Week 34 - Woodland

Hola mis amados amigos! Come estado.

Pues I invite you all to read Alma 5! Our mission president has asked us to read it and think about the mighty change of heart Alma is speaking of. I have been reading it and thinking about all the questions that Alma asks. It's made me ponder how I'm going about my life and how I can change to be more in line with the Spirt and Savior! It's a super good chapter so when you have some time you should take a glance!

I also started Jacob 5 aka the longest chapter ever about trees. But actually there were many thoughts that came to mind as I read. I thought about how we each are kind of a tree.  There are people here that need to be grafted into us so that they can take nourishment from our roots or our testimonies and grow off of that until they can become their own tree to branch off of.

It also talks about how it is only the Lord of the vineyard that goes down to work in the garden and it only mentions one servant. The creation connected to that in my mind. It was Christ and Michael who created the earth and put things were they needed to be!

This week has been a good one, very busy! I can't remember if I mentioned him but we meet a man named Tim last week doing service and we saw him again this week while trying to visit someone. I wish all people were open like he is. We are able to discuss our beliefs and learn from each other and it's very cool! He also commented on how he has noticed the people of our church have good hearts and that we have a unity others don't so that was cool to hear!! :)

I actually got the hiccups while we were talking and it was the most interfering thing of my life. Yes speaking English with the hiccups is one thing but speaking Spanish with them is basically just literally impossible so that was super great.

We also this week may have gotten Costco pizza more than once, learned how to make tamales, gotten into a very minor car crash with the Elders, become best friends with a 6 year old named Thomas, we twisted some ankles and got bruises playing futbol, had a picnic in the park with some members, and were able to have interviews with President Wright! So all good things! It was a good week! The people here in Woodland are so so awesome and the members are so great as well! I'm so happy to be serving in this area.

Hermana Dorny has begun to realize how much Hispanics talk, it's glorious. But she's also realized the amazingness of their food and the ridiculousness of their quantities.

We visited with Laura! We had to reschedule her baptism for next Saturday because her sisters had to leave town and she wanted them there! We talked with Laura for a bit and she shared with us how she has felt the Holy Ghost and seen repentance working in her life. It was so awesome to hear it's one of the coolest things to hear someone share how the gospel has helped them!

I've started reading Jesus the Christ again with Hermana Dorny. And it is such an amazing book. We talked about the atonement a lot and it's such a beautiful thing that we have access to. I encourage you guys to think about why you are grateful for Christ’s sacrifice for us! I can't fully comprehend the things that He went through for us but I have felt the help we have access to because he paid the price of justice for us! I love you all so much and our Heavenly Father and Christ love you even more!

Have a good week!!

Week 33 - Woodland

Querido todos,

Pues there isn't much to say this round because I emailed out just a couple days ago. But the temple was amazing as always and I encourage you all to go sometime soon! The spirit and blessings that it holds is something great so we must take advantage of it!

Saturday was a busy day for us. We meet with Jorge and he had a scripture that he liked in the Book of Mormon about when Nephi was commanded to build a boat, it was so awesome to see that he had read! We had a super good lesson with him and set up another appointment. He's a super cool guy so we hope he continues reading and can pray and feel the spirit!

Tag Photo

My heart was made happy today as well. There are a lot of homeless people here in Woodland and it always makes me sad when I see them, so so sad and I just want to help them. So there was a man sitting in the gas station parking lot as we were getting gas and you may think I don’t have a heart but actually it's there and sometimes it's quite bothersome when it decides to show itself ;) no but it made me sad and I wanted to give him cash but I didn't have any and technically we aren't aloud to. But flashback to when we had pizza with Lorena there was a whole pizza left and she made us take it so we grudgingly put it in our car.

The Lord works in mysterious ways people so we pulled up and we gave him the pizza! He seemed a little shocked but thanked us a lot and told us he actually was trying to do family history and learned that one of his great something grandfathers was a body guard or something for Joseph smith. So I mean take that with a grain of salt but it was cool to help him and it made me happy. So if someone ever gives you a whole pizza never underestimate how it can be used!

We also meet a guy named Tim who we helped with some yard work. He is a Christian and was super awesome. He told us that sometimes things in the gospel are backwards. For example the commandments there are ten of them but the tenth one is to not covet. So if we keep the tenth commandment then it wouldn't be possibly for us to break any of the other nine because everything starts with a desire. We had a super awesome conversation with him and the Elders and gave him our number. He said he would call us when he had other yard projects because he enjoyed the help, so we very much hope he does!

We meet cool people everyday in the strangest of ways sometimes but it just goes to show God loves each of us so much and works in ways we don't quite understand to make sure we are all taken care of!

Woodland is a busy place to be right now and I think I may be more tired than any other time in my life but things are great and I love Hermana Dorny! The Lords work continues to move forward!

Well I hope you all have been good! Love you all tons let me know if there is anything I can ever do for you!! Que tenga un buen semana y que le viva bien!

Con amor

Hermana Foster

Woodland District (I think)

Woodland Zone (I think)

Week 32 - Woodland

Querido todos

Lo siento for the late email! We went to the temple this week, today so our pday is on Friday instead of Monday! We went to the Sacramento temple and it was so amazing and great!! The temple is for sure one of my favorite places to be.

Wow this week has been crazy. Tuesday we were at the mission office all day as we waited for the new missionaries to come in! We actually went a visited a member in Santa Rosa who was super nice and took us to lunch! Then we were trained on how to train and then the training began.

My companion is Hermana Dorny!! She is super super great. Very willing to do things and her Spanish is super good for just coming out of the MTC. So very exciting it's been really great getting to know her! On Wednesday our area book still hadn't transferred over on our iPads so it was a strange day. We did meet with the branch president though and found out about the branch and things that had been going on, so that was nice and gave us more of a feel for the area. That night we had dinner and it was purely Mexican food and it was the most fantastic thing ever.

So overall a strange day because we have no idea where anything is or who anyone is. But luckily that night the area book had switched over and we were able to get a sorta schedule and can look up people and addresses. It was a very good couple days but a very stressful couple of days.

I dropped my blanket off with Bambi because it has some holes in it and she said that she would fix them! That we ran out of time to go get it so I had to go a night without my blanket. It was the strangest thing ever and I never want to do it again so there's that!  (I couldn’t resist even though Sam will not be happy that I decided to share from her family letter to everyone in the world that she carries around her baby blanket, she is almost 20!)

I love Hermana Dorny so much, it's very cool to be able to share some things I've learned to try and help someone else! But seriously Hermana Dorny is so so amazing and has greenie fire like no other and I think is teaching me more than I am teaching her!

It's been a crazy week trying to meet everyone and get to know the town but it has been fun, stressful, but fun! The people are very very nice and it's definitely a bigger place than Sonoma so that's fantastic, there is even a target. It is quite a bit hotter here but hey Texas heat has it beat so I will count my blessings! There is a lot of less active work to do in this area. Hermana Dorny and I are excited to try and work with them and help them get back to church.  The people we have meet so far have been great so great and fun! There are so many people that just need that push to come back and that's very evident here.

It's so important to never give up on anyone because all who have been baptized have felt the sprit at some point so we have to help them feel that again! And they are all so nice and very willing to meet with us. So a bit stressful but really fun to be able to just go through all the names we have in area book. The ward and people here are super super awesome and I already love them all so much!

I realized this week how accustomed I've become to Mexican food, we had mole this week and it was quite strange for Herman Dorny but it was very normal for me. :)

Interesting side note we eat with the same member every Thursday night and we call him happy hot dog, he calls himself this as well. He loves hot dogs I guess we eat them every week so yea and he has a weiner dog so even better.

We do have an investigator named Laura who just had a baby who is super awesome and has a baptismal date for this upcoming Saturday! It's so exciting we talked to her last night and she said that she is all a go for it. We have family home evening with her family each Monday and they are so so fun and cute! So we are very excited for her baptism Saturday!

The temple today was absolutely amazing and gorgeous!! The temple could be my favorite place! Hope you all had a good week!! Love you!

Con amor

Hermana Foster

Good byes are hard thanks for being so great Sonoma!!!!!

TheNewmans!!!!

Sister Xochlit