Letter #24 (18th Jan, 2012)

Hey all,
This week has been great! I will come back to the wonderful things that happened and answer your other questions first.
My shoes were from some department store in Talibon markets... i have no idea what the name was. But im sure you can buy them anywhere in the Pines... the brand is called Duralite.

So now for the stories...
Thursday we headed over to Sandignan Isle again to find more less actives. We went searching for this one member and came up to his tindahan at the front of his house. We asked this lady in the tindahan where he was and she said to us that he had died almost a whole year ago. She was his sister and wondered why we had come looking for him now, when he had died almost a year ago. I was so saddened to think that no members of the church had even bothered to try and see how he was even doing for a whole year, to know that he had died. How sad to think that a member of the church can be so forgotten and neglected. I realised then the importance of our home and visiting teaching and that we need to strive to visit these people even if it is just to see how they are doing. While we chatted with his sister for the information about his death for the records of the church, your prayers were answer that we would meet those we needed to meet. A guy passed by on a motorcycle and shouted out to us "Im a member... wait... I'll return...". He came back after dropping of his passenger, and we chatted for a while. He is 18 years old and his family has just moved from the city... Talisay ward Cebu... and he has been in-active since his high school years. He knows that he needs to come back to church and enjoyed working with the missionaries previously. We had a great lesson with him and his mother at their house before going to find more less actives. Unfortunately he didn't come to church this week.
But we had a great success with the less actives from Catagbacan Handig. We had three families return to church on Sunday and one family expressed their feelings to us when we visited with them on Monday. The P...... family, the ones with the fishing experience, havent been to church for ages now, and Tatay was constantly expressing to us how his body was to tired to go to church and it was hard for him to work and get money to go to church. So again we promised him through the name of Jesus Christ that if he went to church he would gain energy and strength for his body for the week so that he could do his work and get money for food and to go to church. They even payed their tithing at church on Sunday, they told us, to give thanks for the feelings they had there and thanks for the blessings they have received. They were so happy when we visited with them on Monday, joyous to be exact... and they expressed how they know that they want to keep going to church to continue to receive these blessings.
Tatay said he has never felt so good. His body has energy and strength. He doesnt feel tired and doesnt have aches and pains.
No coincidence... but the power and blessing of God.
We have also been able to exercise our priesthood this week as everyone is sick because of the rain and there and lots of families without priesthood in their homes. I have felt the Spirit of the Lord and his guidance as we give these blessings and I know that Heavenly Father has given us great opportunity to use his power for the benefit of others.
I know that this work is the work of God, "to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man." - Moses 1:39
This is the work of saving souls and helping them to draw closer unto their Savior, Jesus Christ. To help them to feel a complete and everlasting happiness for their lives, to strengthen their families and to help them receive the blessings that God has prepared for them to receive.
To all those who are reading this blog, who are not yet members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, I invite you to try my words. I invite you to contact and visit with the missionaries where you live (for they are there... they are everywhere). Listen to the message they have to share, and I promise you in the name of Jesus Christ our Savior, that the message they have to share will change your life. I promise you it will be for your benefit, and you will begin to feel a difference in your life. I promise you that if you listen with an open heart you will feel the Spirit of the Lord and a taste of the complete and everlasting happiness and peace he has to offer. I leave you my testimony that I know these things are true, that the gospel of Jesus Christ has been restored to the earth in its completeness through the prophet Joseph Smith. I know that this gospel can bless your life and the life of your family. This testimony and these promises I leave in the name of Jesus Christ.
I love you all and miss you tons...
Till next week,
Love, Elder Taylor Addison Cox

****************************************************************************************************************

Terri here: If anyone reading the blog does want to find out about the Church, you can contact us, those that have my phone number or email, or at work (which is school) or you can look up The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in the phone book (or on whitepages.com.au) and someone will come and answer your questions or just talk to you.