Elder Field Remembers The Fallen....Happy Memorial Day!

First off, I want to give a shout out to both my little sisters. It was Alivia’s birthday a while ago, but I kept forgetting to write about it. Sorry Alivia! I love you lots! 

Also shout out to Danika! Who turns 18 on Wed!! AND SHE GRADUATED HIGHSCHOOL! Happy birthday Dani!! I love you lots and wish you the best in whatever you’re going to do with your life!

Also, one last thing, Happy Memorial Day today. Let us all take time to remember and honor the fallen heroes that gave their life fighting for our country throughout the ages. I thank of them for their service and let them know that I will never forget them and their service. I want to send a very special thanks to their families. God bless. 

I guess we will move into my week now.. *clears throat*

 *trumpet thing they do in movies when they announce things*

HEAR YE HEAR YE! LET IT BE KNOWN THROUGHOUT THE LAND THAT THE TRANSFER DOCUMENTS HAVE ARRIVED! 

*the trumpet sounds again*

Alright enough if that haha! Yeah so, I will end up staying a tech elder in the Rincon Valley ward which you know what that means! I have spent 1/4 of my mission in Rincon Valley! Hahaha it's awesome! Elder Jones will be leaving me which I am incredibly sad about that.... 1 transfer wasn't enough with him. Oh well, he lives in Bountiful so I should be able to chill with him more after the mission. But I will be getting a new companion named Elder Reese. I have no clue who he is. I have been told he is great so I'm excited to meet him. Boy he doesn't know what's going to hit him tomorrow. Haha it's like "Hi! Welcome to Rincon Valley! Congrats on being a tech elder. Here are these things let's get to work" because (I actually didn't know this but) the tech elders run transfers..... We make sure everyone gets their new companion, gets luggage moved around. We have to get everyone here at 9:30 and out be 10:30 hahaha should be fun. I get a megaphone ;) 

Anyway, this we had a busier week with getting everything planned out for the upcoming MLC which is on Thursday and I still don't know if we are teaching at it or not....... So hopefully President will let us know. But we actually found three really good promising contacts this week that we have return appointments! Their names are Arthur, Laurie (and her son Roman), and Mark. We met them all while going through the area book and finding names that had been tracted into but never returned. All of them are super kind and would make amazing Mormons haha ;) I will let you know next week how our visits with all of them go:) 

So, this week we had lessons with Gabriel, brother Rowland, and Gianna this week. We are going to have a lesson with Jazlyn today at 7 which I'm excited about. 

The lesson with Gabriel was alright. We read from Alma 36 and talked about repentance and baptism. He says baptism is in his plan he just for some reason won't commit to being baptized. They guy is ready for it. There is something that's holding him up. Not sure what it is but I intend to find out. Our lesson with brother Rowland was a good one. We had dinner with their family and then after had a quick 20 min lesson. We asked him to read and pray about the book of Mormon. He didn't do it unfortunately, he said he was busy and forgot. We then bore testimony of how the only way he is going to know if this church is true is if he prays about the Book of Mormon. We also talked about the importance of prayer and how we can find the answers to life's mysteries through prayer and scripture study. He seemed receptive but I'm not sure.... I just hope he actually prays. And don't worry we talked about real intent as well ;) 

We had a family history lesson with Gianna on Saturday which went really well. We actually found the immigration records of her grandparents and her father when he was 6. She was so excited when we found it. The immigrated from Italy in '49 which was super cool. She got super pumped to continue to do family history and she can't wait to find out more about her ancestors. She already has a bunch of cool stories that she had heard about her family. We encouraged her to write them down so she can upload them to family search. She said she would. We are really hoping that the spirit of Elijah will start to pull her to the temple. That's where we are hoping this all ends at. 

This week was busy with tech stuff. A program we use called "area book" (which we use to organize our schedule, people we teach, what we have taught them, so on and so forth) has been acting up. To be honest area book is a shotty program at best anyway. But whatever the recent update they did..... Screwed up a bunch of things. So, we have been getting calls about it. Sadly, the only solution is to wait until they release a new update...... Along with that we just have been busy in the office running around fixing printers, tablets, phones, laptops. I don't think fix is the right word. We like the phrase "playing with them till they work" haha 

Other than that, our time was spent finding and preparing for transfers. Not any cool or funny stories this week...... I will work on that this week. I'm also going to be working on taking more photos.... Elder Jones and I have been horrible at that this transfer..... I will fix that. 1 for my mom’s sake and 2 I want something to look back on haha. Anyway, I love you all and I hope you all have a wonderful week.

Love you! 

-Elder Riley Field

The picture is the trees that are behind our apartment..... Am I the only one who sees a lion...? I named him Simba....  

Elder Field Is Finished With Zo...*Sneezes*...Ugh Allergies!

Hey fam! Hope everything is going well with all of you! I have had a couple of cool revelatory experiences but the cool missionary stories are lacking this week. We were traveling all over the mission this week going around making sure the tech was all working correctly, we also taught a section so that's cool. Let’s jump into the week shall we.

So, Monday night is when we left to go to the Napa zone conference, we stayed over in a missionary apartment which isn't being occupied. So, the AP's and ourselves stayed there. In fact, we did everything with the AP's. It was a lot of fun. they are really cool elders. Anyway, after an awesome zone conference we picked up and moved to the next one.

Typically, my role in the zone conference was to get there early with Elder Jones and set up the projector, make sure all the power points are working, set up microphones if needed, and just set up for the zone conference. Once the zone conference starts we just kinda read the scriptures or listen to what is being taught, but after 3 times of the same presentation it gets pretty rough to sit and try and listen. So, I tried to read my scriptures as much as possible. We did get to teach a section at each zone conference which was cool. We taught about how we can use Facebook as a better missionary tool. we related it to the parable of the talents. And we said that our mission was the mission with 5 talents. We have been given a lot of responsibly but also a ton of blessings and tools we get to use in our missionary efforts. And we believe that Facebook isn't being used to its full potential yet. I haven't been using Facebook to its full potential. So, we Complied a bunch of ideas on how to use Facebook and gave them to everyone. And we challenged everyone to use 1 of the 5 aspects of Facebook and report to us. We have gotten a ton of missionaries who have reported to us and have seen success through Facebook which was pretty cool :D Anyway that was our section. It was well received... I think.... hahaha I could be wrong ;)

That's how our week went until Saturday actually. We didn't get back into Santa Rosa till Thursday late at night, (and by late at night I mean missionary late at night which was like 9:30 pm) So there wasn't any time to teach any missionary lessons D: we actually had to cancel on brother Rowland which was sad. But we will get him this week, right? :D

So, after we finished the last zone conference we then had MLC (mission leadership council) the next morning. So, the Friday zone conference got done at 5. We took an hour for dinner. And then started planning for our section on Act Vs. Acted upon. (I will explain the principle at the end of the email) We took up the rest of the night planning for that, but it was so worth it because our section was so good!!!!! Everyone was so attentive and participated in the discussion. Everyone liked the principle to so that was cool. 

Sunday was our one day to kinda breath.... we taught a lesson with Jazlin!!! She came to church and we had a good lesson with her during second hour. We talked all about the gospel of Jesus Christ. We talked a TON on baptism. She said she wants to get baptized!!! We challenged her to pray about a date to be baptized. She seemed super excited and said she would. Oh, that is so cool!!! I'm so happy for her. I still have a few concerns with her..... but I think we will be able to work through those. So please pray for Jazlin!!! We are hoping we she picks a date before her big trip to Africa. She leaves the 20th of next month and will be gone for 7 weeks, but ultimately it is up to her. And whatever date she picks will be the perfect day haha.

Anyway, after church and the lesson we did a bunch of office work that had piled up while we were gone. Sent the instructions to set up Facebook to the missionaries who would be getting it this transfer, uploaded pictures to Facebook, saved he photos from the camera, made a document for president and the AP's and a couple of other things..... haha I know my life is so exciting isn't it ;)

That was our week, but I had a really freaking cool revelation his week. We were talking with some members about our assignment as tech Elder and how we oversee how Facebook is being used in the mission and all the other "tech bits" they were surprised to hear about all the tech we had in the mission and they were saying, "Wow almost the entirety of the gospel is on the Internet. That's so cool" RIGHT AS THEY SAID THIS THE PHRASE "The gospel shall be proclaimed in every nation kindred tongue and people" CAME INTO MY MIND. I started to connect the dots. I always thought that phrase meant that there would be missionaries knocking on doors and preaching in the streets. But I realized that if a country has access to the Internet. They have access to the gospel. They can chat with missionaries online, they can order the book of Mormon and all these other things....... Guys...... The gospel is already in every nation kindred tongue and people..........yeah....... heavy stuff........  so stinking cool.......If that's not motivation to get going on the lord’s work Idk what is!

Anyway, I said I would explain the Act Vs Acted upon principle to yall. So, in 2 Nephi 2: 13, 14,16, 26, 27. There is a common phrase. It is Act and Acted upon. God Made 2 types of things. He made things that act. And things to be acted upon. We as humans were made to act. Hence the reason we have agency. We are meant to act upon things that are meant to be acted upon. if that makes sense. So, we explained that discouragement and a bad attitude towards missionary work, stems from being acted upon. We aren't happy when we are acted upon. But being acted upon is the easier choice. But in every situation, there is always something we can do to act in verse 26 in 2 Nephi 2 it says that "...To act for themselves and not to be acted upon, spec it be by the punishment of the law at the great and last day, according to the commandments which God hath given." That says that in every situation there is something we can do. EXCEPT when it comes to judgment day. So, we taught that when we act bad attitudes go away and discouragement goes away. Now there isn't anything we can do to completely prevent discouragement, but we can act and get rid of that feeling. If we don't act it gets worse. It's kind of like when people play the victim. That is a prime example of people being acted upon. They won't do anything to better their situation. Hopefully that explains the principle. Elder Jones taught me this, and it has changed my whole outlook in life hahaha I know evaluate everything I do into those two categories. I always see if there is something I can do to act. :D Pretty cool.

Anyway, I hope you guys have a wonderful week! I love you all!! I also want you all to know that I have a testimony of this work. The book of Mormon is the word of God. I invite all of you to read it. Just read and pray. God is waiting for you to do it ;) Love you guys!!

-Elder Riley Field

Elder Field Gets To Talk To Mama Field! (And Family)

Happy Mother’s Day everybody!! I hope you all spent some quality time with your mom's if you could go and see them. Hopefully you all did something for your moms ;) 

Anyway, this week has been a good week! Very busy though. We have started zone conferences. First, we had the Eureka Zone conference and then Ukaiah second. We have taken a short break but we start up tomorrow with the Napa zone conference. And those last all the way till Friday and then we have MLC on Saturday haha, so let’s just say i will be driving a lot in the next few days! woohoo. I actually enjoy teaching at zone conference. We are presenting ideas on how we can use Facebook as more of a missionary tool. And also gathering input on how missionaries have seen success on Facebook! It’s going really well! 

So, like I said we had Zone conferences Tuesday and Wed so my week really doesn't start till Thursday

So! we tried to have lessons with Jazlin and Gianna but both of those fell through which was sad. But we did have lessons with Brother Rowland Thursday night. We did our usual reading of the book of Mormon, it went well. We challenged him to continue to read but we asked him to pray about it this time. He said he would! so hopefully we see something exciting this next week. 

We did have A lesson with Gabriel, still hasn't made any progress but he said he would like to start reading the book of Mormon with us so hopefully we can help him start reading it on his own! Let's see how it goes shall we?

Well unfortunately that's all the lessons we had this week. We did have some pretty awesome contacts this week! We met a guy named Anthony Lim who is such a cool dude, we were reading on a park bench when we approached him and started talking to him. He became really interested and started asking us all sorts of questions. We stayed and talked to him for a full hour!! It was so cool!! We basically taught him the message of the restoration, First vision account and all!!! Oh it was so cool!! We gave him a Book of Mormon and shared some scriptures out of it and he loved them. He said he would read and give us a call :D Hopefully we actually hear back. The second was a referral we had gotten from a member, a woman and her daughter just moved into an apartment next to theirs so we knocked on the door and met Julia. She was super nice and said that we should drop by Sunday at 4. Well we did drop by but unfortunately, she wasn’t home but her daughter was, her name was Daniella and we talked with her for a bit. She seemed kind of interested and invited us back next Saturday evening :D so we will be dropping back by this week! hopefully we can get in with them. it would be so cool!!!

Sunday was awesome because it was Mother’s Day and I got to talk to my family!!!!! LOVE YOU FAMILY!! it was cool to see them all. :D The crappy thing about Sunday was that no one showed up to church..... Sad D: But the phone call home made Sunday better!

Anyway, fun story of the week. Elder Jones and myself have challenged ourselves to not say the word "I" or reference ourselves at all. (I’m cheating a little bit because i get to email but outside of email we are back on) It’s been interesting, we both want to be more focused on others instead of ourselves and one of the ways he has discovered that helps is if we just use other words. So, we use the word "We" and "Us" a lot because we are a companionship, it seems to be working actually I find myself focusing on others and their needs :D Woot. We will keep trying this :D

Another fun story of the week. We were contacting another referral that we got from Salt Lake City about a woman who needed a blessing. So, we went and as we were walking up to their house a man was in the garage sharping a knife (I know sounds sketchy) I went to approach him when this MASSIVE Pitbull came running toward me. (Not angrily but it wasn’t thrilled I was there ya know?) So, while he was running at me, i stood up a little taller, when it got to me it sniffed my leg and let out a little growl, and i don’t know what came over me but i decided to bend over and pet the dog........... Yeah, the really big scary dog that wasn’t thrilled to see me.......... So, in classic dog petting fashion i exclaimed "Oh wow, you’re a big fella aren’t you, my name is Elder Field what’s yours" The dog looked up and me and actually licked my hand. So just like that we were best friends. But the best part of the story is when the man saw this his jaw dropped. He walked out and grabbed his dog (knife still in hand by the way) and put it in side and then looked at us and said, "whoa man you got to be careful of dogs man" So what i gathered from that is that hasn’t happened before and that dog probably should have eaten me. fun stuff. Anyway, we met the woman and she asked us to come back next week so hopefully i have another 'Friendly' Run in with the dog. I think i will name him spike. He looked like a spike. ;) My companion told me after the experience that he was getting ready to fight off the dog. He thought it was going to eat me too.

Anyway, good week this week. This coming week is going to be even more busy so we will see how it goes! wish me luck. Love you all! i hope you all had a wonderful Mother’s Day! LOVE ALL Of YOU!!!! 

-Elder Riley Field

The van is the van I get to drive to Zone conference!! So cool.  It’s like driving a freaking tank!

Da ocean

Last P-Day we went to the beach. Elder Jones has lime green hat and I had found the one I was wearing in the apartment!

 Look it’s the two missionaries I trained!! Elder Siebach and Elder Magee. Good missionaries. 

Elder Field Continues To Learn More And More!

Hey Friends and Family!

Before I start this email, guys I have a little rant I need to go on. GUYS DID YOU KNOW THAT SETTING GOALS AND THEN PRAYING FOR THEM THEY WILL ALWAYS WORK OUT (if you put the needed work into them)??? Guys if there has been anything I have learned these past two weeks (Besides the experience I will tell you all about later in the email) Is that goals are a thing!! As missionaries, it is drilled into us that we need to set goals and set out to accomplish them. So, I haven't had a companion who has set goals with me. and I really didn’t think goals were that important. So, I would set halfhearted goals and just would try to reach them if we had extra time in the day. Well Elder Jones has changed that in me. We set meaningful goals each morning, then right before we leave we pray for them. AND NO KIDDING EVERYTIME WE DO IT, WE MANAGE TO HIT OUR GOALS. There was one time we wanted to contact 10 people hand out 2 book of Mormons and serve someone. Well that day was coming to an end and we had contacted 4 people (we were in the office for a good portion of the day) and only handed out 1 Book of Mormon. And we hadn't been a service to anyone. So, we were walking down the street and guess what?  Six people just so happened to walk past us. So, we stopped them and talked to them for a bit. none of them were interested but they were very kind. BOOM 10 contacts. It was starting to get late, so we were heading home. when we saw a car that looked like it had stalled in the middle of the street. We stopped pushed them out of the street and got everything all safe and talked to them for a bit. We gave them a book of Mormon and left. I didn't realize what we had done until I was lying in bed that night and was like "HOLY CRAP ELDER JONES WE HIT ALL OUR GOALS TODAY" Elder Jones being the smooth dude he is said "Yeah man did you just barely notice this??" I have like 8 more experiences that prove the principle of prayerfully setting goals. It's awesome. Anyway...... Rant over *steps off soap box*

Today's email is going to be a little different than how I have been doing the in recent past. Don't worry those who still read my emails I will go back to the way I have been doing them. This week I just felt like doing something a little different. And if you guys like this way better I will keep it this way ;) just let me know! Shall we dive in?

Anyway, this week was a good week. Pretty busy again. We had lessons with Jazlin, The Wilsons, And Robert Rowland. The lesson with Jazlin went.... less than desirable. She said she wanted to go on a hike and have a lesson at the park. So we thought, "SURE! why not! if it will get her to continue to listen to the lessons I think we could pull it off" well, we managed to pull it off. but the lesson was just kind of...... Disconnected. Between people at the park, the Geese that are always hanging out there and just kind of the poor place for a spiritual lesson, we still taught the plan of salvation and she understood it, she just didn't feel it like the first lesson. Heck, we didn't feel it like the first lesson. But it's okay though! we will push past that. She was supposed to come to church this week but unfortunately didn't show up this week. She said she was feeling sick and that we will still have our lesson during the week. It's nice that we are meeting with Jazlin 2 times a week. Makes life easier. :D but yeah hopefully we are going to have another bomb lesson with Jazlin this week!

We also had a lesson with Robert Rowland this week. It was so good. No massive spiritual revelations, but the subtle presence of the spirit was definitely there. So, because brother Rowland has had a lot of contact about the church and knows a lot about it (Considering his wife has been a lifelong member) we asked him if he had ever read the Book of Mormon, He hasn’t. We are changing that ;) So we set his wife up with a reading schedule we want them to follow. That way when we visit Wed evening we can read the harder chapters together and discuss about them. So, no missionary lessons yet! BUT! we are working our way up to that. We read 1 Nephi 4 with them this week. We found out they read on the beach as a family!!!! I was so freaking pumped about that. They have 3 boys. Robert Jr., they call him Boo. He is a senior in high school, then there is David who just turned 8 and was baptized my first transfer here. I got to stand in the circle while brother Beck (our ward mission leader) confirmed him. That's so freaking cool can I just say that!? And then there is JD who just turned 7 like last week. Super cool family, love them lots. I'm praying really hard that we can start the lessons with brother Rowland. and get him to church..... He has never been to church either. again, we are working on that ;)

The lesson with the Wilsons was super good!! Connor (the 8-year-old) was super attentive and loved the plan of salvation lesson. We made little laminated cut outs of each stage of the plan of salvation. They are super cool. Brother Wilson was attentive and helped teach as well. Sister Wilson wasn’t in attendance which made me quite sad but it's okay. Hopefully she attends future lessons I want her to be a big part of this ordeal with Connor. Baptism and church is always better with family. They actually came to church this Sunday!!! Connor and Brother Wilson that is! AND they met with the bishop which was super cool. Sister Wilsons didn't though.... She stayed home.... D: makes me sad. But Connor and Steve stayed. Only for half of sacrament meeting but they came none the less. Didn't See or hear why they left early they just dipped....... weird...... But yeah! hopefully we have a good lesson with them this week!

Anyway, those are all the big major events that happened this week. We dealt with some tech problems and missionary tablet issues...... 1 missionary this week will have to buy a whole new tablet because he destroyed it..... I don't know how he did it but he did. And then Sister Morrison. (I don't know if yall remember her but she was in the MTC with me.) Her tablets data banks became corrupted....... so, we have the blitz the thing and hope for the best. I had no idea what that meant so I Google it. (We have permission to do this don't worry) and found out that there really isn't an exact cause for it. Sometimes It just happens.... you wake up one morning and oops data has been corrupted. There are some things that cause it but usually it's hardware defects. Anyway, I know you guys don't care hahah but I thought it was interesting. I'm learning lots. 

So, one thing I wanted to mention was a spiritual revelation I had. So, my entire mission, every missionary just seems to be super in tune with the spirit. and that's something I have struggles with. I have no clue what the spirit guiding me or directing me feels like. I can count 2 maybe 3 times in my life where I know the spirit directed me to do something. One of the goals of my mission is to find out what that feels like, or just to overall recognize the spirit more. I just don't know. Well me and Elder Jones were reading in the Doctrine and Covenants a couple of days ago. We were reading in section 6, when half way into the section I decided just to start putting my name into the versus. I have heard that this is a good way for you to read the scriptures it makes it feel like it's talking to you directly. So, I started doing this around verse 6. At first I didn't make any sense but then while I was reading we came across this. Everything in () is what I inserted while reading this.

"13 (Riley) If thou wilt do good, yea, and hold out faithful to the end, thou shalt be saved in the kingdom of God, which is the greatest of all the gifts of God; for there is no gift greater than the gift of salvation.

14 Verily, verily, I say unto thee (Riley), blessed art thou for what thou hast done; for thou hast inquired of me, and behold, as often as thou hast inquired thou hast received instruction of my Spirit. If it had not been so, thou wouldst not have come to the place where thou art at this time.

(Insert Elder Field crying right about here)

15 Behold, thou knowest that thou hast inquired of me and I did enlighten thy mind; and now I tell thee these things that thou mayest know that thou hast been enlightened by the Spirit of truth;

16 Yea, I tell thee, that thou mayest know that there is none else save God that knowest thy thoughts and the intents of thy heart.

17 I tell thee these things as a witness unto thee—that the words or the work which thou hast been writing (Preaching) are true.

18 Therefore be diligent; stand by my servant Joseph (Elder Jones), faithfully, in whatsoever difficult circumstances he may be for the word’s sake."

Yeah...... so God absolutely answers prayers. Even though I still feel like I'm not 100% in tune as other people are. I know at least whenever I have asked to be guided or just had a question and asked. He has ALWAYS given me something to help me along. And of course, right after those verses in verse 36 it says, "Look unto me in every thought, doubt not Fear not" so yeah. God knows me. And loves me. Such a cool feeling :D Right after reading this I was reading a past blessing I had received a while ago when I was in San Rafael. In the blessing, Elder Siebach gave me. He said "The Lord knows that you have difficulty feeling the spirit. But he wants to rest assure that He is there and gives you enough to sustain you day to day" And to be honest I didn't even realize be had said that or that I had wrote it down right after the blessing. Until that day I read D+C 6. It was just a good day. God really is there for each and every one of us. Just turn to him. And he will guide you. That promise in D+C 6 13-18 is universal. Read it and ask God to show you where he has guided you. And he will show you. To prove to you, that you have NEVER been alone. God is cool. Can I get an amen? ;)

I love you guys lots! hope your week was as good as mine. I now have to go prepare for Zone conferences. I get to teach about how we can better use Facebook as a missionary tool....... WOOOOO!! Hopefully I receive some inspiration here. because I have 2 weeks to come up with a 20-min presentation for 8 zone conferences around the mission...... let's see what happens!! LOVE YOU GUYS!!

-Elder Riley Field

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