October 26, 2015 - Nauvoo Temple, The Plan in Chalk and A Baptism in Hannibal

I say this way too often but this was the happiest week of my mission. They just keep getting better. 

But this week is going to be hard to beat.

Starting off with Wednesday, We went to the Nauvoo Temple again!! Cole Bair (biggest stud muffin of ALL TIME) was working as an ordinance worker for the night so we got to be in the temple for like 5 hours, do 2 sessions, tour the baptismal font, and be spiritually uplifted as high as I have ever been. It was amazing and the feelings that I felt and wrote in my journal that night I will remember for the rest of my life. I was able to feel of the saving power of the atonement and the importance of those ordinances that we were performing. The importance of them to those we were performing them for.

Thursday we went on exchanges up in Quincy and I got to teach a 9 year old girl named Mattelyn. Cutest little girl in the world and we had THEE greatest, funnest, and most spiritual Plan of Salvation lesson I've ever had. We drew it out with chalk on her driveway and as we drew it she would walk over it and go through the Plan. When we started talking about the Celestial Kingdom She said "ooh that sounds SOOOO amazing I want to go there right now!!" Then, as her dad, who was a convert, started tenderly  explaining to her about how their whole family wanted to go there together one day, tear  of joy came to his eyes. She went up and hugged him and asked "Daddy will you baptize me so we can all go there together."  That is moment I will never forget.

Last but not least we had a baptism yesterday! Neva got baptized right after church and it was amazing. There was so much love in the room it was literally tangible as member after member got up and told Neva how grateful they were that she made the decision to be baptized and how she has become part of the family. Neva's mom, who isn't a member, was there at the church for the first time and you could see the joy in her eyes as she saw the love these people have for her daughter. The love of Christ is so strong, so penetrating, and so changing if we let it into our hearts. 

I love you all so much and know that I am still happier than I have ever been!

Love Elder Cox

P.S. Shout out to Ben for scoring the winning goal of his last soccer game of the season!

Monday October 19,2015 - Armor Up!

Elder Davis,

Guten morgen!

I had a great breakfast with Bishop Smith and Joel this morning and we talked about changes we are going to make to the Young Men's and Adult classes of Warrior training.  It made me think of how important it is every day to armor up against the temptations we all face.  They also asked me to say 'Hello' to you.

Ephesians 6:11-17

 11 Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.

 12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

 13 Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.

 14 Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness;

 15 And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace;

 16 Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.

 17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:

A story for the ages from a talk by one of my favorite apostles...

"I should like to give you from the scriptures some examples which show how those who are clothed in such armor, which means keeping all the commandments of God, are able to withstand the adversary, or their enemies. Let me tell you about David (see 1 Sam. 17).

"The Philistines were at war with Israel, and Goliath, the Philistine, was challenging Israel to send a man to fight him, with the understanding that the losers would be slaves of the conquerors.

"We are told that Goliath had a helmet of brass upon his head and was armed with a coat of mail; that he had brass upon his legs and between his shoulders; that the staff of his spear was like a weaver’s beam; that his spear’s head weighed six hundred shekels of iron; and a shield bearer went before him.

"On the other hand, when David agreed to meet the Philistine he took only his staff and chose five smooth stones out of the brook and put them in his shepherd’s bag.

"When Goliath saw this young man the Israelites had sent to challenge him, he was disdainful and said: “Come to me, and I will give thy flesh unto the fowls of the air, and to the beasts of the field.

“'Then said David to the Philistine, Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield: but I come to thee in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied.

“'This day will the Lord deliver thee into mine hand; … that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel.” (1 Sam. 17:44–46.)

"Then David, clothed with the armor of God, took a stone from his bag and, with his sling, shot it into the forehead of Goliath, an unprotected part of his body, and he fell dead."

(N. Eldon Tanner, “Put on the Whole Armor of God” April 1979 general conference.) 

Clothe yourself every day with the Armor of God, and you shall not fear!  I love you dearly, and pray for you and your companion always!

Love,

Your Dad

That story/talk is Awesome I love it! I use Ephesians 6 as well as the Armor of God coin that Bishop and Joel gave me, as well as all the knowledge they gave me about putting on the Armor of God every day here out in the mission. And I teach a lesson about it probably at least once a week, usually to members or to a youth group. I feel that power as a missionary. That I am armored and protected against so many things that I don't need to fear much. They only thing I need to fear is something that I would do to weaken the armor from the inside. And that is a good feeling knowing that I am in control. I am the architect of my own destiny. Not some pathetic little demon trying to hit me from the outside as Joel would say.

Love you Dad!

Elder Cox

Cool Blue Bridge in Quincy over the Mississippi!

Molly Dog!

Monday October 19, 2015-"I'm Happy!"

This week during 12 week study me and Elder Baxter were watching The District and there was a part where Elder Moreno was making a video diary and he says (paraphrasing) "I'm tired. I'm so tired, but I'm so happy. I don't even know why I'm happy. I'm so happy it kind of weirds me out sometimes."

That is about how I feel right now. I'm so happy and I really don't know why and I have a big huge smile on my face right now as I'm reading every one's emails and hearing about Ryan and Courtney's adventures that they've been going on and getting to hear how the gospel is blessing everyone everywhere. I'M SO HAPPY. 

This week has probably been the busiest week of my mission and possibly my entire life. It felt like we were just non-stop from morning studies til we came in at 9:30. I don't even think we took meal breaks this week I don't even remember but we've seen so many cool miracles.

First news Neva is getting baptized this week! She passed her baptismal interview and is ready to go. Green hair and all. 

Cindy and Katana are also getting baptized this week. They're up in Quincy but I got to go interview them and get to know them more on Friday and they are such an example of people who are being prepared by the Lord. Katana is 9 and she has a little brother that's 7 who is going to get baptized in a couple months and he is legit thee smartest kid I've ever met. He's read like the whole book of Mormon already and reads through all the huge words and names better than I can.

This week we also had stake conference. One of the speakers was related to the lady who wrote I am a Child of God. He told the story of how it was written and I don't have time to write the whole story, and I don't remember all the details. But basically there was 2 women who were assigned to write the song. One lived in LA and the other in Salt Lake. This was back before there was fast communication so they wrote letters, but the Sister in LA felt she needed to go to Salt Lake City. So she took a copy of the words she had written and when she arrived in Salt Lake, Her words were the exact same words as the other Sister. Revelation. It was awesome look up the story!

I loved the emails I got from you Mom and from Courtney. They were both about Christlike attributes. Elder Swainston last night asked me the most important thing I've learned on my mission. I thought about it and thought about how my faith has grown, how my diligence has been strengthened, how my knowledge and patience have increased, and how I have more love and charity for people. The most important thing I have learned on my mission, and the most important thing I will keep on learning for the rest of my entire life is becoming more Christlike. Not just doing more Christlike things, or saying Christlike sayings, those things are a start. But Becoming brings us to a whole other level of discipleship.

I love you all, Have a great week and be happy because life is so good. And God is good.

Love Elder Cox

Monday October 13, 2015

So I'm emailing today because yesterday was a holiday. I didn't know what holiday until I got on email today and saw happy Columbus day. So happy Columbus day yesterday everyone!

So this week has been a super jam packed busy week! Lots of exchanges, lots of meetings, lots of lessons and every hour we weren't teaching a lesson we were helping somebody move. 

Some miracles this week:

David- He's a super buff war vet who is paralyzed from the waist down so he's in a wheel chair and we see him everywhere. Yesterday he wheeled across the street to talk to us and we ended up teaching him and inviting him to baptism right there and he said yes with tears in his eyes. It was so cool to see a guy like that cry.

Met some people from Layton that go to Davis High that were visiting Nauvoo and decided to come to our branch on Sunday. They told me that there's a Smith's right by my house now?

We went on a hike yesterday (which I didn't think would amount to much in Illinois because it's flat as a pancake) But it ended up being super cool. We went through a forest then followed a riverbed until we found a cave with a waterfall coming out of the ceiling and frogs all over inside. And yes I finally took pictures for you Mom :)

Love you all,

Elder Cox

Larry the Possum

Cave Frogs

THE SQUAD:

October 5, 2015 - The Spirit of Nauvoo/Conference weekend!

This week I finally got to go through the Nauvoo temple!!!  It was worth the wait, and seriously one of the best days of my life.   There is so much church history there that the temple workers know about and in the lobby they have temple clothes from 1846 and pictures of Joseph and Emma. When I went up for the Pageant that the spirit in Nauvoo is super strong. That spirit is magnified more and more the closer you get to the temple. And when you get inside you just feel amazing!

I had a lot of very strong personal insights and revelations gained from the temple visit, but one of the biggest truths I was reminded of was that this is a gospel of love. The love you feel from the temple workers is always tangible. The love for my fellow missionary brothers that were there with me is unbreakable. And when we all got dressed in white and were waiting in the chapel to begin our session, I looked around (we sat on the very back row) and saw that everyone but the missionaries was a husband and wife couple. And every single husband, whether in their 20's or 90 years old, had his arm around his wife as we sat there listening to softly played hymns on the piano.

It hit me so hard that this is it. This is the goal. Families being together all dressed in white. The love of Jesus Christ drawing us all closer to each other and closer to Him. That is the purpose of missionaries, to bring others this joy. That is the purpose of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, to bring happiness. That is the purpose of life! To have joy and happiness with our families and prepare to have eternal life with our Father in Heaven and our eternal family.

On the drive home from the temple it was me, the other 4 missionaries and Brother Bair. Someone randomly started singing Savior Redeemer and we all joined in. We ended up singing hymns for the next 45 minutes and the spirit was just flooding the car.

CONFERENCE: This weekend has been so amazing and fulfilling. I want to start off by saying I don't know if I can pick a favorite talk because there were so many awesome ones, but one of my favorite parts was the children's choir for the Saturday afternoon session! That was so cool! They were so little but they sang with the spirit and with so much power!

I also really loved Elder Lawrence of the Seventy's talk about "What Lack I yet?". What is keeping us from progression. Since that time I have prayed and asked Father what I need to improve on and I got a few very customized answers from the spirit that I didn't really expect. And I hope I keep receiving more things I can improve as I keep asking because I love being rebuked so that I can grow more.

Elder Bednar's finishing thoughts remembering those apostles who had passed was a perfect way to end the conference and remember those great men of God. Those last messages they shared had decades upon decades of experience and wisdom behind them, yet they were so simple. 

God delights in plainness is probably the biggest thing I learned this conference.

Love, Elder Cox