Elder Field, Lovest Thou Me?

Hey friends and family this week has been nuts. We started zone conferences and you know what that means. ROAD TRIP! Don't worry it's an obedient kind of road trip. With our assignment as tech Elder we get to go around to all of the zone conferences and present on technological needs. So, we are presenting on our area book app :) and some of the features there are on it and some new features that are on it that are being underused. It's been a lot of fun actually. I really enjoy going to all the zone conferences and teaching. It's so much fun. I get to see all my mission friends around the mission. Anyway, that's what ate up 90% of the week so I don't have much to talk about, but I will try and figure out something to write about. 

Anyway, Monday was just a normal P-Day. We just played basketball and hung out. I think I'm starting to kinds get good at basketball. You hear that Danika?? (little sister) I think I might be able to take you when I get home ;) yes, I'm throwing out a challenge. Our house, 1 year from now, be there or be square. ;) anywho after P-Day we went and had a family home evening with the Woodd family in the ward (yes there are 2 D's) we talked about Alma the younger and his conversion story. Both in Mosiah 27 and also Alma 36. We compared both of them and talked about them. It was a super cool family home evening. 

Anyway, Tuesday started zone conferences. We started to drive at 6 pm. It was kind if chaotic trying to leave. But once we got on the road we took off to eureka :) I got to drive up actually in the big Ford Transit van :) it was actually super fun I felt like a monster truck. The only not fun thing about it was the length of the drive. It's a 4 hour drive up to Eureka from Santa Rosa. Which actually isn't too bad to be honest. It's a super pretty drive and I got to chill with friends in the car so on scale to 1 to 10.  10 being would drive it every day if I could. I would give it a 6.7 :) 

Wed-Friday were zone conferences and what not. So, nothing too exciting. Just sat through 3 different 9 hour meetings haha :) woooooo

That's pretty much my week. We had a lesson with Robert Rowland this week which went alright. We taught the plan of salvation, but he was pretty out of it. His back has been hurting him and he was pretty exhausted from the day so it wasn’t the best lesson..... Who knows... Hopefully he got something out of it. 

We had lunch with Jazlin which was cool. She is still super pumped for Kenya. But unfortunately, she wasn't able to go to the temple. The group she was supposed to go with canceled...... I was extremely frustrated..... So, she won't be able to go until after she gets home from Kenya...... Sad..... Oh well...... 

Anyway, so I guess my last topic will be what we are learning about in zone conference. We are actually learning about the thing I put in the subject line. Who knows where that's from?? 

No answer huh..... Anyway, it’s my favorite exchange in the Bible between Peter and the Savior. (For those who don’t know, I love Peter. I can't wait to meet that guy. Favorite prophet by far.) It's after the Savior was resurrected and he ascended to his father. The apostles had no clue what to do so they returned to their old lives. So, they all went fishing. And like you all know they caught nothing. The Savior appears to them and tells them to fish on the right side of the boat. And they caught so many fishes that they couldn't pull them into the boat. So, they recognized it was the Lord and went over to him. While they were eating the Savior leaned over to Peter and asked him 3 questions. "Peter, lovest thou me?" He asks that single question 3 times. Think about that. How would you react? The first time asked you would be like. Of course, I love you! You know that. Then he responds. Feed my sheep. Then he asks you a second time. You would be a bit confused so you would respond again yes, Lord of course I love you. Maybe thinking he didn't hear you. He responds again feed my sheep. And then for a third time he asks you. What would you he thinking?? Clearly, he has heard you. Starts to make you think how you would respond. And that's my invitation to you all. Think about how you would answer. I have been pondering about that for a while now. All our motivation in this life should be by our love for our Father in heaven. Keep thinking about that this week. 

Anyway, I love you lots! Hope you all have a wonderful week! God loves you! The sky is blue and the book is true! Joseph Smith was and is a prophet. And through him the priesthood was restored and this is Christ's true church once again restored to the earth! Have a wonderful week! 

-Elder Riley Field

Adventures

These pics were taking when I wasn't driving haha. This was on our way down from Eureka haha

Elder Field Finds 2 Golden Gators!

HOLD UP! Before I start this email, I want to wish all of you A very happy Father’s Day. But Most of all I want to wish my dad a very special happy Father’s Day!! I think most of you know my dad but if you don't let me tell you a little about him. He is the coolest guy ever. No like legit..... He is funny, charitable, family centered, hardworking, always knows how to fix things, my favorite video gaming buddy, the guy who literally is my hero in more way than one, Dr. Pepper drinking, goatee toting, always wearing cowboy boats (Still not sure why he says they are more comfortable than real shoes) and the best part of it all is I get to call him my Dad. I love you dad!!! But on a more spiritual note there is a quote that I heard when I was in seminary. "Preach the gospel at all times, and use words when necessary" My dad exemplifies that quote. And I'm so happy I get to spend eternity with a man (and the rest of my family) as great as that. Love you dad!  

Hello friends and family!!! I hope you all had a wonderful week! I HOPE YOU ARE ALL ENJOYING STRAWBERRY DAYS IN MY BEHALF...... BECAUSE I'M STARTING TO GET WITHDRAWALS..... ;) it's okay. I had a bowl of strawberries in cream in celebration over here in Cali :D

Anyway, I can't believe it's P-Day again..... freak I feel like I just wrote you! Time is starting to go really fast not sure how I feel about that yet. Anyway, shall we jump into this week.

So, we didn't have any really amazing lessons with the people we have been working with. Jazlin freaking got her temple recommend and wend and did baptisms for the dead this past Saturday..... we haven't been able to talk to her to see how it went but I was so pumped that she went and did it that quick! she seemed super excited 'Finally' go into the temple haha. 

So, on Tuesday we went on exchanges with our district leaders which was an.... interesting time hahaha. Out district leader is an interesting guy. Kind of awkward but still super cool and a super good missionary. Unfortunately, everything we had planned in our area fell through and multiple tech fires came up. So, our poor district leader got a taste of what real tech Elder life is. We spent probs half the day in the office putting out fires........ poor guy just sat in the office and read his scriptures. I tried to have him help but he doesn't know much about tech...... I feel really bad. After the exchange, he told us he has a lot of respect for the work we do but he himself never wants to take our spot haha. I enjoy it. I get to help the mission run which is really cool. It's kinda sad thinking this is most likely my last transfer as a tech Elder, and even sadder when I think about the fact that I will most likely leave Rincon valley..... BUT I STILL HAVE 3 WEEKS!!! 

Wed we did have something super exciting happen!!! So, after Jazlin’s baptism we got a referral that night. We set up a time to go see her on Wed at 6:30. We'll we went over. Her name is Morgan and her mom's name is Christy. And we had the best first lesson of my life that night!! holy crap!! she was throwing out so many questions and just wanted to know everything! Everything we taught her she seemed to agree with and only began to become more and more interested. We told her a little about the plan of salvation and she seemed super pumped to talk about that after we explained what questions it answers. OH, SHE IS SO COOL!!! She asked the “Hypothetical" question of "if someone would like to join the church how would they go about it" I told her they would have to take all the missionary lessons. She straight up told us she wants to take all the missionaries lessons. I don't know if that means she want to join the church or not but we will cross that bridge when we get there! And the mom is just as cool. She didn't sit in on all the lesson because she was cooking us dinner!! She apologized and said that she really does want to sit in on the lessons and learn to but she just wanted to make sure we got a good meal. So, we picked up 2 investigators that night. They are so solid. I can't wait to see what this week has in store for them!!! AHHHHH!! I'M SO EXCITED!! Pray for them!!! Oh so good!

Anyway, Thursday was less exciting we read the Bible with a less active member, we went over and visited a member we are working with to help him get to the temple. We were supposed to have a lesson with Robert Rowland but that fell through the just got super busy at work and so he had to switch his schedule around. So, we rescheduled for this coming week. And yeah. We went finding for a good portion of the day...... it's starting to get really warm here in Cali...... yikes... I'm starting to melt hahah.

Friday, we had interviews with President! It’s always awesome to have a little one on one time with President. We talked about how I don't want to leave Rincon Valley, he just laughed and told me he didn't think I would be spending 6 months in Rincon Valley. but I am! :) woot. we talked about what Elder Reese and I are going to teach in zone conference. We are going be teaching about the area book app that we use. There are a lot of features on it that missionaries aren't using and we think if they start using them it could really change the mission :D hopefully all goes well :) after interviews we just planned for the coming week and also for zone conference :D because next week starts the craziest part of each transfer haha :D Zone conferences are coming hahah and I'm excited about that and also dreading it. it's mostly excitement though hah.

Saturday, we spent all day in the office planning everything for zone conferences. Putting together videos for the up and coming district meetings and just putting out more tech problems ha-ha. IT Department to the rescue :D

Sunday was just a good day. I love Sundays..... I just love church..... it's so relaxing. When I just get to chill for a bit and listen to a spiritual message I didn't have to prepare is just so..... awesome. I always look forward to Sundays :D nothing too exciting about Sunday other than Father’s Day. I learned a lot about how to be a good father in church haha. I for some reason have been learning a lot about that the past couple of weeks..... still weird me out that the next major ordinance is a Temple sealing...... WEIRD.............. 

Funny story of the week! So, president showed up at P-Day this week. Just decided to come say hi. he does that from time to time. So, we all were talking with him. I just started shooting some hoops when president called me out and said "Elder Field! I challenge you to a game of PIG. Are ya ready to lose Elder?" The whole zone started freaking out that he called me out like that. Now for those who know me know I'm terrible at ever sport imaginable. BUT I have been really practicing at basketball and I thought maybe I could beat him. So, we played a little game it was really close but in the end, he beat me hahaha. the zone was so invested in the entire game it was so funny. I thought I was super cool that I got to play a 1 on 1 game with President. It's always cool to chill with Pres. haha :D

Anyway, that's my week! Hope you guys are doing awesome! I'm doing fantastic. Guys I love being a missionary. I am slowly realizing why all the older missionaries don't want to go home. I'm learning so much and am growing a ton to. I don't want that to stop. :D And the best part of it all is that my testimony is deepening even further. Anyway, I love you all!!! Have a wonderful week!!!

-Elder Riley Field

Pictures -

We had a member make us dinner because we didn't have one :D 

100 degrees! It got up to 106 two days later haha. And it's humid WOOOOT!

Elder Field Gets Bashed With! Again....Probs Won't Be The Last Time

Gooooooood morning family! This week was such a roller coaster of a week. We had so many highs and so many lows and I'm pretty sure I did a loop as well. Kinda like the Colossus at Lagoon, the double loop thing. Yeah if I could describe my week that's what it would be like......  Now I really want to go on a roller coaster...... Anyone want to plan a trip after my mission? ;) 

Disclaimer..... this email is going to be a lengthy one.... sorry....

Anyway, let's start out with the exciting stuff! JAZLIN GOT BAPTIZED!! Yay!! For those who don't know or just don't remember, Jazlin is a 16-year-old girl we have been teaching for about 6 weeks. And then she just decided to get baptized a week ago while we were just chatting on her door step while introducing Elder Reese who was new to the area. Boy oh boy was I stressed out pretty hard. Planning a baptism in a week is really stressful. But that is when she wanted to be baptized. But she made it, and man was she beaming when she came out of the font. And then on Sunday when she was confirmed she told me. "whoa that receiving of the holy ghost thing. That was crazy. It felt so..... Intense.... If that makes sense"  I'm so happy for her. I'm sending some photos.... {I know my emails have been lacking photos...... I need to get better. So, this next week I will be taking more pictures! Let's see if I can actually do it haha.} anyway she now is a member of Christ's true church restored upon the earth and I couldn't be happier! 

Anyway, the rest of my week was pretty good. Just a lot of prep work for the baptism we had, but on Tuesday we had district meeting which was really awesome. We did a ton of finding and we also visited a bunch of potentials who had been in the area book for forever..... needless to say, they weren't really that interested. So, we did a bunch of area book clean up that day. Which was totally okay, we met some really nice people but they weren't interested. It’s so strange I find myself getting so freaking excited when someone takes 5 mins of their time to listen to what we have to say. It’s so cool how in an instant when we are contacting someone striking up a conversation is so easy. I think back to the beginning of the mission, I HATED contacting and tracting. But now It’s just become a habit. Whenever I'm anywhere I try talking to people in line, walking down the street, at a restaurant, I found myself trying to talk to someone on the other side of the gas pump while we were filling our cars. Contacting always brings some humorous situations and interesting people. Like we met the coolest guy on Tuesday while we were in the park trying to talk to people. He had an army hat on and was just sitting on the banks fishing. So, I walked up to him and asked if he had served in the military, he said he did and I thanked him for his service (like I usually do when I see a police officer, firefighter, and of course anyone who was in the military) When I thanked him he said it was his pleasure, he was kinda taken back for a second. He told us he really hasn't had anyone thank him for serving before. Which is incredibly sad...... But we started talking. He wasn't interested at all in the gospel but we talked about how after he got out of the military he got a job for the post office. He said "Oh man I hate the post office. One minute you are out blowing stuff up and getting shot at and in return shooting at people, to delivering letters and packages and filling out paper work." He was a cool guy. 

On Wed we did some service for a lady we found while we were finding one day named Ginni. She knows a bunch of people in the ward and loves them all. We got talking and she expressed how she has a big project coming up. We told her we would love to help and we could even bring over a few extra missionaries. She was shocked and said she couldn't pay us. We assured her this was purely service. And she got all excited and we planned a day to come over. We'll we went over and had a really fun time. We brought the Hermanas with us. She was curious what the Girl Elders looked like ;) so we went and helped her move some things out of her garage. She does a bunch of floral arrangements for different things so she has hundreds of vases in her garage in alphabetical order for the theme. It was insane! We got it all done and she was incredibly thankful. She then went inside and grabbed a bag for us. She cooked us dinner!!! It was a lot of food..... when the 4 of us got back to the church we found a scale and weight it. IT WAS 11 POUNDS OF FOOD. She cooked us some stir fry and fried rice and gave us strawberries. There was so much food. We are going to go back and see if she would be interested in a message about family history. She seemed pretty interested in it when we were talking about it briefly when we went over and did service!

That night we had an interesting experience. We had a lesson fall through so we had no clue what to do for an hour. We were driving and we passed an apartment complex. We both felt like we should go tract some apartments and see what comes of it. We got out of the car and started knocking doors. Everyone that night was unusually nice...... Usually when you have a string of unusually nice people the lord is preparing you for someone or something that isn’t going to be unusually nice ;) At least that's what I have experienced. Well we were walking through the complex when this lady saw us and jogged up to us. She said that she grew up with the Mormons and would like to talk to us. We were stoked! So we said sure. She had to run to the store so she told us to come back in 20 mins. Well 20 minutes passed and we showed up to her apartment. There was a super nice guy named Steven there. He was her friend and he was just the coolest nicest guy ever. We talked about what he did for work. HE MAKES GUITARS FOR A LIVING. That's so freaking chill. Anyway, when we got to her apartment and she well....... started to tell us what we believed and was trying to "Educate us" And trying to convince us that reformation was needed within in the Mormon church. She told us how the Book of Mormon had been changed and edited and how she thought that it was stupid to send out inexperienced 19-20 year old kids to go and try to teach people her age. She made it clear that she was 41 and made sure we knew that she had lots more life experience. Hahaha it was ridiculous some of the passages she tried to quote from the Book of Mormon (They were completely made up).... She almost had me laughing at one point. But through it all I just felt such a love for this woman who was trying to tear down our faith. So, as she lectured us, whenever we could get a word in we would testify of our beliefs and every time we bore testimony she couldn't fight it. she would use the excuse of your wrong and couldn't back it up with anything. But the cool part was whenever we opened our mouth we could feel the spirit really strongly but when she started talking the spirit left pretty quickly. And Steven (Her friend who was there for all of this. Not really speaking but when he did he would defend us. He had no clue what the church was but he tried to defend us which was super cool) so finally our final invitation to her and Steven was to read and pray about it. Only read the Book of Mormon. Not a book about the Book of Mormon but the book itself and to pray about it. We gave them both a book and left. while we were leaving Steven asked us where our church was and what our phone number was. He said he would be interested in meeting with us. WE WERE SO PUMPED. We haven't heard from him yet but I have faith we will be getting a call here soon. 

The rest of the week was filled with similar things, but not any cool or interesting experiences so I won't go too much in detail about the last half of the week. But the week ended with the baptism and it ended on a really high note. Even if I may have had a pen explode in my suit pocket and get ink all over my shirt and suit. BUT IT'S OKAY! I was actually able to get it out of the shirt by a miracle and I'm taking my suit in to see if they can clean up the extra ink. (You can’t see the ink because it’s a black suit but I don't want to get more ink on my shirts) :D Anywho! It was a good week and I hope all of you had amazing weeks as well! I LOVE YOU ALL! God is real and he does know us very personally. I can testify of that strongly. I have had experiences on my mission that have proved to me God knows me really well haha :D The Book of Mormon is true and this is the lord’s church restored again to the earth. And I couldn't be happier being a part of his work. One half down another to GO!!!! Let's see what miracles God will allow me to be a part of :D

-Elder Riley Field

Pictures!

JAZLIN!

A package my family sent me for my year mark

And a meme that got sent to me by a youth in the ward..... it's true fam.... it's all a conspiracy.... ;)

-Elder Riley Field

*Excerpts from an email sent to Mom:

Oh, I didn't even email about brother Rowland. We had an awesome lesson with him this week. We taught him the first half of the restoration. Only half of it because he started expressing his concerns with the church and his expectations for these meetings. It was a super good! Apparently, some of the things that have been holding him back have been some stuff he found on the internet..... hahaha so we will show him where to get good sources of information. His wife told him she wants him to get baptized and be sealed in the temple....... It was bold...... but good..... we got all the expectations out on the table of where we all want the meetings to go. And we are all on the same page. and he is ready to learn and pray :D I so hope he starts to progress. We also got a pretty sweet referral this week. We set up a time to meet with them on wed. :D I will let ya know how that goes :D

I showed off my Shakespeare knowledge this week in church. In gospel principles class the teacher was teaching and she started quoting a monologue from the show Hamlet. While she was quoting it, I guess I was mouthing it as well. Well the teacher saw me and asked if I knew what it was from. I rattled off the show who was speaking and who he was speaking to. The class just stared at me and asked how I knew that. I told them I’m a huge Shakespeare fanatic and I knew the show because I was in the show in high school. They all thought it was cool, I got called a nerd though by the bishop (In a joking matter of course hahaha ) Hey if liking Shakespeare makes me a nerd, what evs. I will gladly be a nerd!

Elder Field Turns 1!!!

This Wednesday I will have been out for a year..... Woah..... Weird..... 

Guys there was a lot that happened this week so I'm going to skip the lengthy intro! HERE WE GO!

Monday was just your average P-Day, but at the end of the day we had all the departing Elders stay with us in our apartment. It was so cool to see a couple of friends for the Last time. Plus, it was cool because they were just talking about their missions and giving me advice on how to make this last half of the mission great. :D :D :D it was super cool.

Tuesday was a busy day....... We woke up at normal time but we were out the door by 7:30. We went to go set up everything. After that Elder Jones gave me some last words of advice before he left. I love that guy. I'm going to miss him so much. He is one of those missionaries whom I know I will see again in the future. We have a good friendship. I hope he does well his last transfer. ANYWAY, I grabbed my new companion Elder Reese and began running haha. So, the Tech Elders run transfers. We make sure everyone has their new companion/Cars/Phones. We make sure everyone leaves on time and knows where they are going. This transfer was a lot smoother than the previous transfer. I got a megaphone this time to yell at people...... I don't like being the bad guy...... But someone has to kill the fun and send them to their area. Anyway, after that I quickly filled in Elder Reese on the Tech Elder Duties and kinda what we do while we ate at Chick-fil-A. When we got back to the office we set up for the new missionaries who were coming in. Met all them, made sure their trainers where there, had the trainer meeting, had the greenie meeting, So on and so forth. Once that was all done we cleaned everything up and that was our day. We went to dinner over at the Perkins home. Then we went back to the office and did some of the Week 1 stuff. (The week 1 stuff is just a bunch of things we need to get done by the first week of the transfer, such as update contact info, add new missionaries to the system, delete old missionaries, and other housekeeping items) Fun story about the greenie meeting. We got permission from president to use a clip from the IT Crowd in our presentation to explain what we tech elders do. And if you know me you know exactly what clip I used ;) "Hello IT department, have you tried turning off and on again" 

Wed was the best day of the week hands down because after a long day at the office completing the week 1 stuff and preparing for MLC the next day, we went and introduced Elder Reese to Jazlin. While we were visiting on the door step (We couldn't go in because there wasn't another male in the home) We talked about how her week was when her mom walked up and asked if she had thought about a baptismal date. She said she had and she wasn't sure. The next little bit I'm not sure what happened because then they just started throwing dates and times out and basically planed her baptism..... YEAH....... THEY JUST PLANNED IT....... Jazlin will be baptized on June 10th....... YEAH AND THE DATE THEY CAME UP WITH WAS IN A WEEK........ I'M SO FREAKING EXCITED!!!! I WAS SO HAPPY I WAS BASICALLY SPEECHLESS WHEN THEY FINISHED PLANNING IT OUT....... Jazlin is super stoked about it as well! so right on the spot we set up all our lessons for the next couple of days that way we would be able to teach everything in such a little time. Another cool thing is Jazlin just recently got a new job. She talked to her boss and asked if she could have every Sunday off so she could go to church. And she got it approved!!!! I was on cloud 9 when she told me this. I'm so pumped for her. It's looking good. I know the Lord has had a very big hand in all of this. She has definitely been prepared. I have just been lucky enough to have been part of the ride.

Another cool thing that happened on Wednesday. We went over to brother Rowland's house for a Book of Mormon read. We asked if he had prayed about it. And he did!! He said that he doesn't feel like he got an answer but he also said he wasn't sure what he was expecting. We told him about what the fruits of the Spirit are and then we told him, one way that helps us get answers to prayers, we should continue to search and learn. We asked him if he wanted to take the missionary lessons. And he said yes!!! This is the first time he has ever shown interest in the missionary discussions. I was super pumped. 

Thursday was MLC, made sure the technology didn't burst into flames at all which is good. :D That was pretty much that day.... we had one of our lessons with Jazlin that night. It went well. Talked about the law of chastity. Thought it was going to be awkward but it actually went well. Hahaha only slightly awkward.

Friday, we did planning and we finished the office things...... any who we did a lot of finding that day as well. yay! Not much to report there haha

Saturday, we did a lot of finding as well. But we had an awesome district meeting.  We did some service for a lady whom I was really hoping would turn into an investigator, but..... she was very not interested but was really thankful for the service. 

That was pretty much our week. It was super busy and exciting! This week was cool because we were able to see a lot of miracles. It’s been cool watching these people whom I have served around for 4 and a half months now grow and watch the spirit work with them. It’s really cool watching them being guided to the truth and watching their hearts soften. And to have been a part of that, it's been super humbling. 

Cool insight I learned this week, in my studies this week the word remember has been sticking out to me more and more. The word remember is an interesting word due to the fact heavenly father asks us to remember a lot. In the Book of Mormon there are a ton of verses that say the word remember. "Remember remember that it is upon......" "Remember the trail and tribulations of your fathers...." It appears over and over. I was reading in The Infinite Atonement, and he talked about the word remember. He tells of the story of a mountain climber who was climbing with a friend. His friend was the Belayer. While he was climbing he fell and pulled 3 of the anchor points out with him. 10 feet from the ground the Belayer saved his life but using his brute strength to stop the fall. He then was saying "What do you do for the guy who saved your life. Do you give them a used climbing rope for Christmas?? No! You remember him, you always remember him. Funny how those are the exact words in the sacramental prayer" We as mortals have a tendency to forget. So, we need to be constantly reminded. that we need to remember. So, I would like to challenge all of you to take some time and truly remember the savior. And what he did for you. Reflect on how that has helped you become who you are today. It's been fun remembering. You start to feel your connection to the savior grow. 

I love you all and hope you all have a good week!! 

-Elder Riley Field

Elder Reese and I in cat shirts :D