Transfers!!

Talofa friends & family!

Happy Thanksgiving! I'm so grateful for you all & the great impact you've had in my life!

A few quick updates:

☆ I'm getting transferred!! Going from the top of our mission pretty much to the bottom haha. Super sad to leave Sister Long and this area, I love everyone so much. Sister Long has been a great companion and we've had LOTS of laughs together. I love her. But I'm excited for a new adventure! I'll be in the Desert Lakes area down in Kingman! My companion is Sister Mudrow and we came out together! She's awesome so I'm so excited:) and we're going to be Sister Training Leaders! Yay!

☆ Another big exciting update!!! I have a new nephew, Baby Wayne!! I just love him so much and can't wait to meet him. Welcome to the family! ♡

☆ Here's my favorite story from this week: a lady in another ward got baptized on Saturday and Yvonne, Sister Long, & I were able to go & it was so good!! As she came out of the water, she just stood there for a second to take it all in. And then the sweetest smile appeared on her face. It was so precious. 

After, Yvonne was telling everyone there, "I'm next!" "I'm going to be following after you!" "My family will all be sitting right here for my baptism." It was so happy!! She was supposed to be moving out of the mission this weekend but God had other plans and now she's not moving till December! And she told us at church that she wants to be baptized around Christmas so I'm so excited for her!

I just love Yvonne so much. There were so many times this week where I was like, "let's call Yvonne! I feel like I haven't talked to her forever." And then Sister Long would say, "Sister, we saw her yesterday." Hahaha she's just my favorite!

☆ "Blessed be the name of our God; let us sing to his praise, yea, let us give thanks to his holy name, for he doth work righteousness forever." (Alma 26:8)

Let us give thanks to our God who has blessed us so much and continually watches over us. He is great! Love you all. Have a wonderful week!

Love,

Sister Coon

 

Pictures:

- our last district council of the transfer

- our girls, Luisa and Primrose. I love them!!!

- dinner with one of my favorite families, the Popham's & Caneva's!

- baby Wayne is here!!

Alma the Younger

Hello friends!!! How are you? I hope you're all doing fabulous!

This week was great, as always! (Never a bad day in the service of the Lord;) but it was definitely harder if that makes sense haha? We didn't have very many super solid lessons and it's rough because I feel like only about three of our friends are actually progressing. So maybe next week if you talk to me, the rest of our teaching pool will be put on the back burner for a bit! We'll see!! All in the Lord's hands. But no complaints here, life is great!

☆ Yvonne gave us a call on Tuesday just devastated. So we went over to her house and she told us how ever since meeting with us, she's become a better person and people are noticing her changes. It's been amazing! But on Saturday, a friend gave her a call accusing her of something and she had just lost it. Definitely was not acting like the person Christ wanted her to be.

That very night and the whole rest of the weekend she said, "God laid me down just like he did to Alma the Younger." She had been wicked so he made her sick for all of Saturday, Sunday, but then when she had to work on Monday, she felt just fine. "It was so crazy y'all!!"

So we opened up to Enos and read about repentance but she had already done that! All that time she had laying there in bed she was praying to God asking for forgiveness. And then she called up her friend right there to ask for forgiveness too! It was so amazing. Repentance is powerful. I'm so grateful for the relief and love we are able to feel as we do it everyday.

I know God loves you and is pleading for us to repent so that we can receive that burden lifted up, just as Yvonne felt.

6 And I, Enos, knew that God could not lie; wherefore, my guilt was swept away.

7 And I said: Lord, how is it done?

8 And he said unto me: Because of thy faith in Christ, whom thou hast never before heard nor seen. And many years pass away before he shall manifest himself in the flesh; wherefore, go to, thy faith hath made thee whole

Oh it's just too good!!!! It's through our faith in Jesus Christ that we can be made whole  I love you all! Hope you have another wonderful week and continue to repent everyday so that we can come closer to God!

Love,

Sister Coon

Prayers:

- Yvonne, Dale, & Alex will feel ready for baptism (and everyone else haha)

- we will find more people that are ready to let God prevail in their lives

- our friends who aren't keeping commitments

Pictures:

- rain!!!

- bday party for Amu'ia! ♡

- HAHA we're a party

- cool tricks gone wrong

- huge slices of cake they had us take home

- chatting with the sisters after District Council

Marriage proposal

Talofa friends!!!

I can't believe it's Monday already! This week has gone by so fast! Life is good & Sister Long & I are having so much fun working hard in our part of the Lord's vineyard♡ Seriously everyday we're laughing so hard & it's the best. Love her!!! The saying is true, "If you're not having fun, you're not doing it right!"

☆ We had a lesson with our recent convert, Roger, on Tuesday & OH MY you guys. In the middle of talking about daily repentance, he turns to my companion & goes, "So what if... for example... well... how do you tell a sister missionary that you love her & want to marry her but you know it's wrong because she's young (as he gestures to me) & I'm old." (He's about 55) 

AHHHH!!!! So Sister Long told him to pray about it & talk to the bishop & then we got out of there as soon as we could. Oh no Roger let's just say that after talking to our mission President, the ward will now be taking over his new member lessons & we will be avoiding him. rip.

☆ we had zone conference and interviews with President Rodarte! It was so good and I love him!!! We talked about conversion & deepening our own testimony so that we can help others. Such a good spiritual boost! I love being a missionary!

☆ so many good lessons this week! We invited Dale, Yvonne, Mark & Latrice, and Suzzie & Cara to pray about baptism.  Please keep them in your prayers!!

☆ During Yvonne's lesson, we retaught some of the Restoration & it all clicked with her. It was so cool to see. We were talking about the Great Apostasy & showed her a picture of Jesus Christ ordaining the Apostles with Priesthood power. After Christ had died & was Resurrected, the people became so wicked that the Priesthood power was taken off the earth and the gospel He established was not there anymore (Amos 8:11-12;) But the people had just seen the Savior so they took what they remembered from Him & built their own church. They were just missing that key ingredient, the power & authority of God! But through the Prophet Joseph Smith, the Priesthood and Christ's church has been restored! This is God's church and it contains the fulness of the gospel! We are so blessed!

As we were teaching her this, her eyes got all big and you could tell that the spirit was helping her understand. "This makes sense!" Ahhh it was just so good. The gospel is simple & true! It's so cool to see people feel & understand the gospel!!

I love you all!! This church is true:) Keep up the small & simple things to deepen your conversion.

love,

SISTER COON!!

Pictures:

- saying prayers before we leave the house... but with our backs turned to eachother because we would pee our pants laughing if we were facing each other

- looking on top of the gate code to see if someone wrote it down #lockedout

- dog hair COVERING my pants after chasing down Elliot & Oden (2 of the Stoddart's big dogs)

- randomly helping people move in with Sister Aires on exchanges

- the mighty north zone

- face masks on Halloween

- Sister Long backing me

Letter from Hope

Hey Annie I miss you sol much!!! What have you been up to!!! I miss you when are you comeing back. We all miss you. I am doing the violin!!! So that helps me practice my piano notes at the same time!!! Will you teach agen when you get back??? I miss you a lot!!!

-Love your piano student Hope

Letter to Dad

Hello Dad!

Wow that's a lot of food! How fun that your company did a service project! That's a really good idea to get the employees serving. It definitely makes people more selfless and happy! I truly can't believe how many people nowadays are so selfish. We talk to so many people who just focus on themselves. It's so wild! I'm grateful we can serve and not spend that time thinking about ourselves. 

I love Enos. We share that chapter with people pretty often and it's so good! I really love how the Lord tells him it is through his faith that he has been forgiven. This week, the whole mission has been studying faith in Jesus Christ together. We have a mission improvement plan each month and it's been incredible to see how unified the mission has become because we are studying the same things. It's through our faith that we can accomplish miracles!

Grandpa is so funny! He sure is getting older. Poor guy haha.

I'm so happy you and Hannah are going on a date! That will be good. I say start with something active like the rollerblading rink- that would be really fun and memorable! and then go get a treat. I would love to do that!

Saturday I was talking to Sister Long about our vacations and how it's not a time to rest, we go on adventures! Like our mountain biking trip! And I was telling her how you don't like to just sit around. She goes, "you are definitely your fathers daughter." Haha what a compliment! I thought that was very funny because I am definitely always going. Thanks for training me well!

Me and you would have so much fun as companions! Wouldn't that be great. One night, Sister Long and I were walking around a neighborhood and there was no one outside. But someone was having a party with some fun music playing in their backyard. So Sister Long and I just started dancing in the street! It was so fun haha!

I love you, Dad. Can't wait to talk to you soon. You're the best! Thanks for all you do. I love getting your emails each week and hearing your testimony. 

Love,

Sister Coon

Hello Annie Girl,

How is my favorite missionary? It is one of the week's highlights when we talk every Monday. One day every quarter, our company donates a few hours of the work day to a charity. This morning we went to the food bank, much like the Feed My Starving Children, we packaged 12 - 900 Lbs boxes of food for shipping. It was a good time. It is fun to watch the change in people's character as they serve. They are generally happier.

I have been reading about Enos and how his soul "hungered" and he knelt in mighty prayer. He prayed and wrestled to receive a remission of his sins. I think he must have been a righteous man, to begin with, but he desired more... I don't want to be the one that has to be "compelled" to do what is right. Sometimes to be compelled must be the only way. I  pray I will receive the motivation line upon line without being compelled through ugly trials. 

I know you meet a lot of people that are going through tough and compelling trials. Like Elder Packer said, "If you think life is going well, just wait". Grandpa Coon is getting older and doesn't seem to walk more than 5 - 10 minutes without needing to sit. He says getting old is harder than raising 8 kids. 

I have a date with Hannah next Wednesday night. Do you have any ideas for the date? She is doing great. She keeps us in the "T" or Tea, I still can't keep that straight. But we are kept up to date with her friends and their boy problems. 

Keep up the good work Sister Coon, my soul delights in what you are doing. I would sure like to be your comp for just a while. We would have such a great time sharing the message of hope and eternal life. 

The Gospel of Jesus Christ is true and He lives. We will also live again. This life is only a short probationary state, a time to prepare to meet God. 

I love you,

Dad

Letter to Mom

Hello Mama!

I love to hear your insights! You are such a good follower of Jesus Christ. The first point you shared actually reminded me of an experience I had with a member just a few weeks ago. We went over for dinner with this family who has gone inactive and one of the sons is 9 years old but hasn't been baptized. 

It was a nice dinner! The couple got married in 2020 and shared their really cheesy love story with us all while showing lots of affection haha. At the end of the dinner, the dad shared how he has CHOSEN to leave the church because of that idea of perfection and then all of the other anti excuses he has studied on. It just didn't feel right and was so sad to see because he knows this is true. He shared how he doesn't feel any purpose anymore. You can definitely tell how they're not being blessed as much because they're not living the gospel!

I am never going to do that. And I'm never going to marry someone who will either. That's not the life I want! I'm so grateful for you and dad's example! I love you guys! I want that for my life! Thank you for all you've done for me♡

I love you mom! This week was a good one! Can't wait to talk to you on Monday (today I guess haha)!

Love,

Sister Coon

ps I caught a grasshopper and Sister Long and I dressed up as each other for the trunk or treat!

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween friends!!! Sister Long and I dressed up as eachother for our ward trunk or treats and it was a hoot!

Love you all!!

XOXO Sister Coon

- drank a magic luck potion

- so many bike problems this week

- dinner with mama tolu and the other ladies

- giant mustache

- haha

- our costumes

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- missionaries!