Letter #72 - 1/27/15

Ciao Famiglia!! :)

Well this week has been crazy, like always! Haha!

And guess what? – my new greenie made it here safe and sound. Her name is Sorella Russell and she is from Alberta, Canada! She’s super sweet, and apparently it’s super cold in Canada because she has yet to wear tights!  She even wore a short sleeved shirt to church on Sunday! meanwhile I’m over here wearing my coat and scarf! haha – Sorella Russell is super brava! She’s going to take good care of Busto.

Unfortunately Sorella Russell has been a little sick, so I’ve been doing lots of study time. I’ve never sat for so long in like 18 months, haha! It feels so weird.

Also, Giovanni was ordained to the priesthood on Sunday!!!!! MIRACLE :) So awesome. He’s such a rockstar.

Also, I met my second cousin Anziano Smoot! Haha, It was really fun to see him, even though I don’t think I’ve ever met him before. I will get a picture with him when i see him again next week.

Sorry, not a lot of time to write more today. We have an appointment and have to go teach English class, but all is well here in Busto! We are just working hard and making the most of these last 5 weeks! SO CRAZY!!

Enjoy Mexico! Get some sun for me ;)

Love and miss you!

Sorella Yost

Letter #71 - 1/20/15

Ciao Famiglia Mia!

TRANSFERS – and yep, that’s right. I’M TRAINING AGAIN, hahahaha. So I’m staying here in Busto for my last transfer and training for my third time in a row. And it gets better, Sorella Nilsen, my first greenie, is now training too! Ha, so I’m going to be a "Grandma" in the mission too! Haha, I’m seriously going to have like the biggest posterity ever by the time i go home. It’s so great. But sadly, this means that Sorella Hawks and I are being split up. We are soooooo sad. But she is going to Trieste, with Sorella Burt, Becca's roommate! so cool :) 

President Dibb called us on Saturday morning with the transfer news and he was so funny, he was just like "Hey Sorella Yost, I have great news for you! You get to stay in Busto as a sister training leader! Oh and also . . . I need you to be training again." And at this point, I’m so excited because I get to stay in Busto, and then I realized what he said and I was like "I’m training AGAIN??" and he just started laughing and was like "yeah again!" haha. And I was like "so... for my third time?" and he just laughed and was like "yeah, for your third time! you know Sorella Woods can’t be the only one that trains three times, I need you doing it too." haha so yeah. Baby #3! I’m super excited! I loveeeee training. It’s been one of my favorite parts of my mission.

So I couldn’t be happier. I will definitely miss Sorella Hawks though, we think President knew how bad we wanted to stay together a third transfer, because when he was telling Sorella Hawks that she was getting transferred, he was like “so, Sorella Hawks, I’m sure you’ve heard by now that it is very, very rare for companions to be together for 3 transfers, and I know you and Sorella Yost have done amazing things together but these happy days are going to be coming to an end soon because I need you in Trieste."

We were almost crying the whole time he was talking to her, haha, but I’m so excited for her, she is going to absolutely love Trieste and just going to kill it there :) Also, other exciting news is that our new convert is going to receive the Priesthood on Sunday! He is doing so well; we are just so excited for him and his family. They are progressing, piano piano. We just love them so much and know that he is such a good example for them all.

I did a scambio in Como last week that was super fun. Funny story from it though, we were at an appointment with the Sorelle's baptismal date, and we got there and it was this lady with the baptismal date and her 16 year old son named Ricky. They were soooo sweet. So we get there and turns out it was a dinner appointment. I had no idea. Ha, so we sit down and it’s like 8pm, and this family lives like on the top of a hill in Como, like a bus ride and a walk, and we have to be home by 9:30. So naturally, I start freaking out a little inside. So it takes a little time before the food was all ready and then we finally start eating, (and the food was amazing by the way). Then we finish and are eating panettone and get to start the lesson, it was on the prophet. So we taught a good lesson, the spirit was super strong and we think they really liked it.

So the lesson ends and we say a prayer and we tell them we have to scamp because we have to make the bus. So at this point I would say that I was really freaking out because I didn’t know the city or how long it would take to get home or when the buses came. So the 16 year old son tells us to wait and that the will grab his coat and walk us down the hill to the bus stop. So I’m like in the door way like "okaaaaay we just have to hurry..." and then he comes and Sorella Ince just start booking it down the stairs, and out of the palazzo and then start heading down the hill. As we are going we tell Ricky to look up the bus times on his phone. which he does and then he was like” oh no...." and we were like "what Ricky!?!?!" and he said" well...there’s one that comes in 5 minutes....and then the next one isn’t for another hour..." (cioè we would get home at 11pm or later)  so I just look at them both and am like "we have to run, literally." So I just take off and start running as fast as I can and Sorella Ince is leading the way and we are just booking it down this hill and Ricky is just running right with us saying "are you sure we have to run?!" and I’m just like "RUN RICKY!" hahaha, it was so funny. Moral of the story, we made the bus and made it home by like 9:55 so we just had to call our zone leaders. But still, it was hilarious. But now Sorella Ince, Ricky and I are the best of friends. It was a great bonding experience. haha so funny.

I gave a talk in church on Sunday on missionary work and miracles I’ve see on the mission. Well I think that’s all for this week. Hope all is well back home! I love and miss you!

Stammi Bene! (Take Care)

Sorella Yost

Letter #70 - 1/13/15

Ciao Famiglia Mia!

So first of all.....GIOVANNI GOT BAPTIZED!!!!!! It was such an amazing day, so many members of the ward came even though the baptism was in Milano (we don’t have a font in Busto). And Giovannis whole family came and they really loved the baptism. The mom was taking pictures and they took pictures all together as a family in front of the font when Giovanni was in his white clothes and it was just so awesome. We love that family so much. They are so special.

And Giovanni bore his testimony after the baptism and it was one of the most amazing testimonies I’ve ever heard. He is being interviewed for the priesthood this Sunday and he’s just going to change the world.

Also we did scambio this week with Varese which was so fun and then we are doing another one with Como tomorrow. Double scambio week! haha!

We ate a really good lasagna this week, just an “fyi” for Abbi, haha.

Well I have like no time left because some members are taking us to Switzerland today for p-day! sorry!

Love you all and talk to you soon!

Sorella Yost

Letter #69 - 1/6/15

Ciao Familgia!

Come state?! Well Buon Anno! 2015! (Happy New Year)

So weird to think that all of 2014 is over and that I was a full time missionary for every single day of it - so cool.

Well this week was awesome, we saw so many miracles and are just loving being in Busto. It really is miracle city. We did scambio with the Lugano sisters this week which was so fun and then our investigator passed his bap interview!!!!!!!! So we celebrated with gelato; hopefully everything keeps going well. Thanks for all the prayers!

Well I’m out of time for this week because I had to send in a monthly report but I love and miss you all!

Time is flying by and I’ll see you all before we know it. Have a great week!

vi voglio bene!

Sorella Yost

p.s. charlie sit! :)

Letter #68 - 12/30/14

Ciao Famiglia!

Sorry I have like basically no time today because we have to be in by 5pm for New Year’s Eve but here’s just a short email to say hi :) Skype was so fun last week and it was so good to see everyone! Sorry again about the chaos....just more memories right? ;)

And funny story, President Dibb let us watch one Disney movie each year on Christmas and we got to watch Finding Nemo courtesy of Anziano Hubbard and we were going to save it to watch when we got home at night but then we ended up getting home late and were so tired and I was totally fine after Skype and everything but then with the stress of getting home late and everything else that was going on, we started talking about watching Finding Nemo and when I realized I was so tired and wouldn’t even be able to keep myself awake to see Crush in the turtle part of the movie...I completely lost it and started crying, haha it was so funny. I was just crying I was so tired. I just kept telling Sorella Hawks I just wanted to see Nemo and the turtles. She was so supportive, haha we were so tired. It was crazy. So once i regained control of myself we got ready for bed super quick and put on Nemo and I fell asleep literally like 5 minutes into it. Like I’m talking right after Nemo’s mom dies, haha. It was so depressing. so yeah, that will probably be the first movie I watch when I get home, just a heads up. i want to see the turtles!!

Also I ate duck innards this week, and we had the most amazing Christmas ever. We made like 70 cookies and went out caroling and handing out cookies to investigators and a few less-actives on Christmas eve and Christmas and it was just so special and fun. Definitely a Christmas I will never forget.

Hope all is well back home and that you have a happy new year! Thanks for everything! I love and miss you all!

Buon nuovo anno! :)

Sorella Yost

Letter #67 - 12/23/14

Ciao Famiglia!

So today’s email is going to be super short because we are SKYPING tomorrow!!!!!! I’m soooooo excited :)

We acted out the nativity with a little family in our ward on Monday and it was super fun and super cute :) They loved it! We did it in honor of the Yost tradition to do it every year! And one of the little girls made me a homemade Christmas tree at school and its soooo cute. I didn’t find a cute nativity on our shopping trip to Luino, but i got a cute little one in Gallarate, it’s really small though but its super cute and Italian looking. I’ll send a picture of it next week! Oh and I got it really cheap since its right before Christmas and it was missing one little sheep so it was only 18 euro! So i thought that would make dad happy :) haha, Oh and the Siena Sorella slept over last night because of permesso problems so we all opened the last story (from the 12 days of Christmas) together this morning around the Christmas tree and drank Starbucks hot chocolate and we all loved it! It was so fun ::) so thank you mom!

I just wanted to send a little email about how amazing this Christmas has been for me. I feel like I have truly learned the true meaning of Christmas and why we celebrate such a momentous day. We are celebrating the beginning of something so great, something so grand, that is the life of our Savior Jesus Christ. It’s the day Heavenly Father let Him go and come down here to earth, fully aware of His earthly mission and fully aware of the price that was to be paid. It truly was the greatest gift of all and each year we have the opportunity and blessing of celebrating the hope and peace of the plan of happiness through our Christ the Lord. We have so much to be grateful for and so much to celebrate. That is the true meaning of Christmas. We are so blessed that we get to come together each year and celebrate it as a family and remember that because of this great Christmas gift, we can be together forever.

Christmas is about peace, and it’s about gratitude. Nothing else matters. It’s just our job to honor Christ and His unwavering gift to the world by striving to be more like Him and completely forget ourselves for the sake of all those around us, our brothers and sisters. All in all, we are really just giving back to Him what he has already given us. I’m so grateful for my mission and for the many opportunities I’ve had to come closer and to better know my Savior.

My mission has changed my life and I will be forever grateful for the chance to be here in Italy. I know my time is running short so I must make every day count while I can :) He truly is the gift.

Vi voglio benissimo e mi mancate tantissimo! ci vediamo domani! BUON NATALE!

Love,

Sorella Yost

Letter #66 - 12/16/14

Ciao Famiglia! :)

Hope all is well back home! Congrats Will on being ordained a deacon! That’s so awesome and you looked super classy with your Italian tie ;) glad you liked it!

This week has been super great. Literally full of miracles. Our investigator with a baptismal date is doing so well and literally so elect. We are so excited about him and his family. We teach them all together every Sunday and they are just one of the sweetest families every. We love them so much. It’s so crazy to think that we found them on our 21 lesson week at like 8 pm on Sunday night, trying to get our last few lessons for the week.

Sorella Hawks and I look back on our first few weeks here in Busto and how hard we were trying to figure out a brand new area and everything we were going through and we can see that the Lord was just preparing us to be blessed with such a huge miracle after the trail of our faith. We are so grateful for the situation we were put in because we had to solely depend on the Lord because we knew nothing, and because we did that he led us to exactly where we needed to be in the right moment. The hardest trials always bring forth the biggest miracles. I believe that with all my heart.

Also, this transfer I found out I’m going to be Sister training leader over Como now, as well as Lugano and Varese so that will be really fun :) I love all the Sorelle I work with so much, they are all such rock stars.

Also this week we got to experience sciopero...aka train and bus strikes. So yeah. That was fun. But we saw a huge miracle from it! We were waiting at the train station in Busto just looking up at the board with all the trains cancelled freaking out because we needed to get to Gallarate for our lesson with our bap date and his family. So Sorella Hawks and I went behind the corner and just said a little prayer that we would be able to get a train diretto to Varese and be able to get to Gallarate. When we finished the prayer the thought came to my mind that there was someone there we needed to meet. So we go back by the board and we noticed this woman that had been standing close by us before and we went over and started talking to her and she invited us to sit down by her. So we did and she asked us to say a prayer with her that the train to Varese wouldn’t get cancelled because she really needed to get home. So I said a prayer and then we talked with her for a couple seconds and then all of a sudden... the only train to Varese that hadn’t been cancelled yet...was cancelled. My heart just sank. And so I just started praying and asking Heavenly Father to show this woman the power of prayer and help her get a train. I didn’t want her to lose her faith because the train got cancelled. Then all of a sudden...a different train that had earlier been cancelled automatically came back up. Saying that instead it was now just going to be 15 minutes late instead of cancelled, aka it would be there in about 10 minutes!!!! I looked at the lady and she looked at me and was like: 'Hey! it’s because of your prayer!' and she was like 'wow...this one’s going to come.' And i just smiled and looked at her and was like' yea, this one’s going to come' :) and it did. We rode the train together and as we were sitting by here the three of us said another prayer together of gratitude and it was so awesome. Then this lady realizes that her umbrella was broken (it had been raining pretty much all night) and she was going all the way up to Varese where it was probably raining harder and that same voice came back into my head and told me "give her your umbrella" and I was like, uhhh okay, so i turned to her and offered her my umbrella, and she very gratefully accepted it and gave us her number and we gave her our number and she said she wants to see us again before Christmas so she can return it to me. it was such a huge miracle and I’m so grateful for the spirit and how He helps us know exactly what we need to do. it’s such a blessing in our lives. I know we will see her again and I know she’s the reason there was a sciopero and that God has his hand in all we do because this is truly his work!

Hope all is well back home! Thanks for all your love and support! I love and miss you!

See you next week on SKYPE! :)

Sorella Yost