Finally some consistency‏

For the first time since January, I get to keep the same companion for another transfer. I went from Lao, to Fibke, to Fa, to Phister, to Moore. And now I'll be with Moore for another transfer, so that rocks. Before Lao was Pipher for 2, but before that was Brindley and Sare for 1 each too. I have had so many "one and done"s that it's not even funny. Apparently I have a lot to learn from a lot of companions, so I go through them quickly. But it must be a good sign, because President leaves companions that don't get along together to help them grow and get over it, so at least I'm not in that boat.

Another point of consistency is concerning the Zone. There are very few things happening with this transfer. They are closing two areas in the Zone which is sad, and two Sisters are going home, but we're getting a New Missionary with one of those sisters, and a fairly new one to replace the other. And other than those 4 areas having a change, the rest of the Zone is the same. It's nice to have consistency.

Crazy story of the week. Almost as good as Demon Spiders in Cambodia.

We have an Elder that used to serve in Peru, until he got a really bad stomach flu that got him sent home. Lucky for him once he recovered they sent him to the BMW to finish his mission. So he is speaking Spanish here in Weatherford. Well, one day he decided he wanted to make some Peruvian food, but unfortunately there isn't much of a Hispanic market or anything like that here. And there was a specific dish he wanted to make, one that he had had in Peru several times.

Guinea Pig.

So they made a stop at Pet smart. In order to not waste anything, we now all have little homemade lucky charms, but instead of Rabbit's Feet, they are guinea pig feet. This Elder used to go hunting back home, so he knew how to skin and gut the thing, and now they have a pelt on their wall, lucky charms, and of course, a little bit of meat. It'll be interesting to see if they like it when it's all cooked up. They are planning on cooking it today, so I will tell you about it next week.

One thing I love about Texas is the Pride these people have for their state and for their country. Patriotism is a part of the culture here. They've all got the Toby Keith mentality "Justice will be heard and the battle will rage. This Big dog will fight if you rattle his cage. You'll be sorry that you messed with the US of A. Cause We'll stick a boot in your ___ it's the American way!" With all the religious turmoil in the world, all the political things that go on, it's nice to be somewhere that has strong Christian values and the good conservative beliefs that go with them. It's good to be in a place where people recognize that God doesn't want us to mess up the good things that are going on. This is the Promised Land of the Book of Mormon. This is what God was talking about when he said "If you shall keep my commandments you shall prosper in the land. If you keep not my commandments, you will be cut off from my presence." We have a choice. Follow Christ, or Follow Satan. It is black and white. We need to get rid of the "What they do doesn't hurt me" and "what I do doesn't hurt anyone else" mentality. We need to be united. We need to arise from the dust, and be men. We need to do all we can to preserve the righteous characteristics this country was built on. Because if we do not, damnation comes. I'm not talking about hellfire and brimstone, at least not yet anyway. But a stop in progression. There is a reason the dark ages had such little industrial progression, it's because of the Great Apostasy. There's a reason that since the 1800s we have had such immense industrial progression, it's because of the Restoration. And there is a reason we are in an economic and social decline. It is because of a widespread personal apostasy. You're either righteous or you're not. So make a choice. Do what you know is right.

Read the Bible. Read the Book of Mormon.

We show our faith by studying, believing, and obeying God’s revealed word. We diligently search the scriptures to understand the truth. We feast upon them because they open the door to revelation and show us what we need to do and become.

Communicate with your Father in Heaven through Prayer.

As we pray with faith, sincerity, and real intent, we will see God’s influence in our lives. He will guide us in our daily lives and help us make good decisions. He will bless us with feelings of comfort and peace. He will warn us of danger and strengthen us to resist temptation. He will forgive our sins. We will feel closer to Him. We must learn to recognize His influence in our lives. We must learn to listen to the still, small voice of the Spirit.

Work Monday through Saturday, and Worship Sunday.

 When a community or nation grows careless in its Sabbath activities, its religious life decays and all aspects of life are negatively affected. The blessings associated with keeping the Sabbath day holy are lost.

It's just as easy to choose the right as it is to sin.

So let's choose the right.

-- 
--Elder Braxton C Foust--

Board Week‏

Today marks the first day of Board Week for this transfer. Board week being the week where President and Sister Sagers, and the Assistants, spend a lot of time looking at, modifying, and praying about the transfer board, which has pictures of all the missionaries sorted into their areas. This Saturday we will get the transfer notes, and we will know who is going, and who is staying.

This has been, yet again, the shortest transfer of my mission. They just keep getting faster and faster. And it doesn't help that today is my 17 month mark either. Next week a great group of missionaries go home. One of which is a sister that came out with me, Sister Snell. She's Spanish so she goes home a transfer before the other 2 sisters that came out with me, they'll go in 6 weeks. Also, several missionaries I have served around. Elder Soto who was in Fort Worth and Denton with me, Elder Alfaro who was also in both of those Zones while I was, and all 4 sisters who go home this transfer, Sister Mills, Sister Brewer, Sister Byington, and Sister Bailey. I have gotten to be great friends with all of these missionaries too. So it's just weird to be having transfers, knowing that as this group leaves, not only does the number of missionaries I actually know decrease, so does the number of friends I have around. It's odd. It seems like it is coming to an end.

I love missionary work. I have never known so clearly that this is the true church as I do now. I have never known so surely that God has called a prophet again. I have never had such a strong witness that the Bible and the Book of Mormon are the word of God. I know now. Do you?

This week has been awesome. We went on exchanges on Tuesday and I got to go to Cleburne Texas to do Spanish work. It was a lot of fun. On Wednesday Gus got home from the hospital. We went by and he was excited to see us. He told us he had been praying we would come by and talk. We had a great discussion with him, even though he was in some pain from his surgery. One of the first things he told us is "Now I just need to heal up, so I can get baptized."

Thursday was amazing. We had interviews with President Sagers. We had a great interview as the Zone Leaders, and then my interview with President was spectacular. We talked about the Book of Mormon activity we are doing and talked about what we learn from this activity. What we learn is that on every page it testifies of three things. 1) The Divinity of Christ. 2) The Doctrine of Christ. and 3) The Atonement of Christ. We talked about the Bible, and he asked me what it is that Satan did everything he could to take out of the Bible during the Great Apostasy. It is the Doctrine of Christ. It is the basic doctrines of Faith, Repentance, Baptism, Receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost and Enduring to the End. They are present in the Bible, but they have been diluted. The Bible is the word of God, and it is true. But these truths are missing, and without the Book of Mormon, we cannot now come to know these truths, and fully partake of the Atonement of Jesus Christ.

Yesterday we had a great day at church. For the YSA branch we got a les-active girl to come that hasn't been to an LDS church in several years, and she is coming to FHE tonight. Then, at the family ward, we got an investigator who we were ready to drop because he doesn't keep commitments to come to. Elder Moore worked his magic and convinced him to come for just sacrament, and afterwards he said he'll be back next week, and maybe even stay for Sunday school. It rocked.

That was my week. It seemed to go by faster than it took you to read about it. The big things I want y'all to take away from this is this. You need the Doctrine of Christ. You need the Bible and the Book of Mormon to fully understand it. If you exclude either one, you are choosing to remove yourself from God. And only you are to blame. Read the scriptures, pray, and partake of the sacrament. You'll know what else to do if you do those three basic things.

I Love Y'all! Have a great week!

-- --Elder Braxton C Foust--

Week 5 already‏

Well, as you can see from the subject line, it is already week 5 of this transfer. Next week is Board Week, and then the next is transfers. This past month has flown by so fast I can barely even believe it.

This week flew by too, and it was a really good week. It started on Monday night, we had an appointment with a lady named Cherrie (not really, but you should know that by now) and it was really good. Cherrie has been investigating the church on and off for over a year now. In fact, she has a son serving a mission in South Africa right now. The only thing that is really holding her back is that she is not married, but living with her fiancé. But during our lesson on Monday, she told us that they are finally getting married in three weeks! Right after she told us that, we set a baptismal date for August 20th. But we'll have to reset it for another day because that's a Monday, and we're not supposed to do baptisms on Mondays because of FHE (we kind of pulled a day out of thin air) so we're going to see if she can do it on the 18th. It is going to be great. We took our High Priest Group Leader and his wife to the lesson, and they connected really well. The HPGL has a son on a mission two, so the women loved talking to each other about it. After the lesson, I had a realization. I said the words "August 18th" and I realized, hey that's my Dad's birthday. Which led me to think "Hey, that's 6 months away from my birthday," which then led to "wait.... that means 6 months from then I'll be done..."

Not my favorite thought in the world. It's a good thought, I am excited to get to see everyone again then, and to be home and move forward with the next stage of life, but still... that's weird. I just hope I cannot be trunkie when it gets close. (by the way mom, thanks for saying "cya soon" at the end of your last letter, it made me laugh because I'm pretty sure you are trunkier than me .)

Anyway, that was our Monday, a great lesson with a perfect member to be with us. Then on Tuesday, we had two appointments that night. The first one was with some more investigators that have been investigating for a long time, and we had a really good lesson with a really good member there, and then he dropped us off at another member’s house so we could go with them to our next appointment with Gus. So we had 2 member exchanges that night. Both of them were perfect for the lessons too. By the end of that lesson, Gus's attitude about quitting smoking went from "I'll quit when I want" to "I know I need to quit" and then in the closing prayer, he asked god to help him quit. It was awesome. He went in for surgery this weekend, so he's down and out for a little while, but He's doing great other than that.

On Wednesday we had another great lesson with Gus, he wanted us to come by every day last week before his surgery, so we did. Each time we took different members with us, which he loves. After that lesson we went to a part-member family's house, and read from the Book of Mormon with them, because the Husband, who is not a member and I will call him Barney, doesn't really understand the language, so we are helping him understand it.

On Thursday we took a priest out with us to knock some doors after seeing Gus. We ran in to a couple of his friends, and the one kid, who's Jaden's age, knew a lot of anti. It was really sad. He was asking us questions that I haven't heard since a guy in denton had a sheet of anti questions to ask. It was sad, because he'll probably never find the truth because he's being blinded by the craftiness of the devil. And it didn't help that he was a cocky jock and thought he was all that. But it was alright.

Friday was a good full day of work, we did a lot of contacting, but without much success

Saturday was the Peach Festival; apparently Weatherford is famous for its Peaches. We didn't go in to the festival because it was 5 bucks, but we walked around the streets outside of it and contacted people. It was fun.

Yesterday at Church was great. There were great speakers in both sacrament meetings, and there was a really good spirit there. We had Linger Longer in both wards we cover, so we got plenty of good food to eat after church, so that was a bonus.

I've been learning a lot in my studies. And it is interesting as I learn more, it always goes back to the same principles. Even when it repeats the same things, it helps me understand it better. A big thing that has been sticking out to me more lately has been about becoming clean. Preach My Gospel tells us that God will not make us clean against our will. This intrigued me. The one thing God has given us that we own is our will.  How we use our will determines how clean or unclean we are. God will not force us to be clean, because he will not force us to repent. He will not force our will that is one thing God cannot do. So he allows us to learn correct principles, if we choose to, and then makes us clean if we will it. And in order to will it, we must do something about it. If we don't do something about it, we obviously aren't using our will to show God we would like to be clean, and therefore, he does not make us clean. Hymn 240 says "Know this that every soul is free to choose his life and what he'll be; for this eternal truth is given: That God will force no man to heaven." God will not take us to heaven against our will. In the same way, when by our actions (aka, the use of our agency, or our will) we drive God out; he is a gentleman and leaves. This is true on a personal scale, as well as on a widespread scale. So each of us needs to take a look at ourselves and ask "Is it my will to be made clean? What am I doing to show God that I would like to be, and to ask God to make me clean? Am I partaking of the sacrament each week? Am I worthy to partake of the sacrament? Am I even trying at all?" Some of you are not. Some of you think you are, or try to convince yourself that you, but you are not. This is important. If it wasn't, I wouldn't bring it up. I know people don't like being told that they are doings something wrong, because they already know it. They just don't want people to point it out. But this is just too important to not point out. I am not afraid of offending anyone, because of how important this is, because if I am not bold, I can't stand before God and say I did all I could to help those I love. So here it goes. It is time for repentance. Obviously this is going to a wide variety of people, who are all in a variety of situations, so I am being general. Ask yourself these questions, and repent as necessary.

Do you always remember Christ? Do you remember his mercy and long-suffering to you? Do you remember when he blessed you before? Are you still receiving all the blessings?

Do you listen to, and obey the words of the prophets, living and dead? Ancient and Modern?

Have you spiritually been born of God? Have ye received his image in your countenances? Have ye experienced this mighty change in your heart?

Do ye exercise faith in the redemption of him who created you? Do you look forward with an eye of faith, and view yourself raised in immortality, and incorruption, to stand before God to be judged according to the deeds which have been done in this life?

Can you imagine to yourself that you will hear the voice of the Lord say "Come unto me ye blessed, for behold, your works have been the works of righteousness upon the face of the earth?" Or do you imagine to yourself that ye can lie to the Lord in that day and say "Lord, my works have been righteous works," And that he will save you? Or can you imagine yourself brought before the judgment bar of God with your soul filled with guilt, remembering all your guilt remembering all of your wickedness and that you have defied the commandments of God?

Can you look up to God at that day with a pure heart and clean hands? Can you look up, having the image of God engraven upon your countenances?

Can you think of being saved when you have yielded to become a subject to the devil? How will you feel, if you stand before the bar of God, and you are stained with blood and all manner of filthiness?

Do you think that someone like that can have a place to sit down in the kingdom of God, with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob, and also all the holy prophets, who are cleansed and are spotless and pure?

Have you made baptismal covenants? Do you keep them? Do you take the sacrament? Do you fulfill your duties to God and to your family?

Are you doing what it takes?

What emotions are you feeling right now? Feel free to reply and tell me.

I love y'all. I hope you have a good week, and remember - Repent :)

-- --Elder Braxton C Foust--

What do you get when you have Tongans, Lawn Mowers, and Cruella De'ville?‏

This week has been a really crazy busy one. But it was a great week. The busy ones keep the time going by at a good pace.

Last Tuesday I got to go to Euless with Elder Fa and do some Tongan work. It was awesome. I had a ton of fun out there with him. It was good to work with an old companion; we caught up on a lot of things. And it was cool cause the day before he had gotten a letter from Elder Fibke who had asked them to tell me a couple things, so that rocked to hear from him too. We had a lot of fun out there.

Then on Wednesday ( the 4th) we did our weekly planning, which normally takes place on Thursday, but we had a meeting on Thursday. So all morning Wednesday was spent doing our planning, and then we went to a non-members house for lunch. After that we did some tracting, but nobody was home unfortunately. I guess the 4th is one of those days that families aren't usually together at home. But that's ok. We had dinner at a YSA activity (again, such a great benefit to being assigned to a YSA ward) and got to throw a football around and eat pizza. But, since it doesn't get dark until our curfew, we didn't get to see any fireworks really. But that's ok.

On Thursday we had a really good Leadership Training. But at the end President told us that was the last one we'll have. He told us about a couple changes that he got in an email from Headquarters. Now each month the zone leaders conduct a type of Zone Conference (which we have already been doing my whole mission, called a Zone Huddle) basically it is a combined District Meeting. The difference is that now we are to do them for three hours instead of an hour and a half, which is awesome because I can't fit everything I want to do in those situations in 90 minutes. But no more leadership trainings. It's sad cause those are great meetings, but life goes on and the work continues.

Then Friday was our Zone Huddle. Since it was sprung on us the day before, we didn't have 3 hours of trainings and role-plays planned, but President expected as much. So we did a 2 hour one instead. It went really well. I enjoyed giving my training, but next month I will like it even more because I'll have more time to prepare for. After Zone Huddle was done and everything got taken down, we went to our appointment who punched, so then we went to the Bell's (the Bishop, and also where we live) and mowed their lawn so it would be done when they got home from vacation. They got home that night, which was earlier than expected, and they really appreciated it, so I was glad we were able to get that done. 

Finally we got to Saturday, our first full day of work the whole week. We hit the streets and tried by so many people, knocked on tons of doors, and invited everyone to come to church. We even had a golden referral we contacted that told us she wanted to learn about the church and that she was already planning on coming, so we were way excited. She seemed like a really nice lady, she's either late 40s or early 50s. We thought we would have a ton of people at church.

Then Sunday came. It was kind of crazy. Only 2 of the 6 people we were expecting came. One was Gus, he loved it as always. The other was our golden referral. I am going to call her... Cruella De'vil. She showed up in a dress that you might see in a red-light district, and after sacrament she met with the bishop, and then after Sunday school, and then during 3rd hour, and then again after church. Well, our "golden referral" was nothing more than a druggy looking for a free hand-out for "groceries" (if that's what you call Reese's and Soda). Which apparently is some druggy thing? It was pathetic. It was disappointing. And it was pretty insulting to us, the bishopric, and the relief society president, because we're all the ones who had spent time talking to her. After bishop gave her a small gas card, and she realized that she had been figured out, she freaked out and after a slur of other things, told bishop that if the missionaries ever step foot on her property again she'll call the police. It's just sad that some people are like that. I can't imagine a lifestyle so low, and just... hopeless. It is just sad.

That was the excitement of Elder Foust's life for the last week. It was a crazy week, and I'm glad to get to hit the streets more this week and find people to teach.

I love y'all! have a great week!

-- --Elder Braxton C Foust--

You're faith was strong but you needed proof, you saw her bathing on the roof, her beauty in the moonlight overthrew you.‏

Good Morning my beloved Family!

Well, This week has been another good but slow week. Things are still going forward, but things have slowed down since week 1. We have had three different investigators drop us, and we have no idea why. And we are having a really hard time geting second ,lessons with people we teach. They only people that will consistently let us in are the ones that enjoy visits, but won't commit to anything. And because they won't commit, they can't repent, and can't progress. It is sad to see people not follow Christ, especially those who think they are. I say think, because they really aren't. There is more to following Christ than to "accept him in your heart." It doesn't work like that. but they don't get it.

That is, except for Gus. He is really starting to see changes. He has more hope than he has before, and he loves the church. He came again yesterday and he bore his testimony in sacrament. The only sad part is we missed it because we were doing something in the other ward we cover, because they overlap. But it was good, because now the ward has really gotten to see and hear him and everyone loves him. We're hopefully going to set a baptismal date with him for the end of the month, as long as the surgery recovery goes well when it happens (it got pushed back). But it's ok because it is helping him rely on the lord and giving him time to get other things in order.

Elder Moore and I are getting a long great. He is a really cool guy. Last night we were talking about... I don't even know what at first, but anyway, it eventually got to something about Marching Band at one point. I told him something about how band works, because I figured he didn't know, he's a cross country runner, and doesn't have any musical background. But then said "you probably won’t believe this, but I did marching band my freshman year. I went to Grand Nationals in Illinois."  "....."

Yeah. What a jerk. haha, anyway, it's cool. He does know about band, because not only was he in it, he got to see the best of the best. He saw L.D. Bell win it that year. They are a high school from Colleyville TX (where the mission home is). It is right by Trinity High school, for anyone who follows high school football, since you'll know who they are. Anyway, now I want to serve in Colleyville this fall so I can conveniently walk past the rehearsal and see a school that wins grand nationals a lot. That would be cool.

Elder Moore is awesome though. He is a very hard worker and knows very well how to do missionary work. He is really good at talking with everyone, and inviting everyone to come to church, which is something I have not been very good at, so I am doing better at that now. We have a lot of fun and do a lot of good work together.

Last week we had Zone Leader Council, and it was an awesome meeting. President Sagers talked about King David. We read several passages from the Old Testament and looked for leadership applications to us. One of the big things I noticed was that David's downward spiral began shortly after defeating Goliath. When he killed the lion and the bear, there was no pride there, just a knowledge that God had delivered him. That testimony is what caused his preparation and success in dealing with Goliath. He faced what should have been his demise with confidence because "there is a God in Israel." The problem was shortly after the battle was over.

1 Samuel 18:6 And it came to pass as they came, when David was returned from the slaughter of the Philistine, that the women came out of all cities of Israel, singing and dancing, to meet king Saul, with tabrets, with joy, and with instruments of musick.

7 And the women answered one another as they played, and said, Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands.

So David's head gets big. He gets prideful. He sees all the things that he has done, the tens of thousands that he has slain. he forgets what he told Goliath before, "there is a God in Israel."

David becomes a Man of War, and become prideful. Then we get to 2 Samuel 11: 1 "And it came to pass, after the year was expired, at the time when kings go forth to battle, that David sent Joab, and his servants with him, and all Israel; and they destroyed the children of Ammon, and besieged Rabbah. But David tarried still at Jerusalem." The Leader stays behind, he doesn't go to do his duty. We don't necessarily know why, but we know that he did it. And we know that this is where the slip downhill becomes a slide downhill, that gets faster and faster. He gets up at night, sees a woman bathing, calls her in and since he's the king, she goes, he gets her pregnant, tries to cover his sin, puts her husband in a situation to die, and spends the rest of his life trying to fully repent, but loses his exaltation. It all happened so fast.

So what can we learn from this? The most applicable one I can think of is that little sins lead to big sins. You can't sin if you keep busy with productive things. But idleness leads to sin. Pride leads to sin. If we forget the Lord's hand in all things, we are lost and won't be found until remember it.

So how does this apply to us? What are you doing with your time? Are you playing when you should be working? Are you keeping the Sabbath Day holy? Are you providing for the needs of those you have stewardship over? Or are you slacking? Are you letting someone else pull more weight, just because they are willing and you would rather be doing something "more fun?" Are you fulfilling your callings, your assignments, and your family responsibilities? If not, fix it. 

2 Nephi 1:21 "And now that my soul might have joy in you, and that my heart might leave this world with gladness because of you, that I might not be brought down with grief and sorrow to the grave, arise from the dust, my sons, and be men, and be determined in one mind and in one heart, united in all things, that ye may not come down into captivity" 

or as Jeffrey R. Holland said it "Bretheren, Step Up."

or as Mrs. King at Davis High School Said it "Pull yourself up by the bootstraps"
or as Texas says it "Cowboy Up."

I'm not talking about grace. I'm not talking about waiting for someone else to do it for you. The time to act is now. Get up, get going, and do your duty. These are all actions, and they are really as simple as Nike. "Just do it." If you think "I can't," you're fooling yourself. If you think "I don't want to," at least your honest, but you're still lazy. Just fix it.

Well, that was a rant I wasn't expecting to go on, but it was a good one. As always, if it made you feel guilty, or angry, or anything like that, good. Man up and take it. And fix it. Guilt comes from God, Anger comes from Satan trying to hide your guilt. Either way, you need to change. And if you don't feel like there is anything you can do to change, 1 of two things are happening, either your about to be translated, or you're not humble enough for the spirit to teach at the moment. let's face it, if you think it's the first, then it is definitely an even more severe case of the latter.

Ok, now that I ranted a little bit more, It is time for me to wrap it up. The church is true. There is no other church with all  of the truth. No matter where you look, this is the only true one. So be a follower of Christ, and come into the fullness of the Gospel.

I love you! Have a good week!

--Elder Braxton C Foust--