Grace

Hola!  This week overall was a lot better, I'm much less stressed and I'm feeling much happier and close to the Spirit again.  I'm still having a hard time every now and then but this week was full of learning opportunities and more spiritual experiences which definitely helped.  So now I'll talk about it!  Yay!

First a funny story, Chilean news kind of makes me laugh sometimes, because a lot of the times the little captions they put at the bottom of the screen are kind of ridiculous.  There was a story on at a members house eating lunch that caught my eye for a bit about an assault that happened on a very wealthy man in his home, apparently the assaulters stole millions.  They then put a little caption at the bottom of the screen that said ''Testimony of the victim: They left fast.''  That just made me laugh, that all he had to say was ''They left fast'' and the news people felt that worthy to put at the bottom of the screen for the story.

So, you know how all of you have been sending me letters for a while?  I haven't been getting very many since I came, just a few here and there and they were almost always from Grandma and Grandpa.  That is, until last Tuesday.  The secretaries, assistants, and Presidente and Hermana Warne came down to Talca for a special familysearch training because they want us to use it more in our proselyting efforts, and because they all came they brought all the mail with them.  I was getting ready to leave the Stake Center in Talca Tuesday when I heard Hermana Warne say ''Elder Fox, your mountain.''  I turned around and she gave me stack of letters that was about as big as my head.  Okay that's an exaggeration but there was a flipping ton.  The other missionaries marveled and said that they don't think they've gotten that many letters their whole missions.  I explained that my parents and my siblings send paper copies of their emails every week and they've been backed up in the mail system for about 3 months now.  It was still pretty incredible though.  There's actually a great tender mercy that all the letters came this week, because I found a lot of counsel and advice and spiritual thoughts in the letters that I did appreciate when I read them the first time, but they really really hit home when I read them this week in the midst of my discouragement.  A lot of what you had to say really helped me set goals for myself to get out of this funk that I've found myself in, especially what Grandma said about writing down your spiritual experiences and spiritual impressions.  Also a letter Chelise sent really really hit home for me.  And also a bunch of things that my parents have sent.  So thank you all!  I'm glad all of it all came at the same time, even though I had a ton to read this week.

SO the first learning experience of the week was Tuesday.  The zone leaders wanted to do emergency divisions with us Tuesday even though it wasn't a full day and we've already done divisions with the previous zone leaders this change, because they took our lack of baptismal dates and general success as a sign that we weren't working.  No, that definitely didn't help with my discouragement, frustration, or general lack of self-confidence, but we ended up doing the divisions anyway and I was very humbled because a lot of great things happened that day.  First, both Elder Hadlock and I learned to love and respect our new zone leaders which we've been having problems with since they got here a few weeks ago, and second Elder Hadlock and our Chilean zone leader Elder Trancoso found a wonderful investigator on Tuesday and set a baptismal date with him!  It was sad I wasn't there, but apparently Elder Trancoso is an absolutely amazing teacher so that probably really helped.  His name is Sebastian, and I can't really tell you guys much about him because I wasn't there, but apparently he really loves our message and he's an amazing person.  We haven't been able to see him since but I hope we'll be able to pass by soon so I can meet him.  On my end of the divisions I talked with the other zone leader, Elder Lloyd, a lot about our sector and our investigators and what we're doing and our hopes for all of them.  We also talked a lot about the mission, what it means to be a leader, and a lot of things.  I think it was actually the most enjoyable division I've ever had.  We had a lesson with a less active family that neither of us had met before, and it was one of the best lessons I've ever been in.  The family loved us immediately, they had me play their piano and had us tell stories about our missions and such.  They marveled at how good my Spanish was after how little time I had, and their comments about it helped me improve my confidence a lot.  When we got around to the lesson, even though we hadn't planned anything at all, the lesson went very well and smoothly and the Spirit was very strong.  I could tell that they felt it, and they said that they'd do everything the could to be able to go to church.  It was a really cool experience for me and a good cure for my confidence.  At the end of the day Elder Lloyd only had good things to say, which really helped.  He said that Elder Trancoso went to Conti with intention to ''fix'' us and everything that was going wrong in our area, but Elder Lloyd expressed confidence that after talking with me and seeing me teach that we actually have a lot of excitement about the work and that we're working really really hard.  The comments really helped, because feeling lack of trust from the zone leaders is really hard when you're working really hard and not having any success.  Elder Trancoso and Elder Hadlock also had some great conversations on their end, so in the end we both had a great experience and won the confidence of the leaders again.

We had another day of divisions on Thursday because Elder Hadlock is District Leader and the other Elders in our district are, conveniently, the other Conti Elders.  So I went with Elder Rodriguez, the trainee from the newest group, while Elder Hadlock went with Elder Schley to their sector.  It was a fun day because we had English class, but sadly more than that not much happened.  I enjoyed the opportunity to talk more with Elder Rodriguez though.  He's a really cool Elder.

We found another new investigator-ish this week too.  Elder Hadlock met her while on divisions with Elder Trancoso when she told him that she wanted to learn English.  Apparently she's a Jehovah's witness.  When I first heard that she was a Jehovah's Witness I thought the classes might be a little awkward, because us and Jehovah's Witnesses kind of an unwritten agreement not to teach one another.  Most testigos (as we call them in Spanish) are very very very active in their church and also very very passionate.  Most encounters that we have with them aren't very pleasant.  But when we went to her house to teach English she was actually very friendly, she let us say a prayer to start out and a prayer to close which was very surprising to me.  We asked her a little bit about her beliefs before we left and she said that she believes that people of all faiths will be able to make it to heaven.  That explained it all to me, we found one of the rare testigos that isn't very active, because if she believes that then she's almost completely separated from their doctrine.  Elder Hadlock and I think that we might be able to teach her the gospel and she could be open to it, so I'm excited to see where that goes.

Another cool thing happened this Saturday.  Elder Hadlock and I have had these eternal investigators ever since I got here named Juan and Janet.  The reason that they're eternal investigators is that they're very active, they go to church all three hours every week, and they go to every ward event and activity no matter what.  They're super active and a generally amazing family.  The problem is is that the wife had never divorced her previous husband, because we're in Chile.  Getting divorced here is very very difficult, and every since they've started investigating over a year ago they've been lazilly trying to get her divorced so that they could get married and get baptized.  Us Elders don't teach them much because they've been acting like members for so long they just have normal visiting teachers and home teachers.  The good news is that finally they got their divorce papers done so that they can get married!  The sad news is that last Saturday we helped them move to a part of Conti named Centinella, which is in the other Elders' sector.  So they'll arrange the baptism and everything, but I'm still super super happy for them and honestly don't care at all that they're not technically ''our'' baptism.  I'm going to count it anyway, and if I stay here another change I'll be able to go to their baptism!  The thought makes me really excited.  The four of us taught them in their new home on Saturday where we watched the ''Together Forever'' church video with them.  To my surprise after the video, Juan was crying.  Juan is a very hard man and I've never seen him show emotion at all since I've known him, let alone tears.  It was very touching to me, he then talked a little bit and bore a testimony.  We then brought up getting married and said that we wanted to set a marriage date for them (I know it sounds weird but with Chile and this kind of situation that was the way it was expected to happen.)  Juan decided to pray aloud about which day would be best, and the Janet did the same.  We all decided on the 28th of November, and then set a baptismal date for the 5th of December.  They were so happy, the Spirit was very strong and it was very touching.  Like I said I've never seen Juan show emotion, but he was practically dancing around the room and squeezing Janet every now and then.  He then gave the four of us huge bear hugs before we left.  Janet was really happy too, almost to the point of tears.  That definitely made my week.  In church the next day neither of them could stop smiling.  It made my baptism mean a little more to me, because though they were really happy to finally officially get married, the thing that brought them the most happiness was that they'd finally be able to be baptized and take upon them the name of Christ.  I don't think I've really considered before that how much my baptism means to me.

So that was my week!  I learned a lot and had a lot of great experiences, and I'm very grateful for the tender mercies of the Lord this week.  I had a thought a few weeks ago that came in handy this week.  The thought was essentially ''Anybody who wants to be exalted in the Celestial Kingdom and is trying to make it there, yet thinks that they might not be able to doesn't understand the Atonement.''  The Lord gives us weaknesses so that we turn to Him, and as long as we are trying to do the will of the Lord and trying to improve ourselves, Christ's Atonement is sufficient for all of us.  We will always sin, and sometimes it will seem like our weaknesses are crying out our name from the dust to the heavens, testifying against us and our inadequacy and impotence, saying that there's no way we can ever become as God.  When we feel like this, it is always the result of the deceivings of the devil.  Weaknesses are gifts, an essential part of our mortal condition, gifts given to us from God that we may turn to our Savior.  Whatever the situation, when we turn to Christ and forsake our sins and try to reach our goal, the Atonement is sufficient for us.  Funny thing is, though I pondered that thought weeks ago, I completely forgot it these past few weeks when I've been frustrated with myself.  I remembered it when I thought of my ponderize scripture this morning:

17 Verily, verily, I say unto you, ye are little children, and ye have not as yet understood how great blessings the Father hath in his own hands and prepared for you;

 18 And ye cannot bear all things now; nevertheless, be of good cheer, for I will lead you along. The kingdom is yours and the blessings thereof are yours, and the riches of eternity are yours.

 19 And he who receiveth all things with thankfulness shall be made glorious; and the things of this earth shall be added unto him, even an hundred fold, yea, more.

The thing that especially touches me about this scripture is the first sentence of verse 18.  Be of good cheer, for He will lead us along.  I know that this is true.

Love,

Elder Fox

The Letter of Not Much

Hola amigos!  How goes it?

SO wanted to clear up confusion that it was definitely not food poising.  I didn't so much as drink the water that was in the fridge as soon as it broke because the fridge juice stuff got everywhere and contaminated everything immediately, so I didn't eat anything from the fridge.  And it's kind of funny that you guys think that we can afford meat ;)  Hahaha jokes.  But really we can't afford meat nor do we have time to cook any meat.  Remember that we don't eat dinner here.  I'm pretty sure that I had a virus, and it's still around a little bit but it's been on it's way out ever since Monday so I've still been able to work igual and I've been having a great time.  Now I'm eating and drinking whatever I want and sleeping completely fine so though I'm still sick I'm doing just fine.

So this week was a little slow.  This entire change has been a little rough, to be honest, just in the wise that we're having a really hard time having any success.  We're losing a lot of investigators and we're having a hard time finding good people or getting people to progress.  There is something very positive in the mission about not having success though, is that you find your weaknesses and flaws much more readily.  It's something that humbles you a lot and allows you to improve a lot as a missionary if you do the right studying and take it with an attitude of faith.  It's hard not having any success, especially when you see other missionaries have a lot of success and you wonder if you're not following the Spirit right.  But I think I learned that when times with little success come you have to recognize that it's not your fault, and that if you continue forward in faith you will do the will of the Lord, and that's all that He asks of us.

So with that said, I don't have much to write about in this letter.  SO I'm going to do something that should have been done a very long time ago and talk about my companion Elder Hadlock because he is fantastic.  Other than my close friends and family back home (basically the people that these letters go to) I've never had a better friend in my life than Elder Hadlock.  We're really good friends and we have a lot of fun together.  We're very different from each other, but the cool thing about the mission is that differences don't really matter out here in the field.  We both have a similar sense of humor and we have a lot of fun just talking for hours.  We've been together for over 10 weeks now but we still haven't run out of things to talk about.  Him being here has really helped me get into the swing of the mission and has really helped me in the hard times, and has just made life fun in the good times.  I'm very greatful for him, and recognize that I probably won't have a companion this close for the rest of my mission, but that's okay because it's been an awesome two changes.

So stories!  First is that our zone leaders got an emergency change out into being district leaders somewhere else which was a huge surprise to all of us.  The whole zone agrees that these leaders where the best zone leaders they've had their whole mission, and it was a big surprise to see them go so quickly in the middle of the change.  They got replaced with new zone leaders that we're having some problems with, but I don't think I'm at liberty to talk about them.  So that was another hard thing this week, but I'm sure that'll all turn out okay in the end.

So they have this holiday here kind of like teacher appreciation day but they call it ''The day of teachers'' essentially.  The amazing family that we teach English too all got us huge chocolate bars for this Day of Teachers even though we're not really official ''teachers'' but I thought it was really cool of them.  That really brightened my week.  Also, out of the blue a random man gave us free churascas as we were walking down the street on the way to a house, and churascas are my favorite street food here!  So that made me happy, and evidenced to me too that even when you have bad stretches in your mission, God goes out of His way to make your day to give you just enough encouragement to continue moving forward.  The tender mercies were small, but I really appreciated them.

I (apparently around the same time as Mom) finished Jesus the Christ this week, and I agree with her in saying that it's easily one of the most beautiful books every written.  There were some parts of it that lead me to have very emotional and powerful spiritual experiences, especially in reading about the last week of the Savior's life.  Things that I've never really considered before suddenly became very spiritually and emotionally potent for me, especially the Last Supper.  I definitely recommend it to anyone who hasn't read it.  There's a lot to be gained from a better understanding of the Savior's life and mission.

So that's all I have this week, I love you all!  I hope you all have a good week.  The church is true!  Chao!

Love,

Elder Fox

Well it seems that my insides really want to be on my outsides---but I'm no doctor.

Hola family!  Sorry for emailing a day late!  I will explain why later!

First off, by way of lessons and progressing investigators not much happened this week, so I'll tell you the one thing that did happen that was cool.

So this Tuesday we taught La'Cote and her entire family for the first time, which was a little scary to be honest because of how much rode on how well the lesson went, but it turned out amazing.  We taught them the Plan of Salvation first and they loved everything that we said and they said they agreed with the doctrine, the Spirit was very strong for the whole lesson.  The problem was, since we started with the Plan of Salvation it was very hard to extend a baptismal invitation because they're Catholics and don't understand the Restoration yet, so when we invited them they were just confused and told us that they had already been baptized and we couldn't really explain everything sufficiently in that lesson, but I think that when they understand the Restoration there's actually good hope that they'll accept the message.  They're a great family and have a lot of potential, so we really hope that they accept the Restored Gospel.

SO about the rest of the week.  This week was really hard, I'd actually be surprised if I ever have a week harder than this one in my mission.  I got very, very, very sick.  Easily sicker than I've ever been in my life.  As a missionary you find joy in helping and serving and thinking in others, when you're unable to do any of those things and can really only think self-centerdly things get really hard, especially when you're in agony in a foreign country very far from home and living 2 hours away from the nearest hospital.  But the good news is that I'm on a good deal of drugs right now so I can keep working until whatever I have passes.

SO!  The story.  I don't want to go into too many details about what was happening, so I'll just say that I couldn't eat anything, drink anything (not even coke), I couldn't sleep more than a half an hour at a time day or night due to pain and other things, and I was passing in and out of sheer agony every 15 minutes or so.  In addition to that there were some other symptoms that were terrible and worried me a little bit that I don't really want to go into.  So it wasn't very good, at all.  Luckily, it was only so bad that I couldn't drink anything for two of the days, but I was having all the other symptoms for about 4 days before the mission nurse told me that I should travel to Talca and go to the hospital.  We left Monday morning for Talca, and it's a 2 hour bus ride from Conti to Talca.  That wasn't a very fun trip, but surprisingly when I got to Talca I actually felt pretty good which was a big relief.  There on the way to the hospital we saw Elder Edwards and his comp again which is always fun, they were on their way to a p-day activity so we stopped and talked a bit.  Then we went into the hospital, and that was nuts.  Chilean hospitals are nuts, if I can help it I don't really ever want to go to one again.  Despite my agony we waited three hours just to see someone, who did nothing but ask about my symptoms, then we waited for another hour sitting outside in the hall while she did some other things, then she came back and hooked me up to an IV and gave me something for my stomach and pain-killer, which was amazing.  I kind of felt like Brian Reagan (I'm an 8 again!....  Guess who's an 8?!  Happy 8 day!!.... Do you want some 8?) because for the first time in days I wasn't in pain and was just feeling normal, which was so unbelievably relieving.  She also gave me a lot of water through the IV because I was really really dehydrated, then we waited another 2 hours (yes, we did a lot of waiting) for her to come back to us in the waiting room where she told us that she thinks that I just have a virus then filled out some prescriptions to help with my stomach and relieve the pain until I pass it.  Although I was really greatful for the blessed drugs and my final relief from pain, I was kind of ticked that she came to the verdict she did without doing any tests of any kind, and that she was just ''pretty sure'' that it's a virus.  But, luckily, the medicine she prescribed me actually works extremely well so I feel good enough to start working again, which is all I really wanted.  Also, she felt my appendix so there's no chance it could be appendicitis, so regardless of what I have I don't think it can be anything serious.  I think she's right and it is just a virus and I'll be normal in a few days, but if you could all pray for my health still I'd really appreciate it.  Because of the pain-killers in the IV (and the pills I bought later at a pharmacy in Conti) I slept all the way home on the bus and I slept through the night last night.  It was wonderful.  I can also drink and eat a little bit, so I've been eating crackers and drinking a good amount of bottled water and gatorade, so even though I can tell I still have the virus (or whatever it is) due to the drugs I feel pretty much normal, and that's something to be extremely greatful for.

SO I couldn't write yesterday because we spent 6 hours in the hospital then we had to wait for a bus home, do a little shopping real quick, then just go home.

Sometimes when we have trials like this we are really tempted to ask ''Why?''  Especially when it's an illness or something physical.  I got a blessing with consecrated oil a few days into my sickness from Elder Hadlock and he said something that was fairly similar to D&C 121:  Something to the effect of ''This is only but a small moment.  Everything will be alright in the end, and God will be with you.  You are blessed with strength to endure this trial until it's end.''  There was nothing in the blessing about the sickness being relieved or my pain taken away immediately, rather it was simply an assurance of hope and the blessing of the ability to endure.  It made me wonder why I had to go through what I was going through, and what exactly God wanted me to learn from it.  I realized then that I wasn't going to get relief until I learned a lesson, so I got busy humbling myself and trying to learn.  Sometimes when we have a trial it's hard to see what we can possibly learn, or what we can possibly gain from the experience.  But, no matter what, there is always something.  I had an important thing I needed to learn, and now looking back on it the spiritual development I went through as a result of my sickness was very important, even crucial.  Sometimes God puts us through the refiners fire in order to shape us, and at times that fire can actually be something very physical and very painful.  No matter what the affliction or the trial, if we turn to God and put our trust in Him it will turn out for our benefit.  We won't always understand why things happen, in fact we will probably rarely understand why things happen.  We need to have trust that God is directing our lives, and that he's shaping us, even when we don't feel like we're changing or feel like there's anything to learn.  We need to remember that we are just clay in the potter's hands, and it's not the clay's concern or choice when the potter takes certain steps or what he does to shape it.  We just need to center ourselves on Christ, and He will take care of the rest.  As humans we merit absolutely nothing unto ourselves, without Christ we are no more than an articulate arrangement of proteins and lipids and carbohydrates, but with Christ we are much, much more.  With our own strength we can but leave our small print on the world and eventually become nothing more than dust, but with Christ we can become gods.  We just need to let Him, and we especially need to trust Him.  I want to share my conviction of the reality of the Savior, of His love for us, of His atoning sacrifice and death, something for which I'll forever be greatful.  I know that He lives, and I love Him.

''When the waves and trials of life make you feel like you're drowning, don't worry.  Your Lifegaurd walks on water.'' - Unknown

So until next week family!  Hopefully this week will be a little more productive and I'll recover completely from whatever it is that I have.  I love you all!

Elder Fox

#ponderize

Hola amigos!  This week was another strange this week, and I'm kind of starting to embrace the fact that this change is just going to be a weird change.  BUT still good.  Yeah, still good.

First I'll talk about general conference!  The 12 encourage all to watch General Conference in their native language, so we get to watch it in English!  Woooot!  That's really exciting because I really would've cried if I didn't get to hear Elder Hollands or Elder Bednar's talks in Spanish, it's so much more powerful when it's their real words and their real voices.  General Conference for missionaries is like Christmas, and as a result Elder Hadlock and I bought an obsene amount of gummy candy and oreos beforehand.  It was 10 hours of pure joy, and a lot of notes, I want to share a few thoughts about what some of them said if I have time.  Here the sessions are at 1:00 and 5:00 at night, and on Saturday the Preisthood session is at 9:00.  So as missionaries we even get to stay out late on general conference Saturday!  It's essentially you're only opportunity to do so your entire mission, so I enjoyed it immensely.

So the week!  Like I sayed, this week was weird.  In fact, I honestly don't know where to start.  I'm going to start by giving a little bit more details about what's been going on with investigators because I really have been a little lame about that, it's hard because I want to tell all the stories!  But alas, I cannot tell all the stories.  Lame.

SO if you remember a while ago I told you about an investigator named Cristian that is actually a great investigator, we can just never pass by him because he's always either working or sleeping.  He has problems with the Word of Wisdom, and a few weeks ago we taught him the Word of Wisdom, and this week we were finally able to pass by him and he told us that he had given up drinking entirely and is smoking much less, which was way exciting.  Especially since we're not passing by very often at all, I'm very proud of him.  Perhaps with time, he'll be able to be baptized, but likely not while I'm here.  I don't know much about him because I personally have only taught him twice and Elder Hadlock originally found him and got to know him.

Pedro and Rosa were two of the new investigators that we found last Tuesday, and we weren't able to teach them again this week but I think that they have real potential.  They're honestly trying to find out which church is the true church, which is really rare here for Chile.  Missionaries passed by there house several times before, but for whatever reason never taught them.  Our first lesson with them gave me the impression that they're really just curious what we believe and want to be taught what we believe, so we're going to have to make sure that they understand that not only are we going to teach them, but we're going to invite them to come unto Christ.  But, if we do that I think that they have good promise.

Another one we have is Carina and her husband, who we're not able to teach too often either, but we were actually able to teach her Saturday which was easily one of the highlights of my week.  I'll get to the story a little later in the letter, but her and her husband are devout in the religion of their parents, and being taught by us is also simply a matter of curiosity for them as well.  We have invited them to baptism, but think that they're very scared at the thought of abandoning their current faiths.  I don't know them very much either because I've only been able to teach them two times, but I think they're great people.

Our real highlight family this change is La'Cote and her family.  They're the people that we teach English to every week, and we've become extremely close with them.  With them, we're able to pass by them 2 to 3 times a week, so we've actually been able to gain a relationship with them.  We've been nervous to start teaching them the gospel because so far we've only been doing English, but finally we're starting to share with them our purpose as missionaries and what we do.  We're exhillerated by the fact that we're finally starting to teach them, and that perhaps we can bring them to Christ and His church, because they easily have the potential of becoming a Celestial family, and though we love all of our investigators they hold a very special place in our hearts.  They're Catholic, but haven't attended church in a very long time.  They had a son who passed away at a very young age (about 4 or 5) and I think that that has distanced themselves from their church and from God, the first spiritual message that we gave them brought extremely mixed results.  At the mention of death some of them tensed up while others hearts seemed to soften.  We were able to teach La'Cote alone this week, who is the daughter in this family and is about 29 years old, and that lesson was one of my most powerful mission experiences.  I'll definitely talk about that story in this letter too.

Then there's Rina.  Rina has brought me the most joy and also greatest disspointment of my mission thus far, because still we haven't able to teach her again.  We found out that she's offended that we can't go in her house when she's alone, and whenever we try to make an appointment or even get close to being able to teach her again she usually makes an excuse.  She was clearly prepared by the Lord to hear this message, so it's very frustrating that something so stupid is impeding her progress in this way.  It really goes to show you that the devil can have a very real influence over people who are just starting to see the light of the Lord's gospel.

We ''technically'' have more investigators, but those are the only ones we've been able to talk to recently enough to consider them people that we're currently working with.  Our other new Investigator from last Tuesday, Jesus, moved to Santiago this week, and sadly we don't have his address at the moment so we're unable to pass a reference.  The news of his move was at the end of an already really hard day for me, so I was disappointed, but I believe that the gospel of Jesus Christ will reach his ears again, somehow.

So the story of our lesson to Carina!  The reason I share this story is that recently I've been feeling like I haven't been teaching with the Spirit and testifying and inviting others to come unto Christ as much as I should, and I haven't been taking much part in the lessons, and I no longer have the language barrier as an excuse for either of those things.  But this lesson I felt like my words were guided by the Spirit, and I felt myself for the first time in my mission be able to testify and teach with the convincing power of the Spirit.  We went in prepared to teach them the Plan of Salvation, but our plans changed when Carina said that she felt bad that we kept spending time on her when her and her husband haven't shown any interest in the church.  In our past lesson with her I got the impression that her investigation was only really motivated by curiosity, and viewed us just like any other church out there.  Instead of teaching the Plan of Salvation we taught her and her husband a little more about our purpose as missionaries, and reinvited them to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it.  I told them both about how the Holy Spirit teaches us truth, how He gives us truth directly to our understanding, and feelings of peace and clarity come as evidence to this process.  I told them that if they'd experiment over time upon the word and the gospel and read the Book of Mormon that they'd come to feel the truthfulness of them, then I invited them to read Alma 32 together.  I then bore my testimony of the Jesus Christ and of the restauration of His church to them, and said that I knew things undoubtedly through the power of the Holy Ghost.  The Spirit was very strong, and I could see in them that my words were having an effect on them.  I told them that our church is unique because it was either founded by Jesus Christ himself through Joseph Smith, or it was founded by a deceitful and cunning liar, and the church would then be built on only lies.  I told them these were only logical two options, and invited them to find out which one was the truth.  I could see a little fear in Carina's eyes, because she really doesn't want to give up on the religion of her parents.  I don't know if they'll join, only because of that fear, but I also think that they know that the church is true.  I'm very satisfied to know that the Lord can work through me, and I know that the Holy Ghost truly can carry my words to the hearts of the people, and I am very greatful that my call as a missionary allows me to be a set apart witness of Jesus Christ.

The other great experience of the week was our lesson to La'Cote.  All four of us Elders where there because it was supposed to be an English class, but we decided not to teach English because both La'Cote and her friend, Karina, had really hard days that day.  We instead started to give a spiritual message when Karina essentially told us ''Hey look, I know you're wanting to teach me more about your church, but me and my family are all Catholics so don't go trying to change our religion.  It's okay if you just share, but I need to stay in the church of my family.''  It was pretty strong language, especially for her, but we told her that our purpose of missionaries was only to invite others to come closer to Christ, never pressure people into changing their religion.  Like D. Todd  Christofferson said yesterady (this is very paraphrased) ''We convert people to Christ through authority and ordinances provided to us by the church, we do not convert people to the church.''  Anyway, I digress.  Though Karina said this, La'Cote said nothing, which makes me believe that she might actually have genuine curiosity.  We never expected Karina to be so hardened, but we were all glad to see that La'Cote may be more teachable.  Elder Hadlock then gave a little message on the Plan of Salvation, and was one of the most powerful things I've every experienced.  Though I've heard and taught the message many times, the Spirit in the room was as strong as I've ever felt it as Elder Hadlock gave the message, and it nearly drove me to tears.  Karina wasn't receptive to it, but I could tell that La'Cote was deeply touched.  I left the house feeling amazing, even though I didn't say much, because the Spirit was so strong and it was all around an amazing experience.  Experiences like this are why missions are amazing, being able to share the gospel touch hearts through the power of the Spirit, the Spirit which can dwell in us only becuase of the mercy and merits of Jesus Christ, the Son of our spiritual Father in Heaven who sent His Son because He loves us.  In this way, in these small, quiet moments you can feel and discern the influence of all three members of the Godhead, as we testify of the perfect plan of our Father.  There's nothing quite like it.

So I definitely need to close out this letter unfortunately, because there actually is a lot more that I'd like to say, perhaps I'll write a handwritten letter this week with more of my spiritual thoughts and things I've learned this week, becaue even though it was a little rougher it helped me to grow and learn a lot.  Until next week, adios!

Love,

Elder Fox

A Racist and a Meat Stick

Hola familia y amigos!  Entonces this week was definitely a little bit slower, especially when it comes to the spiritual experiences, so I apologize in advance that I don't have any spiritual stories!  Last week can make up for it because that was one of the coolest weeks of my entire life.

BUT I still have a good deal of stories.

Tuesday!!  Tuesday was one of the most interesting days of my life, and in case you were wondering about the subject of this email, it's Tuesday's fault.

Let me explain.

So starting new changes is always kind of a rough and slow experience, even though Elder Hadlock and I are staying together things slow down a little bit because you don't really have planners and other people in your house are kind of adjusting.  Elder Hadlock the other day told me a story about how the firstTuesday of his second change in his training his companion called the mission nurse and asked if they could have a day to relax because they were just so dead.  She let them take it off until 6:00 kind of like a second P-Day to recooperate a little bit so they'd work harder the rest of the week.  At the beginning of this week I felt myself start to burn out a little bit, which isn't good since I only have 3 months in the mission, so when Elder Hadlock told me this story I have to admit that I thought ''You know, that'd actually be really nice right now.  Buut I know that I can work and so I'm a go work hard today anyway and I'll be blessed for it.''  Then, even though we did go out and work Tuesday, I think I had one of the most entertaining days of my entire life.

Let the stories commence.

ENTONCES at the beginning of the change we decided to drop some of our investigators that we just couldn't pas by often enough to help them progress because they were never in their houses.  Really sad reason to drop someone, but you gotta do what you gotta do.  So for the first time in quite a few weeks now we had time to do some contacting.  The amazing thing is, we got three new investigators that day!!  Just so  you know, that never happens.  EVER.  We got three new investigators, and they're great investigators too.  The funny thing is that we dropped three investigators that morning, so now after just one day our plates are completely full again.

Another story, we were contacting when we saw a man through a window painting inside his house.  As we do to contact Chilean houses, we stood outside of his gate and yelled ''Alo!!''  and then he looked at us and opened the window.  Here's the conversation:

Elder Hadlock:  ''Hey can we help you paint?''

Man:  ''No''

Elder Hadlock:  ''Shoota, why not?''

Man:  ''You don't paint.''

Elder Hadlock:  ''...And we can't learn?''

Man:  ''No.''

Elder Hadlock:  ''Shooootaa... what's your name then?''

Man:  ''I'm racist.''

Elder Hadlock:  ''..........Okay... see ya later then''

Then he closed his window without saying anything, I was giving it everything I could not to laugh while the man could still see me, then Elder Hadlock said ''Well that's hard to contest.''  And I started laughing so hard the tears were rolling down my face.  Keep in mind, some people here don't like North Americans.  My companion is half Indian, but he can pass for being either a dark Latino or a just black North American.  I'm not sure if it was me or him that he was refering to when he told us that he was racist, but regardless it was hilarious.

Another story!  Elder Hadlock and I have a ton of fun together.  I'm not gunna lie, at times we have waaaaaaay too much fun together in public.  But it's okay because it laughter is very thereputic (I'm not even going to try to spell that right.)  Anyway sometimes we do this thing where whenever we're acting panicked, frustrated, or angry, we talk in Spanish extremely quickly in extremely high voices.  It's hilarious, remind me to do it with you guys when we Skype.  Anywho, we talk so high and fast that sometimes it sounds less like Spanish and more like gobbling turkeys.  So Tuesday walking back to the apartment we were doing this when two Chileans walking behind us heard us and started imitating us.  The followed us around for like 15 minutes just gobbling like turkeys, to some people that'd be really obnoxious but I just thought it was hilarious, and ironic because we were actually speaking Spanish, their language.  Elder Hadlock started yelling back to them in English too just for fun like ''HA... HA!!  YOu can't understand us cuz we're speaking English!!  HAH!!!!''  It was really funny.

Another story!  This one's the finale.  This is probably one of the strangest things that's every happened to me.  We were still walking to our apartment (it takes about an hour) but this is after the turkey-people.  Two veeeeery drunk people stop us in our tracks and start talking in English to us, which I was a little surprised.  Just the basic hi, how are you, what your name, where you from, that kind of stuff.  Then after that brief exchange he started counting to ten in English, which took him a few tries because he was very drunk.  The guy talking to us wasn't tooooo bad, but his friend was too intoxicated to say anything.  He was swaying back and forth really badly, and started to lean on Elder Hadlock for support.  The guy talking to us had bags full of something that I couldn't see.  I was fighting a smile the entire time because of the friend who was swaying so badly, and because of the turkey-people I was already in a laughy mood.  That's when the guy talking to us reached in his bag and pulled out what looked like an other-worldy sea shell with odd holes in odd places and handed to Elder Hadlock, who took it relunctantly.  I stared at it for a while trying to figure out what it was, and while the man was reaching for another one to give to me I asked Elder Hadlock quietly in English ''...what is that?'' then Elder Hadlock replied ''I don't know.... but I think it's alive.''  That's when I saw weird pincher things start poking out of the random holes and pinch out at the air around it.  I had to turn away from the men and laugh for a little bit, I couldn't help myself.  They were giving us crabs.  Live, inedible crabs.  Then the man offered me one and still surpressing a laugh I turned to him and took my live crab, very carefully making sure all the holes were poking away from my hand.  That's when his friend tipped over into a grassy area on the side of the sidewalk and I, shocked and amused, let out a snort in my attempts to surpress laughter.  Then, we shook their hands, and with live (and probably rather frightened) crabs in hand we started our journey for home again.

We hadn't walked 100 yards when the owner of a little tienda on the street stopped us and asked what we were carrying.  We told them that we were honestly not quite sure, just that they had limbs in weird places and we could feel them moving.  They told us that it was a type of crab that's inedible, and that the shell is actually a part of it's body and that's why all the limbs are in different places with every crab.  I seriously don't know how they move.  Anyway, the owner of the shop kindly offered to take the crabs off our hands and dispose of them somehow.  That's when the shop owners wife took two meat stick things (like cabobs but it's one long thing of meat) of the stove out front and gave them to us with pan and a napkin for each of us.  We were very greatful and told them how kind they were, then told them we'd pass by later and went on our way.  With surprise meat sticks instead of crabs in hand, Elder Hadlock turned to me and said ''I think this might just be the strangest day of my life.''  I laughed, and agreed.

The meat sticks were really good too.

So that's my story of Tuesday!  There were actually two more funny stories in the day but I don't want to spend too much time on just Tuesday.  I knew that I couldn't really take a break that day with a clear conscious, so I worked anyway.  Then, God went ahead and said ''Yeah, I know I can't give you a long break, but what I can give you is 3 new investigators, two drunk people, turkey-people, two live crabs, a racist, and a meat stick.''

Thanks God, I think I actually really needed that.

ENTONCES the next few days were really strange because Elder Hadlock had to go to Rancagua for a training of new District Leaders up there.  So I just returned from Talca on Wednesday with Elder Schley and his new trainee.  The trainee is really cool, his name is Elder Rodriguez and he's from Mexico.  Luckily, he understands English well so when I'm too lazy to speak in Spanish we're still all good.  That night we couldn't do anything because we had to let him unpack, and then the next day as a trio was a little odd, but still fun.  We went to the overlook out of the forrest that Elder Hadlock and I went to that one time to see the sunset over the Piedra de la Iglesia and the beach and it was easily the most gorgeous thing I've ever seen in my life.  Don't worry, I'll send pictures.  That night Elder Hadlock came back with the zone leaders and we all went to a birthday party that Karina (One of the good friends of ours that we're teaching Engtlish to) was throwing in her house.  That night the zone leaders stayed with us which was really fun, then journeyed back to Talca the next morning.

That was my week!  Until next week!

Elder Fox

The Great Multiplier - a Tale of Earthquakes and Baptisms

Whoooooa this week was crazy!  I think I have enough crazy mission stories after just this week to last me a lifetime!  Enserio though!  I'm glad that none of you flipped out as a result of the earthquake, Elder Anuarve's Dad called the assistants and the other Elders got panicked emails from their parents.  When it happened I thought how the phone's were down, there was an 8.3 earthquake, I live on the coast, and President is probably going to send an email that night about what happened and he'd have to say he hadn't gotten ahold of the Conti Elders yet.  But I'm glad you all were faithful and remained calm :)

First the earthquake!  It was an 8.3 up somewhere in Antofaghasta, which is waaaaaaaaaay far from where we are.  But, incredibly enough, we felt it here in Conti as an earthquake higher than a 5.0.  Some people have been telling us that it was a 6.00 here in Conti, which I would actually believe.

Now the story!  The 18 of September (their Independence Day) was this Friday, but the ward decided to hold the activity on Thursday the day before rather than to hold it the day of, because it just makes it easier for everyone.  So we were in the church Wednesday night juuuuust starting to decorate for the huge activity the next day when it hit.  The certains started swaying back and forth, but then it got stronger.  It wasn't just rumbling, you could feel the waves ripple through the earth, and the motions were big.  It was just strong enough that walking and standing were a little weird, but not big enough to cause any real damage.  It was actually one of the coolest things I've ever felt, I took a video.  It passed after about a minute, and because everyone was fine and nothing really happened I assumed that we'd just resume decorating.  But I was very wrong.  All of the smartphones in the room started going off with the emergency alert, and outside the sirens started blaring and people started yelling.  Then I remembered:

Flip, we're on the coast.

I asked a nearby member if there was really a possibility of a tsunami with an earthquake so small, when he told me that it was higher than an 8 somewhere else.  We gathered all of our stuff in a hurry and left the church.  It was absolute chaos.  The last tsunami that completely destroyed the city was only 5 years ago, so fear of these kinds of things still runs strong in these poor people.  City sirens and alarms were blazing everywhere, and the streets were extremely crowded with people going to the hills.  The streets were completely packed, the cars couldn't move anywhere for the amount of the people trying to leave the city.  It was kind of stressful, I'm not gunna lie, and I was a little worried that my sector might be in real jeaprody, since it's right on the coast.  Contemplating the possibility of my mission becoming a service mission real soon, us Elders discussed what to do.  Obviously, we needed to go to a tsunami safety zone, which are always marked with signs.  But, very luckily, our apartment is actually in a safety zone.  So we just went home.  Kind of an anticlimactic ending to such an intense story but that's what happened.  We didn't have any cell service the rest of the night and we didn't have power or water the next morning, but Conti wasn't hit by anything big enough to cause real damage to the city.  The coastal houses were likely hit pretty bad, but we haven't been over there yet so we aren't sure.  We stopped by a store right by our apartment on the way home and bought coke, delicious chilean bread, and bananas, then snacked in our apartment as the world was ending.  It was actually kind of fun, not gunna lie.  Then we actually hiked the huge hill behind our apartment to see everything from above.  We had a gorgeous view of all of Conti, but there wasn't a car or a moving soul in sight because by that point everyone had left.  It was cool, we had a good time.

Tuesday we went on splits and the District Leader came here to Conti to interview María for her baptism.  It was fun leading the day for the first time, since I stayed here and Elder Hadlock went to Talca this time.

Thursday morning we didn't have power for a good long while, but it eventually came back and we were able to finally decorate the church for the activity that evening.  From there, we managed to get La'Cote, her friend, and Carina to the activity.  They're our good friends who teach English, and probably our best friends in the mission to be honest.  We talked to them a lot about the activity before and they decided that they wanted to go, which was awesome.  The ward was very welcoming and got them very involved in the games and such, which was awesome of them.  We played this game where someone is sitting on a chair in the cultural hall and the person sitting in the chair has to answer a question about Chilean history.  If they get it right, they're safe.  If not, they get an egg splat on their heads.  BUT, over half of the eggs are boiled.  Elder Anuarve made me play it, even though of course I don't know anything about Chilean history, he pushed me into the chair so then of course I had to stay.  Of course, I got the answer wrong, then I took my planner out of my pocket and took off my tie and put it in my pocket.  Hna. Alegría, another good friend of mine in the mission, then came with paper towels and started wrapping me with them.  It was hilarious.  Then they took an egg and counted down ''tres... dos... uno...'' when I felt cold egg white all over my head.  Elder Hadlock told me later that the members felt the eggs until they found one that hadn't been boiled for me.  Those sneaky members.  I had egg all over me, my shirt, and my pants.  And I walked home for a mile like that, with my tie off.  It was hilarious, but I hope that not too many people saw me.

Friday!  Friday we actually could go out and work until 8:00 but we ended up spending the whole day in service.  They told us we'd be ''moving some furniture around'' but then it turned out that we were ''moving their entire flipping house.''  Seriously, they were moving, and we helped them pack up everything they owned in boxes and moving it to their new house.  It was fun service though, and the day wouldn't have been very productive anyway because it was the 18th of Septmeber.

Saturday!  Saaaaaturday.  Saturday was the craziest day of my entire life thus far, and I really hope that I have time to tell this story.  Here's where the first part of the subject of this email makes sense.  Saturday was Marías baptism, so we needed to go early to the church to fill the font and prepare and clean everything so that we could have a nice baptismal service.

So, baptismal fonts here take a very long time to fill up.  Like a very long time, just because hot water here is not something that can happen very fast.  It takes about 2 hours to fill your average baptismal font, and some fonts it can take up to 5 hours to fill.   We were pretty sure that this font was a 2 hour font because the Hermanas told us that it should take about that long, so we planned accordingly.  Sadly, however, we were kept a little late at lunch because the Hermana wanted to stuff so full that we'd explode, but we still got there at about 3:30 when the baptism was scheduled for 5:00.  We started the font as soon as we got there, but at 4:30 it was very clear that this wasn't a 2 hour font.  After an hour, the font had about a foot of water in it.  Only a foot.  We had no idea what to do.

So in these churches here in Chile there's always a fire hose that's in a glass case attached to a wall, and they are huge.  There happened to be one of these right next to the font.

So we had no idea what to do, when Elder Schley told us that he had used the firehose to fill a font in his last sector, and that putting only hot water in the font after that it managed to get warm enough.  So, though our minds were screaming ''this is the STUPIDEST thing you could possibly do!!!!'' we felt we had little other choice and decided to go ahead with it.  It was going great at first, until after about 30 seconds filthy brown water started coming out of the hose.

Why, why would we assume the water would be clean?  Just why?  We're in South America.  Anyway, I digress.

So we turned the hose off as fast as we could, but the deed was done, and the font water was brown and filthy.  There's another problem with these fonts, they take as long to drain as they take to fill.  It took another 15 minutes just to get the water out, helping it go faster by running to and from the font with buckets and vacuums.  By the time the font was empty again, we had no time.  The problem was that Marías family was only there for that day and needed to leave right after the service, and everybody was probably already on their way to the service.  So there was nothing we could do to postpone the service.  We needed nothing less than a miracle for this to go alright.

SO we jumped into action.  No other faucet or sink in the church has hot water other than the baptismal font, so we needed to heat water as fast as we could.  We had huge pots full of water on all the stoves and in the oven, and beyond that we were running to and from the sink to the font with giant buckets just filling it with cold water.  We knew the font wasn't going to be very warm or very full, and both of those things are a huge problem given that María is very very very old.  But still, we were doing everything that we possibly could, but it wasn't enough.  There was no way it could be enough, the circumstanes were simply impossible to contend with.  I was stressed out of my mind, I was about to perform a live baptism in a half an hour but I didn't have the Spirit with me at all.  Which was stressing me out even worse.  Flip.

At this point, María and her family came, so I directed them into the chapel and played prelude music for them, forgetting everything that was going wrong on the other side of the church where they were trying to get the font full.  I got to sit and play ''Nearer My God to Thee'' for a good long while, calm down, and just meditate.  I prayed to have the Spirit with me again, and I felt the calming influence and the countenance of Christ return to me.  After some more meditation, I remembered something obvious, but crucial.  Jesus Christ is the Great Multiplier.  I prayed, saying this:

''Jesus Christ turned the water into wine at the wedding feast, and he fed the 5000 with only a few pieces of bread and a few small fishes, and He still lives.  So I know, without a doubt in my mind, that He can fill a baptismal font and make the water warm.  Please Father, we are trying absolutely everything that we can.''

After this I changed into my baptismal clothes and came back to the chapel and played more prelude.  Then the meeting started and I went and took a seat with María, when Elder Hadlock came back to me and told me that he wasn't sure if it was going to work, that the water was still very low and extremely cold.  I continued, though difficultly, thinking in faith that the font can be filled and become warm.  After the few short talks, the time for the realization of the ordinance came.  I walked to the font, and opened the door to find that the font was completely full, almost overflowing.  I stepped in the water, and it was the perfect bathtub temperature, just warmer than my skin.  Then I smiled like an idiot to myself and nearly started crying on the spot, just thinking ''yeah, that's right, God's our friend.''  It was nothing less than a miracle, scientists and sceptics could talk my ear off for hours convincing me of the imposibility of matter appearing from nothing and the imposibility of an existing divinity to intervene but I know that God filled that font.  After every ounce of effort that we could possibly put forth, God simply took care of the rest, according to our faith, and our humility.

Christ said that we must become as little children and be converted unto Him.  This means that in order to become converted, we must first become as little children.  Perfectly humble, true, faithful, but most especially, completely 100% reliant on Him.  We need to need Him.  We can do everything that we can do but in the end it's Him that'll fill the font.  And He always will, if we consecrate our lives to Him and become reliant on Him, having faith, all things are possible.

The actualy baptism was a little rocky because she's very old and we had to try a few different things to get it to work, but after it was done she was so happy it was all worth it.  It was my first baptism in the mission, and I actually got to perform it, and the same day I saw a miracle.  Overall, it was one of the most special experiences of my life, and there likely won't be many like it.

This testimony I have now more than ever, that we have not grown past the age of miracles, and we never will.  As long as there is faith, there are mircales.

Before I end my letter, there's just one more thing.  We found out the changes last night, and Elder Hadlock and I are both staying in Conti.  Elder Anuarve's going somewhere else, but Elder Schley is actually going to train this change so there'll be a brand new trainee in the house!  I'm so excited, it'll be a blast!

Until next week, I love you all and I pray for you every day.  Love you!  Remember how much God loves you.

Elder Fox

Seeing

¡Hola amigos! ¿Como están ustedes?

This week was really weird!  And I know that I left of in the middle of a story last week but I'm actually gunna finish it at the end of this email, but I'm going to finish it!  Promise!  Pinky swear!

So we weren't able to teach Rina again this week, which was pretty disappointing I'm not going to lie.  She also couldn't go to church so her date fell.  She seems to be busy preparing things for the 18 de Septiembre with the city council and such, and if she's not busy she's sick or tired or says she needs rest from working with the city council so much.  It'd be totally fine if all that's true, but what happens here a lot is that people feel good about the church then their family talks them out of it and give them a bunch of anti.  If that happened that would extremely disappointing to say the least, but we're pretty hopeful that that didn't happen because her faith was already so strong just in our first lesson.  I'll keep you posted for next week!

Mauricio!  Mauricio was our other golden investigator who didn't drink or smoke or drink coffee or tea... buuuuut it turns out he's already a member.  Which does explain a lot, granted, but it was still extremely funny and very strange finding out that our investigator with a baptismal date has been baptized for years already.  He must not have his memory completely intact, he's not very old and he seemed very normal to us.  Last time we visited him he told us that his nephew was a member (and he's actually a regularly attending member) so we talked to his nephew at church who told us that he was a already a member.  I laughed, for a very long time.  We found his membership record later just to make certain.  It explains why he doesn't drink coffee or tea, for certain.  Our weekly planning yesterday with regards to him was really entertaining:

Me:  ''So I guess we need to move Mauricio from a f1 to an inactive member                  now...  What should our goal for him be this week?''

Elder Hadlock:  ''Let's put... get him to remember that he's a member''

Then daily planning

Me:  ''So what are we gunna teach Mauricio tomorrow?''

Elder Hadlock: ''We'll teach him 'already being a member', that's a lesson I haven't taught in a while.''

It was hilarious.

Meanwhile, however, María is progressing towards her baptism this Saturday, the only thing more we need to do is get her interview done with the district leader.  I'll be performing the baptism, so I'm really excited!  She's really old though, so I'm a little nervous about being careful enough.  Pray for me that I won't break her!  Kidding.  Just jokes... mostly.

Wednesday we had zone conference which was a awesome, it was all about setting goals and making plans.  It was excellent, I learned a ton.  I'm glad that I can least understand all of the Spanish said in the conferences and meetings and such, even though I definitely don't understand everything that the Chileans say yet.  After zone conference we visited the hospital in Talca for a bit so stop by some members and then we took a bus all the way up to Rancagua (3 hours) because the next day was reunión de los nuevos, or newbie meeting.  We slept in the assistants house that night (had some excellent gospel discussion with the assistants) then went to the meeting the next day.  Seeing most of my CCM district again at the meeting definitely made my week.  It was awesome to see that they were all doing so well and seemed so happy, and their Spanish had all improved immensely too.  It was a lot of fun just talking to them about what's been going on the last 5 weeks since we had seen each other last.  That meeting was really good too, I learned a lot.  We had the opportunity to ask Presidente any questions that we had for about an hour, which was a really good idea, because we all had a lot.

Today's P-day was a lot of fun, but I'm very tired.  We went on a train that runs by the river by Conti all the way to Talca, but we got off the train at the first stop and walked the tracks on the way back.  It's reeeeeally pretty over there, and it was a very fun hike.  My favorite part was a giant bridge across the river where you can see the river winding through the green hills and empty into the ocean, it was fantastic.  We walked about 10 miles though, so we're all extremely pooped.

Beyond that, not much happened this week.  We had a few lessons with Mauricio, buuuuut looking back on them they didn't really accomplish much.  We also had some lessons with less active members.

So now last weeks stories!  We had a really cool service experience that I didn't have time to tell you about last week, so I'm gunna talk about it this week!  We were on the way back from lunch, that day we had lunch with the family we teach English that's asking us about 1000 gospel related questions a day, so they are at least interested about what we believe, but I don't think that they're interested in the way where they want to be converted, just curious.  Anyway, I digress.  On the way back to our apartments we say two ladies who were raking trash out of a big hill by their house that was just all weeds.  There had been trash falling from their chilean trash-can thing for so long that the trash was essentially indistinguishable from the soil.  So we started helping them get the trash, when they told us that they were going to dig out their chilean trash-can-thing that day and put in a new bigger one, and wondering if we could help them start that.  In Chile, the trash cans are more like mailboxes.  They're cemented in the ground as permanent fixtures, and people just come and take the trash out.  Theirs was very small, and they wanted to put a huge one in.  So we ended up taking the service opportunity (which are very rare here, people usually never ask for service even if they really need, which is something I don't really understand) and we spent the next few hours digging their trash can out of the ground, digging a huge hole to put the new one in, borrowing a metal saw and cutting the new big trash can a little shorter, then putting the new one in.  Even though we had to sacrifice some of our plans that day, I really appreciated the opportunity to serve.  As missionaries we're not just here to teach, we're here to love and help the people.  The people we were helping didn't seem interested in hearing our message, but they were extremely appreciative of our service because they were two woman in their 40's who definitely couldn't have done it without us.  They said that they didn't believe in miracles, but that now they do because we came by and helped them without them asking.  It made me feel really good, and we made really good friends with those ladies, to the point where, maybe someday, more missionaries will pass by and they'll invite them in.  You never know!

Time to finish the story I didn't finish last time real quick.  She asked my why I decided to serve a mission, and I told them, again very slowly in English, that I decided to serve a mission because I love God.  She didn't really understand that though.  She then, forgetting English and turning to Spanish, told me that you could love somebody that you couldn't see.  That there was no way that you could love somebody like you can love someone that you can see.  For this reason, she said, she didn't believe in God.  This is when my companion took over and said a few things about faith, before we went on with the English class.  But what she said left me thinking the rest of the day, because at the time I didn't really know how to contest what she said.  But after not much thought, I realized a big flaw in her thinking.  We love our parents, we love our family, we love our friends.  We can see them all.  But what if something happens, and we become blind?  Do we stop loving them?  Absolutely not.  And what if someone is born blind, does that make them love their parents, their family, their friends any less?  Of course not, why would it?  So what is it that brings us to love people then?  When it boils down to it, we come to love people not by seeing them, but by talking to them.  By listening to them.  By feeling them, by feeling their love for us.  And as believers in our loving Heavenly Father, His Son Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost, we believe that we can do these three things as clearly as with any other man.  We can certainly speak with Him.  We can, if we exercise faith and patience, listen to Him.  And, in those moments of discouragement, despair, and hopelessness, we can feel Him and His love for us as tangible as a hug from a loving Parent.  So why did I serve a mission?  Why do I love God?  Because I know Him.  Because I love Him.  I know that He loves me, I know that He hears me, that He listens to me, and I have listened to His advice and counsel more than that of any other being in my life.  I know that He lives, as reliably as I know that the earth spins.  The sun comes up, the sun goes down, and it is always the same.  So is God's love for us, despite whatever we may do in this life.  He loves us more than we can comprehend.  Even when we feel weak, useless, hopeless, and unworthy, He sees something great in us.  Something so great we can't comprehend it, because He can see our potential, He sees a God.  And He loves us.  This is why I love Him, and this is why I'll sacrifice everything for Him.

So that's my spiritual message for this week and the last week, I feel like it's been a while since I've left you with a spiritual thought, I promise I'll keep em coming!  I'll try to tell you as much of what I learn here on the mission as possible.  For now, let the work roll forth!  I'll talk to ya next week.  Love you all!  Remember, if nothing else, that God loves you.

Elder Fox