Obedience

Dear Mom and Dad, 

-As for what I'm eating...I'm not eating very healthy I'll tell you that. The problem is that we're always on the road and we frequently have to eat fast food. For breakfast every morning i have whole wheat oatmeal with a powdered milk thing called Energen, and then some Peanut Butter. It's so so so good! 

-We're doing a work out program called Cross-Fit every morning. They're quick workouts but are pretty tiring and efficient. I feel like it's getting me in better shape, and should make my transition easier after my mission.

-I got your package the other day! As for my last box....thanks so so so much for every box you have sent! Could you send me one of my Nordstrom shirts from before my mission? I'm also planning on getting my suit tailored a bit (should be doing that next Monday). 

It was another interesting Sunday, but we were able to go to church! That was nice for a change! We had a missionary that was going home so we had to pick him up to take him to the airport. The only problem was that it was holy week here. Easter season is a bit different here than it is back at home. I was in San Pablo City on Friday night and it was a zoo. There were really gruesome parade floats of Christ being crucified and scourged, and a ton of Catholics were following them through the streets. We couldn't even get home by Jeepney because it was so crowded! I lot of people were travelling on Thursday and Friday because no one had work, and then they were all going home on Sunday. We drove to pick this Elder up on Sunday, and we left at 1 PM after church. We got there at 3:30 PM, picked him up, and started back home. Then we hit what Elder Rivera called "the worst traffic ever in the Philippines". We were barely moving at all. Everybody was going back to Manila, and that was the direction we were going. We finally got to the mission home at 7:00 PM, and at 8:00 PM we got back into the car and went with the Packers and the missionary to Manila to the airport. They wanted me to see how to get to the airport so I can know my way around up there if I need to go. Of course there was absolutely no traffic in the city of Manila....never is! By the time we got home, it was 11:30 PM. We were so exhausted! 

Other than that it was a pretty normal week! This coming Sunday the new senior couple, Elder and Sister Hansen will be here. When they get here, transfer week starts and it will be insanely crazy. We were able to work a little more in our proselyting area this week which was nice. We're finishing up teaching a lot of our recent converts, so we're really trying to expand our teaching pool to find new people. The M. family who was baptized a little while ago was having trouble reading consistently, so we decided to give them a test! We assigned them to read Alma 17-24, and told them at our next lesson there'd be a test. I gave them one of the questions on the test, "What color is Alma's dog?". They opened up and started to read, trying somewhere where it talks about Alma and his dog! We dropped by a few days later, and they said they still couldn't find the dog, so we said, keep on reading! When we finally gave them the test, they said his dog was blue, brown, white, and yellow. Only the father got the right answer, which was that Alma doesn't have a dog! We assigned them Mormon 1-7, and the question we gave them was "What is Mormon's horse’s name?". I think they'll actually read this time so they don't get that one wrong!

The transfer is winding down, and after this one I have one more in the office and then one more in the field. Crazy...Time is going really fast right now for me. I've felt like I've been changing lately. My whole mission I've been obedient and done the very best that I could. Yet something always felt like it was missing! I worked hard and was obedient because I knew it was the right thing to do and that's what God wanted. I've felt over the last few weeks I've really come to better understand my purpose as a missionary better. I want to work hard and keep the rules not for personal benefit, or even because it's the right thing to do, BUT because I know that by doing so I can help others be blessed with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and become eligible for eternal life through the ordinances of the Gospel. When we live by the doctrine, it's not hard to be obedient. So many missionaries live by rules, and find it hard to do so because they feel so tied down. When the doctrine sinks into our bones, and becomes who we are, obedience is a blessing and is not burdensome or hard. Elder Bednar shared this scripture with us when he visited for mission, "And they shall also be crowned with blessings from above, yea, and with commandments not a few, and with revelations in their time—they that are faithful and diligent before me." 

The righteous are blessed with commandments not a few. So when you do what you're supposed to, you're blessed with more requirements!! Great! But what it means is as we are diligent, we live by the higher law, and more commandments. I know that the Lord wants us to be obedient for the right reasons. As Elizabeth Swan's father says in the first Pirates of the Caribbean, "A good choice for the wrong reasons is a bad choice." Live the higher law and be happier. If you find it hard to keep a certain commandment, learn the doctrine! And as you do, obedience will become a blessing and a pleasure to you.

Love,

Elder Yost