Hola- 4-30-12

10:11 AM (35 minutes ago)

Hello Family!
Probably gonna be a short letter this week. We've been really busy. We were supposed to have a baptism on Saturday for Ramiro but apparently he came to the states illegally and needed to go back to Mexico. Nice.
We had a really really good time with Dora and Salvador and their two kids Paulo and Oliver. We had a lesson at the VC. We were sitting infront of the Crisus and all Salvador was doing is searching through Sister Fors bible to make sure it was the same one he believes in. We went through Gods plan after that and I've never seen someones countenance change so drastically. He started to cry and his heart was softened. Usually we meet with them once a week but they wanted to meet the next day. I started talking to Dora alone and she said, "there's just a different feeling"- We have high hopes for them. Sister Fors and I are trying to get an English class going in our ward. It's amazing how many doors have been opened with that. Even if people aren't interested in hearing our message, everyone is interested in learning English for free. It will help me a lot with my spanish too I think.
I sang in sacrament with two other Elders yesterday! The missionaries were in charge of the sacrament so Sister Fors and Elder Samuels spoke and we sang. It was really good because spanish wards never have musical numbers. We also had the opportunity to teach the YW. It was on sustaining the priesthood. I think the leaders just didn't know how to teach it so they gave it to us. It was really good though. We had them write down the qualities they want in a future husband and I told them I still have my list from YW and to never settle but that we need to become everything on that list too. Mostly the message was that we have more influence on guys than we think in helping them live up to their priesthood responsibilities. They really liked it. They liked all my dating stories too.  I learned a lot about humility yesterday. Spanish has been a struggle, but I've never been so diligent or worked so hard on anything more in my life. But I had a guy in the ward (with good intentions) tell me yesterday at church that I need to work harder. That was really hard to hear. Satan really makes you think that you'll never be good enough. But I know I'm doing my very best. I have been trying to tell every little kid that they are a child of God. and that Heavenly Father loves them. It's amazing the responses that I get. The most crazy kids immediately calm down and just smile at me. Even if the parents aren't interested in listening to me, I like to talk to the kids more anyway. Last night there was a really shy girl that wouldn't talk to me. After I told her that she is a daughter of God, her face lit up and she gave me her sticker off her shirt.
There is a girl in my zone that just found out that someone in her family passed away. Pray for her, okay?
Oh, one more quick story- We went to an Easter pageant refurral named Antonia. She kept staring at me and saying that she knew me from somewhere. I knew I had never seen her before. We joked that maybe we knew each other in heaven. All the sudden I looked at her in a completely different way. I remembered one of the reasons why I came on a mission. I feel like I told people in heaven, "I'll come find you" The words in my mind came, "Antonia, I'll come find you, I promise" In Alma 13:27 talks about the anxiety and pain we should feel for peoples repentance and I have been wanting to feel like that so that I can bare a stronger testimony. I was able to feel that for her as I looked at her as my sister. I was able to bare a really strong testimony and be really bold. Preach My Gospel says that the gospel will have a familiar "ring" to them. I was familiar to her and the message was as well. It was a cool experience.
Serve everyone! We have been teaching our members that OUR job is to teach lessons, but the most important thing that members can do is befriend nonmembers and serve them. A lot of members thing they have to give out a Book of Mormon to share the gospel, but almost always it is more effective to love them and befriend them first. We have asked members who come with us to come in casual clothes instead of dress up. This shows that they are normal people just like them and they are more comfortable. This has made all the difference. So I challenge everyone to brake out of your exclusive LDS friends and see what miracles can happen.

The chapter this week is Helaman 5

Love you all :)
SFTE
Love, Sister Cottrell 

Mon. April 23, 2012

Hello Family

First off I am a full field Sister now- meaning I don't spend much time in the VC this transfer. So send letters to the mission office 6265 E 82nd street Scottsdale AZ 85250 :) It's been really good being full field. Honestly, I thought I wouldn't like it it because the VC has been the place where I can feel the most peace.. but I actually am really liking it! My Spanish has gotten a lot better already and it's helping me dive into missionary work a lot better, so no complaints. But I wont lie, I'm gonna miss sitting at the front desk watching birds fly into the front window.- another story for another day.

We had transfer meetings this week and since Sister Fors and I weren't going anywhere we weren't supposed to have to go, but someone called us and told us that we were getting ANOTHER new car. This is the third one since I've been here. So we went. I am trying to get permission to drive, but the new leader over the cars is really strict. With the other leader I guess you just have to call him up and ask permission, but with this one I have had to take a written test, driving test, watch a 45 min video, and get permission from the mission president too. It's been a process.

We've seen a lot of cool things happen this week. Rosalinda- the 12 year old we are teaching is getting baptized soon. But her mom pulled us aside and said she wanted to talk to us "alone"... eesh.. We met her at the park the next day and to our surprise, she wanted to take the lessons too! But she doesn't want her husband to know about it for some reason so she wants it to be like a secret or something. We told her he's going to have to find out sooner or later. We'll see.. kind of a weird situation but she's going through a rough time with cancer and I know she is looking for something so we have high hopes for her.

We taught Rosie that night and the spirit was so strong. I told her that Heavenly Father wanted me to tell her that He loves... her and her face lit up so bright! She's never heard that before. That made all the frustrations of the day soooo worth it. It was one of my highlights of my mission for sure Also we are teaching Dora and Salvador- a family that lives in a tiny trailer park. They are so funny. They are the kind of people you want to play cards with or something. They have some pretty interesting questions like about the gift of tongues and the way Satan works- it's hard to keep on topic sometimes. I started talking and told them I hadn't been speaking spanish for very long and Dora asked if we were born with a special gift or spirit to be a missionary and speak whatever language we want. She also "mutters" when we pray. Probably my favorite people that we are teaching right now. 

My allergies are soooooooooo terrible out here it's crazy! I'm trying to find the formula to make it stop! Any suggestions? It's already over 100 degrees here and it's not even May! It's super hot already. But I'd rather be hot than cold! We've been playing sports outside in the mornings and that's been really fun. I still have to wear a brace for my ankle though because it still swells up every day for some reason. 

We've had about a million of our lessons fall through this week, but miracles still seem to come! We went to a house for a referral from the Easter Pageant and the daughter of the referral just happened to be a former investigator that we had a strong impression to stop by and it just happened to be the one time she has been home in months. Crazy. The Lord works in mysterious ways. I am so grateful for this opportunity to be a missionary! I can't believe how blessed I am to do this. You really realize whats most important in life and learn lessons where you couldn't any other place. I look back at my life before I left and think, "I knew absolutely nothing" You're eyes are truly opened. Thank you for all your love support and letters! 

Love you all!
SFTE
Love, Sister Cottrell 
PS- The chapter this week is Alma 13 :) Also one of my favorite chapters! Lets get some insights people!

Mon. April 17, 2012

Hola Familia!

This week has been really eventful to say the least! It's transfer week so we had the opportunity to go to the temple. It was my first time at the Mesa temple even though I work 50 yards away from it! It is soooooooo pretty. I loved it. I was lucky because later that day I wasn't feeling well but during the temple I was fine. I continued to not feel well and got really really sick. We didn't want to cancel our appointments though so we told our investigators meet us at the visitors center so I could lay on the couch in the break room while Sister Fors taught them. Dedicated, right? Well finally I spoke up and said I needed to go home because I kept throwing up in the bathroom (TMI? sorry) But I couldn't hold anything down all night. I lost almost 10 lbs in two days. The flu has been going around the mission.. ugh...I'm good now though. My ward mission leader gave me a blessing and that helped a lot, we have the best ward mission leader in the United States.

"Cry and then open the first box" Mom taught me a very valuable lesson when she said this. She was talking about the basement and how she organizes it and arrange it every other month. I thought about how overwhelming it might be to get started not knowing where to start, but knowing that it is a project that could take days and it's a project where it's hard to see the end. I remember asking, "How do you even start?" She said, "I cry first and then start to open the first box and then before you know it, you see how it's possible." I've applied this soooooooooooo much on my mission. Everything seems so impossible sometimes, but everyday you just gotta get up the courage and open that first box! Sister Fors and I say that almost everyday, "cry, and open the first box sister!"

Saturday I had a really cool experience. A girl walked in the VC looking for a movie on Eternal families. I asked her what interested her in that. She said her dad died recently and it didn't end well and she wanted to make sure she could make things right with him. She said she was driving passed the temple and something told her to go in the VC. She had prayed before and asked God to tell her where to go. She said she drives passed the temple everyday but something just told her to go in. All I did was smile and say, "I can help you" I took her through "Gods Plan for His Family" She cried through the whole thing. At the end I just waited her to talk. She said that the grandpa that died in the movie looked just like her dad and she had talked to pastors of all churches and she had "never felt like this in her whole life." She kept saying, "Now I know" I told her that she would see her dad again and explained a little bit about the temple and how that is what makes it possible. She said she wanted to prepare for the temple and that is what she wanted. She said she was going to come back to talk to me after she went to church :)

Ramiro is getting baptized this week! YAY! He told us as he was getting off of work and said he wanted to get baptized soon like it was no big deal. We were jumping up and down in the street! He's pretty solid. We also have two 12 year olds that are dying to be baptized that came to church with us yesterday but we want to get their parents to listen to us too. We're workin on it.

The chapter I want everyone to read this week is Moroni 7. I just finished the Book of Mormon again and Moroni 7 is definitely one of my favorite chapters!  I was thinking about everyone at home when I read Moroni 8:3 "I am mindful of you always in my prayers, continually praying unto God the Father in the name of his Holy Child, Jesus, that he, through his infinite goodness and grace, will keep you through the endurance of faith on his name to the end."

Love you all! I will be finishing up the 12 week training program with Sister Fors in the same area. We were hoping to go full field this transfer because there is a lot of work to do in our area, but we find that out later today. 

Sister Fors showed me a poem that explains exactly how the mission is for me! It says:

A mission is a strange experience. It's a trial and a test.
A mission throws at you the worst yet teaches you the best.
They told me this would be the best period of my life.
But I guess they didn't explain it all too clear.
I came out looking for a bed of roses, I just wasn't expecting all the thorns I've found out here.
Since I've been out i've never been so happy
I've never been so depressed
I've never felt so forsaken. I've never felt so blessed.
I've never been so confused. My mind has never been so clear.
I've never felt my Heavenly Father so distant.
I've never felt Him so near.
I've never been so full of hope
I've never been so discouraged
I feel like I can go on forever
I think i'm at the end of my rope
I've never had it so easy. I've never had it so tough
things have never gone so smoothly. Thisngs have never been so rough
I've never traveled through more valleys
i've never ascended so many peaks
I've never met so many neat people, i've never met so many geeks
I've never has so many ups, I've never had so many downs.
I've never worn so many smiles, I've never worn so many frowns.
I've never been so lonely, I've never had so many friends
Man, I hope this is all over with soon. Gosh, I hope it never ends!


I feel so bipolar out here! This poem is seriously how it is!
Anyway, hope everyone had a good week! Thanks for all your love and support!

Love,
Sister Cottrell

Tues. April 10, 2012

Hello! It's a miracle! I'm alive :) The Easter Pageant was sooooo fun! I saw so many people I knew! It was crazy! I saw my 9th grade semenary teacher, Brother John, Sister Honey and another family from my home ward, Grandma and Grandpa, Uncle Greg, Cousins- Chelsea and Lindsey, Brett Hadley from school (I went to a dance with him) Jeff Horne and Kaycee Anderson (they came to my farewell) and Mike Tingey's uncle! Probably even a few more than that that I am forgetting.. but it was sooooo awesome! It was a good week over all.

P-day last week wasn't really a p-day. We had zone activity though which was fun. We played a game and then "bahama bucks" and then went and played mini golf. By the time that was over all we had time for was study and head to the pageant. We didn't want to study, but sacrifice brings forth blessings, right? I med a guy named Jake and his friend becky who is a member. I've been working with Jake at the visitors center. We've been having really good conversations but he is one of those people that just likes to get a rise or a reaction out of people. But with the spirit I was able to teach to everyone of his concerns which was a blessing. 

On tuesday we had our investigator run away from us! Literally... We teach like 3 people in one apartment complex, and word gets around. Frankly I don't like teaching people there. It's sketchy and all they do is make fun of us... whatev. 

I got some really REALLY awesome packages from mom and cory for Easter. I was praying for a new Easter outfit. Prayer works. Clothes get REALLY old really fast out here. I can't imagine what Elders feel like. I was able to give out lots of candy too to little kids and make a little Easter surprise for my companion which was really nice! Thank you thank you thank you!!!!!! Means so much to me!

We had our zone meeting and i had to give a talk, so I freaked out about it, studied for weeks for it, but then we ran out of time and I only had to talk for a couple minutes.

We also did a training in district meeting that went well i think! That was my first of many i'm sure. 

I've been out a whole month! I can't decide how I feel about that...

The last day of the pageant was on Saturday. I was exhausted! Definitely ups and downs. We woke up extra early and went to the VC and took pictures with a photographer on the Easter pageant stage (I'll send some home) and had a meeting. After we did a primary activity for the kids for easter. It was kinda frustrating because I didn't know the vocabulary in spanish.. but it was ok I suppose. If there is one thing I have learned on my mission, it comes from Ether 12:6 after the trial of your faith comes the blessings! I was chuggin along all day, just tryin to get through and tryin to be diligent (but not wanting to) and I had an impression to call Alex (the kid I committed to baptism in the VC like the second day I got here). I told him to come to the pageant- not thinking he would. But he DID. He came and found me and said that he was thinking about it and he wants to get married to his girlfriend in the temple and he's going to get baptized as soon as he can!! That was a good feeling. I have to turn him over to the missionaries in his area though, but I'll get to go to his baptism i think and hopefully I'll be working at the temple when they get married in a year! That'd be cool :) Also he came with a friend and I committed him to meet with the missionaries too! Prepared people for sure. Sister Fors kept saying to wait and see all the blessings that will come out of sacrificing time in our area for the easter pageant. So I was patient! We hadn't had any success for a while it seemed like. 

Did everyone have a good Easter?! :) We woke up and went to ward counsel but we worked in the VC during our church so we had to find a random sacrament to go to. We found one at the stake center in ENGLISH. It was the first time I actually got something out of church to be honest and I didn't leave with a headache! Refreshing. Mexicans have this special dessert for easter called "capirotado" or something. It was the first time I almost gagged while eating something. It was nuts- peanuts, walnuts and every other kind of nut you can think of and cocunut and sprinkles on top of bread! I'm not a picky eater.. but they picked everything I cant stand and put it on my plate. It was the hardest thing i've ever had to do to eat that thing. 

A guy came in the VC that day and it was really sad. We have a lot of people that are in the middle of getting a divorce come in just to feel peace. Its hard not to counsel people when you're a missionary. His wife cheated on him and he found out on his birthday and he's not aloud to see his kids.. long story.. but I just gave him a conference talk to read and a chapter from the book of mormon that I thought might help.

We had another investigator drop us! Man...  "After the trial of your faith comes the blessings" .... "how true that is" (as Brian Regan would say it" So yesterday we were having a rough day. Our sleeping schedule has been... well.. no sleep and it finally caught up to us. Sister Fors and I wanted to throw in the towel. But.. of course we couldn't. We had our first real "companionship inventory" that didn't go so well but we decided to try and make our weaknesses, strengths. We were diligent and because we kept going, we met 2 girls in a trailer pard and they basically ran up to us and begged us to teach them. They're only in 7th grade but they had some really deep questions and really wanted to learn. We asked them to be baptized and they said yes! :) Afterwards we prayed for guidance on where to go next. We both got the impression to go somewhere we really didn't want to go because last time we went there we had no success. Well.. we went anyway and we met a friend of a former investigator, taught him and we set a date for his baptism!!! We were dancing around the rest of the night. He is so prepared. I told him it wasn't a coincidence that we stopped by and he agreed and said that God sent us there. Good feeling!

Hey! I'm going to start doing a challenge to whoever reads my emails with a chapter to read in the Book of Mormon. I pray for you guys constantly and I want to be a missionary to you guys too! So this week is Mormon 9 :)

Love you,
SFTE :)

Caminar con fe

Ps- sorry this email is so scattered

Love,
Sister Cottrell

GRANDMA AND GRANDPA came to Mesa Pageant

I'm getting sent home......

APRIL FOOLS!!!!!!!!!! I just realized I missed April fools yesterday.. so I had to do SOMETHING. Calm down everyone. :) 

Hello family!

This week has been pretty short! Can you believe I will have been here a month pretty soon? Crazy! The Easter Pageant has been really fun this week and really busy too! I'm pretty much exhausted..

Tuesday was the dress rehearsal for the pageant. It went pretty well I think. All the sisters work from 5:30 pm until the show starts at 8 and then we get to go watch it and right before it ends at 9 we go back and work till 10. They switched our schedule so we wake up at 7:30 instead of 6;30 and go to bed at 11:30 instead of 10:30. Did I already say that in my last letter? I dunno... but it's been nice, even though I feel like it doesn't do too much for me. Sleep is overrated now. So I thought my ankle was fine because i walked on it the rest of the day but when I went to go watch the pageant, i looked down at it and it was as big as a grapefruit! I just started to laugh! Seriously it was the biggest "cankle" I've ever seen in my life. I've just been icing it and I bought a brace for it. A week later it's still a little swollen but it's getting better i think :)

We had two nights (friday and saturday) that were both spanish nights. That surprisingly went really well! I realized how much I rely on sister fors when i don't need to! I had companions that only speak english so it was all up to me to communicate and get referrals. Heavenly Father really helped me and it was really fun. It was cool watching the pageant in spanish too because I could actually understand it! 
I've seen a couple people I know at the pageant! I saw Kacie Johnson.. well I guess it's Kacie Barrett now! It was weird seeing my childhood friend all grown up and married! I also saw a girl that I served in the relief society presidency in college almost 3 years ago! Crazy how time flies. She is teaching elementary now. I don't know if i mentioned this but a girl came in the VC last week and said she served with SAM in the VC in LA! Her name is Bailey Brinkerhoff. She took a picture with me and was going to call Sam and send it to her. Did she? Last night we also had the family of Elder Erickson (an elder in my district in the MTC that was one of my best friends) they came in and found sister Larson and I and took pictures! That was really fun. They were in town to see one of his moms old companions and a few other things.

Because of the pageant we have only had a total of maybe 2 hours in our area! We only taught ONE lesson! I wish that was an April fools joke too... but it's not. 
Last night I was presented with MORE crazies. I don't know if someone puts a sign on my back saying, "flock to me crazies" but seriously they all come to me, I don't know what it is. We were on phones and I had a guy call in saying he wanted to get his life back together but that he was bipolar and an alcoholic. I told him I would get him in contact with his bishop for him and he said he already knew who he was. I asked what questions he had for me and he said he just wanted to talk to someone from the church. He then started throwing up on the phone because of withdraws from alcohol. Eesh.. I told him to call me back when he was feeling better but he wouldn't let me hang up. He then said that he had a gun and he was going to pull the TRIGGER! We told him to stay on the line while we got the number for the suicide hotline. Sheesh. People call in and even come in the VC just confessing everything to you because you're a missionary. It's interesting to say the least.

How did everyone like conference?? It was so different watching it as a missionary! My heart was sooooo full! It was over too quick for sure. I would like to FIRST point out the fact that Elder Evans told everyone in the world to write the missionaries! "not just a quick email, but a real tangible thing they can hold on to!" Sister Fors and I looked at each other like "Right ON!" 

There were so many inspiring talks. Heavenly Father was so specific in answering my questions. Those people are real, live apostles and prophets everyone! Just like Moses and Adam and Aaron and Nephi and Amulek! You listen to conference in a different way when you have that perspective. I wanted to tell all my catholic investigators that "if moses was giving a speech tomorrow, would you come?" Same thing!

Anyway, I hope you liked it. What did everyone learn? I heard a lot about marriage and family and about how to deal with trials and how the world is just getting so evil! It gave me chills when the last thing that Elder Holland said something like, "repent, it's getting late" ahhhh... be good everyone!

Well... Love you all! Hope everything is going well. Another good week on the mish :)
PS- today is our zone activity so i don't know if i'll have time to write any letters this week :( but i'll try!
Love,
Sister Cottrell