A Life of Teshuva

Every day in Shemoneh Esrei we ask Hashem to bring us back in teshuva, and only afterward ask Him to forgive us. Shouldn't forgiveness for a sin come first? And why does the Gemara in Yoma, proving that teshuva reaches the Kisei HaKavod, take its pasuk from the Haftarah of Shabbos Shuva, when an almost identical one sits in the Chumash?Rav Saadia Gaon once stayed as a guest where nobody knew who he was. When the host found out, he came to apologize, and the Gaon heard something in that apology he never forgot. It matters most to anyone who comes into Yom Kippur feeling basically fine.