Hello family!
Well... I regret to say...not much to report! I went to the doctor again last tuesday and he gave me some hard core steroids (or something) to calm this allergic reaction down and the next day I woke up throwing up and nauseated and with a fever... so I stopped taking it and called the doctor back. He said to stop taking the medicine and start again the next day when I felt better. Well.. I didn't feel better but the doctor also said that if I had a fever- it wasn't from the medicine. So I took it again because it was actually helping some of my other symptoms...and thought I was fine but I wasn't. I've had two blessings for this thing- whatever it is, so that's good. I haven't eaten since like last Sunday. Every time I eat something I get super nauseated. Not fun. I feel really bad for Sister Fors, she's been really patient and understanding though. We had our first normal studies yesterday for the first time since last tuesday! I have another doctor's appointment today.. hopefully we can figure something out. I have no clue what this is or how to treat it. I know it has something to do with the heat though because the reaction swells every time I go outside. I got heat stroke too.. so that was fun as well.
I don't know if I said this, but we got a new ward mission leader, he's really good! But.. the rest of the ward doesn't like it because they don't think it was an inspired change so now they don't want to help us with missionary work! Hopefully we can change that.:) We also found a new investigator from a less active that apparently has been paying tithing for the passed three weeks and has gone to activities.. we'll take her! :)
Anyway.. I wish I had cool stories to tell! I've just been sick all week. Sister Pratt (the lady I live with) took care of me while Sister Fors went out on splits- that was good. I watched Legacy twice, The Testaments twice and Joseph Smith once in English and once in Spanish. Good times. Everyone has really been helping me and loving and patient- so hopefully we'll figure this out soon. I've stopped taking the medicine, so I don't feel sick unless I eat which is really good but It's been over two weeks now with this! Ready for it to be over :)
I was reading in Mosiah 14 this morning. "through his stripes we are healed" This is the chapter this week. It's really short. But I love the message. In one of my blessings I got, I was told to learn more about the Atonement and it would help me and that I would be "healed according to my faith." So true! Anyway, I hope everyone is doing well! You are all in my prayers. Church is true :)
SFTE
Sister Cottrell
Hellooowwahh
It's been a pretty good week. HAPPY FATHERS DAY DAD! Hope you ate some good bbq and what not. Best dad ever! yay! Happy Fathers day to everyone else too. And HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Little Lily :) cute 1 year old! Give her a birthday kiss for me!
I gave a talk at district meeting about the importance of our callings as missionaries. It turned out good I think. I always use to look at people and thing, "how can they just get up and talk without reading stuff.. aren't they nervous they'll forget?" That's one thing that I am sooooooooo grateful for that I've learned on my mission. Relying on the spirit to tell you what to say. You prepare of course, but it's really cool to see what happens as you put your trust in the Lord. I talked a lot about our power as missionaries and how the prophets and apostles say that we are walking with Peter, James and John and that "we are Apostles with a lower case "a"-Elder Holland and one more that I liked "if we understood our calling we would know that we have all the powers available to us"-Alex Boye If you have time look up "my commission" onlds.org.
I had a guy come in wanting answers to "some questions" At the VC you always get nervous when people like that come in. We went in the art exhibit and he started asking me about what "rebirth" meant to me. I thought, sweet.. i'm gonna tell him about baptism. Well... all he wanted to do was argue and tell me that I'm not "submitting myself to Jesus" because I am part of a religion and that's standing in my way. Basically I just sat there and listened and then finally I just said, "what is your motive for coming in here today? And how did you find out about our church" He had no interest in answering my simple questions.. just interested in trying to get me to deny my faith. FINALLY one of the other sister walks in and I said, "sister, can you bring me my bible, please?" This is the code to go get the senior priesthood holder to come save me. Unfortunately the sister who came in is new and... she really went and got me a bible.. sweet. The guy asked if he could get me some water.. umm no. But he went to get some water for himself so I explained to the sister what, go get me my bible meant. She finally went to get him and he comes and I said, "Elder, this man has some questions and I think you could answer them way better than I could " he says, "really? I think you'd do a WAY better job than I do.. you always do!" (looks like we need to do some TRAINING PEOPLE!!) So I said, NO, trust me, you can answer better. He caught on and told me to go to my next post. The guy left after I left though because he couldn't dominate the conversation with the Elder. You get some interesting people. Speaking of interesting people, the lady that told me Jesus came to her and taught her tithing came in again yesterday and told me I had "supermodel hair" I said thank you! And sister fors said something like, yeah I wish I had hair that long. The next 20 min were both entertaining and interesting as the lady got up in sister for's face and told her how beautiful she was and that she should never compare herself to anyone because God made her that way. I quote, "What is wrong with you?!?! We do NOT have a "made in china" stamped on our butt, okay! We are daughters of God!" Love my life.
Brandon.. the kid i'm teaching over chat has a baptismal date this Saturday! I'm way excited for him! We are continuing to find. We have a couple investigators that are really promising. One is a family and one is a man! Just what we've been praying for.
We had a fathers day ward party that was really fun! The difference in the mothers day one and the fathers day one was sooo different. So funny. The mothers day one the men were in charge and we had pot luck with noodles and beans and spaghetti and with the women were in charge of the fathers day one and we had a complete meal with organized entertainment. It was really fun. I'll have to send pictures.
The ch this week is 2NE10... "they who are not for me are against me" Enjoy:)
Love you all!
SFTE
Family!!
Hello! Great week on the mission. There really is never a dull moment at the VC. I had a few more creepers come in this week. This HUGE red-head with a beard came in and told me all about how he has "seasons" and Sequels of books written in his mind and he's just waiting for them to be published.. He just has to write it on paper, but it's done. He was so excited to tell me about the first one. It's about Lucifer and Lucifen. Lucifen has a body and Lucifer doesn't (obviously) as he put it. I was a little too encouraging I think because he followed me around the rest of the night. Security is tight though, no worries :)
We had an awesome district meeting this week about charity. We worked on "heaven sent questions" after the meeting we went out talking to people and we applied the training and BOOM 4 awesome TTI's. There were lots of pauses but as we looked for the spirit to give us the questions they always came. It was so cool to see how the Lord really wants to bless us.. we just gotta look for the guidance.
I went on exchanges with sister Noble this week, she's sister that just got here and amazingly, I know more spanish so I had to take the lead. I was pleasantly surprised actually! I think I lean on Sister Fors too much because I was actually able to get by! It was fun though. It was the first time I was out of sight and sound of sister fors in 4 months! Crazy. I had an interview with Elder Beckstrand and he told me that it was a huge complement to me that President kept me with sister fors so long because I must be really helping her with her anxiety and what not. I never thought of that. She helps me more than I help her, for sure! But, it was nice to hear.
There have been soooooooo many miracles coming out of the new art exhibit that we have! I wish I had time to write them all. Lets just say.. lots of baptisms coming up!!! Yay!
One cool experience this week was with a couple girls- maybe a little younger than me. I had a feeling to talk to them even though we were closing. I played the cristus for them anyway and before I played it I asked them to think about any doubts or concerns they have about the church- which I hadn't planned on saying. After the narration, I asked them to tell me what stood out to them. One of the girls told me that she loved the feeling of peace because she hadn't had the chance to go to church in a long time and also that she had a lesson with the missionaries (they are both recently baptized) about eternal families and it really upset her because she couldn't understand why she wouldn't be able to be or see her family in heaven. I didn't get the impression to jump in and tell her why and help her "get it" but I knew she just needed peace. I told them I wanted to do an activity with them. I had them come up to the wall and stand as close as they could to it without touching it. (It's the wall with the universe around the Cristus) I asked if they knew the picture they were looking at if they could only see one little dot of the picture. They just laughed, but I told them to step back to see the whole picture. The stars, the moon, the sun, the whole universe. I explained that we can only see that one little dot in our lives, but Christ can see the whole picture. He see's everything- past, present and future. The one girl stopped and looked at her friend and said "I haven't told you or anyone this yet.. but I know I need to go on a mission now." She hasn't even told her parents that she has gotten baptized yet because she thinks they wouldn't have let her.. so that might be rough for her, but I got their information and they want to come back. Anyway.. it was a way cool experience. We have had so many good things happen this week! I think the only bad thing was that I woke up with a really bad allergic reaction to something and we don't know what it is... I kinda look like I have leprosy. :/ I went to the doctor and they don't know what it is so they just gave me a bunch of medicine that makes you really drowsy. As if I wasn't tired enough already! Anyway.. it's all good.
Love you all! The chapter this week is John 8. How can it apply to you? I have been learning a lot about judging and casting stones and how important it is to... well.. not! So read it and see what you can come up with
SFTE
Love, Sister Cottrell
Happy Birthday to Cami and Happy anniversary to mom and dad! Yay! I wish I could send you all a pinata and a sombrero!
It's been a long week! Probably because my p-day is Tuesday this week and then i'll rotate to Monday next week because I am back in the VC. I lovvvvve being back in the VC. Although, I learned a ton of Spanish while being full field. It was the best "welcome back" surprise when a girl walked in that I had talked to a couple months ago. She came in sometime in March and she talked to me about going on a mission but she was confused and upset because she never got that big, huge answer that she NEEDS to go. I just looked at her and said, "neither did I." She was so surprised. I explained the scripture in D&C 4, "If ye have a desire to serve, ye are called to the work" I told her I prayed about it and Heavenly Father didn't tell me no, so I went! Well, she came in this week and she said that after she talked to me she sent in her papers and she is leaving in July to California, Spanish speaking (I can't remember which mission specifically) She said, "you were the reason I turned in my papers" (which I'm sure she was just being nice) but that was so rewarding! She'll be such a good missionary.
I have another "Alex" situation. I have an investigator at the VC that I call every week and teach him over the phone. He has a gf that is LDS so he wants to learn more. I sent the missionaries to his house and now he's going to institute and wanting to get baptized but still wants me to answer is questions, which is fine with me because most of the time you don't always get to know the end of the story at the VC.
We went to this "boot camp" thing in the morning with the elders and "Joe" was the trainer. Turns out, he's a guy that came into the VC once and spilled his guts to me about all his woahs and problems (which i'm happy to listen to of course) but everyone was saying, "Joe is sooo tough" and stuff like that. I thought to myself, and... i might of said it out loud a little bit, "he's not that tough, I know all his problems" I guess I ate my words the next day when I my arms were a little sore... But I still couldn't take him seriously as he was yelling at us.. please.
We have a new art exhibit in the VC! It's really pretty. The artist is Liz Lemon Swindle. You'll have to look up her art work online. The exhibit goes all summer :) I had a lady come talk to me at the back desk after she went through it. She started to cry and told me how beautiful it was. I started to talk and she cut me off and said, "No... I KNOW that my Redeemer lives. Jesus came to me and taught me everything and He came to me and taught me tithing." What do you say to that? She was a really nice lady. She's a regular.
I am starting to do media calls in Spanish! I did my first one yesterday and was able to have him agree to have the missionaries come visit him! Something I've really learned lately is that when you cast out all fear, the Lord really takes care of the rest. And Sister Fors helps me a lot too of course :)
I got a letter from gma Crandall about a "colored lady" (as she put it) she talked to on the plane that lives in Mesa. Edweina. Gma got her number and gave it to me to call because she needs friends! What a great missionary! Good job. I called her yesterday, but she was at work- but she wants me to call today! Thanks for the referral Grandma! Hopefully I can get her to come into the VC so I can meet her.
Anyway, it's been a good week. I am singing in the Spanish fireside with Elder Samuels on Sunday so Sister Beckstrand and I have been practicing when I am on shift a little bit. It's some dramatic song (right up my ally). I'm a little nervous, but it should work out fine.
Love you guys! The chapter this week is Mosiah 26. Always be willing to bear His name :)
SFTE
Love,
Sister Cottrell
