Tuesday, September 24, 2013

It Was A Crazy Week!


We have had some crazy experiences this week.  

Sister Fields and I both got our haircut by one of our members that is a licensed cosmetologist. Hurray for free haircuts! (Did you get my joke, Mom?) 

We also taught Family Home Evening for our ward on Monday. We have been trying really hard to get our members involved in missionary work. We taught the restoration, just like we do to investigators, but at the end we talked about how their friends need the message of the restoration. It was really powerful and spiritual. We had them write down 5 friends names in the beginning, and at the end we asked them to find us sometime this week and tell us the name of the person that is ready for the message now. It was awesome and hopefully it will work. One of the members of our bishopric asked us to teach FHE at his home sometime. 

And! Our Bishop told President Neider that we are the best missionaries that he has ever had in the ward! So that's pretty cool! 

We also got to teach FHE with a family after our Single's Ward. They have a 13 year old boy who doesn't want to go to church anymore. So we focused on him and hopefully it helped a little. We challenged them to read the Book of Mormon as a family. 

We had zone conference again this week. 8 hours of training. Although it's really good stuff- it is SO LONG. Sister Fields and I were so done by the end of it. We went to Chaunee's house afterwards and her and her mom had gotten us fresh fruits and vegetables! It was awesome. 

Speaking of fresh fruits and vegetables, Elder Ortiz gave us his blender because we were talking about how badly we want smoothies! It is awesome! Now we get to have fresh fruit smoothies every morning. 

On Tuesday, we felt a little off all day, like something was wrong or was going to be wrong. We got in the car after a lesson that night and had a bunch of missed calls. So, we called back the Elders that had called us. They said that an agent pulled them over on the side of the road and was looking for someone. The Elders referred him to us and he called us. We were pulled over on some dark road and "Agent Kennedy" called us. We told him that we would meet him at the church. We drove to the church as fast as we could, we were super scared. And thankfully there was Young Men's and Young Women's going on, and the Zone Leaders were at the church. They told us to call President Neider. So we did, and he told us to stay away from the Agent and not let him see us. We weren't allowed to leave sight or sound of the Zone Leaders. It was scary. So they sent one of the Bishops that was at the church out to talk to him- luckily he is a lawyer. The agent was looking for someone in our ward and wanted to get his information from us. It was so intense. So obviously we didn't give any information out- but we did hear that the person got taken back to Salt Lake and got locked up. So yeah - interesting night.

After that experience, we were sort of scared in our apartment (we're pretty sure if you shook the door hard enough, the lock would unlock). So we were trying to make light of the situation and were talking about where we would hide if someone came into our apartment. Sister Fields was listing off places. She said I could hide in my suitcase. I told her I wouldn't fit, and she dared me to try.  And yes, I can fit. Sister Fields zipped me up in my suitcase. It was the funniest thing of our whole lives. She filmed the whole thing. Pretty proud over here. Hahaha! 

We also went to contact potentials in "The Browns".  It is probably the most run-down and sketchiest apartment complex I have ever seen in my whole life. We had to go with 2 priesthood holders just to contact people. Ridiculous.  So we were going to a lesson there and we were looking for this guy's apartment, and we turned a corner, and this HUGE dog got up and barked at us. In my head I was screaming GET ME OUT OF HERE, but we just walked past the dog as it was sniffing us.  It was so scary!  I was thinking, well, I guess I'll officially be bitten by a dog on my mission. But luckily that wasn't the case.  Luis wasn't there for the lesson, so we went to contact some other people, and when we were done, Luis drove by us and said he was so sorry that he was late and asked if we could reschedule, so that was a blessing! We'll definitely schedule our next lesson at the church though... 

Little side note, I wore blue on Saturday and am upset about BYU. I had Abraham text us scores. The end. 

We have been meeting with Cristal a lot lately, she has been struggling. But she really has her heart in the right place. The sweetest quote of the week was when she said, "Please don't give up on me." Oh my gosh, my heart melted! We would never give up on her. 

We had dinner at a family's house from another ward, and they have 3 younger girls - a freshman, 4th grader, and 1st grader. They fight like nobody's business, oh my goodness. But it is so entertaining. The 4th grader was telling us how their cat "jumps from curtain to curtain" and the freshman was telling her how that's not true and the fourth grader shot back with my favorite phrase ever: "Okay…I exaggerated a little, but WHATEVER." Sister Fields and I were almost on the floor laughing. The sad part is that they fight with their mom too. She was so glad to have us there. At the end we challenged the girls to try to make their home a peaceful and happy place. The mom hugged us at the end and you could tell she just needed a little peace in her home. We are thinking about bringing her cookies or something this week. 

Another cool thing, Gladys Knight is going to be putting on a concert here. It's a "missionary experience concert" so members can only get tickets if non-members are with them! Yes!  It will be an awesome way for people here to share the gospel. Who would say no to a concert? It's going to be awesome. 

We had some really good lessons this week. We got to teach Huey at Adam's house again. We taught him about the Plan of Salvation. It was hard for him to understand (he is from China and hasn't had too much experience with religion because of it). We explained it a few different times and simplified it, and when he finally understood, the look on his face was priceless. It just clicked with him and he was so happy! We were all so excited. His prayer at the end was incredible and he told us he was so happy that we were helping him to "understand the Mormon".  He told us he would be at church if he woke up on time. We bore strong testimony about church and where he needed to be, He was at church the next day- and had the hugest smile on his face. He really enjoys church and we love teaching him. 

We also got to help teach in a pass-off lesson with some other Elders. We taught the restoration to a guy named Langston. The lesson flowed so well! We were all so in-tune and afterwards the Elders told us that it was the best pass-off lesson they'd ever had! It was really awesome. 

We were with Edna and she told us she was going to go to church this week! We were so happy. Beyond happy. And then she called us that morning and said she wasn't going. We were really sad. Tears were definitely shed. Hopefully next week. She hasn't been to church in over 2 months. Pray for her. 

We were contacting less actives this week, and dropped a pass-along card with our phone number on it to a guy named Jimichael. He wasn't home. But he must have gotten the message because he was at church for the first time in over 6 months! It was awesome!! Hopefully we'll get to work with him and help him come back to church. 

Kevin is set for baptism on October 12th, and hopefully Tony will be baptized then as well. Langston, Huey, and Jamie should be set for the 12th or the week after. Dillan has stopped talking to us, so hopefully we will get a hold of him this week. We are still trying to get a hold of David and Monique too. 

We are still working with Matthew. We love him so much. He is so happy at church and we can see a definite difference. We asked him to write a list of the things he believes and knows. He wrote that he believes in God and he believes that he can be forgiven for the things he has done. It was awesome. We hope that he can see the difference that we can see. 

Two of our members, Karina and Denise (also known as Miss McDade- she's a 4th grade teacher) are so super nice to us and take care of us. Miss McDade brought Sister Fields and I water and snacks to church because she thought we'd be hungry. So sweet. We love them. Karina's sister is serving in the Lansing Michigan mission! Sister Wiberg. 

Sister Fields and I made "MORMON.ORG" t-shirts one night too. They are sweet. We love mormon.org. We basically tell everyone to go to it. 

I have to give a training on planning during District Meeting tomorrow- so pray that it goes well, and I'll know what I need to teach about! 

Thanks for all the updates!

 
Love, Sister Coltrin

PS. Mom, thanks for sending my 8th grade picture to Sister Fields. She loves it and shows it to everyone. Hooray for me. Hahaha.
 
 
 
Sister Fields and Sister Coltrin
 

"I can fit inside my suitcase...what skill!"
 

My mormon.org shirt
 

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