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.