Transfers

Hey guys how is everyone doing? It sounds like it was an adventure for you guys this past week. Sometimes it feels like a lot more is going on than when I was there. I don't know if that is because I just hear a whole week's worth of events in five minutes or if we really are getting busier. Mitchell told me in an email that he got home and felt a little shell shocked. I probably will be shell shocked too just to let you know. There is no such thing as basements here, or insulated homes, or sidewalks.
So you guys are probably wondering about transfer calls. Well I don't know if it takes me more time to learn certain lessons on a mission or if the Lord wants me to finish what I started, I'm pretty sure it is both. But I will be serving in Paramaribo North as a district leader with Elder Hardy for one more transfer. That makes it five transfers that I'll have been here in Paramaribo. I have only known what it's like to be in an area for five transfers haha. I'm actually really excited. There are three people that could potentially be baptized this transfer that we have been working with for awhile. I'm grateful I get the chance to see it through, I know not a lot of missionaries get to experience that. I'm not saying it's a sure thing, it most certainly is not, but the possibility is exciting.
To quickly describe all three of these investigators I will start with "R." "R" is a really cool investigator that when the missionaries first met him he was in church the next week. I can see him being a very solid member. The kind that receives many callings and just holds the church on his shoulders. He was supposed to be baptized on Halloween (or kinderverkleedfestijn op de avond van 31 Oktober, which is not a good translation of Halloween, but one that we found in a dictionary) but it didn't work out. Mostly because of his work, but also because there are other things we have to figure out with him. He should be baptized on the 21st of November.
"E" is the other investigator that has made so much progress in the past transfer. We actually were near the point of dropping her towards the beginning. But we challenged her to pray and come to church and she came and agreed to a baptismal date on the 14th of November. We actually were in an appointment with her the other day and she was impressed with how we kept coming even when she was difficult sometimes. In reality she was not that difficult, just had concerns like every investigator does. She is from Guyana so our lessons are in English which is weird sometimes. You guys might find this weird, but sometimes it's hard to teach in English when you're so used to Dutch. We are excited for "E" though. She actually came to general conference for one session, which I think changed her a lot.
The last one is "J." You remember the picture I sent of our branch mission leader? The one with a long beard and dreads? "J" is his little brother. It's amazing how much culture can influence religion. He asks us all the time about little things like evil spirits, christening a house, etc. But he has a very strong desire to leave his old life behind. He says over and over again he wants to be converted to Christ, but he has fears about joining the right church. It is only recently though that he has been investigating even though he has wanted to sit with us for a long time. I'm sure his brother has had a huge influence on him. If he can become a member I definitely see him as the kind that just humbly tries to endure to the end and do what's right. Just like his older brother. He is cool. It's fun to answer a lot of his concerns because he asks good questions all the time.
Those are some of the people we are working really close with. I'm excited for them.
I was thinking a lot about the power of personal prayer today. I think back to a lot of the prayers I had when I was younger. I remember I always said nightly and often times morning prayers, but I definitely slacked on how often I said just a simple personal prayer at a random time. You know those prayers where you just talk to God? I thought a lot about how important it is to make every single prayer that way, even if we may not find ourselves in the hardest situation our prayers are still important. Our Heavenly Father wants to hear from us, our good times and our bad. I've realized a lot on my mission that when something is going well, it goes a lot better when we take just a couple of minutes to be somewhere quiet and tell the Lord how we feel. I feel like I've learned a lot about the power of sincere prayer on my mission. I'm not sure I would have learned that in any other environment. I know Heavenly Father always listens, to even the smallest things we think and say. I know he cares. I've felt that so much on my mission.
I love you guys! Hope everything goes well with Lore and Noah. Tell them I said hi and that I'm thinking about them.
Love,
Elder Cooper