2 Months Today!

Nov. 4, 2013

Hey Mom!

Can you believe that I have been out for 2 months today? Crazy right? Its going way too fast!

How was Halloween for everyone? What did everyone dress up as? Did you do anything fun? I was super excited to get your letter! I got it on the 2nd, so just shy of Halloween.

Things here have been going pretty well. We weren't able to get in to Sonny or Brenda this week, but we were able to go and meet with a lot of the less-active members! Which is really good, it is so important to take care of the members that we already have before we can get more.

So, funny story... we went to go and teach a part member family. And the entrance to their apartment (like the hallway before you get to their apartment) stunk soooo bad! We got in there and they wouldn't tell us what it was, only that it wasn't from them... but it was bothering us so at the end of the lesson (we taught them about language and had them squeeze all of the toothpaste out of the tube and then try to put it back in- the point was that it is hard to take back what you have already said. It was a cool lesson) we begged them to tell us what the smell was. I had actually guessed that it was a dead animal, and then Sister Williams said "or a dead person" then we looked at Brooke (the member & the mom) and she was just looking at us... then she said that their downstairs neighbor was found in his bed and that he had been there, dead, for about a week! It was disgusting! You seriously can't even breath in that hallway! We ran and held our breath all the way until we were outside.

We went and taught a less active family, the Siffles, to see why they haven't been going to church. And basically what Hank had told us is that he has some deep doctrine issues with the Bible. He believes that Jesus isn't the God of the Old Testament, and that the Holy Ghost isn't his own person, but he is literally the spirit of God... He denied the Holy Ghost. I have never seen or heard of something like this. We tried to explain things to him, but he didn't want an answer to his questions, so all we could do is listen to him and bare testimony of what we know to be true. We tried to get out of there as soon as possible because the spirit was not there. And he was getting really fired up. It was so sad to see how they were progressing and coming back to the church and then all of the sudden they have this huge problem come up. WHY?!?!!

Halloween was so much fun! We did have to be in early, but we definitely made the most of our night. We had our own little Halloween party! We hung some doughnuts from the ceiling fan and ate them without our hands. We were going to bob for apples, but we didn't have a bucket big enough... but we played some games and had a fun night!

How did creating a family mission plan go? What date did you pick to share someone with the missionaries? What is your plan of action?

I love you so much! Thanks for all that you do for me! I am so blessed to have such an amazing family who loves and supports me! Seeing some of the people out here really makes me happy to know that I was raised in this church. What a blessing it is to have been raised in a community like Manti with such amazing people!

I love you so much!

Love,

Sister Jessica Cox

***Jessica usually will email back and forth with me(Tricia) every Monday morning for about a half an hour and she will answer questions and give a little more info.  Today as we emailed back and forth, she mentioned that in a couple of weeks, ALL of the missionaries in her mission will be getting ipads.  Each companionship will also get an iphone.  I thought that was pretty amazing!  (Apple is making bank on the church$$$:)  She will also be able to use facebook as soon as her "training" is over.  The missionaries use facebook quite a bit to teach and find people to teach, so it will be fun to watch for her to post as a Sister missionary:).  It is amazing how technology is used for such good and to help further the work.  It is also amazing that Satan takes everything that is so good and can turn it in to something that is so bad!!  Just reminds us that we always have to be on our toes:)

Fall in Pennsylvania

Halloween party in the apartment!