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
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Monday, August 9, 2010
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
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
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
Monday, July 26, 2010
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
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
Monday, July 19, 2010
I'm being transferred!
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
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...
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
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
Monday, July 5, 2010
Thank you everyone for the gifts
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
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
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