Bautizmo! Por fin!

Hey everybody!  This week was great, but there haven't been very many new developments since we've been busy doing divisions and preparing for the baptism and stuff like that.

SO!  Changes!  Wooooot!  Elder Leguizamón has 2 and a half changes here in Paniahue, which made guessing what could happen difficult because normally with 2 changes you stay and with 3 you leave.  But what happens with 2 and a half?  Hard to say.  I honestly wanted him to stay because he's an awesome example and a great friend, and it would be easier to strengthen our new convert with him here.  But alas!  He's going to Rauquén in Curico, the place where Elder Hadlock started his mission!  He's going to be a district leader again which is awesome, he deserves it.  I'm going to be with Elder Barbosa!  Like the character from Pirates of the Carrabean (is that how you spell it?)!  He was born in Peru but has lived in Spain for a very long time.  I hear that he has a peruvian/spaniard mix in his accent, which will be interesting!  He was a zone leader  for a while (I have a habit of getting put with ex-zone leaders) but he only has 2 changes left in the mission so he was released from his responsablities to be able to die as a normal missionary.  And I hear he's awesome!  I don't know why I keep getting put with these superstar missionaries, either I keep getting lucky or President thinks I'm a problem child.  Either way I won't complain!  Cuz it's great!

So that'll be my next change!  I'll probably be leaving after next change because if I stay two changes to kill him I'd have to stay a fourth change for another missionary to get here and that's longer than normal, but we'll see!

So this week was good!  We still haven't met our investigator with the baptismal date that the other Elders put, but we're hoping to do a family home evening with the other elders and him this week so that'll be good!  We also put a baptismal date with one of our investigators named Blas!  I only met him once because for whatever reason this whole change Elder Leguizamón has only been able to find him while on divisions with another Elder, but I met him recently and he's awesome!  He and his wife are both great, and they both already feel that the church is true, the only difficulty is getting to church because they work in a job that they only do Sunday mornings (selling things in the feria (don't know the translation for feria)).  And they would've put a fecha with his wife Isabel as well but she wasn't there when they were able to teach him.  So that's three baptisms this next month hopefully!

Another cool story!  Elder Leguizamón and I decided this week to go through all of the contacts in our phone labeled as 'investigator' and call them if we don't know them (because contacts build up as people never delete the investigators they stop going by) and we found a great investigator that way!  Sadly I forgot her name because I only met her once and it was a 5 minute conversation, but I have it written down somewhere!  In the call she said we could pass by her house and we did Sunday and had a brief conversation.  She told us that the missionaries were passing by often and she really liked what they were teaching but then Elder Junior left and Elder Bernal (from my group, the missionary that I replaced when I got here) came and they never passed by her again.  Which is odd.  She said that she sees something different in us and is genuinely looking for the truth.  Which is awesome!  We'll see where it goes!

Also we started teaching(ish) some people who have been coming to our English classes.  They're very young, and here I've noticed that the youth are very very similar to the youth in the States (probably due to the unversality of opinions provided by the internet.)  So it's interesting talking to them!  Most young people I've talked to have the same opinion, that God is just an energy through all of us and that there really isn't even a God nor a true church, but that Jesus Christ was still the son of God (I have no idea how that works either.)  But this Saturday they accepted what we've told them pretty well!  We just need to teach official lessons and leave commitments and everything.

Then of course there's the story of Alan and his baptism!  But I'll save that for the end of everything.

Some funny stories!  In divs I went with the zone leader Elder Miller to a house of about 20 Haitian people!  Which in Chile is definitely not something you see every day.  Apparently the zone leaders had taught one lesson, but they weren't sure that they understood everything because the Haitians are still working on their Spanish too, because they speak French!  And I was so sad that I had forgotten absolutely everything I have learned of French!  Cuz it would've been awesome to talk to them in their native language, because it's a little odd that we're speaking a language we're new to and they're speaking a language they're new too but we have to speak that language because it's the only one we have in common!  We invited them to play sports with us that night, and Elder Miller told them that I knew French but I explained that I forgot everything when I learned Spanish.  They told me to try anyway so I just said 'I don't know' in French and left it at that.  They were very entertained at my attempt to French.

More stories of Chilean news!  So early in the week I was in a member's house eating lunch when I saw a story about a bunch of rogue waves that have been going on in Viña del Mar.  There's this platform that's pretty high above the ocean that's a really popular tourist spot, but this week these giant waves have been coming every now and then and soaking everybody there, which they found pretty fun!  The whole news story was about how much of a thrill these tourists are getting out of standing on this platform as giant waves come up and soak them (and the cars driving on the road by the platform and everything in the area.)  Later in the week I was in the same home and saw more videos of giant waves coming and soaking the platform in Viña del Mar, but this time with nobody on it.  The headline was ''They're getting sick of the big waves.''  I thought that was hilarious.  I love how frank these headlines are.

Another headline!  The story was about a mall that got robbed before it opened, and the headline was ''It hasn't opened yet and they already robbed it.''  Yep.  Classic Chilean frank headlines.

So the baptism!  I never really told you much about Alan, but that's because we honestly didn't do very much for him.  That's the amazing thing about this story, is that all we did was invite him to be baptized at the very start of the change, and he took that invitation seriously and did everything he could to arrive at that date.  He is an amazing kid, and really just want to do what's right and what's going to help him.  It was a miracle how it happened, and it really goes to show that it's not the lessons that lead someone to baptism, it's the Spirit and the commitments you leave them.  He prayed and felt his answer on his own and learned to recognize the Spirit, he decided it was important to be baptized, and he was the one who asked us what he needed to do to be baptized, and he did everything necessary.  We hardly did anything!  So it really was a miracle.

Which leads me to completing my thought from last week!  I was talking about how the circumstances leading to the emergency of the font not being full at my last baptism were very unusual, and likely caused by God in order to teach us a lesson.  I think that story is a great example of our limits, and of the Atonement.  I don't have a lot of time to say everything that I was thinking (probably should have skpped the Chilean news story) but I learned through that that the atonement of Christ does more than cleanse us from our sins, it can also perfect our efforts.  What I mean by that is that in this life whatever we do (as long as it's the will of Christ) our efforts can be 'filled' by the atonement, to that the effects of what we do are much much greater than what we actually do.  Because of this, even though as humans we 'awkwardly lump around', we can make a huge difference because the atonement fills the gaps in our imperfections in everything that we do to serve God and to serve others.  The atonement fills the gaps left by our errors and our imperfections, in everything that we do.  Alan was a great example of this, because we didn't do much in his progression, but the atonement made the difference.

I love you all!  Have a great week!

Love

Elder Fox

Señor Fox

Hey everybody!  This week was great!  And the best thing about it is that we're going to have a baptism this Saturday!!  First one in a very long time.  It's been 4 months since my last one at the end of my first change in Conti.  We're super stoked.  And so is President.  We had a special training this week and the first thing that President told me and Elder Leguizamón is that he's happy that Paniahue is finally seeing success.  And we are too!  We visited Alan every day this week and taught him, and conducted the pre-interview on Saturday and he passed really well.  His third church attendance was this Sunday so now he just needs to do the real interview Wednesday and he's ready!

I also gave a talk in church!  But I'll probably talk about that later in the email.  I find it funny though, that a 10 minute talk in English used to intimidate me, and now I'm perfectly comfortable giving a 25 minute talk in Spanish without writing it out first!  My Spanish wasn't perfect but it was good enough!  I feel like my Spanish has improved a ton with having Elder Leguizamón as a companion.  Both my comprehension and speaking ability have improved, but mostly my comprehension.

We also got a killer reference this week!  Apparently he's attended the church in Santa Cruz a few times (more than 3, which is awesome) and he went the other Sunday and the zone leaders talked to him, put a baptismal date with him, and since he lives in our sector they gave us the reference!  So we have an investigator with a baptismal date that we haven't even met!  So that's also super exciting.

I feel like the lessons I've learned about faith have been really paying off.  I learned a lot about not blaming the circumstances for anything.  It's easy to blame the circumstances, but in a work like this, the circumstances really don't matter.  I think I may have been sent to a less-successful mission specifically to learn about faith.  God has the power to prepare people and put them in your path, regardless of where you are, how the members are, or anything.  That was a big lesson I had to learn.  And I'm really glad I learned it.

Also!  The mom of a convert named Yanina came to church Sunday!  Which I was excited about.  We've been trying to get her to go for a while, and this week we were able to teach her a 15 minute version of lesson 1, and she came to church!  She said that she was bored, but that's okay!  We can still work with that!

We spent Wednesday and Thursday in Pichilemu this week, which was fun.  We helped the other elders move houses and I got to enjoy the lovely coastal climate which I miss from Conti.  And I got to see the beach again, nice because it's been a while.  Also in Pichi there's a disco (kind of like a club) called 'Señor Fox.' that's big and super popular there, which I thought was pretty funny.  The logo looks almost exactly like the little fox drawings that Bri does for our birthday cards.

We did a deep clean of the house today!  It was sorely needed.  The past elders were very irresponsible with the place and we've been cleaning it trying to get the weeds and plants out of the small yard out back essentially since we got here.  And now it's finally finished!  Now if it were in the States we probably wouldn't even be kicked out of the house!  Probably.

SO my talk!  I wanted to talk about the atonement and missionary work, so I ended up telling the story of the filling of the font in Conti as an intro for my talk.  I liked reflecting back on that event and thinking of the symbolism behind it.  I realized when I looked back on that story that since that baptism Elder Hadlock and I have filled the font two other times (for the baptisms of the hermanas) and the font filled much more normally, without problems.  The font filled in 2 hours, just like it should've that day of our baptism.  Also, we've used the firehose of the church since then to clean the church (don't ask how) and the water that came out of the hose was perfectly clean.  I realized that both of the things that caused the emergency that day were both very exceptional circumstances, and realized that God had likely caused both in order to teach us a lesson.

Aaaaaaand I have to end the letter there.  Which is really sad because I started that whole thought with the font-filling and the atonement but I can't finish.  Woops.  Sorry!  Remind me to finish next week!  I love you all!  Have a great week!  Be good!  Stay safe!  The church is true!

Love

Elder Fox

Alan! Alan! Alan! Alan! Alan!

If you don't understand the subject, go watch that youtube video that was popular for a while with animals speaking in British accents.

Hello all!  This week was wonderful, but at the same time not much happened.  But there are some awesome stories that I want to share!

First is about a girl that my comp and district leader met last week doing divisions named Karla.  She accepted a Book of Mormon and said that she would read it in a few days (she's really intelligent.)  We went back to visit her this week after we went to Rancagua again to get my carnet, and it was a super interesting conversation.  She was a lot of fun to talk to because of her knowledge of history and of everything, but the part that really made me smile was when she said that right before Elder Leguizamón and Elder Holley came to the door she was just about ready to give up belief that there was a God at all, but that they left and now she was starting to believe in God more and more.  They didn't teach her a lesson, or do anything really, but just the presence and the conversation with the missionaries led this change.  It's awesome how such short contact with people who are willing to share the gospel can change people like that.  She also said that she had a really interesting experience reading the Book of Mormon that made her cry.  Even though she loves reading, she's dyslexic, which surprised me.  She says that she can read really well but when she tries to read out loud she has a really hard time.  But she told us that when she read the Book of Mormon out loud, she could easily without any problem, and this is the first time anything like that has happened in her life, which moved her to tears.  My first reaction was ''Well that's your answer come to church dang it!!!''  But I didn't say that.  A cool miracle of this week.

Second, we did divisions again this week (my current district leader likes to do them every week) and I was with Elder Holley the district leader.  For divisions, both members of the companionship choose a focus that they're going to study and try to put into practice in the division, and the other companion studies it as well and offers advice.  My focus for the division was a pauta (don't know how to say that in English sorry) that lead to an augmentation in baptisms, which was ´pray for miracles and expect them.´ I decided that that was the best focus ever.  That whole day we kept finding amazing people in the street, just being there in the exact right place and the exact right time.  Early on the day Elder Holley had to stop to stretch his leg because his knee was hurting, and a little later on we passed a woman just as she collapsed in an emotional breakdown.  We calmed her down and she told us what had happened, her husband had hit her and she fled the house.  We asked her if she had called the police and she said that she had and they were on their way.  After talking through the story and after she had calmed down, we told her that we couldn't help with anything legal, but that we do have one thing that we think could help her, which is our faith in Jesus Christ and His sacrifice for us.  We asked her if she wanted to hear what we had to say and she said yes, and gave us her address and her phone number.  Had Elder Holley not had to stop and stretch, we wouldn't have been there at the right time to help her.  Just 10 minutes later I started a conversation with a woman standing on the street waiting for a colectivo.  She was super nice, and actually brought up the topic of religion herself, saying ''you know, I've never been baptized.''  We shared a little and gave her a lesson one pamphlet, and she said that she'd be interested in us coming by and teaching her too.  There were more that day, but those were the highlights.

So Alan!  Alan was by far the best part of the week, and the inspiration behind the email subject (everytime we say his name in the house we yell it like in the video, like ''how's ALAN'', ''ALAN is great.'').  He's our 17 year old investigator with the baptismal date, and right now he's showing a lot of promise of reaching his date.  He's attended church twice now, and has liked it both times, and after our English class Saturday he started asking questions about baptism and what's required to be baptized.  Right there we taught him the law of chastity and the work of wisdom and he accepted both on the spot.  Which is awesome!  I haven't seen anyone get as far as him since our convert my first change in the field.  So I'm super excited!  I think that the Spirit has really touched him with the desire to unite with the church, which is a really cool thing to see.  He's become good friends with all the youth in the Santa Cruz branch, and saw one receive his mission call recently.  I think he was pretty inspired by it.  If he gets baptized and ends up going on a mission I think I'd die of happiness.  So that's the hope!

So that was my week!  The other highlights have been our English class Saturday, which more people went too, and the fact that a branch member in Santa Cruz thought that I was Mexican due to my accent, which I thought was awesome because I think the Mexican accent is easily the cleanest and most attractive Spanish there is.  If you don't count Spain, that is.  So that's my week!  My thoughts this week have been on miracles.  I realized how little I expected miracles or believed that they could happen before my mission.  I almost believed that they were things of the past, or things that I would never really be associated with.  In the Book of Mormon it says that if miracles cease among men it is only because faith has ceased also, and I think that's true.  I've gained a very strong testimony through experience on my mission of the availability of miracles, to everybody.  The biggest example was when God filled the font, but there have been miracles every week, and every day.  God really is among us, and miracles really exist.  They can be available to all of us, we just need the faith sufficient to ask for them, and then the gratitude and vision to be able to notice them.  And the amazing thing is that we can pray for both.  With God, we truly will never lack anything, as long as we ask.

I love you all!  Do good!  Make good choices!

Love

Elder Fox

New Years!

Hola everyone!  This letter is going to be short again because not much really happened this week, but there are some stories to share!  Life is just a little slower here in Paniahue, but that's okay!

First good news about Alan!  He's the son of the family of investigators that I talked about in the other letter, named the fma. Yua or something like that.  We've been inviting him to sports and things every week to get to know him and gain confidence, and this week we taught his family for the first time and they weren't extremely receptive, but he was.  We put a baptismal date with him (but none of the rest) in that lesson which was awesome, but he still has to feel like he receives an answer before he'll get baptized, so there's a lot of work to do!  The really exciting thing is that he came to church with us on Sunday, so he's already made it farther than about 90% of the investigators I've had thus far in my mission!  I hope to be able to see him progress and change in my coming months here, the only problem is that there aren't any youth in the branch, so it would be very difficult to keep him active without his family being members or other youth in the church.

BUT we found some youth this week too!  We found this one girl (forgot her name sorry) who's super intelligent.  We gave her a Book of Mormon in our contact and she told us that she'd have it read before Sunday, which would've been incredible, but alas she didn't finish it.  She started it though, and has a lot of questions, which is awesome.  We also have a few other families and people that I think can start progressing here soon, so I'm excited to see that things are picking up!  There's an awesome convert in the branch named Yanina who lives with her mom and cousin, and we've started going by them gaining confidence with their family while giving lessons to our convert.  So good things!

Other stories!  New Years Eve was a blast, it involved a pointless trip to Rancagua and gringo desserts!  I needed to go to Rancagua to get my carnet (Chilean citizenship card thing) which is at a civil register (a building that essentially does everything related to the government) there, so we decided to go on Thursday to get it.  It's about a 3 hour trip in total.  When we got there at 1:00, we walked to the civil register to discover that it had closed.... at 11:00 that morning.  I found out that the civil register normally closes at 2:00 in the afternoon (2:00... on a normal day), but because it was New Years Eve it closed at 11:00 in the morning.

I know you like complaining about the U.S. government... but really... just be grateful for it.  There are more advanced forms of stupidity in this world.

So we took the trip for nothing!  Which was pretty sad because we wasted a lot of time, but also fun because we got to eat at a sandwich place that sells .5 kilogram sandwiches (about a pound) which I enjoyed greatly.  And ate the whole thing.  Easily.  It really is amazing I'm not fat.

We got back to Santa Cruz at about 6:00 and had to enter the house early because of New Years Eve at 7:00... so we didn't really get a lot done that day.  Oh well.  That night I studied the New Testament for a few hours and then us four Elders in the house made oreo shakes and also a delicious brownie\chocolate chip cookie dessert with ice cream that was absolutely delicious.  It was a little too North-American for my Argentine companion, however, and he got so sick that we stayed in the house the whole day the next day.  It was fun studying and watching church movies and mormon messages, but I started getting pretty restless, since our house has the square footage of our family room and I couldn't leave it.  I just felt bad for my comp though, he plans on moving to the states after the mission so I hope he doesn't suffer the same problems with the food when he goes.

We also had our first English class here but we didn't advertise very much at all so only Alan and his family came.  Some of the English that went around the room was pretty hilarious though, since they got some of the practice sentences mixed up.  Here are some examples:

Alan to Elder Leguizamón: ''Where..are... your people?''

(I think he mixed up 'where are you from' with 'how many people are in your family' somehow.)

Elder Leguizamón in response:  ''They are in your house.''

Our people.  They always be in your house.

Also Elder Leguizamón also accidently asked for marijuana in the closing prayer, saying specifically ''we ask thee for... weed.''

I think he was trying to say 'please bless us', but got a little mixed up and wanted to say 'we ask thee for we' but added a 'd' on the end.  I thought it pretty hilarious.

So that was my week!  It was a great week with all said and done, though a slow one since we went two days without doing much.  And we're going to back to Rancagua tomorrow, so we'll see how that goes!

Quick thought on faith: over these three weeks I think this is the biggest lesson I've learned here.  In Conti I kind of gave up faith as a result of our lack of success, which certainly didn't help the fact that we didn't have a lot of success.  We can have faith despite the circumstances, always, and if we create our circumstances (rather than letting our circumstances create us) with faith, we can achieve miracles.  Always.  Our Heavenly Father is a God of miracles, but he works on the principle of faith.  We can have faith that He can do anything, but even better is having faith that he will do it.  But of course, in order to know that He will do it, we also have to know that it's in accordance with His will, which is knowledge that we have to seek through Him in prayer.

Love you guys!  The Church is true!

Love