Hey all,
So let me start from the beginning of last last week. So the
30th of Nov was feista here in Amlan and was just amazing because there
wasn't nearly as many hubogs as some other places. We went to 2 members
place to eat and one other to teach. I was so busog afterwards... lots
and lots of food. Then not much happened the rest of that week until Sun
night we get this call from the AP's... no more ZLC on Tues and then
Monday we need to buy 3days food and water and make sure our flashlights
are working. okay? so clearly obvious there is some sore of something
coming. Then that Monday we have people telling us there is a really
big storm approaching and its gonna hit Dumaguete direct on. and it will
arrive and 2 o'clock tomorrow... so the people are thinking two in the
morning. By about 6 at night it is really thick air and there is no
movement of the air... like its dead. That night everyone is expecting
the storm to hit at 2... but then nothing happens we find out that's its
2 in the afternoon. Mao di ay! way claro! so Tues all the members close
to the beach line are coming to the chapel and getting preparations to
stay there out of the storm. So we don't get much done that day... and 2
rolls around and nothing. Well it turns out that Bagiou Pablo is
philippino too... so he rolls around at 5pm (2pm philo time) and takes
all those unprepared people by surprise. It was sooo kusog wind. It was
crazy. It got really dark really quickly and the electric company had
turned their power off in advance so nothing would blow up at their
end. The eye of the storm hit Dumaguete, but that meant we were under
the strongest winds of the storm. We got hammered! Trees and power lines
were falling everywhere and there was rain for a bit but it moved
through really quickly cause of the wind. We had two banana trees fall
on the house at the back... and there were so many mango trees fallen
over the road. The wind lasted until at least 9 or 10 at night before
the storm passed and you could already hear the chainsaws going to start
the cleanup by then as well. So went to sleep and then Weds morning at
6, we got out to inspect what had happened. We went with the Croppers to
inspect members houses and make sure they were all doing okay. We
avoided fallen trees on the road, crossed overflowing rivers by foot to
get to some members, tubig up to the knee, and the water was really fast
too. We helped one member to clean up hi saginghan and we were hackinng
into those for a good hour or so... so much fun. I also got to eat
cacao.... the fruit from which you get cocoa beans (which are the seeds
of the fruit) and it was surprisingly very sweet. Lami kaayo. Work was
hard the rest of the week cause everyone was cleaning up and busy. I
learned how much we take things for granted... we had no electricity
from Tues afternoon till Fri night, and we had the littlest water (as in
it was like so pathetic) in the morning until about 8:30 and then none
till 9pm. We got our water from the neighbour's water hand pump thingo.
You are so blessed there with so many little comforts we take for
granted. Then on Sat we had Zone Conference in Dumaguete with Pres.
Schmutz and the Aps. It was great and we had a great times haring stories
and so forth in the two zones and with Pres. That was all day and then
that night we had the double baptism of sister D-A and Brother
J. Pres Schmutz attended and it was more than just a baptism... it
was one of the greatest spiritual experiences ever. It went for almost
2and a half hours! we started at 7 and we didn't get finished until
almost 9:30. It was the best two baptisms I ever had, and there is no
doubt that these two people will be some of the strongest members in the
branch. Then Sun we had the Christmas devotional thingo in Tanjay. I
really liked what Pres.Monsan said "he who gives money gives much, he
who gives time gives more, but he who gives of himself has given the
most of all". Then Monday we had district meeting, and then we didn't have
to catch the Ceres to Cebu for ZLC cause WE GOT TO FLY INSTEAD!!!! Yeah
ya! I'll send the pictures. The AP's organized everything and then just
gave us the tickets to fly. So yesterday morning we got up at 4:30 to
catch the plane there... it was so much fun. Then we had an amazing ZLC
in Cebu. We had cafe rio for lunch made by Sis Schmutz, and my whole
batch is now there as zone leaders. It was fun to catch up with
everyone. We slept at the AP's that night but before hand we went out
for dinner at a place called Casseverdes. It does these super huge sized
foods... a 12inch round burger! for 850pesos! 5 of us split it and
still couldn't finish every last bit. Very contrasting to your 'healthy
burgers'... hahaha. (Terri here: We went to a place here called "Grill'd" for Stoo's b'day and it has healthy burgers!) Sending pictures for that as well. Then we got up at
4am again to fly back this morning. We were all on the plane and on the
runway about to start the takeoff when the pilot calls in and announces
that we had to go back cause there's something wrong... they do a maintenance and take us back to the terminal to wait. Then 40min later we
are back on are flying back to Dumaguete. We don't know what went wrong
but at least they were concerned for our safety (and theirs... hehehe)
to find out.So now i am emailing you struggling with a broken spacebar
and stupid computers but at least everything is okay.
Happy Bday to Dad...Got my package last Sat at Zone Conf. thank you!
E.Manansala is very excited to try some things. And thank you to those
few who sent photos. They are much appreciated!
Love you all so much.
Take care,
Elder Taylor Addison Cox
Terri hre; Note the Visayan words sprinkled in with the English! Sorry I can't translate for you. I only know one of them...busog - means full!!
Sunday, December 16, 2012
Letter #70 (5th Dec, 2012) .....Or is it really #70????
Terri here: We didn't get an email from Taylor this week as the Super Typhoon Pablo was hitting the Philippines, and after it hit Mindanao island it headed for Dumagete, which is 31kms south of where Taylor is. But I did get an email from the Sister of a Senior couple that lives down the road from Taylor. I've added it below.
Dear Sister Cox,
We are all fine. The missionaries on Negros, including your son, all fared well, and stayed safe. The winds were much stronger than the typhoon we experienced last year, but the rain was not as heavy, so the damage has been different--lots and lots of trees down, taking with them the jumble of power lines that snake and meander through every alley way here. Then many homes lost parts or all of their roofing, so belongings are wet, and some have had to stay at the church while they do repairs. You can not believe the size of some the the massive, ancient trees that toppled!! The old acacias mostly fared okay, but many others did not. No loss of life, and no injuries in our immediate areas. There were many families evacuated to every church building the night of the storm.
The day after the typhoon, Elder Cox and Elder Manansala travelled around with us, assessing damage and helping where we could. One member had lost much of his banana crop, many of the trees laden with almost ready bananas that are too green to ripen properly, so we bought a couple of bunches from him, to use as Christmas decorations at our house. Your son helped clean up his mess, untangle his power lines from a very precarious fallen tree, and then carry out the bananas--it was a great help for that family.
Electricity is now back up--it has been restored over the last couple of days in different areas. Ours (and theirs I assume) (Terri here: Taylor didn't get his power back till Friday night...read in the next week's email) came back on last night late. The place were Elder Cropper and I live has a generator, so they have been turning it on for a few hours each day, we did get a load of laundry run through for them and charged their phone yesterday while the power was on for an hour.
Elder Cox is a trooper--always eager to dig in and get the work done, and he is a kind, talented and generous man.
We are now looking forward to their 2 baptisms tomorrow, which will go on as scheduled (well never as scheduled here, always later than scheduled) These are two very, very precious, prepared souls, who your son had a great influence on.
Thank you for sharing him here. And thanks for the prayers. The divine protection was evident.
Love to you,
Sister Cropper
Dear Sister Cox,
We are all fine. The missionaries on Negros, including your son, all fared well, and stayed safe. The winds were much stronger than the typhoon we experienced last year, but the rain was not as heavy, so the damage has been different--lots and lots of trees down, taking with them the jumble of power lines that snake and meander through every alley way here. Then many homes lost parts or all of their roofing, so belongings are wet, and some have had to stay at the church while they do repairs. You can not believe the size of some the the massive, ancient trees that toppled!! The old acacias mostly fared okay, but many others did not. No loss of life, and no injuries in our immediate areas. There were many families evacuated to every church building the night of the storm.
The day after the typhoon, Elder Cox and Elder Manansala travelled around with us, assessing damage and helping where we could. One member had lost much of his banana crop, many of the trees laden with almost ready bananas that are too green to ripen properly, so we bought a couple of bunches from him, to use as Christmas decorations at our house. Your son helped clean up his mess, untangle his power lines from a very precarious fallen tree, and then carry out the bananas--it was a great help for that family.
Electricity is now back up--it has been restored over the last couple of days in different areas. Ours (and theirs I assume) (Terri here: Taylor didn't get his power back till Friday night...read in the next week's email) came back on last night late. The place were Elder Cropper and I live has a generator, so they have been turning it on for a few hours each day, we did get a load of laundry run through for them and charged their phone yesterday while the power was on for an hour.
Elder Cox is a trooper--always eager to dig in and get the work done, and he is a kind, talented and generous man.
We are now looking forward to their 2 baptisms tomorrow, which will go on as scheduled (well never as scheduled here, always later than scheduled) These are two very, very precious, prepared souls, who your son had a great influence on.
Thank you for sharing him here. And thanks for the prayers. The divine protection was evident.
Love to you,
Sister Cropper
Letter #69 (28th Nov, 2012)
Hey all,
This week has been up and down... I've been under the weather the past few days now and been struggling with getting up in the morning with stuffy sinus and a head that feels so heavy, but this morning after my shower it feels like it now may be gone and that I will be heading back to full strength. We've had other struggles this week with trying to get members working with us every day, especially the days when we are visiting female investigators and members. We had to forfeit a few lessons the other day because we had no-one that would work with us, but at least we were obedient, which is the most important thing. We have also had the challenge of turning up to houses and no-one is home, even after setting a time to visit. We don't know if it has anything to do with the upcoming fiesta here in Amlan or maybe Heavenly Father is just testing us this week because we chose to work on our patience as a companionship this week... looks like we chose the wrong CLA... should have picked diligence, hahaha
A bit of bad news. Turns out that Brother J and Sister M can't get married and that the marriage license before is still very valid. So we plan on proceeding with the baptism of Brother J this coming December 8th. We will hopefully be having another one of our investigators be baptized on that date as well, Sister D-A who has embraced the gospel and the church so readily and has been fellowshipped so well by the members.
We had great success from the district conference with two less-actives returning for the forth week in a row at conference! We were so pleased as well because these two brothers have been struggling to become active, one because of the challenges of the Word of Wisdom in his life and the other because of struggles with Anti-Mormon literature from a baptist minister in Dumaguete. But it seems like both of these brethren have been strengthen in their commitment to continue to come to church each week and we have seen great changes in each of their countenances as they seem to be happier every week.
I am really enjoying this second transfer with Elder Manansala as the second transfer really helps you to see your own weaknesses and the areas you need to improve to help the companionship become stronger. Also the trust we have built with each other has helped us to be open with one another about our struggles and challenges and is allowing us to move forward stronger as a companionship. I learn so much from him everyday especially the things I need to be better at.
The branch here is on fire at the moment and our attendance averages 90-100 every week! We've got good hopes that it will be a strong ward once the district becomes a stake sometime next year (or so the rumor goes, we will be a stake next district conference). We just had district conference by the way. It was great! We had on of the area presidency there, and I realized that I can understand quite a bit of Tagalog (because that's what he spoke at the conference as he can't speak Visaya).
We're going to Cebu this Dec 4th for ZLC and maybe the package will be there then, so i can pick it up. I'll send the pictures to Reilly this week of the baptisms and wedding (well the picture of R and E in their wedding clothes after the wedding).
Love you all,
Elder Taylor Addison Cox
This week has been up and down... I've been under the weather the past few days now and been struggling with getting up in the morning with stuffy sinus and a head that feels so heavy, but this morning after my shower it feels like it now may be gone and that I will be heading back to full strength. We've had other struggles this week with trying to get members working with us every day, especially the days when we are visiting female investigators and members. We had to forfeit a few lessons the other day because we had no-one that would work with us, but at least we were obedient, which is the most important thing. We have also had the challenge of turning up to houses and no-one is home, even after setting a time to visit. We don't know if it has anything to do with the upcoming fiesta here in Amlan or maybe Heavenly Father is just testing us this week because we chose to work on our patience as a companionship this week... looks like we chose the wrong CLA... should have picked diligence, hahaha
A bit of bad news. Turns out that Brother J and Sister M can't get married and that the marriage license before is still very valid. So we plan on proceeding with the baptism of Brother J this coming December 8th. We will hopefully be having another one of our investigators be baptized on that date as well, Sister D-A who has embraced the gospel and the church so readily and has been fellowshipped so well by the members.
We had great success from the district conference with two less-actives returning for the forth week in a row at conference! We were so pleased as well because these two brothers have been struggling to become active, one because of the challenges of the Word of Wisdom in his life and the other because of struggles with Anti-Mormon literature from a baptist minister in Dumaguete. But it seems like both of these brethren have been strengthen in their commitment to continue to come to church each week and we have seen great changes in each of their countenances as they seem to be happier every week.
I am really enjoying this second transfer with Elder Manansala as the second transfer really helps you to see your own weaknesses and the areas you need to improve to help the companionship become stronger. Also the trust we have built with each other has helped us to be open with one another about our struggles and challenges and is allowing us to move forward stronger as a companionship. I learn so much from him everyday especially the things I need to be better at.
The branch here is on fire at the moment and our attendance averages 90-100 every week! We've got good hopes that it will be a strong ward once the district becomes a stake sometime next year (or so the rumor goes, we will be a stake next district conference). We just had district conference by the way. It was great! We had on of the area presidency there, and I realized that I can understand quite a bit of Tagalog (because that's what he spoke at the conference as he can't speak Visaya).
We're going to Cebu this Dec 4th for ZLC and maybe the package will be there then, so i can pick it up. I'll send the pictures to Reilly this week of the baptisms and wedding (well the picture of R and E in their wedding clothes after the wedding).
Love you all,
Elder Taylor Addison Cox
Letter #68 (21st Nov, 2012)
Hey all,
So transfer week this week, and transfer calls! Guess what... NO TRNASFER KAMING DUHA!
I am so excited to have another transfer with Elder Manansala! We have so much that we want to accomplish together this transfer, we have already made plans! hehehe! We have the marriage of Brother J and Sister M to help them work out and then get Brother J baptized and ordained to the priesthood. Then we have another 6 or so investigators we are working with to be baptized on the 8th of Dec or the next few weeks after as well. We want to continue to set the example for the zone in obedience and diligence and will be working more closely on our teaching skills as a companionship this transfer as well.
We had a great success this week with Sister E who got married to her husband last Thursday and then was able to get baptized on Saturday. We have seen an amazing change taken place in her life and she just seems more happy and outgoing now than before. You can really see the light of the gospel in her countenance. She is excited to continue to learn especially about the temple as she prepares with her husband to enter the temple and be sealed together. We will be visiting with her tonight to teach about the temple and preparation and goal setting to be prepared for that.
We have also had continued success in our FTE's and found it is hard to get the standards because we keep ending up teaching lessons when we FTE! (not that that's a bad thing or anything...) We lost a few investigators this week from our teaching pool, for various reasons, but the Lord provided us with more (as he does), who have a greater interest in the things we are teaching and how this can help them in their lives. The Lord works in mysterious ways, that are just mysterious enough that you can say to yourself, "This was no coincidence". That is what we have felt this week as we have met new people and begun teaching them and their families.
I have had some great personal learning experiences again this week, especially as I try to get back into the habit of writing in my personal journal every day. I have begun to notice more things that have changed in me for the better and things that are still being weaknesses that I need to work on. It has helped me to re-evaluate again... which is always good for reminding yourself what more needs to be done.
I have been studying the Bible more this past transfer and trying to become more well-versed in the Bible so that when I teach I can use the Book of Mormon and Bible to support each other. I have found it has really begun to give me a deeper understanding of the basic principles of the gospel and better grasp on using the scriptures. I have never loved reading the scriptures as i do now... often i find myself wishing there was 2hrs of personal study each day so i can keep reading more and more and become more knowledgeable.
The Croppers are doing well and are a great help to the zone in everything they do. We are so thankful that they are in the zone and are always there to help. And the branch is doing really well at the moment... its not perfect (of course, well... at least not yet...hehehe), but the members are a great help and always willing to help as well.
We didn't feel the earthquake... I think we were probably riding a jeepney at the time... so we didnt know it had happened till we turned up at the Croppers house and they were like "did you feel the earthquake?" and we just looked at each other like "what earthquake?"... hahaha
Love you all so much,
Elder Taylor Addison Cox
So transfer week this week, and transfer calls! Guess what... NO TRNASFER KAMING DUHA!
I am so excited to have another transfer with Elder Manansala! We have so much that we want to accomplish together this transfer, we have already made plans! hehehe! We have the marriage of Brother J and Sister M to help them work out and then get Brother J baptized and ordained to the priesthood. Then we have another 6 or so investigators we are working with to be baptized on the 8th of Dec or the next few weeks after as well. We want to continue to set the example for the zone in obedience and diligence and will be working more closely on our teaching skills as a companionship this transfer as well.
We had a great success this week with Sister E who got married to her husband last Thursday and then was able to get baptized on Saturday. We have seen an amazing change taken place in her life and she just seems more happy and outgoing now than before. You can really see the light of the gospel in her countenance. She is excited to continue to learn especially about the temple as she prepares with her husband to enter the temple and be sealed together. We will be visiting with her tonight to teach about the temple and preparation and goal setting to be prepared for that.
We have also had continued success in our FTE's and found it is hard to get the standards because we keep ending up teaching lessons when we FTE! (not that that's a bad thing or anything...) We lost a few investigators this week from our teaching pool, for various reasons, but the Lord provided us with more (as he does), who have a greater interest in the things we are teaching and how this can help them in their lives. The Lord works in mysterious ways, that are just mysterious enough that you can say to yourself, "This was no coincidence". That is what we have felt this week as we have met new people and begun teaching them and their families.
I have had some great personal learning experiences again this week, especially as I try to get back into the habit of writing in my personal journal every day. I have begun to notice more things that have changed in me for the better and things that are still being weaknesses that I need to work on. It has helped me to re-evaluate again... which is always good for reminding yourself what more needs to be done.
I have been studying the Bible more this past transfer and trying to become more well-versed in the Bible so that when I teach I can use the Book of Mormon and Bible to support each other. I have found it has really begun to give me a deeper understanding of the basic principles of the gospel and better grasp on using the scriptures. I have never loved reading the scriptures as i do now... often i find myself wishing there was 2hrs of personal study each day so i can keep reading more and more and become more knowledgeable.
The Croppers are doing well and are a great help to the zone in everything they do. We are so thankful that they are in the zone and are always there to help. And the branch is doing really well at the moment... its not perfect (of course, well... at least not yet...hehehe), but the members are a great help and always willing to help as well.
We didn't feel the earthquake... I think we were probably riding a jeepney at the time... so we didnt know it had happened till we turned up at the Croppers house and they were like "did you feel the earthquake?" and we just looked at each other like "what earthquake?"... hahaha
Love you all so much,
Elder Taylor Addison Cox
Saturday, November 17, 2012
Letter #67 (14th Nov, 2012)
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
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
Saturday, November 10, 2012
Letter #66 (7th Nov, 2012)
Hey all,
Things are amazing! I am doing well physically, working out again with weights, and spiritually as well, having been just blown away by President Schmutz's workshop in ZLC yesterday about why obedience is the first law in Heaven.
Our interviews got changed over from the Fri to Mon 5th... so that Monday we had the interviews which started with a workshop from president then we did our workshop and were quickly interview by President Schmutz before heading out early to catch the bus to Cebu for ZLC the very next day. So at 3pm we were on the bus to Cebu and by 9pm we finally made it. We ate at KFC and then slept at the Ap's apartment. That next morning ZLC started at 9am at the chapel by the temple, were in we all reported our zone progress and then President Schmutz gave his Spirit filled workshop for a good 2 hours. Then we had an amazing lunch done up by Sister Schmutz and Sister Ernstrom (the office couple sister) It was all American style food, with hamburgers, hotdogs and chilly beans... real cheese, and even yellow corn! Then a desert of cheese cake (again the real stuff) with ice cream and blueberries. Oh, it was sooo good! Then we went back to workshops from the office couple about the funds and other things and then a workshop by the AP's on the Area Book. It was a busy day, then we had to rush to catch the bus back that night to Negros but when we got to the terminal... NO SEATS! NOOOO! so we got stuck there that night sleeping at Apas again before we sakay-ed back this morning on the Ceres, getting back at 10:30 Soooo kapoy!
So well be back to work again these next few days and will try to catch up on the lessons. Just a few things i wanna request for the package... don't forget vegemite and cherry ripe. Thank you daan!
Sister D-A came to church again and really feels something there, which is good... so now we just have to help her kids all feel something too, but they're all independent adults right now and starting to get their own jobs and things so we have to work around 3 separate schedules to fit everyone in... but I'm sure it'll work out some how.
All the Americans are on about the election today... we'll see how that turns out.
I've finished reading "The Miracle of Forgiveness". Truly an amazing book... and I gained so many insights into the process of repentance and the Atonement. A funny book to read, if you find a copy, is the "Day of Defense". Great references of doctrine to share with people.
So that's pretty much it for now... things are doing great and I will try to take some pictures this week for you, so you can see just how much of paradise this place really is!
Miss you all,
Love you always
Elder Taylor Addison Cox
Things are amazing! I am doing well physically, working out again with weights, and spiritually as well, having been just blown away by President Schmutz's workshop in ZLC yesterday about why obedience is the first law in Heaven.
Our interviews got changed over from the Fri to Mon 5th... so that Monday we had the interviews which started with a workshop from president then we did our workshop and were quickly interview by President Schmutz before heading out early to catch the bus to Cebu for ZLC the very next day. So at 3pm we were on the bus to Cebu and by 9pm we finally made it. We ate at KFC and then slept at the Ap's apartment. That next morning ZLC started at 9am at the chapel by the temple, were in we all reported our zone progress and then President Schmutz gave his Spirit filled workshop for a good 2 hours. Then we had an amazing lunch done up by Sister Schmutz and Sister Ernstrom (the office couple sister) It was all American style food, with hamburgers, hotdogs and chilly beans... real cheese, and even yellow corn! Then a desert of cheese cake (again the real stuff) with ice cream and blueberries. Oh, it was sooo good! Then we went back to workshops from the office couple about the funds and other things and then a workshop by the AP's on the Area Book. It was a busy day, then we had to rush to catch the bus back that night to Negros but when we got to the terminal... NO SEATS! NOOOO! so we got stuck there that night sleeping at Apas again before we sakay-ed back this morning on the Ceres, getting back at 10:30 Soooo kapoy!
So well be back to work again these next few days and will try to catch up on the lessons. Just a few things i wanna request for the package... don't forget vegemite and cherry ripe. Thank you daan!
Sister D-A came to church again and really feels something there, which is good... so now we just have to help her kids all feel something too, but they're all independent adults right now and starting to get their own jobs and things so we have to work around 3 separate schedules to fit everyone in... but I'm sure it'll work out some how.
All the Americans are on about the election today... we'll see how that turns out.
I've finished reading "The Miracle of Forgiveness". Truly an amazing book... and I gained so many insights into the process of repentance and the Atonement. A funny book to read, if you find a copy, is the "Day of Defense". Great references of doctrine to share with people.
So that's pretty much it for now... things are doing great and I will try to take some pictures this week for you, so you can see just how much of paradise this place really is!
Miss you all,
Love you always
Elder Taylor Addison Cox
Letter #65 (31 Oct, 2012)
Hey all,
This week has been good. We've had some challenges but we are doing
okay. All Saints Day isn't until the 2nd of Nov, and it is just
another holiday that makes our work hard, with no-one at home to
teach.
We had a great success of a referral from Elder and Sister Cropper. we
met this one family which the referred to us on Saturday and Elder and
Sister Cropper came with us to visit with them. They were just so
prepared to receive the message of the restored gospel and we sang
hymn 300 "Families Can Be Together Forever" with them and they were
all crying by the end. They really want blessings fro their family as
they see that it is falling apart. They came to church the very next
day and sister Barrdea, the mother in the family spoke to me at the
end of the Sunday services. She said, "Thank you elder, I felt that I
have found something today here. I think I will continue with this,
starting by reading this book," and she held up a copy of the Book of
Mormon. It was a miracle for this family that they were able to
receive the resorted gospel, and they are truly an elect family,
having been prepared for this moment in their life. I know they will
find a great strength and happiness for their family through this
gospel and eventually as they are sealed in the temple for time and
all eternity as a family.
Elder Manansala and I have been doing well. We are starting to really
feel true unity in our teaching and have seen the power of the Spirit
manifest itself in our lessons with our investigators as they keep
their commitments and continue to progress towards baptism.
I have begun to focus on the Book of Mormon again reading a chapter
everyday in Cebuano and re-reading in English and looking for things
to apply in my teaching for that day. It has really helped to make
teaching more meaningful and effective.
Other than that, we have been doing the usual missionary work here in
Amlan... teaching the investigators, preparing them for baptism,
helping the LA's get back to church and sorting out problems with
rumors among the members... as a missionary in the Philippines you
gotta get things straightened out in terms of the gossip that goes on
and re-inform all the members of the truth.
Sorry that this is very short this week but most of my time was spent
emailing President Schmutz today. Tell Reilly that I love him, and
keep up his diligent work in school... I'll be praying for him.
Love you all!
Elder Taylor Addison Cox
This week has been good. We've had some challenges but we are doing
okay. All Saints Day isn't until the 2nd of Nov, and it is just
another holiday that makes our work hard, with no-one at home to
teach.
We had a great success of a referral from Elder and Sister Cropper. we
met this one family which the referred to us on Saturday and Elder and
Sister Cropper came with us to visit with them. They were just so
prepared to receive the message of the restored gospel and we sang
hymn 300 "Families Can Be Together Forever" with them and they were
all crying by the end. They really want blessings fro their family as
they see that it is falling apart. They came to church the very next
day and sister Barrdea, the mother in the family spoke to me at the
end of the Sunday services. She said, "Thank you elder, I felt that I
have found something today here. I think I will continue with this,
starting by reading this book," and she held up a copy of the Book of
Mormon. It was a miracle for this family that they were able to
receive the resorted gospel, and they are truly an elect family,
having been prepared for this moment in their life. I know they will
find a great strength and happiness for their family through this
gospel and eventually as they are sealed in the temple for time and
all eternity as a family.
Elder Manansala and I have been doing well. We are starting to really
feel true unity in our teaching and have seen the power of the Spirit
manifest itself in our lessons with our investigators as they keep
their commitments and continue to progress towards baptism.
I have begun to focus on the Book of Mormon again reading a chapter
everyday in Cebuano and re-reading in English and looking for things
to apply in my teaching for that day. It has really helped to make
teaching more meaningful and effective.
Other than that, we have been doing the usual missionary work here in
Amlan... teaching the investigators, preparing them for baptism,
helping the LA's get back to church and sorting out problems with
rumors among the members... as a missionary in the Philippines you
gotta get things straightened out in terms of the gossip that goes on
and re-inform all the members of the truth.
Sorry that this is very short this week but most of my time was spent
emailing President Schmutz today. Tell Reilly that I love him, and
keep up his diligent work in school... I'll be praying for him.
Love you all!
Elder Taylor Addison Cox
Letter #64 (24th Oct, 2012)
Hey all,
This week has been great! Elder Manansala and I have a great time
every evening talking about all sorts of doctrine and about our
investigators, all of whom are progressing so well. We have 4
baptismal dates for this November and both of us are so hopeful that
we will have two transfers together in Amlan.
To answer your questions, the branch is great. There is actually a
larger body of priesthood here than in any other branch I have been in
(even our ward... hahaha).
The work of a zone leader does leave you very tired at the end of some days.
We have ZLC (zone leader coordination) on the 6th of Nov and we will head
in to Cebu to the mission home for that. The Zone is an interesting group of
missionaries. We actually went on splits Monday and yesterday with the Bindoy
elders. I was with Elder Veloria in Bindoy and had a great experience. The work
is going well in Amlan. We met a family this week that has a very difficult
situation. They are 9 in their family and all members but they are
living in an old baptist church that is no longer used for services.
They are severely persecuted by the owner of the house and have
stopped coming to church because of it. Not only that but there are
other members who are also persecuting the family saying they have
apostatized and all sorts of things which both Elder Manansala and I
feel are not true, especially after visiting with them and feeling
their testimonies about the church. They are one of our focuses this
week and we will try and get the members to look out for another place
for them to live, as Sister M, the mother of the family, expressed her desire
to get away from the house so they can start coming back to church.
We also visited with this one member, Sister L, that is constantly
visited by the Jehovah's witnesses and heard her hilarious stories of
their visits with her. She said it started out with just the ordinary
members coming to visit, two sisters, that were sharing a message
about equality of women in the world and the church. They said
something like "In some churches women are seen as under the men..."
and so on, then Sister L, replied, "Oh is that how it is in your
sect, because in our church we are equals!" I laughed so hard... then
in ended up that the members stopped coming to visit and this one man
started to visit, who had a lot more knowledge than the others. She
suspects he is the pastor. And then she continues to outsmart this
pastor in every visit they have. The other incident that is my
favorite is when they were talking about some doctrine that was
different and the pastor says "oh, so that's how it is in your
church?" and Sister replied "No, that's how it is for all of us, it
says so right here in the Bible..." Oh, how I laughed. This Sister is
a great example of how to share the gospel without being offensive but
being upfront about her beliefs.
Things have been doing well with Elder Manansala, and we are getting
along really well. We have quite a bit in common with one another and
we are having fun getting lost in the work. We were so thankful to
Heavenly Father that we achieved the standards for the lessons this
past week and are excited for what we can achieve this transfer.
We gave a blessing of comfort and counsel to a very distraught Sister, and
as I acted voice for the blessing, I was overwhelmed... I cannot fully
explain what I was feeling but I think it touched the realms of the
love Heavenly Father has for this Sister, his concern and fatherly
care. I was choked up and brought to tears myself and amazed at the
things I was saying. The priesthood is a very sacred power.
Just yesterday I had another experience in giving a blessing to this
one girl that had a fever and she was crying because of the pain she
was in. The moment I spoke the words "We bless you with a peace for
your body from the illness..." She fell asleep. We we had finished
giving the blessing she was peacefully resting, fast asleep. There is
no doubt in my mind right now about the power in the priesthood. We
have given so many blessings these past weeks and the feelings I have
as we do so are amazing. Sometimes I feel like we are about to burst
through the veil as we give the blessing, it is just exhilarating.
I just love the work we have experienced here in Amlan, and I have
felt an amazing burst of spirituality in my teaching and study and
just everything this last week. It was like I burst through some glass
barrier of spiritual level.
I love it here in Amlan and as a zone leader. Its so much fun!
Miss you all,
and love you all tons!
Elder Taylor Addison Cox
This week has been great! Elder Manansala and I have a great time
every evening talking about all sorts of doctrine and about our
investigators, all of whom are progressing so well. We have 4
baptismal dates for this November and both of us are so hopeful that
we will have two transfers together in Amlan.
To answer your questions, the branch is great. There is actually a
larger body of priesthood here than in any other branch I have been in
(even our ward... hahaha).
The work of a zone leader does leave you very tired at the end of some days.
We have ZLC (zone leader coordination) on the 6th of Nov and we will head
in to Cebu to the mission home for that. The Zone is an interesting group of
missionaries. We actually went on splits Monday and yesterday with the Bindoy
elders. I was with Elder Veloria in Bindoy and had a great experience. The work
is going well in Amlan. We met a family this week that has a very difficult
situation. They are 9 in their family and all members but they are
living in an old baptist church that is no longer used for services.
They are severely persecuted by the owner of the house and have
stopped coming to church because of it. Not only that but there are
other members who are also persecuting the family saying they have
apostatized and all sorts of things which both Elder Manansala and I
feel are not true, especially after visiting with them and feeling
their testimonies about the church. They are one of our focuses this
week and we will try and get the members to look out for another place
for them to live, as Sister M, the mother of the family, expressed her desire
to get away from the house so they can start coming back to church.
We also visited with this one member, Sister L, that is constantly
visited by the Jehovah's witnesses and heard her hilarious stories of
their visits with her. She said it started out with just the ordinary
members coming to visit, two sisters, that were sharing a message
about equality of women in the world and the church. They said
something like "In some churches women are seen as under the men..."
and so on, then Sister L, replied, "Oh is that how it is in your
sect, because in our church we are equals!" I laughed so hard... then
in ended up that the members stopped coming to visit and this one man
started to visit, who had a lot more knowledge than the others. She
suspects he is the pastor. And then she continues to outsmart this
pastor in every visit they have. The other incident that is my
favorite is when they were talking about some doctrine that was
different and the pastor says "oh, so that's how it is in your
church?" and Sister replied "No, that's how it is for all of us, it
says so right here in the Bible..." Oh, how I laughed. This Sister is
a great example of how to share the gospel without being offensive but
being upfront about her beliefs.
Things have been doing well with Elder Manansala, and we are getting
along really well. We have quite a bit in common with one another and
we are having fun getting lost in the work. We were so thankful to
Heavenly Father that we achieved the standards for the lessons this
past week and are excited for what we can achieve this transfer.
We gave a blessing of comfort and counsel to a very distraught Sister, and
as I acted voice for the blessing, I was overwhelmed... I cannot fully
explain what I was feeling but I think it touched the realms of the
love Heavenly Father has for this Sister, his concern and fatherly
care. I was choked up and brought to tears myself and amazed at the
things I was saying. The priesthood is a very sacred power.
Just yesterday I had another experience in giving a blessing to this
one girl that had a fever and she was crying because of the pain she
was in. The moment I spoke the words "We bless you with a peace for
your body from the illness..." She fell asleep. We we had finished
giving the blessing she was peacefully resting, fast asleep. There is
no doubt in my mind right now about the power in the priesthood. We
have given so many blessings these past weeks and the feelings I have
as we do so are amazing. Sometimes I feel like we are about to burst
through the veil as we give the blessing, it is just exhilarating.
I just love the work we have experienced here in Amlan, and I have
felt an amazing burst of spirituality in my teaching and study and
just everything this last week. It was like I burst through some glass
barrier of spiritual level.
I love it here in Amlan and as a zone leader. Its so much fun!
Miss you all,
and love you all tons!
Elder Taylor Addison Cox
Letter #63 (17th Oct, 2012)
Hey all,
Amlan is great... imagine Finley (Terri here:Finley is a place where friends of ours live, that we visit each Easter, Actually my friend and I were mission companions over 20 years ago!!)... make it 3 or 4 times smaller and a tropical paradise... and that's Amlan! My companion is sooo buotan and
the Croppers live just down the road from us and they have a washing machine!!! (We are using it right now... hehehe) The apartment is a resort house similar to Zambo, nice and clean and beautiful... the only problem is the mosquitoes but i found the permetherin.
Conference was great and there was one thing that President Thomas S. Monsen said in the priesthood session that was sort of suprising... he said "the harvest is over, the summer is past." I forgot what context he used it in so i am very excited for the ensign to see what he really meant by that phrase.
Wed we had an amazing FHE with the R Family and Brother was so amazed that we helped in everything to make it a success for his family. We helped to cook dinner and organize the FHE and so on. He was so touched that he spoke with his family about coming back to church. I very much hope he does. Thurs was all about packing and then teaching a few lessons in the afternoon before heading to Lilo-an ZL balay in the evening in preparation for Fri which was travel to Dumaguete by Ceres from Cebu South Terminal, but first we had to pick up Elder Galdonez at the temple complex. Travel satrted at 5am and finished at about 5pm that evening in Amlan. So on my first full day as ZL on Saturday... we gave blessings to sick members, attended conference and gave comfort and counsel to a greenie who wanted to go home with the help of Elder Cropper. We didnt get home until 10pm that night... oh the fun of being a ZL Sun we worked with a member who is preparing for the mission, and I met this member who was on the mission with Reggie. He was Elder Sulmalpong.
Mon we had the first district meeting of the transfer. The zone here is only one district as well, with 5 companionships in 4 areas. 4 companions of elders and 1 of sisters. Then we had the most amazing lesson that evening led by the spirit with a semi-broken family. The father is struggling to overcome addictions while trying to support his family through any work he can find, while the mother looks after kids and continually (forgot this word) badlong-s her husband for the things he does wrong without seeing the good he is trying to do and the changes he is now trying to make to correct his wrong actions in the past against her. Very complicated situation and everyone was crying and the Spirit was so strong and the kids were praying for their parents, especially their dad that he can change and receive the gospel in his life... it was amazing!
Then just yesterday we had a great day being kugihan and got 6 lessons and i met this one family that probably has lots money but they are so nice. The eldest daughter was converted in Australia while staying with her aunt in Darwin a while back now, and only just found out this past week that her mother is actually a member from a long time now and said she wants to come back to church this coming Sunday. The Spirit and the Lord work in very strange but amazing ways! So I am sure to have lots of weird and wonderful stories this transfer as we continue to teach the people here and work hard.
Miss you all,
Love you tons
Elder Taylor Addison Cox
Amlan is great... imagine Finley (Terri here:Finley is a place where friends of ours live, that we visit each Easter, Actually my friend and I were mission companions over 20 years ago!!)... make it 3 or 4 times smaller and a tropical paradise... and that's Amlan! My companion is sooo buotan and
the Croppers live just down the road from us and they have a washing machine!!! (We are using it right now... hehehe) The apartment is a resort house similar to Zambo, nice and clean and beautiful... the only problem is the mosquitoes but i found the permetherin.
Conference was great and there was one thing that President Thomas S. Monsen said in the priesthood session that was sort of suprising... he said "the harvest is over, the summer is past." I forgot what context he used it in so i am very excited for the ensign to see what he really meant by that phrase.
Wed we had an amazing FHE with the R Family and Brother was so amazed that we helped in everything to make it a success for his family. We helped to cook dinner and organize the FHE and so on. He was so touched that he spoke with his family about coming back to church. I very much hope he does. Thurs was all about packing and then teaching a few lessons in the afternoon before heading to Lilo-an ZL balay in the evening in preparation for Fri which was travel to Dumaguete by Ceres from Cebu South Terminal, but first we had to pick up Elder Galdonez at the temple complex. Travel satrted at 5am and finished at about 5pm that evening in Amlan. So on my first full day as ZL on Saturday... we gave blessings to sick members, attended conference and gave comfort and counsel to a greenie who wanted to go home with the help of Elder Cropper. We didnt get home until 10pm that night... oh the fun of being a ZL Sun we worked with a member who is preparing for the mission, and I met this member who was on the mission with Reggie. He was Elder Sulmalpong.
Mon we had the first district meeting of the transfer. The zone here is only one district as well, with 5 companionships in 4 areas. 4 companions of elders and 1 of sisters. Then we had the most amazing lesson that evening led by the spirit with a semi-broken family. The father is struggling to overcome addictions while trying to support his family through any work he can find, while the mother looks after kids and continually (forgot this word) badlong-s her husband for the things he does wrong without seeing the good he is trying to do and the changes he is now trying to make to correct his wrong actions in the past against her. Very complicated situation and everyone was crying and the Spirit was so strong and the kids were praying for their parents, especially their dad that he can change and receive the gospel in his life... it was amazing!
Then just yesterday we had a great day being kugihan and got 6 lessons and i met this one family that probably has lots money but they are so nice. The eldest daughter was converted in Australia while staying with her aunt in Darwin a while back now, and only just found out this past week that her mother is actually a member from a long time now and said she wants to come back to church this coming Sunday. The Spirit and the Lord work in very strange but amazing ways! So I am sure to have lots of weird and wonderful stories this transfer as we continue to teach the people here and work hard.
Miss you all,
Love you tons
Elder Taylor Addison Cox
Saturday, October 13, 2012
Letter #62 (10th Oct, 2012)
Hey all,
so things have been great this week, but I had a funny feeling all
week I would be transferring... so guess what!
Transfer na!
So I'm headed back to Negros in the other zone... I am a ZL now with
Elder Manansala and our area is in Amlan. So that will be exciting and
Ihave to travel there this Fri. Elder Pastor is also transferring to
Mandaue. So white washed is danao2. Elder Baculio will train a new
missionary in danao2, so we're gonna have to leave a bunch of notes
for them to read, and update the area book before we leave. I am so
glad for the opportunity to have had to be companions with Elder
Pastor and to have learnt so much from him in this area. We have had
so much fun working hard in helping the branch and the less-actives to
really strengthen their testimonies, and we have seen so much great
success in the work. We have seen 4 families that have either begun
to or have now returned to church and are headed towards the temple
with the help of the branch president. I have been truly amazed by the
power of the Spirit in the lives of these individuals these last 6
weeks and it has been great to see great blessings being poured out
upon these people.
We had some amazing experiences this past Monday when after District
meeting we went to work and had 3 of our lessons just explode with the
Spirit! The less-active members came out with their problems and
challenges without us even asking them directly. It was amazing to see
the trust they have in us as representatives of the Savior. One Sister
spoke of how her relationship with her husband had been quite detached
but how slowly it has been improving. One brother then came out with
his word of wisdom problem that is holding him back from the temple
and keeps him from feeling worthy to use his priesthood and we were
able to talk with him about that and how the branch president will be
a great help in him overcoming this. And finally we had a family that
was having extended family problems and problems with other members at
church and we were able to give a great lesson to them on how to
overcome their challenges through the example of the Savior. It was an
amazing day and the Spirit was so strong and overwhelming that even
though I felt dead tired we just kept going and going... It was such
an unforgettable day!
So this next transfer will be interesting as a zone leader and a ton
more responsibilities to fulfill... its gonna be some hard yakka! But
I know its gonna be a ton of fun and I have heard great things about
elder Manansala so we well have a great time working hard in Amlan. I
believe that is where the Croppers are as well, so it will be great to
see them again.
Love you all,
Elder Taylor Addison Cox
so things have been great this week, but I had a funny feeling all
week I would be transferring... so guess what!
Transfer na!
So I'm headed back to Negros in the other zone... I am a ZL now with
Elder Manansala and our area is in Amlan. So that will be exciting and
Ihave to travel there this Fri. Elder Pastor is also transferring to
Mandaue. So white washed is danao2. Elder Baculio will train a new
missionary in danao2, so we're gonna have to leave a bunch of notes
for them to read, and update the area book before we leave. I am so
glad for the opportunity to have had to be companions with Elder
Pastor and to have learnt so much from him in this area. We have had
so much fun working hard in helping the branch and the less-actives to
really strengthen their testimonies, and we have seen so much great
success in the work. We have seen 4 families that have either begun
to or have now returned to church and are headed towards the temple
with the help of the branch president. I have been truly amazed by the
power of the Spirit in the lives of these individuals these last 6
weeks and it has been great to see great blessings being poured out
upon these people.
We had some amazing experiences this past Monday when after District
meeting we went to work and had 3 of our lessons just explode with the
Spirit! The less-active members came out with their problems and
challenges without us even asking them directly. It was amazing to see
the trust they have in us as representatives of the Savior. One Sister
spoke of how her relationship with her husband had been quite detached
but how slowly it has been improving. One brother then came out with
his word of wisdom problem that is holding him back from the temple
and keeps him from feeling worthy to use his priesthood and we were
able to talk with him about that and how the branch president will be
a great help in him overcoming this. And finally we had a family that
was having extended family problems and problems with other members at
church and we were able to give a great lesson to them on how to
overcome their challenges through the example of the Savior. It was an
amazing day and the Spirit was so strong and overwhelming that even
though I felt dead tired we just kept going and going... It was such
an unforgettable day!
So this next transfer will be interesting as a zone leader and a ton
more responsibilities to fulfill... its gonna be some hard yakka! But
I know its gonna be a ton of fun and I have heard great things about
elder Manansala so we well have a great time working hard in Amlan. I
believe that is where the Croppers are as well, so it will be great to
see them again.
Love you all,
Elder Taylor Addison Cox
Letter #61 (3rd Oct, 2012)
Hey all,
So this week has been great. Things are going well and the branch is
progressing. And for Christmas... I need more vegemite... its almost run out.
We had a baptism in the branch and one in the ward this past
Saturday... it was good.
We have had some good success with the LAs and they have started to
come back. Yay!
Some are still struggling with some problems but others are well on
their way to the temple again.
Yesterday I went on exchanges with Elder Daffon and had a great
learning experience with him. He taught me a lot about teaching by the
Spirit and teaching with unity.
Our newly confirmed member is the 9yr old daughter of a
recent convert, whose husband is an active member working in Saudi.
Complicated a little... but they are all so awesome. Just the other
day Sister asked where they could order scriptures, etc. cause her
husband wants to order them and get them sent home to his family.
Isn't that just great!
Then a story that will make you laugh. We taught a lesson with a
family that the parents are on and off at church but their kids are
always there. One of them is named Kimmy... she is the sweetest little
girl! So we were having the closing prayer and before Elder Pastor had
finished she shouts out "AMEN!"... after Elder Pastor finished the
prayer we all laughed so hard, cause when we all opened our eyes...
Kimmy wasn't there! She hid behind the couch and was so shy, and
wouldn't come out.
So that's all for now,
until next week...
Love you all
Elder Taylor Addison Cox
So this week has been great. Things are going well and the branch is
progressing. And for Christmas... I need more vegemite... its almost run out.
We had a baptism in the branch and one in the ward this past
Saturday... it was good.
We have had some good success with the LAs and they have started to
come back. Yay!
Some are still struggling with some problems but others are well on
their way to the temple again.
Yesterday I went on exchanges with Elder Daffon and had a great
learning experience with him. He taught me a lot about teaching by the
Spirit and teaching with unity.
Our newly confirmed member is the 9yr old daughter of a
recent convert, whose husband is an active member working in Saudi.
Complicated a little... but they are all so awesome. Just the other
day Sister asked where they could order scriptures, etc. cause her
husband wants to order them and get them sent home to his family.
Isn't that just great!
Then a story that will make you laugh. We taught a lesson with a
family that the parents are on and off at church but their kids are
always there. One of them is named Kimmy... she is the sweetest little
girl! So we were having the closing prayer and before Elder Pastor had
finished she shouts out "AMEN!"... after Elder Pastor finished the
prayer we all laughed so hard, cause when we all opened our eyes...
Kimmy wasn't there! She hid behind the couch and was so shy, and
wouldn't come out.
So that's all for now,
until next week...
Love you all
Elder Taylor Addison Cox
Saturday, September 29, 2012
Letter #60 (Sept 26th, 2012)
Hey all,
This week has been a great week and has been very interesting (as
every week seems to be...). Elder Pastor and I are doing well and the
work is great. We managed to achieve 31 lessons this past week with a
district CSP, and we have a baptism this coming Saturday. Our focus
has definitely been on our investigators this week, working with some
towards baptism and others we have just begun teaching, but all are
doing really well and are progressing (some faster than others). We
also have 2 new referrals that we will get to contact this week. We
have continued to work with our investigators and have some very
interesting excuses given to us. But the best story happened just
yesterday...
So we have this one inactive member who is afraid to leave his house,
he just will not go out side and he won't even open the door for you
unless he knows who you are. So we were trying to figure out what the
situation was with him and share doctrine with him. And yesterday I
went on splits with Elder Rasing bringing him to work in our area, and
we visited this member. So first thing we say is "It was a shame you
weren't at church on Sunday" and he replies with, "I've already
explained to you my situation and you haven't told your President...
so you keep coming back here and asking me to go to church." I've
visited with this member so many times with Elder Pastor now and to be
honest doesn't make much sense sometimes so I was just bold and
upfront with him and said, "Look, Brother V, there are no excuses
valid in the eyes of God..." and he said, "Yeah that's true, but..."
and then said a bunch of stuff that made no sense. At this point Elder
Rasing was totally confused at the situation and asked Brother Victor
what his situation was... So he proceeded to tell us about this one
family who is really rich in the area, who owns likes tons of property
and started listing off this guys property and lands... so Elder
Rasing is like "So, whats this got to do with you...?", and he
proceeds to tell this story about how this family supposedly killed to
get some lands and properties... and we are still like... "So what has
all this got to do with you and not going to church?"... so it turns
out at the end of his 45min rambling about this family, that he is
somehow this long lost child of the family who is the true inheritor
of the property (or so he says), that he tried to take it to court,
but supposedly received death threats, and the whole thing is
completely hearsay in my point of view... then we tried to teach him
about the scriptures in Jacob 2 and 3 Nephi 13 about seeking first the
kingdom of God and not riches... we encouraged him to drop the whole
matter so he didn't have to worry about the matter and get back to
church. Then he got annoyed with us for saying that... he was so
obsessed with getting this property that nothing else was worth
considering. Then we even tried the Alma technique of inspired
questions about standing before God. We asked him if he was ready in
that very moment to stand before God, and he answered us he wasn't
ready, because the issue with the properties wasn't resolved (WHAT!?
O.o).
Honestly this man has become so obsessed with the issue that I believe
he has gone a little crazy. From where I was standing and putting
myself in the same situation I could see a glaringly obvious
solution... give up the riches and trust in the Lord to help you
provide. But for this brother, it was not an option. The only thing he
could see was all this property that was supposedly his, and he wanted
it all. Then AFTER he got it he would come back to church and help his
fellowmen, or so he said... yesterday, I saw how someone can become a
slave to money, or worldly possessions and how someones life can be
completely destroyed by them. I truly realized how worthless all that
property was, in compared with peace of mind, a free life and
opportunity to worship God. I pray for this brother that he may come
to realize as well how worthless all that property really is, and will
come back to church and be blessed by the Lord for it.
Now... about our exchanges. Elder Rasing is a great missionary! He
really knows the doctrine and can explain in clearly in simple terms.
He is always studying and his scriptures are an explosion of color on
every page almost. I am amazed by his enthusiasm for the work and his
desire is great.
Then this past Monday, we had a great CSP in the Danao 1st area
which we built a kitchen and dug up a ton of dirt. Tatay Penas was not
expecting us to complete as much as we did and was amazed at the end
of the CSP.
So we also had Elder Perez of the Seventy come and visit our branch
and it was great!... cause hes a joker and had us all laughing in
sacrament and then again in the training meeting he gave in the branch
council meeting.
So that's pretty much it this week... oh wait
This week I realised why they call Danao "gun city"... so there was
this one day that we were going to our appointments and I saw four
different people making guns and bullets, as in the REAL ones!
Whoa! It was CRAZY!
But I miss you all,
And love you tons,
Elder Taylor Addison Cox
This week has been a great week and has been very interesting (as
every week seems to be...). Elder Pastor and I are doing well and the
work is great. We managed to achieve 31 lessons this past week with a
district CSP, and we have a baptism this coming Saturday. Our focus
has definitely been on our investigators this week, working with some
towards baptism and others we have just begun teaching, but all are
doing really well and are progressing (some faster than others). We
also have 2 new referrals that we will get to contact this week. We
have continued to work with our investigators and have some very
interesting excuses given to us. But the best story happened just
yesterday...
So we have this one inactive member who is afraid to leave his house,
he just will not go out side and he won't even open the door for you
unless he knows who you are. So we were trying to figure out what the
situation was with him and share doctrine with him. And yesterday I
went on splits with Elder Rasing bringing him to work in our area, and
we visited this member. So first thing we say is "It was a shame you
weren't at church on Sunday" and he replies with, "I've already
explained to you my situation and you haven't told your President...
so you keep coming back here and asking me to go to church." I've
visited with this member so many times with Elder Pastor now and to be
honest doesn't make much sense sometimes so I was just bold and
upfront with him and said, "Look, Brother V, there are no excuses
valid in the eyes of God..." and he said, "Yeah that's true, but..."
and then said a bunch of stuff that made no sense. At this point Elder
Rasing was totally confused at the situation and asked Brother Victor
what his situation was... So he proceeded to tell us about this one
family who is really rich in the area, who owns likes tons of property
and started listing off this guys property and lands... so Elder
Rasing is like "So, whats this got to do with you...?", and he
proceeds to tell this story about how this family supposedly killed to
get some lands and properties... and we are still like... "So what has
all this got to do with you and not going to church?"... so it turns
out at the end of his 45min rambling about this family, that he is
somehow this long lost child of the family who is the true inheritor
of the property (or so he says), that he tried to take it to court,
but supposedly received death threats, and the whole thing is
completely hearsay in my point of view... then we tried to teach him
about the scriptures in Jacob 2 and 3 Nephi 13 about seeking first the
kingdom of God and not riches... we encouraged him to drop the whole
matter so he didn't have to worry about the matter and get back to
church. Then he got annoyed with us for saying that... he was so
obsessed with getting this property that nothing else was worth
considering. Then we even tried the Alma technique of inspired
questions about standing before God. We asked him if he was ready in
that very moment to stand before God, and he answered us he wasn't
ready, because the issue with the properties wasn't resolved (WHAT!?
O.o).
Honestly this man has become so obsessed with the issue that I believe
he has gone a little crazy. From where I was standing and putting
myself in the same situation I could see a glaringly obvious
solution... give up the riches and trust in the Lord to help you
provide. But for this brother, it was not an option. The only thing he
could see was all this property that was supposedly his, and he wanted
it all. Then AFTER he got it he would come back to church and help his
fellowmen, or so he said... yesterday, I saw how someone can become a
slave to money, or worldly possessions and how someones life can be
completely destroyed by them. I truly realized how worthless all that
property was, in compared with peace of mind, a free life and
opportunity to worship God. I pray for this brother that he may come
to realize as well how worthless all that property really is, and will
come back to church and be blessed by the Lord for it.
Now... about our exchanges. Elder Rasing is a great missionary! He
really knows the doctrine and can explain in clearly in simple terms.
He is always studying and his scriptures are an explosion of color on
every page almost. I am amazed by his enthusiasm for the work and his
desire is great.
Then this past Monday, we had a great CSP in the Danao 1st area
which we built a kitchen and dug up a ton of dirt. Tatay Penas was not
expecting us to complete as much as we did and was amazed at the end
of the CSP.
So we also had Elder Perez of the Seventy come and visit our branch
and it was great!... cause hes a joker and had us all laughing in
sacrament and then again in the training meeting he gave in the branch
council meeting.
So that's pretty much it this week... oh wait
This week I realised why they call Danao "gun city"... so there was
this one day that we were going to our appointments and I saw four
different people making guns and bullets, as in the REAL ones!
Whoa! It was CRAZY!
But I miss you all,
And love you tons,
Elder Taylor Addison Cox
Letter #59 (Sept 18th, 2012)
Hey all,
So this week has been busy,and we definitely didn't get the same amount
of lessons and things this week. So last Thursday night we (ako and si
Elder Perez, the DL in Camotes) went to Liloan to stay with the ZLs
that night, before heading to Cebu that next morning for leadership
training with President Schmutz. It was great and he gave an amazing
workshop on commitment. That evening we headed back to danao... then on
sat and sun we had stake conference in Liloan again so we stayed there
again for those nights and had a good time with our zone mates taking
about things. I swear there are more members here in our stake than in
our stake back home... easily! The chapel was full and the cultural
hall and the stage and the cultural hall here in long and wide. Then
Monday we had a csp in Carmen in the sisters area, and got to have one
lesson in the evening and then I made tuna grey sauce for dinner...
just to let you know, there are no such things as scales here so I had
to guesstimate the ingredients and guess what... it turned out great!
cause I'm just awesome! Then yesterday we got kugihan and got 7 lessons
and got punted in the evening... we could have had a good 10 lessons
or so if that hadn't happened. But we are still having lots of fun here
in the area.
Elder Daffon in from China... town Davao city...he has some Asian
blood that comes through pretty strong. Then Elder Rasing is from
Manila somewhere I forgot.
I've tried the recipes... just check out the awesome results in the photos!
Haven't really got photos of the area cause we've been busy working in
it!... jujuju... but I'll try and get some for you... its a pretty city
in a bukid kind of way if you get what I mean. and we get round on
these little tricycle things that are push bikes attached to a cab
body thing... I'll get a picture. and of course we still use
habal-habal as well occasionally.
The fiesta made it crazy here in Danao on the weekend and it was fun
trying to get back to our apartment that Sunday after stake conference.
It was like trying to weave through a maze of people and avoid the
main parade to find where we could cross the road to get to the side
with our apartment. Fun!...
So yeah... don't really know what else to write, other than...
HAPPY B'DAY MUM!
...hahaha... you thought I almost forgot again...
Well hope you enjoyed it, and have fun this week as well
miss you all,
love you tons,
Love Elder Taylor Addison Cox
So this week has been busy,and we definitely didn't get the same amount
of lessons and things this week. So last Thursday night we (ako and si
Elder Perez, the DL in Camotes) went to Liloan to stay with the ZLs
that night, before heading to Cebu that next morning for leadership
training with President Schmutz. It was great and he gave an amazing
workshop on commitment. That evening we headed back to danao... then on
sat and sun we had stake conference in Liloan again so we stayed there
again for those nights and had a good time with our zone mates taking
about things. I swear there are more members here in our stake than in
our stake back home... easily! The chapel was full and the cultural
hall and the stage and the cultural hall here in long and wide. Then
Monday we had a csp in Carmen in the sisters area, and got to have one
lesson in the evening and then I made tuna grey sauce for dinner...
just to let you know, there are no such things as scales here so I had
to guesstimate the ingredients and guess what... it turned out great!
cause I'm just awesome! Then yesterday we got kugihan and got 7 lessons
and got punted in the evening... we could have had a good 10 lessons
or so if that hadn't happened. But we are still having lots of fun here
in the area.
Elder Daffon in from China... town Davao city...he has some Asian
blood that comes through pretty strong. Then Elder Rasing is from
Manila somewhere I forgot.
I've tried the recipes... just check out the awesome results in the photos!
Haven't really got photos of the area cause we've been busy working in
it!... jujuju... but I'll try and get some for you... its a pretty city
in a bukid kind of way if you get what I mean. and we get round on
these little tricycle things that are push bikes attached to a cab
body thing... I'll get a picture. and of course we still use
habal-habal as well occasionally.
The fiesta made it crazy here in Danao on the weekend and it was fun
trying to get back to our apartment that Sunday after stake conference.
It was like trying to weave through a maze of people and avoid the
main parade to find where we could cross the road to get to the side
with our apartment. Fun!...
So yeah... don't really know what else to write, other than...
HAPPY B'DAY MUM!
...hahaha... you thought I almost forgot again...
Well hope you enjoyed it, and have fun this week as well
miss you all,
love you tons,
Love Elder Taylor Addison Cox
Letter #58 (Sept 12, 2012)
Hey all,
so thanks for getting those things for me... but again... you forgot
the gravy recipe. Ok ra... but can you please get it to me for next
week. And I thought I remembered pikelets being a lot easier to
make... aw well... pancakes na lang.
So this week has been AWESOME!!! we got 28 lessons in the week, as
well as 153 i2ls and then we had 141 people attend sacrament meeting.
We played basketball with the members one morning for exercise. We
have been fed about 5 times this last week and have free electricity
and water in the house (even though the water was way claro this last
week and kept coming on and off periodically)... we are having so much
fun and working so hard... I have never felt so tired as i have here
in the " big city".
So I got some pics for you all... of me and my comp. and of our
house... then of this old Nanay that built her own weaving machine
thingo-ma-jiggy... so yeah...
So this last week its been raining almost every night here, which is
nice kay it gets nice and cool in the evening for when we sleep.
Last Thursday we had training from the zls, it was really good and so
the focus of district meeting is now doing workshops from PMG. Then after
the training meeting we went to this one area and had a less active member
help us find this one sister that has not been to church for 9 years since
she married her husband and he has a problem for some reason with her going to
church... way claro bana... and then she prayer at the end of the
lesson and cried and then just yesterday as well... she really wants
to come back to church but her bana is just way claro. Then we have
another family that we walked to church with sister and her 5 kids...
it was the first time in 9 years she had been to church. It was an
amazing experience. And then one of our investigators ended up in
hospital with "dentry" (???) but we gave her a blessing before she
went in and then while she was there and she seems to be doing okay
now.
Then we had PEC on Sat, and I got volunteered to teach piano this
coming 22 and now have to figure out how I'm gonna do that.
What else... oh, you'll be proud mum... we cleaned the balay and
almost have the CR (Terri here: This is the toilet!) clean and
spotless... we ran out of muratic acid, but now we bought some so hopefully
this week it will be clean and I will take photos to show how clean it
looks once we are done.
So we've been pretty busy and all over the place this week. But it has
been great! Its fun and tiring and a different experience to the
bukid, for sure.
So that's it for this week...
miss you gamay,
Love you daghan,
Elder Taylor Addison Cox
Letter #57 (Sept 5th, 2012)
Hey all,
This weeks been great and yeah we felt it... the whole house was
swaying back and forth... i was actually closer to it cause we are in
Danao, which is to the north of Cebu, which is closer to the epicentre
which was in Leyte... di ba? We were planning for the next day when it
hit... first of all i just thought i had a headache, until i looked
around and saw everything shaking. It lasted for a good 30secs or so.
but it was all cool...
My new companion is awesome... Elder Pastor is so cool and down to
earth, but kugihan and always willing to go to work! On the Sat and
Sun that i got into Danao after transfers there was 13 lessons that we
taught and 50 i2ls... then just Monday and yesterday we have had another
9 lessons and 73 i2ls... we are tearing it up here in Danao 2!
His family are also members and he has one other brother who is an RM.
He is from Bacolod and is in the middle of his criminology studies. I
have to get a good photo to send you of us two.
Im am still in a branch though! our area is a branch attached to a
ward... so we are working really hard to get the priesthood back so
they can become a ward. But the funny thing is even though we are the
branch in the area, we get more attendance in sacrament than the other
wards. So now I am in an apartment with 4 elders... me, E.Pastor, E.Daffon,
and E.Rasing. They are all pinoy from different places and we all get
along and have a great time.
Elder Daffon and Elder Rasing are great companions to have in the
house. Elder Daffon is a great example to us all, and is always deep
in the area book each night and setting an example for me and my
companion. Elder Rasing seems so eager to work as well and is always
talking with someone. He is an energetic missionary with a lot of
excitement to give. I am very excited for this next transfer and the
things that are in store for this area. I can see how the Lord has
placed me in this area and this apartment for a wise purpose and I am
ready to do my part to help out and get things done.
Now there are 4 of us in the apartment we do a ton of cooking... so i need
some recipes;
pancakes, pikelets, tuna grey sauce (Terri here:this is what he has called Tuna Mornay since he was little!!), and other simple recipes for the
stove top. Then my companion was wondering if you have a nindot gravy
recipe as well. Salamat daan!
So this letter is pretty taas now... oh wait... so the branch hasnt
had a fluent whits dude for a while now so they were very surprise
when I was able to speak very fluently in Visaya and excited. The
branch is progressing well and has two sister missionaries that just
came home from their missions on that Friday i transferred into the
area. They have been a bit of a help already with one giving us a new
investigator... we have 3 new investigators just this last 5 days and
i am excited cause this area is way more fast paced compared to
zambo... sooooo hinay!
So I should have a ton of stories and pictures for next week as well.
Miss you a little (jejeje),
Love you tons,
Elder Taylor Addison Cox
Sunday, September 2, 2012
Letter # 56 (Aug 29th, 2012)
Hey all!
Transfers! I have to leave my anak... and go to CEBU! Three islands now! Wooo!
So I am transferring to Danao 2nd and my companion is Elder Pastor.... and this is the craziest thing.... Elder Padilla will get followed
up by none other than his Lolo, Elder Holley!!!!!!!!! Woooo! I am so
happy!
So I am so disappointed to have to leave my wonderful house in Zambo
and all the buotan members but it will be exciting to be in this new
area, with a new companion. My ZL wil be Elder Dustin (so i ve heard)
who is my batch, which is gonna be sweet!
Elder Padilla and I had a great last week. We have had fun working
together for the four days we had to work... with all the other
things going on like Zone Confernece, Zone CSP and Baptismal
interviews in Bayawan again. We had fun I2L-ing together on the buses
and I feel that Elder Padilla has really gained confidence in his
abilities now. He is more and more willing to lead and open his mouth
first. It has been an amazing experience to train with him and to
learn so much from him. I learnt so much from him on how to feel for
the Spirit of discernment. He taught me to really listen to peoples
bodies as well as their words. It has been a great experience and one
that I will never forget.
Then we have had an amazing experience with one family this week, the
N family. We had worked with this one Nanay for about 4 months
with no success what so ever, until she told us she would not come
back to church unless he kids came back with her... then we found out
where her kids live and that one was in our area. Just recently we
have been working with her some and his wife and teaching
them the lessons. He is a member but his wife is not yet, but she
is so accepting and is really progressing. So it turns out this Nanay
heard about what we were doing and is excited to come back to church
with her son and his wife, and hopefully one of her other sons as
well who is coming back to live with the Nanay next month. It has been
this amazing miracle for this family and I am so disappointed that i
will not be able to see it all play out. But hope to hear the stories
from Elder Padilla and my Tatay in the near future.
I am excited for this next transfer and for the experiences ahead. I
hope to continue to learn from my new companion Elder Pastor. I have
not heard anything about him so I am excited to head into the
companionship. I am excited to be on Cebu finally and am very much looking
forward to the temple after being so long off island with no
opportunity to attend. I miss the temple sooo much... and I realise
how important it is in our lives.
I'm sure I'll have all sorts of stories to tell you next week about my
new companion and area and lots of pictures again. Looking forward to
this next week! That's all for this week.Salamat daan! That's all now...
Miss you all,
Love you tons,
Elder Taylor Addison Cox
*********************************************************************************************************
Terri here:We have some photos this week, and hopefully more next week!
Transfers! I have to leave my anak... and go to CEBU! Three islands now! Wooo!
So I am transferring to Danao 2nd and my companion is Elder Pastor.... and this is the craziest thing.... Elder Padilla will get followed
up by none other than his Lolo, Elder Holley!!!!!!!!! Woooo! I am so
happy!
So I am so disappointed to have to leave my wonderful house in Zambo
and all the buotan members but it will be exciting to be in this new
area, with a new companion. My ZL wil be Elder Dustin (so i ve heard)
who is my batch, which is gonna be sweet!
Elder Padilla and I had a great last week. We have had fun working
together for the four days we had to work... with all the other
things going on like Zone Confernece, Zone CSP and Baptismal
interviews in Bayawan again. We had fun I2L-ing together on the buses
and I feel that Elder Padilla has really gained confidence in his
abilities now. He is more and more willing to lead and open his mouth
first. It has been an amazing experience to train with him and to
learn so much from him. I learnt so much from him on how to feel for
the Spirit of discernment. He taught me to really listen to peoples
bodies as well as their words. It has been a great experience and one
that I will never forget.
Then we have had an amazing experience with one family this week, the
N family. We had worked with this one Nanay for about 4 months
with no success what so ever, until she told us she would not come
back to church unless he kids came back with her... then we found out
where her kids live and that one was in our area. Just recently we
have been working with her some and his wife and teaching
them the lessons. He is a member but his wife is not yet, but she
is so accepting and is really progressing. So it turns out this Nanay
heard about what we were doing and is excited to come back to church
with her son and his wife, and hopefully one of her other sons as
well who is coming back to live with the Nanay next month. It has been
this amazing miracle for this family and I am so disappointed that i
will not be able to see it all play out. But hope to hear the stories
from Elder Padilla and my Tatay in the near future.
I am excited for this next transfer and for the experiences ahead. I
hope to continue to learn from my new companion Elder Pastor. I have
not heard anything about him so I am excited to head into the
companionship. I am excited to be on Cebu finally and am very much looking
forward to the temple after being so long off island with no
opportunity to attend. I miss the temple sooo much... and I realise
how important it is in our lives.
I'm sure I'll have all sorts of stories to tell you next week about my
new companion and area and lots of pictures again. Looking forward to
this next week! That's all for this week.Salamat daan! That's all now...
Miss you all,
Love you tons,
Elder Taylor Addison Cox
*********************************************************************************************************
Terri here:We have some photos this week, and hopefully more next week!
Letter # 55 (Aug 22, 2012)
Hey all,
This week has been great. Transfers is next week on the 29th of August
and apparently at our zone conference yesterday, President Schmutz
told elder Padilla that I would be transferring from the area... so
either he already has something planned for me or my companion that he
has been pondering about. So next week I'm transfering... kono (so he
said). Don't know where yet but will let you know next email. turns out
Elder Padilla only needs glasses and so we paid for them today and
should get to pick them up next week siguro. The baptsimal interviews
were great... they were all kids between ages 9 and 14, so it was a
little different but all good. Tell Dad... I GOT TO RIDE A BIKE FOR
THE FIRST TIME ON THE MISSION! ...it was so much fun and I miss riding
the bike alot. When I got to Bayawan I got to ride with one of the
bayawan elders to the interview while elder Padilla and the other
elder walked. I so wish we had bikes... hopefully in my next area,
basin(maybe).
Terri here: One of Taylor's YM's Presidents...(who is now a Bishop)
was working in Cebu, and spoke to the mission President while he was there.
President Schmutz told me yesterday at zone conference that one of my
young men's presidents had called him that weekend and talked with him
cause he tried visiting in the office and he wasn't there. I
was trying to figure out whether it was Fritz or Andrew... jujuju...
cool.
Yesterday we had an amazing ZC and learnt so much from President
Schmutz... it was about rededicating ourselves to our covenants and
remembering our purpose and abilities as missionaries. He is
amazing and I love him so much, he has helped me so much on the
mission and is always giving us great encouragement.
Things have been great and I am sort of excited for transfers.
Training with Elder Padilla has been great fun and it is time to see
him forward on his mission experience and fro me to get out of this
area... almost 6 months now... its been great.
Something that stood out to me in the ZC was this, and I'd like to
leave it as my closing remarks. Always remember this principle in
everything in life...
"Our opportunities are but few...
... don't waste them!"
Miss you all,
Love you tons.
Elder Taylor Addison Cox
This week has been great. Transfers is next week on the 29th of August
and apparently at our zone conference yesterday, President Schmutz
told elder Padilla that I would be transferring from the area... so
either he already has something planned for me or my companion that he
has been pondering about. So next week I'm transfering... kono (so he
said). Don't know where yet but will let you know next email. turns out
Elder Padilla only needs glasses and so we paid for them today and
should get to pick them up next week siguro. The baptsimal interviews
were great... they were all kids between ages 9 and 14, so it was a
little different but all good. Tell Dad... I GOT TO RIDE A BIKE FOR
THE FIRST TIME ON THE MISSION! ...it was so much fun and I miss riding
the bike alot. When I got to Bayawan I got to ride with one of the
bayawan elders to the interview while elder Padilla and the other
elder walked. I so wish we had bikes... hopefully in my next area,
basin(maybe).
Terri here: One of Taylor's YM's Presidents...(who is now a Bishop)
was working in Cebu, and spoke to the mission President while he was there.
President Schmutz told me yesterday at zone conference that one of my
young men's presidents had called him that weekend and talked with him
cause he tried visiting in the office and he wasn't there. I
was trying to figure out whether it was Fritz or Andrew... jujuju...
cool.
Yesterday we had an amazing ZC and learnt so much from President
Schmutz... it was about rededicating ourselves to our covenants and
remembering our purpose and abilities as missionaries. He is
amazing and I love him so much, he has helped me so much on the
mission and is always giving us great encouragement.
Things have been great and I am sort of excited for transfers.
Training with Elder Padilla has been great fun and it is time to see
him forward on his mission experience and fro me to get out of this
area... almost 6 months now... its been great.
Something that stood out to me in the ZC was this, and I'd like to
leave it as my closing remarks. Always remember this principle in
everything in life...
"Our opportunities are but few...
... don't waste them!"
Miss you all,
Love you tons.
Elder Taylor Addison Cox
Letter #54 (Aug 15th, 2012)
Hey all!
So about this past week. We had so many things happening that we had
little work this week. We spent so long in the hospital and the we had
a ton of CSP in the district and in own area as well. We got to build
another house, but this time out of bamboo... which is a little
different than working with traditional woods. There are some
different techniques to work the bamboo whch i was able to learn. Then
we also had the meeting with the zone last Thur about the workshop
from President Schmutz about the Book of Mormon which was really cool.
I got my split scriptures and they are sweet as! They are so cool and
everyone wants to do the same now (trend setter man ko!)...
The members are crazy about working with us now... we will be doing
splits this coming Sat and Sun, and I have 3 baptismal interviews this
Sat, starting at 10 in the morning over in Bayawan (layo kaayo), until
3pm in Siaton. it will be so kapoy...!
I had this great opportunity to meet this French dude that lives in
our area! he sad thing was i forgot all of my french! i was so
disappointed with myself that i had forgotten all the words, and that
all i could think of was visayan words. But he was cool, and we
chatted in English. He is 30, has an online business and his own
family here with one kid.
Yesterday I got to do splits with the elders in Siaton the next area
over to see how they are progressing. It was good fun and I got to
learn from elder Ratu as he led his area. He is from New Zealand.
We have zone conference this Mon and the transfer is fast coming to a
close.... I dont really know what else to write about right now...
maybe you can quickly email some questions if you are there are have
some...
But miss you all,
Love you tons
Elder Taylor Addison Cox
********************************************************************************************************
Terri here:A short letter this week. The rest was just answers to questions we asked him.
So about this past week. We had so many things happening that we had
little work this week. We spent so long in the hospital and the we had
a ton of CSP in the district and in own area as well. We got to build
another house, but this time out of bamboo... which is a little
different than working with traditional woods. There are some
different techniques to work the bamboo whch i was able to learn. Then
we also had the meeting with the zone last Thur about the workshop
from President Schmutz about the Book of Mormon which was really cool.
I got my split scriptures and they are sweet as! They are so cool and
everyone wants to do the same now (trend setter man ko!)...
The members are crazy about working with us now... we will be doing
splits this coming Sat and Sun, and I have 3 baptismal interviews this
Sat, starting at 10 in the morning over in Bayawan (layo kaayo), until
3pm in Siaton. it will be so kapoy...!
I had this great opportunity to meet this French dude that lives in
our area! he sad thing was i forgot all of my french! i was so
disappointed with myself that i had forgotten all the words, and that
all i could think of was visayan words. But he was cool, and we
chatted in English. He is 30, has an online business and his own
family here with one kid.
Yesterday I got to do splits with the elders in Siaton the next area
over to see how they are progressing. It was good fun and I got to
learn from elder Ratu as he led his area. He is from New Zealand.
We have zone conference this Mon and the transfer is fast coming to a
close.... I dont really know what else to write about right now...
maybe you can quickly email some questions if you are there are have
some...
But miss you all,
Love you tons
Elder Taylor Addison Cox
********************************************************************************************************
Terri here:A short letter this week. The rest was just answers to questions we asked him.
Saturday, August 11, 2012
Letter #53 (Aug 8th, 2012)
Hey all,
So that's all the photos (well not all)... but I hope you enjoy them.
(Terri here: We have photos this week!!)
Hope you are all well and fine. Things have been great this week and busy.
Elder Padilla has a problem with his eyes so he has had bad headaches all
week and we will go to the hospital after this to get the results of the testing. Hopefully its he just needs glasses or something like that. Tomorrow we have a
training meeting with the zone leaders for the zone in the morning so
we will just be staying here in Dumaguete over night.
Training is going great. Elder Padilla and I get along fine...
actually really well. The Spirit has really helped out this week and
we have had some success in the work again. The members are all
excited to work with us and often we have to refuse one or two because
others have already agreed to go out with us. I bet the missionaries
in the ward wish it was the same there. jujuju
My tagalog is improving slowly with the help of members and my
companion and I am learning new phrases and jokes. The Cruz's will all
be excited when I get back for sure... but hopefully I'll have a
surprise for them... huzzah! I know tagaolg as well!... maybe... we'll
see.
I've eaten some amazing fruits this last week and found my favourite
for sure... its called labana in visaya, guiavano in tagalog, and it
is the greatest fruit ever! I have some seeds even to bring back with
me to plant (if i can even get them back through customs).
pretty ordinary week this week in terms of work.
Oh wait!... not exactly... there was one afternoon we were travelling
back on a bus and the conductor is a fiend of ours from I2L-ing
previously... and i asked him if any missionary had "preached" so to
speak on his bus before. He told me no but I could be the first... so
I took up the challenge. I I2L-ed the entire bus and gave every one of
them pass along cards. there was about 30 of them and it was great
courage builder for me and for my anak. (Terri here: I2l-ing..means inviting to learn...about the gospel!)
I received the chocolate from ma and poppy... please send my
thanks. Study has been great this week for me too especially from the bible
about faith and works.
Then I have recently started back on the book of Mormon again and have
had a great time finding more scriptures again that were hidden the
first few times reading through.
Things are doing great and can only get better!
Miss you all...
Love you tons.
Elder Taylor Addison Cox
So that's all the photos (well not all)... but I hope you enjoy them.
(Terri here: We have photos this week!!)
Hope you are all well and fine. Things have been great this week and busy.
Elder Padilla has a problem with his eyes so he has had bad headaches all
week and we will go to the hospital after this to get the results of the testing. Hopefully its he just needs glasses or something like that. Tomorrow we have a
training meeting with the zone leaders for the zone in the morning so
we will just be staying here in Dumaguete over night.
Training is going great. Elder Padilla and I get along fine...
actually really well. The Spirit has really helped out this week and
we have had some success in the work again. The members are all
excited to work with us and often we have to refuse one or two because
others have already agreed to go out with us. I bet the missionaries
in the ward wish it was the same there. jujuju
My tagalog is improving slowly with the help of members and my
companion and I am learning new phrases and jokes. The Cruz's will all
be excited when I get back for sure... but hopefully I'll have a
surprise for them... huzzah! I know tagaolg as well!... maybe... we'll
see.
I've eaten some amazing fruits this last week and found my favourite
for sure... its called labana in visaya, guiavano in tagalog, and it
is the greatest fruit ever! I have some seeds even to bring back with
me to plant (if i can even get them back through customs).
pretty ordinary week this week in terms of work.
Oh wait!... not exactly... there was one afternoon we were travelling
back on a bus and the conductor is a fiend of ours from I2L-ing
previously... and i asked him if any missionary had "preached" so to
speak on his bus before. He told me no but I could be the first... so
I took up the challenge. I I2L-ed the entire bus and gave every one of
them pass along cards. there was about 30 of them and it was great
courage builder for me and for my anak. (Terri here: I2l-ing..means inviting to learn...about the gospel!)
I received the chocolate from ma and poppy... please send my
thanks. Study has been great this week for me too especially from the bible
about faith and works.
Then I have recently started back on the book of Mormon again and have
had a great time finding more scriptures again that were hidden the
first few times reading through.
Things are doing great and can only get better!
Miss you all...
Love you tons.
Elder Taylor Addison Cox
Letter #52 (Aug 1st, 2012)
Hey all,
I hate rain! This past week was so hard not being able to visit the
areas in the bukid again... I think we visited the same 4 families
almost every day that week, and still managed to get punted (and I
think those families may be sick of seeing us so often :P jujuju). But
even that being the case we still had some great successes this week.
We also had one member ask us some amazing questions
this week from her reading in the Book of Mormon. She has really
started to delve into her reading and is coming out with questions
which have been pushing us as missionaries, because they aren't just
the plain old questions we always get. It was great to be able to share
from the scriptures and help her to increase her understanding of the doctrine.
The rain has not just been problematic for us but also for our
members, who were not able to work with us this week because they
couldn't get from their houses to us because their roads were washed
away in the storm. But every Sunday after church we have so many
members who are willing to work with us and help out with the work. We
have just started going to this one area that has a few members in it,
and it turns out there are a bunch of investigators that missionaries
were teaching out there before that stopped only because the
missionaries all of the sudden disappeared, or stopped going there. So
we have been working closely with the members out there and have been
teaching new investigators every Sunday, which has been great for
Elder Padilla for the 12 week program. He is doing absolutely amazing
in his training, and is a great teacher. His skills are increasing
very quickly and he is showing forth his talent. It has been great to
see him take the lead in teaching situations and do so with boldness
in his teaching. We are having a great time working with the members
and getting them involved in the work. We are working closely with a
less active YSA at the moment who has a smoking problem, but really
wants to come back to church and hopefully be able to serve a mission.
We try to visit with him everyday and follow up on how he is doing. We
have build a great rel;relationship of trust with his and he is dong
well to get away from his addiction. He even came out to work with us
just this past Monday, and it really rekindled his desire that he had
to serve a mission.
To be completely honest the storms have been really bad here... dont
want to alarm you or anything, but just to inform you. We have storms
pass over almost every day now, with ridiculously strong winds and
rain. It brown outs almost every day now here and we have fun trying
not to get soaking wet or blown away. Lots of prayer! Always! that
helps a little bit...
Just to start asking in advance... i was wondering if you could get
some more pictures again of people for this Christmas when you send a
package again.
I have been doing great this week. I feel healthy and my study is
really improving, and i am finding I am receiving more revelation all
the time. Last week when I hit my year mark I realised the time we
have here is very short and passes by much quicker than we anticipate.
I am so glad for all the experiences that I have had so far and look
forward to all that I am yet to learn... I feel like before I know it
my mission will be over, and I need to seize every opportunity while I
still have the opportunity to do so. Exciting things are ahead...
Hope you are all doing well
Miss you and Love you all
Elder Taylor Addison Cox
I hate rain! This past week was so hard not being able to visit the
areas in the bukid again... I think we visited the same 4 families
almost every day that week, and still managed to get punted (and I
think those families may be sick of seeing us so often :P jujuju). But
even that being the case we still had some great successes this week.
We also had one member ask us some amazing questions
this week from her reading in the Book of Mormon. She has really
started to delve into her reading and is coming out with questions
which have been pushing us as missionaries, because they aren't just
the plain old questions we always get. It was great to be able to share
from the scriptures and help her to increase her understanding of the doctrine.
The rain has not just been problematic for us but also for our
members, who were not able to work with us this week because they
couldn't get from their houses to us because their roads were washed
away in the storm. But every Sunday after church we have so many
members who are willing to work with us and help out with the work. We
have just started going to this one area that has a few members in it,
and it turns out there are a bunch of investigators that missionaries
were teaching out there before that stopped only because the
missionaries all of the sudden disappeared, or stopped going there. So
we have been working closely with the members out there and have been
teaching new investigators every Sunday, which has been great for
Elder Padilla for the 12 week program. He is doing absolutely amazing
in his training, and is a great teacher. His skills are increasing
very quickly and he is showing forth his talent. It has been great to
see him take the lead in teaching situations and do so with boldness
in his teaching. We are having a great time working with the members
and getting them involved in the work. We are working closely with a
less active YSA at the moment who has a smoking problem, but really
wants to come back to church and hopefully be able to serve a mission.
We try to visit with him everyday and follow up on how he is doing. We
have build a great rel;relationship of trust with his and he is dong
well to get away from his addiction. He even came out to work with us
just this past Monday, and it really rekindled his desire that he had
to serve a mission.
To be completely honest the storms have been really bad here... dont
want to alarm you or anything, but just to inform you. We have storms
pass over almost every day now, with ridiculously strong winds and
rain. It brown outs almost every day now here and we have fun trying
not to get soaking wet or blown away. Lots of prayer! Always! that
helps a little bit...
Just to start asking in advance... i was wondering if you could get
some more pictures again of people for this Christmas when you send a
package again.
I have been doing great this week. I feel healthy and my study is
really improving, and i am finding I am receiving more revelation all
the time. Last week when I hit my year mark I realised the time we
have here is very short and passes by much quicker than we anticipate.
I am so glad for all the experiences that I have had so far and look
forward to all that I am yet to learn... I feel like before I know it
my mission will be over, and I need to seize every opportunity while I
still have the opportunity to do so. Exciting things are ahead...
Hope you are all doing well
Miss you and Love you all
Elder Taylor Addison Cox
Tuesday, July 31, 2012
Letter #51 (July 25th, 2012)
Hey all,
I absolutely hate the computers here. They are the most stupid sucky
computers in the world!!!!
Its 1 year tomorrow! ... miss you all soo much and things from back home...
but we have work to do and it will soon pass. We have a FHE tonight with
some members which is going to be great... so it will soon pass.
I did not expect the mission to go so fast as it has... I expected
that it would be much longer. But it has been amazing!
Things have been going well here and I have a funny story for you lot...
So last Friday, transfer day, Elder Banzon who is AP called us on the
cell phone... "Hey Elder Cox your scriptures are done, they look so
sweet, youre gonna love them. We'll probably just keep them and you can
pick them up at leadership training." Huh!?! "why will I be at
leadership training?" "Your District Leader!" WHAT!?! "Wait... the zone
leaders didn't tell me that! They said Elder Ratu is DL..." "Dili Oi!
Elder Ratu is just junior comp. he's not DL... you are... we told the
zone leaders..."
So turns out im DL... then that next day I performed my first baptismal
interview for the Bayawan elders and the candidate didnt speak cebuano
very well... only tagalog... mahirap talaga!
So this past Monday I had to teach a workshop for the District
meeting as well. It went well and we had the zone leaders come to sit
in a s well. So now we have supplies again for our house in terms of
pamphlets and copies of the book of Mormon. But turns out there are no
planners!!!! Argh! so hard to plan without planners!
Oh! I met a guy out in Bayawan that it turns out he served with Reggie
on his mission in his district. He was like "I knew this Australian
who would breakdance while we payed basketball... And i was like "That
is so my cousin Elder Jacobsen"... small world. He is Bro Timbangan...
you should ask Reggie if he remembers him... Terri here: Taylor's cousin served in the Philippines Angeles Mission about 5 years back!! Funny how the only 2 Aussies this guy meets happen to be related! hahaha
Monday after district meeting e had a "CSP"... On transfer
calls of last week (so last Wed) one of the elders in the
companionship that transferred said the CSP was claro... and this
elder is very reliable and honest.
Well it was definitely wa'y claro jud... morag C-S-P Chica-chica
Saka-saka Panaw-panaw!
We walked for a good 5 km into the bukid over streams and over
mountains through corn fields and shoulder high grass. Then we got to
this house that nanay was leadin us to and tatay was like "You should
all just rest..." and we were all like "No we need to work... this is
a CSP"
So tatay got us to take his two cows to get water and then took us to
his lubihan about another km away, got us to harvest botong (young
coconuts) and then drink them all for him... Huh???
Unsa man ni oi! We are definitely not having another CSP in that area
this transfer. My legs still hurt....
Hopefully this next week the rain will hold off so we can get to some
of the bukid areas to visit. Starting to miss visiting those members
in the layo areas.
Elder Bednar will be here in the mission for the next transfer day
on the last day of August... we will ALL go to Cebu for the transfer
meeting and then mission conference afterwards regardless if we are
transferring or not.
No pictures cause the fast internet is closed today for some
reason. this one is sooooooooo slow... We are sticking it here in Zambo
today, washing clothes, cleaning the house, recovering from the "CSP"
Miss you all tons
Love you all
Elder Taylor Addison Cox
I absolutely hate the computers here. They are the most stupid sucky
computers in the world!!!!
Its 1 year tomorrow! ... miss you all soo much and things from back home...
but we have work to do and it will soon pass. We have a FHE tonight with
some members which is going to be great... so it will soon pass.
I did not expect the mission to go so fast as it has... I expected
that it would be much longer. But it has been amazing!
Things have been going well here and I have a funny story for you lot...
So last Friday, transfer day, Elder Banzon who is AP called us on the
cell phone... "Hey Elder Cox your scriptures are done, they look so
sweet, youre gonna love them. We'll probably just keep them and you can
pick them up at leadership training." Huh!?! "why will I be at
leadership training?" "Your District Leader!" WHAT!?! "Wait... the zone
leaders didn't tell me that! They said Elder Ratu is DL..." "Dili Oi!
Elder Ratu is just junior comp. he's not DL... you are... we told the
zone leaders..."
So turns out im DL... then that next day I performed my first baptismal
interview for the Bayawan elders and the candidate didnt speak cebuano
very well... only tagalog... mahirap talaga!
So this past Monday I had to teach a workshop for the District
meeting as well. It went well and we had the zone leaders come to sit
in a s well. So now we have supplies again for our house in terms of
pamphlets and copies of the book of Mormon. But turns out there are no
planners!!!! Argh! so hard to plan without planners!
Oh! I met a guy out in Bayawan that it turns out he served with Reggie
on his mission in his district. He was like "I knew this Australian
who would breakdance while we payed basketball... And i was like "That
is so my cousin Elder Jacobsen"... small world. He is Bro Timbangan...
you should ask Reggie if he remembers him... Terri here: Taylor's cousin served in the Philippines Angeles Mission about 5 years back!! Funny how the only 2 Aussies this guy meets happen to be related! hahaha
Monday after district meeting e had a "CSP"... On transfer
calls of last week (so last Wed) one of the elders in the
companionship that transferred said the CSP was claro... and this
elder is very reliable and honest.
Well it was definitely wa'y claro jud... morag C-S-P Chica-chica
Saka-saka Panaw-panaw!
We walked for a good 5 km into the bukid over streams and over
mountains through corn fields and shoulder high grass. Then we got to
this house that nanay was leadin us to and tatay was like "You should
all just rest..." and we were all like "No we need to work... this is
a CSP"
So tatay got us to take his two cows to get water and then took us to
his lubihan about another km away, got us to harvest botong (young
coconuts) and then drink them all for him... Huh???
Unsa man ni oi! We are definitely not having another CSP in that area
this transfer. My legs still hurt....
Hopefully this next week the rain will hold off so we can get to some
of the bukid areas to visit. Starting to miss visiting those members
in the layo areas.
Elder Bednar will be here in the mission for the next transfer day
on the last day of August... we will ALL go to Cebu for the transfer
meeting and then mission conference afterwards regardless if we are
transferring or not.
No pictures cause the fast internet is closed today for some
reason. this one is sooooooooo slow... We are sticking it here in Zambo
today, washing clothes, cleaning the house, recovering from the "CSP"
Miss you all tons
Love you all
Elder Taylor Addison Cox
Letter #50 (July 18th, 2012)
Hey all,
Sooo...
It turns out that today I'm 20! Another day, another year. Things have been doing well this week. Cebu was kapoy kaayo (sooo tiring!). We left at 5:45 that Thurs morning on the bus and got to Cebu at 12noon... 6hours jud! Then we had lunch at the temple complex before our training meeting at 1-3pm and then spent the rest of the afternoon at distribution getting things and finding out that the is no stock of a ton of things until next summer, ad then in the office chatting with tatay and the other elders in the office at the time.
I bought a quad which i am getting split and recovered-hardbound into 5 books. Old Testament, New Testament, BoM, D&C/PoGP, and then Reference... it will be a maroon red with gold lettering and will look absolutely amazing!
Thanks for everything in the box... most of it got hurot (all used up) today as we went up into the bukid (not to the dagat) for our p'day party thingo for transfers and my b'day. So I'm still in Zambo for another 6 weeks (cause each transfer is 6weeks... no more and no less) and finish training E. Padilla. He is just amazing and is slowly coming out of his shell and gaining confidence... We are right on track and are having lots of fun.
This past Mon we had another CSP... this time digging a pit for a compost at a school up in te bukid... they wanted it 8feet deep... we got about 4 feet done in the 2hrs we spent on it. Cause after we got through a foot of soil, it was ALL JUST CLAY!!! Sooo gahi! This week also we have decided we are going to more bold with our less actives each visit until they realise they are kulang jud in the gospel. The spirit has definitely helped us this week in the lessons and we have had some great experiences with that. One less active told us about their word of wisdom problem after the spirit told us not to share a scripture with them yet but keep talking to them about things... then the nanay just come out straight with her problem... the spirit is amazing!
Buts thats about all for this week that was exciting and fun... so this is your no longer teenager but now adult child saying,
Love you all
Miss you a ton... (especially your cherry ripe mud cake)
Elder Taylor Addison Cox
*********************************************************************************************************
Terri here: Taylor usually chooses a Cherry Ripe Mudcake to celebrate his birthday with. We'll just have to make it next year after he comes home!!
Sooo...
It turns out that today I'm 20! Another day, another year. Things have been doing well this week. Cebu was kapoy kaayo (sooo tiring!). We left at 5:45 that Thurs morning on the bus and got to Cebu at 12noon... 6hours jud! Then we had lunch at the temple complex before our training meeting at 1-3pm and then spent the rest of the afternoon at distribution getting things and finding out that the is no stock of a ton of things until next summer, ad then in the office chatting with tatay and the other elders in the office at the time.
I bought a quad which i am getting split and recovered-hardbound into 5 books. Old Testament, New Testament, BoM, D&C/PoGP, and then Reference... it will be a maroon red with gold lettering and will look absolutely amazing!
Thanks for everything in the box... most of it got hurot (all used up) today as we went up into the bukid (not to the dagat) for our p'day party thingo for transfers and my b'day. So I'm still in Zambo for another 6 weeks (cause each transfer is 6weeks... no more and no less) and finish training E. Padilla. He is just amazing and is slowly coming out of his shell and gaining confidence... We are right on track and are having lots of fun.
This past Mon we had another CSP... this time digging a pit for a compost at a school up in te bukid... they wanted it 8feet deep... we got about 4 feet done in the 2hrs we spent on it. Cause after we got through a foot of soil, it was ALL JUST CLAY!!! Sooo gahi! This week also we have decided we are going to more bold with our less actives each visit until they realise they are kulang jud in the gospel. The spirit has definitely helped us this week in the lessons and we have had some great experiences with that. One less active told us about their word of wisdom problem after the spirit told us not to share a scripture with them yet but keep talking to them about things... then the nanay just come out straight with her problem... the spirit is amazing!
Buts thats about all for this week that was exciting and fun... so this is your no longer teenager but now adult child saying,
Love you all
Miss you a ton... (especially your cherry ripe mud cake)
Elder Taylor Addison Cox
*********************************************************************************************************
Terri here: Taylor usually chooses a Cherry Ripe Mudcake to celebrate his birthday with. We'll just have to make it next year after he comes home!!
Sunday, July 15, 2012
Letter #49 (July 11th, 2012)
Hey all,
I thought last week was challenging... well, Heavenly Father showed me otherwise! This past week was the most challenging week I have had in this area. Even though we have seen some great progression with the active members, the less-actives are progressing very, very slowly. The active ones are beginning to realise they have to band together or else the church is going to fall apart and they are going to have no church anymore.
We had a great time this week with having members work with us and with storms and flooding around our house and even a motorcycle accident (well, not really accident, more of it just fell over...), but I'll explain more about those incidents later.
The work has been going well. We have quite a few families we have been focusing on their Family Scripture Study and seen that it really helps them improve and focus on the gospel in their families. We were also able to get one of the members to come with us to this one really far area where we have some members with really strong faith and really strong feet. They are progressing well and are aiming for the temple this September.
The stormy weather has really affected our work this week, making it again, impossible to get to some areas while it is raining. We have really tried to follow the Spirit as we change our plans to accommodate for the weather and often pray so hard that the rains will be stayed so that we can accomplish the work of the Lord in these areas. We had an amazing experience with that just this past Monday where the rains were stayed for the whole day while we harvested the rice for one of our less-active families wit the zone. The father of the family was so surprised when he saw 18 missionaries turn up to help out his harvest. It was a great experience.
In that same area the day before was where we saw the hand of the Lord protect us from something that could have been a much worse accident. We were going up the mountain in the one part of our area that afternoon where it turns out the day before the storm had almost destroyed the road, and it was all basically rocks now. The driver we have was very careful and thankfully going slowly so that when he lost his balance on this one part of the road, the motor just fell over. Luckily Elder Padilla jumped off the bike, and my pants got a little burnt on the under parts of the motor when it fell over but other than that, there was nothing else that had happened. We were very lucky and thankful that Heavenly Father always watches out for his missionaries.
So it also flooded outside our house Sun morning and we thought we were going to have to wade though the water to get to church but it turned out that it subsided before we left the house so it was all good.
I got the package from the ZL's after the CSP we had on Mon. The CSP was great and we hired a truck form the municipal to get up the mountain, cause i was nice and thought about the sister missionaries (see how kind i am Mum) and that it would be safer than the motors on that road. Then we spent 2 and half hours harvesting the humay (rice) and collecting it up. Thankyou soo much for the package and all the things inside. How did you know I love jumping frogs!? Love you!
I love you all so much,
One year has gone so fast (almost)...
Miss you,
Love you all,
Elder Taylor Addison Cox
************************************************************************************************************
Terri here: We sent Taylor a package for his birthday (18th July) and made sure it got there before his actual birthday. The company I send the packages with check everything before it's sealed up, so we couldn't wrap any thing in the box, so he asked for "consumables", which are things he could either eat or something the missionaries play with and then give away to the local kids....hence "the jumping frogs". So he's opened it already before his birthday and is enjoying the things we sent!!
I thought last week was challenging... well, Heavenly Father showed me otherwise! This past week was the most challenging week I have had in this area. Even though we have seen some great progression with the active members, the less-actives are progressing very, very slowly. The active ones are beginning to realise they have to band together or else the church is going to fall apart and they are going to have no church anymore.
We had a great time this week with having members work with us and with storms and flooding around our house and even a motorcycle accident (well, not really accident, more of it just fell over...), but I'll explain more about those incidents later.
The work has been going well. We have quite a few families we have been focusing on their Family Scripture Study and seen that it really helps them improve and focus on the gospel in their families. We were also able to get one of the members to come with us to this one really far area where we have some members with really strong faith and really strong feet. They are progressing well and are aiming for the temple this September.
The stormy weather has really affected our work this week, making it again, impossible to get to some areas while it is raining. We have really tried to follow the Spirit as we change our plans to accommodate for the weather and often pray so hard that the rains will be stayed so that we can accomplish the work of the Lord in these areas. We had an amazing experience with that just this past Monday where the rains were stayed for the whole day while we harvested the rice for one of our less-active families wit the zone. The father of the family was so surprised when he saw 18 missionaries turn up to help out his harvest. It was a great experience.
In that same area the day before was where we saw the hand of the Lord protect us from something that could have been a much worse accident. We were going up the mountain in the one part of our area that afternoon where it turns out the day before the storm had almost destroyed the road, and it was all basically rocks now. The driver we have was very careful and thankfully going slowly so that when he lost his balance on this one part of the road, the motor just fell over. Luckily Elder Padilla jumped off the bike, and my pants got a little burnt on the under parts of the motor when it fell over but other than that, there was nothing else that had happened. We were very lucky and thankful that Heavenly Father always watches out for his missionaries.
So it also flooded outside our house Sun morning and we thought we were going to have to wade though the water to get to church but it turned out that it subsided before we left the house so it was all good.
I got the package from the ZL's after the CSP we had on Mon. The CSP was great and we hired a truck form the municipal to get up the mountain, cause i was nice and thought about the sister missionaries (see how kind i am Mum) and that it would be safer than the motors on that road. Then we spent 2 and half hours harvesting the humay (rice) and collecting it up. Thankyou soo much for the package and all the things inside. How did you know I love jumping frogs!? Love you!
I love you all so much,
One year has gone so fast (almost)...
Miss you,
Love you all,
Elder Taylor Addison Cox
************************************************************************************************************
Terri here: We sent Taylor a package for his birthday (18th July) and made sure it got there before his actual birthday. The company I send the packages with check everything before it's sealed up, so we couldn't wrap any thing in the box, so he asked for "consumables", which are things he could either eat or something the missionaries play with and then give away to the local kids....hence "the jumping frogs". So he's opened it already before his birthday and is enjoying the things we sent!!
Letter #48 (July 3rd, 2012)
Hey all, hows things doin there?
We are doing fairly well in Zamboanguita after being hit with a round
of illness just this last weekend. We are recovering well and
continuing with our work. This last week has been fun trying to work
with all the rain that has been occurring and we have been wet quite a
few time this week... which is probably why we ended up getting sick.
But dont worry mum! we are always using our trusty raincoats or
umbrellas... but when its bagio, is bagio jud... the rain comes
sideways!
We also had companion exchanges this last Thursday with our district
leader, and I learned so much from the experience. We had so much fun
and I also got to cook spagetti the propper white person way! with an
italian style sauce! Mmmmm... lami! I have started making more smaller
goals for a daily basis and using an evaluation sheet each night to
evaluate what things I need to improve from a day to day basis. I has
really started to help me to see areas where I need improvement. It has
also helped me to focus my study on areas that need improvement.
This week we have really focused on working with the branch members to
strengthen the branch as there is contention and other no very good
feelings entering into the hearts of some members. We are trying so
hard to keep the branch working and fulfilling responsibilities as we
combat the problems that are seeping in. We are finding it relatively
hard to bring the less-actives back to church when there are these
problems at the moment... we are really trying to
focus on including the members in the work and that seems to be
helping. We have seen a real change in the attitude of the members
about missionary work and they are coming out with us more often to
work. This coming Sunday we have a training meeting for the leaders
and all other members who wish to attend, about missionary work as
members and working in the branch council to help with this. We have
decided to use the PMG sections from chapter 13 to help the members
understand about our role as missionaries and about their role as
members in helping this work to progress forward.
As much as the work has become really hard just recently, I have to
say I am really enjoying it.I see that
even though the area is being quite a challenge at the moment, I am
still progressing as a missionary and there are members that are
coming back to church, and investigators progressing towards
baptism... even if it is ever so slowly.
One thing I have really come to realize is how everything we have
is from our loving Heavenly Father and that we can be more caring and
loving towards others if we remember that. One of our less-actives
said something that really stood out to me in her prayer. She started
out by saying "Thank thee for our blessings..." but caught herself in
the middle of saying "our" and stopped. Then she said, "Thank thee for
the blessings that thou hast given us...". I realized that we don't
always recognize the Lords hand in the lives he has given us as
often as we should. It was a wake up call for me the realize that
everything I have is not really mine... but from my Heavenly Father.
Nothing that I have is truly "mine", but a blessing that has been
given. Mosiah 2:25 "Ye cannot say that ye are even as much as the dust
of the earth; yet ye were created of the dust of the earth; but
behold, it belongeth to him who created you."
Our Heavenly Father loves us so much, we do not truly understand how much...
Miss you all, and love you all so much!
Love, Elder Taylor Addison Cox
We are doing fairly well in Zamboanguita after being hit with a round
of illness just this last weekend. We are recovering well and
continuing with our work. This last week has been fun trying to work
with all the rain that has been occurring and we have been wet quite a
few time this week... which is probably why we ended up getting sick.
But dont worry mum! we are always using our trusty raincoats or
umbrellas... but when its bagio, is bagio jud... the rain comes
sideways!
We also had companion exchanges this last Thursday with our district
leader, and I learned so much from the experience. We had so much fun
and I also got to cook spagetti the propper white person way! with an
italian style sauce! Mmmmm... lami! I have started making more smaller
goals for a daily basis and using an evaluation sheet each night to
evaluate what things I need to improve from a day to day basis. I has
really started to help me to see areas where I need improvement. It has
also helped me to focus my study on areas that need improvement.
This week we have really focused on working with the branch members to
strengthen the branch as there is contention and other no very good
feelings entering into the hearts of some members. We are trying so
hard to keep the branch working and fulfilling responsibilities as we
combat the problems that are seeping in. We are finding it relatively
hard to bring the less-actives back to church when there are these
problems at the moment... we are really trying to
focus on including the members in the work and that seems to be
helping. We have seen a real change in the attitude of the members
about missionary work and they are coming out with us more often to
work. This coming Sunday we have a training meeting for the leaders
and all other members who wish to attend, about missionary work as
members and working in the branch council to help with this. We have
decided to use the PMG sections from chapter 13 to help the members
understand about our role as missionaries and about their role as
members in helping this work to progress forward.
As much as the work has become really hard just recently, I have to
say I am really enjoying it.I see that
even though the area is being quite a challenge at the moment, I am
still progressing as a missionary and there are members that are
coming back to church, and investigators progressing towards
baptism... even if it is ever so slowly.
One thing I have really come to realize is how everything we have
is from our loving Heavenly Father and that we can be more caring and
loving towards others if we remember that. One of our less-actives
said something that really stood out to me in her prayer. She started
out by saying "Thank thee for our blessings..." but caught herself in
the middle of saying "our" and stopped. Then she said, "Thank thee for
the blessings that thou hast given us...". I realized that we don't
always recognize the Lords hand in the lives he has given us as
often as we should. It was a wake up call for me the realize that
everything I have is not really mine... but from my Heavenly Father.
Nothing that I have is truly "mine", but a blessing that has been
given. Mosiah 2:25 "Ye cannot say that ye are even as much as the dust
of the earth; yet ye were created of the dust of the earth; but
behold, it belongeth to him who created you."
Our Heavenly Father loves us so much, we do not truly understand how much...
Miss you all, and love you all so much!
Love, Elder Taylor Addison Cox
Saturday, June 30, 2012
Letter #47 (June 26th, 2012)
Hey all,
This week has been great! we have had some success with learning how
to help out our branch to progress with working with the leaders. And
we are also now working with some investigators who are progressing,
even though slowly... We hope to see some baptisms this next month.
Our new flat is amazing and so easy to keep clean. We had the Croppers
(the couple missionaries for Negros) come and do an apartment check
yesterday and we got celestial rating for cleanliness. They gave us
icecream and mangos for that and i was happy! They also participated
in our companionship study in the morning which was great as well to
hear from their reserves of wisdom.
We had zone interviews this past Sat with pres. schmutz and we went t
dumaguete in the evening before and had this amazing dinner provided
by an americano member who lives here and his philo wife who cooked
the whole zone dinner!
We have been working with the less-actives again this week and have
recently found out that some of them are just shy to come back because
they have been away from the church for so long. So we are working on
getting members to come with us to the visits there to help out.
Terri here: I told Taylor we'd celebrate his birthday without him,but take photos for him and send them to him!! haha
We'll be celebrating here as well on my birthday with some of the
members at the beach. There is this one sister that has a house right
by the beach and we are going to do lunch there on that day probably
with the whole zone.
I got some funny stories from this week as well. One evening we were
walking down this one street and there are these to guys that look
like they are from construction about 40yrs old and as we walk past
them we notice that they are holding hands! We laughed soo hard... and
then when we made it to the highway one of the buses passed by and we
saw this one guy asleep on the window seet about to fall out the
window... he was basically hanging out the window asleep!
hahahahaha....
others things that have happened... Last night we came down the one bukid road that is 7km long... IN THE RAIN... we got wet even with our rain coats on...and at one point the bike slid out from under us but luckily the driver caught it cause we
weren't going fast, cause it was wet... but it was an experience all
right...
We have been caught by the rain about 3 times this week and got stuck
in members houses waiting for it to stop being the
"the-instant-you-walk-out-you-are-drenched-no-matter-what-you-use"
type of rain... fun times...
All things are great,
Miss you all,
Love you all,
Elder Taylor Addison Cox
This week has been great! we have had some success with learning how
to help out our branch to progress with working with the leaders. And
we are also now working with some investigators who are progressing,
even though slowly... We hope to see some baptisms this next month.
Our new flat is amazing and so easy to keep clean. We had the Croppers
(the couple missionaries for Negros) come and do an apartment check
yesterday and we got celestial rating for cleanliness. They gave us
icecream and mangos for that and i was happy! They also participated
in our companionship study in the morning which was great as well to
hear from their reserves of wisdom.
We had zone interviews this past Sat with pres. schmutz and we went t
dumaguete in the evening before and had this amazing dinner provided
by an americano member who lives here and his philo wife who cooked
the whole zone dinner!
We have been working with the less-actives again this week and have
recently found out that some of them are just shy to come back because
they have been away from the church for so long. So we are working on
getting members to come with us to the visits there to help out.
Terri here: I told Taylor we'd celebrate his birthday without him,but take photos for him and send them to him!! haha
We'll be celebrating here as well on my birthday with some of the
members at the beach. There is this one sister that has a house right
by the beach and we are going to do lunch there on that day probably
with the whole zone.
I got some funny stories from this week as well. One evening we were
walking down this one street and there are these to guys that look
like they are from construction about 40yrs old and as we walk past
them we notice that they are holding hands! We laughed soo hard... and
then when we made it to the highway one of the buses passed by and we
saw this one guy asleep on the window seet about to fall out the
window... he was basically hanging out the window asleep!
hahahahaha....
others things that have happened... Last night we came down the one bukid road that is 7km long... IN THE RAIN... we got wet even with our rain coats on...and at one point the bike slid out from under us but luckily the driver caught it cause we
weren't going fast, cause it was wet... but it was an experience all
right...
We have been caught by the rain about 3 times this week and got stuck
in members houses waiting for it to stop being the
"the-instant-you-walk-out-you-are-drenched-no-matter-what-you-use"
type of rain... fun times...
All things are great,
Miss you all,
Love you all,
Elder Taylor Addison Cox
Letter #46 (June 19th, 2012)
Hey all,
We are doing well out in Zamboanguita! Elder Padilla is super nice and
humble and just amazing. We are having a great time working together
and have had some good experiences this last week. with the new
apartment we have been able to really focus on helping the members in
the Poblacion area in town. We have really focused on helping the
members resolve concerns this week and have had some success with more
members coming back to church and staying for all 3 hours. We have
also had some challenges this week, starting with the rain, which made
it impossible for us to go up to some of our areas because the road
becomes impassible because of the water that is rushing down it from
the mountains, so a lot of our attention this week was the members
close by. We received a whole heap of referrals this week from all
sorts of unexpected instances, and have been following up with these
people to start teaching them. We have quite a few new potential
baptisms for this next coming month, and hope to work closely with the
members who gave the referrals too.
I just love the 12 week program... it is just awesome! I continue to
learn so much from it and I think some days Elder Padilla is a little
overwhelmed by all the things we cover in the 2 hours. Some days he
has very little to say and then others, so much to share! But we enjoy
our study time each morning even though sometimes it can be really
tiring. I have personally started to focus on my memorization skills
and have begun to try and memorize some scriptures each week as a
personal goal. I have found it really helps me to always be thinking
about the scriptures and the doctrine we are teaching. I have found
great strength in doing so. Also I have begun to study the New
Testament in my spare time and am trying to gain a greater knowledge
of the life our Savior and a stronger testimony of Him and His
mission.
We have 5 investigators at the moment, two guys aged about 18, two
really shy girls aged 9 (cousins), and one 18 year old girl who needs
to get married to her member boyfriend because they have a 1 year old
kid. So 4 of them will probably be able to get baptised next month all
things going well. The other one, after she gets married. All of them
were at church last Sunday which was absolutely great.
Hope you enjoy the gifts in the package tomorrow...
Miss you all lots..
Love you,
Elder Taylor Addison Cox
**************************************************************************************************************
Terri here: Taylor sent home a package to us. He got some scripture covers made. We just had to tell him what colour, and size. Apparently almost any colour is available. He also sent Reilly a wallet. They look pretty cool. He also is slowly sending home a Mahjong set. Too heavy to send in one package, so sending it in batches!! We were pretty happy to receive a package from him.
We are doing well out in Zamboanguita! Elder Padilla is super nice and
humble and just amazing. We are having a great time working together
and have had some good experiences this last week. with the new
apartment we have been able to really focus on helping the members in
the Poblacion area in town. We have really focused on helping the
members resolve concerns this week and have had some success with more
members coming back to church and staying for all 3 hours. We have
also had some challenges this week, starting with the rain, which made
it impossible for us to go up to some of our areas because the road
becomes impassible because of the water that is rushing down it from
the mountains, so a lot of our attention this week was the members
close by. We received a whole heap of referrals this week from all
sorts of unexpected instances, and have been following up with these
people to start teaching them. We have quite a few new potential
baptisms for this next coming month, and hope to work closely with the
members who gave the referrals too.
I just love the 12 week program... it is just awesome! I continue to
learn so much from it and I think some days Elder Padilla is a little
overwhelmed by all the things we cover in the 2 hours. Some days he
has very little to say and then others, so much to share! But we enjoy
our study time each morning even though sometimes it can be really
tiring. I have personally started to focus on my memorization skills
and have begun to try and memorize some scriptures each week as a
personal goal. I have found it really helps me to always be thinking
about the scriptures and the doctrine we are teaching. I have found
great strength in doing so. Also I have begun to study the New
Testament in my spare time and am trying to gain a greater knowledge
of the life our Savior and a stronger testimony of Him and His
mission.
We have 5 investigators at the moment, two guys aged about 18, two
really shy girls aged 9 (cousins), and one 18 year old girl who needs
to get married to her member boyfriend because they have a 1 year old
kid. So 4 of them will probably be able to get baptised next month all
things going well. The other one, after she gets married. All of them
were at church last Sunday which was absolutely great.
Hope you enjoy the gifts in the package tomorrow...
Miss you all lots..
Love you,
Elder Taylor Addison Cox
**************************************************************************************************************
Terri here: Taylor sent home a package to us. He got some scripture covers made. We just had to tell him what colour, and size. Apparently almost any colour is available. He also sent Reilly a wallet. They look pretty cool. He also is slowly sending home a Mahjong set. Too heavy to send in one package, so sending it in batches!! We were pretty happy to receive a package from him.
Thursday, June 14, 2012
Letter #45 (June 13th, 2012)
Hey all,
we are doing well in Zambo! My new anak is great... he is Visayan and
from the same branch as Elder Olojan (my follow up trainer in Loon) we
are having a good time getting to know each other and me showing him
the area. He is the only member in his family of 7 outside of his
older sister and her husband.
So last Thurs we all Ceres bussed it to Cebu and slept at Ap's apartment
where luckily for me they had a washer and dryer so I could clean my
clothes for the training meeting and not be all baho(smelly). Then
that next morning we headed to the mission home to meet our new anaks.
So Mine is Elder Padilla!
We got to know each other at the meeting and at lunch that day and
then on the 6hour bus trip back to Negros at 6pm that evening (dugaya
oi!). We slept at the Dumaguete apartment that evening and caught a
bus back to our area at 6am the next morning. So Sat was the normal
day again but we were sooo tired from the trip the whole day....
exhausted. Then Sunday was church and meetings and then the ZLs turned
up to finalize our contracts for the apartments and we got permission
to move that Mon after district meeting. So Mon we collected all of
our things and had our district help us to move house. We started at 2
and by 5 everything was finished. We have some really kind nanays in
the branch who even decided to clean the old house for us!!! buotan
kaayo!
Our new house is WONDERFUL!!! It is like a resort! Reilly has photos...
Then yesterday it rained like there was no tomorrow... so we couldnt
go to the area we had planned cause the habal-habal drivers wont go
there if its raining! So we got stuck teaching in the poblacion which
meant we got punter alot cause it was raining a little still... then i
found out that it was a public holiday as well! well no wonder there
was no people!!!
Other than that.... training again so kapoy gayud! We are back to
2hours companion study in the morning and I will be teaching Elder
Padilla English for language study so we dont get out of the house in
the morning until 1pm... soooooo hard not to be able to work all day!
No work in the mornings but that's okay cause the work here in Zambo
is best in the afternoons and evenings.
Today after we email I will send the package. But other than that nothing
much else has happened that I can remember right now... We are enjoying
ourselves in Zambo and I will let you know when I receive that package...
let me know when you get mine!
Miss you all,
Love you,
Elder Taylor Addison Cox
******************************************************************************************************
Terri here: I have added some photos on the photo page!!
we are doing well in Zambo! My new anak is great... he is Visayan and
from the same branch as Elder Olojan (my follow up trainer in Loon) we
are having a good time getting to know each other and me showing him
the area. He is the only member in his family of 7 outside of his
older sister and her husband.
So last Thurs we all Ceres bussed it to Cebu and slept at Ap's apartment
where luckily for me they had a washer and dryer so I could clean my
clothes for the training meeting and not be all baho(smelly). Then
that next morning we headed to the mission home to meet our new anaks.
So Mine is Elder Padilla!
We got to know each other at the meeting and at lunch that day and
then on the 6hour bus trip back to Negros at 6pm that evening (dugaya
oi!). We slept at the Dumaguete apartment that evening and caught a
bus back to our area at 6am the next morning. So Sat was the normal
day again but we were sooo tired from the trip the whole day....
exhausted. Then Sunday was church and meetings and then the ZLs turned
up to finalize our contracts for the apartments and we got permission
to move that Mon after district meeting. So Mon we collected all of
our things and had our district help us to move house. We started at 2
and by 5 everything was finished. We have some really kind nanays in
the branch who even decided to clean the old house for us!!! buotan
kaayo!
Our new house is WONDERFUL!!! It is like a resort! Reilly has photos...
Then yesterday it rained like there was no tomorrow... so we couldnt
go to the area we had planned cause the habal-habal drivers wont go
there if its raining! So we got stuck teaching in the poblacion which
meant we got punter alot cause it was raining a little still... then i
found out that it was a public holiday as well! well no wonder there
was no people!!!
Other than that.... training again so kapoy gayud! We are back to
2hours companion study in the morning and I will be teaching Elder
Padilla English for language study so we dont get out of the house in
the morning until 1pm... soooooo hard not to be able to work all day!
No work in the mornings but that's okay cause the work here in Zambo
is best in the afternoons and evenings.
Today after we email I will send the package. But other than that nothing
much else has happened that I can remember right now... We are enjoying
ourselves in Zambo and I will let you know when I receive that package...
let me know when you get mine!
Miss you all,
Love you,
Elder Taylor Addison Cox
******************************************************************************************************
Terri here: I have added some photos on the photo page!!
Letter #44 (June 6th, 2012)
Hey all,
So things are great apart from having to say goodbye to Elder
Dela Cerna and send him to Cebu for his final few days of the mission.
I'm going to tell about the last week before telling you what happened
this morning at transfer calls. So this week it has been raining with
same types of wind... but EVERY DAY almost. Same thins happened to me
and Dela Cerna except he had a umbrella which didnt do him very well
and i had a new raincoat which left my pants wet from the knee down
(cause philos are short...) luckily i had on my waterproof shoes...
all i need now are some waterproof socks to go with them... jejeje
Oh! forgot to tell you... Zambo is so primitive
that when it rains we lose power... every time it rains it brown
outs... it sucks!
After we had a farewell FHE (more of a FHAfternoon) we headed to
Dumaguete, I brought extra clothes cause I knew I would be there until
Fri waiting for me new companion. Elder Dela Cerna bought
us pizza for dinner and for the zone leaders as well and we had pizza,
soft drinks and ice cream (I bought the ice cream) for dinner. It was
great! then that next morning at 2am we put him on a bus to Cebu and
then headed back home to sleep. That day on Tues I worked with Elder
Ashdown the whole day. We got two lessons only that day but they were
really powerful lessons. WE watched the Prophet of The Restoration
DVD with one of them and she cried through the movie. You could see
that she could really feel the spirit from the movie and the life of
Joseph Smith. We had a ton of fruit for lunch... a whole pineapple,
bananas and mangos, with the left over ice cream... I have pictures
for the next emailing.
Then today we headed to a beach to have transfer calls and guess
what!... I'm training again! I have another anak! Elder Holley has
another apo! So I got no heads up about this like previous trainers
have these last couple of transfers... surprised jud ko! But I'm
excited to get the opportunity again cause I really enjoyed it the
last time as well (even though it was really hard). So I have to go to
Cebu again! KAPOY! So tomorrow afternoon I will go there on a bus at
2pm and then come back Fri night. Lucky I have clothes with me cause
the is no time to go back to Zambo to get any extra. So I'll be in
Zambo another 2 transfers hopefully all things going well, which means
my anak will be there for my B'day AND my 1 year mark (how lucky is
he!). Which means i can also really help this branch out a little
longer and see some more progress there.
Something from Elder Nelson... he taught us to not distract from the
Spirit. He explained that we need to be careful about the things we
are doing whether they will help us to focus and listen to the Spirit
or if they are going to make it harder for others to feel the Spirit
and harder for us to listen to and follow its promptings. I think that
applies to our everyday lives... we need to watch the things we are
doing that they allow us to feel of the Spirit to be guided in making
the right choices. If we are in situations which distract from the
Spirit, how are we going to know what the right thing for us to do is?
I have a short story about a man who wanted to build his own house but
didn't have quite the knowledge to do so. So he approached someone
about it a he said come with me tomorrow and I will show you how to
build a house. So the next day he went with this man and the man
pulled out a ton of blueprints and showed them to the man and said
"and that is how you build a house," and left him. The next day he
tried a different man, and this time the man said "sit here and watch
me" and proceeded to build a house, and when he was done said "and
that is how you build a house," and left him. Then the third day the
man sought out one final man to teach him how to build a house, and he
found a man who said "I can teach you how to build a house," and he
pulled out his tool box and held up a saw. "This is a saw," he said
"and you use this to cut your wood," and thus he proceeded to teach
the man to build his house.
Another important thing to teach is the why... the why is the most
important of all... WHY do you need to have ward council?... what will
happen and WHY if it doesn't happen?
That is something that has really been our focus here right now and
will be for a good few years. Helping the members to understand the
WHY of their callings.
So I hope that helps and that you can work things out...
I'll email you next week all the news of the new companion.
Miss you and love you all so much.
Elder Taylor Addison Cox
So things are great apart from having to say goodbye to Elder
Dela Cerna and send him to Cebu for his final few days of the mission.
I'm going to tell about the last week before telling you what happened
this morning at transfer calls. So this week it has been raining with
same types of wind... but EVERY DAY almost. Same thins happened to me
and Dela Cerna except he had a umbrella which didnt do him very well
and i had a new raincoat which left my pants wet from the knee down
(cause philos are short...) luckily i had on my waterproof shoes...
all i need now are some waterproof socks to go with them... jejeje
Oh! forgot to tell you... Zambo is so primitive
that when it rains we lose power... every time it rains it brown
outs... it sucks!
After we had a farewell FHE (more of a FHAfternoon) we headed to
Dumaguete, I brought extra clothes cause I knew I would be there until
Fri waiting for me new companion. Elder Dela Cerna bought
us pizza for dinner and for the zone leaders as well and we had pizza,
soft drinks and ice cream (I bought the ice cream) for dinner. It was
great! then that next morning at 2am we put him on a bus to Cebu and
then headed back home to sleep. That day on Tues I worked with Elder
Ashdown the whole day. We got two lessons only that day but they were
really powerful lessons. WE watched the Prophet of The Restoration
DVD with one of them and she cried through the movie. You could see
that she could really feel the spirit from the movie and the life of
Joseph Smith. We had a ton of fruit for lunch... a whole pineapple,
bananas and mangos, with the left over ice cream... I have pictures
for the next emailing.
Then today we headed to a beach to have transfer calls and guess
what!... I'm training again! I have another anak! Elder Holley has
another apo! So I got no heads up about this like previous trainers
have these last couple of transfers... surprised jud ko! But I'm
excited to get the opportunity again cause I really enjoyed it the
last time as well (even though it was really hard). So I have to go to
Cebu again! KAPOY! So tomorrow afternoon I will go there on a bus at
2pm and then come back Fri night. Lucky I have clothes with me cause
the is no time to go back to Zambo to get any extra. So I'll be in
Zambo another 2 transfers hopefully all things going well, which means
my anak will be there for my B'day AND my 1 year mark (how lucky is
he!). Which means i can also really help this branch out a little
longer and see some more progress there.
Something from Elder Nelson... he taught us to not distract from the
Spirit. He explained that we need to be careful about the things we
are doing whether they will help us to focus and listen to the Spirit
or if they are going to make it harder for others to feel the Spirit
and harder for us to listen to and follow its promptings. I think that
applies to our everyday lives... we need to watch the things we are
doing that they allow us to feel of the Spirit to be guided in making
the right choices. If we are in situations which distract from the
Spirit, how are we going to know what the right thing for us to do is?
I have a short story about a man who wanted to build his own house but
didn't have quite the knowledge to do so. So he approached someone
about it a he said come with me tomorrow and I will show you how to
build a house. So the next day he went with this man and the man
pulled out a ton of blueprints and showed them to the man and said
"and that is how you build a house," and left him. The next day he
tried a different man, and this time the man said "sit here and watch
me" and proceeded to build a house, and when he was done said "and
that is how you build a house," and left him. Then the third day the
man sought out one final man to teach him how to build a house, and he
found a man who said "I can teach you how to build a house," and he
pulled out his tool box and held up a saw. "This is a saw," he said
"and you use this to cut your wood," and thus he proceeded to teach
the man to build his house.
Another important thing to teach is the why... the why is the most
important of all... WHY do you need to have ward council?... what will
happen and WHY if it doesn't happen?
That is something that has really been our focus here right now and
will be for a good few years. Helping the members to understand the
WHY of their callings.
So I hope that helps and that you can work things out...
I'll email you next week all the news of the new companion.
Miss you and love you all so much.
Elder Taylor Addison Cox
Sunday, June 3, 2012
letter #43 (May 30th, 2012)
Hey all,
I completely forgot it was 10 months!!! But that's probably because I
keep thinking about how close my birthday is and my 1 year mark...
time has really flow by...!
The last couple of days the AP's have been in our area and then in our
district and we've been having fun with them teaching out in the bukid
and having District meeting
We got stuck yesterday waiting for the rain to stop in a members
house. It was ridiculously heavy and took forever to stop... we were
going to go up the bukid to teach our less-actives there but we
thought better of it after seeing the black clouds rolling down the
bukid and were really glad we didnt go up there when it started
raining.
Elder Nelson gave a great take on learning things around the pulpit
and not from the pulpit. About listening to the impressions of the
Spirit as we listen with our ears to the words of the speakers and
then writing it down. I'll have to remember to bring my notes next
time and write some things i learnt and felt.
And we havent moved house just yet BUT both the Croppers and Sis
Schmutz just love it (they came and checked it out last Friday and
said all the other missionaries are going to want to transfer to Zambo
now... jejeje). We will probably move in this coming Friday, if not
than this week some time (cause others wise they have to pay extra for
the house we are in at the moment as the rent is up again next month
on the 3rd or so)
So with the transfers, it turns out that the ZLs dont have a meeting
in Cebu so Elder Dela Cerna will leave on Tues morning by himself and
catch a bus to Cebu, while I stay in Bacong Dumaguete and work with
the ZL's in their area until my companion arrives on that Friday.
Miss you and love you all,
Elder Taylor Addison Cox
I completely forgot it was 10 months!!! But that's probably because I
keep thinking about how close my birthday is and my 1 year mark...
time has really flow by...!
The last couple of days the AP's have been in our area and then in our
district and we've been having fun with them teaching out in the bukid
and having District meeting
We got stuck yesterday waiting for the rain to stop in a members
house. It was ridiculously heavy and took forever to stop... we were
going to go up the bukid to teach our less-actives there but we
thought better of it after seeing the black clouds rolling down the
bukid and were really glad we didnt go up there when it started
raining.
Elder Nelson gave a great take on learning things around the pulpit
and not from the pulpit. About listening to the impressions of the
Spirit as we listen with our ears to the words of the speakers and
then writing it down. I'll have to remember to bring my notes next
time and write some things i learnt and felt.
And we havent moved house just yet BUT both the Croppers and Sis
Schmutz just love it (they came and checked it out last Friday and
said all the other missionaries are going to want to transfer to Zambo
now... jejeje). We will probably move in this coming Friday, if not
than this week some time (cause others wise they have to pay extra for
the house we are in at the moment as the rent is up again next month
on the 3rd or so)
So with the transfers, it turns out that the ZLs dont have a meeting
in Cebu so Elder Dela Cerna will leave on Tues morning by himself and
catch a bus to Cebu, while I stay in Bacong Dumaguete and work with
the ZL's in their area until my companion arrives on that Friday.
Miss you and love you all,
Elder Taylor Addison Cox
Letter #42 (May 24th, 2012)
Hey all...
My week has been great! despite some minor health problems these last
few days.
And yes it is definitely a bus we caught and not a ferry...(Terri here: I asked him how was he going to get from one island to another, and thought he meant ferry not bus in his last email!!) at least I don't think ferries can drive on the road! The secret is the bus hops on a barge that goes across to Oslob on Cebu before driving all the way up to Cebu City. It took about 6 hours in total to get there but coming back it was only 5hrs or so. The visit was amazing (of course)and we had a lot of fun catching up with batch mates and the sort, taking pictures and telling all sorts of stories.
We had a great experience this last Tues morning in finding a new
house to move to. We just felt like we had to change our schedule for
the morning and work closer to the centre of town. So thats what we
did, and we found this amazing house (with the help of a member) which
is almost right by the seaside. It is the perfect size for
missionaries not huge like the one now... and the owner lives right
next door and is so friendly. He knows English very well and is a
dentist. We will probly be moving there this next coming week or so...
probly before the next transfer.
We had an interesting experience as well last Sun teaching 2 new
referrals. One was semi interested, but her brother was a very
stubborn Roman Catholic. At first we thought he was getting the things
we were teaching cause he was asking some really good questions but
then he was just being ridiculous. Turns out they are taught that you
can't ask God anything questions in your pray... at least thats what
the priests teach them, so they can't find out the truth. Then the
stubborn part... He was content that his religion was 'enough' for him
in this life... so we asked him if he knew anyhting about where he
came from, or what his purpose is here, or were he is going after his
life. The first two of course he said he didnt know and the last was
the typical "heaven and hell" answer of course... Then he wouldnt
accept the fact that we knew, almost like in Alma 21:5-6... and then
he said something that got me a little mad, especially as a
missionary. Because we were using the pamphlets to teach he got
frustrated with our knowledge and said "Why cant you look me in the
eye and tell me these things, why do you always have to use your
books?" Well, oh man... that was the wrong thing for him to say in
front of Elder Cox. Cause Elder Cox stopped the lesson, looked him
straight in the eye and said "So that you know, I testify to you..."
and proceeded to give a full length testimony on The Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter Day Saints, its restoration and that asking questions
in pray is the only way to know the truth. Well, he wasnt very happy
still, we closed the lesson and his sister invited the member who was
with us to come back some time (she was a little more receptive).
I wasn't sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing, and am still thinking over that, that it was probably okay, seeing I wasn't yelling at him or anything angry
like that, but I was definitely very very very bold with him.
But other than that the week has been pretty normal and we are coming
up to the end of transfer again very quickly. The first Monday in June
I will say goodbye to my companion and most likely be with the elders in Valencia Negros until the end of that week. But ill find out more about that next week probably.
So make sure you are all having fun.
Miss you all,
Love you all,
Elder Taylor Addison Cox
My week has been great! despite some minor health problems these last
few days.
And yes it is definitely a bus we caught and not a ferry...(Terri here: I asked him how was he going to get from one island to another, and thought he meant ferry not bus in his last email!!) at least I don't think ferries can drive on the road! The secret is the bus hops on a barge that goes across to Oslob on Cebu before driving all the way up to Cebu City. It took about 6 hours in total to get there but coming back it was only 5hrs or so. The visit was amazing (of course)and we had a lot of fun catching up with batch mates and the sort, taking pictures and telling all sorts of stories.
We had a great experience this last Tues morning in finding a new
house to move to. We just felt like we had to change our schedule for
the morning and work closer to the centre of town. So thats what we
did, and we found this amazing house (with the help of a member) which
is almost right by the seaside. It is the perfect size for
missionaries not huge like the one now... and the owner lives right
next door and is so friendly. He knows English very well and is a
dentist. We will probly be moving there this next coming week or so...
probly before the next transfer.
We had an interesting experience as well last Sun teaching 2 new
referrals. One was semi interested, but her brother was a very
stubborn Roman Catholic. At first we thought he was getting the things
we were teaching cause he was asking some really good questions but
then he was just being ridiculous. Turns out they are taught that you
can't ask God anything questions in your pray... at least thats what
the priests teach them, so they can't find out the truth. Then the
stubborn part... He was content that his religion was 'enough' for him
in this life... so we asked him if he knew anyhting about where he
came from, or what his purpose is here, or were he is going after his
life. The first two of course he said he didnt know and the last was
the typical "heaven and hell" answer of course... Then he wouldnt
accept the fact that we knew, almost like in Alma 21:5-6... and then
he said something that got me a little mad, especially as a
missionary. Because we were using the pamphlets to teach he got
frustrated with our knowledge and said "Why cant you look me in the
eye and tell me these things, why do you always have to use your
books?" Well, oh man... that was the wrong thing for him to say in
front of Elder Cox. Cause Elder Cox stopped the lesson, looked him
straight in the eye and said "So that you know, I testify to you..."
and proceeded to give a full length testimony on The Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter Day Saints, its restoration and that asking questions
in pray is the only way to know the truth. Well, he wasnt very happy
still, we closed the lesson and his sister invited the member who was
with us to come back some time (she was a little more receptive).
I wasn't sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing, and am still thinking over that, that it was probably okay, seeing I wasn't yelling at him or anything angry
like that, but I was definitely very very very bold with him.
But other than that the week has been pretty normal and we are coming
up to the end of transfer again very quickly. The first Monday in June
I will say goodbye to my companion and most likely be with the elders in Valencia Negros until the end of that week. But ill find out more about that next week probably.
So make sure you are all having fun.
Miss you all,
Love you all,
Elder Taylor Addison Cox
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