Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Choo choo!
That's the sound that a train makes.
Because I'm training.
Also got an assignment as District leader.
So... that sucks.


Just kidding, :) it should be really fun!  I'm definitely and completely under-qualified for both of these assignments, but I guess a lot of "assignments" that were given to people over the ages were given to those that weren't necessarily "qualified".  I guess I'm seeing the principle that the Lord calls the "weak and simple" to do his work, and that he qualifies those whom he calls.  I guess we'll see how that goes!  I'm probably not feeling any different than Moses did when God called him as a prophet and he's wondering how the heck he's going to do it.  Later on down the road Moses parted the Red Sea though, so I guess that's something I should keep in mind!

I forgot to mention last week that the Bishop told us that four wards would be meeting for Sacrament meeting next week (meaning yesterday) for a special announcement.  No one would tell us what the "special announcement" was, but absolutely everyone knew that it was going to be a boundary change.  They were right.  Remember me talking about the demographic of Capitol ward?  Probably not.  I'll remind you.  So there's really two areas in the ward, which are the southerly Laveen part, and the Northerly Phoenix part (they're about 15 minutes apart).  Not only are they far away from each other, but the demographic of both areas is completely different, where the people in Laveen (wheremost the active members are, and all the ward leadership) are more middle-class people, and the Phoenicians are all pretty poor.  Like really poor.  Not only that, but the area is cut in half by a band of industrial land that stretches like 6 miles down to Laveen.  People down in Laveen complain that they have to drive 15 minutes to church and they don't like missionary work because in the past the missionaries have only worked in Phoenix, because they didn't have a car, and the Laveeners don't want to have to give rides for people every single week.  I don't really blame them.

Confused yet?

So BOUNDARY changes!  Happened yesterday.  Capitol ward doesn't exist anymore.  They completely dissolved it.  The southerly Laveen part was absorbed into two different wards down in Laveen.

To answer your question, I will be staying in this area.  But the Phoenix part of Capitol ward was absorbed into... *drum roll*... MARYVALE WARD!  Maryvale ward is the first ward that I was in!  It's all come full circle.  SO, I will still be working in what was the "Phoenix part" of Capitol ward, but we now meet at the Maryvale building with the Maryvale ward!  Pretty neat right?  

None of that probably made any sense.

In any case, I'll find out on Wednesday who my trainee is and everything like that.  So stay tuned!  As of now though, my address is still the same.

Investigator Report!:

Jose Garcia:
So this whole time I've called them the "Frias" family, but that's really Andrea's last name, and so I guess when they get married this weekend (WOOO!) they'll be called the "Garcia" family.  So I guess from this point onward, I'll try to refer to them as the Garcia family.  Anyway, Jose is still legit.  He literally shares the gospel with everyone.  He's a better missionary than I am, and I have the name-tag on.  He has some less-active in-laws, and he totally calls them out on it.  He says that they're only "half-Mormons" because they never go to church.  Not only does he call his less-active family to repentance, but he invites his nonmember family members to church and everything too!  I'm pretty certain that his sister will be inviting the missionaries over really soon!  Not only his sister, but his Mom as well.  Like I say, he just invites everyone to be Mormon.  I can not wait to take him out with us to do missionary work.  We were talking about the temple too, and he is so eager to do his family history work and do baptisms for the dead.  I can't wait to see them go through the temple a year from now!

Karen:
Last night we had dinner with Karen and her nonmember husband Mike.  First of all, the dinner itself:  Pork ribs, marinated in a barbecue sauce and pineapple juice (the pineapple juice not only makes it taste good, but apparently it tenderizes the meat) for 24 hours, then SMOKED for 5 hours.  Need I say more?  I will anyway:  Mac and cheese, potato salad, green beans, baked beans, corn, and if you want to mix up the way you eat the pork, they had a pulled pork sandwich option.  Ohhhh yeah.
I had a heart attack last night.
Not really though.
On the missionary side of things though, we found out that Karen has cervical cancer.  What theheck?!  So we gave her a blessing and I'm sure everything will be fine.  Karen is also really really good at being a missionary, and she also invites her less-active friends to come back to church, and she is even visiting one of her friends just for the sole purpose of sharing her testimony and telling "her story".  Karen is super legit.  Unfortunately, she's in the Laveen part of town, so I won't be seeing her anymore! :(

That's pretty much all the news there is this week!  Quite a bit of hefty news!  The Gilbert Temple dedication is this Sunday as well, so I'm super excited to see how that goes!  I'm sure it'll be way awesome.

Welp, the church is true.  Missionary work is super legit, and I love you all!

-Elder Cox

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