Satan is Also Hastening His Work and Many of Our Brothers and Sisters, Even in the Those In The Church May be Lead Away

This week went really well. 

We door contacted A LOT and talked with people with really strong testimonies and opinions of their own church which they participate.  But each one of them told us that we would all be going to the same place anyways so it did not matter what building we went to workshop or what we called our selves in terms of religion. It made me sad that they were so sure of what they were saying.  In our last fast and testimony meeting that we had the other week, our bishop bore his testimony about how Satan is also hastening his work and many of our brothers and sisters, even in the church would be lead away and it is not enough to know with your mind that things are true.  We have to know with our heart and the only way to do that is through studies and acting on what we learn.  We are very blessed to have such a great bishop who holds meetings and has a lot of goals and expectations for the ward.  Even our ward council that we had this past week was a sign of progression, Every one had an assignment and if they did not complete it, the bishop gave them a little lecture and then had them commit to complete it the next day/week depending on what the assignment had been. This ward is becoming really united and I am really amazed.  Our investigators are doing really well; reading and praying and we put a fecha this week! Yay! Her name is Monica and she is the mother of one of our reactivating new members (: Were super excited for them!  I cannot believe how fast my mission is going! Every one says it goes fast but I could never realize how true it was until I got out here on a mission! 

Conference is this week and I am way too exciteddddd♥ 

Take care. See you all in 2 months for skype!! 

EEEEEEK! have a super sassy week! 

xxoxoxoxoxox

Hermana Danielle N Cook

Our Heavenly Father, I Know, Is Very Mindful of Each of His Children and I Am Grateful for That

Temple with Texia and mycompanion!!

This week went really well. I absolutely love this ward. I had a lot of pain in my head this week and I have never before in my life had a headache, so this week we had to slow down a little bit. My companion is amazing at helping me realize when I need to take it easy. Sometimes I think I'm invincible but she humbles me every now and then and reminds me I am not!  Haha

So we went to the temple today with a new member of our ward who was less active before she came.  It was a really fun and uplifting experience, especially because she was in a wheel chair the whole time and she told us she felt really loved that we had taken her with us, having to change micros twice! (Large scary wobbly busses we always use here (:  Her name is Texia and she is progressing a lot personally with the recovery time she has which is a huge blessing). 

have never before in my life had a head ache so this week we had to slow down a little bit. MY comp is amazing at helping me realize when i need to take it easy.

This week from reading 3 chapters a day from the Book of Mormon (A goal President put for us).  I have gained a love for the relationship Nefi has with Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. His prayers to me seem so simple, sincere and precious and these attributes of his prayers led me to study the topic of prayers.  In Preach My Gospel it says a lot about prayers and the importance of what we pray for and how we pray.  Prayer has always been more or less an easy thing for me to do but I started praying more fervently this week and it actually takes a lot of thinking and energy to pray, listen and receive revelation and answers, which makes sense because if praying were too easy, everyone would do it without problems or hesitation.  Our Heavenly Father I know is very mindful of each of his children and I am grateful for that.  We currently have 4 investigators that I have so much hope for their progression, Rita, Camila, Victor and Sandra (who is actually a reference from metro contacting woohoo!).   Hopefully this week we will be able to see them more since the week of 18 de Septiembre is over (:

I think that’s it (: 

Short message, but I love you all and we can talk in 3 months for Christmas! xoxoxoxooxoxox

Hermana Cook

 

Teeny has a nice guapo, lindo, atractivo tractor!!

Have a super sassy semana

 ♥Hermanita Danielle N. Cook

We Are Super Protected

Fotos noche de hogar con Marianela y Millarai

So,  I really really want to send photos but I am scared on this computer!!!!  Next week I’ll go to the church to send pics (: I have some really good ones of our nerf war and when we went bowling ((:

This sector is so great! But way way hard... yesterday we knocked doors for hourssss and no one wanted us :( One girl who had about 15 years opened the door, and said ´´nobody’s home!´´ and she didn’t even shut the door... she just stared at us.  Hermana Jerez looked at her, and BUSTED UP LAUGHING... I wanted to ask her “if.. the nobody at home would let us share a message about Jesus Christ”, but the laughter of my companion distracted me and made me giggle so the girl shut the door.  I definitely do not blame my companion because we had had a longgg day with the people here.   Everyone’s favorite excuse that we talk to actually turns out to be… ´´ I am Catholic, but I don’t have time to go to church and God understands´´ or something along those lines..... They use the love of Heavenly Father as an EXCUSE.  I don’t understand.. I am sure if Hermana Jerez and I had a million dollars to give them, they would be ´´unbusy´´!  But the sad thing is that the message of eternal families is worth a lot more than a million dollars and people aren’t ready to understand that yet /: 

But we have had REALLY cool experiences with the lessons that we have taught.  We are seeing the atonement work in two of the families in particular in the ward that we have been working with these past 5 weeks.  They started doing family prayers and reading together and the oldest daughter in the family told us she said the prayer to bless the food for the first time in years♥ (:  We are really excited. 

NEWS OF THE WEEK:  Well I don’t know if you know, my dear family, but we will be on lock down from 6pm tonight until this Friday morning in our pension (apartment) because on September 11th  (41 years ago)  the military invaded here and killed a bunch of people so it is more or less celebrated by a day of rioting.... and it is dangerous outside.  There was actually a bomb placed in the metro and it exploded and wounded 8 people and paralyzed a few people as well!  BUT MOTHER RHONDA FISHER COOK, don’t worry (: We are super protected. Oooohhh, cool story about protection:  There was actually a truck crash this week in our sector and we could have been on that street at the moment that the crash happened but we decided to go two streets up and contact a different street for 30 minutes... and in this short time a truck had plunged into a parked car, hit a tree and the driver died... WE ACTUALLY SAW A DEAD PERSON!  But Hermana Jerez and I recognized the protection we had had. ♥

 

Also, I watched a mensaje Mormon (Mormon message)  this week about pornography and it talked about the danger that it has on families and I LOVED IT’S MESSAGE!   I read Moses chapter 7-9 because of this 3 minute video and it has changed my mission.  I had a super hard time my past 2 transfers but the message of the atonement in this video made me feel powerful against Satan and powerless in comparison to our Heavenly Father, I recommend you watch it and analyze it as a family for FHE ♥

 

Well.... Love you all have a super sassy week!

See you all sooooon♥

xoxoxoxoxoxo

Hermana Cook

EARTHQUAKE!!!! AND LOVE THE MISSION LIFE (: it was a long but successful day. I learned a lot about diligence!

EARTHQUAKE!!! (:

We had an earth quake of 6.4 here on Saturday.  Hermana Jerez and I were in the street contacting and we knocked on a door and right when the man came out of his door, we heard a crunching sound and I looked down the street and the road was like an earth river wobbling!!  The man walked out of his house as the ground was moving and shaking, and I grabbed on to Hermana Jerez and asked what we should do hahahha!  We waited a minute and then it calmed down and you know what the man said when he got to the fence where we were standing scared half to death??  He said, ´´I’m catholic and I don’t care about you guys and your religion, good day.´´ AND WALKED BACK IN THE HOUSE!!!!  I honestly don’t think he noticed... and if he did he was a cold hearted old man to leave us standing there before seeing if we were at least okay!   But oh well...  We walked to the next house and rang the doorbell and a lady came out and told us to go back to our house because she said the aftershock is sometimes stronger.  But...we continued to the next house and then all the lights shut off and it got really dark and a teensy bit scary, but we knocked one more door, trying to take advantage of the situation and another lady came out scared to death and we asked if she was okay and she told us that she was scared and really appreciated us asking and having desires to preserver and share the gospel but she told us we really needed to go to a house until the lights came on... So... this time we took her advice and went to Hermana Blanca Bronzale´s house and her and her family is so precious! They gave us food and Mate and we ended up being able to get to know her family a bit more and have a lesson with them... So there is blessing number 1 of the terremoto (earthquake), the second is that after this, the lights came back on and we continued contacting...  Then it started to rain REALLY HARD, we were practically swimming (: but we knocked on this one guys door and he told us he knows a bit about the church and long story short, he tried to lie to us about his name, but we joked with him and told him he needed to be a better liar or just tell us his name.  He laughed and invited us in WOOHOO.  We taught him, his mommy and met his 98 year old grandma who had as many jokes and energy as Grandma Evelyn did.  BLESSING number 2!  And we had to run home in the pouring rain for 30 minutes to make it home on time.  LOVE THE MISSION LIFE (: it was a long but successful day.  I learned a lot about diligence on Saturday. 

This week we also helped this guy push his car back to his house and in his garage and he invited us back to see if we could teach him YAY for service.  Also, Juan, a friend of a recent convert gets baptized this Saturday!!!!!!!  We are so excited ((: 

Well..... I’ll send pics soon but I am scared to send anything because this cyber has eaten a lot of people’s memory with viruses... So next week we will send pictures from the computer from the church. 

Also... We did a huge Nerf war with the zone and it was way fun.

Landon, Austin and Brooklyn... ya’ll better practice because I got good at this game and we are gonna play when I get home! 

Well that’s all for now.   Interviews with President Cook next week and I will only have 2 more after that!  ♥

Hermana Blancas son (our ward mission leader) and Elder Wilson and Elder Castro (:

Wow how time flies

 

Have a super sassy semana xoxoxooxx

As Members of the Church We Receive Blessing of the Fruits

FAMILY!!! 

Danielle wishing her Dad a happy birthday August 21, 2012

Hi (: how are you all doing.  This week went really well.  Our apartment is like a palace compared to the last house we were in, I love this sector!  It is a lot bigger and the Bishop is awesome.  And my companion is super precious and humble. BLESSINGS♥  This week I was studying in Nefi 8 and 15 about the tree of life and I was thinking.... Why did people choose to go to the Tree of Life when clearly the Great and Spacious was more glamorous and popular... I have come to the conclusion that the testimonies of those who had tried it, helped them to have desires to try it for themselves. Lehi was the first to taste of the pretty and pure white fruit and found it to be delicious, and then invited his family to taste it as well. It made me think of the importance of missionary work and simply inviting people to come and partake.  As members of the Church we have the blessing of the fruits of the gospel, in which we know will bring us to Eternal Life with our families for EVERRR♥ Our friends may not be aware yet of the blessings this Gospel can bring, and possibly, with out our testimonies and examples, they will never know. Sooooo.... invite someone to a Family Home Evening, Church activity, Family BBQ, Sacrament meeting or what ever you like to help bring people close to Christ in these times of stress and difficulty. You may end up helping save someones eternal life♥ 

OOOOOOO!!!!! guess what .... my eye has been twitching for 4 weeks straight and I keep thinking of the scripture of if your eye offendeth thee pluck it out, and I kind of want to pluck it out lol its really annoying! Also Hermana Sprenz got here this week and she is WAY TOO CUTE♥ I hope I am in the same zone as her before I go. She is a tender mercy! We are the only 2 hermanas from Nevada, she is a little piece of home for me. I love new missionaries when they come in!! 

Anyways. Love you all! hugs and kisses (: 

Hasta Ver havea super sassy semana! xoxoxoox

♥ Hermana Danielle N Cook

We had changes!!!!!

WE HAD CHANGESSSSSSSS!!!!!! YAYAYAY

Hermana Cook just got transferred to Hermana Leavitt's 
first ward in the South mission, the La Blanca ward.
 Hermana Leavitt was Danielle's first companion and
 wonderful trainer. Small world huh?! Well, I guess small mission. 
 Lots of members have been writing Hermana Leavitt (who has
now completed her mission in Santiago) and sends her all these 
great pictures and she forwards to me♥♥. This sister in the 
picture was one of the greatest people Hermana Leavitt met in chile. 
 She added that Hermana Cook is in good hands

I am back in the Zone La Cisterna♥ but in a different ward (: I am super happy!!! Hermana Castleton and I actually traded places... she is in the ward Progresso and I am in La Blanca now with her old companion hahaha (: This week Hermana Lepin and I worked really hard and actually had the most lessons and divisions we have ever had together. It was really awesome. I am sad to leave that ward actually but I am happy to be with my new companion Hermana Jerez. She is from Argentina and has the cutest accent ever. It took me about 4 hours to smash everything in my suit case, every change I gather more and more things and it gets harder to pack! hahaha Nancy, the cute Colombian that always writes mom on facebook gave me a super cute skirt to wear when I get home and a few investigators gave us some clothes and LOTS of food. The people here are so precious. I just wish they would put as much effort in their personal progression as they do in the concern they have for others. Well.....this week the Lord taught me a lot about the atonement. President shared a scripture with us that we have all heard before, but he shared something with us that I absolutely loved. He read us Éter 12:27 and pointed out that the word ´´weakness´´ in this verse is singular, not plural... and Sometimes we feel like we are swimming in a freezing cold river against the current. And that Jesus is on the other side cheering us on. But President Cook told us that actually that would contradict the meaning of the atonement and Jesus Christ is actually in the water, swimming right along side of us, supporting us when we get tired and encouraging us to keep going. I knew this to a certain extent but I really loved this example.  I shared this scripture with a family after lunch and they loved it as well.  Presidente is awesome. It was what I needed to hear to start this change I am looking forward to working with Hermana Jerez and hope that we can help a lot of people together in this sector. Oh, and the apartment is BEAUTIFUL that we are in. We are on the 11th floor and I am obsessed with the view (: Our first P-day we went and played soccer with the Zone y tomamos mate (: yayyyy. 

Well..... What more can I say... I love my mission and learn more and more every day. 

There's a quote I read from Elder Holland from a talk written1000251352 years back... He said 

“If for a while the harder you try, the harder it gets, take heart. So it has been with the best people who ever lived.´´ and I felt that a lot these past changes. Life is hard but we gain experiences as we go. Then life gets hard again (: But each experience we have 2 options.... Grow closer to God, or become more distant. The choice is ours(:

Well family I love you all. have a super sassy week. xoxooxooxox

♥Hermana Cook

Brothers: keep working towards your mission goal.  Promise it will be worth it!! (:

Brookie: you too... but get your young woman medallion first (; 

hasta ver! xoxox

FOLLOWING PICTURES ARE MY LAST DAY IN THE PROGRESSO WARD

Nacha, myself, Vincent, Martin and Hermana Lepin

Having fun with some of the children of the Progresso ward

Bishop joining in on the fun!

Hermana Gina and I !! Shes like mommy #2 in my mission

Me and cutie patootie Nacha!

The Elders, Morninne, Hermana Lepin, Nacha and me

Samuel pretending to eat me!

Lehi jumping for joy!

This Week Was Full of Tender Mercies.

This week was full of tender mercies.  I had many many experiences that testified that our Heavenly Father hears us and knows what we need to here/see and do.  This Thursday was a struggle to start our weekly plans again, but I ended my personal study with a pleading prayer asking Heavenly Father to please please help Hermana Lepin to have the desire to plan today, and in the middle of my prayer after I had pleaded for this, Hermana Lepin walked in the room and shouted ESTOY LISTOY HOY PARA PLANIFICAR !  I felt Heavenly Father´s love so strongly I teared up.  Heavenly Father is truly aware of our needs and desires and I know He helps us according to our tiny and specific needs. This week I read a lot in 1 Juan and 2 Juan (John) about amor (love) and in 1 Juan 4:18 that talks about how if we have love we don't need to fear.  I thought at first this meant the love we show to others, but as I started to read in 2nd Juan (John) I realized the truly greatest amor (love) that we can have is for our Heavenly Father, and we can show this by keeping his commandments.  I absolutely loved the Zone meeting we had this week about obedience and Joseph Smith (we read DYC 105) and el Campo de Sión (camp Zion).  This was another testimony builder for me that Heavenly Father is aware of our needs, it was exactly what I needed to hear to help me keep going and not feel helpless. The sector is doing well, this week Hermana Lepin was sick for three days with something in her stomach and we were only able to do 2 divisions, but they went really well.  Another tender mercy that happened this week was that Obispo Ortega the other week asked every one to prepare them selves through out the week for testimony meeting the following week, and the results of this commitment he gave was a VERY spiritual testimony meeting.  The members really put thought into their week to actually prepare to share their testimonies and it was an extraordinary testimony meeting.  Almost every one tried to share their testimony and the bishop had to cut about 4 people waiting off so that we could end more-or-less on time.  It was spectacular. this week we found service!  We painted a Lipigas company`s wall for an old investigator of ours with the Elders in our ward and Elder Marshall and Elder Miller. It went really well.  I wish we could have brought someone from the ward to help us paint, but it was too early for a lot of them.  Also, we tried to save a cat from a tree (Sounds odd but its a cool story!)  This man named Max came up and asked what we were doing and when we told him we were trying to help this baby cat, he grabbed his car and climbed up on top of it and pulled the cat down.  He asked us a few questions and in the end he asked us to come by and share a little bit about the Church with him.  Saving cats in trees is something I never do, first of all because I feel its a waste of time because there are a lot of cats in Chile, and second of all because I am not a big cat fan, but I felt like we could take 5 minutes this one time to try and it resulted in finding someone new to teach(:  We had to drop 4 of our investigators last week and we are keeping 2 that seem to have potential to progress♥ Also we had a cool experience with a pastor from the Evanjelica church.. we contacted his house and he refused to listen to us and almost shut the door but we asked if he needed a service and he told us we could do him a service and go to his church and of course we couldn't so we sat there trying to talk to him and he brought up fasting and told us that he fasts for 7 days and all this stuff so we stuck to the theme of service and sacrifice, and resulted in laughter and a visit next week. I doubt he will be converted but it was way cool to be in the street laughing and making jokes with a Evanjelica pastor and 2 Mormon Missioneras(: It felt really natural, almost like we didn't have different religions. ♥  He stopped being mad at us and let us talk and share a teensy teensy bit and said he'd ask his boss or something like that if he had service for us to do (: 


Well, as hard as these changes have been for me, I am grateful for them.  Every time I want to give up trying to work with Hermana Lepin and obediencia,  The Lord sends a tender mercy to keep me going and help me remember that trials are short and in some small way I am helping Him, although I feel like I am struggling and not progressing. hahah   I love my companion.  She has many great qualities I have learned from, she has a lot of good methods to teach principles in lessons.  I am just tired and worn out haha but HAPPY HAPPY (:

Well,,,, that's all for this week! 
 

xoxooxox

have a super sassy day ♥ 

♥ Hermana Danielle Cook (:(:(: 

p.s. from Danielle's Mother "we love it when Danielle finds Waldo because Waldo always sends me pictures and videos of Danielle and uploads them on Facebook.  What a blessing it is to have great members that will do this for our family...We love you Waldo!!

Hermana Lepin and me

Love finding Waldo!