Mission Possible: Bikes, Exchanges, and Miracles

Dear Family and Friends,

As you can tell from the titles it has been a week of miracles. Sister Edwards and I took our car into the shop for some needed repairs last Thursday so since then we have been biking everywhere! It has been an adventure! I definitely have a new respect for the missionaries who only have bikes their whole mission - it is hard! I was lucky and was able to be with Sister Redd on an exchange on Saturday so I got one day as a break from the bikes, but Sister Edwards has been a trooper. We have definitley seen miracles from our sacrifice though. We found two new investigators this past week! One is the husband of a less active member. His name is Victor. He has taken the missionary lessons before but has never finished them and his wife wants him to take them all the way through. We are excited to start teaching him. Our other new investigator is named Lalo, he is the neighbor of one of the active members in the ward we were trying to visit. He is fixing up an old car and Sister Edwards got excited about it. He started talking to us and ended up being interested in learning more. We are excited to teach him and also hopefully get the rest of his family interested as well. Please pray for them and their acceptance of the Gospel.

We also had some fun this week helping one of the youth and her mom paint her room. It turned out looking really good too! We also had a lesson with one of the less actives in the ward who had once lived in Diamond Bar! It was fun to talk to her about some of the people that she remembered that are still there! Saturday on our exchange Sister Redd accidentally locked the keys in the car so while we were waiting for the Assistants to bring the spare keys we were able to tract about 50 apartments. It was a good experience to realize again how ineffective tracting is and how much more effective it is to work through the members, service opportunities, former investigators or others who have already had contact with the church. Sister Edwards was looking through some old Ensigns and found in the October 2007 Ensign that almost every talk referenced Preach My Gospel. The general authorities have been teaching us for years that missionary work works best through the members! Please be preparing your family and friends for acceptance of the Gospel. Live as an example and help others to feel the Spirit that you have.

I had the privelege of giving a short talk in Sacrament Meeting yesterday. My topic was Pioneer Spirit, but the counselor in the bishopric asked me to put a missionary spin on it. As I was preparing for the talk I came up with a definition of a pioneer as someone who leads others on a path closer to Christ. That is what the early saints were doing. They were literally pulling handcarts and walking the path, but today we have a different path to forge. We have a duty to be examples of living high standards, of being respectful, loving and patient. We are pioneers in our duty to be true friends to those around us. Elder Robert D. Hales gave a definition of a 'friend' as "someone who makes it easier to live the Gospel of Jesus Christ." I love thinking that this is our duty as missionaries. We are called to be friends to the children of God.

I am glad to be able to call you all as friends and I hope I can be a friend to each and every one of you.

I know this Gospel is true, I know we have a living prophet on the earth today. I know God lives, and I know He loves each and every one of us.

Love,
Sister Cook

Sorry this pictures are a couple weeks old, but I figured they would be fun to see anyway!