Viva Las Vegas!: Welcome to North Las Vegas!

Okay everyone, I LOVE NORTH. I've only been here for a week, but wow, we are so busy all the time and there are so, so, sooo many people to talk to and everyone is so receptive. I love it. It's really hard and really confusing to have 2 wards, but I'm starting to get the hang of it. We have tons of investigators and are meeting tons of new people every day.

Let’s go back to Foothills for just a second and talk about Monday. So, for my last p-day, our district did the ice bucket challenge... it was really cold (I have a video for when I get home) but luckily you dry out in like 2 seconds here in Vegas. It was pretty funny. I finished packing and Sister Robinson and I cleaned and then we had my last dinner with Jecia, who brought us Cheesecake Factory! It was awesome! We stopped at FHE to say goodbyes and then stopped to say goodbye to Alainya and MJ. It was really sad to leave- I LOVE Foothills and YSA and all the people there that I have met. And I miss my BFF, Sister Robinson like nobody's business!

Tuesday morning we met at the Viking Chapel and transferred. I got to see Sister Olsen, from Sunrise! She was there helping missionaries bring their stuff to transfers. Then I put my stuff in our car and drove off to North Las Vegas with Sister Smith!

I LOVE SISTER SMITH! She is from Alberta Canada, went to BYU-I and then UVU, she has long red hair (you can be friends, Dad!), and she is really outgoing. She goes home at the end of this transfer, in 5 weeks. We get along great! She also spent a semester at the BYU-Jerusalem Center! Our area is awesome. It literally borders the West Mission. One side of the street is our area and the other is out of our mission, haha. It's weird. We have 2 wards - Pelican Creek and Hidden Canyon. It is awesome! We talk to everyone and seriously over half the people we talk to let us come back - it's amazing.

On Tuesday I met a few of our investigators. We had a lesson with Orion who is 15. His Uncle is in our ward, so he comes to church with him. Orion is a really sweet kid, and is a bit shy, but we can tell that he really is self-motivated, and really has been praying for answers. He is getting baptized on October 11! We also had a returning less active member who called us and said that his wife wanted to meet with us! We met with him and her, CJ and Amanda, and talked about the Restoration. She was really into it and was like, "Woah, that's cool!" It was cute. She is pregnant, and their baby is due this Friday! She is really excited to get baptized as well, and to raise their baby with the Gospel. She's getting baptized on November 1st, as of now (hopefully the baby permits that). We met them at the church, so I also got to meet a ton of members on my first day there. I also threw up. Typical.

Wednesday was District Meeting, which was funny, because I've served with a ton of the missionaries in my district already: Elder Tongi, Keogan, Fort, Sister Davis, and Swerd. It's fun and there is another Elder from Michigan, too! Hooray for the mitten state (the REAL mitten state, not Wisconsin - shout out to Sista Robinson :) ). Later we went to see a less active that recently got baptized. He was really solid and was going to do temple baptisms weekly! Then something happened and he just sort of fell. It's really sad, but we'll keep visiting him. And he loves "mormon green jello" so we just bring some to him, and he talks to us every time. We went to visit a potential investigator, and she was sitting out on her front porch with her 16 year old granddaughter, so we got to talk to them for a little bit and pray with them and they told us to come back this week. The granddaughter was really excited about church with girls her age! The woman's name was Ms. Poole, she's an old, southern baptist, and is just so cute! We went to see a less active, Chinese lady and she rambled on and on about the government and kid's acne and pretty much anything but the Gospel. And we couldn't understand her really, so Sister Smith and I just sat there, it was hilarious. Kinda like that one time when we went to get our nails done, and I couldn't understand the lady that was talking to me, so I just ignored her... except I didn't ignore this lady. Hahaha. I got to meet some more of our investigators on Wednesday, too. The Loveall's are a part-member family, so we are teaching the husband and 9-year old son that are not members. They are really excited about the Gospel! Our lessons with them are so sweet. They really understand it and want to be baptized. Justin and Anthony are getting baptized on October 11 and they can't wait!

Thursday we street contacted this really interesting guy who waved us up to his garage to talk to him. Apparently he had met with the missionaries before, but got super offended by a member and will never come back. He was really nice though and loves missionaries. It was weird. We met with a recent convert from Africa, Landji, and his other non-member friends that live with him. They are all from Africa, Gabon and Kenya, and are here in American because they are part of the Circus and were going to perform here in Vegas! They were really cool! We talked about the Book of Mormon and coming to church. We met another investigator named Gilbert, who is older, but is excited about "The Word of God". He was funny. We also went to Sister Bacod's house for dinner and she showed us all the quilt's she is making - she is really talented. She is from Alaska! We vacuumed a lady's house, who has a really bad knee and had surgery on it, and talked with her for a while! She hadn't been to church in a long time, but came this week! Then I met some more investigators - Debby and Kaycee. Debby was a street contact and she had met with missionaries in California before! She knows the gospel is true but is shy and doesn't like to come to church because of that, so we are working on that. Kaycee is her 11 year old daughter, and she is just so funny! We brought a member with us, and Kaycee asked if she was my daughter... hahaha. Kaycee has a part in the primary program that is next week, and she is so excited about it! We are hoping that will get her parents to come to church!

Friday was weekly planning, which takes FOREVER when you have 2 wards! In the middle of it we got to have lunch with Sister Worthington! She has been home for a long time, but I served around her in Sunrise, and she was Sister Smith's companion in Sunrise! It was really fun to see her again. We had dinner with some really sweet members, and then we had a lesson with another investigator, Renae. We brought someone that is around her age from our ward, and when Renae opened the door, they we're both really surprised! They knew each other! It was awesome and was just what Renae needed. She had been to church once before, but didn't like it, but when this friend invited her to go, she agreed to come for all 3 hours! It was amazing! And she loved it when we taught her about the plan of salvation! Renae is an artist, and draws with pen, it's really cool. When we came out of her lesson, we walked to our car and someone had hit our car. We were in a parking spot, and our bumper was just being held up by our bike rack. Of course they didn't leave a note, and it's a pretty sketchy part of town, especially at night. We had the Elders come and put our bumper in their van and we currently have it sitting in our living room. It's pretty funny. We are getting it fixed today.

Saturday we met with a less active and struggling member who is going back to the Bahamas for a little while, she is so sweet, and the pastors from her old church are trying to convince her that she doesn't have a testimony of the Church. It's sad. We met with the Loveall's again, had dinner at Sister Jeppson's house - a really sweet returned missionary lady in our ward. We went to contact people that night and walked past this garage that was a full blown man cave - we talked to the guy that was inside it and he said that that was the only space in their house that was completely his, it was insane - complete with TV, chandelier, and popcorn machine. We get to walk so much here, I love it. We talk to so many people!

Sunday was crazy! We have sacrament for our first ward at 9, then we both go to Sunday school, and halfway through that, Sister Smith went to the other ward's sacrament meeting while I stayed there. Then I went to Relief Society, and then met her after the Sacrament meeting, and we both went to Sunday school again and relief society again. It's confusing! People there are awesome though. There are tons of nice people. There is one man that always brings us snacks to church! He was cool. We met with CJ and Amanda again after church and they brought their friend, Josh! We had a super fast dinner, and then went to the Why I Believe fireside with Kaycee! During the WIB, the recent convert that was speaking was talking about the Elders that taught him, and he was talking about how close they got, and he said, "Yeah, I was seeing them all the time! They'd come over and teach me a few times a week, and then I would see them like, every day! I even took them to a football game!" And everyone gasped, and then looked at the 2 Elders, and then everyone just laughed. The poor guy at the pulpit had no idea why everyone was laughing, but it was so funny. At the end, President got up and was like, "No, I'm not going to rebuke those Elder for going to that sporting event..." Hahahaha.

Today is P-day, and we are getting our car fixed, and who knows what else. I love it here. I definitely miss Foothills, and Sister Robinson, but I am really excited to be here to finish my mission. Go North! Have a great week!

Love, Sister Coltrin