¡Hola!
Long time, no see! Last week was crazy and I didn't have enough time to write, but I'm here now! All is well, all is well! Anyway, FIRST! Thank you so much for all the birthday wishes they meant the world to me! You could say that my birthday this year was a little different than usual, but is was still amazing! I had a total of 3 birthday dinners, 2 birthday cakes, and a ton of love and support right here in beautiful Mexico! Along with all the birthday craziness, these past 2 weeks have been insane. The first amazing experience was that we had an amazing baptism last Sunday! She had been investing the church for THREE YEARS and finally she recieved her answer to be baptized. Not only did her whole family come, but a lot of Elders who had taught her in the past were able to come as well. We were 16 Elders in total including the Zone Leaders. One of the Elders brought his guitar and we sang ``I'm Trying to be Like Jesus`` for a special musical number. It was an incredible experience that I will never be able to forget. I felt the spirit so strong during the service. I didn't perform the baptism, but I confirmed her yesterday. It's the best experience in the world to be able to witness the Restored Gospel work miracles and bring incredible blessings into the lives of others. For that, being a missionary is the best!! Last week we recieved another companion! We are officially a trio! Annnddd....he's another white kid from Utah! Tres güeros! As if we already didn't get enough strange looks in the street! His name is Elder Colledge and I think we are going to work really well together! The logistics of 3 Elders is a little awkard at times, but we are doing well. Besides, Elder Kleven only has 3 weeks left, so we won't be in a trio for long. I wasn't able to write on Monday because we switched our P-day in order to go to the temple on Wednesday. It was probably one of the best birthday presents I could have had. The temple just brings so much peace and perspective into your life. It is definitely a sanctuary in this sometimes crazy world. Also, I invited my MTC teacher and dear friend Hermano Hernandez and he showed up!!! It was so good to see him again and catch up! He is one of the best human beings alive and I will never stop learning from his wonderful example. After the temple, we went to different sites around the city and enjoyed the rest of our day! So, this week has been a bit crazy. However, the best part is that it is officially Christmas season!!! Last night we went to the temple with a bunch of investigators to watch the illumination of the Christmas lights around the temple grounds. Two of my favorite things: Christmas and the Temple. It was a perfect night. The lights were beautiful and it made me think of all of you back home and all of your Christmas festivities!!! Make sure you celebrate even more this year to make up for my absence! But more importantly, remember why this is the best time of the year and why it makes us so happy, ``For unto you is born this day in the city of David aSaviour, which is Christ the Lord.`` (Luke 2:11). At this time we celebrate the greatest gift humanity has ever recieved. In order to truly prepare for Christmas watch this video http://bcove.me/39wolkwx and visit https://www.mormon.org/christmas. Be sure to share this wonderful message too! Now, hug someone for me and tell them Merry Christmas!!! I'm just so flippin' excited!!! Anyways, I love all of you so much and I'm so grateful to have such wonderful people like you in my life! Love, Elder Foust
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As most of you probably noticed, Carson was unable to write this week. Since it was his birthday week, he was able to attend the Mexico City Temple. As missionaries they don't get to attend very often so that is a treat. So his P-day was changed to Wednesday then he ran out of time. We got a very short, three sentence message stating that he was able to read most of your messages, but was unable to respond and will write "tons" on Monday. Today is his birthday and if you haven't already done so, please write a note, letter, send a picture or whatever you would like. He especially loves actual physical letters since he can read them without a computer. His address is to the right. If you want to send him a picture or two you can email them or place them in his Dropbox at https://www.dropbox.com/home/Carson's%20Birthday%20Bash
Thank you all so much for your support. He loves hearing from you all and is very appreciative of the interest you have in his mission. Hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving and a great holiday season. Craig Foust ¡Hola!
Well, I've been feeling a little weird lately. Next week I'll be done with my training and I'll have a new companion. Well, an additional companion. Elder Kleven leaves in the middle of a cycle (2 days before Christmas which is pretty cool...for him), so we'll be in a trio for a month. There's also tons of missionaries going home this cycle or the next and most of them are leaders. It seems like my entire mission will change since it has been the same these past few months. I know it will be strange when Kleven leaves and especiallly weird when I leave my first area. The thought of leaving these incredibly people is hard and I'm watching my companion say goodbye to to it all. Mexico, the people, the mission. I know that will eventually be me too, so that's hard to think about. Luckily I have a long way to go. I have more important things to worry about, like another baptism this week! Our investigator is the best and is so excited. We've been meeting with her often to make sure she's feeling good and ready. Her family is very Catholic (she was very Catholic, too) and her mom was pretty mad about her decision. She was also scared to tell her father. However, everytime we see her she tells us she has never before felt so much peace and happiness. She even introduced us to a friend of her's this week who has three kids and is super interested in the church. See! She's already an awesome member, providing references and sharing the gospel! We went to stake conference with her and President Stutz was there. He talked to her and congratulated her on her baptism. Then, he told us he wants to come if he can. I can't wait! So, that's my news for this week. Hopefully everyone is doing well and getting ready for Christmas. I've been listening to Christmas music since the beginning of October! If you haven't yet, start now!! Also, thanks to everyone who has sent me letters. They are my favorite and I am so thankful for the love and support! I WILL write back sometime, soonish,eventually. I love you all like crazy, have a good week! con muchismo amor, Elder Foust ¡Hola!
So as usual, it has been a tremendous week here in good ole Mexico City. Great country, great food, great people. Just living the dream! The work has been amazing! We found 3 families this week to teach and they all seem super excited to learn about the Gospel! Until now we haven't had too many complete families to teach so it's an awesome blessing from the Lord to have met these wonderfully prepared people. We also were told yesterday that a investigator of 2 years (she's been through A LOT of different missionaries) recieved her answer and wants to be baptized as soon as possible!! She is literally the best and I can't be anymore excited! Well, that's it as far as work goes. In random, crazy, Mexico news, we buried a dog in our backyard Friday...WE DIDN'T DO ANYTHING! ¡No se preocupen! One of the members told us that a dog was hit by a car and it was just put in a box on the street. The members we live with said it was okay to bury it in the backyard and of course we came to help. I'm not sure how long it was there in the street, but it smelled terrrrible! It was also kind of weird just digging a grave in the dark. And of course it was sad, too. Now in random, embarassing Elder Foust news, I discovered on Sunday that I can't be trusted eating mole. It was our turn to eat at the Bishop's 2nd counselor's house and of course we had mole. He just barely told us to be careful because mole is messy and stains like crazy. Well, we had it enchulada style and the tortillas were super hard. I was trying to cut one and the tortilla smashed into a big ole puddle of mole. The set up was a perfect for launching mole in the direction of the 2nd counselor's clean, white shirt. I was mortified. It was all over and mole stains are unforgivable. Luckily, the 2nd counselor and his family are beyond chill and thought it was hilarious. I was still sooo embarassed. Anyway, I don't have too much time to share many more crazy, embarassing stories. Hopefully I'll get up all the pictures from the past few weeks up next week. I love you all and hope you have a great week! Love, Elder Foust
¡Hola! WELL, this week was just full of crazy, awesome things! We had divisions, a visit from a Seventy, and of course...Halloween/Dia de los Muertos! We started divisons Monday night. I left with Elder Hernàndez from Monterrey. He knows a lot of English, but I took advantage of practicing my Spanish 24/7. I think it helped me a lot more in the lessons, too! Definitely one of many things I learned from my first divisions experience. That and the other Elders have a waaayy better apartment then ours (not at all jealous). Elder Hernàndez is super cool and it was fun to learn more about his life back in Monterrey. So, that was Monday-Tuesday and on Wednesday, Elder Nielson and his wife visited our mission. Elder Nielson is an Area Seventy and Chairman of the Mission Committee (basically in charge of all the missionary work in the entire world). He and his wife not only spoke to us, but held training sessions and answered our doctrine based questions. My mind was about to explode with all the incredible inspiration and knowledge I recieved! I learned so many amazing things that will not only help me be a better missionary, but a better child of God as well. One of my favorite things he taught was an example he used about the importance of obeying the commandments of God. He explains that someone who wants to challenge or test one of God's laws is like someone who wants to test the Law of Gravity. We can't see Gravity, so how do we know it's important or even there? In his example, a man stands at the top of a 5 story building and jumps, to test this ¨Law.¨ He falls to the 4th and 3rd floor and feels completely fine. Maybe even thinks he was right all along. At the 2nd his feelings change and by the 1st he realizes that he made a big mistake. However, it's too late and he hits the ground. Sometimes it's hard to understand and follow all of God's commandments. Maybe it feels as though there are no real consequences in disobeying them. However as Elder Nielson said, ¨the ground always come.¨ He definitely explained it much better. Anyway, the last thing of course was Halloween weekend!! I think my Halloween this year was just a tad different than usual. We had to go in after lunch at 4:00 to be safe, so we took care of all our festivities before that. Including, Trick or Treating. Yes, missionaries can trick or treat too IF they are amazing English teachers and are explaining US traditions to a bunch of Mexicans. It was awesome! For English class we bought a bunch of candy and had our students knock, say trick or treat, and talk to us in English in order to get candy. It was fun seeing full grown adults trick or treating and asking for candy in broken English. Definitely an unforgettable experience! After all that excitement, I bought a bunch of Pan de Muerte and we studied the rest of the night! FUN! On Sunday the only festive thing I tried was dulce de Calabaza which tasted like the smell of Halloween. Definitely interesting. Hopefully you all had an amazing Halloween and ate waay to much candy!! Oh! And today I got a lot of letters so 1) Thank you so much for your love and support (I will respond to all of them, eventually) 2) The mail has been reliable so far and doesn't take too long. Thanks again for everything! I'll try to get more pictures up more often, too. Love you, BYE! con muchismo amor, Elder Foust Carson wanted to share this video about the opportunities all around us to share the gospel with others. https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2013-06-1031-ill-go-where-you-want-me-to-go?lang=eng |
To email Elder Foust, his address is: [email protected] Archives
July 2017
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