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

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!