Semana Veintiocho (The Great Cake Infestation of Greenville....... And other mis-adventures that may or may not include bed bugs......)

In the words of Elder Sanchez.... "What-the-world!!"

Howdy, ya'll! Hope you've had a wonderful week! This week was certainly one to remember! I'll try to get around to all the emails, but first off MEGA thanks to everyone that reached out and made my 19th birthday such a flipping-fantastic day!! From packages and cards, to masses of emails, you guys are the best!!

Let's just say, Texans know how to celebrate the 4th, so let's start there! (Hold that thought...... Let's start the day before.......) 

Tuesday we had exchanges with our Zone Leaders. Elder Bailey went over to a super sketchy area in South Mesquite, and I stayed in Greenville with Elder Averatte. Let's just say we had a blast! Elder Averatte was one wild, but powerful missionary. Learned a ton over the exchange. As much as I love exchanges it was good to see Elder Bailey again. (I think he was particualry happy to get back togother....... Ever since that exhange he's been far more appreciative of our area.) The 4th of July was awesome! We spent the rest of the day with the elders in the Rockwall/Heath area helping them move apartments. (We didn't know this at the time, but the apartment we moved them into happened to be infested with bed bugs...... yikes.) It was nice because we got to enjoy some fireworks in the distance while driving home......

The next day (July 5th) was my birthday!! I feel hesitant to say this, but birthdays in the field come close to if not surpass birthday's at home. For example. Despite my best efforts I could not seem to get away from cake.  That morning during personal study my companion baked me a cake he had gotten, following that I opened a package from my family containing the ingredients for another cake. We went to visit another lady who heard it was my birthday and she baked us a cake, so we had cake and ice cream again. That night for dinner the members we were with had baked me a HUGE lemon cake and more ice cream, and just when we thought we were free we pulled up at the apartment at the end of the night when all of sudden someone banged on our car window (scaring the living day lights out of me!) and brought me yet another cake........ I have never had so much cake in my entire life. Please spare us. No more cake. 

Despite the cake infestation, it was one memorable day!  

We spent the next day in Greenville, but unfortunately for the elders in Rockwall, their lives were not quite as comfortable........ They got wrecked by bed bugs....... bad. The pictures look like something from a horror show. 

On Friday we actually went back down to Rockwall for a second exchange that week. Not only is their apartment infested with bed bugs, but they have a tough area. I've never had so many people threaten to call the police on me and stare me down like I'm some spawn of satan. Pleasant people.

All in all life is good. I'm about to start a game of Catan with some missionaries, so in order to win I'm going to need to focus. And in order to do that I'm going to need to end this email early.  

Entonces......... Love ya'll! 

Elder Clark Fox

 

Semana Veintisiete (Six Months Down......... Burn Corbata, Burn!)

​​There you have it...... Six months in and still kicking! Yee-haw cowboy!

This week was good, we have been incredibly busy as of late...... We currently have seven investigators on date for baptism come the end of July beginning of August, and it's keeping us very busy....... (Which is a good thing......) Luckily we survived until the end of the month, so now we have our beloved car back....... I love you 2017 Chevy Malibu....... I'll never leave you again.

Besides that it's been a pretty normal week! The work goes on! There was one thing this week that pretty much made my month......... Over a month ago we were teaching an investigator named Betty, and she was the golden investigator! She was all set for baptism, but the day before her baptismal date she disappeared to Kentucky for three weeks without warning. We tried contacting her, but she wouldn't respond....... Well she got back this last week, and we went by to talk to her anticipating the worst, but to our surprise we found she had finished reading the entire Book of Mormon and was more prepared for baptism than ever! Yee-haw!

We had some fun experimenting with brownies and oreos this week and created what we fondly call "brownie-oreos". This complicated recipe is made from literally mixing brownie batter and oreos........ I know, we're creative. Be amazed. #patentpending Another fun thing is that I guess missionaries fix more than broken hearts with the gospel. But we also fix stereo systems! It was actually pretty fun, you can see the picture of Elder Bailey celebrating below after we got it working.

Besides that enjoy this video of me attempting burn tie to celebrate six months....... (Don't pay attention to the fact that the fuel is being dumped over the edge of the balcony.......)

This church is true, and I honestly don't know where I would be without it. As of July 1st our mission has challenged us to read the Book of Mormon by the end of August, marking every reference to Christ throughout....... Elder Bailey and I have decided to step that up by doing it in a month. So far we're off to a good start, including when yesterday and today we're already through the book of 1 Nephi........ Pure awesomeness..... If you're not reading from that book everyday I have one thing to say to you. Do it. It's that simple. It will bless your life, your family's life, your dogs life, etc. Do it.

Have a great week ya'll!

Elder Clark Fox

P.S- I got my hair cut this week, and the barber (A good friend/potential investigator) asked me to put the scripture of the day up on the chalk board for him......... (People do that here.....) Well the scripture I chose to put up on the board just so happened to be James 1: 5 #missionarywork

 

 

Semana Veintiseis (Pioneer children sang as they walked and walked and walked and walked and walked and walked walked and walked and walked and walked and walked and walked and walked walked and walked and walked and...........walked and walked and walked and walked and walked walked and walked and walked and walked and walked and walked and walked walked and walked and walked......... and walked.) (Greenville)

I bet you can't guess what I did this week! Because hint...... The title clearly doesn't give it away....... 

Perhaps a little explanation is in order..... We are blessed enough to drive cars here in the Texas Dallas mission, but sadly we (the missionaries......) do not own these cars. They are owned by the church, and because of this these cars have a limited number of miles we are allowed to drive each month. Well to our surprise, we received a call from the zone leaders at the beginning of the month saying that because of some changes in the mission our miles are severely being cut down. Hurray! We were already not doing super well on miles, so without bikes and with out cars, you guessed it! Walking!!! You may not have noticed, but Texas is big...... and hot. Perfect combo! Let's just say my shoes look a lot more like missionary shoes, and I have a SICK missionary tan line!!

Nothing too crazy this week besides that....... We currently have five people on date for July. They're all awesome people, but we'll see how many of those dates actually go through in July. Life is hot and awesome here! I hit six months on Thursday, and in proper missionary fashion we will be burning a tie (which may or may not have been doused in rubbing alcohol and nail polish remover........) #fireofgreenville2018

Here's a funny email I wrote for my companion today....... Poor Elder Bailey was lonely but he remembered that one of his previous companions had given him his sisters email. After pondering on what to send, this is what we came up with........ 

"____________! 

Allow me to introduce myself. You've probably seen those paintings of Nephi and Ammon from the Book of Mormon where they are super ripped and baptizing masses all while fighting off hoards of the lamanites. That's pretty much me.  Hello, my name is _________. I served with your brother down in Nicaragua and he was kind enough, upon seeing my dashingly good looks, to give me your email. Seeing as we are all spiritual brothers and sisters, I figured that we should get to know one another. That being said, let me first ask, is this actually _____________? If not, this is going to be a little awkward.

Let me know. Or don't. It's up to you. 

Elder _____________"

Let's just say things are going well for him.......

All in all the gospel is being taught, life is cruising on, it's hot as well...... Texas here, and life is good! My companion and I are getting along great! I swear, everything has turned into an inside joke for us! It's terrible! XD I'm finally starting to figure out this District Leader and training assignment. Now days I'm honestly just in the missionary mode. That's really all I have to say. I'm seriously looking forward to the next year and a half. I LOVE the scriptures! I didn't realize this, but lately people have been commenting on my ability to just know scriptures and track them down. Those comments honestly meant the world to me, because that's something I really wanted to become good at. So even though I don't do it (often) I now feel ready to take on these bible bashing fools down here! Get ready for some LDS doctrine tontos! (No...... I'll try to avoid that.)

I really don't have much else this week. We had an awesome Zone conference in Frisco on Tuesday and taught lots of lessons....... There you have it! 

If I were to share some spiritual insight, it would be this...... This is from the Book of Craig 1:1 (Our ward mission leader.....) "By serving others first, you'll serve yourself more than by serving yourself first." Stop thinking about yourself all the time, think about others. It's ultimately the entire reason we're here. It's not about you, it's about what you do for others. If you get that down everything thing else will follow. 

You guys are awesome! I love ya'll, have a blessed week!

Elder Clark Fox

P.S- Good luck to my close friend Tanner Thygerson who will be leaving shortly for the Adriatic North Mission. You will work miracles.