Week 65

Hey Everyone

Nah Rotorua has nice weather compared to auckland usually nice and sunny here. hopefully I can find that raincoat hahaha

So yesterday we were just walking and this car pulls up and honks and we thought they were honking at the house for someone to come out so they could pick them up but then they drove up next to us and said hey can we speak to you guys. turns out it was an inactive member and their partner who elder Nikau and me said hello to about a month ago they want us to go over tonight. V and K. 

Sis D is set for the 26 of September. Elder Fili and Tibbitts set her on exchange she wasn't at church, while we were there on Sat her nephew showed up with some bad news - her cousin passed away. so she didn't make church but she's been consistant with Book of Mormon class.

Still no date for H's baptism 

J was at church again.

I as on exchange with Elder Myers on Thursday and we talked to 3 people in the park, we invited them to church bc they said they were thinking about going to one they just didn't know which one. and guess what!!!! they came!!!!! we also set A, their investigator, to be baptised on 26 sept and he said yes to, he really likes the missionaries he asked Elder Meyers to be one of the grooms-man for his wedding on the 12th. 

So the new family is the E and the one who fed me pigs blood is sis A. Sister H is actually in Tarawera ward but we helped Elder Gilmore and Elder Nikau dig up the tree's from their yard this week.  Digging up trees takes ages... good workout too haha. 

She said "if you go home and your Mum abandons you, you can come stay here, you can stay in the shed" hahaha and they thought it was funny that I knew how to eat like a Filo, with a spoon and a fork.

Sounds like I'm going to come home to a new ward. (We told him some people from our ward are moving out)

Tell Joel "hi, good job. see you next year." (Joel is his friend from here that served his mission in the Ghana Accra Mission)

We went to skyline this morning too with B N. that was fun there is a thing called the luge, it's pretty much go-karting powered by gravity.

Love you, 

Elder Cox

Digging up the trees.

Elder Nikau, Reilly, Elder Fili, and Elder Gilmore.

Same again with who they were helping.

(Notice the No shoes on Reilly??)

Elder Nikau and Reilly getting to the top of the Luge.

Reilly, Elder Gilmore and Elder Fili.

Elder Nikau with the kart they use to get down.

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!!

Week 60

Hi Everyone

I'm sick too, vomiting last night. still feel like rubbish but there's not much I can do apart from just wait it out. (Some of us have been sick with fluey things this past week.)

Well it wasn't enough for me to play for 1 sacrament metting this sunday, I played for 2, Fairy Springs and Tarawera ward. hahahaha 

I had an exchange with Elder Tibbits on Tuesday and with Elder Nikau on Saturday. Tuesday was pretty cool we met D who was pretty interested and so we were teaching lesson 1 when her aunty came and said I'm the one you should be talking to - she was an ex mormon and guess what her last name is Cox and then would you believe it, we went to see Elder Tibbits RC the Cox family HAHAHAHA that was so weird saying the prayer there "please bless the Cox family..." 

Elder Nikau was sick on our trade off, but we worked for part of the day and found 2 people who were interested in us coming back A and N (different places) 

Service with bro C on Friday helping them clean up their yard tree branches and the lawn, and then we helped D and N to do some gardening, plant some trees that they just got, 

and last night I went to bishop's house for dinner, he stays out on a farm, so dinner was a nice steak hahaha 

Sister D is going to Auckland this week. The hardest thing for her to quit smoking is she rolls herself so whenever she feels like a smoke she just makes one. We're trying to get her to cut it back. 

H, T and S weren't home we just missed them apparently, the neighbour said so when we knocked on their door.

@ DAD

yes I remember Dion. Tell him I'm doing good, what's he up to now? Still at school how long till he's finished? Soon? 

photos

Elder Tibbits fishing

quotes

"Don't do what is easy, do what is right"

"the best time to plant a tree is 10 years ago. the second best time is now"

Love you all

Elder Cox

(Obviously was still sick, he didn't write much and only sent 1 photo this week)

Elder Tibbits fishing.

Week 59

Hey Everyone :D

You'd never guess who showed up!!! oh of course you would HAHAHA They have a habit of trying to surprise me FHE before I left, being "investigators" at Pres B so yes, my "investigator" came to Pres B's (he's a sneaky fella haha) I pretty much told them to hurry up and get on their missions. I even showed them the white handbook where it talks about visits from family + friends. 

H doesn't live there.... Sis D wasn't prepared to go cold turkey (which is part of the thing we go to teach) but she's still reading the Book of Mormon. Her son stays in Perth. Sis D told me about the snow back home she said she saw it on the news hahaha 

Some new investigators one of them is D's niece so there's some fellowship right there, and the three we met on monday.

The AP's exchange was good on monday night. I went with Elder Romney (him and E. Christy are the travelling APs) He said Pres pretty much told them you have air matresses, unlimited kms and some money on your cards; go do what you feel will help the other missionaries... so I was with Elder Romney for the night; we saw some LA the husband is sick, we spoke to him about the atonement. he has heaps of questions, mainly questions which there aren't answers to and he doesn't like the idea of just having faith. 

And we met some really nice people H, S and T. They let us in, we shared about the restoration. Turned out that S has friends from Utah who gave her a BoM ages ago. and they even fed us some dinner hahaha but we haven't caught them again, hopefully this week, they're pretty busy people they just got back before we knocked on their door at about 8.20 and they left just after us at about 9. 

We did service for the N's on tuesday; just yard work (with the APs too) and then the B's, cutting tree branches off and mowing the lawn. 

Dentist on Wednesday for Elder Vaili they thought they were going to do a root canal but they tried something else and said to see if that worked bc it would be less invasive idk not my mouth. We have to go back this wednesday for something else 

Last night we went to Sis A (the Filo) and she had some pigs blood and intestines; tastes good so when I get home can Taylor make that for me hahaha. She had some other Filo friends over, they were really shocked that I tried it, more so that I liked it haha.

The Heattech are nice they're pretty tight tho... (It's either all that work in the gym, or he's put on more weight then he thought!!)

Photos:

in the library on the back wall

a car crash where E. Vaili pretended to be an officer

Love you all!!!

Elder Cox

The back wall of the local library.

Elder Vaili pretending to be 

an officer at an accident.