Change is in the Air...or not

Family and Friends,

 

So here is the big news first. Transfer calls were on Saturday. Sister Ott and I have both been transfered. We stayed together and we have moved back in with the Kilburns! I am back in Diamond Bar! I never thought the day would come until I came back to visit, but I am super excited to be back. I figure I just have more work to do here. Sister Ott and I have decided we are going to have 5 baptisms by the end of the transfer :D.

 

Sister Anderson (Sister Price's companion when I was with Sister Orr) is training someone new and taking over Upland 5th. She will be great there. We have a lot planned for her this week, so it will be good.

 

I can't believe it, but I hit my 9 month mark on Saturday. It feels like just yesterday I was back in Provo, time has flown. But I have also grown and changed a lot over the past 9 months. I feel like I have such a deeper understanding of how to love. I have felt the Spirit more than I have ever before in my life. I have also realized in a very real sense my own nothingness and the amazing power of God. He is real, and He loves us.

 

We had a great week this past week in finding two new investigators and one of the less actives we have been working with came to church on Sunday. It has really been a great week!

 

Well I will let you know how Diamond Bar is holding up again next week. I am so excited to be back.

 

I love you all and I am so grateful for all your love and support.

 

Love,
Sister Cook

Miracles

Family and Friends,

I want to start today by just listing some of the miracles I have seen this past week. We had a region wide fast yesterday concerning the drought here in Southern California and as we were leaving our Relief Society President's house last night it was raining! I wanted to just run up and down the streets singing for joy, we were really excited :D.  We have also had the wonderful miracle of meeting with basically every investigator I ever worked with here in Diamond Bar within the past week, it has been really cool. Mike was called as a co teacher with Brother Arnold for the Gospel Principles class and taught yesterday! We have been extremely blessed in finding some cool potentials in our goal to talk with everyone. Sister Ott and I set the goal to meet with all the sisters we are over within these first two weeks and we have plans to do so. We have been able to stay extremely busy over the past week. I feel more exhausted after this week than I have any other week of my mission - I would definitely count the fact that I haven't crashed yet as a huge miracle!  I am sure there are so many more, but I will stop there. I feel so blessed to be back here with Sister Ott. President, in his e-mail to me today mentioned how he didn't even realize that he was sending me back to an area I had served in, he just knew that Sister Ott and I would do well here in Diamond Bar and he wanted us to be a strength to the zone. I have felt over and over again the past couple days how much the Lord trusts me. It is a wonderful feeling to know that the Lord has given me a responsibility that He knows I can accomplish. Although I sometimes lack in faith in myself I can always turn back to remembering that the Lord trusts in me. It is inspiring to think that although we are weak, the Lord does trust us, as His children, to help each other return to live with Him again. We have so many different ways to accomplish that work - Temple Work, Missionary Work, even everyday kindness and service. I can just see over and over again the wonderful example God gives to us of being the master Teacher. He gives us a hands on opportunity to help Him accomplish His work. We are so blessed to have such a marvelous and loving Heavenly Father.

I love you all and I am so grateful for the wonderful examples that you are. I appreciate so much all your prayers and can really feel your support every day.

Love,
Sister Cook

Baptism, Temple, New Investigator, Great week!

Family and Friends,

Well I hope you all have had as wonderful a past week and a half as I have. As you can tell from the title of this e-mail a lot has happened! Joey was baptized last Saturday. There were so many people there that we had to move everyone into the chapel, it was wonderful. His dad gave a talk and did a great job comparing the Holy Ghost to a GPS on a phone, when we are connected it can tell us where to go, but we don't necessarily always have to listen. We can take our own path, we just won't get to our destination as quickly and easily.  Sister Ott and Sister Haas sang Baptism while I accompanied them, it was fun to be a part of the program. Joey is such a great example to his family and the ward, we were so excited he was finally able to be baptized.

We went to the Redlands Temple this morning. It has been a beautiful day and it was so nice to be able to feel the Spirit there. I saw the Kilburns (from Diamond Bar) and Sister Farris (from Apple Valley) while I was there which was so nice. 

We had an adventure this past week when on Wednesday we got a call from some elders in Ontario who wanted us to attend a lesson with them for a new investigator they found at the park who lives in our area. We were really excited and scheduled to go with them the next day, then a little while later we got another call from them saying the lesson the next day wouldn't work so could we come right then to the library for this lesson. We dropped what we were doing (weekly planning, which we could do later) and headed down to the library. We had a great lesson teaching the Restoration of the Gospel and were setting up a return appointment when we learned she doesn't actually live in our area. It was pretty funny to then realize we would have to pass her off yet again to another set of sisters, but she is a golden investigator and really excited to learn so we think it will all turn out alright.

I realized I haven't told you much about the investigators we are working with, so here is a little update:

Joey was baptized this past week! He is great and we are excited for him to receive the Priesthood soon.

Ali received her answer that the church is true but is really struggling since her dad is not very supportive. She just turned 15 and is being faced with a lot of opposition from her family, but she can see that this can really help her, so she wants to keep learning and coming to church. She is wonderful!

Beth is doing well. She is the daughter in law of one of the couples in our ward and has 4 kids. She is so sweet and has been coming to church almost every week since I have been here. She should be baptized, but she just doesn't know it yet :D

Sebastian is the 10 year old son of a less active family in the ward. We are teaching the family together and trying to help them all come back to the church. He is super fun and excited to learn.

Well those are our investigators right now. Any and all prayers for them would be appreciated. They are all wonderful!

I love you and will write again on Monday!

Love,

Sister Cook

Happy New Year!!!

Dear Family and Friends,

 

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! I know mine was fantastic. I feel so spoiled as a missionary - everyone was giving us gifts, candy, or just nice greetings. It has been a good week!

 

We had Beth and Ali at church yesterday and we got a text this morning from Joey's mom saying they want to have the baptism this Saturday at 3, which was definitly an answer to thousands of prayers. Life is going very well for Sister Ott and I in this area.

 

We went on exchanges this past Saturday as well and I had the pleasure of planning the whole day, it felt like I was white-washing again because I still don't know the area very well. I don't know what we would do if we didn't have a GPS - those things are really lifesavers for missionaries.

 

We were also able to attend a leadership meeting this past Friday with President and Sister Clark from BYU Idaho. It was so fun because as soon as I walked up to President Clark he recognized me and reminded me about how he and my dad worked together in the scouts 20 years ago. It was so fun to see them and hear from him about missionary work and how to best serve here. My testimony has grown so much of Article of Faith 5 - we are called by prophecy and revelation. These men are truly called to serve.

 

We have another meeting this Thursday - it will be my first time attending MLC (Missionary Leadership Council) and I am excited to learn from President Hobbs and his assistants. We also get to go to the Temple next Friday!!!!!! So don't expect an e-mail from me next week because we will be having our P-day that Friday. 

 

There is a lot of really good stuff going on here in Upland. The Lord is hastening His work and the people can feel it. The ward was talking about their goal for convert baptisms for 2014 and it is so inspiring to know that we can set our goals high and have faith that the Lord really is preparing His children.

 

 I know this is God's work. He is directing each and every one of us to do His will if we listen and follow His promptings.  I am so blessed to have the opportunity to continue to learn and grow as a person and example here on my mission.

 

I love you all and hope you have a safe and enjoyable New Year celebration this week!

 

Love,
Sister Cook

CHRISTMAS IS COMING

Family and Friends,

 

This has been a great week. Miraculously we taught the most lessons this week than we have all transfer. We spent Thanksgiving going to some of the members in the ward and sharing with them a great Mormon.org profile (http://mormon.org/adonal) about a man who spends his time packaging and bringing clothes and supplies to his family and others in Uruguay. We then shared our own testimonies of service and invited them to find an opportunity to serve between now and January 1st. It was great. I can really feel the Spirit so strong whenever we watch those Mormon messages or Mormon.org profiles. If you ever have some spare time watch some - they can really change your attitude and help you feel the Spirit. I would also extend the invitation to each one of you to find an opportunity to serve this Christmas season. It can be something as small as delivering a Thank- you note to someone who needs a little pick me up, or as big as volunteering a day at a soup kitchen or homeless shelter, or going caroling to an old folks home. Any service can help you come closer unto Christ and feel the true Spirit of Christmas - which is charity and love.

 

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

 

Love,

Sister Cook

THANK YOU

Dear Family and Friends,

 

This has been a great week. I think I say that every week, but it really is true.  We have been able to keep the work progressing and every week I feel like I am a new person with a different perspective on life and God. He truly is amazing and it is incredible what can happen when we turn to Him and decide to trust Him and 'truly serve Him.'

 

The weeks seem to go by so quickly. It is the last week of this transfer and I can't believe I have been in this area for 5 weeks already.  It is incredible how much I have grown to love the people here and I would be sad to leave. I doubt anything is going to change, but I am not going to guess what the Lord has in store for me.

 

We had some great experiences this past week. We are still working with JJ. He is 16 and the only reason he hasn't been baptized is because his parents haven't given him full permission. He goes to seminary every morning and is reading his scriptures every night. He is a great example to me of simply doing his best with the knowledge and abilities he has been given.  We are also working with a couple Tameka and Robert. She has a baptismal date set for February which we are excited about. We have a lesson with them twice a week. They are excited to learn and it is fun to teach them!  We have a new potential investigator we are planning to teach tonight and another investigator family we are working with we have scheduled for tonight as well. We are working hard on helping each of these individuals really see that the Gospel can change their life for the better. I love how simple our message is and yet how it can change people so much. I am truly amazed every time I think about how much the Gospel has changed me and how much God has His hand in my life.

 

Sister Hansen's birthday is tomorrow so we are excited to celebrate that. She turns 20! Keep her in your prayers.

 

I love this opportunity I have to serve. I am so grateful for all of you and your support in my life.  Please keep praying for me and my investigators. I have no doubt in my mind that prayer really does work. 

 

We are working hard, having fun and doing our best to invite all to come unto Him.

 

Love,

Sister Cook

 

PS We were on Mormon.org this past week and they have a way to create your own personal pass a long cards.  Look it up! It is awesome.

 

PPS the pictures are from a Gingerbread party we went to. Sister Hansen and I tried to make the Provo Temple Gingerbread house. I wasn't able to take a picture before we started eating it, but use your imagination :D. The second one is what it looked like in our area on Thanksgiving. It has been getting cold, but no snow yet.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Family and Friends,

 

This has been a great week. I have learned so much already being with Sister Ott. She is a fantastic missionary and I am super excited to be working with her.

 

I went on my first exchange as a Sister Training Leader this past Saturday. It was really fun. The sister I was with has been struggling with staying optimistic so every time we got into the car we would state at least one blessing we received whil we were out of the car, it was really fun.  We will probably be on an exchange at least every week so I will have a lot to report and a lot to learn over the next weeks.

 

We have been having a wonderful Christmas season. I feel so spoiled as a missionary around Christmas time. The primary in this ward gave us a huge box filled with goodies for Christmas - we even were given a chocolate nativity! We have plans for Christmas Eve breakfast (it was originally going to be on Christmas, but they asked if we could come Christmas eve instead so they could do other family stuff), Christmas Eve dinner, Christmas day calling home, and Christmas dinner. Everyone is making sure we have somewhere to go and stuff to do. It is exciting. We went caroling (just Sister Ott and I) last night to a couple people and have plans to do sidewalk chalk of the Nativity scene tomorrow. We are trying to spead the Christmas joy and also find people to teach all in one activity. It has been fun.

 

I have been studying the Christmas story a lot over the past couple weeks and it has been a great learning experience. A couple weeks back I was reading it in the missionary mindset and noticed how great the shepherds are in sharing the Gospel. They went with haste unto the Savior and immediatley went and told their friends. That is the kind of missionaries we need to be. We need to go in haste.  I would invite you all as you study the Christmas message this year to read it with missionary work in mind and see what you can learn. I promise it will be a cool experience.

 

I love you all and hope you have a wonderful Christmas!

 

Love,
Sister Cook