Week 2 in Anthem

Well, this week we have been trying to find ways to immerse ourselves in the community here so that we can meet and find people. It's been going pretty well and we have had a pretty fun week! We are trying to meet with the less actives in our ward, because there are a loooot of them. Our Bishop has also asked us meet with widows in the ward so that they aren't lonely.

Our ward is awesome! We have really nice families in our ward. They make sure we are taken care of. We have also been working with the families in our ward so that they can invite their non-member friends to the Gladys Knight fireside that is coming up in November. We are really excited for the fireside and are expecting a lot of success from it!

We met with our investigator, Missy, this week. She is really awesome. Her parents are really against her joining the church, but she has such a strong testimony and will not let her family stop her. We taught her about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and she felt the spirit so strongly. She is going to be baptized on November 30th. We are really excited!

We also were going through our area book and went to contact former investigators. We were able to gain a new investigator named Shirley! She is older and her husband who passed away was a member of the church. We talked to her about the Book of Mormon and we are planning on visiting her again soon! We brought a member with us, one of the youth that is preparing for a mission, and he bore a strong testimony about the Book of Mormon. It was awesome!

On Saturday morning we provided service at a half marathon. I was hoping that I would see my Dad running in it... hahah. But it was really, really fun to be there. We were there for almost half the day. It was called the "Saints and Sinner's Half Marathon" and all the proceeds went to the general missionary fund! The idea is really cute. So basically for all the aid stations during the run there are "Saints" stations, which had healthy food and water and good things to have to refuel while you are running.  There were also Sinner's" stations with doughnuts and candy and chocolate milk, and tempting junk food.  We worked at the finish line with the food. We got medals for helping, so that was really cool! Lots of people stopped to talk to us and it was a really good opportunity for us to be there. Plus we got to go by Lake Mead! And listen to music! I mean... we weren't listening... Hahah.  It was really fun!

Sister H is still waiting for her visa, we are hoping that it comes soon! She is anxious to get to Brazil.

Pray that we will be able to find new investigators and that Missy's parents will have softened hearts! She could really use it.

Thanks for all you do. I love you!

Love, Sister Coltrin

 

My First Week In Anthem

Well, this letter will be quite a bit shorter than normal. This morning we had a mission meeting that took a long time so our emailing time is limited. Sorry! I will try to share some of the highlights of the week and tell you a little bit about my new area here in the Paseo Verde Ward.  

Well, on Monday our zone in Sunrise just hung out and talked for our last time together, since almost half of us got transferred. It was a lot of fun. Sister Fields and I went to Family Home Evening and I had to say my final goodbyes to my sweet Temple View YSA ward. Such a sad day. 

Tuesday morning sports consisted of cinnamon rolls and tears. Hahaha. After that, we went home, loaded my stuff into our car, and drove to the mission office to meet our new companions. 

Sister Fields has changed my life. I love her so much and miss her a ton! I hope we will be able to serve together again. She will be one of my best friends forever. 

My new companion is Sister H. She is from northern Idaho, practically in Canada. She lives on a farm and has a big family. Her parents left on a mission to the Philippians this morning and one of her sisters is also on a mission. She is waiting for her visa to go to Brazil (as is her sister). She is 19. I miss Sister Fields so much, but Sister H and I are having a good time together! Sister H gets an hour of Language Study, so now I have 2 hours of personal study- woo hoo! 

This week we worked a lot on organizing the area. It was super messy and not efficient. We re-ordered the map of our area and fixed up our members list and area book. We have a lot more potential investigators now! I think that we are going to be able to have a lot more success now. 

On Wednesday night when we walked into our dinner appointment, our members took me over to a photo that they had on their bookshelf. They pointed to a young, blonde boy and asked if I knew him. I had no idea who it was... but when I looked closer, it was a little JAMES NISH!  I laughed so hard! I realized that I was at his Aunt and Uncle's house! What a small world. After dinner we spent time snapchatting James a picture. It was a lot of fun. 

We did a lot of contacting potential investigators and members this week. We are trying to think of new ways to find investigators. In a few weeks we are actually having a really neat opportunity to go to a fireside that Gladys Knight is putting on. She tours the country and does missionary work! So she will be singing with her choir and sharing her testimony. Members can only get tickets if they bring nonmembers! It is going to be an awesome missionary opportunity for the members out here! We are really excited for it. 

We also get to go to our ward's Trunk or Treat next week! We have little $5 costumes from Target. We are going to be a cat and a mouse! Yay for companionship unity. 

On Sunday night we went to the “Why I Believe” fireside to sing in the choir. I got to see Sister Fields! What a glorious reunion. A few of the Temple View members have already contacted me to make sure that I'm settled and have everything I need (thanks Karina, Miss McDade, and Abraham!) 

I am excited for the upcoming week to be able to try new things to find new investigators. It's different than a singles ward, but I'm excited to start working with all these families. This Sunday was the Primary Program, so that was really fun to see!

Pray that we will be able to find new investigators! We have 5 right now, 2 that are in part-member families, and 3 that are not. One will be baptized on November 30th. Her family is very against her joining the church and she was kicked out, which is so sad. But she is awesome and has such a strong testimony! 

Have a good week!

 

Love, Sister Coltrin

James Nish's aunt, Sister Coltrin, Sister H

 

The New Transfer Starts Tomorrow

What a great week! We didn't end up getting 20 member present lessons, but at least we had 22 scheduled... not that that counts for anything... but whatever! I have so many different emotions right now about this week, so this is going to be a great email. Or not.  

Well, Monday. We played Assassin around the church, which was pretty fun. Our dinner appointment cancelled, so we went to eat with some of the other missionaries. There is a family in our stake that feeds the missionaries every Monday night if they don't have other dinners. They are Samoan, they make a ton of food, and it's awesome. The only weird thing is that we all have to hold hands to pray there... so it's awkward for Elders and Sisters... yeah. After that, we got to go to our Family Home Evening, which is always fun. 

Oh, an awkward story. I got a letter on Monday from some random Elder in the California Long Beach Mission. I have no idea who he is. He said that he found me on mormon.org and wanted to thank me for my testimony that I have on there. Let's be real, my mormon.org stinks, but whatever. He sent me a picture of himself too. All the Elder's in my district we're like, "let us write him a strongly worded letter back for you!"  It was really funny and super weird. 

On Tuesday we had Zone Training, which was really good. We had some lessons planned, but most of them fell through. We went and did ward council visits with our ward. I went with our Relief Society President, Lauren. All the people we visited had a wrong address. One of the places was a Budget Suites place, so it's like an apartment that you rent on a daily or monthly basis. It was super sketchy. 

After that we went to the far away Viking Chapel to do exchanges.  Okay so this is what happened... Our Sister Training Leader called us halfway through the transfer to schedule exchanges. We called her three days before to find out which one of us needed to pack to go to their area. They didn't call us back. We called the next day. They still didn't call us back. We called three times and left three messages that morning and didn't get a call back until 4pm. It was her companion who didn't know what was going on. She said that her companion (our STL) was on exchanges and she would try to get a hold of her. She also asked if we could change the day. We couldn't because we had stuff Friday and Saturday. She got a hold of her companion and called us at 6pm. They said they would be late and asked if we could meet at 9:30 p.m. Remember that we are supposed to be home at 9 p.m., 9:30 p.m. at the latest. So we decided, whatever, we'll meet them there. The chapel is about a half an hour away. So we were sitting in the chapel parking lot, waiting and waiting. We called them at 9:50.  They weren't even on their way yet, they hadn't been home to pack clothes, nothing. I started to drive home and Sister Fields told them we would just forget about doing exchanges. We were so, so mad.  It was late, we had wasted miles, and we were just frustrated. But for the good news, we called Sister Neider and she told us to sleep in a little longer in the morning because we had to be out so late. Also, that sister is no longer a STL. And Sister Fields is this transfer! Woo hoo! 

On Wednesday, we had Elder Roger's and my "Last Supper" at the Petersen's house. We figured both of us were getting transferred, so they asked us what we wanted. Obviously I wanted mashed potatoes, so we had really good mashed potatoes. Earlier that morning we took their daughter, Amanda, to a lesson with Huey. We went to his apartment across The Strip. It was so sketchy, but the lesson was awesome. He even had one of his friends there! 

Thursday was pretty great. We had our Sister's Luncheon. So we had lunch, which was pretty much the best soup I've ever had, and a lot of training. I was in the choir and Sister Fields was in a little quartet. Yay. We had 9 member present lesson's planned that day! But most fell through. We got to talk with Chase Amos, who had come to the lessons with us. We talked about his mission and after his mission and other super fun stuff. We had dinner with one of our singles and her family. It was really, really awesome. While we were there, they got news that one of their little niece's was headed to the hospital, so we stopped right there and prayed with them. It was a neat experience. Also, we got a call from one of the girl's that we take out with us a lot who was waiting for a mission call... and she got her call! She called us and told us to be at her house at 6:30! She said we were the first people she called... even before her Grandma! Yes! So we got to be there while she opened her call and she is going to Chile! 

On Friday we had zone breakfast and apartment inspections! Guess who got a 10 again! Us. So expect a letter from the inspections sister! Yes. We had weekly planning as well. That evening we got to go to the temple to do baptisms with our Recent Converts! It was super, super cool! We had Recent Converts and ward members there! And Sister Fields and I got to do baptisms too! We had a great time. Abraham, Chase Amos, Eric Taylor, and Jared Brummett were there to help.  We ate in the cafeteria with some of our members afterwards. Guess who I saw there. RACHEL MILES. YES! It was so good to see her and her husband! I was excited to see a familiar face! After the temple we went to see Cristal and her mom. They talked to us for a long time about their lives and especially about Cristal's car accident (which gave her the brain injury that she has). It was a really good time with them. They really trust and love us. Cristal told us she loves us this week! She rarely says "I love you" to anyone, and it was so awesome! I love her so much! 

Saturday morning was Kevin's baptism!! It went so well and there were quite a few people there! He bore his testimony after he was baptized and he said he couldn't even describe how he feels! Best day. It was so good. Adam Whitmore baptized him. After that, Sister Conger and her daughter Staci took us out to lunch at Red Robin. They have a son serving in Michigan right now. We took Staci to teach some lessons with us and it was really great. She is awesome. We have been reading 3 Nephi 11 with a lot of investigators and recent converts. The Spirit is always so strong! I love 3 Nephi 11, that's where I am in my scripture reading right now. Best chapter. We went to dinner at a family's house that night from the Chapel Heights ward. They have really funny little kids. Their 7th grade son put on a cello performance for us! It was sweet. 

We got transfer calls that night. So it's official. I'm leaving Sunrise and my lovely YSA ward. I will miss it so much here! I will be going to the Anthem Stake, to the Paseo Verde Family Ward. Fun fact, Anthem is the highest tithing paying stake in the world. 

Sunday was great too. We had ward council. Bishop thanked me for serving here and being a great help to the ward. He teared up. I will miss him a lot. We have a great ward here. President and Sister Neider were speaking in the ward right before us, so we got to go see them. I walked up to them and President asked me if I was mad at him for transferring me. Haha. We had church and Sister Fields and I said the opening and closing prayers (just like normal, right mom and dad...). Bishop had me bear my testimony since it was the last Sunday. Kevin got confirmed! In his blessing it said that he would be able to be married in the temple!!! Sister Fields and I basically punched each other through the whole thing because we were so excited! Church was good. Lots of people took pictures with me because it was my last Sunday. 

We went to Karina and Miss McDade's house for dinner. They had presents for us and we got to have breakfast for dinner! Yum. Saying goodbye stinks. It's like leaving your family all over again. We went to say goodbye to a few other people as well. We went to the Scholl's house because Sister Scholl wanted to take a picture of us in the princess dresses. She gave me a gift before I left; a cute turquoise scarf. She cried saying goodbye too. Let’s just say that I still have a headache from crying yesterday.  The Olsen's invited us over because it was their youngest son's birthday. He had cookie dough for his birthday "cake".  It was funny. Sister Olsen gave Sister Fields and I Las Vegas Temple Plaques that are really, really cool. They are black and have a metal cut-out of our temple on it! Love it. 

Well, that's about it for the week. It was a really good week. I am so sad to leave here. So, so sad. But I am excited to see what Anthem has in store for me. I hope I will be able to make a difference there as well. 

I love being a missionary. I love it. I love seeing how the Gospel can change people's lives. I love seeing them come closer to Christ. I love coming closer myself. 

Have a great week!

 

Love, Sister Coltrin

 

 

 

Sister Fields, the future Sister Vega, and Sister Coltrin

 

Sister Coltrin, Adam Whitmore, Kevin, and Sister Fields

 

The Princess Missionaries

 

 

A Great Week But A Long Week

It has been a great week, but a long week.  

After Family Home Evening on Monday, we got to ride home in the back of Abraham's truck again, so that was super fun. It's our new hobby... I mean, it's super dangerous and I'll never do it again, Mom :) The best part about FHE though was that Kevin came without us reminding him! It was awesome! 

Tuesday night we had dinner at Chaunee's house with the Elders.  The Olsen's have a picture of Chaunee, Sister Fields, and I on their magnet board! We are cool. 

We had quite a few new investigators this week! Well, actually, we had a lot of pass-offs from people that were poaching investigators from us. So we got to meet with Lilli, Daniel, Anthony, Jay, and Treyvon. We had good lessons with them, but they all were attached to the other missionaries that were teaching them... so we passed them back. Pretty frustrating and sad, but oh well. 

Wednesday night we were at the church to go to Institute, but no investigators ended up coming, and the Young Women in one of the family wards wanted us to come to their YW lesson. So we did. It was super cute! We all stood in a circle and made a "web" by throwing yarn to wrap around ourselves, but when you threw the yarn to someone you had to say something you love about the person. The girls said some really nice things about us, and it was a lot of fun to be with them (since we just did that fireside for them). 

The highlight of the week was with Cristal. There have been some issues going on in the ward and it made Cristal really upset. She was upset one morning and broke down in tears - her mom, a non-member, called us and asked us to come over to help her. We went over as soon as we could and talked with Cristal. We ended up talking with her about things she could do during the day to stay busy, instead of sitting around and getting herself into trouble. We asked her mom to come and sit with us, so that she could help Cristal too. Cristal and her mom constantly fight. They argue and yell at each other in almost every sentence they speak to each other. We talked to both of them about how lucky they are to have each other, and how they need to uplift each other and make sure that they lean on the other when they need help - especially Cristal. We told Cristal how lucky she is because she gets to have a mom with her to give her advice and help her when she is sad. We told her to take advantage of that, since we wish we had our mom's with us to help us! We all ended up crying. Cristal, in tears, turned to her Mom and said, "I'm so sorry." It was one of the most tender moments ever! In the closing prayer, she thanked Heavenly Father for giving her such a loving and understanding Mother. It was great. 

Sister Fields and I broke down in the car crying when the lesson was over because we wanted to call our Moms... We laugh about it now. 

Later that day we went and did service with Elder Tongi and Elder Thomas, for a family in their ward. We had to get all the cobwebs and spiders off of their back porch and let me tell you - I have never seen so many spiders in my life. Sister Fields and I were basically screaming the whole time!  And we found a scorpion, so naturally, there was more screaming. We are babies. But hey, spiders are scary.

We finally got to meet with Dillan again! We stood in his garage and taught him the Restoration. The spirit was super strong, despite our surroundings. He was so interested, and he told us about how he felt the spirit at church. It was awesome! He really wants to read The Book of Mormon. He has met with missionaries in the past, and hasn't really felt the spirit before, but he recognized it this time! So hopefully he will continue to progress. 

We were contacting potentials earlier this week with Chaunee and we went to a kid named Juan's house. He was just getting ready to leave, but told us to come back on Saturday. So we went back, expecting him to have forgotten and to not be there, but he was! And he told us that he took a day off from training just so we could come! We taught the Restoration. He is so prepared! He said that it makes sense and he really thinks it could be true. We are going back there this week, so pray that he feels the spirit and recognizes the truth of the restoration! 

We haven't been able to talk to Jamie in a while, so we decided to stop over at her house. Her sister was there and they had a huge birthday party going on, there were a million little girls running around, so they told us to come back that night. We did, and we finally got to teach Jamie about the Plan of Salvation! She and her sister really liked it. The spirit was strong, and it was so cute because lots of the little girls were still there, so they all knelt down to pray with us. They were giving us hugs and high fives before we left. 

We went over to Karina and Denise's house this week for dinner and they had their visiting teaching dinner the night we were there, so we got to be with a lot of the girls from our ward for dinner. It was a lot of fun! Karina and Denise (aka Miss McDade) are like our sisters. They take really good care of us and we love them.

A young woman from a different ward called Sister Fields and I and asked if we would do a fireside for their ward about missionary work! They have their own sister missionaries in their ward, but they want us to do it... I guess we're pretty cool or something... :) She said that we had to dress up like princesses since it is Halloween themed... good thing every sister missionary is required to bring princess dresses on their mission.  There is a lady in another ward who buys super cheap prom dresses and makes them modest - so she said she would help us with the outfits. We got to try on princess dresses during our dinner hour at their house- it was super fun. 

So, the stupidest thing ever that I hate myself for... I actually get cold when it is 70 degrees outside. WHAT!? I'm supposed to be able to be totally fine when it is 40 outside! Ugh, what has this desert done to me? I guess that's how it goes when you get used to 120 degrees... 

Okay, so in the spirit of Conference, Sister Fields and I made up "Follow the Prophet" verses for all of our District. They are so, so funny. We would make them up in the car as we were driving and at night after planning. Oh my goodness, they are pretty good. Everyone loved them. 

Yeaaah, so let's talk about Conference for a minute- what the heck! It was so awesome! We watched at the church and it was basically just all us missionaries. We were so pumped because basically everyone talked about member missionary work! Yes, yes, yes (EXCLAMATION POINT)! We loved all the speakers and we were excited about missionary work. We were also excited because Kevin came to both sessions of General Conference on Sunday! He enjoyed it and he is really excited to be baptized on Saturday! 

Between the sessions of Conference on Sunday, our whole zone went to the Petersen's house. It is a tradition for them to feed all the missionaries breakfast during Conference. It was awesome! We had awesome waffles and eggs and bacon and fruit and everything that you could ever want for breakfast. We were stuffed. It was so good though. We love the Petersen's. 

That night for dinner we went to the Crouch's house. Their daughter, Kelsey, is in our Single's Ward. She just recently told us that she has decided to serve a mission and she has started her papers! We are excited for her! At dinner she told us that she is grateful for our example to her, and that we have really influenced her for good in deciding to serve. Yes! 

Our investigators are doing well. We had a really successful week! Our goal for this week is to have 20 lessons taught to investigators with a member present... Elder Rogers, our district leader, told us that if we got 20 MP's that he would scream like a 4 year old girl on the phone for 5 minutes... so obviously we are definitely going to get 20... Hahaha. Pray for us that we will be able to!

 

Kevin is still set and ready for baptism this Saturday! He is so happy and is really ready. He has even asked us about how to become a missionary! 

Dillan is also great. We are hoping to set him for baptism this week. Pray that we will be able to meet with him, since it is so hard to get a hold of him! 

Jamie will also hopefully be set for baptism this week. She is looking for a job and doesn't have a lot of time to meet with us, so pray for her to find a good job! She feels the spirit though, and she is ready to be baptized.

Jacob... Hmmm. He didn't come to conference, and he just searches about the Church all the time. We are worried that he has come across too much anti information... He talked to us through the storm door when we stopped by. Hopefully we can help him to feel the spirit, because it seems like he just tries to prove the Church wrong all the time. 

Daniel is one of our investigators that just got passed off to us... but he just moved, so we aren't sure about who should be teaching him right now. His story is really cool though. He has investigated the Church for years now, on and off. He just moved to Vegas, and saw the Elders and ran after them to stop them! He is getting baptized soon! 

Huey is still good. We haven't been able to meet with him.  It's hard since he lives so far away and near the Strip. Hopefully we will be able to meet with him this week.

David is good too! He is just super busy with a school project right now. We are hoping that he starts to come again. 

Tony. Ugh. We haven't talked to Tony in a long time. Pray that we get a hold of him. We are hoping that Adrian can bring him back. 

We are doing well and are working really hard. Our members are awesome and so are our investigators. 

Do missionary work! Invite friends and the missionaries over for dinner! Give someone a Book of Mormon. Invite someone to a ward activity! 

Transfers are next week! Let’s hope I stay here in Sunrise one more transfer! We will know on Saturday! I will be happy wherever I am though. 

I love you! Thanks for the package, Mom and Dad! Sister Fields and I (and our zone) loved it.

 

Love, Sister Coltrin

Sister Fields and Sister Coltrin at a Young Women Activity

 

 

Chaunee Olsen, Siser Fields and Sister Coltrin in our matching shirts

 

 

Sister Fields and Sister Coltrin

 

General Conference Breakfast at the Petersen's

 

Four Months Already?!?

Hello! It has been yet another great week!

I don't remember if I told you, but last week on Sunday we got to go have breakfast at Nancy's house before church. Pancakes, eggs, bacon, and fresh fruit. The best. 

I have had a lot of really neat experiences this week! So starting with Monday... Actually, there isn't much that happened on Monday. We played Mafia instead of dart war this week, which was a lot of fun. We called it our time to work on the gift of discernment... hahah. Then we had dinner at a member's house and went to Family Home Evening. Nothing too new for Monday.

My training in district meeting went well! I trained about planning.

We met with Matthew again on Tuesday to teach him the Plan of Salvation. I swear, we have the best lessons with him. The spirit is always super strong. We focused on the temple and how it's super important. His parents shared experiences with him and he even teared up. He is so awesome. We have seen such an awesome change in him. He is happy now, like genuinely happy. We love him so much. And guess what else! Matthew comes to teach lessons with us sometimes! AH! We are really excited.

We also got to go on exchanges, so I served in the Royal Mesa YSA ward for a day. They cover two stakes, and one of those stakes is Anthem- which is the highest tithing paying stake in the world... so yeah. It's a reaaaally nice area. I got to be with Sister Jensen-Coon for the day! She is really sweet. She didn't know the area very well, so we did a lot of turn-arounds... and I felt sooo carsick. Oh, and we were street contacting and there were two guys that we talked to that were smoking weed right in front of us... But other than that, we had a good day. 

For the past few days, I was feeling really weird (I can already hear the jokes being made about that sentence...). It never went away and I just felt nervous and anxious and sad for no reason. Elder Lovell and Elder Mojica came and gave me a blessing one night and I instantly felt so happy and so much better. It was the coolest thing. In my personal study I have been trying to study about the Atonement. In the blessing it talked about when I am studying the Atonement! It was awesome. 

Our stake does "Stake Baptisms" which is basically just a once a month thing where all the new 8 year-olds get baptized together. Sister Fields and I were asked to go and be greeters and to answer questions if people had them. It was a lot of fun. Their program was really cool and there were a lot of people there- and a lot of non-members. 

We also got to have dinner at our Bishop's house that night. Our Bishop is awesome and he loves us. He made us ribs and his "world famous" peach pie. Mmmmm, super, super good. We usually go to their house for FHE when the whole ward is there, and it was really cool to be there with just them.

So, on Friday and Saturday we set up all our lessons to be at the church, because we officially ran out of miles for the month, and since we actually follow rules, we aren't going over our miles (our Zone Leaders's are 200 miles over...). It worked out well though, we had a lesson for every hour of the day, and so we just stayed and taught at the church all day long! We just walked to go to our lunch appointment on Saturday! 

The Relief Society Broadcast was Saturday night. We told Chaunee that she should invite her neighbor... and she DID! Her neighbor texted her and asked if she could get a ride to it, and Chaunee went and picked her up. What a good missionary! She leaves for the MTC in 23 days! I was really excited to see that the choir was Sister Missionaries from the MTC! I was also really excited because I knew that you were watching at the same time as me, Mom! :) After the Broadcast, Lauren Thomas, Alexa Villalobo, and Karina took us out to Applebee's. We all had their newest menu item... Macaroni and Cheese with chicken fingers on top... It's like all the good things from the kid's menu combined into one adult plate. What the heck. Dream come true. 

After dinner we came back to the church and the stake Relief Society president and her counselors were cleaning up. We told them to go home and let us clean up. They said that there were some people that were coming to clean up. So we waited and helped them stack chairs and put away tables. They decided that they would sweep and mop the floor next week. It was nasty though. So we hid and waited for them to all leave, and then Sister Fields and I went and swept and mopped the floor.  Sneaky service. We were excited. 

We had a really awesome Sunday. Elder Lovell and Elder Mojica have two family wards. They were teaching young women/young men's combined for both wards. They asked us to help them- so we basically did the whole fireside thing over again. It was really fun! We got a ride to church from Chaunee and then sat with her and her family during sacrament meeting. Then when it was the third block, we got to teach yw/ym's! Since the other ward's third hour is during our sacrament meeting, we had to miss our sacrament meeting. But it was really awesome and fun to teach the youth. 

In our gospel principles class - oh my gosh. We had 4 investigators there and all the recent converts. It was the eternal marriage lesson, and our teacher and the members that were in the class made it sooooo confusing and so deep and complicated. All the investigators and recent converts were super confused. I was cringing the whole time. It was a missionary's worst nightmare. Luckily, one of our awesome returned missionaries, Nancy Brown, came to the rescue and explained it clearly and simply and we moved on. But still, so scary. 

After that, we got to hear all about our sacrament meeting. Dillan, who we haven't heard from in weeks, just showed up at church AND BORE HIS TESTIMONY DURING TESTIMONY MEETING. What the heck! So sweet! So we had 4 investigators at church this week, so that was great.

We had dinner with Abraham who made us some awesome food and a pineapple drink. We ate at "the teacher's house", which is 4 girls form BYU-I that are here doing student teaching. Abraham then took us to a fireside... There was one of the teachers and her mom in the truck... and Sister Fields and I wanted to sit in the bed of the truck. So we did. It was so fun. He went off road for a little bit too. We just screamed the whole time.

There was a recent convert fireside that night, but NO recent converts came. So that stunk. But oh well.

Our investigators are doing well! Here is a break down of our lessons and investigators: 

David- We took David on a Temple Tour this week! He really understood it and it was neat to see him brighten up. He told us that the whole thing seemed so familiar, like he completely understood it! We love temple tours. He had so many good questions and even came to church this week! 

Jacob- A new investigator. We had a pass off lesson with Elder Rogers and Elder Johnson. He is really interested and asks a ton of questions. He said that he hasn't been able to sleep since the last lesson, because he has been researching all about the church. 

Kevin- AH. KEVIN. He meets with us every other day. He is excited about getting baptized and he loves going to church. He understands everything we teach him. When we taught him about keeping the Sabbath day holy, he said that he thinks he should stop working on Sunday. He's super ready. He will be getting baptized on the 12th :) 

Tony- We have not been able to meet with Tony in a long time, we are sad. 

Kenny- He has had the roughest past. He started smoking when he was 4 years old, because his parents thought it was funny. He recognizes that he needs to change his life around, and he wants to be like Christ. 

Huey- Huey reads his scriptures and prays and loves to go to church. He is really studying this out and likes to meet with us. Our lessons with him are so detailed and spiritual. We usually teach him with Adam, one of our members, and he is a really good teacher. 

Luis and Langston are doing well too. We are also getting a few new investigators this week. Daniel is a new investigator (that was being poached from us) who is from California and is getting baptized in a few weeks. 

The work is really progressing here! We are working hard and are finding a lot of people to teach. We have really good lessons with people here. I love being here! 

I am very excited for General Conference! We will all be watching "together" like a family- so make sure you stay awake, Dad! 

Thanks for the package! We were super excited to have new t-shirts and taffy! It looks like that vacation was pretty fun. 

Transfers are in 2 weeks! I really hope I stay here for just one more transfer, but I will be excited to serve wherever I am needed. 

I love and miss you!

 

Love, Sister Coltrin

 

 

 

Sister Coltrin, Chaunee Olsen, Sister Fields

 

Sister Olsen, Sister Coltrin, Chaunee Olsen

 

"Sister Fields made me this awesome crown of leaves"

 

 

It Was A Crazy Week!

We have had some crazy experiences this week.  

Sister Fields and I both got our haircut by one of our members that is a licensed cosmetologist. Hurray for free haircuts! (Did you get my joke, Mom?) 

We also taught Family Home Evening for our ward on Monday. We have been trying really hard to get our members involved in missionary work. We taught the restoration, just like we do to investigators, but at the end we talked about how their friends need the message of the restoration. It was really powerful and spiritual. We had them write down 5 friends names in the beginning, and at the end we asked them to find us sometime this week and tell us the name of the person that is ready for the message now. It was awesome and hopefully it will work. One of the members of our bishopric asked us to teach FHE at his home sometime. 

And! Our Bishop told President Neider that we are the best missionaries that he has ever had in the ward! So that's pretty cool! 

We also got to teach FHE with a family after our Single's Ward. They have a 13 year old boy who doesn't want to go to church anymore. So we focused on him and hopefully it helped a little. We challenged them to read the Book of Mormon as a family. 

We had zone conference again this week. 8 hours of training. Although it's really good stuff- it is SO LONG. Sister Fields and I were so done by the end of it. We went to Chaunee's house afterwards and her and her mom had gotten us fresh fruits and vegetables! It was awesome. 

Speaking of fresh fruits and vegetables, Elder Ortiz gave us his blender because we were talking about how badly we want smoothies! It is awesome! Now we get to have fresh fruit smoothies every morning. 

On Tuesday, we felt a little off all day, like something was wrong or was going to be wrong. We got in the car after a lesson that night and had a bunch of missed calls. So, we called back the Elders that had called us. They said that an agent pulled them over on the side of the road and was looking for someone. The Elders referred him to us and he called us. We were pulled over on some dark road and "Agent Kennedy" called us. We told him that we would meet him at the church. We drove to the church as fast as we could, we were super scared. And thankfully there was Young Men's and Young Women's going on, and the Zone Leaders were at the church. They told us to call President Neider. So we did, and he told us to stay away from the Agent and not let him see us. We weren't allowed to leave sight or sound of the Zone Leaders. It was scary. So they sent one of the Bishops that was at the church out to talk to him- luckily he is a lawyer. The agent was looking for someone in our ward and wanted to get his information from us. It was so intense. So obviously we didn't give any information out- but we did hear that the person got taken back to Salt Lake and got locked up. So yeah - interesting night.

After that experience, we were sort of scared in our apartment (we're pretty sure if you shook the door hard enough, the lock would unlock). So we were trying to make light of the situation and were talking about where we would hide if someone came into our apartment. Sister Fields was listing off places. She said I could hide in my suitcase. I told her I wouldn't fit, and she dared me to try.  And yes, I can fit. Sister Fields zipped me up in my suitcase. It was the funniest thing of our whole lives. She filmed the whole thing. Pretty proud over here. Hahaha! 

We also went to contact potentials in "The Browns".  It is probably the most run-down and sketchiest apartment complex I have ever seen in my whole life. We had to go with 2 priesthood holders just to contact people. Ridiculous.  So we were going to a lesson there and we were looking for this guy's apartment, and we turned a corner, and this HUGE dog got up and barked at us. In my head I was screaming GET ME OUT OF HERE, but we just walked past the dog as it was sniffing us.  It was so scary!  I was thinking, well, I guess I'll officially be bitten by a dog on my mission. But luckily that wasn't the case.  Luis wasn't there for the lesson, so we went to contact some other people, and when we were done, Luis drove by us and said he was so sorry that he was late and asked if we could reschedule, so that was a blessing! We'll definitely schedule our next lesson at the church though... 

Little side note, I wore blue on Saturday and am upset about BYU. I had Abraham text us scores. The end. 

We have been meeting with Cristal a lot lately, she has been struggling. But she really has her heart in the right place. The sweetest quote of the week was when she said, "Please don't give up on me." Oh my gosh, my heart melted! We would never give up on her. 

We had dinner at a family's house from another ward, and they have 3 younger girls - a freshman, 4th grader, and 1st grader. They fight like nobody's business, oh my goodness. But it is so entertaining. The 4th grader was telling us how their cat "jumps from curtain to curtain" and the freshman was telling her how that's not true and the fourth grader shot back with my favorite phrase ever: "Okay…I exaggerated a little, but WHATEVER." Sister Fields and I were almost on the floor laughing. The sad part is that they fight with their mom too. She was so glad to have us there. At the end we challenged the girls to try to make their home a peaceful and happy place. The mom hugged us at the end and you could tell she just needed a little peace in her home. We are thinking about bringing her cookies or something this week. 

Another cool thing, Gladys Knight is going to be putting on a concert here. It's a "missionary experience concert" so members can only get tickets if non-members are with them! Yes!  It will be an awesome way for people here to share the gospel. Who would say no to a concert? It's going to be awesome. 

We had some really good lessons this week. We got to teach Huey at Adam's house again. We taught him about the Plan of Salvation. It was hard for him to understand (he is from China and hasn't had too much experience with religion because of it). We explained it a few different times and simplified it, and when he finally understood, the look on his face was priceless. It just clicked with him and he was so happy! We were all so excited. His prayer at the end was incredible and he told us he was so happy that we were helping him to "understand the Mormon".  He told us he would be at church if he woke up on time. We bore strong testimony about church and where he needed to be, He was at church the next day- and had the hugest smile on his face. He really enjoys church and we love teaching him. 

We also got to help teach in a pass-off lesson with some other Elders. We taught the restoration to a guy named Langston. The lesson flowed so well! We were all so in-tune and afterwards the Elders told us that it was the best pass-off lesson they'd ever had! It was really awesome. 

We were with Edna and she told us she was going to go to church this week! We were so happy. Beyond happy. And then she called us that morning and said she wasn't going. We were really sad. Tears were definitely shed. Hopefully next week. She hasn't been to church in over 2 months. Pray for her. 

We were contacting less actives this week, and dropped a pass-along card with our phone number on it to a guy named Jimichael. He wasn't home. But he must have gotten the message because he was at church for the first time in over 6 months! It was awesome!! Hopefully we'll get to work with him and help him come back to church. 

Kevin is set for baptism on October 12th, and hopefully Tony will be baptized then as well. Langston, Huey, and Jamie should be set for the 12th or the week after. Dillan has stopped talking to us, so hopefully we will get a hold of him this week. We are still trying to get a hold of David and Monique too. 

We are still working with Matthew. We love him so much. He is so happy at church and we can see a definite difference. We asked him to write a list of the things he believes and knows. He wrote that he believes in God and he believes that he can be forgiven for the things he has done. It was awesome. We hope that he can see the difference that we can see. 

Two of our members, Karina and Denise (also known as Miss McDade- she's a 4th grade teacher) are so super nice to us and take care of us. Miss McDade brought Sister Fields and I water and snacks to church because she thought we'd be hungry. So sweet. We love them. Karina's sister is serving in the Lansing Michigan mission! Sister Wiberg. 

Sister Fields and I made "MORMON.ORG" t-shirts one night too. They are sweet. We love mormon.org. We basically tell everyone to go to it. 

I have to give a training on planning during District Meeting tomorrow- so pray that it goes well, and I'll know what I need to teach about! 

Thanks for all the updates!

 

Love, Sister Coltrin

PS. Mom, thanks for sending my 8th grade picture to Sister Fields. She loves it and shows it to everyone. Hooray for me. Hahaha.

 

 

 

Sister Fields and Sister Coltrin

 

"I can fit inside my suitcase...what skill!"

 

My mormon.org shirt

 

I Shook Hands with an Apostle!

We finally have people to teach! This week was awesome!  

Okay, so I'll start with Monday. Sister Fields and I got to go shopping with some of the girls in our ward. It was a lot of fun! We just got to hang out with our members - it was almost like we were normal people... hahah. We got to get some new clothes at this store that is like Forever 21, but really cheap! It was awesome. We had lunch and got to play dart war- so, over all good day. We also got to have dinner with other missionaries in our district at a member's house. They're Samoan, so we had really good food that night.  Sister Fields and I came to the conclusion that we are friends in real life, not just companion friends because we have to be. 

On Tuesday, we had a really good district meeting about Personal Study. Elder Rogers is probably the best district leader in the universe. We tell him that all the time. We had really good personal studies all week, and I learned so much more because of what he told us to do. Not that we were "studying wrong" before, but it was just a lot more focused and spiritual. 

After District Meeting, our whole mission got to leave mission boundaries and go to the Las Vegas West mission to meet with the missionaries in the West Mission and be trained by ELDER NEIL L. ANDERSON and TAD R. CALLISTER. No big deal. It was awesome. Like, really awesome. And we got to leave mission boundaries, so it was like the best day ever. And I got to see Elder Adams! I waved to him, and he didn't notice who I was at first, and then freaked out when he realized who I was. At the end we talked for a minute. We were excited since it was the closest thing to family contact that we had. 

After Elder Anderson walked in, he told us that he wanted to shake each of our hands. He took 20 minutes to have us file up row by row and shake his hand. It was awesome. 

Elder Anderson taught us about the Atonement. I can't even describe to you how amazing the meeting was, and how strong the Spirit was. Oh my gosh. It was incredible. He told the mission presidents that missionaries need to be staying in wards longer - so hopefully that means I'll stay in Sunrise a bit longer! 

At our District Meeting we had taken seminary tables from the Seminary room. Obviously, being the daughter of a Seminary teacher, I felt bad that we had forgotten to put them back. So, I made Sister Fields and I wake up early, at 5:20 am, to go put them back before the seminary teacher got there. That was for you, Mom. You're welcome. 

On Wednesday we were going to contact a less active member that we haven't been able to see. We got her as a referral from another ward a few months ago, and even though we've tried to contact her at least 15 times, we have never seen her. We were about to go and see her and I realized that we had lost the sticky note with her address on it. We prayed that we would just be able to remember where it was. As we were leaving the apartment, we realized that we had a voicemail from the lady that had given us the referral. We hadn't talked to her since she gave us the referral a few months ago. We listened to it and she said the address in the message! It was awesome! What a blessing. Prayers are answered. We went and knocked on her door and her Dad answered and said she was home! That has never happened! He went to get her. We heard some voices. Then her Mom came to the door and said she was sick and couldn't come to the door and we couldn't go see her. Then she slammed the door. That was a bummer, but we will keep trying. 

We have had so many good lessons this week. We were able to meet with a lot of less actives. One less active showed up at church and invited us over to teach her the lessons again. Even though she was born into the Church, she has never really felt "active". When we went over to her house and she had a non-member friend there! So we will be working with them both! We shared a really cool Mormon message video with them. 

We've been working with Matthew still too. He is less active. We love him so much. We meet with him twice a week. He is willing to do anything to find out if the Church is true. His parents are with us a lot - they are fully active. It's really neat to see them try to help him and bear their testimonies to him during lessons. We love their whole family. Pray for Matthew. We feel that he knows it's true and just has a hard time feeling that. 

Chaunee Olsen is a member of one of the wards in our stake and goes to lessons with us a lot. She is about to leave for a mission in Wisconsin! She is so sweet. We love her. We took her to the temple and just talked about missionary work. We answered a lot of her questions and bore our testimonies to her. We explained a lot of things to her. It was really awesome and spiritual. Sister Fields talked about companions. She talked about how she has opened up to me and told me things that she has never even said out loud. She talked about how she knows that we knew each other before we came to earth, and that I had my hand on her back encouraging her to go. The Spirit was crazy strong. I love Sister Fields, and really do feel like she is a sister of mine, and one of my best friends. 

After our really great lesson with Huey last week, we weren't able to meet with him right away. But he called us with questions this week, and we had a lesson over the phone with him! It was awesome. He wanted to read The Book of Mormon with us. On Sunday, he called us and said he "found a new Gospel". We were worried and asked him what he meant. He said he went to Church that morning, and he wouldn't be able to make it to our Church at one. We freaked out, but he explained to us that he just found a "Mormon Church" closer to his house and at an earlier time so that he could go to Church that day. He went on his own! It was awesome!

On Saturday one of our Sisters that got transferred down to Lake Havasu was coming up to Vegas for a baptism. Sister Fields and I were sent to the Temple to wait for her and bring her to the baptism. We were supposed to meet at 10:30 am... and they arrived at 12:30. So, yeah. That was pretty frustrating. We felt bad for her. The members were going slow and she missed the baptism. Sad. But we were happy that we got to see her. 

We had dinner at a member's house with Elder Rogers and Elder Johnson. They have a dog named "Molly" and that is Sister Field's first name. So the Mom would say, "Molly! Stop licking Elder Roger's face so he can say the prayer." We were all laughing so, so hard. She didn't get it, but it was hilarious. 

The past few weeks we have been giving other people referrals like crazy. And we finally, finally, finally got referrals from other missionaries! We were able to get FIVE new investigators this week! It was awesome! They are all ready for baptism too! We would have people call us and say, "Oh we have a member that has a friend that wants to get baptized, and he is YSA, so go teach him." IT WAS AWESOME. That happened 5 times! What the heck? So cool. 

We are now teaching Tony, Huey, Dillan, Mary, David, and Kevin. Yes! And Tony went to church on Sunday!! He is getting a new job so that he can come on Sundays! His last day of work at this job is on Thursday and we are so excited! He can finally meet with us on a regular basis! They will all be baptized pretty soon, we are sure of it. They are all great and are all progressing. We got to teach the Restoration a lot, which we hadn't been able to do in a while! 

We are also meeting with our members and are helping them to find friends to introduce to the Gospel. It's been going pretty well so far. Hopefully they will recognize the importance of member missionary work. 

On Sunday we had the "Why I Believe" fireside, which is basically a fireside where converts or others speak of why they believe the Church is true, and how the came to know. It's a really powerful fireside. Sister Fields arranged some sweet songs for the choir to sing! She is talented. And awesome. 

We hiked Sunrise Mountain once again this morning. I am way tired. But I got to watch the sunrise, and it was amazing. Watching a sunrise from the very top of a mountain is just too cool.

 

Love, Sister Coltrin

 

 

 

Flashback to my birthday....some missionaries left notes on our door for me.

 

Sister Fields and Sister Coltrin

 

Sister Fields covered my desk in nice notes!

We got a letter from Sister Coltrin this week and the back of the envelope made me smile!