Sick companion and burning stoves 5/28/2019

Hola everyone!

Hope you have all had an awesome week. Oh! yeah, and Happy Memorial Day! This week has been really mellow, we had some really cool stuff happen, but not too much in general. We had a lot of meetings and far away medical appointments (my companion was sick) so we did not have ample time to do a ton, but it was a good week nonetheless! We saw some really cool miracles!

We met a really awesome lady named Jicauri (shee-ca-ow-ree), it was a really cool expierience. It had been a very poor day: really hot and humid, riding bikes all around, and not being able to meet anyone that was willing to talk to us. We prayed right after dinner, and asked to know where to go again, and I remembered an apartmant building in a complex that we tried by two weeks ago. We never went back, because their were a ton of english speakers, but this one specific building came to mind right after the prayer. And you don't ignore stuff like that. So we went, and after knocking on almost every door, and getting nothing but english or rude people, we were getting pretty discouraged, then the second to last door, we meet Jicauri. She was super nice and has an adorable 8-year-old daughter, and was happy to have us back!

We saw some awesome progress with a few of the people we are teaching too! We had an awesome lesson with the kids in the Castillo Bernard family (Angelina and Antony). We talked about the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and for the first time Antony started to interact with us a lot, asking questions and stuff. Then, at the end, we finally felt prompted to invite them to be baptized, and they said yes!!! It was awesome, but the the bad news... They told us they were going to Georgia tomorrow...until July 2nd... We were pretty bummed, but we have a lot of faith they will be good to go by the time they get back.  And then, the older couple we are teaching (Rosa and Adrian) are doing amazing! They were even able to make it out to church yesterday! And they really enjoyed it.

Last night we had a fun thing happen, and I realized how well it explained our companionship. We had some wierd powdered potato soup mix from another missionary, and decided to try and make it. We had to boil some water then put it in as we mixed. Elder Jensen began mixing and pouring, but we realized that all the starch kept making a ton of bubbles, so it was a super slow process. So I grabbed a plate and started blowing from the top to keep the bubble down as he goes. We feel like complete professionals at this point, until I accidentely bump him a bit, causing a bunch of the mix to fall in, and a bit to fall to the side of the pot. This caused a ton of bubbles, so Elder Jensen had to mix super fast and I had to do my best leafblower impression, this caused the powder that missed the pot to blow under the burner...it did not last very long. Suddenly a flame spews out as the starch lights up like a firecracker, and elder Jensen realizes that if he stops stirring, the bubbles will spew over, and likely cause a much greater issue, I immediatley say, "Woah! Where's the camera?!" and run off, and right as I got back our trainee Elder Tolman (who we often affectionately refer to as our 'band-aid') sees the chaos and does his 'band-aid' thing and turns off the burner, causing the flames to stop pretty quickly...I'm surprised he still hasn't asked to leave us, haha. Elder Jensen has a bit of a burn on his arm now, I have some awesome pictures, and Elder Tolman has less faith in our ability to survive when we get home! And all of this happened in a matter of like 20 seconds by the way. But it was awesome, good memory.

I hope that story helps y'all remember that missionaries are nowhere close to perfect, haha, but hey, none of us are! Nor do we have to be! I feel like as a missionary I have learned that we all really need to learn to accept our mistakes, forget them, and move on a lot more often. Of course, we are not supposed to ignore unrepented sins, but once we have done what we need to do recieve forgiveness from the Lord, why should we keep holding on to it? We are all going to make mistakes, its just a fact, we are all going to hurt someone we care about at some point, we are all going to do something we regret, its just part of the experience. We should never let those mistakes fester and linger though. We need to ask for forgiveness, move on, and learn from the experience! It is one of the greatest gifts we have after all! Because of what Christ did for every one of us, "no failure ever need be final". We can all experience the joy of trying again! Keep going! Keep repenting! Keep learning! And Keep relying on the Savior! I LOVE YOU ALL!!! HAVE A GREAT WEEK!!!

<3 Elder Fox