Happy New Year!

This was a beyond awesome week! Christmas Eve, Christmas, and some other fun surprises! It was great. I loved being able to be a missionary on Christmas and have the special opportunity to testify of Christ on Christmas. I'm truly thankful for my Savior and for His birth.

I'll start at the beginning of the week! On Monday night we went to the Hill's house for dinner and Family Home Evening. We had steak for dinner (score!) and got to read all the scripture stories about Christ's birth and watch Joy to the World for FHE. It was really nice to prepare us for Christmas. After that we continued to go caroling with our zone. Thankfully no one kissed us this time...

On Christmas Eve we went to the Gorman-Payne's house and spent time with their family. They had family there from Florida, so that was fun for Sister Harrison! Christmas Eve dinner there was probably the best dinner I've had on my mission. Sister Harrison and I were SO full by the time we left. I literally thought I was going to burst. We set up for Christmas a little later, after caroling yet again. The Sisters stayed over with us that night so that we could all wake up and do Christmas together!

Our whole zone met at the stake center at 5:30 a.m. on Christmas morning... Yeah, I guess we were all just excited about Christmas. Plus it was one of our Elder's birthdays, so we had a mini birthday party for him. Then we all played crazy ball for what seemed like EVER, and then went home and all opened presents! We all sat around our mini little Christmas tree! We were all so thankful to be with each other, even though it was sad to not be with our families. Good friends make things so much easier. I love Sister Harrison, Sister Stinnett, and Sister Cummings. I have served my whole mission with Sister Cummings, from the MTC to now! She is like my sister.

I made sure that we all had waffles for breakfast, because let’s be honest, it wouldn't be Christmas without Belgian waffles for breakfast. 

We did our studies and at 1p.m. we went to the Brown's house to Skype our families! IT WAS AWESOME! I loved being able to talk to and see my mom and dad! I wish I had taken a picture of it. That was the best part of Christmas by far. The best.

After Skype we got to go and watch Joy to the World again and wait for dinner. It was so good and we had a lot of fun with the Brown's! They are so sweet. We also stopped by some other members and our Bishop's house! And, of course, our whole zone went caroling that night.

Although I missed all our traditions and being home with my family and the Murphy's, this was one of my favorite Christmases. It was so Christ-centered, and I felt like I really got to focus on and understand the true meaning of Christmas.

The rest of the week Sister Harrison and I worked on our "member areas".  I don't remember if I wrote about it in my last email, but we came up with this idea to try and get the members more involved in missionary work. It's really hard to get referrals here because 1. Our area is reeeeeeally tiny, and 2. Our members pretty much only hang out with other members. So what we've done is we've driven through every community we have (they're all smaller, gated, neighborhoods) and drew out the community and put every house and house number on it. We put where each member, less active, and potential lived. Then, we divided all the communities up into smaller areas (where the members live) and assigned the members their neighbors to work with! We are really excited about it, I mean, who's not going to get to know their neighbor? And the members we've done it with have been really excited about it, as well as our Bishop and Ward Mission Leader. We are pumped! Then we are going to have different monthly events that they can invite their "area" to! What a blessing to have a small area where you can eventually literally know every single person in it!

On Friday morning we had a Christmas zone breakfast at our Stake President's house.  He talked to us for a while and then had all of us share our family Christmas traditions and what Christmas meant to us. It was pretty awesome!

On Saturday we did more of our maps. At the end of the day, Sister Christensen told us to stop by and JAMES NISH WAS THERE. It was so awesome! I got to see one of my best friends! We stayed there for a little bit and talked. I was so happy to see him!

Sunday was nice too, there was a mission homecoming (which was why James was there), and Sister Harrison gave a really great lesson on repentance in Gospel Principles. Then we had a combined third hour on missionary work and every one wrote letters to the missionaries that are serving from the Paseo Verde ward. It was sweet!

Today we are having Family Home Evening with a family from the ward and will do other fun p-day stuff!

We get transfer information this Saturday! Sister Harrison and I will most likely stay together, here. Yay! We hope we stay together for a while. Oh, and on New Years we all get to go to the mission office and watch a movie! Yay!

Happy New Years! Make some good goals and be sure to add one spiritual goal in there :)

I love you!

Love, Sister Coltrin
 

 

 

Christmas Morning:  Sister Coltrin, Sister Harrison, Sister Cummings and Sister Stinnett

 

 

An Oreo snowman for Diane

 

 

Sister Coltrin and James Nish

 

 

 

 

Merry Christmas!

I can't believe it's the eve of Christmas Eve (or Christmas Adam, whichever you prefer)! We've had a great week and have been so excited about Christmas and getting to skype home!

On Monday had dinner and Family Home Evening with an older widow in our ward! There were a few other people there, and she was planning on inviting her non-member friend, but her friend was sick. We had salmon for dinner, Mom! I didn't even complain about it :) But lets be honest, food that I don't like is always better at someone else's house.

Tuesday was our mission Christmas party! Well, we did it in thirds, so we were with a few other zones. It was really awesome! We had Leadership Training all morning, and then lunch, and then the party! The stake that was hosting us for lunch gave all of us a present. Some one in their stake makes handmade wood pens, so he made one for each of us! They're really awesome and look really nice. The party included a talent show, so we got a mix of beat boxing, rapping, singing, instruments, dances, and more! It was so, so funny and fun. Sisters Cumming, Stinnett, Harrison, and I made up a pretty sweet mash-up of songs and did it to cups (Sister Moffitt would be proud). It ended with President and Sister Neider coming out dressed as Santa and Mrs. Clause! We all took pictures with them. It was an awesome day.

After that we went back to our area and went on splits with two of our ward missionaries. We brought treats to and visited with all the widows in our ward. It was good!

On Wednesday we had an AWESOME lesson with Missy. We are going over all the lessons again, and we did the Restoration. She has never seen the DVD before, so we all watched that. We have been feeling really prompted to set Missy with another baptismal date, even though her parents won't let her be baptized. We set her for February 1! She was so excited and said she felt like that is exactly what we need to do. We decided that we'd do all we can to show Heavenly Father that we have faith that this can work. We are really excited! Pray for her and her parents!

That night we got to go out to dinner at the Cheesecake Factory! The wait was "long" (honestly, it wasn't) and the manager came over and apologized to us and said that we could all get free cheesecake that night! Woo! Free cheesecake!

On Thursday we taught a few member lessons. We have had a ton scheduled, but everyone cancels about 10 minutes before. It's been fun. We went to our ward mission leader's house to talk about some of the ideas that we've come up with for finding. His wife and kids were home and were doing things to get ready to leave on vacation, so we got to help them clean their house, do laundry, and pack for vacation! It was fun! After that we went to the Hill's to make cookies for our less actives. We were running late, so they offered to finish making them for us. They are awesome. Their kids are so cute, and they loved showing us all their toys and their fort. Their son, Mason, told me to follow him as he ran into their coat closet. I peered in, and they had a secret door in their closet! It's literally like Narnia! And then it leads to a little Harry Potter "under the cupboard" room. It was probably the coolest thing I've ever seen. (I can hear Dad saying, "EVER?") Well, probably not, but it was close.

Sister Harrison and I had dinner at the Tingey's house. When we went to knock on the door, we could tell they couldn't hear us because there were a bunch of kids in their living room that were singing and playing instruments, it was like their band or something. We knocked a few times, but nothing happened, so we had to jump around in front of the windows and wave our arms and ring the bell until someone saw us. I laugh every time I think about it, it was so funny hahaha.

Fun fact. We've been keeping track of the dinners that we've had this transfer and EVERY SINGLE NIGHT except 3 times we have had either pizza or Mexican food. Literally every night. We love it though! No complaints here.

On Friday we got a few gifts from members - one being a Cafe Rio gift card! We were pumped about that! We also got Cafe Rio for dinner that night at a member's house. We started doing our zone caroling too! We met at 7:30 and started going caroling to the people who our members wrote down! It was really, really great.  The first lady we went to was an inactive member and her non-member husband. She just stood there and sobbed while we sang. It was a really spiritual moment.

That night we met with Sister Lake and Sister Pulliam for exchanges. I got to bring Sister Lake back here to Anthem, which is really cool because she used to serve here in this ward! It was a really great day! We received a lot of revelation for the area and what we should do to find here. This is what we've started to do:

We drew a map for each community in our area and put all the houses on it. We marked where members, less actives, and potentials lived. Then we divided the small communities into areas for the members that live in each community. We wrote the addresses of all the houses that live in their "area" (which is usually between 5 and 10 houses) on potential investigators sheets. Now when we visit members we are sharing this with them and are asking them to fill the sheets out- so basically getting to know their neighbors! It is SO awesome!! We will know EVERYONE in our entire area! And we will get so many potentials from this! We are very excited!

That night we went to the Christensen's house to help them set up for their son's homecoming open house! It was really fun. He said that he wants to come with us to teach and work.

When we went caroling that night, we went to a recent convert's house. He was an older man, and when we were about to leave he came up and kissed the 4 of us sisters on the cheek. It was the funniest and most awkward thing ever. All the Elders were laughing.

On Sunday we had our ward Christmas program! We got to be in it and sit on the stand. The music was really good and the whole thing was great.

Tonight we have FHE with the Hill's and more caroling! Tomorrow is Christmas Eve, and we are excited!

I can't wait to skype home! Talk to you on Wednesday!

Merry Christmas!

Love, Sister Coltrin

 

 

 

 

Sister Coltrin with President and Sister Neider

 

Sister Coltrin and her zone

 

Almost One Week Until Christmas!

This week has been pretty awesome! We are getting really excited for Christmas and skyping home!

Last Monday we had Family Home Evening with one of the less active families in our ward. They just moved here in September from St. George. We had a really fun time getting to know them and their two kids. We had pizza for dinner and then we had a lesson with them about the Book of Mormon. When we were about to leave their daughter asked if she could talk to us outside for a minute. We were so worried! We all went outside and she told us about how she is worried about her dad because he has been swearing and she doesn't want that to lead to worse things. We told her to be a leader for family prayer and scripture study and getting ready for church! It was so sweet. She told us to keep coming back. It was really awesome!

We left to do exchanges that night too, so Sister Harrison went to Green Valley for the day and I got to be here with Sister Pulliam!

So Tuesday, Sister Pulliam and I went and contacted a bunch of people and tried to set up a lot of lessons with members. One of our members told us to come back that night to do a lesson. We went back and taught them, and then afterwards, they told us that they want us to come and teach their 7 year-old son all of the lessons before he gets baptized!

That night we went to do ward visits, which we do every Tuesday with all the ward auxiliary leaders. We got there and waited for a little while, but no one was showing up. I finally called someone to see if they had already left, or what was going on. Apparently they decided that we aren't doing any more ward visits until next year... Thanks for letting us know. Hahaha! It was pretty funny.

On Wednesday we got to meet with Missy! We had lunch at the Reber's and a lesson. Devan brought Cane's Chicken for all of us. They talk about how good Cane's is all the time, so we finally got to have some! We taught Missy about the Tree of Life (we decided we'd do a Book of Mormon story lesson and a regular lesson every week). After that we were supposed to go and have a new member lesson with Avery, but they weren't able to make it. Sister Harrison was feeling really sick and so was one of the other sisters - so we had the two sick sisters stay home and Sister Cummings and I went out and did all the rest of the stuff we had for the evening. So, yeah, we had to have two dinners that night, their ward and our ward. Hahaha. We were so, so full.

Oh and fun fact: I'm serving in Austin Nelson's home ward! As in BYU Basketball! Score!

We've been making cookies to give out at Christmas to investigators and less actives. We also have a list going around so people in our ward can send all the missionaries to carol at their non-member friends houses! It's going to be really awesome! We are going to leave them all with Joy to the World DVD's and cookies! Our whole zone is doing it. Not to be prideful, but I'm pretty cool because it was my idea! :)

On Thursday we went to the Lee's house and made cookies with Sister Lee. She has a daughter serving in the Florida Tampa mission! Afterwards we helped her wrap Christmas presents! We had a lesson with Sister Bluth in our ward, who is one of our investigators. She has come to church for 6 years, is married to a returned missionary, she reads her scriptures, conference talks, prays, everything! She just doesn't have a testimony of Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. She's met with missionaries for a while now. She's super nice. We went over there and we had a little lesson about applying the Book of Mormon to you and your life. She really liked it, so hopefully it will help her! We went to the Christensen's house for dinner again - we love them. Their son comes home from his mission in a few days! We are helping her set up for his open house and everything. We are so excited for them!

Friday was the best! We went to the temple for Sister Harrison's new missionary temple trip. Driving to the temple was so crazy, it was so weird to be back in a really familiar place! We stopped at my old apartment on the way there to drop some stuff off for Sister Fields. It was so good to see her and be there! I love her! Then we went to the temple, which was super awesome! Sister Neider sat by me, which was really fun.

After the temple, we stopped really quickly to see if the Olsen's were home, but only their son Dylan was there! I was sad, but that's okay! After that we stopped by Cristal's house. She was so excited when she saw us there! I was so, so happy! We hugged for a minute! She told me about what's been going on and how she's doing. It was so good to be with her!

We went back to Anthem and had a lesson with Missy and Matt! We taught the Plan of Salvation, even though Missy's been through all the lessons, we're just going to go through them again, plus now we have Matt there! We had dinner at the Van Duzers house and they told us they wanted us to come over on Christmas! We have a list of people that we are going to on Christmas!

We got a referral from one of our members and they said they would think of a good way for us to get into contact with them. He called us and told us that she cuts hair, so we should go get hair cuts from her.  I got my hair trimmed last week, so Sister Harrison is taking one for the team. For the sake of the investigator! Hahahah! We will try that this week sometime.

Saturday morning was our ward Christmas party! Missy was there! We had breakfast. It was really fun, and we got there really early to help set up. They had 15 dozen Krispy Kreme donuts and all the boxes had coupon slips for free donuts. Of course everyone gave them to us - because missionaries have no money and obviously we need more sugary food. So basically we have slips for 22 DOZEN FREE DONUTS! Hahahaha! We are giving them to all the missionaries in our zone. It's crazy! Donut day forever!

Missy had signed up on our dinner calendar, so she took us out to lunch! It was really fun! 

After that we went and made cookies at Sister McMurrin's house. She didn't have one of the ingredients, so she left us at her house alone while she went to get it! It was really funny.

We didn't have dinner, so Ben and Devan and our investigator Matt took us to In 'n' Out! We had every meal with Ben that day.

On Sunday Sister Harrison and I spoke in sacrament meeting about baptism! It went really well and was great! I told everyone that "this work is for missionaries and full-time missionaries" so hopefully more people get involved and realize that every member is a missionary! People came up afterwards and told me that they wish my parents could be here to see me, and that I have a future in public speaking, and other nice stuff. It was awesome! I felt really good. I don't even remember what I said in my talk.

Sunday was definitely for Sister Bluth – Sacrament Meeting about baptism, and Sunday School about the restoration, and Relief Society about Joseph Smith! It was crazy! And awesome.  Hopefully she recognized the Spirit.

The ward Christmas program is next week and we sing with the ward choir, so we are pretty excited!

A week and a half until Christmas! Thanks to everyone who has sent letters for my Christmas Countdown, I love, love, love reading them every day! It's such a great way to get excited about Christmas!

Merry almost Christmas!

Love, Sister Coltrin

 

 

 

 

Sister Coltrin and Sister Harrison

What A Good Week!

What a good week! Well, last Monday I got a package with a bunch of Christmas decorations and - the best thing of all - letters from my friends and my family for every day in the month of December!! It was hard not to open them all right then, but it's really fun to hear from someone different every day. Thanks!

We had an awesome p-day last week.  Sister Harrison and I along with Sister Cummings and Sister Stinnet decided that we were going to skip p-day sports (because the Elders were playing basketball and they get waaaay too competitive for us to play). We went to Seagull Book and a few other fun places. It was fun to just relax with the Sisters.

On Tuesday and Wednesday we went a contacted a lot of people and set up lessons for the next week. We were knocking doors almost all day - it was crazy.  On Wednesday we had a lesson with a former investigator - Frank Drew. He and his wife investigated about a year ago. He said he would give it another try with an open heart. What a blessing! That night we were invited to be on a missionary panel for the young men. We talked about missions and missionary work and they got to ask questions. It was actually really great! The YM counselor wanted us to perform a musical number afterwards too, so we made up a missionary mash up of songs and did cups with it. It was intense and they loved it. We did it for the young women later and they made us do it again so they could record it on their phones.  Hahaha! We're popular...

On Thursday we had Zone Training and there was a Relief Society activity that we were invited to that evening. It was a progressive dinner and we got to go to three different houses in our guarded community! The houses are HUGE and awesome. It was a really fun night and there were some non-members there that the relief society ladies introduced us too!

On Friday we got to meet with Missy! I love meeting with Missy, she is the best. We talked about the Priesthood. At the past few lessons Devan and Ben (Missy's member friends) have invited another one of their friends, Matt. We asked him if he wanted to just start meeting with us too, and he said he did! So he will be at all the lessons now and we will meet with them twice a week! We are really excited!

Saturday morning we (well, I) decided that we should try to ride our bikes! Our plan was to ride to a gated community in our area and set up member lessons. So I was way excited to ride bikes. We got our bikes ready and went out. It was literally the coldest and windiest day ever. We rode around for a little while and went to a few members, but then we gave up and went to get our car. It was pretty funny. But it was so cold that I had to put on pants under my maxi skirt... although it's way better than snow :)

We went to the Christensen's house for dinner that night - they're like, my favorite family in our ward. They are awesome. We each got to make our own french bread pizza for dinner, and they have a hot chocolate bar! They are obsessed with hot chocolate! It's awesome. I had oatmeal cookie hot chocolate - it was the best.

On Sunday we had church, meetings, dinner at our Ward Mission Leader's house, and then the First Presidency Christmas Devotional! It was awesome!

We are excited for this coming week to meet with all the people we scheduled lessons with. We also get to have dinner appointments on Monday nights now and share a family home evening lesson with the families!

Thanks to all of you who have written me letters in my Christmas Countdown! I love them all.

I love you! Can't believe it's almost Christmas!

Love, Sister Coltrin

 

Sister Coltrin with the beautiful nativity made by the Elisabeth, Madeleine and Meghan Yskes

 

 

Sister Coltrin, Sister Stinnet, Sister Harrison and Sister Cummings at the YM Panel Discussion

A New Transfer and A New Companion

This transfer has already started out great! I've learned a lot and have grown a lot in the last 6 weeks. I'm thankful for the experiences I've had and for the things I've learned.

Monday was just a normal P-day, nothing that memorable happened.  We said goodbye to some members and investigators with Sister Nichols, but that was about it.

On Tuesday, we had transfers! In the morning we went to the mission office and dropped off Sister Nichols to her new companion, and we got Sister Stinnet, who is Sister Cummings new companion! We love her so much already. We can tell we are all going to get along really well. We moved all their stuff back to their apartment (since we had moved it to mine) and they got settled in. We contacted a few people, and then it was time to go to the mission office to meet the new missionaries! We all went into the relief society room and listened to President Neider for a bit. Then, one by one, he told us our companionships. My new companion is Sister Julie Harrison! She is 19 years old and is from North-Central Florida! She went to BYU-I for a year before coming out here. She is the youngest of 5 kids. She is super smart and is hard working and is super fun. I love her already! And she even joins me when I sing in the car (take that, Mom and Dad!). We are great friends already and I am so excited to be with her! It was really funny because before transfers we got the pictures and list of the new missionaries and Sister Cummings picked that Sister Harrison would be my companion. She was so proud.

We moved in that night, had dinner at Bishop's house, and contacted some people. We got to know each other and just laughed and talked! I love Sister Harrison!

On Wednesday we went to new missionary training all day. It was really awesome and I felt way more confident about training a new missionary than before. After our meeting, we met with our 9-year-old investigator, Avery. We taught her about the Plan of Salvation and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Since she was raised in the church, all of this is really just review and she practically teaches us. It's awesome! Her Dad is less active and he has been getting involved. The spirit is so strong there. He cried in our lesson this week when we were taking about feeling the Spirit! We are hoping that he will start coming back to church!

After that we had dinner in the guarded community in our area. I had never been in there before -  you have to have an appointment! The houses in there were CRAZY huge! They all had 5 garages and huge front doors and huge fountains and were like 6 stories high. Oh my gosh. It was like the DeVos house - but bigger and a whole neighborhood of them!!!! I am not even kidding.

Thursday was Thanksgiving, so we dropped off cookies to all the "Do Not Contact" people in our ward, did service, and other things that wouldn't get too in the way of families spending time together. That night we went to the Gorman-Payne's house. They had lots of family over for dinner and we had a lot of fun with them! They had super good food (even if it wasn't Dad's famous Thanksgiving potatoes). After dinner they have a tradition of decorating gingerbread houses to welcome Christmas in! It was a lot of fun, and Sister Harrison and I built a gingerbread Temple, complete with an "Angel Moroni" on top :) We were pretty proud. We stopped at our ward mission leader's house afterwards for "pie-hopping".  Although I missed being in our house packed with family and friends, we had a great Thanksgiving :)

On Friday morning we got a call from Avery's Dad. He told us that all their family was in town this weekend and that he knew it was super last minute, but could Avery's baptism be that night. We paused for a second, and then I said, "Well, let us call a few people, and we'll make it happen!" So the whole day was spent scrambling to call people and reserve the building and getting keys to the building and finding out who was doing what on the program and finding someone to conduct and welcome her into the ward- which was not easy, because everyone was out of town, and our Bishop went to Mexico for Thanksgiving! But, we did it! We got her interviewed, thanks to Elder Tyree for scheduling a last minute interview. We got to the church to fill the font, but the faucet was a little broken, so it wasn't filling up fast enough. We ran to the kitchen and got all the pitchers we could find, and then found a leaky bucket in the custodial closet. I filled up pitchers and the leaky bucket in the custodial closet while Sister Harrison and the Elders ran back and forth to fill up the font! It was crazy and we were laughing the whole time. I was absolutely soaked by the time the baptism started - but we did it. It was one of the most amazing baptisms I have attended. The family all came together and had great talks, the baptism was great, her Dad was crying the whole time, and the Spirit was just so strong there. Afterwards, when Brother Dalrymple, the first counselor, was welcoming her to the ward, he left a blessing on everyone that was there. It was incredible. For a last minute baptism - it was the best.

On Saturday morning we went to get hot chocolate with Missy, Ben, and Devan. Missy is so awesome and has such a strong testimony. I am so impressed that, despite her parents, she stays so strong. She has a strong desire to be baptized and will do whatever it takes to have that. I love her.

Sister Cummings and Sister Stinnet had lunch with us. We also did some service that day and helped clean the church with our ward. Other than that, we just spent time contacting people and trying to find people to teach!

On Sunday we had fast and testimony meeting and Sister Harrison was asked to share her testimony. Missy was able to come to church! We had dinner with the Lee's, who just moved to the condos above the outdoor mall here - it made me want to move to the houses above the shops in downtown Holland, it was so cute and fun! We had a great time with them. They have a daughter serving in Tampa Florida. Just a side note, if you've ever read President Monson's little book called "Consider the Blessings" one of the stories (about "Elder Allen") is about Sister Lee's Dad! :)

There was a Christmas concert in our stake center, so we went to catch the end of it, and I got to see Miss McDade! She had come to the concert and brought Sister Harrison and I Christmas presents. She is so sweet. I love her. And I miss Karina! I wish she had been there too, but hopefully I will see them both soon!

That was about it for us this week. We are excited about the transfer and about being companions with each other.

We have a lot of cool new ideas to find people here! Pray that they work :)

Thanks for everything and I love you!

Love, Sister Coltrin

Sister Coltrin working on the gingerbread Temple.

 

Sister Harrison and Sister Coltrin with their gingerbread temple.

 

 

Sister Harrison, Missy, and Sister Coltrin

 

Sister Coltrin, Avery, and Sister Harrison at the baptism

 

Too Many Stories For One Transfer

And the ups and downs just keep coming! Thankfully it is the end of this insane transfer! We all got our transfer documents last night, after a day long delay, because of our crazy mission. Sister Nichols will be leaving to Black Mountain, Sister Cummings will go back to the Carnegie ward with Sister Stinnett, and I will stay in the Paseo Verde ward and train a brand new missionary!!  I do not know her name yet, but I will go meet her tomorrow after she gets here from the MTC!  I feel unqualified but I am excited for the opportunity. It's going to be so fun!  

So, last Monday after emailing we got to go to Smashburger with Abraham! We spent the rest of the day cleaning our apartment and playing sports at the stake center. It was a pretty chill day. 

On Tuesday we met with two of the Carnegie investigators, Vanessa and Crystal.  They are both awesome! Vanessa is a super cute older lady - who is from Westland, Michigan! We talked about Michigan for a long time. Crystal has a super cute little 3 year-old, and when we got there she had made lunch for us!  It was super sweet. She is so ready to accept the Gospel and be baptized. 

We had a bit of a rough night that night though. In my last email I talked about a less active young man that we had gone to visit who was suicidal. We had asked him where was one place he wanted to be, or one goal he had. He responded with, "I want to be in Heaven." We told him he would have to wait, because Heavenly Father still had work for him to do here. We told him that we could all progress and prepare to meet our Heavenly Father together, though, and that the Temple is the closest place to Heaven on earth. We made a goal with him to get him there. He accepted and told us to come back to meet with him every Tuesday night. We went back on Tuesday night and had a horrible, horrible feeling as we were pulling up to the house (around 6 pm). There was a police officer outside who had been called by one of Scott's friends who was concerned about him and wanted the officer to go and check on him. Scott's brother pulled up a few minutes later and he had no idea where Scott was. We left a little bit later to go to the church for meetings. We felt a strong impression to pray for Scott and his family. As we knelt in a circle in a small room, the Spirit was so strong, and we could feel the power that was there with us. We felt that we weren't the missionaries that were supposed to be there to help Scott, but there were missionaries beyond the veil ready to help him. We could tell that Heavenly Father would be there for us, for Scott's family, and for Scott - no matter what happened.  Later that night we found out that Scott had gone to the Las Vegas Temple and shot himself inside the Atrium in the lobby. It was a very sad night. We stayed up late talking with President and Sister Neider. We prayed for the Bybee's all night. We know that Scott is in a better place and is receiving help from the missionaries that are there.

On Wednesday, we got two new investigators! Marcy Till, a lady that was on our potentials list. We brought one of her member neighbors with us. We left her with a Book of Mormon, and she invited us to come back after Thanksgiving! She had a bearded dragon named Lizzie, who she let us hold! We got some pictures! It was really cool. We also met with Avery, a 9 year-old of a less active, part-member family, who is very excited to be baptized! We are also going to be working with her Father, to re-activate him. He is super nice and seems really ready to come back. That night we stayed up cleaning our house and car to be prepared for our mission tour the next day with Elder Bruce A. Carlson of the Seventy! 

Thursday morning we went for a breakfast at the Green Valley Stake Center and had an all-day training with Elder Carlson! It was really awesome. We were in the missionary choir, too! After that we got to go to a Relief Society Thanksgiving dinner with a couple of investigators! 

On Friday a member took us out to lunch for her birthday! I mean, who wouldn't want to be with three cool missionaries on their birthday - am I right? :) We started making cookies for all of the "do not contacts" on our ward list! We are going to drop them off for Christmas! We also contacted a lot of potentials and some less actives that day, and then got to have dinner with a recent convert and her suuuuuper talkative granddaughter. Mom and Dad, I formally apologize for talking so much as a kid because, wow. Just wow. 

We got to meet with Vanessa again on Saturday. We waited for transfer calls allllll day, but since everything in our mission is crazy, it was delayed until Sunday. But, that night, we found a huge un-opened bag of gumballs in our cupboard. What do you do when you find a huge bag of gumballs? You have a competition to see who can fit the most gumballs in their mouth, of course. So Sister Nichols watched in disgust, as Sister Cummings and I stuff gumballs into our faces. Obviously, I won with 52 gumballs!  I blame my sore jaw on my competitive side.  Go me! 

On Sunday we had our crazy two church schedule! We texted Missy telling her we were excited to see her at church, and she texted back in all caps telling us how excited she was! She is so cute and loves, loves, loves the Gospel. I can't wait until her parents let her be baptized. We also started to see snow on the mountains - noooooooooooooooooooo! It's too "cold" here (hahaha, joking, it's still in the 60's). Our transfer documents came that night and our zone all met at the church to have them read to us! So, yep, I'll be training this transfer! 

That's about all the exciting stuff I can remember for this week! Have a great week and Happy Thanksgiving!

 

Love, Sister Coltrin

 

PS. Mom, you'd be proud, my planner cover is a cool nativity picture I found in the New Era - I thought of you :)

 

And The Stories Just Keep Coming...

I am not sure what is up with this transfer, but oh my goodness. It has been yet another crazy week. Makes for good stories though!

I'll start on Monday. We went out with Sister Lanman from the Carnegie Ward to a super nice restaurant called "Claim Jumper". It was really good and she got a billion different appetizers for us to try and to take home. When we got to the restaurant, I looked over and saw Brother and Sister Conger! I was so excited to see them! They are from the Sunrise area, in one of the family wards. We had dinner with them a lot! It was so good to see them and talk to them for a little bit. After dinner, we went back to Sister Lanman's house and she had a huge banana split bar for us - fresh fruit, candy, and every other topping you could hope for. It was an awesome night.

On Tuesday, we went to lunch at Sister Ockerman's house. She is a cute, older widow. She made us grilled cheese and talked to us about her family. She grew up in Kalamazoo! Yay for Michigan people! We contacted a lot of people for the rest of the afternoon and finished perfecting our area books - because our mission is being toured by one of the Seventy this week. That night after dinner we went to the West's house in the Paseo Verde ward. Sister Cummings is being tested to see if she has Celiac, and Sister West's kids have Celiac, so she taught us how to cook and showed us some good gluten-free stuff. It was really nice, she is great. When we got home that night, we went to put a CD in our DVD player so we could listen to music, and realized that someone had broken into our apartment and stole both of our DVD players and one of Sister Nichols' bags to put them in! They had dumped the stuff out of her bag, stashed the DVD players in it and left. It was crazy! And pretty scary to think that someone we didn't know had been in our apartment. We called all the Elder's to see if it was any of them just playing a joke, but no, someone actually broke in. It's good that they didn't take anything else though - like our cameras and Ipods!

Wednesday night was just as scary! We spent the day contacting potentials and had a few lessons. That night, we came home to plan and while we were planning, someone tried to break in again! We all hid behind our kitchen counter armed with kitchen knives. It was super scary, but once the person realized that we were in our apartment, they left. We called the Zone Leaders and moved all our desks in front of the front door and sliding glass door. Looking back on it, it's pretty funny. But at the time, we were so scared.

On Thursday we spent the day at a doctor's appointment in the Las Vegas West mission for Sister Cummings, and when we got back, some of the Elder's called us and asked us to stop by and visit a certain person in our ward sometime. The Elder's were with a family in their ward and they were concerned about their son who lives in one of our wards. We stopped by and he let us in. He was clearly upset about something and was surprised that we were there. We talked to him a little bit and found out that he is seriously depressed, and is frustrated, and feels like Heavenly Father has forgotten about him. We were able to talk to him and try to help him see that he has not been forgotten. At one point he stopped and said, "So, just wondering, why did you stop by here at this time?" We told him that we heard he might be having a hard time and felt like we should stop by tonight instead of waiting.  It was really cool and the Spirit was really strong. We know that we were there for a reason and so did he. We are pretty sure that he was planning on taking his life that night - we scheduled another time to meet with him and help him progress.

That night we went out to dinner again to Red Robin. There was a lady sitting alone at the table next to us, so we invited her to come and sit with us, but she didn't want to intrude. It was really cute though, because she talked to us almost the whole time we were all out to dinner, and she waited to leave when we left! We left her with a card and told her that we'd love to meet with her again. It was really awesome. After that we went to the Viking chapel for Sister Nichols' exchange with Sister Fields! So Sister Fields came and stayed with us in our apartment that night! It was so good to be with my sister again. I love her. She went with Sister Nichols for the day and I got to be with Sister Cummings in Paseo Verde.

Friday was a really great day! I got to work in just my area for the whole day!  We made a ton of contacts and met a lot of really cool members. We stopped by the Stacey's house and they gave us their homemade bread, a ton of referrals, and a great idea to get more referrals at Christmas! They are super awesome! That morning we stopped in the mail room at our apartment to get all the ads out of our mailbox (the mailman gets mad when we just leave them in there). We left a pass-along card on the bulletin board! We also saw that there was an apartment Thanksgiving lunch going on that afternoon! We decided we would stop by and try to get to know our neighbors and see if we could find investigators. It turned out to be a super great idea! We were the only younger ones there and everyone wanted to talk to us! They asked us about home and about what missionaries do and everything! One lady even told us that we could come to her house if we needed anything, since we don't have our moms with us! And she isn't even a member!  It was awesome! That night we got to go to the Reber's and teach Missy again.

Missy is so amazing. She has such a strong testimony. Her parents are being really difficult. Although they decided they wouldn't kick her out, they told her that they didn't want her to get baptized until she turns 21. Missy doesn't want to play that game though - she knows that they won't let her even when she is 21. She doesn't think she will have to wait that long, and neither do I. We have so many people fasting and praying for her and for her parent's hearts to soften. Please keep Missy in your prayers!

We came home that night so that we could take Sister Fields back for exchanges, and so that I could go on exchanges with Sister Celis, my Sister Training Leader, buuuuuut, I got pretty sick and was throwing up. So that's fun.

Saturday we went down to Kingman, Arizona for a baptism. That was Sister Nichols' last area. I laid in the backseat and only ate saltine crackers that day because I still felt pretty sick. But it was a lot of fun to be in Kingman for a little bit. We got to drive on Route 66, so I feel pretty accomplished in life.  We met some pretty awesome members that are down there. It is pretty bare and desert-y though... Yeah. That night after we had come back to Henderson we stopped at a referral's house. Her name is Crystal and she is really awesome! She is ready and willing to learn about the gospel. Her daughter is really sick and her boss had given her daughter a blessing. She was amazed and excited to know more. She told us that we would definitely see her at church the next day!

Sunday was crazy. I went to Ward Council at 8. Paseo Verde Sacrament meeting at 9. Gospel Principles at 10. Relief Society at 11. Carnegie's Gospel Principles at 12. The Arroyo Grande Ward's Sacrament, Gospel Principles, and Relief Society at 1, 2, and 3 because that's when Crystal was coming to church. Oh. My. Goodness. It was crazy. So much church. We are over achievers, I guess. It was a good day though.

Not much else is going on. It was a crazy week, but a good one! We decided that we are going to go to the temple on Christmas Eve! We are really excited for that! Transfers are next week and we find out what's going on this Saturday!

Thanks for everything! Have a good week! I love you!

Love, Sister Coltrin

Who can resist a jumping picture?

 

Sister Cummings and Sister Coltrin at an outlook in Arizona

 

Sister Coltrin on Route 66

 

"The pass along card I left in our mail room"

 

A Much Better Week

A much better week than before! My body isn't tense all the time now!

So on Monday we got a call from President Neider after we emailed. He told Sister H that she would need to pack up her things and there would be a different assignment for her for the time being. We went home and packed all her stuff up and finished the rest of our night. I got a new winter coat, since it is cold here now - and by cold I mean 70 degrees... Yeah. And we got to have dinner with Abraham at Arby's! A good P-Day.

Tuesday morning, Sister Cummings, Sister Nichols, and I took Sister H to the mission office, where she will be working for a little while. It's a little awkward when people ask if she finally got her visa... but it's okay. They usually understand once I say no. She's a nice girl and I will continue to stay in contact with her. The three of us then became a trio for the rest of the transfer, covering both our wards! We moved all their stuff into our apartment (since we have two bathrooms) and got everything in order for the rest of the transfer! We love being a trio. Love it. That night we had to go to two back to back dinner appointments though because we forgot to cancel one of them... we were stuffed.

On Wednesday we had district meeting, and then went to talk with our Bishop, so that the sister's could meet him. He is so awesome. Later that day I got dropped off at the Christensen's house (James' family) and rode up to the Gladys Knight/Saint's Unified Voices performance with them and one of their non-member friends. It was so awesome! We had super close seats in the chapel and the whole thing was amazing!! It was so weird to have such loud music in the chapel, but it was really awesome. And it was fun to be back in my old area! The Christensen's are the best. We went to Olive Garden for dinner on the way home.

On Thursday I got to go to Gladys Knight again! The Sister's were going and we couldn't find someone for me to be companions with. This time the performance was in the West Mission. Devan Romano, from my ward, took us up there to meet one of our investigators that rode up with a member. Devan is about to go on his mission to Cape Verde, off the west coast of Africa! He is 19 and already has his master’s degree in accounting. Crazy. He drove us in his 2013 Land Rover that he bought with his own money, what the heck? It was a party. Gladys Knight was awesome (all the performances are a little different). We even stood up and clapped... hahahah. Everyone was getting really into it, I think it's because it's not every day that you get the opportunity to stand up and clap and dance during church... hahahha! We stopped at Cafe Rio on the way home. It was a good day!

We had interviews with President on Friday, and training with Sister Neider which is always the best. I loved it! When I talked with President he told me that he was really grateful for all I've done this transfer. He told me that my Dad called to talk to him because he was concerned about my safety. I started to cry because my Dad isn't one to do something like that. President told me to call my parents later that day to make sure they knew I was okay and all that had gone on with Sister H. In my head I was like, "Welllll, I guess I'll talk to my parents if you reaaaally want me too..." :) It was a good day. That night we went and had dinner with a member in my ward that we are close with, Sister Addington. She is so amazing. We had a good time at her house.

I went to see Bishop again on Saturday because my foot has been hurting me (I have been walking without shoes, or on the side of my foot...) and he is a retired podiatrist, so he wanted me to come to make sure everything was okay. He told me that I have a pinched nerve in my foot and to be barefoot as much as possible. Score!  That night, we went to the Reber's for dinner and had a lesson with Missy. All week lots of us have been praying for her parent's hearts to soften. After our lesson with her, she told us that her Mom has started to tell her to just find what makes her happy and stay with it! That is amazing, considering that her parent's are very against her being baptized. We love Missy.

On Sunday we got to stay at the church from 8am to 5pm! WOOOO. Long day. We went to Paseo Verde's ward council, sacrament meeting, and gospel essentials, then Carnegie's sacrament meeting and gospel essentials and relief society. Then Carnegie's ward choir. We did Personal Study/Comp Study and then went to Paseo Verde's ward choir. Oh my goodness. So much time at the church. At church some of our members brought their friends to church! It was awesome! Hopefully we will get to meet with them this week! After dinner with the Phillips, who are probably my favorite family ever - dinner is just basically a huge laugh fest, we went to a youth fireside just so that we could meet all the youth in the ward. It was nice!

After the fireside was the highlight of my week... We drove home, got out of the car and went to walk inside and KARINA AND MISS MCDADE were there! AND GUESS WHO WAS WITH THEM?? My very favorite, sweet SISTER FIELDS. We ran to each other. And cried. And hugged. It was the best. We were so happy. We miss each other so much. They all came in and stayed for a little bit. Karina and Miss McDade brought us food and cleaning supplies and other fun stuff! They are the best. It was so good to see them and be with them. I love them so much. They are my big sisters.

It was a great week! We were able to talk to a lot of people. We still just have Missy though! Pray that we will be able to find new investigators! It is so hard to find here, but we are working hard on it!

I love you!

Love, Sister Coltrin

 

 

 

A big box of love from Karina and Miss McDade

 

Denise McDade, Sister Fields, Sister Coltrin, Karina Wiberg

A Long Week

Well, this has officially been the longest week ever, in the history of long weeks. Sorry for the lame and short email last week - I was still pretty scattered and shaken up because of some scary stuff that happened.

So, to make a really long story short, my companion has some severe anger issues and can't handle change or stress. Last Sunday night while I was driving us to contact some ward members, she got angry and yanked the steering wheel...I almost lost control of the car…it was really scary!  So on Monday she had to go talk to President and we were there for most of our P-day.  On the bright side, President had me call my parents, so I got to talk to them for about 10 minutes.  Then President told us to go home early and get extra sleep.  So that was good!  Unfortunately, the next day my companion got angry again and she hit me.  It has been a very difficult week but I think the end may be near.

 

On a happier note, we had a few lessons this week- with Missy and Jacque Bluth. Missy is still awesome and has a super strong testimony. She is still on track for baptism on the 30th of this month. Her parents are still really against it and hopefully she won't get kicked out of her house. We are trying to think of ways to help them see that we aren't bad. They just don't understand.

 

Sister Bluth has been coming to church for 6 years. She is married to a returned missionary and they have 2 small, cute kids. She reads conference talks every week, has read The Book of Mormon cover to cover a few times, and prays. She hasn't received an answer to know if Joseph Smith was a Prophet or if The Book of Mormon is true, so she hasn't been baptized yet. Pray for her that she will have enough faith to not be overly logical about it. Otherwise, she is golden!

 

On Wednesday, we got to go to our combined ward Trunk-or-Treat! There were so many people there, really good costumes, and awesome chili. We got to be there with the other sisters - Sister Cummings and Sister Nichols. We all dressed up as animals (we got $5 costumes from Target that a member paid for, so nice!)  We decorated our trunk and passed out candy and pass-a-long cards, aaaand a few pamphlets and Book of Mormons when the cards ran out... So fun! A couple dressed up as Mayhem, from the All-State commercial, and Flo from Progressive, an advertising major's favorite costumes!

 

On Halloween, we had Zone Training in the morning, we had a lesson with Missy, Sister H had a Doctor's appointment, we had dinner with the Sisters at Great Harvest (where missionaries eat for free!), and then we got to go to the mission office for the missionary Halloween party! We got to watch a movie called Ephraim's Rescue, which was actually pretty funny and good. There were some funny musical performances and we had candy and caramel apples! We were there until about 10:30.  It was such a great time. It was so fun to see all our friends there. Sister Fields and I "dressed up" as each other - so we wore the same outfit. Ex-companionship unity right there! I love her.

 

We went on exchanges on Saturday, which was really fun. I spent the day in Black Mountain with Sister Eager, who came out a transfer after me. We had a lot of fun and got to talk with a lot of people!

 

Sunday was church and ward choir practice. On Sunday nights we get to have sleepovers with the sisters for P-day, so we went over to have our P-day sleepover.

 

At dinner on Sunday night we went to the Bell's house. They have a daughter, Julie, that looked so familiar to me. She told me the same thing, so we tried to figure out why we would know each other. Turns out that she is Lisa Mendenhall's friend and would come and visit her a lot!  Obviously she recognized me since I look the exact same as when I was 4 years old... hahah. They are good friends with the Mendenhall's!

 

Speaking of Julie's, good luck with your half marathon, Julie! I'm super excited for you! You're awesome. And Brian, I hope you loved visiting BYU! Sounds like you had fun. And Aunt Lorrie, I used a nail polish remover thing this week and though of you telling me to think of you when I used them... hahaha. I love you all!

 

This week we get to go to one of the Gladys Knight firesides! We are super excited and are expecting a lot of referrals from it!

 

Thanks for all the letters and emails! I love you!

 

Love, Sister Coltrin

 

 

 

 

It is 60 degrees and I have to wear a coat...ridiculous!

 

Trunk or Treat with Sister Cummings and Sister Coltrin

 

Mayhem, Sister Coltrin and Flo

 

Sister Nichols and Sister Coltrin

 

 

Sister H and Sister Coltrin

 

Week 2 in Anthem

Well, this week we have been trying to find ways to immerse ourselves in the community here so that we can meet and find people. It's been going pretty well and we have had a pretty fun week! We are trying to meet with the less actives in our ward, because there are a loooot of them. Our Bishop has also asked us meet with widows in the ward so that they aren't lonely.

Our ward is awesome! We have really nice families in our ward. They make sure we are taken care of. We have also been working with the families in our ward so that they can invite their non-member friends to the Gladys Knight fireside that is coming up in November. We are really excited for the fireside and are expecting a lot of success from it!

We met with our investigator, Missy, this week. She is really awesome. Her parents are really against her joining the church, but she has such a strong testimony and will not let her family stop her. We taught her about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and she felt the spirit so strongly. She is going to be baptized on November 30th. We are really excited!

We also were going through our area book and went to contact former investigators. We were able to gain a new investigator named Shirley! She is older and her husband who passed away was a member of the church. We talked to her about the Book of Mormon and we are planning on visiting her again soon! We brought a member with us, one of the youth that is preparing for a mission, and he bore a strong testimony about the Book of Mormon. It was awesome!

On Saturday morning we provided service at a half marathon. I was hoping that I would see my Dad running in it... hahah. But it was really, really fun to be there. We were there for almost half the day. It was called the "Saints and Sinner's Half Marathon" and all the proceeds went to the general missionary fund! The idea is really cute. So basically for all the aid stations during the run there are "Saints" stations, which had healthy food and water and good things to have to refuel while you are running.  There were also Sinner's" stations with doughnuts and candy and chocolate milk, and tempting junk food.  We worked at the finish line with the food. We got medals for helping, so that was really cool! Lots of people stopped to talk to us and it was a really good opportunity for us to be there. Plus we got to go by Lake Mead! And listen to music! I mean... we weren't listening... Hahah.  It was really fun!

Sister H is still waiting for her visa, we are hoping that it comes soon! She is anxious to get to Brazil.

Pray that we will be able to find new investigators and that Missy's parents will have softened hearts! She could really use it.

Thanks for all you do. I love you!

Love, Sister Coltrin

 

My First Week In Anthem

Well, this letter will be quite a bit shorter than normal. This morning we had a mission meeting that took a long time so our emailing time is limited. Sorry! I will try to share some of the highlights of the week and tell you a little bit about my new area here in the Paseo Verde Ward.  

Well, on Monday our zone in Sunrise just hung out and talked for our last time together, since almost half of us got transferred. It was a lot of fun. Sister Fields and I went to Family Home Evening and I had to say my final goodbyes to my sweet Temple View YSA ward. Such a sad day. 

Tuesday morning sports consisted of cinnamon rolls and tears. Hahaha. After that, we went home, loaded my stuff into our car, and drove to the mission office to meet our new companions. 

Sister Fields has changed my life. I love her so much and miss her a ton! I hope we will be able to serve together again. She will be one of my best friends forever. 

My new companion is Sister H. She is from northern Idaho, practically in Canada. She lives on a farm and has a big family. Her parents left on a mission to the Philippians this morning and one of her sisters is also on a mission. She is waiting for her visa to go to Brazil (as is her sister). She is 19. I miss Sister Fields so much, but Sister H and I are having a good time together! Sister H gets an hour of Language Study, so now I have 2 hours of personal study- woo hoo! 

This week we worked a lot on organizing the area. It was super messy and not efficient. We re-ordered the map of our area and fixed up our members list and area book. We have a lot more potential investigators now! I think that we are going to be able to have a lot more success now. 

On Wednesday night when we walked into our dinner appointment, our members took me over to a photo that they had on their bookshelf. They pointed to a young, blonde boy and asked if I knew him. I had no idea who it was... but when I looked closer, it was a little JAMES NISH!  I laughed so hard! I realized that I was at his Aunt and Uncle's house! What a small world. After dinner we spent time snapchatting James a picture. It was a lot of fun. 

We did a lot of contacting potential investigators and members this week. We are trying to think of new ways to find investigators. In a few weeks we are actually having a really neat opportunity to go to a fireside that Gladys Knight is putting on. She tours the country and does missionary work! So she will be singing with her choir and sharing her testimony. Members can only get tickets if they bring nonmembers! It is going to be an awesome missionary opportunity for the members out here! We are really excited for it. 

We also get to go to our ward's Trunk or Treat next week! We have little $5 costumes from Target. We are going to be a cat and a mouse! Yay for companionship unity. 

On Sunday night we went to the “Why I Believe” fireside to sing in the choir. I got to see Sister Fields! What a glorious reunion. A few of the Temple View members have already contacted me to make sure that I'm settled and have everything I need (thanks Karina, Miss McDade, and Abraham!) 

I am excited for the upcoming week to be able to try new things to find new investigators. It's different than a singles ward, but I'm excited to start working with all these families. This Sunday was the Primary Program, so that was really fun to see!

Pray that we will be able to find new investigators! We have 5 right now, 2 that are in part-member families, and 3 that are not. One will be baptized on November 30th. Her family is very against her joining the church and she was kicked out, which is so sad. But she is awesome and has such a strong testimony! 

Have a good week!

 

Love, Sister Coltrin

James Nish's aunt, Sister Coltrin, Sister H

 

The New Transfer Starts Tomorrow

What a great week! We didn't end up getting 20 member present lessons, but at least we had 22 scheduled... not that that counts for anything... but whatever! I have so many different emotions right now about this week, so this is going to be a great email. Or not.  

Well, Monday. We played Assassin around the church, which was pretty fun. Our dinner appointment cancelled, so we went to eat with some of the other missionaries. There is a family in our stake that feeds the missionaries every Monday night if they don't have other dinners. They are Samoan, they make a ton of food, and it's awesome. The only weird thing is that we all have to hold hands to pray there... so it's awkward for Elders and Sisters... yeah. After that, we got to go to our Family Home Evening, which is always fun. 

Oh, an awkward story. I got a letter on Monday from some random Elder in the California Long Beach Mission. I have no idea who he is. He said that he found me on mormon.org and wanted to thank me for my testimony that I have on there. Let's be real, my mormon.org stinks, but whatever. He sent me a picture of himself too. All the Elder's in my district we're like, "let us write him a strongly worded letter back for you!"  It was really funny and super weird. 

On Tuesday we had Zone Training, which was really good. We had some lessons planned, but most of them fell through. We went and did ward council visits with our ward. I went with our Relief Society President, Lauren. All the people we visited had a wrong address. One of the places was a Budget Suites place, so it's like an apartment that you rent on a daily or monthly basis. It was super sketchy. 

After that we went to the far away Viking Chapel to do exchanges.  Okay so this is what happened... Our Sister Training Leader called us halfway through the transfer to schedule exchanges. We called her three days before to find out which one of us needed to pack to go to their area. They didn't call us back. We called the next day. They still didn't call us back. We called three times and left three messages that morning and didn't get a call back until 4pm. It was her companion who didn't know what was going on. She said that her companion (our STL) was on exchanges and she would try to get a hold of her. She also asked if we could change the day. We couldn't because we had stuff Friday and Saturday. She got a hold of her companion and called us at 6pm. They said they would be late and asked if we could meet at 9:30 p.m. Remember that we are supposed to be home at 9 p.m., 9:30 p.m. at the latest. So we decided, whatever, we'll meet them there. The chapel is about a half an hour away. So we were sitting in the chapel parking lot, waiting and waiting. We called them at 9:50.  They weren't even on their way yet, they hadn't been home to pack clothes, nothing. I started to drive home and Sister Fields told them we would just forget about doing exchanges. We were so, so mad.  It was late, we had wasted miles, and we were just frustrated. But for the good news, we called Sister Neider and she told us to sleep in a little longer in the morning because we had to be out so late. Also, that sister is no longer a STL. And Sister Fields is this transfer! Woo hoo! 

On Wednesday, we had Elder Roger's and my "Last Supper" at the Petersen's house. We figured both of us were getting transferred, so they asked us what we wanted. Obviously I wanted mashed potatoes, so we had really good mashed potatoes. Earlier that morning we took their daughter, Amanda, to a lesson with Huey. We went to his apartment across The Strip. It was so sketchy, but the lesson was awesome. He even had one of his friends there! 

Thursday was pretty great. We had our Sister's Luncheon. So we had lunch, which was pretty much the best soup I've ever had, and a lot of training. I was in the choir and Sister Fields was in a little quartet. Yay. We had 9 member present lesson's planned that day! But most fell through. We got to talk with Chase Amos, who had come to the lessons with us. We talked about his mission and after his mission and other super fun stuff. We had dinner with one of our singles and her family. It was really, really awesome. While we were there, they got news that one of their little niece's was headed to the hospital, so we stopped right there and prayed with them. It was a neat experience. Also, we got a call from one of the girl's that we take out with us a lot who was waiting for a mission call... and she got her call! She called us and told us to be at her house at 6:30! She said we were the first people she called... even before her Grandma! Yes! So we got to be there while she opened her call and she is going to Chile! 

On Friday we had zone breakfast and apartment inspections! Guess who got a 10 again! Us. So expect a letter from the inspections sister! Yes. We had weekly planning as well. That evening we got to go to the temple to do baptisms with our Recent Converts! It was super, super cool! We had Recent Converts and ward members there! And Sister Fields and I got to do baptisms too! We had a great time. Abraham, Chase Amos, Eric Taylor, and Jared Brummett were there to help.  We ate in the cafeteria with some of our members afterwards. Guess who I saw there. RACHEL MILES. YES! It was so good to see her and her husband! I was excited to see a familiar face! After the temple we went to see Cristal and her mom. They talked to us for a long time about their lives and especially about Cristal's car accident (which gave her the brain injury that she has). It was a really good time with them. They really trust and love us. Cristal told us she loves us this week! She rarely says "I love you" to anyone, and it was so awesome! I love her so much! 

Saturday morning was Kevin's baptism!! It went so well and there were quite a few people there! He bore his testimony after he was baptized and he said he couldn't even describe how he feels! Best day. It was so good. Adam Whitmore baptized him. After that, Sister Conger and her daughter Staci took us out to lunch at Red Robin. They have a son serving in Michigan right now. We took Staci to teach some lessons with us and it was really great. She is awesome. We have been reading 3 Nephi 11 with a lot of investigators and recent converts. The Spirit is always so strong! I love 3 Nephi 11, that's where I am in my scripture reading right now. Best chapter. We went to dinner at a family's house that night from the Chapel Heights ward. They have really funny little kids. Their 7th grade son put on a cello performance for us! It was sweet. 

We got transfer calls that night. So it's official. I'm leaving Sunrise and my lovely YSA ward. I will miss it so much here! I will be going to the Anthem Stake, to the Paseo Verde Family Ward. Fun fact, Anthem is the highest tithing paying stake in the world. 

Sunday was great too. We had ward council. Bishop thanked me for serving here and being a great help to the ward. He teared up. I will miss him a lot. We have a great ward here. President and Sister Neider were speaking in the ward right before us, so we got to go see them. I walked up to them and President asked me if I was mad at him for transferring me. Haha. We had church and Sister Fields and I said the opening and closing prayers (just like normal, right mom and dad...). Bishop had me bear my testimony since it was the last Sunday. Kevin got confirmed! In his blessing it said that he would be able to be married in the temple!!! Sister Fields and I basically punched each other through the whole thing because we were so excited! Church was good. Lots of people took pictures with me because it was my last Sunday. 

We went to Karina and Miss McDade's house for dinner. They had presents for us and we got to have breakfast for dinner! Yum. Saying goodbye stinks. It's like leaving your family all over again. We went to say goodbye to a few other people as well. We went to the Scholl's house because Sister Scholl wanted to take a picture of us in the princess dresses. She gave me a gift before I left; a cute turquoise scarf. She cried saying goodbye too. Let’s just say that I still have a headache from crying yesterday.  The Olsen's invited us over because it was their youngest son's birthday. He had cookie dough for his birthday "cake".  It was funny. Sister Olsen gave Sister Fields and I Las Vegas Temple Plaques that are really, really cool. They are black and have a metal cut-out of our temple on it! Love it. 

Well, that's about it for the week. It was a really good week. I am so sad to leave here. So, so sad. But I am excited to see what Anthem has in store for me. I hope I will be able to make a difference there as well. 

I love being a missionary. I love it. I love seeing how the Gospel can change people's lives. I love seeing them come closer to Christ. I love coming closer myself. 

Have a great week!

 

Love, Sister Coltrin

 

 

 

Sister Fields, the future Sister Vega, and Sister Coltrin

 

Sister Coltrin, Adam Whitmore, Kevin, and Sister Fields

 

The Princess Missionaries