November 7, 2016
So...my new companion is here now and all is back to normal in Cypress Creek. We have been bringing a whole bunch of less active members back to the ward (we have PLENTY to choose from) and it has been totally awesome. We got a new senior couple in the ward (full time missionaries) who devote all of their time to just helping us out. That is going to help the work here grow a lot.
My companion is from Blackfoot Idaho (just outside of Rexburg) and played basketball in high school and all that good stuff. He Is the nicest guy and super humble which is the greatest! He is an awesome missionary and is only on his third transfer. It's awesome to see how amazing missionaries can be haha. We get along really well and get some awesome work done.
Elder Thomas (lives with me) and I are keeping on each other about working out hard, which is helping a lot. He has diabetes so he needs to go on walks every morning so we get up early and go on a walk then come back and work out and do push ups before leaving, so that's going super well. I haven't been this healthy in a while haha.
The other missionary in our house is on his last transfer, which is always way fun!
He saved up a lot of money so he could just go crazy this last transfer, which is hilarious. Being around dying missionaries is always super fun because they are kind of all crazy. I love the house with all these Elders, and the ward is getting super awesome too. Our bishop is getting more into actually being a bishop and everything is beginning to run really smooth (despite the fact that pretty much no one in the ward speaks English... but that's another story).
We have a whole bunch of trainings this month. President is wanting to start doing zone trainings every month, instead of every other, which is great because I love zone training. And it means I get one week off from doing District Training every transfer now which is kind of a relief, hah.
My trainer is an AP now and is going to be going on exchange with me this week, so that's going to be the best reunion ever. I am so excited to be able to work with him again (even just for a day).
Love you all,
Elder Foster
November 14, 2016
This week was full of awesome miracles. I went on three exchanges, which was super fun, and I saw my trainer again! :D He is the bestest. I have learned a lot this week considering all of the exchanges were with people older then me in the mission. This was super nice considering I haven't had a missionary companion "older" than me (in mission age) since transfer three, so it is nice to be able to learn from their wisdom and understanding of how missionary work works. I have learned a lot about talking to people and qualifying for miracles this week and how through our faith and diligence we qualify for miracles from God. I have experienced this personally a couple of times this week. Here are two main miracles I wanted to highlight.
Miracle Number One:
We got a referral text from Salt Lake on Friday night which didn't have a source on it (usually it will say "discover.mormon.org" or "from an ad" or "self referral" or something like that) which was strange because it had all of her info on it (name, phone #, house address, etc.) So we decided to go see her to find out what she wants and to try to teach. We show up at her house unannounced and her mother is there and she tells us to come back the next day to see J. So we give J a call and she is confused out of her mind about who we are, but we finally convince her to let us come and talk to her the next day, so we do. We do a get to know you kind of thing and then teach her the restoration, during which we realize that she never did a referral for herself and she has never seen or heard of this church or met missionaries. MIND BLOWN. But she accepted a baptismal date after the lesson and she came to church yesterday with her three little babies (who are super cute!!) We quite literally got a referral text from God...which was totally awesome. We are going back tonight to teach her and her family! Boom! Miracle! Right there!
Miracle Number Two:
So our ward is super diverse with many different cultures and languages and such. A Spanish speaking member has been bringing one of her friends to church because she is going through a rough time right now. We have tried to get in contact with her to teach her, but the members have been kept keeping us away because they didn't want us to scare the friend away or commit her too quickly... until yesterday when this sister gave us a call after church that K [the friend] wanted a blessing and scheduled us to give her one at 8:30. We were so excited, so we got our bishop on board too and all met up there. When we got there K and her SUPER ADORABLE DAUGHTER (side story, her daughter loves me for some reason and always runs up to me to hold my hand to go into church :') man she is the cutest little girl ever) are inside of the house so we all go in and talk for a bit to get to know her better. After a good conversation about what she needed comfort for, we gave her the blessing. Everyone was crying and the Spirit was so strong that she instantly wanted to know more about what makes the Mormons so joyful all of the time. We are going to go back and talk to her more on Wednesday. We are going to take baby steps with her, but I know she will progress with such a strong start already and such amazing members to support her!
Those were the two main miracles I wanted to talk about this week because they were so flipping awesome and helped to grow my testimony too. Elder Poulter and I have made some awesome changes to our missionary work this week and have already seen so much progress in our area...it's the BEST!
Love you all!
Elder Foster
So...my new companion is here now and all is back to normal in Cypress Creek. We have been bringing a whole bunch of less active members back to the ward (we have PLENTY to choose from) and it has been totally awesome. We got a new senior couple in the ward (full time missionaries) who devote all of their time to just helping us out. That is going to help the work here grow a lot.
My companion is from Blackfoot Idaho (just outside of Rexburg) and played basketball in high school and all that good stuff. He Is the nicest guy and super humble which is the greatest! He is an awesome missionary and is only on his third transfer. It's awesome to see how amazing missionaries can be haha. We get along really well and get some awesome work done.
Elder Thomas (lives with me) and I are keeping on each other about working out hard, which is helping a lot. He has diabetes so he needs to go on walks every morning so we get up early and go on a walk then come back and work out and do push ups before leaving, so that's going super well. I haven't been this healthy in a while haha.
The other missionary in our house is on his last transfer, which is always way fun!
He saved up a lot of money so he could just go crazy this last transfer, which is hilarious. Being around dying missionaries is always super fun because they are kind of all crazy. I love the house with all these Elders, and the ward is getting super awesome too. Our bishop is getting more into actually being a bishop and everything is beginning to run really smooth (despite the fact that pretty much no one in the ward speaks English... but that's another story).
We have a whole bunch of trainings this month. President is wanting to start doing zone trainings every month, instead of every other, which is great because I love zone training. And it means I get one week off from doing District Training every transfer now which is kind of a relief, hah.
My trainer is an AP now and is going to be going on exchange with me this week, so that's going to be the best reunion ever. I am so excited to be able to work with him again (even just for a day).
Love you all,
Elder Foster
November 14, 2016
This week was full of awesome miracles. I went on three exchanges, which was super fun, and I saw my trainer again! :D He is the bestest. I have learned a lot this week considering all of the exchanges were with people older then me in the mission. This was super nice considering I haven't had a missionary companion "older" than me (in mission age) since transfer three, so it is nice to be able to learn from their wisdom and understanding of how missionary work works. I have learned a lot about talking to people and qualifying for miracles this week and how through our faith and diligence we qualify for miracles from God. I have experienced this personally a couple of times this week. Here are two main miracles I wanted to highlight.
Miracle Number One:
We got a referral text from Salt Lake on Friday night which didn't have a source on it (usually it will say "discover.mormon.org" or "from an ad" or "self referral" or something like that) which was strange because it had all of her info on it (name, phone #, house address, etc.) So we decided to go see her to find out what she wants and to try to teach. We show up at her house unannounced and her mother is there and she tells us to come back the next day to see J. So we give J a call and she is confused out of her mind about who we are, but we finally convince her to let us come and talk to her the next day, so we do. We do a get to know you kind of thing and then teach her the restoration, during which we realize that she never did a referral for herself and she has never seen or heard of this church or met missionaries. MIND BLOWN. But she accepted a baptismal date after the lesson and she came to church yesterday with her three little babies (who are super cute!!) We quite literally got a referral text from God...which was totally awesome. We are going back tonight to teach her and her family! Boom! Miracle! Right there!
Miracle Number Two:
So our ward is super diverse with many different cultures and languages and such. A Spanish speaking member has been bringing one of her friends to church because she is going through a rough time right now. We have tried to get in contact with her to teach her, but the members have been kept keeping us away because they didn't want us to scare the friend away or commit her too quickly... until yesterday when this sister gave us a call after church that K [the friend] wanted a blessing and scheduled us to give her one at 8:30. We were so excited, so we got our bishop on board too and all met up there. When we got there K and her SUPER ADORABLE DAUGHTER (side story, her daughter loves me for some reason and always runs up to me to hold my hand to go into church :') man she is the cutest little girl ever) are inside of the house so we all go in and talk for a bit to get to know her better. After a good conversation about what she needed comfort for, we gave her the blessing. Everyone was crying and the Spirit was so strong that she instantly wanted to know more about what makes the Mormons so joyful all of the time. We are going to go back and talk to her more on Wednesday. We are going to take baby steps with her, but I know she will progress with such a strong start already and such amazing members to support her!
Those were the two main miracles I wanted to talk about this week because they were so flipping awesome and helped to grow my testimony too. Elder Poulter and I have made some awesome changes to our missionary work this week and have already seen so much progress in our area...it's the BEST!
Love you all!
Elder Foster