Hey everybody! This week was great, but there haven't been very many new developments since we've been busy doing divisions and preparing for the baptism and stuff like that.
SO! Changes! Wooooot! Elder Leguizamón has 2 and a half changes here in Paniahue, which made guessing what could happen difficult because normally with 2 changes you stay and with 3 you leave. But what happens with 2 and a half? Hard to say. I honestly wanted him to stay because he's an awesome example and a great friend, and it would be easier to strengthen our new convert with him here. But alas! He's going to Rauquén in Curico, the place where Elder Hadlock started his mission! He's going to be a district leader again which is awesome, he deserves it. I'm going to be with Elder Barbosa! Like the character from Pirates of the Carrabean (is that how you spell it?)! He was born in Peru but has lived in Spain for a very long time. I hear that he has a peruvian/spaniard mix in his accent, which will be interesting! He was a zone leader for a while (I have a habit of getting put with ex-zone leaders) but he only has 2 changes left in the mission so he was released from his responsablities to be able to die as a normal missionary. And I hear he's awesome! I don't know why I keep getting put with these superstar missionaries, either I keep getting lucky or President thinks I'm a problem child. Either way I won't complain! Cuz it's great!
So that'll be my next change! I'll probably be leaving after next change because if I stay two changes to kill him I'd have to stay a fourth change for another missionary to get here and that's longer than normal, but we'll see!
So this week was good! We still haven't met our investigator with the baptismal date that the other Elders put, but we're hoping to do a family home evening with the other elders and him this week so that'll be good! We also put a baptismal date with one of our investigators named Blas! I only met him once because for whatever reason this whole change Elder Leguizamón has only been able to find him while on divisions with another Elder, but I met him recently and he's awesome! He and his wife are both great, and they both already feel that the church is true, the only difficulty is getting to church because they work in a job that they only do Sunday mornings (selling things in the feria (don't know the translation for feria)). And they would've put a fecha with his wife Isabel as well but she wasn't there when they were able to teach him. So that's three baptisms this next month hopefully!
Another cool story! Elder Leguizamón and I decided this week to go through all of the contacts in our phone labeled as 'investigator' and call them if we don't know them (because contacts build up as people never delete the investigators they stop going by) and we found a great investigator that way! Sadly I forgot her name because I only met her once and it was a 5 minute conversation, but I have it written down somewhere! In the call she said we could pass by her house and we did Sunday and had a brief conversation. She told us that the missionaries were passing by often and she really liked what they were teaching but then Elder Junior left and Elder Bernal (from my group, the missionary that I replaced when I got here) came and they never passed by her again. Which is odd. She said that she sees something different in us and is genuinely looking for the truth. Which is awesome! We'll see where it goes!
Also we started teaching(ish) some people who have been coming to our English classes. They're very young, and here I've noticed that the youth are very very similar to the youth in the States (probably due to the unversality of opinions provided by the internet.) So it's interesting talking to them! Most young people I've talked to have the same opinion, that God is just an energy through all of us and that there really isn't even a God nor a true church, but that Jesus Christ was still the son of God (I have no idea how that works either.) But this Saturday they accepted what we've told them pretty well! We just need to teach official lessons and leave commitments and everything.
Then of course there's the story of Alan and his baptism! But I'll save that for the end of everything.
Some funny stories! In divs I went with the zone leader Elder Miller to a house of about 20 Haitian people! Which in Chile is definitely not something you see every day. Apparently the zone leaders had taught one lesson, but they weren't sure that they understood everything because the Haitians are still working on their Spanish too, because they speak French! And I was so sad that I had forgotten absolutely everything I have learned of French! Cuz it would've been awesome to talk to them in their native language, because it's a little odd that we're speaking a language we're new to and they're speaking a language they're new too but we have to speak that language because it's the only one we have in common! We invited them to play sports with us that night, and Elder Miller told them that I knew French but I explained that I forgot everything when I learned Spanish. They told me to try anyway so I just said 'I don't know' in French and left it at that. They were very entertained at my attempt to French.
More stories of Chilean news! So early in the week I was in a member's house eating lunch when I saw a story about a bunch of rogue waves that have been going on in Viña del Mar. There's this platform that's pretty high above the ocean that's a really popular tourist spot, but this week these giant waves have been coming every now and then and soaking everybody there, which they found pretty fun! The whole news story was about how much of a thrill these tourists are getting out of standing on this platform as giant waves come up and soak them (and the cars driving on the road by the platform and everything in the area.) Later in the week I was in the same home and saw more videos of giant waves coming and soaking the platform in Viña del Mar, but this time with nobody on it. The headline was ''They're getting sick of the big waves.'' I thought that was hilarious. I love how frank these headlines are.
Another headline! The story was about a mall that got robbed before it opened, and the headline was ''It hasn't opened yet and they already robbed it.'' Yep. Classic Chilean frank headlines.
So the baptism! I never really told you much about Alan, but that's because we honestly didn't do very much for him. That's the amazing thing about this story, is that all we did was invite him to be baptized at the very start of the change, and he took that invitation seriously and did everything he could to arrive at that date. He is an amazing kid, and really just want to do what's right and what's going to help him. It was a miracle how it happened, and it really goes to show that it's not the lessons that lead someone to baptism, it's the Spirit and the commitments you leave them. He prayed and felt his answer on his own and learned to recognize the Spirit, he decided it was important to be baptized, and he was the one who asked us what he needed to do to be baptized, and he did everything necessary. We hardly did anything! So it really was a miracle.
Which leads me to completing my thought from last week! I was talking about how the circumstances leading to the emergency of the font not being full at my last baptism were very unusual, and likely caused by God in order to teach us a lesson. I think that story is a great example of our limits, and of the Atonement. I don't have a lot of time to say everything that I was thinking (probably should have skpped the Chilean news story) but I learned through that that the atonement of Christ does more than cleanse us from our sins, it can also perfect our efforts. What I mean by that is that in this life whatever we do (as long as it's the will of Christ) our efforts can be 'filled' by the atonement, to that the effects of what we do are much much greater than what we actually do. Because of this, even though as humans we 'awkwardly lump around', we can make a huge difference because the atonement fills the gaps in our imperfections in everything that we do to serve God and to serve others. The atonement fills the gaps left by our errors and our imperfections, in everything that we do. Alan was a great example of this, because we didn't do much in his progression, but the atonement made the difference.
I love you all! Have a great week!
Love
Elder Fox
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