This was another great week and a lot happened! First off it’s
been a lot of fun to get to know the Alamo-San Juan areas and I’m starting to
know my way around! Elder Barth and I are becoming better friends every day
(he's a great missionary) and the other two elders we live with (Elder Knighton
& Elder Garcia from Maine & Mexico) are doing great too! We have fun
playing basketball in the mornings and on P-days and it’s getting me into real
good shape! I also got to go back to work in Mercedes on a bike and got to talk
to a lot of recent converts there! It was great to talk to Vanessa Herrera (she
was baptized my first Sunday in the field) and she’s gone to the temple and
been sealed to her husband and even has a baby boy now, as well as the Gonzalez
family (Dalia &her 6 kids) Alma Arcaute, and then a less active family named
the Perales who we visited often. The elders I worked with (Elder Child from Brownsville)
and Elder Casteel (my nephew in the mission (ask Scott!) are super awesome
elders and doing a great job! Oh how the memories flooded back.
A few announcements...this week we will be having a mission
conference with Elder Tad R. Callister of the Presidency of the 70!!! We are
really excited for him to come and I really enjoy the talks that he's given
(especially some of the ones he gave in the MTC...they've changed my mission!)
As an addition to my Christmas list I’ll put his book The Infinite Atonement
(we’re allowed to read it here in the field)! Last year’s conference with Elder
Schweitzer was so special and helped me out a lot and I know this year will
only be better! As well, President told us this week that next year (at some
point) we will be getting iPads and a lot of training on family history! I’m
excited!
This week my testimony grew a lot on the power of the
scriptures and just how powerful of an influence the words of The Book of
Mormon, Bible, and other standard works and words of modern prophets can have
on us! I’ve seen the difference in the Spirit in my own life connected with the
amount of time I spend in the scriptures and that a principle isn't really
taught until you've added the authority of the scriptures to it! I’ve gain a greater knowledge of why the
daily scriptures are such a must and how big of a plus it can be in our lives.
The ways the words stick with us and come to us in key times of remembrance or
decision really show just how necessary they are! Here’s a verse that helped me
out a lot this week (John 14):
14 If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it.
15 ¶If ye love me, keep my commandments.
16 And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another
Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;
17 Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive,
because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth
with you, and shall be in you.
18 I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.
I know that Christ loves us! That He does what we ask him to
do if it is right, so we must do what He asks if we truly love Him! I’m
grateful for the gift of the Spirit that comes as we lose ourselves in the
scriptures and for the knowledge of God we gain as we study His words!
Don't forget to say your prayers!
Con amor,
Elder Cook
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