Peace on Earth, Good Will Towards Men

Hey all! :D

I am seriously shocked that nobody seems to have heard about what's been going on down here yet.  I know it's been global news, since Alejandro has told me what the news in the states has been saying, but I guess the news wasn't as widespread as we thought.  So I'm going to tell everything in detail, but don't worry about anything because from what I know the situation is way more controlled now and dozens of other countries are helping us out now so everything is going to be fine.

SO, a forest fire that started right near Constitución got out of hand this week.  From what we've seen from the news, they're saying that this is the largest first in recorded history and others are saying it's the largest forest disaster in our history.  We passed it on the train last Saturday but it was still small and controllable.  Now, everything that we saw on the train Saturday is ash.  Thousands of houses have been destroyed, but miraculously, only 11 people have been killed.  The last time we checked, the number of active fires in the country kept floating around 100, but the number might be bigger now but they're more controlled so there's less danger.  Most people are saying that this has been worse than the earthquake in 2010.

The fires were definitely started on purpose, because there are too many to have been started on accident.  It's an act of terrorism, but all of the people arrested so far have been Chileans.  I don't know if anyone knows why still, but maybe the news over there will say something about it.

So this week was a crazy week for us!  We knew that the fire was getting serious but things really started getting crazy on Wednesday.  Miraculously, all of the missionaries were in Talca in a meeting that went until 6:00 in the afternoon.  The missionaries from Constitución tried to go back, but they had closed the freeway because the fire had crossed the freeway and had surrounded the city.  We could see the smoke in great billowing clouds in the distance, but it hadn't reached Talca yet.  So the missinaries from Conti stayed in Talca, and we wanted the missionaries in San Javier to do the same (San Javier is between Talca and Conti) but they wanted to go back, so they went.  That night, we went to Alejandro and he helped inform us more about what was going on.  A Chilean from the states (the wife of the owner of Walmart it seems) sent a giant plane that drops 70,000 liters of water at a time to help out, but the situation was still out of control.  The situation looked concerning enough to bring the missionaries in San Javier to Talca, so we told them to find a bus and we went to pick them up in the bus station in Talca and brought them to live with other missionaries for a time.

On Thursday, they completely lost control.  Chile is not used to having so much fire at one time and people kept making more fire.  Wednesday night an entire city burned to the ground with over 1,000 houses, and the violence in Conti due to the political unrest was astonishing.  There were fires near Rancagua, Pichidegua, Santa Cruz, Talca, and all throughout the more southerly region where Concepción is.  We were planning on going out to work like normal, but right after lunch, thick smoke flooded all of Talca and it started snowing ash.  We told all the missionaries to stay in their houses and not leave while we configured our phones to listen to the radio to know what to do.  At about 4:00 Alejandro sent us a text letting us know that the situation got completely out of hand and that Chile declared a state of emergency, and that teams of forest-fire experts were on their way from several countries, and that a bunch of other countries were in the process of sending us more giant planes and helicopters and other things to fight the fire.  President Harris called us and told us to make sure that everybody had a three-days supply of food and water just in case anything happened.  Alejandro took us to a supermarket called Jumbo to get stuff for us and other missionaries, and we also bought face masks for everyone.  Even the Jumbo was so filled with smoke that it was visible, and when we left the store for the first time the sun was dark red because of the smoke, and an hour later the sun was completely obscured from view, leaving the sky a brownish-orange color.  We distributed what we needed to the other missionaries and went back home.

On Friday morning the smoke was thick, but the fire was still a great distance from both San Javier and Talca, but the missionaries from San Javier wanted to go back, and we didn't let them.  The foreigners who came to help helped the situation calm down a ton, but the fire was still growing.  Friday morning we stayed inside, but by lunch the smoke had cleared and the radios stopped reporting information about the fire so we decided that we could go back to work.  Sadly though, at about 7:00, the whole city flooded with smoke again and we had to tell everybody to go back home.  Sadly though, San Javier was already in a bus on their way home, and we had to tell them to get off right where they were and we went to go find them with Alejandro and bring them back.  They weren't too happy.  But because we were the only ones authorized to listen to the radio, we were the only ones who knew the seriousness of the situation and we didn't want to scare anyone by telling them.

Saturday was a little better, the smoke cleared at about lunchtime again and didn't get back again until about 9:00.  Because the situation was more controlled, President authorized San Javier to go back home.  We made no-bake cookies with Alejandro to celebrate.

Yesterday was a little smoky, but it was essentially a normal day.  We stopped listening to the radio, and everything went back to normal!  So, in the end, all is well.  As far as I know though, the fire continues, and probably keeps growing, but Chile is still receiving more planes and things every day to keep fighting it.  They say it will take about 30 days to beat the fire completely, but now everything is more controlled and much more relaxed.  The damage is immense though, and we'll be having a ton of opportunities to do service in the coming months.  Several cities have disappeared, and much of the forest in 4 regions of Chile is gone.  We'll be fasting for the victims of the fire this Sunday and do everything we can to help people regain their lives.  There have been massive donation banks in all the churches in Talca, and they went to deliver truck-loads of necessities to the fire victims and the fire-fighters.

So, that is the end of the most intense week of my life!  This has been a crazy month.

The miracles!  There have been boatloads of small miracles this week, and that has been the best thing.  I'll admit, there were times during the week (mostly Thursday and Friday) that things seemed really bleak and we were honestly terrified.  God, however, has His subtle ways of calming us down and helping us keep our heads straight.  This group of 4 missionaries I'm living with right now has been the tightest group of friends I've had in the mission, and together with Alejandro I felt very blessed to have to go through all of that with such good friends.  On Thursday, on our way delivering emergency supplies to the missionaries, all 5 of us started singing ''Piano Man'' and ''The Day the Music Died'' at the top of our lungs (don't judge, the world was ending.)  On Friday morning, we all sat in our house and listened to church music doing nothing for about 3 hours.  The other miracle was Alejandro, who was our informant and our cab driver the entire week for all this crazy process.  Without him, we would've been in serious trouble.

I quoted a song last week, that came to my mind again this week in a particularly desperate moment.  I thought about how people had started all this intentionally, how theories were springing up about how people were reacting in fear to Trump cutting off the lumber trade between Chile and the States, crazy theories about Isis being involved, and the first previous to the one I quoted in the last email popped in my head.

Then in despair, I bowed my head.

There is no peace on earth, I said.

For hate is strong, and mocks the song

of peace on earth good will towards men.

Then pealed the bells, more loud and deep:

God is not dead, nor doth He sleep.

The wrong shall fail, the right prevail,

with peace on earth good will towards men.

The ringing, singing on its way

The world revolved from night today

A voice, a chime, a chant sublime,

of peace on earth good will towards men.

So the message at the end of all this, is once again hope!  I put patience as my goal for this entire month, and naturally I had a really weird month, but something that I'm eternally grateful for is the hope that the gospel of Jesus Christ brings to my life.  So even in the constant craziness that the world is now, we can always remember to be happy and have hope.  I know it's possible!  

''Happiness can be found, even in the most darkest of times.'' - Dumbledore.

I hope you all have a great week!  Stay away from fire!  Only you can prevent forest fires!  Listen to smoky, he knows what he's talkin bout!  The church is true!  I love you all!

Love

Elder Fox

Cast Not Away Therefore Your Confidence

Hello all!  I am so sorry because I have so little time to write because I had to do something for BYU and I also wrote President a lot more than usual this week because this week was insane.

So, I can't talk about a lot of details, at all, but this week was easily the most dramatic week of my life.  I had some horrendous days and some amazingly wonderful days and so here at the end of the week everything is calm and I'm feeling alright.  And that's all that counts!  There was a lot of stuff happening in the zone and in the ward and with people we're working with all at the same time and all of it came together in a huge mess on Friday when we had zone conference and President and the assistants came and some of the people in our sector we're working with and President wanted to interview some people in the ward and long story short we had a rough day hahaha but all is much better now, though we're still working out some problems in the zone.

One story though, we went to Conti!!! :D  I was so happy I almost died hahaha that was Saturday and it was a good relief from all the craziness of the previous day.  We went to go help out with the open chapel there and Alejandro came with us!  We went by train to see all the pretty places that you can't get to normally on road on the way to Conti and then we were there all day helping out.  We had some time beforehand to see the beach real quick though!  I was in heaven, and I got to see my city again and everybody in the ward and they all recognized me!  It was so much fun :)

Also, as a side note, Elder Covey and Alejandro with the other missionaries brought 105 people in the open chapel.  105.  That is more than double the previous record in the mission.  Alejandro is a machine.

So my message today is about hope, hence the title.  Hope was a really important tool during the harder days this week, and the most powerful moment of the week was when the reality of the atonement impressed my heart, and I remembered that Christ already won the battle.  And that we really can have hope for a better world.  It's a simple message with a lot of meaning, that Christ Lives.  He lives, and I know that He lives.  I know that He's always there, in every moment, and I know that happiness can always be found.  I'm so unperfect, as are we all, but Christ won the victory for me, and for all of you.  Sometimes Satan seems to have perfect control over the world, but the small acts of Christlike love that happen every day constantly display that he can never win.  When I reflected on the atonement, the words of a hymn that my Dad had written to me in a letter but that I had never memorized came to my mind ''Then pealed the bells, more loud and deep, "God is not dead, nor doth he sleep.  The wrong shall fail, the right prevail, with peace on earth good will toward men."  I know that's true, so let's never forget it.  I love you all!  And I hope you that you all have a great week and that we can all remember that hope is the anchor of our souls.

Love,

Elder Fox

Scriptures I read this week that were awesome: Moroni 7:41, Ether 12:4, Hebrews 6:11-20, Hebrews 10:32, 35-36


1 and 2)  Back in Conti, but a year and a half older and 78% doper.
3 and 4)  Train trip
5)  Remember this place?
6)  Alejandro next to the train

Pure Service

Hey all!!  I have a little more time to write this week so I hope to give more details!

First off, I apologize to all because I went through my last several letters and I realize that I have given so little detail about anything that's been going on in my time here in Calle Larga.  I've been super rushed during my email hours and it's difficult sometimes to talk about everything and remember what to talk about.  But I hope to talk a little more about what's been going on lately and the miracles we've been seeing lately.  We've been busy but things have been good!  I also need to share my spiritual thought from last week and talk a little about this week.  However, I have received a series of questions from someone that I want to go through and answer.

I wanna know about specific people you talk to when tracting, how they receive you, if you ever get doors slammed in your face, how you find your investigators, who you talk to on the streets, how they receive you, who you talk to on the bus.  Also, about the discussions you teach.  How many do you teach per week, roughly?   Do you give Books of Mormon away regularly?  If so, how many?  Do you hand them out on buses and on the street?  How are they received (how do they react)?   Stuff like that.  Do you get as many teaching opportunities now that you are a zone leader, or are you more busy administering now and don’t have as much time to tract and teach?

That's a lot of questions!  Hahaha okay, I think it's a sad effect of time in the mission that we get desensitized (or something like that) to all of the miracles that we see in the mission.  We do have good contacts a lot, and I do appreciate them, but I neglect to talk about any of them in my letters.  Chile's a little unique because everybody is very kind but almost nobody genuinely wants to listen, so because of that I've learned to curb my enthusiasm I get when we meet someone nice and listen to the Spirit to know how interested the person really is.  Most of our finding is done door to door or on the streets because here references are scarce.  About 3/4 of the people let us have a conversation with them at their gate and the other 1/4 just say they're busy and don't really listen but almost never shut the door in our face.  That's only happened about twice on my mission.  So, if we do the contact like a robot and just ask if we can come another day to share our message about 1/2 of the people we talk to will say yes and the other 1/2 will just give an excuse like not having time because they don't want to be rude.  However, of those 1/2 who say yes, only about 1/4 of them actually have interest and about 1/8 of those who have interest would actually become investigators.  So we have to raise the bar here a lot and really push to invite the Spirit during the contact and ask them a lot of questions and generate true interest, and if we can get into the house at that moment.  There's a new technique in the woodwork that I'll talk about later.  I'll try to give more stories in the future about people we meet and how we found them and how the conversation went so that you know a bit more.

We also talk to people on the street a lot but we don't have the opportunity to do contacts in public transportation much.  The colectivos are our only chance but we don't take colectivos much in Talca so it doesn't happen much.  People on the street, however, if they're not busy, are usually open to chat with us and are really nice.  Most of them will give us their address but very few of them will actually have enough interest to open the door or let you in when you go.

Now we're teaching about 8 lessons to investigators a week and a ton more to less actives but we don't keep track.  We need to strengthen this ward a lot more before it's ready to have true converts.

We have the goal as a mission of giving 2 Books of Mormon away every day with a return appointment to explain in, and we've kept as true to that as we can and average at about 10 Books of Mormon every week.  It helps a lot because if a doubting contact really gives the Book of Mormon a chance, it changes everything and they almost always let you in after to explain more.  So we give a lot out, on the street or at people's houses.  Normally it's a little difficult to help people understand that it is not the Bible nor our version of the Bible but that it's a completely separate thing, but if they do understand that it's even harder to help them understand that it was actually written by prophets here anciently, similar to the bible, but almost all those who understand that give it a test and read it and usually end up loving it.  We always give the books out with the commitment that they'll read and pray about it, and we mostly help people just to understand that it's the evidence that we have and that God can give them an answer about if it's true or not and people accept them readily.

Being a zone leader here does complicate things, because here we do more than in the majority of the missions since we have meetings with the district leaders and STL's every week and meetings with the zone every week.  Also, if there's an open chapel in another ward that eats our entire day, and sometimes we go to places to do double-divisions if we're concerned about a companionship or a group of 4 Elders.  We also have a lot more nitpicky stuff to do in-between so being a zone leader eats up our time considerably.

Whew.  I hope that answered all of them haha I hope to share more detailed stories about all this stuff in the future.

So now I gotta quickly talk about the week haha the week was good!  We found two new investigators going door to door that had listened to missionaries before but the missionaries disappeared out of the blue.  They never had the opportunity to go to church.  They were super friendly though and when we went back they invited us right in.  Their names are Patricia and María and Patricia is our age and is super smart and seems to have a lot of potential.  She said she was going to go to church but she went randomly to another place.  But we'll see what happens!

We also found a whole family of less actives that want to come back to church.  We went with Alejandro and talked about repentance.  The Spirit was super strong in the lesson and everybody wants to come back to church!  So that was an exciting miracle.

There's a new contacting method in the woodwork!  The idea is having a survey of gospel questions and so when people open their doors you ask them if they can take a survey instead of if they want to hear the message.  If they're hesitant, you ask them the first question which is super easy and just a yes or no answer.  Then you ask if you can take the survey real quick inside.  You ask all the questions, and ask follow-up questions, and explain gospel principles as you go, and as a result the contact always shares a lot of experiences from his/life and opens up a lot as the survey goes and it invites the Spirit like crazy.  After the survey you ask if you can talk a little more but start with a prayer, and you teach the Restoration in 5 minutes.  And it works wonders.  It's a genius idea Elder Covey gave us and we've started to apply it.  Elder Mendez and Alejandro and I went to San Clemente to do divisions with the 4 elders there this week to get them excited about working and apply this method to help us do it.  I went with two Elders and Alejandro went with another and Elder Mendez with the other.  Alejandro went with one that was really discouraged because we were sure he could help him and sure enough, he did!  They got into a house using the technique and taught a lesson and everything!  I love Alejandro, he's like our personal assistant hahaha.

We did splits with members again on Thursday so that I could go to ward council and Alejandro and Elder Mendez went to a few lessons.  There's another couple of less actives who were good people but the guy had a drinking problem and didn't want anything to do with the church.  After we taught about the 12 steps and watched the first video and it made a big impact, the next Sunday he went to church (his name is Roberto Alvarez) and told us that he has a goal to get to the temple to get sealed with his family!  Yus!!!  Anyway, that's where Elder Mendez and Alejandro went that night while I went to ward councill.  So, good times!

And now my time is up!  So those are some more details about the work here, we've been crazy busy, we're seeing some crazy progress, I have more to talk about still!  But everything's been very satisfying.  We're working very consecratedly and seeing the blessings and just feeling good about our pure service, forgetting about the numbers and all exterior pressures.  So that's all :)

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

Love

Elder Fox

Patience

Hey all!

Well this week I ended up sleeping on the floor!  Twice!  And once in my proselyting clothes!  So it was rather adventurous if I say so myself!

And to start it all off I prayed for patience, so I deserved what I got.

So the first day that's worth mentioning was Wednesday, where we had zone training in the morning and then interviews with President right after.  And, like the other interviews, Elder Mendez and I gave a training to each district individually while they were waiting for their interviews.  So I went into the day probably way more stressed than I should have been but it turned out great!  The meeting the district leaders at 9:30 went really well then the training went from 10:30 to 1:00 and we did practices with the missionaries and everything which went well and then Elder Mendez and I gave 3 different trainings during the interviews from 1:00 to about 6:00 without much pause in between, then waited for other people to interviews until about 7:00.  Since we didn't have much of a chance to eat during that time we went and got food after and then went to work for a few hours before going home.  Super exhausting day though.

Then thursday!  Thursday was where the problems started.  During the english class that night (a ton of non-members went) I started to feel nauseous and had to leave and go to the bathroom.  After vomiting everything I felt better and decided that it was no big deal and I brushed my teeth and kept helping with the class.  I got bad again though, and figured that I probably had a virus and didn't go back in.  It got bad quickly, and I became very weak and Elder Mendez and I went outside to wait in Alejandro's car.  Alejandro wanted me to go say bye to the people that came though, even though I was white and my eyes were glowing and I looked like Voldemort.  After that he took me home and I put my pillow in the bathroom and took off my tie and laid down on the floor.  After a few hours my comp took a spare mattress and put it on the floor and helped me onto it and he slept on the couch nearby and there we stayed all night.  I kept waking up to go the bathroom about every hour from that moment, but by the morning I didn't feel quite as nauseous.  I was still extremely weak though and almost couldn't move so we stayed in all that day.

The next day I felt better so we decided to work!  I was careful to hydrate myself really well and we went out and found some new investigators!  It was actually one of our best days.  But that night (I was sleeping in my real bed this time) I woke up feeling extremely dizzy and in a cold sweat and I needed to go to the bathroom again.  I sat up in my bed and promptly put my head back down because of the dizziness.  For some crazy reason I felt like I could get out of my bed and go to the bathroom without help (I sleep on the top bunk) so I hopped out of bed and the next thing I know I was leaning over the bottom bed in a praying position and the lights were on and Elder Covey was asking me if I know who I was.  Fetch.  My fall woke them up and apparently when they turned the lights on I was on the ground unconscious then quickly opened my eyes but I still wasn't conscious and I put myself in the praying position and didn't respond until Elder Covey started talking to me in English.  They helped me outside to the couch and called President and that night I ended up sleeping on the mattress on the floor again while Elder Covey woke me up every hour to make me drink a glass of water.  Apparently I hadn't hydrated myself enough and that's what caused the complications that night.  So Sunday to recover I was inside all day drinking a ton of water until we were 100% sure that my body was fully regulated.

And sadly, I don't have more time!  But I'm fine now and we played games this p-day with the two zones and ate chori-panes and I feel completely fine.  I wanted to share what I learned about patience this week but it'll have to wait until next week.  So it was a weird week but I actually learned a lot and it all turned out okay in the end!  I just feel lucky to have a great comp and great roommates that care about me and President's help and concern as well.  

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

Love

Elder Fox

2017 wooooooooo

Hey all!  I have to be fast again haha so sorry that I keep doing this.  The week was great though!  It was a little complicated due to new years and the fact that we spent all of Thursday at leadership counsel, but next week we'll pick our progress back up!

So I didn't end up telling you about what we did for Christmas!  At least I don't think I did... anyway, after church we went right to Alejandro's house to do Skype and then we went out with him to visit some members and came back to his house for Christmas dinner!  Which was super tasty.  Here they open presents on Christmas eve so we opened everything the night before after we ate tacos with a part-member family that we're good friends with.

New Years!  We ate tacos again!!  We've been eating a lot of tacos lately haha but that's what the other elders in the house chose so we made tacos again!  They were the best yet though, we had a lot more time to prepare because we had to go in early so we took our time to fry vegetables and make good chipotle sauce and it was heaven.  We went to bed at 11:00 as normal but I set an alarm for 11:55 to be awake for the new year but we were all so sleepy that when we heard the noise outside at 12:00 we just grunted ''feliz año nuevo'' and then fell asleep again.

Funny story!  So we were in our English class last week when Alejandro (he teaches the class because he's studying to be an english profesor) the difference between american and british english because he speaks british english.  And then, pausing, I said ''well... I say to-may-to... and you say tom-ah-to.'' and it was so tragic because I thought it was so funny but obviously nobody got it because nobody speaks english!  Then I proceeded to explain the differences in the accent better.

This week we went to Rancagua on Thursday for the leadership conference and asked Elder Haar and Elder Figeuroa to go with Alejandro to our English class in our place.  Of course, the one week we're not there, 9 nonmembers came and at least 1 is interested in knowing more about the church.  Pretty exciting though!  We'll have to meet them this Thursday.

SWEET I finally have time to share my thought really quickly.  The thought was inspired by Alejandro on Christmas when he dropped us off out our apartment and we ended up talking in his car.  The thought has to do with the relationship between sadness and happiness, and how crucial sadness is for our existence.  Alejandro was talking a little bit about how he wasn't used to feeling sadness often, but coming back to church has prompted that feeling a lot more, and my comp said something pretty profound about being grateful and enjoying sad moments, because at least you're feeling something.  He went on to explain that all the happiness that we have in life results from sadness.  And it really hit me!  I loved the movie Inside Out before I left on the mission, but I just started understanding it.  When sadness leaves, happiness naturally leaves with it, and the results are only feelings of anger, envy, and fear.  When we choose to never put ourselves in positions where we'll suffer, we choose to actually never be happy.  My mission has simultaneously been the most difficult and most wonderful experience of my life, and I know that most people who have served feel the same way.  If we don't feel sorrow with respect to the church and spiritual things, we never feel inspired to change.  Those who don't hurt in church never progress.  Sorrow is actually a very necessary part of our mortal existence, and its purpose is to actually help us to find happiness.  So we need to be grateful for our sorrowful experiences like my companion said, and realize that it is only the gateway to greater happiness and peace.  And of course, it is only the atonement of Jesus Christ that can truly turn our sadness into happiness.

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

Love

Elder Fox

Hello again!

Hey all!

Hey so I wanna tell you a few things really quick that I couldn't mention yesterday!  I would write more about my week for those who weren't in the call but I have to sadly admit that I've been chatting with Elder Kammerman for a long time today hahaha so I don't have much time.

Speaking of Elder Kammerman, Pichidegua is still on fire.  The attendance was over 30 this week, the highest it's been in probably over 2 years.  For those who weren't in the call, Elder Kammerman this change is leaving and my other trainee Elder Espindola is staying there to train.  So I'm going to be a grandpa! :)  Haha and my entire family and legacy is in Pichidegua still haha.

Anyway, you guys met the miracle of this change yesterday and I couldn't talk about him because he speaks perfect english haha but he was Alejandro, the guy that started going to church about 4 weeks ago after 16 years of complete inactivity.  He's incredibly intelligent, he knows English perfectly but he has a British accent because that's the accent he studied.  Once he returns to full activity, he's going to be an incredible tool in the Lord's hands.  He has a really sharp eye and he reads people in moments, he knows exactly how to help anybody or any group of people and he helps us a ton as missionaries and leaders.  It was him that took us to the open chapel in San Clemente and was largely responsible for its success because he showed us how to bring people in effectively.  He never served a mission but it's always been his dream, but now he's 31 so it's too late.  He has a deep drive to help as many people as he can.  He's been an amazing friend this change and we're so excited that he's returning to activity in the church.  He told me after the call while Elder Mendez was talking that we've helped him a lot, but once we go he's dedicated to staying in the church and help has many people as he can.  So that's exciting :)

So that's that!  But I also promised that I'd send a spiritual thought that I learned this week, but I'm actually out of time.  Sorry!!!  Next week you have to remind me because it's a good one.

Merry Christmas!!  I love you all!!

Love

Elder Fox