Letter #39 (May 2nd, 2012)

Hey all, My week has been great! My new companion is amazing! He is the most amazing teacher I have met. His lessons are just so wonderfully presented and with clarity. Elder Dela Cerna is from Davao and his family are all members. I now have no batch members in my zone and I think I am the only one from my batch on Negros at the moment...(I'll find out tomorrow at zone conference if that's true or not...) Bitaw (true that)... the week has gone fast... every week feels faster than the last and I passed 9 months the other day... I dont know where the time is going! But we are working hard and making the most of it. This week has been good in terms of work despite the small amount we were able to get done. We have completely rearranged our schedule for the zone conference and to fit in some of our new investigators. We have 5 investigators now and hope to have 3 more by the end of the week (thats our goal)... and have been working on member referrals. Elder Dela Cerna is amazing! (I know i reapeated myself, but thats because he is)... and if you want to know what he looks like... He is the pinoy Superman! No joke... when i finally send a photo of him next week you will so agree. He has really helped me to push myself and to improve these last few days, in terms of teaching and also I started to exercise again. (after looking in the mirror and seeing how fat i am getting and losing all my tone.) I now practise arnis (thats the stick fighting that the Sierra's do) every morning, combined with my boxing exercises (but without weights) and pushups. Finally I got the pictures to work after 20mins of loading and reloading the stupid things... cut my time for writing things but it worked So there is the baptisms from last last Saturday, one of the district before the transfer and one of our last FHE with a few of us guys that were there. I don't really have much else for this email so the next na lang. Miss you all, Love you all too, Elder Taylor Addison Cox *********************************************************************************************************************** Terri here: Just a short email as he was having trouble trying to load his photos! And for some reason the blogs are coming out weird, and not in paragraphs like I put them in!! Hopefully I will figure out how they changed it and fix it for next time!

Letter #38 (April 25th, 2012)

Hey all, We had two baptisms this past Saturday!!! SUCCESS! Wooo.... I have photos to send for next week. Not only did we have the baptisms but we also achieved our goal for 25 lessons this week as well... we got 26 lessons! And this week is transfers. yes... 6 weeks already in Zambo. So Elder Seumanutafa is transferring out to Cebu after being in Zambo for 4 transfers. Then my new companion is Elder Dela Cerna who will be finishing up this transfer in Zambo as his last area. Trunky Transfer!... joke lang... We are going to work this area so hard! He is from Mindanao, so Visaya gayud siya. Which means my language will improve a ton again. So i will probably be in Zambo for another transfer after this next one as well. Our ward members are boss! and the feeding part has become a problem cause everyone we visit wants to feed us before we leave and...I'm getting fat... jujuju. Apart from the chungi (poblacion or the houses near the market centre thingo) everything is bukid gayud kaayo. And yes we are the only misisonaries in the branch. Only about 3 or so areas have two sets. Still nothing about mothers day but we have zone confernce this May3 with Elder Neilson, so we will probly find out then. This week we had so many FHE with members before Elder Tafa transfered. We had so much fun and i have some vids to send next week. So back to the baptisms... I baptised one of the boys and the other was able to get baptised by his dad who has recently come back to church. And then his mother who had gone back to Catholic came to the baptism and them to church again on the Sunday. We have had great success with this family this transfer and hopefully they are back for good. We had some huge storms sweep over these last couple of days coupled with brown outs of course... and our house leaks... =[ But nothing got wet luckily, and all things are doing well... The branch now has a choir cause there is someone to play the piano and lead them in the choir practise (me!). Thank you mum...(Terri here: I made him keep playing when he wanted to stop when he was 12!!) And hopefully I will be teaching others piano this next transfer so when I transfer there is someone left to play for them. I've had an amazing transfer with Elder Seumanutafa and we had so much fun and accomplished so much. I'm gonna miss him and hope that this next transfer is just as fun (but not trunky fun...jujuju) I have grown so much and learned even more. I will have a longer letter next week I'm sure... Miss you all, Love you all, Elder Taylor Addison Cox

Letter #37 (April 18th, 2012)

Hey all,
Next month is the start of "wet season"... really just "wetter than normal season" Oh something really cool...in the photo. Our baranggay (like suburb thing or town) has just made it bawal (illegal) to smoke anywhere... just check out this sign! You should show it to the government representatives for parramatta and tell them to step up! jujuju I should be getting some pants made this week when we grab the material after email karon... one pair brown and one greeny brown... i will send photos sa sunod(the next time) Not too much happened this week that was exciting kaayo... but... We did work our butts off this week to try and catch up after the zone interviews on Monday and we had the best week we have had so far this transfer. We had so much fun pushing ourselves saying "just one more lesson, we'll try one more place..." It was a great experience. And we have two baptisms going ahead this Saturday. We are so excited and happy for these individuals and especially one as his family just recently came back from inactivity and hopefully his father will be baptizing him this Saturday. We also have a couple who will be going to the temple for the first time this coming month. They are really excited to get to go to the temple and we are too because they have been members for a while now. The branch continues to progress with this last Sunday we had a branch FHE with the family of Brother R., who just left on his mission. The family expressed their gratitude to the members for their support and really felt the love of the branch. It really helped the members to pull together. We have been focusing on that with the members, helping them to realize that they are all brothers and sisters with the same goals and they need to be working together. I had a great experience this week with achieving the goals we set for our lessons. Even though the lessons we had planned didn't all go through, we followed the spirit and were able to teach some really good lessons this week. We really focused on the two boys being baptized this week and visited with them as often as we could this week to ensure they understood the gospel and the importance and reason for baptism. One that is youth age has been fellow-shipped really well by the youth and is currently attending the district youth conference in Dumaguete. We have had a great experience teaching him and seeing him progress from where he was before. This week I have been studying from the Doctrine and Covenants and using the institute manual before going to bed to achieve a greater understanding of the principles contained in the various sections. I have focused this week on the Second Coming of Jesus Christ and the signs of the times and also on building and establishing Zion in the church and in our own homes. I have felt the Spirit so strongly this week in my studies and received a Spirit of peace for things to come. That's about all I have to say for this week... I love you all and miss you much... I will let you know when I send the package. Love always, Elder Taylor Addison Cox