Month: July 2019

This week was a little insane but a goodish insane.We had interviews with President Orton on Tuesday, which was just fantabulous. Afterwards the other sisters went on exchanges so we grabbed Sister Sykes and kidnapped her for a day which was fun to be in a little trio. And then later in the week we kidnapped her again because we had a lesson with a guy who makes custom guitars and ukuleles and she kind of wanted to check out his shop so she came with us.  So we got to spend a decent amount of time in a trio this week which was a good little change.

On Thursday, we were out tracting when we started to notice that it smelled a little like smoke and then not even 30 minutes later we could see the smoke and then it really just came out of nowhere. Because of the smoke, our mobility has been limited, we have been encouraged to stay inside as much as possible and since we didn’t have the car that meant staying in the apartment unless we had a designated lesson that we could get a ride to with a member.  But honestly it hasn’t been too terrible, in fact I feel like we’ve actually spent the same amount of time in the apartment that we normally do because we’ve had a decent amount of lessons this weekend. 

One of the highlights of my week was when we were teaching Phyllis this week and she told us that there is definitely something different about us. We have a light that no one else has, not even other religious proselytizers.  We were talking about the spirit and surprising as it may seem, she said that I actually made sense and that she could actually feel the spirit. Haha I love Phyllis!

The title comes from when I was texting someone this week and I said awe darn but accidentally typed in awe Darby so now that’s kind of the running joke, awe darby. 

Love you all-Sister Cook

What a week!! On Saturday we did a zone-wide 12 to 9 so we all got together as a zone and took one hour in each area and just knocked doors for the whole day. We switched up companions and had dinner together but we just tried to find the elect all day. We were able to find so many cool people!! As a whole zone, in all the areas we were able to find 72 new people to teach. Our goal was 70 so we basically knocked it out of the park. We ran into this cool guy named Raam in the 2nd ward’s area who we were basically able to teach all of the lessons to but he had to go wash his dogs so he couldn’t hear the last one but we set up a solid return appointment so that he can have all the knowledge before we get him wet 😉 We also got to tract in Ashland which is basically like the prettiest area I’ve ever seen. Even though it’s only 20 ish minutes away from Medford its just that much closer to the mountains and the everything is way more green, I’ll attach some pictures for your enjoyment. 

After the zone 12-9 we all met up at the church in Ashland and just watching all these missionaries roll in and congratulate each other made me just realize how there’s absolutely no place I’d rather be and absolutely no work I’d rather be doing than working where I am right now. I love this life! 

At church yesterday all the talks were about meekness one of my favorite thoughts that was brought up was that being meek doesn’t mean being a doormat for everyone else. Rather, meekness means being willing to acknowledge the accomplishments of those around you and genuinely want them to do their best while not losing your own value. It’s a fine line but with God nothing is impossible. 

We also got a ward mission leader yesterday!! We had our first correlation and things are looking bright for the Medford 6th ward! I’m so excited to see the changes that this new leadership will bring! 

This week I’ve really been reminded of the importance of the Book of Mormon we have had the opportunity to share this book with many people this week and the power that is within this book is unmatched!

We have this adorable couple that is just the sweetest, this Sunday we came over to talk and they had made us homemade cookie dough ice cream it was literally the best ice cream I’ve ever tasted! And we were able to teach them about the Plan of Salvation so it was kind of a win-win.

I love you all! If you are looking for something good to read this week look up the BYU devotional The Power of Not Knowing by Liz Wiseman literally so good!

Knowledge does not necessarily mean power. Or at least good power 

https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/liz-wiseman/the-power-of-not-knowing/

Love you all 

-Sister Kara Cook 

Beautiful Ashland
12-9 with Sister Sykes, Sister Newton, Sister Owen
Zone conference with all the sisters
Sister Bunker! (One of my STLs from 2 transfers ago)
I honestly don’t remember why we took that picture 
One of the cool people we tracted into on Saturday gave us La Croix

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This was a pretty dang good week. We found some pretty cool people and had a lot of really good lessons!

For district council this week we went and buried our weapons of war. It felt a little scandalous because we had to walk to the 1st ward elder’s apartment because that was where the hole was and we were just walking down the street carrying these mini knives… thankfully no one called the cops on us.

We tracted into a member this week and they invited us in for a minute and showed us their super tiny dog. Sister Johnson just perks up and goes “Is that a puppet?” Totally innocent and we all just looked at her and then she goes, “wait I meant puppy”. In case you were wondering in Oregon instead of having dogs for pets, people just have puppets :).

We tracted into a lot of cool people, there was this one guy who opened the door and I noticed he was wearing a national guard shirt so I asked him about it. Come to find out he’s actually a recruiter for the national guard… and he’s really good at his job. 45 minutes later and I’m ready to sign the papers. 

Sister Newton was trying to be funny this week and she told me that there is a different definition for goat than greatest of all time. But all she could come up with was “gabbers of all time” so next time someone is talking a lot maybe consider them goated.

Lots of love from Medford!!!

-Sister Cook

Zone breakfast for lunch
Burying our weapons of war
Lunch with the sisters Pear farm service

Happy 4th of July!

On the 4th of July we partied hard all day (aka worked our butts off) and I was asleep before the fireworks even went off, overall it was a super successful day!! 

On Saturday we said a prayer before we went tracting and contacting and usually when we pray we pray for a specific number of new investigators to find but this time I prayed that we would be able to leave a Book of Mormon with someone. We tracted for a while, ran into a couple of cool people who are going to let us go back but it wasn’t until after a few contacts that we decided to stop by a member that we’d never met before. She came out to talk with us and she had recently just been married and moved to a new house and she had literally been sitting on her couch thinking about religion when we knocked on her door. We talked for a good long while and she asked for a Book of Mormon because she couldn’t find hers. When I said that prayer at the beginning of tracting I definitely didn’t think we were going to leave a Book of Mormon with a member but it kind of shows how God always answers your prayers but often not in the way you think he would or expect he would. 

This week, my baby and I were training and we were practicing the Plan of Salvation and finding scriptures to go along with the lesson. I was looking for a scripture about the post-mortal life and I found this gem in Job 19:26. I told my comp that if she used that in her next role play with the sister training leaders I would buy her lunch every Friday for the rest of the transfer. Look it up.

We have this one investigator who every time we go over has a question for us to take back and ask the members of our ward before reporting back to him. His question for this week was “what do you think of when you think of God?” This has been an interesting topic to study this week and it’s really been on my mind as we’ve been talking with investigators and members alike. The prophet Joseph Smith said that “it is the first principle of the gospel to know for a certainty the character of God.”  Feel free to shoot me an email with some thoughts or record yourself talking about it, or just think and ponder about it and share some of your thoughts with family or friends this week. 

I learned a new word this week: cock a hoop.  It means “full of high spirited delight”. In addition to thinking about God this week, I challenge you to use cock a hoop in a conversation, maybe a conversation about God 🤷🏼‍♀️

Love you all! 

-Sister Cook

Sorry mom I forgot to tell you I need glasses now. 
4th of July parade hopping
How much wood would a missionary chop if a missionary could chop wood?
Driving range with the zone
An aesthetic picture of Sister Cook brushing her teeth.