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 :)