Tuesday, December 18, 2012

I'm dreamin' of a white Christmas

This week has been awesome. If there is a list of things a missionary would love to hear an investigator say, it would look something like this:
- I know the Book of Mormon is true
- We love having you come over
- I heard you don't drink tea, why? (then we teach the word of wisdom) ok, that's good enough for me
- I want to understand all the commandments so I can't break any of them 
- You can come over every day if you want
- People were giving me flak at work for being baptized in the church, but I don't care. I told them I know it's true.

We have the best investigators ever. That family I mentioned last week, who I am calling the Nielsen's (you know, that whole thing about not using people's real names) are incredible. We have taught them about 7 times over the course of a week and a half, and they have come to church both sundays, and the ward Christmas party. And this ward is awesome. The 11 yr old daughter heard them ask the primary kids to go to the primary room to get ready to put on the program they had practiced, and she asked if she could go, so they had her be a narrator, and it was awesome. Her mom was so happy to see them include her like that. It was awesome. And now the 15 yr old is loving it all too. We found out she likes to sing, so I asked her to do a musical number with me and she is learning How Great Thou Art and I'm going to figure out a cool accompaniment to go with it. It will be fun. I can't even tell y'all though how awesome this has been, working with this family. They have been so prepared and are very in tune with the spirit. I have grown to love them like family. Which is crazy cause it's only been a week and a half. I love the spirit involved in missionary work.

We also are seeing a lot of success in finding the people that the missionaries were working with in the past. There is one guy, I'll call him Steve, who really liked the Elders before, and then they combined the wards here and took the elders out and just left the sisters. Well, one of the sisters told him that his house was dark and depressing ( he listens to like metallica and megadeath and stuff like that, so he has posters up) and that he should change it and he really didn't like that. When we knocked on his door he was so excited to see us and set up an appointment for the soonest he could meet with us. I'm excited to teach him tonight, he seems like a cool guy.

We also found a couple that the elders were working with before that live in a sketchy neighborhood that the sisters don't like to go in cause there are stories of it being sketchy, but the other guys used the ride their bikes through there on a daily basis, and we're in a car, so we'll be fine. 

And there are part-member families that have been worked with that we're gonna keep on working with, they have a lot of potential and the ward really feels like they are ready, so we'll be teaching them too.

Things are picking up and we are seeing miracles. I love this work. And we're gonna have the font filled right after Christmas :)


-- 
--Elder Braxton C Foust--

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Moses and Aaron‏

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I am loving it being here in Granbury. It is so much fun to work back in the country.

My companion's name is Elder Parker, he is from South Jordan Utah. He's about half an inch taller than me, so I am once again in a very tall companionship. And he played football for SUU, so he's built pretty well too. We're a couple of big boys, and we get a lot of comments on that.
Like I said last week, we white washed the sisters out. There are a lot of people that were surprised to see us at church yesterday, some are sad o have the sisters gone, and some are excited to have elders here. And there are actually a couple of members that I already know because of my previous areas.

What I didn't tell you last week was that I was sick as a dog. I've basically gotten over it all except for one thing. On Thursday we had our weekly planning session from 10-2. Over the course of planning, my voice started to get scratchier and scratchier. By the end of it I could barely talk. For the rest of Thursday, all the way through today I have barely been able to talk, and it has been very weird. If you know me, you know I like to talk. And being in a new place with new people, especially with a new missionary, talking is a very good resource to have available. But apparently the Lord has something else in mind. It has been nice though, because Elder Parker has been given the opportunity to be pushed way outside his comfort zone to talk to people because I can't comfortably. So basically, I am Moses and he is Aaron. I have the experience and know what to say, but he has to say it. He has really stepped up too. It has been fun watching him in situations where he doesn't quite know what do to, so he figures it out. I am really impressed with him. We are going to see some miracles these two transfers. Today my voice is still very scratchy and low, but it's not tickling as much as I talk, and hopefully it will all be back by tomorrow or the next day. But we'll see what happens.

We have an awesome family we're teaching. I will call them the Nielsens. The mom and daughters are all on board and want to be baptized, the dad is cool with us being there and everything, but he's not too into it. (yet). But She is on fire. She has been reading the Book of Mormon and loves it, and she's been praying about it and has felt the spirit a lot. She loves coming to church and is just on fire. She told us we can come over every day if we want because she loves talking about it so much. Her one daughter (15) is just now being interesting in religion, and her mom told us that after we gave each of them their own copy of the Book of Mormon, that night she went in to check on her and she was under the covers with a flashlight reading it. They are such and awesome family.

I love this work. It is going to be an awesome area to finish up in.

I love y'all!

www.mormon.org/christmas

--
--Elder Braxton C Foust--



The Missionary Outside is Elder Johnson, the one inside is Elder Singleton,

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Country roads, take me home To the place I belong

So Saturday morning, I got a phone call from President Sagers. He asked if I was ready to do the best thing you can do to end your mission. Train a new missionary. I am so stoked. And I get to do it back in one of my favorite zones ever, Weatherford!I'll be serving in the Granbury ward, which will be awesome.
 My new address is:
Elder B. Foust
 1005 Spring Ridge Circle #101
Granbury TX 76048
I'm so excited to get back into the country area. I have grown to love it since being in Burleson (Mix of Metroplex and country) To denton (90% of the ward boundaries were in the country) to weatherford, (all in the country). And being in the heart of the Metroplex has been weird, so it'll just be awesome to get back out there. You know those moments where someone says something and you just know for a fact it is meant for you specifically? Even if it is for other people it's still for you. I had one of those at ZLC on Friday. President told a story of when one of the prophets (I don't remember which one) was on his death bed, and the first counselor of the 1st presidency was at the foot of the bed. The President of the Quorum of the 12 came in and asked "what can I do for you?" He didn't reply, and within minutes, the prophet passed away. The 1st counselor then stood up and looked toward the President of the Quorum of the 12, who with the death of the prophet now becomes the President of the church, and asked him "what can I do for you?" This story illustrated a change in stewardship. (You may not understand it if you're not too familiar with the workings of priesthood leadership) But the point President Sagers was making was that some of the Zone Leaders were going to be reassigned to a different assignment and we need to be prepared to serve in whatever capacity it is, and to report to whoever has a stewardship over us now. For me it is especially close to home because my Zone Leaders will be Elder Border, who I just trained as a ZL, and Elder Fowers, who is just now becoming a ZL and when he was a new missionary I was a his first District Leader. I love it. I am so excited to be serving around these guys again. Several of the missionaries serving in Weatherford now are missionaries that were there when I was, so it'll be fun to see them all again. We had a good week.
 This weekend was Arlington's annual Nativity display, it was fun to work there. We didn't really get to take a lot of time looking at the different things, but we still had a good time. We had a cool experience with a less-active family these last couple weeks. The non-member husband, I will call him John, has never been interested in the church. He has never really been rude to the missionaries, but he doesn't care. The wife, who I will call Amber, has been less-active for 17 years. They have been having a hard time with a lot of different aspects of life and finally she called the bishop. She has been meeting with the missionaries for a couple months as well, and now she committed to coming to church. One of her big issues though is that she has some serious anxiety issues with people she doesn't know. But as she and John talked about it they decided they need to raise their son in a church and that it would really help them if they go back. So they came last week, and they loved it. We saw her last Sunday night and she was just happier in general. It was awesome. Then this past Thursday we saw her and she said that he doesn't read or write very well, so they downloaded the Book of Mormon mp3 files for his phone and he listens to it on the way to and from work. And he is loving it. He tells her about the things he is reading and gets excited as he does. Then they came again yesterday, and even though it was fast and testimony meeting with a bunch of people crying all the time, they still enjoyed it. And when we saw her last night, there is a total different feel in their house, in her countenance, in everything. There is actual joy there now. And that's just from 2 times at church! The difference it makes when we sincerely do spiritual things for our growth is incredible! And he wants us to answer his questions, so on Wednesday Elder Johnson and Elder Condie will go there, while I am headed to Granbury with my New Missionary, whose name will be told next week when I know what it is. It's this kind of stuff that I love about missionary work. One other cool thing happened this week. We were told that the Spanish bike area was getting a visa waiter, and I had a funny thought of "what if it is someone I know." Then we got the text that he would get here Wednesday morning during studies. Well Wednesday morning right after studies was Zone Training, so we got to meet him that first day. Lo and Behold, it's Glen Singleton from Kaysville Utah, I've known him for a few years, he's a year younger than me and hung out with Kade Butt, Jake Hunsaker, and that group of guys. It was pretty cool to see him. I walked up to him and when he saw me, and realized it was me, he said "What's up Braxton... I mean.. uh.. Elder Foust...." It was funny. That's about it for this week. Have a Good week! Love y'all!again, if you didn't last week, go to mormon.org/christmas

--
--Elder Braxton C Foust--