HOLA y gracias por todos de los Feliz Cumpliaños Well i think that will be enough spanish for today. haha well this week has been absolutely amazing.first off the baptism.the baptism was successful. It really was a beautiful moment. recently my district leader has been really good about asking me to be in charge of the music for the baptism services. the last 3 i have had a musical number, and it wasnt any different from this one. I sang two different numbers and i felt really weird beign bare foot and in white for the first one. oh well. It was super cool to have the experience. When he came out of the water he started to cry and he just hugged me in the font. We were both soaking wet by the time we left. The best part about it though was the fact that yesterday at church he came in with a suit coat and robbed my missionary tag and put it on saying, how do i look. He has desires to serve a mission. It just made me feel so good. He wants my tag when i leave from the area. He is super cool. One of the greatest experiences of my life. Other great moment of the week, we had three different conferences this week. one mission conference and two different sessions of Stake Conference. The mission conference was absolutely amazing. Both president and his wife came and said happy birthday to me and wondered why we didnt answer their call on the 22 because they wanted to sing happy birhtday to me. But we had lost our phone two transfers ago so i had to apologie for that, but they gave me a candy bar and said happy birthday personally and it sure made a good day. Second of all stake conference. We had present a seventy of area in Argetntina and i just got to say he was one of the most lovign people that i have every seen in my entire life. His name is Elder Juan Carlos Avila. He spoke in a way that just got right to you. Most of all his talk on missionary work on saturday was by far my favorite fo the whole thing. But for me the night ended better. We had just finished talking about saving our fellow brethern and all this cool stuff and we were jsut getting home. when we got out of the taxi Elder Richardson found 200 pesos. Well our first instinct was to ask our neighbor who he and his wife are less active members of the church. Well as we figure dout the 200 pesos were his and if we wouldnt ahve found it he would have gone without food for a day or two. So luckily we found it, he gave us a chocolate cake and then we started to talk about the gospel and stuff. Well started to admit ot us that he has now gained a testimony of Jesus Christ and that he is our savior but of the church he wasnt quite sure. Well as it all turned out it ended up being one of the most spiritual moments i have had on my mission of bearing my own testimony and wanting the best for him. as Richard G Scott said in his talk this last general conference "express the love that you have for them and then bare your testimony" The next day i saw him and his wife at Stake COnference happy as could be to be listening to someone. One of the little miracels that happen. Other than that we have been working our butts off. Tonight we have 3 different family home eavenings to attend and teach lessons for so it will be a really fun night. and the best part is that tonight i am going to have terriyaki chicken for dinner tonight. WOO HOO! super excited to have something from home again. As much as i am in love with the food here in argentina...it is startign to become reptative and so i like change. Speaking of food yesterday i had my first food that is only made like three times a year or four depending on the family. it is called Locro, it is just a really heavy soup with a lot of meat. It was super good adn the best part was jsut sharing the table with a mixture of every type o religion and culture. Just a really cool experience. I love you all and i just cant help but wait to see what the lord has planned for me and for my area. Con Mucho Amor Elder Cook

we had changed Branch Presidents in the ward

well what a week....this week started off with some news that we had changed Branch Presidents in the ward, and not only that but our zone leaders organized a zone splash in our area for today. so they asked us to meet with our new branch president and organize this activity for today. well we had basically everything ready, but one thing happened on wednesday that kind of made things a little hard for everyone. I lost my voice this last week. on wednesday morning i had a little bit of pain in my throat and by mid day...i had lost it completely. i couldn't let a single word escape my mouth. yeah where the job of the missionary is to talk to everyone..it made it a little difficult. my companion got stuck doing the majority of the work. but with all the meetings and things that we had to set this activity up...it sure made it hard. With all said and done i had lost my voice for 3 days. three critical days of special plans and teaching opportunities. with luck lots of pray and a blessing i got my voice back on friday but i still needed to take caution with it leaving again. All the members were giving me some sort of medicine or some sort of homemade remedy that would help me. Lets just say the majority of them dealt with drinking lemon juice and orange juice heated up. Good news for the birthday plans. I will be having a baptism tomorrow. The guy is named Luis. he is 18 and will turn 19 on the same day of his baptism. we share birthdays. He is super excited to be baptized and is one of the most chosen people that i have known on this earth. We will be having a type of birthday party for us both tomorrow which will be super fun so i am super excited for tomorrow. Other news of the day is of the splash that we will be having today. all 22 missionaries are coming to our area to teach for 2 hours of the night time. we are hoping that we will be having a lot of miracles happening this week as we use the references that we get. We are also hoping that through all this work we ourselves can find our area growing. WIth the change of branch president he is super excited and super young. he only has 28 years of age and got back from his mission 6 years ago. His 1 counselor is the same. it is going to be really interesting to have such a young leader but i can imagine that we will be seeing a lot of changes here in the area. well the work continues. easter was almost exactly the same as any other day. just a lot more messages focused on the atonement of jesus christ. it was a good day to share the message of jesus christ. I feel super loved here in Argentina and i know that this week will just be super fantastic. I love you all! Elder Cook

Elder Richardson and i have hit the ground running

Wow what a week. Elder Richardson and i have hit the ground running. we were working a butt load this week with trying to meet with all the active members of our ward and our investigators as well. Well lets just say in that process he got to know more of the less active families that we have been working with than anyone else that we have been teaching. He got to know a few of the people that we are working with but he has stated many times that it sure has been different from his last area. One thing that i have noticed is that i have had the luck to serve in 4 areas now and learned a lot about different circumstances and he is just getting to know the difference between the city and the country side. It was one thing that he is still getting used to. He is super cool and i have learned a lot from the new energy that he has brought to the area. we taught a ton of lessons this week and we sure did receive our blessings for all our hard work. we had an investigator at church this week. woo hoo. he has been reading the book of mormon and has almost gotten half way done with it. We have a lesson with him tonight so we are hoping to hear good new on how it went in church. Testimony meeting was great. we have been working with a less active family that has just started to become super active again in the church. they are preparing to enter the temple and yesterday the mom and her two daughters bore their testimonies in front of everyone. I sure about cried when the youngest stood up and didn't say a thing for 5 minutes and then started bawling testifying of how she wanted to be in an eternal family and how she loves the missionaries in her house. Lets just say that this family has sure become my family here in argentina. Other than that the other kids that we are teaching from the other area are super cool. Yesterday i had one of the coolest experiences of my mission. So yesterday we went to teach him the law of chastity. We as awkward as the lessons started off, he started to open up to us. We he has a gauge in his ear and part of the law of chastity is that he has to take out the piercing. Well at the end of the lesson he look at me and said. Tell me what i have to do. and i told him that if he wants to get baptized he will have to take it out. in that moment he took it out gave it to me personally and said keep this until my baptism and then we can talk more about it. It was such a spiritual experience for me and it truly showed that this 18 year old kid is so converted to god that he is willing to do everything to be baptized. Anyway the work has been super amazing the the miracles just keep rolling in. I love the work and i love everyone in general. Elder Cook

transfer day has come and gone and i am with a new companion

Well transfer day has come and gone and i am with a new companion. I am sure going to miss Elder Gomez, it was a good three months together. Time sure flies. But my new companion seems super cool his name is Elder Richardson from Las Vegas..but it isn't las vegas it is a town close by that starts with an H...i am horrible at this. Anyway he has just left his first area in the mission so this will be his second area. he has 5 months in the mission so 1 in the mtc and 3 in his first area. Still nuevito. We were going to see how this goes huh. Second of all i need to explain a story that has been going on the last couple transfers. So three transfers ago the other elders that live with us baptized a 16 year old girl. the family was interested but for one reason or another she was the first to be baptized. Well now this girl her aunt her cousin and her younger brother are all baptized members of the church. Right now her mom and her two other brothers are preparing for baptism. Well, throughout all the exchanges that we have had i have passed by on many occasions. I learned yesterday that after general conference the two brothers accepted a date to be baptized. the 22nd of April. and not only that they asked the elders if i would be willing to be the one to baptize them both. I am super excited and super humbled to have this experience. I love this family and they have been part of my time here in Jardin as well as experiencing my own branch here. Well Other than all this exciting experiences that are going on right now i just don't know what to say. We will be having a change of Branch Presidentes this next sunday so it will be interesting to see who it ends up being. i am pretty sure i know who it is, but other than that i am really not 100% sure. I'm pretty sure that with all these changes happening means new beginnings in our branch and in the work of the lord here in Jardin. i am super excited and i just cant express how much i love serving the lord. I share the gospel in a way that i can't help but say that i know this church is true. i know that joseph smith restored the gospel here on earth. i pray every night to feel the power of that testimony. i pray that somehow the gospel can reach to the hearts of those i talk to , and helps those that i love the most. This conference i thought a lot about the power of love, and how to show it. In all reality, God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, and he so loved the world that he gave his life for it. I testify of the power of the atonement and how in all reality this is a gospel and church of Gods Love. For God so loved the world that he restored his church once again on the earth for us, to enjoy all priesthood blessings on this earth. Including eternal families and salvation. I love you all Elder Cook

We celebrated the official one year in the mission!

Well this week was a little different from the other weeks. First off we celebrated the official one year in the mission. It was super fun we had like 20 people there and it sure made for a good party. It was even better because the asado was one of the best that i have had here in Argentina. Our neighbor is one of the best chefs that i have met here. He was the one who made the asado. Another thing that happened this week was I AM OFFICIALLY LEGAL! and even better SOY ARGENTINO! Last friday i went to finalize my papers to get my DNI from Argentina. I dont have the card yet but in the next 30 days i will have it and i will not be illegal here anymore. The secretary was really relieved as well because it only lasts for a year. well when i told him i only have a little less then a year left he said that i was a blessing because i wouldnt have to come do it again. I feel lucky because even though i am legal and all that. the 7 hours of waiting in lines was pretty killer. Woke up and 5 in the morning and left with two other elders from the zone and didn't get back home until 3 in the afternoon. it was pretty killer. And finally the thing that changed up the week was the fact that Elder Gomez my comp had to go to the dentist 3 different times this week. The dentist office was about 6 blocks from our house but we ended up being there for a while. The thing we learned is that He ended up having to go get a root canal in the city so we ended up being there for a couple of hours on thursday. It was quite a fun experience for us all. But one thing was he had a hard time talking for a while due to problems of the anesthetic. Well the work keeps going forward. We just had two new families move into the ward and they seem super cool and super fun. As well as one of the hermanas will have her baby this week. And a change of branch president is going under way. With all these things going on, with transfers coming up i think we will have almost a completely new branch to work with this upcoming transfer. Well the work continues on and i love every moment of it. I cant believe sometimes how fast time is flying by. Time really flies when all you do is work your heart out until night comes. I hope that everyone is enjoying the wonderful spring time over there in the USA. The fall is sure coming hard on us. More rain and a little less heat. Still i cant believe at times where i am at, what i am doing, and how i am doing it. but i guess that is why since the beginning they have just told me to trust in the lord. It truly works out in the end. I love you all and i hope that you are all having the time of your life. Elder Cook

We worked a ton this week with a lot of walking

Wow what a week. We worked a ton this week with a lot of walking. We were helping prepare for a baptism this week for the other elders that live in our apartment. They were over at their house basically every day for lunch and they would invite us to lunch every day so every once and a while we would go over with them for lunch or to help with something. With luck and a lot of blessings we were able to see them baptized as well. They asked me to sing two special numbers for their baptism. It was a little improved but it was really cool. It was fun to sing again. i miss singing a lot, but we have been given the challenge to share our talents more with our investigadors. I have been trying to sing more often in our lessons and more often just in the house. I love singing, it truly has power that touches the heart. With this as well these last two week have been a lot of celebration and a lot of activities. Last thursday we had a little activity where a sister from the ward and i cooked cakes and mate and we watched the jospeh smith movie for some members and investigators. It was little improvised as well. We made the activity and then two days later we had it. With a little bit of luck we had a good turn out and really did feel the spirit. Next activity will be tonight. We are going to celebrate the year in the mission with a gigantic asado. Elder Celis and I are celebrating this one year together so we wanted to make it the biggest we could. We have about 20 people coming. It will be super fun. I will try to take a lot of pictures. As well this week my companion and i have decided to eat a little more healthy. We bought more than 10 kilos of fruit which is like 20 pounds of fruit. Yeah talk about healthy. With a refrigerator full of fruit and milk we find ourselves eating a lot of cereal, milk shakes, and fruit for breakfast. Well i love you all and i hope that you all have a great week. I know that i have and i just get more and more excited to do the lords work. Every week we see miracles and every time that i open my mouth the lord surely does fill it. Te Amo Elder Cook

So this last week we contacted a guy in front of his house

Hey everybody! what a week it has been. in all reality it has been super crazy. With the week starting of so great with paint ball i didn't know where it would end but we had the blessing to have one of the greatest endings of the week anyone could ask for. but to start i am going to start off with a wonderful missionary story that has been developing over the last week. So this last week we contacted a guy in front of his house. He was working on his yard and when we started talking to him he really didn't have any interest at all. He tried to shed us off by giving us the excuses that we hear 24x7 as missionaries. But we left him with a pamphlet and before we left we asked if we could say a prayer. He reluctantly accepted. My companion elder gomex said the prayer and after the prayer, something changed in him. He almost started crying and promised us that he would read it. this week we didn't have time to pass by but we saw him working on his yard again. He screamed to us as we passed by ¨Jose Smith¨ and we laughed said hi and went on our way. saturday we were walking to the church and there he was again working on the yard. We decided to stop this time and take some time to talk. We learned he had read the whole thing and that he was more interested in reading the book that Joseph smith left, referring to the book of Mormon. Well we passed by right before we came to write emails and all that to give him a book of mormon. He promised us that he might start today but he wants to read it from cover to cover. Gave us a promise that he will read the whole book, not only that we now have a return appointment with him tonight. What miracles. Other wonderful thing of the week was two baptisms that we had this Saturday. They weren't convert baptisms but member baptisms. tow 8 year old kids were baptized this week but they were from two families that i am super close too. It was amazing we had taught these kids all about the what we need to do to be converted, and when the day came i couldn't imagine what spirit was in that room. We had 11 people that werent members sitting and watching this baptism. and at the end of it all the eight year old boy stood up in front of them all and invited every single on of them to be baptized. At 8 years old and a better missionary than most. It was simply amazing a moment that i will never forget in my mission. Other exciting things happened this week like losing our cell phone in a taxi, walking a lot, and having an interview with President. But in all reality that things that have stuck in my mind of what happened this week was those two events. I have been blessed to be here in this area to see miracles. And a whole lot of spirit in the members and my companion. I love life, i love the mission, and i love all of you. Thanks for the love and happy St Patrick's day. Elder Cook