Alysha Cox's Missionary Blog

Only getting to talk to Alysha once a week is a lot harder than I thought it was going to be.  I really miss checking in with her daily to hear about her day.  We enjoyed more time today group messaging while she was doing her laundry and then got to video chat with her this evening for a little bit as she was getting ready to repack all of her luggage for Monday when she flies out to Indiana.  It was so good to hear about her week and laugh and chat with our whole family.  They were doing a challenge this week of talking with more dignified language or do 10 pushups which she apparently has done a lot of!  Unfortunately she messed up 3 times while she was talking to us saying "you guys" which amounted to 30 pushups, but, Hyrum volunteered to do them for her which he did so she was covered!  She isn't big into writing so this week she just did a video instead of a long email.  I'll try to post it, but, not sure if it will work.  She challenged us ...

It was so awesome to message with Alysha today and then do a quick video chat to see her in person.  She is doing great and loving the MTC.  This is her update for this week:  Hey ya'lls!   I'm at the Provo MTC. It was so fantastic to meet my companion and district in person this week! Transition is way easier after a week online!   I've been learning so much this week about teaching. My companion and district are great! We taught three people this week, who had great questions.   Last night we had a super powerful lesson about the atonement of Jesus Christ. We listened to a talk by Elder Holland where he talked about how Salvation is not cheap. Sometimes we wonder, isn't there an easier way? A less excruciating way? Christ suffering in Gethsemane was not cheap. We shouldn't expect it to be way way. That lesson had such a powerful spirit. Heavenly Father loves us so much that he sent his only begotten son. He did what we couldn't do for ourselves. He ...

 It was crazy trying to get Alysha packed for the Provo MTC.  We ended up running to stores to get last minute items that we discovered weren't going to work and then trying to get everything she would need for the next 18 months into 3 suitcases and stay under a 50lb weight limit for each suitcase proved to be extremely challenging!  We were all exhausted Tuesday night.  On Wednesday October 20th Alysha and I started the day going to Kneaders to get Chunky Cinnamon French Toast for her 21st Birthday/going to the MTC breakfast.  That was fun to have one last adventure with her.  Time seemed to tick slow and fast as the dreaded time came that we needed to get into the car to take her to the MTC.  It didn't help that Alysha started crying before we even left the house because then we were all really emotional.  We each have a day in our house when we are in charge of saying morning and evening family prayer and Wednesday is Alysha's day of the week ...

 It has been a very interesting experience having Alysha here for Home MTC this past week.  She's had classes and study meetings most of the day so we have really only seen her for a few minutes here and there when she got a lunch break, dinner break and little 10 min. breaks.  So it's like she was here but not here.  Our favorite time of the day was at 9 pm each night when she was done and we got to do family scripture study and then got to hear about all the things she learned about that day and have her practice teaching us her lessons.  It's been fun to walk past her door and hear her talking and laughing and singing with her online missionary companion and other missionary's in her online district.  It truly has been a holy and sacred place this week.  She has one more day of home MTC on Monday and then Tuesday is a preparation day to get her packed up and ready to go to the actual MTC on Wednesday.   For her P-Day today we were able to ...

 Alysha gave her Mission Farewell talk yesterday, Oct. 10th.  She did a fantastic job!  That evening she was officially set apart as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  It was an amazing experience to witness her setting apart, the spirit was so strong it was overwhelming.  Even though there was only 7 of us in that room it felt like it was filled to capacity with people from the other side of the veil who were anxious to witness that event too.  Our family is filled with mixed emotions as we are so happy and excited for Alysha as she starts this missionary journey, but, we are also sad and anxious as this means many changes in our family.   I have to admit I'm grateful that her mission begins here at home with Home MTC so we can all kind of ease into the changes, but, also because we get the opportunity to feel the MTC spirit in our home and experience this first little bit of her mission first hand with her.  ...

 I can't believe we have reached October and there is only 10 days until Alysha starts her mission.  Where has the time gone?  We've been able to go back to the temple 4 times with another temple trip planned for next week!  It has been so much fun going to the temple with her and feeling the spirit of peace.  I have really needed that because I feel like satan has been working overtime on me to feel despair, depression and hopelessness this past month.  It has been such a blessing after not being able to go to the temple for over a year and a half to be able to go to the temple 6 times in the past 2 weeks. We decided to do a fake Christmas last Saturday on Sept. 25th since Alysha will miss the next 2 Christmas'.  The kids slept out in a tent the night before while Roland and I decorated a surprise tree that they wouldn't get to see until our fake Christmas morning.  We had a blast playing with our "toys" but I also had made some serious gifts for...