South Bay Zone

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Sam's missionaries counting money for charity...

Revlon Run-Walk

Each year (the CLAM) missionaries participate in a service project to assist the Revlon Run-Walk for women's cancer. They are the only ones trusted to count the money. They are guarded in a room under the Los Angeles Coliseum while they work. (Sam is 4 from the left on the first picture and 6 from the left on the 2nd photo.)

Judgement Day....not..... 5-23-11

Tuesday 5-17-11

Today we woke up to more rain. Not so fun when your area is huge and you're riding a bike. It was cold for a while but the sun came out. We talked with some Dutch people that are less-active. They're super old and really funny - just gotta come back to church. We fished a street and when we got done with the last house, 6 police cars came flying down the street and the 'ghetto bird' (police helicopter) came flying in as well. One of the officers asked us if we just got done knocking doors on that street.. "yes.." we said. "someone called us and said they heard "talking" outside of their house.. could that have been you?" ... "uh.. yeah".. "Oh ok, don't worry about it, this happens all the time. Be careful, this is a gang neighborhood.. " ... "ok, seeya.." That was fun. We just found out that one of the 'promising investigators' we had is now in jail. Bummer. We ate dinner with the Lee's and then went back to the apartment to get out of the rain - we turned the bathroom into a sauna.

5-18-11

The days are going by pretty quick - we're super busy riding our bikes for sometimes an hour in between appointments. We talked to T.A. - it's hard to see him struggle to talk when he wants to so bad - the words just wont come out. We tried to teach him the Word of Wisdom again - he really needs to quit smoking. Elder Allred had his first Elote - the corn on the stick. He loved it. I'm sure we'll have a few more of those this transfer. We talked to a whole grip of people today that weren't interested. The whole area is African American - it's tough but there ARE a few black people in the ward. That's good. We talked to a guy for a super long time on his porch. He is a basketball coach and even coached some kids that are in the NBA. His son is in the draft this year  - Aaron Hill. Watch for him. We had a lesson with Billy from Alabama. We taught the restoration again - she's really got a tough memory problem. I hope we can work past it cause she's got alot of potential. We ate at L&L with sister Kanalu - good way to end the day.

5-19-11

Today we planned and then went to 'feast and feast' at the El Camino singles branch. We did alot of fishing afterwards. We ran into some Samoan members that fed us cheesecake - nice. We talked with Vesati - she bought us some bread from the 'bread truck' that comes around every thursday. She's about 24 and is thinking about serving a mission. I hope she goes - she is just kind of lazy right now. She's got a solid schedule and is afraid of change I believe. We ate dinner with Sister Smith - it was her brothers birthday. He turned 91. Ancient. We sang happy birthday and had a "Sunday Dinner" - roast and potatos - it was the best. 

5-20-11

We had fundamental trainings today - one of the things they are really focusing on is 'pausing' during lessons. After the investigator asks a question or after we do, we are to pause.. and let the spirit work. It's super awkward sometimes .. real awkward. But it seems to help so we'll do it. Billy forgot about our appointment so we visited a former that said we could come back - bonus. We visited another former that let us in and talked to us while she cooked pork chops. She was really nice but we could tell something wasn't all the way there in her head.. She's been to church once and so I asked her if she'd go again this week. She thought about it for a minute and said "well, yeah." I sure hope she does - she'll go to the singles branch and we just found out we aren't over that branch anymore - so I hope she goes. We ate and had a lesson with James - he's getting super excited to be confirmed and receive the priesthood on Sunday. He'll be a great help for the ward.

5-21-11

Judgement day... didn't happen. Surprise surprise.. There was a Galaxy soccer game going on today at the Home Depot Center and we had to ride past to get where we were going. It took forever because of all the people trying to get in there for the game. We contacted a referral. She really just wanted someone to talk to... she wasn't interested. She managed to talk straight for 1 1/2 hours - including a tour of her home. I was actually kind of impressed. Glad we got out of there though. We visited some less active members and another member. There is a lady here that is 81, has 1 eye, is single and fosters 8 adult handicapped people - has fostered 26 and 9 bioligical kids. She's nuts - a very very hard worker. We ate dinner with some philipino's - they were awesome. They want me to try 'balut' ... a duckling... dead... still in the egg. I don't think so.

5-22-11

Today was a pretty good day at church - still trying to get to know the members. We spent most of the day after church at a baptism Elder Allred had - he taught her and then she moved. They forgot to fill up the font so we were there waiting for a good while.

It's been a good week and i'm glad the world didn't end.

Hope you all have a good one - I love you

Elder Cottrell

- Show quoted text -

Transfer PHOTOS #9 Lynwood/South Gate 3-30 to 5-11-11

Brian & Sarah @ church

My Jalepeno plant

All American lunch that we made for Jose & Jennifer

Elder Watkins w/ Fixie Gang

 This is a church I sometimes attend:

 Me trying to look cool....

Circus in town

Sign says: If you're illegal, it's ok, we'll still sell you a car!......

 Bummer!

 Look at Jayden (Sister Munoz)

Concrete Jungle at the edge of my mission.

Pretty flower tree...

The Hood....

The Famous CANNON Clam Dip!

Beach Day for our Zone in the Mission

Failed pyramid 

85 yr. old deaf man we helped digging our a tree stump.

Chula and a grip of dogs...

Hermano Flores and carving of Christ that he did.

The Flores'

CHEESE

The Transfer letter 5-16-11

Tuesday 5-10-11

Today we saw Maria-under-freeway with sister munoz - actually we tried to see her but she wasn't home. Sister Munoz predicted (received and answer to her prayers) that I was getting transferred so she bought me a gift. That lady is the most in-tune with the spirit out of many people that I know and have met. We made a tabacco tea for Leo to quit smoking. We boiled water and broke up his ciggarette's inside of it. We strained it and made him drink it all. He thought he was going to have a heart attack - that would have been interesting. He was ok though - I hope he quits. We went to go to a lesson with Sister Cortez but Cecilia wasn't home. We had a good lesson with Ivett and I said goodbye to her. We had 'the last supper' with the Recinos' family. That was a good way to end my time in Lynwood and South Gate.

5-11-11

Made my way over to Gardena where i'll be helping with the singles ward at El Camino College and the family ward Gardena. My companion is Elder Allred from Rigby, ID and just got here to the mission. He's probably one of the most humble kids i've met. I really think I'll enjoy my time with him. We spent a good deal of the day cleaning out the apartment because the Elder that was there before, just went home and left a ton of crap. Nice. I still don't have a bike so we walked to the area - which we live a mile or so away from. I live on Normandie and our border starts at the 110 freeway. We went to some Samoan members' house - I have really missed the Island people. I almost forgot how amazing they are - they took us right in, cleared the table and made us food. That was awesome and a great welcome to the area. I cover mostly Compton and the top part of Carson. My area is HUGE and I don't even have a bike. Bummer. We talked with a less active member that had a stroke - he can understand everything you say but just can't get words out of his mouth. It's really sad and you can tell the frustration he has from this great ailment. His name is T.A.. I'm borrowing a bike from another missionary until monday when I can get a new one. Good first day in the new area.

5-12-11

We did some planning today until 12:30 and then rode our bikes to 'feast and feast' at the El Camino College institute. Every thursday they play a talk (feed your mind) and give you food (and your stomach). It was good to see some of the kids from the former wards i've served in. We rode some members that live in our area but go to the Carson ward - the lei's - you might remember me mentioning them a year ago. Levi went on a mission to Chicago 6 months ago. When I knocked on the door, he answered. I wasn't expecting to see him, as you can imagine. He's home for a while - trying to do the same thing I did. I promised to help him in any way I could to get back asap. We taught a really stubborn less active kid - believes in the BOM and Bible but doesn't believe in organized religion... ? Doesn't make sense. We'll see if we can fix that. James had his baptismal interview tonight and passed - we had dinner at his house afterwards. It was a good day.

5-13-11

Today we had trainings with the zone. Elder Ferrin - one of my old companions- is in my zone. It's good to see him again. The trainings were good and we all ate at the mall afterwards. We did some fishing in Compton afterwards. The first door I knocked on was a black lady that said she sings in her own church - I asked her to sing. She sang for us through the ghetto door. It was really cool. We biked to our dinner appointment with some members - the Davidsons. That was a good time - Brother Davidson can talk. Probably forever. My area is way too big to cover just on a bike. But i'm way glad to be back in this 'hood'.

5-14-11

Today we fished. A lot. It was good - we have a couple referrals we've been trying to contact. We met with a less active samoan girl that fed us some lunch - I dont have any food since I just got to this area and haven't had a chance to shop. We taught about 10 kids outside of an inactive members' house for about an hour. That was pretty alright - they were all under the age of 12. We finished teaching James - who will be baptized this sunday - and watched Reflections of Christ with his family. James has a pretty amazing story. He's covered in tatoo's - he never met his dad and his mom died when he was 15. He joined a gang when he was 10 and has been in and out of jail. He just married Monique - an inactive member. The missionaries have been teaching them all and he is now getting baptized. Awesome.

5-15-11

Church was good today - we went to Sacrament at the institute for the YSA ward and then headed over to the Artesia building to sit in on the Gardena wards' service. That ward is... something else. That's all i'll say. By far the most intersting ward I have ever even visited. I threw together a baptismal program and filled up the font. We had the service for James at 5:30. It went pretty well, seeing as how I pretty much had to 'wing' everything - not knowing anyone in the ward 'n all. It was good though - you couldn't pay James to take the smile off of his face. When it was over, his wife said "we want to get married in the temple" then James said "we ARE getting married in the temple." I'm really glad I had the chnace to be apart of that great day for him. We ate dinner afterwards at the Parke's home. They were having a family party and it was super awkward. We walked home afterwards and contacted some people - it rained last night and it kinda chilly - never the less, still SUPER happy to be back in these woods.

 

Happy birthday Grandpa! I hope you had a good day - keep on keepin' on.

I love you all and hope you have a great week

Elder Cottrell

Happy Mothers Week

Happy Mothers Week - or Mothers Year as mom would call it.. along with Birthday and Anniversary year.

 

Thursday 4-28-11

Today we had trainings till 1 and then ate with the district. The trainings went really well and I am learning alot from them. We tried to see Carina, Tony and Javier - none were home. We taught Israel - he promised to read and pray about the B.O.M. Finally. We talked and had a lesson with the Chajon family - they are a part member family. They are super nice and seem to have strong testimonies- just too lazy to come to church I suppose. Or maybe 'too busy'. We had a big dinner with the Flores - a house in their neighborhood was on fire so we watched that for a bit afterwards.

4-29-11

Alicia blew us off again today - really really frustrating. We're going to help pull up carpet at her apartment next week though, so hopefully she'll be there for that. The sisters picked us up and we drove to the ancient L.A. Stake Center for a combined-mission meeting with Elder L. Tom Perry. We met with the Arcadia mission - that was pretty neat. I saw Chaz Emery - a kid that asked me if I was Sara's brother. He said he remembered me from school - anyway the meeting was awesome. Elder Perry and Elder Clayton really focused on prayer and love for our investigators. I have a whole bunch of notes i'll have to send home. We did weekly planning afterwards and then met with another part member family. They fed us dinner and we watched the Reflections of Christ slideshow - they really loved it but just weren't too interested in learning more - maybe the recent heat wave has just turned the cities of Lynwood and Southgate 'off' - the earthquake will humble many.

4-30-11

Today we went to Huntington park for Mormon Helping Hands - we cleaned up tree's and garbage in the street from 7 till 12. It was pretty nice - really fun to do something 'different' in this great work. We had a good lesson with Ivett - she's progressing through the roof and will be baptized soon for sure. We also talked with Oscar - a former investigator - he's a born again Christian but is very open to what we taught him. We ate dinner at a pizza place with Hector Gabriel - he's getting ready for a mission and will do great.

5-1-11

Can't believe it's already May. Today Leo and Maria both came to church and loved it. Great! All of our other plans after church fell through so we fished for around 3 hours till dinner time. I don't mind it I suppose - work is work. Jose decided not to move to Miami - that's such a great blessing. I'm really glad his family isn't splitting up. Now we just need to get him a calling. We talked to alot of interesting and amazing people today but i'm out of time. I love you all and hope you have a great week.

D&C 6:22-24, 8:2, 9:7-9

I know that my Redeemer lives

I know that my Redeemer lives

Tuesday 4-19-11

Our first appointment, with Alicia, fell through - we've been having a tough time meeting with her and her mom. We turned Patrice over to the English Elders - thought it'd be best. We taught Maria-under-freeway the Plan of Salvation - she said she'd finally come to church next week. We had another great lesson with another Maria - she said she loved talking to us but will never go to church - she even thinks the Book of Mormon is true - she just isn't willing to give up her traditions to change, so I guess that's the end of that. We fished for two hours and found a couple of promising people. We talked with Daryl and Martha - he showed us his new toys - handcuffs. We taught them about prayer and how the need to do it often - their relationship is kind of struggling. I hope they pull through and let the Gospel unite them.

4-20-11

For those of you that don't know, 4:20 or 4/20 is an important time and date in the world of weed smokers - so we saw a lot of that today. We had the opportunity to pray for a handicapped brother of someone who we fished into. That was probably the highlite of my day. We talked to an 85 yr old man that was digging a stump out of his front yard - and he is deaf. He can read lips and speak though - it was amazing. We helped him for a minute and found out the ASL Elders were coming over to help - he is a member. Neat. Leo had a set back when he read about Nephi killing Laban in the B.O.M - he doesn't believe God would command someone to kill someone else. We cleared everything up - we just think he was in a bad mood. We ate with the Ramirez family - they're super cool. We taught the paln of salvation to a less active member and then a less active family. They had a friend over that is fifteen - we taught him the restoration - he committed to be baptized when he finds out it's true.

4-21-11

Today we met with Esther and brought a member from the ward to help out. She was running late but the sister from the ward was able to testify of the truthfulness of the gospel - it went really well - Esther just needs to make the time to come to church. We did weekly planning and then taught Israel the plan of salvation with the teaching aid mom gave me. He understands the plan but just doesn't believe there is only one true church. We're working on him hard - pray the spirit is working harder. We watched Reflections of Christ (the slideshow) with sister Cruz - she loved it. She promised to come to church this sunday - that'll be the first time I ever see her there. We watched that again with the Rubio family - we had dinner with them tonight - they're really funny and really family-oriented.

4-22-11

Trainings today - they went pretty well. Everywhere we went to eat at afterwards was closed because of "Good Friday" - we finally found a pizza place that was more like a bar - it was really awkward with the whole district ha. I went on splits with Elder Mcrae over to Watts. We didn't have a lot of time but we visited some inactive members - one of which had 8 pitbull puppies. She wanted to give me one of them - was even offering to send one to Utah. I'm sure mom would have loved to get that in the mail. "Happy Easter". We watched the slideshow with two other families tonight - people love it and it really invites a strong spirit.

4-23-11

After splits we went to try and see Alicia - she wasn't there. We helped Daryl wash his truck and watched the slideshow with him, martha and martha's mom. Martha's mom Lidia loved the movie - she was crying - she's a strong Catholic. We taught her how to pray and asked her to do it. She kept refusing - finally Elder Watkins prayed. When he was done I went up to her and said in Spanish "are you sure you don't want to pray?" she started to cry again and bowed her head and prayed out loud. It was amazing. She said she wants to meet with us and come to church. Sa-weet deal. We meet with Ivette - we taught her on the porch - she said she will get baptized when she finds out it's true - her story is amazing. She's seen missionaries so many times, but none have ever come back for some reason. I'm pretty excited for her and her potential. We ate with the Flores family and watched the slideshow again. We tried to get Denis to pray - for 2 hours. He is really hard headed. Finally he did. I hope he felt something.

4-24-11

Happy Easter

We had ward conference - it went really well - the stake leaders all spoke and taught the classes. We went to the primary for a little while and helped teach the Ressurrection. We did some fishing after church and ran into a couple of teenagers that had a ton of questions. They were kind of laughing at us at first but then got really interested - we're going back to teach them on Saturday. We talked to Carina - she's been flaky but says she still wants to meet with us. We watched the slideshow with Ricardo - he basically dropped us. Meaning he doesn't really want to meet with us anymore. We gave sister Aguilar a blessing later on - she wasn't feeling well. That is another family that really needs to come back to church. We have a lot of work here in Lynwood and Southgate.

 

Thank you all again for your love support and prayers. Have a good week!

Love, Elder Cottrell

End of the World?

What's this about seeing 2 suns in Russia? There's a church claiming that the 21st of May is Armageddon - get ready... phsych.

Tuesday 4-12-11

Today we walked to Rafaela's and read the 1st chapter of Nephi - they're really bad at following through with committments so we're going to make sure they do them. We talked with Maria who lives basically under the freeway - she's progressing really slow but her husband is deaf so we sent the ASL missionaries over - hopefully that'll help. We talked with Fidell - he didn't have alot of time but he gave us each 2 brand new dress shirts - he's a good guy and said he wants us to come back. We talked to Leo again - the one that has way too much info. from other religions. We sat down for maybe 20 minutes. He went from wanting to bash, to committing to be baptized and driving us to our apartment just so he could get a Book of Mormon. It was amazing. He was so excited - as was I. We walked to the top of our area for dinner with bro. Vasquez. Earlier today we ran into a Jewish lady. She asked us if we wanted to see the 'temple' - obviously we said yes. She took us in her house and there was a complete Synagogue. No lie. She was getting ready for passover. It was so neat - she knew Hebrew and had scrolls and everything. Cool - maybe we'll baptize her.

4-13-11

We ate at Panda House again today for lunch and then visited Patrice. We're going to hand her over to the english elders - she's just not progressing. We had a good lesson with Carina - she's really shy and kind of timid but still progressing towards baptism next month. We talked with Gabriel Diaz - he works at Dodger Stadium and is super busy over there - he promised to give me tickets when I come back, to any game that I want. I wrote his number and address down, ha. We had a great lesson on families with the Arana's - we kind of prepared a lesson to make families come closer through setting goals and tying it in with coming to church as the main point. We'll see how it goes.

4-14-11

Esther is going to get baptized. Along with her brother and grandma. Awesome. We were riding to lunch afterwards - we passed a lady on the street and something told me to go back. I was really hungry and really didnt want to. I just kept riding and tried to fight off the prompting - thinking it was just O.C.D pushing me to go back. Over and over I kept feeling so strongly to go back. After a couple hundred yards I hit my breaks and told my companion as I turned around "I can't fight it, I can't fight it". We went back to her - she was super interested and SO excited to have us over. Later, Elder Watkins told me he felt the same way but kept shrugging it off - he said that I was the bigger man for listening to the spirit - I don't think so; we just need to listen and react - always. We did some fishing and got a good couple of return appointments today - we ate with the Recinos' - to get Alex to hold still, brother Recinos strapped him in his car seat. It was the funniest thing - hard not to laugh while watching the Reflections of Christ slide show and hearing him squirm.

4-15-11

Today we had trainings again, the were great mom! No but really, they were pretty good. I don't mind them. We ran into 'anit-guy' again today. If there's one thing that raises my blood pressure its people trying to bash with us. Wow. I had to ride away. No one was home today - we did however have a good lesson with Israel in his backyard. We ate with the Flores' couple - they're super cool.

4-16-11

Today was stinkin hot. We talked to Alicia for a while, she had to leave but we committed her to come to church tomorrow. Almost all of our plans fell through but we managed to teach a bunch of lessons in the park. We ate with the Rubio's. We finally met Esthers husband - hopefully they all come to church tomorrow. Had a good lesson with Yolanda - time for her to come back to church.

4-17-11

Beautiful day today- after church we went to the hospital to give bro. flores a blessing - he might have a tumor - they had to leave to another hospital because they don't have papers. It was super sad. We tried to see Maria, Alberto, Juarez family, Carina, Ricardo, Kathy, Luis and evett - none of them were home. Fun. We did meet a recent convert in another ward - her dad speaks only spanish so we committed him to come to church with us. We went to Jennifers - she was having a little dinner party for Dennis - it was his birthday. There were a couple of families over from the ward. Dennis and Jennifer got in an argument and Dennis left - it was super sad and very awkward. We talked to Dennis afterwards outside - we really think he needs to just move out - they're not married anyway. He's got to do better.

That was my week - today we went to the beach. Couldn't get in the water but it was great to be by the ocean. i love you all and hope you have a good week! Love

Elder Cottrell