My week

Hey Family & Friends!! 

  Well I'm writing to you today because the library was closed yesterday because of Martin Luther King Jr day. So, it wasn't the best Pday because I couldn't write to you guys, but we got a lot accomplished yesterday and we had a lot of fun.

  Yesterday we did the normal routine, with personal studies and companion studies, then we went to library to find sadness because it was closed, so we decided to go to ShopKo and check out a couple things there. I bought some scripture tabs, and that was about it. haha. We were looking at a couple other items, but decided against it. I found a better way of marking my scriptures and also making tabs, so that's why I got new tabs. After walking around ShopKo, we went back to our house and decided to clean it. After a deep clean of our place we wrote our letters and mailed them off. I hope that my letters have been getting to you guys. I've been writing quite a bit of letters. Thank you so much for all the letters you've sent me. We went down to Princeton after that. We needed to go to Walmart and we wanted to go bowling again. We had a lot of fun bowling with the Princeton Elders. After that we did some shopping at Walmart. I finally bought a Gamin GPS. It is really nice and I will use it a lot throughout my mission. Thanks Mom and Dad!! We came back up to Marion after that and got everything situated and had dinner. Then we went out and tried to contact some people. We didn't get a lot of success, but we scheduled an appointment with a potential investigator.

   Now I'll tell you about last week:

  Tuesday we went down to Princeton for Family Home Evening and for an exchange with the Hopkinsville Elders. Elder Motes and Elder Smith are in the Hopkinsville area. Elder Motes went with Elder Roney and I went with Elder Smith to Hopkinsville. Hopkinsville is a lot bigger than Princeton and Marion!! haha. There are a lot more members in Hopkinsville. haha. That's were our stake center is. The Elders also have the best apartment throughout the mission. Everyone in our mission calls it," The Tashmahal". haha. It's super nice and super big!! The former stake president is a dentist and he has a really nice office in Hopkinsville. His family built an apartment right on top of it and they lived there while their house was being built, so they just let the Elders live there now. I loved staying there! haha. We switched Tuesday night.

  Wednesday was the full day of the exchange. The exchange went okay, Elder Smith is new to the area. We tried to contact a lot of potentials, but they weren't home. We had a good time and we learned a lot from each other. We got a call from the Elder Roney and Elder Motes that night and they had set a date with a family we were teaching!! Elder Roney and I received a teaching record from the Princeton Elders. Tim and Trudy have had missionaries in the past, but then the missionaries stopped teaching them, then started again, then stopped again. So, Elder Roney and I went to see them a couple times, but it was just their son that answered. So on Saturday (1-11-14) we went over at a later time and we finally had Tim and Trudy home. So we set up an appointment for Wednesday and Elder Roney and Elder Motes went over and had a lot of success with them!! They were wondering why the missionaries had stopped coming, but they still had been reading from the Book of Mormon and Trudy and been keeping a study journal. Elder Roney said that the lesson went really well and he thinks they are ready for baptism!! They were able to answer a lot of Tim's questions and Tim got really into the lesson. We were going to come over again this Saturday (1-18-14) but they had a family member pass away unexpectedly and had to drive to a different town. It was pretty sad. But luckily we have an appointment set up with them for tomorrow. (1-22-14) Super excited!! They have a date set for early February!!

  Thursday we switched back and went to Zone Conference in Clarksville, TN. It was a great Zone Conference and they had really good trainings. I really enjoyed Sister Anderson's training on treasuring the scriptures. I have learned to have a greater appreciation for my scriptures and I love learning so much from them each and everyday. Later that night we went to Sheldon's house and had a fantastic lesson with him. We always have an awesome lesson with Sheldon. He just won't pray. He will pray for anything else, but he won't pray to ask if it is true or not. He is reading the Book of Mormon and loves it though!! I'm excited to see him this Thursday. We will show him the restoration video and talk about Prophets. He was so interested in Joseph Smith's story!! Love it!!

  Friday was a great day as well!! We had weekly planning for most of the day. We got everything organized and we got our area book up to date. We bought this whiteboard and we have all our investigators on there, all our less active members and all our potential investigators on there. I love it!! We have a much better system for planning now and it is working really well.

  Saturday we went out with the Aherns on an exchange. That was a crazy adventure. We usually go with them on an exchange once a week and it's always a crazy story when we go with them. You would have to meet the Aherns to find out what I'm talking about with them. haha. Elder Roney found that out the first time meeting them!! haha. They are so nice to us and they do so much for us. We went to an investigators house and we talked with him and had great lesson. His name is Bill. Bill is an excommunicated member, but he wants to come back. He is making a lot of progress and he still has a strong testimony of the church. The only thing that's stopping him from coming back is his health. He is having a really hard time keeping food down, but he is making progress. Hopefully he starts to feel better. He is one of the nicest guys I've met. We go over to his little house all the time.

  Sunday was a pretty good Sabbath. It was nice and peaceful. After church we went and contacted 2 people and set up return appointments with them. Hopefully they go well. I see a lot of potential in these people.

  Marion is really moving along!! I took picture of our whiteboard and I'll send it to you guys. We have so many people that we are working with and they are making a lot of progress. Right now we are working on getting a little building up in Marion so we can hold sacrament and other little meetings. Once we get that, a ton of progress will follow!! I'm so excited for the work that is being done here. All I want is in a couple years to follow up with how Marion is coming along and see that it has become a branch or small ward!! That would be awesome!! We can easily see that happening and I can't wait! I love being a missionary!! 
   Thanks for all the support and love. You guys are the best! Keep the letters/ emails coming! I'll do my best to write you back. I love and miss you guys so much!!

-Love Elder Cottam

 Smoothie Popsicle!