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