Semana Veinticinco (In Which I Raise My Nicaraguan Step-Son, Have a Photoshoot, and Set an Area Record for New Investigators......... Also Happy Fathers Day!)

Howdy folks!

I feel like we need to celebrate this email somehow....... I mean this is the 25th of these novels, I mean emails, I've sent home!! Woot woot!! This has BY FAR been one of the most eventful and crazy weeks I've had here in Texas, so let's  get down and dirty!!

Tuesday morning Elder Hiatt and I set off for Frisco, Texas. For him to fly home, and for me to pick of mi hijo amado. (My beloved son......) Now I'm sure many of you have heard about the politcal tension and even violence going on down in Nicaragua. Due to this, the church has evacuated all the missionaries from the country. Where did they all go? Well a quarter of them came to the Mighty Texas Dallas Mission, yee-hah cowboy! 

So we pulled up to the building and everyone started asking, is the rumor true? Is Elder Fox training and District Leader in Greenville? Yes, yes I am. I made my grandfather (Elder Callister) and my Great grandfther (Elder Summers) very happy when they found out they were to become Great Grandfathers and even Great Great Grandfathers. (I'm very proud of my family line......) After some training and instruction we were introduced to our trainees! And I'm proud to announce that for the next while I will be raising Elder Spencer Bailey from Springville, Utah. Now he's not brand new to the mission life. For the last seven weeks he served down in Nicaragua, but after being temporarily detained my rebels they were evactuated out of the country. So Elder Bailey, welcome to the states. And not just the states, welcome to Texas.

This guy, I mean elder, is pure fuego! (Fire.....) He is the most diligent, obedient, hard working guy I have EVER met....... I thought I was going at a good pace, but with him I hardly have time to breath. I've been given to responsibility to restart his training and adjust him to state side missionary work. (Which according to Elder Bailey is incredibly easy, different, and better......) This week alone with all the craziness of setting up his phone, facebook page, and introducing him to everyone we still managed to find 10 brand new solid investigators!! This man is a miracle worker and I'm excited to work with him!! 

The crazy part is  we knew each other before the mission and even worked together on some group projects last semester at UVU! WHAT!?!?!? It's true, for the first couple days we couldn't pin point where we knew each other from, but on the way back from district meeting it clicked. We had sat near each other all semester in a music class, and had even worked togther on the same projects. Small world. I love it.

This week was nuts. With everything I hardly feel like I have room to breath, but I'm still kicking and loving life here in Texas. I just need to keep my head above water.

I want to leave you with a quick missionary oriented verse before I end this weeks novel. I was doing some study seeking direction on where to take my district this transfer and this verse jumped out to me........ 

Matthew 4:19 "And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men" 

Who makes us fishers of men? It's not us, it's the savior. Despite our best efforts we will never achieve our highest missionary potential or even close to it without the savior. He simply asks us to follow him. Lay down our nets, whatever those may be, and follow him. As a missionary I see that as being willing to be obedient and go to work. When we do those things the savior will make up the difference and make us "Fishers of men."

I love you all! This church is true, and this work is the place to be! Come follow the Savior, and become  the fishers of men he wants you to be. It doesn't have to be complicated. Even inviting someone to family home evening. Just be willing and do it.

Elder Clark Fox

1. My other adopted children....... I seriously love those kids!

Semana Veinticuatro (In Which I Become District Leader and Bare a Son Whose Name Shall be Called [........]) (And I grill steak..... Because who doesn't like to look at pictures of steak.)

(In Which I Become District Leader and Bare a Son Whose Name Shall be Called [........]) (And I grill steak..... Because who doesn't like to look at pictures of steak.)

Hello my people! Craziness has taken place here in Greenville!

Since opening my transfer email this morning, my life has turned into a wild blur of awesome anticipation, excitment, and I'll admit it...... Even some nervous butterflies thrown in there! XD 

The email stated that I will be staying in Greenville this transfer, but that I will become District Leader of the Heath District and that I will be training a Greenie all in the SAME TRANSFER...... what. Besides my trainee (Who I will pick up tomorrow morning in Frisco......) I will be both the youngest and newest missionary in my district, yet I was called to be district leader. In addition I just finished training a transfer ago. Yikes. I'm going to give it my all, but we'll see what happens. I just hope I don't kill my greenie in the process! XD

So much happened this week that it would take forever to cover it all, but as you can probably tell from the pictures I did have the opportunity to start practicing my heritage as a Texas missionary by grilling meat. (That was quite fun, and shall we say tasty!)

Life is good here. I'm going to miss my time with Elder Hiatt as he prepares to fly home on Wednesday. It was funny "killing him off" because I felt closer to home than ever before and yet again farther away than ever! XD Elder Hiatt unfortunately had a pretty miserable week this week. One night this week he got bit 21 times all over his legs by some type of nasty biting fly, which after a call to the mission nurse landed us in the ER until 1:30 AM one night.......... Exciting times in Texas. Elder Hiatt swears everything is trying to kill him here. So it just added another reason he's excited to get home. He's been in pain all week. 

On Tuesday we had our final District meeting under Elder Hiatt (That's a weird thought....... I have to conduct District meeting tomorrow.) during which we held his "funeral". I wrote a long beautiful eulogy, and every one shared thoughts and memories from Elder Hiatts life/mission. It was beautiful and sad. We had the entire Relief Society room draped in black and flags for the occasion. Rest in piece my companion.  

Well everyone. I've got a lot to do now with my new assignments of training and district leader, so I've got to get going, but I want to leave ya'll with a miracle of healing that took place this week. This is straight out of my email to my mission president......

We had a miracle of healing take place this week. We were called into the hospital Saturday night, actually while you were speaking at Stake Conference, to give a woman a priesthood blessing. She was 4'7" and had been in labor for the last 41 hours and it was not looking very good. We went and I was able to give her a blessing while in labor. Two hours later the child was born perfectly healthy and the mother is recovering from the ordeal. Miracles happen today.

Missions are awesome ya'll. If your on the fence about serving one. Do it. 

For any of you that have trained on your missions or held leadership positions, please shoot me an email with your advice. Any help would be appreciated! 

I love you all and continue to pray for you everyday! Keep me and my trainee in your prayers!

Your excited and anxious Texan,

Elder Clark Fox

 1. Thanks for my district for creating this beautiful master piece for me........ Incase you didn't know, the missionary you train is considered your son or daughter.

Semana Veintitrés (In which I give someone the clothes of my back, eat sushi, set baptismal dates, drive cars,and rock out........) (Greenville)

Howdy ya'll,

Hope you're doing well back home, on your mission, or wherever the heck you are. Life is bumping here in Greenville! After a member of our ward brought a couple box fans to make up for the busted AC in the apartment, life has been much better! We've had a bunch of stuff going on this week. First off on Tuesday we had interviews with our mission president! Awesome as always, President Dalton's a sweet guy. Super rich, sold off like three ferraris when he came out to the mission field. However, the highlight of the day was after interviews........ There's this awesome, all-you-can-eat, sushi place in Frisco, Texas that our district went to eat lunch. It was actually really good sushi. The trick though is that whatever you couldn't finish you had to buy........... Let it be known to the world that between the four elders present, we downed over 12 rolls of delicious sushi. Life is good. 

Another cool thing from this week is that I can now officially count myself "true" missionary, now that I've spent a day on bike! (Up until this point it's just been cars............) But I went on an exchange over in Rockwall in a 100% Spanish area (WHICH WAS AWESOME!) and we biked around all day! I loved it! (Though I probably looked like quite the noob trying to learn how to ride a bike again.........) In other transportation excitement, I drove a car for like the first time in five months last night........... That was exhilarating. I feel blessed to still be living! XD 

Another fun thing......... I got to rock out last P Day when we went over to a members home in the ward who plays in a rock band! It was sweet, I got taught the basics of drumming, and Elder Hiatt simply went nuts! (He could play before his mission........)

Now because I whole heartedly agree with Nephi in the book of 2 Nephi 25: 4 when he says "my soul delighteth in plainness" I take that in this instance as keep things simple, entonces I don't want to write this story all out again so here's this weeks cool story straight out of my email to president......... 

A story you may like from this week. In Zone conference you shared an example of some members literally following somebody into the ocean to get them to church. We had a similar experience here. (Minus the ocean........) We have a couple investigators, Mike and Lorie Lockridge, who we set a baptismal date with this week for June 23rd. The one thing standing in the way for them is that they need to come to church, and Mike literally has no clothes. (He wears strings around his pants for a belt, and hasn't bought any new clothing for 10+ years) And of course you can say it doesn't matter what you wear to church, but no one wants to be underdressed. So Elder Hiatt and I took this challenge on ourselves to show them how serious we are about them coming to church, and how much we love them. Now the challenge was that Mike wears size size 32x38 (CRAZY).......... And after much searching and asking around we FINALLy tracked down a pair of pants his size. It happened to be the only one in the store. (Hand of the Lord right there........) Mike was so grateful to recive the clothes we got him. I even donated one of my white shirts and a belt. So I literally gave him the clothes off my back. This couple is going to be baptized no question. It's just a question of when. 

I freakin love missionary work! It's seriously the best! If you're ever feeling down or depressed, get off your rear and go serve somebody. I know I make it sound simplier than it really is, but service is seriously an incredible remedy. You just feel so good afterwards. Stop thinking about yourself, and "Just Do It".

Love ya'll!

Have a great week and a blessed day,

Elder Clark Fox

(Crazy to think this transfer ends next week.........)

Semana Veintidós (What doesn't kill you makes you stronger....... And I learn magic! Happy Memorial Day!) (Greenville Texas)

Man........

Howdy my peoples, hope you're enjoying a fantabulous Memorial Day! It's interesting today marks exactly five months out! Crazy right! I swear it was just yesterday I left home, one more month and I'm a quarter of the way through this two year fiesta! 

This week was certainly one to remember, and one learn a lot from........ I know I'm exaggerating when I say this, but most things that could've gone wrong this week did go wrong. I love it! 

It's quite the list, but some of the main things include-

 

• We had a baptism scheduled for this Saturday, but those plans fell through morning of when we discovered the lady had literally "run away" to Kentucky....... Blagh.

• Upon transferring to Greenville (My current area......) I had accidently left my flashdrive full of music and pictures behind, and luckily Elder Frampton (My previous companion.....) was kind enough to send it to me four weeks later. The sad part was that while in the mail, someone actually stole my flashdrive out of the envelope...... Goodbye music and pictures.

• Many of our investigators with baptismal dates simply fell off the face of the earth this week......

• And to cap it off, the heat is in full swing here in Texas, and for that reason our AC decided to give out....... Cooked. ️🌡

Now I could stand here, yell, and shake my fists at the sky, but in the long run that obvviously wouldn't get me anywhere, and it won't get you anywhere either, so that's what I want to talk about today. Staying positive during the tough times; because I strongly believe it's from those situations that we learn and grow the most.

One of my favorite examples of this is that of Alma after he is rejected by the people Ammoniha........

14 And it came to pass that while he was journeying thither, being weighed down with sorrow, wading through much tribulation and anguish of soul, because of the wickedness of the people who were in the city of Ammonihah, it came to pass while Alma was thus weighed down with sorrow, behold an angel of the Lord appeared unto him, saying:

15 Blessed art thou, Alma; therefore, lift up thy head and rejoice, for thou hast great cause to rejoice; for thou hast been faithful in keeping the commandments of God from the time which thou receivedst thy first message from him. Behold, I am he that delivered it unto you.

It is during Alma' s "lowest point" that an angel of the Lord comes to him and reminds him how blessed he really is. I think, infact I know it's often hard to see that silver lining as we face trials in our own lives, but as can be implied from the verse above, as we remain true to the standards and commandments we live we can be assured that those times will pass. I mean look at the story of Alma from above! He is commanded to return to very city from whence he was just rejected, and though it's not the end of his trials by a long shot, with the help of Amulek they manage to teach a portion of the people and eventually their trials come to an end. 

21 Nevertheless the Lord seeth fit to chasten his people; yea, he trieth their patience and their faith.

22 Nevertheless—whosoever putteth his trust in him the same shall be lifted up at the last day.

We have trials in our lives for a reason. If that weren't the case God could and would remove them with a snap of his godly fingers, but he loves us more than that. He knows that to allow us to grow and become more than we currently are we need those trials in our lives. Think of it as refining gold. I'm so grateful my Heavenly Father who loves me enough to allow me to go through those things.

But now onto some cool stuff to finish out! The last couple weeks Elder Hiatt has been teaching me numerous magic tricks, so if anything I'm going to come out of this transfer a master magician! ️️️️ You may say that sounds like an awful waste of time, but you'd be surprised....... I've seen an awful lot of new investigators come from magic tricks! In fact it's a lot more effective than just running people down on the street like a crazy person! 

We got to do a bunch of service this week as well! I've now cleaned out like five pools for people...... All in my church clothes. I love it! Luckily I've been blessed and stayed relatively clean...... relatively. There's absolutely no Spanish here in Greenville, but oddly enough my hours of study have been paying off and I've improved far more in Spanish over the last several weeks than during all of my time in Oklahoma! So that's a major blessing! 

But all in all, life's good. It's just been a week to remember.  And honestly I think it's weeks like this one that make missions worth going on. Love y'all! 

Happy Memorial Day,

Elder Clark Fox  

1. A Walmart standard....... alligator filets.

2. Evidence of the stolen flashdrive......

3. The Greenville Elders outside the Bishops house after dinner....

4. You'd be surprised how much vegetation there is here!

5. Busted AC........ The results.

Semana Veintiuno (BROWN RELCUSE ATTACK!) (Or simply the Barbecuing, Bowling, Brown Recluse Bitten, [Hard Working, Gospel Teaching] Beach Bums of Greenville!) (I love this work!)

Well hello again my peoples!! 

Something I keep learning over and over  on my mission is that God refuses to let me have a normal week......... I mean I'm all set to write a nice, boring, weekly email, with some pretty sunset pictures and BOOM BANG next thing I know my companion is in the emergency room with a dangerous brown recluse bite! (If left untreated, brown recluse bites decay the flesh and can be life threatening.......) Who saw that coming! XD But to say the least, I can think of few more exciting ways to spend a Sunday afternoon! (Pictures of the bite not included for your convenience....... Just know it was something special.........) 🕷

Now this should sound obvious, but I'm happy Elder Hiatt is going to live for a number of reasons! One being the fact that this is his last transfer, and when it's a missionaries last transfer his companion (As in me.........) is said to "Kill him off." (Since he's his last companion..........) Well folks that brown recluse spider almost stole my job from me!! So for that reason alone I'm glad my companion's still with us!!

But in non-spider news! We had a number of cool things go down this week! Currently my area is leading the zone in baptisms, which though it's nice, it's definitely not the most important thing out here............ But just so you can have it on your radar we will be having baptisms for the next three Saturdays in a row with more lined up after that, so we're pretty excitd here! :D

Additionally, we were able to something called exchanges this week which essentially means I pack my stuff for 24 hours and switch companions for a day! I went to this wazoo rich area south of Greenville, where I teamed up with another elder I was already good friends with named Elder Rowell......... Man we had a blast! While in his area we were driving around and saw this beautiful lake/bay and my picture taking side simple had to stop............ Enjoy. 

While on this exchange and after our brief photo shoot I witnessed possibly the funniest sight I have ever seen.......... We witnessed a lady walking her dogs from a golf cart........... Let me tell you, I busted up laughing when I saw this! XD If I can ever be as cool as that lady I will die happy!! XD 

BOWLING!! I just found another reason to want to stay in my area for the rest of my mission! They have these awesome fun centers here in Texas called Shenanigans, think of Classic Fun Center back home.......... Well it turns out that the owner of our nearest Shenanigans is a member of the church and he gives the missionaries free access to EVERYTHING! (Laser tag, go carts, arcade [Prizes included......], bowling, pool, the WORKS!) Well what does that entail? It means I know where I'm going to be every P-Day for the remainder of my time in this area! XD Anyways we had a blast there last Monday with our District!

And just to top it all off, Elder Hiatt and I helped run a BBQ booth at this all nighter Cancer Walk! (Though obviously we did not stay all night............) It was a fiesta and a half! Elder Hiatt rocked the cashier job, and I rocked the actually barbecueing in the back! I refuse to come home until I have mastered the art of the BBQ!! A sacred art and tradition passed down by Texans and Oklahomans for generations........ Also the reason why many people here are "shaped" differently than back at home.........

Life is good. Not always easy, but good. The humidity and heat is really starting to kick in, but luckily we have a car in my area. (Rest in peace biking missionaries.....)

I testify that this truly is the work of the Lord. If you don't know that for yourself something is lacking. Whether it's your scripture study, prayers, attitude, or something else. I would prompt you to evaluate yourself and see where your may be lacking. I know there is a specific answer waiting just for you. It may not come tomorrow, or in five years, but if we don't do our part to be receptive it's going to be awfully hard to recieve. (Think of a phone on silent........) Do everything you can to nurture the seed spoken of in Alma 32. That seed is priceless and worth any amount of effort! A testimony takes work, expect that. Your salvation is not a cheap, nor would you want it to be.  

Everyone, missions really are the best. Heck, I'm already looking forward to my senior mission! (Think of it........ It's a mission........ But with a girl companion! :D)

Love ya'll! Have a great week!

Elder Clark Fox

1. Bowling with the District at Shenanigans last P-day!

2. On exchanges down in Royse City and Rockwell!

3. When you see the opportunity, why not?

4. BBQ experts at the Cancer Walk!

5. Bonita.....

6. No comment.....

7. If you ever have the chance to do the Karate Kid stance/kick in front of a setting sun..... DO IT!

8. A lady walking her dogs from a golf cart..... Greatest thing I've ever seen. That's luxury for you! XD