Here he is!

Well going over to pick Logan up in Japan was one of the most incredible experiences we've ever had. It was so wonderful to see him in his element and with the people of Japan jay he loves so dearly. Two years have come and gone and honestly Elder Cottle grew into an incredible young man. We will forever hold a special place in our hearts for Japan and the people there. Welcome home son!

Week 100! My last week......

I can not believe that I am writing this email. I can not believe that
I have been a missionary for over 2 years now, and that I have come to
the last week that I will be a full time missionary. I won't lie it is
a strange feeling. It's a mixture of excitement, mixed with fear,
sadness, anxiety, and so much more all in one and all at once. I think
what makes it the strangest is that I have put all that I am and all
that I can into this work and this mission for two straight years. I
have breathed, eaten, and sweat missionary work for the last two years
and as a result I have felt some of the most incredible joy I have
ever felt. I will never forget this feeling. I think your mission is
the only place that you can be dead tired, have a pounding heading and
be sweating like crazy in a small hot apartment in the middle of
Japanese summer and have planning and a bunch of other phone calls you
have to take care of all the way up until 10:28where you realize you
are still in your shirt and tie and need to brush your teeth change
and get in bed, the only place where you have all of these things and
are still unbelievably happy. I don't completely understand it, but
it's real. You can ask any returned missionary, or any full time
missionary. There is such a special joy to this work and it's
something that I want to continue. I know I won't have the badge, or
the special calling, but I know that I can feel it as I continue doing
the good things that I have been doing the last two years.

There has been a lot I have learned as a missionary, and I don't think
that I am going to be able to put very much of them into this email,
but the overlying big message or biggest thing that I think I have
learned is our need to rely on the Savior in all things. There have
been too many times as a missionary where I simply could not do
something by myself or my companion and I could not do something by
ourselves. There are things that are just simply out of our control.
We have a sphere of influence, but there are just certain things that
we can not change. They just happen, or they are things that we no
matter how hard we work or try can not do. I remember last year when
T____ couldn't be baptized because his mother would not give him
permission. We had prepared T_____ and he was ready to go, but he
couldn't be baptized until he had his mothers permission and we had a
time limit because he was going to America. We did all we could to
meet with his mom and talk to her and tried to convince her but
nothing was happened. I remember praying and just saying God we are
doing all we can, but we can't do anymore and we need help. One random
day about 1 week before T____ was scheduled to leave for America his
mother call us and told us that she had been thinking and that she
just kind of felt like T_____should be baptized and that it is a good
thing. I know that wasn't our influence. God expects us to do our best
and do all we can, but he will make up the rest. I have seen it time
after time. I have learned that as we rely on him and trust in him,
that is when we are able to do anything. I have learned that we need
him on our side at all times, and all we need to do to have him is to
work to be worthy and than ask him. I have definitely learned the
power of prayer on my mission. Do you know how many times we pray as
missionaries?? At first I thought it was absolutely insane, but now I
know why we do. Because we know that we can't do it alone. I have also
learned the Lords timing. It might not always be when we want it, but
we have to have patience and when we do our faith increases and we get
grow. Although we sometimes don't want to believe it, God is smarter
than us! Haha He knows better. And when we learn that and can trust in
him and his timing our lives just kind of seem to be more hopeful and
optimistic, because we know it's going to work out! Above all I have
learned that he loves us. Not just his church members, not just Him or
her but every single person on this earth. Even all the way over here
in Japan. I have felt the love that he has for the people here, and as
I have served them and worked with them here I feel like I have gained
some of that love.

I am so grateful for all the amazing experiences that I have had to be
here and to have been a missionary. I would not trade this experience
for anything! I am grateful for the testimony I have gained, and my
own personal conversion that I have had while I have been here. I know
that this is where I want to be. I know that the church is what I want
to build my life, and the life of my family on. I know that Jesus
Christ is my savior, and the savior of the world. He did rise on the
third day and HE LIVES. I sustain his prophet Thomas S. Monson. I know
the Book of Mormon is true not because other people have said that,
but because I have taken it and tried the challenge written in it.
Because I know it is true I know that this is the Restored gospel of
Jesus Christ. I am grateful for my family and amazing parents, church
leaders, and friends who have taught these truths to me  from since I
was a child till now. I hope to be able to do the same. My next step
is to continue working to help others have that same conversion as I
have. I have had it, so I know everyone else can too.

Thank you all for the amazing support that you have given me over
these last two years! I have been unbelievably blessed with a great
support system and it has made all the difference. I love you and I
will see you all soon!

Love,
Elder Cottle

Week 99! Last full week.

Hello Everyone!

I can't believe how fast this transfer is going!  It is too fast right now honestly!  There is so much stuff that I want to accomplish here but my time is running out so fast.  It's crazy to think that in just a couple of weeks I will no longer be a missionary..Honestly it's kind of a scary thought.  I feel like I honestly have put all that I am into being a missionary, and over time I feel like the Lord has kind of molded me into the missionary he wanted me to become.  I'm grateful for the kind of person that I have been able to realize I want to be, and the steps I have been able to take to be that person while I've been here.  I still am not there, I still have a long way to go, but I think I'm on the right track.  

Although the end is drawing near we still have about a week and I hope to make the best of it! Right now in Shibuya we have maybe 5 or 6 progressing investigators who really have TONS of potential to be baptized really soon.  I don't know if it will be while I am here or not, but I think that they are so close and that Shibuya is going to have a good amount of baptisms over the next coupe of months.  There is T_____who works for the other church and he is so close.  There are just a few things that he needs to realize about doctrine, and just needs to have that spiritual experience that is able to tell him that all the things that we are telling him are true.  Of course that will mean that his church isn't totally true, but we know they have truth in it and we are trying to help him see that it's not a bad church is ours is true, but it just doesn't have ALL of the truth.  We also have a new investigator named F_____ and he is the man.  He really has such a desire to learn more and has lots of really good questions and is really open.  I think I talked about him a little bit last week, but he lived in Texas for 3 yrs and went to a different Christian church but he really liked it, and always wondered why there are so many christian churches.  We taught him the Restoration and he loved it.  Gave him a Book of Mormon and he is reading it, and he should be coming to church today! We will also be going with him to a Senior Missionary's home this week to share a message and have dinner so I think that would be a really great opportunity to be able to set some good expectations and teach a great lesson.  The work is going amazing right now, but the time is really just going too fast.  All of these amazing people and here and they are so close, it's just a manner of teaching them a little bit more and then they will be ready! There are so many prepared people here in Shibuya.  This is a special area.  It is one of the only areas where you can almost always see someone that you can talk to no matter where you are.  You know very well how we are taught as missionaries to open our mouths and talk to every single person we see.  Of course, in Shibuya this really isn't possible.  But I have seen over and over again the Lord guide us to the one that we were supposed to talk to, and we just have to be worthy to be guided.

I'm grateful for the opportunity that I have had to finish my last 4 transfers in Shibuya.  It has been such a blessing!  My companions, the friends I have met, and the miracles I have seen have all made me a better person and a better missionary.  I know that most missionaries do not have the opportunity to go back to a past area, but it's been great for me and I think I have found those people that maybe we were supposed to find last year. Things are going well..it's just crazy that they have to stop next week..It's such a bittersweet feeling getting to the end of your mission, I honestly think it's just one of those experiences you don't really have unless you have come out here and worked your hardest for two years.  I'm so grateful to all of you who have been such an incredible support to me.  You are amazing and I love each of you!  Talk to you next week!

Love,

Elder Cottle

Week 98!

Heyoo!! On the train right now I thought I would send you a quick
reply! 100 degrees, that is crazy!

1. Thank you for the classes. I can look through my emails and see if
I can find it, it might be kind of tricky though. But maybe just call
Ry up and be like hey, Logan needs our help just this last week here,
what classes does he need? Cause he will be needing to sign up for
those leadership classes too, and then also he will know some other
good classes to have. Also I figure kind of the same schedule as him?
They don't have to be identical, but I figure might as well if we can!
I figure he is going to know better than me because I'm not back in
America yet you know?
2. I KNOW IM SO PUMPED RYAN GOT THE LEADERSHIP AMBASSADOR SCHOLARSHIP TOO! It's been an answer to prayers seriously such
a blessing. God sure loves Logan Cottle! I realize that more and more
every day.
3. Investigators are doing good. We have sooo many people in our
teaching pool and a ton of really prepared people we just need to get
them in the water!
4. I'll put our funny story in my big email:)
5. The weather is warm. It's probably only 80 degrees but it's getting
super humid. Your going to feel like your in South Carolina again!
It's fun though, you guys are coming our at the perfect time of year!
Your going to love it. Next Thursday are you kidding?! Crazy.

Sounds like things are so good it's always so good to hear. Crazy that
we are at this point huh mom? How crazy it will be next week when we
are together again:) it's exciting. It's going to be a busy week and a
half until I see you guys, but I will make sure to try and get lots of
sleep so I don't look like too much of a zombie for you;) I'm sorry
I've been doing this 2 years it happens...;) love you mom have a good
week!
Love Logan

Week 97! May 25th what??

Heyoo 皆！

We had another amazing week here in Shibuya! It has been fun to watch this area build over the last 4 transfers, and I hope that I can continue to help build it here for these last couple of weeks in this transfer. It doesn't seem real just how fast this transfer has gone. As I have been on my mission it really has been incredible to see just how short 2 years as a missionary really becomes when you are working as hard as you can every day for others to be happy and to become better people. I'm really excited to keep pushing super hard with Elder Judd over these next couple of weeks to see miracle after miracle, and hopefully to see a couple of these amazing people we are working with to be baptized!

So this past week we had the BYU Symphony come, and we were able to go to the event with 6 people! It was great because Nakano isn't very far for us so we were all able to get there in less than 30 minutes and it was really easy. We had T_____and his family come and they seemed to love it! He is married, with a daughter who is maybe 2 or 3 years old, and it was great to be able to spend the evening with them. T_____and I had the chance to talk about the spirit a little bit and he really believes that he can feel that influence and that it is a real thing. He is doing great and he really really wants to be baptized, he just needs to understand a few more basic principles until he is ready. He really does have all of the desire to be baptized and that's amazing, but we just want to make sure that he understands what that will mean to him when he is baptized, and that once he is, there are things in his life that will have to change, one of those being his job! It is going to be a big week with him, because we are going to explain that and commit him to looking for a new job! I will definitely be letting you know how that goes next week!

Yesterday at church we had a huge miracle, but it all starts a couple weeks ago while Elder Judd and I were doing some streeting in one of the downtown parts of Shibuya.  We stopped and talked to these 3 young guys who were smoking outside of a convenience store.  As we kind of started talking to them one of them turned to us and said to us a little rough,"何をやっているの？！”(What are you doing?!) I just kind of turned to him and took off my badge and asked him if he knew what this was.  Instantly his countenance changed and we started talking to them about what we do as church members.  They were really impressed that a couple of 外人(Foreignors) could speak japanese, and the conversation turned 100% around and we were talking just like we were bro's from forever.  The one who first started talking to us is named F_____, and he actually lived in America for 3 years and used to go to Catholic church, but has a bible that his host family gave him and he has carried it everywhere since because he thinks that it is really important, but he doesn't really know why.  We just explained what we do, how we help people come to church and learn more about God and about a special message that we share and they were really impressed. We ended up getting this F_____'s guys number, and we messaged him this last week and invited him to come check out the church and he said that he really wanted to.  So, yesterday he came and he is amazing.  He had tons of huge questions like why are church is different than other christian churches and why there are so many different churches and how can we get answers from God and all these things.  He told us that he really is searching for his path in life, and for a direction for him, and he really wants to know if this church is true and that the things we teach are true.  We had a killer member present lesson with Brother H______ and gave him a book of mormon and set really good expectations with him to meet him a lot and to teach him more about the church and help him to be able to find that answer himself. We are meeting him this week, and he wants to bring his friends to be able to help them know too if this church is true because they have interest as well! It was a huge miracle and really just taught me that no matter who they are or what they look like, they are children of God and they might be that prepared person that the Lord put in our path.  We just gotta talk to them!

The work is going great, and I think it is because I get to work with such an awesome companion! It has been great to get to work together for so long, and I feel like when you have that opportunity you have the chance to really get to know each other, and you really are able to work together really well. It has been great to watch him grow, and I'm just trying to get everything that I know about being a missionary out and over to him so that he can become the best missionary that he can. I really do feel like he is on the right track and is just working his hardest to do his part and help this area. He is a hard worker and it is going to help him a lot as a missionary, I am excited to see what he will do in the mission. It is still hard for me to believe that my time is quickly coming to an end.  I am so tired you guys...haha mom and dad when you get here you are probably going to think I look like a zombie cause I just feel so tired and we are just out working so hard.  Elder Judd is a champ for putting up with the crazy schedule that we always have of just being out and about all the time.  It's amazing to me though that even though I am insanely tired, I can be insanely happy.  It's something that I noticed when I was a really young missionary, and something that I have noticed all through out my mission.  When we think only about others, and little to nothing about ourselves, we feel REAL joy.  I'm excited for the next couple of weeks to be a whole lot of REAL joy.

Love you all!

Logan

Week 96! Bring on the Summer!

It was hot this week! I could not believe how warm it got! The humidity has come back and it's come back with a vengeance! But it was another great week here in Shibuya!  I feel like things are going as good as they can right now, and we are working really hard to see many baptisms this transfer!  We were able to set another baptismal date with a young kid named M_______who really has tons of potential and really should be able to hit his date.  He really thinks that God is important and really wants to receive an answer from him, so we taught him that God will answer us as we pray, come to church, and read the scriptures.  He is doing all those things, and we will hopefully see him in church today! We also have T_____'s mom Sister I______who was the one last night who came to the chinese night, felt the spirit and allowed T_____to be baptized!  The Sisters were working with her before, but because I was here last year and worked a lot with her and her son with Elder Egbert, she really receives the gospel well from the Elders, so we decided to give it a shot with teaching her.  She has a date for the beginning of June, and she already believes that the church is true, it just seems like there is something with a past religion in China that is holding her back from just being baptized.  We are teaching her with members and she will be at church today!  Our 3rd baptismal date right now is T_____and he is the man working for the other church.  We have been really straight forward, and clear about the restoration and how when he is baptized he will not be able to work for another church because it just doesn't work like that.  I feel like we have explained it really well to him and with the spirit, and he told us that he isn't tied down to his job and that he can move whenever he needs to.  We are really excited for him! His baptismal date was set for next week, however because he can't come to church this week we will be pushing it back to the 24th.

With all of these people progressing towards baptism, and lots of other people also progressing, you really have to be united with your companion and you both have to want the same thing!  I really feel like that is what Elder Judd and I are doing right now.  I felt like this when I was with Elder Wheatley for 3, but after 3 transfers together I just feel like you know each other well enough to be able to work so effectively together!  It's way fun to be working with Elder Judd right now and just watching him grow into an amazing missionary.  I feel like it's just been a huge blessing for me to be able to work with him, and to see him grow and develop.  It's going to be an amazing transfer!  With the things that we have going on, and the determination that we both have to see big things happen, I think that there are going to be some amazing thing that happen this transfer!  

The last cool little miracle that we saw this week was a guy who walked into the church for Eikaiwa.  When I saw him I really felt like I should go talk to him and so I did, and we talked during the beginning of Eikaiwa and he was a way cool guy who thought that the church was really interesting and wanted to learn more.  I made sure to tell him to come meet me after Eikaiwa (because we have many different classes so I wouldn't necessarily be with him) and after we were able to meet up and set up a time to meet on Saturday!  We play ping pong on Saturday and he loves ping pong so we invited him to come and he came!  We got talking and he asked where we were from and we told him Utah and he pulled out an atlas that he had just bought and looked up Utah!  On the Utah page, there was a big picture of the temple, and he right away asked what it was and thought it was a really special building. After that he turned the page and there was a highlighted box that said, "モルモン教はどなものでしょうか？”(What is Mormonism?) I glanced at it and it talked about Joseph Smith, how he translated the Book of Mormon, and essentially how our church was started!  We were amazed, but we told him to read that section, and right as he asked what a Book of Mormon was, I pulled on out of my bag and handed it to him.  The rest of the night consisted of him standing up and playing a game of ping pong, and then sitting back down and reading the Book of Mormon until he was up again to play ping pong.  S______(the guys name) told us about how he had never studied these thing before, but that he wanted to know more and so we set good expectations with him to be meeting and teaching about it!  We are really excited for him and know that he has been prepared by God!

Today was also great because we were able to skype with our families! It is always such an awesome experience to get to talk to those I love so much back home! It was so amazing to get to see everyone and I really felt like we were all just hanging out there for a little bit! It's such a fun thing to be part of such an amazing family! I feel too blessed. Thank you family! I love you so much! Thank you everyone for all your prayers and support! I hope things are going good and I will talk to you next week!

Love,

Logan

Week 96! Hello!

He is so busy, long letters aren't coming as often with only a short time left. Here is his letter to me. 

Good morning mom!
I love you so much.  Do you want to know something crazy? We will be
talking on skype in 2 weeks from today!  Then, only a few weeks after
that we will be talking face to face!  Exciting times are ahead of us!
I will send kind of my idea of an agenda that way we can kind of start
getting ready for hotels and stuff, but I have some ideas so hopefully
they will be good but I will send it in another email!
1. Thank you so much for sending those!(new slacks)! I am excited to get them, I
am sure that they will be great and that they will be able to get me
through to the end of my mission:) You have great style so I am sure
that they will be perfect.
2. Transfers!!! The crazy thing is....WE ARE STAYING!!!! I will finish
my mission in Shibuya with Elder Judd!! I am way excited to have the
chance to keep working with him he is the man, and we have gotten way
tight over the last couple of transfers so I think it is going to be
super good!  I am really excited to be able to have the chance to stay
in Shibuya one more!  This will be a total of 6 transfers in
Shibuya!!!! Super fun and I have absolutely loved it.  Such a
blessing!

We need to get you all registered for classes. Yikes!
3. Yes ok I heard that I probably needed to do some signing up so
maybe this week I will hop on and see what classes are available.  I'm
not even really sure what I need to take....haha but right now I still
want to look into things in medical, but I also have some interests in
things with business....so that might be something else that I kind of
want to study when I get back just in my generals and see if that is
something I would like to do...I just really think that I could do
something big with my Japanese...and think it would be maybe cool to
work in a company that maybe works with medical as well?? I don't
know! I'm not sure what is really available there but I will hop on
this week and kind of see what I can do!

Wow I didn't know that Jessica (Reusch) was going on a mission where is she
going?! That is so awesome how is their family doing?? How is Jade??
It's been a while since I heard anything about him...I'd like to call
him up when I get back and see how he is doing. Wow that is crazy
about T_____!  Right now we are working really closely with his mom, and
we are really trying to get her ready to be baptized before I leave!
We are looking like she might be able to be baptized the week that we
are together on Sunday which would be an awesome way to end huh?:) We
will be working hard with her, and if you can tell taka that he needs
to be encouraging her to be baptized! she thinks the world of him, and
if he can take the time to skype her with us then we might be able to
really help her make a little bit more progress.  Since we aren't
using facebook right now we can't get ahold of T_____ to see when we
could skype him, but that could be something really good!  Let him
know for me.

Love you so much mom!  Hope things are going good with everything and
that school is good!  Have an amazing week I'm praying for you!
Love,
Logan