October 29, 2012 - Family Email

Hello family once again,

Well how are all ya´ll??

Well that is good to here from Damon like that.  He was amazing before his mission and now  I can only imagine that he is unreal.  I really love that kid so much.  I hope that he doesn´t get married before I get home! 

 

So Halloween in Spain well is really not a huge deal.  I mean if I remember last year people dressed up very little and just hung out in bars until 5 in the morning.  I am pretty sure the streets will be really loud because this Thursday is another Holiday and they will all get to sleep in.  The Spanish people always make up Holidays so that they can rest from getting wasted the night before haha it´s kind of sad.  So really, Spain isn´t crazy like Ireland or anything especially here in Jaén it´s just a calm area.  

 

So this week was good but we had a little bit of travelling to do so it kind of slowed us down.  Also when trying to do contacts in the street it doesn´t help that it has been pouring buckets of water all week LONG.  Hey that is  okay we have been trying to work with the less active families and getting references.  We got a new investigator out of one named Tamara.  She is probably around in her early twenties and just says she has a lot of problems in her life and needs help.  We found her in a less active home and so we will see how she goes this week.  We dropped all of our other investigators that won't come to church and we are practically starting from ground zero.  I am pretty sure we will see some new  people this week so keep praying for us please.  I have been getting pretty good at asking references from less actives and so hopefully these people can turn into new investigators.  My companion is doing great and we get along great.  He is a funny kid and will be a great missionary, he already is.  

 

The husband of a new convert, I guess he was hilarious

I went to Granada this last week to do a baptismal interview with Elder Estrada and we also did a split.  That was a lot of fun and we worked really hard.  It felt like we were in Sevilla all over again.  The lady I interviewed is crazy funny but a really good lady.  The picture of the man is her husband that has dentures he was unreal and we had to take a photo with him haha.  Oh so before I forget Elder Estrada asks that you get Toree Colemans email because he wrote her a while ago and he moved and now they lost contact, so could you do that for me?  Thanks.

 

I have been really taking advantage of my study time that I have to read the Book of Mormon and learn as much as possible.  I love study time, it´s one of the best things for me personally to grow and be the person and missionary that I am.  It´s amazing how much I feel the spirit in the studies.  The Book of Mormon really is so true and it is the key to our conversion.   

 

Elder Crawford and Elder Codes

The other picture is of Elder Crawford, he was my Zone Leader in Cáceres.  He is a good buddy of mine. 

 

So I am doing really well and I am learning a lot in the mission.  I love it so much, I just have a hard time explaining it with words because it´s really how it makes me feel that is the change it has had on me.  I owe everything I am to my mission and it has made me converted to living the gospel of Jesus Christ not just knowing it but living it. 

 

We have been working with a less active kid that has been inactive for like 10 years plus and he used to come to church with earrings and normal clothes and now he comes in a suit and tie.  He has pulled out his ear rings with out anyone telling him to, comes to institute and all the meetings on Sunday.  I consider that a miracle.  He is amazing and I want to make him be home teaching companions with us so that he goes and works with us to visit the members. 

 

So these are just some little miracles that are changing my life.  It´s true what Alma said "by small and simple things are great things brought to pass." Everyday is a miracle to me in the mission.

 

I love you

COOODES

October 22, 2012 - Family Email

Hey family how are you???

 

Well sorry if there are errors in this letter because the keyboard is broken and I can´t even read the window hardly because I shrunk it down to look at all the pictures and I can´t make it bigger.   So I hope that you are able to read and understand my email.  Man I love Damon so much.  I emailed him here and there in the mission, I just never had a lot of time but he would send me stuff here and there.  I hope he is doing well and I know he was a beast missionary.  He was always trying to reactivate his family and friends his whole mission.  Well I hope he can get his family going good, well his dad and brother.  That makes me really sad to hear they got divorced but I don´t really know the story.  I would like to email Damon, could you get his email address that he uses now?? 

 

So this last week was really short and not a lot happened.  We are just trying to find new people to teach.  Paqui and Belén pretty much have fallen off the face of the earth so I don't know what to really say about them.  I haven´t met with them for over a week or so.  We are teaching a guy named José and he is doing really well.  We set his baptismal date a long time ago for this weekend but he needs to fully stop smoking so that is kind of the bummer.  However on the convert side of things everyone is doing well.  Alba gave a talk yesterday in sacrament meeting.  She is really progressing well and the members love her now and she is helping her father stay really active in the church which I don´t think he really has ever in his life.  We taught a less active family and we are going to try and work with the kids but the parents are really far off from the church as far as the word of wisdom goes.  We are trying to be their friends so they trust us and like us and keep trying to work with the kids.  I need to buck up and start trusting in the Lord and know that he will put miracles in our paths.  I have been kind of doubtful recently because we really don't have a lot of work right now.  We baptized all the work we had and now I just have to find again.  I also feel that the branch lost their excitement and help because they just seem dry of references because they gave us all they had.  There isn´t a lot of active members and the less actives it seems have been less active for 20 years and don't want a single thing no matter what you say.  I am trying to follow the words of the prophet and find the less actives and find through them but they just don't want anything.  Spain is different¨but I love the people here.  The branch is still so nice and I feel like they love me but it´s always the same people that are helping us.  So we are just going to go to the streets and find new people and trust that the Lord will give us new people that want to listen.  I have seen miracles from contacting and working with the members and I know the Lord loves Jaén and will make miracles happen here again.

 

Well my companion is doing great we get along great and he is learning a lot.  Spain is really new for him because he is used to a very clean sheltered home and he doesn´t like change.  For example we were passing by an old investigators home and it was in a really really scary neighborhood were all the Gypsies live.  So we walk up 5 stories in this super sketchy building and there is Gypsies everywhere sitting on the floor; girls yelling at us and getting in our faces and all, there was also poo all over them and the floors and trash.  So we knock on the door and she wasn´t there in the home.  So the whole time we are walking up the stairs Elder Adams is whispering in my ear say what the heck are we doing here and he said it like a hundred times and I was just smiling and so after the lady wasn´t home, Elder Adams just takes off running down the stairs while all the Gitanos-Gypsies are yelling at us and flies out the door!!  Hahaha oh it was so funny and he was so mad at me for making him go into the building.  They really aren´t dangerous people just dirty and they rob you every once in awhile but I have never had problems.  So he is doing great though, and picking up on the language little by little.  So that was my week!! Pray to help us find people please!!

 

I love you all.

Cody

October 15, 2012 - Family Email

Hey Family how are all ya´ll???

Well thanks for the email I loved it today; it was very special!  I hope that everyone is doing well and is happy!  It was good to see the snowy mountains and my hood rats!  Rachel looks like she is doing
great that makes me feel really good!  Heather isn´t allowed to cut her hair until I get home now!  I got a letter from Jerame and he is making me not want to have kids!  Haha I think he is trying to make me worried about how hard life is!  He also mentioned that scouting is really hard and is drives him crazy.  Haha my companion speaks little but understands a lot of Spanish so he will catch on.  It takes like 3 months of listening to catch on to the patterns and the conjugations of the language, well for me it did.

So this last week was good and we really are teaching a lot of new people.  We are working with the members trying to find new people from them while trying to reactivate less actives.  The prophet came out about a month ago and kinda changed the way we do missionary work. It´s called the Rescue!  So we are trying to do that here in Jaén while finding people to teach.  We found a family with 3 kids that aren´t baptized but it is going to be A JOB getting them back to church but not impossible because they like the missionaries.  I feel like if I can get Alba baptized I can get this family reactivated with the help of members.  Speaking of Alba, one of the best days of my life was yesterday.  Yesterday was fast and testimony meeting and Santiago and Alba get up to bear there testimonies.  Santiago went first and it was great and then Alba.  She gets up and says I know know this church is true that it´s the only church because I can feel it and just starts crying and says in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.  That was the best thing in the WORLD.  I know this is the Lord's church.  She is only 13 years old and chose to get baptized by herself with everyone around her telling her don´t do it and then bore her testimony!  Next week she is going to give a talk in sacrament meeting!  She is going to be a beast in the church!  Also another testimony was amazing but I have to tell a story first so the testimony makes sense.

So the member that took me into a room and told me I am special and I did a really good job training Elder Rojas, well him, he had a little problem this last week.  He calls me one night, I think
Wednesday and tells me he needs to talk to us urgently.  So I tell him where we were and he comes by and picks us up.  So he is kind of in a big pickle with someone that had black mailed him and so he was asking for a blessing.  He had told me he hadn´t slept for two nights and he was really messed up and his wife as well.  So we go to their home and I go into the bathroom and pray real fast to have the Lord help me with the blessing and I felt a big peaceful feeling. So I gave him the blessing and I felt really well!  So yesterday at testimony meeting he gets up and bears his testimony about the experience and about the priesthood.  That night I gave him the blessing he slept like a baby.  I was in tears, it´s just the tender little mercies the Lord gives me and I love them so much!

We don´t talk to Ursula and I haven´t called Sonya, she told me she would call when she was ready.  So I am not trying to pressure her in anyway.  I have thought about calling her soon to check up on her. 

Thanks for all you do and I love you all so much!  Feel better DAD!

I love you!
CODES

October 8, 2012 - Family Email

Rocio and Miguel's Baptisms (October 6, 2012)

Family,

So yes the two baptisms happened and it was a great Little service.  The aunt and uncle came with the family to the baptism and it was really spiritual.  Rocio and Miguel did great in the interview and they really have learned a lot and understand the doctrine.  Elder Estrada came to Jaén with me on Friday to interview the kids.  He is doing great and he tore apart Sevilla in a good way!  He reactivated the Koh´s daughter!!  So in February I am excited to see them.  So the uncle baptized the Miguel and the cousin baptized Rocio.  All of the members were really excited because Pilar is coming to church and Antonio.  I don´t know if I ever explained the connection very well.  So Antonio is the oldest brother, Pilar and Nerea´s mom are the sisters of Antonio.  Antonio has one active sister that lives far away in a city called Jerez(right next to El Puerto).  So the active sister´s husband and son baptized Rocio and Miguel.  The picture with the woman with short blonde hair is Antonio and Ana.  The other picture with the man and woman with long hair is the branch President and his wife.  The one with the woman alone is Pilar the mom.  Hahaha the moment you are waiting for.

Elders Adams and Hafen

Yes I got the BRITT!!  Haha I got the kid that speaks English.  His name is Joshua Adams from Wakefield, England.  He is pretty cool I really like him a lot.  He played basketball for Englands National team so he must be pretty good.  Ha it is amazing to see how much Spanish I have learned over a year and 8 months!  He struggles with the language just like any other missionary.  That is okay there is a lot of room for improvement.  He has a girlfriend that really talks a lot and is a little crazy.  I think she emails him everyday and sends letters everyday.  I hope she calms down a little so that he will be able to concentrate more.  What Heather does is perfect!  I have a perfect girlfriend.

So conference was amazing.  I still need to finish it.  I didn´t get to watch the last half of the priesthood session and the Sunday Afternoon Session.  Ha yes!  Elder Hollands talk brought me to tears, it was one of my favorites for sure but there was one talk that was my favorite.  It was the one by Shayne Bowen, I literally bawled my eyes out I am not even joking.  I couldn´t help but think of Rachel, Heather, Mama Stratton and the whole family.  There were some others talks that I loved as well but I can not think of all of them right now.  I also really liked Elder Cooks talk!!  Did you know that Hermana Clegg was called on the General Relief Society Board??  Cool huh?  Well I am doing great and pray for Elder Petersons mom she has cancer, but Elder Holland gave her a blessing!  I got to see Peterson and Manning this week, I love them so much!!!  Well I am doing well and I am a lot happier and the mind is a lot clearer.  I feel less stressed but at the same time even more stressed because it is a completely new training experience and he has a lot to learn!  I love you so much family!  I hope is well. CTR

All the new missionaries and their Trainers

I love you
CODY

Training for the Trainers Day

October 1, 2012 - Family Email

Paqui, Juan, and Albe's Baptisms

Family,

Hey to answer your question yes  I am staying in Jaén!!  I am excited because I feel like I need to stay here.  I had a dream that President Deere called and he had a new assignment or something for me and I had to go to an area near the beach.  Well I guess it was him telling me I was going to train again and I had to go to the mission home which is on the beach.  So I go to the mission home tomorrow and on Wednesday I get my new companion.  I am really nervous I don´t know why.

This week rained like crazy!!  For like 4 or 5 days straight it was dropping buckets of rain.  I also got sick but that didn´t slow down the work.  I am feeling a lot better, I think it was the quick change in the weather.  So yes as you all know we had 3 baptisms and they were unreal!  Watching Alba´s baptism was one of the best baptisms I have every seen!  Missionaries have been trying to get her baptized for 4 years!  Some how we were persistent and she finally said yes!!  She was so excited about her baptism and she is such a sweet little girl.  Yeah so Juan stopped smoking and he wanted the Branch President to do the baptizing.  So there is our Branch President and the fat guy is Alba´s Dad.  The branch President is amazing!  There is Beléb and Paqui mom to the left of Paqui the daughter.  They are doing well and I think they are kind of happy that I am staying.  I know I will get them baptized before I leave they just need time and love.  Elder Rojas just wanted to get them baptized.  Beléb said no because she wants to be prepared and get baptized with her mom.  She is doing great though and coming to church with her mom.  Antonia is the one behind Alba wearing the glasses.  She really liked the baptism and there is no doubt that she felt the spirit watching her husband baptize her daughter.  I gave Paqui the Holy Ghost on Sunday and other ward members gave Juan and Albe the Holy Ghost.  Also we gave Blanca's little son a blessing so that he is in the church records.  Elder Rojas blessed little Fermin.  It was an amazing Sacrament Meeting.  I gave a talk as well but it was really short with 4 blessings in the meeting!  Antonio and Ana are still in the process because it turns out that Anonio´s old wife still needs to sign one more paper and then they will get married.  They are still just doing amazing and the Lord will bless them for being faithful.  Miguel and Rocio are getting baptized this Saturday right after conference so I am stoked!!  The Lord is blessing Jaén.  

 

My favorite member cornered me in his kitchen and closed the door and told me that I am a special missionary and that I have the most special spirit; and he said look at the fruit that you planted in Elder Rojas.  He told me that all the members will remember me here in Jaén for forever.  He almost made me cry.  We had previously had a lesson with him, his wife and Antonio and Ana and it was really spiritual.  I have had a really good week.  Rosana and Blanca both got called in the Primary and Relief Society; they are doing great.  Neyera is the Beehive President and Sebastian has memorized 10 articles of faith and has marked off the most out of all the Primary kids haha.  I love my mission-I learn so much!  Shaver is leaving and Elder Estrada is taking his place haha another one of my companions!  I get to hang out with Shaver for like 7 hours tomorrow and Elder Rojas leaves at 7:30 in the morning.  

 

I love you all!
CODES

September 24, 2012 - Family Email

Dear Family,

Training for my new "kid"

So this last Thursday President Deere called me and told me that I will be having a new kid! Yes that is right I will be training all over again.  I must have done something right with my companion right now even though I don´t feel so.  There is only one English speaker and he is from England, I hope he is my companion.  I want to know what it feels like all over again not knowing Spanish and being terrified.  So tomorrow I get to go to Fuengirola all over again for trainers training.  I feel like I have been there every week I am lucky!

So this last week was great we had a lot of success.  We taught a lot of lessons which is unheard of here in Jaén.  We taught 24 lessons! So things are going well but as for baptisms who knows.  I have faith that Paqui, Paqui and Belén will get baptized but they aren´t doing anything to show they want to.  They don´t read at all and don´t understand the importance of the gospel in their lives.  Juan is doing great and is smoking less.  He wants to stop smoking so bad and hopefully he will stop within a couple of days, pray for him.  Oh yeah Paqui is still smoking a lot.  Miguel and Rocio will be getting baptized the next week when the family can all come out and see the baptism.  Alba is doing good and coming to church but she is confused whether so be Catholic or Mormon.  She wants to be the God Mother of her nieces but she has to do some catholic confirmation things to do it.  So she needs help! Antonia is kind of a lost cause right now. She has her problems and doesn´t care to change or get them solved by the Lord.  We have a new investigator named Luis.  He is 11 and lives with his grandparents.  They all came to church and Luis is progressing a lot and has already received an answer.  He does all his reading assignments and came to the church activity this last week.  So hopefully we have 5 baptisms this week; Alba, Juan, Paqui, Paqui and Belén.

Brother and Sister Richards

Elder Richards was amazing and made me cry like a little boy.  He looked into my eyes like 8 times just staring and I knew that Christ was looking at me.  He told us that he is a special witness of Christ and when he said that I just started crying.  He is amazing and knows so much about the gospel.  He even corrected President Deere in his teaching.  The Conference was great.

This week, well yesterday I had an experience I will never forget.  It was one of the most spiritual experiences I have ever had.  So this man from Arizona is biking across the world.  He started in Portugal and yesterday was here in Jaén.  He does it for his job.  He is a motivational speaker and is an amazing man.  He is a member and has been his whole life.  He is very active and goes to church every week.   He came to church and after we walked up to Antonio and Ana´s house to eat.  He asked for a blessing before hand and after eating I gave him one.  I gave it to him in English and I really don´t remember what I was saying but he just started crying and I felt the spirit so strong like never before and I started crying.  After the blessing he

Hanging out with Layne Gnieghting

looked me straight in the eyes, a grown man crying and told me thank you for being worthy.  I will never forget this man.  He had the best spirit about him.  He has 8 children and most of them are in elementary school.  His name is Layne Gnieghting.  Look him up on facebook and write him a message from me telling him thank you for the experience, he changed my life.  He sleeps on the streets or in peoples homes if they invite him.  He took a shower there in the house and stayed the night I am pretty sure.  He is great, look him up on facebook and tell him hello and thanks.  He will be a friend of mine forever.  Here is a photo of him. When I mean bike I mean Road Bike.

That was my week I love you!!
CODES