March 19, 2012 - Email to Family

Hello family that I love!

Zone Leader Training

 

How are all you? Mother my guess is that you wrote that last email on your phone??  Because there was a lot of letters with out spaces in them.  Well I bet that was fun looking for that dress with Jaycee, she looks great.  I bet you just loved getting to do that!  Well that is good you finally got to see Heather, don´t let her be a stranger!  I am excited to see the home and all that one day.  Elder Manning asked me that you keep talking to his parents about picking us up.  He told me that his brother will be picking him up for sure and wants you all to fly out together.  So get his parents now!  So this last week was a lot fun.  We had Zone Leader Conference which you already know of and it was great to see my boys Peterson and Manning.  I am in love with them.  I really know that the Lord wanted me to be called February 23 and to go through the mission together with them.  I feel like they are my brothers like The Son´s of Mosiah.  I was thinking about that this morning.  So I am trying to think, oh yeah so I bought Brady a birthday present and I just need to send it in the mail.  It is sick, I got a steal on a jersey and bought a Barcelona jersey that is like a neon peach color.  I know he will love it.  I will try and send it out today if the time allows me to.  I am always running sorry, and today I have to prepare a lesson for the Zone we are going to teach on the 22nd.  So I am doing excellent, besides my knee, I can´t really run or jump anymore.  It hurts on the outside of my knee next to the knee cap.  It doesn´t hurt at all walking only if I attempt to run so I haven´t played soccer in like 3 weeks. 

 

So this week a little miracle happened to me and Elder Lignell.  So there is this little neighborhood that me and Elder Waite just destroyed.  We have like 5 or 7 investigators in this little area all with in a 5 seconds walk distance.  We knocked almost every door and there is a total of yeah 7 people we teach there.  The only thing that sucks is that none of them progress.  So me and Elder Lignell were trying to pass by these homes and we turning to one of the apartments and this Spanish man stops us.  We didn´t even see him next to us.  He is this really nice clean guy with tight running shorts on about to go exercise.  He told us that his brother in law is a member of the church in Atlanta Georgia.  We asked if we could talk to him and he said of course and he lives right in front of where we were standing.  So later that night we went over to his house and he was there with his wife from Peru.  They are married (thank heavens) and they are just the nicest people in the world.  His name is José Luis and Carmen Rosa.  We taught them and then two days later we passed by and taught them the Restoration and it was excellent.  They understand everything well and they actually read for us.  The next day they both came to church on time to the investigators class and the teacher is AMAZING.  She is the cutest lady from Argentina named Marina.  She is so good to the investigators and the class was about Christ and it was amazing.  They had to of loved church and the members were really nice to them.  I felt the spirit so strong that day.  So that was something that really was amazing this week.  All of our hard work paid off in that little area that me and Elder Waite had spent a lot of time.  Nadia is doing well, she is coming to the activities in the church and believes all that we teach her and feels more comfortable about being baptized.  She did just get a lip ring this week which was kinda a shocker to us.  She needs some better influence in her life.  Her mom has told us that she has rough friends.  SO please pray for these people.  The week was good though we worked hard and we were gone for 2 days out the week in Málaga.  So that was a my week, other than that the normal good old missionary work!

 

Zone Leader Training

Zone Leader Training

Love you all!

 

CODY

March 12, 2012 - Email to Family

Well that is pretty rad about Brady and Jaycee getting engaged, I am excited for them, did she cry? ¡CLARO!  They look good together.  How did Jerame like them?  Did you not take any pictures of Zac?  I would like to see him.  How are things going?  Sorry, you can write longer letters I just really have nothing new to say.  I mean if there is a cool little story I will tell you.  It really is just the same thing every day working hard and having fun.  Maybe I am just too caught up in the mission to be way good at writing or something.  I feel like when I was less focused in the mission is when I would write longer letters when nothing really happened that week.  So be normal!!  I will try my best to be normal.  SO it kinda sucked saying good bye to Elder Waite.  I really had an excellent time with him and I am pretty sure that I won't find a companion that can match his niceness.  Not only was he an awesome missionary but he was a good comp.  It was so easy to get a long.  He always served me and it was easy to serve him.

 

Well I hope you all had a fun week, this week was good I guess just continuing the work here in Sevilla.  We have some good work to do.  We have found a new girl that looks really good, her name is Nadia and she is from Peru.  Her mom just got baptized by Elder Waite and White in December.  She is 19 years old and she came to church and all.  She has even read a little bit in the Book of Mormon we left her mom to give her.  Her mother was supposed to be in the investigator class with her because she is a recent convert but Nadia was alone, in fact I don´t remember seeing her at church at all.  So that is amazing that she may have came to church alone.  I am excited because she is kind of a shy girl.  On Sunday a family from Texas came to church and I talked to this kid that served in the Provo Utah mission and I gave him Montana´s reference haha.  I thought they would look good together.  So when you see Montana let her know and see if this kid has talked to her.  He goes to UVU so they live close!  So the María has a date to be baptized, the date is dropped.  She hasn´t come to church yet and she is always busy so she says.  She always answers which shows she isn´t trying to blow me off.  So my new comp is Travis Paul Lignell.  He is from Holladay Utah.  He was just in Alicante with Elder Manning.  Well he is a cool dude he played football and played with the Highland Rugby team that made the movie called Forever Strong.  So he has a couple national titles and all that.  Good guy, really chill and funny.  Like an hour ago I just got home from Málaga, we had Zone Leader Conference again.  It was excellent, I love being a leader.  President is an amazing man, and has had a really cool life.  He is also a cancer survivor.  We had an excellent meeting and discussion.  He says he has never in his life seen a group help each other with problems and conference like we just did.  We go around and tell people what we want our Zone focus to be and ask for help from the other missionaries.  After President got up and said that; that is always how I have wanted it to be, to just sit don´t and not have to talk and be blown away.  He was crying when he was saying that.  I hope all that makes sense because it is really hard to explain with words.  All I know is that missionaries are powerful and they are amazing.  I am blown away by the leadership there is in the mission.  We are doing amazing and a lot better than the other missions in Europe.  

 

Finally we had 3 ladies from Nicaragua come to church.  We got Dinieda (really spelled like Dineyra)  to come to church.  I think she liked it a lot.  She came for the whole 3 hours.  Well so my mission card just got sucked up into a machine and ruined for no reason haha I didn´t type in my code wrong so I may have to use my card this week.  I also got a whole in the bottom of my back pack so I will need a new one.  I have had that sucker since 8th grade.  Well I love you all so very much.  I am doing well and working hard.  I love the mission so very much.  Congrats to the happy couple!!!!   

 

CODY

March 5, 2012 - Email to Family

Hey ya´ll.

Well I am a little sad I am killing Elder Waite tomorrow... Yes that is correct transfers are this week already!  Time is going by too fast.  I need more time!  Well this transfer we did really well.  We found 38 new investigators and like 150 futures.  That is pretty good numbers.  I have never touched numbers like that ever.  I am a little sad I have grown really close to Waite it is probably because I look up to the kid a lot.  He is a great person I have been wanting to set him up with Maddi Jones.  I kid you not they would be perfect together!!  So I am pretty sad that he is leaving but the work must go on.  So all those people you named off as investigators are doing okay.  We need to meet with them more.  Martin isn´t married so we cannot get him baptized.  Haha but we are now teaching every single one of his roommates.  So yeah I think we have gotten three ladies that he lives with and they are now listening to us.  Martins girl friend works a lot and doesn´t have a lot of interest.  So the ladies names are Dineida, Maribel and María Angeles.  They are all from Nicaragua.  There is another group of ladies that are really good that we teach from Nicaragua named Daisy, Maira and Ana Yanet.  They are really good ladies and they really listen.  They all have weird jobs so they haven´t come to church yet.  They were in the church last night with a member while we were teaching this lady from Romania.  Elder Waite talked to them and we are going to teach them today!  So the lady from Romania is AWESOME!  She is so good but has her doubts she just needs to pray to know.  Her name is Ionica (Yone-eeka).  She is awesome and thinks that there should be only one true church on the earth and all that.  She loves coming to church every week and the investigator class teacher is amazing to her.  Oh so my new companion is Elder Lignell from Salt Lake he went to Olympus High School.  He is Elder Manning's companion right now so he has already been a ZL.  He is a really cool guy and a hard worker so I am excited!  President told me that I have the biggest zone and the least productive.  That made me mad and I need to some how help the missionaries understand their purpose and then they will want to work hard!!  I am trying to think of a cool story to share but it was a very regular week to be honest.  Sorry my emails are shorter it is because I am disciplining myself and making me only email for an hour!  I am trying to be really obedient.  I emailed Clint and Brady now so that is why!  I am doing well and I kinda hurt my knee last Monday and it still feels funny but getting better everyday.  I am only going to play keeper today.  Today we are playing on turf so it won't be hard cement.  Well I love you all and María the Bolivian is doing well, she works a lot so we couldn´t meet with her but she is reading!! 

Love you

CODY

February 27, 2012 - Email to Family

Hello family how are you? 

 

Well this last week was really full and we kicked butt!!  This last week we found 48 futures and 10 new investigators which is pretty good.  The sad thing is that we have found like 1/4 of the futures of our zone which is pretty bad because we have the biggest zone in all the mission.  Well oh well!  So this last week we set 2 baptism dates.  One with Martin who is from Nicaragua for the 17 of March.  He is a super nice guy and really wants to investigate stuff, the thing is that he is a little flaky and didn´t come to church yesterday.  But we see some great progress with him.  He is a reference from the other Elder´s that live more south of Sevilla.  So this Tuesday I did a split with one of AP´s and we set a baptism date with him.  So he going to prepare for this date and if he is ready he will be baptized!  The other one I am super excited about.  Her name is María and she is from Bolivia.  I talked about her last week I think.  However we had a really good lesson with her and she said that she will try and work for this date and she is just amazing one of the best and most prepared people ever.  I hope  that she will just come to church.  We really want a lady to come with us to teach so she doesn´t feel lonely and all that.  She commented in the first lesson I have always wondered what is the true church and why are there so many churches.  So we were like uhhhh Joseph Smith?? HELLO??  So yeah she left the room to go answer her phone and me and Elder Waite were just smiling haha.  So yeah she is getting ready to be baptized, good lady golden.  So this past week we found like 5 new people from Nicaragua nope like 6!!  They are just flooding Sevilla right now.  Last night we went and contacted a girl from Nicaragua and she was awesome!!  She is 25 and married!  Her name is Fatima and are really excited to work with her, pray for her.  This last week we also found a guy from Brazil while knocking on door he answered and instantly said "pasen" which is like commanding us to walk in.  So when someone says that in Spain you book it into their home haha.  So his name is Gustavo and WAY prepared also.  He accent is way funny and I can understand it.  So he prayed in Portuguese and I understood almost every word that was pretty cool too. So that was kinda all our week searching and finding.  This next week we will have a lot of baptism dates hopefully!! 

 

WELL TELL JAYCEE TO EMAIL ME!!!!

 

Love,

Elder Cody

Letters from the Mission President

These are the letters to Cody and my parents letting them know he is going to be called as a Zone Leader

Letter to Cody

Letter to my Parents

February 20, 2012 - Email to Family

Hello family,

Look at the Pretty Boy :)

 

Well this last week was a lot of work!!  Wow!  Well it was fun I got to see what it takes to set up all the Zone Conferences.  So yeah the Zone Leaders do about everything it takes to set them all up, food, lessons and all the assignments.  It was a lot of fun and Elder Waite doesn´t really tell me what to do, and so I just go and figure it out on my own!  It is a lot of fun.  So this week I did splits with a district leader and I was left here in Sevilla.  I did a really good job and we got 21 futures that day.  Three of those people turned into new investigators that are awesome!  So one of them came to church and loved it!  His name is Wilbur and he is from Peru.  The ward was very nice to him and he called everyone Brother and Sister.  He is super interested and wants to investigate.  The other is a 20 year old year I contacted while my comp (the district leader) was talking to someone else.  Her name is Aneida and is super nice.  She is from Bolivia and we have taught her once, so that was a lot of fun teaching someone around your age.  It is a lot easier to relate the message to them and it is fun and spiritual.  The other lady is named María and she is GOLD.  I contacted her on the street and she is alone her in Spain from Bolivia.  She is awesome.  She has sooooo much interest in the gospel and said I have always wanted to know what is the true church.  She loves to read and investigate she told us.  So that is looking well.  By next week I should have down better what are all my people.  So for now that is a little of what we have that is our work.  We practically gave all of our investigators to Elder Shrewsbury and Elder Seely.  They are awesome and I love them.  They are really good guys.  This last week I did my first baptismal interview in HUELVA!!  It was so much fun returning back there, I practically remember all of it! It was a lot of fun doing the interview, I was a little nervous and the lady was way quiet, but hey she got baptized!  So I really like Elder Seely I will be buddies with him for a while.  They both were in Huelva.  So yeah I talked to Brown for a little.  He said that Sonia is on vacation somewhere.  I didn´t talk long because I was running non stop running the whole thing.  So yeah that is about all.  I kinda broke out a little this week because I was stressed.  They felt like stress zits, the ones that hurt and don´t pop.  But I get to do splits again today and then again with the AP´s that are awesome!  So looks really good!  The house looks really nice and the kitchen, wow.  I wont recognize the house when I get home!  I love you two!!

First Zone Conference as a Zone Leader

 

 

 Cody

February 13, 2012 - Family Email

Hey how are all of you??

 

Well I had a great week.  It was super busy but you know it was a lot of fun!  I really don´t know what to tell you about the week until things settle down and we get the new elders that are coming in.  Right now Elder Waite and I are just searching a lot.  We had a short week because we went to Málaga and then Elder Waite got sick and was out for a day.  But this last week we found 3 new investigators and a lot of futures that look promising.  Last night we were just knocking doors and this young Spanish girl answers and she is really beautiful.  She invites us in and she thought it was amazing what we are doing here in Spain even though she doesn´t believe in God or Christ yet, but she believes in a great spirit.  So of course King Lamoni and Ammon came straight to my mind.  So yeah we talked for a little and she totally loves us and wanted to make us dinner and everything.  So she is 21 years old and we decided that Elder Waite just found his new wife haha.  We didn´t even have to ask for her number or anything she asked for ours and called it right up to make sure it was real.  So we are going to baptize her hopefully so that Elder Waite can marry her in a year.

 

Yesterday a guy from France that has been inactive for 5 years brings his son to church and wants us to teach him and baptize his son so we said yes!  Haha a really nice guy and they speak Spanish really well.  The son is really nice and quiet and I think he is 13 years old so that will be cool.  I really hope the father follows through and baptizes his son.  So yeah those are some miracles that are kind of happening to us right now.  I am excited for the work we are creating here and when the new Elders come I will have more details to write about because the truth is I have only taught people like once or twice. We have a lot of people to run by and find new people.  So yeah that is kind of the work here in Seville, I am growing a lot and well I feel like my Spanish has gotten worse but that is because I am not the better speaker anymore haha.  I get a little nervous sometimes when trying to speak but I speak anyways.  I hope I get the chance to have a native companion.  This last Saturday we went contacting in a little area where the missionaries are needing our help with contacting.  So we gathered all of the zone and we went contacting for an hour and a half and at the end we got 32 futures and Elder Waite and I got 17 of them.  We weren´t together but I got 7 and Waite got 10.  So this Thursday is Zone Conference and we are going to teach our Zone to stop wasting time!  When you aren´t teaching, CONTACT.  Also we are going to practice turning down the members for eating lessons unless they bring us someone to teach.  We NEVER just go sit with a member and waste our time.  So yeah that is about all I got for you this week.  Yeah the year mark is coming up soon, and it shows: I need new pants and white short sleaves shirts maybe soon.  Two of my pants are already ruined.  At least one of them are the ones I have had for like 6 years.  Yeah just come pick me up, I was only doing that because Manning wants to ride in the plane together.  Well love you!!

 

CODY