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