Productive Week!

Wow... Haha that's really the way to put it best! There is so much that I could put into this email so I'm going to try to get the most important things and mention the other things. But before I start I just wanted to remind you all that you are in my heart as we go through the holidays. I mean, Christmas isn't as big here, but we still have it all around us all the time and it almost always puts a big smile on my face when I see it because it reminds me why I'm here, why I am serving. Family is the most important thing to me and I can't wait to see you all again, I can't wait to have the best Christmas present ever and see your faces and hear your voices again! I cannot wait! Well as for my week, I guess there is only really one way to put it, 'a turning point'. 

 

Dad you asked me something about my mission that I don't think I ever addressed and that is "If your mission is anything like mine you'll have 25-30 baptisms". I wanted to let you know, that isn't the case just yet haha. My trainer has had 1 baptism throughout his mission so far and for the most part people tend to believe this stigma and it drags them down with it. I however, do not believe this for one moment, and I promise I am working my hardest to show it! At the beginning of this week we had just 1 or 2 possibilities for investigators, and they weren't very consistent. We now currently have about 6... Now I'm not so sure how this happened, but I can testify to one thing. It wasn't because we found them haha. During this week we wanted to work as hard as we could, my companion loved the fire I brought from the MTC and used it to both of our advantages haha. One thing I began to realize was that after we did all we could we were then blessed with these people. We had no power over it, almost ever single one of our investigators are people who seeked us out and bumped into us out there on the streets. It really grew my testimony that Heavenly Father is watching over his missionaries. For example, We had this one man come up to us who spoke really well English and he said he was a gangster, we thought he was kidding, then we met his friends haha... Over the past few days we have had 3 lessons with him and we have concentrated on the Atonement, and he feels that he needs it, he feels the Holy Ghost, and he actually woke up early for him, (he normally sleeps in until noon) and came to church! Amazing, he has a lot to work on, but I have felt that he sincerely wants to change :-) 

 

So this week we had Fast Sunday and as it being the first fast sunday I would have out in the field it was really... Tough. The thing that made it better was we had 2 investigators come to church and I chose to try and show the ward how much I wanted to work, so I stood up and tried to bear my testimony in front of 70 people in a language I'm still learning. It went really well and I felt my testimony grow very strongly. 

 

This week, I am going to make it a quick note because there is so much I could write, but this week we gave a homeless man on the side of the road a blessing. He begged us for a place to stay that was warm and that he couldn't work because is legs hurt to much. So we offered him the only thing we could, the power of God, he accepted and on the side of the street, in front of many others, gave him a blessing of health. I don't know the outcome but I pray still that it worked.

 

So we also had my first exchange this week with a native and it was pretty cool, for the most part we just did proselyting but we went and did a youth activity which was soccer so that was really cool! I got creamed, but still really cool :-) 

 

Oh! One other cool thing we did! We got the chance to go to a 택견 Dojo ( a kinda martial art) because the teacher/owner is an investigator. He asked us to join one of his classes with his family and so we decided it would help us bond with him! It was crazy! I loved there family so much, they had 2 little girls and then a little boy. His daughters were adorable, they were calling us uncle by the end of it. It reminded me why I was here on a mission. I saw there whole family laughing together and I could see the love he had for his children in his eyes and it broke my heart thinking that they don't know they can live together forever. I pray for them so much that they be able to understand what we teach and desire to be baptized so they can spend eternity with each other like I hope to with mine.

 

I can't tell you all how much I miss you, I hope you understand that how I feel for these investigators is because I have been testified to by the Holy Ghost that this work is true, and I know that my sacrifices are nothing to the reward of bringing others to the gospel. I love you all so much and I hope you never forget how meaningful it is to me that you write to me each week so I can know that you are all okay and doing well. I love you all so much and I can't wait to the 25th so I can kiss the computer screen as hard as I can :-).

 

I love you all so much,

Elder Fox