I'm not even kidding when it comes to the subject line. Guys, Eureka is nuts. I have been transferred to the weed capital of the world. I'm
pretty sure if you just google Humboldt County, all you would find is pictures
of weed. My first night here we were walking down the street contacting people,
and someone walked up to us and asked if we could "spare some
weed". Bongs and hukas on every porch or in every apartment!!! No
joke!! haha!! The people are total granola and it makes me laugh. Occasionally
you will see someone walking down the street and you can't quite tell if it's
male or female. It’s going to be an adventure up here for sure.
Anyway, let me give you a little more description of the
area beside the density of the drug problem. ;) The scenery up here is gorgeous
(I say 'Up Here' Because I'm the most northern part of the mission right now,
besides a city called Crescent city, there are 2 sets of elders up there and they
are 2 hours away from us. It was about a 4 hour drive from Santa Rosa. A very
beautiful drive if I might add) I'm right back on the coast and I love it. It
gets pretty chilly up here. It rains a lot :D It's a good thing I love rain.
The redwoods are awesome!!! they are just absolutely gorgeous. I live in a city
called Arcada just north of Eureka. It's a collage town for Humboldt State
University. We live just right off campus in some apartments down the street.
This place is crazy, it's weird living in a town where 80% of the people here
are 20-28-year-old. it's really easy to talk to people here, maybe it's because
they are all my age Idk but they are all down to talk about 'Spiritual' things
but are never quite interested enough to learn about the message. Everyone here
uses a lot of really big words... or try to use them.... I have caught a couple
of people trying to use a big word that didn't fit in the context of the
sentence...... hehe people trying to flaunt their knowledge. Makes me laugh to
be honest. I am a man without eloquence...... so half the words they use I have
no clue what they mean so I nod my head and then bear testimony that there is a
God and the Book of Mormon is true and we are not a cult ;) One thing I have
noticed though is pretty much all of them are Agnostic or Atheis.t It's kinda
sad really. People tell me they really don't believe there is a God, and I ask myself,
"How do you get through the day..." Honestly my knowledge of Heavenly
Father and his plan for me makes life so much better. I have a reason on why I
go through tough times. But that’s why I'm out here. To teach there is a
God and how much he loves them. I have been studying a ton out of Alma Chapters
18, 22, 30. All places in the Book of Mormon where a prophet is teaching
someone who doesn't know there is a God. We will see if that helps ;)
My companion is Elder Seegmiller hailing from Nashville,
Tennessee. What a guy. hahaha I love this kid. We got to be really good friends
when we served together in Santa Rosa so when we became companions we just
picked up where we left off and hit the streets. It's freaking awesome.
Let me tell ya about the YSA branch. Woo,f it's more like a
twig to be honest. We have about 15 that come to sacrament meeting on a regular
basis. With a bunch of less actives. The people here are cool. Little weird
sometimes. but cool none the less. So, with that being said our goal for this
transfer is to double the attendance of sacrament meeting. Whether by investigators
or returning less actives, it's gonna happen haha. It was a goal we set our
first day. We will see how that goes. I have faith. ;)
Let's talk about the investigator department haha. We only
have 1 really solid investigator. They found her 2 weeks before I came into the
area. Her name is Diana. She is so sick. She has been to church 2 weeks in a
row (couldn't come this week, it's Thanksgiving break so all the college
students are dipping and heading home for the holiday, this week is gonna be
rough, I have faith we will find someone though) but she is way excited about
the gospel. She loves the church and we even have a baptismal date with her
actually (it needs to be pushed back slightly but she still really wants to get
baptized) It's really cool teaching people my age about the gospel. She is the
only investigator. So, we have a lot of finding work to do here. I'm way
excited. It’s gonna be so fun/difficult and I'm sure frustrating. So, stay
tuned, hopefully we are gonna see some miracles.
So even though we have some exciting things in the area
happening we also have some cool things in zone happening. We created another
game. Nothing like Vacaville rising (that gave me so much anxiety that
transfer) We made a game that’s a mix of Chinese Checkers and a video game
called Splatoon if anyone other than myself, and probably my homie Nathan
Young, know what that game is. A brief explanation is basically we made a game
board that looks like Chinese checkers. The object of the game is to cover as much
of the board with your 'Light' (the Christmas initiative is Light the World again,
so we did it light themed instead of paint themed) It's called #BeTheLight and
you cover the board with your light by moving across the squares so they light
up to your colour, as the brits would spell it. How do you earn moves you ask?
Well let me tell ya. You earn moves through the key indicators as a missionary
(i.e New investigators, sacrament meeting attendance, baptismal dates etc.) We
also came up with a couple of other ways to earn moves. But every district
meeting we will move our people across the board (Which we have created. I will
send a picture next week when we have it done. It's still being created so we
can have it ready for Tuesday) and update things. You can steal squares from
other companionships by walking on a space that is their color and turning it
your color. We have light grenades, and a bunch of other power ups and stuff.
We are so excited it's going to be a lot of fun. The whole purpose of the game
is to increase joy and a love for the work all while increasing the number of
people in our progressing teaching pool. It's gonna be sweeeeeeet!
Anyway, that's about it. Hopefully you all had an amazing
week. I really love you all and miss you all tons. And I really mean that.
Don't ever think I don't love you. Because you all mean a lot to me. Friends
and family alike. God is good. He loves his children. He loves me. He loves
you. He knows our struggles and our afflictions. Through his son we can become
clean and be free from guilt and shame. The Book of Mormon truly is scripture.
And Joseph Smith saw what he said he saw. Not a doubt in my mind that this is
all true. And it took me a while to get to that point. Doesn't mean I don't
have questions. Just means I’m excited to keep learning about the gospel of
Jesus Christ for the rest of my life. God has plan for all of us, and if we are
faithful to our covenants we may receive all that our father has in store for
us. Jesus is The Christ. The Great Jehovah of the Old Testament and the Messiah
of the New. He Lives, and guides this, his church today through a modern-day
prophet Thomas s. Monson. Even though he is getting old and frail. Doesn't make
him any less of a prophet and I will continue to sustain him. I know this is
true. And leave it with you in the name of Jesus Christ, our brother. Amen
-Elder Riley Field
Scenery from up here
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