"Whatever you are, be a good one."

This is from last week's service project when we did yard work and this quote was painted up on the wall and I really enjoy it. 

AAAND TRANSFERS! I have pday today still because I am still in the Beehive house..yay because I get to still have a pday this week!

My zone leaders are Sister Cochain (france) and Sister Ueno (japan).

My companion! Another Brasilian:) That makes 3 now. Sister Silva from Brasilia, Brasil. She was in my district a few transfers ago and now we are companions so we were pretty pumped about that. Here we are with our teaching center headsets on sharing the gospel all over the world. I've missed hearing Portuguese, it's good to be back.

Let's see if I can remember anything else from this week...

We had a wonderful lesson with an investigator we met here in Salt Lake who just moved here just a few blocks from Temple Square who is completely wonderful. He agreed to be baptized after we took him through God's plan for the Family. He just moved from Seattle, and has found such hope and light moving here. He is following where God is guiding him. It is a privilege to meet with him face to face through his conversion process.

Yesterday a homeless man tried chatting with us on the way home and he asked us how the Prophet is doing. He shared with us that he himself could very well be the next 13th apostle. We tipped our hats to him for his audacity and gave him an elbow bump, instead of a fist bump goodbye because he said, shouting as we walked away, "THE ELBOW IS CLOSER TO THE HEART!" So sweet. So crazy. I love elbow bumps now.

I read a verse in the Book of Mormon this week that didn't stand out to me until lately.

 1 I, Zeniff, having been taught in all the language of the Nephites, and having had a knowledge of the land of Nephi, or of the land of our fathers’ first inheritance, and having been sent as a spy among the Lamanites that I might spy out their forces, that our army might come upon them and destroy them—but when I saw that which was good among them I was desirous that they should not be destroyed.

It's just interesting to me that he went out to spy, saw that there was goodness even among his enemies, and he wanted to save them. It's easy to love our family, the friends we choose, even strangers who are just plain kind. But the true test is loving those who are difficult to love. And wanting all the things we have for those who we are not on the friendliest terms with.

So whatever and wherever and whoever you are, be a good one, and love even those who are not. 

Until next week, Te Amo

Sister Cox

Sincerely, Technologically Inadept :)

Hello there, 

I am actually usually pretty good with the techy life, but I'm not going to make excuses for the slip of the hand that accidentally sends you all unnecessary emails.

Onward

A hot week here in the Salt Lake City Valley. But it has been wonderful. It's cool (literally) because the beehive house has really thick walls and they built it with adobe brick to keep the hot weather from killing them. Yes, we do have air conditioning now.  Guests have actually asked that. ha. The flowers here on Temple Square still smell lovely.

Shout out to my Dad and all of the Dad's out there for Father's Day.  This will forever be one of my favourite Mormon messages. 

https://www.mormonchannel.org/watch/series/mormon-messages/earthly-father-heavenly-father

A lot of the sisters who came at the same time as me will be going outbound next transfer (next week). I will go eventually....They will be going to Tempe, AZ and Texas, Houston. My MTC companion Sister Fuimaono, remember her? Hawaiian Barbie? She's going to Texas Japanese speaking. She doesn't speak Japanese. But She will! HAHA. This is a rare occurrence, we English speakers almost never go out speaking another language.

I would just like to share a favourite scripture this week that I read yesterday that is a good one for all times: Mosiah 7:33

33 But if ye will turn to the Lord with full purpose of heart, and put your trust in him, and serve him with all diligence of mind, if ye do this, he will, according to his own will and pleasure, deliver you out of bondage.

We need Him. I need him to do this work and have felt this 10/10 as I have turned to him with trust, love and diligence and he has helped me. He will help you to my beautiful humans. 

Love you all, I will let you all know of the changes that come about next week with transfers. You also might not hear from me because there is a chance I will not get pday next week. 

xoxo, 

Sister Cox

We had a service project this week of cleaning our kitchen in the mission office where we 150 sisters all eat everyday. It gets messy quick but by gum it was shining like the top of the Chrysler Buildling when we were done with it. 

Just some of the..stuff that goes on while we are on break for lunch. To be honest I didn't plan on sending this but accidentally sent it with that first accidental email, so I figured there would need an explanation for why I am wearing a tiny shirt that is squeezing my face like a rubber ball. Basically we were talking about antis and how to handle them, so I told everyone to do this and share the book of mormon like this and the antis would leave us alone. This picture is probably going to be black mail for the rest of my life. oh whale. ♥

Wheat & Tares, Faith & Prayers

I gave a training this week in our zone training meeting about goal setting and applying the power of faith. Joseph Smith said, "Faith is not only the principle of action, but of power also." I used to hate goals. It gave me a stomach ache when I thought about them. Now, I absolutely adore the process of setting goals. I think it's because I understand faith a little more, and see how the combination of a vision, faith and hard work can move us in a meaningful direction. Sister Risenmay gave us these steps to include in our trainings. 1. instill desire, 2. set goals, 3. make plans, 4. commit, 5. visualize, 6. work, 7. pray constantly, we will be able to witness the mighty works and plans God has for us. I really learned number 5 when I was in diving in High School. It was incredible how much difference visualizing a perfect dive each time helped me to improve the live action dive, it's the same with any goal. Things go much better if we have more than just the beginning and the very end in mind, a video rather than a before and after picture.  And my dad helped me to really understand the importance of number 6. Thanks comPadre.

To be completely honest, these past few weeks have been difficult because no one has been baptized lately and we feel stuck in a rut. We are finding people on the square and online to send to their local missionaries every week and stay in contact with, but we aren't really seeing the results or much progression, people just aren't willing to commit even when they seem so gosh darn awesome and ready when we meet them. But last night I was reading in Jesus the Christ about the wheat and the tares, one of the Savior's many beautiful parables, and it gave me comfort. This time reading, I saw in it a lesson of patience. The wheat or good seed typifies the honest in heart, righteous minded children of God. The tares representing those who have given themselves up for the opposite, or temptation and wickedness planted by the enemy. The servants were so eager to just rid of the tares(basically weeds) that had been mischievously planted right alongside the wheat. But the Lord of the Vineyard reminded them that they needed to wait until the wheat was discernible from the tares because the wheat was tender and needed growing, and if they didn't wait, there was the potential of just ripping out the sweet wheat with the tares. I need to just have the patience the Lord has for his brothers and sisters, yes the work is hastening and we need to keep up, but this is a one by one process. No taking the lawnmower to this one. 

Hope your summers are playing out wonderfully so far.

Love, 

Sister Cox

"Cause we live in a beautiful wooorld, yeah we do yeah we doo." -Coldplay

My companion is really good at sneaky taking pictures of me. This was our 8 am flagpole tour (people join the tour unscheduled) and it was raining so no one came. But WE LOVE THE RAIN so we weren't too bummed. 

Arriving at month 10 in 3...2...1...

Arriving at month 10 in 3...2...1. So weird that in three days, I will have been on a mission for 10 months. 

I don't have much time today so I will mostly just share fotos. 

Today the sisters in my district wanted to go to East High where High School Musical was filmed for pday, so we did.

We took family fotos.

And tried to jump all cool like they do, but we really just couldn't even accomplish one successful one. #holdontoyourskirts

And then we went to Crown Burger. Those are some real burgers.

We had MLC this Monday and it was wonderful. The APs spoke about Sacrifice. "To sacrifice is to give up something we value for the sake of something of greater worth. As Latter-Day Saints, we have the opportunity to sacrifice worldly things for the Lord and His kingdom. Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints should be willing to make any sacrifice required by the Lord. If we were not required to make sacrifices, we would never be able to develop the faith necessary for eternal salvation." -True to the Faith

President Risenmay also spoke about the Restoration of the gospel being the root of the gospel tree. It is the pathway to conversion. The brances and fruit on the tree are the fruits of the restoration. Because of the restoration we know about the Plan of Salvation, the full gospel of Jesus Christ, the Laws, ordinances and Commandments, and how to endure to the end. He drew a picture and it was cool to have the visual. I am sorry. I have no cartoon to draw you.

Sister MacFarlane from AK

Sister Pilapitya from Sri Lanka, and Sister Tuttle from California/South Dakota.

We took these lovely folks and their husbands on a tour at Beehive and they were so lovely. When I asked them if they could see themselves joining the church they said probably not. I still believe they will. But the cute old husband before living took my hand in his and with tears in his eyes said, "Thank you for doing this. You did not waste your time." These are the things that make this experience so worth it. 

I love my mission. I love the Savior. I love the people of the World.

Have a wonderful week, sorry for the brevity of this email. I hope to write more next week.

Until then

Sister Cox