Good morning! I am staying in Round Rock another transfer! I am pretty stoked! At the end of this transfer i will be here for 7 and a half months! Its crazy! Things are still going well! This last week was a really slow week! So first of all the is our second time back in farmington this month! Ha the other two Elders truck was broken when they got it and they didnt realize it had a leak until we got back last week! So their truck was broken all of last week. it didnt move at all! Its really hard to get around here without a truck. Not many places you can go. But Elder Sorensen who is an Elder here got sick on Tuesday so they were in all day and then my comp got sick on Wednesday so we were in all day. And Friday we had our mission tour which was awesome! And the rest of our week we switched the truck with each other because we only had one working one while the vehicle coordinator was trying to figure out something to do. So we had really only Tuesday as a full day to go out and do missionary work! so it was a really slow week! But we had a really good turn out at Church on Sunday! So that was amazing! We had 4 investigators at church which we usually get about 1. But the mission tour was awesome! Elder Carlson gave a really good presentation and he talked about consecrated missionaries and how we could truly become converted! So that was really good! I learned a ton from that! Also something that was really cool was that when Elder Robinson was sick, we watched "Ephram's Rescue" which is a really good movie that was made by the same people that made "17 Miracles"! If you havent seen it, you guys should watch it! it was such a good movie and i learned a ton from that! So Billy is still doing great! He is trying to get rid of bad habits 1 step at a time. He gave up smoking cigarettes for good this last couple weeks. And now he is working on nor drinking anymore. He is doing well so far. We can tell that it is pretty hard for him but our ward has a softball night and that really helps him! he doesnt have any support from his family and he is trying so hard because he knows that the church brings true happiness! So that was really cool! Also ran into a new family that we are teaching and the father was baptized when he was like 11 and he doesnt remember anything about the church but he has been reading the Book of Mormon and is finding out that the church is true and so he brought his family to h this past Sunday and they loved it. they were participating a ton! But that was about our week! we get to go on a safari down Canyon De Chelly next week! usually you cant go down there. Some people do but i dont know how they do it. Ha but the guy that took us on a hike last week is going to take us down in the canyon and we get to drive down there. So that is really exciting! well thats about it! But love you all and have a great week! Oh and also i am with Elder Robinson still! Hopefully things will go well! i am sure they will!
Love,
Elder Cook
July
Ya'at'ee' (Hello) Family!!!
So this last week was a crazy week! So much happened but at the same
time not much happened! This last week i was saying goodbye to everyone!
It was really hard to do! I am sad that i am leaving these people here!
Ha i thought i was going to be here one more transfer. But this next
place is going to be really hard for me! For a couple of reasons... So i
am getting transferred to Page Arizona!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am going to
die! Lake Powell is right there and i want to go swimming so bad! I am
also going to be there like one of the best times to go there! I am way
excited to be there but it will be hard with Lake Powell there. But also
this last Friday i got a call from President Batt... He called me to be
district leader there... yeah it is crazy! I was not expecting that.
But it will be way fun! I am excited to be there and district leader is
going to be a lot of work but it will be fun! So yeah that is what is
happening! Elder Robinson is training here in Round Rock! i am so
jealous! But it will be a good next couple of transfers! My companion is
Elder Greenhalgh, he came out with me! So i am excited! he is pretty
cool! So that is what is happening there with
transfers. But to the better part of the week! We had a baptism! It was
a good program and they were really excited. When we fill up the font,
we have to fill it up over night because there is a lot of iron in the
water so it turns brown if you leave it running to long. But we had to
wake up at 2 in the morning and walk over to the church to check on it.
It worked out a lot better then last baptism! But by the time it was
close to the actual baptism, it started getting a little murky. But
luckily it wasn't too bad! But that was really good! Then we had their
confirmation yesterday and also yesterday was Ward Conference so it was a
good day to do their confirmations! We had a ton of people at church
though! It was a really good week to end on, that's for sure! We had 118
people at church! That is more then double the highest i have ever seen
it! It was sweet! we had to open the overflow! But yeah, other then
that i said goodbye to a lot of people and it was really hard! But i
know that they are going to do great! I am looking forward to my new
area though! In my zone, we are the only missionaries that go on the
reservation so luckily i will still be on the rez! But yeah that was the
week! Here are some pictures of the baptism on also the Keller family!
The Keller family is awesome! I will try and send some more pictures
that i got! It was good to see the pictures that you guys sent! thanks
and i am sure you guys had a great week! But i love you all and have a
great week!
Love,
Elder Cook
August
Ya'at'eeh' a'binna! (good morning)
This last week was really crazy! So it started off really good! We
went to the temple as i told you last week and the spirit was so strong
that day! I was as close to home as i was to my area so that was pretty
crazy! The temple was super awesome and i learned so much this time!
When we had a 70 come a couple of months ago, he recommended that we go
to the temple at least 5 times in the first week that we get back but i
plan on going a lot more then that! I love going to the temple and
yesterday we had to bear our testimonies in Sacrament meeting and i bore
mine on temples! It was so great and we only get to go once a year on
our missions and so that was my last time going as a missionary! That is
pretty crazy to think. But i was able to get a lot of answers while i
was in the temple and it was just so awesome! Also i saw Elder Quijano
there! He is doing really well! If you dont remember who that is then
that is my trainee that i had in Many Farms! But it was really good to
see him! I have a couple of pictures that i am sending! One with Elder
Greenhalgh and also the other with Elder Quijano at the temple! You
should all keep going to the temple as much as you can! If i could i
would go at least every week if not every day! Also something that was
really cool is that the Stake President of Page wants us to be to know
how to work family history so we can teach it to other people so we are
probably going to be going to the church every Thursday and doing family
history for an hour so i am way excited for that! They did a little
presentation last week and it looked way fun to do! So i am excited!
On Tuesday we went to Farmington and went to a doctors
appointment for my companion! He is doing great but he also may have the
flu and also he has an infected toe and also he strained is back this
morning when we were playing soccer for exercise this morning! Ha but he
still keeps on going! Its awesome! We are going on a hike today, well
more like a Dam Tour. Ha so that is pretty cool! We are also going to
try and go on a hike later today! But we will see! We still have a lot
to get done! Oh and also this Saturday is transfer news.... This
transfer went by way too fast!!!!!!! But it was a really good one and i
am looking forward to what is going to happen! I am going on exchanges
Wednesday with the Zone Leaders! So i am pretty excited! Then i am going
on exchanges with the other Elders in the city on Thursday! So i am
pretty excited! I also went on exchanges last Saturday to the other
Elders area and that was super awesome! It is weird serving in the city
with everything close to each other! I was on bikes again for that day! i
miss the bikes! Ha but yeah we have another pretty busy week this week!
I am looking forward to it! Oh and last we went to this pizza place
where we get free pizza and they have gluten free pizza and it is super
good! Also the missionary that i was with that day, Elder Jacobs, got a
gluten free pizza too and he really liked it! Also i had sushi and
shrimp for the first time! We had a member take us out to dinner to a
sushi place and it was really good! Ha Elder Greenhalgh also got sick
from the sushi because it was raw! But i woke up feeling great! So yeah
things are going great!
So not too many teaching opportunities this last week
with everything going on! But we still had a really successful week! We
are working on building our trust with the members and we are teaching
active member lessons on how to be an everyday missionary! It is based
off the book "The Power of an Everyday Missionary" by Clayton M.
Christenson! It is a really good book! you should all read it! It talks
about easy ways to do missionary work in our everyday lives! Missionary
work goes by so much better when the members are involved in the work!
We can try to tract all day and work super hard all on our own but it
isn't nearly as successful as the members helping us! They give us a lot
of people to go see and we are working on getting them to come out
teaching with us more! But pretty much everything is good! I am doing
really well myself spiritually! And everything else! My studies are
super good and there is so much i am learning! I am really learning to
feast upon the words of Christ! It takes me a lot longer to read a
chapter but i get so much more out of it! I have really seen the
scriptures help me in my life and my testimony of the Book of Mormon and
how it testifies of Jesus Christ is what keeps me going! I have learned
a lot on the Atonement of Jesus Christ and there is still so much more
that i am learning! The book " Jesus the Christ" is super good and i
have learned so much! But anyway things are going great and i am still
loving Page! The members are awesome here and the Bishop is awesome too!
He is a great Bishop and we are getting to know him better and better!
But anyway i love you all and have a great week!
Love,
Elder Cook
September
This last week was a really great week! It was probably the best
week i have had on my mission! I have felt the spirit so strongly this
week and i was able to learn so much!!! Ha so where to start. Ha i
probably wont be able to write about everything but i will write the
best experiences! last week were able to go
on splits for like 5 hours on Wednesday! Elder Thompson went with
President Redhair, who is the second counselor to President Batt, and
they had a good experience! I went with Joe Nelson from our ward and he is a really good member and we had a really
good day where we both learned a lot! But Joe Nelson was originally
going to go to a concert but he didnt so he had work off the whole day
and came out with us from like 1 to 9 so it was really good! But while
we were on splits we saw a couple of people and we were out in the
middle of no where trying to find someone who needed us so we said a
prayer and we went and tried a couple of people and were able to talk to
a couple of people. But on our way back we were talking about the
importance of prayer and how it is so easy to get distracted. But on the
way back to meet with Elder Thompson, we stopped by at the Bishop of
Kaibatos ward who is in our area and Brother Nelson got a blessing and
it really helped him. But later that night we went to a less active
members named Freddy Miller and we got in with him and the ward doesnt
know why he doesnt come to church. He knows the church is true but he
doesnt come. But we had a good lesson with him and then after, Brother Nelson said in all his years he has never seen Freddy that open to the
gospel. So we are going back this week to go over how to give blessings
and dedicate homes. That is what Brother Nelson feels that he needs.
Brother Nelson is the 1st counselor in the Elder's quorum and so they
are
trying to re-activate all the priesthood men. So anyway it was a really
good day! I felt so happy when we got back and it was just a really good
day! While we were talking i learned how important it is to always pray
and there is a lot of good scriptures that i have found but one of my
favorite is D+C 6: 32-37. somewhere in there. But basically it says look
unto Christ in every though, doubt not, fear not. but i learned how
easy it is to get distracted from what is really important in life! So
it stressed to me that always keeping a prayer in our heart is so
important! But even as a missionary it is easy to get distracted from
the important things. We are always doing missionary work so you wouldnt
think it would be easy to get distracted but i get distracted on so
many things and i learned that satan distracts us in so many ways that i
didnt know. So what i have been doing is always saying a prayer in my
mind to make sure i dont get distracted and that i stay focused on the
straight and narrow path. And also that i will be able to recognize when
satan is trying to distract me and i have been able to learn so many
different ways he tries to distract us from what God wants us to do.
Like this morning for studies we were preparing a lesson for tonight and
we were reading this scripture that was good and we looked up a word in
the dictionary to see what it meant and we both just got off topic
trying to find the meaning of this word which later we didnt even use
the scripture and didnt find the meaning to the word. But while we were
looking in the dictionary, i had this thought come to my my mind that we
were getting distracted and it turns out we did. so we got back on the
right track. ha but it is just little things like that. So yeah its been
going well! I now am a lot more focused on what really matters and my
mind is so much more clear as to what we have to do and what is
important and what is not as important! So yeah! But our member work is
going well! We have showed that hastening of the work video to most
members and are inviting every member to pray for missionary
opportunities and on Sunday the members prayed for missionary
opportunities for Sacrament meeting and also for the opening exercises
for Priesthood. But we know this is truly the way the Lord wants things
done and we have seen so many great things happen! It just reconfirms to
us that this is what the Lord wants us to do! But with all good things,
satan is going to try and fight against it but as we pray in faith we
will be able to break the barriers that hold us back! So yeah! Ha it was
just an awesome week! There was a lot of other good stuff but i dont
have any time! Ha sorry! I learned so much though! I would invite you
focus on the important things in life! It is hard but i know that as we
pray that we will be able to focus on what really matters! ha love you
all and have a great week! Sorry no pictures this week! Hopefully next
week!
Love,Elder Cook
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