Letter #58 11/16/15

If you could only see what's going on in the background.  We work a lot in this

apartment complex called "La Mancha" which translates to "the stain" and it's a

wee bit sketchy.  Some hermanas got mugged there once, but don't worry we are

best friends with the spirit while romping through "La Mancha".  We've actually 

seen TONS of miracles where the Spirit is just so real and tangible and guides us.

Hi, I learned this lesson a lot this week. I'm so grateful for a
lovingly patient Heavenly Father and Savior who care more about our
progression than our failed attempts at perfection. This weekend,
Elder Arnold from the quorum of the 70 came to stake conference and
the spirit spoke so deeply to my soul. It was really neat. I know that
we have every reason to have joy and love life because THE ATONEMENT
OF JESUS CHRIST DOES THAT FOR US. If we let it. It's been incredible
to see the growth of one of our investigators, E. She was
almost dropped before I got here, but the missionaries got a strong
impression that they shouldn't drop her.. And, she's completely
changed! She just decided that she wanted to change, so she came to
church, agreed to a baptismal date and.. Told us about how they
literally had no food in their house but that she was able to put
something together to feed her kids and she KNEW it was just a direct
blessing from Heavenly Father. And now, her boyfriend who wanted to
nothing to do with the church or learning from us told her that he
feels like he needs to start coming.. What?! God blesses us when we do
what's right. Elder Arnold the story from the New Testament when the
disciples were struggling in the midst of a crazy sea storm, and Jesus
Christ walked on water to come to them. The interesting thing is that
he waited until the 4th watch.. Almost all night to help them out. He
knew they were struggling, but he waited, knowing that their endurance
would bring them great blessings. I know that Christ always comes to
the rescue. That his blessings are real. And that they will come as we
live what we know and press on in faith and hope and love!

PS-  At stake conference, something was going crazy with the
translation system and microphones, so the song that goes something
like, "put on my boogie shoes, doo doo" kept coming over the speaker
in the CHAPEL as Elder Arnold tried to speak.. uhh.. hahahah. It was
the most hilarious, uncomfortable thing I've ever experienced. Like,
do we dance? Or, try our very hardest to keep a straight face? Haha, I
did a little of both.

Letter #57 11/09/15

Mis nuevas companeras! :)

OKAY. Drumroll please. Guess where I am just guess...!

Hahah, okay you don't have to guess, but I will just say that I have spent the last few weeks of the mission swooning over stories of Chesterfield and dreaming of serving there and.. Heavenly Father has every intention of fulfilling our righteous desires and dreams, I'm sure of it! It reminds me of something one of our members, Alex, said last night in a lesson with our sweet investigators J and Es. They are completely ready to be baptized, they just need to get married. We were talking about a day this week we could go to the courthouse to complete the paperwork for their marriage license, and they were talking about just how strict Jorge's boss is and that they didn't know how they were going to get work off to both be able to go. After raising the concern, Alex was like, "Do you want to get married? Do you believe the Lord can bring to pass a miracle in your life?" And they were like.. Yeah.. and he was like, "okay! Then you'll get work off and you'll get married and baptized." And the spirit just bore witness to my heart that- yeah. That's right. Heavenly Father CARES. And He will help us. So we set a faith filled appointment to go to the courthouse on Tuesday morning, then they called us late last night and told us that he got work off this morning. Sometimes Heavenly Father is so incredible in answering our prayers so fast. So, we got the license all figured out this morning and I GET TO ATTEND A BEAUTIFUL HISPANIC WEDDING. It's fun get dropped right into the third quarter of the most beautiful conversion story ever. They are just the sweetest, most prepared humans and I'm so grateful to get to know them. 

Speaking of.. something that is so weird is that, from the moment I entered el barrio de Chesterfield, EVERYONE has looked super familiar to me. And all of the investigators that we are teaching, it's like I know them from somewhere. I don't know how to explain it, but it's super weirding me out. Actually, it's not weirding me out, because Heavenly Father's plan is so perfect. I have struggled a lot this week, but I have learned SO much. I've been blessed so much to be put in this beautiful ward, to get to serve as an STL with Hermana Gonzalez, who, by the way is like the most perfect human in the whole world, teaches like a pro and can express every feeling of her heart in spanish. (Curse that mexican heritage- SO jealous) and HERMANA POWELL! It's like the high school world and the mission world have collided, haha. Love it! They are both so incredibly wonderful. And, with that, I have been bombarded with TONS of feelings of inadequacy. And it's been so silly, but so real. And I've been praying lots and Heavenly Father is SO good. Yesterday was the most amazing day, getting to know everyone at church and just these little moments where, as I tried my very best to give everything over to the Lord, He blessed me to do the things I couldn't do. And I am grateful and learning and STOKED to be serving with two of the most amazing missionaries with all of my pre-earth-life pals here in Chesterfield. I miss everyone back home (Charlottesville, haha) but Heavenly Father is helping me! 

I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY! 

La Hermana Yost :)

Letter #56 11/02/15

My Scarlett...Sometimes Heavenly Father promises you'll meet your best friends
on your mission and then you do.  His promises are sure!

I can't even put into words this week or this transfer or my mission to this point. I AM SO LLENA DE GRATITUD. Like, ah! It's unreal. Heavenly Father is absolutely just the most Loving. And He gives us this beautiful opportunity to feel THAT BEAUTIFUL, ALL ENCOMPASSING love in little increments that just make your heart burst and your soul soar. I have been crying (a lot) at the thought of leaving an area I have come to call my home (#Cville4ever) and also, yes. Just because Heavenly Father has blessed us so immensely this transfer. It's just these beautiful little miracles he just drops into our laps, or the moments where you just feel SO HAPPY and you're like, what? And then you remember that you're a missionary and that you have the neatest calling EVER and that you're not the same as you were before. It is SUCH a blessing. 

HE CARES about His servants, each and every missionary. About the ward members that just try to do good. He cares about every single sad, lonely, boracho (drunkard), because they are all HIS. He cares about you and He cares about me. 

HIS LOVE IS GREATER. And I am so grateful. 

Becca is getting transferred tomorrow.  I am always a little bit sad when she gets transferred and has to leave the people she loves and that are so good to her. While emailing me today she said "I am really excited!  I am becoming a Hermana Training Leader, so that's crazy!  I don't feel near good enough or anything, but it will provide a lot of growing experiences and a LOT of opportunities to serve." I am excited that she gets to have this opportunity! :)

Sweet recent converts Beti y Francesca

My BFF America and her dad, Hno Aguilar

Saying goodbye to my heart and soul.  It's really neat when parts
of you Patriarchal blessing come to life.....Mah ladies.

Sweet Hermana Vilma aka my hero.

Goodbyes and Halloween mean food!

No proselyting Halloween and Hermano Taco. hahaha, Mexican
resaurants are the happies place nowadays.  (Recent convert Victor too--love him!)

I GOT TO RECYCLE this week!!  Happiest of all the days! :)

Charlottesville, you just get me....Never forgetting this place.

Becca and the cute Gray family.

Letter# 55 10/26/15

Cute companion and Sister Whitehead and also how do I look with four eye?

My sweet Hermana Iris from Woodbridge came to visit Thomas Jefferson
and I with her husband and sweet son Mattito.

I HAVE NEVER BEEN MORE EXCITED TO WRITE ABOUT MY WEEK IN MY ENTIRE EXISTENCE. I am just so grateful to my Heavenly Father for the beautiful things He does for me and mine each and every day. He has always been and continues to be a God of miracles. And He lets us struggle, shake in our boots a little, just so we can truly learn what it means to rely on Him and look to Him in all things. I'M GRATEFUL, okay? 

I learned so many things about Heavenly Father and His desire to help us in the work this week. And I don't know how I'm going to even type them all because it all weaves together in this tapestry of God's LOVE and I don't even know, guys. I'm just blown away! 

But we'll just start from- compiling our paper area book into digital format for the iPad. A little bit of a drag, maybe? A super daunting task? You bet! A beautiful way that Heavenly Father gives us foreshadows and little spurts of revelation to help us in the work- YES. So, this week, as I was putting former investigators in I came across this guy named C- and the spirit was like, Hi. You need to go find him. So we went. As we were driving to his house, we see these two Hispanics (one having a SUPER LONG SILKY PONYTAIL) walking into 7 eleven so naturally we follow them and.. get to talking and it's C and his friend J, haha. WHAT. It was just like Heavenly Father didn't want to wait any longer so He just placed them in our path. It was super super neat. 

THEN within the next few days, I was once again entering people in and find this lady named O. I was like, Okay, next time we're over at that apt. complex we'll have to go see her. Well, fast forward to last night and a couple appts had fallen through so we start talking to this english guy named M. He has tons of questions and has read lots of anti stuff and I just kept feeling like we shouldn't still be talking to him, but also that we needed to stay.. so we have this lengthy discussion with him until finally we send him on his way with a Book of Mormon. As we're leaving the apartment complex, we go out a super different way than usual past the laundromat and see this lady and her cute little hija walking that way with TONS of bags so we hurry and park and run out to help them and end up talking about our message and.. GUESS WHAT. I'm sure you've aleady guessed, but it was O. Of course. She is WAY solid and SO SWEET and I'm so excited to go back and teach her. 

.. BUT WAIT, there's more! As we're gearing up to pray together at the close of our lesson in the little noisy laundromat, who walks in but none other than J from 7-11. Miracle! Then O's sweet little daughter is like, "Hey, that's J! He LIVES WITH US." And we were like.. what?! Because we'd been searching for those two guys after taking down the wrong address and not finding them at home for our next appointment. 

Needless to say, Isn't that the craziest chain of events ever?! My mind was so blown until the spirit whispered to my heart that, of course that happened. He really does have the whole world in His hands. <3 

Autumn in Virginia is beautiful!

 

I promise I'm actually a missionary and that taking a few minutes to fulfill every dream of my whole life
led us to be in the right place at exactly the right time so Heavenly Father knows and loves us, isn't it neat?
(Fall leaves and Recycling are two of Becca's favorite things)

Now for round two of miracle central! 

We've been doing some finding in Ruckersville, the boonies of our zone, with little to no success. But HOLY COW I JUST WANTED TO FIND SOMEONE UP THERE WHO WANTED THE GOSPEL. So, we go to this trailer park that I'd visited once before on exchanges with the STL's and don't see very many hispanics. So we walk across this huge field to the next row of trailers.. straight into the front yard, where a little hispanic kid is playing with his cars. Okay, thank you Heavenly Father! So we go and talk to his dad.. who, meh, isn't super interested and was kind of fighting a little bit. But then, gradually, his countenance changed and he willingly set up a return appointment and it was really neat. We went back for our scheduled appointment with him, J.. and- nada. Nobody's home. But not two seconds later, a car pulls up and out steps this other guy. He tells us to have a seat on the porch and we start talking. Turns out his name is S and he is J's cousin. And.. He is the slightly older, Hispanic version of JOSE SMITH! It was incredible. He told us all about His journey of faith after "learning for himself" that Catholisism isn't true. It was the most incredible lesson and Sister Stice and I both just sat there with mouths agape.. HE IS SO PREPARED. 

Heavenly Father really does lead and guide us. He answers our prayers, and after 4 weeks of struggle, He is blessing us so much. I am grateful to know of His mercy and love. I KNOW that Jesus Christ is our Savior and that He knows it all! His love and watchful care is all we need. He is here. :)

Whew, I'm out of breath. I love y'all SO mucho! Que tengan una semana feliz!

Miracles happen!!!  After losing her drivers license months ago some Elders in
Burkeville found it and mailed it to the mission home.  Becca is driving again....watch out! ;)

Sometimes sweet Hermana Vilma and I are twins and it calls for a pre-relief society selfie!
Also I think she tried to set me up with her youngest son Darwin yesterday
during Relief Society so............#hispanicgrandmabesties

Halloween sister preparation day activities and San Pellegrino joyful!

Letter #54 10/19/15

Waynesboro Zone Conference.

They were all wearing pink in support of their sweet
mission mom who was just diagnosed with breast cancer.

This transfer has been one of refining and molding and all those good
things that make you stretch and cry but also sing. I am grateful for
a companion who teaches me so much and for the 'current bush'
experiences of our lives. Through them, I've been able to have the
sweetest experiences with my Heavenly Father. I have felt His love so
hard and just felt that He knows me so perfectly. He knows my
struggles, He knows my weaknesses but He also knows that I'm trying.

We also got to attend the funeral of one of the sweet old sisters,
Bea, in the ward. Hermana Stice and McNeely performed a beautiful
musical number and Sister Tibbitts and I got to sit and bask in the
spirit. I just cried and cried. The spirit was so sweet and I feel
like this testimony of the plan of salvation and of God's eternal love
and the reality of forever families I've gained on my mission just hit
me real hard. We were invited to "Be a little bit more like Bea",
which basically just means to be like Jesus Christ. I want to become
that person where a plan to become like them is just one step closer
to our savior.

ALSO I can't remember anything that happened this week, but I do
remember yesterday because it was such a blessing. We are teaching
this family, the N's. They've been taught by missionaries for
over a year, but they've just had some struggles. M, the dad,
faces lots of family opposition, I dunno. The mom, S, is SO
stalwart and has been coming to church with the girls consistently,
regardless of what her husband desires. We've been feeling this past
week that she needs to move forward and be baptized as the example for
her family, but forever families have just been a really important
element for them, so it's hard. We were having a lesson last night,
talking about a fast that we all did for Brother N. The spirit
was so strong as she talked about the little changes she's seen, even
in the last week. Throughout the whole lesson, the spirit was just
urging me SO strongly to ask if she's thought about being baptized by
herself.. Like, I haven't felt that heart thumping, do it now or
you'll regret it forever prompting for a while. So I just asked and
the spirit filled the room. She gave the sweetest prayer ever asking
for guidance and I'm pretty sure she'll be baptized soon! Heavenly
father is so good.

Things are going well! I'm grateful to be a missionary.  It really
is the happiest place on earth, the mission life. And I love y'all so
mucho!

Letter #53 10/12/15

THIS WEEK was incredible. Beginning of this transfer was rough stuff and I was just like.. ahhhh. And then, as I mentioned last email, I read the Book of Mormon and conference came and the spirit filled our souls and- Heavenly Father just dished out the miracles! It never ceases to amaze me just how much Heavenly Father loves us. And how His hand is EVERY where in the work, when we invite it. 

And Heavenly Father really did just guide us to people with lots of potential! 

One day, we went over to this apartment complex to get some old investigator records from them. As we were pulling out of the parking lot, we passed this guy just standing on his balcony porch. I had a thought to go talk with him, but I kept driving. We hadn't driven .1 miles away when the spirit literally punched me in the face. So I pulled over and we went to talk to him. TURNS out he just lost his job because of struggles with the Word of Wisdom, was feeling super hopeless, and used to be married to a white mormon. Okay, thank you Heavenly Father! He is awesome. His name is M.A. He is as snarky as they come but we've really been so blessed to have beautiful experiences with him where Heavenly Father's love for him hits me like a million bricks. He has been through a lot, and has a dark past, but we feel nothing but the purest of love and hope for him. 

It's wonderful to see and know that it doesn't matter who we've been, what we've done, where we feel like we've messed up- We really are never ever too far from the love of our Heavenly Father. I've been able to feel that on the mission. As representatives of Jesus Christ, we get the tiniest of all tastes of just how unconditional His love is. 

"For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. "

I know it's true! 

Another beautiful miracle, we were eating with Sister McNeely and her greenie at Subway the other day, when there was the cutest little girl ever, with tons of dark braids, dancing around outside the window. We became good friends through the window through waves and smiles. We walked back to our cars, the sisters drove away, but as we were passing I noticed this other lady. So we went to give her a card. Through the whole process, there was this big commotion, and the mom of the cute little girl was then getting interviewed by the police. One of the shopowners had accused her of stealing and it was scary and the little kids had big tears in their eyes. It was the most beautiful moment because, as we passed, the little girl recognized us through the window. We waved, walked over and gave them pictures of Jesus and a mormon.org card for their mom. The spirit was so sweet and I will always be grateful for those little times when you get to bring God's love to the live of someone that really needs it. I hope, later in her life, she sees two missionaries like us and remembers. 

Letter #52 10/05/15

FRIENDS. FAMILY. BROTHERS AND SISTERS OF THE HUMAN FAMILY.

This week RULED.

Like, I can't even explain all of the changes that have taken place in my heart. 

For starters, our mission has a tradition that, during the week leading up to the October General Conference, we do a "Book of Mormon Read-a-thon" sorta thing. So, literally. We just read. Keep appointments we've already scheduled, but other than that. Just reading straight through the Book of Mormon. I finished this morning, and- whoa. 

THE BOOK OF MORMON IS TRUE. 

It was incredible to me that, each time I would pick up the Book of Mormon, no matter where I was, I would find an answer. Or the spirit would prick my heart and let me know something I need to do better, or just that God loves me. I learned struggles to stay to true to what we know are not new. I learned that God's promises are SURE and that He does follow through. I learned that when we keep the commandments, we prosper in the land. I was touched by the fact that Jesus Christ really did suffer and die for us. I was reminded that we are never alone and that, no matter how hard it is, when we trust in God ALL things work together for our good. And I was completely blown away by the beautiful truth that THE GOSPEL HAS BEEN RESTORED. And even those things we can't understand with our heads don't matter because we feel them in our hearts. 

I am a witness that if we truly desire to gain faith, we can. 

I have been thinking back to my pre-mission trials of faith a lot lately, especially as conference was so focused on enduring to the end in faith. I know that the spirit is real. I know that Satan is real, and that doubts are real, but that the SPIRIT can change us in ways that nothing else can. I know that if we trust God and just keep on keeping on, with faith to act and live and love as He would have us do, we can all get to a point where without any doubt we can say that these things are true.

Speaking of conference, WHOA x 3,000. Heavenly Father spoke directly to me. We have been struggling a little bit with starting up the Spanish area here again. And I know it was only because of my faithlessness. I was so grateful for all of the times that, through the words of His servants, Heavenly Father invited us to trust Him wholeheartedly and just do good things. 

So, I decided to do it. We left General Conference and went to teach a lesson.. they weren't home, but the other guys that live with them were. They invited us in and we began to teach them. IT WAS NUTS TOWN. We all shared our testimonies of God's love for us and the spirit was TANGIBLE as we testified of the atonement and His gospel plan, restored to the earth. Like, I can't even tell you. It was incredible. I trusted in God and words came out of my mouth that I didn't even know I could say. 

All in all, this scramble of words basically just means that I know this is real, guys. I know that God loves us. His spirit changes our hearts and helps us to do the hard things that we can't do on our own.