Hello From the Great San Fernando Mission!

If you couldn't tell from the subject I am officially staying in the San Fernando Mission! I had a feeling I would based off the deductions I was able to quickly make before transfers and who I knew was transferring. So where in the world am I in the mission? I am in fact back in the San Fernando Valley. I am in the Northridge YSA ward! Yeah that's right singles ward time! I am so excited to be here for several reasons. 1. my area covers the whole valley. Its so big that we have to use a GPS to get around. That also means I can work in the Chatsworth area ;D 2. I get to be companions with Sister Scrivner who is also a Sister Training Leader. She also was Sister Haws' MTC companion. Cool!

Transfer meeting was amazing! When we walked into the gym to deposit luggage the whole gym was full! We got 45 new missionaries so that took up a great deal of room. We also had the whole mission present (minus a couple companionship's) . As we sang "Called to Serve" when the new missionaries walked in they just kept coming, and coming, and coming! We filled 3 rows all the way across the chapel with new missionaries!!!! It was just breathe taking. Then the nerves hit just about every missionary present and the questions started running through our minds of "Where am I going?" "Who will be my companion?" "Am I in the San Fernando Mission or Bakersfield?" The congregation was buzzed with anticipation. President Hall stood up and started it like any other transfer meeting. When my name was read off it literally startled me. I was so excited to hear my companions name and the area I was going into! This meeting also brought a lot of tears. Many of my dear new friends have gone to the Bakersfield Mission. This includes Sister Dyreng and Sister Haws who are companions and Sister Training Leaders together. ;( I know they will be amazing though and they will help the mission flourish into a booming new mission. So that is the news with me.

The other amazing news is from the New Mission Presidents seminar that was broadcast to the whole world! I hope you get the opportunity to watch it. There are so many new missionaries in the MTC! I broke out into goosebumps several times during the opening song. Okay okay okay I will tell you the news of the broadcast:

Missionaries are now being allowed to use the internet on a daily basis for about 1 hour. They will be using Sykpe, Facebook, Mormon.org, and several other resources. Tablets and smart phones are currently being tested and when available will be issued to the Missions. Missionaries will also start to give frequent church tours and will remain in the church building so that anyone can walk in!!!!! My mind has been blown! There is so much changing in the missionary work! I am so excited. All of you should take the opportunity to watch the broadcast. There are many inspirational talks and will help change every members view of missionary work. Several of the speakers (apostles) spoke on the need for wards to step it up. "The Missionaries are only in the area to assist the members in missionary work." and our ward mission leaders are to be our best friends and its their responsibility to fill up our appointment books so that there isn't time for us to go knock on doors. Yeah, there was some pretty hefty stuff said. It was amazing, if anything it renewed a sense of urgency in all the missionaries.

Okay so my week other than BIG announcements. By wednesday night Sis. Scrivner and I had the opportunity to help some of our sisters out. One is struggling with separation anxiety from her trainer going home. So we talked to them separately so that we could both help them. It was great just to be there and listen to them. I think that if any thing we do to help these sisters outside of training it will be just to listen. We all need someone to listen to us and thats what we are going to be here for. Obviously they have their companions but sometimes when your struggling with your companion they are the last person you want to talk to about how to handle them. We told one of them to text us a smiley face when she is struggling. The next day she texted us that she couldn't find a mustache for it. We laughed so hard and hope that she did too.

Sister Scrivner is an angel sent from Heaven. As we talked about our past experiences of this last transfer we both realized that the Lord knew we needed each other. We had very similar experiences and once that was discovered we both agreed that we were going to put behind us the hurt feelings of last transfer and focus solely on the sisters we have under our stewardship. We have also seen many miracles in our area. On Wednesday afternoon we went onto campus (CSUN) and finally found the department that would let us set up a booth to hand out literature. This is something that several companionship's have attempted to do. So we are very excited. We had an investigator that we dropped. Unfortunately his ideas about the nature of God were not allowing him to progress in learning about the gospel. One of these ideas is that God is a blob of Love and doesn't have a body. When we brought up all the accounts of seeing God he said that he can mold himself to look like a human being....yeah we were sad to drop him but when you talk for 1 hour and 15 minutes and can't make progress on the nature of God something has to be done.

One of the difficulties that Sis. Scrivner has last transfer was getting seizures. So one night she had to pull an all nighter for a procedure. I went to bed then woke up really early to help her through the morning hours. Then after the procedure I crashed for 2 hours on the couch and she slept from 3-11pm and then 11:30pm-6:30am. yeah she needed the sleep. hahaha

We just got word this morning that there is a very good chance we will pilot a bus area. That means our car will be taken away and we will only have the bus as our transportation. Crazy right? another mind blowing idea. We asked president to get special permission to get on the city transportation website to get a one day pass to try it out. He told us "Absolutely! Let me know how it goes!" We responded so quickly to the idea of switching over that our Zone Leaders called us to make sure. We are very excited. There are so many possibilities of increasing our teaching pool by contacting on the bus. We live next to the university campus so lots of students bus to it. ;D Well that's it I think. Sorry this is so long. There is so much amazing stuff going on in the world of the Church!!!!!! I hope you are excited to see the Hastening of the work happening. Elder Holland said that we will never again be able to say concerning missionaries "There they go" rather it will be "Here they come!" How true it is!

Now more than ever before: HURRAH FOR ISRAEL!

Love,

Sister Cottrell

Me and Sister Dyreng- Chatsworth

 

Palmdale, CA

 

SURPRISES!

So I have been informed that I seem to leave a lot of details out of my emails. For that I am sorry. I guess my fingers don't type as fast as my brain thinks. I will try to slow down and share some details. Hermana Dodge and Tavoian are the spanish sisters that live in our apartment complex. We have spent many nights eating ice cream and cake on our floors since we dont have couches. hahah They have been a heaven sent blessing for Sister Peatross and I because it gives us the opportunity to stop thinking about the problems we have together and to have fun with our Friends. Hermana Dodge has specifically been very therapeutic for me. She makes me laugh so hard every time we seem them. She is a light in my life and I love her to pieces!

This week has been kind of a crazy week. On Monday a couple sets of missionaries went to this shop in Littlerock called Charlie Browns Farms. Its a shop that has a ton of random stuff in it that is totally organized. For instance there is a whole section of armor and Egyptian replicas. Another part is called the House of Dolls. Just super random and crazy looking things. We took lots of pictures. At one point we tried to fit six sisters into a telephone booth in the store. We ALMOST made it! The store itself goes on forever! It was so fun!

We taught a lot of lessons this week. There is a 66 year old Lady we are teaching. She is wonderful and has been on quite the journey to talk to the missionaries. The Elders used to live in the same apartment complex with her and she talked to them quite often. One of the Elders who is my district leader asked us to follow up with her since they don't live there anymore. When we showed up she was so happy and surprised. We have been teaching her for the last several weeks. About a year ago she was "born again" or baptized in a Jacuzzi at a senior community home. Since then she has been studying the Bible. When we asked her if she would be baptized by someone holding the priesthood she laughed and said that she knew her baptism wasn't the final baptism! She is great! She is struggling with giving up coffee but we are working with her to find substitutes. She should be baptized on July 6th.

Another young lady we are working with is so Golden! She has 3 kids and is a single mom. She literally doesn't have any concerns and that concerns us. When we asked her to get baptized she said "Sure, no problem!" My first thought was "are you sure you don't want to think about that?" People are so prepared up here and its miraculous! I love extending the baptismal commitment to individuals. The trick is to helping them understand what they are committing to or what they are saying no too. We have so many people we are teaching that we had to start double booking appointments and going on splits so that we can teach everyone as much as possible and continue helping them to prepare to be baptized. Our Stake is the highest baptizing stake. Our wards baptismal goal is 25 for the year! We have our hands full and its so great!

Okay so the title says surprises and boy do I have a story:

So I have been in Palmdale for 6 weeks. Crazy right? How does time fly so fast? Anyway back to the point. Transfer calls come every 6 weeks... me being curious contacted our district leader and told him " I am sure you are overwhelmed with questions of transfers but we would like to know what is happening in our district. We really appreciate all that you do for us!" I simply just wanted to know what was going on since I figured we wouldn't be getting a call that night. Well was I wrong!!!!! He called about 20 minutes later and asked if I was hanging onto the Chair. I replied that I was since I happened to be saying my prayers right as he called. He then said "Well Sister Cottrell you are getting transferred....." I wasn't sure if he was teasing me so I said, "What?". Yup, I heard right! I am being transferred out of Palmdale and Sister Peatross is staying! I was so shocked! I also found out that except for 8 companionships our whole mission will be at the transfer meeting! Trainers are being pulled out from new missionaries all over our mission! Then the sad part of that call was that I was told I am going to a car area. :( I just got the hang of biking all day long in the heat! I love my bike!!!!!!! Don't make me go to a car area! I dont want to go!!!!!!.....yes who knew that I would get attached to biking in the wind and heat. I think I am saddest about that. Darn it! Anyway I have had several mixed emotions and several questions about why I am getting transferred. Then I realized that this is the Mission split transfer. So if the Lord only needed me in Palmdale for 6 weeks then I will only be here for 6 weeks. Its time to move on. So once I finally got over the shock of getting transferred President Hall called me this morning. He asked me to be a Sister Training Leader!!!! When he asked me my first thought was "how does the Lord expect me to train several sisters in an area when I can't even handle training one?" "How is it possible when I have struggled so much in the last 6 weeks?" When I said yes to the assignment I was in shock again. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. I didn't know if I was excited or nervous. As I have thought about it through out today I have come to a conclusion. 1. The Lord isn't asking me to trust myself to train these girls. He is asking me to trust Him to help train these sisters. 2. Not everything that went wrong with Sister Peatross is a direct result of me. 3. I am totally excited to be a Sister Training Leader.

As I have come to these conclusions I have found peace with the Lords will for me. I am so excited to get to know more Sisters in my mission. I am excited to stay busy doing exchanges every week with these wonderful sisters. And I know that the Lord has seen my efforts and that the last 6 weeks have not been a waste of mine or the Lords time. So what does a STL do? I work and train the sisters to be exceptional missionaries. To be the Lords servants. To serve them and help them be happy and find success on their missions. I have no idea what mission I will be in but where ever I go is where I have been "called to serve." I am so excited for tomorrow and yes I am naturally nervous. There are so many changes happening!!!! I cant wait to tell you all where I will be! I need to go because my time is short.

I love you all very much!

The time is now for the hastening of the work HURRAH FOR ISRAEL!

Love,

Sister Cottrell

Bring on the Heat!

Well as you can guess the heat has come for summer! This last weekend we had over 100 degree weather. It was insane. I am so grateful for my camel bak!

This week I requested to have a meeting with President Hall. It was great! He helped me work through some of my concerns with my companion. I wish I had a lifetime to learn from him. He is such a shining example to me. Something he taught me was about correction. Take for example someone who is on a no sugar diet. When you go to lunch with them and they order dessert you might say "are you sure you want to do that?" We think we are helping them but they already know that they shouldn't be eating that. If it happens again and we question them again we start to set an expectation that they will always break the diet rules. So it is with obedience to missionary rules. When a person knows the standard of the mission rules they have the choice to follow them. As a companion if we constantly remind them they are breaking the rules we are setting the expectation they will always break them. So you help them remember the rules once and then let them choose. All we can do to help them with correction is controlling the things that we can control and which effect us.

We have had this investigator we have been teaching since we got here. We just found out that he is leaving for the summer to do summer sales. When we went to go meet with him one last time before he leaves he told us that he had a dream where his questions of the book of mormon was answered. He said that in his dream he was playing basketball in a church building with a figure. Suddenly he stopped playing and asked this figure if the book of mormon was true. The figure responded, "That is the most honest book I have ever read." Um what?!!!! It was so cool when he told us! He also asked if he could get baptized before he left which meant that we had 4 days to get a baptism ready for him and we still had 2 lessons to teach him. Luckily we got everything ready to go on Saturday night. When it came time for is baptismal interview he didn't pass. I felt so bad when I heard that. The reason why he didn't pass was because he had smoked marijuana that week. Grrr.... we thought he had given it up. Oh well... he is headed to one of the best places he could go for work....UTAH! hahahaha I am confident that he will get baptized eventually and that as he is in Utah he will solidify the knowledge he has of the gospel. The rest of our investigators are struggling with coming to church but we have this really awesome idea of making a calendar that the investigator fills out so they know what days we are coming and what we are teaching. This is a new idea from President Hall. I am super excited to try it out. I think it should really help some of our people.

We taught a 13 year old at a bus stop one day this week. It was an awesome lesson. When we were getting ready to get on our bikes this kid hugged us out of no where. It was a little awkward but it said a lot about him. 1. he needed to feel loved that day 2. he has an open heart. He is such a cute kid and we are looking forward to continue to teach him.

Tomorrow is Temple Day and I am so excited! President Hall sent some info and advice that President Packer had given to people about receiving revelation while at the temple. I am so excited because I have a lot of questions to take with me to the temple that I am hoping to have answered.

This next week is crazy and it just happens to be the last week of this transfer. CRAZY! Why does time keep flying by so fast? I know this is the Lords work and that he is preparing His children to receive the gospel so that they may return to live with Him for all eternity.

If you haven't heard yet on June 23 its the worldwide leadership broadcast titled "The work of Salvation." Our mission President has required us to make plans to attend this training. We have also been told that it will be a historic event. I am so excited!!!! Please do all you can to attend this training from our wonderful First Presidency.

I love you all and I miss you!

until next week....

Hurrah for Israel!

Love,

Sister Cottrell

EXCUSE ME?

This week has been interesting to say the least. We had exchanges again with our sister training leaders. Guess who I was with companions with? SISTER HAWS!!!!!!! It was so good to be with her again. It was amazing to see just how much we have both grown in the last 9 weeks. Really? its only been 9 weeks? goodness that doesn't sound long but it feels like the time has flown! I wish I had a reality mirror and could see just how much I have changed in the last 5 months not only as a missionary but as a daughter of God. Sister Haws gave me some solid advice about things I can do to improve myself as a trainer for Sister Peatross. #1 the blessings of prayer are conditional based upon what we ask for in our prayers. So make your prayers so specific that you cannot risk the chance of missing the blessings our Heavenly Father has in store for us. #2 Try to have the patience you felt from your trainer. #3 Act on the thoughts you have right away and stop focusing just on the schedule for the day and how long its going to take you to get to the next stop. Yes, the last one has been a huge issue. I am not sure why but it is what it is.

I dont know if you have seen national news but there is a HUGE fire that is in the next valley over from where I am at. I am in Antelope valley and this fire is in Grass valley. It has burned approx. 20,000 acres. Every morning we wake up and see the mushroom clouds of the fire and then throughout the day we watch the smoke travel into our area. It makes for some really awesome sunsets but its not so good on the lungs. There is ash everywhere. The fire is working its way towards us and if my math is correct the zone leaders that cover that area are right in the line of where its traveling. Its somewhat unsettling but we just keep praying for those who are losing their homes and who are in danger.

The work is continuing to move along. We are having some struggles with investigators not keeping commitments but I am sure we will get it all worked out. Oh! So our ward has had the zone leaders in it for a very long time. We have heard from some of our members that our Stake President has said that he is expecting the missionary reputation in our ward has to go down because the zone leaders aren't in it anymore. EXCUSE ME?
 Who says that the zone leaders always have a perfect area? That was so hurtful. The stake president hasn't even bothered to introduce himself to us and doesn't know how hard we are working to make sure this area stays up and running and that the ward is so involved. RUDE! Anyway I really am calm over it. But it hurt to hear. If anything I have the motivation to keep working hard.

Well family I need to go but I love you and hope your week all goes well!

Hurrah for Israel!

Love,

Sister Cottrell

Happy Memorial Day!

What a wonderful opportunity we have to remember those that we love! This week has been a crazy week. I dont think the wind can blow any less. Its not in the nature of the land out here! ;D We have had several opportunities to teach people and meet several others. This area is becoming ripe very quickly and I am worried that I am not going to be able to keep up with it! hahaha The Lords work is moving forward all over the world and it is magnificent to be apart of right now. Something I have found interesting is that its the younger generations which are prepared to receive the gospel. Not their parents or grandparents. Its the kids in elementary and high school. In this ward the baptisms they had were almost all high school students. I find that very interesting. Yesterday we had our recent converts confirmed. It was a wonderful experience and they were given some very specific blessings. My favorite part is when they opened their eyes and smiled. They were so happy and they were just shining!!!! Their mom is now taking the lessons. This family is definitely a miracle. We haven't had a lot of activity to report on other than getting awesome tans from shoes, watches and rings. Dont worry I wear sunscreen! Biking is very slowly getting easier. Although I still struggle with stopping in the middle of the road to talk to people on the sidewalks. Cars just dont watch out enough for bikers! I think the worst was when the bus passed us. It honked then flew past us and I could literally reach out and touch it, it was so close!!!! I thank my Heavenly Father each night that we make it back unharmed. The members in our ward have been so sweet as to share their sincere distaste that the Sisters are on bike. I think if they could they would call President and chew him out! Its wonderful to feel their love and concern for our welfare.

We taught a pair of sisters-in-law (sort of). They aren't married but they live in a house together with a bunch of brothers and sisters and their families. Their is definitely a Chastity problem and we have tried several times this week to teach it. One of the girls asked if we had kids. When we explained that we didn't and why she was astonished. She asked us how we managed to still be virgins. We both were taken back just a little bit with her ability to piece things together so fast and her perplexity at the idea. It was funny and sad all at the same time. Im still not sure if she respects the fact that we have lived our lives that way or if she is just surprised. How sad this world is becoming!!!!!

We also had a lesson with a lady that the Elders had found for us. She first started out telling us that she couldn't wrap her mind around the fact that we have a prophet on the earth today and she hasn't heard about him. The thing we didn't know at the time was that her ex husband grew up Mormon and he didn't talk about it! When we left we both started talking about the impressions we had during the lessons. We concluded that she would make a most amazing Relief Society President and a very down to earth Member! I love her already!!!! Well family sorry this is short! It was a super busy week and we accomplished lots of work. I hope you all enjoyed your holiday!

Hurrah for Israel!

Love,

Sister Cottrell

"Get Caught Being a Mormon"

This has been one crazy week! First off the wind has been such a crazy thing out here. We are in a valley surrounded by canyons and the wind just blows and blows and blows. Being on bike is so hard when you are riding against the wind! It just doesn't matter how hard you pedal you don't get very far. Grr. At the same time though it gives us a nice cool breeze when we aren't riding and keeps us cool. I did get sunburned pretty badly. I am not sure why though. It has been just as windy and sunny the last 3 days as it was the day I got too much sun. The members of the ward noticed fairly quickly and offered to get me some sunscreen. One of the members said that the UV Rays change so that may be why I got burned. So I will be lotioning up everyday!!!!!

Yesterday was Stake Conference and we were blessed to have President and Sister Hall with us. My favorite talk was from Sister Hall. Our stake is really awesome at missionary work and each stake conference has several talks just for missionary work. She said, "Get caught being a Mormon, in fact to a real doozy and get caught reading the Book of Mormon." It is so true. It would be so much easier for us to resist temptation if people know who we are. If they knew we were Mormon and don't do certain things the temptations wouldn't be in front of us as much as they currently are. It was a great talk. We had 2 families show up for church (in total 5 investigators)! It was amazing to have so many visitors.

We had interviews with President Hall this week and it was a real life saver for me. I was struggling so bad the day we had them. President Hall offered me some very simple advice to being a trainer. He said to stop thinking like a trainer and think of Sister Peatross and I as 2 missionaries learning together and working together. He also told me of the sweet experience he had when assigning me to this new area. He knew he had to open a new English Sisters area, and then he knew he needed to place a sister in there who was just coming out of training. He then stopped and was like, That's crazy!!!!! That would be so hard for the Sister. I don't think that would be a good idea. President Hall then said the spirit over came him and told him that "Yes! and it needs to be Sister Cottrell." So here I am opening a new area, on bike with no clue how to get around and training and fighting the wind that blows so hard!

(sorry this next part is copied)

We had a baptism of a recent converts two younger siblings. The reason I say this is such a miracle is because the Mom almost called off the entire thing earlier in the week. There was originally to be 3 siblings baptized. However, one of the girls attitude and behavior hadn't improved with the lessons and coming to church. Her mom said that it was affecting the other children and causing them to act up, as hard as they tried to avoid those situations. All the issues had caused the mom to reconsider her decision. I am so grateful for the spirit. If it wasn't for the spirit those children wouldn't have gotten baptized. That night when we were getting the dreadful news I felt an eternal sadness overcome me. I knew right then and there that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ were mourning for the lose of 2 children not being able to make it "home." Now, the opportunity would probably have come again if we hadn't been able to come to a decision with the mom but it still made me sad. The tears I cried that night in front of their family were not just my own. I felt prompted to share my thoughts about repentance. I know that through sharing my own experiences of repentance and the sacrament the spirit was able to soften the mothers heart. When I had finished sharing those experiences everyone had tears in their eyes. So the baptism was a miracle last night. I know that their lives will be blessed for their decisions to enter into the fold of God.

We also saw a lot of different miracles through out the week in just trying to contact people and being placed to talk to others instead. It has been a great week and even though biking is hard I am still loving it. WHAT A WEEK!!!!! I am excited to see what the Lord has in store for us this week. I encourage you all to take Sister Halls advice and get caught being a Mormon. Its the best missionary work you could ever do!

Have a wonderful week. Until next time!

HOORAH FOR ISRAEL!!!!

Love,

Sister Cottrell

It Was So Good to SEE You!

Family!!!!

It was so good to talk to you Yesterday. I am so grateful for technology and the opportunity we have to communicate to our families as missionaries. Our mission is definitely spoiled with the ability to Skype home when a lot of the other missions aren't allowed to. So I am very grateful for the time I had. Everyone looks like the are doing great!

Biking is great. I am definitely saddle sore. But with time that should fade....hopefully. ;D Its a little scary when trucks go flying by and you can literally reach out and touch them. But I guess thats part of the job to bike. At least I'll be super tan and have amazing leg muscles. ;D There are some super steep areas in our ward. The ward here in Palmdale is so amazing. They are so super missionary oriented. We really dont have any problems getting members to lessons or finding rides when it gets dark outside. When we first got here the Elders that had been in the area we opened had a planner with all our appointments scheduled for the whole week. They even had rides for us the whole day! They were so sweet to look out for us. There were only a couple things they looked over. The time to get groceries and bikes...... Its a good thing I thought to grab my oatmeal out of the cupboard before leaving Chatsworth because thats all we had for food in the apartment for 2 days. hahaha oh good times.

Training is great and overwhelming all at the same time. I made the mistake of assuming my new missionary was going to be like me when I got out here. WRONG! Sister Peatross is so prepared she really doesn't need a trainer. I have really had to try hard not to assume she cant do something. So we are working on it. I love her already!!!! She is from Duchesne Utah. I hadn't heard of it but everyone out here seems to know where it is and has been there! Lucky for me she is 21 so I dont feel too old yet. ;D

Okay so here is the deal. Our President doesn't like to separate trainers and new missionaries right in the middle of training. So we are probably looking at staying in Palmdale through July and that will put us in the New Bakersfield Mission. Which would be awesome!!!!!! We have about 4 baptisms confirmed for the next 3 weeks! and then we have 6 other people we are working with to get ready for baptism again. Their dates have changed and we are working with parents who have had concerns. So there is lots of work to do. Its amazing to be here and to be a missionary. I am excited to share the coming weeks with everyone because they are going to be full of events!!!!!

I love you all and hope you all enjoyed your Mothers Day. Have fun this next week!

Hoorah for Israel!

Love,

Sister Cottrell