Tuesday May 26, 2015 - Answered Prayers

Hey brother,

So the last few weeks it's been a noticeable "crunch time" feeling as McKay and I are now just 3 1/2 weeks away from getting married!! He was up here this weekend for Memorial Day, and then flew home, I'll fly down there Friday to go to California for his cousin's wedding, and then JUNE 1, we'll come back to utah together, and he'll live here until the wedding :) finally!!

In the midst of all the crazy this past week, I realized I was needing a spiritual boost. So I called Emma (my old mission Comp) to go to the temple with me... the whole way there I was thinking a lot about my post-mission life ... I am happier than happy, so extremely busy.... But the one thing that sometimes gets in the way of that is I feel extremely self-absorbed!! It's all about planning MY wedding, parties for ME, gifts for ME, what am I going to do today.... And honestly I got feeling a little blah.

So on my way to the temple I thought back to the mission and how nice it was to "forget yourself and go to work". So I prayed that I would be given a chance to focus on someone other than myself ... Service... Someone in need of a friend... Anything.

When we came out of the temple, I had 4 missed calls from some unknown out-of-state number, and a voicemail.... Things got crazy as I went to lunch with Emma, and then got in my car to meet McKay, who drove here from az. As I was getting close to home, I was thinking about my prayer, and felt like I really needed to listen to that voicemail.
 I push play, and there is this lady from the national bone marrow registry, telling me that I am a potential match for a patient with cancer who needs a transplant!
They were shocked that they had already found a match, since we registered not too long ago.
I can't really explain how I felt. So extremely happy, grateful, and once again overwhelmed at how the Lord has this crazy plan and knows us so well. It's the ultimate answer to their prayers, and mine, and a chance for me to do something to give back.
I got so emotional, I couldn't stop smiling, through my tears, the rest of the way home.
I pulled in and mom and McKay were pulling weeds. I hugged them both and told them the news. Mom got emotional, and we all did a little happy dance in the kitchen.
I spent the next hour and a half on the phone with a Be the Match representative going over an EXTREMELY thorough health exam. I go in on June 2 to do some more extensive blood work, and from there we'll figure out the process of donation.

I felt so blessed and overwhelmed at the thought of how perfectly timed that was and how perfectly our Heavenly Father knows each of us.
Not only was it an answer to my prayer, but I think of the family of that patient (who is a 65 year old man.. Someone's grandpa) and their many trials and prayers...
I love you so much, and I have more faith than ever that the lord is so very aware of you. He has a plan in play and is working with you to help you become what he needs you to be.

There honestly is nothing better than being able to put your own needs, wants, trials, discomforts, whatever it may be... On hold for those 18 months or two years... It puts things into perspective in a way that changes your life. You realize that true happiness comes from having an open heart, open mind, and open eyes to see the needs of other children of our Heavenly Father and then be willing to do whatever is in your power to help them, heal them, and in turn, feel of the incredible love he has for each of us!

️happy day. You are so loved.
xoxo C

Dear Courtney, 

There you go bringing tears to my eyes again. Really though I'm sitting here in the library trying to hide them from everyone who's already looking at me like I'm from outer space. But that is the coolest story I can't even like explain I'm trying not to do a little happy dance myself. It obviously has a personal meaning to me that you were all willing to register for bone marrow donation and It's so amazing that you are a match for someone and will hopefully be able to provide that hope to him and his family. I've said it before but that is my favorite part about the mission is just being able to consecrate our lives 100% to the Lord and others around us. Obviously we can't do that for our entire lives the way we can on missions but keeping that same spirit of looking for ways to turn outward is something all missionaries I think should go home with and something that you are a great example of.

I love you and keep me updated on how all the testing goes and everything that ends up happening! And good luck with all the wedding plans it was so great to be able to see those pictures of your party it looked super fun! Tell my big brother Hi and have a great week! Love you

Love Elder Cox

Tuesday May 26, 2015 - IOWA OR AFRICA

This week I got a new companion Elder Petersen! He's awesome he's from Wellsville Utah, is about 6'4 and plays baseball so we get along awesome!

This last week has been a really exciting one! I have officially decided that I read my mission call letter wrong. It didn't say Iowa Des Moines it said Liberia Africa! We have been able to meet with Eunice and her family a couple more times this week and something awesome happened! On Sunday Nancy turned 8 and she was so excited because now she'll be able to be baptized!

Nancy, Tuice, Chealeyn, me, Daywulu, Eunice, and Abel is the little boy

It was also super funny we taught them the 10 commandments and we brought a white board with us and had the kids write all 10 on the white board as we talked about them. At the end of the lesson, we asked them if they will live the 10 commandments. Eunice picks up the board and just starts checking off the ones she is living already and saying which ones she needs to work on. "I lie sometime. I will work on that one. And I will keep Sabbath better." It was funny but at the same time awesome to see how humble she is and willing to change to follow God better.

Scripture thought for this week: Romans 8: 24-28. We are saved by hope. By having a hope that God has better things in store than we at this time can see. And that if we have patience and faith and love God that all things will come together for our good. Moroni 7 says that if we have faith then we must have hope. And if we have faith and hope in Christ we must have charity. And faith hope and charity will bring us true joy and happiness.

I love you all. Hope on.

This pictures goes perfectly with my spiritual thought today, because this ladies name is Hope. She is 94 and she stays at the nursing home we volunteer at and she is the funniest old lady I have ever met!

Love Elder Cox

Tuesday May 26, 2015 - IOWA REPORT

Dear Davis, 

I am doing my state report on IOWAI  It is due by this week.  Please answer the questions below today if you can!

1. what is your favorite thing about Iowa 

2. What is the weather mostly like there cold, hot, snowy, etc

3. what is a famous food  ( not a burger or corn)

4. please send photos of the landscape if possible if not mom has others from you sent earlier.

5. interesting fact about IOWA that my class might like.

6. Besides Liberian what other nationality.

7. What are the people like?

8. What do the people like to do?

Thanks for helping me out!  I love you
sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo Much!

EMMI

1. My favorite thing about Iowa (besides the people) is the skies. They have amazing sunsets here and last night there was a thunderstorm unlike anything I've ever been in. The sky was just lighting up every couple seconds and the rolling thunder sounded super cool!

2. Sometimes cold, sometimes hot, but always humid! which makes the hot hotter and the cold colder.

3. Anything deep fried.

5. Iowa is very diverse. Most the people I meet are from places like Liberia, Sudan, Nepal, Iraq, Thailand, and a lot of other places.

6. well I guess I just answered that with 5 haha

7. The people are awesome and in the area I am in they are very humble and loving. They always want to give us food or things that they have.

8. I don't really know that one but a lot of people like watching NASCAR and wrestling out here. There's a NASCAR track about 30 minutes away that people are always going to to watch the races.

Love you Emmi! Good luck on your state report

Monday May 18, 2015

Well you told me last week that there wouldn't be a week go by that you wouldn't email me so I'm guessing either your testing me or you guys got busy down in Arizona or something. Or the email didn't send like last time. One of those things.

I just wanted to update you on a couple things:

1. My ankle. It is still a little sore sometimes when I twist on it but it's a lot better. Here's a picture of it a couple days after it happened. bruised up pretty good but it doesn't look like that anymore.

2. My meds. I'm going to try to take labs this week because I only have about 10 days left of 100's so if I'll take labs this week then plan on tapering next week after I hear from you. Let me know if that plan sounds good to you.

3. I've gained 17 pounds! booyah. Elder Lords wanted me to tell you that the average weight gain for this mission is like 50 pounds! not even joking his previous 3 companions have all gained atleast 40 pounds on their missions. Don't worry that's not my plan I think I'm about peaking right now at 190 :)haha haven't been to Zombie burger in a while these missionaries are just wearing off on me with all the mac'n'chees and Totino's Pizza's. I know this is a lame excuse but it's hard to eat healthy on $3 a day haha but I think I'm getting better at it guess we'll see

You'll also be so proud I took a lot of pictures this week! well more than usual for me so I'll send those with my other email. 

Love Elder Cox

The District

Elder Lords and I took a photo shoot with the lawn mower in Brother Webb's backyard. It was literally parting the red sea. The grass was up to my waist in a couple places. That lawn mower is a champ.

In fast and testimony meeting in Arizona there was a lady that talked of a missionary coming home and everyone asking if he had changed on his mission.  I loved the response of "Yes, I did change on my mission, but more importantly I learned How to change!" 

I thought of this a lot and loved that sentiment.  Life is all about knowing when and how to gracefully allow the storms and the joys to change you! Love Mom

This week is transfer week and we found out this morning that I will be staying here but that Elder Lords will be leaving so this will be my last week emailing with him.

Spent most of this week in Africa again. And now not only the culture and people, but the heat and the food! I tried my first African food this week. It was some kind of mystery meat that tasted like nothing I've ever tried before (it was also purple), whole crawfish (shells, claws, legs the whole deal), brine shrimp and chicken I think. Then it was in a spicy sauce made with palm fruit and poured over rice. Elder Lords stomach didn't like it very much.

Eunice and her family are doing awesome and loving everything they learn. Her kids love coming to church and they want to move up their baptism date so we have been meeting with them 3 times a week so we might be able to have a baptism here in the next couple weeks. We had a lesson this week with them and there was Eunice's 6 kids plus 3 other kids she was watching and it was nuts! But we had the whiteboard and taught the Plan of Salvation and it was so amazing to see how much the spirit could be there even with all the craziness. Those kids and Eunice really have been prepared to receive the gospel and are so humble and accepting. I love them and it makes me so happy every time we go over to see them.  

Short one this week but pictures are worth a thousand words and I sent a couple of those so that counts for something. I'll let you know next week about my new companion hopefully have a lot more pictures because we're going to Des Moines this week to take a ton of pictures before Elder Lords leaves.

Love you all,

Love Elder Cox

Monday May 11, 2015 - Mother's Day

This week had a lot of tough moments and a lot of cancellations, which led to us getting a lot less done and meeting with a lot less people than we had hoped, but it was still one of the best weeks yet because of the things that did end up happening.

So last week I talked about Eunice and her kids coming to church, then on Monday night we met with all of them and taught them the restoration and invited them to be baptized and it was the coolest thing because Nancy (who is 7 but turns 8 in 2 weeks) was really excited about being baptized and they all LOVE the Book of Mormon and having us come over. We were supposed to go and see them on Wednesday, but Eunice ended up having her baby on Tuesday night. But on Wednesday she called and said she wasn't home but that she wanted us to come and see her and meet with her in the hospital. I mean if there is any legitimate excuse to cancel a lesson it's having just had a baby. But she didn't let that stop her and she still really wanted to meet with us, so Elder Lords and Elder Ogden ( I was on exchanges :/ ) went and saw her in the hospital. Then she wanted us to come by and see her as soon as she got released so we went by Friday and met with her whole family again (now 6 kids: Tuice, Shalyeen, Daywulu, Nancy, Abel, and Amyra). Their family is amazing and Eunice is so prepared and so strong (she tells us the spicy African food makes her tough).

I also got to talk with my family yesterday! And even though it's only been 3 short months (as of today) it was the best thing in the world to be able to talk to all of you. I love you all so much and keep on being great examples to me back home.

I was reading in PMG this week about Hope. Hope is described as an abiding trust in the Lord that he will fulfill all of his promises to us. If we have hope then we will be able to work through trials and difficulties with the confidence and assurance that all things will work together for our good. Hope comes through Jesus Christ. Through Him, we can have hope for the future. Without Him, there would be no hope in this life and no point to a lot of things we do. It would be a sad world. But I'm so glad for Jesus Christ and for the hope that he gives me that our pains and afflictions will be but for a short moment when looked at with an eternal perspective, with all that he has in store for us. To me that is hope, and hope is happiness.

Love Elder Cox

It was so good to talk with you yesterday too and it went by so fast! I thought 45 minutes was going to be a pretty long time but it felt like it was only a couple minutes! And yes I got the email and pictures from last week thank you. Believe it or not I am genuinely sad that I am missing out on the yard work and getting ready for the wedding. Me and Elder Lords love to be able to help people move and do yard work when we can because we both miss manual labor a lot! Not something I expected to miss on my mission but wish I could be there to help.

I love you all and have a great weekend down in Arizona.

I took a couple pictures of my apartment this morning and we're going to the capital later today so I should probably have some actual good pictures next week that have me in them.

May 4, 2015 - Crazy, enjoyable, fulfilling week

 This week has been crazy but it has been probably the most enjoyable and fulfilling week of my mission!

Yesterday was super stressful getting to church because we had a lot of people we were trying to coordinate. 2 of our Liberian families came to church. Eunice and her 4 kids. And Marshawl, Mable, Precious, and Mercy. They couldn't find the church so we had to meet them in the Hy-Vee parking lot and they followed us there. We walked in the doors at about 10:59. Then Kory and Kayla walked in so Elder Lords went and sat with them and I sat on the row with everyone else. It was super cool and all the stress payed off!

Last Monday after e-mail we went and played baseball with one of our investigators Kory and had a home-run derby with him and one of his friends he played in high school with and who played for Iowa State. It was super fun and luckily my baseball skills weren't as rusty as I thought. But I've only been out for a couple months so they'll probably continue to degrade.

Love you all, 

Sorry it's short this week, and The only picture I took this week was when we went to Zombie Burger again.. But Momma Cox might get mad at me if I showed her how greasy this burger was, so I took a selfie this morning during studies. I've been having to get some other things done on the computer today so email time has been short. I bought a hair cutter today so wish me luck in cutting my own hair hopefully I don't look like a goofball in any more pictures that I will hopefully take. 

Love you Mom see you Sunday!