Besos

What a cool trip that looked like! Man that's one for the books for sure. (Kevin had corporate meetings in Cancun last week and we took Oliva with us for her senior trip).  I loved seeing the pictures and reading about what you guys did! What a cool trip! for your information Olivia, I loved seeing the pictures and reading about it and would LOVE to read more about your funny inside scoop. That's so cool about the ruins and all that old time Mayan things you got to see. What was up with those underwater cave things? Super cool! Hard to hear that dad isn't quite the young buck he was, hope the ole ear drums can heal up. (He ruptured both eardrums on a dive) It's prob from all the old school hard rock that he listened to back in the day, but a little too loud.

Things here in Paraguarì are tranquilo as always. I got my new companion, Elder V from Peru. It was kind of funny, out of all the people in the mission that I still don't know, I got a companion that was in my district from my first change. Funny stuff. He was over Acahay before they shut it down so we got a guy with the inside scoop. It's really nice and a little unsettling, the changes that come from a new companion. It's super nice being able to speak Spanish all the time and getting more help and I work on my Spanish more and more. 

This week we deep cleaned our area book and totally organized it by barrios. So now we have a really clean and clear idea of what we're working with here in Paraguarì and what we need to do. We´ve been drumming up a lot of new work here and working in new areas and this week should be placing a ton of Con Fecha.  I'm letting you know this in the email so you can hold me to it. 

A cool spiritual evaluation this last week. Idk, I'm not going to lie to you guys, these last weeks have been a little stressful and a little hard. I've been trying a lot of adjusting and don't really see myself as being as successful as I could be or should be. I see expectations and want to fill and have been trying to adjust things to fulfil that expectation. How to talk or work with investigators and less actives and recent converts. I kept thinking that the gospel is here for us to be happy, but I've been so stressed and looking so much at what is lacking, that I haven't been able to feel that really for even myself. 

What I did this week was just take a good hard look at myself and what my purpose is and why I'm here, and if I get a good picture of that, then the Lord's promise to me was that He would direct me and help me. What do ya know, i found the answer in preach my gospel under the section 'missionary purpose`. 

I'm here to invite people, no matter who, investigator, less active, active, it doesn't matter, to come unto Christ and feel close to Him through faith in Him and His teachings. 

It is cool applying this and instead of thinking, "how do I get this person to a certain point, or how do I convince them" I think, "how do I get them closer to Christ?" And so far, the simple answers have come to me and I have been able to share and feel full of purpose in my role here as a missionary and representative of Jesus Christ.

Besos,

Elder Yocum

 

 

 



New Companion, Elder V from Peru