Elder Field Finds Out Transfers And He Met With Someone From The Missionary Department!

That's right friends and family, another transfer has come and gone and the results are in. I will be staying in Vacaville with a new companion (sad day I'm really going to miss elder Harris, he was such a great companion) his name is elder Martinez. I haven't met him or talked to him at all but everyone says it will be a good transfer haha. So, I'm excited to get to know him and hit the ground running with him. Cool thing about Vacaville though, is we have 2 greenies in zone, with an additional 2 coming in. There is a brand-new missionary in each companionship other than mine and one other companionship, this zone is soooooo green and I'm soooooo pumped about it. THE GREENIE FIRE IS BACK! WOOOOO! haha anyway Elder Harris is going back to San Rafael to be zone leader in the Rohnert park area. Good luck brother, God be with you till we meet again.

Anywho this week, boy what a week, so much stuff has happened but at the same time things are pretty much the same, Vacaville isn't too exciting when it comes to cool stories or crazy things haha, it's just a quaint town in California, nothing like Vallejo where something happened every day. But general conference was this week!!! AND IT WAS AWESOME! I FREAKING LOVE GENERAL CONFERENCE! Along with that it was just a lot of goodbyes for elder Harris. (we knew he was going to be leaving) so we made time to stop by a bunch of people's homes to say goodbye to the all. But let's dive into the week, shall we?

So, this week was full of teaching and meetings actually. We had MLC on thrush which was really cool. We had a representative of the missionary department come out and meet with us. He taught us a ton about how we can use Facebook in our proselytizing. It was such an eye-opening experience. I have been struggling to find ways to use Facebook. There was one line that he said that made me look at it in a very different way he said, "there two main reasons companies use Facebook, marketing and networking, we want to use Facebook for its networking possibilities." he said that and it made so much sense hahaha. He gave a bunch of other ideas and uses for it as well. He also answered a ton of questions that we all had just about missionary work in general. Very enlightening. I took a lot of notes to say the least. We also found out we will be getting smart phones in the mission. Hahaha weird..... Apparently in the future tablets won't be a thing anymore. They will have missionaries purchase a smart phone instead and then give them a Sim card that stays in the area. That's pretty cool. Cool to see how missionary work is evolving even with me just being in the field. So coooooool!

We sadly weren't able to have a sit-down lesson with many of our investigators, however we were able to have contact with them throughout the week. So, no new and exciting developments in the way of investigator progress. We'll, we did get a message from Liney Grindle, she really opened up suddenly. She said she was lying in bed, and couldn't sleep so she was thinking about our past lessons and then answered a question that we asked at the last one. And it was a heartfelt answer. I'm really proud of her for opening up, it’s going to make it a lot easier for future lesson and also for the savior to come in and help now. I'm so excited for the Grindle family :) they are so cool!!!

We are back in contact with the Busbys and boy they have come back with some fire, after our come to Jesus meeting, we talked about how when we ask them to do something it isn't just for them to check off a box but it's to help them receive answers to their questions. And guess what!! They are actually starting to read now. Mark (the dad) assured us that "I hope you guys don't think you’re wasting your time, you aren't. It's just a slow process for us" so that was good to hear. :)

We took Brianna to the family history center, which was way cool and she is getting started on her family history. I hope we can continue to teach her about the gospel :) good stuff

Conference was awesome. I don't think I can pick a favorite haha. Each one spoke to me in a different way, but I will tell yall the direction I received from it. So, the cool thing was before the conference I had drafted up some questions along sigh a goal I wanted to work on next transfer. My goal was based off the scripture D&C 6:36. "Look unto me in every thought, doubt not, fear not" which is really cool because that specific scripture was quoted 2 or 3 times in conference. Along with talks on centering our lives on Christ. So, I know that I need to put more of a focus on Christ in all that I do. I also need to really study and ponder the book of Mormon more intently. :) which I'm excited to do. The reason behind the goal is because of a cool experience I had. I was sitting during studies, it wasn't the best of days, we were having studies later in the day due to some meetings we had in the morning. But it was a rough day, I was stressed about people in the zone, responsibilities in the stake and ward, the upcoming transfer, and just some personal things that I have been working on. I was getting overwhelmed and discouraged. So, I sat staring at my scriptures for a little bit thinking about what I wanted to study. I was drawn towards my tablet to the LDS media library app. I opened it up and found all the Bible videos on the life of Christ. I started to just watch the teaching of Christ's. Then the miracles, and then the life events of Christ. By the end of the handful of videos I watched, I had the strongest thought of. "Man, I want to meet him so bad". The thought of meeting him excited me so much but also made me look at where I was at with my own personal discipleship. It was that moment when I had the feeling of "I want to be the best disciple possible." and I do, so bad. So, after many tears and thoughts recorded I set the goals of D&C 6:36 and always thinking WWJD ;) and it was cool to have all of that confirmed during conference. It was cool because I felt like one of the themes throughout was be more like Jesus, focus on him, and don't get discouraged becoming like him is a lifelong process. And I'm excited about my new-found commitment to follow Christ :)

Anyway, to prevent this from getting any longer and also all the things I need to do today to prep for the new transfer, but know I love you all. And that I love my savior, I really do, I don't want anyone to think I don't. He is the light of this world and of my life. He knows me. Even though sometimes I feel alone and afraid I know I never truly am. And I will never have to go through the loneliness he felt as he had the father's spirit withdrawn from him on the cross. I Have such a desire to be like him, even though the flesh is weak and I slip up, we have repentance that helps us change and that comes through the atoning blood of the prince of peace. God is good. He has a plan for all of us. Turn to him. May we all take a little more time to ponder his life, after all that's the life we should be trying to model ours after. :) Joseph Smith saw what he saw. The book of Mormon is true. And we have a living prophet on the earth today. I love you all!

-Elder Riley Field

Pictures

A beautiful car a very nice atheist showed us (afterward he tried telling us we were misguided haha silly atheist, you can't shake my testimony)