Week 68

Well, here it is! My first email as a 20 year old.
How does it feel? Not too different actually. Doing the same stuff
day! So here are some good things from this week.

On Monday after P Day we went to go visit a family from El Salvador that we contacted. They were so nice! They let us in, we did some how to begin teaching points and the spirit was really strong! They had a church, but it was relocated to San Fran a few years ago. Well he has a 19 year old son who got here like 7 months ago and doesn't speak any English, and a 14 year old son on his way over. Manuel (the dad) has no idea where his son is right now since it's pretty much like crazy getting over here, but he's sure he'll be here soon. The 19 year old is super funny, he's pretty glad to have people his age talk to him in Spanish, he's super nice. We have a lesson with them tonight and they're making pupusas! So I'm stoked for that.

We also taught a cool lesson to Gustavo and Maria, some other
investigators. We mostly go over because she is really solid, but she works on   Sundays. And their daughters are super nice and love us, but hate their parents. So we taught the parents family prayer and promised that it would bless their family a ton. They said they are going to start doing it.

Last night we taught a less active as well. It was the first time I
had ever met him. Elder Minkler had met him, but never taught him.
He's really busy with work, he still has a testimony that the church
is true, but since he works 7 days a week he can't really do anything
about it.

So now for my birthday! It was super awesome! I got the package on my actual birthday! You guys are the best. The shirt fits perfect and looks super good! And the cards were funny. When I read what Sam wrote about Streetlight Manifesto, I laughed so hard that I cried. It was the best! And you guys know just what snacks I like too, so thanks so much!
After I got the package, Elder Wright and Elder Carrillo picked us up and we met up with the Diaz family at the church! We went to Rubios. It was so good to talk to them again! They are doing really well. They were really happy to see Elder Wright and I together again. So they gave me some good news- in Fairfield, Elder Lopez and I had this investigator named Dulce. She was nice, but we got to the point where we were teaching too many lessons and she wasn't coming to church so we dropped her. At the CDA cares dentist service thing we did, I told the Fairfield missionaries to go visit her. Well they did, and Sister Diaz said that a few hours earlier Dulce had gotten a call that a family member had been killed. They taught her the plan of Salvation, and she's been going to church!
Well we ate at Rubios, and it was just so nice to visit with them! We talked about their sealing. We talked about the branch and even the good old times when we used to go teach them. We all laughed about how apprehensive they were to let their kids learn since they didn't want their kids to be confused, how Danny didn't really care too much at first, and about how  scared they were for the interview. It was super awesome. They gave me a super cool card. It actually would have been super cheesy, but like since it was from them it was super special. They said they think the card company made it especially for me.

After that we did a blitz, which is where we go off on exchanged with another missionary to one area and the whole zone works around in that area. It was way fun, and as a birthday present I even heard someone blasting Ben Folds 5 in their garage. Good free beats!

We went to dinner with the Mora family. It was actually the birthday party for their daughter and a ton of people were there so they just put us in the garage. It was actually super nice just to relax and eat and have fun! Unfortunately, Victor, who is he brother of Brother Mora wasn't there, and he always listens to the best Spanish ska music. So no free beats there, but I'll live.

And when I got back to the pad, there were 6 elders waiting there and they yelled surprise when I walked in and I almost had a heart attack. It was super funny. We all drank a glass Mountain Dew. Fun times. Elder Or even told me I was his favorite Spanish Elder, which is good because Elder Or is a stud.

On Sunday our branch mission leader and his wife (she teaches gospel principles) brought cake to gospel principles for my birthday haha.They also gave me a tie. I'll send some pictures!

So all in all, it was a good birthday! And a good week. We contacted on the streets and knocked doors a lot, but unfortunately didn't teach as many lessons as we would have liked. This week will be better for sure!

Love you guys!

Elder Foster

 Sent from my iPad

Week 67

First week of the new transfer is now done! So we moved into the new apartment and I'm tiiiiiiiicked. Super duper chapped! We cleaned out our apartment for the new sisters and it was shining. Well, all 4 of the Elders living  in the apartment we are in now were whitewashed out and they left it in shambles. Trash everywhere, so much food, and a ton of clothes that are now being given to goodwill since they didn't pack them up. We spent a goooooood amount of time cleaning.

I went to instacare wednesday for my wrist. It is sprained, I have a brace for it, and no bike riding this week. And some super strong ibuprofuen pills that I got a prescription for. But it's all good!

When Elder Wright and I saw each other we each gave each other like the biggest hug ever! It's so good to be with him again!!!! It's been the sweetest. Just talking about the good ol days of Fairfield! And catching up on all the stuff that's happened since then. We've both changed a lot. It's crazy because he's been out longer than I had been when I started training him! Time flies!

Another cool thing is Adrian and Jackie are doing really well! They are starting to read the Book of Mormon together, the divorce is finishing up so they should be able to get married soon and then he can get baptized! The only problem is that they didn't come to church yesterday. I was chapped. We're stopping by tonight to see what's up.

Gustavo, our crazy investigator, came to church yesterday though. I don't think he's too solid, but his wife is. The only problem is that she works during church, and every time we teach them, he dominates the lesson. So we're going to invite her to a Member's home to learn. And see if she can start working in the afternoon on Sundays so that she can come to church in the morning. We had a good lesson with him, though, in the house of Hermana Alonso. She's the best member ever. She's in charge of the dinner calendar.

President and Sister Alba showed up at church yesterday. I think my heart stopped when I saw her. Every time I see them I start thinking about everything from the last two weeks that would make him come visit me. Like saying the word "fetch" when I fell off my bike or wearing a tie that was too skinny. Luckily, he just wanted to come see the branch. So that was awesome.

So we went to go do some service with a member, his name is Victor. we start walking up and then all I know is I hear ska. So get this- he loves hispanic ska. Like Ska-P and stuff. So with my hurt wrist, I sat next to the stario (sterio? How the heck do you spell that in english?) and listened and talked to him about it while the other Elders shoveled rocks into a trailer. good times, good times. We are going over to their house for a birthday party for his niece (member of the branch as well) for dinner next saturday! Which is also my birthday. So it will be a great day!

I heard some gunshots pretty close to where we were tracting, so that is a good Vallejo experience.

It's been a good week though. Just mostly finding and cleaning and moving and all that jazz. We are visiting the members in our area a lot more. Like the active ones, asking them for referrals, it's been pretty succesful. We have some solid sounding people we plan on visiting this week.

Well, that's it for this week!
Love you guys! Take care!

Week 66

Wow! My first transfer in Vallejo is done. I can't tell if it was
super super fast, or really slow. Kind of both with being sick and
everything. Good news- we are no longer sick! Bad news- I fell on my bike on Thursday. I was going from the street into a driveway, and you know how there is like a little one inch lip, well my back tire got stuck on that and I just fell to the side going about 10 miles per hour. Pretty pathetic. well the moral of the story is I thought I
jammed my wrist, then when it hurt the next day I thought I broke it, and then on Saturday I went to the Instacare in Amcan, but on
Saturdays it was closed! It feels better now. Still hurts, but at least I can bike again. Oh well!

Transfer info- Elder Minkler and I are staying the same! But moving to a different apartment in our complex so that the new sisters coming in to the Singles YSA area can live in our pad. Elder Alvarado is gone, Elder Delgado is coming in with him. I don't know him. Elder Grisham and Elder Nelson are leaving, and... Wait for it... Elder Wright is coming in!!!!!!! My son :'D I'm so excited. He's also a Zone Leader! Looks like I didn't do so bad after all. I actually got a letter from him too, I love that kid! I'm stoked. So is he! He's coming here with Elder Carrillo, my old ZL from Napa. Elder Payne (Peine) is leaving, and another elder I don't know is coming with Elder Smith. Ok now for the best news- remember the cholo investigator I found in Fairfield, Ortega? He's getting baptized in June! And Elder Smith and Wright and I have all taught him. What does that mean? We're going to his baptism!! Woohoo! Also, the Diaz family is super stoked, they're taking Elder Wright and I out on my birthday.

More good news- Adrian our investigator and Jackie his less active
girlfriend (well... It's a weird situation. Not really less active but
kind of) came to church here!! They loved it. He's been going in San Fran because of his job, but they decided to come here! And his divorce is finishing up this next week, at which point we will be
talking to them about marriage and baptism!! He's so nice. They love us a ton, they bought pan (like the sweet Mexican bread) and manzanita sol (really good soda) for our lesson last week. So he'll get baptized in the near future.

So we were out on our bikes, and we here this guy yell "Hey Mormon guys! Come over here!" And so we go over, he tells us he's on his way to the store and he wants to buy us some water. So we're walking with him- turns out he lived in Utah, remembers going to temple square as a little kid and his older brother got baptized and served a mission in the Philippines. So super nice guy, he takes us to the sketchiest convenience store I've ever been to. I'm pretty sure you had to be 21 to get in, but we went in anyway haha he bought us each 1 liter of water, then he bought a 40 and some cigars. But you know, water is water.

So also, we found the most awesome family. Ok it's a long story and there is a funny, unrelated story in the middle. On Wednesday we locked our bikes at a stop sign in front of a house. We were pros
walking, and we saw this gold RV. In cursive letters, it said across
the side "The Twerkulator." There were people outside, filming
some.... Dancing. So somewhere on YouTube there are people...
"dancing" and two Mormon missionaries in the background trying to leave. I wish I could explain it better. Just know it's super
hilarious. Ok back to the main story- on Saturday we are walking and we see the guy walking with his daughter and we heard them speak Spanish. So we go up, we start talking to him, he's super nice. He's from El Salvador, we tell him we love pupusas. Then his wife comes up, and asks us if we locked our bikes on the sign that day and we said yeah and she said she was going to talk to us, but was on the phone and couldn't. So basically, they asked for the address of the church, told us they are going to come next week without us even inviting them. They gave us their number, told us to call them so we could visit and one day they are going to make us pupusas. And also told us just to lock our bikes in their backyard from now on since, you know, any street with "The Twerkulator" is not the greatest street. Oh, Vallejo. I love this place so much!

So I know you guys are probably done with the punk stories, and last night I was thinking "hmm, no punk rock encounters this week" until we were walking at 8 and I saw a bumper sticker (I'll send the picture) with the words "WWHRD?" Yes. What would Henry Rollins do. I almost peed my pants. So we knocked on the door, the people were super nice. The lady said "Of all the things I thought we you going to talk about when you knocked, Henry Rollins was last on the list!" So they're not interested, but planting seeds. All I'm saying is, I've been waiting my whole mission to talk to people about this, I'm super glad there are people here who know what I'm talking about! It's like specific prayers get specific answers. I think I'm going to pray to meet Tim Armstrong. Or at least more punks.

I really do love Vallejo. It's so much fun to be here. The branch is
probably my favorite. It's hard to beat Fairfield, but I mean, I love
it here. Everyone is amazing. Loving and willing to come out with us, making us good food, and understanding how the church works. The people on the streets are always nice, and it just feels good. So even though it might be dangerous, it's the greatest. There is no where else I'd rather be than Vallejo!

Love you guys! Miss you!



Week 65

So to start off, the shift key on this computer blows, so if I miss capitilazing stuff, I'm sorry!!!
So this week was awesome! On Tuesday we had the coolest lesson ever. It was with an investigator who is living with a less active, and they are getting married as soon as his divorce finished from his wife from Mexico. it should be done this may. But Presidente Tobias came with us. It was awesome. We talked about the Book of Mormon, and it was like one of those Golden lessons where everything falls into place and the member just does exactly what he needs to. And since then, Presidente Tobias is on our "missionary wagon." I don't really know exactly how to explain that, it's a Sister Alba thing. So it was awesome.

We also had lessons where two sweet members came out with us.

Also, we had a... good and bad lesson with our investigator mauricio from Gutamala. we were teaching the restoration, and we got to the Savior's Earthly Ministry. We read a scripture from Ephesions (efesios. Or whatever.) and then his brother's friend comes out. and he starts asking us questions about the Book of Mormon, almost bashing with us. So then I just get heated, and I throw down on him. So that was the bad part. but the good part is that Mauricio also said that he believes that Joseph Smith was a prophet. He should be coming to a class this wednesday that we have at the church. Also, Spanish is his second language! he's Mayan, speaks Mam, and learned spanish in school.
and at this said bible class at the church, I made a great discovery. We have this member, all tattooed up and everything. He was at the class, I'm talking to the members, when I notice he has a pin on his shirt. As I got closer, I noticed it was for GBH (I don't like them, but you know, at least they're punk!) and so we started talking about punk! so he was in  Punk bands in Mexico City. And so we talked about bands like Minor Threat and Gorilla Biscuits, and even bands from the east bay like Operation Ivy and Rancid! He has an Operation Ivy back patch. Oh man it was so cool, he's like the first person that actually understands!!!!!!!! It was awesome. He's into a little more street punk than I am, but it was still super funny. Hermano Cortez was laughing at us.
Also, I may or may not have contacted a guy who played drums for Fear in the 80's. I'm not sure if what he said was true or not. Do they have a drummer named Kelly? if you don't know them, they are the ones who played on SNL in the 80's on halloween and SNL freaked out. I think they also have a song in SLC punk. the singer is an actor now.
Also, we were at a member's house eating tacos, and it was kind of us just standing around or sitting on the couch eating. There were quite a few members there. But the member whose house we were at noticed that I was eating a lot of cucumber with limes. And she was all like Do you like cucmber? and I was all, yeah, my mom plants it in the garden and I miss eating it! and at the end of the dinner, she gave me two cucumbers! the members here are the best!
We also had zone conference. It was sweet, check out the video The Butterfly Circus. A little cheesy, but pretty cool anyway.
I have been studying the talk "the Merciful Obtain Mercy" by Dieter F Uchtdorf. it's so good! In addition to the mormon messages Bullying Stop It and the Other Prodigal (which is slightly a little racist, but I like it anyway). And then on church we had 2 talks on forgiveness and Presidente Tobias gave a class on the Prodigal son. It was awesome. Even if I do feel like I suck at everything now. I like what he says

"Haven’t we all, at one time or another, meekly approached the mercy seat and pleaded for grace? Haven’t we wished with all the energy of our souls for mercy—to be forgiven for the mistakes we have made and the sins we have committed?
Because we all depend on the mercy of God, how can we deny to others any measure of the grace we so desperately desire for ourselves? My beloved brothers and sisters, should we not forgive as we wish to be forgiven?"
Well, I love you guys!

Week 64

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I don't really know what to write! I mean, we talked for 45 minutes yesterday and with my companion being sick, there really hasn't been too much to write about!

So the best  thing about this week.... The nurse told him to buy Gatorade, so I bought some Mexican flavor Gatorade for me! Like, not flavored like Mexicans, but flavors Mexicans like! So I bought Cucumber Lime, Watermelon Citrus, and Tangerine. The Cucumber lime is the best flavor ever!

Ok but for real, last night after calling we ate posole with Hermana Alonso, from El Salvador. She's the best member ever! Just so solid, always comes and teaches with us! The hard part is that she has a really hard family life. Her RM husband is less active, her kids are rebellious, and like they're all always gone. And so she just really loves the missionaries a ton, and we were able to spend a great mother's day with her! And she gave me posole to take home since she knows how much I love it, and so I have lunch for the next few days!

Also of note, our crazy investigator, Gustavo (who promised me his daughter... I don't know what to do about that), has the most solid wife ever. So we got her cell phone, and we're going to start teaching her with Hermana Alonso, because I think she can get baptized. We also found the nicest less active of all time last night, and we have an appointment with her thursday! So good things.

Elder Minkler is pretty much better. We discovered a mutual love of Ben Folds when he said "I was never cool in school" and then I said "you probably don't remember me" and then at the same time we both said "DO YOU LIKE BEN FOLDS 5??" So yeah, new connection!

Well... That's it!

Oh also we went to the temple. Which I already told you guys about yesterday. That was nice! I love the Oakland Temple!

Love you guys tons!!!!!!

Elder Foster

(From Week 63)

One more cool thing from this week. I've been praying for the chance to contact a guy wearing a Wu Tang Clan shirt, and finally my prayer was answered! Elder Minkler stopped to give some first aid (band aids and alcohol) to a lady that fell on her bike, and then this guy was walking by wearing a Wu Tang Clan shirt. So we talked about that for a little while, and he was a cool guy. He was pretty surprised to see that I was a normal guy!

And then after that, as we were riding back to the pad, our branch mission leader and his wife were eating tacos outside at this taqueria as we rode by, they flagged us down and bought us each two tacos de cabeza and a glass coke! It was awesome. Well, inside I see this guy, pretty young, with his wife/ girlfriend type person. He's got short, almost buzzed hair and a beard and I notice he's kind of laughing at us (great and spacious building...) and then I notice he has a misfits tattoo on his forearm. BOOM! good conversation starter. He was actually really nice, and was surprised! It was cool. So a good week! See, punk rock is good for your soul!!!

Week 63

Halfway through the transfer! Well, it's been a crazy week. Remember
the CDA cares thing with all the people and he teeth and over 12 hours
of volunteering? Well, that's a lot of people in one building. And lo
and behold, Elder Minkler got sick. Really sick. Like a major sinus
infection, cough, cold type thing. He woke up just dead on Tuesday,
and since then we've gone out to work only like 4 times, not for any
longer than 3 hours at a time. Being sick in a bike area sucks. It was
a major bummer, but we actually taught 5 lessons, and picked up a cool
new investigator. So God definitely blessed us and made up for our
weaknesses this week. Not that it's his fault only, though. I was
fairly sick with some mucous and a bad cough and a sore throat from
Wednesday to Saturday. I literally just sat in my study chair hating
my life. I read through the whole book of Mosiah in Spanish. It was
literally bummer town for a week. We also decided our dream Pokemon
teams and decided what the best all around Zelda game is. Which, in
case you wanted to know, is Wind Waker. And since you probably don't
care about my dream Pokemon team, I'll spare you the details. He got
me sold on Lucario. We talked about Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit.
We talked about Spiderman, X-Men, Batman, the Avengers, and Justice
League. We talked about Star Wars. With all that time, we got pretty
nerdy. I also watched a Special Witnesses of Christ, The Testaments,
Together Forever, and On The Lord's Errand in Spanish. Looooooong
week. Almost as depressing as listening to the Smiths on a rainy day.

But here are some good things. We picked up a new investigator from
Guatamala. He's 21 and came here like 7 months ago. He doesn't speak
any English. It's like a completely different kind of Spanish. I've
got to be on my game. I wouldn't say that Spanish here in the US is
Spanglish, but it's like United States Spanish. Mauricio, this
investigator, speaks real Spanish. It's pretty interesting to think
about it. I can't really explain it.

 There is a family in the branch called the Castañedas. They took us
out to dinner at a Chinese place. I sat next to their 6 year old girl,
and she was so cute! I sat next to her and we were talking. She was
all "estás enfermo?" And so I said "sí, Elder Minkler me hizo
enfermo!" "Yo me enfermé la semana pasada, pero se me quitó bien
rápido!" "Qué tenías?" "Muchos mocos!" "No me gustan los mocos!" And
then in the cutest voice ever, "A mi tampoco!" So that is when I
decided that I'm going to have little white Mexican kids. Period.
They're the cutest kids in existence.

So that's my week. A new Guatamalan guy that's sick, and me
daydreaming about having Mexican kids. But it was good! I'm not too
sick anymore. But this week we have Mother's Day! I'm so excited to
talk to you guys. And also a temple trip Thursday! We're going with
brother Sigui, from Nicaragua. Aka Hermano "if you don't try the
Keeenders, I'll kill you!" But I'll explain that later.

Love you guys! Have a great week. Can't wait for Mother's Day!

Elder Foster

Week 62

Dear Family,

Well, it's been a weird week to say the least! I guess we'll go from
Tuesday, where we did the best service thing of all time. There is a
Christian revival place where every Tuesday they give out food to
homeless/ needy people. We help out every Tuesday from 3-4. It's
probably the best thing ever. To start off, we sing songs like This
Little Light of Mine and such, and then we do introductions. So the
preacher's wife gets up and says "We are so thankful for the Elders
who are here with us today. Everybody say God Bless!" "God Bless!" "Elder Foster" "Elder Foster" and so on until we're done introducing ourselves. So then anyone who wants to share stuff can, and so, for example, Elder Dascomb gets up and starts sharing some stuff from Psalms, and everyone in there while he is preaching "AMEN!" Or "HALLELUJAH!!" And all in all. It was just a fun experience.

Then! Exchanges on Wednesday to Thursday. On Thursday we weekly planned because on Friday- more service! There was this thing here called CDA cares, which was like this huge free dentistry clinic thing. All volunteer, a bunch of dentists from all over California. I saw Brother Perez from Napa again, which was cool! It went from 5AM-6PM. It was a loooong day. But fun. And wet, because it was raining and we were escorts. So I talked to a ton of new people Friday. We also saw all of Fairfield Zone and Napa zone, which has some of my favorite missionaries, like Hermana LeMmon and Hernandez, and Elders Tepox and Despain. It was way fun. And according to all the people I talked to from Fairfield (missionaries and people I was escorting) Fairfield is getting dangerous. I guess there have been a lot of shootings in the last few weeks. I was also translating for all of the Spanish people which was a lot of fun. Helping them fill out paperwork, helping them communicate with the dentists. I really enjoyed all of it!

Saturday we finished weekly planning. It's been kind of a slow week, seeing as I didn't really get too much time in the area. But I'm getting the hang of it, and I love Vallejo! Last night we went to an investigator's house and he was having a BBQ with some family. We shared a message, and answered a lot of questions. It was fun. The investigator also promised me that after my mission, if I come back I have permission to marry his daughter. I told him if she got baptized I would consider it (don't worry, I'm not really considering it.).

Also, as I'm sure you guys swam the Diaz De Leon family came over to Vallejo (it's like 10 minutes from Cordelia) and took Elder Minkler and I out to lunch!! I just love them so much. I can't wait for you guys to come here for their sealing a meet them. They are the greatest! Best recent converts of all time.

Hopefully more to update next week! It's been a good week though. Love you guys and miss you a ton!