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!

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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 :)