General Conference

APRIL 7th, 2014

Family and Friends,

What an incredible week. General Conference was amazing! I feel like I learned so much about what our Heavenly Father wants us to be doing over the next 6 months. Standing up for what we know is right, and working hard now. There seemed to be a sense of urgency in what everyone was saying. He is coming quicker than we think.

Other than conference this past weekend we had a pretty busy week. We have a new investigator named Nicholas who is really excited about learning so we met with him a lot this past week. He has agreed to be baptized on May 3rd so it has been fun to help him prepare and get excited about his baptism. We also went on an exchange Wednesday where I went in the other sister's area. Sister Price called after our studies and told me that Jenny was going to be able to be confirmed that night so we rearranged some of our plans so we could exchange back early so I could make it to Jenny's confirmation. It was an amazing experience. All of her kids were able to be there and the Spirit was so strong. She was talking to us afterwards and asking if it is normal to feel your heart beating so hard and feel really hot. It was incredible to know that she felt the Spirit so strong and she received the gift.

Thursday we had Mission Leadership Council (MLC) where we focused on Chapter 4 in Preach My Gospel and the First 12 Weeks Program. Sister Price and I are going to train on the 12 Week Program to the rest of our zone on Tuesday and I am really excited. I love the 12 Week Program. Sister Hobbs had called Salt Lake to ask them about the booklet and came back with some amazing insights, so we are excited to share those with the Zone tomorrow.

Friday we spent the morning with two sisters in Hesperia to help them weekly plan. It is always a long process, but it was nice to be with them and help them with other ideas to help those they are working with. We also had our ward's Relief Society Birthday dinner that night and one of the sisters in the ward played "For Good" from Wicked on the piano. I love that play! (I have had the song stuck in my head for a couple days now).

We watched conference at the church building and it is a tradition of the Tongan ward to provide lunch for the missionaries and others who watch conference at the church, so we were spoiled with being provided lunch both days!

We have a lot going on and a busy week scheduled. Sister Price are excited that we have been so busy!

I love you all and appreciate all your love and support!

Love,

Sister Cook

Sister's Conference

MARCH 31

Family and Friends,

This week has been busy, just like every other week of my mission. We have done a lot, yet I still feel like we should have accomplished so much more in a week. On Monday we went to visit a less active out in Silver Lakes who has a nice grand piano. He let me play it and it was so much fun. I wish I had more time to practice because I am definitely getting rusty. We went on two exchanges this week and had very busy days both times. I really love the sisters here in the mission and it is so much fun to exchange with them and learn how to improve and become better each day.

We had our semi-annual Sister's Conference on Saturday. We met together with all the sisters in the entire mission and had dinner - which was a fantastic homemade meal of enchiladas and rice made by a lady in one of the Upland wards, learned different ways to tie scarves, had a wall sit competition - the winner held a wall sit for an entire 10 minutes!, took a picture with all the sisters and then was able to watch the Women's Conference with everyone.  It was such a wonderful conference and I felt the Spirit so strongly. It was just amazing to see all the sisters of the church join together to learn and grow.

I am so excited for General Conference this next weekend. We were teaching one of the recent converts in the ward the principle of Following the Prophet last night and I mentioned that conference to me is like watching the newest episode of your favorite show on TV. You look forward to it for days (or even months) and just get so excited. I love being able to learn from the Prophet and hear the words that God would want us to hear.

I hope you all have a fantastic week and watch ALL of conference.  I am so excited.

I love you all.

Sister Cook

Happily Ever After

MARCH 24

Dear Family and Friends,

I feel like all the titles of my e-mails are really cheesy and unrealistically optimistic, but I promise today's actually applies. In Church yesterday one of the speakers was speaking about obedience and gave a really cool analogy. She mentioned that in fairytales a princess always needs her prince, a frog needs a kiss, a beast needs someone to recognize his true beauty, a lamp needs to be rubbed, but we know that we don't need anything to have our happily ever after. Christ has already performed the task, He is who we need and He will always be there, we just need to accept Him, have faith and live our happily ever after. I thought that was such a great analogy. We don't need anything else to find joy and happiness in this life other than Christ. Also, as I was studying this past week about submission and drawing closer to God I found a verse in Alma that says exactly my thoughts. Alma 22:18"I will give away all my sins to know thee."  That is what God asks of us, He asks that we give away all our sins, everything that we do that disables Him to grant us His Spirit. He doesn't require us to give away our kingdom's or our treasures if they are helping us achieve His will, but He asks us to give away our sins. Jenny has been a great example to me of this. She was baptized on Saturday and it was so beautiful to see her come up out of the water and be clean. She has worked so hard over the past 16 months of her life to get to where she is today and it is so wonderful to be a part of her story.

In other news, we went on two exchanges this past week. I feel like I learn so much more from these sisters than I ever teach them. We had fun both days and I realized how much the Lord trust us as His missionaries. It is incredible to know that we can always turn to Him in prayer and He wants so much to hear from us. We can tell Him anything and He won't judge or criticize us for the choices we make. I am so grateful to know that God really is our LOVING Heavenly Father. He loves us so much.

We have a good week planned for this week, we have two more exchanges and we have our semi-annual Sister's Conference. All the sisters in the mission are going to get together to watch the Women's Broadcast on Saturday. I am really excited, it is going to be really fun.

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

Love,
Sister Cook

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