Elder Field Is Shocked It's Already May!

Man..... It's May already?? Well, almost May, tomorrow is May, but still! Where did the month of April go? Wow!  Anyway, I don’t have too much to report, we have some good things going on though let me tell ya! 

(I'm going to put a warning this is going to be a short one) 

Anyway, we had awesome lessons with Emma and Joe! They both are making awesome progress. We had a church tour with Joe and it was awesome!! He told us he is absolutely going to get baptized! He asked us to be his witnesses and he is going to have his brother, who is a member, to baptize him. So, we are getting ready for him! We are super pumped! 

Emma had a great experience at her last lesson! We brought a member. His name is Brother Stone! And wow. I decided I want to be just like Brother Stone when I grow up. He presented everything in such a way that she was able to grasp. We found out she is actually scared of what happens after baptism. She also said that she wants to be baptized! So, we are going to work with her to get to that point. 

We found a crazy kid named Trayvone. Contacted us through is window while we were knocking on his neighbor’s door. So, we were talked to him and taught him a lesson and he wants to know more! He is crazy, but we love him to death! We asked if he had been baptized and was like, "No..... Man.... That's important huh?" We said, "Yeah man we can help you that!" He said he was down. Haha so we are going to work with him. 

I think that's all for this week. It was a good week, we did a ton of door knocking and we are still working hard, we are going to go hard this last week of the transfer.

I love you all! 

God is Good,

Cheers!
-Elder Riley Field

Elder Field Isn't Done Changing Yet!

Wow, this week, so many amazing things happened. We had MLC and lessons with our awesome investigators! Set a baptismal date for one of our investigators who I totally thought we were gonna drop. #BlessingsOfBringingAMemberToLessons, I Gave a talk in church with 2 days’ notice. #LifeOfAMissionary and Elder Field realized that he still has a long road ahead of him. There still is a lot of things I need to change about myself. Anywho! Enough introduction, let's jump into the story, shall we? 

This week was wonderful! We had a few lessons with Steve and Christana before they took off to San Jose for the weekend. But we were able to sit down with them and share about temples and families. And all the amazing things that happen in the temple and how they can be sealed as a family! They loved it of course and accepted each thing we taught them about. They even talked about getting sealed. They really want to do that. The lessons were difficult of course because Cody, the Tasmania Devil, was out and about. And boy was he on one, but even though he was bouncing off the walls, the spirit was strong, and they enjoyed the message. We have to move their baptismal date back because Steve hasn't quite quit his habit yet, but!!!! He is making huge progress and we are proud of him. We are going over tonight to make a plan with him on how he is going to kick it. We feel good that by May 5th he can have it kicked. ;) That's when his new date will be :D missions are so stinking cool!

I was able to do an exchange with Elder Hiening. He is from Paraguay. Speaks good English. But it was super fun. He is brand new. First transfer. We knocked a ton of doors, talked to a ton of people, had some great lessons. And guess what????? We ate some amazing food! Did you know that Elder Hiening, before his mission, was a chef! At a Japanese restaurant! So, he cooked me a really fancy lunch haha. He asked me what I had at the apartment for lunch and I said...... "Uhhhmmmm chicken and some rice...... Not a lot of options." He then responded, "I can work with that." He then proceeded to make the best dang chicken and rice I have ever tasted. It was awesome. He like looked at the spices we had in the apartment and sighed and said, "Not much to work with but.... I will see what I can do." He did well. Let me tell you. I have a picture of the meal. He even plated it really fancy haha. He is an awesome guy. It was a super fun exchange! We found a new investigator named Enes! Cool story for just a quick second. We knocked on her door and started to talk to her and she said, "Oh sorry I don't live here I'm just visiting my son while my apartment is being renovated." We quickly asked if there was a time we could drop by her place and she said yes!!!! We briefly mentioned what we would be sharing and gave her a pamphlet with a discover.mormon.org website card in it. We asked her to check out the pamphlet and that we could discuss it on Monday at 7! She happily accepted! Well about an hour later, we get this text from the referral center missionaries saying that they had a referral for us! We got all pumped and asked who it was and guess what! It was Enes! She had gone online and actually checked out the pamphlet and website and ordered a Bible and Book of Mormon! So that was pretty cool! She actually did what we asked her to do. That's rare! haha ;) so hopefully things turn out well!

We were able to have a lesson with Emma this week as well. Our good old logical heavy metal 16-year-old didn't quite understand why Jesus Christ was a thing. So, we were able to explain the laws of justice and mercy and man!!! The spirit was so strong!!!!! We bore some awesome testimony about the two laws only being fulfilled by a mediator! The two laws of justice and mercy was the thing that really helped me develop a testimony of the savior. It made sense why we needed him. I was so happy to be able to share what made my testimony real with her. And she understood. The lesson as going super well and then we mentioned baptism as one of the steps to paying the Savior back, because we are now in debt to him. She didn't like the baptism thing........ so, we hit a road block there, but we have some ideas to get around that. Hopefully we can set a new baptismal date with her. I’m praying my guts out that she is reading and praying about the Book of Mormon. That's the way she can know this is all true. It's the way she can know if we are actually representatives of the lord Jesus Christ. It boils down to, is the Book of Mormon true. :D she will get it soon. I just know it.

We had a lesson with Joe yesterday as well. I don't know if I have ever mentioned Joe before. I didn't really think he would progress because he was being really stubborn. He is the brother of a member in the ward who is really solid. We started teaching him after we had dinner with him and his brother. Joe is a cool guy, super nice, loves the lord. But he is just very set in his ways. So, we have had multiple lessons with him and he wasn't progressing. So, this last lesson was kind of a last ditch effort before we dropped him. We brought our ward mission leader. And WOW. Brother Henneke is a stud!!!! He walked in, built an instance connection with the guy, and basically challenged him to be baptized. There was a little bit of resistance due to some questions Joe had, we were able to answer them, and he accepted a baptismal date!!!!!!!! For May 12th!!!! LIKE WHAT?!?!??!? I THOUGHT IT WAS JUST GOING TO BE A FUN "LETS SEE WHERE YOUR AT SO WE CAN FIGURE OUT WHAT TO DO WITH YOU" lesson but we left with him wanting to be baptized. man...... crazy stuff...... the lord really showed me. Not that I didn't have the faith that Joe could change. I just didn't think It would happen so soon. Lord proved me wrong. The lords timing is a strange thing isn't it. hahah.

So I gave a talk in church..... it was awful..... I did horrible....... man..... it was so scattered brained..... but I think I got to point across..... man..... it was ...... woof...... not one of my finer moments..... I blame it on the fact that I had a 2 days’ notice and wasn't able to refine it......... hahah... anyway I made some people laugh and I bore testimony of the restoration, so I did my job as a missionary ;)

We had MLC this week.... and man. I had a really big realization. I already knew I wasn't anywhere close to being the type of leader/teacher as the savior was. But I realized how bad I want to be like him. I know I will never reach it in this life (which by the way is the most frustrating thing in my mind because I'm hard on myself hahaha) but we had a really cool section at MLC we're we took apart the type of servant leader the savior was. How he dealt with situation, certain attributes that he had that we need to develop. And boy, there's a lot that I'm missing. But I'm really going to try hard to develop as many as I can before I got home. I most definitely have changed since being out here.... but there is such a long road ahead of me. :D Good thing The lord is on my side. ;) He can guide me through how I can be better. I just need to be careful about asking him. Because he shows me ALL the areas I need to improve let me tell ya. hahah.

Anywho, I think that's all from me! I Love you all! I wish you the best! I know that the God loves us! Joseph Smith was a prophet! And the Book of Mormon is true! I know it! And I can't deny it! So, I will keep telling people until I'm blue in the face! I love you all!!

God is Good,

Cheers!
-Elder Riley Field

Lunch with Elder Hiening!

My companion and I! :D

Missionary Leadership Council   4/21/18

Elder Field Meets A Millionaire.....At Least He Claims

Hey family and "Dear associates in the work of the Lord" (just felt like I needed to use that President Monson quote there) This week was a good week. We did a lot of finding with little success, but we still were out there doing the Lord’s work trying to find those who are ready. We will receive the blessings that come sooner or later ;) I can feel we are close to finding this perfect investigator. Just got to find them. Our investigators are doing super good. We had to push Steve and Christana's baptismal date back a week. We just felt like we were rushing to get them baptized on that date. So, we decided it would just be better to push it back :) plus it gives us more time to help Steve. They are such good people. We actually were quite afraid they had dropped us this week. We went almost 5 days without communication and they canceled like 2 lessons. So, we were starting to panic. Because we usually text them about once a day and have like a good conversation with them. But turns out they were just going through a hard time. But they are good now. Totally understand the baptismal interview questions and they believe everything and they are working through all their problems. They are sooooo goooooood. I love those guys. No other run in with their son cody. Man, that kid is a fireball. I can only describe him as Sonic the Hedgehog (hopefully you know who that is) hyped up on crack or something. Because wow. What a kid. But I think I might go buy something today that might help. You want to know how to get to a kid’s heart when you are a missionary???

Stickers.

Stickers makes you the coolest missionary in the world I have applied this practice before with great success. We shall see if that is something he will like :D #PawPatrolStickersHereICome #PowerRangerStickers? #Absolutely

Anyway, Emma is still Emma. We were able to have a lesson yesterday. She really opened up this week. Which actually shocked us a little bit. We found out she doesn't quite understand why Jesus Christ was a thing. She also just doesn't quite want it bad enough. She keeps saying she hasn't gotten an answer. But like I said before I think she has and she just hasn't recognized it or doesn't want to recognize it. But I also feel that if she really hasn't gotten an answer it's because she doesn't want it bad enough. The Lord asks us our all. He asks us to deny ourselves of all ungodliness and follow him. To give everything up. She said she is afraid she will lose her personality if she joins the church that she will become a mindless drone. Or a sheep. Ultimately when I needed answers, or I needed something from God I personally have to be willing to do WHATEVER it takes to get an answer before God will give me one. And I kinda feel like it needs to be the same with Emma. We told her that God isn't going to ask us to give up our personality, but we have to be willing to give it away in order to follow god. He won't ask us to do that though. I don't know if that makes sense, but it makes sense in my brain so yeah. :D She is still doing well. Just got to help her see the importance of Jesus Christ.

We did some service at a homeless shelter. And man, we found the coolest of potential investigators. Her name is Isabell. She is a volunteer who volunteers EVERYDAY at the homeless shelter. She helps cook and clean and just do things there. While her husband is at work and her kids are at school she goes and volunteers at the homeless shelter. We signed up to go every Thursday. She was so cool and so kind. She asked a ton of questions. We didn't invite her to meet with us yet. We are gonna let the friendship build before we extend an invitation. She was super cool and super kind. So ready. So prepared! We are excited to see where that goes!!!!!

Wow this email is going to be a lengthy one but let me explain Ernesto. Oh man what a guy. So, we were walking down the street. It was a rough day, not gonna lie, we faced a lot of rejection, but we were walking down the street and he was staring at a car in his driveway. We asked him how he day was. And then he just stared at us and then said, "Not good my friends, I have wrecked 2 cars in the past 2 days." He then went on to just vent to us about how his week was and then he paused and said, "Do you want to come in and share your message with me?" We jumped on the opportunity and went inside with him. Met his 3 kids. But then he just went off about how he wasn't happy! That he had millions of dollars in the bank, he has traveled the world, he was born into a rich family and has worked to get his own fortune, and how he had a collection of Rolex watches, and he had art that is thousands of dollars so on and so forth. But that he wasn't happy at all. In fact, he was pretty miserable. So, he said he if we have something that would help he was willing to hear anything we had to tell him. So, we talked really briefly about God and his belief in them. He answered really briefly. It was such a strange experience. Man, this guy, I'm not sure how true it all is. But if it is man. I would not want to be in his shoes. He expressed he just doesn't see the point of life anymore. So, we explained what our purpose was and how he can find relief. He agreed to let us come over and meet with him more. He seemed genuinely excited to meet with us again and said he liked us a lot. We think he may have been drinking a little bit beforehand, but I felt some sincerity from him. After we shared that message he gave us a tour of his house. It was a nice house. Not like WOW THIS IS Amazing, but not a small house by any means. He showed us a Darth Vader mask he bought. It was pretty cool. I absolutely took a picture with it on. Hopefully I can get the picture from my companion before I send this email off. ;) it was fun. Ernesto is also in the picture. What a guy. Boy does he have a potty mouth, and slightly racist hahahahah!!!

 I got to go on exchanges with the AP's this week. And I got to go with Elder Harris! My old companion! Oh man it was so good. He is such a stud. It was good to catch up with him and makes plans for hanging out in the future and just talking about missionary work and how we have changed just in the past few months since we have been companions. It feels like yesterday I was companions with him. But then I realized I have been through 3 companions and almost 5 transfers since I have been with him haha. Crazy how time flies. But we did a ton of door knocking. Found a new investigator named Komal! She is way cool. College student. She is from India and she intently listened to the message of the restoration and loved it. But later in the week she sent us a text explaining how busy she was in this part of her life that how she would love to give time to spirituality and religion, but she is just too busy.

Man..... That is such a common answer we get. "Man, I would love to! But I'm just too busy right now." It makes me so sad. Because if only they knew that this would help them in their temporal things just as much as it would help them spiritually they would jump on this opportunity. But alas, we try to explain that, and they still think they are too busy. If I ever utter those words in the future that I'm too busy for a calling, too busy to go and minister to someone, too busy to take time to "be still and know that [He] is God", May God strike me down. I have truly realized the importance of all this. Friends.....This gospel, the book, Joseph Smith, the translation, the priesthood, Angels, Miracles, the gifts of the spirit, the savior suffering for you and for me...... It's all real. All of it. I plead, or to use a more scriptural term, I Exhort you, all who read these emails, to take some time..... ponder about these things. Really find out for yourself, do you know these are true? Is this a reality? Or is it just another story that people tell? Find out for yourself. Read the Book of Mormon, pray about it. Seek God. He is your Heavenly Father. And he loves so much. He will answer you. I promise :) Hopefully we have that kind of relationship that you can trust me ;)

I testify that I know that God is real and so Good, I testify that the Book of Mormon is the word of God and that Joseph Smith saw what he said he saw. Not a doubt in my mind that he did. I remember those feelings I had when I as at Carthage Jail. I also remembers those feelings I have while reading the Book of Mormon. I know that the Savior lives. He knows and loves us. He died for me and for you. He is the Savior for the world. And he wants to help us! We just need to ask and then work for it. ;) I love you all and I leave this with you in the name of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ, Amen.

 God is Good,

Cheers!
-Elder Riley Field

We were knocking doors and look what we found. Yes, that is a live bird chilling in the corner. Scared the crap out of me. 

Elder Field Doesn't Really Know What Happened This Week But It Was Cool

Wow!! Friends and family what a week!!! Like.... WOW..... so many miracles..... Idk where to begin!!! I'm doing amazing! The area is amazing! God is amazing! Missionary work is amazing! Woodland is...... Hot..... but also, amazing! And I'm just enjoying life! Man okay. I'm going to shut up and explain what happened this week!

Alright well it all started with Wed. Wed was the amazing day.  So, we have an investigating family named the Minniers. They are so solid. Steve, Christana (pronounced chris-anna like Anna from Frozen)  and their little son Cody who is 3. Well for starters, Cody is the most ill-behaved child I have ever met. So, lessons with him are exhausting. But I love him anyway. The reason I explain Cody as such is the lessons with this family are rather difficult when Cody is a little more rambunctious than usual. And he was unfortunately. But we had planned to teach them the Word of Wisdom. Both of them have Word of Wisdom issues but want to quit even before we talked about this. But we started talking about it and boy..... it was tough to teach...... toys were being thrown, I got punch a couple of times, there was a stuffed Pluto (from Disney) that pegged me in the face 3 times during the lesson. It was not geared up to be the best of lessons. But anyway, we kept at it and after praying really hard for something to happen Cody just...... wandered into the back room and didn't come back out..... like....... gone...... poof!...... So, my companion and I took that as an opportunity to hit them with some doctrinal fire! We did so and OH MAN! The spirit was so strong! We were so bold! We invited them to throw away their coffee and to hand over their cigarettes and that if they did they would have an added measure of strength added to them trying to quit. AND THEY DID IT!! STEVE JUST THREW US HIS FULL CARTON THAT BE BOUGHT 1O MINS BEFORE. I could have screamed and cried with joy when he did that. We watched them dump their coffee down the sink it was beautiful. They are so ready. After this amazing experience the spirit was too strong to not extend a baptismal date. So again, being bold, we invited them to be baptized on the 21st of April. Yeah that's like 2 weeks away but we both felt good about it, so we extended it to them AND GUESS WHAT!! THEY ACCEPTED IT!!! And they are pumped to get baptized!!! They came to church this week. They had attended General Conference the week before. They are just on the fast track to baptism and everything is going to strong..... man I love those guys...... so many miracles. Now I know what you’re wondering? What happened to Cody?? He just went to bed...... a hahaha he was tired I guess and just laid down and went to bed. Man...... the spirit is awesome. First, shutting the mouths of lions that are about to eat Daniel and then he is tiring out 3-year olds. Man. God truly is a God of miracles. 

Miracle 2, we had a lesson with Emma. She is a 16-year-old. And oh man... ... how do I explain Emma........ So, she is 16 wears black all the time, likes heavy metal, and is super logical it's scary. She uses big words that I don't understand sometimes........ okay most of the time. I'm a simple man what can I say? Anyway, my wonderful companion elder Baumgarten told me that they were struggling to make progress with Emma. Even though she has a baptismal date for the 28th she is super combative when she feels like she disagrees with something....... the only way I can describe her is she is just...... a punk.... hahaha I love her to death though. We get along well. But anyhow the lesson we had planned was just to read out of the Book of Mormon with her. We went in and BAM! She hits us with some questions about the choosing of a new prophet and how she thinks we do it wrong and how (And I quote) "Couldn't possibly be a divine process". Now another thing about Emma. From the minute I saw her I knew she knows the church is true. Without a doubt in my mind. She knows it’s true. She just doesn't realize it yet. She hasn't gotten that confirmation from the Holy Ghost about the Book of Mormon. But she knows. I don't know how I know that. I just know. Anyway. She hits us with his question and we "discuss" about it. The reason I put in in quotation marks is basically we explained how it worked and she just continually told us we were wrong. ANYWAY. We solved that concern and then she threw another question at us. And then another. And another. Finally, There came a point in the conversation that we got it to the point that what the question she was really asking was, "Was Joseph Smith a Prophet?" Ultimately everything we do is based off the fact that Joseph Smith was a prophet. So, she can get that answer by????????? Drum roll please!! Reading and praying about the Book of Mormon!! After talking about that for a little bit, I took a different route. I just decided to listen. And to look into her eyes. To really see how God sees her. While she was talking I just kept being felt with such a love for this child of God sitting in front of me. Finally, after my companion beautifully taught about how we can get an answer, I felt a strong impression to talk about the pre requisites to getting an answer. A sincere heart and real intent. The sincere heart part was easy. But the real intent part was the tricky one. One thing led to another and we had control of the situation. We shared Alma 22. About King Lamoni’s father and what he was willing to do to get an answer. We told her that if she wants an answer that bad she has to be willing to give EVERYTHING UP. We explained how God wouldn't ask her to do so. BUT was she willing to give it all up to know God? She understood it. But then was confused on why God would make us show him we want an answer. Her statement was, "Doesn't God already know I want it bad enough?" We said yes, he does. We then went to when Abraham was commanded to sacrifice Issac and how Abraham was asked to give all to follow God's commandments. But then at the last second, he was stopped by an angel. She asked, "Well why do we have to prove it to God?" We told her sometimes the Lord wants to make sure we will do it. He knows all things, but maybe there is more to the fact he made Abraham do what he did. Maybe he was trying to prove it to Abraham. My companion then stated, "Maybe God is trying to get Emma to prove it to Emma." 

This is the point where the spirit did a mic drop and boy was it powerful. 

All while we were just looking at Emma in the eyes. She then said, "Well what do I need to give up to get an answer then?" We told her to ask God. He would tell her. She nodded and said, "That makes logical sense I suppose." MAN, WHAT A LESSON. I have such a strong testimony of being bold and just really looking at people in the eyes. Who ever said the eyes are the windows to the soul was so true! 

Anyway, sorry this one was so long just to explain 2 lessons. I felt like I jipped you all out of an email last week, so this is me making up. The rest of the week was awesome. We had 8 investigators at church, so that was cool. And we picked up 3 really solid new investigators, so that was nice. We are busy busy in Woodland. And I love it. Even if I walk through the door at night and want to fall asleep immediately, I wouldn't change it for the world. I'm going to finish sprinting. And I know with the help of God many more miracles will follow. God is so so Good. I have also learned the importance of high expectations. If you assume you’re not going to make a difference you won’t. But if you have high expectations and plan to make a difference you will. It's all a mind game. The Book of Mormon is true. Joseph Smith is a prophet. We have a modern-day prophet by the name of Russell M. Nelson. I have a testimony of the power of the hymns. And I love my savior. He knows us and loves s and has made it possible for us to CHANGE! It just requires a little bit of repentance. But it's possible. Anyone can change. 

I love you all!! Have a wonderful week!

God is Good!

Cheers!
-Elder Riley Field

Elder Field Got A Bloody Nose While Knocking Doors....But We Picked Up A New Investigator From It!!

Hey family!! 

This is probably going to be a short one because I'm super distracted. Man, but woodland. What a place. I desperately miss my good old Eureka though..... like a lot ...... but alas the Lord has other plans for me. But I think I'm starting to like it here. The area has a ton of potential, and I'm excited to get going. 

Anyway! It was a fantastic Conference! Like wow! So many fantastic changes that will seriously help the church membership! I'm low-key kinda bummed about the home teaching thing. I wanted to be the best dang home teacher on the planet, but now I will be the best minister on the planet! 

So funny story of the week. While knocking some doors. My face just decided to release all of the blood in my body through both nostrils.  While bleeding all over the place and all over my shirt (rip white shirt) we were thinking about how we take care of this. So, we went and knocked on a member’s door, no answer, so we took a risk and assumed that if someone knocked on my door and were bleeding I would help them out. So, we knocked on some random persons door and what do you know they answered and we guess what! We picked them up as a new investigator! So, I will assume God made my nose bleed on purpose. So, woo! That was pretty fun. They said they would read the Book of Mormon and pray about it!!

I think that's all for now! Sorry it's lame and short. I'm trying to get to know the zone, so sorry it's short. I love you all and I hope to hear from you! Make sure you take the Prophet’s council to study the talks!!! I have already started and wow it's pretty stinking cool! Love you all lots!  

God is Good,

Cheers!