Week 51 – Adios Tecalco y Hola Cuautla!

Hermana Blanco & Hermana Martinez

           Hermano Martinez, Hermano Martinez (Harold - Ward Mission Leader),                                                                        Hermana Blanco, Me, & Hermana Martinez

This week was a little different because we had changes on Thursday.  We have new areas in the mission.

On Monday, we went to play basketball in a real gymnasium with 9 elders and about 20 youth.  One of the young men in our ward plays on a club team.  He was able to get us in and we played for a few hours.  I had a few nice shots from the outside!  After that, we went to a hermana’s house with some of the Elders to eat breakfast.  On the way home to Tecalco, there was a lady selling flowers and one of the Elders bought me flowers for my birthday.  It was very nice of him b/c his companions were like, “You don’t even have money for food, why are you buying flowers?”  After breakfast, we played UNO and this other card game that I don’t know what it is called.  It was so fun.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, we worked and visited.  Wednesday night, a brother bought pizza for my birthday and invited the Elders and a young man named Jorge that always accompanies the missionaries.  We also went to our mission leader’s house to say goodbye.  They took pictures with us.  My companion had asked for a blessing from our mission leader earlier in the week.  I don’t ask for blessings very often but I felt prompted to ask.  I am kind of prejudiced to my dad’s blessings.  However, I was feeling a little stressed about opening a new area and so I asked Hermano Harold for a blessing.  The blessings lasted like 10 minutes.  I think I will remember it as one of the really cool experiences of my mission.  He said things that I really needed to hear.  Things I had been praying and thinking about for a while and had not received clear understanding about.  He said that I would be blessed to only look back to see things that I had improved upon.  That was something I needed to hear because sometimes I look back and think “Ah, I did that wrong” or “I could have done that better.”  It isn’t necessarily bad but sometimes I stress over it and Satan can use it to discourage and distract me.  I was really happy to hear those words and know they were coming from the Lord.  He also said, “I can see that God has given you a lot of blessings and that he has more in store for me.”  I wondered if that meant he saw that with his spiritual eyes or was it something he observed being with us.  I have realized on the mission that the Lord has blessed me so much.  When I say that, I mostly refer to my family.  I have a really cool family.

Thursday morning as we were getting ready, Jorge came to say goodbye.  Jorge is a youth that would accompany us and he is crazy good at teaching.  He has a gift for teaching and talking but like to the point where our investigators were left with their mouths hanging open.  He has the knowledge of an 80 year old general authority.  Ah … we love him lots and we will miss him!

A few minutes later, Hermano Harold showed up to say goodbye and give us some last minute advice.  He said, “Hermanas, who am I going to hang out with now?”  (Hermano Harold is the ward mission leader in one of the wards that Courtney is serving in.  He recently returned home from his mission 2 months ago.)  We were with his family for Christmas and New Years and he accompanied us often.  We were like, “It is time for you to make more friends and to find a girlfriend.”  We pray for him that he will find good ones soon.

The family that lives in front of us came to say goodbye.  It was nice of them.  I am going to miss the grandmother because she always told funny stories and checked on us. 

When we went to Cuautla, we traveled in a bus.  As we were going, it was quiet because the view was changing into something we don’t see very often.  GREEN!  We got to the stake center and it had palm trees and it looked like a little resort.  We went with the sisters to our area and they showed us around and then they left the next morning.  Our area is HUGE!   To get to our lessons we walk so much and it is HOT!  I have blisters all over my feet.  It sounds ridiculous but sometimes my body hurts so bad from the sun and walking and carrying my bag that I just want to cry.  I feel like I am on the trek again.

Our house is very RAD!  It reminds me of a chilled pad in Costa Rica J.  I’ll send pics soon.  The bathroom has no door.  It is great, the people here accept our contacts!  I have asked for directions all day long and they help us!  It is so cool.  I love Mexico!

This Sunday we spoke in church and we taught gospel principles.  Our investigator cried in Gospel Principles today when we were talking about God’s love.  She said that when she was little she prayed for a brother, but her Mom was having trouble having children.  She prayed and prayed and her Mom was able to have a son, and she had a brother.  Her brother is also an investigator and he was sitting next to her.  It was like “Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!”  We taught another family on Saturday and helped her children with their English homework.  She was so happy that she accompanied us all day today.  We visited another family and he was like “I feel so happy, can you come visit our family every week?”  We contacted a woman in the street and she gave us free horchata and tacos.  SCORE!

We are sad to leave our old area and excited for our new area at the same time.  We are ready to work!!  Thank you for your prayers, letters, and support!   I love you!  

XOXO,

Hermana Cox

Weeks 47-50 Feliz Navidad y Prospero Ano

Chalco Mission

Hermana Blanco(Peru), Me, & Hermano Martinez (Ward Mission Leader)

Christmas Night at Hermano Martinez's

I taught everyone how to play Uno, American Style or how the Johnson Family plays (lightning speed).

They loved it!

Here, they celebrate New Years by having big dinners and they dance and light fireworks all night.  I was able to play bball for a couple hours and then we ate a huge dinner with the family of our mission leader.  Today, we played bball in a real gym with like 30 jovenes and elders.  It was good to play on a real court.  We had to say goodbye to our investigators.  I have changes coming.  They are closing Tecalco.  The members are great and they will be able to do the work on their own !!   We have one that we have been teaching and she started crying and it was hard. She was the one that said she had to go to the mountain to pray. Her prayers are the most sincere things I have ever heard. Its like she is sitting in the presence of God when she says them. She hasn't received an answer yet, but she is definitely looking for the truth and I know she will find it. I am going to Cuatla with an American companion and I am still a training leader. The areas of the mission have changed and I will be opening this new area.  It is suppose to be a really great city.  Love you !! 

Week 45 & 46 Happy Christmas

This week has been a good one, but we are tired.  We did our first divisions this week.  I stayed in the area with my daughter, Hermana Cervantes.  It was a great day and it was fun to be with her again and see how we have grown as missionaries.  Elder Toris from the Seventy came to our mission for a mission tour.  On Friday, we had meetings literally all day with him.  On Saturday, we had a meeting with the leaders.  There were 25 of us in total.  I thought it would be an hour to hour and a half meeting.  When I looked at my watch, at the end of the meeting, it had been over three hours.  It was one of the most spiritual experiences in my life.  We talked about what we can do to improve the mission.  He worked us through what a real counsel should be.  To be in his presence and talk with him and for him to share some of the things he did was something hard to describe.  I’ve heard about these stories before.  An apostle visits a mission and when he shakes their hands he interviews each and every one of them.  He told us in the meeting that he interviewed each and every one of our companions.  He shared with us the problems he felt as he looked in our eyes.  He shared with us some of the experiences he had with the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.  He told us we will know if we have been good missionaries when our grandkids receive their endowments.  He said that the Second Coming will come tomorrow and now is the time to prepare.  He said the weakness we have as humans is that we can’t do anything without the Atonement, without Christ.  I love you!! 

XOXO,

Hermana Cox

Week 44 Earthquake

Courtney wrote a small note to us this week.  As she was writing her notes to everyone, she experienced a 5.5 earthquake.  The earthquake was 150 miles south of Mexico City.  They felt the quake and it caused the ground to shake and buildings to sway.  As far as we know, she is doing well.  She indicated that she has been transferred out to Ixapulaca and back down toward Amecameca.  She has been called to be a sister training leader.  There are 6 sisters in the mission who act in a similar capacity as zone leaders and train groups of sister missionaries.  She stated that she was surprised, humbled, and scared.  Despite having many other sisters who are more qualified than her, she said she was grateful that the Lord qualifies those whom he calls.  She concluded by saying that nothing like Thanksgiving exists in Mexico.  She sent us a picture of her new haircut.  Thank you all for supporting her.  We hope you have a great Thanksgiving!

Love,

The Cox’s

WEEK 43 HUMP DAY!!

My Little Friend

Navidad is Coming!

This week, I completed half of my mission.  The time has really gone by fast, but I am happy.  I have nine months left !!  This week, I have felt really good in my health.  My companion and I were having some weird symptoms and so we took some medicine that cleans the beetles out of your stomach.  We have felt a lot better !! 

This week we had to play “Ghostbusters” again.  Last week, we went on a visit and I felt that something was weird in the house.  I felt physically sick and I said we were going to bring the Elders over at the next visit.  When we came this week, this person started talking about a few things that they had seen and the Elders blessed the house.  After the blessing, I felt a lot better. 

My companion and I want to make t-shirts that say “Amo la lay de castidad.”  On the back, we would put the scripture Hebrews 13:4.  When people wonder why they have problems in their relationships, it is almost always dealing with these four words … the law of castidad.  Law does not mean option.  The commandments are not options !!   

Les amo … Hermana Cox

Weeks 39-42 “HELLO NOVEMBER"

Hermana Cervantes: “Hermana, I know why you have a tall body.”

Hermana Cox: “Why?”

Hermana Cervantes: “So that you can hug more people!!”

In front of a house we have never visited before …

Hermana Cox: “I wonder if they speak English?”

Hermana Cervantes: “Why?”

Hermana Cox: “Because the sign on the door says ‘Pumpkin Friends’”

Later in the day, we are contacting and a lady rejects our invitation.

Hermana Cervantes: “She is not a pumpkin friend.”

We were able to go to the Mexico City Temple this week and I did a session in Spanish !!  It was a really spiritual experience to go to the temple as a missionary and apply the things I have learned here.  I can’t wait to go more frequently when I get home.
 

We had interviews with President Crickmore this week.  I always love talking with him.  He is humble and he loves us.  I also was able to talk to Hermana Crickmore.  She caught me up on all the latest sports updates.  It looks like the Utes have dropped a few positions and the Aztecs have an impressive starting lineup in bball this season.

This week, I have had a quote by President Ezra Taft Benson rolling around in my mind.  It is in Spanish, but it basically says that God gives us general guidelines.  However, he wants us to figure out the details for ourselves.  The more the Lord has to command us, the less blessings we will receive.  The people that have progressed the least spiritually are the people that need to be commanded in many aspects.

I’ve been thinking maybe the reason why God doesn’t want to command us in all things and that we do many things of our own free will is because he wants us to become like Him.  He wants us to become Gods.  I would imagine that in order for Gods to have the intelligence and imagination to create worlds and life, they would have to create the rules for themselves and do and create things that never before have existed.  They have to be agents unto themselves.

If you have time this week, please watch the Mormon Message “La Esperanza De La Luz De Dios.”  It should be something like “The Hope of the Light of God.” 

This week is going well here.  We have some investigators that are chosen.  When we taught the Word of Wisdom to one of our investigators, we asked him if he had a problem with any of these things.  He said that he drank and smoked every once in a while.  He also drank coffee pretty often.  We asked him if he could give this up.  He said, “Hermanas, I have to because it is a requisite to be baptized !!”  My companion and I just smiled and said, “Very good, hermano.”

I love being a missionary !!  I love you. 

XOXO,  Hermana Cox

Week 36 - 38 Bird Zoo