October 3, 2022

Letter from Mom to Cody: Is it starting to look and feel like Fall there in Yakima? It definitely is here. And wasn't General Conference A-MAZ-ING? I hope you were able to watch most of it. I can't even begin to pick a favorite. But, when President Nelson spoke at the end did it feel like he was telling us all goodbye? That is how it felt to us here, and Holli said that too. And then the entire MoTab was crying as they sang that last song. 

Loved hearing about your new apartment and the other elders that joined you there. Does it make you think about "The Best 2 Years" movie with the 4 of you there, ha ha? Glad to hear you are staying with Elder Dell for this transfer, I am sure there is much you will continue to learn from him. Just so you know, your weekly emails are being missed. It would def be helpful to write in your journal often so that you could remember stuff, but I am sure that there is some message or experience that you can share with all of us! And of course pictures are worth a thousand words, so there's that....

Have an awesome P-day and week, and enjoy this awesome month of October! Love you tons Cody - we pray for you and Elder Dell every day! 

Hi Mom! 

Yeah it is definitely starting to look like and feel like fall. The leaves are changing colors and the weather is getting cooler. The other morning it was 56 degrees when we left the apartment! I got to wear one of my quarter zips! General conference was A-MAZ- ING! I agree there were too many good talks that I couldn't pick a favorite! The one that talked about having faith in every footstep was pretty great tho! I liked when he said "our missionaries today are modern pioneers." I was like hey that's me haha. Yeah it definitely felt like a goodbye. I don't know if this is going to be the last General Conference with President Nelson, but we probably won't have many more. Yeah the entire MoTab plus you right haha. Jk jk. We will definitely see what time brings. Oh and did you see that President Nelson sat in a chair for conference? 

Yoooo I don't know why, but I didn't even think about that haha. Now it definitely does make me think of The Best Two Years haha. Yep I am super excited to stay with Elder Dell! There is definitely lots he can still teach me! Also it is super nice because our companion unity is through the roof. Yesterday during our weekly planning we were like literally reading each other's mind because the Spirit was giving us the same ideas at the same time and then we would say them out loud at the same time we were yoooo haha. It was super cool. I will see what I can do about getting pictures, and I should write an email this week. Even if its short I need to just start doing it so people know I'm alive haha. I am going to try really hard to write in my journal this week so next week's email will be aight. 

I will continue to have an awesome p-day and amazing October! Love you too Mom!

Elder Cody

Good morning Dad!

Yeah that was a super amazing conference! Conference as a missionary is super great! There were lots of great talks that I am going to have to go back and read again.

Oh yeah so investigators are called friends, and it has been like that the entire time that I've been out here, I just forget sometimes, haha. No one ever really made a point to tell me I just picked up on it because the other missionaries say friend not investigator.

So Saturday morning our zone actually watched conference at the mission home, which was awesome. Our zone is pretty goated. Our stls,zls and dls all made us eggs, hash browns and sausage! It was super great watching conference as our zone and apparently one of the APs has been working pretty hard because he fell asleep during the session and everyone started taking pictures of him. Saturday Afternoon Elder Dell and I went with the APs and another companionship of elders to the mission office and watched it there. Sunday morning we just watched on our phones at the apartment, but Sunday afternoon we watched it with Brother and Sister Atherton as well as our friend Sherry and her son Isaac. The Atherton’s are the best! We bring Sister Atherton to like all of our lessons with Sherry and she basically just teaches the whole thing, haha. 

I can't remember if I told yall this already, but the new temples district was announced for the Moses Lake temple and Yakima isn't even in it. Not really a surprise, because the drive to Moses Lake is about the same to wherever the other temple is I forgot haha. 

Yeah Jose is doing amazing! He has the priesthood and is passing the sacrament next Sunday! His girlfriend, Maya, has come to church twice and is meeting with the missionaries! So our friend Santiago was on date, but then he started posting pics of himself on Facebook smoking weed and we were going to take him off date, but he just dropped us. So kind of a bummer, but it's just what happens. Other than that we have like 16 or 17 people that are in various stages of progression as well as a couple of new friends that we are going to start teaching. The last couple of weeks have been a bit of a drag and we only taught like 8-10 lessons a week, but the first transfer we always taught at least 20-25. We weekly planned super hard this week (it took us 2 1/2 hours) and are ready to work harder then ever! 

I don't have any specific stories with contacts, but my street contacting skills have gotten a lot better! At the start of the mission they weren't the best haha, but I put the reps in and they have improved a lot. I have learned how to make small talk with pretty much anyone and then transition the small talk into talking about the gospel. I still need a lot of work and there is plenty of room for improvement, but I am also way better then at the start of my mission! 

Yeah I have definitely already seen lots of blessings and I know that there will be many more to come! One blessing I have seen is how much my testimony has grown in such a short time! This is obviously a huge blessing for me, but it will also someday be a blessing for my future family. Elder Dell and I talk a lot about how our missionary service can and will be a huge blessing for our future family! It helps us to stay motivated and work hard, because we realize that how hard we work as missionaries can and will have an impact on the rest of our lives and the lives of our future family. Hope you have a great week! Love you Dad!

Elder Cody