1.27.2014

Dear Family,

This was a good week here in St. Kitts.  We taught a lot of lessons.  We made it a goal to teach when we find, and find when we teach and we really taught a lot of lessons while finding!  We’re teaching an old investigator and her family that the missionaries taught four years ago.  We taught her the restoration and after she told us that for the first time she understood it!  She said she never understood it before and I guess that’s why she never followed through with her baptism date.  She works at a bakery and  the lady that works with her also used to visit with the missionaries.  She  told us that they were trying to read the book of Mormon together at work!  Our 17 year old investigator, told us that this week he felt like he received the sign he was looking for to  know if the Book of Mormon is true and now he is praying about his baptism.  We are really excited for him, because we know he will really help his grandma be active in the church and bring the rest of his family also.  We found an inactive member who is muslim this week.  At first she tried to tell us she was muslim and tried to get rid of us.  Then we asked her about her baptism and how she felt and she told us the feelings she felt.  We testified about Christ and invited her to feel Christ in her life again.  She agreed to taking the missionary lessons again.  It was really special to see how reminding someone of the feelings of their conversion can really change everything.  We also spoke with a less active member whose 3 children were never baptized but they all like church.  They just live in a different village so it was hard for them to get to church.  We spoke with the Relief Society President and we are in the making of a plan to help get them to church on Sundays! We have a lot of potential people, so we have lots of work to do!!  

The island is great though.  Very beautiful.  I feel like Im in paradise.  And yes there are lots of monkeys and some people keep them as pets.  Apparently the French brought them over from Africa a long time ago for pets haha.  I saw a baby one in a diaper the other day haha.  The locals like to show them to the tourists for money.  I'm learning the history of the island, aparently there are supposed to be like 450 shipwrecks, but only like 50 are found.  So thats cool.  The french and British and Spanish fought a lot over the island.  Christopher Columbus obviously claimed it and named it St. Christopher.  but they call it St. Kitts for short.  There are lots of sugar cane plantations. 

Anyways I think Elder Cornish of the 70 is coming here this weekend so that should be really cool! 

It sounds like its still really cold over there!  Crazy, I think i will freeze when i get back its so warm and sunny here!  I didn't know that Jo Jo played the flute?! Thats fun.  And good job to ally on 3rd in 4a thats so awesome!! I hope everyone is feeling better this next week! 

 This week I've been really studying about the  Bible and the Abrahamic covenant, it's interesting to note that The Bible never talks about the fulfillment of the greatest promised blessings the Joseph and His house.  Why would the Lord mention these great promised blessings but then not fulfill them?  That is why we have to Book of Mormon, the record of this fulfillment!  

Hope you are all reading the Book of Mormon!  

Love Sister Cole 

1.20.2014

Dear Family,
I am so glad that grandpa's hip surgrey went well.  And I hope grandma and grandpa are doing alright and recovering now.  And Chito too!  Anyways this week was good.  I feel like the days go by  a lot slower here.  Because the people here talk so much less than the puerto ricans haha.  So the lessons are so much shorter so we do a lot more contacting.  But we've found a few people to teach from contacting so we hope that will go well.  We taught a lady and her family like 3 weeks ago and then they moved and we lost contact.  But we got a referral from the church office because a lady went to mormon.org and requested the missionaries, and it turns out its the same lady!  So we are excited because that means she has real interest.  So we are going to  visit her on Tuesday.  We've had some crazy lessons this week with people who really know the bible.  So its really keeping my companion and I on our toes.  But we are very grateful for the spirit because there is no other way we would've been able to survive those lessons.  But we have return appointments with both of them so we are excited, but a little nervous haha.  The culture here is so different from Puerto Rico, so its taking me awhile to get used to.  I'm not used to people asking me if Bob Marley was a prophet haha. But I'm learning. We had a really good lesson on Wednesday night with an old investigator.  All we did was watch the restoration and at the end she was crying and she said she knew how powerful the book of mormon is and she wants to be baptized.  But then when we saw her on saturday she was acting all weird and she didn't come to church, so we are kind of upset about that.  But we know that she will pull through!   We have a lot of people with potential and who will talk to us, so we just need to keep working with them.  We have a young guy, 17 years old, who is really progressing. He's just waiting for his answer.  But we know he will be baptized soon!!  He came to church on Sunday for the first time.
Thats about all the updates for our area!
My companion and I are doing really well except for the fact  that food here is so expensive!  Haha so we live off of cereal and oatmeal.  Besides that everything is good.  Last P-day we chilled at the restaurant at the beach at the Marriot haha. Just living the high life over here in St. Kitts.
love from the carribean
sister cole

1.13. 2014 (10 month mark!)

This has been one of the best weeks of my mission.  It was so full of ups and downs.  I truly felt like the Lord was guiding us every step of this week.  Just before or after something amazing would happen, there was a a stumbling block.  My testimony of this work has been strengthened because I can see how Satan is truly trying to stop what we are doing.  We have two really strong investigators right now.  One of them is a 16 year old girl.  Her older brother is a member and she's been coming to church off and on for awhile.  We taught her the plan of salvation, and as part of her personal progress book, her and a member had to explain it to the young womens.  She was so excited all week to share it in church and was really studying and preparing to teach it.  This assignment really helped her have motivation to go to church and work on her personal progress! The other one is a grandson of a less active member.  He truly has a desire to know the truth and committed to be baptized when he recieves an answer.  We also found an old investigator in the streets this week who was going to be baptized but then moved.  We found out she literally moved into the house behind us.  Heavenly Father has truly been guiding us to the right people and I have never felt so certain that I am the Lord's representative here in St. Kitts.

Anyways not anything else is new.  Today I've been out for 10 months which has gone by way tooo fast.  I will try to send pictures haha i say that every week.  But i will try.  Thats so crazy that Aubrees parents are coming here! I hope that we run into them!  And tell grandpa good luck with his surgery i will be praying for him.  and congrats to andy!  that is so exciting!  

anyways loves from the carribean!

sister cole

Left Side: Atlantic || Right Side: Caribbean

1.6.14

Hello Family,

 I hope you all had a wonderful new years!  I am officially in St. Kitts!  Its so different than Puerto Rico.  But I love it!  I think i was in culture shock for a few days haha and its harder for me to understand their english than it is for me to understand spanish.  So that's going to take some time to get used to haha.  But its just really great here.  The people are so friendly and polite.  My first lesson here was really strange because they're not very expressive and outgoing like the Puerto Ricans so it really threw me off haha.  I wasn't sure how to read my investigator. But I am getting used to it now.  We have a car, but we use it just to get to where we are working and then we walk around.  And i have to drive on the other side of the road!  Its crazy!  But I'm getting used to that too.  And yes I've already seen monkeys haha They are just chilling in the bushes and stuff.  But its a really small island and the church is really new here.  The branch has about 60 people in it.  Our branch President is from the Dominican Republic so we speak spanish to him.  My companion is from Nicaragua.  She's already been here for about 4 months now.  But I am really excited to be here.  I will probably be here for about 6 months.  Anyways you can still send mail and stuff, I just wont get it for a long time.  Just when someone comes out here and brings it.  Probably once every 2 months.  Or something like that I don't really know.

So we have a few investigators that have baptismal dates that we will be working for.  They haven't really gone to church yet but thats ok.  They will go this week!  People are really nice and willing to listen so we are just talking to everyone here. Anyways St. kitts is part of the puerto rico mission.  not sure why it says west indies.  i think it used to be part of it.  and thats so awesome that the watkins girl is coming.  i will probably meet here in 6 months! haha unless she gets sent out here.  the weather is always sunny, its a little warmer than puerto rico because i don't think it rains as much.  I don't really know what the food is like.  I was told they still eat rice, but its different than puerto rico. we have filtered water bottles to drink water so don't worry about that.  anyways  thats really too bad about Chito.  I guess Chito and Jo Jo will be twins with their injuries.  

Well I just want you to know I am safe and am in beautiful St. Kitts. And loving it.  I hope that you are all doing well! 

xoxo 

sister cole