5/16/16 One year down!

Hey Family and Friends,

 

What a week in the work of the Lord!  I cannot tell you how many hard hearted people we have found this week.  It  really saddens my soul.  It has been a really tough week.  But on the other hand we have felt the spirit so strongly this week!  Sunday was just a day full of miracles.  After we had a long week of feeling like we accomplished ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!  We didn't have power all morning, so we had church in the dark.   :)   As we sat in church, in walked an investigator that we had dropped 2 weeks ago!  She came by her own will!  I LOVE IT.  Then we had lesson after lesson lead by the spirit.  We had planned something for all of them, but as we sat and taught, the Spirit guided us to say exactly what these people needed to hear and FEEL!  I am so grateful for the Spirit!  I know that God lives, and that this is His kingdom on the earth today.  I am so grateful to be a part of it!

Love you all and see you soon,

Hermana Fox

starlee.fox@myldsmail.com

 

Mission Argentina Posadas

Cordoba 1243

Posadas CP- 3300

Misiones

Argentina

 

 

So this is ROCA,  (It is one of our areas.  The tree population is 12x more than the people population. :)  )

5/9/16 HELLO! HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!

Well hello again!  Well first off Happy Mothers day to all of you.  I hope it was a great day! 

This week has been so great, with so many fun twists and turns!  On Tuesday we travelled to Obera for divisions!  It was so great! There were  4 sisters, from 4 different countries, with 3 different langauges, all untied for one purpose.  Needless to say it was great and I am so grateful to be surrounded by such great people!

Well, while we were gone, something went wrong with our propane tank and when we travelled back we got a call from our branch president saying that our neighbors could smell gas leaking from our house.  YIKES!  We came to a house full of gas, and an empty gas tank.  God's hand was in it to keep us safe and we feel so VERY blessed.  It didn't blow up and there was no HARM was done!

Wednesday night I recieved a surprise call from my favorite HERMANA WOODWELL!!!  That made my day!  It is so fun to see the growth each one of us have had in the last 8 months.  The mission is a time of concentrated growth.  The experiences that we go through are unique.  They are like NONE other and they are specific for each one of us.  :)  God knows us perfectly and puts us in the situations that will help us become who He needs us to be.

Well on the bus this week we overheard a conversation of two women.  They were hating on the church and all the members of the church in our area.  I have never heard quite so horrible of things.  It was so sad to hear, and as we got off the bus my companion let out a big breath and said, "DID YOU HEAR WHAT THEY WERE SAYING?!"  The only comfort I had found I shared with her, and I share with you today.  EVERY knee shall bow, and EVERY tongue confess that HE is the Chirst. It doesnt matter what others say, or do against the church, WE WILL PRESS ON!  This is the kingdom of God on the earth, and NOTHING will stop its progress.  All the opposition that the church faces is all the more proof that it is right.  Satan would not try so hard to destroy somthing of lesser worth.

I am so grateful to be a missionary and proclaim the truth.  I know that God lives, as does His son Jesus Christ.  This is His work, and it will continue forever and ever.  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

See you soon,

Hermana Fox

starlee.fox@myldsmail.net

List of things not to eat again:

Chicken liver

Suprisingly good foods:

Cow tail,  Cow leg and bone marrow :)

05/02/16 Endure to the end!

Hola familia allá arriba en el norte!  Como estan? Espero que han tenido una semana excelente!  Les quiero mucho, y quiero que sepan que siempre estén en mis pensamientos y en mí Corazon.   :)

 

Interpretation:  Hello Family up there in the North!  How are you all?  I hope that you guys are having an excellent week.  I love you all.  I hope that you all know that you are in my thoughts and my heart.

It has been a great week here in the little towns of Corpus and Roca.  The work continues.  It may not continue at the rate that I would like, but God is in control and as I do my part, He will hasten His work in his timing.

 So a few weeks ago we started to teach a woman named Carmen.  Well there was absolutely NOTHING special in the first 2 lessons.  She showed NO interest and made it CRYSTAL CLEAR that she believed her church was the correct church and she would never leave it! Well needless to say we insisted a bit and wanted to at least teach her the Restoration.  Last week during our studies, we studied about the importance of the Book of Mormon in the conversion of each one of us and investigators. We taught the Restoration and gave her the BOM with an invite to read and pray about it.  She wasn't ex tactic at the invite, but she did accept.  :)  When we returned for the next visit, she had read all of the Introduction, witness pages, and the testimony of Joseph Smith.  She explained all of it to us and had a couple questions.  It was such a special moment to testify of this precious testament that we have today.  When she finally understood what we were asking of her, a light came into her eyes and she was THRILLED that we would give her this opportunity to find out for herself the truth.   :)

So this week I have been studying about what it means to "Endure to the End".  It is such a common phrase in church language that many times I feel it is misunderstood.  Being the last step in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, it is more than important for our progression and salvation.  Enduring to the end is more than just casually reading the scriptures, praying, and sitting on the church bench.  It literally means that we will continue to progress.  We will constantly strive to become better in EVERY WAY possible.  I love the parable that we find in Alma 32.  We are all growing into a beautiful tree filled with the fruit, but if we stop feeding it, it will not produce fruit.  It will die (Alma 32:40-41).  Or we will grow too fast without spreading roots and we will fall with the smallest of storm that passes through, whether that be taking offense, or a trial. (Jacob 5:48).   We must CONTINUALLY nourish the tree, SINK our roots down deeper and deeper so that no matter what passes, it CANNOT kill us!  Think of a baby.  As a baby is born, there is only one thing that you can give it.  Only this thing will give it all of the nutrients that it needs to have health and grow correctly.  Babies need MILK.  But what happens after 1-2 years?  This ONE thing that was ALWAYS sufficient, now IS NOT sufficient.  If a baby continues on this diet, it will be malnourished and never grow to capacity.  Eventually you must start to give this baby food.  Mash up a piece of potato, carrot, and banana.  It needs MORE so that it can grow.  We are the same spiritually.  As we start in the gospel, a diet of 20 minute scripture study, church attendance, and prayer IS sufficient.  WE WILL GROW....BUT ONLY TO A POINT....then like the baby we will start to be malnourished!  We must do more.  We must drink from the scriptures deeply.  We must POUR OUR WHOLE HEART out in prayer.  We must BEG for the spirit and we must PRESS FORWARD and FEAST on the words of Christ.  (2 Nephi 31:30)   There is nothing casual about it and if it is....we are probably dying or already dead on the vine.  I love my Savior, and this gospel which He has given us.  It is through Him that we can press on.  He is my strength and my all.  I invite you to choose Him, send your roots down deep and prepare for the moment when you will stand before of Him.  (Alma 34:32) 

  3 Nephi 27:19...Seek Him, and be FAITHFUL until the end.

In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

See you soon,

Hermana Fox

starlee.fox@myldsmail.net

 

WINTER  HAS ARRIVED!  Actually we just dropped from 90 to 40 in one day....and oh I am SO not used to that!!!

This is our house in Corpus! :) 

4/25/16 "Bear with patience thy afflictions, and I will give unto thee success."

Hello family!

Well, it has been quite the week of challenges and testing!  :) Ha.  Well,  I believe I have faced more rejection this week than I have in any other week of my mission.  Usually people reject us without being too rude and then there are the people who are just out right RUDE!  We came across this young mother and she invited us in.  We sat down and talked for about 3 minutes and were just about to sing a hymn.  Well her Aunt came to the door and said, "Get out of the house. We don't believe in anything you have to say.  We are Catholic and we don't need you to confuse us,  you Jehovah Witnesses are Devilish."  I looked at her with a smile and said, "We are from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  We were just going to sing a song.  Would that be ok?"  She looked and me, and said, "Get out of here, no you cannot!"  We politely said thank you and left.  Wow! My heart was saddened at the hardness of her heart.  As I walked away, I said, "Be strong, there are others prepared" and a scripture came to mind.  Alma 26:27.   This is what I remembered... "go and bear with patience thy afflictions." I remember thinking how much I loved it in the weeks prior, but in this moment I did not feel much comfort at all.  A few days later in my study I passed this scripture again and saw the rest of it, "Bear with patience thy afflictions, and I will give unto thee success." 

The hard weeks or days we face are all part of our progress.  How would be become stronger if we weren't tested, tried and examined?  Each experience, we have the decisions to learn from it and become stronger in our faith, or fall away. 

On Thursday after having all our appointments and contacting for 2 hours without success, we sat down on the side of the street and offered a prayer.  I was feeling quite useless in God´s hands and didn't know what more to do.  After praying for direction we started walking and the next house we were drawn to, we found a woman, who is so in need of support! She has faced deaths of many close relatives in the last months, and her son was just diagnosed with cancer.  She was broken.  We testified and were able to bear with her, her afflictions.  What a tender mercy!  If I would just be a bit humbler and rely on the Lord, HE WILL LEAD me!

Thanks for all your love and support!

See you soon,

Hermana Fox

starlee.fox@myldsmail.net

Pictures:

Enjoying my Peanut butter

Sister Villa...a great example to me of enduring to the END.

4/18/16 Conversion is Sweet!

---

Hola Familia! 

Wow!  We had a great week!  The work of the Lord presses on!

We had a great lesson with La.  E. (who is different than La, and Jn.) this week!  We have been teaching her for about 3 months.   Recently, this week she told us that her and “spouse” separated.  It is quite a difficult situation that she is passing through, and she unloaded her thoughts to us.  Then she told us how she is finding strength through prayer and true conversation with her Father in Heaven.  She told us about repenting and how light she felt after.  She is such an example to me of positivism and RELYING on Heavenly Father.  As we sat and listened, although I felt so sad for her, I had a feeling of overwhelming happiness.  My  joy was great as I witnessed the start of “conversion”.  

We have visited La. and Jn. a couple of times this week, and wow miracles happen!    :)   La. and her daughter Ai. are enjoying praying and reading together.  Jn. seems to be a bit slower to catch on the the spiritual side of things, but as I am with him,  I feel he knows it is true.  I t is just a time of adjustment and he has to CHOOSE to act on what he has been given.   We have placed baptism dates with Ai. and La.  and they are so excited to make this promise with God.  We are expecting progress with all of the family.    :)

So apparently, I just need to find people named La., because those sisters are the prepared!  Well, bueno, we had transfers today, but lucky me,  I am staying here in Corpus and Roca with Hermana Cz!  We are so excited to “¡hacer percha!” 

Funny for the week:  So don't ask how it happened, but we ended up in a house of two drunk men! ha.  We sat down and one of them scooted his chair next to mine and started telling me how much he loved my braids and how he was amazed that I did them by myself.  I just kept telling myself, “You can make it!  Sing a hymn and politely excuse yourself!”  We sang a song, and they started to RAVE over our “angel like voices”.  I stood up to leave and Ruben said wait, “I want to give you something” .  He came out of his house a minute later with oranges.  “Here I want you to be able to remember Rubencito!” (Which is a name for Ruben with a lot of love.)   I was COMPLETELY APPALLED!!!   I'm just a Little mormon girl from Utah!  Give me a break! :)  HAHA!

I love you all! Thank you for everything!

 

See you soon,

Hermana Fox

starlee.fox@myldsmail.net

4/11/16 Hello! Hello! Hello!

Hello!

Well, I hope you all survived the "dinosaur of tomorrow" (Elder Holland)  and have continued pressing forward this week!

As for me, the dinosaur didn't catch me until Thursday. Ha.  We had a great first half of the week.  We met with La. and Jn. and they are just doing so great!  We didn't have much time, but we wanted to pass by and at least bring them the spirit for a short moment.  As we were leaving, I asked her if there was something we could do to help her and she said, "Please pass by more often!"  I smiled and she continued, "I feel so good when you two are here.  There is a peace in my home, and everything seems to go well that day."  We took the opportunity to teach about the spirit that she was feeling and let her know that she can and will be able to always feel the spirit after her baptism and confirmation.  Her face lit up and she asked me, "What do I need to do to get baptized?"    The spirit works miracles and I am so grateful to have Him as a constant companion!  I have never felt Him so much like I do now!  We left her house as happy as 2 lil-girls could be with new toys!  HA HA.

Well, then Thursday came...and then Friday...and let me tell you, NOTHING was happening!  All of our appointments fell through, and we were left with hours of contacting.  Very few people were listening and the ones that were, were drunk or only wanted to talk about our different cultures.  Well, the situation started to get blown up in my head, and on Friday night I just concluded, that I was doing absolutely nothing and that nobody is ready to receive the gospel.  Well, maybe I wasn't quite that distraught, but I was at a moment of VERY little faith.  Saturday I decided to fast.  That is when I took a 180!   We had a great lesson with Lorena and Juan.  We started the Restoration and at the end we invited Juan to say the prayer.   (He is much colder than Lorena and is progressing much slower.)   We had asked him before, but he laughed and said, "No, I just listen."  But this time was different.  We knelt down on the dirt cement floor and he offered a sincere heartfelt prayer.  The spirit was strong!  It was great!  On Sunday, he chickened out, but Lorena and one of their daughters came to church.  We are so excited to continue working with them!    :) 

I had not even finished my fast before the blessings started raining!  I know God is aware of us, and blesses us as we act in faith!   I am so grateful to be a part of God´s army and bring the world His truth!

Funny/Not so funny story of the week:    Well on Thursday night, we went and clapped at a house and the dogs came running  out, which is very normal here. They usually just jump up on us and want to play, but this one charged me and bit my ankle!  WHAT?!  I was shocked!  I screamed like a little girl and then the owner ran out.   He asked me, "Why didn't you kick him?!"   Before my mission I would have looked at him and said, "You are going to blame this on me?  Are you kidding me?!"  But I gave him the best smile I could and said, "I didn't think he would bite me." He laughed at me, and we made a good contact out of it!

No worries.  All is well.  There wasn't too much blood.

I love you all!  

See you soon,

Hermana Fox

starlee.fox@myldsmail.net

 

My address:

Mission Argentina Posadas

Cordoba 1243

Posadas CP-3300

Misiones

Argentina

Pictures:

-I made a really great casserole. It is the first I've had on my mission.   :)  They were small pumpkins filled with meat, egg, and onion, covered in a cheese sauce. YUM! 

-I feel like we are always waiting for buses.

04/04/16 Feliz Abril!

Hello!  How are you all?!  I hope you all enjoyed conference as much as I did.  I truly was inspired and it was exactly what I needed to hear.  I loved the spirit that testified of each of the shared messages! Oh how great is the love of the brethren and of our God.  It truly was His conference. I hope you felt Him, and sought Him as President Eyring invited.

Bueno, it has been an hermosa semana in the work of the Lord!  I got feeling better on Wednesday and we were able to get out working again on Thursday!  I am so blessed to have the health and strength to serve in this great work!  God works miracles each and every day!  We have started teaching a woman named Lorena.  Se is so great and loves listening.  Last week her husband sat in on a lesson and thoroughly enjoyed it!  He opened right up and the spirit was so strong! But he told us that he doesn't usually sit down to talk about God and that we shouldn't expect anything from him. So Friday we were down to the last hour of the night and our last appointment fell through.  :(  I was a bit less than happy, as that is the least effective hour to contact people here.  Who wants two people they don't know knocking on their door at 9:00 at night?!  I don't blame them.  Then we had a thought to pass by Lorena and her family.  We walked across town and when we got there they weren't there!  I may have slumped my shoulders a bit as we started to walk away slowly.  The street was illuminated with some truck lights.  As soon as we turned to look, the truck honked and it was this family returning home!  I straightened up as we turned around and went back to greet the family.  To our surprise we sat down and out came Lorena, and then all of the children, and then her husband! We had one of the greatest conversations with them!  I have never felt the promise that "your mouth shall be filled in the precise moment necessary"!   We sat and talked of Christ, Baptism, Confirmation, and all of the importance. Then Lorena shared her desire to be baptized!  :)   There came a moment when I had no idea what to say.  I sat there and knew I had to say something.  Everyone was looking at me. I felt I needed to ask a question but had no idea what!  We sat for about what felt like an eternity waiting for the thought with my mouth open.  I knew He would fill my mouth, but I was completely BLANK! So with my open mouth I  started to form a question , but had absolute NO idea where I was going with it.  "Que es lo que....no...como podemos...no...Porque piense...no...??"  Then finally one of those starts took off, my mouth was filled and it led to a discussion where we learned more of the desires and concerns of Him.  I have no idea what I said, but I know it was directly from the Lord.  But he can not say anything until we open our mouths and start talking!  I am so grateful for this promise and know that this work is NOTHING without him!

I love Him.  I love the Holy Ghost.  I love our Prophet and know He is called of God.  I BELIEVE in the gospel of Jesus Christ.  I BELIEVE with all of my heart that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world.  I invite you to come to know and to believe! 

See you soon,

Hermana Fox

starlee.fox@myldsmail.net

 

Pics:

-In front of one of our pensions (apartment).  We cover two areas, so we have two pensions.

-On the bus to Posadas for the conference.  :)

-Me and Hermana (my comp)!  She is so great!  She has such a great desire to follow the Lord and the Holy Spirit. I am learning so much from her humility and her love for the work!  Buenos Aires just tends to send GREAT misioneras :)