Hey ya'll, gonna keep it short and sweet. I'll tell you plenty come next Friday.

Basically we found a super golden investigator, put her in date for August 6th the day before I leave.  It was looking picturesque but she lives outside of our Ward (and mission) boundaries and we have to pass her off. Basically the worst day of my life.

We did this HUGE service project for a thing called Feed My Starving Children.  We went to downtown Phoenix with like 100 missionaries and packed food boxes for kids all over the world, it was all day Friday and Saturday and was pretty sweet.

This morning we went on a nice little hike up South "Mountain", I think it should be referred to as "South Hill", but it was nice nonetheless.

Other than that, work is real slow during the summertime on ASU. Still pretty awkward being back a third time, but I'm probably the only missionary ever to come back thrice so I can't complain.

Love ya'll, the church is true!

For whatever reason President Toone and the assistants decided they wanted to ship me back to the University Ward for the THIRD time now.  I guess the third time's the charm. Honestly, church was kinda awkward. Bishop was like "man, we can't get rid of you!" He's not kiddin, can't keep me off his campus I guess. I'm companions with Elder Soloa'i and Elder Richards. Good guys.

We met a guy that went to Murray around the time my parents were there. He's a less active member who lived in Salt Lake and hung out with Murray kids sometimes. He said he smoked weed and drank with them and he hasn't given up that lifestyle in 40 years. Anyway, my patriarchal blessing says that I've "been sent to an extraordinary mother and father who have establisheda gospel family" and that I should "always thank the Lord profusely for them". I couldn't agree more. I basically got to see in this guy what might have happened in our family had Dad and Mom not lived thegospel, so thanks.

Anyway our lesson with this guy was really cool. We chatted about everything (more of a one-sided conversation) about beer, politics, Utah, snowboarding, and it ended with him crying saying he sometimesthinks he chose the wrong path. What the awesome? He just said that our parents did a good job at raising us and we told him he was doing a good job too. He said "I'm trying to, I really am" and then starts crying. I love making grown men cry. Anyway, good times.

We went golfing last p day and it was pretty legit. I'll see if I can attach the video of me being terrible.So last Thursday were the departure activities for all the departing missionaries. We went to the Gilbert Temple, had a dinner and a devotional. We all bore our testimonies and watched a slideshow of a bunch of pictures from the mission with really trunky music in it. Itwas good to see my companion off to the land of eternal p-days.

Welp, not a lot going on at ASU because...once again, it's the middle of summer and no one's here. I will have served here during two summers and Christmas break. Nevertheless, it's good to be here and I'm working hard my last couple weeks, the church is still true.

Love ya,Elder Cox

Seems like tons of stuff happened but when it comes time to write Ican't remember. I'll do my best. 

Wednesday night we were in an apartment complex and we ran into a guy that came to church the week we spoke. He came with our WML who is his neighbor. We bumped into him and just said hi. About twenty minuteslater he came and found us and invited us over just for an informative sort of visit. Nothing came of it yet, but cool experience that he chased us down.

We taught that Marko guy again and he seems pretty legit. He'll probably be baptized but it might take him a little while.  Yesterday was bomb, we had 7 people come to church which is a ton for our neck of the woods. We had the family come to church again but we still haven't taught them because they cancel so much. Christianbrought his nephew who was super solid and we're going by there tonight.  Lots of good things going on, of course right when I'm due to leave. I guess that's the nature of the beast though.

This morning we had breakfast with a member of the stake presidency and it was delicious, and then we went golfing with Elder Erikson and his companion. You probably don't remember but I came out with ElderErikson and we were companions at ASU. Anyway, that was fun. I'd send pictures but I'm on my iPad. I'm still a terrible golfer, in case anyone was wondering.

Tons happens, I see tons of miracles but they're too great to write...

Especially with my thumbs.

Love y'all, the church is true

Elder Cox

So yeah, the 4th of July we went to our WML house in one of the wards and he was lighting off some pretty fun fireworks.  I'm very surprised he didn't end up burning down his neighbors' yard or house, because the wind would take all the ashes and fireworks and junk into his neighbors' yards.  It was good though!  Other than that, we didn't have any success that day because everyone was gone.
No news about the family or Chris.  We stopped by to see Chris a few times but we haven't caught him.  The dad of the family came to like... the last ten minutes of church.  We're like "what the heck man?"  Needless to say, they won't get baptized before this transfer is over.  I'm pretty much banking on moving again as well so odds aren't great that we'll baptize them before we leave.  That's the nature of the work though.
In church we had someone bear their testimony about Kolob.  That was sweeet.  The one time we have like 2 investigators at church and a less-active come all on the same day.  Kolob.
But the good news, Christian came to church!  He only stayed for Sacrament, but he came without his family even, so that was a big step for him in the right direction.  He seems pretty sincere and it's only a matter of time.  He and his girlfriend need to get married first, which will probably take a while, slowly but surely.
The other dude is someone we haven't even taught yet because he's been out of town.  We'll see if we can come by this week.
I think it's actually been cooler here than in Idaho and Utah, according to a report from one of our members.  Apparently it got up to 108 in Idaho, and the past couple days have only been a cool 100.  I was in a members house and I happened upon their thermostat and it said 80 degrees.  I wondered to myself how I ever could get to a point where I'm absolutely comfortable in an 80 degree room.  I'm going to freeze just in our HOUSE.
Not much else to report.  The church is still true and I'm still a missionary.  Two things that will both be true for eternity... right?
Love y'all-Elder Cox

June 29

We're emailing from iPads today so it's probably going to be a little brief.  So I gave a talk in church yesterday about missionary work and it went pretty well. When I was preparing for the talk I wanted to talk a little bit about service and I wanted to talk about finding that ladyCarrie that I mentioned before. I called the missionaries from my area in Chandler and ask them about her, and it turns out that she was going to be baptized five minutes from the time that I called! The Elder said something I probably won't forget: "your seed has been sownElder Cox". It was a cool moment.

The family of four that I was talking about got married! They apparently came to church although I didn't see them some members told us that they were there. We were told by the bishop that apparently a text we sent to them offended them and now they are mad at us. Thetext said "are you guys coming to church? haha" and apparently that rubbed them the wrong way. Anyway, we're still looking at baptizing them within the next few weeks but we have to help them love us first.
We were in an apartment complex looking for names that were given to us by the ward mission leader, and we bumped into student named Chris.  We knocked on his apartment and asked for the person we were lookingfor but he wasn't it. He told us that he had met with the previous missionaries but had recently moved into where he's at now.  We asked him if there was a time that we could come by and he let us in right on the spot.  We had a quick lesson with him and invited him to pray. After we left we realize that we are at the completely wrong apartment complex.  I said they'll there on time that the Lord sometimes makes weak things become strong.

There was a cool experience we had while teaching a less active member. We went over there with one of the young men and we talked to her about why she hasn't been to church for a while. She was very open with her reasons and provided a plethora of excuses. We were able to talk her through most of her things but by the end of the discussion, she told us that she didn't want to lie to us or promise anything that she couldn't keep. She said she probably won't wake up. Well yesterday when we were in our first word around 10:00 she sent us aFacebook message with a picture of her in address saying "I'm up". She ended up coming to church and was fellowshipped and it was sweet!

Welp, that's about all I care to type. The church is still true, so that's good news. 

Love ya'll.Elder Cox

June 22

Hey ya'll!

So we were able to convince that family of four to postpone their baptism.  It sounds super backwards, well it is, but it will be for the better.  They are so stressed about planning their wedding that the baptism is completely overshadowed.  They did  come to church, but they came like halfway through the second hour so they missed most of it.  We called the dad last night and he said he wants to follow the Priesthood and do it the right way which is way sweet coming from an investigator.  They're super solid, we just need to put them back on date after the wedding and it should happen within a couple weeks.  Sweet!

We were teaching this guy like Wednesday-Saturday every single day.  He's an older guy with lots of health problems and his biggest hangup was that he would break his back when he got baptized.  Not even joking.  So as we were trying to resolve that concern, he calls us Saturday and tells us he talked to his little brother -- who is super anti-Mormon -- and said that his brother told him he would stop talking to him if he joined the church... Bummer.  So he dropped us for the time being.  Satan 1, Missionaries 0.
I forgot to mention last weeks Mission President devotional.  I got a TON of awesome news from previous areas that I served in.  The two speakers were Megan, a girl that I helped find when I was at ASU, and Randy, who is the RLDS guy that I interviewed.  It was sweet that I had at least some part in their process.  Anyway, Megan's story was awesome and she was a completely different person than the first time I met her.  Randy's testimony was still as awesome as when I interviewed him.  Other than that, Elder Erikson told me about that kid John that we were teaching at ASU for a little bit.  John was the guy  that just walked into the institute wanting to learn about the church.  I set him on date but he didn't end up getting baptized that day.  Anyway, Elder Erikson told me that he just got  baptized last Saturday.  I was so stoked!  Then, Elder Last, one of my other companions, told me about the lady Carrie that we found.  I think I told you the story that we went "service tracting" and found Carrie.  We never really got to teach her, but apparently she's on date for baptism soon as well.  It's always good to hear the end of the story, you know?  Even though I didn't have much part in the teaching process for these people, I got to be involved at least in part, and it just goes to show that you never know what efforts will yield fruits.

Short and sweet this week... and probably every other week for the next 6 weeks or so.
Love ya!-Elder Cox

June 15

Yep, it's hot.
Good week this week!  Where do I start... hmm.
Well we have a family of four on date!  Best part?  We've never even met them.  We called them on the phone and they're planning on getting married the 23rd, aaand they'll get baptized the same day!  They didn't come to church though (go figure) so we'll probably push the date back so they can demonstrate their faith and keep coming to church.  In any case, miracle family of four!  I'm fairly sure that it was in response to my fast for this month, being that we can end our missions with at least one baptism for the transfer.  Good stuff.  God is good.

Well we went fishing last week!  It was my first time in about two years and I caught a couple!  We used hot dogs actually... just in some neighboring park.  I caught like three and Elder Wallentine (not related to Craig) caught a few and a HUGE coy fish.  It was pretty legit.  We had one of the youth take us and he invited like 6 of his nonmember football buddies.  Good times.  We were blessed with nice cool weather, partly cloudy and around 98 degrees.  It was a nice day.

Other than that, meetings meetings meetings.
    Tuesday we had interviews.  Once again the zone leaders get shafted and didn't get any, but it's all good.  The meeting was all about all the little things that we're doing wrong and how we need to be better, etc. etc.
    Wednesday we had a meeting with the zone to talk about upcoming p-day activities, played a get-to-know-you game, and set a baptismal goal for the zone, all around pretty good.
    Thursday we had MLC which was almost verbatim what our interview meeting was about.  That meeting lasted from 9:00-3:00.  By the time we get home we eat dinner and have a meager 3 hours to work.  I forgot how crappy meetings can be.
    Friday was weekly planning, as usual and meet with the Sister Training Leader to talk about what we'll train on for Zone Meeting this Tuesday.
    Saturday  meet with the Sister Training Leader again to talk about what we'll train on for Zone Meeting.
    Sunday, six hours of church and the Mission President's Devotional.  Got about an hour of proselyting in.  YIKES.
Anyway, not complaining, just observing.

Other than that there has been a lot of emphasis this week and continual reminders about the importance of the Priesthood.  We have a recent convert in the ward who just got the Melchizedek Priesthood and we get to teach him all about it on Thursday, which I'm excited about.  They have the cutest little kids ever and I'm stoked for them to have the Priesthood in their home.  One of the wards had a lesson on the Priesthood as well, and throughout it I was just imagining myself giving blessings and such to my future wife and children (I'm not trunky AT ALL).  Anyway, I'm grateful for that power and I'm glad I get to use it.
Well that's all I got for this week.  It's all a blur.  The church is true, that's all I remember.
Love ya,
-Elder Cox