Merry Christmas!

It was good to talk to you on Christmas. I'm glad to know that I'm not the only one that felt nervous

Sanding toy cars that we gave to kids in our area

to talk. It was weird. I don't know why I felt like that but I did. I do agree with you about it being not very personal but it was good to SEE everyone. That really was just what I wanted. I could have sat and looked at you guys forever and been completely happy. Next time we need to actually talk too, ha-ha. So it's less pause and more talk. I hated how short it was and then I didn't want to sign off at the end.

The cool thing about being on a mission is it's Christmas all the time. They talk about having an eternal focus and really, that's all you have as a missionary. You know, you have it when some one slams a door and you feel bad that they didn't let you talk to them. It's their salvation, not ours. This Christmas was really different. It was really CHRIST-mas. It was all about Him and how He was the gift that forever changed the eternities. It was good. 

We went and talked to our families, which couldn't have gone better (other than longer time and if they where here with us). Then we went to a dinner with a less-active family. They fed us ham and potatoes and we laughed and talked to them for a while. Then we went and picked up a member, Marlen Gaddis, and took him to a shut-in's house. We spent an hour with him and listened as he talked about the Savoir. It was great. 

My district sang at a devotional. It was the first time I ever had to do that!

The rest of the week was good. I thought that I was going to be super homesick after talking to everyone on Skype but I wasn't. After I was done blowing my nose and wiping my tears away, of course. It's almost like talking to you guys gave me strength to go out and do it again at least for another five months. (Mother's Day is just around the corner!)

It was a good second-to-last Christmas! (When I say it like that, it makes it seem shorter. ha. ha.)  

Love,
    Cooper

This is all of  the missionaries in the Michigan Detroit Mission at the Christmas Celebration on December 24th.  

Transfers and Training

Elder Oviatt

So this week went really good. I got to go to transfer meeting and I got my new companion. His name is Elder Oviatt. He's from Washington state. I'm finishing up his training, so he's really green but, honestly, he came pre-trained (he's been in the mission for six weeks). The only thing that I might have to help him with is to grin and bear it while tracting. ha-ha That's something that I still need to work on! I think that he is super cool so far. I don't really have any complaints. He went to BYU-I for a semester before coming out here. He is really funny and laughs a lot. He's really easy to talk to and he is just a normal person. It sounds dumb but I love that the most! He isn't something robotic and he understands that he needs to be himself--but just a better version of himself. This transfer should be great!

Dearborn is a lot different from Plymouth and a whole new world from Northville and from home but it's good. I am still so confused on the roads so I let Elder Oviatt drive me. ha-ha. It makes me feel important and he likes to drive so it all works out. There are crazy Michigan lefts and like five-road intersections everywhere. So I don't plan on driving until I absolutely have to. There are a lot of really cool people that we are teaching here. There is a family that the boy wants to get baptized but the dad is still not sure. Their name is the Diens family. They are really cool. The boy came to church with us for the first time this week so that was really cool. We have a really awesome guy named Marlen that goes out with us. He is so funny. He is this big black guy. We call him "Mr. President." He is the worst back seat driver ever but he loves to go out with us. He lives in the Detroit side of our area so he can and is willing to go whenever we need him. So that's also really cool.

I'm happy to be here. I feel like I have the Spirit with me more and Elder Oviatt is on fire so it's totally helping keep my fire going.  I'm pumped about the new area. Hopefully the next couple weeks go as good as this one.

Love,
   Cooper

We made some epic nachos!

Then we got diabetes in a single square!  It's fudge and caramel all-in-one-- It was great!

Riding in Style

This week a lot actually happened. It was a good week to end the transfer with!

Monday we didn't do too much out of the ordinary. We had a Christmas open house on Saturday so

we went out and delivered the invitations to that. Tuesday we went out teaching with a ward missionary. His name is Brock. He is sweet--the best ward missionary ever! He works for Ford so once in a while he drives a test car that he is trying to gather information on. Well, he pulled up in a 2015 Porsche! It was so cool! It was so fast! He punched it a couple of times to "test" the car and the brakes. Oh my gosh! It was so great. He said that it was a $120,000 car. I started to drool. It was great! It's sad when you wish that your lesson would get over so that you could go get back in the car! Sad to say but the lady we were visiting was kind of dull in comparison. We just had to check on her for Brother Clawson, the ward mission leader. The next day we just spent the whole time giving out flyers and the following day was pretty much the same.

Friday we went tracting for the first time almost all week. We met this really neat guy named Ramon. He is Persian. He was a soldier that protected President Carter. He has a master's degree in chemistry and a PhD in polymer chemistry. He is now divorced and lost his job because he has a gambling problem. It's sad to see people that are absolute genius's destroyed because of an addiction! We also went and saw that Christian family that fed us dinner forever ago. They let us right back in and talked with us for a good 45 minutes. They are so great! I am still absolutely shocked by them! We brought them a framed copy of "The Proclamation to the World" as a gift for their kindness towards us. They invited us to come back. They are so awesome! As we left, the husband shook our hands. I went to shake his wife's hand and she refused and gave me a hug instead! I officially adopt them as family! I was so happy!

The Christmas party was a great success. The ward was great--they actually brought people. They had a great program. There was a less-active boy that came. He sat and talked to me about wresting the whole time. He actually knew the names of moves and stuff. Obviously he didn't know that I was a guy that wrestled just for fun--not so much for the winning!

We got the transfer calls that night too...so I'm leaving! I won't find out where I'm going until tomorrow morning but I'm excited for it. Some place new, with new people. I asked Heavenly Father to send me where I would grow the most. So I guess that's were I'm headed! It must be so good that Satan is working against me. I filled up my water bottle last night and was walking back to bed and I ran into the corner of the wall! It hurt! I went and laid down and then I realized I was bleeding! I had split my head open, not very big but it was bleeding pretty good!

By the way, I returned the boots that I bought. They were more for style than for keeping my feet warm. The store we went to get Army boots was out of black in my size. We stopped by a Red Wing store. We went in and pretty much walked right back out. Elder Iverson asked the guy what he could get for $60. The man told him he had some socks he could get. Ha.ha. Yeah, he was serious. So we went to Payless and I got some big klunky boots. Yuck! I hate boots. They are so awkward to wear and I feel slow and zombie-like in them. One thing I'm learning out here is that there is no such thing as comfort and style. It's all about how much it costs and will it last. Luckily we don't have any snow so I wore the boots for a week and then went back to my shoes.

I can't wait to see where I'm going! I'll work hard! I'll mail you a letter with my new address on it. I hope you have a good week!

Love,
    Cooper

The past district. I wanted to take a picture in some nun robes because this week, on the 18th, I'll be a brand new sister missionary--18 months to go!  I'm afraid they didn't have one that I could borrow. Bummer!

Still Finding

This week was a little better than last week. We didn't have any lessons but I felt like it was more successful. We tried to contact all the potential investigators that we had found and everybody that we haven't heard from in a while to share the "He is the Gift" video with them and see if they would still like to meet with us or for some to set up a return appointment. No one was home though. That was a bummer.

Elder Iverson

We got to go on exchanges this Wednesday. I got to go out with Elder Iverson. He's one of the zone leaders. I had a good time. I had fun. We just went and knocked doors all day but I enjoyed it. Some times it is absolutely awful.

We have been meeting with one of the young men in the ward to "practice" our teaching and to give him the lessons to hopefully get his testimony strong enough to go back to church. The lessons have gone good so far. This week he accepted our invitation for him to come out with us to testify that Joseph smith is a prophet. Hopefully we can get the appointment set up so we can actually take him with us to do it! We also have another guy in the ward that we are going to try to start meeting with him. He hasn't been coming so we went to meet their family this week. They were super cool. I felt right at home with them. Their son wasn't home so we didn't actually get to talk to him.

This Friday we had a big zone conference. It was great. I really enjoyed it. I love listening to President Gerber talk to us. He always helps me with something that I'm in need of, whether I know it or not! This Saturday we have transfer calls. I'll tell you what happens with transfers next Monday. I hope you have a good week.

Love,
    Cooper

The Life of a Missionary

This picture was taken at the Gardeners. He's the bishop of our ward. They had us and some of their extended family over for Thanksgiving dinner. It's funny that you mentioned my hair. I've just let it grow. I'm too lazy to go and get it cut. I don't want to spend p-day doing that so I've just let it go. It's almost been three months since I last got it cut!  I'm feeling really gross! After emailing today, I'm going to go get it cut. I'll send you a picture of that next week.

This week was really hard on me spiritually. We started off the week with a lesson on Monday. It was awful--like terrible! Possibly the worst lesson that I have ever tried to teach. We went in under prepared. It was with a guy named Jerry and his wife. They are very knowledgeable about The Bible and our church. This was our second lesson with them. The first, we just got to know them and tried to answer some of their questions. I would try to tell you how bad it was, but I can't. It just stunk! I was so frustrated and mad. When we walked out, I told them to read the chapters from the Book of Mormon we were leaving with them and to give us a call when they were able to meet again--using the holidays as the out. When we got outside, I told Elder Warner that we put their salvation in their own hands. I told him that I didn't want to go back unless they called us. Not the greatest missionary moment for me, to say the least.  The rest of the week we worked at finding people to teach.

Good-bye long hair!

Thanksgiving was a highlight for the week or really the only highlight of the week. We only have one real investigator and she doesn't even count anymore. She has stopped progressing. The next time we meet with Pamela, if she hasn't been reading or praying, we are going to have to drop her. Ugh! The life of a missionary: it's the best of times and the worst of times! Hopefully this week goes better.

Well I have to go. I'll talk to you next week. Keep praying for me! Prayers are the only thing that gives me the strength to get up some mornings. Know I do the same for you!

Love,
     Cooper

Happy Thanksgiving!

Just so you know I'm still alive!

This week was good. Nothing too exciting that happened, the weather was crazy though! They told us that the weather was going to turn cold and it did! Wednesday it dropped into the 20's and 30's. It was crazy! It snowed and kept snowing. That was kind of a cool thing. It's definitely a new experience riding a bike in the snow. The thing that I hate is that in Michigan they use salt like it's going out of style! It's awful! It melts the snow but it makes your bike rust really fast and it flips all over the place while you ride. I joked that God should work like these people. If the salt of the Earth loses it's savor, then just put more down! ha-ha. I know that's not how it works but really, the salt on the roads is nuts.

We found a couple new investigators this week. Sadly, neither panned out though. We had a good lesson with Pamela. We covered all the commandments with her and are getting ready to answer the questions she has about what she doesn't know--like the Word of  Wisdom and things like that. We probably won't get to meet with her this week so we'll have to wait until next week.

Elder Warner getting ready for the cold. 

We had stake conference this weekend it was great. There were some families from the Northville Ward that I was happy to see again. The talks were great. It was good to get to listen to the stake president talk. I think that he is an amazing guy. You could feel the love he had for the people in the meeting. It was sincere and heart felt. It was great! Then Sunday we got to go to the rest of conference. There were some really good speakers. They did a great job covering their topics.

The weather warmed up into the 40's on Saturday and Sunday so all the snow is gone again. Saturday morning we came out and it was raining and it was freezing rain! It was really bad in the apartment complex but once we got on the road, it was good. It was nice not to have the snow sticking to the tires of the bikes. Other than that, it was a pretty uneventful week.

Well, I have to go. I love you. Know that I'm happy and that I haven't been shot or mugged yet. I'm the one that people worry about here!  I know how to use the Good Book!! ha-ha! I hope you have a great week and Happy Thanksgiving!

Love,
  Cooper

This is a squirrel we feed once in a while.  He is super fat and comes
right up to you. I now know why Uncle Si, from Duck Dynasty,
 said he went to pet a dog and it was a squirrel. They are huge here!

Ready for Snow!

This week was good. The weather was really nice Monday and Tuesday but after that it got cold. It snowed a little but it didn't stick. Today we got up and there was snow on the ground and its cold enough to keep it there. I guess that we are suppose to get at least two or three inches by Tuesday. I'm pretty excited still. It will be something to throw some spice into our rides. I decided that Michigan was okay. It wasn't all bad. They have a Kohl's,  so I went and got a big winter coat and some boots. I should be ready for the snow but everyone here is really not looking forward to the cold.

We found a couple cool people this week. We found two new investigators. One is a newly married couple--they just moved from Utah. The wife invited us to come back and we could talk to her and her husband. The other lady was older and she invited us to come back and gave us her phone number. It was really a shock! Most people don't really like to give us a phone number and she was more than willing to. I'm excited to see them both this next week.

Another kind of cool thing is that there was a Muslim guy that let us come back and talk to him. He totally turned the table on us! We told him that we invite people read the Book of Mormon and pray to know if its true. He told us he had already read it and the King James version of the Bible, old and new testaments. He's read the New International Men's version and the Jehovah's Witnesses version  and he gave us a copy of the Quran. He invited us to go and read our book's first and then read this. It was crazy! He did to us what we do with people every day. It was a little different. So now I can say that I've been given a Quran and a  Jehovah's Witness Bible. I know neither hold the truth but I think it's still cool that I've gotten them! Other than that, this week went by without too much excitement.

I was going to send pictures but I forgot the cord to my camera. Next week, I'll send you pictures.

Love,
   Cooper