Transfer 1, week 4: Easter

Hola familia y amigos!

I hope all of you had a wonderful Easter. It is a special time to remember our Savior and all that he has done for us. It is fun to do Easter Egg hunts and decorate Easter eggs but it is an even better reward to ponder on and be thankful for the sacrifice of our Savior. I would invite you to watch the Easter videos that the Church produced sometime today and ponder on the love our Savior has for each of us. Here in Mexico, the Easter holiday last the entire week, 24/7. They light off fireworks all day and all night, they ring gongs and bells at 11pm and people speak over loud speakers at random times. I never learned what they were saying, sadly. During this week everyone becomes very Catholic and they don't want to listen to the Missionaries. I wonder what it will be like back in the States.

I'm really excited for both of our investigators because they are both on date for baptism. This means that they have accepted the invitation to be baptized and we are helping them to prepare to make this special covenant and ordinance with God.

Every Wednesday evening we do an activity called TRC. Members of the church and sometimes even nonmembers volunteer (these instances are very rare) to come and be taught by us. TRC is very similar to Visiting Teaching and Home Teaching. Last night, we had  the amazing opportunity to teach our first real investigators. They were a family that live next door to our Maestro, Hermano Martinez, who sat in on our lesson in case we needed help. They are planning on watching General Conference this weekend but they didn't understand how it all works or how we know that there is a prophet on the earth today. We taught them about the apostasy and our need for prophets on the earth today. We each bore our testimonies about prophets and the power of General Conference to answer our questions. We invited them to listen to conference with a question in mind and to record their thoughts and feelings as they listen. I extend this same invitation to all of you as well. I know that you questions will be answered because mine have been answered before and because these talks have been prepared by servants of the God and God is mindful of each of us. The words of those who speak this weekend at General Conference are the words of God (D&C 1:38). I know that Thomas S. Monson is a Prophet and he has been called in these latter days to lead and guide us.

On Tuesday, I had the opportunity to accompany the CCM choir on the piano for our Tuesday evening Devotional, it was an arrangement of the hymn, "Where Can I Turn For Peace?" I have loved singing with the CCM Choir and playing the piano here at the CCM.

I hope you all have a great week and enjoy General Conference!

Lots of love,

Hermana Yungfleisch

Transfer 1, week 3: Elder Cook's devotional

This week has been so great!

Elder Cook came to visit. He taught us three things to do to be great missionaries.

1. Be Ward or Branch builders (As my mom always says, "leave a place better than you found it", this is the message that Elder Cook left with us.)

2. You are the message (as you walk down the street those you pass should feel something)

3. Focus spiritual power on teaching and planning and seek always to have the spirit with you

These are all such great points that I need to work on and focus on while I am serving my mission.

I had the opportunity to play the piano for an Apostle of the Lord. The closing hymn of the night was "We Thank Thee, Oh God, For a Prophet." As I sat playing this great hymn, the spirit bore witness to me that Elder Cook is an Apostle of the Lord and that Thomas S. Monson is a prophet of God and that God loves all of his children and shows his love for us by calling prophets and apostles to lead and guide us. It was such a powerful experience for me.

This week, we had an amazing lesson with our "investigator" Ivan. We answered questions about baptism that he had from our previous lesson that were holding him back from committing to baptism and then he expressed that he is addicted to alcohol and smoking cigarets but that he wants to change. We immediatly flipped the lesson around to Word of Wisdom (D&C 89) and overcoming weaknesses (Ether 12:27). We invited him again to be baptized and he immediatly accepted. It was such an amazing experience and I learned so much about teaching by the Spirit. Ivan was actually one of my favorite teachers here at the CCM, but sadly his schedule was changed and he will no longer be our teacher. I'm going to miss him so much.

I can hardly believe that I only have 2 more weeks here in the CCM. Time seems to have flown. I wish I could stay here forever but I also can't wait to enter the mission field officially. I know that my Spanish is not very good just yet and I will struggle to understand people and speak to those I meet, but I have faith that the Lord will bless me to be able to share my testimony.

The B on the hill behind the CCM stand for Baptism. I love this view.

Fun fact about Mexico, they have Dora the Explorer, but she teaches the children English instead of Spnaish.

I hope you all have a great week!

Lot's of love,

Hermana Yungfleisch

View from the Mexico City CCM

Transfer 1, week 3: No blisters!

I'm pretty much recovered from my cold. It was pretty bad the first week I was here but nowhere near as bad as what mom had. I tried to play it down with my companions so that it wouldn't prevent us from learning and doing the work. They told me this week that they didn't even realize I had a cold. I used a lot of Kleenex and my saline bottle was a huge blessing. I also took a lot of Mucinex. After the blessing I received from my Elders the Monday we were here it all turned around. I still cough sometimes but nowhere near as badly.

I exercise every day. They have exercise bikes, ellipticals, medicine balls and weights. We play volleyball a lot. I'm learning how to shoot baskets for basketball. I play soccer sometimes with Elder Mitchell and Elder Wride but it's mostly just passing the ball around and trying to do cool tricks. I rode almost 8 miles earlier this week on one of the exercise bikes. I felt so good afterwards.

I have an amazing thing to tell you! I have seen a miracle. I HAVEN'T HAD ANY BLISTERS THE ENTIRE TIME I'VE BEEN HERE! Even wearing the shoes that gave me blisters the day before I left on my mission I know that it's all because of the blessing you gave me the day I left on my mission. You blessed me that my feet would be strong and they have. My feet have cramped up three times twice during gym time and once in my casa but that's the extent of my feet issues.

The food is pretty decent. I will say I have been craving some Cafe Rio and Taco bell. For lunch today I had Chicken in molé sauce and they serve hot corn tortillas with almost every meal so I have perfected the art of making lots of little street tacos. Andrew would probably love it. Before I came on my mission, I hated corn tortillas, now though I eat them every day. I will say that they're not very good at removing fat from meat and that is something that you would hate. I think the food at the Provo MTC might be better but I can't really complain. I have probably gained weight here but not very much. I eat a salad with almost every meal and I drink a lot of water. When I say a lot of water it means I try to drink at least 3 or 4 of my insulated water bottles a day. I had one day when I'm pretty sure I drank 8 or 9.

My Spanish is coming along pretty well. I still can't communicate everything that I want to but I know that that will come with time.

My daily self assessment is ok. I don't do it every day and I don't write in my journal every day because we don't get back to our apartment until 9:40 or 45 every night and then we sit and talk about how we can improve and how the day has gone and funny things that have happened and then we read for 20 minutes in Spanish as a companionship and then we get ready for bed and say companionship prayer and then maybe sneak in 5 minutes for journal writing. Nights are pretty crazy for us.

I'm trying to email you the some of my journal pages.

Susan played piano for Elder Cook's devotional at the Mexico City MTC this week

Susan played the piano for a devotional by Elder Quentin L. Cook of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles today in the CCM!  One of her two companions, Sister Asplund, conducted the music.

We'll have to wait until next Thursday, on her P-day, to find out how it went.

Go Susan!

Transfer 1, week 2: Hermana Yungfleisch gave her first Sacrament meeting talk in Spanish

¡Hola familia y amigos!

This week has been great!

I gave my first talk in Spanish on Sunday. It was pretty nerve wracking for all of us because none of us got a lot of time to prepare our talks and we didn't know which of us would actually be called on to speak. But I did it (and it didn't go as badly as I thought it would.) I should probably explain, every week, we are asked to prepare a five minute talk in Spanish on the chance that we are invited to speak in Church. Because my district was my zone this past week. We all expected to be called on to speak. Surprisingly only 4 of us were called on to speak. The rest of the time was filled by our Branch President, President Romero and one of his counselors. We all spoke on the Fall. It was a great Sunday.

This week, we also began teaching two new investigators, Ivan and Iliana. They're just our teachers posing as investigators to give us practice. My companions and I have grown so much in the few weeks we've been here. We have become so much better at planning for lessons. We now go into lessons\appointments with a very simple and brief outline of the things we feel would be the most beneficial to them and then we just focus on listening to our investigators as they ask us questions and answer the questions we ask them. We also make sure that we follow the promptings we receive from the spirit.

This past week I´ve had the oportunity to listen to 3 great devotionals. Tomorrow will be the greatest devotional yet. Elder Cook, of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, is coming to visit and will be giving a special devotional here at the CCM. I have been asked to play the prelude, opening, and closing hymns at it. My companions and I will be singing in the CCM choir as well. It will be a great spiritual experience. I am so excited.

I know this church is true. I'm so grateful to be here at the CCM, preparing to serve a mission. I love the Book of Mormon. I know that it is another testament of Jesus Christ and that it is the word of God. I would encourage all to read it because I know that my life has blessed by it.

Con mucho amor,

Hermana Yungfleisch

Here are the two photos that Susan sent home this week.  Notice in the first one that Susan straightened her hair!

2016-03-16:  Susan with Hermana Johnson, her roommate from last summer at BYU

2016-03-17:  Hermana Yungfleisch on P-day in the CCM

Transfer 1, week 1: Hermana Yungfleisch's first week in the CCM!

Hola family and friends,

I have had the most amazing week ever!

First of all, I have been blessed to serve in a trio here in the CCM. Hermana Asplund and Hermana Burger are amazing and we've learned and grown so much together in the last eight days. The best part is that we will all be serving in the Texas Houston South Mission together.

Secondly, my District/Zone is the best! The seven of us have so much fun together. I know for a fact that we were placed together in our district by divine inspiration, to learn from and support and love each other. I'm pretty sure none of the other Districts here at the CCM love each other as much as we do. The other missionaries in our Zone left earlier this week to report to their missions, so the seven of us in our district are also our entire zone. Which means we'll all most likely be speaking in church this Sunday. In Español! Elder Baxter and Elder Wride will be serving in the Salt Lake West Mission and Elder Littlefield (or as we call him Elder Campopaqueño) and Elder Mitchell will be serving in missions here in Mexico.

Before leaving on my mission I was very worried about learning Español because I have always struggled to learn other languages. But I have been so blessed these past few days. Speaking in Español is coming along slowly but better than I thought it would. It can be frustrating at times to not be able to say exactly what I want but I know that one day I will be able to. I know that Heavenly Father has a plan for me and that he will provide a way for me to accomplish this, just as Nephi declared in 1 Nephi 3:7 - "I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded for...the Lord giveth no commandments...,save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them." The Gift of Tongues will come as long as I believe in it, am worthy of it, seek it, work diligently, and love the people that I will serve. I have now taught four lessons in Español and I bore my testimony in Español this past Sunday in Sacrament meeting.

We went to the temple this morning. It was such a great experience. The México City Temple is gorgeous. We sang hymns on the way there which brought a special spirit to our time in the temple.

I love the CCM. The spirit is so amazing here and it is so beautiful. I wish that I could stay here forever.

I love you all!

As my District says, Amor y fist-bumps!

Hermana Yungfleisch

Hermana Burger (left), Hermana Susan Yungfleisch (center), and Hermana Asplund (right)

The fence around the CCM in Mexico City

Hermana Asplund (left), Hermana Burger (center), and Hermana Susan Yungfleisch (right)

Susan's mailing address

Susan's address at the Centro de Capacitacion Misional in Mexico City:

Sister Yungfleisch
April 12, 2016 15-B
Carretera Tenayuca-Chalmita #828
Colonia Zona Escolar, Gustavo A. Madero
07230 Mexico, Distrito Federal
Mexico

Susan's email address is Susan.Yungfleisch@myldsmail.net

Photo of Susan's district in the CCM

This photo was sent to Susan's email account yesterday from Sister Call, the wife of the second counselor in the CCM Presidency.
My first view of Susan's missionary name tag!  The first Hermana Yungfleisch in history.
Susan is in a threesome companionship w/ Sister Burger and Sister Asplund.

District 15B

I am a Missionary!

I have been set apart as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  For the next 18 months I will go by the name Hermana Yungfleisch.

I am the first Sister Yungfleisch in the history of the world.  It's cool that I was set apart as the first Sister Yungfleisch exactly 28 years after my dad was set apart as the first Elder Yungfleisch on 1 Mar 1988.