10/09/2017 First real Mission week

Hola Everyone,

How's it going y'all? (again, please feel free to respond and answer that). I can not believe another week has gone by, it feels like I just sent one of these yesterday (although I'm sure it has felt like an eternity for some of you *cough* mom *cough*). This was my first real week though of being out in the field and doing real missionary stuff. There was just so much logistical stuff I had to do last week that I only got in a few hours a few days to proselyte (knock doors, teach lessons, service, etc.). This week though, it was all regular missionary stuff that I will be doing for 23 more months :D. And it is awesome, exhauting, exciting, terrifying, fun, nerve-racking, very fulfilling... The list goes on for a while. In all honesty, it is some seriously hard work and can be a little over bearing haha, but I have never felt so useful and like I am really making a difference! So let's talk about some specifics.

This week, I finally got to start eating with members/investigators (members of the church/people we are teaching), and it is fantastic. It seems like the only people who ask to feed us are the ones who really like to cook and are therefore, really good at it. I got to eat some traditional home-made food from Venezuela, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and Mexico this week, and it has all been incredible (the lady who cooked from the Dominican Republic was actually a proffesional chef there). One of the big plusses of getting called state-side spanish, is that there are so many different cultures to experience all in a small area. Its awesome! We have also been going down to that awesome bakery I touched on last week. It is called PanPan Bakery (pronounced paun paun) and is owned by a really nice lady from Venezuela. They make some really good stuff and it is crazy cheap, we have been going down for lunch and getting one of their ham and cheese rolls (a ton of ham and swiss cheese cooked inside a chunk of sweet bread) for like $2 and they are awesome. It is also a really good place for us to just kind of hang out in, because 7/10 of the people that come in only speak spanish, so we can practice our spanish with them and see if they are interested in our message! There is also a really neat little "Spanish Grocery Store" in the same parking lot. They have a ton of stuff from quite a few different countries that is not so common here. Including some soda from Columbia that is 10/10. They also have all of the strangest meats you could think of (tounges, ears, kidneys, stomachs, feet, etc.). Haven't had to try anything like that yet, probably will at some point though haha. (It is also next-door to an awesome looking indoor skatepark and I cry everytime I pass it, haha).

Me and my companion have started to understand our area. Again, we are whitewashing (neither of us have been to this area), but we have a pretty good grasp of the area now. Right now we have 12 investigators (only like three are solid though), but only 5 are spanish. Which kind of suprises me because (no offense to anyone, just an observation) Spanish people are so much nicer to us XD. They are usually always willing to at least hear what we have to say and then politley say they are not interested (compared to most non-hispanics around here that see us and say mean things without letting us get a word in, haha). They are all really respectful that we are out here giving our time to help, 10/10 hispanics rule. -end rant- Most of our investigators we have found from knocking, and they are all really interesting people! (fyi, fake names) One couple: Marira and Alfonso, just moved here from El Salvador a few years ago. They have some of the most incredible testimonies of God's love and have really strong faith in Christ, but they are not a member of a church (Marira had some bad experiences with organized religion). Super sweet people though who are really interested in talking with us! We have been meeting with an older couple from Brazil (they speak english with us) the wife is a member, but the husband is not. The wife just had a really intense back surgery and so we have been helping her out with some stuff. Super nice people who really like to talk haha. We also have guy from Mexico who we knocked into that was really excited to talk with us! We have not had a return appointment with him yet, but he said he has wanted to learn about us before! (sorry if these are boring to read, I just really like talking about these people, just one more) We have been trying to visit former investigators (investigators who got dropped by past missionaries for not being interested, not keeping commitments, not responding to calls/texts, etc.) and we ran into one named Danny (arounf 25 years old)! We found him sitting on his porch with a buddy and asked him how his day has been, he explained that it has been a "very bad day" (pg version haha). We then asked if he would be interested in meeting with us again and he said he would love to! We set up the appointment and gave him a quick "Christ will help you through your struggles" lesson. The cool part was as we walked away, we heard him say to his buddy "man, everytime I have a bad day, these guys show up, maybe there is something more to 'em". My companion and I celebrated for a solid 2 minutes in the car XD.

Other than that stuff just been getting used to the schedule still. Again, still awesome to feel useful from 6:30 to 9:30 every day, but crazy exhausting. Sorry for the lack of pictures this time, been super busy and don't have a real camera yet, and taking my tablet out every time I see something is hard, haha, I will get better when I get a real camera, promise. I'm going to have to cut it off here though, I have recieved quite a bit of emails this week (thanks y'all!) so I am going to go read and respond to those. I love y'all though! Have a great week! Keep me posted please! Thanks again for all of your support and prayers, LOVE Y'ALL!!!

<3 Elder Fox

Spanish Practice:

Cada semana, tenemos que hacer servicio. Esta semana mi companero y yo ayudamos a una donacion tienda como un DI. Ellos nos hicieron organizar la "esquina de hombres". En realidad ellos ponen cualquier cosa en esta parte cuando no saben que es. Entonces, llegamos a limpiarle! No era divertido XD. Habia un monton de cosas extranos y muy antiguos.