Wednesday, May 27, 2015

Week 16 - Alma, Pyramids, and Bednar

Alma




Visiting the Temple with Our Investigators 

Our Little Monkey

Snow on Popo



The Pyramids





Sorry, for not writing for so long!  Mother’s Day was awesome and it was fun getting to see/talk to the fam.  Sometimes it’s weird to think that Vegas still exists and America, haha.

Wonderful things have happened!  Alma was baptized!!!  The service was sweet.  She came out of the water and hugged us and was crying.  One of our investigators said the opening prayer.  She had a fiesta afterwards.  It was a great day!

Elder Bednar really did come to visit.  He kept saying, “You should hear things today that are not said.”  He was super nice to the sisters.  He said that men do 99 things terrible and 1 thing “alright” and then they pound on their chest and say, “yeah!”  But women do 99 things perfectly and 1 thing “just normal” and they’re like, “Oh, what have I done!”  He told the sisters that we are beating ourselves up too much.  We need to be a little better than we were the day before and that is enough. In the scriptures, Jesus asks us to be perfect, but the Latin root of perfect is complete.

We went to the PYRAMIDS!!!  There are 3.  The sun, moon, and stars.  We had a tour guide who was a return missionary so he gave us the “low down” of spiritual secrets.  It was positively cool.  But we will save the secrets of the temples for another day.

XOXO,
Hermana Cox

Tuesday, May 19, 2015

Week 15 - Pyramids

The pyramids are calling and I must go.......I will write next week!!!!

Love you!!
Hermana Cox



Week 14 - Courtney LIVE!!



This is a summary of our conversation with Courtney on Mother's Day.  We were able to speak with her for an hour over Skype.  Courtney looks and sounds great.  She told us a little about her schedule …

Day starts - 6:00
Exercise - 6:30 to 7:00 
Getting Ready - 7:00 to 8:00
Study - 8:00 to 12:00 pm
Teaching - 12:00 to 2:00 pm
Eating - 2:00 to 3:00 pm
Teaching - 3:00 to 9:00 pm
Home/Preparing for Tomorrow - 9:00 to 10:30 pm
Lights Out - 10:30 pm

Her "p-day" or day away from teaching consists of cleaning her place, cleaning her clothes (by hand), contacting family via email, and getting everything ready for the next week.

She says that the weather is hot in the day and cold at night.  She has a different skin color (red) b/c she has not been diligent in using sunscreen every day and she is at 8800 feet.  At night, she has "8 blankets" but she does keep warm.  She says that the volcano rumbles constantly and with the spring rain showers, sometimes they wonder whether the rumble is thunder or the volcano.  She loves the people of San Pedro.  She says they are completely "chill."  She says that the work is hard but rewarding.  The church and wards are similar to the United States.  She indicates that she plays the piano for prelude music before church but the hymns are sung without accompaniment.  

She feels that she has grown so much spiritually.  Many gospel principles that she believed growing up have been strengthened as she has put them into practice.  She is grateful for her family and friends and realizes the many sacrifices that those around her make to teach her and strengthen her life.  She is healthy and now stays away from street tacos unless she has it on good authority that all will be well.  She closed by bearing her testimony of Jesus Christ to us in Spanish.  We finished by praying and we look forward to our weekly emails and our next conversation with her on Christmas Day.

Thank you all again for supporting Courtney.  We are grateful for you.  She is grateful for the cards, letters, and emails that you send her.  She wishes she had more time each week to write more to each of you.  Again, thank you!!


With Love, Darren and Rachelle 

Monday, May 4, 2015

Week 13 - TAKE IT EASY!!


Our Zone Picture


Making Agenda Covers with Hermana Castillo






My dad got mad (exaggeration, just encouraged her to share) at me for not sharing enough about my experiences, so here we go.  On Monday, I received an email from President.  He heard we got 100 contacts that week, which is the record in San Pedro.  Also, Elder Bednar is coming to visit the mission May 15th !!  He sent us some talks to read so we could be prepared for his visit.  Monday was our last district meeting because of changes, so we went to get tacos afterwards.  We spent 400 pesos on tacos and split them between the 7 of us.  They were super yummy !!  I also bought a b-ball and Hermana Castillo and I go to the church in the mornings to exercise.  We had some pretty crazy rain storms this week.  One of our investigators finally received her answer that she needs to get baptized.  She has been seeing the missionaries for awhile.  We put a date with her, but she was super nervous about it.  Then she told us last week that she decided to open up the Book of Mormon to a random page.  She read a verse that talked about baptism.  She said she felt a strong feeling in her heart and she knew it was the right decision to be baptized.  Her name is Alma, which means “soul” in Spanish.  She is so awesome and she has a really strong testimony.  I love her a lot.  We contacted a guy on the street named Ignacio and he told us to call him Nacho.  And my companion and I were like N A C H O O O O !!  We taught English classes this week.  It was hilarious.  We taught animals and one of the ladies pointed to her daughter and said “monkey,” so now the little girl’s nickname is “little monkey.” We also taught them the phrase “take it easy” and out of nowhere one of the ladies yelled, “TAKE IT EASY, YOU’RE CRAZY !!”  I am not sure where she learned it from but it was pretty funny.  I LOVE YOU !!  XOXO, Hermana Cox

BONUS COVERAGE FROM HER PAPA THIS WEEK:

The elders this week invited us to go to Sam’s Club.  It was nice of them because we can only travel in groups of four and they had to pull some strings.  I bought cheese, Lucky Charms, a shirt, pita chips, and those dark chocolate acai blueberries.  We also bought pizza, papas (fries), and a soda.  Dad, they were so good !!  I cried !!  It was such a good day, so, so, good.  The best day ever.  I never thought going to a store could bring so much happiness.  It was like home !!