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