This week has been super busy for Sister Kemp and I. We have been on 2 exchanges and they were amazing! I got to go back to Chatsworth and work the area for 24 hours. It felt so good to knock on the doors that were once so familiar to me. I don't know why that area holds such a special place in my heart but it does. We met many new people during exchanges and were able to teach alot. If I remember correctly, after the 1st exchange I didn't have much of a voice the next day because we had talked SO much! It was wonderful! On Thursday we helped President Hall during interviews. We trained a zone about setting daily goals of how many people to contact each day so that in the end we are baptizing more. It all stems from Elder Ballards talk this last conference. He said, "You full-time missionaries, if you want to teach more you are going to have to talk to more people." So the idea is to contact 50 people each day outside of specifically planned finding activities. In the end we want to talk to 1000 people a week! We literally must talk with everyone! During the interviews we got a call from the institute building. Apparently a young woman had walked in and wanted to talk with the missionaries. We raced over there and met her. She said that she had been on her way to buy cigarettes because she was mad and decided to do something crazy. As she was driving she decided to pull over to the "church" building and give that a try first. In our conversation with her we discovered she is a less active member. We invited her to our upcoming activities and to actual church. The good news...SHE CAME! It was so wonderful to have her there.
At Sugar's baptism there was a potential investigator who attended. I'll
call her Gem. Gem is such a sweet young lady. We had the opportunity to teach
her with her boyfriend in attendance. Her boyfriend is the brother of Sugar's
boyfriend and is a member of our ward. Are you seeing the pattern? hahaha I am
happy to report that she is a new investigator! She has a 10 month old baby and
she is the cutest little red head I have ever seen! We talked to our Bishop
about teaching her since she has a baby. In the end we decided it would be
better for us to teach her since her fellowshipper and support (Sugar and her
BF) attend our ward, and since her baby is too young to attend Nursery. We also
had to take into account that Gem's BF is not a strong member and if we asked
him to attend another ward we risk him going inactive. So the plan is to get her
baptized and married from our ward before her daughter is old enough to go to
nursery. ;D We are helping make eternal families from the singles perspective!
It's so fun!
We visited one of our ward members who lives in a mental group home. She is
such a sweet heart! During our conversation she discovered that there are quite
a few movies I am not accquainted with which are popular. She asked, "Where have
you been?" Sister Kemp being the wonderfully funny, and slightly absent minded
person she is (I love her so much!) said, "I dont know, in a cuckhoo place?" I
looked at her in disbelief and it caught her attention. I couldn't believe what
she had said!!!!!! I watched as recognition of her statement came to light. We
burst into laughter realizing that our member hadn't heard the comment. We were
all laughing but for different reasons! It was hilarious! I think she does feel
slightly bad but it was more funny.
I am constantly amazed by Heavenly Fathers intelligence in giving us
opportunities to sympathize with others but to also learn and grow. This weekend
has probably been the hardest weekend of my mission. I have helped many sisters
get through homesicknessas a leader but I have never really experienced it
myself....until now. I couldn't believe how debilitating it felt to miss home
that much! During my lunch break on Saturday I literally laid down and just let myself cry. I
cried myself to sleep. Once I woke up I felt much better. Why was I so homesick?
Because I love my family very much and I knew that even though I am serving my
Savior and I am where I need to be I was not present at a very special event
where a majority my family and friends would be. It was so hard to pull myself
out of my selfeshness and focus on the work. However I did get back to work.
Saturday night our phone turned itself off and wouldn't turn back on. We
tried EVERYTHING to get it to come back on. This is a slight dilemma in our work
since all anyone does is text us and we had alot of calls and texts to send that
night. We also realized that our alarm clock wouldn't be available since it was
on our phone. We decided that the normal beeping clock would not be a good thing
to wake up to so we decided to use Sister Kemps ipod clock. When Sunday morning
came around we woke up to a beautiful deep voice singing "Hallelujah". We slept
through the bag pipes in the song but woke up to the deep voice. The group was
the Canadian Tenors. I highly suggest trying them out. As I was laying there
listening to the music I decided that I could wake up to them every morning! It
was so nice and it was a lovely wake up call. ;D We got a new phone this morning but I think we will
continue to use the ipod hahaha
Well that's it folks! I love you all very much! Have a lovely week!
Hurrah for Israel!
Love,
Sister Cottrell
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