Tuesday January 19, 2016 - Sharkeisha and Swahili‏

To start off thank you so much family for the package this week! It was a life saver! The rice heating bags and hand-warmers have been put to good use the last couple days as the windchill on Sunday we were told was -55. Needless to say it was pretty hard to get members to church, especially investigators. But it was still a great week and I made some great new memories and starting teaching some amazing new people.

On Sunday night we had our first full-blown Swahili lesson. Pierre Manirakiza came with us and introduced us to his African neighbors that just moved in. The Kimararungu family. They had no furniture yet and spoke no English but we had a great lesson in their humble apartment. Elder Sessions and I pulled out every Swahili phrase we knew and Pierre translated the rest. He testified of the Book of Mormon and the Priesthood so strongly and I could feel the spirit so strong, even though the only words I really caught were "Book of Mormon" and "Priesthood" and "True". We are going over today to teach them again and I'm really excited. It also got us a lot more pumped to learn Swahili faster.

We had a lot of meetings this week, an extra long MLC discussing a lot of the changes in the mission with transfers and exchanges. We no longer have a transfer meeting which is kinda sad because that's where I always got to see all the missionaries I've served around. We'll just go straight to our new area. And exchanges everyone will now go to the leaders area. District leaders to zone leaders area, Zone leaders to AP's area etc. Which Elder Sessions and I were pretty pumped about because we both served in Easter Lake, which is where the AP's are now so we get to go back there on exchanges now!

I went on exchanges with Elder Merrell this week. He went to the same high school as Sharkeisha!! Hahaha so that's why that's in the title because I got to hear a lot of funny stories during exchanges. 

I think the only pictures I took this week were of how cold it was so sorry there's no cool pictures.

Love you all!

Elder Cox

January 11,2016 - Mission Call Change

"Dear Elder Cox, you have been called to serve a mission in the IDMM... You will now prepare to teach in the Swahili language as well as English and will be serving the African community."

Alright they didn't actually change my call but I am now a Swahili speaking missionary. Starting this week I will have 60 minutes of studying the sweet language of Swahili! I'm super excited and I don't really know how we're going to do it President Jensen just said we'll figure it out. So far all we've done is check out a Swahili-English dictionary from the library and we have Swahili pamphlets and Book of Mormons so we're going to start there!

I wish we were having African weather here too but sadly we're not. A member told us it got down to -36 the other night and its chilly out there. January 9th was a big day for me because it was the first day I wore a scarf in public out proselyting. 

On Thursday we had our Christmas Zone conference and it was hilarious. Each district did a 3-5 minute skit about a Book of Mormon Story and there was Elders reenacting the daughter of Jared dancing in front of Kind Akish, doing the whip of course. To a missionary version of Moroni writing to Pahoran complaining that they were hogging all the cute sisters in the land of Des Moines and not spreading the love to the rest of the mission. In ours I galloped behind Captain Moroni the whole time clacking coconuts together like in Monte Python. There were some super creative ones they were hilarious!

We also got to watch Ephraims Rescue for Zone conference and I've never seen that before so that was sweet. 

We had a couple families at church this week which was awesome! And the Cedar Rapids ward is awesome and super loving so everyone felt super welcomed. Diana and Johnathan and Jaheim are especially doing super well. Johnathan and Jaheim are the 13 year old twins and they are STUDS both in life and in the gospel. They're going to be baptized in about a month.

The gospel is love and happiness. It brings love and happiness into peoples lives in a world where love and happiness are only dreamt about. I have a firm testimony of that the last couple weeks. The gospel changes peoples lives if we open our hearts to it and allow the Lord to guide us from there. 

Mungu Aku Bariki (God Bless You)

Elder Cox

Manirakiza Family Baptism - Jan 4, 2016

Manirakiza baptism

This week I discovered why I came on a mission. Well one of the many reasons because there's a million but the Manirakiza family is definitely one of the biggest reasons. Pierre, the father, is the man who got baptized 2 weeks ago. Last week he received the priesthood and this week he baptized his wife, and 3 kids! 

One of the happiest moments of my life on behalf of someone else was when he baptized his daughter Tabitha, who just turned 8 last week, and she came up out of the water and he just hugged her and kissed her on the head and started crying.

This whole email is probably going to be about Pierre because he is so awesome. He is also president of the East African community in Cedar Rapids, which is over 1000 people, and he has started introducing people to us and the Book of Mormon. He told us on Saturday he wanted to start doing that and by that evening he had a couple people that wanted to come to church! He is a STUD member missionary! 

Anything else I say about this week will dim in comparison to that. New Years Eve was pretty fun we had to be in at 7 so we ordered Pizza and played sting pong with the other 2 elders that live with us. 

On Wednesday we took a roadtrip to Des Moines because we had to drop off Elder Swainston at the airport. If any of you run into Bailey Swainston in Provo tell him Elder Cox loves him he's a stud. 

I'll send pictures in a second I have to switch computers. Love you all Happy 2016 make it the best year of your life because it's be the best of mine!

Love Elder Cox

A roadtrip to Des Moines meant we had to stop for lunch of course at ZOMBIE BURGER!!!! This is 2 grilled cheese sandwiches with 2 burgers, 6 pieces of bacon, grilled onions and I can't even remember what else but it was amazing!

Ping pong in the house!

 The best African food I've tried yet! Even though it looks like green diarrhea on rice that stuff was amazing!

and

 and 

Christmas Week 2015

Christmas Week:

This week has been awesome. I guess I'll start off with Christmas. We woke up i the morning, opened presents (Thank you everyone for everything that was super fun!), played Uno and some of our other games we got with the other missionaries in the house. Then we went to a members for lunch, ate a thanksgiving turkey meal and some pie, went to Bishop Kilgore's and skyped our families which was awesome!, And went to the Dickson's and had Christmas dinner with them, one of their neighbors, and The Dopo's(An African family in the ward). And between those things stopping by members and sharing Christmas messages. 

And then one of my favorite parts of the day was we gathered up some of the gifts we'd been given ( a few small toys, games, lots of candy and food) and put it in a big bag and took it to the Manirakiza family. Their dad is Pierre the one who just got baptized and he had to quit his job to come to church so they are struggling financially a little. When the kids opened the door and we said we had a present 8 little African kids appeared out of no where and started sending tissue paper flying over our heads as they opened the bag of presents. It wasn't anything fancy but they were so pumped about it. That made my Christmas.

The missionary work flame is also catching in Cedar Rapids. It has always been here and the members are awesome at working with us, but since Elder Martino came and we have been working more with them on finding their friends who could use the gospel by asking who has recently had a life changing event like a birth or a death, a move, or even struggling with a teenager. People pull out their phones and start looking through their contacts and face book friends and think about whose life the gospel could bless. The answer of course is everyone, but those who have been prepared to receive it have started coming to the surface and it's amazing to see.

Also on Sunday Pierre received the Priesthood and is going to be baptizing his wife and 3 kids this Saturday. His daughter just turned 8 on Sunday. God definitely has had his hand in that families life and has been preparing them to be great contributors to the Kingdom of God. 

Love you all have a great New Year talk to ya in 2016

Love Elder Cox

This was the food from our primary's "Christmas for the Elders". Best day of my life

This is the only picture I got of opening presents. It's a meat and cheese package but you can't tell that because I'm a genius and held the package backwards so all you can see is the nutrition facts. And I'm also wearing my sweet new cashmere scarf. Thanks Courtney and McKay!

Hey everyone! So yesterday we didn't get to email because there was an ice storm so the library shut down so I'm emailing today. But I decided that since it's been a long time since I've actually sent pictures home (partly because my camera got stolen partly because I'm still terrible at taking pictures) I'll start off with pictures this week. For you mom.

And playing Uno Christmas morning

And this was our backyard this morning after the snow/ice storm. 2 days ago the grass was still green and it looked like September.

Monday December 21, 2015 - Pierre was baptized!

This week Pierre was baptized! It was an amazing service. I told a little of Pierre's conversion story before but he has one of the coolest conversion stories and now one of the strongest testimonies I have ever met. He gained a testimony of the Book of Mormon literally over night as he listened to Book of Mormon on audio during a night shift. Over 50 chapters in one night. After meeting with missionaries for almost a year and as soon as that happened he was all in. And he loves the gospel.

He also has a super cool testimony of the priesthood because last Sunday his leg and hip were hurting and they have been for a while, but during church it was tingling really bad and went numb so he asked if we could give him a blessing. During that blessing I felt really prompted to command his Sciatic nerve to be healed. I probably spelled that wrong because I don't even really know what a sciatic nerve is, but a few days later we got a text from him that I'll never forget. it said:

"Guys hello last Sunday you anointed me about my left leg now I fell better I am agree with priesthood authority is from Lord Jesus Christ because is healing oil never seen miracle"

He's African so it didn't make 100% sense.. But it was really cool. 

I also have a new companion Elder Sessions!

Love you all have a great Christmas! Remember the true meaning of Christmas. To remember Christ and how he can change us, just like he changed Pierre and like he's changed me. I know that he was born and that He lives today.

And I'll see you in a few days family!!

Love Elder Cox

December 14, 2015 - Elder Martino in IOWA

This week was awesome in so many ways! First of all Elder Martino came and we had a Zone Conference and MLC with him. I don't think I've ever written so fast because I was just trying to write down all the wisdom that he was just laying down. He gave 4 hours worth of trainings total without looking at a single note and blowing my mind the entire time.

The most important thing I learned from Elder Martino was the importance of members in missionary work. He told us that about 1/1000 people we talk to on the streets end up being baptized. While 2/3 people who are invited by their member friend and taught in a member's home are baptized. Why? Because of the spirit that is able to be present so much more abundantly in member's homes! It was very inspiring and really motivated me to get to know the members better in this new area so that they trust me to teach their friends. 

He also bore his testimony of the Atonement which was one of the coolest experience I've had on my mission. His personal witness was so powerful and sure. As part of his testimony he also told the story of Agnes Caldwell, a 9 year old pioneer girl in a handcart company caught in the cold snow, with almost frost bitten frozen feet. 

The rescue group that came for their group took all the old and unable to walk in the wagons and started towards Utah, while Agnes and other small kids ran alongside hoping to be offered a ride. All the kids eventually gave up until Agnes was the last one. The driver looked down at her and said "do you want a ride?" Still running she said yes and the man grabbed her hand and sped up the horses and made her run. She thought the man was terrible for doing this with the pain of every step of her frozen feet. After what seemed like miles to her the man stopped, picked her up, wrapped her in a blanket and put her in the wagon. She later realized that by making her run, the man had saved her feet and probably her life by helping her blood get flowing before she came in the wagon.

He compared this to the trials we face in life and how our all knowing Father allows us to go through trials not to punish us or torture us, but because that is what is best for our lives and will give us the strength to keep going on later. 

I've pondered that a lot as I've met with many different kinds of people on my mission. One thing I have noticed is a universal trait of successful people is that they grow from hard things. A universal trait of less successful people is allowing their situation/circumstances to be an excuse not to grow. To take the easy way.

Elder Martino had us, during personal study the next day, write down in our journal attributes we wanted in our wife/marriage that we saw in President and Sister Jensen's marriage (they are the best couple of all time, general authorities and everyone comment all the time how great their marriage is). It made me think about marriage a little bit which was weird because that's an eternity away, but it made me mostly think about the type of people I want to surround myself with. President Jensen says he married someone smarter and more motivated that him, even though he's a rocket scientist for NASA and a genius, so that they would push each other to be better their whole lives. Those are the kind of people I wish to associate with as well.

This email has been a lot of just amazing spiritual things that I've personally learned this week so sorry if no one else feels this applies to them.. but it applies to us all because it's about Christ, but next week hopefully I will be able to report on Pierre Manirakiza being baptized and my new companion that I will get this Thursday!

Love you all!

Elder Cox

December 5, 2015 - #ASaviorisBorn

I wanted to start off thanking everyone for the birthday emails and letters! If I haven't emailed you back this week I for sure will next week because email time is short but they all made my day!

This week has been fantastic. We have been so blessed and seen so many miracles this week.  Elder Ellis and I both agreed that this was one of our best weeks on our mission on a lot of different levels.

This Friday and Saturday we had the Cedar Rapids Nativity which was SWEET! If any of you have seen The District it was like the Luaoh (I don't know how to spell that) missionary event but Christmas version and on STEROIDS! The members here are sweet and they went all out. There were hundreds of nativities from the community set up in the gym, live music from different churches bands and choirs throughout the day, church tours, cookies, and over 2,200 people ended up coming. And hundreds of them ended up leaving with a church DVD with our number on the back so we're hoping to get some phone calls soon :) There are several conversion stories of people coming to the nativity in past years, feeling the spirit so strong in the church, and ending up investigating and joining.

Also the First Presidency Christmas Devotional last night was the BOMB!

And I forgot to mention it last week but the Church's Christmas initiative this year, #ASaviorIsBorn is amazing. If you haven't watched the video yet watch it and share it with everyone you know. The spirit behind little children telling the story of the birth of Jesus Christ is so powerful. 

This week we were able to have Pierre Manirakiza feed us fufu again and also come to church! Which is awesome because now he will be able to be baptized on December 19th which he is so excited about! He is a great man. He is from Burundi Africa and is supporting his family here as well as 4 adopted children who still live in Africa. He works so many hours a week but still makes gospel and service a priority. He is president of the African Society and helps refugees get a start once they get here, and he has a van that he bought with his own money and lets anyone use it for "God's errand": going to church, church activities, visiting someone at hospital, anything in the service of God. He just hangs the keys to it on the wall and lets anyone in the community take it. He is a great example of charity. 

This week Elder Martino of the Seventy is coming on a mission tour on my birthday on Wednesday so I'm sure I'm going to have some sweet things to write about next week! 

Love you all!

Elder Cox