How Great Thou Art

Hello everyone!!!

I hope everyone had an awesome week!! I can't believe Matthew is already coming home! thats amazing. tell him hi for me and Mckade too! so quick update on water and power situation. Power is still on which has been really nice and we have water for showering, dishes, and toilet, and we have drinking water so things are back to normal here in tagbilaran! Finally! this has definitely made me appreciate power and water a lot more. but yeah so things are good here. I forgot to tell you one thing about the typhoon and Elder Andersen. I can't believe i forgot this. I don't know if you heard from someone else but when Elder Andersen came to Bohol and spoke to the people he left a blessing on Bohol that the people here would be able to recover from the earthquake. as you all know, the typhoon was headed straight toward bohol. we were supposed to be destroyed but at the last moment the typhoon shifted north and missed the island. I was talking to an elder and he said that he heard there was like a bubble of low pressure air or something sitting over bohol and apparently typhoons can't go through low pressure air and that's what caused it to shift up. whether that last part is true or not, we know that bohol was spared by divine power. It was no coincidence that the typhoon shifted and missed us here. Pretty amazing. this is the power of the priesthood and this leads me into one of the things I wanted to share. On sunday, we taught brother J., the one we baptized, and his wife's sister M. we taught them about priesthood. the whole lesson my eyes were opened a little and I was able to see how lucky we are and what a blessing it is that we have the priesthood. How lucky we are that God would trust us enough to give us HIs power. He trusts me, a nineteen year old kid, to use it the way He would. It's so humbling to think about. so after the lesson, sister Mary Lou asked if we could give her a blessing as she is pregnant and is having a hard time with sickness and stuff. I was expecting her to ask elder murdock to give her the blessing becasue he has known her for longer and he does most of the teaching but she asked me to do it. I don't know why but I was meant to give that blessing. that morning I was scrolling through my ipod for talks to listen to and I saw "Healing the sick" by elder Oakes. I was like hm i bet thats good but I clicked on another talk instead. the spirit kept telling me to listen to that one by Elder Oakes though. the thought kept coming to me, "you might give a blessing tonight." I thought to myself yeah probably not, who am i going to bless tonight? but I followed the spirit and listened ot the talk. Haha and look at what happened. I gave a blessing. anyway, for some reason I was supposed to give the blessing. I think it was to teach me about the priesthood and to humble me. I learned that we are given the priesthood to bless the lives of others. that is why we are given it. It taught me humility becasue, well, it's humbling giving a blessing. you don't know what to say before hand and you don't feel adequate to give the blessing but then the spirit takes over and you then know what to say. It was a humbling and amazing experience. well i'm almost out of time and I didn't get to say a lot of things I wanted to say! Ill try to get through them quickly. Elder Ecohawk of the area presidency here in the philippines came yesterday for Mission tour. mission tour is basically a day of workshops or talks given by elder ecohawk and president tanner and others. It was amazing!! Ill have to write some of notes next week becasue  i don't have my notebook with me but it was an amazing day! ONe of the things we did at mission tour was we had a choir and we sang How Great Thou Art. It was so powerful. I love this song. I'll just end with the fourth verse. It says, "When Christ shall come, with shout of acclamation, and take me home, what joy shall feel my heart! Then I shall bow in humble adoration and there proclaim, my God how great Thou art." Christ will and is coming. I know He lives. He is my Savior, Lord, and King. I know He suffered for each of us in the garden and on the cross. I love Him and I will forever serve Him. I know this gospel is true. I know that we can have joy in this life if we are obedient and serve Heavenly Father. I love you all and pray earnestly for each of you! I pray that you all will be supported in your challenges and trials and I know you will be. I know that we will always win if we trust in Him. I love you all!! thank you so much for your prayers and emails!! they help more than you know. I love you!!

Love,

Elder Fox

Power!!

Hello everyone!!

We have power back!! Well not completely but a lot more than we have had! I think they are finally figure it out which is good and I heard that by Dec 24 it will be completely back! Best Christmas present ever! Now our only problem is that we have no water. We are running really low on drinking water and we have no running water. Our land lady has brought over some water the past couple days so we could shower. Oh that reminds me. yesterday she brought over some water but it was looking like it was going to rain. I wanted to save water so I waited to see if it would rain and it did so I ran out and started showering in the rain in our backyard haha. then the rain stopped and so I had to use some of the water to finish. It was pretty fun though. anyway so that's our biggest problem right now but i'm sure it will be fine and we will get by. the Lord will provide for us as He has been already. so yeah that's the update on the power and water situations. We have two elders living with us now. I don't know if ive told you that but if not then I have now. They are both Filipino. One of them is awesome and really funny and the other one is awesome but he is a snooper. He is always looking through our stuff and "borrowing" it. I don't know it's super annoying but Elder Murdock and I are trying to just let it go and love him. It's been kind of tough so far. That's okay though! Elder Murdock is stil the man. We were talking last night about just how awesome our companionship is. We both just get along so well and we have so much fun. Seriously we have found the balance of working hard but having fun. It's the best. I'm sad that this will be my last transfer with Him. Dad you asked about my district too. My district is the best! I love my district. They are all so awesome. We have some new people in the district from transfers but we have a lot that have stayed. It's so nice to have a great district and so much fun. We have awesome zone leaders too! I'm super close to Elder Wiscombe and the other two are awesome too. We have three because one of them was the AP, Elder Cabrera and he extended his mission so he could work in the field but anyway they are awesome! our investigators are doing well. We found some rides to church for some of them so they should be coming now which will be awesome! We met a man that is super elect. He was so excited to listen to us and to learn about the gospel. He said that to us and he had so many questions. His excitement got us even more excited and at one point he was like "you like answering my questions huh!?" and we were like yeah we do! haha it was funny and awesome. He is really prepared. So I've had some really cool experiences in my personal studies the past couple days that I want to share with all of you. The biggest thing that I've learned so far on my mission is I've learned a lot about the Savior and our Father in Heaven. I've learned a lot about who They are and what They've done for us and will continue to do for us. this has now become my goal for the rest of my mission and for the rest of my life. That is to learn of the Savior and our Father and to know Them better everyday. I started the past week to pray for a deeper understanding of who the Savior was, is, and will be. Also a deeper understanding of what is going to happen in the future. My prayers have been answered as Ive desired, prayed, and studied. I'm beginning to see who He was, is, and will be and what is to come in the near future. I know there is so much that we don't know but that we can know if we seek diligently. The Savior said, "take my yoke upon you, LEARN OF ME, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and I will give you rest." He has invited us to learn of Him. I looked up the definition of learn and it says to gain knowledge of, or to study. so we must gain a knowledge of Him and study Him. That is the invitation and if we do our souls will have rest. I can't tell you the things that ive learned and felt as I've strived to learn of Him. My relationship with Him and with Heavenly Father have grown so much. I love Them. I love Them. I know They love me and They love all of us. I invite all of you to learn of Them. To earnestly seek knowledge of Them. There is no greater thing that we can do in this life than to know Them. We know Them by serving Them. just like the scripture says, How knoweth the man the master whom he has not served? We know Them by serving Them and by seeking to know Them through prayer, and study of the scriptures. The other thing that has been hitting me in the face during personal study is that the Savior is coming soon. Almost every personal study that ive had in the past couple months I've felt the Savior is coming soon, prepare now. He is coming sooner than we think. I can't wait for that day when He comes to reign on earth. The day that I get to see Him and fall at His feet and touch His wounds. The day that Satan is bound and we live peaceably with one another. I look forward to that day and that day will come and iscoming soon. So for now we need to prepare. We need to constantly fortify ourselves every day. We need to share the gospel with everyone we can. I was so touched and so excited to hear about all of you taking cookies around to the neighbors. That is so awesome and those are the things that make the biggest difference. Those are the things that the Savior asks us to do. I'm so grateful for all of you and for your examples of serving the Lord by serving others and hearkening the call to hasten the work. I love you all so much. I love the Savior. I love our Father in Heaven. I love this work that we are all a part of. What a great work it is! I love this gospel and I'm so grateful for it. I know it's true. I know that we will live together for eternity and I am so grateful for that. I love all of you and am so grateful for you! I pray for you daily! Thank you for your prayers and emails! I love you!!
-Elder Fox

 57 lb lunka (jackfruit) 

1st Transfer Week!

Hello Everyone!!!

Time just continues to fly here in the field! I can't believe it's pday again! This last week has been an awesome one! Before I tell you about it I'll answer some of your questions. Dad you wondered about emailing and laundry and showering and the weather. There are internet places all around the city and so we go to one of those and pay for two hours or whatever. A lot of them have been shutdown because of the lack of power so it's been harder to find a place to email. We are spoiled here in Tagbilaran and have a laundry shop place that we take our stuff to which is really nice. We can't take our garments though becasue the people aren't endowed so we have to wash those by hand. Its a pain but it's fine. Other missionaries have to wash everything. I'm sure I will later on in my mission. We shower everyday. We have a shower head which is really nice. But after the storm we havent been able to get water to shower until today so weve been showering in our backyard with rainwater. Haha it's actually kind of fun. But we have water now so it's all good. the weather is well... hot haha. It rains really hard and just random times. You can't every predict the rain here. It will be super hot and humid and sunny and then the next moment it's pouring rain and the next moment it's super hot and humid and sunny. It's crazy. I love the weather though. It's nice. Mom you were wondering Tacloban missionaries, power rationing here in Bohol and group email with my friends. Yeah Connor set up a group email so it's awesome. We just say a couple lines every week to everyone. Its way fun to hear from all of them. Some of us email each other outside of the group email too whcih is fun. They are rationing power here in Bohol. Our power gets switched on and off at random times. Right now we have power but tonight we wont. Its a pain but I'm just grateful that we get power once in a while. The other question I will answer in this email. Alright here's the update on the past week. Oh first of all i think I forgot to tell you about something a few weeks ago. Or maybe I didn't. i don't know. I can't ever remember if I told you guys or not. If i have I'm sorry but if not than here you go. Elder Rainey when he was staying with us bought a 57 pound jackfruit! It was huge!! I'll have to send pictures but it was gigantic! We are in a sketchy internet place so I'm kind of scared to send pictures from here so it might have to be next week but i'll sned pictures! It was awesome though. Alright now onto this week. We had zone conferene and zone interviews last thursday and friday which was awesome! Pres Tanner and the AP's and our ZL's gave workshops and they were all so awesome. President Tanner talked to us about maybe pulling all the missionaries out of Bohol becasue of lack of power and water but he said it was up to us. We all decided that we could survive and make it work here so we are staying. But anyway the workshops were amazing! I forgot my notes so I can't write some of them down but one thought that kept popping into my head the whole time

 was "I want My children back. I want them back." I know that God loves all of His children. i know that He wants all of His children, all of us, to be happy. I know that He will do anything for us to be happy. If we are ever suffering or feel like we are in bondage to sin, or sadness, or lonliness or whatever, I know that He can and will deliver us. I know that living the gospel and relying on Jesus Christ is the only way to have happiness. Christ is the way, the only way. I love Him and have learned so much about Him on my mission so far. So on Friday we had zone interviews which is interviews with Pres Tanner. He is so awesome. We were low on time so mine wasn't very long but he is just the man. He is so nice and so loving. He just told me that he is there any time I need him. he said I can call him about anything, about my joys, sadness, disappointments, anything. he said, you are never an inconvenience Elder Fox. The whole interview was like that. he talked a little about PMG. He said we are the last army to go out and gather His children and preach my gospel is the latter day tool that has been given to us to help us gather His children and so we must use it and use it often. I thought that was really cool. I have started really studying it and I encourage all of you to do the same. Read it and study it every day. So then saturday we had the baptism which was awesome!! The font water was disgusting so we almost got to do it in the ocean but then we didn't which was super lame. We were really hoping we could do in the ocean! the baptism was amazin though. The spirit was so strong. Jesse bore his testimony and got pretty emotional. It was an amazing experience. he was so happy. You could tell by just looking at him. It was so cool to see. So then Sunday I spoke in church! My heart has never pounded that hard in my life haha. I didn't even feel that nervous but my heart was going crazy. I could see it pounding through my shirt. The talk went well though. Sorry I'm running out of time so I'm racing through everything. Monday we had transfer calls! It was so exciting to see where everyone was going. The zone leaders put me on the board to mke it look like i was transferring but it was a bluff.
but we got some Tacloban missionaries in our district and zone which is cool! Elder Chamberlain, the one that knows the Olsens, is the new AP! He is so awesome. I love Elder Chamberlain. Alright well I have to wrap it up. I know this gospel is true. I know it is. I know the Savior lives and is coming soon. He is coming sooner than we realize. I know we need to do everything we can to prepare physically and spiritually for what is to come. We have to fortify ourselves, and our families. I know that if we trust in Him, we have no need to fear the future. Our Savior and our Heavenly Father will take care of everything. Everything works out for our good as we trust in Them. I love Them and I know Them. I'm so grateful for all They do for me each day. Im so grateful to have the chance to serve Them. I love all of you! Thanks for everything, your prayers and emails! I pray for you constantly! I love you!!

Love, Elder Fox

Typhoon and Earthquake Clean Up

After the Typhoon!

Hello everybody!!

I found a place that has a generator so I can email today! Our house is still out of power which stinks. Where to start? Mom you had some questions so I'll start by answering those. So the day of the storm we just stayed inside all day like i said before. We had our normal studies and the whole time just anticipated the huge storm we heard was coming. There was some strong wind from about 9 to 2 but not strong enough that it did any damage. There was one tree that we both thought was going to snap in half but never did. This is going to sound bad but we were kind of excited to see what 200 kph wind or whatever was like. Little did we know how much damage it could do. Now we wouldve been more scared I think but at the time we felt pretty safe and kind of excited. yeah so we just sat there and ate food and studied and talked and anticipated the storm that never came. When nothing really happened we thought that they had gotten the prediction wrong or whatever. But later we found out that it shifted up and just missed Bohol and destroyed Tacloban and northern Cebu. Yeah so no damage here in Tagbilaran which was a real blessing. We have plenty of food and water and it was only Elder murdock and I in the apartment. Lets see what else. Oh what we eat everyday. We eat a lot of pancit which is like top ramen. We eat that all the time. That and rice and peanut butter. I just got some homemade peanut butter which is insanely good. Were spoiled here in Tagbilaran because we have so many restaurants. So many good ones. We have mcdonalds, pizza hut, greenwich pizza place, jollibee, and a bunch of other good filipino restaurants. We are really spoiled. I usualy eat oatmeal for breakfast. I can't believe Savannah went through all of that. That's unbelievable. She sent me a nice letter a couple weeks ago. It was so nice of her. I hope she recovers well. That's so nice of Aaron to do that! And his mom! Can you get his email from her so I can email him. Okay James are you for real!? Pick almost freakin six at a clutch moment in the game! That's my bro! and you are playing in rice eccles! Gosh that is so sweet! I wish I could be there so bad! Youre killin me bro! Go destroy East! Light them up! You can do it. You should send me the vidoe of your pick and the video of the crazy last second play! Oh mom or dad will you pay my tithing on the money we got from all of the people in the ward? I don't think we did. And I LOVE the picture of Christ you gave me. Seriously that is one of my favorite pictrues. Thank you so much! 

Sorry I'm just going down a list of things I wanted to remember to write about so sorry if they are random and not connected. Oh I saw Jeffrey Barton in conference! I don't think I ever said taht but I saw him in priesthood and it was so awesome! I loved seeing him! I've gotta tell you one last thing before the spiritual and investigator update. There is an elder in my mission named Elder Wiscombe. He was AP and now he's my zone leader. he is awesome. Anyway we made a crazy connection. He came up to me and asked me if I did scouts and I was like yeah. And then he asked what camps I went to and I named bear lake and the others. and then he said that he was a camp counselor at Bear Lake aquatics and we think that he was one of my teachers! We both recognize each other from somewhere and taht must be it. It's so crazy! That was so long ago. I can't believe we met there and then here in the same mission! Anyway pretty cool. So we have my first baptism on Saturday!! I don't know if i've told you about him. Maybe I have i don't know. But he was supposed to be baptized like 5 weeks ago but hasnt been able to becasue of conference one weekend, district conf. another, the earthquake, and the typhoon! It's been crazy but it's finally happening! He is an amazing man. He was a heavy drinker before but instantly gave it up as soon as he learned the word of wisdom. AFter he learned about the Sabbath day he went and asked his boss if he could just have the day to go to church. Not just part day for church but the whole day to spend time with his wife. And his boss said okay. He just humbly does whatever we teach. i can't really take credit for him becasue he was taught before i came but still it's been amazing to see. He has great potential to become a great leader in the church. While we were emailing last night i met some guy so speaks really good english so that's why i could talk to him haha. But he asked why I was there and what we do as missionaries. He said that he is searching and testing religions to find which one is true or right or whatever. He said he hasn't tried out ours and so I invited him to come to church and then asked if we could visit him and he said yes! Elder Murdock and I are really excited about him becasue he is searching for the truth just like Joseph Smith and he will find it and recognize it on Sunday and when we teach him. It's amazing how the Lord placed him in our path. Oh speaking of sunday guess who is speaking? I am. yep and all in Visaya. I'm speaking on strenthening the missionary work. I've pretty much written it now I just have to translate it. The work is good here and it's going to get better and better as we work harder. The investigators we teach are all awesome and have committed to baptism but they still don't come to church. We are praying and we continue to commit them to come. We know that the Lord will answer our prayers and they will come. One last thought before I have to get off. I have a couple scripture references that I've come across the past couple days. One is Mosiah 7:33 and the other Alma 36:3. I don't have time to write them in here so go read them but I testify that they are true. I know that if we turn to the Lord and if we trust in Him that He will support us through our trials, challenges, and stresses and in His time, He will eventually deliver us. I know that that is true. I've seen it many times in my life and I'm seeing it now on my mission. I know that through Him all things are possible. I know that if we can just trust Him and believe Him, we will live happy lives. It's true. I'm so grateful for Him. I love Him and I know He loves me and all of you. I know that becasue I know Him. I hope and pray for the best for all of you all the time! I love you all so much! thank you for your prayers and your support in your emails and packages. I love you!

Love, Elder Fox

 "I bet you all didn't know I'm iron man and Joseph Smith? haha"

A man climbing and cutting the trees without any ropes!

Typhoon Haiyan

Hello everyone!!

Wow what a first month in the philippines? Crazy! So quick update on the past few days. We were all told that the storm would hit friday and to prepare by getting extra food and water which we did. We stayed in our house all day friday. They said that we were expecting winds up to about 200 kilometers per hour here in Bohol which was crazy and pretty scary. We weren't too worried though becasue we felt like our house was solid.  If i knew how much damage that kind of wind can doi wouldve been more scared. Anyway the storm never hit here in Tagbilaran. I don't think it really hit too hard anywhere in Bohol. I heard that the storm shifted north and just missed us which is such a blessing especially after hearing what happened in Tacloban. Oh man I can't believe how hard Tacloban got hit. So sad. We heard that 78 missionaries and the mission president have been found and they're okay but that means there are about 120 missionaries that they havent been able to locate yet. Please continue to pray for them and their families and the people in Tacloban. I think northern Cebu got hit hard too. But yeah so we are all safe down here. We went a couple days without power and people are scrambling for water but other than that there wasn't any damage. So I'm safe and there's nothing to worry about! When I heard a typhoon was coming I didn't know it was this dangerous or could do this much damage. I'm sure you all know from the news but Tacloban got hit with winds up to 315 kph so about 200 mph. Thanks for all of your prayers and emails! continue to pray for those in Tacloban because they need it. i love you all so much! 

Love, Elder Fox

Typhoon!

Hello Everyone!!

So just when we thought an earthquake was all we were going to get, we have a typhoon!! Well we haven't yet but we are expecting one within the next day or two. How crazy is this? An earthquake and now a typhoon! Dont worry I'll be safe. We are going to get a bunch of food and water after this just in case we are stuck in our houses for a while. We might be stuck in our houses for a day or two. I'm not telling you this to make you worry. Please don't worry. I'll be safe inside our house. But it's crazy that we have another big thing like this! The Lord is really helping us out here by humbling the people. Hopefully they are humble and receive us. Okay so Jimmer heck yeah on the win man! Are you for real!? That is the sickest play that Ive ever heard of and 17 tackles! Man that is so awesome! I got chills and little bit of tears when I read that. I'm so mad I couldn't be there but I'm so glad that you tore it up and got the W! I hope you double tapped that helmet of yours all 17 times! haha. Go get Logan this week! I'll be praying for you. So I know youve sent a bunch of packages so no pressure in sending another one soon okay? Seriously you don't have to becasue it's expensive to send and I'm not in a rush to get this stuff. but when you do send a package instant food stuff would be awesome. Like Mountain House stuff or instant potatoes. Instant potatoes is the big one but things like that would be awesome. But again no rush in sending them okay? Oh and pop rocks becasue the kids love pop rocks. So a quick review of the past week. Nothing that big has happened. Elder Murdock and I got hammocks though! They are sweet. We hook them up in our house and just chill when we get home at night. Its awesome. We also got pants made and they are sweet!! they are a light gray and have a tint of blue and they are so thin and so awesome. What else. Oh we got to ride on the top of a multicab! It was so fun! Don't worry I was safe! It was so fun though. Oh yeah we were walking around one night and we saw a group of kids so we went over to them and they were freaking out. They were all trying to talk with us and trying to get us to do magic and asking us questions and giving us high fives (they love high fives here). Anyway so we said we would come back another day and when we said that they all screamed "yay!!! yay!!" It was so funny. We started laughing so hard. it was like if santa said he was coming back to a bunch of kids. So i think that's it for the quick overview. Dad you asked in your email if we have been able to teach and if we have promising investigators and we have been able to and we have quite a few! It's been awesome. We;'ve  been able to find quite a few new peole to teach lately. yesterday we were walking down a road and a family yelled hello to us so we went over to talk to them. they were catholic and they invited us to sit down. We talked for a little bit and then we asked if we could share a message with them. they said we could and so we taught them the first lesson. I actually taught some of it too. ive been able to teach the first lesson a couple times actually which has been scary but cool. Anyway so they seemed super interested the whole time. We asked them if they would come to church this sunday and they said yes and then started asking questions about what they need to wear, if their little kids could come, and what we do in the meetings. so yeah they seemed really interested and really great. We are teaching them on Friday. I hope they work out because it would be a family and a whole family is rare and it would be so awesome! Their last name is Torralba. We also have a couple other investigators that are very promising and have committed to baptism. the only thing keeping them from being baptized is they need to come to church. but the work is hastening here in Tagbilaran as it is all over the world. Elder Murdock and i talked about the second coming this past week. Christ is coming and is coming soon. The time is now. It's hit me so hard out here how soon He is coming. We have to preapare and fortify ourselves. Alma 9:26 is one of the scriptures that Elder Murdock shared with me. There will be a lot of things that start to happen and have already started happening here, like this earthquake and typhoon. The Lord has promised us thousands of times though that if we keep His commandments, we will prosper in the land. I studied Mosiah chapter two today and King Benjamin talked all about this. Go read it and study it. It's a powerful chapter. I'm almost out of time so I have to wrap it up but I know this gospel is true. I know it with all my heart. I know that Christ lives and that He is coming soon. This work, this fight, this gospel, God's plan for us is real. It's all real and true. I know it is. D&C 122:9 "Therefore, hold on thy way, and the priesthood shall remain with thee; for their bounds are set, they cannot pass. They days are known, and they years shall  not be numbered less; therefore, fear not what man can do, for God shall be with you forever and ever." I know that the Lord is with us and will be forever and ever if we love Him and follow Him and keep His commandments. I know that He is the only way to true happiness and eternal life with our Heavenly Father and each other. I love and pray for you all! Thank you for all of the emails! I love hearing from you! I love you so much!
Love, Elder Fox

Elder Murdock

 Zone

 Balut

 Riding on top of a multicab 

Cebu, Philippines Temple