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

"Eva Was Venezuelan"

I am currently writing this from the National Gallery of Art and I feel
so fancy haha. But this week has just flown by! I was so surprised
when I realized yesterday was Sunday. It seems like I just wrote you
all. But thankfully this week has been a great one. We saw so many
blessings which has reminded me of a scripture in the Book of Mormon
in Ether 12:12 "For if there be no faith among the children of men God
can do no miracle among them; wherefore, he showed not himself until
after their faith." I have definitely learned that as we stay firm in
our faith throughout our challenges and setbacks, we will always see
the blessings in the end. There are always good things to come!
Some of those miracles have been going to the Visitors Center with
Oneyda and Alex who have been some pretty difficult people to teach.
But both of them felt the spirit so strongly there as we talked about
the blessings of the temple. Oneyda kept thanking us profusely after
for inviting them there. Still not on a baptismal date, but they are
slowly preparing their way there. We also got to see Ingrid and George
even if it was just for a moment in the doorway, but we have been
praying to make contact, and we did!
We also had some awesome lessons this week. And through those lessons,
we managed to meet almost all of our goals! We picked up a new family
that hasn't really been to church since coming to the States, and have
another señora who committed to be baptized! Overall my testimony of
the fact that Heavenly Father hears and answers prayers, even about
the littlest things, has grown significantly. Sometimes it is easy for
us to pray and pray, but never look for the answers, or forget to
recognize them when they come, but I know that as we look for the
answers to our prayers, we will always find them. I love being a
missionary and feel so privileged to be doing this great work. Sister
Case, my roommate, just hit her year mark and we were talking about
how incredibly fast it all goes by. The time really just flies! I'm
not sure how it happens! That's about all I can think of for this
week. It's been a fantastic one. Les quiero mucho y ojalá que tengan
una buena semana!

Oh! To explain the title, we were checking up on this less active lady
and some random guy was outside her house lifting weights, which we
kept telling him we couldn't do in skirts despite him telling us
exercise is good for you (haha). But then Hna Rivas said her family
was from Venezuela and he starts going off about how beautiful the
women from Venezuela are (slightly weird) and tells us that Eve was
Venezuelan. I was dying and Hna Rivas felt really uncomfortable. Gotta
love days like that.

Hna Yonson

All the Spanish Missionaries in the zone

 Us at the VC with Oneyda and her boys.

I need one

Atheists, Opposition and Goodbyes

It's weird to think transfers were just this past Wednesday since not
much has changed on our front. We have a new roommate, since Sister
Maire went home and Sis. Cooper came in. Our new apartment is still
treating us well.

Our week itself has been pretty rough. We decided to finally talk to
Oneyda and Alex about baptism again, hoping to get Alex excited about
something since they are now coming to church every Sunday. And Alex
said he's never once thought about baptism before (not true) and it's
not something he wants to do. Stab wound number one to the heart.
Number two and three occurred on Saturday when we hadn't heard from
Ingrid and George for a few days, which was getting us kind of worried
since they are preparing for their baptism in July. So we stop by and
Ingrid answers the door and says she cannot see us today tells us
everything is fine and closes the door. She also told our member she
couldn't come to church. Needless to say we are racking our brains
trying to figure out how to help her which is difficult when you don't
know what's going on. And number three happened just a few hours later
when Erik, who we were planning on inviting to be baptized on July 23
texted us out of the blue saying that he doesn't want to keep learning
more because he really feels like atheism just makes more sense.
Despite our best efforts to convince him to just come to church, he
said he wasn't interested anymore. Needless to say, it has been a bit
of a difficult week but amidst all of it we still have been able to
see little miracles such as sharing a message of eternal families with
an elderly man who's wife recently passed away, receiving a giant bag
of chocolate covered mangoes from the nicest atheist man I've ever
met, and having 4 investigators at church. It's an amazing testimony
to me that even in the middle of opposition, the Lord still shows us
that He is at the head of this work. We will be praying for the people
we have been working with, and to find some new people this next week.
We have some appointments set up for this next week that I am pretty
excited about.

We also got to hear President and Sister Cooke speak last night and it
was great. I feel so blessed to have had the opportunity I've had to
serve under their guidance and direction. I am both sad to see them
leave and excited for President and Sister Johnson to come in. It will
be a very interesting transition. Well that's all for this week. I
hope you all have wonderful weeks and see the blessings of your own
missionary efforts. Les quiero mucho!

Hna Yonson

I Speak Hispanic and Happy Fathers Day!

I can't believe it's Monday again! I swear some weeks just fly and
this was one of them, and so much happened in just one week. The
biggest pressing news is that the Lord heard and answered the many,
many prayers of His servant, and I am staying in Silver Spring! We got
the call on Saturday night, and all day Saturday I was a ball of
nerves. Hermana Rivas had just finished training and I have been in
the zone my whole mission and my area for 3 transfers, which isn't a
ton of time but enough that President will move you. So needless to
say the entire zone was telling me I was out of here, and I was so
nervous that that would be the case. I've felt like there is still
work here for me to do, and apparently the Lord did too!! I am so
excited, and much to our surprise, Hna Rivas and I are staying
together as well! We're both pretty pumped.

In other news, we moved this week, so Tuesday was just a bunch of back
and forth from our old apartment to the new one. But we managed to get
it all done in one day like we had hoped, and the new apartment is in a
really central location, so I can't complain.

And...Ingrid and George officially have a baptismal date! We went to
go teach them on Tuesday and George told us he wanted to get baptized,
which Ingrid said is the first time he's said anything about that. We
ended up teaching about modern day prophets and Thomas S. Monson, our
prophet today. As we were talking Ingrid told us she had listening to
one of His testimonies just earlier that morning without having any
idea of who he was. We started talking a little more about her
baptism, and she started to cry and bore the most sincere testimony
that she knew the Book of Mormon was true because it had given her the
desire to change her life, and she said that she will get baptized in
July 15! Needless to say we are really excited that it's finally set
in stone.

And to explain the I speak Hispanic. I ended up translating for the
adult session of Stake Conference this weekend....I desperately pray
that the spirit somehow adjusted my words because simultaneous
translation is just not my forte haha. But the guy I was translating
with served his mission in "Barthelona" and so he told me that he
spoke Spanish and I spoke Hispanic. Only slightly offended jajaja.

But overall, it has been an awesome week and I continue to feel more
and more blessed every single day by Heavenly Father. There is no
greater joy than losing yourself in the service of others. So serve
those around you, and President Hinckley said, I know no greater cure
for the troubles in life than to help someone in greater distress than
you. Paraphrasing. But it's true. I love the opportunity I have to be
a missionary and serve others and God every day. Les quiero mucho! Y
espero que tengan una buena semana! Hasta luego!

Hermana Yonson

El distrito!

 La zona

 El area

Let Us All Press On

I'm really not sure how this week came and went, but it's Monday
again! I feel like not too much has happened this past week, but it's
been a good one that's for sure! I guess I'll just give a highlight real
for the week...
We are still working a lot with Ingrid and George. They are both
progressing SO MUCH. Ingrid now texts us randomly out of the blue to
thank us for helping her and her family find the gospel. She is still
concerned about her baptism, she was baptized in another church and
wants to make sure it is completely right for her before she makes
that step. So she is still praying for that, and we are as well. This
past week though we had an awesome lesson about temples and how
because of the temple ordinances, those who passed away without a
knowledge of the gospel have the opportunity to accept it later on.
She started crying and then told us about how her dad and brother had
both passed away and this had always been a big question of hers. She
had always heard that those who didn't accept in this life were just
lost souls until now. It made me incredibly grateful for the message
of the Restored Gospel that allows us to have precious truths such as
the Plan of Salvation in our lives.
We also got to go to the temple not once, but twice this past week!!
(man we are so spoiled haha). It was an awesome uplifting experience
just as always, and makes me even more excited for the many members we
have that are preparing to enter the temple with their families to be
sealed for time and all eternity.
Lastly, we had some awesome meal appointments with members this past
week and have been giving them all a challenge. We have been giving
them a Book of Mormon and asking them to prayerfully select someone
with whom they can share that Book of Mormon and then set a date by
which they can be taught by the missionaries. A little confusing, but
it's what President has asked us to do, and we have seen so many
miracles from it! We normally don't get too many member referrals
(people members refer to be taught by the missionaries) and every
single one of the members we have given this challenge has either had
a referral that same day, or a few days later! It is incredible to see
how the work of the Lord progresses when we all work together. I know
that this gospel is true. I wouldn't give up a year and a half of my
life for something that I thought was just beneficial. It is true,
100%. Estoy tan agradecida por la oportunidad que tengo de ser
misionera y compartirlo con mis hermanos y hermanas. Yo sé que
Jesucristo vive. I hope you all have a wonderful week! I look forward
to hearing from you! Les quiero!

Hermana Yonson


A member told us to just show up at the restaurant and they would have food ready.  We weren't hungry the rest of the day haha.

 

"Knock and it shall be opened unto you"

Temple trip #1