Letter #36 (Apr 11th, 2012)

Hey all,
things have been great this week and we have had a great time working
with our members and investigators this week, despite having little
time to do so. We had conference this past weekend on the 7th and 8th
and it was amazing! there were some really great talks especially the
one by Elder Jeffery R Holland in the Sat morning session. He is one
of my favourite apostles in terms of his talks and the way he presents
gospel doctrines.
Then on Mon we have zone interviews
with President and Sister Schmutz, which was great as well. We had
training from President about revelation. What is revelation?, Forms
of revelation, and how to recognise revelation. It was a reminder of
how much revelation I have received on this mission about all sorts of
gospel principles and about myself as well. I have grown so much on
this mission and really come to see who I really am and where i am
truly meant to be going. I now see how the mission changes you
forever.
was finally able to find "choco mucho's"
which are the best chocolate bars you can get here in the pines... and
i have been snacking on them this week through study and weekly
planning... Mmmmm! I have another thanks to Dad for teaching me about
refrigerators and freezers when he jumpstarted ours that one time. I
was able to help one of our members work on their fridge to find out
that their voltage that reaches their house isn't strong enough to keep
the pump going in their fridge and thats why nothing gets very cold.
After conference we went to this expensive place for dinner called
"Moon Cafe" (I think it might actually be Mooon Cafe with a triple
'o'... I would recommend trying there if there is one in Australia) It
has the most delicious food and if you think it is actually really
cheap... a 10" pizza for P150... that's like what? $4?and 500g baby back ribs with unlimited rice only P200... that's like $5 or so...
And one of the Elders in our zone walked straight into one of the
glass walls of the restaurant thinking it was the doorway, in front of
everyone sitting inside... he was soooo embarrassed after
that. After conference on Sun we practised our musical
rendition for zone interviews and then went on splits in one of
the areas nearby. We went back to the ZL's apartment and had dinner
then the 2 gallons of ice cream I bought on Saturday night.
Thats about all for this week i can think about. Not much else really happened.
Miss you all tons,
Love you all,
Elder Taylor Addison Cox
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Terri here: Just a short email, but we do have photos!!

Letter # 35 (Apr 4th, 2012)

Hey all,
This week has been great in terms of work and success, despite some health issues. First of all was Wednesday night, it started pouring down rain and we ran from the bus to our front door. Elder Seumanutafa went first and made it to the door. I was close behind and somehow (I actually have no idea how I did this) ended up slipping over, grazing off the skin of my knee under my pants and bruising the inside of my right knee while landing on my right side and shoulder. Luckily nothing serious just a few minor grazes and bruises and a sore shoulder. Then on Thursday both Elder Seumanutafa and I realised that both of us were not drinking enough water, so this last few days we have been making sure we drink lots every day.
This week has been all smooth running and we have had some great success with less actives. Just past Sunday we had 15 less active individuals from 9 different families at church with 3 of our investigators as well, and an overall attendance of about 85 or so. We even had PEC with the branch President. Things seem to be working for us as we have really tried to dedicate ourselves to the work. Just yesterday we had an amazing FHE in this one area with 4 separate families attending and absolutely loving it. They were involved in the lesson and had a great time laughing at the games we played.
Our companionship is doing great and we have so much fun learning the language. the members are helping out so much in terms of helping us to be able to teach more effectively through the language. I have also started to gather words in a book with thew translation from English to Cebuano to Tagalog as well (but only when I have spare time for Tagalog). I have really come to love the language here on the mission and often find myself lost for English words at times.
Now I was wondering for the package whether you can send some peanut butter as well... that would be great if you could...
Exciting things... hmmm... oh! this time the other night when we rode habal-habal instead of riding the back, I rode the front sitting on the tank. My butt was sore after that...
And just before we sakay-ed back to our house on the habal-habal we visited with this new investigator who is the wife of a member, and they have this little 1 year old girl who is sooo cute. While we were BRT-ing and just chatting with them we had this little chick we were playing with and baby Jennifer tried to eat the chick! She would try and grab it and then open her mouth to put it in until its feathers touched her tongue and she spat it back out. It was so cute and funny, and lo-oy (I dont know how to explain this word in english) for the chick.
I introduced choco rice to Elder Seumanutafa and he loves it! (lagi - of course)
We had a brown out the whole Sunday... we have had so many brown outs the last two weeks... almost every day... its getting really annoying...
oh... something for Poppy... kliphap (mismatching objects of clothing i.e odd socks)... jejeje
Oh... I'm not sure about sending photos cause there have been two elders that have lost all their photos to the computers here today so I'm worried of trying and losing all my photos... so the next time lang... and I will have a lot for you! (its turning out to be a long time with no photos...)
miss you
Love you all,
Elder Taylor Addison Cox

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Terri here: So hopefully, lots of photos next week! And that he will remember how to speak to us in English when he gets home. haha

Letter #34 (Mar 28th, 2012)

Hey all,
This week has been great! Things have been progressing well in the
area... we now have 4 investigators on top of all the less actives.
There are not as many members as there was in my last area, only
around 60 or 70 each week so I'm told. And they are very surprised that
I speak it so well especially for my 3rd area... and they think its
funny when I speak with my Bohol accent and change all the y's to
j's... jejeje.
Yes... 8 months just past Monday... it has gone fast and slow... but
it has all been amazing and I have never had such a great time in my
life with so many revelatory experiences about how to better myself as
an individual especially for my future family.
Oh, one family that is really kind in the ward and feeds us on
Saturdays is Tagalog gayud. So Im starting to learn tagalog... I have
done up a study journal of words with three columns, English, Visayan,
and Tagalog. So when I get home i should be fluent in three
languages... and if I end up remembering french then 4.
I finally have a laundromat in the area, so I only have to wash my
whites now, and don't have to worry about my baho (foul smelling)
socks... jejeje.
Oh, and another cool story... last night we were out at this one area
which is layo kaayo (very far) and we didnt make it back to the
highway till late... so we ended up missing the last bus... but we
didn't know that. So we are waiting on the side of the road and we see
a sugar cane truck approaching, one of those big ones that transports
the sugar cane from the harvest to the processing plant. My companion
jokingly says "I'll wave it down so we can sakay(ride) home..." and
then the sugar cane truck slows down and stops and the driving was so
kind and was like "get in, that's all cool, you missed the last bus."
Then we starting conversing with him and my companion had a great experience of being able to speak to him fluently... he said he had never been able to speak so fluent Visayan before as he did with this driver. We found out the trip he
does is about 4 hours, his truck weighs 12tons or so fully loaded, and
the truck only has 6 gears... then we left him a restoration pamphlet
before getting out at our house.
It was one of those moments you look back a say "The Lord prepared
that person to cross paths with us that night..." It felt like he was
so ready for the message of the gospel, so receptive and just a really
nice guy. I really hope he does end up searching out the missionaries
where he lives.
So that's for this week...
again I forgot my card reader so next week you'll have a bunch of cool
photos to put up on the blog for everyone to see...
miss you all
Love you,
Elder Taylor Addison Cox