Growing Up

I don't want to ever grow up! It's awful! We spent the majority of our week running around trying to find an apartment that we could live in. So the problems with our apartment are: the trash hasn't been picked up for the last couple of months so it's super full and really nasty. Our heat is always stuck on, so we froze during the winter because we couldn't turn it up and now that it's warming up, we roast! Nothing like waking up sweaty! That is a little of the smaller problems. Then the shower wasn't working. We almost had to run around to even get wet. That stunk but I fixed that. We just needed a new shower head. But the straw that broke the camel's back was one night, like two weeks ago, when I was sick, I had taken some pills so I could go to sleep and not cough. Then at like three in the morning, we woke up to our front door being kicked and a super loud noise--like the rushing of great waters. ha-ha  We ran into the bathroom--nothing. Ran into the kitchen and there was water everywhere! A pipe had broken under the sink and was gushing water. All the while, the door is getting bashed in by some one. Elder Meldrum to put a shirt on and answered it. (I had a blanket covering the ol' covenants ha-ha.) It was the downstairs neighbor. He came home and water was starting to seep through the ceiling. So we got the water shut off and mopped up the mess and went back to bed to get up a couple hours later for a meeting. So we have been using the shower water to drink and cook with.

The mission wants us out because our landlord is nowhere to be found. He stopped cashing the checks and isn't fixing anything so we need a new home. President Gerber came over on Saturday in p-day cloths (first time seeing his arms, weird) and fixed the kitchen sink for us. He also did a patch job on the heat so that it was off and we could sleep again. What a blessing to have him do that! The other water pipe broke last night. I called and he walked me through how to fix it. Now I can do it all by myself! Sorry, that was a lot but that's what has been up with my home away from home ;)

This week was okay. We didn't get very much work done--missionary stuff anyway. We have had no luck with finding a new apartment so the office finally said to do missionary work and put the apartment hunt on the back burner and they would keep working on it. I did get to go on an exchange with the zone leaders. I found that communication is the key to understanding people. I have gotten really stiffnecked and started not liking the mission leaders and what they asked us to do. I had a good chat with the zone leaders and by the end of the exchange I felt so much better--like 100% better! Now I understand what I should have done this whole time with people that I was frustrated with--talk to them and get it out! Only they can help me see where I was confused or misunderstood because that's all it was--a big misunderstanding. I also learned what it means to sustain our leaders too. I really enjoyed conference. It as really good. We watched at a church house for one of the secession. Then we watched the other ones at a member's house. It was good to be there with them. The Corless family is one of my favorite families in our ward. So, all in all, a pretty great week!

So I broke the veggie diet. It is so hard as a missionary because people feed us and I don't want to offend them. I went without meat for a week then I broke it. Paul hadn't kept up his end of the deal either so I felt okay.

I love you and I'll try to keep on rocking it! ha ha

Love,
   Cooper