knocking with faith, hope, and charity

This week has been full of hard work, patience, and building on faith, hope, and charity.

We had a specialized sister's training this past week, and I loved it. They had the first one a month after I entered the field and I'm glad they are continuing to do it twice a year. It is such a strength and source of encouragement to fellowship with all of the sisters in the mission and to be trained by our mission president, his wife, the assisstants, and the traveling sisters. The things taught were exactly what I needed. It was concentrated on being more bold through faith, hope, and charity. I've been struggling with the boldness thing, with being able to just open my mouth and talk even when I'm not sure what to say, and I was so grateful for all of the advice and principles taught. I want to share a few thoughts from it:

Being Bold through Faith, Hope, and Charity (Moroni 7):

It's not about knowing what to say, but about our love for the Lord and His children. Boldness doesn't mean talking loudly or being pushy. It means asking the hard questions straight up and not worrying about the consequences. It means bearing testimony of true doctrine without worrying about what they will think of you. Forget about "me" and "my comfort" and think about the worth of the souls around us. The Savior's life was full of inconveniences because the gospel was more important. Why should ours be any different?

Faith is hoping and believing in something you can't see. Hope in the gospel sense is trusting that God will fulfill his purposes. They are not mere dreams, but expectations that something will happen according to God's will. They lead to action. It's having trust in the Spirit to guide our words and having Christ-like love for the people we talk with. 

The fear of man is what keeps us from talking.

Are we going to let the enemy of our souls bind our tounge? -Pres. Holm

Hermana Cottam sent me a sticky note with a scripture from 1 John that fits perfectly: "Perfect love casteth out all fear..." That perfect love, the love Christ has for us, is charity.

We've had a lot of practice with finding this week. We've been working out our knuckles and testimonies talking to everyone we can. Yesterday we got to see a few fruits of our labors as we met about 7 people in a row who were open and willing to talk to us and to have us come back again to teach more. It's exciting to get new leads and investigators. We are excited to see how they will progress.

I am so grateful to be a missionary. I love this gospel, and I love sharing it. I love losing myself in the work. It's amazing how much you learn about yourself when you are trying to lose yourself for the good of others.

Have a wonderful week!

Love,

Sister Cottam

in a bigger city…

So I was transferred from the small town of Gaffney to the big city of Greenville...it's quite the change. I am now in the Greenville 1st ward. My wonderful new companion is Sis. Brand (Funny connection: she just finished her training with my wonderful MTC companion Sis. Robertson! It's a small world among sister missionaries). Our area covers most of Easly and a little bit of Greenville. We move among three different counties on a daily basis. And, there are two sets of missionaries in our ward, sisters and elders...that's the strangest part of it all. I got used to seeing other missionaries only once a week at district meetings; now we coordinate on the phone with them every day. Our building is shared by two wards and a Spanish branch--each with two sets of missionaries. That's a lot of missionaries in one building! 

Though this area is different, I'm excited to serve here. It's been a real challenge to try to learn the new area, but I'm finally beginning to settle in. I now remember all of the bishopric's names and a couple of the sisters. It's a start! I know I will grow a lot in this area, and I know there is someone here, maybe multiple someone's, who I can touch and help bring into the gospel of Jesus Christ.

I've learned this week that when we're thrown into new situations, it can seem very overwhelming, but the Lord has promised over and over in the scriptures that all we need to do is ask and we shall receive guidance, we will receive the help and support and comfort we need to accomplish the task that He has given us. So we must always trust Him and have faith in Him and walk in the paths that He has placed before us, even when we cannot see through the trees to our destination.

Spring is in full bloom. New green leaves are popping up everywhere...and so are the bugs, but alas, I know I will survive. The mild winter and early spring means there will be a lot more bugs this year than usual...yay?

Love you all more! Have a wonderful week!

Love,

Sister Cottam

one chapter closing

Hey ya'll...

Transfers are this week, and after 6 months of toiling and serving in Gaffney, I will be leaving. I won't find out where I'm going to until Wednesday during transfer meeting. I couldn't have picked a better place to start off my mission than Gaffney, and I'm so grateful for the chance I had to serve the wonderful wonderful people here. I'm going to miss them, but I know I'm leaving the area in the very capable and humble hands of Sis. Kloepfel. She is very happy and excited to continue serving here. We both feel that great things will happen here in the coming weeks.

The Lord blessed me with a last minute miracle during my time in Gaffney. My first convert Thomas has been inactive for several months. He's been going through a lot, including a crazy work schedule. Over the weeks we would stop by every once in a while and try to talk to him, but we usually only stayed for a few minutes and he wouldn't open up very much. He wouldn't even look us in the eye. It was hard for me to watch. I knew he was struggling and wasn't letting us in to help him. Yesterday we stopped by after church to try and see him. To my utter surprise, he pulled some chairs onto the porch and sat down with us and explained a lot of what had gone on--and he looked us in the eye! In short it came to the point that he had made some mistakes and now was being emergency evicted (because his previous roommate's dog did a lot of damage to the house he was renting). He was at his wits end with no phone and no one from work available to help him. We reassured him that we would make a few phone calls, and he went back inside to get ready for work. We promptly called the bishop. The reason why I'm late emailing is because we went over this morning with Bro. Martin (who was the main friendshipper when we were teaching Thomas) and helped load Bro. Martin's truck so everything could be moved to a small trailer one of Thomas's friends helped him find. Through it all I just can't believe that the Lord allowed me to see this window of opportunity open and the people who were most important to Thomas were able to help. I am not so worried about him anymore. After months of trying to talk to Thomas, I finally saw the man I knew when we first met him, and it filled my soul. He is getting back on the right path, and he is going to do many great things in the future.

I love you all. Take care. I'll let you know next week where I will be serving for the next 6 weeks. Oh, and I'm sending a couple pictures :) of Florenda, the spring season, and that really hard rain fall that leaked into our apartment.

Love,

Sister Cottam

faith and obedience

This has been a busy week. On Tuesday one of our zone leaders and our district leader followed us around. Then on Thursday the traveling sisters came on exchanges with us. We learned a lot, so it was well worth our time.

With the elders we gained 3 new investigators! One of them is really solid. His name is TJ. He is the boyfriend of a member who has been less active for several years, but her family is starting to come back. It is amazing to see how the examples of this member family have touched TJ's heart and lead him to desire to learn how he can have what they have. Our lessons are equally important for both TJ and the member it seems. She has needed the help and boost to her testimony (the spirit) that the lessons bring, for she has had a lot of past trials to overcome. TJ accepted baptism before I even finished asking the question. He is so ready!

This week Sis. Kloepfel and I have been trying to figure out how we can do better, and we decided we need to work on being more obedient in the little things. There's a saying that we heard in the MTC: "Obedience brings blessings. Exact obedience brings miracles." We haven't been necessarily disobedient or rebellious. We've just slacked a little in a couple of areas, but as we have strived to be more exactly obedient I can tell the difference. I can feel the Spirit a little stronger, and I have a little more motivation to do the work. When we do as the Lord commands, He promises He will bless us.

Today I studied solely on the Atonement. Nothing else that I've studied has strengthened my testimony more than studying that great sacrifice. When we put everything in perspective of the Atonement, it all means so much more: missionary work, baptism, our everyday actions... everything that brings hope in our lives stems from this single act of love. The effect this act has on eternity is so wonderful that it is incomprehensible! I thank my Heavenly Father for sending His Son and allowing him to suffer for us so that we can return home. This is a message that every child of God needs, and we have the calling to share it. 

I hope you all have a good week full of wonderful things! Love you all!

Love,

Sister Cottam