My Hand Hurts Feb 25,2013

Man I can't even think what happened this week! On Wednesday I was sickish but I didn't want to stay in because Hna Newton had been sick and we needed to work. It was hailing! Soooo cold on bikes! But now it's like summer so we're good. We had a lesson out in the cold with this guy and I said in the middle of the lesson, "you're not interested are you?" I love how much more blunt I am in Spanish. I guess it's the culture, but i'm definitely more bold. Speaking of which, we went to contact someone and found someone else in the garage. He kept looking behind an object like there was someone else there. I gave the guy an invitation and as I walked back I literally saw this grown man crouched in a baby position hiding from us. I smirked and acted like I didn't see him. I kept talking to the guy and he said he wasn't interested. I said, "that's okay! What about your friend over there?" He started laughing uncontrolably while I just sat there. And then he tried to play it off and say "who?" I said that guy over there that is hiding from us! He was super embarrassed. It was funny. Poor guy. 

We are teaching an old man named Jose. We were riding on our bikes and we didn't see him but he said HEY! so we turned around and went to teach him. He's like an Agustin! Like 70 and lonely. He is going through a really hard time though because he was fixing his car and it FELL on him! And... chopped his fingers off. Ouch. He said that the devil did it. Well we taught him how to pray. We taught him that prayer is nothing recited, its a conversation with you and God so feel free to say anything you want. This was his prayer, "Heavenly Father.. MY HAND HURTS!! In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen"..... Can't argue with that. Amen. 

We spent a good chunk of our weekend helping the Correa Family. They got sealed in the temple! We decorated Friday night and helped Saturday as well. Lets just say I really know how to throw a Mexican Wedding. We had Cheetos and fruit with hot sauce on top... that's what they wanted. Okay they had a lot more than that but I love every bit of the hispanic culture! 

In the VC meeting I talked about how even though I burnt easy bake cookies earlier in the week, God is the best chef! He brings all of us very unique people together and he needs us all to become something amazing and delicious. If just one person is sour though and has a bad attitude, it could spoil the whole thing. A lot of times, we don't know what he's cookin, but he always does! 

We found out the news of 58 more missions! Did you all see that we are getting two more missions? Gilbert and Scottsdale? It wont effect me, but some of the missionaries in our mission will have to change missions! 60,000 missionaries! Can you believe that? Can you imagine Joseph Smiths face right about now! So cool! I'm so glad I decided to come! The bar has been raised... drastically! Gives me chills. We're getting a TON of new missionaries next transfer and splitting areas and everything's gonna get crazy to put it lightly. The new mission president will come in soon.. poor guy's gonna be a little overwhelmed. We are going to have a meeting and President ellsworth is going to show us all the changes that we will have on Wednesday, so I'll keep you updated. 

We sang in church yesterday! That was good. There was a lady that had her dad pass away like 3 days ago and had signed up to feel us and forgot. We felt really bad so later that night we doorbell ditched her with a box of chocolate covered strawberries that mom sent us. I was prayin to know who to give it to and I knew she needed them. Sister Newton knocked really lightly so I thought they didn't hear, so I went back up to knock really hard and they opened the door so I ran as fast as I could.. they caught us. But it was funny. 

That's the week! loveyou!

Read Ether chapter 3! The Brother of Jared. Think of the plan of salvation as you read it.

Write me! SFTE

Love,

Hermana Cottrell   

We're all on the same team, right? 2-18-13

Another good week :) It started off with an old lady giving us $20 at walmart for our groceries. Nice. It was a little different experience from the last time i went to that walmart. Some old guy saw that I was holding a Book of Mormon and yelled, "that's a Book of Mormon?? EVERY ONE OF THOSE BOOKS SHOULD BE BURNED! That's a cult!!!!" ahhh... good times. 

Sister Newton was sick for a couple days.. it was hard trying to figure out splits and still trying to work. We couldn't afford to not visit people for two days. I got to go out with sister Larson though, that was really fun. We even set a baptismal date together. Speaking of baptismal dates.... Remember Judy? So I get a call from the english elders in our area and they said, "hey are you teaching a lady named Judy?" I said "yeah, she's getting baptized in a couple weeks on the 23rd" they said, "uh... we have the same investigator with the same baptismal date" What? So apparently we've been teaching the same person with the same date because she speaks both english and spanish. I found her when I first got out on my mission but I just said that whatever is best for her and her family.. as long as she gets baptized. Well, we had a zone meeting this week and the Elder taps me on the shoulder and says,"ehem, so I talked to Judy and her son said that he wants to go to the English ward.. so sorry.. but hey.. we're on the same team, right?" I had a good attitude before he did that. So... the day before Valentines day when Sister Newton was sick, me and Sister Larson went and heart attacked her fence. She texted us the next day and said she wanted to meet with us. I told her that she could either meet with us or the Elders but not both but she is welcome to come to the primary activity on Saturday and church on Sunday. She came to both! Ya wanna know the best part? On the way to go to OUR ward in Spanish, Judy got a flat tire and the Elders went to go help her. So basically they helped her get to our church. But hey.. we're all on the same team, right? haha It's fun to joke around with them and they are really good Elders. Judy already has a few really good friends in the ward and her kids love it and have friends too. She came to the baptism last night too which was AWESOME! It was a "waptism" (wedding and baptism) We had to take everyone from the relief society to the chapel because there were so many people. It was a really good turn out. It was the Ferrer family and they looked SO happy! 

On Valentines day, it was pretty funny. We got lots of new investigators but it was all old, single men. I think people were just lonely. But one of them came to church! We set a baptismal date with Osvaldo (Claudia and Nadia's dad!) I hope he's serious. That was a good day. 

We had a fundraiser for the young women to go to girls came. They did a nice dinner and they had a bidding on the desserts they made. We (they) raised over $900!! They did a good job. I was glad we could help though. The next day was the primary activity. We got all the primary kids and had them decorate cut-out hearts. My personal favorite was one that said, "all the cool kids go to church" we then went and delivered them with all the kids to the less actives. So we had like 50 kids show up at each door with hearts and cupcakes. They loved it. it was really fun. 

I had a prompting to go knock on a door of a white person that I had referred over to the english elders and I didn't know why. I found him outside his house and he's super hardcore but really nice. He was a little smug the first time I met him but I knew i had to go for some reason. He used to be like a preacher or something and then eventually left and came up with his own believes... which are spot on with ours. I knocked on the door and started talking to him and his face was completely different from the first time. I said why are you different this time? He said he has been depressed and he needs a job. Sister Newton (who wasn't here when I met him the first time) told him to read 3 Nephi 11 before we left. I couldn't believe it. That was the same chapter that I had left him with the first time. He needs to read it apparently. Anyway... I hope the Elders take all the time they were spending on Judy and go over to his house. There were a lot of other miracles that happened with him but i don't have time ;/

Anyway... that was the week! I hope everyone had a good valentines day filled with... good stuff :) Love you!

The chapter is 3Nephi28 

SFTE

Hermana Cottrell 

FOLLOWING THE SPIRIT 2-11-13

Hola!

It's a cold and rainy day here in AZ! We are grateful for the English sisters with a car that can take us around on pday. This week has been pretty eventful. I sent Sister Holladay and Sister Sordes home. That was sad. But i'm sure they are enjoying being with family. I went out with the english sisters on splits while I waited till Wednesday to get my new companion. I was soooo excited for an american meal.. Chicken/potatoes/steak... Guess what we ate? Mexican food! I just laughed and said, of course :) It was really interesting going out with the English sisters though. We went and saw this lady that they are teaching and she speaks Spanish too so I taught her the plan of salvation in spanish and she can feel the spirit and understand better in spanish so it was good that I was able to teach. It was really cool too because whenever the english sisters would talk, they didn't understand me, but they were spot on and they would even repeat some of the things that I would say or ask. That's when you know you are all teaching by the spirit :) English work actually made me a little homesick! I guess being in real homes with real couches reminds me of home! It surprised me. It was really fun though, i'm glad I got to go.

The promptings of the spirit are starting to become clearer and clearer to me. It's like elder Bednar said, "one of the ways you can distinguish if the spirit is telling you something is if you really don't want to do it, you should probably do it" We were going to visit some people and then we were on our way.. I thought.. eh we should go see Marta and see how she's doing. In the same trailer park there was a lady sitting outside. Apparently she's never home (i've been in that trailer park probably 100 times and i've never seen her) but she just happened to be there. I invited her to the easter pageant and started talking to her. After about 5 min we come to find out that she is a member, she's gone through the temple and she's been inactive for 12 years. She got offended by someone. I asked her if she still believes it's true and she said yes and that she still reads the Book of Mormon. She said that she's completely alone and no one cares about her.. not even her 6 kids that have grown up and moved away. I told her that she has a family at the church and we were there to help her but she kept saying, "Nope, i'm alone!" Before I walked away I asked her to think about this question, "Do you have a testimony of the church? Or do you have a testimony of the people?" To my surprise she sat there for a min and said, "i'm going to think about that" I told her we would stop by when we were in the area. 

Another time when i felt a prompting was when I saw this little boy playing soccer by himself. I said hi and then rode off. I then thought... nah, lets go play soccer with him. So we went over there and started kicking the ball back and forth. I was thinking about all the people that we needed to visit, but the spirit said... just wait. So we waited and out walks his uncle. I continued to kick the ball around (so they wouldn't go back inside) while Hermana Newton talked to the Uncle (Jorge). We found out that Jorge has taken some lessons before and knows all about the church he asked what "ward" we're in- that's when you know they know alot. He wants to learn more! So we taught him and set up a return appointment. 

The last one i'll share is when we were biking home from a long day and we were so hungry. I passed a different trailer park and remembered we had a referral there. I knew the referral guy wouldn't be home because he works during that time, but I knew we needed to go over there. So we turned around. (Poor Sister Newton- I always just randomly turn around) We found his next door neighbors home fixing some bikes. I said, "hey! Will you fix MY bike?" I started teasing them and found out something interesting! The kid said, "hey I have that book!" I asked him if he still reads it and he said he did. Apparently, him and his brother and sister got baptized like 3 years ago (but not their parents) and they moved.. so they didn't know which church to go to so they just didn't go. We are excited to go back and teach the parents and the whole family together.

This week we taught the Young Women at mutual in the English ward. The leaders wanted us to come because the elders serve in their ward. That was really fun! We talked about spiritual experiences that we've had on the mission and we talked about gross things we've eaten and how a mission can change their lives. It's good to reflect and what not.

We are still teaching Ana.. She's... like my best friend. I love her. I'm so glad we started teaching her again. I think I like her so much because she thinks i'm hilarious. I don't know why.. anyway, I have seen how Heavenly Father has been preparing her when I left the area the first time. Ana lost her 22 year old son a couple years ago. He was murdered in Mexico and she is still devastated. That being said we had a really powerful Plan of Salvation lesson. We also had a church tour with her and she is really making progress. I hope round 2 will be her time to join the church. 

I am loving my companion! It's so fun working with someone that came out the same time as me! I just realized that we haven't taken any pictures together! I actually don't think i've taken any pictures at all this week! I will do better.

The chapter is 3NE 11.. I studied this chapter this morning. Pay attention to the order that Christ does things and teaches the people, it's really interesting. Hope you can feel the spirit as you read it, I did :)

Love you all! Happy Valentines day!

Pray for me

Seek for the Eternal

Hermana Cottrell

pictures from Beckstrand blog 2-10-13

CHEENA BOOFET FEB 4 20013

THE CHEENA BOOFET

TRANSFERS- FULL FIELD 2-4-13

Hey fam!

Welp, we had transfers this week, guess what? I'm a full field sister! Sister Newton is coming to me. She came out with me and she just got done training so it should be a good/short transfer. Laci knows her cousin or something if i remember right??  It's only a 5 week transfer. We'll see what happens though. I'm sending Hermana Holladay off today- so weird. She gave me the scoop on all the interviews you have when you leave. It's weird. Hermana Valladares is training! Can you believe i'm already a grandma in the mission? I'm too young for that. I will be on splits with some english sisters in my zone until Wednesday... i'm really excited for that. Mostly i'm just excited to have american food and see how it is. I'm really nervous though because they dont give us any time on the phones... so i don't know what's going to happen to all my referrals and investigators on the phone :/ God will take care of them. Speaking of investigators on the phone, Brandon blessed the sacrament and was praying about going on a mission!!! And he was going to get his patriarchal blessing.

This week has been good. Hermana Sordes from France is going home too as well. That's been a lot harder on me than I thought. We have become really good friends and she taught me a lot. Hopefully I will be able to go visit her... maybe for her wedding :) 

District meeting we gave a training on Teach when you find, Find when you teach. We practice doing one min lessons (mostly it was a hint to the elders that talk forever) but they had to pick an object out of a bag and teach the restoration and when the one min was up we pounded on the piano. 

I've eaten at 2 buffets this week... i about died. Agustin INSISTED that he take us to the "Cheeena Booofett" as he called it. Ugh. So nice of him. 

We had stake conference this week and we had a really good meeting with Elder Hanson from the 70 come. We also had a special meeting for investigators and recent converts. It was really powerful and we were able to get almost all of our investigators and recent converts there. The biggest thing I learned in Stake conference was how to give a talk! It probably wouldn't have learned this ever if I didn't come on a mission. Words like Relief Society and Beehives and Sunbeams... no one knows what that means if you're not a member. Also, a lot of talks are given as like "thank you speeches  or goodbye speeches. Teach us something! State fact. State testimony. Don't say things just to make people like you. I realize that talks help the person more than the audience, but it's not for you. Anyway... maybe it was just because I was listening in English. I hope i can remember that when I get home even if I am from utah and everyone is pretty much members. I was grateful for Elder Hansens talk about the resotration and how he told the story in it's entirety and taught like it was the first time anyone was hearing it. He's powerful.

Well... that's pretty much all the note worthy news. Love you all. I will still be in meetings every week at the VC so you can still send mail there and I will get it. If not just send it to the mission office. It'll probably get to me the same time either way. 

Seek for the Eternal

The Chapter is Helaman 14.. Agency- it's simple :)

Hermana Cottrell