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Hey family and people!  We had one of the most miraculous weeks I've ever had in my mission ever this week, so I'm excited to tell you about it!  The moral of the story is that God is awesome, but first I have some funny stories for you!

Me and Elder Peterson had some funny contacts this week.  In one, a woman came out of the door (the door was plastered with pictures of the pope) with a hatchet and Elder Peterson just asked ''Hey we're looking for a guy named Pedro Gustavo, does he live around here?''  and the woman said she didn't know him.  I was pretty confused because I didn't know we were looking for a Pedro, so I asked my comp after and he said ''Oh I just made that up because I was afraid... I saw the pope and she had an axe.''

I thought that was pretty hilarious.

Also, yesterday President Jimenez (the branch president) couldn't come to church because it was raining and the buses don't run when it's raining (he takes a bus when he comes to church.)  The problem was, me and my comp were already assigned talks, and President was going to give a talk, and President was also going to teach the third hour class, and I'm already the sunday school teacher and my comp teaches the youth's sunday class... so we just ended up doing all of church!  All of it.  I presided (it was kind of cool actually) the sacrament meeting and my comp directed it, I played the piano and my comp directed the music, my comp gave his talk and we invited a member to share his testimony and then I gave my talk, then after we taught the two sunday school classes, then after we did a class all combined for the third hour that me and my comp taught.  So we did all of church.  It was kind of fun actually!

With that, the miracle stories!  This week has been full of miracles, it's been insane.  We discovered early on this change that a son of a family of less actives got home from prison and that he wanted to accept the missionary lessons.  We went on divisions on Tuesday so I wasn't there, but Elder Peterson and Elder Shumway went to his house (his name is Javier)on Tuesday and put a baptismal date with him!  I was later able to teach him and he is awesome.  He has a ton of desires to completely change his life and he really wants to meet his goal for the baptism, which is the 20 of August.  It'll be hard because he needs to get married and quit smoking, but he's super dedicated to do it, and he's one of the most sincere people I've ever met.  So that's miracle number 1!

Then, one day me and Elder Peterson were walking around contacting when a less active (that Elder Peterson already knew) called our attention and we started to talk with him.  He was with his wife, who's name is Andrea and she's not a member.  Before we left, she asked us if we could come to their house to help them translate a document that they needed to understand to apply for a triathlon.  Me and Elder Peterson were thinking of how we'd somehow be able to teach a lesson afterward, and promised ourselves that we'd slip something in before leaving their house the next day.  The next day we went and translated the document for them, then afterward Andrea asked us if we had time, and we said that we did, then she said that she didn't really know what Mormons believed (and her husband is one) and that she wanted to know, so she asked us what we believe!  We were kind of dumbfounded for a second, then we started with a prayer and taught the Restoration.  She is super smart and understood everything completely, and accepted a baptismal date with hesitation at the end of the lesson.  So there's a lot of hope for her too!  The best thing is that she's actually married, so she almost doesn't have anything in her way!  Me and Elder Peterson were super happy, we called our district leader and rejoiced loudly hahaha.

Then Saturday night we had an appointment with a recent convert that Elder Edwards found named Ignacia and her family, but the appointment fell through because her family wasn't there and we couldn't enter her house because she was alone.  So we just started contacting the houses near our own house, when we started talking with a really kind lady outside her house that actually seemed to be super wise on the subject of religion and God.  We asked her if we could go in right then and share our message, and she invited us in!  That's probably happened to me less than 5 times my whole mission.  Anyway, we went in, kind of shocked, and she invited the whole family to join in and they were a family of 5!  That's pretty dang big for Chile, especially because it's a perfectly nuclear family, which almost never exists here.  So we taught all 5 of them, and they were all awesome.  The Dad was a little more hesitant because he was Catholic, but is willing to pray about it to see if it's true.  They all accepted the baptismal invitation (if they got an answer) but didn't accept the date.  It was an awesome lesson though, and we found a new family!  We almost never teach complete families here, so we were super excited.

So that was our week of miracles!  The moral of the story really is that God is just awesome, because we've been praying really hard together and individually to find new investigators and prepared people, knowing how difficult the sector is and the reputation that precedes it, and God has shown us so many miracles and tender mercies!  The truth is that we haven't done anything different, but God is a God of miracles and has a way of putting people in our path, no matter where we are!

So that was our week!  I love you all a ton, and hopefully I'll be able to send some pictures today!  Have a great week everybody!  The church is true!  And it's awesome!

Love

Elder Fox

Paniahue #2 (Pichidegua version)

Hey all!  This week was pretty great and there's a lot to write about aaaaand I have a terrible keyboard again so hopefully I can talk about everything!

So leaving Hospital was super hard.  I don't think I've ever had the kind of relationship with the members and investigators before than I did with the people in Hospital.  I was surprised while I was giving my last talk/testimony in sacrament meeting how disappointed the branch actually was that I was going, and how sincere their farewells were.  I'm sadly more used to the members not liking us from my past sectors, as sad as it was.  Also saying goodbye to Felipe and Claudio was especially difficult.  Felipe said the last prayer in the lesson and in the prayer he asked that I would go safely and have a good mission and good life and that I could keep teaching a lot of people because I helped him a lot.  It broke my heart, I almost cried.  Claudio was in tears and it was hard to leave, but I'm sure he'll be alright.  Saying goodbye to Elder Espindola was also a little hard, we had 2 incredible changes together and though it was stressful I'll never forget the miracles we saw in Hospital.  Many people told me that Hospital was hopeless, including my first comp there, but God had something big in mind for that place and we were there to be able to see it start taking off.  It was a true privilege, and something that I'll never forget my entire mission.

Now I'm in Pichidegua!  Things are definitely suuuuper different here.  Elder Edwards (Porter now I guess.... so weird that he's already home) was actually here not too long ago.  It's cool telling his investigators and convert that I live almost right next to him.

SO Pichidegua!  It seems like a duplicate of Paniahue just smaller and the branch doesn't hate us.  Which is a great thing!  There's also no priesthood, as a result me and my comp are the branch counselors, and the branch President lives in another city and only comes on Sundays, so we end up doing absolutely everything.  Which is actually pretty fun!  I've been having fun reading the manuals a bit to understand exactly what we're supposed to be doing and answering questions I've had.  I'm also the Sunday school teacher for the adults, so I get to study a good deal in our down time and I've been enjoying it.  This is also my first time living in a house with only 2 elders, and I found out that I enjoy it much more.  I'm not constantly cleaning and have a lot of extra time at nights to study so there's no stress.

My comp!  Is Elder Peterson.  He's awesome, this is still his first sector (he's Porter's trainee actually) but he's been here for 4 months already.  His spanish is pretty good already, so we share the load alright.  He's an awesome kid and way fun to talk to, I've been practicing my english and it's been improving.  He's from Oakland, California, and played rugby.  I'll have to send a picture next week.

So Pichidegua is another sector that's famous for being really dry.  BUT I saw that change in two other sectors so I hope that if the time is right, God will let us see a lot of miracles here.  They actually had 3 baptisms here not too long ago, and they were the first baptisms in a while, so it's not impossible!

The sector is also gorgeous, it has a view of green fuzzy hills and the andes mountains in the distance, I'll have to send pictures but Sunday night we ran out the door in a huge hurry to get to a meeting in San Fernando and we've been in San Fernando ever since (it takes 2 hours to get from San Fernando to Pichidegua, and we always have our district meetings and p-days in San Fernando.)  So next week I'll send pictures!

That was the quick version of my week!  I love you all!!

Love

Elder Fox

Things as they really are

Hello family!!  I probably had one of the most emotionally intense weeks of my entire mission this week (if not the most emotionally intense), but that's not a bad thing!  In fact, it's a great thing!  And I'm excited to write about what I learned this week.

SO a little background is necessary.  I've been talking a little bit about the nature of humility and the importance of not beating yourself up in these past letters, but I wasn't practicing it very well.  In fact, I was really stuck.  I remember thinking about all my weaknesses individually and how I try so flipping hard to overcome them one at a time but I just never manage to do it, and my hope kind of failed.  I wondered if the rest of my life would be a cycle of beating myself up and not going forward.  But awesome letters from my family (especially a life changing letter from my elder sister) and Moroni 7 and Ether 12 helped me realize that I was totally backwards.  And have been totally backwards for a long time.

The lesson I learned has to do with charity!  Charity, love, and selflessness.  And Ether 12:27.  And how they're related.  In John we learn that he who seeketh his life shall lose it, but he who loseth his life for Christ's sake shall find it.  Around there.  I've always known the meaning of this scripture, but I think I've always felt a little iffy about it.  We pray to find out how we can improve, and we're here to improve, we're told all our lives that we need to keep progressing, yet we can't actually think about ourselves at all!  I don't think I understood how that worked out, so I ignored it!  But I learned in my study that when we have true faith, that naturally leads to true hope, which naturally leads to having true charity, which is another word for having a perfect love, for God and for all men.  It's a natural progression.  When our faith is sincere, we develop a love for God and for all mankind naturally.  And if we continue on this selfless path and do things out of love for God and for all men, Ether 12:27 promises us that God will show unto us our weaknesses and that if we're humble God will make weak things become strong unto us.  So, in the end, we don't have to worry about ourselves at all.  When we seek to serve God and serve others and forget ourselves, our weaknesses naturally become strengths.  1 Corinthians 13 also teaches us that charity is the key to everything ever, but you'll have to ask Chelise more about that one.

Sadly the time is running out, and that doesn't describe half the things I learned this week, but it's the main principle!  And it changed everything for me in a moment.  I realized that I've been being prepared for weeks to learn this principle this week.

Real quick!  Changes came, I'm going to a place called Pichidegua with a newer gringo called Elder Peterson.  I won't be district leader anymore, and I'm honestly not sure why, but I know that the changes are God's will and that God has another assignment that he wants me to accomplish right now.  And I'll fulfill that assignment with all my heart!  Saying goodbye was heartwrenching this weekend, and I'll probably have to tell you more about it next week.  There are a lot of amazing people in Hospital, and being here has changed me forever.

I love you all!  Have a great week!

Love

Elder Fox

Guess what day it Is

Hey all!  This week was good, but a little interesting.  I don't remember a ton of what happened and I'm also kind of running out of time, so I'll be quick!

President Warne left on Tuesday, and we're all sad to see him go.  I'll definitely be visiting him when I get back, he was an amazing mission president and a great friend of all of us.  The same day three hours earlier President Harris and his wife arrived!  I don't know much about how the office is or how the mission is changing yet but I'm assuming that the whole place is running like a chicken with its head cut off.  But we actually got to meet him!  The assistants called us Saturday night and told us that President Harris and the assistants would be coming to attend church in our branch in Hospital for their first Sunday.  My face = (O_O)  Hahahaha I was terrified.  Especially because I was going to be giving the Sunday School class.  I obviously had no reason to be terrified, but I was terrified anyway because that's just how I am haha.  It was great though!  He's extremely kind and loving, and even though I loved President Warne I was always a little scared of him haha but President Harris just makes everybody around him feel comfortable.  We took a picture with him afterward and hopefully I can send it to you!

Felipe is doing well too!  He came to church again this week and we had an awesome lesson with him.  Elder Santini came for a division and we taught him, and Elder Santini in the course of the lesson asked him the first two questions to the baptismal interview and asked him how he knew, and Felipe bore his testimony on how he came to know that God is real and the church is true, and a big part of that was the fact that we arrived at his door 10 minutes after he decided to change his life.  He told us that he's a completely different person now than he was before, that he's found a job, and that he's finally getting his life in order and it's all because of God that it was possible.  So I was happy, very very happy.  He is the coolest ever.  I probably won't be able to see his baptism, but I'll see pictures!  And I'll be extremely happy for him when the time comes.  I've never seen such a transformation in all my mission, and I'm extremely grateful that I got to participate in his.  He was completely atheist when I met him, but almost like King Lamoni he just believed us and started acting in faith, and has developed a sincere testimony.

So that's about all that happened actually, because the rest of the week not much happened.  We weren't able to see any of the other investigators, I'm not really sure why, but we should be seeing more today.

And I'm already out of time!  I'll have to write more next week, I love you all!  Have a great week!

Elder Fox