4.28.14

Dear Family

 

This week was much better than last week.  We are teaching a lot of people, and trying to find those that are ready to commit.  We had four investigators at church on Sunday.  Our investigator Avanelle is planning to be baptized on May 10.  She has been keeping all of her commitments, she's starting the Book of Mormon for the second time now, and she came to church yesterday and paid tithing!  

  We have another investigator named Mckeun.  Every time we visit him, there is a huge change in his countenance.  He used to be very quick to anger and hopeless about change.  Since he started reading the Book of Mormon, he truly has calmed down a lot and is striving to repent and change his life.  He is working on keeping to word of wisdom now, and working towards a baptism date at the end of May.  It is amazing how the Book of Mormon really has a power of its own.  

   We are teaching a family from Guyana right now and they came to church for the first time yesterday.  The wife is very hopeful about the gospel changing her family's life.  One of the recent converts in our branch is really excited to help this family also because they come from a very similar situation. 

    Anyways, last week was rough, so Sister Watkins and I got pedicures... It was seriously needed.  so no regrets.  a year of walking everyday all day gives you a lot of calluses.  Our mission president is coming today or tomorrow so idk if we will do anything for pday today.  

    This week was good though, lots of work.  I'm exhausted.  Mainly because I have insomnia.  Probably due to the fact that we have a cockroach, centipede, rat infested apartment.  SOS.  

     I dont have much to write about this week.  Just lots of contacting in the hot sun.  But we found a lot of potential investigators so hopefully we will see some success there.  i dont have any pictures either.  Just took pictures of all the bugs living in our apartment, so i thought id spare you those.  

     I hope everyone is doing well.  Crazy how time flies.    I will be home in exactly 4 months from today :/  

Lots of love

Sister Cole 

4.14.2014

Dear Family,

The time is going by so fast.  I can't believe another week has gone by.  This was a great week!  Here are some highlights 

We taught 47 lessons so we are almost to our goal of 50!

I've walked through another pair of shoes

We been poured on like every day this week

I was gleaked on by a contact... 

We made a puppet show of the restoration, visuals are the best!

Ate goat water? (not a high light)

Picked sea shells at the beach

Took a thousand pictures of a crab

Drove all around the island.. seriously OBSESSED with St. Kitts

Asked a man what he treasures the most in life.. he replied in all seriousness "The Herb".. at least he's honest?

We were running around super busy this week!  But the busier we are the better it is!  We have 5 baptismal dates right now.. so pray for them!  we need lots of help!  On Thursday we taught a woman that we've been teaching for a few months now.  She's been progressing, but slowly.  She's just been really nervous to leave her church because all of her family goes there, and she hasn't been able to recognize her answer to know if the Book of Mormon is true.  She was just really overwhelmed with choosing between the two churches.  We asked her waht she was looking for as an answer and she said that sometimes God answers her in the form of another person, so that's what she was expecting.  So we gave her a challenge.  We told her to not focus or think about anything but the Book of Mormon.  We invited her to read the Book of Mormon for 10 minutes for 7 days and pray and ask every time before and after if it is true.  So a week later, we met with her again and she told us how the challenge went.  She said that she was sitting in the park reading the Book of Mormon during her lunch break and a man came up to her and asked her what book she was reading.  She said the Book of Mormon and he was like oh the Book of Mormon!  That's the true church you know.  Where did you get that  book, I've been wanting to read it also.  So Heavenly Father really sent her someone to answer her prayer!  

Well its Ester weekend again!  What a great time we have to ponder what Christ's resurrection means to us.  I am so grateful that I can be a witness that He lives and leads and guides His church today!  Hope you all have a great Easter!

xoxo from the Caribbean

Sister Cole

4.7.2014

Dear Family,

I'm super jealous everyone went to Bahamma Bucks! Not fair!  Thanks for all the pics though. Looks super fun!  Its been really rainy here.  Apparently we are getting into rainy season again.,.blahh.  This week. went by so fast.  We taught lots of lessons and we are just being super bold and inviting people to be baptized on the street.  It helps us to find those that are prepared to receive the gospel today. We've had a lot of success so far.  We found a man the other day that said he was going to be baptized last month in another church but it didn't work out and now we are preparing him for baptism in May.  We had 3 investigators come to conference.  so that was good.  Conference was really good, my favorite talk was probably Elder Ballards about missionary work duh!  Anyways,  Im running out of time but I love you all and i hope that everyone survives the bike ride.  We have 6 baptismal dates right now so hopefully they all work out!  I love you guys!  TTYL

sister Cole 

3.31.2014

Dear family

hello!! wow this week has gone by fast.  but it was a good week! We taught 31 lessons so we are slowly making our way to 50 a week? haha but we made our weekly goal. so we decided to reward ourselves with food.  we love sweet rolls here!  last week we went hiking.  we hiked like 3 hours.  in the rainforest with monkeys haha i felt like tarzan.  it was great.  then this week we found lots of old investigators to teach.  so hopefully we will see some success from that.  We had an awesome lesson with one of our investigators who son died a few years ago.  We were fasting for her progress and then we had that lesson and she really opened up and it was exactly what she needed to hear.  The plan of salvation is really bringing a lot of peace and hope into her life.  Saturday night was like the craziest.  It was supposed to be the general womens broadcast at the church so we invited our investigators and we actually had 3 investigators show up.  and then surprise! the church didn't broadcast it? haha so we had to try on the computer and the internet didn't work... so it was kind of a disaster.. but we sang hymns in the cultural hall sister watkins, me and our 3 investigators.. awkward?  but its ok.  i think they enjoyed the hymns.  hopefully the branch broadcasts general conference?  we aren't sure haha.  but besides that experience the week was really good.  we have a lot of new investigators.  one of them was a woman i contacted like 10 weeks ago and she saw the book of Mormon in my hand and asked for it and ran off.  we ran into her this week and she has read all the way to Ether!  so hopefully we can teach her.  shes really hard to get a hold of.  i can't really think of anything else that happened this week.  but i will try to send some pictures!  lots of love!  
sister cole

3.24.2014

Dear Family,

Yanique was baptized!! Yay.  i don't have much time to write im sorry!  I spent all my time looking at Laurens pictures of her dogs haha.  Anyways, Yanique was baptized but i forgot my camera cord so i cant send pictures haha. but he's so cute.  he is 10 years old and he made us little bracelets.  This week we were bold and tried lots of different contacting ways. we went and talked to some gov officials and stuff.  we just walked up ot the building haha idk if its the equivalent of the white house but everything was super lax haha so they didn't care. hopefully we planted some seeds?  was as succesful as we liked but hopefully we will be blessed for being bold.  We've been having a frog live in our sink for the past week.  we decided last night that it couldn't last any longer, so we caught it and threw it outside.  a bit dramatic haha. anyways i have to go but i love you all sorry so short.  but thanks for everything allisons drill pics are BEAUTIFUL!  byeeee 

3.17.2014

Hello family!  I hope everyone is doing well this week!! Happy birthday again to JO JO!  i can't believe she is 11! Looks like the birthday party was super fun!  so good news!!!  On Saturday we have a baptism!!!!!! A little 10 year old boy that we are teaching is getting baptized and his uncle is going to baptize him!  We are so excited!  Its been quite the ordeal getting everything figured out but we finally got the permission we need and he will be baptized on Saturday!  Yay! Friday was the relief society aniversary so the rf did a nice fancy dinner here in the chapel.  IT was fun and we had an investigator come which was seriously a miracle because she has been taught on and off for a long time and has never come to the church.  And then we taught her on Saturday and she told us that she knows the church is true!! So she is praying about baptism.  We have a lot of investigators who are just right there, they just need to committ! But we are working hard and we should have a few baptismal dates in April! We are teaching another women tonight who knows the Book of Mormon is true.  We are just working on helping her recognize the connection.  On Sunday some random guy came to church.  He sang me a song about Jesus Christ and pizza and then asked me if I could sign a paper stating he was alive haha.  The branch was a little concerned about the people we are teaching, but we arent teaching him haha he just came!  So not our fault.  We are also teaching this little old woman who is so adorable.  She loves crafts so after every lesson she gives us a 5 minute craft lesson haha.  She is helping us weave a basket and make kittian dolls!  But we think she has a lot of potential.  She wanted a book of mormon and to come to church before we even invited! Then on Thursday we celebrated my 1 year mark!  Yay.  We went to this little restaurant called shipwreck.  And had burgers and sweet potatoe fries.  I think that may have been my first burger in a whole year!  But the restauarnt is like on the beach haha so you will all be super jealous!  I will send pics!  But thats all for the week.  It went pretty well!  Minus  we think there are rats in our apartment haha.  Sister Watkins and I were so scared we both woke up in the middle of the night and couldn't fall back asleep at all on Saturday!  So hopefully we can get that worked out..  But I'm glad that Chitos surgrey went well.  I hope he gets better soon!  Loves to all! Happy St. Patricks Day! 

Love Sister Cole