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!!
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