Merry Christmas

Elders Fogg and Mathews with Church member Will - 'the nicest person you'll ever meet' and hosting the Elders for the Sugar Bowl.





The long awaited call from Elder Eric finally came at 2:00pm on Christmas Day. The family and his good friend Chad Butler all gathered around a speaker cell phone and had non-stop conversations for 1.5 hours. Elder Eric sounded great and was enjoying the warmth of the holiday season in 60 degree weather.

Excerpt from email:

"Our teaching pool is picking up real nice. We have this dry cleaners place we go to every week to check on our card stand there. We get talking with the owner, an Indian guy, and he asks us if we are going home for Christmas. We're like no, he was so surprised, he was like 'You come to my house to eat with me on Christmas.' So we are going to his house for a Christmas lunch and he doesn't even celebrate it. So the next week we take our suites over to his business to get them dry cleaned and he ends up paying for our lunch! We are so surprised with his kindness. He doesn't even believe in Christ, yet he is nicer than some of the members I know.

I love sharing the gospel with people, especially when they are just starving for truth. I love being a missionary. I love y'all so much and I hope you have a happy holiday season."

Happy Thanksgiving

Elders Fogg and Mathews with the Thomas family.










Excerpt from Email:

"Hey family!
It's nice to hear from yall. I kinda used up all my e-mail time attaching the pictures of Thomas' baptism and the UA stadium.

So I just wanted to say:
1. Happy Belated Birthday mother. 2. That Halloween comic you sent me is way funny, and I taped it above my desk. 3. I can't believe Eliza is getting married and we [the family] are in the JayLynn photo ad. 4. Send some Christmas music please. 5. Happy Thanksgiving!

Gotta go, love and miss you all!"
Elder Fogg

Tuscaloosa - 2nd Area

Elder Mathews (St. George) and me enjoying some shade from the heat of the day.

Excerpts from email:

"Thanks for the package...about the shirts... I like the 16" better cuz I'm getting fatter, pushing 150. I can't watch TV, but everywhere I go the news is on about the election. It's gettin close. I can't vote for real, but I'll cast a spiritual ballot for McCain. Tuscaloosa is similar to Missouri, but a lot different than Ensley. I have to tell you about this Holy Rollers church I went to. Oh man, there was this false prophet lady who was yelling and speaking in tongues and she would bless people and they would fall over or start dancing all around the room. Just really demonic stuff. So she sees me and my companion and some other missionaries sitting in the back and wants us to come up so she can bless(curse) us. To make a long story short, three of us go up there(including me-the other 3 were too scared) to prove she cant do anything to us. She does her voodoo and nothing happens. We just shrugged our shoulders at her. I can't remember if I've told you about [Thomas], but we have been teaching him for about three weeks now and he has been smoke free for two. His baptism date is still holding for the 1st of November. We play basketball with him every P-day. So yeah, all is good."

Crimson Tide Country

Pictured is the Bishop in Ensley and the Dutin Family.

Excerpt from Email:

"Hello Family.
Guess What? I'm going to Tuscaloosa! The only bad part is I'm going to miss my first baptism. Sister Dutin is getting baptized this Sunday and I'm leaving Thursday, sad huh?"

"Hey Fam!
I'm settling in just nicely to my new area. My new companion is Elder Mathews, he is from St. George. Here is my new address:"

800 Energycenter Blvd. #2803
Northport, AL 35473

3-Month Mark

Excerpt from email:

"This week has been good. We went to Church's Chicken and the lady gave us free food. A couple days later we go to KFC and she gives us free food. Its because were missionaries and people like us...After reading Jesus the Christ, there are some alterations in my prediction of Armageddon. I was not aware that we believe it is in fact the 2008th year after Christs birth, and not the 2011th like some scholars today believe...Yesterday we handed out our MAU's which stands for "Ministers Among Us". Every two weeks we get 10 families specifically picked by a computer program. We visit these families and drop off a Book of Mormon that is wrapped in a nice cover with their name on it. Inside the book there is a note explaining what the book is and why it's important. It also contains a short bio of the missionaries in their area "us". A week or so later we stop by again to talk to them about it. Or they can reject us."

Elder Combs - Second Companion

With only one month in Forestdale, Elder Fogg is assigned a new companion from Highland, Utah - Elder Combs. First order of business - to give each other a haircut.


Excerpts from a letter/email:

"Elder Combs (the new District Leader) and I can't drive the car because Elder Gines used all the miles for the month. So it's raining... and riding through puddles that were deeper than the pedals...all good and fun until my handle bars broke and I crashed into a bush. So we say a prayer that we will find a way to fix my bike and just around the corner was a construction site that had an allen wrench...the power of faith. We have a baptismal date with a kid named Truman. He is a way cool kid."

Elder Gines - First Companion

For a new missionary, the first companion or 'trainer' is tasked with introducing the realities of mission life. Elder Fogg was fortunate to have Elder Gines from Riverton, Utah .

Excerpts from emails:

"My companion is Elder Gines. He is a cool kid, training me well. The weather here is different - random down pours, but we have a car! We only have to ride our bikes if we run out of miles, so thank heaven for that cuz its toasty here...Sometimes we talk with preachers and ministers and i get frustrated because of the hardness of their hearts. "They speak close to God with their lips but their hearts are far from him. Having a form of Godliness, but denying the power therof." I've been to a lot of different churches. And all of them are still segregated. How sad. Well, i love and miss you all."

Forestdale - 1st Area

Elder Fogg standing by a large Aloe-Vera plant outside his apartment in Forestdale, Alabama - his first area.

Excerpt from his first email from Alabama:

"How is everybody? good? That's great. Right now I'm serving in an area just west of downtown Birmingham called Ensley. Our residence is in Forestdale though because its too dangerous for the missionaries to live in Ensley. Its pretty much the ghetto of Birmingham. But there are some really nice people here just waiting to hear the gospel. The ward is very small, and mostly black. Some people down here speak an-yo-cn-bery unstan' w't dey is sa'n. It almost is a different language. Im startin' to get it though. My companion is Elder Gines. He is a cool kid, training me well. Well, i love and miss you all."

114 Crabapple Lane Apt. F
Forestdale AL 35214

The MTC

The 'District' after a long day of studying and taking calls at the call center. Pictured are Elders Fogg, Sanchez, Hall, Durfee, Medina, Mosey, Smith, and Wright.

Excerpt from email:

"I only get a limited time to e-mail once a week. So don't get too excited. I just want to tell you i love you and miss you. Keep me updated on special events."

-Elder Eric Douglas Fogg

Family

Family is the most important aspect of Eric's life, so he enjoys sharing the eternal nature and importance of the family to the people of Alabama. We are proud of his decision to serve a full-time mission for the LDS Church, and we look forward to his safe return home to his immediate family of 6 (parents, two sisters and a brother-in-law) and his extended family of 35 (grandparents, 5 uncles, 5 aunts, and 24 cousins).