Tuesday, May 20, 2014

I love missionary work!

May 19, 2014
Hey Friends & Family!!!
This week was a pretty good week. We are finally starting to have some success with following up with the people we've met. We have a pretty good teaching pool and we are adding to it each and everyday. If everyone was home when we come by, we would have a million baptisms, but people are gone so much! haha. We understand though. I love missionary work. It's not the easiest process, but it sure is the most rewarding. I'm so grateful for all the tools and supplies to help us with the missionary work.

Monday: We did the usual with getting all the basic needs done. We also got a call from President and he told us that we needed to give a blessing at the Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt. We headed up there and gave the little boy a blessing. We emailed, then headed to the Church to play some basketball with the Bellevue Elders. We had a good time with them. It was a lot of fun. We came back to the apartment and wrote some letters. We left to have dinner with the Haglund Family. They are super nice! They live in a normal size home, finally! haha. We had dinner with them and Sis Haglund's parents. It was kind of interesting, Sis Haglund's dad was a Mission President for the Brasilia Brazil Mission. His name is Bro Babbel. (or something like that) I was like, "No way!! My uncle, Robert Smith served there!!". Rob, what was your Mission President's name?? haha. That would be a small world if it was the same guy. Anyways, they made this interesting "Thai" food for us to eat. After dinner, we share a message with them and set a date to come back and have dinner with one of their friends. We then went to a referral's house, Russell and started talking with his dad, Russ. Russ has had a lot of experience with our Church before. We left him with a Book of Mormon because Russell wanted one. Russ didn't really want to learn more, but he was a super nice guy and gave us a ride back to our apartment. We then finished off the night with having a message with the White family. They are kind of less active because Sis White is disabled and Bro White had surgery on his foot. We committed them to come to Church this Sunday and we would help them get around. They came to Church this Sunday and had a great time.

Tuesday: We went up to the North side of Nashville and tried to see a bunch of potential investigators and members up there. Not very many were home. It's hard because a lot of them are at work during the day. We headed to a different area to see a referral. This guy wasn't home, but we called him and set up a time to come by that night. This guys wasn't in it for the right reasons though. He just wanted money and it didn't go the way we hoped it would. We were able to get him a ride for Church, but it didn't go very well because he just wanted money. After Dinner, we went out with Bro Booker. He is a recent convert! He's been a member for about a year. We went out and saw a bunch of 
our investigators. We stopped by one of our top investigators, Steven. His wife, Bree answered and said that he wasn't home. She was really nice. We just explained who we were and what we do as missionaries. She said that she would tell him that we stopped by. It was a good night. We were able to see a couple people and talk with them on the door step and talk with the referral.
 
Wednesday: We had a really good District Meeting. We really felt the Spirit strong with the different trainings and messages. I personally learned a lot. After District Meeting, we went to the Hospital to give another blessing for this lady's little boy. After dinner, we went out on exchanges with Bro Gould. We had a lot of success with him. We came back to Steven. He said that he has been reading the Book of Mormon again (This will be his 3rd time reading it) and that he has a lot of questions. He was busy that night, but we got his number and we said that we would call and set up a time to meet up with him. He is a really nice guy. He has an awesome family too. We also tried to see our other top investigator, William. He wasn't home, but we were able to meet his sister, Erica. Talked about who we are and what we do as missionaries. We gave her a copy as well and committed her to read it. They are just an awesome family. We also had a pretty cool lesson with Markwood. We haven't been able to see Markwood in a long time. Bro Gould bore a really powerful testimony. It was great!! We had to hand Markwood off to the YSA though. Hopefully they can make an impact on his life. We also talked with a girl named, Angel. She is a girlfriend of one of our potential investigators. We told her about the Book of Mormon and gave her a copy as well as Chester. Good day!
 
Thursday: We had interviews with President. It went really well. President and Sister Andersen are so amazing. They have so much love and kindness. They are such hard workers and they are making our mission amazing. President even polished my shoes while we were talking!! He is doing that for every Elder in the Mission!! After, we switched with the Bellevue Elders and went on exchanges. Elder Randall and I stayed in Green Hills and Elder Harris went with Elder Leavitt to Bellevue. Elder Randall and I had a pretty good time. We went up to the North-West side of our area and contacted some of our investigators up there. We had a really good lesson with Jay. He hadn't had a chance to read the Book of Mormon yet because he is super busy working at Vanderbilt, but he says that he really wants to read it. We had a great little lesson with him. We also tracted around his house a met a bunch of his neighbours. We met a girl named Katie & Jenny. Who would have guessed that? haha. Jenny's mom is a member and Jenny remembers going sometimes and said she really likes it. It was really successful. We came back for dinner. We headed out to the area that was by us and tracted a bunch down there and met a bunch of really cool people. We gave away a bunch of copies of the Book of Mormon. It was a really good exchange.
 
Friday: We had crazy day!! We started by going to the service project that we go to every week, "The Little Pantry that could". We switched back with the Bellevue Elders then did the service project. We then came back and got a call to go to the hospital for another blessing. After waiting a long time for them to do some tests on the little boy, we finally gave the blessing and left to go weekly plan. On the way back, we received another call from the Zone Leaders to go up to a different hospital to give another blessing. So, we headed up there and waited for the person to be ready. We headed back for dinner. After dinner, we went up to the North Part of Vanderbilt and tracted around there. We have most of our top investigators there. We found two ladies, Raven and Sea-Enna (Not sure on the spelling haha). Told them about the Book of Mormon and gave them a copy. We didn't get to Weekly Plan.
 
Saturday: We had breakfast at our Ward Mission Leader's house. We ate a delicious breakfast, then had a small correlation meeting. We headed back to the place and waited for a member to pick us up for a service project she had for us for one of her friends. She has a non-member friend that was moving and needed help. We drove with them to her house, but got lost because Brentwood is so massive and has so many houses. haha. Her friend ended up living right next to our Ward Mission Leader's house!! We were like "what?!?!" We were here just a couple minutes ago!! hahaha. Everyone here doesn't really know their neighbours and they have friends, but they usually don't know where they live.... Sad life... I'm so glad it's different in Utah!! haha. I had a good time texting our Ward Mission Leader and telling him that we were helping his neighbour move!! haha. We were able to talk to a bunch of her friends that were helping her move about our Church and about missionary work. We gave her a copy of the Book of Mormon and explained it. We came back and weekly planned. After dinner, we went and saw a guy named, Jay. We met Jay at "The Little Pantry that could". He is a super cool guy. The only problem is he lives in kind of a "Half-way House or Penitentiary House". It's not hard to get into and teach him a lesson, but it was just difficult to figure out the situation and figure out where he lives. We finally got inside and taught him the Restoration. It went so well!! He loved it! We committed him to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it. We also asked him if he came to know that it was true, would he be baptized and he said he would!! Now, we just have to continue teaching him and have him come to church. We asked if he wanted to come to church and he said he would love to come, but he has to get it approved first. They have to check in and out everytime they leave or go somewhere. Hopefully we can make it work cause he is such a cool guy.
 
Sunday: We had the most interesting Sunday ever!!! First the referral came and that was just a mess. I'll have to explain it in person sometime. haha. On the good side, we had this guy call us in the morning and he said that missionaries talked with him awhile back and he wanted to come to church. He came and brought a friend, but his friend was from Vietnam and couldn't speak any English... haha. It was a good day after that. We went over to the Gawry's for lunch and to the Moore's for dinner. We were able to really connect with the families really well.
 
Crazy week, but I love it. Thanks for all your support!! I love and miss you guys so much!!
 
-Love Elder Cottam

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