miracles

Thank you for all the emails. I loved every one! I attached a picture from Cayce's baptism. The really tall blonde is my current companion Sis. Brand. The other three sisters were the current sisters in Gaffney. Transfers were this past week. I'm staying in Greenville :)

We've had a lot of trials over the past few weeks, but this week, we've seen so many blessings that I still can't believe they happened! We found 8 new investigators!!!! and 4 of them have a baptismal date. One of the investigators we've been teaching for a couple weeks, Jan, has made leaps and bounds over the past few days. She has a social phobia and is also struggling with the word of wisdom, but she aboslutely loves the scriptures and can't get enough of them. This past week alone she has read about 20 chapters in the Bible and 10 in the Book of Mormon every day!!! We have been reading a chapter with her where ever she left off in the Book of Mormon and they usually tie exactly into what we wanted to teach her and what she needed. We arranged to have the elders come give her a priesthood blessing to overcome the things holding her back. The blessing was simple, but it was powerful and Jan has the faith to let it work in her life. She has such a burning desire to emerse herself in the gospel. We also brought one of the sisters from the ward who is a perfect fit! She has done so much for Jan in two days as she has been lead by the Spirit in knowing how to help her. Jan is now wanting to come to our Book of Mormon class on Wednesday night...huge leap in her phobia!!!! And she is working towards getting baptized on the 26 of May. She is such a miracle!

Yesterday we did nothing but teach teach teach. We had several appointments and got to teach our backups too! We found three very elect people! One is Alisha. She's 17. We knocked into her family earlier this week looking for a less active. We talked to her and her dad while they were grilling their dinner. She is so smart. Her mom actually investigated the church about 20 years ago and is completely supportive with her daughter learning more about it. Her mom said, "It made a lot of sense." The only thing that held her back was doubt. Alisha is excited to learn and find out the truth!

The other two were a mother and daughter. We went to go teach one of our investigators at a member's home, but she canceled last minute. One of the neighborhood kids, Dakota, came by and the member asked if she would like to stay for a while and talk to us. She was only 14 so we walked over to her home to ask her mom, Nora, for permission. Nora was completely fine with it, and then decided to join us. After a few minutes talking with them, Nora told us we were an answer to her prayers over the past week. She grew up baptist but never completely agreed with their doctrines and was feeling like she was alone in her beliefs. Everything we breifly told her about our beliefs rang true to her and she agreed to be baptized! We told her to continue to pray to know that this is true, and she said she wanted to do more than just pray...she committed to read and to come to church! We also briefly introduced the word of wisdom and will go over it more in depth with them tonight. She has been prepared and is so ready to receive the gospel.

Over the last few days I have had such joy in my heart. We have taught and taught and even though we had rough spots, the sorrow was swallowed up by these few miracles. This work is so important. This gospel is so true! I know Christ lives, that He loves us without measure, and he puts us through trials to make us stronger so we will be prepared to handle new and greater things...so we can progress. It all makes so much sense :)

Love you all lots. Have a great week! Trust in the Lord and let Him guide you. He has a plan for us. He can see the whole picture. He knows better than we do. Even in the most trying times, there is purpose, there is hope. The Lord is always near.

Love,

Sister Cottam