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