Perspective

Dear Family and Friends,

Drumroll please.... I am writing you today from ..... the Rancho Cucamonga Library; meaning nothing changed with transfers. Sister Edwards and I are still together in the Terra Vista ward. I am excited for this new transfer together because we have A LOT of work to do. We had an amazing week and some of the most miracles I have ever seen in one week this past week and now we have to build from that. There is a lot to do and I am glad I get to still be here with Sister Edwards and get work done.

So I bet you are all dying to hear about how it went with Elder Russell M. Nelson on Saturday. It was amazing. He is most definitely a servant of the Lord and works as an instrument in His hands. He taught us about a lot of different things and, for me, just really allowed me to be taught by the Spirit. I learned a lot about obedience, but also about the power of example. He told us that the way a mission president and his wife is judged by the first presidency as successful or not is the percentage of their missionaries grandkids that get sealed in the Temple. I was surprised by that at first, but he was really just teaching us that the influence and example of a good leader does not just affect those they lead, but is measured by how well they help people change. It can also be said that the measure of a good missionary is not just in the number of people they help get to the waters of baptism, but in the number of people they influence who gain exaltation. My job does not just effect here and now, it effects eternity. Something else Elder Nelson taught us was the importance of families. He counseled us that if we as sisters ever get proposed to we are supposed to say "No" unless we know for a fact that the young man loves God more than he loves us. I have been taught that same principle from my own parents since I was young, so it was powerful to hear an Apostle of the Lord teach the exact same thing. He taught us so much and it is hard to summarize it all here, but one last important thing that he emphasized is the need to know who we really are. He asked the question "Who here has Hebrew heritage or is from Egypt?" No one raised their hand. He turned to our mission president and said, this is one of the biggest problems among people these days, they do not know who they are. He proceeded to teach us about Abraham and Isaac and Israel. He asked who of us have our patriarchal blessing and are a from a tribe of Israel. We all raised our hands and then he informed us that since we are part of those tribes we are consequently from Egypt and are Hebrew. There is power in knowing who we are. We have a rich heritage and as Hebrew's we are part of God's chosen people. It was powerful to learn how blessed I really am.

Other than meeting an Apostle of the Lord this week has been amazing. We went back up to Mt. Baldy on Tuesday and it was amazing to see the progress that has been made over the last couple weeks in cleaning up the mud. The house that I worked at the first two times we went up was the same house I worked at this past week as well. The basement was completely clean and the house looked great. We worked on the backyard in trying to get the mud back near the roots of the trees so the trees wouldn't fall over. It was great. I am always exhausted after going up there, but it always feels really good to help. On Wednesday our District Leader related Christlike Attributes to a pizza and brought all the toppings to make pizza, so after district meeting we all ate pizza together. It was really fun. We have had a couple amazing lessons with Silvina. She is still doing really well, the Spirit is always so strong whenever we meet with her. We also picked up a former investigator named Arthur, he wants us to read the Book of Mormon with him. We decided that we are going to send the Elders over there this week though. We also met with an investigator named George. He is from Egypt and has only lived here in California for a couple years. He met missionaries a couple years ago and even came to church. He works on Sundays now and we are trying to help him find a new job so he can come to church here. He is pretty cool, we are trying to learn Coptic from him :D. We also had a miracle happen where the elders serving in the ward over from us started teaching some investigators then later found out they live in our area so on Saturday we got 2 new investigators and one has accepted a baptismal date for Sept. 20th! We are really excited. Another huge miracle of the week is that last Monday we got a call from the assistants who had ran into a less active from our ward at Subway. She told them that she wanted to come back to church, so they told us and Friday we were finally able to make contact with her. She is amazing. She came to the fireside Friday night where I played the piano and we have a lesson scheduled with her for tomorrow! She even called last night to apologize for not being able to make it to church because a friend unexpectedly came into town. It is quite a miracle! The Lord is truly hastening His work and I am so grateful to be part of it!

We have a good week planned and a lot going on. I think I will explain now why I used the title today of "Perspective" for this e-mail. I realized on Sunday after we talked to our ward mission leader that there were a lot of people we didn't see this week and a lot of things that we did not get done and it would be really easy to look back on this week as a failure. We had a lot of cancelled appointments and unopened doors, but instead I see this week as one of the best on my mission, because I have been able to have a small portion of God's eternal perspective. We have been able to accomplish a lot and Sister Edwards and I have worked really hard, and even though we didn't do everything that we had wanted, we still accomplished a lot. It is such a blessing to know that God can help us have that perspective. God can help us understand what truly matters most.

I love you all and I hope you all have a great week and can find opportunities to serve and share the Light of Christ.

Matthew 5:14-16
 14 Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.
 15 Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house.
 16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

Love,
Sister Cook