I Love the Gospel!

This was a really good week! But then again, every week is good.  

So, I'll start with last Monday, after I sent my email... 

We had Elder Konshuk and Elder Howe with us for most of the day, taking them emailing and shopping and such. We met up with Sister Bohling, Sister Worthington, Elder Rogers and Elder Johnson for lunch at Panda Express (pretty much a missionary's favorite place). Then we met up with the zone at our church building for p-day sports... AKA DART WAR. One of our Elder's, Elder Rapoza, got his visa to Peru, so we were trying to make it a super awesome p-day, since he was leaving. We played dart war around the whole church building…we moved couches, chairs, everything. I got shot right in the eye. It hurt so badly, but I am okay. It was so intense. It was the best dart war yet! 

Back story to the next part: Last week on Sunday, we left a sticky note on our Zone Leader's car that said, "Tag, you're it". We came out after church and they had put sticky notes all over our car, and had broken into our trunk and put a bunch of their stuff in it (including a 7 foot blow up snowman...). So obviously, this was war. 

So while everyone was intensely playing dart war, Sister Fields and I stole Elder Lovell and Elder Mojica's apartment keys (don't worry, we got permission...). We drove to their complex and were running around looking for a picture of Christ in the window to know which apartment was theirs. Once we found it, we got all the stuff from our trunk and threw it back into their apartment. We even plugged in the blow up snowman.  It was so, so, so funny!  We sped back to the church and just pretended like we had been hiding the whole time. 

We got the funniest phone call from them that night when they got home... hahahaha. 

The next morning, Elder Mojica threw water in our faces to get "revenge" (lame). Sooo during our time to get ready for the day, we went and saran wrapped their car. 

No one messes with the Temple View Sisters. Obviously we won the war. 

On Wednesday, it was Sister Oyanadel's birthday. Sister Fields and I made breakfast for her and her companion and brought it to morning sports. We would have made "breakfast in bed" but they just moved and we don't know where they live.  So we made "breakfast in a bag at morning sports". Same thing, right? Right. 

We also got to do service at the place where we washed ponies a few months ago! Except this time we cleaned the inside of their house (which was worse than washing animals, if you can believe that). It was so gross. But we were happy to help. Plus, we will pretty much do anything if we get to wear pants while we do it. 

HIGHLIGHT OF MY ENTIRE MISSION: We had to cross Las Vegas Blvd, also known as THE STRIP. We had a lesson that was on the other side of it, soooo we had to cross it. Of course it wasn't right where THE strip is... but still. It was the same street. We recorded it on our cameras. It was a monumental moment. 

We taught our lesson (it was the sketchiest place I've ever been). Halfway through one of their guys friends walked it. They told us that he was an acrobat. They were telling him to show us some of his tricks- like making his abs do the wave. He was about to show us and were like UHHHH NOPE, NO, NO, WE CAN'T SEE STUFF LIKE THAT.  They were like, ohhh yeah I guess that would be inappropriate.  Looking back on it, it was really funny. 

We have ridden our bikes a bit this week! It was really fun. Sister Fields almost hit a rabbit with her bike.  Someone's pet bunny got out and was hopping around our complex. I still hate riding in the street. So I ride on the sidewalk. That's where cool kids ride. 

Tony, our investigator, is AWESOME. He left work to come to a lesson with us! And he skipped work so he could come to church!! He is trying to find a new job so that he won’t ever have conflicts with church. He is so strong and so ready to be baptized. Adrian is one of his friends, so he comes to Tony's lessons with us. Adrian bore his testimony to Tony and his testimony was amazing! It is so strong!  We love them both. 

One of our potential investigator's called us up one night to see if we wanted to hang out... I don't think he really understands what we do as missionaries. That was a really awkward phone conversation. 

Important side note: if you've never had frozen grapes before, stop reading this, go out and buy some grapes right now, and put them in your freezer. Okay. You're welcome. 

At church on Sunday, the gospel principle's teacher could not remember our names. So when he called on us, he said "Sorry, what are your names again, I'm really bad with names." Without skipping a beat, Sister Fields responded, "Uh, we wear name tags." 

We taught an amazing lesson to a less active this week as well.  Her name is Analyn. We started asking her questions. That got into way deeper stuff that has happened in her life. It was crazy. Talk about the gift of discernment. At the end, Sister Fields said, "Wait, one more question. Was your heart broken when you were 11 or 12?" She said yes. Sister Fields said, "Your Heavenly Father wants you to know that you don't have to live there anymore. I don't know if that means anything to you, but that's what I feel prompted to say." It. Was. Crazy. The Spirit was so strong. She started to cry and just hugged us. I love the Spirit, oh my goodness. I love being a missionary! 

We have a few new investigators. You gotta love when new ones just show up at church. Three new ones! Two sisters and a cousin. The only problem is that one of them is 12... so we have to get that figured out soon. We accidentally taught a 12 year old in the singles ward... Oops. 

I also had a really cool experience with prayer this week. Heavenly Father answers prayers. Like, really. I just felt like I should ask Heavenly Father if He was really listening to me. The next day we sang the primary song about Prayer and all the talks in church were about prayer. It was really awesome. Ah, I love the Gospel.

I love you and miss you all! Thanks for everything!

 

Love, Sister Coltrin

Sister Coltrin and Sister Fields are excited for Eder's baptism.

 

Sister Coltrin's zone

 

The saran wrapped car..."it was a lot better than it looks in the picture."