Grace

-I got a package from the David Yost Family! Also letters from Allie Yost, you all, and Patty Lee. I'll write back as soon as I can!
-Shout out to Mrs. Koutris!!! I hope you feel better!! I have some pretty good information...but you'll have to wait until July 2013. Sorry!! But I love you!

Well the weather is pretty dreary right now...I guess you can only have pretty weather for so long and then the rain catches up.

We had a pretty good week with a good Zone Conference. Zone Conference is always so fun! I had lunch with Elder Tamale and he is doing well!! If you can believe it, he's trimmed fat and put on more muscle! I also got to see Elder N. which was fun. All the people I baptized in Pola are still active and some of the Less-Actives we taught are coming back. Also, Elder D. became the new AP!!! He'll do really well. It's nice to have two of the nicest and humblest missionaries become Assistants.

Thanks for saving those LAX tapes for me. That UVA attack is phenomenal, Stanwick and Bocklet. Who's in that third spot? I'm glad to hear Mitt keeps on rolling!

We had a pretty awesome experience yesterday as we were trying to find a Less-Active. We were asking around and started talking to this lady that was taught by the missionaries a long time ago. We tried to give her a pamphlet that has a picture of Christ holding a lamb and she started freaking out!! She was like "No I won't worship your pamphlet! That's wrong to worship pamphlets!" The very ironic thing about this one is, we never said anything that could be remotely construed to mean we worship a pamphlet . Anyways a man walked up with a Bible and I thought "Oh great, here we go.." but he started defending us! He shared a scripture and walked away. We finished talking with the lady, departed our separate ways and I felt prompted to find this man. We found him and started talking to him. This man is probably the most prepared person for the Gospel I've met so far on my mission. He's 29 and has a wife and baby. He reads the Bible and understands it so well. He went through each major church here (especially the Iglesias ni Cristo) and quoted scripture showing they are not the true Church of Christ. We started sharing with him about the Restoration and it just seemed to click. The Restoration truly answered every doubt and question he had. When we gave him the Book of Mormon and explained what is was, he was so excited. It was such a testimony builder for me that the Lord is truly preparing people, and that he'll lead us to them, or lead them to us. Also I really saw how a correct and thorough understanding of the Bible testifies of the Restoration of the Gospel.

A few weeks ago when Sister Tenny sent me a package, she included an article titled "His Grace is Sufficient" . I encourage you to read the whole thing.http://sviewp.com/GD-NT/NT%2026-%20Supp-%20Willcox-%20His%20Grace%20Is%20Sufficient.pdf Here's an excerpt:

"I have born-again Christian friends who say to me, “You Mormons are trying to earn your way to heaven.” I say, “No, we are not earning heaven. We are learning heaven. We are preparing for it (see D&C 78:7). We are practicing for it.”They ask me, “Have you been saved by grace?” I answer, “Yes. Absolutely, totally, completely, thankfully—yes!” Then I ask them a question that perhaps they have not fully considered: “Have you been changed by grace?” They are so excited about being saved that maybe they are not thinking enough about what comes next. They are so happy the debt is paid that they may not have considered why the debt existed in the first place. Latter-day Saints know not only what Jesus has saved us from but also what He has saved us for. As my friend Brett Sanders puts it, “A life impacted by grace eventually begins to look like Christ’s life.” As my friend Omar Canals puts it, “While many Christians view Christ’s suffering as only a huge favor He did for us, Latter-day Saints also recognize it as a huge investment He made in us.” As Moroni puts it, grace isn’t just about being saved. It is also about becoming like the Savior(see Moroni 7:48)

I testify that the Savior's Atonement is real. He died for us and as Moroni says, "His grace is sufficient." Not just in the sense of sins, but in the sense that in all we do, the Lord is there with us. After all that we can do he fills the gap and guides us to the finish. May we be changed by grace, and more fully come to the knowledge that in all we do, his grace is sufficient, and if we have built our foundation on his rock, that is the only foundation that will never fail us.

Love you all!!

Love,
Elder Yost