This week, though. Time marches on, what with only ONE P DAY LEFT in el ccm. Can you believe? I surely can't. Don't get me wrong, I'm not one for counting down ever but Hermana F is the QUEEN of countdowns. She says, wow! Only 20 days til we leave the mtc! And I reply with wow! Less than twenty months til we're home! Woo! I just don't really see the purpose of doing something if you're counting down the days til it's over, but to each their own, haha.
ANYWAYS. This week was wonderfully great and my mind is ALL over the place so don't be too upset if my email is as well.
To explain the subject of the email, I'm just really bad at being a missionary. There's something about being a representative of Christ that means you're supposed to act different, and it's reeeeeallly hard for me, as you can imagine. A kid in my district, Elder Komenda (who, by the way, IS Braiden Wilder to a T) teases me mercilessly and i'm sassy back, of course, and the other day he was ignoring me in the middle of an argument so I fake kicked him in the calf and basically got a baby talking to from Hmo. Vargas about how 'missionaries don't kick other missionaries' hahahah. Yikes. I was a wee bit embarrassed/mostly about to hysterically laugh because, yeah. I'm the worst. So i've developed a new mantra, which is 'Act dignified, Bex'. I say it to myself when I'm about to dance around or punch an elder in the arm or call an elder in my district 'baby boy'. ALSO Sunday, before conference, we had our weekly class with the mission presidency, and cute lation Presidente Tonorio gave the most wonderful talk about specific prayer.. he talked about the story of Rebekah at the well and how Issac specifically prayed about which girl would come and then she did. Anyways, I was way into the fact that her name is my name, obvs, and I lost my waterbottle earlier in the week so I had just been using a plastic cup from El Comedor for drinking. I kept making all of these jokes about going and filling up my pitcher at the 'well' and it was all in good taste until this Elder began talking to us and said something about finding a guy at the well and I thought up this classic 'is your name Isaac' pickup line and proceeded to say it and.. yup, totes innapprop.
Can I get a WOOP WOOP for conferencia general?! WHOAAAAA. I could have died I was so happy. When it started, I just broke down. #tearsfordayss. Conference weekend really is my favorite of the entire world. I can sit here today in this uncomfortable computer lab chair and honestly say I love it more than Christmas. AH. And watching conference as a missionary? It really can't be beat. I've waited my entire life to watch conf as a missionary, and I will tell you that it lived up to every expectation of my heart. I would certainly recommend it, SO wonderful. Something that really stuck out to me the entire time were the parts about taking Christ's name upon us and our other baptismal covenants we renew at baptism. I looked down, saw the name 'Jesucristo' on my nametag and was overcome by the incredibly joyous blessing and privilege it is to literally take His name upon me EVERY single day. I am so blessed, and so grateful and so loving the hard work of becoming a little more like Él Senor, mi salvador, todos los dias. Also, I will tell you of the incredible power felt when we all stand for President Monson as he walks into conference. I've always loved that part, but never more than now. After testifying day in and day out of a latter day prophet who speaks for the Lord, that our Heavenly Father wants to continue to provide us revelation and help, just as in old times, WOW. It's incredible how your testimony grows simply by sharing it.
I had a day this past week where I was SUPER bummed out about the language. Hma Flitton and I have become really good friends with a few Latina hermanas in our building and we talk to them all the time. Or attempt to, anyways. It destroys me when I try to talk to natives and realize i'm not anywhere near where I'd like to be in my Spanish. Ah. But they love us anyways and give us cute latina cheek kisses and I can't handle it.
This spanish bummer also stemmed from the fact that I got to play an investigator in a teaching demonstration that Hmo V and another district's teacher gave. It was really hard because I didn't always know what to say in Spanish, but it was still incredible! My name was Maria and my husband and I were preparing for baptism but I wasn't progressing because I had a, missionary term, 'iceberg'. We had a baby that had died and I was sure he was with the devil because he hadn't been baptized. I really tried to get into character and feel how she would have felt. I felt so bitter and angry and hurt and couldn't focus on any of the scriptures we were reading together because all I could think about was my baby. It really hit me SO hard how hard it is to progress with an iceberg in our lives. I realized that even I still have baby icebergs that I need to get over to fully understand and feel the love and blessings of God. This leads me to our investigator, Alejandro. He's a champ, but refuses to read el Libro de Mormon. There is little to no progression to be had when you won't read, and he simply wasn't progressing. Hma F and I realized that HE had an iceberg too! We got tons of beautiful advice from other Hmo's in our building and really studied how to help investigators overcome their challenges throughout their conversion. We realized that we kept bringing in new doctrine, all important, and walking WAY in front of Him when we needed to be walking right with him, working out his concerns and showing him that we really do care more about him than our lessons. I then had the incredible opportunity to watch conference, seeking answers and inspirations for my investigator! IT WAS SO MUCH MORE POWERFUL. Ah, I love him. I was just really stoked, and we REALLY felt like we needed to share what Elder Uchtdorf shared about the umbrella of doubt and fear and pride that keeps God's constant shower of blessings from reaching us in Womens session. We went in, and taught the lesson, and I thought it went fine but not really what I had hoped, when Hmo. V stopped us from leaving, paused his character of Alejandro, and talked to us about the lesson. He was SO kind and shared how much it had helped him and Alejandro and we were on top of the world. I am so grateful for a caring Heavenly Father who is willing to shower down blessings and help upon us so that we can in turn help his children. It was really SO cool and such a wonderful experience. We walked outside to pray and chat, and guess which song is playing on the loudspeaker outside the gates? None other than Alejandro by Lady Gaga.. hahah, such a beautiful fun happy tender mercy that I hope to always remember. Heavenly Father is AWARE of us, friends! So very aware.
Hermano Sylva, our new teacher since Hmo Polo dueced out to Salt Lake City, leaving all of us behind, is seriously the most hilarious human that ever existed. He's the sassiest mexican human that ever existed, wears pink on Wednesdays (reference from the movie Mean Girls) and is seriously the best. He is, however, VERY different than Hmo Polo. Polo is straight up the funniest guy in existence and is a total silly goose always. Hmo Sylva believes in the blessings of CRAZY hard work and pushes us a ton. Some of the guys in our district were totes upset by the upset of Hmo S, but us Hermanas see it as a TOTAL bendicíon from a loving Heavenly Father that knows we need to work hard. He shared the mormon message about the gardener that loves his bush enough to cut it down, so that it could grow and become better. I've experienced LOADS of cutdowns but i'm super grateful to the Lord for loving me enough. He really does see our potential!
So, funny story, Hmo F needed something from the casa so we came home in the middle of the day. We could hear a male singing which is SUPER weird, for obvious reason. We then realized it was coming from our very own room! When we went in, my alarm clock was randomly playing the radio and the song was none other than Sound of Music, Favorite Things and it was probably the funniest thing EVER.
Ah, ah, ah! Sharing the gospel all the time is a wondrous experience! I'm so grateful for all of the beautiful things I am learning here, and for all the beautiful people I am meeting. Latino people RULE! The gospel RULES! And Im just totally loving it all. <3
Abrazos for dayyyyys!
<3 Hermana Yost
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| She was so excited to get our package with her favorite San Pellegrino drinks. |
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| We're headed to Virginia sooner than soon!! |
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| Hermana Potter is a little PB obsessed and brought millions of tubs of it and we found out that they have BEAUTIFUL AMERICAN OREO GALLETAS in the vending machine, so what better way to celebrate Conference Weekend than with a little oreo and peanut butter party. :) |
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