Happy Thanksgiving, I'm dying!

So, in mission lingo, when a missionary "dies" it means they go home. so that's me! 

Also, in mission lingo, a "trunky" missionary is a missionary who is packing or thinking about home too much. That's also me! Lol. I am already packed, that's why.

This week was great. Thanksgiving was packed full of food. We had a lunch with our bishop at 2 (in which I ate 2 plates). Then we ate with another family in the ward at 5 (1 plate). Lastly, we ate with yet another family (1 plate). Then!!!!! On Saturday, We had a second Thanksgiving day. We ate with Robin and her family (2 plates) and with another family who don't come to church too often (2 plates). Fridaymorning and Sunday all day I was not feeling too well. Probably because I ate WAY to much. So that was bad. I still feel kinda woosy today but that's not bad at all.

I can't wait to talk to all y'all through facebook soon!

Elder Cox

Editor's Note: The below photo was taken in December 2014 just before Elder Cox left for his mission.

The COLD!

It is cold now. It's been like less than 20 degrees every morning now. My hands are getting really cold if I don't have gloves on. But I have nice gloves. It snowed like 4 inches on Friday. And we were supposed to drive an hour south to Sioux City to pick up supplies but that didn't happen at all. We made it like 8 minutes south but we were slipping quite a bit so we stopped and turned around. That was scary.

Otherwise, this week was really good. We had the opportunity to talk to quite a few new people. They all seem pretty interested. We had quite an interesting experience with one of those new people. She literally invited us in "to argue and debate religious beliefs". So that was kinda not pleasant. But it went well. Then we went back on Saturday and she had printed 2 5-page documents against our church. So we had VERY LONG discussion with her and she came to terms with our beliefs and just opposes like 2 of them because we couldn't "prove it from the bible". So yeah. She is not really willing to change her mind and open her heart, so that was interesting.

I am still enjoying my mission! It is sad though, because now I have less than 10 days until I have to leave my mission and move on. It will be cool to move on and get to life, but i want my mission to be longer!

Love y'all!

Elder Cox

The Long E-mail

I told y'all that I would make up for last week's short e-mail. Here I go!

On Monday, after I e-mailed last time, we did a jam session with an investigator of ours named Mark. Elder Clark and he jammed on guitar and I just messed around on a nearby keyboard. It was awesome though. Mark then took us to Burger King and we were just talking and stuff. I asked him where he had lived and he said that he lived in Benson, AZ, which is where my family lived like 9 years ago now. So that was awesome.

On Tuesday, We helped this old lady, whose house is like full to the ceiling with junk and also super useful stuff, begin to clear her living room. There were literally so many boxes of stuff that we didn't know that there was a couch and 2 chairs underneath all this stuff. Then we went to Marshall, MN, to work up there all that day. It's like almost 2 hours north east of Sioux Falls, SD. It was cool up there. I was with Elder Sandberg, who is new to the mission. They have a lot of different cultured people that are going to school in the College up there. It's cool to see all the culture.

On Wednesday, we went to Brookings, SD for a meeting and then I stayed there the rest of the day with Elder Larsen, who is training a new missionary. He is funny. We had an awesome day. Someone bought us pizza, so that was the best. Brookings is another college town and it is pretty packed with cars during class time. We could barely park the car!

On Thursday, we returned to Sioux Falls and had a meeting with all the local missionary leaders and our Mission President and his assistants. It was awesome. Then I was with one of the assistants to the President for the day! His name was Elder Karl. We used the Spirit a lot to help us while trying to find people to teach and found a huge birthday party of Hispanics and then a rehearsal of a Hispanic kids group getting ready to sing for a Hispanic church with their families! We tried to get in there to talk to people but couldn't get far. We got like 3 peoples information to talk to their families. And then their neighbors were Hispanic too! it was great. They were pretty anti other churches too. But it was awesome. I love Hispanics!

On Friday, we had an awesome time. We taught Mercedes' soon-to-be-Step-Father, Myron, and he really liked it! We had dinner with an awesome family and had Robin and her family over as well and taught her about fasting. Then we saw Hirut, the lady from ethiopia. She has been to church like almost everyweek recently! it's awesome! Then, we saw a family who haven't been to church for a while called the Makinson family and we had someone who was baptized like a few months ago come with us. They hit it off immediately! They are both native american, they both shave their heads, they both like football, they have like everything in common! It was super cool!

Hirut, Myron, and the Makinson family all came to church!!!! It was sick!!! We had a great week.

I hope this find y'all well!

Elder Cox

Baptism!

This week was awesome! Mercedes Klein was baptized on Saturday! She was so happy! She was just like "I feel so clean!" So yeah.

Otherwise, this week was kind of boring. Most of the week was spent getting ready for the baptism and teaching her the rest of what she needed to know. We taught Robin and her family but she was not able to come to church, because she woke up with a migraine on Sunday. So that is really sad.  But I really like it up here still. Fall is really beautiful.

This e-mail is kind of short today, but I'll make next week's email extra long to make up for it, ok?

Love y'all!

Elder Cox

Festivals, sickness, and...a Cruze?

So this week was good for some and not so good for others.

The Good: So our investigator Mercedes is going to get baptized this week! We are so stoked!!! We met with her mom for the first time and they all came to church together this week. Mercedes would usually come with a different family because hers was unable to come but now they are all together! It's awesome. She is super ready and super excited. I'm super excited too! 

Not so Good: Robin and her family were all sick this last week so they won't be able to be baptized on the 12th (because they didn't come to church) but that's ok. They are still on track to be baptized in a few weeks. Now we have time to talk to every part of the family individually and work with them to help them progress! It'll be good.

Cruze? I just put that in there because we have a different car for the week. There is a car that needs to be driven to Omaha tomorrow so we swapped with those missionaries for the week. We normally drive a Chevy Equinox but this week we had a Chevy Cruze. So yeah.

This week we had a Spooky Dinner with a member of the ward. I have pictures. And last week we had a Rainbow dinner with them and I have pictures of that too! I will send them.

I'm doing good up here overall. My companion already wishes that I was gone (but I think he is being sarcastic...He is always sarcastic). But yeah, it is good. Time is ticking down, and that is making me nervous but I'm not too worried.

Love Y'all!

Elder Cox

Spooky Dinner

Rainbow Dinner

Dessert for the Halloween dinner

Also, we had a sweet Halloween Festival and I was a pumpkin. My companion was an Asian man.

Mission Map