Jan 8, 2012

Thursday 1-5-12

Last night I organized all of the interviews for our zone that will happen tomorrow up at the West Wood building with Pres. Baker. Today we went early to the church to set up the rooms for he and his wife. Elder Matheson and myself went in first and talked to him about what's been going well in the zone lately and then he talked to me. He is such a great guy and truly called of God. I'm glad for the opportunity i've had to serve with him. He asked me about my reading in the Book Of Mormon and what I am doing to help the wards I am in to grow. He also asked me what my thoughts are about training for my last transfer.. I told him that I think it would be a great experience, but that I'm happy where I am at. We will see what happens. We interviewed each companionship for the rest of the day and asked them about the new zone goal and the new standards of excellence. It was a great chance to sit down with all of the missionaries here and find out how I can be a better example and a bigger help in getting this work at it's best. We gave a blessing to a lady in the UCLA hospital - she had a lung transplant and was all by herself from pasadena - she said that no members of her ward were able to come see her until this weekend. I had the priveledge of giving the administering the blessing and then we sat and held her hand for a while. It was sad, but she was so so grateful to have us there. We spent the remainder of the evening planning a big training that we have to do tomorrow in the district meetings.

1-6-12

Today we went to the district meetings and whipped out some new mission trainings - we are focusing on making detailed lesson plans of each lesson - as individuals and as companionships. President Baker came to our first meeting to observe. He said we did a great job and we got alot of good feedback from the zone. I was happy about that - it was a lot to cover in an hour. We ate lunch and went back to do it all over again to another district. It went better the first time. I went on splits with Elder Ewing - we ate with the Barahona's and then tried visiting some less-active members in my area. It was a good 'split'.

1-7-12

We met up with our companions at a members house in Elder Ewings' area - he made us some steaks for lunch - bonus. We taught the Barrios family and then made some cakes for some elders and sisters - there are 4 birthdays in the zone this weekend... yowza.

1-8-12

Today we went to church at La Cienega - Hector and Brian came 45 minutes into sacrament - I was really glad to see them there finally. They've missed a couple weeks. Hua told us that he was in yosimite with his parents and wouldnt' be able to make it - but he gave us some great news. His parents want to meet with us tomorrow - they are in town from China - they've been to the Oakland temple grounds, and the visitors center here - they loved it! We are so excited - we are going to bring 2 chinese elders to the lesson tomorrow to help us out. We taught Mariana, her boyfriend and her mom about the BOM - we read the first chapter and explained it. They really liked it! They are all Catholic, but Mariana is helping get them excited about learning about our church. Nice. We delivered some cakes tonight and had a party for a about 10 minutes before we had to go to bed. That was fun

I love you all and hope you have a great week!

Love, Elder Cottrell