Semana Veinte (Of Possum Pancakes and Ferrets!) (Greenville, it's where it's at!)

ALRIGHT! Good to be back everyone, another week come and gone, it's weird that time tends to do that....... I swear missions are some sort of demented time machine. You put in your mission papers, and BAM all of a sudden time just gets freaky. (Yes I just used the word freaky........)

But as my parents have probably made you aware, yesterday was infact Mothers Day! Now normally Mothers Day is great and all, but as a missionary it is one of only two days a year that we get to call home and video chat with our families....... So yes, a big deal. Honestly it was awesome getting to talk with the fam! I'm glad they are all still alive, including my cat, named The Cat. We had just finished this awesome porkchop dinner at our ward mission leaders house when we did the call. Nothing better than being full and talking to family you haven't spoken to in five months!

So that was all fine and dandy, well more than that, but the rest of this week has been pretty action packed! Nothing like Idabel, but hey, let's talk about it!

To fully appreciate this next story you need a little bit of background........ Elder Hiatt, my new companion, is actually a pretty big animal activiest. He has indepth studied it in the scriptures, and feels pretty strongly about his opinions. This makes itself apparent when we're driving on the road. He has a tendancy to drastically swerve to avoid birds and critters on the road. I can't count the number of times he has literally stopped the car on the road because there is a stupid squirrel in the way that refuses to move. Well the other night we were driving back to our apartment after a late dinner apointment, it's pitch black, we're out in the middle of nowhere and all of a sudden this HUGE possum sprints out into the middle of the road. In classic Elder Hiatt fashion we almost swerve off said road to avoid it, but he's forced to the turn back to keep us from wrecking. In the process this unfortunate possum made a bee-line for our left tire....... Crunch. Possum pancakes anyone? (Trust me, you don't want pictures.......) I think that experience shook up Elder Hiatt a little bit. XD

In other rodent news, some of the investigators we're teaching got a pet ferret this week!?!? Who would'da thunk!? His name is Smokey, and it turns ferrets are actually quite entertaining........ Future wife, if you're reading this we may be getting a pet ferret. Prepare yourself!

What else did we do this week........ Oh ya! We had Zone Conference on Tuesday which was awesome! I guess that's one perk of living closer to Dallas........ We don't have to drive 4+ hours to get to zone conference!! It was awesome to catch up with friends, and be spirtually uplifted!

One of my chief joys everynight in coming back to our apartment is that the third floor of our apartment complex (Our floor!) is abundant and over flowing in geckos! It's like walking into heaven everynight! There's nothing like taking a broom and literally sweeping geckos off the wall! (I feel like there should be some kind of celestial music playing whenever I do that.......)

Anways, life is good. Elder Hiatt is definitely very different from Elder Frampton and he has some, shall we say, different views about the mission, but all in all we're getting along very well! He's told several times now that out of the 23 months he's been on his mission the last couple weeks have been the happiest of his mission. I'll do my best to keep it that way!

Let's end on a good note today......... 

I was reading an address on humor the other day in this old New Era article, and it made some points about humor that I really like-

A Years Supply of Humor (August 1983)

The article up until this point had been talking about the value of humor in our lives.......

"Humor is especially valuable whenever the minutiae of daily life threaten the harmony that should be present. Too often we apply tourniquets to these annoyances when a band-aid of humor would do."

I love that.......... A band-aid of humor. I think we could all use that a little more in our lives! And so in an effort to help I want to share with you a humorous scripture that talks about why I'm out here in Greenville serving a mission.......

Proverbs 21

19 It is better to dwell in the wilderness, than with a contentious and an angry woman.

That about wraps it up folks! Have a great day and a fantabulous week!

Elder Clark Fox

Note: The aforementioned scripture contains no reference to any persons (Or Mothers.......) now living or deceased, and any similarities or conclusions are merely speculative and coincidence. I love you Mom! XD

Semana Diecinueve (Texas has two spellings, T-E-X-A-S and P-R-I-D-E........ These may be used interchangably.) (Greenville, Texas)

Hello my peoples!

Yes it's me, still here, still alive, still kick'n, just this time coming to you from across the Texas state border! 

I honestly had little idea what to expect coming in to my second area, especially since this area is actually in Texas. But now that I've been here for a week, I'm feeling ready to pump out some emails! (Which is much needed after the craziness of last Monday.........)

Speaking of last monday, lets start there! This day was probably the hardest day I've had on my mission. We drove EVERYWHERE. All the way from Valliant on the west side, to Broken Bow up north, down to Hayworth in the south-east. Why would we do so much driving? To say goodbye to some of my closest friends. That was tough. I had made so many special memories with these people. The Kedibars (Who gave me an incredible Marshallese shell necklace.....), Gene Lott, the Jennings, Brother Hammond, the Finney family, and Johnny and Debra Wilson. I'm really going to miss them. We finished packing that night and went to bed for the last time in Idabel, Oklahoma.

I could do a long detailed email of everything I did, but then I would have a very long, very boring email, and you would probably get bored and stop reading........ I agree, let's get to the good stuff!!!

Welcome to Texas everyone, land of the proud! (And no I'm not joking............) After telling our ward mission leader that I had been up in Oklahoma for the last three months, the first thing he said was quote, "You know why Oklahoma sucks?" "Because if it didn't Texas would float off into the Gulf of Mexico?" He then spent the next ten minutes explaing why Texas was superior to the rest of the nation. Texans........ You gotta love'm!

We had a BAPTISM this week for one of our investigators named Clarence Whytus!! That was pretty awesome! We went early to go clean out the baptismal font, so that was interesting! Lot's of awesome people progressing here! It's definitely different from Oklahoma, however. There are two story buildings here, and most people are not poor and broke unlike in Idabel! (That will make a big difference........)

Elder Hiatt, my new companion, is 23 months out and will be going home at the end of this transfer. So in missionary terms if you're the last companion of a missionary you "kill" them off......... So I guess I'm a murderer. You've done well mom, look at what I've amounted too!

Honestly besides that, this has been the most boring, normal week of my mission........... In Idabel you never had any idea what to expect, but here it's just kind of normal. I mean our apartment is pretty nice, and we have our own washer and dryer but that's about it! XD

Elder Hiatt is HUGE into working out, so by the end of the transfer I'll be pretty ripped, so I guess that's one thing to look forward too! But in the mean time it means I'm incredibly sore and can hardly move........ XD No, Elder Hiatt is actually a really cool guy! He came out on his mission essentially athiest, not believeing in God, but after much prayer and reading the scriptures he had a highly spiritual experience, and now he has one of the strongest testimonies of the gospel of anyone I've ever met......... I seriously feel blessed to be serving with such an experienced missionary!

Alright........ Let's get spiritual for minute. This weeks spirtual thought is coming at you from the Bible!!

Philippians 3

13 Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,

14 I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus

This is great advice for everyone at all times, but when I read this this it hit me particularly hard...... Forgetting those things which are behind. Sins we may have comitted, things we may have done. Christ has paid the price for those things, and as we come unto Christ and strive for forgiveness and to repent we need not carry that emotional and spirtual baggage with us any more. In the words of my all time least favorite, most despised movie....... "Let it go, let it go, can't hold it back anymore" (I can't believe I just quoted Frozen......... What is my life coming too........ Someone help me.)

And I want to leave that with you in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Love ya'll! Have a great week and a blessed day!

Elder Clark Fox (Who is now in the state of his mission......... Though he still considers himmself an "Okie")

1. Some green eggs a member made us to welcome us to Greenville!

2. Come on guys, it's a gecko....... I had to do something with it!

3. A gift from a close friend in Idabel.

4. Me cleaning the baptismal font.....

5. More geckos

6-7. People here sure like their Texas stickers!

8. Packing up.....

Semana Dieciocho (GREENVILLE BABY!) (Also known as many sad goodbyes......) (Week 18)

​Whelp........ It happened. I've been...... transferred. I'm not really in the mood to write much, particularly because I'm almost out of time today, but I just needed to let y'all know! :D

A couple stories from this week, Elder Frampton were talking to Keyeo Leaj (One of our investigators with a baptismal date.......) and he had this awesome 2K recording keyboard set up in his front room. We asked him 8f he played and he went and started rocking out and singing. It turns out he was a musical celebrity back in the Marshall Islands who had sold a bunch of records!!! WHAT!?!?!? Well what happened next was simply can only be described as TOTALLY AWESOME!! He told us to go record a song....... Which we did.  Elder Frampton and I had so much fun!!! We both sing the first part, and I play the epic keyboard in the second half! (Listen to all of it....... We had some technical difficulties since this was our first song.......) We were planning to record the rest of our album which would include songs like Silent Night, Scripture Power, and others but unfortunately transfers will interrupt that....... (I mean we even had an album cover picked out and everything!!) Oh well, I guess Elder Frampton and I were just a one hit wonder......

This week was EPIC y'all, but sadly I'm out of time and my batteries about dead..... Know I'm alive and looking forward to my future adventures in Greenville Texas with Elder Hiatt! Enjoy the pictures! For the rest of my life Idabel Oklahoma will always hold a special place in my heart....... So about not responding to to any of your emails this week..... Next week!

Love y'all! Enjoy the song and get ready for adventures in Greenville next week!

Elder Clark Fox