Christmas devotional

 Our cute little hula Elder.

 Missionary maush pit

And Last have a Missionary...all the missionarys in ELder Coxs mission.

#ASAVIORISBORN

This week has been great, we through a lot of lessons.. 30 i think. 9 members present in a member home, toughs are like the best and hardest ones to get. I'm NOT getting transferred, but I am getting a new companion.  I'm kinda nervous about the next guy, my mission prez. called this morning and told me that the guy I am getting hasn't been out very long, is struggling to catch the vision, and that i need to help him because he hasn't had very good experiences. I don't know what to think, I just really wanted to keep a companion for more than one transfer, oh well I guess it will be for the best.

 It hasn't been cold here, it has been 75 the last 4 days ha. Its suppose to stay like that which bums me out, I love snow blehh but whatever. It flurried once for an hour, but never stuck.  

    This week I got two letters from sister Banks, one from her valiant 10 class and one from her. I will have to write her a thank you card, i know she must love getting one back, she is so sweet to keep sending them. Its great to get a little mail once in a while ha ha!!

 I look forward to reading that Michael Vey book, my companion and I were talking about it last night while playing a game of BS because we couldn't sleep. It was fun I am going to miss elder Keetch a lot he has been my favorite comp. I love him so much I don't want him to go, but my mission president also said that we were to good to be put together, that he needed us helping others. I know its a little prideful but he said that we were his best companionship in the mission, he also told me this morning that i have become the leader that he was telling me I have been my whole mission. Other than that we found a lot of new people this week, that seem really ready so that's exciting.

 I love you mom ! 

I got to text Elder Cox's email a little bit Monday well he was on and it totally made me miss this knuckle head. 

That also leads into last week he crashed his bike, and scraped up his knee pretty good. My Dad has some pictures of that but he doesn't share :P but Elder Cox reports his leg is doing a lot better! 

Picture sent to us from Kimber

Also don't forget the reason for the season!! At the top is the "what i believe" tab.. click on it there are so many inspiring things to check out right now. Another great place to get uplifted this season is 
http://www.mormonchannel.org/ 
there are so many videos and messages to view. we get so caught up in gifts and things that we forget the most important thing of all. 



O come, O come Emmanuel 
Jenny Oaks Baker

 what shall we give

In the midst of the holiday hustle and bustle, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir invites you to ask yourself the age-old question: "What Shall We Give?" to the babe in the manger, to Jesus Christ, the King of Kings.

What will you give to Him this Christmas season? Some of the most meaningful gifts we can give to Jesus Christ are love and service to those in need. No matter the time or place, if you take a moment to focus on others, you will see opportunities to serve all around.

Like the three “Wise Men” in this video, consider how you can treat people more like Jesus Christ would. When you do, you and those you help will be lifted closer to Him.

He would

Don't mind the time stamp on the pictures, Kyle's not been sharing all the stuff he gets that no one else does ;p

We didn't get much of an update this week, Elder Cox has been sick for a few day's and has been told to rest in bed. He did say he's feeling better, but it hit him hard what ever it was.

On Thanksgiving the awesome lady that keeps calling my mom to talk about Kurtis, called us and let us hear him give the prayer at there house. :)  It was hard to hear what he was says but it was so nice to hear him. we all can't wait till Christmas just so we can Skype.

Back to Kyle not telling us cool stories from Kurtis.... I bet all of Kurtis' comps that enjoy smoked meat love him. We learned recently that this kid has made his oven into a make shift smoker with a few baking pans and wood chips. I bet they smell so good on those days, now I'm hungry lol

now...*WARNING*

The next two pictures could be not so nice, unless your okay with seeing a skinned squall we will see you next post :)

Man this kid doesn't wast anything LOl, I always wonder what his comps think of this...

Happy Thanksgiving

My dad got a sweet picture text that We thought we'd share. Happy Thanksgiving from Indiana!!!

Elder Cox said they are with the Clossens, they just moved there from New Mexico.

It's been awhile

Hey just finished an exhaust manifold hook up and a distributor cap hook up and set the timing. I love you dad

It has not snowed here yet, which is very abnormal for this time of year I kind of can't wait for it! My companions name is elder Keetch and he is from bear lake Idaho just right outside of Utah i guess, we get along super well. We had a good week we stayed pretty busy. Right now we are teaching that couple, and doing less active work. We are in the process of finding new people, we are also going to start to teach reds nephew christian. He came to church this Sunday but unfortunately red had to work, so we are pushing there baptism back to the fifth. Its like every time we get close, something throws it all out of wack, i hate satin. 

I love you Mom

 

3rd place

Dad, 

oh dang did i not tell you about 2 weeks ago we had the opportunity to go to the temple, and i am in the Louisville district.  I got to go do an endowment and we even had the temple pres pull all the missionary together in the sealing room and talk to us, it was really cool and neat experience. I got some answers to some prayers for some people I was working with :) 

This week we had meeting after meeting it was pretty crazy. We had a zone weekly planing in Cincinnati Thursday, Friday zone conference in buttermilk pike and then we had a big meeting with our bishop yesterday.

This morning we have moved someones whole house to a storage unit. It's actually a cool story, we had some guy yell at us across the street and tell us to go to 132 market street and that the girl there need our help. So we went and saw her and she was telling us everything she could to get us to go away, ha ha but we found out that she had talked to a couple missionaries but not like a lesson or anything. She knew of us but she told us that she didn't want us to come back so we just left, well we went to see a member and she was there. ha ha We don't run into someone that doesn't need us more than once by coincidence so we told her that. Come to find out she is living with the member now and she need to get her stuff out of her house, so we helped her this morning and we are going to meet with her on Tuesday. She said god must really want me to meet with you, or you guys are stocking me ha ha so she is going to meet with us.

I also got to have a cavity filled this week for free. Well that about wraps up the week, i got 3rd place in the cleanest car award right behind 2 brand new cars. ha ha  I have a 2012 so I thought that was pretty good, but the top 10 get new 2016s so hopefully that's me! ha ha well this week was better, I got to go on exchanges with the zone leaders and with the Batesville missionaries it was fun. While I was in Batesville we were walking past a restaurant called BBQ street and the owner was outside at his smoker, (its kinda like dickeys but 10 times better anyway) I started talking to him and he ended up inviting us in and gave us 10 smoked wings, and man they were the best wings I have ever had!  He gave us a shirt with his logo not just printed, but embroidered so they are nice ha ha it was good. 

Love you, Elder Cox

-- 

October

Oct. 19th


Hey Dad, This week was good. It's going to be interesting to be away from home on my birthday, and to not be hunting. We are teaching a couple named Red and Rosemary,  we committed them to be baptized on November 21 so that should be awesome. I'm doing well, growing a lot this week and it  was a lot better. So Rosemary at church yesterday was having some pain so she asked for a blessing, so we gave her one and all she said after was "that was so weird. "she was like "it felt like a tingly warm all over, and like someone was touching me." her pain subsided and she went right on to gospel principals. As soon as she walked out of relief society she said ill be back next week, i love this church. She said it has been the only church were she has understood the message, they have been truly prepared to see us for sure it has been really cool.
love ya dad 

Hi Mom,
Sister Rial is who called you! She is great and takes really good care of us, sacrifices a lot for us. We don't get fed a lot so she takes that upon her self, I think she has got to feed us 4 times a week. They are just really cool people! They are the family we have reactivated, they as well as I have grown so much in the last 9 weeks its nuts. We are teaching her friends, they are so cool we had a great lesson with them right before she called you. We committed them to be baptized on November 21, so that should be awesome. I'm doing well, this week was a lot better! So one of her friends at church yesterday was having some pain so she asked for a blessing, and so we gave her one and all she said after was that It was so weird. She was like "it felt like a tingly warm all over, and like someone was touching me." her pain subsided and she went right on to gospel principals. As soon as she walked out of relief society she said, "ill be back next week, i love this church"  she said it has been the only church were she has understood the message, they have been truly prepared to see us for sure. It has been really cool. Well I found a crochet hook on the road so I have been crocheting loofahs and pot scrubbers out of some tool i found. My comp for my birthday bought me a longer crochet hook (I was complaining that mine was short) and a ball of yarn. We had a member give us gift cards to a super fancy restaurant in town (50 $) Steaks kind of fancy ha ha, so we are going to go for dinner. So she is going to make me Kimber chicken and cheese cake ha ha I am happy!! Grandma sent me some new shoes, the ones I came out with finally got a hole in the ball of the foot, ha ha wore out. 
 well i love you mommy!

twice as nice

Hi Mom !

This week has been crazy, I am going to be getting a new companion tomorrow. For some reason I have not had a companion for more than a transfer, I get a new one every time its kind of getting old, but we will get there. I am super excited to get some jerky, ha ha it sounds like it will be good!! yeah a lot of missionary come out here without a great support system, but it really helps them ether grow there testimony or want to go home really bad its about 50/50.  Other than that it's just going really slow and we're just starting to get the hang of things, now that I am getting another new comp it is going to be pretty stressful. I have been having a lot of back problems just hurting all the time and my neck to, but I have been going to the chiropractors in our ward. He says its all caused by stress but it sounds like its not over yet so he gave me some stuff to take to help my back not hurt.  This week we are going to have what's called a farmers fair so the whole week most of the streets in the town will be shut off to cars, there will be a ton of carnival rides and booths and thing so that should be pretty cool.  We had dinner last night with the Bombgardners, there son races cars on a dirt track circuit out here and won all stair last year but crashed his car this year. They gave me a shirt for his team its cool, it has his number on the front and it says "nothing but trouble" on the back so it fits me quite well!!! ha ha Other than that not a lot has been going on. I love you Mom

Hey Dad,

It's going okay, I am getting a new comp again. I'm really sick of getting a new person all the time, nothing gets done but me trying to help the other guy learn the area. Other than that its been good, it's just going really slow not a lot of people to talk to. There is  a five block by five block area, so i just about feel like i have talked to everyone in town. its just hard when nothing happens when we are trying hard but we aren't getting people to have us over, i just don't get it though can't hit the standards but we will get through it and keep on going. ha ha Well the only real exciting thing that happened was i got to confirm the sisters investigator this week that was really cool. love you dad

Mom, 
 dang it sounds like it has been busy, that"s great! I really got a lot out of the priesthood session of conference, it was really great. we had a big cook out as the priesthood and the guy that i have reactivated come out and smoked the hamburgers, best dang hamburger i have ever ate. Thanks for sending my coat that will help, it just turned into suit season so we have to be wearing a jacket if its below 65 out. This week has been crazy, got my new comp Elder Bayly he is from Lehi and lives about 5 blocks from grandpa. He is really uptight about the rules so its been tough, you kinda gotta find a happy medium but we are getting there. It's going good then there has been a fair all week that practically shut down the town. We met some cool people for the first session both days we went to different members houses, and for the second we just watched it at the church but like any good conference experience I brang Dr pepper.
 I love you mom

hey dad,

 I hope that you had a great week as well, this week started off tough just with the whole getting a new comp and everything, plus he is a little over baring about rules and taking them to such an extreme it makes it hard but we are doing better. It's going pretty good we are getting along and we did a lot better with our numbers this week. There was a big fair in town so we got to go to that it was really cool we met a lot of cool people. General  conference was really good as always, and it did recharge my batters but it was hard to see prez Monson struggle so badly to talk, but he had a really awesome talk and was very bold in priesthood session. I really got a lot out of priesthood session it was great! My comp is from Lehi and lives about 5 blocks from grandpa, but of course is in a different stake. He has been out 3 months more than i have and came out when he was 18. not a lot else but we had a good week, and time is flying by.

 I love you dad 

more pictures to come!!!

It may be hard, but it's worth it!

I always love hearing from my brother even if it's like "hey my zip code on your blog is missing a # 1". lol oops my bad, so that's fixed now. :)

Did you know that we are getting a bit of traffic on this blog from Europe... how cool is that! Also did you know you can request a free book of Mormon? Well you can! If you know someone who could use one or would like to learn more yourself about this awesome book go here!
To go along with that did you know you can request a visit from the missionaries for you or someone else in your area online? Well you can! go here! And if that's not cool enough you can chat with a member of the church online go here!


Hey mom,
 Another crazy week gone by!!! It's been tough being some where for 2 weeks, then getting a new comp, and having to teach him somewhere you don't know. This last week was great we got some solid new investigators. First a guy named Butch, he is really cool then, we are teaching some of the people in the records from the missionary 4 transfers ago. So kind of old but we are seeing a lot of grace. We needed four lessons to hit our standards this week, so last night from 8:45 to 9:28 we were trying our hardest. We got the fourth one in 2 minutes before we had to be back, It was the best I love tuff days. Yesterday was the first time I saw the stars since I came out, so I laid on the side walk and just stared for a while, oh man I miss the stars it just cloudy over here almost always. This week was also crazy because we got rained on for 3 days in a row, all day long. I am so sick of being wet, but on the bright side its been 60 so cold rain is better than hot muggy rain. with winter coming up could you send me my carhart coat? The one I used last winter is pretty dead, ha ha the zipper on the rain coat part is ripping off, and the buttons on the other have popped off.  I'm down to 2 out of 5 buttons, and its pretty hashed so I just want to know what to do there. If you could just water proof my carhart coat and send it, that would be awesome.   well that's about it I love you

Labor day weekend

Hey, Mom

So 2 days ago there was an emergency transfer for a bad elder,  my companion was the replacement so now I have another new companion. We are still trying to figure things out, and get to know the area and try to get some investigators going. It's just hard because I have only been here for 3 weeks. Me and my last comp were just getting things figured out, now that he left my new comp excepts me to know everything. Where to go, what to do, people to see, and I know just about as much as he dose. It sounds like you had an awesome time at family reunion.

Yesterday we had a cool experience, we got to go to down town Cincinnati to do a finding activity we met a lot of interesting people. We had a very drunk guy walk up to us with his hands out yelling, "pray for me and my friend that just died of a heroine overdose and now the cops are after me because I'm a drunk in public ahhhhh!!!" Then he grabbed our hands, yelled a prayer and then ran off crazy. There were also about 30 people that asked for change to get on the bus! ha ha It was an experience, then we met a guy named Matt and we talked with him for about an hour. He told us he was coming to church then after he walked away, a black guy walked up and said "do you know who that was?" and I said "Matt" ha ha and he said, "he is the leader of the down town Cincy gang." ha ha I mean he looked rough but everyone out here dose.  He had a lot of question's, and he took my quad and looked up john 3:16 and then smiled, looked up and said "wow you read out of the same Bible that i do!"  He asked a bunch of questions and we agreed with it all, so he told us he would come to church Sunday. ha ha crazy stuff

I love you Mom

Loving the new area

What a stud, Elder Cox looks so happy! 

 

So we had a cool experience this morning, we went into a place like the market grill  for breakfast this morning and one of the high up catholic lady's comes and sits by us. We all start talking and having a great time, and then her friend comes over who is a less active Mormon. We get to talking and she asks us were we are from and I say cedar city, and she goes cool my mom and brother live in Holden. I go "no way, my grand parents live there."  Well the lady's name is Dianna  Steelman, but her parents that live in Holden are Mike and Virgina Josse, there son is Dale Josse and he's married to Ruth  Stevens small world. Then we go to pay for our food, and a guy that we had never met that was sitting across from us drinking coffee paid for our food.  Its been a really awesome morning!!!

My week has been pretty good, so they don't allow tracking anymore, but we have been doing a lot of going and seeing all of the people in our records and a lot of walking. The ward is cool they just got made a ward from a branch, and are still kina stuck in the mind set of a branch which is super different. The pants fit fine, I just got to un hem them and make them a little longer which I can do pretty easy, but I need some thread black, grey, charcoal, and I think one was dark brown if you could do that I would greatly appreciated, other than that I am doing fine. My companion and I get along great, its funny everyone says we look like brothers, we have gotten that like 5 times in the last 2 days. You will have to ask Bryce about an elder Madara, he was in his MTC district and was in my mission. Also he just went home and my zone leader Elder Wells parents just moved to cedar, out in Equestrian Point. He is suppose to come say hi sometime, he just went home his name is Mikelle Wells.  Well that's about it, Love ya mom

Chatting it up with the sister missionaries

 Clean up after there Specialized Trainings

 

I know this isn't a great pic of Elder Cox, but he must have been swapping a good story back there :)

 

also I love the board the Elders are standing by (you are the daughter of a king!) haha

The key

Sorry the blog wasn't up sooner, between mine and my parents computers both upgrading to windows 10 I haven't been able to get them (ether computer) to let me put the cool, awesome pictures up :(


My address is....  
111 Dewers St apt 204 Aurora IN 47001

Hey there momma,
Hold on you can't have a heart attack, I'm doing just fine. I didn't move to far away, I just moved a couple county's down. I'm in a place called Aurora Indiana. It has been quite the week nether me or my companion have been in this area before, and so we don't know anything really about what's going on. I met the old mayor tracking and we are now teaching him, it has been really cool plus he gave me the key to the city!!! I will send it home soon. I hope that everything is going well on your half the world.

Hey dad,

I hope everything is ok, this week has been awesome. I am in Aurora Indiana it is a tiny town right on the Ohio river. It over looks Kentucky on one side, and Ohio on the other while I sit on my back porch in Indiana. It has been pretty sweet my companion is Elder Hamption, he is from Dallas Texas. He is a champ we get along great, we were both put in this area at the same time though so we don't really know any one or anything. We are really just trying to figure it out, so my new assignment is to re open this area. The prez closed it down 4 months ago because of circumstances, but has asked me and elder Hamption to re open it and try to make things happen. So far it has been one of the best experiences as a missionary even though it has been hard, we are meeting a lot of people and the ward is so excited to have the elders back. It has been great, they have been super supportive. The ward just became a ward about a year ago, so things are growing around really well. A lot of people from across the river in Cincinnati move over here to get out of the city.
well, I love you dad

Transfer Day!!!

 

we got to hear from Elder Cox this week! He was super sad that he was leaving all his friends in Indiana but we know he'll be good. Thanks to Susan for the pictures! I'm sure we will be getting more from the mission presidents wife :)

 

I know I'm a week behind but here's the letter from last week :)

 

This week was good because our air conditioner was fixed, but hard because of a lot of drama. You would think that missionary life would be drama free, but it is quite the opposite. I don't think that I can get away from it, but oh well ha ha. I don't know what's in store for me next because I have been having a lot of stuff going on between my zone leaders, and the mission pres.. They're going on a lot of exchanges I think to make sure I am ready for something, but it's stressing me out a lot. I guess I just have to learn that the lord has a plan, and that if I am doing what I am suppose to that everything will be taken care of, but I guess we will see what happens. Other than all that I have been doing pretty awesome, and had a good week.

 I love you mom 

love elder cox  

No better place to be

 

Hanging out with Robert at the Temple

 

The ward council has been sending us to do all the dirty work. ha ha we are going around and finding out peoples divorce dates, and get info for records, people don't like to talk about that kind of stuff. We have a girl named Michelle on date for the end of the month, she is the girl that just ran up to us in the parking lot. We are also working to get our new contact Doug on date, he is doing awesome he has no knowledge of any religion at all. He didn't know how to pray, he never had. Its like starting everything with a clean slate, its crazy cool! Other than that just working hard, our a/c went out in our apartment about 2 weeks ago. Its been on average 90 or more, and I was just getting grouchy and no sleep and it was bad. I have been blessed a lot the past few days here have been getting down to the 70s at night so I'm doing a bit better. Our landlord is going to replace the whole unit on Tuesday, so I am soooooo looking forward to that, and I think my comp is to. I have been pretty grouchy with the heat and no relief at all, its gross humid all the time but oh well. ha ha

Well i love you dad !!

Going to the temple with Doug.

 

Hi mom, sorry I didn't email you yesterday we had a big zone fun day, it was great!! We got to go and play corn hole, bean bag toss,  or in the rest of the world. ha ha

Then we played apples to apples, and then we played never have I ever, it was super fun!  Well we have had a pretty good week over here, other than our a/c going out the last 2 weeks, but they are fixing it as I write this email. I can not wait for the good night sleep that I am about to get tonight! I'm just dead dog tired today, it is just so crazy all the time. We got to go to the temple today, it was really cool I just love it!  We took our investigator Doug, and he said it was an amazing experience so we are excited to see were he goes. Other than that everything over here is pretty good,  I just got a pair of shoes from the goodwill for 4 dollars, and a couple ties. umm 1 pair of my black suit pants just died, ha ha there was no redemption, worn thin. 

 I love you so much mom thanks for being the best!!! 

Okay, so I missed a few awesome pictures from the last few weeks so I'm catching up..

 

here is the elders with Jordan at the temple for her first time doing baptisms for the dead.

the Elders taking a selfie with awesome Sister Knotts

(she also takes and posts pictures on Facebook of the elders)