Letter #79 (6th Feb, 2013)

Hey all,
Things are doing great here in the city. After a 4 hour planning session last week everything just went so smoothly this week (with a few normal hiccups along the way). Just back from the temple... it was great! I miss the temple. It feels great every time I go there. Elder Harris and I have had an interesting time trying to fill up our teaching pool again this past few weeks and its been great to see the  blessings from our Father in Heaven as we have received referral after referral this past week. Even just yesterday and again this morning. Our work has been filling up slowly as we continue to look for all the less-actives on the ward list. But we also have some frustrating days every now and again. Just this past Monday we got punted at every lesson except for our last one... so we went looking for the less-actives in  the area, and ended up getting led around in circles until we met this one guy who actually knew people from the area, and told us this brother had been dead for 9 years now (where were his home teachers?...) but we are having success with the list finding those members that have been lost for a long time and want to come back. These past two weeks we have contacted over 10 individuals that we had never heard of before (or even the members have heard of for that matter). We still haven't found that guy that's 107 years old, but when we do ill let you know... jujuju
We are having some more success with the members in the ward again, with lots of appointments actually being confirmed, and the people actually being in their houses waiting for us when we go to  visit. Also the youth are really pushing the rescue the one in the ward and are leading the other quorums and auxiliaries in fulfilling their area goals. We have some young men been helping us to visit the less-active youth in the ward and it has really helped. The ward mission leader has really taken it on hi m to really help out with coordinating our work with the ward and we are beginning to see some really good progress in terms of information getting to and from the auxiliaries and quorums. Speaking of which, San Nicholas ward has really started to pick up their game with preparing for missionaries, getting their ward mission plan started and trying to get the home teaching and visiting teaching up and running. It will be good to see the progress they begin to make this month and this next transfer, to see if they are really prepared for the missionaries.
Oh, by the way, this next transfer is the short one when we sync with the other missions for the transfer day. We will be preparing the Basak house this week and furnishing it for the incoming missionaries and moving in ourselves... yup! moving house again... it sucks... but the new house is huge...  send you pictures when we furnish it up. The house is still in our area though.
Elder Ernstrom, the office elder (hes absolutely hilarious), said we should put in Elder McHale and Elder Afu in the area so no one will mess with the elders... cause these two elders are huge beasts of pure muscle... no joke... ill try and get you photos... jejeje. We are excited and so is also the Basak ward for the new missionaries. Basak ward has put forth so much effort to get missionaries back in the ward and even have 5 investigators or so, coming to church every week and being taught by the ward missionaries. The bishop has really pushed the leadership to really get into gear to help the ward to progress, and we have really seen his efforts this past month. We are excited for the progress we will see in the Basak area this next transfer.
The boundaries for the zone are all figured out... they just haven't been updated by the area yet... and they are planning on changing them again but haven't put the changes in for approval... typical problems in the pines.
Having a great time in the city!

Not much else happened this week that was exciting enough to tell you... just the normal missionary work. Looking forward to that package... ^.^

Miss you all,

Love you tons,

Elder Taylor Addison Cox