California Dreamin'

And another one:

"Where's he going? I don't know. How do we get there? Come'n let's go!"

Monday, October 28, 2013

All -

Extra brownie points to anyone who knows where the quote is from that's in the title.

Fun stuff first! We had a pumpkin carving activity last Monday, threw a surprise dinner party for a departing Elder (during which I had to use my British accent and make him think he was having dinner with Brother Alfred Mills from Winchester), and got to stay behind while the other two companionships up here went to the temple for birthdays. Bummer deal!

Well, my sojourn in the mountains of Tehachapi is at an end. I've been here 6 months, seen seven Elders come and go in my district, two elders "die" (went home), and four convert baptisms (none of which were mine). I've had tons of fun, made lots of friendships that will last through the eternities, and definitely found out the kind of Elder that I want to be when I come home in 18 months. It will always be my first and all other areas will have to compare to these people out here. But life goes on and there are other live to bless and other souls to bring unto Christ.

Now for the big news: this past week I got to learn at the feet of Elders Golden and Saben (?) of the Seventy and Elder D. Todd Christofferson of the Twelve. What an incredible experience to hear their words and to shake their hands and feel the power of their priesthood as they entered the room. And wouldn't you know it, I got mainly the same message from all of them, as if they were sent to talk to me and my concerns: allow yourself to be exactly obedient and become the most effective tool that the Lord has to work with in this mission; and trust your mission president completely, his word is law.

There are two things related to this that I want to share, the first from Elder Golden. He drew our attention to Alma 7 to read and study it as it pertains to being obedient. The verses that stuck out to me (as if Alma was talking right to me) are 15, 22-23 which says:

"Yea, I say unto you come and fear not, and lay aside every sin, which easily doth beset you, which doth bind you down to destruction, yea, come and go forth, and show unto your God that ye are willing to repent of your sins and enter into a covenant with him to keep his commandments...

And now my beloved brethren, I have said these things unto you that I might awaken you to a sense of your duty to God, that ye may walk blameless before him, that ye may walk after the holy order of God, after which ye have been received.

And now I would that ye should be humble, and be submissive and gentle; easy to be entreated; full of patience and long-suffering; being temperate in all things; being diligent in keeping the commandments of God at all times; asking for whatsoever things ye stand in need, both spiritual and temporal; always returning thanks unto God for whatsoever things ye do receive."

As if that couldn't be clearer, President Wilson has been talking about this since he came into the mission field! But I wasn't really sure that I trusted him that he knew what he was talking about, until Sunday (I know, I should know better than to question a mission president). This leads to my second point about listening to your mission President. Elder Christofferson came and for most of the time that he was with us he had a Q&A session, but for the brief time he had prepared material, he talked to us about why we are assigned to specific missions. Many people (myself included) labor under the notion that they are in a mission to bless specific people. While this is true in most cases, many missionaries would be successful no matter where they were assigned. So Elder Christofferson shared a secret with us: missionaries are assigned to missions to learn from specific mission presidents. He went on to say that every mission president is unique and they have their own way of doing things, and as such, missionaries can learn different things from different leaders. Well, I guess I better do what my mission president says with exact obedience then.

That's all for this week. Next week I'm not sure what the internet situation is going to be and how much time I am going to have so hopefully I will be blessed with super typing skills just in case I have to get off the computer fast. So don't anybody take it the wrong way, okay?

Love you all and hope you have a spooky Halloween and an epic sugar hangover!

Elder Cox

Elder Cox carving his pumpkin.

His finished product. Meet "Jed".


Elder Cox doing his imitation of the "Teletubbies" sun. Actually, he's looking inside a pumpkin and someone else is taking a picture from the other end. Freaky!