transfer 8: plot twists

This transfer has a whole bunch of plot twists so get ready:

1) I am leaving Wellington after just 5 weeks!
2) I am staying in English!
3) I will be going to a YSA (18-30 year olds) branch... back to Naples!
4) I will be serving as an STL (Sister Training Leader, they cover about 8 sisters and go on exchanges and things like that and are a part of the mission leadership! It's crazy!)
5) and the biggest one of all... I'M GOING BACK WITH SISTER SOZA!!

To refresh your memories, Sister Soza is my trainer and we are going to be companions again!! IT'S CRAZY. You almost never get the same companion again. We are going to be comps when I hit my year mark and also, this is her last transfer so I will be killing her! IT'S SO CRAZY. This is going to be the best transfer ever. When President Richardson called last night he said, "Sister Cottrell, you're my new STL and you will be in Estero YSA with.....your momma!" He said "I can already hear the screams on Wednesday when you two get back together!" He is the best. We cover all the sisters in Naples and Ft. Myers (all the zones on the west coast) and our area covers 2 whole zones of YSA! AH! Super exciting though, even though its YSA... just kidding, it is going to be unreal.

PUES, besides that I had a great last Sunday/ birthday here in Wellington! Lots of cake and yumminess and it was great. I am no longer a teenager and I am an old 20 year old! When did that happen!?

We had an amazing miracle on Sunday and had 8 investigators at Sacrament meeting! A Spanish family we have been teaching all came and so did 2 part member families! It was crazy! We were running all over the place, but the ward was happy there were so many people so Sister Cottrell is leaving Wellington with a bang. Peace out.

Also, the ward that meets before us on Sundays had a special visitor yesterday in their sacrament meeting... MITT ROMNEY just casually walks in. He's here for the Polo Races here in Wellington and they just causally attended sacrament meeting. It's no big deal. Wellington is also home to Bill Gates (we found his house), Vanilla Ice (found him too) and Tommy Lee Jones (still on the lookout).

Also I got into my first car crash ever. No worries though. We were driving up to Jupiter and we had just gotten off the freeway and we were waiting at the light and this semi truck thing just straight backed into us. Me and Sister Schiers screamed from the backseat and we were honking but he didn't hear and then just got back on the freeway and drove away! It was crazy! The car isn't too damaged at all but it was quite an adventurous week.

I have loved it here in Wellington but I guess I'm needed in YSA (not super pumped about that) but hey, its going to be a freaking party. Get ready FFLM because the mother-daughter duo is BACK.


1: Hilarious sweatshirt I wanted to buy but didn't... it says "we are eternal" YES WE ARE.

2: The sisters made me a beautiful cake :)

3: Hermanas plus Elder Conder being... Elder Conder? I don't even know but we all look cute so..

4: This is the only zone picture we got and it is  terrible but hilarious. What is everyone even doing?

5: Sunday selfies

6: These are the cookies we got from an older man named Jim. We were out knocking on doors and we prayed with him and then kept knocking and as we were walking back to the car he comes running out and hands us these cookies. He lives alone and was super happy and it made us so sad that no one was there with him and he did this selfless thing and gave us some of his cookies. THERE ARE GOOD PEOPLE OUT THERE! We can all be a little more like Jim!

be ambitious for Christ

Plot twist: It is cold in Florida. This is not a drill. It is like 60 degrees outside and freaking cold. We are freezing and none of us are prepared to go back to Utah/Idaho and die at school. Sister Tilby and I were washing the cars this morning and we were bundled in sweats and socks and flip flops because its Florida and we have nothing warm. Who knew it could be this cold. We were knocking the other night and Sister Schiers and I both forgot our cardigans so it was the most miserable knocking session of my mission. We were trying not to look like we were freezing out there but still no one let us in, they all just told us to get out of the cold.

It was a good week besides these 3 days of freezing weather we have had. On Friday, we had to stay in because I got a migraine, but we went out and knocked and then ate dinner with some Haitians. Its a totally different culture and I understand zero creole but it was fun and loud. We also got a part member family set with a baptism date for the end of the month. The rest of the family got baptized last year and he is finally ready and the ward is very excited.

I didn't mention it in any of my emails but the week before Christmas, my recent convert Dorothy passed away from cancer. It happened a lot faster than anyone was expecting but the mission president called to tell me and Sister Dimond got to go to her funeral in Coral Reef. She said she looked beautiful and these last 4 weeks I have really been thinking about her and the plan that our Heavenly Father has for us. She was baptized October 21st and passed away right before Christmas, that's only 2 months later! But she found the truth and she knew it and she was prepared and not worried at all. I have definitely been able to feel her with me every step of the way this transfer and it has been amazing. I am so grateful that Heavenly Father gave me the opportunity to meet her and be a part of her journey. I know that God loves us and places people in our lives to help and strengthen us when we need it and His plan is perfect.

I also read a talk this week from last Conference called "Be Ambitious For Christ" and I love it. He starts off saying that he is talking to the young people of the church and the missionaries but I think it totally applies to everyone. Here are some snippets I loved:

(Talking about his son) "After he served for a year, we received an email that was an answer to our prayers. He wrote: “Right now I can really feel the love of God and of Jesus. I will work hard to become like the prophets of old. Though I am also experiencing a lot of difficulties, I am truly happy. Serving Jesus really is the best thing ever. There is nothing as wonderful as this. I am so happy.”

"In our lives we experience trials, but if we are ambitious for Christ, we can focus on Him and feel joy even in the midst of them. Our Redeemer is the ultimate example. He understood His holy mission and was obedient to the will of God the Father. What a choice blessing it is to bring His wonderful example to our remembrance each week as we partake of the sacrament."

I just love that! Serving Christ really is the best thing ever. I have been able to see it and feel it every single day as I serve the Lord and it has blessed me more than I could ever repay. I know that we can be happy through our trials and through difficulties if we rely on the Lord every. single. day.

1: We went to the pier last week! More pretty Florida beaches where the pictures don't do justice.

2: Sister Tilby!

3: The Fort Lauderdale temple is gorgeous. This was taken by another missionary but look at how gorgeous it is!

4-6: New Years pictures!

7: Sister Tilby, Halversen, and I!

8: More New Years!

9: When you all just look tired.

10: Pier + Wind = terrible picture

11: Look how blue it is!

12: All the sisters in the Jupiter zone!

happy new year 2017

HAPPY NEW YEAR! I hope that it was wonderful and started off wonderfully. Plot twist: we made it to midnight. We had to be in at 6:00 that night so we took some pictures and actually made it. And then died the next day at church but it's fine, it was way fun!

This week was eventful because we were on bikes all this week. Like we got in our car one time and it was to use the last 10 miles we had to go to our interviews with President because we didn't want to be all nasty. But, it was great! We talked to a ton of people and we didn't get hit by any cars! I definitely almost crashed while trying to bike and look up an address on the GPS but saved myself at the last second. Pretty sure Sister Schiers thinks I'm like a child who can't ride a bike though. We had a lot of fun dying on the bikes. We were over like 6 miles from the house and it was super dark, and we were all out of water, so we biked over to our Ward Mission Leaders house for some water and they let us in and ended up feeding us a late dinner and ice cream and offered to drive us home. That was a miracle because we definitely would have been late getting home and it was so nice to ride in a car!

We had some great lessons this week! Our investigator Tony is progressing nicely and accepted baptism on the 14th! We are meeting with him again tonight! Its super exciting to see this area grow. Wellington is great, and this week the horse shows all start so we are going to get an influx of super wealthy people coming in to town for a bit! Bill Gates and Vanilla Ice both have a house here. We have decided to go find it and baptize them. Its casual.

We also found some super old church movies on VHS in the library, and since no one really feeds us here we have watched some of them and they are HILARIOUS. Go watch "Labor of Love" and "What is Real?" if you haven't. Just the VHS part of it is funny and then you add in the cheesiness of it and its awesome. We were dying laughing yesterday. Also the MTC literally has not changed from 1981....seriously.

For Christmas my family sent me an awesome book of collections of President Monson's stories from General Conference in the last 50 years and I read one that stood out to me a lot! Here it is (sorry its super long):

"My mind goes back in memory to a general priesthood meeting held in 1956. At that time I was serving in the stake presidency of the Temple View Stake here in Salt Lake City. Percy K. Fetzer, John R. Burt, and I, the stake presidency, had come to the Tabernacle early, that hopefully we might find a place to sit. We were among the first to enter the Tabernacle and had almost two hours to wait before the meeting would begin.

President Fetzer related to President Burt and me an experience from his missionary days in Germany. He described how one rainy night he and his companion were to present a gospel message to a group assembled in a schoolhouse. A protester had broadcast falsehoods concerning the Church, and a number of people threatened violence against the two missionaries. At a critical moment, a woman who was a widow stepped between the elders and the angry group and said, “These young men are my guests and are coming to my home now. Please make way for us to leave.”

The crowd parted, and the missionaries walked through the rainy night with their benefactress, arriving at length at her modest home. She placed their wet coats over the kitchen chairs and invited the missionaries to sit at the table while she prepared food for them. After eating, the elders presented a message to the kind lady who had befriended them. A young son of the woman was invited to come to the table, but he refused, preferring his position of solitude and warmth directly behind the kitchen stove.

President Fetzer concluded the account with the comment, “While I don’t know if that woman ever joined the Church, I’ll forever be grateful to her for her kindness that rain-drenched night thirty-three years ago.”

The brethren sitting in front of us here in the Tabernacle had been speaking to one another also. After a while, we began listening to their conversation. One asked the friend sitting next to him, “Tell me how you came to be a member of the Church.”

The brother responded, “One rainy night in Germany, my mother brought to our house two drenched missionaries whom she had rescued from a mob. Mother fed the elders, and they presented to her a message concerning the work of the Lord. They invited me to join the discussion, but I was shy and fearful, so I remained secure in my seat behind the stove. Later, when I once more heard about the Church, I remembered the courage and faith, as well as the message, of those two humble missionaries, and this led to my conversion. I suppose I’ll never meet those two missionaries here in mortality, but I’ll be forever grateful to them. I know not where they were from. I think one was named Fetzer.”

At this point, President Burt and I looked at President Fetzer and noticed the great tears which coursed down his cheeks. Without saying a word to us, President Fetzer tapped on the shoulder of the man in front of us who had just related his conversion experience. To him he then said, “I’m Bruder Fetzer. I was one of the two missionaries whom you befriended that night. I’m grateful to meet the boy who sat behind the stove—the lad who listened and who learned.”

I do not remember the messages delivered during the priesthood meeting that night, but I shall never forget the faith-filled conversation which preceded the commencement of the meeting.

The words of the Lord seemed so appropriate then. They are equally appropriate now: “And if it so be that you should labor all your days in crying repentance unto this people, and bring, save it be one soul unto me, how great shall be your joy with him in the kingdom of my Father!”

It is so awesome to think about all the incredible ways that we can share the gospel without even realizing it! I loved that story so much, especially as a missionary, thinking of all the seeds that I plant that will eventually be harvested by other missionaries. Its incredible.

I hope you all have a wonderful first week of the new year and start it off right!

merry christmas and a happy new year

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas spent with family and friends! It was super weird being away from home on Christmas but actually super awesome too. Just like super special. We woke up at 6:00 like children (actually just so we could have time before studies at 8) and opened all our presents and then made ourselves a yummy Christmas breakfast! It was great. Church was great and then it was like 4 hours of torture before talking with the family. It actually went by fast. We were knocking on doors before we went to skype and someone told us "No one is going to want to be bothered with a prayer on Christmas..." What? It's Christmas. It was kinda sad to see that the true meaning of Christmas was gone, but we can keep that spirit with us throughout the year.

We had a Christmas conference this week with half the mission. We aren't allowed to do it with the full mission, but I did get to see some great people that I've served around before. It was great to see everyone! We did a white elephant thing too and I actually got a cute little nativity... another sister got a toilet seat. Thanks Elders.

We just saw so many miracles this week. One of them happened on our exchange with our STL's! We went to go contact a referral and when we knocked on the door she like immediately invited us in. We were like "Um, do you know who we are?" and she was like "Yeah! I'm actually a member!" We were shocked. She has been a little less active lately and no one had left any notes on her, so she was kind of missing, but we went in and shared a quick Christmas message with her and she really has great desires to come back to church. It was awesome. She was just so sweet and knows that she needs to come back which is amazing!

The ward here spoiled us and gave us so many wonderful presents and tried to make it like home. The families we ate with on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day asked us our traditions and I said, "Oh don't worry about it, we eat Mexican food on Christmas.." They both got me tamales to take home! What? Too nice, it feels like home. We have way too much candy so maybe it's a good thing we're on bikes this week.

I was reading President Uchtdorf's Conference talk this week and just loved this part:

"That Day of Judgment will be a day of mercy and love—a day when broken hearts are healed, when tears of grief are replaced with tears of gratitude, when all will be made right.Yes, there will be deep sorrow because of sin. Yes, there will be regrets and even anguish because of our mistakes, our foolishness, and our stubbornness that caused us to miss opportunities for a much greater future.But I have confidence that we will not only be satisfied with the judgment of God; we will also be astonished and overwhelmed by His infinite grace, mercy, generosity, and love for us, His children. If our desires and works are good, if we have faith in a living God, then we can look forward to what Moroni called “the pleasing bar of the great Jehovah, the Eternal Judge.”

Everything happens for a reason and God really does have a plan for each and every one of us! I love you all and wish you a happy new year! Start it off right and remember to keep that spirit of Christmas with you all through the year!

1: Cute Polaroid me and Sister Adams took at the Christmas Conference!

2: Skype with the family!

3: Christmas Eve with Sister Tilby!

4: Sister Halversen!

5: Sister Evans again

transfer 7, christmas

First of all, I cannot believe I just typed transfer 7. Where does time go? I remember serving with an Elder my first transfer and he said he went home in January and I literally had the thought, "oh my gosh that is so far away how will I ever make it there?" and now it's that transfer. Wow.

Second of all, Wellington. What a place. My last area in Coral Reef was ghetto so being here in Wellington is completely different. The sketchist part of this area is like 10x nicer than the nicest part of my last area, so it has been quite the adjustment. We have a lot of gated communities here so knocking is interesting. We have like 300 less miles than we need so we bike. The ward is basically an Utah ward and everyone participates and functions as its supposed to, kind of like Vanderbilt Beach was. It's interesting.

My new comp is Sister Schiers. She is from a small town in Arizona and she has been out for the same amount of time as Sister Dimond. So its interesting! She went to BYU-I before her mission too! We are way up in the Jupiter zone, at the very top of the mission. Elder Souza came up here too, so he is still my zone leader... I can't escape him. The zone is super spread out and everyone is way far from each other, so a lot different from Miami. We have some great members and are going to be working really hard this transfer.

We get to have a Christmas conference tomorrow with 3 other zones in the mission so it is going to be awesome! We have to go down into Palm Beach but it'll be great. I get to see Sister Neely, who I haven't seen since I left her. I'm pretty excited for that. We live with 2 other sisters too, so it's fun!

Really the most important thing this week is that it is Christmas on Sunday. How wonderful is it that we get to celebrate the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ and remember all the things He did for us. I am so grateful for Him and all He did and that right now I have the chance to serve Him 24/7 without any other distractions or worries. It's just all Him, all the time. I have been working this week a lot on charity and how we can have that same love and service as He did, for those that are around us. Its wonderful to serve those around us and even if they have difficult personalities, serving others makes you feel so much better. Its unreal how that works. Christ's love is just unreal.

So my invitation this week is that you all think about what Christ has done for you and what the real meaning of the season is. There is so many things that we need to remember in our lives, but taking just a little bit of time to remember Him and all He did, is all He asks of us this season.

1: Sister Dimond and I, last night in our dope pajamas!

2: Christmas lights included of course

3: The district here in Wellington! it'll be an interesting 4 more weeks!

4: unreal Florida

i'm going to jupiter!

We had transfer calls last night! I am going up to the northern part of the mission to the area of Wellington in the Jupiter zone. It is English and I will be with a Sister on her 3rd transfer. It came as a bit of a shock, but I know that the Lord has a plan for me there in Wellington! This transfer is also weird and will only be 5 weeks, so anyone can make it 5 weeks right? Just follow the Lord, right? I am excited, even though it is an English area. The Lord needs me there, or as President called it "my new special assignment."

On Monday, we were teaching an investigator outside his home and there was a police helicopter that was flying around over us and the spotlight shined on us. Never had that happen before so that was pretty awesome. Apparently they were looking for some people from a recent shooting. I love this area and I am going to miss it!

Also, the Miami South Zone, killed it this transfer and won a mission wide competition! It was awesome. We are all very prideful right now but we worked really hard and it feels great honestly to beat the other 8 zones out here. Our district won an inter-zone competition so we were very prideful about that too because we are the smaller district in the zone.

On Friday night, we went to follow up with a potential and she let us in and then about 2 minutes in we realized she was totally buzzed. It took us about 15 minutes to get out of her house because she just kept talking about all these random things and we couldn't politely end the conversation. But we got out and at one point she was just staring at me for a solid 3 minutes. That's why we don't drink kids. It was also hilarious and we were trying really hard not to laugh in front of her. Poor woman.

I also went on a full day exchange up in la Pequena Havanna this last Wednesday aka Cuba. I hope I get there one day. It was fun and I didn't really have to worry about anything all day because it wasn't my area, but it was really nice to be with Sister Livengood for the day. She also served in Vanderbilt Beach, but for 4 transfers, so we talked about that a lot. I also got to see Sister Rianda, who I lived with when I was in Lauderhill. She goes home on Thursday so it was nice to see her before she leaves.

Our ward Christmas party was so cute! The decorations were crazy. I know that my Savior lives and loves me and that He loves each one of you! Remember that this Christmas season and serve those around you! go to Mormon.org if you need ideas of ways to serve! Watch #LightTheWorld if you haven't already! 

1: This is Tommy. He is awesome, but he stopped progressing. He called us his babies & it was super weird but he's slightly crazy. He took a selfie for us.

2: I lost what are the odds to an elder and had to eat all this sugar from the sour patch kids. It was nasty, but I did it.

3: Our little district won!

4: Miami Southpaw zone

5: This is that pride I was talking about

6: The district coming to you live from the bottom of the mission aka banishment

7: Awkward posing bc the elders are awkward

8: The district and a member named red who hates pictures, but aren't we cute.

9: This truck caught on fire right in front of us. I caught this sick picture escaping the scene

10: Look how cute the little balloon lights are!

11: Sister Oram! She is awesome and was the mastermind behind all this!

12: Hermana Herrera! She is the RS President and she is unreal. Someone marry her please.

13: Addys! She just got back from her mission and she is a real homie. Someone marry her too.

14: The Sant children and Courtney! They got us PJs for Christmas! Mine are batman. I'm really gonna miss these cute kiddos.

15: We love our pajamas! Sister Dimond's are emojis.

16: Our zone leaders slacking off... just kidding. A part member family invited us all over to watch "Meet the Mormons." It's on Netflix, check it out. The last story will make you cry.

17: We went and saw Dorothy last night. She is doing better and starting treatment this week. It's breast cancer that has spread to her liver. It was amazing to be able to say goodbye to her. we also cried like babies I look gross but I'm so happy to see her.

18: Sunset picture! It's been a while.

19: Comps for life. End of story. I'm gonna miss my hija, but she's gonna kill it with her new comp! It's a sister I lived with my 2nd transfer, Sister Hernandez!

Here's the link to #LightTheWorld if you have not seen it.

https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/light-the-world-25-days-of-service?lang=eng

transfer 6, week 6

It's December already?! All I want for Christmas is to know why time flies so dang fast! It's too quick, and it doesn't help that it was super hot and humid this week. It was 89 degrees one day. That's disgusting. I just want a little bit of cold! So we keep our house freezing so it feels like winter.

This week was awesome! We started out a little bit slow but, we ended up hitting our goals! We had a blitz in our area, and our whole district came and helped us knock an area. It was interesting! The Elders found someone named Akaimah. We have zero idea why people in Florida have the weirdest names but we love it. There are at least 5 times a day where we just look at each other in awe of these names. But it makes for more interesting stories! Another big thing down here is replacing the "st" in words for "sk". Examples in words such as "skrenth" or my favorite "skruggle". It is highly entertaining. We have started a list of words that make no sense.

Besides that interesting fact about my fave area, we were able to teach a lot of people and see some great miracles! We showed a lot of people the new #LightTheWorld video. I'm pretty sure I could tell you exactly what was going on in the video without watching it just by the music at this point. My favorite part is when they show Christ as a child teaching in the temple and then it transitions to Him teaching as an adult in the temple. It's so cool. The Spirit just hits so strong at that point everytime for me. I love it. Probably the best video they have.

Yesterday was also the Christmas Devotional by the First Presidency. It was super great. All about serving others and the way to keep that Christmas spirit year round. My favorite quotes:
"There would be no Christmas, had there been no Easter." If Christ had not risen, there would be no importance to celebrating His birth. The culminating act of His life was when He rose from that tomb and made it all possible for us to all rise again as well. He lived, and He died, and He still lives for us. There is no way we could understand His mercy for us. We would never be able to understand it all, but its all there for us to use! So we gotta use it!

President Eyring talked a lot about how we can have that charity year round. We need to study the Savior and follow His example. It is through Him that we can serve those around us all year. Not just at Christmas, when everyone seems to be a bit happier. We have the Lord and that is all that matters.

During the devotional, we were all in the chapel as a zone watching it and when one of the speakers mentioned that Christmas was in 3 weeks, we all gasped and then freaked out because that means 3 weeks until we get to talk to our families! It was funny to see all our reactions to hearing that. Also when the person who closed the prayer said "we also pray for our other angels, who we call missionaries..." we all had tears in our eyes. It's weird to think that all over the world there are members, other missionaries and friends just praying for your success and safety. It kind of hit us all last night as he said those words. The Spirit there was great. It's great to be a missionary right now in the Florida Fort Lauderdale Mission!

I hope you all have a great week and remember the meaning of Christmas this season!
Also transfers are this next week so look for that email next Tuesday! I'll probably be moving to a new area so we are just waiting to see where. It's so nerve wracking waiting to see!

1: Matching Christmas socks and our motto "work hard, stay humble"

2: Came out of a lesson and this cat was just chillin' on our car. caught a picture right as he jumped off.

3: Ghetto ice cream trucks run Miami. This one isn't even the worst one. Most of them are in old like moving trucks, it's awesome. Also it gives us knocking music that echoes in my mind every night as I try to fall asleep.

4: Proof that it was 89 degrees at 6:40pm

5: This house went way out for Christmas. You can't even see it all in this picture. There is a rotating star hanging from a tree as well as a full size Nativity on the roof. This is not a joke. They do not mess around here.