Happy 21st Birthday!

I can hardly believe that it's already week 6 again. We get transfer stuff on Saturday... Sister Robinson and I are really sad, and are making lists of all the things we have to do together when we get home.  I mean, I guess we could stay together for 3 transfers... but let’s be real, I'm probably getting transferred. Last 2 transfers are going to be crazy!

This week was AWESOME! Hooray for birthday week! Thanks for all the sweet birthday emails!

Monday was great! We had a fun, relaxing P-day. Later that night, Sister Robinson insisted that we stop at FHE for just a little bit, to see if any of our investigators stopped by. We walked in, and when I walked into the gym, everyone came over and sang happy birthday to me! It was so sweet! There were root beer floats, and they made me a giant "C" and all wrote birthday wishes on it! Sister Robinson told them that I collect C’s, and this one is by far my favorite :) After that we got to go and see Maddy and talk to her about doing baptisms at the temple, MJ came with us and invited her to go with her to the temple that Saturday! What a great way to kick off my 21st!

Tuesday was my 21st birthday! Nothing like turning 21 in Vegas... while being a missionary... hahaha. It was awesome though!! We woke up and Sister Robinson made me cute breakfast - pancakes in the shape of a "21" and then smiley face toast, since I love, love, love toast. Then I opened my package from home! It was so fun! We did all our normal stuff, and then at lunch she gave me her present - a "C" necklace! So now we have matching ones (I got her the "J" for her birthday)! We also got to do service and helped Alainya paint her kitchen. It was so fun. We had two lessons, one with Angie, and one with Glen! Also, while we were walking around this one apartment complex, we stopped to talk to this lady. We said hi, and then she looked at us and just said, "Do you bless homes?" and she rushed us into her house! It was awesome! We prayed with her and her cute family, and then left. The Elders are teaching them now! It was a miracle. We had dinner with Amaris that night, who made a special birthday dinner with homemade mashed potatoes and birthday chocolate pie :) It was the best! After dinner they pulled out a huge trunk of jewelry and let Sister Robinson and I choose some! Their grandfather had a jewelry shop and used to trade with Indians, too! So we got some sweet turquoise Indian jewelry! It was so sweet, we love them. It was a GREAT day!

Wednesday we had a really great day, too! We saw a recent convert that no one has seen in months! She came out, on crutches, and told us how she is on bed rest and how much she missed church - she even started crying and was so thankful that we had come. We were glad we caught her awake! She was so sweet, and we were able to get her home teachers to bring her the sacrament on Sunday and give her a blessing. It was amazing! We were going to have dinner at the Walton's, even though they got released, but the Sisters in their ward went there for dinner (we aren't allowed to eat with other missionaries in members homes), so the Walton's texted us after the Sister's left because they wanted to have dessert with us. Haha, I love the Walton's! We got to have real dinner with a less active that night who wanted us to come and teach his girlfriend - it was so good (the dinner) and then got really weird (the lesson). She didn't know we were coming to teach a lesson, and we didn't know that she didn't know... hahaha.

Thursday was exchanges. I stayed here in Foothills with Sister Jenkins and we had a great day! We made the program for Christine's baptism in the beginning of the day. We got to have a lesson with Crystal about prayer - it was hilarious. In the middle of it, she and her mom got into a huge argument about her new boyfriend... don't even know how that came up... but it was hilarious. We had a really awesome lesson with Travis at the park about all the commandments - and Sydney came out to help us. We tried to see one of our investigators that we haven't been able to contact for a while and he was outside! Sister Jenkins started to street contact him, and I was like, "Oh! Hey Alex!" And she turned around and was like, "Do you know him!?" It was awkward. We had a really good lesson with Glen, too! We taught him about the Priesthood and we think he finally gets it. At least a little. We talked about having a modern day Prophet, and he was like, "WOAH." Hahahaha, we laughed for a few minutes about that one. We also got to catch Tonya at the end of the day! Good exchange.

Friday was Zone Training Meeting and Weekly Planning. In between, we got to meet the Lee's for lunch at Wahoo's! It was so fun! I love them.

Saturday we took out a girl that we met when we were getting snow cones!  She was working, but was like, "Sisters! I really want to come out with you!" And gave us her number, yay! So we got to bring her contacting for a little while. Later we went to set up for Christine's baptism and fill the font. Sister Robinson made me kill all the spiders in the font - there were 6! Ew. Christine's baptism was AMAZING. The Spirit was so strong there and she was so ready. She had a "Just got Dunked" theme party after her baptism, complete with Dunkin' Donuts, chocolate chip cookies and oreos to dunk in milk, and chips and dip :)  So cute. That night we went out to Boulder City for dinner with Ian and Jennifer to a cool place called Toto's - super Mexican restaurant and soooo good. Then went to see Joe!

Sunday was great, and interesting... So we started off by going to Christine's confirmation in the Mission Hills Ward. It was so sweet! Then, we had our regular pre-church meetings. Then church was CRAZY. So remember a while back when we had a lesson with some investigators and it got a little crazy and the Elder's had to come and get us out of there? Probably like 2 months ago? Well one of them SHOWED UP AT CHURCH!  I turned around and he was talking to Sister Robinson, in the doorway of the chapel, right before church was starting. I recognized him, and then started to panic because I realized who it was. We took him out to the lobby, and I grabbed one of the Elder's that was also in the hallway, thankfully. We talked to this guy for a second, and he grabbed Sister Robinson's hand and got down to propose! Elder Lee quickly picked him up and was like, "So, man, what's your favorite part about church?" HAHAHAHAHAHA. We all kind of didn't know what to do, and we're pretty sure this guy was drunk, so Sister Robinson and I walked away, and Elder Lee talked to him for a second, and then he walked out of the building. We were shaking! It was so scary, but it was so, so, so funny! Like, SO funny. We got in the car after church and just busted up laughing. Church was great though, and Glen got to come and sent us a text after church telling us how much he loved it! And one of our members made us homemade bread - the best bread I've EVER had! Woo, Sunday funday.

That night we got to go to a special fireside with Travis and his friend Camilo! ALEX BOYE came to do a fireside! It was PACKED! And it was so fun!

Well, that's it for the week - it was an exciting one! We are going to the Downeast Outlet today with a member from our ward, and are just having a relaxed p-day. One more week of the transfer! Crazy!

Have a good week! I love you!

Love, Sister Coltrin

 

 

 

"The giant "C" that everyone in the ward wrote on for my birthday!"

 

"Birthday breakfast from my sweet companion!"

 

Happy 21st Birthday!

"Look mom - I waited until my birthday to open my box."

 

 

 

​"New clothes, yay!"

 

 

Sister Coltrin and Sister Jenkins on exchanges

 

 

 

"Chalkboard I made for Christine's baptism - I know, I'm a pro!"

 

 

 

Sister Robinson, Sister Coltrin, Christine Snachez and Joe Eldridge

Christine's baptism day

 

 

 

Christine's son Duke and Sister Coltrin

 

 

 

 

Rachel, Christine, Sister Coltrin, Sister Robinson, and Jessica at the baptism

"GUESS WHO I SAW AT CHURCH! IT'S EDER!

I taught him a year ago in Temple View!!"

"Yes indeed, that is ALEX BOYE in the flesh! Totally met him.

I was just mad that I wasn't wearing like, 6 scarves. I totally would have had him sign one of them.

(If you don't get the joke, go watch his mormon message where he sings "Have I Done Any Good?" http://www.mormonchannel.org/have-i-done-any-good?v=1708170439001.)"