Elder Field Is The IT Department

Boy oh boy...... this week has been a good one. Really long and exhausting but a good one none the less. It was my first official week as Tech Elder with Elder jones. Hahaha, I drew a picture explaining my feelings and thoughts. I will attach a photo of it in this email I hope you enjoy it ;) Anyway! shall we jump into the week?

Monday was a good P-day. Relaxing. Everyone in the zone met up and we signed journals and just had a very fun and relaxing p-day, Something I am going to need for the week ahead *foreshadow* ;)

Tuesday, the madness began haha. The entire morning we moved all of my stuff over to the new apartment. I got what is called an in-zone transfer. Kind of..... The area where the Tech Elders serve in Changed to the Rincon Valley ward. So, I had to move into a new apartment because I was the new tech Elder but am still in the same ward...... Idk how that works but whatever hahah. Anyway, after we got all my stuff moved over to the new apartment (Which is like 4 streets down haha) we headed over to the Badger building to do transfers. Everyone in the mission who is being transfers congregates in Santa Rosa to exchange companions and return to their areas...... Well apparently, the Tech Elders are in charge of that. So, when I showed up Elder Jones put me to work. Transfers started at 9:30. We had to get everyone with their new companion and out of Santa Rosa by 10:30. Well...... We failed at that we didn't get everyone out till 11:15...... We tried...... But people are stubborn..... But it was still a lot of fun doing it :D after that I got thrown into a Presentation I had to present to all of the new Greenies coming into the mission. It was pretty easy though. I just had to talk about what technology is used for in the mission and what we should and shouldn't do. I had Elder Jones with me though so all was well. After that we took photos of all the Greenies and president and their companions. Sat through the rest of the presentation. And then a did a TON of Office work. Updating contacts, updating who was with who in our system, Updating the mission website, Making new picture magnates...... just a lot of different stuff. it was fun though haha. I was pretty beat when I came home though. That's always good. 

Wednesday, we did food bank like any other usual Wednesday. But before we did that. we did some office work. Woot. and then A member from Vallejo came and took us out to lunch! But there was a little surprise. A sister missionary who went home was with her. She showed up and we all went out for a quick lunch and said our final good byes and then we went to food bank. After wards we got a text from our ward mission leader telling us to hurry over to an investigators house. Her name Is Jazlin she is a sophomore in high school. I haven't been able to get a hold of her from the entire time we were in Santa Rosa. She just wouldn't answer texts or any time we Knocked she wasn't home. So, we had kinda given up on her. But then Brother Beck Texted us saying that he got in!!! so we hustled over and she was very kind. Her mother who is a member but has been less active for 15 years was extremely friendly. We went and just got to know them briefly. Jazlin said she wanted to start taking the missionary lessons again and was super pumped about meeting with us again. Elder Jones and I clicked very well with her. We invited her to church this Sunday and she said she would come!! She had a friend there who she had known since she was in 2nd grade was there helping with some yard work. We invited him and he even said he would come! his name is Max and is super cool! Overall, really freaking good day!

Thursday was my very first MLC (Mission leadership Council) It was a really awesome meeting with all of the mission Zone leaders and Sister Training Leaders. So, I thought I was just supposed to provide tech support for the entire thing....... But I actually was part of the council..... I wasn’t prepared for that. They asked our opinion on things.... they asked us to participate in groups...... I just..... did not feel comfortable in that place hahaha. Here I am sitting in a room full of spiritual Giants who know the gospel so well and are just fantastic leaders and missionaries in general. and then there was me hahah..........Elder IT as my mom had decided to call me ;) But I guess I am now part of the mission leadership. I work close with President which is freaking weird. I see him at least twice a day....... WEIRD....... He is always razzing me though ;) he is super cool though I don't mind being around him :) MLC went from about 9 am to 4pm..... It's like a super long meeting..... But I learned a ton. After MLC, we had correlation meeting with our ward mission leader. It was good to introduce Elder Jones to him. That pretty much finished our day.

Friday was planning!! we Had a lesson with a recent convert. We got her hooked on the idea of family history and is super pumped to start doing that. We set up a time with her this week to meet up and start her family history! we spent the entire day running around, we went to the park, did some office stuff, helped people with their iPads and tablets, just helped with other tech problems hahah. We get calls throughout the day from missionaries who have tech problems, it's our job to solve them, woo! We didn't too much other than that all day. We planned good and did a ton of contacting and stuff like that :D 

Saturday, we had district meeting. And all day Saturday we Went to the park and did some contacting! we talked to everyone!! it was so awesome! we handed out 2 book of Mormons (wish it was more! there is always next Saturday, right?) , no return appointments BUT! we are hoping that the people who took the book of Mormons will actually read them and give us a call! I will be praying for it! Elder Jones and I have started this transfer with a bang! it's been awesome! we have just hit the ground running and don't plan on stopping any time soon!! woo woo!

Sunday was a good day. Jazlin actually came to church with her mom!! Max didn't come but it's okay. We will work on him later. So, after sacrament meeting we had a lesson with her and her mom about the restoration of the gospel. It was such a good lesson. Have I told you guys how good my companion is at teaching! It's so easy to teach with him!! it's so awesome!! but anyway the lesson was so spirit filled. By the end of it everyone was crying. We asked if Jazlin had any experience with prayer and she broke down and told us a pretty awesome story that didn't seem super impressive but it meant the world to her and it was so cool that she came to a testimony of how God knows her and loves her and is genuinely invested in her life. It was such a good experience. We set up another lesson with her for this Wednesday and it's going to be freaking awesome!!! The rest of the day was spent doing some office stuff, we knocked a few doors. We then had dinner and then went over to the mission home to help set up the Sunday night call. (President video chats with all the zone leaders at the end of each Sunday. We showed up and set up the tech and just wait and see if anything would go wrong haha.) 

This week was such a good week. It's been an exhausting week but it’s a good exhausting. We are going to kill it this transfer. Elder Jones and I fasted on Sunday and asked Heavenly father how many people he had prepared to be baptized this transfer. We both came to the conclusion that there was 3 that needed to be baptized. So, we are going to be working really freaking hard to find that 3 that Heavenly father has prepared!! Let's see if we can find them!! I love you guys tons!! I hope you had a good week and look forward to hearing from you! 

Love you!!

-Elder Riley Field

The picture I was telling yall about -

A baby got my tablet and took pictures while I chased him to grab it. I think you might get a kick out of it -

*Elder Field Answers The Phone* "IT Department, Have You Tried Turning It Off And On?"

I just want to first open my email up by letting my family know that I'm with them in spirit. I love you guys. And I wish I could be with you guys during this time. Families are forever and I know that and testify of that.

And just a message to my great grandpa.....

Love you, I hope your reunion with grandma was as amazing as I imagine it was. Tell her I say hi. Love you lots. Have fun teaching everyone who never got the chance to hear the message of how families can be together for ever. It's a message that has helped me through the past couple of days. See you soon great grandpa!

-Elder Riley Field

This week was a good week. A hard one. But one full of growth. We found out transfer information. And I got a pretty big surprise. I will be staying in Rincon Valley. And Elder Ricks will be leaving :{ I love Elder Ricks I'm so sad to see him go. But along with that, I have been given A LOT of responsibilities now. I am the new tech Elder in the mission. I teach at ever Zone conference. I answer technology questions that other missionaries have (I'm basically the mission IT department. Are you proud dad ;) the first thought I had when I got the call from president was the IT Crowd! My family and the Walker family know what I'm talking about. Maybe I will be the moss of the Mission) . I help President with his technology issues. I make the transfer document. I help with the new missionaries coming into the mission. So, I am going to be running around like mad these next transfers..... I will let you know how that is next week haha. I'm pretty nervous. Especially because things in Rincon Valley are starting to pick up. We will see if I can juggle it all haha. My new companion is Elder Jones. I know Elder Jones I have served around him for a transfer now. He is a super cool kid and have no doubts that we will get along ;) so yeah! Woo Woo!

Let's dive into the week alright? 

Monday, after p-day was all done and over with we had a lesson with Michelle again. It was a really awesome lesson about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. She loved it and ate it up like usual. She said something really cool when we first arrived. She called us 'Her' missionaries. Then she told us we will forever be her missionaries. Guys....... so, I'm totally gonna put this out here. It's been like low-key my goal for someone to call me their missionary hahah. I always here about these missionaries that converted these members and they were always called their missionaries. I have been hoping that I can help someone enough to earn that title in someone's life :D woot. Haha let's see how many more people I can help ;) Anywho it was just a really awesome lesson overall. And that’s what ended our day :D

Tuesday was the last district meeting! Me and Elder Ricks were stressing pretty hardcore about it. The topic for this district meeting was "Why is it so important to change our nature while on our missions?" We had a bunch of ideas but we couldn't figure out a good lesson plan. So, all that morning we stressed and was able to put together a pretty bomb lesson plan if I do say so myself ;3 When we got to district meeting, i forgot that we had won the competition in the zone for the district who contacted the most people during the transfer. So, the other districts cooked us breakfast (that was the reward) So after breakfast was said and done, it ate up 80% of the district meeting time. We had some practices because that's what we had planned to do first so we did that, and wasn't able to get to any of the lesson...... Sad day..... Oh well maybe next transfer haha. Anyway, the rest of the day was pretty hectic. Before all the proceeding events started, I had to really use the bathroom so we had gotten home from the mission office I ran into the house...... well my shoes were slippery...... I sprained or Rolled my ankle pretty good........ yeah..... I rolled my ankle while running to use the bathroom.....I wish I had a cooler story...... But I don’t.....so I braced it up and we were off....We helped out with some technological issues for the activity days leaders. Stayed with them for about 30 mins. Which then we had to quickly drive over to the Yulupa Building (which is about 10 mins out of our area) in Santa Rosa to start filling the font for a baptism that was going to happen that night. The Hermanas investigator Richard was getting baptized. So, we started that. Waited for a bit to make sure all was going to be well. We waited for the Hermanas to show (The font can't just be left to fill someone has to attend it at all times) DROVE LIKE MAD (A safe mad.... Don't worry mom) to dinner at a member’s house. Ate dinner and rushed back over just before the baptism to start. The baptism was amazing. I don't think I mentioned that Richard is deaf so it was amazing to see everything done in sign language as well as spoken. They even had some of the other Deaf members get up and present the talks about the Holy Ghost and baptism. It was such a cool experience. The spirit was so strong. It was just so...... wow..... no words hahah anyway we finished the night with our usual book of Mormon class.

Wednesday, we had our usual food bank service. That really was the most exciting thing to have happened. We did a lot of finding! not any cool stories there...... Haha sorry.

Thursday started out pretty rough. My companion woke up with a massive migraine. So, while he slept I got ready for the day and started studying. He got up for lunch at about 12:30 but had to lie back down because his head still hurt. At this point I studied some more. Drew a little bit...... pondered the meaning of life.......  read the Book of Mormon...... Made a top hat for a pig that sits on my desk (Don't worry I will send a photo) Lots of studying though. Which I'm always down for. He didn't get up till 2:30. Poor kid. Migraine for 50% of the day. But nothing too exciting happened. We did some walking. Okay, a lot of walking trying to contact people on the street. We visited a member who is less active and read the book of Mormon with him. (I love the book of Mormon :3 don't you?) and yeah. That was our Thursday.

Friday was planning. And this was the freaking hardest planning session of my life. The planning session before Transfers is so hard because you don't know if you’re staying or going. So you really aren't that invested in the planning session haha. The day was pretty normal. Nothing exciting there either.

That night I got the news about my great grandpa. Hope you’re doing well grandma. Love you.

Saturday, we finally had our lesson with the Wilsons!! It was supposed to be Tuesday but they canceled and rescheduled. The lesson was awesome! They have such strong testimonies. Even though we were there to teach Connor. His parents did a lot of the teaching. We just prompted subjects and helped them with a few things. Sara Wilson (the mom) literally bore her testimony to us and Connor how she knew Jesus Christ was her savior and how the church of Jesus Christ of latter day saints is God's church. I was flabbergasted. Internally I was screaming to myself "why aren't you coming to church??!!" they told us they love the ward they just have been away for a while. We invited them to church next Sunday, due to stake conference. They said they would try and make it to stake conference. That night we had the adult evening session of stake conference. It was really good! The talks were awesome. After which we found out transfer information. Yeah Elder Ricks will be leaving but I will be staying as tech Elder...... Should be an interesting upcoming week haha.

Sunday was a lot of good byes. We went around to some of our favorite members in the ward to say good bye to. Elder Ricks was pretty beat up that he was leaving. But overall really good visits. We went to stake conference which was...... Long..... And good...... But long...... Haha anyway that sums up Sunday.

This week has been...... Good...... I have grown a lot in just this short week. I have learned a lot in this short week. I'm excited and extremely nervous for what lies ahead. But. I'm ready for it. God has gotten me this far why would he abandon me now. I love you guys lots, hope all of you had a wonderful Easter. Keep reflecting on the savior this week too. :) I unfortunately didn't do much thinking about the savior this Easter. Transfers kind of occupied my mind. But I'm devoting my next few personal studies to the savior and his resurrection and sacrifice. So hopefully that makes me even ;)

Love you guys! 

-Elder Riley Field

Pictures -

Last comp pictures

Easter basket a member gave us 

The mission mascots Mr. Ducky and Chris P. Bacon (aka professor porker) 

Elder Field Needs To Start Carrying An Umbrella....

Hey fam!! This week was a good one. We had some cool things happen which was nice. Nothing like super exciting but we found a less active family that we will begin teaching so we are excited about that! It rained a lot this week :D looks like this storm is going to last all week end to haha. looks like California is going to break off into the sea sooner than we though. Anyway, shall we dive in?

Monday was a pretty normal day. P-Day we went and played a bunch of sports. After P-Day we had dinner with the Bishop and his family at the little league baseball park where his son was playing. So, we got to eat pizza share a spiritual message and watch some little league baseball. After which we had another lesson with Michelle Traviss! Again, it went fantastic. She wanted to take a break from the missionary lessons and asked if she could possibly have a church history lesson. So, we decided we would watch Joseph Smith Prophet of the restoration. It was awesome. The spirit was so strong. At the end of the film I bore my testimony about how I had the chance to go to Carthage Jail when I was younger and how I knew Joseph Smith was a prophet of God and he really did restore Christ’s original church to the earth once more. It was just a good lesson.

Tuesday, we had an awesome district meeting. We asked Hermana Foster to Teach what is a successful missionary with her companions Hermana Garcia and Hermana Broyles to do practices for contacting and Extended Baptismal invites. It was so good. The spirit was really strong. We also sat and talked about general conference and me and Elder Ricks talked about what prevents us from becoming a successful missionary (such as Disobedience, Pride, not being charitable etc.) We also had a lesson with Sister Coons about Half of the commandments, we talked about Obedience, Studying the scriptures, praying often, Keeping the sabbath day holy, and the word of wisdom. She understood all of it and we just had a really good new member lesson. I love sister Coons she so stinking funny. and just super cool. I wish you all could meet her. She just is the chillest human on this planet. The Coons family is just awesome. Anyway, after that lesson we had the Book of Mormon class at the church. After we finished up with that. the youth were learning about what it was like to go on a mission. After they finished we sat and talked with all the youth for a little bit. Ah man this ward is just so freaking awesome. There are a ton of youth and they all are some of the coolest people I have met haha. I'm really blessed to be in this ward. I have met a lot of cool friends here. Anyway, that wraps up our night.

Wed was an interesting day......wasn't the best day ever but there were highlights. I’m going to skipped till about 3 pm because that's when the day started looking better :D After food bank we went and read the Bible again with Donna! And guess what!? We didn't get hit by a Prius this time! That's a positive, right?? After which we went to dinner with The Brady family where we talked all about music! We were talking about bands we used to listen to and they asked if We knew Walk Off The Earth...... I lost my crap fam. Those who know me know that I love Walk Off The Earth. That sparked a 30-min conversation just about that band. Hahah I have said it before and I'm going to keep saying it. I love this ward so stinking much. We had a lesson with Gabriel that night....... didn't go as well as I hoped it would. It Went like all the lessons before he dropped us. He kept eluding to this personal problem he is dealing with. But he wants to get baptized and he doesn't know how we can help until this personal problem goes away or he overcomes it. So, because he isn't willing to tell us (which I totally understand) We decided for now on. We will just remain in daily contact. Keep inviting him to church and the Book of Mormon class and give him the time he needs to work out what he needs to work out. And if he wants to have a lesson with us, he will text us with a time and topic. He said that would be a good idea. So, we will see how that pans out.

Thursday was filled with finding. It was raining pretty good here so we weren't able to do any park contacting. We stayed in the car and drove from Member to member trying to introduce our selves to the ones who don't attend church or activities. While doing this we knocked on a woman's door named Jennifer Prowse, a man came to the door and said that he was her husband and said he wasn't a member. We introduced our selves and asked if there would be a better time for us to drop by and get to know their family a little bit. He said sure! And invited us in to get out of the rain for a little bit. We talked with him for just a bit and found out he owns a recording studio (that's pretty sick) Him and his wife (Who is a less active member) have been married for 4 1/2 years and have 2 daughters. They just seem like a really cool family. But he was super friendly and kind. It doesn't seem like missionaries have been there or talked to him before because he asked a couple of questions. He understood the basic of what missionaries are but asked a couple of really in-depth questions. After chatting for 10 mins we needed to take off. He invited us over again this week sometime when his wife would be home. So, I'm pretty pumped about that :D

Friday, we planned. Nothing to exciting. Just dinner then comp study after. Did some district leader stuff and that was our Friday haha. 

Saturday, we Hit up Kenwood which is the most southern part of our area, it's about 15 min drive. We went and did some door knocking. some less active finding. We saw a couple of active members while we were down there. Overall it was extremely productive on the ward list. We found out a lot of information we didn't know before which helps a ton :D We didn't find anyone who was interested in the message but we tried our best to talk to everyone there. Elder Ricks was asked to do a Baptismal interview for the Hermanas investigator which was nice. He is getting baptized tomorrow which is super cool. He name is Richard Humphrey he is deaf and is just the coolest guy you will meet :D We stopped by a recent convert/less active members home. The ward has been asking us to go over and try to work with them to get them back to church so We have been stopping at their house every week now just to see if we could get in to get to know them. But every time we knock they are "on the way out the door" "not feeling well" You know the usual excuses to get rid of the missionaries ;) Well we felt like we should drop by again we dropped by. Brother Wilson opened the door and was brushing us off when sister Wilson ran to the door and said, "Man how did you know we were just talking about you." She then went on the explain that their son is 8 and he wants to get baptized so they want us to teach him the lessons :D WE FOUND OUR IN!!! We are pretty pumped. We set up a time on Tuesday at 4 to go over and see them. Hopefully we can start helping them see the importance of church :D

Sunday Was a wonderful ward conference. Afterward conference though my companion Elder Ricks got a migraine that he needed to sleep off. So, I just studied for district meeting pretty much all day :D it was a nice study session. We had dinner with a really awesome family named the Nixon s which was a lot of fun :D and yeah! fun stuff!

Anyway, that sums up my week! I hope all of you guys are doing well! I also hope you guys are checking out the new Easter initiative! it's really stinking cool and I promise as you look at it, it will bring peace into your life :D I know it has mine as I have had the chance to go through Mormon.org 

Love you guys tons!! talk to you next week!

-Elder Riley Field

Pictures -

A little primary kid ran up to me and said LOOK I'm a missionary too!!!

Cool painting of Al the Temples 

Elder Field Reaches His Breaking Point....(Referring to his temporal items not his mental state) ;)

Hey family!! Hope you all enjoyed conference as much as I did :D I will talk a little bit about that late. So, what I mean in my subject line, apparently there is a point on the mission where your stuff just starts breaking...... I have reached that point. I have mended 4 pairs of my pants. Luckily my basic sewing skills plus our mission presidents amazing wife, I managed to fix all of them and they are ready for another year :D My Tablet case broke too........ sad........ I have had to replace all the shoes laces on all of my shoes hahaha.....Don’t ask me how all of them broke within a week but it happened. I'm praying I move out of this stage in the mission quickly :D but other than that I'm in pretty good spirits as per usual :D Shall we jump into my week?

Monday!! Was P-Day as usual but we also had another lesson with the Coons! We taught about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The lesson went well. Everyone participated and seemed to have a good time. It got kinda boring at the end so I tried to spice it up but it didn't do much. After the lesson, we talked with them for a little bit and got to know them more. We FINALLY made a connection with Brother Coons. (Here's a little back round on him. He was born into the church was raised in it. Went on a mission. After his mission he just went inactive. Like REALLY inactive. But now comes to church after his wife joined the church. He now loves church and tries to attend every week, Work schedules throw a wrench into that.) We made it over missions. We started talking about his mission and just went off about all his mission stories and we shared some of ours and it was just a grand time :D hopefully he will continue to warm up to us. Love that family! 

Tuesday, we had an awesome district meeting. I got to announce the Easter Initiative to the district. #PrinceofPeace. The video is so freaking cool!! if you haven’t seen it! go watch it. The spirit is pretty strong in that video. It's all about how we can find peace in our savior Jesus Christ. I'm super pumped to start sharing the video and handing out the pass along cards :D We also went and visited an inactive member (Who says they are happy where they are at but we can come over and visit but if we share a message or try to get them to come back to church they will have their records removed... I know right....) This guy is hardcore man. He served in the army in Vietnam and told us about a time when he had to call napalm in on top of himself. He was being overrun and so he thought well..... if he was going down he would take all of them with him. We'll after dropping the napalm he lived. Got burned up a little bit but wiped out all his enemies. He told us next time we come over he will tell us more of his war stories...... But they are also some of the nicest people :D I love the Daley couple. So cool. That night we had our book of Mormon class and that wrapped up the day!

Wed We went to food bank and did some service there. Had lots of fun as usual :D we then went over to a less active members from the brush creek ward (The brush creek ward is home to President and the AP missionaries, so because they are always busy we help them out with things in their ward. So, it's kinda like we have 1 1/2 wards to cover. It's lots of fun) home and read the Bible with her. While we were in the middle of reading, (we read in our car because she lives in a sobriety home so for some reason we aren't allowed in there so we read in our car) This lady came out of the house to our left and got into her car in front of us. We made eye contact with her and she started her car. We backed up just to give her some extra room. Even though we gave her extra room she (very quickly) backed into our car....... We got out of the car to assess damages and what not. Everything was fine. But because it's a church vehicle we needed to get her number and insurance info and what not. She was quite rude and wouldn’t give it to us. She gave us her name and number and she said she was insured by farmers and then left........ But we got her license plate number. So, we took the car to the mission vehicle coordinator and since there was no damage all was good. I just am still baffled how rude she was. Meh...... She will realize in the future she was rude to God's servants :D 

Thursday, we did some more service for Ginger..... We have to pass her off to the other elders now. She just lives to far away from us for us to keep going over and doing service. Too many miles. But after that we went to the mission office. My companion had another chat with president (I don't know) and I got to hang out with the Senior missionary couples in the mission office which is always fun. Anyway, we did some door knocking, some street contacting and just overall a bunch of finding for about 3 hours. Not much success but we have 2 that said to come back later. They didn't seem too interested and just said that to get us to leave BUT they still invited us over!!! So, there’s a chance!! ;) after dinner and Correlation meeting with our WML we had another lesson with Michelle all about the restoration of the gospel. The entire time we were teaching this lesson the spirit was there and was just confirming to me the entire time that what we are doing is truly the Lords work :D SHE LOVED IT! at the very beginning of the lesson we asked her about her feelings of the Book of Mormon. And she basically told us she knows it's true......... Man part of me wishes she wasn't a baptized member....... dang it.... hahaha oh well I'm just happy we get to teach someone as cool as Michelle. Also, she called us her Mormons which was awesome! such a good lesson. We are having another one on Monday. we are taking a short break from the missionary lessons and will be teaching about church history. So, we will most likely watch the Joseph Smith Prophet of the restoration movie. It explains it pretty well :D 

Friday was planning! woot. woot. we went over to the Rowlands for dinner. Brother Rowland wasn't there so we couldn't have a lesson unfortunately D: oh well......

Saturday was Conference!! I don't know about you guys but I freaking loved conference so much haha We went over to the Peterson lane building to watch it with all the other missionaries and investigators who wanted to come. We invited Gabriel to the first and second sessions and he didn't come. Brother beck invited him to priesthood, and I will get to that in a second but finest Since I'm not going to be able to tell you what I learned from every talk I'm just going to list 1 talk from each of the sessions I really really like and why I liked it. First off I do have to say freaking Mormon tabernacle choir was on point this weekend. I usually don't like them very much but they sounded awesome. Anyway, Saturday morning session. I really liked the talk by President Nelson of the quorum of the 12. I really like the way he talked about how the atonement is not separate from the savior we should always talk about the atonement in correlation with the savior. The atonement is so cool :D love it! The Saturday afternoon session This one is hard. I'm going to mention a couple from this session. I really like Holland’s because he referenced all the choir stuff and king Lear in his talk. Gary B. Sabin about standing up inside / going all in I though twas really fantastic. Spoke to me a lot. And Neil L, Andersons was really good about overcoming the world :D  Priesthood session I'm going to take the cop out answer and say all of them. They all answered at least 1 of my questions or concerns I had before conference :D Bednar’s was super cool though :D We invited Gabriel to come to priesthood session. it was about half over when I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned to my left thinking it was President Wright who happened to sit right next to me. But it was Gabriel!!! He came!! he sat down next to me. Watched a talk and a half. I looked over and he was bawling. He looked at me and said he would be outside...... He left early....... I was kinda bummed about that :/

Sunday! Another amazing day of conference talks. The Sunday morning session was super good. And Gabriel actually showed up again to it. This time he sat through the entire session. (First off shout out to the new temple going in Idaho! coolio) Rasband’s talk was my favorite from this session. So goooooood!!!!! It literally answered all my questions in one talk. Just proof that God knows me.... Heavenly father is cool am I right? ;) After the session was over we were invited over to the bishop’s house to eat lunch and watch the next session with his family :D we did and I watched the first half and took really good notes...... But then they brought out the new puppy...... And needless to say.... I'm a horrible missionary and didn't get much out of the second half because puppies are distracting and I am a weak-willed person sometimes....... ;) But I do plan on re-reading it so no worries I will let you know which talk I liked the most some other time. That was pretty much our day. Nothing too exciting after that. Just some finding and what not :D

Anyway, guys I hope you all enjoyed conference because I know I did. It was such a spiritual and up lifting experience. The entire time I just felt Heavenly father nudging me Every time something was spoken that related to me. I felt like he was saying "Hey Riley, that was for you." or "Hey Elder field, write that down. you will need it later" or "Bruh, one of the people you are teaching needs this. Show them" It was just such a good experience. I love conference. It also just deepened my testimony of prophets and apostles. They truly are the Lord’s servants here on the earth. And I sustain them all. God truly is revealing great and marvelous things in this dispensation. And I can't wait to see what else he reveals. I invite everyone to go find a favorite talk from this session and prayerfully study it for the next week. I promise you it will help you more than you think. I love you all!!! Talk to you next week!! BYE!!!

-Elder Riley Field

Pictures!

This member had us over for dinner..... their house was massive.....

The view from their house and the sunset :D so pretty

The greatest T-shirt next to my hug life T-shirt that is ;) (Sister Coons daughter)

We found this drawing on the chalk board in the gym after we helped out with activity days. I can only assume that is us. I'm the one on the left haha. 

Elder Field Goes To Hempcon

OKAY, BEFORE I START THIS EMAIL!!! DID YOU GUYS KNOW THAT THE HOLY GRAIL IS THE CHALICE THAT CHRIST BLESSED THE WINE IN DURING THE LAST SUPPER??????? I THOUGHT THE HOLY GRAIL WAS JUST A FANCY CUP!!! EVERYTHING MAKES SO MUCH MORE SENSE. THE CRUSADES MAKE SO MUCH MORE SENSE. Anyway, sorry about that. That little factoid blew my mind. Haha then again.... A lot of simple things blow my mind don't they ;)

Hey fam!! So, I'm trying a new technique to email writing. I'm writing a little bit of the email at the end of each day telling about events throughout the day. Tell me if yall like it or na...... This one is.... well.... is pretty long...... I will try my best to compress and shorten them in the future. (If yall give up on reading this half way through I totally understand) I just felt like there was so much to tell about this week :D  And I feel this is a good way to pay you guys back for not getting a good weekly email in 2 weeks. Anyway, ready to dive into it?

Monday was a good P-Day we just chilled at the church and played volleyball. We play a lot of volleyball here actually! It's super fun! We had dinner with the Traviss Family. (Yes, I know there are 2 's' that's how you spell their name) ;) They had their daughter in law over. Who actually is a member but she was baptized when she was 12 and doesn't really remember anything about the church. So, she went to the temple the other day with her husband and his parents and had a pretty powerful experience I guess. So, they called us up and asked if we would be willing to teach her the missionary lessons. I was pretty pumped when we got this call. We went over and taught the plan of salvation to her. SHE LOVED IT. The spirit was super strong and at the end of the lesson she said she felt like all of it was true. Which is pretty freaking awesome. We set up for another lesson on next Monday. We will be teaching the Restoration. She was already pretty interested in the Book of Mormon so we gave her one and asked to read the introduction page. She asked if she could read more than that. OF COURSE YOU CAN!! No one we have ever given the Book of Mormon to has asked if they could read more than what we give them. We told her she could read as much as she wanted. 

Tuesday, we had an awesome Zone meeting. It was about a bunch of different things but one of them was just having a good attitude about everything. When I heard this I thought "I think I have a pretty good attitude about everything" But of course the spirit slapped me on the back of the head and said "Do you though? You don't seem very happy when you have to go find" ....... Yeah....... I'm working on it ;) Anyway we had a lesson with Victoria!!! (For those who didn't get my weekly email last week. She was a lady we met on the street, we started talking to her and asked her the question "do you believe that God has a plan for you?" She lit up and just went off and told us how she believed that her whole purpose in life was to glorify God and to tell people about him. She then just started to throw questions our way. Mainly about basic beliefs and what not. We talked a lot about Jesus Christ and was impressed to find that we believed a lot of the things she did. We set up a lesson with her this week.) The lesson went alright, unfortunately it really wasn't a lesson. It was more or less a discussion on the Godhead and if they are 1 being or 3 individual and distinct beings. She was pretty convinced that they were one being and wouldn’t budge. She threw some scriptures our way and we did the best to explain why we thought the way we thought but she just wasn't having it. We explained that a little more and told her that because of the book of Mormon and modern day prophets we know that they are 3 distinct and individual beings. When we realized we weren't going to get anywhere we decided to just invite her to read the Book of Mormon and pray if it was true or not. That if the book is true, what we are saying is truth. She said she would. We didn't plan any other visits with her, she didn't want to plan anything in the future. But she said she would read and pray about the Book of Mormon and if she got an answer she would call us. SO, we are praying pretty hard she keeps to her promise! Other than that, it was a pretty normal day. We had a very chaotic lesson with The Coon family in the ward. (here is a little run down about them, Wife is a recent convert, husband has been a member all his life, they have 2 kids between them, and 2 others split between them. Zak is the oldest who is sister Coons son who lives with them, he is 17 and isn't a member, don't worry we are working on that ;) and the other two little ones are both of theirs, and she is pregnant with another. They are super cool. We are giving her the new member lessons.) We talked about the plan of salvation, or at least tried to. Lots of interruptions but we can't control that :D kids are kids. They are a fun family. *sigh of relief* I love my job ;3

Wednesday was alright but pretty uneventful. The morning was pretty normal until after studies Elder Ricks came down with a Migraine. He had to go lay down until it subsided. He went to lay down at about 11 am. He wasn't up and running till about 3:30 pm. Poor guy. But in the mean time I got to take a nap and do some extra studying. :D I freaking love studies. After that we had a dinner with the Olson family. So, they found out I have never had Crab or Salmon before. They were shocked I hadn't and told me I wasn't allowed to leave the area until I have had it. So they cooked us up some crab and salmon. I have got to say. Salmon is pretty good. :D Crab on the other hand.... meh it's alright.... but it was pretty freaking fun just breaking it open and learning the crab’s anatomy. The Olson's said I looked like a mad scientist while observing how a God put together a crab haha. After dinner, we went to the Righetti family. The husband isn't a member but comes to church every week and actually has a calling in the ward as the assistant scout master......... There are 3 other people in the ward like brother Righetti. Don't worry.... We are working on that ;)..... But anyway, we had a really awesome visit with him and his family. They have 2 little boys Simon and Henry. Henry is a little ball of energy who for some reason has taken a liking to me and just wants to beat me up/play with me where as Simon who is the older one is an extremely intelligent kid. I mean with a name like Simon you kind of have to be right? We showed them the new restoration video Ask Of God : Joseph Smiths First Vision. Which is really cool if yall haven't seen it. The spirit was very strong but at the end when we asked him what he thought of the video and about Joseph Smith in general, he said very nice things but informed us he isn't interested in joining the church at this time in his life........ SAD....... But he likes us coming over though and invited us back soon. Maybe that will change! Let's pray it does!

(WHEW! Congrats if you have made it this far!! Take a breather, grab a snack and a drink of water, and let's continue on shall we?)

Thursday, we had service right after studies for Ginger. I think I have talked about her before. But we helped her move some stuff and now we are helping her fix her front yard. I’m learning how to lay brick and landscape. hahah very basic landscaping of course but hey, skills none the less right?? Anyway we weren't able to get a gospel conversation in this time but we are warming her up. We gave her a Book of Mormon, we forgot to ask if she read it.......... I know..... I'm a terrible missionary...... ;) but we will make sure to ask her next week. So, we had a surprise on Thursday. We got a text from Gabriel!! If you guys don't remember him, he is the only investigator when we got to the area and we had to drop shortly after getting here. Well we were jogging to the church on Tuesday, (I know Elder Field jogging?!?! Don't worry I hate it too, but I got to lose weight somehow right?) I had gotten the feeling the night before we needed to drop by Gabriel's place and see how he was doing. But I brushed it off. Well the feeling returned while we were jogging back to our apartment. So, I stopped and told Elder Ricks "I feel like we need to go see Gabriel" He then said he had felt like we should too. So that night we went and dropped by. He wasn't home, so we left a note on the door saying we were thinking about him and just wanted to see how he was doing. Well we got a text on Thursday saying how appreciative he was of the note and he wanted to meet with us that night. We set some time up with him and Brother Beck. Our WML (Ward Mission leader) We got there and there was something different about him. His countenance had changed. He was happier. He seemed excited to meet with us. We just talked about how he was. He said he missed the church and was ready to start coming back and keep preparing for baptism. Hopefully he will be ready for the teaching we are going to teach him. Because if he wants to be baptized we gots us some work to do :D 

Friday, we had interviews with President which was cool. Just a fun little chat with President. Said he could always count on me and it made me feel all warm and fuzzy on the inside. For the rest of the day we weekly planned. Hurrah. Conference is next week! WOOT WOOT! We went to dinner with the Spanish Hermanas We drove past a convention called Hempcon

 Yupp...... A convention for weed....... Welcome to Cali (no we didn't go into the convention just took a picture of the arch way 😃)

Saturday, we went with the Elders in the district and just went mass contacting in the park for about 3 hours. In total, we contacted about 67 people. With 1 that was kinda interested. We found out that based on what we call "mission math" That every 40 people we contact there is 1 who is relatively interested. It's interesting because it's different in each area. SO! We made it a goal to contact at least 40 people a day. So we can build up our teaching pool. Wish us luck this week!

Sunday, we had a really good Sunday actually. In total, we had about 4 nonmembers there and Michelle came!! But Gabriel did not. D: But he did text us before church and told us he wasn't able to make it and apologized for not being able to show. We still have high hopes for him. He is excited for conference. We taught in 4 different primary classes about missionary work haha. This week was all about the first missionaries in the church. So they all wanted us to come in and talk about missions :D it was pretty cool talking to the kids. A couple of them had pretty deep questions like about sister missionaries being missionaries without holding the priesthood.  How does a 9-year-old come up with that question. I was impressed and tried to answer it the best I could. About them being able to access the power of the priesthood based on the calling they had received. So it was a pretty cool discussion I had with a 9 year old who is way deeper than me...... I'm as about as deep as a kiddie pool....... Swag..... But yeah that's all we did. The rest of the day was filled with us trying to get numbers from the district and seeing members and trying to find people in the rain which didn't go to well...... Blessing for being in the rain right??? Woot. 

If you have made it this far I commend you! You made it to the end of this really long email.... I promise they will be shorter in the future. I just felt like I needed to make up 2 weeks’ worth of emails in 1 really long weekly email. (even though I still only covered one week ;) ) Hope you all have a good week!! Love you lots!! Talk to yall next week in a shorter email :)

 -Elder Riley Field

Pictures-

We had crab for the first time! It was alright.

A Chinese restaurant by a pet shop...... Hmmmmmm

The tree of life! It got cut down

Hempcon arch way.

Elder Field Meets A Member Of The 70!

Hey fam! 

I was informed by my dear mother that she didn't get my big group email last week, I don’t know if the rest of you got it but I did send one! Oh well! Any who this week was a pretty good week! We had a member of the 70 come to our mission and tour it. He also got us all together and we had a half mission conference with him. His name is Elder Schweitzer. I'm not 100% if that's how you spell his name but the stuff he taught us was super cool. He taught us all about Repentance and how it relates to conversion and our ministry as missionaries. It was so good. 

(Sooooo I thought I sent a big email a while ago but apparently it deleted 3/4 of the email and didn't send sooooo here goes a quick one!) 

We found f a new investigator Yay! Her name is Victoria! We met her in the park and we set up a return appointment! 

We also helped a guy out who was out of gas. We found a member who had a gas can and borrowed it and got him some gas. He wasn't interested in our message but thanked us greatly. 

We are hoping to teach some of the part member families. We have 3 in the ward that we set up really good relationships with and are going to ask them if we can star the lessons :) pray they say yes! 

Did a ton of service. 

I am loving the book The Infinite Atonement! You should all read it! It’s amazing! 

Anyway. Love you guys lots sorry my email is so short. Technology sucks sometimes..... Next week will be better I promise. I'm going to fix this problem. 

-Elder Riley Field

Here is a photo of the greatest lawn decoration ever - 

 

Elder Field Meets A Member Of The Seventy

Seeeeee I'm not dead :) just late. 

Hey guys! So, let me explain why I'm emailing today! Our P-Day got switched to today because a member of the 70 Elder Schweitzer was coming and touring the mission. We had a big half mission conference to come and hear him speak and what not. It was pretty cool! The dude is way awesome he taught us all about how to teach Repentance. He explained the importance of Repentance in God's plan of salvation. It was sooooooooo cool! He also taught us how to contact better and how to extend a Baptismal invite better. Apparently, I needed all of this because I have been doing missionary work all wrong 😂😂 I learned a ton! I have at least 4 pages of notes. We also heard from President and Sister Wright which is always such a pleasure to hear from them. She taught about how important it is to have a testimony of the prophet Joseph Smith. She then went on and listed all the things we are able to do because of the prophet. The list was huuuugggeee! It was amazing to see how much Joseph was able to do for the salvation of mankind. It was pretty cool :) 

Anyway, this week was a good week! Busy with a lot of finding (shocking, right?) but I'm trying to have a better attitude about it haha. That was one thing I learned.  I do have a positive outlook, it just sometimes could be a little better with regards to finding :) 

Tuesday of last week was a good day. We went and met with a recent convert named Sister Coons! We are giving her the new member lessons because she hasn't ever gotten them. Her son (Zak who is 17 years old) actually isn't a member. He sits in on lessons. He is a super cool kid. We get along really well so he is down to sit in and listens. He participated a bit when we were talking about the restoration of the gospel. We gave him a Book of Mormon and asked him to read it. He accepted and said he would. So I'm pretty excited about that! We are going over next Tuesday to give the second lesson. :) 

Wednesday, we had the chance to go to Brother Hsia's retirement party. There were a ton of nonmembers there and we were trying to talk it up but it was rather difficult. There wasn't much success but it was a fun party none the less lots of food and fun. Brother Hsia had been working there for 40 years! Freaking insane haha. We also went to food bank and met a kid named Kyle there. The dude just started firing off questions about who we are what we believed and all sorts of stuff! The kid was cool he was 19 years old and was super curious! He doesn't belong to any church he is just "spiritual" he says. (that's a common answer for people here in Cali) he is coming again next week so we can talk to him more so I'm pretty excited about that too! But yeah so that was the highlight of Wednesday. Other than finding! 

Thursday, we had the district leader meeting, which was good. Just the usual meeting. It was good. Got to see and learn from president for an hour. Did some service and yeah. Fun stuff. 

Friday! We did a really big service, it was like a big swap meet we volunteered at. It was specifically for baby items and what not. It was pretty chill. Then we weekly planned! Swaaaaaaaaag! Lots of finding for this week too! Now that I have learned a new contacting strategy I’m pretty excited. Woot! 

Saturday, we had district meeting and something interesting happened. Hermana Foster, she is the one I sing with all the time, she was in my district in San Rafael, well she got transferred to another area but her companion went home early. She then got transferred to my district in a trio now. So, we get to serve around each other again. Yay! 

Sunday was just a good Sabbath. The gospel principles and doctrine classes were combined and it was a big member missionary lesson. Sooooooooo gooooooooooooddd. We are hoping to get the members more focused in the work. I think it's working. :) we will find out here soon. 

Anyway that's pretty much it for this week. The zone conference was amazing. I wish I could talk about it more but I'm running out of time! I will tell you all about it next week! I love you all! Have wonderful week! 

-Elder Riley Field