12.30.13

Dear Family,

Merry Christmas!!  It was so good to see everyone and talk to you guys.  Everyone looks great!  Christmas was so wonderful here.  Lots of different members invited us over.  We had a nice little Christmas morning with all of the fun presents that you gave us.  Thank you so much for everything!!  We really felt so blessed with all of the love that everyone has shown us.  The days leading up to Christmas we did a little activity every night for the Christmas book that mom gave us.  We used the mini Christmas tree to decorate with all the symbols that represent the birth of Jesus Christ.  Christmas Eve we went to the Presidents house for dinner so that was fun.  They had a Christmas tree with all the missionaries pictures in ornaments.  I love all the pictures you guys all sent from Christmas,  It looks like you had a fun Christmas morning with lots of presents!! I can't belive baby Jo Jo broke her wrist!  She's just too crazy.  I hope she is feeling better.  

  So we found out about our transfers, I'm going to.......St Kitts!! yay!  I am so excited.  I'm really sad to leave Caguas because I really love it here.  I'm really going to miss all the members and investigators here.  It seems like when you finally get all settled in an area and things start to pick up, you get transferred haha.   But I know that where I'm supposed to be is in St. Kitts.  And I'm actually really excited to go there.  I've heard its really beautiful.  It will be really different though.  The culture is super different and they speak english!  Ahh I'm kind of nervous to teach in English haha.  But I'm sure it will be fine.  I just hope i don't forget my spanish :( The church is really new there, so there is a lot of work to be done!  I'm sad to leave my companion though.  I'm going to miss mi hija!

Anyways this week was full of Christmas Miracles :) One of our investigators has been in the hospital for several months.  We actually met her while we were visiting a member.  The elders went gave her a blessing this week, and we found out that after several months she was able to leave the hospital finally!  I'm so sad I'm not going to be able to teach her because I know that she is ready to recieve the gospel.  Thursday we were contacting an old investigator.  She was home and she let us in but then she went into the back room and left us with her friend.  We talked to her friend and started to teach her a lesson.  At first she seemed kind of bugged that her friend left her to talk to us haha, but then when we started to teach her and ask her questions, she started to open up.  She told us that her husband died and shared with us her experience with that and her religious background.  When she was talking, the spirit was so strong, and we could feel that she is one of Heavenly Father's chosen.  She is prepared to hear the gospel, and it was a miracle that we found her.  I'm really sad I'm not going to be there to teach her either :( Then Sunday was the 5th sunday of the month so the missionaries spoke.  My companion and I spoke and then a return missionary spoke and then the missionary couple spoke and I translated for them. I was kind of nervous to translate for the congregation haha but it went well. ButSunday was truly a miracle because one of our investigators we've been teaching for the past month whose already read half of the book of mormon came to chruch for the first time!!  And then one of the husbands of a less active member who isn't a member came to church also!  we've been trying to help him progress for a long time. And then the majority of our less active families all came to chruch also.  Everyone came!!  It was so exciting.  Anyways, today we have so much to do becasue i have to pack up all my stuff and say good bye to everyone.  But I love you all and I am so grateful for everything that you do for me.  Thank you for all the letters and gifts!!! 

Love Hermana Cole

12.23.13

Dear Family,

I can't believe its Christmas already!! yay!  It is the most wonderful time of the year :) This week was kind of slow  but we had a few really good lessons with investigators that are progressing.  They are so ready for the gospel, we are just praying that they recieve their answers soon.  One of them's brother died the other week.  So he is really going through a hard time.  But he's been reading about the plan of salvation in Alma 40, and its been helping him.  He can only meet on Wednesdays though so since this wednesday is christmas we won't be seeing him until next wednesday.  Our other investigator is going to the states for a month :( but she said she is going to read and stuff and hopefully try to stop by a church when she is in boston. Both of them accepted being baptized when they recieve their answers so pray for them!! We had a huge Stake Christmas party on Friday.  Tons of people came, mostly members but we had a few from our area that weren't members and we have an appointment with one of them tonight.  We went to visit a member in the hospital and the lady that was next to her has been in the hospital for 9 months.  We sang and shared a scripture and she started asking us lots of questions.  We went back the next day and taught her the lesson of the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  She is really receptive and is going to read the book of mormon.  The elders passed by yesterday and gave her a blessing of health.  

Tomorrow we are going to the President's house for Christmas Dinner and then after we have like 5 more dinner appointments haha every wants to feed us.  So it will be a very busy Christmas Eve!  Christmas we are going to visit everyone for a few minutes, drop of treats, and sing christmas carols.  And then we get to skype!  Yay I am so excited to see everyone.  It sounds like it is a full house over there.  It will be so fun to see everyone!  

I hope we all remember the true meaning of Christmas, the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ.  The best gift ever given was wrapped in swadling clothes.  What will we give our Savior this year for all the gifts he has given us?   

Merry Christmas,  May we all draw closer to the Lord. 

Hermana Cole 

12.16.13

Hello family!! Thank you for all the emails!  I am very excited to get the Christmas packages!  Thank you so much for remembering me haha.  This week I hit my half way mark.  Crazy huh?  The mission is going by way to fast.  It feels like just a few weeks ago I left .  We celebrated my half way mark by eating chips and salsa at chilis! Monday we had a family home evening and a less active member came it went really well.  Tuesday we went to another less actives house and hna guizado made us burritos! Yay for Mexican food.   I don’t remember what we did the other days haha but lots of work!  This week we found a few new investigators from references from the members that are pretty interested.  We also have two investigators right now that are really progressing, but they still haven’t been able to go to church because of work.  One of them, Jose, has already read 200 pages in the book of Mormon in the last two weeks!  He truly has a desire to know the truth.  The other Belkis, committed to be baptized in Februrary when she receives her answer.  She has been searching for the true church and has refused to be baptized in other churches because she wanted to find the true church!  They won’t be here for the holidays though, so we won’t be able to teach them until January. 

One of the inactive families we’ve been teaching for a few months now, came to church yesterday for the first time in years.  And we were able to teach their older daughter that isn’t a member that we’ve been trying to teach for a long time too.  The other less actives that came to church for the first time last week also came this week! We are really making a lot of progress with the less active families here. 

We have a lot of lessons planned this week with members and a lot of different ideas to help people catch the spirit of Christmas and come closer to Christ.  What a wonderful time to be serving the Lord.  I am so grateful that I get to experience a Christmas as a full time servant of the Lord!  I hope all is well at home.  Send everyone my love

Xoxo

Hermana cole

12.9.2013

Dear Family,

This week was so wonderful!  Saturday our investigator was baptized.   After more than twenty years of visiting with missionaries and probably a hundred different baptism dates, she was finally baptized.  It was truly a miracle.  Wednesday when she was supposed to have her baptismal interview, we got there and she told us that she wanted to move the date again.  Every time the baptism date got close, she moved it. After about an hour of talking to her, the zone leader told her we are just going to try something, we’ll just have the interview and see what happens.   We waited for about a half an hour, and prayed for a miracle. When they came out she told us that she was going to be baptized on Saturday!! It was a really big testimony builder to me that when we do everything we can, the Lord will do the rest.  After Wednesday, she was so excited about her baptism and everything went smoothly.  Her grandson was able to baptize and confirm her.  It was a really special baptism because her family had been waiting for this day for such a long time.  I am so grateful to be able to help this family be an eternal family.

We were also able to reactivate two members this week.  They came to church after being inactive for a while.  They both are excited to work towards their goal of going to the temple.   We are still working with ways to try and get the ward more involved.  We are going to have another big family home evening tonight with an active family and some less actives. 

well i hope everyone is doing well and enjoying the snow :) its going to be a weird christmas without snow haha.  i love you all! xoxo

hermana cole

12.2.2013

Dear Family,

Im glad that you are all home safe!  Sounds like you guys really had a great time.  I bet it was a really great expierence.  I’m excited to do it again with you guys next year!  Crazy that I’m almost at my half way mark huh? 

  Anyways This week we have a baptism!! Our 84 year old investigator is going to be baptized on Saturday.  We’ve had this date for a while now and on Saturday we went to her house and she was trying to postpone the date again.  I’m not sure how, but by the end of the lesson she decided that she needed to be baptized on the 7^th and she called her children and her grandchildren in front of us to tell them.  It was truly a miracle and a blessing to see how the Holy Ghost worked in her heart that lesson. 

Also we found a really good family this week!! We visited a family this week that the ward council referred to us.  The mom was baptized in Peru when she was eight and when she moved to Puerto rico she didn’t have any contact with the church.  No one in her family are members.  We invited them to listen to the lessons and they accepted and are excited to learn together as a family.  I’m so excited to teach them!!!

 We also visited an inactive member who is 91 years old.  Every time we’ve visited her before she hasn’t remembered anything about the church or her baptism or the missionaries.  This week we asked her again about her baptism and she didn’t remember, but she remembered the missionaries.  Then when she started to talk about them she remembered her baptism and shared with us how she felt.  She asked us if we could help her go to church the next week.   It was a miracle that the Holy Ghost helped her remember!

Anyways that’s about all for this week!! I hope everyone is doing well and shout out to Allison!!! HAPPY SWEET 16!

Xoxo Hermana cole

11.26.2013

Dear family,

 i can't even keep up with all the fun and exciting things you are all doing.  california, disney, mexico... just too much excitment going on.  I got the Thanksgiving pacakge! thank you!! i love it all.  we are going to have a nice little thanksgiving dinner on thursday with a less active family with the plates and decorations and stuff.  i'm excited! we will send pics!  So sorry i didn't write yesterday.  we had a mission leadership conferernce on the other side of the island with Elder Cornish of the area presidency so we get to do the things we couldnt yesterday, today!  anyways so something that I learned in the meeting yesterday was the reality of God's laws.  Elder Cornish took a book and dropped it on the table.  Then he asked us if we thought the book would fall again if he dropped it again.  He repeated it various times, and of course every time the book fell to the table.  His point being that the book will always fall because it is the law of gravity.  It doesn't matter if you don't believe that it will fall or you have faith that it wont fall, the law of gravity causes it to fall every time.  Our Heavenly Father is a God of law and order.  The law is we cannot enter into the Celestial Kingdom if we are not baptized and if we do not keep our baptismal covenant.  The law doesn't change, regardless if we believe it or not.  It's our responsibility to help eachother understand this law and live by it.  This really gave a whole new perspective to my purpose as a missionary.  I invite you to think of someone you know and love, and help them find the path to baptism, so they can live in the presence of Heavenly Father. 

 

This week we taught a woman that we had contacted earlier.  The first time we contacted her we were walking by her house and she called out to us and said I don't believe Christ came to the Americas.  So we approached her and started to talk to her.  We ended up having a nice friendly conversation and she told us that she wanted to cook for us one day.  So we passed by the next week and the first thing she told us was that she quit smoking.  We hadn't even mentioned anything about the word of wisdom or really anything about the gospel yet so we were really surprised when she told us that.  This week we taught her our first lesson and the beginning she told us that she wasn't baptized because she wanted to be baptized like Jesus Christ fully summerged in the water.  She started asking us a bunch of quetions and asked us if we could offer a kneeling prayer haha.  She kept asking us questions before we even had the chance.  When we were teaching her, the spirit was so strong.  Heavenly Father has truly prepared her to find His restored church! 

 

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I was pondering 3 Nephi 5:20 and 5:13.  these two scriptures really impacted me. I am so grateful for the sacrifices that my ancestors and my family have made for me so that I can have the knowledge of the restored gospel and share it with others.  Thank you for all your sacrifices and support!  I love you all and will be thinking of you Thursday!

 

xoxo

hermana cole

11.18.2013

hello family!  how is everyone doing!  i cant believe there is already snow in utah crazy!  it is nice and warm here like always haha. 

   This week we've been working a lot with the less active members of the ward. The bishop gave us a few references and we've started to work with them so we hope we will be able to find some new investigators that way.  Things are a little slow here but last p-day I we had a special confirmation that we are the Lord’s servants.  We were eating lunch in Costco and when we were blessing the food, we asked that if there was anyone there that needed our help, if they would be able to recognize us.  As soon as we finished our prayer, two people walked up to us and asked us if were were missionaries.  They were members from our ward that have been inactive for a while.  Heavenly Father is aware of where we are and will always put people who need us in our path, we just need to find them!  So we are faithful in finding more people that need our help! 

    We still have our cute little grandma that is going to be baptized in December.  She is seriously the funniest thing, I wish you guys could meet her.  The good news is I'm staying in Caguas with my companion for at least another 6 weeks so we will be here for her baptism! yay!  Our special sacrament meeting went well.  The ward did a great job with planning good talks focused on the restoration of the gospel and musical numbers.  There were a few people who brought friends.  They don't live in our area but the important thing is that they brought them!  So that was really awesome.  We want to have more special sacrament meetings, maybe like one every month or two. 

    For thanksgiving we are having our conference and the mission is giving us a thanksgiving dinner. I think we having turkey stuffed with mofongo, which should be interesting haha, and rice and beans.  So kind of liek thanksgiving!  But it should be really nice. 

    Anyways things are going really well here.  We are all happy :)  I still haven't been taking any pictures but i will try to take some this week maybe haha.  Well I hope everyone has fun in Mexico!  Super jealous!  Practice your spanish ;) haha 

    This week I've been reading in the book of Helaman.  Where Nephi and Lehi preach the gospel and the Samuel the Lamanite preaches the gospel to the Nephites.  It really focuses on warning us of our pride.  Pride has been and will always be one of the greatest downfall of man.  Remember to always glory in our Heavenly Father and what he has given us an beware of our own intelligence and pride. 

 

lots of love from the carribean

xoxo

hermana cole

11.11.2013

dear family,

this week was kind of a slower week but we are making some progress with the ward and getting them to help us.  we are having a special sacrament meeting next week.  where the talks will be focused on the restoration of the gospel and each member is invited to bring someone.  we did a little activity during sunday school yesterday where they had to find chocolates around the room, and the after we related it to missionary work and reminded them invite friends for next sunday.  also we have a different member every day this week to come with us and teach so we are making a lot of progress there.  Our 84 year old investigator moved her baptism date closer to december 7th so that was a miracle!  she said she talked to all of her children and they all support her and she is really excited about it.  She chose the 7th because she had 7 kids, there were 7 people in her family, she had 7 operations...etc haha she had a whole list of things. she decided the 7th would just be perfect haha. so that was really a miracle.  Shes the one that the missionaries started teaching about 20 years ago.  She is so funny!  She also has jello for us every time we come.  Our other investigator that is close to baptism, still needs to move out of her house and she has plans to do so within the next week or two so we are hoping she will be baptized this week or next week.  So pray for them!!  we are looking for some more investigators this week.  we found a lot of old investigators in the area book that we are going to go searching for this week. some of them had been to church more than 10 times so we are going to go see what happened and hopefully we can start teaching them again!  

Thats awesome that you are going to mexico.  My companion is excited about that haha.  She misses her Mexican food haha so if you find anything from Mexico that you can send us she would appreciate it haha.  For thanksgiving we are going to the stake presiden'ts dads house.  but we also have a zone conference that day with Elder Cornish from the area 70 so i hoope we will still be able to go. they do celebrate thanksgiving here but i have a feeling it will be rice, beans, platanos, pasteles, and pork.  haha but thats ok.  its the reason we celebrate thats important not the food!  

lots of love to you all!!  remember how much Heavenly Father loves us and whatever we ask righteously in the name of Christ we will recieve! 

xoxo hermana cole 

11.4.2013

Dear Family,

The time is going by so fast!  I've almost been out for 8 months already.  Crazy!  This week was kind of a slower week.  We still have two investigators with baptism dates and a couple investigators that are close to accepting a date.  This week hermana Guizado and I made a huge poster for ward missionary work.  I went a little cheerleader on it haha.  But I think its really going to help the members be more involved.  We already have a lot of citas this week with member present.  And we are recieving more references from members.  So its starting to pick up a bit.  On the 17th of November we're having a special sacrament meeting and everyone is invited to bring someone to church.  So we are really hoping the members will.  They seem excited about it so I think we will get a good turn out. 

  For halloween we had to come in a little early for safety.  So we didn't do anything but eat the candy Lauren gave us! haha But Puerto Rico is crazy about Christmas, all the decorations are up and the festivities have begun!  They basically celebrate from November until the end of January haha. 

 Saturday we had a service project for the Mormon hands.  We went to an old peoples home ( i don't remember what they are called in english)  and we did yard work and then visited with the people.  One of the members in the ward sings Mariachi so he sang and played his guitar for them.  They really liked it. 

Sunday we had a lot of people come to church!  Half of the people we visited this week came so that was really exciting.  we are starting to establish our area better so we are feeling more confident here.

Thats fun that you went to Vegas.  I bet its probably still warmer here than it is there haha.  Loved the pictures of serendipity.  Sorry I don't have time to write everyone back personally but i really enjoy reading all of everyones letters so thank you!  I hope everyone is doing well.  Scripture story for the week is Alma 58 9-12.  How we can go from Fear to Courage!

 

con amor

hermana cole

10.28.2013

Dear family,

I'm back in puerto rico!  The short trip to Antigua was nice, but I know that my area is Caguas and i missed speaking spanish! haha it was nice to visit my old companion though.  she's been out there in antigua since after our first transfer together like 6 months.  This week was a really slow week here because we weren't really here.  We only had about 3 days in our area.  Saturday our ward had a desert competition.  We tried to make the peach cobbler, that was a fail haha. we don't actually have an oven in our house so we had to go to a members house and it was just bad haha.  our dessert obviously did not win haha. That's too bad that grandma didn't get to enjoy all of her halloween party.  I hope she is ok.  Sounds like the kids still enjoyed it though.  I bet Jayden just loved the puppy.  too cute.  On halloween here we are coming in at 6 for safety reasons.  but we decorated our apartment with the stuff lauren sent me!  its just super cute!

This week i've been studying about our purpose in coming to earth in the plan of salvation.  Three things that our Heavenly Father had in the premortal life that we didn't have yet were 1. a perfect body and intelligence 2. a perfect relationship 3. an eternal posterity.  We came to earth because we decided that we also wanted these three things, and the plan of salvation is how we can have them.  We have been given a physical body and intelligence, a spouse, and children to learn how to perfect them.  But we can't have these three things without the blessings of the temple.  If we truly understood how important these three things are, we wouldn't have trouble keeping the commandments that God has given us, as they all protect these three gifts. Anyways i've just been thinking about that this week and thought i would share it. 

I hope that everyone is doing well.  I love you all!! xoxo

hermana cole

 

 

ps. going to the beach is not breaking the rules, we didn't touch the water!!

10.21.13

hello family!

this week was kind of slow because i had like three different training meetings but we are slowly coming along here in caguas.  we have the baptism dates still but none of them came to church so we are still working on helping them keep all of their committments!  The weather is still the same.  I don't think it ever changes haha.  Tomorrow I'm going to St. Thomas and Antiga for some training but I will be back in Caguas on Thursday.  I'm a little worried about leaving my area for so long but we will just have to work extra hard the days that we will be here.  We have a member who is coming back to church after 15 years of being inactive.  She's going so strong!  Its so exciting to see her discover the gospel again and remember everything she felt when she was baptized.  We left the restoration video with her and she told us she watched it 3 times in 1 day haha. 

My spanish is stll horrible haha.  I really just can't say my rs but its ok.  My companion says they are getting better.  This weekend our ward is having a dessert contest.  I'm not sure what we are making yet.  The ward mission leader really wants me to make some peach cobbler haha.  Probably will just make cookies. 

Sounds like you all had a really exciting week with everyones birthdays and the zombie dance.  Crazy that the cheerleaders acn stunt now.  Thats awesome.  Grandmas halloween party sounds like it is going to be super fun!  I am jealous!  Lauren sent me lots of halloween treats though so we are going to decorate all nice and cute!  I'm glad the dogs are doing well.  I miss all the puppies. 

Tonight we are doing another big family home evening so we will see how that goes!  We are going to do an activity with the tree of life.  I really dont have any pictures to send.  I dont' like taking them haha. But i will try to be better at it. 

I hope that Michelle and Dad had a great birthday!! Happy birthdayyyy!!! I love you all!!!

love hna cole

10.14.13

Dear family

im sorry I never write very much haha I will be better at it.  im just so bussyyy.  anyways im still in Caguas.  and im training a new sister from mexico! yay im so excited because we are going to eat Mexican food.  I miss Mexican food haha.  and im actually going to learn proper Spanish! haha we're working on my rs. because they are still terrible haha.  anyways we have 4 baptismal dates right now.  so we are focusing on helping them keep their commitments! Yesterday we had an inactive member go to church! so that was a miracle!  we also had our investigator that's 84 come to church with her grandson.  that was really exciting.  She's the cutest lady ever.  She's tooo funny.  we have a baptismal date for a woman we've been teaching for a while too!  we just need her to come to church!  anyways im sorry im so horrible at keeping everyone updated haha and sending pictures.  I don't like taking pictures because everyone in this mission gains weight. average is 30+  pounds its inevitable.

looks like you all had lots of fun in Oregon on the beach and everything.  it looks a little chiller than the beaches here hahaha its still nice and warm here.. all year round :) everyone's hair looks so much longer! aka spencer haha  and everyone is looking great :0 thanks for all the pictures :) its fun to see what you are all doing.  I hope everything is going well. 

mucho amorrr

Hermana cole

10.7.13

Hello family!

Another great week in Puerto Rico!  I only have a few minutes because i spent all the time looking at pictures of the little puppies.  So cute.  I am so jealous!!! I miss all the puppies.  But everyone here has a dog so i play with them.  I especially like the huge great danes that one of my investigator has.  They are so big and cute!  Anyways, highlights of the week

umm we have 3 baptismal dates!! yay we have one investigator that is 84 years old.  The missionaries have been visiting her for more than 20 years.  All her family are members.  She was really sick this last week and her grandson offered her a priesthood blessing.  After the blessing she asked him to baptize her.  She said the time has finally come and after all these years she's recieved an answer, she said she could feel Christ through the blessing.  It was a really awesome testimony builder.  I don't remember who said it in conference I think it was President Eyering but he said that Heavenly Father always has a plan to save his children.  No matter if it takes 3 months or 26 years, Heavenly Father will help us save our brothers and sisters, with our continued prayers and efforts.  I also loved how Elder Ballard invited everyone to find someone the missionaries could teach by Christmas.  Members and Missionaries are a team!  So I invite all of you to do his invitiation and find someone to share the gospel with!  Well I don't have anymore time.  That is so fun you went to lunch with the Santos.  They are really great!  And everyone says my accent sounds like I'm from Russia or Germany haha I'm still working on that.  Anyways im not transferring but i am training again so i am looking forward to that!!

xoxoxo

hermana cole

9.30.13

Dear Family,

Thank you so much for all of the birthday presents!  I got them all on Thursday.  I loved all of the sparkle wrapping paper and everything.  So fun!   My companion and I just got some cold stone and ate at panda to celebrate.  Then a few people gave me some treats.  So it was fun.  And I love all of the gifts!  Thank you so much!  I heard you got a puppy?? What is this.  Everyone gets to be with the new puppies but me!  I'm glad that everything is going well, and everyone is busy with school and work.  I guess its getting cold there.  Its still hot here.  Actually is been pretty hot the past week.  I don't know if it will really cool down. 

This week we worked a lot with the less active members of the ward.  We've been visiting a lot of people that haven't been to church in years.  This week we had about 3 of those families come to church!  So that was really exciting.  We had a couple that accepted baptism but aren't ready to committ to a date yet.  But they will soon!  They shared their testimonies of the Book of Mormon with us and are preparing for a date!  We also found a guy that is really receptive to the gospel.  He was a reference of a member and she went with us to meet him.  So we will work with him this week hopefully.  He kind of lives on top of a mountain haha. 

Saturday we watched the general relief society conference.  I was really impacted by the baptismal covenants.  What are we doing to keep our baptismal covenants?  How can we keep higher covenants if we aren't keeping our first?

Well I love you all.  Thanks again for all the presents and cards.  happy birthday to spencer!! its just that birthday time of the year again! 

Love hermana Cole