¡Hola!
So, it's been a suprisingly great first week with my new responsiblity as district leader. I was certain without anyone changing that it wouldn't happen but, SURPRISE!! Oh life, you make me want to laugh/cry/sleep...definitely sleep. Anyway, since changes were on Monday, we had our district meeting tuesday morning. First one as DL so AND the zone leaders were coming too so I was a little nervous. However, everything came together great as I studied the night before and I felt pretty comfortable. Especially since I already know my district pretty well. I definitely was prepared even more by taking the reports for the past 2 weeks. Probably the best situation to start as a new leader. The blessings are raining down like crazy and I'm definitely accepting all the help I can. I think things will go pretty O.K. Other than that this week was pretty chill without anything too exciting. We did have a fun time celebrating Mother's Day! Here in Mexico it's the 10th of May (last tuesday) so we had a little Ward party on Saturday. There was amazing food (pozole, my favorite) and they had some people show their talents. All dedicated to las mamás de barrio arboleda! Right before we were about to leave, they played lots of music and started dancing. Of course I was dying to stay by that point. It was all good except one tiny detail that may have included me singing terrible (There is absolutely no video evidence so don't even ask (especially Johnson)). Oh Mexico, what have you done to me? Today we played basketball with the zone leaders and some other members/elders. I was pretty terrible and Johnson schooled me a couple times. He's still not cool though, just so you know. Afterwards, we ate some of the most delicious tacos ever. It was basically tacos of amazingly juicy and delicious steak. Cameron and Dad would have been in heaven. So, it was a good Pday. Now, I just have to go give district meeting #2. Pray for me.... Love, Elder Foust
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¡Hola!
First things first, NO CHANGES! I'm just a little excited. We have a lot of work to do here in this area and I felt my time wasn't quite finished. Actually, most of the zone doesn't have changes. There's only like 2 zones in the entire mission that have a lot of changes as far as I know. A lot of my friends back in Pantitlan all have changes. But we lucked out. Well, I lucked out. I'm pretty sure Elder Johnson is dreading the thought of spending 6 more long weeks with this crazy elder. Well, not too much to report since the last time I wrote. Just the fact that I got to see my wonderful family through Skype Sunday night. It was wonderful of course to actually get to tell my mom ¨Happy Mother's Day¨ (after Cooper so kindly reminded me that I had forgotten to do so during the call). An incredible experience that I'll have to wait another 8 months to have once again. However, by that time I'll only have 6 month left on the mission. Now that's weird to think about. Anyway, I love and miss everyone and hope you have an awesome week. I'll be sure to include a bit more information the next time around. ¡Que estén bien! Love, Elder Foust Note from the family back home... It was so exciting to get to skype with Carson on Sunday. He looks and sounds great! He gave us a little tour of the church building and gave us insights into living in Mexico. The mission president's wife was in the hospital for 10 days for a serious staff infection in her leg and from her body's reaction to the antibiotics so that is why not too many changes were made this transfer. (She is home and doing much better now) Anyway, he emailed back later in the evening with a quick note that he had just been called to the District Leader! ¡HOLA!
So, I'm slowly turning into a puddle of melted gringo in this heat and pretty soon I'll be wearing black shirts! Other than that, this week was good. One thing not so good was that we ended up not having our baptism. Our investigator felt it was too soon and is still a little worried about what his family will think. We have it scheduled for this Saturday and he passed his interview and everything, but still a little worried. We've been working really hard with him and he is a total champ with an awesome testimony. It's not a matter of if he will be baptized but when. The work has been going good though. It just stinks that there's changes coming up next week and I or Elder Johnson could leave. We'll find out Saturday. It could be a really really sad day, or a really really happy one. Luckily, I know that no matter what happens, it will be what's truly best for me, Johnson, and this area. I just have to be patient, trust God, and work hard no matter what the situation. The changes this week are different, too. They are on Monday at 3:00, so we don't quite have as much time to say our goodbyes. Patience, trust, work. To make this week even more interesting, our District Leader lost his phone and the Zone Leaders asked me to take the reports and play 'District Leader' this week. It's been a little stressful on top of everything else, but I definitely have a different perspective of things and I'm learning a lot. Well, that's all I can remember (and this extremely hot internet cafe does not make it any easier to remember), so I'll leave you all with that. The temple was amazing today, like always. A perfect relief from all this chaos. ALSO! I skype home Sunday!!!!!! Shveeet! Well, have a great week! Love, Elder Foust The roller coaster life of a missionary... busy with great investigators and then plumbing problems.4/26/2016 ¡HOLA!
Another crazy, crazy week in Chimalhuacan, State of Mexico (googlemap it si quieres). The incredible blessings from last week definitely have not stopped this week! We have been very blessed with plenty of work and people to teach. We even had an awesome service project with our zone and an other, plus a ward activity where we took people to the temple visitor's center. Also, we've had tons of rain to help cool us down and save us from the heat for a few days. Of course the rain did have some not-so-good side effects and I may or may not have been a little sick. BUT! With the ups, there has got to be a few downs. So like I said, the work has been great and we're actually preparing for a couple baptisms this week and next! SUPER EXCITED FOR THAT! It'll be the first baptism in a while. It's just perfect. Plus, we have so many citas, it's hard to fit everyone in throughout the week! We've also had some great lessons and experiences, too. Like, I think I had the best contact I've ever had on my mission. We knocked on the door, she answered, Johnson taught a little bit about families and she let us come in. Not too common for them to let us in that very moment and so quickly, but wait....there's more! She asks us to sit then yells for her mom and sister. Right when her mom sees us she says, ¨finally¨ and starts to cry a little bit. That has definitely not happened yet. I figured she had already met with missionaries or had an experience with the church before, but no. She didn't even know who we were exactly or what church we belonged to. BUT! She told us she knows God sent us and that we were exactly what her family needed. Sadly, this amazing lady doesn´t actually live here, but wants us to send the missionaries over to her home. Luckily though, her family wants to listen and we are definitely excited to teach them. The rain was gladly recieved after last week's miserable heat. However, it rained like... a lot. And alllll that excess water caused some pretty terrible problems with our plumbing. Problems such as, our shower erupting with....stuff and us having to clean it and get things fixed up a bit. It was a pretty crappy experience. Also, accompanied with the rain one day was a bit of hail and high winds. We got soaked and hailed on, but I love storms and it made me think of home. The crazy change of temperature must of weakened my defenses too, because Thursday I woke up a little sick. I didn't feel good at all and sleep most of the morning. By lunch, I thought I was finally good and left to eat a little then work. However, I was really not okay after all and got sick all over again. I've been lucky so far in my mission and really haven't been sick so I guess it was just my time. ANYWAY! It was another great, interesting week as usual. Next week we are heading to the temple on Wednesday so I won't write on Monday (thought I'd give a heads up this time). You'll all just have to wait a tiny bit longer! Love you guys!!! Elder Foust ¡Hola!
Ok. So this week was AMAZING! Probably one of the best weeks I've had so far in the mission. This week was one big 'ole grand blessing from the Lord. We needed new investigators...BAM! At least one everyday and they are incredibly prepared people. We needed to know how to get these wonderful people to church....BOOM! We had amazing training sessions with our leaders twice this week focusing on just that, helping people come to church on Sunday. We have literally been given everything that we've asked for. Okay then! The Lord did His part, now it'sour time to do our part and help these people feel the Spirit of the Lord and grow closer to Him. Seriously though.....It was a great, successful week that definitely made me so grateful to be a missionary and see so clearly how the Lord can direct our lives. Well, the work is amazing and spirits are higher than ever. A definite highlight of the week was doing divisions with the zone leaders. We both went over to their area early to study (eat delicious, mouthwatering tacos for breakfast) and work with them after. We separated, Elder Johnson left with Elder Gibson and I with Elder Figueroa. It was incredible. Elder Figs is an amazing missionary and awesome person in general. I learned so much and had fun talking with him all day. I was a little nervious when I found out we would do division with the zone leaders. However, it turned out to be a great experience. Another interesting thing that has been happening to me is that I can't speak, well...any language now. My mind is a big 'ole bowl of english and spanish and I speak one thinking the other and speak a dangerous amount of spanglish. Someone told me that there is an awkward stage in your mission where this happens, so hopefully it passes fast. Mainly because I keep making a fool out of myself in lessons. Yesterday, I was teaching an investigator how to pray and I said loud and clear "Heavenly Father" in english and the rest in spanish. What's worse is that I kind of continued because I THOUGHT I SPOKE SPANISH BECAUSE THAT'S WHAT I WAS THINKING! Elder Johnson and the investigator just laughed at me. Also, one time there was this long pause in a lesson and I start the discussion again by saying "BUUUUUT..." Long and drawn out like. The investigator didn't realize and I just played it off and continued going on. It's very frustrating...I JUST WANT TO BE CURED!! Especially because it just gives Johnson more reasons to make fun of me... Well then, great week in the work, interesting week in the spanglish mind of Elder Foust. I love you all and hope you have a great week! con love, Elder Foust ¡Jell-o!
(I'm so sorry for that...) Well, this week went fast and overall pretty well. We're working hard and finding more people every week. Now the key is to find people who are truly interested and want to come to church! We work hard, we find, we teach, and we commit, but Sunday morning comes and pocos investigators make it. It has definitely been our focus these past week. It's a little disheartening to work so hard during the week and be disappointed during the services on Sunday. HOWEVER! YA NO MÂS!! We have great lessons, great experiences and I know with diligence and lots of patience, we will see the fruits of our labors someday. Working hard, planting seeds. Sometimes it's pretty easy to be discouraged. Especially when I'm training and can't really blame Elder Johnson because he's pretty great at everything (if anyone tells him that I will find you). Normally I'm pretty optimistic but missions are hard and there's this guy called Sàtanas that really doesn't like anything we're doing here. My optimism has been tried like never before and I still have a long way to go in Mexico (and in life in general) so I'll just have to fight harder than ever. Other than that our only truly interesting and super-crazy busy day was Saturday. In the morning we taught a group of youth (youthz...) a bit about missionary work and what they could do to prepare now. It was a stake youth activity where the youth recieved mission calls and trained at the MTC where we were their teachers. Our entire zone went and we each had our own class of about 30. It went super well and I loved teaching them. After that, we had our english class but all the rooms were taken for the activity so we had our class outside in the shade. We had to cancel last week for conference and didn't want to kill the whole english class idea before it really got going. Everyone seemed to like it and we got another reference this week so they're really paying off! After a busy morning, we had an afternoon/night full of lessons. It was a tiring, but incredibly rewarding day. Anyways...besides burning away into nothingness everyday in the hot, mexican sun, things are going good. I love you all and miss you this much! (I promise it's a lot). Hopefully you all have an amazing week and enjoy life without an eternal sunburn! Love, Elder Foust ¡Hola!
The weeks are just flying by! Last week we finished the cycle and Elder Johnson hit the halfway mark of his training. I have a feeling that this next half is going to be even faster than the last and before you know it I'll be changing once again. It will be a really sad day and I wish I could stay one more cycle, but I just ain't feelin like it'll happen. We'll have to wait and see. Anyway, this week was a good week. We found a lot of great people who seem really eager to learn more about the gospel. We even found an entire family which is truly amazing because we haven't taught too many complete families. I'm super excited to continue working with them especially since I'm all rejuvenated and inspired from conference! Obviously General Conference was the highlight of the week. We had a few technical difficulties watching the broadcast at the church building due to a weak signal, so we weren't able to watch a few talks from certain sessions. We did enjoy the rest of the talks and definitely learned plenty. The themes that stuck out to me the most were: ¨Rescuing¨ people who may have lost their way, Love, and the Atonement. So, I thought a lot about these 3 topics and then thought of an overall theme of the entire conference and every session. Something like this: In this life there are plenty people who are in need of being rescued. Friends and family who don't know of the gospel, people who have fallen away from the church and its teachings, or most likely ourselves, trying to follow the right path in a world of opposition and tribulation. We are truly rescued when we find the true Gospel of Christ, live His teachings and follow His example. Key in our discipleship is to remain on this path, Christ's path, and bring as many people along as we can. But how? Through charity, the pure love of Christ. With love as our motivation we can have the ability to serve, to teach, to uplift, to forgive, to be patient, to be better and to continue on this path of happiness. It is in our efforts to obtain and demonstrate this love that we rescue and are rescued. However, there are times where it is not only hard to have and show this love to others, but to actually feel this love ourselves. The times where we are broken hearted and discouraged and feel no desire to continue, no hope to improve. That is when we need to rembember the first great truth of all eternity as taught by Elder Holland in his talk yesterday, ¨Is that God loves us with all of His heart, might, mind and strength. That love is the foundation stone of eternity and it should be the foundation stone of our daily life¨ With that knowledge and with the enabling power of the Atonement, the greatest act of love known to man, yes you can, yes you will. Translating it from spanish and having random connection errors may have made me completely misinterpret the entire conference, but I still know that these things are true. I am so thankful to have a living prophet and apostles on the earth today to reveal and clarify these sacred truths for us. I know that they are truly called of called and they help lead Christ's true church. If you missed conference or want to find your own theme, be sure to watch all the sessions and talks on lds.org some of my favorites are: Elder Holland`s https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2016/04/media/session_5_talk_11/4829903593001?lang=eng President Nelson's https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2016/04/media/session_3_talk_3/4828794309001?lang=eng Enjoy! Love, Elder Foust Giving a talk in Spanish (with a Frozen reference), more festivals and trying to keep dry...3/28/2016 ¡HOLA!
So how was everyone's Easter?!? Mine was different but good. My comp had the wonderful opportunity to speak in Sacrament. Elder Johnson only has 6 weeks but completely crushed his talk with killer spanish. I spoke a bit about the Atonement, but focused more on charity and serving our fellow man. Of course I had to implement something about missionary work and how it's a true act of charity and what not. I may or may not have started out with an example from Frozen as well. It seemed like it was well recieved and appreciated. As for the rest of the week, it seemed really good but really short. Friday we had to return back to the house after the food. It was the climax of the Semana Santa and too crazy for us missionaries. Good day to relax and study. Plus we ordered Dominos which made it that much better. Saturday was the Sábado de Gloria and people just throw buckets of water on eachother all day. I don't know why and I asked and it seems that no one knows. Somehow it makes a Saturday glorious. Luckily we finished the day happy and dry. Hopefully all of you had an amazing Easter! I definitely miss the eggs, bunnies and CHOCOLATE! But, it was a great week. I love all of you so much and hope you have an awesome week! If you have questions, comments, suggestions, chocolate *coughcough*, feel free to share! con mucho amor, Elder Foust ¡Hola!
Hola!
So I'm a bit short on time because I went to Teotihuacan today! We went with Elder Gardner and his companion Elder Torres and my good friend Hermano Hernandez (our teacher in the ccm) took us there! It was amazing and so great to all be reunited. BUT! I really don't have time to write much. This week was great! I'll definitely write a bit more on this next week, but be sure to visit the church's page for Easter: https://www.mormon.org/easter?cid=HP_SU_3-13-2016_dMIS_fSPC_xLIDyL1-A_ AND BE SURE TO WATCH THE VIDEO! It's amazing and truly reminds us of the power of Christ's Atonement. It's something incredible. Watch it. Remember how this incredible sacrifice gives us new life. And share this great message with everyone. Hallelujah. http://bcove.me/djst6g8u I love my mission. I love Mexico. I love the message of Christ that I have the privilege of sharing everyday. And of course I love all of you. Love, Elder Foust |
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July 2017
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