Diligence

Dear Mom and Dad;

-Thank you so much for the Birthday Clip! (We sent Elder Yost an audio clip of us singing happy birthday) For my birthday we went to General Conference and then just worked...pretty normal day. However on Tuesday President took us out to eat at a really good restaurant and the Eyre's (Elder Yost’s missionary friend’s parents who came to pick up their son) were there as well!

- We work out every day here, so my cardio is alright!  This morning was 250 squats with no weight for time, I got 5 minutes 45 seconds). Agility is of course something I'll need to get back as well

-As for working, I'd love to do an internship this summer.  

-I've picked up some cool stuff, and I have a surprise that I've gotten for our family that I'll bring home, but it's kind of heavy. I think when I go home I will leave a lot of stuff here. Missionaries and members always need things like ties and shirts.(A missionary this week got some clothing stolen off the drying rack!). 

It is so hot here right now! And summer in the Philippines is winding to a close; I get to go home to the beginning of summer in America! I'll take the heat over the rainy season any day though. I'd rather be really hot than have wet feet (“take care of your feet and your feet will take care of you”). Elder Eyre left the other day, and may even have landed back in the States by now. It was really sad to see him go home, and I'm really going to miss him. He was such a great example and outstanding missionary! It was also really fun meeting his parents and talking to them a little bit. His mom was a little scared apparently when Elder Eyre was driving...My whole mission I've wanted to become Filipino. Eventually the food came, the language came, and then the Filipino driving came! My driving may need a little bit of an adjustment for me too when I go home, so please bear with me! 

The Packers (mission office Senior Couple) go home this Saturday! I'll be so sad to see them go and I love them so much. The Hansen's (the new Senior Couple in the mission office) will be great though! We continue to see the influx of sisters being assigned to our mission. Right now, we have 5 American sisters in our whole mission. Currently we have 27 non-Filipino sisters with mission calls, ALL but two coming between May and August! You may not have heard, but they changed the missionary leadership and added sister leaders who will train other sisters and will almost be like Zone Leaders in a way, which should be starting next transfer. A lot of changes!

This week was without a doubt one of the most challenging I've had on my mission! Our work has been really hard and we're really struggling to find people to teach. We probably had somewhere close to 15 set appointments canceled on us this week. It was so discouraging! We had 4 investigators with baptismal goal dates, and all four of them either dropped us or were not progressing. . We've stopped meeting with  a good number  of the Less-Actives we were teaching because they've been taught for a long time by a lot of missionaries and aren't making any progress. So we have had a lot of our teaching pool drop off and got the appointments we did have cancelled on us.  Our recent converts are having family issues and are really struggling, and one of our Less-Actives got his leg amputated. Needless to say it's been a hard week. I've talked to more people this week on the street and in tracting (going door to door) than my whole mission, and yet it's been so difficult to find those who are prepared.

I've noticed an interesting trend. The harder I try to work, the more focused I am, the better I'm trying to be, the harder the work is. I was thinking about earlier in my mission and I thought that the concerns our investigators have now are like 5 times easier than anything I faced earlier in my mission. As hard as this week has been, I've tried to smile, and have faith. Being diligent is easy when work is easy, your investigators are progressing, and you have a large teaching pool. It's something completely different to be diligent when things are hard and not going the way you expected, and you feel like nothing will go right. I think of the Savior before and during the Atonement. He had the faith and hope to see past the pain and the agony, and have hope in what was to come after his ordeal. . His hope and his light were never dimmed by the present pain and agony he felt. He pushed on and triumphed. 

Wednesday was probably the hardest day of them all. We had had probably 5 appointments cancelled, we had talked to a ton of people and none had really been receptive. The part-member family we had been teaching asked us to not come back and teach them. It was about 8:55 PM, and we were close to home. I had a feeling that we should go to the street behind the mission home. We were walking, and I was looking for people to talk to or a door to knock on. Most people were either asleep or drinking. I saw a house and we knocked at their door. There was a 15 year old boy who came out and welcomed us in. When we walked into the house his mother and father were watching TV. We started talking to them about their families and their background. We weren't able to teach because it was too late, but we scheduled a return appointment and they said we were welcome any time! Despite all the trials this week, this one family was a witness to me that God is aware of all of us, and will bless us when we go the extra mile and get out of our comfort zone. We must take a step into the dark sometimes, and have faith that the light will continue moving with us and will guide us and direct us.

Love,

Elder Yost