If you don't understand the subject, go watch that youtube video that was popular for a while with animals speaking in British accents.
Hello all! This week was wonderful, but at the same time not much happened. But there are some awesome stories that I want to share!
First is about a girl that my comp and district leader met last week doing divisions named Karla. She accepted a Book of Mormon and said that she would read it in a few days (she's really intelligent.) We went back to visit her this week after we went to Rancagua again to get my carnet, and it was a super interesting conversation. She was a lot of fun to talk to because of her knowledge of history and of everything, but the part that really made me smile was when she said that right before Elder Leguizamón and Elder Holley came to the door she was just about ready to give up belief that there was a God at all, but that they left and now she was starting to believe in God more and more. They didn't teach her a lesson, or do anything really, but just the presence and the conversation with the missionaries led this change. It's awesome how such short contact with people who are willing to share the gospel can change people like that. She also said that she had a really interesting experience reading the Book of Mormon that made her cry. Even though she loves reading, she's dyslexic, which surprised me. She says that she can read really well but when she tries to read out loud she has a really hard time. But she told us that when she read the Book of Mormon out loud, she could easily without any problem, and this is the first time anything like that has happened in her life, which moved her to tears. My first reaction was ''Well that's your answer come to church dang it!!!'' But I didn't say that. A cool miracle of this week.
Second, we did divisions again this week (my current district leader likes to do them every week) and I was with Elder Holley the district leader. For divisions, both members of the companionship choose a focus that they're going to study and try to put into practice in the division, and the other companion studies it as well and offers advice. My focus for the division was a pauta (don't know how to say that in English sorry) that lead to an augmentation in baptisms, which was ´pray for miracles and expect them.´ I decided that that was the best focus ever. That whole day we kept finding amazing people in the street, just being there in the exact right place and the exact right time. Early on the day Elder Holley had to stop to stretch his leg because his knee was hurting, and a little later on we passed a woman just as she collapsed in an emotional breakdown. We calmed her down and she told us what had happened, her husband had hit her and she fled the house. We asked her if she had called the police and she said that she had and they were on their way. After talking through the story and after she had calmed down, we told her that we couldn't help with anything legal, but that we do have one thing that we think could help her, which is our faith in Jesus Christ and His sacrifice for us. We asked her if she wanted to hear what we had to say and she said yes, and gave us her address and her phone number. Had Elder Holley not had to stop and stretch, we wouldn't have been there at the right time to help her. Just 10 minutes later I started a conversation with a woman standing on the street waiting for a colectivo. She was super nice, and actually brought up the topic of religion herself, saying ''you know, I've never been baptized.'' We shared a little and gave her a lesson one pamphlet, and she said that she'd be interested in us coming by and teaching her too. There were more that day, but those were the highlights.
So Alan! Alan was by far the best part of the week, and the inspiration behind the email subject (everytime we say his name in the house we yell it like in the video, like ''how's ALAN'', ''ALAN is great.''). He's our 17 year old investigator with the baptismal date, and right now he's showing a lot of promise of reaching his date. He's attended church twice now, and has liked it both times, and after our English class Saturday he started asking questions about baptism and what's required to be baptized. Right there we taught him the law of chastity and the work of wisdom and he accepted both on the spot. Which is awesome! I haven't seen anyone get as far as him since our convert my first change in the field. So I'm super excited! I think that the Spirit has really touched him with the desire to unite with the church, which is a really cool thing to see. He's become good friends with all the youth in the Santa Cruz branch, and saw one receive his mission call recently. I think he was pretty inspired by it. If he gets baptized and ends up going on a mission I think I'd die of happiness. So that's the hope!
So that was my week! The other highlights have been our English class Saturday, which more people went too, and the fact that a branch member in Santa Cruz thought that I was Mexican due to my accent, which I thought was awesome because I think the Mexican accent is easily the cleanest and most attractive Spanish there is. If you don't count Spain, that is. So that's my week! My thoughts this week have been on miracles. I realized how little I expected miracles or believed that they could happen before my mission. I almost believed that they were things of the past, or things that I would never really be associated with. In the Book of Mormon it says that if miracles cease among men it is only because faith has ceased also, and I think that's true. I've gained a very strong testimony through experience on my mission of the availability of miracles, to everybody. The biggest example was when God filled the font, but there have been miracles every week, and every day. God really is among us, and miracles really exist. They can be available to all of us, we just need the faith sufficient to ask for them, and then the gratitude and vision to be able to notice them. And the amazing thing is that we can pray for both. With God, we truly will never lack anything, as long as we ask.
I love you all! Do good! Make good choices!
Love
Elder Fox
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