Elder Field Is Still On The Hunt For Investigators

Hey Friends and family! Hope everything is going good for you guys!

So unfortunately today I don't have a lot of time to email. The reason being is we are going to the temple on Friday!!!! I'M SO FLIPPING EXCITED!!! It's strange how much I miss the temple as a missionary. We are going to the Oakland Temple once again, which I'm pretty pumped about. It's a really beautiful temple. So due to the temple trip we will be having only a half P-Day today. Which means we only have till about 2 to email shop and get everything done for today. So this email won't be too long, but I always say that and it ends up being really long ;)

Anywho! this week wasn't to eventful, just a ton of finding as per usual. Not much success, BUT we have an awesome member named Warren Powell.  He is 83 and has a tesla and is just a super cool guy, well he is also one of the best member missionaries I have ever seen. He moved into the ward about 3 weeks ago. And he gave us 2 referrals.  He even gave them Book of Mormons! One of them was named Carlos, he didn't pan out unfortunately but the other one kinda did! Her name is Sena, she is a lady that brother Powell lives next to. He gave her a book of Mormon and asked if we could come over and teach her. So we went over after church on Sunday and met her. We weren't able to teach her anything because she was getting her kids down for a nap, but she sounded pretty excited to have us over. So we will be going over next Sunday right before church to teach her about the Restoration!! She isn't considered a new investigator yet, but she has lots of potential and I'm thanking God every day just for that fact alone haha. We actually got back into contact with the investigator the Sisters were teaching.  We dropped by her house also on Sunday.  We had tried calling and calling but she never answered. The one time she did answer she was busy and said she would call us back. She didn’t. So we decided to let it die down for a bit. But while looking at our map we just felt like we should just go try to drop by and see how she was doing. She opened the door after we knocked and was really friendly. She told us about how crazy it's been the past couple of weeks. She wanted to let us in but they had just sat down for dinner so we set up an appointment for this Thursday at 4 pm! So wish us luck!!! We are hoping we can just get to know her and see where she is at on the teaching process :D

Anyway, that's the most exciting thing to have happened this week. We had Zone Conference this week which was nice! I got to see all my San Rafael homies! Sister Jeffrey, Sister Nelson, Elder Siebach, Elder Hall, Hermana Foste,r and all those peeps down there. It was nice to see them and chill with them. We learned a lot of really awesome stuff in zone conference like how to have no fear in contacting. So confession time guys....... I am terrified to talk to people. It doesn't stop me from actually doing it, but I'm so nervous every time I try to go do a contact. Especially when I try to start it. If it's a natural conversation. Easy peesy, but just trying get people to stop and talk to me. Freak man, I want to poop myself every time I try. But I learned a lot of good stuff that hopefully will help my contacting :) 

Let's see what else did we do. We did some service for a member who is moving, some service for Ginger again. Idk if you guys remember me telling you about her but she is the older woman who needs help moving. So we go over and help her out every week for about an hour or so. We also helped out with the Santa Rosa Women's conference. We were served the food. So I got to wear an apron and everything! I had a little too much fun with it to be honest.

We met some really awesome members this week as well! We met the Platt family! They are super cool. They have 4 kids and we probably had the most fun dinner I have had on my mission thus far. Robyn their oldest daughter freaking roasted me hard core the entire dinner. She is 16 years old and is just freaking funny. To sum up the dinner conversation, Various Internet quotes, songs were sung, 2015 dance moves were busted out, and just a jolly old time was had. Twas a lot of fun. They signed up for dinner again and we are super pumped haha. We also met Elder KENWORTHY’s grandmother. That's right I guess she is in the ward and she is so stinking funny. Had dinner with them on Sunday night. 

Anyway I think that is pretty much it for this week I hope you all know I love you lots! And wish you all a wonderful week!

Love you!

-Elder Riley Field

So I'm slacking on the pictures so I will do better in the future but here is a small part of my area. Lots of vineyards here. 

My old peeps from San Rafael.

And funny memes the youth of the ward sent me.

Elder Field Was Reduced To the Kid's Table

I know what your all thinking, "When did Elder Field ever leave the kiddie table?"  and the answer is never, BUT as a missionary I have been able to sit with the real adults, but several times this week I was the one chosen to sit with the children. ;) and ya know what I'm okay with that! Kids offer the best conversations!

Anyway! Hello from California, it was another really wet wet week here in Santa Rosa. It's been hindering our finding and it's quite annoying but!! That doesn't stop us! That's right baby we tracted in the rain! The classic missionary thing right?! I will tell you more about that later though. 

The week started off pretty good, Tuesday we had a zone meeting which was nice, did some more contacting practices.  Learned about having a positive attitude and optimistic look out. And ate a ton of chocolate because Valentine’s Day. You want to know my favorite part of Valentine’s Day is? The day after, because all the chocolate goes on sale afterward ;) you bet your bottom dollar Elder Field and Elder Ricks bought a whole ton of heart shaped Reese’s peanut butter cups for 75% off ;) they were delicious. Anyway back to missionary stuff. We went on exchanges with our zone leaders, I went to their area with Elder Kenworthy. Fun times there, we knocked on a less actives door and before we could even knock or ring we heard someone yell, "NO, DON'T YOU DARE RING THAT DOOR BELL! IF YOU DO YOU WON'T LIVE TO TELL THE TALE!" So me and Kenworthy froze and a very nice woman answered the door and let us in. Apparently she had napping grand kids and she didn't want us to wake them up. We were quite relieved when we found out that she didn't want to murder us. We then went and taught 2 of investigators who have Baptismal dates, they are so awesome. The exchange was a lot of fun. Elder KENWORTHY is awesome (so I don't know why Every time I type Elder KENWORTHYS name it puts it on all caps and I'm tired of fixing it haha)

The next day we ended our exchange at service at the food bank :) when we got back to our area we went and tried to contact those referrals I was telling y’all about last week. They weren't home again :( But we also go 2 referrals from the Hermana! Unfortunately, they weren't in our area though.....  Which was sad but all is good! Hopefully those people get taught that's all I care! We passed them on to the appropriate elders. Had an awesome time Tracting and Strolling through the park talking to people (it was the one day that it wasn't raining!) 

We talked to some really awesome people, no one was interested, but met some really kind people! 

Thursday we got a text from an unknown number, it was a nonmember who needed some service done. So we went and met her. Her name is ginger. She is a sweet lady. She is older so she couldn't do it all by herself. She is Christian and is really kind. We weren't able to do any teaching. But next week we are going over again so hopefully we can leave a spiritual message :) after we just started finding some more. We worked on a list of less active members, we tracted the houses around the less active members, talked to people on the street as they hurried to where ever they were going to get out of the rain haha. And that was pretty much all we did that day.  Woot. Really didn't find anyone, again met some really awesome people but they weren't interested in our message. Sad huh

Friday was weekly planning. We took a break to go to the doctor’s office (for elder Ricks he had one planned for some medical stuff he has) and while I was waiting in the waiting room, a lady walked up to me. And sat down next to me and said "you’re a Mormon aren't you?" I told her I was a missionary and she proceeded to tell me how the missionaries helped her move once and how they were so kind a respectable, we talked about life, missionary work, family, it was a very lovely conversation.  I asked her if she had ever listened to the missionary’s message, she said "hoo-hah no your kind wouldn't like my kind" I was quite puzzled and she informed me she was lesbian. So she wasn't interested. But she was kind and we have a nice conversation. I was debating that was going to be my subject line this week or not ha-ha "Elder Field has a lovely conversation with a lesbian” I decided against it. That night we ended up with nothing to do, our lesson with a member fell through so we were feeling kind of defeated. So Elder Field kind of broke, I was tired of not having anyone to teach so I was determined to find someone.  I then jumped out of the car while it was raining, and we proceeded to tract in the rain at 7:30 pm. We tracted till 9:30 Haha we didn't find anyone to teach but met some interesting people haha. I was kinda bummed we didn't find anyone. But we will be blessed for it hopefully. 

Saturday we pretty chill. We did tabling at the mall. We set up a table with a bunch of other missionaries, had pamphlets, pass along cards and all sorts of stuff. And just tried to talk to people. We met some members, some people who like the pictures we had out. Had a black guy come and bash with us. But unfortunately no return appointments. Sad :( but it's all good. We did some more finding that night. Oh I got to Skype into Liam’s baptism that day as well! So I got to see that and all my old district haha it was so sick! So nice to see them all. I get to see them this Friday to because of zone conference. Our zones combine :) 

Sunday we just had church and some more finding. Haha I know kind of lame. 

But yeah that was my week! Hope you guys are doing well! I love you all!

-Elder Riley Field

Elder Field Was Never Meant To Play Hockey!

Hey guys! This week wasn't too eventful so this might be a short one. But of course every time I say that, it ends up being was freaking long, so let's see if it actually will be a short one. 

Monday was a pretty chill day. We went ice skating. Pun absolutely intended. And I did surprisingly well! I only fell once!! And let me tell ya it was quite the doosy. Long story short. Elder Field’s competitive side got the better of him. Does this surprise anyone? I raced 3 other elders. And my skates were already coming loose.... And it just turned into a slippery situation. Again pun absolutely intended. 

Anyway enough about that. This week pretty full of just finding! Our one and only investigator stood us up for a couple of lessons. Soooooo we dropped him, we are hoping that after a while of not meeting with us he will reach out again. So we are praying that he will realize that he wants the gospel as much as he says he does. So this week we went and tried to find people to teach! Other than some service we did, that is what we did with all of our time. We went to the park, we went tracting, we went to members to see if they had anyone that they knew. And fortunately came up with 4 referrals that we are going to go contact tomorrow hopefully! But other than that we still have no investigators. Back to the finding grind! This week I think we have 15 hours of finding planned in! 😓 haha it's not the most fun to do but we need to do it :) so wish us luck! 

So while crafting this email I discovered that in California they don't have firework stands but they have valentine’s day stands. Photos will be included.... 

I think that is about it. Other than some service we did at the food bank, and a place called meals on wheels. Any who! Love you all hopefully you a have a wonderful week and a Happy *gags* valentines *throws up a little bit* day! Later guys! 

-Elder Riley Field

Valentine’s day stand

No stairs NO missionaries? 

The greatest valentine’s day cards ever! Love you parents!

And my two new study buddies

Elder Field Puts One Foot In Front of the Other....

Hey fam! If any of y'all can name what my subject line is from, I would love you forever :) 

Man, another week has passed huh? Man this week felt pretty short, but the days were so freaking long! Anyway! 

This week was pretty busy, we still are trying to get to know everyone and we still are trying to find investigators. So we are really imploring the ward to help us out. Honestly guys our job is only possible if we work with the members, especially. There was a quote from Bednar that says "Missionaries are full time teachers, we as members are the full time finders" to be 100% honest I didn't know that haha I actually felt pretty bad because I did NO finding when I was home. Then again all my friends were Mormon so......  But any who, I didn't think that was true until I realized how much more success we would have if we have the help of the members! 

Anyway, this week was good just busy, we somewhat have a direction, but we had a little hick up with our only investigator. He is pretty much at a standstill and isn't progressing any more. He confided in us some of his problems, but the thing is he doesn’t think what he is doing is wrong so.....  Until he feels that he is wrong, he won't he progressing for a while, so we are down to 0 investigators hahaha and the priests from the ward what to go on splits with us.... Which is hard because we don't have anyone to teach....  Sooooooooo time to do some finding haha! 

We had wonderful district meeting this week. It went super well. Everyone was active in the conversation and gave some awesome insights on everything. It went very well and the people who taught did awesome! I was so happy. I was worried about the new district to be honest. But all is well. It will be a good transfer.

We did a lot of finding this week, we knocked doors, we walked in the park, we looked for referrals from members we did our best and unfortunately came up short. But we will keep trying! 

We actually had a couple of lessons with less actives and active members so we could actually get to know the ward. Met some really awesome families actually! It's so nice to have a ton of youth. They are awesome and really make the ward fun! 

Anyway this email was pretty short, but I'm out of things to say haha wasn’t to eventful. But it was good still just trying to get going. Anyway I love you all and I wish you all the best

Love ya! 

-Elder Riley Field

Pictures:

Obi- Juan- Kenobi 

And this is Gary. Elder Ricks and I have been hiding him in each other’s stuff haha kind of the like the chastity pamphlet war haha so much fun!