Hey all,
This week has been a ball! I have had a really enjoyable week this
week. Things have just been great and working out really well. I was
really happy that we achieved 25 lessons in our area even with ZLC and
zone training meeting. It made me feel proud of myself, that I have
been striving to do what the Lord expects of me. This week has been
filled with all sorts of excitement and disappointment. Elder
Manansala and I have had some great experiences and we have planned 10
baptisms for the month of December. We are very excited and working
really hard to make this happen.
The first great thing of this week was helping our two investigators
prepare for baptism this Saturday. They are both progressing really
well and following all their commitments. But we now have a challenge
for each to be baptized. The first is that on of them gave birth to
their second child yesterday morning, a healthy baby boy. So we will
have to wait a little bit before she can get baptized, but she is good
to go and has already passed the first interview. She is really
excited to be baptized as well, and really enjoys coming to church
every Sunday.
The second is Sister E. E, who has some things she has to
do before she can get baptized. Just a little obstacle before her
baptism. We have seen a great desire to change grow within her this
past month and a bit that we have been visiting with her.
Then an update about Brother J and Sister M... they went to
find out if the marriage license exists and it turns out it does, but
the name for the husband is wrong. So the plan is to go back to the
NSO with the marriage license and request a record of the husband so
when they search for him they will see that he doesn't exist and
hopefully nullify the marriage license from before allowing Sister
M and Brother J to get married, and then sealed in the temple.
But this has been put on the back burner at the moment because the
eldest brother of J passed away yesterday after a motorcycle
accident, and they are planning the funeral and all. Brother J
will be headed up to the funeral this weekend probably and will be
helping out with that. We have been visiting with them and it is just
amazing to know that J is still just full of the Spirit. He
hasn't been affected too much by what has happened because he knows
where his brother is and Gods plan for him. His only concern is the
expenses for his family.
Also this week, Elder Manansala and I received a bunch of real
referrals from one family in the branch (as in referrals who actually
want to listen...) and two of them have baptismal dates for December
8th. We also have a really excited progressing investigator through
our FTEs who just loves the church and the doctrine and also committed
to be baptized on the same date at the end of the second lesson. We
have really applied the Find when you Teach, Teach when you Find
principle this week and have had some great successes with five new
investigators last week. We are also having success with the LAs, as
they slowly come back one or two every few weeks.
But this week has been so good and I am excited for these next few
weeks. I am excited to continue to work with Elder Manansala to
achieve our goals for these baptisms next month and help these
individuals come unto Christ. It is just amazing the help we have
received in our work these past few weeks as we really focused on
being diligent and obedient.
We are both hoping and praying to still be in Amlan for Christmas.
Tell Dad to have fun while he is in Perth and to give my regards to
them all there. Tell Nan I said hi and happy B'day.
Miss you all tons,
Love you all
Elder Taylor Addison Cox
