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!
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