Called 2 Serve : June 2014

6.16.2014

Dear Family,

Well…. I am staying here for another 6 weeks with Sister Watkins. Crazy huh? This will be my 5^thtransfer here. We are excited. So much to still do here. Obviously we were meant to be companions, ever since that 4^th birthday party.

This was a good week. A little slower, we’ve weeded out most of our investigators so we are going back to the finding stages. Karin was baptized on Saturday. I always love the days leading up to a baptism because they are really big faith builders. There is always a trial before a baptism and the investigator and the missionaries need to have lots of faith to overcome it. Karin interview went well and everything was great until a few hours before the baptism, and she said she wanted to postpone it. After lots of prayers and faith, she was feeling confident again. Her baptism was amazing. The spirit was so strong and we had 42 people there! One of the best baptisms I’ve been too. After she shared her testimony with everyone; it was a really special night.

Our new member Macken passed the sacrament on Sunday. He did so well. He is progressing quickly and the branch is doing a great job of helping him. He is excited to have his first family home evening this week and teach his family the gospel.

Either this weekend or next weekend the little boys we are teaching are going to be baptized. They are so excited. The older one is 14 and the younger one is 10. They’ve already read like 10 chapters in the book of Mormon. They are the nephews of one of the families in our branch. Their parents are less active but the uncle is really taking them under his wing and has committed to help them stay active. Hopefully their parents will follow soon. They are the cousin of the other little boy we baptized here. So he’s being just a good little missionary to them and showing them how to be reverent in church. It’s so cute.

After the boys, we don’t have that many progressing investigators so we are going on a hunt for middle aged men that can be leaders! Haha but really we need some more priesthood here. So that’s our new direction. Also there are a lot of Chinese people here randomly; There’s a Taiwanese embassy. Sister Watkins has a friend serving in Asia and she baptizes like 2 people every week. So we are going to try to contact some Asians. We are thinking about starting an English class and trying to find some Asians and Dominicans. We will see what happens with that!

Well. that’s about it for this week. We are looking forward to another 6 weeks here! Which I don’t know now what will happen for my last 4 weeks if I will stay here or go back to Puerto Rico. So I guess we will just see when we get there. But it sounds like everyone is doing well. Lots of bike riding and family field trips! Jealous!!

Shout out to Dad! Happy Father’s Day!

Love to All

Sister Cole

6.9.2014

Dear Family,

Sorry last weeks letter was a little short, the computer wasn't working too well. This wek flew by so fast. we've been busy teaching lots of lessons. Time goes by so much faster when we have people to teach!

Last week Mckuen was baptized. I sent pictures of it i think. It was a really sweet baptism. Mckuen is the greatest example of a change of heart. The first lesson we taught him was on March 20 and he was baptized just a little over two months later and did a complete 180! He's a perfect example of how we all can change with just a little desire and the 3 basic building blocks; prayer, scripture study, and church! Yesterday he received the Aaronic Priesthood and said the opening prayer in sacrament meeting. It all just happened so fast. We didn't even know he was getting the priesthood yesterday and then they announced it during sacrament meeting. So that was really awesome. The branch is doing a great job of helping him adjust. And we did absolutely nothing in his conversion. He was just prepared. We are so blessed that got to be here to witness it. We met him because he just showed up one day to church out of the blue!

This weekend our investigator Karina is getting baptized! She's 17 years old and another one of those prepared people. We did nothing with her either. We've only taught her a few times but she's ready! She wants to serve a mission and everything. She loves young womens and was already good friends with the girls there. She's going to be a great asset to the branch because she speaks English and Spanish and is a good bridge between the two cultures.

Basically we aren't doing much. Heavenly Father just puts these people in our path. This week I've really learned about timing. We've been set apart to find the people here who are preapere in my time and as long as we are just trying to find them, Heavenly Father will lead them to us.

Two weeks ago we went to Nevis for P day. It was beautiful. A lot like here but smaller and quieter. It was a lot of fun. We took the ferry to get over there. It only took about 30 minutes. It was nice to just leave our island for a little bit. We just walked around and then we went to the Elder's baptism, so I'm really glad we could be there for that.

Last week we just relaxed and ate lunch at a Rasta farm. It was the best thing I've ever eaten. I don't know why everyone's into hipsters. Rasta is so much cooler. Thinking about adopting the Rasta lifestyle. Mormon rasta? haha it could work. We did yoga there the other week. You guys would love it. When we come back, I'll have to take everyone there! Today the branch is going to the beach for a bbq so we will probably go there for an hour then back to the Rasta farm haha.

Well nothing else is that new over here. Just lots of work to do! We found some beautiful conch shells on the side of the road while contacting, so that was a plus. Made contacting a little more fun! It's mango season so we just eat mangoes and star fruit all day. This is the last week of the transfer so I don't know if I will be staying or going. I am getting a little anxious to know! Lots of mixed feelings.

Well it sounds like everyone is doing great. You're all in my prayers! Thanks for all the love and support! xoxo

Sister Cole

6.2.2014

Dear Family,

I can't believe its June! Wow May was definitely the fastest month. We had a great end to it with the baptism of Mckuen! He was baptized on Saturday. It was such a sweet baptism. If there is anything that I learned this week it is change of heart. He has completely transformed into a different person. it is a miracle.

Well the computer isn't working. i was trying to send pictures of nevis, but its being way to slow. Anyways we went to nevis on monday it was so fun i loved it. Why is it so much cooler than here? haha just kidding it would be so hard to work there. the elders had a baptism though so we got to be there. the sixth member in the group over there. wow! the second baptism there this year though, so thats great.

Well i wish i had more time... im sorry. will do better next week! ttyl

Sister cole

5.26.2014

Dear Family,

obviously i spent the whole time trying to send you pictures haha. sorry. so i don't have much time to write! but wow this week was so great. I love President Zwick and Sister Zwick. They are the nicest people ever. They were at church on sunday and gave great talks. We had 10 investigators there! And they all loved their talks and now they all want to be baptized!! so we have Mckeun this saturday, hopefully Reshma the next week. and John Mills the next! And then the next hopefully a girl named Carina.

We are being so blessed in our area, and in our mission. In the month of may our mission might be able to have 90 baptisms! Thats more than we had all last year. So everyone is really excited.

There's just too much to write this week and not enough time! But Sister Zwick taught us something really important about giving talks and teaching people. She said the best way to do it is to state the principle that you are going to teach, then give a personal experience that teaches that principle and then support it with the doctrine and then testify. If you look at all the general conference talks they follow that pattern. Lots of times we try to teach too many principles at once or share too many experiences but its so much stronger if we just do one!

Also, she gave us a journal and said that most of the time we write down our experiences in our journals but we never write down the principles that we learn from them. So she invited us to just write down all the little things that happen and then go back and ponder and write down the principle that you can learn from it. we all have lots of trials and challenges and just every day living that we learn from but how often to we ponder and define what we have learned.

Anyways.. this week should be really busy so we are excited. but i have to go love to all!

PS. they gave us permission to go to Nevis today.. we've been dreaming about nevis for the last 6 months! we are so excitedd!!!!! yay. So expect pictures of nevis next week!

Love

Sister Cole