Elder Field Skypes Home For Christmas

As of Christmas Day 2017, Elder Field has been serving the Lord for 566 days!!

He was able to Skype home and talk with his family for about an hour and half.  Obviously he is still the goofy kid we know and love.

 All mom wanted was a nice family picture and Elder Field really struggled with this.

 Still struggling....

 And then it was a Christmas miracle!

We are so proud of Elder Field and all the amazing things he has accomplished in the last 18 months.  He is on the downhill slide of the mission and he wants to finish strong.  God be with you Elder Field.....See you in 6 months!!

Elder Field Finds Out Transfer Docs! And Gave Hot Chocolate To The Homeless People. That Was Interesting.....

Transfers!! Man I can't believe it's that time already..... Good heavens. This means all the Sisters Elder Field came out with are finishing their missions tomorrow...... Man...... Last 6 months. Here we go!! Ima make the most out of it. :) God watch over me in my going crazy hard these next few months ;) don't worry I will stay safe. I'm getting a new companion! His name is Elder Serassio, he is dope! Elder Seegmiller and myself served around him in Santa Rosa and I got to be pretty good friends. I will be with him for 7 weeks. This transfer is a week longer due to the fact that this one was only 5 weeks. I'm excited to keep being a YSA missionary. Even if it’s winter break and all the YSA from campus have run away to their home states and town hahaha we won't even be holding YSA services until the new year. Should be fun! Gonna knock all the doors looking for lonely YSA who didn't go home I guess!

Anyway, this week was a good week. Crazy busy though. We had an awesome hike last p-day we went to Fern Canyon. My gosh. It its beautiful. Really wet hike because you’re basically hiking through a river, but it's so much fun. Destroyed my tennis shoes. (sorry mom) Went to dry them on the heater and melted them haha whoops who knew the heater got so hot! But the p-day last week was awesome! 

We had lessons with Diana and Lexee this week. Wasn't able to be at Diana’s due to the fact that we did 2 exchanges this week. One with the Arcata elders and one with the Eureka 1st. It was crazy busy trying to fit everything into a 5 week transfer. Who knew that extra week was so important. I'm getting off track though. Back to Diana. The lesson (I was told) went awesome! They taught her the doctrine of Christ and she loved it. She is still so pumped to get baptized. She came to a baptism last week and loved it and couldn't wait. But she will be gone until mid-January for the winter break, so we will be doing Skype lessons with her while she is home in LA. Pray that her parents will take it well that she is going to join the church. She is so solid. 

Lexee's lesson went alright haha. It was Mainly just a check in to see how she was doing. We really couldn't teach anything because she kept going on tangents about government and local issues and just kinda all over the place with everything. She is also leaving until mid-January, but she said we will pick up then and she said she will read the Book of Mormon. 

The Lord has been so merciful unto the Eureka zone. We got 6 baptisms this month so far. I'm so grateful for the Lord’s mercies and his love towards his children. I'm also so proud of the missionaries up here. They are such awesome hardworking missionaries. So sad that a lot of them will be being transferred. Hopefully we can keep this work up and keep making our maker proud. God is good isn't he :) I actually got to confirm one of the girls who was baptized. That was an experience I will never forget. It was the first time I was given the opportunity to. Ultimately, I'm super happy if someone is baptized it doesn't have to be in my area I'm just so thankful that the Lord blesses me with experience of just being there. But this one was especially cool. We were at her baptism. Her name is Stephanie. She is super cool. We see her all the time because 1) she is technically YSA but the Sisters taught her and baptized her into their ward. 2) we work really closely to the Sisters in the McKinleyville ward. So, we see Stephanie a lot. She is super cool. At her baptism we were talking, and she just randomly asked, "Will you confirm me?" I probably looked like an idiot because I was shocked haha. But it was a really cool experience I will remember for the rest of my life.

(well there was more after this but my tablet deleted it..... So ooooo..... Yeah

.... Life sucks. It's okay let me give you the watered-down version)

Okay. We had a finding event. Gave hot chocolate to homeless people. It was supposed to be for everyone, but we only attracted homeless people. Well I'm happy for them, and it made their days. So good stuff. 

God is so good. Life is awesome. The mission is difficult but so rewarding. I love it. I'm going to work so freaking hard this last 6 months. Here we go! Love you all! Have an awesome week! 

#LightTheWorld

Cheers!
-Elder Riley Field

Pics!

My companion and I –

Hot chocolate sign and the Sisters –

Diana at the Christmas party with us and the branch –

A sign that made me want to caption it, "When people ask you if you have 13 wives back home?" –

Our Christmas tree, yes, it's in my boot. Didn't have a stand –

MTC squad. I got to be his companion on exchanges –

Our MTC gang sign haha. And I can't make an “M” with my arms, so I got demoted -

Elder Field Joins The Circus!

Not really, but we did find the local HSU Circus Troupe (yes apparently that's a thing). We stopped to talked to a bunch of kids who were juggling.  One of them was playing a banjo, so we stopped and talked to them briefly.  They asked if I juggled. I said somewhat, so they handed me 3 balls and I was really starting to panic because I didn't think I remembered how to juggle and the Lord was merciful because I haven't juggled that well ever. They were all impressed and continued to talk with us. Idk if you knowing how to juggle or not, is a stipulation on if you can talk to them, but apparently after demonstrating my one circusy talent and they were cool to talk to us and even watched the #LightTheWorld video! Super cool stuff! They weren't too interested in the Jesus part, but we gave them advent Calendar and moved on. I now have circus friends ;3 jealous? ;)

After that fun introduction, this week was a busy one. All my weeks now a days are busy ones, but this was one was good. We had lessons with Diana and Lexee.  We also had zone conference and we had few strange encounters with people. The people of Humboldt County never seem to stop amazing me with the weird up here. And guess what!! Elder Field actually has time to email this week! This p-day is also crammed full of activities, but that's the reason I got this email done so quickly. I typed it up this morning. Woooo!  Anyway, let's dive in.

Monday was a ton of fun. The reason I emailed such a short email was because I went bowling with the district and also tried my hand at a potter’s wheel. I was terrible! But I loved it and the member invited us back over again! So, should be fun! 

Tuesday was a lot of prep for Wednesday. We had interviews with President that day too. So, I got to talk to President Wright. Always love the conversations I have with him. We practiced our zone conference presentations. It was about how we can “Become The Message”. So, we talked about love and how love towards, your companion, the people you teach, the lord, and also yourself leads to a bunch of other traits we need to have in order to become the message. I got the loving yourself part..... the one I probably needed to study the most haha. I think it went well. You can never quite tell but I presented it well, I think, Idk I felt the spirit so hopefully that means something ;) Zone conference was super good though. All the topics resonated with me. So good!!

Thursday was a day full of unexpected things. So just to explain how the Eureka zone is doing. The Eureka zone is on fire (too soon?) We have 6 baptisms planned for December with another 3 for January. It's freaking awesome! so we had 2 of them this week. it was only supposed to be 1 but we got a call from the Arcata elders asking us if we could do a baptismal interview for that day. It was super important we asked why? And they said there was this woman who had been coming with her member husband for forever. She wasn't a member and had just recently found out about a serious health issue. And that was the tipping point. Tthat's when she knew she needed to be baptized. So, she called up the elders and asked to be baptized that Saturday. So, they elder had 4 days to plan and prep a baptism. Good thing she had been pretty much taught everything and she was already living the gospel, so it was pretty easy for them. But the Lord has seriously blessed us up here in Eureka. Hopefully we can add a few baptisms of our own. Elder Seegmiller is pumped because before we were strictly YSA missionaries we covered the McKinleyville ward. And the sisters there are rocking it right now. They have baptized 3 of Elder Seegmiller’s former investigators. So, the lord has truly been merciful to us up here. It's cool to see a bunch of amazing missionaries just working their butts off for the Lord :D and being able to see the fruit of their labors.  I'm so happy for all of them! I love this zone. Sad, it comes to an end here in a week ;/ oh well! Hopefully we can keep this momentum going. 

Anyway, Thursday hahaha, we had the interview along with Driving the Eureka elders to get their car. Thursday was the day we had our lesson with Diana! Man, she is so cool! We also had something exciting happen. Her roommate Shiann, is starting to get more and more interested. She actually sat in on the lesson, didn't say anything, but just sat and listened which was cool! Hopefully we can start teaching her soon as well! :D but the lesson with Diana was awesome. It was just a kind of check in lesson because finals are this coming week and boy does it look like a zombie town up in here. Everyone is so dead haha. So glad I'm not in their shoes, but ANYWAY Back to Diana. We just chatted with her about her baptism and how she is nervous to tell her parents. She is already starting to experience some resistance from her parents which makes me really sad but hopefully she can push through.  She told us that this is what she wants to do and is planning on getting baptized no matter what. Man, that's faith right there. Diana is so solid :D

We had a lesson with Lexee on Friday. It was so cool! She had actually read just a small portion of the Book of Mormon. Mainly the testimony of the prophet Joseph Smith and she had a ton of questions. It's been interesting to see the transition from her not being too interested at the being to now where she asked A TON of questions!! It was so cool. All about Joseph Smith, early saints, Book of Mormon characters, the appearance of Moroni! And after all that we taught her the plan of Salvation and she seemed to agree with it. She liked the not being born into sin idea :).  We taught her about the atonement and my companion and I felt prompted to teach the 'How Jesus Christ can save us from our sins' you know, the whole justice and mercy thing. It was kind of a weird feeling because I wasn't sure how she would react, but we taught her and she said it made a lot of sense. No one had taught her that before (Mainly because it's a Book of Mormon exclusive insight but that's beside the point ;) ) it's cool to see her interest level grow :D

That was pretty much it for this week. Let me tell ya about the strange encounters and fun things that happened. We got a call from someone from the McKinleyville ward telling us about this All Seasons Orchestra that would be playing in our chapel. We were told to go because it would be a great missionary experience, so we went and watched this orchestra play and met this really cool family there. Their son, who is like 13 by the way, was playing the keyboard along with some of the percussion in this orchestra. HE WAS SO COOL!! During the intermission, he walked up to us and started talking to us and then promised he would play for us after the orchestra! Which he did and that kid is a prodigy on the piano. Wow!! So freaking good!! He even played us some of his favorite songs to play. His name is John. I told him I was his number 1 fan and took a picture with him. :D He is dope. Probs won't teach his family they weren't too interested but, we know where they live, maybe we will 'tract' into them if ya feel me ;)

Met a guy named John Rabbit...... who was drying his clothes on some bushes. Yeah you can probably guess how that conversation went. haha.....

That's pretty much it! hopefully you all have an awesome week! I love you all!! Go #LightTheWorld.  I promise you it will make your Christmas awesome!! 

He lives and loves you!!!

Cheers!
-Elder Riley Field

John and his brother ben -

Dinner at sister Jackson's home.... she is nuts haha.   She asked us to decorate her tree.... here is the finished product I know....it's terrible. She loved it though haha - 

Elder Field Catches The Crescent City Cruds.....EWW!

To explain the subject line. They are also called the Humboldt county cruds, basically you feel fine, but you have a persistent cough for like 3 weeks. It's from living on the coast and all the spores that come off the trees and stuff. Haha. I feel great, but I feel like I have moss growing in my lungs hahaha it's a sensation I can't quite explain ;) got to love Eureka. 

Boy this week was a busy one. Just seems like in a YSA branch there is always stuff to do. Plus, this week is zone conference, so we have been preparing for that. We did exchanges up in crescent city this week as well haha. Which is the most northern part of the mission :) that was an awesome experience. (I'm going to apologize now if the email is lame we have so much stuff to do today so I'm writing this as fast as I can with the limited time I have. So just know I love you all haha I need to stop packing my p-days full of stuff) 

Tuesday was a day full of finding. We had an awesome district meeting where we updated our #BeTheLight game board. It's getting pretty competitive up here in the Eureka zone haha. We have rivalries forming and just overall, I think everyone is having a good time which is always nice. But that was Tuesday, just tried to find people to teach. Found a couple of less actives who had moved away. 

Wednesday, we went up to crescent city where we did exchanges with the elders up there. It was so awesome! Those elders up there are so solid. We did some great work up there. The entire day we were teaching people. Crescent City is awesome. And it's just beautiful up there! Right on the coast. Beautiful. 

Thursday, we got back from Crescent City and we had a lesson with Diana! Our awesome investigator! She is doing so awesome. We taught her all about plan of Salvation and she loved it. She made the comment, she said she was shocked about how much we knew about the afterlife. We told her that because God loves us and because we have modern day prophets, God has revealed it all to us. She loved that answer. We had to push her baptismal date back to the 27th of January because she is going to be gone for a month. But she still really wants to be baptized. So, she will be back in early January. :) she leaves the 17th. So, pray she will stick with this all even when she gets home for the holidays. 

Friday, we did planning which was fun. And Saturday we just planned our zone conference and tried to see some people. 

It was a good week. Again, sorry for the lame email but know I love you all and I freaking love the Christmas season ;) go reflect on what the Savior has done for you it’s pretty amazing. I know Jesus Christ was the son of God and I know he knows and loves each one of us. It's hard to believe someone thought I was worth dying for. I will never fully comprehend that. But all I know is I am so grateful for that sacrifice. I love you all! Have an awesome week! 

#LightTheWorld

Cheers!
-Elder Riley Field

Bowling on Pday -

 Elder Seegmiller eating Hot Dog Casserole -