Where to Begin

I am not exactly sure where to start my email today. What I know is this: I am so grateful for the family connections that we have. I am so blessed to have a close knit family. I am grateful I was raised to understand the importance of families and that Families need to be together forever! I am so blessed to know the Plan of Salvation. I know that Heavenly Father loves us so much. He created a plan just for us to progress so that we could gain bodies to become like him. And through our journey to become like him there are blessings that we will obtain that can be ours through our faithfulness to him. Blessings such as eternal life and eternal families. I know that Grandpa Randall has lived a good life and I am going to miss him but I also know with all of my heart that there is life after death and this is not a final goodbye. With that being said let me tell you about our week.

This week has been the hardest, most stressful week of my mission. Physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. I cannot tell you what has happened to make this week this way. I am not at liberty to give those details at the moment. All I can say is that we are in close communication with President Hall. Don't worry we are safe and sound and our companionship is closer than ever. We have been counselled by Pres. Hall to do all that we can in missionary work but if we need to stay home, to stay home and take care of ourselves. Basically we don't really leave the apartment unless it is for appointments. President Hall told us that our stress levels have been in the white zone. And in the missionary stress book White doesn't exist! So its been a really rough week.

However through all of this there have been some highlights. I failed to mention last week that our ward now has a 4th set of missionaries. They are the Kempf's. The First and only senior couple in our mission! We are so excited to have them and to be working with them. Our Bishop got up and bore his testimony of the miracles that have come to our ward. I broke out in goosebumps while he spoke. Hopefully the picture attached itself correctly. Their main focus is less active work and boy have they jumped on it! We talk to them several times a week and we are seeing miracles already!

One of the sunshine moments of our week was when Sister Bray got to meet the one and only actor from the Best Two Years!!!!! Casey Clyde! He is the missionary that is lazy and wont do anything and who gets the new "greenie." Sister Bray LOVES this movie and when she figured out who he was she freaked out. She even got a picture with him. He lives in the neighboring ward that meets in our same building. It was hilarious and something that brightened up our week. I took the picture and because I didn't want to be the "crazy girl" fan I talked myself out of getting a picture with him. But here is the picture I took for Sister Bray.

On Valentines day the San Fernando Valley Sky was filled with airplanes writing love messages. It was so fun to guess what letters were going to come next. It was the only clear day we had and perfect weather for the "Love in the air." hahaha I am so funny.....

We met a fellow last night who was in a motorized wheelchair. When we greeted him with a how are you sir? He responded well I made it out of Vietnam.... Then he asked what new religion we were pushing or what new God we were teaching about. We assured him it wasn't anything "new." He suddenly looked up and started to do the Holy Cross thing that Catholics do. He stopped and said, Wait are you nuns? We told him we weren't and then he said, "Oh, well great, now you've made me do the holy cross when I didn't have to and now we are all going to burn in hell!" We simply just laughed and watched him scoot away. It still makes us laugh. Oh yeah, he told us that we were crazy for being on the street we were on dressed the way we were. He said, "Seems crazy to me!"

We also had to drop an investigator due to his schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. We seem to be running across alot of people like this who we later have to drop. Unfortuately we do it to keep ourselves safe from harm, and a majority of the time they aren't accountable enough to be baptized.

Speaking of investigators our 2 baptismal dates are moving along quite nicely and they are coming to church every week! It amazing to watch the changes taking place in their lives. When we first met Bill he had a lot of anger in his heart over the situation he is currently in. However over the last month that anger has seemed to melt away and he smiles and laughs more than ever. He is so amazing and I am so glad for the opportunity we have had to teach him.

As much of a hard week it has been there have been good moments and I thank Heavenly Father for sending them. He has been so aware of us this week and sends the blessings that we need as we need them. I am so grateful for the priesthood which allows me to hear from my Heavenly Father in blessings. It brings so much comfort!

Well I think that is it! I love you all! Have a wonderful week!

Hurrah for Israel!

Love,

Sister Cottrell

 

Hello!

What a week! We have had some pretty dark clouds hanging over the valley but as for rainfall...little to none. So if the rain has come it hasn't hit my area of the world. It sounds like it is making all the other parts of the US nice and moist. We would love the rain but it just wont drop down here.

This week we really struggled to get our investigators and less actives to keep appointments. However the lessons we did have were wonderful and the spirit was strong. "Bill" learned about the word of wisdom. Its always entertaining to watch their reactions to the things they cant have and rewarding to watch when they understand the spiritual benefits of living it. Lucky for him he is too poor to be able to buy cigarettes, coffee, and wine. =)

The 13 year old (still can't come up with a name) also learned about the gospel of Jesus Christ and the 10 commandments. When ever we bring up his baptism his face literally lights up. His eyes get all squinty as he smiles big and wide. His eyes start twinkling and he just nods. He is so excited about March 2cd! I love being able to teach him and see the progress that he makes. He is one of those people that are just special to the Lord.

Yesterday was an interesting experience. I have never felt like I was running around like a chicken with my head cut off  until yesterday. We were pulled in so many different ways. I have become the primary pianist for the next couple weeks and it was so fun to watch the kids. I really enjoyed it. Sister Bray also really enjoyed the time. Church starts at 11:30. We got there a little early and didn't leave until 4:30. It was a long day. By the end of the day we had forgotten 2 people we needed to visit and I was just close to tears. Bed came quickly and I am doing much better.

We were asked to do an emergency help packing job this week. When we went over there there was maybe 10 boxes totally packed. We were there for 4 hours helping this pregnant sister and more that doubled her boxes. We found out later that when they were loading up the truck she was still packing. Oy! I thought for sure she would have been ready with us helping her out. But it all worked out!

We had a huge success with the Sister in our ward that we did the stop smoking program with. She is officially a non smoker and is doing so good! She is so much more confident than before and she is sharing the program with everyone.

It was overall a very good week. A little stressful but we came out on top of the messy pile up. Just in time for a new week. Sister Bray continues to lovingly remind me that we only have 2 weeks left in this transfer. HELP! hahaha

So I finally remembered the other funny things that happened last week. Here's a list of things I learned:

I learned to not trust my companion on how to cook a potato in the microwave. Trust me its not 7 minutes. Its like 4 minutes. If its seven, black smoke starts pooring out of the microwave and your potato has caught fire. The smell is disgusting!

When your investigator is addicted to drugs turn your head and look the other way when his brother goes off to make a drug deal.

After it rains dont walk on the sidewalk next to huge puddles of water that are on the street. The cars hit them and huge walls of water come flying at you and soak you through....... However do be nice to the poor young man that stops and looks for a towel that doesn't exist in his car and then politely decline the drink at his apartment once you are dry. =)

These are some of the things that I have learned and that have made me laugh. The wall of water is my favorite one. It was just like the classic old movies and we did get wet and just started laughing. The guy was almost frantic. He hazard parked in the middle of the road just to make sure we were okay. I hope he wasn't offended when we didn't go to his apartment. I am still not sure he heard us say, "No Thank you!" hahaha

Well until next week!

Hurrah for Israel!

Love,

Sister Cottrell

Sweater Weather!

Okay okay okay, I know I have given all you cold weather people grief over the last couple months but good heavens someone cursed California!!!!!!!! It got so cold out here! I even had to break out the scarfs and the real winter coat last night. We even had to turn our heat on 2 days ago after its been off for the last month!!!!!!! However a really cool miracle happened with all the cold weather. California has been in a huge drought  this year. We recently learned why we are having water shortages. Long story short....many many years ago 2 people bought a whole river that flowed down into LA. They built a resevoir. The source of the river is run off from the Sierra Nevada Mountains. A couple years after the resevoir was built it broke and flooded the land clear out to the sea and killed many people who were illegal immigrants living in the "wild." Since then our water has been in short supply and these men lived the rest of thier lives in shame. Okay so with all of that, yesterday several other states besides all of southern California fasted and have been praying for rain/snow (for the mountains) and IT TOTALLY RAINED LAST NIGHT!!!!!!!!! It had been over cast all day and had really dark clounds, then at 6pm it started raining until about 9pm. We didn't get a ton of water in the valley so we are praying it all went to the mountains and dumped snow. Cool, right! total miracle in my book!

This week has been really awesome. Once again we worked really hard to find the less actives of our ward. We got in with quiet a few of them and had wonderful experiences with them. Our investigators are really struggling right now. I have no idea why but they are. For whatever reason they just wont keep commitments. I mean hello, how hard is it to read 2 pages? Anyway they could use some extra prayers. One of them is from the Philipines. His name is "Bill." We sometimes have a super hard time communicating with him and question whether or not he really understands what we are teaching him. We have invited several of our ward members to come to the lessons because 1. we need them and 2. they speak Tagalog. However Bill absolutely refuses to speak Tagalog when we are present, only English. So frustrating! So we are devising a plan to send over our Filipino members to review the lessons without us so that they can judge whether Bill understands or not. We did set a baptismal date for him in March which is pretty exciting. Its gonna take a ton of faith and a big Miracle to get him ready for it! 

We also taught our 13 year old investigator who has Aspergers. We set a baptismal date for him as well last night. It was super funny because when we told him that we wanted to work towards March 2 he stopped us and said, "Hey that's my Birthday!" We were totally shocked because we had no idea and found it really ironic it was the date we have been pulled to for weeks to shoot for. I am really hoping that "grandpa" is ready to baptize him. We are concerned he wont be ready. We found out that our Bishop has already discussed this possible scenario and there are back up people ready to baptize our investigator. I am still trying to come up with a name for him.

We helped a member in our ward quit smoking this week. The program that we as missionaries get to use is amazing! It requires us to commit individuals to follow 15 steps every day in order to turn off the bell that signals a person they want to smoke. So far it is working really well for her and it was an adventure for us all. The Bishop and his wife were there and just really added to the spirit and the enthusiasm for this Sister to continue to living the Word of Wisdom and giving herself and her son a better life. At one point during the lesson the person has to crush, or tear up the cigarettes. It was cool to watch and also super disgusting..... This program has been proven to be extremely useful and effective and we are now using it to help another less active in our ward and possible 2 other people.

This week I also had a wonderful experience in my personal study. I was totaly focused one day in studying how to have faith to find people who are ready to receive us. By the sprirt my study was totally redirected in the middle of it to go read my Setting apart blessing, which gratefully I had people take notes on. I swear things have been added to the blessing since it was written down! =) I read things that were new to me and that I absolutely needed to hear that day. Specifically about not being shy and having no fear. It brought me to tears and to my knees. I also discovered that in my head I got 6 weeks ahead of myself. How? No clue. I think that with everyone always talking to me about how long I have left my brain just shorted out. I was happy to discover that I had 1 whole extra transfer out here! HOORAY! Now I know it seems weird to be excited about this discovery but I am seriously excited. I still have so much I want to accomplish! I am grateful for the tender mercies the Lord has given me this week. 

We had some pretty funny moments this week but at the moment I dont remember any except for one. We stopped by to see one of our investigators who has liver cancer. They had just gotten back from a Costco run. They are also Filipino and are always very giving. They sent us home with Waffles and a big, big jug of juice. As we were walking into our apartment complex Sister Bray went to swing the paper sacks holding the goods and suddenly there was a huge thud. Looking back Sister Bray's face was in total shock and totally red. I looked at the ground and there were the waffles and juice in a very riped paper bag. I was laughing so hard I could barely breathe.........funny. It might have been a if you were there moment but even writing it here on the email has me in the giggles. 

Another one I just remembered is that on our way to an appointment with a less active I had looked up to say hello to someone passing us. I said hello and he said, "Hey Sweetheart..." Gross. But what was funny about it is that Sister Bray has been getting the fliratous ones lately and I had refused to even think it could/would happen to me anytime soon. Well it happened. It had us both giggling. 

Probably the highlight of the week besides setting 2 baptismal dates was seeing how many of the people we having been teaching came to church yesterday. For us alone we had 6 total (2 investigators and 4 less actives). The total number of investigators and less actives to church in our whole ward was somewhere between 15-20. It was amazing and our Bishop was very quick to notice.   

This week was good and full of miracles. I am so excited to be a missionary and to continue helping people come closer to Christ!

Hopefully you all will stay warm and safe this week and we will try not to "freeze!"

I love you all very much!

Hurrah for Israel!

Love,

Sister Cottrell

I hope you had a fantastic week!

This week in Van Nuys we have seen many, many miracles.  Our Bishop has been very good at giving us assignments to go find 5 people each week that are Less-active. This week we had names that we were very familiar with.  On Thursday we got a phone call from a Sister that was on our list. We had not tried to contact her yet and so we were surprised that she was calling us. She explained that she has been extremely sick for the past 6 months and would like to have a study with us to get her ready to come back to church. In our appointment with her we discovered that she had seen Elders Ginez and Searle (Spanish elders we have in our apartment complex) and had flagged them down to get ahold of us. When we explained that we would have been contacting her within a few days she almost cried. She said that she had been feeling forgotten and that everything that had happened was an answer to prayer. It was a miracle! She came to church on Sunday and truly enjoyed it! We had a total of 3 less-actives we have seen this week come to church yesterday!
Another miracle: There is a couple in our ward that we have come to love very much. He is Jewish and she is a member. He has liver cancer and has been in the hospital for a month now. The day before he went to the hospital we went and visited with him. We had been told he wanted to take the lessons. When we asked he said I'll never change my religion. I was born Jewish and I'll die Jewish. We thought well we wont argue with him. However through the last month with several priesthood blessings and many visits from ward members and constant prayer for him he has agreed to take the lessons. Last night in our lesson the spirit was sooooooooo strong! He had tears in his eyes and as we shared the first vision there was a very distinct reverence that over came us all. It was amazing! He agreed to read the Book of Mormon and to pray about it. It hit me very hard last night that one of the promises we are given if the Book of Mormon is true is that we will know Jesus Christ as our Savior. He really needs to gain that witness that its true. In the end he said, "If I get better (aka if I get over this cancer) I'll be baptized. I'll even scrub the floors with my own hands." (in a British accent =) ) It has raised some concern for us but I believe that as he has other miracles in his life and as he reads the book he will have that desire to be baptized regardless if he is "cured." I felt very strongly to have him read 2 chapters as an assignment, Alma 32 and Alma 5. I have never felt that strongly about having anyone read those but I trust that the spirit will work within in him and teach him the things he needs to know.

These are just some of the miracles that we have seen this week. There have been so many more! We found out that another person we visit who is LA is a freakin' genius. He has an IQ of 190. Normal IQ is 120. He is so smart and funny! He lives in a mental group home. We aren't sure what he has but honestly it doesn't matter. On Friday when we met with him we were talking about some random things and suddenly he says (with a Texan accent mixed with a lisp), "That's all I have to say today, Goodbye!" It made us laugh so hard! We love him so much!

There is something that I find funny but isn't really funny. There is a family that we have tried several times to go see. They are less active and in talking with the husband there is no reason for them not to come to church. Anyway, the 2 times we have gotten in to the door the wife has been on the phone crying. Both times someone has died that has a deep connection to the family!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We have decided that we are very nervous about trying to keep contacting them, just because we will always be associated with someone dying in their family! funny right? yet not funny at all........
All in all we have had a really good week. Sister Bray and I have talked a lot about what it means for her to be almost done with 12 week. She is extremely worried that she wont be prepared or ready to accept an assignment to train right away. She understands that it may not come but I also must say that I need to take responsibility if she doesn't feel ready. We have talked about some things that I can do as her trainer to make sure she is prepared. These things include having better evaluations of role plays, lessons and studies, and having her take the lead more often than she already does. We are getting there one day at a time.
I am looking forward to the next week. There are going to be so many more miracles!

I hope you all have a good week!

Hurrah for Israel!

Love,

Sister Cottrell

Hello Spring?

Well I must say that the weather outside is frightful....a frightful 80 degrees! Its January and we are all sweating out here. Goodbye winter clothes hello spring! A member had told me that by this time of the year it was really cold, or should be....... Its been an interesting week trying to remember to dress cool. I am so sorry that none of you can experience thesweat bliss oh I mean sweet bliss of California. =) hahahaha

It was an amazing week in teaching people and in finding people. We had a wonderful lesson with a new investigator named "Blue." She is a former investigator. When we asked her if the missionaries who had taught her for almost a year had brought up baptism she said no. We were perplexed to say the least. Then we told her our purpose was to baptize and it was her turn to be stunned. She said, "Well that makes sense!" Our lesson was quite lengthy, something we weren't expecting. She just ended up having a lot of questions. Her main concern was that she is afraid she wont make a good Mormon. We assured her that there is no such thing as a perfect Mormon. When we also told her about the Book of Mormon and had gave her some of our experiences in reading it and in remembering to read it she was again shocked because of course the missionaries are perfect, right? WRONG! it was such a real life lesson it was amazing!

We gained another investigator almost by surprise. We asked him if he had 10 minutes and proceeded to teach him. Well we may or may not have taken a lot longer but the spirit was so strong. He almost started crying as I was relating Joseph Smiths experience. His gaze was on me and I knew that if I broke eye contact that the power of the moment would be lost. When we taught about the Book of Mormon he blurted out "I'll read it!" We hadn't even finished teaching it yet. It was amazing! I don't have a name for him yet but I'll let you know.

I had an experience this week with the Bishops wife. As we went to some of our scheduled appointments they kept falling through and the people answering the door where different than who we intended to see. For whatever reason I was always ready to go to the next place. As soon as the bishops wife sensed it she would jump in and ask if they had some time now for us to teach them instead. I later thanked her for her efforts and made it obvious that I needed to change and improve on this particular part of being a missionary. She wanted to me understand that she didn't do it to make me feel bad, which to be honest it had but I needed it! She later told us that her mission president had ingrained in them to be bold and fearless, two things that I have been wanting to change. I really appreciated her efforts and I have allowed them to work within me to motivate me to be better. It was a good experience.

We had a regional stake conference yesterday and it was so good! Elder Eyring and Elder Andersen spoke as well as Sister Burton. It was great as they talked about the hastening of the work. Elder Eyring talked about reaching out to our kin to share the gospel with them, to find those who have wandered and to bring them back. It is our responsibility!!!! It made me think of the things that I can do when I get home. Not just with family but with others too.  Oh it was just so good. I also got to see many of the YSA's and got to talk with them. It was so fun to see the excitement on their face when they saw me. I must have done something good while I as there. =) I miss them sooooo much! I am honestly excited to go to a singles ward. It was just such a good day.

We taught our little investigator (the 13 year old) yesterday too! The spirit is so strong with him and as we talked about the Atonement his eyes lighted up even more. Satan is working so hard on their little family. His grandpa got run over by a car this week. He is okay but is foot is fractured and they only bike when they have to go somewhere. We keep praying for them so that they will be safe and protected from the adversary.

We also found a less active member of our ward who lives in a mental group home. At first we were nervous because we don't know what his condition is but he actually is very alert and sensitive. We met with him twice. We read in the Book of Mormon and it was amazing the insights that he had about forgiveness. He really wants to go to church but hasn't been able to get there. We found a ride for him yesterday and he expressed such a relief and a calming feeling for being there. We are so excited for him! While we were there we also found another 2 potentials. This place may be a gold mine!

Well I think that is it for today. I am sorry this is so short! I love you all so much!

Hurrah for Israel!

Love,

Sister Cottrell 

Amazing Week!

This week has been amaizng. I have really been working on asking inspired questions while street contacting. Its been amazing to see the responses from people. They feel the spirit more quickly and it seems to weed them out faster. You know the people who are truly interested and those who aren't. We went on exchanges this week and it was amazing! I was able to work with a sister that I have always wanted to work with. Her name is Sister Walgren. She is a power house and I really learned alot from her.

We also had a ward blitz on Saturday. I was able to take the Relief Society President out with me. We ended up talking to a lot of spanish people which was great because she spoke spanish. I couldn't understand a lick of it but the spirit was strong and I know she had a wonderful experience. Now hopefully she can pump up the other sisters in the ward.

 I didn't get transferred! Hooray! This is the first transfer since May that I haven't had something to do with or for. Its great! a little weird but good. I am so excited that I get to finish Sister Bray's training. She is so wonderful and I am excited to see how she continues to progress as a missionary. 

We gained 2 new investigators this week which were pure miracles. One has 2 little children (we found her on exchanges) and the other is a 13 year old boy (he has come to church since he was little). I am so excited about these investigators. Its going to be a great experience! Last night we taught one of them and it was so powerful! I am confident he will be baptized in the next coming months.

Highlights:

There were several times this week where we had older men flirting with us. It was always funny because the companion they were flirting with never figured it out until the other companion told them. We also had a drunk kid flirting with us. Apparently he joined the church when he was 14 but wont come to church because he cant get his family to come with him. I partially believe him. I am sure there is some truth to what he said. Sister Bray told me that when people get drunk they always discover they have a tongue. They always have it sticking out just a little bit and that is exactly how this kid was! 

I saw a semi truck trailer that hauls cars with the title "Cottrell inc." on the side. I was super excited! 

I met a direct descendant of David Whitmer on the street! We walked up to him introduced ourselves and he said, "Oh yeah Im a member. Can I see your book? He opened right up to the testimony of the 3 witnesses and said you see that guy? Thats my great grandpa!"

I got a spider bite on my leg that swelled to the size of a couple quarters. I think it came when we met with a potential outside sitting on his lawn furniture. (its healing now hahaha) 

Last week we had a ZTM where we talked about casting our nets away. We wrote down our nets and literally threw them in the trash. I didn't think much about it but the Lord did, I have discovered. I can't tell you how much the Lord has helped me stay away from the nets. One of them was fear. Not your every day "Am I going to be safe today?" fear but the fear of talking to strangers and making mistakes. I have felt more bold and more passionate about the work this week than at any other time in my mission. I am trying as hard as I can to take one day at a time and to control the things that I can control. It doesn't do me any good to focus on anything bigger. It stresses me out. I have also seen a lot of growth in myself this week. I think the Lord is trying to tell me something. Up to this point I haven't really felt like I have changed but there are little things that have popped up that I know are different about me.

Well I cant think of anything more. I love you so much! Its gonna be another great week! Hurrah for Israel!

Love,

Sister Cottrell

Where Did The Week Go?

Hello All!

I hope you all enjoyed your New Years Eve! We had a classic Missionary Holiday. We had curfew at 7 pm. It was a little weird not having much to do at home but we did enjoy the time. I updated my journal which was only 15 days behind...........horrible! Don't worry its all up to date now! Then we celebrated the New Year with New York at 9pm! Hooray! hahaha I think we still have a bottle of Martinellis in the fridge. ;D We went to bed and tried to sleep through the parties and fireworks/gun shots. Now don't get worried. The Mexicans fire their guns in the air when they celebrate. However a couple nights later Sister Bray heard a gun shot which she said sounded like a 45 and then screeching tires. So thats Van Nuys for you. Lots of drunk Mexicans and parties...is that racist of me to say? If it wasn't safe here the Lord wouldn't have us here. Besides we know that the Lord doesn't protect stupid and we are smart! So that is a huge comfort.

I had a couple sick days this week that literally kept me down. I just lost all energy and had horrible stomach cramps. Can't figure it out. We thought it might have been some food but it still is persisting. I did get some energy back and of course spent it all moving furniture out for a lady in our ward hahaha. The first day I laid down during lunch and crashed for 3 hours! I couldn't believe it! I guess I needed the sleep. I am getting better and I can get out and work now which, Hallelujah! I hate sitting inside all day.

We got blessings this week to help us start off the new year. I had been feeling a little down anyway and just felt like I needed the boost. It was very insightful and reminded me that the Lord knows the thoughts and intents of our hearts. I was given some really good counsel and can't wait to put it into practice! I was also told that my family AND my friends where receiving blessings by me serving a mission. I knew about the family but the friends surprised me. I didn't realize that my service extended that far. It was a cool little thought and was extra comforting. I love my family and my friends a lot and so it made me happy to hear they are being taken care of.

Probably the saddest part of my week came yesterday morning at 6:30 AM. We have a had this fantastic investigator who has a baptismal date in a couple weeks. We got a text message saying he wasn't coming to church and isn't ready to get baptized and proceeded to explain that he is gay.....:( I honesty just wanted to cry. I hate that this is a part of our culture these days. I felt so bad for him because he said its not a choice he has made and that he didn't want to come to a church that can't support someone like him. We realized that when we taught the law of Chastity he hung to the part of we don't support those relationships and didn't hear the part where we said that we love them anyway. So frustrating! He even said to us, "Marriage between a man and woman...makes sense." The little punk! I wish he hadn't said all the right things to make us believe everything was okay. It totally threw us for a loop and it wasn't till 3 pm that we pulled out of it. We have talked to several people about it and we have some resources that can help us. He said his life has been full of sadness and unhappiness. We are going to use that line to our advantage in our next lesson with him to help him see the happiness the gospel has brought to his life. I am so grateful that the church has published literature for this exact situation. We need all the prayers and help we can get right now! We believe being in Primary all day helped us out a lot. Those little kids are so cute! Junior primary is so good at answering questions! And boy do they have good ones. All the teachers were scrambling to answer them. hahaha one of the little girls suddenly shouted out and said, "My mom served a mission too!" Her mom who is the chorister looked at us and replied, "No I didnt." The little girls jaw hit the floor. Her facial expression was, What!?! The mom lowered her voice and said, "I have failed my child."  It made me all the more grateful that I can tell my children that I served a mission.

On wednesday night we found a former investigator. She is so cute! She is also from El Salvador. She offered us dinner and said that the Elders previous to us loved to eat! Especially Chile. Why chile? I couldn't answer. We didn't turn her down since we didn't have a dinner that night. Are you ready to hear what we ate???? Drumroll please...............we ate Goat meat! It was so good! It tasted like roast beef but was more moist and tender. YUM!

Last night we got a member referral for some people which attend chruch regularly. The young grandson is not a member but comes every week and participates in all the young men activities and scouts. He also has Aspergers (sp?) His grandfather is only a priest and needs to do some things to progress in the priesthood so he can baptize his grandson. We approached them last night and asked if the grandson would like to take the missionary lesson. He said, "Yes, because I want to get baptized!" When someone has Aspergers they have a hard time accepting change so the fact that he wants to get baptized is a big step! I am a firm believer that timing is essential in finding those that have been prepared to receive us. We are excited to help this little family come closer together in the gospel and to each other. We have members in the ward who know them well and know how to help the young man learn and retain info. Its going to be a group effort and require lots of planning in advance but it should all work out. See, the Lord is kind and gives us someone new when we start to loose investigators.

Otherwise its been kind of a slow week. I did see someone walking around in a Nebraska shirt and it wasn't me. I was sick that day and it made me smile.

Well thats about it folks! It was a slow week but productive. I hope you all have a good week!

Hurrah for Israel!

Love,

Sister Cottrell

ps just so you know transfer calls come Saturday night. Can you believe it?