Time Flies

 

 

The end of the transfer is near and I have no idea how that happened... Didn't I just get here!? The transfer ends next week, and I will be so sad to send my dear, sweet companion back to Temple Square. We have agreed to act like it isn't coming. Too sad. Shawn, James, and Blake will have to go find her for me.  

I am really hoping that I will stay in Sunrise, in the YSA ward. I love this ward and the people that we teach! Sister Sneidere thinks I will stay. I hope she is right! 

So last Monday, we had a birthday party for our P-day. Two of our missionaries, Sister Bohling and Elder Vaiaoga had birthdays! We had a pinata and everything, it was great.  There was a lot of cake there, so naturally, Sister Sneidere has been eating it for every meal- all week. She loves sweets. 

One of the mountains that is near us, Mount Charleston, has been on fire for a while. The smoke blankets the entire city. It has cleared up, but it was sooo bad. We would smell smoke when we turned the air conditioning up! Gross. It made reaaaally cool sunsets though. 

Tuesday was our leadership training with President and Sister Neider and the AP's. It was realllllly good. It was NINE HOURS LONG though. 

We were able to meet with Edna (one of our recent converts) this week. She is the cutest. She loves us and always makes sure we are taken care of. If she could, she would have us over to dinner every night. We were about to leave her house when a door opened and her little siblings, Freddy (10) and Leslie (5) came out. They saw us, gasped, and ran to us. It was the sweetest thing. They love us. And we really love them. They love when we come and talk about church. It's so cool that little kids can know when something is good - like the gospel. 

On Wednesday, the 11th, we went on exchanges. It was free slurpee day and 7-11's are literally on every single corner here... so naturally we got 3 free slurpees. I was with Sister Lake for the day in Paradise. Improperly named city, but whatever. Sunrise is the best! We had appointments literally every hour of the day, it was awesome. We met with one of their investigators who basically told us that he is God... so that was a fun lesson. Exchanges were good and I learned a lot of new stuff. I was telling Sister Lake about how Sister Sneidere and I are obsessed with learning Spanish. We were contacting and met a guy that spoke only a little English, so she pointed to me and said, "Oh, well she speaks some Spanish!" Haaaaa, thanks Sister Lake. I was able to tell him who we were, what we were doing, and if he would like one of our cards. We set up an appointment. So, I guess I'm pretty cool. He sang us a song on his guitar afterwards and it was pretty funny. 

By the way, Dad, you think you have it bad having to speak about the Law of Chastity at church? Try teaching it to your investigators who don't want to follow it and continue to tell you why they don't... Yeah. 

On Thursday, we took some investigators and recent converts and less actives (Eder, Edna, a new investigator named Carl, and a less active that Eder brought named Ariam) around the temple and talked about the temple. We had one of our members, Eric, there with us which was really helpful. When we were walking back to the church through the temple parking lot, I saw a license plate that said "BYUFAN" and took a picture with it, of course. 

Earlier that night, one of our members brought us Olive Garden and ate with us... her name is Karina Wilberg. Her sister is serving in the Lansing Michigan mission! Karina says to find her and feed her. There is another Elder that is serving in Lansing that is from here - Elder Congor. I met his family this week and his sister is in my singles ward. 

Mom, you're going to be so proud. We organized our area book and our member list this week.  Finally. We actually know what is in there! And it isn't all stuff from 2009!   It took a long time, but it was definitely worth it. 

We met with Edna again for dinner and we watched Finding Faith in Christ with her. We watched it in Spanish (since she understands more in Spanish). It was really weird to hear all that in a different language. Sister Sneidere looked at me and whispered "Woah! Jesus speaks Spanish!"… I laughed so hard. 

It turns out that Eder didn't end up getting baptized this week. He knows he wants to, and he will, he just wants family and girlfriend support first. Ugh. It turns out that he did end up getting support from his family this week though! What a blessing. But his girlfriend is the problem now. What the heck! And she lives all the way in Germany! We were not very happy with her, hahaha. But, he will get it figured out. He knows the gospel is important. Pray for him though, please. 

Yesterday, Sunday, we had meetings and church. We also went to the Spanish ward's sacrament meeting at night because our investigator, Adrian, was only able to make it to that - his very first time at church! We were so excited. We got to go out of our area for it. One of our members brought us dinner to the Spanish ward - homemade lasagna, and it was soooo good. We pretty much ate the whole thing while standing in the church kitchen. He drove us back to our car in the back of his pickup truck…that was really fun.

We eat dinner with members probably 4 or 5 times a week. They are so great! We get fed by our ward and a family ward (since our singles don't really have the money to feed us). We eat with some of our Elders at member's homes a lot. Oh and just a little recommendation, if you haven't put apple pie spice on oatmeal yet, just take my advice and do it. You can thank me later. 

Then, on Sunday night, we had a little surprise...

One of the sister's in the zone next to ours got her visa to Brazil. So her companion, Sister Cummings- who was from my MTC district, is now in a trio with us. We drove them to the mission office late last night (I say "late" being a missionary, so it was really only like 8:30). We got to visit with President and Sister Neider for a little bit - I love them so much. They are so great and loving and kind. We got home at like 10:45 with our new companion. She will be with us for the rest of the transfer... and now we have to cover both areas. I am still undecided about this…It's cool but it's crowded. So yeah, I'm a trio! 

Thanks for the bag and the package mom! The bag is awesome. It fits everything a lot better. We were at leadership training and Sister Hall (a Hawaiian sister from my district) told me, "Hey cute bag! It looks like a diaper bag." hahahah. So now we call it my diaper bag. 

I'm doing well and I love it here. I have the entire Restoration video memorized. I finally know our mission’s third verse to "Called to Serve" and Temple Square's third verse, since Sister Sneidere sings it all the time, and our many recitations that we have to memorize in our mission. 

We got permission to go to the temple with our recent converts to do baptisms! We are really excited and will go probably this week. We are also taking zone pictures at the temple – a member offered to take them for us. 

We got a few new investigators this week! Carl and Shelby. We are working with a lot of less actives too that are ready to come back. 

I seriously love it here. I love Sunrise, and I love my district, and I love my companion (or, companions), and I love our members and investigators and the Temple View ward. 

Love and miss you!

 

Love, Sister Coltrin

 

 

 

Taking full advantage of free slurpee day!