Apostle Week!!!

Family!

This past week has just flown by!  But, just like the title says the highlight was getting to spend some time with Elder Dallin H. Oaks yesterday!  I'll start off with that...

We had to drive all the way down to Cincinnati to get to the meeting, so we had kind of a road trip!  After a while we got there, got all prepped for his arrival, then studied scriptures while we waited for him to get there.  He got there, and we all got to shake his hand before taking our group picture with him (picture on Facebook page)!  It was amazing!  In setting up for the picture, we had to set up chairs for some people to sit on, and he dove right in with the rest of us and set up chairs!  I don't know why, but it amazed me to see an Apostle of the Lord setting up folding chairs in the gym of a church meetinghouse.  He only got to talk to us for about a half an hour, but it was amazing!  He is such an amazing teacher.  He can truly take something complex and explain it so simply that anyone can understand it.  So yeah, that was the highlight of the week!

Don't freak out about the bedbug stuff, just like I said, we have it taken care of.  I don't need a mattress cover, because we caught it early and it is all gone.  Sister Porter called us to check up on it because I guess you sent her an email, so if it continues, we'll let her know.  But it has now been almost two weeks since I've had a problem, so we should be good.

Here are a few other things that happened this week:

-We found a golden street in Dayton that is completely full of Hispanic families, and we got 3 new investigators from it!

-Elder Graf is now the District Leader.

-I learned that some Catholics believe that if a baby dies without baptism, it turns into a goblin, or a duende in Spanish.  Good thing I knew the word duende before that lesson...

-We might be getting two more Spanish missionaries in our area to help cover geographically.

-We are now allowed as Spanish missonaries to play futbol to help fellowship less actives and investigators.  We play on Saturday mornings.  Last Saturday, no one showed up except for our branch president, so we got a half hour lecture on the politics of futbol.  He also gave some awesome soccer jersey’s (pictures included).

-We had two lessons with our progressing investigators the T----- family this week.  They are super nice, and when we got there for the second lesson, they had a full on Mexican feast waiting for us!  Mexican food is the best!

-We went shopping just before this at Walmart, and some guy asked if I worked there because of my shirt and tie.  That is not the first time that has happened...

And that's about it!  Not much more to say!  Thanks for the package with all of the food/candy, I forgot to say thanks last week.  Have a great birthday Mom!

Love,

Elder Foote

Elder Foote and Elder Graf.

New missionary clothes.

Colby's new Jersey.

Welcome to Ohio!!

Week of Insects!

Family!

I know, what an intriguing title, right?  You're probably wondering whatever could have happened this week for me to title it the week of insects...  Well hold on tight, because here it comes.

BED BUGS EXIST.

Yep, it's true, I've seen them with my own eyes.  It was a perfect contrast to the joy I felt when I learned that fireflies exist.  About a week ago I started noticing a lot of bites on my arms and legs.  Now that didn't concern me, because we do a lot of work up North in a little town surrounding a lake, and I'm convinced that all mosquitoes in the world come from that town because there are so many.  Anyway, I wasn't concerned.  But then I started noticing bites on my feet.  I thought to myself, "I know the mosquitoes out here are crazy, but there is no way they could bite my feet through leather..."  So, I checked my mattress after I emailed last week.  Now before you start writing me an "I told you to check your mattress the second you get in every new apartment" email, I did check it.  I don't know when the invasion began, but it most definitely started after I arrived.  But anyway, on with the story.  Well, after some searching, I found the infestation.  Luckily we had some heavy duty insecticide in the apartment, so in a few hours the problem was taken care of.  And there weren't very many, so we had gotten lucky in that we had caught them early before they got really bad.  And they haven't come back, so I'm safe again!  But yeah, I now know the meaning of "Don't let the bedbugs bite!"

So yeah, that was an adventure.

The highlight of this week was by far our Zone Conference last Wednesday.  It was a 6 hour meeting, and it was probably the most amazing meeting I have ever sat through.  I am thoroughly convinced that if every member could have sat through that meeting, the number of convert baptisms would quadruple in a few months!  The topic of the meeting was about how the work is hastening.  President Porter shared with us a bunch of quotes from the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve that they had said during the New Mission President's seminar.  My biggest impression from that was that the time of preparing for the hastening of the work is over.  The hastening has begun, and the work will continue to progress faster and faster, because time is limited.  We all have to share the Gospel and help prepare the way.  I could go on and on, but I don't have time, so you'll just have to take my word that this meeting was amazing.

After that meeting, Elder Graf and I were super pumped to do the work, so we set some new goals and started going.  We have been working for the rest of the week to include the Lord more in our plans and follow the Spirit even more.  From the time I got here, to that meeting, we haven't found one new investigator, but in the 5 days since that meeting, we have found 5!  It is super exciting to say the least!

Yesterday I had a lesson with this lady, and it would be an understatement to say that I was completely lost.  She was trying to convert us to her Mexican religion (I think), so she was talking about all sorts of crazy stuff.  Anytime I thought I understood what was going on, the topic would change, and I would be lost all over again.  Learning Spanish is fun! 

But really, it is.  I enjoy the challenge, even though I just wish I was fluent already...

Well, I didn't prepare a plan for this email, so sorry if I’m rambling.

And that's about it!  Happy Birthday tomorrow Katie!  Good luck at school!  Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Foote

BED BUGS EXIST.

BED BUGS EXIST.

Crazy Ohio Weather!!

Family!

TORNADO!!!!!

Yep, that's right, I, Elder Foote, saw a tornado with my very own eyes!  We were contacting a referral in a town out west, and as we left their porch, this crazy siren went off!  It was super loud!  Everybody came out of their houses, and they were all looking around trying to figure out what was going on.  Then we saw it.  It wasn't a full-blown tornado, but it was a funnel cloud that started to come down from the clouds!  It was amazing!  I hope the pictures I took do it justice...  And yes, instead of heading indoors, we stood outside and took pictures. =)  It didn't really amount to anything though; after about 10 minutes it went back up into the cloud and disappeared.  But still!

While I'm on the topic of the weather, I finally got a taste of the humidity everyone said I would feel.  We had a few days where it was so humid I sometimes thought I could see the water!  Also, I got to experience one of the crazy Ohio rainstorms.  I thought I had seen rainstorms in Utah, but the one we were in was insane!  We had to pull off the road it was raining so hard, and afterwards there were inches of water left on the road.  It was awesome!

Thanks for the package!  I got it last Monday after we got back from emailing.  It was perfect!  I did think of something else I need.  I don't need it right away because Elder Graf has one, but in the future sometime, could you maybe send me a card-reader thing.  I think Dad has one; it's that thing with the USB on one end and a place for a memory card on the other.  It would help to have one.

No strange food this week.  The members either feed us at their homes, or they give us gift cards to nearby restaurants.  So I've had a lot of Subway and Chipotle this week. =)

As for the work, it is hard.  Finding Spanish speakers in Ohio is an ongoing challenge.  There are only a few central areas where they live, and over the past few years those areas have been tracted by missionaries many times.  So finding people who haven't been talked to before is hard.  We tried a new technique a few days ago.  We got the phonebook, looked up every Hispanic sounding name, plugged the addresses into our GPS, and went contacting!  Needless to say, we are trying to get the members more excited so we can get some referrals from them.

While we are out, we run into all sorts of people with all sorts of beliefs and stories.  A few days ago we talked to some guys from Sudan who had come to Ohio only a few months ago to get away from the wars over there.  There are lots of amazing people and stories out there.

But yeah, we just keep plugging away for now.  We just have to keep in mind that the Lord sent us here for a reason.  In a training meeting last week President Porter said something to the effect of: "The Lord doesn't make mistakes."  I know that's true.  I am where I am for a reason, and if we keep working, we'll find the people the Lord wants us to teach.

Well, that's about it.  I hope you all have a great week and good luck with your last week of summer Katie and Trevor! 

Love,

Elder Foote

P.S.

Oh, I almost forgot.  I might need a bike.  It's not anything urgent, but I've been passively looking for a bike shop around here.  Just thought I'd let you know.

The apartment

My amazing baking job...

A giant statue of Jesus as seen from the freeway.  A few years ago it had it's arms raised upwards, but it got struck by lightning, so they rebuilt it with the arms down.  If you look closely, there's a lightning rod on the head now...

Crazy rainstorm.  Picture doesn't do it justice.

TORNADO

TORNADO

TORNADO

Southern Patriotism in Dayton Ohio...

Fireflies Are Real!

Family!

Lot's to say and not much time, so I'll dive right in!

First off: FIREFLIES ARE REAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yep, I've seen them with my own eyes, and they are amazing.  It took me almost a full week to notice them, but now I can see them everywhere...

Do you remember how the Casto family started calling me Luke because they thought I looked like Luke Skywalker?  Well, I'm starting to think there might be some truth to that statement.  I have now had 4 different occasions where people have told me I look like Luke.  They've come from members, missionaries, and people in the MTC.  One member lady even said I should take a light saber with me tracting to help us get in the doors...

Well, the members here are great!  The branch is super small, so every fast Sunday they have a tradition that after sacrament meeting we go right in to the cultural hall and have a lunch as a branch.  It was really fun, and I got to try cactus!  That's the only really weird food I've had so far.  But anyway, I can kind of communicate with the members.  Most of them know at least some English, so after I've struggled through a few sentences, they'll help me out and respond in English.  I overheard some of them talking about me, and they said that I speak very clearly (or at least I think that's what they said...) so there's that...

Last week was the last day of the month, and with our car we have a limit on the number of miles we can drive each month, so we were pretty much out of miles.  So we drove a bit that day, but we planned on walking the rest of the day.  We had everything all planned out, and we were going to get to our dinner appointment right on time, but then we realized that we were headed to the wrong address!  So we ended up having to call a member to come pick us up since we had walked like two miles in the opposite direction of the real house of the dinner appointment.

On a more spiritual note...  We were in a lesson with a Spanish speaking investigator, and before we started I felt impressed to read 1 Nephi 2 with them.  So we read the chapter, and afterwards the investigator related Lehi leaving Jerusalem to his family leaving Mexico and making a better life in Ohio.  It was a super cool analogy, and it led to a pretty good discussion on how God loves each of us and is always looking to bless us if we'll follow him.  And I said everything in Spanish, which was amazing!

Dad asked about how we do tracting, so I'll put something in about that.  We are primarily focused on teaching the Spanish speakers in our area, so we try and focus on finding the people who speak Spanish.  So our tracting is really only focused in places where Spanish speakers live, which aren't too common in the middle of Ohio.  A lot of times we'll ask people if they have any Spanish speaking neighbors and follow that, but we also spend a lot of times in some little towns north of Dayton where there are more Spanish speakers.  It is pretty difficult to find people who speak Spanish that haven't already been talked to by missionaries, and are also interested.  We also teach a few English lessons as well.  So really I'm doing bilingual work, but I really only know one language... =)

Oh, I forgot to mention last week, Dad, our transfer meeting was in Middletown, so I was there for about half a day!  And we have a referral down there, so I might be back there sometime this week!

Well, I think that's about it.  I'll end with a short scripture that I think is pretty cool and applies to me pretty well.  You can find it in D&C 39:14, “Behold, verily, verily, I say unto thee, thou art not called to go into the eastern countries, but thou art called to go to the Ohio.”  It's a great reminder to me that of all the places in the entire world, I was called to Ohio.  There are people here for me to teach the message of the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ.  I just have to go find them!

Have a great week!  Love you all so much!

Love,

Elder Foote

Week 1 in Ohio!!!

Hello Family!

Greeting from Ohio!  It has been a pretty crazy week and a half since I emailed last, so I'll dive right in to everything!

First off, let me give you a rundown on what happened last Wednesday, the day of departure!  We got up at 3 am to take Elder Maughan to the shuttle stop.  After that we came back and got everything ready to leave, then went back down to the shuttle stop at 5:30 when our bus was supposed to leave.  We saw a bus leave at about 5:20, but we didn't think that it was ours because they had usually been coming a little late.  Anyways, after an hour and half of waiting, a bus finally came for us at 7!  They told us the driver had gotten mixed up and had left without us!  So we dropped off some Elders and Sisters at the Salt Lake Central mission home in Murray, and then rushed to the airport.  It was cool getting to be back in the real world again!  I had a whole bunch of people at the airport ask me where I was going and wish me luck too!  Well, we finally made it through security, and that was when I got to call you guys!  That was so great and I'm so glad I got to hear all of you again.  I really enjoyed all the stories you told me over the phone, and I'm sorry if I kind of had to rush off the phone, but our flight was boarding...

On the plane I was hoping to sit next to a nonmember so we could talk about the gospel, but there were about 30 missionaries on the plane, so I ended up sitting between two of them.  So no contacting was done on that flight... (Sorry Hermana Osborn).  We got to Cincinnati, and got a whole bunch of stares in the airport.  We got interviewed by a news crew doing a piece about how on the 24th of July the Mormons had entered the Salt Lake Valley, and on this 24th of July, 30 of them were coming back to Ohio.  It was actually pretty cool, and now we're all famous!  After that, we loaded everything up and drove to the mission home.  We had a dinner cooked by Sister Porter, and then we had a Q&A session with the assistants while President Porter was interviewing all of us.  Let me just say now how amazing he is.  He teaches with some of the most power I've ever heard.  He uses the scriptures as he teaches, and then he expounds them and applies them to us in ways I had never thought of.  He's awesome, and I'm excited to be working with him for two years!  Anyways, later on that night he gave us an amazing talk on obedience and diligence.  The next morning we got up and left for the transfer meeting!

We had a quick mission orientation before the meeting, and then it was time to get new companions!  Once again, President Porter gave an amazing talk about how our experiences now prepare us for the future.  He also gave us a whole bunch of scriptures in the Doctrine and Covenants proving that the Cincinnati mission is the best mission in the world!  Go see if you can find them!  After that, if was companion time!  And my companion is.....  Elder Graf!  And my area is..... The Dayton Spanish area!  So basically we cover a whole bunch of areas, but we primarily focus on the Spanish Speakers in those areas.  So our area is huge!  So huge that I've hardly seen any of it yet, and we've been out working for 5 days now!  Anyways, Elder Graf is great!  We found out pretty early on that we have the exact same birthday; the same day and the same year, so we're the exact same age!  How crazy is that!?  He's only been out in the field about 4 and half months, so he's a relatively young trainer, but he does a great job. 

Ohio is super green!  Instead of mountains, they have trees!  Seriously, it's like a forest in some places.  And as far as humidity, it actually hasn't been too bad.  We've had a few hot days, but nothing like what I was expecting.

Let's move on to Spanish.  Ok, so I thought I was ok at Spanish by the end of the MTC, but I very quickly learned that understanding MTC teachers and understanding native speakers is a completely different thing!  I have to focus super hard just too kind of understand parts of what are being said.  And speaking is hard too, firstly because I don't know what they're saying, and second because even if I somehow figure out what is being said, by the time I've come up with a response, we have already moved on...  But it'll come; I've already learned so much!

As far as contacting goes, that's an adventure as well.  I'm not the most outgoing person, so going up to random people and starting a conversation about the Restored Gospel is kind of difficult, but I'm working on it.  I've already (in just 5 days!) had some amazing experiences!  I've met people who have said that for the past few weeks they've been feeling like a part of them has been missing, and how they have been studying religion like crazy to try and fill it.  I've met people who agree with a lot of the things we tell them right off the bat because it "makes sense".  It's absolutely amazing how the Lord prepares people to receive the truth.  I know he does!  The people are out there, we just have to find them!  On the other hand, I've had doors shut in our faces, people get in their cars and drive away when they see us coming, and my favorite to date, an old lady who saw us walking up her sidewalk and yelled "I'm not interested dudes, go away!"  So yeah, it's always an interesting experience...

But the tough part right now is finding Spanish speakers to teach.  Our branch is pretty small, so we have a lot of finding that we're doing through door to door contacting because there aren't tons of referrals right now.  We also work a lot with less active members and part member families right now too.

Spanish church was a super interesting experience.  Imagine 4 hours of meetings (we went to branch council as well) in which you could only understand about half of what was being said.  I also had to get up and introduce myself in priesthood and give the opening prayer in sacrament!  Just to give you an idea of how small the branch is, there were 30 people in sacrament meeting yesterday!  But it'll grow!

 The apartment is good.  It's just me and Elder Graf.  We live in a town called Huber Heights.  If you want to send me anything, you can just send it to the mission office and they'll forward it on (I believe).  4610 North Bend Road P.O. Box 11671 Cincinnati OH 45211.  The only thing I really would like would be a few more ties.  Preferably some with some brighter colors, and maybe a paisley tie in there as well.  That's about it.  And you can hold off on sending those journals if you'd like.  I'll need them eventually, but I don't need them right now.

Also, we have a car!  So I’m not in need of a bike at the moment.  We also have cell phones!  New technology might be coming in the future, but for now, that's what we've got!

Well, I'm about out of time, so I'll leave you with a brief testimony.  I know this work is true.  I know it with all of my heart, there's no doubt in my mind.  Every time I have borne my testimony to a random person on the street or to a family in broken Spanish, I have felt the Spirit confirm it to me.  I know that Joseph Smith received a divine answer to his prayer, and that through him the Lord has restored his church once again to the Earth with all the teachings and authority necessary for our salvation.  Our Heavenly Father loves us so much, and all he wants for us is happiness in this life and in the life to come.  I know that as we follow our Savior, we can return to live with him again.

Thanks so much for all the support!  I'll talk to you all next P-day!

Love you all so much!

Elder Foote

Me and one of my MTC teachers, Hermano Mennis.

Our district and Hermano Mennis.

Our district and our other teacher Hermana Osborn.

Colby being Colby :)

The nasty Zone Leader pillow, passed on from zone leader to zone leader in our zone.

Me and Elder Maughan and our Zone Leaders in training.

Us and our Finnish speaking friends (awkward space included...)

Saying goodbye to Elder Maughan... at 3am.

Me and President and Sister Porter in Ohio!!

Me and Elder Graf, my new companion!

MTC Week 5

Family!

Last week in the MTC!!!  To start off, let me tell you everything I know about my journey to Ohio next Wednesday...

My flight leaves Salt Lake City at 9:50 AM.  I have a direct flight to Cincinnati, and according to the info I have, I'll arrive there at about 3:11 in the afternoon.  I leave the MTC at 5:30 that morning, so if I do get the chance to call home, it'll most likely be sometime between 6:30 and 9:00 Wednesday morning.  Sorry that's so early!  And hopefully I'll actually be able to call home.  I imagine I'll get the chance, but just in case something happens, just know that because I have a direct flight and no layover, I won't have the same amount of time or opportunity to call home as other missionaries might.  But I have a phone card for the airport just in case... =)

I believe that's all the info that you'll need to know about travel!

As for this week, it has flown by!  First off, being a zone leader is quite a bit more time consuming than I thought it would be.  One of our responsibilities is to train the new districts that come into our zone during the week.  That's a really fun part, because it reminds me how far my district has come in the last few weeks.  We also go around and visit the entire zone in their apartments every night and check up on them.  That's really fun too, though it doesn't leave much time for journal writing or anything like that by the time we get back to our apartment.  It's a super fun calling though, and I have really enjoyed it.

The Spanish is actually starting to pick up!  Just a few days ago we had a day where it just clicked for our whole district and we spoke Spanish almost the entire day.  We also had the opportunity to teach a convert couple from Mexico, and we could understand almost everything they said!  Responding to them was a different story, but still!  But yeah, we only have two lessons left in Spanish before we have learned everything that they believe we need to know to effectively preach the Gospel in Spanish!

Even though the Spanish is coming, that doesn't end the adventures of trying to communicate our thoughts in Spanish during our lessons.  When I was being taught a few days ago, I was told that "God isn't literally here is this notebook, but he still cares about you" instead of "God isn't literally here in this room...”  It was kind of hard to keep character when that was said...  One of the Elders also told me that he was trying to "retirement home" during one of his lessons, but he couldn't think of how to say it, so he just said "place of the ancient people" instead. =)  So yeah, the adventures are still continuing...

As far as teaching has gone, things are going really well.  I feel a lot more confident about my teaching skills now, and I'm really ready to go out and start teaching investigators out in the real world.  We had some pretty good lessons this week, but the best one happened last Saturday.  Our investigator was going on vacation, so it was our last lesson with her for a while, and we decided to really try and help her feel the Spirit.  We had her kneel and pray with us for a confirmation of the things we had been teaching her, and afterwards we sat for a while and just felt the Spirit work.  We then started talking about how she was feeling, and we got into a long discussion about the Spirit and faith.  I was talking, and I didn't want to do anything to interrupt the Spirit in the room (plus I wasn't sure how to ask her to sit back on the couch), so I just kept on teaching while we were kneeling, and we ended up teaching her for about 10 minutes on our knees!  My knees hurt quite a bit after that...

I'm sorry that this isn't the most exciting email ever, but it is really hard to remember things here because time goes so fast.  I've had days this past week that seemed to go forever, but the minutes that I get back to the apartment, it feels like it never even happened.  I really can't even believe its Thursday again... 

Let's see...  Oh, I think Dad asked in one of his letters what kinds of games/pranks we play as missionaries, so I'll tell you one.  When we first moved into our apartment, I found a teddy bear that somebody had left under the bed.  I left it there for a few weeks, but a little while ago we decided we would hide it in the room of the other missionaries that live with us.  We have bunk beds in our apartments, so we decided we would try and scare Elder Bradford (who sleeps on the bottom bunk) with the bear.  When they weren't in the apartment, we tucked the bear into the springs of the top bunk bed so that is hanging down over the bottom bunk.  Everyone went to bed, and we just sat there, waiting to see if he would notice it.  A little while later, we heard a scream, then the door to their room opened and the bear was flung out the door!  I guess he had reached up to stretch his arms and found the bear just hanging above him in the air...  Anyways, I don't know if that's what you were looking for or if that even made sense, but there you go.

I really don't have a whole lot else to say, so I'll wrap this up.  Thanks so much for all of the packages!  They've been great, and it's been really nice to get things while here in the MTC!  If you could thank the Heer family and the Brown family for the packages they sent me that would be great!  I'll send them letters too, but if you see them, let them know that I really appreciate it.  I don't know what my mission home address is yet, but will for sure know by next Wednesday when I get there!  So if you're planning on sending me anything before then, just make sure that it can get to me by Monday preferably, but at the latest, Tuesday.

Thanks for all you've done for me, and for all you continue to do for me!  I hope I get to talk to you on Wednesday!  Love you all so much!

Love,

Elder Foote

It's a Jungle out there..

Elder Foote and Elder Maughan

Colby's district with one of their Spanish teachers