Week 15 in LA--No Letter From Zach This Week--(J/K He Sent One Today (12/20)) Christmas Fever

Hey Everybody! It's not beginning to look like Christmas out here but the season spirits are high. This week has been pretty eventful, so I got to sing in the LA mission concert at our Temples Visitor Center. There were so many people there and I was kinda nervous but everyone said I sounded great. We have gotten in contact in all of our investigators which is good and we are supper happy. I get to go to the Temple this Tuesday and I always love going to it. We also have gone and sang Christmas carols to people in Care homes and they loved it. We also had the ward party which was fun, they asked us to be the wise men in the still nativity scene and that was fun. We also had a member give us a professional companionship photo. The area is nice and the members are too. We are supper excited for the coming weeks when our investigator will be getting baptized. I hope as you go through this Christmas Season that you remember that Christmas broken up is Mas Christ (more Christ) and remember that he is the reason we celebrate this holiday. 

Love Elder Cox 

This is a first for me. Zach didn't send a letter home on Monday. Luckily for me, his companion's mom emailed me her son's letter and gave me permission to use some of it on the blog.

From Elder Halverson:
"So today..... holy freak stuff happened. Well it started out with us going to my doctors appointment. Traffic was horrible and we were a half an hour late. Super stressful. My blood pressure was high ha ha. ( So Austin's mom does not find this very funny, since he actually has high blood pressure, and I don't know if this was a joke or if he measured high....I am assuming no news is good news) Well they did their tests and all that. What was interesting is i was having a normal conversation with the person doing my ultra sound. Then we had a convo about the restoration and when it got to the Book of Mormon, he nonchalantly said the Book of Mormon is just plagiarizing the bible. Well that was too bad. Well we drove home and did our studies. Then we rushed over to brother Garcia and had ward correlation with him. After that, we went home and got the food that we received yesterday and took it to the church and ate it, as we waited for Eric to show and also brother Rampton. We met with them and told bishop where we were so he could come say hi. So we talked for a sec then then bishop came in with brother Jones, so we had three guys in there talking with Eric. It was great. When they left, we got to teaching, and then he had a question about the god head and it all kinda went down hill from there. What I mean by that is it derailed from what we were going to teach, and it was going into some deep doctrine. When that was over, we ended the lesson and they left. Then we walked outside and one of the members were talking to a man and he waved us over, and the guy was a non member from Iran.

Today we  woke up and did our normal stuff. We then went to a lesson with a less active. It was okay, but it was still an inspired lesson. She fed us sandwiches, chips, and juice. After that we went to the church and posted something on facebook and I practiced my training I am giving in district meeting tomorrow. Then after that we drove home and got our suites and then headed up to the visitor center. We also stopped and had some lunch. Then we went to the visitor center and my companion practiced, and then the performances began. They were all so good! I saw the Edmundsons there. They were so glad to see me. After that we went home. I was surprised we made it home just a minute late. So ya that is the day. Wish me luck tomorrow.

Today was okay. We went to district meeting and I did one of the trainings. I borrowed a couple of ideas, and it went really well. After that we dropped of elders Whitmore and Williams to their apartment. Then went back and ate lunch. We did some weekly planning and got some things done. Then we went to dinner, and it was pretty cool because they had a skillet out on the table. Mongolian barbecue style. Then we went and taught Ivan with the Yamazakies. We went over his baptism. It was a good lesson and ya that is it.

Today started out not so good then finished okay. We woke up and I did my in-bed work out. Then i made some oat meal and we went to the church and did a couple of things. Then we went to the Knob Hill building. After that, we his the street and prosolyted. We checked out the Luceros, but they weren't home, so we saw some more people. Then we checked on the Luceros again and they were there!!!!!! It was awesome. After that we worked around dinner and then went to dinner and helped them with their Christmas decorations. After that we synced our ipads and then went home.

So today was good. We went to ward council as usual and did the normal waiting around for our church to start. Church was good, but Eric did not come!!!!!!! Gosh dang-it Eric!!!!! Well that Persian guy came so that was cool. Then we joined the elders Quorum lesson and guess what... the lesson was on the gathering of Israel. Yes! So after that we did stuff after church also synked and sent in our numbers. Then we went and had dinner with the Spring family. They were funny. After that we tried to think of stuff to do, so we went and visited the Persian guy. That was cool! We also visited a new recent convert move in. She is super nice. Then we stopped by a member to let them know of the recent convert, and went home to do companionship inventory and companionship study. Ya. That is all."

Pretty good summary of their week and I am beyond grateful that Elder Halverson's mom is so amazing and shared this with me. She also sent me one picture--it's kind of blurry but it's better than nothing.

Week 14 in LA--Awesome P Day

Hey everyone! Today was really cool we went to the Ghetty Villa, which is this super fancy art museum filled with Roman statues and other cool things-- I'll add some pictures. I also did the fatburger challenge with one of my Zone Leaders Elder Ratamales . This week has been pretty good. I got to meet some more people in the ward and teach a couple of returning members. We do service every Wensday and we go to an elderly care facility and we help and talk with them. It is so nice to see their happy faces. Sorry this week will be short due to time but I'm singing at the Los Angeles Temple Visitor Center and there will be pictures and a video maybe so be excited for that. I'm also going on exchanges tonight and I get to drive the mission cars! I'm a big boy now! 😂🚗 Thanks for the love and support. 

Elder Cox 

PICTURES 

P Day and missionary Fun in LA

Week 13 in LA--New Area, New Companion And All New Challenges

This week is the first week in a new ward, Redondo 2nd. The ward is awesome, they absolutely love that there are Elders in the Ward now and they are super happy to have us. We haven't been able to teach any investigators yet as we haven't met any of them except one who's lesson is this week. But we are still excited to work in this area! We have a big ward and a lot of investigators with baptismal dates, we have 3! One of them Elder Halverson found in his old area but he lives in our ward boundaries and we are super excited to work in the area with him. The funny thing is all of our baptismal dates are the same day. It so funny the ward is like another! I am doing well, it's just a little cold in the mornings and hot at night. We live super far out of our area so it is a little hard because we have to drive super far everyday, but we are making the best of what we have. Thanks for the love and support. 

Elder Cox  

Light the World Day 4 

Matthew 22:39 "And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself" go out and serve your neighbors. 

Pictures:

1--At La Brea Tar Pits

2--Before sacrament meeting yesterday 12/3/17 (sent to me by a ward member)

3--With his new companion, Elder Halverson

4--In sacrament meeting yesterday (12/3/17) with Elder Halverson (sent to me by a ward member)

5--Doing dishes (sent to me by his companion's mom)

Week 12 in LA--The Transfer Results Are In............

So we got transfer calls last night....and I'm getting transferred! I'm heading down one ward to the Redondo 2nd ward, my new companion is Elder Halverson. I'm super excited to work in a new area and get to know another fantastic missionary. 

This week was great! We took some recent converts to do temple baptisms, they were so excited and they truly loved the experience. We are super excited for them! We got a couple of new investigators this week and this area is starting to pick up. Even though I'm leaving I am still so happy! 

Spiritual thought for today is found in the April 1977 talk The Mediator By Boyd K Packer. 

In this talk he shares a story it goes like this, "There once was a man who wanted something very much. It seemed more important than anything else in his life. In order for him to have his desire, he incurred a great debt. He had been warned about going into that much debt, and particularly about his creditor. But it seemed so important for him to do what he wanted to do and to have what he wanted right now. He was sure he could pay for it later. So he signed a contract. He would pay it off some time along the way. He didn’t worry too much about it, for the due date seemed such a long time away. He had what he wanted now, and that was what seemed important. The creditor was always somewhere in the back of his mind, and he made token payments now and again, thinking somehow that the day of reckoning really would never come. But as it always does, the day came, and the contract fell due. The debt had not been fully paid. His creditor appeared and demanded payment in full. Only then did he realize that his creditor not only had the power to repossess all that he owned, but the power to cast him into prison as well. “I cannot pay you, for I have not the power to do so,” he confessed. “Then,” said the creditor, “we will exercise the contract, take your possessions, and you shall go to prison. You agreed to that. It was your choice. You signed the contract, and now it must be enforced.” "Can you not extend the time or forgive the debt?” the debtor begged. “Arrange some way for me to keep what I have and not go to prison. Surely you believe in mercy? Will you not show mercy?” The creditor replied, “Mercy is always so one-sided. It would serve only you. If I show mercy to you, it will leave me unpaid. It is justice I demand. Do you believe in justice?” “I believed in justice when I signed the contract,” the debtor said. “It was on my side then, for I thought it would protect me. I did not need mercy then, nor think I should need it ever. Justice, I thought, would serve both of us equally as well.” “It is justice that demands that you pay the contract or suffer the penalty,” the creditor replied. “That is the law. You have agreed to it and that is the way it must be. Mercy cannot rob justice.” There they were: One meting out justice, the other pleading for mercy. Neither could prevail except at the expense of the other. “If you do not forgive the debt there will be no mercy,” the debtor pleaded.

“If I do, there will be no justice,” was the reply.

Both laws, it seemed, could not be served. They are two eternal ideals that appear to contradict one another. Is there no way for justice to be fully served, and mercy also?

There is a way! The law of justice can be fully satisfied and mercy can be fully extended—but it takes someone else. And so it happened this time.

The debtor had a friend. He came to help. He knew the debtor well. He knew him to be shortsighted. He thought him foolish to have gotten himself into such a predicament. Nevertheless, he wanted to help because he loved him. He stepped between them, faced the creditor, and made this offer.

“I will pay the debt if you will free the debtor from his contract so that he may keep his possessions and not go to prison.”

As the creditor was pondering the offer, the mediator added, “You demanded justice. Though he cannot pay you, I will do so. You will have been justly dealt with and can ask no more. It would not be just.”

And so the creditor agreed.

The mediator turned then to the debtor. “If I pay your debt, will you accept me as your creditor?”

“Oh yes, yes,” cried the debtor. “You save me from prison and show mercy to me.”

“Then,” said the benefactor, “you will pay the debt to me and I will set the terms. It will not be easy, but it will be possible. I will provide a way. You need not go to prison.” 

 

Jesus Christ in our Mediator, because in life we continually add up that debt, but when the time comes, and it will for all of us. The money will be due and we will not be able to pay for it all. Our Savior Jesus Christ has already played for our debt, we just have to accept him as our new creditor and follow his commandments we can truly find peace and happiness. 

Love Elder Cox 

**Side Note--I got a text just about 30 minutes before I got his letter. It was from a teacher at Granger High School who went to her cousin's house in California for Thanksgiving, and her cousin also had the missionaries over and my son was one of those missionaires!! She sent me 3 pictures and a video. The video isn't loading for some reason so I'll post that to Facebook and Instagram. Tender mercy for sure!!**

PICTURES 

1-3 Thanksgiving

4 Exchanges with Elder Williams 

5 Me just chillin 

6-8 The temple with Steven and Grace 

9 BOBA Time

 

Week 11 in LA--Happy Thanksgiving and a Fantastic P Day

This week has been alright, our investigator Hailey decided to use agency to no longer meet with us. The miracle I shared last week about the guy who was interested is no longer interested ether. But I'm not letting that beat me down, happiness and charity only! 

Today we did the activity before we emailed, we first went to the Visitor Center because Elder Styer and myself were chosen to perform at the Visitor Center this Christmas Season in the Mission Choir, we are also in a trio with Elder Leavitt(Elder Styers last companion) to sing Mary Did You Know. So we practiced and then we went to the LA Brea Tar Pits up in LA. It was so fun, we got to see the actual tar pits and see a cool museum. We also saw some cool stuff on the way up like the Beaverly Hills sign and some really fancy areas. This week I was on exchanges with Elder Whitmore, our car had to get a new tire so we had to walk to an appointment at the top of our area, then we had to walk all the way to the bottom to get our car, we walked a total of 7.5 miles uphill 90 percent of the time. Overall a great week and I'm excited for this upcoming week!

**Side note--the Elder in the picture (2nd one) was in his district at the MTC so that's cool that they were able to spend some time together this week.**

 

Week 10 in LA--It's Story Time

I hope you are ready for this emence story I have for you all, because it is a giant miracle! So Last week Hailey (my investigator that has the baptismal date) asked for a break from the lessons to figure it out for herself. Elder Styer and I were devastated as she was our only investigator for our area. The rest of the day we were both off. Lots of prayers and deep pondering, that night we were walking from our car to a members home for an appointment we ran into a man walking his dog down the street. We ended up talking with him for half an hour, his name is Suresh. He is from India and is open to hear about Christ. So we set a return appointment, we knocked......no answer. We were so sad, but we kept going with calling him. But still no answer. So we decided to give him one more door knock, we knocked and his wife was home! She is not interested in our message but she wants us to teach Suresh. So we set a solid return appointment and we went over last night to have the lesson. The lesson went super well and it was super powerful. Half way through the lesson, one of Suresh' s daughters who was doing homework upstairs, came down with a laptop and said that her friend wanted to talk to us(the missionaries). He said that he wants to learn about our religion. That has never happened before! We were caught off guard, so we said we would call him later. We did and set up an appointment for this week! It was so cool to see that we can get referrals from anybody! 

This week otherwise was great I got to go on exchanges with our fantastic Zone Leaders and I got to learn so much from interviews with my mission president, President Haynie during interviews this week. I'm learning so much and I would like to finish this email with a quick spiritual thought. 

Matthew 5:14-16 says, "14Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.

15 Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house.

16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven." Dont let your light hide, share the knowledge that you have. We shouldn't be scared to share our beliefs with anyone. I have come to find this knowledge out here, and I hope you can find this knowledge as well. 

Love you all,

Elder Cox 

Pictures from last P Day and other ones 

**Side Note** I got to email back and forth with him for a bit yesterday. It was so nice!! I asked him why there wasn't any pictures of him and he said they were bad at taking pictures. I asked him to take one of himself right then and send it and he did!!!! It made my mom heart so happy to "see" him, especially knowing that it was right then.

Week 9 in LA--Quick Spiritual Thought

Today we have a packed and fun P Day. Next week I promise to have a bigger email with pictures and all that. But I only have time for a spiritual thought. I was teaching Elders Quorum we where talking about sustaining our church leaders and the spirit lead the lesson. I realized that the spirit that I have is very strong and it helps me daily. I don't know where I would be without it. This scripture wraps up my thoughts Numbers 11:17 "And I will come down and talk with thee there: and I will take of the spirit which is upon thee, and will put it upon them; and they shall bear the burden of the people with thee, that thou bear it not thyself alone." I know this to be true. 

In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen 

**I did get an email--that he sent just to me--earlier in the morning. He told me that the members are taking good care of him and that he is learning so much. He also said he got an email from Tyler (which he loved) but that not a lot of people from home write or email him. So........please take a minute and email him, please!! He loves letters from home and would love to hear from anyone and everyone. zcox@myldsmail.net **