Tuesday, December 30, 2014

FELIZ NAVIDAD

so this is what my morning teacher did to our wall on Christmas Eve. It's baking spray, like sprayable baking powder. Anyways, We walked in and were like "What are you doing!" he's like "It's not permanent!" it was the greatest thing ever, i swear. Had to get a pic to send.

Had a great week for Christmas. Even though my own mother didn't send me a Christmas Package (mainly because you can't send packages unless they are from Mexico), My companion's mom sent him with a package for him and his companion. There was a Yo-Yo for each of us, candy, and kleenex (which we need, since we are both getting a cold). We had like 3 talks from church leaders on Christmas (one live broadcast from the Prove Missionary Training Center and 2 videos from previous ones.) And we watched Meet The Mormons (first primere with spanish subtitles too)! It was a sweet Christmas.

Learning spanish like crazy now. We have "Solo Español" days, where we can't speak english to anyone but our Companions. Those days have really boosted my ability and vocab. I'm memorizing about 30 words a day, which doesn't seem like much, but i'm also memorizing about 7 phrases a day, which boosts the words a ton too. It's crazy how fast I'm learning.

Food still good, people still cool, weather still optimal, time still almost never able to be wasted. It's great down here.

I miss you all! (only a little bit tho :P)

Elder Cox

And here's a picture of my companion

Tuesday, December 23, 2014

Le Cuada Semana Missionero!

The title means "the every week missionary" since i don't know how to say weekly.
This week has been super awesome. We (me and my companion) had more lessons with our investigator, who turned out to be our new afternoon teacher and one of two new investagators. Our other new investigator is our morning teacher. After giving her a book of mormon in the fourth lesson, we asked her to be baptized. She asked us why we wanted to baptize her. My companion said some spanish that i didn't all understand but then she turn the question to me. I said simply "El Evangelio de Jesucristo me hacé felizidad. Lo quiero estar felizidad. Yo se que El Evangelio lo hacerá felizidad." (The gospel of Jesus Christ makes me happy. I want you to be happy. I know the Gospel will make you happy) She then said yes to baptism. And that was only on Friday. Yesterday, before our Zone FHE, I was able to explain (albeit very slowly) the Book of Mormon section of the first missionary lesson. I surprised myself with how much I have learned.

The food here is still great. Tuesdays are garunteed Costco Pizzas for dinner, which makes P-day the best day hands down! Haven't had a problem with dairy here but i haven't had much dairy other than a yogurt in the morning and one bowl of cereal with Rice milk i think? it wasn't cold and had some like wheat stalks and rice on the front so i have no idea what it is. All labels are in spanish so i don't know the specifics lol. it wasn't bad though.

Went to the Mexico City Temple Visitor's Center today, which was awesome. They had a Zarahemla Book Store with some mexico specific merchandise (like a cool backpack in like mexican colorful style that was 13 dollars or 130 pesos, and ties of which i bought a few reallly awesome ones). the Visitor's Center has 2 rooms where you can select an Apostal or member of the First Presidency and see a video of their testimony. It also has a "Meet the mormons" wall, where you slide a screen over a selection of people and you can hear their story. It's super cool.

This week, we had a few devotionals. One we watched The Restoration video, which is always awesome. But right before that, we were able to watch a YouTube video of David Archletta and a bunch of other YouTubers sing and perform the World's largerst Nativity (it's in the record book now). You guys should totally look that up later. WE had a Devotional in which the Director of Activity at the CCM (remember, thats spanish for MTC) talked to us about perserverance and obedience. It was super cool.

That's about it! Really enjoying my time here and not missing home much at all. Homesickness might hit me about week 5 but I have some people that had that problem that i can ask advice about. Love you all!

Elder Cox.

I think the video from YouTube that Elder Cox mentions is:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrLoWt2tfpg
And it is amazing! Seriously. 

Wednesday, December 17, 2014

First week in the MTC

Seems like all of the missionaries in my district are learning some good Spanish but it`s totally messing with our English. Like my companion, Elder Barton from Spanish Fork, Utah, tried to say 'That derailed my train of thought' but he totally said 'That train tracked my rain of thought,' and I forgot the words 'middle school.' Hearing people from far away now just sounds like they are speaking Spanish that I don't know, even if they are speaking English. I'm learning Spanish really fast tho. There are still soooooo many words I still don't know. But i'm getting the hang of it.
On day 2, they had us start teaching an 'investigator' in Spanish. we had to prepare a lesson based on her needs and it went well. She said (from what i could understand) that she felt 'something different' so she felt the spirit. My companion had 3 years Spanish in High School so he knows how to carry on conversations. But his Spanish is so much better when we are teaching than otherwise, so we know that the lord is helping us. We've taught 2 lessons since then that have gone well too so we aren't doing the worst in the world.
The food here is realllly good. Like every meal, they have a different main course with like two choices of them. In the morning, they have bread that you can toast and peanut butter plus NUTELLA that you can top it with. It is muy bueno (very good). and there are like yogurt drinks that have a bunch of vitamins and stuff so i have one of those every morning. Only had my stomach hurt once, because had 2 big impanadas when i should've had one. Tums cleared that up quite nicely. 
Our casa (house) is pretty nice. 4 missionaries to a room, 5 rooms to a casa, 1 bathroom per room. the other missionaries in the our room are like total opposites but they still get along pretty well. my companion is pretty cool and says some pretty Utahan curse words like 'What the Frappe?' Psssh, Utahans. 
The first sunday was pretty great. Really relaxing, even though there was a chance that I could have been called on to say a talk in spanish. Sacrament meeting was entirely done in spanish, but the other meetings weren't. We had a Branch (really the branch would be our Zone) Family Home Evening last night (I'm in Branch 12, District D). There was about 35-45 members in our Zone but there is like 10 leaving for their missions today and tomorrow. They are so spiritual and really awesome to be around. I can't wait until that's me going to the mission field. Not gonna be able to go the temple. It's being remodeled right now.
So, I'm happy we can't leave the campus of the mtc cuz mexico city traffic is literally crazy. No turn signals, sudden merging, etc. No bueno for the nerves. 
Anyway, that's about it. Loving it here at the Mexico MTC (in spanish it's CCM). Love you all!

Thursday, December 11, 2014

He made it!

This is my email just stating that I made it to the Mexico City MTC! The flights were crammed and long and hot but it was a good experience. One Elder had his luggage confused with another ladies (she took his on accident) and will get it tomorrow. This is a nice place and I will have a good time. My P Days are on Tuesday while I'm at the MTC so keep that in mind. I love you guys!

With love, Elder Andrew Cox

Wednesday, December 10, 2014

Pre-Mission Amble


Andrew Cox is one of the newest missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints on Wednesday, December 10, 2014.
Fortunately for him, his sister has this crazy obsession with blogs for the past year and is now writing this one for him! It is pretty hard for missionaries to email everyone who wants to know about how they are doing in the short time they have once a week, so I get the privilege of updating ya'll through this blog. If the information you get on this blog is bad, I will utterly and fully blame Andy because I will mostly likely be copying and pasting from his emails.
A little background, Andrew was called to serve a spanish speaking mission in Omaha, Nebraska which is about 6-7 hours from where we live in St. Louis. Before gracing the people of Omaha with his presence, he will be going to the MTC in Mexico City to learn spanish and prepare himself for teaching the gospel. Those who missed his farewell talk a week ago, missed out on the chance to see him tear up and bare a touching testimony in which he totally admitted his love for his family.