What A Week

What. A. Week. We have been having such a good time here! We have had huge turning points with the people we are teaching. I just love being here and I love Sister Robinson. She's pretty much my best friend. But anyways, let’s start with Monday:

So on Monday, after we emailed, we met at the church and went out to the mines in Nelson again. I'd been there before, but since I've been here the longest, no one else had gone. It was a lot of fun! It's a really cool place to walk around and see all the different stuff that they've got. We had dinner with the Duck Family that night, and then had three lessons - with Alex, Shannon, and Eddie. Alex's lesson was so funny. We taught him about the Plan of Salvation, which was actually a really awesome lesson, but right before the lesson started, his friends walked over (we meet at a park bench) super awkwardly. They don't like to stay for the lessons, but one walked over and was like, "Before you start, we all just had a quick question." We asked them what it was and he goes, "Well. Do you guys... party?" HAHAHAHA. We said no, and they said something about how they were going to invite us to some party, but never mind, it was just so funny. I was thinking, "I literally have a tag stuck to my shirt that says JESUS, and you're asking us if we party." It was just all so funny.

Tuesday we had 7 lessons planned with investigators, and well, all but 1 fell through. Rough day, but we had fun - of course. OH! That morning, I was blow-drying my hair, and when I turned on my hair-dryer it literally blew up. I mean, like, fire and sparks - the whole deal. It was nuts.

Wednesday was pretty funny. We took Marley out with us that morning and got to talk to some people for the first time, it was good! Then, it started POURING! Right after lunch, we were walking out to our car in the rain, and I KID YOU NOT, there was a kid moon-walking in the middle of the street in the pouring rain. He did the classic Michael Jackson spin, and then pretended like he hadn't seen us and said, "Oh my! How long you girls been standing there!?" It was so funny. His name was Deonze, and his cousin Cameron came running down the street, so we talked to them for a few minutes and set up a time to go back and see them. So funny. We got to meet with Alainya that afternoon, and then 2 more of our lessons cancelled because of the storms. We got to go out to Boulder City to have dinner with the Walton's, our Wednesday tradition. That night we met one of the less actives in our ward for the first time, and she told us about two of her non-member friends that she wants us to meet! She set up a time for us to go and teach them! She was super sweet.

Thursday we had District Meeting. We took Dessa out with us after wards, and WOW she is an awesome missionary! She was so good at talking to people, and really wanted to talk to everyone. It was sweet! We got doors open that had never opened before. We talked to this one guy, Glen, and set up an appointment with him for later that night, so we got to teach him later. He seemed pretty interested, and was sad when he had to miss church. We also got to see Jasmin that night and talk about Prophets. I think this was her turning point lesson. She totally understood that the Priesthood would be a necessary thing today, and she asked Amy (who is also a recent convert) a lot of questions about how she came to know the truth of the Gospel. It was amazing! We are really hoping that things will change for her because of this. We had dinner with our member that we painted for last week, and then had a lesson with Eddie and with Tonya.

Friday was weekly planning. We were supposed to meet with Deonze and Cameron that morning, but they weren't there. There was a younger kid inside that looked at us through the window and yelled, "My Mom isn't home right now!!" It was really funny. We had Kendra out with us - and we LOVE her! She is so funny. She has a ukulele in her car and she practices it at long stop lights! After Weekly Planning, we went to the Camadeco's who had a "mid-birthday" party for me and Sister Robinson. Since her birthday was the 2nd, and mine is the 2nd, they picked the 22nd to have us over for dinner. They had balloons in our favorite colors, and had sparkler candles on our dessert, and got us cute gifts! I love them! It was funny because earlier in the week they asked us what our favorite colors were, and Sister Robinson replied with, "Pink or red," and I just named a bunch of colors because I couldn't choose. Sister Camadeco looked up and said, "So you like pink, and you like... rainbow." Haha. After dinner at the Camadeco's, we got to go to the temple to help our recent converts do baptisms for the first time! It was so fun! We loved being there. Ivanneth, who was baptized back in April, brought her own family names, so that was a really cool experience. Our Relief Society President drove us there, and she was staying for a session, so we also got to stay and go to the temple! It was great.

Saturday we met with Christine in the morning, and they fed us brunch, which was sweet. We got to meet with a bunch of recent converts that day, Derek, Alan, and Travis. We also got to see Tonya, which was another really cool lesson. We taught her the 2nd half of the Plan of Salvation and also talked about where she is at with all the things that we have taught her. She talked about how she believes everything that we've taught her and how she hasn't found that in a long time. She loves it! We were so happy for her! She was going to try to come to church, but got called into work. We were supposed to meet with Jasmin, but she was gone, so we texted her and she said she would see us the next day at church.

Sunday was crazy. No one showed up to church (except Christine, in the family ward), and our Bishopric got released, and just a lot of other stuff was happening too. We were pretty sad! Church was good though. Tender moment when Joe came up to us at church and sat down and I helped him fill out a tithing slip for the first time in his life. I love that kid. Then we had home made mac and cheese with Alainya and Cody for dinner, after we had an awesome lesson with Christine, and then Glo (the less active we met on Wednesday) texted us and we stopped over on the way home to meet her and her friend. A good day!

Today we are going back to the Clark County Museum, and then are doing a few other things. It's going to be great!

Hope you have a great week! I love you!

Love, Sister Coltrin

 

Adventures at the mines

 

 

 

 

Sister Coltrin and Sister Robinson

 

 

 

 

 

Sister Robinson and Sister Coltrin

 

 

Sister Robinson, Joe, Sister Coltrin

 

 

The mid-birthday party

 

 

Happy Almost Birthday!

 

This Is The Best Week Of My Mission!

THIS IS THE BEST WEEK OF MY MISSION! I'm not even sure why, we just had such a good week, worked really hard, and even though I'm literally exhausted - I'm just so happy!

Monday was pretty typical - but FHE was so much fun! We had two of our investigators, Tonya and Martel, come to the activity! It was a huge cupcake competition. We split into big teams and had to make the coolest "creation" out of cupcakes! Everyone's ended up looking about the same (piles of mashed cupcakes and brightly colored frosting) but it was a lot of fun. At the end of the time we were allotted each group had to move their creation across the gym to the "final table". Yikes. The room erupted in knocked over church tables and cupcakes and frosting smeared all over the gym floor and everyone in the gym - it was hilarious to watch. Tonya and Martel loved it! We ended the night with a really amazing lesson with Eddie. We talked about repentance and church - he is finally getting it! He talked about how he wants to start over and really give it a try this time, and about how he really desires to come closer to God and stop all the "bad things" he's doing. We were so happy!

Tuesday was the BEST day of my entire mission - it's all downhill from here, people! Just kidding, but really, it was awesome. We started with contacting a few people, and we finally got to talk to a former investigator that we hadn't been able to see since I first got to Foothills. He, his friend, and his brother were there! We got to talk to them for a little bit, and we set a time to come back and see them again! After that we got to go and do service for a guy that just moved into our ward! We helped him paint his new house, and it was so much fun! It always makes me laugh that total strangers will let me help them paint their house, but for some reason my own Dad would never let me help paint, even when I offered... :) After service we got to go and talk with one of our less actives who has been going through a really hard time lately. I love this kid like my own brother. It was amazing to sit there with him, hear about his experiences, and see a total and complete turn around in him. It was probably one of the greatest experiences of my mission. The Atonement is real and I am so thankful for it. We had a few other lessons, had dinner with the Evans from our Bishopric, and then went to see Jasmin! We read from The Book of Mormon with Jasmin, and we brought Amy Camadeco with us! Amy is a recent convert and she is AMAZING! It was so inspired to bring her too, because she and Jasmin were a PERFECT fit! They are both writers and they just hit it off right away. Amy is the perfect missionary and Jasmin really connected with all Amy had to say. It was a sweet lesson. What an amazing day. I was beyond happy!

Wednesday we met with Travis and Alainya (both recent converts) and talked about developing Christlike attributes. Pretty much all of our lessons cancelled that day - but the day before was so good that we weren't even discouraged! We got to do service again, but we painted upstairs and the air conditioning wasn't working - and let's be real, when you're in the desert and the AC isn't working, you're probably not going to have a good time. But we had a BLAST! We were drenched by the end, but it was fun. I love Sister Robinson, we're buds. That night there was a Relief Society dinner and dessert party that we got to go to - it was so fun to be with our ward! I love Foothills!

Thursday was District Meeting. It was CRAZY awesome! It sounds weird, but at the end, Elder Martino made us all do a role play together and he was the investigator, and Elder Casagrande was the missionary teaching him, and the other 4 of us took on a role of someone beyond the veil (the investigator had family members pass away and future children). I know, it sounds SO weird. But as members beyond the veil we got to prompt and encourage the investigator and missionary - it was really cool to picture. We took care of my passport after that (I know you're pumped about that, Mom) and it was so funny because in the picture you can't smile, so it made me and Sister Robinson laugh, so in the picture I just look like I'm trying so hard not to laugh. It's awkward, but whatever. Another highlight of the week was when the new Cafe Rio in our area finally opened! We finally have one here! We were so excited, we went there for dinner with some of our members. After that we had a sweet lesson with 2 new investigators, Shannon and Cheyanne. They both just moved here from Hawaii and are looking to strengthen their relationship with God. They both seem really sincere, and the lesson was good, even though they are both reaaaally quiet! We also saw Tonya and Eddie and read from The Book of Mormon with both of them. It is so funny, because with both of them we stand outside to have our lessons, and it is so hot and there are people walking all around us, but it is still just so powerful.

Friday was Sister's Conference. It was pretty good, but sometimes, Sisters just get so "sistery" and girly, and that's just so not me and Sister Robinson - so there were definitely some jokes cracked from the back row. It was so weird, because we were having such a great week and were working so hard, and then being there made me feel like I was a horrible missionary! I felt like I had to change all of who I was to fit the "sister missionary" "we're going to see ten thousand miracles today" mold. But then Heavenly Father helped me to realize that I'm here because of who I am, and that some people need a super sistery personality, but some people just need a regular, old, "cassie coltrin" personality. It made me feel a lot better. We did weekly planning, and then had a really cool lesson with a new investigator named Alex! We weren't sure if he was actually going to be there, but he was, and we taught him the Restoration! It was amazing, despite sitting on a park bench in the Vegas sun! He was really receptive and was totally pumped to read the BOM and find out for himself! We had dinner with Jecia, who bought us Lucille's (Mom and Dad, add that to the Vegas trip list, because it is so good). She came with us to Boulder City to contact some people. There was this one guy, and his dog ran and jumped on us, and I kid you not - his dog PEE'D ON US, haahahahaha it was so gross! We had Amy come with us to another lesson with Shannon and Cheyanne, and then we went to see our less active that night - he's been texting us these 6 page text messages about the book he is reading! It's amazing!

Saturday ALL of our lessons were outside. We met with Derek, a recent convert outside, then we helped the Zone Leaders look for their keys that they lost. We had another lesson with Alex, and then contacted a potential investigator named Cassie! She was there and she was so sweet! We got to meet with her for a little bit. She was really cool - it must be something about her name... :) We saw Alan, our recent convert, and read with him outside and talked about prayer. We also got to see Travis later that night and we read "Remember Lot's Wife" by Jeffrey R. Holland. SUCH a good talk! The lesson was outside of course, haha! We stopped by our less active's house and read it with him too, and showed him the "vision board" that we made him!

Sunday was awesome, too! We were just having a great week! We went out to Boulder City for a little bit that morning, then had lunch with Adrian! We had all our regular meeting, and church, which was so good! EDDIE CAME TO CHURCH! We were so excited! And our investigator, Christine, did as well! We ate super fast after church and went out to Vegas for the Why I Believe fireside! Christine met us there, and we sat with her. I love her! The fireside was so good. After it, we went outside with Christine and talked with her and had a mini lesson. She told us about how she has been going through a hard time, but that she knows that this is right, and that she is ready to be baptized! She is set for September 6th as of right now! We are so excited for her! Then we came home - absolutely exhausted from the off-the-wall excitement of the whole, crazy week!

Well, today we are going back to the mines in Nelson! I'm pumped for this next week! I love being a missionary, I can't say it enough. I am so tired all the time (like, literally, I went through early morning seminary, but this is a whole other kind of exhaustion...) but I am just SO genuinely HAPPY.

I love you and hope you have a good week!

Love, Sister Coltrin

 

 

 

Sister Coltrin and Sister Gelabert

 

 

The cupcake competition's unfortunate ending

 

 

Sister Coltrin and Sister Harrison

 

 

Sister Coltrin, Sister Robinson and Adrian

 

 

Sister Robinson and Sister Coltrin

 

Another Brand New Transfer

Well, the first week of this transfer was pretty good! Slow, but good. I'm so glad I get to be with Sister Robinson for another transfer - can you believe this is my 11th transfer!?

Monday night we had dinner with one of our favorite people - Heather! She is so sweet and always makes us laugh. Plus for dessert, she got us "Nothing Bundt Cake" which is possibly one of the greatest places that Henderson, Nevada has to offer. We also got to go to Family Home Evening for a little while, but none of our investigators ended up there, so we left to contact people.

Tuesday we met with Travis in the morning, and he told us that he has a friend that he wants to bring to take lessons with us! Can you believe he was baptized barely a month ago? He's amazing! We contacted people all day, had port-of-subs on Jillian's couch for dinner, since she's still moving in (it was probably one of my favorite dinners, soooo relaxed, yay!) :) That night we met with another recent convert that just moved into our ward, Derek. He is so cool! All of his friends at work ask him really tough questions and he just bears his testimony to them!

On Wednesday and Thursday ALL of our lessons cancelled without fail! It was pretty rough. But on Thursday we had an awesome District Meeting and got super pumped for the transfer!

Friday we had an awesome lesson about church and the importance of the sacrament and baptism with Jasmine. We invited her to be baptized on Sept 6 and she said yes! We were so happy for her! We also went to Boulder City that night and got to see a few people.

Saturday we met with Alainya - she is seriously one of my best friends! I love her. We read about Abish and her example of faith and missionary work. Then we went to see Alan, another recent convert (he got the Priesthood on Sunday, yay!). We also saw Derek again and helped to answer some of the hard questions that his friends ask him.

After that, Heather came and picked me up, and Sister Robinson went with another member, and I got to go and have dinner with SISTER FIELDS!  We went to Sister Addington's house from my last area! It was so good to be back and to see her! We drove back to Sunrise, my first area, after dinner to go to a baptism! David Ortega, after 11 months of being taught, finally was ready to enter the waters of baptism - we were so, so happy, and it was such a spiritual experience. We love David! Sister Fields and I had some of our very best lessons with him, he is so receptive to the Spirit. After that, we stopped at a few houses - to see some families that fed us that we LOVE, and to see some recent converts that we taught! It was such a great night! Then, the Christensen's took me back to Eldorado, so I got to chat with them for a little while! I miss and love them so much! It was a GREAT night!

Sunday was the normal church routine. We had one of our investigators pull a prank on us... So, earlier in the week, we were trying to set up an appointment with Molly. She was super busy and so we texted her to see if she was going to come to church. She responded and told us that she was going to go to church with a guy that she recently met. We were heartbroken, since we had already lost so many investigators that week! When we walked into church, we saw Adrian walk in with Molly, and Molly waved at us - we ran over to her! She and Adrian said that they met at work and decided that they had to pull a prank on us - it sure worked haha! But we were so happy that she was there and loved it. After church there was a linger longer... we got there last and didn't get any food, hahaha - but luckily someone in our ward was having a s'mores party that night, so on the way home, we stopped by to make a quick s'more!

We are excited for a new week! Love you all!

Love, Sister Coltrin

Sister Coltrin, Cristal, and Sister Fields

 

 

Sister Fields, David Ortega, Sister Coltrin

 

 

Sister Fields, Des, Sister Coltrin

 

 

 

Sister Coltrin, Sister Olsen, Sister Fields

 

 

 

Sister Fields, Kimberlin, Sister Coltrin

 

 

 

Sister Robinson and Sister Coltrin

 

 

 

 

"Our secret place - LOOK AT THAT VIEW!"

Sister Coltrin and Sister Robinson

 

Another Crazy Week

Well, first things first, Sister Robinson and I will be staying together for another transfer! Look at me, I have a 2-transfer companion! And I absolutely love her. We were pumped that we are staying together! :)

There are so many stories to tell from this week, I'll try to be as clear as I can, but my mind is so scattered! Hahaha!

Monday night we went to dinner at Maddy’s, our recent convert's house! She is so cute and she had all her roommates have dinner with us, too! Her roommate made us a cute cake and taught us how to "scientifically" cut the cake... it was funny.

Tuesday was when we ran out of miles for the month... so we had no car from Tuesday until Friday... it was pretty rough, but we got a good tan from it!  We walked to the park to meet with Travis, and then went with a girl in our ward, Kendra to contact some people. She dropped us off to see Joe, and then we walked from Joe's house to the church for our next appointment. We totally underestimated the time that it would take to walk there... and we street contacted a guy that talked to us for 20 minutes, so we didn't get a lunch hour, and we were waaay late to the appointment. It was with Nathan, who is coming back to church. It was crazy and we were absolutely drenched when we got there, haha! April went with us to see Jasmine! We had a really good lesson with her about the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and set her for baptism at the end of August! We love Jasmine, she is the sweetest girl! Then we went to see a less active that we street contacted! Her name is Shareen, and she came back to church for the first time in 3 years a few weeks ago when we met her! We read Alma 32 with her, and she loved it, and was so excited to get back into the Book of Mormon. We also got to meet with our investigator, Molly, that night! She is so cool and is really searching. We talked for a while about faith and repentance and change. It was good, and she always asks questions! We left from there and got dropped off for dinner out in Boulder City (remember that we don't have miles...). We had dinner, but we were stranded in Boulder City... hahahah! Bishop and his sweet wife drove us home - the Walton's are the BEST!

Wednesday we walked to meet with Travis again, met with Alainya at the church for another new member lesson, made a ton of calls for potentials that we just have their phone number for, got time on mormon.org, and had dinner at the Walton's out in Boulder City with two of our members. Sister Walton mad her super delicious oreo truffle cake stuff for Sister Robinson's "almost birthday". She sent us home with a ton of it on a plate... and as we were walking into the house that night, she was holding a lot of stuff... and the cake fell off the plate onto the ground.  We laughed so hard and decided that it was probably for the best. That afternoon we had been contacting people, and we knocked on a guy’s door, and his dad came to the door. It was hilarious, he was laughing, and calling for his son to see the "3 beautiful angels that are here to save him" and his dad was just cracking up, and so were we... I'm not sure why it was so hilarious, but we were all doubled over in laughter. The guy came to the door and said he would meet with us at the church!

Thursday was interesting, we contacted people all day, and called someone that we had an appointment with to reschedule with because they weren't there... then they called us back and started being super inappropriate, so we hung up. We had pizza at the church for dinner because the girl that we had dinner with had to go to the ER. It was super stormy that night so Sister Robinson and I sat outside at watched the lightening after we did our weekly planning. It was sweet!

Friday we finally got more miles for our car! Hooray for the first of the month! We had Zone Training that day and our last district lunch. We went to contact in Boulder City with Jecia. Travis, our recent convert, wanted to come out to lessons with us! So we brought him to a few that afternoon, he was so excited. We had dinner at Alainya's house, and then she asked if she could come out to the rest of our lessons with us! We love Alainya! We brought her to a lesson with our new investigator, the one that we had contacted on Wednesday. He called us right before the lesson, and it was from a restricted number, and he was saying some weird stuff, so we called one of our guy members to come to the church quick, just in case. When the investigator got there, it was really creepy, and he was a bit off. He kept talking about how he only wanted to meet with us, and about how he wasn't sure he should come to church. It was weird.  After that, Sister Fields called me and told me that one of the investigators that we found way back a year ago when I was in Sunrise is getting baptized on Saturday! We are going to go to it! I am so excited! We had some of the best lessons on my mission with him.

Saturday was SISTER ROBINSON'S BIRTHDAY! It was so fun! We started off the day by making smiley face pancakes (her birthday tradition)! Then we went to the church, and a member from Kingman (her old area) came and picked us and Sister Remund up to go to a baptism of someone they taught for a long time! It was really sweet and a great birthday present for her. We went out to a yummy place called Stromboli's afterwards on our way back up to Henderson. Obviously I puked when we got home, because that's just what happens to me all the time for some reason.  I got to go to Anthem for a little bit to drop off Sister Remund.  So I got to see Sister Fields for a few minutes and talk to her. After that, I took Sister Robinson to a mini surprise birthday party for her, and she opened up her birthday package from home! Funny story about the package... Her mom was going to send it during the week, and the Zone Leaders were going to the mission office in the middle of the week for a meeting, so we asked them to pick it up so she could open it on her birthday. I called them and told them to tell her that there was nothing there, and then I could surprise her with it on her birthday. The plan was perfect... until our District Leader called to ask if we needed supplies, and then said, "Oh, and Sister Robinson, did you get your package from the ZLs?" Hahaha, I was ticked! But it was funny. Her birthday was still super fun, and we ended the night with dinner at Amaris' house, homemade pizza with her sweet family.

Sunday was fun. And interesting. We contacted in Boulder City in the morning, and it was super stormy. We had church. Joe was there and asked us about transfers... it was the most tender moment of my mission! I told him we were both staying, and he looked at me and was like, "I thought for sure you wouldn't make it! I have been so bummed!" I'm so happy we are both staying! We love Joe! We went to have dinner at MJ's house... she knows Julie and Jimmy! Then we had a lesson with a new investigator, Christine. She isn't in our ward, but wants to be taught by sisters. She was super sweet and really interested. When we got home that night, we watched the lightening again outside. Then the night got really interesting...

We sent out our normal mass text to invite everyone to FHE on Monday night. The creepy investigator called us... and started talking about FHE and how he just wanted to meet with us. Then he was being inappropriate, and was talking about how he wanted to get to know us, and how "He was married to a Mormon before, and it could be us" and it was just super creepy. So we told him we are only here to share messages about Jesus Christ and we hung up. Then he proceeded to send us texts full of porn. We just deleted anything we would get from him - it was so creepy. Don't worry, we called the mission office about it this morning and got his number blocked. And no, we aren't going over there again... haha.

After that happened, I was brushing my teeth, and heard Sister Robinson scream. I ran out to the living room to see a HUGE, GIANT centipede on the wall! She made me kill it, and I literally cried a little because it was so nasty!

What an exciting week!  It was so good and we had so much fun! I'm pumped for 6 more weeks with Sister Robinson!

Thanks for everything, have a great week!

Love, Sister Coltrin

Lunch after the baptism in Kingman

 

 

 

Sister Robinson and her birthday pancake

 

 

 

The giant centipede