So we arrived in Texas at about noon on Tuesday morning. President and Sister Sagers and the assistants picked us up and we headed to their home. there we had a devotional + testimony meeting, and then dinner. they made us brisket. holy cow (literally) it was good. that night we drove around a lot, and we went into FT. Worth city to do street contacting. they pulled over and said "ok go" so we just had to choose a temporary companion and go. it was pretty fun. The first people we contacted knew people that had gone on missions, so they were enthusiastic about what we were doing. We even placed a Book of Mormon with our contact info and a place for them to read. The next people, the group I initiated the contact with, were already members. It was funny, but kind of disappointing. I was still very nervous, and very, very green. obviously I still am green, but I'm getting more comfortable.
The Wednesday morning we all went to a stake center in Hurst to meet our trainers and find out where we were going. My companion's name is Elder Warburton. He has been out for only 3 months, all of those 12 weeks (2 transfers) were with his trainer. So obviously president has a lot of trust in the guy, as I am his 2nd companion. He was serving in Arlington, he was there for the super bowl too (which took place in Arlington, the Dallas stadium isn't even in Dallas). he said it was crazy. So in the meeting we found out we would be going to Killeen. It is only 3 hours south of Hurst. 3 hours! Killeen is the home of the world's largest military base, Ft. Hood. so there is a lot of army here, and a lot of people moving in and out as people deploy. Our ward's bishop has been switched 3 times in the last couple years. And the current bishop is being deployed in June. anyway, we didn't get down to Killeen until 6 o'clock that night.
Our area is a new area too. We are both new to the area, Camron referred to it as shot gunned when he and E Maxfield did the same thing. They call it whitewashing out here. Our area used to be a part of the Zone Leaders' area, but they decided it was too dense for them to handle alone and split it. They still get the car though, we only have bikes. so they have to pick us up for p-day and church and stuff. but it's all good. I need the exercise.
On Thursday we went out tracking for my first time. since we are new in the area, we don't have anyone to work with yet. we placed 4 or 5 copies of the Book of Mormon in that first little time. it was awesome. I was not very good at initiating ( or really saying anything at all) on that first day. That night we had dinner with the Brinkman Family. When we have dinners they come pick us up since the area is huge and we wouldn't be able to bike to most of them. It was nice, he drives a Dodge Charger (my favorite car if you didn't know) so I enjoyed that. we had Navajo tacos. they were great. After that we had an exchange (not splits, since that's apparently not correct) with Brother Lalliss, the Elders Quorum President. We got to meet a couple members and he showed us around a neighborhood with a few less active and part member families.
Friday morning we visited the Abram family (they are less active). We were not given any heads up as to what to expect, other than they lived in a trailer park ( in Texas, may I remind you...) needless to say they are a good family. they have some issues, but we are going to do all we can to work with them and get them back to church. The visit seemed like a waste at first, we couldn't get anything useful out of them, but we did finally get them to talk about church. We are told not to tell the world about the issues we run into, so I guess I won't expound on that. :)
We then met the Pitkin Family. The husband is a member, but not very active, and the wife is not a member. Their 14 yr old daughter is an active member, but the mother will not let the 8 yr old be baptized until she is older and "can make the decision for herself".
After that we tracked a bit more, we placed 2 BoMs and ran into a very opinionated deist (believes in life force and chi)?. We talked with him for a long time. The conversation started like this "Good morning sir" "Good morning, how's the weather in Utah?" I literally laughed out loud, partially because he obviously knew who we were, and partially because I knew how it was 3 days earlier. The man is retired military, and his whole thing was that life doesn't need emotion. that emotion blinds us and makes us weaker. He is all about logical thought and how things work. when we talked about god, he said that understanding god is like understanding quantum physics or global warming. As we talked about religion, it was obvious he believes in god, but idk what the extent of that is. he wouldn't really tell us much. but he did tell us that he admired what the LDS missionaries do and to not give up. Keep on working and do what we know is right. I found that interesting. He also told us that his door is always open and he would be happy to talk whenever we would like. (but i think he just wants to confuse us or try to get us to contradict ourselves or something like that, so I doubt we'll ever go back to him) I actually enjoyed talking to him.
Dinner that night was with the Walker family. They have 3 young kids, Sophie who is 2 ( who reminded me of lily, made me miss her too), Merrick who is 3, and Braxton who is 5. Unfortunately Braxton was asleep the whole time, haha.
After dinner we visited a non-member names Alby. her husband is a member, but is in Cali doing military stuff. She has had many different missionaries meet with her, so we are going to start with square one, because she doesn't seem to have the basics down. but she does seem receptive.
Saturday we had several appointments with street contacts, and all of them blew us off. it was upsetting. but we did tract into a member that we had met a couple nights ago. it was funny.
We knocked on a door, but no one answered. As we turned form the door, the lady that lived there pulled up. She very enthusiastically told us to wait for her. she came up and read my name tag and said "I've known a lot of Mormons in my life!" (reminder, the nametag doesn't say the word Mormon anywhere, so this was a good thing for her to say) She was such a nice, happy, and generous woman. she offered to let us in to talk and have some water and food, but we can't go into a house without at least 3 total adult men present. Her husband was golfing, so we went the back porch and talked. She told us about her protestant upbringing, but how she wasn't sure it was true, and she told us what she knew about the LDS faith, and she was very receptive. We talked for a good 45 minutes before we left. We basically gave the first discussion and even ended with a prayer. She gave us her number and told us to call and come back again. We also left her with a Chapter to read in the BoM. It was great.
ugh, I'm almost out of time
Because we are assigned to a specific ward (Killeen 2nd) we get to go to that church meeting every week. all 3 hours. it is a blessing.
Sunday night, after church and everything, we had an appointment with a 17 yr old kid names glacier. He is a very intelligent kid. He was raised catholic, and goes to a catholic school, but he is curious about all world religions. And when I say all, I mean all. but as he's looked into them all Christianity stood out. he looked through all the Christian sects, but Mormonism always stood out too. so he was curious.
But that's not how me came in contact with missionaries. In his catholic school they use a couple different editions of the bible, but not King James.
So he went online to find a free one. but every site that offered a free KJ Bible was implying they were for the needy, sick, poor, jailed, etc. he felt too guilty getting it from those sites, so when he found the LDS site, which offered if for free with filling our an application and such, and with no guilty reasons to not, he decided to go for it. he was amazed when he got a phone call the next day with info about it, and then the day after that missionaries delivered the bible, along with a BoM. this triggered his current investigation of the church.
the problem is all of his info comes from the internet. He told us that it seems like all the sites about Mormons are negative and we get a bad rep in the media, but he wanted to talk to us to find out for himself (sounds golden, right? but it's not) he wants to understand a religion logically before he looks into it spiritually. the problem is that doesn't work with religion. And all the bad rep we get is logical reasons we don't make sense. luckily the spirit is stronger than logic. we just need to help him feel it. it is difficult when his first question is "so the lds church practiced polygamy right? why did they stop?".
anyway, we are going to teach him the lessons, in order, in a spiritual sense to try to get him to understand them. It is going to be difficult, but hopefully we will be up to the task.
The gospel is true. Joseph Smith restored the fullness of the everlasting gospel through the priesthood authority of god. Thomas S Monson is the true prophet on the earth today. Through the gospel of Jesus Christ, through faith in him and his atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end, we can live with our families and with God forever. I know that this is true!
I love you all.
Keep the missionaries in your prayers! (especially me) :)
Love,
Elder Foust
Sound the warcry, "watch and pray!" Vanquish every foe today!" -hymn 259
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