Week 23

So we'll try and keep this a little short!

As far as cool things that have happened this week... I learned how to make Tortillas with Manseca. They're pretty good. I also decided that the reason why I'm losing weight here even though I'm in a car and not bike is because I don't eat as many tortillas as I was eating in Napa. I ate a lot of tortillas in Napa. But, according to a member here, tortillas are how you find a wife. Let me explain, we were at dinner and I was telling her how much I loved the tamales. and she proceeded to say

"When you get home, you need to find a Mexican wife."

I replied, "I know! It's in the plans sister!"

"But she can't be lazy. There are some that are lazy."

"What do you mean, lazy?"

"Well, if you want to marry her and find out, just tell her this 'Make me tortillas, make me tamales, and then you can marry me!'"

I almost spit out what I was drinking because I was laughing so hard after that. The bad thing is she was being serious. Hermana Witt told me "No! Elder Foster, don't ever say that!" Needless to say, it was funny. And I don't ever plan on saying that.

I was on exchanges with Elder Albert, our Zone Leader from Guam. He is exactly 5 feet tall. We were knocking on doors, and aPit Bull bit him in the face. It was bad, but he just punched the dog, it was pretty funny. He was ok. I guess in Guam he got bit a lot, and he just found that punching dogs helped.

This is from Elder Hansen (Josh?) " There's no wife yet... There are some Potentials though... Some of them wont leave me alone haha... But really...."

The work is going good! We get transfer doctrine this week, hopefully Elder Lopez stays!

I've been reading in the Book of Mormon in Spanish where Ammon is teaching King Lamoni. It's so cool. King Lamoni pretty much tells him "Yeah, take my really, really, really attractive Lamanite daughter for your wife!!" And Ammon is all like "No, vos, I'm just here to serve you." And then Ammon proceeds to just slice off arms and bring the Spirit in hardcore while he teaches. It's pretty cool. The Book of Mormon is true!

Elder Foster

Week 22

Here I am in week 22, it was full of miracles and I'm loving it here!

To start off, our cholo investigator called us a day when we didn't have dinner, told us he made a carne asada, and to come eat with him. I'm about 98% sure on the way we got transported to Mexico while driving over there. We ate carne asada, there were stray dogs rnning around and we were giving them the bones, and then we heard a rooster crow. He then led us to the backyard, where he is raising chickens. Not normal chickens, mind you, Mexican chickens. And with these Mexican chickens, we see two large, separate cages. He is breeding Cock-Fighting gallos. Two of them now. He doesn't fight them, he sells them, but we're talking like 10 pound roosters, long feathers, huge talons. It was crazy. I'll put in some pictures. On Saturday we had Carnitas with him, which is like where they throw the whole pig into the pot, stomach skin, and all. The skin was good, but he made me try the stomach, and so I was throwing up quite a bit Saturday Nioght. It was not sanitary. I will also send a picture of that.

Maria de Jesus is also super excited to get baptized. She and the Cholo both came to church.

But that's not all! In church, I had the opportunity to give a 20 minute talk on missionary work. 20 minutes in Spanish. I pulled about 15, but it was good. People laughed when they were supposed to, and lots of people told me after that they liked it.

On Friday we ate lunch with a less active named Rafaela. We got along really well, and then she brought her neice and a friend to Sacrament meeting!

That's still not all. A different less active brought her sister, her brother in law and all their kids to Sacrament meeting. All in all, we had 68 people in Sacrament, 13 more than last week, and 20 more than my first week. The Lord is hastening his work. Our Branch President stopped us after and told us "Hey Elders, slow down! I can't keep up with the work you're doing!" I don't mean to sound prideful, but it was really good to hear that considering how slow it was when we got here. I love Fairfield! I miss Napa, but it's great.

And speaking of Napa, Lupe messaged me on Facebook and told me that she is now a Branch Missionary! I'm so stoked for her.

Ok, that's it for this week! Love you!

Elder Foster

Week 21

I have no time in the library right now! I have to start a Facebook page as a missionary and I have very little time!

Things are going really well here in Fairfield! We had an event for the branch, we called it the Jim West Concert. The branch had been having trouble getting people to go to activities before (Elder Lopez said no one came to the last one, and the one before only had two families), so we were a little nervous about the concert. But it turned out fantastic! We had about 35-40 people show up. A non-member family, lots of less actives, and quite a few members! We were really excited with how well it turned out. Everyone had a great time, and we are going to return and talk to some people from the non member family! All in all, I'd say it was a success. We're going to start working on a mission plan for the branch. Not one that people will hang on their fridge and forget about, but one that will get them excited to start working with us more!

We've been teaching Maria De Jesus, and she's doing great. The hard part is that her sister, Anita, is less active and doesn't obey all of the commandments. She's not a great example for Maria De Jesus, and so Maria De Jesus is having to be an example to Anita. The roles are reversed, but hopefully we'll be able to reactivate Anita and baptize Maria De Jesus. 

With our less active Cesar, we are starting to work with the teachers quorom in the Fairfield 1st ward. We're going to start having kids be at lessons with us, and they'll invite him to activities and church through texting and Facebook. I think he'll start coming again.

Next week Hermana Billet and I are giving talks on our missions. I'm going to talk about how I've seen success while working with members, and encourage them all to work with us more. We shouldn't be separate. They should help us as we help them. I'm sure we'll get to that point

.

I also went on a Hmong exchange this week. There's a Hmong branch here (if you don't know what that is, think Clint Eastwood, Gran Turino). We ate a Hmong barbequ for lunch, which was fantastic! Like American, but better. And for dinner a member took us to eat Pho and Boba! It was awesome.

Everything is still great! I don't want to be a Facebook missionary, but I guess that the First Presidency has a plan and I better follow it!

Love,

Elder Foster

You can put this in my weekly letter as well "Everything is going great with Elder Lopez. I really love working with him. We have a great friendship and we work hard. He lifts me up when I need it and I lift him up when he needs it. We're pushing each other to work hard and to be the best that we can be. I know I'm here with him for a reason. We're doing good work in Fairfield with the help of the Lord."

 

I'll respond a little bit more in detail to the questions you asked-

Mission President is great. We had zone conference this last week (I'll send pictures next week and he's doing great. I pretty much copied my letter to him in my weekly email this week, but I'll write more about it and spiritual experiences in my next letter (where I'm at in the Libro de Mormon personally, what I lioke about it, all that jazz!)

But There are only four elders in our district. It's pretty lame. Elder Lopez is our District leader. It's not like Napa, with 11 of us in a District. Our zone is good, it covers here, Rio Vista, and Cordelia. The Sisters in our branch our great, but Sister Witt is a little up tight and does not get along with Elder Lopez. I pretty much am the one talking to her. That's a bummer, but they're both babies about it. We'll have a branch comp inventory.

I hope I answered everything!

I'll write more next week.

Week 20

Another beautiful week here in Fairfield!

So I guess I'll start off with what everyone was asking me about, the fourth of July! We did possibly the best service project ever in the morning. We were barricade guards for the parade! So all we had to do was make sure cars didn't plow down the barricades, and by that, our service project was essentially watch the parade. It was so much fun! A member from a ward here started talking to us over there and she told us she had something for us. She said "I'm not really supposed to do this, so..." and she proceeded to shove $20 in my shirt pocket and then ran. Booked it! In red white and blue heels. It was crazy! She really wasn't supposed to do that. But I know she'll receive blessings, and Elder Lopez and I got pizza! It was great. And since we live close to downtown, we got to see the fireworks after we finished planning! It was a good fourth!

We set two more baptismal dates, one with the sister of a less active. She came to church and brought her sister as well! We also had 5 other less actives in Sacrament Meeting, and 3 bore their testimonies and pretty much stated that they are going to start coming back to church! It was crazy.

This is from my email to President Alba "I've been praying to get the help that we need from the members. I feel like we really need them. Right now we only have about 2 or 3 members that are coming out with us (we're working on bringing Johnathon, a member preparing for his mission!) and it's just ben hard for us to teach member presents. I recieved an answer to my prayers! A new couple moved into the branch. She served in this mission, and her husband is from here. While we were eating with them, they asked us what they could do to help us out. I was shocked! It was so great to get that question asked! She said they're prepared to give rides to church, attend lessons, visit investigators outside of our lesson. It was wonderful, they are a miracle here! We'll be using them for sure."

Sorry if that was lazy, but I didn't want to have to type it up again!

Things are good! There's a sign here downtown that sayd "Fairfield, The Seat of Solano County" and it's probably because Fairfield is stinky. But it's ok because the Hispanic people are really great!

We have Zone Conference this Wednesday, so that should be fun!

Hope everything is going well!

Love you all!

Elder Mufosta

Week 19

Pues I'm here writing in the Fairfield Public Library! New area, new people, new companion! Getting transferred was weird. I knew how to do missionary work in Napa, but here I have no idea! Elder Lopez is helping out a ton. He's such a great Elder. We're working hard here. Finding  finding, finding! We don't have any solid investigators right now. We're going to try and work through the branch though. We've got to gain their trust a little bit though. They're sort of prideful here! But it's a nice branch. Unlike Napa, which was all converts, a lot of people here were born into the Gospel. If they weren't they've been members for a long time and have a great gospel knowledge. They also wear correct clothes to church, which is nice! But we've got to find a good way to work with them. I don't think they see the importance of Member Missionary Work. Only a few people will come out with us. We also only have four missionaries here. Elder Lopez and I, and Hermana Witt y Hermana Billat. Hermana Billat is brand new to the mission.

Fairfield is so much different than Napa though. It's a big city, and ther is lots of crime. I remember in Napa people would tell us that we lived in the most dangerous part of town because there was a gang fight where we lived like 5 years ago. Here in Fairfield, that happened yesterday. WE live pretty close to the city hall and downtown Fairfield. Not too bad. It's not like Napa though. We've really got to search hard for the Latinos. It's also pretty big, but I feel like I'm learning at least the ins and outs of the town. It was 108 last week, and since I've been here there hasn't been a day under 100.

We did have a great experience the other day. There was a guy picking up beer cans on his front lawn and we stopped to talk to him. This guys was straight up Naco. He wasn't wearing a shirt, had "Mexicano" tattooed on his belly, as well as varios other Catholic/ Mexican tattoos. We said hi, and he said "Oh, Hermanos! Tengo muchas preguntas para ustedes! Sientense!" Se we sat down and talked to him about the Plan of Salvation and he understood everything. It was super great, and he was the nicest guy. When we were going to say a prayer, he told us to wait one minute and he put a shirt onto show respect. Such a cool guy! Hopefully something happens from that.

That's about it for Fairfield right now. I'll send some pictures next week when I bring my camera. I have a few from my last 2 days in Napa also.

Hope all is well in Salt Lake!

Elder Foster

Week 18

Well, Napa, it's been fun.

The time has come for me to move on. The new missionary that I was team training is taking over Napa from me! I'm going to Fairfield this Wednesday to serve with Elder Angel Moroni Lopez. He was here in Napa when I got here, and I'm excited to serve as his companion! Elder Debora will do great things here. But I ended it here well! We had a baptism yesterday of an investigator that I found and started teaching, and I feel like I've done my part to help Napa. Elder Hansen left about an hour ago, and I'm pretty sad. He was like a brother, helped me change so much. I have such a better understanding of the power of the calling Elder. He worked me hard, and we truly had a great transfer. We had fun, and he is such a good example of the missionary I want to become.

We had the baptism of Lupe Garza yesterday! She was an absolutely fantastic investigator, and I'm so glad that I had the opportunity to teach here! She was so happy when she was baptized. I gave the missionary moment and shared the Restoration. She has the light of Christ. She will be such an example to everyone that she knows. She will lead to a ton of baptisms in Napa, I have no doubt.

The rest of the week was good. Mostly just teaching Lupe and a few other investigators. I really feel as though the Lord is helping me with my Spanish. I don't feel like there are too many problems. My vocabulary isn't huge, but I can understand almost everything and I had someone tell me that my accent was good, and my grammar was perfect. It was such a confidence boost. I was talking to a girl in the branch who is going on a mission to Peru, and when she told me that my spanish is awesome. It was great!

Oh we also had a wedding on Saturday! It was fun.

That's it for this week! The Church is true, the book is blue! I have no doubt that whoever reads the Book Of Mormon with an open mind will realize that this gospel is 100 % true. I know that Jesus is the Savior. The work is hastening, I'm so grateful for the opportunity to be here on a mission!

Elder Mufosta

 

 

Week 17

I can't believe how fast time is flying here in the mission!
The last week of the transfer is here, as well as the last week of
Elder Hansen's mission! There's been a lot of speculation as to what
is going to happen. I might leave Napa altogether and Elder Debora
will stay here, I might get transfered to Napa Spanish East and Elder
Debora stay here so I can still help with the area if he needs it, we
might both stay, or I might stay and he might leave. We'll see what
happens! It remains to be seen, we'll know next friday!
Lupe's baptism is scheduled for the 23rd, right after the worldwide
mission broadcast (which L. Tom Perry said will be the meeting of the
Century. You should go!). She's very excited.
We also have Maria Rodriguez. She was a former that we started
teaching this transfer. She told us that she wants to be baptized. She
knows all of this is true. The only problem was she told us that
nothing would stop her from attending church, but then she didn't
come. So we'll see what happens. I'll let you know what she says.
I am feeling super confident with my Spanish. Things are on fire here in Napa.
Love,
Elder Foster