It’s gonna be a good year :)–sent on January 3, 2012

Hola!

2012 has come! And it's gonna be a good one! because I'll get to serve the Lord all year long :)

We have an investigator who is really progressing right now--I probably told you all about her last week. She's getting ready to be baptized this coming Sunday and we are so excited for her! Her and her family were able to come this last Sunday (since the time changed to 1PM). We got 'em there a little late but they were there! Their son is so cute. He turns 3 very soon. We told him we were going to the church, to play with the other kids, and he got so excited. He started looking for his coat and boots and telling his parents to hurry up. haha. I love kids :)

New Year's Eve we had to go in early again--at 6 PM, so it was a quiet evening for us. We planned for the next day and updated our area book, etc. I have so much candy from Christmas. My two companions have pretty much sworn off sugar at the moment so the left everything to me. Our landlord also shared a really rich Chocolate cake with us. It was amazing. Last night we got to eat at a member's house and she made tamales! Mmmmm.... They were made with both corn and plantain miaz with chicken in the middle that had a mole sauce (which has chocolate in it among other spices). It was delicious. She even set us with a few for lunch today. Mm.

Aside from that we are working to expand our teaching pool through member referrals and old teaching records and constantly talking to people.

Have a great week ya'll!

Sincerly,

Hna. Cottam

Bye 2011, Hola 2012!–sent on December 27, 2011

Dearest family,
It's snowing right now :) Don't know if it will stick, but I hope it does! It was wonderful to talk to you all on Sunday. We had a good Christmas, even though it wasn't white.
We had Victor come to church on Sunday again. He is still struggling in finding faith in Christ. We will be handing him off to another set of elders this week who live closer to his home, where he'll be for the next few months for a surgery. Hopefully the change helps. As we have taught him I have realized just how important a basic belief in Jesus Christ, not just his teachings, is. He is truly the center of our message and without that faith in Him, nothing else of our message matters nor can one receive an answer to their prayers because as it says in Moroni 10, you must ask with faith in Christ.
Our other investigator is Maricruz. She is awesome. She has a husband (who's been a member about 5 years--was baptized in El Salvador--but hasn't come much) and a little boy. Her faith is strong in God and she desires to come closer to Christ. In a lesson last week we asked if she believed that what we were teaching her was true--Joseph Smith, Book of Mormon, Jesus Christ as Son of God--and she said yes. We plan to go pick them up this next Sunday. Our meetings are changing to 1PM so hopefully that will make it a little easier for them to get there every week.  Right now she's set for the 8th. She's nervous about it but who wouldn't be? It is all in the Lord's hands.
Have a wonderful new year everyone!
Yours,
Hna. Cottam
P.S. say hello to everyone in Arizona for me! Love you all!

t2w4

Dearest Family :)

First of all, HAVE A MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Second of all, this week has been a learning experience for me.

Our potential baptism fell through--he's just not quite ready. He's not ready yet, but he will be ready eventually. The thing he's trying to get around right now is getting his head to accept what his heart is saying is true. And that will just come with time. He wants to be able to answer yes to the baptismal questions with sureness. He's actually my miracle for the week. Let me tell you why...

We taught Victor Tuesday, and met again with him Thursday, trying to get as much in to prepare him for baptism as possible. The whole I week I was questioning the wisdom of trying to go so fast, but Hna. Camejo and I couldn't deny that we had felt that the 18th was his date so we surged forward with Hna. Ence, testifying to Victor that he needed to read and to pray, fasting for him, praying every day for him. Then came Saturday. We still had much to cover, so we did what we could and our district leader agreed to interview him. Victor wasn't sure yet, but we helped him see that he was feeling something, so he agreed to go through with the interview. When he went in with the district leader we were so nervous. Did we do it right? What was going to happen? I think we were all praying hard. Almost an hour later, they finally came back out. He didn't pass, but it had been a good discussion for him. They decided that he needed more time for him to be able to line up his head and heart because he still couldn't answer all of the first question with confidence. We don't know exactly why we felt that the 18th was his date except for this, that it strengthened Victor's desire to continue. It helped him clarify things a little, to see a little better what it would all mean for him and it helped us see where we need to go now to help prepare him. One thing he said after the interview stuck out to me, that he knew that he will become a member, just not yet. I don't know that we will be the ones who get to see him to baptism at this point. He'll be closing his shop soon so he will only be in Mississauga for a few months for a surgery, so we will probably transfer him to the Mississauga Elders, but we will still do our best to strengthen his faith in Christ and prepare him before he closes down. It's the torch the people should follow anyway, not the torch-bearers.

He's my miracle of the week because he still came to church yesterday. He still has the desire to learn more even after the "ordeal" we put him through on Saturday.

Unfortunately, no snow yet.

Yours,

Hna. Cottam

P.S. I'll probably try to call between one and five P.M. I'm allowed a 2 min. call the night before to set it up, so talk to you then! I can either use my phone card or you all can call me at a specified time.

pics!

Oh, I also wanted to tell you about the awesome zone conference we had last week! It was an all-day one with training, food, jeopardy on the missionary handbook and a Christmas Devotional! It was great fun and I got to see a lot of the other missionaries that I have met, like my trainer Hna. Brown :). Hna. Camejo and I got to sing with two of the other elders in the devotional. It was great.

Love ya'll!

hna. Cottam

Hermana Cottam

Left to Right: Hermana Cottam, Hermana Camejo, Hermana Ence

Left to Right: Hermana Cottam, Hermana Ence, Hermana Camejo

Left to Right: Hermana Cottam, Hermana Ence, Hermana Camejo

t2w3

Well, I've come down with a cold, but the work hasn't slowed :).

We have a prospect for baptism this coming week! His name is Victor. I think I told you some about him last week, but he has a baptismal date. He main road block right now is that he's studied some history, etc., so his head is saying one thing while his heart is beginning to feel another. He loves the people at church and enjoys our discussions. We still have a lot to teach him but he's coming along. We were able to have a member in our last lession which was a great help in answering some of Victor's questions.

We have also seen some of the fruit of our contacting. We had a family who was a bus contact attend church yesterday! We have an appointment set up with them for this coming week. The said that they enjoyed church. The husband especially I think is pretty receptive. He loved our discussion in sunday school about prayer and had some good insights like how after we pray we need to go out and work.  :) how true 

We were able to see one of our recent converts yesterday and Saturday who hasn't been coming to church because of work. He hurt his knee at work, so he was able to come to church yesterday! (the Lord works in mysterious ways :). Hna. Ence was great with him, showing him the index in the back of the scriptures and encouraging him to find a favorite scripture. His roommate Julio might start investigating the church, actually. He has been around the sisters because of Oscar, so maybe he's ready now.

Hna. Ence, our trainee, is improving. She is talking to more people and her loving desire to help others and get to know people is awesome.

So Jesse asked about the training program I've talked a little about so here's a short explanation: It's called the 12-week in-field orientation for new missionaries. The church has made a booklet with a schedule of what to study each week plus "check your progress" questionaires and a page for each on the 8 fundamentals of Preach My Gospel (also fairly new--helps us focus on what's most important for the investigators to do and feel, like church, prayer, the doctrine of Christ, etc.). The purpose is to prepare new missionaries faster so they can be more effective as missionaries sooner and so that they can train after they have gone through the training. We do a lot of role playing and watch segments from the Preach My Gospel dvd's, etc.

on another note, no snow here yet...:( but it's still pretty cold...I'm starting to get used to it though.

Have a great week everyone!

Love,

Hna. Cottam

t2w2

Hola familia!

Como estan?

So this week has been exciting with our new companion. Her name is Sis. Ence and she's from St. George, Ut! So she's not used to the cold. We had a little snow the day she arrived but other than that it's been cool but not too cold. It's been raining a lot too. So Hna. Ence is something of a combination of Hna. Camejo and I so we all get along pretty well. Actually, Hna. Camejo and she knew eachother in the MTC. She also knew me but I don't remember her very well, unfortunately. Well, now I know her :).

Anyway, and unfortunately our progressing investigators are not progressing anymore. We were so excited for them. We're not sure what happened, but we move on. We are still working with a woman named Elyse. She loves what we teach so far. It's just hard for her to get out to do anything because she has a very young baby who has been sick lately. Our first two lessons with her were actually in the hospital. The baby is getting better, but slowly.

Yesterday we were able to bring one of our other new investigators to church! His name is Victor and he runs a video store a few times a week near our house. He ended up staying the whole three hours! and we were able to get him a ride to the devotional last night so he came! He liked the people and all and he has a lot of questions. He has a good understanding of the bible and believes in God, he just doesn't believe in organized religion. (He hasn't found one to be the true church yet :)

I loved the devotional last night! And what's better is that Bro. Smith was playing in the orchestra :) I never got to see him playing while I was at the MTC so it was nice to see a familiar face. The talks were awesome. I loved the story of the Mansion. It brings a new light to how to lay up treasures in heaven.

I've got to go, but have a great week everyone! I know the Savior lives. This is His church. We have a prophet today who speaks His word.

Love,

Hna. Cottam

t2 w1!

Well, I made it through the first transfer...and Hna Camejo and I are staying together, but....We're training a new missionary!!!! How crazy is that?! We get her on Wednesday, so we'll see how it goes.

The work has really started to progress with Hna. Camejo. She is an OYMing nazi! She loves to talk to people! We now officially have 2 progressing investigators!!!!! AH!!!!!! It's so exciting. I love 'em! They are a married couple from Mexico. We met them at a bus stop Saturday night. And invited them to church. The wife said she'd come but the husband had to work. She gave us her number and we all got on the bus. Before we got off, the husband gave a card with both of their numbers on it. We later found out that the number she had originally given us was slightly wrong--she doesn't trust people. but the husband suggested that they give us the right numbers so they did (spirit in action right there:). the next morning we came to pick up Nancy and lo and behold her husband was coming along too! He had stayed home from work to come with us. Wow, What faith he is showing! Right after church we sat down with them for a few minutes and found out a little more about them, they told the story about the number and Nancy expressed her past desires to be baptized. We challenged them to a baptismal date on Christmas. and they excepted! Then we asked Alex to give the closing prayer. It was the first time he had ever prayed. Oh it was a sweet moment. I'm so excited for them! After that we went with them to the baptism the elders were having and the spirit there was so sweet. I'm so excited for these two and pray that they will continue to progress!

Oh, yeah, for Thanksgiving we had papoosas with our ward mission leader and his wife. They are good! but I did kind of miss the turkey and pies. Oh well. Thanksgiving here happened just before we came out so we in essence missed it. But Christmas is just around the corner and I know we won't miss that! 

I'm so excited for what lies ahead, for the chance to learn and grow with my fellow hermanas. 

Have a great week everyone. 

Yours,

Hna. Cottam