I'm now serving about 40 miles south-ish of the greater Phoenix area (where most of the mission is) in the magical world of Maricopa. It's an interesting place. You literally drive through the barren desert for 40 minutes to be surprised by a random "island" of houses. It's almost exactly like Laveen, in that all the houses look the same and they're all bunched together in little HOA communities, etc. There's pretty much nothing around here at all, just a bunch of random houses in the middle of the desert. In my mind's eye as I describe it, it sounds like a ghetto place, but it's actually a fairly decent area. It's really quiet and the houses are actually fairly nice.

Here's my new address:
45175 W. Cypress Lane
Maricopa, AZ 85139

My new companion is Elder Reed from Sparks, Nevada. He's a really hard-working missionary and is really dedicated already. He's one of those that came "pre-trained" so there's not a whole lot of work to do on him which is always good! He's a really nice kid, and we'll definitely see a lot of success together. I'll attach a picture of us that we just took. You can see my sick watch tan-line I've been working on! Also my... bodacious biceps...


So there's a train track that runs right through the middle of Maricopa. Cool huh?
But really, so we were biking home one night and in order to go home we have to cross the tracks. Well, right as we pull up to the tracks the rails go down and a big train comes to the tracks. And stops. It's a passenger train (apparently) that sits there right in front of the road and loads people up for like 20 minutes while all the cars pile up behind each other waiting for it. While it was parked, 3 other trains passed at various times, and right as soon as the passenger train starts going, just when we think the guard rails are going to lift up another train goes by for another 10 minutes. I don't know why I tell this story, other than I guess to say that this whole city revolves around those train tracks. I guess originally there was just a train station in Maricopa, but now it's just a huge housing...place. Wow, that was such a cool story!

We have some cool investigators though! There's this one kid named Kane who's totally prepared to be baptized, but the previous missionaries literally just went over there and talked about video games and junk every time. So I think as long as we do anything he should be good!

It looks like a lot of the work here is going to be focused around part-member families. Pretty much every investigator we have is in a part-member family! It's crazy. We have a brand-new ward mission leader which is really nice. Oddly enough, I think he was just barely the Ward Clerk...he was just called last week. I feel like there's some sort of conspiracy going on...hmm... In any case, I can tell already that he'll be a sweet WML. He's a really cool guy, and just happens to know everyone in the ward. He seems really eager to do whatever needs to be done, which is great.

You'll be happy to know, Mom, that our dinner calendar is absolutely filled up for August and even a lot of September already, so don't worry about that. My main problem isn't staying fed, but staying fit! I think it's a good problem to have though. I'd rather be fat than hungry.

Hmm, I dunno what else to talk about! There's really not a lot of variety at all to what I do, but I guess that's probably just because I take it for granted. The work is still good, church is still true, still having fun and all that. Love ya'll.

-Elder Cox

Aug 11

Yep. I'm going back to being a District Leader and training a brand new missionary. I'm being transferred again, which means that I'll be whitewashing AGAIN into a brand new area. For like, the fourth time. Super great.


Well, this week we started teaching another nine year old that will be baptized on August 30. I won't be around for that obviously, but she's pretty cool and knows she wants to be baptized. Her mom is a non-member and her dad is a returning member so it should be really good for their family. They have super solid fellowship whose home we teach them in. That didn't really make sense grammatically, but you get the picture.

Speaking of pictures... I made the worst mistake of my life last week. Attached to this email you'll be a picture of a burrito. But not just any burrito, it's a breakfast burrito. BUT not just any breakfast burrito... it's a breakfast burrito literally the length of my elbow to fingertip. Literally, this burrito is a cubit long. It's probably the equivalent of like... 3 Cafe Rio burritos. I got about halfway before I was full. 3/4 of the way my gag reflex started to kick in. I couldn't quit, I had to finish! I have never pushed the bounds of discomfort so much in my life, but I blew past the wall. I kept going, nibble by nibble. Bite by bite, gag by gag. I finished. I may have finished last, but I finished and that's all that matters. I think I deserve a gold star on my Man-Card. Literally have never eaten so much in my life. Good news is, I didn't throw up either, but I still had to bike around in the heat afterwards. Worth it? Totally not. Am I glad I did? No. Would I do it again? Probably.

More fun things, we went golfing again this week. I did a lot better than I did last week, but I'm still a terrible golfer. It was fun though, and very relieving!

Really not a whole lot more going on in my life. It's seriously been the most insane transfer of probably anyone's mission, but a good one. I haven't even mentioned a "hundredth part" as the Book of Mormon would say, but I supposed this transfer will make a good story later on. I'll let you know where I'm transferred to, my greenie's name, etc. etc. Wish me luck.

-Elder Cox

Golfing - how's his swing?

Hey ya'll! Yeah, the weather has been a lot better this week Momma. We had some rain, which I suppose helps a little, but really all it does it make it humid and muggy. I can't decide which is worse. But, it's been a lot cooler this week which is nice. Last night we had a random HUGE rain storm hit our area. We literally had been inside for 3 seconds and BAM, it started pouring rain. Apparently it was windy too, because when we got done with dinner we went outside and it looked like a war-zone. A powerline fell in the middle of the freeway and there were cars lined up for miles. There was debris of all kinds, and even a helicopter. Trees were fallen over in the street. The only thing we were missing was zombies. It was cool though.

So today we went golfing for our morning activity! That would explain why the email is coming a little later than it usually does. It was super fun. I'd send pictures, but the computer I'm emailing on is slower than... something really slow. And it literally took me 30 minutes just to get it up and running, so I don't want to try to load pictures. Remind me next week! I'm still terrible at golfing, but it was really fun, so there's that.

Transfers coming up this week! We're pretty certain that one of us is leaving, and Elder Francis seems pretty sure that it's me. We'll get the call Sunday, so stay tuned. I can't believe it's that time again already! Like you said Mom, in some ways I can't even fathom how fast it went, but for the most part it feels like I was born a missionary and that I'll die a missionary. Can hardly imagine "home life" anymore.

Not a whole lot to report this week! Sorry! But I'm still doing good and working hard and stuff. Love ya!

-Elder Cox

The miracles and testimony building experiences of this week are "so great they can't be written" (not a direct quote I know, but you get the point). God is real, he loves us, and knows us individually!


So I've come up with a theory that I call the "3 degrees"... of heat, that is. Being in Arizona, there isn't hot and cold, there's 3 degrees of heat that are all just hot. Allow me to explain:

Degree 1 is the lowest degree (obviously). Signs of the first degree are simple: sweat, and warmth. Once you can get over the fact that you're a little sweaty, it's totally fine. Just keep riding your bike, and your body just naturally cools you and it even feels nice. Easy to remedy, and doesn't cause too much discomfort. This occurs at about the 95-102 degree range.

Degree 2. Keep in mind that, as one can assume, each higher degree compounds with previous degrees. Therefore, the symptoms of "second-degree-heat" have all those of the first, with an addition to some. The additional signs of Degree 2 are thus: You can feel each individual ray of sunshine as it hits your skin. Also, the "sweat factor" is increased about two-fold. This is a little more uncomfortable, but still fairly easy to remedy. Riding your bike still works. It helps if you stop riding for just a few seconds, allowing your body to sweat a little more, and then keep riding to feel the cool breeze for about 0.3 seconds. Also, standing in the shade can ease the discomfort. Degree two ranges at about 103-109 degrees.

Degree 3. This is where the infamous Arizona heat really kicks in. One would think that it's all just bad when it gets past 104, but no. You can definitely tell the difference. Degree 3 is where the "blow dryer effect" kicks in. Not only does every ray of sunshine melt your skin, but it heats up every individual molecule of air. There is no escape. No amount of riding, sweating, shade (outside), water, praying, crying, water, sweating, or sweating can help. The only cure is air-conditioning. Not even sunglasses can cure the sting of the blow dryer air in your eyes. It's awesome! It happens at 110-116+ degrees. Yes, it did get up to 116 this week :) And yes Mom, I'm drinking tons of water.

But alas, nothing will cramp my style. I rock that sweaty collar and sweat-stained sunglasses. I refuse to be brought low! I LOVE IT HERE! Today is a nice degree 1 too, so that's always a bonus!

In better news, Squeaky showed up to church again this week. He even stayed for Gospel Principles class. Woot! We're still working with him and getting him over some concerns he has, but I think he'll actually progress. He's a really cool dude!

That's all I got for ya! Hope you're all doing well, and stuff. The gospel is true and everything so, yeah. Love!

I don't even know what's going on anymore. The craziest things just happen all the time! Where do I begin?

So we got an assignment for Thursday. You know already that this is awesome, because all of our "assignments" have just been nuts. So there's a missionary in the mission that takes football really seriously, and he's been praying and pondering where he should go to school after the mission to play ball and stuff. Apparently it's a big decision that means a lot to him and his family. So our "assignment" was to drive this Elder around to meet with the various coaches he had interviews with. The first stop was at ASU, which is still just down the road. We got to take a look at their facility and their locker rooms, weight room, coach offices, film room, etc. etc. It was so weird! Here we were just regular mormon missionaries just chillin with this other huge Hawaiian missionary that was being toured around by an ASU coach. The next coach he met with was at at Chipotle restaurant, and we just chilled there. Not only did we get to drive him around, but his decision is serious enough that President approved him to attend the temple. But oh, shoot, the Mesa Temple was closed that day.. so we got to go to the Gilbert Temple. Just the three of us, which no one in the mission (other than departing missionaries) gets to do. SO SICK!

Yesterday at church, a random member that we've never seen introduces us to a guy named Larry, whom he also had never met before. Apparently this member ran into Larry while he was getting in his car for church. Larry wanted to come, so...he did. I guess he said he wants to change his life around! Pretty randomly awesome tender mercy! We'll see him sometime this week.

I've been occasionally messaging Jason Leal on Facebook. Apparently the motorcycle school he was going to is just north of Phoenix. I called President to see if I could meet up with him, one thing led to another, and here's a picture of us together at a sushi restaurant! I asked him to give the missionaries a chance when he gets back to Utah in early August, and he said he would. Keep tabs on him! :)


Sorry, not a ton to talk about this week, but that's about it! Love y'all!

So yeah Mom, I guess I know a little bit more about our assignment. We basically do menial tasks for the senior missionaries in the office and for President. For example, last Tuesday we drove with one of the senior couples down to Yuma which is about 3 to 3 1/2 hours away just to pick up a car. So we drove down with them, stayed the night at one of the missionary apartments in Yuma, then drove back the next day. We got back at around 1, and by about 4:00 the housing coordinator asked if we could help some sisters move into their new apartment. So he picked us up and we helped move for the rest of the night. Just random stuff!

We haven't seen Squeaky yet. We had an appointment for last Monday, but according to the sisters he doesn't have very good perception of time or date. Probably because he doesn't have a watch and he's homeless. We have an appointment with him Tuesday though, so hopefully we'll be able to meet with him!

We have a couple of overage youth (nine-year-old) baptisms coming up within the next little while. One of them was supposed to be baptized this weekend, but they didn't end up making it to church. The other one is going to be baptized the first of August. The concern for both of them is that their families aren't active, so we don't want to baptize them to just have them drop off the map. Other than that though, they seem to basically already know everything no problem! They should be good, as long as we can reactivate the family!

We had a pretty cool experience in Ward Council yesterday. Out of the blue the bishop just started testifying of how he thinks this ward is about to explode with baptisms. He feels that all the missionaries have just been building off each other, and that God has elect people here. He testified that if we all do our jobs that we will have mucho bautismos aqi! Also, he commented that he hasn't seen missionaries pay fast offerings for a long time, and was impressed that we did, and testified of the blessings that come from assisting the poor. Pretty sweet! Member trust! Ka-ching!

Welp... that's pretty much it! Everything's going great! I'll try to do better at taking pictures, so here's a few. One of them is Elder Francis so you can see his beautiful duck-face, and the others I took right before coming to email... :)

Love y'all!