7/15/13

hi family! today's another holiday here so all the libraries are closed so i don't have much time to write.  but we found a really good family to teach this week and i'm super excited to teach them.  hopefully we will have a lot of baptism dates this week!  transfers are on wednesday so im not sure if im getting transferred or not.  i hope i can stay here for another transfer.  Thank you so much for the packages!  Im excited to use all the stuff.  We are teaching more little kids so it will be really helpful.  And the shoes fit perfect, so tell grandma thank you very much!! 

Im glad that you guys had fun on your trip!  and thank you for the pictures it looks like a lot of fun.  im excited to see all the pictures from the europe trip too!  well i have to go now but thanks for all your love and support and emails!  sorry i can't write much today.  lots of love!  

hermana cole 

7/8/13-Four Month Mark!

happy fourth of july!

sounds like you guys had tons of fun at bear lake.  im glad all worked out for you guys.  there weren't any fireworks where i live but i know that in San Juan there are.  The people here celebrate the fourth but not like we do.  They just have work off and usually go to the beach.  I didn't really see much festivities.  I can't believe Lauren and Spencer are going to Europe already!  Time really is going by so fast!  I've already almost been out here for 4 months. And then they come back and get their puppy and move to Oregon!  So fun!  I've been trying to think of names but the only names I can think of are all Latin now haha might be a little weird for the puppy.  Thank you for sending the packages!  I am so excited to get them!  Thank you grandma for the shoes! I really need them!  That's so exciting that you are going to San Francisco again! I am a little jealous!  If you get a chance send me a better picture of the Oakland temple!  And thank you to Jo Jo for the craft model and for the email!

If you can you should definitely go to Nauvoo.  I really want to go there when I get back. IT's such an important part of the church's history.  

Anyways.. this week we visited a lot of less active families.  We are making a lot of progress with them!  We also have an investigator right now that is trying to stop smoking and drinking so we go to her house every morning and night to help her and she is making a lot of progress.  It's really amazing what can be done with faith.  Last night we had a really special experience with one of our investigators that we've been working with for awhile.  He is progressing so much!  Anyways... I don't have much more time to write but I love you guys. and I hope all is well.  Thank you for all the love and support!  I love seeing the Tina monkey in all the pictures!  xoxo!

7/1/13

Hi family!

So this week was so great!  We finally had our baptism for the two little kids.  It was definitely the highlight of my week.  They were so excited and they sang I am a child of God by themselves.  Their mom and grandma gave talks at the baptism too, which was really special for them to participate.  We have a super fun family home evening planned for them this week too, we are going to make a family title of liberty and share the story of Captain Moroni in Alma 46. The mom always makes us food when we come over and its really hard to not gain any weight here. ahhh Im learning to like plaintains too haha.  They're pretty good if they are cooked right.  Well if they are fried and with fry sauce haha.  Also I eat mango and star fruit every day.  One of the members gives us a bag of mango and starfruit every time we go over there.  She's going to teach us how to cook next week haha.  

So this week we changed presidents, we haven't met him yet but we should be meeting him tomorrow!  Besides that nothing really new just working hard still.  We have about two progressing investigators and lots of people that we need to follow up with!  Its still raining a lot, but getting hotter too.  Not as hot as Utah or Arizona though so we are lucky!  It's just humid.  

Well sounds like you guys had a really really crazy week!  Thats too bad about lake powell and the boat, but bear lake will be lots of fun.  It's really pretty up there.

So the next package you send, you should send me some craft stuff like paper plates and construction paper and stuff because I teach a lot of kids and we do lots of lessons with the Book of Mormon stories.  I don't have much time I will try to send pictures of the baptism!  I forwarded some pictures from my president's farewell with the whole mission.  Oh and my favorite scripture is.. Moroni 10:32

Thanks for all the letters this week!  I expect to see lots of pictures of Europe and Bear Lake and the new baby puppy!! So cute! I will let you know if I think of any names!  And Damon and Kaycee are getting so big!  Thanks for keeping me updated.  Love you all :) 

Hermana Cole 

6/24/13

hi family! 

so today was a super p day!  Our President comes on Friday so today we had a last p day with the whole mission.  President Alvarado and his family took us all to the Morro is San Juan.  It reminded me a lot of the fort that we went to in Scotland!  Except a lot warmer... haha.  Same amount of rain though.  It was really pretty and fun to see more of Puerto Rico!  I felt like I was back in the states for a sec.  After we went to the chapel and had lunch and the President and his family spoke.  I'm sad I didn't get him as a president for longer, he's really great.  But I'm excited to meet our new President on Friday! This past week was another busy week!  We've been meeting with a lot of our members and less active families.  And we have another baptismal date! Our investigator is about 50 years old and he's been blind for 7 years. We've only taught him two lessons so far, but on Saturday we invited him to come to church and also set a date for his baptism in July!  It was super hard to find a ride for him to come to church because we don't have very many members in our area.  All the members live closer to the chapel.  So all Saturday we tried calling people to give him a ride and couldn't find anyone.  Sunday morning we went over to a less active family's house to have breakfast before church and we were counting on them to give him a ride as our last hope and when we got to their house they didn't really let us in.  We were determined to try and get them to church so we waited outside their house for almost 15 to twenty minutes.  Finally they came to the door and said they were going to get ready while we made them breakfast.  So my companion and I made pancakes, and at 8:15 they were still getting ready and we still didn't have a ride for our investigator.  So we tried calling to the family in the house and no one would answer.. they were probably hiding haha.. so we called one of our investigators to see if he could give our other investigator a ride and he could!  So we had to leave and show him where he lived, but the family wouldn't answer us haha so we ended up leaving the pancakes with a note on the table and leaving.  And we barely made it to church on time!  It was honestly a miracle that we were able to find him a ride.  If we have faith, the Lord will provide a way, but we have to work for it!  It was a crazy morning! haha Then last night was a conference for all the bishops and counselors and stake presidents and missionaries!  So we watched the conference at the mission office. It was all about how the members and the missionaries have to work together to do the mission work.  And how missionary work has changed so much in the past few years.  They talked about how media is now a huge part of the missionary work and they showed a slide clip of missionaries using facebook and tablets and stuff and we all laughed becuase that's definitely not how ours is haha.  President said that when the new President comes he will most likely be bringing those changes though.  So it will be really interesting to see how that all pans out. 

So Friday is our first baptism!! I am so excited.  Its the boy and girl that we've been teaching for about a month now.  I can't wait! I will send lots of pictures next week!  

Anyways its sounds like you guys are all doing really well and busy!  The birthday festivities looked so fun!  Happy birthday Grandpa and Riley and Joey!! Lake powell next week sounds like a lot of fun!  And I can't believe Lauren and Spencer bought the dog! What kind did you decide on?  When will you get it?  So exciting!! Oh thank you so much for the package!! I loved all the clothes and the pillow case.  And the book is so useful thank you!  Everything in it was great!  I think I am good on everything now.  Thank you so much!  If I need anything I will let you know!! And tell Grandma thank you for the shoes!! 

I am really looking forward to this next week!  I am so excited for all the work that has to be done!! Thank you for everthing!! Lots of love! 

xoxo hermana cole 

Three Month Mark

New letter from the hermana!

Hello family!

 

This past week was a good week!  Busy as always!  Its super hard to find time to read 11 chapters of the Book of Mormon every day because we don't have any personal time, so I'm super behind... Only in Omni and I'm supposed to be half way done by now.  So I have lots of reading to do today.  But I probably won't have any time because the sisters living in my apartment are moving into an apartment in their area so we are helping them move all day.  Plus I need to take the car to the dealership to fix the trunk so pdays still aren't really pdays haha.  I'm starting to think that I will never have a normal pday haha.  Training is going well, but I'm a little nervous because now that the other sisters won't be here I won't have anyone to help me train! haha so hopefully I will be ok.  My companion doesn't need much training so it should be fine.  I made it to my three month mark already!  The time really is going by so fast.  Things are changing already to prepare for the new president.  We can wake up at6:30 now! Yay!! I'm so excited for that haha.  Everything is going really well here.  We have a new investigator that came to church on Sunday!  I'm so excited for him.  He really has a desire to learn about the gospel.  And we still have our baptismal date for the little boy and girl in two weeks.  Yesterday was his birthday so we went over to his house and his mom cooked for us and we had cake and taught them a lesson.  Soo much food.  I didn't eat for another 24 hours haha.  We also visited with the family that had a baptismal date a few weeks ago and we had a little family home evening with them.  It went really well.  The dad is starting to have an interest in the church, which was what was holding the mom back.  So we are seeing some good progress with them again!  We have lots of potential investigators so this week will be full of working really hard to help them progress.  I sent a bunch of thank you cards the other week, I hope they didn't get lost in the mail.   Let me know if you got them. 

Sounds like everyone is busy with the park and getting all moved out of provo and stuff.  That will be fun to have Spencer and Lauren live in the house for a little bit!  Thank you to Jo Jo for the lovely song, I loved it!! I hope Allison will have fun a drill camp! Camps are always the best!  I saw a german shepherd and matlease this week and it made me miss my doggies.  Give them kissies for me!

I heard that Brenn and Logan went to the temple the other day, that's so exciting! Tell them congratulations for me.  Speaking of.. I did some temple work in the Dominican when I was there and so there are a few endowments that are ready if Michelle and Lauren wanted to do them.  They should because temple work is really important!  Well I don't have much time left but thank you for the emails and the package!! I haven't gotten it yet but I should soon.  Happy Father's day to dad again!  I hope you had a great day!  Sounds like the park is really coming along well.  My advice for the family this week is to try reading 5 verses of the Book of Mormon together each day.  Start with just 5, little by little, to just be together as a family!  Thanks again for the love and support!

Love Hermana Cole

Picture Time!

Hermana Cole sent lots of pictures!!!

Hi family,

so this past week was crazy.  first i got a black eye haha i was hiding behind a car with another sister just to pop out and scare the other girls and i hit my face on the car mirror haha.  So that was fun.  Then Monday we had a conference with Elder Cornish.  We couldn't really email because it was memorial day and every was closed.  I hope you guys had fun though.  Sounds like you had plans.  Anyways Wednesday we had our interviews with President and my companion was transferred to an island and I am going to be training a new sister.... But she is supposedly Latina so at least I will be able to communicate now! haha Im excited but a little nervous.. I still dont really know what im doing but im figuring it out now.  So until my new companion gets here I'm with on of the sisters in my apartment who's companion was also transferred before transfer day.  So we are working in her area and my area for the next few days.  Its a little crazy!  And I'm the driver.. haha don't worry.   I am learning how to back up.  Anyways.. I am teaching an 8 year old girl and 9 year old boy of a less active family and hopefully they will be baptized by the end of the month!  I'm really excited to teach them.  And the puzzles from the package will help a lot!  Thank you so much for the package!  I really appreciate all the snacks and clothes and stuff.  They were much needed!!  So our new president is coming next week i think so there will be a lot of changes going on.  He is pretty young,  probably in mid 30s i think becasue he has an 11 year old and a 7 year old.  He served his mission in Venezuela but that's all i know about him so far.  I'm going to try to send pictures so it might take me awhile to figrue that out so sorry this email isn't very long.  Know that I am thinking about all of you and love you!   My Book of Mormon challenge this week is to read Alma 50: 1-6 as a family and figure out the 4 things that Captain Moroni did to prepare his city against the enemies and think about what they symbolize for our families today.  We've been teaching this lesson a lot lately for different family home evenings and i really like it!  Anyways lots of love!  Hermana Cole 

PICTURE TIME!

Short Email

After waiting all day, Hermana Cole finally emailed us! Unfortunately she was pretty busy and didn't have much time to write, but seems she is doing well!

hi family

I don't have much time today.  since its memorial day everything is closed so we are using some computers in office max for a second until they kick us out haha but thank you for the emails.  I haven't gotten the package yet but hopefully will this week!  things have been really crazy here.  the 1st counselor of the area presidency spoke to us today Elder Cornish.  He was super awesome and we learned so much for him.  I wish I had more time to talk I just don't know how long I have until I have to go haha.  The reason I want peanut butter and raisins and cereal is because its too expensive for me to buy here!  everything is more expensive in the stores because they have to import it.  so if you can still put it in a flat rate box so the weight doesn't matter that would be cool. 

 

sorry no internet really today everything is fine love you guys! ttyl