General Conference Oct. 2017

Sharing a meal on conference weekend at Didi Rasmussen's home.

Elder Field Gets Contacted??

Friends and family! This week was a really good week :D but I think I say that a lot haha.  I think I need a rating system. So, I guess on a scale to 1 - 10, 10 being this has been the best week of the mission, 1 being get me out of Vacaville. I would say it's probably falls at a 6.5 so it was good haha :D

We were able to teach all of our investigators. Well, all of them but 1. We weren’t able to see Newton our Liberian investigator. Makes me sad, but we are hoping to see him this week. But we were able to see the Grindles, Busbys, Breanna, Michael, Yvonne, along with picking up a new investigator named Kashauna! Her story is a cool one so I will tell yall about it. I won't tell about all the lessons just some of the really cool ones :D So let's dive in shall we:D

Our area is still doing awesome!!! Our finding has slowed down a little bit, but that's because we have a lot of investigators we are actually teaching. We just got done teaching a returning less active (who by the way is doing amazing at inviting friends and family to church, so cool) we were following up with a potential that we had met a few days earlier, we were walking up to her house when we walked by a car. We saw a lady in the parked car, so we waved and started walking away.  Now friends and family I know what you’re saying "Elder, why did you not contact her" well you aren't the only one thinking that because she thought the same thing she called out to us in her car and said "Oh you don't get to pass me up, Come back here and come talk to me." We thought she was leaving in her car, but I guess not. It's never safe to assume friends..... never safe. Well her name is Kashauna and she said that she was originally from Illinois and she had met with missionaries there and she loved it. They would have studies all the time. Unfortunately, she had to move and she lost contact with missionaries. She said she saw us walking in the neighborhood outside her window and said she thought it was a sign, but she was nervous to come and call out to us. So, she said if it really was a sign we would pass by again. Well we did and she wasn't going to let us slip away again. She was so excited to be able to set up an appointment with her. We even talked about the restoration of Christ's church and how we could be a part of that. She was pretty excited. Blessings of just being out and working. 

Well if that story didn't knock your socks off check this one out! We finally got in contact with an awesome potential. Her name is Tyreesha and we have been going over and over hoping that we would be able to catch her. Well we caught her and started teaching the restoration. She was shocked at the fact that Christ’s church was on the earth again. She totally believed that there would be prophets on the earth today, and by the end of the lesson on the door step we talked about the Book of Mormon being the evidence of all of this. She asked if she could buy the book we were talking about. We of course gave her one and she said she would start reading. We are hoping to catch her this week! :D Honestly a lot of good things are happening in the area. Between the new people we are finding and the families we are working with. Mainly the Grindle family who are just awesome and are so close to baptism. I really do love being a missionary. These past 2 transfers with Elder Harris have been such a blessing. He has taught me how to work hard and just love the work even when you are doing the less fun aspects of it. I have a lot to be thankful for. God is good, president, God is always good. 

Speaking of the Grindles, we had an awesome lesson where Liney (the mom) said, "It's no longer an if we get baptized but a when" Let's say we were ecstatic when we heard that. We are going to start having lessons in the morning with the husband and wife without the kids we are going to have another lesson about baptism and get the dates this week :D:D:D:D:D so excited!!!!

I think that's pretty much it for this week exciting story wise that is haha. Everyone is still progressing well and just doing amazing. Love you all hope you have amazing weeks!!!! God really is good. He always gives us just what we need. Even though sometimes what we need isn't always what we want :D I have been studying a ton about Jesus Christ and his life and Atonement. It has given me a great appreciation from him along with just a desire to meet him. I want to meet him so bad. But until then I just want to be the best disciple I can be :D We can find pure peace and happiness in Christ. The book is true! Joseph saw what he said he saw! And I love this gospel! 

As my dad always said when he would drop us off

Hasta LA PAsta!

-Elder Riley Field

An awesome sunset 

Elder Sidwell made us Chili mac!

My first pen I used from purchase, to out of ink.  I was so happy haha

Creepy house we walked up to with a flattering photo of Elder Harris

Elder Field Was Attacked By A 2-Year-Old Wielding Paint

Hey friends and family! 

This week was a good week. It flew by. While sitting here trying to reflect on what happened and I really can't remember all that happened haha. So, let's see if I can dig through the missionary memory banks and see if I can scrounge up something for this email ;) 

We had such an amazing family home evening with the Decious family. We talked all about the plan of salvation and taught them about it. I was amazing at how much they didn't know about it. Then again thinking back to me before the mission I probably wouldn't have been able to recite it off. But we walked through each step and the girls had some deep questions. Questions they had been wondering for a while and it was such a spirit fueled evening. We helped them answer some of their questions about the afterlife that had been troubling them. It was cool because as we taught it I could "feel" my testimony becoming more and more solid on the plan of salvation. I can't wait to go over again tonight because we are teaching about the Atonement!!! Also, if any if you know any fun FHE games. I need ideas..... Bad..... I'm running out of ideas haha

We went on exchanges with one of the district leaders who is training this week. I took the greenie. His name is Elder McGladrie. He is so freaking funny, we had way too much fun on our exchange. We got a call from our ward mission leader with an emergency. A pipe in his yard burst and he needed us to come fix it. So, because we are trying to develop a better relationship with our ward mission leader (he loves Elder Harris, I'm trying to build a relationship with him before Elder Harris takes off.   So, we went digging and fixed it, we got very very dirty.... Haha but after which we were able to go and do a ton of finding and he really enjoyed it. It was cool to have that greenie fire again. Everything was so exciting. Hahaha guys I want to train again haha :) 

We had a lesson with a new investigator we picked up named Breanna! She is 25 and was walking down the street when we contacted her. We went over and talked to her about the restoration of Christ's church. She apparently had some really good Mormon friends so she had some good feelings towards us. She also was super interested in family history so we set up some time to go to the family history center at the church building. So that's awesome! Excited to see where that goes. 

Our lesson with our Liberian investigator Newton fell through :( he was feeling sick but we got a text from him saying he was sorry and was looking forward to our next meeting. Hopefully we can meet with him this week. He is so coooooooooooooooooooooooooool!! 

 We also picked up a new investigator! His name is Will! He was a member referral from Brother Egloff. He called us in the morning and said he needed some help unloading stuff from his truck. We told him we should be able to do it. Well he invited Will over to help us out too. The best part is, Brother Egloff and his wife conveniently had to go to the store. So, we helped Will unload it and then had an awesome lesson with him. Everything he said brought my mind to a point of the gospel that we could share. It was so freaking cool. Guys, Will would make the perfect Mormon hahaha his story relates with what Joseph Smith was going through. We are going to call him up and meet with him :) blessings man. Blessings. 

We went over to the Grindle home and had such an awesome visit! First, we went over midafternoon to set up something for the night. And while we visited for 2 seconds she told us that they had been reading and even taking notes!!! She says there are a lot of things in the Book of Mormon that had been standing out to her!! GUYS THEY ARE READING THE BOOK OF MORMON AND ARE STARTING TO COME TO CHURCH! I'M SO FREAKING HAPPY FOR THEM!! OH, I WANT TO SEE THEM SEALED IN THE TEMPLE SO BAD HAHA!....... Anyway, we went over the night and visited them and had an awesome lesson on the commandments which she opened up to us about her problems with her family. And how she wants to let go of those feelings of anger and frustration. So, it switched to the Atonement and we talked a bit about how Christ can help her get rid of the those feelings. She said she would work on it. We invited her and her family to keep reading and praying. Hopefully we can come up with some good stuff for her to read and study so she can know how she can rely on the savior. They are so cool! During the lesson is when little Emily came at me with acrylic paint that was pink and got it on my pants which was sad haha. Nothing too bad but now I have 3 little finger prints of pink on my black pants. I love Emily even though she is full of energy and she keeps me on my toes. 

The sad part of the Grindle story is they didn't come to church this week. Emily woke up with a fever. So, I'm praying they will come to church next week. 

We also had a lesson with the Busbys on temples. They haven't been progressing and we are thinking about dropping them but we got back in touch with the and they still want to learn so we will see if they start progressing again. They are really cool. They just need to jump into the Book of Mormon. And then all would be well. 

That sums up my week. Can't think of any crazy stories or anything, but know I'm doing well and I am learning tons. The past two transfers have been a huge learning experience. And trying to figure out how to be a good zone leader is always on my mind. I decided I'm going to memorize D&C 121: 34-46.  I want that to be really instilled in my soul. I have decided I'm also going to memorize a bunch of other scriptures. Got to put my memorization skills to work right? ;) 

Love you all, have a wonderful week, 

-Elder Riley Field

The pipe service 

 A meme that was emailed to me by a friend :)

And throw back to when Elder Field stared at the sun for a bit. I never sent these pictures home I think haha

Elder Field Doesn't Know What His Subject Line Should Be Today.....

Haha after that exciting subject line let me now announce the exciting highlight of the week! The Grindle family came to church yesterday!!! I was so freaking happy! That was our focus all week was to get them to church on Sunday and we accomplished it! I'm so happy for them. Hopefully this will mark more growth and progression from them! Anyhow let's dive into my week, shall we? 

It was a good week. And a strange one, we had an investigator drop us, and we picked up 2 new really awesome potentials. So, there was some good things that happened. 

The week started off pretty good Tuesday was just your average Tuesday I guess. We had district meeting, then we had missionary correlation which was nice. After which we had a lesson with a new investigator named Michael. He is...... A special case haha. He actually is a homeless man who just walked in to church one day. He has been attending church for several weeks now. So, we reached out to him and started teaching him........ I'm not 100% what's up with this guy but he seems to really enjoy the lessons, so we are going to keep teaching him but he is..... I don't know how to say this without sounding rude but....... Crazy...... Just for an example. Whilst explaining Joseph Smith to him, we asked him if he knew who he was. And he looked at us with a straight face and said "wait, isn't that, John Jacob jingle Himer Schmidt?" I wish I was making that up. He also pulled out an ear of corn from him backpack and said that they were lucky and that everyone should have one with them. My favorite part of the lesson though is when we asked him about who Jesus was. And his answer was "well, he is a male, he seems like a really important guy, and he really likes clean feet" let's just say I wrote a lot in my journal that night. ☺️😆😅😂🤣🤣

ANYWAY, that was my Tuesday. Wednesday, was a little more sane to say the least, it was actually kind of a frustrating day. We would go find in an area where we had a lesson set up. And then literally 15 mins before ever lesson we had planned was canceled, so after we got sad that we got canceled on we just decided to walk around in that area talking to people and knocking a few doors. Well that must have been the right thing to do because everyone someone canceled we were able to have a really good conversation with someone and even get a return appointment with a few of them. For example, we were planning on going over to see an investigator named Vernice who we picked up a couple of days ago, she canceled on us while we were walking to her place. We decided we would continue to walk and when we did we found Newton! He is a new investigator, he was super cool and was super interested in the restoration! He is this really cool guy from Liberia and just wants a better life. Anyway, we had a lot of cool experiences like that. :) the gospel is so cool guys! 

Thursday, we had Liney Grindle (the mom of the family) pray for the first time in front of us. We just went over to say hi and to set up a lesson time. And she told us she was stressed out because her husband lost his wallet, we asked if she had prayed about it she said she didn't know you could pray over something that small we told her you can pray over anything so she prayed and then she found the wallet a little later that day. It was so cool! She recognized that her prayer was answered. It was just awesome. 

Anyway. I'm running out of motivation/stories to tell from this week so I think it's best to end it here. I love you all! Hope you all have an amazing day. And remember never to forget what happened this day 16 years ago. And how we as a nation pulled through. Love you all! 

-Elder Riley Field

Pictures - 

Emily Grindle 

 A bucket I found in the library and the church

Elder Field Gets All Up In Some Fiberglass And May Have Cut Himself On It....Whoops!

Hey friends and family! 

It was a good week this week. Surprisingly we picked up 4 new investigators this week! One of them is named David. He is a freshman in high school. And he is super cool. We contacted him and his cousin while they were walking to subway. They didn't seem to be interested at first but we still got their address and stuff from them. We went over and saw David and we told them about the restoration. And he seemed to really like it. We went over to see yesterday but he wasn't home but his mom showed up and said he really enjoyed meeting with us :) so we will be dropping by later this week :) 

We also picked up a few others that we are trying to meet with again. Their appointments are coming up this week so hopefully all will be well. I'm really excited elder Harris and I have been working our tail off to get new investigators. It's cool to look back and see how much the lord had blessed us in our area. He really had led us to those who have needed us. Every day we see these tiny miracles that just increase my faith and want me to work even harder than I did the day before. Good stuff :) 

Anywho, it has been toasty here in Vacaville. It got up to 116 the other day. It was nuts. (don't worry mom I'm drinking lots of water ;)) I try and keep a positive outlook on it and whenever I hear a missionary complain about it I just look at them and say "mission memories guys! Let's goooooooo" I mean when else are you going to be knocking door and trying to talk to people in a white shirt and tie in 116-degree weather. Definitely not when your home. Guys I really like the mission. To be honest I didn't at first but I really love it. :) 

We still haven't gotten in contact with our balcony investigator Jennifer. We are going to call her today. We had a lesson with the 2 families we are working with this week though! We had a lesson with the Busbys about how important the book of Mormon is. And how you CANNOT, come to a knowledge of the truthfulness of the church without reading and praying and then consequently receiving a witness from the holy ghost testifying that it is true. It was a really good lesson and I think we struck a few chords with Laina (the mom). 

We also taught the grindle family again and had a really awesome lesson with them about the holy ghost and feeling it. We brought a member with us and it was so cool, she started testifying and the spirit was super strong, when all of a sudden little Emily decided she was done and started causing a racket. Now she is 2 so that's understandable, but I had to do something about it so I jumped on the floor and started coloring with her while the member testified. Well she got through with that too she wanted me to follow her to get some toys, don't worry I still was teaching while distracting. I really wanted Lainey, Mike and Joseph to feel the spirit so to let them do that I played with Emily while my amazing companion taught the rest of the lesson. I poked my head in the conversation every once and a while to testify. They seemed to really get a lot out of the lesson. Which was good. But little Emily wore me out haha. She is so energetic. But we were hoping to see them at church. Sadly, they did not come. Hopefully they will come soon. I'm praying my guts out for them:) 

Alright now to explain the subject line. We went and did a service for a member in the sister’s ward. We went over and they had us demo an awning that had a fiberglass roof. Man, that was nuts. I got fiber glass all over me. Don't worry all is well. I had proper eye and breathing protection. But while tearing it apart i cut my arm haha. Nothing bad just a little scrape. But I found out when you destroy fiberglass it flies into the air and makes it look like you murdered a pixie village with how much the air was sparkling haha. Fun stuff fun stuff. 

Well that's all for me my emails are getting lamer and lamer haha sorry guys. I just don't know what to talk about Any more. We just do a lot of finding and teaching. I will be on the lookout for some cool stories to tell next week I promise. I thought I had some this week but I forgot them all. Haha I will make a list. Maybe...... If I remember 🤣

Love you guys! Have a wonderful week! The book is true. Joseph Smith was a prophet, and God really does love us. 

-Elder Riley Field

Pictures! 

"and I saw a pillar of light..... In our apartment" 

Cool quote from Pieology

I lost a tie to a grape jelly and ketchup meat ball haha (they were so good) 

I may have super glued my finger to a pen cap..... Long story.....if ya want to know email me asking about it haha. 

Cool house we knocked on in the middle of no where

Cool flowers I didn't know existed outside of our apartment 

Elder Field Finds His Uncle's MTC Companion?!?

Hey friends and family! 

So, you guys are never going to believe this. But there is a family in the ward we went and had dinner with. They are the Robertsons. While we were having dinner, I mentioned where I was from and the dad looked at me and said, "hmm my MTC companion was from pleasant Grove." So, I took a leap of faith and asked who it was "his name was Ryan Farley" I immediately started freaking out and told him that was my uncle. He went and got old photos and sure enough. I’m pretty sure that's my uncle. So, if ya hear that Ryan, I am serving in the same ward as your MTC companion. Such a small world. Haha 

Anywho! This week was nuts we had transfers this week. All the missionaries in the zone left haha the only companionships who weren't getting transferred were Elder Harris and myself and a set of sisters. The rest of them all drove up to Santa Rosa. So, because of that we had to do a service that is on Tuesday with just us and the sisters..... We fed the homeless, but it’s with a bunch of church members from the stake. We go and cook up a ton of taco salad and serve it to them. It was a lot of fun but just a ton of work. I enjoyed it. Usually we do shifts of missionaries that way our entire day isn't eaten up with service, but since we were the only ones there, it fell to us :) it's all good, it was fun. I got to be head dishwasher, I was totally okay with that, I got to wear a rubber apron and use an industrial dish washer station. I had a little too much fun. 

Well will give you an update about the missionary work here where I’m serving. 

We have had quite a few lessons this week along with finding. We went nuts this week with our finding, contacting everyone we saw, literally running with joggers to share a message with them, construction workers, you name it, if they were outside they got a short message about the gospel of Jesus Christ. In 2 days, we found 11 potentials who sound pretty promising. In face 5 of those 11 we have return appointments with! We are so excited. I have really developed a testimony of Goals and the hard work to make them happen. It's a true principle, hard work brings blessings. And the lord really had been merciful to us. Even if it did get to 111° outside one day ;) life of a missionary! 

We had a lesson with the Decious family, which is a part member family who are so cool. Alright so I thought the Field family was nuts and brutal to each other..... Boy was I wrong, the Decious family makes the field family look like the care bears. These guys are savage to each other, those insults and crap they throw at each other had me baffled. Hahaha but they are so cool, they started throwing insults at me now which only makes me feel part of the family because I do it back ;) but any way, back to the lesson, we had an awesome lesson on parables and why the savior taught the way he did. It was really cool, we each took turns drawing out parts of a parable which was super freaking fun. We are teaching them about patriarchal blessings :) it's gonna be good  

We also had a lesson with our investigator family the Grindles. It was an alright lesson. Their little 2-year-old Emily just was not having it at all that night. So, it was a pretty scattered lesson. But it's all good we talked a ton about scripture study and how that's something we need to do it know If the church is true or not. Hopefully they will start to progress. Their son is the one who is the most promising. He wants to come to church and is consistently reading the Book of Mormon. Joseph is awesome. 

We also had a lesson with Alex, our new investigators from Guam. He speaks English, but he is so cool. He is consistently reading the Book of Mormon already! We have taught him 1 and a half lessons. He is so cool. We taught him about the Book of Mormon and why we have it and what it's about and he seemed super pumped to read it. I can't wait to teach him about the restoration. He is so cool! 

Jennifer (our balcony contact if yall remember) we have lost contact with :( so hopefully we can get back into contact with her. 

Fun story this week! So, the big fight was this past Saturday. Who knew that would be such a hinder to the work of salvation...... Everyone was watching the fight haha. Everyone we tried to contact was in a hurry because they were going to watch the fight with friends and family haha. The fight I'm referring to us the Maryweather and McGregor fight. It was nuts haha

Anyway, that was my week. Sorry this one was a lengthy one haha.  I hope you guys all had an awesome week! Love you all! 

-Elder Riley Field

Pictures -

Fenton’s creamery..... I swear I gained 12 pounds just looking at it. 

Uncle Ryan

And see it actually was 111°

Elder Field Finds Someone Of His Kind!

Hey friends and family. The sun is being Mooned as I type this morning. Lol the whole city of Vacaville, has basically shut down and is now staring at the sun.... Don't worry mom I have the correct eye protection. Haha anyhow let's get into my incredibly short week ;) 

So, my weekend week has consisted of transfers! That's right friends and family transfers are here! And the result is!!................ *suspense building*....... 

I'm staying in Vacaville with Elder Harris actually haha. So, no change I'm staying here. I'm pretty pumped about that. My companion is awesome and I love the area we are seeing some cool things happen. Any who! 

I really don't have any cool stories this week. We really weren't able to see anyone. We did a bunch of finding and just organizing everything for the zone next transfer. There are 2 greenies coming into the zone so that's really awesome. I'm pumped for that. Hopefully we can get them a good start for their mission. 

We started working with a couple of less active in the ward which is super cool. We picked up 2 new investigators, which is pretty cool. They are named Alex and Maria. We contacted them outside their house. So, we will see if we can go over and start teaching them. No one showed up to church which was sad :( but hey there is always next week. 

One cool story actually! We were at dinner with the Knight family and they have two daughters around our age and we got talking to one of them and she was mentioning that she had a crappy back and she had surgery on it. When she said that, "Hey I have a crappy back too" all the Knights looked over and asked what I had so I told them Sheuermann’s Kyphosis.  Her eyes lit up and she said she had that too! YOU HERE THAT! I'M NOT A LONELY FREAK! THERE ARE OTHER OF MY KIND! She had hers corrected with surgery, but hey we are cool none the less. Hahaha so we took an awkward hey we are hunchback pictures. 

Sorry for this short lame email, hopefully this week will be more event full.  I love you all! Have an awesome week! I love you lots! God is real, the book of Mormon is the word of God, Jesus really is the Christ, and Joseph Smith saw what he said he saw. Love you guys! 

-Elder Riley Field

Pictures! 

Elder Field and his homie who has a back problem

 Temple photos with Tony