Submit Ourselves to the Lord

Famiy and Friends!

Another great week here in Inabanga with Elder McQuiston! Really quickly there have been some changes in our weekly schedule here in the mission. so pday has been moved to monday now so we will be like every mission here in the Philippines. I'm kind of disappointed in this because I really like pday on wednesday but that's okay monday will be good too! i think that's about the only change that affects all of you. But yeah so next monday i should be emailing. Quick update on the B Family. They are doing great still. Espcially one of them. She just eats up everything we throw at her. She also thinks about everything and asks good questions. Our last visit to them we taught about the third question of the Plan of Salvation, "where do we go after death?" After we taught about the three kingdoms and stuff she told us that she had a big question to ask us. Elder McQuiston talked about that moment after and we said when she said that we were pretty scared of what she was going to ask. We thought it was going to be major concern she has or something. But she said something like this, "How do we get to the Celestial Kingdom? What is the gospel of Jesus Christ. we know we have to repent but a lot of churches know that but they will only go to the Terrestrial kingdom. So what are they lacking? What do we need to do?" Man let me just tell you how nice it was to hear those words. That was music to our ears. We then told her that the lessons coming up in the following visits would answer that big question of hers. I'm so excited to go back and visit. So that's the update on the B Family. quick update on district leader. I gave another workshop last monday and it didn't go to well. It wasn't bad but I didn't feel very good about it which was kind of disappointing but that's okay there's always another one. I know the Lord is with me and if we turn to Him in weakness and humility He will make that weakness strong. That is His promise and He cannot lie so why should we doubt? I know that He loves us and is there to help us and to save our souls. We don't ever have to do anything on our own as long as we are humble and submit ourselves before Him. I'm grateful for the Book of Mormon. I know it's true. I know that if we want to learn of Christ and grow closer to Him then we need to read the Book of Mormon. I am so grateful for the prophets who took time to write it and for Mormon who abridged it for all of us and for Joseph Smith who by the power of God translated it. I know he was a prophet of God. I know that the true and pure gospel of Jesus Christ was restored through him. I love him and am grateful for him. This church is true and Christ is at the head. I love all of you and pray for you! Have a great week!

Love, Elder Fox

Instruments in the Lord's Hands

Family and Friends!

This week has been a great week and I have quite a bit to tell all of you. First of all happy birthday Dad and then Mom on saturday! You are the best Mom and Dad in the whole world and I can't tell you how much I love both of you and how grateful I am for both of you. So first off I think one of you asked how the heat was last week and I don't think I answered but it is so hot here it's not even funny! I mean it's always hot but now it's technically summer and it got ten times hotter. It's like an oven with moisture in the air. But it's better than cold and so it's all good. So I have to tell you about one of our areas in our area that is just taking off. The area is Badiang and there is a recent convert family that lives there. so we visited them the other week and they said that some of their neighbors wanted to listen to us. They said that they had talked to their neighbors about the gospel and about us. They are an awesome family. So one day we contacted one of the families, the B. family. Let's just say that they are really elect and were really prepared to listen. Since that first visit we have visited them two or three other times and they have committed top be baptized on May 24th! It's been amazing. These type of people let along families are very rare to find in the mission. They told us that a couple people from the Catholic church came over to there house and wanted to do bible study and the family told them that they were Mormons and didnt want to listen. Haha how funny and awesome is that! So yeah Elder McQuiston and I are pretty excited about them to say the least. This experience has also made me realize that as missionaries we really don't do anything. We really are just the instruments in the Lord's hands and it's His hands that do the work, not us. I'm so grateful for the knowledge I have that we are in His hands, that He is "before our face" and will never leave us. Being district leader has kind of been stressful for me so far. I'm kind of young to be a district leader and so i feel inadequate to do the assignment. But it's been amazing to see the power of the Atonement work in my life and help me fulfill the assignment. I gave my first workshop this last monday which was nice to get it done and the first one under my belt. I was kind of nervous for it and I just prayed that the Lord would give me His spirit and would guide and direct my words and that's exactly what He did. I could feel His strength and Spirit and guidance. I'm so grateful for Him. I'm been so humbled out here. Having the responsiblities of a missionary put upon me and knowing that I can't do it alone. It's been very humbly but very amazing to see the Savior's hand lift me and strengthen me and enable me to do. I'm not even close to perfect, nor will i ever be, but I know that my efforts and desires are enough becasue of the Atonement. I love the Savior. I know He lives and loves us. I know this is His gospel. I love you all so much! Thanks for all of your prayers and emails!

Love, Elder Fox

First Week in Inabanga!

Family and friends!!

     This has been an awesome first week in Inabanga with Elder McQuiston! The highlight of the week was definitely conference! We finally got to watch it and it was amazing. It was like Christmas for all of us over here. It's so sad that we have to wait another six months to have it again but it's also a good thing so we can study the talks and apply them. I can't wait to get them in the Ensign so I can start studying them. We do get Liahona out here but only one english and one cebuano for each companionship and so basically we have to share the english. So some of my favorite talks from conference were Elder Oak's, Elder Uchtdorf's talks, Elder Bednar's talk, Elder Christofferson's talk, and many others. I loved them all but those are some that stood out. I really loved Elder Uchtdorf's talk on gratitude. I just loved the way he described what it means to live in gratitude. It was a powerful talk. Well I don't have much more time unfortunately. But quickly Elder Teh's talk about Bohol was cool because he talked about his visit to Tagbilaran where he spoke to us. And he talked about that 73 year old lady who I told you about in an email and she was sitting close to us during his talk. It was cool because usually you don't know the people they talk about in conference but this time i did. anyway I'll try to answer all of your questions really quickly.

     Being district leader is going well. Basically my responsibilities are to give a workshop every monday in district meeting, I'm in charge of reporting on the district to President through email each week, and I yeah just help and serve those in my district. And I receive there stats and send it to the zone leaders. That's being district leader in a nutshell. Inabanga has like nothing. It's not a city and has no grocery places or anything. We have to come to Tubigon for that stuff. But it's awesome still. I love it. We live right by a bunch of members which is awesome and we have two members that work with us every day. They are awesome. One of the members gives us massages at night. Like legit massages. It feels so good. And they basically do everything for us. You asked what we eat. For breakfast I usually eat oatmeal, for lunch I eat rice and noodles and corn beef, and for dinner pretty much the same thing haha. So yeah lots of rice, noodles, eggs and stuff like that.

     Well I'm out of time. But I have to say something because it's easter next week. I'll do an easter email next week even though it will be over but here's a little bit. I know the Savior lives. I love Him and am so grateful for His eternal sacrifice, suffering, death, and resurrection for me. Like you said Dad, the resurrection is the greatest miracle. His breaking of the bands of death shows to me and shows to all of us that He has all power, that through Him all things are possible and we can over come and break free from whatever bondage we may find ourselves in, whethere that be from sin or just life. 

He lives to bless me with His love. He lives to plead for me above. He lives to calm my troubled heart. He lives all blessings to impart.

This is why He lives, to help us along the path, to heal our souls of heartache and suffering. How grateful I am for His love. I love Him and know that He lives. I love you all and hope you all have a great week!Love, Elder Fox

Emergency Transfer

Hey everyone!

Well this has been a crazy week or last couple days I guess. Before I tell you all about it I have to say I hope you all loved conference! I'm so excited to watch it this weekend! And it will be in english which is really nice. Oh and next week I will be emailing a couple hours later than usual and on Tuesday instead of wednesday. So i will email at about 12 on TuesdayPhilippines time. We're doing that becasue we have mission tour on wed. and a zone activity tuesday. But just wanted to let you know! Anyway so this week. Monday we had a zone training meeting which is where all the missionaries in the zone meet together and the zone leaders give a workshop that President Tanner and the AP's gave to them and they give their own too. But anyway so we get there and then one of the zone leaders, Elder Cornwall came up to me and told me President Tanner was on the phone and wanted to talk to me. So i got on the phone with President and things were racing through my mind. I thought maybe something had happened at home with one of you and he was calling to tell me. So i was kind of worried but he said that a new missionary had to go home for medical reasons and that his companion needed a new companion and since i was in a threesome President asked if i would transfer to Cebu! They call that an emergency transfer by the way. how crazy is that!? I was pretty bummed becasue I hadn't been in talibon for very long and I love Talibon and we had a baptism the next day and 5 other baptisms coming up later that month. The people in Talibon are the best and I miss them a lot! But so after the meeting the zone leaders drove me to talibon to pack. I packed and then we drove down back down to Tubigon to get me on a boat. We got to the port and bought my ticket and then we get got a call from the Assistants that there would be change of plans. Well there's a little more to the story but it's kind of long. To make it short, the assistants and us figured out something that one of the district leaders did that wasn't very good. He didn't do anything bad but anyway so the assistants said that instead of me tranferring to cebu, that district leader would and i would take his place in Inabanga as district leader. So that's what happened. I am now in Inabanga with Elder McQuiston who is my batch which is so sweet! I love Elder McQuiston. and yeah I'm now serving as district leader so we'll see how that goes. But yeah it's been a crazy couple days. Things are going well here. The language is coming along. I still struggle sometimes with understanding people, well and speaking, but it's coming. Hopefully the fluency comes soon but we'll see. I don't have much more time but I just want to share my testimony of this gospel and of our Savior and our Father in Heaven. I know that this gospel is true, that it was restored through the prophet Joseph Smith by the Savior. I know that Jesus is the Christ, the Redeemer of worlds. I know that through Him and by Him we can return to live with our Heavenly Father. I don't know if i've said this before but one of my favorite things about this gospel, well i can't really choose something over the other but I love and am so grateful for the knowledge i have that God is our loving Heavenly Father. That is the first thing we teach in the missionary lessons and it's my favorite. He is our Father and He loves us. Because He loves us, He has given us His Only Begotten Son, He has given us families, He has given us prophets and apostles, and He has given us the wonderful plan of happiness. I love Him and am grateful for the things He has given me especially all of you as my family. I love all of you. I miss all of you but I know we will see each other again soon. Hurrah for Israel! God, our Father, be with you til we meet again.

Love, Elder Fox

Two New Companions!

Hey Everyone!!

This last week has been an awesome one! It was tranfer week and I got my two new companions Elders Johnson and Andres. They are so awesome. Before i tell you a little about them. I have to say happy birthday to Johnny! I already emailed him but have to give him another shout out! Happy birthday buddy! Hope it's an awesome day and hope you get some golfing in! Anyway so about my new companions. I love them both. Elder Johnson is from Montana and he and his family have a farm so they are farmers obviously. Anyway he is super energetic and pumped up about everything which is really funny and really awesome! I love it. He comes from a big family too by the way. I think there are 11 total in his family. Let's see and Elder Andres is from northern Philippines so he is a native tagalog speaker. He goes home in three transfers and Elder Johnson is my junior batch so one transfer behind me. Elder Andres is just a cool, chill, funny guy. I don't know right when they arrived I felt like we had all been together for a long time and we were all really close friends. In short, it's been really fun so far and I'm excited for the rest of the transfer. Well I'm running low on time this week so i'll make it quick. Sorry! Quickly two highlights. I had the chance to give priesthood blessings to two investigators as well which was really cool. I don't know why but it seems that I am always the one that ends up giving the blessings. Probably because I need the most pracice or something. I don't know but i'm grateful for those experiences. The power of the priesthood is real. It is the power of God given to us to bless the lives of others through administering grace to them. Also we have general conf coming up! You should all hear how excited we get out here when we talk about conf! haha it's hilarious but we are so excited! It's too bad we have to wait and extra week but I can't wait to see it! I would encourage you all to read Elder Hales talk about conference in last conference's ensign. It's powerful and very good. Conference is an amazing time and it's a brilliant thing that we have it. President Tanner has said that, and i think you said it dad in your email. Its true though and it's brilliant. We need to prepare ourselves for conference througth prayer and scripture study and make sure we are free to watch all of the sessions. I can't wait to be fed by the prophets and apostles of the Lord. How grateful I am that we have living apostles and prophets to lead and guide us in these last days. I know they have been called of God and that their words are His words. I love testifying to the people here that we have a living prophet and living apostles. Well, I'm out of time! I love you all so much! I know this church is true. I know our Savior lives. I know He lives to bring us safely home. I love Him and again can't wait to listen to His servants. I love and pray for all of you! I love this work and I love serving here in the Philippines! Have an awesome week! Hurrah for Israel!

Love, Elder Fox