July 27, 2012

Hola Familia!!!!!

Life in the CCM (MTC) is just wonderful. Our Spanish is really improving and its getting to the point where I often don’t remember whether or not we were talking about something in Spanish or in English. Elder Tarr is such a good speaker and he helps me out a lot! The weather here has been kind of crazy. In the last two weeks its actually rained quite a bit...there was a double rainbow over the mountains on Tuesday..and we actually heard THUNDER in Utah at one point! I couldn’t believe it! This week for gym Elder Tarr and I started running! The furthest we went was 4 miles and hopefully we'll be in pretty good shape by the end the MTC.

At this point...Texas feels like it’s a million miles and a million years away! I can't wait to go though!!! I'm so excited! We're all just excited to be off the MTC campus and things will be pretty crazy in the airport! One cool quote I heard from Elder Uchtdorf this week...: Within winter we find the invincible summer within us! I love it! I'm just about finished with Jesus the Christ and I've learned so much! As we teach our "investigators"  I've come to understand that testimony really only comes from having that desire to know what is true, praying sincerely, and reading the scriptures! I love having so much time to study and learn but I still feel like it’s nowhere as much time as I need. This morning we went to the temple to do initiatories and I had the chance to just sit and read some chapters in Alma for a while and it was so nice! I love alma 32-34.

What else...for service this week we cleaned showers again...we're basically professional janitors now! One of the elders bought a baton (the music conducting kind) and uses it when we sing in our district. It’s pretty funny. Again...small things bring us joy here. I miss you all and think of you often!

Les amo!!!

Con Amor,

Elder Texas Cook

P.S Hope you had a good pioneer day! IT was a big deal here and it was fun but I enjoyed being able to remember Grandpa Preston Thomas too!

July 20, 2012

Hola personas de Ohio!!!!

THANK YOU!!!! so much for the package! It was wonderful! Mom, you know me well! It made my week! This week was another good one! I think the weeks are actually beginning to go by faster and faster! Its great! Hard to believe we've hit the month mark here. Spanish is now the default when I talk and as long as we're in the present, preterit, or basic future tenses I'm pretty comfortable! This past Tuesday I had the chance to sing in the choir with Elder Tarr!  It was great! We sang this is the Christ and it was such a powerful song! I remember Grandma Ralph telling me that I had to sing in the choir and I'm definitely glad I did!

This week Elder Sean Clark (from Zainesville) came in the MTC and it was good to see him! I still say hi to Elder Steele and Elder Smith at least 1x a day! Its great! For service this week it was cleaning the sinks and mirrors of the bathrooms in our buildings. To give you an idea of the buildings...our residence hall has 4 floors and holds probably about 50ishElders on a floor. Thank you so much Mom, dad AND SPENCER!!!! for the letters! I also got letters from Ashley Sapp, Steven Boyd, Dani Elefritz, and Kevin Stephenoff! It was awesome! Hope Claire and Mom had a successful week at girls camp and/or EFY!

The fires seemed to have died down here in the valley but again, we're not really sure of much. For gym time this week I spent more time in the gym with weights and the bikes after I sprained my thigh last week during soccer. The fun part about that was getting to leave the MTC to walk down the street to the student health center where they took the precautionary x-rays. It’s getting better though! On Sunday our devotional was Jenny Oaks Baker and she gave a fireside where she would share some thoughts and then play some really awesome solos on her violin (she’s a former first chair violinist for the national symphony, went to Julliard, and is Elder Oaks daughter). It made me miss having "unlimited" time to practice instruments and I definitely will spend some time with my bass and the piano when I get home! The music here is so great! Come thou fount is what I listen to while we do our Spanish computer studying! At some point I'll probably make a list for you guys and ask you to burn a CD from LDS.org since you can download them free there.

I think weight wise I'm at 160 still so I'm still convinced that I won't have much of a weight change throughout my mission! ha-ha. The 2nd advanced Spanish district (they arrived in the beginning of July) is about to leave next week! It seems like they just got here! Time goes by so fast! But its great! Tonight we get to teach at the TRC and I can't wait! It’s so nice teaching lessons to real people with real problems and they’re always so friendly and their Spanish is perfect! A few scriptures to share with you guys....

Alma 7: 11-12Mosiah 4:9James 2:17-19aaaaandJSH verses 1-28 ( specifically the ones about Paul after the first vision!!!)

I love you all! Hope things are well in Ohio!!! Just over a month or so until Buckeye football right?!?!?! Can't wait to hear about it and the Olympics as well!

Con amor,

Elder Cook

(western hemisphere!)

Los Super Golpeando Hermanos

Hola Familia!

Another week has flown by! Things are going great here! The Spanish....is coming along and its been nice to see improvement and I'm finally just feeling comfortable when I speak. This past Monday we said goodbye to the Advanced Spanish group that was in our zone! We were pretty close to them and it was strange to be saying goodbyes 3 weeks in but we were excited for them to be serving. I see Elder Steele at lunch and dinner pretty much everyday and I pass Elder Smith as I'm leaving.

We had a great devotional speaker on Tuesday, Elder Stuer of the 70. He shared some really cool insights about the power of words in the Gospel and I learned a lot. One thing that really impressed me was his message about prayer; we can at least teach the people in our missions how to pray and even if they don't fully accept the gospel now, they'll have that link with heaven to use for the rest of their life! Prayer was one of my main study topics and I learned alot this week! Our prayers really improve when we view it as two way communication and listen for answers! Today I'm emailing a bit early because we're going to clean the temple from 1-4 today! we're excited for that! Elder Tarr and I ran 4 miles the other day...it was hard! We'll probably start running more often! Spencer...Thank you so much for the green notebook you gave me! I use it all the time and take it everywhere! I use it for all the new Spanish words I learn....and that's already been a lot of words! For our regularly scheduled service we cleaned showers this week...it was kinda fun b/c we took these huge hoses and just blasted them at the showers for a few minutes. One of my favorite parts of the MTC is when we get to sing as a district. We start each lesson with a prayer, hymn and thought...and our district is pretty musical! Its a great way to feel the spirit. One Elder in our district loves to sing Battle Hymn of the Republic and we sing it just about every other day. One cool thing was when we sang the words of “Oh My Father” to “Come Thou Fount”! When we do language study on the computers I usually listen to Come Thou Fount and its quickly becoming a new favorite hymn of mine. Wednesdays are fun because we get to see the new Elders. Yo tengo un chiste en espanol!!!!

Q: Que hace un pescado??? (what does a fish do?)

A: Nada!!!! (Nothing!/It swims)

Haha Mom is probably the only one that got it...but oh well! Que mas...que mas....Its hard to believe we're almost halfway through the CCM but I'm definitely not too sad about it. Oh...crazy thing that happened...one of my roommates had leg surgery in the Spring and has had some more problems and had to get crutches for a few days this week b/c he'd sprained his ankle...I was helping him with his crutches when I saw a label that said "Cardinal Health, Dublin, OH" I got pretty excited and even took a picture! Small things bring us joy!

Thanks for all your love and support!!! Thanks Mom for your letters and Dad you too! Miss you guys and hope the kids have fun with all their activities!

Love,

Elder Cook (Western Hemisphere)

Los Super Golpeando Hermanos

Mi familia!!!!

Hopefully Mom can translate that for you guys....but it basically explains all the fun phrases that we come up with using our limited Spanish! Life here in Utah is pretty good! The time really does go by in such a strange way here. The days really do seem like weeks but the weeks do pass like days! I'm not sure how much you've heard but this week there were around 9 or 10 fires here in the Salt Lake/Provo area! Lots of times we've walked outside and you can see smoke in the sky or smell it. There was a big fire in Draper the other day that made the mountains look like volcanoes (since its directly on the other side). Its really a strange feeling to hear about things outside the MTC!

The 4th of July was fun! We had a 4th of July program with a local Judge as a speaker along with some musical numbers and performances. While we were waiting to start, the MTC President's wife led us in Once There Was A Snowman, Popcorn Popping, and a few other Primary Favorites. I think that's about the loudest those songs have ever been sung and I've never seen a group of people more excited to sing anything before in my life. It was fun. Afterward we got to walk around the MTC campus to where we could see the fireworks from BYU's football stadium! It was pretty sweet and we were all excited to have a break from the normal schedule and do something out of the ordinary.

Sunday for our devotional we had a Williard Richards impersonator come and give a speech on the life of Joseph Smith! I learned so much about both individuals. By far, the thing that's changed most about me in the MTC is my testimony of Joseph Smith! I've grown to love him so much more and he's for sure one of my heroes! He did so much for this world! For the closing song we sang Praise to the Man and about halfway through the first verse people began to stand. Being in a room with 2000+ missionaries singing that hymn was such a powerful experience. The spirit was so strong. I can't wait to share the message of the Restoration with the people of Texas. Joseph's life is such a remarkable story and there's so much we can learn from it.

After the devotional we watched the Kirtland film and I had a good time filling the other members of my district in on some of the Ohio details! For service this week Elder Tarr and I were among the lucky ones who got to clean toilets....no worries though...it didn't turn out to be all that bad. For gym this week we played a lot of basketball and soccer...and its always a great time just to let off some stress and just move around for a while. This past week we also started teaching 2 new "investigators" and we'll be teaching members tonight in the TRC. I still see Elder Cadden, Elder Smith, Elder Steele, and most my BYU friends at least once a day and I see Elder Stott a whole lot since his class is on the same floor as mine. As far as Spanish, we spend a lot of time studying specific grammar principles with specific lessons (for example....preterit vs. imperfect/ telling the first vision). Our district memorized Section 4 in Spanish this past week! It takes a while to recite the whole thing! Thanks so much Mom and Dad for your Dear Elders...they really do make my day! I also got a letter from Anna Salens which was really exciting too! One of my good friends that I've met here is Elder Fuentes.  He's from El Salvador and is going to be serving Spanish speaking in Elder Steele's mission (Anaheim!). Our first normal Sunday last week went pretty well...It was interesting not being on a block schedule. Sundays are nice because you have a lot of time to do personal study! The foods still pretty manageable but I'm starting to get excited for something that doesn't come from under a heat lamp. This week Elder Tarr and I are memorizing 2 Nephi 2:6-8 in Spanish and English...so if you guys wanna join us your welcome to do so! I really do like the seclusion you have though in the MTC....it allows you to focus ALL your time and efforts on missionary work and learning. Even after a few short weeks I can see how much harder it would be if missionaries could talk to their families all the time or read about things unrelated to missionary work. Yo se que esto es de Dios y que El nos ama y hace todos cosas a bendecirnos!

Se amo todos!

Con amor,

Elder Cook

Elder Andrew Cook's Email from 6/29/2012

Hola mi familia y todos otros personas!!!

My first week in the MTC was absolutely great. While I'm in the MTC Friday is going to be my P-day! Things really are great here! My Spanish is getting a lot better, especially during teaching lessons! It’s just another testimony to me of how personally involved Heavenly Father is in each of our lives! Alright, so the highlight of the week was probably Tuesday night when we had our devotional. There were 10 APOSTLES in attendance. All of them except Elder Packer and Elder Hales! It was such a special experience to feel of their love and see them so close. we as missionaries sat up on the bleachers while all the mission presidents and their wives, the presidents of the 70, and other general authorities sat on chairs on the floor! What made it extra special was to see how excited the Mission Presidents and their wives were to look back and see us as a body of missionaries. It really made you understand that you are part of something so much bigger than yourself. At the end I also caught sight of my living prophets teacher Bro. Richardson! it was so good to see him! Elder L. Tom Perry spoke to us. He shared a whole presentation on the statistics of the real and tangible benefits for living the gospel. . . for example... fasting decreases the chance of having blocked arteries by 40%....LDS men live 10 years longer than other men and LDS women live 5 (or it might be the other way around). At the end he bore a strong testimony that Jesus Christ does personally lead this church today and the Spirit was so strong!

Today I also had the chance to go through the Provo, Temple. It was such a good break from the routine MTC schedule and it was really neat to go with the other Elders in my district. Most days for gym I've been playing soccer, but yesterday we got some basketball in as well. On Wednesday as we were jogging back through the gates we passed Elder Oaks and Elder Andersen in their cars and they waved to all of us! So cool! On the other side of the mountains something caught fire a few days ago and so there's been smoke that been blowing down through the valley throughout the days. I see Elder Smith and Elder Steele pretty regularly as well as Elder Stott! It seems like our whole hall from BYU is here. Que mas... Elder Tarr is such a good companion. He always wants to pray and is so thoughtful and kind. He still reminds me a lot of Bishop Robinson! (They even play basketball in a similar style!). On Tuesday for our service time we cleaned the residence hall. Saturday night we got to watch a movie...The other side of heaven!...and it was a lot different watching it as a missionary!  Sunday night we watched an MTC address Elder Bednar gave a few years ago on Christmas. He talked about the character of Christ and how often we see it in the scriptures. He's main focus was that when the natural man turns inward, Christ turns outward! It gave me a lot of good ideas and inspirations on how to be a better missionary. So far we've taught about 6 or 7 lessons...all in Spanish...and they’re really a unique opportunity to feel the spirit, study the gospel, and learn how to teach. I love it! As a district we've been memorizing lots of things as well! So far we have the Missionary purpose, the first vision, invitation to be baptized, and half of section 4 down. My new best friend is a little yellow Spanish verb conjugation book that fits in my pocket! I use it all the time and its really useful.

As far as a more specific daily schedule....here's how my Monday went. Wake up 6:30...breakfast 7:10...class 7:40-10:40 (lots of teaching grammar then applying it through role playing)...10:40-11:45 Personal study (often from Preach my Gospel)...11;45 (lunch)....Workshop from 1230-130...TALL (computer language study where you have a headset and listen then speak...match....rewrite...vocab and phrases) 1:30-2:15....Language study 2:150-3:15....gym 3:25-4:15....Dinner 4:45...classroom 5:30-8:30 (during this time is when we usually teach our "investigators"). then 8:30-9 additional study...9 planning...and 9:30-10:15 personal  time....10:30 is lights out!!!! Again it’s a really interesting pace because you’re constantly on the move but you always have enough time to make it to places! I also had the cool chance to talk with a guy on my floor who's from McAllen! He was so excited when I told him! I'll let you guys know the more I learn!

Send some "Dear Elders" letters. They are so cool to get! Thanks Dad for yours and for all your help in getting me out here! it was such a good trip! Thanks as well Mom for the note as well! Esta bien cuand escriba en espanol!  hope everyone is doing well and enjoying summer in Ohio!!!!

Love,

Elder Cook