Viva Las Vegas!: 9 Months and a Brand New Transfer

It's a brand new transfer! And, so far, so good! I love my new companion, we are having so much fun together, and have had a really great and successful week. This is going to be an awesome transfer!

Monday was our last p-day all together as a zone. Half of our zone left from transfers! We all had a fun time, played sports, and did all the normal stuff. For dinner we went to Metro Pizza with the Dalton's. Then we went and said some goodbyes since Sister Harrison was leaving in the morning.

Tuesday morning was our very last morning sports - sad. We took zone pictures jumping off the gym stage, had treats, played sports, wrote in journals, and said bye! It was sad, but hey, that's what happens when you're a missionary I guess. We finished packing Sister Harrison's stuff and we went to the chapel to transfer! We met our new companions there, switched all our stuff out of the cars, and went back!

My new companion is Sister Reynolds! She is here on a trial mission for 2 transfers because of medical issues. She is from Hurricane, Utah, only 2 hours away. This is her second transfer here, so I'm still training her, but at the end of this transfer she will either go home or will get a mission call! We are hoping her call will come! She is so sweet, and energetic, and fun. I really love her and we are having a bunch of fun together! We got back to our apartment, unloaded all of her stuff and we had a mini training session for me on how to work all her medical equipment - a little overwhelming, but we are all set and ready to go!

After we got settled we had a lesson with Denia - one of the last ones before her baptism! We answered questions and got everything sorted out for the baptism. We also stopped by a less active's home. She came out and talked to us on the door step for about 20 minutes! She told us to keep her in our prayers and that she really wants to eventually come back to church. We went and had dinner at the Lee's - chicken and rice, since that is all that Sister Reynolds can eat. I love the Lee's! They're like family away from home.

That night we went on splits with Sister Addington and Sister Orme. I felt bad dropping Sister Reynolds off with someone she didn't know, to go and meet people she didn't know - but she did great! I wasn't feeling very well, and unfortunately got sick while we were on splits... but hey, at least it wasn't freshman year of high school on the bus, right? (Hopefully you get the joke...)

Wednesday was pretty much just "get pumped about this transfer" day. We have a new District Leader, Elder Snell. He talked about district unity and we all made an oath to talk to everyone, rely on the spirit more, and be 100% obedient. He bought everyone white binding for our planners, so our district is now "bound together". Kinda girly, but it was cool. So now our planners are cooler than everyone else’s. I guess. That morning we went to Sister Addington's to make Denia's baptismal program. We met with Sister Woodward to go over the lesson that we were going to teach her friend the next day. We went to the Lee's and made bread for people in the ward and took it to them. Then we had a lesson with Matt about the Plan of Salvation at the Zitzmann's house! After that we got to go with Sister Addington and Denia to the BYU Singer's concert! I was so excited to go! I LOVE BYU! And I got to see two of the girls from my BYU freshman ward there! They are in the choir. It was amazing and Denia had a great time.

Thursday we met with Denia again and also our new investigator Julie! Julie is awesome! She is friends with one of the members of our ward who used the “willing and brief” invitation to invite her to meet with us. We had a few pretty scattered lessons with her, but it's really neat to meet with her. She is reading the Book of Mormon! That night we went to the Brown's for dinner and had, can you guess? Chicken and rice! Haha.

On Friday we had a really good weekly planning session. I told Sister Reynolds about Sister Bluth and how we are pretty stumped about what to do with her, and Sister Reynolds suggested having HER fast for an answer! I don't think we've tried that yet! We were really excited about it and are hoping that it goes well! We also got to have lunch at a less active sister's house. Sister Sweet fed Sister Reynolds chicken and rice... but gave me a tuna fish sandwich. Mom, you know what I'm thinking right now. Fortunately that's not something hard to get down, but man do I hate tuna fish. But we had a really great visit with her and she really opened up to us. She told us that she was in need of a priesthood blessing, so we called Bishop and her home teacher so that she could get one. We all came back that night to help her out!

We were in Denia's neighborhood again and she saw us, so we went in and helped her do things for a while. We like doing service for her and we always get to share a Mormon message with her. I love Denia, she is like family!

On Friday morning Elder Adams texted the whole district (he's not our district leader, but oh well) and challenged us all to watch some finding segment on The District. We watched it and texted our whole district and offered a prize to the companionship with the most street contacts for the day. Everyone went crazy hahaha, we got so many contacts! Elder Snell and Elder Adams won, but we all had a blast. We went and street contacted in a different zone for a little while too. After that we had chicken and rice at the Mactagone's house. I'm a little surprised at how many different ways there are to eat chicken and rice!

That night the Zone Leaders called and told us that we set the “willing and brief” invitation on fire in their ward because one of the members we taught it to was their Bishop's daughter, and now their whole ward is pumped about it! So that was pretty cool!

Saturday we met with a new investigator named Stephanie. She isn't in our area, but she wanted to be taught by Sisters, so the Zone Leaders gave the referral to us. Approved poaching!

After that was Denia's baptism. IT WAS AWESOME. Get it, mom? :)

But really, it was a great experience. We started in the chapel, there were a bunch of people there to support her. She was so happy. We had talks in there and then went to the Relief Society room to the font. Ben Reber baptized Denia! Then everyone went back to the chapel and wrote their testimonies for her and we put them in a little binder. Sister Harrison got to come too! It was good to see her and hear how her new area is! Denia bore her testimony after she got back and talked about her conversion and how she loves our church and how she can feel the love and the truth that are there. It was tender. Then we all went to the gym for refreshments (fruit and veggie trays for Denia of course). It was great to have her meet more people and see how many people support her and love her. We went outside afterwards and Sister Reber took photos for us, since she is a photographer. It was awesome! It was really special since Denia is like family.

Sunday was church and the usual church routine. We had dinner at the Wicken's - our Ward Mission Leader. Then we had a lesson at the Romano's with Matt and read the Book of Mormon with him. He is already halfway done with 1 Nephi! We were really impressed and excited. He told us about how he feels joy when he goes to church and reads. He is awesome.

Sister Reynolds and I decided that we would video blog every night. Since I don't write in my journal ever, I thought that maybe I would actually record something if I only had to talk at a screen. So far, so good. Wish I'd thought of that 9 months ago... Speaking of 9 months, I'm officially halfway done with my mission this week - crazy how fast time flies. Yikes.

I am so pumped about this transfer and about everything! I love Sister Reynolds and I love being a missionary.

Have a great week, I love you!

Love, Sister Coltrin