Letter #17 12/29/14

Hello, hello! This Christmas week has been magical, and I am SO grateful. Let's get down to business, because I spent half the time of my life emailing my teacher from the ccm.. #stillcan'tspeakspanish

Welp, the first thing I remember about this week was the Mission Christmas Conference that we had on Tuesday.. WHOA. It was quite literally the most incredible thing I've ever experienced. As we all know, I've been struggling a bit as of late, but every time I would go to The Lord in prayer about it He would just remind me to look to the Christmas Devotional.. and I am SO GLAD I did. It was every answer I needed. There was a bunch of music (I accompanied the girls in my district singing a super beautiful song one of their mom's wrote..) and many a talk about the Savior. Each person focused on one of the Christlike attributes and it was remarkable. The reason we strive to be perfectly obedient in the mission is because Jesus Christ was perfectly obedient. All of the things we are asked to do in life are things that He has shown us. He really is our PERFECT example and I'm so grateful to have Him to look to. I just want to become like Him here on the mish.

So basically, I was just on this crazy super spiritual high of the world, and it was magical. And as we always do when we get together, we sang the efy medley as a mission. Talk about tears! We really ARE bringing the world His truth. I get so stoked just thinking about it. 

OH! And miracle of the week, on Monday we were emailing at the library when we met this girl named Nikkia. She's just recently graduated from high school and said we could come over and see her on Tuesday. We got home too late from the Christmas Meeting to be able to meet with her, so on Wednesday we decided to go to Hardee's (her place of work) and set up another appointment with her. She said we could come over and see her when she got off at 1:00, so we were like, "awesome!" and went on our merry way. When we go to her home, we are met with her mom at the door.. she wasn't too happy that we were there on Christmas Eve and Nikkia wasn't home and basically told us to get out. Haha, sooo.. we were wondering what we should do when Hermana Clark said that we should knock the next house in their little foresty neighborhood.. So, we did just that. A lady named Nancy opens the door, we tell her who we are and she stops us right there. Basically, long story short one of our cute investigators, Lisa Jones (she feeds us all the time and gives us presents and even if she didn't do that we'd still love her so much) was her daughters best friend all growing up. Her daughter actually died of cancer 10 years ago, while she was engaged to Lisa's current husband Brian. She was pregnant too, and after she died Brian married her best friend Lisa, and they had a daughter. Nancy babysits their daughter, Torrey, and she's just like her grandchild. ANYWAYS, she let us in and we already had a good relationship because Lisa has told her all about us. She has TONS of questions about the plan of salvation, and nothing she ever learned in any of the churches she attended made complete sense.. She didn't have much time, but we went back to teach her yesterday and she is golden! GOLDEN. Haha, she is super prepared and her questions are so on point with the doctorine found in the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. She's never been baptized, and I just love her so much. We're really familiar to each other, which is neat. I'm excited to see her progress and learn more! But that was our Christmas Eve miracle. 

It was the best Christmas present ever getting to facetime with my girl! 

Also, on Christmas we specifically prayed to find a miracle human to teach.. as we were leaving the home of The Thompson family, I spotted this guy outside his house and felt like we should go back and sing to him. He basically cried as we sang  and immediately invited us to his family Christmas party later that day. It was a wonderful experience, and there we met his wife's mother. She is 95, blind and loves Jesus SO much. After we had held her hand and kept her company for quite some time, we told her that we were from Utah, and she answered with," oooohhh.. that's not a Christian country is it". We told her that it's actually a state within the US, and that it's really very Christian. She has read things her whole life about the church and was convinced that we were not Christian. We got to resolve her misunderstanding, and teach her something that she never would have learned in her lifetime without us. It was a beautiful experience to be able to help her understand more about the restored gospel of Jesus Christ, and I would like to think that will eventually help her as she gets another opportunity to be taught in the next life. #plantingseedsforsowingintheSpiritWorld

We got to celebrate the holiday with a few really wonderful families in the branch, and I am so grateful to be here. Transfers are coming in a few weeks, and I am already getting severe anxiety, but if I've learned anything in my time in VA, it's that the Lord KNOWS what He's doing. He knows if I'm still needed here or elsewhere. I love this little crazy branch called Burkeville. I love eating deer and saying y'all. I love being able to talk to EVERYONE. I love The Lord and God's greatest gift in sending Him to earth. I love the atonement and the opportunity we have to follow him more closely and be better every single day.

And.. I LOVE YOU! <3 Que Dios les bendiga!

Odd's and End's

- I think I hit an emotional high watching "Mr Kruger's Christmas" on Christmas Eve.. WHO NEW THAT SUCH A MOVIE EVEN EXISTED. Now i'm constantly plagued with the worry that there's some sad old man in some random basement somewhere that needs our help and love. I don't wanna miss him! 

- I can't remember anything odd or end-y from this week.. YIKEZ. Have a good one, regardless!

Letter #16 12/22/14

It's here, guys. At long, long last, it's here. This month has seriously zoomed by.. this transfer, really! Like we're already half way. Mission time will forever be a complete mystery to me, with the way you can never really put a finger on it, haha. Love. 

This week was infinitely better than the last, we have seen many a miracle and I finally met one of the reasons I am here in this area. It's awesome! I'm still not perfect, and I've been realizing this time and time again and super struggling with it. Hma. Clark and I have been having discourses whilst driving in the car on why the Lord calls the weak. At times it feels like He would be much better off, a lot more progress would be made in the lives of His Children, if He would call people that already know how to be missionaries. But I am learning little by little, to humble myself and rely on Him. Just as it says in Ether 12, He really does show us our weaknesses so that we can be humble and trust in His hand. 

Anyways, let's talk about the things we saw at His hand this week! First, I'll tell you about B. My dear, dear friend B. There's a couple different Hispanic families that are all related. They live fairly close to each other, and over the course of the time i've been here, we've got to visit with and teach them all at different times. The first family we started visiting was that of N, and B would always be hanging out outside her house. She's 14 or 15, and I assumed she was N's daughter.. I always felt this weird connection toward her, but she would never really talk to us. Then, one day when we trying to contact a former guy we had tracted into, we happened upon some of the other relatives, and started teaching them. The mom didn't really want to talk, but the kids wanted to learn about God, so we started teaching them. After we started, a ton of their cousins came over including B. So we watched The Restoration movie with them, and answered their questions. B was SUPER interested and kept saying that she felt a lot like Joseph Smith. They had to leave, but we made a return appointment with her at her home. So on Monday, we went back and watched The Restoration movie again, because she wanted to and because it had been a little crazy at the house the week previous. After watching, she recounted the entire story to us, totally understood that The Book of Mormon is the key to knowing if it's true, and told us that she has really been feeling like she wants to change. The spirit was so incredibly strong, it was crazy. She invited us to come over the next day, and when we got to the car we both just broke into singing, "The Spirit of God" because it was that crazy cool, haha. Sooo. We went back the next day, to find out that she had read and prayed and in her prayers had asked God to help her to have a good morning. She said that she woke up singing and felt a happiness she had never felt before. It was so neat to hear about such a simple but powerful answer to a prayer that she received completely on her own! Her step mom works, so she is in charge of making a huge meal for all of the cousins that come over after school and cleaning the entire house.. we taught her a little lesson and served her by helping her get all the work done in the short time she had.. I totally failed at making tortillas, haha. #nothipsanic #thestruggleisreal

She invited us over the NEXT day too, and so we planned to teach the Plan of Salvation. We got there and could tell that things were NOT right. She has a boyfriend that she has had forever, and they got into a little bit of trouble. Her parents don't approve and they found out that they were together and it was really bad. It was incredible, though, how the Lord had guided us to teach this lesson on this exact day and it was so neat to see how receptive she was because of what she had just been through. She has a really hard life and is just so sad inside.. and it's only because she doesn't have the gospel in her life! When we left, we weren't really sure what was gonna happen to her and my heart was broken. I just cried and cried. I love her so much and I know that I am here because of her, at least in part. She has a desire to do right, and wants to receive the blessings of the gospel, we have great faith that she will progress. 

Who else.. you know Jenni? Cute princess Jenni that we love so much? Well, we've been having a big struggle because she wants to be baptized but her mom and step dad refuse to listen to us. They just aren't interested in our message at all, even though their daughter comes to church with us and everything. So we've been having promptings that we need to contact her dad and step mom, and when we brought it up she drew us these hilarious maps to their house and we went over. Her dad was the only one home, and he said we could come back the next weekend. I was super bummed because it was like an entire week away and I'm just really bad at being patient, but decided we would go over on Friday. Come Friday, things got crazy and switched around and we didn't get to visit him. So we planned to visit him the next day, and once again things fell through and we ended up being in different places at different times than we thought we would be. We went to visit them, L and T, as our last appointment of the night. We got there, and started talking to them about Jenni and about our message and everything, and T was just dumbfounded. She really felt that we were sent from God because just at the moment we came, she was about to take L to Blackstone and end their relationship. They have been really struggling lately, and she knew it was a sign that they shouldn't give up yet. It was super neat to see the Lord's hand SO strongly to know that He had placed us in their home at that exact moment to show that He knows them. I am so excited to teach them and am so excited that Jenni will have family support in the Gospel! 

I am so grateful for the opportunity I have to see the Lord's hand and to learn to trust in him. Miracles are everywhere! If you're having a hard time recognizing the spirit in your life, think about the miracles you have seen, things you are grateful for. He really has a hand in all things!

Les quiero! Tengan un BUEN navidad! <3

Con mucho carino, Hermana Yost

Odds and ends:

* One of our investigators calls me a mormon hipster, and one of the families in our branch has taken to calling me a "spoiled utah girl", so that's that.

* One of our investigators, Beverly, had a speaker come to her church and tell her that there are crazy Christian haters in Virginia that are cutting peoples heads off and it's all legal. He said they were found in the seventh day adventist church, and some of them were mormons. She completely wigged out and got super angry at him because she knows two of the sweetest mormon girls and they would NEVER cut someone's head off. She defended us to the death and still hasn't really gotten over it. She also told us that she's been praying for seven months to know if she should be baptized by immersion, so she may be more prepared than we thought. 

*I've been super bummed because one of our miracles, C, had basically disappeared. I learned a valuable lesson that we really don't recieve a witness until after the trial of our faith.. we found her again!! And found out that the grandma she loved so much was MORMON. Okay, biggest news ever. The Lord is so merciful. I love Him! 

Letter #15 12/15/14

Sister Watts....Our mission grandma.  This is a perfect representation of our relationships all around. 

This week, this week, this week.. I don't even know what to say, haha. The adversary, Mr. Diablo has just been RAILING on me as of late, ah. Haha. Sneaky guy. In an area like Burkeville, trying to build up a nonexistent Spanish group amidst the travails of the regular roller coaster of missionary life, he has many an opportunity to get on ya. The struggle is super real, and there are certain times when all the secret yearnings and doubtings and fears and difficulties in our hearts just come out full force and it's real bad news, haha. Having a companion is a super blessing, though, because although we both get discouraged, we're never discouraged at the same time. One day, I can be super bummed, and she's consoling me telling me that it'll all work out and all that jazz. And then the next day, it's reversed and she's going crazy and I'm like "chill, gurl, it's no big deal". The back and forth thing is fun, haha. 

Anyways, this week was also just really strange and after a super seemingly stellar week last week, I remember sitting in the living room during lunch and thinking, "wow.. what am I going to write home? Nothing happened this week.." decided that it had probably been the most mundane week of my existence. We then went out to work, I felt pretty sick, and I was just super down in the dumps. Every single thing was falling through, and to top it off we went to talk to these hispanic guys who were on their porch and they were SO DRUNK and the one wanted to be my boyfriend so bad and kept saying really weird things and looking back, I think it was the first time on my mission that the spirit was just super void and I couldn't feel it at all because I felt AWFUL. And I couldn't shake the feeling. Yikes, to make matters worse when we got back to the car I realized that I had lost the cell phone. We searched the car, but figured it was probably at home. So we went home to get it, because we needed to get ahold of some investigators and it wasn't there either. We searched high and low and deeply searched the car again and again and.. nothing. So, then I broke down. Haha. And Hma Clark would talk me through things and I would feel better, but then.. I would remember the phone. And then it would start all over. Hahah, sad to say but crazy emotional Becs is still very much alive and well. And I thought I had been doing so good and left my old disorganized, forgetful, lazy self at home but then.. here she was, rearing her ugly head. Haha. Finally, I got to my senses somewhat and was like, "Hey! The Lord has promised that if we cheerfully do ALL things that lie in our power, we can stand still and watch his arm be revealed".. and we'd prayed and prayed, but hadn't done EVERYTHING that lied in our power.. so we decided to get back in the car and trace our travels of the day. We drove up to the place we had parked when we ended up talking to super drunk humans, and got out of the car. I walked up and down the grass strip with no luck.. finally I just said this prayer in my head like, "Heavenly Father- PLEASE help us find the phone" walk two steps, and.. bam. Shiny little phone lying in a pile of dead leaves and grass. I fell to the ground and held it up in victory! I was covered with leaves the rest of the day, and there you have it. Basically the only story of my week, but it was a good one. So, next time you begin to think that life is a little too boring, and you desire something crazy to happen, just remember that the Lord works according to our desire.. hahah. 

Anyways, the worst email ever. I'll send pics to hopefully make up for it! Just remember that life is HARD but it's a lot harder when we forget the Lord. He's there for us, like a perfect pal to buoy us up when we're feeling super low. He LOVES us, He KNOWS us, and He wants the absolute BEST for us. I know it. I feel it. 

Love y'all! Les quiero! 

<3 Hermana Becs

Odds and ends:

- I've somehow been put in charge of teaching the crazy primary kids how to sing for the Christmas program. Just imagine me, plucking the keys of the piano with all the kids gathered around me screaming the "asleep, asleep" line of Away In A Manger.. good times in the Burkeville branch!

- We got a new branch mission leader.. Brother Mckinley! Their family reminds me a TON of the Claflins and they're really cool. He even speaks SPANISH so.. I don't know, life will probably get really good really quick. Haha, just kidding life is still SUPER good, but I just know that this is a beautiful tender mercy, demonstration of the fact that the Lord knows us because what branch needs a spanish speaking ward mission leader more than ours? Not one. 

- I AM SINGING IN THE CHRISTMAS PAGEANT AT THE METRO RICHMOND ZOOOOOO! Dreams do come true, friends. Prayers are answered.

- Our little 3 year old friend Jose legitimately ate Hma Clark's hair yesterday.. you could hear the crunch. #itsawildworld

Letter #14 12/08/14

Crazy crazy beans (for some reason I wanted to make a spanish joke here, then I tried to think about how long it's been since I ate beans with a hispanic, then realized that I had no place to do anything of the sort because this area is the weirdest for any spanish speaking missionary and that's that) that another week has flown by! And by flown I don't really mean flown because time rarely flies on the mission, until you look back and realize that you've been here for 3 months. #totescray

With that being said, it's been an interesting week. As far as numbers go, we taught an unusually large amount of lessons and had an even more unusually large amount of new investigators, so that's pretty exciting. We have been setting a consistent goal to get around two new investigators a day, and the Lord always sends us random people to meet that we get to teach and it's really neat. I'm constantly blown away at the sheer vastness of the number of humans I get to meet here that I literally NEVER would have met had I not come out. Serving a mission is SUCH a blessing, and really just so incredibly crazy when you take a step back from the day to day life that sometimes seems like a grind, and realize what you're actually here doing. The highs of the mission roller coaster really can't be beat, and they certainly make up for the lows. 

Pues, COOLEST MIRACLE EXPERIENCE TO DATE. Gather round, chillins. It's sure to be a good'n! (Am I southern Virginian yet? #countrygirlatheart #lol) But, for real, we found a living, breathing super prepared human on Monday and it was nuts town. *Back up a few days* Hermana Clark and I really felt like we should go knock on this hispanic looking door that we've never gone to before, so we went and they didn't answer.. okay.. as we're turning to leave, we see this hispanic guy walking down the street. We go over to talk to him, and give Him a card. He tells us that is name is A and that he lives right next to one of our investigators named Jose. We tell him we'll come teach him soon. We part ways, and as we're driving away we see him cross the street and turn back around to walk towards his house, like he wasn't going anywhere. Super weird. We took it as a sign that he was only walking to find us and that he'll probably get baptized, so that's that. *Fast forward to Monday again* So, as sometimes happens, we had spent way to long at an appointment with our favorite less active family and were feeling super terrible for wasting the Lord's time. I was just super down in the dumps because I know so much that our success is based on our obedience and so I just prayed and prayed that we could have the spirit and be able to see miracles cause I didn't want this visit with A to go badly because of our insensitivity. So in this spirit, we go to A's house to contact him. They won't answer the door, so we text his neighbor Jose and ask if he's with him. They come out to the front yard, with a white guy in tow, and we begin to chat. A tells us that he's too tired to talk because he has to wake up really early, so he leaves. We're chatting with Jose and his white friend J, who we find out is a Jehovah's Witness, when this other guy comes to the front. He's like "hey! I know you guys!" and we were like wigging out, trying to figure out how we know him.. but we can't figure it out. He keeps putting his sunglasses on like that's gonna help us to recognize him.. uh, nope. Not ringing a bell. It finally comes out that he hasn't met us, but has met other sister missionaries.. and they gave him un Libro de Mormon. Which also can't be true, because Hermana Clark opened this area for spanish speaking sisters. So it's like this big ordeal, finally we figure out that Hermana Chambers, my mission grandma (Hma Clark's trainer) was the one that gave him a book of mormon when she was randomly down in Burkeville one day on an exchange a million years ago. So there's already like this beautiful family history thing going on, and then we ask him about the book of mormon.. he's read it, and has been studying the bible for six years in a search for the truth. His entire family are Jehovah's Witnesses, but he never felt right about it. He doesn't understand how they can't believe in modern day miracles, and basically the entirety of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ is a miracle, so I know he's going to love it all. He told us that he was gonna stay around back but had a strong feeling that he should come talk to us, and so he did. He told us he wanted to come to church but didn't have a ride.. we just couldn't believe it! Nobody invites themselves to church, haha. My mouth was agape the e

ntire time, I couldn't even handle. Haha. Hermana Clark did a happy dance.. we floated all the way home, said a billion prayers of gratitude for a loving Heavenly Father who cares enough to help us even though we're far from perfect. 

I know He cares about us! And He knows we will make mistakes, but He still loves us and wants the best for us. We can't get discouraged for making mistakes. We must feel sorry, yes. But we need to use this 'godly sorrow' to help us aspire to be better. He knows it isn't going to happen in one second, but overtime, if we consistently use His beautiful gift of an atoning sacrifice, we CAN become perfected in Him. The hope that the gospel brings us is second to none and I am SO grateful for it in my life and for the opportunity to share it. I know that prayers are ANSWERED, not in a second, not always in a week, and sometimes not for quite sometime, but these answers come. We went to Stake Conference this weekend and one of my prayers I've had in my heart for nearly my entire mission was answered through the spirit there. His timing is SO entirely different than ours, but we have his word that he will be there.

To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: Ecclesiastes 3:1 

Patience is SO hard to have on the mission, and in life, but it really is essential. "Some blessings come soon, some come late, and some don't come until Heaven.. but for those who embrace the gospel of Jesus Christ, THEY COME." (Jeffrey R. Holland kills it always)

Don't forget His love!

Love, Hermana Yost. <3

Odds and ends: 

- We got to stay in the mission home Saturday Night because we live millions of miles away and have a hard time finding rides. We got to have late night cookies and milk with President and Sister Wilson and it was so cute and fun, haha.

-Elder Hallstrom of the seventy came to our stake conference, which ruled. At the adult session President and Sister Wilson walked in and we shook their hands, and they were with another guy. He shook our hands and asked us where we were from.. I told him Riverton, Utah which is like 15 minutes south of Salt Lake City.. he was like, oh I know Salt Lake. I grew up in Hawaii, but I live in Salt Lake, and I was like 'Oh, that's awesome!' wondering why he was in Salt Lake.. It was but a few moments later when I found out that it was HIM. The guy was the 70 and later that night at President's house we all laughed at how awkward it was for everyone, YIKES. The awkward moments don't go away on the mission, they are just magnified.

Letter #13 12/01/14

"I made it through the wilderness, you know I made it through!" Musings on surviving my first transfer."

Hello, hello! Well, as I'm sure you have all been dying to know, the lots have been cast and I am staying another wonderful transfer in the Burkeville Branch. I mean, there was a SUPER low likelihood of getting transferred, but I will admit to being sufficiently terrified the whole week leading up to transfer calls. Hermana Clark asked me the other day if I get attached to people quickly, I hung my head in a silent, 'yes'. #thestruggleisreal

Anyways, this week was really super fantastic. Miracle stories, as per always. It's really so incredibly neat being on the mish. THE LORD'S HAND IS EVERYWHERE. It has to be. We've got nothing else to lean on out here in the wilderness that is el campo. (The field) So, we'll just cut to the good stuff, because porque no? Once upon a time, we had this day full of places to go, people to see, we were way stoked about it. We had planned to walk, so that means that we'd run into a lot of people on the streets. Right before we were leaving, I thought it would be a good idea to have an English Book of Mormon with us because we rarely happen upon Hispanics, so we went back inside before leaving to get one. We didn't have any in the house, but before shutting the door I quickly grabbed an English Plan of Salvation pamphlet that was randomly sitting on our kitchen table. Anyways, as we went out and about quite literally EVERYONE we had planned to see, or had appointments with was busy or not home or just plain didn't want to see us. I was getting super down in the dumps about it, even walking through the empty streets sings 'All Creatures of Our God and King' en espanol at the top of our lungs was hardly helping to lift our spirits. After a good couple hours of this, we were about ready to head back to the house because we had a dinner appointment with one of the less active families in the branch. As we turn down the street to head home, we see Jason (one of our potential investigators, the son of one of our actual investigator) drive by in his truck. We wave at him, and continue on our way back to the house. Then I just get this feeling that we should head back by their house and knock the door of their next door neighbor. So we go back and knock her door, but no one answers.. okay.. so we decide to quick write a note to Donna (Jason's mom) before heading back for real. So we're sitting there writing this note to her, when Jason drives back up with his friend C. We talk to them for a while outside the house, and C. just tells us her whole life story. How she'd had a lot of trials and had a really awful preacher who was not kind to their family so they stopped going to church. Jason goes inside, but we continue talking to C. Finally we're like, "Let's go sit down. We want to teach you!" and at the table she tells us about how she's had some problems drinking because her grandma died and she doesn't know how to cope.. then she starts talking about how she really doesn't think a loving God would send us just to Heaven or Hell.. then starts talking about a firm belief in some sort of spirit world.. and WHAT IN THE WORLD it was incredible. I whipped out the Plan o Salv pamphlet that I had felt like I should grab this morning, and we start teaching her. The spirit was SO happy and I was SO excited! We were in the right place at the right moment to find a prepared human.. It was incredible. I realized what He meant when the Lord admonishes us to, "preach the gospel with a sound of rejoicing"! This really is the GOOD news! I was jumping up and down the whole time practically, haha.

Brother Palmese--our wanna be Italian, President Monson look alike, originally from New York, currently residing in Richmond, stake assigned branch mission leader got released yesterday.  Bless his heart.  He took us to lunch every week  for correlation meeting and although we didn't always get much work done with him, we had great conversations about deep doctrinal topics and Frank Sinatra.

So you know my fav family La Garcia? I sent pics of their kids once, we go to their birthday fiestas.. anyways. We hadn't seen them for a while when we went over the other night. We had ordered them a book of himnos because they LOVE it when we sing to open lessons. Hma Clark wrote our testimony in the front, and we were excited to gift it to them. But when we got to the door, the kids told us that their mom was "busy", which we know is what happened to the last set of missionaries before they got dropped. So we just waited by the door for a while, talking to the kids, when finally H. (the husband) came and told us we could come inside. He always loves to talk to us and has a really religious heart. So we did, and started talking to him in the living room. He went off about how he had talked to the family and they didn't want to change or come to our church because they just wanted to stay catholic because that is what they are accustomed to. So we talked and testified and went in circles and felt the spirit a little and I basically started crying. Haha. Then I went in to the kitchen to talk to A. (the mom) and she wouldn't even talk to me at all.. yikes. So, I dunno, it was just awkward. But we warmed them up enough to want to feed us(?) I guess.. haha, and so they were setting up the table for us to eat. And it was H, and three of the kids in the dining area and one of the kids had the book. He opened it, and asked me to read the testimony. So I sat in their little hallway dining area and read our testimony to them. The room was silent, and the spirit was SO strong. H. even teared up.  He was so excited about the testimony, that He started reading it again out loud when A. came in. We talked more over dinner and everything thing was mended by the time we got up to go. I left that appointment walking on air because I was CERTAIN that He had felt the spirit. It was awesome.

I've just had a lot of crazy testimony building experiences here. If anyone is ever struggling with their testimony, THEY MUST SERVE A MISSION. It is the best thing you could ever do. I have no doubts about the truthfulness of our message, the beauty of the restored gospel. We have had many a lesson recently truly guided by the spirit, where we got to teach to peoples needs and understand them so much more. The gospel truly has something for everyone, because it is for everyone! We are all His children. Yesterday, after church, we called one of our investigators to set up an appointment.. he told us he was at lunch with his family and that his aunt wanted to talk to us. She began with some small talk, but soon started to rip me apart. It was terrifying and so sad. But no experience has given me more peace, more comfort, more absolute joy and sadness at knowing that there is MORE. The restored gospel of Jesus Christ only offers MORE than most of Heavenly Father's children have in their lives, and it is heartbreaking when people don't want to listen or even want to hurt. We are SO blessed. We need to take advantage of this blessing.

The photo of the killer hog that I know you've been holding your breath for.

Odd's and Ends:

- One of our Hispanic investigators asked me if I was a hippie the other day.. uh..

- I am the joke of the whole world to every single Hispanic investigator. I was trying to learn to dance like a Mexican after one of our lessons and they called in the entire family to watch and laugh.

- I got to attend the baptism of three incredibly cool black humans on Saturday, and it ruled. Princess Jenni is now on date for baptism and she got to come. She thought the baptism was, "awesome!"

- We were in charge of filling the font and the other elders told us we should probably stop filling it. So we turned it off, all is well.. when they begin to baptize the other humans there's a lot of commotion as everyone whispers in fear that the font is SO shallow. Uh, oops.. Hahah. It all worked out, and with some extra force, every single human was successfully dunked.

- I ATE RIGHT MANY COLLARD GREENS LAST NIGHT. Life is good, my friends. #thesouthernlyfe

Lots and lots and LOTS of love coming your way! I am so grateful for you all. God is SO good! <3

Have a blessed week!

Hermana Yost

PS- Check out Christmas.mormon.org if you haven't yet.. so neat! #heisthegift

Letter #12 11/24/14

This week was easily one of the longest of my life, but then it also doesn't seem real that it's Pday again. The mission time warp is so very real and so very weird. It was most likely the longest of my life because SO many exciting and interesting and different things went down this week, which ruled. 

First things first, I went on my first ever exchange on Tuesday! Meaning that our sweet sister training leader's came down and one stayed the night here while I drove back up to Cloverhill with the other one. It was really very exciting! It's up closer to Richmond, like suburb-y area and NIGHT AND DAY different than here in Crewe. We went tracting first and it absolutely blew my mind. As we knocked people did NOT want to speak to us. I couldn't even handle, because here in Crewe EVERYBODY is religious and it's in the country so at least everyone is courteous and whoa. I now know that even though Crewe was hard at first, The Lord DEFINTIELY knew what He was doing because the people here have the hearts of hispanic people and genuinely care about you. We got invited to our dear friend Donna's bible study the other night, and of course we attended. It was really interesting and cool to explain a little more about the B.O.M and answer their questions about our faith. I felt a lot like I was at one of those house party things the southern ladies have on The Help, and I dunno dreams do come true! ANYWAYS back to the exchange.. we got to go to dinner with one of the families in the ward, and the mom served a mission in Argentina.. so she was dying to have me pray in Spanish. That was really fun and then we taught a few different lessons. One was to an AWESOME old lady named Virginia. Her son just recently joined the church, and he is convinced that she will not change but the missionaries are visiting her. She's open to everything but just doesn't want to leave her church that she's been attending her entire life. As we talked to her about The Gospel of Jesus Christ, she started on this little rant about how when we repent, sometimes we have to give up stuff we really love, stuff that might even be good, to come closer to Christ. It was incredible to see the spirit working through her to help her answer her very own question. The last guy we taught was Robert from Honduras, and I got to use my Spanish AGAIN with him. It was super neat to see how the Lord helped me to be able to use some of my Spanish even on an all english exchange. I know that He knows and loves me!

One last thing, let's just all appreciate the fact that I got to go to TARGET. *Insert hallelujiah chorus here* I'd be lying if I said I wasn't in heaven. I had strictly TEN minutes in there and I just grabbed every cute warm clothing item I could find. It's been such a blessing to have a coat finally! Also I got eat at chili's so that was the best. #chipsandsalsa

The next day we had a zone workshop, which was pretty cool. President and Sister Wilson were there and we did this fun (not) thing where we did teaching role plays and they video-ed us. It was absolutely nightmarish to watch ourselves teach, haha. It wasn't that bad, but I was REALLY on edge that day. Just like super nervous for everything. President was videotaping us once and mentioned afterward something about that, I can't even remember what he said, but I quite literally just started crying and it was SO bad. It wasn't what he said at all, but He felt awful about it. It was very awkward, but I got everything under control and had like 40,000 prayers answered so that ruled. I learned SO much about how I need to learn to trust the spirit or I am never going to be the missionary that He wants me to be. For the last role play, we were to go in the hall, pray for the gift of discernment, and go back in and find the need of our investigators (who were another companionship of missionaries). We went in and it was SO cool. I could feel the words to speak on my tongue. I knew if I opened my mouth, I would know what to say. We asked many questions, felt that they had serious Book of Mormon doubts, and I felt like I needed to bear testimony of Joseph Smith. It was awesome, the spirit was STRONG. IT was just what I needed to feel okay after my near fatal breakdown. The life struggle of emotional Becs. 

OK, TOO cool.  Seriously considering post mission educational pursuits at VCU, just so I can stand by this wall in my free time.

On Friday, we got to go to this meeting called 'Return and Report' with President for all of the trainees and their trainers. It was SUPER wonderful. We had lots of beautiful trainings and then for our role play for the last one, we got to go into the streets of beautiful downtown Richmond and contact people. IT WAS INCREDIBLE. But it also really showed me why I am where I am.. I couldn't handle, it was too wonderful and artsy and cool and the focus struggle was real. Haha, but it was awesome. I was paired with another trainee and it was really neat to both not know what we were doing. I met so many cool people and was basically in heaven. After it was done, we found out our ride was going to be 20 minutes late so Hma Clark and I decided to kneel in this little alley thing and say a specific prayer.. I prayed that we would find a lady that would be prepared and talk to us, and while we were praying I imagined that she would be getting out of a car when we found her. We walked all around forever and time was almost up, when we passed this lady in a car on the curb.. we walked past, but I knew I needed to go talk to her. We did and it was really cool, we gave her a card and invited her to church! She is muslim but she seemed super open and interested. Then, on the way back to the car we met another lady who looked super similar getting out of her car as well.. it was my first real experience with specific prayer, but it really strengthened my testimony. The Lord WILL answer in specific ways if we are willing to ask. 

City girl at heart yo! :)

One more cool experience with the spirit, we were driving home from our dinner appointment that very night and I prayed in my heart to know who we should visit tonight.. when I saw two people sitting in the laundromat that we were diving past. I felt VERY strongly like we should go visit them, but felt as though it would be too awkward.. so we went and tried to contact the people we had planned for the night, but nothing. I knew we needed to go back.. and it turns out it was a girl we had previously met that works in the laundromat named Justice and her boyfriend Zachary. They were SUPER open and we talked about the Book of Mormon and became great friends with them. I am super excited to teach them soon. The Lord makes a way for us when He asks us to do something, Nephi knew what he was talking about!

The one and only Princess Jenni!

One of the happiest things ever, one of our cute investigators, Jenni, came to church yesterday! She's 8 and adorable and I just love her so much. After church we taught her and she just LOVED the sacrament. We were eating chips and drinking water and she's like, guys! This is like the sacrament! Haha, her mom is from Mexico and her dad is from Honduras and I am really hoping that her excitement will peek their interest. She told us that she felt, "happy and like a princess" at church.. the spirit RULES! 

Missions are hard, but I learned SO much this week. He really will help us and guide us if we will trust him. Trials are HARD but everything is for our benefit. I'm so grateful to experience and really feel all of the ups and downs of being a full time representative of Christ. 

Love you all SO MUCHO! Les quiero! <3

Hermana Yost

Letter #11 11/17/14

There's a used tissue in my Goodwill jumper (and other stories, most all of which are about animals)

If the subject doesn't say it all, I will.. I BOUGHT A WOOL JUMPER at goodwill last pday and I'm way excited about it. Now I can say that I'm that much closer to living completely by the white 'missionary hand book' bible! (It says that sisters should wear jumpers and i've always thought it was hilarious but now I love)

Another week, another email. This week was filled to the brim with many an emotional roller coaster, but such is missionary life. I'm gonna be a stone cold killa when I return from the mish, ready to conquer ANYTHING that life throws at me, haha. *knock on wood, I don't really want anything too crazy thrown at me* But it really is crazy. I have learned quite a bit about the importance of 'bridling our passions, so that we can be filled with love'. If anyone knows me well, they will know that there's a small part of my soul (maybe not small) that is a self proclaimed 'feminist'. And if anyone knows me well, they will know that I may or may not enjoy a good, healthy argument. And.. yeah. Basically everyone and their dog here loves Jesus and thinks they've found Jesus and that you're on their porch for them to preach to. Which really isn't the reason we're here in Crewe, but we get a lot of people preaching to us and it's hard to get out of the situation and so you end up spending an hour and a half of the Lord's time listening to why you're wrong. Anywaysss, this was happening with this guy and he said something about how Eve didn't have a clue what she was doing when she partook of the fruit and that's why it wasn't her transgression and my little feminist part of my heart burned within me and it was just bad. I left the talk with the guy realizing that all I had testified of was Eve and her knowledge and bravery and.. I hated myself literally the entire rest of the day. YIKES. But, such is life. We live and we learn and I am learning SO much every second.

So we have a sweet part member family who attended our branch once, and we decided we needed to go visit them. At church they gave us directions to their house in a TINY not even town called Greenbay, but we basically forgot them so all we knew was that they lived in Greenbay.. and there may have been something about a bridge.. or two bridges.. and, maybe an orchard, and that's it. Haha, so we were sent on a wild goose chase through the backwoods of VA to find this family. And it was CRAZY. Haha, everyone we saw or felt like might know something about them we stopped to talk to, so we got to talk to a LOT of people about the gospel and little by little each clue led us closer and closer to their home. One of the neighbors told us the house of the father of the family's father, so we went there and to our amazement found a literal hound dog farm. We must have counted like 30 hound dogs and it was crazy and sad and weird, but then.. out of all the hound dogs there emerged a HUGE hog. And, I don't know why, but I totally wigged out. I thought it was going to kill me. And it was trotting after us and I was sure it was chasing us to attack us and needless to say I need to CHILL out. Haha. But it was such an adventure, and finally after hours of searching, we were talking to a family when the father of the family we were looking for pulled into their drive way! What? Prays are answered, tender mercies are everywhere. Haha. It ruled. And we got to visit with them for a while, and invite them to the Branch Chili Cookoff that night and they CAME! It was awesome. And then they came to church yesterday, so #miracles all across the board. 

After the chili cook off on Saturday, we attended the fiesta de cumpleanos of C. Garcia and ate the most DIVINE stuffed chilis that ever existed and I nearly died. All of the extended family members think i'm insane because i'm this super white chick that really really really wants to be Mexican, but I can't help it. Haha. How I love hispanics. We were contacting a lady when we saw one of our hispanic investigators at the park across the street surrounded by other hispanics, so naturally we went over to visit with them and the kids wanted to show us how fast they could run and their cute little chiuaua and that led us to a conversation about perros and one of the little kids told us that his family is raising two dogs to eat.. uh. And I didn't know if I understood him correctly, I thought he may have been saying that they were so cute he could just 'eat them up' but.. no. Haha, so that's that. If we end up teaching his fam I'm gonna be REAL careful about what I put in my mouth, that's for sure. 

ALSO basically every hispanic we meet is a 'cradle catholic' meaning they rarely attend, but are not shy about the fact that they are CATHOLIC. And every one of these humans has an obsession with Maria. And I will tell you that yesterday the ninos had stolen my camera and I saw the poster of Maria on the wall and used it to my advantage. I asked, 'What would Maria think of your behavior right now'?! To which G. quickly replied, "bad..." And I never thought I would be the one to use the term "What would Maria do?" but there you have it. Haha.

We have this sweet returning member lady in our ward that we go and do scripture study with some days. She is older, single, so funny and she just recently was suprised with a kitten on her doorstep. She really felt that this kitten was a manifestation of God's love for her and is just absolutely in love with the thing. So after we read scriptures, we are headed to a dinner appointment. She tells us not to hit her kitten, as we see it run behind the car. So we pull out and still don't see it but figure it ran behind and past the car. I made some joke in passing about how I really hope it didn't climb into our motor or anything, and what if it did and we were off. On our way to the appointment, the member calls us to tell us that the cat is lost and she can't find it anywhere. So now we're really hoping that it didn't climb into our motor. ANYWAYS like an hour later we're just eating dinner in the house with the family, and one of the ladies went out to smoke. She comes in and says that there's a tiny grey kitten out there that she's never seen before. Hma Clark and I both jump straight out of our seats and run outside and what do you know, cute little Tinkerbell is outside! Three towns away from home! She must have hid in the undercarriage of our car all the way! It was absolutely INSANE! Like the greatest miracle that the lady was outside at that exact time to see the cat and it was all just too perfect. So we called the member to tell her the news, finished with the appointment, I got to ride all the way home with a kitten in my arms, and we returned her to her momma. It was seriously MAGICAL. The member just held us and cried. Our Heavenly Father really does love us, really does care about the little things. It was so beautiful. 

Miracle of the week! So we have an investigator, D, and we love her so much but she is difficult sometimes. Like she tells me all the time how I dress like a grandma and what not.. haha. Well after one of our lessons with her, I had the smallest little prompting that we should ask a member of our branch, Charlotte W, to come to our next lesson. So we did, and she agreed. At first it was crazy because D. was having a bad day and we didn't know if she was going to let us stay, but she did and I am SO glad because as her and Charlotte talked, they realized that D. had been in the hospital having a huge surgery for epilepsy at the same time as her daughter Robyn and they just clicked. Charlotte understood EVERYTHING she had gone through because she'd been through it before. It was nuts. We left the room for a minute to look at D's new fish tanks, and we never wanted to go back in because Charlotte was just saying EXACTLY what she needed in ways we never could have said them. After the lesson D. texted us to thank us for the lesson and for bringing Charlotte. It was SUCH a blessing and I was so grateful to have been prompted to do that. It's incredible to me to know that the Lord knows His children SO well. He knows exactly which random member of the branch will be able to change our investigators life.

Follow up on D, however.. we have a feeling that she was VERY close to getting her answer and getting baptized last lesson with Charlotte, because she is going through a lot of struggles now. A bunch of people have been telling her all sorts of terrible things about the church and she doesn't know what to think. We are trying to help her understand that the only way she can know for sure is to ask God. Keep her in your prayers! I love her so much and I know that the Lord will help her to know. I am so grateful to know that He is there and watching out for all of us. His hand is incredibly apparent sometimes in the work and it truly is a blessing to see it!

I love y'all! Be strong, be happy and be GRATEFUL because, the gospel provides SO much hope in our lives. Things WILL work out as we follow the Savior.

<3 Hermana Yost

PS My camera is not working, but be way prepared for 10,000 photos of the crazy rabid hog next week, okay love you bye

A couple of pictures taken at a Zone conference in Richmond that I stole off of Sister Wilson's facebook page. :)

Letter #10 11/10/14

Another week has come and gone, and life is just as good as ever. It's still weird when I really realize that I am a MISSIONARY. Like, what? It's so neat. I love all the implications that come with the calling, I really do. Oftentimes, however, I feel like I'll never measure up to the missionary that the Lord would have me be. I want so badly to be this missionary that I know I can be, that every human in the world has the potential to be, but it requires a serious amount of work and faith and trust and the whole lot, and sometimes I'm not too good at all that. But if there's one thing that I absolutely love, it's that the atonement is REAL. I can go to bed feeling like I was the absolute worst missionary that day, wake up, do my personal study and the Lord gives me another chance with a new day! I'm so grateful for that knowledge. ANOTHER THING THAT HAPPENED WHOA. I just have SUCH a testimony of personal study. Ah, we have some returning members we visit that struggle to read their scriptures. Before the mission, I was definitely that person, but now I almost die when I hear that.. like, DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOU'RE MISSING? Is what I want to say, but I don't say it like that, but it's so true. The Book of Mormon can change you, and it's so simple to read it, but it's so simple NOT to as well. Hma Clark and I were talking about how those are the things that get ya.. the things that are both easy to do and not to do. We are truly changed by small and simple things. It's tough to watch investigators who don't keep commitments, because we know how much it can change their lives.. we can recieve answers, but we have to act!

Hipster tag pics on some old civil war bridge and #lifeisntallthatbad

Anyways, i'll jump right on down from my soapbox and what the awesome thing that happened was.. So, I had been praying every second of my life as of late to know how I could be better, to become this missionary that I wanted to be, so I went into my study with that prayer in my heart and I came upon DC 60. Holy smokes, this here chapter done gone and saved my life! The first verse talks about how happy the Lord is to see missionaries out, how it's pleasing to Him that they would even have the desire to serve.. but it goes on to talk about the things that don't please the Lord. When the missionaries don't open their mouths, and don't share their talents. And that if they continue to do this, all of it will be taken away from them. This hit me like 400,000 bricks. So often, especially in Spanish lessons, I don't say anything I'm thinking to say for fear of saying something wrong. And at times I keep to myself more than usual because it's scary and awkward and hard and my companion is REALLY quiet, so I don't really know when it's just her being quiet or if it's someone that I shouldn't talk to or something.. haha. But, anyways, this just changed my whole world. After reading, I again got discouraged thinking like, "oh, this must be why I feel bad about my spanish.. i'm a lost cause now because it's already been taken away from me", and so I continued to scan the page and the first verse I see is 7. It reads 

"And in this place let them lift up their voice and declare my word with loud voices, without wrath or doubting, lifting up holy hands upon them. For I am able to make you holy, and your sins are forgiven you." 

What a beautiful answer to my prayer! He is able to make me holy! To make me into the person I am supposed to be! So, on that note, I've made a commitment to always lift up my voice, trust him and I feel changed! Missionary work is happier when we are willing to do it the Lord's way. With His help, we need not fear! I am so grateful. 

Just a lovely "Zone sister pday hike" pic.  Don't forget to look at the trees. #beauty

Basically, I am gonna gain 4,000 lbs here in good ol' VA. We have two dinner appointments tonight (We had already told Hermana Garcia we would come over for their sons birthday, forgetting that we had a dinner appointment with a member planned) and I'm terrified. The secret that missionaries can never say is that members and investigators think you are starving always, so you feel as though you should feed a huge meal plus dessert every single time, but the reality of the situation is that I am quite literally always stuffed. Haha. Like last week we had three huge servings of ice cream in the same 24 hours and I was certain I was the worst person that had ever lived. 

So, this weekend we kind of struggled with lessons.. hardly anyone was home and the ones who were ended up talking our ears off for 40 years, so we hadn't even taught one lesson the whole of Saturday. When we came to the home of J. and M. M. told us to come back next week, but their cute daughter J. still wanted to chat so we told her we would teach her a lesson. She wanted to show us her barbie dolls, so we decided to teach her the Plan of Salvation, acting it out with the barbie dolls. IT WAS SO NEAT, haha. I loved it so much. Because it was interesting to her, she retained a ton of it, and when the neighbor boy came over and started to tease her, she came back at him with, "Cristobol, you're gonna go to the STAR!" (Terrestrial Kingdom, hahah), and as we're all dying of laughter she adds, "You just got serveddddd!" Ninos (kids) are really the winners of the world. We may or may not have decided that our purpose in life is just to baptize all the ninos in the whole world. Haha. 

E. and G. #bestillmyheart

So two neat miracles of the week! First off, remember the cute miracle family we met in the laundromat and lost contact with because the number she gave us didn't work? Well, I'd been praying that we could some how find her again because I wanted so badly to teach them, and felt like we should, but hadn't had any success with finding her. Anways, we randomly stopped by the Garcia's last week to check on them and G. (the cute little daughter) showed us how her friend from school had invited her to her birthday party. I asked to look at the invitation and... IT WAS THE INVITATION TO DESTINY'S PARTY, one of the little girls from the laundromat! Containing two phone numbers and an address! What in the world?! I fell to the floor in pure wonder and we couldn't even handle.. hahah. So, that's that folks. It's been decided. As our dear friend Martin Luther King Jr. once said, "God provides a way when there is no way". It was so so beautiful and I can't wait to contact them. 

Miracle number two, Saturday morning for training we talked about finding people, and something so interesting really stuck out to me in Preach My Gospel. It said that there are people prepared, and you will be led to them, or they will be led to you. I've been here for only two weeks, I know, but I just really yearned to see this.. people that actually WANT to listen to us, what? So anyways, when were were knocking on J. y M.'s door, a guy came out. We talked to him for a second, He said his name was Julio, and he was on his way. Nothing special about our encounter. Later, when we were teaching the barbie lesson out in front of the house, he came back in his car and yelled to us "When are you coming to my house?!" We asked him where he lived, and he said Blackstone, which is actually the Elder's area so we gave him to them as a referral, but it was so neat. He came over to us, told us about his family (he has a wife who's almost ready to have their first baby) and gave us his address. It really was so cool. What a testament to the fact that people are PREPARED!

I'm actually a ghost.  Life is so hard when you're so white. haha

It is SO beautiful here in VA, I can hardly handle. I am so grateful for the blessing I have to be here doing the Lord's work. It's wonderful to see His hand. I know He knows and loves us! I know it. And I know He loves y'all. It's incredible to be here where SO many people love Jesus. There are churches on literally every corner. All I want is to give them that little taste of MORE that we have! We are so lucky. I love y'all SOO mucho!

<3 Hermana Yost

Welcome to the Burkeville Branch. :)

Letter #9 11/03/14

Crazy to think that it's been yet another week! I can't hardly get my footing here, but I'm sure it'll come in time! Every moment I feel like I've got it, is, of course, the moment right before I feel completely lost and all I can do is smile because I can't remember a lick of espanol.. The Lord wasn't kidding when He told us that He would show us our weaknesses, everyday I see a new one, but because He's showing me them I KNOW they can become strengths. As long as I rely on him, I'll be able to teach efficiently, and love more, and have patience in the work.. maybe even speak spanish someday, haha. It's cool to realize that I'm in His hands, as well as the work and our investigators, and that things that are hard now can be made easier through him.

So, I still don't know how to organize this emails because remembering an ENTIRE week of things is nuts. Haha, so I'll just start at the very beginning and then jump to and fro as I please. (ALSO, just a word of caution, I am developing a southern accent.. I'm like a little sponge, I can't help it. So if I say anything that sounds silly, forgive me por favor). Anyways! Last Pday was just super hard. After emailing I had another like 'okay, what am I doing here, I don't have time to get back to anyone let alone write a decent email and really ah what is my life' semi breakdown, so that was real fun. BUT THEN. Of course, the Lord just shows forth His loving hand as it turned into the happiest day of milagros (miracles). I came home to find that HAPPIEST package on our doorstep, so that was incredibly perfectly beautiful. Kudos to the best momma of my life. So, that made me way happier. Then we headed to Wally World and met the NEATEST hispanic guys. They were way funny, and the one was looking for a wife, and we told them that if he came to church and was baptized, we might marry him.. hahahah, uhhh.. he was actually heading back to Mexico the next week, but he pinky promised he'd find the missionaries there. Haha. Then, we went to our COOLEST sort of recent convert human friend Sister Davis's for GREEN SMOOTHIES, and you know how I feel about greens. And smoothies. After that, we were at the laundromat.. and, yikes bikes. Our clothes were taking FOREVER to dry. And we were real late (P day ends at 6), so yeah. But then these two little girls walk in and we started talking to them. they were just so funny and I dunno. Then their mom and this random guy came in and we talked to them. The guy was super crazy Christian, but the mom didn't know where she was in life or her testimony. We got to stand in this little laundromat and bear testimony to the little girls and their mom that they were daughters of God and that Jesus knows them. It was so cool and the spirit was BEAUTIFUL. We got the moms number, but can't get ahold of her. I still have faith that we'll see her again one day, but I KNOW that we were supposed to be there late to help them. It's neat how that happens. The icing off the cake was a lesson with a hispanic couple named Anaseli and Manuel. They have a son, Thomas, that we hung out with at that hispanic party and it was just EXACTLY what i'd always imagined a lesson would be. They were interested and the spirit was there and I know Heavenly Father knew that that was what I needed to feel good again. 

Halloween on the mish is really fun.. hahah. I had a TON of candy (thanks again, mom) and I'm trying not to gain the weight of the world here (both Hermanas that were in this area before me gained 30 pounds on their missions.. YIKES), so I decided I would use the candy as a service opportunity. So I made these cute little bags of candy and glowsticks and such, along with pictures of Christ and children, and as we were parked in front of our investigators houses, the little beautiful hispanic children would come 'trick or treating' at my window.. the cutest thing EV. Ah, I thought I was gonna wait til later, but I can't. I LOVE HISPANIC CHILDREN. Alright, I said it. Hahah. I am just learning SO much what Christ meant when He tells us to 'become as little children'.. these kids are the best. They want to listen to us, they don't stop talking about how much they love God, it's incredible. They ask us every second to give them more pamphlets and cards cause they are all starting a collection of "God things" as they so eloquently have named it. Haha, it's the cutest thing. I will never forget the feeling of sitting on a little porch, surrounded by kids, teaching them 'I am a Child of God'.. seeing these kids sing these incredibly powerful truths, learning it for themselves, SO beautiful. Ah. ALSO you'll get a kick out this.. so we gave them candy, right? And naturally, they're little stinkers and threw their trash on the ground.. OH NO YOU DIDN'T, I exclaimed.. and then went in on this huge sermon about God's creations and came up with, on the spot, this beautiful analogy of "how would you feel if you made this awesome art project and everybody came around and threw trash on it".. hahah, Hermana Clark and I decided we should add "not littering" to the list of commandments we teach in PMG. 

So we are heading soon to a dinner appointment (TACOS!) with investigators, the familia Garcia, but let me just tell you how great they are! AHHHH, I love the kids. Just the best. And their mom is the most hilarious human. But we haven't really had the opportunity to get to know their dad.. until lately. By some miracle (we prayed for it) he has been able to be home more, and he RULES. He knows how much I want to be Mexican, so when he shakes my hand he calls me 'la mexicana'.. hahah, apparently my braid around my head is ONLY done in Mexico, so he thinks I'm a total wanna be, but maybe I am. He did tell me that he thinks I'll learn Spanish fast because i'm like a 'Mexican', I listen intently and really try.. I guess that's what Mexicans do. I'll take what I can get. We had a super intensely beautiful convo with him, about gospel things and the Book of Mormon and he's SO SOLID. He told us that he'd have to think about baptism because he wants it to be a family afair.. little does he know, his kids have already committed to baptism.. hahah. Ah, I love them.

Oh, I wish I had time to tell you all.. but really, it's a happy life here. HARD as can be, but happy.

I must really be in the south, also, I ate fried 'gizzards' (YUCK) at the local tastee freez and last night we totally ran over a HUGE possum. I laughed my head off, Hermana Clark thinks I'm the worst. Good times down here, no doubt about it! I love learning about Christ. I love feeling his spirit through personal study each morning. I love the gospel and I LOVE PEOPLE. 

AND I LOVE YOU GUYZZZZ.

Letter #8 10/27/14

Mi comp Hermana Clark from Spanish Fork

Holy smokes, y'all! I AM HERE.

You have all these thoughts in your mind about what your mission has in store for you, and naturally, at least from my experience, you are ALWAYS wrong. Hahah, life's a lot like the most beautiful joke that ever was, haha. So back in the days of the CCM, I spent my life trying to convince all the Chile bound elders in my district that I would be speaking Spanish just as much as them and yada yada yada. Just keep this in the back of your mind. Welp, transfer meeting was on Tuesday and I got my first companion and area. Hermana Clark has been out nine months and she is from Spanish Fork. She's great and nice and SO SIMILAR TO ELPHABA it's creepy. Hahah. She has helped me so much and her demeanor is smooth as cream which contrast nicely with my airheaded, all over the place, emotional wreck-ness. I love her and we have good laughs. 

  I'll let you know that we got assigned to Burkeville. It's in the southernmost area of the mission and it's got a bit of a reputation. When Sister Wilson came and asked Hermana Clark and I about our area, she gave me quite a fright when she basically forced herself to be excited for me.. hahah. She exclaimed 'Burk for lyfe!' before quickly walking away. At this point i'm way confused, so I force Hma Clark to give me the deets.. basically her and her previous companion opened this area up for Spanish from little to nothing last transfer, so we're still in the process of getting Spanish work going here. And it's really hard to get Spanish investigators to come to English sunday meetings because there's no Spanish Branch around these parts. And I was super down for that, a challenge! The green-ness of my missionary being was way too pumped for that, and I continued to tell her that I would do anything as long as I wasn't speaking english. She was a little quiet, but not too long after that President came to tell us that both the companionships in our branch will be doing English/Espanol work.. Needless to say, I have been sufficiently humbled. "I'll go where you want me to go, I'll say what you want me to say" has been given many a new meaning as I have the privilege of saying the things he wants me to say in the way he wants me to say them, and a lot of the time that means english and it was really hard at first. I didn't understand why Heavenly Father would give me this mission that's completely opposite of everything I ever dreamed, and I had many a breakdown this past week, but I have learned SO MUCH. That Heavenly Father rarely gives us what we want, but he ALWAYS gives us what we need. I have learned to love these people so quickly, and to really internalize the fact that our Savior has SO MANY different kinds of sheep. And he wants ALL of them to blessed by the gospel. And I have this beautiful blessing to share the gospel to people from so many different nations and tongues.

  This week has been nuts, though. I can't even remember a day to day thing so I'll just tell you about some cool people we are teaching and some neat stories.

  First off, I mean we're probably not supposed to choose favorites, but I love this kid named Luis Mario! He's the coolest, he's 12 and he just barely arrived to the states. His parents have lived here for a while, but He just arrived. My first night, we went over to teach his family a lesson. (His fam rules too, by the way) but only he was home. So we taught him a lesson on his porch. He lives on this beautiful ranch and the sun was setting so beautifully and I just knew that was what Heaven was like, hahah. It was a good little lesson and I got to introduce him to El Libro de Mormon. I also accidentally answered yes when he asked if I left a novio (boyfriend) in Mexico, it happens often that you answer really incorrectly and weird to questions when you don't understand a lick of spanish, haha. But he now makes fun of me always for loving Hispanic boys and tries to hook me up with his friends in Mexico, hahah.

  Another hispanic family we are visiting is La familia Garcia. They're kids are nuts crazy and SO fun. The parents don't speak any english, but the kids hardly speak spanish and speak more like ghetto kids, haha. It's so funny, they really are very confused with who they are racially I think, haha. But anyways, we've had a few lessons with them and we got invited to their daughter, Gabriella's, birthday fiesta!!!! That was on Friday and, OH BOY I literally almost died. You have never seen fun until you have been to a real live Fiesta de cumpleanos and got in on the intensity that is the pinata. Hahah, it was loco. I got knocked down by the crazy crowd of humans running for balloons filled with money and.. I don't even know. It's cool, because they invite 400 million amigos to their parties so we made appointments with a couple of their friends, and strengthened relationships with other friends that we had met previously. There's no shame in trying to find Spanish Speaking humans around these parts, so a lot of the times we racially profile homes and if you see a cute little hispanic girl riding her bike around, OF COURSE you are going to try to find out where she lives. Haha, I love them SO MUCH.

  But I also LOVE the english speaking humans around here. We work with an incredible less active family and they are just wonderful. We work with a ton of less active people from the branch and that is really cool. Just trying to bring the spirit into their lives a little bit more. We have also found a lot of humans to teach, both hispanic and non-hispanic.. haha, it's a little bit of a blessing because we get the opportunity to talk to EVERYONE. Because we can teach everyone here. 

  I don't know if it's just I'm still super green, but every second I just feel like Alma where he exclaims that he wishes he were an angel, have the wish of his heart to tell every human everywhere about the gospel and Christ's love for them!  There are so many people I see everyday that we simply don't have time to talk to and it breaks my heart. Ah, but I know they will have a chance because they've been promised it!  And I know that if we are diligent in or work here, we will find the people that we need to teach at this moment in time.  It reminds me of the quote by Mother Teresa, something along the lines of "I may just be a drop in the ocean, but without me the ocean is one drop less".  Oh a beautiful scripture I found in my personal study, D&C 123:15-16.  Sometimes it feels like these little things we are doing here don't really matter, but by small and simple things we are laying the foundation for a GREAT work!   And a big ship, Christ's gospel, needs the help of small helms such as us.  And to answer your question, people are nice to us for the most part.  Most people here have GREAT faith in Jesus already, and it's really very hard to be mean when Jesus is the topic of conversation I think.

  I'm sorry this email is actually the worst, but I am loving life here! It's hard at times, and I miss Mexico more than life, but it allows me to relate to all of these hispanic people who also miss Mexico even more than me. People are wonderful, and I have just been enjoying the opening of my eyes to SO many different cultures. At times I even have a hard time understanding english speaking folk here, we are DEFINATELY in the south. (I got called a yankee the other day for telling someone to have a 'way good day', hah. And if you don't drive a Chevy, you're no friend of a good portion of the humans here in Crewe.)

  I have felt the hand of the Lord in my life so much though! I know sometimes He doesn't always bless us how we'd like, but He will NEVER leave us alone. When we really ask him for help, He WILL help us. We taught a lesson to a minister the other day and almost got him crying. The Lord is with us. He speaks through us by the Spirit to bless these people! I am so grateful! 

Love y'all! <3 ///// Les amo, mi familia!


Hermana Yost


P.S.  It's BEAUTIFUL here!!  Holy smokes, I cry large tears every time we drive anywhere (and let me tell you, we drive EVERYWHERE #thecarlifethough) because it's just this beautiful magical autumn wonderland.  I feel so blessed and I think if anything I was called here to testify of the beauty of God's creations because LOS ARBOLES. <3  AHHH.  It's hard to feel discouraged when you're driving through a heavenly mix of red, orange, yellow and green.  The people in the branch look at me like I'm nuts when I rave about the beauty, but I just can't help but love.

Hermana Sivilla the girl whose place I am taking.  Everybody here loved her more than life.  I'm trying my hardest to fill her shoes, but it's really hard.  Haha, she's incredibly awesome and I talk on the daily with people about how much they miss and love her.  It's a little the worst, but a lot the best.