Week 9

So another glorious week here in Napa California! And let me say, it is hot here everyday! I don't think I've ever sweat this much in my life.

Dad, you asked me for a day in the life of a missionary, here it is

- Wake up at 6:30, pray, put on tennis shoes, run 2 miles

- Shower, eat breakfast, personal study, companion study, language study, lunch, 12 week training program

- Leave the house at 1. We usually tract, visit investigators, or visit less active members until 5 when we have dinner

- Dinner with a family for an hour. There are 6 of us, 2 sets of Elders and 1 set of Sisters. 3 greenies, the greenie sister was in my District at the MTC.

- Leave dinner, try to visit less active members after, tracting anytime past 7 usually isn't effective

- 9:00 bike to the apartment, plan, write in my journal, get ready for bed and sleep.

 

That's the day in the life of a missionary in Napa. Very hot always, and biking anywhere between 5-15 miles a day.

Right now the only progressing investigator we are teaching is Hortencia. She's progressing, praying and reading. Her biggest problem is that she's not married. We're trying really really hard, as she's our only progressing investigator. We also have Elizabeth, who lives with Hermana Belltran and her kids. Elizabeth is an awesome person, but she isn't progressing. She goes to church, but she is hard to teach. She can't remember things we teach her, and it's just hard. We try and pray everyday, but she's difficult.

The hardest part is the language. It's getting better, and I just made a new language study plan that hopefully will help me out a ton. I think I'm better off than the other two greenies in the Napa Spanish Branch, but it's still difficult. I really want to do the very best I can and at times it's hard. Right now understanding is the hardest part. I need to start listening more attentively. But I'm not going to let it stop me! I know with hard work and the help of the Lord that I can progress alot and learn. I think the part that makes it hard was in the MTC I progressed a lot, but here I'm not learning as much, which is the opposite of what I hear usually happens. So hopefully this new plan will help me learn alot, both to understand and speak!

So this week had a special day in the lives of many people throughout the world, and I do have a few funny stories. On Saturday, this special day, the sister missionaries had a great experience. Their investigator Marcos, who is having problems with the Word of Wisdom, decided he wanted to change his life. He gave the sister missionaries all of his marijuana. They then proceeded to a member's house, where they were picking up money for dinner for all of us. When they got there, they asked the member if they could flush it down the toilet. They, of course complied. I also guess that there is another area here in the Santa Rosa mission that is world famous for their plants, and a few missionaries have eaten special brownies there. In that area, brownies are now a no-no for missionaries. I'm not going to lie, it was a little weird not listening to Minor Threat on Saturday.

But everything is good here! Things are hard, but it's been going by quickly! I can't believe that I've already been here for half a transfer.

Love you!

Elder Mufosta

Week 8

Hello!
I'm hurrying for time, so if this is short I'm sorry! I'll do the best
I can to include information.
So let me say that Napa is beautiful! Hot, but beautiful. I've seen
deer here, bluebirds, squirrels the size of cats, and everything is so
green! Just so you have a better idea of where we are, I live right
next to the Napa outlet mall. Our area is Napa South, and out
boundaries are 1st Street to the North, Laurel Street to the West, and
Napa River on the East. It's really a great area. Also, there are so
many orange trees and people are always giving us fresh oranges, and I
don't think I'll ever go back to grocery store oranges ever again!
The people here are also really great. There are 6 missionaries in our
branch, and we all eat dinner together every night. We have dinner
every night, and usually when we don't have dinner/ someone cancels,
we get money to go out and eat. Quite great! We have eaten everything.
And last night, at scone night with the Perez family I weighed myself.
Let me say, I'm not too happy about the results. Let's just say, more
than 15 pounds in less  than two months isn't good! Dad, send me some
of those Costa Rican tapeworms! But in all seriousness, we probably
ride at least 10 miles a day, and on a single speed bike I'm getting
good leg muscles. Yes, a lot of the weight isn't muscle, but some of it
is!
We fasted over the weekend, and we have a cool thing here called might
prayer, where when we break our fast, everyone in the whole mission
prays for an hour! It's quite awesome. And while we were tracting
yesterday, this guy invited us into his backyard for a party, and we
couldn't eat the barbeque! It smelled so good, but we explained we
were fasting and he seemed interested. We'll talk to him again soon
I'm sure!
We did lose two investigators this week, and it was pretty sad. One
has a problem with the Law of Chastity, and he said he didn't want to
take lessons because whenever he sees us he feels dirty, but we just
bore our testimony of the atonement and told him that when he's ready,
we'll be there!
We did have one amazing experience. We were riding down the street and
this lady was having trouble with her bags so we decided to talk to
her and ask if she needed help. We took her bags in and she asked why
we kept calling her "hermana." We explained that we're all children of
God, and that she was our sister. We asked if she believed that and
she said she didn't. But when we took out the restoration pamphlet
with the picture of Jesus, we asked her if she knew who He was. She
burst into tears and told us her whole story and we're really excited
to keep teaching her!
So I think that's it for this week. I'm sitting here, and in the cd
shelf I can see a copy of Mermaid Avenue by Billy Bragg and Wilco, and
I do miss my music! I miss shows and Salt Lake, but I'm excited to be
here. Just staying focused on the work will help!
Love you all,
Elder Foster

First Week in the Field (Week 7)

So here I am in California! I'll start from the beginning.

We had to get up at 3 on Tuesday to take Elder Christensen to the travel office. After that, Elder Giddens and I got ready and wrote a few letters (tell Andrew Fernlund that I'm sending him one today, and sorry it's taken so long!) and left for the travel office! When we were on the bus, I looked out the window at the "Truly Nolen" sign on the side of the freeway. I don't really know what Truly Nolen is, but I remember being able to see it brightly lit while inside of the first Underground. It made me kind of sad to leave Salt Lake behind.

We left Salt Lake around 8:40 Mountain Time, and got to Oakland about 9:30 Pacific time. We were greeted by President Alba and his wife. They are awesome. I'm excited to serve for them and learn lots. We went to their home in Santa Rosa, and it was just beautiful there. Very green, huge trees, and we even saw a deer in their backyard! Santa Rosa is very nice. We stayed in a hotel that night, we had a little devotional with him and the trainers in the hotel. We all went to bed at around 8, it was the last night in 2 years that I'll be able to sleep more than 8 hours. The next day we went to the Badger Building to find out who our trainers are. My companion in Elder Alvarado from Honduras  He's great, but it's hard to understand him sometimes, people form Honduras talk really really fast and don't enunciate. After we met, all of the new missionaries went to the bike shop. I bought a single speed street bike, it was $280 and hopefully it will last me my mission! If not, well, we'll get to that point! I had to buy a lock, helmet, and lights which added up to about $375. Not bad for everything, here's hoping it lasts and doesn't get stolen!

Right now, I'm in the Napa South area. We are working with the Napa Spanish Branch. It is really weak. A lot of inactives, which is mostly who we're working with. We have 3 investigators, but only one really serious investigator. There is only one returned missionary, his name is Hermano Perez and his family. They've already fed us twice, and are working hard with us to help us strengthen the branch. I like it here. The biggest problem is that it's hard to understand what people are saying. I can understand words, and sometimes meanings, but most of it really goes over my head and I have to force myself to talk. It's been difficult, but I'm sure that things will pick up once I'm understanding and speaking. We have a program called 12 weeks to train new missionaries  I'm hoping that by the end of the program I'll at least be able to communicate more. That's probably the hardest part of the mission. I know with faith and practice that I'll be able to speak in a few months. At least after 24 months I'll be speaking! But that's the hardest part now.

So for conference, I watched the first session of both days and the Priesthood session in Spanish, so it all kind of went over my head. We watched the second session of both days in English, and I'm glad. Elder Holland's talk was fantastic. He is an amazing Apostle.

So I think that's it for today. I'll have more next week!

Elder Foster

April 1

4/1/13
Today is my last day in the MTC! 3 of the Elders in my district are leaving today for Oaxaca at around 7:30, we're going to see them off.
Yesterday was Easter Sunday in the MTC, and we had devotional on top of devotional! First was the Easter Sunday Devotional/ Sacrament Meeting. We all thought it was going to be an Apostle, and it wasn't. It was Bishop Causse. I guess that it's the first time in a long time an Apostle hasn't given the Easter Morning Devotional. When he walked in, the disappointment was tangible in the air, but I thought of the scripture in D&C ".... Whether By mine own voice or the voice of my servants, it is the same." He was a good speaker, and I'm glad we had something that cool to do on Easter Sunday. It was also the most amount of people the Sacrament had been passed too, over 3,200 people!
After that we had a district testimony devotional, which was good. Our district is really cool. That was followed by a Fast and Testimony meeting for our whole zone. That evening, we had the regular Sunday Night Devotional. Sheri Dew was the speaker, and I must say that she is an amazing lady! Her devotional was phenomenal, and I'm glad that I got to see her before I left! After every Sunday Night Devotional we watch films, so my district went and saw a devotional by Uchdorf back from when Gordon B. Hinkley was still Prophet. It was nice!
By far my favorite devotionals here have been from M. Russell Ballard, Stephen B. Allen, and Elder Aidukaitis. Of the films we've seen, the best have been Missions are Forever by Elder Holland, Character of Christ by Elder Bednar, and Following the Spirit by Elder Bednar. I'm not sure if you're able to see those, because they're past MTC devotionals, but you should check. 
I'm sick this week. I think I have a sinus infection, and I haven't had my voice for three days. It's been kind of a bummer, but I'm scared to go to the doctor here, since I'm leaving so soon. I'll see if the lovely Northern California air will clear me up and get my sinuses clean. If not, I can go to a doctor there and ask about Advair. I'm bummed out that I'm sick though, because there was so much good music! Probably every single one of my favorite hymns was sung. Come Thou Font of Every Blessing, Lead Kindly Light (admittedly not well, people just don't understand 3/2 time!), Battle Hymn of the Republic, and Nearer My God To Thee. At the Easter devotional there was a special musical number by three Hermanas. One on piano, the other on flute, and the last singing. They played Savior Redeemer of My Soul, and I must say that that is a powerful song! Also, because we're leaving, my district sang Con Valor Marchemos. I couldn't sing because I had lost my voice, so I just mouthed, but I don't think anyone could really tell. It sounded great!
Last night in the residency we sang Hasta Ver in the style that I wrote about a few emails ago. I loved it, it is probably the closest I'll get to a folk punk show at Elder Teage's house, so I did my best to make it worthwhile and remember for the next two years!
I think that that's it for this week, next week I'm sure I'll have much more interesting stories. Honestly the MTC is pretty boring, and I'm sick of the food. Excited to go out and serve! 
Love,
Elder Mufosta

March 25

So another boring week at the MTC. But things are getting better! On Friday, we received our travel plans for California! We leave the MTC a week from tomorrow, which is April 2nd. We have to meet at the Travel Office at 5AM and we will be taken by vans to the airport. I'm a little bummed, my companion Elder Giddens is in a different travel group, but hopefully we'll see each other at the airport or something. I'm so excited to get out of here! Don't get me wrong, I'll make the best of my time here, but I'm pretty ready for California. 
We also got a new district in our zone. They are all Elders, which is quite strange to have. They are all going to the Mexico Monterey Mission. I thought that the Mission Elder Killpack was going to was scary, McAllen Texas (which had Laredo in it), but this one is way awful. They were saying it's the most dangerous mission in the world. They're also all incredibly pale and slightly really chubby, so they shouldn't have anything to worry about, right?
Here at the MTC, we teach fake investigators. They are our 2 teachers, and they take on the role of someone they have taught. Our teacher, Hermana Hudson, is incredibly blonde and white. She was taking on the role of Christelle, who is from Africa, but she taught her in Chile. We had invited her to church, and when we checked up on our next lesson, she said that she went. She told us (rough English translation) "Everyone was looking at me weird, I'm not sure if it was because I was new, or if it was because I'm black." So, in my Spanish mind, I reviewed morena in my mind and remembered what it said. My companion did the same thing as "Christelle" cracked a smile. When I looked at her to respond, I couldn't hold the laugh in. I started cracking up, she followed as well as my companion. We probably laughed for about three minutes, and it was hard to get it under control, because whenever I talked to her in the context of our lesson, I couldn't stop thinking about how she was black. Afterward, in class, I asked her "You're from Africa, why are you white?" To which she replied, "You can't just ask somebody why they're white!" Which is a Mean Girls reference. I'm not racist, I swear.
Last night we had a devotional from Stephen B. Allen, who gave us our first devotional here as well. It was the exact same talk, but from a completely different perspective. It was cool, I really enjoyed it.
And get this- we're having a special Sacrament meeting for Easter Sunday, and there will be a general authority. Here's what I'm thinking. I've been here for 5 weeks, and we've seen only member of the 70, with the exception of M. Russel Ballard, and they said that there would be general authorities, I'm thinking it's got to be someone from the First Presidency. And then, when they're giving their conference talks, they'll say something around the lines of "So I checked on the progress of the MTC since the announcement..." I sure hope it's someone cool! We keep on telling the new district that Jefferey R. Holland's granddaughter is here, and so he's speaking on Tuesday since it's her last week. It sounds mean, but it's a tradition. It's what the oldest district told us when we got here, but the joke was on them, since we still saw an Apostle. 
Miss you all and love you!
Elder Mufosta