Letter #9 - 11/13/13

Hi Mom and Dad!

So this week has definitely been a week of miracles. We have been so blessed. The president challenged us to get 21 lessons is 8 days this week (he gave us an extra day because we had zone conference) and my companion and I were able to call him and tell him we did it in 6...in Montevarchi. He was so excited, haha we ended up getting 30 lessons in the 8 days and 26 for the week. We set the record for the zone and they think we may have gotten the most out of anyone in the mission for that week. So that is super awesome. And we had our baptismal date come to church which is such a miracle. Investigators are never able to come to church, and she came! It was so awesome and we think she really liked it and her daughter is meeting with us now too and she is 16 and just the cutest thing ever. We are obsessed with her. She totally knows it’s true, we can tell. The spirit is always so strong when we teach her.

I have gained such a huge testimony of prayer. We have been praying sooo much more this week and it definitely makes a difference. We have been praying to find those who will listen to us and that is exactly what has happened. We have met so many super nice people who will listen to our message and even some who are interested in learning more! We have been teaching anywhere we can, on the train, when we see people sitting on benches, people randomly walking past us on the street. Anything haha it’s awesome. One lady we met on the train loved us and even called us "angels". She was so nice to us, and we met a guy from Brazil who was super awesome too - just so many miracles. My companion almost got slapped by an older lady witha walker though. haha She really didn’t appreciate us trying to talk to her, but that’s okay, we tried!

Our members are really awesome and take such good care of us. There is one lady in our branch who is such an amazing example of member missionary work. She always wants to come out with the missionaries and always buys us gelato. And she found out our favorite food is pizza so now she buys us pizza and then buys us extra to take home for dinner haha she is so awesome, we love her.

I got your packages this week! The two in padded envelopes and the one from Amazon UK! Thank you so much Mom and Dad! I loved them! They were perfect! and I have so much food now haha, the fruit leather is really good Dad and I love the yogurt covered raisins too! Mom I loved the notes from the CTR 5s and all the cards from Abbi and Anna and Will! Thank you so much! and the peanut butter is soooo good. I ate it with an apple last night :) And I think of you every time I eat the cinnamon bears because they remind me of you :) Will and Dad thank you for all the cool BYU stuff! I loved it :) you send the best packages ever :) I am set for a long time haha.

Did you ever get the letter and postcard I sent? I found out the other day that those international stamps you sent me won’t work here :( they only work for going anywhere from the US, so I had to buy some Italian ones today. They are 2 euro each, so pretty expensive. But we aren’t going anywhere today so that we can write letters home! and now that I have the right stamps they should make it to you this time! I’m sorry I didn’t know that :( I hope everything is good back home! I pray for you all the time and have lots of pictures up of you. I look through that book you sent me all the time. Thanks for everything you do for me! I love and miss you so much!

Love you!

Sorella Alli Yost

 piazzalla michaelangello

View of Florence. 

My companion, Sorella Lopez.

More pictures of Florence on P-day last week. 

We finally got pizza it was so good! Not as good as kyle hansen pizza though I do have to say :)

 

At Zone Conference Training.

Letter # 8 - 11/6/13

Hi Mom and Dad! So another week has come and gone here in Italia. On Saturday we moved to our new apartment in San Giovanni, so we are not living in Firenze anymore.  San Giovanni is a lot different. haha A lot. It is kind of a depressing city but we are trying really hard to make the best of it. Our apartment is really nice but it is about a 20 minute walk from the train station so we definitely get our workout in each day walking back and forth and back and forth. haha  Sometimes we have to run, like this morning, haha, which is also fun. Pretty sure the people think we are crazy when they see two American girls booking it down the road. haha  Its funny, gives us something to laugh about. Dad, I used my debit card the other day for you. I bought toothpaste, haha, and it worked! I am buying something today so I will use my credit card to make sure they both work in Italy. The thing here is to get your scriptures leather-bound in Florence. And they look super awesome. Florence is one of the only places I think you can do it here that I’ve heard of.  So I dropped my Italian scriptures off there two weeks ago and we are picking them up today, I will send a picture next week.

Yesterday we had Zone conference and Elder Texiera came and spoke with us. It was a really good conference and we learned a lot. He was really nice and he told lots of stories. I didn’t get your package so maybe in the next couple weeks it will come. They bring mail whenever we have a meeting or conference and someone has been to Milano. So they will come soon I’m sure. As far as Christmas goes, the only thing I can really think of is maybe some slippers, Mom. They don’t believe in carpet here, it’s all tile. So I have been using my snow boots in the morning and at night as slippers, haha it’s kind of funny. Oh and maybe the Vocal Point CD. I am obsessed with it. I think it is called "lead thou me on".  It’s really good, Sister Lopez has it. My clothes and shoes are doing good. I shouldn’t need anything new. Just save it and we can buy new clothes so I can try and be cute when I get home mom :) haha, um besides that I should be good! Maybe some normal socks for when I wear my boots. I didn’t pack a lot of those, but I really am doing good, I don’t really have anything I desperately need yet :) Mom, you just did such a good job of packing for me before I left!

This week was pretty hard. We are feeling pretty overwhelmed with our area and we are kind of out in the middle of nowhere by ourselves. But we are seeing miracles for sure. This Sunday we were having a really hard day. We had just moved into the new apartment the night before, we barely missed our train in the morning to go to church, we didn’t get invited to any of our members house for lunch like we usually do every Sunday, and it was fast Sunday and we didn’t really have any food because of moving and it was Sunday. We did have some crackers and bread though so don’t worry, I ate! haha but anyways, it was a rough day.  So we got on a train to one of our cities called Arezzo and we said a prayer that we would be able to have two lessons that night.  First we decided to go visit our investigator with a baptismal date. Her daughter called through the window and said her mom wasn’t home so we said thank you and started walking away and then Sister Lopez and I just stopped, and turned around and went back, rang the bell for her apartment again and asked the daughter if we could talk with her for a few minutes – and she said YES. So we taught her a lesson and she was super interested and told us she wanted to meet with us again – and we are seeing her and her mom later this week. It was so awesome, this girl is so cute, she is 17 and we just clicked with her. It was great - then we went and taught a lesson to a less active family in our branch and it went really well, and they FED us which was totally a tender mercy. Then we were on our way back to the train to go home and we ran into a lady we had contacted on the train a couple days ago. We didn’t get to talk to her for a very long time last time but this time she had us come sit with her. I KNOW. So we talked to her and turns out she has met with the missionaries before in Santa Domenga and even had a baptismal date but then she had to move and was never baptized. She said she has seen the missionaries once or twice since she has been in Italy but doesn’t have a book of Mormon any more. So guess who is meeting with her later this week to give her one? that’s right – US! haha She was super sweet and really liked us and we are really excited to meet with her again. So in one night we got three lessons and two new investigators. MIRACLE. It was so awesome and exactly what we needed to keep going. Heavenly Father really does answer prayers and I am so grateful for that. Thank you so much for everything you do for me Mom and Dad. I am so lucky to be a Yost :) Thanks for all your love and support. I feel it all the way over here in Italy :) tell Abbi and Anna and Will and Charlie hi for me! and that I love them! Love you mom and dad!

Sorella Alli

Letter 7 - 10/29/13

Hi Famiglia! How are you? Well I survived another week here! It was really good and we made some progress with some of our investigators. They are all really, really awesome, it’s just so hard to get them to church because it is so far away for them. My companion and I are over 5 cities in our area. Our Branch is super small, we have about 15-20 active members and we meet in the basement of a hotel in one of our cities called Incisa. It is super expensive for people to get to church because a lot of them don’t have a car and don’t live in Incisa so they would have to pay for the train in order to come. So that is what we are struggling with right now. The cities we are over are San Giovanni, Figline, Incisa, Arezzo and Montevarchi. The furthest from us is Arezzo and it is an hour train ride away. But it’s through the hills of Tuscany so it’s absolutely beautiful. Our branch president is awesome. He is super supportive of missionary work and is trying so hard to help us. We just love him. Our branch is called The Montevarchi Branch. So this week I tried gelato for the first time and turns out everyone was right, it is amazing. Sooo good. We have a little bit of a mosquito problem in our apartment and I woke up the other day and my eye was completely swollen. I must have gotten bitten on the eye in my sleep. haha classic. It was awesome, but it’s all better now so it’s all good. I have gotten so good at killing them though. I can literally see it on the wall and hit it with my shoe and it’s dead - pretty impressive actually. My companion can catch them in the air with her hand. We make a good team. haha. We are still living in Florence, no word on when our apartment in San Giovanni will be fixed, but we are totally fine with that because we love the other sorelle we are living with in Florence. We taught a lady that lives up on the top of this hill outside of the city the other day and when we came out of the lesson the sun was setting and it was literally one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen; you could just see all of Tuscany and the houses and the hills and it was just so pretty. And then we stopped to visit one of our investigators in Incisa on our way home before the train came and we literally had to run to catch the train to get home. It was so funny, we were booking it because if we missed the train we would have been stuck for at least like 40 minutes in Incisa and been late getting home. Since some of our cities are pretty small trains don’t go in and out too often so we have to really plan it out and check the train schedule. I am sending your letter out tomorrow so you should get it next week! and I haven’t got your package yet but we have training tomorrow so I might get it then. Thank you so much! :) I think that is it for this week. I love being a missionary. It is so hard but so rewarding. I am learning so much and have so much more to learn. I don’t know Italian super well so I am learning to rely on the Spirit more than ever before. Our investigators are progressing; we just have to get them to church. Thanks for everything you do for me, I love and miss you!

Sorella Alli

 

View from our apartment in Florence.

 

 

My bedroom and bed.

Letter #6 - 10/23/13

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD :)

HOLY COW. So I am living in Italy! It has been the craziest week of my life. Okay so first of all, I don't know italian. hahaha awesome. But my trainer promised me I will learn it so i am hopeful. But I am living in Florence right now and serving in an area called Montevarchi! It is so beautiful and literally in the hills of Tuscany. So pretty. Sorella Lopez and I have about 5 cities we are over and so we basically live on the train. It's pretty fun. Right now we are living with two other sisters in our Florence apartment. They are super nice. They are supposed to be serving in Siena but one of the sisters had an allergic reaction to the mold in their apartment so they had to move to Florence (Firenze in Italian) and so now they are temporarily serving as the Firenze sisters. Sorella Lopez and I are supposed to be living in San Giovanni (one of our cities) but our apartment didnt have gas or hot water for two weeks so they are having us live in the Firenze apartment too until they fix that. Basically we are all the misfits living together, haha, but its awesome, all the sisters are great and we get along really well. My trainer has been sick this past week so that made things kind of interesting. I taught my first lesson with one of the Firenze sisters and guess what I ate RAW FISH - oh my gosh. It was not good at all. But I just kept telling myself how big of a sacrifice it was for the investigator to give to me and I was able to eat it. Then yesterday at one of our appointments, I had to eat prune pudding, yup thats real. But the lady was so sweet I just couldn't say no. Teaching is super interesting here. You have people from all over, so some lessons are in italian...some are in italian/spanish...we have one investigator who speaks romanian....and then some from Nigeria who we teach in English. So a little bit of everything haha I am learning so much and humbled each and every day. I know this is Heavenly Father's work and the only way I will be able to do it is through him. This week has been hard. Really hard. But I know it is all worth it. I just have to have faith - I will learn it all with time. Did you get the package form Spencer yet? Do we know why our phone call was dropped yet? I think that maybe they think it was fraud because I had put the card in so many different times. When I tried to call back they said my card was rejected and then I had to run to my flight so I am not sure - that was all so confusing; I felt so bad. But I am so glad I got to talk to you! Thank you!

I am going to try and send pictures so you can see how pretty it is here. I love it. Tell Will, Abbi and Anna I say "hi" and that I love them! Oh and Charlie too :) haha.  Love and miss you mom and dad! Thank you so much for everything you do for me! You are the best. Have a happy happy birthday Dad! I will be thinking of you! Love you! 

Sorella Alli 

 

 Sister McPeek and I with our new necklaces (thanks Will) before we left the MTC.

 

 Our German neighbors in the MTC

 

 Our MTC classroom - 2nd floor to the left. 

 

 Trying really hard to learn Italian.

 

 Two more MTC teachers (Teichert and Lehnardt) with sisters from my MTC district.

 

 Sorella Miles, my amazing MTC teacher.

 

 Our MTC District with two of our teachers.

 

 Sister McPeek and I saying Goodbye to America.

 

 Calling home from London Heathrow.

 

 At the Duomo in Milano - my 1st day in Italy.

 

 At the Ecco Florence.

 

 

With Sister Lopez (my new companion) at the Duomo in Florence.

 

 The view from one of the train stations.

 

My first Italian purchase - matching purses.

Letter #5 - 10/21/13

Ciao Mia famiglia! 

So it's my last week in the MTC!!! so crazy. We leave on tuesday mornign! Our flight leaves around 12:30 so I will be calling sometime before then! I am so excited to talk to you!! :) I will tell you all the specifics of my itinerary in my letter I'll write today but we go from SLC to Dallas to London to Milan. I bought a $5 calling card today so I can call you from SLC and then save the International ones for our layover in London. So I got to meet President Nally last week! He was super nice and told me how much he loved Grandpa Yost. It was really cool. thank you so much for that story about Grandpa Yost, dad! I loved that so much. I didn't know all of that. really really neat. And last week I got your package mom! Thank you so much! I LOVE that scarf! So cute. Thank you so much! And those sees candies are now my own personal countdown to Italy. I eat one every night before I go to bed. haha So I need to give what I don't want to bring to Spencer? I can just mail it home if that's easier.They have a mail center on West Campus. But whatever is easier for you! I think I want to keep my sheets and pillow and then send home my blanket, unless I have room. And then I just have a few shirts that I tried on that don't go with anything that i figure i shouldnt bring all the way to Italy. OH and then we got a letter from President Dibb this week saying no I-pods. So I have to send that home before I leave to. Let me know! Conference was so good! It went by so much faster here in the MTC than it ever has before. Probably because I wasn't taking notes for Seminary make up. haha I did miss watching it with the family and the Rands though. That's a good tradition we have. After conference on saturday night we got to watch the Relief Society Broadcast and I got to watch it with Bonnie! Ahh it was so fun. She saved sister Mcpeek and me a seat so we got to watch it together. Loved it. And then on sunday night for our devotional vocal point came and performed for us which was super cool! I had to say by to Bonnie which was super sad though. But she will have such an amazing experience in Boston and Brazil :) I am so excited for her. She is awesome :) Oh then todya guess what! I got to see Lauren!!! I saw her right after she got dropped off and was waling away with her host. It was totally an answer to prayers because I really wanted to see her and then right before we were going to give up and leave and go back to west campus she was there. So cool. She looked really happy and excited :) she is going to be such a great missionary. So proud of her. Oh and this week we found steel wool in our brownies at dinner. classic west campus. haha but i love it here. it'll be so weird to leave but I am so excited! I have learned so much here at the MTC and I have so many things to be grateful for. I know italy is where I am supposed to be and I can't wait to get out there and give it my all. Here's something in italian for you :) Io so il vangelo di Gesu Cristo e vero ed Io so famigli puo essere insieme per sempre. Io so noi siamo figli di Dio ed lui amore tutti noi. Io motto grato per tu amare ed vi voglio bene! Te amo mom and dad! tell the family I say hi and that I love and miss them! Hi charlie! :) 

Love you! 

Sorella Alli Yost

P.S. thank you so much for all the cards and pictures and dear elders! I love them all :)

 

me and my district with the statue of Samuel Smith the first lds missionary

 

found uncle Joe and aunt Barbara on the wall of the MTC haha

 bonnie (her friend from here and BYU)  and my nametags

 

                                       me and Bonnie after watching the RS broadcast together :)

 

 

                                                            my zone minus a few

I SAW LAUREN :) right when she was walking away with her host after getting dropped off

                     (Lauren is her really good friend she met at BYU last year.  She is serving in Australia)

 

501 verbs...this book is amazing. hahaha 

                                                                             

                                                            me and my district

Letter #4 - 10/2/13

I FINALLY GOT THE PICTURES TO WORK!!!!!!!! Only took me a month, no worries. haha So hopefully you enjoyed getting a thousand emails because it only lets me send two at a time :) haha so Spencer came and found me today and we called the bank and they said they got my travels plans all set to go and then he had me sign a paper so that you can access my account and everything from now on while I'm gone. We got to use the info you texted him dad so thank you so much! I was so temped to text you but I resisted. haha So tell Spencer thank you again for me! He was so helpful. Let me know if I need to do anything else. Oh and he told me a really cool story about Grandpa Yost and President Nally, the president of the MTC, but I don’t have a lot of time because of sending all the pictures so I will write that in a letter today :) Also today I got to host the new missionaries at west campus!! It was so much fun. And guess who I got to host? BROOKE LEFEVER! So cool :) We totally made a scene in front of the bus and everything and it was great. So tell her parents she is totally okay and is on west campus with me and Dakota :) Oh and will you please tell Jamie thank you so much for sending me her address so I can send her letter from like two weeks ago and write her this week :) THANKS JAMES :) so this week Sister Mcpeek only had one night terror...but we aren’t entirely sure haha it's so funny. We wake up and will try and remember if she just talked in her sleep or screamed. I'm so used to it now. It's crazy. This week it started to get pretty cold so I had to pull out my space bag full of winter stuff to get my coat. But now it's getting warm again so I don’t know if I'll need it again. We will see. Then our zone is basically the best zone ever and we play bump-lightning-blackout-elimination aka bump (there was a big dispute on what the "real name" of the game is haha) during our gym time at night and it is so fun. We all get really into it. And I totally won the first game! haha Everyone was freaking out because I was making threes and getting the elders out and they totally weren't expecting it at all. haha classic. But we have a lot of fun. We are always the table at lunch that is laughing the entire time. It's so fun and it'll be sad when everyone goes to their separate missions in a week and a half. 8 of us will all go to Milan together though so that's good :) Oh dad, you'll be so proud of me! I played the piano for my branch on Sunday during Sacrament Meeting without even being asked to! It was scary because I wasn’t planning on it at all and a member of the mtc Branch presidency was there because one of the counselors was getting released but I did it! :) We taught a man named Stephen in our TRC on Saturday and it was such a cool experience. We didn’t think we were going to teach him that day and then our teachers walked in and told us to grab our scriptures and go because we have TRC so we didn’t have a lesson planned and so on our way in to the room we decided to teach about the plan of salvation and so we started with a prayer and I just kept saying, "Heavenly father, what should we teach Stephen?" over and over again in my head and the word "Atonement" came to mind and then I had all these ideas of what to say and it was the coolest thing ever. The Italian just flowed and we were able to teach him a lesson that I know Heavenly Father wanted him to hear and the Spirit was so strong. I am so glad I have this opportunity to be a servant to the Lord. It is the best calling in the world and the Gospel can bring people so much happiness. Heavenly Father will always help us; we just have to ask :) Tell Anna I hope she had an amazing birthday and that I love her :) Tell Will and Abbi and Charlie I love and miss them too! thanks for all the cards and letters and dear elders! I absolutely love them! THANK YOU!!!! Love and miss you mom and dad! Thanks for everything!

Sorella Alli Yost

 

My New Bed

 

My closet

 

                                                     my really cute work out outfit haha 

 

"we made it to Sunday" on the first Sunday in the MTC :) 

                                                              
                                                             me and my district :)

 

how i really feel about ironing... sorry grandma :) 

 

 

                                    
 how i feel when i get home at night haha i always tell everyone to go to bed. hahahah sleep is precious

 

I miss my puppy. so i talk to a picture of him haha 

 

                                                    
                                                       telling charlie to sit :) hahaha

                                            
                                                   the girls waiting for the train to SLC

                                                   trip to SLC to see the consulate :)

                                                       our zone in front of the map!

famous map picture :)

 

really excited about my 1st package :) THANK YOU MOM AND DAD

 

one of the times i ran into Bonnie :) LOVE HER.

                                my classroom aka where I basically live every minute of every day.

 

 sora bray and i were matching and didn't even plan it :) i love her. she is so awesome. and hilarious.

we were really excited to wear pants haha  

 

                                               this is my stash under my bed haha