Elder Field Is On A Roller Coaster?! (Of Emotions)

Happy Halloween everybody!!! I hope all of you have fun plans! Go watch a scary movie for me!! Or better yet someone go scare my sister Danika and send me the video ;) that would make my Halloween ;) Love you Danika.... if you even read these ;)

 This week has been craaaaaazzzzy first off we got transfer documents!!! The result!?!?

I will be staying in San Rafael...... with my........."lovely" ...... companion Elder Magee. Don't worry I have high hopes for this transfer, we have changed the way we are doing stuff as a companionship and hopefully this will clear up and frustrations with each other....... I hope...... ;)
Any who this week was full of up and downs haha. Like usual I guess. Monday was pretty normal. Got a haircut....... I think I have officially gone full Cali. You can’t get a haircut in Cali without it looking slightly hipster...That was pretty much it though.

Tuesday was pretty chill as well. Had a zone meeting. Last one of the transfer. I’m going to miss this zone. A couple of people are being transferred in and out so it will be very different in the upcoming transfer. Anyway the meeting was fun. We finished the competition of who could hand out the most book of Mormons. Out of 3 districts we took 2nd....... I know that makes us the first of the losers...... BUT we had a huge handicap it was ridiculous. So we had 10 people in our district when everyone else had 6. So we did by percentages.... well, the only reason we had to do percentages was because technically the Zone leaders and the Sister Training leaders are in our district....  I think between them both they handed out maybe 15 book of Mormons throughout the transfer. Now I don't blame them they are busy and have other responsibilities but we lost because of it haahha. In totally the entire zone handed out 354 BoMs. Which is insane!!! that’s 8 full boxes of BoMs. Our district alone handed out 174 of them hahaha. The winning district handed out like 113 or something like that.... but because of percentages we lost...... sad huh hahaha.

Wednesday we did our usually food bank service. I have stated to become super good friends with some of the people who run it hahah. They are super nice people :D Anyway after food bank we went and visited a potential investigator named Monica. We caught her right before she left taking her dog out on a walk. Talked to her for a bit. She used to work for BYU believe it or not hahaha. She said they are very active in their church. We asked them if we could come over just to get to know them a bit and to chat and possibly share a spiritual message. She was all for that. So that was neat. Unfortunately, when we went to visit her again she wasn't home....... dang..... but she texted us and said she wanted to reschedule and that she was sorry that she had forgotten!! YES! hahaha. we haven't come up with an official time yet but we are hoping she texts back soon haha.

Thursday we decided we would go do food bank in Novato. They wanted us to come again so that they could say final goodbyes to the missionaries who might leave. So we went had a wonderful time. After that we went to Starbucks of all places to teach a lesson to a less active member. Tori is super nice has 3 kids. She is going to school and doing an internship. She has got a lot on her plate but wants us to keep visiting with her. She wants to go to the temple but has problems with the word of wisdom. So we have been answering her questions and just have been helping her set goals to make it to the temple. Afterward we went door knocking..... with no success but we met some nice people and some really nasty people hahahah all part of the job right??:D

So Friday was an interesting day. I tried to help Elder Perez out with his tablet.... You know the one that gotten run over by a car. Now miraculously the tablet still worked. The insides were actually still functioning. The screen however was trashed. I will send another photo of what it looked like hahahah. So he took it into Apple to see if they could pull the pictures and the notes off of it. Apple just laughed at him and said no can do. So he came to me in a state of distress and despair and asked if there was anything I could do to save anything off his device. So after a morning of thinking what to do. I asked if there was a computer he used to connect his tablet up to. He said there was one in the Rohnapark chapel. Which is 45 mins away BUT still in our zone so we went for it :D when we got there. (just a clarifier we got permission to tinker with his iPad for a little bit so don’t think elder field was being a bad missionary ;) all of this was Okayed haha) I hooked it up to the computer and BINGO! The computer was trusted on the IPad. So we could access iTunes through it. Not all though unfortunately, because of the restrictions put in place by the church on the iPad. We could only save his photos. So I got all the photos off of it and created a backup on the computer of the tablet (i know most of you probs don’t understand any of this. This is mainly for my father and my other nerd friends, So just a short brief message to them!.... SEEEE I CAN BE SMART TOO!!!) Elder Perez was extremely grateful. I told him if he wants the notes off the tablet they are all stored on the computer they are just encrypted with a password Church Headquarters set. So when he gets off his mission he can find out that password and come retrieve them if he still wants them hahaha.

After the tablet fiasco we planned for the week and taught a lesson to Ken Koch. Lesson went super good. We brought our ward mission leader and he is awesome. He made that lesson. We taught about faith. And how sometimes God asks us to show our faith. He has already said no to baptism because he says until his back gets better he can’t do it. So we invited him to church..... well after and awesome lesson!!!! He still said no....... But we did commit him to come in 3 weeks. That way he can prepare himself physically and mentally for the task of coming to church. Hopefully he keeps that commitment. Then we went to the bridge which is always so much fun :D I had developed a great love for the Golden Gate Bridge. So stinking cool man so stinking cool hahaha.

Saturday was transfer doc day. Now because it was transfer doc day we FILLED our day with stuff to do. We were going to teach and investigator or 2, going to see some less actives. Had some service to do....the day started out good. Had breakfast with a member. Taught a good lesson them all of a sudden at about 12:46 All heck broke loose and everything fell through...... idk what is in the air lately but everything keeps falling through which is sad. So we just tried to go door knocking and hand out BoMs.we handed out 4 so that was good. But was unable to get some return appointments but all is well.  After the long day of tracting and trying to find Less active members to visit. We got to go to the adult session of Stake Conference. Which was way awesome. Heard some good speakers and i took a lot of good notes :D We got transfer docs after which. There was excitement there was despair there was fear there was sadness there was laughter........ all of which were from me. Everyone else seemed pretty chill with it hahahaha.

Sunday was fun. Had a wonderful stake conference. IN FACT!!! ELISE ONE OF OUR INVESTIGATORS CAME!!!!!!!!!!!! YYYYYYYYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYY Hahahaha I was so stinking excited to see her walk through that door. We sat her down talked to her explained why this particular meeting was different. She loved it. She really enjoyed it. The talks were wonderful for her to hear. She asked us a bunch of good questions about doctrine and the plan of salvation afterward. She seems super interested and believed 90% of it. She is progressing really well. She told us about some of the similarities of Our church services and Jehovah Witnesses services and i learned a lot also. She likes ours better. She said this was the first church meeting that she has ever sat through the entire thing and actually enjoyed it. She said that she has been to quite a few churches and couldn't sit through all of them. AND THEY WERE SHORTER THAN THE 2 AND HALF HOURS OF STAKE CONFERENCE. man if that doesn't scream the spirit i don’t know what does. Anyway. We had an impromptu lesson with Elise right on the spot about the rest of the plan of salvation. After the lesson the Spanish elders left us at the church hahah. We had no way of driving back. So we walked the 4 or so miles back to our apartment. which kind of sucked but it was a nice day for the first 3/4 of the walk. Then it started raining hahaha. We jogged the rest of the way in my suit and got home without getting too wet. We changed by that time it was time for dinner so we went to dinner. Had fun and then we went to Taruns house.

Now Tarun is Indian. he is our recent convert of about 4 months. His family aren’t members but They invited us over to celebrate Diwali or festival of lights. It was super cool actually. They did some religious ceremony that we got to observe and then they busted out the fireworks hahaha. Sparklers and ground blooms and all sorts of fountains. we had a couple of mishaps with the fireworks hahaha. I had a few shoot my way which was fun hahhaa. but anyway it was super nice of them to invite us over. And it was way cool to see the different culture. It’s quite fascinating to me actually. After the fireworks they fed us a wonderful meal. Indian food is so stinking good hahaha.

Anyway I think that’s it for this week guys. Gosh my emails are starting to get too long hahah I need to make them shorter. But there is just so much that goes on hahaha.


Hope you guys have a wonderful Halloween! Stay safe and have fun! I love you all!!!

Bye!!!
-Elder Riley Field

Elder Field Wants To Be Hispanic

Quote of the week:

"We’re dead!!! We’re dead! We’re alive but were dead!"

Hey Hey Hey! So this week was crazy busy. Not because of appointments or anything like that but by the sheer number of doors we knocked this week........ it was insane! Anyway my week went a little like this!

Monday: Pretty chill day. Went to Sausalito (which is a huge touristy part of California) and hung out with the zone which was super fun. Got to know more of the missionaries in the zone and turns out I get along with them pretty well haha! That was pretty much it for Monday. We had a lesson with an investigator who isn't progressing anymore and unfortunately we may have to drop him within the next 2 weeks..... so we will see how that plays out. Elder Magee can’t stand the thought of dropping an investigator but sometimes you got to do it.... so sad....

(Riley & Hailey in Sausalito)

Tuesday: We had district meeting. The last one of the transfer...... weird.... where did this transfer go??? hahaha after district meeting we went on exchanges with the district leader and his companion. I went with Elder Perez who is a super cool guy. We went through the day knocking doors and we had 2 lessons...... of course I wasn't any help at all. I could understand like 30% of what they were saying so thank you High school Spanish but I couldn't communicate back to save my life hahah. But whatever they were talking about the spirit was there. During the first lesson, this little boy, maybe like 2 years old. Looked up at me and smiled. So since I couldn't understand what they were talking about and really couldn't help out anyway. I sat and played with the little boy. hahaha that was pretty fun :D When dinner came around we went over to the member’s house with the Hermanas. I ate.... so much..... Holy cow it was so good too!!! hahha :D after a wonderful dinner we went and had Family Home Evening with a less active member! Elder Perez told me it was usually in English so I was pretty pumped that I would be able to help after being a mute for 90% of the day. WELL we showed up and they all just started talking in Spanish..... dangit.... so again I just sat there smiling and nodding with whatever was said. Awkwardly laughed when everyone else laughed. This was the most difficult game I have ever played in my life hahahah. The spirit was there so that was good hahaha.

Wednesday: Finished up exchanges. Went to food bank like usual. After food bank we had a scheduled appointment that fell through which is sad..... so instead we just knocked doors and tried to give out Book of Mormon. Not much success unfortunately but we kept going no matter what. I trained my companion to be a Facebook missionary which was strange because I still have no clue how to be a good Facebook missionary hahahah. But I tried my best and helped him set up a Facebook. Any who!! That was pretty much it for Wednesday!


Thursday: Now Thursday was supposed to be the best day of the week. We had 3 scheduled appointments and a service project we were going to go do. Well while we were doing our morning studies EVERYTHING fell through within like a 40 min time period. Text after Text after text of people telling us that they couldn't meet. So what did we do instead. Well..... we went out with the Spanish Elders (so that we could split up 1 English and 1 Spanish missionary that way we could talk to anyone and everyone about the gospel) and went and knocked apartment complexes. I think in total that day we knocked 3 entire complexes and gave out 8 Book of Mormons. By the end of the day we were all exhausted.

Friday: Weekly planning day. After weekly planning we had about 2 set lesson appointments for the day and guess what!!! They also fell through..... hahaha all we could do at that point was laugh because this has been the most frustrating week on the planet hahahah. So I bet you can guess what we did!!!! THAT’S RIGHT WE WENT AND KNOCKED MORE DOORS!!! I have gotten good at this door knocking thing. I even have my own knocking pattern. I have figured out which part of the door you should knock to get the loudest sound. I have learned that peep holes are the worst thing on the planet. It is always awkward when you hear movement towards the door. Then suddenly the light on the other side of the peep hole is blocked by something and then no door answer. hahaha. Fantastic right hahaha Anyway I think in all we knocked 8 apartment complexes and did a small neighborhood. We actually gave out quite a few Book of Mormons I think it was 23 books. So that was pretty cool :D

Saturday: After praying extremely hard that morning that our appointments wouldn’t fall through, we got a call that we were needed for a service project. So we went. Turns out that someone needed help moving. So we helped this lady move. She was super nice but had so much stuff for one little old lady hahaha. That took us about 3 hours. After that a member took us to lunch to Chick fila. While eating all the appointments fell through again..... no joke...... I don’t know what was up this week but man oh man I just wanted to rip my hair out hahaha. So you know what we did? That’s right…. us and the Spanish missionaries went door knocking again. We actually got a return appointment for next week so that’s pretty cool. So I believe in total we knocked 3 apartment complexes and did a ton of street contacting, and gave out 26 book of Mormons! Which was super exciting. Now if all those people would give us a call we would be set hahaha. But through all the door knocking and talking to people I came to a conclusion. Elder Field wants to be a Spanish missionary hahah. The Hispanic people are so freaking nice!!! Even if they aren’t interested they will still talk to you for a bit then tell you (very nicely) that they are happy where they are at and wish us the best of luck. Whereas Californians, will sometimes just open the door sigh in disgust then slam the door or cuss you out. hahaha. Fun stuff right?? I also just want to learn a new language hahah. But hey, it’s not my decision, it’s where ever the lord needs me but it’s not unheard of a missionary having his mission language switched so who knows ;) I will be crossing my fingers hahaha but if I’m needed as an English missionary I will be the best dang English missionary I can be. hahaa :D

Sunday: I spoke in church... which was nerve wracking but I did so. My topic was my favorite book of Mormon prophet I couldn’t pick one so I chose Abindi and Alma the younger. Abinidi is the coolest :D He was taken to the king and just preached to him. Stood up for what he believed him and just owned it :D unfortunately he was put to death and didn’t get to see the fruits of his labors. His fruits being Alma one of the priests of Noah. Who then had a son named alma the younger so Abinidi's preaching helped a lot of people along the way even if he wasn’t able to see it :D And Alma the younger just has the coolest conversion stories in the Book of Mormon haha :D Anyway that was pretty much it for Sunday. WE knocked more doors because we didn’t have any appointments set. We had dinner with the Schroders which was awesome. We gave out 10 Book of Mormons that night. We also got a referral from Salt Lake City for this guy named Charles Smith. He was requesting a book of Mormon.  We went over to his house and this guy was walking out of his house he saw us and we asked if he was Charles smith. He said yeah. We went into the introduction of "We are missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We received that you requested......." He cut us off because suddenly he became really excited. "OH yeah!!! I requested a book of Mormon!! I can’t meet with you right now but could we meet sometime this week." We were caught off guard we told him yeah and gave him the Book of Mormon and our number and he gave us his. We were talking for a little bit and this little kid came out of the house and said "grandpa what are you doing" He replied with "I’m getting a book of Mormon, it’s like the bible. Well actually it’s a companion to the bible" ................................................did he just....................... yeah he did. He isn’t a member but I guess he had been doing research or something because he nailed it right on the head hahaha. When we gave it to him he was super excited and said he would start reading it while he was doing laundry (which is why he couldn’t meet with us right at that minute) So that was pretty cool hahaha :D We are going to call him today to set up an appointment :D

So overall I think we knocked probably over 150 doors and gave out 67 Book of Mormons this week...... ok that was pretty cool. Honestly we were pretty discouraged this week, but reflecting on it and just kinda looking back at what we did. We had a pretty good week. We gave out a ton of Book of Mormons and met a lot of people. So I guess this week wasn’t a failure hahaha.

Anyway!! I love you lots everybody! Have a good week!! And stay safe!!! HALLOWEEN is coming up so I want all of you to go to a party for me and dress up because I can’t....... hahaha :D


Love you all!!!
-Elder Riley Field

(Socks-alitto)

 (Trump and Hilary socks)

(This is what happens when an Ipad falls off the top of a car and then is run over by another car)

Elder Field Is (Not) A Baller

I think I’m going to start every email from now on with a movie quote. Just for the heck of it! So here is todays "Todays the Day!! The sun is shining! the tank is clean!!! And we are getting out of the..... *GAAASSSPPP* the tank is clean..... THE TANK IS CLEEEEAAAAANNN!!!!" Hopefully you all will be able to get the quotes I send hahaha.

Any who I guess I should move on to the missionary stuff huh ;)

So last Monday was pretty boring. Just hung out at the church and played ball for a bit....... That was pretty much it. Tried to go see some people. No one answered. Hahahah. Woot!

Tuesday was a little more eventful. we had our usual Tuesday district meeting and then we were going to have a lesson with a new investigator we picked up but she cancelled and moved it to Saturday. Which was extremely disappointing but she was the one who made the next appointment which means she still is interested which is good :D but that was the only thing we had planned for that day. So we just went and tried to do a lot of Less active finding, tracted for a bit, asked if anyone needed service, and just tried to find people to help or to teach. Unfortunately, it was full of no's. We had one guy who was super nice though. Let us in talked to us for a bit. Said he wasn’t interested but respected what we did and thanked us for spreading the word of God. So we left. It was something I needed hahaha. But yeah. That was it for Tuesday.

Wed was pretty average. Went and did our usual foodbank service. Actually got a pretty promising contact out of it. Said she was interested in us coming over and teaching her sometime. We called her and she said she would be able to meet until the 1st of November. So hopefully that goes well. We had a lesson that night with Shayla, but she canceled on us which was sad. Had a lot of appointments fall through this week actually hahah. It was a full moon this week. And weird things happen during a full moon I have discovered hahaha. No one wanted to talk so we tried our best but with little success.

Thursday we had a pretty cool experience!!! So we had a lesson with Kelly that day. (For those who don’t know who that is or have forgotten) Kelly was an inactive member who fell away. But now she is wanting to know what she believes in and has asked us to teach her the missionary lessons and also just teach her about the book of Mormon in general. We got on the topic of the time period of the book of Mormon. She never really understood where it fit in with the bible and really didn’t understand the story of it. So I just explained to her the time period. how it started 600 years before Christ was born. How Lehi preached to the city of Jerusalem, departed into the wilderness, built a boat, sailed across the ocean, so on and so forth. After explaining the overall story and what not I looked at my companion to see if he would pick up where I left off. He just sat there staring at me. I was confused so since he didn’t pick up i just kept going with it. I talked about how Christ talks about his other sheep. And how he calls the people of the Americas when he visits his other sheep. I showed her where it kind of mentions Lehi in the bible. I also showed her where Joseph Smith was talked about IN the book of Mormon. It was like a lightbulb turned on. It just made sense to her. She started smiling and started to get really excited about the book of Mormon. She told us how excited she was to read again. She then asked me "Goodness you know so much about the book of Mormon; you must have been studying this for years." It wasn’t until that moment when i realized how much my knowledge of the book of Mormon had grown...... Not going to lie. Before the mission I could barely tell you 4 stories from the book of Mormon. I have come to have such a love for the book of Mormon. Not only because it’s the word of god but because it’s an awesome read!!! I mean look at it! It’s a story of a man and his family kicked out of the city, they then survive in the wilderness for a while. Go and Build BOATS to cross the freaking ocean and then start their own country/land/people. It then accounts all the epic wars and battles that the Nephites and the Lamanites had hahaha! Such a cool story. and of course it contains the keys to salvation so that’s pretty cool too i guess ;) Anyway I was talking to my companion and kind of asked him why he was so quite during that lesson. He told me that he has no freaking clue about the stuff I talked about. That he was learning more than Kelly was. I gave my companion this advice. "If you want to learn about the book of Mormon stories and things like that. Go read the Children’s Book of Mormon" He laughed at me. But I’m being completely serious. IF any of you just want to know more about the book of Mormon or any of the stories there in look up the children’s Book of Mormon. It’s got pictures of all the stories and people of the BoM. That’s honestly where I gained 90% of my knowledge from halakha. Was from reading the Children’s BoM. Go check it out. It’s pretty cool.

Anyway the rest of Thursday was pretty much a bust for finding again. We searched and searched and knocked and knocked, and tried to stop people on the street, tried to find service opportunities but nothing...... we were pretty much done for the day and started to walk towards the car. Before we rounded the corner, I had a strange feeling that we should continue to walk down the street for some reason. So i stopped dead in my tracks looked at my companion and said let’s keep walking. Now mind you at this point we are both pretty discouraged and exhausted from that day’s events. Not to mention it was like 20 mins until dinner time so on top of all of it we were getting hungry. He looked at me and asked why. I just told him i feel like we should. He just shrugged and so we continued to walk. We walked down the block when we came across a house on the corner of the street that had a really cool small wooden lighthouse in the front lawn. I mentioned how cool that was then kept walking. We didn’t get half way across the street before I felt the same feeling to just knock on that door. Looked at my companion told him what I felt like needed to happen. So we did. We stood there for a bit. A lady came to the door. before we said anything she looked at us then looked at the phone she was holding and said "Listen I’m on the phone right now but if you guys are in the neighborhood again sometime soon. Drop back by." We said we would love to and then we left. That was it. After we left we went back to the car. I quickly pulled out my tablet and put that house on the map and named the person we met "lighthouse lady" We will definitely be going back there sometime this week :D

Friday was chill. Just planned for the week. Did our usual bridge walk that night.  Met some members on the bridge actually. A couple stopped us and asked if we were missionaries. We told them yeah. The explained how they were on vacation and that they were members. So that was cool. But other than that, there weren’t many people there that night. that was Friday.

Saturday was when the rains came............. For the past 3 days it has just been pouring rain out here. Today has been pretty sunny but it will turn to rain fast i promise you hahah. Anyway. Saturday morning is when we play basketball with people from the ward and the branch. But also investigators or just people who want to play with us really. I don’t know what I did but I think I may have channeled the spirit of Michael Jordan because I was on fire. IM HORRIBLE AT BASKETBALL!!! everyone who knows me knows I’m terrible, but something about that morning was magical. I was getting those rebounds, lay ups. I even had 2, 3 pointers.... which was shocking. Hahaha anyway that ended quickly though. I played 1 good game and then I was back to being terrible. Hahaha. Anyway! Had a fun time at basketball then I had the opportunity of organizing a blitz. A Blitz is when all the missionaries from the surrounding areas converge for 2-3 hours to just find potential investigators for 1 particular area. I was in charge of planning one for our area. So I did just that. We had about 10 missionaries who helped out with it so that was fun. While you do blitz you also go on mini exchanges with other missionaries. So I went out with one of the zone leaders Elder Kenworthy. That guy is the funniest dudes I have ever met. We had so much fun. Anyway I have an interesting experience for you guys. While me and Elder Kenworthy (I’m going to call him elder K) were out street contacting. We stopped in front of this little restaurant. A guy walked up to us and just started talking to us. He asked us if we were missionaries. We said yeah. And then he just started telling us about what he did for work. Weird huh? Oh don’t worry it gets even more strange hahah He told us how he teaches people how to fight. This guy had tattoos like crazy and i noticed that he had one of the marine corps emblem. I asked him if he was a marine. He said yeah, so of course i do what i usually do when I see a person who was in the armed forces or is a police officer. I thanked him for his service. He said no worries but no sooner after I thanked him for being a marine things started getting weird.......... He started talking about the alien movies all of a sudden. And started talking about the space marines in the movie Alien. He mentioned how all of that was real. That the aliens were real and that he was one of the space marines............................................. Wat.......................... Oh it gets better. He started talking about all his cool war stories. How he was in a helicopter and he saw a RPG heading for him. So he pulled out his desert egal 50 cal and shot it and it exploded and burned his leg off. and melted his arm down to his bone........................ Mind you he looks just fine................ he didn’t have scars or anything but i went with it. He told us how his leg bone was fake. How it was.... and I quote.... "Adimantium"..... For those who don’t know that is the metal that the comic book hero Wolverines bones are made of............ He showed us his hands and said "she these scars"(there were no scars) "That’s where my claws used to come out of. Yeah guys it’s all real. I am one of those guys who can do it" it was getting harder and harder to keep a straight face..... He also told us "You guys know the movie the dark night" We told him yes "You know the dark night, can you guess who he was" He starts pointing to himself..... so I’m trying to be nice and act all shocked right and I tell him "Woah! really?? That’s insane man" He was so proud of himself and said "Yup! You know that guy with the mask" i said "Yeah I think bane is his name" This was the part that I almost lost it....... he said "Bane??? He went by Blaine in high school"

😐😐😐😐😐😐😐😐😐😐😐😐😐😐😐🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺😃😃😃😃😃😃😃😃😃😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

I had to end the conversation there. I told him that was really cool and that we had to go. We gave him a BoM and left. I rounded the corner then started to laugh so freaking hard........ Man oh man the things you see and hear on the mission. But moral of the story is I met The only survivor of the movie Alien, Batman, And Wolverine so all yall should be jealous ;)

Saturday night we had a lesson with David Meyers about How we should treat Satan how god wants us to. And if there is a difference between Adversity and Temptation. That was a super cool lesson actually. I learned a ton from studying for it but also David had some really stinking cool comments. (David is an ex-communicated member who is working his way back to the church Such a cool guy :D Love him to death) He asked us to come back on Sunday to give him a blessing. He was having a really tough time and needed a blessing. He had been sick for a while and just felt really discouraged. So he wanted us to pray and prepare for the blessing. And that was Saturday.

Sunday was super super busy. Church was awesome........ Bishop asked me to speak this week...... yay...... we had some awesome lessons in Sunday school and yeah... just a really good day. We had a lesson with Elise that day! It got cut short because of the rain...... (Yes it was still raining) She still is super interested. She is coming to church this week too!!! yay!!!! Super excited about that! We went over to give David a blessing. Now the entire morning I had been praying about it thinking about who should give the blessing and what not. I kind of felt like I should but I didn’t want to take it away from Elder Magee. He knew him longer and I want to be that good trainer and give him opportunities to do it. So when we showed up we talked for a bit. And the entire time I kept feeling like I needed to give the blessing. I kept pushing it back and told myself elder Magee needed to do it. Before it was time to give the blessing David then said "I don’t know why I feel like asking this but is there anyone who feels inspired or prompted to give the blessing" There it was. I looked at my companion and then blurted out "I have been feeling prompted to give it actually" I didn’t want to say that I just came out........  he smiled and said alright. And so we gave him a blessing. No words can describe the feelings i felt while giving that blessing. I’m not going to say much about it but..... it was insane how much love I felt for David. It was almost like heavenly father gave me a sliver of how much he loves David. And honestly I don’t even remember half the things I said in that blessing. After the blessing everyone was in tears. We hugged it out and he thanked me. After we all immediately got on our knees and thanked heavenly father. It was such a cool experience.

The rest of the day flew by. We saw a bunch of people we met a girl on the street named Malory who seemed super interested in learning about the gospel.so we got her number and we gave her ours with a BoM and left. We are going to call her today to see if we can set up an appointment. :D

Anyway! That’s pretty much it for this week. I love you all!! I hope your week was wonderful and amazing. And know that I’m thinking about all of you. Shout out to Dani (not my sister Danika, but I love you too Danika ;) ) who gave her farewell talk yesterday! I heard you did amazing and I’m so excited for you! Also shout out to Racheal Judson who is about to enter the MTC as well! And Hannah Davis who entered the MTC last week!!! I’M SO FREAKING EXCITED FOR ALL OF YOU!! Work hard and Trust in the Lord!!!

Anyway! I love hearing from all of you! it makes me so happy!!! Love yall!!!

Until next week!

-Elder Riley Field

Pictures from the week:

Elder Pederson stole my tablet

We were being surrounded by geese while visiting a less active member at a park. One of them kept eye balling me and I was pretty sure if I made any sudden movements he was going to come after me hahah.

A defend life poster that we found with the Zone leaders Elder Kenworthy holding it and Elder pike looking not amused in the background

We accidentally drove into a movie set.... we went to go visit a less active and the house we wanted to go was being filmed in.... weird

Lion statues. I want to make a Facebook post with this photo. Anyone know of scriptures that talk about lions or something like that from the Book of Mormon? ;)

Elder Field Sings In A Quartet!

Hey guys! So this week wasn’t too crazy. Not many super cool stories or experiences I guess. This week was full of less active finding, and we haven’t been very successful....... but none the less we have been working hard and trying not to get discouraged hahah!

Monday night after I emailed we went to Muir Woods! It’s a red wood forest in our area!! So sick! I took a bunch of photos. My companion and I, along with the sisters from our ward and The Schroders (I freaking love these guys.)  David and Maria Schroder have been like the parents of the missionaries in this area hahhaha! They found out that we didn’t have dinners this week and have offered to feed us EVERY Night this week!!!! That’s insane!!! These guys are awesome! Plus, David is German and is kooky and funny.... ahhhh Germans...... they are the best hahaha) We did like a 2-mile hike in this forest which was pretty stinking awesome! And it was raining!!!! I love the rain so much!!!! It sounded so cool in the redwood forest! So cool!

Tuesday was pretty boring.... didn’t have district meeting again because of zone conference on Thursday. Tuesday I went on exchanges with Elder Pederson. Freaking love that kid. He is from Colorado and is a film maker! Way better than I will ever be hahaha. He brought some of his films and showed us. He is extremely talented hahha. super funny too. Lots of puns. Which if you know me I love a good pun! We got along super well. And that was pretty much it for Tuesday. We did a lot of finding. Gave out 2 book of Mormons. We haven’t had any of our street contacts call us yet, but we are hoping hahaha :D

Wednesday was pretty chill. We did food bank again. Went and passed out food and helped with stuff. I have become really good friends with some of the people who run it. They are super chill and super funny. And just good people. While we were passing out food they were playing some music over the speakers and all of a sudden The Wombats came on. (Now I know a lot of you don’t know who they are but they are a super cool band) Now missionary me was all composed and was trying to tune out the music. But normal Elder Field started to mouth the words hahaha.... I tried sooooo hard to tune it out, but I couldn’t do it anymore.  I started to sing the song hahaaha.   Anyway one of the head people who was working there looked at me and said "Do you know who these guys are?" I told him "Yeah, I listened to these guys all the time back home".  He then freaked out and gave me a hug hahaha.  He said he hadn’t known anyone who had heard of these guys before. We laughed and talked about their music some more. I gave him some suggestions on bands and then he said "Man your pretty cool Elder Field. Didn’t think I would like a missionary this much" YES!!!! I’M ALL ABOUT CHANGING PEOPLE’S OPINIONS ABOUT US!!! In the good way of course hahaha! I’m just going to continue to be myself out here hahaha. Seemed to have gone well this far. Even if that does mean singing to non-approved missionary songs ;)

Thursday was Zone conference. Pretty much took up the whole day. I sang there....... yeah me and 3 other missionaries were the special musical number. I got a call two days earlier saying that a little birdie told them I sang...... and asked if I could sing in a quartet with another elder and two sisters. I told them sure. We sang “In Humility, Our Savior”. I sang bass!!! hahaha It was kind of weird singing bass.  I’m so used to singing tenor. But it was super cool. The unfortunate thing about singing in Zone conference was that the mission president's wife was there..... Sister Wright now knows I sing..... and I have been told that she keeps a list of people who sing so when she needs a musical number she just calls them up.... Hahahah well I’m on that list now. Let’s see where that goes! hahaha

Friday was more weekly planning.... Guys the transfer is half over hahah!! Where did the time go hahahah...... That was pretty much it. Weekly planning and we did another bridge walk. I went to mid-point this time!!! So freaking cool! Took some photos! Just a good day.

Saturday was cool. We met with Elise. She was a lady that Elder Magee and his last companion street contacted. We called her up and asked if she could meet last week. She said yeah! So we met at a park with her 2 kids. One is 16 the other is 5 or somewhere close to that age hahah. We played a little basketball for a little bit before we started talking to them about religion haha. Elise is a former Jehovah Witness. She left the church a while ago. And is open to learning about other religions. Her son Chase is actually the one who sparked the whole "Let’s look into other religions" thing. He started asking questions about God that Elise couldn’t answer. He also started going to other churches and started experimented with different faiths. The day after he started asking these questions is when Elder Magee and his companion ran into her. COINCIDENCE I THINK NOT! hahaha. We really didn’t even teach lesson. She just asked us a bunch of questions about our faith. We answered them to the best of our ability. And said that she would like to meet again. 2 times a week actually hahaha So she is pretty interested haha. Chase is not AS interested but has agreed to meet with us. So that’s cool. Elise has been through a lot though. I’m not going to tell you guys everything because it’s something she trusted us with. but she has been through a lot...... A LOT....... She just opened up to us all of a sudden she told us "I don’t know why I feel like I can tell you these things. but you guys seem like really good guys and I already trust you for some reason. And that’s weird because it’s hard for me to trust people" She had a bad ex-boyfriend/husband thing idk and he caused A LOT of problems for her.... it was so sad. But she is trying her hardest to be a good mom for her kids. I already freaking love this woman. She is super funny and genuine. She just is a seeker of the truth. She will make an amazing Mormon ;) That was pretty much it for Saturday. We did a lot of finding again. Which was chill. No success, but we gave out a Book of Mormon, so who knows hahaha. PLANTING SEEDS ALL THE DAY LONG! I want to be known as the "seed planter" can that be my nickname?? hahaha Elder Seed Planter. yeah I dig it hahaha.

Sunday was such a long day for 2 reasons. 1, because it was fast Sunday. 2, all of our appointments fell through...... so we just went less active finding ALL DAY. And met some really grouchy people, but also met some really cool people. We knocked a door to a less active member’s house. She opened the door and looked kinda shocked. We told them we were the new missionaries in the area. She asked us where we were from. I told her PG and my companion told her Alpine. She looked surprised and said "My son’s favorite high school basketball team is from Alpine." She called him over to us. Turns out Lone Peak is his favorite team. Which just so happens to be the high school that Elder Magee went to. She let us in and we talked a bit about high school basketball. After a lovely conversation. She walked up to us and gave us a bag of snicker doodles and then told us "Listen. You guys can come over whenever you want. You can come play basketball or just hang out over here but on 1 condition. You can’t talk about the Book of Mormon or Joseph Smith in this house." Well that caught me off guard...... "we would just argue about it" She was the only member in her house and I guess she doesn’t believe anymore...... which was sad...... so unfortunately we probs won’t be going over there anytime soon. Who knows though maybe we will go over and play some ball on P-day with her son. Maybe we can get him interested. He is a junior in high school. But he seemed to have standoffish feelings towards us. Idk the whole thing is just weird hahahah.....  The rest of Sunday was just spent less active finding. We gave out 2 Book of Mormons to nonmembers though. So that’s cool. No return appointments though D: But oh well...... Seed planting right? hahaha!


Anyway! I think that’s about it for me this week! I hope that your week was awesome! I love you all and miss you tons!

Have a good one!

Lots of love!
-Elder Riley Field

Elder Field Loves Conference! (And Crepes) :)

Hey guys!! Hope all of you had a wonderful week! My week was full of Indian Food, finding people to teach, watching conference and taking notes, and cleaning....... so much cleaning.......

Tuesday we had zone conference! For those who don’t know! It’s when all the missionaries in the Zone come together for a large meeting, to discuss how the work is going in each of our areas, how we can improve and become better teachers, and also they presented the zone vision! Which I found pretty cool! the zone vision was #BoMsAway, or BookofMormonsAway, but that doesn’t sound as cool as BoMsAway! ;) so they told us that instead of just giving out pass along cards with our number and stuff on it, they want us to give out Book of Mormons with our number in it. Which makes a lot of sense actually! Pass along cards are really easy to just throw away, but people are less likely to throw away a book. So we are just trying to flood the San Rafael Zone with Book of Mormons! and it’s actually working!! And the reason its working is because it’s become a competition between districts...... Whoever can give out the most book of Mormons by the end of the transfer gets a district party. Thrown by the Zone leaders and the Sister Training Leaders! As soon as everyone heard that there was a prize everyone was all in. It’s become an all-out war hahahah!!! Here is the cool part though. Just 3 days after they present the zone vison, we as a San Rafael zone have given away 56 book of Mormons. IN JUST 3 DAYS!!! That’s so sick!!!! And way cool. My companion and I have passed out 10 just between us hahah! Oh and our district is winning....... not that I want to brag or anything *cough cough*...... But it’s really cool to see the work starting to pick up haha. In just flooding the area with Book of Mormons I see the lord blessing the area. There are more people who are willing to talk to us, we have gotten more random phone calls and referrals! It’s just another testimony of working hard. If you work hard and try your best, the lord will bless you with people to teach. So cool!!! But yeah Tuesday we just had zone conference then tried to teach an old man who really doesn’t really want to be taught. Then! we went over to a recent converts house for dinner and a lesson. His name is Tarun! This guy is way cool! He is the one who works at the Maserati Dealership. So he is Indian, not native American but he is actually from India. He had us over and him and his wife (who isn’t a member..... yet ;) ) cooked us Indian food. I was worried at first but man oh man was it the best thing ever..... so unhealthy though but so freaking good!!!! They fed us like this Garbanzo bean soup stuff that was way good, then this cheese, stuff...... I don’t know what any of it is called but it was way good! I will send a picture of what it looked like. (And yes mom I ate it all and it was so stinking good) They wouldn’t stop bringing us food though hahaha me and my companion had to eat until we wanted to burst!! hahah it was so stinking insane!! Finally I had to insist on us being full. Then they brought us this fried cheese ball in like a really sugary syrup........ I actually had a really hard time eating that, not because it tasted gross but because it was sooooooo sugary that I swear my body was rejecting it as I put it in my mouth..... I gaged once.... BUT played it off as a hiccup!!!! So woot woot!!!!! and it really did taste good it was just soooooooooooooooooooooooooo unhealthy hahahahah!!!! And that was pretty much it for Tuesday!

Wed was pretty chill, did the food bank thing again which was cool, after wards we just went and taught a lesson to an investigator, who messed up his back really bad, he can walk and stuff but like bending over and lifting stuff hurts him really bad. He is like mid 50's or something.... idk but that’s the reason he said he doesn’t come to church or will get baptized, he doesn’t think he can get passed the pain...... with the Lord he can!! haha. We went in had an introduction conversation then just kind talked about where he was with everything. He says he wants to come to church. So I began asking him questions about his desires. He said he wants to come to church and wants to get baptized but doesn’t think he can do it. When he said this I had an experience shared with me pop into my head. So my zone leader told us of a time when he was teaching a less active member with a lot of medical problems. He couldn’t walk very well and had to use a cane. But he said he wanted to go to general conference with everyone at the church (this was like 6 months ago) My zone leader asked him if he thought God could help him. He said yes. After more questions and what not they decided to give him a blessing. That as long as he did his part and got up and actually went to the church, that he would be able to watch all the sessions of conference without any trouble. He then showed up at the church building with his cane. Paused for a moment. Looked at the church looked at his cane, looked at the missionaries, looked at the sky, this repeated for about 2 or 3 times. He then picked up his cane and just walked into the church building like he had no problems at all. Crazy huh!!! So while he was answering my questions I felt like I should offer to give him a blessing. He said he would be down for getting one, I explained to him that if we give him a blessing that it will ONLY work if he does his part. that means praying for strength and actually getting up and going to the church building. He kinda hesitated. I noticed that so I told him how about we give it a week. I want you to really pray about this, study the scriptures and pray to see if this is what heavenly father wants you to do. He really liked that answer and said he would. So we will see where his next lesson goes! haha :D

Thursday was full of just finding...... we walked on the street for 3 hours, we tried knocking doors, we talked to people in the park nothing big or exciting happened. We just gave out some Book of Mormons and it was just a super exhausting day hahah. OH!! we did experience something cool. Well I think it’s cool. So we were walking down the street and this group of people, who looked a little rough, were in front of us. I saw them and they saw us. We both just felt like we should walk by, not going to talk to them just to walk by. Well as we walked by one of the guys looked at his buddy and his girlfriend, and said "Oh look someone is here to talk to you" They all bust up laughing as we walked by. "Oh look they just walked on by!!!" Another round of laughter "Hey! Do you have a moment to talk about our lord and savior Satan" Another round of laughter. My companion was kinda worried but i just had the biggest smile on my face!!! Elder Magee looked at my confused and didn’t say anything. I had a smile on my face because persecution!!! hahaha I know weird thing to be smiling about but it’s just like all the other missionary’s stories, and it finally happened to me hahahah. plus, people just trying to get under my skin make me laugh. No one will be able to undermine my faith. I know what I believe and that’s not going to change. I know what is true! and that I’m doing the lords work! Anyway! just a strange little experience I would throw in there.

Friday we just planned for the week. I GOT TO GO TO THE GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE!!! Apparently the bridge is in our mission haha!!! So every Friday I guess we do a bridge walk. We go down to the Golden Gate bridge and walk it for about 2 hours to see if we can stop bridge jumpers. Just to try and stop something from doing something stupid ya know? We didn’t see anyone this week. but hopefully we can talk to someone who needs someone to talk to next week! But the bridge is way stinking cool I will send some pictures of it!

Saturday was General conference!! Which was awesome!! Heard some way good talks! spent the entire day over at a member’s house. They fed us every meal....... hahah!!! EVERY stinking meal with snacks! They are awesome. They told us that we are their replacement kids because theirs are all grown up haha. but yeah! heard some awesome talks took some sick notes.

Sunday was the same thing. The Schroders (the member family who invited us over on Saturday) Invited us over again. And fed us 2 more meals hahaha breakfast and lunch.... gosh they are the best! Heard some other way good talks and that was pretty much Sunday. Didn’t really do much after that!

This morning was crazy. I woke up early to clean the kitchen. Let me tell you why I needed to clean the kitchen. Since day 1 it was the most disgustingly messy place I have ever seen. I don’t think a single set of missionaries cleaned it, I was going to do it last week but didn’t have time to do it. And this week while going through the week. I saw what I thought looked like rice on the floor. I got a little angry and started thinking to myself "Who spilled rice and didn’t clean it up" When all of a sudden the rice STARTED MOVING!!!!!!!! YEP THAT’S RIGHT FOLKS IT WASN’T RICE IT WAS MAGGOTS....... EVERYWHERE!!!!! I about threw up and started sweeping them up and throwing them away in a sack and immediately took that sack and threw it in the garbage dumpster. Yeah I wanted to throw up but that was the last straw.......  no one in my apartment was going to clean it up. So I manned up and did it. Got up, wiped down the counters, appliances, walls, moped the floor, and just purged that kitchen found where the maggots were coming from.... a rotting piece of meat underneath the fridge.... yeah..... beautiful........ threw that away and made that place shine. And here is the thing...... did it all by myself. I couldn’t get any help from my companion or the other set of Elders in the apartment........ *Sigh* I honestly feel like their mom...... I even do their dishes.... because they won’t do them themselves........ so usually it builds up to the point I feel gross about it and have to buckle down and do it...... I’m so sick of it...... it’s so gross....... I’m going to have a conversation with all of them sometime tonight to tell them this has to stop...... please pray for me....... it’s going to be a rough conversation...... But anyway, next week I’m cleaning the carpets in the apartment because they are disgusting. Wish me luck!

Any who! that’s all from me this week! I love you all and hope you will all have a wonderful week!! Go re-read some of those conference talks they were way good!

Love you all!!
-Elder Riley Field

My new life motto on a sign -