The man who holds the complete works of Aristotle in one hand, and a delicious sandwich in the other‏

Hello everybody! Merry Christmas again, even though it is 3 days late!
So I'll bet many of you are wondering why I am emailing on Wednesday, the answer is simple, burleson library is dumb and is closed until the new year. So, not knowing that previously, we failed our attempts to email yesterday (we already knew it would be closed on Monday). But luckily, after a quick phone call to President Sagers, we got permission to email today. Good stuff.

So, I had an awesome Christmas. I really missed going to grandparent's houses like normal, but it was ok. On Christmas eve we went to a party at a member's house. It is the parents of the family with the 12 kids in the ward. So, basically it was a mad house. We even played the game where you get to pick a present and open it, or you can steal someone else's present they chose. I picked a new one scored some Starbucks Coffee grinds,

 and every member in the room literally laughed out loud with me. luckily someone took pity on me and stole it so I got an Outback steakhouse gift card instead.

On Christmas day I got to spend time with some great people out here. We had 3 meals fed to us on Christmas, which is about average for this mission. We had pumpkin pancakes for breakfast after church at one member's house, then some good breakfast casserole/lasagna stuff at another's for lunch, then Texas BBQ for dinner at a third. It was great. The members out here are very generous and have been giving us tons of food and candy, it's crazy. I feel like I am getting fat again. I am not really, but I feel like it sometimes. I was very grateful to get a package with freshly picked fruit yesterday.

The work is going great. We are going to have another baptism on Tuesday! I am very excited, it is the 9 yr old boy we have been teaching. He is excited to get baptized and will help his parents to become active again. He is a smart little kid.

We went tracting this morning and found a new investigator with great potential. I think she is very sincere and wants to learn. We gave her a copy of the Book of Mormon and are going back on Friday afternoon. It will be a good lesson.

Alright, random rant moment from Elder Foust. What is happening to our Country? I heard from someone again that they are pushing to take "One nation under God" out of the pledge because it "takes away Atheist's rights". Bull-freaking-crap. They have every right to not say it if they don't want to, but to take away someone else's right to say it is completely unconstitutional and ridiculous. And then the whole thing about kids reading their scriptures and praying in public schools. Guess what, atheists have every right to not do that, and others should have every right to. If a so-called atheist is offended by it, that is their own personal problem and they need to mature. And the parents that come in and fight it are absolutely ridiculous too. it's so stupid, what are these people thinking? Someone gave me this awesome commentary by Ben Stein to read, I have gotten it in emails before, but it is still great. He talks about how even though he is a Jew, it does not offend him to see Christmas trees in public places, or nativities. He says he even likes it when people say Merry Christmas to him because it is a friendly gesture and helps bring this country together.

Back to "One Nation under God." It doesn't say "one nation under Christ" it doesn't say "one nation under Allah" it doesn't say "one nation under Elohiem" and it doesn't say "one nation under Buddha". It says God. It is Deity. It is the belief that there is something there that binds us together. Be it a holy spirit, a loving father in heaven, life force, chi, or emotion, it binds us as one. It makes us Indivisible, as the pledge states. It makes us united. As the song in Lion King 2 states, We are one!

And, if anyone tried to take that away from me, Toby Keith puts it best. I'll stick a Boot in your _____ Cause it's the American way.

And I can do that, because I bought boots on Monday. Boo-yah.

I love you all. I know this church is true. I know Joseph Smith was a true prophet, and that Thomas S. Monson is today.

-Elder Foust

by the way, it is transfers next week and I will not know until Monday whether or not I will be staying, so if anyone is planning on sending me anything, do it before Saturday or wait until I know where I'll be next month.

LOVE YOU!!!!

--
--Elder Braxton C Foust--

I'll be home for christmas, if only in my dreams.

 Sorry, It is going to be a short email this week.

This week has been great.

On Tuesday we had a great District meeting about Inviting people to learn and make commitments. It was really good, I learned a lot and so did my district.

On Wednesday we had Zone Conference! it was awesome! Being the Christmas Conference, President Sagers showed us a movie. Unfortunately, he is not like the old Mission President who showed Ben Hur, but what we saw was maybe even better. We got to watch 17 miracles. It was great. (Especially looking at all the common LDS actors, like the ones who played Joseph and Hyrum in The Prophet of the Restoration, and T Homas in Finding Faith in Christ) But seriously, that movie rocks. If you have not seen it, go get it. Anyway, during ZC, they took all of our phones away, then at the end gave us new phones. So that's pretty sweet. I like our phone.

On Thursday I got to go on exchange with my mission brother, Elder Gypp, so that was fun. We did some good work.

On Saturday we had a baptism! Preston got baptized! (I called his elvis before because he had this awesome hair do that looked nothing like Elvis, but it worked). Anyway, it was really good. Then on Sunday he got confirmed in one of the best sacrament meetings I have ever seen.

We had the confirmation, 2 Christmas musical numbers, a youth talk, and a Homecoming talk. It was one of the best RM talks I have ever seen too. Cameron (The RM) Had a few non-member friends from high school there, and he was very very bold in his talk, talking about the restoration, the plan of salvation, and the gospel of Jesus Christ. It rocked.

And then this morning, I started playing around with a chorus for the song I have written on guitar, so that's pretty sweet too.

I love the Christmas season. It is going to be weird not being home, not getting to be with friends and family. My best friends are scattered around the world anyway, but still, I am going to miss my family a lot. I'll miss going to Grandma Stokers on Christmas Eve, playing with Eli, Caleb, Hannah, and Lily. I'll miss spending time with the Foust side on Christmas Morning. But, I will get to have new experiences in Texas, things I have never seen before, and my family will still be there in 14 months (not that anyone is counting). This is the Lord's Work. This is the Lord's time. I am happy to be a part of it.

I love you all, I hope you have a Merry Christmas, and a Happy New year.

--
--Elder Braxton C Foust--

• Exchanges, Interviews, Emergency Transfers, and Dogs‏

Good Morning everyone. This week has been great.

Being the District Leader, I get to go on exchanges with every Elder in the District. So on Tuesday I went with Elder Fowers. He is from Hyde Park Utah, which is really close to the school in the world. Go aggies.

Anyway, Elder Fowers is awesome. He is new this transfer, he is being trained by my "younger Brother" Elder Gypp (Elder Gypp and I were both trained by Elder Warburton, in case you do not remember me telling you that before). We had a great time talking about music (even though we have very different tastes) and about the gospel (obviously). He is a huge Josh Groban fan, so we are going to rock out to some You Raise Me Up when he gets his CDs from home. It was a really good exchange, he is a really cool kid.

Then on Friday, Elder Whittier and I went on Exchange. It was also very good. I got to work with a missionary who has been out for 23 1/2 months, so I learned some good contacting skills. (but not nun-chucking skills or computer hacking skills). It was really fun. On Friday morning, right before we exchanged, President Sagers called them and told them that Elder Jardine was being transferred the next day. They had a tri-panionship in Joshua ward and the member that they lived with was worried about the sewage lines with three 20 yr old men living in their little apartment, so he got sent to Denton. Anyway, that exchange was also quite fun.

While I was with Elder Whittier, we went to teach the three little girls we are teaching. We had a great lesson and taught them all of the commandments (lesson 4 in PMG). After we finished the lesson we were talking for a minute and the girls started playing with one of their four dogs. They have four Labs, 3 full labs that are pretty small, Cody, Bear, and Buddha, and a Big one that is half something else, named Diesel. Well, as the girls were playing tug-of-war with Cody, he started getting really worked up and they quit pulling for a bit. He walked away and just started growling, so the Mom grapped him and petted him and told him to stop growling, then he barked at her. So she grabbed his collar and lifted him up onto her lap and tried to get him to calm down. he barked again so she hit his nose and he growled and barked again, this time with more anger with his forehead all crinkled and angry looking. Then Diesel jumps at him and starts biting and growling. At first we thought they were just playing again, but after about 3 seconds it was obvious that they were not, and bear and Buddha started in too. So The Mom of the Girls, who is sitting on a couch, gets between Diesel and Cody, trying to protect the smaller dog, and Diesel just freaks out and starts barking and biting and just freaking. So I jumped up and grabbed his collar and ripped him off of Her, but his collar was loose and he pulled out of it. Then Elder Whittier, being the Virginia Farm Boy he is, Jumps on top of Diesel, Grabs his ear, twists it, and shoves his head to the ground. As he is doping that, I grab Bear and Buddha’s collars and pull them away, luckily since they are smaller I was able to keep them away and then the oldest girl jumped up and opened the back door to let the three attacking dogs out, then we tried to cam cody down. He had one tooth mark above his left eye that was bleeding a little bit, but just enough to see some red on his fur. He was scared and shaking bad, so the next few minutes were spent trying to calm him down, and the three little girls who were all bawling and shaking too. It was crazy. Now I know what to do to get a Dog off of someone. Crazy huh. The girls dad was out of town, and our exchange was elderly, so he didn't jump up to help either, so it was all me and Whittier. It was so crazy. They are all ok though.

On Sunday Elvis, who's real name will be revealed next week once he is baptized and I send the pictures, got interviewed and is being baptized on Saturday! it is going to be sweet. Then after church I interviewed JB, a Guy from Joshua who is getting baptized on Wednesday. So it was pretty sweet, I got to do my first baptismal interview. I enjoyed it and learned a lot from it.

This Wednesday will also be Zone Conference, I am excited for that, it will be awesome.

Well, I am out of time. I love you all! I look forward to hearing from you soon :)

Love, Elder Foust
-- --Elder Braxton C Foust--

Both ends of the spectrum‏

This week has been one of the absolute best weeks of my mission, and one of the worst.

This week was one of the best because we taught several lessons to investigators in a member's home. This is actually really significant because the baptismal and retention rates are hugely significant when they are taught in this situation. And then, all four of the investigators who we taught were at sacrament meeting. And one of them has a baptismal date for December 17th! That's the one I have been refferring to ya'll as Elvis. It was a great week in teaching and talking to people. Plus, the weather has completely changed. I have not seen the sun for a week now. It has been overcast and rainy the whole time. Yesterday it was raining literally all day long. it was wonderful. The only problem is now it is cold, and we are basically wanting to wear our suits everywhere, which is hard since they need to be dry cleaned which isn't the most inexpensive thing in the world. Thank goodness for overcoats. On Saturday we walked 6 miles in the rain. It came in waves, sometimes the rain stopped for a few minutes, other times we had to stop talking because we couldn't hear each other. crazy huh. Several people offered us rides, but we can't talk to people if we are in a car, so we just kept walking. That is when I found out that my overcoat is not water proof, just very water resistant. It rocked.

That's what made this week so great. It may not seem like much to you, but it is huge for us. Getting people to sacrament meeting is the best thing to do to help them progress and feel the spirit. I love church.

Plus it was fast Sunday yesterday, and I had a great fast. It was one of those little things that just helps, you know? And the testimonies shared in sacrament meeting were great.

Now I guess I'll go to the "one of the worst"

Sunday evening I got a phone call from President Sagers, informing me that Jim Hefner had passed away. It was a bit of a blow, because I didn't see it coming at all. I had hoped he would beat the cancer and come out on top. But the Lord's hand is in all things. President Sagers told me that being in the field was the best thing I could do right now to help his family, and I know that is true.

This is the second time I have had a phone call like this on my mission. It is such a weird sensation to be told "Elder, Your stake president just called me. ________ has passed away." To think to yourself, that person I knew and loved is no longer in the physical realm of this earth. They are not here anymore. They've gone on. They won't be there to tell you welcome home in a little over a year. and you didn't get to say goodbye. But that's the miracle of the plan of salvation. It's not meant to be a goodbye, it's more of a "see you later." In the eternal scheme of things it's really a "see you soon." God is in control and knows us all perfectly. Jim is no longer in pain. He's not bound by his mortal body. He is in a better place. I love you Jim, and I'll see you soon.

--
--Elder Braxton C Foust--

I'm giving Christ my son

A MISSIONARY CHRISTMAS
(author unknown)
I skipped the sales after Thanksgiving. The thrill just wasn't there.
No pictures taken with Santa Claus, my decorating has no flair. His
presents are shoes, shirts, and ties, two suits and socks...no fun. I've
bought him all white clothes because... This year I'm giving Christ my
son. I've spent more time in the temple, my testimony stirred. I've
reread November's Ensign, Felt strength
come from His words. Our family prays more frequently. My tears are
quick to run. Abraham seems closer because, This year I'm giving Christ
my son. I wonder how those Lamanite mothers, gave their sons to war? Or
how the pioneers chose Zion , their sacrifice was so much more. My loss
will be his presence, I'll miss his smile a ton for two years we will
pray for him, I'm giving Christ my son. I stare at his face when he's
not looking. I memorize his eyes, their shine. He's always hungered for
the part of him, that makes his soul divine. The stories and lessons he
always heard, His choice and mine are one. I'll put my faith in God's
hand, This year, I'm giving Him my son. Past gifts have lost their
glitter; I think I finally understand Christ's birth should be
celebrated by giving Him a hand. It's because I know Christ lives and
reigns that all his packing's  done. My gift has taken years to make,
This year... I'm giving Christ my son. I know there's One who
understands, the sacrifice I'm making. Who knows the gift I willingly
give, The toll it will be taking. For He has done it all before Greater
love - there could be none. For years ago God gave to me, His only
begotten son. The hands I washed, the hands I held, The hands I taught
to pray; Now knock on doors to find the ones Who will listen to what
he'll say. Because I know Christ needs him, Until all the gathering's
done, My gift has taken years to make. This year..
.I'm giving Christ my
son. —         

Lord I'm Grateful for my life‏

This week was Thanksgiving. Obviously. It was very interesting for me to not be at grandma's house (either one) eating with all the family and seeing all the cousins and just having a good time. It was weird to not do the regular traditions, like going to a movie that morning, then going to grandmas and eating way too much. I still did the eating way too much, but it wasn't at grandma's, so it just wasn't the same :)

We had thanksgiving with three families in the ward. It's pretty normal for that to occur, multiple dinner appointments on Thanksgiving and family hopping, but ours wasn't multiple appointments, it was one. Three families in the ward had it combined and invited us. It was awesome. One of the families has 6 kids, another with 7, and another with 3, but all three have slight mental disabilities. So it was crazy having all those kids in one living room. We had a great thanksgiving dinner, with all the regular thanksgiving things except no dessert. We had dessert later at the church, where more families (including those three) went to the chapel and played games and had pie and stuff. It was great. Thank we visited one of my favorite families in the ward, They have 5 kids that love the missionaries. And This family is the one that is letting me borrow a guitar. So I took it with me over there and we played around a little bit. He made a dark chocolate cream pie. With some kick. He had a couple of different kinds of pepper in it, like cayenne and a couple others. It was really good. It is an interesting sensation to eat dark chocolate that is spicy. I think Russell would have liked it.

Anyway, the next two days we did not have anyone signed up to feed us, but there were two different families that offered to give us some leftovers, so we still ate well. We had Cornbread stuffing. Apparently in the South that's the way to do it. It was good, but I still prefer regular stuffing.

So that was my thanksgiving. I am grateful that being in America, I got to enjoy that.

So, cool story for the day.

There is a guy from this ward, Jon Beesley. He was a Bishop, he was a stake president, and now he is a mission president in the Alaska Anchorage mission. President Beesley is an amazing man. Everyone in the fort worth stake knows who he is. He used to work for Lockheed Martin, a defence contractor company, (I guess it's kinda like L3? Cory will have to clarify for me if that is true) Anyway, he was the number one test pilot for Lockheed. He was one of the first people to fly an F-16, F-35, F-22, and the Stealth Fighter. Actually, the 35 and 22 he was the first person. And he named the F-22, the Raptor. Actually, his son did. One day he came home from work and told his son that the new fighter jet they were working on needed a name. His son asked him what it could do. well, being the confidential information it was, he told him that it basically kills anything alive on the ground. SO his son said. "Call it the Raptor". and they did. Cool huh. But I did not get to meet this man, because, like I said, He is in Alaska. Originally he was assigned to go to Russia, but when the Russian Government found out his credentials they basically said "Heck no." They thought he was really CIA undercover. What a joke.

Anyway, there's my cool story about someone from the "Bounding Metropolis of Burleson Texas" (As someone once sarcastically referred to it as)

Well, our baptismal date, I referred to him before as Elvis, has to be moved back because he couldn't make it to church and investigators need to come to church a few times before their baptism. But that's ok, we will still get him baptized this month. He has been reading the Book of Mormon and praying about it, which is exciting for a missionary to see. There's nothing like the Book of Mormon. It is wonderful.

Our District is pretty awesome. The new missionary's name is Elder Fowers, he is from Cache Valley. I told him I am an Aggie and he told me all his friends go there, but he goes to BYU. My response was an obvious "Ah... one of "Those"". he laughed and said Yup.

I get to give my first district meeting tomorrow. That'll be weird. Then I get to go on my first exchange with a Zone Leader as a District Leader right after that. So I will get to learn a ton tomorrow. Honestly, I will probably learn more from preparing and teaching a District Meeting than the members of my district will. At least that is what I am told.

The other day I had the most interesting dodge from a door contact yet.

*Dingdong*

Hello, we are missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day saints, out talking about Jesus Christ today.

Oh, that's ok, we're Mormons.

... Well, that's the church we're from!

Umm.... That's ok, we have a church

*Door closes*

Elder, did that just happen?

yeah....

I thought it was hilarious. My thought is this, She thought we were JWs, and most JWs will not even bother with Mormons (outside of Utah) if you tell them you are because they know how stubborn we are when it comes to religion. So she tried to dodge us, and it failed. funny stuff huh.

Well, I do not know what else to talk about... so... I love you all

Check out the song "Lord I'm Grateful" By Paul Cardall. It rocks.

New mormon.org profile!

http://mormon.org/me/546C/

love ya!

--
--Elder Braxton C Foust--

Transfer #6... completed

Here goes transfer number 7/17, it starts on Wednesday.

Well, let me start by talking about transfers.

Elder Warburton was training the last 2 transfers, and these last couples weeks we have all said that Elder Gypp (My mission brother (Elder Warburton is both of our mission father, if you still aren't following)) is ready to train, and sure enough, Saturday morning came and his phone rang. Elder Gypp is training. So Elder Warburton needs to go somewhere right? I called it by the way. He's going to be a Zone Leader in Hurst ( I called the ZL part not the Hurst part). So he is leaving both of his sons, and both of his grandsons, in the same district.

But wait Elder Foust, If Elder Warburton is leaving, that means you need another District Leader. Well.... that is correct.....

and our phone rang on Saturday morning as well.

The situation went like this

"ring ring... ring ring... (automated voice) "Call from... President Sagers..." ring ring... ring ring.... "Call From.... President Sagers..."

meanwhile "Elder Pipher, answer the phone!" " I don't know what to do!" "Just answer it!" "But I... Uh.... Hello, this is Elder Pipher"
"hello Elder Pipher, this is president sagers. How are you today?"
"I'm doing well"
"Good. is your companion there?"

"Yes, here he is"

*tosses phone at Elder Foust

"Hello this is Elder Foust"
"Elder Foust, this is President Sagers. The Lord has a new assignment for you. You are going to stay in your area with your companion, and you are going to be the District Leader. Can you do that?"
"yes president, if the Lord says I can than I can"

etc. etc. etc.

Now... Let me tell you a little bit about the days before.

On Wednesday it occurred to me that if Elder Gypp was going to train, we would need a new DL, and it would probably be me. Honestly, the thought went through my head.

Then on Thursday it came stronger.

Then on Friday night, I had the thought to turn the cell phone up to max volume because it was going to ring the next morning.

My explanation, that was the spirit's version of what I call "Get over it now" Because if it came as a shock, I would have been thrown for a loop, but I was prepared for the shock.

So now, I am a District Leader. Well, no, I take that back, On Wednesday I will be a District Leader.

Meaning:
I give trainings to my District each week

I conduct baptismal interviews

I collect and report numbers each week

I go on 24 hour exchanges with each elder in my district

and all that "great light greater condemnation" stuff.

There is more to it than that, but it is definitely more than the MTC when I was the DL and my duties were

Mail Getter.

Yeah, that was a good time :)

And my District will rock, because the only thing that is changing is that Elder Warburton will be replaced and Elder Gypp will get a new missionary, and the Joshua Elders are both staying! AND They are getting a third companion. Crazy sauce huh. Elder Gardner, the 3rd, was in the mission for 9 months, then got honorably released for eye surgery that was supposed to keep him out of the mission for a month. but it lasted for 6 because of complications with his eye. But now he's back. He dodged the summer, the lucky son of a gun. So that'll be cool. More people for me to go on exchanges with!

anyway, so now that that is past, this week has been awesome.

We had a baptism on Thursday! Gracie ( I called her Grace last week, clever right?) got baptized AND confirmed. Which is weird, because converts are not confirmed at waterside, but she has a special case because she was moving on Friday and we wanted to make sure the ordinance was completed. Boom. Success. I believe my mom should already have the pictures. I am sorry they are blurry, the photographer did not let the camera focus or was shaking or something.

Anyway, that rocked.

Other than those two events, not much has really happened this week for me. Well, I have written a song, but I am still working out the kinks in that, so we'll see what happens. Can I just say I love guitars? I do.

Anyway, As I re-read this email, it seems a little braggy, but I do not mean it to. I just have a lot of positive things to focus on! The work is going great. We have a few people to teach and we have some baptismal dates. so that rocks.

Life is great and the Church is true. I am sorry I do not have time to say more, we have dinner in 5 minutes.

I LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!!

--
--Elder Braxton C Foust--