week 3

Hola!

Well I survived my third week. Yipee! The mission has been harder than I thought it would be but oh so worth it. We've had some awesome devos/conferences/firesides this week. It has been so nourishing.

Tues: ELDER HOLLAND!!!!

Oh, man it was awesome! He was a little emotional about a sister missionary who had died in NY earlier that day from a car crash, so his thoughts were so sincere and stirring. He first of all told us he loved us. He then urged us (think of how he sometimes gets in gen. conf. but more intense!) to not damage the image of missionaries. "YOU HAVE NO RIGHT..." he said, and you will be accountable. Neither do we have the right to disapoint (sorry, my spelling is going haywire since learning spanish) the prophets who have seen us, the missionaries through the ages you have not succeeded but kept going because they saw our day and our success. "you have no right to turn your back and walk away as if the mission didn't matter." It matters. When we truly try to do our best, our mission will influence every part of our lives throughout the rest of our lives. Don't turn your back on the gospel and go inactive after you mission.

After that he chose several questions from a list Pres. Brown (MTC pres.) had gathered from missionaries. here´s a short version:

1.What is the most important thing Christ wants us to know right now? That what he said was true.

2. What are the best ways to invite the Spirit into our lives? Delve into the scriptures, Pray, Don't lose it! (don't go or do anything that would drive it away)

3. What's the best advice you've received? go on a mission, to marry as directly and honestly as he could, and to get as much education as he could.

4. What is the comparision between a general authority and a missionary? almost the same: both out being witnesses of Christ. (missionaries are basically an extention for the twelve to spread the word.) remember that this experience will never come again, it will never be the same.

5a. Whay is the greatest gift I can give to Christ? your heart (this one really touched me; JS-H 1:19 don't be like them)

5b. Why does God love us? "I'm imperfect," he said," but in one thing that I am almost nearly perfect is the love I have for my children." We are God's children. He will do anything within righteousness for our sakes.

Man it was awesome! and So powerful.

And Rachel, the musical number after was the one you kept singing before I left :Savior Redeemer of my Soul. and they signed with it. It was so touching.

Anyway, I'd describe the other meetings, but I'm short on time.

Monday night we had a fire drill. That was entertaining. It was just after we'd gotten to the residence. Someone had burned popcorn. Needless to say we didn't get to bed on time that night :).

Our new teachers are two very different people. Hno. Anderson is quiet and moves at a slow pace. Hno. Shiede is so energetic and has all these great activities for learning vocab. One is called the verb game. We learn 50 verbs and assign eachone an action then we pull them out of a box and the rest of the group says the verb by recognizing the action. It's a great way to remember them. And we will be trying to beat Hno. Sheide's previous district, who did it in 53 seconds, especially because they made a comment about us hermanas.

We have been spending part of our class time teaching our teachers who act like investigators. It's been tough figuring out how to teach it so they will desire to have faith and repent. But we're getting better. We peel back layer by layer.

A cold has been going around like wildfire. Two of our elders went to the hospital because our clinic was closed on Saturday to get some medicine for it and another elder also went to the emergency room for a minor concusion he got playing soccer that day. Our poor elders :)

So how was everyone's labor day? The temple was closed today, which was sad, but it was uber nice to have the extra time. We seriously have very little here!

Can't wait to see you Rachel!!!

Yours,

Hermana Cottam