Servants

Family!  Friends!  Hi!

So first business!  I got grandma and grandpa's dear Elder, which was my first real letter on my mission so thank you so much!  I was pretty sure the MTC couldn't get mail but I guess you proved me wrong!  For the rest of y'all, I understand you're having difficulty with the pouch mail.  I have no idea how any of that works, but I would reeeeeeeally appreciate having hard copies of your letters once I get into the field because I'm still not entiiiiirely sure if there will be printers where I'm going.  Also receiving real letters out here kinda makes your whole day.  So keep me posted on how mail is happening and such!

Now culture things!!  I write down a few things in my planner to tell you guys about Chilean culture so I don't forget because I think it's super cool.  So here, for breakfast they don't just pour milk on their cereal.  They actually think that that's really weird.  Instead, they mix a little milk into yogurt in order to make a more pourable form of yogurt and they pour that over their cereal.  Most of the missionaries absolutely love the yogurt thing but I'm not gunna lie I kinda miss the plain milk.  When I get into the field I might be weird and pour milk on my cereal and get weird looks from my companions.

So this week was pretty uneventful until yesterday, but I have a few stories to tell before I get to yesterday.  Sadly none of them are as funny as fried sin story (I hear that one was a hoot ;) ) but they're still good.  Yeah, still good.  One day in class Hna. Alegría got on her phone and looked at all of our Instagrams and Facebook accounts in order to show everyone in the class everybody's girl or boy back home.  I have no idea how this started but it was kind of an out of body experience seeing my facebook account again, even though last time I was on was only a month ago.  So when you post this to my facbook, mother, you'll probably notice a friend request from Something Something Alegría.  Do accept it, she's one of my CCM teachers and she's awesome.  Also they stalked your account, Bre, but I don't think she requested you as a friend, but if she did you should accept it to!

So now to yesterday!  It's kind of difficult to adequately express a day as sacred as yesterday, but I'll try my best.  The Spanish keyboard doesn't make it easier, Dad emailed me a trick to fix it but I forgot it already and am too lazy to look again so forgive the weird Spanish accents popping up in weird places.  The entire day was directed by the hand of the Lord.  The entire day, and there are not a lot of days where you can say that.  Our teachers here are very inspired and absolutely incredible people.  Sometime around 4:00 yesterday, we discovered that an Elder in our district was going to be sent home that night.  After a month of spending 16 hours a day with a group of people, you get really close.  Especially on a mission because you're entire purpose is to build and lift each other up.  So this news kind was actually pretty devestating.  He got up to the front and told us what was happening and how much he loved all of us, then we all took turns giving him a hug and offering encouragement.  Then we sang "Come Thou Fount" as a district and had a group prayer, arm-in-arm.  Then we said our final goodbye's.  The Spirit was almost stronger than I've ever felt it, and it was all a very sacred experience.  

There were tender mercies throughout that day that testified to all of us that God was with us.  Before he told any of us, the teachers before (without knowing what was going to happen at all) completely deviated from the planned schedule and had us do things as a district that brought us closer together.  Our teachers are very close to the Spirit, I'm very greatful for how they listened to the promptings of the Spirit.  They had us do things like bear testimonies, go around in a circle and say kind things about everybody there, act like other people in the room and focus on their strengths, and things like that.  Even before anything had happened, the day was directed by the hand of the Lord for our comfort.  After the Elder left, Hno. Pino came in and told us a funny story that all cheered us up instantly, then had us pray and find a scripture through revelation that would help us.  He had us all read Alma 26: 27-31 and talk about what we liked about that scripture.  He also let us all take a walk around the temple, where we sang hymns in front of the temple for a half an hour while the sun was setting.  The Spirit was very strong, and these experiences were so beautiful that I cannot possibly begin to describe them.

One particular event of yesterday stood out from the rest, and it has definitely changed my life forever.  In the morning, our district leader's back was really hurting and wanted a blessing.  I annointed him then his companion gave the blessing.  For whatever reason, as soon as I annointed him I got the impression to offer the Hermana in our district a blessing.  And that impression was persistent throughout the next few hours of the day.  In fact, it was more like the Spirit hitting me in the stomach repeatedly with a baseball bat than it was like a prompting.  I'm kinda not used to this whole prompting thing so I think the Spirit helped me out by making it perfectly clear what I needed to do.  That morning (this was before we knew about the Elder that was leaving) I told Hna. Porter that ever since that morning I was feeling prompted to offer to give her a priesthood blessing whenever she wanted one.  She told me that she had been really wanting a blessing, but didn't know how to tell the District and wasn't sure how they'd react.  She thanked me for being close enough to The Spirit that I would follow the prompting, and later expressed gratitude to God for watching out for her so closely.

I think one of the sweetest joys you can feel in missionary work is acting on a prompting and later discovering that it was an answer to prayer.

After Hermana Porter told me she wanted a blessing I got permission from Presidente Doll and worked all of the logistics out and started fasting for the remainder of the day.  I prayed for the rest of the day that I'd be close enough to the Spirit to say what I needed to say and that I'd be guided in the blessing that night.  A few hours later is when we found out that the Elder was leaving us, which compounded the pain that Hermana Porter was in (he was one of her companions, don't ask me how that works because I don't really know) and of course it dampened the mood of the whole district, who'd be taking part in the blessing.  I questioned the wisdom then of offering the blessing at such timing when the Spirit wacked me in the stomach again and told me "What are you thinking fool this is the perfect time for a Priesthood blessing" So I was quickly humbled.

After dinner, I laid my hands on Hermana Porter''s head with the entire district and Hermano Pino in a circle around her and offered her a Priesthood blessing.  Of course I can't share what was said, but it was easily the most sacred experience of my life.  There was even a part of the blessing where the Lord offered counsel for the entire company present, in response to the Elder leaving earlier that day.  I ended the prayer and saw that Hermana Porter and several of the Elders in the circle had been crying.  I got to hug all the Elders and shake Hermana Porter's hand, who said that what was said was exactly what she needed and couldn't thank me enough.  I was extremely greatful for the companionship of the Lord at that time, and His willingness to work through me as His Priesthood servant.  There is no sweeter feeling than blessing the life of another in such a way as to offer them the counsel of their Divine Heavenly Father, directed specifically for them.  I cannot possibly describe the beauty of that experience for me, or my testimony of the power of the Priesthood on the earth today.  It is my firm knowledge that God directs his work through his servants, and that he speaks through the tongue of man in our days.  The blessing was able to bless not just Hermana Porter, but the entire distrcit as well in our hour of need.  I know that God lives, and that he loves us more than what we could possibly comprehend.  I will forever be greatful to be in the Lord's hands, and to be His servant in this life and in the life to come.  The Church of Jesus Christ is on the earth again, and we have the full authority and Priesthood of Christ on the earth.  I say these things in His name, even Jesus Christ, amen.

- Elder Fox.

Seeds

Hola Hermanos!!  ¿Cómo están ustedes?

     This week was probably just about the best week of my life.  I wish I could share all of it in 45 minutes but alas, that isn't quite enough time to describe the way I've been able to see the hand of the Lord in my life this week.  First off, thank you all for the advice you all gave me, after this week I felt like I learned a lot but a lot of what you said in your letters really hit me in the last 15 minutes.  Thank you all, I have such a good family :)

     Stories!!  I have lots.  First off, the word "pescado" in Spanish means fish, as in the food dish kind of fish, while the word "pecado" means sin.  However, here in Santiago, they don't pronounce their s's, so the two words are essentially interchangeable.  So here's a translated conversation I had with a lunch lady this week:

     Me: "What's this?"
     Lunch Lady: "Sin."
     Me:  "...what?"
     Lunch Lady: Ït's fried sin."
     Me: ".... I think I'll have the rice."

     It took me a while after to realize me mistake in comprehension.  But I actually ended up having the fish, and it did end up tasting more like fried sin than it did fish.

     More stories!!  First off, Chilean children are adorable.  Every morning for exercize we play fùtbol in a park about a quarter mile from the CCM and these Chilean kids who live in the area have just started getting into the habit of watching us play and cheering us on.  It's seriously my favorite part of every day.  There parents end up catching up to them usually and they take pictures and videos of us playing, I have no idea why.  That actually happens a lot here, whenever we play soccer or hacky-sack during break or are even just outside people stop to take pictures of us.  I'm not sure if it's because we're missionaries, we're really bad at soccer and hackeysack compared to South American standards, or it's just that we're all white.  It's actually probably that we're all white.

     So lunch is the biggest meal here, they don't really eat dinner at all, so when we fast we fast lunch to lunch.  Just thought I'd throw that in there, cool cultural tidbit of the day.

     When Bri was out on her mission "What Does the Fox Say" became a huge thing and that was all she was hearing when she introduced herself for months.  I thought I wouldn't have that problem, being in Chile.  I was wrong.  Even native Chileans who don't speak a lick of English sing "What does the Fox say?" in thick South American accents whenever they see my nametag.  It's hilarious.  In speaking of South American accents, we got our new teachers this week and they are all awesome.  None of them really speak any English though, which is a plus.  Our night teacher speaks in English to us sometimes but he doesn't really bother conjugating some of the verbs so it's kind of funny.  He also leaves any verb proceding another verb in the infinitive like they do in Spanish grammer (for example, I can to teach this lesson) so it's fun to listen to him talk.  He was asking us the other day how the words "bought"and "butt" were pronounced differently, and he legitimately couldn't hear the difference between those two words.  Since Spanish only has 5 vowels total, this is understandable, but it's still kind of funny.  He was also asking us the difference between "chair"and "share" and "sure" and also the difference between "close" and "clothes"and "close (as in I am close to you)".  It was pretty funny, and it was a lot of fun to try to teach him.

      Another Spanish translation phenomenon that makes me laugh!  They don't say ëvertying" in Spanish, instead they either say "todo" (all) or "todas las cosas" meaning all the things.  Since äll the things" is a joke to us back in America, thanks to the blog Hyperbole and a Half, whenever anybody says "todas las cosas" I have to fight not to laugh, especially when it's a serious topic.  Today, whenever anyone says änything" replace it in your head with äll the things" and you will see my pain, and my joy.

     This week was a week of miracles when it comes to Spanish, I'm so greatful for the gift of tongues in my life, it's an incredible power.  I started realizing my language skills were dramatically improving at the beginning of the week when I had a conversation with a native South American about where he was from.  He said he was from Ecuador and I told him that my Dad served his mission in Ecuador and loved it there.  He wasn't speaking crazy 1000 mph Spanish like Santiago people do but he was speaking pretty fast, and I managed to have a pretty good conversation with him.  I was really happy after that, that day was the day that I realized that I somehow know more Spanish then after two weeks than I knew French after four years.  That's pretty amazing, I thank my Father every night for his help.  Other things happened this week that made me realize the same thing.  For instance, I forgot how to pray in English one night when I knelt down to say my personal prayers.  I also had a dream in Spanish this week.  One time me and my companion decided to do all our planning in Spanish and I could say everything that I wanted to say while we were planning our lessons.  This week we also practiced by teaching lessons to native South Americans twice, and I found that even when they were speaking in there 1000 mph crazy Spanish I could pick up about 25% of what they're saying, and that I can usually express about 50% of what I want to in Spanish.  If I can't say what I want to say I ask my companion for a word and he usually knows what it is, so I can always say what I want to in the lessons.  Those nights that we teach the Latinos are my favorite, I walk away feeling so greatful for the help the Lord has given me in learning Spanish, I know from learning French that learning this quickly isn't something I could've done without help.  Here's my favorite story about this week and Spanish though.  Me and my companion were walking from the hospidaje to the CCM when we saw a Latino Elder with a shopping bag who was just coming back from his P-day.  We asked him how his P-day was and he said that it was kind a fail because he doesn't know Santiago at all.  We talked for a little more about what he did and what he bought.  As we walked away here was my conversation with Elder Simmons:

     Me: "Holy cow, that Elder speaks really good English"
     Elder Simmons:  Ëlder... he was speaking Spanish"
     Me:  "Was he really?"
     Elder Simmons:  "Yep."
     Me:  "...Was I speaking Spanish?"
     Elder Simmons:  "Yep."
   
     We laughed for a while after that.  It was pretty cool though, it was the first time that Spanish just came completely naturally to me.

     Alrighty those are my good stories this week!  Other than that it's just been classes as usual, except since we're on our middle leg our Investigadores are significantly harder than they were before.  But Elder Simmons and I have learned a ton about teaching this week because of that, especially from our evening investigator.  Our new teachers are also all amazing, I'm going to miss them next week when we change again as well.

     We went to the temple again this week, and it was defnitely the most life-changing event of my mission thusfar (which isn't saying a lot since I just got out but hey it works.)  I don't feel like I can share what happened in detail, but I'll say that I had more direct communication with God in the Celestial Room that day than at any other time in my life.  I want to bear my testimony that I know that the Lord atoned for each one of us, and that he loves each of us with love that we cannot comprehend.  I not only know that He lives, but I know Him.  He is my companion, my crucible, and my Savior.  He has planted seeds in me that I don't entirely understand, seeds that are just starting to flourish.  I know that His mission for us is to love others as He loves them, this is His commandment that overarches all, except for the commandment to love Him with all our hearts.  I know that through His atonement we can be changed, that through His grace the seeds he plants within each of us can grow continually until we truly become beautiful.  Through Him each of us can become so beautiful that it defies our current understanding.  He is the Christ, He is our master, our Lord, and our Redeemer.  And I love Him with all my heart.  I say these things in His name, Jesus Christ, amen.

     Love,
     Elder Fox

Week 2

Hola Hermanos!  Buenos Dias!

     This week was fan-flipping-tastic.  I have a lot to tell you about then I hope I can share more of my spiritual experiences and things I've learned throughout the past few weeks because it's been such a growing experience for me.

     First off, P-days.  I'm just as confused as you are, I really am.  I have no idea when they're gunna  be, it seems to change.  Just be prepared for anything.  It's okay that I didn't get a lot of mail today though because now I have more time to write!  I'm not kidding about that I'm actually really relieved that I get more time to write everybody this week.  I am almost 100% confident that P-day will either be on Tuesday or Wednesday but with this CCM I think that anything can happen.  P-days here are awesome though!  They're only three hours including writing but they're the best three hours of my life.  They let us go out into Santiago and go explore and shop around, which is sooo much fun and a great cultural experience.  Riding in the taxis is always a little adventurous though, it's amazing how they change lanes when you're absolutely convinced there's not enough space to merge.  Today we took a taxi to a mall near the CCM called Paris.  I bought a jacket there because exercizing in the mornings is freeeeezing without one and I've been killing myself every morning because we didn't think to pack just a normal jacket.  We also went to a place called Dominó and bought real Chilean completos.  They.  Were.  So.  Good.  They were better than anything I've had in my entire life.  Okay a little exaggeration but they were flipping wonderful.

     So last week we watched the Copa America championship game between Chile and Argentina in the CCM and it was awesome.  Chile hasn't won Copa America since it started (100 years ago) and Chile and Argentine are rivals so this game was a BIG deal.  The game went into sudden death and then to whatever that part is that happens after that and Chile won!!!  It was amazing, the whole CCM (90 people... so that's not actually saying much) did the Chilean cheer and celebrated before our classes resumed.  People were honking all night.  No exaggeration, all night.  The roads are closed Sundays though so it was silent on Sunday but then the honking resumed all day and all night Monday.  The people of Chile were a taaaad excited.

     So hymns don't translate between English and Spanish well and sometimes it's really funny.  For example, "Come, Come ye Saints" is called "¡Oh, Está Todo Bien!" which in this case mooost accurately translates too "Oh, it's all good."  So next time you sing Come, Come Ye Saints and you get to the "all is well part" think of it as "it's all gooooood, it's all good."  And you will laugh silently in your head.  Don't laugh out loud though because you'll be singing a hymn you fool.  Also there's another hymn that's called ''¿Por qué sommos?'' which translates to "Why are we?"  Yeah I have no idea what that hymn is.

     Earthquakes happen here all the time!  It's kind of exciting actually.  Every now and then we'll get a little jolt and the door will shake or someone's waterbottle will fall off the table, but once in the morning I woke up to my bed shaking a bit for a good thirty seconds.  It's exciting!  We get em all the time in Utah but never feel em so I'm not used to earthquakes just being commonplace.

     One more thing then I'll tell you about my week, Hermana Doll and Presidente Doll are some of the best people you could ever meet.  Ever.  Hermana Doll makes cookies for every missionary at the CCM every week, and sometimes twice a week if we have fhe that week.  Also my teachers are absolutely wonderful here, and they all have the most excellent Chilean accents you'll ever hear.  Hermano Antileo is a flipping stud.  That's the one that served in Knoxville with Bri, and he is a stud.

     So, this week!  I want to start out by saying that I absolutely love it here.  LOVE it here.  I'm not going to lie, last week was hard.  There was a lot of adjustment that all happened very suddenly, I didn't get the privelage of going to the MTC in America I had to dive in head first into Chile into a tiny little MTC that seems disorganized and kind of a mess, and all of my expectations about the MTC were defied.  Like all of them.  The first day even though I wasn't consciously fearful I had a lot of anxiety to the point where I wanted to throw up all day.  I think my subconscious knew how much my life had just changed even if my conscious didn't, so I was very sick.  But I was blessed to overcome that quickly, and I learned a lot that week and this week about charity, about hope, about the Spirit, about my purpose, and about the nature of the atonement that I'm sure will change my life forever.  I'm expecting getting into the field to be similar.  I'm assuming my expectations will be defied, that I'll probably be very anxious at first and wonder if I like where I am or if I can do this, then with the help of the Lord I'll adjust and relearn my pupose.  It was hard, and it'll be hard, but through the Lord all things are possible.  I've recieved revelation through multiple mediums (prayer, study, advice from all y'all) that has helped me realize what I need to do in order to feel the Spirit while I'm here, and that has caused me to realize that I've never had a stronger connection with God than I do right now.  The communication has never been this fluid, this common, and this life-changing in my entire life.  For that I am very greatful.  A part of the lesson I learned was that in order to get the Spirit you simply have to strive to be a better missionary, in all aspects.  Better planning, better study, teach by the Spirit, every factor to missionary work.  The second thing I learned was that by striving to live all of the Christlike attributes and setting goals to improve one specific attribute really helps you have the Spirit, fulfill your purpose, and be excited about the mission.  The last and most important thing I learned was the importance of charity.  If I'm not loving my companion, if I'm not loving my district, if I'm not loving every single person in the CCM (which isn't very hard, again, only 90 people) then I can't feel the Spirit.  It becomes impossible.  This week I've become very close friends with my companion, my district, and the 80 other missionaries here, and that has made all the difference.  In fact, 5 districts left us last night (a group comes in every two weeks and a group leaves every two weeks) and even though I've only known them for two weeks it was actually a pretty emotional experience.  With such small numbers you really become close with everyone, especially when only 50 of them speak your language.  So those are the lessons I've learned in a nutshell!

     More details about the week!  Classes are coming along great, I'm working as hard as I can to do everything and make my daily language goals all day (unless it's a break time or a meal) which I feel has made a huge difference.  I can express most of the things that I want to say in our lessons with our investigators in Spanish now, which makes learning how to teach people much easier.  Spanish really is the most simple language to learn, of course I'm nowhere near comfortable with the language and when a Chilean is speaking as fast as they normally do I do not understand a lick of what they are saying, but I have faith that that will come with time.  Teaching has also gone a lot better, me and my companion have learned a lot about teaching investigators in these two weeks and our skills have improved immensely.  We've been able to get both of our progressing investigators to open up to us and tell us what's wrong in their lives, and by teaching them based on their need we've been able to commit both of them to baptism.  Of course since these are our first two weeks they go easy on us, but I'm just happy at how much we've improved at teaching and speaking the language as much as we have these two weeks.  Sadly tomorrow we're changing teachers and progressing investigators (since the investigators are the teachers) and I will miss them all, but I know that the new ones will be great too.

    So this time I'll close on more of a spiritual note.  The Lord has been with me a lot this week, I have really felt His presence and His atonement strengthening me and shaping me into a better person and into a better missionary.  The days are starting to fly by (I can't believe it's been 6 days since last P-day) and before I know it I'll be setting foot on Rancagua soil, not understanding anything that anybody is saying.  I want you to know that I already love the people there, the Lord has immensely blessed me with charity for the people of Chile and the people that I will teach.  I also love Chile, despite pollution and traffic and awful gross buildings and just about everything else here in Santiago I've already fallen in love with this country.  It is so special, and I feel God's love for the people wherever I go and I feel God's love for this blessed country.  We fasted last Sunday for rain because Santiago hasn't gotten rain for over a year, and after we fasted it has rained constantly all week.  God really loves these people, and it's no surprise why.  I love the Lord and I love my mission, I'm already feeling the Lord shape me to be a tool in His hands.  I love my savior very much, and I am more than willing to give these two years to Him and to the people of Chile.  Soy un misionero por La Iglesia de Jesucristo de los Santos de los Últimos Dias.  En el nombre de Jesucristo, amén.

     Love,
     Elder Fox

Week 1

Hello all!!  I reeeeally regret to inform you that this MTC doesn't have a printer so I have to quickly read all your emails before I write which gives me essentially no time to write.  Bummer.  Oh well!  Once I get out into the field I hope I get to write more, there is so much to say and nooot very much time to say it.  So if my letter sounds rushed and lacking much flavor, that's proobably because it is!  Yay!

Bienvenidos a Chile!!  I love it here, despite the fact that I can't understand or communicate with anyone.  That is a downside.  But one of the advantages of being here at the Chile CCM is that every day I get reminded that real Spanish is far from the Spanish that the instructors speak.  In fact, Santiago Spanish is the fastest in the world (from what I hear) and they don't pronounce their "s"'s at all!  So when I get into the field I won't be surprised and discouraged that I don't actually know Spanish.  I digress.  I love Chile!  It's just about as humid as Utah, in fact I can't really detect a difference at all.  The mountains here are absolutely stunning when we see them, Santiago has a really bad pollution problem so even on days with good weather we often can't see the mountains (sad thing is the distance from the CCM to the mountains and the distance from our house in Alpine to the mountains is about the same, so yes the pollution is REALLY bad.)  It's in the thick of winter here but not extremely cold, it's cold enough in the mornings to wear a jacket for certain but that's just about it.  Santiago is a very large city, the traffic and smell is kind of like New York but of course the buildings aren't nearly as tall.  There are some very pretty parks here though, we run about a quarter mile from the CCM to a park to do our exercize every morning and at the park we play soccer and basketball and such.  The traffic is scary I'm not gunna lie, but as long as a native Santiagoan(?) is driving your fine because they are extremely skilled at dealing with this mess that they call driving.  The road system is very odd hear I don't quite understand it, 90% of the roads here are one way roads yet people still manage to get places without a problem.  It's enough to confuse me for sure.  So, in summary, it's very different here!  But I really like how different it is, I love being in a different culture among a new kind of people because I've never had any kind of experience with that before.

The CCM!  In case you haven't realized the CCM is MTC in Español and at this point I'm so used to saying CCM that it just comes naturally, so I'm sorry if you're confused.  The actually CCM is only one building that has about 10 classrooms and a lunch room that's about the size of two relief society rooms put together.  There are about 90 people going to this MTC and about half of them are South Americans but all of us are going to a mission in Chile.  We all sleep in another building that I still haven't learned the name of, but it's a place the church provides for people who travel great distances to get to the temple to sleep overnight for a few nights so that they can properly enjoy the temple experience.  The missionaries (including Presidente Doll y Hermana Doll) inhabit the third floor of this building, leaving the rest for members.  We see Chilean members in there all the time and it's really fun, since my Spanish has improved I've gotten to have small conversations with them and they're all very nice people.  The other buildings in the complex are the chapel, the temple, and the distrobution center.  It's a very small place but still good.  Yeah, still good.  Nobody here speaks English, which is probably really good for me but also kind of a struggle.  The teachers even struggle with words sometimes and it's my favorite thing because I'm just so not used to that.  The food here is.... challenging.  But it's getting better every day.  That's probably because I can now communicate with the lunch ladies and because I'm forgetting what real food tastes like.  But hey, at least I'm getting used to it!  We have classes 12 hours a day, but I haven't been very tired which I count as a huge blessing.  I've been trying very hard to put forth everything I have and be as dilligent as possible and I believe it's paying off.

Spanish!  Learning a language fresh is not easy, especially at the rate that the CCM goes.  Only two days into the CCM they had us contact our first two progressing investigators (the teachers take on a persona and protend to be investigators for us.  We set appointments and they go in a practice room so we can knock on their door and everything.)  Everyone in my district but me and one other has had 3+ years of Spanish classes, so the advice to not compare myself to other missionaries has come real handy.  I often have to take a step back and look at how much I learned this week alone, and then I'm just extremely greatful for the help I've received.  First lesson learned this week was to compare yourself to the way you were tomorrow, it's really the only way to properly progress in anything, especially spiritual progression.

District!  We have the biggest district in the CCM with 11 Elderes and 1 Hermana.  Yes only one, it's very complicated because she doesn't reeeeally have a companion but we make things work.  My companion is Elder Simmons!  We met hin at the Salt Lake Airport.  In speaking of airport, upon arriving at Georgia the rest of the Edlers in our district joined us and we all flew to Chile together.  The sunrise over the Andes from the view of a landing airplane is one of the beautiful things in this world by the way.  Anyway I digress.  Elder Simmons!  He's cool, he's willing to work hard and is very kind, so what more could I ask for!

I had some really spiritual insights this week that I really wanted to share but I just don't have time, I do apologize.  I really hope I get to share them next week because I learned a lot this week.  Hopefully will have more time to provide more details next week!  Very sorry!

Love,
Elder Fox