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

It's Transfers!!!

Oh my goodness, there is so much structured chaos in our mission!!! Saturday night was transfer calls. I had a very strong reason to believe I would be getting transfered. So when the call came telling me I was getting transfered it was no surprise. What did surprise me was that I am getting put into a BIKE area. I have reason to assume this is a new area because there are no english sister areas currently on bike. Unless they are taking a car away from an area. I guess we will see what happens tomorrow. This morning President Hall called and extended the call to Sister Dyreng and I both to Train! So there are a lot of changes. This week I have a done an extensive study on Faith. It has been amazing to me just how many ways there are to strengthen ones faith. The primary ways are to read scriptures, pray, attend church and follow the prophet. But as we do each one our faith and its influence in our lives becomes more complex. Its just an amazing principle to study. I am totally relying on my faith and testimony right now, that the Lord gives us trials he knows we can get through and grow from. as I prepare myself physically, mentally, and emotionally going into this new transfer. Its amazing to me just how comforting the Holy Ghost can be and how strengthening it is too. It was sad to leave the Chatsworth ward but I can feel in my heart that its time to move on and learn to love the people in my new area. I am excited for the new experience. Im sorry this is short. I love you all!!!! This week will be great!

Hoorah for Israel!

Love,

Sister Cottrell

 

Hey Ya'll,

No letter last week she forgot!

 

 

Well I have decided that I am terribly with subjects for my emails. Im just not creative like that I guess. ;D This week served to be an very interesting week. Our ward hosts a volleyball night each Saturday as a finding tool for the missionaries. Its been great because we have seen some really cool results. There are about 4 regular nonmembers that attend and there are always ward members who help fellowship these people. Unfortunately, through a series of events questions were asked and arguments started,. Our mission president called Sister Dyreng and I to tell him what was going on exactly. We explained the purpose of Volleyball nights and how everything had gone down. He kindly, and lovingly explained that volleyball night as much as it had great potential was not appropriate to be doing as a finding activity outside of preparation day. So, if we do attend it is to leave a short message say a prayer and leave. It was disappointing and President Hall asked us to explain why we felt that way. We explained that we felt we had the most success with the event and felt the disappointment in not being able to continue it. President Hall then said to us, "So what I hear Sisters is, 'President we need help learning how to find." He really was right on the dot and the spirit probably helped him get to the real issue, because to us we were doing just fine in knowing how to knock on doors, and thats what the problem is. Knocking on doors is the most ineffective way of doing missionary work!!!!! So Pres. Hall scheduled himself to come to OUR apartment with Sister Hall on Friday morning. GULP!!! My stomach was in knots for days! Luckly for us we live very clean like and only had to wipe down a few areas from breakfast to feel like he could come into our home. We waited outside Friday morning for them to show up. We felt the need to carry a Book of Mormon with us just incase an unforseen opportunity arose for us to work while waiting. Well, that opportunity came just as Pres. and Sister Hall were walking towards us from a cross walk. We talked to a lady about the Book of Mormon and explained the importance of having a Christ centered life. Just as we were in the middle of our contact with her Pres and Sister Hall reached us. They patiently waited as we finished the contact and then followed us into the apartment. They told us that it had appeared we had a paid contact waiting for them to watch. ;D The time they spent with us was very enlightening. They basically went over weekly planning. They had just attended a training on it and shared some new insights with us. We were informed that the time spent already on weekly planning should be even longer with only 4 out of 13 steps to cover (its already approx 3 hours long!) He also told us that after weekly planning is over our planners should be full 10 days out. That was also something new. So we knew we had some work ahead of us. It was so great!!!! At the end of our discussion over several points he asked Sister Dyreng and I if he could share 2 things at the Zone leader trainings, 1. the training we just had. 2. the experience of watching us at work. He started tearing up as he told us how proud he was to see us at work and talking with everyone. It was very touching and it felt great to hear the compliments from both of them.

Sister Dyreng and I started weekly planning over with all the new training and it took about 6 hours to finish. It may have been long but the results have been amazing. It is so rewarding to see a full day 10 days out. It is also rewarding to know we did everything asked of us. President Hall is very insightful and I am so grateful to have him as my President.

Transfers are next week!!!! on May 7th. The bets are these: I will stay and train or I will leave Chatsworth. There aren't very many options for what will happen. President Hall told us today that by the end of next transfer we will have 100 missionaries particpating in the 12 week training program! and between the next 2 transfers we will have 50 new missionaries not counting any visa waiters. So the Lord is hastening his work!!!! It is amazing to be apart of and I LOVE IT! Well thats been the week. Next week will be exciting to see what will happen. I love you all. Take Care!

Hoorah for Israel!

Love,

Sister Cottrell

Where should we Go?

Hello Everyone!!!!

I just saw some some pictures of a couple of the cousins and they have all grown up so much!!!!!! It warmed my heart though. How is everyone doing? I am doing well. It has been a hard week because we have been working so hard to find new investigators since our teaching pool has seemed to dry up. Its been sad but we are pushing on! We starting contacting a bunch of our Former Investigators. Some of them we get a hold of others aren't home. However we have gotten a hold of one. She is 21 years old and she has had some major difficulties in her life. Her dad just tried to commit suicide and she has extreme depression. She is super nice and we talked a lot about trusting our Heavenly Father during our trials besides everyday. She is very knowledgeable about the Bible. I sincerely pray that she will let us keep meeting with her. She is definitely being prepared. Our Bishop really wants us to continue focusing on Less Active Members. Its sometimes hard to do that because we cant always balance finding investigators. President Hall has asked us to spend 30 hours finding a week. However I am very aware that the Lord sees our efforts and the desire we have to meet both expectations.

We have been thinking a lot about the next transfer. Not because we are ready for it come but because we have been informed that because we have 11 English speaking Sisters coming in there is a 90% chance that ALL of us will be training and some of us will be training 2 at a time!!! Sister Dyreng likes to do transfer predictions and she is stumped because there is just no way to tell what will happen. The changes which have been taking place in missionary work is phenomenal. It makes me so happy to be apart of everything and that I will have everything recorded so that my posterity will be able to have a first hand account.

Sister Dyreng is a firecracker. She loves to be kind of crazy. She loves dance parties and anything to do with working out. She is a great missionary and really knows how to relate to the people out here. She has definitely taught me a lot about letting go and just talking with others about the gospel. Sometimes I get shy when we get into certain situations and I hate feeling like i'm "bugging" people when they are obviously busy. But the message we share is a good interruption, and it is worth listening to.

I am sorry that there hasn't been much to write about the last couple weeks. Its just been super slow here in Chatsworth. I love you all and hope that all of you enjoy the Spring weather that should hopefully be arriving soon.

Hoorah for Israel!

Love,

Sister Cottrell