Here Comes the Missionaries!

Dear Mom and Dad,

-I have not gotten that box yet, but I probably will on Thursday at our Zone   Conference/Mission Tour

-I should be able to Skype here, and I'll definitely be in this area for Christmas 

-We found out that our release dates are being moved up a week,  meaning I should be getting home on July 3rd! We better have a Rockin' 4th!!

-Typical P-Day is relax!!! We usually just kind of talk, do laundry,
  shopping, and read.

-My companion is about out of money, so until the 1st of the month
  we'll be walking everywhere! He's starting to budget and he's
  surprisingly loving it!

Well I'll start with some pretty cool news! As you know they changed the ages for missionary service, and believe it or not, we're already starting to see an effect! A few weeks ago President Peterson called the zone leaders in the Cabuyao stake (about 8 units), and told all the missionaries to go to their bishops and draw a line where they can split every area in half, and also prepare all the apartments to house 4 missionaries. Here in the Batangas Zone we have 7 areas, and 5 of the 7 have been told to do the same thing(mine was not one of them)! From the sounds of it, a TON of new missionaries are coming in within the next few months. I'm so excited to be here and to see this all happening. As I've thought about this, I've started to realize how they've been preparing for this for a long time now. If you remember when I trained Elder Jones he had only been in the MTC for 6 weeks, and apparently that was just a trial to see how it'd work. All the foreign language MTC missionaries will be there for 3 less weeks than they were before, and all the missionaries speaking their native language are getting knocked down from 3 weeks to 2. It certainly is an exciting time to be a missionary and to see this all happen!

By the way congrats to Tanner Hatch on getting engaged!! Also congrats to the Oakton Cougars football team for  beating Westfield for the N. Regional Champs! 

Things are going pretty well here for us. We had a very busy week and it was so hot this week. We walked so much this week and I've been pretty physically beat! This Thursday we have a mission tour with Elder Ardern of the Seventy(is in the Area Presidency for the Philippines). I've been asked to conduct the meeting! Elder Ardern and his wife will be there, and there will be 50 missionaries or so from several zones. They emailed me the program today, and I was pretty excited to be asked to conduct until I saw "Elder Yost" right underneath "Elder Ian Ardern". Yikes!  I pray I don't pass out  and that my knees don't knock too hard while I'm up at the podium!

We've been focusing a good bit of our time on two Melchizedeck priesthood fathers that we're trying to help come back to church. Their families are super active, but they've just fallen a little bit by the wayside . They've come to church a little, but it's been a little on and off. One of them just lost his job, so we're trying to help him as much as we can. The Branch is doing pretty well. 

There's an awesome family here that got sealed in the temple a few months ago! The parents and their 7 year old daughter are hilarious! When they got sealed, one of the temple workers told the girl that her first kiss should be in the temple when she herself gets sealed. So when they got home, they tucked their daughter into bed, and went to give her a good night kiss and she said "No don't! I can't kiss anyone until I go to the temple!!"

One of the coolest people I've met here is a recent convert named  Nonoy. He used to have an awful drinking and smoking problem. He's been struggling to find a job as well. He's about 55, and lives by himself because his family moved away. He is the sweetest and most gentle man I've met. We showed up to church on Sunday, and he was early, and had a new pair of slacks, clean white shirt, new tie, haircut and glasses. As I sat down next to him, he told me that he just got a new job, and for the first time, he has income to pay tithing on. He then said to me with a sweet smile on his face, "Elder Yost, these are the blessings of the Gospel." May we all have faith like  this wonderful man, and always recognize the constant blessings of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Love,
Elder Yost

Doing Well

Well I only have 8 minutes to write this week because we were so busy this week and we have to get to an appointment. Things are going well in the Batangas Zone! We had a good week this week and saw some great progress in our area. Just a note, the church has told mission presidents missionaries in the field can't e-mail each other, i.e. Elder Heap, Tenny and so on.

We had a Less-Active sister officially return this past Sunday, and have some others which are really close as well!! It's been awesome to see our branch really take these less-actives in and love them. We're really struggling right now with finding new investigators, because we can't get any refferals...GIVE  YOUR MISSIONARIES REFFERALS!!!  Missionary work is about ten times harder when you're just knocking on doors! I'm doing really well and really happy. I'm seeing the Gospel change lives everyday, and I'm seeing the power of the Book of Mormon in healing old wounds and problems, and bring people back into the
light and the happiness and joy of the Gospel. I promise more next week, hope you understand!!!

Love,
Elder Yost

Tracting!

Dear Mom and Dad-

• Happy Birthday Mom!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Love you so so so much! I sent you off a letter a earlier this morning, and it'll get to you in at least two weeks!! 
• Also shout-out to Grandfather for Veteran’s Day!!! Love you so much!
• No packages or letters this week.   
• With the new missionary age, they're changing our transfer day here in the field because they're making Tagalog MTC 6 weeks instead of nine. We don't know for sure, but our missions will probably be shortened by 3 weeks, or extended 3 weeks, which is less likely. We should be finding out very soon and I'll tell you as soon as we know. I'll answer more questions next week!!
• I sent you a picture of Charleton- a new convert but this is not his hair! These are some old dreadlocks he had that he tied to a hat!
• What happened in the elections?
• How did Congress turn out?

Well, it was a sad and disappointing week. As Natalie Portman says in Star Wars Episode III, "So this is how liberty dies, with thunderous applause." 

Summarizes my thoughts!! You guys heard the results probably late Tuesday night, but for us it was Wednesday afternoon. We were teaching a lesson on the porch of a house, and in the middle of the lesson they turned to TV on inside the house to Obama's victory speech, and that's how I found out! 

Oh well...only two American Presidents have been ousted since I think FDR, so it usually doesn't happen. I was in a pretty pessimistic mood when I heard his speech but my first thought was, "Well that's the ugliest tie I've ever seen!" Well, the word that came to my mind when I heard a bit of his speech.....mayabang (means to be boastful).

I don't have many regrets so far from my mission, but I wish that I would have talked to more people and done more tracting. When I came to the Philippines the focus was on less active members. As a result I've worked a lot with Less-Actives, and haven't really tracted very much at all. The few times I've tracted have not been for but a few houses. Honestly, I can say that I was scared and didn't know how to do it. And of course, I avoided big houses at all costs!! Well this has been weighing on my mind for some time, and Elder Cook and I decided to change that and go tracting for a little this past week. We picked a subdivision with really nice and big houses and starting going door to door. Some people weren't happy to see us, and others just chose not to answer their door. I felt a little discouraged, but as we were walking out of the subdivision I saw a huge house and decided that we should give it a shot. When we knocked, a maid came up, and I think she was a bit shy and didn't know what to do and ran away! When she came back to the front door she welcomed us in, and led us to the side of the house. We then saw a man only a little smaller than Elder Tamale (Elder Tamale was Elder Yost’s first companion and a really big guy!) but with tattoos all over his chest and back. Part of my thought was we were going to get kidnapped or something, but for some reason I just kept on walking in. As I started to speak to the man in Tagalog, He said, "Hey bro, I'm just making some lunch, have a seat."

We were shocked that he spoke English, and with a non-Filipino accent.  As we talked with him and his wife, we learned that he's from London and is part Filipino, and his wife is from Candelaria (a town in the Philippines). We asked him if he's read the Bible much and he said, "Bro, when you're incarcerated there isn't much more to do than read the Bible." Brother Jay and his wife Francis have been married for about 5 years, and have strong faith in Jesus Christ, but have yet to find one religion where they consider themselves members. We were able to teach them the Restoration, and they were very receptive and committed to read the Book of Mormon. 

We have a return appointment with them and should be going back tomorrow. This was a great experience for me. The Lord is truly preparing people to hear the Gospel, and often they're not people we would expect. This Brother said he's had missionaries from multiple churches come to his house, but we were the first that didn't get scared and run away. I'm learning everyday  to just trust in the Lord, and I'm seeing that as I do, the Lord blesses me more than I thought was possible.

The Lord has a mysterious way of doing things. I don't understand how he works, or even why he allows things to happen, such as earthquakes, crimes, murders, poverty, disasters, and so forth. Despite the world around us, despite the immense challenges that face us, we can take comfort in the fact that the Savior is in control. No matter what, his eternal purposes will be accomplished. 

As the prophet Joseph Smith once said,"The Standard of Truth has been erected; no unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing; persecutions may rage, mobs may combine, armies may assemble, calumny may defame, but the truth of God will go forth boldly, nobly, and independent, till it has penetrated every continent, visited every clime, swept every country, and sounded in every ear, till the purposes of God shall be accomplished, and the Great Jehovah shall say the work is done.” 

This is his work, and I'm honored to play a small role in it. We have no need to fear, as the Savior himself stated "These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world."

Love,

Elder Yost

NEW Area!

Dear Mom and Dad

-I got some letters from the Christopher Yost family and one from Elder Tenny!

Well I'm writing you today from a new location! I'm writing you from Lemery, Batangas! The bordering area is Cuenca! (Elder Yost served in Cuenca 6 months ago) Pretty funny how that works out! We're not in the same stake as Cuenca and we are far enough that I'll never see these members, but it's still kind of fun to be so close! This new area is a bigger town, and is probably the biggest area I've been assigned in. We have a McDonalds, a ton of 7/11's, and some Filipino fast food restaurants. This area isn't by any means rich, but there are a lot more well-off people than I've ever had in my past areas. 

We cover two towns, Lemery and Taal. In Taal there is the biggest Catholic church in all of Asia and is pretty cool from what I hear. We'll probably go check it out at some point! My new companion is Elder Cook, and he's from Plain City, Utah. (Plain City is close to North Ogden and not far from the Great Salt Lake) I kind of knew him before because he was working in the Mission Office . He's has been out 19.5 months. We've really clicked!

We have a branch here in Lemery and as far as attendance goes it's the biggest branch that I've ever been in. We had 152 people this last Sunday at church. The missionaries have worked with a lot of Less-Active members. We need to find some new investigators as well as working with the less-active members. 

The members here are obsessed with Mitt Romney! They honestly think that if he gets elected all the problems in the world will get solved! As we fasted this Sunday, I thought to myself, how many members are fasting for Mitt Romney? I asked Elder Cook about it, and later at church he asked a member, and he said, "That's a great idea! Why didn't I think of that!" That's my bad...

We are working with  a recent convert right now named Charelton, and he is just hilarious. He was named after Charlton Heston because his mom saw the 10 Commandments and loved it! Before he joined the church,  he walked into the LDS Chapel because he was curious what was inside, and met the missionaries! He is so strong and faithful, and even though he's very talkative and hard to teach sometimes, he has such a great heart. This Sunday we helped him pay his tithing for the first time!!

I'd like to share with you some things President Peterson shared with us at Transfer Day. As missionaries we have a lots of rules, that are sometimes hard for missionaries to keep. Here in the Philippines, it's so easy to get a cell phone, not like back at home where you get a plan, here you can go anywhere on the street and buy credit for a certain amount of text messages or calling minutes. Sometimes that's a temptation for missionaries! President brought up an interesting point I'd never thought of. We strive to live the higher law as taught by Jesus Christ, the laws of consecration, sacrifice, and obedience. And yet, sometimes we can't even keep the Mosaic Law ,or the mission rules. How does that work? Sometimes in our lives, we don't realize the true law that we should be living. We strive to consecrate our time, efforts, energy, money, and may I even say, thoughts, to the service of others, and sometimes we have a hard time living the simple Mosaic Law. As it says in the New Testament, the law is simply the "schoolmaster" leading us to Christ. Let's keep the lower law, and strive to live the higher law of consecration. As Christ said, he who loses his life shall find it. Especially at this time, may we live the higher law as taught be Jesus Christ, and  consecrate our lives to his service and the service of others.

Love,

Elder Yost