Hermana Cox's letter

Hola a todos!!!!!

How are all of you doing? Thank you for your prayers, letters, and pictures!!!! I love you all so much! I hope all of you have had a wonderful week! 

This week seriously has been the fastest week of my mission yet! I can`t believe it is pday again. The weeks go by so fast! I seriously can`t believe that changes are next week. I swear it was just recently that Hermana Coon and I were celebrating because we were going to have another 6 weeks here together. I honestly can`t believe it. I am emailing a bit later today because we just had a zone activity. We all got together and played handball at the stake center. It was really fun. Before we went outside to play, the Elders were playing with the ball inside the gym and broke a window. haha but other than that, it was a really fun activity. 

It has been a really great week! Ever since Wednesday, I have been feeling really well so that has been a wonderful blessing! On Monday, we had a family night with a less active family. We used one of the object lessons that we found in the new era. It went really well and we committed them to go to church. But they didn`t come :(But we are going to keep working with them. 

Tuesday was a great day as well! We had a family night at the stake president`s house. We made tacos and invited Facundo and his family and some other recent converts. It was a great activity. And the Stake president`s wife has a cello that she is starting to learn. So, I was able to play a bit of the cello while we were there too. That was a treat. No one has a cello here! 

On Wednesday morning, we headed out to 33 to do an intercambio with Hermana Flores and Hermana Vazques. That was really great! I was with Hermana Flores. She will be a valiente next change (meaning last change is her last change). We worked really hard and had a great day. They have some really great investigators but there is no place that compares to Gianola. I don`t know what it is, but even Centenario is so different. The people are so different. They are so friendly and willling to stop and listen in Gianola. It is easy to invite people in the street to be baptized and have them accept. 33 is not quite as easy. But we still had a really good day. 

Thursday, we had to get everything ready for Facundo`s baptism on Thursday. We were a bit worried because when we went by his house about an hour before his interview that day, he wasn`t there! We were worried that the grandma got involved again, but luckily he showed up to his house about 20 minutes later and had a very wonderful interview at the church. Facundo is super smart and super mature. In fact, our district leader Elder Micah Allen (Layton, Utah - by the way he goes home the same day I do) said that that was one of the best interviews he has ever done. He said that he could see that Facundo was super prepared. 

oh haha I almost forgot....... On Thursday morning, while we were doing our weekly planning, we were kind of cold and we had our electric heater going and the other Hermanas were running theirs in the other room, and we heard a big boom and then the power went out. Yep.....we blew a circut. We tried to go flip the breaker and when we turned it back on, we could see sparks and flames behind the light switch where we heard the boom. So yeah, we decided we had better just leave it off and call someone. Luckily, Elder Burnett was going to be coming the next day and he is an electrician and he was able to fix it, but it was a crazy 24 hours without power. haha 

Friday was a crazy day! We were running around getting everything ready for the baptism. We couldn`t wash the baptism clothes because our power wasn`t working so we had to call a member and take the clothes over to her to be washed. And then we had complications getting the keys to the baptismal font and the day of the baptism, our ward mission leader backed out on us because he was sick and his wife did too and she was supposed to give a talk! Everything was going crazy!!!! 

But luckily, it all worked out great!!!! And it was an incredible experience! Jose Martin was so excited to baptize. You could tell that he felt really cool to be able to baptize. I ended up giving one of the talks and then when it came time for Facundo to be baptized. I realized that we hadn`t made sure that Jose Martin knew what to do. We didn`t know if he even knew the prayer or how to hold Facundo`s hands or anything. As they went to font, we kind of asked him, "do you know what to do?". And he just responded like "oh I will make it up". We were a bit nervous. But we watched and he baptized Facundo like he had baptized a million times before. I couldn`t believe it. He had all the confidence in the world and it was a beautiful experience. He said the prayer perfectly and knew exactly how to help Facundo lower into the water and come right back up. And then they hugged in the font. It was so cute! It was one of the best moments of my mission! 

On Saturday, we didn`t have much time in our area either. It was Jose martin`s birthday. And so, when we were studying in the morning, we decided to call him and sing him happy birthday in English. He loved it. Then later for lunch, he invited us over to eat. We ate the sausage sandwiches that we ate before the mission remember? Yeah, anyways we gave him a big happy birthday sign and we gave him a little alfajor with a candle in it and we sang to him. Afterwards, he told us that that was the first time that anyone had ever given him a cake or a card or had sang to him on his birthday! Can you believe that? It was a really fun day. Afterward, we had to run over to the church in Colon for a open house. Remember like the one I did when I was with Hermana Rodriguez. There were a lot of people helping out there, so we ended up being the ones outside waving people down to invite them to come in. It was fun and I was able to see Ignacio. He was a super hard investigator that Hermana Alvarado and I found in Centenario. He and his brother ended up getting baptized. He already has his patriarchal blessing and is now preparing to go on a mission. It was great to talk with him and hear about his conversion experience. Pretty incredible!!!!

On Sunday, we had 3 investigators at church!!!! (Cintia, Benjamin, and Miyal) Cintia came again even though her mom couldn`t come and she is super shy. Benjamin is a 13 year old young man that we found in the street the week before.He is friends with one of the members in the ward. And we finally found his house this week. His mom knows a lot about the bible and used to be a jehova`s witness, so she is pretty hard, but she wants her son to learn more. So, we asked Benjamin`s friend, Ylen if she would pass by for him on SUnday, and he came with her!!!! Miyal is a boy that stopped us in the street and asked us what time church was and if he could come. So that was a miracle and he came and so we are going to see if we can teach him too. Andres was going to come, but he had a bad headache. We haven`t had a chance to teach him this week, but we will see what we can do. So as of right now, our most firm investigators are Cintia, Benjamin, and Andres. 

Our zone is planning a noche blanca where we plan a baptismal service for all of our prepared investigators together. It will be for the 26th. The night before changes. So we will be working with these three so they can get baptized that night. 

After church on Sunday, we did the music class again. It was a great hit. And afterward, everyone wanted to stick around for the charla we had with Benjamin. 

This week is going to go by so fast, I just know it!!!!! We will be doing some intercambios on Wednesday and Friday. And on Saturday morning we will be doing our hermanas conference.Saturday and SUnday is stake conferece ( a broadcast from Salt Lake). So yep, it is going to be a crazy week!!!!! 

I have to go now!!!! But I love you lots!!!! Thank you for your prayers and thoughts. Know that you are always in mine! Have a great week!!!!! I will talk to you next Tuesday!!!! 

-Hermana Cox