Transfers are Tuesday!

This week has been super great! We have had so many spiritual experiences this week, and have had a lot of fun!

Monday was p-day.  It was pretty normal. We haven't been doing big, extravagant things for p-day lately. 

I don't remember what has happened on each individual day, but we have found a lot of new investigators this week, and have had a lot of fun, and had an amazing baptism! 

About our investigators:

 We found 4 new investigators this week! Almost 6, actually. Kiki and TJ are brother and sister. They were a pass off from the Elders. They are really nice and are both looking for more in their lives. TJ always talks about how he wants to be closer to God, which is so cool! We stopped by a less-active's house, and he wasn't there, but his non-member friends were! We met with 2 of them, one of which is a former investigator, and hopefully we'll get to see them again soon! We also met a couple of potential investigators from our lists that answered their doors! Jason and Elijah. We left a note on Jason's door, which turned out to be his neighbor's door. He got the note form his neighbor and called us back! We went over to meet him and invite him to church, and he was really excited. We are so excited to have found so many people this week! 

We got transfer news, and unfortunately Sister Ena is getting transferred! I only got to be with her for one transfer :( We were super sad. She will be going to the Samoan Ward that covers the whole valley. My new companion will be Sister Robinson. She is from Wisconsin and has been out for just 3 transfers. She's coming up from her first area in Kingman. 

We've had a lot of success this week and have had some amazing lessons! We got to meet with Travis the morning of his baptism, and he was so prepared and so excited. His baptism was AMAZING. The Spirit was so strong there. I got to speak about the Holy Ghost. After he was baptized, he was glowing! He told us that he couldn't even describe how he felt, he felt clean, and so, so happy! The best part was after he was confirmed and received the Gift of the Holy Ghost on Sunday - he sat back down next to us and said, "I feel so good right now! I'll have to tell you about it after church!" He told us that he literally felt the Spirit come to him, so strongly, and that he just knew that it was with him! It was so sweet - probably one of the coolest things I've had an investigator say. 

We've been meeting with Maddy too, in preparation for her baptism! She is getting baptized this coming Saturday! She is so excited. We met with her on Sunday morning, and she was talking about how she just knows that the church is true, and how she is so excited to be baptized! I love teaching people about the Gospel! It's amazing! 

We just had a Zone BBQ. It was really fun! We grilled hamburgers and hotdogs, and the Poly's made some super good drink with watermelon, pineapple, and coconut. 

We had a great week! I will miss my Soa Ena so much. I have loved getting to know and be a part of the Polynesian culture. She will be one of my best friends forever!

 

Have a great week!

 

Love, Sister Coltrin

 

Sister Ena and Sister Coltrin

Saying goodbye to Charlene, Lindsay and Callie

 

Another Exciting Week in Vegas!

We have had some exciting things happen this week! It's been awesome! This is the last week of the transfer, so this Saturday we will know what is going on. Can you believe I only have 4 transfers left? I can't.

Monday was p-day, as always. Pretty boring, nothing too exciting.  We went to have a lesson with a new investigator, but it fell through and he wasn't there. That night we met with Travis. We moved his baptism up to this coming weekend! He is so excited and he is sincerely ready to be baptized. He is amazing and his faith has grown so much. We love Travis!

Tuesday was District Meeting. After that we went to see Joe! We just laugh and laugh and laugh every time we meet with Joe, he is so funny. He is doing really well, he comes to church every week now! It's a miracle, he got Sundays off work! We had dinner with a family in Sister Ena's old area (which is a ward that is in our area). It was really fun to be with them. After dinner, their son pointed out that he had a Python. He proceeded to take it out, and I proceeded to run to the other end of the house. Hahaha. I hate snakes. Why does everyone in Vegas have a snake?!? After a while of them coaxing me to come closer, I finally touched the snake's tail.

We were super busy on Wednesday. We met with Joe, and then one of our recent converts came out with us. We had a lesson with a referral that we received but it fell through. We went to our backups with him, and went to knock on a door. There was super loud music, and a girl answered the door. We asked for the guy we were looking for and she said she didn't think he was home. She went to see (because we asked her to) and then a couple more people came to the door. They were all laughing and being rude, so we just left. Our recent convert was like, "Do you run into a lot of rude people like that?" I was like, oh my gosh, this wasn't even bad! After that, we had a lesson with our investigator Brian, but he also wasn't there. Then we met with Travis! We always meet at the park and it was sooo hot that day! We had dinner at Bishop's house that night and coordination meeting afterwards (which, guess what? ALSO fell through!)

Thursday morning we saw Joe. We got to see Alainya that afternoon! She is so sweet, I love being able to teach her. We went back to see Brian again, and he was there! We taught him the Restoration with one of our members, and it was amazing! The Spirit was really strong, and we could tell that he really understood and felt the Spirit. We did service after that, and helped a member put baseboards in their house. That night, we were parked in a parking lot, texting and calling people back. All of a sudden, like 5 police cars surround our car and turn their lights on. We freaked out, just a little. There were a few homeless people trespassing and causing problems in the field right next to where we were, so they weren't there for us... but it was still a little scary!

Friday was weekly planning, and seeing Joe in the morning. Sister Ena's back was not cooperating, and so she had to lay down for an hour. We contacted people that day, and tried some less actives that we've never met before. We got a couple of return appointments, so that was good! We felt like we should go and see one of our former investigators, Eddie. Before that I felt like we should go a write a sticky note and put it on one of our member's doors. When we walked to her door, we saw this guy going to get his mail. We went to talk to him and he was super nice! We got his info, and got a referral for the Zone Leaders, it was awesome! He seemed really interested, we were glad we went to write a note for our member. When we saw our former investigator, we could tell he was not doing well. He asked if we would meet with him again! It was amazing. That night we had dinner with one of our recent converts, Alan, and Morgan, who is a member in our ward. We had a new member lesson with Alan afterwards, and then we went on exchanges!

Saturday was an amazing day, full of miracles! Our Sister Training Leader's companion had to go home for medical reasons, so she is in a trio now with some other sisters. Sister Ena went with our STL to work in their area, and I got to stay in Foothills for the day with a member. I called Sister Gelabert, so that it would be easier than switching members all day. It was good to be with her! We got to see Joe in the morning, then we got a return appointment from a referral. We went to see Brian again, and invited him to church. We had lunch, and she made me pasta, just like she did when we were in Anthem. We contacted a lot of potentials and referrals! We had a lesson with Travis, and talked about his baptism too! We went out to Boulder City to contact some people, and then got stuck in traffic for 45 minutes on the way back, so Sister Gelabert asked me questions about missions to help her prepare for her mission (she leaves for Kansas in August). We had a quick dinner and then went to see Ken. We haven't seen him in forever! We knocked, and got to talk to him for just a little bit, and scheduled a lesson. He's doing well, and I'm hoping that he has recognized the difference since he hasn't been coming to church.  We contacted a few more people, and then it was time to exchange again.

Sunday morning we had a lesson with Maddy! We set her for baptism on the 28th and she is so excited for it! We had an amazing lesson with her. We are so excited for her. We had meetings, and coordination meeting, and then church. Church was great! Sacrament meeting was alllll about Father's, since it was Father's day. I got a little sad, and may or may not have, but definitely did cry a little bit because I missed my Dad. He is the best. Happy Belated Father's Day! We had a lesson with Travis after church to help him figure out his baptismal program for this week! We had dinner with Jillian, a few appointments, and then crashed after a long, tiring week!

This morning I got to play tennis, finally! It was so fun! P-day, yay. Okay, everyone, have a great week!

Love, Sister Coltrin

Playing tennis in our new mission t shirts

 

 

 

Sister Gelabert and Sister Coltrin reunited for a day

 

 

 

"I touched another snake and didn't even cry that much."

Talofa!

Talofa!

This week has been great! We have been finding new people and have been seeing a lot of miracles in our area! I absolutely love my companion, Sister Ena, we have so much fun together. This week has had ups and downs - with President and Sister Neider leaving in just a few weeks, we are pretty sad, they will be missed. 

Let’s see if I can remember what we did this week! I don't have my planner with me right now, so I have to just go off my memory... so this could be interesting. 

Well, first off, it is starting to get SO hot! You know you're in Vegas when you get in your car at 8:45pm and it's 100 degrees outside. Ugh. And this week we started hitting the 110s. It kind of stinks when you leave your backpack in the car for 20 minutes and all your favorite chapsticks and all the starbursts in your backpack melt... oops. Gross.

Last Monday our District went out to Nelson to the old mines! A member and his family own the mines out there, so we got to go for free. It was super fun! We started off with a tour of their house/museum, and then went through their yards with all this cute, old stuff... All I could think of was how much Sister Murphy would have LOVED it! And then we went through the mines, it was awesome! They are pretty much self air-conditioned, it felt so good. There was a part where the guys turned off all the lights and it was SO dark! I couldn't see my hand in front of my face - and yes, I did try! Our district took a bunch of pictures, including one where 4 of the Elders tried to fit into a small bathtub... yikes. 

Tuesday we had a few lessons. We are still trying to get a hold of Ken, we haven't seen him in a while. We are still meeting with Travis, Maddy, Brian, Joe, Nathan, and our recent converts! We invited Travis and Maddy to be baptized this week and they both accepted! They are so awesome! We met with Travis and taught him the second and third lessons this week, and with Maddy we did the 10 commandments and all that they entail. Joe is doing awesome, he is still coming to church, and he even texted us this week because we hadn't seen him in a few days and he wanted us to come over!

Wednesday we spent the day trying to contact some referrals, and we set up a few appointments for this coming week. In the middle of the day, the Zone Leaders called and asked Sister Ena if her and all the other Poly's in our zone would sing a musical number (for the next day...) so we called them all and we all met at the church and put a song together - it was AWESOME.

On Thursday we had Zone Conference - our last one with President and Sister Neider. It was a super sad day! The Poly's sang their song, a Samoan song and "God Be With You Til We Meet Again" in English and Samoan. We were all crying. I love the Neider's so much.

Friday was a normal day, we had some lessons and contacted people.

Saturday was probably the highlight of the week! We had Zone Training Meeting (and it actually ended on time...)! That night though, was the BEST! There is a member of our ward who had a sister getting married and her reception was that night. He signed up to feed us, and their family wanted us to come (we go to a LOT of Polynesian things, thanks to Sister Ena!). They're Tongan, so needless to say, we had to be there. It was Elder Latu's cousin, so he and Elder Rogers were there as well - sitting at the Bridal Party table. It was hilarious to see this long table of Tongans, and then this one little, white kid, hahaha! The whole thing was SO FUN! There was Tongan food, and we ate with our hands, and they all had their cultural dances, it was a blast! I was laughing the whole time!

Sunday, we had Travis, Maddy, and Brian all at church! We have such an awesome ward, they all fellowship our investigators so well! We love them! We had meetings from 10:30 until church started at 2:00, and then right after church we grabbed some food from our ward linger longer, and headed off to the last "Why I Believe" fireside! The fireside was SOOOO good, and President and Sister Neider spoke at the end to say goodbye. It was sad, again, but still good. I love the “Why I Believe” firesides, plus we get to see like, all the missionaries there! I love that. Tons of my favorite missionaries are leaving this transfer, so I got to say goodbye to them too.

Today is p-day, and we got our hair cut this morning at a member's salon. It was super nice of her! We have been in a water balloon war this afternoon as a zone, and I'm sitting here typing while I'm drenched. Got to get back to the war!

I love you! Ofa Atu!

 

Love, Sister Coltrin

 

 

 

The Mines and the surrounding area

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rattle Snakes!

 

 

 

Our District at Zone Conference

 

 

President and Sister Neider with Sister Ena and Sister Coltrin

 

 

"Sister C and the Polys"

 

 

There is a whole pig at the wedding reception!

 

 

"LOOK! I'm practically Tongan."

 

 

 

 

Another Great Week In Vegas

Another great week in Vegas! I love it here. Sorry for the short email, we had to stay in a few days due to sickness (I think President puts all the sick Sisters with me...).

Monday we had p-day, which was actually pretty boring. But we got to go to the Duck's house for a Memorial Day barbeque for dinner! It was fun! We had Family Home Evening after that.

Tuesday our District Meeting was cancelled, due to a sick District Leader. We had a couple of lessons, and then we had to head home to put meatballs in the oven to take to St. Timothy's to feed the homeless! Our ward goes and helps another church to feed the homeless once a month - it's actually really fun! We prepare the food, and then work an assembly line to put food on plates, and then we serve the food! We have a lot of fun there. It was especially cool this time because our investigator, Travis, came to help out! After that we went to the Evan's house for "Taco Night" where a bunch of people from the ward go and have dinner. We got to meet a lot of people in our ward. 

Wednesday we had a lesson with Joe and then lunch with one of our members. Sister Ena started to get really sick - her back was really hurting her (she couldn't walk) and she was coughing up blood. We went home so we could call the mission medical sister, and then Sister Ena took some medicine and napped. It was so sad! I wished I could have helped her. I wasn't feeling great either, with a fever of 102. We had to cancel our plans for the rest of the evening because she was sick. But we did have one lesson with Maddy that night and we taught her about the Word of Wisdom! We love teaching her, she is so receptive, and she is awesome!

Thursday was my ONE YEAR mark! What the heck!? Time flies. We started it off right by having a lesson at 9! We taught Travis a really powerful lesson about the Restoration at the park with Robin. It was incredible! We went to District Meeting after that and then District Lunch. We met with Alainya to do another new member lesson about the Word of Wisdom, and then met with Joe to read the Book of Mormon. He makes us laugh so much whenever we are over there. Sister Ena was feeling sick again after that, so we had to go in for an hour for her to rest. We had dinner at Adrian's that night, and then had a fire and I burned a dress and a skirt in honor of my one year mark! Don't worry, Mom - both the dress and skirt were already ruined and couldn't be worn.  It was such a fun night!

Friday morning we had lessons at 9, 10, 11, and noon! It was an awesome way to start off a Friday! We met with Alan to have his last lesson before his baptism! Then we had a pass off lesson with the Elders and got a new investigator named Brian. He is really receptive, but has some mental handicaps, so we aren't sure how well teaching him will go. We are excited though! We met with Joe and then went to have lunch with the Samoan family. Obviously, I impressed them with all of my Samoan words (the 5 that I know...) hahaha. I love having a poly companion!

Saturday was CRAZY! We were rushing around helping people with baptism things, we had another awesome lesson with Travis and committed him to baptism! We talked about the Plan of Salvation, one of my favorite lessons. It was amazing. We met with a few people and knocked on a few doors. Then we had a quick dinner with Adrian and then went to the baptism!!

Alan's baptism was so sweet. Adrian baptized him and then Alan bore his testimony - which was amazing. This has really changed his life and has helped him a lot. Sister Ena and I both spoke at the baptism. It was a great night!

Sunday was the normal ward council and church routine. We got to have dinner with our Relief Society President, Jillian. We love her! We had a lot of fun there and she is so sweet!

We have been getting a lot of referrals this week, we are being so blessed! Thanks for all the prayers! Our investigators are increasing and are all progressing!

I seriously love it here. I love the people, I love Vegas, I love teaching the Gospel, I love serving.

Have a great week! Ou te alofa ia te oe!

Love, Sister Coltrin

 

 

 

 

Sister Coltrin, Sister Ena and Adrien

 

 

 

The burning of a skirt - a one year mark tradition

 

 

 

Sister Coltrin, Alan, Sister Ena

 

 

 

Alan and Sister Coltrin

 

 

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