iPad Mini

Hey Family & Friends!!
This week has been a crazy one. We have had a lot of success and a lot of fun!! The weather has been really crazy recently. We have quite a bit of snow and ice right now. The library is closed... luckily I got an iPad mini now!! Haha. Our whole mission received iPad minis to work with. They are awesome!! The Church has this awesome app for us to use that helps us stay organize and move the work forward. We love using them.

Monday: We had a fun District Pday last week. We went down to Hopkinsville. We played volleyball and a couple other games with our District. We also played ping pong and I still dominated. I played Elder Smith (senior couple) and barely lost to him though. Haha. It was a lot of fun. After, we got dinner and headed back to Marion. Elder Roney stayed in Hopkinsville and we went on exchanges with the Elders. Elder Motes came back with me. We went to Tom's house and talked to him for a little bit. We talked to Tom about the Book of Mormon and the Priesthood. He has had some lessons before. He still has a lot to learn, but he doesn't have a ton of time because he works so hard at his job. Then, we went to Seldon's house because we didn't have any set appointments and we were pretty sure he was free to talk.
We stopped by and he was surprised to see us, but he still let us in. We showed him a Mormon Message from Mormon.org. Then we had a great conversation on prayer and receiving revelation through prayer.

Tuesday: We started off by having a great lesson with Bill. We started the lesson with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, but it lead us into talking about dealing with adversity. We helped him to have courage and strength to press on with being baptized. Bill is such a nice guy. Then we tried to see a bunch of people, but didn't have much luck. We headed down to Princeton for Family Home Evening. We tried to see a couple people on the way down and in Princeton. Family home evening went really well. The Princeton Sisters had a great lesson on Church, Prayer, Read (CPR). They talked about how we need to have all three in our lives. Tim & Trudy came and had a great time. They are super excited for the Holy Ghost and Confirmation into the Church on Sunday.


Wednesday: We had Interviews with President and the Assistants gave us a training on using the iPads!!! We received the iPads and we were shown the stuff the Church gave us for them. It was awesome! That took most of the day. The iPads get rid of the daily planners, area books, and help us share videos, share messages, and plan easier. We love them!

Thursday: We had a miracle today. We were working this particular area in Marion trying to contact some potential investigators. We didn't have much luck, so we started tracting the houses around us. We knocked this one door and this nice woman answered. We started to explain who we are and the Book of Mormon and she says, "Oh, I know who you are. I was baptized a couple years ago in Utah. I've lived in Marion for about a year, but I came from West Jordan, Utah." WHAT?!?  Are you kidding me?? I'm like, "No way!! I'm from West Jordan, Utah!!" We high fived each other and had a good laugh about it. We started talking to her. She's from the actual West Jordan though not the Copper Hills West Jordan. It was still awesome to find a recent convert in Marion!! Her name is Maria. She is a single mother
that has 3 kids. She is super nice. She was recently diagnosed with cancer though. We hope to get her active again and get her help from the Branch. After that crazy miracle, we went to Tim & Trudy's house. We had a great lesson with them. We talked about being confirmed on Sunday and they were still excited for that. We also talked about reviewing the lessons again throughout the weeks. Now we are focusing on their son, Matt. We went to Seldon's house next. Had a really cool lesson on the scriptures he's reading. He just finished 1 Nephi and he had read 2 Nephi 1-6. He loved it. He is learning so much and he loves reading the stories in the Book of Mormon. We stopped by Bill's house after that. Talked to him about adversity again. We also helped him protect his Facebook so that he has good people on Facebook. Good day!

Friday: We spent most of the day putting all our area book information into the iPads. The iPad's sync with Salt Lake, so that if we get transferred, the iPads already update the information that the previous missionaries had put in. It's a really cool system! We took a break and went out with Brother Ahrens to see a couple people. We had a great lesson with a guy named, John. We talked to him about the Book of Mormon and the Restoration. It went really well. After that, we went by Kendra's house and talked to her about her reading. She loves reading. Kendra also had some cousins over, so we were able to talk to them about the Book of Mormon and give them one. Brother Ahrens took us to a fish fry in Kuttawa again. It was pretty good. Cat fish is pretty good. Can't have too much though! Haha it's an all you can eat fish fry. It was pretty good, we also got to meet a lot of people that live in Kuttawa. We went back and continued to put people in the iPad.

Saturday: We helped a family move. They are a nice family that have lived in the Branch for quite awhile. It sucks that they are leaving, but they have a big family and they need a bigger house. We then went to a funeral. We met a lot of nice people and had a good talk with them. The person that died was a lady in our ward, Sylvia. Then we headed back up and went out with Brother Ahrens. We went to Maria's house and had her meet Brother Ahrens. Had a good little meeting with her. Finished off the night with Bill. Brother Ahrens helped Bill have courage.

Sunday: This is when the weather started to get pretty bad. Luckily we were able to go down and have Church and have Tim and Trudy confirmed. We only had sacrament because they wanted everyone to get home safely. We came back and had studies. Then, we had to stay in because the weather was too bad. Luckily we had iPads!! We were still productive even while being trapped inside. Haha

Today: We are going to do our best with this crappy weather. Haha. We were able to get out and find wifi so that we can email you guys. It's starting to warm up a little bit.

Well guys, thanks for all you do! I'm having so much fun! I love my mission and I'm learning so much. I hope your week goes well. I can't believe I've almost been out 6 months!! Crazy! I love you! I miss you!

-Love Elder Cottam

Sent from my iPad (that's right!!)