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.