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Monday, January 27, 2014

Elder Cook Week Forty-Six

Hey Family! 

Woo hoo we had a sweet week!  I´ll start off with a few stories.  
  
Elder Cook sent us this picture a few months ago but we
thought it fits pretty well with what he wrote home this week.
On Tuesday we went to a house where we thought was a reference.  We were outside beating the door. The neighbor said no one was home, but every time we called out buenas, someone said Ya va! So we were outside that door for a good 5 to 10 minutes knocking and yelling buenas. We could not figure out why no one would come to the door! I told Elder Flores to say buenas one more time and listened a little better. I said Elder, I think that´s a parrot. Then we saw the little jokester on the porch.  We left feeling a little bit humbler that day

On Thursday I called an investigator that we´ve been trying to contact for a long time that was a woman.  Some guy picked up and I asked if Y---- was there.  He said that he had found the phone in the street a little while ago.  I started to say where Y----- lived so he could return it, but he just said cool, let me know if you need anything.  I asked him if he was going to return it, and he hung up!  Then my comp started laughing and didn´t stop for about 5 minutes!  I asked what was so funny, and he thought it was just hilarious that I asked if the guy would return it.  He said it doesn´t work like that here.  In every house that we visited that day he told that story, and everyone else laughed with him!  I guess I´m not in Provo anymore.  

Saturday, as Elder Flores was gelling his hair, he asked me what color I thought are the women in heaven.  I busted up laughing, but then he turned around super serious and said it´s not a joke, I want to know.  I definitely didn´t want to get in to that one, so I worked my way around it and said something about how everyone will be perfect.  He said great, but that doesn´t answer my question.  I didn’t say anything for a couple minutes, and then he said the only answer I´ve found in the scriptures about that is when Jesus said En la casa de mi padre, muchas moradas hay. (sorry, that joke doesn´t work in English.  Google it)  That was the best missionary joke I´ve heard out here. [One of our Spanish speaking friends explained that morado means purple, so with a little play on of words the joke his companion made is that everyone in heaven is purple.] 

Saturday we also had an awesome activity where the members brought investigators to the temple! We ended up getting an amazing family out of it!  We found another 3 families this week.  We feel so blessed to be getting so much help from the Lord.  We´ve been working hard and Heavenly Father has been holding up His end of the deal with blessings.  

Love you!

Elder Cook



Monday, January 20, 2014

Elder Cook Week Forty-Five




My new companion is from Huehuetenango, Guatemala.  Say that one 5 times fast.  I´ll tell you a few fun facts about him.  He hasn´t gotten all that used to cold showers yet.  I always know he´s in the shower because I hear his screams as he dumps the cold water on himself.  He loves singing and talks like an Italian. He´s awesome! Great teacher and an even better missionary.  He also makes food! Real food!  We buy food together and so he has made us spaghetti, chuleta, tacos, quesadillas and a whole bunch of stuff!  Man a companion that cooks like that could hit me in the nose every morning and I´d be just fine having him as a companion.

We found 3 new families and 10 new investigators this week!  We have been really focusing in finding new people because the investigators we have just aren´t going anywhere.  We are super pumped for these new families too!  I think we´ll have two families to baptize this next month!  We are always tired and hungry.  But I love this work!  Wouldn´t be out here if I didn´t.  The Book of Mormon is true!  Read it!  

Love you guys!  Give a missionary a reference.  Or even better, invite a friend and the missionaries over for FHE!  It´s not hard and it doesn´t have to be some huge spiritual thing. Just invite someone for a spiritual thought and games.  The missionaries, your friends, and most importantly the Lord will be very grateful you did. 

Elder Cook




Right after my comp took this photo that bull
whipped his head around at me and I jumped a good couple feet!

Monday, January 13, 2014

Elder Cook Week Forty-Four


This is the water truck!  He comes by and fills up the water tanks

We had an amazing week!  We found a ton of new investigators and two new families!  And we finally have a fecha [baptism date]!!!  We have been working to reactivate a family and now their nine year old daughter is going to be baptized by her dad this Saturday.  We are pumped!  

Elder Pinto  left this morning for Argentina!  We got a call at about 10 last night saying that he needed to pack his bags because he´d be leaving at about 9 the next morning.  He was so excited and I was super happy for him.  He´s been here for about 5 months because his visa wouldn´t go through.  My new companion is from Guatamala.  I have had a big diversity in companions but I think this one will be a good friend by the end of this change.  I was blessed big time with him!  

This is the last picture with Elder Pinto before I left with my new companion Elder Flores
I´m so stoked Dad that your knees are getting better!  And Happy Birthday!!!  You´re pretty old.  A lady asked me how old my parents were and after a little math I was surprised that dad has 44 years already! Hope you had an awesome day.  Sounds like it had to be with golf and all that food.  
 
Love you guys!  Still working hard and doing all that missionary stuff.  Study the scriptures!  Set aside time EVERY DAY, at least for a half hour.  Study the Book of Mormon especially and talks of prophets, like those little ensenanzas de los profetas [Teaching of Presidents of the Church] books they give out in church.  Those are sweet.  And have family prayer/scripture study EVERY DAY! Doing those things as a family is one of the most important things you could possibly do.  The family is essential in the church.  The chances are so much greater that people stay active when they are united as a family.  

Love you guys!  

Elder Cook
Elder Pinto did a sweet contact with this cat!  
He picked it up and yelled through a door that we had their cat, 
and it really ended up being that family´s cat!  
We are going to pass by again this week.
My companion likes cats.  He finds random cats to pick up in the callejones
Another cat picture

Monday, January 6, 2014

Elder Cook Week Forty-Three

This little guy was vicious looking! 
He watched me while I ate him!
We had to eat the whole thing, bones and all.
Hey family

We had an awesome week!  With the hardest night of my life.  Thursday, we walked around for about 7 hours straight trying to find someone to teach.  We finally found G again after almost a month. Every time that we´ve passed by her son always comes to the door and says she´s eating, or busy, or tired so we never got a chance to talk to her.  She came to the window, only because my companion called out to her before she escaped to her room, and told us she didn´t want anything to do with the church anymore.  She said she had too much work and was too tired, and just wanted to go back to her old church.  I tried to talk, but she just looked into my eyes and said not to make this hard.  I opened my mouth again, and she just said please.  So as a last effort, I asked her if she believed in everything we taught her.  She said yes, without any doubts.  But told us not to come back anymore. I don´t know if I´ve ever been sadder in my life than that night!  This was the hermana that had a baptism date, and told us to make invitations so that she could hand them out to her friends!  She gave us references without us asking!  She asked us if she could give a prayer in sacrament meeting and have a calling!  I honestly felt like she was family.  Satan is real and has power.  I know that for a fact.  But it´s also good to remember that he only has power to the extent that we let him.   Someday I know she will get baptized.  I don´t know what happened in those couple of weeks that we weren´t with her, but someday she´ll come back.  Heavenly Father has a plan for everyone and I guess this just isn´t her time.  

Church was nuts!  Q came this Sunday!!  I wouldn´t have been more surprised to see a chicken swallow a dog out in the street than seeing him walk in to sacrament on his own.  I didn´t want to make him mad so I didn´t ask him why he came back until the end of church.  He said something about God and that it was the right thing to do.  But right before he left, he demanded that his baptism would be this Saturday, that we needed to plan it all out and let him know the time beforehand.  We still have a long way to go with our friend Q.  

Then a stray dog came into sacrament meeting!  I lept up and chased him into the hallway.  Usually you can just yell at the strays and they´ll run, but he really wanted in to the sacrament meeting!  I got him outside and tried to corner him out.  That didn´t work so I yelled and nudged him, but he just kept running around me!  At this point all the other missionaries were gathered just watching and laughing.  At the risk of fleas I finally just picked him up and threw him out.  But he got back in before they shut the door and made a bolt for sacrament meeting again!  I picked him up and put him behind a fence of a nearby house, but then they had to open the gate for a car so he escaped and got in.  I got him again and ran down the block, left him there, then booked it for the gate, but he beat me there.  After a couple more attempts, we finally got him out because one of the sister missionaries started talking sweet to him.  I think he just got tired.  Man if we could put that kind of desire and persistence to get into church into our investigators, we´d have a whole lot more converts by now!

That story might not be too crazy to you but that was the highlight of my week.  Love you guys!

Elder Cook