Familyuhhh!!!
So much to write in so little time!! First of all, I hope everyone watched conference! AHHH!! I was freaking out about the age change! I heard rumors last year that they were going to change the woman's age to 20.. but 19?!?! To answer your question dad, YES I would have gone at 19, are you kidding me? I remember when I was 19 and thinking... boys are soooooo lucky! I could have been GONE by now! Wow... It made me cry because we really are in the last days and the Lord is like, okay HERE we go! BAM. Makes me think of the stripling warriors, how they were so young, but all of them SO strong. The more missionaries that come out, the more prepared they are. SPEAKING OF NEW MISSIONARIES!!!!!!
There was a BIG surprise/change in my mission this week! I am training.. again! Starting over in the 12 week program with Hermana Valladaras from Honduras! So Sister Mendoza and I went to the VC to do our shift from 9-3 and right before I went to my station I got a call from President Ellsworth. He scared the crap out of me because when I answered, he was so hesitant to tell me something and seemed so nervous that I thought something had happened to my family! But he said that the missionary that Sister Sordes was starting to train (hna valladaras) just barely got a license like last month, and sister Sordes doesn't have one from france... and bikes wouldn't work, so they had to switch. So Sister Mendoza went with Sister Sordes to finish up her training and I am starting fresh with Sister Valladaras. President came to the vc and sat us all down and told us that when he was figuring out transfers he had it set up that I was going to train again and Sister sordes was going to take sister mendoza but then he thought (no.. I want sister Cottrell to finish up training Sister Mendoza with the 12 week program) But... the way it worked out.. the Lord said, "Nope!" you were right the first time. So we had an emergency transfer last Friday and within an hour I had a new greenie :) She is soooooooooooooooo cute! I love her so much! Like I said before, the Lord is PREPARING his missionaries. She came pre-trained. For real. I am so excited to work with her, she's so sweet. With in these last few days my spanish is so much better too! Although her english is really good, we speak in spanish most of the time. She went to a bilingual school in Honduras. She loves to sing too, so we are already going to sing at a baptism and sacrament. She's so willing to learn and so happy. It's been such a good week!
Last week Sister Mendoza and I were walking to an appointment and it fell through so we started talking to everyone who was out and about. There was a group of teenage girls painting their nails, so I asked them if they could paint mine! They said sure. Before I left I asked one of the girls if she wanted to say a prayer with us and she gladly accepted and gave a really good prayer. At the end, one of the girls shyly said, "i'm a member" I told her I had never seen her at church before and she said that her and her family had been busy. So I asked her if she could introduce us to her parents. I hadn't seen them before either. We set up an appointment and came back a few days later with Hermana Valladaras. We had planned to teach about missionary work, but before I started I had the feeling to talk about the temple. I shared why I was here on a mission, so that they could be with their families forever. We read a few scriptures and at the end, the dad asked if we could sing a hymn. We sang and all of them were sobbing. It started with their little boy crying. His dad just looked up as he was holding him and said, "he's feeling the spirit" The dad couldn't sing anymore because he was so choked up. It was a miracle that we found them.. but God wasn't surprised! I have such a testimony that God is putting people in our path. I could tell 50 stories like that that have happened on my mission. We are just the pieces that God moves around. It's such a cool feeling to look back and know you followed the spirit.
We had an FHE with the ward last night at the park and we had 5 investigators show up with families! It was very successful. The ward fellowshipped (finally!) and we made a lot of progress. Most of our investigators and their families are better than most our members in the ward, we just need to trip them in the water I guess! We had a lesson, food and a game. Sister Valladaras has lots of games because she was an EFY counselor in Honduras.. who knew they had efy there! Cool.
Anyway.. Good week! I will email pictures :) I would have written more about conference, but I watched most of it in spanish with our investigators.. so I want to study it more.
The Chapter this week is 1 nephi 12 and 13.. think of our day and the love that God has for you!
Love you all!
SFTE
Sister Cottrell
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