Letter #38 06/29/15

We were contacting a referral the other day and the lady's son answered the door. His name is R, he's 27, Puerto Rican by blood but New Yorker since birth, and a super special child of God. Not to mention he is like straight out of Seinfield. Anyways, we started talking about religion and the tough things he's going through in His life. As the conversation progressed, we testified of the love and awareness of His Heavenly Father. His eyes lit up. We asked him how he felt to know that God loved and knew Him, and he answered in a one word sermon, "thrilled". 

It really caused me to think of Alma's questioning in Alma 5:26 when he asks, "have ye felt to sing the song of redeeming love?" When we truly think about the reality of a God that knows us personally and loves us perfectly, it really is thrilling! When we understand and feel His redeeming love, we want nothing more than to sing it right on out! .. But then the follow up question, "can ye feel so now?" Does the gospel thrill us still? As we ride along the ups and downs of life, as we spend entire days knocking and talking without any success, it's easy to forget how thrilling the message of His infinite love really is. But it is SO real and SO good and only takes an upward and outward gaze to get the song stuck right back in our heads.

And today, I'm singing!

We are seeing so many miracles, and what's even more beautiful is that they are specific miracles of progression with our wonderful friends we're working with. I'm stoked about it!

First, M. She's the cutest little stay at home mom of one adorable baby from Honduras. She LOVES the Lord and has incredible insights on lots of gospel topics. As we've been meeting with her, we've definitely felt the spirit but she just doesn't keep commitments. She's super Cristiana, and decided she was going to go back to her church. As we were planning what to do for her, the lesson just wasn't sitting right with us. I asked if there was a video we could show her, and Hna Beckstead suggested "The Will of God", the one about the gardener cutting down the little current bush. We went right over to her house and spoke with her. At the end, I knew we were supposed to give her a baptismal date, but I was a little baby about it. Super scared. As I tried to end the lesson with any other words, I simply choked on them as they came out. It was incredibly weird. So I just said, what the heck. And invited her with a date and she said yes and HEAVENLY FATHER KNOWS WHATS BEST. 

Secondly, M's brother C. He's the one that had read the Testimony of Joseph Smith as a youth in Honduras, right? But literally every time we teach him he's like yeah, yeah, loving it until we invite him to baptism and he's like, "what have I told you? I'm not getting baptized again!" And do we were out with a member, cute Hermana Lenox, and the less active we were visiting didn't answer the door. So we're like, 'where to?' And she suggests we try another less active, so we head over there, but as were driving over Hna Beckstead and I both felt like we should go visit M. We visit her instead and C is there! So we share the bible video where Jesus heals a man blind from birth, telling him to go and wash and be healed and the spirit was SO strong and we discussed the beauty of action and following the example of Jesus Christ and he said he would 'possibly' be baptized and Hermana Beckstead and I danced out the door with baby tears in our eyes. There's just something special about him that we can feel as we teach. ALSO he came to church and participated like a champion and #happydays!

On the way home from the lesson, we checked our phone and.. What do you know? Call from our dear President! Hna Beckstead is getting transferred and I am going to stay here in Charlottesville and train a newborn English sister baby! ..What? There's a super crazy influx of sisters but no hermanas coming in so, here we go! Haha. Good thing Burkeville taught me to love English speaking people too! God knows what he's doing. ☺️ 

So much love!

Hermana Yost 

Letter #37 06/22/15

My cute comp and our step mom, Hermana Kingsley.  Being a Spanish Missionary
is so fun because the companion family tree is all intertwined.

The place in which I live. #treehugger #HeavenlyFatherknowsus perfectly

This week was completely 100% without question the weirdest one I've
had as a missionary ever ever. Every single day we would come home and
say, that was the most random completely crazy weird day that we have
ever had.. And then the following one beat it.


We got to spend our weekend basking in the beauty of meeting after
meeting with Elder Perkins of the quorum of the 70 and his incredible
wife! I learned so so so much, my head and heart is so full of the
love and also of the expectations that our Father in Heaven has for
us. He is able and willing to do His part in helping us succeed, but
we have to be willing to seek to understand and DO His will. But as we
do that, we become the humans that he created us to be. He did not
create us to fail, but to succeed gloriously! And He is there every
step of the way.

And I've gotta living proof! So yesterday was stake conference, but
before the meeting Elder Perkins held a short q&a meeting for recent
converts, investigators and returning members. We had two
investigators that were coming, Saul and Carlos, but at 9:00 neither
of them had shown up.  So we head into the meeting when we realize
that nobody has set up translation equipment for the main meeting! So
we run and do that and by the time we're done it's like 9:15 and
they've started the meeting and we feel awkward walking in. So we go
back to greet some early comers in the chapel when we go talk to this
awesome member, who tells us that we should just go into the meeting
and that it'll be okay. But we walk by the door and still feel weird.
So we decide to go outside and see if our investigators are maybe
waiting out there, but we can't see their cars so we decide to say a
quick prayer. As we open our eyes, who pulls in but a recent convert,
Victor, and his roommate, Abel... An investigator we haven't been able
to teach all week!! Okay, way cool. So we walk into the meeting late
with them and not two seconds after we walk in the question is asked
about how someone can know if they're ready to receive the Melchesidek
Priesthood.. The EXACT thing that Victor has been struggling with. Can
you say 'the Lord's timing'?! It was just incredible to see how it all
panned out. If we had gone into the meeting on time, they wouldn't
have known where it was being held and would have missed it. I cannot
and will not every get over how perfectly God knows His children.

I am so grateful to be serving at this time. A Mother Teresa quote for
good measure:

I am just a little pencil in the hands of a writing God who is sending
a love letter to the world. 

I'm so grateful to be that little pencil! His hand really is in every
aspect of our lives. I love Him!

♻️ Hermana Yost

Letter #36 06/16/15

These Hermana's hit their halfway mark!

This week was one of those weeks where you just feel like you learn and grow so much and pass over another mission hurdle. I read a talk about a missionary's whose sort of 'anthem' was that he 'feared no man'. I've been really focusing on this as my mantra and looking to the Lord in every thought! Life is happy when we choose only to look up.

Miracles were prevalent, as always, this week. Here's a neat one:

We have been feeling lately like we really need to clean out the investigator pool that's been growing and growing as we keep finding like mad. Like, there are still people I've never gotten to meet. So yesterday we decided to visit all these humans and determine where they're at in terms of conversion. After several doors not opening and a few, "thanks, but no thanks" we got in the car, drenched in sweat mind you #humidity, to meet up with a cute member and visit some more. As we walk up to the door, a friend of the ladies answers, telling us that she's not home. He's not super interested, but we're able to bear testimony of God's love and get his number. As we're walking back to the car, we spot this older Hispanic looking guy in a construction vest sitting outside. We decide to go up and talk to him. His name's H and he is completely made of gold. He practically led the lesson of the restoration with his insights and questions. The spirit was SO strong. It was the neatest thing. As we invited him to read the Book of Mormon, he was just like, "Something inside's telling me that I need to know if it's true". 

Okay, fast forward to our return appointment 2 days later.. We have Vilma with us, the perfect fellowshipper for him, ready for the lesson of a lifetime! And.. He's not there. We knock we call we cry.. Nada. This elect human is quite literally no where to be found and, yeah. Not cool. But then we're like, ya know what, let's go try the lady who wasn't home last time that lives next door! So we walk on over there but as we approach the door Vilma begins to take a phone call by the tree in the front yard. So B answers the door and asks us if the lady by the tree is with us.. Vilma gets off the phone and comes to the door and, turns out they lived together 8 years ago as roommates! What in the world. There was no explanation but that the Lord's hand is real and ready to help us help His children! 

Also, as you may or may not know, the lions mane is no longer. I don't know if it was a mid mission crisis or what but.. Here we are. I feel so free and sometimes feel like a 90's Meg Ryan which is completely fine by me.

I love being a missionary! Sweaty Virginia summer life is happier than you might think. ☺️

So much love,

Hermana Yost

Odds and ends:

We play soccer every Thursday with the group and investigators and I was seriously stinking really bad. Like, so lurpy and just plain embarrassing. But then one of the group members made some comment that it was unfair that they had both of the mujeres (Hna Beckstead and I) on their team and.. I proceeded to make like 5 goals. #thefeministfireisaliveandwell

Enviado desde mi iPad

Letter #35 06/08/15

Well, hello friends!

 Emailing has been crazy today because I was trying so hard to figure out how to use technology again (ie: IPADS) but eventually was forced to give up as I realized the alotted 1.5 hours was not gonna cut it as I plucked away at the screen, autocorrect becoming my worst enemy. Haha, the struggle is realer than real. BUT the iPads have been such a blessing this week! Studies are HEAVENLY with the entire gospel library at our fingertips. I have realized how little I actually used this wonderful tool before the mission and in turn, realized the great need to repent. 

And, as we find in Mosiah 18:20

Yea, even he commanded them that they should preach nothing save it were repentance and faith on the Lord, who had redeemed his people.

..my purpose as a missionary is to call people to repentance. So, don't you wait another second! Download the gospel library app and watch the spirit flow right into your lives! Haha, it's a dream. My favs of the moment are. 

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2015/04/latter-day-saints-keep-on-trying?lang=eng

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2015/04/where-justice-love-and-mercy-meet?lang=eng

And, from the looks of the favorites of the moment, the journey to understanding the grace and mercy and forgiveness and understanding of God continues. It's so interesting, sometimes your battle really is against the self that you know you are but don't want to be. I continue to be grateful for a loving Heavenly Father and Savior who understand us and our challenges.

One crazy hard thing that happened this week, we ran into easily the most anti human I have ever met. This whole morning/afternoon of tracting had just really been hitting us hard as quite literally EVERY human wanted nothing to do with the restored gospel or any of that jazz. And then we knocked on this door and he just started tearing us apart. We would try to testify, and he just knocked us down. I knew it was the adversary working as he so pointedly, almost off topically, mentioned certain things I have really struggled with through my life. As we left him, we stopped to say a prayer. I cried through the whole prayer. As we walked away, there was a nice tree that was split from the trunk. I looked at Hermana Beckstead and said, "Okay, Hermana. I walk through this tree and forget everything that ever happened.." and then I did. Haha, it kinda worked too! She thinks i'm nuts. Heavenly Father is good to us. As the day went on, he blessed us with tender mercies and showed us he really was there. It also gave me some time to reflect on my testimony. I know this is the truest thing that ever was! There is such a unique difference you can feel. The spirit just tells you. 

Miracles this week, too! SO yesterday we went back to teach this nice fellow, C. We had quickly taught him the Sunday before, showed him the Because He Lives video, but it was kind of an "eh, so-so.. I work a lot so I don't know if I have time to come unto Christ" sort of thing. Before leaving, we committed him to read The Resoration Pamphlet and pray about it. As we began to teach him (and his sister! :) yesterday, he told us that as he read the pamphlet, he remembered something from when he was like 10 years old back in Honduras. Missionaries had visited his house and left a pamphlet with the testimony of Joseph Smith! He had read it and had been really interested. This lesson was totally different. He willingly responded to the baptismal invite and there was just something different about him. It was incredible to see that the Holy Ghost really does bring things to our remembrance, and in doing so, helps us on our way. 

I am so grateful for this time I have to truly be molded by the master! He views us with the eyes of who we can BECOME. I'm so grateful for the opportunity I have to truly become something. And we all do. It's neat! 

Okay, so much love! :)

Hermana Yost

Odds and ends:

+ Someone we taught this week told us that, as she understood it, the word "mormon" just meant any missionary that ever knocked on your door in Honduras. She didn't even know that was the nickname of the church, hahahah. 

Letter #34 06/01/15

Okay, okay. WELL. This week was really so neat. It started out completely crazy because preparation day was changed to Tuesday. It's crazy how into the mission routine you become and when one thing's out of place it's like the end of the world for a second. BUT all was well. We went to the downtown mall with our dear friend Scarlet and ate Gelato, talked to this lady from England in an art gallery about the earth and her knitting with dog/rabbit fur, bought some shoes (.. sorry mom) and found the NEATEST little vintage store hidden away in this like underground tunnel. Okay, Charlottesville is neat. BUT that's not even the neatest part. It's been so cool for me to see that all of these things I loved before, and still love, really do pale in comparison to the simple spirit found in a powerful lesson or the joy that comes from seeing an investigator progress. This work is unbelievably fun.

So after Pday on Tuesday we had the CRAZIEST night planned and we ended up getting really behind on our schedule. Something I've really struggled with on the mission is the expectation of being perfect. I know as a representative of Jesus Christ that's something I need to strive to be, but as humans we all have little faults and weaknesses and as Hermana Yost I have SO many and I constantly am feeling like I can't measure up to this missionary human that the Lord/world expects me to be. And so, we made mistakes. Over the crazy course of the night, we were late to a really important appointment. I was frustrated and heartbroken, knowing that I let people down and more importantly, I let my Savior down. But something incredible happened. As we began to teach the lesson, earnestly praying for His spirit, His power to help us, it did. He was there. His power made up for everything that we lacked. His spirit was present and He carried us through. 

His atonement is REAL. His grace is sufficient. We will never be enough, but because of His sacrifice, because of His unending love and mercy and grace He fills in every gap. He loves us anyway. He wants us to succeed, notwithstanding the fact that we continually fall. He wants us to become something. It doesn't matter who we've been, or even who are. What he really cares about is who we are willing to become with His help. 

The miracle of the Atonement is not just that we can go home but that—miraculously—we can feel at home there. If Heavenly Father and His Son did not require faith and repentance, then there would be no desire to change.... If the Father and the Son did not require covenants and bestow the gift of the Holy Ghost, then there would be no way to change. We would be left forever with only willpower, with no access to His power. If Heavenly Father and His Son did not require endurance to the end, then there would be no internalization of those changes over time. They would forever be surface and cosmetic rather than sinking inside us and becoming part of us—part of who we are. Put simply, if Jesus didn’t require practice, then we would never become Saints.

Grace is not a booster engine that kicks in once our fuel supply is exhausted. Rather, it is our constant energy source. It is not the light at the end of the tunnel but the light that moves us through the tunnel. Grace is not achieved somewhere down the road. It is received right here and right now.

And He will give us this grace. This power we receive from a continued relationship with Him. His spirit will come in abundance as we simply take the moment to humble ourselves before him, be "completely transparent" as Elder Zwick of the quorum of the seventy explained in a conference we had on Friday, and allow him to transform us. Transforming our lives, our situation, our hearts.

He is so good. As I've tried to do this this week we have seen incredible miracles. A prompting of "you're super dehydrated Hermana Yost, go to the mexican tienda and buy some water" turned into confirming a later appointment, finding a less active we've had a hard time contacting, finding a new investigator and teaching a lesson to a part member family in which we were able to find his need and help him to come to Sacrament Meeting this week and be able to finally understand through the translation equipment he didn't know existed. 

He will make something incredible of each and every one of us. 

His love his REAL. And there are no limits. We are never too far.

I love Him and I LOVE His work! 

<3 Hermana Yost

Letter #33 05/26/15

The Charlottesville dreamland........

Becca and her new companion Hermana Beckstead

Okay, HI. First, most formal apology ever of my life- I have been the world's #1 worst emailer the past few months in Woodbridge. I've been learning to immerse myself in the work, which is super neat, but also, like, families (and friends) are forever or something and you all mean SO much to me, so- yes.

                                                                 Aqui estoy!                    

 In Charlottesville, VA. It is a serious DREAMLAND here, hence the subject title. But, really. I can never quite handle. The University of Virginia campus is in our area and our ward is chalk full of young marrieds who are just doing the college thing and the better portion of them all served missions in Spanish speaking countries, so it's been awesome to have them out to lessons with us!

Speaking of lessons, THIS AREA HAS SO MUCH POTENTIAL. It's awesome.

 We have taught/found/refound lots of really neat people who are really interested. My first day here, we went to teach this guy named J. He has three kids, and is from Mexico. His wife wasn't home, so we went out to the backyard, sat on the stairs in the baking sun and taught him and his two oldest. The moment I stepped back there, I was not in Virginia anymore.. They have preserved the Mexican culture quite well in their little spot of America. Chickens for dayyyyss. Anyways, it was really neat lesson. We focused a lot on prayer and as we were talking about baptism, G said he turned 8 on June 28th, so.. their little family is all on date! #birthdaybaptisms! 

Becca, Hermana Sprunt and Lilian who has been so good to Becca!  We love her!

Blanca and her cute family that Becca loves. 

We've seen a bunch of really neat miracles!

There's this rockin' awesome recent convert named S in the college YSA branch. She was baptized in November, and is SO solid. Her mom's from Peru, so she comes out with us all the time and it's so much fun! We've really become such good friends. We were out with her for the night and things had been crazy, we had just had like 3 lessons with people that really weren't interested and I was feeling a little down in the dumps. We decided to go with the little time we had left of the night to visit an investigator named R. We hadn't planned anything for her, so we just went in to follow the spirit. Hermana Beckstead's hymn book was randomly opened to 'families can be together forever', so we sang that, prayed and started talking about temples. As the lesson went on, R just opened up SO much about how she lost her daughter when she was a baby and WHOA. It was incredible. Everybody was crying and it was just really neat. 

My testimony of transfers has gone up at least 300% as well. Sometimes when missionaries are in an area for a really long time, you kind of think you know like who isn't interested, if an entire trailer park has been knocked through. And these rumors can remain as new missionaries come in. BUT I don't know the difference here being, coming in blind, so we've just been inviting EVERYONE to learn. And we've seen some awesome miracles come from it! My first day here, we went to visit a lady named Ru that they had been visiting for a while, but her husband answered. So, not knowing the stigma, I just asked him if there was a time we could come back and teach the whole family.. and so we set Sunday as a date. Missionaries have never taught him before, but he was super game. The lesson was awesome and now we have a new family we are teaching. 

Also, there's this INCREDIBLE recent convert named V. He's such a champion, and he lives with like 4 other guys. They'd been teaching two of them, so we went to set up appointments, and I got to meet them and another roommate, L. Hma Beckstead had always heard that he wasn't interested, but.. once again, I didn't know that. So we asked if there was a day we could come by and share our message with him. He gladly agreed to Friday, and he was there like he said. We had the HAPPIEST lesson in the whole world with him. So open and spirit filled and fun. At the beginning, he was kind of talking about not having a lot of time to really read and find an answer, but by the end he was like.. ya know what, work has slowed down a bit, I think it's the time. SO prepared!

And......  I ran out of time because the happy little miracles were abundant this week! I'm so SO grateful to be here. I'm thankful for a loving Heavenly Father who knows me so perfectly and knows exactly what I need. I'm so thankful to know that, even when change comes and I'm super scared and frustrated because I don't want to leave the beauty of Woodbridge, my Heavenly Father just tells me to wait a good second and then leads me to something different, but just as wonderful filled with so many blessings! He loves us! His promises are SURE. 

Becca  and Hermana Clark on their way to the transfer meeting.

Love y'all. Pics and mucho mucho mas next week, I promise. 

<3 Hermana Yost

Odd and End:

*V gives every new missionary a nickname. Mine is 'Hermana 'Like'. You can guess why?

Letter #32 05/04/15

Everyone and their 5 year old daughter thing I'm Merida and my cute latina companion.

Okay, so let me just tell you that this week was straight up chalk full of beautiful baby miracles that all combined into one of the most incredible weeks of my mission. It was like from last Sunday to this past Sunday (yesterday) I have been completely changed by understanding of the atonement of Jesus Christ, it's incredible. IT IS THE SINGLE MOST WONDERFUL THING IN THE WHOLE WHOLE WORLD.  I really am just so grateful to know of His unwavering love and I'm so grateful for the opportunity I have to share it with every single human that lives here. It's cool to be in a position where literally every human you meet is your 'projimo' (neighbor) and it's not even that awkward or weird when you talk to them about all of their problems and creepily tell them you love them. It's like past life Becca Yost's 'biggest dream' come true!

Emulating the companionship disunity of the two sister missionaries depicted in the above wall art.

Cool graffiti walls and all the goods.

Welp, the last few weeks had turned into kind of a grind and I was just like seriously lacking the faith necessary to perform miracles as a servant of the Lord. Everyone we met was just like, "meh, you girls are nice but please don't come back to my house" and I was just like, "Where in the world are all the prepared humans?!" But THEN Hermana Sprunt and I both had super neat studies about hope and faith and all the goods and we were just determined to go out and conquer the world and find at least 300 searching Hispanic humans.

Searching Hispanic young adult male #1: We had an appointment with one of our cute less active ladies, F but when we went there she had company and wouldn't let us in. SO we had a debate about maybe going to find another one of the less actives or just to knock doors in her neighborhood as we'd planned. We were almost gonna leave, but I just really felt like we should stay. So we drove down the street, parked in front of a random house and got out. Knocked one door of a nice black lady and then noticed a Hispanic walking inside his house.. we run over and ask if we can give him a card and start talking. His name's J and he's 23 and we start talking about Jesus Christ. We watch 'Because He Lives' with Him and his mind was blown.. he was like, "I've never thought that way before.." and the spirit was super strong and awesome! Then, we said a prayer before leaving and after I said amen he was just like, "I feel so light.. and tingly.. what is that?" And we were just like, "That's the feeling that'll let you know our message is true." and he was like, "That's the feeling that makes me want to invite you guys back."

Searching Hispanic young adult male #2: We were going back to contact this guy named W that we taught once, and his mom M answered the door. She told us that W wasn't home, but that her other 19 year old son, F, was. We had given him and all his rough young friends "Because He lives" cards and so we asked if he'd watched it and he hadn't. So they invite us in to watch it. He started watching with a, "who are you two random girls" little smirk, but as he watched his eyes just became glued to the screen. As we talked afterwards, we talked about the direction and peace that the gospel of Jesus Christ brings and asked Him if that's something he desired. He was like, "You won't believe it, but just the other day I was thinking that I could really use some direction in my life, and here it is.. knocking on my door."

Searching Hispanic young adult male #3: We went back to teach F, his dad and mom, but he had another friend there named M. As we started to teach the restoration, it didn't seem like he was very interested, but then we got into talking about the great apostasy and I asked him, "M, have you ever felt like you were walking in darkness?" and then he just broke down and started crying and talking about how he feels like that all the time. The spirit was the most powerful I have ever felt it in a restoration lesson as we testified that God doesn't want us to walk in darkness and how THIS is the light.

You guys, the Lord is preparing people! And I think they're all 19-23 year old men. It's just super cool how the little bits of faith and trust we put in, The Lord gives us beautiful unmistakable miracles. I am so happy here. He loves us and wants us to find true happiness and hope in a world where there's not too much of it. I love Him with all my heart and know He loves every single one of us perfectly and completely.

helives.mormon.org <3

Hermana Yost

My sweet pal Lydia sent me these beauties and they've quickly become my pride and joy.  The white handbook says a whole bunch about animals and children but not one thing about herbs.