GROUNDED!!

Family!

This week was pretty crazy, though after seeing your pictures and reading about the weather there, it really hasn't been too bad...  We officially have snow in Ohio.  On Friday night we got a pretty big storm (Ohio-speaking).  It was bad enough that we got a message from the assistants saying that all cars in the mission were GROUNDED!  We couldn't drive!  So we did what we could, we made muffins and took them to people in our area in the snow!  It was quite the party...  Ohio also doesn't have intricate snow-removal systems like Utah, so when it snows here, they are much more likely to shut the schools down.  And that's what they did.  Also, because they don't have tons of snow-removal stuff, the roads get super icy.  Last night we were late to a few appointments because everyone was driving so slow...

Thanks for the package!  I got a notice for it on Thursday, but they didn't want to leave it on the doorstep, so they took it back to the post office, and I didn't have time to get there until Saturday.  But I got it!  That GPS will definitely be helpful.  Elder Graf had one, and we were given one to use in this area by Elder Elbaba's trainer, but this one will certainly be put to good use.  If you want, you can go ahead and activate that warranty that you were talking about.  Thanks also for all of the cards and letters and things.  I haven't had time yet to read them all, but I'll let you know when I have and thank you again!

As far as the work goes here, it's still going.  We filled in that giant trench that we dug before the snow came, and hopefully that family will have power in the next week or so.  We talked with a local library that is near to a lot of Hispanics, and we will be starting some English classes there after the first of the year!  I'm excited for that!  We were also given a bunch of holiday treats to take around to our investigators by one of the English members.  And those treats helped us get a new investigator.  The English member made those same mini-cheesecake things that you make Mom!

We taught D----- (E-----) the word of wisdom this past week, and he committed to keep it and give up a few things that would hold him back from living it.  We also taught a new investigator who came to church for the branch anniversary party.  We taught him with the branch president, and it went really well.  It's amazing to see how people have been prepared to receive the gospel by the experiences that they have in their lives.

That's about all I've got!  Thanks for everything!  Have a great week!  We have Elder Cristoffersen coming to our stake conference this weekend and Elder Perkins of the 70 coming to our mission conference, so this should be a good week!

Love,

Elder Foote

Christmas Package!

Elder Foote's Christmas Tree!

Milagros estan pasando!

Familia!

I went against my better judgment and read the many emails that were in my inbox before writing, and now I'm super excited!  I love hearing all the news from home and seeing all of the awesome pictures!  That was great!

Anyway, now I don't have tons of time left to write, so I'll do my best to capture how awesome this past week was in the time I've got. 

Thanksgiving was great!  We had an amazing dinner with the branch president's family.  They are an amazing family, and it was a great time.  We also had a dinner with the Torres family, and we found a new investigator there, and then we got invited over to a less-active's house to eat as well.  We were stuffed!  And the food progressively became more and more Mexican.  We started the day with turkey and mashed potatoes, and we ended the day with pasole with pigs feet (or some kind of feet...).  Party for sure!

This week I had probably the biggest miracle of my mission happen.  The most people we have ever had come to our Saturday morning soccer games was 13... before this past week.  We started playing this past Saturday with 12 people, but as we kept going, people just kept showing up.  It was like the Hispanic floodgates had been opened, and people just poured into the church!  We ended up having a total of 26 people there, and 18 of them were non-members!  Afterwards we had a brief chapel tour with them all.  It was amazing!  The work is moving along in Dayton Ohio!

The chances of having a white Christmas here in the Dayton Spanish branch are looking very good!!!  Yesterday we helped our investigator D----- set a baptismal date for the 21 of December!  He still has to receive an answer for himself that the Book of Mormon is true, but we promised him that as he prepared for that day and sincerely sought an answer, he would receive it.  And he said yes!  I have been teaching him for as long as I have been out in the field, and it has been amazing to see the change that the gospel has brought about with him and his family.  I am so excited for him!  Keep him in your prayers!

Those are some of the amazing things that happened this past week.  I am so excited for this area.  The work is really starting to pick up, the members are starting to get more involved, and I am seeing every day how the Lord has prepared people to receive the gospel.  This work is amazing!

Thank you so much for all you do!  Have a great week, and listen to Feliz Navidad for me!

Love,

Elder Foote

Happy Thanksgiving!

Dayton Spanish Branch

Our Awesome Soccer Team!

The Elders and the Goodro Family

Voy a cumplir (por lo menos) 6 meses en Dayton!!!!!!!!

Mi familia!

Yep, the subject line is in spanish.  Good luck with that!  But it says exactly what the theme of today is:  I'm staying in Dayton!!!  My goal is to be here for at least a year if not my whole mission, but I am now guaranteed at least 6 months in this wonderful area! =)  So don't worry about me leaving, because I'm not going to be!  I'll be here for another 6 weeks!

Anyways, winter is coming.  Every year I can tell when winter is here, because I have to scrape the car windows, and it is no different here in Ohio. 

Another way that I know that it is winter time once again is because of soccer.  The other stake was having stake conference, so we weren't able to play in the chapel on Saturday.  So instead we went and played out on the field in the park..... in 32(ish) degree weather!  Yeah, it was a little cold...

But the work moves on: por supuesto!  And it really did move this week.  Each day we record numbers for the day based on the lessons we had and people we found, and we total them all up and report them each week.  And although numbers aren't the sole indicators of success, this past week's numbers were much better than pretty much any others I've had.  If I had to describe the past week in one word, it would be: blessed.  The Lord blessed us in many ways, and I'll list just a few of them here:

1) We found a lot of potential investigators.  Finding people who fluently speak Spanish and are willing to listen to us can be very difficult, but this past week we were blessed by being able to find an unusually large number of people who were willing to talk.  I am very excited for this coming week because of the potential that we were able to find last week.

2) We nearly lost our car.  There are a lot of new sisters coming in this transfer, and as far as I know in this mission, every set of sisters gets a car.  So they have to figure out who to take the cars from.  They gave us a call and said that they were considering it, and they asked us to gather some information about our area so they could make a more informed decision.  We went about getting everything together, but before we had finished, they texted us and let us know that they had changed their mind.  Which is a good thing, because I don't know how we would cover our area sin carro.  The majority of our work is roughly 10 miles from our house!  However, the other Spanish Elders are losing their car.  So we will most likely be working a lot more closely with them in the future.

3) We had people at church!  To be more exact, we had 2 investigators at church, which is a record for me!  And the members completely came through as well.  We almost didn't have to say a thing to our investigators, because as soon as they walked in the doors, the members took right over!  That's how it should be.  It was amazing to see things work so smoothly, and we are very excited for both N---- and D----- who came.  Moral of this small story:  if you're at church and you see someone you don't know, go talk to them!

Of course we had many other blessings this past week, but these were some of the major things. 

A few more small stories that I think are funny.

I sat with one of the less active families yesterday and tried to help their son stay kind of calm during sacrament.  He has one of the funniest habits I've seen.  After every time someone prays, he says amen, then immediately says "Did I do a good job?"  Every time.  And sometimes (especially during sacrament meeting) it's very loud.  Hilarious.

I ate a jalapeno this past week, and it wasn't even that bad!  Except it squirted all over me, so I exclaimed "me squirtio!"  Elder Elbaba and the member we were with thought that was pretty funny.  Spanglish for the win!

Also, the zone leaders have decided to nickname every area.  Ours is now named "Mexico."  How creative.

That's about it!  Have a happy thanksgiving!  I'll be spending it at our branch president's house the Chilean-American way! (he is Chilean, his wife is American)  Have a wonderful week!

Love,

Elder Foote

You caught me almorzando...

Super awesome English member family...

Happy Third Year Anniversary Dayton Spanish Branch!

Family!

This past week was a really good one!  We started it off right last P-day; a member had us over to his house for a BBQ, then he took us bowling!  Then the work began.

The branch made a huge push this past week to help the new family that moved in a few weeks ago.  We finally finished digging that massive trench, and along with that the branch also fixed their roof and a wall that was in pretty bad shape.  Hooray for service!

We went to teach one of the less active families with the Elders Quorum president this past week.  When we got there, the mom was asleep, the dad had just left, but the two boys were there (11 and 8).  We went in and talked to them for a bit anyways, and it went pretty well after we had them turn off the Teen Titans show they were watching.  I had forgotten how distracting TV can be to little kids...

We had a great lesson with a family that we met a few weeks ago.  Ever since then we've been trying to see them again, but the dad is always working, and we haven't been able to catch him home.  We finally did though, and it went really well! 

Finding a new family to teach is always awesome!

We were going to bed on Thursday night when we got a text from the Zone leaders.  They told us that we had to drive over to their chapel to do weekly planning the next day.  That hasn't happened before, so we were wondering what was going on.  When we got there, we found out that they were doing planner checks!  I haven't ever had that happen before, so I had no clue what to expect.  Basically they went through every single day in my planner during the last month, looked at how effective my planning was, and then offered me suggestions on how to improve.  I thought my planning had been pretty good, but I guess I've still got some things to learn...

Our district leader gave us the challenge to try and hand out as many mormon.org cards as possible during this week.  As a way to start it off, we went to a pizza buffet place, and he had us pick people for him to go talk to and give cards to.  One of the other Elders picked a youth basketball team that had just walked in.  He sat there for a while trying to figure out how to start the conversation, then he went to go give them some cards.  To break the ice, he purposely tripped right by their table, then he was able to start talking to them about the gospel from that!  I was pretty impressed.

Yesterday we celebrated the 3rd anniversary of the Dayton Spanish Branch.  The stake president and his wife came, he gave a short message, and afterwards we had a little Thanksgiving themed get together thing in the gym.  It was the perfect way to help the members invite their friends to church, and there were a lot of investigators and less actives there.  We actually set a new sacrament attendance record (at least since I've been here)!

We had some really great lessons with D----- this past week, and we invited him to be baptized again last night.  He said that "we had him in the tractor beam" and that he was getting close.  We talked a lot with him about recognizing an answer, and the Spirit was very strong in that lesson.  I'm super excited for him!

That's about it.  Thank you for your letters and the pictures.  Take care of each other, and let me know if there's anything I can pray for, for you guys.  Thanks so much for being so amazing!  Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Foote

The Big Trench Project

No Clever Title This Week?

Family!

Not too much happened this past week. 

My birthday ended up being a pretty good day.  The branch president's family tried to throw me a surprise party, but it's pretty hard to plan a surprise party for a missionary when every hour of your day is already planned out.  So it wasn't really a surprise, but it was still a party!  She made an awesome missionary cake for me, and they sang and everything!  And the Elders in my district got me some new indoor soccer shoes.  Now I can show off my full soccer potential...

On Wednesday I got the opportunity to go to a special leadership council.  About half the mission was there, and in addition to President and Sister Porter, they had someone there from the missionary department in Salt Lake and the guy who all the mission presidents in this area report to.  It was a really good meeting, and they focused a lot on our purpose as missionaries and how we can improve certain areas of our teaching.

We had a lesson with a less active this week who hasn't allowed missionaries into his home for over a year.  A lot of the members of the branch are related to him, and so we have a lot of support in helping to activate him.  To be honest, getting in to see him was a miracle, and we were super excited that it happened.  We'll now be seeing him once a week!

We had a lesson with a less active family who has an unbaptized, 9-year old son.  We asked him if he wanted to be baptized, and he said yes!  We are currently working with the branch to help activate the family so that the dad can baptize his son!

One of Elder Elbaba's investigators in his last area (Kentucky) was getting baptized on Saturday, and he really wanted to go.  We got permission to go if we had someone take us down there, so he found a member that was willing to drive us down to Kentucky, and we went!  So I spent a good part of my Saturday in Kentucky attending my first baptismal service on my mission!  It was pretty exciting!

That's about it.  Sorry I don't have too much to say this week.  I hope everything is going well at home.  Thank you so much for everything!  Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Foote

A Missionary Cake!

Elder Foote's New Shoes!

Elder Foote's Pet Snake?

Good Old Middletown

River West of Dayton, Ohio

Welcome to Kentucky!

Missionaries Really Are in The Trenches!

So Begins The Third Decade!!

Familia!

Much to say, and not much time!  First off, thank you so much for all the packages and letters.  I really appreciate it!  Everybody in my district keeps reminding me of my birthday; I'm going to be OLD!

So this past week we continued with our focus on member missionary work.  There are some amazing members in this area, and I've really grown to love them as I've been here.  We've been trying to help them develop their own family mission plans, strengthen their testimonies, and teach them how to be effective member missionaries.  We've also tried to focus a lot on the less active members here as well, and the Lord has blessed us so much!  We had a couple that hasn't been to church for over 6 months come yesterday, and another couple has started becoming interested again after nearly 4 years of inactivity!  Super amazing!  Go Dayton Spanish Branch! 

This past week I learned an important truth.  Where there are many trees (Ohio), there are bound to be many leaves (Ohio).  There are so many leaves here!  We've done a little bit of raking, and there is definitely more to come...

We had a few awesome finding experiences this past week.  We went out for pizza after our district meeting, and the guy at the register started asking us about our name tags.  We talked to him a bit, and he told us that he wasn't really interested in learning anymore.  We went to sit down, and he started playing with a deck of cards really obviously at the register.  We finally asked him if he knew any magic tricks, and he got super excited and came to show us a few.  He reminded me of Kevin a bit...  After his tricks, he sat down and talked with us for a bit.  We ended up teaching him about the Restoration, and he was really interested in the Book of Mormon.  We left him a copy, and when we came back the next day, he had read the whole intro. and the first 4 chapters!  He doesn't speak Spanish though, so we'll have to pass him off to English Elders, but still, awesome!  We also met a guy named Dennis while street contacting.  He told us about the many times that his life has been saved by the Lord, then told us of his ability to hear the ancestors of a person and read that person's past and future.  So yeah, I had my past and future told by an old biker guy named Dennis on his porch in the middle of Ohio.  I'm not too sure if I trust his abilities...

We got to go carve pumpkins the day before Halloween with a part-member family, and it was great!  I didn't have the pumpkin-carving skills to make anything Gospel related, so I made a traditional pumpkin and a vampire from a stencil thing.  Halloween itself wasn't too exciting.  It rained the whole day, so trick-or-treating was canceled in some areas, and in others the kids had to show some serious determination to get their candy.  We had dinner with a member family, and their daughter dressed up as the pokemon lickitung!  Awesome!  Really the only spooky part of Halloween was driving through the streets of downtown Dayton after dark...

We had a Dia de Los Muertos dinner thing after church on Sunday.  It was pretty cool; I learned a lot about the traditions of the day, and my knowledge that Mexican food is the best food ever was re-affirmed...

Thanks again for everything; I hope all is going well at home!  Let me know how putting up the Christmas lights goes!

Let the third decade begin!

Love,

Elder Foote

A Birthday Package

Birthday Confetti!

Carving Pumpkins

Elder Foote's Masterpiece

Hostess Anyone?

Scary Vampire Pumpkin

Skeleton Cookies

Two Great Missionaries!

A Change In Focus!

Familia!

This week we had an awesome zone conference.  I wish I could record the talks that President Porter gives; they are the standard against what I measure a powerful talk.  I am amazed at how well he knows the scriptures, and at how well he is able to invite the Spirit into his talks.  After that zone conference, Elder Elbaba and I felt that we needed to change our focus a bit.  We realized that we need to focus more on the members and on strengthening the branch.  In order to have new converts and retain them, we are going to need more member support.  It will take all of us to baptize.  The missionaries in this area have been working for years now with little member support as far as teaching goes, and that is what we are going to try and change.  Changing what I've been doing for 4 months now isn't easy, but it's what needs to be done right now.

We had a new family move in from California a few weeks ago; I think I already mentioned them.  Anyway, the house that they moved into needs a lot of work, so we've been out there helping them a few times this past week.  Right now we're digging a huge trench to put in some power lines so they can have electricity.  We were almost done with the trench, then we decided we'd take another look at the plans, and we realized that instead of 13" deep, it needed to be 30" deep...  So I've been doing a lot of digging.

Not too much else happened this week.  I saw the boundaries of my area for the first time in my mission the other day.  It is HUGE!!!!!!!  I was shocked!  I thought we had been covering quite a bit of our area, but we are only covering a tiny part of it!  Based on the map I saw, our area is roughly 60 miles long running from north to south....  And that is after it was split 2 months ago...

We had a power outage yesterday morning.  I have learned that it is really dark at 6:30 in the morning...  Luckily some other Elders had left a flashlight in the apartment, so we were able to get ready by the light of the flashlight.  That was a pretty crazy experience.

Thank you so much for your emails this week!  They were awesome!  It's great to hear how everything is going back there.  I hope you all have a great week!  I love you all!

Love,

Elder Foote

P.S.  Winter clothing time is upon us...

I'm Getting Used to Hot Sauce!

We Are Shooting For 222 Baptisms!