Week 25

So it's here! 6 months ago I was set apart as a missionary. It doesn't even seem that long!

So we'll start of with the bad news. Maria De Jesus didn't get baptized, but it was because she's been in the hospital all week for a kidney infection. She just barely got out, and she will be getting baptized the last saturday of this transfer. We visited her 3 times in the hospital, and let me say how much I hate hospitals. I hate the way they smell, I hate the rooms, I  hate how everyone has needles in their arms and how there's always just a feeling that for some reason, it's a bout to be a 28 Days Later situation. But other than that, she's great.

Also, remmeber the story about that temple worker? Well, he is the brother of our Branch Mission Leader's wife, and they are the siblings to three other people. One was mission president in Hondouras, but I don't know anything else about him. Their other brother is Carlos H. Amado, of the First Quorom of the 70!!!!!!! So that's super sick. Now imagine this 70, and then picture a guy that's the exact opposite. That's their other brother. We went to go visit his son, who is a less active, and encoutered this man. I'm pretty sure he's preparting the way for the Antichrist to come. So this is a super spiritual family, and then the one black sheep.

This was a miracle that we saw yesterday, this is from my letter to President Alba: "WE did see a miracle last night though. We were going to drop our investigator Hector, because he hadn't been progressing, wasn't willing to read, come to church, or stop drinking. He had never once prayed with us, or on his own, making up many excuses. When we knocked on his door, he opened it up with a big smile, his Book of Mormon and Bible. He had changed! He read the first 17 chapters of first Nefi, and when we were talking about it, he told us he felt like he should pray. He prayed right there on his porch, and told us when he was done how great he felt. We can see the atonement working in his life, so wewill continue teaching him!!!"

We do need prayers to find more people though. Ascool as our investigators are, we need more to teach, and after tracting at least every day for an hour this last week, we didn't find anyone. Prayers would be great!

That's it for this week! I hope you all are well! You're in my prayers!!!

Elder Foster

Week 24

Do you remember that episode of Even Stevens where Louis is in love with that attractive cheerleading coach? He decides to become a mascot to impress here, but one day he goes into her office and she's shaving her unibrow and it just throws him off and he can't think about anything elder but the unibrow, but he still becomes a great mascot? I feel like that's kind of like missionary work.

Anyway, the baptism never happened. There was a youth dance, and wouldn't you know it, Satan tempted more pepole toget married and now there's a wedding this coming saturday!!!! We are going to see if we can do thebaptism in the Rio Vista River here. Beause it's ridiculous! I should probably repent for being frustrated. But she passed the interview, and she's good. So we'll see what happend with her.

I don't know what happened to our cholo Ortega! I feel like he disappeared off the face of the Earth. It's not just like he's not answering the door, his phone is off and the lights are never on in his house, and I never hear his roosters crow. I have no idea where he is! But we'll find him.

We are teaching the dad of a member here. He's 87 and a Paisano. He's pretty hard to teach because all he likes to do is talk about his life in Mexico, which is pretty much talking about all the fights he got into in Elementary school and it's just weird but he's really cool. We really want him to get baptized.

We're teaching a giant group of middle aged women on a certain street. 3 of them aged 30-40. I feel like most people I end up teaching are women, I don't really know why, it just happens. When Elder Hansen came to Napa, all of our investigators were women. I have no idea why! Here it's like 3/4 are women. They are just more receptive, or maybe they're not out working when we tract before lunch. Either way, that street was super awesome. Half were Mexican Testigos de Jehova, but the half that weren't Testigos were really receptive. So hopefully in a year that street will be 50/50!!! We'll see.

We're kind of running out of places to find Fairfield isn't necesarily a Spanish Hot Spot (for saying that, I'll get sent to Fort Bragg), we have to really search for places. A lot of the people in the branch are older and not willing to do missionary work, but we'll break them into it.

This week was a little slower. A lot of finding, contacting, and tracting. We did 3 family home evenings, so that was fun!

Pray that we'll find some solid families!!!

Love you and miss you!

Elder Foster

Week 23?

Somewhere I messed up on my numbers, but here is the really week 23!

Transfer information first- The Tolenas Spanish Branch is staying the exact same! The Hermanas and us are both staying the exact same, which is super awesome. I'm so stoked.

About the baptism- We couldn't have it. Some people decided it would be a good idea to get married and have the reception on a night in order to stop the eternal progression of our investigator! Who would do such a thing? And then Satan continued his work by creating a youth dance this coming Saturday! So we're are seriously thinking of going 31 AD style and taking her to a river to be baptized. It would be easier than having to reserve the silly stake center!

On the bright side, we taught 20 lessons this week! I don't mean to be a number crucher, but it feels really good!

We found a really cool lady this last week as well. We just dropped a bunch of investigators, so our teaching pool was pretty low, and we had pretty much exhausted our formers and decided to tract for an hour. We found a lady that had met with the missionaries a little before (no teaching record though) and she was sweet! Her name is Candy (I didn't know that was a Spanish name, but we'll take it!). We taught her the Restoration, and she believes a lot of it. She's a Bible Junkie and has a hard time accepting the Book of Mormon, but she doesn't feel like there's anything bad in it. Her story is crazy though, she just feels the need to accept Christ and to center her home on him. She told us her daughter, who is 15, moved out and is living with her boyfriend. That's pretty crazy stuff, but she's so awesome and I'm sure she'll be baptized.

I also went on English exchanges this week which was fun. We put our bikes in the back of a member's home, because the neighborhood is pretty bad and he lets them do that. His son had just gotten back from BYUI and was waiting for his call (He got it the next day, Independence Missouri speaking Spanish!). We went and did work, and before we left we were visitng him for a little. His less-active daughter who is 17 came out and asked if we were about to leave, and I told her "Yeah I think we are, unless you need anything?" And she said "yeah, could I just talk to you guys for a little?" Needless to say we accepted and she told us to give her 5 minutes and so after that we went upstairs with her and her brother and we taught her. It was so cool! Such a miracle for their area. She is also super into Operation Ivy and Rancid, so hopefully I get to visit with her again on exchanges!

I think that's about it for this week. The Spanish is good for the most part, I was used to Michoacan Spanish is Napa, and people here in Fairfield are from all over, so sometimes it's been hard to understand, but for the most part it's not really a problem anymore. Right now it's vocabulary that I need more than anything else.

A guy that works in the temple shared his testimony yesterday about prophets. He is temple security, and told us he escorted Thomas S Monson into the visitor center. A little girl, 9 years old and a convert, asked our member if she could shake Thomas S Monson's hand. He said he would check, and we he told President Monson, He straightened up, fixed his tie and jacket, and said with a grin "This is the best part of my job!" He proceeded to visit with the girl, and after a few moments she asked him if he would sign her Book of Mormon. He told her no, and she looked sad. He then clarified, this is paraphrasing of course and translated from the Spanish testimony "I'm not a celebrity, and my signature will not increase the value of this book. But I will give you something even more valuable than any signature on the face of the Earth" He then bore his testimony of the Book of Mormon, kissed her on the forehead, and prayed. It was the coolest! I felt like I was there while he was describing this event. Imagine hearing Thomas S. Monson pray.

That's it for this week! Love you all!

Elder Foster