Hey everyone, it is so dang hot here in L.A.. I can't believe it is 'winter'...

Hey everyone, it is so dang hot here in L.A.. I can't believe it is 'winter'...

 

1-11-10 Tuesday
Today I woke up feeling kind of sick - had a cough and was congested a little. After studies our district leader came to go on splits. Elder Weir came to my area and Elder Watkins went to Elder Bluth's. Real quick - last night while we were riding our bikes home, 2 ladies stopped us in their car and said "hey!! Do you two know where you are?? It's not safe to be out here! Go home!" We just laughed and waved at them. I probably won't take you through this city much when we come back to visit, but as a missionary I don't feel threatened at all. Anyway, Elder Weir and I went to see some people, most of which weren't home. I was, however, able to teach a kid that taught me some tricks on my bike. That was fun. We taught Jackie and Carla in the park by our house, Jackie is still thinkin about a mission - Carla, still needs a testimony! We ate dinner with Lalo and his family. Afterwards we found out that Jave got put in jail for the night... He got pulled over for a brake light but doesn't have a liscence because he ... well... isn't a resident of the U.S.. I keep tellin him not to drive! Hope he learns his lesson..

1-12-10

Today I woke up pretty sick. I had a bad migraine and cough. Elder Watkins came back from splits and I knocked out on my bed for a few hours, hoping to feel better. I woke up still not feeling very good but we went out anyway. We talked to a new investigator, Paul, he is a cool guy - family is really important to him. We talked to some people in the park. It was dark but there were a ton of people there. This park is huuuuge. It has a pool, golf course, soccer fields, basketball courts, trails... pretty much anything. It's kind of random here in all of the hustle in the city. We went to talk to that couple we met with last week when we knocked on their door. They fed me some quesadilla's, beans and rice - solid. We taught them the restoration... .and then they basically dropped us. I was really really bummed. They want us to come back and visit them, but they said that they aren't really interested. I hope something changes!

1-13-10

I woke up feeling a little better today. After studies we planned till 3. We met a bunch of new people today.. While we were riding my chain fell off. I was really grateful I bought a tool kit earlier in the week so that I could fix it! We spent a few minutes tightening my chain and getting dirty. We met a lady at the apartment complex where Jennifer and Dennis live. Apparently she has been taught before by the missionaries. She's awesome! She is super busy with work but wants to find time for church and be baptized eventually. Great! We ate with Jennifer - she bought me some Vicks (vapo-"wub" as mom would say), gave me a pair of socks to wear to bed and some other medicine - she's so nice. I'm glad people care about us out here! Tonight I really started to feel bad - coughing way hard and nausiated. Jave got out of jail... way to go. I hope he learned his lesson.

1-14-10

Still sick with a bad cough. We had trainings until 3 today and then we went to see Anthony - a new investigator. He wasn't home. Bummmmmer. We spent some time with an inactive member - Yolanda. She seems really nice, I hope we can help to get her active once more. On our way to an appointment some guys stopped us on the street. They were in their garage drinking. It was crazy, they had transformed their garage into an entire BAR complete with hanging t.v.'s and a pool table. But then their house was super small. Nice to see where some people's priorities are. Anyway, they just wanted to know what we were up to . They were really nice and impressed with our Spanish so they gave us water. Solid. I ate ONE seed out of a TINY chile on this ladies porch and about died. It was in my mouth for seriously probably 2 seconds and I had to spit it out. It was stinkin' hot! We are growing a chile plant in our apartment. Neat huh? We taught English to Sister Rodriguez tonight and brought a member that is getting ready for his misison. It was a really good lesson! We visited the Arana's and taught them and their friend Ashely - Ashely might be a new investigator!

1-15-10

Today we had correlation at 12- it was supposed to be at 10:30..., Awesome waste of an hour sitting outside the church in the blazing sun. I cannot believe how hot it is here. It's like summer. We just completelly skipped winter. It's been 80 degrees the last few days! We ate lunch with the Galeas' and then visited Darin afterwards - our new investigator. He was sick and didnt have alot of time. We taught Corrina - a girl we 'looked' into a few days ago. We taught her the first lesson and then she told us that she's not interested. Hope we atleast planted a solid seed. We got into a 'quarrel' with a black lady we also looked into. She wasn't a very happy camper. I wont go into details but we left while she was yelling, we were both steaming. Luckily, 30 seconds after, we met an old Latino man that wants us to come by again. He's super interested. I'm really excited about that. That made us feel alot better. We had a super awkard experience where we went to see a lady that i've only met a couple of times. She invited us in... and then left. They were having some sort of family party in memory of their grandpa/dad that had recently died. There were probably 20 people there - none of them were members. They fed us... we ate... awkwardly. And then they asked us to pray.. It was just super super awkward. That's all I can say about it. We taught Jave and his brother and sister about patience. It was a super good lesson - I hope they come to church tomorrow!

1-16-10

I woke up at 3 this morning with stomach pains. Not good. I got out of bed and took one of the pills the Dr. gave me to relax it. I woke up at 6:30 still in pain and so I slept until church. I decided I would go and see how I felt there. I got a blessing from some of the missionaries and felt alot better. But still had my cough. After church we rode in the stinkin' hot sun to Paul's - he wasn't home. We tried visiting some former investigators that weren't home - every single one of our appointments fell through today. I think that was a first. We did alot of work though - alot of 'looking'. We talked to Jackie and Carla , visited a refferal, and saw sister Romero. Sister Romero is super poor and super humble. She wanted to feed us. The only thing she had was some eggs and some ham. We sat in the yard (super nice night) and ate. She is super kind to the missionaries - it made me really appreciate what I have. We taught Jennifer how to teach as she will be coming with us to teach her neighbor tomorrow. We did a role - play that went pretty well.

That was my week! I'm starting to feel better and starting to get tan again! Bonus! I love you all, and hope everything is well, i'll talk to you next week!

Love,

Elder Cottrell