A note from Elder Cocker's Mom

Hello family and friends.....sorry it has taken me a few weeks to recover and get with the program.  This is a Elder Cocker's blog over the next 24 months.  We will keep you updated with important news from the field.

 They never say when you are the missionaries mom, how many ways your heart is affected.  Feelings of happiness, of excitement, of worry and concern.  Trying to remember if Josh and I actually had that "how to sew on a button" lesson or did we just talk about it.  (we did.....he said one was enough).

I mean, there are a lot of thoughts that run through a mother's mind......through my mind.  Then, there are the sub-liminals that really mess with you.   For three weeks in a row i dreamed these different dreams about him.  A few times i was able to tell myself in the dream, "don't be upset, you know this isn't real, its just a dream".  And a few times I woke with a pounding chest feeling like the hounds of hell had just run past.

There was the evening Gar and I sat down to watch "band of brothers", (Josh's christmas present from Rach and Rich)......and we went to grab a blanket out of the cupboard and it smelled like him.  Brutal, brutal moment in a new missionary moms life.   Brutal.

Everyone at church says, "You must be so proud", and I'm freaking out thinking, "oh, no we are not proud."  Good grief!  Ah, never rang truer the words of Alma 26:12 "Yea, I know that I am nothing; as to my strength I am weak; therefore I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God, for in his strength I can do all things; yea, behold, many mighty miracles we have wrought in this land, for which we will praise his name forever."  So, yep, in that way as parents we are busting at the seems proud.  He worked so hard to reach this goal.

On that note, I want to say a big thank you to all our friends and family who fasted and prayed in his behalf, from the temples to the sweat lodges, as a mother I heard your petitions to our creator to help assist this young man on his way.  No religious or tribal barriers, no judgments, sweet petitions of prayers and we as a family are so grateful.

So begins the journey of Elder Joshua Garrick Tau Kapo He Mounga Cocker, to the Nuku 'Alofa Tonga Mission.  We are grateful to Heavenly Father, we know our boy is in the hallow of his hand.