Just call me Sister: BAM- Be A Missionary!

Another week has past in the Great California San Fernando Mission. It was a tense week for all of us who started to dread the inevitable phone calls coming Saturday telling us of our fate for the next transfer. It was so hard to focus at times. I am grateful for my companion who helped me out so much! I guess the reason why I was so distracted about getting transfered was because I have never been in an area for longer than 3 transfers. Well I just finished transfer number 3 so my mind would wander to this subject. Well transfer calls came on Saturday afternoon. I am happy to report that I am staying for at least another transfer in the Northridge YSA ward AND Sister Kemp gets to stay too! WOOHOO!!!!!!! I am so excited. Right after we got the call we got another call from the Assistants telling us that we are moving on Tuesday into a brand new apartment! This I am excited for. The apartment we live in is pretty run down. So we have a brand new car and a brand new apartment. Another reason why I am so excited about this change is because it has been so difficult to talk about our Sisters in our Apartment when we have other sisters living with us. So now we get to really focus on our Sisters and help them with their needs.

We went on exchanges this week. They felt so off. There has just been something this transfer going on in our mission. None of us quite know what it is but all of the leaders are starting to talk about it. We feel like we have been trained to be robots, and that missionaries dont know what exchanges are or for. I wont say who but there was a previous Sister Training Leader who told her new missionary that exchanges are just a visit. I couldn't believe it! Exchanges are so much more than visits. They last for 24 hours! And we train the Sisters on what they need help with. Before Elder Kopischke came we were given a training plan to execute on the exchanges but now we are tailoring them specifically to what they need help with. Which make so much more sense to me! We have so many new missionaries in our mission that we have a lot of work to do to "catch them up to speed." We need them to know whats going on and how its going to go on. Of course things will need to take time to sink in but there are just some things in mission life that you need to know and understand right off the bat. So Sister Kemp and I will be working hard this week to figure out what we need to do to build our boat of "curious workmanship" like Nephi did. We will be working with the Lord closer than ever, and receive the revelation we need in steps to ensure that our boat floats and doesn't sink.

Sugar is doing so well!!!!! She is the ray of sunshine in my life that I have needed for so long. Not only is she understanding the Book of Mormon as she is reading it but she is doing everything in her power to become a part of the culture of the church. She comes to every activity she can get to (she doesn't have a car and rides are sparse sometimes). People in the ward now know who she is and she is becoming fast friends with some of them. This week her work (the candy store) put on a halloween party for a former pussy cat doll. We were really worried about her having a hard time keeping the Word of Wisdom. We gave her some lines to use if she got put in a situation where she was offered a drink. She made it successfully through the night!!!!!!! She got nervous at one point but was able to get out of the situation. The next morning she was reporting how the night went and then she remembered that she had a whole thing of sweet tea right before the party!!!!hahahaha poor thing she was trying so hard to avoid the alcohol and missed the tea. Its okay though its getting much better! We love her so much. She also informed us that she prayed one night about us not getting transferred. " Heavenly Father, please bless that Sister Cottrell and Sister Kemp will not get transferred and that they will stay in this ward, and in this area." When we told her we weren't getting transferred she literally jumped up and down yelling "Yay!" She jumped so high that she almost hit her head on the ceiling in her apartment. What made this more funny was that two of the guys from our ward were there when it all happened. hahahahaha So now we get to stay for her baptism and get to continue to watch her amazing progression. Sugar is a miracle for this area and its about time the ward got to experience all of it. I am so grateful to stay in this area and actually get to continue working with the ward. We are making progress through the Bishop and I get to be apart of it all!!! hooray!

One of our former ward members gave us a paper with the words "BAM! be a missionary" I thought it was so clever and so true. So whenever you think about the word BAM just know that you are telling yourself to be a missionary! hahahaha Also we just found out that the guy who plays Satan in the new temple video is one of our former YSA's! His name is Corbin Allred. Its Awesome!

Other than these main events we had a pretty slow week. We took a Sister to go have a surgery and have just been there helping in her recovery. Its been a draining week but good overall. This next week is going to be very busy and very fulfilling. I hope you all have an amazing week! Keep hanging in there. Dont let the flu bug get to you.

Oh and to my wonderful cousin Dillon- Congratulations! California is wonderful you will love it! You may not believe it but it gets cold here in February. You will need a warm jacket. Maybe not a coat but at least a jacket. I cant wait for you to experience going on a mission. You will never regret it!

Well I love you lots! Hurrah for Israel!

Love,

Sister Cottrell