One Year this Week

This week has been amazing! We've worked hard, found new investigators, and have had a lot of fun! I love Sister Ena - we are best friends! And, we have a baptism this coming Saturday!

Monday was a normal P-Day, just hung around and played sports with the Zone. Sister Ena made us dinner that night, which was so good! She's pretty much a chef. And then we went to Family Home Evening and said hello to our investigators that were there. It was a great day.

Tuesday was District Meeting. We had our meeting and then went out for district lunch, like always! We love our district! We had a lesson with Alainya (our recent convert) and talked about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Then, one of our members, Deena, called us and asked us to sing in sacrament meeting with her... My reaction was, "UHHHHHHHHHHH heck no."  But we went over to the church to look at some music with her, and it turned out that we couldn't find music to whatever she wanted to sing, so she is planning something for a future sacrament meeting. We met with a new investigator named Travis after that! We talked about how the Gospel can bless his life. We stood on his front porch because he has FIVE GIANT dogs in his house... and there was no way I was going in there! We decided we would meet with him at the park next time... He is so awesome though! We met with him twice this week and he came to church! Then we ran off to Boulder City for what we thought was a pass-off lesson with the Sisters. But, we were the only missionaries there, and it was at a member's house.

This member happens to be the stake president's mom and dad. We went inside and she asked us all to read the words to "If You Could Hie to Kolob" while she played a 10 minute long version of the song... oh man. After that, she asked her son to say a few words - which turned into him teaching our new investigator, Chase, the entire Plan of Salvation and half of the Restoration. He finally turned the lesson over to us at the first vision and we taught the rest. He looked a little overwhelmed, so we are hoping and praying that he will meet with us again. Chase was super kind though, and really seemed interested. We ended the lesson with yet another 10 minute long piano piece and cookies.

A few of our other lessons fell through that day, we had dinner at our Relief Society President's house, and then ran to a lesson with Ken. We talked about church and the sacrament. He is so awesome. He knows it's true, there are just a few small things holding him back. We met with Eddie and read the scriptures - but we aren't sure that he can really understand.

Wednesday we met with Joe in the morning- he showed us all of his new "church swag" :) He got 3 new ties and some new church shoes! He was so excited to come to church, we love him! We had to go to a dentist appointment for Sister Ena, so we got to drive through my old area in Anthem - I wanted to stop and say hello to everyone SO bad! I love and miss them! We also got to go back out to Boulder City that day for a lesson with Nick and the Elders - which was very off topic, and Nick was really tired. They'll probably end up dropping him too. We had dinner at our Bishop's house, followed by Coordination meeting with our new ward mission leader! Our new WML is Ryan, and he is so awesome! We contacted some potentials that night, but no one was home.

Thursday we met with Joe, as always. Then we had lunch at Adrian's house. After that, we decided to stop by some referrals that we had gotten, but again, no one was home. We had dinner at Sydney's house and she had one of our less active there - so we finally got to meet her! It was awesome! After that we went to Sister Ena's Uncle's house. I got to meet him and his family, they were so awesome! Their son might go play football at BYU! All of our lessons cancelled, except for Eddie, and we ended up dropping Eddie that night. He said he would text us when he is ready. We love Eddie, he is so sweet and has real desires to come closer to Heavenly Father. In his prayer, he asked Heavenly Father to help him to prepare and to be ready to make promises with him - it was amazing! Sister Ena and I prepared a little bit for our lesson in the 3rd hour on Sunday too!

Friday was AMAZING. We had Sister's Luncheon! I got to see all of my friends, and companions! It was the best. Before the meeting started, Sister Cummings walked in! We looked at each other and RAN to each other! She started to cry. Oh my goodness I missed that girl, I love her!  It was her birthday that day too, and I found out that she is a STL now! So we had Sister's Luncheon. We had a psychologist come and talk to us about how we can do hard things when we put our minds to it and don't accept failure. She was a really amazing lady. We had lunch and then Sister and President Neider talked as well. I love them so much, and am so sad that they are leaving in a few weeks! After Sister's Luncheon we didn't have any dinner, but the Elder's texted and asked if we had dinner (since everyone knows that we rarely get fed, so our district always tries to make sure we have something) and they said that one of their member's had a pizza for us. It was super nice. We had a lesson with Ken. Since Elder Earl is leaving this week, he went on splits with Adrian and came to the lesson. We all talked about the 2nd coming of Christ (that was Ken's requested topic). After the lesson Elder Earl had said something about my "Upper Peninsula Michigan" shirt - and we decided that we would trade t-shirts, so now I have a Washington shirt. Haha. We were so sad to see him leave - he really is one of our best friends! We hurried to our last lesson of the day with Joe! We read the scriptures on his front porch and then went home after a long day!

Saturday was the best day this week! We started off with a lesson with our new investigator, Maddy. She is from China, and has investigated the church a little before. She is so prepared now, and after the lesson she asked us what else we could teach her right then! She just wants to know right now! She has been coming to church for a few weeks and she is reading the Book of Mormon every night already! After that we went out to Boulder City and had lunch with DENIA! My recent convert from Anthem! I love her!! It was so much fun and it was so good to see her! We did weekly planning and had a lesson with Travis again. On the way home, we decided to stop at one of our referrals' houses. It was a Samoan family. I have got to say, this was one of the funniest experiences of my mission...

So, we knock on the door, and they open the door. They have no idea who we are, and we don't know them, but they open the door and welcome us in as if they've known us forever! The parents are members, but the kids aren't (they are YSA age). So, we sit down, and Sister Ena and the family start talking in Samoan... for AN HOUR! I sat there and literally laughed at myself and thought, "This is EXACTLY how missionaries feel when they go on foreign missions - they have NO IDEA what is going on." Hahaha, it was so funny. Then all of a sudden everyone got up and went to the kitchen, so I followed. They had Samoan food out on the table - I was a little nervous at this point. The YSA guy walks over, and puts a bowl on the table of what looks like meat, and he looks and me and says, "this is horse". My heart dropped, and I just thought, "Well, this is definitely making the email this week..." Fortunately, it was NOT horse, and the food was actually really, really good! We left after that to go to our actual dinner appointment. What a funny experience though. I laughed the whole time. They would talk in Samoan and laugh, and then look at me, and talk more in Samoan, haha. Oh man.   

After that we drove back out to Boulder and had dinner with the Donnely's who fed us Japanese food, which was good. We had a few appointments, and then went home. 

Sunday was awesome! We met with Maddy again that morning. She loved the Plan of Salvation and asked some really good questions. We had Ward Council and then church. We had 4 investigators at church! And the talks and classes were great! Travis came, and he volunteered to come and help with a YSA service project this week! We are so excited! And Ken was there and answered some questions in Gospel Principles - he is so amazing. We had dinner with Amaris, who we LOVE already! She is a chef! And she is thinking about serving a mission! She is awesome. We went to the hospital to see a member of our ward (Ivanneth's fiance, actually). And then we had a lesson with Alan. We talked about baptism, and we helped him pick a baptismal date! He is getting baptized on Saturday! We are so excited for him! We had his baptismal interview at 7am this morning, and he is all set to go!

Side note, we parked next to the Zone Leader's in an apartment complex when we were going to an appointment, so obviously we left a mormon.org card on their car that said, "Stay off our turf". When we got back, they had put one on our car that said, "There are no YSA wards in heaven - get out of here!" Hahaha!

Also! I got to talk to Abraham this week! He is a member from my first area, and he helped us out a ton! It was so great to hear from a friend!

I love being a missionary, I love teaching people about the Gospel.

I am hitting my year mark on Thursday, can you believe it!? Time flies.

I love you! Have a great week. Thanks for all that you have done for me!

Ou te alofa ia te oe!

Love, Sister Coltrin

Sister Cummings and Sister Coltrin

 

 

Sister Coltrin and Sister Fields

 

 

President and Sister Neider and Sister Coltrin

 

Sister Coltrin and Sister Harrison

 

 

 

Sister Coltrin and Sister Ena

 

 

Denia and Sister Coltrin

 

 

A few minutes for fun!

 

 

"Me and my soa"

 

 

It's A New Transfer!

So, my Mother called me to repentance last week and told me to shape up on my email writing... so I will do better this week... Hahaha.

Also, at the Why I Believe Fireside on Sunday, one of our brand new sister missionaries came up to me and said, "Do you have a blog that all your emails go to?" She got super excited when I said I did, and told me about how she had been reading them. I'm practically a celebrity I guess….kidding!!   

So, I have two weeks to write about, since I didn't have time to email last week! Here we go!

Monday, our district went to a sweet museum! It was Sister Cook's idea, she had been there before. Turns out that the man who owns the museum is one of the guys that is occasionally on Pawn Stars! Woooo! At the museum, we saw a bird that had flown into a window and knocked itself out. Elder Latu and I tried to pick it up and save it, we took it outside, and tried to help it stand up.  It was super sad. Other than that though, it was a really fun day, and we got to see some really cool stuff there! Our district is awesome. 

Tuesday we had District Meeting. Elder Harper asked Sister Cook and I to give a training on Charity! It turned out really well and we were really happy with it. We talked about the different attributes of charity. We had a training at a Sister's Luncheon a few months ago about charity that really changed my life and my out look on charity. Life really is all about learning to love others and take care of them. Also, that day we had a pass off lesson with some of the other sisters. We met this really awesome less active girl named Shayla that wants to start coming back to church. She is amazing! Sister Cook and I met with Joe again and had a super intense lesson. We talked all about our potential, and how he is one of Heavenly Father's most valiant children. We love Joe so much. He is amazing. Later that day we went with KC and Genevieve to a lesson with another guy named Nick. He came out and talked to us on his porch for a little bit. He's pretty set in his own religion, and said that the previous sisters would just come to talk for hours about religion... yeah. We were talking to him and he was smoking - and he blew his smoke in my face. It was super nasty. That night we had a lesson with Ken about the importance of going to church, praying, and reading the scriptures. We used the cups and it was a pretty good lesson! We had Adrian and Tyler there too and that helped make it fun. Ken is so awesome. He gets it. Then we went to read the Book of Mormon with Nick T (not the Nick from earlier) and he said that he would really start reading, it was awesome. 

Wednesday was a long and funny day. We contacted potentials almost all day. We had another lesson with Shayla - but she is moving, so we won't be seeing her again. We rode bikes there! It was fun. We love riding our bikes. We had dinner at Bishop's, and then the worst coordination meeting ever. We were telling everyone about our investigators and about how we were going to drop most of them because they aren't progressing. Then some people started yelling at us about how we need to drop them now because we are "wasting the Lord's time". We were a little confused because we said we were going to be dropping them... yeah... it was weird. And annoying. We went to meet with Nathan after that and we were planning on talking about Charity... but we weren't feeling very charitable after that instance. So we read the Book of Mormon instead. Nathan invited one of his non-member friends to stay there to meet with us! Way to go Nathan! 

Thursday morning Sister Cook and I had to meet Elder Neal (the senior couple that takes care of our cars) at the DMV to renew our license plates on our car. We had Sydney come out with us, and it was awesome! She had a bunch of people that she wanted to go and see with us! We tried to see some of the less active girls in the ward, but no one was home. We had dinner with her too. That night we went to Institute and the man that is over the Institute pulled us aside and asked us to be on the Institute Board! He wants us to promote Institute to all the less actives and to people we meet. It is going to be awesome! We are really excited. 

Friday morning we had a lesson with Alan! He is so solid and is progressing. We asked him about baptism again and he said he definitely wanted to be baptized. We love Alan!! We rushed to a last minute pass off lesson in Boulder City. It ended up falling through, which was a bummer (and a mega waste of miles). Sister Cook and I had to go and get our oil changed too. We were sitting there and we were about to leave, when Nathan texted us. We told him that we were at Pep Boys. He asked why, and as a joke we told him that we got in a car accident and we were waiting for our car to get fixed. Lesson learned, never tell an EMT that you got in a car accident. They rush to Pep Boys with ice cream for you. And then they get upset when they find out that you were kidding. Oops. We felt sooooo bad. That night we had a last hoorah with Ken and the Elders.  Elder Earl brought me a giant gallon of water and one of those HUGE Gatorades. It was so funny. We all had pizza and cookies that Elder McMullin made. We took pictures. It was fun!

Saturday morning we met with Joe. Right after that we got the text that the transfer information was in... we were soooo sure that we were going to stay companions. But, unfortunately, we aren't. Sister Cook and I cried and cried and cried ALL day. Literally. It was SO sad. She is my best friend and I love her so much!! It was such a sad day.

Sunday was Mother's Day! The beginning of the day was terrible. We couldn't get skype to work, we were frustrated and we cried.  We went to church and the talks were SO good. We left early to skype at the Gronning's house (there were a ton of missionaries there). I finally got to skype my parents! It was awesome! I was so happy!! Then we had dinner and a lesson with Alan and Morgan, and then went to do the rounds for Sister Cook to say goodbye, so we cried some more. It was a good and bad day. 

The next week!

 Monday our district got to go on a SWEET hard hat tour at the Hoover Dam. We got to go in all the tunnels and down in the dam. We were there for 4 hours and it was really fun! That night we went to Family Home Evening for Sister Cook to say more goodbyes. At the end of it, everyone was playing soccer, and Sister Cook got smacked right in the face with a soccer ball. I was expecting a meltdown, but she turned to me and said, "SEE! That is why I hate sports!"  I laughed so hard. She is the best.

 Tuesday morning, we both felt soooo sick. We rode in silence to the mission office and cried the whole time (we sound like babies, but we got really close!). We waited in the mission office for both of our new companions to come. Sister Cook went to the Heritage ward with Sister Chevalier, and I was waiting for Sister Ena, a sister from Samoa! They both got there and we said our goodbyes. It was super sad, but I am really excited to be with my new companion.

 Sister Ena (N-Ah) is awesome! She is straight up from Samoa. She is Samoan, Tongan, and Hawaiian, and speaks 4 languages! She speaks to all the other Polynesian's in other languages. I'm in the poly club now, since I have a poly companion! She is really cool and has been out for almost 9 months. I love her already.

That day, she unpacked, and we went over to see Joe. He wanted to be the first stop for the new sister!  He is so funny. We contacted people all day and no one answered. We had dinner at Adrian's and then had a lesson with Ken. It was a really good lesson and we talked about baptism - which he says he wants to do. 

Wednesday we contacted alllllll day. It was terrible, everyone would stand behind their door, and once we got into the car, they would open the door to see who it was. We were so sick of it, finally, I waited, and when they opened their door, I rushed and opened the car door again and yelled "HIII!" and we went back up and talked to them. It was soooooo funny. But hey, we got a return appointment! Sister Ena laughed so hard. 

Thursday we had District Meeting and then a meeting with Alainya, our recent convert. Alainya and Cody are engaged now! I love them! We went thorough all our investigators that day and pretty much prepared to drop most of them - they just aren't progressing. It was funny, because that's exactly what we talked about in District Meeting that morning. We went to Institute and saw a bunch of people there. Sister Ena saw one of the members from her old ward, so she got to talk with her for a bit. I saw two people from Paseo Verde! I was so excited! And I saw Eric Taylor from Sunrise! He just went to Provo, and he brought me back a BYU hat! I was so excited!! 

Friday we met with Joe, and then we did Weekly Planning. We met Nicole and talked about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. She is so sweet and we love her. Her baptism has made a total difference for her. We went over to Nathan's, but he rushed us out the door. I could tell something was wrong (and I knew exactly what it was). We texted him later and asked what was wrong. He said that it was just weird since it wasn't me and Sister Cook. That made Sister Ena super sad. And we both kind of had a meltdown because we both don't know the area very well, and we have to drop all our investigators, and people were sad since Sister Cook wasn't there anymore.  So went out and got ice cream and we cried. It was not a great night.

Saturday morning we saw Joe, who always makes us feel better. He told us that his work schedule got changed for the next two weeks and that he has Sundays off!!!!! We were SOOOOO happy! He said that he would come to church, but he has to make sure to get some "church swag" first, haha!  Then we went out to Boulder City for a baptism. Bishop's granddaughter was getting baptized and they asked us to go for nonmembers that were there. It was really cute! We brought the Elders there so they could have their investigators come. We had dinner and then ran over to have a lesson with Alan. We talked about tithing, it was so great! He is so cool, we love him. He will get baptized soon!

Sunday morning we met with Joe, and then we had ward council. We have a new Ward Mission Leader! We are so excited! Our Ward Mission Leader now is awesome and we are excited for our new one too. Ken was at church, and a girl named Maddy came and said that she wants to start meeting with us! Score! A new investigator! We brought Elder Harper and Elder Thomas to the Why I Believe fireside with us. It was awesome! I love it. I got to see Sister Harrison and Sister Cook! I was so happy! They're both doing so well. 

I love Sister Ena, she is awesome. Our district is awesome.

 

Have a good week! Ofa atu!

 

Love, Soa (Sister) Coltrin

PS. Sister Ena is teaching me Samoan.

 

 

 

 

Sister Coltrin and Sister Ena

 

 

Sister Ena, Sister Coltrin, Elder Thomas and Elder Harper

going to the "Why I Believe" Fireside

 

 

The Hoover Dam

It was super fun to skype on Mother's Day!

 I don’t have much to tell you because I just talked to you yesterday.  We did go on a sweet tour of the Hoover Dam today! A member works there and gave our District a really awesome tour - we had to wear hard hats and ear plugs at some parts!  We went  through a bunch of tunnels and were actually inside the dam. We got to see the huge generators and a lot of other stuff that the general public never gets to see. There was one giant pipe that had so much water rushing through it that it could fill an Olympic sized pool in less than 7 seconds!  I am sending you some pictures.

 Sorry that this email is lame! I don't have that much time but I will write more next week!

Have a great week! I love you!

Love, Sister Coltrin

Mother's Day

 

 

 

 

Our District in the elevator going down into the Hoover Dam

 

 

 

We had to wear hard hats

 

 

Sister Coltrin in her hard hat

 

 

Sister Cook and Sister Coltrin

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"We are inside the dam.  

 We also got to go into those vent and through all the tunnels, and to see the generators. 

It was a tour that no one ever gets to go on!

We went with a member that works there!"

 

 

"Look - I am in two states at once!"

 

 

 

Sister Coltrin and Sister Cook inside the Hoover Dam

 

 

 

One of the rail carts at the dam

 

 

Time is Flying!!

Well, last Monday we went to the park and played sports.  It was a pretty laid-back P-day. Then we went to Family Home Evening and dinner, and a lesson with our recent convert, Alainya!  

Tuesday was my 11 month mark! That is CRAZY! Time flies. That morning we met with Joe (a less active) and talked to him for a long time. We meet with him every day. We love him so much! He has such a strong desire to change, it is awesome. We read the Book of Mormon with him every morning. We spent our day in Boulder City contacting people. We had dinner, and then went with Elder Earl and McMullin to Ken's house to have a lesson. Sister Cook and I love teaching Ken, he is so awesome, and Elder Earl and McMullin are pretty much our favorite missionaries. They are so funny, and the lessons that we have are the ones we look forward to. Tuesday morning I was sitting on our couch, drinking water out of a gallon jug. I was showing Sister Cook how much water I had already had, which was about half.  I refilled the jug and she said, "I bet you can't drink that whole gallon today." Of course, competitive me came out... So I drank a gallon and a half of water on Tuesday. It was a LOT of water. 

Wednesday was spent doing a bunch of contacting. All of our appointments cancelled. We saw Adrian's snake eat a mouse. Gross. We had dinner at Bishop's house. Then we got to meet with our other less active, Nathan. We love him!  It was the best lesson ever, because afterwards he let us try on all his fireman clothes! It was AWESOME!  We also had smoothies and paid in change that we saved up. Haha. 

Thursday we spent most of our day contacting. All lessons fell through so it was a long day of knocking doors. We had a really good lesson with Eddie though, who is really trying hard to understand the Book of Mormon. He is awesome. 

Friday was Zone Training Meeting! We are supposed to ride our bikes every day now- that’s kind of hard since our area covers THREE STAKES.  It’s BIG!  But it's cool. We drive to areas and then bike around. We actually love it and are obsessed with our bikes. People probably think we're weird. We had dinner with a member (hooray for being fed!) and then had a really good lesson with Alan. He is so solid. Then we had another lesson with Ken and the Elders. 

Saturday morning we biked to Joe's house. It's far and uphill the whole way.  He laughed at us when we got there and then got us water bottles. We proceeded to drink 4 water bottles each, without stopping. Talk about dehydrated. On the bright side, it was downhill the whole way back!  We brought Nathan to a lesson with Jeremy, it was awesome! Jeremy made a goal to start following the Word of Wisdom. We met with Nicole at the park and the sprayscape was on - wow, talk about tempting on a really hot day. At least we got a little misted since it was windy. We met with Nick and read the Book of Mormon and then we had another lesson with Eddie. That night was the Saturday night session of Stake Conference. The Neider's were there. It was awesome! 

Sunday was Stake Conference. We've been listening to the music from "My Turn on Earth".  It reminds me of when I was little and would listen to it on tape. Sister Cook and I just laugh and laugh at how cheesy it is. 

Today was really fun so far! Our district went to a museum together, and then Elder Earl proved to us that he could play the organ (when he told us he could, we just couldn't picture it). We shopped for the things we needed, got our mail, and all that other good stuff. 

Can't wait to see you on Sunday for Skype! I love you!  Have a great week!

 

Love, Sister Coltrin

District Picture with the Clark County Museum Curator, Mark Hall

(aka "The beard of knowledge" from pawn stars!)

Sister Cook, Sister Coltrin, Elder Harper, Mark Hall, Elders Rogers, Thomas, and Latu.

I LOVE Las Vegas!!

 

 

Nicole and all of her missionaries at her baptism

 

 

"We saved a bird at the museum! It flew into a window and knocked itself out.

Elder latu and I saved him.  Yes, mom, I sanitized my hands and

washed them like a trillion times afterwards."

 

 

Sister Coltrin, Ivanneth and Sister Cook

 

 

 

Sister Cook and Sister Coltrin

 

 

"I love my companion...we are best friends"

(and they both like to take pictures in their car)

 

 

"We ride bikes every day and we rock!"