Monday, April 25, 2016

Esta Semana Era Buena

Esta vez, voy a enviar mi correo electronico en espanol. Veremos lo que pase. Voy a hacer lo posible para que ustedes entiendan y que ustedes pueden traducirlo mediante Google. 

Pues, mucho paso durante este semana. Tuvimos que manejar a Council Bluffs, Iowa el martes y esto tomo mucho tiempo. Pasamos como 5 horas en el carro y estabamos muy consados despues. Pero, fuimos a un partido de futbol para ver unos de los ninos de una familia que ensenamos jugar para su escuela. Fue muy bien. Eso paso el martes. el miercoles, manejamos hacia Norfolk, Nebraska para una reunion con otros misioneros y manejamos de vuelta con dos de los misioneros de Norfolk. Tuvimos un buen tiempo haciendo la obra con ellos y ellos regresaron a Norfolk y los otros dos misioneros de Norfolk ( los de ingles ) fueron con nosotros aqui. Sucedio muy bien. 

Tambien, anoche, encontramos unas personas! Se los llaman Melonie, Jason, Mayla, y Margeret. Son Nativos Americanos, entonces no los ensenaremos mas sino los otros elderes les ensenaran. Pero, son una familia de adictivos que estan recuperando. Han estado sin drogas por 9 meses, y tienen mucho fe in Jesucristo. Era awesome que los encontremos y que esten muy listos de orar y leer juntos como una familia. 

Pues, ojala que ustedes tuvieran una semana muy linda y que esta semana tambien sea muy buena!

Con Amor,

Elder Cox

Translation (mostly by Google Translate)

This week was good

This time, I will send my email in Spanish. We'll see what happens. I will do everything possible so that you understand and that you can translate it with Google.

Well, a lot happened during this week. We had to drive to Council Bluffs, Iowa on Tuesday and it took a long time. We spent about five hours in the car and we were very tired ​​later. But, we went to a football game to see one of the children of a family we teach play for their school. It was very good. That happened on Tuesday. Wednesday, we drove to Norfolk, Nebraska for a meeting with other missionaries and drove back with two of the Norfolk missionaries. We had a good time doing the work with them and they returned to Norfolk and two missionaries from Norfolk (those of English) were with us here. It went very well.

Also, last night, we found some people! They are called Melonie, Jason, Mayla, and Margeret. They are Native Americans, but we will not teach them, the other elders will teach them. But, they are a family of recovering addicts. They have been without drugs for 9 months, and have a lot of faith in Jesus Christ. It was awesome we found them and they are very ready to pray and read together as a family.

Well, hopefully you had a very nice week and this week also very good!

With love,

Elder Cox

Monday, April 18, 2016

HEEEEEYYYOOO!

I hope you all enjoyed that little video! I was wearing a onesie thing that someone left in the apartment. I wear it to bed when I have exchanges with other missionaries, just to see what their reaction is. It's usually funny XD.

Anyways, on to this week. We had a fun experience this week! There is a kid named Rey. He got baptized back in October of last year. He is awesome. And he is 10. We were gonna see him and teach him a bit more but he was outside playing with some friends. So, we asked him: "Would any of your friends like to hear a message?" He just turns around and yells, "Hey! You guys wanna hear something?" THEY CAME RUNNING XD. and that's how I taught like 9 fifth grades at the same time. It was fun! They were kinda distracted during it but they did a great job paying attention overall. It was pretty cool to see that too. We are gonna see some of their families later this week, which is awesome! 

Otherwise, I went back down to Omaha for a day and did an exchange with the Assistants to the Mission President (my 2nd time). It was awesome. I was with Elder Smith. He reeeaaallllllyyy likes Pokemon so when he saw my Pokemon wallet (which I still used) he was very excited XD. It was a great time in Omaha. 

Otherwise, we have been able to do some good things with the members of our little congregation. We got basically a little calendar of when they are available to help us out and we've started to really coordinate with them more for their help. We like to get the help of our members while we teach because it's about the biggest thing that can help the people we teach. They can have a friend to call on in a time of need or if they have questions and that friend stays for a lot longer than any missionary will stay. It's a great thing! 

I hope you all have a great week! Que se cuiden! (take care)

Elder Cox

P.S. Here is a beautiful sunset we saw last week.


Monday, April 11, 2016

It's Cold Still!?!

Yeah, it's still like 40's in the morning and like 55 max in the afternoons most days. It is no bueno.

So this week was another special meeting! Last week was the General Conference, meaning a conference for the entire church from the Leaders of all the Church. That happens 2 times a year, every 6 months. There are also other smaller conferences that happen 2 times a year called Stake Conferences. A stake is about 8-14 congregations in a region. Like around Sioux city, there are congregations that are about 30 minutes to 2 hours away east and west that are part of our stake. During a Stake Conference, the Stake leaders talk to the stake and give specific direction to those that are in the stake or conduct business, such as boundary changes and stuff like that. The time of the stake conferences are different for every stake but for Sioux City, it is the weekend after General Conference. It's just 2 weeks of revelation from leaders who are chosen by God and whose only desire is to help those in the region to have more faith in Jesus Christ to be able to gain peace in this life. It's awesome! 

Something that I learned from this Conference is that we must have questions to learn. It's a basic principle of the Gospel. There are many instances in Church history where the current prophet just asked God a question and marvelous revelation was given, such as the restoration of the Aaronic Priesthood. It is something that by applying this principle in my study of the scriptures, I've been able to learn a lot. Basically, I begin by telling God what I want to learn in prayer. I ask for his help. Then, I study for that answer. God gives it to me as I read and ponder on what I read. Then, you gotta make sure you thank God for that knowledge and ask if there is more that he wants to tell us. It's a pattern that has worked a lot for me, so I know that it's true and good. 

Anyways, this week was awesome! We had a really cool miracle just yesterday! We were just driving and this guy whistled and waved to us. We were like "What? Who is that?" and it was near the house of someone that I had heard about but never met. It wasn't that person, but his brother! His brother is a member of our church and even went on a mission! He is awesome. He is just visiting for the day, but he invited us in and we taught his mom, who isn't a member of our church! It was awesome! She is super willing to listen to us and wants all of her family to listen too! Her name is Elva. I suspect that she will be talked about later, so keep her in mind. 

So yeah, great week! I hope you all have a great week this week! I love all y'all peoples!

Elder Cox

Monday, April 4, 2016

The Revelatory Week!

So, for those of you who didn't already know, this last weekend was something called General Conference. General Conference is where the Prophet (leader of the Church), the Apostles (his 12 assistants), and other leaders of our church take a weekend to talk to us and give us guidance, according to that which the Holy Spirit of God tells them to give us. There is a lot of things to be talked about, so they use this special time to tell us the things we must do and the things we must know to be effective in our lives, in relationship to all parts of our lives, whether it be Religious, Temporal, etc. They can give us the guidance that we need to feel peace in this life and to achieve eternal life in the life to come. It's a very special time that is meant for all on the earth to hear and listen too. It's a special time of guidance and revelation (communication from God to us). It was an awesome weekend!!! I really feel that what I heard will help all my life, not only right now but for the rest of my life! It's awesome!!!!!!!! I loved it.

Yeah, other than listening to the words of a modern day prophet, this week was also awesome because we found some cool new people to teach! They are a 15 year-old young man named Hector and his 11 year-old sister Miriam! Their mom is a woman who was baptized when they lived in Guatemala and they recently moved in up here in Sioux City! They are really smart kids and they are also very inquisitive! They just ask a lot of questions and are all really sincere good questions! It's really exciting to teach people like that. They are ready for us to help them get closer to Christ! 

So yeah, this week was awesome! Yesterday was like 75 degrees and it was beautiful! Love it! 

I hope you all have a good week!

Elder Cox

PS the sd card thing still doesn't work T.T I'll make sure I get a computer where it works next week, ok? ok!