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