Wishing for Spring

This week was good except it was so freaking cold! We had a couple of days in the negatives without the wind chill and then with the wind chill it was like negative 33! It was so cold we were only allowed outside for 15 to 20 minutes at a time. It hurt it was so cold! But other than that we had a good week. We don't know where the time went! It just drags and then the next second it's Monday again! So that's awesome!

We had a big zone conference this week and it took all day. I got to start it out with an instruction on revelation which was good. I like to do stuff like that...so long as I have some time to prepare. It went well. Afterward, me and the other elders went and got some Golden Corral which ended the day. Then we had just regular days--a lot of knocking and trying to find people. We are having a hard time getting people to keep appointments. Finding really isn't all that fun but that's all we really have to do. I'm so ready for spring to come!

We have had some really good lessons though. We found a little family. The father let us in and we taught them the restoration and they listened. His English wasn't very good but he said that we could come back! I can see them in white and together forever! I hope that God starts to work really hard on them and prepares them.  Today we had a great lesson with another little family. The dad wants his children to know about God so we taught him and his children. We have a return appointment to see them this Friday. Its been a good week all in all--a little stressful with that instruction and I taught Gospel Doctrine solo, with no help from Elder Meldrum. Not because he wouldn't help, but that is how the teacher asked it to go.

Hopefully this week is just as good and warmer!

Love,
  Cooper

Missionary Life

This week was a good and a bad week all rolled into one. The week started off really good. Elder Meldrum and I got to do the normal p-day activities...blah, blah, blah. It's all the same. It goes by too fast. Then during the week, it just was hard! We had a lot of lessons that fell through. Elder Meldrum and I have been trying to be more effective. It is a hard thing to gauge. We we can either show it with numbers, the key indicators which are on paper, or we just know what we did and whether it was good or not. Tis the struggle of missionary work! But I feel really blessed which goes along with all that is going nuts in my head!

We got a couple phone calls from the sisters in another area. They had found people that were in our area that they were turning over to us. That was awesome! The couple that we got to talk to were awesome. They were ready to hear what we had to say. One guy's name is Tony. He wants to stop drinking and is willing to hear the message we share and replace the liquor with the spirit. We have yet to meet with the other two. They sounded awesome on the phone when we talked to them.

I got a hair cut today from someone that actually knew what was going on! So I'm happy! I found my inner peace for a little while or at least a fix for the day. ha-ha. It's just another week in paradise, I guess!

I love you so much. I hope that you have a great week and I'll talk to you again next week!

Cooper

Happy 19th Birthday!

Thank you for sending me the fortune cookies and the other birthday present with the ties! It made my day! I was pretty pissy yesterday so it was hard and then that stuff came. I also got the card you guys sent. It totally brightened my day! I even got a card from Grandpa Kniffen!  Elder Meldrum got me some brownies and ice cream. We partied when we got home last night. That was good enough for me! I think it's weird that I'll have to say that I'm 19 now! Ugh, I'm getting old!  ha-ha

This week was pretty stressful. I went to transfers and got my new companion. His name is Elder Meldrum. He's from South Jordan so I kind of know where he's coming from. He's a really cool guy. This is his third transfer--he came out with Elder Oviatt. He likes Jeeps and old Army stuff and music. Hes' a little more of a cartoon guy than I am so I'm going to learn  about that stuff this transfer. I got to go on exchanges the day after transfers. I thought it was funny--I had spent more time with the zone leader than my companion! It was kind of hard actually.  Elder Whetzel is a super cool guy. I hope that I can serve with him some day soon. Other than that, our week was pretty normal. The most exciting thing that happened was that we got stopped by a cop. He told us we can't go door-to-door in Allen Park without a permit. So, no more knocking there.

Barb Thompson delivered homemade
 strawberry jam for a birthday gift.

The other crazy thing was that storm we had. It was so bad that they canceled church the night before. I was really let down but we had a good day out with one of the members doing his home teaching. I didn't get to email you yesterday. With the storm, the mission asked us to stay in until the snow was cleared off the roads. When we got to the library, they had a sign that said the internet was down. We tried another place and they were closed. So I get to write today, which is kind of cool.

Thanks for all that you do for me--the thoughts, the letters and the prayers. I miss you so much. I just put my head down and work for that hug I know I'll get at the end of my mission! I hope you have a great day!

Love,
   Cooper

Goodbye Elder Oviatt

Last day with Elder Oviatt

So transfers came. I'm staying and Elder Oviatt is leaving! We got the call Saturday night and I can't lie, I wasn't really expecting that! I either thought we were going to stay together or he would stay while I moved on but neither happened. I guess God heard what I thought and laughed for a second. Elder Oviatt's excited but nervous to go. This is his first area. I know how it is. I still miss the people in Northville. That is what I consider my home. The members took good care of me. Elder Oviatt is going through that same thing but he's good to go! I'm excited to see where he'll go and who will have to deal with me, poor guy.

This week was good. We had a lot of stuff to do. We got to help a couple people move and that was nice.  We also got to chop some fire wood. I never thought I would say this, but I almost want to do it now! Manual labor is nice. It makes my body as tired as my spirit is after a long day.

We got to meet with Darlene again this week and she is just the best ever! We taught her about the Book of Mormon. We were trying to make some point or explain something to her and couldn't quite get it out. She smiled and told us it was okay. She knew what we meant and not to worry. She knows we are new at this and it will be a while before we are comfortable with her and her with us. It was like being in the MTC again. She is so awesome. I can't wait we meet with her tomorrow at 2. I pray that she read and prayed so she can know the Book of Mormon is true!! Oh, by the way, I gave Darlene one of the Book of Mormons that you and the family sent me at Christmas. It has our family picture and testimony in it. She was one that I knew that you guys thought should have one. We'll have to see if she says anything about it this week!

That was the coolest part of the week. We also got a couple more potential investigators and a family of new investigators. I'm pumped! I've decided that the goal this transfer is to make the people in our ward love me! The riff between missionaries and members ends with me! We got a new ward mission leader and the whole world is about to change! I'm thrilled! The ward mission leader is Brother Pinto. He remembers being a missionary so it's great. He wants to work and help and is willing to put in the effort to do it. Great things are going to start happening!

I'll talk to you next week!

Love,
  Cooper

A Visit from Elder Oaks

This week was awesome! We had a lot of cool things happen! We found this lady tracting a while ago. Her name is Darlene. She was really nice and said that she was interested in learning more about our message. So we finally got to go back and see her. I guess her daughter researched a lot of religions and Darlene read a little about the Mormons and really liked what she had read. She watched the play "The Book of Mormon" and was surprised when we knocked on her door. She didn't realize that we actually went door-to-door. We taught her the restoration and she loved it. She asked if we thought that she would be a good Mormon. We told her no, she wouldn't be a good Mormon--we knew she could be a great one! It was a good lesson. The Spirit was there and we said what we were suppose to say. I can't wait to meet with her and tell her more about the gospel!

We also got to go to the Detroit car show yesterday. We got a new ward mission leader (which I'm pumped about!) and he took us and dropped us off. We got to wander around the car show for a while. There were a lot of elders that we knew there and I even got to talk to a lady about our religion and gave her a pass along card! It was cool but I got bored after a while--I was done looking at cars. We got to sit in some of the cars, so that was great! It was a good trip!

We also got to talk to Elder Oaks this week which was awesome! We got to take a picture with him and then he and a couple area authorities talked to us. Elder Oaks talked about the atonement and how it's not something that happens in the future..it's an every day thing. The Lord knows how we feel at any point in our day. It was cool. Elder Oaks was really funny too . We were all nervous and he put us right at ease. He told a joke about hand sanitizer. He had asked Elder Nelson if hand sanitizer really killed germs. He replied, "I don't know but it sure makes them drunk!" ha-ha  It was good to know that he was human. It was really cool to shake his hand. You could see the light in his eyes.  It was crazy! I want to be like that, or a little like that, when I get home. It was awesome.

Other than that, nothing too crazy happened. Oh, so the other day at church, we were sitting there and Elder Oviatt went to get a bag of little rings for some kids in our ward and I see this tampon drop out of his bag. I started laughing and he put it in his bag really fast. No one but me saw what it was. It was so funny! He thinks his dad put it in there but he bought his bag second-hand so we don't know. It was really funny.

I'll talk to you next week. This week we have transfer calls. Next Monday I'll know if I'm going or staying. I think I'll be staying but you never know! Have a good week!

Love,
    Cooper

Michigan Detroit Mission with Elder Oaks

In Detroit and Humble

This week was good. We had so many good appointments with our investigators! There have been a couple really good days of tracting so we had some potentials to actually work with this time. I love it when we have days that we actually work hard and get somewhere. There are a lot of days we go hard but it feels like we are just spinning our tires and not actually getting anywhere.

I got to go on exchanges this week and that was a very humbling experience. We met with a man who is less active. He had nothing. He had a space heater in a tiny room in his house. I'm pretty sure he was wearing all the clothes that he owned and he had a sheet to cover himself with. That was pretty much it. I didn't hear him complain the whole time I was there. He kept praising God and saying how good He was. I wanted to cry. I felt so bad that he was living like that and all I could think is "if I was where he was, could I still thank God?" I really doubt that I could. I wasn't thankful for what I had before and I had it all! This man had a sheet and a space heater--that was it, and he was thankful. It was truly humbling.  To help you understand why it was such a shocker to me is because we visited him on a day it was negative 20 with the wind chill. We missionaries were only suppose to be out 30 minutes at a time, it was so cold!

We also got to have interview which I really enjoyed. Today we got to go on a district outing. We had a member take us to Detroit-- like the center of it! We got to see all the sights and eat some of the food. It was really neat! I loved it! These are some pictures I took of the graffiti and the other stuff. I even got a picture of Canada! I will be getting some others from a sister but that won't be for a couple weeks so you'll have to deal with the ones I send.

Well, I love you. Have a good week!

Love,
   Cooper

Drunk with the Restoration

It has been really cold this week. We got snow yesterday. YUCK! It was raining and then it snowed, then it all froze. It's really slick and has a biting wind that I'm not happy about. I just want it to be summer again! Esther's birthday sounded like a good time. I'm glad that she enjoyed it!  I'm really not sure how I feel about her baptism. I'm happy for her but I really wish that I could have been there for just that hour and then come back out here. That's really cool that the Brother and Sister Bean got to be apart of it all. They are both really cool people. I love them to death. Brother Bean has the Spirit--You can just feel it around him! I so want to be like that! I'm glad that Verla was there too. You had almost all of my favorite people in one room. You are so lucky!

With Elder Hidie

So this week went good. I've seen a lot of blessings, thanks to some direction from Elder Hidie. He's one of the zone leaders. I got to go on exchanges with him this week and he taught me how to plan. It stinks! A man may not be saved in ignorance but some times I think that he can be saved by it. The way Elder Hidie taught me to plan is simple: make sure that you have a meaningful thing to do every hour. Simple, right? Well, it's hard when it's cold and you really don't feel like knocking doors that day. But then I realized that I am accountable for the time that I am given. And, at some point, God will ask me what I did with that time and I'll have to answer for it. So we went and knocked doors-- more to make sure that there was no wasted time and we actually started to find potential investigators.

Looking cool in Elder Oviatt's glasses!

One really funny story is we knocked on this guy's door. He opened it and straight up told us he was drunk and he had lost a girlfriend. She dumped him so he was drinking his sorrows away. His brother, who was slightly less drunk, told us to to tell him to get over it. Well, they let us in and we talked about the restoration with the two of them. They probably don't remember it but oh well. He was holding a big glass of something alcoholic while we talked. We invited him to pray at the end and me, not thinking, asked for his drink (because he really shouldn't pray with that in his hand, ha-ha). He handed it right over. So he prayed and we left. I gave the drink to his brother who gave it right back to him, sadly. As we got out, Elder Oviatt just looked at me. He said he couldn't believe that I had done that. It was a pretty good week. Nothing too exciting. A guy did take a picture of our licence plate to give the cops for soliciting after hours. He was a puke but other than that I had a good week!

There is a guy that makes Michigan Detriot Mission rings
 for missionaries that come through his ward.
So I had him make me one--It's sweet!

Thanks for the prayers. They are really the force that keeps me going. I have no doubt about that!

Love,
   Cooper