November 6th Letter

Dear Allen,

Any letter is okay and you’re not horrible at it. My dad said he wasn’t very good at it either, but I liked his letters and I like yours.

What a week. To finish it up we went to Las Vegas to be there when Zachary was blessed. It was pretty cool and several people from the ward asked about you and said they were glad that you had spent time there. Brother Headlee(?) is in the bishopric and conducted. He said hi and God Bless. Brother Carroll and his wife and kids came to the luncheon and he mentioned that he wished you the best.  It was a good experience for me to be there and feel the spirit.

Darren and Tonia came to the blessing, but had to get back to their Primary callings so after the luncheon we went to their house to deliver Halloween Cookies. It was a fun visit.

Friday afternoon I went to the ranch to move cows. The LeFevres said it wasn’t the same without you there. It was hot and dry. Levi had a deer tag for there and I hunted with him for a while. We didn’t see anything. But we had fun.

Saturday morning we turned the cows out and they took off. We made good time and we picked up about 20 cows and calves that belonged to Calvin. Libby came and rode with us. She rode that little gray that we helped Levi with. He was okay for her.

Levi went to Tropic to hunt Saturday morning and Logan brought my truck to Kanab on the way back to the rock house. I was home by 6:30 pm. It was grand time. Steve was there again and he brought only one horse.

Layne mentioned that at your farewell he noticed that you had a missionary glow about you as you bore your testimony.

Today is Election Day and tomorrow we will find out if we have a new president or the same old one. The race I am most interested in is how Brother McCausland will do in the Senate race. I don’t plan on big but maybe.

I have been reading in the New Testament because I didn’t finish it last year. I am amazed how Paul and Peter both teach of faith in their epistles. Faith is the first principle for a reason. With faith we can keep moving forward toward the Savior. With faith our prayers are answered. So like Bishop Edgley said in General Conference last year, “Choose Faith.”

I love you and I pray for you each day.

Love,

Dad

Dear Allen,

I hope you are still having spiritual experiences every day.  I loved that part of your letter and that you didn’t mind the schedule. 

Teresa Gubler’s father passed away the Saturday after you went in the MTC.  Her parents just moved here sometime in the last 6 months I think and her father was only able to come to church a few times.  He had cancer and did not have to endure the effects of that illness for too long, thank goodness.  It said in the newspaper that he delivered mail for the postal service until he was 79.  I cannot even imagine, but it probably kept him healthy longer than just being at home.

Sam (Leon and Teresa’s) came here Trick or Treating alone just before dark last Wednesday.  I was a little concerned and text Teresa to see if that was really okay.  She immediately called and said “NO, it isn’t okay”.  I asked her if she wanted us to go find him and bring him home. She said yes please because his cousins are here waiting for him to go with them.   I am glad we could help, since Teresa had enough on her plate with a funeral coming up on Saturday.

 I helped with the funeral luncheon Saturday.  It seems like a long time since I have done anything like that.  It feels good to do service like that.

Several people asked about you while I was there on Saturday.  It seems like we just have not been to our ward very much for such a long time.  Martha Gubler said she sure enjoyed your talk and she felt like it came from your heart.  There were several there in the kitchen who agreed with her.

We drove to Vegas on Sunday morning to go to Zachary blessing.  It was a very nice day.  Grandpa went but Shirley did not go she said she needed to rest her back.  Becca’s parents were both there, which was very nice considering that Jessica is in England and Nick had to work.  Both Kelcey and Becca bore their testimonies, which was nice.  I wish her parents could make some changes and remember what life is all about, and maybe reconcile.  I know that would make Becca and the girls happy!

We went over to Darren and Tonia’s after since they were not able to go to the luncheon.  We took them some Halloween cookies and had a nice visit.  They are going to Hawaii for their anniversary, which happens to be on the Friday after Thanksgiving.  Tonia’s sister Cheryl will go to Henderson on Thanksgiving Day to stay with the kids. 

We have been invited to go to Landon and Erika’s for Thanksgiving.   I think we will probably go but am not sure what will happen with Grandpa and Shirley.  We need to talk a little more about that.   Scott and Tonya are coming down this weekend to go meet with the trust attorney, so we will have to see what their plans are first. 

Shirley called me just as I was leaving work today and they were at the cemetery and Grandpa had fallen down and could not get up again.  I went straight there and was able to help him up this time, but he was not so worn out from trying to get up by himself this time as he was the last time.  Shirley told him to just lay there and rest until I got there this time instead of trying to get up alone.  He was very frustrated with himself and said it is hell to get old.  I said yes it is!

We are going to Manti on Thursday for Chantel’s wedding. Joyce and Glen will be going with us.  We will try to take in a session while we are there.

This Sunday we will be going to Cedar City to watch Angelie’s Primary children sing and do their program.  Maybe after this Sunday we can get back to going to our own ward regularly. 

I pray you are doing well and learning something new each day.  We love you and are excited for you to have this experience. 

Love you lots,  Mom

I'm doing awesome i love to hear about Zacks blessing! I am kinda sad i couldn't come but I'm not that sad cause I know i'm where i need to be.
So I came up with this idea cause I'm not very good at remembering things that happened in my last letter so i decided when something cool happened i write it in a little note book and i read it when i write letters so this one will probably be alot better.
So the elders in our zone that have been here longer are so funny, one set just left, but the other ones are hilarious! one is elder red and for halloween he dressed up as a laminate he wore a towel and a belt and a bunch of things and shoes that someone left that he cut up into sandles. we taught a fake investigator in spanish it was cool even though we couldn't speak very well we got him to be fake baptized. then he ended up being our other teacher so it was pretty cool.

I also got travel plans i leave next tuesday from the mtc at like 5 and we leave from the airport at like 8 something im going to be able to call you then so sometime between 5 and 8 tuesday the 13th. i am travel leader, but i dont really know what that means? ill figure it out though. so next week at this time i'll be in guatemala. i don't know when next p-day is though cause it  might change. we learned alot about the doctrine of christ. we also taught a new investigator and we did it without notes! it was way better! the spirit was way stronger.

On sunday we had a devontional about how one of the strongest things we have is the name tag so we always need to cherish it! it was by presidant seamons. after that i watched a talk by Tadd Mccalaster about the apostasy cause thats like the thing in the first lesson that I know the least amount about.

On monday 6 of us in my district did the tower challenge which is were you down a whole tower of cereal which is like 5 or 6 boxes I ate like 9 and a half bowels of cereal i felt a little sick after but its okay.

yesterday i was having a bad day, feeling like i wasn't good enough and what not. i prayed alot for strength and stuff and then during workshop we watched a little thing on a lady and then we had to find a scripture and teach. so looked one up and used it and i didn't feel i did really well. but then we watched what actually happened to the lady and and she was touched by the exact scriputre i used it was awesome i loved it i know that was Gods way of telling me you can do it you just need confidence so now im just going to do everthing with confidence no matter what it is.

also yesterday we had a devotional and he used a scripture in helaman 3:35 it was a really good one cause thats what everyone needs to continually do over and over and never stop.

well hope that one was better then last weeks love you guys sorry i suck at spelling.

Love
        Elder Cox