Viva Las Vegas!: 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