often tend to find excuses last
minute. We were so happy to see them! Also, one of our investigators
who we've had trouble integrating in the ward (she's a little
stand-offish) made friends! We had to go help with translations here
and there because it was ward conference and a lot of the stake
leaders only speak English and kept asking us to translate for them,
so our investigator went with some of the hermanas and was even asking
them some of the questions and concerns she has about the church and
Book of Mormon! Yes!

This is turning into a really long letter so I'll keep it to that
story, but this week really has been a wonderful one. There are
miracles everyday, we just have to be looking for them! Oh and I got
to interview with President and Sister Johnson, they're just the best.
Super pumped to serve with them. I love you all and hope you have a
wonderful week! Look for the little miracles in you life and I promise
you will find them. God is in the details.

Cake 1

I really was excited!

*Note from mom.  She also sent videos of blowing out candles on ALL the cakes that day and the traditional face shove into a cake!  Happy birthday!

Last Week as a Teenager

Buenas tardes!

I'm not quite sure where to start this email. I guess the biggest news
is that we got to meet President Johnson this week! So that was
exciting. We haven't had interviews yet, so not too much one on one,
but he trained us at our zone conference, and I am pretty excited to
see where he takes things in this mission. He speaks with such a strong
spirit and I am super excited for our interviews on Wednesday. He also
is hilarious and loves the Red Sox and we have the same last name, so
we obviously got along pretty well for the couple minutes I got to
talk with him haha. And Sister Johnson is awesome. She is here to work
and I know they are both going to be such a blessing to the mission.
Other than that, I feel like not too much happened this week. We are
struggling to keep our people progressing. Agency man! Hahha. If there
is one thing I have learned on my mission, it would be how much our
Heavenly Father respects our agency, or our ability to chose. I cannot
imagine how much it must sorrow him when he watches us make choices
that He knows will not make us happy, and yet he lets us make them. We
as human beings truly are free to choose, but we must accept the
consequences of our choices. He loves us enough to allow us to pick
our consequences. As our dear prophet, Thomas S. Monson says,
"decisions do determine destiny". We decide who we are one day at a
time.
One of my favorite lessons this week was with Oneyda and Alex. We went
over for lunch, and the last time we had seen her she told us she was
afraid of reading the Book of Mormon because she was afraid she might
like it (insert face palming and groans of frustration). Haha people
crack me up. So this week we decided we would help her along and read
with them. So we read about the story of Christ coming to the people
in the America's. One of the greatest events of the Book of Mormon.
The spirit was so strong and then we were able to testify of the
truthfulness of the Book of Mormon and our Savior. Now the ball's in
her court again.
We had zone activity today outside and played a bunch of water games
outside, so this email is coming a little later than usual and I don't
have too much time to write a ton. Time is flying and I can't believe
I'm about to turn 20. When did that happen?? But I hope you all have a
fantastic week and I hope your all use your agency to choose good
things! Les quiero!

Hermana Yonson

President and Sister Johnson! And the zone!

 We got to eat birthday cake

America, America

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!! To answer the question I'm sure many of you
have, because I had it, yes, Hispanics in the states do celebrate the
Fourth of July. They'll take any excuse to get everyone together and
eat food. It's the best. We went hiking this morning in this place
called Great Falls. It's gorgeous and we enjoyed looking at the
Virginia side of the Potomac, since that's out of our mission and we
never get to go there. But as far as missionary work goes...
This week has had its ups and downs, and for whatever reason the ups
seemed super high and the downs pretty low. But I'll focus on this ups
cause it was really a good week overall. The best news is that we have
not one, but TWO people who have chosen to follow the example of Jesus
Christ and be baptized! The first one is George, Ingrid's son, who was
previously on baptismal date, but due to the problems they were having
fell off, but now he is back on for being baptized at the end of this
month! I swear that 10 year old has the gospel way more figured out
than I ever did. The second one is Mario. Now, we have known Mario
forever, but due to his crazy work schedule, he is never available. So
it has been slow progress with him. The amazing thing is that Heavenly
Father led us to him right in the middle of a very large trial in his
life. So this guy is sufficiently humbled. But we were still feeling
pretty hesitant about inviting him to be baptized because we were
afraid he would see it as just one more thing to stress him out in his
already very stressed out life. But we invited him, and he accepted!
He said he has been wanting the chance to change his life around for a
while, and here it is! Prayers were answered. Other than that, not too
much exciting has happened. The week started off awesome, and then
slowly and slowly our appointments starting cancelling. So the week
kind of ended off really slow and long, but hey, now we can appreciate
the good moments even more! I love being a missionary and feel so
incredibly blessed every single day. I love being able to share with
people the hope that comes through the atonement of Jesus Christ.
Speaking of which, I want to invite you all to go to the Mental Health
section of LDS.org. The church has just come out with some incredible
videos on understanding mental illness and how the power of the
atonement can touch even those who feel their struggling can never
end. I encourage you to watch one or two, regardless of whether or not
you struggle with it yourself. You may be able to help someone else
down the road.

Well that all for this week! Les quiero y espero que tengan una buena semana!

Hna Yonson

Fotos!

I found Zion on exchanges

This Hermana fed us WELL

 Great Falls, MD