Birthday Present Success

Dear Family and Friends,

 

It has been a great week. Sister Richardson decided a couple days before Sister Kilburn's birthday this past Saturday that she wanted to crochet her some hot pads so it was fun this past week to see her in every possible moment crocheting. I have learned a little myself as well. Sister Kilburn was so impressed when we gave it to her. It was a great day.

 

We were also able to contact some potential investigators and continue to work with many of the less active members in the ward to bring them back to church. It is always fun to look around the congregation on Sunday's and see some of the people we are working with sitting in the chapel.

 

Sister Richardson and I complement each other very well I think. She is very good during lessons at explaining the doctrine simply and incorporating scriptures into the lesson smoothly. And I am pretty good at knocking on doors and talking with total strangers (which is strange thinking about how much I disliked this exact thing before my mission) so together we are able to both find and teach! : D I have no doubt that we are going to have lots of success in the coming weeks. 

 

I wanted to share a little story about our lesson with Val this past Friday. When we pulled up in the church parking lot she was standing outside a little frustrated we were a couple minutes late. When we sat down in the lesson and were trying to decide who was going to pray she admitted she was not in the mood. So I told her our goal was to have her in the mood to pray by the end of the lesson. It was cool to see throughout our time with her the Spirit working on softening her heart and giving her understanding, and yes she did end up saying the closing prayer.  The Lord knows these people so much more than I ever will and I can see that we really are just instruments in His hands to bring His children closer to Him.

 

I love this Gospel and know that it is true!

 

Thanks for all your love and support.

 

Sister Cook

Great Week

Family and Friends,

 

I hope you all had as great a week as I did, because this one was fantastic.  On Tuesday we had our transfer meeting and we were all surprised at what happened. Sister Price and I are both training - Sister Price is white washing half of the zone leaders old area, and Sister Anderson and Sister Orr and now companions! None of the sisters from our zone were transfered out of the zone, they just added two new sisters! It was pretty crazy!

 

Well my new companion is Sister Richadson. She is from South Salt Lake and 2 days older than me! Both our half birthday's are this week - it is going to be a party : D. She is wonderful and I am so excited for what we will be able to accomplish this next (at least) month and a half together! She has so much faith and a great ability to teach and talk about the Gospel.

 

We had a great week teaching as well this week. Val is progressing well- she still doesn't have plans of being baptized anytime soon, but I know that the Lord is preparing her to make covenants soon. Mike and Richelle are doing well as well. They came to church again this past week, which was wonderful because we were talking about the Temple and how to prepare. Our ward mission leader has challenged both Mike and Richelle to be ready to go on our Temple Trip to do baptisms at the end of September, so that means Mike has to be baptized before then : D. 

 

We were also able to make some good contacts with less active members of the ward that crazy enough after 3 months I hadn't met yet! I was pretty excited after knocking on their door for the 50 or so time and someone actually answered! I am sure I probably looked funny because I was so happy to find them home! The Lord has really blessed us this past week and I am excited to see what this coming week has to offer.

 

Thank you so much for all your prayers and support. I can feel your love.

 

Love,
Sister Cook

 

The picture is all the sisters in our zone this transfer:

Sister Richardson, me, Sister Edwards, Sister Price, Sister Anderson, and Sister Orr

BIG NEWS

The big news is here:

 

Sister Orr is being transferred and I am staying here in Diamond Bar to train again. We go to the mission office tomorrow for a transfer meeting with all the missionaries being transfered to find out where Sister Orr is being sent. I am excited to stay here in Diamond Bar. I have really grown to love the members and investigators in this area and I am excited to continue to work with them and strive to fulfill my purpose to baptize. 

 

We have had some great experiences these last couple of weeks that I want to share.  This past Monday (and tonight) we have started teaching English lessons. There are a lot of Asians here in Diamond Bar and one man was interested in having us help him learn English so every Monday night we use the lesson pamphlets to both teach him the restored Gospel while also helping him widen his vocabulary and learn english grammer. It is exciting and I hope it can become a bigger group and we can find new investigators and those interested in the gospel while doing it.

 

We also had a great experience this past week while reading from the Book of Mormon with one of the less actives in the ward. She has an incredible conversion story, but sadly fell away from the church when things started to get difficult. We began this past week just reading with her from the Book of Mormon and she told us it was like reading it for the first time. I am extremelly excited to keep reading with her and help her reestablish her testimony in this great book and her testimony in Joseph Smith.

 

We also have started a scripture study class every Thursday night. We have less active returning members, recent converts, and our investigator Mike has come these past two weeks. It is fun to have a night where we can study a general principle in the scriptures with a larger group. We are hoping to turn it into a finding tool as well where members can invite their friends or people who might not be interested in commiting to church to have something a little less intimidating to come to.

 

One thing Sister Haupt told me while we were on exchanges a couple weeks ago was to always be trying new things with finding so I am excited to see what my new companion will come up with and continue with these other new ideas we have had to see what we can do with the work here in Diamond Bar.

 

Thank you so much for all of your love and support. I can feel your prayers and greatly appreciate it.

 

Love,

Sister Cook 

Go to the Temple if you can

Dear Family and Friends,

 

This week has been incredible. I feel like the Lord has blessed me so much over this past week. We have been blessed with being able to find new investigators and work with those who are already progressing. We were also able to attend the Stake Primary Baptism this past Saturday and there is such a special Spirit at every baptism.  I know without a doubt that this is truly Christ's Church restored to the Earth and I am so grateful to be able to serve as a representative of Him here in Southern California. 

 

We have transfer calls this coming Saturday and I am also going on exchanges again on Saturday so this week should be exciting. 

 

Thank you so much for all your support and love.

 

Love,

Sister Cook

 

PS If you can, go to the Temple this week.

THREE MONTHS

Family and Friends-

 

Can you believe I have already been out three months? I can't!

 

This week has been great. I have been learning and growing a ton!  I know the Lord is preparing those here in Diamond Bar to receive the Gospel.  We had a mission wide goal of finding 70 new investigators and we found out this morning that the mission found 95 new investigators this past week! I know miracles are occuring every day to help the work of the Lord progress and hasten the work of salvation. 

 

We got a DVD this week that contains a couple Mormon Message clips and also the video's from the Work of Salvation Broadcast that we can use with members or investigators. Sister Orr and I spent some time while getting ready in the morning or at night watching the videos again and they are so powerful!  I love the Mormon Message Origin. We are planning on showing it to some of our investigators because it shows so clearly how important it is to turn to the Lord in prayer whenever we are seeking answers.  I have really come to grasp the importance of prayer over the past three months. God has so much power and influence in this world, He is just waiting for us to ask for His help.

 

It was Mike's birthday this past week so we celebrated with a lot of Pinapple Upside Down Cake - it was delicious! If anyone is having a bad day they should just eat some of this cake because you can't help but smile when you are eating delicious cake : D

 

Thanks for all your love and support! 

 

Sister Cook

2 Nephi 2:6-8

The Plan of Salvation

JULY 22

Family and Friends,

 

It is crazy how quick one week can just fly by.  This week has been great, probably one of the best so far simply because Sister Orr and I were blessed with finding. We found two new investigators this week that we are super excited about. 

 

I don't have too much time, but I wanted to share that the Plan of Salvation is one of the most incredible things that we teach in this Gospel. It gives us so much hope and joy for a brighter future. As part of our training we have been studying how to teach the Plan of Salvation and practicing as much as possible and I have learned so much by having this opportunity.  I just love how simple yet powerful our doctrine can be.

 

I love you all and appreciate your prayers and support.

 

Love,
Sister Cook

 

John 3:16-17

The Joy of Missionary Work

JULY 15

Dear family and friends,

 

We had the best Zone Meeting this last week that really reminded me why I am here on a mission and what kind of missionary (and person) I want to be. It was all about being happy and friendly and sharing the LOVE of the Gospel.  We practiced having normal conversations that could lead to sharing gospel topics and created a new key indicator of how many people we smile and wave at. It is awesome. One of the Elders asked what we should put if we smile all day and our Zone Leader said we can just write and infinity sign. I basically put that as our number every day : D.  We have been working a lot on getting 'Ballard contacts' this week as well. Basically we are supposed to talk to as many people as we see and count that as a 'Ballard contact'. President Ballard has said that missionaries should be speaking to at least 10 people a day who they did not plan to meet with. It has been fun trying to get those ten a day especially here in a town where everyone works during the day or they speak a different language. Needless to say we have had some interesting contacts :D

 

Also Sister Orr and I had an interesting experience on Saturday being able to fast with one of our investigators. We taught him the principle of fasting and he suggested fasting on Saturday so we jumped at the chance of joining him in this opportunity to receive answers to his prayers and grow closer to Christ. I don't think I would be lying if I say it was the hardest fast of my life. But I know due to that the Lord will really answer his prayers and He has made me stronger from the experience.

 

I was also able to go on exchanges with our Sister Training Leader Sister Haupt this past Wednesday. We had a great day of searching for less active members (one of which slammed the door in our face - my first one; we laughed super hard afterwards), finally meeting a former investigator we had been trying to catch home since I got here!, and learning a lot about always being prepared to teach.  She was a great example to me! (I am attaching a picture of the two of us).

 

All in all this week has been incredible. Sister Orr is becoming a lot more confident in her teaching abilities and I can see it whenever we sit down in a lesson. I have no fears about what she is going to share and I know she is in tune with the Spirit. Companions are the best : D

 

I love you all and I can feel your love, support and prayers daily. Thanks!

 

Love,
Sister Cook

Alma 26:35

Sister Haupt and I after our exchange on Wednesday

The flowers outside one of the less-active members homes. They smell even better than they look!

the beautiful view of the sunset here in Diamond Bar. I took this picture from the street standing outside one of our members houses