We asked Taylor some questions this week, and I've put in his answers!!
How's things? Is your stomach okay? I hope you've been good, health wise, this last week. Now can you try and answer some questions for us?
1. Are you eating anything other than rice and meat?
Our schedule has been really messed up so i have to be quick and then next week ill have a really long letter/email for you. I will try to answer all the questions real quick though.
Things are great, and my stomach is fine. We have been eating all sorts of stuff like meat fruits fish, etc.
2. Are you buying snacks to carry with you like Michelle told you to?
We don't carry round much snacks but we do buy things when we get hungry.
3. Why are you staying WAY under budget? (You need to buy veges and Fruit!!!...and then eat them!!)
We are staying way under budget cause we don't spend our money on fast food or waste electricity or water.Says the boy who use to have 20 minute showers!!!
4. Where is your companion from? ...other than the States!!!
He's from Utah and knows most ppl from my batch of elders that were from there as well.
5. How's your branch going? We pray for your branch, but do you want us to be specific about anything?
The branch is coming along well and the members are all really strong so no not really anything specific atm.
6. Have you got mail from anyone?
Oh, thanks for the pictures, i got them yesterday after Elder Holland's visit. And i did get Kristy's letter, can you let her know as ive been really busy
7. Have you been getting to play any piano? (Those of you that know Taylor know he absolutely LOVES to play the piano....to the point that his Dad would ask him to stop practising!!)
yes last sunday i played in the ward and they were all amazed that i could play while watching the choirister who was to me right and sort of behind me...(so basically i was playing without looking)
8. How was the typhoon experience?
Well, it never really hit Bohol like they said it would... but Cebu had a bunch of rain.
And the other questions... YES we have been VERY busy with everything thats been happening. I'll write more next week cause we have to be quick cause its not Pday.
And there are 4 of us on Bohol. Elder Irvin and me and Elder Dustin are in the same zone and then elder Dustins mtc companion elder Herbst is in the neighbouring zone
Love you all,
Thankyou for all the support and your prayers...
Naghigugma ko kaninyo
Elder Taylor Addison Cox
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
Friday, October 21, 2011
Letter # 10 (October 12th, 2011.)
Hey all,
Another week and more great experiences with the mission.
But before I start you have to know that, you know how you were following that blog of that Sister missionary in Cebu mission and the story about her companion getting scared by some perverts that tried to spy on them in their appartment... well she is in my district! Sister Robison... small world. She is really hard working and always pushing our district to achieve more than the mission standards.
Our district is doing great and this week we ad a combined effort of 1200 "invitations to learn" in the zone.Thats with only 5 companionships. I dont know if you know what they are... so they are when we meet someone, introduce ourselves as missionaries, share a little and invite them to learn more. We have been working real hard on doing the best we can. This week in my compaionship we taught a total of 25 lessons and that was with half of sat with conference and sun also with conference and having to go to the hospital. Now dont freak out yet... cause you havent heard the story. That will come later.
That's just wonderful to hear that Elder Laxton will be here this week... he is such a great missionary with such purpose of heart to this great work.
Oh, we now have 4 investigators commited to baptism in the next two months, after having a bunch of people telling us not to expect any because of the area we are in. Just goes to show that the Lords work continues despite the attitude of the people.
Now about Sunday and the hospital story... so on Sun morning at about 1 or 2 in the morning i start throwing up, mainly just rice and then i feel fine. So the next day, this is conference day, we head off to conference, and i feel a little bit queasy, but nothing else. We have lunch with Bro and Sis Stroud, a senior couple on their mission here in Calape zone. then we go back in for the afternoon session... and i start to get these abdominal pains. They get worse after the conference, but we head out cause my companion Elder Holley is district leader and has to do a baptismal interview for the sisters. After we head back to the Strouds cause they were concerned about my condition. They check my symptoms and things and cant tell whats wrong. Oh btw we are in a brown out at as well this sunday so they dont have internet or other power at their house. They txt Sis Schmutz about my condition and she says to go get it checked out at the hospital just to be safe. So the Strouds drive us over to Tagbilaran to the hospital which is actually pretty decent hospital. They aska bout the syptoms and then order a blood test to find out whats wrong. So after a blood test, an hour wait and 450pesos later they tell me im just experiencing cramps and to take some painkiller relaxants to help with the cramps. So that was Sunday from about 4-8 or so. Then Mon my stomach was upset most of the day,Tuesday I was better.
So that was that... and now i pretty much okay, but with a bit of a cough. Its been raining here and it really rains... and the philos are seriously scared of the rain. We were teaching some people under a little undercover seating thing, and it started raining. We started with 3 people and ended up with 7 or so. They all just rushed in once it started raining... even if they had an umbrella! So we finish up teaching our message and start out and they are all like "You cant go out! Its still raining!!!" "You'll die!" sort of stuff. So Elder Holley says "we're not afraid of the rain!"... and then the funniest thing happens... this old nanay is like "Well if they're not afraid of the rain then neither am I!" and she walks with us through the rain, and we talk with her as we walk.
We were sposed to harvest rice for some of the investigators of the sisters yesterday but because of the rain it was flooded out. So hopefully we will get to do that this saturday... but we are doubtful because... I dont know if youve heard anything about this... but Typhoon Ramon is supposed to hit Bohol early this evening sometime. We have all been warned and we are all preparing for the worst. Luckly we live in a higher area so we arent too worried about flooding where we are but we might not be able to get to some of our other areas for a while afterwards. We'll see and I'll let you know what happens next weeks P'day.
Alot more to write cause its real world and not just MTC schedule everyday... so i hope you appreciate the longer emails.
Please send my thanks and warmest regards to the YSA and thank Tamara for the CDs. They are just great! Also tell Alex Pinono that i dont speak Tagalog, cebuano lang.
The other package im sure i will get at Elder Hollands visit this next week. But like i said the rest of the mail gets delivered whenever someone comes out and its gets passed along to the ZLs.
Well thats this week... with a few scares and a whole heap of exciting experiences with the language and teaching lessons. Hope you are all enjoying yourselves back home. Missing you lots...
Naghigugma ko kaninyo,
Elder Taylor Addison Cox
*************************************************************************************
Terri here: Not much to tell you from me! We figure he just ate something that didn't agree with him, which wouldn't be much as this boy can usually eat anything!!
Another week and more great experiences with the mission.
But before I start you have to know that, you know how you were following that blog of that Sister missionary in Cebu mission and the story about her companion getting scared by some perverts that tried to spy on them in their appartment... well she is in my district! Sister Robison... small world. She is really hard working and always pushing our district to achieve more than the mission standards.
Our district is doing great and this week we ad a combined effort of 1200 "invitations to learn" in the zone.Thats with only 5 companionships. I dont know if you know what they are... so they are when we meet someone, introduce ourselves as missionaries, share a little and invite them to learn more. We have been working real hard on doing the best we can. This week in my compaionship we taught a total of 25 lessons and that was with half of sat with conference and sun also with conference and having to go to the hospital. Now dont freak out yet... cause you havent heard the story. That will come later.
That's just wonderful to hear that Elder Laxton will be here this week... he is such a great missionary with such purpose of heart to this great work.
Oh, we now have 4 investigators commited to baptism in the next two months, after having a bunch of people telling us not to expect any because of the area we are in. Just goes to show that the Lords work continues despite the attitude of the people.
Now about Sunday and the hospital story... so on Sun morning at about 1 or 2 in the morning i start throwing up, mainly just rice and then i feel fine. So the next day, this is conference day, we head off to conference, and i feel a little bit queasy, but nothing else. We have lunch with Bro and Sis Stroud, a senior couple on their mission here in Calape zone. then we go back in for the afternoon session... and i start to get these abdominal pains. They get worse after the conference, but we head out cause my companion Elder Holley is district leader and has to do a baptismal interview for the sisters. After we head back to the Strouds cause they were concerned about my condition. They check my symptoms and things and cant tell whats wrong. Oh btw we are in a brown out at as well this sunday so they dont have internet or other power at their house. They txt Sis Schmutz about my condition and she says to go get it checked out at the hospital just to be safe. So the Strouds drive us over to Tagbilaran to the hospital which is actually pretty decent hospital. They aska bout the syptoms and then order a blood test to find out whats wrong. So after a blood test, an hour wait and 450pesos later they tell me im just experiencing cramps and to take some painkiller relaxants to help with the cramps. So that was Sunday from about 4-8 or so. Then Mon my stomach was upset most of the day,Tuesday I was better.
So that was that... and now i pretty much okay, but with a bit of a cough. Its been raining here and it really rains... and the philos are seriously scared of the rain. We were teaching some people under a little undercover seating thing, and it started raining. We started with 3 people and ended up with 7 or so. They all just rushed in once it started raining... even if they had an umbrella! So we finish up teaching our message and start out and they are all like "You cant go out! Its still raining!!!" "You'll die!" sort of stuff. So Elder Holley says "we're not afraid of the rain!"... and then the funniest thing happens... this old nanay is like "Well if they're not afraid of the rain then neither am I!" and she walks with us through the rain, and we talk with her as we walk.
We were sposed to harvest rice for some of the investigators of the sisters yesterday but because of the rain it was flooded out. So hopefully we will get to do that this saturday... but we are doubtful because... I dont know if youve heard anything about this... but Typhoon Ramon is supposed to hit Bohol early this evening sometime. We have all been warned and we are all preparing for the worst. Luckly we live in a higher area so we arent too worried about flooding where we are but we might not be able to get to some of our other areas for a while afterwards. We'll see and I'll let you know what happens next weeks P'day.
Alot more to write cause its real world and not just MTC schedule everyday... so i hope you appreciate the longer emails.
Please send my thanks and warmest regards to the YSA and thank Tamara for the CDs. They are just great! Also tell Alex Pinono that i dont speak Tagalog, cebuano lang.
The other package im sure i will get at Elder Hollands visit this next week. But like i said the rest of the mail gets delivered whenever someone comes out and its gets passed along to the ZLs.
Well thats this week... with a few scares and a whole heap of exciting experiences with the language and teaching lessons. Hope you are all enjoying yourselves back home. Missing you lots...
Naghigugma ko kaninyo,
Elder Taylor Addison Cox
*************************************************************************************
Terri here: Not much to tell you from me! We figure he just ate something that didn't agree with him, which wouldn't be much as this boy can usually eat anything!!
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
Letter #9
Hey there family!
So once again I am safe... and having a great time here in the philippines. I have been assigned to the area of Lo-on in Bohol. My companion is an Elder Holley, from America and he has been here 1yr tomorrow. his visayas is great and we are having so much fun teaching and tracting here in the barungay. Our branch is very small with only about 30 ppl of which 6 are investigators. There are only a few priesthood, about 8 or so. But the priesthood that we have are so strong and help out so much with fellow-shipping the investigators and new converts. We have a baptism coming up the week after conference on the 15th and hopefully another one in the next couple of weeks after that. We contact about 20 ppl each day and invite them to be taught. But they all come up with the same excuse. "maglakaw karon" which basically means "im about to go walkabouts"... they all use the same excuse when we invite.
Our house is small... im sending pictures in another email... but we dont have very much at all. I have come to realise just how blessed we are in Australia, and just how much abundance of food and other things we truly have. But i love it! it is so much fun here besides the little that we have. In our house we only have rice and water... but that is really all you need here to survive...hahaha!
We have a toilet WITH a seat! and a giant bucket and ladel. Walay toilet paper though... kamot lang. But its not that much of an issue, at least not for me.
There are 3 of us in the same zone at the moment on Bohol. Me , Elder Irvin and Elder Dustin. The food is mostly rice and little sides of meat. My body hasn't gone spaz on me either, so that has been good. And they have Milo here so im happy! Im getting eaten by mossies every day despite the DEET stuff...(i dont think the mossies care) but its okay. And we have had heaps of lizards in our place... even some big "tuko"s which i had photos of, and they are pretty big... like two hands worth of size.
Oh... if you send a package by mail here it costs me 40pesos... thats just how things work in the philippines. And pres. schmutz said no emails from anyone cept family... so if you could pass that on to my friends through whatever means you want, including the blog. Salamat! So ill probly just send one to the famly rather than seperate ones unless there is something real specific i want totell ppl about. So there are 6 in my district and another 4 in the other district in our zone... so 10 in the zone, and 2 are sisters. The other lot are all in Cebu city, and i say good luck to them... it is mayhem there. On the roads... there are NO road rules... we thought we were going to die going back to pres. place from the airport. Basically if you are bigger you have right of way and if you honk, someone else has to make room for you. But surprisingly no one smashes into each other and no one gets angry at other ppl for pushing in, cause its normal. Its pretty cool how that works actually.
Today we are at the "big" mall on Bohol, which is sorta like Parra Westfield but half the size and with a ton more security with guns, and i mean big scary looking guns like shoties and ak47s and the like.
Now about mail... it all goes into the office in Cebu and then whenever Pres. and Sis Schmutz go out to visit they take the mail with them or when we go back in for meetings we can pick it up. So ill probably get it when we go back to here from Elder Holland, yes the Apostle, when he comes over on the 20th. We all head back into Cebu for the meeting, which will be great.
So far this week we are WAY under budget, and have heaps of money left over so far. You end up paying more for transport than for food.
Oh... cool story... coming into Bohol we cought a taxi to the peir, then a bout across the water, then we jumped on a bus... literally on top of it. We were going like 80km as well, it was so much fun and a great experience. Although since then we havent been on top of another one. On Bohol there are not very many gypnees, so mainly buses and litter motorbikes coverted into trike ppl carriers.
I having such a great time that the work is just so fun, and even though i dont know what to say back, at least i can understand ppl =]
Love you all heaps and miss you
Elder Taylor Addison Cox
*****************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
Terri here: "Tuko's" are gekko's, but apparently they can get big. If you google tuko you can see what they are!! You can also find where he is if you go to google maps and put in "Bohol, Loon", it should bring up on the map, where it actually is!! When we get photos I will post them up. So people if you want to write to Taylor, his address is over on the right side. I know he will enjoy letters from you all. Notice where he goes shopping the security guards have guns!!!
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