Sowing

Dear Mom and Dad,

-You can go ahead and send some of those shirts and stuff for the kids. (we wanted to send a big box of slightly used tee-shirts and shorts for little children in his area.) 

-I did get the notepad with the metal case. 

-I'm planning on sending off letters later today to Uncle Christopher, Bishop Forsyth, and Elder Heap.

Another busy week and we got a lot accomplished! We didn't have any Zone Conferences or other events which was nice because we had no distractions all week long. We were blessed this week in that we didn't get punted (appointment canceled) much, and we met our teaching goals!! We also found some new Less-Actives members of the church as well. 

The White Rabbit investigator is doing well, but still really struggling with smoking. I think her problem is that she still enjoys it, if that makes sense. An important step in the repentance and healing process is not wanting to commit that sin anymore. If she still enjoys the sin, she'll give in immediately when temptation comes! We did an activity with her this week where we gave her a pad of paper and asked her to write down everything she has missed, is missing, and will miss if she continues smoking. When she was finished, she said she thought she was going to die within 24 hours! I think it shook her up a bit! At our next lesson, she was putting it off saying she'll stop smoking in a few weeks! And then her Sister in law who is an active member asked if she wanted to get sealed to her family in the temple, to which she responded of course. She then said, "Well if you don't stop, you'll never get baptized and never go to the temple, meaning you'll never get sealed. So what you're really saying is smoking cigarettes is more important than your family and being sealed to them forever. Did I get that right?" The investigator was speechless!

The sister I spoke about last week whose husband left her came to church this past week. .She is doing great!! She told us that when her husband left, she finally had some quiet time to read the Book of Mormon and pray. She said for the first time she sincerely prayed to know if all that we've taught was true, and she said she feels that she received an answer in her heart that it is true!! She has a Baptismal Goal Date for Sept. 28, and hopefully should have her baptismal interview this weekend. We went to go teach her yesterday, and when we got there she said, "Elders, I just found out that my neighbor is a member and she doesn't come to church anymore! Let's go visit her and invite her to come back to church!!" This sister has grown and changed so much. If she's gets baptized, I will probably be able to say she's the most deeply converted person I've taught on my mission!

LeBron James still haunts me all the time! I've just started holding up 5 fingers for Kobe's 5 championships, and he's got nothing to come back with! (There is a young man that drives a pedicab in the town where Elder Yost is and he is a big LeBron James fan and loved the fact that he won the NBA Championship. He gives Elder Yost grief every time he sees him!)

A few weeks ago, Elder Bednar gave us a good way to study the scriptures. He said that in his office he has a big book case of cheap paperback Books of Mormon. What he does, is he picks a topic, reads the Book of Mormon cover to cover, marking up everything to do with the topic, then when he's done he writes a one page summary of what he learned, puts it in the Book, puts it on the shelf, and starts over! His son asked him if he could have the Books when he dies, and he said no way! Do it for yourself! Our mission is doing that right now on Repentance. Just another thought of how you could study the Book of Mormon.

This Sunday my companion and I sang in Sacrament meeting! We sang "I Heard Him Come" and "Come Thou Fount". It went pretty well and was a lot of fun! I know that this is the Lord's work. We are laboring in the Lord's Vineyard. Sometimes it feels lonely, and sometimes we feel like we're on our own. It doesn't matter where you're called to labor in the vineyard, or if you're in the most fruitful ground or if you feel like you're trying to plant seeds on a rocky mountain, it matters not. As long as we thrust in our sickle with all our might, we have the promise that the Lord of the Vineyard will personally labor with us.

Love,

Elder Yost