Dear family-
So I guess the best way to start off is by my last few days in
Woodland! It's been a great place, a great three transfers. It's been
fun, and without a doubt the biggest challenge on my mission so far. When you guys come to the mission to pick me up/ for the sealing, these are the people I want to visit from woodland. Marylyn is an awesome member, we got really close and I loved being with her and her family. She doesn't get too much support from the branch, but we love her and help her as much as we can. Joel is the best member missionary ever. He's getting married in June, and says the funniest things. The C. family is why Elder Sabin and I were together. They are awesome, I've seen Hugo progress from not even having faith in God or Jesus, to praying, doing family home evenings without us, and they're even trying to work out their marriage. So good things. Another accomplishment I am proud of was the guy we gave the BOM to that got baptized. Cool things there. And now onto Vallejo!
While I've never played it, I imagine Vallejo is a lot like Grand
Theft Auto. Or an NWA music video. Just kidding, it's not even that bad. I guess I can't really describe it. It's like bad... But not
really bad. I don't feel like it's anything worse than I've seen in
SLC or anything. It's probably the most dangerous part of our mission, gang wise. Willits and Miranda are bad as far as marijuana. We have a probably the most dangerous area, but don't worry. I haven't seen anything too scary. My initiation was we had this feeling to hide behind this Astro van, and then all of the sudden we hear tire screeching and a fox body Mustang, and 80s Camaro, and a Firebird were doing doughnuts in this intersection near us. Then they would drive past us, turn around and do it again. So we booked it to our bikes, unlocked all 3 of our locks (better safe than sorry. 2 U locks and a thick cable) and ran out of there. Crazy. The Vallejo anthem is a siren. I'll keep you updated on the cool things I see.
Easter was good! Nothing too special. It wasn't like at the MTC where we had the presiding bishop of the church speak to us, but it was nice and I enjoyed it. Just a day to focus on the savior. During the week I've been studying in Jesus the Christ and in the bible the stuff that happened from Jesus coming into Jerusalem on the donkey to his resurrection. The studies have been good! We ate dinner with this guy called Hermano Sigui. It wasn't really an Easter dinner though, and it was just him. It was cool though we contacted a lady from New Zealand playing with some cats, and her niece and nephew served missions, so she knows a lot about the church. She gave us 2 big bags of chips, 2 Gatorades, 2 Cadbury caramel eggs, a box of cookies, and Bid Red gum.
So I guess we had a good Easter candy wise as well! I got a package from Chloe.... In Woodland. On Wednesday after I left. I'm ticked that the mission home took so long to forward it, especially when they knew I was being transferred, but they're forwarding it to me. So I'll get it soon!
Elder Minkler is sweet. 20 years old, from Cedar City. He played
trombone, like Pokemon, Super Smash Bros., Zelda, Starfox, Fire
Emblem, Hayao Miyuzaki movies, and Lord of the Rings. So pretty much just like me! We get along well, and we're having fun. We had 2 investigators in church. I'm still learning the area. We cover a lot of ground for bike missionaries, and I don't even have to go to 6
Flags, the hills on bikes are fun enough! So it's good here. Don't
worry, I don't feel in danger. Our apartment is super super nice. And I heard 8 gunshots in Fairfield (combined from 2 separate occasions), so once I hear 9 I'll start to be worried. Just kidding. Kind of.
Love
you guys!!!
Elder Foster
Monday, April 21, 2014
Week 60
April 14
Well, this was my last week in Woodland!
Well, this was my last week in Woodland!
We had Hugo's family come to church! He's the best. I was definitely called here to help him. Presidente P. told us he was a lost cause, that we couldn't help him, but we brought the spirit into his home, he stopped smoking, he stopped drinking, he and his wife are not getting divorced, and he was even fellowshipping a new member that just moved here from Mexico into the ward! So good things happened in Woodland while I was here.
I did an exchange in Davis from Tuesday Morning until Wednesday night because of a baptismal interview I had to do in Winters, so it worked out with miles. Davis reminds me of Austin in certain aspects. Like the neighborhoods are like Austin, Texas neighborhoods (not Pflugerville). It was really diverse. I actually found two super cool Hispanic people there! One was from Colombia. She works at the University, and works closely with BYUI, so she knew about us. She is the first Colombian I've met! And then I met a second cool lady from Chile! She was a former in Chile, we are sending the Hermanas in Davis to go down! She is the first person I've met from Chile!!! Lots of cool people in Davis. I like it a lot!!!!
Picnic Day was in Davis this Saturday, and when a naked man ran out from a house at 10:15 am, and people walking were already hammered, President Alba told them to get the heck out. So we blitzed Woodland, and it was fun.
We went to Noodle City in Davis, and Elder Or, the Cantonese master, got the lady there to give us free Chinese bun things with meat inside of them. They were talking in Cantonese, and since Elder Chia only speaks Mandarin, we weren't sure what they were talking about. The lady and Elder Or were laughing, she goes away, and Elder Or says "hey guys. I got us BBQ (He actually said the letters, not barbeque) pork buns. Free, man!" he's the greatest.
I'm going to miss Elder Teran! He was the companion I needed. We worked way hard, I enjoyed every minute of my time with him. And we're making a choko flan tonight. We've already made real flan, I'll show you guys! I also learned how to make horchata, spicy salsa (just wait guys. 9 serranos!!!), and also Mexican rice, and guacamole. We ate with Marylyn on Friday, and we're eating with her again tonight. I'm saying goodbye! On friday it was her 40th birthday, so we brought her a cake. She's the best!!!!! I'm saying the rest of my goodbye's tomorrow. I'm going to miss serving with Elder Teran! He's one of my favorite companions. It will be hard not to be with him, I feel like just yesterday I was picking him up and me, him, Elder Contla, and Elder Akhmetov were eating pizza with awkward conversation in our apartment. Now we all can't stop talking and laughing. It will be a sad farewell, but Vallejo will be cool!
Week 59
Dear Family,
I hope you guys all got to watch the conference!! Conference is the best time of year, I think as a missionary, I love it more than Christmas. I don't really know what to write you guys about this week, I feel like conference overshadowed it all. And pretty much was what I was focused on the whole week, just trying to prepare and be ready with questions and such. So I guess I'll start off with a few things that happened before I move onto the conference.
So we've done a lot of tracting. We've been doing what President Alba wants us to do, which is find 20 new people to talk to a day, and we've been doing that. And as we've been working hard, it's cool because everyone that we talk to has been super nice. We found a cool young lady whose son has RSV. It was cool being able to talk to her about that and relate with her. We found a different lady who was super nice and told us that she wanted to learn more, so we'll be stopping by them. I think my favorite person we talked to though, was this 75 year old white guy. He had a huge beard, answers the door, so we start talking to him and he says "oh I was just reading my fishing magazine!" So we talked for a good little while about fishing. He wasn't really interested at all in the church, but it was cool to talk about fishing! It's almost that time again.
There is also the problem about tea in the branch that I told you guys about... Well at dinner on Saturday before priesthood session of conference, brother Cruz had a big thing of peach juice out... I poured myself a glass, until Hermana Billat coughed to get my attention, shook her head and pointed at the bottle. It was peach juice with tea! So sneakily, I put it in front of Elder Teran, and poured myself a glass of water. This branch and the word of wisdom... Next thing you know the law of chastity will only be a law from 7AM to 7PM. But I digress.
So General Conference!! I'll send my notes in this email, too. But it was amazing! I feel like they keep getting better and better as my mission moves on. President Alba asked us to fast on Monday to Tuesday. Like you guys know to close our fasts we do an hour of prayer. So in this hour of prayer, I wrote down 6 questions I had on how to improve certain aspects of my mission/ life. By the end of the first session on Saturday, 5 had been answered. I continued to learn and I loved all of it. So some cool things about the people who spoke- elder Aidukaitis spoke to us in the MTC, and then came and talked to us at a conference in Santa Rosa. He's a funny guy. Then there is Carlos H Amado. I have quite a bit of experience with his family. Every Saturday for 6 months, I washed my clothes at his sister's house. His brother was the head chief of security at the Oakland temple for 32 years, and retired while I was in Fairfield, and he drove us to the temple and gave us a an amazing tour. I had a bible bash with his apostate brother. I also was able to give his mother a blessing. She was the second Hispanic member EVER in Fairfield, and every Monday morning she came from Vallejo and I talked to her quite a bit. That guy has a great family!
I loved Jeffery R Hollands introduction and incredibly bold testimony. I loved Dieter F Uchtdorf's talk about being grateful in our circumstances, being grateful people. I loved Henry B Eyring talking about covenants and families. The talk Linda S Reaves gave about pornography was stellar. Neil L Anderson's talk about roods and whirlwinds, and Richard G Scott talking about being tied to God both hit me hard. While I was preparing for district meeting tomorrow, I realized my favorite talk was by D Todd Christofferson about the atonement. It was so amazing.
What did you guys like? What did you guys learn?
Week 58
March 31
Week four is done! Only two more weeks this transfer. It was a pretty crazy week. Out of the whole week, I only had one day where I had the full day to work in my area.
Monday was P Day. We went out with Joel from 6:30-8:30 and it was awesome. We had a family home evening with Hugo and his kids. They're doing really well! Coming to church, moving right along.
Tuesday was district meeting,and then I went to Davis with Elder Mair. It was awesome. They live with 2 other Elders from Davis who pretty much teach all of the Chinese people there. Elder Or is from Hong Kong, speaks Cantonese, Mandarin, and is learning English. Elder Chia is from Singapore, and speaks great English and speaks Mandarin Chinese. They made curry and rice for lunch, which according to them tasted very authentic, so props to you guys back home. It tasted just like your cooking! The first time I have had anything like that in forever. We worked in Davis all day, and at night Elder Or cracked me up. He called Elder Walker and when he answered, Elder Or said "you a fat Idaho potato!" To which Elder Walker replied "Elder Or! What did I do to you?" Elder Or, in a stroke of genius, responded with "You a fetching muffin top!" Needless to say, it was a fun night.
On Wednesday we.... Went to Sacramento!!! Yes, we left mission boundaries. Elder X just became legal, which means that he had to get his social security card. So we went to Sacramento to go turn in all the papers. It was way fun. I also had a wiener dog in my lap the whole time. Unfortunately.
On Thursday he and I had to do baptismal interviews for some people who got baptized from the branch. Well, it was supposed to start at 7, but really it didn't start until like 740, and they were talkers so Thursday night was done.
Friday we had to weekly plan and then we went to the baptism after dinner. We gave the missionary moment. We taught a lesson after to Ceci, who is Marylyn's daughter.
And Saturday I finally had a whole day to work! We picked up a new investigator. I'm not sure if he will remember it,seeing as he was drunk, but it was a good lesson.
Land then Sunday, between church, a stake meeting, dinner, and the leadership meeting, we didn't even get to go out for 5 minutes to contact. Oh well. Despite all of that, we still managed to get 20 contacts 3 days of the week. On Saturday we got 20 contacts in like 90 minutes. Knocking doors works! It was a good week though. Lots of good personal revelation in my studies and lots of fun when we actually got to go out. It stinks being DL and not being able to do all of the stuff that we should normally do. But así es.
We are probably dropping Alicia, the old lady investigator. She's not progression and not doing her part to come to church or anything. Daniel is doing well. We dropped Veronica, but picked up a couple that we are teaching in English. The lady is the daughter of a member of the branch. So it was a good week. We have a few other investigators we are teaching. But those are the main ones on our focus list right now.
Love you guys! Miss you lots. Have a great week!
Also, one more thing. I hear that Noah was awesome from a less active, but awful from the branch president. Have you seen the Lego Movie? And also, go see The Wind Rises. It's supposedly a great Hayao Miyuzaki movie. Ok bye guys! I love you
Week four is done! Only two more weeks this transfer. It was a pretty crazy week. Out of the whole week, I only had one day where I had the full day to work in my area.
Monday was P Day. We went out with Joel from 6:30-8:30 and it was awesome. We had a family home evening with Hugo and his kids. They're doing really well! Coming to church, moving right along.
Tuesday was district meeting,and then I went to Davis with Elder Mair. It was awesome. They live with 2 other Elders from Davis who pretty much teach all of the Chinese people there. Elder Or is from Hong Kong, speaks Cantonese, Mandarin, and is learning English. Elder Chia is from Singapore, and speaks great English and speaks Mandarin Chinese. They made curry and rice for lunch, which according to them tasted very authentic, so props to you guys back home. It tasted just like your cooking! The first time I have had anything like that in forever. We worked in Davis all day, and at night Elder Or cracked me up. He called Elder Walker and when he answered, Elder Or said "you a fat Idaho potato!" To which Elder Walker replied "Elder Or! What did I do to you?" Elder Or, in a stroke of genius, responded with "You a fetching muffin top!" Needless to say, it was a fun night.
On Wednesday we.... Went to Sacramento!!! Yes, we left mission boundaries. Elder X just became legal, which means that he had to get his social security card. So we went to Sacramento to go turn in all the papers. It was way fun. I also had a wiener dog in my lap the whole time. Unfortunately.
On Thursday he and I had to do baptismal interviews for some people who got baptized from the branch. Well, it was supposed to start at 7, but really it didn't start until like 740, and they were talkers so Thursday night was done.
Friday we had to weekly plan and then we went to the baptism after dinner. We gave the missionary moment. We taught a lesson after to Ceci, who is Marylyn's daughter.
And Saturday I finally had a whole day to work! We picked up a new investigator. I'm not sure if he will remember it,seeing as he was drunk, but it was a good lesson.
Land then Sunday, between church, a stake meeting, dinner, and the leadership meeting, we didn't even get to go out for 5 minutes to contact. Oh well. Despite all of that, we still managed to get 20 contacts 3 days of the week. On Saturday we got 20 contacts in like 90 minutes. Knocking doors works! It was a good week though. Lots of good personal revelation in my studies and lots of fun when we actually got to go out. It stinks being DL and not being able to do all of the stuff that we should normally do. But así es.
We are probably dropping Alicia, the old lady investigator. She's not progression and not doing her part to come to church or anything. Daniel is doing well. We dropped Veronica, but picked up a couple that we are teaching in English. The lady is the daughter of a member of the branch. So it was a good week. We have a few other investigators we are teaching. But those are the main ones on our focus list right now.
Love you guys! Miss you lots. Have a great week!
Also, one more thing. I hear that Noah was awesome from a less active, but awful from the branch president. Have you seen the Lego Movie? And also, go see The Wind Rises. It's supposedly a great Hayao Miyuzaki movie. Ok bye guys! I love you
Week 57
March 24
Halfway done with this transfer! So I forgot to write about the best part of last week. We were at stake conference,when all of the sudden, I see our tall, almost black looking less active H walking in- with his wife and kids! So long story short, they are giving their marriage another try. They were at church yesterday too! President P, Elder A, and our branch missionary all told us that we were losing time working with him. But I truly believe that we have been able to help him get to this point. I'm so dang excited.
Our Elder's Quorom President, Joel R, is now coming out with us every Monday. And he came to a lesson with us on Wednesday to teach a man we found on Monday, and he accepted a baptismal date for the 19th of April. I might not be here for it, but he's solid. We have been killing it with contacted and we are getting a lot of return appointments. We're definitely seeing the fruits of our labors. We picked up 3 new investigators last week.
On Saturday, I bought the best hot dog ever from a Mexican Hot Dog stand (following Dad's advice about making a presence with local business in the city). It had jalapeño sauce, mayonnaise, tapatio, chiles de arbol, and tomatoes. So delicious.
We had interviews with President Alba and Sister Alba this week. They were really good. President just gave me some advice for the area, and it was awesome because it was already stuff that Elder Teran and I are working on. We are trying to get lots of member present lessons, we are trying to get 20 contacts every single day. We hit it 3 days this last week, which is good considering weekly planning, interviews, p day, and Sunday. We're going for four days this week with 20 contacts.
One of the worst things of all time is that Marylyn is now working, and she doesn't have a set schedule yet (she will in the next few weeks). Unfortunately, that means that we aren't eating with her every Monday. We still get to visit her about once a week, but ending P Day with a delicious dinner at her house was the best. Also, she gave me some dried, crushed up rattlesnake for my skin. Will you look that up and tell me if it works? She says it does, but I don't want to die. Especially since it's imported from Mexico. It supposedly still has venom, which kills the bad skin cells? I'm not sure. Point is, Marylyn is the best and we don't eat with her anymore.
We got a new branch missionary. The problem is, she's pretty much less active. She can only come to church once a month, and that means that she won't be at church to sit with people that we invite her to teach with us. Also, three weeks ago I called her to go out with us, but she REFUSED to even come out with us period. I know there is repentance, but if she's not going to be at church, I want the people that come out with us to teach to sit next to the investigators! We have a second branch missionary with the same problem, she can only come to sacrament. I don't really know what to do, because there are like 15 people I'd rather go out with, who go to church every Sunday. So I don't know what to do to help her magnify her calling... Any suggestions? I guess you could just say I'm frustrated with the buerocracy. And our branch president, but I guess you guys probably don't want to hear about that. You can probably take this paragraph out of the email.
Well, that's about it for the week. It's been good so far. Love you guys and miss you! Feed the missionaries!
Elder Foster
Halfway done with this transfer! So I forgot to write about the best part of last week. We were at stake conference,when all of the sudden, I see our tall, almost black looking less active H walking in- with his wife and kids! So long story short, they are giving their marriage another try. They were at church yesterday too! President P, Elder A, and our branch missionary all told us that we were losing time working with him. But I truly believe that we have been able to help him get to this point. I'm so dang excited.
Our Elder's Quorom President, Joel R, is now coming out with us every Monday. And he came to a lesson with us on Wednesday to teach a man we found on Monday, and he accepted a baptismal date for the 19th of April. I might not be here for it, but he's solid. We have been killing it with contacted and we are getting a lot of return appointments. We're definitely seeing the fruits of our labors. We picked up 3 new investigators last week.
On Saturday, I bought the best hot dog ever from a Mexican Hot Dog stand (following Dad's advice about making a presence with local business in the city). It had jalapeño sauce, mayonnaise, tapatio, chiles de arbol, and tomatoes. So delicious.
We had interviews with President Alba and Sister Alba this week. They were really good. President just gave me some advice for the area, and it was awesome because it was already stuff that Elder Teran and I are working on. We are trying to get lots of member present lessons, we are trying to get 20 contacts every single day. We hit it 3 days this last week, which is good considering weekly planning, interviews, p day, and Sunday. We're going for four days this week with 20 contacts.
One of the worst things of all time is that Marylyn is now working, and she doesn't have a set schedule yet (she will in the next few weeks). Unfortunately, that means that we aren't eating with her every Monday. We still get to visit her about once a week, but ending P Day with a delicious dinner at her house was the best. Also, she gave me some dried, crushed up rattlesnake for my skin. Will you look that up and tell me if it works? She says it does, but I don't want to die. Especially since it's imported from Mexico. It supposedly still has venom, which kills the bad skin cells? I'm not sure. Point is, Marylyn is the best and we don't eat with her anymore.
We got a new branch missionary. The problem is, she's pretty much less active. She can only come to church once a month, and that means that she won't be at church to sit with people that we invite her to teach with us. Also, three weeks ago I called her to go out with us, but she REFUSED to even come out with us period. I know there is repentance, but if she's not going to be at church, I want the people that come out with us to teach to sit next to the investigators! We have a second branch missionary with the same problem, she can only come to sacrament. I don't really know what to do, because there are like 15 people I'd rather go out with, who go to church every Sunday. So I don't know what to do to help her magnify her calling... Any suggestions? I guess you could just say I'm frustrated with the buerocracy. And our branch president, but I guess you guys probably don't want to hear about that. You can probably take this paragraph out of the email.
Well, that's about it for the week. It's been good so far. Love you guys and miss you! Feed the missionaries!
Elder Foster
Also, do they speak Spanish in the Galapagos islands?
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