Here's a picture we took at the Phoenix Temple open house. Yes, it's just a backdrop picture. Pretty classy though!

Sup family?

Our ward had another baptism! It was an investigator the sisters were teaching named Katie. Katie's legit! She's actually the person who referred that cool jazz bass kid Gabe. She referred him long before she was even baptized. Also awesome, last month she bore her testimony on fast Sunday. How cool is that?! She wasn't even a member yet and she got up there and testified of how she knew the gospel was true. Our converts have been preeeetty legit as of late.

Speaking of legit converts, Bailey is getting baptized this weekend! We're super stoked for her too. She has been involved in the ward choir and has played special musical numbers at church and other peoples' baptisms since waaay before she was a member! Seriously, our investigators are just members... that... aren't baptized. Anyway, she's really excited! She still hasn't talked to her parents about it, and we aren't sure when she's going to, but we're leaving that up to her. We pray for the best!

To add to our awesome investigators being awesome, Gabe said the closing prayer for Elder's Quorum last week. So... that's pretty legit too.

Jodie is still doing way good! She had a lot of concerns about going to the temple for baptisms and we did everything we could to resolve them. We didn't think she was convinced, but turns out she had an interview with the Bishop and we're pretty sure she went last week. Super cool! Usually after baptism we teach the "new member lessons" which is just the same 5 lessons retaught. We started those last week, and instead of us teaching her the Restoration, we role-played her teaching us and we pretended to be nonmembers! Sweet right? To top it all off, we gave her a hard-copy Preach My Gospel. Last week she texted us as she was hanging out with her friend and telling us how she got her to accept a Book of Mormon! She was talking about Creation and Genesis with her friend, then tied in Agency, somehow brought up Moroni 10, and her friend accepted it. What the heck? We told her we might as well give her a nametag. She even gave her friend a "will you" commitment invitation to read every day. I don't even know what else to say. Just "wow".

We got a couple other people that are awesome! We get a lot of referrals, which is always good. Member work is just the way to go!

As for me, I'm still great of course. We literally have the coveted spot of the mission. Being in University ward, in the Tempe YSA zone. Super legit. Our zone also doubled in size after transfers. Usually President would have each set of Zone Leaders be in a YSA ward, and they would be in charge of whatever zone is in their area. Things are changing recently where President wants to have ZL's for every Stake in the mission. So, since the YSA wards are in the YSA stake, they changed things around. Essentially, everyone in our zone is either a District Leader, Sister Training Leader, former Zone Leader, or a brand new trainee. Isn't that legit? Such a powerhouse. We were looking at our zone during planning and realized that 7 of the Elders are former ZL's and going home within 2 transfers. Anyway, I guess all I'm saying is... it's legit. I don't anticipate having too many issues within the zone. We are so blessed!

Anywho... that's all folks. Have a great week!

-Elder Cox

The angel of death has passed by me! I finally get to stay! Looks like it's another 6 weeks of ASU! Elder Erikson is staying as well, but our third, Elder Baker, is training somewhere else... So that's a bummer.

I don't even know where to begin this week. Can you believe that it's already November? What the heck? I swear it's still August. Probably because up until today it's been 90 degrees still. Today it finally got a super cold 62 degrees. We're wearing sweaters. I'm not joking. It's freezing. I'm going to die next winter.

Let's see here... had a pretty good week. Lots of our cool investigators have flaked SO hard this week, which is lame, but we did get to teach some people. Sterling has especially been off the radar, but we'll get him. Something weird happens when you put people on date for baptism. Satan just attacks them immediately and you just have to fight for their souls for the next few weeks. It's crazy! He'll make it though!

As for Halloween, you guess it mom! We just went around party-hopping at all the wild parties on ASU campus. It was crazy! Not really though. We had to be in our apartment by 5:00 so... you can imagine how the evening went. Actually, you probably wouldn't guess. My roommates all wanted to go to the apartment gym and work out for 2 hours. For me, the 5:30 workout is good enough. So I went to another missionary apartment and played Clue. It was SO wild. I guessed Mrs. White in the Study with the Pipe, but she actually did it with the wrench. Life in the mission can be so hard sometimes! :'(

Haha we had fun. We were also fasting for Bailey on Halloween. She is going to talk to her parents about her baptism really soon. They're not super supportive so we're hoping she can have the Spirit tell her what to say and that her parents would be receptive. Hoping for the best!

Saturday we actually did go to a party. With the whole "JustServe" thing going (have I talked about that? Probably not. Look it up) we volunteered for the ASU day of service to help set up for the Homecoming Block party that they had before ASU's homecoming game against the U of U. So that was pretty fun. It reminded me a lot of Murray's Arts Fest. It was super weird because we were all just in normal clothes with our nametags on just going around helping people set stuff up. It was pretty legit though! I wish we could've gone to the game but, no dice. ASU won though, in case anyone was wondering. ;) We got a picture with Sparky, the ASU mascot before we left though. Pretty sweeeet.

Other than that, we're meeting with Gabe again tomorrow. Last week we asked him why he wasn't baptized (pretty much just straight up) and the only reason he gave is because he feels like he doesn't know enough people, and that his family would be un-supportive. So we asked him to pray about a baptismal date and get back to us. Hopefully that will happen tomorrow!

Janette accepted baptism for the 22nd as well, but we're pretty much for sure going to have to pass her off to someone else. Darn!

Drew wasn't there on Sunday, so no update on him.

I dunno, other than that I'm just SUPER stoked about staying here. This ward is the bessst. With transfers, two of our sisters are going to train. Sister Lin is a missionary from Taiwan and speaks Chinese. We just happen to have like 4 visa-waiters coming to our mission that are headed to Taiwan! So we're certain that her and the sister she lives with are both going to train the Chinese visa-waiters. We're going to have our own little Chinese zone. Ni Hao!

The church is true. We got to hear from Elder Uchtdorf and Christofferson on a Stake Conference broadcast yesterday. Super cool! The Phoenix temple is getting dedicated in two weeks. Big things here in AZ folks. Big things. The work is hastening! Jump on the train before it takes off without you!

Okay, so first off: Jodie's baptism. Way legit! We had a super good turn out, and everything worked out great! All went according to plan, and it was beautiful. Another person enters into a covenant with God. Woot! Another way cool part is that her friend named Jason was there to support her. Jason is a non-member, and it's way legit that she's already been doing member missionary work. Super stoked! After the baptism, we had a lesson with Jason. At the lesson we had 2 return missionaries, 3 full-time missionaries and a very freshly baptized recent convert. It was so powerful! Jason didn't know what hit him. POW.

Another awesome thing that I'm not sure I mentioned about Jodie's conversion: So after she was baptized she shared her testimony of her conversion, etc. She said that the moment she knew that the Book of Mormon was true was when she read 1 Nephi 2: 15: "And my father dwelt in a tent". Never underestimate the power of the scriptures! I don't know what it was about that verse, but it just... resonated with her. Isn't that sweet? Even a verse that is seemingly useless can provide a testimony of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. That verse is also way cool for other reasons but, that's a conversation for another day I suppose.

So the open house! We had Bailey and Jodie at the open house. And Jodie's friend. The morning before her baptism. I guess I could have done it in chronological order, but whatever. So yeah, the open house was way legit! I have pictures! Other than that, not much to say. The temple is beautiful and that's that.

So we were hanging out at our usual Sunday dinner (which is a crazy party, let me tell ya) with like 20 YSA kids in this house. It's so interesting because they're all so super rowdy and irreverent and loudly talking about this and that, but when the missionaries decide that it's time to share a spiritual thought, they all get silent and listen. For some reason, I was just struck with the reality of the power and authority of the calling I have as a missionary. I just thought about what would happen if I were wearing normal clothes without a name-tag or missionary mantle and trying to quiet down a group of YSA kids. I'd probably get mocked or something, right? Just a thought.

Okay, so remember me talking about Sterling? He walked into the institute and said he wanted to change his life? We met with him last week and gave him a Book of Mormon. He's on date for the 22nd. Need I say more? Miracles.

Another miracle for ya: So a member came to church yesterday with her non-member friend and asked us if we could meet with them after church. I guess her dad had met this guy at Home Depot and they had a conversation about the Gospel and then he wanted to get a closer relationship with God so he came to church with our member. Anyway, so we met with the guy, Drew, after church and he's super legit. He doesn't live in our area so we'll have to pass him off, but still way cool. He even said in the middle of the lesson "I'm interested. I'm really interested!" He was so shocked at how awesome church is and was even participating in Gospel Principles. His main passion is skydiving, which he does once a week. Nice little anecdote for ya. Cool dude.

Another cool instance happened yesterday morning (seems like everything happened yesterday). We were driving to church and we see a truck up against the traffic light pole on the sidewalk. The door of the truck was open and there was an old man on the sidewalk looking like he was struggling to get up. Naturally, we stop and help him (even though we were already late. Woops) and see what his deal is. He was on his knees and it seemed like he was trying to get up, but he wouldn't respond to any of our questions. We checked his pulse, helped him wipe some of the blood off of him and tried to help him up. We took his phone and called who we assumed to be his wife and told her what's up. Then we took his wallet and beat him up. Just kidding. Another guy called 911 so the firemen showed up fairly promptly and told us they think he had a stroke. They whisked him away on a gurney and as far as we know he's alright. In any case, we got to have our good deed of the day. I felt like a superhero. I was talking to my comps about just taking the day off of missionary work and just going around saving people. They didn't bite.

The first ones are from my birthday. When me and my companions got home they AP's had a cake made and they popped confetti thingies and had party hats. It was pretty legit. All the protein cans in the picture are just the empty ones from all the protein that has been consumed in that apartment over the last... forever. But we stacked them to make it look like my birthday present. The other pictures are from Canadian Thanksgiving, which was a HUGE success! Turkey turned out great, and there was way too much food. We're going to attempt soup today.

This week was legit! We're still seeing a steady increase in our numbers, which is always good!

Okay! Where to begin?! I'll start with Jodie. She's getting baptized this Saturday! We're so so excited for her. The ward had what they call "Summit" last weekend, which is basically just like Youth Conference but for our YSA ward. It was so cool. We actually had 3 of the investigators in our ward go to Summit, which obviously is huge. So there's that. Not only that, but the Phoenix Temple open house has been going on, and Jodie and her super awesome fellowships are going this Saturday before her baptism! Cool right? We're going with them too, so expect pictures.
Okay, moving on. The other person, Bailey, we have on date for the 15th. She is like... way too prepared, so much so that we really don't even need to teach her. Just a matter of time at this point! She just has to let her family know what's going on and get a baptismal interview. Solid!
So the Sisters in our ward are teaching an investigator named Katie, who's getting baptized the 8th. Katie's so legit that she bore her testimony on fast Sunday. SHE'S NOT EVEN A MEMBER. So awesome. Anyway, she's also inviting her friend Gabe to a bunch of stuff. Gabe is super legit too, and they actually took us out to dinner the other night. They're so members already it's ridiculous. Anyway, apparently Gabe is a BASS player! Not only that, he's actually good. And he likes jazz. No one likes jazz. I don't think I need to further emphasize how excited I was. Even better, is the Sisters decided they want us to teach Gabe. Cha-ching!
Okay so get this. I don't remember if I ever mentioned this, but on the first day we were in the area we were chilling at the institute talking to the sisters about the area. Out of nowhere this guy walks in and asks us if we "work there". He said he just felt like walking in the building (which actually happens a ton) and learn what it's about. Long story short, the sisters got his info and started teaching him. They have been teaching him for the past few weeks, and everything's been going great. The ward is invested in his progress, the sisters are invested, and the sisters' families back home. Recently they extended this guy, Chasen, a baptismal invitation and he actually cried. Get THIS. Last week, the sisters were trying to refer him to the missionaries that should be teaching him. He said he didn't want his information to be sent out because he got his identity stolen, so that's why the sisters had been teaching him. So they were calling the Gilbert Missionaries to send the referral. When the sisters called the first time, the Elders were super abrasive and the conversation didn't last long. On a further attempt, the Elders (from Gilbert Mission) start laughing and say "haha, we got you!" As it turns out, "Chasen" was actually a member of the church! His name is actually Ammon (such a Mormon name) and he and the Elders from Gilbert staged the whole thing. What the HECK?! The sisters had been teaching this dude for like three weeks! Isn't that disgusting? The sisters were crushed, we were crushed, the invested ward members are probably livid. Who does that? Anyway, I'm pretty sure they got in huge trouble. Isn't that so funny? Sort of?

Anywho, that's pretty much it for this week. I'm loving life right now!
Love y'all!

-Elder Cox

Holy cow. This week has just been absolutely incredible. Absolutely.. where do I start?

Okay, so I'll start with my birthday. I took pictures but I forgot to bring my stupid little card reader thing to be able to put them on the computer. Hopefully I'll send the pictures next week. If I remember...
So probably just plan on seeing the pictures a year from now when I'm home. Good? Good.

As for the rest of my birthday, it was pretty much the most successful day of that week. We had lots of good stuff happen that day. For our dinner, our WML took us out to eat at an Italian place. The best part? They were playing jazz music the whole time. I was in heaven. I could have stayed there for hours... So I did...
Just kidding.
So that day we met this girl named Janette. Get this: Janette has a boyfriend who's on a mission right now. She's a non-member, but has been taking THREE Institute classes! Doctrine and Covenants classes nonetheless! Isn't that insane? So she just asked her teacher if she could meet with missionaries, so he called us up. At first when we met with her she was really closed off and shy, but we kept going with the lesson and she started opening up. We honestly didn't think it was going to be as easy as it was. We invited her to be baptized at the end, per usual, and her only concern was that she's "afraid of water". What? That's insane. Honestly, the things that happen here don't happen anywhere else. So legit.

Speaking of food, guess what today is? That's right, it's Thanksgiving. Canadian Thanksgiving in fact! And we just so happen to have a Greenie in our zone from Canada! So naturally, we're throwing a big feast later on. The best part is that President is going to let us do it at the Mission home. I guess the other important question of the day... how do you cook a turkey?

Have I already mentioned the movie "Meet the Mormons"? Well we got a pre-showing of it on my Birthday (seriously, best day ever. Watching movies? On my mission? Legit.) and it was SO good! Has anyone seen it? I recommend it. Take non-member friends. I almost cried like 25 times.

I don't even know. I can't write a hundredth part of the awesome things that happened this week. It was a great week. I hope everyone else had a great week. The church is true!

Love ya!

-Elder Cox