¡Feliz Navidad!
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¡Feliz Navidad!
do do do do, do, doooo
¡Feliz Navidad! Prósperos años y felicidad
I WANNA WISH YOU A MERRY CHRISTMAS
Okay that's enough.
Hi all! We had another great week here! I made a recording but I don't know if it'll work so I'll pass real quick through the things I talked about in the recording.
This Wednesday we had our special Christmas zone conference, so the mission sent a bus to Talca and took us all to the mission home in Rancagua (about 2 and a half hours away) to have the conference together and celebrate Christmas! The plan was to sing a special Christmas program for people in need so we needed to prepare that well in advance. Last Saturday we got together in the morning as a zone to practice the songs and then we did the same thing Tuesday morning. Then we went to the conference Wednesday and practiced the songs and had a special Christmas dinner with turkey and potatoes and other deliciousness. Sadly, as a result, half the zone got sick bedridden for the next 3 days but it was still tasty! After the dinner lunch thing we went to do the program at a drug rehabilitation. It was an awesome experience, and we were all very grateful to be able to brighten up their Christmas and give them hope in their tough situation. Definitely the highlight of Christmas this year :)
The next day we had district class and then on Saturday we had the open chapel in San Clemente, so in total we got together as a zone 5 days out of seven this week! Good thing we love each other a lot. Actually, this zone has probably been the most united I've ever been in. I love them all so much! They're such great missionaries and we're so proud of them! We're all really good friends, it's going to be hard when the change ends.
So the open chapel was also awesome. Like I said in the recording, Alejandro came and he was a huge help. He was never a missionary and that's probably his biggest regret in life. He's a machine though, it would have been very different if he weren't there. Funny story from that though! While the open chapel was approaching the end and we were on the last run through of the chapel, we were all outside waiting for people to pass by to invite them into the chapel and trap them with our friendliness! Sadly, the only people who were passing by were on bikes, so I started running along side the bikes and inviting them to come see the chapel for 5 minutes and promising them that the tour would be super cool. It was definitely a first in the mission! Even though it didn't work too great it was a lot of fun, and we all got a pretty good kick out of it. When we walked back in the chapel one of the Elders in the zone told me that I had just become Elder Calhoon from the Best Two Years. I then realized the reality that I had just been chasing bikes begging people to come to church. Good times though.
So the zone took a pretty hard hit this week because a lot of them got sick for a long time, but we hope that we can get them excited about working well for the last week of this change. The sector is also not doing great, we've been extremely busy. We've been trying to help Emelina and the ward a lot this week, we want to motivate people to go to the sign language classes because nobody's going and Emelina is a little discouraged that nobody can communicate with her in church, obviously. So we made a power point for the ward to use in a training on Saturday that included parts of a talk from President Hinckley about convert retention and gently slapped the members on the face with it a bit. From what we hear, it inspired a lot of change. So that's good!
8 For though I made you sorry
for I perceive that the same [
9 Now I rejoice, not that ye
10 For godly sorrow worketh r
Anyway, that was that. We also taught our English class again on Thursday which was fun. I don't know if you guys remember me talking about Elder Young, because it was a year ago, but Elder Young had about 9 months in the mission when I had 6 and he was a new zone leader living with us in our house in Santa Cruz. That was the change that I was with Elder Barbosa and his companion was Elder Crane. Anyway, Elder Young (yes, he is a literal descent of Brigham Young) is definitely one of my best friends in the mission, the missionary I most respect out of just about anyone, and now he's an assistant. And he came to chill with us Thursday! He came in the bus with Talca II from their zone conference and did divs with us that night and it was a great time. He helped with our english class then we talked a long time during our planning about our sector and about the zone and everything. I got to talk one on one with him for a while too and I forgot how much I missed him! He's a great guy.
So that was my week! And this week I finally have some time to actually share my spiritual thoughts! Yuusss. For one, I actually really like the scripture above that I edited to fit the situation. Obviously, the scripture that is most important out of the three is the last one, and it's one of the lessons that I've learned this change! When we're motivated to progress in the gospel and to change, we have to very careful about what kind of sorrow we're feeling. We have to watch what's motivating the change. I've always thought of wordly sorrow as just ordinary shame to confess and correct, which completely impedes repentance. But what I've learned is that in many cases wordly sorrow actually can and does inspire change in behavior, but not true repentance. Whatever change occurs, it's certainly not permanent. This change can be based on any wordly desire: to look better, to have more, to feel like a good person, or any number of things. But Godly sorrow is different, and when we can really feel this Godly sorrow, the changes are always permanent, because suddenly there's nothing selfish about our repentance, and in the act of changing we are really just turning ourselves and our souls outward, towards Christ. And that is how He heals.
So let's remember that! In the Christmas season it's good to remember His birth, but it's even better to remember His life, and His atonement, and the unimaginable gift that He gave to us. Let's turn our hearts to the Savior, and let Him change and heal us, and we will never be the same again. He will make us into His, and we will become like Him, and we will get to know Him as He knows us. I know, and I promise, that this is true. If we do this we can look back and happily recognize that we are unrecognizable compared to what we were.
I love you all so much! :) Merry Christmas!!
Love
Elder Fox
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