My new coke dearler

Hi my favorite people!! I love and miss you all so so so much! This may be long, I apologize beforehand haha If you dont wanna read it all atleast read the spriritual thought 😁 Go watch my Google photos to get a better look at good Ole Missouri life... https://photos.app.goo.gl/h2MunHpv7FBt582w8 Alright we got some fun things this week so prepare yourselves. We slept in the bathtub. Was blessed with 4 liters of coke. Got a racial call. Had some man tell us a "vision" he had and witnessed a happy hour at 10 am. Okie doke I'll start off easy, We survived a tornado!!! I'm jokin I'm jokin. there were a ton of tornado warnings around our area but we never got hit by one. Yippee!! My new least favorite sound ever are tornado sirens EEEYUKK they sound like death. But ya we're told to go into our bathtub and cover ourselves with mattresses... so we pretty much slept there for the night. AH good times good times. We had an eventful phone call or "referral" as one may call it, and it was this dude who we've literally met before and was being taught by the YSA sisters in our area. He had called us saying they dont teach the same as we do and he cant understand them at all...weird....sir im pretty sure we all teach the same things... Plot twisttttt this call wasn't about teaching. Mind you, one of the YSA sisters is tongan and has a very thick accent. BOY mans was sayin he wanted to switch for us to teach him cause she's tongan. People are somethin else.😂 That's sister is a QUEEN we love her! We then had a lesson with one of our new people we found and guys he's actually like crazy smart. He can memorize anything or recollect whatever he may have read or heard, like whattt thats wild. As someone who has worked with autism before, lets just say i think hes got a wee bit of it. Thats ok! Its cool! But anyways, we had about an hour and a half lesson with him and one of our members which she is amazing! We were talkin with him about the plan of salvation because he had asked and it was goin good! Then he said he had a really weird dream that pretty much brought him into Christianity. He had never been religious, never really knew God and never read scripture before. His "dream" was talkin about some bright light descending from the clouds and his chest burning with fear but joy and how he had known the name saraphim... hm this sounding familiar yet? Ya this man was having a religious dream about literal scripture. It was so strange due to the fact that he'd never read scripture before ever before that. But ya that was weird as crap. We now move onto our brief intermission to talk about my amazing coke dealer!!! Yes, I very much do coke 😋 jk i dont do drugs but I DO go for a good soda. We had a member meal with our amazing evonne! You guys this woman gives me life. She is just the definition of precious but fiesty. We walk in and she bought us gifts 🥹 she said she had prayed to god all day yesterday from 9am - 1pm WHAT guys she's such an amazing disciple of christ! She bought me an entire thing of coke because I mentioned last time that I come from a family of coke lovers....haha dad you'd be good friends with this lady.... anyways I love when people have that much love in their heart to share it with others! I love seeing christ shine through gods children!! Ok I promise this is the last story. Its about 10am and we go to visit this other lady. She said she was interested last time so why the heck not! But we walk up to the door and her sister walks out....I kid you not she goes "oh its the Mormons!" Then proceeds to walk directly into the wall.... then 3 other people walk out and alllll 4 of them are not in their right minds. Flat our DrUnK YIPPEE. We were in for one 😂they all tried to have a convo with us at the same time, no social awareness whatsoever just straight yappin. One's talking about theology, another is talkin about how she had to quit her job cause her boss was wanting her to be his 6th wife, the other is just not even mentally present and then there is the queen herself (the one we actually were trying to teach) who kept talking to us about God how she wanted to start going to church again! Yippee we some how got her number with her being loopy as crap and taught atleast what we could of some principles but it was PURE entertainment!! Soooo yaaa been an eventful week if I dont say so myself. Im doing great over here! Thought I'd be more depressed but im straight up chillin! I'm enjoying! I love being able to experience this and grow my relationship with my heavenly father and better come to know of my savior, not only for myself but for others. This is a great work!! There is no greater love than our redeeming love of the prince of peace, Jesus christ!! Spiritual thought 😛 My most favorite Wayne sent me this AMAZING talk this week by Tamara W. runia called "your repentance doesn't burden Jesus Christ; it brightens his joy" I LOVE this talk, It brings so much light into how much light and happiness repentance brings in our everyday life. The lord has so much love in his heart for each and everyone of us. This quote points that out so well! "Our Savior was willing to suffer the pain of His Atonement because He loves you. In fact, you are “the joy that was set before him” while He suffered. The invitation to repent is an expression of God’s love. Saying yes to that invitation is an expression of ours. " We were never a burden he had to pay for. We are his JOY! Through all his pain and suffering for our sins, we were set before him providing him happiness in the sorrow of sin. He didn't atone for us because he had too, he did it because he loves us!! How cool is that! As a missionary we loveeee sharing invitations, So my invitation to you all is to find that joy. Will you repent daily? Turn all of your sorrows, mistakes, and trials of the world to god? He has so much love for us, are we willing to accept that love! FIND YOUR JOY!!! 🩷🩷 Keep sending me emails and talks. It makes my week seeing your name pop up on my screen!! That brings me joy! I LOVE YOU ALL AND JESUS LOVES YOU! love, Sister Coon ✌️🤟

WEEK 3 🐒 I am never getting a dog/cat

Ayo made it another week reppin the lord's name everywhere we go!! #overmyheartalways 🫡🙏 Cool news for the week!! Since our mission president (president Hathaway) just got called as a general authority. We just found out who our new mission president will be!! Elder Matswogatha from Botswana! So excited! Sooo this week was…somethin. If you couldn't tell by the caption, animals are my worst enemy out here y'all. Literally EVERYONE has either a dog or a cat and it just barks and rubs its yummy fur alll over ya. It is so hard to have the spirit at the door because they're usually yellin at the dog to shut up or kicking it back with their foot. Haha loveee Sorry to you animal lovers…. Anyways thats not the point ha oops We had spent a TON of time knocking this week and I kid you not, nobody answered their doors. So Sister Nielsen and I pretty much just get to go on some nice walks everyday with little stops in between! Yippee! BUT good news!! We put someone else on date this week!! Her name is Renee and she grew up baptist. She had been taught in the past by sisters and knows her truth! Her dad keeps bashin on us, putting false things in her head but she keeps meeting with us because as she says, she “feels the lord with her” when we come over. She is a cutie lady, got nice Grey teeth, chopped bangs that kinda look like a 3 year old got a hold of scissors and long long finger nails. But guys she is just so awesome! You can just feel the light growing within her! We had read her the scripture: Moroni 10:4-5 which is an invitation given by moroni to ask God if these things are true and she made THE best comment about half way through us talking. In her own words…. “ while you were reading that, I closed my eyes and prayed to God in my heart. I know it is all true because the wind blew across my face and told me it was.” I LOVE IT! HALLELUJAH anyways after that we asked her if she'd like to work towards getting baptized and she said YES! WOOHOO Have Renee in your prayers everyone. She is so elect.🙏 We had also taught our king butch (the JWs got to him so he had lotsss of questions) and we taught our other friend Danielle about the plan of salvation! Woo woooo fire lesson, I actually love teaching the plan of salvation. We drew out the whole plan of LOVE thing and it's just awesome to see their reactions learning about our life before and after. One of my favorite people (aka navea) told me that the plan of love was one of the first lessons she was taught by the missionaries and it gives me hope that one day these people I am teaching turn out to have as amazing of a testimony as navea does! OH also forgot to tell you guys that I experienced my very first basher this last week! I have never zoned out more in my life… he was yellin at us and I'm sure he was saying all these things about our church but I lowkey was thinking about my ice cream I was gonna eat when I get home. Sister Nielsen and I looked at each other and just laughed. One thing I think is hilarious down here is that eveyone thinks we're not Christian 😂 they literally will read our name tags and be like “we’re Christian we already have our own church” or they'll say “you believe in a different Jesus than we do” Miss girl be so fr. You just gotta laugh because it quite literally says it on our name tags “The Church of JESUS CHRIST of Latter Day Saints” and last time I checked I'm pretty sure there's only one Jesus…awko taco moment. Its all good tho! Monday was great for some reason! Mainly because I got to tan and get my dirty soda haha! We do an hour of training and comp study at the park everyday and its honestly one of my favorite parts of the day. We get to lay on the grass in the sun and talk about the one and only savior Jesus Christ . #myredeeminghomie 🫡 Ha yesterday was eventful… we stopped by this guys house and he answered the door, he said he wasn't feeling that great then... dropped to the floor. Like passed out completely. We stood there for a solid minute asking if he was OK andddd the door SLAMMED like BOY OK! Bet ya haven't had someone fake pass out to get you off their doors step HAHAH Lowkey dont know if he was liek dead or anything but we just left after that... Spiritual thought 😇 I had been reading in 2 nephi about the prophesy of the savior and the atonement, Along with this book called “the infinite atonement” (thank you coop, fire book) It had mentioned how Atonement literally means “at-one-ment”, becoming at one with God in the sense that we can physically live in his presence or bringing into agreement of those who have been estranged. Isn't that so cool! I love that so much because not only is the atonement so central to his plan, it is quite literally the way we are even able to enter God's presence again. Our heavenly father has such an amazing plan for each and every one of us, it is so intricately thought out for all of us individually. He wants his children home!! He KNOWS you! He LOVES you! He has a plan for YOU! Returning unto him is all in the hands of our own agency, faith to trust in him and his plan. So… Will we walk with him? Will we follow in his footsteps? Sorry this is so long!!! I love and miss you all like crazy! Keep updating me on your lives, and send me any good talks you've heard recently, tryna find some good ones! Love you! Love, Sister Coon 🩷

Monett 1 month done

Hi guys! Hope you are all doing good! 

Made it to my first area in Monett, Missouri and my trainer is Sister Nielsen, she's amazing. Only on her 3rd transfer and is a bomb teacher!

President and Sister Hathaway are THE BEST! They remind me a ton of my mom and dad. So they feel like home.

I also had to say goodbye to my most favorite Sister Cardiff I miss her so much. Rest in piece my love...

I'm not gonna lie its been a really hard transition for me. Monett is a very small town (kinda reminds me of cottonwood or snowflake but a lot greener haha)  

The people here are very set in their different religions so we've had either lots of doors slammed on us or just a straight up no and I mean this in the best way possible but the people are pretty interesting and quite homely. Im talkin, missing teeth, beer belly, tattoos, stained clothes, garbage and cats at almost every front door AND the smell of smoke or weed from people's houses just about cuts off your airways about mid sentence and sticks on your clothes all day.

All of these things just remind me that this is why God needs me here. Its hard, and I shouldn't be complaining cause its only been like 4 days but im trying my hardest. 

And I know God sees that.

I had My first lesson getting straight into it om day 1, to this AMAZING man named butch. He doesn't know if he believes in God but he literally prays twice a day bro and loves hearing what we teach! 

We taught him about the Sacrament because saturdays are our "hard press" days ( we invite as many people as we can to church) so that lesson turned into teaching him about the gospel of Jesus christ and Sister Nielsen cooked! We invited him to be baptized and he said he had been thinking about it a lot recently, like BOY Be so fr just do it then! That's awesome what! 

So that was a cool experience.

Another lady that I met is this adorable old cat lady named Evonne. Oh my she is a doll!! She just got baptized in October and she literally made me cry with how much love she has for everything. She truly does see beauty in all things! Her house lowkey doesn't smell very pleasant but that's the cats fault.... we love her! 

My first Sunday here was good. The members are awesome! We literally have member meals like everyday, so that's a plus. And its all soooo yummy, the fatty in me is in heaven.

Most of the time i'm chillin. I just can't think of home or else I start crying haha lol live laugh love. I just have to always say a prayer or read some scriptures to calm me down. Guys I feel so goofed up because of don't cry!! Agh! Definitely a learning curve. The more I've been here and gotten more familiar with the area, it's so great!! 

 

YESTERDAY GUYS SO COOL! 

Ok so we spent pretty much allll day knocking, and during planning that morning I kept being led back to this one neighborhood. So we stopped at this place for our last hour of the day before we went home AND OH MY I kid you not, the last house, a cutie young mom named Valerie. We invited her to church and she said she went to a community church but didn't really love it cause she didn't learn much and wanted to grow her relationship with God. OK BOMB, we got that for you bbg!! So she welcomed us in and we taught her about the restoration and all that jazz. Gave her a BOM, she said she wanted to get baptized and have a better life for her son!! Guys she's amazing!! So we have her set on date to get baptized may 17!!! Whatttt miracle! Thank ya Jesus! Amen hallelujah! But ya we meet with her next week and she's just adorable. So trust in the revelation you receive!!!

Spiritual thought

Proverbs 3:5-6

"5 Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.

6 In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths."

Bless up, god is good! He will show you where you need to go, what path to take and how to get there. All we need is faith and intent to do so. Trust in the lord, he would never put you in a situation that he knew you couldn't handle. 

Sorry this is so very long, 

I love and miss you all so much!! 

https://photos.app.goo.gl/h2MunHpv7FBt582w8

Peace and love, Sister Coon

week 3

Hi my amazing wonderful people!! 

I hope you are all doing good!

Here is my Google photos if you haven't already joined!! They're real great I promise.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/h2MunHpv7FBt582w8

I'm gonna be honest this week was kinda weird so this may be short...

This week was bittersweet, said lots of goodbyes. Mourning the loss of my fellow latter day crips of D30. (Forever in my heart...my pumpkin sister whetten, sister lacey my king Julian and our diva, black Annie...aka sister wardle) those are all jokes btw ifykyk

Most of our district left and it's the last week of the mtc. Its insane how fast that went by holy freak. Missing my district already and I haven't even left yet 

Oh ya, Sister Cardiff and I don't leave till FRIDAY we have pretty much an extra week of mtc. #lonesomerangers 

We don't technically have a district but we got put into one with all the Bentonville missionaries leaving on Friday as well, soooo that's finna be cool. 

I also met SO many new fun people! My most favorite tongan baddies, Sister Manumua and Sister Kitekeiaho. Apparently they think my family and I are hilarious hahaha! #coonfamilyrepresent

But Bro seriously they are the funniest girls I've ever met. 

It also was FREEZING! Saw snow fall for like the 3rd time in my life. Wow crazy, let's just say I'm not a fan of the cold.

AH I got to do sealings for the first time!! Oh my its my new favorite, the spirit was SO strong (besides the elder diggin for gold across from me) #someonemissedlunch...

Anywho I LOVED being able to witness ordinances being made for those on the other side! 

General conference was SO amazing! Solemn assembly was the coolest experience. Seeing the amount of elders and sisters who are serving get to stand and sustain the leaders of our church, I was shooketh. Crazyyyy

The messages shared were so needed and very direct. We need the lord as our guide, we cannot finish the race without him! 

I hope everyone's easter was amazing! My wonderful beautiful mother sent me a cutie care package for easter, made my week! 

I LOVE hearing from you guys so feel free to email me!!

I am lowkey not as nervous as I thought I would be to leave for the field, there definitely are those moments tho, but we're chillin. 

I cannot wait to the land of wallys world and meet everyone!!

To add to general conference, I love the idea of growing into characters and examples of christ. So many people around us need more love than we think they need. Ive expeeienced thag first hand this week. It is important to BE there. BE a friend. BE kind. BE loving. BE humble. BE like christ. 

Sister lacey, the queen herself, always brought this up in our classes and it has stuck with me since.

"Start the part, Act the part, and you will become the part."

As we strive to become more like christ in our everyday lives, showing love, charity, diligence, integrity, and more, 

we become more christlike each day.

Guess this wasn't as short as I thought but 

I love love you guys and miss you all!!

Peace and love, 

Sister Coon 

week 2

This has literally been the best week ever!! Lowkey has been so insanely fun and I've had the most amazing experiences within a week of being here, holy what! Ya guys a whole week is done, one week to go!

Let's goooo we're cookin with the spirit over here 

I have no clue how to use these androids but fr missing apple....I'm talkin literally and the phone. This cafeteria food be wrecking everybody here, but we're big chillin.

Anywho I literally have THE best district, they're all so amazing and everyone has the strongest love for this work. We get some good workout/ basketball sessions in every morning and in between breaks, so you know we very gettin them gains...kinda 

Alright guys, Funny story from the start of mtc!

I almost missed my flight.... 

Haha ya I was 45 mins early to my gate and about 5 minutes before my plane boarded I hear over the intercom that American Airlines was boarding to Salt Lake. I was not flying on american.... I was supposed to be at southwest. 

I was on the completely wrong side of the airport ha. So i prayed and ran, barely making it in time and was the last on the plane to board. Yayyy we made it tho boys! 

It's been so fun seeing so many people, I flew with my trek brother Elder Rhodes and sister hollobaugh on the flight and saw my favoritest cousin Hermana coon after getting here!!

AH ITS SO HAPPY HERE 

- There was a devotional the first night we got here, it was SO amazing! Characters in christ is such an important part of being a missionary, forgetting ourselves and GOING TO WORK. I strive to become more of a character of christ and share his beyond love for all of us!

- We were able to go to Mt. Timpanogas temple twice this week to do baptisms, initiatories and endowments. It was so so amazing to experience that with so many of the lord's missionaries in his house. Oh my I love the temple so much.

- OH sister Cardiff and I COOKED on our HOA yesterday! We taught about the book of Mormon and the importance of prayer. Oh my guys, I think we did so gooddd. The spirit was so strong and the lord was definitely in the room with us.

Ok well I don't wanna make this TOO long cause I could yap so much about how amazing the mtc has been. So imma just cut to the point. 

RIGHTEOUS MOMENT

Alma 26:12

"Yea, I know that I am nothing; as to my strength I am weak; therefore I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God, for in his strength I can do all things; yea, behold, many mighty miracles we have wrought in this land, for which we will praise his name forever."

Through our loving heavenly father, all things are possible. We may not think we have the strength. God is in our corner. Through him we are able to gain power, knowledge, and understanding. Of our own strength we cannot strive to grow without the strength we receive from god. 

I love and miss each and everyone of you!

You are all on my heart and mind everyday I am out here. 

Peace and love, 

Sister Coon