Week 86

I think that Crescent City has taken about 5-6 off of my lifespan. It's not a bad thing, however I am a little concerned that my hair might be completely gray and the stress may or may not cause me some heart problems. That being said, this was probably one of the most fun weeks that I've had in a loooooooooooooong time. We taught 17 lessons, had a baptism, and had 4 investigators in church. It started off great with dinner from Taco Bell on Monday (his wife was out of town and he thought that he had some bratwurst, but he really didn't. So tonight we are eating bratwurst with him!), followed by FHE with a less active family from Colombia, and then a sweet visit with a part member family and brother K. I don't know if I've told you guys, but the K's are kind of like my grandparents in Crescent City. It's funny because he is probably the most right winged conservative gun stocking food storage having old school prison guard sexist racist russelite alive, but hey! Charity is a real thing. Not to mention that three days last week there was a 100% chance of rain. I didn't even know that was possible! That means that there was no chance that it wouldn't rain! They must have had a freaking crystal ball or something!

On Monday night the ZL's came over to our pad. Since we live in a 2 man, they stayed with us from Monday night until Thursday afternoon, and we went on exchanges on Tuesday. Tuesday was a sweet day! Elder Ashton and I taught 4 lessons, one was a member present and Elder Payne and Elder Stoddard taught 2 lessons, with one member present. It was way sweet, we had a ton of fun. It made me really miss living with Elder Ashton in Vallejo! He and I go home together, we'll be right next to each other on the elevator ride down. I feel like a million funny things happened, but right now off of the top of my head I can't think of any. We had district meeting on Tuesday, and Elder Payne and I had to teach the Christlike attribute of obedience. And so we taught it, blah blah blah, and then we did practices. We split everyone up, Elder Payne and I observed. The practice was a comp inventory, one companion had to correct the other on something disobedient. The disobedient things were 

1. Listening to music in the car

2. Flirty texts

3. Sneaking out to meet with a girl from the Ward

It was so funny, by the end we were all in tears because we were laughing so hard. Definitely one of my favorite district meeting practices ever. 

On Wednesday something awesome happened while tracting. We were knocking doors in an apartment complex when the lady right next door to the door we tracted came out and started smoking. So we go up and introduce ourselves and she was so open and nice and prepared! She's had a pretty crazy and sad life, I don't really think it's important to write down everything, but she is a single mother of 2 kids and she really really needs the gospel. Since we weren't with a man we couldn't go in, but we went over the restoration, gave her the pamphlet, and set up a return appointment. We decided to continue tracting, and 3 minutes later she came out and asked if we had a bible. We then told her all about the Book of Mormon and gave one to her. She said "I feel like this book will really help me find some answers!" Well another cool story. Here in CC we go to a Chevron station where they pump your gas for you. We do that because a couple of less active members work there. Well in the same apartment complex as that last lady, we knock another door and this little kid with a superman shirt answers and we ask for his parents and so his mom comes to the door and who could it be but one of the non member gas pumpers! She was super nice and really interested, her husband wasn't home but we set up a return appointment on Wednesday with her. But wait- this little kid with the Superman shirt? Well right before we leave he asks us if we like Pokemon. I responded with the obvious answer "I LOVE Pokemon!" So he brings out a huuuuge binder with all of his Pokemon cards and needless to say we gained his trust and his mom's trust. So that was cool!

This week I finished the Book of Mormon for the third time in Spanish, which makes it official. I have read the Book of Mormon more times in Spanish than in English! And I'm going to try and do it one more time before I finish. Everyone has different study habits in the mission, but I find that 30 minutes in the Book of Mormon, 15 minutes in PMG, and 15 minutes reading conference talks or the Bible just gives me a ton of desire to share the Gospel, and not only that but it keeps me focused on the stuff that we have to teach. 

We had dinner with the bishop last night and he gave us 4 referrals, which is awesome, we definitely have his trust! And on Friday one of our members gave us some Elk Hamburger to take home, so I'll be cooking elk this week. 

Ok. Now for Saturday. When I say Saturday was sweet, I mean it was one of those days where the spirit is so powerful you can't really describe it. It was Grace's baptism! So bear with me while I try to keep this brief but detailed. Lindsey's dad (grace's grandpa) and 16 year old brother (grace's uncle) were there from Alaska, as well as a huge amount of active, less active, and non member family from all over! The spiritual mood was set when we ordained Richard, the 16 year old, to the office of Priest. As we got closer to three and as we were taking pictures we realized that the room with the font wasn't going to hold everyone. At 2:55 we made the decision to move everyone into the chapel for the program, and then we would move into the room with the font for the ordinance. The head count was 68-73 people depending on who was counting, so let's say 70 people were there. Grace was baptized by her uncle, and confirmed by her grandpa. We joined in on the circle. It was so spiritual, I love that girl like a little sister. It was such an amazing program. One of the best parts was Lindsey had a special musical number in the piano prepared, and Grace didn't know, so when Lindsey went up Grace was in shock. It was super cute. I really stink at explaining things, but let me just say that it was the such an awesome day, so full of the Spirit and not a single dry eye in the room as we watched. It was awesome, too because it was a classic case of member-missionary work. We didn't tract into the family. Last spring Lindsey had been praying to find a youth group for Grace that would help her become a woman and give her friends, and the next day the Relief Society President and the YW President came to the house to meet Lindsey and invite Grace to girl's camp. Grace went and had the best time, and we started teaching her shortly after that! At that point Lindsey received spiritual confirmation that the church of her childhood was where she wanted and needed to be, and Grace received her answer that she needed to be baptized. All we did was teach the lessons, but the members carried her all the way to baptism. Right now we are hoping that the rest of the family can follow shortly! It was just awesome. Since the program was so amazing, Brother Tinsley told us just to go to the bbq and take the night off. So we went to the bbq at the Barrett house, and let me just say that Darryl knows what he is doing! Best ribs ever. Just the best day, Grace was soooo happy and just everything was awesome. Definitely a testimony builder. There is nothing that is better than serving a mission, meeting new people you never would have met, and learning to love others. Especially since I never would have met that family had I not come to CC! And Brother Tinsley texted President Alba about how sweet the program and President was very excited. I decided I'm running for AP. AP Mufosta has a nice ring to it, right? Just kidding, I'm too punk rock for that anyway. 

There was a lot of other stuff that happened, but this is a long email, so I'll end it here. I love you guys! Have a good week!

Nick

Week 85

This week was awesome! And this next one is going to be great, too. We're going to have a baptism on Saturday and we have TONS of sweet lessons set up. We also have exchanges coming up with the Zone Leaders on Tuesday. I'm going with Elder Ashton, I lived with him my last transfer in Vallejo and I love that guy. He's from Pleasant Grove and he goes home with me. I'll definitely be hanging out with him when we get home. I'm stoked for that. This next week has a rainy, rainy forecast. To start off, Crescent City has the best P Days in the mission. Last P Day we went bowling as a district and played pinball in the bowling alley. Afterwards Elder Payne and I went to a place called Enderts Beach. It's a sandy beach with a cliffy, rocky backdrop. As we were hiking in I felt like I was in the Legend of Zelda or even Xenoblade Chronicles. It didn't even feel like real life it was so beautiful. At the beach there are tide pools, and we saw lots of crabs and anemones. And we even saw start fish! Which was cool since I didn't even know they are up here in CC. So that was a way cool P Day. Today we are going to Stout's Grove again since Elder Payne hasn't been. 

Another reason why I love CC is the food. I don't mean he food from dinner, but for example, we have 2 dozen eggs from the members we ate with last night- the eggs came from their backyard chickens. We also have a gallon of milk from the dairy that one of our investigators works at. We get apples from trees and it is really cool. So this morning I had steak and eggs.

On Tuesday we had to drive to Eureka (bye miles) for Zone Conference. It was really good. President talked a lot about using all of our tools, not just the ones we are comfortable with and keeping them sharp by practicing them daily in comp study and in daily proselyting. And for the kicker- we got to watch Meet The Mormons! It was surprisingly good! I thought the beginning was good, they showed a lot of pop culture stuff about Mormons, my favorite being the one where the aliens from the Simpsons (kang and kodos? I can't even remember their names. You guys can just disown me now) knock on the door and Homer says "ugh it's the Mormons." Of course when it comes to the Simpsons, they have at least 10 references that they could have used, my favorite of which being when Bart rides on a sled through the Mormon church and comes out with 8 wives. Well anyway, it was really good. The missionary mom part was touching because I'm a missionary, and the Costa Rica part was cool because she was from Costa Rica. I don't really know how much appeal the film would have had to me had I been a non-member, but you never know! It was still cool, and not too preachy. 

On Wednesday we are on bikes since President wants us to share the car. Brother Olson was going to pick us up for dinner and we got back to the apartment about 30 minutes earlier than expected. Since it takes 20 minutes to even get into our Ward boundaries on bike, we decided that we would just bike to the harbor and contact. Well, wouldn't you know it, the very first family we see has a guy wearing a BYU jacket, I thought that it was just a family from another Ward until they started talking to us. They were from Sweden! They went to Salt Lake for conference, visited Yellowstone, and now were here for the redwoods! So they asked "can a we a take a picture?" And so of course we said yes and so now I'm probably out there on someone's facebook with my bike and our backs to the ocean with a nice Swedish family. 

We had a cool double dinner with the Olson and Barrett family at the Olson's home. It was way fun, we had some incredibly Americanized tostadas. Afterwards, everyone went outside to do a zip line in the backyard. It was about 30 feel high. Now we weren't going to do it, however Darryl Barrett coaxed us into it and it was pretty fun! Crescent City is just helping me conquer all my fears. Heights, natural waters, mountain lions, spiders. I guess you could say that I'm a man now or something. Well anyways, after the zip line we went inside and had an awesome lesson on the Word of Wisdom, everyone participated and it was really cool. Grace is getting baptized on Saturday! We are all really, really excited. She's super excited, too. All of her family is coming from Alaska. I'll send pictures next week! Pray for her!

Jonah's baptism was delayed. He passed the interview, but we'll be waiting until the 25th. 

On Saturday we re picked up Sophie! She's doing well, we set up some expectations for lessons and stuff. She said that she still wants to learn the lessons from us, and she still has a few more to go anyway. That way if her mom says she's ok to be baptized we could potentially do it the next day. We had the lesson in the park across the street from our apartment, and then after she and Sister Olson brought us hazelnut hot chocolate from Starbucks, and it reminded of when dad used to take us there on the cold days when we picked Kate up from swim team! Well anyway, it was really good since it was cold and windy.

On Saturday we had a great finding activity set up for us at the front street park, right across the street from our pad. It was called the "Annual Wild Rivers Coast Car Show" or something like that. Well anyway, hundreds and hundreds of people, lots of beautiful old cars. I even heard some Stray Cats playing, which was really cool. Anyways, I didn't see my orange 69 GTO, but there were cool camaros and fastback mustangs and we talked to lots of nice cool people. Not too many interested in the church, but a lot of guys came up to us and asked us what church we were from, and then the usual "Oh, I have a good friend who is LDS! Keep up the good work guys!" It was pretty fun! 

We also found a cool new apartment complex to tract and 75% of the people there are Spanish! We are hoping good things come of it. We have been tracting and contacting and teaching all week, there has never been a dull moment here, but of all of the potential investigators we have found, half are Spanish speakers so that's way cool, there is Spanish work to do here. We plan to be showing the Zone Leaders how busy we are with both English and Spanish and how necessary it is to have a Spanish area up here, because it's just ridiculous how much is going on, we are too busy. Ok maybe too busy doesn't sound good to say as a missionary, but it's hard to balance. 

I'm almost done with the Book of Mormon for the 3rd time in Spanish, I should finish this week and I will let you guys know how that went. This morning I read one of the most punk scriptures in there, Ether 6:22-23. I'm in Romanos in the bible right now. 

Well, I love you guys! Have a great week! 

Sent from my iPad

Week 84

 

 

I guess the first week in Crescent City is always the most crazy. It happened last transfer, and it happened again this transfer. On Tuesday I woke up at three, put on a sweatshirt and gym shorts and we drove to Mckinelyville. We got there at around 5, sent off Elder Yepez with Elder McCall and I crashed until 730 since I was so exhausted. We did studies, and then Elder Bishop pulled a funny trick. It's a tradition that every Elder who goes to Mckinelyville, either on exchanges or assigned there, has to go to this cliff on the ocean for their first contact. Well the funny thing about this tradition is that there are always attractive girls from the college in Arcata with not lots of clothes on. It went just about as poorly as you can imagine. No tengo mucho pegue con las chavas. Anyways, Elder Payne got to Eureka at 7 and oh man it was great. I love Elder Payne. So we drove back and got to CC at 9ish. It's been a good week, kind of long as well, and it seems that every Monday I can't even remember a single thing of what we did, but I'll try not to miss anything important. But he and I had a good talk about being one, not just with each other, but being one in our companionship and with God so that we can invoke his hand in the work "Behold, this I have given unto you as a parable, and it is even as I am. I say unto you, be one; and if ye are not one ye are not mine." D&C 38:27

On Thursday Elder Payne and I went to the beach. Now don't worry, it wasn't during proselyting time. A member gave us a gift card to CC's Diner since her husband doesn't like the church or the missionaries but she still wanted to feed us. So we ate there, it was actually a pretty good burger. It's the "Number One Burger Place In Del Norte County" 5 years running, which isn't saying much considering that the only competition is Burger King and McDonald's. And so we ate there and we needed to give the other Elders a ride to their next appointment after their dinner and since we still had dinner time left we went to the beach, took pictures, and contacted some people. It was way fun! 

Well on Thursday night we heard some commotion outside of our apartment complex, and it was pretty bad so we actually called 911. The cops came in about 2 minutes, got it taken care of, and then we get a knock on the door.  It's about 10 PM at this point, so we are just wearing gym shorts and hoodies, but we answered it and it was none other than Officer Lo! So it was our investigator who had responded to the call, he said when he heard it was called by "Nicholas Foster" he would come check it out, he saw our jeep, and then just looked for the Jesus card on our door. We set up a lesson with him and reminded him about conference. Just a funny coincidence! 

On Friday we had to go down to Eureka for Zone Meeting, which was fun because Elder Ashton is my Zone Leader! He even brought me my wolf blanket that I forgot in Vallejo. Also, Elder Brett Evans was there and so it was just like a high school reunion. 

Friday night we set up a lesson with the B family. So there was some bad news, Sister B may or may not have cancer, but they are doing tests. We gave her a blessing, and I think it was really cool for Darryl to see that. Even though we were go into teach the Word of Wisdom, when someone gives you information like that (and some other stuff in their extended family), and being unsure if Grace's dad would sign the paper, we read Mosiah 23 and 24 with them. It was a powerful lesson. Well, we fasted for Grace's dad yesterday. I hope you guys were able to join in that fast, because last night as we got out of dinner we received a text that said that Grace's dad signed the paper, and Grace will be baptized on the 18th!!! So if you guys fasted, thanks so much. Definitely a miracle.

In addition to that, Sophie went to therapy. Her therapist was shocked that she was in therapy for wanting to go to church and be baptized, especially due to the fact that she was 18. So her therapist was like "well, since we're all good there, is there anything else you'd like to talk about?" She said nope, the therapist told her mom that she wasn't brainwashed, and now Sophie is allowed to meet with us, but not get baptized. 

Conference this weekend was amazing! It was all so spiritually filling, I really liked what Henry B Eyring said, along the lines of how human judgement and logical thinking will not be enough to receive answers to life's toughest questions. Thomas S Monson's was great, too, about walking how Jesus walked. I think my favorite was the one-two punch from Uchtdorf and Eyring during Priesthood session. I liked how a lot of it was sticking to our beliefs, but not being contentious about it. We need to stand firm in our testimonies. 

Also through fasting and looking at the major requirements I've decided that I'm going to declare biology as my major, which sucks because my math class from last semester is basically useless. Whatever. 

Well, I love you guys! Have a great week! 

 

Week 83

 

 

 

 

Well the last week of the transfer finished off strong! We taught 5 member present lessons, and had lots of people at church. I'll get to the big news with transfers, and then do a review of the week. In the Crescent City Zone (really a district) Elder Yepez is the only one leaving! Replacing him will none other than Elder Peine. I'm sure you guys remember Elder Payne from previous emails. He is one transfer ahead of me, meaning he goes home in 2 more transfers. We served in the same branch and district in my first two transfers in Napa, and for one transfer in Vallejo. Me and him have pretty much the exact same personality, which means that we butt heads, but it's in a good way, you know? I love him a ton, and I know he and I are going to do work! He also has a holographic Ninetales card that I want really, really, really, really bad. Our new zone leader is my other close friend Elder Ashton!!! Even though it doesn't matter since I'll see him only twice this next transfer. He and I lived together my last transfer in Vallejo and we ran 2 miles every morning together. I lost 10 pounds with that kid! Another cool thing is that Elder Evans from Cottonwood High School is opening up an area in Hoopa. That is an Indian Reservation and it's a pretty risky move, so hopefully he won't get killed. For realsies though. He might die there.

Last P Day we did P Day exchanges. I went with Elder Mortenson and Elder Hastings. We went to a trail called the Boy Scout Trail. It's 3 miles in, 3 miles out. It was a pretty intense hike, probably not something that Dad could do with his leg. It was beautiful though, massive trees and it ends at a little waterfall. We saw tons of banana slugs and cool birds. We got in and out in 90 minutes. I mean we FLEW. But it was way fun. 

When Monday was over and we got to our apartment I got a card addressed to me, and the stamp was from a post office in Arizona. For the life of me I couldn't think of who would send me a card from Arizona. So we finished up nightly planning and I opened it up and what was it? The wedding invitation from Josh Hansen and Jasmine Kimzey (aka Elder Hansen or Elly Handsome and Sister Kimzey). I will send a picture of my "oh hi, I'm in Crescent City while my mission mom is about to get married" face. 

We also went on exchanges this last week. It was probably the longest exchange of my life! Now I don't mean to sound mean, but I'll put it this way. Thank you guys for sending me to public school, thank you for teaching me how to talk to people. I'm glad you guys allowed me to watch movies that weren't only Disney and Pixar, and that I was taught how to appreciate good music. The World is a bad, bad place. But even Jesus sent the apostles into the World and told them not to be of the world. But by the same token, I don't know what kind of revelation that family received, but I am grateful for the way you guys raised me. If you ain't first you're last. 

Speaking of movies, last night we had dinner with the Covington family, and they did this weird fun activity where instead of eating with normal silverware and plates we ate with an odd assortment. I got a banana bread pan, a rice fluffer/ server, and a pudding bowl to drink from. Needless to say, it was hard. A family from 1st Ward was also there. During the dinner,my he conversation turned to movies, more specifically, John Candy. I couldn't remember who was John Candy! And so they said that he was is Uncle Buck, to which I replied "Is that the John Hughes movie, or am I thinking of a different movie?" They all got a good laugh that I couldn't remember who John Candy was, but I knew the director. Also, sister Covington at one point said "it's the leaning tower of cheeees-ah" and I said "that's from Extremely Goofie Movie!" They all laughed. I've seen too many movies. And Dad passed on that useless encyclopedia brain where nothing in here is worth any scholarly value, I only know about music and movies. 

On Wednesday it rained pretty hard, and it was cool because on the Jetty you could see the waves splashing up like 15 feet. We had to drive to Eureka to do a baptismal interview in Spanish. We are the only Spanish Elders in a reasonable distance that could do it. It was sweet because the drive is along the ocean and the waves were huge. I mean like 10-15 foot waves. It was way cool. We also saw lots of elk, there was a herd walking in a lagoon! They were huge. Well it's funny, I'm not a district leader anymore, so when it came time to sign the paper, I didn't know what to put for my title! So I wrote down "Emeritus District Leader" I don't know about you guys, but I thought that it was hilarious.

On Saturday we were busy all day long putting up siding on a two story 60x40 workshop. It was for Darryl B, and lots of people from the Ward were there. It was way fun. Darryl is really, really into Barbeque, so he made us ribs. Now I don't mean to blaspheme, however those ribs were the best I've ever had, after the Salt Lick in Austin. And I mean they were GOOD. Gavin is a member from our Ward, he's 16. His dad is Russ O, the funniest man alive. Well I was sitting across from Russ, and Gavin was sitting next to me. Darryl's 17 year old daughter came in, and that definitely caught the attention of Gavin. Well he started to try to flirt, and it was disastrous. I mean he was just digging a hole with bare hands. Russ had this big smirk on his face and at one point Gavin said something really really silly, and Russ just looks at me with that smirk, shakes his head, and looks down at his plate to keep from laughing. The next day at church Russ asks me if instead of teaching his son to be a missionary I could teach him how to talk to girls. Unfortunately, I told him I couldn't, that was his responsibility. Sister B also makes soap, and she gave us some for the service! It smells awesome. Hopefully she didn't make it like they do in Fight Club. Also after service we played basketball for 30 minutes with Spencer, who is Darryl's nonmember son, and Elliott, Gavin's brother. It was way fun, and way cool for Spencer to see that we are just normal people. We aced them, but that was probably due to the fact that I'm 5 years older than them, and Elder Yepez is 10 years older. But still, we played well! Yesterday night Lindsey thanked us for playing basketball with Spencer, she was grateful that he got to see that Mormons are normal people, too. So that was awesome.

Here's what's going on with Grace. Since her biological dad has custody on the weekends, we need his written permission for Grace to be baptized, and right now it doesn't look like he wants to sign it. We are obviously not trying to drive a wedge into family problems. Right now Lindsey, Grace, and us have done all that we can do in our power to help Grace get baptized. Now all we can do is put it into the hands of the Lord. We are fasting for Grace this Sunday. We means Elder Payne and I, Elder Yepez and his family, Lindsey and Grace, and all of Lindsey's family members that are active in the church. I want you guys to fast with us, too! This Sunday, so that Grace's dad's heart can be softened and she can be baptized on the 18th. 

At church we had 8 investigators in Sacrament Meeting! I think that that is the most I've ever had. Sophie even came, too! She said therapy is stupid, she's trying to convert the counselor. 

I also made talk notebook. It is called "The Journal of Discourses: as compiled by Mufosta" I figured I had so many talks all over the place that I had might as well organize them. Some of the hits are "The Purifying Power of Gethsemane" by Bruce R, "His Grace is Sufficient" by Brad Wilcox, and "Feed My Sheep" by Jeffrey R Holland. And unlike the actual journal of discourses, these talks actually contain true doctrine, and nothing about people living on the dark side of the moon. 

The wildlife here is awesome, I finally saw a fox! It was a gray one, just staring at us, it was really pretty. We also saw a river otter! However there have been lots of mountain lion spotting a in the places we go to tract. Basically my biggest fears in Crescent City are mountain lions, bears, and the Mexican Mafia. The last one is particularly scary since Pelican Bay is where most of the head guys are, and there is lots of forested land and so there are lots of special gardens. But don't be worried, I've seen the Godfather, I know what to do. Make offers you can't refuse and go to the leaders on wedding nights. 

Also, I wanted to finish with one last story from the New Testament. Esteban was preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the people who didn't believe about him, like the Chief Priest, about the people that believed in the Prophets of the Old Testament. Well, I really liked it, because, after recounting the stories of the Israelites and how the Prophets were rejected, he said "Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye.

Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which shewed before of the coming of the Just One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers"

Of course those that were there truly believed that they would have listened to Moses had they been there, but of course they didn't listen to the ones that God sent in their time. So don't be Pharisees, don't be like the Chief Priests! Watch conference, all the sessions, too!  

Well, I love you guys! Have a great week! 

Week 82 Again!

What a week! I can't believe how truly busy this week has been. I've had busy weeks on my mission, weeks in Napa where it was lesson after lesson, weeks in Woodland where it was meeting after meeting, but for some reason this week has been so packed and full of stuff that now that it's P Day all that I can do is breath out a sigh of relief. 

On Monday Sharon S was successfully baptized. With her full and correct named, and in the same meeting she was confirmed. That is a relief, she is doing wonderful! She has home and visiting teachers and is progressing right along. In church on Sunday she looked so happy, and I don't believe that I have ever seen her look so full of light! It has been pretty miraculous to see her change, even if I only taught her for a month before she was baptized. 

Everything went well on Tuesday. We actually picked up two new investigators. Their names are Joey and Kylie. They are engaged and living together. They are both 20. We met them tracting awhile back and he seemed pretty interested. So on Tuesday we went and we had planned on teaching them the plan of salvation. As we were doing some of the points of how to begin teaching we told him that we would ask him to do certain things like read the scriptures and pray in order to feel the Spirit, and that we would help him understand those feelings as well. That led him to ask us about why is it in every church when people go they say they feel the Spirit, and how shouldn't there only be one true church? And so of course when a question like that gets asked you can't start teaching the Plan of Salvation. We taught them the restoration, and they both ate it up. We finished the lesson, and before we could even ask them for a return appointment he said "you know guys, I have every Tuesday off. Could you come over around 1 next Tuesday for lunch and we could have another lesson?" It was SWEET!!!

And that brings us to Wednesday. I'm trying to think of how I can describe it to you... Well first off, we don't live in our area. And our area does not contain the "city" part of crescent city. We cover the outskirts dirt roads along Lake Earl Dr, Parkway Dr, and the 101. We also live about 3 miles away from the first residential home in our area. We have been asked to share the car once a week, and so on Wednesday we were lucky enough to bike! Wednesday was a cold, rainy, foggy, miserable day! And I did the calculations, we rode 15 miles to get to a lesson, and 15 miles back. That was before dinner. For dinner a member dropped off Pizza Hut and hot buffalo wings. It was so nice to dry off and not worry about pleasing the members! After that our post-dinner lesson cancelled, and so we did a necessary trip to Instacare for my Advair prescription to get it refilled. The doctor said my lungs sound healthy and that when I get home I should consider taking an asthma medicine that is like Advair but not quite. Like how Advair is "fluticasone propionate" one of those two words is a steroid and to get the steroid part taken out since it's not necessary for me. Anyway, you don't have to put all of this doctor stuff in the blog. It's just easier than having to send it twice, once for each of you two. And then we went to Rite Aid and picked it up, and while picking up the prescription we met a less active lady and we set up an appointment! That was neat. And that killed Wednesday night.

On Thursday we went to the temple! And thus making me the first Spanish Elder to have travelled to all three temples in the mission! We went to Medford Oregon. Let me say, it is a small temple. It is in the parking lot of a church, there is no distribution center, and it's in the middle of a corn field! But anyway, it was beautiful. The drive and such. Who knows? Maybe I'll end up in Portland one day. Be a Portland punk. But it was especially cool because the endowment room was filled! And it was a great experience in the temple as well. I learned SOOOO much stuff this time around, and the spirit was strong from start to finish. It is just really cool because each time you go you learn something new, either about doctrine or personal revelation for your life. I'm excited to do some sessions in Spanish, especially when the Diaz family gets sealed! Are you guys excited for that? It's like the only thing I'm looking forward to about finishing my mission. Well, and you guys. And music. You know. But that's #1!

Friday. Oh Friday, where do I begin? Normally, Friday is a day for weekly planning, which takes from 12-5. This last Friday one set of the Elders from 1st Ward called us to ask if we could help them with some service with an investigator family. The family was moving from their wars boundaries into ours. They said it would take from 10-12, but it ended up taking from 10-4 and by the time we were done we had to shower and then head to dinner. That lead us to a dilemma. Would we weekly plan that night, or the next morning? Through prayer, we decided that it would have to wait until Saturday. We went out and worked Friday night. 

Normally on Saturday we do correlation with Brother Tinsley from 7-9 every Saturday, but he texted us Saturday during studies and asked if we could do correlation from 12-1:30. We said that that would be ok, assuming that we would be able to plan at night during the time that we had set aside for correlation. We went to correlation, and then at 2 we drove out to Hiouchi to teach a part member family. Brother S is a slightly less active man born into the church, he plays soccer with the Hispanics, but he is white. His wife is Mexican, her name is Nena S, and she was born Seventh Day Adventist. She speaks really good English, she moved here when she was 18. She made us tostadas for lunch, and then we taught her the Restoration. She was very receptive and that was very cool to see. 

So after lunch and the lesson, that brought us to dinner time with the Kelley's. I love the Kelleys, they are like my grandparents in Crescent City. It was a good dinner, from 5:30-630, after that we went to the church to weekly plan. We got to about 7:20, everything was going great, and then boom! Out of nowhere we get a call from the 1st Ward Elders saying that they are still helping and all that they need is a ride from the family's old house into their new house. I immediately thought back to all those times I was on bike in Vallejo, Napa, and Woodland when we got rides, and we decided to help them out. Well that quick trip took until about 830, leaving us only enough time to make a progress record for Brother Tinsley and that was our weekly planning. A full 45 minutes. So this week we are hoping that God understands and we our putting our week entirely in his hands as we tried the very hardest that we good to make good plans. 

This email is getting long because I feel like there is so much to explain. It is going to take a little longer, because there is one more story that it way cool. Every Sunday night we go to visit the R family. Now this family is pretty crazy, it's a grandma and Grandpa, two of their daughters, all of those daughters' kids, and some of those kids' kids. Well one of the grandkids is Kenneth. He is 16, and at first he was really friendly with us, but he wasn't interested in the Gospel. A few weeks ago we ate with them and blessed and dedicated their home, and during the prayer he cried because he felt the Spirit. So the next time we visited them he said that since that blessing he had been feeling the need to come to church and read the scriptures, and even serve a mission. He read the Restoration pamphlet, and he is just eating everything up. He came to church yesterday. Last night we taught them, and his mom's non member boyfriend was there and Kenneth told him that if he wanted to know if it was true he just had to read, pray, and ask and if he felt good it would mean that it was true! He bore a powerful testimony and he has made a complete 180 and is coming around! It's really cool to see how just being his friend has helped him start to change.

If you haven't checked out the CES Devotional by D Todd Christofferson, check it out! It's called Saving Your Life. It's way good. And good prep for general conference! 

One of the cool things that I read today is from the book of 3rd Nephi, I think it applies really well. Nephi, and many other Prophets and missionaries went out to preach about Jesus Christ, but of course the Nephites didn't want anything to do with them, so like it says in 3rd Nephi 6:20-23:

"20 And there began to be men inspired from heaven and sent forth, standing among the people in all the land, preaching and testifying boldly of the sins and iniquities of the people, and testifying unto them concerning the redemption which the Lord would make for his people, or in other words, the resurrection of Christ; and they did testify boldly of his death and sufferings.

21 Now there were many of the people who were exceedingly angry because of those who testified of these things; and those who were angry were chiefly the chief judges, and they who had been high priests and lawyers; yea, all those who were lawyers were angry with those who testified of these things.

22 Now there was no lawyer nor judge nor high priest that could have power to condemn any one to death save their condemnation was signed by the governor of the land.

23 Now there were many of those who testified of the things pertaining to Christ who testified boldly, who were taken and put to death secretly by the judges, that the knowledge of their death came not unto the governor of the land until after their death."

So basically they despreciaron the prophets. I don't really know how to say that in English. Because of this, when Jesus Christ died, all the wicked people in the Americas got killed. However, they had many warnings. And like it says in Chapter 10 of the same book

"11 And thus far were the scriptures fulfilled which had been spoken by the prophets.

12 And it was the more righteous part of the people who were saved, and it was they who received the prophets and stoned them not; and it was they who had not shed the blood of the saints, who were spared--

13 And they were spared and were not sunk and buried up in the earth; and they were not drowned in the depths of the sea; and they were not burned by fire, neither were they fallen upon and crushed to death; and they were not carried away in the whirlwind; neither were they overpowered by the vapor of smoke and of darkness

14 And now, whoso readeth, let him understand; he that hath the scriptures, let him search them, and see and behold if all these deaths and destructions by fire, and by smoke, and by tempests, and by whirlwinds, and by the opening of the earth to receive them, and all these things are not unto the fulfilling of the prophecies of many of the holy prophets.

15 Behold, I say unto you, Yea, many have testified of these things at the coming of Christ, and were slain because they testified of these things.

16 Yea, the prophet Zenos did testify of these things, and also Zenock spake concerning these things, because they testified particularly concerning us, who are the remnant of their seed."

It is the same for us, except for we probably won't die from crazy earthquakes and floods and fires, but if we don't have listen to the Prophets and the Apostles, in a way that is so easy for us through tv and Internet, we will Spiritually die. So watch conference! 

I love you guys a ton! Sorry this was long, but I hope that you guys have a great week.

Elder Mufosta

Week 82

 

 

 

The time in Crescent City is flying by like a Scout Trooper on a bike
speeder on the moon of Endor. Speaking of which, we went on a cool
hike last P Day called Stout's Grove. Stout Grove is like THE hike in
the Redwoods from Crescent City. It's an incredibly easy hike,
basically it was a ton of old people on the trail. It's about .5 mile,
but there was also this cool 1.5 mile loop that stemmed off and then
we came back. I have never seen such huge trees in my life! I mean it
is truly an amazing sight. I'll send some pictures. Even though it was
an easy trail, I loved it because you could just walk slow and admire
one of God's most beautiful creations. You can hear the Smith River
running very quietly from the background, the air is fresh, and the
birds are singing. It was definitely a very awe inspiring, calming,
and spiritual experience. When we come back in February if we have
time to go to Crescent City we will go! If not we'll still have to
make it out sometime so that we can camp in the Redwoods, too!

Other cool thing. One year ago as of last week we had our very first
lesson with the Diaz family! I mean... Wow I can't even begin to
describe how much that family has changed my life. I don't think I
could have ever known when my mission started that I could feel so
much love for a family that's not mine, I'm so excited for their
sealing. I wrote them a letter and will send it to them today!

Ok now for two sad stories. Like for real, grab the tissues. It's like
when Mom took me to Les Mis and told me to bring tissues and I made
fun of her until I started balling. It's like that, but it's better in
a way because it's not French (even though the French Revolution is
super punx.).

Story number one. So we went to go visit the Simmons family. I took my
iPad out of my backpack, and when I was zipping it up again THE ZIPPER
BROKE. Ok now before you say "oh, it's ok! It's just a backpack" you
guys need to understand THAT WASNT JUST ANY OLD BACKPACK. I feel like
Ned (or was it Moze?) when his backpack broke and he went into
backpack boy's locker. That backpack was a faithful companion! I
remember buying it when I started high school, back when it was as
still black an new. Throughout high school it carried my study stuff.
On vacations it carried my comic books, video games, and music. It was
a faithful companion at punk shows and sleepovers. It came to college
and held my laptop, textbooks, and endless cans and bottles of
Mountain Dew. I remember always changing around the pins and putting
on new ones when I bought them. When I started my mission it held my
scriptures and water bottle every single day, especially in Woodland,
Napa, and Vallejo on my bike. Over the 6 years I had it, it went from
black to a purplish-blue color. I know this little eulogy sounds
weird, but for real, I'm sad to see it go. I'm going to send it home
and put it in a box with those shoes I sent home awhile back, as a
memory of my mission (ps, don't let Sam get rockports. Get him eccos.
I've sufficiently destroyed my other pair of rockports that I came out
with.).

Ok and now for some other sad news that is definitely sad, but in a
more serious way. S's parents think that we have brainwashed her,
and they are taking her to counseling. In addition to that, Sunday has
now become "Family Day" which isn't necessarily a bad thing, except
for that driving purpose behind family day is to stop Sophie from
coming to church. Pray for her and for her family please! She still
has her testimony, she still is planning on moving out and going to
BYU Idaho next year, but it would be cool if her parents had a change
of heart.

Last Sunday when Yeng and Vivian went to church we had set up an
appointment Wednesday at 5 since we were going to have dinner at 6. We
met with Brother Tinsley on Tuesday and he started going off on this
thing about how the Hmong culture is different and we need to show
respect and so I called Vivian on Tuesday to confirm, and she said "oh
and I am also going to be making curry!" Sounds good, right? Except
for the fact that we have a dinner at 6 and I can't say no because of
the whole respect thing, like if they are making curry for visitors it
is a pretty big deal, so I asked her to change the lesson to 4 and it
was fine. But now here's the other dilemma. I love curry, but we had
another dinner at 6. We went over and we ate curry, and it was without
a doubt the best Asian food I have ever tasted in my life. It even had
hard boiled quail eggs in it. It had the white Asian noodles. Oh my
goodness guys, like it was definitely a top 3 meal on my mission. We
had an awesome lesson with them, she said that her experience in
church on Sunday was life changing, and that the spirit worked on her
strongly! It was a great lesson. We have a few obstacles to help them
get over if they want to get baptized, but pray for them! After that
we went and ate plantain lasagna, and I had been praying for the whole
day for God to enlarge my stomach for the greater good, and he did. We
ran all the way out to to foghorn the next day.

Cool side story- Sua P. is the grandfather of Yeng L. He lives with
them. He is a wonderful old man, grew up in Laos and he and another
man named Vang who also live up here played a HUGE role in guerrilla
fighting against the Viet Kong in the Vietnamese war. The Vang guy won
a pretty prestigious national award a few years ago. I think the
coolest thing though is about Sua P, who has seen a lot. Like more
than any man should ever see. Before being trained by the American
forces in Vietnam, he was captured by the Viet Kong. He was captured
by a small group, and he was the only prisoner in the encampment. We
don't know all the details, but Sua P made it out alive, and was
subsequently trained by US special forces. I think that the coolest
part is that they have a little farm. He made an atrium for exotic
birds that he collects, he has chickens that they raise to eat. He is
content with where he is, and it was really cool seeing him hold his
first great grand kid, Yeng and Vivian's son. I can't really explain
it, but like it really does feel like an honor being in his prescence.
Oh also, I had a dream last night that I was in Star Fox because one
of that talks yesterday in Sacrament Meeting was about flying
airplanes. It was a pretty cool dream. I took Slippy's spot because
Fox fired Slippy.

And then came Friday! The day of the interview. And... It all went
well! Usually my interviews with President have lasted anywhere
between 2 minutes and 30 seconds to about 6 minutes (a highlight of
which being my interview in Vallejo, I'm still kind of chapped about
that one!). Well anyway, this time President Alba actually interviewed
me and it was nice and long, we just talked about a lot of stuff, he
gave me good advice and I came out feeling very edified and on the
same page with President Alba.

We had a lesson with Grace and Lindsey that night. And so I developed
this brilliant idea that if we asked President to come out with his,
he wouldn't surprise us! So we called him.... Nothing. Left a message.
We called Sister Alba annnnd left a message. And we waited and waited
and about 15 minutes before the lesson we got a text from the one and
only saying "I'm sorry Elders, I would love to, but I am on a date
with my wife right now." (-_-) <- was my only reaction. It was a good
lesson, though!

He also gave a wonderful fireside on Saturday and attended Sacrament
Meeting on Sunday.

Brother Tinsley our WML has our back. In fact, he told us
last night on the phone "I've never seen two missionaries work as hard
as you two in this area. You guys are setting the mark." So he's
definitely on our side.

This last week we also found a super sweet Spanish investigator, his
name is Humberto. He is super prepared, right now he is our most solid
Spanish investigator. He is Catholic. He studied with the "atalayas"
aka the Testigos, but he didn't like the whole no blood donating
thing. One thing that he learned was no saint worshipping, and so in
that way he is very prepared. He does drink like one or two beers when
he drinks, but doesn't get hammered like most Hispanic guys, so it
will be easy to get him off of that. I think he will be the first
Hispanic baptism here in Crescent City!

Anyway funny story and then I'll end. So yesterday we were at a carne
asada, and we were standing with three guys, Luis, Rodolfo, and Jaime.
Jaime was telling us lots of Spanish jokes, because Rodolfo wanted to
make sure that I understood the joke, he would make sure I understood
the most simple words, it was so funny. So Jaime would say "había un
rey-" and then Rodolfo "Foster, sabes que es un rey?" And I would say
yes, and Jaime would continue "y tenía una hija muy guapa, y cada día
ella veía un muchacho cortando leña" "Foster, sabes que es leña?" It
was pretty funny.

Well that's it! It's been a good week, it's been lots of fun. We've
been doing lots of service and lots of teaching. Right now I'm in
Helaman 12 and Acts 18, both in Spanish. I want to try and finish the
New Testament before I get home!

Well, I love you guys! Have a great week!

Elder Foster