Week 93

This week has been a weird week, but I guess in Clearlake weird is normal.

First off, I went on exchanges to Kelseyville with Elder Delgado.
Elder Means lives in the same apartment in Kelseyville. He was a
missionary in the Ukraine but then they shipped them all out from that
mission and now he ended up here. Well he goes home with me, and he
was talking about how he was super nervous about dating and he's going
home to Provo. Well, I told him that he could go on a date with Sammie
and that I would double with him. That now gives Sammie the
responsibility to find a cute Hispanic to go on a date with me for the
double date.

Onto missionary work. Well, as I said, Clearlake is weird. And
dangerous. Well we decided to walk around in a neighborhood the other
day and while we were walking we saw down an alleyway and there were
three Mexicans yelling at each other and one was holding a machete and
waving it around and so we got out of there. That's a normal day out
here.

There is a less active Hispanic family here called the Mendozas. The
grandma is very eccentric but also incredibly vulgar and nuts. Well
she told us to not forget them and when we have kids we have to bring
them to her. Now every instinct of my very being tells me not to ever
being anyone under the age of 17 to that neighborhood, but I promised
her that I would on the condition that she came to church. She
promised.

The Diaz family wrote me a letter and they are super excited for their
sealing! They should be sending you guys and invitation/ Christmas
card in the mail soon!

Last night a member made us bearritos. Basically bear is a staple food
here in the Highlands wars since there is a yearly bear hunting trip.
Well bearritos were good!

You guys should all post he is the gift on your facebook with the
hashtag #heisthegift
Christmas.mormon.org

Week 92

This week has been a good week, there were some scary times, some funny times, and lots of eating. I'm super jealous of all the people that were over for thanksgiving! It sounds like it was a lot of fun! I'll start out with that.

On Thanksgiving we went to Lakeport and we had a turkey bowl with the ward. It was the run of the mill turkey bowl, too many people and not the funnest. After, however, we played Ultimate Frisbee and that was the BEST. Oh man, it was so much fun. We played three games and I ran my heart out. I think I have terrible knees from skanking too much back home. But my team was me, elder Delgado, Elder Herrmann, Elder Walpole, and Sister Burgess. It was super duper fun!! 

After that we went home and showered, and the Kings called us and told us to come over in clothes to play sports in, so we just showed up in normal clothes around 1 and we played more football with them and pictionary and such! So let me explain the Kings. 3 years ago Brother King was a huuuuuge marijuana dealer in the Midwest. I mean huuuuuuge. He decided that he was going to move to Miranda, Ca to become a drug lord basically. Well Miranda has a population of 600, every single person has special gardens, and it's often called Murder Mountain. About 4 transfers ago the missionaries were taken out after someone broke into their apartment with a shotgun at 11 at night. Just to give a little background. Well one day about 2 years ago a missionary talked to Brother King at a bus stop, the whole family was baptized, and his life completely changed. So about 6 months ago they moved here to Clearlake to start a new life. Since all their family is from the Midwest, they wanted us over for dinner because we are their family! 

So we ate the best turkey ever, stuffed ourselves basically. There was also Mountain Dew, which makes any meal a feast, and it was just delicious. I'm sad to say the Mac and cheese didn't compete with Auntie Michelle's, however their pecan pie was to die for! It was a lot of fun. Their youngest son is nine, and while we were sitting there he said "So do you guys wanna listen to Michael Jackson? Or Tupac?" And it was the funniest thing ever, I laughed so hard. Sister King even said "I'm all jacked up on Mountain Dew!" They are great. And they have the two cutest pit bulls ever! He knows like so much from the scriptures and prophets its asinine. 

This week I also finished the New Testament in Spanish! The book of revelations sucks in Spanish and like every other verse has a JST to it, and if it doesn't there is a footnote to doctrine and covenants so it took me a while to get through it but it was still really cool. President Alba wants us all to read the 4 Gospels before Christmas so I'll be working on that in Spanish again. 

So there is this area in clearlake called The Parks. It's like dirt roads and spread out houses and it is SKETCH. Basically I've said I'm never going to pros walk there again because last time we were about a mile away from our car and then there was a turf war between some Mexicans and White Supremacists! Moral of the story- don't leave sight of the car in the Parks in case you have to make a get away. 

Onto the nicer part of our area. It's called Hidden Valley. It's a gated community from the Middletown Ward. We have to be on someone's guest list to get in so we usually call the members to get in. There are very few Hispanics and we can't tract, so basically we have to know where they live and have their phone number. It's weird. But it's on a mountain and there are deer everywhere. So we were turning right, Elder Hermann was looking to the left and was about to turn and while I was looking straight I saw a deer running towards us so I was like "DON'T TURN YET!" And we weren't even moving and the stupid deer ran right into our truck! The deer was fine, it just ran off and it didn't dent us since we weren't moving but it made me think of King of the Hill. And speaking of TV, there are some English members in Hidden Valley and their dog's name is Bender and so I asked them if they like Futurama and with that we became best friends!

On Sunday at 830 we were waiting for our part in Branch Council and the ward clerk asked us "so are you guys ready for your talks?" And we laughed and he said "wait, this isn't a joke. You mean no one told you? It's the new ones that came that are speaking." So Elder Rasch spoke for about 10 minutes and then Elder Ford for about 5 which put me speaking at 10:40 with 25 minutes left to speak. So I gave my temptation talk from Crescent City, but instead of a 15 minute talk I dragged that sucker out! I told the story about snake island, I talked about the Diaz family, I talked about the Barrett family, and when the part that I had written ended I opened up to Moses 1:39 and I was all "This is what God gets up for every morning! This is his full time job!" And then I talked about how the ward can help us and oh man, I was ticked that no one told us. So I talked for 25 minutes. But anyway, the stake president was there and when the senior couple told him after that no one had told us we were speaking he was CHAPPED. I MEAN CHAPPED. So anyway, he said we did good jobs and it was just a funny experience. 

Elder Ford turned 27 yesterday. Throughout the day we spanked him 27 times (each) and the people that gave us dinner made us a cake! 

So this super cool (English) investigator gave the other Elders a key to her garage where she has a full gym in return for watering her plants once a week. So we are waking up at 6 every day to work out. I'm eating big to get big, protein shake and 2 hard boiled eggs for breakfast, pb&j for a snack, steak and brown rice for lunch, granola bar for a snack, and then dinner. I'll be like a Polynesian by the time I get home!

Love you guys!

Week 91

So his last week has been cool. Here are some redeeming qualities of
Clearlake. The stars here are really, really pretty and full. Another
redeeming quality is that there is a member who washes and presses all
of our clothes for us. We just drop them off on Sunday nights and we
pick them up Mondays!

So in Clearlake there is a part of town called the Avenues. It's not
like the Salt Lake City Avenues that are nice and pretty. The Avenues
is a huge part of town with lots of dirt roads and a couple thousand
people live there. There are only two roads in the whole city that go
in or out of the avenues. 90% of the people there grow marijuana.
There are no streetlights and at night there are dogs that roam the
streets, if you can call them dogs. They are pit-Bulls and or German
shepards mixed with Wolves. That's not a joke, there are half wolves
roaming the streets. It's like if you mixed Fall Out 3 and Borderlands
you would pretty much be in the Avenues, but since I'm a missionary I
can only carry a knife.

We found a super cool lady named Reyna, she's Christian but doesn't
have a church. She let us in, we gave her a Book of Mormon and she
said that she would read it and she said that when she doesn't work on
Sunday she'll be a church! We also found a different lady named
Adriana, she's was funny. Less solid than Reyna, but we'll try her
again. I don't know why, but middle aged Mexican Women are my
specialty.

We had a fast as a zone to find families. To break the fast we had a
super sweet break the fast. We made quesadillas and cream cheese
stuffed bacon wrapped habaneros. It was way fun!

Basically I'm just finding a lot of joy in the members and
investigators. They are nice and it's been good so far!

Love you guys!

Nick

Week 90

So here I am writing from Clearlake, California! Did you guys know
that the toothbrush was invented in Clearlake? If it had been invented
anywhere else it would have been called the teethbrush!

I feel like it was way way way over a week ago that I was in Crescent
City. We bowled and had a good last time together as a district. I
said goodbye to the Tinsleys after P Day and we closed it off by one
last Jone's soda at the beach. That night Elder Mortenson and I drove
down to Arcata and we spent the night. The next morning we went to the
Eureka chapel and loaded our stuff into the transfer trailer and went
to Santa Rosa. In Santa Rosa I saw some of my best friends, Hna
Fernandez, Elder Spanish Tyson Smith, Elder Fonseca, and Elder Contla.
It was awesome. We had transfer devotional and then loaded up our
stuff in the truck and headed up to Lake County. I drove with Elder
Wright and Elder Delgado. We went to Taco Bell in Santa Rosa. The cool
part is that Guy Fieri or whatever his name is has a restaurant right
across the street called "Johnny Garlic's" it looks way good.

We are in an English Ward, the Highlands Ward, but really it should be
an English branch. It's smaller than the Vallejo and Woodland Spanish
branches by a huuuuge number. In my district is us, a companionship of
sisters who serve in the Middletown Ward, a senior couple, and english
elders from Kelseyville. One of them is 26, the other served half his
mission in the Ukraine and them got shipped over here when things hit
the fan. Elder Wright is my zone leader which is way awesome. We are
in a 5 man pad. Elder Kay is in his second transfer and is really
weird and doesn't really know how to talk to people, like not even us
as missionaries. Elder Rasch also lives with us, he's way sick. He was
born in Fairfield with Elder Wright so I've known him for a long time.
He's from Park City and the 5 of us are in the Highlands Ward.

We live super close to the lake, and the water is disgusting. I mean
Elder Rasch and I had diarrhea because of it. I bought 4 gallons of
water to get me through the week. The city is kind of just falling
apart. It's a huge meth and marijuana city. Every neighborhood is just
dirt roads or potholes and mobile homes.

We have a really cool family that we are teaching, the Batrez family.
They are super cool. They have been talking to missionaries for a long
time but have never come to church, so we are going to get them to
chuch!

That's about it for the week. Love you guys!

Nick

Week 89

It seems like only yesterday it was 10:25 at night when Elder Hastings
and I pulled in and smelled the ocean, heard a foghorn and sea lions
and I remember thinking 'Fetch. This is going to be a long couple
transfers.' Well it actually has been over really quickly, and I'm
actually sad I'm leaving! I don't even notice the foghorn every nine
seconds unless I'm listening for it. I'm going to Clearlake, Elder
Ford and Elder Herman will be my companions. I'm going to be a
district leader.

Last P Day we went bowling. I got third place with 113 points. After
that we went to the beach and we drank Jone's soda and enjoyed our
last P Day as a district. It was super beautiful, it's amazing living
out on the ocean.

We taught quite a few lessons, we found some hidden trailer parks
packed with Hispanics! We have like 10 more potentials than last week.
We taught the restoration to a new family and we picked them up. They
were way sweet, I'm so bummed to be leaving them.

On Friday night we had a ward thanksgiving dinner. Since Friday was
the night we were going to get transfer doctrine Brother Tinsley was
making predictions. He was AP, and so I said that his A.P.-ness was
showing. Elder Hastings started laughing way hard, and that was when I
had realized what I said (accidentally) and so we were all laughing.
Brother Tinsley was like "what's so funny? My A.P.-ness is showing?"
And then he caught it and we started laughing so hard. If you don't
get it, don't worry about it. But it was funny.

On Saturday we did a blitz in Gasquet. It was way fun, we met a lot of
crazy people. Like honestly Gasquet is where horror movies take place
because it's in the forest and so many people are unmedicated
schizophrenics but it was actually way cool. We found Madame Gasquet's
grave. She's the lady that founded Gasquet or something. Anyway here's
a picture

Week 88

So this week has been a good week! The work is picking up in Spanish, we were able to teach 5 Spanish lessons, which is definitely a step up from where we were while we were doing English and Spanish. This week there was a ton of rain at the beginning of the week, but since Friday the rain has stopped and it's been sunny! However with the stupid time change it is dark at 6 when we finish dinner so we can't really tract after dinner. This week hasn't really been as interesting as some past weeks, so this might not be as long of an email as you guys usually get, but I'll do my best! Every day (except Monday and Halloween) we contacted 20-40 people! And about half were Hispanic.

So I'll talk about Halloween first. We weekly planned during the day, and President Alba told us to stay inside at night, so for dinner we went to the Simmon's house, which is a Colombian family. They made papa murphys pizza and played uno. Yesid and I talked about Colombia for a long time, about the economy and the culture. I felt pretty intelligent having a conversation like that all in Spanish. The only problem is I realized I'm too Mexican! I said the word "guero" and he was all "como? Que dijo?" And I said "que chido!" And he was all "como?" I'm just too Mexican. We should go to Costa Rica and get it taken out of me ;) But after that we went back to the pad, drank Jones soda and ate warheads. 

Yesterday we went to a potential's house and he was having a carne Asada, he told us that if we shared ate tacos with his salsa we could share a message with everyone there. So we ate it, it was spicy and made out of habaneros and we shared about the Book of Mormon. So that was all good and then at night we went to a less active family's house and taught them about family history. Well the 18 year old kid is coming back into the church strong, he loves us a ton, he's like one of my best friends. Well when the lesson is over he says "hey Elder a Foster! You should eat a habanero with me" so like any Spanish missionary I heated up a corn tortilla, rolled it up, took a bite and put in the whole habanero. Well it was spicy, but I obviously handled it. However at about four in the morning it was a different story saben que....

So one last story! In first Ward there is this guy named Patrick. He has kind of a funny raspy voice and he's an old man. Elder Mortenson does a pretty good impression of his voice, and we had all heard it before. We I had never met him before until Saturday. We were out knocking doors in an apartment complex. This guy answers the door in the shortest pink bathrobe ever and he says "hey boythhhssss" and immediately I knew that it was the infamous Patrick because of the impressions, and I had the biggest smile on my face, and it was all that I could do to not laugh. Well elder Payne didn't catch on, they start talking and then Elder Payne asks if he is a member and so he says "yes, I'm Patrick" and at that point I just couldn't contain myself, I started laughing but pretending to cough like I was having an allergy attack and elder Payne covered for me way good. I owe him. It was hilarious. 

For our last P Day as this district we are going bowling and having a competition. I probably won't win, but elder Mortenson and Hastings bought me an XXL Wu Tang Clan shirt at Wal Mart for $5 (they owed me anyway) and so it's my good luck shirt. Remember, "Cash Rules Everying Around Me." 

Love you guys!

Elder Foster

Week 87

What a week in Crescent City! So it's been a good week, there's been lots of crazy stuff and even some new changes. So I guess I'll start out with the biggest news with a big front page headliner "History Made as Crescent City Receives a Spanish Area!" Yes, Elder Payne and I are now full Spanish missionaries. Elder Mallory and Elder Evans, the former 1st Ward Klamath Missionaries are serving in 2nd Ward- and our members are looooving it (the fact that they came from 1st Ward increases their pride level about 9000000x). So that was cool! The lame stuff- they brought up a new car, a 2011 Ford Fusion. And since the normal 1st Ward elders are now covering Klamath where they need one, we lost our Jeep. We got a 2014 Corolla, so I shouldn't complain. In addition to that since there are now 2 companionships in 2nd Ward and only 1 in 1st Ward we had to move apartments to the 4 man pad. Lame because our 2 man pad was nice and we had plenty of shower time, nice because I like Elder Mallory and we are now on the 1st floor. He likes Four Year Strong and plays drums. He's from Seattle. It's way nice because up here in CC the work in English was progressing too fast and we didn't have time for Spanish work. Now we will be able to continue working with our Hispanics. On Monday we had an FHE with a family from Colombia. They really like us a lot, I'm not sure if I've told you about them. It's a sister, Yami, who served a mission, speaks English, and is active. Her brother is Yesid, he moved here a year ago and is learning English fast. He was an architect in Colombia and now he cleans a hotel, he hates it. He also served a mission. Their sister Lina moved in about 3 months ago and she doesn't speak any English and doesn't come to church. So Monday's are pretty much family home evening nights with them now. Last week when we finished they showed us a video from YouTube called "que difícil es hablar el español" it's actually a way funny song, you guys should watch it! Or dad at least. 

As far as finding goes, it's been way cool because we are trying to do it intelligently and with the Spirit. We are able to go proselyting in 1st Ward's are since ALL of Crescent City is our area! Actually funny story. While we were tracting we found a White Power guy in 1st Ward's area, and since we are Spanish we have to pass off the English speakers to the other Elders, and Elder Hastings, from 1st Ward, is black. So we're kind of not sure if they should go visit him. But actually we have been finding at least 1 Hispanic potential telling us that we can come back a day (1 is the lowest, we usually find between 5-10), and we are getting lots and lots and lots of referrals from the members. In addition to that, I feel like we just have a ton of freedom to do what we want. We are in uncharted territory, we really have to rely on the Spirit and we need to be guided to the right places. The thing is there really aren't that many Hispanics in Crescent City, but we've been finding them. It's really cool and we are loving it. We are still working hard, but it's different than the work we were doing before. Before we were teaching and teaching and helping people prepare for baptism. Right now we are finding and laying the foundation for the future Spanish Missionaries to come to a developed area. It's fun and it's cool to know that we've been trusted this stewardship. 

Saturday was a craaaazy day. We woke up and started jogging and the wind coming off of the ocean was super super strong so we headed back and the second we walked into the apartment he rain just started pouring and I mean it was just pounding, probably the biggest rainstorm I've ever been in. Well it didn't stop all morning, at around 9 the power went out without any sign of stopping. Well we thought that since we couldn't proselyte in 35 mph wind (we learned that it was that strong after the storm had stopped) we decided to go watch the waves hit the jetty, which is this long skinny stretch of land that leads out to a lighthouse. We parked where in places the pins and we watched the waves. 

The waves were like 15-25 feet high hitting over it and it was just the coolest thing ever. Nature is pretty awe inspiring and it just increases your testimony of God. So we went back to the apartment until out of nowhere the rain stopped at like 1 and so at 115 we were out knocking doors. The power was out until 545, and then it came back on. Normally I'm not the kind of guy who will just stay inside during the rain, but you guys have to understand it was like a mini hurricane, it was scary! Like they say, when you tract in the rain your future wife loses weight. Since the power was out and the member that had signed up for dinner couldn't cook she went up to Brookings and brought us down some Wild Rivers Pizza, we have to go when we go on our trip up the coast! It's really good pizza. I'm so tired of crappy pizza as a missionary. Wild Rivers was definitely and change of pace as far as the quality of the pizza that we usually get. On my first day back all I want to do is go to the Pie and listen to the Clash. 

So I learned something cool in my studies. In 1 Nefi 10:17,19 Nefi is like (mufosta's interpretation of the scriptures "I wanna understand more about these visions, and the Spirit can teach me all of this stuff because the Spirit will teach all truth." And then in chapter 11:1 he's pondering about it all (because reading pondering and praying is how the Spirit answers our questions) and he is overcome by the Spirit. Then in verse 16 the Spirit says "Nefi! Do you pick up what I'm laying down?" And then in 17 Nefi is like "Well, I know God loves his children, but I'm not understanding everything" and then from that point on the Spirit teaches him what he doesn't understand. So it's ok not to know everything, but when we don't know stuff we shouldn't just be satisfied, we should be like Nefi, and try to learn and understand and the Spirit will teach us. 

Another cool thing- I found a friend in Mexico on Facebook awhile ago and she decided to serve a mission while we were talking and she's going into the MTC on Monday and will be going to the LA mission! Also my boy Elder Eloy Fonseca came back into the mission today!mi have no idea where he is, but I hope he's my next comp! 

Last thing's last. On Halloween basically we aren't doing anything. It's just weekly planning and then stay in the apartments. So speaking of crappy pizza we are going to buy little ceasers and martinellis and we will pop bottles. Something about Halloween just isn't right without the sounds of Oingo Boingo (Dad, I know that you're mad at Danny Elfman, but Oingo Boingo is the best Halloween band of all time. Just face it.). I'm going to miss "Punk Rock Halloween" and "Skalloween" but the good thing is I'll be there next year and all night long I'll be reliving my memories of SSAS covering Suicide Machines, Problem Daughter covering Dead Kennedys, and The Mooks covering The Misfits. Good times. Can you guys believe that it was 4 years ago when The Donner Dance Party played at Skalloween at Kilby Court? Jeez I can't. Time flies. 

Well, I love you guys! Have a good Halloween!

Elder Foster