Week 60 - San Rafael

This week a story. A story of Esperanza. 

This week Thursday Sister Jeffrey and I were able to go on exchanges I was in San Rafeal looking with her for the day. We started off the day by really setting a goal to contact ten people and invite them to church. We walked to and from places looking for people and literally just ran into people on our walks that God placed in our path. At one moment we weren't sure where to go so we said a prayer for guidance. Sister Jeffrey being the amazing spiritual giant she is of course received a place and we went. 

We went to a street that they had been looking for someone earlier in the week but they didn’t find what they were looking for. But on Thursday, on Thursday the Lord needed us there and we found the street so easy. We parked and went to try the less active on the street. Let us point out here that we are in an English area looking for English members at this moment.

We knocked on the door and the moment the door was opened I knew the women in front of us was Hispanic, she was the housekeeper for the family who wasn't home. We say talk to everyone right? Well the spirit didn't give me a choice, he knew, and contacting began. We asked to share the hallelujah video with her and she accepted knowing that it was only 2 minutes because she had to leave to get home soon.

So the video began and the spirit swooped in and tears started streaming down her face. I asked her what she was feeling when the video ended and she hugged Sister Jeffrey and I saying that we had come in the exact moment that she was in need. She continued to explain how her husband had died two years earlier and that right now her kids aren't living with her, but that she was so grateful we had brought a message about Christ and how we can all be resurrected because of Him. We gave her our information and invited her to church, she lives in San Francisco but made sure she could call us to find missionaries by her. She hugged us again and the door closed and she hurried to finish everything up in the house. 

Sister Jeffrey and I walked away speechless for some time and basically just wandered down the street talking about how the Lord leads us and blesses us and about how strong the spirit had been in that moment. One of my favorite things was when this women looked at Sister Jeffrey and asked me if she spoke Spanish as well, I said no and she said something that hit me so hard. She looked down and then said "Oh, well it doesn't matter, you can see it in her eyes, she brings a message of love." 

What a blessing and what an experience we continued talking and realized we were aimlessly walking and needed to go back to our car, as we walk Sister Jeffrey being the amazing missionary she is asks if we should go back to give her a Book of Mormon. I wasn't sure but as we got to the car we looked over to see our friend putting all her things in her trunk to leave. We looked at each other and then just ran. I grabbed the first El Libro de Mormon that I saw and just started running. Let's talk about how we always need to be with our companions and we really shouldn't run from them... Is there an exception if you are running to give someone salvation?

Well we ran and we got to her, she was surprised to see us again but I explained we wanted to leave her with a book. I gave a quick intro to the Book of Mormon and tried to put into words the love that I have for it. Did I mention that the Book I grabbed just happened to be the book with the only Spanish restoration pamphlet the sisters had in their car.

The women grabbed my arm and she said you are back so I must ask you a question. We said of course. She looked at me with tears in her eyes and said "will I see my husband Jesus again? I've believed my whole life I would, but somebody told me that that isn't true." Through tears she explained more of her husband and the love they share and how he always told her she didn't need to worry because he would be waiting there for her in heaven, but at the moment she wasn't sure because of something someone else had said. The spirit was so strong and Sister Jeffrey and I stood with her and through tears bore testimony. I told her and was able to promise her that she would see him again and that they in fact could be together forever. I bore my testimony of the plan if salvation while she held my arm and closed her eyes to listen. And you best believe that Sister Jeffrey was right there and you best believe that I could feel the prayers she was so earnestly offering in her heart that our friend would be able to feel of the message.

I stopped and I said can you feel what is here right now and she opened her eyes and nodded. The spirit in that moment testified to me that what was said in my setting apart about angels praying for me to find those that they needed me to find was being fulfilled.

With the spirit strong I told her that her husband had lead us to her that day. I said we are solely instruments and through the spirit and your husband we were able to find you today.

This beautiful child of God looked at us and said "I know I will see him again in heaven and I know that you two will be there too". Our friend grabbed both of our name tags to really read our names and she hugged us both again she said "I know God is there and that he loves me because he sent two angels to me today". We ended saying she could call us and we would find the missionaries that could go and share more with her. She said of course and hurried to her car as she did have to leave as she looked at and hugged the Book of Mormon. 

We walked back to the car in silence and sat for a moment in the spirit. I know that I was sent to the Santa Rosa mission to do many things and one of those was to find her, to share those small but powerful moments with her. I may not be able to teach her the rest of the gospel or know what fully comes from our meeting but I do know we were guided and prepared in every way for that moment so full of the spirit. And I know that one day in heaven we together will be able to remember that special moment. 

I love being a missionary and I love this gospel, I LOVE it. I could probably actually talk about it all day. I know the Lord loves us each and will put so many things into perfect place so that we can receive the help and blessings we need to continue going throughout this life. We share a happiness that nobody else will ever be able to surpass and the privilege it is to be able to wear the name of Christ, the one who made that happiness possible, has changed my life forever. 

And one last thing, our friend that we meet, her name was of course Esperanza translates to Hope.  Because even in the hard times, when things feel lower than low, because of the Savior we always and forever will have hope. :)

As I was studying this week I realized how the spirit has been changing my heart step by step on my mission. It's so crazy to think about the things I've developed and learned, of course there is still so much more to go. I remember reading Preach my Gospel when I first started out as a missionary and wondering about so many things and how they work.  Reading it now I find myself thinking ahh yes I know what that is, that's an awesome feeling. Just goes to show when we are doing what is right while asking for help without us recognizing in the moment the spirit is working with us to change us piece by piece. The spirits got quite the job.

Do you all remember Jairo?  We visited with Jairo this week, what. Yep we saw him, he's alive, he's not dead. So we saw him and we talked and we were like yo you want to get baptized? Ok then get your act together. He said he still does so do you know what we did? Well we did none other than teach him the law of chastity and the word of wisdom and he accepted them both completely so that was great. We had a little kerfuffle when he tried to convince us that if you take a shot once in a while it's actually good for your health, but besides that everything was well. We established some baptism stuff and he promised to come to church. 

Something amazing happened at dinner, well not like super amazing but a realization. I remembered how upset I was to leave my last area, Woodland and I realized... Novato has taken its place in my heart, wow. The people here I love I think I've really like REALLY figured out how to be a missionary here and things have been going so well. I've seen this area progress so much. Whatever happens next week with transfers it will be hard to leave. I can't believe the missionary I am now and the person but I'm SO beyond grateful. Love is a very powerful thing that I think people sometimes take for granted and being able to feel Gods love for someone is even greater.

Elder Field and Sisters

Hermana Soba!

Week 59 - San Rafael

Hola todos, qué tal? 

This week has been a pretty filled one! We were able to do another really intense service. We went to rodeo beach and they geared us up with heavy duty rain boots and we went and cleared the irrigation river they had going. There was grass all up in it everywhere so we were like knee high in water with huge rain boots digging away at grass and it was surprisingly really fun.

Then we swept a thing called the Mobil mat and it's this mat that goes out into the beach so people with wheelchairs can access the beach too so that was awesome.   It was quite tiring as there was sand EVERYWHERE, it’s like glitter.

We did go on a hike last Monday where we hiked to a little waterfall in the redwoods and it was so beautiful!  Check out our amazingly creative pictures.

I hope you all had an awesome Valentine's Day as well, happy heart day. We heart attacked some people's doors and had zone meeting! Two of the many highlights from the meeting:

• ·      We have been called by Christ just as his apostles were called to serve him, there is no difference in the call we have received to follow him. But the difference is how we choose to respond to the call.
• ·      Christ's purpose makes our purpose possible. Without Christ everything would be nothing he makes everything possible. The center of everything is the love of Christ.

That hit me really hard this week. Centered in the atonement was Christ's love for us, he did all he did because he loved us and because he loves us all things are possible. The charity or pure love Christ has for us is immeasurable and amazing I need to work more on having Christlike love for all. How convenient to learn about the love the week of heart day! :)

A special moment happened this week. A little boy named Liam had his baptism, he is in the English ward. Now let me tell you about Liam he is special needs and he warms my heart SO much. We were able to go and Yadira and Mitchin came as well!! The spirit was so strong for me and it was something I needed so much. Liam was the cutest thing ever and it was just amazing.

We all talked with him after and my heart was so warm and happy. He reminded me so much of Riley and I just sat and held his hands while he talked to me and I was so grateful it was the Lord saying he knew, he knew it was so hard for me to miss Keagan and Riley's baptism but that because I did that for him he made sure I was there for that moment.

Liam looked at me at one point and he said oh you're crying and I wasn't crying but I realized he could sense what I was thinking and I was overwhelmed so I did cry and he sat down and he hugged me. He patted my arms and kept saying oh it will all be ok in his little Liam voice and it was the sweetest thing ever.

Some amazing things happened this week though! We were able to visit with Jennifer and let's talk about love, I LOVE her so much. We shared the restoration with her and she was just kind of amazed at the idea of everything we had shared. She truly hadn't heard anything like it and that goes to show why we need to be sharing the gospel with everyone because so many are looking for it but they just don't know what it is or where to find it.

As we were walking around a house popped into my head so we went there. We knocked the door and this cute couple let us in, they are very much involved in their own religion but said that they talk with everyone because it's never bad to talk about God and Christ. So we chatted and we left them with a Book of Mormon they were so nice and sweet and they had been watching mission impossible when we walked in haha. But that was good to visit with them. It reminded me of something of saw the other day it was a sign on another church’s sign not of our faith. But their sign said "don't read the Book of Mormon, that's how they get you" it made me smile :) 

We went to a lesson with the Elder’s investigators, Yadira and Mitchin. They have a baptismal date set and are so ridiculously cool and are progressing so much. The lesson with them was so fun and Yadira has two little kids that are adorable that I was playing with. Sayne and Jared!

We also visited with Brenda and Jonathan and it was amazing we also talked about the restoration there. So we can also talk about love and happiness with them because Brenda announced that she had quit her job so that she could now attend church on Sundays and we were all so excited. Her example and dedication is amazing. She prayed and felt that's what she needed to do and the Lord blessed her, she said not minutes after she quit did she get a call from a friend asking about someone to nanny her child, which so conveniently happens to be what she wants to do now. But to make our lesson even greater they had invited friends over to hear it with them! Let me tell you how great this is ok? Ok! I invite you all to do this times 10.

The apostles have testified that everybody knows someone who could use the gospel so I invite you to find the missionaries and set up a family home evening with them and then bring a friend to it! This is how people really come into the church. As missionaries we can only do so much and we NEED your help in finding. Tracting is something I very much despise and it's the most ineffective thing ever but we do it because we have nothing else. So I invite you all to do that and to give the missionaries the names of people they could try to see. We feed off of the people we receive from members.  The people who truly become converted and love the church are those who are brought by you, not the missionaries. The missionaries teach and they love and pray more than you know but you bring and then they have a friend and a rock to hold onto in their entire conversion process. 

So it was a good week here in Novato we have been getting quite a bit of rain which is always so fun to work in but the Lords work continues rain or shine!

On a side note Hermana Mendez wanted the elders to come bless our house so we asked the zone leaders to come over. Yea so we definitely aren't all allowed to be in the house at the same time so we were supposed to wait outside while they blessed our apartment but we all got to our apartment at the same time. So I asked them to wait while we put our stuff down but when I turned around they were in our kitchen!!

My jaw just kinda dropped, they were super chill and just in our house and then one of them told us our apartment smelled like old people and I was like wow thanks just so you know it was worse before I cleaned up the bacteria house on our window last week. And also you are the zone leaders and what are you doing in our house. But they said a nice blessing and it was grand and very strange to be in a house with dudes my age, so there was that! 

I love you all so much and thank you for all the prayers. I testify and PROMISE the Lord loves you each individually SO much and knows you inside and out. Go to him. Everyday. All day. How grateful I am for my testimony that continues to grow and for a beginning of understanding of what it means to be a child of god. The gospel is amazing.

Les quiero muchísimo! Que tengan un buen semana.

Con amor,

Hermana Foster 

P.S: We get the amazing privilege to go to the temple next week so I will be emailing out in Wednesday!!! LOVE YOU!

Another little friend named Chris!