El Hijo Prodigo ha Regresado!

Buenas tardes family mia!

Well it's been a pretty crazy week, but I made it to Monday, so that's good!  So last week I was called to be a trainer and district leader, and Elder Elbaba and I were doubled out of our area.  So we spent the day saying goodbye to everyone, had an amazing family home evening with a family we're teaching and a member of the stake presidency, then came home and spent a ton of time packing and getting the area all ready for the new missionaries to take over.  Based on who else was leaving in the Spanish zone, I was prepped to return to Dayton to train mi hijito.  So I wasn't all that surprised when I was called to train Elder Adams in.... Dayton Spanish 1.  That's right, I'm training my son in the last years of my life in the place I was born!  And now I will die here.  So yeah, basically this week has just been going around visiting all of the members here and picking up all the investigators that were being taught by the past missionaries.  It kind of felt like a dream the first few days; it didn't feel real.  I was once again in the same apartment, same car, and same area as I was when I started the mission over a year and a half ago.  Crazy!  But it was so good to see everyone again.  And it was super crazy to see all of the change that's happened since I've left.  It's only been 4 1/2 months since I was in the branch, but so much has changed!  It's just been a really weird week.

Elder Adams is super amazing!  He's from Sacramento, and one week ago was in the Provo MTC.  It's brought back a lot of memories as we've gone through his first week in the mission field...  But yeah, he works really hard, has a great desire to serve, and isn't afraid to share in the lessons, even though he's still pretty new to Spanish.  I got a super good companion.

Also in Dayton is Elder Bradford and another new missionary, Elder Seegmiller.  Turns out that Elder Elbaba and Elder Bradford were both told they were leaving their areas, but they both were sent right back to where they left.  So I didn't get doubled out after all.

We had some amazing lessons, including one with a family that I was teaching when I was in this area.  The missionaries have kept on working with them, and when we went be to see them the other day, they were in Jacob 4 in the Book of Mormon!  We had a powerful lesson about the blessings that come from reading the Book of Mormon, and the Spirit was there very strong.  We also went to visit Martha (a recent convert who Elder Chandler and I found and started teaching) and her husband, and we had a great lesson with them where we invited him to be baptized.  He said yes!  So yeah, it's been a great week back in Dayton!

Sunday I had to go to a basically all-day meeting after church with the stake president, mission president, and the zone leaders in this stake.  I was the Spanish branch rep.  It was a great meeting, and it was pretty cool to see how missionary work is viewed by the local area leaders.

I also got asked to give a talk on Sunday.  I got up in front of all the people who I've seen basically every day for over 18 months of my mission and started my talk with "For those of you who don't know me, my name is Elder Foote..."  When Presidente Vilches introduced the new missionaries in Priesthood meeting, he got to me and said "El hijo prodigo ha regresado!"  It's pretty good to be back.

Well, I think that's about it!  Tell Ben and Jack congrats from me!  Hope you all have a great week! 

Elder Foote and new companion Elder Adams

Elder Foote at Transfers