Tuesday, March 4, 2014

Baptism of Tim and Trudy

Hey Family and Friends!!
I have had a fantastic week!! I love watching the work move forward. Especially in the area that I started. Transfers are coming soon and I think I might get transferred, but I want to stay for at least one more transfer. I'm not sure what the Lord has in store for me, but I'll go where He wants me to go. I'm still loving my mission and I continue to love it more and more each day!! You guys give me so much support and it really helps me to do my very best!!
 
Now for the week:
 
Monday: We started off by fixing the car in Eddyville (just some regular maintenance and the air system). We emailed at the Ahrens place while the car was being fixed. Then we headed back up to Marion and wrote letters and did some normal cleaning. We headed over to Seldon's place after all that and played a couple games of ping pong with him. haha. It went pretty good. I dominated everyone and I only lost to Seldon one time. After dinner, we went to Dylan's house and taught him the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The lesson went excellent!! Dylan is a very nice guy. He knows the Bible really well and he believes very similar to some of the things we believe. Hopefully we can have an awesome lesson with him tonight. We also went over to Bill's house and told him about the plan for him to be baptized and taught the lessons again. He has been having a lot of health problems recently, but he is making progress. He is an awesome guy and he is full of love.
 
Tuesday: We went down to the Clothing Bank and helped them out for a little bit. Then we tried to see a couple people through the area, but not a lot of people were home. We started to head down to family home evening and we stopped on the way down to talk with a couple people. We also had a dinner appointment with some members in Princeton. The Hale's fed us spaghetti. It was delicious! We had a great talk with them and got to know them a little better. They are a great family! Tony and his son Cody have been converts for about 2 years now! They are so funny and they really help us and the Branch out a lot. Then we had a fantastic family home evening lesson on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Quite a bit of people showed up and enjoyed it. Tim & Trudy really enjoyed it as well.
 
Wednesday: We had a fantastic District Meeting to start off the day. Full of great training's and spiritual thoughts. We had District lunch at Arby's and it was so good!! haha. Then we headed back to Princeton. We just worked the area of Princeton because later that night we had a Valentine Party at the Church. We went out with the Hale's again to see a bunch of people in Princeton. Not a lot of people were home, so Brother Hale dropped us off at a random corner and we took Cody tracting with us. It went really well, we contacted 3 families. They all have really good potential. Cody really enjoyed coming with us and seeing what we do. Cody is 18 years old and he is about to graduate. He is thinking about a mission, but he wants to go into the Army soon too. After that, we went to the Party and we had 4 of our investigators show up! We were also able to explain to Tim & Trudy about being baptized. We needed to have a couple more lessons with them and have them interviewed by the Zone Leaders. We explained that if everything went well they could be Baptized on Sunday!!
 
Thursday: Had a great lesson with Bill to start off the day. We re-taught him about the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The lesson went pretty well. The Spirit was really strong. Bill still has a strong testimony of the Gospel. It was a great lesson. Then we went to Tim & Trudy's house and finished up the commandments. We also answered some of their questions and told them about the baptismal questions. Everything was going well for them to be baptized on Sunday. After dinner, we went to Seldon's house and had a powerful lesson with him. His hardest thing is prayer. He doesn't want to pray to know if the Book of Mormon is true yet. He has been reading a lot, but he hasn't prayed yet.The lesson went really well though.
 
Friday: We had a great weekly planning for the next week. Then we went to Tim & Trudy's house and had the Zone Leaders come over and give them their baptismal interviews. They both passed the interview!! We knew that it would be easy for them. Everything was ready for them to be baptized on Sunday!! We went over the program for the service and went over the specifics of the baptism all together. Everyone was excited and ready to go! After, we went to play volleyball again with the Marion Baptist Church. Elder Roney and I dominated!! haha. They are such a great group of people.
 
Saturday: We went out with Brother Ahrens to see a bunch of people in Marion and Crayne. We contacted quite a bit and gave out quite a bit of Sister Ahrens fresh bread. haha. We also got in contact with a less active member in Crayne. She was moving out of Crayne into Marion (4 miles away from each other). We got her phone number and address so that we can visit with her sometime and get her some visiting teachers. After dinner we, tried to contact some people in Marion, but we didn't have much success.
 
Sunday: We had a great Church service. We had 3 investigators at Church. We were able to explain sacrament to Tim & Trudy a little better as well. After Church we had Tim & Trudy's Baptism!!! It was so amazing!! Everything went perfectly. I gave a talk on baptism. Then, I was privileged to baptize Trudy. Elder Roney baptized Tim. We were so happy when they asked us to baptize them!! The baptisms went perfectly. Then, Elder Roney gave a talk on the gift of the Holy Ghost. It was a great day!! They had the biggest smiles on their faces!! Well, we did too. haha. It was a glorious day!! Next Sunday, they will receive the gift of the Holy Ghost! It was our first of many baptisms for the Marion Area.

 

Today: We will finish up emailing, write some letters, do some basic Pday stuff, then head down to Hopkinsville for a District Pday!! Elder Roney and I are going on exchanges with the Hopkinsville Elders. Elder Motes is coming to Marion with me and Elder Roney is going to Hopkinsville with Elder Smith. This is Elder Roney's first time being out of Marion, so hopefully he had fun. haha.
 
Everything is going well for us. Elder Roney is an awesome companion!! We have so much fun together and we work really hard. The Marion area is really moving along and we love it!! Thank you so much for all your love and support! Thanks for being patient with my responses. I love and miss you guys so much!! I've almost been out for 6 months!! 1/4 of my mission!! Crazy!! I love this work. I love being a missionary. I know this Church is true. Have a great week family!!
 
-Love Elder Cottam
 
P.S. Enjoy the photos!!




No comments:

Post a Comment