Today

This week now has flipped missionary week upside down with the new announcement from the Broadcast. Anyone who has not seen it should watch it at lds.org! So this week has been so great, I have seen so many blessings come! 

I am writing today because yesterday was zone conference and it was life changing for me! Sister Riggs, the presidents wife, shared the scripture in Ether2:25. We truly as members of the last days are being tossed around in the seas of the world, but God has prepared us. We have been prepared to be on this earth at this time and to help the hastening of the work! I know that when we build ourselves like the Jaredites built their boats, we create a place where satan will not be able to touch us. If we have sealed ourselves and made ourselves spiritually tight, through The Book of Mormon, prayer, service and repenting daily to better ourselves than it does not matter how large the waves are that come. We Will prevail. We will be molded into something while we are on this earth, we just have to choose who we want the sculptor to be.

Eu te amo,

Elder Cooper 

June 17

This week has been amazing/hard/beautiful/tiring. Missions truly are one of the biggest roller coasters that you can ever get on in your life. We focus on a lot of less actives that are in our area because we have a lot of hindu and muslim people who are very rarely allow you to teach them so knocking doors and even street contacting has very few effects that result to lessons. 

Anyway so we have been teaching a less active named Rosy and she fell through cracks because she was baptized and then moved to a new ward and was afraid to ask anyone for a ride to church and let alone she did not even know where a church(she has a hard time reading English so she was unable to find it online) She was baptized three years ago and we started meeting with her just a few weeks ago. She really loves the church and is already doing pretty much every single commitment we have given her so we decided to make a goal for her that was even higher... the temple. In our last lesson we committed her to preparing herself to go to the temple and she responded with "I'm ready." I was so shocked I did not know what to think. We are going to prepare with her to go to the temple soon and it will be so amazing!

We also talked with a man who is married to member and he comes to church every week! We talked about why he has not yet been baptized, because even when his wife is gone he still goes. He already has had the missionary disscussions so we are just going to see if we can help him come to understand that the Book of Mormon is true. He is one of the most amazing people I have met in my life.

This week I had a focus on dilligence and learned a lot. I came to understand how our thoughts affect our works and vis versa. I realized often my thoughts were being distracted and I wondered why I was not feeling success in lessons, in contacting, etc. When I realized what it means to be truly dilligent. The idea of being dilligent to God moved from my head to my heart. When you are focused on what you should be then God endows with the spirit. The day that I tried to stay the most focused I truly felt the spirit in all of our lessons.

The last thing is a shout out to my father! This fathers day was the first one I have ever been to with out being with my dad and because of that my thoughts tended to turn to both my physical and spiritual father. I realized how important fatherhood is and how much comes from having a father who just wants you to find success this was probably when I realized my new goal as a missionary, and that was that I will not do anything to dissappoint my father....either of them. I know that God loves us so much and he micromanages each part of our life, he gives us what we need most to help us become our best. I love both of my fathers so much and I know that I have inherited charecteristics of both and what a blessing that is.

No Time - June 10

Okay so the thing that makes missionary work worth it is definately seeing people recognize that Jesus is the Christ. so many people do not understand that there is so much more to following Jesus Christ then just saying you accept him! There are so many people here that are hindu and muslim so we have the oppurtunity to help them understand what it means to be Christian.

One thing that has been challenging is the idea of being in a companionship, in the MTC your goals are much more simple to make because you already have a set schdule and set time slots to teach your lessons. Out here each person has a different idea of how to plan. Some people find it very important where others do not see it that way. My favorite quote about planning that I have come to know is that "You only become as good of a missionary as you plan to be." That is also true to life.

This week we had stake conference and we heard from that stake clerk he said that our patriarchal blessings are not fortune cookies, we should pray and fast to recieve revelation from them and then plan to accomplish the things that we have been sent here to be.

My companion is really great we laugh a lot and he is pretty into japanese animae. He has a very strong spirit and has the biggest desire to do what is right. I will have to say though from being in a state side mission (and maybe this is just because we are in some of the richest areas of the U.S.) but in state missionaries are kind of spoiled. Hahaha They make sacrafices, but it is just in a different way.

I have not seen the visitors center yet, I am hoping we could bring this amazing less active named Rosy to it so that she can see the temple and make a goal to make into the house of the lord! We met Rosy this week and her reason for not coming to church was she moved to this area and did not know anyone and was afraid to ask for a ride to church, but  she reads her scriptures everyday and prays. She is amazing!

I have been doing all of my reading in the scriptures in portuguese and it is really amazing to read in a different language. I studied about faith and read the famous scripture in 1 nephi 7:3 but in portuguese instead of using the word "do" it says accomplish. It gave me huge realization that anything with God can be accomplished when we bind ourselves to him. I love this work and I know that there is no work that is more important. 

te amo,

Elder Cooper

No time

So today is crazy we really have no time, we run all over and everything is so fast paced! I love it here in my reassignment of Washington D. C. South. We do not have very many investigators and very few people are interested. Many people are from Gahna and India so it is quite different then Utah! 

I love the members here they are so great they have so many good insights and they are so nice, they rely on one another a lot! 

I witnessed two more miracles this week one was a priesthood blessing I was able to offere to another Elder who was sick. I had never felt such power when giving a blessing and I know that truly the same miracles that happened in the bible with Christ can happen today, but it is truly amazing. One thing I learned is many people cut the power of God short and do not really see the power in the priesthood and the power in prayer! 

My companion is Elder Watson, he is really great and he helps me a lot! there are so many wonderful things about the mission and the spirit is so strong. We truly should just strive to have the spirit as almost an instinct where we do not even have to think twice! 

I love all of you so much and I am so happy! You guys are the best I will send my mailing address next week! I know how important the book of Mormon is and when we read it and pray about it we can come to learn of its truth!

Se Amo

Elder Cooper

Tchao tchao!

So this week has been very exciting I did not get my Visa to Brazil, but I have got a reassignment! I have been called to serve in the Washington D.C. South mission! I am very excited, because I understand how God truly puts us where he needs us! 

I had an amazing experience this week seeing how miracles can happen so, if you remember Sister Williams who was so amazing and strong. She gor viral meningitas which was really sad, but she was sent home to recover. Our district fasted and prayed a lot for her needed health and this past Sunday guess what! We heard from our branch presidency that her sister had called them and that she is no longer in a wheel chair and that she will be meeting with her stake president and doctor this week to see if she can be sent to portugual. Also look at the mormon message about courage it is so inspiring it talks of the story of Esther. 

I love it here, but I can not wait to go to D.C. 

For anyone who speaks a foriegn language or is learning one can I please suggest to translate them into your native language as a more literal translation is is truly life changing and they take on a whole new meaning when you do. I did that this week with the hymn god be with you tell we meet again. When you translate it from portuguese it is God will guard you with his power. It really hit me this week how much God HAS guarded me with his power and I know he does it so much! 

Also read Preach My Gospel chapter 8 specifically Goal setting and planning. Obviously your planning might be a little different then a missionary's planning, but if you put it into perspective that we all came down here on earth for a specific purpose and mission and what if you never fulfilled it because you never planned for it. I know planning is so important, because God does it! He has had the plan of salvation for 1000s of years and is still planning out how to help us manage our lives so that everything works out well! 

I have to go Tchao Tchao! 

Eu amo voces!

Muito amor,

Elder Cooper

Again another and the last crazy week/email from the MTC

So this week truly has been crazy! 

We had Russel M. Nelson from the qourum of the twelve last Tuesday which was so amazing! 

Then one of the companions that I had in my trio got his reassignment to Spokane Washington on Thursday left on Saturday which was so good for him but getting him ready was a rush but it was all good! We got another sister in our district named sister Williams on Tuesday because she got viral meningitas and is in a wheel chair for a while so she was going to hopefully leave with us but we just found out yesterday that she has to go back home to get better which is really sad because she just wants to be out and serving the lord and she can't! We know that God has put his hand in her life though and she is always being prepared for a greater work, they think she will be able to go out to portugal in 6-8 weeks which I hope is the case! 

I got to see Christie Bunnell on Wedensday, I was hosting new missionaries which is so much fun! I loved it! I also got to see Christie on sunday which was cool, and was the first time we got to chat so that was nice! 

We have another Elder in our district named Elder Smith who is so great but he has been having some health issues to and he went in for some tests today and we will figure out if he can stay or if he has to go home! 

Just for the record I love my district so much! They truly have changed my life way more then I would have expected in the past two weeks! They are officially adopted into our family, just so you all know! My district has had to say goodbye and hello to somone every week it has just been so crazy! Probably the thing that I have learned the most about from this experience is how much God loves me and how blessed I am to have these people in my life for even just a smidgen of a moment! 

My mom sent me a card that is on my mirror that says "Love the little things in life because one day you will realize they are the big things." So true, God truly blesses us with the samll moments to make everything so beautiful! 

I probably will get my reassignment if I don't get my Visa. It will come on Thursday so I will have a five minute phone call to let my family where I am going/or if I got my Visa! 

I love the idea of just having to turn your life over to God because that is definately something I have learned too is that it is so much easier just to turn it to God, because he is the one who has the plan we are just here to help him fulfill it by those we love to the truth and knowledge that Jesus is the Christ and that we can be saved by baptism, the steps to it and enduring to the end! I love my savior Jesus Christ and all of you! He will come again! 

Love you all tons, and I challenge you all to read from your scriptures daily, they are a way of light and we need that light daily! Oh also this fantastic lady named Mary Ellen Edmund came and talked to us and just left with me the most inspiring thought she said 

"We have to choose every day which plan we want to follow. The plan of Happiness (God's Plan) or the plan of misery(Satan's Plan)" It is so true though we have to choose whether or not we are going to be happy or whether or not we are going to be miserable the choice is up to us!

Eu amo voces

Elder Cooper!