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