Elder Field Misses The Ghetto??

Hey everyone!!! So this week was just insane! I got transferred out of my beloved Vallejo! Even if it was pretty sketchy I loved it! the people there are either really humble or super angry all the time hahahah. Anyway I’m in San Rafael now! And it is very different! And it’s going to take some getting used to.......

Anyway! The week started out with a lot of goodbyes. My last day in Vallejo was a hard one. I had made so many good friends within the ward but also with investigators that I had to say goodbye to. It was rough. I took photos with a bunch of them and I will make sure to send them in this email! I was told that I have to come back with my future wife so that the ward can either approve or disapprove hahaha. I was kinda shocked about everything that they were saying. I didn’t think I had that big of an impact on the ward. but they were all genuinely sad that I was leaving....... I loved being in the ward and I am absolutely going to come back to visit.
So! I have been dropped into an area I don’t know at all and I’m supposed to be follow-up training....... let’s just say I was feel extremely over-whelmed but also scared/nervous/like I want to throw up......... and I still kinda feel that way! BUT, I WILL PUSH THROUGH! Because the lord is with me and this is where he put me.

I guess I should mention my new companion! His name is Elder Magee. He is a cool kid. We don’t get along very well to be completely honest hahaha. But we are getting better at it and we are adjusting to each other’s personalities. It will just take some time hahaha. I’m trying my best to be a good teacher and he is trying his best to lead out the area. He is from Alpine Utah. So he went to Lone Peak High school hahaha. A Viking with a Knight hahaha no wonder its taking some getting used to hahahaha ;) I kid I kid. Anyway I think that’s pretty much all I can say about him right now. Still kinda new to me too hahahaha.

This week was full of just trying to get used to the area. Trying to get caught up with investigators. Trying to give advice/input where I feel I can. I did get the chance to meet Shelia. Now Shelia is an amazing woman. She is living with a member, that is how she met the missionaries. My companion and his old companion showed up to visit Brother Fordum(the member) and she was there. At first she was hesitant but as soon as they started talking she was hooked. They had met with her twice before I showed up. She is about mid 40's I think. and has had pretty rough life. She is starting to get her life back together. And then she ran into us. COINCIDENCE I THINK NOT!!!!  But she has been eating up the lessons. She knows that it’s all true. We tried to commit her to a baptismal date but she declined saying its something she wants but she doesn’t feel ready. *sigh* its ok though! We will just keep teaching her and just show her that she is ready. But i had the chance to give her blessing actually. She wasn’t feeling well. She was feeling kinda sick and was worried that she wouldn’t be able to focus during the lesson. So we asked her if she would like a blessing. Now she has already had a blessing once before. She was worried about her job interview that she was going to go to. So elder Magee and his old companion gave her a blessing and she loved it. So she knows that it will help. Which is pretty cool :D We gave her a blessing and she told us that she isn’t shaking anymore she doesn’t feel cold and she felt like she could continue with the lesson. We had a wonderful lesson and all went well! we are meeting with her again this week :D

Another random quick story. We were just walking down the street trying to do some good street contacting. When a guy rode by on his bike. So just doing that good missionary thing, waved and said hi. He waved back and we just kept walking. Well we heard someone yell "Hey Mormons!" I turned around and it was Bike guy. He asked us for a Book of Mormon hahaha We gave him one and asked him what he knew about Mormons. He said "I’m not going to lie. All the knowledge I have accumulated about you guys has been from South Park and from the musical, but I think it’s time that I read it to see what you guys are about" I laughed and told him if he had any questions about the book of Mormon to give us a call or shoot us a text he said he would. So just random cool story for all of yall.

Now just a little side note but the past like 3 weeks, have been such a testimony builder about the priesthood. Let me just tell all of you that i know the priesthood is a real thing. I know that sounds like the simplest of testimonies but I can’t explain it. The fact that I am able to carry God’s Power and Authority boggles my mind. Why me? I am such a weak mortal. Yet he has entrusted me to be his servant in the latter days. I have seen the blessings that come from the priesthood. Both in my life but also in other people’s life. The day of transfers I got a call from Debbie. She was almost in tears. The day before transfers we had dinner with Debbie. After dinner I was saying my goodbyes when I got the strongest of feelings that I needed to give her a blessing that will help her with her smoking problem. So I asked her some very serious questions about "do you believe that God can help you quit smoking".  She kinda paused for a bit and said yes she believes that. I told her that if I gave her this blessing that she needed to do her part in quitting. That means to study the scriptures, pray daily, continue to meet with the missionaries, and to try her hardest not to smoke. She said that she would do it. Me and my companion gave her the blessing and said our goodbyes and left. Well anyway the call I got she told me that she hasn’t had the urge to smoke all day. That she is shocked that it is working. I told her she has to continue to do her part if she really wants the kick the habit of smoking............. it’s insane the ways the lord will bless us if we just strive to do our best. Strive doesn’t mean to succeed. It means to give 100% and to try our best. It also means that we are going to fall down and stumble. But he will do his part to help us back up. Or carry us when we need to be carried. Guys the lord blesses us in ways we see but also in ways we don’t see. *realizes he is on his soap box* *awkwardly steps down* Anyway.... that’s my testimony about the priesthood hahah. Just thought I would say that hahah

I think that’s pretty much it for this week. I can’t think of much else to write after my rant about the priesthood. I could also go in and talk about my testimony of the Book of Mormon but I think that’s all the ranting I’m going to do for this email. I will rant about the Book of Mormon next week. In the meantime, I challenge all of you to go read the talk Safety for the Soul by Elder Holland or go watch the abridged version in the Mormon message called A Testimony of the Book of Mormon.  IT’S SO GOOD! Seriously though all of you need to go watch it.  Anyway have a good one guys! Meet here same time next week ok?? ;)

I love you all and miss all of you like crazy!!!!!!

Until next week!
-Elder Riley Field

Explanation on the pictures
The Beautiful car - We were going to go visit a recent convert and he told us to meet him at his work. HE WORKS FOR A FREAKING MASERATI DEALERSHIP!! soooooo cooooool!

 Road and Tree pics - reminds me of AF canyon. I love that road

Transfers 'n' Stuff

BOY! Do I have stuff to tell all y'all hahahah. This week was insane! Not only because it was busy but also because we had some........ interesting...... things happen. hahahah

Alright well I will start with Tuesday of last week because Monday was extremely boring hahaha. We just had a regular P-Day and played a lot of basketball (I’m getting tired of B-ball) Tuesday however!!! Was a good day. We had our weekly visits with Debbie and James Shaw things are going good, told them I might be leaving the area and it kinda freaked Debbie out......... She said if I go, she will stop investigating the church...... WHAT?! She is so excited to learn but if I go she will stop???? When I heard this my heart plummeted into my stomach. We said we don’t find out until Saturday and when we know we will come over and talk to her. Gosh dangit....... makes me sad....... On the flip side James Shaw is doing really well. He told me if I go we need to stay in contact. He said "He enjoys talking with me about all sorts of stuff" Hahhaha man I wish all of you could meet James Shaw. Such a good guy. That was pretty much it for Tuesday.

Wednesday was the single longest day in my freaking life hahaha. It started with a meeting at 10 am to plan for this activity we were doing with the youth. Which was the most unproductive thing I have ever witnessed...... hahah all the missionaries involved were so distracted (myself included) we honestly did try really hard to come up with some good things. Now we already had a pretty good idea we were just wondering how to pull it off hahah. Well we sat for a while and got SOME things taken care of. But after all the missionaries left, we still didn’t have a definitive plan. So I said screw it and me and Elder Taylor came up with everything. How we were going to introduce the activity, what the spiritual message was going to be, how we were going to split up the youth into groups, Everything. We busted that out during lunch. (I guess I should explain the activity, we wanted to do an 'improv' night if you will. We were going to give them 5 random objects and they had to work that into a scene or skit. Well we decided they should act out major stories in the book of Mormon.) Once that was all taken care of, we went and did some service for a guy named Shanning, this guy is super cool, we are trying to figure out a way to teach him. We talk to him all the time but the conversation never goes about our religion. He asks us questions about us as missionaries but kinda shies away from the religion aspect of it. We have become pretty good friends, we finished up the service we have been doing for him. So instead of just asking him if we could come over and talk to him about the book of Mormon, we wrote a note in the inside cover of a book of Mormon with our phone number and just a small note asking if he ever has questions about the church to call us or shoot us a text. Hopefully that goes somewhere. After that, we went and visited Ariana Barnes, who is a less active 12-year-old. The only member in her family. Todd and Kathy's daughter. invited her to the activity. Went to dinner with a super chill family then had the activity for the youth after that. It went really well....... except for the fact that the sister missionaries who helped us plan and come up with the idea couldn’t come........ and the other elders who were helping us couldn’t come until it was 1/2 way done....... yikes...... So it was me and Elder Taylor and 3 wards of youth.... luckily there aren’t that many youths so I think about 40-50 kids showed.... it went super well!! we shared an awesome message. We actually have the youth coming up and talking to us now. So overall it was a huge success. Even if we did have to do the whole thing on our own hahaha. I crashed soooo hard that night hahahaha.

Thursday! We did our usual stuff, worked out in the morning. Did our studies as per usual. We got a call from a member who needed some help with moving some stuff and putting things together. She also said she would make us lunch......................... WEELLLLLL when she asked us what we liked we told her "We will eat anything" She said "Oh really??" Well she took that as an invitation to cook us up some of the most "interesting" food. We came in and talked for a little bit then she led us to the kitchen. She started to laugh as she brought out this small little bowl that had liquid in it. She told us "there are 12 pieces of meat in there, grab your fork and get one" Well me and elder Taylor both pulled out a piece, and on further inspection, and realizing she went on her mission to France, I recognized this as Escargot............ For those who don't know what that is. Its snail...... we pulled it out and asked her if it was Escargot. She said yup. However, my companion didn’t know what that meant. He told me not to tell him until after he had tried it. We counted down from 3 and both took one and popped it in our mouths. THAT'S RIGHT ELDER RILEY FIELD HAS EATEN SNAILS......... the best way to describe it, it was like a tender meat but chewy at the same time. Not slimy like I thought it would be. And actually wasn’t the worst thing in the world. The taste was alright. Not amazing but just kinda....... well it didn’t taste like poop. Let’s go with that hahaha. I told Elder Taylor about it after we had finished eating them hahaha. He kinda freaked out but all was well. BUT THAT'S NOT ALL!!! She brought out a steaming plate of................................................ Chicken Feet............ YUPP!!! my thoughts exactly......... Those were the most disgusting thing I have ever seen.... or eaten in my life...... it was horrible...... and yes I did eat 1....... I still shudder every time I think about it.... they were so greasy and BLELEEEHEHHEE sooo gross hahahahahaha.......... She didn’t just make us eat that though. She cooked up some rice and chicken and brought out a salad for us. She just wanted to see if we really would eat anything hahahah. Oh man oh man hahahahah nightmares guys... nightmares...... After the snail and chicken feet ordeal we went and taught Shayla. Had a really awesome lesson with her. She seems super interested in all of it. And is excited every time we come over. She is progressing rather quickly. It’s super cool!

 Friday was another crazy day hahah. At 10 am we went and did some service with the zone. We went and cleaned up after homeless people......yes that’s what we did. So the homeless people make like little encampments everywhere. And they just leave stuff when they don’t want to live there anymore..... so we went and just cleaned up all the garbage they had left by the rail road tracks and behind this building...... it was rough..... between the nasty clothes that had been sitting there for forever... the Human poop we had to clean up, Beer bottles, porn magazines, and just over all nastiness........ I took like 3 showers afterward it was so gross.... but hey!!!! Just trying to make Vallejo a better place hahaha. Anyway, after boiling myself afterward we went and had lunch with zone and then just planned the rest of the week! yay hahaha. Well we got a call from a less active member. she asked us to come over. Well we did and she wasn’t there. her boyfriend thing answered the door and let us in and talked to us for a little bit. he seemed like really strange and kinda off. He was mumbling to himself, he was cussing up a storm, and just was activing super strange. Well then the less active member walked in.... and they started to fight........... and fight....... and fight........ nothing physical but just attacking each other with words hahaha. about like 2 mins in me and elder taylor stood up and said "Ya know, we should go we will let you guys talk" The boyfriend thing person told us we couldn’t go because we were keeping the peace and was starting to get really mad at us as we became more and more persistent about leaving. So we sat back down and just listened. It was horrible........ what felt like 4 hours sitting there was like 30 mins but it was rough....  we didn’t know what to do we just sat there........ while they cussed each other out. As soon as we were "allowed" to leave we booked it...... We are never going to let other missionaries go over there.... it was starting to get a little sketch. yikes!! but I’m alive!!! SO DONT WORRY!! Fun experiences right?? hahaha


Saturday oh man.......... what a day. Saturday was the day we get transfer documents..... not until 9:00 pm though. So we had to go through the day working until then. Well the day started off when we went over to the Samoan family!! OH!!! I FORGOT TO TELL YOU GUYS SOMETHING IMPORTANT!!! Mirium and Tali (mother and Niece) have a baptismal date!!! for Oct. 22 they will be baptized!!!!!! Sagato (the dad) and Mirium jr. (the daughter) don’t have one yet. but as we continue to work with them I think they will be baptized the same day: D I’m so excited for them! So we committed them to a baptismal date last visit. This visit we taught them about the WoW (Word of Wisdom NOT World of Warcraft, you know who I’m talking to *cough cough* Dad) They understood it perfectly and we committed them to live it. They just get it... it makes life so easy hahahah. I wish teaching was this easy all the time hahahah. But I know this is like a once in a lifetime thing. I’m just have so much love for these people I have only known for 3 weeks hahaha. Anyway, the rest of the day was pretty chill went and had an awesome dinner with the zone, at the Takapus. They roasted an entire pig again....... haha I photos this time hahaha. anyway! So Transfer Docs came that night..... AND THE VERDICT IS.................. I’m transferring to San Rafael.............. I’m way excited but sad because I’m leaving all the wonderful people I have met in Vallejo. But it will be a good change hahah. I leave this Tuesday. OH!!! And guess what..... I’m follow up training........ WHAT!?!?!? I JUST FINISHED GETTING TRAINED AND THEY EXPECT ME TO BE ABLE TO FOLLOW UP TRAIN SOMEONE?!?!? holy crap I’m so nervous!!!!! GAAAAHHHH!!! I know god will help me but I don’t know if I can do it..... how can I train someone??? I’m still so freaking new..... man oh man....... well I guess just wish me luck! hopefully I don’t screw up this poor missionary......

That’s pretty much it. Sunday was full of a lot of goodbyes........ I’m not saying I would ever live in Vallejo but I am saying I will miss my little ghetto town hahahah. let’s see what the future has in store hahaha!

Anyway I think that’s pretty much it! I hope you all know I love all of you!!! I hope all of you will have a wonderful week!!!


Love you all!!
-Elder Riley Field

Weekly Update

I’m starting to run out of ideas how to start these emails....... That’s bad, considering i still have another 21 months of mission left hahaha! (no that’s not me being trunky*, I’m just stating a fact)
*terms explained at the bottom of the email ;)

Anyway! This week was good! I guess I will just start on Monday!
So last Monday after all the emails and playing basketball for forever, we went to dinner at the Brondums. Now the Brondums are super cool people in the ward. These were the members I dug a 6ft hole for hahaha. Which we are probably going to fill that back in now that all the work is done hahah. But anyway, while we were eating, something startled Elder Taylor! He looked to his left and there was just a turtle crossing through the room! We laughed and asked them why there was a turtle there (mind you we have eaten at their house before and have never seen this turtle) They said they have 3 turtles who just wander the house!!!! WHAT!?!?! So freakin sick right! The turtles just wander around the house, when they are hungry they go to the fridge for food, they also have a turtle door so they can go hang out in the sun hhahaha. So of course I picked it up and took a photo with it! Now just a warning the first photo of when I’m looking at the turtle was a natural shot, I was just that freakin excited to be holding a turtle! WHOSE NAME WAS TABATHA!!! Come on!!! A turtle named Tabatha!!!!! Of course I’m going to be excited!!!  hahah Oh and they said I can have either Tabatha or the Tortoise when I am finished with the mission........... Looks like we have new family pet Mom!!!

On Tuesday, we had exchanges with the Zone leaders! Not sure why, but they wanted to go on exchanges with us. So I went with Elder Thom! Elder Thom is a super cool dude. He is from Arizona; he is super funny! We were laughing the entire time we were together haha. I have learned a ton from him in just the sort amount of times we were companions. Anyway! We had district meeting again, then we went and saw Debbie! Now while we were there we had a really good lesson with her! SO GOOD! So good to the point that we got her to pray! Thanks to Elder Thom! She was worried that she didn’t know how to pray good enough. So Elder Thom explained Prayer like a sandwich........ yes, when I first heard this i thought he was crazy too. but I went with it and continued to listen...... He said in all sandwiches, in most cases, what is the two things that remain constant. The top piece of bread and the bottom piece of bread. Anything in-between them is whatever you are feeling like. Like maybe one day you want a PB&J and the next day you want a turkey and Cheese sandwich with no lettuce because lettuce is gross right? ANYWAY! Prayer is just the same. We open with "Dear Heavenly Father" and close with ".... In the name of Jesus Christ, amen" Anything in-between is whatever you want to say. Or whatever your heart is wanting to say. THIS BLEW MY MIND!!! And it blew Debbie’s too hahaha. She said she would give it a try. And she gave a wonderful prayer! It was awesome! She actually started crying through the middle of it. It was wonderful! I’m so proud of her haha. She actually told us that she wants the missionaries to go over and visit her daughter in Wisconsin. She texted her and she said yes she would like them to go over. So we jumped on that really quickly and sent a referral out to the missionaries in her area, when we texted Apryl (that’s her name) She told us that if they are going to come over they NEED to text first!!! That they were not to just SHOW UP........... WELL!!!!! GUESS WHAT HAPPENED!! Even after we made it abundantly clear not to just show up.... the missionaries there just showed up anyway....... at 8pm....... now Apryl is having some problems with her husband.... let’s just say he isn’t the nicest of guys towards other people, including his wife. He got extremely mad at both her and the missionaries........ so I got a call from Debbie, who was extremely frustrated which is understandable, telling us this. We are very angry at them too. So while we were over there on Tuesday I asked her if she could video chat her daughter, she did and we apologized to her. She still wants them to come over though. But we are scared that the missionaries out their think it’s a lost cause now. SO!!! we are going to try to get Mission President to allow us to teach Apryl through Skype or Facebook or something. Hopefully that goes well!


Also that night we had a "Get real" lesson with Todd and Kathy. Now I’m pretty sure I have talked about these guys before, but they have been having missionaries coming over for I think like 3-5 years now and they aren’t progressing anymore......they have been taught all the lessons....... but still So while we were over there with Elder Thom I asked them 1 question. That’s all. I asked them "So you have been having missionaries over for a while now, and I’m sure you have seen a few that are dead set to baptize you, and I’m also sure you have seen some that just want to be your friend and hang out. Now I want to ask you a question. What are your thoughts on joining the church? Do you ever think you will be baptized?" Now they weren’t too caught off guard by it, but it definitely made them take a step back and think. Kathy told me "I guess my answer is Eventually, life has been crazy the last couple of years because of work situations but life is now starting to slow down again." I guess that’s an alright answer. But Todd gave us a really good answer actually. he told us that if he were to get baptized now he feels like he would be lying. He told us how whenever he went to Fast and Testimony meeting people get up and tell how they KNOW stuff. He just isn’t to that point of knowing. So if he were to be baptized, he would feel like he would be lien, he also told us that he feels like he is practically 75% a member of the church, He just isn’t baptized. (And while typing this out i just figured out what we will be teaching them tonight! hahaah) Elder Thom took that opportunity to explain the difference between Knowledge and Belief. And how they are both importance and awesome to have. So hopefully all goes well with the next lesson. Keep them in your prayers!

Wed, was pretty chill, nothing too exciting, did some service, had some massive steaks that a member cooked for us. SO GOOD then went on splits with the High Priests from the ward. That’s pretty much it hahah.

Thursday was crazy. Drove to Napa and had a meeting with Mission President which was cool, it was for all the missionaries that are in 12 week*. Then we got home just in time to get to dinner. Met another new family who moved into the ward. They are super cool actually! We will get along very well hahah. Our ward is full of Newly Weds and the Nearly Deads hahah. But I get along with all of them hahah. They are all so cool!!!!

Friday was pretty normal. Went and tried to find people to teach. Taught some less actives. And weekly planned for 90% of our Friday hahaha.

Saturday was cool. We drove to Napa AGAIN! haahah we had to go pick up a Samoan Book of Mormon and Pamphlets haha. The AP's* drove from Santa Rosa to deliver them to us as soon as possible. We were so grateful. It was an answer to a prayer. At first they said that we weren’t going to get them for another week. When all of a sudden they called us up the day before and told us that they realized how important it was and were going to drive to Napa for us. Heavenly Father is awesome isn’t he hahaha.

Sunday, was just another regular Sunday. Super crazy for us missionaries and what not haha. After our meetings and things of that nature we went to dinner with the Spanish missionaries. They took us over and we had Pa-Pusas the only way I can explain them is like, they are little tortilla pancake things with meat beans and cheese in them. then they are cooked on a griddle like a pancake hahaha. THEY ARE SOOOOOO GOOOOD!!! apparently only El Salvador makes them the best. So it was a privilege to have those hahaha. I also ate a Serrano Pepper......... My man hood was being challenged...... I had to do it. So I did. I felt like I was breathing fire for 4 hours hahaha. After that we went and had ANOTHER dinner with a member from our ward. (see how we gain weight as missionaries?!?) It was super good. So I actually didn’t even realize it was 9/11 until that night. So I just want to send a shout out to all of those who are Police, Firefighters, people in the military and everyone of that nature. Thank you for all that you do. God bless you and your families.
Anyway!! I think that’s all to report this week. Long email hahaha sorry guys hahah!!

Have a good week!!! I love you all!!! hope to hear from all of you!!!!

Love ya!
-Elder Riley Field

*Trunky - when missionaries have thoughts of wanting to go home and what not
*12 week - for the first 12 weeks you are being trained.
*AP- assistants to the president

Weekly Update 'n' Stuff

Hello my wonderful people!! My oh my do I have a week for all of you! This week was full of strange meetings, Awkward Dance parties, Beautiful cars, Samoans, sewing, sweating, and service. Hahaha Alright well I will just jump into it then!

So every Tuesday we have district meetings, or everyone in a while a Zone meeting. Just to keep learning on how we can improve and become better teachers and followers of Christ. Well, when Elder Taylor and I showed up at the church building, there was a small reindeer hanging on the outside of the door. We opened the door and there was a White Board that said "Vallejo Zone Christmas - Zone Meeting..... (in August)" Christmas Lights were everywhere, Christmas music was playing, there was hot chocolate being made, the nativity scene was put up, Elder Thom was wearing Reindeer Antlers..... Needless to say I was extremely confused. The look on my face must have been priceless because when the Sisters saw me they bust up laughing.  We stood there dumbfounded for a little bit before Elder Taylor muttered "What the freak?" The sisters explained how all of us missionaries were listening to Christmas music in their cars (which yes this is true. Me and Elder Taylor have been rocking the Christmas music for a while now, I guess I haven’t relied how Christmas hungry I have become ha-ha) And so they wanted to throw a Christmas party in August. We just kind of shrugged and went with it. Elder Taylor then said he had an Elf Costume back in the apartment............ Don’t ask.............. He requested we go back and get the costume and come back. Everyone of course was down for it so we left to go retrieve the costume. When we came back he put it on and the rest was history. I love my Zone ahhaa. The Vallejo Zone is the best! its super small which makes things super fun. There are only 10 missionaries in the zone. It’s so freaking awesome hahahah. I was talking to other missionaries and they say that’s how big their district is. Hahaha My district is composed of Elder Taylor and I and Our district leader and his companion hahaha. That’s about it....... District meetings are a little weird to say the least. Anyway!! hopefully I will send some Zone Photos in this email (I have been trying to send photos every week, but apparently they don’t send sometimes....)

After the meeting we went on exchanges for the rest of the day. Me and The other Elder Taylor. He is the one behind the Elder in the Olaf sweater to the left. Yeah that’s right we have 2 Elder Taylors in the Zone. So we did our little exchanges for the rest of the day. That day was a pretty productive day. We went and saw Brother Shaw, which was a wonderful visit. Talked about the importance of the Sacrament. Then we saw Debbie Jackson. Her Daughter was there!!! with her Granddaughter we have already been teaching. Debbie’s Daughter Victoria is super chill. She says religion just isn’t for her, she tried the "Religion thing" and it didn’t work out well for her. But curiosity got the better of her. While we were getting to know one another, she just stopped the conversation and said "Ok, I got to ask, what do you believe happens after we die" The words "YYYYYEEEEEESSSSSS WE CAN WORK WITH THAT!!!!!" went through my mind. But I kept my cool with how freaking excited I was and told her "We actually know what happens after this life but also what happened before we came to this Earth, it’s called the Plan of Salvation, would you like to know more" They all said yes and so the lesson went a moving. Debbie is starting to believe more and more each day. Which is awesome. She still isn’t reading the Book of Mormon........ We keep asking her to but she just.... doesn’t...... it’s so frustrating hahahaha. I guess I will just have to have patience and continue to be Bold. haha Actually we are talking about the importance of the BoM on Tuesday with her. I’m praying she will actually see WHY she needs to read it hahaha.

Anyway! we exchanged back with My Elder Taylor the next morning and all was well. Wed, was a pretty average day. Did some service. Did some finding. Actually finding took up most of our day. And that was pretty much it though. Not that exciting.

Thursday was the day we got to go see Mirium!!! Mirium is the Samoan I talked about last week! she just walked into church asking to learn more about it. Well we went over and visited with her, her husband Sagato, we talked about the restoration of the Gospel. It just went super smoothly actually. She wasn’t caught off guard by the first vision. She actually said it makes sense that God would do that! This woman blows me away with her faith. We got to know more about her while she was there. So her and her Husband are from American Samoa. The reason they left was because they actually have a daughter here in Vallejo who was starting to struggle with life so they just picked up and moved out here to help her out. They still have all of their things in American Samoa. They told us they will be going back but not in the foreseeable future. They told us that back in their village, that 80% of them were members of the church hahah!!! That’s freaking insane!!! So that meant missionaries were all over in their village. They told us that they have had missionaries over in the past. After we finished the lesson Elder Taylor felt impressed to ask them if they would like to be baptized once they knew that it was true. They said they would!!!! so now it’s just a matter of teaching the lessons well and committing them to a baptism date. hahhaha!!! Well after we finished, they asked us if we could come back on Saturday hahaha yupp that was just 2 days later. We said absolutely and gathered our things and left.

The rest of the day included Service some yummy Thai food and just fun times. The service we did was for a member in our ward named Sister Turner. She is a school teacher. So she asked us if we could come help reorganize her room. We kind of felt weird about it because it was a school...... but for some reason we were impressed to say yes we could. So we went over and helped reorganize her room helped it to get all nice and set up for the kids. (Apparently the missionaries have helped out in the past so that made me feel less weird) But while we were there the librarian walked in. Shanning was his name. He is a big Pilipino guy. He asked us if we could go help him move some boxes that he couldn’t reach hahaha. So we went and he actually knew a lot about missionaries. We got to know him really well. He was a super cool dude. We had a small religious discussion which was cool! We are going back over sometime this week to help out with Sister Turners room. She got a bunch of new books that are being delivered so we will be going over and helping her open them and move them around. We are ALSO going to see if Shanning would like to have a visit from us to discuss more about our church. (kinda the main reason we are going over again haha) We are hoping he says yes hahaha :D

Friday was weekly planning day. So we got up did all we are supposed to do in the morning and went to the church to plan. It was quite a successful planning session. We had a lot of service opportunities come up and also a lot of teaching appointments come up as well :D we are happy. But this week is going to be a long one hahah. And most likely quite exhausting so we will see how I am by next week haha.

So Saturday!!! We met with Miriam again. And we also had some other visitors with them as well. We had Tali their niece who is 10 years old and Daniel who is 4. Daniel however doesn’t look 4........ he looks like he could possibly be like 8 or 10 hahahaha He is freaking huge hahaha. Samoans man..... They are built like trucks hahaha. When we first walked in. Daniel shook elder Taylors hand then looked at me. Shook my hand. Looked up at me again. And then just hugged me hahaha. It kinda freaked me out because he just sat and held on to me for like 2 mins hahaha I couldn’t move!!! he then just stared up at me and smiled hahaha. Come to find out he can’t speak English very well, but apparently he likes me hahaha! So we gathered the family together and taught about the Plan of Salvation. It was super cool. They understood it perfectly. There weren’t any questions. They just. Got it. hahahah idk how to explain it. We taught and bore our testimony and that was it. They just agreed and believed it. After the lesson they brought us lunch hahaha. They had made us Tuna sandwiches. They said when they start to get more settled down they would cook us some Samoan food. After eating we visited with the husband some more. There is a language barrier that’s a little difficult. He doesn’t speak English very well but he still knows a lot of English. He told us that even though there is that language barrier. He says that he feels that everything we share with him is true. He just knows. Even if he doesn’t 100% comprehend it because of the language problems. He just knows it’s true. WHAT!!?!?!? THATS SO SICK!!! oh man!! hahaha we are going over this Friday at 10 am. We are going to try to commit them to a baptismal date. Wish us luck!!!!! (they also gave us a gift. They are homemade fans from Samoa! hahah they are so sick!!! mine sits on my desk with a little stuffed alligator that my Aunt sent me! Thanks Annie ;) )

The rest of Saturday we did a blitz for the YSA ward elders. So a blitz is when all the missionaries in the zone. And sometimes the surrounding zone come together, and go and try to see as many people/contact as many people as possible in a certain area. It was insane hahah. The Vallejo/Benicia area was flooded with missionaries searching for YSA. It was awesome hahaha.
Speaking of Benicia I was doing some of that good Family History. I was reading up on Thomas Rhoades. In 1847 his wife Elizabeth became extremely ill. She actually lapsed into a coma while Thomas and the older members of the family were away. Caleb (who I believed was one of the younger sons) Rode into Sutter's Fort looking for help. Well Sutter returned with his buggy and took Elizabeth to the fort. She then was going to be moved to San Francisco for better medical attention. Sadly, she died in route. Here is the cool part. She died in Benicia.....That is the town right next to me. I have an ancestor who died here in Benicia. Sadly, it was an unmarked grave which means she could be anywhere in that town but when I found that out, it was the most exciting thing ever. I had no clue that I was this close to some of my ancestors. Crazy stuff guys. Family history is cool. HAhahaha I have always been fascinated by it. So I challenge all of you to go do some family history! Go find out where you come from. I found out that my 4th great grandfather had a playhouse in Beaver Utah. He and his wife sang and preformed Theatre pieces. (See I knew I got my love for theatre and singing somewhere)

Well anyway!!! I guess that’s pretty much all I can think of talking about. Just know I love you all and I miss you all like crazy!!!! I hope your week is amazing!! I love you all!!

Have a fun week!!
Love you lots!
-Elder Riley Field


P.s. Photos are the Christmas Zone Meeting

Sewing lessons with Tess Giner (who looks like my kindergarten Teacher)

My Samoan Fan

The Ceja Family :D I love them lots

When your companion is a pot head!

These are pictures that Sister Harris has sent my Mom -

Out to dinner with Sister Harris -

 Sister Harris said she is so glad you are so photogenic -

Teaching in Primary September 4, 2016 -