Dear family,
First of all I want to share some of the exciting growth that will occur in our mission because of the age change :)
From this week's letter from our mission president:
"Over the next few weeks and months our mission will grow from about 205 missionaries to 285 missionaries. That growth is unprecedented and exciting but it will require the help and cooperation from everyone in the mission....
"We will be opening up about 40 new areas. That will be exciting and create wonderful opportunities but it will also create unique challenges that will require flexibility, self reliance, and cooperation from each of us. If you get to an area and find that you don’t have everything you need please be creative and improvise until additional arrangements can be made. There will also be more white wash areas so keep good records and make sure that you leave each area better than you found it so the next missionaries can get off to a fast start.
"Due to language, gender, or other issues, we will have some missionaries training after being in the field only 5 weeks. We will also have some trainers training more than one missionary at a time. They will need our help. Do everything you can to encourage and lift those that will have extra responsibilities.
"This recent change in the age for missionary service is another testimony that the Lord is hastening his work. As we enthusiastically embrace these changes the mission will see growth and blessings that we could not have anticipated when we first received our calls even a few months ago. What a blessing to be serving during this historic time. The Lord must have known we were capable of handling these changes because he chose our time to lower the age of missionary service. You are literally making history. What an opportunity! The Lord will bless us. This is His work. He knows what needs to be done. We just need to be humble and willing to do His will."
Secondly, We have had a good week. We witnessed a wonderful baptism of someone the elders taught. He has mad so many changes in 3 short weeks and they are working to get him to the temple to do baptisms with the ward next week along with almost all of our other recent converts! Yay :)
We had a true miracle happened yesterday. We taught a man named Diego almost two months ago and then he disappeared and we weren't able to get in contact with him. He didn't answer the phone and the only information on his address we had was the street name. Yesterday we decided we were going to go find him so we set aside some time to go knock his street (thankfully it's not a very big one :). We got to the end of the road and said a prayer and started knocking. We had a lead here and one there on where spanish people lived. after about half an hour one lady told us that the house next to the white one across the street may have a spanish family. We knocked one side. He wasn't interested. We knocked the other and it was a portugese couple. They weren't interested in the message but they told us they did know of a spanish man across the street in the basement who was from the same country as Diego. We decided to try it out. We knocked and the first thing the man says is, "Diego isn't here". Our jaws dropped. We found out that Diego indeed lived there and that he had told the man a little about what we had taught him. We set up a time to come back when Diego would probably be home and left. We said a prayer of thanks right there in the drive way. As we walked away, what to our surprise but to see the man himself, Diego walking down the street toward us. He asked us where we'd been and said he's been reading the book of mormon almost everyday. We set up an appointment for tuesday and left even more amazed and grateful than before. The Lord works miracles when we have a little faith :D Not only did we find another potential investigator but also the man himself.
The Lord's work continues! We also have found 3 new investigators this last week and plan to find many more :)
Make it a great week!
Love,
Hna. Cottam
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