Letter #46 08/24/15

He is at the helm. ⛵️

My, my, my.. I have learned so much this week. It has just been a
really crazy time, with meeting all kinds of new people and seeing
lots of interesting things and also miracles and then I just don't
really know.

Sometimes it's really easy to forget that the mission and life and
everything really isn't about you. And it has little to nothing with
what you do. Like we've got to do our part but everything good comes
from God and he always makes us into what we need to be.

It's a little bit of a struggle, that even now, 11 months into my
mission I still am constantly battling this fight in my heart between
trusting in myself and trusting in God. I know that trusting in God is
always the better decision but it's so easy to forget that. I was
reading today in Mark chapter 6 where the disciples have just
witnessed this incredible miracle of Jesus Christ feeding 5000 people
with five loaves and two fishes and still just moments after, they're
frightened when they see him walking on water. Life has a way of
hardening are hearts, but God has a way of consistently showing I
asked that he is here to soften them. We studied this talk in relief
society yesterday. It touched my heart so hard.

Brothers and sisters, seeing and believing the Lord's miracles in establishing His kingdom on earth can help us see and believe that the Lord's hand is a work in our own lives as well.  The Lord declared, "I am able to do mine own work." We each try to do our part, but He is the grand architect.  Under the direction of His Father, He created the world.:  All things were made by him, and without him was not anything made that was made."  As we are spiritually awake and alert, we see His hand across the world and we see His hand in our own personal lives.

So this week was just a sum total of little baby miracles that didn't seem like much but, in retrospect, the Grand Architect is definitely at work.

✨ S had a really interesting dream about angels and baptisms and she was really confused about it. She was asking us to interpret it and I was so wishing that I had the skills of Joseph or at least his Technicolor dream coat because I had nothing. She had been reading from 1 Nephi 10 to words of Mormon for an answer to her question about her dream and she didn't find anything. She stopped reading, and was super frustrated that the Lord didn't give her an answer after so much work. As we sat there trying to figure out what we should say, sister McNeely flipped open her book of Mormon, knowing that should because answer must be close to where she was reading. She opens to a scripture in Mosiah 4:11.. Just flips open and.. WOW. 

Just wow. The spirit hit us all like a ton of bricks. God is so good.

Also, how many of us have been THAT CLOSE to the answer of our lives and just stop reading?

✨ We were visiting less actives, doing some work at our ward mission leader had assigned us, and had had a nice evening. We were leaving to go to an appointment, when we saw this guy working outside a cool old vintage wooden trailer. As we drove past I felt impressed to stop. So we stopped and went to talk to him. Turns out he is so so prepared. His name is J and we had such a wonderful talk with him. He has felt very strongly that he is ready to be baptized soon, but wanted to do it right. We went back and visited him later this week and he kept talking about how he knows us. He said that he has met us before on the bus or something, but we haven't been here in Virginia long enough, because this was a couple of years ago. We are sure that we have met him before (hello pre mortal life) and we were able to testify to him that he has been prepared for this moment for a really long time. We are excited to continue teaching him.

✨ last night we were so tired that we were going to die. I had been feeling sick all day and sister McNeely was super tired. It was like 850 and we easily could have gone home, but we wanted to work all the way up until the end of the night. As we walked around this apartment complex talking to people outside, we decided to go visit one potential named Jas on the way to her house three ladies by a car stopped us. One of them called out to us and asked us if we were the missionaries that had visited them weeks previously. It turns out that she had been in a car accident the day we visited and couldn't meet with us, but really wanted to let us in. The next lady has attended church before with family members and their other friend has seen our commercials on TV. They were all way way excited to meet with us again. It was so cool to see that as we offered up everything we had the Lord made our night into what it needed to be and blessed with a miracle. I'm so grateful.

Letter #45 08/17/15

Hi, so I watched the age change announcement the other morning and completely lost it. It was the weirdest thing. Like, that was me.. now this is REALLY me. I'm a missionary. I am the me I envisioned when I heard those words leave President Monson's mouth. This is real. It's just those tender mercies when God reminds you that, in spite of all the craziness and sweat and emotional eating and worry and concern, that really, truly, there's nothing better. 

And I'm grateful. 

BUT OKAY. I've just been blown away this week by all the things I've learned. Miracle number one of course has to do with S because she's the number one miracle of my entire existence but ANYWAYS. We had our last lesson with her before she went to DC (only for the weekend that felt like a lifetime!) and it was so wonderful. We talked about family history and the responsibility of first generation members. The spirit was strong. As we left, she invited us back at seven to pick up a pizza, but when we went back she was.. different. Like, she was feeling way sick and she was the July 4th S that we met in our first lesson. It was so weird. She was just super discouraged and down again. We were way worried and Sister McNeely being the queen bee spirit follower that she is asked S if she'd like a priesthood blessing.. she gladly accepted and so we scrambled to find some men from the ward.. Heavenly Father led us to find some willing to come at that exact moment and they gave her the sweetest blessing..

.. She opened her eyes, and she was COMPLETELY changed again. Like 100% her new self again. She was just floored and kept saying, "I feel like I can conquer the world!" .. It was incredible. Priesthood power is REAL. God's power is on the earth and he lets us partake in the beautiful blessings of his perfect love. 

Also oh my heavens

Okay, so on Thursday we received this GOLDEN referral from the Crozet sisters. For this guy named J that they found and put on date for baptism and all this good stuff! And they had a return appointment with him for Saturday at 2:00. So we get this awesome member to come with us, knock on his door and..... not there. Boo. So we're like, what do we do now? Turns out he lives right by this lady named D.. the story of D is that

each week our mission president sends out these miracles that different companionships send him throughout the mission. And one was this former investigator that they found named D that was super prepared.. after reading it I just couldn't really get the name out of my head and I just kept feeling that there was a D in our area book that needed us. So ANYWAYS we'd been trying to contact her for centuries but, no luck. But, our appointment was no good, so we went to her home. We parked, prayed, look up and there's D walking up the street. We immediately recognize her as the human we were looking for.. We start to talk with her and she told us all about her sisters that would come visit but that she was SO tired from work (and she was) and didn't think we should talk today.. as she started to walk inside something just clicked and she was like, "Actually, yes! Come share something with me!" and so we go to her little covered porch, sing, and before we can even pray she starts into this story about how two bretheren from our church came and gave her a blessing when she was learning in 2012 and how literally EVERY single good thing that's come into her life.. being able to keep her house, her husband getting out of jail, has come through the power of that blessing! Then she cried. And told us that she's been praying and knows it's not a coincidence that we're back. And the spirit was incredible. And, needless to say, God knows His children. And also, round two for priesthood power. Grateful again! 

Also, post script note to the whole situation.. we found out that J got home not two minutes after we left! And basically, it was all just perfect. There are no coincidence's in our Heavenly Father's plan. His love is all encompassing and He cares about the little things. He loves us!

Letter #44 08/10/15

In the hands of the healer....also #waitingontheLord

So, this week has been an incredible learning experience. We are left with eyebrows singed by the refiner's fire and a testimony of just how involved The Lord is in His work, bringing to pass OUR immortality and eternal life!

1 Nephi 9:5-6

Words of Mormon 1:7

He knows. 

"Thumbs Up!"  It was Ze's idea--I like it!  Of her baptism, Zr said, "I still feel like me just really happy"
I think that's what living the gospel of Jesus Christ does for us. :)

Just a slight precursor-

S IS THE QUEEN OF THE UNIVERSE. I am always so humbled and amazed to work with her, to serve her, to see her unwavering faith and her unfailing devotion to God and His love and will. 

The week leading up to her scheduled baptismal date was anything but easy. She went through lots of struggles and obstacles, but always ended up on top as she let go and let God. But the biggest obstacle, the greatest manifestation of God's will came on Thursday as we were preparing for her baptismal interview. As she interviewed, some things from the past came up and we found out she might have to wait to be baptized. She was really shaken up by it all, because her desire to be baptized is SO great. 

We talked with her for a while about the Lord preparing a way for us to do whatever He commands or requires, and she found a little bit of solace, saying that she wasn't discouraged, but we knew she was. 

So we called President Wilson and, guess what? He was already headed up to Charlottesville- now only 12 minutes away, and wanted to talk with Shameka. They had an incredible interview and she was just blown away that he "knew her heart". He told her that she was completely ready, was shocked that we'd only been meeting for 4 weeks, and that there's just some things that have to be done in circumstances like this. She left that interview walking on air, and, over slurpee's, we talked about God's hand. We had no clue that these things had happened in her life, there was no way for us to find out, really, until the interview but Heavenly Father knew. He sent a bolt of lighting prompting telling us that her date needed to be pushed up, only because He knew that it would need to be pushed back. There was no coincidence that President was driving up on the day when it all unfolded. It was incredible to see how his hand has literally guided EVERY single step of her conversion. 

Not to mention that Z, the beautiful nine year old with the wisdom and courage of someone who KNOWS that she's a daughter of God, still wanted to be baptized and set the example for her entire family. Also her favorite song is Called to Serve and she wants to be a missionary. 

It was just so beautiful. After the baptism, Sister C (S) just bore testimony after testimony to everyone there of just how happy the gospel makes us. She just glows!

And now we wait. But when you're waiting on the Lord, it's not so bad. He knows the beginning from the end and I'm just so at peace that it will all work out. It's been amazing to see how this huge obstacle has just refined her even more. Heavenly Father definitely knows what He is doing and He is SO aware. I KNOW IT! He wants to help us and He will. 

I love Him and I love Charlottesville and I LOVE y'all. 

The sweetest/sassiest girls I know.  The newest member of
the church and another girl who can't wait to be eight.

Zr, Me, McNeely, Ze, Sh, Brother Perkins----The baptism crew.

Letter #43 08/03/15

My entire being is saturated with the smell of fried chicken/"letting go and letting God"

First off, it is just really happy to be serving in a southern place
again. Where everyone is Baptist, loves Jesus, but not when we talk
about Him. It's all a good time. We were walking around this semi
ghetto neighborhood late Saturday night swarming with millions of
humans. We approached this lady to talk to her, but had to get through
a large group of her children dancing to music that I loved pre
mission but now hurts my head and heart, haha. I can't handle it
really. And this little 4 year old was just dancing very intensely to
'wobble' and her mom was so proud and it was the most hilarious
experience ever. Like we would talk about the gospel for a second but
then.. Super ghetto 4 year old, ya know?

But, anyways, that actually doesn't matter at all. Not in comparison
to the absolute emotional roller coaster that has been this past week-
wow. I really can't even remember what happened at the beginning
because this weekend was the longest of my entire existence. In all
the goods and bads and opposition that turned joyful.

If we can all turn our attention to the topic of S, remember
her? Okay. We always and forever love her so much! But I guess to
preface the story, we need to talk about earlier week feelings and the
life changing experience that was our Friday zone meeting. SO she has
had an August 22nd baptismal date for quite a while now and we've been
feeling prompted that it needs to be moved up. But, we kind of just
kept marching on, seeing her every single day, mind you, and feeling
the spirit a whole bunch. So with those feelings already in our
hearts, we go to Zone meeting and basically our leaders were just
like, "We know there are people you are teaching, ready to be baptized
on the 8th of August, and so does President Wilson and so does The
Lord. And it was INCREDIBLY powerful and the spirit was so strong and
bore witness to our souls that, yes, S is ready! And so we leave
the meeting with all sorts of spiritually created plans as to how this
was all going to come to pass. And we talked about faith and how we
can't doubt and how trusting completely in the Lord was the only thing
that was going to allow this incredibly fast and beautiful miracle to 
take place.

And then we left and Satan crept in and also fear and anxiety. And
past experiences of setting people on date and seeing them fall of
into oblivion and I was basically just being a baby. Like, I was comfy
with the 22nd too. But throughout our entire lunch Heavenly Father
just kept prompting me to talk to Him and so I did and through an
obscure D&C chapter I just knew that it would be okay, that it was in
fact the Lords's will and that he had already prepared her heart.

And so, directly after lunch, we went. Took a member and went to her
home to teach her about living prophets. We start the lesson with, "We
Thank Thee O God For A Prophet" and as we finish singing she's like,
"wow, sisters. I'm so glad we sang that, that has just been my soul
all day long" .. So I'm thinking what happened, are dark clouds of
trouble hanging over her again? What's going on in her heart? But when
we ask her why, all she says is, "I'm ready". And both mine and Sister
McNeely's jaws drop wide open and the spirit comes in so strong as she
talks about how she HATES spending money but that amidst school
shopping for the girls she found herself buying church clothes and how
she just been feeling for a couple of days that it's time.

So with that being said, something I was so worried about was
completely taken care of by The Lord! He knows her better, and He
certainly knew that she was ready. We moved her date to the 8th of
August and the peace we all felt was magical. But as we leave, our
beautiful convert member present gives her warning that the moment we
step out of the door the adversary steps in.. And she was right.

Always the opposition! We didn't get to see her on Saturday because
she was spending the day with her sisters.. And then, Sunday morning
we wake up to the text of all texts. That she had been staying up late
talking to an old friend and thinking a lot about how the 8th is too
rushed and how she just doesn't feel ready because you can't possibly
change in four weeks and that you can't change something you've known
all your life in such a short amount of time. Also that because she'd
been up all night she wouldn't be coming to church and.. Eek!

But, what was so beautiful is that, in S's own words I had
already 'let go and let God' do the rest, and he had already spoke to our hearts that all would be well.

So we ran over there before church and talked with her about Peter
walking on water and how we have to push and fight towards the light.
And trust. And she is nodding off because she took sleeping medication
but promises she'll be awake when we come back after church. So we
darted to church and I felt like a disciple of Christ healing on the
sabbath, sitting in the foyer for sacrament as a missionary. But we
felt like we had done the Lord's will, and that He would continue to
help us to do it. And so we visited her after church and.. Needless to
say she's back on date. We talked about how, really, she is living
breathing proof that someone can change in four weeks. And she is. So,
say a little prayer in your heart for S and Z and we're so
excited to see them make baptismal covenants this weekend!

Let go and let God. I promise life's just better that way.

 Hermana Yost