Hola May 21, 2012

Hola Familia!
This week was Sister For's birthday... no pressure! I printed out HAPPY BIRTHDAY SISTER FORS! with each letter on one piece of paper and hung it on the door with streamers and balloons. She had a package from her sister and so I got the mail that we don't use, like the adds and stuff and wrapped it along with the present I got her so she had something to "open." I made her pancakes while she was in the shower and I told the little old lady next door while we were running that it was her birthday so she brought her some cookies. Later at district meeting we got a really ugly pinata and pizza and decorated the gym for her and had everyone sing to her. I took pictures- i'll have to send some. On Sunday I passed the word to the members that were feeding us and told them her favorite food. Not only did they fix her favorite food, but the got a cake too! That was good :) Their little girl sang to her (in spanish) a birthday primary song which was really cute and the best part of the day was when we went over to Dora and Salvadors trailer and after I told Salvador that it was her birthday he got mixed up and started singing "merry christmas to you!" in the happy birthday tune, (we're working on his english). Anyway, she seemed to have a good day, so I was happy for her. 
We had a really good week of finding this week. We found 9 new investigators. Ivette didn't end up getting baptized last week though, she said she was starting to feel "pressure." Pretty frustrating. We did have a really good lesson with Claudia though. We did a chapel tour and had her pray out loud in the chapel to know if baptism was the right thing for her to do. She couldn't stop saying, "I just feel something different... like...  really peaceful" I asked her if she thought that was her answer and she said yes! So she's supposed to be baptized this Saturday.  Also, another miracle. We found a family on the street and they said we could give a blessing in their house. Apparently they had had missionaries before and came really close to baptism but eventually decided against it. As we were talking with them they said that they were "content" with their own religion. I had sensed that that was what they were saying, but their spanish was pretty hard to understand and I was trying to keep their little girl under control but the spirit kept telling me to just ask them to be baptized. Yikes.. they had just pretty much told us that they weren't interested. Well, after the prayer my heart was beating and I knew I had to ask anyway. I asked and they all said yes! Awesome. Crazy how it all works out.
Anyway, it's been a pretty good week. It's getting suuuuuuuuper hot, but I'm hangin in there. Transfers are next week- I swear we just had transfers. But it should be interesting to see what happens. We have 3 sisters leaving in the VC and we have no new sisters coming but President wants as many sisters out in the field to meet our goal of doubling our baptisms in July. We shall see.
I got a note in my VC cubby saying that a darling girl came in looking for me and apparently Sammers baptized her mom in California! Her name is Brenda Rodriguez. Cool huh?? Good job stink. Apparently she has a lot of family and friends here that aren't LDS. I'll work on it :) Brenda said she was going to come back to see me when I am in the VC again. 
The chapter this week is Jacob 5. I've received sooooo much insight this week about this. It teaches... well everything! It's crazy to think about how I am one "His servants" that are "few" that is called to try and help save the vineyard ONE LAST TIME before the Savior comes. He has "spared the world a little longer" but read the end of the chapter and think about today's times. It makes sense, but I guess I never put it together that sending out missionaries is a sign of His coming. Don't procrastinate the day of His coming! As a missionary it is sooo clear that the time is near. It's like Elder Holland said, "it's getting late." Doesn't that just give you chills? Be good!!!
Love you all!
SFTE
Sister Cottrell