Hablo puqito espanol.... Yo quiero dos tacos por favor. (and i don't know how to spell either.)‏

Well, this week I was another good one. The first big thing that happened was on Tuesday we went on exchanges with one of the district Leaders, Elder Soto, who is the DL over the Spanish missionaries in the zone. I went to work in their area with his companion Elder Hansen, and we did Spanish work. It was fun. Sometimes I found myself just smiling, laughing as I picked up a word or two, but luckily most of the people spoke a little English anyway, so they avoided Spanish. It was funny; we walked up to one house of an investigator he wanted to stop by. He told me he had no idea if they spoke any English at all, because all he had heard them speak was Spanish and it was thick and really fast. The kids were outside so he asked, in his still new Spanish, (he's been out for only 4 months) if their parents were home. The kids replied "no, they're not home right now, they'll be back tomorrow" in perfect English with no accent. It was hilarious.

After a day of Spanish work, it was good to be back in my area. We spent a lot of time out in the country part of our area. It was a good day.

I want to tell y'all a cool story. 

I read in Preach My Gospel that we should be using all the resources we have available, and so I set a goal to use one I never have before. I decided I was going to give out a Proclamation to the World. One day, about 2 weeks ago, Elder Fibke and I had everything fall through at night. So we told our exchange they could drop us off early, and then we went to a gas station to contact, and use the restroom. While I was in the restroom he talked to a police officer that had just gotten off work and was getting something in this 7-11. I got out and we went outside to wait for this man. He came out and we talked for just a second longer. He told us that he and his family had just been hurt and offended by the church they belonged to and were not ready to go back to religion soon, but that he had seen The Other Side of Heaven on TV a couple nights before and it really touched him and peaked his interest. So when we came and started talking to him he was more open than he even expected. We talked for just a minute, and then he went to get in his minivan where his family was waiting. I asked him if I could give him something, and I pulled out the Proclamation to the World I had planned to give out, and I wrote our number on the back. He took it and left. We began praying for him that night.

Jump ahead another week. It is Wednesday night and we are waiting for our exchange, which is also our dinner appointment, to pick us up. He is a half hour late. But we just get in and go when he gets there. He always takes the missionaries to New York Subs (which is amazing by the way, and cheaper than subway). We get there and get our food and sit down. There is only one other group in the restaurant. I hear the man tell his kids "don't stare" so I know they are looking at us. I steal a glance and low and behold, the police officer is there with his wife and girls. We continue eating and after they finish to get up and leave, Elder Fibke gets up to talk with them, but I stayed behind to keep our exchange company (and it may have been to keep him from getting up and ruining the situation, but that's not an important detail). Elder Fibke comes back just grinning. The man told him that a couple days after we had talked to him at the 7-11 he was in the doctor's office and a couple started talking to him, and they gave him a Book of Mormon. And then when he saw us in NYsubs, he said he knew it couldn't be coincidence. (I personally believe that that is the reason this member took us out on this night, and was late.) Know, we are praying for him a lot. He said his wife is still skeptical and doesn’t want to invite us over yet, but he is working on her.

God is preparing the hearts of the children of men. I love this stuff.

Friday we had Zone Conference. It was awesome. It was at the weatherford stake center, which is about 70 miles from our apartment, so we had a 150 mile day (yes, I can do math, we drove around Denton and Krum after it was over). Luckily we had been preparing for it all month so it didn't hurt our mileage. And the sisters in one of the wards out here had a member offer to drive some down in her 15 passenger van. Score. We only had 3 out of like 7 cars drive down that could have, so it really saved us a lot of miles. At ZC we learned about Zion, about what Zion means, and how to be a zion society. Zion is a reference to places (city of Enoch, New Jerusalem, etc.), a way of life (4 Nephi) and sometimes groups of people. We talked about what it takes to achieve that. We talked about how to build a Zion companionship, a Zion District, a Zion Zone, and a Zion Mission. The characteristics of Zion are mostly the Christ like attributes. We need to develop those. It is all so simple that the world doesn't comprehend it.

One big thing I noticed is that After Christ appeared in the Americas, it was a Zion society, because all of those people had a perfect knowledge of the savior. They saw him, felt the wounds, and were healed by him. They KNEW. As the generations passed, it went from a first hand experience to a second hand, and so forth. The knowledge became faith again, and as we know about apostasy, faith eventually becomes weak. So in order for us to achieve Zion, we need to have a perfect knowledge. In order to do that, we need to do what Alma talks about in Alma 32, and experiment to find truth and apply it. Then it becomes a perfect knowledge.  
That was pretty much the highlights of the week, and the things I learned, all wrapped up in one big metaphorical burrito of truth and righteousness.
I love you all! Thanks for your prayers, you're in mine too!

-- --Elder Braxton C Foust--

Whoa I'm half-way there, WHOOAAA LIVIN' ON A PRAYER!!!‏

Yesterday I looked at a calander and counted weeks, and I had been in Texas for 53 sundays. Then I counted forward, and I have 53 Sundays left in texas. Crazy Sauce! This Wednesday is my year mark and it has been the fastest year of my life. Seriously this has flown by.

I have learned a ton on my mission so far. To sum up the biggest things I have learned:

There is no reason to be angry. Ever. Just get over it and move forward.

There is no reason to be upset about something you can't control.

There is something you can learn from everyone you meet.

Obviously I have learned more than this, but these are some of the biggest things I have grown to understand more than just know. Personal experience has made these ideas a part of me. I am excited to see what there is to learn in the future.

Well, week 1 of the transfer is over. Elder Fibke is a really good missionary. He knows how to work really hard and to be exactly obedient. He has his quirks, but everyone does. I have learned a lot from him already. It has been a good experience.

Last Saturday was my birthday, and I thought it was a little ironic that I "airboxed" on my birthday, but that's mostly because I got letters and packages all leading up to that day, so basically everyone but Jessica got it there early :P Thank you everyone for the cards and gifts. On Friday Sister Bailey and Sister Bickley found out that it was my birthday the next day so they had us meet them at the institute for lunch and they got pizza and cake. It was a fun little party. But it was interrupted when we got a call from the mission office saying that they were going to meet us at our apartment in 20 minutes to do a surprise inspection. Luckily we had cleaned it up so we were fine.

On my birthday we had an interesting day. Our teaching pool has run dry, we've dropped a lot of investigators, and got dropped by one, so we need to find. So we did finding activities all day long. AKA Tracting. The plus side was that it was pouring rain all day long. Needless to say we were soaked after talking to people at their doorsteps all day long and we didn't get a single lesson or new investigator. But it was fine, because we had the spirit. We were doing the work. We fulfilled our purpose, even with all 3 or 4 appointments we had set for the day punched. So far, it was the best birthday of my life, freezing, being soaked, getting rejected all day long, and walking a lot. It rocked. That night we had a ward chili cook-off and Texas party, it was awesome, Texans make some dang good chili. Elder Fibke told me it was my birthday party and everyone was there to celebrate it, they just didn't know it, which sounded good to me. I didn't want anyone to know it was my birthday though, so that was a plus.  

Well, I feel weird; I don't have anything to rant about this week. Someone asked us today about Magic Underwear because someone brought that up to Mitt Romney apparently, so that was funny. It's funny to me that people are willing to talk to someone they can't see every night, pay money to a guy who reads books written by people who have been dead for 2000 years to them, and claim that when they die they will be surrounded by light and clouds and happiness and stuff, but the idea of an outward expression of our inner commitment to follow the savior in the form of undergarments (as opposed to a Jesus fish or the torture method used to crucify the savior) is weird to them. Come on people, its symbolism.

Wow, this week is a really short email, but I just don't have anything else to talk about really. So... yeah....

Love ya'll!

(By the way, I have officially adopted ya'll as a natural word in my vocabulary. I decided that this morning when I re-read a text I sent earlier that I didn't realize I had said ya'll in)
--Elder Braxton C Foust--

My world is changing, I'm rearranging

This past transfer has been the fastest of my life. Honestly, January has flown by, and February is half over, (by the way Camron, my year mark is not for another week and a half). And this week things are changing.

As a Zone Leader, we get the "Transfer Doctrine" on Saturday so we can correlate rides with the other ZLs in the mission. So we went to the church at 11 to get the email with the information in it. Elder Lao is leaving, he is going to be a DL in Fort Worth, and he's going to do the second 6 weeks of training with his "grandson" (the trainee of someone he trained). So that'll be cool for him. My new companion is going to be Elder Fibke. He has served the last 3 months as an assistant to the President, so he definitely knows how to work and how to be exactly obedient, so this is going to be great. He was Elder Martinez's last companion, if anyone remembers me talking about him at all. Anyway, Elder Fibke is a good guy but this will be a very different transfer. Elder Lao is extremely extroverted, whereas ELder FIbke is a total introvert. So now I need to be the energized ZL to keep people enthusiastic in the Zone. I have become what Richard Payne was in marching band "The Motivator". Which brings me to my next thought.

We had a MOTR this past week with the sisters (MOTR is a companion study with a companionship of sisters and their DL) and at the end we talked about the biggest changes we have seen in ourselves from our missions, and I said that mine was the fact that I am so happy, and that I do not get angry anymore, whereas before I had a horrible temper (which ya'll know already) but I don't anymore. One of the sisters said” I do not believe that at all, I can't imagine you getting even a little mad. You are always so happy!" It's just weird, I mean I obviously do see it myself, but the fact that I actually am better now still throws me off. But, it's obviously a good thing.

So I heard the other day that Randy Travis got arrested, in my Zone boundaries for public intoxication or something like that, I'm not sure what it was.. Funny random fact anyway.

The other thing that was weird about this past week, it frickin's snowed last night!!!!! It rocked driving through snow again, seeing the flakes coming down towards you "like flying in hyperspace in star wars" as Elder Lao put it last night.

The other big news I heard was that Washington State is the 7th state to legalize Homosexual Marriage. What are these people thinking? What the heck is going on? Let's take a look at the Bible, every time this thing happens, destruction, pain, suffering, and God's wrath is experienced throughout the land. Best example, Sodom and Gomorrah. Fires descended from Heaven and consumed all involved. The Law of Moses had death penalties for this. And Peter and Paul both talk about it quite a bit in the New Testament. And yet, people still think its ok. Something big is going to happen, something that will humble us as a country and bring us to the pits of despair. 10 years ago it was 9-11. What will it be this time? What is it going to take to bring us back to humility? I am starting to think that those who we see as terrorists are not much different than the Laminates in the Book of Mormon. As long as we are faithful in keeping the commandments, we prosper and are protected, but as we fall away, those who are our enemies because of the traditions of their fathers will gain victory over us and we will have to repent in order to obtain God's mercy and help. I am glad to be in Texas where almost everyone has similar views, and this state will allow gay marriage about the same time Utah will. Never. So that is a plus to being here. All I can say is we need to live the Doctrine of Christ as individuals and families, and invite others to do the same, so that we can be protected. Just as before Christ came to the Americas, before the second coming the wicked will be destroyed and only those who were righteous will survive to see the Messiah. We need to live righteously. We need to change our Behaviors, Thoughts, and Beliefs to be in line with God's. I wish I could be like Samuel the Laminate and stand on a wall and cry repentance. I have the same desire as Alma, Oh that I were an Angel and could declare it with the sound of a trump! Wake up America! Repent and be baptized! Choose the Right! Follow Jesus Christ!

I love ya'll a ton!

A Quote from an investigator reading out of the Book of Mormon yesterday "When y'all are in the sevice of your fellow beings, y'all are only in the service of your God."

-- --Elder Braxton C Foust--

I got friends in Low places, where the whisky drowns and the beer chases the blues away

This transfer has been an interesting one. We have found a lot of new investigators that seem like they are going to be awesome and progress well and get baptized, but then they fall off the map. We do everything we can to invite others to come unto Christ, and a lot of people feel like they are fine where they are. And it's true, they are good. But Dallin H. Oaks taught us that there is also a better and a best. Why settle for good, when better and best are right at your fingertips? We have had several investigators who ended up falling off because of drugs, alcohol, cigarettes, and immorality. The natural man in them thinks everything is great, but their spirits are crying for something more, but they just can't place it. They don't know what it is they are missing. And then we show up, and their spirit rejoices. They feel something so powerful they cannot describe it. They see the light we carry, they feel the truth, even if it's just for a second, but then, they forget. The worldly vices they are caught up in take over and the next time we see them, they have forgotten the amazing feeling they felt. But their spirit remembers, and it cries out for them to get it again, but they don't remember where to find it, and then they fall into a deeper slump, and then, in their low places the whiskey drowns and the beer chases their blues away. And they'll be ok. But not good. Not better, and definitely not best.

So how do we avoid those situations? How do missionaries anywhere find the Quality people? They are all around us, not us as in missionaries, but us as in people, as children of God. Missionaries are to "Find them that will receive [us]." But those that will receive us are the very old, very young, very poor, and very needy. Why? Because they are in need and they are the ones that are home during the day! So, it falls on the members to find those who are ready for the gospel. It lies in the invitation. It lies in the bearing of testimony. It lies in the desire to help someone enter the gate to the celestial kingdom. People are all around us, they are friends, they are family, and they are co-workers. You love these people, and they are missing out on blessings by not having the opportunity to be baptized, receive the Holy Ghost, and be sealed to their families. They are missing out on blessings, and many times we miss out on blessings because they are too. We are promised that we will rejoice in Heaven with everyone that we bring to Christ. People need to hear this message. People need to know what they are missing. People need to know what blessings God has in store for them. I have met families on my mission where one is a member and the other is not, and I just want to ask them "why are you not allowing yourself to experience the blessings that God has for you?" It has nothing to do with increasing the membership of an organization. It has nothing to do with numbers. It has everything to do with souls entering the gate to the path to the celestial kingdom. It has to do with eternal happiness. There is a great song, I Can Only Imagine, that I have been listening to lately. the second verse is interesting to me, it says something along the lines of "I can only imagine when that day comes when i find myself standing in the sun. I can only imagine when all I will do is forever forever worship you." This is awesome. And you want to know something? Everyone will experience exactly what this song says, everyone will forever worship Christ. That is a free gift. We all get to do that. But there is more. We can work with Christ for eternity. We can learn and grow forever. That is a blessing available only to those who enter the celestial kingdom. And to do that, you have to be baptized by someone holding the priesthood authority. And in our day, that is held in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Jesus Christ is the head of this church. No one else.

My point in all of this, before I got to ranting, was that in order for missionary work to really move forward, every member must be a missionary. You have taken upon yourself the name of Jesus Christ in baptism (by the priesthood) and therefore you have the obligation to Christ and to our Father that you will help others to do the same. Show them your love by helping them receive the restored gospel.

Like I said at the beginning, this transfer has flown by. It is Board Week, so President and the Assistants are in the office this week figuring out where everyone will be next week. I hope I get to stay with Elder Lao one more transfer. This has been the fastest month of my life. The fastest transfer of my mission. and the fastest year of my life. I am standing at the edge of the light. There is nothing but darkness in front of me. All I can do is move forward, and I have only one thought about that.

Bring it on.

-- --Elder Braxton C Foust--