Epilogue

Hey all!

I had this goal of writing one more letter/blog post to conclude the mission posts, but time has been a tricky fish.  Not to mention, it's hard to motivate myself to write.  I'm planning on starting another blog, after this one, because I think it's good for me to write my thoughts, the things I learn, and the things I'm passionate about when it comes to true Christianity.  But before that, here is the last mission post.

My brother-in-law once told me that the reason missionaries struggle returning home is because they aren't as diligent in coming home as they were in starting their missions.  I wish I had completely understood what he meant when he said it, because, honestly, I had a real hard time for a while.  Despite all I thought I understood about the end of the mission not being an ending at all, when the time came, it sure felt like an ending.  The isolation I felt from my mission and the country and people I grew to love caused a loneliness very similar to the loneliness I felt when I left my family and friends and entered a country where everyone was a complete stranger.  When a missionary enters the field, he enters a new universe (especially if he goes foreign) that feels completely separate from the universe where his family and friends are.  He only connects to the old universe through email an hour a week.  Then, upon returning home, he leaves the universe he grew to love, and is plunged into the old one again.  The mission feels just as isolated as home used to.  Being surrounded by loving family again is amazing, but after being in another world for two years, it's an odd feeling being surrounded by people who weren't with you in the most life-changing years of your existence.

And this is how I think diligence applies.  Leaving home for the mission is harder than going home, because going home at least you go home to family, but leaving home, you plunge yourself into a world of strangers where you know nobody and nobody knows you.  But new missionaries usually get accustomed very quickly, and that is because they know they have to.  They understand that the only way to be happy is to put both feet in the mission, not think about home, consecrate themselves, and learn to love the people.  They know being involved in their missions and serving is the only way to happiness and success in the mission field, and so they learn.  But some returned missionaries never manage to return home from their missions all their lives.  I have talked to middle-aged adults that are still stuck in their missions and can't get out, because they haven't done anything worthwhile since their missions.  That's because they didn't learn to put both feet back in their home.  A returned missionary needs to learn to consecrate himself, love the people in his native country, and learn to serve them just as a new missionary needs to learn to love and serve the people in his mission.  A returned missionary should still think about his mission, and focus on loving and serving the people from his mission that he left behind, but he needs to learn to put both feet back in his own universe, and love and serve the people there as well.  It's true that completing a full-time mission isn't an end to anything, but you sure have to treat it like a beginning.  It is the beginning of applying the lessons learned, the beginning of exercising even more patience than you had to in the mission, and the beginning of a life full of living the gospel and dedicated service.  It's just the start of a new mission, and perhaps even a more important one.

As a returned missionary I was surprised to see that everything at home seems to be nearly the same, with the exception that satan has even a tighter grip over the world than he did.  And I think he's trying harder to destroy returned missionaries than ever.  But, at the same time, God is with His missionaries, and He is strengthening, preparing, helping, and guiding them.  My age group and I were all pretty immature before our missions, and one of the best things about coming home is seeing the amazing young adults that God made out of us.  I've been blessed by inspired home teachers (that are both my age) that were faithful to their assignments and helped me tremendously.  I've seen many youth and young adults give powerful lessons and talks and serve selflessly and help others.  Every time I see something like this, I remember that satan cannot win.  And he will not win.  The battle is already won, because He already won it, and because He already won the battle in us.

Since coming home, I've had more powerful spiritual experiences at a greater frequency than ever before in my life.  The message is always the same, summarized by the third verse of "How Firm a Foundation":

3. Fear not, I am with thee; oh, be not dismayed,

For I am thy God and will still give thee aid.

I’ll strengthen thee, help thee, and cause thee to stand,

Upheld by my righteous, upheld by my righteous,

Upheld by my righteous, omnipotent hand.

Then the 7th always comes to mind:

7. The soul that on Jesus hath leaned for repose

I will not, I cannot, desert to his foes;

That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake,

I’ll never, no never, I’ll never, no never,

I’ll never, no never, no never forsake!

God doesn't slacken His hand after someone ends a mission, or is released from a calling, or is passing through any kind of transition.  Our concept of beginnings and endings isn't His concept, for our ways are not His ways, and our thoughts are not His thoughts (Isaiah 55:8.)  For God doth not walk in crooked paths, neither doth he turn to the right hand nor to the left, neither doth he vary from that which he hath said, therefore his paths are straight, and his course is one eternal round (D&C 3:2.)  I am so thankful to have an all-knowing Father that knows me and loves me infinitely.  He has led me thus far, and I am grateful that He will continue to do so for eternity.

My mission was the the most treasured experience of my life this far.  It was the biggest adventure I've ever had.  Those years were the craziest, most dangerous, most life-changing, most memorable, most difficult, most spiritual, and most wonderful I've experienced.  On my mission I've made friends I will maintain for eternity.  On my mission I learned who I am.  I learned what my strengths are, and a whole lot about what my weaknesses are.  I learned who my Father is, and is Son, and I learned to trust Them.  I learned the importance of charity and love, I learned to serve, I learned to work, I learned to give myself, I learned to consecrate myself, and I learned that living the gospel is the only way to be happy.  I learned that happiness and sadness are interwoven, I learned that patience is a heavenly virtue that God will always try, and I learned that discipleship is not a pleasant path, but that it is certainly worth it.  I learned that our Father loves us infinitely, and that Jesus Christ has the power to extend mercy and save and lift up any of Father's children who are willing to let down their walls.

I learned more than I can describe in a single email.  I have met and talked to so many people in the last month that have learned the exact same lessons.  I know that God is preparing His people, that when the darkness continues to deepen, the light will shine brighter against it.  I am so grateful for Him and his gospel.  I know that Jesus Christ is the son of God, and that He lives.  I know He is the light and life of the world, and that it is through Him that we may acquire the light we need in order to shine against the approaching darkness.  I know that He lifts, prepares, and guides each one of us.  That He qualifies His people for the great latter work.  I know that this is the true church of Jesus Christ restored on the earth, that He is our head, and that this is His work.  I so testify in His name, Jesus Christ, amen.

-- Elder Fox

Conclusion

It still hasn't sunk in, I'm not really sure how it could.

A lot of people have asked me how I'm feeling, and I have had no idea what to respond.  So far, I've been responding that I don't know, and that I'd write a book after I go home and send it to them.  Because, of course, a part of me is excited to see my family again and be home, while the rest of me is in such conflict I can't really sort anything out at all.  It's kind of like a tornado and a fire and an earthquake going on in your brain at the same time.  Excitement about going home, and at the same time, dreading leaving home.

What I do know, though, is that everything will turn out great.  I know that the last few days of the mission they're going to prepare us a lot for going home, I know I'll have a lot of time to think and pray in the temple, and that God will guide everything.  I have faith that God will continue guiding my life as He has here, and that I'll be able to apply the lessons I learned here, and that I'll come home a changed person.  I'll try to approach coming home like I approached coming here:  with a lot of diligence and a lot of prayer.  Life moves on, and it always will, and there's never such thing as the end.  Though I'm sad, at least I'm at peace.

There have been a lot of tender mercies this week, in fact, I couldn't have asked for a better last normal mission week.

Thursday was our zone conference.  Luckily, we had the conference combined with Santa Cruz, and we went to Santa Cruz for the conference, so I got to see Santa Cruz again before I left.  Of course I wasn't able to visit anyone there, but it was really nice to have some time to explore the city again and see everything from my second sector in the mission.  Elder Peterson, Elder Covey, Elder Davis, and several other friends from the mission were at the conference, which was another tender mercy.  I got to say bye to one of my best friends in the mission, Elder Covey, and see Elder Peterson again for the first time since we were comps in Pichidegua.  I saw Elder Davis, Hermana Wright, and Hermana Morrill, which were all in my zone in Talca and we were all good friends.  At the end of the zone conference, President Harris surprised us by doing something he had never done before.  As he was closing up the meeting, he asked me and two other missionaries who are going home to share our testimonies.  The ''last testimony'' tradition died when President Warne left, so I didn't think I'd be giving one, and my heart was suddenly pounding at a thousand beats per minute and I was suuper nervous.  I talked about how God's grace allows us to do His will in our weakness, how He fills the gaps left by our mistakes, the lesson I learned at the start of my mission that shaped the rest of my mission.  I told them that I received the promise that at the end of my mission I wouldn't recognize myself, and that thanks to God's guidance, I saw that promise fulfilled.  It was hard, but after bearing my testimony, I felt great.  I had the chance to publically thank God for what He had done for me, and I didn't think I'd have that opportunity while I was still a missionary.  Talking to the missionaries that I knew after helped me feel a lot of peace, and reflect on what has happened during my mission and be grateful for this opportunity.

Saturday, Alejandro came to spend the day with us.  It was amazing seeing him again, and talking and catching up.  It helped me a lot to remember the lessons I learned when I was in Talca, and process my feelings a little more.  I'm very blessed to have made a friend like Alejandro during my mission, he's influenced my life more than anybody in the mission, and he continues helping me to learn and giving me advice.  He's helped me in ways that nobody else in the mission could have, and I know that we will continue being friends for the rest of our lives.  Saturday was also the baptism of Lorenzo and Gladys, and miraculously, it turned out perfect.  Everything went smoothly without a hitch, and it was a very spiritual meeting.  I got to dress in white and perform a baptism for the second time in the mission, which was an amazing opportunity to have my last Saturday in the mission field.

Sunday I said goodbye to the branch.  Some people thanked me personally that caught me off guard, and because I haven't been in this branch very much time, it caught me off guard.  Regardless, I was really grateful for those people.  A simple thank you can go a long way.

We didn't end up going to Pichidegua today, we decided it would be too difficult.  I'm still relying on coming here within the next year so I'll be able to see everyone then.  This week is already going to be a crazy week.  We stayed here and went to a museum that I always wanted to go to and ate completos.  It was a good P-day.

Friday morning I'll be going to the temple, Saturday I'll be in self reliance classes, Sunday we have more studies in the mission home, then Monday afternoon I'll be headed for Utah.

I'll write one more blog post at home when I have more time, but for now, I want to testify about what really matters.  There are a lot of distractions in the world, and there are lots of problems we have as people and a lot of common problems in the church.  But we know what's important, and what's important is that God is our Father and that He loves us infinitely and unconditionally.  He loves us and is proud of us for our achievements and is patient with our mistakes and is aware of us in every moment.  He loves us more than we can imagine, so much that He sent His son to the earth, so that He might feel what we feel.  What's important is that He suffered every pain that we suffer, that He suffered feelings of betrayal, doubt, temptation, injustice, and everything that a person could feel.  He suffered and died for our sins, that we may return to His presence.  What's important is that because of that sacrifice, we can become better people, and we can follow Him, and learn to become like Him.  That because of His atonement, everything unjust becomes just, every gap is filled, and every sin can lead to repentance.  Because of His atonement we can be enabled to do His will and help other people, and comply with our purpose on this earth, which is to learn to love.  Sincerity, faith, hope, and love.  That's what's important.  I am infinitely grateful for what He did, and the opportunity I had to be His missionary and preach His gospel to people that I learned to love.  I know Him, I love Him, and I will always follow Him.  I know that He lives.  He loves us.  He died for us, and He rose again.  I testify of these things in His name, Jesus Christ, amen.

The Latest Email Ever Sent

Hey family!!

This letter is ridiculously late.  I apologize for that.  We decided to try to climb a hill with the zone leaders in the middle of the day and we greatly underestimated the time it would take to do so, so we're super late today.  I'll have to write real quick but I'll give a quick update.

First off, today!  Today was awesome, even though we're behind.  Next Monday I'll be doing another exchange in Pichidegua to help out there and say goodbye to those I can on the way, so this was my last p-day in San Fernando, which is why the zone leaders wanted to go climb the hill, and we happily obliged.  The hill didn't look that high from the ground, but it turned out to be the highest hill I've ever climbed on my mission by far.  We probably climbed about 2,000 feet, but it's hard to say, it's the hill on the West side of San Fernando if you're curious enough to look it up on google earth.  It was incredible though, definitely on the list of the most incredible places I've ever been.  I'll try to send pictures next week.

As far as the work goes, it's been a good week!  We've been working pretty hard with less actives, and we've made some progress!  A lot of people promised they'd go to church that didn't (that happens sometimes) but the biggest surprise was that one less active that never attends church went this week!  She has a smoking problem and really bad depression, but we've been encouraging her and I think she's going to to the 12 step class as well.

We also started the 12 step class this week!  It went pretty well, but I don't have time to write details.

The kids are progressing well, their baptism will be this Saturday!  Wooooo!

I don't remember if I already said this, but the hermanas from Centinela are working in San Fernando 2 two times a week now and it's helping a ton.

Okay, I really don't have time to write anything, but I'll write a good one next week!  I love you all!

Love

Elder Fox

This week was much better

In essence, this week was much better.  And I have stories!  But I don't have a lot of time.

Things are doing good in Calle Larga it seems, Maricarmen went to the temple this week!  I'm not sure if she went to do baptisms but I know that she went.  Apparently she bought a full set of scriptures there and some other books, she's so awesome.  The ward keeps progressing, and Alejandro is working a lot with the missionaries.  This week he substituted for a new missionary who had to go home since his companion had nobody to work with.  So good stuff!

Things are doing great over here.  Tuesday we had interviews with President Harris which was awesome.  Me and my comp were also able to put some good goals of what we wanted to accomplish before I leave and we've seen some good miracles.

First off, Lorena and Cesar are doing amazingly.  She really wants to get baptized, they just need to get married.  They're some of the coolest investigators I've ever had, they're so ridiculously friendly.  We taught them the Restoration this week and it went really well.  They should be going to church this Sunday for sure.

Also, Lorenzo and Gladys (Angela's kids) are doing really well.  For kids that are completely new to the church, they're learning incredibly well.  I think they understand the Plan of Salvation better than I did at their age.  We taught the gospel of Jesus Christ to them and during the lesson Angela's sister, who we hadn't met before, walked in and we got to know her too.  She seems pretty interested, so we're probably going to go teach her too soon.

We also had a family home evening with a struggling family where the dad goes to church every now and then and the mom isn't a member.  They have a son named Diego who's 17 but doesn't go.  They invited some Haitians over for the lesson, so we got to teach them all.  It was a good lesson, we hope to help Diego more than anything, we tried to get him excited about preparing for a mission.

We also have hermanas working in our branch now!  Finally!  President Harris told the sisters from Centinela to work in our sector two days a week to visit the members that we can't because they're women.  On Friday we went with the sisters through the whole sector to show them where everyone lives and visit some people.  One of the sisters we visited was Lily Poblete, who's a girl who was strong recently but went inactive because she started smoking and didn't have any help from the missionaries because they can't go in her house.  So when we brought the sisters, she was really excited and seems like she's going to be going back to church.  Miracles!

Also, President Harris accompanied us this Sunday to the family of a kid in the branch who is going to go on a mission soon to Arkansas.  His mom is less active and his dad isn't a member, so President Harris wanted to go over and talk to them.  It was an amazing lesson, and the Spirit was really strong, and we invited them to read the Book of Mormon every night for 30 minutes.  If they do it, we know they'll come back, so we have hopes!

Also, we're going to be starting up a 12 steps class!  There are a lot of members we're working with that smoke, and probably some others that do more serious things, so we talked with President Harris yesterday about making our own 12 steps group.  He loved the idea, and said that we should just go ahead and teach the class ourselves with a member accompanying us, so that's what we're going to do!  I'm excited to start the class up, I've definitely never taught an addiction recovery class before but I trust in the Spirit to help us through the process.  It's gonna be great!

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

Love

Elder Fox

Finally went to the Andes

Hey people!!

Sorry for not sending a letter last week, I had honestly completely forgotten until about a half an hour after I had finished writing.  That's a first!  But anyhow, luckily there aren't a whole lot of updates but I'll cover both weeks in this letter.

I lived my dream today!  My entire mission, the only thing I really wanted to do on P-day was go and explore in the Andes.  Here in San Fernando, the Andes is in our sector, so it makes things a lot easier.  We live really close to the mountains here, so we've been entertaining the idea for weeks now.  Yesterday, a member from Guadalupe offered to come with us because he knows the area really well so early in the morning we took a bus to Las Peñas and from there walked up the road to a place called Bellavista.  It was easily the most incredible place I've ever seen.  I'll probably send pictures, but pictures don't really do it justice.  The mountains are about twice as big as the mountains in Utah, so it makes for some amazing sights.  We were pretty high up, and there was a lot of sun and it was pretty hot, but miles in the distance we could see 18,000 foot giants covered in snow towering over us.  It was amazing.  So, I was a very happy missionary today.

Also, I don't know if I told you the story of the gringo from Utah that randomly showed up at sacrament meeting last easter, but in case I didn't, this easter a guy showed up at church from Utah who didn't speak any Spanish.  I talked to him a bit before the meeting and he explained that he's a helicopter pilot who was stationed in San Fernando with his flight team for a month or so.  We gave him our number, and this week he called us to invite us to lunch.  We met him at the airport and he showed us his helicopter and everything, then he took us to a vineyard pretty far from the city where I had the best lunch I've had in Chile.  The place was amazing, there was a polo court on one side and the vineyard on the other and it was really close to the mountains.  I ordered rib-eye steak, and it was the only steak I've had my mission, so I was, again, a very happy missionary.

The missionary work is going good!  I'll give a quick update on everything:

I don't know much about Pichidegua but I'll be going one more time soon to visit people and say goodbye.  I'll let you all know how that goes.

Back there in Calle Larga things seem to be doing super well, which also makes me really happy.  The Elder that got there is a lot like Elder Mendez so they're excited to have him there.  The best news is that Alejandro was advanced in the Priesthood and got a calling in the Sunday School Presidency!!  He was really excited, and so was I, so we were pretty excited together.

Here things are going well too, we keep doing activities every week to try to get the ward more active, and it's working a bit.  The best part is that it helps the youth and the ysa go to church and that's what we desperately need.  We keep teaching Lorenzo's kids, who are progressing and learning super well, so they should be getting baptized on June 3rd as planned.  We had a lot of other appointments this week but a lot of them were canceled, we're going to Lorena today though so I'll let you all know how that goes.

I'm super out of time!  So I need to close this off.  I love you all!  Have a great week!

Love

Elder Fox

Elder Fox: The Last Airbender

Post from May 2, 2017


Hey all!  This week was a little slower, but still good.  Since it was the last week of the change naturally a lot of weird things started happening, but everything is normalling out right now.

For one, to explain the title of the email, yesterday was labor day, so nothing in the whole city was open.  It was really eerie (I have no clue how to spell that) because there was thick fog and nobody was outside all day.  We ended up going to play futbol with some less actives that are coming back in the branch then we went to a German Sandwich shop (literally the only place open in the city) which was amazing.  We had actually planned to go there before, and then when everything was closed we figured it would be closed too, then we called and it was open!  So that was exciting news for us.  Then, I needed to get my hair cut really bad, so I had Elder Arroyo from Chimbarongo do it.  It was a really bad idea.  Long story short, the hair on all my head is about a half a centimeter long and I may or may not look like Aang from Avatar.  Woops.  Hopefully it'll grow back well enough before I go home.  I'll send pictures once I can get them on the computer.  I actually kind of like it though because my hair never bothers me anymore and I don't have to do it in the mornings or anything.  And of all the times to have my hair like this in my life, the mission is the place to do it.

I don't have a lot of time, so I'll have to summarize the week very quickly.  Sorry!  Anywho, President Harris came to our branch this week to talk to them during branch council and give a talk during sacrament meeting.  It was amazing having him there, hopefully he inspired a lot of changes in the administration of things.  I was able to ask him there how his visit to Pichidegua went, it seems that Ivan is still not budging for now, which is disappointing, but I know that President did everything he could do so now I feel even more peace.  

Sounds like things are doing well in Calle Larga, Elder Sawyer left Friday morning and took his flight last night.  Since Friday, Alejandro has been working with Elder Ullua as his companion.  Elder Manzano is going to replace Elder Sawyer there, and I don't know him at all but I have faith that things are going to be great!  Alejandro has a calling now, as a counselor in the Sunday school presidency.  Exciting stuff!  Evelyn came to eat lunch with us on Wednesday and say goodbye to me since she doesn't think she'll make it to San Fernando again.  It was awesome seeing her again.

Here we've been teaching Angela's kids and we put baptism dates with them this week!  They'll both make their date, so we'll be having 2 baptisms on the 3rd of June if I'm not mistaken.  We also had an open chapel this Saturday, but it was kind of a dud.  Elder Sharp and I were dressed in white in the baptismal font room for the tour.  After people learned a little about the restoration from the sisters, they would come to the font where we would talk about baptism and confirmation.  It was fun, but only 5 non-members came.  Not a lot compared to the 103 we had in Conti.  But it was still good!  That night we got the changes, and we're all staying!!  All 6 of us!  I don't think that's every happened in the mission history, that all 6 missionaries in a house of 6 stay two changes in a row.  But it's really exciting, it's been a good house and we've been really good friends.  So, I got one more change here in San Fernando 2 with Elder Figueroa.  We're going to give it all!

So that was my week!  I love you all, hope you have a great week!

Love

Elder Fox

Pichidegua!

Hey all!  This week was a pretty dang good week, I've been feeling a lot of energy and the drive to work like crazy!  Which was good.  We kind of killed ourselves working in Pichidegua however and then I had to recover a bit but now we're back up to good energy-levels.  Anyway,

Pichidgua:

So the original plan was for me to go Tuesday morning, stay Wednesday morning (we had to stay in until government people came to survey us because it was Chile's census) then go home Wednesday evening after the census, but once I got there we found out that there weren't any buses all day Wednesday, so I'd have to go home Thursday morning.  So, I spent two full days in Pichidegua!  It was an awesome feeling.  When I walked in the house, the smell brought a flood of memories back.  Despite how difficult it was there, the memories were all good, which is the cool thing about memories.  So, I was on cloud nine the whole time just being back there.  Everybody we saw was super excited to see me and I was ecstatic about seeing them, so it was a great couple of days.

First off, we saw Luìz and Jesika who were eternal investigators of four years that didn't want to get married and their recent-convert children, Carlos and Fran.  I had heard they weren't going, which worried me, but I found out that the Dad had always been going but the mom had back problems, and because she didn't go the kids didn't either.  We talked about how much we needed them and how much we wanted to see the branch progress since we have a missionary as a President finally and how we needed their help and they seemed pretty excited about going to church at the end.  Success!

Next came fma. Peña, a family who was reactivated when I was there who went inactive again.  They got caught up in work, again, but we gave them the same speech we gave to Luìs and Jesika and they told us their plans to start going to church again.  They'll rearrange things with work to be able to go, so we'll keep praying for them!

Next I showed Elder Villavicencio where Christian lives, because after Elder Kammerman and I left nobody had passed by them again, but they kept going to church.  I had only been in bus, but this time we went in bike and it was a 1 hour ride solid.  They were the Peruvian family who started going back to church that we met through the son, Leper.  The Dad, Christian, is an incredibly spiritual investigator that loves going to church and wanted to get baptized but he has to wait to get legally divorced to get married to Leper's Mom.  They're still doing great, they were going to church as often as they could, but that's still not too often because they have to have a friend drive them and he's not always there.  They love going though, so they're getting a car now to be able to get there every week.  Elder Villavicencio got to know them well, and he'll be passing by now, so that was also a success.

We went by almost every member, and most of them are doing pretty dang well.  A lot of them are exactly where they were, a few are doing much better which was good to see.  The only real heartbreak was Ivan.  We talked to him for a few hours both nights, but the good thing was that we made a lot of progress.  It was hard to see a member who was so strong and helped us so much be so far from the truth, and being far from the truth has negatively affected his personality and everything I knew about him.  We were able to dig deep and understand why he didn't believe anymore, apparently he never really had a testimony of the Book of Mormon, and the fact that none of the members did anything bothered him.  I don't know if he'll come back, but at least I understand him, and he knows that I love him unconditionally and he loves me back, so we're at peace.

It was fun being with Elder Villavicencio.  We came to the mission together and have been in the same zone 7 changes, so we know each other pretty well.  We've both grown a ton, and we had a great time talking about the mission and what we've learned.

Calle Larga:

Things seem much better there lately according to Alejandro's last letter.  Rosa's and Rene's son got baptized this Saturday which is exciting, and several of the people that we were teaching are progressing well.  As far as I know they still don't know about the Bolivian family and I don't think they're teaching Patricia anymore, but we'll just have to keep praying for them all.  Alejandro's been teaching the missionaries English/Spanish which has apparently been going well.  He's also studying English in the University as always and it seems like he'll be going into storytelling too!  So there's a lot of exciting stuff too.  Alejandro's Mom went to Pedro's baptism, I think that's the first time she's gone to a church meeting in 16 years.  She was apparently uncomfortable, but we have a lot of hope that she'll come back completely as well.  With time.

San Fernando 2:

Things are doing pretty good here as well, Lorenzo and Gladys (Àngela's and Lorenzo's kids) are progressing and learning well and will probably be baptized early June.  We have some other new investigators in the woodwork but this week we were working a lot with the members and planning activities and things to help the ward be more unified.  It's been working well, we're gaining confidence with the members and they're all being more active.  We'll probably try to do an activity every week to help the ward be more active and build more unity.  We also had a zone conference on Friday, and I got to see all the missionaries from Santa Cruz.  I got to see Elder Covey again, which was awesome, and Elder Davis as well.  Most of them I hadn't ever met though, and when I met one he read my tag and told me right away that he had heard a ton about me... kind of worrying but I'll just hope they were good things.

So that was my week!  Lots of work, but life is good!  Changes are next week, I'll let you know what's going on, but I'll probably just stay here with Elder Figueroa to finish off.  I love you all!

Love

Elder Fox

The Prince of Peace

Hey all!  This week was much better.  Last week the stress of several things combined with the disappointments from Calle Larga to make writing kind of a mess.  But things are better now!  The week was pretty uneventful but I still have a few updates.

Pichidegua:

I'm going tomorrow!!  Pretty excited, I'll be there from tomorrow morning to Wednesday night, so we'll have some good time there, at least that's the hope.  We need lots of prayers to be able to find Iván and help him and help bring back anyone else we can.  It'll be a good time, and I'll let you all know about it next week!

Calle Larga:

Things still look kind of grim over there.  Got word from Alejandro that the Bolivians (the two woman who were reactivated and Elder Sawyer baptized one of their daughters) stopped going to church because the Bishop wouldn't keep paying their rent... we wanted to be careful and we were pretty sure that they weren't going only for the money because they went to church for the first time since childhood and it was the bishop who offered them instead of them asking, and on top of that they bore really sincere testimony several times, but regardless it seems that they got offended.  There are a few other people we were teaching that it seems they aren't doing too well, so pray for them!  To my knowledge René and Maricarmen are still doing well though so that's the great news.

San Fernando 2:

The baptism was great last week, as I said, and last Sunday we went to their house to give them some health blessings and blessings of comfort because they were going to take their 6 month old son, Jorge, to Santiago to get a dangerous heart operation.  The chances were about 50%, but Angela has a ton of faith.  They didn't have any place to stay there either, but they put everything in God's hands and He provided, the operation went perfectly and they were able to stay at a special free hotel type thing that the hospital has for people who don't have anywhere else to stay.  They came back yesterday and everything is good!  Now we're going to focus on teaching and baptizing their children, who were going to be baptized with Ángela but her husband decided that they weren't ready yet, and we agreed.  In another family, there's convert named Mariana who's little sister told us this week that she wants to be baptized, so we'll be working with her too.  Lots of miracles!

Oh, also, I haven't given a lot of details lately so I've forgotten to mention Fernando, a member from the Guadalupe branch that helps us out a lot.  He's the one who put the picture of the family home evening where they made me the cake on facebook, and he's awesome.  He's a recent convert himself, Elder Edwards (Porter) taught him and helped him get baptized, and now he's already got his papers submitted to go on a mission and he helps us every now and then.  We went to his house Saturday to help him and his Mom paint, which was a good time.  I've learned how to paint pretty well here because I've done it so many times, it's definitely my favorite type of service.  They gave us breakfast and lunch for it, so it was a pretty good deal!

On Sunday we had a little easter program which was a missionary activity.  It turned out pretty well, we had some talks and sang ''He is Risen'', ''I know that my Redeemer Lives'' and ''I Believe in Christ.'' Then we watched the easter video and all the videos about the principles of peace.  The members really enjoyed it so I think it went well.

Speaking of which, it was easter weekend!  Easter weekend is a little different here because everybody is pretty suspicious so they all think it's a huge sin to work any day of the weekend so the entire city is basically closed Friday, Saturday, and Sunday (if only they did that every Sunday) and nobody can eat any meat but fish.  So we had a lot of fish!  It was good fish though.

I really enjoyed this week as an opportunity to remember the last week of the Savior's life.  I gave a talk in church about His last week, and studying and writing the talk during the week was the best thing I've ever done to celebrate easter.  As I've said in a past letter, during my mission the life of the Savior has become a lot more personal to me, and I relate in a lot of ways to the weaknesses of His original apostles.  The kind of love that He shows them in the description of the last supper that John gives is especially touching to me, I don't think I've ever been able to read that part of the scriptures in my mission without tears.  It's a great reminder that God takes us in our weaknesses and in His mercy allows us to do His will.  That He always loves us, that He's proud of us, and that He walks with us every step of the way.  He's infinitely more patient with our mistakes than we are, and with the mistakes of others' as well.  My experience here in Chile is a testimony of how God can change our hearts and make us into His.  All it took for me was to get on the plane, and God took care of the rest.  As I read, I felt an overwhelming gratitude for how He's enabled me throughout this entire process to do His will, how He's changed me and how He's always guided me to the places where I needed to be despite my stubbornness and occasional outright rebellion.  I know that He truly is the Prince of Peace.  I started this week feeling really frustrated, but He helped me feel peace.  We will always have weaknesses, but if we exercise faith in Christ we can have a hope that He will do with our lives that which we cannot, and that He will make us into His, and will enable us to help and love and serve His children along the way.  I know that He lives, and I know that His atoning sacrifice is real.

I love you all!!  I hope you have a great week!  And Happy Easter!

Love

Elder Fox

Baptism

Hey all!

Sorry, this is going to be a really short letter today.

San Fernando 2:

Baptism!!  It went well, we had it Saturday with Guadalupe and Angela was so excited and so happy!  It was awesome.  Some of the elements of the service were a little odd because everyone in San Fernando 2 is really old so the "welcome to the ward" was kind of pathetic and they may or may not have forgotten her name haha but the baptism itself was great.  We went to a nearby apartment after the baptism and had a barbecue with a family that we did a long service for earlier, helping them move.  So that was a great day!

Other than that there wasn't much, we were passing by their house every day to get the baptism ready, and we had several other lessons but nothing of great significance.

Calle Larga:

Something happened there this Sunday.  I'm really confused, don't know what's going on, definitely would appreciate prayers for the people I taught there.  I know Alejandro and the converts are going to be fine though, I'm just frustrated with the members.

Pichidegua:

Elder Villavicencio was set apart this Sunday with the recently reactivated guy I talked about last week as first counselor and my grandson as second counselor.  Exciting stuff!!  Still don't have it fixed whether I'm going to go or not, I'll need to call Elder Villavicencio today to ask him.

And that's all for this week!  Thanks to everyone who sent birthday wishes!  You're all the best and I love you so much!  Shout out to Elder Crane and all the other YSA that apparently sung happy birthday to me in my house!  Have a great week!

Love

Elder Fox

Hastening of the Work

Hey people!

I loved conference.  A ton.  Conference was amazing.  I'll share some thoughts after the weekly update.

Calle Larga:

So, Hermana Evelyn came to eat lunch with us on Wednesday, as was predicted.  She was really excited to tell me all the things going on down there.  She told me that Maricarmen's baptism was amazing, that they had brought gourmet for everyone for the refreshments (the members she lives with put on receptions and other events for a living) and that it was a very special baptism.  She also said that a ton of people when to Nashani's baptism, which was awesome because we were worried nobody would go because she's young and it was at a weird day at a weird time.  So it was a relief to know that both baptisms were a success.  It seems like everything else is going really well there, that the missionaries are working with the members a lot.  Evelyn worked with the missionaries on Tuesday, the day before I talked to her, and was really excited to tell me about several less active and part-member families they found that are really interested and are showing a lot of potential.  So, miracles!  Alejandro also just let me know in an email that René got married and baptized as planned, so that's really happy.  Alejandro's also doing really well, he watched general conference which I was excited about because, as I said earlier, I really loved this conference.

Pichidegua:

The moment has finally arrived when they're going to replace the branch president of Pichidegua with a missionary.  I'm extremely excited about this.  Elder Villavicencio is going to be branch president in Pichidegua for the rest of his mission, which I'm really excited about as well because Elder Villavicencio is exactly what Pichidegua needs, and Elder Skalka (my grandson) and him make a perfect pair.  President Jimenez was a great guy, and one of my good friends in the mission, but because of the distance between him and Pichidegua and his lack of time that branch has been slowly dying.  President Harris is willing to go to great lengths to get the branch on its feet, so he's given Elder Villavicencio freedom to do whatever it takes.  That includes taking me over there on divisions to go talk to the members that have gone inactive since I was there.  YUUUUUUUUUUUUUSSSSSSSSSSSSSS.  As you could imagine, I'm extremely excited about this.

Also, good news from the Pichidegua front, the less active that got reactivated right before I left who gave us pie got the Melchizedek Priesthood just a few weeks ago!   Yuuuuuuussssssssssss.

San Fernando 2:

We're having a baptism this Saturday!  It's a woman named Ángela who lives in the campo and is amazing.  Apparently she was atheist before the missionaries were teaching her, but now she has a lot of faith and is reading and praying regularly even though she doesn't know how to read that well.  Her husband is a less active that's returning to activity, but he has a bad smoking habit.  She's really prepared though, so we're excited for this Saturday!

So that's all for the weekly update.  The work here is being pretty hastened as well.

Today was my birthday!  It was a perfect birthday weekend, we watched conference with all the elders in the house that have become my good friends plus Elder Villavicencio and Elder Skalka from Pichidegua and Elder Musselman and Elder Arroyo from Chimbarongo (they're in my district) which was an awesome group.  Then, today, we went to a river higher up in the Andes and barbequed choripanes there.  The sights were absolutely incredible and the choripanes were awesome.  We had fun relaxing y the river and rock-jumping and skipping stones for a while.  It was one of the best p-days of my mission.  Also, the Dodds (a senior couple assigned to help less actives in the district and now Branch President in Chimbarongo as well) came by our house this morning to give me a cake and wish me happy birthday, which was extremely thoughtful.  It was the closest thing I've had to American cake since I've gotten here.

I'll send pictures next week because I probably won't have time here.

Conference!  If I had to peg a theme to the conference, I would probably call it the hastening of the work.  I loved how the talks centered around the necessity of building and maintaining faith, the importance of staying anchored to our hope, and the eternal significance of learning charity.  I especially loved the Priesthood session, that focused on leading in a way that strengthens others.

It's pretty obvious to see, from the things they're discussing in the conference, that the work is seriously hastening.  It's clear that the time of the fan blowing the chaff from the wheat has already begun, and that nothing but true discipleship, consecration, and love is going to keep us to the path that leads us to our Father's presence.  Alejandro sent me an article that I really liked about the changes that we'll probably be seeing in the church, a steady change where we'll start seeing a decrease in hypocrisy, hate, back-biting, evil-speaking, vanity, and pride within the church.  I agree with this theory, as I've already seen it with the kinds of miracles we've been seeing down here.  Those who aren't converted won't stand, and those who are converted will become converted by keeping the commandments of God, especially the incredibly simple requirements of study, prayer, church attendance, temple worship, and genealogy.  We will learn faith, hope, and charity to new degrees, as all of three of those attributes are being tried and tested.  We will put on the armor of light through our obedience to the commandments of God.  Regardless of the chaos of the world around us, as disciples of Christ we will only shine brighter against the opposing darkness as we maintain our hope and our eye single to the glory of God.  Only those who are standing close to the Savior will stay standing.  Then, once we are converted, we will also have the responsibility as Peter had of strengthening our brethren, and lifting others in every way we can through our love for them.

And that's the hastening of the work.

I know that this is all true, and I especially know that President Monson's challenge to us is the single most important thing we can do in this time in order to stand where we need to stand.  I know that Christ lives, that He is the head of this church, and it is only through following Him as His true disciple and servant that we can have happiness and offer that same happiness to others.

I love you all!  And I hope you keep reading the conference talks in the weeks to come!

Love

Final Sprint

Hey all!  This has been a good week, a weird week, but a good one.  I've got news from both of my previous sectors though!  I'll start with Pichidegua

So, last night we were walking home and a car passes and I hear a girl scream "FOX" in a car driving by.  I whipped around and I barely made out a recent convert from Pichidegua (her name is Ignacia) with nearly her entire torso sticking out of the back window as the car pulled the corner and drove off.  She made them stop the car and apparently they just kept going after dropping her off because they just disappeared but she came back to talk to us.  She's doing good, she's about to start her mission papers so that's real exciting.  There's good and bad news about Pichidegua though.  The good news is that the family of 3 we found in Larmahue at the end of my time there that gave us pie that we helped reactivate are still active.  Also, the Peruvian family of 3 that we found in Pataguas is also still active and the Dad is still planning on getting baptized once he can get divorced and married to his current wife.  That was awesome to hear.  The bad news is that the other 2 baptisms that were going to happen fell through, and the Peña family went inactive again, along with Luis and Jessica (the eternal investigators of 4 years that just needed to get married), and worst of all, Iván.  Iván was the member that was reactivated when Porter was there and accompanied us to almost all our lessons.  Looks like he found something in the Book of Mormon that made him doubt.  The good thing though is that I'm in the zone again and I'll find a way to talk to all of them.  Also, Elder Villavicencio just went over there and he's amazing, so there's high hopes for the place.

Calle Larga!  It nearly killed me leaving, and the emotions were more potent than any other place previous.  And, along with that, of course the withdrawals have also been pretty sharp.  That's definitely a part of what made the week weird.  I know that there's an important work here to be done, but I'd give a lot to be there.  The good thing is, though, that I'm in more regular contact with Calle Larga than I've been with any other previous sector.  I've talked to Elder Sawyer a few times on the phone, I talked to Alejandro once, Alejandro and I are writing each other, and it seems like Hermana Evelyn (one of my favorite members on the planet) might come up here this week to eat lunch with us and her mom.  So, I've been keeping in touch.  The best news is that everybody's doing well, Alejandro's doing well, that Nashani and Maricarmen got baptized this weekend right on schedule, and René is right on track to get baptized this Friday.  YUUUS!!  Made me very happy knowing all that.

Here!  Here is great.  It's a larger branch than I thought, with an attendance anywhere between 20 and 50, and a lot of older members.  It's bee great getting to know the members so far though, and the best was meeting Evelyn's mom (same Evelyn mentioned above) when we went to lunch with them on Wednesday.  The branch President is awesome, and they have branch counsel every week which is incredible.  We have some investigators that are going to be baptized sometime soon, but other than them we don't have much else going on.  We're going to be working a lot with less actives, most likely.  There's a good portion of city but also a good portion of gorgeous fields.  Everything about the fields reminds me of Hospital, including the smell, so that definitely lifted my spirits every time we went there.  There's another village in our sector called Puente Negra which is right up close to the Andes and it's incredible.  The Andes are incredible and I had never been that close. 

My comp is also great!  He's from Uruguay, and he was in my zone a few changes ago so we already knew each other pretty well.  He's easy to get along with and we've had a fun time so far.  I'll send a picture of us and a few of our sector in another email!

I had more thoughts but I'm out of time, more details of everything next week!  I love you all!  Have a great week!

Love

Elder Fo

Like a comet thrown from orbit

Hey all!  The changes came this Saturday, and as we had imagined, it's time for me to leave Calle Larga to go to my last sector in the mission.  Just for a warning, this letter is probably going to be ridiculously sentimental because saying goodbye has honestly gotten exponentially worse every time I leave a place haha you'll probably laugh because I always say that sectors I leave have more impact on me than any other past one, but that's just because my sectors keep impacting me more and more!

Anywho, I'm going back to San Fernando, the zone that Pichidegua's in.  I'm going to be in the branch San Fernando 2, another branch that has a weekly attendance of around 16.  So, a pesar de todo, I'm pretty dang pumped!  It's only right that I finish off in another tiny branch, I've come to like that kind of missionary work a lot.  I'll be a district leader, which I'm also really excited for because with what I've learned as a zone leader I'll be able to do a much better job as a leader of less missionaries.  In my district is Elder Musselman, who was in my district my last change of Pichidegua before I came here and is still there in the same sector.  He is one of my favorite people ever, so I'm pretty excited.  My comp is going to be Elder Figueroa from Uraguay, he was in our zone last change.  So it should be good!  I'm going to live in a house with 6 elders, which is a little nuts, but I hope it'll all be good.  I'll live with Elder Monja, which is another good friend from the Pichidegua days and is now one of the zone leaders.

The morning before the changes, Elder Covey and Elder Sawyer randomly started singing the song from Wicked that the subject of the email is based on, and I realized that I had heard the song hundreds of times but had never really paid attention to the words.  The song has been running through my mind a lot while saying goodbye, because there have been a lot of people here who have completely changed my life course.  Elder Mendez, my first comp here, has helped me to change like probably no other comp.  Elder Covey is probably my best friend in the mission, and has helped me a ton through his example.  Elder Sawyer has been an awesome comp, and we'll be studying in BYU together so we'll be seeing each other.  There are members here unlike any member I've met in Chile, including Hna. Evelyn and her husband, which I'm not sure I've mentioned.  They're a married couple (about 60 years old) who just got sealed while I was here, and they're the most consecrated members I've ever met.  They're the kind of people who really just ''get it'' and there aren't a lot of people like that here.  We made really good friends, and saying goodbye to them was especially rough.  By working together we'd become really close.  And then, of course, there's Alejandro.  He's taught me more than any other single person on my mission, and I will always be amazed at the transformation that he went through while I was here.  He bore his testimony last night to us, telling us about how when I got here he was still saying that he didn't believe in God.  He talked about the experience that he had when he figured out that Jesus Christ was real, and that He lived, and bore his testimony that He knows that He lives.  Alejandro told me in one of our early lessons that reading the scriptures didn't do anything for him and he never felt anything, and recently, in the last 7 weeks he's read the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price with the entire institute manual of each one while underlining and writing side notes.  He has taught me about being a leader and teacher like no one except my parents have before.  I've definitely changed a lot for having known him.

We were able to build confidence with this ward in a way that I've never seen with any other of my wards.  It was hard to bear my last testimony to them on Sunday, but I hope that I'll see them all again.

I've been privileged to see so many miracles here they're hard to count.  I've watched Kati, Roberto, the Suarez-Ramos family, the Echevería family, Lorena and Dixi, Alejandro, Jaime Benvenuto, Jaime Rojas, Edita and her kid, and the Ibarra family start coming back to church.  Rosa Machuca came to church for the first time in years yesterday along with her soon-to-be-husband and kid that are going to be baptized next Saturday.  Nashani, the kid of Lorena and Dixi, is going to be baptized this Friday.  Maricarmen is also going to be baptized this Saturday.  A family of 5 that's friends with Alejandro are extremely interested in the church and should get baptized in the coming months, and Rut Ibarra's 4 sons should be getting baptized in the coming months as well.  

And the most miraculous thing is that Elder Sawyer and I don't feel like we've done anything different this change than any of the other changes of our mission, other than working with Alejandro all day every day (which actually is responsible for a lot of the success) but we didn't have to kill ourselves working or do anything outside of the normal.  We've made so many mistakes that we couldn't count them, and the only real explanation behind everything is just that God filled the font.  I've had many, many examples in my mission of God giving us miracles in our weakness, and my testimony is constantly reaffirmed that God fills the font.  Between the sickness, and the fires, and the fainting, and all the other garbage that continually happened, God gave us a ton of miracles.  So, it's been an awesome few months, and I'll definitely always look back on this time as some of the most incredible months of my life.

So, I'll be back here to visit!  But for now, I'm out of time.  I love you all a ton!  Have a great week!

Love

Elder Fox

All is well

Hey all!  Sadly, I'm really pressed for time right now, but we had a great week!  Everything is progressing pretty well, and we found 10 new investigators!  That's definitely a personal record for my mission so far.  5 of them were a family that Alejandro has known for a long time from work.  The Dad had recently died, so we taught the plan of salvation and repentance and it was an incredible lesson.  They're very receptive, and they're probably going to progress really well.

All the people who are going to be baptized soon are progressing really well.  I don't think I've met anyone who's had as sincere of a change of heart as Maricarman has had (did that make any sense at all?) but I'm really grateful I was able to see her pass through this entire process.  The people who have helped her the most are the members she's living with, bless their hearts, but she truly is a real convert.  So, we're excited :)  René is also doing extremely well, he went to church again and is still just as excited as ever to get baptized.  He's one of those people who just ''gets'' it, without us teaching him a lot he already understands things that some members never understand in their lifetime.  He'll get married next week and then baptized on the first of April.  Nashani is also doing well, but she's 9, so it's obviously a little different.  She's excited though!

The sad news is, that's probably all I have time to write today.  Sorry all!  I'll write about this week in my journal to maybe try to fit in a longer email next week since typing is way faster than trying to think about what I'm going to say and make it sound good and understandable.  Anywho, life is good!  I hope you all have a great week!  I love you all!

Love

Elder Fox