Saturday, December 17, 2011

Scripture/ Quote of the Month

So Shaun and I (Stephanie) decided that because he has heard and read so many great quotes and scriptures that we would have a monthly Scripture/Quote that Shaun has chosen.

In honor of this Christmas Season, Shaun chose a scripture about the Savior

"And now, after the many testimonies which have been given of him, this is the testimony, last of all, which we give of him: that he LIVES! For we saw him, even on the Right hand of God; and we heard the voice bearing record that he is the only Begotten of the Father- that by him, and through him, and of him the worlds are and created and the inhabitants thereof are begotten sons and daughters unto God"!

-Doctrine and Covenants 16:22-24

Merry Christmas!

Monday, December 12, 2011

Letter from Alabama 12-12-11

Dear family,

Things are still going pretty well. glad to hear someone got interested in the church through mormon.org cuz we pretty much tell everyone we talk to about it and tell them to check it out. yes you told me about elder Olsen I haven't seen him I'll have to keep an eye out for him. My companion is good he's from vancouver WA. I haven't talked to the mission president or his wife since I got here but we will be having a christmas dinner party at their house tomorrow for the my zone (huntsville) and the madison zone. So that will be fun I'm sure there will be pictures up on the blog for that. Speaking of pictures I've taken a few and I will upload some for you next week. Yes we still bike a lot that's pretty much our only mode of transportation. The only time we ever use the car is for p-day and tomorrow since we will be going down to birmingham for the christmas dinner. Yes I remembered stacy's birthday Wish her a happy birthday from me! i can't believe she's 30! I also remembered it was st. Nicholas day sad I didnt get anything in my shoe haha. As far as christmas package goes idk. . . food probably I'm good with anything I guess a few things I like is lindor chocolates, cheeze its, (elder reed says mcdonalds) um but I can't really think of much else just good stuff I suppose haha. Um I haven't used either my bank of america account or my wells fargo account since I've been out here so I guess you could put the money in either. You really haven't heard anything from wolf???!! Can you please figure that out I should still have like another $2000 coming! I haven't heard from any of the other guys that came with me since we all got here so I have no idea if they've gotten thier visas or not. The people here are super nice they all believe in god and Jesus which helps and they all say the world needs more people like us but they are pretty set in their ways and usually not interested in learning more about our church. our stake did they're huge christmas festival this weekend they have it every year and the missionaries helped out we went on saturday and sunday it was really good! the choir and orchestra was amazing!! like one of the best I've ever heard and they had tons of nativity sets and they even had a live nativity set so pretty sweet. we met with our investigators micah and brad this week they are super nice and they read all teh chapters we gave them a couple times they took notes, brad even got the book of mormon on his Iphone and he he read the introduction and was trying to figure out all the history of the lamanites nephites and even the jaredites and he just had a ton of questions me and Elder Bacon didn't even know where to begin! needless to say I was pretty nervous. We were able to make it through though taught them about the spirit and recieving answers to prayers they have a hard time accepting anything but the bible but it seems like they are really trying so I hope their hearts will be softened!! I now even have my own pocket bible and I have seen eggbeater Jesus so I feel like a true alabama elder! (eggbeater jesus is just this huge mural and this church and where his feet should be it just looks like eggbeaters so everyone down here calls him eggbeater jesus.) Other than that nothing too new just learning everyday! Love you guys and I appreciate all your thoughts prayers and letters!

Monday, December 5, 2011

Letter from Alabama 12-5-11

Dear Family,

Things have been going well, not gonna lie this week has seemed like an eternity. Elder Nelson our "trainer" the one that had been here a month left for brazil on wednesday so it was just me and Elder Bacon all wednesday just figuring out how to be missionaries together on thursday though we got to do exchanges with the district leaders which helped and I think we're going to do that again tomorrow but other than that everything is a new experience to me and Elder Bacon. Yes we see the zone leaders a lot because they live in the same apartment as us. They said they wanted to go out with us on friday so that should be helpful too. I have never heard of 2 greenies being put together either but I guess we'll just learn as we go. My butt feels a lot better riding bikes still isn't the most comfortable thing but I can actually sit down now without too much pain haha. There are a lot of hills in Alabama which makes it pretty tough when you get to the point where you are peddling with all your might and you're not getting anywhere then we just get off and walk up the hill. We are teaching a few investigators

Mom- as far as weather the last few days have been really nice like in the 60's but before that we had days in the 30's so it did get pretty cold I've been borrowing a jacket from one of the elder's in our apartment. So maybe a jacket might be of assistance preferably black but I don't want you to send a bunch of warm clothes cuz then I'll just have to send them back when I leave. I will keep and eye out for an Elder Olsen! yes we got to watch the first presidency message it was really good I especially liked president uctdorf's talk and the movie was really good too. Sounds like spencer's having a blast doesn't sound like the same spencer to me going on all these dates and being the ladies man now haha

Dad- Glad to hear that you were able to make some sales this week. those tender mercies of the Lord tend to come in handy a lot. and while some blessings come from me and spencer serving missions no doubt that your faith in the lord has brought much of these blessings upon the whole family. You have always been a great example to me of a man with great faith always knowing the Lord will bless you if you just keep pressing foreword and keeping the commandments. Wow I can't believe that about the 49ers if they go to the superbowl this year I will be a little upset haha. The first presidency message was really good we did have the opportunity to go and watch it.

Well love you guys lots hope to hear from you soon!
Love Elder fogleman

Monday, November 28, 2011

First day's in Alabama plus pictures

Dear family,

Thanks for the pictures from the blog they were pretty cool! I bet you guys enjoyed seeing all those pictures. Pres. Hozalpfel taught at BYU? I did not know that! but they are both super nice president gave us like 4 hugs before we finally left and went on our way and sister hozalpfel is super energetic and super nice they did a good job welcoming us in and making us feel comfortable. My first area is the byrd springs area in huntsville, AL. it's pretty nice it's way up north it's one of the smallest area the church is like just across the street from where we live which is nice. I am companions with Elder Bacon (the one that flew with us to alabama from the MTC) and Elder Nelsen another visa waiter who has been here a month but is leaving next wednesday and then I guess it's just me and elder bacon. don't know how that will work out two guys in alabama less than a week to work the whole byrd springs area!!! We live with the Zone leaders Elder lofthouse and Elder Reed (they're pictures were on the blog) so I'm sure they will help but they're over a different area so still the responsability falls on us which is a little frightening!! Saturday was the first full day and all tell you what not one of the most fun days at all. Bikes definately aren't my thing When we came back for lunch on saturday I really thought I was going to die because they're are a lot of hills in alabama and we were going uphill through grass which makes it more difficult! but I said a little prayer to be able to make it through the day and right before we left again Elder Nelson told me about the gears on the bike and how they work. I sorta knew about the gears but kinda forgot about them so that was a good reminder and helped a lot throughout the rest of the day I felt that was one of those tender mercies of the Lord that I thought I'd share with you. It still wasn't easy though I don't think my butt has ever hurt that much in my life! and tracting was a new thing as well. This saturday was the Iron bowl between Alabama and Auburn The two alabama teams so everyone and their dogs were watching the game and so they didn't really want to listen to us. But most people were still really nice but everyone down here in the south has their own religion so mostly they weren't all that interested. Most of them are baptist. so it is definately a different experience it really felt a lot like I was selling pest control but hopefully I can retain a positive outlook and things will go better this week. Sunday was good The people in the Ward are all super nice it was really wierd being the Elder in an actual ward i felt that is what missionaries do. o wait I am a missionary haha but it was good met the ward mission leader he's new to the calling so I guess we'll both be learning but we'll be working with him. by sunday I actually got somewhat used to riding a bike it didn't hurt my butt as much but was still a lot of work. not too mention it rained all day! and we biked for 4 hours in the rain. I have never been so wet in my life! head to toe was soaked luckily I did have that one raincoat we got from mr. Mac's that helped. We visited a lot of less actives on sunday which was nice cuz they are generally nicer and let us inside and we talked to them about the recent ensign about general conference. And then the other big push that we talk about with just about everyone is mormon.org and aobut the people on it and how you can make a profile and stuff so pretty cool. Have you guys ever heard of it? but I made it to P-day so enjoying the little break we get we have our first real lesson tonight with a new investigator we will teach them the restoration so hopefully that goes well. Sorry I couldn't be home to set up the christmas decorations I'm gonna miss that tell spencer he will have to take my place then. Wow that's impressive that spencer beat you on the 5k I would of thought with all the training you had dad that you could have whooped him lol. Nice to hear everyone was back for thanksgiving hopefully you gave them all hugs and told them I missed them I would've loved to see CJ he really has gotten super tall! I'm not sue on the seminary advice my favorite thing that most of my seminary teacher did that I really liked was they knew how to have fun but they could switch gears quick and bring in the spirit so if you can do those two things then you will be awesome! Elder lofthouse and Elder reed are pretty funny I enjoy having them around it's all a new experience I have to go grocercy shopping again and riding bikes and cars is not something I expected but hopefully it's all for the better! keep me posted on what's going on in Chico I miss and love you guys!

Love, Elder Fogleman

Arriving at the mission home

Filling out paper work

Getting their first bikes

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Re-assignment

Hello family!

Hey mom. It was good to talk to you hope it didn't startle you too much but hopefully my visa stuff gets worked out! i guess I'll start with Visa news 2 guys in our district got visas and left today including Cody Frazer our district is down to 6 now. How did you hear about that at stake conference? like they announced it or Bro. doughman just talked to you guys? but ya this last week with 6 guys left and we find out reassignments tomorrow I'm kinda excited just to find out where I could serve or if I'll need warm clothes! I don't even have a long sleeve shirt with me! The tennis shoes have been great! I've been using them with gym all week and although they seemed to be a little big at first they've been working out great! still not perfect with the wart on my foot but hopefully that will go away soon. yesterday I got to take a shuttle to the outside world haha to see dr Jarmillo and he gave me two options either inject it with something that would kill the wart and in a couple weeks it would turn black but then I would have to come back and I knew I wasn't going to be here so I took the second option which was to file of the top layer of the skin on the wart and then apply this medicine to it. The 10 dollar charge for the doctor was to see him and then they charged me another 10 bucks to go pick up my presciption at the student health center but hopefully this stuff works he was a really nice guy and a few people in the doctors office came and talked to us about where we are from and where we're going and one lady even thanked us a bunch for our service so that was cool. they even had a book of mormon in the waiting room so that was interesting. Being A host missionary was way cool! All the missionaries I helped were going stateside no foreign missionaries. I helped to new sisters and two new elders. all I did for the sisters was me and another elder took their luggage to outside the building where all the sisters stayed and then there were sisters waiting their to take over, but for the elders I got to give a quick tour show them where their room was and then droped them off at the classroom it was a neat experience. hard to believe that only 8 weeks ago I was in that position! there were a lot of mom's crying though made me remember back to when I got dropped off. yes I am still with Elder hemingway and we are still the only one's that have not done their on-line visas in our district. Elder hemingway is from newpolce New York (I don't know if I spelled that right) but he said it's like two hours from the city. He's a quiet guy and our personalities don't always agree it's been kinda a different change for me but he's a good guy with a good heart so that definately helps. It's kinda funny cuz he walks super fast like hard to keep up with him and he eats super slow which is like the exact opposite from me so I try to adjust to that but things are good. It's snowed a few times but hasn't really stuck at all, and yes it was a fake baptism our investigators our really just our teachers who play the role of one of their investigators on their mission. I love that FHE idea I've been thinking a lot about how I want to hear all of spencer's stories from his mission but I was afraid that he might forget so thank you so much for doing that! I like the business card Idea I think that would be good! Thanksgiving in the MTC. . . not exactly sure how it's going to work I know we will be putting together emergency kits for people in need and we will have a devotional I'm pretty sure, and word on the street is that an apostle will be coming so should'nt be too bad of a thanksgiving not the same as home though I'll be missing you guys. This past I heard from Elder Wagner but that was really cool I enjoyed his letter. The debit card transactions all look correct that's really weird about Wolf pest control. let me know when you find out more cuz I definately should be getting more than that! This last sunday we heard from one of the district presidency guys at the MTC it was really good not a lot of notes to take but he did give a lot of cool stories and I felt the spirit so it was good. And last tuesday Tad R callister came and spoke to us of the 70 same one that spoke in general conference and he spoke about 10 proofs that the apostasy and restoration happened. it was sooooo goood!!! I took like 5 pages of notes everything he said I wanted to write down. it just strengthened my testimony of the apostasy and restoration! One proof he used that I really liked is he said if their had not been an apostasy then the bible wouldn't have ended. I just felt like that was so true! and helped strenghthened my testimony!
Paradise is in the sections again!!! why can't they ever lose!! I hope foothill dominates on them! The 49ers are playing on thanksgiving??? has that ever happened before? that is was awesome though I hope they win!! Other than that things are good my time here at the MTC is almost up! I'll be calling maybe thanksgiving so that will give you time to get the birth certificate thing worked out and so I can call on a holiday but I only get like 5 minutes so it will have to be short! but I've enjoyed my time here at the MTC. We got released as sacrament coordinators and we are now training the new guys we have two new italian districts in our branch which is cool I loved the last Italians that were in our branch before. We've been the oldest now though for a couple weeks I love our branch and our branch presidency. President Johnston is awesome! but it makes things interesting when Italians give talks cuz it's hard to understand but I can actually pick out some of it! well I'm out of time! depending on when I leave for my reassignment I should be able to email you the day before which most likely will be monday next week so just a heads up! Well love you lots wish you a happy thanksgiving give everyone in the family a big hug from me!!!

Love Elder Fogleman!