Week 73

Hi Everyone :D  

 I'm in Taumarunui which is a little branch a 2 and a bit hour drive from Hamilton. even tho it is still Temple view zone. we are way out. We started sacrament with 12 people. we had 27 by the end. Guess who was at church!!! Bro T, yes his brother is in Parramatta and he recognised my name haha. Can be out the back of nowhere and people still know home!! Oh yeah and Pres C said he had a son who worked in church offices maybe 5 years back before the area office moved to NZ. know any C's by any chance Dad??

I am an experienced rider! there was a car and I was coming down a gravel driveway so I stopped so the car wouldn't hit me. i just happened to stop by skidding sideways and sliding on the driveway :) no stitches it's fine (We asked how come he fell off his bike last week!!)

As I said Taumarunui. My comp is Elder Johnson from Brigham City Utah (first American) and yes we have a car (yes Dad I back up elder Johnson even tho there's a camera).... we're 2 hrs from Hamilton, no I don't drive my license doesn't work here anymore and Sis Marsden says there's not point me getting a NZ one bc it will cost to much to convert it apparently. Yes I took sister park's bike. Elder Carr is with Elder Bauki from Kiribati he's a good Elder so they'll be fine Guess who the other Elders in the district there are tho!? Elder Pukepuke and Elder Baker from doonside.

Yep 2 dollar shop got a card reader as I said in the first paragraph people know home.... I should probably read the whole thing first before answering each paragraph individually hahaha 

Well it is a branch but it's a good area says President. like I said not too many people. M is a solid investigator came to our service project bc guess what!!! it's such a good area Pres is sending us a senior couple on Friday so we had to clean up the yard of their house. Elder and Sister Sprouse probably from America, and the other people we see are kids, so now we're working with their parents hopefully they'll like church too! 

Sis Pretious (RS Pres) (yes that is how it is spelt pronounced like precious) reminds me of Helen and Bro Pretious (1st councilor branch presidency) reminds me of uncle Trevor in the things he does.

oh and they want me to play every other week to give Sis Pretious a break seeing she has been playing for years and years (i think 7 or so) 

Have some photos 

see we really are far far away "forgotten world highway" hahahaha

Love you

Elder Cox

Brother and Sister Pretious.

Their meeting house.

Beautiful rolling hills.

He says he's far, far away.... 

see the "Forgotten World Highway".

His companion, Elder Johnson.

Week 72

Hi Everyone

I fell off my bike. see photo

J came to church Bro E hadn't been to church, Sis E would come occasionally. B's are doing well. we saw Opa this week. he says he doesn't come bc he's too old and it's hard for him to get around but A B's says that can't be it because he still goes to town.

T has been in hospital, we've given her a blessing but being in hospital, she hasn't smoked for 7 days she should be out today so lets hope she can keep it up while she's home. We did service with Bro C helped him get some wood. Elder Carr said I look like Link bc of how I was throwing the sections of log that had been cut. (ask Taylor) J came to church and asked in sacrament if his son could take it if he wasn't baptised I said yes, bc it's not renewing any covenant; he hasn't made one yet, and he said so I can take it too. that was the first week he's taken sacrament. 

It is a canon but it has no connector to the computer so i'll need a card reader i'll probably get one next week.

Love you

Have a good week

Elder Cox

(Very short this week!!)

His district.

Bike injuries. OUCH!!!

Getting the wood.

Week 71

Hi Everyone

I thought Conference was great! I got out of it not to worry how inadequate I feel as a DL the apostles feel the same, God will magnify my efforts, he will take me where I am and work with me. "the Lord will qualify those whom He calls" something other things I noticed were sabbath observance and dating (obv after mission for that one) but Elder Hales talk was good i thought, haha so did most of the other elders :P (and he was looking healthier) Elder Durrant and "ponderise" was a good talk too I thought. 

Training is exhausting. I assume parenting is even more so but they say that's what a mission is for - to prepare us to be husbands fathers. We met J who was a referral, she is a little lost but willing to learn. and G whose partner's sister is a mormon in Aus met her on the street yesterday and are going back tuesday. The E Family came to Conference!! T was at conference and she said to say she likes your son - he's nice. hahaha when we went to go see D we saw him on the street on the way to his house and it seems he was just being polite because we were trying to do HTBT but he seemed so disinterested. 

haha I was going to say for you to get one there but I may as well get it here now bc I wasn't sure how expensive cameras are meant to be but now you told me that's how much that one cost that's ok I looked at a few last week but i thought they were quite dear... apparently not. (Talking about getting a new camera)

Photo:

from temple day. the Fairy spring missionaries  

Love you, have a good week

Elder Cox

The missionaries in Fairy Springs ward.

Week 70

Hello Everyone :D

T came again this Sunday to church, she had even managed 2 days without smoking. On Wednesday, and when we saw her on Saturday she said "I've only had 5 since wednesday", which is good considering she could have done that in 1 morning before. Her sister F didn't come. 

 

Speaking of piano. you'd think no one else knows how to play it in the whole of Rotorua, I played for the M's Baptism- their son T (he's 8 and going to make a great missionary) and for a ward baptism for Tarawera as well. Maybe you should call me as the pianist when I get home, I might know all the hymns by then haha.

Well we went to go visit a referral from Elder Nikau and Gates and the guy at the house goes "nah he lives in Ford Block (which is back in their area) why's he saying he lives here", so we told he we were missionaries, shared a 2 min lesson on the restoration at the door and asked to come back, so we're going on Wednesday to see D. I hope he is more interested than polite. 

Yes, went to a camera shop, he said it was the camera, something electronic probably to do with the lens and it would cost probably around $150-$200 to fix so may as well get a new one. so yep a new one would probably be good. I was thinking of just getting one here. probably easier hey and then I don't have to wait to take any photos. if I can't find one I'll let you know. 

Went on an exchange to Murupara (branch out there) it seems like the whole town knows who the elders are. We were helping someone move some stuff to a trailer and one kid goes to the other "Who's that fella" and the other kid (both non members) says "it's the new elder, Elder Cox!" hahahaha 

Love you. Have a good week

Elder Cox

Week 69

Hi Everyone :D

Yep warming up... fun

GUESS WHAT!!!! We gave T a Blessing and GUESS WHAT!!!!!! SHE CAME TO CHURCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :DDDDDDDD Sis T was cracking up at me bc I was doing a little dance when I saw T at church and then in my DL call when I asked if there was anything I could do for them she said "keep being crazy" hahaha

She has been to church before.... but yes, I don't feel like she should be baptised unless she's coming, so no she didn't get baptised, still smoking. but what a miracle it was for T this week and she even said she wants to bring her sister next week! Our other investigators are more just floating around. busy, not home all the rest. Haven't seen J in a while. S said to come over but then cancelled. But his kids came to church!  and H (N's moko) wants to learn piano so hopefully we can work to getting a date with her. Now that everyone knows I play, they're asking me all the time , and one for L and Bro R's moko's would like to learn piano too but that will be good bc they are LA so might help them come back to church. 

Conference will be big, 3 new apostles with Richard G. Scott passing. N. B was saying how on His mission, the same thing happened heaps of the apostles died.

We have to catch up with J, see what he's up to. floating around like the others.

Temple was great. I'll have to get photos from everyone. so I can send you stuff of what's happening. 

The camera is shock proof... apparently, but I don't go throwing it around or anything I'll have to try finding a cable for it or looking for a camera shop. (Still not working!)

Thoughts from study

If Ammon never went on his mission to the Lamanites, the Nephites probably would've lost the war when Captain Moroni led the army bc they would not have received provisions from them nor would the stripling warriors ever have existed. I wonder if Ammon ever thought about that.

D&C 15:6 Here. and 16:6 Here. this must have been important for it to recorded twice, right after each other. I don't know many other verses of scripture that are repeated (Isaiah by Nephi, Sermon on the mount and Malachi) 

Love you

Elder Cox

Week 68

Hi Everyone :D

Yep the camera doesn't work. even when I plug it into the computer it doesn't work now. idk what's wrong with it. (So no photos until it's fixed or he gets another one)

The weeks been alright. DL stuff - weekly calls to all the companionships in the district on sundays, I do the training at district meetings, keep track of all the sets in the district, do exchanges with the elders. doing all the baptism interviews for the district (including the ZL investigators) Taylor should know wasn't he a DL?? yep I've been sharing no one likes musk sticks in this zone either :P hahaha 

J asked something very interesting. "how can i tell if it's the spirit and not my own thoughts" we tried answering as best we could and pretty much did the Gordon B Hinckley from PMG "If it persuades you to do good, it is from God"  he seems to be searching like Joseph Smith bc he's been doing a lot of research into different churches. he seemed to like the video but we weren't able to set up another appt with him bc he was unsure of his schedule.

T is doing ok. We've been able to get quite a few member present lessons with her recently and I feel that helps so much. she still won't come to church and i don't know why. She still reading the Book of Mormon consistently.

We had some service for Sis M- an elderly lady in the ward. she get's around on a walker. so we cleared up a place where she wants a garden. 

We went knocking in the week and met B who just let us in so we sat down did some HTBT and a bit of L1 and asked if we could come back. he said he was busy but on the 8 Oct he should be free but he will be in the ZL area at that time. So nice referral to pass to them. then when we got out I found I only had 1 shoe and that a dog had taken my other one hahaha. So after walking around and finally finding it we went to Bro R to have dinner and then go do some Rescue visits. 

We have the Temple tmrw YAY!!! we have to leave at 6 from here. fun hahaha. so Murupara will be sleeping the night so they can drive us up I hope my white pants still fit :/ hahaha 

I played piano in Tarawera ward again hahaha the best thing about playing the piano is you can get them to sing faster instead of them singing as tho they're all about to die.  

My fingers got crushed in a door this morning bc we were cleaning and had all the windows open. and the gust of wind blew the door while i was leaning on the frame. OUCH.. they're turning purple now. hopefully it's not broken.

Love You ALL!!!

Elder Cox