Note the change in hair style/length. Same smile! While looking for pictures of my mission I ran across this awesome tid-bit (I was quite the story teller as a missionary!)
"Now for what I like to call ¨dead chicken in a trash bag¨ moment. this is a cultural experience or something really strange I have seen while I am on my mission. I call it this because I was in a store the other day and I saw the manager pull out a dead chicken onto the counter and chop it in half, right in front of me, and put it in a bag for the person who was buying it. I don´t know why this surprised me so much, maybe I´m just so used to seeing chicken in the states nicely wrapped up and ready to go… ha-ha, my companions and I laughed as I shared that this was my first experience to see anything like this. But the other day we were knocking on a door of a woman we had an appointment with and she was talking with my companion, my companion stepped in the door, and I followed and to my surprise the whole front part of her house (which had no roof) was FULL of geese, chickens, roosters, etc. Some of you may know how I have a fear of birds… I know, ridiculous, but it really took all of my will power not to just race out of this house. I feared for my life, ha-ha, I´m such a chicken. We stood there in her home and taught her about prayer and sang with her a hymn. It ended up being a really sweet lesson and we are excited to teach her again, and I am mentally preparing myself to return with all the birds… Tia- you would love it! I was seriously praying the whole time that a bird wouldn´t attack me and the Lord in his goodness answered my prayers!"
Then I found this gem from my very last email home. It starts in the middle of a story about a man named Claudio that we taught at the very end of my mission. He and his wife were working towards getting married and then baptized. We invited him to help us talk with someone who was struggling to come to church on Sunday. This is what happened:
"We invited the less active to church on Sunday and the Dad, Claudio, said to the less active ¨Listen, you don´t need to be afraid to go to church, just do everything you can to get to church. Drop work, drop your family, drop your friends, drop everything so that you can be at church 30 minutes early and stay the whole time for all the classes because if you do you will learn more about Christ and will be greatly blessed, I know this to be true¨. AWESOME! What a powerful testimony… from an investigator."
I then went on to say:
"I decided yesterday that I really love working with investigators because they are in the fire of their conversion. What if we were always like this? To be the same when we enter the church and every day thereafter, like Alma asks us in chapter 5 If you have felt the sweet song of redemption, can you feel so now?…. That´s the question I have for you today, can you feel so now? I want to do everything so that I can feel this great joy and peace all my life. Although trials and persecutions may raise, I Sister Yost am committed 100% every day so that I can feel this sweet song of redemption an do everything to help others and myself greet the Lord with a sweet embrace and told him ¨I did everything I could, I fought the good fight, I gave it everything I could every day!¨ I am happy to say that I can look back on every day in my mission and say that every day I worked as hard as I can as long as I could and I am so grateful that I did. I hope to keep doing so and pray that the Lord guides me this week."
It's good to go back and remember the things you committed to in the past. It gives me strength to remember what I expected of myself as a missionary to do and what I need to be doing now. The honest truth is that I miss being a missionary. It hurts my heart sometimes to be miles and miles away from people and companions that I gave my whole heart to. BUT, what is so sweet is the bountiful work that is here on the flip side. And the blessings are just as sweet! I have not been the best at keeping my commitment. I have been distracted sometimes by doubt, fear and sometimes a lack of confidence. But, I can honestly say that since I have been home I have tried to throw myself into the service of my family, friends, study, work and anything else the Lord has called me to do.
It has been overwhelming at times to figure out what the Lord wants me to do (that is probably a huge understatement). That's probably the hardest thing. As a missionary it is so easy. You know exactly what you are supposed to be doing all day, everyday.
When you are back, God still has a plan for you. That is why staying in tune with the spirit is SO important. Receiving and acting upon personal revelation is among the most important lessons I learned on my mission. Since I have been home that has brought me into life changing friendships, fantastic job opportunities, internships, service opportunities, and adventures! It is impossible to list each one. The list would be endless.
So I think that it's time for me to re-commit.
Although trials and persecutions may raise, I Allie Yost am committed 100% every day so that I can feel this sweet song of redemption an do everything to help others and myself greet the Lord with a sweet embrace and told him ¨I did everything I could, I fought the good fight, I gave it everything I could every day!¨
It won't be easy. But it's worth it. So worth it.
What have you committed to in the past? Are you doing it now?
