September 10, 2012 - Life in the Valley

Familia!

Ok. So in general there are 3 types of people we meet on the street or see in public....the ones not interested ...the people interested in only sharing what they believe but not listening...and the ones who want to do both! But there's actually one more group. Children! They are always friendly and here are a few funny stories. Yesterday we went to contact an investigator who hadn't made it to church. Two of his sons were playing outside and we asked them to go get their dad. One went in and called for their dad that we were here then came back out with an iPhone. They were about 5 and 7 years old and began taking turns posing with us and taking a picture on the iPhone as we stood there with our bikes. We felt like celebrities. It was pretty funny. I can't imagine what the parents will think when they look through the pictures on their phone. We also had a girl this week who asked us if we spoke English...she was about 8 or 9 and when she found out we were missionaries she asked us if we would talk to her parents so that we could help them stop doing bad things! Such faith and innocence! Her parents weren't interested but her uncle who's been looking for help, change and a church in his life wants to meet with us next week! The last thing I love about kids is that they always wave back! Usually the adults 'pretend' not to see us or look the other direction, but any disappointment from that is instantly replaced by the joy that comes from seeing a little hand waving from the back window. Moments like those make my day!

The sunsets and clouds here are still so awesome! We had a thunderstorm Sunday morning with (real!) rain for a few hours and it was great! We had an member of the 70 Elder Gifford Nelson came and spoke in stake conference on Sunday. I was in the building with the Spanish translation via satellite but still got a lot out of it! Last week we also went back to the La Vista (church by the mission home in McAllen) for training! That and a zone meeting at our ward building in Weslaco led to some shorter days. It was good to see the Elders I traveled down here with and compare greenie stories. By the way, only thing on my Christmas list is a gospel art book! They are the best for teaching families! Pictures help so much! Also if someone could look up the temperature for this past Saturday that would be appreciated...we don’t have a thermometer and so there are really only two types of days. Hot and REALLY hot. Saturday was one of those days! In other news...someone tried to steal our bikes but our good neighbors called the cops and things turned out ok!

I'll end by sharing just a few more "miracles" that happened on Thursday: We'd stopped by a less active members house and they weren’t home so we worked for about an hour on old investigators and potentials without any luck. As we were moving to a different part of town Elder Marble needed to use the restroom so we stopped at DQ. There were only 4 or 5 other people there. As we were leaving I figured hey let’s just go out the other door. Hiding around the corner that was obstructed from where the restrooms were sat the less active who we hadn’t found earlier! It was pretty cool! That night we also found a girl that Elder Marble visited a few times in Brownsville staying at her moms house. she had been to primary as a child and remembered the "welcome song" and we visited with her for a bit and sang “I am a Child of God” together! To end the night, we went to stop by a home looking to meet with two investigators but instead found out that they were both less active members!

Thanks so much for your love and support (esp. Dad for the OSU updates and MOM for the Spanish!). You are the best! And thanks to whoever reads this too! You're all in my prayers! I am having SO much fun but more importantly finding SO much joy in serving the people of Mercedes, TX! Enjoy the cold weather up north (we don’t have fall here...it just stays warm all year and maybe once a week a cold front comes in during December and January so they call it winter...according to Elder Marble). a little bit more about him...he did a lot of FFA in high school, wants to be a farmer when he gets back and teach FFA class, sounds a little bit like Larry from Veggie tales, asks the best questions during lessons, and he HAS heard of Steak and Shake (I'm not alone!).

God loves each of us. This church is true and the Book of Mormon is the word of God written specifically for us and our problems. As we follow the savior we will feel closer to him and help others come closer! Our true joy always and only comes from people...other people!!!

Con amor,

Elder cook

Life in the Valley

Hola familia!!!

Pos....(pues with a valley accent). So things here in "the valley" as everyone calls it..are great! We had the baptism for Dalia Gonzalez and the oldest 2 of her 6 kids on Sunday and it was so great! It was such a happy day! They're family is awesome! next week I’ll send you pictures!

Yesterday we couldn’t use the library since it was Labor Day so today’s the day for email. Sounds like things in Ohio are going well! It’s fun to tell people that I'm from Ohio because most of them expect Utah and most have worked in Ohio as migrant workers. On Saturday we got to do some service by unloading an LDS humanitarian truck (a full size semi) with clothes, shoes, school supplies, and bedding with a work force of about 20. It was work! We were all drenched in sweat after about 10 minutes and this was at 8 o clock in the morning. The heat hasn’t been too awful...the humidity isn’t to different from Ohio and landscaping prepared me really well!

So right now we're teaching the Arcaute family. She has cancer and he has severe knee problems but her cancer is in remission and he's doing better. The husband speaks a lot of Spanglish but Alma...the wife...speaks the fastest Spanish I've heard. I don’t understand how Hispanic women can speak so fast! They have so much to say and they just go on and on. ha-ha...but its great! we usually run into a couple of drunks throughout the week and the most positive part about those experiences are the fact that they make for good Spanish practice.

On P-day yesterday we went to the outlet malls b/c a member's son worked there and was able to get us a pretty good discount..I got a pair of green shorts and the others had a good time with the fact that the greenie missionary got green shorts. It was really weird to hear normal music and even weirder to realize that there was a lot of music I didn’t recognize at all! Time just flies!

So it’s always windy here and the wind blows up from Mexico unless there’s rain...in which case you can feel the cold front hit and the wind shifts to be coming from the north. Thursday I actually went on an exchange with one of the Elders next door who's in the car area surrounding ours. It was strange to be driving everywhere but nice not to have to take 10 minutes to get from pt. A to pt. B. I still think I prefer being on a bike. Saturday we got rained on pretty well but my poncho saved my backpack from getting wet! We had a really cool lesson with a man named Juan who has kind of been investigating but not really progressing. It’s been great to see him gain a testimony of the Book of Mormon but he struggles to understand why any church that teaches of Christ isn’t "the true church". But things are improving and we're going by his place again today. The dogs still continue to chase us and I really don’t think I even notice it anymore. This week we're focusing on finding some more people to teach! You'll all be in my prayers! 

One thing I’m really coming to understand better is how much preparation goes into our lives that we don't see! I’m grateful God is our Heavenly Father and is actively engaged in each and every one of our lives!

Con amor,

Elder Cook

P.S. Yesterday we watched "Mountain of the Lord" and even though I hadn’t seen it for a good 5 years I could still quote pretty much the whole movie!

August 27, 2012 - From Texas

Hola!

So! I am in Texas. The first week is gone but it already feels like I've been here for so much longer. So we landed Monday night in McAllen, stayed with the assistants at their apartment in McAllen, then went over to the mission home in the morning. Had my first interview with President Trayner, he's way nice and just about exactly how you'd picture or imagine him and then we got our assignments.

I am serving in Mercedes, Texas. It’s a small town of about 14,000 and its east of McAllen by about 20 minutes. It’s a really interesting situation. We cover the main town area and are on bikes while two other Elders...Elder Curletti and Elder Sanders have a car to cover the surrounding areas. So every area here in the Mission has an English ward and Spanish ward for the same general area. In our "ward" there are 5 sets of missionaries...and 5 total areas. We also cover a big town called Weslaco (where the church is) and Donna as well. Donna has one companionship, Weslaco has a set of Elder and a set of sisters, and Mercedes has us and our next door neighbors.

On Sundays we go first to the Spanish ward from 9-12...and then to the English ward from 1-4. The Spanish ward is huge and is nothing but families! It’s such a lively place and it’s been booming for a while now. The English ward is maybe about 2/3 the size and is a little older as well. The toughest part for me so far has been working on my Spanish. It’s hard to be constantly switching back from lesson to lesson from English to Spanish. Listening is pretty difficult but saying what I need to say really hasn’t been too difficult. My first day on Tuesday we taught 4 lessons. My companion, Elder Marble is a pretty quiet guy from Northern Utah. He grew up on a farm and went to Utah St. He's our district leader, has been out for 11 months now, and was a big help getting my bike together and stuff. He's a pretty patient person and takes things pretty slow in English but talks a lot faster in Spanish. It’s interesting!

We had our first baptism on Sunday! Vanessa Herrera! Her husband Cory (they’re in their mid-20's) has been a member all his life and she's been coming for 5 or 6 years and finally decided to get baptized. It wasn’t easy though! Her mom was really against it and her grandma was upset as well when she told them this week...to make things crazier she was in the hospital Thursday night....but things worked out and she was baptized Sunday! The people here are incredibly humble and I’m so grateful for where I grew up and how I was raised! I've gained a new love and appreciation for the scriptures! Helaman 3:35 is becoming a new favorite and I love Jacob 4! I know the Spirit will guide us in whatever we do as long as we're willing, patient, and humble! Sorry I don’t have much time this week.....I'll write more again!

I love you all!

Con amor,

Elder Andrew Cook

August 21, 2012 Letter (and Photo) From Mission President in Texas

21 August 2012

Brother and Sister Cook,

   We had the privilege of meeting your son, Elder Cook when he arrived at the McAllen International Airport. He looked great and appears very anxious to go to work.

   We are grateful to have Elder Cook in the Texas McAllen Mission. Already he has impressed us as a well-prepared young man with a great spirit and a desire to serve the Lord. He has had excellent training and orientation at the Missionary Training Center in Provo in preparing for missionary labors here in South Texas. Your support from home will be of great value to him as he serves his mission.

   Elder Cook‘s first assignment area is in the McAllen Zone. His first companion is Elder Marble who is from Utah.  Elder Marble is an outstanding missionary, and your son will receive excellent training under his direction.

   We thank you for sharing your son with us. We are confident that he will bless the lives of many people here in South Texas while serving as a missionary. May the Lord bless you abundantly while he is in the mission field and always.

With warm regards, 

Stephen J. Trayner, President

                                                              Sister Sandy Trayner

Texas McAllen Mission

August 18, 2012

Ay ay ay ayyyyy!

Esta es nuestro ultimo dia del preparacion en el CCM! No puedo esperar hasta lunes! Voy a estar en Tejas!!!! woohooo!

So yeah we're all pretty excited about Monday! It’s hard to believe I spent a whole summer here! But I learned so much! The Spanish went pretty well this week, we had a couple chances to talk to  native speakers a few times and I can say that my ears have come just as far as my tongue has with the language! I've been so blessed!

So yesterday we had a big day-long workshop to prepare us as an infield orientation! It was great and we learned a lot of cool stuff about working with members and goals and planning and as always a focus on our purpose! Give the missionaries referrals!!! They will love you forever! Don't be scared either...that always the biggest inhibitor! Thank you so much for the package! It made my day! Thanks Spencer for the quarters!!! They were awesome and I proudly showed them off to my roommates! Thanks for the watch as well! Its way cool!

This week for our devotional we had Elder David Evans of the 70 come speak to us. It was awesome! He gave a great message about how reactivation and missionary work are all the same work...it’s all the work of salvation! He give some great examples from the life of President Monson! He talked about to how missionary work was really going to begin to achieve its full purpose (inviting ALL to come unto Christ...not just non-members) and as head of the missionary department this was very interesting! Today we get to go to the temple (might be my last time for 2 years!) and then the rest of the time will be packing and cleaning! We got to host again last Wednesday...and I hosted another one of my friends from the floor at school (he's actually from Ohio as well) and then an Elder Cook. IT was funny. Better yet...this (3rd Elder Cook?) Is headed to Rochester New York so I told him all about the Steele family! It was really nice to be leaving before all the missionaries that came in! It’s been kind of strange to be the oldest group here but we love it!

So this week we also had our last 2 classes so I’ll share a little bit about our teachers. The first is Hermano Johnston, he was our first teacher (taught us all 9 weeks) and served in Guatemala! He's one of the nicest happiest people and I think we only heard him speak English once or twice. He's from Arizona and can recite the 1st vision in Spanish in 11 seconds. It’s pretty crazy! The other is Hno. Larson! He knows Spanish, Mayan, Portuguese, French and he's working on Romanian as well right now. He was our first "investigator for the first week and taught us these last 8 weeks! He served in Mexico (Cancun) and had been to Cozumel and stuff! He's really smart and helped us so much with our Spanish. He lost a grand total of 80 lbs on his mission and then 40 shortly thereafter. We got to see his before/after pictures and it was pretty impressive! They’ve basically been our older brothers the last 9 weeks!

I'm so grateful though for the chance I've had to be here at the MTC! You learn so much! I've figured out I'm so excited to leave not because the MTC is hard to endure, I love it!, but because Texas is going to be so much cooler! I'm sure I’ll have some fun things to share next week! This week I found a few new favorite chapters of Scripture! (John 14 &15). I'm so grateful for the Savior, that we can be His friends and that He has set the perfect example for us! I'm grateful that He loved us enough to lay down His life for us and to go through each individual pain, temptation, and affliction that we face. The amazing thing is that he's still working just as hard to help us come back to our Heavenly Father! Prayer is real and I've learned that answers come when we look, listen, and open our hearts and minds! I love the Book of Mormon and my testimony of it has been strengthened so much! It has such an incredible power to change our lives! Joseph Smith is a prophet. He did truly see God the Father and Christ His Son and to me it is the sweetest example of answered prayer. I'm so grateful that families can be together forever and that someday we will be again with our Father in Heaven.

I love you all!

Tell the missionaries hi for me!

Con amor,

Elder Cook

August 10, 2012

Bueno!!!

Este semana pasado fue una semana diferente!!!! And in the MTC that's a big deal! We had a couple big things happen. First, our district received their travel plans yesterday! We got them during dinner and IT WAS Christmas in august (we even sang Angels We Have Heard on High later for the opening hymn in our class!). Small things bring joy in the MTC! So I will fly out on Monday August 20th at 830 (I have to be at the travel office here in the MTC at 500...woohoo!). I fly first to Dallas/Ft. Worth and then down to McAllen!!! I'll let you know for sure next week, but I should be able to give ya'll a call sometime between 7 and 730!!! (we get to call in the airport!!). So Ohio time that's 9 and 930...Since its the first day of school I guess things will be crazy but maybe I Claire and Ian can find a way to step out of class for a quick minute and I can talk to them real quick! There are 11 in my flight group (So 11 other missionaries in my transfer!) I've met about 5 of them by now...and so far I'm the only one who wasn't in beginner Espanol! The more I've studied Spanish the more i enjoy it and I'll be perfectly content if I go 2 years without speaking English!

TRC is really the best time of the week! This past week Elder Tarr and I taught a girl from BYU who'd lived in Spain for a semester! It was nice, because our Spanish was comparable to hers and it was a good way for us to see the progress we'd made! It was kind of strange teaching someone who was just about our age "as a missionary" and in Espanol! but it was so much fun and it went so well! At this point, I am so excited for Texas! The MTC is great, you really have so much time to study and learn..but the I can already tell that these two years are going to be awesome because of the people, not because of the time to study or learn! Speaking of people, I said adios to Elder Steele and Elder Smith this past week! It was so good to see them here and thanks to Elder Steele I think I now have one of the ugliest ties in the MTC! The second significant thing that occurred this week....was hosting!!!...Dad will remember this from when he dropped me off...but there are missionaries that pick up the new missionaries at the curb....take them to get their information,...show them their dorms...and then take them to their class. We got to do it on Wednesday and it was so much fun! It was strange being on the other side of the curb....and it was strange to realize how long we've been here. that's another thing...we're now the oldest district in our zone (sacrament meeting group) and we're also the next district to leave!!!! I hosted 3 missionaries and one of them was Elder Forbes (An Elder from my floor at BYU). It was kinda of strange though because we were so happy and excited for the missionaries....while they're having a tender final goodbye with the family. You feel a little guilty almost for being so excited. Every single elder was so nervous no matter how hard they tried to be cool about things. It was good though! The whole experience just got us more motivated to kill these next two weeks and be as best prepared for the field as possible! Thanks Mom and  Dad for the "Dear Elder" letters! I received a post card from Sis. Smith a week or so ago from Kirtland and that was so cool! Tell all the cousins aunts and uncles and mis abluos hola para mi!

Le Invitamos a leer Jacob 4!!!! Me gusta mucho! Yo tengo un testimonio que Dios nos ama, cada person y el es una persona perfecta y amorosa! Yo se que Jose Smith fue un profeta y su historia es verdadera. Me encanta la primera vision y es tan poderoso en espanol! En sus propios palabras: Vi una columna de luz, mas brillante que el sol, dirrectament arriba de mi cabeza. Y esta luz gradualmente descendio hasta descansar sobre me. Al reposar sobre mi la luz, vi en el aire arriba de mi a dos personajes, cuyo fulgor y gloria no admiten descripcion. Uno de ellos me hablo, llamandome por me nombre y dijo senalando al otro..."Jose...este es mi hijo amado...!Escuchalo!". Yo se que este ocurido y que Dios sabe el nombre de cada persona y El contestara nuestras oraciones.

Les amo!!!!

Con amor,

Elder Cook

August 3, 2012 Email

Hola!!!!

This past week was by far the fastest week of the MTC! But it was such a great week too! The Spanish is going along so well! Now we've begun focusing a lot more on teaching and refining our teaching skills as much as our Spanish. I'm so excited to go to Texas! One thing that'll be a little different for me than with Dad and Scott really is the language! Right now it hasn’t been to tough to talk to the native speaking missionaries here and the fact that I might be teaching in English just as much really has me excited! Can't wait! Today we got to go to the temple again and it was awesome! Afterwards we had breakfast there and there was a really nice Japanese brother who served us our waffles and drew smiley faces with the whipped cream on top! Being happy and sharing that happiness with others really has an impact! Our lessons with our "investigators" are still going well and it’s the time when we really find out where our Spanish needs to improve. It finally happened though! I've come up with a joke in Spanish! Better yet...it’s a pun...better yet....it deals with the Book of Mormon!

Donde vivio la familia de Lehi en el desierto?

A: En Tiendas.....entiendas? (Mom can explain!)

Hope you guys have an awesome time in Nauvoo! Im so grateful we grew up 'back east' and close to all the church history sites. As the only Elder in my district east of Utah I put up with teasing for actually knowing places east of Utah. It’s funny. Elder Steele leaves next week and so does Elder Smith so I’m trying to take advantage of the last few days with them! The mountains are so cool to look at and I'm still wowed by them on a daily basis. Sundays and Tuesdays are awesome days because we have devotionals , firesides, and then Sunday nights we watch the film of when apostles have spoken at the MTC! This week my testimony has grown a lot around prayer! I love the scripture in 2 Kings 19 talking about Elijah and the still small voice! (Go read Chapter 18 and 19 as well! So cool! ). Prayer really is the foundation communication of everything we know and everything we believe. Heavenly Father really does answer our prayers! We have so many examples of prayer in the scriptures and if even 1 of them is true then it completely changes things! Most importantly, the one prayer we need answered is our own and without that belief our faith can't grow! I'm grateful that we can have a real and personal relationship with our Heavenly Father!

Tell Elder Shannon...whoops...David hi for me and have him send me a letter when he gets the chance!!! Have fun in Nauvoo! Be nice! Be Patient! Have fun!

Con amor,

Elder Cook quien va servir en el pais de dios....Tejas!