Happiness is found in random panini makers

Hey everybody!  This week was fantastic.  I saw a ton of tender mercies from the Lord this week, and just had a good time!  It was definitely a good moral boost.

SO to continue the stories that I started last time.  The hole!  The famous giant hole.  So we don't really know what the hole is for... we didn't really ask questions.  We're only slightly concerned about what it could be for.  BUT we were digging the hole one morning when the hermana came out in tears saying that her uncle had died (apparently they were very close) so she had to go to Argentina.  It was a super sad moment, but it was kind of awkward because we were just sitting in a big hole while she was standing over us crying and we weren't really sure what to do.  BUT the moral of the story is that the hermana went to Argentina so work on the hole stopped for the week.

María!  We did service with her a few more times, but sadly enough we still haven't been able to teach her.  She's an awesome lady though, more updates on her in the future.

So this is probably the best group of Elders I've ever lived with.  I have loved every Elder I've ever lived with to death (and that's no lie) but this is probably the best house so far of my mission.  Elder Mendez is super easy to talk to and we have a lot of deep conversations which I like, also our companionship is super united because we just have such similar personalities and strengths.  We both like being super organized and super diligent, but we're not over-the-top.  Also, the fact that we both have around the same time in the mission is super nice because neither one of us is prideful or thinks that they know best.  SO we're getting along dandy.  It's been fun having a younger comp (in mission age that is.)  Also the other companionship that we're living with is a ton of fun.  We spend a ton of time together with the 4 due to all the service we have, and we've all gotten to be great friends.  We're all easy-going and don't stress too much but we're all hard-working and obedient.  So it's an amazing group.  And in speaking of the group, I have stories!

So you're probably wondering what inspired the title of the email.  The background is that there is only one elder in the whole mission who has a waffle iron, and he's famous for having it.  And he's Elder Edwards!  You all know him.  Not a lot of missionaries have money for things like that, even though they all love waffles and miss them a ton because they don't exist here.  BUT this week my wonderful grandparents sent me money for my birthday, so I bought a panini maker!!

But it's not just a panini maker... dun dun dun

Kidding.  It is a panini maker, but it also includes other replaceable plates to turn it into a sandwich-griller type thing and another set of plates to turn it into a waffle iron.  So it's all three!  I bought it after my division with my district leader Wednesday (another story) and surprised the other Elders at our house and they were absolutely thrilled.

So true happiness is found in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  But one can find happiness in random panini makers too.

So that night we had to enter the house an hour early due to a soccer match between Chile and Argentina (rival country.)  So that night we made waffles and super tasty fried sandwich things, took them to the roof, and ate them on the roof while talking about life.  After, we just laid out on the roof and looked at the stars and talked.  It was a ton of fun.  

The branch!  Funny enough, due to a special regional type conference and then the stake conference, this Sunday was the first time that I attended Sacrament Meeting here in the branch.  But the branch is awesome!  It's huge!!  It's almost as big as my ward in Conti was!  There are apparently 60 members who attend on a regular basis, and they're all awesome!  It has one of the highest percentages of tithing-payers and endowed members in the whole country, and every family is just amazing and a ton of fun too.  I've made good friends with a family that lived in Utah for about 2 years, they've already forgotten a lot of their english so we still speak Spanish always but they're a ton of fun to talk to, as are all the members!  Everybody who goes to Hospital loves it to death, and I definitely see why.  The place is gorgeous and the branch is awesome!  Remind to send pictures, in speaking of that.

So that's all the time I got sadly enough, I wanted to share a few thoughts I had while studying Alma 42 this week but it'll have to wait for next week.  I love you all!  Take care!  Have a good week!

Love

Elder Fox

Holes - Chilean Version

Hello all!

So sadly I don't have much to say about this week, BUT it was a fun week.  We had a ton of service. Like a ton.  Probably more than any set of missionaries in the mission.  But I do love service! Starting to miss proselyting a little bit though, not gunna lie.  The weather will start cooling down soon and the service will calm down and we'll get bikes again so everything will go back to normal.  BUT I did enjoy the service a lot this week, so I'll tel you a little bit about it.

The subject of the email is inspired by a service project we started this week.  I thought that we were just going to go to the house of this member and do a little 3 hour project to help her out and be done.  We got to her house and she told us that she wanted us to dig a hole, which didn't seem like too big a deal.  she drew the outline of the hole and it was a rectangle about 2 and a half meters long and 2 meters wide.  Still no big deal.  We started digging and got about 8'' deep when we decided to ask how deep she wanted the hole.  She responded, ''Oh, as deep as possible.  4 meters, maybe 3.''

Four meters deep, she wants a hole that's twice as deep as I am tall.

So that's when we realized the full magnitude of the project that we've engaged in.  Digging a giant hole is super exhausting, but it's actually kind of fun work.  It's been one of my favorite projects in the mission so far for sure (but that might be because the only service I've done before is helping people move, and that's the absolute worst.  Especially in Chile.)  so we've been digging a giant hole.

We also got a reference this week from others elders about a woman who needed a service, so we went to her house and started building a shed for her to keep a bunch of extra wood that she has just sitting around in her property (I know it's a little odd but we just went with it.)  Her name is Maria, and she's an awesome lady.  I think we'll definitely be able to teach her, and I think that she could easily accept the Restored Gospel.  She says that she's very catholic, but she makes a lot of off-colored jokes and swears a good deal.  She's really funny and easily to get along with though, and we've all made quick friends.  So we'll see how all that goes!

Other stories of the week!  I did divs with the zone leaders this Wednesday, which was a lot of fun.  We had a great day and taught a super awesome lesson together.  

Also I'm an official convert to mate.  For those who don't know what that is, it's pronounced MAH-tay and it's a drink that originated in Argentina but is popular in Chile also, and super popular among all missionaries in South America.  What you do is you put mate herb in a cup type thing with a special straw that allows water to pass while blocking the herbs, and you put hot water in the herb cup and drink it.  I've been warming up to it since I started the mission, at first I didn't understand it at all (''why would I want to put water in a cup of oregano?'') BUT I have cultivated a love for the stuff, and the same member that we're digging the hole for gave me a mate cup and straw and sold me herb for super cheap and so now I'm a mate addict. 

''Swalled up in the will of the father'' by Neil A. Maxwell is a flipping awesome talk!  My zone leader gave it to me in my division and I read it and loved it.  If you haven't read it, go find it!

So that's all that I have for this week!  I love you all, a ton, and I hope to be able to send you some pictures of hospital!  I'll hopefully be able to send you some more pictures next week, I'll plan to have some more time in advance.  Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Fox

Welcome to Paradise #2

Hey all!  Hows it goin?  Sadly I have very little time to write this week, but I'll be as fast as I can!

Hospital!  I fell in love with it as soon as I saw it.  There are much more trees than there are houses, and everything is very spaced out.  It's surrounded by gorgeous mountains, and there are more dirt roads than paved roads.  It's kind of how I thought Chile was going to be when I got my call!  So I'm super excited to be here!  It is one of the largest sectors in the mission, however.  We have bikes in the sector, but it still takes about a half an hour to travel between places (2 hours+ walking.)  I love how rural it and pretty everything is and being able to see the stars at night for the lack of street lamps or really anything.

With that said, it's easily the wealthiest part of Chile I've ever seen ever.  The houses outside of the normal poblaciònes (hospital and champa, for my father who went and explored on google maps) have front yards and back yards, and a lot of them actually have pools.  I've never seen a pool in Chile until I've gotten here, now I see them at almost every house.  So where I am is rural, but it's a super rich kind of rural.  The houses are comparable to the ones in Utah in size and general niceness.

Including our house!  Easily one of the nicest houses I've ever seen in Chile, and easily the nicest house that missionaries have ever had ever.  We have a lot more space than we need.  We're four missionaries, and the house is likely the size (or larger than) the house we have in Alpine.  There are two floors, a kitchen, two bathrooms, a dining room, a large living room, two study rooms, a bedroom, and about 4 extra rooms that we do nothing with.  It's incredible!  We also have property full of fruit trees, we have almonds and peaches and pears and apples and avocados.  We also have a swing set and a slide.

The only downside is cleaning the huge house... we actually had to get fumigated this week for a flea problem that exploded as soon as we got to the house.  Fleas are the worst things ever, and I've had problems with them being in my houses ever since I got to Conti.  I didn't know they gave grief to anything but dogs, but apparently here in Chile they like humans too.  BUT it's okay because they should all be dead now.

So this sector is another famous one for not having a lot of success.  I've heard that it ''never changes.''  But if there is anything that I learned from Conti and Paniahue, it's that everything is in the attitude of the missionary.  Absolutely everything.  In Conti we were in one of the best places and we had nothing in the way of progression, and in Paniahue we were in one of the worst places and had success up the walls.  Everything is based in the faith and the diligence of the missionary.  I learned a ton from Elder Leguizamòn and Elder Barbosa when I was with them about these two attributes, and I'm confident that this sector is going to see progress this change.

My comp!  Is awesome.  His name is Elder Mendez, and I think he'll easily turn out to be one of my favorites along with Elder Hadlock.  He's from a place in Mexico called Macatexas, and he's 24 (I don't know why I keep getting comps that are so much older than me, Elder Barbosa was 23.)  He does have less time in the mission than me, but not a ton.  This is first sector, but he's been here for way longer than normal.  To my understanding, in most missions there is always a senior comp and a junior comp.  In this mission, much more often than not, both comps are just co-comps.  I've been co-comps with all my companions since my training, with Elder Mendez included.  Elder Mendez is a lot of fun but he's super smart, obedient, and has a strong testimony.  He was a convert who left on the mission as soon as he could, about a year into his membership of the church.  

So that's about all the time I had!  Our bikes got taken from us this week for repairs and we also had to spend a whole day not working due to the fumigation thing, so sadly we weren't able to do much in the way of visiting investigators, but I did meet a few people that I'll be sure to talk about next week!  I also didn't get to meet the branch yet because there was a multi-stake conference this Sunday with all of Chile where they showed a broadcast from Salt Lake City.  President Nelson spoke in Spanish, which I thought was pretty cool.

A few favors!  Could someone send me ''A Consecrated Missionary''?  Also could someone studious who has time research The Church of the Light (''La Iglesia de la Luz'' if it doesn't exist in north america)?  I'm hearing more and more about it and seeing more and more missionaries from it and I'm getting super curious.  They seem to also preach of a restoration type thing, the church started in Mexico.

That's all the time I have!  I love you all!  Have a great week!

Love

Elder Fox

The Weirdest Week Ever

Hey everybody!  This was easily the weirdest week of my whole mission, and sadly that resulted in us not being able to do very much as far as working goes.  But there are still a few good stories to share!

First though I have news!  I be goin to Santiago!  We got the changes Saturday and Elder Barbosa will be staying in Paniahue to finish off his mission and I'll be going to a zone called Buin, which is a city in the South of Santiago (it's right on the border of our mission and the Santiago South mission.)  The branch I'll be serving in, however, is called Hospital, a city that seems to be about 30 to 45 minutes south of Buin.  I hear good things about the place!  I'll be comps with Elder Mendez, from Mexico.  I've never heard of him, nor has anyone else that I've talked to, so it's likely that he's newer.  So we'll see how that goes!

So the weird (wierd or weird?) week!  Everything was mas o menos normal until Thursday, when Elder Crane got a call from President saying that he would be the new assistant the next change.  Which is awesome!  Elder Crane is one of my best friends in the mission, and he'll do a fantastic job.  But that meant that the assistants were going to come by and pick him up that night, and that Elder Barbosa and Elder Young and I would be combining sectors and working as a trio until Tuesday, the day of the actual changes.  So that day we had to wait around for the assistants then go out and work as a trio.  The next day!  We get a call from Elder Santini saying that his comp was going to be a secretary in the office and that they were going to come to Santa Cruz and that the secretaries would pick his comp up that night and Elder Santini was going to stay in Santa Cruz with us and be temporary companions with Elder Young.  The next day, there was a baptizm in Santa Cruz and Elder Barbosa had to help prepare for it, so we did divisions and I worked with ELder Santini while Elder barbosa and Elder Young prepared for the baptism.  The next day, we found out that there would be a whitewash in Pichilemu so both Elder from Pichi were going to come to our house and live there for the weekend on their way out.  So we had to wait for them to get to the house and then we worked in trios again.

I'm sorry, that was super complicated.  And that's why it was the weirdest week ever!  And we weren't able to get much done.  BUT I still have some stories.

This week was a super famous week in Santa Cruz!  I already forgot what it was called, but it has something to do with wine!  Turns out, this valley is one of the best places in the world for wine and for it's vineyards, so it's actually a pretty touristic place.  It attracts a lot of people from France, and some from the States and England and other places like that.  This week, however, is the official week of wine in Santa Cruz.  So there are a ton of foreigners everywhere this week.  The only downside to this is that the purpose of the holiday is to drink wine, which makes things a little iffy for us.  In fact, on the way to the baptizm Saturday, Elder Santini and I walked through the thick of the festivities.  I've never seen so much wine in my life.  But anyway, I digress.  The coolest thing about all of this, though, was that Saturday I saw an airshow!  An airshow!  In Santa Cruz Chile!  Probably just about the weirdest place in the world to see an airshow!  It was actually extremely impressive, as impressive as the performances are in the Hill Air Force Base airshow.  So that was definitely the highlight of my week!  Luckily it was during lunch so I could pause and watch it all while it was happening.

Today we went to one of the coolest museums I've ever been to.  It's here in Santa Cruz, and it has thousands of things from all ages of the history of Chile.  The coolest, though, are the artifacts from the ancient inhabitants of South America.  They have thousands of tools, artwork, pots, everything from the ancient inhabitants of South America.  It was one of the coolest things I've ever seen!  The coolest thing though, is that I saw a lot of things that support the history of the Book of Mormon.  Which I thought was cool!  At one point in the museum there was a timeline of the age of the artifacts and places that they've found, and they all start at - you guessed it - 600 B.C.  There are a few before that (including some temples) which I would assume are from the Jaredites, but the vast majority of the things found date from after 600 B.C.  I just thought that that was cool.

So there were two moments this week where I was moved to tears in the most unexpected moments.  Which, if you know me, never happens to me!  I almost never get moved to tears, ever.  So that fact that it happened twice this week was something interesting for me.  The first was when I was saying goodbye to my little branch in Paniahue.  Of course, upon hearing that I'd be going to Buin I was a little sad to be leaving Paniahue but I had grown to love it and had grown to love a ton of people here, but I wasn't as heartbroken as I was in Conti by a long-shot.  Then I got up in fast and testimony meeting to say goodbye to my little branch of 20, and started crying out of nowhere!  I think I realized that this place has shaped me more than I had originally thought, and I realized how much I had grown to love this place and all of the people here.  It was a special experience, and all of the members let me know how much they appreciated what I've done for them and were genuinely sad I was leaving, which was a surprise given how much they dislike North Americans generally.  Many re-told me the story of how I played the piano for the primary program the first Sunday and how much of a miracle that was for them.  It's good to know that I make a difference in the lives of these members here.

The second time I got emotional was today in the museum, in an exhibit dedicated to the 33 Chilean miners that were trapped and were rescued.  That, too, came out of absolutely nowhere.  I would like to share more thoughts and details about that experience, but sadly I'm out of time.

I love you all, have a good week!

Elder Fox