Week 89

This week was incredible! We saw a lot of miracles and I really felt guided this week as we taught. We just seemed to be in the right place at the right time. I do not believe in coincidences anymore. Everything that happens is divinely caused! 

Yesterday we had the chance to learn from Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. It was amazing! Everything I was hoping would happen, happened and more! Before he started speaking Elder Holland took the time to shake the hand and talk to each of the 350 missionaries! You can just feel his love for each of us as we shook his hand! The light in his eye was evidence of his apostolic calling.

Elder Holland was very passionate about the message he shared with us. He said that the mission needs to change us... FOREVER! (*pounds pulpit with his hand). As he spoke I really felt the full force of his words in my heart. I cannot be the same person after the mission as who I was before the mission. He said, "You will go home, but you can never go back!" So I have started a list of things that I will have to let go of or start doing better when I get home. On the mission I have learned that being more spiritual and doing things as God wants and not as I want is, in fact, the better way. Just as the mission has been a place for me to progress and better myself, life on this earth is for the progression and betterment of each of us. We as members of the church can never go back. As members of the church we have started on the "strait and narrow path" and can never go back to who we were last week. Who we were before renewing our covenants with the Sacrament.

As I prepared to learn from Elder Holland´s visit to Uruguay I studied several of his talks that he has given over the years. One talk really caught my attention because recently there have been less and less missionaries coming into our mission and we have heard that the amount of worldwide missionaries is dropping as well. In his talk he says,

"Friends, we need tens of thousands of more missionaries in the months and years that lie ahead... Surely that is why Jesus’s final charge to the Twelve was just that basic—to ´go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.´ Then, and only then, can the rest of the blessings of the gospel fully come—family solidarity, youth programs, priesthood promises, and ordinances flowing right up to the temple... With all that there is to do along the path to eternal life, we need a lot more missionaries opening that gate and helping people through it." 

I am glad that in my own little way I can be helping in this work! I have seen lives changed, families strengthened and an increase of love come by the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I wish everyone could feel this way and have these experiences. I know everyone can! I try not to think about coming home too often, but I do realize that I will be home soon. I hope and pray that one of the changes I continue to make after the mission is that of sharing the Gospel. I know every missionary says that (haha) and I know it won´t be super easy, but I sincerely hope that I have made enough of a change in my life now, so I can continue making changes in my life into the future. 

Love you all! I know that this is the church of Jesus Christ! I know that Jeffrey R. Holland is an Apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ! They both love us! The Lord Jesus Christ is our Savior. He is our Redeemer. He is the head of this church. I have never been so sure of anything in my life! And I am privileged to share these things with the people of Melo at this time.

Love,

Elder Cole

Part of the family email:

This week not only did I get to meet and learn from Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, but I also got to work with his grandson who is currently a missionary here in Uruguay! He is a great guy and super humble. It was awesome to work with Elder Holland, the grandson of THE Elder Holland. Love ya!

Week 88

Jaycie here: we got an email from a seventy that visited Trace's stake conference and met with a few of the missionaries. I will attach the email and photo Elder Mark Bragg sent us. It made our day!

Dear Cole Family,

I was on assignment in the Melo Stake this weekend and met your wonderful son.  He is a terrific leader and is a blessing to the mission and his mission president!  He is in a wonderful stake in a beautiful part of Uruguay.  

You son is happy, healthy and working very hard.   He has a terrific companion and that are doing great work!

Thank you for preparing such a sweet young man to serve Lord in this part of His Vineyard!

Elder Mark A. Bragg

Presidencia de Área

Área Sudámerica Sur

Back to trace's email :) 
Wow! A lot happened this week! This week I worked with 4 different companions and just saw a ton of little miracles!  The cold has also definitely set in here in Melo. It is freezing some nights in the rain, but that´s when the miracles come! 

Yesterday was stake conference in Melo and we were lucky enough to have Mark A. Bragg from the Seventy come and speak to us! It was great! We also got to hear President Eddy and Hermana Eddy talk as well! The whole conference was just super spiritually powerful and I learned a ton! Elder Bragg talked about the different stages that the church has gone through over the years. One thing that he mentioned was that after starting the Sunday School, Seminary and Institute programs the members now know so much about the Gospel that we need to start sharing it.  We are so privileged to know so much about the Gospel that we need to start sharing that knowledge with others! He also said that as we share the Gospel our love for others will grow! Elder Bragg took a little bit of time to talk to all the missionaries after the conference and gave us some great advice and assigned us some homework to do before the next time we see him. 

It was super great to see and hear from both Elder Bragg and President Eddy and next week Elder Jeffery R. Holland will be visiting Uruguay and talking to all the missionaries here! I am super excited to see all that we can learn from these 2 weeks of pure revelation!  I have felt the Lord guiding me every step of the way this week. Whether it was hearing the speakers in stake conference, blessing an investigator or helping other missionaries in their work, I know that the Lord heard and responded to each of my prayers! My relationship with my Heavenly Father has grown unbelievably through prayer over these last 20 months! I wouldn´t trade this mission for the world! I love it! And I love the Lord!

Love y'all!  Hope all is well at home!

Love,

Elder Cole

Parts from the family email:

Hey Ma! Today we were supposed to travel to the border of Brazil, but my companion got super sick and so we stayed home today and rested. My companion is doing good though, he`s feeling better. Haha! 

Juan is doing alright... He didn´t like church last week and hasn´t really been straight forward about why... He didn´t come to church this Sunday. But we visited him last night and talked about it. 

We are also teaching Nirian, she´s super cool and is super ready to get baptized! 

We are teaching Mario. He is deaf and mute so it is almost impossible to communicate with him, but we are working on it and he is married to a faithful member and he has been coming to church every week for the last 7 years! We are trying to get him baptized by the 9th of June, but its gonna be hard!  

This week we taught the youth how to give a Book of Mormon away to their friends and even made them practice with each other and then told them they had 24 hours to give away the book and that we would meet back up at the church in 24 hours to see how it went. It was fun!

 Next week Jeffery R Holland will be coming to talk to the missionaries here in Uruguay and so I will be writing on Tuesday! It should be awesome!!! We´re pumped! 

Picture Sent by Elder Mark Bragg

Week 87

This week a lot happened! First of all I got to talk to my family yesterday so that was great! I t`s always kinda hard to think about what I am going to say because I don`t think about it at all before hand and then in the moment I freeze, but it was great! It was also my last one as a missionary and the next time I see everyone it will be when I go home haha! 

Last week we found a guy named Juan who has been going through a tough time in his life. He has been fighting with everyone in his life, his family, his boss, his girlfriend and has attempted suicide.  On Wednesday we had the chance to swing by Juan`s house and talk to him. Juan lives in a super little house. His whole house is 4 cinder blocks wide and 5 cinder blocks long and I have to hunch over to stand inside, but Juan is super cool! He really opened up to us and wants to repent for all he has done. He even asked us to help him quit smoking before we offered to help him. On Sunday Juan came to church. He lives about 30 minutes from the church and we offered to swing by and pick him up. As we knocked on his door Juan didn`t answer. We knocked and knocked. We tried yelling and clapping, but after waiting for about 15 minutes he didn`t answer. So we just opened his door and walked in haha! Luckily Juan was cool with it and didn`t mind being woken up like that! 

This week we also had a conference in Trienta y Tres, one of my old areas! We weren`t allowed to go see anyone, but it was just nice to see the place were I used to work! I learned a lot from President Eddy and the other missionaries! It was also great to see some old friends! On Friday I worked with an elder from Peru and we saw some great little miracles! We ended up finding a super cool family at the end of the night and I have no doubt that it was the Lord guiding us to them! We actually knocked their door because I got a little lost haha! The Gonzalez family has their problems, but really I have the faith that as we trust in the Lord, He will help them make the changes in their lives that they need to make to be baptized! 

Today we went to a laced called Río Branco. It is a border town between Uruguay and Brazil. We got to go buy a lot of cheap stuff/food and got to spend the day exploring! It was great! 

This week was a long one and had plenty of ups and downs, but I think one of the things that I have been learning lately is not to work towards the outcomes I want, but the outcomes the Lord wants. Sometimes I get frustrated when we aren`t quite able to talk to all the people we want to talk to or when people don`t complete with their word, but this week I have thought a lot about how as long as I work my hardest and have faith then the Lord will do His will. The work I am doing right now is not my work, but the Lord`s and I need to give Him control of it all. I have made a lot of changes in my mindset lately. I know that as I pray and have a conversation with my Heavenly Father then He will direct me and do His work through me. 

Love y'all! Hope ya have a great week! 

Elder Cole

Week 86

This week has been awesome! On Tuesday we had a ward activity and it was great to get to know a lot of the members! Then we worked like normal and it was incredible the spiritual guidance we had! We just started "knowing" where to go without having to think about it.  We had planned in the morning to swing by a guy named Pablo at like 7:30 that night, but when we left our house in the afternoon, we just kind of showed up at his house... We have no idea how we ended up getting there either, but we found him at home and we were able to talk to him and really get him excited to read the Book of Mormon! He had even read quit a bit since the last time we talked to him! 

On Wednesday we headed down to Montevideo for a meeting with President Eddy. I was EXHAUSTED! It was not the shortest or smoothest bus ride of my life, but the meeting was incredible and I learned a ton! I could just feel the Spirit guiding us as we all learned together! 

I convinced my companion this week to do the crazy schedule and work like 11 hours a day. It was rough for the first few days, but we are seeing a ton of miracles so we kind of can`t stop now haha! We have started really gaining the trust of the members this week and I can tell that there is a lot of potential for great missionary work here in Melo, we just have to find it!  

I really love it here! I have learned so much about faith lately! I can just feel my faith in the Lord Jesus Christ growing and I am excited to see what more He has for me to do! As my faith has grown my ability to hear and follow spiritual impressions has grown as well. I have really come to develop a relationship with the Lord over these last few months. I feel Him guiding me everyday and I know that He is with each one of us! My way of working, thinking, praying and studying the scriptures have all changed because I now feel His loving guidance in almost everything I do!  The Holy Ghost is truly a wonderful, God-given gift and I am thankful that it is given to each of us as we are baptized and remain faithful til the end!

Hope y'all are doing well! The days are flying by down here and I am just trying to enjoy all that I can! Love y'all!

Elder Cole

1. Our church building right next to the house

2. Our view from the 4th floor apartment