Welcome, Warmer Weather!

They say that a watched pot never boils and I think I can add that a watched clock never moves. My watch finally gave up the ghost. It lost the nob to turn it for the time change, so I went and had it looked at by a watch repair place. They were going to charge me $50 to fix it. I decided that was too much so I didn't wear a watch this week and it flew by. Who knew?!

The weather was beautiful this week it was so warm like 40's and 50's. I was so happy! Elder Meldrum, who has only seen Michigan in the cold, cracked out his first short sleeves. We didn't have to wear jackets. It was weird to see all of my tie again ha-ha. We did a lot of finding and that was pretty good. We got to see a lot of less active people and started getting nights set up where we could come over every week to visit and teach them. But with every good there has to be a bad and I got sick. Just a sore throat but just enough to make me an ornery elder. I'm feeling better now, after a lot of drugs and Elder Meldrum getting the chance to see my ugly side. Thankfully we didn't have a lot of knocking planned or some one might have gotten baptized out of fear!

Other than that, we got to meet a really great man. We didn't teach him--we just got to love him for a little while. We knocked on his door. He told us he wasn't interested so we left. Then we saw him the next day. He apologized for being short with us and that same day, as we walked back to the car, he called us over and asked for us to pray for him. He has bladder cancer and has already been carved out a couple times. He is a great guy. He invited us to sit on the porch and he talked to us for a minute or two and then we left. We laughed. They say that you have to have seven contacts with the church before you investigate. Well, Phil has had 3 so only a couple more to go! He is going to be a great Mormon someday!

Sadly Darlene hasn't met with us in a while. She is kind of like Grandma Summers--she takes care of all of the grand kids. She wants to meet with us when she doesn't have them to distract her. We stopped by and saw her though, just for a couple of minutes. She said that she was having a hard time still. It hurt to ask because the second that we mentioned it, she started to tear up. Sometimes...well, a lot of the times, I wish that I could take people's problems for them. I feel that I'm strong enough to handle them, even though I can hardly handle my own problems. We won't see her this week. It's going to be next week when we see her again.

Thanks again for the the letters, prayers and hugs you've given me. I hope you have a great week.

Love,
   Cooper

Staying in Dearborn

We'll I lived to see another transfer here in Dearborn. So that's pretty exciting. I am a little sad that didn't get to move though. I think it's my restless feet syndrome kicking in, ha-ha. We had a good week. I really can't think of anything that sticks out to tell you guys about...a lot of tracting.

I honestly just wish that I could handle more than three hours of tracting a day. We would do so much more but I get burned out after hour number three. I get a little moody and lippy with people...or maybe it's bold? I think it's lippy though. Elder Meldrum thinks it's funny when I reach that point. I hate it though. There was this one old lady that we talked to and she was going off on us--not mean, but just stepping around the bush. Finally I told her we were offering her salvation and would she like some. Needless to say she didn't want it right then.

For Cooper's birthday we sent him a year supply of fortune
cookies...350 cookies. He wrote "So I ate all those fortune
 cookies that you sent Mom. All in the month of February.
 Lets just say my mouth was a little cut up! 

One thing did happen that was pretty wild. We were tracting and this girl came up and told us she was a member of our church. Yea, right! But then she actually named some people that were in the ward. She said we should go and visit her mom. She gave us the address then she seemed to just vanish. So after the street was done, we went and knocked on the door. Some one yelled, "who is it?" and opened the door just a crack. We said it was the missionaries....silence. So we said it again. Then the door was flung open and the lady just stared at us. We told her that her daughter had sent us. She looked so confused. She said her daughter was right there.There was a little four-year old girl behind her. I was like, "We just saw a ghost! This is crazy!" Well, she was a less active member. Come to find out there is some major bad blood between her and the ward. They told us, when we mentioned it to them on Sunday, that we should not go back and see her. Weird! Other than that, it was a pretty normal week.

I should have had you guys pray for warm weather sooner! It's a sad thing when its in the 30's and you think it's warm! It has been in the 40's and it's suppose to stay that way the rest of the week...with a couple days in the 50's. I am so pumped! I feel like I can actually be a missionary again, ha-ha!

I love you. I hope that you have a good week. Know that I'm thinking of you guys always.


Love,
  Cooper

P.S. Here are some pictures taken at the Ford Museum.

Count Your Many Blessings

Johnny Cash sang a song called "One Piece at a Time." He
drove a Cadillac though, not an El Camino! Ha. Ha.

This week was a really really rough week and a very blessed one as well. The longer that I stay out, I realize that missionary work goes in phases each week. It happens almost every time. So I hit the hard phase this week. It has been building up on me and ugh! I just hated to get up and do it all over again. Go knock some doors and then teach some people---all the rejections. Elder Meldrum joked around and changed the song "Count Your Many Blessing" into "Count Your Rejections."  But as tough as it is, I am so lucky!

Awhile ago, Elder Oviatt and I found this lady named Darlene. She is older and she was interested. We only got to teach her two lessons and then couldn't see her again. We have been trying to set stuff up and it just never worked. So I thought, "Great! Here is another person that is just blowing us off." But I was wrong. The Lord helped my unbelief. We met with her and she had actually read from the Book of Mormon and she loved it! She thinks it's terrific! Then, as we talked, she broke down and told us she was turning into an alcoholic. She cried and said she didn't want that life and she pleaded with us to please help her. She said she knew we were the only ones that could help her through it. God sent us to her. Not only was there a lady that God prepared for the gospel, but He also let me feel how much He loved that one daughter. He softened my heart. What a blessing!  She gave us all the Vodka she had and accepted the invitation to pray about a date for the end of March. On top of that great experience, there was a member that saw that I was struggling. He went on a mission, so he gets it. He gave me some advice and just loved me. There are angels always around us to lift us. They just don't always have wings and halos.

Sorry I didn't email yesterday. The computers at our library went down as we were emailing. So we couldn't do anything. That stunk! But we got to go to the Ford Museum yesterday. I'll send you some pictures of that next week with my other stuff and I'll tell you more about it. I hope that you have a good day. Pray for it to warm up over here, would you? We have freezing rain today and it's miserable. I love you and think about you always .


Love,
     Elder Cooper Kniffen

Another Week Down

This week was another week...not too much happened. We got to teach a couple new people which was really awesome but we had to drop a lot of people. There are people on our potentials list that we finally took off. I always feel super bad when we have to take people off our white board. Normally, by the time we actually get to taking them off the board, we have already stopped seeing them. But I feel like when we take them off, we are damning them in a way. I know its their choice to accept the gospel or not, but still they should just except it already! We always joke quietly, Elder Meldrum and I, that we can baptize them dead or alive. It's up to them.

I got to go on an exchange with Elder Mwawatadi this week. He is from the Congo so this cold is really a bummer for him. We got, ha-got to go tracting in the morning before it really warmed up so it was 0 degrees outside. I could see his nose hairs were frozen. He was a good sport but I could tell that he was super done after an hour of being outside. We had a day in the 30's this week. Wow, what a warm spell!! It was so nice we were out knocking doors and actually didn't mind it too much because we could still feel our hands and feet and we didn't hurt!

These are Polish doughnuts called paczkis. They are only
around on fat Tuesday. We ate two dozen they were so good!

This is week 5 of the transfer. I think that I'm ready to move on and I would love to be released from being a district leader. It's cool and all but I would love not to get phone calls from the zone leaders anymore and have to answer their questions and feel responsible for the elders and sisters in the district. We'll find out, not this Saturday, but next what's going to happen. So stay tuned!

I hope that you have a good week! Thanks for all that you do for me and all the stuff you do for everyone else. I miss you always.

Love,
   Cooper

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