Do what he wants done. Say what he wants said

I am a missionary. But I am much more than that. I am a personal representative of the Lord Jesus Christ. He has chosen me to represent him. To stand in his place. To say and do what he himself would say and do if he personally were ministering to the very people to whom he has sent me.

I have taken upon myself the name of Jesus Christ through the covenant of Baptism by Water, and by Fire. Performed by the Priesthood of God. I have been born of the water and of the spirit. Because of this covenant, I will forever be a witness of Jesus Christ. I will forever stand in his army. I am a Child of God. And he has sent me here. He has sent me to invite others to Come unto Christ, by helping them receive the restored gospel, through Faith in Jesus Christ and his Atonement, Repentance, Baptism, Receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and Enduring to the End. He has sent me here to help people achieve exaltation.

So do whatever it takes to learn for yourself. I promise that I know this message is true. This is the true church on the Earth today. Jesus Christ himself leads this church, through the Prophet, his mouthpiece, his servant.

This week has been a great learning tool for me. I have learned a lot as I have trained Elder Pipher. It is only the end of week 2, and we have both grown a ton. I understand my purpose better now than I ever did before. I understand the importance of the Atonement better than I ever did before. I understand the importance of this work.

We have done a lot of tracting this week. It has been really fun to see Elder Pipher grow and learn how to talk to people. To break him out of his comfort zone, he initiates the door contacts, and I don't jump in until he freezes. He has made it through a couple completely on his own now. The other day he did a couple in a row and it was great. Of course, to end that street of course the last guy was aggressive and tried to get us to fall over ourselves. It wasn't anti or bible bashing, but rather "Do you actually care where I go to church, or is it just part of your sales pitch?" stuff like that. Of course, he did let us know that he knows "quite a bit" about the Mormons. I won't go into much detail, because it's not that important, but needless to say, I jumped in on this one and we got out as soon as the situation was cooled down.

But let's talk about the exciting stuff.

We have a baptismal date set for November 17th! The problem is she doesn't want to come to our ward, she wants to go to the other ward that meets in our building. The problem with that (since I'm sure many of you are wondering why) is that the God's church is a church of order. perfect order. Priesthood keys are set up in a way that puts the stewardship for the people in an area under the keys, not necessarily the group that decides to go at which time in the day. So we will get it figured out with President Sagers and the Stake President out here and she will get dunked.

Also, we have a 9 yr old that we get to teach and baptize! his father is a less-active member, and his step-mom is not a member. She has been taught before, but enjoys smoking so she doesn't want to quit, so she can't be baptized yet. But the kid can. So that will be great fun. I love teaching kids, because it all gets to be simple. I am so glad I got to help teach Hunter Mott in Kaysville before my mission, because that really helped me better understand how to teach simply and prepare me for my mission.

There's also a 17 yr old with a less-active dad who has expressed an interest in baptism, so we will be teaching him in the future. Connecting with him will be really easy, because he's a computer gamer. specifically he plays a certain game that I played a lot of back in the day (LoL for anyone who cares) so that was an instant "in".

We also may be teaching and baptizing a 12 year old. Her mother is investigating but is not currently in a situation to be baptized anytime soon, but told us that her daughter has been reading the Book of Mormon, so hopefully we'll get to teach her.

And the icing on the cake, A member in our ward has a friend from work that has been learning about the church from him during their lunch breaks. He is a recently returned missionary, from a couple years, so he has taught him from Preach my Gospel lessons 1 and 2, and now he wants to meet with us. We were supposed to teach him last Saturday, but something came up, so this coming weekend we will be meeting with him. Members make all the difference.

every single one of these situations are from members, not from our finding efforts. it just goes to show you how important members are.

The mormon.org video for this week is a great one.

http://mormon.org/me/3J19/

I have seen a couple different people in my life go through issues with cancer. At the moment, there is one man in particular that has been on my mind and in my prayers. I really admire him and love him, he is a very caring and respectful man that has raised an amazing family. Jim, thank you for your example of hard work and sacrifice. for the love you have for your family and for all that you do. I love you.

Love you all!

--Elder Braxton C Foust--

Playing a lullaby with two mallets on my ab-xylophone‏

Excuse the random Old-Spice reference. I do not know why, I just felt like using it.

Many of you may be wondering why this email is a day late. Well let me tell you

Yesterday we had a wonderful opportunity, a wonderful opportunity that I've known about for a couple weeks, but I failed to mention beforehand.

But first, I'll tell you about my companion.

Elder Pipher is from Vernal Utah. He is a very hard worker, and very optimistic. He is really outgoing and ready to learn. I was very blessed to be training a missionary that is ready to work like this.

And I feel short. Seriously, we walk up to doors and I see our reflection in the glass/screen door and I look short.

Elder Pipher is 6' 6''. whereas I am a mere 6' 4''. it's a little depressing. But he is extremely skinny and lanky. He can put both legs behind his head. (pictures will be coming shortly). It's a good balance though, he's really tall and very skinny, whereas I am still rather tall, but I have some bulk too.

So basically, people open their doors and think "Why are there two huge [white guys] standing on my doorstep?" (they only think the word white if they are of a different skin color, which is not as common in Burleson as it was in Kileen)

Anyway, he is an awesome guy.

back to our excellent opportunity we had. Elder David S. Baxter from the 1st quorum of the 70 came to tour the mission this week. This means that there is a mission conference. 1/2 the mission was there yesterday, 1/2 the mission today. we got lucky in that it was our stake center that we went to. The half the mission that was in our conference was (the zones) Ft. Worth (us), Denton, weatherford, Waco, and Kileen!!!! So I got to see my guys again. Which was awesome. Also, Elders Ford and Davis from my MTC group are in the Denton Zone, so I got to see them again. The first thing Elder Davis said to me was "Elder Foust! You didn't go home!"

He was joking, he didn't actually think I went home, but we haven't seen each other for 7 months. Elder Toki is in Arlington, so we didn't get to see him unfortunately, but I think we will have a zone conference with Arlington this transfer, so hopefully I'll see him again soon. Elder Martinez, my first zone leader, is now AP, so I got to see him last week at the trainers meeting and then yesterday at the conference, so that rocked. Elder White is still ZL in Kileen, so I got to see him, Elder Nelson, my other first ZL is in Waco, so I got to see him. Almost every single missionary I've worked around was there except Elder Toki.

Anyway, I learned a ton at this conference. I received a lot of personal revelation as well as revelation from my training. This is awesome. I can't really share much with you about it, because it was a lot of personal stuff. But Just so you know, it rocked. President and Sister Sagers gave trainings, and then Elder Baxter did. It rocked.

Well, I'm guessing none of you are really regulars on mormon.org, I definitely wasn't before coming out here, So I am going to share with you the newest video profile, it is also my new favorite.

Have you ever heard of the band "The Killers"?

http://mormon.org/me/5233/

I love you all!

--Elder Braxton C Foust--

Strange Women Lying in Ponds Distributing Swords is No Basis for a System of Government!‏

This week has been a lot of fun and hard work. We did our "no drive day" for the month already (at least one day per month where you put 0 miles on the car) and we got to eat at what some people consider the best fast food place in The Burleson/Crowley area. I really liked it, it's called Nicky D's. The burger was way good, with a ton of bacon on it and really good home-style fries. The icing on the cake was the 70's radio station playing so I got to hear some Styx too. Tender Mercies anyone?

But that's not even the best thing that happened. We did an exchange this past Friday-Saturday. For anyone who doesn't know what I mean, Missionary Leaders (District leaders and zone leaders) conduct companion exchanges each transfer. for 24 hours companions trade. So this time I went to Ft. Worth 2nd and 3rd ward with Elder Warburton. It was awesome to work with him again. I had a couple realizations as we worked together. The biggest one is that my contacting methods and teaching methods match up with his. a lot. it just goes to show you that you learn a lot from your trainer. I can tell I got a lot of my confidence in the work from his attitude. I'm grateful to have been trained by him. But so we had a dang good exchange, even though we didn't have a dinner appointment. Even when you consider the fact that my companion (Elder Sare, who was in our wadr with Elder Gypp) was eating filet mingion (or however you spell that) and Gillatto (again, however that is spelt) while I was having day-old little ceases pizza. and I'm not exaggerating either. But that's ok. It's just food. We stayed up a little bit later than we should have talking, but that's to be expected when you get two buddies in the same apartment.

The next morning is when the biggest thing this week happened.

I'm going to pull a president Monson here and give a random tangent that seems to have nothing to do with what I'm talking about but then become completely obvious really fast.

Each time transfers come around, we get our calls on Monday morning from the Zone Leaders. the exception is for those serving in leadership positions. They get a call from president Sagers on Saturday morning.

It is now Saturday morning, October 8th, 2011. it is 9:05 AM. Elder Warburton and I are having our companion study, we just finished the opening song and prayer. As we begin talking about our personal studies that morning the phone goes off. Now, this is not the regular ringtone set for just anyone. This is an alarm that sounds like a "Low Health" Warning from a video game (seriously, play kingdom hearts and get low health, then you'll know what sound I'm talking about). This is a sharp sound, it cuts across the room. My mind starts to think "Elder Warburton is District Leader and training right now. He's been training Elder Gypp for 6 weeks, and with the new 12 week training program, he has to stay here and continue training him for the next 6 weeks. So that call is not for him.

I was right.

Elder warburton hands me the phone after he speaks with President Sagers for a moment.

"Elder Foust, The Lord wants you to train a new missionary"

...

...

...........

...

etc. etc. etc. (conversation going on)

Boom. I am going to be training a new missionary in Burleson starting on Wednesday, October 12th. I will meet him at about 10 o'clock AM on that morning. We are guaranteed to be together for 2 transfers, so until January 4th at least.

I am freaking stoked.

I am very grateful for the chance I had to be with my trainer when I got that call, because it changed the topic of our discussion. He helped me better understand some things. And now I have him there to help me along the way. I am also very grateful for President Henry B Eyring's talk this past week in Priesthood session where he talked about Leadership in the priesthood, our preparation for it, and God's support and qualifications for it.
I'm excited, I'm nervous, and I can't wait.

Strange Women Lying in Ponds Distributing Swords is No Basis for a System of Government, but an inspired man in a suit with a nametag and priesthood keys definitely is a basis for establishing the leadership in the Lord's missionary service. "Whom the Lord calls he Qualifies." Has become my new motto. I am praying for help in that every moment I get.

This is the true church. This is where God wants his children to be. I'm not saying this is where he wants some of his children, I'm not saying you just need to follow his teachings here and there. I am saying THIS is the only Church god wants you to attend. This is the only true church of God on the Earth. This is where he has placed his priesthood. This is the church that Christ himself directs and guides. There is no middle ground, there is no other way. This is the only way.

If you don't believe that, or if you aren't sure for yourself, or if I just offended you, Prove me wrong. I dare you. The only way you can is by Reading the Book of Mormon and Praying about it and having the Holy Ghost testify to you that it is not true, so that you can have true conviction and the spirit when you tell me otherwise. So I dare you to try.

There are two mormon.org profiles I want to share with you. One is a long one to read, but I promise you it will be worth it.

http://mormon.org/me/1FQ7/Anna/

The other one has an awesome video

http://mormon.org/me/141P/

I love you all!

--
--Elder Braxton C Foust--

We Thank thee oh God, for a prophet!

Holy Cow. Conference was awesome. I received Guidance, instruction, and understanding left and right. It was great!

If you did not watch all 5 sessions, watch them. now. go. do it.

What the What? Another Provo Temple!!! Boo-yah! 2 temples in one city. This is God's True Church. I loved the audible gasp when President Monson announced that.

In the Ensign this past month, the 1st presidency message was about general conference. It told a story of a member telling a non-member about general conference, but not remembering the details of the previous conference. The non-member then said something to the affect of "There is a prophet of god speaking to you, but you can't remember what he said?" We can all learn from this. There is a prophet on the earth, SO LISTEN TO HIM. Everything the apostles say in conference is scripture. period. So study their words. Apply it, and achieve celestial glory.

There were a couple of common themes I saw this year. Some being personal revelation and testimony, "Be thou and example of the believers" and Choosing a side, either Christ's or Satan's. Each of these play a vital role in our eternal salvation.

I loved Boyd K.Packers talk on Saturday morning. That and he had a freaking sweet red and black paisley tie. Although he began his talk by addressing the youth, by no means is this talk meant only for the youth. Everyone should study these words and see what they can apply in their lives. He addressed each of the common themes for this conference in his talk, as well as many more. Read it, pray about it. It's true.

LeGrand R Curtis Jr., of the 70, had a great talk during Saturday Afternoon session. It was about the Atonement, and about the power of repentance. Repentance is the happiest word in the English language! What is happier than changing the things that are wrong to become more like Christ? Study his words! Pray about it! It's True!

Priesthood session had my absolute favorite talk. Jeffrey R. Holland, my favorite speaker, gave a powerful witness of choosing the savior's team. Being a true Christian, none of this "Modern Christianity" bull-crap we see in the world, but a true witness of Jesus Christ, a member of his true church with his priesthood. "Come Join the Ranks!" he proclaims in his Call to Arms. "Unbind your tongues and watch your words work wonders." Study it, pray about it!

Henry B. Eyring also gave a wonderful talk in priesthood session. We are all prepared for our situations in life, so use that preparation and be the best you can be! Be thou an example of the believers!

And then, our beloved Prophet, President Thomas S. Monson, in priesthood session, gave this awesome talk on a multitude of things. If there is any one talk I would suggest the world re-read and study, it is this one. It is powerful, and the spirit of God will manifest the truth of it unto you. Be willing to stand alone, be an all-star. Do what is right!

Sunday morning, Eyring again gave an awesome talk. Holy cow if this thing doesn't move emotions within you, nothing will. it is powerful. Read it, pray about it. It's true.

M. Russell Ballard had a great talk, focusing on the name of the church. We are Christ's Church! The one and only! So use his name properly. This is not the Mormon Church, This is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and the members are called Mormons as a nickname. And I am Proud to be a Mormon!!!!

Thomas S. Monson's talk ending the Sunday morning session was most excellent. Read it!!!!!!!

And now, I would like to quote my favorite talk from any general conference. In October 2009 Jeffrey R Holland gave an amazing talk entitled Safety for the Soul.

"As one of a thousand elements of my own testimony of the divinity of the Book of Mormon, I submit this as yet one more evidence of its truthfulness. In this their greatest—and last—hour of need, I ask you: would these men blaspheme before God by continuing to fix their lives, their honor, and their own search for eternal salvation on a book (and by implication a church and a ministry) they had fictitiously created out of whole cloth?

Never mind that their wives are about to be widows and their children fatherless. Never mind that their little band of followers will yet be “houseless, friendless and homeless” and that their children will leave footprints of blood across frozen rivers and an untamed prairie floor. ⁹ Never mind that legions will die and other legions live declaring in the four quarters of this earth that they know the Book of Mormon and the Church which espouses it to be true. Disregard all of that, and tell me whether in this hour of death these two men would enter the presence of their Eternal Judge quoting from and finding solace in a book which, if not the very word of God, would brand them as imposters and charlatans until the end of time? They would not do that! They were willing to die rather than deny the divine origin and the eternal truthfulness of the Book of Mormon.

For 179 years this book has been examined and attacked, denied and deconstructed, targeted and torn apart like perhaps no other book in modern religious history—perhaps like no other book in any religious history. And still it stands. Failed theories about its origins have been born and parroted and have died—from Ethan Smith to Solomon Spaulding to deranged paranoid to cunning genius. None of these frankly pathetic answers for this book has ever withstood examination because there is no other answer than the one Joseph gave as its young unlearned translator. In this I stand with my own great-grandfather, who said simply enough, “No wicked man could write such a book as this; and no good man would write it, unless it were true and he were commanded of God to do so.”

Jeffrey R Holland puts it in a way I wish I could. This is a powerful witness of the Truth and Divinity of the Book of Mormon. I promise you that this book is True. I promise that NO MATTER WHAT your concern with the church may be, if you prayerfully, sincerely study the Book of Mormon, with Faith in Jesus Christ, you WILL know for yourself that it is true. Your concern will be resolved, and you will be saved in the Celestial Kingdom. "This is the way, and there is no other way, nor name given under heaven"

This is the only way. I love you all, please, if you do not know that the Book of Mormon is true, do what is necessary to find out.

http://mormon.org/me/2N0X/ (this weeks profile)
--
--Elder Braxton C Foust--