Opposite of Last Week 6/26/2018

Hola todos!

Hope you all had another fantastic week! Especially those of you who went to the Grand Ol' Lazy J! Sucks not being able to go up to that plot of heaven on Earth with y'all, but I hope you had a blast! (please send pics if you can! thanks). Mine was incredible! So many cool things went down, I'll go from awesome to awesomest, haha, but I'm going to try my best to keep it all short, onward!

We did meet a good number of people this week, most we have only me tthe once with though, so not much to talk about yet. One lady named Elena we met while knocking around a neighborhood. The neighborhood in general was not awesome... We got a lot of slammed doors and unhappy campers, haha. But we met Elena about 3/4 a way through, she was on the phone though, but said we could come back. A bunch of unfriendlies later, we came back. She was from Puerto Rico and her husband passed away about 20 years ago while she was there. She said he liked meeting with missionaries though, and she said she felt very calm whenever they would stop by, and she asked if we could come by next Saturday to talk! so that was awesome! 

Friends whom we've known have been doing well too! Sybil finally got back from her vacation to Jamaica, and she's as happy to see us as ever! Her husband still hasn't read from the Book of Mormon, but she has started being much more confident with inviting him to do things! We have also been meeting with a kid named Rey, his parents were baptized a few years ago, but kinda fell away fro a bit. We've been meeting with them though, and they came to church! Rey is also super excited for baptism now too! He's a really funny kid, and its been a blast teaching him.

Next! We had our zone conference, and a member of the Quorum of the Seventy made a surprise visit! It was soooo awesome! He explained that our mission had been chosen to pilot a new missionary program, and so he explained it, and it sounds really cool! He also talked about a lot of other things that will be happening in the church soon, and we aren't allowed to talk about it, but my favorite line from him was a quote from Elder David A. Bednar from a meeting with the church leaders where he said that "with everything that President Nelson has in store, these recent changes (elders chorum thing, ministering program, etc.) are just snowflakes in a blizzard, this is Christ's true and LIVING church!" So yeah, that was pretty darn neat! It was also super inspiring as far as missionary work goes so...WOOT!

Alright, best for last! Warning: tear-jerker! (sorry mom). So we volunteer at a place called Give Kids the World, basically a little villa for kids with life-threatening diseases and their families to stay at while they get to go to Disney World, Universal, Seaworld, etc. for free! Its super fun, and the kids always have a smile on their face despite the challenges they are going through! We volunteer in a place called the Castle of Miracles where the kids get to come and write their name on a little yellow metal star (avout the size of a silver dollar) that is then put up in the "sky" to stay forever! Basically there are around 136,000 stars stuck to the ceiling of this place, and families come back (usually after the kid has passed) to see it. Its really neat, but this wednesday, we got a call from the office. They said that a family of 11 was going to be coming through, and the doctors have said that the kid is not going to live more than a day. So the family wanted to come do his star, and we were told to make it super special. Sure enough, family of 11 comes in, I put on the most fun show I can throughout the whole thing, the kid looked around 11, and the mother was struggling to hold him the entire time, but refused to put him in the wheelchar. He was mostly unresponsive, but we got it all done, I distracted them while holding back tears as a worker got the start and went and put it up really quick, they where led to the star, which was in a seperate room, and asked if they could just stay in there alone for a while. As soon as they were in there though, I ran to the back room and bawled like a child. The sight of this adorable mother cradling this child, knowing it would be the last time she could was a lot to handle. Her love for him was very clear, and all I could keep thinking was "this is the last time she will be able to do that" as I cired. A few minuted passed as I started to calm down, and the phrase once again repeated in my head, and I just whispered "the last time" as i thought about it. Just as I thought and said it this time though, I heard a voice, strong, yet silent say "NO, it's not, and YOU know that!" I just stood there for a second comprehending the sentence, and began to cry again, as I realized just how true it was! That phrase I kept saying was a blatant lie, and I know that! That was not the last time that mother would hold her child. because death doesn't end or destroy anything! Thanks to the Savior and our Heavenly Father's plan, death is nothing. I suddenly felt a rush of joy and energy followed quickly by this next sentence that flowed through my mind: "This is what you have to share with the world! Many don't know what you do, so tell them, please". After collecting myself after the whole episode I came out just as the family was leaving, tears began to well up again, but not tears of saddness this time around. I watched as the famiy left and told the mother simply: "I hope you have a blessed day, and don't worry, you'll see him again!". A slight smile came across her face, she thanked me and they left. It was an experience I will not soon forget, and I hope that it offers something for you all. For all of you who know of the glorious truths that have been brought forth with the Restoration of Christ's Gospel, you are blessed. You have knowledge that can change the world! And can most definitely change someone's life. The knowledge that families are an eternal unit. The knowledge that God is our loving Heavenly Father. The knowledge that Christ knows exactley what we all have gone through, and is willing to help us in every aspect of our lives. The knowledge that "death has no sting; the grave, no victory". The knowledge that we are never alone! Please, stay worthy of the Holy Ghost, and don't shy away when he asks you to share what you have! I promise, as an authorized representative of Christ, you will change someone's life, and your own will be improved as well! I love you all so much, thank you for reading all of this! Have an awesome week!

<3 Elder Fox

Average week 6/17/2018

Hola!

Hope you all had another awesome week! Mine was pretty darn average (on the scale of missionary life, so quite high on the normal life scale). Nothing crazy good or bad, sorry, haha. Father's Day happened, and that was pretty neat! It was kinda sad to not be able to really do anything for my dad, but I hope all of the Father's reading this know that they are loved, appreciated, and awesome! Esspcially you Dad! Love Ya! But, other than that...I'll just get into the other things and hope I remember something interesting to fill the entertainment void I have created.

We didn't have a ton of oppurtunities to meet with our friends, but they are all still doing well! Nothing really to report on in that front, but we did meet a good chunk of new people this week, so that was really cool! We met a guy named Eddy who is looking to retire then go do humanitarian missions for the rest of his life, so he's neat-o. We met a guy named Kiko from Mexico. He's got a few kids, and was honestly interested in what we had to say as son as we mentioned our message is focused on blessing families. We also met this lady named Olga. She was baptized around 20 years ago (she was 23), but has since moved to Florida, and become inactive in the church. She was scrolling through Facebook and saw an ad with some scriptures, she said she had a very strong spiritual experience when reading it, and had to have it. She only found out when she ordered a free copy that it was a Book of Mormon, and she explained to us that she remembered all of the incredible feelings she had when she went to church, and now wants it for her kids (ages 16-23)!

Gah! I'm sorry, it was just a good plain week. The only thing I could think of that may be interesting to y'all was that the sister missionaries in the area just north of ours have been teaching a Jamaican woman and her son, and they realized that the son was kinda hitting on them (for those unaware, we can't date or anything like that on our missions...and hes like 15 years older then them [they 20, he 35]). So they asked us to see if he would be willing to be taught by us instead, we extended it, and he just simply said "nice to meet ya, but I'd rather keep talking to the other ones, I really like one of them". So, long story short, we are going over tonight to their lesson and going to see if we can teach them instead, haha.

I hope that little story will hold y'all off for another week. It's quite interesting. when I think of it, how normal missionary life is to me ight now. It is so incredibly different from anything else, and yet, I've grown to call a week as a missionary "average". I think that this idea that we can start to come to think of such extraordinary things as ordinary should be watched carefully for those of us who follow Christ. I have seen it so many times, people start to act like prayer, scriptures, church, the priesthood, etc. are just normal things that we have. While things like this are certainly abundant and "free", they are anything but normal. Prayer is the power to converse directly with the most powerful being in the universe. Scriptures are basically a perfect user manual for this life. Church is a perfectly organized group of people all trying to accomplish the same things we are. The priesthood is literally the power of GOD. Don't take these things lightly. Everything we have been given in relationship to Christ is nothing short of a miracle. Please, never forget that. I love you all, and I will try my best to improve my next email! haha, have an awesome week, LOVE Y'ALL!!!

(FOM=Florida Orland Mission, took the picture with a member's quadcopter)

Simple Week, Nice 6/11/2018

Hola mis amados!

Hope you all had a fantastic week! Mine was very mellow, nothing really crazy happened, which was pretty nice this time around! As fun as living an adventure everyday can seem, its really nice to sometimes just get the chance to recouperate and go about some daily things. There was one pretty intense situation, but, in a way, it was also pretty calming.  I'll get into that in a bit though. Also, I'm sory in advance this letter is gonna be kinda short (although, I'm sure most of y'all are fine with that).

We had the chance to meet some really fun new friends this week! We met one guy named Humberto, who saw an ad for a free Bible on Facebook and "jumped on it". He is a really nice guy who has gone through a TON (deportation, family dis-owned, 3 heart attacks, 2 divorces, and a miriad of addiction), and yet, has seemingly rised above it all, and is honestly looking to change his life around! He is a super awesome guy with a really nice outlook on life now! We also met the Boscini family through a quite similar way. The wife was baptized a few years ago, but has since moved to Florida, gotten married, and stopped coming to church. She saw an add for the Book of Mormon though and said she realized how much she missed the peace she had in her life when she was an active member in the church. We are really excited to keep meeting with her and her husband, they are really nice and also just seem like they are ready to follow Christ!

As for friends we've been teaching, they are all doing well. Loaiza has made a huge step and has agreed to be baptized! We are stoked for her! Luis has also made some really good progress in finally realizing that this church is Christ's church! Now he is just worried about being able to give up some stuff (addictions), but I know he's gonna be able to if he relies on Christ. Didn't have a lot of time to visit too many others, so not much else to report on here.

As for the one thing that was pretty serious, my friend, Elder Creamer, passed away this week. He was doing just fine, got diagnosed with a stage 4 cancer, and within a month he was gone. He was a senior missionary (a person that serves a mission with their spouse after they have retired) in our mission these last few years. And he is awesome! Super goofy guy, but still really good at being serious (was a sheriff for a number of years and served in the airforce for a while). The funeral was really beautiful and really nice! His wife is taking it pretty well too. She is a huge sweetheart from Hawaii. I haven't had the chance to go to many funerals (thank goodness), but everytime I do, I can't help but feel grateful through it all. Grateful that I know that death is just a step. That the time that we are apart from those who passed is nothing compared to the eternities we'll be together! Beautiful testimonies were shared of how excited they were to see him again. I get to say it so much out here, yet it never ceases to amaze me that our Heavenly Father has a plan for each of us. That this life is just a part of that plan, a very important part, but still just a part. It can be quite difficult to imagine that our physical reality is just a small part of everything that He has planned out, but it's true! I know it's true! This life is important, we are here to do certain, necessary things, but in the timeline of infinity, it is just a small blip. I hope you all never forget that! As long as you remember that Heavenly Father truly loves you more than you can comprehend, and His plan for you is as perfect as He is, you will not have to struggle through the darkness that satan fills the world with. The closer you stick to your Savior, the more you'll be able to sing in the rain! I love you all! Thanks for everything you do for me! Have an awesome week!

PS: Just got home and realized that our wifi is out, unsure when we'll be connected again, sorry you'll probs get this a bit late, still love y'all tho!

SO MANY THINGS 6/3/2018

Hola Todos!

First off, I wanna say sorry for last week, I'm not sure why, but I forgot to actually send the darn thing, and instead of just sending it and giving y'all two massive walls of text to read, I just kinda combined it with this one, so this will be covering the last two weeks, but I will try my best to keep it...manageable. I hope y'all have had an awesome start to your summers! Mine has been neat, I have learned that Florida somehow gets hotter and humid...er then I could have ever imagined! Also, frogs, and lots of em! Making lots of froggy noises. All. Night. Long... Its very fun. Also, hurricane season has officially started. It rains here almost every day (and it rains HARD), and we get some pretty gnarly winds every now and then. Haven't been hit by an actual hurricane yet though!

We haven't met many new friends these last two weeks (been super busy with som other stuff). But the ones we have met are AWESOME! We've got Greg: super smart guy that went through four years of religious studies and knows a ton about the Bible and everythng and is super cool! Jackie and her son Christian: really sweet single mother with a 9 year old son with a ton of medical issues (and yet still smailes and is stoked to talk about anything and everything!). We've also started meeting with Humberto and his wife again! They have decided that they really missed the things they felt when we came over, and how it felt to go to the Lord's church! Then still meeting with a lot of the usual ones. Alex, Loaiza, Kayleen, Luis, and Winnie. Good mix of ages, nationalities, and personalities, its awesome!

This last week, we also had the chance to go to the temple with Azura and do baptisms for the dead! It was awesome! I seriously wasted my oppurtunities to go to the temple back home. It was so amazing, and Azura really liked it too! And to all y'all back home, please, please, please, don't waste your chances to go to the temple! Seriously, just take an hour or two every week or two to go. Not only will you be eternally blessing your family who has passed, but you will feel the weight and darkness of the world fall away. This extends to any of you that aren't members of the church as well! Just being on temple ground has a miraculous power!

I also wanna talk about those two AMAZING broadcasts this week: the Be One Celebration and the Worldwide Youth Devotional. Both of these incredible broadcasts had sooooo mny inspiring messages it was insane! I hope you all had the chance to watch the Be One Celebration (if not: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7I43VRudhMw#). The music, dancing, and stories were all really cool. I loved the traditional feel of it all! I also have rediscovered that I love Traditional-African music (happy dancing beats always make me feel good). The message in general was awesome too, the fact that people today still judge others based solely on their race or nationality is just depressing. We are all brothers and sisters! And the Youth Devotional was super awesome as well, I hope all of you between 12-18 got the chance to watch it(again, if not, https://www.lds.org/broadcasts/face-to-face/nelson?lang=eng), and take the prophets advice, it will bring miracles and blessings you will not be able to comprehend! Promise!

There is a ton more I could talk about (getting a new companion btw), but I figured I should cut it off before I hit the limit for emails (the best part about these dumb jokes, is that I actually think I'm funny when I say them). Thank you all for everything you do! I hope that my emails offer y'all something! I try my best to keep it entertaining and enlightening, haha. I hope you all have had some chances to take me up on the things i've asked y'all to try! And I hope it has made a difference for someone! (If it did for any of y'all, let me know!). And if I can suggest anything, just remember to always look for oppurtunities to help someone feel included and important! It makes a world of difference for them! LOVE Y'ALL!!! HAVE A GREAT WEEK!!!

<3 Elder Fox