Monday, June 29, 2015

YOOOOOOO!

June 28, 2015

This week has been rather dull, except for a few gems of fun experiences. I'll tell you a few of them.
Monday, we visited a faithful member's house, The Coronado family, and talk to the mother of this family about her husband, who is in jail. The reason he is in jail is that he is illegal (it's a fun thing that we run into all the time, cuz we talk to Latino population. It's a simple fact that some are illegal.), and he was doing roofing for this guy. He did 3 jobs for htis guy and he was due to be paid like 7,000 dollars. but this guy didn't feel like paying him. So he reported him to the deportation office. So, he's been in jail since November. The mother told us that her husband, while he has been in jail has read the entire Bible and Book of Mormon. the day before he went into jail, he had told her that he felt he needed to talk to the missionaries about joining our church. Then he went to jail. CRAZY. And she asked us to visit him. So, on tuesday, we went to the local Correctional Facility (it's like a mile from our house) and got signed up to be on his list for visits. We then visited him on thursday, after he approved us. It was the wierdest thing to be teaching someone through a video camera. We had to just sit infront of this TV and we talked with him through a telephone. He's a really good guy; he has just been mistreated by people. And we are hoping and praying for a miracle. He wants to be baptized on the 10th of August. That means that he and we are testing our faith that he will be baptized on that date. It's a goal we set and he really thinks it can happen, and so do we! If you guys back home could pray for that, he and we would appreicate it!
That's like the biggest thing that happened this week! Have a good Week!
Elder Cox

Monday, June 22, 2015

The Week of Roughness

June 22, 2015

Fun fact to start off: I am now 6 months into my mission! It's crazy how fast the time has past! I never thought that I would be here for this long and feel like no time has past at all! It's really felt like it's only been about 2 months, but I also feel like I've been here forever! It's pretty insane.

So this week was rough. I feel like we had about 3 appointments a day fall though, which is only a slight exaggeration. It's been super hard to find people in their house available to be taught. It's been a struggle everyday to have anyone even at their houses. It's really discouraging, but I'm still doing fine. Also, Elder Jensen had a doctor appointment and got a nice 6 inch needle put into his knee to give him some pain relief and he is like terrified of needles. His face went pure white when he saw the needle but he's doing great now. He's been quickly recovering and his knee is only getting better, so that really helps out. Not a whole lot to talk about this week I feel. It's just kinda the same old same old but the next few weeks there will be information about the New Mission President! This week is the last week for President Weston and President Gardner is gonna be coming in next Monday so I'm ready for some new stuff to happen! lol

so yeah, it's kinda same old here. Still having an awesome time and loving out here! Hope you all have a great week!

Elder Cox

Editor's note: Please enjoy and let me know if you like this post. Add comments as you feel inclined and we will relay them to Andrew. Thanks.

Monday, June 15, 2015

Super Hot and Almost Dying!

So it's been heating up here in Omaha and it was hard to adjust quickly to this change. and it was some kind of a week too! We had the opportunity to cut a yard of a sister in the church and so we did. It was like 88 degrees probably. It was pretty humid. We started with me mowing and Elder Jensen was working in the garden a bit. After a half an hour, it ended up being me mowing and Elder Jensen got mild heat stroke and had to stay inside while I mowed. It was pretty worrying but that day it quickly subsided and such. He felt fine later that day and it all passed. 

But then the next day, We had a nice huge meeting with like all the missionaries in the city of Omaha and it was so awesome! President Weston (our mission president, or the leader of all the missionaries in the Nebraska Omaha Mission) gave us a nice "last interview", because he is leaving this month and we will be getting a new Mission President, which is awesome! But another thing that happened, is that Elder Jensen like fell of of the stage in the church building we were in and it wasn't as bad as it could have been. But, his knee has been hurting ever since, which is a sad thing. He has a bone doctor appointment though, so this injury might help him prove to the doctor that his bones really have a problem. So blessing in disguise? I think so. 

Anyways, it's been raining the past two days and had a nice huge thunderstorm last night, which was awesome. Anyways, It's going really good out here. I have been really really really enjoying my time here and I know that This is the best work I will be doing! Have a nice week guys!

Elder Cox

Monday, June 8, 2015

Excellent!

This week was as the title says. I don't really have a lot to say about this week but we've just been working and having lots of success. I'll just update you guys on the a person that we've been teaching and some fun facts about missionaries and what we do together.

First thing, as missionaries, we have a meeting every week with a few other missionaries that are in a group called a District. There are like 3 Districts in a Zone. the weekly meeting is called District meeting. It's really cool and we get 2 Trainings, one from the District Leader and one from any other missionary in the District. I got to give a Training this week and it was really fun. I had to study a topic and help others understand more about this topic and stuff. It is a huge learning experience. this is my 2nd training that I have had the opportunity to give. fun facts.

New investigator that we have: Name: Pablo. He is living with his sister, who actually goes to an English congregation of our church with her husband and kids (usually). I mentioned Pablo last week in my E-mail, he was the one who just showed up at church that we taught. We had dinner with this family on Monday and taught him again on Saturday and Sunday (SO MANY AWESOME LESSONS). He's from Ecuador and has been here like a month now. He's taking English Classes and showed us his English ability (he's pretty good for 1 practicing class recently and studying for like 1 year in Ecuador). He's just a guy looking for the truth. He asks tons of questions and is really interested in finding the truth. His sister is like reallllllllyyyy good at explaining things in perfect Spanish! She taught like half of the lesson on Saturday, which is like perfect. Our Spanish is totally bad compared to hers, I swear. also, It's Spanish from Ecuador, which is ever so slightly different than Spanish from like Mexico, which is like mostly what we as missionaries learn. It's like the difference between British English and American English, but not quite as much as that. It's hard to explain.

Well that's about all I got for this week. The weather has been hot and kind humid this last week so I can tell that Summer is gonna be SO MUCH FUN right?! I don't like it too much XD I just sweat a lot, so it's not the most fun thing in the world :P.

HAVE A GOOD WEEK EVERYONE! 

Elder Cox

Monday, June 1, 2015

The Week of Miracles

This week had many miracles. A miracle isn't exactly like what you might think. A lot of things can be miracles. I'll begin listing them. (I think I even forgot some so yeah)

1. Tuesday: A member called us to help her husband who is feeling sick. He has a kidney stone and so she asked for a blessing of the sick for him. (him being sick isn't the miracle). We went there and they had asked a friend of theirs who is in an English church congregation (the member family goes to the spanish) and we gave the blessing. The miracle is that he is a bone doctor and Elder Jensen (my companion) has like 3 different bone problems that the doctor can help with. MIRACLE for Elder Jensen!

2. Saturday: We were tracting (which means knocking doors to try to find people to teach). It was an apartment building that was given to us by some other elders to try. We try like 12 apartments and like 2 people said to come back. We decided to try some other ones real close by and we then found a man named Caesar. He had missionaries visit before but I'd never seen him before. He welcomed us in graciously and we had an awesome lesson with him. He says that he intends to get baptized soon. So Awesome! Much Miracle! So Wow!

3. Sunday: At church, there was these two people, a man and a women that like no one knew. After Sacrament meeting, we introduced ourselves and found out it was a member that usually went to an English ward and her brother who just moved here from Ecuador and is searching for the true church of God. We taught him during church and have dinner with him and his sister's family tonight for our next lesson. Such a MIRACLE! This is like the biggest one because we have a huge problem with getting people to come to church. They are always working on Sunday or just don't come. 

4. Sunday: After dinner with an awesome member family, we tried a referral given to us by the sister missionaries of the ward. He's a man who wants to learn more about God and wants to come to church! He's gonna read the Book of Mormon and pray to know if it is true and will be at church next week! MIRACLES EVERYWHERE! 

It was an awesome week! The Lord has given Elder Jensen and I many miracles and it's been awesome! I love being out here and all the ways that God is giving me to help and teach and serve the people here in Omaha! TTYL!!!

Elder Cox