Monday, August 29, 2016

The Week of Darns.

So here is the week:

Monday was kinda lame but we did see some good people. One of them was in an African Weave store. She is called Monica and she has been talked to by the missionaries before. She started crying and wouldn't tell us why she was crying. So we shared a message and left. I hope she is all good. 

Tuesday: We weren't about to talk to like anyone. No one let us in/was available. 

Wednesday: I was with an elder named Elder Campbell and we were in his area (which is another part of Sioux Falls) and we talked to a family who just recently got baptized. They were cool. And then again, like no one wanted to talk to us. 

Thursday: We went to a meeting in Brookings, South Dakota and then I interviewed someone for baptism. She is so ready it's awesome. Then we met with Yanira (the Spanish Investigator) and she is stiiiillll aweeeessssooommmeeee!!!! She had a dream recently about baptism for the dead, which something that our church believes in and said that she knows it is true! So that's soooooo AWESOME! 

Friday: We gave a man a blessing that randomly like died after a race but was revived and is now in recovery. Then we plannend for the week. Then I met a man named Ayele. He was affected a lot by the Ethiopian-Italian War. but he loves Jesus. So we talked to him about Jesus. 

Saturday: We saw like a bunch of people! but.....

Sunday: no one came to church :(

That's like not a fun week. But it was good. We met some other people on Sunday that we can meet with during this week. So that's really good. 

Love you all!

Elder Cox


1st pic: Clouds!



2nd pic: Downtown Sioux Falls from a different Elder's apartment


Monday, August 22, 2016

This week was tiring.

So, as usual, we had exchanges this week. But this week they were especially difficult for me. Mostly because I had to be the one who stayed in Sioux Falls, even though I don't really know the area too well. My Companion was out in other areas and it was for 2 days in a row. It was pretty bad honestly. I got lost at least like 5 times each day. But we had some great days. 

So Hirut has been busy the last 2 weekends with some previous thing that she agreed to do for her old church. But i'm really excited, because she could potentially be baptized in 12 days! As long as she still decides to do so, she can totally do so next Saturday! It's crazy awesome! 

Also, the only Spanish investigator that I told you about last Monday will be returning to Sioux City on Saturday (if I understood her correctly). SO SAD! MY SPANISH WILL NOW DWINDLE. T.T (that's me crying). I'm pretty sad about it too, because she is so awesome! She will one day get baptized. 

Otherwise, we went to a wedding! The daughter of a member here in the Ward got married and we were invited! It had good food. that's about it. I really didn't know the member but I got to see some matrimony! 

We gave a blessing to a recently born baby girl. She will have to be flown to St. Paul, Minnesota for open heart surgery. It's so special that God has given his power to man so that parents can receive divine help in a situation that they can do nothing to improve on their own.

So yeah, that was the week. I really wanted to send homes some pictures but I did not remember to bring my SD card adapter, so i'll need to bring it next week. I got some sweet pictures of us playing tennis and some sweet pictures of the clouds around here. 

Have a great week! Love y'all!

Elder Cox

Monday, August 15, 2016

Zone Conference Week!

This week was good. We had Zone Conference! All the missionaries around Sioux City and Sioux Falls all went to Sioux City and had a big meeting. It was awesome. We talked about how we can change ourselves and how that is so necessary for us to become the missionaries we need to be. It was awesome. Then we talked about how the Book of Mormon is the only way anyone can know that our message is true and how we need to make sure that we help people understand that. It was awesome. Then, we play some softball together! I attached a picture of us after our softball game. It was fun, especially because I got to see all the missionaries that we around me for like forever it feels.

Otherwise, this week was pretty slow. We Talked to a few people this week but not many people were available this week. Hirut had something she had to do this Sunday so she wasn't at church this week. And no one else that we invited came. Kinda sad. 

I'm gonna tell y'all about the like only person we teach that speaks Spanish. Her name is Yanira. She is awesome. She lives in Sioux City but is up here in Sioux Falls because her husband had a stroke and is receiving medical attention here. She is reading a lot in the Book of Mormon and loves it so far. When she was first found, she told the missionaries that she already believed that Jesus Christ visited the Americas, just as the Book of Mormon teaches us. And she loves everything that she has been taught so she is awesome. there is also a Columbian family that is connecting very well as her friends here. She often has to go to Sioux City for the weekend but she is really wanting to go to church.

I'm doing good overall up here in the North. I like it and the people are nice. I'm glad that I was sent up here!

Love y'all!

Elder Cox


Monday, August 8, 2016

Let it go!

So, this week was awesome. We had MLC (Mission Leadership Council) where all the Zone Leaders and Sister Training Leaders are trained by the Mission President, his Wife ,and his Assistants on how we can help the mission. This time, Sister Gardner (Mission President's wife) had us all think of something in our past and let it go. and then we did let it go! Literally, she had us take yellow balloons and go outside to let them go all at once. We did that and watched as our former problems or worries just floated away. It was quite a refreshing experience. For me, I had to let go of Sioux City, the place where I had been for so many months. I kept just being sad that I felt that I didn't do much there or hurt because people rejected me there a lot. So it brought me a lot of peace to Let it go. 

Otherwise, we had a really awesome thing this week. As a mission, we spent Thursday night from 6 pm to 9 pm specifically finding new people to teach. We set some awesome goals. As a mission, we had 109 people say that they would get baptized, we passed out 281 copies of the Book of Mormon, and we taught 308 people. THAT'S HUGE! it was awesome! we had 1 person agree to baptism, passed out 3 copies of the Book of Mormon and taught 3 people. Just our small amount was multiplied like almost 100 fold by the 89 other companionships.  It is amazing what can happen when we put our faith into our work!

Otherwise, we had another lesson with Hirut, the one I mentioned last time. We helped her understand that she is already so ready for baptism! Because she really is. She only has 2 things: to stop drinking coffee and to continue to come to church. And then, SHE CAME AGAIN TO CHURCH! She loved the first time and now she returned and loved it again! She is awesome. She is just concerned about her daughter down in Ethiopia and wants to make sure that she is safe. But God will provide!

I hope you all have a good week! I like it up here in Sioux Falls so far and am really excited to keep working! Love y'all

Elder Cox

P.S. the picture is of me saying good bye to a family who loves the St. Louis Cardinals. They were awesome




Monday, August 1, 2016

TRANSFERED!!! 4th Area: Sioux Falls, South Dakota

So I got transferred. I am now in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. It's like an hour and 15 minutes north from Sioux City. And so far, I really like it here. It is MUCH cleaner and nice than Sioux City. Everyone calls Sioux City "Sewer City". Sioux Falls is also much bigger. I'm now with Elder Anderson. He is from Brigham City, Utah and has been out for about 14 months. I knew him before because he served in Sioux City a while ago. also, I'M A ZEBRA! That means that in my companionship, I am the only one that speaks Spanish. Elder Anderson only speaks english. Plus, we are going to be teaching mostly English Speakers and if they speak Spanish, I'll have to teach alone. That's a bit scary. But it's all good. 

so yeah. I have met a few of the people we teach and they are all awesome. They are mostly from Africa and understand English like perfectly but have trouble speaking English many times. So it is like learning another language. That language is Broken English. But these people all love Jesus and want to follow him. so it's awesome to see the faith that they have. 

One that I met is named Hirut. She is from Ethiopia and her daughter, Rahel, was baptized about 6 months ago. We went over there and watch the movie Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration, which is all about the event in the early history of our church. We wanted to help her understand all the many things that people have sacrificed to follow this church because they knew it was true. We found out later that she has already seen it, but we had her ask herself as she watched "why would they go through this?" She recognized how this could be the most important thing and she agreed to be baptized on August 27th. Then she came to church for the 2nd time ever. It was AWESOME!!!!

So far it is great up here. I will keep you guys informed on all that happens. 

Love y'all!

Elder Cox

Pic: Elder Anderson and I