The Work Continues

Hello everyone!

It's been a wonderful few weeks! We had a Mission Tour the 19th, where our mission was privileged to hear from Elder Brent H. Nielson of the Seventy! Because Elder Nielson spoke to our Zone for a Conference last Monday, our P-day was actually changed to Wednesday. My companion and a two other Sisters serving on Campus, who we are really closed to, decided to spend our P-day at Yellowstone! So I have quite a bit to update everyone on, since we didn't really have very much time to e-mail that day.

Yesterday, we had a wonderful lesson at the Bishop's home in Newdale with Tambree! She has so much love and support, and we set a baptismal date with her for Oct. 22nd! We always pray about every baptismal date before the actual lesson, and we also committed Tambree to pray about this date as well, even though she's really happy about her decision.

Tiana and Gavin are really progressing! Since we started the actual discussions, they have just been so engaged in each lesson. Right before we were to say the opening prayer a week and a half ago, Tiana jumped up and asked us to wait a minute so she could try and get her cousin to join us! Raylee, her cousin, is a few years younger than me and isn't a member. She decided not to join us, but she is fine talking with us, and I think she's warming up. We also took Tiana to the General Women's Broadcast, and she took two pages full of notes! She was sitting by me, so as Elder Uchtdorf got up to speak, I quietly explained who he was. After the Broadcast, she wanted to clarify with me that he was an apostle, because she wanted to make sure she wrote that down. We are just so excited for her and Gavin! They are sorting out wedding details as well, and I just can't wait. I can't express how happy I am to be here to see the change that's taking place in their lives! They seem so happy as well, and I really don't think we can take credit for it. They were just ready.

Like I mentioned, we had our Mission Tour with Elder Nielson! He talked a lot about the enabling power of the Atonement, and how we can better improve the missionary work in our mission. Sister Crandall explained to me that Mission Tours really rekindles the fire in the missionary field to work harder, and I would have to agree. After the Mission tour, I feel more motivated to work harder than ever. The conference was from 7:30am to about 3pm, and I just loved every moment of it! Sister Nielson also talked to just the sisters in the morning, and she talked a lot about holiness. There's holiness in everyday life, you just have to recognize it! As an example, she talked about how as a mother, she would be overwhelmed with her messy house that her children would make. But she then explained that through the stress and the tears of it all, she could still find holiness in the situation. She explained that it's a beautiful thing to be a mother and a creator of a home. The toys spread across the floor meant that the parents cared and had given those gifts to their children, and the mess that resulted from dishes and snacks left all over meant that in the home, the children were provided for. Sometimes chaos is in our life, but it is through the opposition that we can see the good. In the mission field, she explained that we will have hard days. Sometimes we may not be able to contact anyone, or our investigators will cancel our appointments. But we need to enjoy each moment of our lives, and realize that we can ask ourselves what Heavenly Father would have us learn from that situation. Here are some scriptures she shared that really touched me: 2 Nephi 2:11, D&C 46:33, and D&C 60:7. I also made it a point to study "holiness" in my personal study this week, and I'm so glad I did!

Our Mission President also addressed us during the Mission tour, and he talked about Jacob chapter 5- a really wonderful chapter that I didn't fully appreciate till Seminary. Right there on the pulpit, he grafted a small tree to show us how it's done! It was really neat, and I would also encourage everyone to study Jacob 5 if they have the time. There is so much about missionary work in that chapter alone!

Here are a few other scriptures that really had an impact on me from the Mission tour! D&C 109:14-15, D&C 123:17, and Mosiah 3:19. I really looked at Mosiah 3:19 differently after the Mission Tour. Elder Nielson talked about how the natural man is only an enemy to God because the natural man needs to change. We need to all think about if we have been changed by grace (look up "His Grace is Sufficient" by Brad Wilcox! I read this talk a few weeks into the mission field, and it really is just amazing!). Another word for repentance could be "change". It is when we change something in our lives that we are repenting. Another way missionaries call people to repentance is through commitments.

So just a week ago we found out that our monthly millage was cut (this happened to all of the missionaries), so we only had about 100 miles to last us the week and a half. We have been depending a lot on the members for rides, but we have also been walking quite a bit. Which has actually been really good! It feels great to walk around, and I feel more like a missionary whenever we walk around Teton, Newdale, or Sugar City. So walking has been good, expect it rained quite a bit last week (of course it rains when we are running out of miles). Thanks Dad, for making sure I had an umbrella! Sister Crandall doesn't actually own one, so we really appreciated it!

Saturday the 17th was the Annual Teton Community Party! We had a few investigators go, and we saw a lot of potential investigators as well! It was a really neat event, but even a party, you're still very missionary minded! We were constantly finding people to talk to, and looking out for the people we are teaching.

We also had our second lesson with Cindy, a 13-year-old investigator of ours! She's very sweet, but since Spud Harvest has started and she's working and helping digging out potatoes, it'll be a bit tricky finding another time to teach her. Spud Harvest is when the schools get out for two weeks because a lot of the teenagers work with the harvest. They work from like 9am till 11pm or close to midnight each day till harvest is over! We are told that pretty soon we will see all of the trucks coming in and out. We are not sure if we like Spud Harvest yet, because it either helps us because people are home to watch the younger kids, or it makes it harder to teach/contact, since a lot of the people are helping out in the potato farms for the next few weeks.

Some other time I will have to talk about our other investigators! I love each one of them, and I'm excited for the coming lessons we have this week! I love the less actives we have been teaching as well! A lot of them have testimonies still, but they just need to remember what truly is important in their lives.

Since we went to Yellowstone for our P-day last week, I figured that I would talk a little bit about it! This amazing family who loves to take missionaries out to Yellowstone personally drove us all up there and showed us around! We saw a ton of buffalo herds! We also got to see Old Faithful, the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone, and a lot of beautiful landscape. We also got to see Mesa Falls! It was an amazing day, and when I have more time next week I'll upload a ton of my pictures!

I'm so excited for General Conference! Saturday Night was amazing, and with everything that was being said, I couldn't help but be excited for Tiana, and how each thing could relate to her.

I continue to see more miracles each day! I know that this is the most important thing I could be doing with my life right now. They say that the definition of a missionary is to be separated from their family for a short time, so that others may be able to be with their families for eternity. I love my family, and although at times it can be terribly hard, if I can just help one person come closer to Christ and be together with their family for time and all eternity, it will all be worth it. Even if I don't see much "success" on my mission, I know that every lesson, with both less active and non-member alike, I'm helping planting seeds of faith. I know this church is true!

Love,
-Sister Cottrell

September 12th Update

It's such a small world! I ran into Spencer Garcia just a moment ago as we walked into the Family History Center to e-mail! It was so nice to talk to someone I know from home. He even served his mission here and has been on exchanges before to the Sugar City Stake!

This Tuesday we had our first district meeting! There are two sets of Elders in my district, as well as the Spanish Sisters. They are all really great! As a district, we spent all of Thursday morning offering service at a food bank. It was such a neat opportunity! All we really did was pack the food into the boxes for people in the community to pick up around mid-morning.

We had a few really great lessons! We taught 15-year-old Tambree at a member's home last night, and it was such a wonderful experience. Her parents are very in-active, but she has a lot of good LDS friends who've invited her to activities and church, and now she wants to take the lessons. I really just love teaching in member's homes and I know it helps the investigators so much to have that support.

We also taught the younger couple we found just a bit ago, and they decided to go to church! As we left after our lesson Saturday, Tiana mentioned that she felt pressured to be baptized and go to church in the past, but that she sincerely now wants to go. Gavin as well said that he at first just thought we were going to try to convince him to reform his ways, but he actually feels that God led us to him and that he thinks Heavenly Father has prepared him over the years to this point, and to go back to the Church. Sister Crandall and I were blown away! He even told us that in the past when missionaries would knock on his door, he would just tell them that he worshiped Satan and would try to invite them to come in and join him in a ritual. It's amazing how Heavenly Father prepares the hearts of people! I'm so glad we met him when we did, and that he didn't try to scare us away like he had in the past with others.

Friday was my exchange with Sister Dodd again, but this time we went to her area at the BYU campus! It was so busy on the roads, since classes start today. We taught a few lessons, and it was just such a neat experience.

Saturday one of the wards called us and asked us to give 10 minute talks the next day. We didn't have a lot of time to work on them that night, but we were both able to write up outlines and scriptures we could use. When we walked into that ward and sat down, we noticed that we were the only speakers! So we sort of both had to get up there and add on 5 or so minutes. I was so terrified at first, but I was amazed that I was able to give my talk without too much of a problem. I know that it was only thanks to Heavenly Father, for words really did just come out. It was just like I was giving a lesson. That would have to be one of the tender mercies I experienced this week.

We also got to teach primary in two different wards! I just loved it. One little girl walked up to us after and told us that she had never seen an actually missionary before, and that she thought we were school volunteers at first because of our name tags. The kids were all really excited and they loved to just come up and give us hugs. I wish we could teach primary every week!

One important thing to mention is that we have a Mission Tour next week, so my P-day will actually be next Wednesday!

One last thing to mention is that I have just fallen in love with Alma 13:24, for I really do think that you can compare members with the angels it mentions. Never underestimate your example to others! I know that many of these people are being prepared through the kindness, examples, and testimonies of the members about them.

Lots of love,

-Sister Cottrell

Week 2!

Again, so much has happened! The work has really started to progress and have a lot of appointments for this coming week! We taught a wonderful recent convert lesson with the Cash family! Parker (age 12) and Reo (9) Got baptized a few weeks ago. They are such wonderful, sweet girls. Their parents used to be really inactive but are now coming back! Since Sister Crandall had to go on an exchange, Sister Dodd and I worked in Sugar City for a full 24 hours, from Friday afternoon to Saturday afternoon. Sister Parker (the Sister we live with) was out of town for the weekend, so Sister Dodd and I were completely alone. She is so wonderful! We see each other pretty often because Sister Crandall and her companion have to get together to plan meetings/go on exchanges. We have gotten pretty close and I love teaching with her. Since Sister Dodd is on Visa wait to go to Samoa, we flew out together, so both of us have only been out for almost 2 weeks now. Since she's learning Samoan, I got to help her with her language studies, which was really neat!

The people here are just wonderful and I'm starting to hope I never leave this area! Yesterday was fast Sunday, and we got to bare our testimony in two different wards. The other ward we went to was very similar to Kaw River, for we didn't get a chance to go up, since there was always someone who had a really powerful testimony to share- which is great! The Ward Mission Leaders here are just so great, and I really have loved getting to know them. One of the Ward Mission Leaders was just called, and he offered to feed us Friday evening and then we could have a meeting. That was the exchange day, so I was really unsure how it would go, but luckily we have had a few meetings with WMLs before, so I knew the drill (more or less!) It went well though, and they have such adorable kids! The 5 and 7 year-old girls took a liking to me right away and kept wanting to sit by me and show me their ballerina dances- so cute! Charlie, the 7-year-old girl, drew me a picture right before we left and made sure to put it in an envelope for me. Their sweet kids made me miss the Crowders more than ever!

Last week we found a bunch of non-members that weren't even on our referrals list. One of them we found while leaving a door of a referral that wasn't home. We saw this lady walking her dog, and Sister Crandall and I felt impressed that we should talk to her. Since we had already started driving and didn't want to awkwardly stop and get out, we drove around the block close to the corner we knew she would walk around soon, and like the creepers we are, we got out and walked to cross her path. She wasn't a member, and although she felt like the people in the church are hypocrites, she was fine talking to us and said we could visit her! Another time we were trying to find another home, but it was late at night and we couldn't find it. We passed this house with this guy (around his 20's) just watching us from our car, and although the whole area seemed a bit creepy, I really felt that we should talk to him. We were both a bit hesitant, but we parked and tried his house to ask for directions. He was really nice, and we found out that his name is Gavin and that he and his fiancee, Tiana (not a memeber), are from Washington. They lived with an less active lady (who wasn't even on our list for less actives) and her niece, who's also in her 20's and not a member. They were happy to talk with us and Gavin seemed really spiritual and told us that he was baptized when he was younger, but sort of fell away in his teenage years. He invited us in to see their baby, who's just a few months old! We also went to see them last night, and found out that Gavin decided to go to church (it wasn't one of the wards we went to that week, but hopefully we will go with the whole family next week!) They really opened up to us. They have had such a hard life, but they really do hope to raise their son in a better environment than what they had growing up. We shared a message and an we have a return appointment for this Saturday! It's amazing how much timing is everything, for I really do think that Heavenly Father has been preparing them.

We also had a Zone meeting all morning Friday, and President Nelson and his wife came to that! Sister Dodd and I got to talk to Sister Nelson while waiting to have our interviews with the President, and it was really nice. She's such an amazing woman, and I felt very comfortable around her. Another thing to mention is that we are reading the Book of Mormon as a whole Mission. We read just two chapters from the Book of Mormon a day while in our personal study, which I think is just so neat. We just started Mosiah a few days ago. As a Mission, we also recite 3 Nephi 5:13 each day as well. That scripture has really grown on me!

Here are also just some scriptures that really stood out to me this week: Words of Mormon 1:7, D&C 27:15 ("and take upon you my whole armor.") 2 Nephi 28:24 "..wo be unto him that is at ease in Zion!" (I think that we must always be anxiously engaged in a good cause, and should always be on the look out for ways we can come closer to Christ. So don't be at ease in Zion!)

One more highlight! We got a call the other day from this Sister who told us about one of her daughter's friends who wants to take the lessons! She's 15 years-old, and we met her briefly last week. Our first lesson with her is this next Sunday, so we are super excited!

I really do love this work so much. I feel like my own testimony is growing more and more each day.

I love you all!

-Sister Cottrell

Unexpected text from total stranger

Yesterday, Hayleigh's mom received a text from a total stranger with a photo of Hayleigh and another Sister Missionary among with the following comment:

These cute sisters knocked on our door today looking for directions. I thought you might want to see their beautiful faces. Thanks for sending your daughters to serve the Lord.