Hola!

¡Buenos dias a mi familia y mis amigos!

¡Espero que esta carta les encuentre bien y feliz! Estoy trabajando mucho, y mis pies me duelen.

There is some Spanish for y’all. I hope this letter finds you all well and happy. I am working a lot, and my feet hurt. That leads me into my YOU KNOW YOU ARE A MISSIONARY WHEN moments of the week:

When your feet look like pumpkins. Sunburnt and swollen.

When the moment of most anxiety is when the doors to Sacrament meeting shut and your investigator has not yet arrived.

When you receive shout outs from the pulpit every week.

When you get a new ward mission leader, and that gives you a reason to fiesta!

When you would rather be out working than sick in the apartment.

When the morning conversation involves a mouse trap and how it is a representation of how Satan traps us with temptation.

When you spend a whole morning playing the role of ANT TERMINATOR, and then feel pretty bad-A the rest of the day. ´The name is Terminator, HERMANA Terminator´. Also, how do ants get up to the 7th floor? any ideas?

When you are proud of your water storage.

When an investigator asks you to perform an exorcism...ha...not funny.

We offered to pray instead.

When you feel like you are in Monsters Inc. as you are in a room with kids, searching for an adult to come in and supervise...´There is nothing more toxic OR deadly than a human child´...(missionary handbook pg. 35 & monsters inc.)

When you quote the Grandma on Mulan more than anyone else. ¨Sign me up for the next war!¨ (in relation to many things, usually the war in Heaven) and ´Would you like to stay for dinner?...Would you like to stay FOREVER?´(when members try to make us stay longer than the allotted hour).

When you make a schedule to read all of the standard works in the next 13 months.

When you are tired. So tired. Always tired.

There you have them.

The work is great! We came into our sector new, me and my companion, and so we are sort of just getting going with investigators that are progressing. We should be having a baptism on the 10th of November, so that is exciting! Also, President Holland will be here in 3 weeks. Eeeee!

I can’t believe how fast (and slow) time is going. I mean, I left on the 4th of July, and now it is nearly Halloween? Maybe it is just the lack of celebrating holidays that throws off my calendar.

Want to know something cool that I discovered this week? The Gospel blesses families.

All of our less active families are SO WORRIED about their children. It is interesting, because the active ones don’t worry. Why is this? Well, because parents are examples to their children. I have also discovered that you can’t expect people to accept into their lives the things that you will not accept into your own.

There are ´Happy Families´ and there are families who ARE happy because they LIVE The Gospel.

I was trying to think of how the gospel has made a difference in my family, and I came up with a few things.

The first is that we have a COMMON GOAL. We want to be an eternal family. The only way to be eternal is to be worthy to enter the Temple and make those covenants that bind us for eternity. As each member of the family is trying to live worthily, we are all working together to have an eternal unit. After this life, if we live righteously here, we will be blessed. We promise to do our part, and Heavenly Father promises to do his.

Secondly, we have knowledge about WHY we are here. We are here, on the earth, to become like God. We want to have eternal families, just like he has. We are all part of HIS eternal family. We make choices that either bring us closer to our Heavenly Father, or take us away from him. As we are all trying to get closer to Him, we grow closer together, too.

Also, the Gospel helps with our family communication. Yeah, we are teenagers and pre-teens and hyper kids, but when we pray together we have the chance to report to each other as well as to God about the progress of our family. Family prayer is essential in maintaining bonds with our Heavenly Father as well as with our family here on earth.

Right now, the world is SO confused. It’s sad. We see parent every day who are worried about their children and the decisions they are making. The only advice we can really give is to worry about themselves first, because if they are examples, their children will follow. BUT, if they don’t go to church, if they do drugs, if they are living unchaste lives, HOW can they expect their children to be any better than they are? They can’t. That is the cycle. We either get better and better or worse and worse. In this world, there is no option of being ´dormant´.
Alma 38:2 is a very power scripture full of encouragement and advice, where Alma is talking to his son. We share this scripture with less actives all the time, and we ask them how they, themselves, are doing with keeping the commandments and enduring to the end.

(And now, my son, I trust that I shall have great joy in you, because of your steadiness and your faithfulness unto God; for as you have commenced in your youth to look to the Lord your God, even so I hope that you will continue in keeping his commandments; for blessed is he that endureth to the end.)

So, before worrying about our families, we need to worry about how WE are living. Are we keeping the commandments, are we trying every day to strengthen our testimonies?

I promise that when we are individually trying to live The Gospel, our families are blessed. We grow closer together and we trust each other more.

I am grateful for my wonderful family and extended family and friends! Thank you to the Gillespies, the Georges, Eva, and Linda for news on your lives and the family! I love hearing ANYTHING and everything! You are all great.

This week, I encourage all of you to take 5 to 10 minutes and write your testimonies for your (future) kids and (future) grandkids. I promise that you will see blessings in your life and your family as you continue to strengthen your own personal testimonies.

Love you all, be good and stay safe!

Always,
Hermana Van Cott