Christmas was great!

Hey, how’s it going? Christmas was great. Our district came over and we opened gifts, played a little risk, talked to our families and relaxed a bit. This week we get to watch some approved movies for p-day so we are pretty excited. We are going to probably watch Polar Express and Happy Feet. The movie really doesn’t matter. Just the fact that we are getting the opportunity to watch a movie that is not church produced. So our district is coming over for that as well. Not too much has happened since I called you. If you look in church news President Stacy who is in our mission presidency as well as my ward has a whole article about him and his work as being CEO of Poudre Valley Hospital. My companion is really cool. It was a very different change from Elder Daniel. I feel more comfortable now. I felt that Elder Daniel was always breathing down my neck haha. Oh Christmas night we went caroling. It went really well except for the fact that it got really windy and cold. Because of the snow we have been walking all week. I don’t mind walking too much it just takes forever to get to places. With the ice the bikes would just be too difficult to get around. We haven't got any new investigators lately. Most of the investigators we have now are on hold until the new year. I'm excited to get started with them again. Well, sorry this email is so short. It was only a couple of days ago that I talked to you. Next week I will have more to say. Elder Cooper

Talk to you Friday!

12-22-09
So my computer freaked out and this is the second time I am writing this email. I am here at the library this Tuesday. Yesterday was transfers and we were busy all day so we never got to the library. Elder Daniel left. I was ready for a change. Its not because I didn't like him, it’s just nice to switch things up. He left about 2:30 to head up to Wyoming as a traveling elder. Basically he goes to a ward that does not have missionaries, evaluates where the ward is at as far as missionary work and if it would be wise to put elders there and then reports back. It sounds pretty awesome. Too bad it is in Wyoming though. My new companion is Elder Seve. He is from New Zealand and is Polynesian. I have only been with him for a day but he seems like and awesome missionary. It also happens that the members that we live with are going to New Zealand for 3 weeks to visit their son so we will be living in an empty house for awhile. Last week we had our Christmas devotional and we had a Book of Mormon archeologist come and speak to us. He was amazing. He had a ton of awesome pics and information of proof of Christ visiting the ancient Americas. In 2 weeks there will be a mission tour, which means that a general authority will be speaking to us! Last year it was Elder Bednar. For Christmas this week we don’t have too many plans. In the morning we are going to open gifts with another set of missionaries. I want to call everyone at 11:30 so 10:30 your time. I’m super excited to call. I don’t have a lot of questions for you but I’m sure that you have a lot for me. Keep in mind that my call can only be 40 minutes or else I will get chewed out by the mission pres. They check the phone records. The hushka came last week and it’s already half gone...yay Hushka! We have been getting so much desserts and sweets lately from members I’m to the point where I am sick of it. I wish members would give normal food haha. Talk to you Friday!

I'm now over the 3 month marker!

12-14-09
I’m now over the 3 month marker! It is crazy to think how fast time can go by sometimes. This week has been awesome too. I got to go on exchanges with a zone leader which means I spent a day on campus. We actually didn't go to campus because we had several appointments, but it was still rad. We were in the institute having appointments with people from the singles ward. It was cool to have lessons with my age group for a day. Family wards are awesome, but it is just easier to relate to those who are your own age. The week, other than that, was pretty much the same as always except for this weekend was way cool. Saturday we went to a wedding reception at the institute. One of the single adults in our ward that we know pretty well got married a week ago. We got to visit with a lot of non members as well as getting a ton of food. Later in the afternoon we did the secret Santa service project. We adopted 3 families and got a bunch of families to participate. Most of the effort and success came from the ward missionaries. Unfortunately, there were not as many non members there that we had anticipated, but there were a bunch of non members that participated in donating. So, there were still contacts with non members which is great. Now we are going to go follow up this week with everyone. To finish it all off, Sunday we committed one of our investigators to baptism. We set a date for January and I'm way excited. Overall the week was pretty solid. We have a Christmas Devotional on Tuesday with all the missionaries in the north half of our mission and a general authority should be there as well. I promise that pictures are coming soon. Oh, and to answer your question, the 9 year olds mom is a member and she joins in on the lessons which is awesome. Elder Cooper

12-7-09
Hey, how is everything going? It has been going great this past week except for it is freezing butt cold, haha. No but seriously it is about 15 degrees right now and over the last couple of days it has snowed about a foot. We have been doing a lot of snow shoveling service, especially yesterday. The bike is fine for now except for the fact that it is a little difficult to ride around in the snow but we manage. I don’t know If I am going to be transferred until the Saturday before transfers which will be the 19th. I think I will be staying but I don’t know for sure. When I had my interview with pres. Ely this last week he didn’t mention anything.
This last Monday we went to go teach the 9 year old we have been working with and usually her mom, who is inactive, sits in on the lesson, but she wasn't feeling too well. There was another lady there though that we had never met before that sat in on the lesson and instead of teaching what we were planning on, we ended up teaching the 1st lesson to her ending the night with a new investigator. It was awesome! We are meeting with her this week to teach the plan of salvation. We had our Christmas party this last week too and there was a ton of people. There were several investigators that we are going to follow up with in the week to come. It’s funny because I'm good friends with a family in the ward and the wife is the activities coordinator so I can sort of see the stress of that position. It’s a tough job. Its one of those callings that you wouldn't think that at first, but man, there is a lot of work that comes with it! This week we also have a missionary activity that we are going to do with members and the ward missionaries on Saturday. It’s like secret Santa, but the parents of the families we are helping I think already know. It should be great though. The members are supposed to invite a non member to the activity and we already have some promising results. Well, it was awesome to hear how things are going.
Elder Cooper

Thanksgiving was awesome

11-30-09
Hey, how is everything? It was good to hear from you this week. Things are going great in Fort Collins. Thanksgiving was awesome this past week. We went over to a member’s home and the wife had her mom and grandparents there who were not Mormon. Her mom is pretty opposed, but after dinner we played catch phrase and then we said that we had to go, but her mom insisted that we stay....must have been my charm, haha. For the most part, this past week was a little bit slower than usual. A lot of people were out of town so it was a little bit difficult to schedule and get appointments. The investigators that we saw this week were the 9 year old and another man that is dating a less active. They both went great and we left the commitment for the 9 year old to pray for a baptism date. We see her tonight so we will see how everything pans out. We have interviews again with Pres. Ely this next week so there could be a possibility that I could find out where I will be next transfer. I think I will stay in Fort Collins, but you never know. Oh, so crazy story of the week…we have been wanting to get info on the family history center at the stake center for awhile and last week we finally got around to it. After we got all the information, the first person that we street contacted was doing a bunch of family history work and needed help. It was like a mini miracle! It was crazier if you were there.
Elder Cooper

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hello Everyone! First of all, since I won't be able to email later in the week, Happy Thanksgiving. Sounds like things are going to be a blast this year. My companion and I have a couple of dinner appointments on Thanksgiving so we will definitely be full by the end of Thursday (by the way, we get dinner appointments every night so we are a little spoiled). This past week has been a blast and has been one of the most successful weeks of my mission. We ended up getting 4 new investigators and that has yet to happen on my mission and in the area I'm serving for the last year until now! 2 of them are member referrals, 1 from tracting, and a 9 year old so they came from all different sources. Since we got so many new investigators this week we have had the most lessons with those investigators that I have ever had. It is really exciting to see them grow as well as to see myself grow as we share messages of the gospel. Yesterday, we were going to teach a less active member and his non-member wife and when I walked in the Charger/Bronco game was on and I couldn't help but see the complete domination that the Chargers had pulled off! Go Chargers! Anyway, we had Zone Conference this last week up in Laramie. It wasn't as good as the last Zone Conference, but it was still awesome. Our mission president did leave us with a commitment to read the Book of Mormon in a month as well as highlight all the references to Jesus Christ, his words, and his attributes so it’s pretty intense. We have a Christmas Devotional this next month too. The only downside to this week was that I had to get my bike fixed....again. The bike is truly a curse, but we have a member in the ward who works on bikes and he fixes them for the missionaries for free, so that is rad. Next week I am going to get some Christmas cards to send out, well hopefully. I did end up buying myself an early Christmas present from Toys-R-Us. I bought Risk. We have been playing it a lot on p-days and I wanted to get one haha. In fact we are going to go play it with a couple of members after we get done here in the library. I'm glad that everything is going well with the new baby. Not much else is going on. Well, there is always stuff going on, but it’s similar missionary work stuff. It’s awesome to hear that all is well. HAPPY THANKSGIVING.
Elder Cooper
P.S. Probably not this week, but in the next week or two I will be sending my Journal entries to you from the first day I entered the MTC to now (Yep I write in my journal every day)

...the work in the area is finally starting to pick up

That’s so awesome that Allie had her baby this last week! It was funny because during the week, some family in that ward was talking to me about my family and asked if I had any nieces or nephews and at that point I said I might or I might not, haha. That’s great that the delivery went well and thanks for sending some pictures. So, I thought that people celebrated Christmas early back home...there are 2 families in our ward that we have visited that already have their trees up! Maybe it is because of the snow. It snowed this weekend but cleared up the next day so a lot of it has already melted. Today is pretty exciting because we have 2 appointments with investigators. Since I have been out that has never happened. One is with a guy that we tracted into and the other is with a 9 year old. It has been nice lately because the work in our area is finally starting to pick up. This week is zone conference as well so that’s always a spiritual booster for the transfer. It is up in Laramie, Wyoming so it’s probably going to be freezing. It’s another 1000 feet above where we are. That’s good that the mission pres. sent you a letter about Christmas packages because I would have probably forgotten. I can't believe that it is already half way through November. I can't say enough how fast time goes by. Well, thanks for keeping me posted on all the crazy things that are going on back home. Go Chargers!
Love, Elder Cooper

I'm not one of the new missionaries anymore!

11-9-09
Hey, how’s it going? So, I didn't get transferred and I am still with my trainer. I'm pretty excited too. I'm finally familiar with the ward and ward leaders so it would have been a bummer if I had to leave. Next transfer would be the 21st of December, but I'm probably not leaving then either because I think that Pres. Ely likes to keep things the same during the Christmas season. You never know though. It is weird to think that I have been on a mission for 2 months already. Time is really starting to go by. I sent my other coat back today. I bought a new coat with money that a lady in our ward gave us. We tried to refuse, but she wouldn't give in. If we snuck it back to her she probably would have gotten mad haha. That is lame that the job fair had no opportunities for Tommy. There are a lot of members in the ward that are struggling to find jobs in the bad economy up here too. Some have been laid off for over a year. I guess it is a good time to be on a mission. I heard about the Chargers. That is awesome that they won and I heard that the Broncos lost as well so that helps us out. I thought that Allie would have had her baby by now. Well, she might since I just got your email today. Not too much else is going on right now. We are still trying to get a hold and teach the investigators we have now but they don't return calls, are busy, and never are home. This transfer is going to be awesome though. I'm not one of the new missionaries anymore. There is a missionary that is fresh from the MTC in our district so I'll get to meet him and the others this Wednesday at district meeting. Keep me posted. Elder Cooper

It snowed a couple of feet...it was ridiculous!

11-2-09

Hey, how is everything? It was great to here about what’s going on at home. Yea, this last week it snowed a couple feet. It was ridiculous. It’s okay though because it’s all pretty much gone now. We definitely did not accomplish as much as we wanted to this week though. On, Wednesday when it was snowing, we were riding our bikes to district meeting and I got a flat tire. Later in the day my companion got one too. We later were able to get them fixed, but it took awhile. On top of that my comp. was kind of sick in the beginning of the week and now I'm a little sick too, haha. I'm doing fine though. I think it was from one of the people we are living with because one of them has been sick all week. I guess it is just that time of year.
Transfers are next Monday. I believe that I will know if I'm staying or going on Saturday. My companion is pretty positive that he is staying until Feb., but I'm on the fence. Who knows?
We had a Halloween party as well a little while back and it was definitely not as good as ours back home. We didn't get to do much because some of the people that were going to help out didn't show so we filled their place bringing out food and stuff. We were hoping to meet more with the non-members. For Halloween we were told to be in by 6 o’clock. We didn't help pass out candy. It was kind of a lame Halloween, but we were able to catch up on some stuff and relax a bit.
Well, this is the last week of transfers and we are going to really push ourselves this week to end solid and hopefully that will carry into the next transfer!
Elder Cooper

Things are going well...

Hey how is everything going? Things are going well here. It is starting to get a little cold though, especially with the wind when I’m on my bike. I like my bike now, but we will see when it gets more into winter. We started to teach some new investigators this week and it has been going great. Yesterday, we went to go to an appointment and the guy we were going to teach wasn't there, but the roommate, who sat in on the lesson a little bit before, let us come in and finish the lesson that we had previously taught. He is in his 20's though so we will now have to hand him over to the zone leaders because they cover the college and the young single adults. This past week we were able to have interviews with the mission president. I don't know if I will be transferred or not, but I also didn't ask. I hope to stay in the area a while longer because I'm now becoming familiar with the ward and the work is starting to pick up. If I leave though, that is what I need to do. This week is starting the 5th week of my first transfer which means that this whole week I am going to be senior companion. We will see how that goes because now I'm pretty much in charge of everything. I'm glad you liked the pictures. Most of those are from the MTC. I need to take some more up here. It was pretty awesome to here from everyone this week. It’s a bummer that grandma and Diana had to go to the hospital. Allie should be the one going to the hospital. It sounds like she is getting close to popping. I don't know about back home but everyone is getting sick up here whether it is swine flu or the normal flu. I’m washing my hands all the time because of all the handshaking that I have to do everyday. It was also upsetting to here about the Chargers loss to the Broncos. Yes, I heard. It couldn't be avoided. Oh well. Well it was great to hear about everything that is happening and I hope all goes well.
Elder Cooper

Pictures from Colorado

Pictures!!

I only got his camera disc. Sorry, no captions or explanations.

10-19-09

Hey, how’s it going? Things have been pretty busy here in Fort Collins. Now that I have been out here for 3 weeks, I'm sort of beginning to learn the ropes, haha. This last week the weather shaped up and it was nice and warm, but today is all overcast and kind of cold.
This week we were able to get some potential investigators so we actually will have an opportunity to teach. We were going door to door and we ran into a man named Javier and we talk to him for 20 min. We set up another day where we could go and teach him, but when we showed up at his appointment he wasn't there. Apparently, his wife got really sick so he was at the hospital with her. We are hoping to meet up with him this week.
My bike is a Schwinn but it’s pretty nice. There is a shop called Recycled Cycles here in Fort Collins. It has disc brakes too so when it gets cold they will still work instead of my comps rubber brakes that harden and don’t work, haha.
Oh, so we definitely heard about the blimp thing in Fort Collins. The big hype, as you may already know, is that there was a possibility that a child was inside, but come to find out he wasn't and he was hiding in the attic in the garage.
That is crazy that Allie is so close to having her baby. I predict Halloween just because that would be cool. I heard about the Chargers being 2-2 and the Broncos 5-0. That’s a bummer and I’m sure I will hear about it after Monday night. We will see. Well I hope all is going well. Keep me posted on all the crazy stuff going on back home.
Love,
Elder Cooper

It's getting cold!

Monday, October 12, 2009

The coat came! Just in time, really. The weather started getting bad the day after I got it. Things are going great here in Fort Collins, besides the weather. It’s the windy days that really get to you.

(The following are some questions that I asked him to respond to)

Do you have a direct address or should everything be sent to the mission office? Our mission president has requested that all mail and packages be sent to the mission office, partly because that is the easiest way.

Tell me about Ft. Collins. Fort Collins is kind of similar to Santee. It’s a suburb area with a lot of families which is cool. The ward is full of families with young children. Yesterday was actually the first normal Sunday since I have been here because of General Conference. On the north side of Fort Collins is the College-Colorado State, but it is not in our area. The zone leaders cover that.

What kind of area do you live in? The area I live in is really nice and it is kind of like an area where all the houses look nice, but also look the same. There is really not much I can think about the area we live in because we are always gone.

Do you have a separate living area and kitchen or do you share? We live in the basement of some older members in the ward, and there is only one kitchen, but they have been out of town and they are leaving again this week so we will have the place to ourselves again.

I see from your bank account that you bought a bike. What do you think about that mode of transportation? It is really not that bad and it is a lot better than walking. It also keeps me in shape. I liked it up until this past week when the temperature dropped to the 30's. We have already had a snow storm and it’s the beginning of October!

You asked me to send your music. I assume that means piano music, not your ipod. I sent your white notebook and your hymnal. Do you need anything else? No that’s good. The people we live with have a piano and sometimes in the little free time we get I’ll play for a bit.

Describe your mission President and his wife (not what they look like). Um, he doesn't have a lot of rules that mission presidents usually have. He really just wants you to follow the missionary handbook and what it says to do and not to do. His wife is great. She always says that she has (in addition of her own children) 180 more children to look after (That is about how many missionaries are in our mission). They are both really nice.

Where is your companion from and how long has he been on his mission? My comp. is from Napa Idaho and he has been out 13 months. He definitely knows the ropes and is teaching me a lot. Before he went on his mission he wasn't really active, partly because his mom wasn't active(now is) and his dad isn't a member.

Who are you currently teaching? The mission president wants to focus a lot on less and inactive members, but just before I got here all of our investigators disappeared. So we are at square one, but we have several potentials we plan to see throughout the week.

What do you like best about missionary work? Seeing people want to change.

What do you like least? The weather and I always feel I could get more sleep.

I'm in Fort Collins

Hey, how’s it going? Yep, our prep day was Monday so I didn't get a chance to email the day I got into Denver. So before we left SLC I took some Dramamine an hour before boarding the plane. Well, when it was time for us to get on, they couldn't find a crew! So I was really tired a bit too soon. I still slept the whole ride to Denver though. When we got there the Mission President was there to pick us all up. We went to the mission home and went through some orientation stuff and had lunch and dinner. It was pretty crazy. I had an interview with my Mission President and that’s when he told me that I was going to Fort Collins, Colorado and my trainer is Elder Daniel. So Tuesday was a travel day/unpack day. There were tons of things that put us behind schedule so we didn't really get much accomplished. We are one of the very few missions that has a 100% member housing, so we are living in the basement of some older members home. I haven't even met them because they went to Texas and they will not be back until tomorrow. We also get fed like crazy. We as missionaries only need to take care of breakfast and lunch. We always have a dinner appointment. Things have been going great the first week. It started out a little bit stressful, but nothing terrible. My first street contact, of course, couldn't speak English very well - haha. We have been focusing a lot on less active members and getting them to church because that is what the mission president really wants us to focus on. We went to the stake center for conference this weekend and it was awesome. My favorite was definitely Pres. Monson’s talk on anger in priesthood and Elder Holland’s talk on the Book of Mormon. Well, I have to go because I don’t have a library card so I only have 20 min. I haven’t got my coat yet. Hurry, it is getting cold! Love, Elder Cooper

Email from an investigator at the MTC

Here is a picture of your son before he left the MTC. Sorry the date is wrong.
Your son is on the left side and this is his companion Elder Howell,
I got the opportunity to be taught by your son before he left the MTC.
He has an amazing spirit about him and he taught me so much about the plan of
salvation. It meant a lot to me to see how serious he was about the plan of salvation.
He was truly teaching from his heart it meant a lot to me when I could feel the
spirit he brought into the room. I would also like to tell you that he is doing well. He came to teach me even though he had been struggling with knowing their parts with past investigators at the MTC. You couldn't tell. He is doing well and is loving his mission. He is amazing! I know he will serve well!
Sister Jones
( Investigator of the Church of Jesus Christ)

Hello everyone!

Wow, things have already started to fly by. I am now in my last few days here at the MTC, and it is a little bit sad, but on the other hand I'm ready to be put in the real situations in Colorado. Role play scenarios can only go so far, but I know they help me teach more affectively to the persons needs rather than being a robot and spitting out the lesson. I got to go to the temple today again, but this time I did an endowment session, mainly because I don't know when the next time I will go to the temple on my mission. It was great! All of the stress just went away when I walked through the temple doors.
It is way cool that you get to see the power that can come from Preach My Gospel. I don't know where I would be without it and I wish I had studied it before my mission. I love how simple the lessons are because sometimes I tend to over teach, so it is always nice to go back through and see ways I can improve. I just got dad’s email and it’s a bummer that the Chargers lost, I hope things improve because I really thought that this was their season. Anyways, it is really weird to think that I am leaving this Monday because it feels that I just got here the other day. Now we are the oldest district in our zone. I am really ready to get out of this bubble at the MTC and start to apply what I have been learning. One thing that I and my district look forward to is going outside and playing volleyball during gym time. We have all gotten pretty good and it has really been competitive. We also got our travel plans and we leave really early Monday morning. What is awesome is the people in my district who are going to Colorado are all going to be on the same plane. There was a joke earlier that we would convert the whole plane. After the flight attendant explains everything someone from our district will say out loud "If we die where will we go?". That’s when we all start to explain the restoration and plan of salvation. Good plan eh? Naw, we won't do that, but I thought it would be funny. It’s great to hear that everything is going great back home. Allie is getting closer and closer to having a baby which is crazy! This is probably not as long as my last email, but I want to let my comp. get a chance to email. Gods Army, Elder Cooper

First email home

Today was my first prep day so I got to finally send you an email. Things have been going great. The bbq was great, and it was nice to see everyone before I left. When I got to the MTC they sent me to get all of my stuff, drop of my luggage and go straight to a orientation meeting. I have to admit that I was pretty nervous for the first couple days. Later that day we met up as a district and got to know everyone. Fot the first day it seemed like I was a chicken with its head cut off, but now that I have been hear a week I'm pretty familiar with everything that is going on. Now that doesn't mean that I am familar with all the material that I am learning that is for sure. When you are not in class you are doing other stuff like going to Teaching Appointments, Teaching Evaluations, and The Referral Center. At the Teaching Appointments you get to teach a lesson to a volunteer who pretends to be an investigator. You are filmed during the lesson and after your teacher shows you ways that you can improve your teaching. That was a pretty awesome experience because I could feel the spirit help me teach and even though they were pretend investigators I felt a love for them and I didn't even know them. Now I have yet to enjoy the referral center where you make phone calls and recieve phone calls from people wanting or recieving free stuff( book of mormon, dvds, etc). I just extremely dislike talking on the phone. My companions name is Elder Howell and he is from Centerville Utah. We are totally different from each other, but we get along great. The group of elders in our group(district) get along pretty well. Today we got to go to the temple and I decided to do sealings instead of a session. It was so awesome! There is no place that I can feel more happiness than the temple. This last tuesday we got to listen to Elder Holland speak and I also sang in the MTC choir. I have never felt the spirit more strong in a talk in my life. Elder Holland is an amazing speaker. I won't go into detail about what he said because I don't have the time, but Tuesday was definitely one of the best days here. I have learned so much since I have been here. The amount of things I learn in one day of the MTC, is about the same amount of stuff I learn in a month of going to church. I am so glad I decided to go on a mission! I only get this opportunity once....well there are couples missions but even those are not the same. Plus, I know that my future wife is going to be extremely attractive because of all my service...haha just kidding....no but seriously. Well I can't wait to hear back from everyone about all the crazy things that are going on at home. Oh, and don't forget to keep me updated on the Chargers! I got to go, my laundry is done and other missionaries are waiting to email home too. Talk to you soon!Gods Army,Elder Cooper

Elder Cooper will be serving in the Colorado Denver North mission reporting to the MTC on September 9, 2009.

Stay tuned for continuing updates.