Whoooooa this week was crazy! I think I have enough crazy mission stories after just this week to last me a lifetime! Enserio though! I'm glad that none of you flipped out as a result of the earthquake, Elder Anuarve's Dad called the assistants and the other Elders got panicked emails from their parents. When it happened I thought how the phone's were down, there was an 8.3 earthquake, I live on the coast, and President is probably going to send an email that night about what happened and he'd have to say he hadn't gotten ahold of the Conti Elders yet. But I'm glad you all were faithful and remained calm :)
First the earthquake! It was an 8.3 up somewhere in Antofaghasta, which is waaaaaaaaaay far from where we are. But, incredibly enough, we felt it here in Conti as an earthquake higher than a 5.0. Some people have been telling us that it was a 6.00 here in Conti, which I would actually believe.
Now the story! The 18 of September (their Independence Day) was this Friday, but the ward decided to hold the activity on Thursday the day before rather than to hold it the day of, because it just makes it easier for everyone. So we were in the church Wednesday night juuuuust starting to decorate for the huge activity the next day when it hit. The certains started swaying back and forth, but then it got stronger. It wasn't just rumbling, you could feel the waves ripple through the earth, and the motions were big. It was just strong enough that walking and standing were a little weird, but not big enough to cause any real damage. It was actually one of the coolest things I've ever felt, I took a video. It passed after about a minute, and because everyone was fine and nothing really happened I assumed that we'd just resume decorating. But I was very wrong. All of the smartphones in the room started going off with the emergency alert, and outside the sirens started blaring and people started yelling. Then I remembered:
Flip, we're on the coast.
I asked a nearby member if there was really a possibility of a tsunami with an earthquake so small, when he told me that it was higher than an 8 somewhere else. We gathered all of our stuff in a hurry and left the church. It was absolute chaos. The last tsunami that completely destroyed the city was only 5 years ago, so fear of these kinds of things still runs strong in these poor people. City sirens and alarms were blazing everywhere, and the streets were extremely crowded with people going to the hills. The streets were completely packed, the cars couldn't move anywhere for the amount of the people trying to leave the city. It was kind of stressful, I'm not gunna lie, and I was a little worried that my sector might be in real jeaprody, since it's right on the coast. Contemplating the possibility of my mission becoming a service mission real soon, us Elders discussed what to do. Obviously, we needed to go to a tsunami safety zone, which are always marked with signs. But, very luckily, our apartment is actually in a safety zone. So we just went home. Kind of an anticlimactic ending to such an intense story but that's what happened. We didn't have any cell service the rest of the night and we didn't have power or water the next morning, but Conti wasn't hit by anything big enough to cause real damage to the city. The coastal houses were likely hit pretty bad, but we haven't been over there yet so we aren't sure. We stopped by a store right by our apartment on the way home and bought coke, delicious chilean bread, and bananas, then snacked in our apartment as the world was ending. It was actually kind of fun, not gunna lie. Then we actually hiked the huge hill behind our apartment to see everything from above. We had a gorgeous view of all of Conti, but there wasn't a car or a moving soul in sight because by that point everyone had left. It was cool, we had a good time.
Tuesday we went on splits and the District Leader came here to Conti to interview María for her baptism. It was fun leading the day for the first time, since I stayed here and Elder Hadlock went to Talca this time.
Thursday morning we didn't have power for a good long while, but it eventually came back and we were able to finally decorate the church for the activity that evening. From there, we managed to get La'Cote, her friend, and Carina to the activity. They're our good friends who teach English, and probably our best friends in the mission to be honest. We talked to them a lot about the activity before and they decided that they wanted to go, which was awesome. The ward was very welcoming and got them very involved in the games and such, which was awesome of them. We played this game where someone is sitting on a chair in the cultural hall and the person sitting in the chair has to answer a question about Chilean history. If they get it right, they're safe. If not, they get an egg splat on their heads. BUT, over half of the eggs are boiled. Elder Anuarve made me play it, even though of course I don't know anything about Chilean history, he pushed me into the chair so then of course I had to stay. Of course, I got the answer wrong, then I took my planner out of my pocket and took off my tie and put it in my pocket. Hna. Alegría, another good friend of mine in the mission, then came with paper towels and started wrapping me with them. It was hilarious. Then they took an egg and counted down ''tres... dos... uno...'' when I felt cold egg white all over my head. Elder Hadlock told me later that the members felt the eggs until they found one that hadn't been boiled for me. Those sneaky members. I had egg all over me, my shirt, and my pants. And I walked home for a mile like that, with my tie off. It was hilarious, but I hope that not too many people saw me.
Friday! Friday we actually could go out and work until 8:00 but we ended up spending the whole day in service. They told us we'd be ''moving some furniture around'' but then it turned out that we were ''moving their entire flipping house.'' Seriously, they were moving, and we helped them pack up everything they owned in boxes and moving it to their new house. It was fun service though, and the day wouldn't have been very productive anyway because it was the 18th of Septmeber.
Saturday! Saaaaaturday. Saturday was the craziest day of my entire life thus far, and I really hope that I have time to tell this story. Here's where the first part of the subject of this email makes sense. Saturday was Marías baptism, so we needed to go early to the church to fill the font and prepare and clean everything so that we could have a nice baptismal service.
So, baptismal fonts here take a very long time to fill up. Like a very long time, just because hot water here is not something that can happen very fast. It takes about 2 hours to fill your average baptismal font, and some fonts it can take up to 5 hours to fill. We were pretty sure that this font was a 2 hour font because the Hermanas told us that it should take about that long, so we planned accordingly. Sadly, however, we were kept a little late at lunch because the Hermana wanted to stuff so full that we'd explode, but we still got there at about 3:30 when the baptism was scheduled for 5:00. We started the font as soon as we got there, but at 4:30 it was very clear that this wasn't a 2 hour font. After an hour, the font had about a foot of water in it. Only a foot. We had no idea what to do.
So in these churches here in Chile there's always a fire hose that's in a glass case attached to a wall, and they are huge. There happened to be one of these right next to the font.
So we had no idea what to do, when Elder Schley told us that he had used the firehose to fill a font in his last sector, and that putting only hot water in the font after that it managed to get warm enough. So, though our minds were screaming ''this is the STUPIDEST thing you could possibly do!!!!'' we felt we had little other choice and decided to go ahead with it. It was going great at first, until after about 30 seconds filthy brown water started coming out of the hose.
Why, why would we assume the water would be clean? Just why? We're in South America. Anyway, I digress.
So we turned the hose off as fast as we could, but the deed was done, and the font water was brown and filthy. There's another problem with these fonts, they take as long to drain as they take to fill. It took another 15 minutes just to get the water out, helping it go faster by running to and from the font with buckets and vacuums. By the time the font was empty again, we had no time. The problem was that Marías family was only there for that day and needed to leave right after the service, and everybody was probably already on their way to the service. So there was nothing we could do to postpone the service. We needed nothing less than a miracle for this to go alright.
SO we jumped into action. No other faucet or sink in the church has hot water other than the baptismal font, so we needed to heat water as fast as we could. We had huge pots full of water on all the stoves and in the oven, and beyond that we were running to and from the sink to the font with giant buckets just filling it with cold water. We knew the font wasn't going to be very warm or very full, and both of those things are a huge problem given that María is very very very old. But still, we were doing everything that we possibly could, but it wasn't enough. There was no way it could be enough, the circumstanes were simply impossible to contend with. I was stressed out of my mind, I was about to perform a live baptism in a half an hour but I didn't have the Spirit with me at all. Which was stressing me out even worse. Flip.
At this point, María and her family came, so I directed them into the chapel and played prelude music for them, forgetting everything that was going wrong on the other side of the church where they were trying to get the font full. I got to sit and play ''Nearer My God to Thee'' for a good long while, calm down, and just meditate. I prayed to have the Spirit with me again, and I felt the calming influence and the countenance of Christ return to me. After some more meditation, I remembered something obvious, but crucial. Jesus Christ is the Great Multiplier. I prayed, saying this:
''Jesus Christ turned the water into wine at the wedding feast, and he fed the 5000 with only a few pieces of bread and a few small fishes, and He still lives. So I know, without a doubt in my mind, that He can fill a baptismal font and make the water warm. Please Father, we are trying absolutely everything that we can.''
After this I changed into my baptismal clothes and came back to the chapel and played more prelude. Then the meeting started and I went and took a seat with María, when Elder Hadlock came back to me and told me that he wasn't sure if it was going to work, that the water was still very low and extremely cold. I continued, though difficultly, thinking in faith that the font can be filled and become warm. After the few short talks, the time for the realization of the ordinance came. I walked to the font, and opened the door to find that the font was completely full, almost overflowing. I stepped in the water, and it was the perfect bathtub temperature, just warmer than my skin. Then I smiled like an idiot to myself and nearly started crying on the spot, just thinking ''yeah, that's right, God's our friend.'' It was nothing less than a miracle, scientists and sceptics could talk my ear off for hours convincing me of the imposibility of matter appearing from nothing and the imposibility of an existing divinity to intervene but I know that God filled that font. After every ounce of effort that we could possibly put forth, God simply took care of the rest, according to our faith, and our humility.
Christ said that we must become as little children and be converted unto Him. This means that in order to become converted, we must first become as little children. Perfectly humble, true, faithful, but most especially, completely 100% reliant on Him. We need to need Him. We can do everything that we can do but in the end it's Him that'll fill the font. And He always will, if we consecrate our lives to Him and become reliant on Him, having faith, all things are possible.
The actualy baptism was a little rocky because she's very old and we had to try a few different things to get it to work, but after it was done she was so happy it was all worth it. It was my first baptism in the mission, and I actually got to perform it, and the same day I saw a miracle. Overall, it was one of the most special experiences of my life, and there likely won't be many like it.
This testimony I have now more than ever, that we have not grown past the age of miracles, and we never will. As long as there is faith, there are mircales.
Before I end my letter, there's just one more thing. We found out the changes last night, and Elder Hadlock and I are both staying in Conti. Elder Anuarve's going somewhere else, but Elder Schley is actually going to train this change so there'll be a brand new trainee in the house! I'm so excited, it'll be a blast!
Until next week, I love you all and I pray for you every day. Love you! Remember how much God loves you.
Elder Fox
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