Letter #25 02/23/15

#letsbecomps #plspresident   Becca with Hermana Amber Powell from good ole Riverton.

Another day, another dawn......Sometimes in life, your email day gets pushed back to Thursday and you find yourself back in the chair of the library computer desk a lot sooner than usual. Definitely not complaining, email time is like Christmas when you have weeks where you just miss your mom, haha. But I'm trying to think of all the things that have happened in the last four days.

Like, okay, who am I kidding.. there's something that's taking over all of my thoughts and I can't think of anything else so we'll just cut straight to the chase and say that WE SAW THE COOLEST MIRACLE EVER. Okay, maybe not ever.. but like, maybe ever! It was just really happy. SO last Tuesday, our everything-but-emailing pday, the Watts Family took us to Dollar General, right? And whilst going about our business, shopping and browsing and all the good stuff, I see this lady and her daughter. I smile, feel like we should talk to them, but then they walk away and i'm like, 'ah.. uh..' and Hermana T is way down the aisle so I catch up with her. But then, we meet back up with them (Jackie and Mckenzie) in the school supply aisle and I immediately bond with the daughter over all the cool duct tape. We chat until it turns to the gospel and they give us their info so that we can come teach them. 

SOOOOO. Fast forward to Saturday night. It's transfer calls, so in my heart I'm anxiously awaiting one because the Sister Training Leader's kind of made it sound like I was getting transferred, and so many things had gone south last week that I was just sure Heavenly Father was preparing me to leave. But, of course, we the work continues as normal so we're like, "Hey! Let's go visit Jackie!" so we do. We pull into their driveway and her husband, Ronny, comes out and we start chatting. They'd been in Richmond all day, so they asked if we could schedule for next Saturday. We continue to chat, and pretty soon the whole family (Ronny, Jackie and three kids) + 4 dogs and a bottle fed baby goat that thinks it's a dog are all chilling (literally.. brrr) on the porch chatting with us. Eventually, they're just like, 'What the heck, come in' and we teach them the restortation. It was INCREDIBLE. The spirit was so strong, they are all so open, the kids are incredibly intelligent and interested and Ronny started crying as he talked about losing his son and never being able to find answers. THE RESTORED GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST IS THE ANSWER. They invited us to come back the very next day and they just rule. 

And I remember being in that lesson with them and just thinking, "I will be SO sad if we get a call. I want to stay! These people are the answer to every prayer. I've been praying, hoping and wishing with everything I have to find a family to teach!" 

Needless to say, God knows us. He knew that I would need a miracle to not curl into a ball and cry when I didn't get a call. He let's us go through weeks that feel like the worst thing ever ever right before something AWESOME comes (like a super prepared family!) I dunno, it was just awesome, okay? 

And I've taken 40 years typing every detail of this experience, so I best be on my way. SO MUCH LOVE.

Odd's and end's:

*Church was cancelled this Sunday.. it was 50 degress and sunny. #Virginiathough

I love Hma Flitt more than anything! #mtcbabies

Letter #24 02/19/15

***I was so excited to hear from Becca today.  I didn't think I would be getting an email this week.  Monday was President's day so the Library was closed so she would have been able to email on Tuesday, but it snowed a whole 4 inches and the whole town shut down.  So grateful that she was able to email today! <3

Weak and simple is my middle name, but hey, that's his way.

THIS WEEK, though.. So much growth, so much love pouring down from Heaven, so many answers to questions and concerns of my heart, so many tender mercies, and SO MUCH SNOW. (Hahah- just kidding.) A dear friend sent me this quote

"The pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity, the optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty". -Winston Churchill. 

"Currently in the process of starting up the horse branch here in Burkeville"

and, how true is that? It's something that's so remarkable that every single hard thing in our lives can be flipped around to see the absolute beauty and blessing! I've been studying Job as of late- I know, I know.. we are not yet as Job. But he's seriously such a great example of perseverance and absolute faith and trust in The Lord, amidst all the dead camels, wilting crops and boils of our lives. I felt really awful and kind of like throwing up as I typed that, I hope I don't evoke those feelings in others as they read. Haha. 

I feel like it's so easy to feel like the blows just keep coming and coming, and I've been learning so much. I sometimes feel like The Lord has made a mistake in putting me here with so many beautiful people with so much potential that I don't have any idea how to help progress towards baptism and the temple. BUT THEN lightbulb moment moment that just literally sprouted in my mind. He wants me to rely on HIM! No duh I don't know what I'm doing. I feel like so often we learn things and then they just get hidden away by our pride or worry or just the goings on of day to day life, but the Holy Ghost is so good at bringing things to our remembrance! I'm so grateful. 

"I've got the Lord's love and a whole bunch of Valentines candy keeping me warm" #VdayinVA

WE DID, HOWEVER find a few new people to teach. We were going to contact some potentials from the laundromat, and this super gangster young black guy named Jonathan opens the door. He is acting so weird and we're just like.. uhhh.. and he brings out this book called Lost Books of the Bible that he's been reading and, yeah. THEN. His friend Sidney walks up to the porch. and we start talking about the message and all of it. And he is just this SUPER honest seeker of truth. Like, whoa. And he just thought it was CRAZY how they've just been searching to know more about God just in the past month and then we show up.. I just nodded my head. Coincidences don't exist, people. Every single single thing is The Lord's doing. He places people in our paths, we're where we need to be at this time for a reason! Every single human. His plan of happiness is so so so so cool. 

When the whole town's shut down because of snow on pday and cars are grounded, you have no choice but to beg members of the branch to pick you up and drive you to Dollar General and use their washer in exchange for work on their little farm.

ALSO. Okay, I just remembered this miracle! SO this weekend was hard and all that good stuff and I was just PRAYING that we'd have an investigator at church or something cause I just needed something to show me that God was still mindful of us. And as I was studying Sunday morning, we get a text from our investigator Leslie. We meet with her like every other Saturday because she's crazy busy, she has an ex-mormon friend constantly feeding her anti stuff but she just has this beautiful desire to know for herself! In the text she said something along the lines of, I can't come to church today because her son was sick (illness is straight from Satan) but that she will be there next week and she can't wait for our next lesson and that she can just feel God working and she's beginning to see the truth as she's reading.. WHAT IN THE WORLD. I guess you just have to know her to know how random that was, but I screamed, "Hermana!" and ran into the other room and she thought someone had died I'm sure. The only thing that died was the adversary's influence to make me feel stinky. God's love is SO real and trumps all! He is THERE for us. Always. He will answer our prayers of faith. He will guide and comfort us. The atonement is so very real! 

So much love. 

<3 Hermana Yost

Letter #23 02/09/15

Still grateful to be living, breathing and missionary-ing

Q- "Um hello!! You can't just tell me you had a gun pulled on you and not give more details!! Haha. What in the heck happened? I guess that is what happens in the back woods of Virginia, huh??"

A- Um, actually, I can.. and I did. ;) Just joking, of course! I'll give you the short version of a pretty short story. It was like 8:00 and we had this idea like, 'Let's go contact one of the 300 inactive people on our branch roster!' and so we went. And, as we were driving I saw some ¡hispanics! in the laundromat and felt like we should go talk to them, but then Hermana doesn't really dig the talking to random people game, so we kept driving and pulled into the driveway of this less active human. She told me she felt nervous. We debated going and knocking for a little bit, I responded with something like unto, 'I always feel nervous. Let's go!' and so we prayed and got out of the car. As we got out, a guy opened the door and was like, "HEY!" and I was like, "Heyyyyyy!" And he was like, "DON'T HEY ME, WHO ARE YOU?!" And I was like, "We're the missionaries! How are you?" and he was like, "YOU OBVIOUSLY HAVE THE WRONG HOUSE BECAUSE I WAS ABOUT TO.." ..and procedes to show us his rifle in hand. And then he told us to get off his property. And we told him that we were sorry and to have a nice night and he slammed the door.         

        We tried to call the phone number to apologize, cause I'm sure we just spooked them, but it had been disconnected. So there you have it. 

THIS WEEK. 

Was pretty crazy.

I got to go on an exchange with cute Sister Wilson to.. drumroll.. CLOVERHILL! The beauty beauty suburbs of Richmond that I just love so much. It's always a breath of fresh air to leave the country and go to the city, hahah. Everyone thinks i'm so spoiled here. Not true! But aside from it being in Clover Hill, it was just the happiest because Sister Wilson is the hero of my transfer! It's so neat to see how well God knows and loves us, because my first two transfers were basically a mirror image of Sister Jones', one of the Sister Training Leaders, and Sister Wilson, the other, had a companion who struggled a lot and ended up going home early at this time in her mission too. So the two of them combined understand a good majority of what's going on. It really puts into perspective how PERFECTLY well our Savior knows each of us, having gone through the exact same thing. 

The exchange was everything I needed! We got to find and find and find, and knock knock knock up and down apartments and it was so happy! One cool miracle that we saw was that, as we were tracting in this neighborhood, we ran into a guy named Worth. He was picking up his two daughters from their mom's house, and we got to teach the three of them a restoration lesson outside in the bitter cold. After, he said, "that just HAS to be true!" and the spirit there was so strong. When talking about a return appointment, he said he didn't live in Cloverhill area.. but he lives in AMELIA! My area. So we get to keep teaching him. It was so cool how we found him the one night I was there. Also, got to teach their way cool investigator from the Netherlands, Adrian. Seriously the coolest guy! His wife is a member and he has been giving the missionaries a hard time for like 18 years.. but things have just clicked now! The Lord prepares people! It just gives me loads of hope for all the investigators I've loved but just weren't prepared yet. He's getting baptized on the 23rd and I'm so excited to bring our investigators!

It's cool to see how the work continues to progress here. This week, we had more member present lessons than other lessons, which was a super neat thing to see! When I first got here, member present lessons were like THE BIGGEST treat, and now they are relatively normal. It's cool to see the difference they make in the lives of the people we teach. Sometimes it goes way crazy wrong, bless their hearts, but it always ends right. A member's testimony means like 40x more than ours, haha. Offer your fellowshipping assistance! I know that blessings come. 

So, while we were on our exchange, Hma T and Sister Jones visited Nancy.. and I guess things were way weird. Like, she just didn't want to come to church. We visited her again last night, brought Sister Watts from the branch, and the lesson was INCREDIBLE. We talked a lot about her testimony and watched The Restoration video. The spirit ruled and she is so prepared and ready. She opened up about how she doesn't want to go to church because she doesn't feel worthy because she's struggling to quit smoking.. we promised her that as she comes to church she will feel the strength to quit. She is so solid. I love her so much! We just have this connection, and I'm so grateful I was given the opportunity to find her. And Sister Watts being there changed things! She's buying her an outfit for church and I just know they will become such wonderful pals. 

Other than that, things just keep going. Still so grateful. Still counting my blessings. Still loving it all, I know that, just as the savior comforted His apostles and calmed the sea, he can calm the storms inside of us. I am so grateful for the sweet peace he offers me each and every day. His atonement is the realest thing we've got, and it has the power to change our lives, to change our worlds. He IS hope!

Love love love y'all. 

<3 Hermana Yost

Letter #22 02/02/15

"I have a million dramatic, cheesy and just plain terrible subjects I've thought of for this email"

We're going to start a thing called, "Mom asks me a lot of questions, so let me take a short second here to answer them."

Q: How is your investigator N doing? Is she still on track for baptism this month?

A: She is still alive, still reading the Book of Mormon, continually suffering from what the doctor diagnosed as pneumonia, which directly translates to 'satan hates happy people and will do anything to deter one's gospel progress'. Because of said pneumonia, we didn't get to teach her at all this week and she didn't get to come to church. #boo. BUT she will be baptized. It's not really a matter of if, but when. We took her some soup and chatted about her reading, it's really neat to see people learning to love people like Nephi and his family. It's a lot like having these really cool friends you've known forever (Nephi, Sam, etc.) and your new friend (Nancy) is getting to know them too. It's just a real happy thing. 

Q: Is there anyone else you've been teaching? 

A: We continue to teach Johnny, who is the husband of our sweet member friend Sarah. HE RULES. And has come to church two consecutive times and I just love him dearly. He's shy as they come, but just opened up to Hermana Clark and I for some reason and there's no going back. We're going to put him on date for baptism this week! Also other humans. Our miracle baby Kiara continues to be awesome and also continues to work on Sundays so we're just praying and having faith and loving her. 

Now to the goods.

This week was good and bad, happy and sad, bitter and sweet. I've gained a much stronger appreciation for Eve (was that even possible?) as I realize what it takes to choose something super important (the well being and happiness of my companion) over something of almost equal importance (working 'til we drop, finding new investigators, etc.) The Lord really does ask us to sacrifice good things to reach higher and be better, and that's where we are right now. I am sacrificing to become like Him, little by little, and that's really neat that He loves me enough to want me to become like Him. I don't know, He hasn't given up on me yet, because He's still working on making me better. If you feel like you're going through super rough trials and don't know why, if you're doing everything you can to be good and live the gospel, just know that The Lord just wants you to become more like Him. He cares enough about YOU to know that YOU have potential to become a super Christlike human. And oftentimes that path takes us right through the refiners fire. 

Okay, I'm completely out of time. Just know that, yes, we did get a gun pulled on us contacting less actives from the ward roster. And, yes I did pray to have a miracle and THE LORD LET US RIGHT INTO THE CRYING ARMS OF OUR FORMER INVESTIGATOR BREANNA. He always leads us to her when she is struggling. It's so beautiful to see his hand so perfectly placing right in her path when we are just going about doing ordinary things.  He really is a God of MIRACLES and he wants nothing more than to grant us according to our desires.  He wants to give us every single good gift.

I lot the Lord, he buoys me up every single second!  I love the gospel, it really is our road map to super joyful happiness and I LOVE the opportunity I have to share it here with all these incredible humans!  And, like of course I love all of y'all.  Keep on keeping on!  La vida es buena, no es important las cosas que pasan en nuestras visas, El todavia esta con nosotros.

PS--I'm the biggest blubbering baby at meetings with other missionaries.  Like, at EVERY meeting.  I cried the entire zone meeting through.  The elders and sisters seriously think I'm nuts, BUT I'M A MISSIONARY AND IT'S SO COOL AND I'M SO GRATEFUL! <3