Letter # 21 (28t h Dec, 2011)

Stoo, Taylor's Dad wanted me to just email the following to him for the Wednesday, which was after we Skyped with him on the Monday morning....
Dad says....."Dear son, not much has changed since we last spoke. Still want you to know we are thinking of you!!" hahaha. You will see from his response that they share a similar sense of humour!!!

Hi all,
...well what dad said is pretty much true on this end as well. So that's all for this week...


joke lang...
I haven't got those photos yet for dad... but im working on it. And district meeting was great. Because the Strouds weren't in with us we spoke visayan the whole time, which left Sis Terry, the new sister missionary, very confused as what was going on. hahaha How mean are they ???

We had a csp yesterday cutting bamboo for a house in Calape. That was fun too.
And I have one experience from Monday evening... I will leave it up to you to share or not, depending on how you feel and what the spirit tells you.
We visited with the Laurel family and Sis Amor was ill, so we gave her a priesthood blessing.
So I gave the blessing and felt the spirit stronger than i had ever felt in a priesthood blessing. Sis Amor was crying when we finished. Then they fed us a great dinner and afterwards we chatted for a while cause there was a great storm outside with rain and winds that were ridiculously strong. While waiting i was thinking about a scripture in Jacob 4:6 and thought "why dont i just pray for the rain to stop?" so we decided that we had to return home anyway because it was getting late, and we always close in family pray with the Laurel family. They asked if i would offer the prayer, and of course i said i would be glad to. I prayed for their family and felt the spirit so strongly in the prayer also. I felt impressed to leave a blessing on their home and then asked Heavenly Father to stop the rain so we could get home without getting soaked. As we left their house and walked out into the rain along the path, a miracle happened! The winds calmed until there was no wind, and the rain slowed until it was a slight drizzle, like it was only sprinkling. Right then ane there i had the warmest feeling right in my heart, and I knew... not just believed anymore, but knew that Heavenly Father truly does love me, listens to and answers my prayers... and I knew that my faith was strong enough to recieve such a miracle. I thanked my Heavenly Father that i had enough faith to have him perfom such a miracle for us that night. When we returned to our house, it was only a few minutes later when the storm was back with its winds and rain. This was such a testimony builder for both me and my companion. He was amazed at what had happened too. I testify that I know that Heavenly Father loves us, he listens to our prayers and he answers them, if we have faith that he will do so.
Miss you all,
Love you tons,
Elder Taylor Addison Cox


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Terri here: Just in case any of you are interested in what Jacob 4:6 reads...... "Wherefore, we search the prophets and we have many revelations and the spirit of prophecy; and having all these witnesses we obtain a hope, and our faith becometh unshaken, insomuch that we truly can command in the name of Jesus and the very trees obey us, or the mountains, or the waves of the sea." from The Book of Mormon.

Christmas Skype Call

Terri here:

We got to Skype with Taylor at Christmas. (Well it was 26th, Boxing Day!!) And seeing we were in Perth visiting Stoo's family that live there, we were on the same time zone as him.

It was REALLY good to see him. He looks healthy, and very happy. He had an enjoyable Christmas day and got fed 4 times from the people there, plus they had breakfast as well. Talk about spoiled!! haha

He told us there were some transfers in his zone. He told us that each companionship has at least 1 American, except for 2 companionships, 1 has 2 Americans, and he told us that his companionship has 2 Filos. His companion and Him!! haha. He thinks he is Filo now!1 He spoke Visayan to us, quite fluently.

I was very good and didn't cry at all..... I did get a little teary at the start, but after that I was good!!

When we get more photos I'll add them. He tells us he has some for the blog!! We hope you all had a very Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year.I can officially say that Taylor will be home NEXT year!! haha

Letter # 20 (20th Dec, 2011)

Hey all,
Hapit na ang pasco! I got the package on Mon! Ah, yesterday.... di'ay... I am emailing today cause today is p'day so transfers can happen before Christmas. Tomorrow i get my new companion. He is visayan and from davao. He has only been out 7months or so, but he is really diligent (that's what everyone says).
Thanks so much everyone for the pictures! they were a great comfort and wonderful gift to know that people are thinking of me even if just to sent me pictures. I would like to thank everyone who has sent mail (Partons especially) and sorry that I haven't written anyone specifically... I honestly haven't have time with everything that we are doing everyday.
To answer your question, why flipflops... cause im pinoy now... pag-sure oi! I bet dad was like "That boy... wearing flipflops... he deserved it the silly boy...!" hahahahahahahaha.
And with the storm...
So Elder Holley had a training meeting in Cebu with Elder Gacos... so i was going to end up companion with elder irvin for thurs and fri with the talibon elders as well in a foursome... one trainer and 3 greenies... haha. So elder holley and elder gacos headed off thurs night but were back on fri morning cause there was no boats going to cebu because of thew storm. We had a signal 2 here which means there is a storm approaching and lots of rain, which bohol always gets. Signal 2 in bohol means theres a bagio coming but its not going to hit the island. But the thing you have to remember are the philos here are deathly scared of the rain... so lots of rain on a boat.... doesnt go down too well with them.
But we had fun eating ice cream for dinner that night that elder holley and elder gacos tried to get a boat. i have photos and will sent next emails.
This week has been a lot of teaching our recentconverts about the temple and working with the less active priesthood in the ward. We gave blessings to two yesterday and taught one to administer to the sick. We continue to be blessed by the Lord in everything we do and this is just an amazing experience. We shall talk more on Sunday. Till then,
Miss you, love you heaps (so do my zone mates for all the chocolates you sent) =]
Elder Taylor Addison Cox


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Terri here: Pinoy means Filo. So he's telling us that he was wearing flip flops (thongs for all those Aussies!!) to split the logs with the axe because that's what the filos do!! HAHA