Happy Halloween Everybody!

Happy Halloween Everybody!

  This week was a very interesting week because of one thing. I was really shown that the lord guides his work. he makes sure that we are in the right places and in the right times. First off so this last week we started off by feeling like we needed to pass by a certain family. Well we went by this family and we ended having a super spiritual experience with them where they explained everything about what their problems were in their lives and what they truly were looking for in that moment. Well we helped them out and she told us that she doesn't want us to go anymore just because she feels so good and that she wants us to pass by more often so we can help her feel so good while in these troubled times. Then right after that we felt like we needed to go to another family. we knocked on their door and we ended up learning that they were going through a huge family crisis at that moment because they had just gotten in a car wreck and his job revolves around him being able to use his car and that in the family as well one of the daughters had just got up and left. It was sad to see and really hard but they ended thanking us for being so willing to help them out in that time as well.

   After that we had some good news. Our ward baptized this week! WOOT! The other elders have been helping out this one guy who is married to a member that hasn't gone in years. Well just recently he has been showing the signs of actually wanting to progress and wanting to help his family come to church. well after a long 3 month process and some prayers and fasting he was baptized this last saturday and confirmed a member on sunday. He bore his testimony the day of his confirmation and testified in front of everybody of how he gained a testimony of this church and how he wants the teachings of this church to be the ones that his kids can grow up with. HE has already seen the blessings of confiding with the lord and he is now so happy. He is a changed person. Shows that this i s a gospel o transformations.

   After that this will probably be my last week here in this area and i am super sad to have to start saying my goodbyes but to be honest i am just excited to end this transfer and see where god wants me next. I am sad i am going to be missing out on the whole Halloween thing but you know what i just will have to celebrate halloween my own way. Anyways i love you all and i hope that everything goes well.

   Elder Cook

this week has been one of those weeks that has defined my mission

so this week has been one of those weeks that has defined my
mission. This week i have been a very spiritually and humbled state of
mind. I have had a real understanding of what it means to be in the
service of the lord. A true messenger and tool in his hands here in
Argentina. I feel as if this week is just one of the many reasons that
i had to be called exactly to this area. to get to know and become
such close friends to certain people.
  To start off what was going on we start on wednesday morning.
Usually we have district meeting and as we have been helping one
investigator quit smoking we delayed the meeting to just an hour later
than it was supposed to be because the other elders needed to give the
daily morning dosage of cigarettes to their investigator. Anyways right
before we got started we got a text from a good friend in the ward
that his dad had just passed away that morning and that he was on his
way home to see what happened. We then soon after got a call from our
bishop to be assigned to be there the whole day to help out in any way
shape or form. even if that means keeping watch over the body while
the others do all the paperwork and set everything up.
  While we were there we were being the spiritual guides through out
the morning. This family has been members for a long time. They are
really close friends to us so we just talked very casually with them.
As we learned more about the mans life that had died. He had been a
member of the church for about 50 years. One of the original pioneers
here in Cordoba. He had gone to church almost every Sunday and had one
of the strongest testimonies that i have ever seen. Willing to bear it
at any time or place. at 76 years old he was still willing to walk to
the chapel which is a good 4 miles away from where he lives. He shows
up early, does what he needs to do and completes with his duties in
the church.
   As we watched over the body until we got the doctors signature to
confirm that he was dead you just felt a spirit watching over us. It
was different inside this mans house. It was colder than the rest of
the world. there was a different feeling there. I cant explain it too
well but one thing that i can say is that the feeling inside that
house as we looked and watched over his body was just and interesting
experience.
    Finally comes the part that really impacted me the most. After
being there the whole day and basically until night time came.Our
bishop came over and asked us if we would be willing to take part of
the dressing of this man to prepare him for his burial. The four of us
and the bishop carefully and gently dressed this man in clean
garments, dressed him in his white temple clothes, and then finally
dressed him in the robes of the temple.I cannot explain the feelings
and emotions that were running through my head this whole time. Some
may be disgusted as even thinking of touching a dead man, but now this
moment was a very spiritual one. I had the opportunity to prepare this
man for the resurrection. This man was a faithful member of the church
for more than 50 years. He died a faithful member who is truly
rightful king and heir to the celestial kingdom.  A member who died
wearing his garments.
 I dont know if i have explained all the feelings that have come from
this moment but i will for sure never forget it.
 Finally to end the week we had Sunday which was the day that kind of
just put the cherry on top of everything. I got a call on saturday
night to prepare a talk. I prepared one Sunday morning about trials
and how they really help us and how we are supposed to get blessings
from them. But i ended up falling across the story of My great great
grandpa thomas hilton who he and his wife saw the birth and death of 3
children while serving the lord in the samoan islands. They were a
young couple still at the moment. THey probably weren't even 25 yet.
And yet they suffered through and bore the afflictions and death of 3
children. As i prepared and finished my talk i felt very humbled to be
part of this heritage. A strong and faithful family that has endured
and suffered and yet still comes out saying I am a member of the
church of jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. And i am a missionary of
that church, a true representative of Jesus Christ.
  To end this letter i tell you that i ended up not giving this talk.
The bishop instead took the time to speak and talk of the experience
that i have told all of you just now of the member dying. He then
thanked us all personally(the missionaries) and then invited us all to
just never lose that desire to serve. to love those who are in need
and do it at whatever the cost. To be a true representative of jesus
christ. He thanked us for our service and i couldn't help but just
think for the last 5 months that i have been here in this area and where
i am now.
     I know this is the true church. I hope that i can be just like my
ancestors, just like this man that i barely knew but from a distance.
I want to be like them. I want to die with the name of this church on
my person. I want to die a representative. i want to die knowing that
i am worthy to wear the temple garments and that i can rise on the day
of resurrection on the right hand of god.
   I love this church and i am so honored to be part of this work. The
Lords work. I send this to you all to show that i love what i am
doing. I cant imagine doing anything else. I love you all.
   Elder Cook, Missionary of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints

I really enjoy the mission life

  I really enjoy the mission life. As the days pass by i just really start to enjoy the fact that i am still a missionary. Sometimes i just look at myself in the mirror and realize that i have been doing this for more than a year and i just cant think of doing anything else now.The cool part is the fact that we get to see so many miracles and that we get to see the lords hand in our lives every day, and even better we see the lords hand in the lives of others.    
  So something that i have realized is that cooking is a really fun way to get the trust of other people. I have found another favorite recipe to make with people. Bread Pudding. They don't have raspberries here but i have found that strawberries are just as good. I am absolutely in love with it too because it doesn't take as much time to make and less ingredients and just as enjoyable. I am going to go make it again this week and i have to say that i am overly excited for it.    
  Well as much as making food is just one the best parts of my mission, the other one is when we get to see the lord bless us with just so many miracles. This week my companion and i worked our buttsoff in our area. We did everything that we could and we just couldn't see a lot of success through out the week. We saw potential people and a lot of promises that we were just hoping and praying would come through. The day that it all comes down to is sunday. Lets just say we were going to church with a little bit of sadness because we thought everything had fallen through. The people we looked for all told us that they couldn't. So we go to church and we find a person waiting for us. A good friend of ours who came to conference with his girlfriend.he told us that basically he came because he has a desire to come and he wants to get baptized. He wants to learn a little more before he chooses the day but i am just super excited because he started crying in front of us on how he just feels so comfortable here int eh church and that there is some deep desire to come. It was a real big miracle for us and the lord just put him in our path. I love it.   
  I love the mission and though we may do a lot of the same things i feel that the mission just has bigger and bigger surprises  as we go along the road. Love you all!    
Elder Cook

I am so dead tired

 I am so dead tired. We worked our butt off before conference and we just came back from an exhausting p-day activity. 

  First off conference. Wow what a roller coaster of events. First of, i don't know how the weather was for you guys up in the states, but conference day was just a down pour of rain. It started raining friday afternoon and we were thinking that it would slow down and we would have enough time and ability to take a taxi to the stake center. Well about 630 in the morning the rain just started coming down. We seriously were having problems of flooding in the streets. This made it absolutely impossible to get a taxi there and the buses that could take us there were closed down from problems on the streets, so we walked to the stake center that was closer to us in a different stake. The coolest part of it all was we had an investigator with us. We were all going to take a taxi together but that changed so we asked him if he was willing to walk and he said yes. He walked with us for at least a good 25 blocks to see saturdays conference with us. It was absolutely amazing. he really enjoyed conference too.

    Speaking of conference, it was so cool to have everybody speak in their native tongue. It was super cool because i listened to the whole thing in spanish this time and i really did get he whole experience. THey had the english room set up for the missionaries and all that fun stuff but i decided to stay for the spanish. But the thing is when the spanish speakers started talking all the missionaries came in to listen to it in spanish. It was a really cool experience to actually listen to it in spanish and understand it all. Signs of an old missionary.

   Two elders got sick this week so we have been fighting the diseases this week and in a pension with  4 elders you find yourself in a circle of just repeating sicknesses. I hate it. I am just keeping up on a fruit diet to fight off the sicknesses and the weight...hopefully i can fend off both of them.

    Anyways i love you all and i hope that you all enjoyed this conference week. With rain and sun i sure did.

         Elder Cook