Elder Cook Week Ninety-Eight

Hey Familia!

Man it´s so weird being outside the city!  We are only about 2 hours outside of Tegucigalpa but that makes a huge difference.  All this week we´ve been trying to help a family, that another set of missionaries in our district are teaching, get married and baptized.  It´s literally taken all the time, effort, sweat, prayers, and marriage knowledge of all 6 of us in the district to do it!  So this is what went down.

Monday we went out to Siguatapeque and played some intense games of soccer.  That ate up a ton of our time getting out there and getting back, so we had no time to do anything else (except eat an amazing American burger at a place we found buried in Comayagua).  By the way cousins, I will kick your cans in soccer any day of the week when I´m back.  They don´t call me the White Latino when I´m playing for nothing.

The family that the Elders were trying to get married is AMAZING!  Seriously the most chosen family I´ve ever seen in my whole mission, but there was one problem.  They were from the Mosquitia.  I´m not even going to explain how difficult it is to help people get married when they’re from there, but let´s just say they had to take a plane and a boat to get to where they lived just to take out a paper saying they are really single.  When Elders find a family from there normally, they put a fecha [baptism date] with them for about 6 months in advance.  Anyways, we´ve been working on the marriage for about a month now.  So all week we were calling as many lawyers as we could find and the family was calling all the contacts they had out in la Mosquitia to try to get this done.  So Wednesday, the Elders called us and said the family had a family member that worked in the alcaldia [mayor’s office] there, and they had sent the papers by plane and we had to go to the airport in Tegucigalpa to get them.  So we took off running to Tegucigalpa in the first bus we could find.  The problem was, we were super low on money at this point, so we had just enough to take a bus to Tegucigalpa and then another to the airport.  About 2 hours later and 60 Lempiras poorer, we took a couple steps off the bus when the Elders call us.  They told us that the papers weren´t actually going to get there until Thursday.  

Thursday I went with Elder Zamora this time out to Tegucigalpa, because the papers coming in were under my name and he knew a lawyer that lived near there that would get the wedding done pretty cheap.  So we headed out and got to the airport.  The flight that it was coming on they said wasn´t coming in until 4pm that night and there weren´t any papers on it.  We freaked out and made some calls, and figured out that it was from a different company, and picked them up.  Then some random Gringo comes up to us and starts talking.  He asked where we were from, and I said Mesa.  He asked if I was a Toro.  He said he used to live there and even played ball back in the day with the Mt View bball coach Ernst!  We were pretty pumped to talk to a gringo and he even bought us food from the airport!  We died at how much he spent, could´ve fed a Honduran family for a month for just two little things.  Then we left and turned in the papers to the lawyer.  We realized at about 4:30 that the last bus leaving for Comayagua left at 4:30.  We flipped and went to the bus stop.  As we arrived, I looked over and said, ¨hey, isn´t that the bus?¨ We looked at each other and took off sprinting.  Let me tell you, I haven´t sprinted in about 2 years but Elder Zamora and I gave it a good try, so we didn´t quite run down the bus.  We took the walk of shame back to the bus stop.  Everyone just watched the dumb Gringos sprinting several blocks and laughed as we got back.  We thought we´d have to stay the night in Tegucigalpa, but long story short we found another bus and got home at about 7pm. 

Anyways, the family got married and baptized and are pumped to get sealed in the temple.  We all feel great for what we did and even better to know that they´re on the way back to living with our Heavenly Father again as a family.  Everyone said it was impossible that the family was getting married, but I know without a doubt Heavenly Father was in control and it was amazing the things that just fell into place for them.  1 Nefi 3:7 

Love you!

Elder Cook

Nephi 3:7

And it came to pass that I, Nephi, said unto my father: I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them.

Elder Cook Week Ninety-Seven

Love you tons sorry no time to write today, we had to go out to Siguatapeque. 

Love you!

Elder Cook Week Ninety-Six

Hey Familia!

Man what an awesome week!!  I got my new companion, Elder Long from Chicago, he´s a super sick kid [Brooklyn says sick means cool] that was in the Air Force Academy before the mission and played on the baseball team there.  We´re having a ton of fun together.  We are pumping up the zone big time and have thought of a ton of new ideas to start breaking some records out here.  One of them that we came up with is Enero Madness, where it´s like a tournament this month for the best companionship in the zone and everyone´s going to have a bracket.  And today we´re starting a huge movement that will bring a ton of success next month, where we have to have 10 lessons, 15 contacts and a new family every day!  Everyone´s super stoked and ready to work hard.

We also had a baptism on Saturday!  We´ve been working with her for a little over a month.  She´s awesome and is excited to have a calling in the church, as soon as her baby is born.

We also went out to a pueblo this week to help a couple get their papers to be married and their wedding will come next week!!!  The husband is awesome we love him so much.  He´s got a lot of spunk.  He absolutely LOVES going to church every Sunday and talks about it all the time and is super excited about getting baptized!

Love you guys, everything is great!  Loving every second of the mission.

Elder Cook

Elder Cook Week Ninety-Five

Hey Familia,

¿Uté a guoch?  “How’s it going” We started teaching a familia from a little pueblo in Guatemala and they’re helping me learn  Kiché.  We had a great week!  Our schedule got changed up so that Monday we only left our house to write home and New Year’s Eve we didn’t leave the house because it was too dangerous that night.  Friday we had a rockn’ zone meeting where we got everyone super pumped up about January to complete their goals.  Saturday we went about an hour on bus out to a little pueblo to visit our recent convert, only to get right back on the bus when we found out he went out to the mountains to work.  

Famililia update:  They’re totally getting baptized.  The dad has felt the spirit so much it’s incredible!  He knows exactly what it is and how to recognize it.  After the principios del evangelico class he came up and told me “gracias hermono por traerme a la iglesia verdadera.”  Man I love that man!  But as much as he wanted so bad to be baptized he’s still struggling with the whole marriage concept.  He had made a vow when his first wife died that he would never get married again.  So we had a lesson today with the branch president, and it went perfectly.  His daughter’s mom wants to and has always wanted to get married.  We explained the necessity of getting married to be able to follow Christ.   Anyways they both are happy and ready to get married!!!  Wohoo! So tomorrow we’re starting up the papers.   Also before President Romero left the dad offered to give a house he owned out in a pueblo somewhere to the church.  Love that guy! 

Awesome activity we had in the park in Comayagua. We talked to everyone!
Some people were scared seeing so many Mormons in one place! 

I’ve learned something huge in my mission that I also talked about in the zone meeting.  I don’t really know how to say it in English, but everything depends on our want or a better word, maybe, is desire.   If we want something bad enough, and our desire is righteous, we will get it.  And that’s a concept that at the same time motivates and scares me.  If we want to go to the celestial kingdom, we will go there.  We’ll strive enough to get there.  If we want to help more people to be baptized, we can do it.  We’ll start talking to more people and inviting more of our friends to church.  If we want to have a testimony of the gospel, we’ll have it.  We’ll start reading the scriptures more, praying harder, and going to church with more intent and of course what goes along with it is faith.  Faith is not a passive word, its pure action.  If I have faith that I’ll be playing in the NBA someday, I’m going to be sitting around all day watching tv.  I’m going to be out working 24/7 exercising and practicing basketball to get there.  And if I have faith in Christ I’m not going to be sleeping in on Sunday.  I’m going to go to church, keep the commandments, apply His teachings, and follow his example.  So, you put those two together, faith and desire and you have a powerful combination.   We will be able to accomplish anything we put our minds to! As long as we are always humble and relying on the Lords help.  And if you don’t have a desire, increase your faith.  And if you don’t have faith, increase your desire to have faith, especially in the gospel.  If you don’t feel close to God, find the desire and have faith.  He’s never far away, and He’s always waiting for you with open arms. 

Love 

Elder Cook 

PS We tried to play duck duck goose as a zone at the meeting, I was rolling on the floor laughing.  Let’s just say a lot of Elders left that game with rug burns, tears in their pants, injured bodies, and broken egos.  I never knew duck duck goose could be so competitive! 

Elder Cook Week Ninety-Four

FAMILIA!

     We just had the most insane day of my mission!!! I can hardly even believe what happened. Alright, so it all started on Monday with a family we found.  We went to go visit someone else nearby, but contacted them when the other fell through.  They let us right in, they’re super nice, and the member daughter was there.  I thought the guy was her grandpa but it was really her dad, and he’s awesome.  He didn’t understand the importance of marriage so we told him to pray and we’d be back in two days.  We got there Wednesday, talked about marriage again and the importance of obeying God’s commandments, but we didn’t get any further. We tried a different approach Friday with part of the restoration and they committed to going to church.  We went back on Saturday night to make sure everything was good for Sunday, and the daughter came out to tell us some bad news.  They had some concerns about rumors they had heard about our church.  Elder Jose and I had the talks on Sunday, so we decided our talks would be focused on the gospel and the Savior, because many of the concerns he had were about Joseph Smith.     

     So today, we went to pick them up, and guess who was already there with his hair combed and nice clothes on before the rest of the family? The dad!!  So everything’s great, he hits it off with a member we brought to walk with us and he’s excited to attend church. So we give our talks and the Spirit was super strong in sacrament and we challenged everyone to follow Christ and be baptized.  We finished up about 5 minutes to the hour just enough time to have a song and a prayer.  But then a leader shared some last words and guess what his topic is about?  The Prophet Joseph Smith.  All the missionaries in his room instantly drop their heads and start praying that the investigators hearts will receive the message.  So about 30 minutes after the hour, sacrament ends, and we walk over to our investigator (the dad).  He’d been pretty ridged in his seat the whole time, but he gave me a hug and said “Hey I loved it!  I am staying for the next two hours as well!” I was so happy.  We went to principios del evangelo class and he was so intensely involved answering questions and reading scriptures, you would have thought him a member.  Then we went to priesthood, and I want you to take one more guess at what the temo was today?  Did you say Joseph Smith?  Right again! But let me just tell you this, I know that God wants this man baptized.  Every single man in that room was inspired with what to say in that meeting.  I have no doubt of that.  The spirit touched their hearts, and they all took turns explaining our beliefs about the trinity and who Joseph Smith was, and testifying of them.  Right before the last prayer was about to be said, the investigator stopped everyone and wanted to stay something.  We were worried.  But he said, “I’ve gone to a lot of churches in my life, and I’ve never felt good in any of them.  But I think I’m going to stay in this church.  I like it here and I believe this is the church of the Lord.”  I’ve never been so close to jumping out of my chair and cheering in the middle of church before.  This man, without knowing it, had just felt the Holy Ghost, recognized it as an answer from God, and acted on that prompting.  

     I think God knew exactly what he needed to hear.  We went over to their house today and put a fecha [baptism date] for them to be married and baptized.  I learned a huge lesson today.  God knows better than us!  Always.  He knows us, and definitely knows His children’s’ needs better than we do.  While I was stressing about the situation that was happening everything was playing out just how Heavenly Father wanted it to and you know what?  My stress didn’t help squat.  I think we need to learn to trust our Heavenly Father a little more.  He knows what He’s doing.  If we don’t like a situation we’re in or a problem or challenge we have, and there’s something we can do to fix it, do it.  If not, relax and let Heavenly Father take control.  He loves us, and promises not to give us more than we can handle. And one more thing, the Spirit converts, not missionaries.  We could have been in that man’s house for a year trying to convince him to be married, and he wouldn’t have even given it a second thought but the moment that the Holy Ghost touches his heart, he was willing to change everything and follow Christ.   

     We also taught 10 angry people of another faith (at the same time), chased down everyone in a park contacting for a couple hours, ate about 7 meals on the 24^th and almost puked, dodged a couple fireworks people threw at us, killed a rat inside the church, and baptized three ninas on Saturday.  Awesome week!

Love

Elder Cook

Elder Cook Week Ninety-Three

This is some of what Elder Cook shared with us when he was able to Skype with us on Christmas Eve.

I’ve gotten to know the gospel so much more, I didn’t understand it as well before but I feel like I understand it a lot more now.  I have really gotten a chance to read and study the Book of Mormon. Another thing I’ve learned on the mission is the importance of having an eternal marriage. It’s one of the most important things in life.  To have a family that will endure for eternity. I’ve been studying that the importance of a mission is to prepare to have a family.  This is the thing, the mission is like life.  It teaches us why we’re here.  One of the most beautiful things is eternal families.  That’s the most important thing to me.  Obviously we’re here on a mission to help other people and that’s our purpose and that’s what we need to focus on.