feeding the fire

Dear family,

Thought I'd share what my mission president said in his weekly update:

"Elder Shane M. Bowen taught about “Agency and Accountability” in an article he wrote for the Sept 2012 New Era. In the article he tells a story of a wise old 10449_000_005Cherokee teaching his grandson about life.

“A fight is going on inside me,” the grandfather said to the boy.

“It is a terrible fight, and it is between two wolves. One is evil: he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.”

He continued, “The other is good: he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. The same fight is going on inside you—and inside every other person too.”

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, “Which wolf will win?” The old Cherokee simply replied, “The one you feed.”

"The same council is true for us. We become what we think and talk about. We reap what we sow.  We get what we go for. This age old advice is still true and always will be. Let us always be wise about the wolf we decide to feed."
It is so true. And it goes right along with what Sister Cottam said about obedience in her e-mail. If we seek the good things, good things will come. If we seek blessings, we must be obedient, then they will come. If we want to baptize, then we must walk, talk, think, sleep and eat baptism. If we want to help people come unto Christ, we must find Him ourselves.
The Lord put us through a trying time the last transfer. He taught us where to focus, to have patience, and to work smart as well as hard. This week we have seen miracles happen as we have started to work with the two new hermanas in the ward and as we have focused our efforts.
Having Hna. Camejo and her companion Hna. Varley (who had just been serving in the English ward in our district) was the jump start we needed! They stayed with us for two nights until the mission found them an apartment. It was super fun :) They have brought a new energy to the work and we found a new investigator with their help who is golden. Officially we now have the northern part of the area and they have the southern.
The investigator is Alex Jose and he just started living with a member family. He is reading and praying and came to church and the baptism of one of the primary children yesterday. He's on fire and we are so excited to work with him! He has a date for next month.
I hope you all have a wonderful week! I love you all so much!
Yours,
Hna. Cottam

just a little change (Monday, September 17, 2012)

Dear family,

Transfers have passed and we are excited to stay in Black Creek for another transfer. It sounds like we are adding two more Hermanas to the ward though! We haven't heard anything official yet (which is really annoying) but we believe we will be taking the southern part. What we do know is that one of those new hermanas is Hna. Camejo :). It should be an interesting transfer. :)

This morning I was reading in Jacob 5:70-74. I love especially verses 72 and 74 when it says that the Lord labored with them, that the servants obeyed all of His commands, and that as they labored diligently, they gathered the good fruit. This is a wonderful pattern for us to follow. We can be reassured that the Lord is working with us to gather these souls. We're not doing this alone. But we must also follow ALL of His commands--from Preach My Gospel, the missionary handbook, and counsel from our leaders. Then, as we serve and labor diligently, we will see the fruit of that labor and gather many souls unto Him.

I also read another scripture in Alma in passing that says that the Lamanites who believed in Alma's words and WERE CONVERTED TO THE LORD never did fall away. so that is another thing we must always keep in mind, is helping our investigators become "converted to the Lord." It's one thing for them to believe, it is another for them to be converted.

I feel like Ernesto is one of those who has been converted. He comes faithfully and just loves the gospel, every bit, while others of our recent converts are not as strong and not as active.

Anyway, we had one investigator at church! His name is Adonay and we met him through ESL. Christian still has a date and is starting to work to quit smoking. The sad thing is that we will probably be handing them both over to the other hermanas, but it is all for a purpose :)

Have a great week!

Hna. Cottam

fall's a comin'!

Dearest family,

This week has been another tough one, but we had a good discussion as a companionship about how to help the people we have met progress. We are excited to see things start to happen in our area. As our district leader put it, the Lord's been filling the pipe line so now they'll progress and get baptized! We have great faith that this can happen and will as long as we are diligent. It reminds me of how one of the speakers at stake conference yesterday talked about the difference one degree makes--it's the difference between very hot water and the incredible force of steam formed by boiling water. All it takes is one degree! As we depend on the Lord, miracles will happen!

We had two notable things happen this week: We have an investigator with a baptismal date! It was a miracle. He is a member referral named Christian. He has been well-prepared by his member friend. He accepted to read, pray, come to church and be baptized. We used the calender and we will be setting goals to help him quit smoking this next lesson. We will be doing our best to keep in touch with him so that he can progress to the 30th of September.

Another awesome thing that happened this week is that Ernesto the recent convert was able to go to stake conference. He had to work Sunday morning so  a member offered to take him to the adult session Saturday night. The member said he loved it and was very happy. He is progressing in the gospel so well! We working to get him to the temple to do baptisms for the dead at the end of this month

Have a great week!

Love,

Hna. Cottam

rain can't get us down :)

Dearest Family,

Thanks for all the birthday wishes and Mom and Dad for the package. I love the CTR pen :). Oh, and when elections get close don't forget my absentee ballot!

Today's been pouring rain off and on. But it's not gonna get us down!

Our greatest challenge right now is helping people progress. As we watched some of the videos that are part of our training yesterday we were able to see some areas where we can improve. The main one was to focus our lessons again on commitments--on what the person is to do. I think we have been getting caught up in the message we are sharing and not enough in what they should do as a result of that message. We also want to pray more during lessons and write out more specified lesson plans, as guided by the spirit. And we have already seen the fruit of it.

Last night we taught Geronimo. As our thoughts and focus were on the things he needed to do and as we prayed for the spirit throughout the lesson, we were able to testify with power and the spirit was strong. Even though he only accepted part of the commitment (to read and pray but not baptism), we invited and it turned out to be one of our best lessons yet. I am excited to continue to go in this direction, to put more effectively into practice the six steps for raising the bar given to us by our mission president, and to see God's children progress to baptism. There are people here who are ready, but we must invite them to do something before they can do it!

I am grateful for the Lord and the patience He has given us, for all the people he has put in our path. Sometimes I wonder why He trusts us so much, but I know He qualifies those whom He calls. In Him I can do all things, but I must do my part for it says that there are many called but few are chosen. I know as I put my trust in Him and listen, He will guide us and teach us how to do His work in His way according to His will.

Yours,

Hna. Cottam