My boy went to Ecuador! And I got a new one from Brazil! 6/24/2019

Hola todos!

As per usual, I have a horrible sense of time, and as such, am running quite low on it! I'm sorry, but I feel like y'all are getting pretty bored of these by now, haha. But don't worry, you only need to read four more after this! GAH! That's so nuts! I am officially on my last month of my mission today. It's really freaking me out in all honesty. I know my mom and fam are probably stoked to see me, and I am to see them too, but just the thought of taking this tag off is..unsettling, haha.

This week, with the transfers and all, we didn't have a ton of time to go meet people, but we ended up finding out some stuff! The venezuelan daughter and mother that came to church a few weeks ago are apparently not members of the church. They were just taught a lot by the missionaries and really liked going to church. They just never felt comfortable about baptism, but something has changed, and they are super down for it now! So we will be meeting with them tomorrow to figure everything out! I'm super stoked! Also Rosa and Adrian came to church yesterday again! They are really liking the feeling of it, and seem to be cultivating a desire to know more and more, it's super cool to witness. My new companions are really interesting. Elder West is from Ogden, and really loved Lucky Slice (the place I worked at), so that's been fun to talk about. Elder Marshall is from Brazil, so he speaks fluent English and Portuguese. His Spanish is coming along super well too! They are both super in to working out...so that has been pretty interesting to witness as well, haha. It's been cool learning from them though! I feel like it's gonna be a great last transfer!

I don't have much spiritual thought time, but I just finished reading through the Book of Mormon again this week, and came across an awesome few verses right at the end. It is the last testimony borne in the Book of Mormon, and I think it explains perfectly what the book spent 531 pages trying to help us understand. Moroni pleaded, "(32) Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ; and if by the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ, ye can in nowise deny the power of God. (33) And again, if ye by the grace of God are perfect in Christ, and deny not his power, then are ye sanctified in Christ by the grace of God, through the shedding of the blood of Christ, which is in the covenant of the Father unto the remission of your sins, that ye become holy, without spot." Nowhere else in the world is the doctrine that through Christ we can not only be cleansed from our sins and faults, but we can also be 'perfected'! Through our Savior, we can not only be forgiven of our downfalls, but can overcome the weaknesses that cause them. And not only that, but he can turn the into strengths! He can then go on to improve our strengths day after day! Through Christ w ecan truly not just change our behavior, but our very nature! It is incredible! And I have loved seeing it so first hand on my mission! I hope you have all seen it in your own lives as well, and if not, I invite you to seek it! I LOVE YOU ALL!!! I hope you have an awesome week!

<3 Elder Fox

6/7/2019 President Nelson Visit, Two New Companions, Temple Trip, and other Crazy Adventures!

Hola Todos mis Queridos!!!

Holy Cow! These last two weeks have been insane! So many things...I know I will not be able to talk about it all...but I am most certainly going to try! So no time for formalaties, onward!

As for whom we are teaching, they are doing well. Not too much exciting progress with any of them. We did meet a few awesome people though! One guy named Jose and his wife. He was baptized a long time ago, but his mom diaproved, so he stopped going. He has really missed it thgough, and was extatic to see us and his wife really loves the message too! Then we have Hector and Jenny. Two weeks ago, Larissa and Erminda came to church randomly. They explained they are from Venezuela, and have been looking for the local chapel for a few months. They are awesome and love the gospel, and introduced us to the couple they are living with (Hector and Jenny), and they are all loving what we are sharing! It's been awesome!

Can't talk about much, but I'll touch on the three things I really want to. First off, Elder Tolman (my trainee) finally got his Visa to Ecuador! But man was it a wild ride! He had to fly out to Arizona to make a personal appearance at the only Ecuadorian Consolate, and the flight to get him out there was delayed three times before being canceled (which meant 7 hours at the airport only to drive back home at 11:00pm), but they figured it out and he made it out the next day with pretty minimal issues! Then he got back super late the next day (Friday), and his flight to Ecuador was scheduled for today at 11:30am. We got everything figured out, he got there on time, but somehow missed the flight! So that was super hard, but they got a new flight tomorrow at 10:30am so hope it all works out! Also (to explain subject) Elder Jensen is going back home tomorrow, and they are sending me TWO new companions to replace them! Haha, President figured out that I really need two babysitters to get anything done. 

Okay, next, this last friday, I got to go to the temple! On the last Friday in the mission, all the missionaries going home go to the temple together. So, since I am going home early and would miss that, my President let me go this week with the group leaving tomorrow! It was awesome! Really awesome experience, like the temple always is! I'm super stoked to go visit all the ones we have back home in Utah! Afterwards, we all went out to this little local joint called BlackRock Cafe, and it was so cool. They specialize in steak, but they serve it really neat. They bring out a black rock (slab of something like granite, 6 inches by 6 inches and like 2 inches thick) that is 755 degrees... And they just slap a raw steak on it! So you cut a piece, touch it to the rock for like two seconds, and then eat it! It tasted so flippin good, just super juicy and fresh every bite, 11/10. Don't know how they can legally serve raw meat and give the public a solid piece of lava as a plate, but hey, I'm all for it!

Last, but certainly not least, President Nelson's visit to Florida!!! It was such an incredible experience to get to see him, his wife, elder Uchtdorf, and sister Uchtdorf all here! They said some incredible things, and I absolutely loved it! I honestly think that Sister Nelson's comments were my favorite, but that is just because she talked about marriage and dating a ton, which is going to be very applicative to me in the near future! But President Nelson's words were awesome! He asked all of the primary children at one point to stand up and sang "I Am a Child of God" with all of them, and I am not joking when I say that a massive stadium being filled with the voices of many small children singing about how God is our Loving Father in Heaven is the closest I feel I will be to hearing the 'heavenly concourses of angels' here in this world. It was amazing. But the point that he made a ton, that I love and want to leave you all with is very simple, and just what a prophet of God should be telling us. He said, "if you want to be miserable, break the commandments. If you want to be happy, do all you can to follow them!" I love this! It is so simple, and so true! I have seen it day after day on my mission, in my life and the lives of others. I know it's true, and commit you all to test it out if you don't. I know you will see the power that comes from it. I LOVE YOU ALL!!! Have an awesome week!!!

<3 Elder Fox

Welcome to Summer (Ive been in it for 2 years) 6/3/2019

Buenos tardes todos!

How has everyone been?! I saw a few graduation pics, to all who are reading who did, and the children of those reading who did, CONGRATS!!! That's an awesome achievement! Don't let it go to waste! Haha, but to them, and all the rest in school, hope you enjoyed the school year! And I hope you have an awesome summer break! It's still summer here, so nothing new there... (I hope y'all have enjoyed almost two years of me complaining about the weather in Florida, haha). It's been a pretty casua week here, nothing too crazy! There was a pretty funny thing that happened a few nights ago that isn't super commomn, but I'll decide later if it's a story I want to tell (don't want to freak out mom too bad, haha). For now though, onto my friends!

We met a few really cool people this week! One man was from Argentina, which is super uncommon, but I love their accent (in spanish), and they are always such kind people. Also, they have some really awesome food...but so do all the other countries so that doesn't mean much. We met a nice older lady named Altagracia who met with missionaries in the Dominican Republic, and Loa who met with them in Venezuela, so those two were awesome! And I don't think I have talked much about Félix. He is from Columbia, and a really awesome dude. He was invited to church by a friend a few weeks ago, and really enjoyed it! He came to a Family Home Evening the next night and loved that too, the way the ward 'feels like a family' is awe-inspiring to him. But, he went into the hospital last Monday for Pneumonia, and so that has been super hard, he doesn't have any family in the states...or friends really, so we are the only ones who visit him. He is also just got kicked out of the room he was renting (for very dumb reasons), so we went to pick up his stuff this morning. He is keeping some high spirits though! 

I am quickly running low on time, but now want to tell the story, haha, so I'll keep this part short. We had to say good-bye to Angelina and Antony, which was pretty sad, but I'll see them before I leave! Will is going through some hard times, but I feel like he will be able to make it though it all and still get baptized! Rosa and Adrian are feeling pretty sick too, but they are doing really good with the gospel and everything like taht!

Now for that story, stuff like this doesn't happen often, but I don't think I've really shared many like it. A few nights ago, some crazy homeless dude jumped out in front of me as we were biking, and I slammed on my brakes. He muttered some stuff, and we determined he wanted to try and steal our bikes, but as things were really getting heated (us just calmly trying to ignore him), another homeless dude kind of appeared out of the brushwork and just yelled "Hey! Leave'em alone! Dem's good people!", and the other guy just got startled and kind of wandered off into the street and started panhandling again after slapping my companion's back fender like a butt...weird times, haha. I don't know how to transition this, but I want to share something I shared with someone real quick.

I know I've shared the quote before, but I gave this advice to graduating seniors, and just wanted to share it again: "Our task is to become our best selves. One of God's greatest gifts to us is the joy of trying again, for no failure ever need be final." I love what this message from a prophet of the Lord tells us. Yes, we are commanded to do everything we can, give all we got, and even "be...perfect"; but that does not mean that we are not allowed to make mistakes along the way to that goal! If I have learned anything on my mission, it is the fact that God loves us. Every. Single. One. None of us can comprehend just how much love He truly does have for us. So please, never forget that. The most powerful, all-knowing, all-seeing, most perfect Being in the universe Loves You. He wants to hear from you, and He wants to see you succeed, and find happiness! Through Him, His Son, the gospel, your family, your friends, your work, your hobbies, your talents, whatever! He wants to see you be all that you can be, and will help you reach it! So please, never stay down! Never give the devil that satisfaction. Keep going! Keep praying! Keep repenting! Keep getting back up! Keep learning from your falls! And please, keep relying on the Savior! You can and you will find the success and happiness you want! I can promise you all that as a represantative of our Saviour, Jesus Christ, you can! And in His name I testify of that, amen. LOVE Y'ALL!!!

<3 Elder Fox