I'm in Philly!

*Sept. 23, 2013

MOM!!! I guess that President Anderson already sent you my info... but I am in PHILLY! North Philadelphia in a ward called Pennypack. Which includes North Philly and Bensalem! I'm in the Ghetto! (That was on my list of places to be while out here!) The area I'm in was actually just opened to sister missionaries the transfer before! Everyone is always telling me how lucky I am to be in the Pennypack ward and to have such great "moms" aka my trainers. They all tell me that pennypack is like the celestial kingdom, even though it has a lot of problems... There are 2 other sets of elders with us in Pennypack and they are AMAZING! My trainers are Sister Kenzie Hall and Sister Kellyn Williams I LOVE THEM SO MUCH! I really lucked out with how great of everything is for me! (Sister Williams and I decided that we are going to be the 1st sister missionaries to open up Camden! It's going to happen!)

On the 1st day in the field they put me to work right away! We went to a big apartment complex and went to a referral... it was a couple of guys who were going to college and they hit on us sooo bad!! It was a little weird. And then as we were walking along we ran into a couple of gay guys... that in and of itself was interesting... one of them tried to give me a hug! IT WAS SO WIERD! The next day we went to district meeting and it turns out that the "referral" and the "gay guys" were elders from my district! They recorded everything and because of that there wasn't really an awkward "Hi, I'm the new missionary." I just got right into the roll of things!

I got to teach my first lesson this week to a referral that the elders got for us. She told them that her name was Christian, but when we got there we found out that her real name is Ellan. She is CRAZY! She claims to have a perfect relationship with God, so there is nothing that we can offer her (later she said that she could see that we might have something to offer her...). She believes that we are all God- like we make up God. She believes in Reincarnation. She just is in a really interesting situation. Everything that she said she contradicted herself. But the key is to see her as she can become, not how she is right now.

My apartment is actually one of the nicer ones... I'm on the couch for the moment though... Hopefully I will get a bed soon. the size of our apartment is probably about half of the garden all together... we don't know where we are going to fit my bed once it gets here...

A lot of what I've done while out here is mainly going to find people on the ward list. Because this is still a relatively new area, we have a lot of things that we need to get done. But I have been able to meet a lot of the ward members. One of them, Sister Johnson (A recent convert, who is black) is soo funny! She was looking at the pictures in the back of the BOM and she saw the picture of the NK Whitney Store... she thought it was the NK Whiskey store! She was all sorts of confused because she knows that that is where the revelation for the WOW came from. haha!

We got to go to YW the first night that I got here. And the next day we got to play volleyball! It was so much fun especially because its not a competitive environment. Everything that we do is for the ward, mainly we are trying to reach all of the Less Actives in the ward. there was one house that we stopped at where their door was wide open and we knocked, we could hear them inside, but they wouldn't answer. But what are you going to do? At some points I have felt a lot like a salesman, but its not that bad.

Oh I almost forgot! I taught the lady that I was riding on the plane with from Minneapolis to Philly. I taught her with Elder Cowley who was sitting by me during the flight (probably the only time that I will ever be able to teach with an elder until I am married.) We gave her the BOM and she said she would read it! It was so cool!

I am so glad to hear that everything is going well! I love hearing how everything is going back home! Be sure to let the kids know that I am rooting for them while they are out playing in their games! Oh and tell Grandpa WAY TO GO! haha! I love you so much and I can't wait to hear from you again next week! LOVE YOU!

Love,

Sister Cox

 p.s.

4405 Bristol Rd #1B

Trevose, PA 19053

Way to go Grandpa! haha!

My first Sunday my comps had to speak, but somehow I got off the hook... So I sat down by the elders and their new convert who just got confirmed yesterday! I went to the gospel doctrines class and I think there was only 10 of us in there and half were missionaries. Then we went to Relief Society. Once church was over we went out and proselyted some more. Oh and we went through the ward list and tried to organize every thing with all of the other elders.

So you know how they announced that we could give tours of the church? Well, they gave us sisters and the district leader a key so that's how it happens (if you're wondering).

We do have a car which is good because we have a BIG area, but I don't like it as much because you don't have the opportunity to go out and talk to people on the street as much. I did pass the test to drive, but because I am a new missionary, they ask that I wait for about a month until I know the area well enough and know the traffic well enough to drive. There are some pretty crazy drivers out here! Everyone is always honking their horn.

I have caught onto a little bit of their slang here. they don't say water, they say whutter... haha! Its actually a lot of fun out here! Oh and they say yous a lot too. The accent isn't too different from Sanpete... depending on who you talk to. There are definitely a lot of different cultures out here so I get to hear all sorts of funny accents!

I love Philly so much and I feel like they have adopted me right in!