A Visit from Elder Jeffery R. Holland

Hey everyone, 

       This week was a crazy awesome week. Last Tuesday an Apostle named Elder Jeffery R Holland came and spoke to us. He is an outstanding speaker. He spoke of the importance of the Book of Mormon in our church. He spoke about how the Book of Mormon is central to our beliefs and how it is the reason our church has grown so large so fast. When he spoke I could feel the Spirit so strongly and I knew he really was called of God. 

      Then last Sunday we had an amazing devotional. The Piano Guys came! They are a super famous YouTube group and they are all Mormon for you people who don't know. They performed and it was super cool. All four of them also spoke to us and it was really cool to see how strong their faith is. They are really good at preforming too. 

      Overall this week was fun! My knowledge of the language is slowly but steadily increasing which is good. Also we are starting to have culture lessons which have been really interesting. I am learning so much about the Hmong people. I love it.

      Anyways I'll write y'all next week. Don't be afraid to send me letters or emails whenever!

 -Elder Yskes 

BYU Men's Chorus visits the MTC

Hey y'all,

      So this week has been pretty similar to the other weeks here. The language is still coming slowly but surely. The investigators keep pushing our knowledge of the language more and more every day. It pushes us to make sure we have the Spirit with us as we teach and to make sure we are continually studying vocab. I always find it amazing that when a lesson isn't going well or we are struggling to get past the language barrier, if we testify of the truths we are teaching or if we say a prayer the Spirit enters the room the rest of the lesson always goes well. 

      Last Sunday the BYU Men's Chorus came to the MTC and sang Christmas songs for us. It was really awesome music and super fun to see a concert while in the MTC. The best part was that some of the members of the choir were missionaries who served in Japan and baptized one of the Elders currently in the MTC. It was so cool to see! 

      That's pretty much everything that happened this week! Feel free to email or message me whenever! I can read emails everyday but I can't reply until Tuesdays.

-Elder Yskes 

Learning the Language

Hey everyone,

      Week 3 is down! I've gotten better at the language but as we get progressively better the investigators get progressively harder, so it's always challenging. It's ok tho because every time we have more difficult conversations it helps us realize how much we have learned and shows us what we still need to work on. I can now teach a very basic lesson and I understand about half of what the investigator says in response so it's really cool to see how much I've improved. 

      We also had our first TRC (teaching real converts) on Saturday. We taught lessons to members of the church who spoke Hmong. All of them were BYU students so it was cool to be able to talk to them. I'm excited to be able to talk with them more extensively in Hmong.  

       I hope everyone at home is having a good time! Feel free to email or send letters whenever! 

 -Elder Yskes 

Second Week at the MTC and Thanksgiving

Hey everyone! 

      This week was pretty awesome. On Thanksgiving, Neil A Anderson came and spoke to us. It was pretty cool. His grandkids made all us missionaries thanksgiving cards so that was really cool. After that we had a service project where we made 359,000 packaged meals for kids. It was really cool. They also let us watch Ephraim's Rescue which was fun and on Sunday we watched Meet the Mormons 2. The language has been a struggle but the 7 other Elders learning it with me have been really fun. We all are working together and slowly but surely learning Hmong. Anywas, I hope all y'all back home are having great lives! 

•   Elder Yskes 

Service Project