Success in Marion!

March 10, 2014

Hey Family and Friends,

I'm glad that I'm being Transferred. I get to see what it's like to be in a new area and I already know it will be different. President told me that it is the richest of the rich and the poorest of the poor. Completely different to Marion! Haha. I also get to ride a bus. Not sure how much, but he said that I'll get a lot of time to find people while on the bus. I'll have a bus pass and everything! Crazy! Haha I'm going to love it!

Elder Roney is staying in Marion. I'm going to miss him. He has been my favorite companion so far. I know that he will do well in Marion.

The baptism went great!! Chris is such an awesome guy. So humble and so nice. The Princeton Sisters have been teaching him. The cool thing about Chris is how we found him. The Princeton Branch went to a fair called, "The Blackpatch Festival" around July of last year. They had a booth and they asked people to fill out surveys to win a picture of Christ and some other things. So, Chris filled it out and he didn't think they were going to contact him because it had been so long. Last Transfer, Elder Lofthouse & Elder Short (At that time, they were the Princeton Elders) gave me a bunch of referrals from the festival. Well for some reason they gave me some Princeton ones. So, we were calling them and asking if they were interested and we weren't having much success. I happened to call Chris and I told him about it and he remembered and I asked if he was still interested and he said yes! About 8 weeks or so later, he is baptized and confirmed!! Miracles!! I love it!

The 5 baptisms that we've had since I've been in the Branch have been,

-Ethan taught by the Princeton Sisters. (I baptized him)

-Judy taught by the Princeton Sisters & Princeton Elders baptized her.

-Trudy taught by us and I baptized her.

-Tim taught by us and Elder Roney baptized him.

-Chris taught by the Princeton Elders & Princeton Sisters baptized him. Elder Roney baptized him.

We are looking to have about 2 more from the Princeton Sisters and hopefully Matt can be baptized by Elder Roney & Elder Openshaw this coming Transfer.

Love- Elder Cottam