Letter #46 - 7/29/14

Ciao Famiglia!

Thank you so much for all the birthday wishes! It was such a great day! :) My companion went RUNNING with me in the morning and then made me pancakes and we listened to Christmas music and had a party, so fun. She’s just the best and we had a really great day which included gelato and pizza at lunch and then a member in the branch whose husband is less active invited us over for dinner so we had rice and chicken in large amounts – haha, it was so nice of them :) It was a birthday to remember for sure.

And then the next day Ravenna literally got hit by a huge storm. It was POURING; like Seattle style rain - so crazy. We had to get out our rain boots and raincoats and everything haha we were soaked. We had to stop every once and a while and dump water out of our boots and ring out our skirts and everything, haha, it was hilarious. We decided to do some casa (house to house) because we thought maybe the people would feel bad for us and let us in or something....yeah, that didn’t work as planned – haha, not a soul even let us in the doorway. But that’s okay! We are trying and we know miracles always follow the trials.

It’s been a really hard week - really hard. Almost all of our investigators have completely dropped us. We’ve had people hang up on us on the phone, not answer our calls anymore, and just flat out tell us they don’t have any interest. so that’s been really hard but we know that there are still people out there, we just have to work really hard and Heavenly Father will guide us to them. It’s always the hardest times that precede the biggest miracles; I’ve seen it happen time after time. We just can’t give up and we have to look for the good things that happen every single day, even if it’s just that someone accepted a pass along card. I still love this city and I know if we are doing our best then that’s enough :)

Guess what Dad? This Sunday in sacrament meeting I translated for a family from Switzerland! They speak German and English but not really much Italian so I got to be their translator. There were quite a few people visiting on Sunday so three out of the four of us missionaries all had a family to translate for, haha. But yeah, I showed them my family booklet and where grandpa Fred was born and the lady said that’s the region of Switzerland she’s from! So cool! She gave me a big hug and was so cute :) Also, when we taught young women’s on Sunday, we taught it in English then the dad was in there to translate into German for the little girls who don’t really speak English, so we had a trilingual Young Women’s lesson, haha - so funny.

Well I think that’s all for this week! Everything is good here in Ravenna and Sorella carter and I hope we get to stay together for another transfer! We shall see! I think we find out on Saturday.

I love and miss you all! have a great week! love and miss you! :)

Sorella Yost

 

 

 

 

Letter #45 - 7/22/14

Ciao Famiglia! Come state voi?!

Questa settimana è stata belissima, abbiamo avuto un attività nelle montagne! come casa nostra, non? :)  (This week has been beautiful summer; we had an activity in the mountains!  It reminded me of home).  Haha, we had a super cool activity in the mountains of Italy this weekend with the branch and it was so fun! there were only like 12 of us in total that were able to make it but it was still super great! I sent pictures ;) it totally reminded me of our backyard with all the trees and everything – so pretty.

Oh also! this Sunday we had visitors in our branch from Alessandria! I KNOW! and they told me all about Elisa’s baptism! It was so great! Remember that 19 year old girl Sorella Hoffman and I were teaching that I asked you to pray for on Mother’s Day skype? She got baptized a few weeks after I left Alessandria! Miracle! If you see any pictures on Sorella Hoffmans blog you should send them to me mom... thanks :)

But anyways, this week we had scambio and I was with Sorella Pace from Rimini, here in Ravenna. It was a super good scambio and we saw a ton of miracles. We did this thing called white board finding where we took a little white board a wrote a question on it like "Crede che c'é un scopo nella vita?" (Is there a purpose in life?), and then they had to check yes or no. It was really cool and we talked to a ton of people! One of the men we talked to actually worked on the Temple down in Rome! So cool! He wasn’t interested but still so cool!

Tonight we have our big Branch talent show! If all goes well that will be a huge miracle too, hahah. We have been working so hard to get it going. Yesterday we made the pies and let me tell you - it was hard, haha. Not exactly Marie Calendars, but hey, we are just going to stick our faces into them anyways so it serves its purpose :) haha, so get excited for pictures of that next week.

I think that is all for this week! Thanks so much for all the birthday wishes! :) You’re the best! I love and miss you! Talk to you soon! :)

Sorella yost

 

 

Letter #44 - 7/15/14

Ciao Famiglia! :) Come State??

This week has been so crazy and so good! We have seen soooo many miracles. First of all, Ravenna has been having some crazy weather issues lately. One day its wicked hot and we are sweating and dying and then the next day (or even later that night) there will be a crazy random full-on rain storm and we just get drenched on the bikes, haha, it’s hilarious.

One of the worst ones this week happened on our bike ride to the church; just out of nowhere this huge storm started and the rain was coming down so hard we like could barely see the road in front of us, haha. We finally make it to the church, just laughing the entire way because we are ridiculously wet, and we get to the top of the hill before you go down the drive way to the church door and..the Anziani come rolling in, in their nice dry car, and they see us and just start laughing, haha. We got down and parked our bikes under the little covering and I just start ringing out my skirt and it’s like a waterfall, haha. They felt so bad, it was hilarious. I wish I had a picture of how wet we were, sooo funny.

We had a really awesome Young Women’s activity last week! We learned how to sew! Hah,a it was so fun. We love being the Young Women's leaders and teaching the lessons and planning the activities and everything, it’s really fun. And our two young women are just so sweet. One of them came up to us this Sunday after church and just told us how much she liked our lesson that day. It was so cute. Remember how I just barely graduated from Young Women’s like 2 years ago and now I’m the second counselor? Weird, haha, but I love it.

And we did some really good Family Home evenings with some members this week and it was such an amazing experience. One of them was with a family from Nigeria and their aunt and cousins that were there visiting for the week. So we were teaching a room full of like 15 people from Africa. It was crazy. Teaching in English is so weird, but it went so well and they loved it! We even did a game, brought a treat and everything. None of the extended family are members of the church so it was a really cool way to introduce them to the Gospel and teach the little kids. We loved it, all the little kids were just giving us hugs the whole night; I love our Nigerians.

Oh funny story, so last night we were eating dinner at a less actives house and guess what I ate.... ANCHOVIES. I thought I was going to die, haha. The lady was teaching us how to eat them and she took the smallest ones and put it on her toast. So because I love my companion cosi tanto (so much), I took the big papa anchovy and slapped it on my toast. It literally had hair on it and everything, ew. And then I took a big old bite, haha, so nasty. The taste was so strong; luckily she didn’t make us eat all of it but I brushed my teeth so well afterwards, barf, haha!

But guess what? One of our less actives we are teaching came to church again for a third time! AND she got a priesthood blessing and LOVED it, miracle. And our investigator with a baptismal date finally moved out of her apartment with her ex-boyfriend so now that’s not stopping her from being baptized! Whoooo! Only thing is now she doesn’t live in our proselyting area anymore so a different set of missionaries will be teaching her but that’s okay, we are just sooooo beyond happy she finally moved out! The Lord really does change people's hearts, so many miracles.

Well I think that is all for this week! I hope Abbi and dad are having a good time in London! I can’t believe how close they are to me right now! Same time zone and everything, right? :) I’m so thankful I am a missionary right now here in Ravenna, Italia. I love it so much and I know it’s exactly where I need to be, with exactly the people with whom I need to be.

The Lord’s plan for us is really so much better than our own. I am so grateful for that. The Gospel is so true and I am so eternally grateful for my Heavenly Father and for this opportunity he has given me to share that happiness with others. love and miss you! have a great week! :)

Sorella Yost

Letter #43 - 7/8/14

Ciao Famiglia!

Okay, where do I even start? SPACE TRANSFERS. So a sister in our mission had to go home for medical reasons this week so turns out we got a phone call from our Mission President on Saturday morning telling us that Sorella Gillette was getting space transferred! Ahhhh.  We were so sad; we all three are like best friends and turns out we only had two short weeks together and now Sorella Gillette is now (as of yesterday) in her 7th city for her last 4 weeks of the mission. How crazy is that? So we have been running around like chickens with our heads cut off basically for the past few days and then yesterday we were travelling all day because she went to a city called Lodi which is right outside of Milano and President gave us permission to travel with her so that she didn’t have to travel so far alone with all her bags and everything on the trains (we had like 5 train switches haha), so crazy! We are so tired – last night we went to bed as soon as we were done with nightly planning, we just kind of collapsed on our beds, haha, so funny. But the trio lives on in our hearts forever, haha!

We had a Fourth of July BBQ with our Branch Mission Leader and his wife on the fourth of July for lunch! It was so cute; they even had the American flag up in our honor – they are so cute. Our little Italian nonni (Grandparents).

It looks like the family reunion was a huge success! Looks so fun! Thanks for all the pictures :) it really helped me feel like I was there. When do Paige and Harvey go through the temple? I’m so excited for them! and please tell Abbi “good luck” in London this week ;) haha, she will love it.

Ready for a miracle story? So yesterday in the midst of our travels we stopped at Burger King in the Milano train station to quickly get some food before our next train.  There were tons of people in there and the lady at the cash register ran my card – and then forgot to give it back to me.  I didn’t realize this at all until later after we had dropped off Sorella Gillette and were about to start our journey back home. So we called the mission office and told them what happened and they said they would cancel my card and I would have to go file a police report – a huge crazy process! So we got back on a train and headed back to Milano Centrale – our way we decided to go back to that Burger King and ask to see if they still had my card before we filed the police report and... they did! Ahhhh - (insert tears of joy here)!! So I called back to the Mission Office right before they were about to cancel my card and so all is well, all is well. MIRACLE.

This week has been crazy but we have seen so many cool miracles. We have found 4 new investigators and have visited almost every member in the branch and have taught a lot of people. It’s been so busy, I love it. We miss our trio but we know that Sorella Gillette is needed in Lodi right now and Sorella carter and I are needed in Ravenna and we are just so grateful we got to all serve together for two short weeks :)

I think that’s everything for this week!

I hope all is well! Tell everyone hi for me! love and miss you! :)

Sorella Yost