Happy July

Dear Family and Friends,

Happy 4th of July! I hope you all were able to spend the day with family and friends and enjoy some fireworks! I know I did! As with most other holidays we are supposed to be home early - 6pm and Sister Price and I were lucky enough that we were able to see the fireworks in Victorville from our apartment window! It was super fun! We spent the whole day out in Silver Lakes biking around. It got pretty hot and a dust storm hit us, so we came home pretty dirty; but it was a successful bike ride because we were able to meet a lot of people and get to know our ward list a lot better.

We had an exciting exchange this past week on Wednesday. I was in our area with one of the new missionaries, Sister Martinez. She is from Durango, Mexico and didn't know any English before she came out on her mission. She has been here for 3 months now and is doing amazing! She spoke in our lessons more than I ever did during my first transfer. I was very impressed. We had so many miracles that day. We were able to teach a lesson every hour the whole day so Sister Martinez had plenty of practice to boost her confidence in her English! It was amazing.

We are still teaching a lot of the same families we have been teaching for awhile. We have a family out in Oro Grande that is doing well. They are a part member family and the member dad is preparing to baptize his two children. We had a great lesson of teaching the Plan of Salvation on Thursday. They have a lot of good questions and are eager to learn and grow in the Gospel.  We are also teaching a girl named Jessica - I might have mentioned her before. She has been going on a lot of trips across the country recently, but we stopped by this past week and saw her. She is still doing well and still progressing slowly. Keep her in your prayers.  We are working a lot with part member families right now and seeing a lot of success with that!

We had our Mission Leadership Council this past Thursday - it was a great meeting, as always. We talked mostly about Chapter 8 of Preach My Gospel which covers Using Time Wisely. We had a lot of great trainings about goal setting and planning and about creating a vision for those we are teaching. Ask yourself the question - What does God want to happen? That is your vision. Then ask - What am I not doing that is causing me to not reach my vision already? - that is your goal. Then ask - what can I do today to make sure to accomplish my goal - that is your plan. We used this when planning for all our lessons this week and it really helped us see God's vision of hastening the work and helping us be prepared for Christ's coming.

We have transfers this coming week so Sister Price and I are really working hard to leave our area stronger than we found it every day. It is crazy how quickly the transfers fly by.

I hope you all have a good week! Thanks for all your love and support!

Love,
Sister Cook

Interesting Week

Here is a picture of Sister Price and I at the family history center about a month ago.

Dear Family and Friends,

Sister Edwards and I have been having a good week. We came into this area with a lot on our plate. The ward boundaries have just recently been realligned and so there are a lot of less active members and people upset with the new boundaries. We have been working very closely with the members of the ward to build unity and trust between them. It has been really fun to get to know the wonderful people here. There is so much excitement for the work and I feel like missionary work is really what is going to unite the ward. We have been visiting some of the families that are on fire with the work and it is so exciting to go into their home and have them immediately start telling us about the people they are working with. We are having them use Preach My Gospel in their individual and 'companionship' studies and we are inviting families to use it for the Family Home Evenings. It makes it really fun to be a missionary when so many of the members are so excited and willing to help.

I have been thinking a lot this week about my purpose as a missionary and Sister Edwards and I have been discussing it a lot during our own companionship studies and it is amazing to realize how much of my purpose is simply to help. I help anyone who is willing to accept help come closer unto Christ. We invite people to do things because we Know that it can help them build their relationship with God.

We had some fun experiences this past week that I will share with you all. On Monday the ward organized a ward FHE. We had a group of about 20 members all together at the park. The elders shared a quick message then we played a game that is a mix between pictionary and telephone. It was super fun. One person would write a phrase on a piece of paper then pass it to the next person and they would try to draw it, then they would pass it to the next person who would write what they thought it was, pass their paper down, and keep rotating from guessing and drawing until it got back to the first person. It was super fun.

We have a lot of apartment complexes in our area (and a HUGE mall - Victoria Gardens), so we have spent numerous days this week trying to find our way through these apartments. We have gotten lost way too many times. We also figured out a trick to get into gated complexes: just walk through the front door! It is genius, I don't know why we didn't think of it before!

On Saturday we had a cool adventure of being able to spend the day with one of Sister Edwards good friends from the mission - Diana. She was baptized last November and moved down to LA, but she came back up to visit this past weekend and we took her out to some lessons with us. It was really fun! She is amazing!

Our days have been busy and we have been having lots of fun together. I can feel all the prayers taking effect - we are seeing miracles.  Thank you so much for all your support and love!

I know this Gospel is true and I know that God loves His children. If you haven't seen this Mormon Message - or even if you have - watch it and think about how much God loves you Earthly Father, Heavenly Father

Love,
Sister Cook

P.S.I forgot to mention in my big e-mail that we found out that we are having another Mission Conference at the end of the transfer and Elder Nelson from the Quorum of the Twelve will be there! I am super excited to have the opportunity to sit at the feet of another apostle and learn from Him.

Crazy Week

Dear Family and Friends,

I hope you all have had a good week! I have to keep this short today because I don't have a ton of time. We decided since it was the last day of the month and we had some extra miles that we would take a drive, so we just barely got back. Here are some pictures of where we went :D

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It was fun.

Love,

Sister Cook

All Good Things Come Through Prayer

Dear Family and Friends,

Another week has come and gone for me here in Victorville. We had a busy week and we had a lot of fun. We had a district activity last Monday - this is probably only the second one we have had since I have moved up here in March - so Sister Price and I had fun with the Elders in our district running around the gym playing volleyball and basketball. It was nice to just get some energy out.

We had some good lessons this past week; Sister Price and I are becoming really good at teaching in unity and knowing what our investigators and those we are working with need to hear through the Spirit. I love being able to leave a lesson having learned something myself from either what Sister Price or myself taught. That is truly a successful lesson led by the Spirit.

We had two exchanges this past week. On Wednesday I spent the day with Sister Toolan here in Victorville and we had a great day full of lessons. She is a wonderful missionary and it was fun to laugh and teach with her. We also had an exchange with two Sisters in Hesperia. I spent the day there and it was ironic because a lot of the people we planned to see I had either met or tried to visit when I went to that area two transfers ago. It was really funny.

On Thursday our Zone Leaders planned to have our whole zone go to the Family History Center and learn a little more about family history from the consultants there. It was really fun! They showed us a couple different websites we can use and some of the tools on Family Search. The coolest, in my opinion, is a website called rootsmapper.com. You sign in with your LDS Account and it shows up with a map of where all your ancestors are from. I discovered that one of my ancestors was born in South Africa! It was really cool! They also showed us a website called puzzilla.org. There is so much cool stuff that you can do for family history right now! It is so much fun!

The title of my e-mail today is inspired by my studies this morning. I have been reading the New Testament recently because our mission this month is focusing on Chapter 6 of Preach My Gospel - Christlike Attributes, and I figured a good way to learn about Christ is to study His life. As I was reading in Luke this morning I noticed how often Christ prays. He prays before every major decision and usually He finds a solitary place to pray. I have been evaluating my own personal prayers recently and I have learned from the example of Christ and my own experiences that all good things come through prayer. When we pray to God about ALL things, He will direct us towards good. God will never deceive us and He will always help us when we ask. My testimony of prayer has increased do much over the past couple days. It is incredible what God will tell us when we ask.

I love you all and I hope you have a good week! Check out the family history stuff!!

Love,
Sister Cook

Happy Father's Day

Dear Family and Friends,

Angela got baptized!!!!! It was a wonderful baptism!!! She was soooooo excited. We went by before the baptism on Saturday morning and she said that she didn't sleep all night because she was so excited. She is amazing. After church on Sunday she seemed so comfortable there and she really just seems to fit in. I am so excited for her. Her mom wants her to one day serve a mission, and I am excited to see if she chooses that option. She has a couple years to decide (she is only 13), but it would be so cool to see her progress in the Gospel that way.

We had a good week along with the baptism on Saturday. We spent some time on Friday morning visiting all the new sisters that we do exchanges with and it is so fun to see new missionaries excitement.

I have been having a lot of fun Physics freak out moments this past week too. On Wednesday night after our lesson with one of the families in the ward we went outside and he pointed out Mars, Jupiter and Venus in the sky. It was fun to spend some time just looking up into the sky and imagining all the wonderful creations of God. He told us that next week (this week) he would get out his telescope and we could see them up close! I am so excited.  Sister Price and I have also been talking a lot about keeping an eternal perspective and it reminded me of studying Einstein and how we know that time is only relative. It is cool to think that we can understand God's perspective a little bit more when we use laws of Physics.

I hope you all had a wonderful Father's Day! We were able to spend some time visiting some of the members and showing them my favorite Mormon Message Earthly Father, Heavenly Father. It is such a wonderful knowledge to have, that we have a Heavenly Father who loves us more than we can even comprehend. I am so grateful for all He does for me and all I can learn from Him every day.

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

Love,
Sister Cook

BARSTOW!!!

Dear Family and Friends,

Happy first week of June! This week has been incredible. A lot of miracles and fun things have happened! On Monday we had a lesson with a family and they are interested in learning more, it was an incredible way to start off the week! Then we stopped by another investigator who we haven't seen in awhile and she was home and welcomed us right in. It was about 8:15pm and she still hadn't fed her family dinner yet, so she invited us to stay and have dinner and cake with her and her kids to celebrate her sons birthday. We had already had a huge dinner earlier that afternoon so it was an adventure trying to not be rude and eat her food while also being stuffed! Sister Price almost threw up when we got home, it was crazy!

We had MLC this past week on Thursday. I always love MLC and learning from President and Sister Hobbs, and feeling the Spirit in these meetings. We are focusing this month on Christlike Attributes and how to obtain Christlike Attributes. Sister Hobbs talked a lot about prayer and using prayer to connect with God and learn from Him. I was studying from the April General Conference Brother Teh's talk titled "Where Your Treasure Is" and it mentions that we can make sure we are following the Lord when we are seeking to obtain Christlike Attributes. When we desire to become more like Christ, then we are more willing to obey and follow His counsel.  I am excited to focus on becoming more like Christ and putting Him first so I can become a better disciple and missionary.

As you can tell from the title of this e-mail I also spent some time in Barstow this past week. I was on an exchange with Sister Richardson up in Barstow and we had a great day. We did service in the morning then went to In-n-Out for lunch. We had a really cool experience at In-n-Out where the two people behind us in line asked a lot of questions about us as missionaries. The line was really long so we were able to spend probably about 20 minutes talking to them about our role and what we do. It was really cool. Then we spend a couple hours out walking around Barstow trying to find new investigators and meet less active members of the ward. It was a great day.

We are excited for Angela. Her baptism is still scheduled for Saturday. She is excited and nervous. Pray for her and her family, please!

My testimony of this Gospel gets stronger and stronger every day. I know the Lord is hastening His work, and I am so excited to be such a large part of it.

I love you all and I would love to hear about what you are learning in your scripture studies and how your testimony of Christ is being strengthened.

Happy Father's Day on Sunday!

Love,
Sister Cook

Achieving Goals (Plus Pictures!)

Sister Price and I on the ride at Scandia last Monday.

My district this past transfer: From the left Top: Elder Verelia, Elder Cuellar, Elder Hair, Elder Schmidt. Bottom: Elder Robbins, Elder Sheppard, Sister Cook, Sister Price

Me and my hedgehog fairy house made by Shanna and Sister Koopman

Dear Family and Friends,

I hope you all have had a fantastic week. Mine and Sister Price's has been incredible. We started it off by getting Angela excited about baptism and we ended it with her as well. It has been such a great week to spend time with our investigators and finding some new ones and just helping them feel God's love. Angela is always so happy whenever we talk about her baptism and it is just contagious. The Gospel makes people happy - that is why I do what I do every day, and that is why this all works.  We have a lesson scheduled with a new family tonight and I am just so excited to share with them the hope that can come from believing in Christ.

Today marks the beginning of a new transfer and I am excited to report that Sister Price and I will be staying together here in the Silver Lakes Ward. We were so nervous for the call from our district leader on Saturday and so relieved when it came and we learned we were both staying. So, I will be here until about the middle of July and hopefully I won't die from the heat. (Pray that I will stay cool, please). In other news with transfers I learned that Sister Ott is coming up here to Hesperia to train a new missionary so I will get to go on an exchange with her sometime this transfer! I am so excited :D I am really looking forward to everything that we will be able to accomplish over the next 6 weeks.

I have been focusing a lot over the last couple of weeks on the Book of Mormon and I wanted to be able to strengthen my testimony in receiving answers to my questions from the Book of Mormon. I want to share some experiences I have had over the last couple of days that has allowed me to do this. First, I set a goal this past week to place a copy of the Book of Mormon. I hadn't had a chance all week until yesterday. We had a referral from the elders in our ward and we went out to try to contact them and right after we said the prayer before we left the car I knew that this would be my chance to place my copy of the Book of Mormon. I grabbed one from the trunk and Sister Price and I walked up to the house. The kids were playing outside and we asked if their mom was home. One ran inside and got his mom and we were able to talk with her for a minute. She was busy right then, but we scheduled to come back the next day (today) to teach them more. I asked if the elders had given them a copy of the Book of Mormon and she said no so I was able to give her the copy I had grabbed. The cool part of the story is that as we were leaving one of the little boys asked if we knew who Jesus was. The mom told him, yeah they know about Jesus and they are going to teach us about him. He responded and said, I want to know who Jesus is. It was a really cool experience to see this family want so much to learn about Jesus and I am so excited to share with them more of the Book of Mormon to really teach them who Jesus is and what He did for us. This relates really well to the other experiences I had this week with really feeling and knowing who Christ is to me from reading the Book of Mormon. I think I have mentioned before that we are reading with one of our recent converts, Vanessa, through the Book of Mormon and right now we are reading with her in the Isaiah chapters of 2 Nephi. Sister Price and I have been studying a little every day so we can be prepared for our lessons with her. As I was reading one day this week I was so touched by the power of Isaiah's words in describing Christ and all that He has done for us. The song "The Messiah" by Handel has been playing in my head all week, and I love all the titles of Christ - Wonderful Counselor, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. Christ is there to help us with EVERYTHING. There is nothing in our lives that Christ can not help us with. My testimony of Him has grown so much over the past month, and I am so grateful for all that He has done for me.

I hope you all have been having wonderful experiences with the Book of Mormon and I would LOVE to hear about them.

Thank you for all your love and support!

Sister Cook