Elder Cooper

The last oficial email!

2011-08-31T16:44:00.001-07:00

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!!!

2011-08-23T18:14:00.000-07:00

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!!!

2011-08-23T18:12:00.000-07:00

2011-08-23T18:07:00.000-07:00

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

2011-08-15T20:49:00.001-07:00

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

2011-08-08T21:05:00.000-07:00

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

2011-08-01T18:01:00.000-07:00

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

2011-07-26T17:59:00.000-07:00

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

2011-07-19T20:38:00.001-07:00

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

2011-07-19T20:33:00.000-07:00

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

2011-07-05T19:15:00.000-07:00

2011-07-05T19:14:00.000-07:00

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

2011-06-27T19:55:00.000-07:00

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

2011-06-23T19:48:00.000-07:00

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

Transfer Day

2011-06-23T19:46:00.000-07:00

2011-06-21T21:17:00.000-07:00

2011-06-21T21:16:00.000-07:00

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

2011-06-15T15:24:00.001-07:00

2011-06-14T19:52:00.000-07:00

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

2011-06-07T19:25:00.001-07:00

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

2011-06-06T21:10:00.000-07:00

2011-05-31T18:06:00.001-07:00

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

2011-05-24T20:16:00.000-07:00

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

2011-05-16T20:18:00.000-07:00

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

2011-05-15T17:04:00.000-07:00

2011-05-05T15:48:00.000-07:00

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

2011-04-27T10:34:00.000-07:00

Shawna Hallett Smith

2011-04-27T10:30:00.000-07:00

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

2011-04-19T17:14:00.000-07:00

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

2011-04-13T15:19:00.001-07:00

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

2011-04-05T17:20:00.001-07:00

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

2011-04-05T17:18:00.001-07:00

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

2011-03-29T20:43:00.000-07:00

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

2011-03-29T19:09:00.000-07:00

2011-03-29T18:42:00.001-07:00

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

2011-03-22T15:38:00.001-07:00

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

2011-03-16T15:01:00.000-07:00

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

2011-03-09T11:12:00.000-08:00

2011-03-09T11:11:00.001-08:00

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

2011-03-02T11:09:00.000-08:00

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

2011-02-22T18:37:00.000-08:00

2011-02-22T18:35:00.000-08:00

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

2011-02-15T18:43:00.000-08:00

2011-02-15T18:41:00.000-08:00

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

2011-02-07T20:21:00.000-08:00

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

2011-02-01T16:26:00.001-08:00

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

2011-01-24T19:55:00.001-08:00

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

2011-01-19T18:22:00.000-08:00

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

2011-01-10T18:43:00.000-08:00

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

2011-01-07T19:09:00.000-08:00

Transfer 11

2011-01-04T19:01:00.000-08:00

2011-01-04T19:00:00.001-08:00

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

2010-12-29T10:17:00.001-08:00

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

2010-12-21T19:05:00.000-08:00

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

2010-12-13T18:35:00.000-08:00

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

Zone Conference 12-2-10

2010-12-06T19:18:00.000-08:00

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

2010-12-06T19:12:00.000-08:00

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

My new companion - Elder Phillips

2010-11-29T18:58:00.000-08:00

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

2010-11-23T20:35:00.000-08:00

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

2010-11-15T21:14:00.000-08:00

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

2010-11-08T19:38:00.000-08:00

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

2010-11-01T20:25:00.001-07:00

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

2010-10-27T19:24:00.000-07:00

10-25-10

Hey,

This past week went pretty well. As far as the work is going, the investigator that came to church the week before didn't come to church this week because she had the flu. That has been going around since it’s getting closer to winter. This past week though one of our biggest accomplishments is that we were able to get 20 total lessons taught during the week. That is what we shoot for every week but we never get there. It has been getting colder and colder every day but it has yet to snow in town, thank goodness. It looks like winter will come a little bit later than last year. Interviews went well and it is always nice to get instruction from the mission pres. He has been really happy with the progress that I have made especially in the last couple of months. I also got to talk to him about my comp who is still kind of homesick among other things. It was great. Today we actually went to Estes Park which is just west of Longmont. It was awesome except it was snowing up there. We visited the Stanley Hotel and a couple of other places.

Oh yea, I got Grandma Cooper’s card, THANKS GRANDMA and GRANDPA. Speaking of mail, I got an interesting letter in the mail this last week. I know that a lot of my friends are engaged if not married that were up at BYUI but this past week was the first time that I got a wedding invitation. It was pretty funny. This week we have the trunk or treat and of course on Sunday we have to be in at 6pm. It’s kind of a bummer because Sunday is usually the busy day of the week for us.

I am trying to think what else is going on this week but I can't think of anything. Hope all is well at home.

Elder Cooper

More pictures

2010-10-18T19:54:00.000-07:00

Pictures....

2010-10-18T19:39:00.001-07:00

2010-10-18T19:35:00.000-07:00

Hello everybody,

This past week was pretty good. Probably the most exciting thing that happened this past week was that we were able to finally get one of our investigators to church! That has not happened since I got here. Now, she just has to make it a habit. She only came for sacrament meeting but it was a huge step that is for sure. So, to answer your questions… As far as smokers in our mission (which just so happens that I have never dealt with that situation really) I think that it is a week but that might be completely wrong. I still have my big coat but last week at Target I bought a light waterproof jacket instead of wearing the big heavy one (Plus, wool coats don't smell very good when wet). I also got some gloves and earmuffs. So, I am now fully prepared for winter. This next week is interviews with pres. It is weird not having interviews every transfer. The last interviews were when I was in Greeley. They are quarterly now. Other than that things have been pretty much the same. Halloween is just around the corner and to think that by the end of next transfer, it will be a new year. 2011! Wow, that came up fast. Oh another thing that we did this past week was we went to a murder mystery dinner activity. This is now the second one that I have been to since I have been out on my mission so I guess they are pretty popular here in Colorado. Oh, and missionaries with cars… I think about half the missionaries in the mission are in cars. There are only 2 bike companionships in Longmont and we are one of them. I don't think that Elder Henson and I will be together for another transfer after this so we will see what happens in 5 weeks.

Elder Cooper

2010-10-12T21:30:00.000-07:00

10-11-10
Hello Everyone,

So the big news is....I'm staying in Longmont. My companion is staying too and to be honest, I have mixed feelings about that. I hope this next transfer is a little smoother than the last. We really want to see a baptism. This ward needs it. It has been 3 years since their last convert baptism. This past week has been alright. It is getting colder now and I can definitely tell that winter is on its way.

So, here is a crazy thing that happened this past week. We got a referral from church headquarters on our cell phone early in the week for someone who was interested in the church. We called him and set an appointment up for Thursday and everything. We found out by talking to him on the phone that he didn't send anything in but he would be happy to meet with us. Well Thursday a half and hour before the appointment we were helping a family in our ward set up the volleyball nets up at the church. My companion just out of the blue asked if they knew this person that we were about to go see. Well, they knew him alright.....from the newspaper. Apparently just recently he was put in jail for some really creepy and awkward stuff. We decided not to go to the appointment for several reasons. The fact that my companion just so happened to mention his name and it just so happened that the family knew who he was… I don't think that it was random.

Oh, this last weekend was also nice with general conference. It is scary how fast time has gone by. Now, I'm 13 months out! Scott left the MTC today I think. He will be a good missionary that is for sure.

That is a bummer about Wingnut. Are you planning on another cat or no. I say there should always be a cat in the house.

Elder Cooper

New mission home address

2010-10-04T20:24:00.000-07:00

If you are sending a letter or package to Jacob, please us this new address after October 20th.

Elder Cooper
Colorado Denver North Mission
1250 Main Street
Broomfield, Colorado 80020

2010-10-04T20:20:00.000-07:00

10-4-10
Hey, how is everything going? Looks like this week will be another wrap up for the transfer. Transfers seemed to go pretty slow at first but now it’s hard to keep track of which one that I am on. This last week was pretty rad, especially with General Conference. It is always nice to have a little breather as a missionary every once in awhile and that is why conference is so great. Plus, we get to hear some amazing talks that’s for sure. Of course, priesthood session was my favorite, but I also seemed to like Saturday’s session more than the Sunday sessions. We also watched it with the member who houses us so it was nice to sit on a couch instead of at the stake center.

As far as transfers, I'm not sure what is going to happen. Things have been going kind of up and down with my companion so we will see come this Friday. Today is pretty exciting because we are going over to a member’s house for dinner and she is bringing a non-member co-worker. This is the first member referral since I have been in this area. Also, the part member family that came to church last week we were not able to get a hold of yet so we will see where that goes this week.

I don't know what happened to my bike a few weeks ago. I noticed that it was getting harder and harder to pedal and it made me think of the first time that my axle broke and sure enough when I took off the back tire it was broken again. I think it has to do with going up curbs or something.

I had an interesting experience 2 nights ago. I was laying in my bed thinking about the past year and for the first time on my mission I realized that I am not ready to go home. I know that is 11 months from now, but the feeling just made me want to get up, get dressed and go do missionary work even though by that point it was around 11. It is just what I needed. The Lord really knows me and never has a problem taking the time to help me grow.

Elder Cooper

2010-09-29T10:40:00.000-07:00

9-27-10
Hey, how is it going back home? Things have been going good up here so far and it is crazy to think that there is only 2 more weeks left in the transfer. So, I was going to mention some things in this email but I left my planner in the car that had the list. I have had a few expenses these past couple weeks that have been kind of a bummer. I broke my back axle on my bike again and it ended up costing me just about 30 bucks and yes I got the letter from grandma which came right in time for that. THANK YOU GRANDMA COOPER! Oh and my p-day shoes (my vans) last week completely ripped in half so good thing it is the beginning of the month so I can buy new shoes next Monday. I was also curious about David Carlson. Is he still working on getting his papers in. Now, Elder Sadlier is in the MTC which is super exciting and he sounded like he was really pumped to go before he left.

I found out also that a couple weeks ago a lady in my first area that I was in that I taught got BAPTIZED! That is always cool to here about after you have left an area that things are still going forward. So this last week we had something cool happen. We have been working with this inactive member of our ward who has been struggling for awhile with getting a testimony of Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon (last 18 years). Well, he and his wife attended church this last Sunday which was awesome and his wife might take the lessons. She actually might be a member. When she was younger her mom got her baptized in several churches I guess to cover all the bases so she might have been baptized in our church too. If so great, but it would also be cool if she wasn't a member too. A baptism is really what this ward needs. They haven't seen one in like 3 years so I really think that this could be the spark that gets the ward thinking about missionary work.

Other than that things have been about the same. I am super excited for general conference this next week. It’s a nice weekend as a missionary to sit back and listen to the brethren speak. I can't believe how old Lucy looks now and I hope everything goes better with Grandpa. He is in my prayers.

Elder Cooper

2010-09-21T20:18:00.000-07:00

Hey,
So this last week was pretty good. Things have been going well with my comp and we seem to getting along better. We had stake conference this past Sunday too and it was a broadcast from Salt Lake so we got to hear from Elder Hallstrom, Sister Cook, Elder Perry, and Elder Utchdorf. It was pretty awesome except it was hard to hear them speak sometimes because the feed from the satellite was pretty bad.

The area I am in is pretty SWEET too. We don't have a ton of investigators right now but the investigators that we do have are so close to baptism! I can just feel it. One of them is a single lady who is living with her boyfriend but the other day she told us that as soon as she can find a job she’s moving out. The other one is a part member family and the husband is the non member. They are about to have a child and he will do anything for his family. Shouldn't be the main reason for baptism but it is a strong motivator. The cool thing is, he wasn't sure that he believed in God so we asked him to pray and ask if he even exists. The other day he said he was having a stressful day and he prayed for peace and comfort, and guess what....his prayer was ANSWERED! I would have to say that is proof that there is a loving Heavenly Father who is watching over us.

I hope that everything goes alright with Grandpa Cooper. My last companion’s grandfather is going through the same thing or went through the same thing...one of the two. Anyway, it’s good that it is treatable.

Hope all is well and go CHARGERS even if the game was not shown on TV.

Elder Cooper

A letter from a member in Colorado

2010-09-16T14:57:00.000-07:00

This note arrived at our home last week....Made my week!!!

Brother and Sister Cooper,
I live in Berthoud, Colorado where your son recently served and I just wanted to drop you a quick note to tell you what a wonderful missionary he is! We had Elder Cooper in our home on several occasions and was touched and uplifted each time. His testimony is strong and his desire to serve is such a wonderful example. The love he feels for our Savior is evident in all he does. We were so touched by his spirit and his willingness to do what the Lord wants him to do, to seek and to teach. Each message he left us with was filled with the spirit and confirmed the love our Heavenly Father has for each of us. Thank you for your sacrifice and willingness to share your son with us. Elder Cooper was a joy to have in our home. We will miss him.

Love, Sister Lin Morgan

2010-09-16T14:56:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,

Yea, so this past week was pretty awesome. Nothing in particular but it was just overall a better week. So, there have been some fires too. The first week was in Boulder, just south of us, and it wasn't too bad where we were, not like back home when we had the fires. There is one going on right now just west of Loveland so it looks like Longmont will be safe for now. Oh and I have to tell you, the family sweatshirt curse struck me today. We were in Ross and I ended up buying a sweatshirt. I don't know what came over me.

Anyways, this past week we had zone conference and normally zone conferences can be kind of long and tiring, but something was different at this zone conference. The spirit was super strong and we really focused on how we can improve as a mission. It just so happens that it was right on my year mark so it was a great way to kick off the new mission year. They also showed a video of missionaries for our training and guess where it was filmed.....San Diego! I’m not going to lie, it made me a little trunky. All they had to do is show one clip of the beach....

Other than that, things have been going pretty well. We have been trying to get the ward to really focus on the ward mission plan because missionary work in the ward is struggling and I feel that everyone is on a different page. My companion and I are getting along a lot better than the first week and now it isn't a matter of "Please let these 6 weeks hurry". So, normally missionaries burn a shirt at the year mark but I didn't really feel like it. The tie burning at 6 months wasn't super exciting and I decided that I wanted to keep the shirts that I have. As far as things that I need....not this transfer but next transfer I might need some new gloves and earmuffs because next month is when it starts getting cold again!

Elder Cooper

2010-09-07T20:58:00.000-07:00

You were right. Yesterday was a holiday so we are just now getting the opportunity to do our emails. Things have been pretty good. Sorry, but I forgot about getting the address again, next week for sure. So, to tell you a little bit about Longmont… Our ward is on the east edge of town and we are on bikes. I have never been in an area with as many hills as here. It gets a little tiring after a while but it is not too bad. It is an interesting ward because it goes from low income areas to really high expensive areas all in the same ward. The place we live at is more on the Hispanic side of town. We live with a single guy, but he has been out of town since I got here so I haven't officially met him yet. Elder Henson, I might have told you already, is from Buhl, Idaho. It is by Twin Falls I believe. Things were a little rocky at first but they are starting to smooth out. He is willing to work which is great and I am glad that I have never had a companion where that was an issue. We have a few investigators, some I feel are semi close to baptism....maybe. None are set and we have been having a hard time getting a hold of a lot of them. This last week was also super slow because we didn't really have any scheduled appointments for whatever reason but we have been super busy this week which is good. This week we have zone conference which is nice and this is the last zone conference before we switch it to having one every other transfer.

It is crazy to think that it is 1 day from my year mark and I have been thinking a lot about how I have changed and how limited my time is left on the mission. I'm so grateful that I have been given such a wonderful, once in a lifetime, opportunity to do so, and can't wait to see what happens in year 2.

Elder Cooper

I got tranferred again!

2010-08-31T16:22:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone!

Hey, so sorry this is a day late but....I got transferred again! This time it is to Longmont, Colorado which is right below Berthoud and is a pretty big town. What happened was there are not as many missionaries coming out as there are going home this transfer and I'm guessing because Berthoud is so small...it’s the first to go. The zone leaders are actually going to be the elders for Berthoud Ward now. I was a little bit bummed because things were going pretty good and it felt that I just unpacked but when it is time, it is time. So I am in the Union Ward in Longmont. I'm follow up training with an elder who has only been out a transfer. His name is Elder Henson. He is from Buhl Idaho. First impressions, to be honest, were not so good. He just got out of high school like 3 months ago and he is still kind of immature if you know what I mean. We will see how it goes. We live with a single guy who I have not met because he is out of town right now (I haven't been able to write down our address yet either). Unfortunately my bedding, pillow, and helmet went missing during transfers so I'm trying to find where they went. I was able to get a spare helmet for now though. It is super weird going back to a big town after being in Berthoud for 6 weeks.

So funny story... this last Sunday I gave a talk in church. I wrote it on Tuesday last week and by Saturday I could not find the binder that I put it in. It wasn't at the house so it either had to be in the zone leader’s car or at the church. Well, Sunday morning we called the zone leaders and they couldn't find it. I thought for sure that it would be at the church then. When we got at the church it was nowhere to be found. That is when panic set in and my heart dropped. That is when the silent prayers started up as well. I called the zone leaders one more time to check the car and behind just about everything....there was the binder.

What also is cool about Longmont is that I know just about all the elders in the district (one of them I lived in the farmhouse with in Greeley and Elder Tuiasosopo (former comp in Greeley) is the zone leader here so it should be a fun transfer. The first couple weeks are a little difficult to get adjusted.

Elder Cooper

2010-08-23T21:11:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,

To answer your question about the bike, I was being stupid. That is usually how missionary bike accidents happen. There is a BMX track right next to the church so 4 of us missionaries decided that it would be a good idea to check it out on p-day with our wonderful mountain bikes. Sure enough we said "Let’s race". The third go around I ended up eating it on one of the jumps. I went right over the handlebars. I only got a few small scrapes. yea....

So this past week was good. We taught a new investigator. She is a theology major so we are not sure what her true motives are yet but we will see. We also have another appointment with a potential investigator this week that was given to us by a member so we are super excited for that one. The bummer about this past week is once again none of our investigators made it to church again. Even when we contact them the night before they still seem to not make it.

On Saturday some members took us out to lunch and of course my stomach started to hurt so we went back to the church after to use the restroom and after, when we were just about to leave, a mouse ran into the kitchen where we were! We stood there for a minute trying to decide whether to pretend we didn't see it or to take care of it ourselves. We ended up spending the next 20 minutes to take care of it ourselves. We didn't kill it. We ended up sweeping it outside. We got it on camera too. It was hilarious.

Other than that it has pretty much been the same kind of missionary work. I can't believe that this transfer is already over at the end of this week and that the half way point is in 2. For some reason I feel that I will be getting transferred but I don't know why. I have been right so far. We will just have to wait and see what happens.

Elder Cooper

2010-08-17T12:18:00.000-07:00

8-16-10
Hello everyone,
So, that is so weird that you had that dream after talking about coming to Colorado towards the end of my mission. In our ward is a German family and their son is serving in Germany right now. Actually he is serving in his dads hometown which is pretty cool. The family just left to go there and they didn't have time to tell their son so they are going to show up at his last Sunday at church. A couple elders and I were talking about it and how much we would not want our families to do that. It is kind of interesting that you had a dream that totally related to that.
This past week has had some ups and downs. We went to the temple Tuesday and of course it was a pleasant experience. Actually something different happened this time when we went. Normally all of the distractions and things leave when I enter the temple, but this time even during and after the session I was super distracted thinking about our area and some of our investigators and I was having a hard time focusing. It wasn't until we went and did some sealings that I was able to really focus and feel the full force of the spirit that the temple brings. It was still a great experience but just different.
So, the investigator that we had set for baptism for this Saturday is not going to happen. He is almost there and we are all hoping and praying that he comes around. I feel that it’s that he doesn't yet have a solid testimony in the book of Mormon and he kind of expressed that in our meeting that we had with him last night. We ended up giving him the talk "Safety for the Soul" by Elder Holland. He is an awesome guy he just is having a hard time recognizing the spirit.
Some other things that have happened have to do a lot with my bike. So part of last prep day we went to some, well, let’s just say that I fell. Nothing bad, just a couple of scrapes. But this past week I have been getting a ton of flat tires. It’s those stinking goat heads. So, these members put a brand new tube in for me and the next day when I went to go ride it the tube was flat again. I flipped it over and there was slime from the tube everywhere. The tube ended up having a dime sized gash in it and we have no idea on how it happened.
Hope things are great and that is super rad that Brittany is going to have a baby!
Elder Cooper

2010-08-09T21:13:00.000-07:00

Hey Family,

This past week was pretty good. Not as eventful as maybe the previous weeks but it was still great. The downfall of this week is the fact that we ended up dropping 2 of our small pool of 5 investigators. One was a pagan guy that we were kind of teaching. When we went there this past week he was pretty up front in telling us that he didn't want to become Mormon and when he read the Book of Mormon, something offended him and he said that he will probably never read it again. He was kind of interesting. He worshipped the goddess Venus and he told us all about it. I never thought that I would teach a pagan worshipper in Berthoud Colorado. The other lady we dropped straight up said that she was not interested when we went to go set up another appointment.

On the bright side we were able to set one of our investigators for baptism on August 21. He has had a date before and it didn't end up happening, but I have a good feeling about this. His mom who lives at his place has been sick and he has just thought about everything a lot more lately so we will see. He is another one of those investigators that have been investigating for over a year.

Tomorrow we will be heading down to Denver to go to the temple again. My companion is using his turn since I just used mine a month ago. His trainer is going home this week and so he is going to be there tomorrow as well. I think he likes his trainer more than me but that is okay. As long as we are getting along and still working it’s all good.

Elder Cooper

2010-08-09T21:10:00.000-07:00

8-3-10

Hello Family,

Sounds like things are going well back home. It is interesting that things have been cooler because it has been pretty hot up here. We seem to get a thunderstorm that rolls in mid afternoon almost everyday which actually feels nice when you are on a bike. This past week has been about the same. The good thing about the week is that we were able to meet with a lot of our investigators and other members of our ward. We haven't been able to set anyone for baptism yet (it’s going to happen) and none of our investigators came to church this past Sunday so that was kind of a bummer. A lot of them had random things going on I guess.

This past week we had Zone Conference again for the transfer and I had to give a ten minute training in front of 40 missionaries. Every transfer we focus on 4 topics and review them in the next zone conference so we gave one of those. I was kind of nervous and I was also nervous for my companion Elder Porter but we went over them before the conference and we did all right. There are going to be more changes in the mission now. For example, we will have zone conference quarterly instead of every 6 weeks and that goes for interviews with Pres. Ely too. That’s kind of a bummer, but it will be good. There are a lot more changes but I don't remember a lot of them.

So, we do a lot of tracting in Berthoud and this other day I learned something about having a good attitude and to not get offended. So, we ran into this lady who told us that when she was prego with her 4th child her husband ran off with some Mormon girl and for awhile she hated Mormons because of it. Since then she has had a change of heart as she has met others of our faith to the point where she is no longer bitter about it. A little bit further down the street we ran into this really ticked old man who said that a missionary (not even sure if it was a Mormon missionary) said to him that he was going to hell once and has been holding a grudge ever since and probably won't change. After leaving it just showed me that here is a lady whose husband left her but was still eventually able to forgive and yet here is a man where someone said one stupid thing once that he can't let go. It just made me realize that people are not perfect and make some pretty big mistakes sometimes, but we have to learn to forgive and move forward rather than dwell on the past.

Elder Cooper

2010-07-26T12:23:00.000-07:00

Hello Family
This past week was pretty good. I'm in Berthoud, Colorado. So, technically I'm not in Loveland, but it is in the Loveland Stake. It is a way small town. It is kind of like one of those towns where a lot of people know each other and are related if you catch my drift. Okay, so maybe not the related people part but it is a super small town. The Berthoud Ward is pretty nice. The people are kind of on the older side. We have an awesome ward mission leader though which is nice. As far as investigators are concerned we have a few that have been investigating for awhile. We definitely are out knocking on doors everyday though. Being a small town a lot of the people that live here are pretty comfortable with where they are at. The place we live at is really nice and it is about a mile or so out of the main town so we have a little biking trip every morning and evening to get back to the place.
So, Elder Porter. Elder Porter has been out on his mission for 2 months including the MTC and its been interesting but fun because he has the greeny fire. He lives in Eastern Washington...I think the name of the town he lives in is Zilla. Apparently its an even smaller town than Berthoud. So, we are pretty much opposites in just about everything. He went to BYU Provo and likes the drama thing and he wants to go into film. Even though we are completely different it’s been good so far. I'm not going to lie though, Greeley has been my favorite area so far.
So, couple awkward experiences this past week. They pretty much all happened this weekend.
1. We were tracting and we talked to this lady who wasn't really interested but wanted us to pray for her son that was having a rash or something so I got to pray on the front porch of this lady’s house.
2. There was a baptism of an 8 year old girl this weekend that we went to and the extended family of the girl that got baptized found out that I lived in San Diego and they kept trying to set me up with their daughter afterwards. They live a couple hours away from SD I guess.
3. The singles ward meets in the same building as our ward does and I recognized(he did too) this kid from the dorms up at BYU Idaho during winter semester. Awkward thing about it was he was one of the kids that got kicked out of BYU Idaho.
Strange things happen in Berthoud....
Elder Cooper

I'm being transferred!

2010-07-19T12:54:00.002-07:00

Hey everyone,
So drum roll please.....I'm being transferred! Yep I was pretty much positive that it was going to happen. I will be serving now in Loveland with Elder Porter. So, I got a call from President Ely on Saturday and was asked to be a senior companion. I haven't met Elder Porter yet and he has only been out on the mission one transfer so this next transfer is going to be interesting. I will be in the Berthoud Ward. That is about all I know as of now. One of my companions, Elder Tuiasosopo, is going to Longmont and Elder Bean is staying in Greeley. I'll see him and the rest of the other elders next week at zone conference though so that will be cool.
As far as money goes, I should be okay now. The problem with the singles ward is that we would never get fed so we had to buy a lot more food. Now I will be back in a family ward where we will get fed every day! Oh, and the other thing that I know about my new area is that I will be on a bike again, but that is okay. To answer your question about plus 1's. Plus 1's are the weekly lessons that we do with members each week. They are usually object lessons and they are called plus 1's because the member is suppose to invite someone to go with them to the lesson, hence plus 1.
It is going to be kind of sad leaving Greeley. I'm going to miss the ward and the farmhouse. I am also pretty excited to see what this next transfer will be like. The weather is pretty weird lately. It has been super hot, in the 90's, and about mid afternoon the weather gets cloudy and it sometimes rains. I don't know if that is normal or not but it has been like that for awhile. Oh, before I forget. When you send something in the future can you send me back my planners that I sent home. Apparently I'm going to need those in the future.
Other than that, not much is going on. The work in the University Ward in Greeley was going pretty well so I hope to hear some good news in the near future with some of the people that are being taught. There is this one girl in particular that we have been teaching for the past month and she set a date for baptism just yesterday. It was rad and we were all pretty pumped.
Elder Cooper

It has been great serving on a college campus...

2010-07-19T12:54:00.001-07:00

Hey,
It was good to hear from you this past week. I'm kind of ticked because for some reason I wasn't able to log on to my email and it took 30 mins just to try and fix it. Anyway, I'm on now. Last week of the transfer. Most likely I will be moving this transfer as well so we will see what happens. I'll know Saturday. This past week was great though. Nothing real major happened, but it was still a pretty solid week. My birthday was great. It was pretty much the same as any other day of the week. Some members in the ward did make a pretty sweat cake for me though. It is weird thinking that I'm not a teenager anymore.
We went to the church farm again this past week. This time we were pretty sure that they forgot that we were coming because when we got there they told us that we were going to go to our place where we live and do a little yard work. It is okay though because our place really needed it. There were so many mosquitos that day and I think cutting things down helped because mosquitos like that tall stuff. I have also noticed they haven't been as bad just because it has been pretty warm lately. After we did some yard work though they took us back to the church farm where we went to the grain silos to clean out this pit thing. It was pretty bad. My companions and I definitely ran into some mice and frogs.
As far as the work, it has been going pretty good. One of our investigators we feel is so close to baptism. She feels that she has not received a confirmation yet that this is the one true church. We feel that we have done all we can, but she still feels the same. We are all pretty stumped on that one but we will see. She came to church this past Sunday so that will probably help. It has been great serving on a college campus even if it is during the summer and not as crowded or busy.
Hope things are going good.
Elder Cooper

Thank you everyone for the gifts

2010-07-05T12:41:00.000-07:00

So Saturday night after a long day it was so exciting to see a birthday package on the table at the farm house. Thank you everyone for the gifts. The new scriptures are sweet and super light. Some extra spending money helps too. Thanks again. I actually just went and bought a backpack today because my other one is falling apart, but the back pack that I got is too big so I'm going to have to take it back and find another one.
This past week was great. The Denver temple closed today and will be closed until the 20th so President let me use my temple trip early. We went down to the temple on Friday. We spent the whole day down there. We arrived in time to make the 11am session and after we did the session and got something to eat we did some initiatories. It was sweet because it just so happens that 30 or 40 other missionaries from our mission came as well. They all probably had the same idea I guess. The temple was amazing and we had a great time. After we left, we spent some time at the Deseret Book and then went to Red Robin for dinner. One of my companions knew the guy who owned the place and we ended getting 50% off. That was a good day.
The work has been going all right. The ward is picking up as far as inviting and doing missionary work. This past Sunday was the first time that I did a little smack down in our meeting in the morning. It is just frustrating because we have investigators that need fellowship and we feel that there isn't much. This past week we found an investigator though, taught the first lesson right on the porch. The baptisms that we did have scheduled for the 10th of July are not going to happen. We had to bump those dates back. I think that younger people that are investigating sometimes don't know what they are committing to. Only 2 more weeks in the transfer. This transfer by far has gone by the quickest.
The 4th of July, I must admit, was kind of lame. President Ely didn't let us stay out to see fireworks mostly because it was Sunday. Plus, yesterday night there was a freak storm and it rained really hard. Probably the heaviest rain that I have ever seen.
I did hear last week that Scott got his call to the Houston East Mission. Is that the same one that Tommy went to?
Elder Cooper

2010-06-28T14:22:00.001-07:00

So, to answer your questions......yep I got 2 brand new pairs of shoes a while ago. It is pretty sweet I must say. My toe is doing a little bit better. I am no longer on crutches. It isn't broken, but the toenail fell off, well, I pulled it off the other day and it looks like I will never have a toenail there ever again! We still have 3 set for baptism and they are all around 18 years old. It is going to be hard for some of those to reach their dates and some have been switched already. They were all set for within this transfer but now it looks like they will be sometime next transfer. Something else that is exciting is that we got a new investigator this last week and she is awesome! She is christian and believes that it wasn't just random that we showed up on her door. We were tracting when we found her. We met with her 3 times this last week! She doesn't have a baptism date because she still wants to pray about it, but I think that she will.
Also this past week we were able to do some serious service at the church farms. They are right next to our house and they grow beans, corn, and wheat. So, we showed up on Saturday in the morning at around 7 and we ended up laying pipe for watering alongside the crops. It is these huge pieces of PVC pipe with holes in it every couple feet that hook up to a water main. We laid that down pretty much the whole time and it wasn't so bad until it started getting hot. After we did that we went to painting the inside of a huge shed which was like a break. We were rewarded with an awesome BBQ for our hard work that made up for everything. I have to admit that it still was probably the most tired that I have ever been on one day on the mission. We went tracting a bit that day too so I was just spent by the time we got home.
This next week is interviews already and we will see what happens. I probably will go this next transfer because most tri-companionships the junior is usually only there for a transfer. We will see though. Last time I thought that I was staying and look what happened.
Elder Cooper

Three baptism dates!

2010-06-21T13:29:00.000-07:00

Hi everybody,
How has it been? Things have been going well this past week. So, the first thing that happened this week just so happened to be on Tuesday morning when we were doing our morning exercises. We were using the bench and I was taking off the 45 pound plate on one side. Well, I set it down on the wall and it just so happened that it slid off onto my middle toe. I didn't think that it was that bad, but as I was lifting I realized it hurt a lot more than I thought. I stopped and took off my sock to see that I completely smashed it. We don't think it is broken. It is actually a lot better now that it has been a week, but the toenail is definitely going to fall off. The downfall for the rest of the week is that I was using crutches.
Friday we had our zone conference. That is when my box from missionary mall came. I got two new short sleeve shirts that are name brand so now I have 6 short sleeve. That is plenty. It was just in time too because you are right, it has been way hot lately and being right next to the cattle farms where we live has brought up some smells that I have never thought existed. Zone conference was great! The way it is done is completely different now and it is cool because all of the missionaries are now being taught the same thing. It still was quite a bit of sitting.
Saturday we had to go up to another zone conference. We were recruited to help the senior missionaries with car inspections up in Cheyenne. I was still on crutches then, but I got a job of going through all of the papers that the missionaries were supposed to have in their glove compartments. I couldn't believe how hard it was to get all of there info together!
Sunday, Elder Tuiasosopo was sick so we went home early and that left Elder Bean and I thinking of something to do for the rest of the night. Well, as I have mentioned we live in a dump and so we cleaned out the kitchen and the bathroom and man was it bad! It took us three hours and it looks awesome now, well as awesome as it can get!
So some other awesome news about this past week...Last Sunday( June 13) we had a missionary fireside where we watched Joseph Smith: The Prophet of the Restoration and we were able to meet with a couple of the investigators that showed up for that. His name is Christian and he brought his friend to the lesson and now they are both set for baptism! We also taught someone else who is set. Three baptism dates! Let’s hope they all go through. It just goes to show how many different tools we have available to use to bring others into the gospel.
Elder Cooper

Greeley has been awesome!

2010-06-14T12:35:00.000-07:00

Well, this past week was my first time outside of Fort Collins. Greeley has been awesome! The one bad thing about Greeley is that it smells like cow poop. My companions and I live in a farm house right past where all the cows are.....So the place that we stay at is owned by the church. We are right out next to church farms so literally it is a farm house. It is so ghetto but its also fun. We have the house to ourselves, well we share the house with the Spanish elders here in Greeley. Being in a singles ward is awesome. Its way cool to work with people that are my age, but also it is really different so it is taking a little while to get used to. We have our own special office at the institute. So, we work on the UNC campus. It is pretty rad, but there are not a ton of people considering that it is summer break. I will probably be here the rest of the 5 weeks of the transfer too. Oh, and for the first time we are in a car, truck actually. So, because I am with the zone leaders we cover all of Greeley but just the young single adults. The ward is pretty cool, bigger than the branch back home. Oh, speaking of that, I met an Andy Rogers(Elder Rogers) who served in our ward like 6 years ago and he remembers us from the Fanita ward. He remembers talking to Tommy as he was getting ready to serve a mission.
My companions are Elder Bean and Elder Tuiasosopo (yep another poly for a comp). Elder Bean is from the Seattle area and has been out like 21 months! He is a pretty cool guy. He went to BYUI for a year before he left as well but I don’t think while I was there. Elder Tuiasosopo is from Hawaii and has been out 18 months. I feel young still but the Spanish elders that stay at the farm house are both younger than me. Elder Tui's (for short) dad played professional football for like 12 years I think on the Redskins. He has 2 cousins that are playing professional football right now as well, one on the Raiders and I can't remember the other. That’s what he wants to end up doing I think. He is like 315 pounds and can bench like 500. Yeah.......
This past week was great. I think that the best thing about the week was that we had a missionary fireside on Sunday night and we watched "Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration" The semi new one they play in the visitor centers. It was so good even though I have seen it 5 times. We had like 4 non members and several less actives and I think that they really enjoyed it and we will see good things come about.

So, new address....
25707 County Road 60 ½
Greeley, CO 80631

Elder Cooper

My 9 month reign in Fort Collins is over...

2010-06-07T12:35:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,
So, I officially got transferred! My 9 month reign in Fort Collins is over. I got a call from President on Saturday around 4 in the afternoon telling me that I would be transferred and that I was going to be in a tri-companionship with Zone Leaders. So, I'm not a Zone Leader, I'm just a junior companion with the Zone Leaders. It is going to be interesting. I'm going to be heading down to Greeley, Colorado today. So, to give you a little background on Greeley, Colorado...it is stinky. There are a couple slaughter houses there that makes the whole town stink. It’s all good though. On top of that I will be with the Zone Leaders in the singles ward down there. So, President Ely told me that I am going to really have to focus. I'm super excited! I think it is going to be a blast.
So, one of the reasons for the tri-companionship is that I believe that there is an odd number of missionaries out in the field right now. Most likely I won't stay there a long time, no more than a transfer. If a missionary goes home early or one comes out in the middle of the transfer I think I will most likely fill the vacant spot, but who knows.
Other than that not much else happened this week. I said a lot of goodbyes yesterday. I wish I could skip that haha. It can be kind of awkward sometimes.
This next transfer I feel that I am going to learn a lot. I felt that I was getting a little too comfortable up here so I'm glad that I'm going somewhere new to change things up a bit.
Elder Cooper

2010-06-02T13:34:00.000-07:00

So this past week was great! Things have been a little bit slow though. I was kind of afraid that it was going to eventually happen when I first got here. It has been tough finding people to teach. Anyway this past week was still good. So the library was closed yesterday so sorry that this got a little delayed.

All I can say is that box last week was awesome! So that retainer needs to be adjusted but because Bishop Allen is a dentist he can fix it. I haven't got my suit yet from the tailors. I will pick it up this Friday just in time for the end of transfers. I don't know if I will be moving but there will definitly be a lot of changes in the zone and in the mission. About 20 new missionaries are coming in!

One of the interesting things that happened last week is we had a dinner appointment with a family and we ended up going to their neighbor's, who are Muslim, for dinner. The wife converted from being Catholic and her sister just happens to be Mormon. Her sister lives in Utah though, I think. Anyway there were 2 people from Egypt there and their son-in-law who is originally from Pakistan. It was an awesome Middle Eastern feast!. It was also interesting to understand a little bit more about the cuture and different views on the world/politics/religon. Basically, Elder Smith and I kept our mouths shut the whole time, haha.

We also helped a non-member family move this week. It was the relief society's friends and they could be interested so we are pretty excited to see where that will take us. The move was hard though. They had some heavy stuff and nothing seemed to be packed. We were there for 3 hours on Friday and like 4 hours on Saturday.

One more week until transfers and 9 months....wow

Elder Cooper

2010-05-24T20:44:00.000-07:00

Hello Hello,

This week was pretty typical. We had interviews with president and he said that I most likely will be staying another transfer in the ward I am in but that is not set in stone. I still think that something will happen. Elder Smith had a dream last night that I was going to be transferred so who knows, haha. The work this week was kind of slow. I blame it on graduation. Everyone graduated from high school this past week so everyone was busy doing stuff and we got shot down on appointments. We actually went to a graduation party this past Saturday. It was our ward mission leaders daughter's grad party and it just made me feel old. It's been 2 years now since I was last in hight school. Yikes! All of the high schoolers that were there looked really young but it was good that there were older people from the ward there to balance it out.

There aren't any huge events this week. Just winding down on another transfer. A lot of the missionaries in Fort Collins could be leaving next transfer. There is one other missionary that has been in Fort Collins as long as I have and so we joke around about it. In fact, we had a zone lunch thing where the stake president talked to us and the other missionary and I noticed that it was a very similar talk that he gave to us like 7 months ago.

So that's it for this week. Hope things are going good!

Elder Cooper

Email from the Bishop Allen

2010-05-19T15:23:00.000-07:00

Dear Brother and Sister Cooper
My name is Ken Allen. I am the bishop of the Taft Canyon Ward in Fort Collins, Colorado. Your son is currently serving in our ward. I just wanted to send you a quick note to let you know how impressed I am with your son. Elder Cooper is very studious and has learned how to be an effective teacher. He and his companion, Elder Smith, have been working hard and have been a great blessing to our ward. Thank you for teaching him and encouraging his missionary service. It is a great blessing in our lives! Ken Allen

Baptism on Saturday

2010-05-19T15:19:00.000-07:00

5-17-10

So, this past week was pretty awesome. The baptism was this past Saturday and it went really well. Kyle's dad baptized him which was pretty cool considering that his dad has only been active for about a couple months. A lot of his family was there which was awesome because his mom and grandma are not members and you could definitely see the spirit working on them. It was probably the most emotional baptism (I wasn't emotional but Kyle's whole family was). Anyway, it went really well and Elder Smith and I spoke while they were getting changed. Another cool thing about the baptism is our other investigator, Robert, came.

The next day at church was great too as Kyle got confirmed by his grandfather who I knew because he lives in the Parkwood ward where I was serving before. Our other investigator met with the bishop as well which was really good so I have this feeling that he will be baptized before the end of this transfer. We will see. Overall it was just a solid weekend.

Other than that not much else happened. We actually got a new investigator this week. It is a part member family. It is the husband of the daughter of the people that we are living with. He is Catholic and a really cool guy. We just started teaching him and he seems to enjoy it.

Tomorrow is interviews so we will see if President Ely drops any hints as far as if I will be moving at the end of this transfer or if I will get put into a new position (i.e. senior comp). We will see. I like being a junior companion because I get to focus all of my attention on the work.

Tell Tommy and Dad good luck on the 100 mile ride!

Elder Cooper

2010-05-10T18:31:00.000-07:00

Hey!
It was good to talk to everyone yesterday! Things have been really great and it is crazy to think that the next time I call home will be in 8 months! Other than that not much else is going on other than everything that was mentioned on the phone yesterday. This next week will be exciting with the baptism. It is amazing to think that it has been 8 months since I left home. Their have been so many cool experiences that I have been able to take away that will help me the rest of my life. It is also awesome to have a family who is supporting me in all that I do. It was great once again to talk yesterday. Hope all is going well.

Elder Cooper

A few more pictures

2010-05-04T19:34:00.001-07:00

Pictures!

2010-05-04T19:14:00.000-07:00

2010-05-04T19:12:00.000-07:00

5-3-10

This last week has been pretty interesting. It started with a move that we helped out with on Tuesday. We helped this family who is less active and not in our ward move with the other elders and when we finally got to the house to load up the moving truck we realized that nothing had been packed and it was one of the dirtiest houses that I have been in. I know I like things organized but I'm serious when I say that this house was gross! It is okay though. The family was really grateful that we were there because it was just us 4 missionaries helping. This Thursday was the mission tour where Elder Grow came to visit us. It was awesome. Most of the meeting was the zone leaders/Pres. Ely/Elder Grow explaining changes in the mission. The issue is that our mission has been kind of on a plateau and we want to see the success to continue to grow. There are a lot of changes, but nothing really huge. It will take some time to adjust to it. The only downfall of the meeting was the fact that we got there at 8:00am and didn't leave till 5:30pm. That is a long time to sit on the church benches. That evening though we went to go over and teach the 11 year old that we have been seeing and we set a baptism date for the 15th of May! Its pretty exciting to be apart of teaching and seeing someone get baptized again. We are hoping the dad who just recently started coming back to church will baptize him, but if not it will most likely be the kids grandfather who just happens to be in the last ward that I served in. We have a couple of other investigators so we will see what else might happen this month. Other than that the rest of the week was pretty normal and there isn't any big events other than Sunday when I get to call!

Elder Cooper

Four investigators at church!

2010-04-26T20:42:00.000-07:00

Hello family,
This week was awesome! It was a great way to end the transfer. It looks like I will be staying here for another 6 weeks. My companion is staying as well and he is now the new district leader which means that I have more meetings to go to now. Our new address 1300 Patterson Place. The people that live here are really cool "The Haynes". They both are retired and the husband is really into political stuff. So if he is not at home or some church function he is at some political thing. Sis. Haynes watches the grandchildren who come over quite a bit because some of their children live in Fort Collins as well.

As far as the work, this past week was really exciting! We started teaching this 11 year old whose dad just came back into activity. The son is pumped and it would be awesome if his dad could baptize him. We also just started teaching this family who was taught like 2 years ago. It is the single mom and her 2 sons. They all came to church this past week too which made things even better. We had another one of our investigators come to church making it 4 investigators at church! That is the first time that has happened on my mission. I guess the only downfall is that it has been kind of cold this past week. Weather in Colorado is really random.

This next week we have another mission tour. Elder C. Scott Grow is coming to speak to us. I think the name is kind of funny, but we are all excited to hear him speak.

As far as Mother’s day, since you are in church from 9:30 to 2:30 it will work out perfectly. I'm in church from 9 to 2 so I can just call sometime in the late afternoon around 4pm if that will work. It feels like I just called! I guess time just goes by really fast. Mother’s day will be my 8 month mark as well.

Hope things are going well.

Elder Cooper

April 19, 2010

2010-04-19T19:26:00.000-07:00

So this week has been interesting. This Tuesday my jaw started hurting so I went to our bishop to see what was up and come to find out I was clinching my teeth. He said he would make me a mouth guard, but I thought it was weird that I never needed one before. Wednesday morning I woke up to a super bad sore throat, my tonsils were swollen and covered in white spots and the lymph nodes right below my jaw were swollen. Come to find out it was tonsillitis. I called to see if I could go to the doctor but I was told to just wait it out. It got me kind of mad this week because we were inside not working. I figured that they would let me go to the doctor, find out what it was, and get the best medicine so I could get better and get back out and work but I guess not. So, we didn't get around really to much this week because I was dealing with that. I'm not fully recovered but I'm getting better. On the flip side, we were going through our area book this week and started calling up former investigators that had been taught 2 or more years ago. We called this one lady and she said that she was still interested in hearing from us! We went over there and she told us that she had been trying to get in contact with us but she was having a hard time getting our number. Then she said that it just so happens that we called. It was a mini miracle. So we are teaching her now. We also are going to start teaching a 10 year old. His dad just came back to activity after 15 or so years and the son is coming back with him. Hopefully his wife will come around as well. We are definitely being blessed, that is for sure. Elder Smith and I are pretty sure that we are not being transferred this next Monday but you never know. Oh, we also moved today. The people that we were staying with have a daughter coming back from school and we can't stay there while she is there. It is all good though because the new place we are staying at it twice as big. Hope things are good!
Elder Cooper

April 12, 2010

2010-04-12T18:50:00.000-07:00

So first off there is no way that I am going to be able to compete with that long email that you sent me. That is awesome that Hawaii was nice. I look forward to going when I get back....right? haha. So things have been going good this past week. The weather first of all is a lot warmer then it has been although right now it is completely overcast. I'm getting a nice neck tan line. Not the normal one you get from a shirt but one that is higher up because of the collar. It is pretty nice. This past week we met with president Ely for interviews and I have a pretty good idea that I will be staying. By the end of November there will be a 100 missionary switchover which means that I will be older than half the mission. That is a weird feeling.

The work in the Taft Canyon is picking up and we have a couple of potential investigators now. We actually were going through the former contacts one day and gave this lady a call and found out that she was still interested so we will see how that goes. We thought it was a miracle. There is another guy we are teaching and we are either going to set a date for his baptism or drop him in this next appointment this week so keep your fingers crossed. There was a baptism in my old ward this past weekend of an investigator who I taught which was pretty awesome. I didn't get to go, but that is okay. There might be another one soon that I taught as well. It is just so cool to hear about the people that I taught getting baptized.

I didn't know that Tommy and Brittany were going to move out that quick. That is cool though that they are going to stay close by. That is what I ultimately want to do as well. Out of all the places that I have been to, nothing beats San Diego.

Oh also, not this week but the beginning of next month when I get money I'm going to by a GPS. I have decided that it is worth getting on a mission because we are always wasting time trying to find places on a map and it will also be handy when I get home too.

Hope all is going good.

Elder Cooper

A letter from Jacob's "host mother"

2010-04-12T18:43:00.000-07:00

3/30/2010

Dear Brother and Sister Cooper, My name is Christine Montgomery and my husband is Kent. We are the Host family for the missionaries until April 26. Your son, Elder Cooper, is living with us, along with Elder Smith. They have been with us only 2 1/2 weeks. It is such a joy to have them in our home. Kent and I have raised 7 children (5 girls and 2 boys), but our boys are not active in the church (ages 21 and 24). We decided to help out the missionary effort by opening our home for them since our boys didn't serve missions. It has been fun getting to know Elder Cooper, all about the family, what he did for work before going on his mission, and I have especially enjoyed his piano playing. All my girls play, and since they left home I have really missed someone sitting at the piano. So I let him go through all my music anytime he wants. He seems to be getting along well with Elder Smith, and they are pretty motivated to get things done. I'm impressed at how disciplined they both are as far as getting up, what they do during the day, and being in at 9:00 p.m. each night. It was only a week ago that we got a foot of snow, and Elder Cooper walks in at 8:00 p.m. and said, "Sorry, but we're back a little early." I was just glad they weren't stuck somewhere! They were more than happy to help my husband shovel the walk and driveway, and then play a little in it. I had hot chocolate waiting for them when they finished. Also, Elder Cooper and Elder Smith have been great about cleaning up after themselves. You would never know they used my kitchen for breakfast and lunch, and on P-Day they clean their bedroom and bathroom. Either your son was taught well at home, or the mission president is strict about staying in members homes. I just feel bad they have to move out on April 26. My 19-year-old daughter is moving back home for the summer from BYU Provo, so the elders have to leave. The plan was to house the sister missionaries here with Liz for the summer, but they had to be transferred out. Anyway, I want to thank you for raising such a fine young man. He has brought such a special spirit into our home. He's doing a great job and you can be very proud of him. Thank you for your good example and for sending him out on a mission.Sincerely, Christine MontgomeryP.S. He loves our frosty cups we keep in the freezer and I let him have all the milk and Chocolate Nestle Nesquik he wants.

Aloha!

2010-04-12T18:35:00.001-07:00

April 5, 2010

ALOHA!

I'm so jealous. It sounds like you are having a blast right now. I forgot until midweek that you were in Hawaii. I remember turning to my comp. and saying in a really depressed voice "My parents are in Hawaii right now" haha. Things have been awesome this week. This last Wednesday we went to our mission conference in Wyoming. It was another solid conference and hopefully I will use what training was given in my day to day missionary work. The downfall is that we got stuck there. It snowed on the way up and before we could leave they closed all the highways. So, we didn't get back until 6pm but that is okay.

Conference this weekend was awesome. I have really grown to appreciate conference so much more now that I am on my mission. Before I always thought that it was too long. Now I can't wait for it every six months. It is also kind of a mini break from missionary work too. Not saying that I don't like to work, but it is nice to sit down for a bit and listen to the leaders of the church speak. Once again my favorite session was priesthood especially the one about how apostles go about making mission calls. Every one is so personal which makes my call to serve in Colorado special.

Other than that not much is going on. We have interviews with president this next week and I cannot believe that half of the transfer is already over. If I stay in Taft Canyon Ward then we will just end up moving to another family in the ward. The people that we are staying with have a daughter coming back from school at the end of the month so we are getting the boot haha. Hope you have a fun time eating shaved ice without me! (I'm trying to make you feel guilty)

P.S. I did hear about the earthquake. Pretty big one ya?

Elder Cooper