La taqueria diligencia

Hola mi familia!!!!

So this week one of my focuses was diligence! It’s always fun to see how the emails you send me can reflect the things or lessons I’ve just learned (Moms really good at it!). This week Spencer told me about his night of 3hrs of homework and it made me laugh again! We worked really hard this week with helping our investigators make friends and meet people in the wards where we are serving and it was a great week!

The Reyes family (Glenda and Jorge) are doing really well and we had a wonderful lesson where we taught Glenda about the plan of Salvation! She loved learning about what happens after we die and was so excited to come to church on Sunday to keep learning about the gospel. We also had a really great lesson with a less active member of the church named Ashley. She’s 29 and has 6 kids and is going through a really ugly divorce right now. Wednesday night she came over to the church for the first time since last November and as she learned about Joseph Smith and the restoration and prayed to receive a confirmation of its truthfulness, the spirit bore a strong witness to her and she felt such a strong desire to come back and feel the Saviors love again in her life. I love experiences like that! They seem to come and go so quickly and I try to do all I can to savor them! I really have a strong testimony of the power and authority of those who are called to preach the gospel. It’s such an interesting thing to see how people act when missionaries invite them to come closer to the savior...and I believe so strongly that the same way they respond is the way they would respond to the Savior Himself.

As a missionary I’ve learned that diligence is a great expression of one’s love. Often by being persistent at the little things we communicate our love to those we are serving or trying to help. I am so grateful for the Saviors example. He was so persistent in teaching those around him and observing their needs. I know that as we serve the Lord with all our heart might mind and strength and seek to do all we can to help others...we are able to see how we can bear their burdens through the Saviors love and make their lives easier! I know the Savior’s promise is true when He said:

28 Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.

30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

Con amor,

 
Elder Cook

Semana de la conferencia!

Hola mi familia!

This was a pretty great week! It was full of lots of learning and my checklist of things to do and put into practice seems longer than it’s ever been! It’s great though! Recently we’ve received a lot of great training on the importance of goals and planning and how a good goal only comes from good plans! Lots of desires means lots of plans which translates into lots of changes to make!

Things are going great with my new companion elder Munoz! He is great! I learn something new about Colombia just about every single day and it’s fun to compare the differences between his culture and the Mexicana cultura! Saturday we had a little lunch in between conference and he taught us how to make plantains (those banana like things that are really popular in South America). One of my goals for this month is to improve my culinary skills!

General Conference was a great experience! It was such a blessing to hear from the prophets and apostles and to learn directly the will of the Lord. In between the Saturday sessions Elder Munoz made the comment that he couldn’t believe that so much of the world could miss such a big event! I think the messages that left the biggest impression on me (aside from all of the apostolic testimonies) were the talks by Elder Bednar on the "loads" we carry and spiritual traction, and then Elder Zwick’s talk on communication! Being a better listener and listening with the intent of understanding is an area where I can definitely improve. In our area this week we had lots of cool experiences meeting people that I had talked with before. We made contact again with three families that I had met when I first came into this area back in December but with whom we hadn’t had contact for a few months! One of them, a man named Noe came to institute, 4 sessions of conference, and stayed for a baptism! Seeing him with his friend (who is a member) at conference reminded me of when Kelsey Sicker came over for conference and that led to her learning from the missionaries! That was such a fun experience!

This week I’m focusing on being a more patient Elder Cook.  In Romans 8, Paul teaches about the power of patience and the great need to develop more of this Christ like attribute:

25 But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.

35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?

37 Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.

38 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,

39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior. I have a testimony of the redeeming and renewing power of His Atonement. Through him we can become better people and our efforts to make permanent changes in our natures and characters of being occur according to the faith and trust we place in Him. His example of Patient suffering and labor should motivate each of us to be kinder and more willing to sacrifice for others! I hope we can all be a little more patient this week!

Con amor,

Elder Cook!

Hola!

Hola mi familia!

One of my goals this transfer is to do a lot better job at taking and sending pictures! It’s definitely a weakness! This picture we took this morning at the mission office after cleaning out the truck. Preparation days, after studies and cleaning, we go to La Vista to vacuum out the truck and turn in some reports. Then we email at the library. Next we’ll shop and do laundry and then probably go play sports or do something fun at the church with other missionaries!

Wow! My life has changed a lot in the last 7 days! My new companion is Elder Munoz!!! He's from Colombia! I’m super excited to have a companion from another country and now we just mostly speak Spanish (unless I get frustrated about expressing myself and have to switch to English!) He's a great Elder and we've had a ton of fun so far! While Elder Ayers was my tallest companion and the tallest in our mission, Elder Munoz is the smallest! Ha-ha…it makes me feel dyslexic about my height! We had lots of changes with the transfer and our area actually gained a whole new area. It’s been a lot of work organizing it and trying to balance things with the area we covered before but it’s a great challenge for me and after 4or 5 months here definitely keeps things fresh! I feel a lot like I did when I went up to Corpus Christi earlier in my mission! There are 10,000 things to do and never enough time in the day to take care of it...music and food help me not to stress so much! As well, I’ve started running more in the mornings and that has been really enjoyable! I’ve missed it a lot! In our area right now we’re visiting this really cool family named the Reyes family (Glenda, Jorge and Marvin, Gayell, Bridgette y Jocelyn). They’re a lot of fun and the kids are a handful but they help us to be creative!

Lately I’ve learned a lot about pride and how most of our struggles come in one way or another from pride. A few of our investigators have struggled with making commitments to God because they feel that they need to do more. They set the standard higher for themselves then where the Lord's set it. For me, it’s been so sad to see when a person’s pride holds them back from the Atonement. President Benson taught this really well in one of his talks! He said:"Most of us think of pride as self-centeredness, conceit, boastfulness, arrogance, or haughtiness. All of these are elements of the sin, but the heart, or core, is still missing.

The central feature of pride is enmity—enmity toward God and enmity toward our fellowmen. Enmity means “hatred toward, hostility to, or a state of opposition.” It is the power by which Satan wishes to reign over us.

Pride is essentially competitive in nature. We pit our will against God’s. When we direct our pride toward God, it is in the spirit of “my will and not thine be done.” As Paul said, they “seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ’s.” (Philip. 2:21.)"

Later on he closes with this invitation:

Let us choose to be humble.

We can choose to humble ourselves by conquering enmity toward our brothers and sisters, esteeming them as ourselves, and lifting them as high as or higher than we are.

We can choose to humble ourselves by receiving counsel and chastisement.

We can choose to humble ourselves by forgiving those who have offended us.

We can choose to humble ourselves by rendering selfless service.

We can choose to humble ourselves by going on missions and preaching the word that can humble others.

We can choose to humble ourselves by getting to the temple more frequently.

We can choose to humble ourselves by confessing and forsaking our sins and being born of God.

We can choose to humble ourselves by loving God, submitting our will to His, and putting Him first in our lives.

Let us choose to be humble. We can do it. I know we can.

I have a testimony that as we seek the will of the Lord and do small Christ like actions to bless others, we lose our pride and grow in humility! I know that the Savior wants to love us and the only thing that keeps us back from feeling that love ever is our own pride or selfish interest! I need to be a lot more humble and in the next 12 weeks I’ll be doing all I can to make that change!

Thanks for your letters! Glad to see you had fun on spring break!

Con amor,

Elder Cook!