Another flat? Really?

Hello everyone! I don't have alot of time so i'll summarize the week-

1-27-11

Today we had traingings till 3 - they went pretty well. Just a whole lot of repitition - must be important or something! We stayed after for a bit so that Elder Watkins and some other missionaries could practice a musical number - i'm still not feeling the best so I chose not to participate. At about 4 we went to Subway and then headed for home. We taught Sister Recinos about fasting and she committed to do it - although she really doesnt want to. I got another flat tire a couple miles away from home so we started to walk. I was in a bad mood and was just thinking why that happened to me - we were almost home when a man ran across the street towards us. He asked us if we would pray with him - for his family. He prayed and then told us how amazing we are as missionaries - that we can never give up because we are this worlds' only hope. It really touched me and helped my mood to change. Amazing how God works.

1-28-11

Weekly planning today - fun! Not! They are working on our roof and we couldn't even hear ourselves think for the 3 hours. We changed my flat tire afterwards - we ate dinner with Sister Cruz and taught the Plan of Salvation - we tried contacting a referral that wasn't home but had a really good Restoration lesson with the Arana's. That was about the day - lots of sitting!

1-29-11
Today after studies the Sisters picked us up to take us to Santa Monica. We met with the mission to hear Elder Clayton talk to us all. From 1 to 4 we were able to ask questions to him and hear how we can ultimately become the best missionaries possible - it was a really cool experience. We were an hour late to our appointment with Jennifer and Dennis - we ate dinner there - I feel so bad sometimes. They are so incrediblly poor - can't even afford napkins. But they do absolutely everything they can to help the servants of the Lord. That really helps me to be humble. We taught brother Valladares the plan of salvation and then walked home in our suits about 4 miles. We didnt have time to get our bikes after the meeting - that's alright. We were able to talk to a lot of people on the way back!

1-30-11

Church - Dennis came! (Elder Mitillo - who trained me - went home today. Can you believe that??) After church we went to teach Dennis and Jennifer - we had been planning to teach their neighbor but she wasnt home. We didn't have a plan of what to teach them so we thought we'd just talk about baptism and prayer. Dennis is about 40 yrs old and is kind of immature - his two kids and girlfriend are recent converts but he is Catholic and doesnt want to change. We convinced him to pray - we all knelt down and in his prayer - he promised God that he would be baptized. When we were done, I stayed on my knees - shocked. He looked at us and said "When can I get baptized"? Feb. 20th - I can't believe it!!!! Most amazing turn around I have ever seen. I'm so excited! I love you all! Have a good week!

Elder Cottrell

Lookin for the members, and finding pooches too!

Reply

Samuel Cottrell  to me

show details 3:49 PM (10 hours ago)

Getting hot here in L.A.

1-18-11

Today I went on splits with Elder Bluth to his area in Compton/South Central/Watts. We are putting together a new ward list for South Gate because it is super out-dated. (my exact address is 4267 N. Carlin dr. Lynwood, CA - for dad) We are visiting everyone on the list and seeing if they actually live there or what their status in general is. So in Elder Bluth's area, that's what we did. None of the people we tried actually lived there. Progress atleast. We taught a lesson to a family on Hope. It went really well, they are getting baptized soon. We sang awkwardly on a lady's porch that is mad at the missionaries because they made her boyfriend move out so he could get baptized. She walked into the other room while we were singing- fun. Elder Bluth teaches a Book of Mormon class on tuesday nights so I went with him to that. It was a pretty good day of work.

1-19-11

Today we woke up and played basketball outside at the court by Elder Bluth's apartment. It was cold and I was sick. But it was fun. I went back to Lynwood after studies and we took off - there is a womens contact football league that practices at a park by our apartment. Neat right? Those ladies are ginormous. We again worked on finding everyone on the ward list with litte success. At one house we knocked on there was a sign that said 'beware of dog'.. with a long driveway. We couldnt see any dog though so we walked inside the gate. We got to another gate that again had another sign that read 'beware of dog'.. I still couldnt see one so I walked inside. I took a few steps and saw around the corner a huge pitbul, asleep in the sun. I looked at my companion and whispered "dog. go back!" He looked at me confused and then saw the dog. We tip-toe-ran as fast as we could out of there. We were both terrified but it was pretty funny. We woulda got 'torn ta pieces'. We met some really good people to go back and teach. I got another flat tire so we spent some time at the gas station fixing it. We taught a guy that we met on the street - he seemed really poor when we met him so when we followed the address to a super nice house, we were more than a little confused. Sure enough it was his house. An older latino man with a super nice house - in the middle of the ghetto. He wants us to teach him - he's a very humble guy and like I said, you'd never know he was loaded by the way he looks.

1-20-11

We did weekly planning today - it's always super long and you know I don't like it but it helps alot. I just wanted to be outside the whole time - it was super sunny and just felt like a spring day. We ate dinner with Lalo - he's doing really well as a recent convert along with his kids. We talked with an inactive member that we found on the ward list. He's really old and doesn't consider himself a member - he doesn't even remember much at all about the church. But he was really nice, sincere and wants us to teach him more. Hopefully we can help to get him back on the right track.

1-21-11

More trainings today - at about 4 o'clock I went on splits with Elder Billat in my area. We visited an investigator that we have - Krystal. She's 21 and is super interested in the church. She went to a wedding at the temple (obviously didnt go inside) and wanted to learn more about it. She recently joined a Christian church and is seriously confused. It was great to clear some things up for her. She wants us to teach her - she took notes and read and answers questions. I have high hopes for her. She even said that when she finds out that its true, she'll be baptized. We watched Finding Faith in Christ with Dennis - good thing he was alone and there weren't alot of distractions - he really liked it! Hopefully he comes to church! Ate at the Tortilleria tonight because our dinner appointment canceled - oh well I enjoy those tacos!

1-22-11

Correlation today - again started an hour late. Bummer to waste time! On the way home last night a link in my chain broke. Woo Hoo! So today we walked to get another one. Good thing they are cheap. We taught a new guy we recently looked into. Rico. He somehow knows a ton about the church.. Good no doubt. He committed to read and pray! Solid. We taught a guy named Jose that we recently gave a restoration pamphlet to. He had read it and wrote down notes in the back. We were really excited about that but once we started to teach him we soon found out that he wasn't interested, just likes to stay busy so he thought he'd do it. Bummer :/ We went to see Darin - hoping that we'd be able to sit down and teach him as we have yet to do that. We rode up and saw that he was having a birthday party outside with some friends. We ate some bbq and then left - he was just drinking the whole time and we could see that we weren't going to be able to teach him anything today. Double bummer! We were able to go with Sister Rodriguez, her daughter and nephew to the Visitors Center. They lost their husband/father/uncle about a year ago and have taken it pretty hard. It was such a great experience to be there with them. They, and myself were very touched by the things we felt and saw.

1-23-11

I always look forward to church on sundays. It's a way for me to just relax and learn. I never thought i'd say that - but it's true. Although none of our investigators showed up, I had reason to be happy. We met a lady named Joanna on a border street of our area. We sat outside with her for about an hour and taught her the plan of salvation - her first question before we taught was "What happens when we die"? Uhh... could you get anymore perfect to teach? I submit that you cannot. I gave her a Book Of Mormon with Jesse Law's testimony in the front of it. Sweet! We went to the Galeas' home - they asked me to bless their house because a bad spirit had been seen/felt. That was the first time i've done that and a really powerful experience!

1-24-11

We went to find more people for the ward list - we found a lady that wants us to teach her. Bonus! I gave her a Book of Mormon with Jessica Hansen's testimony in the front and she promised to read and pray. We went to teach Rico again - we were going to watch the Restoration DVD but his player ate the DVD. Dang. We taught him pretty well, he promised that he'd get baptized if he came to know it is true! Things are finally picking up! We taught Jesus, his wife and friend in his garage about the Restoration. They own a party supply business and are really fun people. My spanish is finally getting better now that I use it all the time. We ate with Lalo again - I had a Serrano pepper - burned me BAD. Also not fun releasing it into the ... wild. We talked to some homeless guys on street - we bought them some dinner at Tom's. That felt really good! We also met a member that is preparing for a mission and is willing to go on splits with us. Good day!

1-25-11

After studies we went to find people on the list... again. It was a beautiful day - 80 degrees and sunny. We almost got eaten by a couple of German Shepherds that miraculously didnt come to the front yard until we shut the gate and were on the outside. Scary. We taught Luis about the Book of Mormon - he consider's himself a drunk but wants to change. It was a good lesson! We ran into another lady that said to come back later - when we did, we started teaching her and introduced the Book of Mormon - she thought we were Catholic. Oh well, she said we could still teach her. I hope she can find out the truth for herself!

Well thats it! I love you all, have a good week!

Love,

Elder Cottrell

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

Transfer pictures 2011

Elder Moran, Mitillo and I- "our family"

 Being spoon fed by Jave

 Getting a hair cut

Super hot chilli's, didn't dare do it~

Snow- just kidding- cotton

Soaking wet

Wringing out my clothes

Saying goodbye to my original district in the MtC   - Elder Gustin

Elder Simon

Elder Lovelace

Elder Jackson

Elder Dahle

Elder Richins

Elder Bluth

Rainbow after a huge storm

The Griswalds

Elder Hodell, Me and Santa at a Christmas Devotional

Cleaning out the font

Looking in the mirror above the font

Program

Elder Ferrin and Me with the Recinos

Me, Milsa, & Victoria Recinos

New remote helicopters 

dumb dogs

Sampson st.

Manudo

Fence that I ran into-

Me and Denito

Camero and my bike, they were made for each other!

Pants, chains, tires, oh my!

Samuel Cottrell  to me

show details 2:20 PM (1 hour ago)

Hey everyone, i've found out that prayer really works. Look into it. ;)

Tuesday 1-4-10

Today I learned that my companion has a weird fettish for ... maps. ? Anyway, we rode our bikes all over our area today and talked to probably a billion people. We stopped to talk to a black guy that was in his truck on his lunch break, reading the bible. He was kind enough to teach us 'the truth'. I've changed the missionary jargon - everyone say's "let's go finding" when talking about tracting. I've got a good number of missionaries now saying "lets go look". Thought you'd be proud to see my leadership skills in that area. After being rejected by one door in an apartment complex we went to knock on the one next to it, when the man we had just talked to said, "hey, ... the people that live there are black. Just so you know." I was laughing when the African American man opened the door. He wasn't interested. We ate lunch at Tom's - my new favorite squeeze in the area. Today was really really pretty - the sun was finally out and the sky was clear from the rain that helped wash out all of the pollution for maybe 10 hours until it went back to normal. I got a new front tire today - it RIPPED as I was riding home. That was neat.

1-5-10

Still working very hard. Never a dull second in our day. We found a member that is actually working as a volunteer in LDS employment services. But he was smoking when we rolled up. His wife is inactive, and i'm pretty sure he is too - he just say's he's going to another ward at the moment. He said he went on a mission to Spain many years ago - he really reminds me of Franco from Carson. He said he wants to take us to dinner on Saturday to an Italian restaurant because he 'never eats anything but seafood' and 'hasn't drank any water in 20 years'... ? Anyway, I hope he takes us out! We ate dinner at Lalo's. I love the beans, rice and tortillas that are with every meal we eat here. I'm going to have to introduce that more to the family when I get home. My Spanish is pretty rough - but i'm continuing to learn. It's been good to study every morning and apply what I learned throughout the day.

1-6-10

Today we weekly planned till 3. We had a bunch of appointments and were really excited about them - none were home. So we had the great opportunity to 'look' around some neighborhoods for some new people! Almost everyone that we talked to, actually listened. A couple even let us into their home, gave us food and water and read with us in The Book of Mormon. It was so cool, we have steep hopes for that family. 3 others that we talked to tonight want us to come back and teach them more. We made a goal for the week to talk to atleast 10 new people a day about the Gospel. That was fun to try and out-do each other. We ended up with about 20. We taught the Arana's about faith - Jackie texted us later and said that she wants to go on a mission! That would be a miracle for that family no doubt! They're one of my favorites in this area hands down.

1-7-10

Last night I shot a confetti popper at Elder Watkins while he was cooking. It was weird because his voice changed in a split second from low to really high once I did it. ? It's been fun to scare my companions like I always did at home. I love going to be laughing. Today we had MORE trainings with the zone. The same ones that i've talked about in previous letters. They're from 10 30 to 3 every friday for the transfer. Luckily today's went by pretty fast. It's just a big review really - I can't complain though, the spirit is there. We went and looked around Jennifer and Dennis' apartment. From door contacts in 1 hour we taught 2 lessons and got 3 new investigators. (we had a goal of 7 new investigators for the week, and ended up with 14) We taught Brian (jennifer's kid) about the importance of seminary - they were our dinner appointment but forgot about it. We went to visit the Recinos' - she must have known we were hungry. She fed us really good food, I was super grateful for that. Her 3 yr old son drank bubble bath while we were there... So that was fun. On my way home we were at a stop sign and Jave's dad pulled up next to me. I asked him if he wanted to race... I peddled maybe 3 times and then my chain snapped. He won.

1-8-10

Today I woke up not feeling too well. At 12, when we went to leave, I realized that my chain was still broken. So we walked to the shop from our house - a couple miles away - and got it fixed. For the next couple of hours no one that we went to see were home - we went to see Gabriel and make sure that he was still ok to take us to dinner tonight. He's a funny guy. We visited a refferal that we recently received - Darin. He was really nice and really talkative. He's about 45, latino, just had his first 'communion' last week, and really outgoing. He was nice enough to give us some fruit and water - he want's us to come back and teach him and his family. I could see them in white for sure! We rode our bikes to the corner of Tweedy and Otis to meet Gabriel at an Italian restraurant for dinner. I didn't know if he'd show up or not but sure enough he was there. It was a hole-in-the-wall kind of place but really really good. I ended up eating pizza. A whole one. Gabriel is going to 'transfer back to our ward'... We went back to the Arana's tonight, we taught Jackie, Carla, their friend Ashley, and Brother Arana about repentance. It was such a good lesson -  I hope they come to church tomorrow! On our way home my pants got ripped in my chain. I realized that this happened on the exact stretch of road where I have had 2 flat tires, and a broken chain. I'm cursed.

1-9-10

Church day - nice. My companion plays the hymns in all of the meetings - you'd think there would be someone in the ward that could play.. nope. Church was good, Jackie came - no one else though. I am really starting to see a change and a new desire in her. It's awesome to witness. After church I made a hot dog. And ate it. We taught this family that we 'looked' into the other night. We taught them the restoration - we'd teach in spanish for her and english for her kids. It ... went... terrible. They weren't responsive, my spanish and mind was locked, I didn't feel very well. I just wanted to get out of there. I really hope that they felt something though, I don't know what was going on. We talked with Tony - a former investigator. He's getting surgery tomorrow on his shoulder so we wont be able to see him again for a minute. He's really nice though and seems super interested. We ate dinner with the Morales family. We taught the kids about the wise man and the foolish man. It was a really good lesson - their kids are smarrrrt. We talked with Maria, who lives in the same complex as Jennifer and Dennis - she's so so cool. She works about 60 hours a week though and can't get sunday's off. I know that if there is some way she can get to church, she would be baptized. She knows it's true... I pray that something changes at her work so she can come. We went to see a former investigator - a boyfriend answered the door - turns out he's training to be a pastor. That was a fun conversation. He just kept trying to prove us wrong. I was boiling. All of the sudden while he was saying something about our church I just said kind of loudly "can we please clear some stuff up for you!?" He looked at me kind of shocked and said yes. I taught him the first lesson - he kept trying to butt in but I just kept talking. I testified that what we were teaching was the truth and the only truth. I said 'amen. thank you for your time' and left. I was really proud of myself for not getting too upset. It was a hard situation. Oh well, I hope he finds out the truth someday before the world ends in 2012!! ;) jk.

 

Well that was my week, I love you all! Talk to you soon!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone, I wish you the best!

 

Tuesday 12/28/10

Today after email we had a lunch appointment with the Arana's - the family that let me use their computer to Skype. We had KFC and answered a few of the many questions that Jackie had for us. They've been inactive for a long time but have been so nice to my companion an I. They committed to come to church this next Sunday. Tonight we got our transfer call and found out that Elder Ferrin will be leaving to Huntington Park just down the road and i'll be companions with Elder Watkins - an Elder that came out with me on the same day - I never knew him though because I wasn't in his district in the MTC. I've heard he's a really hard worker. Guess we'll see - hopefully I know the area well enough by now to get us around.

Wednesday-

Elder Ferrin left and Elder Watkins came - it's always super awkward when you get a new companion for the first week. We took his stuff into the apartment and then headed out on our bikes in the rain. We went and ate lunch with Sister Rivas, she's always very nice to us and makes sure we're well taken care of. We did some tracting around the Recinos' home and met a couple of really nice ladies. They both really felt the spirit, - one of them said she thought she was looking at Angels on her porch - what a good compliment eh? ;) We talked to Sister Recinos about the confirmation for her and her daughter this coming sunday. She's very excited. We visited Jave for a minute - I don't think he likes my new companion much, he's a more relaxed guy & my companion is super up tight. We ate with the Penas tonight and then wandered around the city, looking for houses of members/investigators - guess I didn't learn the area very well after all. Good thing we have a map.

Thursday-

We went out and tracted around Sister Rivas' house at about 11. We met a girl with a Halo attatched to her. It was nuts - she was really humble though and wants to learn more. We're going back there on monday, i'm really excited! We ate lunch and then went to see Brennette - her mom and little sister are members but she hasn't been baptized yet. We're really trying to get her to take the lessons again, she's really nice to us- just not interested. We had a lesson with Dennis and Jennifer tonight - Dennis isn't really progressing. I don't feel that he's really 'ready' for more.. we'll see. We tried about 10 people after them - none of which were at home. While we were riding home I looked down at my bike chain and the word came into my head "Cadena"... I thought, "what does that mean?" I asked Elder Watkins if he knew the translation of Cadena or if it's even a real word. He didn't know so when I got home I looked it up in the dictionary - sure enough 'Cadena' means 'Chain' in Spanish. That was awesome! The gift of tongues is legitimate afterall ha.

Friday-

After the District Meeting today the Sister that Sister Philipy is training, straight out of Provo, UT, wanted to eat somewhere 'not American'... So we took her to a little Mexican restraunt near by. Hope she got what she was looking for ;) we'll see how much longer she craves Mexican food for. We visited another inactive family today - the Galeas' from Honduras. They're very nice - they've been sealed in the temple and say they want to come back to church. We ate dinner with the Penas again, they always treat us very nice - i'm really close with one of the kids - Allen - he's about to put his papers in and go on a mission! After that we went home - we had to be in at 6 due to the Holiday. Between 10 and 1 there were gun shots every 5 minutes - I guess they can't afford fireworks and guns are the alternative.

Saturday-

We had a New Years devotional with half of the mission at the Carson building. - I really miss it over there , i'm going to ask to finish my mission there. President Baker told us that we had 751 baptisms this year and beat our goal of 500. We set another goal for 2011 - 850 baptisms. I'm pretty confident we can do it. President Baker told us that we will no longer report tracting hours in this mission and that he wants us to tell EVERYONE about Mormon.org. Should be pretty fun. We got dropped off at our apartment afterwards and I realized that our phone fell out of my pocket and was in their car.. That was a trick to get back. We ate Menudo at Jave's place for dinner - I don't reccommend it. Then we went back to our apartment by 6 o'clock again for the Holiday.

Sunday-

We got to church late because the Sisters had a family follow us there- we got to the building just in time to help with the confirmations of Sister Recinos and Victoria. It was awesome! After church it started to rain again - we finally got a ward list in order to find the members in our area better. We went out on our bikes and tried to visit a bunch of people - none of which were home - again. It's really frustrating when that happens, you've got a long ways to ride your bike, and it's raining hard. Oh well. We visited the Recinos - we didn't have a dinner appointment and somehow they knew and fed us a great meal. I'm super grateful for times like those. We taught them the Plan of Salvation - the new member lessons. Still raining hard we went to a former investigator's house. A guy answered the door with a BYU beanie on - turns out he was just leaving to get on the plane to go back to provo. He's in the accounting program there but isn't a member of the church - all of his friends are though and he's even been to Conference in SLC - crazy. He'll be baptized soon i'm sure. We met a guy near a member's home - I gave him a Book of Mormon and told him to read and pray - he seemed very interested. I'm excited to go back and teach him more. We taught the Galeas family again and made goals for the new year. It was great! They're a very cool family. On the way to our next apointment I managed to run into a fence that was blended in with the grass (it was dark) - it bent my handlebar and I went over the top - pretty much impaled myself on the top of the fence. I just hopped down and laughed - it was really weird - it honestly came out of no where ha. Then on our way home, in the rain, my back tire popped - I carried my bike about 3 blocks and stepped in a big puddle, soaking my leg up to my calf. If I was anywhere else, doing any other kind of work, I would have been super mad and frustrated. It was great to be able to just laugh it off though. I know God blessed me in that moment.

 

Well that was my week, I love you all - i'll talk to you next week! Be safe. Keep reading, keep praying, keep the faith.

Love,

Elder Cottrell

Christmas WEEK 12-21 to 12-27-10

Samuel Cottrell

show details 12:52 PM (1 hour ago)

Merry Christmas last week everyone, It was good to see alot of you on Skype! Thank you all for your love, support, cards and gifts. It all means so much to me. Looking forward to a new year here in L.A.

 

Tuesday 12-21-10

Today after Email I went on splits with Elder Bluth over to the same area I was with Elder Weir - Watts/South Central L.A. We tracted quite a bit and had dinner with a member. We taught some odd people in Watts that had questions about "666" and having a micro chip placed inside of you in order to be able to buy or sell things... ? In spanish none the less. That was fun. We went to the South Gate building and had the baptism interviews for Sister Recinos and her daughter. They passed. Bonus!

Wednesday-

After I got home from splits, Elder Ferrin and I went to visit and eat lunch with Sister Rivas. Her two grandkids were there and it started to storm really hard. One of them, Daniel (9), got scared and asked us to make it stop. We told him that we could - and it stopped. He got pretty scared after that. It started up again and once more he asked us, "make it stop please". We asked him if he had faith that he could make it stop. At first he said no, but after teaching him about faith, he agreed and said yes. We told him to pray and ask God to make it stop. He did. It stopped. It was pretty awesome. But the moment that we left the house, it started again. Really really hard. Probably harder than i've ever seen it rain anywhere. We had the joy of riding our bikes home from there. There were rivers in the streets - everyone was looking at us like "what are those two white kids doing in the rain?". We were completely soaked within 20 seconds of being on our bikes. It was fun. We talked to Dennis and then went home to make sure our ceiling wasn't leaking harder than usual.

Thursday-

Today it finally stopped raining. We ate lunch again with Sister Rivas and she gave me a tie for Christmas. That was really nice of her. We talked with Sister Recinos and I bought some new church shoes - mine were completely soaked. We visited a few more people and then ordered a pizza at home. Not alot of people were available today - they all went back to Mexico to visit family for the Holidays.

Friday-

Today we woke up way early and the Sisters came to pick us up. We went to the Westwood building behind the temple for a Christmas devotional with the whole mission. It was all musical numbers and really nice to just listen to. I said goodbye to all of my buddies leaving next week - they'll do good in life. Jennifer cut my hair after . We were riding to our next appointment, running late, and my chain snapped. We had a long ways to go and were going to have to walk. I looked up and right there was a bike shop - open at 6 pm on Christmas Eve - definitely a blessing. I was able to buy a chain and be back on our way in less than 5 minutes. We ate dinner with the Pena's and had ponche - basically what you boil at home to make your house smell good - and then headed to Jave's. Mexicans celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve - so we thought we were eating with them on the 25th... but they meant the 24th. So we had two dinners. It was really good. I called home to set up a time to call tomorrow and Dad answered - they were in a movie. Nice.

Saturday-

Christmas today - I woke up and opened the presents I got in the mail yesterday - I got a good load no doubt! After messing around with it all, we got ready and went downtown to the same place we went for Thanksgiving and sang again. That has been a really good experience both opportunities i've had to do it. We ate lunch with the Sisters at Denny's and saw Maria there. We went to the Arana's next and I was able to use their computer to Skype home with the whole family. It was awesome to see them all! The kids are getting big... it's nuts. After I talked with them for an hour we ate at Jave's again and then headed home so Elder Ferrin could call home.

Sunday-

The day after Christmas is always kind of a bitter sweet - sad that the holiday is over, glad that you're not stressed anymore. Lucky for me, we had two baptisms today that I was focused on. The printer in the church wasn't working so we weren't able to print a program for the baptism - that was a real bummer. We just wrote it on the chalkboard for everyone to see. I baptized Sister Recinos and Elder Ferrin baptized her daughter. It was the first one i've done in Spanish so it was pretty awesome. They were so happy - I can't even describe the feeling you get when you have that experience. Afterwards we ate AGAIN with Jave. Tonight after planning we played table football. I beat Elder Ferrin 102-21. It was really funny.

Monday-

P-day today. We went to Tom's Burgers for lunch so I could get another Colosal burger and then went to Radio Shack. We both bought remote control helicopters. We went home and figured them out until 6. They're way fun. I flew a rude note to Elder Ferrin while he was writing a letter, he read it and was about to say something mean when I turned the helicopter on again from across the room and it flew up, the blade chopped him right on his... chest. I laughed for a good while. We took Joy to the World to a referral that asked for it. He seems like a really nice guy - I hope we have the chance to teach him.

 

Well tomorrow is transfers - guess we'll see what happens. I'm not expecting anything to change. I love you all and hope you have a fun and safe New Year's!

Love, Elder Cottrell

 

Merry Christmas from Elder Cottrell & Elder Ferrin

Elder Cottrell & Joshua! Congratulations!

Quick because it got deleted?!

Wow I just wrote the whole letter and it got deleted. I don't have a lot of time to write so i'll just send you the main points.

12-7-10 Tuesday

I went with Elder Weir to his area in South Central/Watts. He didnt know his area very well so we were just riding around everywhere and did alot of tracting. We chased down one of the many 'nieve men' who go around on their bikes selling ice cream or tamales or whatever. We were eating the ice cream on a curb and taking a break when a bunch of black dudes came outside of the house we were in front of. They were about 40 or 50. They were really nice and gave us water - all except one who said something like "well i'll be, ... Mormons. What are you two doing in an all black neighborhood? do you know where you're at?" ... "no, we're actually kind of lost.." .... "you're in WATTS!". me in my mind 'yeah we're actually just leaving'... he started to talk about the scripture in Nephi thats about the black curse - blah blah blah. He wanted to bash but we wouldnt let him. Within 5 minutes he was thanking us for doing what we do. nice. We ate at the bishops house. I got into a competition with the son - about 30 yrs old - eating chili's. They were super hot. Elder Weir cried when he ate 1. I ate about 15 and called it good. At about 10 pm my stomach hurt so I went to bed - woke up at 3 30 with the same feeling as my 'death sickness'  - Elder Weir gave me a blessing and I sat in the shower for an hour. Finally around 5 am I started feeling a little better and got some sleep. Probably shouldnt have eaten those.

12-8-10

Went to lunch at Sister Rivas' house - I have been calling her sister munoz the last two times I was over that - that was an awkward realization. We taught Jave's family about families - they've been struggling lately - I hope it helped.

12-9-10

Ate at Sister Rivas' house again then helped Sister Rodriguez put up Christmas lights - that was a fun service. We ate with the Penas for dinner - their son Jair is leaving to Indianapolis on wednesday on his mission.

12-10-10

District meeting day - I gave the spritual thought on diligence. I think it went pretty well, I felt the spirit alot. I got a bunch of mail today for christmas and my birthday - that was sweet! Thank you everyone! We went to Denny's for lunch - we're teaching a girl that works there. She only made us pay $10 instead of about $25 - that was sweet. She works on sundays so hasn't been able to be baptized but starts a new job next week so hopefully she'll follow through! Jennifers son Denito said that when he's a missionary he wants to be called "Elder Cottrell' too. he's 5 - funniest kid ever besides Gabe. We met with the Aranas and will go to the Visitors Center with them on sunday.

12-11-10

After corellation we ate with some Elders at a pizza place. We ended up helping Brother Recinos for 4 hours putting up thousands of christmas lights on and around his house. It was like the Griswalds house in christmas vacation haha. It was way fun though. We're working with his wife - trying to get her baptized - we set a date with her for the 26th of this month. Woo hoo!

12-12-10

After church today we went with the Arana's to the V.C.  - we watched the J.S. movie and one on Prophets as well. They really liked it! We were able to see the lights for a minute - it was a nice night but they were in a hurry so we couldn't stay long. That was a bummer.

12-13-10

P-day

We went to the Compton Fashion Center for a while - that place is huge. It was pretty cool - they have everything you could think of there. We went to the park and threw the football and bought groceries. It's nuts to see people EVERYWHERE you look out here. 7 million people in my mission. There's always someone outside selling something or going through someone's recycling to try and make some money. It's crazy. I'm so grateful for the quiet in Utah.

Well that was basically it. Sorry it's so short. I love you all so much. Thank you for the birthday wishes, cards, money, etc.! I wouldn't be able to do this without you all.

Love,

Elder Cottrell

Dec. 7 2010

Hey how are you doin everyone? It's been a pretty good week so i'll just jump right in.

Tuesday - 11-30-10

After email today we went into a neighborhood tha reminded me alot of Wilmington. It was a little nicer compared to the rest of the town. One thing about it though is that there were dogs EVERYWHERE. I think we counted 20 on this one street - just wandering around outside. One in particular took interest in my companion - it was a big white dog - my companion just stopped and got behind my bike. It then looked at me so I took off as fast as I could - mistake. It ran after me - peddling as fast as I could it was biting at my heels - ha - terrifying but really funny. It chased me for an entire block down the road and then gave up. After we tried to visit a couple of people there we headed over to Dennis and Jennifer's house. Jennifer was recently baptized but her boyfriend Dennis is not a member. We've been teaching him quite a bit but he has some problems with the W.O.W. We will work through them.

Wednesday-

Today we went back to the South Bay to find out the results of my procedure. Dr. Cohen said the biopsy's all came back negative and so he diagnosed me with Irritable bowel syndrome caused by stress... I don't believe it but I guess you can think what you want. I guess I should be grateful that they didnt find anything but I still feel at a dead end with it all. Today we tried something different besides tracting. We took a big stack of pass along cards and stuck them on every car we saw that was parked on this block. We talked to everyone that was outside as well - it turned out to be allot more effective than regular tracting. We got a bunch of return appointments. We taught a members' friend who was over at their house for the night - i'm sure she wasn't expecting that. She is 21, single with a 2 yr old. There are SO many young single women here with babies. It's so so sad. It makes me miss Utah a whole lot ha. We had a phone-conference lesson with a member and his girlfriend in Hawaii - he'll be moving there this month. Elder Sung called me tonight and told me that Sister Dial in the Carson ward whom Elder Mitillo and I helped reactivate wanted me to come back on saturday and baptize her son Joshua who is almost 9. Sweet!

Thursday-

We spent the morning at the Dr. office in marina del rey for Elder Ferrin's knee. He had an xray done and they found its probably just a bruised bone but if it still hurts in a couple weeks then they will do an MRI - hopefully he didnt tear anything. Afterwards, Jave - a member here - took us to ACE and we bought ourselves a Christmas tree - a real one. It's about 5'6. Our apartment smells really nice now. We went back to teach Dennis about the W.O.W - my spanish was very broken but it was a really spiritual lesson.

Friday-

District meeting today - afterwards we ate at subway and in-n-out and all just talked for a while. I met a guy there that was really interested in the church - too bad he lives out of my area and I had to pass him along to the other Elders. We decided to walk our area today. From 2 to 9 we just walked and talked to everyone we saw. It was very tiring. There was a Christmas parade through our area - we were able to see some of it - that was pretty neat. We decorated our tree - you'd be impressed no doubt.

Saturday-

We had correlation with the zone - afterwards we ate at panda express with the sisters. We visited a less-active family and saw about 50 yard sales. I've never seen anything like it - every other house has a yard sale on saturday. Elder Bluth and Elder Weir picked us up and took us to Carson for the baptism. It was so nice seeing everyone from the ward even though i've only been gone a couple of weeks. As I was sitting with Josh I asked him if he had a middle name - he said no. So we I baptized him and went to change. I changed and then the bishop knocked on the door. Turns out Josh DOES have a middle name. So I got dressed again in wet clothes and baptized him again. It was awesome. Sister Dial was so grateful that I was able to come back and do that for her. Her husband still wont come to church but she was determined to get her son baptized and wanted me to do it since I was the one that helped her get back to church. I was talking to her afterwards and she told me that Josh said after the first time I baptized him "mom, I didnt feel the warm feeling you said I would get when you get baptized"... and then after I did it again with his full name he said "I felt it that time mom". It's so amazing to me how in tune kids are with the spirit. That was such a great experience for me. After the baptism we taught the Arana family and had dinner with them. They haven't been to church in almost 8 years. We committed Carla and Jackie - the two teenage girls - to come to church tomorrow.

Sunday-

Jave picked us up for church and we drove to the Arana's to pick up Jackie and Carla - I didn't really expect them to come. They were there and waiting though! That was awesome. They sat next to us in Sacrament and asked questions about the bread and water, about heaven and the pre-earth life. They're really good investigators - except that they have already been baptized. ha. Jave took us up to the temple and we saw all of the lights there - it was very pretty. We had a lesson with him in the rain outside the temple that was really spiritual. He's a recent convert (name pronounce ha-vee) and is going through some struggles.

Monday-

P-day finally here. We had a zone activity at the church that was kind of lame - a relay that lasted 20 minutes - the church is 20 minutes away. Oh well. Afterwards we printed some pictures and did some grocery shopping. The day went by super fast. At 6 o'clock we went to Jair's missionary farewell party at the church - Elder Ferrin talked and a bunch of us sang 'bring the world His truth'.

That was my week! Hope you enjoyed it. I love you all and am grateful for your example to me. Keep reading, keep praying, keep the faith.

Love,

Elder Cottrell

Senior Companion Adventures 1st Week in Lynwood, CA

Hey everyone, hope you had a happy Thanksgiving! Can't believe tomorrow is December already.

Tuesday 11-23-10

Last night I found out that i'll be leaving Carson and Wilmington and heading to the 'hood'. Lynwood. It may be ghetto but I hear it's the highest baptizing area in the mission - that's something to look forward to. I'm going to miss the people here for sure, but I guess it's just part of the mission. We did alot of packing and saying goodbye to people today. I realized that I have way too much 'stuff' out here and need to get rid of it or send it home.

Wednesday-

Bright and early we helped each other load our stuff into members' cars for the long haul. Brother Holt gave me a ride up to Lynwood - just above Compton. The area didn't look too bad as we drove through it, I was surprised at how nice Compton was actually. He took me to my new apartment on Carlin St. and I met my new companion. Elder Ferrin from Plain City, UTAH. Born and raised on a farm, played basketball in highschool, drove a tractor everyday and graduated from Freemont High in 2009. This is his first area - he's been out about 6 months. We visited a few people after I unpacked - it's all Spanish. Good thing I don't know any... That's alright i'll learn. On our way home from our last appointment we were riding our bikes on Atlantic - going pretty fast- my companion in front of me- a woman opened her car door (that was parked) and Elder Ferrin plowed into it. Somehow he stayed on his bike. The lady was in shock but just glad that he was ok - she was visiting from Oakland for Thanksgiving. Her door is broken - he bent it about 15 degrees the wrong way when he hit it. Everything else is fine - his knee has been bugging him though so we're going to get it checked out on thursday of next week. My new apartment is pretty nice except that we can't get our heater to work and it's been way cold here lately. Good thing we have an oven.

Thursday-

As a zone we went to a convilesent (sp?) home Downtown and sang songs to them for an hour. That was really nice and they were very appreciative. We had a lunch appointment afterwards with a recent convert Sister Rivas - we had a traditional Thanksgiving dinner. I was surprised because she's Mexican - it was a pleasant surprise though. Then we had our weekly planning session for a few hours and headed to another dinner appointment in South Gate. We had beans, rice, (yup), a mexican soup called Pusole and tostadas. It was all very very good. It was a good Thanksgiving but didn't feel like a Holliday at all. Guess that's a good thing while you're on your mission.

Friday-

District meeting today - it all went very well - just got to know each other. We studied most of the day due to Elder Ferrin's knee injury. A member picked us up for dinner at his house. We had Thanksgiving dinner again - we eat alot here.

Saturday-

We had ward correlation in which I understood almost nothing because it was all in spanish. Afterwards we ate lunch at Wingstop and then we went tracting for most of the night. We got 5 return appointments.. 5... I didn't get even close to that many in a week in Carson/Wilmington. I was amazed at how nice the people were at their doors. Very grateful for that. We're working with a recent convert and going over the Christ Like Attributes in PmyG. He's doing good.

Sunday-

We had church at the Huntington Park building - ours is being renovated until the end of the year. There were 2 wards there and it was packed. I didn't understand much - again. But it was very good. It's really cold here with the humidity - not fun. We at lunch with the Morales family. In lessons I try to just jump in and speak what spanish I can - God always helps me out with that. We did some more tracting and received similar results as we did yesterday - more return appointments. We talked with a former investigator and got him interested again - he's an older guy and really excited to learn more about our message.

Monday-

P-day today. Still pretty cold. Went and looked at 'snuggies' at CVS (funny blanket thing) but didnt get one. We're saving up for a Christmas tree. We went to this Mexican shopping mall that was pretty cool, ate some taco's there and then headed to a dinner appointment at the Penas. They're such a cool family. The two youngest kids are the grumpiest little mexican's i've ever seen- 1 and 3. They're super funny. I spoke a ton of spanish tonight - i'm amazed at how much i've learned already.

Well that was my week - i'm safe and loving my new area. Who know's how long i'll be here. I really feel like i've known some of the people here forever - they're so kind and loving to the missionaries. I know that God has really touched and humbled these people. As missionaries we have to learn to love the people - that's not a problem here. I love you all and hope you have a good week!

Love, Elder Cottrell

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