Week 3 in the Philippines!

Hello Everyone!! Maayong Buntag! Or I guess it's maayong gabii where all of you are!

This week has been an awesome week. First of all I can't believe it's already pday again! That was a really quick week! Things are awesome here. So again the first part of the email will be random stuff and the last part will be spiritual. One of the highlights of this week was I ate balut! yes I did it. I didn't think I could or would but I did and it wasn't horrible. It looks way nastier than it actually is. It's like a worse tasting hard boiled egg so it's not great tasting but not terrible. I dumped a bunch of vinegar and salt on it which made it a lot better. It was crazy though. I forget what I write in my journal and what I email so if I repeat things I'm sorry. Elder Francom and Elder Rainey are still staying with us and its so fun. It's so fun to have them with us. Oh speaking of awesome people we went to dinner with the zone leaders in Cebu, Elder Croxton and Elder Chamberlain, and I found out that Elder Chamberlain knows the Olsens! He went to high school with Liz! He was like oh yeah they are so awesome! so that was cool to make that connection. He is hilarious. Him and Elder Croxton. One of the best things so far is just how close we as missionaries are and get. It's so awesome. Anyway what else. Oh I'm sick again! Haha how great is that? It's probably jet lag but yeah it's not fun. I just a cough again and congestion stuff. I feel like i'm recovering pretty quickly though which is good. The Lord is definitely strengthening me and blessing me. Oh in response to your email mom. Yeah you can add Nate to the email list or give him my email. Either way works. And I'll have to ask around for a Sister Carol and make the Knaphus connection. That picture of me with my mouth open is a winner haha. I think I might have been about to sneeze but I'm not sure what I was doing. Maybe yawning? I don't know those are the only things I can think of. I'm so glad that one's on Facebook though haha. I'm glad you got the picture of me and President Nielsen! He said he would send it to you. I had some nice hat hair in that picture. We all got hats for the service project and I was the black team so i got a black hat. EAch team had a different project. Ours was to clear out the district presidents house and a school in Loon. Anyway he was awesome though. He asked me where I was from and then we made the connection. Oh that reminds me, EVERYONE has seen the video of me opening my call. So many have come up to me and said that they saw me on the video. Its funny. I don't know what to say back other than oh yeah that's pretty crazy haha. I didn't know that everyone saw the video over here but I guess they did. Oh so guess who was literally five feet away from me in that picture with President Nielson. Elder Clayton and Elder Andersen! How cool is that? Elder Clayton was talking to Elder Murdock while i was taking the picture. Elder Clayton is impressive. And right after that Elder Andersen talked to us and one other elder. We talked for a couple minutes. The first thing he said was "Elders, go to work." And then he laughed and said no I know youve been working. he was great. We just talked about the destruction that happened and stuff. Really cool to be able to talk to him!Anyway so I'll tell you about the weekend I had! so Saturday was the day he spoke to all of the missionaries. We all met in a chapel and it was amazing. We all stood up when he walked in and then before the meeting started he said he wanted to shake everybody's hand! So he, Elder Clayton and others lined up and we all row by row went down the line and shook their hands. It was so cool. I went up there and he said, "Elder Fox, how are you? Nice to meet you." It was amazing. Seriously he did it so genuinely. I felt so important and that's how we need to make other people feel when we talk to them. We need to make them feel of our love for them and feel important like he did to me and we didn't even know each other. So before he spoke, Elder Clayton spoke and he was awesome. He really is so impressive. he knocked it out. He quoted someone and I can't remember who it was but the quote is, "If the world could see you (missionaries) as you really are, how clean you are, not perfect, but clean, they would all join the church." How amazing is that statement. This is what you have to look forward to James, Nathan, John, and Anna. Being a missionary is such a great blessing and privilege. Prepare now becasue the more you prepare now the better it will be when your time comes. Read and study PMG and the Book of Mormon. Especially you James. Your time is so soon! It will come so fast so prepare now as I'm sure you already are. Anyway Elder Clayton was awesome. He gave us some things to do to be better missionaries. I don't have to time to write all of them unfortunately. Elder Andersen did a presentation on The Merits, the Mercy, and the Grace. Some of my notes of what he said are he said, "We know the Savior of the world." He said how other chuches believe in the Savior but we know Him. We know the true Savior of the world. One of the things he emphasized to us was that we have to learn how to see the unseen. We have to see the unseen as missionaries. Like discerning the thoughts and words of the people we teach and talk to. he repeated it so many times. he testified of life after death and it was amazing. he simply said through sacred personal experiences, I know that life continues through the veil. I know that. He also said this about the Savior in the meeting with the people of Bohol on Sunday. He said I know the Savior lives. I know He does. I know Him. Powerful testimony from one of the Lord's apostles. Some other quick notes I took: "This isn't an easy road but it's a glorious road." He said "be more contemplative in your prayers about who Christ is." "As you seek Him and His will, he will make Himself known unto you in more ways than we know Him now." I know this is true because I've tried it. I've really tried to ponder and contemplate who Christ really is and my understanding, my faith, my testimony, and my foundation has been strengthened so much. I know Christ lives. I know He is our Savior and Redeemer. I know that He is also our loving elder brother and our best friend if we allow Him to be. I know He weeps with us during our suffering. I know He rejoices with us during our triumphs. I know He loves us. I know He lives. I am so grateful to represent Him. I hope and pray that we all can continue to follow Him, to learn of Him, and to know Him better than we do now. I'm so grateful for Him. I love Him. I love all of you! I pray for all of you all the time! Continue to press forward. Feast upon the words of Christ. Hold to the rod. Watch and pray. I listened to Elder Hollands talk he gave in April 2009 called Safety for the soul. He talks about the Book of Mormon and its incredible. Watch it! I testify that the Book of Mormon is the word of God. I know it's true and that it leads us to the tree of Life, to God's love. Hold to the rod, the iron rod. Tis strong, and bright, and true. The iron rod is the word of God, twill safely guide us through. I love you all! Have a great week!!

Love, 

Elder Fox

P.S. It's Christmas already in the Philippines so I'll just open the package now! haha just kidding I wont but it is Christmas. It's Christmas here from october to like january or february or something. Crazy huh!

Recovery Week

Hello everyone!!!!

So it's been recovery week here in the Philippines and I'm sure the next few weeks will be recovery weeks too. Here's a quick update on the earthquake. I'm sure all of you know probably know more than I do from the news but here's an update anyway. There continued to be aftershocks throughout the week but they've died down now. I don't think there's been one weve felt in the last few days so that's good. We have two elders from Loon (the place that got hit really hard) staying with us now. Elder Rainey and Elder Francom. Elder Francom is in my batch and Elder Rainey is Elder Murdocks batch. Batch is the people you arrived here in the Philippines with. Anyway so that's cool! They are awesome. We all get along really well. We play basketball everymorning at 6 before studies which is super fun. Elder Rainey is super good. Well all of us are good so it makes it fun but yeah he is good. So they are staying with us for awhile and we are going to get about 10 more elders with us this weekend which would normally be awful but the reason they are is awesome. And that reason is Elder Neal L. Andersen is coming to Tagbilaran!! He's going to be in my branch chapel! How sweet is that? He is the first apostle to ever come to Bohol. Pretty cool. So to tell you quickly what I'm doing this weekend. Saturday all of the missionaries in the Cebu and Cebu East missions are going to Cebu to hear from Elder Andersen. Then all of the missionaries in the Cebu east mission are coming to Bohol. That's about 120, maybe more, missionaries coming to Bohol! Sunday at 3 Elder Andersen will hold a special mtg until about 4:30. I'm really hoping I get to meet him but we'll see. So then on Monday we have a big service project up in Loon and Kalape and all the missionaries and Elder Andersen are going. We'll all be wearing our yellow Mormon helping hands jacket shirt things which will look really awesome because there are so many of us. Pretty sweet weekend coming up. Oh I heard there was an earthquake in Logan? Is that true? Any damage? so some quick things before I get to my week and some spiritual thoughts. Packages- They said not to send drinks because the packages get thrownaround and stuff and so just no drinks they said. But I would love candy for the kids and of course for myself. Also Fiji deodorant and other snacks. I mean these things aren't urgent but when you do sned a package these are some of the things I would like. Oh my missionary plaque. I think I found a scripture for it. Jacob 5:72. I love it because it says that the Lord labors with us in the vineyard. We aren't alone in this work. He is in charge and He works with us. Okay so this last week especially the last few days have been awesome. We have gone to the Bohol Cultural Center and have done service projects. We load huge bags of rice and organize food pack things for the people in Loon. It's been awesome to help out and to spend time with other missionaries. We have awesome missionaries in our district and zone. They are all awesome. We are like a family out here. We all hug (well only elder to elder of course haha) whenever we see each other and joke around and stuff. It's the best. So weve done that a couple of the days and the other days weve just gone to work proselyting. Elder Murdock and I have had some really good success and cool experiences, as well as some hilarious experiences this week. I don't know where to start. I'll just tell you about the past couple of days because those were the best, especially yesterday. A few days ago we were walking along a road and there was a group of people off to the side but their houses. There were a bunch of kids and teenagers and moms. The kids yelled to us and so we decided to go talk to all of them. There were about 18 people total. so we talk to them and get to know them a little bit and then we asked if we could visit them to teach them. They asked us if we would teach them right there and we weren't going to say no to that so we sat down and they all gathered around. A few of them left so there were about 10 that stayed. It was crazy. Rarely does anyone teach 10 people at a time especially just on the spot like that. It  was awesome. So we taught them the first lesson. The lesson of the Restoration. They all seemed pretty interested while we were teaching. They were all listening but some of them would get distracted you know? But as soon as we started talking about Joseph Smith and the first vision all of them were glued to what we were saying. they all huddled around us even closer and they didn't get distracted at all. The spirit flooded the area. It was amazing. It's amazing how the story of the first vision can do that. And that wasn't the only time this week that that's happened. There have been a few times where weve been teaching and people are kind of listening and then we get to Joseph Smith and everyone around zeroes in on us and the story. I know that Joseph Smith is a prophet and that he saw Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. I know he did. The Spirit has testified to me that he did and it testified to me again this week that he did. If any of you aren't sure about any part of your testimony or even if you are sure about your testimony, pray and ask for the Spirit to confirm or reconfirm the truth to you. It doesn't matter if we have a strong testimony, we can always ask for a reconfirmation and we will receive it. something that I've really come to realize so far on my mission is that we can ask anything of the Lord and we will receive if we have faith, if we desire, if we sincerely ask, and if the thing we are asking is of worthy cause. I know this is true. I have come to realize that we live so far below potential in a lot of things especially prayer. The Lord tells us to ask and ye shall receive, knock and it shall be opened unto you, seek and ye shall find. I know this is true. I know that the Lord will give answers and guidance to those that ask in faith. He knows all things and He loves us more than we'll ever know. He loves us so much. Would He not answer the prayers of those who ask sincerely in faith? No of course he's going to answer. He wants us to become like Him. He wants to give us everything He has. All we have to do is ask and then be willing to act on the things we receive. We have to act. That's the other thing ive learned we must act. Act on the words of God. Speaking of the word of God. Look up Jacob 2:8! It's awesome and so true. Ive felt that so much so far. My soul has been strengthened so much by studying the scriptures and by conference. so back to the week. Yesterday was awesome. We taught about 8 lessons and had 52 FTEs! FTE is find the elect and it's talking to people and sharing a simple doctrine, testifying of it, and inviting them to church. You all might not know this but those numbers are big for a day! The mission standard for FTEs is 100 in a week and we got half in one day so if we keep going we'll have a really good week.  the Lord blessed us so much yesterday to be in the right places at the right times so we could teach and talk with all of these people. So some funny and fun things happened yesterday. One of them was when we were teaching a lesson and there was a five year old kid in a room right next to us. He said he was going to take a shower outside. Anyway so we were just about to start the lesson with a prayer when the kid lets out a battle cry and streaks naked right past us haha. It was hilarious. We were all laughing so hard. Good way to start off a lesson right? Other fun things we did were we did some magic tricks for a group of kids. I did my invisible string lip thing for them. you know how I pull up my lip with the "string". I hope you all know what I'm talking about but maybe not. Anyway they loved that. We played a little basketball and football with another group of kids and Elder Murdock did some cool soccer tricks for them and they were freaking out. They thought it was so cool and it was. Those kids took pictures of us which was really funny. anyway so yeah it's been a great week and an awesome last couple days. Some investigators that could use your prayers are Abigail and Jolina. they aren't sisters but have similar situations which I think I told you about in my last email. Shoot I'm running out of time. Thank you for all of your prayers and all of your support! They help so much. it's hard work out here. Fun but really hard so thank you for the prayers. I'll end with this quote from President Hinckley. "What we have experienced in the past was all foretold, and the end is not yet. Just as there have been calamities in the past, we expect more in the future....the Lord has said, 'If ye are prepared ye shall not fear'." I know that this is true. I know that as long as we prepare and fortify ourselves and trust in the Lord that we have no need to fear the present or the future. I know that Christ lives and loves us. I know our Father in Heaven loves us and wants us to be happy and has given us the path to happiness. I love and pray for you all!!

Love, Elder Fox

Week 1 in the Philippines!

Hello everyone!!

Wow so its been one crazy week! I'll try to get everything down in the email. Hopefully I remember it all! So first I'm sure you all wondering about the earthquake that hit so I'll start there. It hit about 8:15 in the morning here. Elder Murdock and I were just sitting down to some personal study and we heard some quaking and the ground started moving a little and we both looked at each other like what is going on, is this an earthquake and it was! So we both got underneath our desks which seemed pretty solid and just chilled there. It was insane. It lasted a minute or two. We were both pretty calm, I mean we were both kind of shocked that it was happening. I remember just crouching there wondering how long it was going to go and how big it was going to get. That was the scary part but I felt pretty calm and at peace. I know that Lord was watching over us. I just prayed that it wouldnt get too big and go too long and it didn't. Becasue it wasn't massive where we were it was actually fun haha. Scary but exciting. And after it stopped we were pumped. I mean we survived an earthquake! We had a bottle and picture shatter and I'll try to sned the pictures of them. So the rest of the day was recovery. Oh so in Loon, about 40% of the houses went down and a bunch of Catholic churches went down all over Bohol (coincidence? haha). But yeah almost all of the members gathered at the church and chilled there the rest of the day and spent the night. I think the next few weeks will be full of service and trying to help people get back on their feet and stuff. I'm sure there will be a lot more that will listen and turn to the Lord. At least hopefully they do. Helaman 12 talks about this sort of thing i believe. All of the members in our branch were okay though. There have been small shakes here and there ever since the big one. Nothing big though. If any of you are worried don't be! I'm fine and will continue to be fine. I don't think they are expecting anymore big hits. Oh and here's a tender mercy, yesterday was everyone's day off of work and school. So glad because it would have been chaos if families weren't together and everyone was trying to get to each other. Everyone is off work and school today too. Oh prepare a 72 hour kit!! I think you have mom but if not then do it! So many people were unprepared and a lot of them said oh now I know why the prophets tell us to prepare and we were like yeah! Haha so do it! It's pretty crazy being in an earthquake though. The ground just shakes haha and yeah I can't really explain it. Alright on to other stuff. Elder Murdock is my new companion! He is from Ogden and he is awesome. He's been here in the Philippines for about 7 months but on his mission for about 8. He went to Weber High School and played soccer. He plays basketball and is good so that's awesome. He was just made district leader too. He's the best tatay in the world! I don't know if they do this in all missions but they do this here. Trainers are the fathers or tatays and the trainees are the sons or anak. And they have this whole genealogy thing so Elder Murdock's tatay is my grandpa and if Elder Murdock trains someone after me then that elder is my brother and so on and so forth. People have brothers and uncles. I have a great grandpa in Cebu Mission and I get to meet him and my grandpa when Neal L Andersen comes in a couple of weeks! Yeah Elder Andersen! How sweet is that? Not as good as Elder Holland but still! So yeah Elder Murdock is awesome. We get along really well which is so nice. Our house is pretty sweet. I mean as sweet as it can get in the Philippines. It's supposedly one of the nicest elders' houses. I took some pictures and I'll send them to you. The food is good. I haven't had any real authentic Filipino food yet but I will. We have a McDonalds and a Pizza Hut and stuff which is sweet. The grocery stores have basically everything we have back at home. Different brands and not as good but still good. Their peanut butter is really sweet and good which is awesome. I pound graham crackers and peanut butter all the time, a classic dad snack. Transportation is pretty crazy. We usually take trikes around. A trike is a motorcycle hooked up to like a I don't know something you sit in. I don't have a picture of one yet but I'll show you later. The people are amazing here. I love them. The kids are so cute and it's so fun to play with them. There was a group of kids that kept coming up to us and they would hold onto our arms and we'd lift them. I probably lifted the same two kids up about 50 times. Haha it was tiring but it was so fun. We also played basketball with some of them. The weather is well.. hot. It's super humid all the time and super hot but i'd much rather have this than the cold so I'm fine with it. It's really really hot though. My whole body is constantly sweating. It's just something you have to accept here. I havent really seen any bugs. I mean they are everywhere but not really any big ones yet. We had one cockroach in the house but Elder Murdock killed it. Hopefully we don't get anymore. I don't think we should. Little ants and bugs are everywhere though. They aren't too bad though. The language is pretty frustrating. Not going to lie, its hard to look forward to teaching people because I know I won't know what they say and that I can't help them. I bear my testimony in every lesson but I dont know it's hard. I love the people and I do like going to lessons but it's hard to like it sometimes because of the language. It's okay, I know the language will come in time and that right now I just have to do my best and do other things to help. We do have one investigator who is really good at english and we were able to teach her in english. They did it for me haha. She is sixteen and she is amazing. She has a stronger testimony and faith than most members. The reason she isn't a member is becasue her parents won't let her be baptized and she's only sixteen so she can't sign the papers herself. In the lesson she told us about how she receives a lot of persecution from people because of her interest in the church. She is having a really hard time. Oh her name is Abigail by the way. Anyway the Spirit really took over the lesson. it was amazing. I told her that Heavenly Father was so happy and so proud of her that she desired to be baptized and follow Him and that He would provide a way for her to be baptized. I promised her that and Elder Murdock did too. I know that the Spirit completely took over and it wasn't me or Elder Murdock speaking, it was the Spirit. It was a really cool experience. I just wish that we could always teach in english. Oh well it's okay. So to wrap things up I'll end with some general conference and district meeting stuff. both of these things I'm going to say have to do with fortifying ourselves in these last days. During Kevin S. Hamilton's talk, he was talking about the decision between a sunday family drive or sacrament mtg. I'm sure you all remember it but if not look it up. Something came to me though. This is what I wrote down. "We cannot ease up at anytime. The devil doesn't and so we shouldn't either. We must keep the accelerator down at all times. we can't affor to ease up. AS soon as we do we will be slowly run over. I don't care how small the action or lack of action is. We can't afford to give Satan any advantage." Kevin S. Hamilton said, "the devil uses good activities for substitutes for better or even best activities to cheat our souls and carefully lead us down to hell." The last thought is from district meeting. Elder Murdock said,"We fought before this life to bring as many souls here to earth and now we are fighting to bring as many souls as we can back to God." Do we really realize we are literally in a war? This is the time. We have to be like the stripling warriors and "obey every word of command with exactness." There is no other option. The prophets and apostles have given us such great council and warning and commands. We need to review their words every day just like the scriptures and prayer. We need to choose not good choices, not better, but the best choices. I love this gospel. I know it's true. I know that through the Lord that everything is possible. Everything. I know that Christ lives and loves us. I know that He will have mercy upon all those who repent and desire to be better. I love you all so much!! Thanks for all of the prayers and for being the best family ever! I'm out of time but thanks for all of the updates on everyone dad and for all of the emails everyone. I love you all!!

Love, Elder Fox

Earthquake!!

Hey everyone!

Wow so I'm a little disappointed I don't have any emails from you about the earthquake we just had! I don't know if President Tanner has called you yet. He called us and said that he was going to call you and let you know that everything is alright. I'm in Bohol right now and that's where the earthquake hit. It was a 7.2 on the earthquake scale thing!! It hit this morning at 8:15 during personal study. Haha it was so crazy. I'll tell you more about it tomorrow in the weekly email but everything is fine. Our area didn't get hit too hard. Some other areas got hit really hard though. Anyway don't worry about me! Our house has a few cracks in it but we are staying here at the church tonight so we'll be safe. It's been a pretty crazy and exciting day to say the least. We're expecting some more aftershocks so keep us in your prayers especially the people because there are a lot of people suffering from this. Really don't worry about me! Im great! Let me know any questions you have about this whole thing! I love you all so much and I'll email again probably tonight and tomorrow. I dont know we'll see. I love you!!

Tagbilaran, Bohol

Arrives in Cebu, Philippines

I made it!!

I'm in Cebu!!! I can't believe it. It's so crazy. The flight was great. I slept literally 10 to 11 hours out of the total 14 hours from LA to Manila. haha I was out cold. It felt amazing but I am still dragging right now. It is so hot and humid here. I love it though. President and Sister Tanner are amazing. I love them so much. They really are the best, most humble and kind people ever. We are in the mission home right now and it is so freakin nice. Holy cow I want to stay here so bad. It's awesome and right on the coast. Anyway I don't have a lot of time to send this but I had to let you know I made it safely! Everything is great. We get our new comps and get assigned areas tomorrow morning which will be exciting. We are staying at a hotel tonight and they are going to give us a lot of time to sleep so that's good. Well I have to go! I love you all and I pray for you all the time! Hurrah for Israel!!! Oh and the people are amazing and I have met only a few. Love you all!! Thanks for all of the prayers!

 

Love, Elder Fox

Last MTC P-day!!

Pamilya!!!

I can't believe the next time i email all of you I"m going to be in the Philippines! Thats so crazy. We had to say goodbye to all of our teachers except for one yesterday and it was actually kind of sad for me. They were all so awesome and helped us so much and we won't see them anymore. I'll show you a picture of all of us. They were the best teachers ever though. Seriously they were so awesome. I can't believe it's already here. So I did get the phone mom so dont worry. That's lame that that guy was being mean about it. I got it though so that's good! I can't wait to talk to all of you on Monday!! That's going to be so awesome. I think I'm going to buy a phone card at the mtc so I can call in manila. Unless you figured the international stuff out which would be awesome. Ill buy one just in case. Anyway this week has been awesome! Just like all of the other weeks! I'm loving it here especially here at west campus. It's so much fun. I see Elder Mathie, Elder Caine, and Elder Murphy all the time well I guess not Elder Caine and Elder Murphy becasue they left but I used to see them all the time. So crazy story! We were playing basketball and there was a loose ball and Elder Howell went running after it and two othere elders did the same and they accidentally tripped him and he fell and fractured both of his elbows. They aren't really bad fractures but it's a five week recovery and the doctor and disrict president decided it was best if he went home to recover and then straight out to the philippines after. How crazy is that!? Don't worry I don't go after those loose balls for that reason. Too many stupid injuries could happen just like that. I can't believe he's going home though! He's going to see his family and stuff. Anyway so that's the crazy story. So I have a bunch of great things to tell you. Here in the mtc it's like having general conference all the time. It's so awesome! We have devotionals and meetings all the time. I mean nothing can compare to general conference (which is this weekend and I'm so excited!!) obviously but it's pretty awesome. Oh so they watch general conference in the Philippines a week after we do so I'm going to be watching it two weeks in a row! How awesome is that?! Alright so I have a lot of spiritual things to tell you so here I go. So we had mission conference which is basically stake conference. We get to hear from the presidency of the MTC and it's really good. Some notes I took are "You will never know the amount of good you did while in the service of the Lord."-President Hinckley. "The Book of Mormon is the most correct book on Earth."- Joseph Smith. We hear this a lot but do we realize what he is saying? It fiinally hit that he is saying it is the most correct book on earth. That there is no other history book or anything that is more correct. How amazing is that? My love of the Book of Mormon has grown so much. I love it. I love it. It feels my soul with peace joy and happiness and with an fire from the Spirit. That leads into another one of my notes. President Nally, the mtc president said, "there is a power that will flow into your life as soon as you start a consistent study of it(Book of Mormon)." That is so true. If you study it everyday you will feel a power come into your life. I know it will because it has in mine. I love the Book of Mormon and I love Joseph Smith. Sunday Devotional was great. We had the provo temple president and his wife come and they talked about the temple. She quoted President Hinckley who said, "I promise you, come to the temple and life will be better for you." She also quoted President Monson who said, "Come to the temple and place your burdens on the Lord and you will be blessed with a new spirit and new courage. He will take you by the hand and walk you step by step to happiness and to Celestial glory." Pretty amazing quotes about the temple by two prophets of God which means by Heavenly Father himself. Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ promise that if we go to the temple life will be better, that They will give us courage and a new spirit, and that They will lead us by the hand to happiness and back to Them. No matter what we do in this life. No matter how faithful we are or how many people we've served, or whatever, our Father in Heaven and our Savior will bless us more than we put in. We can't ever repay Them for all that They bless us with or have done for us or continue to do for us. I testify that They love us so much. I know They know us and love us. I know it and I'm so grateful, beyond grateful for all They do for me. I will always be indebted to Them. The president of the provo temple, President Daines, quoted I believe Elder Neal A. Maxwell who talked about three ways you can tell if what youre doing is important. He said," 1. Is what youre doing true? 2. Is what youre doing important? 3. Is what youre doing urgent?" President Daines said missionary work and temple work are those three things. These are the things that should be most important in our lives. For sunday night film I went to President Uchtdorf (yes he was awesome) but I don't know that title of it which i'm mad about but that's okay. Here are a few notes I took. He said magnifying your calling is going beyond your talents. You go beyond your talents becasue the Lord is with you. He also said "never tire of the first principles of the gospel." He then said this about Preach My Gospel. He said,"read, study, and share as an investigator, as if you are converting yourself, and you will." He then promised this, "I promise that if you do this, Satan and his attacks will have no power against your testimony." Preach My Gospel isn't just for missionaries. It's for everyone. How amazing is that promise from an apostle of the Lord that if we read it and study it and share it Satan will have no power over us. He ended with an Apostolic blessing, blessing us that we will be protected and we will be guided. It was amazing. Tuesday Devotional was also awesome. We had Elder DAvid S. Baxter come and speak to us and he was amazing. He had a Scottish/British accent and it was so freakin awesome. Haha it was so cool. Anyway he was converted to the church at the age of twelve by two missionaries and the first thing he said was "thank you...thank you...thank you for choosing to serve." You could tell that he was so grateful to those missionaries that brought him the gospel. I'll tell you more about that in a sec. He said, "there should be a light in your eyes from the burning in your soul." That gave me chills and it just did again. That was so powerful to me. I can't explain it, I just hope that it hits all of you like it did me. "There should be a light in your eyes from the burning inside your soul." He went on to talk about how the world doesnt think we are christian and the reasons they don't and the reasons we are. He just layed it down. It was awesome. He took all of the views of the world and disproved them with scripture after scripture and with his testimony. It was amazing. I wish I could write all of the things he said. So he ended with this. He said (and I'm paraphrasing) "for the last few moments I would like to talk to all of you as if i'm talking to the two missionaries that taught me the gospel." I wish I could repeat everything he said becasue it was so sweet but this is what I have. He said "thank you, thank you, thank you." And then he got really emotional. "I could never repay the debt I owe you, I will love you forever. Thank you, you truly have changed the future." This touched me so much. this is the reason I'm out here. This is why, to change the future of someone's life. I can't tell you how nice it is to feel appreciated as a missionary. It feels so good to have someone thakn you like that, or just talk to you on the street, or wave at you, or honk, or anything. Its a lot of work and we are away from home and it feels so good to be noticed. So whenever you see a missionary talk to them!! Wave, smile, honk, thank them for their service! there is nothing better than it out here. But yeah it was amazing to hear how grateful he was for the missionaries. I can't wait to go out and serve the Filipinos. I love this gospel. I'm so grateful for it. I know it's true. I love my Savior and my Heavenly Father. I am so grateful for Them and all They do for me. For Their mercy and love that They've shown me. I miss you all and I love you so much!! "Watch and pray!! Vanquish every foe today!!" I love you and pray for all of you all the time! Love you!!!

-Elder Fox