This Was A Great Week!

This week was great! 

Monday was p-day and we played at the church for a long time. That night we got to go see the Brown's and teach a new member lesson to the 9-year old, Kawika! Kawika and his brother, Ikaika, are so, so, sooo funny. They're young, but tell us the funniest stories about them at school. We love them! 

Tuesday was district meeting, which was really good. We contacted people, and had dinner that night at one of our Bishop's homes. We had a lesson scheduled with Orion at the church - but his Uncle told us that they were "busy". We had set up a surprise party for Orion because it was his 16th birthday! We had a banner and a cake and everything, it was cute. We decided that we were not letting it go to waste, so we drove over to their house and when Orion came to the door, we yelled Happy Birthday, holding our banner and cake! He had totally forgotten that he was supposed to meet with us that night, and the Uncle came out, and was surprised that we were there, but you could tell that he was happy that we had done something nice for Orion. It was sweet, Orion was so happy. We all ate cake, and sang Happy Birthday, and all that jazz. It was so fun, and before we left, he gave us hugs. He said that no one had done anything for him all day. It was sweet. After that, we got to go over to the Loveall's and do a fun object lesson about praying, reading the scriptures, and going to church. They were so excited to be baptized, Anthony kept talking about it! After that lesson, we went over to see Kaycee. We taught her the Word of Wisdom (while she was holding a bottle of tea... haha). She said it would be hard to give up tea because she loves it, but she would do it! Kaycee is so funny, I love her. She's 11, and you can totally tell! But she loves church and is excited to be baptized. 

On Wednesday we got to go over to see Amanda and CJ and their 9 day old baby, Christopher! HE IS SO CUTE! AND SO SMALL! We walked in, and Amanda was like, "Okay, who wants to hold him first!?" It was a little bit heartbreaking to have to tell her that we are not allowed to hold babies, but we survived. We saw another investigator that night, Sherry and her husband AJ, AJ is getting baptized in December, but Sherry is still unsure. She is studying with her church and loves the Bible, and isn't reading much from the Book of Mormon. We are going to be reading with her a lot. We went and had dinner at a family's home... and their teenage daughter kept making fun of her mom - oh my goodness, it made me feel so bad for anything mean I had ever said to my parents. Sister Smith and I walked out to the car and we were so sad! Renae had an appointment with us, but cancelled it and told us not to pressure her about meeting... so we aren't sure what's going on there, but hopefully everything will be okay. That night we had exchanges, but the sisters were late. They had to go a different route because the road to our apartment was closed because a gunman was on the loose... welcome to North! 

Thursday was exchanges, and I was with Sister Davis here in our wards all day. We got to see a lot of people and teach a lot of lessons, and we street contacted 30 people! We taught Orion about following the Prophet and about the word of wisdom. We got to see Amanda and CJ again and read from the Book of Mormon. CJ's mom was going crazy about us not holding the baby. She really wanted us to... it was sort of awkward. We also got to see a man in our ward who is working on getting re-baptized. He has an awesome story of getting back into the church that he shared with us, and told us that we could help him by coming over and re-teaching him all the lessons. We had ribs for dinner at the Gill's house! They are so awesome and nice. We met again with Sister Rock and then exchanged back. 

Friday was weekly planning, and then we had the Loveall's baptismal interview! We picked up the Elders to bring them to the church, because one of them is sick. They had a few empty water bottles with them, that they filled up at the church... they have no water at their house, so we had to stop somewhere the next day and bring them water. How are you supposed to live on 4 water bottles when you live in the desert and are sick...? But anyways, the interviews were awesome! They both passed and were so excited to be baptized! We quick ran to the Hanna's house and had a 10 minute dinner because we had to go to the Bishop's house for MEET THE MORMONS! The Turner's took us and our investigators to go and see it in a theater (yes, we are allowed to go). It was crazy driving to the West mission, and going to a casino to watch a movie in the theater... hahahah… what an experience as a missionary. We took pictures of it, of course. We LOVED Meet the Mormons! EVERYONE SHOULD GO SEE IT! 

Saturday we had a coordination meeting in the morning, had a lesson with Amanda and CJ, and then got ready for the baptism! It went so well! The spirit was so strong, and it was all just so sweet. Justin was so ready to be baptized and start new, and Anthony was so excited! They both bore their testimonies after, and they were so sweet. We went to their house afterwards for dinner! They both got brand new CTR rings from Justin's wife. We were all so happy!

Church was great! Kaycee sat with us in our first sacrament meeting, and she went up to bear her testimony! She asked me what you do to bear your testimony, and then she wrote out what she wanted to say, and then I went first, and then she bore hers! It was so sweet! And she is only 11! It was great! We went to the other sacrament meeting together so we could both be there when the Loveall's got confirmed. It was a great day!

Today we are going to play laser tag with our district for p-day! We are having such a good time here! I love North! Sister Smith and I have to give a training this week for District Meeting on getting our investigators to church, so let’s hope that goes well.

Happy Birthday to Brenden Murphy this week - love you, B!

Have a great week, everyone!

Love, Sister Coltrin

 

 

Happy Birthday to Orion!

With Sister Coltrin and Sister Smith

 

 

"Sister Smith and I at the Aliante Casino Theater to see Meet the Mormons on opening night!"

 

 

Sister Smith and Sister Coltrin waiting for the movie to begin

 

 

 

"Black widows line the streets at night here. It's gross."

 

 

"Jayden liked taking pictures, here is just one of them."

 

The Loveall's baptism!

Sister Smith, Jayden, Sister Coltrin, Justin, Anthony, Brother Petty, and Elder Wright