My new companion - Elder Phillips

Hey,

Wow, week one of training done. This week went really well. What I didn't realize is how much missionaries know after they have been out awhile compared to missionaries who are right out of the MTC. At first it was kind of frustrating because you expect your trainee to pick up on everything all at once. I just look back and realize that I was in the same situation back when I first started. So things have been good though. Elder Phillips is a pretty quiet guy but he isn't going to be difficult to train. He definitely has a desire to do missionary work which is always a good thing. It was actually kind of funny....his first street contact didn't speak English. That is what happened to me too. I was cracking up.

Our thanksgiving was great this past week. We went to “Five Guys” before Thanksgiving Day so I don't know why it showed up on the 25th. For Thanksgiving we went to 3 different members to eat. The first meal was just kind of to get us started. The second one was the full blown meal and man it was so good! The last family was dessert and they made like 7 pies. It was pretty rad.

This past week we also had a cool experience. We stopped by an investigator who I thought was not very interested. In fact that is why we went over there at first...to find out if we were going to drop him or not. We were going to leave a commitment to read and pray about the book of Mormon and his response was "I've already done that". I was thinking "Oh, boy what does that mean?" He went on to say that he knew it was true so we invited him to be baptized and.....he said that he would have to think about it. It was still cool though and then he went to church the next day which is huge for this area.

Holy cow it is getting cold....

Elder Cooper

So this past week has been just as crazy and the exciting news is that this transfer I'm TRAINING! So, I got the call that I was training on Friday this past week. I'm still in the same ward with the new missionary. His name is Elder Phillips. He is from New Hampshire and once again from a tiny town somewhere. He is also like my companion before in the fact that he graduated this year from high school. That makes me feel kind of old. What also made me feel old is that when we went down to Broomfield to meet the new elders I didn't know the other elders that were training either. Most of the trainers this transfer have been out somewhere between 6 and 12 months. Yeah, so when you train they don't tell you who your companion is going to be until you meet him. Today has been crazy busy though and I'm super excited to see what happens this transfer and being with a new missionary totally relights a fire to do missionary work. Elder Henson (last comp.) went to the Denver North Stake which is down in the Brighton area.

As far as our investigator goes, we were actually not able to meet with her this last week and we probably will not be able to meet with her this week as well with the holidays. We need her to get to church this Sunday though and I think that she is planning on coming.

We have a couple of dinner appointments for Thanksgiving this week. Well, just one big one and then we are going to another member’s house for pie later so it should be pretty awesome. It is just going to be a crazy busy transfer with Christmas and New Years in it as well. It also makes it kind of difficult to set up appointments with people though.

Elder Cooper

So, this is the last week of the transfer again. I have a feeling that something is going to happen but we will see. Not too much has been going on in the last week, just trying to find people to teach. We had an awesome lesson though with one of our investigators though. We went in wanting to talk about baptism and we did, but the spirit was super strong. She is unsure about baptism and we were on exchanges so our district leader was with us, but at one point we each took a turn to pray and it had to be one of the most powerful appointments that I have been in. She said that she was going to think about it and have an answer for us next week when we go over.

This past week it snowed as well for the first time. A couple weeks ago I was thinking to myself how nice Colorado was and that I could possibly live here. When the snow rolled around I realized why I couldn't and that I had forgotten how much I don't like cold weather. This next transfer will have Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years all in it so we are going to have all sorts of fun activities. I'm excited. I still couldn't think of anything really for Christmas other than a couple cool paisley ties and a visa gift card or something. I am trying to reduce the amount of stuff I have in my suitcases.

Hope things are going well.

Elder Cooper

11-8-10

Hey,

Yeah, this week has been pretty good. I can't believe that I only have 2 more weeks until the transfer is over. I think that something is going to happen, I just don't know what yet. So this past week has been great weather and even today is nice but there is a storm coming in tomorrow so that might be the end of sunny days. I am just glad that it went this long with nice weather unlike last year when winter started the first week on October. The work has been pretty good but we are still having trouble finding new investigators. The investigators that we did have are starting to disappear. I might have told you this last Monday but a part member family that we have been working with is moving this weekend. They are just moving into the next ward over from ours. We know the elders and they will do good. It is amazing the love that you can have for people that you sometimes hardly know or know at all.

Not too much out of the ordinary happened this past week. We had a general priesthood session yesterday and it was all about missionary work. We ended up singing Called to Serve. On the way home Elder Henson was riding his bike in front of me and he caught the curb wrong and took a pretty good spill. It was good that he was wearing a helmet because he cracked it in 2 places. He will have to end up having to get a new helmet now.

That is a lot of elders in one ward even if they cover the singles branch. A lot of singles wards up here have two sets of missionaries. Usually one is a set of sisters. As for Christmas I didn't really think of anything. Maybe a couple of sweet paisley ties. Other than that there is not much that I can think of. Most likely the mission will send those notes again. Depending if I get transferred next transfer I will just give you the address of where I'm living so it will get sent straight to me. That is super exciting about another girl! It’s going to be weird coming back to family that I have never seen before.

Elder Cooper

Hey,

So this past week was pretty good. It is weird to repeat holidays on the mission knowing that the next time the holiday rolls around you will be home (I'm not trunky). Just like last year we had to go in at 6pm instead of the normal 9pm. I just wrote a couple letters, read a little and then went to bed. On Saturday we had the trunk or treat which was pretty awesome and because it was combined with another ward it was packed. We decorated the Spanish elders’ trunk. One of the other elders got creative and we did a missionary bike accident for our display. It was pretty hilarious. I did get Allies box too on Saturday or Friday so THANK YOU.

So yea, I have seen just about all of those missionary DVDs that you are talking about. We use them in our district meetings for trainings. That is the second set of DVDs that have come out. The first ones were not as good. The first ones seem to be almost scripted. These are pretty good but could just be a little bit more realistic. It is cool to see a little bit of home too.

This past week we haven't had any snow yet. It has actually been sunny and really nice. I'm glad that winter has decided to come later this year. Maybe it will be okay until next transfer. Who knows....

So, something that was pretty awesome happened this past week. We had a zone fast on Wednesday and we were not having a good week. We were not able to teach any of our investigators, we didn't find anyone, and one part member family that we have been working with basically dropped us. So, going into Sunday I was kind of bummed, but to our surprise one other part member families showed up at church without us even knowing! It was pretty rad. Maybe it is just chance, not....fasting works.

As far as Christmas I will have to think. I was thinking this year just a visa gift card but that is a little bit boring. We will see.

Elder Cooper