Elder Cook Week Three

Hola Familia,

It's amazing what introspects the Spirit gives you as well as insights on doctrine while you're there!  I do have to admit I did fall asleep for a minute or two today though.  Those chairs are way too soft [in the temple]!  I wish everyone could have the opportunity to go.  Oh I did enjoy the snow!  I'm pretty sure I won't see a whole lot of it in the next couple years so I made the most of it.  It's interesting how my perspective on things is different than other kids who have a mission in the U.S.  Everyone hates the food here!  Considering it's not beans every day, I feel like it can't get any better.  Although one girl did get a grasshopper in her salad, which kinda seemed like a foreshadowing of things to come.  My teacher is marrying a girl from Honduras, so he's told me a few things about the country!  Probably the worst is that the chapels don't have basketball courts.  That was a crushing blow.  I always had hope deep in my corazon that Heavenly Father would have ball for me down there, but with my ankles and knees it might be a blessing in a very good disguise. And good job Brook, I'm proud of you. Oh and by the way I was made zone leader a couple days ago! 

I want you guys to really make sure you set aside a good chunk of time for personal study.  I was really bad at that back home and I regret it a lot.  You learn so much when you show the Lord that you are giving up a portion of your time, which is ultimately His anyway, for His will.  During these last couple weeks my testimony has grown so much and it is all because of personal study.  I start with a prayer and a question and faith that the Lord will lead me to what I need to work on.  Be brutally honest with yourself in where the holes are in your testimony.  I have learned so much and my weaknesses in testimony have become strengths that I am able to teach with more power and assurance in my lessons.  I know it will bring countless blessings in your life and bring you so much closer to our Heavenly Father!

Con todo del amor de me corazon,

Elder Cocinero

Elder Cook Week Two

Family

     Yeah p-days are the best!  We got to go to the temple this morning and it was so great!  I wish we could start off every day with the temple.  It just seems to make it so much easier to feel close to Heavenly Father and to feel the Spirit.  We can't wait for General Conference up here!  I have definitely learned the real importance of having a prophet on the earth today.  Even though I'd heard why, I really didn't know the significance of it before I started teaching.  Having a living prophet is really one of the most important parts of our church.  The fact that Heavenly Father talks to a prophet means He still loves His children enough to continue to guide them to return to live with Him!  It just wouldn't make sense for God to talk to us  thousands of years ago and not today.  It's amazing how much that has an effect on investigators!

     It snowed today!  These Utah kids all think I'm a weirdo for loving the snow.  It is such perfect weather outside!  I only get to be out in open air for a total of about 15 minutes everyday but from the windows it looks great!  My MTC Spanish is getting a lot better.  I can pretty much teach the whole first lesson fairly easily now, but I know if I wanted to talk to a 3-year-old in Honduras I would have a hard time keeping up!

       I met a guy who was going on my same mission a couple days into the MTC!  He just left on Monday.  It's so crazy that I'll be there in less than four weeks!  A girl in my district said she had a cousin go to Comayaguela last year and he got picked up to go to his mission home by oxen!!  I'm pretty psyched.  I know I should be more worried about the language, which I am, but I also know that the Lord will help me and the Spirit will give me words in the very moment I need them!  I've already seen it happen, and once I'm out in the field I know the help will be doubled.  Heavenly Father is on my side, family.

       Thanks for all the cool scriptures you've been sending!  Something I learned in my personal study was in 1 Nephi and Words of Mormon.  Nephi says at the end of a chapter that he doesn't know why he's writing the record, but the Lord commanded it so he trusted Him.  In Words of Mormon, Mormon also expresses that he doesn't know why he's translating both Nephi's records and Lehi's account, but he has faith that God does.  Lehi's account was lost.  Had They not done as God asked of them, we might not have the wonderful stories and messages contained in Nephi.  Heavenly Father knows everything from the beginning.  We just need to put our trust and faith in Him that He does. 

       Love you guys!  Keep the letters coming.  The church is true, the book is blue, and God is a Mormon.  Definitely stole that, but I think it's funny.

Elder Cook Week One

This is a picture of me and my compeneros!  We have 13 people in my district.  It is busy and that is such a good thing!  I love having a set schedule.  I really feel like I accomplish a lot that way.  Yes we get to ball every day!!  It's the best.  Mis compeneros and I got lucky with our room.  We were supposed to have three more guys move in this week, but something happened and so it's just us!  So we definitely need a hoop.  I would love to email other family.  Letters are hard to write and I get a ton of time at least at the MTC to email.  I'm not sure when we leave!  I thought it was April 6th but she's probably right!  Our investigator committed to baptism!!!  It was the most amazing experience of my life.  I can't even describe it.  Even though it wasn't real, it sure felt like it.  He came a long way from our first lesson and we really came to love him and really wanted not only his life to be better, but his life to come as well.  The rest of our district wasn't quite as successful.  One companionship even got kicked out yesterday!  When I say successful, I don't really mean me or my compeneros were successful.  I have really come to learn that it is absolutely not about us.  It's the Spirit that truly teaches people that carries the truth of the gospel to people's hearts.  With the terrible Spanish I speak, I couldn't convince a three year old in Honduras that the church is true.  When you feel the Holy Ghost come into the conversation, that's when you know you are nothing but an instrument in the Lord's hands.  Thanks for the package today!  Mis compeneros are pretty much in love with you.  Miss you!

Love,

Elder Cocinero

Elder Cook

Hey family!  The MTC is amazing!!!!  I'll tell you how a normal day here goes.  We wake up at 6:30 and get to breakfast by 7, then we go to class where we have about an hour of personal study, then about four hours of learning Spanish.  Then we go to lunch, the gym, then go back to class for a couple hours before going to dinner.  We go back to class again to take turns to teach our investigator, followed by companero study and going back to our dorms. We have half an hour to get ready for bed and then time to write in our journals or read scriptures, and lastly we have prayer with our companeros.  I absolutely love every minute of it.  Mis companeros, Elder Larson and Elder Taylor, are pretty much the coolest guys you'll ever meet.  We are a tri companionship and we hit it off as best friends right away!  The Spirit here is so strong.  Everyone is just so eager to learn and so ready to share the gospel.  Probably my favorite part of my experience here was definitely when we taught the investigator, Edgar Juarez, for the first time.  We prepared as much as we possibly could with our limited knowledge of Spanish, memorizing lines where we could and teaching each other everything we knew.  But for how much effort we put in, we had about five to ten minutes worth of talking.  We didn't worry, but decided we would do what we could and rely on the Spirit and muchos oraciones for the rest.  We went in, and our minds went blank.  We greeted him and talked to him casually fairly well, but when it got down to teaching gospel I knew we'd be in trouble.  But then the most incredible thing happened.  I started understanding everything Hermano Juarez was saying, and we started conversing about the gospel.  I glimpsed mis companeros faces a couple times and they were awe struck, and so was I.  If you ask me what I said now, I couldn't tell you.  When we went back to the class I had to ask the teacher what a couple of the words meant that I had said.  Elder Larson is such a great example of loving everyone and putting others before himself. He always brags about me to other people so he started telling everyone about that experience, so now everyone asks me advice on speaking Spanish but I honestly don't know as much as I said in our lesson.  I truly believe that the Lord helped me talk to that hermano and I am so grateful to have that experience.  I was also made District Leader the other day!  I miss you guys a lot but I know without a doubt that is is where I need to be.  Yo se la iglesia es verdadera y este es donde yo necesito ser.  Me encanto este iglesia y el evangelio.  I can't wait to get to Honduras and start preaching for real!

Con amor,

Elder Cocinero

Curbside at the MTC
Thank you Garry Family for a great send-off