Viva Las Vegas!: Two Months Already?!?

My first transfer ends tomorrow, can you even believe it? I have been serving for two months... It feels like I just got here! At least I'm sort of used to the heat now. No, I take that back. I'll never be used to it.

I will be dropping off my sweet companion, Sister Sneidere, at the mission office tomorrow afternoon. It will be a sad goodbye. We have had a lot of fun together and have seen so many miracles.

This week has been so beyond crazy. At first, being in a trio was basically the worst thing in the entire world. Covering two areas was so hard and fitting our schedules together was nearly impossible. There were tears and a couple of arguments... But in the end, we worked it out and it ended up being great. What a blessing. I love Sister Sneidere and Sister Cummings.

So, last week we when we went to walk around the temple with investigators, we went to get frozen yogurt with them and some members afterwards. One of our members jokingly asked me if I liked fruit - since my entire fro yo cup was basically filled with only fresh fruit. Long story short, they ended up watching us go home and found where we live. We got a knock on the door one night while we were planning (which, let me tell you, is way scary when you're a missionary and NO ONE ever knocks on your door... isn't knocking on doors OUR job?) and after freaking out a little bit, we opened the door to one of our members with a huge bag of fresh fruit for us! It was awesome! A few days later, we got another knock at the door and Eric was there yet again, but with cookies n’ cream ice cream. We love it.

On Tuesday morning we had one of the coolest experiences. We were running around our apartment complex. We were almost done, but I felt prompted to go around one area just one more time. We ran through this area and saw a guy getting out of his car - smoking, and holding a just opened beer can (remember that it is 7 in the morning...). I looked at him, smiled, and waved. We kept running, and then at the same time, we all stopped, looked at each other, and turned around. We went over to talk to him. We explained who we were, since we weren't wearing our name tags, and he dropped his cigarette and put it out. We asked him if we could stop by to share a really important message. He threw his full beer can away. He started to cry. He said that he has hit rock bottom and he had been praying for help. He knew that it was no coincidence that we had been running past him and happened to stop and talk to him. He was very interested in having us come to teach him. It was incredible. The Spirit was so strong, we knew it, and we knew that he knew it. We stopped by his apartment later (when we actually looked like missionaries) to drop off pamphlets and a Book of Mormon. He gave us his number and told us that he would check his schedule to see when we could meet. We are so excited about him! He is so prepared to hear the Gospel. It was amazing that he could recognize right away that we were representatives of Jesus Christ. His name is Ismael, so pray that he remembers the feeling that he had when we met him!

On Tuesday night, we had a lesson with a guy that used to play for Montana State's football team. So I guess that might be cool? Maybe Carson will think it is cool.

We went contacting for a few hours one day, and I stopped to talk to someone at a bus stop. I talked to him for a little bit and he told me that I was really exuberant... okay…I thought it was funny.

Ohhhhh and by the way... My dear, sweet, "tech-pro" parents... maybe you should make sure the CD works before you brag about being so "tech-savy" and send it to me... I laughed so hard when I put the CD in our car and it came out with "ERROR" on the screen. In my head I thought, "Of course".

More good news- Eder decided that he will be baptized, no matter what his girlfriend says! Wooooooo! Goodness gracious, we were so frustrated with her and we've never even met her. I'm sure she's great. Eder is in California on vacation right now and will be baptized within a few weeks.

Another miracle happened this week! We taught Adrian about fasting and tithing. He was like, "What the heck!? Sisters! Why didn't you teach me about this earlier!? I could have been fasting to find a new job the whole time!" It was awesome. We all decided that we would fast the next day, and lo and behold, he has a job in which he doesn't have to work on Sundays. Now he can go to church in our ward and he can be baptized on August 3rd. We are super excited about it.

Shelby is great, she is getting baptized on the 27th. She has basically been a member for a few years, she just hasn't been baptized. Which reminds me, someone needs to send me Brenda's email address, I have been thinking about her a lot lately.

Did I tell you about Karl last week? Well, we have an investigator named Karl, we got him from the Spanish elders. We've pretty much taught him all the lessons and he looooves the Gospel. He has such a strong testimony already and he is thinking about going on a mission! What the!? Love that guy. After one of his lessons this week, he asked if we were busy and if he could take us all out to dinner at In N Out. It was awesome. Are you jealous about In N Out, Mom?

So I'm not really sure what's up with Nevada. Why does all the crazy weather and record-breaking heat happen to me? Not only have we had record-breaking heat but we had the craaaaziest storms that I have ever seen. Serious lightning. Like, crazy lightning. There were flash floods and super strong winds. All our members texted me and told me to make sure I was safe driving in the storm. We were on our way to stop by Edna's house to see her. Of course there were flash floods, and we had to have Eric and Abraham (from our YSA ward) come and get us with their trucks. The water was so high! Power lines were down and lots of the street lights and traffic lights were out.

We had another "movie night" at the church and watched “Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration”. The stake auxiliary guy was really mean to me when I asked him to help, soooo we called our stake president who gave us the key to the aux closet. We got some Elders to help us and we got it set up on our own. In the words of Elder Meyers, "Yeah, we don't need some punk to help us!" More people came than last time! It was good. Our members stole my camera after it and took selfies. They are sooo so funny, I will have to send a few.

Since it is the end of the transfer, and my companion is "departing" (going back to Temple Square), I got to go to the temple again. It was awesome! I love going to the temple. Mom and Dad- if you can, you should come and pick me up when I am going home. You can come to the temple here and I can show you cool stuff and everything. Some of the missionaries had their parents there and it was cool.

We got our transfer documents on Saturday... I was really nervous, buuuuut: I get to stay in Sunrise! Yay! And still in my Temple View YSA ward! I was so happy and relieved. My companion will be Sister Fields.

President and Sister Neider are the cutest. Sister Neider already knows my name. We have seen and talked to them quite a bit this week since we are in a trio and needed permission for quite a bit of stuff. President Neider knows my name too…we have a little joke because it was so, so hard for him to remember. He would always shake my hand and say “Ohhhhh no. I know I'll remember it this time." He called me once and said, "HI SISTER COLTRIN... see, I got it!" hahaha.

We had some hard news on Sunday. Cristal, one of our recent converts, came up to talk to me and told me that she really needed to talk to the employment specialist. I asked her what was up and she said that she really needs a job. I told her that we would get working on it. She tuned to me and said, "Sister Coltrin, there's another reason why I need a job so bad." I looked at her, and she started to tear up and she explained to me that she went to the doctor and she needs a new heart. Wow. That hit me so hard. We hugged each other and cried. She said she knew about the Plan of Salvation but she didn't want to die yet. My heart was aching. I would give her my own heart if I could. Please, please, keep Cristal in your prayers.

We had a really, really, really awesome experience this morning. Since it is our last P-Day together, our district (which is the Sunrise Mountain District) decided that we wanted to hike Sunrise Mountain to see the sunrise. Yes, we did wake up at 3:30 in the morning, and yes we did hike for 2 hours to get to the top. It was so awesome. We had so much fun, and although it was hard, it was worth it. Sister Cummings, Elder Rogers, Elder Lovell, and I led the way the whole time. We would hike far and then stop to throw rocks or play in mud or something until the others would catch up. We got to the top though! It was so nice…there were actually cooler breezes up high. I was in heaven. I will send some pictures. It was so, so fun, and so worth waking up at 3:30.

Well, that's pretty much it. Being a missionary is awesome. I love helping people and serving. I love witnessing people accept the Gospel and change their lives for the better. I love Sunrise.

Love and miss you!

Love, Sister Coltrin

PS. Best quote of the week: Sister Sneidere- "When I'm at Temple Square, I like working in the center with the 3-D maps. Lots of people talk to me there. Usually it's just to ask where the bathroom is." Hahaha.