11-22-11

11-22-11 Tuesday

Today we had mission-leadership-training - we sat for 6 hours with the leaders of the mission and got a long talk about how we really aren't doing enough. It was super rough. Everyone left the meeting feeling pretty down.. Oh well - sometimes it's hard to face the music - but you still gotta face it. That took up most of the day - we visited a less-active member that is kind of losing it upstairs - bless his heart. Rough day today.. i'm grateful for prayer.

11-23-11

Today we went to the civic center in santa monica to help with a service - well, to set up a service. We moved some things for a huge celebration tomorrow to help out the needy and homeless. There will be about 4,000 people there trying to get clothes, dental exams, food and other medical help. We had a good lesson with Hua - we talked about the Atonement of Jesus Christ - he didn't understand a few things, but we felt like we cleared them up pretty well. He said he gained a much bigger appreciation for Him and all He did for us. I'm grateful for Him.

11-24-11

Today we went to the civic center again to help with the 'celebration'. There were a ton of volunteers there - too many infact. They asked a small group of us to go into the clothing section and 'mess things up to create jobs for other volunteers...' seriously. I knocked over a pile of pants and then picked it back up because I felt too bad for messing it up. They put Elder Ewing and I in charge of training volunteers - so ten minutes after the hour, every hour, we'd get a group of about 50 volunteers and yell our guts out over the noise to get them trained - it was pretty fun. We were incharge of the servers and waiters - there was alot of really grateful people there - it was an awesome experience. We ate with a family in the spanish ward - I was sceptical at first but then learned that it was so so stinkin good. We had all of the same food that we eat at home on thanksgiving - it was really way good. I wish I would have bought a turkey. We even contributed with an ugly jello mold that we made yesterday. No one ate it - oh well. I'm grateful for thanksgiving

11-25-11

We had good district meetings today - I didn't have to train on anything but I learned a whole lot from the other trainings. We had them themed to setting baptismal dates and sorting through our teaching pools to find those really ready to be taught and baptized. We helped a family move some mulch into their backyard - it was way fun to do some yard work for a minute. They are probably my favorite family in the area - they're the one's with the super happy marriage. They're gonna need to come to my wedding in Utah when that day comes. I'm grateful for hard work.

11-26-11

We taught Hector the plan of salvation - he loved it. He and his son Brian are doing great. I'm excited for them to get baptized soon. We taught Marianna, her dad and boyfriend about the Restoration - they grasped it all really well. - she made us a CD of her singing spanish songs. I don't understand them super well, but she is pretty good ha. We visited a less-active member and got super down... He brought us into his kitchen and showed us that he has nothing to give his kids, he is having troubles with his wife and lost his job. It was so so sad.. I wish I could do something for them so bad. We just prayed and prayed..

I'm grateful for the gospel.

11-27-11

We had our stake meeting today with Pres. Baker - it went pretty well. They are doing everything different now - on a new system - so we basically just looked over numbers and learned the new way. Glad to have that meeting done. The wards were super small today - everyone is gone for the holiday. I think when the time comes to go to just 3 hours of church, i'll think it's short. 7 am to 5 30 pm is just too long. But I'm grateful for it.

That was the week - today we played kickball and presented the new zone goal to the zone - we will wash the car and do some shopping at the dollar store. Exciting I know.

I love you all

Elder Cottrell