The last oficial email!

The last official email. There really isn't a whole lot to say. This past week was kind of dry as far as missionary work is concerned. We went to the meeting for the media campaign that the church is going to be doing. There were missionaries from the south mission as well as a couple from the Colorado Springs mission too. It went well, but once again the meeting was 6 hours long. I just hope that people don't get the idea of making profiles on mormon.org is missionary work. The main reason for the media blitz is to have the church do the heavy lifting. There will be so many ads running that most members of the church are going to be approached by their non member friends instead of going out and having to talk to their non member friends. That is when the members need to invite their friends to do something like go to church or meet with the missionaries, etc. Bro. Allen was the one who spoke most of the time. He is the managing director of missionary work. His son was the bishop in Taft Canyon ward when I served up in Fort Collins.

I also went on exchanges this week with the one of the zone leaders down on the UNC campus. It was weird to see people on campus since I was there during the summer only.

Yea, I am pretty much in trunky mode now. It didn't really hit me that I'm going home until today. I'm still crashing every night from being tired though. Some missionaries have a hard time sleeping when they get close to going home. This week we randomly have a lot of service. Today we helped move some stuff out of a house for about an hour. Tomorrow we are going to go paint something at some lady's house. We also might go get potatoes somewhere with a family in the ward later in the week. My companion has already had another companion who has gone home when he was with him so it is nothing new to him. I haven't been with anyone when it is their last transfer. See you all next week!

Elder Cooper

Jacob's coming home!!!

So I finally got the specifics. Jacob will be arriving at the San Diego Airport on September 5th at 3:57pm, Delta. Anyone that wants to be there to welcome him home is invited. We will be stopping by the Stake Presidents house on the way home so he can be released. I would imaging we will be home by 5:30 or 6:00. Come by the house anytime that evening to see Jacob. There will be food too. Spread the word...PARTY AT THE COOPER'S!!!

This last week was great. I'm not sick anymore. I had a bad sore throat for 4-5 days. I must say it was pretty bad. Nothing really happened at the doctors. She gave me some medicine which cost me 30 bucks! The baptism was great as well. Everything went pretty smooth. So, we were put in charge of filling the font on Saturday. We started at noon so it could be filled by 5pm! It has a small water heater and would only have hot water for 2 minutes and then we would have to wait 30 minutes for it to get warm again. Since he works out at the prison graveyard shift, on Sunday we got a little nervous when he and his family didn't show up right away. Good thing our ward had a reverse schedule with sacrament meeting last.

This last week we had zone conference too. It went okay. It was kind of boring and I must say that I am glad that I don't have to go to another one of those meetings. I gave my departing testimony and everything. It is official. I'm coming home in 2 weeks! This week I have to go to a meeting close to Denver. It is for all trainers, district leaders, and zone leaders. The church is starting this huge media campaign and the Denver area is one of the places that they are doing it. The meeting is, I guess, to inform us of what they are going to do. I also have to go on exchanges with the zone leaders this week. Busy all the time, even with 2 weeks to go.

Pres. Toombs is our new Mission President. He has been here for almost two months now. He is totally different from how Pres. Ely did things, but he is pretty awesome. They are from Utah. I don't know why he can give out these scholarships. All I know is that I might be able to get 400 dollars for school. I think it is specifically to BYU-Idaho.

Elder Cooper

Hello Everyone,

This past week actually went really well for the most part. The downfall of this week is that I have been sick with a cold. Mostly it has been a bad sore throat. I'm going to go to the doctor today to get it looked at. I was talking to Pres. Toombs the other day about school and I might be able to get a 400 dollar scholarship from him. He says that he gets to give a few of those out every year for BYU-Idaho. He said to call him when I'm a little bit closer to going home so I will probably call him next Monday.

I got my flight information, but the funny thing is....I can't remember the exact time that I am flying in. It will be between 3pm-4pm on Monday, Sept. 5. I will leave in the morning and they have me flying into Salt Lake. Then I have to be there for a 2 hour layover! I was telling jokes that I am going to tell people that my family didn't show up to pick me up if they ask. Our investigator is still set for the 20th of August and we are pretty excited. We met with him a couple of times last week and everything seemed to be good. I hope so because we just put together a program for him yesterday. This week we also have my last zone conference....finally. These mission meetings are just a little bit too long...I will be giving a farewell testimony at it as well. I'm getting pretty excited to be coming home. It will really start to sink in at the beginning next week when the baptism is over with.

I forgot to mention a funny story that happened the other week. I was on exchanges with the elders out in Yuma, CO. I was just about to fall asleep when I felt something go down my leg. We flipped on the lights and there was a cockroach in my bed! I found it a little bit more difficult to go to bed after that. This last Monday we played basketball and while we were resting my companion hit the fire alarm in the church and the fire department showed up and everything. We called ahead of time to 911 saying that it was not an emergency.

We did end up going to the fair this past week, but it is nothing like the Del Mar Fair. 1/10th of the size and it doesn't cost to get in. We only went to a rodeo with some members one of the nights which was pretty cool.

Elder Cooper

Hello Everybody!

This past week went great. Things have been going well with the new companion and everything. Elder Lloyd and I have been getting along great so I think that it will be all good finishing up here in Sterling, CO. This last week we met with our investigator and set him with a date for August 20th! We are pretty excited and it will be awesome to leave on a good note. Other than that we have been having a hard time meeting with other investigators. I haven't got my flight info yet. I imagine that it would come this week because we have to write a big essay about our mission and stuff and it takes a while to write. Also, there is a mission reunion that is going to be on September 30th and I kind of want to go but don't know for sure yet. I am seeing if there is someone else that wants to go that I know that is close to home. I have been emailing Pres. Larson and he says that he just might have an opening, and said to email him again a week before I head home.

This past week I had the chance to go out to Yuma, CO which is even more in the middle of nowhere. They just opened up the area which has been closed for the last 8 months so the missionaries out there have a lot of work cut out for them. One of the elders is from Norway of all places. He probably wasn't expecting to go to a place like Yuma, CO in his lifetime.

Not much is going on besides that. There is a fair in Sterling this week and we are going to try and get our investigator to come invite us out. Everyone around here is going to be at the fair, so either we get invited or we have a semi-long week because nobody is home.

Elder Cooper

Last transfer!

I can't believe the things that are happening. I'm super excited that that I'm going to be finishing up here in 5 weeks, but at the same time I want to see things happen before I leave. Today is transfers and it looks like I will be finishing up in Sterling. My companion, Elder Rodriguez, got moved to Aurora, CO. It is right next to Denver and it is pretty ghetto. It is a spanish speaking ward so he is excited, plus he was in Sterling a little bit too long. My new companion is Elder Lloyd. I actually haven't even met him yet. All I really know is that he has been out just over a year and is from Layton, UT. We will see how that goes. I will still be the district leader and we have another set of elders in our district, but they are serving in Yuma, CO which is super far away from Sterling so we won't see them that much.

This past week we were finally able to teach the guy who wants to get baptized. I think we will be setting him with a date this week for baptism! Exciting times. I don't know if I told you, but a guy that I taught while I was in Longmont got baptized a little bit ago and I just heard news that another guy that I taught there is going to get baptized too in the next week or so. The work there wasn't done in vain haha.

That is what has been going on this past week, a few changes but not much. The "Trunky papers" (flight info) I think comes next week. That is a scary thought.

Elder Cooper

7-25-11
Hey!

Sorry this email is so late in the day. Last night was the Spanish musical fireside and it went really well except it was super long. 2 hours by the time that we were all done. Next time if they do it they need to cut back on the speakers and songs. There was a speaker for each spot in between songs and there was 2 that spoke for like 20 minutes each. Anyway, we stayed at the farmhouse last night because we were not going to be able to make it back in time to Sterling. We left in the morning and were with the Fort Morgan elders in their area most of the day. Crazy busy. We were able to meet with a few investigators this week, but not the guy that wants to be baptized. Our schedules don't match up. We talked to him Sunday and we should be meeting with him tomorrow and Wednesday. We also had the wonderful 7 hour leadership training meeting this last week in Greeley. It went pretty well, but I'm glad that was the last one that I ever have to go to. Transfers are just around the corner and I think that I will be staying and my companion will be going considering that he has been here now 5 transfers which is about 7 1/2 months. You never know though. I don't really know anything about my departure yet. I'm guessing that all of that stuff will come in one of the first weeks of next transfer. I'm excited! I'm also pretty sure that the 5th week will be transfers for everyone. Not much else is going on other than it has been in the high 90's the past 3 weeks. It is time for a break! I'm also sending an SD card home tomorrow along with a cd with more pictures on it that I think that you don't have.

Elder Cooper

7-18-11
Hey,

This last week was pretty good, but also didn't go as smooth as expected. I went on exchanges this last Thursday with the zone leaders to the UNC institute and it was a blast to see some old people from a year ago and we got to catch up a bit. We were supposed to start teaching this part member family last week and it ended up falling through among other appointments with investigators. Hopefully this week we will have a little bit more success. This week is going to be a little bit busier too, because I have to go to a leadership training meeting this Thursday from 9am to 4pm. Last one! We will drive down to Greeley and spend the night there so we can cut back on travel time the next day. We will also be going to Fort Morgan on the way down on Wednesday because I have to give a baptism interview and on Sunday we will be going down again to Greeley for a Spanish music fireside which I got recruited to play the piano for. Busy week, but not so busy in our area which is kind of a bummer. I wouldn't mind being out of leadership for my last 5 weeks of the mission.

So that is about it. We might be going to the temple our last week of the transfer, but I don't know for sure.

Elder Cooper

7-11-11
Hello everyone,

Not much to report this week. Things went by a little slower than normal, but this next week will be totally different. We did meet the new mission pres. this past week. It was very brief because he is going through the whole mission meeting everyone right now. Our 1 on 1 interview was only about 5 minutes. We did have a group meeting where he talked about what his vision for the mission is and a little bit more of a "get to know you" part. You can tell he is green. It is weird to see that coming from a mission president and not a missionary. My birthday this past week was great. We didn't really do much by way of celebrating but I did get some mail which was a nice change of pace. This past week was really cool in the fact that something happened that has never happened on my mission yet. There is a guy that we are going to teach and he had been taught by the missionaries before, but there were some complications so they put him on hold. We went to see him this past Tuesday and the first thing that came out of his mouth was "What do I need to do to get baptized?" My jaw just dropped at that point. Now we can't meet with him more than once a week so it probably will not be until next transfer that he gets baptized, but it was still pretty exciting to hear someone say that.

This week I go on exchanges with the zone leaders so I get to go to the institute and see all the people I served with around a year ago (whoever is left). That is going to be pretty exciting as well. Other than that things have been going well. I think that I'm used to the country life now and having to go on long drives to far away places.

Elder Cooper

Hey everyone!

Thanks for all the Birthday emails and the birthday box. This last week went pretty well. To give a little bit more of an update on what has been going on, we are working with a lot of people, but right now we are resolving a lot of things with everyone. With such a small town and nothing to do, people tend to break the commandments a lot. We went over to see if the part member family that we are working with quit smoking and it looks like it is going to take a lot longer than we thought. We do have one investigator that is pretty golden by the looks of it. It is another part member family, but the husband and wife just recently got divorced. The husband wanted to be baptized earlier but didn't want to look like he was trying to get on his ex wife's good side while going through the divorce. Now that it is final, it is just a matter of teaching him. He also comes to church every week with his kids.

For Fourth of July we actually made the long trip into Greeley for the day and it was awesome. We went to the Greeley Spanish groups picnic ate a lot of good food and played some games. For the first time in a while I actually got sunburned. I'm pretty white these days. We didn't end up watching any fireworks. When we got home a little after 6pm we were pretty wiped out and I was really wiped from all the driving that went on that day. Tomorrow we will be going into Greeley again to meet our mission president and have interviews. I don't really know what to expect. Fortunately tomorrow the Fort Morgan elders will be driving us down so I don't have to do that again. Oh, yesterday I got pulled over by the cops. Being Fourth of July they were on the prowl. I was going 38 in a 30 zone, but not 100 yards ahead of me was a sign for a 35 zone. It is okay though because I just got off with a warning. The last thing that I want to do is get a ticket. That was actually the first time that I have been pulled over since I first started driving and it just has to be in Sterling, CO.

Elder Cooper

Yes. I got the trunky call this last Tuesday telling me that I would be going home on Sept. 5th and they wanted to know what airport that I would like to fly into. I wanted to say Hawaii, but at the last minute I didn't. I haven't got the backpack yet either. Did you send it priority?

Sterling has been awesome so far. It is really different than anywhere that I have been before. It seems that the people here are a little bit nicer than other places. More humble I guess. We are working with quite a few people too. We have been meeting with this one family where the wife is the non member. She is ready to be baptized but the problem is that the whole family has a smoking problem. They set a date to quit this Friday so hopefully everything goes well. My companion is Elder Rodriguez. He is from Provo, UT but originally from Argentina. We have been getting along great so far, but then again it has only been 1 week. He moved to the United States when he was 10. He is a Spanish Elder and so I have been brushing up on the little Spanish that I know. We are living with one of the councilors in the bishopric (the Speights). They are pretty cool, but not as awesome as being at the Conner’s. The Conner’s are not housing missionaries anymore because they have family coming in and out staying there all summer and she is super busy with her catering business during the summer months. We do have a car in this area. The area is huge. We live in Sterling but we cover other towns that can be almost 1 hour away. We only got 600 miles a month in Arvada and we get 1850 a month here in Sterling! We get to drive a Subaru Impreza to which is one of the nicer cars of the mission. I'm the district leader here but there is only one other companionship that is in our district which is Fort Morgan. They live about 45 min away so we only have district meeting every other week. The picture that I sent in front of the house isn't where we live now. That is the farmhouse where I lived when I was serving on the UNC campus a year ago. We took a little pit stop on the ride out.

Things are going well. This is a big week because we get a new mission president on Friday. I'm expecting that there will be a lot of changes coming our way.

Our address:

1616 Pheasant Ridge Rd.
Sterling, CO 80751

Elder Cooper

Homecoming Day

News Flash: Jacob will be arriving home on September 5th! Mark your calendars. More details when they become available.

Transfer Day

Hello Everyone,

I got transferred yesterday! You will never guess where I got sent to....Sterling, CO. Good luck finding it on the map. It is in north eastern Colorado. We are the only missionaries in the town and the closest elders are in Fort Morgan which is pretty far away. We technically are in the Greeley Stake but we are 2 hours outside of Greeley. It is definitely different. Yesterday I drove out with Elder Asay who I know really well because he got moved out to Fort Morgan. It was kind of a road trip. I don't know if we were supposed to or not but we stopped by campus on the way there to bring back a few memories. I will get to go on exchanges with the zone leaders this transfer so I will get to go back to the UNC campus again for the day! Elder Wall, my last companion left our ward too and went to Aurora. Half of the Arvada zone got moved. I think that I will finish my mission here in Sterling. My new companion is Elder Rodrigues. He has been in Sterling for 6 months I think. He has been out for 7 1/2 months and he is the first Spanish Elder that I have been with. So far, so good. He is really laid back which is nice.

Sis. Conner isn't housing any missionaries anymore. We all left on Monday and it just so happens that 3 out of 4 of us were getting transferred anyway. I haven't seen much of Sterling, but it is pretty small. They do have a Walmart though so they are official. This area has seen a lot of baptisms and we should see a few this transfer. We were not able to set anyone before we left Arvada. We met with the teenage girl that we have been working with and are going to hand her over to the YSA elders. She will get baptized.


Elder Cooper

Hello everybody,

This past week was all right. We didn't get to set anyone for baptism like we had hoped. In fact we were unable to meet with any of our investigators and none of them showed up to church on Sunday. It was a little bit frustrating. As far as transfers are concerned I think that one of us will be going. Until a couple of days ago we thought that we would both be going. The bishop was having a hard time finding a house for us to stay at. We ended up talking to a family that housed the missionaries before, but it turned into a bad situation with a set of elders. There was fault on both sides. To be honest I just wanted a place to stay, so whoever the missionaries are next transfer, that is where they will live.

Not much is going on besides that. Pres./Sis. Ely go home in about 2 1/2 weeks. That is going to be really weird, but it should be good. We are planning to start teaching another girlfriend of a boy that is a member of the Arvada 6th ward so that should be good. I will have probably more news coming this next week with transfers and all that going down soon.

Elder Cooper

Hey Everyone,

This last week was really difficult, but also great. It was really hard going almost 2 weeks without a P-Day, but going to the temple is totally worth it. The temple on Friday was awesome. We got there at about 8:30 in the morning and left around 5:30 in the evening. We were able to get a lot of work done as well as the spiritual boost that we needed. The temple is just an awesome place.

This past week we were not able to meet with any of our investigators. That was kind of a bummer. We did go back to a lady that we taught the first lesson last week, but this morning she dropped us over the phone. Well, we did our part. This past weekend there was a stake youth activity that was all on family history. All of us missionaries in the zone went to it. It was pretty awesome. It even got me a little curious about doing family history work. I was also surprised to see 100+ kids show up on a weekend in the summer. They taught them how to use the new family search as well as extracting names, etc. It looked like it took a lot of planning.

As far as the rest of the week went, it was pretty normal. Being the beginning of the month we got our bowling fix in. 5 1/2 hours yesterday and there was only 3 of us on a lane so I don't even know how many games we went through. Still wasn't able to beat the 200 mark. I have got quite a spin down now though.

This week we should be setting our investigator that is 17 for a baptism date since her birthday is next month as well as setting another guy that we have been teaching. We will see how it goes.

Elder Cooper

Pictures....looking for mail and spooning with the cat

Hello Everybody!

That’s a bummer that you got rained out on the camping trip. The weather is just starting to get nice again here. The past couple weeks have been cold, and really rainy. Tomorrow I think it is supposed to be upper 80's though. I'm pumped. This past week we had our zone conference. It was the last one for Pres./Sis. Ely. They will be going home July 1st. They will spend about an hour with the new Mission Pres. and his wife, but after that they will be on their own. Crazy busy times. Now that all of our big meetings settled down we should have more time to get things done in our area. This Friday we will be going to the temple. We have new rules about going to the temple now. Our temple trip takes the place of our P-Day so yesterday instead of having a break we had to work. It was hard, but with Friday’s trip and then having another P-Day the following Monday, that will be nice. I think that we are planning to go bowling again next Monday too!

This past week has been a little bit more difficult due to the fact that everyone is graduating and with this past weekend being Memorial Day. One of our investigators came to church this last Sunday which was pretty exciting. We are going to try to set him for baptism this week. We will see. So, things have been going well. We are going to be super busy with appointments this week which is always nice being a missionary.

Elder Cooper

Hey Everyone,

This past week was good, but it also was pretty difficult. For 3 days we were hardly able to work in our own area. On Tuesday I went to a leadership training meeting from 9am to 4pm. I thought it was going to be just as boring as the last time I went to one of those, but it was pretty awesome. Normally, missionaries give a bunch of trainings and then we role play but this time the zone leaders broke off from the district leaders and we were able to be with Pres. Ely the whole time and we just asked questions. Wednesday and Thursday I was on exchanges with other missionaries in their area and I don't know if you have looked at our weather lately, but we just keep getting dumped on. It is getting kind of annoying. This week is not going to be any less busy with Zone Conference tomorrow and then another exchange on Thursday. Things should settle down for the most part after this week.

Stake Conference was this past weekend as well. The Sunday session was okay, but the adult session the day before was awesome. They had a member of the seventy come (I can't remember his name). We haven't had a whole lot of success finding new people to teach, but yesterday night we went around visiting former investigators and were able to set up a couple appointments. We also moved houses for a short time. We actually are living at the Conners. We will probably be there until the end of the transfer on June 20th. I will get you the new address next week.

That is cool that David is going to go to Mexico. I think it is good that he is going out of the states for his mission. Hopefully he can pick up on Spanish well.

Elder Cooper

So, we have leadership training meeting tomorrow and our emails to Pres. Ely have to be done by noon on Tuesday so we had to go to a different town and email today. I am going to see if I can get on again since you didn't know and I didn't get to hear from you now.

Things went really slow this past week. My companion got sick on Thursday and he was in bed for the rest of the week. It was just a cold and he is doing better now. The problem is that his body is so weak. He always has an ache or something. I was going crazy most of the week because I had nothing to do. My new scriptures came in so I spent most of the time just marking up my scriptures. They are really nice. I figured out where most of the money came from. I had some money that I saved from the money that we get each month to pay for it.

This week is going to be super busy with a leadership training meeting tomorrow from 9am to 4pm. We also have a couple exchanges this week with some other missionaries in our district so we will be pretty much out of our area for 3 days this week. We also have Zone Conference next week and another exchange so there are 2 days gone next week. It is hard to pick up from not being in our area, but after these next 2 weeks we will have way more time to do stuff.

It is exciting to finally have a nephew except for the fact that I don't like kids haha. Has David Carlson got his call yet?

Elder Cooper

Things are going pretty well in Arvada. I have loved being here even if the work has been a little slow lately. Funny story: We were going around visiting members in our ward and we stopped by this inactive Cuban guy in our ward. He is pretty awesome, but what wasn't awesome is the fact that he talked straight for 2 hours! Not only that, but he gave us a huge glass of juice so mid way I thought that I was going to pee my pants. I didn't though. He talked about why he doesn't come to church and about politics, work, school, family, etc. We didn't say a word the whole time. Another thing that was pretty crazy was this last week we went to drop by what we thought was a pretty promising potential investigator, but when we showed up to the apartment, she wasn't there. The little girl that answered the door I think thought we were the FBI because she seemed scared or nervous. This lady just disappeared and nobody that lived there knew where she was.

Elder Wall did pretty well being senior companion this week. His only downfall is that it takes him a while to make decisions. For instance, normally when we plan for the next day we spend 20-30 minutes doing that. The first night we spent an hour. I fell asleep during it on accident. It was pretty funny. He got better by the end of the week. As far as the Smiths, Sis. Smith was pretty awesome. I don't think that she has any kids at home. She has a son on a mission right now, but I forgot where. She couldn't guess who I was until I showed her my name tag. Her husband wasn't there when we were though so I didn't get to meet him.

How are roadshows coming along or did they already happen?

Elder Cooper

Shawna Hallett Smith

Hey,
Things have been going well, but really slow lately. We just need to find more investigators. Everyone in the zone needs to find more investigators. We dropped 5 of ours this week. One family the husband’s dad died and said that they will call us. Another 2 was the 16 year old girl and her brother that we scared off when we invited them to be baptized and the last was the southern Baptist. He was the one that we took on the church tour. He called and dropped us. Now we just need to find those out there that are ready to hear our message.

This week Elder Wall is going to be senior companion. When we get the opportunity to train, week 5 of the transfer is when they get to take the front seat. It has only been 1 day and that was P-day and he has been doing well. He is solid except for one thing and that is decision making. What typically is a 30 minute planning session at the end of the day for the next, turned into an hour planning session. So, this week will be good for him because he is going to make all the final decisions.

Last week I was on exchanges with the Arvada 3rd ward elders and that is when we went and visited the Smiths. I covered my name tag at first and she couldn't guess who I was. She probably has not seen a recent picture, but it was pretty cool to talk with her. She was wondering how everyone was doing. So, yea....

Elder Cooper

Hey!

Already mid transfers. Things have been going pretty well. The baptism that we were going to have this weekend didn't happen. Her mom didn't think that she was ready. That’s okay. She still wants to meet with us every week until she can in July. I think it would be awesome to be here for that. It seems far away but actually it’s really not. She has a strong testimony of the gospel, so everything will work out. Heavenly Father knows what he is doing.

This past week Elder Wall and I had a cool experience. We went to go visit a referral that the Zone Leaders gave us. We saw a guy walking away from the building just about the time we were going in. Nobody was home so we headed back to the car just planning on dropping by another time. As we were about to get into the car we both felt a strong impression to talk to that man that we first saw. The words "You need to go talk to that man," kept coming so we did and it was the guy we were looking for. It is so cool how the spirit can work through people to further the gospel.

We also did something this past week that I have never done before. We took one of our investigators on a church tour. It was awesome! He is a stay at home dad and ever since he moved to Colorado they haven't found a church to go to. We showed him around the building and he had a lot of questions. For him it is going to be a slow process, but once he figures things out, his family will go with him.

The rest of last week went pretty much like normal. This week I have to go on a couple exchanges with the other elders in our district which is always fun and you learn a ton. Thanks also for the pictures and feel free to keep sending some. I will probably send another box home soon. We will see. For Easter we don't have any plans as of now. Hopefully we will get invited to some dinners. Just what I need, more food. As far as gaining weight, I'm only around 155lbs. but my legs have gotten big from biking for 18 months.

Elder Cooper

This past week went okay. It was one of those weeks where you have a lot of canceled appointments. That is the best thing about the mission. If you have a not so successful week, the next week is like starting fresh. The girl with a baptism this Saturday is not looking very good. It looks like she is going to have to wait until she is 18 in July. It will be good but I still wish that she could get baptized sooner. Other than her, we are teaching several people but everyone is kind of just dragging their feet.

In a couple of weeks we will have interviews with President Ely. This will be our last ever interview with him since he will be going at the end of June. It is kind of sad because he has been my mission president for all of my mission, so the other mission president won't even know me when I leave. Oh well. I saw the recent pictures that Sis. Conner took of us totally passed out during conference. That was the last session and so by that point I couldn't make it. Plus, that couch is super comfortable. Conference was awesome though.

Not much else is going on this week. Yesterday, what felt like a billion emergency transfers went down. An Elder from our district went to Wyoming. One of our Zone Leaders went to the ward I served in, in Longmont. Another Elder that I know that was up in Wyoming moved to Boulder. I'm sure there were even more than that. It felt like a transfer day. I also found out that one of my friends from Longmont, got sick and had to go home which is always a bummer. The work continues to go forward despite all of these crazy circumstances.

Elder Cooper

This picture is a hamburger that we had on two halves of a crispy cream doughnut.

Hey,

Things this past week went really well. It was weird jumping back into "training mode". Elder Wall and I have been getting along well so far. He is totally opposite when it comes to personalities. He is pretty straight laced and really soft spoken. Not saying that I'm disobedient, but most missionaries when they leave the MTC are ultra extreme when it comes to being obedient. Elder Woodfield had surgery this last Tuesday. He didn't have to go home which is good. The x-ray showed 3 breaks in his hand but apparently there were more like 8. He got 6 pins put into his hand and should be out of a cast in 6 weeks according to the doctor.

Having a car has been really nice, but being the only car in our district of 8 missionaries I'm more like a taxi driver. We only get a certain amount of miles a month and according to how many the missionaries got last month, we have been going over the limit every day. Looks like we will be biking a few days this week. Next week we are also planning a trip to the temple I think. That is the one nice thing about being with a new missionary is they get a temple trip right in the beginning. I realized that the last day of this transfer is Mother’s day so it looks like I will be making the final call home in a little over a month.

We still have one of our investigators set for baptism next Saturday, but we are not sure if it is going to go through. Last week she told her mom for the first time about her getting baptized and she said it turned into an argument. Her mom doesn't think that she is ready and that she is doing it for the wrong reason. Being that she is only 17 we are going to need to get her mom's permission in the next 2 weeks for anything to happen.

It was also nice to have a little break with conference this past week. Funny story about the temple announcements. Before Pres. Monson announced them I totally called Fort Collins! It was awesome. We were all cheering like we were watching a football game. As for the weather, it has been crazy, but now it is sunny again and hopefully it will stay that way.

Elder Cooper

Note from a member in Arvada

I have to tell you how much we love having Elder Cooper in our home. He is the funniest young man and really gets me and my husband smiling! He's a super district leader and takes all of his responsibilities seriously, he is also very obedient, works super hard and you can tell that the rest of the elders also enjoy his great sense of humor too! I am a huge picture taker so I will definetly keep the pictures coming. You take care! Sandy

New companion straight from the MTC

Hey Everyone,

Crazy news! This transfer... I'm training again! So, I stayed in the same ward in Arvada and Elder Woodfield went to Louisville which is in the Boulder Stake. A lot of crazy stuff happened last week and it all started right after email. We were biking back to our place and Elder Woodfield got into an accident. We were biking along and Elder Woodfield went off a jump and ran into a trash can that was chained to a stake. He flew over the handlebars of his bike and landed on his hand. We spent the rest of the day in the Emergency Room and come to find out he broke his hand in three places, his pinky and at the base of the bone for his ring finger and pinky next to the wrist. Yea, it was pretty bad. So, we didn't get much accomplished for the rest of the week because we were unable to go see a hand specialist to get it looked at. Now he is in a different area and will see the hand specialist today. He might have to go home for surgery.

Today I met my new companion. His name is Elder Wall and he is from Virginia. He went to BYU Idaho as well for communications and he is actually graduated already. So, that gives you an idea that he is a little bit older than me. He is 25. We will see how the transfer goes. It should be exciting and it was totally unexpected. Pres. Ely called and I thought it was to talk to Elder Woodfield about his hand and it was, but then Elder Woodfield turned to me and said that Pres. wanted to talk to me too. You never know what to expect on a mission. I'm now a district leader/trainer and also crazy news.....we got a TRUCK! I drove for the first time yesterday in a year and a half. It felt so weird but was rad. It’s a Chev. Colorado. I will have to take a picture in front of it and send it next week.

As far as the work is going, it has been great except for a slower week due to the broken hand. We still have an investigator with a baptism date for April 16th and she is progressing really well. Exciting things to come!

Elder Cooper

Hello Everyone,

Sounds like things have been getting pretty crazy at home. It’s good to know that everyone is doing better for the most part. Things have been going great in Arvada, Colorado. I can't believe another transfer is coming to a close. A lot of things are going to start changing. We will have a new mission president soon. I think that he comes in at the end of June. That is going to be weird considering that Pres. Ely has been my mission president this whole time. I'm excited to see what happens this next transfer. I'm pretty sure that I will be staying here and I want to stay. We still have a baptism date set for the 16th of April and that is part of why I want to stay. At first I wasn't sure that she was going to be ready by that date, but we met with her last night and I am more confident now that she will. We have 3 1/2 weeks to continue to help her reach her goal. This week we also have some potential investigator appointments set up so we should be getting some new investigators for sure which is always awesome.

This past week we also have been going through a lot of media referrals from about 2 years ago. So what happened is that these referrals came in and the missionaries in the past never updated them. We haven't had a whole lot of success and the people we do end up talking to don't even remember anything about it. It’s better than knocking doors though because these people expressed some interest at some point.

Oh, and of course I did hear about San Diego State. Mostly all you hear in the church is about BYU, but I did find out that they are in the sweet 16 playing against Connecticut later this week. Actually, a former bishop of another ward here in Arvada keeps us posted. HAHA.

Elder Cooper

Hello Family,

This past week went pretty well. I must say that the middle 2 weeks of this past transfer have been way more difficult than the first 2 weeks. This past Sunday was extra difficult because nobody decided to show up (daylight savings time doesn't help). We were expecting 2 of our investigators to show and one woke up in the middle of the night with the stomach flu. The other one was just lazy and tired.....teenagers...haha. As far as less active members that should have been there we only had one. It is a little disappointing because I know, especially now, how important church is, and how it can bless their life, but they just don't go or they go with a wrong attitude and get nothing out of it. On the flipside of things, this past Sunday we were able to set up an appointment with one of our investigators who we haven't been able to get in contact with for the past 2 weeks and we set up an appointment with her dad for next Tuesday.

This past week I also did my first baptism interview. It was weird. Maybe because when I think of interviews I think of a bishop, stake president, or a mission president. That is just one of the things that I had to do as a district leader. I thought I would have been nervous, but when the time came I was surprisingly fine.

This past P-day I did something else that I haven't done on my mission. We went bowling. What was rad is we had a coupon for unlimited bowling for 10 bucks. We got there at 1pm and didn't leave until 5:30pm. We bowled around 13 games! I must say I was getting a whole lot better by the end, but now my arm and back are sore.

Elder Cooper

Hey everyone!

Sorry this email is a day late. We didn't get the opportunity to go to the library yesterday. I was at a meeting all day. Because I'm a district leader I have to go to the leadership training meeting that they have once every three months. The meeting was 7 hours! We got there at 9 and by the time that we got home it was 4:45pm. It was a long day. The first part of the meeting was just elders giving different trainings. We had a 30 minute lunch and after role played for 3 1/2 hours. So, yes, my head was hurting by the time that we left. There were some good parts too. I was able to get some new ideas on how to work with our investigators. The other funny thing about those meetings is everyone is trying to suck up to the leaders. It is like if a really nice college was recruiting and everyone wants to be on the team. It was so funny to watch.

Another thing that is new that I'm doing is I have to go on exchanges with the other elders in our district. So, today I'm with Elder Smith (former companion), and his companion for the day. It is pretty fun being with Elder Smith again. He goes home in 3 weeks.

As far as our investigators go, last week we visited with a couple of the high school kids that we have been teaching and we tried to commit them to baptism. They both said no and one of them kind of freaked out and we have not been able to contact her in the last week. I think we will still end up teaching her because she has talked to the member family about it. I think she thought that we were going to baptize her even if she didn't know if this was the true church or not. We will have to go back and clarify that we were inviting her to take the next step, which is baptism, when she came to know that the church, Joseph Smith, the Book of Mormon etc. were true. The other girl that we tried to set has an appointment today and she might get set. I won't be there for the appointment though because I will still be on exchanges.

There is another family of kids that we are working with too. They are all in their 20's and got baptized and fell off the map right away. The brother really wants to turn his life around and start coming to church. He told us he has smoked weed since he was 8 years old! He's now trying to quit. For all those people that say weed isn't addictive it is a lie. It is still habit forming.

So, that is what has been going on lately. I can't believe today is the big 18. It is scary. This transfer is already half over. So much work, so little time!

Elder Cooper

Yay for baby number 2 born while I am on my mission. It looks like that will be the last of them until I get home. That is good that everything is going a little better. Sounds like things were getting a little crazy. Kennedy....any reason behind the name?

Things have been going well in Arvada. We have continued to have success in our ward. We seem to keep finding new investigators and we have been teaching a lot. Unfortunately we still don't have anyone set with a date. We have been trying to be bold. Earlier in the week we extended a baptism commitment to an older lady that we had been teaching, but she flat out told us that she didn't want to be baptized. We ended up dropping her for now. We also tried to set a couple high schoolers that we have been working with and they said that they want to get baptized, but they just don't feel ready to set something in stone. We are still working with them and they both came to church this week so we will see.

We had zone conference this past week. I can't believe that it has already been 3 months since our last one. It went well. They are always really long. I think that by the time we left the church we were there 7 hours. Too much sitting for me. I also had a huge headache for the rest of the day.

That’s about it. Oh, the weather has been awesome too. This week is supposed to be sunny across the board. We played tennis yesterday for P-Day. There is a guy in the stake that is a dentist and his house has a personal tennis court so we played there. Good Times.

Elder Cooper

So first off I forgot to tell you that we can't go and email on Mondays. Arvada's libraries are not open then so we have to go on Tuesday. It’s kind of nice because it frees up some time on P-day to do stuff.

This last week was awesome! I first have to tell you about our investigators that we have been working with. Right now we are working with this guy named Fred and he has been going to our church and the Jehovah’s Witness’s. He came last Sunday again for the second week in a row and it just so happened that the topic in sacrament was tithing. Before he left he went and paid tithing! I have never seen an investigator do that before! We also had another investigator at church. It is girlfriend of a 17 year old kid in our wards. It’s good because he isn't super active so it is getting him to go to church. We just need to make sure that if she gets baptized that she is doing it for the right reasons. I don't want to see them brake up and her go less active. Just yesterday we got a couple of other new investigators as well which just happens to be another couple of high schoolers. The boy is a senior and his sister is a sophomore. She seems more interested in the gospel than he does, but it’s still rad. It is weird. We are teaching a lot of teenagers. Totally different from the other wards that I have served in. If all of them get baptized Pres. Ely might raise an eyebrow since a lot of them are high school girls.

There are 7 wards in Arvada. The stake actually goes into West Minster, so it is pretty big. Our ward is the smallest of the bunch though. We do live with a family in the ward Right now the husband is out of work and this week he finds out if he gets a job in St. George, so if he gets it we will be moving out pretty soon.

We also have Zone Conference this week which could be interesting because I'm going to have to give a short review in front of everyone possibly. Oh, I keep forgetting stuff that you asked in the email. No, you can't wear a suit like that on the mission. He was wearing it for a training.

Elder Cooper

Hello everyone,

So the big news... yesterday I did get transferred. I'm now serving in Arvada, Colorado which is just west of Denver. On top of that, I'm a District Leader. Yea, nobody gave me instruction so I'm really not sure what I am supposed to do yet. I know that some of the things are give baptism interviews, go on exchanges, plan district meeting and that sort of stuff. So we will see how it goes. Elder Phillips stayed in Longmont. My new companion is Elder Woodfield. He came out with Elder Phillips, so he has been out just over 3 months. He is from Tracy, California which is just east of the bay area. It’s cool to have a companion from California for the first time. We are still on a bike though. I thought for sure that we would get a car for being DL, but I guess not. Oh well, it keeps me in shape.

This last Sunday in Union ward up in Longmont we met with a new investigator. Well, kind of new. Some other elders in Longmont were teaching her but then she moved in with her grandmother who is in our ward. I can see her getting baptized. It was awesome to teach her before I left. It is weird leaving a place after being there so long. I was excited, but at the same time I didn't know what to expect. I have never been in the south half of the mission before. It is a lot faster pace. It seems the higher you go in the state the slower things seem to go. Arvada is really condensed too and because it has been around so long the homes are older unlike the north cities. I like it so far. One of the zone leaders here came out with me and one of my previous companions (Elder Smith) is in the district. This is his last transfer and he is going to be training a guy from San Marcos, California. Crazy....

A lot of changes, but change is good. I'm excited to see what happens this transfer and it seems like there is going to be a lot of work to be done in our area!

Elder Cooper

Hey Everyone!

So this is the last week of transfers. I originally thought that our area was going to be shut down but it looks like there might be missionaries here for another transfer. We got a message from our ward mission leader that said that he got an email asking if there would be housing for the missionaries in the ward for another transfer. We will find out later this week. This past week was pretty good, a little on the slower side. We met with the Baptist investigator on Saturday. The first appointment we just went by ourselves and it turned into kind of a disaster. The next time we wanted to make sure that we had a member present and we got one. The lesson this time totally turned around, you could feel the spirit, and he actually desired to read from the Book of Mormon by the time that we left. It is amazing what a member can do to help in a lesson.

Yesterday was the super bowl which always is interesting. Funny enough, the appointments that we did have that day were all people that I could never see in front of a T.V. watching sports. So, we didn' t have to deal with meeting with anyone while the game was playing in the background.

I'm thinking that if I get transferred I will go into the south half of our mission. I have never been there yet. If I could choose where to go I would want to either go to Boulder or Wyoming. Boulder is a crazy, hippy college town which I think would just be funny and Wyoming because it is totally country folk. I would like to see what it is like serving in the sticks.

Elder Cooper

Hello Everyone,

Our investigators are still crawling along. "Crazy Guy" never showed back up to church. The note that he slipped into my pocket had a couple of verses from the bible on it and then a couple of things to look up on google. Yea, the guy had issues. We had another funny experience though. Yesterday we went over to this member’s house. He just moved in and just recently got divorced so he is living with a childhood friend and we started teaching him. He is pretty cool and smart, but he has got some pretty wacky beliefs. The most interesting part of the conversation was that he believed in a form of reincarnation. He said he had an experience where he was able to see his past life. In his past life he was an inventor and he invented something that could power a whole city and its eco friendly and that sort of thing. His co-workers though wanted to use it as a weapon instead. I don't remember the last time anyone saw this, but his story matches up pretty closely with Iron Man. Yea, interesting conversation.

Interviews with President Ely went well. I can't believe that he is going to be done in June. I still don't know the name of our new mission president. The interview was pretty much how they always are. How are you? How’s your family? How’s your companion? What can I do for you? Two weeks and this transfer comes to a close. Crazy....and it is already snowing right now.

Elder Cooper

Hey Everyone,

So, once again an interesting week. First and foremost, that crazy guy came back to church this week. When I saw him I thought "Oh, boy, here we go..." He came early and helped us set up chairs, but after asked if I could talk to him for a second. I made sure that Elder Phillips came with me. So, when he started talking to us he was shaking and said that we should go and find truth. We were told to go and pray on top of a mountain to find out truth. While saying this he slipped a note into my pocket and then gave us each a CD and then left. Yea, probably one of the weirdest experiences I have ever had. So, he actually didn't come to church. The funny thing is all last week people thought he was an investigator that we brought and told us how creepy he was. I explained to them that he was just a random creepy guy that just showed up.

The rest of the week went well. We got a new investigator. That’s the 2nd week in a row that we have got a new investigator. He is a roommate of a member who just moved into the ward. We talked and I asked him if he would be interested in taking the missionary lessons. He strayed away from the question and pretty much gave us the "my roommate tells me stuff, so I already know a bit". So, right after he said that I asked the member if he would like to take the missionary lessons because our bishop wants all the members to take them. He said yes and his friend said that he would join in as well! I must say that I thought I was pretty sly.

This past Saturday we participated in a variety show with some other Elders in Longmont. One of the Elders is trying to get a link up but I don't think it will get up in time. I will just have to make a CD and send it to you. It is a skit about getting a "Dear John" and it is to the music of "Hey Jude" by the Beatles. It’s pretty funny.

Other than that not much else is going on. This week we are meeting with President Ely for interviews and it is already halfway through the transfer.

Elder Cooper

Hey,

Sorry I am so late sending an email. Monday was Martin Luther King Jr. day and instead of emailing on Tuesday we decided to wait until Wednesday after our district meeting because the library is next to the church building. It is snowing right now too. This morning it was sunny and warm and now it is snowing. That’s Colorado weather for you I guess.

This past week was great, and a lot more eventful than the last. This past Thursday we used my temple trip. There were 4 of us that went and we went all day. We showed up at the temple at 7:30am in the morning and went straight into the first session at 8am. Right after that some temple workers roped us in for sealings for a couple hours. As missionaries we can only be witnesses or proxy for children but we just ended up being witnesses the whole time. By that time it was getting close to noon and we were hungry so we got dressed and went to eat along with some shopping at Deseret Book. We spent like an hour in there and being a missionary I just wanted to buy up the whole store. So, eventually we made it back to the temple and did another session and initiatories. So we got to do just about everything besides doing baptisms which I don't think that we are even allowed to do anymore. It was awesome and I needed it. It was a great spiritual boost to keep me focused in the area that I am serving in right now.

This past week we also got a new investigator which will be only the 2nd since I have been here in Longmont. He is a Baptist, really nice guy and has a family. The lesson was alright. It started out really well and he said that he wanted to meet with us because he knows some Mormons and he has never learned anything about it. Towards the end though we were kind of back and forth with what we believed and what he believed. He brought up the whole, "by grace we are saved, not works", and "the bible is all he needs". He said that we could meet with him again so we will go by probably at the end of the week.

We also had an unexpected guest in church. A random guy came to sacrament meeting saying that he was new in the area and that he wanted to go to the nearest church. He came to gospel essentials too but man he was definitely different. He brought his mega 7-Eleven cup of coffee with him and asked us things like do we pray for Satan and his followers and he also made it clear that his brother was a sack of S***. Yea, not the first time I have heard swearing in a gospel essentials class. We tried to get his info where he lived so we could visit him, but he wouldn't give it to us, so hopefully he will be there next week.

Elder Cooper

Hey,

This week was pretty good. Yesterday it we had another snow storm which I'm not a huge fan of. It was a couple of inches so it wasn't bad. The fact that it was yesterday morning makes me think that is the reason why our investigator Josh didn't end up making it to church this week. Church just isn't that exciting when you don't have an investigator there with you.

This past week we have been visiting potentials like crazy. We have set up a few appointments so this week should go really well. We are also going to the temple this Thursday which is always exciting. Last time we went we used Elder Phillips turn so this time it is mine. I think that we are going to go with some other elders too. We plan to spend the whole day at the temple which I am looking forward to.

Not much else is going on. Things have now settled down now that the new year has started. Jeff comes home in a few weeks which is crazy. Our mission president is done in 6 months. Things are just happening so fast. We are hoping that we get a baptism this transfer. Most likely Pres. Ely is going to shut down this ward for awhile and have it on a rotation. It’s too bad but the members struggle to do missionary work and it’s just been too long since their last baptism.

Oh, and yea that was a pretty big box that I sent home. Now that I got rid of stuff I actually have room in my suitcase!

Elder Cooper

Transfer 11

Hey!

Sorry this is a day late. So, I didn't get transferred this time. My companion and I are still in the Union ward. It’s all good. We found out that Pres. Ely wanted to shut down the area but doesn't have any place to put missionaries right now so he decided not to. There were several other places in the mission that did get shut down though. 3 wards in Greeley were closed. Missionary work really does have a lot to do with the members and if members are involved it makes all the difference. In our district we only had a couple of missionaries move. Our district leader is training this transfer and one other companionship switched. Our district is going to be pretty awesome these next six weeks.

This past week we got our first real storm too. I really don't like it but of course my companion loves it. It just makes it difficult to get around in the snow on bikes. That is why we have been walking for the past couple days. New year’s eve …once again we didn't bother staying up until twelve. We also had to go in at 6pm again which my companion just watched church movies while I cut my hair. Pretty exciting.

As far as investigators, we are still working with this guy named Josh. He is sort of progressing but kind of not at the same time which is kind of a bummer. We finished tracting out our whole ward boundaries before the end of the year so now this week we are really focusing on finding some new investigators from the potentials we were able to find through knocking on doors.

2011! It came so fast. I'm excited to see what will happen this year.

Elder Cooper