Reporting Home: Elder Fox

Alrighty, I'm not going to lie. I don't like typing a novel every week. I'll do my best to tell you about my awesome week with the patience that I do have write now. (ha!ha!)Last Monday we played Basketball as a district and I'm sad to say that I have lost all of my skills that I gained in the MTC from playing everyday. This week was really hot outside... it got up to 105 degrees 2 of the days. Pretty difficult to work in and I'm not too excited because its just starting and they say that in the heat of the summer it gets up to 115 here in Monclova.

I hope them trees don't die so that they can give me some kind of shade.

The highlight of the week was with an investigator named Alejandra and her family. I have never seen someone so excited to learn about the gospel before. Since lesson 1 last week Alejandra has progressed like
crazy! She read up until 2 Nephi in the Book of Mormon, memorized the Relief Society Theme, and asked where she could buy a hymn boo? I think we will just give her one as a gift in the near future. She was incredibly excited to be baptized this SundAY. She is a larger lady and when we told her that we didnt have baptismal clothing that fit her she told us not to worry about it and went and bought her own. On Friday night they invited us to dinner to celebrate her baptism. The lord truly has prepared this person to hear the gospel message! Her life has completely changed around in 2 weeks. She told us that most likely this week should would finish the Book of Mormon! Oh and don't worry! she hasn't even been confirmed yet and has already paid her tithing. She is Awesome!! She showed us a lot of gratitude this past week for what we have done for her and the happiness that we have brought into her life has also changed ME. Sunday is called the Day of Rest.... haha...uh... Not for us missionaries!! Its the most stressful day of the week for sure! Because all of the work that you do during the week is so that you can have a successful Sunday with investigators in church, baptisms, and confirmations. We had it all this week!!! Including a 12 hour notice on Saturday night from the bishop that we would be speaking on Sunday morning during sacrament meeting. Man! Talk about stress. We only had one car to take all of our investigators to church so we had to make a few trips. Brenda (baptism last week) wasn't ready when we got to her house to pick her up for her confirmation, so we had to wait a little and I was sure that we weren't going to make it to church on time to confirm her. When we arrived at the chapel they had just got done passing the sacrament and in the same moment that the bishop stood up to announce the program, I walked in the door with Brenda and signaled to the bishop from the back of the chapel that we would be confirming her. MAN talk about timing!! The bishop was a little confused but announced it. Without even finding a seat, me and Elder Mendoza walked up to the stand and confirmed her a member of the church. I performed the ordinance which was the first time in my life and was an awesome experience! I gave a 15 minute talk on Examples to Others as members of the church. My Spanish has gotten 20 times better since I've been here in Monclova. I feel blessed. We had 2 Baptisms after church: Ricardo (10 years old) and Alejandra.What an amazing day and it all worked out! The power of prayer works and is truly the key to missionary work for me right now. I have feltguided by the spirit in many situations this week and have understood the importance of being worthy of the spirit. I love this work! And I'm grateful I still have 14 months to soak it all up! Love ya all!!

Elder Fox