Hellooooo how's it goin? You wrote 3 talks eh? Not really that surprised, way to go! I want to write a letter to "other elder" and tell him to get a clue. Think that'd be appropriate? I cannot believe Kyle gets home tomorrow, that's so crazy - I bet he'll be sad, I heard he has really really been into the mission. That email address is Rachel Povey's - she was over at the house the day before I left and is getting ready for her mission - just said she wanted to get my weekly letters - I have no time to write during the week. Or you could just forward her the address to your blog that you have for me.. that'd probably work. Thanks for sending letters to sister Dakay. I really wish I had time to email her. I send stinkin long emails to you though so I cannot dang it. Oh well it's good to hear she's doing well.
Alrighty then,
Tuesday -
We began the training that will change the missions world-wide. We started everyday from 8:00 and went to 3:30 for 4 days at the Carson Chapel. To sum up everything we learned - rely on the spirit in your teaching. Basically it. Ask more questions and LISTEN. You know that I really don't like meetings too much but they were really good. After training on tuesday we went and saw Richard and Chere and watched... Legacy.. yup you guessed it. He's super obsessed with that movie. There were a lot of distractions ... his 2 year old wanting to jump on the tramp and throwing things, people coming in and out, the dog tinklin on the floor - it was pretty amazing. BUT he dis still feel the spirit and committed to come to church. Oh before I forget, last weekend was the ward campout - friday to saturday - well on sunday only half of the ward showed up to church. Guess why? The other half was still on the campout. Including the elders quorum advisor and the ward mission leader. I was amazed and the Bishop was steeming to say the least. I thought you'd get a kick out of that - that was for the other ward i'm in - not the samoan one.
Wednesday-
I did not baptize anyone. I did not convert anyone. But I felt and taught by the spirit. I fulfilled my purpose as a servant of the Lord. After training a member surprised us with groceries - that was such a cool deal - I couldn't have been happier with it being the end of the month and being low on dough. She also made us cocoa rice (stinkin good - white rice mixed with... cocoa.) We went to teach a part member family. The man went to Italy for 8 years to school to become a catholic priest but his wife and kids are all members. He didnt end up finishing school and came home early - I don't know the whole story. When we went inside he wasn't too interested in talking to us so he went to the other room and got his wife. He went around the corner into the kitchen while we talked to her and her kids. I don't remember exactlly what we brought up but it caught his attention. He poked his head around the corner and joined in the conversation. As we continued to talk he came into the room and sat down. We were able to address a lot of his concerns about the church. He actually knows it to be true but is afraid of what his parents would do if he joined. We were amazed at how much he opened up to us - he ended up coming to church on sunday and wants to meet with us regularly. Nice. I also made Franco sign in my planner that he'd come to church this next sunday. Double nice.
Thursday -
After training Elder Sung and I visited a family very similar to the one I mentioned above. The husband blames things on his health instead of his parents though. The missionaries have been working with him for a long time now and he's just been off and on about what he wants to do. We read with him in the Book of Mormon. One of his concerns with his health was his memory - he can't remember the stuff he reads and learns - so we told him to take notes. We're hoping that works. He's a really good guy, just needs a little push by the spirit. The guy I gave a blessing to in the hospital last week walked out the doors on thursday. Can you believe that? I couldn't believe it when I got the phone call. He wasn't supposed to make it another week but ended up walking out instead. Amazing how the Priesthood works.
Friday-
After training we went to dinner with Joseph's parents (the tanuvasa's). They're very very nice and interested in what we're up to. After that we went to Theo's and gave him some things for his birthday. A watermellon, some soda, a razor and some cake. He was really excited but kind of sick so we didnt stay long. I committed our filipino friend Felix to be baptized... but.... he doesnt seem to understand. I'd ask him to be baptized and he'd say 'yes but I don't see why I need to be - i've already been baptized twice' then we'd explain the apostasy, and restoration. Well we went through this about 3 times before I finally just said "so will you be baptized by someone holding the proper authority of God?' and when he said 'yes', I cut him off before he could say 'but' and ended with a prayer. I'm sure we'll have to address that again soon.
Saturday-
We went to a members' house in the carson ward for dinner - they had a little dog that was sniffing Elder Sung. When the little girl (maybe 3 years old) saw that, she said "oh, he only sniffs things that are stinky". That made me laugh pretty good. We had a crazy experience where I felt like we needed to go to our ward mission leaders' house. We got there and there was an animal control car parked out front. We asked the guy what was going on and all of his dogs were outside. 2 little ones and a big german shepherd that isn't right in the head. No one was home and they wouldnt answer their phone. Sooo we ended up spending an hour in the dark rounding up these dogs, trying not to get bitten. We got them in the house and shut the door - everything turned out ok.
Sunday -
Went to church - an inactive family that we've been visiting for a good while finally came to church today for the first time in years. The Bishop of the ward said that he's never seen them there before. That was realllllllly good. We visited Theo and I told him that there is a good chance I might be getting transferred next wednesday - he thanked me and gave me a big hug and said what he said before "i've seen a lot of missionaries over the years and you were the only one that I could connect with. You're the only one that ever got through to me. You better come back" That made my day. The rest of the day was spent taking sacrament to a couple of families and having FHE and the Lopez's. Good week.
I have 7 minutes left on the computer and you're the only one i've emailed. Sheesh. I'm really sorry I wasn't able to reply to anyone elses emails (sara, cami, laci, dad) but i'll try to type and read faster next week. I really appreciate all of you peoples' letters and support. 6 months tomorrow - nuts. I love you all so so much.
Love you,
Elder Cottrell
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