Brrrrownsville!

Hola mi familia!

Wow! Each week I come to love this town more and more! It’s such a cool place and I’m grateful the Lord has allowed me to spend so much time here! This week we saw some huge miracles in our area! First off, we are now teaching the Urbina family (5 kids....ages 4-15) and they are so much fun! Sis. Urbina is a single mom who teaches but wants to switch careers. Marco is 15 (almost 16) and plays the trombone and he has hair down to his shoulders. Kat (Katherine) is 14, plays guitar and always has lots of questions. Briana is 12 kind of quiet but likes to learn. Armando is 9 and is really good at tic-tac-toe (We played about 30 games during sacrament meeting...man I need to get more creative with my sacrament meeting reverent activities....I really wish I had those scripture books that Mom used for us back when we were little!) and then there’s Lupito (4). He's super active and speaks fluent Tex-Mex as a 4yr old. They’re a great family! They had a great time at church this week and came 10 minutes early and all dressed up (I told them that was a feat even for my family back home!). They are great! We also have a few other families that are starting to progress and it’s such a blessing to see the Lord putting them in our path!

I had two exchanges this week! One to Country Club, a bike area in the center of Brownsville. I worked with Elder Crimm and it was great! The best part was when we were walking down to a members apartment at about 8:45 p.m....and a car stopped us. A member from Corpus was down visiting and saw me and recognized me! Turns out he hadn’t been to church for a few weeks and he said seeing us was a sign to him that he needed to get back in the habit of going! It was one of those "too cool to be a coincidence" moments!

One of the biggest lessons I learned this week was the importance of making sure the changes we make during trials become permanent! As we exercise faith in the Atonement of Christ...we can take the changes in our behavior and make them changes of our nature! I know that Christ’s grace is sufficient for those that humble themselves and exercise faith in Him and that we receive weaknesses and trials so that we can be humble and come unto Him!

Have a great week! Get ready for conference! Write down some questions before hand so you can find some answers!

Con amor,

Elder cook

P.S Vivi Quiroz had a baby this week! (Juan’s sister! from Southmost) Her names Jordan! Keep her in your prayers! Thanks!

Mas Lluvia!

Hola mi familia!

Well it was a great week this week! We had a lot of fun and learned so much! We had a zone conference in Harlingen and we had some great training on how to work better with ward members on Sundays and throughout the week! Afterwards we had a really good evening spending some time with president at our stake missionary coordination meeting! There is always so much we can do to further the work of the Lord! It’s so exciting to be a missionary right now!

In Brownsville....it rains and rains! It reminds me of my senior year back in May when it rained like 38/43 days or something crazy! It just rains day after day! Its great and we have some fun experiences! The other day we dashed from the car through pouring rain to go knock on a less actives house and wound up in front of the wrong door and ended up talking to a man who was super interested in learning about the gospel! It was a lot of fun and wasn’t hard for us to see Heavenly Fathers guiding hand! Not much time today but here’s a scripture that I love so much! One of the things I’m working on right now is trusting more in God and letting Him have complete control of my mission! Time is going fast! (the blink year...wow...it feels like yesterday was January this morning was may and tomorrow is December! wahhh!)

D&C 123:17:

Therefore, dearly beloved brethren, let us cheerfully do all things that lie in our power; and then may we stand still, with the utmost assurance, to see the salvation of God, and for his arm to be revealed

Con amor,

Elder Cook

Vamos adelante!

Hola mi familia!

Another whirlwind week! The best part...it has rained everyday!!!! It’s been such a different feeling but it’s been a lot of fun! Thursday i actually got to be on a bike again and it was some of the most fun I’ve had since I’ve been back in Brownsville. I was working with Elder Bawden (an Elder I came out with) and we had incredible fun and success! At one point we got stuck in the mud and there was a group of teenagers who thought we looked funny...we went over and talked to them (they lost some bravery at that point) found one of them that was interested in learning more about the gospel and sat down for a lesson! The girl’s name was Brenda and she accepted the invitation to be baptized and is going to start coming to church with us! It was a fun learning moment for me! It felt so good to be out and riding and to see so many people to talk to!

We also had our monthly meeting in McAllen and so it was good to meet with all of my mission friends again! It’s been fun to work with Elder Welker and see him growing as well! He has more fun than any missionary I know and it’s been a real blessing to have him as my companion! I'm especially grateful as well for Elder Mulitalo and Elder Walker! They are two of my best friends and they do so much to help us out, whether its setting up something at the church before a meeting, helping keep the apartment clean, or making sure there’s always a song being sung (Elder Walker has Spencer-itis and sings regardless of the hour or setting!). We'll be doing another quartet this week at a meeting and we’ll be singing Abide With Me ‘tis Eventide! I get to sing alto and it’s been a lot of fun to sing a different part and make some cool harmony! Another fun thing we’ve started doing is going by a few minutes early to the Carrillo family and playing hymns on the guitar with their daughter Ivonne! Elder Welker sings and together it sounds great! I’m so grateful we can use instruments now...and I’m excited to use it with more of our members and investigators!

I know this work is true! I'm especially grateful for the peace and comfort I feel from reading the Book of Mormon! It truly changes hearts (including ours!) and gives us the exact counsel and advice we need!

Con amor,

Elder Cook

Wake Me Up When September Ends

Hola mi familia!

This was a great week! We had a lot of fun and saw a lot of miracles in our area as well! Elder Welker and I are already really good friends! He's from Los Angeles, plays sports (he's really good at baseball), and can sing as well (our apartment can still sing as a quartet!), speaks really good Spanish and works very hard! It was fun to hear about how things were in Corpus after I left and to watch him face the same adjustments that I made 6 weeks ago! Time is flying by faster and faster each day! It’s nice when we can find small moments to take a breather or just enjoy what’s going on around us!

We had one of those experiences on Sunday! One of the missionaries in our zone is named Elder Ferrell and we found out Friday that his sister and brother in law (who live just outside of Brownsville) were going to be baptized on Sunday and wanted him to baptize them! We got to drive over that Sunday to be with him and it was such a special baptismal service! He was so happy and it was fun to see their mini little reunion! Elder Ferrell was the first convert in his family and now all of his brothers and sisters and parents (except his oldest brother...the oldest of 6)  have been baptized! It’s so great to see families coming together through the gospel!

This week we're focusing on becoming more diligent! I was grateful for the words in Preach My Gospel in the Christ-like attributes section on diligence. Our diligence shows our love for God and His work and we can only be satisfied with our work if we do it diligently! It’s definitely one of the characteristics I want to have! Im grateful for the example of alma (Alma 43:1) and hope to be as hard of a worker!

We’re seeing so many miracles in our area with new families and I’ll tell you about them next week!

Con amor,

Elder Cook

Just a short thought...

Hola mi familia!

Things are going great down here! Elder Welker (a missionary I knew in my last zone) is coming down from Corpus to be my new companion! He arrives on Tuesday and it will be a great week! I’m really excited! I'll share a small member work miracle that we saw this week!

So la Hna. Carillo is a member who lives in our area and we’ve grown really close to that family! We’ve been trying to find different ways to help involve them in missionary work and this week we saw a great miracle! We asked Hna. Carillo if there was anything we could do to help her after a meal appointment and she mentioned she was looking and trying to find a less active family that lived way out in the boonies of our area (it’s the boonies right about the Southmost boonies!)  She gave us an address and asked if we could go by because there were only mailboxes and unmarked houses! We went by and after stopping at a few of the houses (country farm houses)- we talked to a man named Robert! He was very friendly and invited us in (even though we just told him we were looking for his neighbor!) and we had a great lesson! The best part came after we talked with him about baptism and he accepted and then shared how he wants his family to be together forever! He opened the scriptures and shared Acts. 16:31 with us!

30 And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved?

31 And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.

It was so obvious to see how the Lord had prepared this man and how by the Spirit and because of his humility and faith in Christ...Heavenly Father has helped him find a lot of truth (such as eternal families, baptism at accountable age, praying only to god) on his own! I know that Heavenly Father is mindful of each of His children and knows exactly where they are at spiritually!

Con amor,

Elder Cook

El Verano eterno!

Hola mi familia!

This week was a great week! Elder Stevens and I really had a fun week and a lot of the enjoyment came from talking to so many people! It’s so much fun to talk with such a variety of people but to see the common threads and needs that we all have! We witnessed a lot of miracles as well! Wednesday we had the chance to do a significant amount of service! It started when we went by to visit a family and they weren’t home but we saw their neighbor next door outside shirtless and sweaty dumping rocks into a bed in front of the house. He accepted our offer to help and so we spent the next hour or so helping him fill buckets with rocks from a pile in the backyard and bring it back around to the front! It was such a simple act of service but it was so enjoyable and we knew that we were where Heavenly Father wanted us to be! Right after we were finished we went to see Kevin and Belen ( a couple we taught for a week or so) and helped them do some yard work in their backyard for another hour and a half! Elder Stevens mowed the lawn while I helped pick up tiny foam pieces from old shredded couch cushions and other pieces of trash up in the yard! Their house was right on the resaca (a small river that runs through the town) and the best part was seeing the lightning bugs come out as it was getting dark! Man, It had been a long time since id seen lightning bugs! I’m grateful that Heavenly Father gives us opportunities to help those around us to be happy through small and simple things!

One scripture that has stayed in my mind a lot this week is Ether 12:6:

And now, I, Moroni, would speak somewhat concerning these things; I would show unto the world that faith is things which are hoped for and not seen; wherefore, dispute not because ye see not, for ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith.

On Sunday night we went out to work and I had felt a little disanimado about our lack of success in finding people to teach who were ready and willing to work! After another family turned us down the words of that scripture came to my mind...especially the part about not receiving the witness until after the trial of our faith! Our last appointment of the night was with the Martinez family...who we had talked to just once about a week before! As soon as we got to their home they welcomed us in and we were able to have a great lesson! As a family they accepted the invitation to be baptized and throughout the lesson we could see how happy they were to learn about the blessings the Lord has in store for their family! We were so excited and grateful after the lesson! Sometimes the trial of our faith seems long and endless, but I know that the Lord knows our limits and knows exactly how far He wants us to stretch in order to help us grow! I know that sometimes we can only learn some lessons through experience and that being humble means recognizing as did Job, that both the good and the difficult (sometimes what we may call bad) or the success and lack of success are controlled by our Heavenly Father! I know He lives and loves each of us!

Con amor,

Elder Cook!

McAllen Week

Hola mi familia!

This was a great week! Lots of travel and lots of seeing old friends! But it was great! So Tues-Thurs. we had 3 days of  training in McAllen...we had about 10 missionaries from Brownsville that went ...so we got up and left Brownsville around 6:30 each morning in time to start at 8:00 a.m. and got back around 6 or 7 each night! It was great! The drive is about an hour and a half at most...it was fun to pass Mercedes and Las Milpas twice a day! McAllen and the La Vista chapel there still feel like home each time I visit! The different mission leaders gave trainings and President Maluenda taught us a lot! He loves to use the old testament and D&C in addition to the Book of Mormon and he taught us using the story of Moses from Exodus 4 and Moses 1. There were a lot of differences from the 3 day trainings with the Trayners but it was all positive and all good! I also got to take part in an octet for a special musical number! We sang I Need Thee Every Hour ...Elders Curletti and Sanders (the ones from Mercedes) as well as Elder Stevens were all in it plus the sister missionaries I knew up in Corpus! It was great to go back each night and have an hour or two in our area to apply what we learn!

We're starting to work a lot with the Fernandez family! They’re a lot of fun and are quickly becoming some of our best friends! We’re helping them to start to come to church again and even though they aren’t fully active they always have family and friends over who they invite to listen or eat with us as well! Saturday we got a phone call from the AP’s telling us that President wanted the missionaries who sang to come sing in the Maluenda's ward since they would be giving talks! We drove up Saturday night and stayed the night in one of the mission homes so that we would have time in the morning! We stayed in the same house that I stayed in my very first night in the mission field....It brought back a lot of memories and was a good checkpoint for me! I'm so excited for these next few months of my mission! One thing President Maluenda has helped us focus on is how important it is to work towards and reach our potential as servants of the Lord! Each day is a building block! Sunday we got to sing and it went great! It was fun to hear the whole Maluenda family talk...they have 6 kids (one is on a mission to California) and their names and ages are Natalia (22), Fernando (20), Valeria (16), Catalina (14), Daniel (10) and Gabriela (8). The three daughters and then President and Sister Maluenda spoke!  It was strange to hear President in English and all the others except Valeria have pretty strong accents! Sister Maluendas English is coming along and it’ll be fun to see how much hers improves over the course of their mission! After singing at their ward at 9:00 a.m. we also stayed for the 11:00 a.m. ward as well. Then we went to the mission home for a lunch and we got to spend some time with them! It’s fun to see them as a family in the mission home! We sang a few more songs and President even had some of us play guitar and piano (I’m a little rusty on guitar! ah!). It’s definitely made me realize I want to devote some time to music after my mission! It makes life so much more enjoyable!

We're coming in on the homestretch of Elder Stevens mission and he really works harder than any missionary I know! He goes home next Friday! We have a lot of fun and I love being his companion!

This morning I read and studied a story in John 2! It’s the story of the Savior’s first miracle of turning water into wine! It made me grateful for the Joseph Smith translation! In verse the original version reads:

4 Jesus saith unto her, Woman, what have I to do with thee? mine hour is not yet come.

but the JST says JST John 2:4 … Woman, what wilt thou have me to do for thee? that will I do; for mine hour is not yet come.

I noticed a huge difference in the first and the second! The second version (the correct one) shows how much more loving and willing to serve the Savior actually was! I’m grateful for modern revelation and for the work the prophet Joseph Smith did and that God loves us enough to make sure we have the truth! I know when we serve and do things for those we love we are happy! I know that Christ loves each of us and wants us to be as happy as we possibly can!

Con amor,

Elder Cook