Hey!
Happy early new year! Another year come and gone already. Crazy. Well, I know that I just talked to everyone just a few days ago so I guess I will tell you about how Christmas was in Longmont. Christmas Eve we went over to a family in our ward, the Urquidi's, and it was awesome. Bro. Urquidi is really good at cooking so we had the full Christmas dinner with ham, potatoes, etc. After dinner we made gingerbread houses which I haven't done in forever. Elder Phillips and I even put a couple missionaries tracting in front of it. A home tradition that they did was the chimes! I must say....we sound way better back home, that’s for sure. To kind of end the night we finished by watching "Joy to the World". It was great and we had so much fun.
Christmas Day started early. We went to some members with the other elders for breakfast at 8am. They were kind of an awkward family, but the food was good. We had a brunch at 11am with our members and by the end of that meal we were so full. We then ended up watching them open their Christmas gifts and of course my comp. and I had a tie under the tree for each of us. Right when we left that house we went to another one of our members. They have 4 boys and when we got there, a couple of nerf guns were out for us to use. It was an all out war as soon as we got into the house! More food! We also played a little air hockey and challenged the mom and dad to foose ball! Elder Phillips won 2 times in a row. It made up for losing to them when I was with Elder Henson. Rad Christmas!
Now on to the new year and it is going to be a crazy one!
Elder Cooper
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
12-20-10
Merry Christmas!
How is everything back home in San Diego? Things have been going really well this past week. So, I might have told you this before but we have been giving the task to tract out the ward boundaries by the end of the year and when I was with Elder Henson we kind of were slackers. Elder Phillips and I have been tracting about every day for about three hours each time! It’s humbling because I am not a huge fan of tracting. The blessings have been coming from it though. We have been able to find a lot of potential investigators which is what this ward really needs.
This week is week 5 of the transfer which means that my trainee is going to be the senior companion. That means that he is going to take charge in just about everything that we do. I am supposed to help but really I just follow. We will see what happens. I remember when I did that my first transfer and I was all over the place and had no idea what to do.
This last week was our Christmas program at Sacrament and we got roped into being with the choir. It’s the same story as any other ward. There are just not a lot of men that want to sing. It went really well though. So we do have a singer in our ward. His name is Brother Reedy and he sang the best I have ever heard someone sing in a sacrament meeting. This week we have a couple families that we are going to celebrate Christmas with which should be exciting. Today we get to watch some movies like last year. We already watched "The Santa Claus" with Tim Allen. I think we are going to watch a few more too since this is a once a year thing.
It has been a great year and I love being a missionary.
Elder Cooper
Merry Christmas!
How is everything back home in San Diego? Things have been going really well this past week. So, I might have told you this before but we have been giving the task to tract out the ward boundaries by the end of the year and when I was with Elder Henson we kind of were slackers. Elder Phillips and I have been tracting about every day for about three hours each time! It’s humbling because I am not a huge fan of tracting. The blessings have been coming from it though. We have been able to find a lot of potential investigators which is what this ward really needs.
This week is week 5 of the transfer which means that my trainee is going to be the senior companion. That means that he is going to take charge in just about everything that we do. I am supposed to help but really I just follow. We will see what happens. I remember when I did that my first transfer and I was all over the place and had no idea what to do.
This last week was our Christmas program at Sacrament and we got roped into being with the choir. It’s the same story as any other ward. There are just not a lot of men that want to sing. It went really well though. So we do have a singer in our ward. His name is Brother Reedy and he sang the best I have ever heard someone sing in a sacrament meeting. This week we have a couple families that we are going to celebrate Christmas with which should be exciting. Today we get to watch some movies like last year. We already watched "The Santa Claus" with Tim Allen. I think we are going to watch a few more too since this is a once a year thing.
It has been a great year and I love being a missionary.
Elder Cooper
Monday, December 13, 2010
Hey everyone!
This past week was awesome! I think I say that every week. That is just how missionary work is. It is crazy and sad to think that I now have less than 9 months left. I don't know what happened. As far as investigators, we have one that has really been progressing. His name is Josh and he has now been going to church for the last 3 weeks which means that he can now be baptized! We have talked with him about it and we are hoping to commit him this week. We really want to see him baptized by the end of the year. We just found out from our stake president went to a meeting with the mission president because there are really not a lot of missionaries to go around they might be taking missionaries out of unproductive areas. Since the ward that we are in now has not seen a baptism in 3 years, we fall in that category. All the more reason to see Josh baptized by the end of the transfer. We have been working really hard with finding people. All extra time has been dedicated to that. We found a new investigator this week which is the first one since I got here 4 months ago! It was awesome.
This past week we went to the temple which was rad because it has been awhile since I went. It was my comps turn that we used and I've got a turn coming up at the beginning of the year. We just ended up doing a session but there is something that the temple brings.....it was great.
This upcoming week is our Christmas Devotional. It actually will be tomorrow so we will be getting together with the north half of the mission up in Loveland. I'm excited to see old friends. Other than that, Christmas is just around the corner and I totally got Grandma Cooper's box. Too bad there was a note not to open until Christmas. Do you know how much an unopened box is a temptation? The weather has been awesome too. It has been a little chilly but no snow! Prayers are answered!
Elder Cooper
This past week was awesome! I think I say that every week. That is just how missionary work is. It is crazy and sad to think that I now have less than 9 months left. I don't know what happened. As far as investigators, we have one that has really been progressing. His name is Josh and he has now been going to church for the last 3 weeks which means that he can now be baptized! We have talked with him about it and we are hoping to commit him this week. We really want to see him baptized by the end of the year. We just found out from our stake president went to a meeting with the mission president because there are really not a lot of missionaries to go around they might be taking missionaries out of unproductive areas. Since the ward that we are in now has not seen a baptism in 3 years, we fall in that category. All the more reason to see Josh baptized by the end of the transfer. We have been working really hard with finding people. All extra time has been dedicated to that. We found a new investigator this week which is the first one since I got here 4 months ago! It was awesome.
This past week we went to the temple which was rad because it has been awhile since I went. It was my comps turn that we used and I've got a turn coming up at the beginning of the year. We just ended up doing a session but there is something that the temple brings.....it was great.
This upcoming week is our Christmas Devotional. It actually will be tomorrow so we will be getting together with the north half of the mission up in Loveland. I'm excited to see old friends. Other than that, Christmas is just around the corner and I totally got Grandma Cooper's box. Too bad there was a note not to open until Christmas. Do you know how much an unopened box is a temptation? The weather has been awesome too. It has been a little chilly but no snow! Prayers are answered!
Elder Cooper
Monday, December 6, 2010
Zone Conference 12-2-10
Back row (left to right): E. Regnier, E. Edwards, E. Searle, E. Moore, Me, E. Allen, E. Mose, E. Berg, E. Seime, E. Richardson
Front row (left to right): E. Mena, E. Phillips, E. Scotto, E. Macheknie
Happy December
Hello Everybody!
I can't believe that it is December already. Time does go by fast that is for sure. It is kind of sad because a lot of my missionary buddies are all going home. That must mean I'm getting old. Out of my 9 companions, 4 have gone home already and I think one of them is gearing up to get married soon.
So this last week was great. We had our zone conference this past Thursday out in Greeley Colorado which just made me want to go back and serve there. I probably shouldn't be picking favorite places where I have served, but that one was. So, at the beginning of zone conference we have reviews on the trainings that we have been receiving over the last couple months and Pres. Ely will call on random companionships to do those reviews. It is pretty obvious the groups that he picks. They are usually companionships that have new missionaries and since I'm training....sure enough we went up there and presented a 10 minute review to about 60 missionaries. It went well though. What was funny is that my companion didn't even receive that training yet. The rest of conference was listening to departing missionaries’ testimonies and a couple of other trainings. Pres. Ely took some time to talk about the new handbook of instructions that got past out at the worldwide leadership training and how we don't have to go meetings anymore!
This past Saturday was the Christmas party for our ward as well. It was fondue. It was kind of a cool idea but it was also kind of lame. It probably had to do with the fact that that was our dinner and I was still hungry when we left. They didn't have Santa either or a nativity. They played a movie in some other room in the building instead. There was a lot of people but maybe not as many as back home.
This Sunday was pretty cool too. We have been teaching a guy named Josh and he has now come to church 2 weeks in a row. The first week he only came for 2 of the 3 hours, but this last Sunday he came for all 3! At first I was a little bit nervous being fast and testimony meeting but things went smooth so it was all good. We are hoping to see if we can get him baptized by the end of the year and we already talked about baptism with him a couple of times so he knows our purpose. Sometimes when you go into a new area the missionaries before never talk about it so the investigator is shocked when you bring it up, so I don't want that to happen. We also have 2 potential investigator lessons this week so hopefully they go through.
Elder Cooper
I can't believe that it is December already. Time does go by fast that is for sure. It is kind of sad because a lot of my missionary buddies are all going home. That must mean I'm getting old. Out of my 9 companions, 4 have gone home already and I think one of them is gearing up to get married soon.
So this last week was great. We had our zone conference this past Thursday out in Greeley Colorado which just made me want to go back and serve there. I probably shouldn't be picking favorite places where I have served, but that one was. So, at the beginning of zone conference we have reviews on the trainings that we have been receiving over the last couple months and Pres. Ely will call on random companionships to do those reviews. It is pretty obvious the groups that he picks. They are usually companionships that have new missionaries and since I'm training....sure enough we went up there and presented a 10 minute review to about 60 missionaries. It went well though. What was funny is that my companion didn't even receive that training yet. The rest of conference was listening to departing missionaries’ testimonies and a couple of other trainings. Pres. Ely took some time to talk about the new handbook of instructions that got past out at the worldwide leadership training and how we don't have to go meetings anymore!
This past Saturday was the Christmas party for our ward as well. It was fondue. It was kind of a cool idea but it was also kind of lame. It probably had to do with the fact that that was our dinner and I was still hungry when we left. They didn't have Santa either or a nativity. They played a movie in some other room in the building instead. There was a lot of people but maybe not as many as back home.
This Sunday was pretty cool too. We have been teaching a guy named Josh and he has now come to church 2 weeks in a row. The first week he only came for 2 of the 3 hours, but this last Sunday he came for all 3! At first I was a little bit nervous being fast and testimony meeting but things went smooth so it was all good. We are hoping to see if we can get him baptized by the end of the year and we already talked about baptism with him a couple of times so he knows our purpose. Sometimes when you go into a new area the missionaries before never talk about it so the investigator is shocked when you bring it up, so I don't want that to happen. We also have 2 potential investigator lessons this week so hopefully they go through.
Elder Cooper
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)