Busy Week

February 18, 2014

Dear Family and Friends,

We had a busy week last week, it was great. We went on two exchanges and had a lot of fun experiences.  I was with Hermana Munoz on Thursday here in Diamond Bar, then I left for Ontario for the day on Saturday to spend it with Sister Respecia. We had some great adventures and fun times. Hermana Munoz is brand new so I had to go digging through my stuff to find my 12 week training manual, it was fun to remember training and spend some time watching The District videos. She is great and has a lot of confidence. She is a great missionary. We practiced during her language study how to teach in English since she has grown up learning all her church stuff in Spanish. She is from Columbia. It was really fun. In Ontario Sister Respecia and I had fun trying to find some new people for their area. We spent a while at the park at talked with a really nice lady for awhile; it was great. I always feel like I learn so much more on exchanges than I ever teach these sisters. It was great.

We are still working in our area on trying to find some new people to teach. We have been trying to work a lot with part member families and really emphasizing talking with everyone. I have learned a lot.

We had a great valentine's day. The ward had a party with lots of really great food and Sister Ott and I heart attacked a couple people in the ward. It was really fun.

I hope everyone has a great week and had a good day off yesterday with the holiday.

I love you all!

Sister Cook

Heavenly Father Knows how to give the BEST birthday presents

February 24, 2014

Dear Family and Friends,

Heavenly Father really knows how to give the best birthday presents, my testimony of that principle was confirmed yesterday.  This week has been pretty rough, we haven't had very many teaching appointments and Sister Ott and I have been working really hard on finding people to teach. We decided on Friday that since this is my 9th month and Sister Ott's 9th transfer it is our time to focus on Chapter 9 in Preach My Gospel. So we have been trying a lot of creative and different ways to find. It has been super fun, but also incredibly exhausting. Well yesterday the Lord showed us that our efforts have not been wasted.  He sent three nonmembers to church and we will soon get the chance to teach two of them. The third man who showed up at church lives in the north area of the ward and the other sisters will start working with him. We were all so excited to have opportunities to teach more.

We went on two exchanges this week. I spent Thursday with Sister Toolan and Saturday with Sister Willis. Sister Toolan and I had a great day teaching a lot. We had some appointments set up with members then on Thursday nights we have a weekly scripture study class, it was a great experience to feel the Spirit in each of those teaching appointments. Saturday Sister Willis and I had an adventure trying to find a referral they had received from headquarters. They had an address, but the house number does not exist on the street it is supposed to be on, so we just decided to knock every house on the street. We met a man named Tin who is Buddhist and it was really cool to hear his beliefs and get to share some of ours. We got offered a lot of water bottles because it has been close to 80* here every day this week! It does not feel like a typical birthday week for me, but it has been great! 

We have Zone Conference this week, MLC next week and then our Mission Conference with an Apostle the following week! It is going to be great, I am really excited!

I hope you all have an amazing week!

I love you and am so grateful for your support and love!

Love,
Sister Cook

Blessings from obedience

March 3, 2014

Dear Family and Friends,

 

I just want to start by saying thank you. Thank you so much for all of your support and the love that I can feel every day from each one of you. Thank you for being great examples of Jesus Christ every day and for living in a way that makes me not have to worry about my family back home so I can easily concentrate on those struggling here.  I know each one of you are having daily struggles, but I know you know how to handle them through the Lord.

 

We had miracle after miracle occur this week.  Our excitement from last Sunday was short lived because Allysa's mom will not allow her to meet with us and Rick has been unavailable all week, but we definitely will not give up hope with either of them. It just proves that people are prepared and we just have to be ready when they are.  We have had numerous opportunities this week to see that preparation and be a part of it. It really is just step by step that the Lord converts His children and we grow closer unto Him.  We had the opportunity to teach Seminary on Wednesday morning and those youth who wake up so early are simply being prepared one day at a time for the day when they will need that knowledge and understanding to teach their friends and those they will meet throughout their lives. At Zone Conference we learned and role-played how to just make connections with people as we strive to talk with everyone. People will remember the connection we made with them and the good feeling they had while talking with us more than they will ever remember what we say or our phone number to have them call us when they need help. It is simply about making connections and making them stick.

 

We were on an exchange this past Thursday and I was with a sister from England. This is her first transfer out and she is still new at a lot of different things, but there is so much power in the simple words in Preach My Gospel. I am reminded over and over every day in the power that comes from simplicity. It was fun as well to be with her and see people's reactions to her accent - again, just those simple things that make it easier to make connections.

 

I also wanted to mention all the wonderful blessings we have been receiving due to fasting. A couple weeks ago, the entire southern California fasted for rain, and this past weekend we had the windows of heaven open up and grant us that blessing. It has been wonderful to see that direct connection. We were having dinner with a family with a young son last night and after Sister Ott said the blessing on the food he commented that she did not remember to bless the rain. It was so sweet to see that it has been such a large part of the family's prayer that even the toddler recognized the need to pray for the rain, and thank Him for it.  We also have begun a 40 day fast with the ward for missionary work. Sister Ott has done it in every ward she has served in and it has led to great miracles. At least one family is fasting every day for 40 days specifically for missionary work. I am really excited to see what will happen!

 

Well I hope you will all have a wonderful week!  I love you all and I am so grateful again for you love and support.

 

Have a great week!

 

Love,
Sister Cook

 

PS We get transfer calls on Saturday

New Transfer, Old Companion

March 10, 2014

Family and friends,

So transfer news came and I have been moved back up to the desert, but I am companions with Sister Price!!!!!! In case you don't remember who she is, she was my MTC companion!!!! I am so excited to be back with her, but very sad to be leaving Diamond bar (Zion according to everyone living there) and back up to the desert. We are in Victorville in the Silver Lakes Ward.  We have a lot going on and a good group of sisters that we will be Sister Training Leader-ing for. I am excited for the change and for all that we have to look forward to this transfer. A mission sure teaches you how to learn to be ok with change. I kept telling the people in Diamond Bar that they will see me again though, because the third time is the charm. I still haven't learned how to master the area so they will have to send me back eventually! :D

Well, the ward started a 40 day fast for missionary work last week and Sister Ott and I saw some great miracles from it. We were able to contact one of the families who just walked into the church building on my birthday and we planned to go back tonight. We were also able to schedule really easily a lunch with one of the less actives we have been trying to schedule with forever! I am excited for the work to keep moving forward in Diamond Bar. We also found out that with this transfer the ward is getting elders so there will be 6 missionaries in the Diamond Bar Ward!!!! The Lord really is hastening His work! My testimony of that is growing each day.

We also have some exciting stuff going on this week. We found out that Elder Neil L. Andersen of the Quorum of the Twelve will come with Elder Perkins of the Seventy for our Mission Conference on Saturday! I am so excited to be at the feet of an Apostle. It is always a humbling and growing experience. I know that he really is an Apostle of God and he will speak to us what the Lord would have us know. I am so excited.

I want to close today by sharing my testimony. I know God lives. I know He is my Heavenly Father and He has a body of flesh and bone. I know He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to this earth to be my Savior and Redeemer, and I know that through Him I can be saved. I know that we have a living prophet on the earth today, Thomas S. Monson, and I know he speaks and communicates with God. I know The Book of Mormon is true and Joseph Smith was a real prophet called and chosen by God.  I know the Lord is hastening His work, and He is ready to come again, we need to prepare ourselves to meet Him and prepare our brothers and sisters to be ready for His reign. I love you all and I am so grateful for the love of our Heavenly Father that I can feel through your prayers each day.

Thank you for all your love and support.

Love,
Sister Cook

Best Week of My Life

March 17, 2014

Family and Friends,

I feel like I have learned and grown so much this past week. Sister Price and I have been incredibly busy and have accomplished a lot, I am exhausted.  We started our week with a lot of visits to sisters. We cover 20 sisters this transfer and will be really busy going on exchanges, but I am so excited. We were able to visit all of them except one companionship this past week and we invited them all to set some goals this transfer to LOVE the Gospel, LIVE the Gospel, and RISE to your full potential as we prepare for Easter as the last day of the transfer. I am excited to see what all will come as we work towards General Conference and this Easter Season.

We have also been working a lot with the people we are teaching. We have a large teaching pool and a lot of recent converts and less actives we are working with so every minute we weren't with the sisters or in a meeting we were in a lesson, it has been crazy how busy we have been. We didn't have time to do our weekly planning until Sundaynight and even then we had to reschedule some things to fit it in. It has been crazy. We have a lot going on and a lot to do so I believe this is going to be a crazy hectic transfer with a lot accomplished. One miracle we saw this week that I wanted to share is our investigator Jenny has been working towards her baptismal date of this Saturday for a couple weeks and the only thing holding her back was smoking. She had been smoking since she was really young and it has been difficult for her to quit. We had a lesson with her Wednesday night and basically planned her baptism and helped her see the need to quit and she hasn't smoked since! We texted her on Saturdayand she told us she hadn't smoked since our lesson and when we talked with her that night she told us that it has been a lot easier than she thought it would be. We are so excited for her and the chance she has now to really look forward and be clean and renewed at her baptism. I am so happy for her.

Jenny's experience quitting smoking is probably the highlight of the week, but hearing from Elder Neil Andersen of the Quorum of the Twelve takes an extremely close second. We were all asked to be at the Mission Office an hour before he was supposed to get there and sit quietly and study while we wait. It was an incredible experience to be sitting with all the missionaries in the Rancho Cucamonga and Redlands Missions and prepare to be taught by the Spirit. When Elder Andersen got there he had everyone come up and shake his hand. They had it extremely organized and it went very smoothly. He has a wonderful spirit about him and it was awesome to have that opportunity to shake his hand. He taught us about our Savior Jesus Christ and the power of the Atonement. It was incredible to hear him bear his witness and testimony of the Savior and hear him teach of his experiences. I have been thinking since hearing his words about two things I wanted to share. The first is a question I asked myself: If an apostle or the Lord asked you to give up everything and follow Him, what is it that you would have to give up? I have been thinking about that a lot this past week and it has really helped me see what the Lord wants me to do and who He wants me to become. The second thing is the role of submission. We were talking in our training meeting prior to MLC on Thursday about how the greatest attribute of the Savior is His willingness to submit to all things. Submitting to the Lord is nowhere near the weakness that we sometimes attribute to the word, but instead is admitting that we can do everything only with Christ. We must acknowledge Him and learn through Him to do all things. I think I will be studying this concept a lot more over the next few days, but what I have learned has really helped me with my first thing of giving up everything to follow Him, and know that it is through Him that it is possible. 

It has been a great week and I have learned so much. I hope you all have a great week as well!

Thank you so much for all your prayers and support!

Love,
Sister Cook