Lots of things

Howdy

Decided I'd change the introduction up because I always start my emails in the exact same way!  This week was good though!  I was thinking about a good subject header to put, and the only thing I could think of was 'lots of things' because there were lots of things!  It was a pretty full week and another pretty busy one but this time I have a little more time to talk about it!

I'll start with our action story of the week.  After stake conference on Sunday at about 10:45 at night (we go to bed at 11:00 and thus we normally can't make or receive calls after 10:30) when we got a call from the bishop of a ward called Piduco in our zone.  We figured it must be important so we answered it, and he told us that he was talking to the sister missionaries on the phone and suddenly the phone cut out and after they weren't answering him at all.  He was worried because Piduco is a really sketchy area of Talca and one of the sisters had problems with a stalker in another sector in Talca in the past.  That didn't worry us too much at first because we thought it was likely that the phone just ran out of battery.  But as we kept trying to call them up until 11:00 they still weren't answering, and by that time they'd have had to plug in their phone and turn it on to use it as their alarm.  At this point we were pretty dang worried and we called President and then the assistants when he didn't answer.  We quickly changed our clothes and went outside running to find a colectivo to take us to the other side of Talca where the hermanas lived.  We called other elders who lived a little closer to pass by them and see if they were alright.  After running for a good 10 minutes we found a colectivo and started heading towards their neighborhood.  Luckily though, after about 15 minutes in the colectivo the other elders called and told us that the hermanas were fine and in their house but that their phone had just stopped making calls and they had no idea why.  After another 15 minutes (we stayed in the colectivo and waited for it to make full-circle through the whole city) the hermanas called us because their phone started working again and explained what happened to us.  We called the assistants and everything was fine!  We did end up going to bed at 12:00 though.  The story is a little anti-climactic but real stories like this are much better that way haha.

Now to start talking more about the investigators!  For Talca I'm a little surprised on how few progressing investigators the sector has at this point, but the goal is that we find a lot more in the coming weeks!  The biggest investigators we have are this extended family that has been listening to the missionaries for a while now.  One of the women, Lorena, has been baptized a few months ago, but her sister, Leticia, has a partner that she needs to marry first.  Lorena and Liticia both have children though that are also progressing.  Lorena's son is named Jesús and he's 10 years old, and he's a great little kid but he has a very short attention span so he's a little harder to teach.  He's been making great progress though and he has a baptism date in two weeks.  Leticia also has a few kids but they're a little more complicated.  One's name is Christofer who's 11, who would get baptized but Leticia wants him to at least get to the point where he stops yelling and swearing during church before he gets baptized.  Seems reasonable to me.  Her other kid that could get baptized is about 16 and I forgot her name.  She's making progress though and has just started going to church and activities.  So that's that!

We found a new group of investigators this week though that we're also really excited about.  One day out of the blue this Hermana from the ward presented us to her 12-year-old neighbor who informed us that he wanted to get baptized the following day.  We told him that he'd have to prepare a little bit and we'd have to teach him and his family for a few weeks but he was fine with that.  The same hermana found out a little later that this kid's grandpa was a baptized member, but that he and his family needed a lot of help.  She called us later and told us that the grandpa was a member but because of sickness can't use one of his legs and is bed-ridden for the most part.  Because of lack of time on the part of his children who take care of him, the house has become unbearable and alone it would take days to clean.  We went to visit and met the grandpa and the kid's mom.  We'll be passing by the grandpa every day to visit him because he doesn't have a lot of company and also teaching the mom and her son who wants to get baptized.  The mom is really hesitant about going to church because she was evangelical before and had a bad experience and swore herself that she would never go to another church, but we helped her to realize that she can get an answer from God to know if it's good to go to our church and that she can know by reading the book of Mormon and praying about it.  So we're excited for the prospects there!

Thanksgiving!  The day before thanksgiving I did divisions with Elder Wolff (he came with me and was in my district in the MTC so it was cool to be with him in the divisions.  We took a picture of our name tags together: Elder Fox and Elder Wolff) and after the division Elder Mendez and I had some time before lunch.  I was thinking about what we could do for thanksgiving that night and remembered how much I miss good mexican food and suggested that we buy stuff to make tacos (but according to the fox-family definition of tacos they were more like fajitas.)  So we bought meat and chipotle peppers in a can (to mix with mayonnaise and make the chipotle sauce) and green mexican sauce and made tacos together that night as a house!  It was one of the best food nights of my whole mission.  I was very happy.  It wasn't very traditional thanksgiving food but I loved it.

One more thing!  So we had interviews with President Harris all day Saturday and while he was doing interviews we were doing trainings with the missionaries about the Christmas initiative among other things.  We had to do 3 trainings back to back, and it was exhausting.  We were there from 7:30 in the morning until 3:00, and then at 4:00 started the priesthood session of stake conference, then at 6:30 started the adult session of stake conference until about 9:00.  So we spent more than 14:00 hours straight in the church.  Stake conference was awesome though because I saw all the members from Constituciòn!  I forgot that I was going to see them until a few days previous and when I remembered I got so flipping excited.  It was an awesome reunion.  I can't believe it's been a year since I've been there.  I got to see just about everybody though and the majority even remembered me!  It was awesome.

So that's my week of lots of things!  I was going to give a spiritual thought about something cool that happened this week but I don't have time so you'll have to remind me next week!  I love you all!

Love

Elder Fox

The Gift of Signs

Hey all!  This week has been pretty dang nuts but great!  We've been pretty constantly busy which I've actually enjoyed a lot despite the fact that I don't really have time to think.  I don't think it'll be like this constantly but this has been the first week of the change so there are naturally a lot of things to do.

So Tuesday I had to say goodbye to Pichidegua and Elder Kammerman which was actually pretty hard.  I still feel a little like I've left a big part of me in Pichidegua and that the golden age of my mission is over, despite me trying to shake it off.  Leaving a sector has never quite left me feeling like this, but I'm sure that in a few weeks it'll all feel normal again.  Anywho, Tuesday I got to Talca which I was actually pretty excited about because I love Talca and it's been a year since I've seen it.  Being in the center of the city brings back a ton of memories of the start of my mission.  The people here are a lot more like the kind of people I started teaching, it's surprising how different the culture can be just 3 hours away.  Being in Talca is spectacular, in my last 3 sectors I've gotten really accustomed to things being more complicated so it's been a huge relief working a bit in here.  In one hour of contacting here we can find at least 2 extremely solid potential investigators, whereas in Pichidegua we found about one of those a week.  We've kept true to the mission goal of giving out 2 books of Mormon a day with an appointment to return, which has been awesome.  So, so far I'm enjoying Talca!

There were a lot of things that happened this week that I'll have to go more detail into next week, but on Wednesday we had to Rancagua for a special zone leader meeting that President called for.  It's about 3 hours to Rancagua from here so we read a lot of scriptures on the way and back, then in the meeting they talked about the new Christmas Initiative ''Ilumine el Mundo'' (not sure what it is in English, light the world?) so that's exciting.  I thought the idea of having goals for 30 days leading up to Christmas was an awesome idea.  I challenge you all to follow them!  It'll make Christmas that much more special.

The rest of the week until today was getting to know the sector and the ward.  It's a pretty great place!  We have some awesome investigators that I still don't remember the names of so I'll have to get back to you on them.  The only thing that really stood out this week was when we went to one of our recent converts.  Elder Mendez explained to me beforehand that we have a deaf convert, and that all the missionaries that have been here since they started teaching her have learned chilean sign language.  I explained that I took a year of american sign language, but I soon discovered in our first lesson with her that it is not at all the same.  Elder Mendez doesn't know much either because he's only been here 6 weeks and he relied mostly on his comp, but we've learned a ton in the short encounters we've had with her and her hearing daughter.  They actually teach a class for the whole ward every week that we go to to learn.  The greatest thing though is that she is the probably the kindest and happiest woman you'll ever meet in your life.  She's always smiling and is so happy about life.  I felt the charity very strongly when I first met her, and I'm already getting decent at communicating in sign language so I hope that I'll be able to learn well enough while I'm here to talk well with her!

The only other thing from this week is that we planned an activity for today (here the zone leaders always have an activity for the zone) that turned out awesome.  We played soccer and ate completos.  Pretty normal, but we had a great time and I got to meet the zone.  They're awesome missionaries and I'm super excited!

I love you all!  I hope you have a great week!

Elder Fox

The Close of an Era

Hey!  So this week was pretty uneventful so I'll talk about the few things that happened then talk about the changes a bit.

So, as I said in the video, we went to Chimbarongo this week and both stayed the night there so I could do some more baptismal interviews.  I had to do four this time so it took a good while.

Found out who won the presidential campaign!  I was probably just about as surprised as you are.  I thought it was a joke when the zone leaders called us and told us that a member informed them who won.  However, as you all know, everything is going to be just fine.  I'll be the first to say that I have strong feelings against Trump being our president and I really wasn't expecting it to happen and I definitely wasn't expecting Utah to vote for him since the third party candidate was from Utah (from what I heard) but I'm still pretty sure he's not Hitler.  And there's that!  So we'll just remember faith and hope and that everything is going to be okay.

With that, the changes!  I totally predicted the changes, just thinking of the weirdest possible thing that could've happened with the changes.  I thought that I'd be going to Talca and be with Elder Mendez again (my first comp in Hospital) and that Elder Espindola (my first trainee) was going to come to Pichidegua to be with Elder Kammerman.  And guess what happened?  I'm going to Talca as a zone leader with Elder Mendez and Elder Espindola is coming to Pichidegua with Elder Kammerman.

Weird right?

The mission is definitely full of weird changes!  This one in particular took a little more time to digest because, for one, I know Elder Kammerman and Elder Espindola extremely well.  After all, they are both my ''sons''.  So I know that there aren't two people more different in the planet.  I trust that they're going to love each other though and that everything is going to be fine because I trust and love them both.  Pichidegua is definitely the place I care about most in the mission, and now I get to confide it to the two missionaries I trained!  I'll be praying for them and for Pichidegua a lot in the next couple of months.  I hope I trained them well!

The other thing is being a zone leader, but I trust that I'll get used to that as well as any assignment in the mission.  I'm pretty excited about being with Elder Mendez again because we were good friends and got along great but it is kind of weird at the same time.  Definitely came unexpectedly.  I'm super excited about being in Talca again though, in a strong ward in the most successful zone in the mission.  Though I've absolutely loved my time in these smaller and more complicated sectors.

So that's the change!  Saying goodbye was really heartbreaking.  I've been in a pretty low mood the whole weekend since the changes.  Out of all the times I've left a sector, this has been the one I've been the least prepared to leave.  I hope I don't have to do a lot more of these goodbye's because they are definitely getting marginally harder every time.  The sad thing about having greater charity is what you have to go through when you leave.  It's far worth it though.  I had a deep relationship with all these members and investigators and they were very sad to see me go this time around, and the heartfelt goodbye's they said reminded me of when I left home for the mission.  They all said so many nice things and almost made me cry a few times.  Christian actually said that he wanted to invite me back to baptize him in January but I had to tell him I probably wouldn't be able to get permission which was kind of sad.  I just hope I get to come back!  This time with Elder Kammerman has been a golden era for sure, Elder Kammerman is definitely tied with Elder Hadlock as far as friends in the mission go, and that's not easy to do!  I've never been more open or closer with a comp in the mission and leaving him is going to be very hard too.  We worked like crazy and as a result we have 3 investigators that are going to be baptized and 8 people reactivated with more on the way.  President Jimenez thanked us for what we were able to do together in the branch and all of the reactivated members expressed their gratitude.  We've also made some amazing friends in the zone this change as we mentioned in the video and were able to touch their lives in various ways, so it was hard to say goodbye to them too.  There have been a lot of tough trials in these months, and these months have been some of the most difficult, but easily the most joyful at the exact same time.  Funny how that works.  Pichidegua will always be the pride of my mission.  It has changed my life forever, for sure.  I would write more details about goodbye's but sadly I don't have a lot of time.  I really love these people though, with all my heart.  I will never forget the members and the investigators we've had here.

And that's all!  I hope you have a great week!  I love you all!

Elder FoxEra

Gadianton and the rumors and wars of rumors

Hey all!  With all said and done, this week was just incredibly weird.  But it was also good!  In the video we already gave you all the highlights with more detail than I could in writing, so I suppose I'll just skip to the spiritual thoughts after mentioning a few small details about the week.

So as far as the sector goes it was a little slow other than the things we talked about in the video.  We still haven't seen Andrea and we were really worried for a bit but figured out she was just in Santiago so she doesn't actually hate us and we'll start teaching her again when she gets back.  We have a lot of potential investigators and a few references who are super interested but we haven't been able to go to them this week.  One story we didn't say was that we went to Pataguas in the week to hunt for some new investigators (we figured Pichidegua itself is a little dried up and we should broaden our reach.) and we could only be there for a bit because we were delayed dealing with the leak in the house among other things but we starting talking to this couple on a park bench and it was a little awkward at first because they didn't want to talk but then they opened up and told us that they were just distracted because of hard things and they ended up talking about their situation.  They were from Bolivia and having a hard time adjusting to that place.  The contact changed immediately and we were able to talk about how the gospel can help them specifically and they want us to come back to talk about more!  So we're pretty excited about that!

So I think the best lesson learned this week was about the power of the atonement.  I have felt this power in my life, but sometimes in my moments of most difficulty I have a hard time calling down the powers of heaven amidst the distractions.  This week I really discovered how much a sincere prayer can really help if we pray with faith.  I have a strong testimony of the love of God for us, and how in these moments, the only thing we need to do to receive the help of God is to let Him help us.  Let Him take it.  It's funny how we can hold on to our own temptations and sins and trials in the confusion that our own pain causes.  But I know that He lives and loves us and that He will help us if we let Him.  It's as simple as that.  I bore a testimony this Sunday about how the gospel works, and how by simply getting to know the Savior and reading about His life we can get to love Him and find happiness following Him and His gospel.  It's so simple yet we try to complicate things so much.  The grace of God is with us every step of the way as we try to follow in His footsteps, and all He asks of us is that we use that grace to progress in our ability to help other people.  With every action we take to help another person He fills the font, but maybe even more importantly, He fills us.  I love Him, with all my heart, and I love His gospel, and I know that it's true and leads to true and everlasting happiness.

I love you all!  Have a great week!  The church is true!

Love

Elder Fox

Helaman 1:10 and Luke 5:26

Hey all!  The biggest events of the week we recorded in a huge freaking video that's still uploading so you should all get that hopefully by the end of the day!  The email should send as soon as it's done uploading.  I apologize in advance for how dead I am in the video, I was pretty dang tired.  We also made some videos for Elder Kammerman's little brother the other week during p-day.  For his birthday (Elder Kammerman's brother) he asked Elder Kammerman to buy a candy bar and take a video of him eating it.  We decided to go all out and add music and make some dramatic videos of him eating chocolate.  I'll send those too in this email because they're super small.

So the video mostly talks about the adventures of Kishkumen.  Luke 5:26 applies because after the climax of the Kishkumen weirdness I read that verse in my studies that night before going to bed and started laughing out loud.  The weirdness continues, after noticing one of the poison pellets disappeared we noticed two more disappear this morning and another bunch this afternoon.  We have no idea how much poison this thing can take.  We also noticed this afternoon that it managed to eat peanut butter off the trap that we tied to the wall without setting it off and managed to take the poison off the bread with peanut butter and just ate the bread and peanut butter.  This thing is incredible.

Sadly, other than the kishkumen business, nothing much happened.  We weren't able to see just about any of our investigators this week for one reason or another.  We haven't had the help from the members this week that we usually do so it made it impossible to do much outside of the actual city of Pichidegua.  Also Andrea and Oliver didn't go to church this week, though they said they would the night before, so we'll have to put their date for early next change.  The happy thing is that she still looks clear for baptism, so it'll still be soon!  I look forward a ton to at least seeing pictures if I'm not here.

Quick update, I don't know if you all remember Javier who we started teaching as soon as I got to Pichidegua.  We kept teaching him but weren't able to for the last few weeks and it turns out that he went back to drugs and robbing and was kicked out of his house.  His girlfriend's mom, who was in Peru, came back and divorced her husband and kicked her daughter of the house because in the midst of the nightmare Javier and his girlfriend ended up selling almost everything they had (except for the house) for food and drugs.  So... that just happened.  Goes to show that you can't help everyone!  But it's alright, they have their agency.

So this week prayer and scriptures have been really good friends.  I guess my testimony this week is how important the basics really are.  Even as missionaries we have weeks when we feel pretty dang normal and once we re-learn to have meaningful prayer and scripture study everything really turns around.  I know that He really listens to our prayers, and if we pray with faith, promising to act, we can really turn any kind of situation around.  I also know that we can receive answers and inspiration from the scriptures.  I learned to love the scriptures before my mission, but here they've taken an entirely new dimension for me.  They're so great!  And that's all I have to say about that.

I love you all!  Have a great week!  Preach the gospel!

Love

Elder Fox

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