obedience brings blessings!

I just have to brag a little bit....we just washed our car...in 4 minutes!!! Soaped down and all...yeah we find joy in even the littlest things :)
This week we've been working hard and pressing through and forward. Both Sister Jaye and I have come down with colds (hers is a lot worse than mine), but we are enduring and working hard. We been trying to contact our investigators and working on finding others. We seem to find a lot of people, and then struggle to teach them after the 1st lesson. I guess that's part of the weeding process :) We're seeking for those elect souls who want the gospel and will not harden their hearts.
I had an important lesson reiterated for me at church yesterday. The primary did a program in Sacrament meeting on Choosing the Right and then in Sunday School we talked about obedience. The spirit was so strong as the primary children sang and shared simple truths about obedience and it's blessings and then in Sunday school a poignant story was shared by our new bishop from his mission. As a zone leader he was challenged by his mission president to do everything they could in their zone to reach their goals. As he talked with all the missionaries in his zone, he felt prompted to promise one set of sisters that if they would be exactly obedient and work hard, they would have a baptism that weekend. These sisters had already had multiple baptisms that month and had an empty teaching pool. They had no idea how it would happen, but they worked like they had never worked before and were exactly obedient. Sunday morning came, they had no one, but as their meetings started that afternoon, a young woman came inside. The sisters sat with her through sacrament meeting. Afterwards, this woman told them she had felt something and wasn't going to leave the building that day before she could join that church. They realized she was their miracle, taught her everything that day, and she was baptized that evening....all because of their faith in a young missionary's promise and a willingness to do everything they could to make it happen.
I feel like there are a couple of things in which I have become casual, and try as I might, I haven't overcome them yet. Yesterday the Spirit bore witness to me that I need to try harder as it whispered to me that "Today is the day you need to change and be exactly obedient. Don't wait." It testified to me that only then will I feel the Spirit more abundantly and see the miracles happen here that we desire so dearly. One of the sisters in the Relief Society presidency was there for the lesson, and in Relief Society reiterated the need the members to help us be obedient by doing meals before 6 pm (which we have been heavily encouraging). What a tender mercy.
I'm so grateful for the truths of the gospel. I love being a missionary and want to serve to best of my ability, which includes being exactly obedient.
Have a wonderful week! Love ya!
Love,
Sister Cottam