Happy New Year!

(e-mail from 12/27/10)

Hello everyone! How was your Christmas?! I hope it was good. Mine was good but it could have been better. I lost my wallet on Christmas day and haven't found it still. I think it is lost forever.it was really crazy though because we didn't go that many places on Christmas eve and Christmas Day and we checked and rechecked and checked again all of those places even going so far as to go through our trash and still nothing. :( its a bummer. I know that it will all work out though. Christmas eve was really nice. a member of the ward here had us over and she had some how gotten our parents phone #'s and asked them what we like and some stories about us and then got little gifts for us that represented us or that we liked. it was so much fun! and then she call our homes and we got to sing " we wish you a merry Christmas" to them. it was such and nice night. and then Christmas day we spent looking for my wallet most of them time. we were supposed to go to one of our investigators that lived on Post but since we couldn't find my wallet I didn't have an ID to get on Post so we couldn't go :) my companion has been sick this week so we have spent some time in. she has really bad Asama and it was really acting up this week. but we are both looking forward to the baptism that we have coming up this Saturday! yay! we are so excited! the work is still going really really well here! we have 7 progressing investigators! I have never seen so many! we are really blessed here in this area. I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and a great week this week! love you guys. --Sister Cox.

Merry Christmas!

(e-mail from 12/20/10)

Hey everyone! How's it going? Are you all ready for Christmas? I hope so because its this week! I cant believe that its almost Christmas! The time has just flewn by. well its still cold and snowy here. It will definitely be a white Christmas. we have a lunch and a dinner on Christmas so we will be stuffed! but it should be fun. things are going really well here. sister Palmer and I get along really well and we have fun working together. we just found a few really awesome people to teach last week and we are looking forward to seeing them progress! we also have a baptism coming up soon! our investigator is getting baptized on the 1 of Jan. its going to be so much fun and she is really excited. we also should be having a few more baptism coming up in Jan some time so we are looking forward to that! well I am sorry this is so short but we have to get going. I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas. Love you guys! --Sister Cox

What A Week!

(e-mail from 12/13/10)

Hello everyone!
How's it going? Everyone done with there Christmas stuff and keeping warm? This was pretty cold here for a few days, it was like 9 degrees but then it warmed up for a day and rained and washed away all the snow. I was so excited until the next day and then it snow again. any way this week has been a good week but also kinda stressful. I got a new companion this past week, her name is Sister Palmer she is from Kentucky. she doesn't seem very southern though. she has lived in Utah for like the past 3 or 4 years before her mission. she is really really nice and really fun to work with we are getting along great! the week has been stressful because I have had to take over the area. I realized I don't know the area very well yet, but Sister Palmer has a GPS which Helps A LOT! it takes a lot of the stress off. I am excited that the work is going really really well! we should be seeing so baptism soon! and we started teaching a mother and daughter and they are awesome I am excited to see them progress in the gospel. I know that the Lord is blessing this area and is blessing these people. I am so grateful that I get to see all of these blessings take place! I hope that you are all having a wonderful week and continue to have a great week! I will write again next week! --Sister Cox

The Take Over

(e-mail from 12/7/10)

Hey everyone hows it going? Staying warm? It has been snowing here soooooo much! we have a lot of lake effect snow! it snowed all night and is still snowing right now! well a lot of exciting things happened this week! for one we had a baptism yay! it was so exciting and so good, it was kinda crazy though. we didn't know if it was going to happen till hours before the baptism. we showed up and Anyias ( the girl getting baptized) in the morning to find out that she was sick, like really sick, like she has spent the whole night puking and was still not feeling so hot. we asked her if she wanted to reschedule but she said no, she would be there. I was impressed she really wanted to be baptized and nothing was going to stop her. but then later that day we ran into another problem, it had started to snow and people were calling us and asking if we were going to cancel because of the weather. but it started to clear up a few hours before and the baptism went great! there was a big turn out and she felt alright not the best but she made it. it was such a good baptism. we also set two of our other investigators with a date this week and another one it committed to be baptized but is still decided on a date. we are hoping to have 4 with a date by then end of this week. this week we also got transfer calls. I am staying in Watertown and my companion is being transferred. I am a little nervous about taking over the area and showing another sister around. I don't feel like I know it well enough but I know that this is what the Lord wants and I feel good about it. I am looking forward to the coming transfer and what it has to bring! thanks so much to all of you and all of your support! I hope you have a great week. -Sister Cox

Winter Is Here!

(e-mail from 11/29/10)

Hey everyone!

How are you all doing? How was your Thanksgiving? My Thanksgiving was good I got sick with the flu right before Thanksgiving and was still feeling a little under the weather on thanksgiving but it was ok. we had thanksgiving the next day and a different house anyway and by that time I was over the flu but I has started to get a cold. I have a cold right now I am trying to get ride of, I hope it goes away soon! we had a baptism this past week! that was good, really really good! we had a lot of investigators there to see the baptism too! so that was cool. we have another baptism coming up this week also we don't know if it will go through but we are hoping. we are also doing exchanges this week with the sisters in Ogdensburg. It will be fun but I am really stressed about it because i still don't feel like I know where I am going very well at all. And this Saturday we get transfer calls! wow i cant believe that its been almost 6 weeks already. I am not sure what will happen. I will most likely stay but my companion might go, I don't know. so there are a lot of things coming up this week, I will have to keep you guys updated on. I hope you guys have a great week!! --Sister Cox

Happy Thanksgiving!

What's up!! How is everybody? I hope you are all doing great! This week was a good week, we are still teaching some awesome people and they are going strong! there were 6 people at church this week! It was so awesome! I am excited for Thanksgiving, I cant believe that It is already that time of year. wow! oh and yes we do have a dinner apointment so no need to worry... mom haha :) we started teaching a woman named Janet and what I love about Janet is that she is just your everyday person who desperately needs the gospel in her life (which is everyone but you know what I mean). she doesn't have much of a religious background but she it willing to learn and act on her growing faith. she came to church yesterday and I could see the difference in her countenance she was happier and she smiled a lot more than I have ever seen her smile. I can see the Lord blessing her as she take those steps of faith into the unknown. I helps build my faith when I see our investigators exercising their faith. I love this great work and I am thankful that I have the opportunity to participate in it! thanks so much for all your support! have a great Thanksgiving! ---Sister Cox

Baptisms, Baptisms, Baptisms! (e-mail from 11/15)

Hey everyone, how's it going? I hear its cold there. it has been really nice here in the 60 and 70! :) I am sure our time will come, most likely sooner that later. the work is going so great here! we just had a baptism this past weekend and it was awesome! his name it David and he is in the army. He has such a strong testimony its so awesome to hear. we also have 2 more baptisms coming up in the next few weeks. we have one on the 27th and one on Dec 1st! we also are teaching this great family, Seth and Jamie. Jamie has already talked about baptism and has quit smoking. She said at Church to everyone that she likes this religion so we are going to stay! haha it was awesome. We also started teaching a part member family this past week. its a young couple and he is a member and she is not. her name is Mandy and you can tell that she it so prepared! she has already started reading anything that she can get a hold of and is really interested in learning more. The Lord is really blessing this area and I am so grateful that I get the opportunity to see the progression of all these wonderful people! its the greatest thing ever!! I hope that you are all having a great week! --Sister Cox

What A Week!

hey everyone! how has your guys week been? I hope its been good! this have been good here for the most part. half way through the week I came down with the flu so that was not fun. I spent most of the night in the bathroom..... yeah not pretty. the rest of the week was really good. we have a baptism coming up this Saturday so we have been preparing for that and then on Sunday we had a girl call us and tell us that she wants to be baptized! she has already been going to Church her dad is a convert and she is only 15 her and her dad don't get along so she is living with some other members right now (i don't know whats up with that situation) but she said that she was ready to be baptized. We are planning on her baptism a week from this Saturday. we are also teaching an awesome family they have come to Church two times and the wife is already talking about getting baptized. she need to quite smoking first. her husband is progressing but a little slower, he is in the army and has been through a lot! he just got a purple heart and they are waiting to be medically discharged. so the work is going really really good right now! the Lord is blessing this area and these people! I hope you all have a great week! Love Sister Cox

Watertown! (e-mail from 11/1)

Hey, everyone how are things going? this are, well... different here. I am in whats is considered the north country AKA cold and snowy. It has snowed a few times this past week but it hasn't stayed on the ground although it has been really really cold and windy. Everything its going well for the most part its hard to adjust so many new things. new people, new area, new members, a car! its alittle frustrating to me because when i got here i just wanted to get right in and go to work but its hard to help plan the day out if you don't know any of the people or where they live! I guess its will just come with time. My companion seems nice her name is Sister Ream, she is also from UT. she is really quite and sometimes when i ask a questions she just dosent respond, its kinda annoying. its hard to learn the area when she just dose everything with out explaining how to do it and then i ask and no response, (sigh) Oh, well i guess i will just have to figure out something. she really is a good missionary, and very good at talking to people on the the street and teaching. I went real tracking this past week it was exciting! In Ithaca we never really needed to go tracting because so many people were out on the streets. Oh and we had a golden investigator just show up out of nowhere. he has already had all the lessons and wants to be baptized so that was pretty cool, other than that not much to report. I hope you are all having a great week, Love Sister Cox

Transferred!

Hey everyone, Hows it going? Things have been super crazy here! It has been transfer call week, AKA lots of stress not knowing whats going to happen week! haha, no i have had a feeling that I might be getting the boot here in Ithaca and and we heard though the grape vine that my companion's name had been brought up for training. We had interview with President on weds and I just confirmed my suspicions. I walked into the interview and he said, "how long have you been here in Ithaca Sister Cox?" I knew that he knew very well how long I had been here. I reluctenly told him 4 and half months and she said, "well, we normally don't leave people in there first areas that long,... any suggestions on where you want to go?" yeah, i knew i was getting the boot for sure! latter that day I found out that he basically committed my companion to be a trainer. So I knew that there was a very strong likelihood that I would be leaving Ithaca and it was hard for me because i didn't know for sure so i couldn't tell anyone. then to make things more stressful is that this week is was sake conference! it stinks that my last Sunday here was stake conference. some of the people that normally come to church were not there on Sunday because stake conference was in Owego. and also my companion has be sick so we stayed in all day Saturday. and I have been worried about getting to say goodbyes and getting pictures and packing! Oh yeah and this week Transfers are taking place on Tuesday, the normally take place on Wednesday but this week our Mission pres has a meeting out of town and they fly out on Tuesday so all transfers have to happen on Tuesday! so things have just been crazy! I am soooo sad to leave my area. We have so many good people that we are working with and I am not sure if i will ever see them again. that the sad part a lot of them are from China and are going back to China in less than a year :( Oh yeah, I am going to Watertown! it is the coldest place in the mission, yay.... can you sense the sarcasm. its right on the banks of one of the great lakes, lake Ontario, which is the reason it is so cold there, the lake effect. my companion just came from Watertown before she came here and she loved it. she has been telling me all about it, I know that it will be great and it is where the Lord wants me to be! the up side it that we have a car in Watertown so that will be nice. I am excited to experience and new place and new people, I know that the Lord has prepared people there to receive the gospel, and it will be wonderful there. I will miss Ithaca and the people here but I know its time to move on. I hope you all have a great week and I will write again next week and tell you all about Watertown! Love, Sister Cox

Seeing People Progress

Hey everyone hows it going? things are going good here we had a really good week. We had exchanges this week. We has some amazing lessons that day. Sister ****** and I split up and as it turns out we both set baptism dates for people. Sister ****** set one of our new investigators with a date on the first meeting with him, I wasn't there but i heard it was amazing. and I set one of our investigators from China with a date, Li Peng. he is an awesome investigator. we taught him the second half of the plan and when we got to the end i felt like i needed to ask him how he felt about gods plan for him. he said that he liked it very much and he said , "I want to be there (pointing to the celestial kingdom) how do I get there?" then the spirit was so strong telling me to explain baptism and how that is the first step to getting to the celestial kingdom. and before i knew it he was set for a baptism date for the 13 of November! it was amazing. i love seeing these people and there progression in the gospel. it really is a blessing in my life because I realize that there is no other time in my life that I will be able to experience this in this way right now. its amazing! its like a little taste of heaven when you get to see some one accept the gospel, change there life. there whole countenance around them changes, its so cool! we have three set for November 13th right now, I hope that I am here when that day comes and I can see them all be baptized! I don't know what is going to happen this next transfer. its all up in the air so i guess I will let you know next week if i am staying or going. please send any letter to the mission office for the next few weeks until i can let you know for sure where i will be. thanks everyone for all your support! love ya, Sister Cox

I Love Chinese People!

Hey, everyone hows it going? Is it cold yet? Are the leaves all changed? They are still changing here slowly but surely. This past week has been crazy but good. On friday we had all mission conference. It was so good, we had elder Grow from the seventy come and he is really great! We talked about goal setting and seting a goal to be baptizing every week! it is this amazing new goal system and I am so excited to start it and get more people in the water! this week was so good because the work is going well here. I love the people that we work with! We just picked up a new investigator this past week and she is so amazing. Her name is Yuxin, she is from China and was a referral from one of our other investigators. When we first met with her she had no religious background. She wasn't even sure what the word God meant. she walked away from that first appointment saying that she didn't think that she could believe in a God that she couldn't see. We just encouraged her to pray and see how she feels when she prays. we met with her again two days latter and it was amazing what the spirit can do. she told us that she felt good when she prayed and that she felt like someone was there. then we met with her last night again and she told us that the night before she went out to a club and was drinking and she said that she didn't feel right and that she thought that drinking was bad for out heath and also staying out all night partying. She told us that she never wanted to go to a club again. the whole lesson she was just a sponge soaking in everything that we were teaching here. and at the end she said the prayer and it was amazing! she said that the past few days that she had felt a new feeling and that she liked that feeling and she wants it to continue. She is really progressing and its really cool to see someone experience the joy of feeling our Heavenly Fathers love for the first time and to really know that He is there and that He loves her. I am so grateful for the experiences that my Heavenly Father lets me see. To see the progression of our investigators is a blessing in my life and I will never forget it! I love it! I hope you are all doing well and I hope you have a good week! I will write again next week! Love, Sister Cox

Loved, Loved, LOVED Conference!

Hey, hows everyone doing? is it cooling down there yet? it is here! the leave are still changing I will take some pictures soon and send them (Carrie I will send pictures next week, for sure!) The first part of this week I was still sick :( Yeah it was a bummer. It lasted a whole week! that is one long cold especially in missionary time! It finally started to get better so that we could go out an work and of course it rained, no it pored ALL DAY that day. yeah I was soaked i don't have a really good rain jacket but I did have a umbrella so that was good. it was mostly just my feet that were soaked. People said that it is unusual to have it rain like that all day. It is common for it to rain a lot in the fall and the spring but not all day. but anyway it was fine and my cold is mostly gone it is still hanging on with a cough and a stuffy nose but its severity has gone away, so that's good. the weekend was great! I loved, Loved, LOVED Conference!! It was so awesome I loved all the talks they were all great! it was so good and we had 4 investigators come to the Sunday morning session. they all loved it and the cool thing was that we were only expecting to have 2 investigators come and the other 2 just showed up with people from the Branch. it was a great day of Spiritual uplifting talks and lots and lots of food! we got fed for lunch and dinner both Saturday and Sunday. we actually had a few Lunches one those days, haha it was so good! the Wood's, the senior missionaries here helped us out a lot this weekend a fed us a few times. they are the best! they are like a set of parents here in the mission field. well I hope you are all doing well and I will write again next week to tell you all the exciting thing that will happen. Love ya
-Sister Cox

Sicky :( (Week of Sept. 27th)

Hi, everyone!
How are you guys doing? I hear that its still warm out in the west. Things are cooling down here the trees are changing and they are soooooo pretty! I will try to send pictures soon. This week has been crazy. We have just been so busy with appointments and that has been good I love it like that. But Wednesday was the craziest day. We were running from place to place trying to figure everything out. We had set up an appointment to have a member from the branch come with us it was one of the last of the day and we were meeting Sister Yost at the church then we would drive to the appointment together. well... we got to the church and we couldn't find her so we called and she said that she was on her way out of the church right now. when she came out I was so confused that wasn't sister Yost! we were like asking her "are you Sister Yost?" and she said "yeaaah?" then it clicked. there is a Sister Yost in the branch and in the ward! and this was the sister Yost from the ward! oh yeah that was kinda embarrassing. but things worked out and she was so great. she ended up going with us to our appointment anyway and it was great. That night unfortunately I started to get sick. I have had a massive cold since then and I still have it! I hope it goes away soon. we have had to say in a few times because of it. it is one of the worst colds I have ever had, oh and I lost my voice! I can't teach and talk to people with out a voice! It is frustrating and I hope it gets better soon! Other than that things are going great!
Love, Sister Cox

Fall, Fall, Fall! (week of Sept. 20th)

Hello! everyone! hows life going? I hope that its going great! Things are going great here, it was my first week back in a companionship of two people and I have to say that I like it better! Everything is just faster and easier with only 2 people. It was sad to see Sister ***** go! But its kinda let me stand on my own two legs since she had been gone. I found out that I know more about the area, people and members than I thought I did! that was a pleasant surprise! Haha but there is still a lot I don't know and at times I found myself wishing I could ask Sister ***** but things have been going well regardless. and its a whole lot easier because my companion has already been here for one transfer so its nice that she knows stuff too. Fall is here! The trees are changing! its kinda cool because we walk the same streets everyday and it feel like some trees change color over night! I can't wait till they all change it is going to be so pretty! I will send some pictures when it dose.
This week has been good for the work too! Yesterday we finally met up with a referral we got from temple square and he is amazing! His name is Li Pang, he is of course from China. It seems all the solid people we teach are from China! that is so cool! he is a golden investigator! he has all the right questions and they all lead to the gospel! we taught the restoration last night and he said that we answered many questions he had for a long time. it was so cool! I am predicting another Chinese baptism this transfer. we are so excited to see his progression. other than that the work is going along well. this week we have just been trying to find our groove with just the two of us. It was weird at first because we felt like we were missing someone. well I hope you are all doing Great! and I will write you guys next week!

The Start of a New Transfer

Wow this week has been crazy! We did an exchange this past week and guess who got to stay in (her area) all by herself! Yup that's right me! Well, not all by myself Sister W came down from Syracuse but both my companions left and went to Syracuse with Sister Livermore. So it was all me, Sister Woodmansee had never been to my area and she has only been out in the field for 6 weeks. It was hard and was possibly the slowest day of my mission so far. No seriously the work was slow! We normally have weekly planning for 3 hours on Thursdays but since it was the exchange we moved planing to Friday. Which means a wide open day we only had one set appointment for the whole day. I tried to get good back ups but as we went to back up after back up no one was home. The day was so long we talked to people most of the day. By the end of the day we ended up getting in 4 lessons which isn't that bad. so over all the exchange was good and we only got lost a few times! This week has also been transfer week so we got the call on Saturday to tell us if we are staying or going. The sad part is that the 3-some is now going to go back down to 2 but the good part is that I am going to stay here! My trainer is going to be going up north, way up north, almost to Canada! Its sad that she is leaving, she has been here since she first got to the mission field 9 months ago. The good thing that happened yesterday is that we finally got in contact with one of our investigators who disappeared for like a week and a half. Susan is our investigator that has a baptism date and she just all of a sudden went MIA! but yesterday we a found out that she had a death in the family and had to go to North Carolina and that though all her trials she is still going strong with the word of wisdom! She is amazing and I cant wait till she can be baptized! We have a few other investigators that we are hoping that can be baptized this transfer but we will see how it goes. overall things are going well here and I cant wait to see what this next transfer will bring! Thanks everyone for all your support and love! Love Sister Cox

Coming Up: Cooler Weather and Transfers

Hey, how is everyone? I hope you all had a good summer! Its just about over here! the weather is getting cooler, but I like it. It's better to walk around all day in 65-70 degree weather with a nice breeze than 90, 95 degree heat with like 85% humidity. the only problem is that, it means winter is coming! That's not good! I just hope that I am not in this walking area when the snows hits, haha. No, I love my area and I would be sad to leave. Transfer calls are this week! I can't believe that a whole 6 weeks has almost past already! Wow! I am not sure what is going to happen this coming transfer. I am pretty sure that one of my companions is going to leave. I think that Sister ***** is going to be leaving, she has been here for soooooo Long. This was the area that she started out in back in Jan! She has only been in this area so far, and half of her mission is over! So yeah we are all just waiting to hear of it officially. It will be a sad day, on Saturday when we get that call. I don't even know if our mission pres will keep the three-some here or if he will move it to another area next transfer. But chances are that Sister ******* and I will be staying. Oh this week something really cool happened. We are teaching this older lady and she is just golden! So awesome! She is the one that we set a baptism date the first time that we met her! but we decided that we needed to teach her the word of wisdom because we knew that she drank coffee and tea. The lesson went so perfectly, it was so cool! she keep saying "thank you for telling me this, because I never knew" and she gave us her brand new, barley opened tin of coffee and said that she was going to stop drinking it right then and there. It was so awesome! and the last time we saw her was on Sat and she said that she still hadn't had any coffee or tea! I can't wait till she get baptized! I am so grateful for this opportunity to be on my mission. I love having the opportunity to see how the Lord blessed the lives of others and helps them change and grow. It is a privilege that I don't think that I would have been able to experience any other way than on my mission. I hope that you all are having a great long weekend! Love you all, Sister Cox

Hi :)

Hey everyone! I hope you all are enjoying the last bit of summer! Things are going good here. We have been trying to do a lot of finding lately, our teaching pool is kinda low at the moment. We dropped or they dropped us, like 6 people this past week so yeah. But the people that we have left are so strong and so solid! The Lord is truly blessing us right now! We have Susan who came to church last week and said "I am really to be baptized but I don't want to do it today because my kids want to come see" haha, it was so cute. She thought that she was going to get baptized that day! We explained to her that we still need to teach her some more and that it was scheduled for September. We also have this great Brazilian family that we are teaching. they were out of town for most of this week they went to Washington DC and they are going to stop by the temple visitor center. and we started teaching another girl from China a few weeks ago, she is awesome! We started teaching her a week or two ago but just recently she has really started to progress. It is so amazing when you can start to see the gospel working with someone. You can see their countenance start to change and get lighter and lighter. Its is one of my favorite things about sharing the gospel. you can really see the difference it make in the lives of those you teach. I Love it! Well I got to go, I hope everyone is doing well. --Sister Cox

Awesome Week!

Hey, everyone! How are you doing? I hope you all are good! Things are going great here! we had a really good week! It was full of ups and downs but it was good! on Friday we had 5 appointments set up and 2 of them we has gotten members to go with us but ALL of them stood us up!! We walked ALL OVER TOWN!!! My body hurt that day and the next and the next! We must have walked like 15 miles, it was a lot. But I know that the Lord blesses his missionaries because so really cool things happened that day toward the end of the day. So we were walking to our 4th appointment of the day and we had to buzz in because its like this huge apartment complex for older people,and of course we didn't get an answer. (by this time we had already walked all over town and we were bummed because we walked all this way and she wasn't even there!) so we decided to go in and use the bathroom and fill our water bottles, so we did that and then we went out of the building a different way that we normally go. all of a sudden Sister Z**** was like "Oh that's Sister Short" a member from the ward. But as we got closer she was like maybe that not her, and she asked what her name was, and it wasn't sister Short, it was a lady name Susan. She was super nice and before we could even say anything she said that she wanted us to come by some time! we were all so surprised! that never happens! We asked her if right then was a good time and she said that it was a great time so we went up and taught her part of the first lesson right then. during the lesson the spirit was so strong, she kept saying she felt like she wanted to cry and that she felt so much better now that we came to talk with her. we set her with a baptism date right then in that lesson! It was amazing! i have never experienced that before, we talked with her, taught her a lesson, and set a baptism date all with in a hour! it was so awesome! then on the way home for dinner we met this amazing Brazilian family that said that they were looking for a Church. A complete family! those are hard to come by in the down town Ithaca area, let alone a family that wants to be taught! all of them came to Church yesterday and I am so excited to see how they will progress! I will keep you posted, Love you guys! Sister Cox

First Baptism

Hey everyone! How is every one? I hope you are all doing great! This week has been good, a little rocky, but good. It is hard to get used to the three person dynamic, but I love both my companions and it has been going better. we had a baptism this week! my first baptism! our investigator Amanda got baptised this week! the baptism went awesome! the spirit was so strong though the whole thing. She bore her testimony after she had gotten baptized and I loved it. Her testimony was so strong. I want all my converts to have a strong testimony of the gospel and a love for the scriptures like she does.
Another exciting thing was that yesterday at church and new girl just moved in to the branch ( we are getting a lot of new branch members because Cornell is about to start fall semester) and she brought her roommate who is not a member to church! she from China! haha. We talked with her and they invited us over for dinner yesterday and we started teaching her. She is soooooooooo Golden!!! She has all the right questions and its like she was just searching for the gospel. Its the ideal situation! Both of her roommates are members of the branch and they are like automatic fellowshipers! It is so awesome to see how the Lord prepares these people before we even meet them, putting them in the right situations and the right time to make the gospel available to them. I am really looking forward to teaching her and maybe we will have two baptisms this transfer! You never know! Thanks everyone for all that you do and all of you support. I will keep you posted, Love ya, Sister Cox

Threesome = Funsome (actual title of her e-mail)

Hi everyone! How are you all doing? Any exciting news? Is it still hot there? It has been cooler here the past few weeks. So we have started a new transfer!! Woohoo! We have a new sister with us her name is Sister Goettsche. she is from Denver Co. She is sooooo much fun. I love being in a three-some so far. It has been great! We laugh a lot and get alot more things done. its nice to have three people to share the work, its not as stressful that way :) But the nice thing is that we all get along really really well. we are looking forward to a baptism this Saturday! I hope that all goes well, she needs to get a second interview. So we are all holding our breath and hoping that everything works out for Saturday. I am pretty sure it will, I will be super sad if it dosent, but I think it will. not much else to report, we have been doing a lot of finding this past week. we dont have like any very solid investigators and we are just out there trying to find them! I know that the Lord will help us, he already has. we have picked up 3 new people this week. we have only met with them once but they all seem to have potential. The problem that we have run it here is that people are willing to hear us and they like what we say but they are not willing to act. they are not willing to pray, read and keep commitments. They say oh I know I need to change but they don't! grrrrrr some times its frustrating. I just want them to have some kind of desire to learn and live the gospel. sometimes it seems like they have no desire to do anything whatsoever! Anyway, I know that there are people here that are prepared and ready to receive and live the gospel and that the Lord will help us to find them. I am so blessed to be able to serve the Lord and to serve here in NY. I am learning and growing everyday, I love it. I hope that all of you are having a good week. Love Sister Cox

One Transfer Down...

(Sister Cox didn't say who these pictures are of. But, I think the top one is of her current district and the bottom one is of her MTC district.)

Hey everyone! How are you doing? Things are going great here! Another week as gone by so fast! and I have made it through my first transfer. I am no longer the newest missionary out! woohoo! so we found out on sat. that my companion and I are staying in the area! and we are getting another sister! So there will now be three of us walking the streets of *****. I am excited, but I do have some mixed feelings about it. we will just have to see how it goes... but the new sister get here tomorrow. We also did exchange this week! it was fun to go out with a different companion and in a different area. I learned a lot, by watching the other sisters, I have realized that everyone does missionary work in there own unique way. it was really cool. not much new stuff to report on. we are still teaching Amanda and preparing her for baptism. Its coming up, its a week from this sat! and we are still teaching Frosty, he said we wants to go to church this week so we will see if he comes. right now we are trying to increase our teaching pool because now that we have a threesome we can do splits with members. we have been trying to check up with a lot of potentials. we haven't found many solid people yet but I am sure the Lord will help us find those who are ready and searching. I hope all of you are doing well and having a fun summer!
Love, Sister Cox

Pictures!

Sister Cox finally sent some pictures! As she requested, I scanned them in. Here they are.

After her first Zone Conference.

Beautiful scenery in her area!

Sister Cox and her MTC companion with their trainers.

Service in the MTC.

Here she is with her mission president and his wife. Don't they look like wonderful people?!
Her MTC group.

Funny Dinner Mishap and New Investigator

Hey everyone, I hope you are all doing well. things are going good here! we found some new investigators this week, one of them is named Frosty! Haha yeah, he is a funny old man, its fun. :) So we set one of our investigators with a baptism date this week! its that girl from China, Amanda! she is set to be baptised on aug. 14! I am so excited, i hope nothing comes up between now and then. Last night we had dinner with her and she made us some traditional Chinese food. and now i know the reason that the Lord didn't send me to China! haha, the food was good, but very, very, spicy! and you know I don't do spicy very well! i think i had like 10 glasses of water! oh and she didn't have any forks or knives (apparent they don't use those in China) so we had to eat with chop-sticks. yeah that was interesting! haha I went to put so beef on my plate and my chop-sicks slipped and the beef landed in my water cup! oh it was embarrassing! Sister ***** got a kick out of it! this week was also Return and Report! it was so fun to see all the people I came out with! and talk with them and share stories. it was especially nice to see Sister ****** again. the sad thing is, now we are not sure when we will see each other again. It might not be until we come home together! but i bet we will before that. we also had interviews with the mission pres this week. they came to ****** and saw our new apartment and then they surprised us by telling us that as part of the interview they wanted us to teach them part of the first lesson! talk about intimidating! But it turned out really good. He said he was impressed and thought we did really well. the only bad thing is that now he thinks that I can handle taking over the area!! Transfers are next week and I am freaking out just a little. i have this feeling that my trainer is going to get transferred! oh well, i guess we will find out soon enough. oh and there might be a threesome here next transfer too! so lots of possible changes! I am not sure how I feel about that! haha. Oh I am so excited for today! we are going to see a first edition Book of Mormon up on campus and then we are going to play basketball!!!!! YES! and then we have to pack because we are going down to ******* for an exchange. and then those two sisters are coming to ***** and we are going to Blitz the area. I hope it all goes well and our appointments don't fall though because that about all I know how to get to, and i am not sure i can find were our backups are, I think I will be getting lost alot that day! haha. well thats about it and I am running out of time so I will email next week!
Love Sister Cox.

Upcoming Baptism?!

Hey everyone, how are you all doing! Happy birthday to David! I can't believe that you are 3! wow! thank you all for your letters and emails. I am sorry that I haven't been writing back as much as i would like. P-days have been crazy lately but I should have more time today to write people. so things are going good here. We have one investigator that is soooo close to being baptized! her name is Amanda and she is from China. she is visiting here until December and going to ***** University. she came with us to a concert here of the Utah Valley children's choir, it was amazing! the spirit was so strong after and she was talking to all the missionaries because our whole Zone was there and she told the AP's that she knows that this Church is true and that she wants to be baptized! We haven't set her with a date yet because she is still thinking about it, we are hoping for this Saturday or the next! She has a husband and a daughter back in China and she has been video chatting with him and telling him all the things she learns from us. He has a book of Mormon and has been reading it! he told her that he wants to be baptized also but the sad thing is that you cant be baptized in China, he has to travel to hong kong for something. I hope that he does get that chance to be baptized sometime soon. I Had my first Zone conference this past week, it was good I liked it. we drove by the river that Joesph Smith was baptized in and were the Priesthood was restored! We found out that church headquarters has asked that we don't have zone conference every transfer but every other transfer! that's kinda a bummer. on Friday is return and report for me. all the elders and Sister ****** and I go back to the mission home and have meetings it only happens your first transfer and I am excited to see everyone! transfer calls are a in two weeks and i am nervous I don't want my companion to leave and there is talk of putting a threesome here in *****! My companion can't leave me! I don't know the people of where I am going still! well I will let you know what happens in a few weeks. but i better go because i am running out of time.
Love Sister Cox

ps. i am sending some pictures home to mom, maybe carrie can scan them in and post them so everyone can see them or I will try to email some next week.
oh and mom can you forward this to everyone? thanks, love ya!

Hot and Sticky

Hey everyone, how's it going? things are good here. Hot and Sticky! Did you get my e-mail from last week I tried to send pictures but I don't think it worked and I don't think it sent my email at all :( Anyway, I cut my hair today, its short! I had to, it was bugging me on my neck all day in this heat and i never had the time to do it, so i cut it. I will try to send a picture. i hope it works. We started to teach a few new people this week so that is exciting. We just started to teach them so i don't know where it will go but i will keep you posted. Things have been harder lately, people set appointments and don't show up and people on the streets are more mean, or it seems like it, than when I first got here. maybe its the heat or something, idk. We have our most progressing investigators coming to the Utah Valley Children's choir concert this Wednesday and we get to go too! we have Zone conference that day in the same place where they are preforming so we get to stay for the concert. I am looking for ward to that! so being out in the sun all day I have actually gotten a tan line on my arm from my watch! I know! Me! I got a tan line. the whitest of whitest people. its not that dark but i am sending you a picture so that you can see. Oh and I am also sending you a picture of the water falls right around the corner of our new apartment. they are so pretty! its called Ithaca falls. so my new address I don't know it off the top of my head but i am going to give it to you because when mail goes through the mission office I don't get it for like a week. so i will give it to you but just keep in mind that its not my permanent address. well i hope you all are doing great! thank you for all your letters and emails so far, keep it up! I love to hear from you guys.
Love Sister Cox
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(Sister Cox has not sent us any pictures! I will post some when we get them!)

First Area

Hey everyone! how's it going? I am in New York now, and my first area is in *****! It is one of the smallest areas in the mission which means its is also a walking area. so I am getting in shape, it has lots of hills! We talk to and meet lots of people. ****** campus is in our area also. I love my new companion she is awesome, her name is Sister ***** she has been out for 6 months and has been in ***** for all 6 months so she knows the area really well. I just hope she doesn't leave the next transfer because i don't know what i am doing! well ***** is an interesting place, everyone is go green, vegetarian and vegan. We meet strange people everyday and only a normal person like every other day and usually the normal people don't want to talk to us. It will take some adjustment to get used to this place but I am starting to like it. We are teaching two people from China right now and we are hoping that we can baptise them before they leave to go back. we have one that is concerned about being baptized because he is not sure he can go to Church in China and the sad thing is that he is probably right. so we don't know whats going to happen, but he loves to learn about the Gospel and just asked if he could meet with us 2 times a week instead of the 1 time a week we were meeting with him! so that's great! well i am running out of time so i am going to go. you can all write me at the mission home and then they just forward it to me. I will write later bye!
Love Sister Christi Cox

In New York!

Sister Cox is now in New York! She left the MTC early this morning. She talked to Mom early this morning and is doing well. Mom says she sounded very happy. I'll post more info as it comes.

2nd Part of First Letter

"hi everyone, I hope that you are all doing well. I am sending this to mom and she is going to forward it to you guys becaues i dont have time to write in all of your email addresses. you all need to send me at least one email this week so that next week i can have your email addresses, k :) This week has been a wirl wind with highs and lows and the days have been filled with highs and lows. so its just one huge roller coster, but i am having fun and learning so much. in my district we have 8 elders and 2 sisters, my companion and myself, we are all going to the same mission. we have a lot of fun together and the are great. I love my companion, it was that girl that i knew before I left, its awesome! we get along so well together. there are 4 other girls in our room 3 of them are leaving for thai land today! crazy! they are all so nice the other sister is a solo sister, so she has no companion. so now that the other 3 are leaving she come with us all day, i love her she is great! I love my teachers here they are so helpful, i cant believe how much i have learned and gown in just a week! well, at i hope i have anyway. I still struggle and times but i guess it is all part of the journey. I am loving it, more that i thought i would. wow i just said love it like 5 times, haha. you guys should all write me emails i only got one today, for mom, thanks mom! now i feel carries pain! haha well I hope all is well with everyone and that things are going good i wish i had more time, but i dont so i gota go, love you all! bye, Christi :)"

First Letter!

Christi sent a short letter to my Mom today, asking her to forward it. She only gets 30 minutes to e-mail.

She writes:

"This week has had its ups and downs and each day has highs and lows. i hope that i can do this work. i am trying really hard to do the best that i can. I hope everything is going well at home and indy is being good! if not tell i said to be good! haha. I miss you all so much, I love you, wirte me letters K :) because they really help in the middle of the week. you should use dear elder.com ask carrie about it. well i gota go. i will write again next week, Love you! bye, Christi"

(You can write letters at dearelder.com and they send them to the MTC for free! If you do, the MTC mailbox # is: 276, the mission code is: NY-UTI, and the estimated departure date is: 6/22)

Addresses

Christi enters the M.T.C. on Wednesday.
You can write her at:

Until June 22nd
Sister Christi Cox
MTC Mailbox # 276
NY-UTI 0622
2005 N 900 E
Provo, UT 84604-1793

After June 22nd
Sister Christi Cox
New York Utica Mission
P.O. Box 149
Whitesboro, NY 13492-0149

Please write! Missionaries LOVE letters!