Uh....It's a Long One!

Hello Everyone!!!!!

This week has been so different for me!

On Tuesday we went to Transfer meeting and rejoiced in our hearts at the sight of 29 missionaries walking into the chapel. They are the kind of missionaries our mission is in desperate need of right now. They already know how to talk to everyone and they are energetic. I know I have said this before but every group that comes in is more prepared than the last. It is just so amazing! After transfer meeting and transporting Elders bikes to their rightful owners and leaving mine to be sold at the mission office ( :( ) we finally got to an appointment with one of our recent converts. He has been struggling so much because he has been keeping his conversion a seceret from his family because they are staunch Catholics and wouldn't approve at all. He is 29 and can make his own decisions but at the time of his baptism didn't want to face the problems and conflicts with his family. Unfortunately the seceret was discovered by his mom and some pretty hurtful things were sad. The bigger problem is his father who doesn't know yet and his mom is even worried about when he finds out. So we really just did alot of spiritual refortifying and he walked away more confident that things were going to work out. We made plans to have another appointment with him so that we could teach him some techiniques of how to tell his dad about it and how to pillow his defenses without getting beaten. Its gonna be rough but I have full confidence that he will handle it like a champ.

On Wednesday we taught the Restoration to our NEW investigator from Russia!!!!! Yes he is now an investigator and so amazing. When we explained the purpose of life is to prepare to meet God and strive to become like Him our investigator said, "Wow, thats beautiful." haha The light of Christ "is strong with this one." (for all you Star Wars fans ;D) He is just so great to teach. He asked if we could get him a Russian Book of Mormon since English is a second language and he thinks in Russian. We set out the next day to our mission office to go get a Russian Book of Mormon. We literally walked into the office staff meeting. It was so embarrassing! We totally forgot about it. hahaha we left very quickly. I don't think I have been in and out quicker from the office. ;D We got home and started our day. Around dinner time we got a call from some Zone leaders asking if I had a bike to sell. I said yes but that it was at the office. By the end of our conversation it was apparent that we needed to drive back up to Santa Clarita to go get the bike. We made it just in time before the office closed and got the bike out of storage. When we finally met up with the Zone Leaders we turned the bike over to them. I cried the whole way home. I kept asking myself why it is that we get so attached to inanimate objects. Its so not fair! Then I realized that Calvin was what saved my sanity during the one transfer I had with my last companion. He was the only thing I could get my frustration out on, he was my stress relief and I knew that he wasn't going to talk back to me. Calvin was always there for me. So I got super attached to him. I mourned the loss of Calvin for about 20 minutes and then needed to move on to other things.

One night we took all the institute students out with us to a booth we had set up outside of the building which is located directly across the street of the college campus. They have been studying Preach My Gospel all summer and finally got to put what they learned to the test. There were so many YSA's I finally started dividing them and sending them to different locations in the neighborhood and on campus. They came back so fast with all of their material gone!!!! We couldn't write our contact info fast enough on the pass a long cards! Some came back with really cool experiences. They were running up to cars waiting for red lights to change they walked with people who passed by and they gave out "pictures of Jesus." It was so fun we literally did nothing!!!! At the end of an hour we estimated that we gave away about 150 cards to people and probably talked to 200 people. It was just so amazing and I think it really helped the members of our ward get excited about missionary work now that they know they can do it.

On Friday morning I woke up at 4:50am with an intense headache. I went out to the couch grabbed an ice pack and tried to fall asleep but the pain in my head was extreme. I remember hearing alarms going off but no one came out of their rooms so I just stayed on the couch. When I did get up I looked at the clock and it was 8am! Suddenly it hit me that I was light sensitive. I thought, "Oh no!" The start of a migraine. I went and crawled into bed where it was dark. My companion said good morning and I replied that it was not a good morning lol I explained why and she said well district meeting is at 9.... I just started crying. Not today, I thought. She suggested a hot shower might help but that required being in a room filled with light. I finally made my way and got started. I went to district meeting with sun glasses on. They were so nice to turn the lights out for me but there was still a ton of light from the large window. About half way through I started getting waves of nausea, weakness and getting sound sensitive. I knew I was done for at that point. By the time a very long district meeting ended I was in no condition to drive home so another set of sisters drove us and the Elders drove our car home. The elders gave me a blessing and in it I was reminded to rely on the Atonement of Christ. That alone gave me a ton of food for thought for the rest of the day. Sister Hall (Pres. Halls wife) ordered a double dose of medicine for me and a dark silent room. Sister S. being the wonderful companion she is gave me a shoulder, neck and scalp massage which instantly released half the pain in my head. I think grinding my teeth because of stress is a big factor and very little sleep in the last week. I couldn't believe it! I fell asleep for several hours after that. When I woke up I just started praying and thanking Heavenly Father for the blessings I had recieved that morning. As I reflected on the Atonement I suddenly realized that in order for Christ to have suffered all pain, affliction and suffering he would have had to experience a migraine. Poor man......I had never had a headache quite like the one I had that morning. I suddenly felt peace, comfort, and a love for Christ that went deeper than just gratitude. It amazed me just how much more real the atonement becomes when I learn more about it. And I never stop learning about it. After a while of resting I finally got up and was able to be in a lighted room. Sister S and I talked for just a little bit when the phone rang. Elder Stucki (district leader) called and started frantically explaning, "Elder Miller took a spill on his bike, and his arm might be broken, and we cant get any priesthood holders to answer their phones! Can you come get us?" We ran out the door calling Pres. Hall to let him know we were picking up the Elders even though it is against the rules to have Elders and Sisters in the same car. When he responded he said, "Oh wonderful Sisters! Keep me informed of how it all goes." We laughed and continued on our way. By the time we got them to the Doctors office the Zone Leaders finally showed up. hahaha. Elder Millers arm is indeed broken and they are now in a car. So that day was busy and tiring and I still ended up sleeping all night even though I slept all day. It was just a wierd headache kind of day.

I want to take a few moments and tell you of a miracle that happened earlier this week. I know I talked about mail last week but I am going to revisit it. Sister Haws is a Sister Training Leader in the Bakersfield mission. I recieved a letter from her this week and in the envelope was another envelope addressed to me. On the second envelope was the sticky note that explained she had been on exchanges in Palmdale and saw my mail laying on the table and that she just got the feeling for some weird reason she needed to take care of it and send it to me. The letter was from a friend I was very worried about not getting mail from due to the abrupt transfer to my current area. The letter was almost 3 weeks old!!!!!!! I'll let you make your own conclusions about that situation....

I have received so much mail from everyone that I have just melted into gratitude to you and my Heavenly Father. I am so grateful for the prompting Sister Haws acted on. It helped me so much!

Yesterday was probably the hardest day of my mission so far there is a lot of details that go with it and this email is already really long but I will try to sum it up. My companion  comes from a VERY military family. She is a fixer of problems and always is ready to go go go. She sometimes is intimidating and I have a hard time communicating to her because of it. A couple days ago I was having some questions about processes we go through as Sister Training Leaders. She was ready as ever to respond with an answer of thats just the way it is. I wasn't satisfied with the answer and she couldn't understand why. I know I'm leaving out details here but I hope you can follow me. I asked her sometime later for help on how I can express myself better. She didn't have an answer for that one. Then yesterday after church Pres. Hall suddenly showed up. I was thrown into a ball of emotions. I couldn't figure out why he was there. When I asked my comp about it, it was apparent she had organized the meeting and I somehow missed the memo in the phone when she handed it to me to catch up on the messages she had sent. She had already told me of some conversations she had had on the phone so I wasn't looking for anything. When we sat down and Sis. S. stated the reason for the meeting she said it was to help us in our communication with each other. President Hall asked me what I wanted to talk about and I explained that I was shocked and surprised becaused I didn't know this was happening and that I was too emotional to talk right then. I was put in a seperate room at that point. Luckily there was a piano for me and I cried harder than I have ever cried in the last 7 months. About an hour and a half later I was finally summoned and President Hall and I just talked. He told me that if I needed to throw a chair across the room I could haha all I need is a punching bag but thats okay it wasn't necessary. I expressed all the emotions that I had been feeling. Betrayed, hurt, pain, frustration etc. He asked me to just get everything out. I told him I was tired of feeling like all my companions hate me and that no one can seem to get along with me. Between Sisters D, P and S. I was up to my ears in frustration! I told him I felt done, that I wanted to go home. I was tired of living my own personal hell. Which later he agreed with me on. In the end we had talked about Sister P.and the frustration I had had over the fact that I can't seem to get away from the troubles that happened in our companionship. He told me some things that I have been sworn to my grave in secrecy on, which helped me let go of the guilt I thought was mine. He flat out told me that I was not the cause of the problems in the companionship. It wasn't me. It simply wasn't me. I cannot tell you how much I have longed to hear those words. To feel the guilt leave to know that I was okay...it wasn't me. I hope you can understand my relief. As for Sister S, well with President Halls help he and I came to the conclusion she and I are very different. Because of the military background she is always ready and always has a solution. As for me, I am the type of person that likes to process and think about things before I answer or take action. I need time to step away from a situation to think or calm down before I can move on. He asked me several different questions in which he told me my responses were classic Sister Cottrell responses and that it was totally fine. He commended me on my comment from when we started that " I dont think I can talk right now." He said that it was a brilliant response and asked me to try to continue doing it in the future. He told me to always remember 2 things: 1. I am an awesome missionary. 2. President Hall loves me for who I am and to never change. He quized me several times about those 2 things to make sure that I remember them. I love President Hall, In our conversation we laughed I cried and he counseled me on my companionship but also in my relationship with my future husband. He can do that since he used to be a strengthening marriage teacher. :D We came back together and it was quite naturally tense. President Hall talked mostly and asked us how we were going to make decisions on a couple things. What he really did was help us come up with the tools we need to make OUR decisions and not do things Sister S.s way or my way but that we do it OUR way. Even though at first I was mad and angry and frustrated and hurt and all sorts of other things I am really grateful I was finally just able to unload and that President Hall is now aware of everything. Even the snoring problem. (He laughed alot when I told him all about my adventures with a snoring comp) lol

So that has been my week. Ups and Downs for sure but tons of learning opportunities! It has been a good week over all. I am so sorry this is such a long email so I'll say good bye now ;D I love you all very much!!!!!

Hurrah for Israel!

Love,

Sister Cottrell

Hello!

 

Well its transfer time again. Its amazing how fast the time flies by when you count your life in 6 weeks at a time. :D hahaha

I am NOT getting transferred and neither is Sister Scrivner. And so far we haven't gotten any training calls other than continuing to be Sister Training Leaders. We have so many wonderful plans of how to do exchanges and help our sisters this next transfer. This week has made me sad on the note of exchanges. We have uncovered a deep layer of disobedience in our mission. It saddens me that we have stumbled upon it but at the same time we are glad we did so we can help our sisters become exceptional missionaries. We had a pretty deep discussion with President Hall about it all.

Today we are getting 30 new missionaries! Its going to be exciting. We have the wonderful opportunity to go and welcome them to their new home this afternoon. Pretty much we are going to be at the church when they arrive and eat lunch with them. Then we are going to take them out for a couple hours!!!!!! Hooray! I remember when I was new. I was so scared to go out and proselyte. Hahaha I have much sympathy for those who will suddenly find themselves in the same position. Its great being a leader. We get some great opportunities. I am excited to go today! I pray that we will get to see many miracles today too. ;D

This morning we did a Christmas in July party with our District. We drew names and then bought presents under $5 for the missionary. I love my district and I am sad to see some of them leave but they are going to be wonderful leaders and missionaries in their new areas. And its not goodbye its a see you later moment. Ah, the missionary life is full of excitement. ;D

Yesterday I had a small miracle. Sadly enough this transfer I haven't gotten a letter from anyone, actually its been 9 weeks, not that I'm counting. I know that love is not measure by how much mail you get but it gets hard when your roommates are constantly getting mail. I don't share this to make anyone feel bad! I know that we are all very busy and have other priorities that take our time. Its a fair assumption, and I get emails from my family each week. However, yesterday my zone leaders approached me at a baptism and handed me an envelope. I couldn't help but cry and tell them why I was so emotional. The note was simple and it was from a dear sister in my parents ward. It wasn't much but it was to me and for me. I was so grateful for the inspiration this sister had to write me. I really needed it and it helped fill my bucket once again. I will never forget this note and how much it meant to me. Thank you Marilyn Ference.

We taught our investigator a couple times this week. We have one day where we read the Book of Mormon ( he loved the story of Laban getting killed...boys...) and another where we teach the lessons. We taught the Plan of Salvation. Everything was going fine until we introduced the 3 kingdoms. He suddenly started getting defensive saying things like, "Well some people really deserve to go to Hell." We tried and tried to get him around those thoughts but eventually we finally brought up outer darkness and then he was okay but not satisfied. Its a little frustrating. I feel like he knows in his heart what we teach is true but his brain wont wrap around it and tries to find any potential problem with our doctrine. However we are making slow progress. We had a member with us at the time of this lesson and he was able to share his experience of learning this lesson when he was an investigator. I believed it helped the investigator a little bit.

We went to a talent show the other night for our ward because Sister Scrivner was tongue clicking the Mexican Hat Dance. It was pretty cool. There were a lot of non member friends there and we discovered our ward is very talented. A guy in our ward balanced a church banquet table on his Chin! We had a band made up of ward members singing a popular song. It was just so cool to sit there and admire the many talents of our ward. And it was a great activity to invite their friends to.

Well I think that about does it this week. Im sorry this is so short. It was kind of a slow week. I love you all very much!!!!!

Hurrah for Israel!

Love,

Sister Cottrell

AGH! It is Week 6!

HELLO!

I cant believe that we are already in week 6 of this transfer! Time just continues to fly by and its beginning to scare me.

This last week has been full of ups and downs. Last Monday was so emotionally draining. We had a lesson planned for our new investigator but right before we got a call from Red. He sounded so distraught. He told us that he needed help finding a ride that night so that he could check himself into a hospital for suicidal thoughts. We were very worried about him and started calling the Bishop for help. He gave us assignments to complete so that we could help Red. The only problem with this is that the phone kept going off during our lesson. Also our investigator just wanted to argue his opinion that he doesn't believe only one church has the priesthood and that there is one true church. So I kept having to leave the tense conversation to answer the phone. By the end of this short hour where everything was happening I was totally and completely drained. We were late to FHE where we were supposed to give the thought so they started without us. We talked to Bishop a long while about Red and we came up with an action plan. When it came time to initate the plan with Red we had to get Red to empty all his pockets and bags of anything that could get our members arrested. We were all a little on edge about how the night was going to go down. I want to tell you that I watched a young man 23 years old, who has lived on the streets for 3 years, been in and out of prison, and is addicted to drugs throw away a large amount of drugs and surrender himself to hands that can help him. Red was probably in the most sincere state I have ever seen him. He told us, " I am tired of just surviving. I just want to live. Its not as fun as it looked when I was 11." Red just wants to live. That probably has stuck with me more powerfully than anything this week. What killed me more was hearing members of the ward and our Bishop logically condemn Red to a useless life and stating no hope that he could make it through this trial let alone another day. And you know they are probably right but it hurt because I dont want to believe it. I realized just then that I have invested all of my love to this kid to help him find a better light to walk by in life, to help give him a hope for a better future because I hoped for a better future for him. Through my interactions with Red I have taught him how to rely on the healing power of the Atonement and to trust his life in the Saviors hands. Monday night was the longest night of my life, I couldn't sleep because we didn't know how long it would take to get him checked into the hospital and the people taking him were supposed to update us frequently. Finally at 12 am we heard back that all was well and that they made it home safe. They informed us that Red received a blessing before getting admitted. The member that gave him the blessing had never done one before so it was an amazing experience. I finally fell asleep at 12:30 ish and then woke up at 3:30 to another text saying the same thing. When I woke up in the morning I was exhausted. I started crying in my prayers because I was so tired. Apparently I cried alot lounder than I thought because Sister Scrivner ordered me back to bed very promptly when I left the room. I went back to bed promising the Lord that I would work hard the rest of the day if I could just sleep. I woke up at a startling time of 10 am. I felt so good from the desperately needed sleep and I did work hard. I am so grateful that the Lord helped me get the rest that I needed. On tuesday I was near a piano for about 10 minutes and just started to tinker around with some hymns. I got the thought to call the assistants and make sure they had a pianist for zone conference the next day. I thought to myself, "No, Im sure they would have called by now if they needed me." Dumb. That night right before lights out the phone went off and it was of course the assistants. "Sister Cottrell! We are so sorry we didn't call sooner. Can you play the piano tomorrow?" they said. I started laughing as I put 2 and 2 together. We arranged the songs and I went to bed. The next morning we got to the church early so I could practice. With a blessing and a prayer I was able to play the songs well enough. I was very nervous because I was playing 2 new hymns that I have never played before for a congregation to sing too. It was truly a miracle and a tender mercy from the Lord. I realized shortly after zone conference that our one organist in the mission is going home soon and he has always been the one to play at transfer meetings. Yikes! The assistants told me that I am the only other pianist in our mission. So with that information I need to figure out how to play the organ!!!!! Luckily we have a very talented organist in our ward and has offered to show me how to play the organ. A word of advice to all you youngsters who aren't excited to play the piano: DO IT! Keep practicing and working hard to learn at least the Hymns. Your future mission presidents will rely very heavily on you.

Zone Conference was amazing and we talked alot about new ideas to work with the members. We are currently meeting with each member of our ward so that we can give a 5 minute Restoration lesson and give the member a "Member Missionary Prepardness Kit." Each kit has a Book of Mormon, pamphlets, and pass-a-long cards. We set goals with the member to use something from the kit and then make plans to reach the goal. We then follow up in a week or two. I think this is a wonderful thing for the members of our mission. They really need a way to become missionary minded because our wards are struggling. They don't understand why missionaries are there. We are in their wards to "assist them in their missionary efforts." We are not there to do the missionary work just to assist. Its a fine line and we are working hard to define it.

Good news! Our mission has been approved to have more temple trips, since it is only 8 miles outside of our mission. We can now go once a transfer with an investigator to the visitors center, go for ourselves in our Birthday month, and for any other special occasion we have permission for to attend (such as investigators going in for endowments). We are so excited to put this into effect immediately. Several missionaries have already gone. Lucky Ducks! hahaha

Well I think that is it. Transfer calls are on Saturday night. Next monday I will tell you the news. Oh and to all who may have written me letters and sent them to the Palmdale address. I have not received them and I probably wont knowing the missionaries who are there. ;( It makes me sad but its the truth. So please write again or email. Which ever works. Here is the address you can safely send it to (its the mission office):

23504 Lyons Ave. ste 107

Santa Clarita CA 91321

I love you all very much and I miss all of you. I hope you have a wonderful week and that you are mindful of the blessings God gives you each and every day. I am so grateful for the Pioneers who made their way across the continent to help all future generations have a hope for Israel and a Zion to call home. They made such a wonderful sacrifice for us and their children. May we all remember their sacrifice this week as we reflect on our heritage as Saints of Zion!

HURRAH FOR ISRAEL!

Love,

Sister Cottrell

Busy,Busy,Busy

Hello family and friends!

I am so sorry I dont know what has been going on with the email system. I hope that this email comes when it is supposed to.

This week has been so busy! But let me start with last Sunday:

On Sunday our mission had a special fast to help us reach our goals of 30 Baptisms in July, 1000 new investigators in July so we can baptize 40 in August. Sister Scrivner and I decided to add our own goals into the fast to help us reach our goal of 2 baptisms in July. We had one lined up already so we were fasting in faith to find another. It was a wonderful Sunday and we closed our fast with the feeling of peace that the Lord has heard our prayers. On Monday we gave the spiritual thought for FHE. When we were done one of the sisters in our ward asked if she could come out with us instead of going to the beach (FHE). We were excited to have her join us! She told us that she had been prompted to ask during the spiritual thought. As we prayed right before our lesson with a former investigator Sister Scrivner felt prompted to ask for help as we extended a baptismal commitment. But what she prayed for was for help to know how to help our investigator progess. When she finished praying she explained what happened. I got the distinct impression that this investigator was to be our other baptism for July. We were all kind of blown away. We went into the lesson starting out as we had planned. We soon discovered our lesson going a different direction which is okay because it lead us into the conversation of baptism. Sister Scrivner extended the commitment and he accepted it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We were so excited and astonished that all we could do was laugh by the end of the night. As well as offer prayers of gratitude that the Lord answered our Fast so quickly. It was truly a miracle. Then yesterday morning we got a text from his ride saying he was sick and couldn't make it to church. This was a problem because if he didn't come to church we would have to push is baptismal date back a week. We called him to verify he was sick. After we hung up he texted us that he had taken some medicine to calm his stomach and was waiting to see if it would work. We started to prayer immediately that the Lord would heal him so that we could help him keep his commitment for church and baptism. I kid you not that 3 minutes later we heard from him that he felt fine and was on his way to church!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The Lord has been so mindful of us and continually answers our prayers. Some definitely quickly than others but they are answered all the same! While we were at church we taught Gospel Principles. We asked the question of why fasting is so important. Our dear investigator piped up from the back row. He said, "its important because it allows us to leave the worldly things behind and focus on coming closer to God." .......DONE! He basically taught the class in one sentence. We couldn't believe it. How amazing that our investigator could answer a question about fasting when he is the result of a fast. Our minds have been blown. ;D

We started our exchanges this week with some of our Sisters. It was so good to get to know them and to hear their concerns and then feel directed by the spirit to set the goals for the exchange so that we could help them progress and become exceptional missionaries. Here are the miracles we saw: (in bullet point because there are too many details to share ;D)

1. we found a less active member from Utah that is YSA age!

2. a guy answered the door with a pistol in hand. Dont worry all was well when we said we talk about our Savior. He dropped the gun into his pocket, and he was 85 years old.

3. during the memorial service (for friends and youth of the Church) for our ward member we were able to locate two non member friends of the ward member and give them Book of Mormons and talk to them about the Plan of Salvation.

4. we committed an Atheist to give a pass a long card to someone who wants to know more about Christ, hence getting him to talk about Christ to someone else. heeheehee that one was funny because I didn't realize what I had done until I walked away. haha

5. While I was with my girls I was able to watch the change that took place in them as they saw the miracles unfold through out the day. I was able to help them recognize miracles in way that motivated them and gave them more positive attitudes.

Exchanges were amazing and I am so glad that I have had this oportunity to be a sister training leader.

I spoke in church yesterday. I was so nervous and I have no idea why. I was asked to speak on the plan of salvation. When I clarified how I was supposed to do that since it has been the theme for a couple weeks now the Bishop told me to talk about the girl who passed away. He wants to keep her memory fresh and the plan of salvation alive in our wards mind. Well as I studied for this talk I realized that I didn't want it to become a Euology. So I prefaced my talk with saying "I know that all of us will be thinking our our ward member because the sorrow is so fresh in our minds. But I want you to try to think about how the Plan of Salvation applies to you because you're apart of it. You are here!" Sister Scrivner informs me that I reached my goal. That at first her mind was drawn to the events of late but by the time I was done she was thinking of herself and how the Plan of Salvation blesses her. I had several other people tell me that I had said things they needed to hear. I was grateful for that because I felt scattered the whole time I was up there. I guess that was my logical mind feeling that as the spirit was talking. It all worked out and I am relieved.

I have officially become the designated driver of our vehicle because Sister Scrivner is under Doctors orders to not drive due to her seizures. I really hated hearing that (even though I am safer driving now) because I haven't wanted to drive since I got here! California drivers are nuts! and we all know my magnetic effect on cars. ;D hahaha. I trust the Lord will protect us and our poor car. His name is Jack because he has the turn radius of the Titanic. ;D

We have been trying to teach Red how to talk like a king and decided we needed to apply it too. One day this week our phone was being stupid and I said "this phone sucks!" Sister Scrivner turned and said, "okay now how would you say that like a queen?" I thought for a moment and said "This device is not performing to its fullest capacity. And I am VERY disappointed!" (in a British accent) hahaha we laughed pretty hard over that one. In fact it has become our inside joke. Amazingly enough it is working out quiet well. We are finding new ways to say things and get around not so lady like words.

Well I think that just about does it for this week. I love you all and I hope and pray that you see the miraclous power of God's hand in your lives.

Hurrah for Israel!

Love,

Sister Cottrell

Missing Email- July 8th

Okay email for week after July 4th.
Hello everyone!
It has been a very busy emotional week for us in Northridge YSA. Our week started off with meeting with a guy, I'll call him Red. Red came into our church building 3 Sundays ago looking for the Bishop to confess. We met with him instead and talked to him about repentance. Come to find out that he is a member! So we set appointment times to meet with him. Then we found out that he is homeless, a recovering heroin addict, and just got out of prison. We set a time for Sundays to meet with him half expecting him to show up again. Well the next 2 sundays he has come and we have had lessons with him. We got a call from him just a couple of nights ago. He was venting and very upset. When we got him calmed down we talked about the things we could help him with. The poor kid hasn't done laundry in 5 weeks, he hasn't had a shower in 1 week, he as no place to stay, he hadn't had a meal in 2 days, his girlfriend has not been a good thing for him, and he smoked weed to calm his problems down in his mind. So we made a sandwich for him, gathered the extra snack food we had, put a small hygiene kit together and gave it to him. He was definitely touched. Okay so now that I have given you the current problems with him let me give you his background. Red grew up in the church. Around 11 years old the male figure in his life started injecting him with Heroin. By the time he was 12 he was in the Skinhead gang (american natzi gang: the gang where only white people are acceptable and all other races don't belong in america nor do they have the right to mix with white people) Since then he has spent time in and out of prison and running the streets. I want you to take 30 seconds and think about how your life would be if someone started your life out injecting you with Heroin. Would you be like him? I think we all would be. His lifestyle was determined by someone else. Yes he has made choices but you when you are addicted to heroin you go where you can satisfy your addiction aka gangs. Red is amazing though. He remembers so much about the church! I has a primary song Nephi's Courage that he has remembered all these years. Its the only one he can remember. He has come to us to get help to change his life. He told us that he read the bible in prison in a week. He understands that he is the Prodigal son trying to come back home. In the last 3 weeks he has made amazing progress! He has done everything he can to become an inactive member in his gang by gang standards so that he can find God. If he deters from the lifestyle of finding God, his gang will kill him. He has taken huge steps to disassociate himself from people who do heroin. He asked to be taught the law of chastity so that he could start dating girls in the church. When we taught him yesterday about having the potential to be kings and queens and that we needed to act like we had the potential he immediately changed the way he talked about people. We also taught him a list of meaningless substitute words for his swearing. When we heard from him last night he didn't swear once! He also talked about treating a girl like a queen. hahaha Red is so precious. He is really trying. He told us that he wants his mom and sisters back. He said that he wanted the God he grew up with back in his life because the pagan Gods haven't done anything for him. He has prayed everynight this week and when he read the Book of Mormon he cried. He is doing everything he can to change. He even went to the family ward to get the message because he needs church and wants to replace drugs with church. He also told us that he isn't racist when it comes to church because they are all his brothers and sister in Christ. I hope you can see the love we have for Red and what a precious soul he is to God. Our bishop has been wonderful for Red too.
We also had a heart ache this week. A dear sister in our ward was killed in a freak car accident. She was standing at a bus stop when the car accident happened along with 2 other ladies. The cars were racing the local street at 90 mph. A van pulled out in front of them. Both cars ran into the van knocking it over. It flattened the sedan and the truck rolled and spun out taking out the bus stop and a flower shop. All 6 people involved in the accident were taken to the hospital in critical condition. She died early in the morning. She had only been a member for 2 years. I am so glad that she had the opportunity to accept the gospel in this life. I know that she is going to be an amazing missionary in the spirit world! Our testimony meeting was themed around the plan of salvation. Her death has really united our ward and it has been amazing to watch. I have many opportunities to reflect on the plan of salvation and it amazes me just how much more I learn each time. I know that there is life after death and that we all have the opportunity to live with our Father in Heaven again.
This week we also had missionary leadership council. In this council we talked about lowering the goal of 1000 baptisms to 300. I was actually really disgusted with this idea. I told President Hall that I wasn't okay with lowering it because we had already committed to the Lord of working to 1000. I did some math and found that it really is possible for us to reach this goal of 1000. We have 75 companionships in our mission. If each of us baptized 2 people every month to the end of the year we would reach 900 baptisms. Then we would add the 124 we already have. We would reach 1024 baptisms. This number isn't including the increase of missionaries we are getting in the next couple months. ITS POSSIBLE!!!!!!! So President set a month goal of 30 baptisms for our whole mission in the month of July since our average is 21. We had a mission fast yesterday so that we have the Lord extra help in reaching this goal. I know we can do it!!!! Our zone is opening 3 new areas and Chatsworths zone is also opening 3 new areas. The work is hastening!!!!!!!!! I am so excited!
Well this email is really long and I need to go. We are starting exchanges this week and I know we will see miracles! I love you all very much!

San Fernando Mission 2.0

We did not receive an email last week, so here it is- but apparently this week's  email from her didn't send. So we will have to wait for that one until next week.

Well hello!
I hope everyone is doing just fine and that you are all recovering from what sounds like a most fun adventure in Nebraska! It sounds like that the majority of us have been re-introduced to the wonderful Humidity. It is getting to be really humid here. ;( Oh well, I am grateful to be in a car right now. We haven't heard the official call on whether our area is a car or bus area yet. President Hall did say that if we wanted to try it to go for it. He is also considering having a car fast day, where every area goes 1 day without a car. Cars = anti proselyting bubbles. It will be fun to see the changes happen. Speaking of changes....Today is the first official day of the newly reformed San Fernando Mission. We call it San Fernando Mission 2.0! Sister Scrivner and I have spent 2 days in a row of sitting in meetings. The first meeting was Leadership Training. I was asked to play the piano for it...yikes! Well I didn't murder the songs and everyone seemed to sing it just fine so I think I passed hahaha. The rest of the meeting was very insightful. The amount of leaders in our mission is about half of our mission (approx 70 leaders.) We were informed that by September almost every single missionary will be either training or being trained. We have almost 100 new missionaries coming in by September. ITS CRAZY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I thought and thought of the things I would like to see in our new mission and I honestly couldn't think of anything until Friday night. What I want in our mission is that whoever hears of our mission will know that we are an obedient mission. I want the next mission president who comes in to know that he has a reputation to keep up. I dont want this so that we can gloat. I want this so that people know that because we are obedient we see miracles everyday! Yup thats what I want. The second meeting was Zone conference for the southern most 9 zones ( basically its our whole new mission but we had it before the mission split because you cant have whole mission meetings hee hee hee). Basically we talked about almost all of the same things as in leadership training. The part that was most powerful was at the end of our meeting. President Hall stood at the pulpit and asked us to Covenant with God that we would be exactly obedient to the commandments (and mission rules) for the rest of our missions. Then he made some pretty profound promises to us if we would make this covenant that night. These are some of the promised blessings: 1. Our lives would be eternally changed for making this covenant Thursday night. 2. We would become better wives and husbands. 3. We would raise children that would love God and keep temple covenants. 4. We would be spiritually grounded parents 5. We will see the hand of the Lord very distinctly in our missions and the Holy Ghost would whisper into our hearts that it is because of the Covenant we made with God. 6. We would be successful in our missions...... okay I don't know about you but WOW! I definitely dont want to miss out on those blessings. So I made the covenant, and Satan has tried so hard the last 3 days to make my life miserable. All of us are feeling it!!!!! I cant tell you how much fire we all walked out of that meeting with! I am so excited to be a Pioneer for this new mission. We as leaders of this mission have the once in a lifetime opportunity to change this mission. To make it our ideal mission. To change the culture of it. To make ourselves known to the area of who we are and what we do! Its time that our areas know us by name! So here we come California, Watch out San Fernando Valley the missionaries are coming to you! And you know that you want it! hahahaha. Its quite exciting to be on a mission right now. I am glad that those of you who watched the broadcast enjoyed it! If you felt a small prick of excitement just from watching it, think about all the missionaries who watched it too and maginify your excitement by like 100 times! ;) I have learned alot about the timing of the Lords hand in our lives over the last year. Everything that is happening in missionary work is coming at just the right time. HMMM... what else happened this week? Oh, we asked to get our area boundaries clarified this week because of an incident with some elders who have not made it on my good list. Apparently the Aracadia mission is sending missionaries into our mission to proselyte in a ward whose boundaries apparently cross over into ours? Anyway, we called President and even he had hard time reading the map on the churches website. We thought we got it all clarified. Then yesterday our Stake President informed us that he spoke with Pres. Hall and told him our boundaries were what we thought they were originally. oy....so we are back to square one. It has been super frustrating especially since no one will give us the Aracadia mission number to call and get it worked out with them.
Last night we had an adventure. We couldn't get ahold of our district leaders to call in numbers. We didn't think much of it and waited for them to call us back. Then 30 minutes later our zone leaders called and asked us if we reported numbers. We told them we couldn't get ahold of the Elders. Then we got concerned. It was 10 pm and no one could get through. Lucky for us we live right across the street from them and walked over to make sure all was well. The light was on in the apartment. We threw a soccer ball (lightly) at the window to get their attention. No answer. We got into the lobby of their apartment and throughly banged on the door. Still no answer. We called the zone leaders and told them of the failed attempts. They raced over the apartment to help us. Once it was obvious something was wrong we called President. He told the zone leaders to go look for the Elders. We were to stay there and call if they showed up. We were all very concerned because they are on bike and one had just been hit by a car a couple days earlier. 20 minutes later the Elders finally rode up on their bikes. They said they had a story. They looked worn out and worried. Apparently an investigators daughter is a heroin addict. She needed a blessing. Their appointment was a 7:30pm and they didn't leave until after 10pm. The blessing took 30 minutes! So they made it home safe and I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. We all got into bed way past 11pm. President was very understanding and counseled them on future events like that. Well thats been my week. Lots of Adventures! I love you all!
Hurrah for Israel!
Love,
Sister Cottrell

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