Zone Conference Farewell

This week was good! On Wednesday, we had Zone conference. It is the final one before we leave so they had Elder Ellestad and I give our departing testimonies. It was a good Sunday as well because we had 8 friends come join us at church! It was awesome to see all of them! We are excited to keep working hard until we go home! 

- Elder Yskes 

Thai Chilli Pepper Picking and Birthday Celebrations

This week was pretty good as well!!

We helped someone tear up their bathroom floor! It was pretty fun! We will probably help them finish redoing it later this week as well. 

We went farming again picking Thai chili peppers. When someone is too busy to meet up we just go farming with them. It works! 

On Sunday, we had a fun time because it was Elder Ellestad's birthday! We went to a going away party after church for some of the people heading back to college. We also had a Stake dinner at a member’s house in celebration. It was good! 

That's pretty much it! Attached are the pictures I promised to send. 

-Elder Yskes

Picking Grapes, A Visit to the Temple and Tuan Le's Baptism

Tuesday: We went farming with some members! We picked Thai chilies and it was really fun!

Saturday: Today was awesome! In the morning, I went to the Temple with some recent converts in Merced! It was a really good experience for me and them. They had a really enjoyable time. 

After the Temple, we did our annual Vineyard service! We picked grapes to be made into raisins to be given to the needy. This year was the biggest harvest anyone could remember! We almost didn't have enough space to put all the grapes! It was really cool! 

Sunday: Today Elder Israelsen and I went to the baptism of our friend Tuan Le! He was someone we taught last time I was in Pioneer Park and we referred him to the YSA unit. Anyway he decided to be baptized and asked that we come to support him so we did! It was a great experience! 

I will send pictures next week, love y'all bye!

- Elder Yskes 

A Visit from Elder Whiting

This week was really good! Here are the highlights:

Thursday: Elder Whiting of the 70 came and had an awesome Zone Conference with us! He focused on what the prophet has been telling us in that we need to hasten the gathering Israel as the scriptures prophesy. It was really good. 

Saturday: Today our friend Moua got baptized! He started learning about a year and 3 months ago! It was really cool to see his progression over all this time! 

Elder Yskes

Ward Campout and Fishing

This week was good! We were able to do some cool things so that was fun. 

On Saturday, we got permission to go up to our Ward’s campout. It was a super good time. Then today (Monday) we got to go fishing. I caught 4 rainbow trout. It was a good time! We also were able to have some really good lessons so overall it was a good week! 

Elder Yskes

Top two pictures are from fishing and the others are from the campout

Baptism in Merced

This week was pretty good! 

I was able to head back up to Merced on Saturday and baptize someone we had been teaching when I was up there. It was super exciting! It is always awesome to see people follow Jesus Christ! Other than that, it was a pretty normal week! Hope y'all have a good one!

- Elder Yskes 

Service Work and Reconnecting in Fresno

This week was good! We did a lot of service which was good! We also found a couple new people to teach and had interviews with our Mission President. Overall it was another fun week and we were able to reconnect with some people we used to teach about a year ago. 

Hope y'all have a good week!

- Elder Yskes