March 7, 2011 Post-

One more week in the worldly world.

Tuesday 3-1-11

Today I woke up pretty well rested - that was a first in a while. Elder Watkins was feeling too sick to go out so I got to read my book - Jesus The Christ - pretty much all day. I don't know who all in the family has read it; i'm sure many of you, but it is such a good book. There are a lot of big words and sometimes I have to read the page twice to make any sense of it, but when it registers it really 'fills you up'. I even made some mashed potato's today - they were really good except I added too much milk. Turned out a little more like applesauce. Oh well. I ordered a pizza to make up for it.

3-2-11

Woke up pretty early today - Elder Moss and Elder Mcrae came to get us at 7 to take us to the temple for service. We didn't get there till about 9. Elder Moss and my companion drove back to our apartment because they were both not feeling well. Elder McRae and I pulled Ivy out of a hedge around the west side of the temple. We worked on it for about 3 hours - it was a really nice day. When we got back, Elder Watkins and I rode to Ricardo's and laid out some hard facts of the B.O.M.. He was also kind enough to tell me that BYU lost AGAIN to a stupid New Mexico team. Awesome. Why would he do that? I love talking about sports now days wayyy too much. While we were talking to him, his neighbor pulled up. She said she wanted to talk to us because she is LDS and just moved in.. while talking, she had her McDonalds coffee cup in her hand. Atta girl. We talked to her afterwards and found out she's going through a divorce and hasn't been to church in a long while. She wants to feed us next week so that should be a good opportunity to 'get in the door' and get her back to church. We ate Sope's with Sister Flores - we sang a hymn to start the lesson and the singing was so bad (no offense to any latins...) that Elder Watkins and I stopped singing after one verse because we had tears running down our cheeks from trying not to laugh. It started to rain so we called Dennis to come and get us with his truck. He picked us up and took us to an appointment with Jave. He lives in his truck now.. He doesn't have anywhere to go. He's waiting to get his drivers license back so that he can work again as a truck driver. That's going to take atleast a year. I asked him where else he had looked for work and he couldn't tell me anywhere. Basically, we told him to call us when he is ready. That's a real sad story seeing as how he was supposed to be baptized and promised God that he would this sunday.

3-3-11

Today we planned - I had a huge migraine and wasn't in the mood but worked through it anyway. We had a lesson with Patrice on the Plan of Salvation - her friend showed up during the lesson and we talked to him too. They both said they would make it out to church this sunday. Hope so. We went to Sister Cruz's place to make sure I didn't offend her with my ridiculous lesson a few weeks ago. She fed us eggs, beans and tortillas - yummm. She's doing alright but said that she can't come back to church until June... ? We had a lesson with Jose, Norma and her sister Jennifer. Jennifer also committed to be baptized on the 13th! Sweet! Finally after a drought since December 26th when I baptized the Recinos', this ward will have new members! We talked with Brennett Rodriguez- 19 with a 2 yr old. She seemed like she really wanted some help. Hopefully she follows the example of her mom and little sister and starts coming to church and eventually be baptized.

3-4-11

Today Pres. Baker came to our apartment to have a companionship study with us. FUN. He's a really good guy, but like I said before - just makes me nervous. It went really well and he was quite impressed wtih Elder Watkins and I. Good deal. We had DDM and then afterwards went on splits. I was in my area with Elder Moss - he brought his car. Finally I got a rest from my bike. We went to the park and met a member there - he's getting ready for a mission. We talked about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and how we need to apply it in our every day lives. I think he's getting pretty excited to go. We had dinner with the Ramirez family - a friend was over at their house that is not a member. She got really interested and wants the missionaries to come over to her house - I'm pretty sure she lives in another mission but non the less, it's another one of God's children on their path back to Him. We talked with the Arana's - Brother Arana finally seems to be proggressing after a miracle happened with his Sister in the hospital. "Because ye have seen me and touched of my hands, you believe. Blessed are they who believe without seeing".

3-5-11

Today we had correlation for forever. It's really hard when there are 5 companionships in one ward. Not super affective. The youth in the ward did a car wash/ breakfast/ lunch. So we were able to eat afterwards. Bonus. We did quite a bit of fishing today - with little success. We did however count 80 yard sales in just under 1 hour. Saturday's here are crazy. It's like one big swap meet on the streets. Mom would have a hay-day. We had another really good lesson with Norma, Jose and Jennifer - i'm so excited for them. We had dinner with the Recinos' - one of my favorite families over here no doubt. We had a lesson on the baptismal covenant and the Holy Ghost. Tonight I called Jennifer Munoz to ask if she could give someone a ride to church - someone answered the phone and I THOUGHT it was her 14 yr old son, so I said "hey brian, hows it goin? this is the missionaries".. followed with a response.." No, Elder Cottrell, it's me, Jennifer.." awkward. Have you ever seen the movie Thumbelina? of course you have - she reminds me of the one frog lady that sings.. I dunno if you know what i'm talking about. She's really funny though.

3-6-11

Church day - all of our investigators with a baptismal date showed up! Solid. Julio came too - first time since 1989 - when I was born! That was so cool to see him there. We did some more fishing after church - again with little success - last night on our way to an appointment we saw some people trying to carry this huge entertainment center down the road - we stopped to help them. It was soooo stinkin heavy and their house was a ways away - but it was worth it for the return appointment and the opportunity to teach. We talked with Sister Rodriguez for a while - she's doing great - getting ready to go through the temple. We ate with Sister Cruz again - she's going to try to cut the time before she goes to church again from June to next week - hope so. We went to the Galeas' - also one of my favorite families here. Back in January we made some goals with them - they are really proggressing well! Coming to church every week - Brother Galeas' and Brian both shared their testimonies in church - awesome! It was a pretty good day.

That was the week - hope you enjoyed it!

Love,

Elder Cottrell