Sister Samantha Cox: Peru Lima East Mission

Monday, May 11, 2015

(To protect the privacy of those Sammy teaches, I have only included the first initial in their name. I will try to do this from now on. If you would like their names to pray for them please leave a comment and I will contact you. Thank you--Jenn)

Familia y Amigos,

WOW! This week was seriously the best! It started off with getting to call my family for 5 quick minutes on Monday to set up when we were going to Skype. Then Tuesday we got to go to the temple which was a huge blessing. I am so lucky to get to go while I’m here and because I live right next to it I see it every day. The temple is such a huge blessing in our lives and I hope I never take it for granted. There are so many people who would love to go but don`t have one near them. We are soooo lucky to be so close. Go to the temple this month and feel the spirit of the Lord that is there! I loved it so much and just felt refilled and recharged. It was so hard to leave, I cried in the changing stall because I knew it would be 3 more months until I could go again but I am so grateful that I DO get to go and feel the peace there in the House of the Lord.

(Sammy and Sis. Davis)

(Sammy and Sis. Rameriz)

(Elders in Sammy's district. Her friend, Kolton, from high school is holding the camera.)

(Beautiful temple grounds)

(The sisters in Sammy's district)

(All the missionaries in Sammy's district)

Then we had our P-day for the rest of the day and ate pizza and watched Tangled...doesn`t get much better than that! :) P.S. movies are so funny in Spanish :) Then Wednesday we got to have interviews with President Boswell! Wow, I love that man! He is exactly the President I need and I love and respect him so much. My interview was exactly what I needed and I received all the responses to questions or concerns I had. He really is called of God and he is soooo close to the spirit. He knew exactly what to say to me and what advice to give. Such a neat experience.

Then of course yesterday I got to Skype with my beautiful family!!!!!!! Wow, I can`t even describe the joy of getting to see your faces and talk with you! I miss you all so much but I am so happy to know you are all well and get to feel so close to you. I`m already looking forward to Christmas :) I feel so blessed to have so much support and love from home and it gives me so much strength here.

I realized I didn`t finish telling you about some of my investigators yesterday so I`ll do a little summary of some of them since I have a little time.

S... - I talked about yesterday, she is the best :)

B.... - She is about 40 years old and has 2 kids. She has a lot of faith and has come to church 2x. The hard thing is that her husband is atheist and doesn`t like to talk about religion. She is struggling right now to know how to help her family and find peace and happiness. She is awesome and trusts us a lot. We had a lesson with her last week and were about to ask her to be baptized. Then her husband came home and it kind of ruined the moment and she closed off and then he just sat down and wanted to ask us a bunch of questions about where we were from and the music we liked and stuff like that. A little disappointing but we have a lesson with her tonight and we are going to invite her! Pray that her heart can be softened and she can have the faith to take this step. She is so ready but she just is worried about how her husband and family will respond.

A.S...... - She is a 16 year old girl who is so awesome and practically a member already. She goes to church and young woman’s and everything, but her parents don`t want her to get baptized. We are working with her to strengthen her testimony so when she is old enough she can be ready to make that choice for herself. Please pray for her and that her parents´ hearts can be softened.

D... - She is the sister of one of our recent converts, R.... She only visits on the weekends so that is the only time we can teach her. She is from one of the provinces in Peru and her native language is Ketchua (I have no idea how to spell it). She can`t read so it`s hard to have her read scriptures or the pamphlets or anything or leave her things to study, but R... is helping her a lot. She is 22 but still very immature, but she has made a lot of progress since the beginning. She told us she has been thinking about baptism but won`t commit to a date yet. She is afraid of the changes she is going to have to make but little by little she is beginning to realize that this is really what she wants. It`s especially good that she has her sister`s example to look at and see her happiness. She had a dream that Christ was standing before her with open arms and beckoning her to come to him. So she knows she needs to do it but just has a lot of fears. But we had a lesson with her last night that went well and she is making progress.

M... - We just met about 2 weeks ago and she is 20 years old. All of her family lives in California but she is staying here with her aunt. There is a lot of contention in her house and she just wants to find peace. We taught her about the Book of Mormon and she read some of it. She is really interested but doesn`t quite understand why it`s important to join one church and not just learn what you can from all of them. We will be teaching the restoration this week so hopefully that will help her.

We have a couple others too but these are the main ones we are focusing on right now. Also our less actives P... and R.G.... could use prayers. P.... is progressing really well and working with the bishop to clear some things up. R...l is a little more stubborn, please pray for a softened heart for him. Then our recent converts R..., R..., F..., C..., J..., E..., and L.... Especially R..., she is passing through a difficult time right now and could use some prayers of strength and hope.

Thank you for all you do and for all the prayers. I love you all so much. I am doing so well and really love it here. The mission is the best and I am learning sooooo much every day. The Lord is so good and is always with us. His plan and his gospel are really what bring us true happiness in this life. I can see that now more than ever before. We are so blessed. I love the Lord and I love his work. Have a wonderful week!

Hermana Cox