Week 64

Hi Everyone :D

Week's been good. We did HEAPS of service this week. we helped the Filo family move (I keep forgetting there last name... ah well S, E and S and S's sister) and fix their bikes (I'm really glad Dad taught me a little about bikes before my mission hahaha) 

We Helped Bro R with his yard and then he said to come for FHE so that's where we're off to tonight. 

mowed Sister R's lawn, 

Mowed P's lawn. and tmrw we are helping Elder Gilmore and Elder Nikau remove some tree stumps from one of their members.

H's doing good and her mum T joined FHE last week (she's not a member either)

J's read the Bible. That's his concern, he doesn't feel the need for the BoM he keeps telling us he'll get around to reading it at some point.

Sister D came to BoM (Book of Mormon) class on Tuesday night, she said she was coming back this week hopefully she wants to start coming to church too. haha at class she asked "Where did they get all these names from; they're so strange, some of them are nice but others are just weird???" so I leaned over to her and said "Who gave you your name?" and she goes "My Mum. oh yep ok then".

So remember how in week 48 (I looked thru the sent mail) I went to Mamaku. well I forgot to tell you someone we met there. B. So we (I still had Elder Niu'unga then) knocked on her door and she came out and the first thing she says is "my dog died." and starts to cry. We didn't know what to do really with a 40 yo lady crying so we asked if there was anything we could do. She asked if we could say a prayer for her and her dog. So we did. We invited her to church, left her with a Book of Mormon and our number, continued on our way and passed on her details to the sisters. Well, she came to church this week - 3 months after we knocked on her door, and yes, she still remembers me praying for her dog for which she says she was grateful for. The sisters are teaching her now.

Went on exchange with Elder Gilmore on Saturday (in his area) we decided to knock a street and we prayed that we would find a family who would want to learn about the gospel. We were able to talk to lots of people mostly polite but no one was really interested until the 2nd last house where we met J, who has 3 kids and stays with her parents. she said she believed that there was something out there that made everything and we shared that we knew that was God, and that He is our Father and loves us and has a plan for us. They have an appt for Wednesday.

oh yeah and on exchange the toilet broke (in my flat); the thing that holds the water fell off the wall so we stayed at their flat Saturday night and last night until someone came to fix it. 

I wish I was that fluent in Tongan hahaha and yeah we went to the V's again this week and I said another prayer in Tongan haha

Dad, reading? since when does dad do anything apart from work, sleep and fix things? (Stoo hates reading unless it's a book on how to fix things, but he's reading a biography of our Prophet, President Thomas S. Monson)

love you all 

Elder Cox

No photos this week! That was all I got!!!

Week 63

Hi Everyone :D

Mum I'm in NZ nows my chance to enjoy the cold while it actually exists bc once I get back to Aus I'm going to melt..... It was 19 degrees on Sunday and I was sweating biking back from church :/ (mind you I did have a suit on, but still that's nowhere near where it gets in summer!) (I told him it should start getting warmer in some weeks to months seeing it's almost Spring, but he is in NZ!)

Well we did better than last week. Elder Brown is up on the board in the chapel. (Elder Brown is serving in Sydney North Mission) 

H, N's moko (grandchild) hasn't been baptised and she's 11 and what's even better is she wants to be, so we're going to work with getting a baptism date for her. N is out of hospital, it was for something with her stomach we went to see here on Tuesday she asked if we could sing "I am a child of God" and as we we're leaving the other patient in the room started talking to her about it 'that's a nice song...' haha maybe we've planted a little seed. 

J asked about baptism last time we met, I'm pretty sure the past missionaries have taught him the discussions but we'll probably go over them again, he has a concern with the Book of Mormon tho =.= and really the only answer to that is go read it and pray about it but the thing is getting him to read it!

We caught up with T again this week he had had a rough week and was glad to see us. and guess what!! We FINALLY got to see the V family (S and A) they fed us dinner on Wednesday and we shared a message about prayer and scripture study and they said to come again next wednesday for the same thing hahah S liked that I prayed in Tongan -  Elder Fili wrote how to bless the food in Togan, and I keep it in my planner so I used that. - he was real happy about it.

We saw bro P this week hahaha so we knock on his door and his daughter answered the door and he came with cupcakes and the key to the flat "have a cupcake, it's W's birthday and here's the key" he was happy when we told him we weren't there to go to the flat but to see how they were doing "oh come in then" hahaha 

I had an Exchange with Elder Nikau on Saturday, you can tell Pres Shum he's a good missionary haha but he doesn't like biking up hills HAHAHA (he usually has a car). 

Me and Taylor had 'otai at Roy's for some YSA thing (they're still in the ward right??) 

Oh yeah! finally off the hook for playing in Sacrament meeting haha a Filipino family moved in and their son plays :) hahaha last week they picked hymns no one knew so I just sight read the RH even bishop told me after he had no idea how to sing those hymns

hahaha everyone who sees the pic of them goes "are they you cousins?" they may as well be! haha so it's ok for Aunty Jilly to spoil me :P  (Friends of ours from the country, and Reilly wanted a photo of them all to take with him!! hahaha)

Scripture

Isaiah 51:12 Here.

Alma 17:5 - even missionaries back then got tired hahaha Here.

and not a scripture but a good talk Glen L Rudd "Keeping the Gospel Simple" I think it was given at BYU. Here.

Love you all

Elder Cox

Redwoods, Mountain Biking 

(he gave me no other information, so don't know who went or anything)

At the lake.

Hedgehog in the back yard.

Week 62

Hi Everyone

Yeah we planned some pretty big goals this week so hopefully we can achieve them :)

Tell Ofa (A friend of our's, who is Tongan.... See Reilly's comment from last week about being Tongan!!) I'm looking forward to that feed  and there better be heaps of 'otai. hahahaha

Pres B fed us yesterday and their daughter has just got back from Mesa Arizona about a month ago, she reminds me of Bek a bit. When did Bek get back btw?. And Sis B always cooks nice food like Jilly, We had a ham soup and steam pudding with chocolate custard for dessert.

Well Interviews were funny this week. Pres comes in after the training (he does interviews while the training is going on) and he says he had been reading in the old testament about Moses and the children of israel and how they got the law of Moses. And then he says "I feel like Moses, now some of you aren't going to like this; blame it on the ones who asked for it, we're bringing out some new protocols...." hahaha the way Pres talks reminded me of Dad. the funniest part was the last one "No flips, gymnastics or any of that sort of stuff. what's that thing called where they jump off things and roll over stuff." (Sister Rudd) "parkour" (Pres) "Yeah, none of that." and the APs were there. and Elder Mathews is one of the APs and I'm just looking at him trying not to laugh bc when he was my ZL in Glenview that's what we did for exercise.

We met with T again it's been a while since we've seen him. Good that he still likes us to come over.
J is doing good, Him and his wife D were at church (his wife has just recently returned to activity and he isn't a member) He always has heaps of questions for us which is good. and he always participates in Elders Quorom.

N was in hospital yesterday not sure when she's getting out.

Sister D  thinks it's funny that I've got another islander with me now. 

times up gotta go

Love you all

Elder Cox

(No photos this week.....this was all I got from him.)

Week 61

Hi Everyone :D

Yes Elder Vaili got transfered to where idk, apparently Pres transferred him to somewhere else once he got to transfer meeting but when he left me he was going to Claudelands. I'm still in Rotorua but I moved flats and guess who my companion is! ELDER FILIMOE'ULIE!!!!! HAHAHAHAHA I think half the zone is wondering why Pres did that Sis Perry (she was in the same district when I was in Hamilton and just moved into the ward with Sis Vailea) said "you two are just going to have too much fun, what was President thinking?!" They closed down the other flat so it's just 1 set of elders and 1 set of sisters in the ward now. the new APs are Elder Matthews with Elder Thompson as the normal and Elder Kirk and Christy as travelling.

Elder Gilmore is still with Elder Nikau, Elder Tibbits got Elder Meyers (who I know from Manurewa) and Elder Ale is in the Zone now hahaha other district tho..... but that's half our intake in the zone :P 

The week has been alright, P'day I was sick so I didn't do anything. We had the dentist on Tuesday and they numbed up Elder Vaili haha I have a funny video of him speaking, too bad I can't send it thru the email. We moved flats on Thursday, did service on Friday. we moved a shed!  bro P, C and C N with Me and Elder Fili moved it "moari style" said bro P haha have a look at the photos.

R. M. was back at church!!! bc he is sick, but he hasn't been to church for years! 

We went exploring on Elder Fili's side yesterday (bc he doesn't really know the area) and you'd never guess who we bumped into - J's brother's partner (J's bro wasn't home) haha she said we could come round again. she was like oh are you mormons, then you'd know my sis in-law J.

oh yeah, that's interesting guess who Elder Fili was in the MTC with! Natalie!!! hahah she should almost be done now.

Sorry not much else to say so you're just going to get a heap of photos now hahahaaha

So in case you're wondering how we moved the shed we picked it up lifted it onto a trailer, drove to Bro C's house, carried it thru his neighbour's backyard and lifted it over the fence hahaha 

love you 

till next week

Elder Cox

Moving the Shed.....

It's lifted onto the trailer.

Drove to Brother C's house.

Lifting it over the fence! Easy!!

Our flat...the kitchen & dining.

Bedroom.

Obviously where they park the bikes!

Bathroom.

The view!

Elder Fili and Reilly.

"I'm Tongan now", he says!!