Week 60

April 14

 

 

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 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

Also, do they speak Spanish in the Galapagos islands? 

Week 56

Happy birthday Day! I'm sorry you can't have corned beef and cabbage, but I'll let you know next week what I eat. As far as the Mexican life here, the best thing I ate was probably homemade pico de gallo. You can't beat it. Also, fresh horchata twice which was awesome. I also ate like the last three inches of a Serrano (the hottest part) just to show off. It was hot, but sabes que, I didn't even shed a tear.

Our first full proselyting week of the transfer! It's been a good week. Working hard, hitting the pavement, and pounding doors. We found a really cool new family, the V. family. They have a 7 year old daughter named Alejandra. She hardly speaks English since they just barely came from Mexico, and the parents on,y speak Spanish. They're looking for a church to go to! He has a lot of questions about the trinity and Saints and stuff, but they're looking pretty good. We are working pretty close with this young, unmarried couple that has a baby. They're pretty cool. So pretty much with them and Veronica, we have three people that we're teaching in English. But the rest is pretty much all Spanish. And Elder Teran and I talk in Spanish all the time. It's super nice having a companion I can actually talk to in the mission language.

We had Stake Conference yesterday. President Cuvulier extended and ivitation to all the members
1- invite a less active member or non member to come to church, an activity, nconference, or a baptism etc.
2- perform a temple ordinance for a deceased relative
Both of these can be done by all four of you guys! So get to work and go do it!

Also, thank you so much for the Girl Scout cookies! Samoas are the best. I remember eating them in the MTC, which I can't even believe was a year ago. Time flies.

I had to translate in stake conference. I translated one talk Saturday night, and a different talk Sunday. You know how they always talk about how right when they needed it, the gift of tongues came and they spoke perfectly? Yeah, not Saturday night. It was awful. I was so nervous and forgot all of my Spanish, I swear. The guy who was in charge of tech looked at me like I had an IQ of .008. But on Sunday it was way better. I just closed my eyes, listened to the talk, and said what he said but in Spanish. Way better on Sunday.
Everyone told me I did a way good job.

So things are good! The mission is going great. One of the things that I loved studying was on page 32 of the Spanish Preach My Gospel it talks about Ammon and Aaron teaching about God. I compared how they did it to what Preach My Gospel says in the God Is Our Loving Heavenly Father principle. It was a great study. You guys told me you were going to be studying it. How is that going?
Keep reading and praying!  Love, Elder Mufosta


Love,
Elder Foster

Week 55

First week into the new transfer! And I have got to say, it was a good week. To start off, Elder Contla and Elder Fonseca had to go to Santa Rosa Tuesday since Elder Contla is training. Well, Tuesday night, I get a phone call from their phone and I answer and it says "Que hubole guero!!!" And I was like hey Elder Contla, what's up? And then the person on the phone says "puchika papichulo! You don't know who this is?" And it was Elder Wright! Elder Fonseca stayed with him that night. So I got to talk to him for about 15 minutes. I love that kid. He told me I was his favorite companion, and it was just good to talk. He and I have a solid relationship even though there were some hard times.

Then the next day I went to Davis with Elder Boswell while I was waiting for my comp. we went to this apartment complex looking for a member, but we didn't know where he lived. So we knocked around and then decided to ask the manager. Well, as we were talking to the manager, the phone rang and she put it on speaker. "Hello, this is Sheila from apartment 26 calling."
"How can I help you Sheila?"
"Well, there were just some Jehovah's Witnesses knocking at my door."
"I think they're Mormons."
"Well I wanted to know what the policy is for soliciting here."
"There's no soliciting, but they're not selling anything."
"Well they want my time, that's something."
"What exactly do you want me to do? They're not breaking the law, they're only ministering."
"Ummmmmm well I just wanted to know the policy on soliciting, thanks."
So yeah, I'm pretty sure that one day that nice manager lady will get baptized.

Ok also, while in Davis, I received revelation. So when explaining what exactly missionaries do to E, she was confused at why our missions are just converting people instead of building houses or schools like other Christian churches do. Well, I kind of wondered that as well. But then, I realizes something. Read John 6:46-58. What other churches (and ours too) do is humanitarian work. And that is awesome, but also temporal. Those things go away. It is mana, which is temporarily satisfying. But the bread that we offer as missionaries is the bread of life. Does that make sense?

Ok and now for my companion- he's awesome. He is from Southern California, but originally from Puebla, Puebla. He kind of talks like a cholo in Spanish, but it's cool. He actually teaches. He actually contacts. He does what he's supposed to do and I don't have to drag him around like some puppy. He's humble (well, at least he doesn't say things like "I would be a great District Leader") and all around just a funny guy. We get along very well. And also, on Saturday, a less active invited us over for Menudo. So I ate menudo. It wasn't bad, but I'd still rather have posole. I guess most restaurants make it pretty poorly. If the tripe is cut up small it's supposedly better. But anyway, he's awesome and we get along really well. I like his work ethic and he still has fun, which is awesome. 

The branch is good. We do have a lot of member support. And.... a few problems with the branch president. Over stuff like getting a Gospel Principles class started. But we went out with our branch missionary and Joel Rodriguez. I'm, trying to work more closely with the members. So trying to get solid appointments to have members come out is great. 

Well, that's it for the week. Just contacting, tracting and teaching. A good week! Love you and miss you guys.
Elder Foster

 

is that kind of what you want? 

Week 54

Well here it is! We received transfer doctrine on Friday. I'm staying here in Woodland! My companion will be Elder Teran. When I was in Napa, he was serving in Sonoma. I know who he is, but I don't really know him too well since Sonoma was pretty separated from Napa in that zone. He is from Mexico, but he came out here from LA. He's been out the exact same time as me, but he went into the field when I went into the MTC. Right now he's coming from my old area in Napa. I'm way stoked, I didn't think I was going to have a Native. He will be co-district leader with me. Most people say we will get along. Elder Fonseca, unfortunately, is leaving. He's going to Roernart Park (it's spelled wrong) to be able to be closer to doctors for his back. Elder Contla will be a district leader and trainer here. Hopefully his greenie is cool. Because even with my comp problems I have never been such close friends with the Elders from my pad. I'm thinking it should still be great next transfer. Outside of the zone but in the branch, Hermana Billat is coming to Davis! I'm super stoked. She's one of my best friends in the mission. Hermana Witt is leaving Woodland, and Hermana Thompson will be training. Hermana LeMmon (not from the branch, but serving in the Spanish group in Dixon) is going to Fairfield and she is taking a letter to the Diaz family from me. The only bummer is now that Hermana Fernandez from Spain is no longer in my district, I have a different set of Hermanas though. One of them is Hermana Cornwall, who I served with my last transfer in Fairfield!

It's been rainy here. Despite my companion's complaints, we are going out walking in the rain a lot. Because biking in the rain isn't fun, and plus, if you pros walk/ knock doors in the rain, it makes your future wife lose weight. Which is something I need, because in the course of my mission, she has gained some weight from all of the copies of the Book of Mormon that I have dropped. Whoever she is has been dropping copies of the Book of Mormon as well though... But it does break the Spanish people's hearts to see the missionaries all wet and trying to talk about Jesus, so they are a lot more open in the rain.

On Friday night, driving back from Happy Hot Dog ( have I explained this?) the four of us get a text from the NOAA that said there was a tornado and to seek shelter. So we weren't sure what to do. We called President, and he told us to be safe, and head in for the night, but to make it productive. So, naturally, we called all of our people, then had language study while we made planner covers. I'll send a picture of mine.

Every other Wednesday we eat with a family in Esparto called the Lopez family. My seat (that I assigned to myself) has a view of the tv. Two weeks ago, I saw the first hour of Finding Nemo in Spanish. This week, I saw the second half. And then got beat up by their grandson, Thomas. He's hilarious. And violent. He's like three, I told him "Elder Contla quiere pelear" so he rips off his jacket, throws it down, and starts attacking him. Super funny.

Joel, the one from Mexico who served a mission and is getting married comes up to me Sunday and says "See Elder Foster? We are brothers. We both speak spanish and we are white!" Even though he's Mexican. He's an awesome member. We have a lesson planned that he is coming to tonight. 

Well, as far as this week goes, it's been going well for teaching! We are actually teaching two different people in English, which is actually quite a challenge. They all want to come to the Spanish branch since they are friends or family with people from the branch, we just teach them in English. It's fun! One of the people we are teaching is Veronica. She is super cool, like 23 years old. She told us this last time that all 3 of her brothers are in jail. It's super sad. She really needs the gospel. She works on Sunday, but will be trying to get work off. We have picked up some other new people this week. I feel like the area is about to explode.

Well, that's probably it for the week. I'll let you know all about transfers and how they are work out and I will let you know all about my new comp and the new greenie that we will be living with.

I love you guys! I miss you. Have a wonderful week! Keep reading and praying.
Elder Foster