Week 16 - Sonoma Valley

Hola todos!!! Buenas tardes!!!

So just a heads up! Next week I will get the amazing opportunity to go to the Oakland temple!! I'm so excited!! But this means that my pday will be on Thursday so I will email out next week on Thursday!!

We may or may not have gotten locked out of a church building so I was voted as the one to climb through the open window to go open the door.....yes I have bruises from it.

This week has been good!! We have an awesome investigator named Anthony! He's pretty sweet and has been at church all three hours each Sunday! He seems to really like church and has read a little bit of the Book of Mormon. He really wants to add church into his life and even took Sunday's off of work which is super amazing and awesome! So there's a little bit of our investigators, his mom is investigating to and hasn't come to church as much because she works but she loves the gospel and lessons so that is cool too, they are both super awesome and the sweetest people!! We have another bunch of few investigators that we are going to visit right now trying to see who is really interested and who was just trying to be nice when they said we could come back! So fun stuff fun stuff!!

Wednesday and Thursday I went in exchanges and was part of a zebra!  Which means I was with an English sister for the night and was the only Spanish misioneras! It was super fun I was with Sister Malmfeldt who is just awesome! She is hilarious and I actually had a conversation on the phone in Spanish, which if you wanted to know is 12 million times harder to understand from a cell phone, BUT I had a conversation with a dude and it was crazy exciting. I mean it was broken Spanish to the max but it was still fantastic!

I got to see around an area called St. Helena it's gorgeous!! Trees everywhere!! It's more north so it's closer to the red oaks! Anyway all four of us went to sweat at the garden and then we came to St. Helena and had dinner with a cool family that gave us glorious strawberry shortcakes. Which also side note now is the time of year that people start selling fruit all over and the strawberries are the bomb!!

Thursday was also zone conference where we were taught by our mission president and his wife and some others as well. It was a really awesome conference! We learned a lot about teaching and how powerful it can be, especially the restoration! There is SO much power behind the first vision that it is crazy! I learned a lot and saw a glimpse at just how much there is to learn about missionary work! Always something that we can improve on and do better! The mission is a crazy learning experience that is so amazing! I'm learning new things so fast that I either never would have learned anywhere else or wouldn't have learned for quiet a long time! The Lord is in every single little details of our lives and the more I'm on my mission the more I come to understand that!

President wright compared a mission to a toothpaste thing. He said when it is all squeezed out you can't get any more after that, and that is how our missions should be. We should squeeze out all the experience and blessings we can until there is no more left so at the end we will have done what we were supposed to do!

This week on Saturday I had the amazing opportunity to hear from one the twelve apostles David A. Bednar. I will NEVER forget this experience. All the missionaries in Santa Rosa gathered and basically had a question and answer with an apostle. I can't even begin to explain all the things that were said and the things that I learned and the things that I want to do because of the conference! It was downright amazing! Elder Bednar did extend a challenge to us that I thought was very cool. He said if you have a question take it to the Book of Mormon. Get an inexpensive paperback one and start reading and highlight every instance that talks about the question you have or the thing you want to learn about. He promised that as we did this and listened for the Holy Ghost we would be guided and questions would be answered. It was such a fun conference and he is a super funny guy that truly is a disciple of Jesus Christ!

So it has been a great week of learning, tracting, and laughing with some spirit thrown in there. :) this mission is such an amazing experience that is teaching me SO much. It doesn't seem real that this week I will be entering my fifth month out it really feels like yesterday I just got here. I know that this gospel is true and that we are the only church that holds the restored priesthood that makes everything we do possible! I know with all my heart the Book of Mormon is true and that the apostles and prophet we have today are called of God! Love you all so much and hope all is well!! Hopefully things are ok with all the rain you are all in my prayers!!!!! :)

Con mucho amor,

Hermana Foster

Bambi, I love visiting her.

Hermana's matching President and Sister Wright at our zone conference

We keep getting mail for a house a couple block away and this is one of the THREE no soliciting signs on their door. They almost yelled at us when they opened the door and then realized we had their mail. 

Week 15 - Sonoma Valley

Hola mis amigos!! Como estan!! Espero bein!

This week was a good week, to start if off on Monday I got to meet our recent convert Jeremias! He is super awesome and we are preparing him to receive the priesthood! His wife is a member also and they have a six year old daughter named Ashley! She is super tall for being six and is the sweetest person ever! During the lesson she drew me a picture and afterwards gave it to me and told me it was to welcome me! It was the cutest and made me so happy! Bien bonidos a sonama!!

Tuesday we taught 7 lessons all in the span of two hours and I killed two bugs in our apartment that were straight out of Jurassic world. We meet some pretty cool people that I hope we can go back and teach!! We never know who is truly interested because a lot of people are to nice to say that they aren't interested to our face but a couple people gave us a time and day to come back so that's good!!

We visit an older member each week named Bambi. She is seriously the sweetest person in the entire world! She won't ever let us leave without some kind of treat. She hurt her shoulder recently but she used to bring flowers to church every Sunday that were from her garden! She's the best!

For her BFF Madison and notice the Slurpee

Thursday we went tracting for years and walked everywhere, we ended up walking a long way from our car and had to back track like thirty min. We meet some pretty rude people it was great. We also meet a woman who said we could come back and a super duper cute old couple who let us come in to talk to them for a bit. Somewhere along the line we found a 7-11  which I haven't had since like I lived in Utah. So we stopped and got a Slurpee after our two hour tracting sess. We didn't totally think it through in the moment because we couldn't tract after that cause it's probs not very professional to sip a Slurpee and try to talk about Christ at random peoples doors but it's fine. I also go told that my Spanish is bad which was just super nice and fantastic to hear. YAY! oh well paso y paso!!

Saturday was a fun day we got to do something called a blitz! It's where our zone got together and everyone got a different temporary companion for a couple hours and you go tracting with them! It was super fun I was paired with Hermana Lewis, a Hermana I served with in my last area! She's so awesome! It's definitely summer haha it's starting to get warm and it's slowly becoming very noticeable in our non air-conditioned apartment. Maybe I'll sleep in our car now. But guess what, I just found out there is a swamp cooler so as soon as we get home I am going to find that thing and get it running.  Saturday we also had a pasta feed with our ward! It was really fun and pasta is always good! The ward I'm in now has some really awesome cute people and I've already been signed up to sing some songs. The ward consists of more elderly people and I guess they super enjoy musical numbers... So it begins. But I miss singing a lot so it's ok! :)

Sunday night we also did a few minutes of tracting and we knocked on this one door and this guy our age opened up with sparkling white teeth and a full fledge six pack. He saw our name tags and went "oh snap, one sec" and he ran back inside a put on a bro tank that didn't distract from his bulging biceps. He was embarrassed that he opened up to missionaries kinda naked and was all over the place as we asked him if he wanted to see a video about Jesus. He really didn't know what to say or do so we ever so politely got ourselves out of that situation. When we left I made the mistake of saying wow best day ever!  But I said it because someone pulled up in a car that we wanted to see.

Anyway this week is super exciting because this Saturday Elder Bednar from the quorum of the twelve apostles is coming to speak to our mission!! I'm so excited to be able to learn and hear from him!! In preparation he has asked us to read some of his previous talks. I've been studying them this week they are all amazing but two that have stood out to me are his talks "Ask in Faith" and "Converted Unto the Lord" so if you have a free moment those are really good talks to read and ponder!! Also this transfer Hermana Gudmuson and I have a goal to read through preach my gospel in 40 days. It's been awesome so far!! That book is just packed with everything you need to know about being a missionary and more. I learn so much from it each day.

Even without air conditioning the church is true and the work continues! This is an amazing opportunity that has taught me SO much and I am grateful to be able to have this opportunity! I love the gospel and know that the church is true! Take some time to read from the Book of Mormon everyday and I promise it will help you in the things you need and remember to pray our Heavenly Father loves and wants to hear from you!

You're all amazing, thank you so much for your emails it sounds like you are doing well!! Te quiero!!!

Con mucho amor,

Hermana Foster

Merlin

I love my Tag and I love flowers

Week 14 - Sonoma Valley

Hola todos!

Goodbye to Hermana Burton

On Monday before transfers I got to say bye to the Niñas and Angel. It was sad to say goodbye to them but Fani gave me her stuffed flamingo and told me it was so I would always remember her! It was ridiculously cute! I also got to see my beloved MTC comp Hermana Bennett and it was the best thing in the entire world and made my entire year!!! I love her so much!!! :)

Hello to Hermana Gudmundson

Tuesday was transfers! Man was this day stressful moving and new companions, I was EXHAUSTED by the end. Anyway my new companion is Hermana Gudmundson! She is super awesome I can already tell she is a hard worker! I think we are going to get a ton done this transfer and I'm excited to get to know her more! She's kinda quiet but can be super funny! I do miss Hermana Burton though! Ahh she's so great and it's definitely hard moving and switching everything but hey that's how it goes! It's also the greatest when you talk to people in English and they try to pull the whole I don't speak English thing so then you switch to Spanish, and they look at you like dang it and then have to talk to you.

Wednesday and Saturday we did service! We do service at this huge garden place! We weeded around trees for like two hours and it was super sweaty and just grand. We did get a free bag of sun chips though so worth it.

Small Vineyard

The vineyards here are crazy too they are EVERYWHERE! You can't go down a street without seeing a little one but when you're on the freeway there are vineyards for days, all over. I think I've seen more grapes here than I have in my 19 years of living combined.

My apartment now is a place that comes off of a members house! Brother and sister Newmen. They are probably the sweetest people ever. Sister Newmen says we must call her Momma Newmen and that we are never to go hungry, if we need a sandwich at 2 in the morning we are commanded to knock on her door. They are the best and I bet have lived somewhere in the south they remind me of Texas so much!

Thursday was a super adventurous day! We tracked for probably three to four hours in total, helped some hilarious less actives.  We brought one, upon request, a strawberry shake, taught four lessons, meet a very creepy shirtless man, and looked for a good half an hour for an address that I don't think exists! It was a BUSY day but was pretty fun!

I've decided that I've never slept so soundly in my life. Early morning seminary has nothing on waking up each day in the mission. It’s pretty much like I'm dead for like 7 hours when I sleep. It's fantastic.

But this week has been good! All the general conference talks have been released in writing ane I'm reading through them all. If you didn't get a chance to see them I would definitely encourage reading them!! They are so awesome and have so much good guidance for our lives!! Especially our prophet Thomas S. Monson’s address titled Decisions!!

The missionary work is going great the people in Sonama are so nice! We are working on finding more people right now to increase our teaching pool. We have been able to show the Easter video to so many people. I love meeting the new people everywhere and talking to them and most of them are super patient and respectful with my Spanish.  There was only one person who laughed at it so that's good!! We have two progressing investigators right now named Anthony and Blanca who are super awesome and a couple new investigators!!

The mission is definitely the hardest thing I have ever done but it is amazing! I've learned SO much about myself and of course the gospel! The Book of Mormon is the best and I've come to love it more than I thought I could, I know that it is the word of God!! I'm learning that we can rely on Christ’s Atonement ALWAYS, I've learned how to completely lean on Him and His sacrifice when it gets rough because he knows EXACTLY how I'm feeling. Anyway some little tidbits there. I hope you all had a fantastic week!! I love y'all!!

Con amor,

Hermana Foster

Cute little studying desk

No Air Conditioning!!!  Sam likes her room like
an igloo so this fan is her best friend!