So again transfer calls are actually going to be tomorrow, so I guess I'll let you know by next week about any changes.

We found out last night that President Toone has been in the hospital for the past few days.  Apparently his organs started shutting down... What the heck?  So they gave him some medication and he's responding well to it.  We're fasting for him today, just keep him in your prayers.  Thanks!

I guess moving backwards, last night we had the Mission President's Devotional.  I sang in a choir that was pretty awesome.  One of the sisters was singing a solo while the choir sang "oo's" and "aah's" and stuff.  It's her last transfer so it was pretty touching I guess, if you're into that sort of thing.  It's held at ASU at the Institute so it's always good to be back in Tempe.  Got to see a couple of the members from University Ward that were excited to see me.  Great feeling to be loved!

We taught Hunter a couple times.  Have I mentioned him yet?  He's an unbaptized youth who we've been teaching since I was here like 7 months ago.  After our lesson on Saturday his dad asked him, "So Hunty, you wanna be baptized?" 

"Yeah."

"Do you want to do it for yourself or because I want you to?"

"I wanna do it for myself"

"Okay, when do you want to be baptized?"

It was that easy.  They decided on May 30th as the date, so looking forward to that, assuming I'll be here!

We taught Matt on Saturday as well and I threw down the law with him.  He basically doesn't feel that God will answer his prayers and isn't sure if he even wants an answer.  What the heck?  Okay, so I was like "what would it mean to you if you knew this was true?"  He answered that "it would mean everything"...

"...Okay... so if it would mean everything and be totally life changing why wouldn't you want to find an answer?  Also, if it really is a matter of salvation, why would God withhold an answer from you?  He wants you to be with him" etc. etc.  That seemed to make sense for him but I still am not sure if it penetrated.  He's out of town now too for about a week so that's that.

We helped with a Mutual activity about missionary work.  The young women presidency asked if we'd give a ten minute training on how to share your testimony with friends.  They did like a mission simulation where they all got fake mission calls and name tags and they went around to different stations to learn about missionary things.  Anyway, it went pretty well and we got like 4 referrals from the youth out of it.  We followed up with the people that gave them to us because we'd rather have them make the invitation than going and knocking on these peoples' doors.  It essentially becomes tracting at that point.  Anyway, that was fun.

We found a part member family while we were going by new move in names that the Ward Clerk gave us.  We came at the perfect time apparently because the less-active member lady found out she has a medical issue and we came just at the right time.  Apparently her fiance is mega interested in the church and was taking lessons before they moved here.  Jackpot.  We were supposed to see them yesterday but they didn't show, so we're trying again today.  Wish us luck.

OH YEAH.  Best news ever... KAREN IS GOING THROUGH THE TEMPLE.  So.  Stoked.  She emailed me last week and said she's going early May.  I have yet to hear back from President about going, but he's usually really encouraging of us going with our converts to the temple.  I'm so excited for her.  Super glad I had the opportunity to teach someone as prepared as she was.  Now I get to witness even more fruit of my labor.  Makes it all worth while!

Welp, that's all I got.  I'll probably email you next week about how I'm transferred again and everything will be different.  But, I'll go where the Lord wants me.  Until then, love ya!

...and... after that too.

-Elder Cox

First off, we had a baptism  yesterday!  Mardi got baptized and it was great.  Pretty funny because the water level ended up being really low so she practically had to lay on the ground to get fully immersed.  Sweet old lady. Anyway, it went well.  There was a musical number with singing and a guitar which was different, but I liked it.  We also went to a missionary fireside yesterday for the youth because Bishop invited us.  We didn't end up saying anything or telling any stories, but it was good nonetheless.

Anastasia is off date because she didn't come to church.  She hasn't even talked to us for quite some time.  We saw her  and she just cracked the door open and said "it's not a good time" and closed the door.  So... that's that.  

With Matt we watched Elder Holland's talk from conference with him.  He seemed to enjoy it, but I dunno how much is really penetrating through his thick skull.  He came to church yesterday which was good.  The focus of the block seemed to be about prophets and Joseph Smith which I'm sure was helpful for him.

We met this less-active family because one of the ward council referred them to us.  Apparently the dad of the family has lost his testimony and is super anti so he doesn't let his wife go to church.  Fortunately he lets the kids go with their grandparents at their ward.  We talked to the mom and we're going to go over there regularly and just share uplifting thoughts with her on their doorstep.  Super sad situation, but hopefully we'll be able to do some good there!

So this week the zone leaders found some gold in the newspaper.  We noticed that they have a listing of all the houses in Maricopa that were recently sold, how big they are, and how much they were sold for.  Basically a huge list of houses for everyone in our zone to go tract, because according to President Monson new move-ins are a good opportunity to rope someone into the gospel, so to speak.  So, they cut out the list and gave it to the companionships in their respective areas.  We were going around knocking on the houses and one of them opens up and says "Hey Elders".  Naturally we were taken aback.  My companion stammers something about how she obviously has had contact with the church.  Come to find out she's a member and she has a non-member fiance that was meeting with missionaries in Tempe.  Woot!

So we went on exchanges on Thursday and I went with Elder May in his area.  We were teaching their investigator Deron (pronounced Da-Ron) that night.  Deron has been back and forth for a while.  He has a baptismal date but still wasn't sure.  We prepare a lesson about prophets and the organization of the church backed with a bunch of scriptures from the Bible.  We get to the lesson and start into it.  Long story short, the Spirit was super strong and he said he felt the Spirit for the first time in forever.  Come to find out, he was thinking about dropping the missionaries and thought maybe it "wasn't for [him]", but by the end of the lesson his mind was changed (or should I say, heart) and he said he had a firm commitment to be baptized on his date.  Way sweet!

Also with that exchange, I drank like 104 ounces of soda, and ate Taco Bell and candy which rekindled my testimony of healthy eating.  I felt like garbage.  I've still been having green smoothies every day for lunch but... supplementing it with Easter candy and Dr. Pepper.  You know, the healthy stuff.  

Last week for p-day we colored easter eggs, so that was fun.  Apparently I'm the only person in the whole district who will even eat hard boiled eggs, so now I have tons of them.   

Anywho, the church is true and being a missionary is legit.

Love y'all!

-Elder Cox

Lots has happened this week!  I think?  I actually don't ever remember, it just seems like one big blur. 

So Mardi is still on date for next Sunday.  We had a delicious steak at her house that was... delicious.  It was cool because that day the AP's came on exchanges with the ZL's and DL's in our zone, so we had Elder Babcock with us.  Elder Babcock was in this ward at the very beginning of his mission and he only has one transfer left.  When he was here, Mardi was just another eternigator that was way far from baptism.  Well he was there with us when we had dinner with her and it was pretty cool to see it full circle.  She just looked at him funny and was like "he looks soo familiar".  She told him that he's grown up a lot and looks like a man now, etc. etc.  It was just cool, and now she's going to be baptized.

Not too much to report on Anastasia.  She's still on date for the 18th but neither she nor Mardi were able to make it to Conference.  Anastasia's kinda hard to meet with too.  Based on the last time we met though, she's solid and really wants to be baptized.

On Friday we went to the Easter Pageant with our wonderful black family Dierre, Serita, Johnny, Jellia, JaKayla, Martholomuel, Bartogondrion, DaMarcus, DaMatthew, DaLuke, and the whole gang.  Okay, I made some of those up after JaKayla.  But still.  Anyway, it was a pretty terrible experience actually, but absolutely hilarious.  So we get to their house at like 6:30 so we can head all the way up to Mesa, like 45 minutes, find parking, find a seat, and be ready for the pageant to start.  Well we get there and get in the car and we're all just sitting there but Serita, the mom, isn't there yet.  We're all buckled up just waiting and we ask Dierre where his mom is.  He goes inside and says she's just chillin there.  He goes back in a little later and she's COOKING FOOD.  Okay, uh, we have to go like... right now.  After a little bit she comes out and yells at us saying she's been to Mesa a thousand times, we came too early, she knows where to park. etc. etc.  Okay... so we wait.  After a little bit she's ready and we leave.  Pretty much the whole time she's just agitated and yelling at her kids and it was super awkward and we didn't say a word.  She ran a couple red lights on the way up and I literally thought I was going to die.  Long story short, we get to the pageant like 15 minutes after it started and just sit in the grass.  After about 10 seconds, Serita says that the kids are too squirmy and she's going to go "walk them around".  We watch the rest of the pageant and are wondering where Serita is.  Turns out she took the kids to dairy queen and was just chillin.  That's cool, I guess.  Needless to say, we made it home safe and sound and I never will do that again.

As far as conference goes, it was sweet!  It's weird because it's my last one of the mission.  Crazy!  One of my favorites was Elder Uchtdorf's about grace.  It seemed to change my perspective a little bit and I really like it when that happens.  Also very touching was Elder Holland's when he was talking about those brothers.  I don't think it's coincidence that the younger brother saved the day :)  Granted, the older brother boosted him up...  Anyway, thanks all my brothers for showing me the right way and being stellar examples of good missionaries.  Love y'all.

What did you all think of people opposing the sustaining of the brethren?  Crazy, right?!  Who in their right mind?  All well.  Let it be known that I sustain the brethren!  God hasn't ceased speaking to us!

Oh so, our mission has been pushing for physical fitness as of late.  I think mainly because back around October President said no more waking up early and going to gyms, and no more gyms whatsoever.  Naturally, our motivation to exercise would decrease, so to supplement that he announced a mission 5k run.  Well, that was today and I haven't run more than a mile in about a year.  Last year around this time I was running almost 3 miles daily but since then... not quite that far.  Anyway, I was able to run the whole thing without stopping, so that was a bonus.  Needless to say, it kicked my butt.

Anyway, love you family.  Keep it real and endure to the end!

-Elder Cox

So, surprisingly I'm actually back in my old ward in Maricopa. I've really never heard of missionaries re-visiting areas except for maybe the very last transfer of their mission, but now I've revisited TWO areas. I've been asked to step down as a zone leader and asked to be a district leader again. What they didn't mention over the phone, as I found out at transfers, is that I'll be second-half training. It's almost like deja-vu. Anyway, just in time for the warm weather coming in I'm back to biking all day.We had a baptism on Saturday! Obviously I didn't really know the kid because... I just got here. His name is Dierre. It's just like Pierre, only with a "D". He seems pretty cool though! His mom is still not a member although she was very supportive of him being baptized and was even crying and everything. We'll get her pretty soon I'm sure.
Apparently we have a couple more baptisms coming up too! One is an unbaptized daughter of an active family. I guess the family was just waiting for the dad to get the priesthood back before she was baptized so that he could baptize her. Makes sense. We don't really have to do much for it, but as far as statistics go...
There's this other lady that I only met one time who is on date sometime in april. Her name is Mardi if you want to pray for her!
Oh yeah, my new companion's name is Elder Mason and he's from Fairfax, Virginia. Seems like a pretty good guy.
Other than that, we have like a billion investigators, especially in comparison to where I just came from in Chandler/Gilbert area. After I left the Elders that were here were together for 6 months in this area so they were actually able to get things going. It should be looking good for the next few months I reckon.

I wish there was more to talk about, but I haven't really gotten my bearings on the new area yet so I'll have to be more informative next time. Sorry!

Jesus lives
Love ya'll
Elder Cox

Transferred again, his new address:

Elder Dylan Cox

45175 W. Cypress Ln.

Maricopa, AZ 85139

 Lessons!  We got some!  Woot!  Only like 4... but STILL.

So the first was an older couple who are neighbors to our Bishop.  The guy recently lost his sister in an unexpected accident.  She was around 70 and she was carrying pizza up the stairs and fell backwards and broke...important stuff, her neck or something.  Anyway, tragedy is a perfect opportunity for missionaries so we took advantage of it and was able to talk to them about opposition being a part of life, Jesus Christ, the Atonement, etc.  It was superb.

So because of lack of teaching pool, we're trying different tactics to try and soften people's hearts.  One of them is service tracting.  Basically we dress up in p-day clothes and knock on people's door offering to do community service.  We've only done it a couple times, but we actually found someone!  She met with missionaries before when she lived in Mesa.  She said she felt bad making us pull her weeds, but I was pretty persuasive and she let us do it.  Long story short, we have some teaching opportunities coming up.

We taught this young guy named Mike.  We're going to have to refer him to the YSA missionaries but first we're going to baptize him.  Just kidding, we're just going to spark his interest a little more before handing him off.  Not too much to talk about other than we shared a video with him and I'm pretty sure he was drunk.  Woo!

  We taught another couple yesterday about the importance of reading the scriptures.  She tried to give us some crap about how she doesn't have time and blah blah blaah, so we told her that God recognizes the sacrifice when we make it, even if it's just 5 minutes and that he'll bless us even more.  By the end, they committed to read the Book of Mormon as a couple every day and pray too!  Pretty neat!

Still don't know about transfers, but I guess I'll let you know next week!

Love y'all

Craziness, March already!  Time just keeps flying by

Well, I wish there was more to report but sadly we literally didn't teach any lessons this week.  100% zeroes all across the board.  We're pounding the pavement, mind you, but the fruits haven't quite been seen yet.  

We did get a chance to stop by Rose, the lady that we helped move.  She was really excited to see us and gave us hugs when we showed up at her house.  That was pretty awkward.  She's Italian so she's really expressive and funny.  Anyway, her house is still an absolute mess from the move, and we got to just chat with her for a few minutes.  We tried to slip in some Gospel conversation but for the most part she dominated the conversation, which is fine.  She is interested in having us over although I'm not sure she quite understands the purpose for our visits.  That can come over time, so I'm not too worried about it.

We had Stake Conference this weekend and had a visit from Elder Pino of the 70.  The adult session was really interesting because they actually talked about Ward Council for the entire session.  They even addressed the fact that it seems more fitting for a leadership training sort of setting, but that the direction given from Elder Ballard was to train the entire Stake about how to have an effective Ward Council.  It was pretty interesting.  President Toone was there as well standing next to our Stake President.  It was pretty funny because our Stake President is probably around Rick's height, and President Toone is 5'24" as he would say.  

We got to go on a couple exchanges which are always good.  Still doing a ton of service which is pretty much the best thing ever.  Hopefully it can soften some hearts and lead to some baptisms, but we'll see.  Maybe the Lord has plans for us other than baptizing people.

Other than that, transfer calls are next week so we'll see what happens there.  Our mission gets brand new iPads this Wednesday for... some reason I guess we'll find out.  They're changing a bunch of stuff about how we do online proselyting and such.  President Toone will also have god-like control over our iPads remotely, which is also pretty cool.  He basically has a "big brother" program where he can watch our every move and turn off certain functions of our iPads remotely.  So that's pretty neat!

I don't think I'll know by next Monday if I'll be transferred or not, so it'll actually be a couple weeks before I can let you know.  They're changing a bunch of logistics about transfer week so... yeah.  Anywho,  have a good week!

-Elder Cox