Happy Memorial Day!
This week has been a special one. I think one of the things I am going to miss the most about being a missionary, is just having so many spiritual experiences one right after the other and knowing that you are an instrument in the Lords hands. I went to the temple for the last time as a missionary on Tuesday. It was a really sacred experience. We took our time and they let us go see the sealing rooms... they are beautiful. I love the Mesa Temple!! and we wanted to go see the baptistry since we had never seen it before so we went down there and peeked our head in. Some cute worker asked if we wanted to go in. She said we were lucky because they aren't supposed to give tours and usually they don't let you in if you don't have all white on. But.. it was perfect timing. Afterwards we went and ate in the cafeteria. We were standing in line and one of the workers came up to us and said, "You sisters are really good missionaries, I can tell, you have a light and a glow about you,l... and I've seen a ton of missionaries" That meant a lot to me. Also one of the other workers paid for our food. Earlier in the celestial room, I saw a sister missionary in our district praying. I didn't want to interrupt, but I just felt like I needed to give her a hug. So I did. Later we had a district meeting and she came up to me and said, "I could tell that you didn't want to bother me, but that hug was an answer to my prayer so thank you" In that same district meeting I got an answer to MY prayer. The night before, I was saying my prayers before I went to bed and I just kept thinking and saying, "Heavenly Father.... I feel like I've done absolutely nothing for you on my mission... but you've done everything for me." In the district meeting we did a role play ( me and Sister Valladares) I told her I wanted to work on finding peoples needs so I told her to pretend that she was some random girl that came into the visitor center and I would use a scripture to try and help her. She told me her name was "rebecca" and I just started talking to her and she said that she had served a mission and it was so good to be in a VC. As we talked, I just kept thinking of my missionary scripture. Alma 26:37. We were talking about something completely different but I told her that I knew she needed to hear this scripture. In the scripture it says that God is mindful of every people whatsoever land they might be in and it talks alot about gratitude as well. I asked her what that means to her and she said that she was grateful that she could go serve a mission and help people know that God is mindful of them. I stopped her and said that God is mindful of HER and he is so grateful for her service and He is so proud of her and Heavenly Father wanted her to know that. We both started to cry and Hermana Valladares said that the person, "rebecca" was me.
We had our last exchanges this week! I was supposed to go with some other sisters, but I just knew I had to stay in my area and Sister Smith and West had to come with me. I wanted to go to the other area as planned because it's always fun to see different areas and see how people work, but I just kept thinking, this isn't about you. So they came to me and sister V went to the other sisters. It was a really good experience even though I had like 5 appts fall through. At the end of the night, both the sisters said that they learned so much and they needed the experience and they knew they needed to come with me so I was grateful that I followed the spirit.
We had our prep meeting on Friday and I had to give the spiritual thought at the beginning. It was really late notice and I didn't really know what to say, but I prayed and I just knew that someone needed to hear that Heavenly Father loved them and that he's proud of them. So although it was short, I read the scripture in 1Nephi 11 that says pretty much that I don't know everything, but I know that God loves His children. Afterwords Sister West came up to me and said, "I said a prayer last night and asked Heavenly Father to tell me if he was proud of me or not... so thank you so much." That meant a lot to me. I'm so grateful for the spirit. This week I have been focusing on listening in my prayers just as much as talking. It has made such a huge difference. I teach people all the time that prayer is a two way comunication... but how can He comunicate when we are the only one talking and listing off a big grociery list of what we need or what we are thankful for?
Wanna hear something crazy? So on Thursday night we had Andrea's baptismal interview... well she didn't pass... who knew that our cute, sweet, 75 year old investigator has a past? So we had a second interview the next day and she passed!! woohoo! Ready to go, right? Don't get your hopes up. So we swing by, the morning of the baptism to put hearts all over her door to get her excited for her baptism and her son-in-law is leaving for work and says, "the old woman isn't here!" HUH? Yeah, her other daughter found out she was getting baptized (who strong in her other religion) and bought Andrea a ticket to go see her other son in CALIFORNIA so that she wouldn't get baptized. Hmmm... borderline kidnapping, right? So in the middle of the night she was sent on a bus to CA. I.... started to laugh. Poor Andrea. She will be back in a couple weeks and be baptized though, so its okay. I felt fine about it, just because there was absolutely NOTHING I could have done to prevent it. Plus it makes a good story.
I'm filled with good stories this week. Like the other night I woke up in the middle of the night to Hermana Valladares talking in her sleep... not just talking... praying... in spanglish. "Padre Celestial, gracias por todo lo que tenemos, ayudenos a ser ejemplos y que siempre podemos STAND IN HOLY PLACES... gracias padre." and then she rolled to the other side of her bed and didn't say anything else. She's great.
I hope this will be a great last week! I love being a missionary so much. I'm so grateful that I have had this opportunity... LOVE.IT. I read my favorite story in the Book of Mormon today... Korihor. Alma 30. Alma is so patient. Read it :) Love you all!
SFTE
Hermana Cottrell
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