Changes came!!! Aaaaaaaaaah!
So we were all pretty sure what would happen this change. This Mission President rarely keeps anyone in a sector for more than 3 changes (keep in mind a change is 6 weeks,) and practically never keeps a companionship together for more than 2 changes. In fact, being a companionship for 2 changes is even a little rare. But when you're training, most of the time you have your trainer for the two changes of your training. Elder Hadlock has 3 changes here now and we've been together for two, so we were very sure that he was leaving. Like super sure. He bought a Chilean flag for all our investigators and members to sign and was about to print off photos for everyone and everything. Also we were fairly confident that even though Elder Schley was half way through the training of Elder Rodriguez that he was leaving because he broke the door to our apartment down and President didn't like that too much. I was expecting to stay in Conti and get a Latino companion, because that's normally what happens after training so that our Spanish improves very quickly. I was a little nervous about that, because Elder Rodriguez would likely be getting a Latino companion too and I was expecting to live in an apartment with three other missionaries who don't speak English. Although I can speak really well for my time, that would've been really hard.
SO we got the call Saturday night, kind of freaking out naturally. The zone leaders called Elder Hadlock and told him where everybody in our district was going, which includes the other Conti Elders. He started with Elder Hadlock, and to all our surprise the zone leader said that he was staying in Conti. Immediately my mind started to flip out because I thought that naturally meant that I'm leaving, because President hardly ever keeps people together for more than 2 changes. I was just thinking where I'd be going and why I was leaving when the zone leader said to Elder Hadlock ''You're companion is going to be Elder Fox, who's also staying.'' After the phone call there was much loud celebration on the part of Elder Hadlock and I. We were right about Elder Schley though, he's going to San Fernando and Elder Rodriguez is getting a new Latino trainer named Elder Mendez. He's either Brazilian, Colombian, or Chilean, but we don't know which.
So those are our changes! Elder Hadlock and I are staying together a change! We're super excited about that, and confident that we have more work to do this change and more potential. Last change was really hard for both of us, but I hope that things are looking up this change. One great blessing that we have is our new ward mission leader, because our last mission leader was less active so we never had our correlation meeting and he never went to ward council. Our new one though is a return missionary, and he's an amazing guy. We have correlation every week now, and he's just an amazing mission leader and an amazing member. He accompanies us a lot, which is really nice too. The best thing though is that he has the ward leadership convinced that we actually are working now, and that's the greatest blessing of all. I don't know what it is with this ward, but they have some bad trust issues. They think we don't work and that we're not doing anything because the missionaries 5 years ago had so much ''success'' (and thanks to this ''success'' there are 1,200 less active members in Conti) and now we're not having very much. They also generally think the missionaries are lazy and disobedient. Though that definitely doesn't apply to the whole ward, it did apply to the church leadership which has definitely made things difficult. For those of you who aren't as familiar with missionary work, just know that working hand-in-hand with the ward is absolutely crucial. You can't get absolutely anything done without the help of the members. Anyway I digress, for this reason this new ward mission leader is a huge blessing, and our relationship with the ward is improving rapidly. That is my thought of gratitude this week.
So things that happened this week! Monday we were finally able to teach Pedro and Rosa, which was probably the highlight of my entire week because they're great investigators. We're still not having any luck contacting the investigator that Elder Hadlock and the zone leader found last week and put a baptismal date with, which was a little disappointing because his date fell Sunday when he didn't attend church, but I'm confident that we'll be able to teach him again and get things resolved. We also had a family home evening with Juan and Janet (the couple who are getting married and baptized in December) with the other Elders and also the Sister missionaries. That was an awesome experience too, Juan opened up to us like I've never seen him before and told us the story of his entire life. It's amazing how people open up to missionaries so easily, even when they don't really know them very well. I think that they can sense the mantle we have, and know that we can help them. He's had a really hard life, and he was talking about how he wants to forget some things and forgive some people so badly and he pleads in prayer that he can forget what happened. We all testified of the healing power of the atonement and how it can help him feel peace, and Elder Schley shared his experience of being in the orphanage in Kazakhstan where there wasn't any clothes or food or really everything, and how kids who weren't adopted into the States often froze to death. He talked about his experience being adopted and coming to know God and the peace that it offered him. It was one of the most powerful lessons I've ever been in.
I forgot to talk about the lesson with Pedro and Rosa! Silly me. We taught lesson 1 and it went well. We realized that they had more doubts than we previously expected though so we weren't able to commit them to baptism, but they're serious about investigating and finding out if it's the truth, which here is rare and very awesome. So I'm excited for that!
Other than that not much happened. We found a gringa the other day and talked to her in English for a while, I forgot how much I love talking to strangers in English, it's so much easier!! Also we played futbol for a while with one of our investigator's little kid and that was a blast.
So that was my week! I'm going to have to be really lame and not leave much of spiritual thought because I'm low on time, but I do want to say that the Lord is very aware of us, and if we give ourselves to Him, then he will always direct us where we need to be, and everything will work out for the best, and He will make something out of us that we would never dare to dream of. I love you all! Have a good week! I'm praying for you!
Love,
Elder Fox
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