To the people who wanted to hear from me ...
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 visited a new member who has a little 5-year-old boy, super crazy kid who's always boinging off the walls (lmk if boinging is a word). Anyway, he tells us about his friend... his friend who plays soccer with him in the backyard, invites him over to his house etc...
Then he says, "and he has no mouth".
And "in the daytime he looks cute, but when it gets dark, he turns really scary" WHAT ON EARTH ???
but wait it gets better.
Then the boy tells us to not tell anyone about him (the "friend") or else he will make our mouths look like his...
If I could describe the way that the spirit left the room...
So yeah, our new member's kid might actually have a demonic friend who only he can see...and now since I've told yall I think my mouth may be in jeopardy 🤐🤐🤐
Oh, the Tuesday shenanigans aren't over yet so don't you even fret 🗣🗣
We get referrals from Facebook of people who want to learn more abt the church or just have missionaries come over, and today we got a request for a missionary visit!
It's all fun and games until we stumble into a house that just has 7 girls in it.
Now dark chocolate isn't exactly on my taste buds if ykwim.
But my two comps were quakin and shakin in their little boots...
So, I spoke the whole time and the mom just ended up bashing me for an hour and said the church never fell away yadda yadda. She's a pastor and started a church called "the church of Jesus Christ".
That in itself is enough proof that the church fell away if she felt the "calling from god" to start his church again.
In case you can't tell, this appointment had me tweaking for the rest of the day.
Wednesday:
Woke up from my slumber to a call to action ⚠️ 📢 🚨
Our senior couples needed our bunk bed to be taken down since it was broken and I was probably going to crush my poor Philippino comp in the middle of the night...
But they did not give us a replacement bunk bed...
So now we just have 4 mattresses that are configured into the most uncomfortable mega bed ever !!!
(Peep the Google photos)
👵 Gogo Jenny quotes 👵
(She's 80 plus years old btw)
- "That's a bar"
- " The people I live with are Dilly nitwits"
- "Oh, you're the Elder from the escalator, aren't you?"
Sister Jenny is so funny, she has a little bit of dementia, so every time we go over there, she asks us the same questions, tells us the same stories, but I sure do love visiting her, and sometimes we even get treats such as POWDERED MILK!!!!!
Thanks Jenny!!
Elder Fenn made it back home to St Geezy... rip to my 3rd comp.
Thursday:
Last district council before transfers happen!
A few funny things happened today.
The first one being how I was sitting at a robot (what Africa calls a stoplight).
The lady in front of me didn't notice her car was rolling backwards, so at first, I was like ok she has to feel that she's moving. I tap my horn, that did absolutely nothing, then I just kept my hand on it for a solid 5 seconds before she finally ended up hitting my car!
Upon her realizing her mistake, she looked at me through her mirror and I just pulled a Madagascar "smile and wave" on her and she literally just took off when the light turned green... women am I right?
Calm down that's a joke... mostly.
Anyway, moving on to later in the day, we found a cool river that flows by a member's house and she was telling us all about the people that go there to worship a snake that lives in the water.
Isn't that so cool!
And guys guess what??
The snake gives them permission to enter into the water, how nice is he for that?
These people got some wild beliefs man 😭
Friday: TRANSFER DAY
Picked up my greenie today, making him the 3rd dude that I've been entrusted with to train up.
I finally got an American, his name is Elder Hartley and he's got a gal back home, so sorry ladies he's locked 🚫🚫🤼♂️🤼♂️
But for real he's a good kid and I'm excited to show him around PMB and Lions Park!
I was able to meet the new mission president, President Laguna! He is so amazing and such a powerful speaker. It will be an honor to finish out my mission with him!
Elder Hartley was fresh off of the plane from America and the first place his poor soul went to was Mama Gloria.
For those who don't know, mama Gloria is a member out in the townships who has some uh, interesting things to say.
Today's thought from her was how she can see dead people's spirits walking everywhere!
Hey Siri play "not like us" by Kendrick 🙈🙉
You could say that my comp was shocked to say the least.
Saturday:
Today was pretty interesting. All of our people are out of town for the holidays rn, so it was a lot of phone work, but it's good because this area needs some cleaning up.
We were able to visit the Khubeka family which was awesome! She gave us a fruit that I'm pretty sure was grapefruit but then it also made my mouth go numb... idk.
We also convinced her that we don't cook our rice and we just straight up CRONCH on them grains.
We also invited everyone to church! Lots of people promised to come so tomorrow should be awesome!
Sunday:
NOBODY CAME TO CHURCH
lol don't even ask me about it. Sometimes the people here make me mad, but its ok I'm doing what I can control.
The group out in Lions Park was pretty good today though, most of our new members were able to come so that was good!
Every week before church we go and drive by everyone's house in Lions Park to remind them that they have to come. While we were looking for a gogo, we stumbled on a house that was FULL of chickens, I'm talking easily 40 chickens in this little house,
So obviously I had to go into the house and disturb the peace...
As soon as I stepped into that house the chickens went absolutely crazy, and I genuinely was fearing that these descendants of velociraptors might kill me right then and there.
The rest of Sunday was chill, our Bishop from PMB came to Lions Park today to do interviews for brother Musa and Ivan to get the Melchizedek priesthood!!!
We are so so so close to becoming a branch out here and I'm so excited!!
PRAY FOR LIONS PARK!!!!
\/SPIRITUAL WISDOM\/
God is so incredibly aware of each one of our personal situations. He knows the struggles we have, he knows what's holding us back from completely taking the leap of faith and turning to him, and all he asks is that we leave those "things" behind and jump into a big Ole bear hug with Him.
I know it may seem too difficult. This life is hard sometimes guys, not even sometimes. For the most part, this life is always just hard, and even our perfect example Jesus Christ asked, "is there any other way?" The difference is what he said following that statement, "nevertheless not my will, but thine be done".
I can PROMISE YOU that once we realize that Christ has done all the hard things, we too can align our will with God's, through the help of the atonement of our Savior.
I beg of you to reach out to him through prayer, and sit and wait for an answer to come, tune in your ears to Gods spiritual Radio, it's always playing 😉
Love you guys,
-Elder Cottrell