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Monday, April 29, 2013

Elder Cook Week Seven



Buenas Familia!

This week has flown by.  I feel like I was just here!  The work has been amazing!  The spanish autocorrect says I've spelled every word wrong so far.  I ate my first maronion this week!  Look it up.  Easily the weirdest thing I´ve eaten.  It looks like a pepper but    it´s actually a fruit.  The juices dry out your whole mouth instantly, your tongue, teeth, everything!  tastes like an old carrot.  I am obsessed with the mangoes up here.  Every Elder is.  I love Honduran food!  The miembros feed us every almuerzo y cena and are amazing cooks!  A normal meal consists of montequilla, an egg, beans, and fried platanos, and always has tortillas de maiz.  You have to use tortillas at the end of each meal to wipe your plate to be polite and say it was good. 

We have had un bastante de exitos con encontrando familias.  Our mision has been really focusing on finding familias, and we have found una familia nueva almost every day for the past week!  We are up to 10 familias y around 20 investigadores nuevos.  Since we started at 0 we are pretty stoked!  We´ve worked our hardest and el Senior has blessed us because of it.  I have taught several lessons now and placed two LDM!  I don´t know if they did this before, but it only counts as being placed if you give it out during a lesson.  There is no way that we could teach sin El Espiritu.  My espanol is terrible, but I can see the words I say change people in the instant that I say them, and I know it´s el espiritu santos that´s doing all the teaching.  Last night we visited a referencia and it was a familia.  Only the abuela was home so we, mi companero y un miembro, chatted with her for a while and then la hija got home.  She seemed pretty weirded out that so many men were her casa talking to her mom, but we talked and found out she is an english teacher.  Mi companero said i had to take all the talking from then on, so I shared a short message about familias y jesucristo.  She seemed uninterested but after I said it, she asked me in english what i missed most about home, like family or friends.  I said I missed my family, but it´s worth it because I know the church is true.  In that instant I saw her change.  the spirit changed her.  You could see the love of God in her eyes. she invited us back again.  I could've said more and I could've said less, but that's exactly what the spirit told me to say and that's what she needed to hear.  This gospel is so true!  Its amazing what the Espiritu can do for people.  The spirit is the real teacher, and it teaches with a language that everyone understands. I love this work!  And like hunter cook emailed me, it´s missionary fun, not work and I feel like I   can´t get enough of it!  Just remember that when things get tough, the church is true.  That´s all that matters.

Con todo de la amor de mi corazon,
Elder Cook






Monday, April 22, 2013

Elder Cook Week Six



Hey Familia!
Wow it seems like forever since I last emailed.  A whole lot has happened in the last couple of days!  Mi first impression of Honduras when I walked off the plane was how incredibly humido it was and how sweet the air smells!  The plane flew so low over la ciudad I thought we would crash for sure but I made it! I met my companero Miercoles!  He is an amazing guy who is such a hard worker.  El termino la mision en Junio pero you´d never know it the way he works!  We opened the area of Laureles B and started with absolutely nadie to teach.  Once we dropped our stuff off at our casa we went straight to work!  We found una familia nueva cada dia so we now have 5 and around 30 otro investagadores!  It´s so exciting.  I did mi primero pruerto contacto yesterday!  It was super scary but apparently she understood my horrible Spanish and now we´re visiting her Tuesday!  I have a hard time understanding people but my comprehension and ability to talk have gotten a whole lot better since my first day!  I can´t even talk to little kids yet.  They talk so darn fast!  We have two incredible investigadores!  We were tocando en puertos, and we were about to go to a different street but my companion decided to hit one more. He only had time to say we were misioneros before they told us to come in!  When we did, they brought our a stack of books, (El Libro de Mormon, la Biblia, a whole old testament seminary manuel, and a few others) and said their papa had read every one of them and taught his kids (the hermano y hermana) sobre everything he learned from them!  We could hardly believe it.  They wanted us to start teaching them!  The Lord really does prepare His children, and we have met so many already who are ready to hear El Evangelio.  Hoy we are teaching a man, who has received the misioneros for two years now and has gone to church almost every week, but has not gotten bautizado because no siente llenar.  But we are going to share alma 7, which says that the Lord will pour his spirit our more abundantly after you´re bautizado and ether 12 which says you´ll receive a witness after the trial of your faith with him today.  I prayed a lot about him, and when we were figuring out what to teach him, I really think the Spirit brought that scripture to mind.  It seemed obvious after, but we had really been struggling with what to do, so I think this is all he was waiting for!  Sorry we hardly get anytime to write, but love you guys!  Pray for my familias
Elder Cook




Friday, April 12, 2013

Elder Cook Week Five


Alright I think I have my scripture!  It was really hard to pick just one.  D&C 6:36 "Look unto me in every thought; doubt not, fear not."  I love it!  I leave the MTC at around 9, get to the airport at around 11pm, and my flight leaves at 1am.  I won't hit the ground ready to preach, I'll be doing that in the airport and on the plane!  My goal is to place at least two BoMs before I land in Tegucigalpa.  I'm so glad it's at night!  I still have the Spanish vocab of a three year old (or at least that's what I tell myself to make me feel better), so if I can't communicate very well, I can just slip it into their bag while they're sleeping!  It's perfect.

Yeah we have four hermanas in our district, so we have pictures to spare.  And I'm sure we'll have to take more this Sunday.  Yeah I have a haircut appt in like 30 minutes!  But that's actually what the machete is for.  I'll just use it to cut my hair.  No I haven't heard anything from Honduras!  I only saw an email about Confrencia General, so hopefully there will be someone there to pick me up! 

Wasn't Confrence amazing?  I really felt like they were just talking to me.  Except the getting married parts.  You could hear every elder drop their pens and pads of paper on the floor once those talks started.  It's getting a lot more real that I'm about to go to Honduras now, so I was a little worried about everything last week.  But then someone said in confrencia "When you teach, Heavenly Father will outstretch his arms with yours to succor His children to come unto Him."  I don't have my notes so I don't remember who said it, but that was a direct answer to my prayer.  Heavenly Father knows I'm just a punk kid out here and that I don't know how to speak Spanish.  He's a pretty smart guy, so of course He wouldn't just leave me alone!  He wants his children to return with Him so much.  He loves them.  I will always have His help.

I love this gospel so much.  Everyone needs it.  It hurts to think that so many people in the world will never know about it, and it hurts even more to think so many of our brothers and sisters will not make it with us to live with God again.  That's why we need to open our mouths to everyone!  When you look at things from an eternal perspective, everything changes.  We don't teach just because the gospel blesses lives.  We teach because it grants eternal life and exaltation. 

Love you guys!  Talk to you later.
Elder Cook




Friday, April 5, 2013

Elder Cook Week Four


I got my travel plans!!! I will be leaving the MTC on the 16th at 8:30pm to Atlanta, and then from there to Tegucigalpa!  Did you know it's only about an hour and a half flight from Georgia to Honduras?  The bulk of the flying, about 6 hours, is from Salt Lake to Atlanta!  It said in my travel plans that I have to be the Flight Leader for the trip, but  I will be the only missionary going to Honduras that day!  It will be weird to be by myself for so long, but it's also a great opportunity to talk to people on the plane!

About a week ago, I talked to an hermana in the laundry room in Spanish since she didn't know English.  I was so pumped to finally talk to a real Spanish speaker! But in the middle of the conversation, I thought, "Holy crap.  I don't know Spanish."  It was pretty scary since I'm leaving in 10 days.  But what I did catch was that she said her grandma lives in Honduras and that it is so beautiful there!  She wished she could come with me.  I absolutely can't wait to get out there and talk to Hondurans!  I feel like I am not even close to prepared in my teaching abilities and especially my Spanish, but with a testimony and the Lord on my side, it won't be a problem.  The biggest thing I've learned up here is that when you teach someone, you are the smallest part of the conversion process.  The Holy Ghost is the real missionary, and the conversion happens between the investigator, the Spirit, and Heavenly Father.  The phrase an instrument in the hands of the Lord hits it right on.  The actual instrument doesn't do anything.  But as long as it is in tune, it can do whatever the Master wants it to do.  The music can only come through the one controlling it.  So all I need to do is to put in all my effort, love the people, be clean and prepared to receive the Spirit, and I will be able to help our brothers and sisters come back to our Heavenly Father!

Love you guys!  This is the work of God.  I am so happy I get to be a part of it!  Just remember the Lord does not and cannot forget or forsake you, for you are engraven upon the palms of His hands.

Con la amor de mi corazon,
Elder Galleta



Traditional World Wall Photo with Mountain View High School Alumni