San Sebastián in Las Palmas - June 25, 2012

I’m doing really well. My new area is San Sebastián in Las Palmas. It is just a few miles from the office so I’m still really close. My new comp is Elder Najera, he is from Guatemala the capital. Change meeting was so stress free, I loved it. What a change. Because I was close I got to go to the goodbye dinner of the people that are leaving. I got a last dinner with Elder Card and got to say goodbye. He left his area at 4 in the morning and was super tired and he did not get home until 8:00 at night so I imagine he was very tired. My new area is nice but I miss the air conditioning, it is very hot. And it has rained about everyday so I have gotten soaked a couple times. The members are great and have warmed up to me very quickly. We pay for lunch but the Relief Society takes turns each week getting us dinner so that has been wonderful. Except I have to do more exercise because they are fattening me up. The members also have really cute kids that have warmed up to me very fast. I love this ward. President told me to learn this area well and work hard because this next change my comp goes home and President said I will be training. This week we had a great lesson with a Hermana. We taught about the Book of Mormon and reading the scriptures. It was very spiritual. I asked her how she feels. She said that she has noticed a better difference every time we come. I told her that was the spirit testifying that this is true. So hopefully she keeps her commitment to read and pray. We had a baptism Saturday.  A little girl that is a cutie was baptized. I gave her a CTR ring and she loved it. She is a smart kid and we get along great. In our house there are four of us living there and it is fun. I have a funny story about our house. One night I got up to go use the bathroom. It was late and I was tired so I didn’t use my glasses. I walked towards the door way dodging the desk and thought, wow it is really dark in our kitchen, normally it is lighter than this. I walked forward and slammed right into the door. My comp had closed the door that night and I did not know. It made me laugh. When I opened the door it was lighter like I thought it should be. I’m glad Raelyn got the card and liked it. I thought it would be cool to get some money from Guatemala. Sounds really hot there. How lucky that you have completed the pool. The yard and pool all sound amazing. 7 different colors of lights that is awesome. I’m very excited to swim in it every day. I can’t wait to see the pool. I can imagine that you are absolutely loving it. That was nice that Jess came and helped. That is so amazing that you finished the Book of Mormon. What did you think? How is the temple progress? I’ve been learning lots of new things from the Book of Mormon, such a powerful book. David said he would read it too, because he knows it is important to me. Grandpa got a cell phone. Wow they are getting way high tech. IPhones, IPads, cell phones, plasma TVs. Do they have a Blu-ray yet? That is good though. Their temple is almost done and I know they are so excited for it. Are you going to go to the open house? You should try and get your recommend so you can go to the dedication with Nana and Grandpa. Your hands sound way bruised so it is good you got a pool to make it worth it. This week we have a multi zone conference so I’m excited for that. It has been very good to be in the field again teaching and finding people. Right now it is a little hard finding people and getting more lessons but I know we can do it and make a big difference. I love you and pray you are happy and safe. Send my love to the family and I will anxiously look forward to hearing from you next week. 

Love, Son

Italian fountain

Being a goober posing at the fountain

Fun at Xetulul

Riding ahorse with  my friend Elder Evans while wearing the pants of Elder McMasters

The office: Elder Gardner, me, Elder Evans

The Spaniard

The new replacement and my new hairdo

New traje guapo, it has purple stripes and purple lining

Custom made suits are my favorite

Going Back Into the Field - June 16, 2012

My last Pday in the office! It will be weird to have Pdays on Monday again and not on Saturday. I can only imagine how excited Elder Card's mom is. President told me that for changes I will be somewhere close to help my replacement with things if he needs it. I asked if I can still go to the dinner with Elder Card and President said yes. I'm really excited to see him his last night here. Still my best comp ever. I will send a couple pics of my suit today. My week was very good. We helped some hermanas move houses and that took all morning. But we finally got them moved and got everything ready for a new missionary they are getting. The new house is really nice and there are four hermanas living there. This week we had training for the new people again. I trained my replacement more. I can't explain how nice it is that this week any phone call about problems with money or phones or any other thing related to my calling I could just ask my replacement what he thinks we should do. It has been so much more stress free. I have loved not getting those phone calls all the time. So yeah, that makes me really excited to enter the field again. We got to do something really fun yesterday. A zone did really good last month so we took them to Xetulul. It was way fun. I enjoyed the rides and got really dizzy. I know I'm getting older when some of the rides leave me feeling a little woozy. I got to see Elder Meoño and spend time at the park with my friends. Today has been a calm Pday. I got the mail today and finally got my package. I love it so much. I can't believe you found the almonds. Thank you Mom! The bags will be very useful also. I really love the letters. That was so nice getting them from all the family. I love sis' letter and her stickers of Lola the panda and Chuck the duck. Although she made me jealous with the news that she saw the Avengers and it was really good. I loved hearing from all the family. I did not know that Julie is in the same stake as Elder Gardner. He is the assistant in the office with me and he is really an awesome guy. We get along very well. I told him today that they are in the same stake and he said no way. I can't believe the story of Kembree. What a stinker. Walking to church by herself and not being found for 30 mins. I love that crazy little girl. My Kembree is growing up so fast. Nathan is so cute that he prays for me by name every night. I thought it was funny that Nana's pens kept dying and Grandpa even had to switch pens. Mom I can't tell you how much I loved that surprise package of letters and goodies. That was so thoughtful and I want to thank you for bringing the paper for everyone to write something. I hope when we pick up the mail Monday that I will find the package from David. I’m super excited to get something from my brother. You both have been very busy. I can't believe how much Scott got done with the sprinklers. I bet he will be glad to get it all finished. Are you both super excited to have the pool so close to being completed? That made me excited and I can't even swim in it for about a year. I'm still bummed that I can't have a pool party when I get home, the cold weather of Feb kinda spoiled that plan. hahaha. That has been really interesting seeing all the pics of the pool process and hearing about how a pool is poured. So this next week it will all be complete? How exciting and wonderful. Your house will be so beautiful and nice. I think outside music would be so cool. Even just speakers or a nice boombox outside with the cord to connect an iPod to would be super nice. Chillin in the pool or a BBQ with some nice music would be really rad. I miss all the yummy food from Grandpa's garden. I want to go help him more when I get back and learn more about gardening, then eat the delicious harvest. I am really proud of you for not snacking. that is something very very hard. I find myself snacking a lot. Your boss is so nice to let you leave for the pool. I think you are very blessed. I'm grateful to be on a mission and serve the Lord. I was studying Moroni 7 and was loving it so much. So many good things we can learn from that chapter. It reminds me not to judge and to have more faith and hope. I love how it teaches us to be more charitable and that when we are good we are with Christ and receiving inspiration. I have been studying it for a couple days and I am reaffirmed that the scriptures have the words of God to make us better people. That like it says in verse 48 que seáis llenos de este amor que él ha otorgado a todos los que son discípulos verdaderos de su Hijo Jesucristo...seamos semejantes a él. I am so grateful that I have the gospel and everyday that I get closer to my Savior I can be filled with Christ like love. I can develop my character to be more like Him. I know He wants us to be the best we can be. He loves us and gives us so much help. The scriptures, prophets, our FAMILY. Mom, you help me feel the love of God and have blessed my life. I love my family and I can't express my joy at having them in my life loving me and supporting me. I hope you have an incredible week. Enjoy the pool. Be healthy and happy and safe. I’m really proud that you are almost done reading the Book of Mormon and have learned a lot from it. Keep reading. Next goal is getting that temple recommend. I will write you soon about changes and who my new comp is and where my area is at. Sending my love and prayers with a happy heart, your son Elder Cox. P.S. I will be back to Pdays on Monday so I will start writing you on Monday. I think you will get my first letter this Monday hahaha.

Got My New Suit - June 9, 2012

I'm doing very good. This week was busy but kinda calm at the same time. We had a meeting with the zone leaders on Tuesday. We did it again at the hotel Gran Karmel. It is a really nice place and I like the service they give us. Wednesday and Friday was a training of newer missionaries. On Wed. we ordered pizza for lunch. Crazy thing about the pizza is that they said it was cheaper if we ordered the 10 pizzas with a liter of coke and cinnamon bread then if we only bought the pizza by itself. Don’t know how getting more things would be cheaper than buying pizza alone. So we got 10 bread and pizza and coke. We gave the coke to the family of Presidente and a couple bottles to the other office of the church here. I also ordered some buffalo wings for Presidente cause they are his favorite. He was very happy with that. I told him about the restaurant in Utah called Wingnuts that only has wings and he was amazed. So when he is in Utah I will take him there. There has been some tensions in the office recently and we are all trying to work through it. It makes me kinda glad that I’m leaving the office hahaha. I still cannot get over the crazy weather there in UT Record highs then cold and rain. It has been raining a lot and I went to teach a lesson with the Hermanas. I did not have an umbrella and got soaked. The lesson was good. The woman would not pray though at the end of the lesson. I talked about 2 Nephi 32:8-9 and about prayer and we got her to offer the final prayer. We are going to go get her Sunday to bring her to church so I hope that works out. Today has been a very hot day. So it is kinda like UT. Rain and cooler then really hot. A couple weeks ago I had a stuffy nose and a cough. It went away for a week but now it is back. It is a bummer and I do not like being sick. That is awesome that you are almost done with the shed and in no time you will be done with the pool. You both have done so much work on the yard and everything. I never knew that you had to do this much. But I think you will enjoy your work when you are floating around in your pool all day almost every day. I can imagine that your blood sugar is very frustrating. You go from having it in good control to crazy numbers again for no reason. I’m sorry you have to go through that. That book sounds really good though. I think Connie and everyone else really help out too. That rib dinner at Cafe Central sounds so amazing. I want to eat that. I’m glad you could eat it and not have problems with your blood sugars. I did eat one of my favorite foods here twice this week. It is a sandwich called Shucos (don’t know how to spell it). It is bread grilled with garlic spread, and has tomato, cabbage stuff, guacamole, and some good meats. It is hard to describe but it is really good. When we come back here I will get us some. Sounds like you had a fun party with your bosses. I still believe you have a very great job and really great bosses. It was a blessing in many ways that you got that job. That concert will be very fun. The guest star is Katherine Jenkins. I have heard her music before. How awesome that you won all the tickets. You always get lucky with those concerts. You surprised me that I’m getting a package. I’m super excited for it. I can’t believe Elder Card is leaving. I am sad because I was excited to be in the office and spend the day with him and go to the final dinner. But now I will be in the field again. I told Hermana Maravilla this and she said if I am in a zone close then I’m invited to the dinner. So I hope I am here in Las Palmas or in San Marcos. I’m excited for Elder Card and his family though. My time is moving by really quickly too. I will have 16 months in two weeks. That is crazy. Dad wrote me again and shared a talk from Pres Uchtdorf about forgiveness. I have forgiven him but I don’t know what I want for our relationship right now. Not sure I’m ready for that. Don’t know when I will be. Well today we did not have power all morning. I’m very glad it came back and I could write you. Your letters are very important to me. I love the letters I get from the family. I got a very wonderful letter last week from Jessica’s mom. Her family still really cares about me, I felt good. I also talked a long time in emails to David. He sounds like he is doing very well. I look forward to being his wingman again hahaha. But I think we will both find some amazing people. Anyways, things are good and I’m hoping we will do some wonderful things for my last two pdays in the office. Today we played lots of card games and I played one of the most intense games of phase ten. I lost by 10 points but only because there was some cheaters before me that showed their cards to one another. You got lucky Elder Evans! I would not lie about this game, there was some dirty playing hahaha. It was fun. Now not sure the plans. I think next week though is my last trip to Xela. We will see. I love you. I can’t wait for more of your letters and your package. I keep you in my prayers and pray you will be healthy and happy. I will learn more and grow more as I enter the field again. I will make you proud. I am so grateful for all that I have and experience. I’m especially grateful for you. Love you. Your boy, Elder Cox I forgot something else that happened this week that was awesome. I got my suit! I will send some pics. I feel so guapo in it. It fits me very well and I love the colors. The grey with the purple lining turned out wonderfully. I wore a purple tie the day I got it and with my suit, it was mind-blowingly awesome. I am considering getting a black one before I go home to have a fitted black suit. Now I need to find more occasions to wear a suit when I get home. David said he wants to move to SLC so I think we could wear suits and have a sharp night on the town. Love you!

Big News - June 2, 2012

Time keeps slipping by. Utah sounds crazy that one week the heater is on and things are cold and the next week it is so hot that the air is now on. Sounds like the pool is coming along. That will be really really nice when it is done and you can go swimming. It will make up for feeling sad you are not going to Saint George. The family party with everyone sounds really amazing. I’m glad that sis went. Corinne has raised really good kids. I hope that when I have 5 or 6 kids they will be great like that. I can’t imagine how big Ivie has gotten. You will have to send me another pic or an email of her. Scott’s having some interesting experiences, getting more in touch with his feminine side. First screaming like a little girl when a bat landed on him. Although to be honest with you I would probably scream like a little girl too. I screamed once when a giant beetle got in the back seat of the truck with us and kept flying around almost landing on the back of our heads and shirts. The second funny thing is that Hailee said Scott forgot his nail polish at their house. How silly. I love her kids and I really love my Kembree. She is adorable that she said she misses me but that I don’t want to come home and I’m not ready. She wants me to learn more and work hard. Can’t wait to see all those kids. I would love to go and tend them sometime. That is so kind and thoughtful of Jeff. I really like him. He sent me a great letter. Grandma Davis is such a smart cookie. She knows a lot and is such a spirited amazing woman. I would never believe that she is 91. Do you know how far JJ's area is from the mission office? We have some remote areas, but they are only an hour to two hour drive and not that remote. Sounds like JJ is having some amazing experiences. I still can’t get over their baptismal font (Pila bautismal in Spanish) that was a tarp. RJ has a very small branch. You would get very close with the members there. I have seen some small branches here. One small branch is lucky though. They have a church to meet in. Although it is just a large room for the sacrament and the bishop's office. The priesthood meet outside. Makes us feel very grateful for the wonderful capillas (chapels) that we have back home and so many of them. That is cool that RJ is playing the piano. I have learned some in the mission. Although I cannot play well at all with my right hand so I don’t think I would be good in sacrament. Some branches here use the hymn cds and play those in church and we just sing along with the cds. That has worked well. I decided when I get home I really want to learn how to play the piano and the violin. I think learning to play the violin sounds terrible but I love the sound of it when you can play. I want to learn. Those two elders will enter Reu shortly after the giant change meetings. In Aug we will have 30 missionaries leaving the mission. That is so many. We were supposed to have 40 but Pres asked some people to extend or shorten a little to make it less crazy. I was sorting the mail to take to the missionaries and I noticed a return address from Budapest. It turns out there is a sister missionary, Sister Jeppson that knows a missionary here in Reu. She is in the same mission as RJ. I wonder if they know each other. Small world. This week I got to go to the mountains again. I love it so much. I really want to have an area there. The weather is cool and amazing. We had a fire side with Pres and the areas in the mountains. We talked about Alma 47. Lehonti was on high ground. Our high grounds are the temple, the home or better said the family, and the mission. In our lives we have Amalickiahs that tempt us subtly and get us to come down from our high places. If we are not obedient and careful the subtle attempts of things "our Amalickiahs" will cause us to come down from our standards and we will be destroyed or enslaved. It was a very good talk and I had never really thought of Alma 47 like that. We stayed in a hotel in San Marcos and it was way nice. Felt like a hotel from the states and had cool artifacts and things inside. That is probably my last time staying in a hotel. I was told this last week that I will be leaving the office. That is my first big news to tell you. I will leave this next change on the 20th. I have had about 5 months in the office. That is a bit of time. I’m so grateful for my many opportunities and blessings I have had in the office. I really enjoyed getting to know President more. I am now training an Elder McMasters to be my replacement. I’m actually pretty excited to enter the field again. Although I will miss the air conditioning and being able to see so much of the mission. I’ve been a little spoiled with the air hahaha. I don’t know where I will be going yet but I would like to be in the mountains or here in Las Palmas. I keep making hints that my friend Elder Escobedo should be my comp and I should finish him off. He goes home in Oct. After that I dropped hints to be comps with Elder Meoño and finish our mission together. That would be so amazing. But we will see what President thinks is best. I know he will do what is best for me. He is an amazing guy. I respect him a lot. I can’t believe Elder Card is already going home. He is such a great missionary and I have a lot of respect for him. I look up to him in the mission and I’m grateful he was my trainer. I know he is probably excited to go home. I believe his mom is super excited. I plan to see him in Utah when I get done and I would really like to go visit Washington with him and his family. They are amazing and his mom is an incredible woman. I hope we will be friends forever. The other big news I heard this week was something not so great. It came as a surprise and was hard to hear. Jessica wrote me and told me she is getting married. That happened very fast. I didn't know what to say. Well what can you do right? It was a bummer because I had lots of feelings for her and her family. I hope she is really happy. I’m not going to think about this now; I’m still going to work hard and finish really strong. But for just a moment I thought, this means now when I get back I have to go searching for my great lady that will make me happy. So who knows what the future holds. I do know that I’m growing a lot in the mission. As long as I trust in the Lord and do all I can to follow Him then He will bless my life tremendously. He will help me find my future spouse. That is pretty much my week recently. Lots of changes. I love my family. I love the gospel. I love the scriptures, they give me comfort and guidance and I can learn so many things from them if I study them every day and meditate on the teachings they contain. I am so grateful to be on a mission and to be a part of this church. It has really changed my life and given me so much direction and happiness. I look forward to continued service to the Lord with all my heart, might, mind, and strength. I know this is true and I'll testify of it to all. Mom I love you and keep you in my prayers. You support me and help me so much. I can feel your love and support in every moment and every letter. I look forward to being in the temple with you as a family. Take care and know I love you with all my heart. Until next week, I can’t wait to hear from you. Love your son, Elder J P.S. How is your reading of the Book of Mormon? I know you are really busy and have lots of other health reading, but don’t forget at least 5 mins a day of the Book of Mormon. Love you.