I decided to finally send photos and do other things I needed to do before the group letter. Which is good! I've been putting that off for a super long time. BUT now I don't very much time to write anything. Woops. But I'll try to pack as much into it as I can! Forgive my spelling and grammar errors.
First off! This week was a week of miracles. It was incredible! The biggest of all of these relates to the family of Alan. In our first lesson with the family, Alan's sister didn't have very much interest and his mom said that she thinks all the churches are equal and that she doesn't want to change. The Dad is already a member but he still hasn't been to church. Alan was the only one who accepted the baptismal date in that lesson, and he was baptized on that date last change. Fast forward to this week on Friday, and I was in their house on divisions with Elder Santini. We were going to invite them to an activity, but they couldn't go. Even though Elder Barbosa wasn't there, I decided to take advantage of the opportunity to teach them and try to put a baptismal date with Alan's mom and sister. We started teaching the first lesson, and only got as far as ''God is our loving Heavenly Father'' when Alan's mom blurted out:
''You know what, I want to get baptized, but not right now because I'm super tired and my mom is sick.''
Wait... what?
We haven't even mentioned baptism, and we hadn't taught the whole family like that since that first lesson where Alan accepted the baptismal date and she was sturdy in her opinion. At first I ignored the second part of her sentence and asked her why she wanted to get baptized. She said that Alan had a serious conversation with her where he said that he wanted to baptize her. She also said that after seeing how happy Alan was after his baptism, it's hard to deny that it's something that brings the love of God in our lives.
Way to go Alan! Best. Convert. Ever. He's really timid so he doesn't say much, and I've never heard him bear his testimony, but little moments like this let me know that his testimony of the restored gospel is actually very strong.
Then Macarena, Alan's sister, came in to the conversation and told us that she wanted to get baptized on the same day as her mom! So after some conversation, talking about her doubts about getting baptized within the coming weeks and everything, we did put a date for the 12th of March. So we're super excited! I was walking on air the whole day. It's something very rare and special in this mission to be able to bring a whole family into the gospel.
Also! We finally had a lesson with Janet. You guys haven't heard about her in a while, she's the one that has the son in the mission and didn't want to get baptized until he gets back. Also, she needs to get divorced from her past husband in order to marry her current boyfriend and she can't do that because her ex-spouse is giving her a lot of money to take care of her disabled daughter. So the situation is a little complicated! But we had a lesson with her and it was very special, she's an awesome lady. She says that she doesn't like to be pressured into things so she'll go to church when she wants to, but we're encouraging her and promising blessings for going. She's reading and praying every night which is awesome, and she described an experience to us where she found an answer to her question in the Book of Mormon just by flipping through its pages. So cool stuff! She's another one that will definitely be baptized, but sadly it'll be very very very long down the road, due to the laws of Chile more than anything.
My comp lost his wallet this week! And again, we were able to find the wallet within 3 hours of losing it. Another great reminder that God is always looking after us :) He left it in a colectivo, just like I did, then realized it a few hours later when he wanted to use it to change out a 10,000 bill for 10 1,000´s in order to get another colectivo home. He realized it was gone, and we had no idea where it could've been or where he left it. We decided to take a colectivo anyway, so we went to the street where they pass and within seconds a colectivo passed and we got in. The first the the colectivero said was ''Hey did you lose your wallet?'' When my comp said yes, he opened the glove box and there was his wallet! It was the same colectivo that we used to get there. It was another wonderful miracle of the week, and something that actually left me deeply touched. I've seen the hand of the Lord a lot here in Paniahue, especially in these few weeks. It was something amazing to sit in that colectivo and think of things that have happened in my mission and all the miracles I've been able to see. It all really is incredible.
I'm finding that it's harder and harder to speak english out loud. Spanish words keep slipping in there and sometimes I mix the two languages in rather horrible ways without thinking about it. I did divisions Friday with Elder Santini (from Hawaii, thus he speaks English) and it was difficult to speak just English! The funniest of the day was when I said ''Sabaday'', a mixture of ''Sabado'' and ''Saturday.''
So that was my week! Sorry I couldn't say much. This week I had some pretty profound experiences with grace, and the power of the grace given to us by the atonement became a little more personal to me. It's amazing to me that because of the atonement we never have to be haunted by the mistakes we've made or the people that we were, that with the true cleansing power of His grace we only ever have to look forward. It brought to mind the story of Lot and his family, when they were commanded to never look back. Because of Him, we truly never have to look back. It was amazing for me to realize that the person I have been in the past is forgotten, and the atonement took shape for me in my mind a little bit more than it had. I loved my Dad's thoughts in his letter a while back about the individuality of the atonement, and I think that's a truth that I've been able to internalize.
I love you all! Have a great week! I'm praying for you!
Love
Elder Fox
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