June 12, 2016 - Justins Baptism

Hey family sorry I'm getting on a little late today, we had a baptism today after Stake Conference for Justin! 

The baptism was great Justin is a 12 year old kid who is just a straight stud. His mom is from Liberia and got baptized a few years ago. We finally got permission from Justin's step dad and real dad and got him baptized and confirmed today. He's a pretty quiet and reserved kid but he had a big smile on his face all day today and was just super happy. 

This week we had Stake Conference, and although I missed the last half of the session today filling up the font for Justin's baptism (totally worth it) I got a ton out of it. We had Elder Scott of the Seventy here and he gave a really great talk in the adult session last night. He gave some great insight about the brethren's focus on the Sabbath day lately. I can't remember which Apostle he was quoting but this is a part of that quote that was given by an Apostle to the Seventy: "The world is going south in every possible way. Our calling as prophets, seers, and revelators is to see 5-10 years into the future and teach the members of the church what will best protect them from the upcoming temptations and evils." 

Woah. I gained a strong testimony of revelation and the Sabbath Day. And I don't know what the world is going to do in a few years from now to try to wreck the Sabbath (more than it's already trying), but I know that if we follow the repeated counsel to keep it holy now we will be safe.

Also last night at the adult session there was an international choir since there's so many Africans here in Des Moines. So they got approved by the Stake President to have drums in the chapel and sang a few African hymns (Give me Jesus, Jesus is real to me, etc.) and then ended with Israel, Israel God is Calling (African/drum version) It was so cool!

Other than that this week was just crazy busy with transfers. I got to meet Zach Seljaas, the BYU basketball player who just came to our mission. He's 6'8 so it was really easy to pick him out coming down the escalator at the airport. I also had to say goodbye to Elder Banta though and that was sad. He was only my 2nd companion to go home so far.. even though he was only my comp for 2 weeks. Love ya Stetson.

Love you all have a great week! 

June 5, 2016--Baptisms and Temple Trip

Heather, Ayden, and Prentice got baptized!! It was so great they are such an amazing family. Seeing a family be completed in the gospel is one of the most rewarding things I have ever taken part in! Chad (the member) had the biggest smile on his face the entire time even though he was crying. I'm so happy for all of them.

This week we also got to go to the Nauvoo temple with all the 10 departing missionaries and
President and Sister Jensen! 

Going to the temple is such a testimony building experience every time I never walk away from there with the slightest doubt in my heart that this is true, this is where I'm supposed to be, that Jesus Christ is our Savior, that His gospel IS happiness. It's all fact carved in solid stone. I love it.

After the session President and Sister Jensen had one of the temple workers bring us all up into the tower of the temple right under angel Moroni's feet. President then talked briefly about the early saints and their sacrifice to build the Nauvoo temple and the faith that they had. Then we all sang "Come, Come, ye Saints", which was apparently written down the road from the Nauvoo temple. The spirit was so strong and all the missionaries going home (and Sister Jensen of course) just broke down in tears.

Not too much eventful or exciting the rest of the week. Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday we sat in the mission home with President and Sister Jensen and transfer planned from 11:00-6:00 everyday. Man I never thought sitting could be so exhausting. But it was amazing to see how much President and Sister Jensen know about every single individual missionary and how much they care for each of them. Sometimes we would spend an hour just talking about a single missionary, his needs, his challenges, and what would be best for him, which companion would he serve together well with. Who could he/she strengthen? Who could strengthen them? It was humbling. 

President and Sister Jensen go home in less than a month and President Badger comes in so this was their last transfer planning. So this transfer is going to be jam packed full of zone conferences and tons of other things so I should have plenty to write about and plenty of pictures for a while!

Love you all and Happy Birthday shout out to Courtney!

Elder Cox

Attempted picture of the new ride.
No more creeper van now we drive an F-150!

May 29, 2016

Marissa got baptized this week! Our mission president always says it takes 17 miracles to get someone baptized. Marissa took 18. But even after being antied by her family and friends around her she knew it was right and did it! She has a little social anxiety so she was nervous about being baptized in front of people, and especially nervous about being confirmed in front of the whole congregation. But she said that the Holy Ghost comforted her and took away her anxiety. And after both her baptism and confirmation she was super happy and felt so comfortable around the people. Even the "over-touchy women members of the church" who wanted to just hug her to pieces with congratulations.

We also had a really great experience with the converting power of the Book of Mormon. We were teaching a lady named April the 2nd lesson (BoM). Since our first lesson she had been told by her pastor to throw away the Book of Mormon and pamphlet that we gave her because it was apostate and adding to the bible. So she was very hesitant and refused to even hold a BoM at first. But after several (30) minutes of trying to explain to her that the Book of Mormon was scripture and talked about Jesus Christ I finally just asked her if we could read a couple verses with her. We read 2 Nephi 31. We started off each reading 2 verses. I read 1-2, Elder Chase read 3-4, and she read 5-6, but before she could even finish reading verse 6 she stopped and said "How could I reject this!! This is amazing it talks about Jesus Christ and you can just feel the spirit in the words of this prophet Nefi!" She had a total change of heart and accepted the BoM after reading just 6 verses. 

My mom shared with me some thoughts from sacrament meeting last week about the hymns and the spiritual power of them. She asked me to share some of my favorites. I have grown to love hymns so much more on my mission and have several favorites, but I'll share 3.

319-Ye Elders of Israel. I love this one because of the power and unity I feel when I sing it in a priesthood quorum. (And it's the opening hymn at priesthood opening exercises every other week it seems like) I also love the lines "O Babylon, O Babylon we bid thee farewell" 

136- I know that my Redeemer Lives 

So I learned something cool about this one a while ago. In the bible in Job 19, Job is talking about all the trials and everything that he's been but through, the worst health trials, family and friends betrayed him, all these terrible things but then in verses 23-25 he says "Oh that my words were now written.. That they were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock for ever! For I know the my redeemer liveth"

So everytime I sing that song I think like Job, that by singing those words I'm testifying of my Savior as strongly as if I'm writing it with an Iron pen.

270- I'll go where you want me to go - Nuff said.

Also I got transferred again so I will be serving in the Easter Lake ward again! And I will be in a trio with Elder Banta and Elder Lords for a few weeks. So from here on out I will be emailing on Sundays instead of Mondays. Also you can just send any mail to the mission office: 

8515 Douglas Ave st. 19 

Urbandale, IA 50322

May 23, 2016

I still haven't decided the best format to put my letters in. So I'll break it down this week:

Spiritual highlights:

1. Taught Gita an entire lesson about the Atonement of Jesus Christ. When going over the Baptismal interview questions she it "feels good" when she prays about Jesus being our Savior (she was formerly muslim) but she doesn't know for sure. So all we did was go through the BoM and read different prophets testimonies of Jesus Christ: Nephi, Abinadi, Alma, Amulek, Helaman, Jesus Christ HIMSELF. She loved it. At the end of the lesson we gave her a list of 20 more references in the BoM and Bible where it testifies of Jesus Christ. She loves reading she reads like 20 chapters of the BoM a week so she was very excited to look them up and in her closing prayer, she thanked Heavenly Father for sending His Son for us. That doesn't sound like much but that was a BREAKTHROUGH for her!

2. We got a referral for a Liberian family who moved from Utah a few months ago but didn't know where the church was. It was a single mother with 8 children under the age of 14! All the kids were so excited when we knocked on the door we heard tons of little voices yelling "the missionaries are here!!" They all came to church this week and filled up half of the back section. And they were really excited to see that there were about 7 other Liberian families in the ward! Their story was amazing and they have a 9 year old who hasn't been baptized! Unfortunately it was about 20 feet outside of our area. They should've moved to the other side of the road. But we handed them over to the sisters and  Muwato is going to be baptized in a few weeks!

3. Elder Chase and I were asked to give talks at a 7-8 year old baptism prep class on Saturday. Only one 7 year old showed up. So he definitely got a lot of attention and a whole program put on just for him! It was great to think that the ordinance of baptism is so important that 9 adults spent an hour on Saturday morning plus preparation time, just to teach this one 7 year old about baptism. It's a great reminder that Jesus Christ not only suffered for all of us, He suffered for EACH of us.

Comedic highlight:Squirrel gang fight.

Walking into a lesson we saw 5 squirrels gaining up against this one poor little squirrel with half a tail. I don't know what he did but they were biting him and he was bleeding and it was nuts! I got a video of it on my camera but the computer won't let me send videos. But then one squirrel came flying out of no where and started protecting the half-tail squirrel. They both ran up a tree and the other 5 squirrels followed and they started fighting in the tree. (And this whole time Elder Chase and I are just videoing and crying because we're laughing so hard) Then the protector squirrel just goes nuts and starts throwing squirrels out of the tree! So a squirrel fell like 30 feet and landed right in front of us. I don't know how it didn't die but it just got up and ran away like nothing happened.

Love you all

"Trust that whatever weaknesses we have been given, we have been given them because the Lord intends on making them into strengths."

Elder Cox