week 4

Hola familia!

The biggest news from this week is that I was called as the coordinating sister for my zone yesterday. So I'm kinda like a district leader for the sisters, dealing with residence hall stuff, etc. There are 8 sisters in my zone for now. 4 of them will leave in about a week and I don't know when or if we'll get more before I leave.

Anyway, I'm glad to hear Jacob passed his semenar. Way to go!

I got to see Rachel--Sister Cottam--the day she arrived. I had a break at the time she reported so me and my companion waited near the host sisters. We knew she'd have to come there at some point. Her reaction was priceless. We see eachother every day since her meal time is only 15 minutes before mine. It's been really nice, except that I can't speak in English much anymore...

One of my teachers, Hno. Sheide, is really into using competetive games to help my district use our Spanish. Last week was the tarjeta game (cards) where if you said something in Enlish someone else could take a card from you. The one with the most cards won. This week we are playing el Nativo escondido. It's kinda like mofia. There is one person who is the native speaker and two gringitos and the rest are gringos. At the next class period we vote on who we think was the nativo. When we fist played this game it was about speaking as much spanish as possible. Now it's about speaking only spanish but for a few exceptions (talking to staff, at gym, at times during class). If someone heard the nativo speak english though, the lose all their points. if you vote for a gringito you get hurt point-wise also. So, I'm speaking a lot of Spanish, which really helps me progress. He's an awesome teacher.

The cold that's been going around has caught up with me with a bit of a vengance. but i'm doing alright.

Here's a couple of thoughts from the devo's, etc. this week:

Jay E. Jensen spoke at our tuesday devotional this week. He spoke about how "decisions determine destiny." He also talked about the 6 m's of missionary work. Missionaries create an environment that allows the spirit to touch people's hearts.

This weekend I feel like the Spirit has been hit a lot. In Relief Society, Rebecca Thompson from the general relief society board spoke on it and in sacrament meeting and I studied it for a district lesson. It's interesting in light of my call to be coordinating sister, because it takes help from the spirit to address the sisters' needs, to correct in love when needed and so on. I'm grateful for it. I know the Holy Ghost is so important in our lives. he helps us stay on the right path and to build our spiritual strength and testimony. He provides comfort and guidance. it's amazing.

So my companion and I had a couple of great lessons with our 'investigators' this week. We finally broke through with one of them who has been pretty unresponsive lately and we had a powerful lesson on the restoration with the other. We felt the spirit strongly as we shared the Joseph Smith story (with the first vision memorized! Ha!) and testified of it. It was great. Role playing has been such a wonderful teacher for us. It's great.

In other news, the bookstore/mailroom/salon and more are moving to a newly-renovated building on campus this week. So no dear elders until thursday, but we'll recieve everything else.

I love you all!

Sincerely,

Hna. Cottam

P.S. thanks for the quick reponses earlier and for your support and prayers. I have needed it. Good luck with everything!