hey everyone, greetings from valles Mexico. right now elder nelson and i are getting drenched daily... hourly.... it has been raining since sunday... a week ago... and does not stop. it makes in interesting to find our way across streets that have become rivers. today in the morning we got to ride on a trucks bumper across a street/river we didn`t know the guy but he saw we were stranded and gave a lift. you can see the river below.
-Elder Cox

6 weeks in Valles

I have a whole diferent situation now. I am currently in Valles and with an American companion. We are right now in a trio because one missionary hasn´t got here yet until next week. Actually im waiting for another greenie but from peru. But he hasn´t gotten here so untill that happens im here with Elder Nelson. So we are super excited to get to work. He seems super cool and he is from green river Wyoming. Anyway here are some pictures of us and elder Servin who is with is this week. I rode up to valles with Elder Nelson (from my Ward) because he is my zone leader. These last 6 weeks are looking like they are going to be awesome. I am going to miss my last Ward and all the work that i left there but it is always fun to start over again… well maybe im just a Little tired of starting once again with not much to work with but it also kind of makes it easier to get accostomed to a new area.

Pictures and a Baptism

so this week Victor Suarez was Baptised. His Family all came to church last week which was a great accomplishment seeing that we had to empty the font with buckets before we filled it again we were pretty tired at the end of all of it

Poza Rica

sooo... here i am in Poza Rica Veracruz! It is very humid... and it has goten up to 113 so some days its kinda hot... just a little. anyway my companion is Elder Mendez... he has 6 months and is always smiling. He plays the guitar and is a huge fan of the Beatles. It is very green here and beautiful, except it is really dirty.... the rivers smell really bad... anyway we had our zone conference and I saw some old friends. Elder Bautista, Elder Velasquez, and others The Last picture is My district. we are having success in raising up the the District... this week we doubled the new people we found in our district to teach. anyway everything is going great... and ill be seeing all of you soon

-elder cox

Happy B-day

for those that didn´t know may fifth was my birthday... it was celebrated royally... here is a picture to give you an idea... and the other is my comp and i ... and are letters asking what airport we want to return to... yup that time is coming soon.

Happy Days have come again!

The other day Elder Sariñana and i were walking through our area and it was just beautiful so we decided to take some pictures in a little park like area that we basically pass by every day. so i thought that you would like them. as you can see our area is very much ritzier than all the others i have had before. grass is a rarity in mexico... and hes that is a sprinkler in the background. we have been focusing this week in getting the work organized with the ward. we were able to get 4 ward missionaries called and now we have weekly meetings and having them reporting every week on numbers that we assigned them... members inviting people in their normal day... why didn´t this thought occur to me earlier. well this time they are all excited to do it and we organized it well so as to keep them excited. oh... yes that is a rat we killed in our apartment... as you can see it was huge... but we now duct taped around the small swamp cooler we have so more can`t get in. and no we did not use the knife...

have an amazing week everyone!!!

Life is good. tomorrow is zone conference so my companion and i are preparing to teach all of our zone. Im pretty excited for this one because elder Sariñana is really cool and we are trying all we can to jump start our zone. we are talking about the question of cain. "am i my brother´s keeper?" we are focusing more on the misionaries and not so much on how to teach. first we need to put down a foundation and then build from that.

this is the picture of my zone before transfers came.

Transfers!!!!

today is transfer monday so there are not a whole lot of elders in victoria... 5 of the 16 that are normally here.... I will be receiving a new companion named Elder Sariñana he is from Durango which is below new mexico more or less. he has the same amount of time in the mission as i do and i am super excited to start working with him... actually he was already in victoria and i had recomended him to the assistants as a future zone leader... but i didn´t know that they would give him to me... very cool. anyway i will keep you updated on what is going down, or up as it will be, in victoria. oh yesterday we were in a meeting with the members of the stake and it ended and we were all talking and a little girl walked up to me and asked me if i would baptise her next week... it was really cute and plus she lives with members but she is adopted so it counts for us as well... strange how things work, but it did melt my heart... ooooh

keep on trekin´

saludos de Elder Cox

the pictures are of a frog that we found in the street and a house that we painted, if you look close you can see the green that it was before we painted it on the side... the paint was only enough for the front. it took all morning of elder orozco and i with the paint roller and brush. Elder Orozco even climbed up onto the roof to get at the top part of the front... it looks good doesn´t it?

Best Friends Cross The World

Today with the fact that for right now i dont have my camera with me, i am going to be dedicating these pictures to my main man in the Philippines... yup Dan sent me some of his pictures so i figured for those who are less fortunate than to be recieving pictures of Dan and know him... well id help them out a little... but dont ask me how he is doing because i dont know... he cant write me :(

For those who are confused about the picture of Dan and the road... let me expain... not in every country do you see such beauties as a perfectly paved asphalt road. it deserves a moment to ponder.

Ok for the update about me, well right now i am in Mante... yup el Poderoso Mante. place of my birth... the president gave my companion and i permission to visit.. when i have the pictures i will be sure to put them up here. This week i was able to do divisions with a couple younger elders in my zone. wow it was pretty fun. first of all i was able to see some of my converts... Guadalupe and Kika... they actually are no part of the ward for feeding the missionaries. we ate at their house and were able to talk. That was friday when i was with elder Cales in Barrio Flores. we were able to work hard and find some new people. Saturday i headed off with Elder Espinosa to his ward just north of us: Villas. we had an amazing day incuiding teaching 10 lessons almost all to people we found knocking doors. it was very reasuring to work with him and i hope it gave him the boost that he needed.. it sure helped me. Anyway the work keeps going on. ill have to update you all about what exactly happens in mante... if you remember Carlos and Lou Lou... the couple that was baptised in mante. well we are trying to find where Lou Lou is. Carlos is working in the States and she is with her mom. so that is the quest, to find and reactivate... there is the picture you can compare lou lou from before... i almost didt recognize her. until next time...

Elder Cox

Crazy week

So this week has been a little interesting. we had our zone conference and i was able to give my talk. then the rest of the week began just get weirder and weirder... at one point my comp just spazed out in a lesson with people we had only seen once before... anyway im getting along and ill just have to see how things go.... oh, this dog lives by our house ... we have been trying to get this on camara since i got here... Del valle, my last area just had 4 baptisms. two children we were teaching (the mom needs to resolve some things first) and Irma and Francisco, a couple with three small kids, you can see the family earilier on the blog. That makes me quite happy... (truth be told i wish i was back there) anyway onward and upward...

Howdy Howdy Howdy

Another week has passed in Victoria.... and things keep going up up up... The zone has progressed leaps and bounds. the amount of people that the elders have brought to church has almost trippled and The missionaries have been able to find 6 people who want to get baptised... when last week there were 0. basically the elders in victoria are amazing.

Tomorrow. I have to lecture infront of them... eek. my companion will be talking about the atonement, and power and authourity where i will be talking about following the spirit, the spirit of urgency and goals.

About the pictures.... well the first is of all the zone leaders of the mission... if you look closely you can see Elder Farr (my mtc companion) and elder varela and elder dalton (both were part of my mtc district) what a powerful group eh... the second is of the two coolest zone leaders... well at least i think so... ehm .. we took the pose and then i cut it out and put it on my agenda with the phrase "feel the power" hehe... the last one is my companion and I in our hour of companion study... (the monkeys were a gift of 2 of our friends that will be getting baptised soon) if you have questions feel free to ask.... things are going great and i well have to tell you all how my first zone conference goes... eek again

with cariño

elder cox

Yes, I Am Still Here

If you were wondering if i still exhist... well the answer is yes.... But i have had a little bit of a change of scene. i think it might be a good time to go back in time....

After i was with Elder Johnson I was given a greenie named elder velazquez The week before he arrived we had 2 baptisms and the week after as well. Norma and Daniel were the first two and are a couple that is part of the flores Family. The three members of the family who weren´t baptised are progressing very well. oscar goes to seminary and jaime and irene are regulars at church. The other 2 were a couple who hadn´t been baptised because of certain obstacles but had been coming to church for over 2 years. since that point Elder velazquez and I worked to the point where we had several families coming to church. At this point Transfers arrived and i was sent to victoria ... well here, this is my first week here. the zone needs alot of help so i have my hands full.

my companion is Elder Orosco from Sonora.... he is funny and keeps me laughing. i will write more next time.

pictures:bottom to top... Baptisms and recieving my Greenie...me on the bridge of tampico and my district... oh i miss those guys... and irma and francisco... a family that will shortly be baptised... and me at the bus station with the castillo family... sob* i miss my old area....

next time i will get you the pictures of victoria

January 7, 2008

> Dear mom and Dad…
> I am writing the both of you for times sake. I have an important announcement to make… I am a father…. Well in the mission that is. Yup I am right now with my son (other wise known as greenie) He is amazing. We are going to have an amazing time together. I am definitely asking for 2 changes with him. We cleaned our house right when we got back… he is super excited about the mission and super obedient. We started cleaning up the house with a prayer… he he, I am truly happy.
> About last week. Well I ended up sending Johnson with two other missionaries because one got operated on for ingrown toenails. So he was helping out with them. But also to keep him away from my other companion that we had for a week. We got a long well but he was not the influence I wanted Johnson to have his last week with me. So he was 3 days away. It also gave me a bit of a rest. I was also able to have a little bit of success with elder martinez. He told me he would be turning his mission around these last 5 changes. He leaves with me. We finished up the week with two baptism. Daniel and Norma got baptised. Norma´s mom, Irene backed out a day before but now she is pushing her husband to get baptised with her even more. The couple didn’t get married. We are kind of just letting them go a bit. They are now coming to church but they are taking there time to get married. I am so excited for this change to just work a whole bunch and do everything right and teach my companion a bunch. He is going to help me a ton. I am going to put everything back in order in my area this week because with everything going crazy their at the end and people getting sick… anyway. I am very excited to work with elder Velazquez…. Anyway got to go.
> Love Philip

Eat your heart out Provo Utah

haha, i took that picture a while ago and i thought you would all enjoy it. Our neighbors that are members jokingly refer to their hamster as my girlfriend.

the work is going well and i am growing in how i look at it. I am learning to love being in the mission even with adverse conditions. But as for my area everything is up. we have 7 people who have decided that they want to be baptise. we just need to do everything to get them ready. It is amazing to see them grow in learning about the gospel. I love teaching and will miss it when i leave here. Truly giving your will fully over to the lord is sooooo important. when you can truthfully say. here am i lord speak and i will do what you want me to do... and then you do it to the best of your abilities amazing things will happen. but this takes removing the distractions that are in your life and giving time to study and pondering about the important things of life. Life is going well for me and will continue to go well. i am protected as long as i am doing what i should be.

Take care everyone

your friend

Elder Cox

Nov. 25, 2007

Hello to everyone from Tampico Mexico... (yes i am actually in Tampico this time)
So much has changed since that last time i wrote a good entry so lets see what needs to be said. First of my companion is Amazing!!! His name is Elder Bautista and i am his second companion, or in mission jargo his godfather. We are having an amazing time in our ward Del Valle. In the next four weeks we should be baptising 6 people... the work is going well. As you can see by the pictures we both are of Sangre Azul... (have blue blood) the jersies are of cruz azul a soccer team here in Mexico. We played soccer this Monday and i had a great time in goalie as my comp tore up the field. Anyway things are going very well. As for the other pictures. Elder Nelson is now in my district... we are basically neighbors. Its nice to have someone from your home ward in your district. We had zone conference this last week and my comp and i had an amazing experience. During the conference our zone leaders challenged us to go out and find someone and challenge them for baptism... i thought it was a joke but as my companion and i walked out the door they didn´t stop us. So it was to knocking doors trying to find someone to listen to us in a neighborhood that we knew nothing about. Basically we had to depend on the lord because with 20 minutes left of our hour we still hadn´t been able to teach anything. We were trying to pick our directions by how we felt but by this point we were feeling like we shouldn´t have volunteered without knowing what we were going to have to do. Finally we knocked a door and a lady came out that was working as a maid. Turns out she lives in our area... we taught her and challenged her and she said she would have to pray... we were amazed and almost skipped back to the zone conference... the lord knows exactly where we need to be and he put us right there without us or our zone leaders knowing exactly why. The work goes on
Your friend Elder Cox

Repentance, The Second Principle in the Gospel

so basically the title is to say im sorry for not doing anything with this since i got here to tampico. i have repented and i am going to be better... but i have decided that the pride cycle is not the only cycle in life... i am trapped in one far worse... The lazyness Cycle, and the problem is that im not cycling anymore. so sorry about the lack of communication back to the states. im beginning to forget that i had life before this one. i think i need to review the plan of salvation again to check out ¨life before the mtc¨

Here I am in Tampico. Im going to have to explain what has happened in these last 5 weeks. First I got here as senior companion to Elder Bautista who had 3 months in the mission. I was his second companion. and we hit the work hard. Thanks to Elder Ewell who i replaced we had a baptism the first week. Elder Ewell is now zone leader and an amazing example. i love good misionaries. Eduardo Cardiel was the name of our first baptism together. we then went one week until we had another baptism. Dulce. She got married to an RM and we taught her the lessons in one week. President and Sister Moss came to that baptism. It caught me off gaurd as i was teaching english they showed up. every one teased me that i turned bright red.

Once again i am in the rodantes (markets) i love it. our district has great success every week in talking to people as they walk pass. we send them away with a free gift and a promise of a visit from two missionaries. plus its just fun to be with the district and get excited about the work. Elder Nelson always makes me excited to work harder.

Then everything Changed. I got a call wednesday telling me that my companion was leaving and i would be recieving Elder Johnson as my companion... And it has been very interesting every since. i just feel weird with a gringo at my side.. and speaking english... or at least trying to... thats definately different. The only pictures i have of Elder Johnson are a sneak peak of our Xmas card. we were defrosting our fridge....

The work is amazing and it is inspired. I wish i could share with you all the experiences that happen daily here. but that would take to long. I hope you enjoy the pictures and remember that letters are always welcome... check with my mom and dad ffor particulars about that. I love you all and i hope you all have a great week.. i definately will, i get to preach the gospel

Your Friend

Elder Cox

This week has been all over the place... with a whole lot of activities and what not.. First off tuesday started out with Divisions with the zone leader which included an experience of challenging someone for baptism the second time teaching them. The spirit was amazingly strong when she prayed for her answer. I learned a lot. After spending the day with Elder Hughes that is going home in a week. wednesday was the day of the Baptism of Guadalupe and Kika. we spend the day preparing and in the end the service ended up late... like always, but excelent. we got a whole lot of the members to come and both told us afterward that they thought it was something very special. It was awesom to see Hno Poblano baptise his wife and his daughter. Elder Gomez and i were the witnesses. The whole week we were very much excited for General conference. and saturday didn{t let us down. I was so excited after the first session (which likely was my favorite) that i was almost dancing. There is a power in modern revelation and having prophets to lead us. This is all of our zone at conference sunday and heading home in the bus with Elder Crow who only has 5 weeks in the field. Next week are transfers so it will be interesting to see if i go or i stay. Im getting the feeling that ill be leaving but you never know.

i love you all and take care...

-Elder Cox

Things are going quite well here in victoria. First off we will be having a baptism wednesday! Guadalupe and Kika have decided to get baptised. You all should have been there. My comp was asking Kika about when she would be able to because she is taking care of her sisters job she is buzy all but wednesday and sundays in the afternoon for a coulple more weeks. my comp asked guadalupe her mom... well hermana, do you wait for Kika or do you show the example. Nombre, estuvo con TODO.. Guadalupe replied. lets do it... so i continued to help her decide the exact date so that Kika could come and see. then Kika piped in too; why not me too wednesday. God provides when we go forward with faith not knowing how we will be able to do it. that is a definate testimony i have.

We are still battling with the bernal family to get them to come to church. they want to but they have next to nothing and feel bad going in dirty clothes and there always seems to be something in the way. But they want to be baptised and want to see the prophets and apostles talk. speaking of that my comp is all excited about seeing who is going to be the next apostle, and conselor... his guess is russel m nelson... ive decided whoever it is is good for me.. im just excited to hear them talk!!!!!!!!

ok the pictures... are of the bernal family... and one of the kids of some recent converts. he grabed my camara and ever since i have been deleting random pictures. everyone called him the destructor but i treated him like an adult and would tell him. "is that something a good boy would do" or things like that instead of negative. now I am one of his best friends. maybe too much so because he was trying to kiss me once and his mom asked him why and he said becuase cox is the most handsome... ummm... well.... its fun to be someone that people trust. well the first picture isn´t working... anyway things are going well and i am looking forward to see what happens these coming weeks

-Elder Cox

I Love My Bishop!!

So My bishop went to texas and suprised us with a package of mountain dew but more importantly a whole package of A&W Rootbeer. lets just say im pretty happy. my comp was on the point of crying for sheer joy for the mountain dew and the skittles. so basically our bishop is awesome and takes care of us. i didn´t realize how red i am... wow, anyway the next picture is with our friends Guadalupe and Kika. they will be getting baptized..... sometime, just when kika finds time to get of work so they can have everyone come. They love to tell us jokes and always ask us for new ones. They are convinced that elder Gomez is a magician and are telling us that we can´t leave. They probably will get their way for a while because we will be here for at least 2 months more together.

Next is the Mexican Party for their day of independance. it rained so i was sopping wet moving to tables inside. but it still was a success for us even though we didn´t get to eat that much, we were able to give tours to several people of the chapel.

Finally the Bernal Family have excepted the challenge to be Baptized. we are looking 2 weeks ahead to a full family baptism. we are excited as are they. They 8 year old girl karla told her dad that she was going to be baptized even if he didn´t want her too, we all laughed. she won´t let us go sometimes and will grab our hands and not let us go. i was thinking of sending a picture of my companion being escorted up the mountain hand in hand with karla to report him in... lol, anyway things are going well in victoria. we will have interviews tomorrow so im going to ask president not to change me, but there isn´t much chance he would even if i wanted to go.

anyway love you all.

-Elder Cox