Another Fun Summer Week 11/13/2017

Hola familia y amigos!

How yall doing? How is having four seasons treating ya? Please send me any fun or exciting news! As for me I am doing pretty well, and I still love having only Summer, and Slightly-Less-Hot-Summer (I hope it has become apparent by now that I will likely be talking about the wonders of Florida weather every week, because I am not interesting enough to fill up this much space with just stories). This week has been a pretty solid one, not a ton of exciting news or stories, but it has been good. I actually recieved few emails from yall, so This one may be shorter, so I have time to reply to the others. Let's talk about things and stuff!

Because of my companion's new calling, we got to go to a bunch of fun new meetings, and so we had very little time to go find people to teach, but we still managed to find some! Most of the meetings were just boring training, but one of them we found out some really cool news for the future of the mission. I did not have to attend all of them with him, so for some I got to stay back and lead out our area with another elder! Leading out the area means that another elder comes to your area and you are in charge for the day. Pretty neat being in charge, but I still prefer not having the added responsibilities. I like just having to worry about the people I'm going to find and teach, not for another missionary (or a district or zone for that matter). There are definitely some missionaries out here who are really good leaders though, so I am not worried about getting asked.

Speaking of finding people, we found some interesting people this week! One is named Priscilla, she moved here from Puerto Rico about a week before the huge hurricane. She has a few children all under 4 and is super nice. She has really been looking for a church that has a focus on families, so she was super excited to meet us! Another is named Theresa, she was a very highly payed professional chef in New York, but moved here to give her kids a better place to grow up! She was interested in us for the same reason as Priscilla, she said she would also cook us some food to try when we come over, so I am a fan. Another cool one is named Ishmael (he followed his name by chuckling and saying that you really got to have some tough skin growing up with a name like that). He used to be a minister in New York and actually had the chance to train some missionaries there on how to approach the subject a pregnant teenager alongside some LDS general authorities. He was in a really bad accident though and became paralyzed from the waist down. He moved here to retire, but through modern medicine and some help from our Father in Heaven, he was finally able to walk again a few years ago! He now lives his life to the fullest and has a ton of love for our Heavenly Father, and liked how we understand that we can have a personal relationship with Him!

I can not remember if I have talked about Taylor yet, but this week went so well for her! Taylor is a recent concert, she was baptized about 4 months ago, but then went inactive basically 2 weeks later, haha. We have been to her house about a dozen times, called a bunch, and texted a bunch, all to no avail. She has just never responded or answered. Well, we were biking on Tuesday and passed by her house, about 3 blocks down the road Elder Cook just stopped and told me "turn around, we gotta go see Taylor". A little confused, I followed back, we knocked, nothing, knocked again, nothing, we were about to leave, but I decided to knock a third time and finés the door (it's a dumb thing that we do to entertain ourselves where we knock and tap our fingernails on the door to make weird noises with it), and after waiting about two minutes, she answered! We were not ready, so we just kind of stood there for a bit. Finally we started talking and asking how she is doing. She has some pretty serious health issues and has been having some issues the last few months, and said she was sorry she didn't respond (she though we would be mad that she was not coming to church). We talked for a good while and then set up a time to come back and talk some more. We asked her to read from the Book of Mormon every day until we come back. It was insane how much better she looked and happier she seemed when we came back! She is an awesome person and has a huge heart, I'm so glad that she had the opportunity to get baptized, I can really see how much this Gospel has helped her in her life.

She also helped me to remember how much this Gospel has done for me! I definitely would not be where I am in my life if it were not for it (both physically and mentally). Of course, I would not be serving a mission, but looking back, so many of my decisions have been made with the help of this Gospel, and I have never been let down. The knowledge I have of my Father in Heaven and my Savior, Jesus Christ, has made every day better for me! Note, I did not say easier, there has been a few times where the easiest choice was the right one, but that is not the case for the vast majority. The Gospel improves the quality of life for every person that accepts it, but accepting it requires sacrifice; however, one of my favorite things is that it will ALWAYS be worth it! No matter what you are asked to do or give up, it will be worth it, He will reward you more than you can ever imagine if you are willing to follow Him! I know this Gospel is true and through its precepts and teachings, everyone can be happier in this life, and the life to come! Thank you all back at home, you all mean the world to me and I am so grateful to know that you are all there for me. Wouldn't be able to do this without a single one of yall, LOVE YALL, HAVE A GREAT WEEK!

<3 Elder Fox