First letter from the MTC:)

(Written letter sent in the mail-received Sept. 7, 2013)
Dear Family
   The MTC is AWESOME!  I can't believe how much I am learning & growing already!  The days do seem to go REALLY Long though.  My companion is Sister Erika Reyes.  She is from Las Vegas, she has a twin sister who was here at the MTC(they look like twins, but my comp. has brown hair & her twin is blonde!) who is now a visa waiter in the SLC South mission.  There are 4 sisters in my district & 4 elders.  We have the best district ever!  In my zone there are 12 elders & us 4 sisters.
   We just met with our branch president tonight & I have been assigned as the designated pianist.  I was also appointed as SENIOR Companion!  Woohoo!
   I'm learning so much & the spirit really is my constant companion!  As much as I really do love the MTC, the days seem so long.  I will be excited to finally get to Philadelphia!
   I will have 1 P-day which will be on Wednesday.  Writing this letter is the only acception to P-day.
   Going through some of my things I noticed that I forgot my retainer & my patriarchal blessing.  Would you please mail those to me as well as some mints?  We aren't allowed to chew gum in public...but we can have mints!
   How is everyone doing back home?  Soccer?  Football?  School?  Work?  Anything exciting going on?
   I'm loving feeling the spirit all the time & I love everything I have been learning!  We say so many prayers throughout the day, it's so hard to even put a number on it, but it works!  I begin teaching my investigator tomorrow whose name is Jessica!  Funny right?  I'll have to tell you more later when I have more time to write!
   I hope you all know that I love you & that I am praying for you!  You are the best family in the world & I wouldn't want to share all of eternity with any other amazing people.  Anyway, love you lots!
Love always,
Sister Cox

MTC....the 5 minute drop off:)

MTC day was so FUN! 

 

 When we got to the MTC there were missionaries everywhere!  They were smiling and waving as we drove in.  As we pulled up to the curb, there was Matt's brother Braden.  What a little tender mercy.  It made the whole experience a little easier!  Jessica's luggage was taken out of the car by her dad, she gave everyone a hug, the host sister missionary took our family photo, and she was off!  Not too much time for a whole lot of tears!  What a great experience to see her walk off with excitement and confidence!!!  She was soooo ready to be a missionary!

The "Setting Apart" night!

Tues. night before the MTC, Jessica was set apart by President Scott Hintze.  The whole family was there plus both sets of grandparents.  Everyone got to give Jessica advice.  The best advice was from Spencer.  He told her not to get in trouble so that she wouldn't get sent home:).

 

It's CRUNCH Time!!!

In less than 24 hours, I will be set apart as a sister missionary for the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints! I can't believe how quickly the time has actually passed! I opened my call on April 10, 2013 and I report to the MTC in 1.5(ish) days!!!

So, Yesterday I went up and bore my testimony and at the very beginning I said something to the extent of "I feel so busy, but I have nothing to do." My dad kind of made fun of me for saying that, but it is crunch time and I feel like I still have so much to do but I really don't because I actually already have everything set! Crazy right? But since I have had a 5 month wait, and I have basically been ready since day 1, it really is time for me to head. 

I got an e-mail from a friend of mine who is serving in the Argentina Buenos Aries South Mission and he sent me a bunch of advice that personally I feel like is what I needed to hear! He told me: 

"No matter how long the day feels in the MTC, you have to keep studying. Don´t stop studying. Do not let a minute go by that you aren´t trying to improve on something. So for you, you will have 12 days flat in the MTC. You have 12 days to learn the things you need to do for the next 18 months. Yeah you already study it before hand and you already have a huge grasp on it. But you have 12 days to improve it the best you can before you´re in front of the real people that have no knowledge of the gospel. Heavenly Father has given you 12 precious days to do nothing but study his gospel.... STUDY STUDY STUDY. It makes all the difference in the world, trust me. You will absolutely never regret it. And you will be so much farther ahead than some of the missionaries that are going home even. Imagine how much you could do if that´s what you were like at the very beginning. You would have a huge impact. Don´t stop studying. I can´t emphasize it enough."

I've always known that the MTC is basically like going to school all day, and I think that with that perspective in mind, I never would enjoy my MTC experience. But for some reason this hit me, and it hit me kind of hard that I need to use this time wisely because God has given this time to me to learn and to grow so that I can be the most effective teacher that I can possibly be!!

So, yes it may be "crunch time" but just look at what I have to look forward to! Before long, I will be joining so many missionaries in the MTC (and shortly after in the mission field) and it is going to be a major spiritual experience! I can hardly wait!!!

"I'm Going to Miss Her!"

So yesterday, my little sister, Mikaela, went to get a tooth pulled (just to find that there wasn't another one for them to bring down...) and she was on drugs... I don't know if Mormons should be on drugs, she didn't swear or anything like that, she was just so sad, but so funny to listen to! My mom recorded her on the way home and she was so cute. Normally she isn't super emotional like that, so it was really funny to see her like that. One conversation that Mikaela and my mom had was about me...
Mom- Do you remember what we did yesterday?
Mik- What did we do?
Mom- remember it was Jessica's farewell?
Mik- Oh yeah
Mom- remember she's going on a mission?
Mik- when does she leave?
Mom- she leaves next week, next Wednesday to the MTC.
Mik- I'm going to miss her!! (she starts crying even harder)
Mom- I know we'll miss her wont we?
Mik- Yeah
Mom- Do you remember where she is going?
Mik- she's going on a mission
Mom- and where?
Mik- to... I don't know
Mom- to Pennsylvania... to Philadelphia.
Mik- Oh...
Mom- Do you remember that?
Mik- yeah
Mom- She'll be a good missionary huh?
Mik- yeah
I would just put the video of her on here, but she doesn't want me to post it...anywhere...
I love that I know that Mikaela is going to miss me, it really makes me feel loved, and I'm going to miss Mikaela and the rest of my family a lot when I'm gone. It is always nice to know that I will be coming back in 18 months. I hope to get lots of letters from her and the rest of my family.

Called to Serve in the Pennsylvania Philadelphia Mission

My Missionary Pictures!!!

Called to serve in the Pennsylvania Philadelphia Mission!!!!!

My Decision to Serve a Mission

My decision to serve a mission is kind of hard to explain... because I haven't always wanted to serve a mission, but I have always had that feeling that a mission is where I need to be. My only question was when would this happen? Would it be when I get older, or when I'm 21 (now 19), or maybe Heavenly Father had a different mission in mind for me. 

My plan has always been to go to school and go "man hunting" and if i wasn't able to find the right man by the time I was 21, then I would go on a mission.

But then President Monson's big announcement of the age change completely threw me off guard. Don't get me wrong, because I was super excited that The Work was hastening, but I had no clue as to what to do with my life and whether or not I was supposed to be part of that now, or later. My life was thrown way out of whack! I couldn't think straight, my grades started dropping, I needed some serious help, so I turned to God.

I remember asking him "should I go on a mission... or should I stay home and continue school and searching for my future husband?" The answer that he have me was "You don't need to know right now." You can imagine my utter frustration. But that soon passed and I got to thinking, maybe if I don't need to know today, but what about tomorrow, or the next day or the next? So, I continued to pray.

During that time of I don't really know what I'm going to do with my life, I had a friend come up to me and they told me that I should just make the decision and then ask God if it's right. I thought, that's a good idea and all, but I would much rather have Heavenly Father tell me what I need to do so that I don't screw up my life. Then another friend told me the exact same thing, to make the decision and then ask God if it's right because that's what she did and it worked great for her. So I figured I should look into this a little deeper. One day I remember coming across D&C9:7-9 "(7)behold, you have not understood; you have supposed that I would give it unto you when you took no thought save it was to ask me. (8)But, behold, I say unto you, that you must study it out in your mind; then you must ask me if it be right, and if it is right I will cause that your bosom shall burn within you; therefore, you shall feel that it is right. (9) But if it be not right  you should have no such feelings, but you shall have a stupor of thought that shall cause you to forget the thing which is wrong;"

Right then I knew that I needed to make the decision. So I started thinking about me as a missionary and where I could be just shortly down the road in school. I weighed all of my pros ans cons and decided that I should go on a mission.

I remember praying to my Heavenly Father that night and I told him that I'm going to serve a mission. I then got the most overwhelming feeling, and I knew that going on a mission was the right thing for me to do.