Hey all! The changes came this Saturday, and as we had imagined, it's time for me to leave Calle Larga to go to my last sector in the mission. Just for a warning, this letter is probably going to be ridiculously sentimental because saying goodbye has honestly gotten exponentially worse every time I leave a place haha you'll probably laugh because I always say that sectors I leave have more impact on me than any other past one, but that's just because my sectors keep impacting me more and more!
Anywho, I'm going back to San Fernando, the zone that Pichidegua's in. I'm going to be in the branch San Fernando 2, another branch that has a weekly attendance of around 16. So, a pesar de todo, I'm pretty dang pumped! It's only right that I finish off in another tiny branch, I've come to like that kind of missionary work a lot. I'll be a district leader, which I'm also really excited for because with what I've learned as a zone leader I'll be able to do a much better job as a leader of less missionaries. In my district is Elder Musselman, who was in my district my last change of Pichidegua before I came here and is still there in the same sector. He is one of my favorite people ever, so I'm pretty excited. My comp is going to be Elder Figueroa from Uraguay, he was in our zone last change. So it should be good! I'm going to live in a house with 6 elders, which is a little nuts, but I hope it'll all be good. I'll live with Elder Monja, which is another good friend from the Pichidegua days and is now one of the zone leaders.
The morning before the changes, Elder Covey and Elder Sawyer randomly started singing the song from Wicked that the subject of the email is based on, and I realized that I had heard the song hundreds of times but had never really paid attention to the words. The song has been running through my mind a lot while saying goodbye, because there have been a lot of people here who have completely changed my life course. Elder Mendez, my first comp here, has helped me to change like probably no other comp. Elder Covey is probably my best friend in the mission, and has helped me a ton through his example. Elder Sawyer has been an awesome comp, and we'll be studying in BYU together so we'll be seeing each other. There are members here unlike any member I've met in Chile, including Hna. Evelyn and her husband, which I'm not sure I've mentioned. They're a married couple (about 60 years old) who just got sealed while I was here, and they're the most consecrated members I've ever met. They're the kind of people who really just ''get it'' and there aren't a lot of people like that here. We made really good friends, and saying goodbye to them was especially rough. By working together we'd become really close. And then, of course, there's Alejandro. He's taught me more than any other single person on my mission, and I will always be amazed at the transformation that he went through while I was here. He bore his testimony last night to us, telling us about how when I got here he was still saying that he didn't believe in God. He talked about the experience that he had when he figured out that Jesus Christ was real, and that He lived, and bore his testimony that He knows that He lives. Alejandro told me in one of our early lessons that reading the scriptures didn't do anything for him and he never felt anything, and recently, in the last 7 weeks he's read the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price with the entire institute manual of each one while underlining and writing side notes. He has taught me about being a leader and teacher like no one except my parents have before. I've definitely changed a lot for having known him.
We were able to build confidence with this ward in a way that I've never seen with any other of my wards. It was hard to bear my last testimony to them on Sunday, but I hope that I'll see them all again.
I've been privileged to see so many miracles here they're hard to count. I've watched Kati, Roberto, the Suarez-Ramos family, the Echevería family, Lorena and Dixi, Alejandro, Jaime Benvenuto, Jaime Rojas, Edita and her kid, and the Ibarra family start coming back to church. Rosa Machuca came to church for the first time in years yesterday along with her soon-to-be-husband and kid that are going to be baptized next Saturday. Nashani, the kid of Lorena and Dixi, is going to be baptized this Friday. Maricarmen is also going to be baptized this Saturday. A family of 5 that's friends with Alejandro are extremely interested in the church and should get baptized in the coming months, and Rut Ibarra's 4 sons should be getting baptized in the coming months as well.
And the most miraculous thing is that Elder Sawyer and I don't feel like we've done anything different this change than any of the other changes of our mission, other than working with Alejandro all day every day (which actually is responsible for a lot of the success) but we didn't have to kill ourselves working or do anything outside of the normal. We've made so many mistakes that we couldn't count them, and the only real explanation behind everything is just that God filled the font. I've had many, many examples in my mission of God giving us miracles in our weakness, and my testimony is constantly reaffirmed that God fills the font. Between the sickness, and the fires, and the fainting, and all the other garbage that continually happened, God gave us a ton of miracles. So, it's been an awesome few months, and I'll definitely always look back on this time as some of the most incredible months of my life.
So, I'll be back here to visit! But for now, I'm out of time. I love you all a ton! Have a great week!
Love
Elder Fox
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