Getting Down to Business

Dear Family and Friends,

This has been a crazy week! Like I said last week we started on Monday with service up on Mt. Baldy clearing mud. Then Tuesday we had to do everything that we didn't do on Monday after our Zone Meeting that lasted most of the morning, so we didn't get much done on Tuesday. Wednesday we also got the call to help out up on Mt. Baldy so we threw back on our dirty clothes and went back up the mountain. Wednesday was a very different experience than Monday. When we got up on Wednesday they had the Mormon Helping Hands shirts and an orientation prepared for us. They had to warn us about the contaminants in the mud - to make sure we showered after we got home - and the snakes that have been found. We were organized into groups and sent up to where they still needed help. I was stationed at the same house I was at on Monday, but instead of digging the mud out from around a car I was passing buckets of mud to clear from either the basement of the house or from around the back of the house where there was a rock pathway. I got pretty good at throwing buckets through the air and yelling down when we needed more. It was an adventure. They had lunch set up for us and we again had a good time helping out. It is always a great experience to be able to work hard all day and see the results of those labors.

Thursday was a day full of busy proselyting efforts. To make up for our lost days in Rancho we had a lot of appointments set up and a busy day planned. We were able to meet with a couple of the less actives in the ward and share with them parts of the lessons and we were also able to set up to meet with a new investigator that the Victoria Ward had found. We had texted her and asked if there was a time we could meet and she suggested that afternoon so we were able to meet her and hear her story and start teaching her. We are really excited! Her husband is a member and they just recently had a new baby and she wants to bring up her baby with God in his life, so she is really interested in coming to church and creating a basis testimony of God for herself and her son. She came to church yesterday and we should be seeing her again tonight and tomorrow! She is amazing! Her name is Silvina, so keep her in your prayers!

Friday we had another cool experience with one of our investigators. We haven't had a real lesson with him yet, but he has been taught by missionaries before and agreed to let us teach him again. His wife and her parents are all members and they all live together. We had been talking with him about possibly having him receive a priesthood blessing and miraculously we were able to organize to have his home teacher and the elders come and give him a blessing. The Spirit was very strong in the room and I know the Lord is aware of him and the things he is going through. I am excited to see where he ends up and how we can continue to help him to come closer to Christ.

On Saturday we had a fun adventure when we agreed to help one of the members of the ward with her 4 year old sons birthday party. It was Despicable Me themed so they got two big minion pinata's for the party. They needed help taking the stuff from their house to the park where the party was going to be, so we got the wonderful privilege of driving two minions to the park. It was probably the highlight of my week :D!

Also on Saturday night and carrying into Sunday we have been implementing a new goal for our ward to all become more united. In our mission we have been emphasizing the need to have a vision for what we want to accomplish each week. We need a goal that we can work towards and everything throughout the week will help us to accomplish that goal. We presented this idea to our ward mission leader and he got very excited about implementing it. We have been brainstorming with the elders in our ward and with the Lord about what kind of vision we should have for the ward and how we can help everyone be a part of it. There is so much to accomplish and so much work to do, but we have to start small then work towards the bigger goals.  It makes things so much easier to do and you have more of a desire to do them if you know why you want to accomplish a specific task.

Sunday we also had the privelege of teaching Relief Society. The lesson was on Eternal Marriage so Sister Edwards and I felt kind of silly teaching all these married woman about something that we haven't experienced first hand, but it ended up being a really good experience. There are a lot of woman in our ward who are single or are not sealed in the Temple so we were able to really teach these woman that they are still loved by God and they are not failing as mothers or wives, but that they have something that they can look forward to and work towards - they have a vision. President Smith says in the manual that if we are doing everything we can do to follow the gospel and serve the Lord no blessing can ever be denied to us. No unrighteous husband can deny his wife exaltation and vice versa. God has a bigger plan, He knows what we are going through and He knows the intents of our hearts. If we are trying to follow Him, He will bless us. This is the Mormon Message that we shared at the beginning of the class, I hope you all enjoy it.

I want to share my testimony and witness that this is the true church of Christ once again established on the earth today. I know He loves us and He wants us to find joy and happiness in this life. John states the way that we can find happiness in John 13:17 "If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them." I know that my joy comes from diligently living and doing the things that I know are true.

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

Love,

Sister Cook

Mudslides

Dear Family and Friends,

I hope you all weren't concerned about me yesterday not e-mailing. We got a call half way through our companionship studies from our district leader saying that our help is needed on Mt. Baldy due to a mudslide that hit the village. So we pulled on our jeans and headed out to help. We spent all day up in the little village of Mt. Baldy helping dig cars out of the mud and clearing sticks out of people's yards. I got REALLY dirty. It was fun. I was literally standing on probably 4 feet of mud trying to dig out a car. It was crazy. Other missionaries went back today and we might go back again tomorrow to help more. It feels great to be part of the Lord's workforce where at a moments notice we will drop everything to go help whoever needs help.

I was studying this morning about diligence and that is exactly what being diligent in following the Savior means. Being willing to put the Lord first in ALL things. There is a quote from Elder Uchtdorf at the end of the Mormon Message "Moments that Matter Most" where he says "diligently doing the things that matter most will bring us to the Savior of the world." I know that this is true. When we earnestly put forth our efforts to follow Him we will be brought close to Him.

We had a lot of other really good experiences this past week. We went on splits with the relief society sisters and I was able to meet one of the families in the ward I hadn't met yet, we also had a wonderful Sunday where our lessons all connected in a way to help me come out of church truly feeling a lot closer to the Savior. Our lesson in Relief Society focused on becoming a disciple of Jesus Christ and we learned about the need to not just go to church on Sunday and feel like that is enough to take us through the week, but we really need to apply every day the things we learn. Our teacher related her experience that once she actually desired to learn more about Christ and come closer to Him on her own - not just from being told by those around her - that she found the time to do the things she knows she needs to do. I thought it was funny that she said "I never knew I had that much time."  So many people tell us every day that they don't have time to listen or let us teach them, but if we really desire to follow God we will find the time - we will make the time. I am so glad that I have the opportunity to devote so much time - all my time - to coming closer unto Christ.

I know this Gospel is true.
I know my Father in Heaven loves me.
I know that if we do all that we can to serve Him, He will help us in all things.
I know that God can help you, too.

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

Love,

Sister Cook

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!

Sister Price and I in front of a Joshua Tree

Me in front of some huge Sunflowers!

The Cordova's: Angela, me, Zulema, Sister Cordova, Sister Price, and Mia

Sister Cordona's Despicable Me hat! It is pretty awesome!

Here We Go Again!

Dear Family and Friends,

I am e-mailing today from back 'down the hill.'  I got transferred to Rancho Cucamonga serving in the Terra Vista ward. My companion is Sister Edwards. She has been out almost a year and I have known her her whole mission! Sister Price trained her and I have been on multiple exchanges with her. It is going to be fun. We are whitewashing into the ward (meaning neither of us were in the ward before today), but Sister Edwards served in this ward before - back in November and December. They have realigned the boundaries and split the ward since she served here so it is a little different. They kept Sister Training Leaders in the Silver Lakes Ward - I was replaced with my namesake - the other Sister Cook - and her companion is Sister Green, who is coming from the Terra Vista ward. It is a fun switch. Sister Price is still a sister training leader here in Rancho Cucamonga - she is now MY sister training leader, I am excited! - and she is serving in a YSA ward! She is freaking out!  It will be a fun transfer.

As for my last week in Silver Lakes it was a good one. We had two exchanges and we weekly planned with the Barstow sisters. We had tons of lessons and we even had an investigator at church! It has been a good week. I am really going to miss that ward and the people there. On Sunday one of the members of the ward put together a little farewell party for all the missionaries leaving. It was just a small potluck at her house. It was nice to see everyone and say goodbye. We had a lesson with Vanessa after that and when we were saying goodbye she almost started to cry, it was terrible. Then we had a lesson with Angela and her family. It was good to see them all together as a family listening to our lesson, they have grown and changed so much since the first time we were over there! I am so excited to come back when they go to the Temple someday! Then later Sunday night we spoke at the Bishop Youth Discussion about missionary work. We were able to say goodbye to all the youth in the ward. I have grown so much to love the people here, it is really hard to leave.

I am excited for my new adventure here with Sister Edwards. We are going to have a great time together. 

Have a great week and remember the Lord loves you!

Love,
Sister Cook

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