South Africa Saints

🎁🎄 MERRY CHRISTMAS! 🎄🎁 Easily the greatest Holiday on the calendar The food, the cookies, the lights, the movies, the gingerbread houses, family time and oh did I mention cookies yet?  All of these wonderful things are what I associated with Christmas back home, but things are a bit different on this side of the pond... no cookies, no lights, no movies to watch, peoples actual houses are falling apart much like my gingerbread houses from home. My family is 10 thousand miles away (not even an exaggeration) And once again... NO SUGAR COOKIES. 😭 Too many times do I get caught up with the busy activities of the season that I can begin to forget why we are truly celebrating this miraculous event. God sent his only begotten son so that the war over sin and death could be won, I'm so grateful for Christ and the time i have to share his light with the people of South Africa! Sorry for the short email, I'm absolutely clapped rn haha Merry Christmas 🤍 -Elder Cottrell   

This email is gonna be really short because I am sick as crap rn, but here are some stories from this week... Here in Ezakheni we're not really allowed to be out when its dark bc there are some groups of people that don't necessarily like the missionaries 🔪🔪 So anyway, the sun is down by this point, and you could say it was uh... dark. And lemme tell you, all the fun stuff seems to go down when the sun isn't out lol.  We pull up to one final lesson of a family of 3 who is on date, and when I get out of the car I can see someone running and stumbling at the top of the street, boy oh boy I know who it is... DRUNK BABA!! (This was probably the most drunk I've ever seen someone in real life, and it was pretty hilarious) As we're walking to our lesson, he's walking (stumbling/falling) towards us. It lowkey felt like the scene from Monsters Inc if ykwim. As we get closer to the gate of the house, he runs into the cinderblock wall and absolutely claps himself against...

Yay my Google photos glitched again and kicked half of you off, get back on before you miss something 😉  Guys I'm not gonna lie, I'm so tired rn and this email is gonna be about one inhale and exhale long so buckle up.                                🚨 Transfer news 🚨 After 18 weeks of grinding in Pietermaritzburg I was told I was leaving to go and help out the UMnambithi Zone! Should be interesting to see what changed since I went there almost exactly a year ago 😭 Spiritual thought: Alma 29:10 I Love the people here in South Africa, what an amazing time I have to be here. Without this Gospel I wouldn't be here, and without my Love for the Savior I wouldn't have stayed. Life is hard, and it sucks from time to time, but i know I can always go and turn to Jesus to find peace, he is the Prince of it after all. Shoutout to Ferguson and Hartley, It was so sick to serve with yall! I'm wiped out guys, catch...

I know I mention this in almost every email but I'm always so shocked how fast I get to this point in my week where I dread typing all this out.. But, Hello everyone, PMB2 is continuing to thrive, so many cool people getting closer to God over here that they need to open another a rea 🤞 Monday: - Realized that buzzing your head just means your hair is always done 🤑 - My family missed me a lot (i think) on their trip to Duck creek  - Went Golfing and actually had a ton of fun aka I didn't play like absolute crap!  - Found out my homie Breyden Steele is going on a mission, so so happy for him!! Tuesday: - Put our friend Buhle on date for baptism! - Got kicked out of a tuckshop for literally o reason ☺️ (actually made me so mad) - Elder Powell AND Elder Hartley Buzzed 🦲 The whole district is going bald.  Wednesday: - Had 11 lessons  - Met with Shadrack who is probably the most faithful new member of the church I've ever met out here, he has a severe medical problem a...

Wow this week was something else, one of the more emotionally draining weeks I've had not gonna lie. Not because of stuff happening in Africa, but stuff back in America.  We all need to connect with Jesus a bit more I think. Baptisms: We were blessed to help Asakhe and Dynamique make promises with heavenly father on Sunday!   Dont even worry, we have more on the way in the coming weeks!  Tender mercies: My current area really has the whole spectrum of types of members, some of them are really difficult to deal with, but in all that rough we have a couple diamonds. One of them being Brother Holmes, and one being Brother Shadrack! They both speak fluent French and were able to do the Baptism and confirmation in Dynamiques native language! It made everything so much more special and personal for him. God is aware of all of our needs and finds a way to fulfill them, you think id be used to seein these miracles by now but wow it never gets old. Funny stuff:  So, a co...

Hey guys how's it going?! This week was another chiller,  PMB2 is blessed 😇 Not even going to lie to you, I've been craving Texas roadhouse rolls with that butter that might as well be mana from Heaven.  If anyone could find a way to send that to the polar opposite side of the world, I'll literally love you forever. Anywho... I think I'm gonna make a structured email for once. Monday:  Much unlike the rolls from Texas roadhouse, the first half of pday was BUNS. But we went to the Holmes house for a lekker Braai (that's a BBQ for those who haven't paid attention to a single email I've sent) and yo it was fire. The Holmes have 3 little kids and they are the darndest cutest little things ever. The youngest is a 4-year-old boy named Asher and he stood right by my plate and kept asking for "mo pood"  Yall who can't translate baby, thats "more food". So, him and I were just chillin, eating microscopic sizes of steak haha. Can't wait to...

So this is gonna end up sending on Tuesday for me bc the wifi is too buns to send anything... Hey guys I hope you're all doing better than I did this last week, I gotta warn you though I had a pretty fire week so it's gonna be hard to beat 😉  Sunday we baptized our two friends;   Mgcini and Makhauta ! My comp baptized them and I had the honor of confirming both of them.  What a special privilege and power we have to do this work here on the earth today. Sometimes it shocks me that the creator of everything I can comprehend gave me a calling to find his lost children and bring them back. He knows how imperfect I am, but he continues to see and trust my potential. God has been blessing this area despite my lack of confidence and stumbling blocks that I set up for myself.  He knows the intentions of our hearts, and I just love him so much for that. Imagine being loved by someone who sees your struggles not as a mirror and reflection of who you are, but as a window...

So rn I'm sitting in our new house... yeah a house... not no apartment. Me and comp are no longer living it up in a 4-man with the other Pietermaritzburg Elders. We also got booted out to tim-buck-fricken-2. So, idk how good this whole "deal" is. Feels like we're in a completely different area code... The work this week was just miraculous, lemme tell you... GOD IS SO REAL. The Lord is absolutely blessing up our area and I'm so grateful for it. We had 16 friends come to church today which is absolutely amazing... Following that we had 2 more baptisms for our friends in Lionspark, that group is growing really fast!  Hopefully soon it becomes its own area and a branch 🤞 Today's email is gonna be so short bc we've been moving houses all day but here's a spiritual thought: Love the lord thy God.  Love thy neighbor as thyself.  These are commonly known as the two great commandments, but something that I wanted to point out was that in order to follow the...

Hey guys I hope you're well, I gotta go to bed like 10 minutes ago so this is gonna be another quick one.  The subject line is a Zulu phrase that means, " I know it's true. "  This past week I have been able to see an abundance of miracles and see how the Gospel truly is the good news. If it can completely change the lives of the people here, I know it can change yours as well.  None of us are an exception to the endless love that God has for us, even if you want to escape it, you just can't. So, start taking those steps TODAY, to be ready for that great day when he just wants to give you a big hug and say "I'm proud of you"  Anyways, I'll hear from yall next week... right? Love ya lots - Elder Cottrell   

Well, I think it's about time that I start doing these emails more consistently... I have less than a year left in this beautiful place and why should I withhold all my wonderful adventures from you people?? Sorry this one's a bit long 😁 Also do yall prefer a day by day, or just a few silly things that came to pass??  Lemme know in the comment section V V Monday:  Our lovely noble steed (Hyundai venue), had to go get wrenched on, so we were at the chapel basically the whole day, but luckily I brought my gee-tar,  so I was able to finally practice that thing again... anyone wanna start a band back home lmk bc I'm down. Tuesday:  First of da month!! All you red, white and blue bleeders out there are going through summer time rn, whilst I am awaking to what feels like 🎶 jack frost nippin at your nose 🎶  We had a service project this morning which is honestly the best, straight up, just mining grass blocks in the township. I ❤️ serving people.  🤐... So, we ...

Well, it's been a long time. How have you been? So just a quick little update for you today so I can tell Madre that I sent an email out. • my first transfer here in Pietermaritzburg is coming to an end on Friday! • new mission President Laguna came in on Wednesday! • President De Kock completed his mission, he's such a good guy, man I love him and sister De Kock so much • I am going to be training yet AGAIN.  So, stay tuned for that 😉  • all my friends have gone home/are going home 😔  Funny story ! I woke up on Pday to the smell that can only be described as ... bleach fumes!  Elder Castillo (from Philippines) was being a kind soul and decided to mop the floor and ... the walls?  He was using bleach, and it didn't feel too good to breath in.  I think when my eyes started stinging was probably the time to skedaddle out of there ... but hey when we came back everything was as detoxed as much as it could be so maybe lung cancer < clean floors?  Lmk...