Note to self- never type out of my journal again! Sorry people. By the time I was going to tell all of you the good stuff, my time ran out! Didn't mean to scare everyone! This week has been so incredibly wonderful! I've only cried tears of happiness and from the spirit. Thank you soooo sooo much for your letters! They mean soooo much to me and i love you guys so much. Thank you for the packages too mom! They were much needed. I will be writing a lot of letters today, so look for them within a couple days.
jan 6
2 months from this day was when I leave the MTC! Hilarious. We had 8 hours of class. It was good stuff. Hermana larson and i are becoming such good friends. The other hermans companionship has really been struggling though. i've had many pep talks with both girls. One almost went home even. They seem to be getting along fine now though. We try and stay out of it. We love both girls. One is going to Ogden, UT- (hermana Marcum) it covers Kaysville too so look for her! hermana Paine is going to Peru on Wednesday. So we will be a threesome companionship starting next week. One of our teachers is hermano Janis- he's pretty cool. He's fresh off the mish, he's got a good heart. Embarrassing story- I walked around for a good 5 min with my skirt tucked into my tights. Awesome. Good thing a girl teacher was kind enough to inform me of that one. Lets be honest, it was bound to happen. The poor elders will be repenting for weeks, i'm sure.
I seriously couldn't be happier! Like mon and dad said, after the trial of your faith, comes blessings! Score.
Jan 7
hardcore parcore! Hermana Larson and I do this all day to and from class. Yes, in skirts. We both like the office. We had 12 hours of strudy time/class. It wasn't bad though. Hermano Sanchez (formally Jose, our investigator) became our teacher. We had some good laughs about some spanish lines people accedently said. Someone called him Jesus instead of Jose and said that Adam and Eve had aids of something. Oops. I said some funny stuff too.
We've been doing a lot of roleplaying lately. I love it. It reminds me why I wanted to do this. We memorize so much everyday! Larson is good at memorizing so she helps me out. Everyone read Alma 26 ok? Best chapeter ever. Seriously, there's like a wall that was taken down ever since I started reading the book of mormon in the Mtc, I understand soooo much if feels like. Our district is becoming so close! It's like I have a bunch of little brothers now. I tell them everything. They are so good to us. They take my tray, open doors and even stand up when we walk in the class. The other hermana companionship had some major drama this week. The other night I heard hermana Marcum quietly crying in her bed in the bunk above me. I had a prompting to write her a letter- i was super tired but the thought kept coming "any good thought is coming fromt he lord" I wrote it and awkwardly slid the note on her bed with my flashlight attched to it so she could read it. The tears stopped. In the morning she just hugged me forever and said thank you. She's a sweetheart.
Everyday I do 50-100 sit ups, 25 pushups and run a few laps and then I can play all the 4 square I want! Best sport ever.
Jan 8
Sunday #2, Check! Man, awesome day! The sisters get to watch music and the spoken word every Sunday while the elders have meetings. Score. I wish I could write everything i've learned but there is just too much! Sister Doxy from the general relief society board spoke for relief socitey. So powerful! She got emotional when she said, I can feel your sacrifices. I had an epiphany while teaching my district about the Atonement. I was teaching about how the atonement wasn't to condem us, but because he loves us (John 3:17). All of the sudden I changed topics. in D&C 19:19 it says that even though Christ asked God if he could take away the bitter cup and it caused even him, a god to tremble, he partook and finished his preparation unto the children of men . Christ finished the mission God asked Him to do. So will I. My patriarcle blessing says to let Christs calling sink deeply into my heart to help me make my decisions. There ya go. I've never had a stronger testimony of teaching through the spirit. I think my district needed to hear that too. Sacrament was good. Everyone prepares a talk in spanish and the bishop randomly calls 2 people to speak. Luckily it wasn't me. We went on our Sunday temple walk where an elder felt so inclined to start throwing snowballs. Yes, he hit me in the face with one. Don't worry, he got his. Plus, lets just say he's my slave for the rest of eternity. Thought of the day, "I don't really like that person... I need to get to know them better."
Jan 9
We woke up extra early to do aerobics on Monday. After that we went to gym and breakfast.. good stuff. I'm creating enemies in 4 square. Bring it. We even have bets going. For service we mopped all the bathroom floors. Lets just say we showered right after. I read about the story of Korihor in Alma. I've never laughed out loud at a story in the book of mormon before, but i did. When he was struck dumb and the chief judge wrote down, "ummmm... do you believe in god now?" We got a new investigatyor, Alex. He just agreed to meet with the missionaries to impress his girlfriend. Dang.. i'm sure i'll have real investigators like that. We only take in with us a small flashcard for our lessons now. We're trying to use all of our spanish we can. Even though we struggle through, we learn so much and most importantly we learn to rely on the spirit to help us remember our spanish and to say what he needs to hear. Pretty cool feeling. Can't believe I've only been here a little over 2 weeks and I'm teaching lessons in spanish with hardly any notes!
Jan 10
I think I've decided a theme for my mission "Seek for the Eternal" Elder Worthlin said that in his talk come what may and love it. Elder Russel M Nelson came and spoke at the devotional! It was sooo cool. I swear he looked at me like ten times. It was so different than any other time i had been in a room with an apostle. I looked at it with a different perspective. He is an apostle just like in the scriptures! The spirit was so strong. He gave a really intense, deep doctrine talk about the scattering of israel. Even though I didn't understand most of it, I felt the spirit. Hermano Hallstead said that the best missionary he knew spoke the worst spanish. He said that the missionary baptized someone that said, " I don't know hardly anything that he taught me, but I know what I felt and I know that it's true. That's all you need to know! Recognize the spirit because he has his own language that we all understand! Elder Nelson said that because we are on missions, we are fullfilling so many specific prophacies. Cool to think about. He said to "endure to the End-dowments from the temple. We go through the temple once for ourselves and the rest of our lives we go for other people. Something to ponder on!
Jan 11
I fasted for Grandpa John and the fam! Know that you're in my prayers! Love you all. New missionaries came. I feel so old here even though I haven't been here very long. We passed out flyers of uplifting quotes, that was fun. Hermano Janis said in our interview that we are ahead of a lot of people and he's really impressed. That felt good. Laci! I discovered hermana Newton! She's in my zone, going to az but not the visitors center. She's super cute and nice.
Jan 12
We just got back from the temple! It was really good. I can't wait to write everyone letters back! Everyone has helped me so much! Thank you thank you thank you! It's been such a good week and the days are picking up and starting to go by faster. You guys are in my prayers! Hold to the rod! :) I'm so grateful to be here. I've already learned a lifetime of lessons in the 2 short weeks i've been here.
Love you,
Hermana Cottrell
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