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

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!