Last photos from Sister B's Blog 6-3-03

Last Letter of the MISSION June 3, 2013

WEIRD!! Last letter. It's been such an incredible journey. I got up yesterday and bore my testimony for the last time in our ward and said that I know I haven't perfected missionary work nor Spanish, but I have come to know my Savior. I had my departure interview with President Ellsworth on Saturday and it was exactly what I needed. I'm so grateful for him and his humble leadership. The first thing he said was, "So how do you feel about your mission?" When I could get the words out I just said, "grateful" President gave me advice that I will take with me forever and use it. Even though he talks to a million missionaries.. he teaches by the spirit. He teaches the same principles, but in different ways and that's how the Lord teaches us. Teach people not lessons. I know that because me and Sister Larson went to have our interviews in Scottsdale together and we talked about it later and it was the same principles, but completely different. Sister Larson and I have made this journey together from day one and I am so grateful for her... she'll always be my sister. My response was similar to the interview with Elder and Sister Beckstrand as they asked me questions about my mission- "I'm just grateful that it was so hard." I'm grateful that Heavenly Father loved me enough to let me go through a lot of hard times but while constantly letting me see and be apart of miracles and seeing the tender mercies that He's always ready and willing to give.

I guess I will explain the week- On Tuesday a guy came into the VC- actually it was the guy that was taking down the Redeemer art exhibit and he brought this other guy, Lawrance in because he had asked for money to get some water because his car broke down and they had been walking forever, so they gave him water and told him to come into the VC with him. Well, he was looking for a church for him and his 3 kids to go to apparently. He's a single dad and he's looking for a change in his life. So I got his info and sent the missionaries :) Thursday I had my last district meeting. I gave a farewell testimony and read, "My Commission" by Bruce R Mconkie and talked about how lucky we are to stand where the Savior would stand and say what He would say. How cool is that? How great is our calling. 

I was able to contact the referral that gma Cottrell gave me and she is awesome!!!! She wants to learn more and she still wants me to teach her through email when I get home even though another sister will be teaching her. Thanks GMA!! :) 

We had our farewell breakfast at the Beckstrands house with all the sisters and the senior couples on Friday. Sister Lewis, me Sister Larson and then Sister Avila bore testimonies. I stood up and got a big lump in my throat looking out at all of my sisters. I said that I was so upset that I had already started to cry because I hadn't been sad at all but that I could feel my heart slowly breaking. I told them how honored that I feel to have worked with such righteous people and to be in there presence. I told them how grateful I am to have been a missionary, so grateful that I sleep with my tag on at night. I said that my tag is now painted on my heart though just like they said in General conference. My testimony was simple, but it was one of Christ, that I have come to know Him in a different way. I had a strong testimony before, but it's so different now. It's like a relationship with someone where in the beginning everything is perfect and then later you REALLY get to know them and you go through problems and ups and downs... but they mean so much more to you and your relationship is deep and has meaning. I truly have felt that I have gotten to know the Savior in such a different way and I love Him and I'm so grateful that He loves me enough to mold me and make me stretch. After the meeting we went to the VC in front of the Christus and everyone sang, "God be with you till we meet again" to us. Then we took like a million pictures and cried and it was all dramatic... I loved it. The ward and the other sisters put together a surprise Family Night at the park where one of my converts came.. it was awesome! So many people were there. At the same time though I felt kinda weird because we just got to the area and I don't know too many people.. but it was really sweet. 

As I was announcing over the microphone that the VC was going to close for one of the last times, I got nervous I guess because I said, "The Visitor Center will be closing in 5 min, thank you for CALLING and please come again" ugh. Also, another funny thing... we were in bed and there is just a small isle between me and Sister V's bed and she thinks she's funny sometimes and hits me.. this time I grabbed her arm and pulled her off her bed in between the small space with her face first and no hand to catch herself because I had grabbed it. That... was a good laugh for both of us. 

Yesterday Miguel, Franky AND Melissa (Miguel's little sister) came to church. They all loved it and they found friends from school that they already knew! All the youth had just got back from youth conference too so they ALL bore their testimonies in front of Frankie and Miguel about their experience. Miguel came up to me after church and said, "hey I have a question about the whole baptismal date that we have" I thought, "oh no..." but he said, "Is there anyway we can move it up faster!?" AHHHHHHHHHH. Yes. Yes you can. We can do that. Ah... they're so awesome. I just wish I was going to be there. We've already planned to be Facebook friends though and I get to keep tabs on them. 

We ate at the bishops house for "The Last Supper" last night and I shared the same scripture that I shared in the first dinner I had on my mission. Alma 26:37. After that we went to the VC to work and almost all my friends came to see me! It was really neat. I took a million pictures again and testified my heart out! 

I have loved my mission. I will be forever grateful for it. Thank you for all your prayers, letters and support! I know that Christ lives and loves us and knows what we need. I know that He suffered for us and cries when we cry and rejoices when we do what's right. He truly is the son of God. He knows His purpose perfectly and never forgets. I never want to forget mine either. I know that He's always, constantly trying to communicate with us.. but we sometimes forget to just listen. I have learned to "get out of the way" as Elder Bednar told me directly as an answer to my question, "What is your definition of a consecrated missionary" I am so grateful for that advice and will continue to use it throughout my life. I know that the Book of Mormon is true and that if you just say a prayer and stick your finger in a random place, He'll talk to you. It's happened so many times to me and I can't deny that. I know that Thomas S. Monson is called of God and holds all the keys of the Priesthood. I know Joseph Smith saw what he said he saw and carried out this last dispensation in these last days. I know there are a lot of good churches, but this is the only one that has everything. It's the ONLY one. While I have been on my mission I have been God's investigator. And we all are. I just hope I can ALWAYS be a "progressing investigator" as one of the Key Indicators say because I am being taught by a perfect teacher, so if i'm not learning, i'm in the way and it's my fault. I love you all so much and I will see you tomorrow! I read Alma 37 today and even though it wasn't on purpose, the counsel that Alma is giving his son, Helaman is the counsel that I know Heavenly Father wanted to give to me today. Also to all of you so I hope you can all read it. 

Ps- another miracle! On the way to write emails guess who I saw walking on the side of the road?! Marta Esperanza Cruz Sanchez!!! My sweet convert. That I hadn't gotten to see before I left. We turned around and pulled over and we both screamed. She gave me a huge, wet kiss with her sweaty face in this 110 degree weather and we loved it. Tender mercy miracle. Love me some missionary work.

"Seek for the Eternal" Always.

Con amor y Cariño,

Hermana Sara Cottrell 

LAST WEEK OF THE MISSION- STORIES!

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

Travel itinerary May 20, 2013

This week was zone conference. It was really good. We all brought a member and we did like an MTC experience where we taught the members on the spot. President Ellsworth got so excited that we all did so well at zone conference that he jumped up and did a heal-click! And he's kinda getting old. Sister Ellsworth's face was priceless like "what the heck and why did you just do that" Hermana Valladares could NOT stop laughing... like 8 hours later she still had tears from laughing... anyway...we're still laughing. In the zone conference we talked a lot about the desires of our hearts. It made me think a lot.

I got my travel plans on Wednesday... weird. It actually doesn't feel weird, but I guess it just hasn't sunk in yet. I think i'm in denial that i'm not in denial.

I got like a 2 day cold but now i'm doing better.

Andrea- the 75 yr old that is getting baptized this Saturday (Gabby's gma and Omar's gma- the Omar that Hermana Weber and I baptized) came to the VC and then they came to church the next day... the whole fam! We fasted for that and it worked. It's been so cool to be in the right time at the right place and to help so many people be baptized in that family!! First Gabby's Uncle in Liahona 4th ward, then her cousin in Liahona 3rd ward and now her gma in Arboleda ward!

 You remember Alonzo? The one that me and sister Weber were teaching.. he's from Colombia. Anyway... out of ALLLLL the prepared, golden people that we were teaching HE got baptized on Saturday, the first out of all of them!!!! I wasn't able to go because I couldn't get permission. I heard it was an incredible baptism. Omar gave a talk and Alonzo bore his testimony and cried through the whole thing. I was sad I missed it, BUT the next day (yesterday) I was working at the VC and Sister Larson and Weber walked in and said, "we're doing splits and you're going to Alonzo's confirmation!" AHHH so I got to go and see everyone. The first think Alonzo said was, "HEYYYY I missed you yesterday... I was waiting for you!" that made me feel good... he didn't forget about me. He's made SUCH a change a complete 360. We are so proud of him. 

Speaking of not getting permission. Sister Valladares, me and Sister Larson were planning on singing at my last mission presidents fireside... but the rule is that you have to bring an investigator. We got Andrea to commit to go, but at the last min she said she was tired from church... which I don't really blame her- we had a guy from the stake spout out a 40 min talk with someone translating for him- I was losing patience. Anyway... It was sad that we weren't able to go, BUT we found a big, huge family to teach instead. Maybe I wanted to go to the fireside, but I didn't fast for me, I fasted for the success of the area and that's what Heavenly Father gave me.  So I'm grateful. Anyway, it was a good week.... It's all just mixing together.

Love you all read Alma 22-23! Ammon and Aaron are the bom. I'm learning so much from them.

Seek for the Eternal

Hermana Cottrell

MAY PHOTOS 2013

Team Awesome

The Sisters Training Meeting

Cookies do NOT FRY FYI

SUPER HERO DISTRICT

SISTER CRAWFORD AN SISTER TENNY 

Happy Mothers Day 5-13-13

Hello Fam!

It was a good week! Happy Mothers day! :) Love you marm! Thanks for all you do for me! It was so fun to see everyone on skype! Hope everyone had a good day with lots of chocolates and flowers :)

 Sister Valladares and I did two days of splits with the sisters this week. It's a lot of work trying to figure out everything but we see so many cool things happen as we see help the sisters and as they help us. It was a good week. It was crazy with two exchanges in one week, but everything worked out. The exchanges are far more effective than I ever imagined. With Sister Christensen and Sister Reyburn the first time on Tuesday, we worked really hard and exceeded our goals throughout the day. All of our faith was strengthened. Sister Christensen is a great example and trainer to Sister Reyburn and Sister Reyburn is so diligent and humble with learning Spanish. They are great examples to me. They said that they had fun and they learned new things. It was great for us as well because they knew our area very well since we actually split the ward. I tried helping them with their boldness... by telling Jorge in one of our lessons that he was an Apostasy and he doesn't understand anything, expecially the Restoration... that was a cool lesson... and a long story. But they thought that was awesome. I felt that that was what the spirit told me to say. The next day Jorge told us that we were right and he needs to think about being baptized.

I went to Snowflake!!! If you're not familiar with that town.. its 3 hours away from mesa. President Ellsworth and Sister Ellsworth personally escorted me there... no pressure. It was a privilege to be able to talk to them for so long (6 hours) and get advice and council and reflect on my mission and on theirs since they will be leaving soon as well. Going to help the sisters in Snowflake was definitely needed. It's a small town that looks like Idaho or Kamas. And it's cooooold! Not really... but compared to Mesa I was freezin. As far as the exchange goes, it was a struggle at first because they thought that I was there just to tell them everything that they were doing wrong (they were pretty defensive), but once I explained everything and that i was just there to help and to lift their area and, their hearts opened. Especially Sister Tenny. She needed a friend. She has the desire to work hard, but it's hard for her sometimes because of her companion. Sister Crawford changed a lot too, it was hard for her especially because she has been out almost as long as I have and she hates people correcting her on anything. Sister Tenny told me that this exchange was so good for her because Sister Crawford had some accountability. We saw a lot of miracles and had a lot of success. Sister Crawford has to take a nap every day I guess because of her health, so while she was asleep I told Sister Tenny that we were going to call members to go out with us. We called and called and no one answered. I said that we were going to say a prayer and after the prayer I promised her that someone would answer and they would go out with us. After I said amen, she said, "I KNOW WHO TO CALL!" We contacted the girl and she said yes and came out with us. That was a cool experience. We found them some new investigators- one inparticular was a family that were all members except for the dad. Their son is even going on a mission in Sept. I asked their son to tell his dad his testimony of the Savior, everyone was crying... especially the mom. Now the dad is preparing for his baptism :) Sister Crawford said that that day was the "best day ever" and Sister Tenny said that it was the first time she had felt the spirit since she had gotten up there. I was present for their companionship inventory and it was really effective. They made some really good goals for obedience and for changing their attitudes. It was definitely a success. 

As far as our area goes, we are just trying to keep up with it! We have so much work and so many people that just need to go to church and be baptized. Andrea stopped drinking coffee completely which made us so happy! The only problem is that she is attending a different ward with her daughter instead of Arboleda... they want to change to our ward though. She is scheduled to be baptized on the 25th. We plan to find, find, find! We've seen many miracles, but we know that there are even more prepared people! This week Sister Watkins and Sister Perries will come to me and Sister Valladares will go to Sister Miller and Ibyun. We are excited.

I gave my last testimony at Zone Training meeting. Weird. I talked about how the mission is a refiners fire and Heavenly Father likes His servants humble and through our trials, he can mold us and do what He needs to be done, not what we think needs to happen. I talked about how we are here to serve, not to BE served. It turned out well I think. Anyway, it was soooo fun to see the FAMMMMMM!! yay! But weird that I'll see everyone in just 3 weeks. It doesn't feel like it, but i'm sure it'll hit me one of these days.

Sister Valladares and I have been studying so much about Alma and Amulek! I want to be them. I hope you can read Alma 14 and 15 this week. They were so strong through everything. Love you all. "Seek for the Eternal"

Hermana Cottrell

From Sister B's Blog May 13 2013