Sister Samantha Cox: Peru Lima East Mission

Monday, July 4, 2016

Familia y Amigos!!!

Another great week here in paradise! There are seriously so many prepared, chosen people here and I feel so blessed to have the chance to share the gospel with them and help them to change their lives. Like I mentioned last week there are lots of couples who we need to help get married first and then they will be able to be baptized and take their first step towards their eternal family. We have 4 couples we are working with right now and 2 of those families also have children who are preparing as well. What a miracle it is to work with families. I love it so much. On Saturday we visited one of these families, the R... Family, and after we finished teaching them we asked if they had any questions for us. G..., the wife, looked at us and asked, "So I´ve heard about something that you do in families to help them be more united...family night or something like that." My companion and I both got really excited and started explaining a little bit about how we do a family home evening and why it helps us strengthen our families. They asked us to come and teach them how to do it sometime and it just so happened that our awesome ward mission leader was there at the appointment with us and volunteered to bring some members the next day and do a family home evening. They agreed and yesterday (Sunday) we did a family home evening with them and their kids. It was so sweet and a group of members came and joined us as well (We could barely all fit in their house). They loved it and are so excited to keep learning more and be a part of the ward. The members invited their kids to the young men and women activities and they are all super excited about it. The members here are amazing and are so willing to drop everything and serve with us. I know the Lord is blessing this ward with prepared families because the members are prepared and ready to receive them and help them.

One of our other investigators, N..., is the daughter-in-law of a member family and was invited to go to the temple with the relief society on Saturday. The RS President stayed outside the temple with all the recent converts and less active members that couldn´t enter the session and gave them a big tour of the temple and explained the importance of the ordinances we do there. N... came back so touched and I think it was a huge step towards her desire to be baptized. She also needs to get married first and her husband is less active so it will be a challenge, but she is so sensitive to the spirit and is really falling in love with the gospel and sees and understands how it will bless her family.

We also had an awesome multi-zone conference on Friday and I really enjoyed it. President talked a lot about the importance of faith in our eternal progression and he assigned us a talk by Elder Scott to read. It´s called "The transforming power of faith and character". I highly recommend looking it up and reading it. Then tell me what you think! It talks a lot about how our character, who we are becoming is what matters most to God and in order to develop a strong character we must exercise faith in Christ. I wish I had the talk with me now to share all my favorite parts, but unfortunately I left it at home...but you´ll have to read it to find all the beautiful messages for yourself. :) At the end of the conference, President always asks a few missionaries who are finishing to share their testimonies. Among those were Elder Josh Nieman, Elder Kolton Pierson, and I. They are my buddies from High School and it was so fun for me to hear them share their testimonies and I can honestly see how much they have grown in their time here. They both got emotional and shared powerful testimonies of the Savior and his gospel. I know they will return with great power and continue to be instruments in the Lord´s hands. I was so filled with the spirit as I got to share my humble testimony and I feel so grateful for this amazing experience I´ve had. I was grateful for the chance to testify of my Savior and the reality of his gospel.

Love you all so much. I hope you have a great week and see the blessing God sends every day. Go look up that talk I mentioned and set some goals for yourselves. I love you all!!!!!

Con Amor,

Hermana Cox

I don´t know where I left off with pics, but these are some from my last day in Campoy, my last area