I feel lost in the work :)

Hola familia!!

So this week was nuts! SO much to tell! 

So on tuesday we had Elder Lynn G Robbins come and speak to our misison. He took questions from us and it was amazing! One thing he told us that we need to teach others is instead of asking what can we do to help you? asking What are you worried about right now. THIS IS SO HELPFUL and I encourage you when you do your home and visiting teaching to ask people what they are worried about. But one thing that I also loved is he said the key to LIFE is going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm! And that we need to have more faith and EXPECT miricles! SO that is my goal for the next month. Also this week we had companion exchanges this week with hermana leaders. And I was left in Casa blanca by myself! well with a leader but I had to plan the whole day and know where everything was and IT WAS HARD BUT SO MUCH FUN! The hermana leader hermana barros said my spanish was perfect and that I taught so amazing she thought I had 1 year or more in my mission. She was blown away! 

This week we committed 2 people to baptism! One is maria Christina and the other is just maria. They are both amazing! I hope that they can come to church so they can be baptized. They werent able to come to church yesterday because of fathers day. The reason is Maria Christian has her husband in the hospital and needed to visit him and the other Maria needed to visit her father. Very hard to get people to come to church when there is a holiday. But good news Isabel and her husband came to church again yesterday and during the sacrament oswaldo (the husband) started crying! We are going to their house tonight for family night and we wont leave until they have a baptism date!!! So any extra prayers you could say would be very very apreciated! 

We also found a lot of great new investigators this week and hope we can really start teahcing them. 

One problem we have right now is I dont know if you all kno this but right now is the world cup. And when Chile plays it is absolutley nuts! I have never never never seen anything like it. If you think the super bowl is huge you have not seen the world cup in chile. There is not one person not watching it. It is absolutley crazy!! So that right now is a challenge we are having. but we will keep working. 

But I got your package this week!! Untouched everything inside!!! Words cannot describe the gratitude I have. Thank you thank  you thank you. My companion and I especailly enjoyed the sweedish fish!!! They were so so so delicious. I also just kissed all the oils! Horray!!! Thank you thank you thank you thank you. You are seriously the best family ever. I cannot tell you how much I love you all. Emma and mom especailly thank you thank you thank you for your letters. I am sending you responses this week. Thank you for the package really words cannot describe the joy and love I felt. It was so so so so so enjoyed. 

One quote I especailly loved this week 

You only get one chance to serve a mission. It is your responsibility, your duty, to use it to its fullest, to give every last ounce of energy until you collapse in exhaustion at the end of it. All of the hardships, all of the tests, all of the hard work will be looked back upon as the best things you have ever done. Not because you enjoyed it, not because you baptized everyone, but becuase you gave everything you had, even when you didnt think you could and ESPECIALLY when you didnt want to.

Come out of your mission proud of what you have done and this experience will guide and bless you the rest of you life

Jeffery Holland

I love my mission. i feel lost in the work. I love you all so much and know I think of you always. You are always in my prayers. I LOVE LOVE LOV EMY FAMILY

Love Hermana Cook

Working hard, RAIN, and Elder Robins

Hey family!

So good news I didnt get transferred. I am still in Casa blanca with Hermana Alvarez. I am so so so excited for the work we are doing here. We really really wanted to put Isabel on date this week but it didnt happen. Her husband was there and both of them felt the spirit so strong, told us they knew they needed to get baptized, that the church was true, but wanted to get baptized as a whole family all 5 of them. We will keep fasting and praying for them everyweek. We also found a lot of new investigators this week one of them is named Maria C. She is so awesome and loves the BOM but wasnt able to come to church yesterday. Oh my gosh we want a baptism so badley it is unreal! We work day in and day out with lessons and people but no one wants to make the changes necisarry to be baptized. But we are never discouraged! Siempre con animo! 

This week was really hard to contact new people though. It rained every day this week. And when I say rain... I mean rain. Not just for a few hours on and off. When it rains here you dont see the sun for at least a week. The streets literally turned into rivers and it is just pouring rain. We were soaked head to toe every day. Which makes it difficult because very few people want soaking wet hermanas in their houses. Luckily at night time we were able to go into members houses and dry off. But everyone thought we were crazy to be out in the streets. But we need to work day in and day out!

Tomorrow for the first time ever we have a member of the seventy from the US coming to our mission! Elder Lynn G. Robins. I read his talk from general conference, What manner of men and women ye ought to be, And it was so good!! Please please read it! It talks about the need to do and to be. I sent a letter today that includes part of what I learned so I wont spoil anything. But tomorrow we travel to vina early early early in the morning to hear him speak. ALL THE MISSIONARIES IN OUR MISSION! CRAZY RIGHT! 

Well I hope you all have a great week. I love you all and pray for you always!!!

Love the wet 

hermana Cook

Helping Hands, The Mormon Stand, and Wonderful Investigators

So this week marks my first transfer!! What!!! I really really hope that I dont get transferred I love love love Casablanca and feel I have so much more to do here. We are really just getting started on the work that needs to be done. I love my companion, I love my investigators, I love being a missionary, I love it all!!

This week we had the I am a mormon stand. Our zone has this little quad stand with pictures of members in latin america with questions of the soul, Such as why am I here on the earth? How can I create a strong family... etc. Each companionship gets it for one week and we all rotate.

To be honest... It was really really hard. The point of the stand is to have others show interest so we couldnt talk first they had to come to us. so we just stood there and smiled most of the time. But the reason why it was so hard was that most people  just outrightly mocked us. They made rude jokes, threw things at us and it was terrible. Churches even sent their best bible bashers to contend with us. All through it all I thought of Lehi´s dream and how some ate the fruit and were embarrassed. I did not want to be embarrassed. I ATE THE FRUIT WITH PRIDE!! (in a good way) I will participate in the gospel without embarrassment or fear!!

We have an amazing investigator. Her name is Isabel she has been coming to church for 6 months and knows with her whole heart the church is true but wants to be baptized with her husband so they can be sealed in the temple together. She is so hungry for knowledge! any LDS chuch book in spanish she can get her hands on she reads. and this past thursday we talked with her and she told us that always she thought her baptism was far away but now knows that it needs to be really really soon!! What!!! I love this woman so much and honestly could think of nothing better in the world than to see her baptized. So any extra prayers for her would be awesome! Or putting her name in the temple. Anything! She is amazing!!

We also have Carmen and we are hoping to help her progress as well.

Sorry I don’t have much time to write more. We have a meeting with the zone leaders to return the stand and with transfers this week it is just crazy. I am sending photos and letters in the mail this week and I hope you get them soon. I love you all and I know this church is true with all my heart. ENJOY THE GOSPEL WITH PRIDE!!

Love Hermana Cook