The adventures of the "Supersisters" continues!

Dear Family,

What a beautiful week in every way! Thank you thank you for your love and prayers. It really means a lot to me. I can just feel the love and support from my family. Its so overwhelming. Thank you!

...(oh my goodness, I am having trouble writing in english right now. haha it is taking me a little to think about what I want to say! Never thought that would happen...haha) 

We had such a fun, crazy, and extremly spiritual week...The adventures of the "Supersisters" Hermana Cox y Hermana Coon continue! We began our week, last Monday (pday) by traveling to Acegua, the border of Uruguay and Brazil! It was so awesome...people were talking to us in portuguese and we could understand a little bit of what they were saying. What was really weird is when people began talking to us in spanish...it felt like home. I love the spanish language. What a blessing to be able to understand and speak. We ate our lunch in Acegua and as they Brazilians prepared our food, we tried to talk to them. Dont ask me how we read the menu. Just kidding, portugese and spanish are really similar.

Wednesday was the WEDDING DAY of Monica and Richard! I cant believe how much they have progressed just in these past 6 months when Hermana Montenegro and I found them. After living together for 10 years, they finally decided to marry because they want to follow the Savior and be baptized. It was marvelous. We went to the courthouse to watch their wedding. All we can say is there is nothing like a temple marriage. It doesnt even compare. Hna Cox and I left that wedding completely grateful for the temple and an even stronger desire to be married and sealed in the temple for time and for all eternity. I thought about Jenifer De los Santos. When they got married, four days before they found the gospel, she told Richard that that didnt feel like her wedding, that there had to be more! What she didnt know was the great blessings that would follow. Now, Richard and Jenifer, and, Richard and Monica, will go to the temple in a year and be sealed for time and for all eternity. There is nothing like it. For-ever! Eternidad! 

This week was also wonderful because Gianola had 5 baptisms! Rocke was baptized as well! This baptism was such a testimony to me of the power of the Atonement. Rocke was such a miracle because we found him in the street one day talking with everyone. We invited him to be baptized right then and there and he accepted. It was a struggle to find his poor little house, but we found it. The more we taught him, the more we felt like Heavenly Father had really put him in our path for a reason. He has lived such a sad and lonely life. He has never met his parents, has lived on the streets his whole life, has never gone to school and doesnt know how to read. Now he is 54 years old. rresident Cook came up to Melo to do a special interview with him on Saturday. As he entered into the waters of the baptism, without his neck brace, we saw a filthy Rocke, but as we entered out of the water, completely wet, we met him. "Rocke! Como se siente?!" we asked him. He just had the biggest smile on his face. Its just something that you cant explain. This was a testimony to me that the atonement of jesus christ is real. Even the sinners of all sinners can be clean and forgiven. 

I felt like I needed to be clean as well. I was desperately waiting for sunday to partake of the sacrament and have my "mini bautismo." There is no such thing as a perfect person, or perfect missionary. A mission is a great place in life to see all of your weaknesses. Hna Cox and I pray each day that we may learn the things that we are suppose to learn on the mission. I guess this week I learned even more how much I need to rely on the lord. I felt like Sunday, I was so happy, full of joy, but also, I felt like I had a little carga, or burden. But, as I partook of the sacrament, my weight was lifted off of my shoulders. Everything is made right through the atonement of the Jesus Christ. Then, I looked over at Rocke who was sitting a few seats over take the sacrament. It amazed me, a man who had a past like he has had, is clean. Jesus Christ has already taken care of it. It makes me think of a scripture...D&C 19:16-19.

The baptismal service was so spiritual. President Cook stayed for the service and shared a few thoughts at the end. He is an inspired man. What is so fun was it was Richard and Monicas dream to meet the president of the mission and for him to be at their baptism. The Lords hand was definitely invovled so that President was able to come. He is a special, inspired man that I love dearly. He is so sincere and so close to the spirit. After the baptisms, bishop invited all of the newly members to share their testimonies if they so felt they should. Rocke immediately stood up and began to share his feelings. Rocke was in a moto accident two months ago. This is why he has a broken neck. The paramedics rushed him to the hospital almost dead, but he told us that he saw a light. He told us that he saw Christ and he spoke to him and this is why he is alive today. His miracle life was saved. It was saved so he could have a second chance to know the gospel and to be clean from all of the sins he has commited in his life. The spirit was SO POWERFUL. There was not a dry eye in the whole congregation. 

Heavenly Father has blessed me so much in my mission. The experiences that I have seen and witnessed are indescribable. I will forever be thankful and I know that Heavenly Father gives us weaknesses so we may be humbled and then he will make our weaknesses become strengths. I just hope that I will be a worthy instrument in the hands of the Lord. I love him. 

I love you all! The Christs Atonement changes lives. 

Hermana Coon

brasil and uruguay!

 At the wedding of Monica and Richard!

This is our sweet family! David and Dahaina! We are helping them get married and then get baptized! Someday they will be sealed in the temple!

My sweet convert Mariana!

They are a miracle!!!!

Hermana Cox's letter to her family

we love Hermana Cox!

Hello! How is everyone? I hope all of you have had a wonderful week! I hope you had a great birthday Romney! It sounds like it has been a crazy week for you guys too! Thank you for your letters and your pictures. I love you lots!!! 

This week has gone by sooo fast! I can`t believe it was a week ago that we went to Acegua. We had a really good time. We made our bus and everything. It is about a 1 and 15 minutes away. And while we were on our way, we looked at each other, and thought wait what are we doing? We are going to the border where we have never been before, where pople speak a different language. We don`t have a tour guide, we just up and decided to go just the two of us and got permission from the zone leaders and ta we were on the bus to go to the border. But for some reason we weren`t worried, but we were thinking about how worried our moms would be :) haha but it was really fun. We took lots of pictures on the border. They have a bunch of shops there called free shops where they import things from other countries. They had a lot of perfumes and candy that I haven`t seen for a long time. We just looked around, but we bought lunch and some ice cream there. They speak a weird type of Spanish there. I don`t know if they were speaking straight Portuguese or a type of mix but they could understand our Spanish and we could understand their Portugese. It was really beautiful there. It was fun to look out to Brazil. The whole time I was just wishing that Dad was here with me. Between my Spanish and his Portugese we would have a blast. But yeah, it was a really fun day! 

On Wednesday, Monica and Richard, (Hermana Zelaya and Hermana Leiva`s investiagtors) got married!!!! I don`t know if you remember but Monica is Dahiana`s mom. Anyways, Monica and Richard had been living together for 10 years and Monica`s son died about 6 months ago and the next day, the day when he was burried, Hermana Coon and her companion knocked on their door. (this was back in March or April when Hermana Coon was in the other area). And since then, they have been receiving the lessons and they always give us lunch and rides home in their car. They are so sweet and loving to us! Back in June, they set the date to get married in September so they could get baptized. I remember that day back in June when they told us they set a date, I felt like it was forever away. But it was this last Wednesday. We were able to go to the marriage. All I can say after that experience is that I will never let anything get in the way of my goal of getting married in the temple. Oh the feeling there in that room was awful and it was so cold. They were all making jokes and making light of something so sacred, a marriage. Anyways, nothing compares to the temple and it just reminded me once again of how grateful I am that mom and dad got married in the temple. What  a blessing! I am so grateful for the temple! 

Well this week we have been working with Rocky and Maria del Carmen a lot. We found out last week, that Rocky had a problem with question #4 of the baptism questions, which means that he would need to have a special interview with President Cook or one of his counselors in addition to the normal interview with the zone leaders. This question has to do with legal issues and such. But on Thursday, he was scheduled to have his interview with the zone leaders, because on Friday we were going to have an intercambio in 33. But we passed by Rocky`s house about 5 or 6 times all day long and he was never home. And he doesn`t have a cell phone or anything. So we just had to keep passing by all day. His neighbor told us that he had gone to campaña (country) with his horse or something like that. Anyways, we couldn`t find him all day long. Before going home, we decided to check to see if he was there and he was! He got home after 8 on Thursday night. We decided to cancel our intercambio with 33 so we could help Rocky have his interview on Friday. The zone leaders came the next morning and Rocky had his interview. But apparently, his past was a little bit more complicated than we had thought. Poor guy, he has had a rough life. He doesn`t even know who his parents are. But President Cook came up to Melo on Saturday afternoon and Rocky was able to have an interview with him. He passed the interview and was really excited to have all of his past wiped clean and start a new life through baptism. After his interview, he had to go to a doctor`s appointment. The time for the baptism came, and he still hadn`t returned. We didn`t know what to do. We went and looked for him at his house and he had barely made it home. We had to start the service a half hour late, but he made it! On Saturday, there were 5 baptisms in the ward! It was a powerful baptismal service. There were many people there that were not members and President Cook stayed for the baptisms. Richard de Los Santos baptized Rocky and one of the other investigators. It was an incredible experience. Richard felt so important! The whole afternoon before the baptism, he was praciticing the prayer over and over again. Anyways, it was a super spiritual baptism. My testimony of the atonement has grown so much. It is incredible to see a rough man like Rocky be made completely clean through the atonement of Christ. After his baptism and his confirmation yesterday, he was just beaming. He and Richard also got the priesthood yesterday. Jose Martin was able to ordain one of them yesterday. That was so awesome! But the atonement really is so incredible! I love being able to see people like Richard, Monica, and Rocky totally turn their lives around. 

We have been working with maria del Carmen this week. We have been visiting her with a lot of members and she has been making great progress. We committed her to go to church this week, but she couldn`t come and she had smoked a lot the day before. So that was kind of disappointing. But we are going to try having a lesson in the church with her to see if that helps. 

We are also working with David and Dahiana. Last night, we had a family night with them. David has changed so much and is now  reading the book of Mormon. He is still looking for work and says that once he finds work then they will start thinking about getting married and set a date. We are excited about the progress that they are making.   

Anyways, that is our week in a nut shell. It has been quite the week filled with many humbling experiences. It is interesting how humbling missionary work is. It really is the work of the Lord. It is a unique experience where you are placed face to face with all of your weaknesses. I often have many feelings of inadequacy. I have so much still to learn and become. I am just so grateful for the atonement and that the Lord makes up for our weaknesses and that despite all of the weaknesses I have, the  Lord is allowing me to have these experiences. This is the Lord`s work and I love it!!!! I never want this time to end. Time is going by so fast! 

I am so grateful for each one of you and your prayers and support. This is the Lord`s church and His work! Enjoy conference! I love you all! Have a wonderful week! 

-Hermana Cox :)

Spring is in the AIR...

Hello Loves!

How are you all!?! I am so happy to announce that yesterday was the first day of SPRING here in Uruguay! How happy is that? Its so fun to see the beautiful flowers and the green coming back. It is probably super weird for you all that it is now spring when fall just began at home. 

I will start my letter this week by saying I honestly dont know how we got through this week. I have never lived such a busy, crazy life as I have now. I have never felt so tired. That is the honest truth. We had a fabulous week and Heavenly Father really helped us. 

Hermana Cox and I had our hermanas conference this Saturday! It was so excellent! The theme of the Conference was 3 Nefi 5:13. We prepared and prayed all week that the Spirit would be present. All of our Hermanas travled from 33 and Melo to come...14 of us. We spoke on our pre earth life and the things we did to prepare to be missionaries and the people waiting for us. We showed different videos and then the videos of when the hermanas received their mission calls. It was amazing. Everyone participated and the spirit was so strong. so strong. There was not a dry eye. Then we decided to turn it around...we had talked all about what it is like to be a missionary, but we invited a few of our converts from Melo, Rosaura and Karen to share their conversion story. We changed the perspective. Their testimonies were so powerful. As missionaries, we change generations and generations. Posterity is being changed. Its really remarkable. If we had never decided to serve a mission, these people would have never found the gospel. I am grateful that every one of us listened to those quiet promptings of the spirit to serve a mission. Afterwards, we had a luncheon and ate tacos with all of the hermanas. It was a hit! We know that each one of our hermanas left with a greater desire to work more urgently and diligently. Hay personas esperandolas! I sure love these sisters and I am thankful that they love us too!

A big shout out goes to all of my dedicated young womens leaders! Thank you! Putting together conferences and activities is not an easy task...thank you!

It was also Hermana Coxs birthday this week...the big 2.3.! We had such a good day and I hope she enjoyed it! I am sure thankful that she was born. She is one of my bestest friends. Our sweet converts thru a birthday bash for her too. Uruguayos are the best!

It is super interesting Heavenly Fathers plan. He prepares people in very interesting ways. I sent a picture of one our awesome investigator Rocky. He is excellent. He was in a motorcycle accident in June and broke his neck. He is 55 and is quitting smoking. What will power he has. He usually smokes 20 cigarettes a day, but he is down to 1 a day and this week 0! We were teaching him about the restauracion that other day and we were inviting him to pray to Heavenly Father to know the truth. He then told us that he already knew it was true! "How?" we asked. He told us he knows its true because he can just feel it. We have invited a lot of our converts to participate in the lessons with him. Their testimonies and changes are so powerful and evident. We are so thankful that heavenly father placed rocky in our path. His baptism isthis Saturday along with Monica and Richard! 

Just a minute ago, Hermana Cox and I were sitting on a bench outside soaking in the beautiful sun, reviewing the intercambio that we had this week with some of our hermanas when a man approached us. I could understand a little bit of what he was saying, but it wasnt super clear. He was talking in portugese! We were totally carrying on a conversation with someone speaking portugese to us! How amazing is that. We always find brazilians here in Melo. In fact, in about one hour, we are heading to the border of Uruguay and Brazil. I will learn some words in porguese for you and then teach them to you! ;)

I am thankful everyday to be a missionary. This work is perfect and I am especially thankful to know that our kind and loving heavenly father is in charge. Just like what we taught in our conference, thank you for being the chosen and elect ones to come in this specific time. I love you my family and friends. You mean the world to me.

¡Les Amo!

Hermana Coon

p.s. Mom! I sent you a picture of us with hermana flores! Do you remember we were together in Progreso? She is coming home from her mission in October and has family in Arizona that she is going to visit! She is going to come visit you! She wants to meet my family so bad! So look out for the hermana flores! :) how exciting!!! Love you all!

Our Hermana Cox luncheon

 Our Hermana Cox conference!

 Rocky, our awesome investigator

  Hermana Cox birthday party!

Hermana Cox's letter to her family

Hey family!!!!

How are all of you? Thank you for the wonderful letters and pictures. It looks like the temple celebration was incredible!!! Thank you for everything. Sorry this letter might be a little bit cut short because we are wanting to take advantage of being so close to Brazil and go to Acegua. We are planning to take the 11:30 bus so we are going to have to do this really fast! But yeah, I am hoping to go to the Brazil border today and visit all of the free shops there. We have never been so this will be quite the adventure. 

Anyways, how are all of you? This week has been wonderful and crazy once again. Time is literally flying! I had a wonderful birthday! On Tuesday, Hermana Coon made me a really nice card with pictures of us together. We had lunch with the familia Rodriguez. Francisca and lucia the parents, are both returned missionaries. And they have two girls Ylen and Ysleg. They gave all 6 of us lunch together. We ate a bunch of finger food and then of course they gave us cake! It was really fun. And then that night we had a party at Mabel and Nilo`s house (they are recent converts) and the familia de los Santos came and Rosaura and her husband as well. It was a fun party because we celebrated Mabel`s daughter`s (Veronica`s) birthday as well. Her birthday was the day before mine. It was super fun. Mabel made a giant cake for all of us. it was a fun day and we are still enjoying all of the goodies from the packages you sent. So THANK YOU!!!! 

On Wednesday, we did an intercambio with Hermana Herrera (other Hermana Herrera) and Hermana Louder. Hermana Louder came and worked with me in our area. She is from Orem and Hermanan Rodriguez was her trainer too. She is an incredible missionary! We had an excellent day and found many miracles. 

This week was also so crazy because we organized and had our hermanas conference with all of the hermanas from Melo and 33. We were kind of stressed the whole week having to plan everything and not having time to plan and everything. But it turned out so well! I know that the Lord really helped us cause we really don`t have any free time to plan. But we had it here in the church in Gianola. And we focused the theme on 3 Nephi 5:13. We talked about how we have been prepared long before coming here to serve a mission here in Uruguay at this time. We shared dyc 138:55-56. And the bishop let us use his computer and President Diogo let us use his projector. So, we showed clips from President Monson`s announcement of the age change and Elder Rasband`s talk about the divine call of a missionary. We also showed a few of the Hermanas opening their mission calls. Other hermanas shared their testimonies and we talked about how there are still people waiting for us and that we really have a purpose here. We asked a couple of converts from our ward from past missionaries to share their experiences and how the gospel has blessed their lives. It was such a great conference! The Hermanas in the zone are so amazing! We made some bookmarks for them with the Uruguay flag on it, with the scriputre theme and a little note from us on the back. At the end, we all recited Dyc 4 together. It was so spiritual. I think all of us at least at one point were all crying. We had a little lunch afterwards. We had tacos! Hermana zelaya and Hermana Leiva are angels and made all of the meat and tortillas. And we had lots of vegetables!!! :) It was a really fun morning. 

Later that day on Saturday, our ward had another rescue activity and we did splits with the members to go and visit some less actives. I think it was a great success because there were members that came to church yesterday that we hadn`t seen at church for a long time. The members here are awesome! And we are trying to work harder with the members. 

I think last week I told you guys about our investigator Rocky. Well he is awesome!!!! He is progressing really well and he went to church yesterday!!! And he has a baptismal date set for this coming Saturday! He is so cute and so funny! He always randomly says "thank you" in English to us. He had a motorcycle accident in July and still has to wear his neck brace but man this guy is so sweet and so funny. This week we taught him about the word of wisdom and he went from one day smoking 1 box a day to only 1 or 2 cigarettes the next day! He is incredible! He really likes church. He and Andres sit together during sacrament meeting because they are neighbors and neither of them are super outgoing. haha Andres is doing so well by the way. He goes to church on Sunday every week on time without fail. He is so awesome! Anyways, yep we are really excited for Rocky`s baptism this Saturday. Richard is going to baptize him! :)

We are also helping one of Hermana Ots and Hermana Coon`s old investiagors. Hermana Coon felt that we should go back and visit one of their old investiagators. Her name is Maria del Carmen. She is 60 and smokes about 40 a day. Her daughter died about a year and a half ago. She really wants to change her life around and she went from 40 a day to 35 in two days so she is progressing really well. She wasn`t able to go to church on Sunday because her sister was sick in the hospital and she had to go help her. But, she is amazing and is also preping for baptism on the 11th of October. 

Thank you for all of your prayers! It has been a really great and crazy week! I am so grateful to be a missionary! I love every minute of every day. I am so grateful that despite my many weaknesses, the Lord is allowing me to have these experiences and see His hand in the lives of others. I love this work and I know that this is His work! I love you all so much! And hope you all have a wonderful week! Happy birhtday tomorrow Romney!!!!!! And good luck on your drum competition!!!!! I wish you the best of luck. You will do great!!!! I will be thinking of you! I love you all! I am sending lots of hugs and kisses to all of you! have a wonderful week!!! 

-hermana Cox :)

Reaching the heavens

Dear Family,

What a rainy week it has been! Sounds like its been raining hard at home as well! Hermana Cox and I have had quite the adventures in the rain this week. Proselyting and rain are quite fun. Like you pretty much all know, we are like twins...did you know that her favorite movie is "Singing in the Rain" too? So awesome! It is so fun to work with your best friend all day. I have never laughed so hard in my life.

I feel so blessed to be working in Melo with the growth of the church is so present. It really is so neat to be able to see the growth. When I got here in March, there were about 90 people going to church every week in our ward. Now, we have about 130 people every week at church! It is so awesome! We had our ward council last night. Our wonderful bishop asked Hermana Cox and I to speak about goals to the ward council. As a ward council, we set goals of what we want our Gianola ward to be like at the end of the year. We are aiming to have 150 people in attendance by the end of the year. It is such a cool thing to see the members get involved and excited about la obra misional! Vamo arriba! Dad, you were an awesome bishop. 

So, needless to see, the Lord is blessing us so much. We have had quite the trials this past week, but at the end of the day, it is so easy to see the hand of the Lord guiding us. We have worked so hard this week in the rain and every night we sleep like rocks. Then we wake up the next day and do the exact same thing. Sunday came and we had prepared all of our investigators to go to church, but like we all know, the Uruguayos hate the rain. They all told us that they would go to church...if it wasnt raining. We prayed so hard Saturday night that the rain would stop, that Heavenly Father would perform some kind of miracle. Sunday morning, we woke up to dark skies and a bit of rain. We left our home with faith ready to pick up some investigators to go to church. And you know what, they were all sleeping because it was cold and rainy. We went to church empty handed. We thought of our experience last week with Angel, so we did the exact same thing. We went in an empty room, bent our knees, and prayed asking for a miracle. We opened our eyes, and then saw an old investigator peeking in the window! His name is Miyal! He came all on his own to church...totally random! We couldnt believe it! As soon as we got up off of our knees, the lord answered our prayers. Rocke came to church too! It was amazing how the lord really does hear and answer prayers in his own time. Some answers to prayers are instant, and some we have to wait for. Its like in Enos, how he prays all day and all night and it says in the scriptures that his prayers literally reached the skies. I know that to be true.

Its a love, hate relationship with rainy sundays. I really love them because it really shows how converted our members are and our converts! I am so proud of our peeps.

We had an excellent experience with the power of the priesthood this week. Richard de los Santos has such a strong testimony...and he knows the power of the priesthood. I love them so much and what i love most about them is whenever they have a problem, they turn to the scriptures. This week, they had a little bump in the road as a family. They all turned to the scriptures in Alma 37:37 and decided that Richard needed to use his priesthood power. He gave his first priesthood blessing to Daiana. The way he described this experience was so powerful. He said that as he placed his hands upon his daughters head, the power of the spirit filled his whole soul. He told us that it almost knocked him over. With tears in all of their eyes, they bore a powerful testimony to hermana cox and i about the power of the priesthood. They teach us now! It is remarkable! We left that special home flying on clouds, filled with the spirit. 

I am grateful for the opportunites that lord gives us to learn and grow. Hermana Cox and I have been given many experiences this week to learn and to grow as we have been asked to speak in different meetings and conferences. 

We had a returned missionary come home this week. He bore his testimony yesterday in church. Wow it was a powerful. He was a powerhouse. Something that shook me to the core was that he talked about how we WAS a representative of Christ, not anymore, but he was. Then I thought, oh my goodness, I am his representative right now! I love this moment in my life. I am just going to embrace it until the very end. There is nothing like it wearing a plaque everyday and being his representative. I cant ever take that for granite. I am grateful for the ability to see the hand of the Lord guiding us, because he really does. 

Thank you for your prayers. They really do reach the heavens.

I love you!

Hermana Coon

This was after concilio with president! All of the sister training leaders...aka Hermana Viajantes!

 can you believe i am in Uruguay!?!?!

The best converts in the world! Never seen anyone so converted! Our future missionary...Marcos!

 Here is one of my roommates from honduras! she is the sweetest type 2 there is! I did an intercambio with her last week!

Rainy day sunday in our little home!

Hermana Cox's letter to her family

Hello!!!! 

Thank you thank you for your sweet letters and pictures! And thank you once again for the packages. We are really enjoying the packages here! I hope you are all doing well. Thank you for sending those sweet pictures and letters. I can`t believe that we are already half way through September. I try not to think about the date because the time is going by so fast. But then when I do realize what day it is, it always blows my mind. The house and the boys have changed so much! I hope it has been a great week for all of you! 

Here it has been pretty rainy almost everyday this week. It has been a normal crazy week. We are looking for our next family of oro! We have been finding a lot of new investigators but the majority of them aren`t married. When we meet them, they seem great and receptive and then when we ask them how long they have been together and how long they have been married, they say "oh no, we are just together". Ugh! It is so sad and so frustrating. It is sad how the world is so accepting of this kind of life style. The majority of the people that we find are living together without being married. But, we have found some good new investigators. 

On Wednesday, we had an intercambio with the Hermanas from Centenario B. Hermana Eddington came and worked with me in our area. We made the connection that her sister-in law Kim played viola with me at Weber and was Laurel`s roommate in college. Crazy! Hermana Eddington is great! She is from Roosevelt. We had a great day together. We found a couple of amazing kids named Emiliano and Abril. They are a brother and sister that we found. They are 8 and 9. I have never seen any little kids like them. They believe in God so much and they have a great desire to learn. We don`t want to baptize kids without their parents or at least the parents support. Their mom is living with her boyfriend but we are starting to teach the whole family. 

This week a missionary returned home from his mission in Argentina I think. His name is Mathias Suarez. his dad Jose Suarez used to be the ward mission leader here. We ran into him the day after he got home. That was really crazy. I can`t imagine that moment. I felt so bad for him. He was in his normal clothes and I am sure he felt like a little lost puppy. He just told us that if we needed anything he was willing to help. Before the mission, I couldn`t comprehend how it would be difficult to come home and get used to normal life, but honestly.....yeah that will be weird and honestly really difficult. But yeah.....I`m not thinking about that right now. It was just crazy to see a returned missionary here. You can just tell he was an excellent missionary. (side note: we are listening to YMCA in the cyber haha) 

On Friday, we stopped by the Familia de los Santos house. They are sooooo amazing! They were telling us of an interesting experience that they had had the day before. Apparently, Daiana had made a mistake. They didn`t give us details but they told us that everything is fine and she has talked with bishop and everything. But she had had a nightmare and in her dream she was at church, and Hermana Coon was playing the organ. But when Daiana went to grab the hymn book and sing, it was like she couldn`t open her eyes because they felt like they were burning. Then she went to the bathroom in the church and she said it was all trashed with mud and blood and she had an awful feeling. Well she told this dream to her parents and they knew exactly what it meant. (now playing is We will rock you by queen :) ahhhhhhh!!!!)   Anyway, they knew that Satan is trying really hard to distract her and trying to get to her. Richard took action. He used his priesthood for the first time. He gave Daiana a blessing. But the way he described the experience is incredible. he said that he could just feel the power so strong. He said it felt 10 times more powerful than when he received the priesthood. He could barely finish the blessing because he was so overcome. They were all crying and when he ended the prayer, he had to keep himself from collapsing. They were all overcome with the spirit and the power of the priesthood. I am so proud of them and how far they have come! He will be speaking in church on the 28th. :)

Saturday and yesterday we had ward council. The bishop had us speak about how to make and set goals and plans since that is what we do all day everyday as missionaries. The ward is really excited to get involved in this work. yesterday, we were making a mission plan for the ward. This ward has a huge potencial. Also, yesterday there were 2 ward missionaries called. 

Yesterday, none of the investigators that we were expecting came to church. But the Lord blessed us with a miracle. Miyal came to church again. And then Rocky came to church! He is a new investigator that we found this week. He is 55 and he lives alone. He really broke his neck in a moto accident and wears a neck brace. But we passed by his house yesterday morning as we were looking for investigators and he came to church with us. He smokes and doesn`t really know how to read. We haven`t really taught him yet cause we just found him on Friday. But we are hoping and praying that he will progress for the 27th of this month. 

But yep, we are excited for this week. We have some great plans to work with the members. We really want to focus on that more now! It is going to be a wonderful week! I hope you all have a great week! Thank you for your thoughts and prayers!!!!! I love you all so much!!!!!   

-Hermana Cox

More miracles!

Hello Family!

How are you? That is so awesome to hear about your week. James way to go on your football game...I cannot believe that you are applying for BYU so soon! Where did my little brother go??? I am glad to hear that all is well at home and that you enjoyed the temple with Annie. I cant wait to go inside with you!

This week was so wonderful. One of the reasons why it was so wonderful was because we went to the temple too! What a treat!Tuesday, we had concilio, so at 2am we left for Montevideo to arrive in time for concilio. Then, we stayed the night at the temple hotel and the next day, Wednesday, we entered into the Holy House, the House of the Lord. It was magnificent. I felt the spirit so strongly in my heart. The temple is such a special place. As Hna Cox and I walked passed the sealing room, we just sat at looked at its beauty, thinking about all of the miracles that we witnessed. It definitely gave us more ganas to find more families!! The glory of god is so good...to be sealed together as families forever! More than ever, I am so thankful for the family that I have. We have been so blessed. 

You are all going to laugh at this...while we were spending the night in the temple hotel, I felt like we were in a mansion! It is so amazing the things we take for granite at home, in the states. I have just gotten so use to life here in Uruguay, I have forgotten about the nice things at home! For example, I washed my hands in warm water for the first time in months, the showers were absolutely divine...warm water the whole entire time. We were so pampered staying there, Hna Cox and I couldnt believe it! We couldnt believe how much the mission has changed us!

We had so many miracles yesterday at church. Our investigator, Dahiana, is not married, but loves the gospel and loves coming to church, but shes not able to get baptized. Her husband is a hard core Evangelico. When we would go to their house, changes ago, her husband would always hide and never wanted to talk to us. We left out of town to work and has been gone since June. BUT, this past week we returned from working far away and he decided to come to church. The spirit has completely softened his heart and he came to church yesterday! It was so amazing that their whole family was sitting in the pews enjoying the spirit during sacrament meeting. Wow. I could not believe it. The first time I met him was my first day here in Melo. Hna Montenegro and I were completely lost in a whitewash and we asked him for dirrections. He is related to Monica and Richard! (Do you remember their story of conversion and how Hna Montenegro and I found them?) They are so awesome too...do you know what?? In two weeks, Monica and Richard are getting MARRIED AND BAPTIZED! I just know without a doubt the gospel changes lives. Those who fully embrace the gospel receive so many blessings. Monica has smoked her whole life, but now she is not smoking. It is absolutely amazing. I will keep you posted on their wedding and baptism! :)

...so back to more miracles at church. We had worked so hard and commited so many people to come to church, but none of them showed up. We did everything in our power, but not one single person came. Hna Cox and I were a little distrought seeing that we went to all of their houses to pick them up, called them, etc and nothing. We decided to go into a quiet room en la capilla and pray. We prayed asking for a miracle, got up off our knees, walked to the entrance of the church, and there standing outside of the gates was someone, a young boy. Hna Cox waved for him to come in and he did. We find out that he name was Angel. We honestly could not believe it, that Heavenly Father just wanted to try our faith and then he sends us an "angel." It was maravilloso!

I am just learning so much...so much about submitting to the will of the Lord, learning how to change my prayers. I was truly inspired this week as I had my interview with Pres Cook. We talked about prayer and the importance of it. I told him how much I loved life right now at this very moment and how inspired it is that we are here yet another change. He told me, "Hermana Coon, it wasnt like that in the beginning." But in the end of receiving inspiration for changes, Hna Cox and I were together again. He testifed to me, almost in tears, that this is the Lords work and that he is in charge. I just want to do the Lords will. Thats all I want.

Anyways, have an awesome week this week. Keep choosing the right and being examples to all around you. We obey with exactness because we love our Heavenly Father. 

Give everyone a big giant Uruguayan kiss on the cheek for me! haha. Love you all so much! :)

Hermana Coon

Hermana Cox's letter to her family!

Hi family!!!!!! 

Thank you thank you for your letters and for the pictures! It looks like it has been a wonderful and busy week! Congrats to Nelsen and his new wife! I am so excited for them! I can´t believe how much everyone has changed! I love all of the pictures! Thank you thank you! 

I hope that you had a wonderful birthday dad! I was thinking about you on your special day! Time is so weird here! I can´t believe that we are already into the second week of September! I feel like I have been here forever but yet it has gone by and is going by soooo fast! Spring is in the air here and I love it. It is actually starting to get pretty warm with some occasional cold rainy days. 

It has been a great and crazy week once again! Monday night, we had a family night with the Family de los Santos. Thank you for communicating with them. Richard really loves to talk with you guys and he reports on what you say every time we go by. They are such a special family! I love visiting them and seeing how the gospel has changed and is continuing to change their lives. Richard is practicing his english and always talks about how he never wants us to leave but how one day he will come a visit us. 

At 2 Tuesday morning, we made our journey to Montevideo. We had a wonderful concilio and we learned a lot. That night we did splits with the Hermanas over there in carrasco, Hermana Ots and Hermana Schaelling. That was fun! I was able to work with Hermana Schaelling again like old times but in the heart of Montevideo. Yeah......needless to say it is not like Gianola. haha we went and visited some less actives. 

Tuesday night our zone made it to Montevideo and we all stayed in the hotel within the temple square. It was wonderful! I forgot what it feels like to take a nice shower and sleep in a nice bed. It was great! The next morning after studies and breakfast we broke into two groups. My group was able to go to the temple first! It was absolutely amazing! I was so grateful to go to the temple! It really puts things into perspective and really helps me think about the plan of God. It is interesting because as a companionship, zone, and also in concilio, we have been thinking a lot about families. God´s work and glory is to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man. Man can only gain the highest glory in the celestial kingdom through the sealing power of the temple. Eternal marriage is the only way to reach exaltation. And so our focus is more now on helping families! And we are praying and fasting that we will be able to find another prepared golden family! I am just so very grateful to have been born into a sealed family. I am not sure what I did to deserve such a wonderful gift but I just pray that I can live up to the wonderful blessing it is and live up to the sacred covenants I have made with my Heavenly Father. I heard that there is yet another temple movie back home but the one that we saw was the new one I saw in February. I love the peace that is felt in the celestial room. I never wanted to leave. What a wonderful blessing it is to live so close to many temples! 

Afterward, our group had a meeting with the assistants and we each took turns with our interviews with President! It was so great and I really love President cook. He reminds me a lot Dad. He just has such a great love and testimony of the Savior. He just radiates humility and love and would do anything for us missionaries. 

Guess what the secretaries gave me as we got on the bus to head back to Melo? Two packages!!!!!!! Thank you thank you thank you a million times over! I am already sharing the gifts that you sent especially with the music class that we had yesterday! They all say thanks!!!! And thank you so much for the special birthday package!!!! It was like Christmas and we are enjoying everything that you sent!!!!! Thank you thank you thank you!!!! I love the cards and pictures! I opened those up today. I love you all so much! 

We made it back to Melo at about 11:30 that night. I love the way they do president interview and temple trips. everything was just so well organized and I felt the spirit so much and learned a lot as well. 

Thursday we were back out to work! We had a really great day and we have worked really hard even though we haven´t been in our area very much this week. On Friday we did an intercambio with the two new Hermanas that live in our house. I was with Hermana Altamirano. She is so sweet and so funny. Even though pretty much all of our lessons for the day fell through because no one was home, we were able to find some new investigators to teach in the process. We went to go see cinthya and unfortunately she really doesn´t have the desire to get baptized right now. After having a loving lesson with here and telling her of the importance of this decision, we had the idea to let her pick her own baptismal date. She said she wanted to wait a few years!!! So, that was unfortunate. But we felt okay because we knew we had done everything in our power to help her and we made the choice clear. She will be baptized some day hopefully soon :) 

While we were having our intercambio, Hermana Coon got bit by a dog right before lunch! Poor thing, we thought that the dog stories were ended. but no.....We showed up to lunch and she told me that she had just been bit by a dog that we had just passed by as well. It was a fiesty small little thing. Poor Hermana Coon!!!! She is okay though. :) 

On Friday we had a really special lesson with Dahiana and her husband David. I don´t know if you gusy remember Dahiana but her daughter is a recent convert, Antonella. And the Dahiana and Antonella go to church every week. Dahiana isn´t married or else she would get baptized. Well, David has been in Montevideo for the past few months for work and so we haven´t ever been able to talk to him. Well, he got home a week ago and on Friday we had a super special lesson with them. We taught the restoration and David was listening attentively the whole time. We gave him a book of Mormon and we committed him to go to church on Sunday for the first time. 

On Sunday, we had a lot of people commited to going to church and we were fasting to have lots of people come. But unfortunately, almost all of them fell through. Dahiana came at 9 and then we didnt´have anyone else! During sunday school we went into a room and decided to pray and ask for a miracle. Just after getting up off of our knees, we went to the front door of the church and there was a young boy sitting on his bike outside of the gate looking in. I motioned for him to come in and he came. His name is Angel and he apparently lives in our area. What a miracle! And guess who came for sacrament meeting, David!!!!! Yeah! He said that he liked it. So little by little, I know that one day Dahaina and David are going to get married, baptized, and sealed in the temple. The less active that I told you about last week came to church again. She loved it and we are helping her to stop smoking.  After church on Sunday, all of those elders that received the melchesidec priesthood a couple of weeks ago, including Nilo and Jose Martin were found in a room giving blessings. it was so special. We were just walking down the hall and we peeked in the window and saw Jose Martin, Marcos and Nilo giving someone a blessing. These members are incredible!!!! The change in them is incredible! 

We really are seeing so many miracles and we are working hard and leaving the harvest to the Lord. We are praying to find the golden family that we are looking for! I love you all!!!! I hope you have an excellent week! Thank you for being the best family ever!!!!!! You are always in my thoughts and prayers! 

-Hermana Cox :) 

Happy Labor Day! First day of September!

Hello Family!

Happy First day of September! I cannot believe that it is September already!!! I am glad to hear that you all had a successful week! It is so fun that we have missionaries from different countries in our ward...first time! Its funny, mom, that you say that you like their accents. Thats what the people here think of us. They always comment on how they like our accents...that we are so foreign. They say they just love to hear us talk. They think we are from Brazil so thats kind of cool! MOM! I received the packages and lots of letters! The shoes are perfect! They are so wonderful! I put my knew shoes on and it was like I was walking on clouds! Thank you so much! I am so happy that everyone is happy and healthy. 

So I will begin my letter this week by giving a BIG HAPPY BIRTHDAY SHOUTOUT TO ANNIE! 12 years old! I honestly cannot believe where the time has gone!!!! I left when you were 10 years old! I hope you have a wonderful day and enjoy doing baptisms at the temple. Take lots of pictures for me. Just know that your sister loves you lots and lots! You are so beautiful!

We had an excellent week this week...to be honest, it feels like quite the blur. We did travel the 6 hour bus ride to Montevideo for changes...but we went without any suitcases! yes! It was sure fun to see everyone. Boy how much we have all grown up. Can you believe it that I am hitting 14 months in the mission this week? I actually have lost count...I dont like to think about how many months I have anymore. Its just sad how fast the time is going. But changes went well. We came back lateWednesday night, ready to work. Our investigator, Andres, was baptized on Friday! It was so awesome! He is a miracle....we cannot believe the change in him. Hermana Cox and I have been evaluating him a lot and we have come to the conclusion that we believe that some peoples spirits are just so sensitive to the gospel. Andres is 20 years old. I remember the day we met him...we were walking in the street, talking to everyone we could see in our sight. Then, far away off in the distance, Hermana Cox saw this guy sitting on the porch of his house drinking his mate. She says to me, lets go talk to him. We made are way to his hous (it was completely out of our way, but we felt we needed to talk to him.) We invited him to be baptized and he wanted to. It has been a miracle because he has the learning capability of a 10 year old, with very little schooling, but he just knew that the church was true. He didnt know why, but he felt the desire to be baptized. It was amazing! He loves going to church! After he came out of the water, he had the biggest smile on his face...he felt complete joy! I have never seen anyone with such a big smile on their face before.

Well, I hope you all enjoyed the story of us being attacked by dog....let me tell you about our dog episode 2 and reason number 238 why I will never have a dog. We are meeting some very interesting people. We made a friend with a little viajita of 80 years. She absolutely loves us. We ran into her again this week. She had written us a song!!!! She begins singing the song that she wrote to us about how we are angels sent from the Lord, etc (so cute and funny). As she is trying her best effort to perform our special song, Hna Cox looks at me with the look of complete terror on her face. I look down and see one of our converts dogs running away and her leg is wet. What happened??? She looked at me about to cry and said...."That dog just peed on me!" I guess the dog really loves her. We didnt know whether to laugh or cry! That tends to happen a lot, doesnt it?! So we chose to laugh...it was the funniest experience I have witnessed in a long time! This all happened while our little friend was singing to us. Quite the experience. 

We had a wonderful open house this week in our beautiful church building. The sister missionaries were in charge of doing the tour and teaching all of the people that came in. We led them first into a room where they heard the words of christ and then in another room to teach them more. It was a wonderful spirit. I did one of these capilla abiertas when I was in my second change in the mission. I marveled at how much Hna Cox and I have progressed and grown. Not only in the language, but in ourselves as a person. It is amazing the change that we have seen. We have both agreed that we are not the same people as when we left home. It was a really great activity and included all of the members. Our ward members are estactic about the missionary work! 

We family and friends, I love you all so much! You are all my examples. I love you and pray for you always! Have a spectacular week this week! 

Con mucho amor,

Hermana Coon

 I look like a giant compared to jenifer de los santos! 

She is so petit!

Hermana Cox's letter to her family:

Hey!!!! 

Are we seriously in September? When did that happen? I wish time would just pause for a second. Time is going by so fast. I can`t believe it! Thank you for the pictures and letters. It looks like it was a great week. It looks like McKay had a great birthday! Man, from the picture from pack meeting, I don`t recognize anyone except for my brothers. It looks like the ward really has changed! When I get home, I am not going to know anyone. ha ha The house looks awesome too! I can`t believe how much the boys are growing up! Man, I wish time would just slow down. 

So, yep, it has been another fast and crazy week here with many crazy experiences! On Wednesday, we made the 12 hour trip to cambios and back. I am not sure why, but this trip seemed to be longer than usual. But yes, needless to say, we were very grateful to go to changes without luggage and being able to return to our wonderful Gianola! 

Also, Tuesday, the Hermanas from Pan de Azùcar came to visit Gianola because Hermana Rivera served here and she wanted to say goodbye to the area because she went home this last week. Well anyway, I was able to talk to the Familia Figueredo on the phone. It was so great to hear their voices. Oh man, it made me miss them so much. They are so incredible! I sent them a letter and some stickers for the girls. But he told me that this last week he received the Melchesideqce16&%·$·(????? i don`t know how to spell anymore :( priesthood and that he got called to be the 1st counselor in the YM presidency and she has been called as a couselor in the primary. I love that family sooooo much!!!! They have a special place in my heart! 

Anyway, Changes were crazy!!!!! Wednesday night, there were 6 of us in the house! It is was crazy! Hermana Leiva is Hermana Zelaya`s new companion. She is from Mexico and the two new hermanas are Hermana Hernandez from Honduras and Hermana Altamirano from Chile. They are both really excited to work here in Gianola. THursday morning we helped Hermana Zelaya and Hermana Leiva move out to their apartment. And so now, yep, there are 6 hermanas here in our ward. It is crazy! 

Most of Thursday and Friday was spent preparing everything for the baptism on Friday! Friday morning, after zone conference, Andres had his interview and it went really well. But also, Friday morning, we got a message from Maria, cinthya`s mom, telling us that Cinthya didn`t want to get baptized that day. :( It was so sad. She gets super nervous and is so shy. We had called her the night before and everything was fine and she was ready for her interview. We passed by on Friday. She told us that she wanted to get baptized but didnt` want to get baptized that day. So, we will keep working with her. But Andres`s baptism was a great success. When he came up out of the water, he was just beaming with happiness. And yesterday he got confirmed and sustained to get the priesthood. It has been an interesting road with him. We didn`t know if he was really going to get baptized because he was kind of hesitant and he has a bit of a learning problem. The things we were teaching him wouldn`t stick. But he said that he feels good and church and he goes every Sunday by himself and he told us that he knew he needed to get baptized. It is amazing how the spirit works! We are really excited for him! 

Friday was a weird day. We had some weird things happen to us that day before the baptism. First of all, Cinthya didn`t want to get baptized. We found someone that speaks English! Our new friend Natalia. She was kind of short and rude to us at first but once she knew that we spoke English and that we were willing to talk with her in English so she could practice, she let us in her house and we had a good conversation. We are hoping that she will have some interest in the gospel. She has a beautiful family. 

Also, on Friday, this old lady stopped us in the street. We had talked with her one time before about a month ago. And she stopped us on Friday and showed us this song that she had written for us that talked about how we are angels and servants sent by God.....It was sweet but kind of weird because the one and only time that we had talked to her was a month ago. haha But then, she started singing the song to us. In the middle of the song and all of a sudden, I felt a strange sensation that was wet and warming on my leg. I looked down and ......................yep there was a dog peeing on my leg! It peed on my socks and on my shoe!!! Now if you didn`t think that I didn`t like dogs before.....well yep you can imagine the great love I have for dogs now! this is reason #247 that I am never ever ever going to have a dog or any pet for that matter! Yep.....I guess the dog thought I was a tree or a fire hydrant or something. So I tried not to make a deal out of it as the lady was singing. But after the old lady left, I didnt`know whether to cry or laugh. haha it was pretty funny actually. but yeah Friday was a strange day. haha 

Saturday, we had a capilla abierta here in Gianola! The whole morning we were out passing out invitations. There were quite a few people that came. There were more than 10 that were not members. And we received quite a few references. And we did see a great miracle. There was a member that brought her less active friend that hadn`t been to church in many many years. She loved it and came to church yesterday! And yesterday as we were talking to the member, she told us that this less active friend has 2 teenage children that have never been baptized. So, we are excited to work with this family and help baptize and reactivate them all! 

Yesterday at church, we had 2 investigators, Dahiana and Tatiana. Tatiana is Richard de los Santos`s neice. She came to the capilla abierta and came yesterday to church with them. And she loved it and wants to get baptized. the only hard part is that she lives in the area of the elders and her dad doesn`t want anything to do with the church and doesn`t want the missionaries to pass by their house. Tonight, we are going to have a family night with the Family de los santos and she will be there. We are going to teach her the restoration, give her a book of mormon and invite her to get baptized on the 13th. But we will see what happens. We might have to end up giving her all of the lessons and then pass her over to the elders to get baptized over there. But either way....we are so excited for her and the wonderful missionaries that the family de los santos are! They are literally sharingn the gospel with everyone! I love them soooo much! 

It makes me sad to think of how fast the time is going! In fact, I had a nightmare this week that I was home and getting released and I had to take off my tag. I never want that day to come. It is a good thing that I have my family waiting for me. Because honestly, you guys are the only reason why I would be excited to come home. I don`t want to leave Uruguay. I don`t want to leave these incredible people that have changed my life. I don`t ever want to stop being a missionary. The mission is definitely the hardest but most incredible experience I have ever had. And i never want it to end. Time is going by soooo fast! 

Dad, I hope you have a wonderful birthday! And wish Nelson good luck with his wedding! Tomorrow we will be going to Montevideo at 2 in the mornign once again for concilio. And then, I think we will be staying the night there to go to the temple on Wednesday!!!!! President cook is changing things up a bit so that when the zones have conferences with him to do interviews, we get to go to Montevideo in stead of him coming here and we can go to the temple! I am soooooooooo beyond excited!!!!!!! 

Thank you for all of your thoughts and prayers!!!!! I love the work here!!!!! I know it is the Lord`s work!!!!! Have a wonderful week! I love you all!!!! 

-Hermana Cox :)