The Life of a Senior Couple

Hey family! Man that trip in the canyon sounded pretty cool. I didn't know you all bought hammocks. It would definitely fit in with Surinamese culture, 90% of the time in our lessons we sit in chairs and our investigators will sit up in their hammock.
Life as 20 year old senior couple missionaries is pretty fun. Basically all of the problems in Suriname get delegated to whatever companionship is assigned to the responsibility. There are a lot of moments where you have to go with the flow...an elder or a sister has an inner-tube pop and we go and try to fix the bike as best we can in time to make it for an appointment, or a missionary has an ingrown toenail so we take them to the doctor, things like that. I feel bad when I write letters because a lot of our week is spent trying to organize things for the actual senior couple that will be coming to Suriname on June 22 and I don't have too much to write about.
I will say though that out of all the issues we have helped with the best one probably came from this morning. We got a call from the sister missionaries serving in the same branch and they told us about a problem that they had in the apartment. We asked them what it was and they described how insects were crawling out of the countertop, up the wall, leaving a sticky substance behind as they made a hole in the ceiling. We realized after they described the bug that they had a termite problem. Good times. Haha
Another highlight from the week came with an investigator we had named "J." "J" is a no nonsense man. He will always explain his thought process and then follow it with, "Am I wrong or no" and we can basically tell it to him how it is. We taught about the Pre-Mortal Life in our last lesson and he just had to take a moment to really ponder about what we were teaching him. He came to church yesterday and was asking several questions about the Sabbath Day since that was something we were discussing during third hour. We are pretty excited for him, hopefully he can be ready for baptism before I have to leave.
To answer a couple of questions that you had,
1. I am driving. We will have to give the truck up pretty soon when the senior couple arrives but for now I am the one driving. It's nice when it starts to rain and you don't have to worry about getting wet. At first it was a little difficult to get used to how narrow the streets are here but after awhile it's just like driving in the states.
2. My companion's name is Elder Orton. He is from Cedar City and is on his last transfer. He is really organized and wants to go out with the torch still lit which is good. He was actually in the MTC just a month before our group got there so we saw him and his group there for the first little bit.
3. I haven't touched my suit jacket since I got in Suriname. It's still in good shape and I have not gained a single pound on the mission so everything still fits.
Sorry it's not much this week, President Egbert is coming this weekend so we are excited.
Hope you all have a good week!
Love you!
Elder Cooper

Transfer Calls

Hey Family! So first things first, transfer calls! On Saturday I got the call that I would be leaving Commewijne. Which is sad because there are a lot of people here that I will miss. I took pictures of some of them after church Sunday.  There are other people and it's sad to say goodbye, but I know they'll be ok. Now, as far as where I go, I will be serving in a branch in Suriname called Tammenga as a zone leader with Elder Dibb! In case you forgot, Elder Dibb and I went to the same high school and played on the same baseball team! Needless to say we are super pumped.
This week had some cool moments with investigators and less-actives. We saw "J" this week and taught her about tithing and fasting. She should be baptized either this Saturday or the next. When we taught her about tithing we asked her if she would be willing to keep it and her response was awesome. She basically said "Of course, I'm committed to this point so there is no point in being half-in half-out." She has been super prepared because of the example of her brother, basically a testimony that you can help someone just by the example you give.
 My biggest spiritual experience came as I spent the entire week studying faith, hope, and charity. After reading President Uchtdorf's talk called "A Summer with Great Aunt Rose" I saw that one of the things he named as a key to happiness are these three principles so I wanted to look into it more. I learned a lot and it brought a lot of reflection on my attitude now and my attitude in the past moments of my mission. I think the biggest conclusion I came to is that it all starts with a desire to do God's will. The scriptures call this being meek and lowly in heart. I learned that happiness and peace does not come because of people or circumstance but because we place our faith in God and His timing, strengthen our hope in the Atonement, and develop a love of God and man. Our hope and faith isn't based on the impossible dream that everything will go well in our life, but if we have faith and hope in God then everything will work out for our good.  When I recalled the happiest moments of my mission I realized that these three principles were involved somehow.
I think my favorite scriptures I came across about these principles were Hebrews 6:10-20 and Moroni 7:41. Hebrews took a little bit to figure out, but basically what Paul was trying to teach the Saints is that God, ensures his promises with an oath or a covenant. As if it wasn't enough to know that God cannot lie he made our hope more sure by putting his promise to an oath, or better known as a covenant. This then made what Paul calls the two immutable things, 1. God will fulfill his promises and can swear by no greater power or authority then his own and 2. He cannot lie, therefore our hope in Him and His promises is made sure. So we can, as Moroni said have a hope to be resurrected and raised to eternal life.
Anyways that was the quick version. I hope you all have a good week! I love you and miss you!
Love,
Elder Cooper

Big News!

Bro. Turley, the assistant church historian. Bro. Turley is touring the mission with the Egberts and gathering historical information on early converts in each country.

Happy Easter! Hope everyone had a good Easter weekend. That photo scavenger hunt sounds pretty crazy. I feel like that game might have shown a little bit of favor to the girls before it started though. :)
This past week was pretty crazy. I think the meeting with the Church Historian was my favorite part though. His name is Bro. Turley and he gave a pretty good presentation about the Prophet Joseph Smith's story. It was pretty cool because he talked a lot about the personality of Joseph Smith which surprisingly doesn't get brought up too much. There were so many details that it would take forever to write them all. I think the highlight for me though is when we compared and contrasted the Prophet's early journal entries with the Book of Mormon manuscript. Joseph Smith hated writing and a lot of the time he would dictate the things he wanted to be written. It was amazing to see how Joseph Smith's lack of education showed in the things he wrote by his own hand. There were several grammatical errors, a couple of spelling mistakes, and he had crossed out an entire paragraph. At the very end of that journal entry it was clear to see that he had noticed his weakness and wrote a small but simple prayer to the effect of "Oh may God grant the success of his servant in this sacred work." I'm paraphrasing, but it was clear that he had seen the weakness in writing and knew he would need strength. After reading some of the things he taught out of things like Teachings of the Presidents of the Church it is clear that the Lord was able to take him to a lowly status to one where he could give amazing sermons and powerfully worded discourses about the Gospel. But his early journal entries, contrasted with the Book of Mormon manuscript was night and day. The Book of Mormon manuscript just flowed smoothly, no grammar mistakes, nothing crossed out and reworded, just one smooth narrative. It was pretty cool.
All of that definitely helped me to gain an appreciation of just how much the Lord qualifies whom he calls. He took someone like Joseph Smith and through him brought the Restoration of all things and helped Joseph Smith become one of the best teachers of the gospel and one of the most Christ-like individuals. It's clear from that example and then just instances in my life that the Lord will just make things work, despite the fact that we are imperfect.
Not much else happened in the week, we had the flu so we had to stay in on Friday. It was the first day I ever had to stay in because of sickness which meant I couldn't fulfill the dream of being the Cal Ripken Jr. on my mission. But now we are fully recovered.
I'm excited to watch General Conference and to listen to the talks and references to the resurrection of Christ. I'm grateful for the hope that the resurrection gives us. Because of that we do not have to worry or fear if death will last forever. I like the way it is worded in Alma 22:14; "the sting of death is swallowed up in the hopes of glory."
I hope you have a great week!
Love,
Elder Cooper
P.S. There is no "big news" as the subject line states. I was going to pull an April Fools joke on you and tell you that I decided to extend my mission. ;)

These Days Are Fast

Hey family,
It's crazy how fast time has flown by. Elder Beuhler and I  joked around earlier this morning that it seems like only two hours ago that we emailed our families so it's hard to remember sometimes what we need to write about.
I've really appreciated the emails you've sent in the past little while about families and family history. This story I'm about to share needs to be given some context to get the full gist of it but it here it goes.
Every transfer the district and zone leaders gather together for a quick hour to plan out things like exchanges and p-days. But also we discuss what we can do to help the zone grow. It's very similar to a branch council or other council in the church, it's pretty cool. We were talking about how we could be more "full-purpose" missionaries and we were talking about how it would be cool to share the spiritual experiences we had about having our prayers answered. The reason why we chose this as our goal was because we didn't want to focus on a number as in "so many member referrals" or whatever but we wanted to allow every companionship to seek after the thing their area needed the most and to pray and even fast for it and then when we went into district meetings we could report those spiritual experiences and be uplifted by all the experiences everyone had. One of the things we mentioned is that often times we ask the Lord for a specific blessing and then forget to look for it later, never realizing that the Lord answered our prayers. It reminded me of my time in Paramaribo North. It was a real struggle to try and find people in that area. It was even more of a struggle to find families and I had a very strong desire to find a family to bring into the church. I must have asked for that in prayer for two whole transfers. After awhile we found "E" and I always figured that was what I was supposed to do in that area and kinda stopped praying to find a family.
Now, after two transfers in Commewijne I realized that the Lord has answered my prayer in his way. We are teaching more part-member families than I have ever taught in my mission. In that way the Lord has answered that prayer of finding a family.
My testimony has definitely been strengthened of how the gospel blesses families since having come on my mission. It has become very clear over the past year and a half that Satan attacks the family on as many fronts as he can. He will do everything he can to have a broken up family keep someone from accepting the fulness of the gospel. There are many people who've told us we can't come anymore because their parents don't want them to accept visits from us, or the spouse does not agree with the religion and so we can't come anymore. That being said, there are many that I've seen accept the gospel, together as a family. Sometimes it was through efforts in my area and other times through efforts by other missionaries. I've come to realize that when it comes to missionary work, everyone takes a part and every part is necessary. No one did the work "all by themselves." Usually, someone sews the seed, another finds the sprout, and yet another cultivates it into the tree.
I'm really excited for this transfer because I'm going to keep track of what I ask for in prayers and then write down when or how that prayer is answered in my journal. I'm hoping it'll really open my eyes to just how much the Lord gives his tender mercies and just how much he answers our prayers.
A lot of cool things happened this week, one of our investigators asked to be baptized during gospel principles, another couple of investigators agreed to have their spouse sit in the upcoming lesson, and we met the wife of one our less-actives. I wish I could go into more detail about that, but I wanted to share that spiritual experience. I'll talk about the investigators a little more next week, because they should be able to just sky-rocket in their progress.
Love you guys!
Have a good week!
Elder Cooper

Transfer Call

(This email was from March 7th, 2016)

Hey family. So apparently it was a big deal to know where I was going to go for this next transfer. So I will start with that news, I will be staying in the Commewijne area for another 6 weeks! Me and Elder Buehler were discussing it the week leading up to the transfer call and we both agreed that there is just too much left undone to take either one of us out. We have several people on a baptismal date for the middle of April and we both want to see those people through. Me and Elder Buehler are excited to stay together this transfer. We enjoy working with each other and we are excited to see how much more Commewijne can grow in the coming month and a half.
I will still be the district leader which I'm excited for. I like being the district leader, it's a good time.
I have definitely gained a stronger testimony of visual aids in the past two weeks. For the most part we used things like the Resto video for those investigators whose understanding is a little slower, but this week we saw it really help an investigator of ours named "M", who is actually really quick at understanding. He was supposed to come to church last week but then his work called him in and asked if he could work for the next two weeks. When we sat down with him it was a little difficult at first because he had some questions about different church policies, which are not bad questions but a thought that kept coming to my mind was how the only question that really needs to be settled is if Joseph Smith is a prophet and if the Book of Mormon is true. After sharing the Resto video the Spirit helped him to come to that same conclusion and that he needed to start making it a priority to pray and read daily. He came to that conclusion all on his own which was super cool. Seeing the video really helped him to see how much of a priority Joseph Smith made it to find his answer and how he could go about doing the same thing.
Last week we found someone that is super prepared! Her name is "Z". She is probably in her 30's and lives alone, but when we first met her she said that she was not currently going to a church since none of them would baptize her! We explained that we could do that but that we would want to explain what needs to happen. She came to church for the first time last week and this past Sunday was her second time. She likes it and expressed her desire to stay in this church which was super cool. During the lessons she always says how the other churches don't teach her these things, for her it's kind of a testimony builder that this is where she needs to be. She agreed to be baptized on the 16th of April so we are excited.
I've definitely gained a testimony in the past two transfers of how much this gospel benefits families. In my last area it was really hard to meet with families since most people either lived alone,were retired or not everybody in the family was interested, which made things really difficult in helping people come closer to Christ since they did not always have family support. In Commewijne we have had several families all together start investigating which is super cool. I'm excited to see the progress they all make.
Hope you have a great week!
Love you!
Elder Cooper

Family Bonds Mean Everything

Hey family! Sometimes I hear about how cold it is over there and get a little jealous because it is so humid and hot here. But then someone mentioned inversion in their emails and I realized that the real reason why the  cold is so bad there is because of inversion which will probably kill me when I get home.
This week was awesome. The highlight was definitely sacrament meeting. We had several investigators show up. One of them was someone that the members brought along and introduced us to so that was cool. We are excited to follow up with her.
So I'm pretty sure I've mentioned  "M" in previous emails but he has definitely made the most progress out of all the investigators since we have come into Commewijne. We had committed him early in the week to pray and ask the specific question of if  the Book of Mormon is true and on Saturday he had not done that. So we took the lesson to just talk about that. We had a return missionary member come with us and it was clear from the thoughts he shared that he had served a mission and had retained a lot of it. We talked with "M" about Moroni 10:3-5 and helped him to understand what the Lord's requirements are for an answer. The reason why we did this is because he said that he felt like he would need to finish the Book of Mormon before he could ask that question, also he felt like he needed to learn more before he could know. What was cool to see is how the Spirit just worked on him. He went from feeling like he could not ask that question specifically to that was the only thing he should be asking. The Spirit definitely helped him to realize that all other questions would fall into their place once he knew that about the Book of Mormon. At the end of the lesson he said he would pray on his knees and ask the specific question and listen closely for the answer. We are seeing him again on Wednesday so that'll be exciting to hear how it went. The Spirit was so strong.
One thing that has been kind of sad to see in the area is that several of our investigators have asked us to stop coming because of some conflicts between family members having different beliefs and feeling that it is not necessary for them to even investigate. It's really sad because it's clear to see that the adversary tries all kind of avenues to get someone from receiving the restored gospel. It has just been a big testimony builder  for me of how important it is to develop the kind of family relationship where righteous desires are supported. The family is definitely ordained of God. Seeing  how sad someone's life is made when their family relationship is less than favorable has shown to me how important it is to maintain family bonds. I don't know if that makes sense, but basically Satan is attacking  families and it is sad to see.
That's all the time I have, hope you all  have a great week!
Love,
elder Cooper

Morpho Butterfly

Hey family! So, in Suriname how it works is... the Chinese people basically run the show. All major grocery stores, auto and bike repair shops, multiple cybers and such are run and owned by Chinese people. Everything was closed on Monday for the Chinese New Year. So that's why I didn't email yesterday.
Please tell Joey I said congrats, that's awesome that he got baptized this weekend. I forgot that chapel was the chapel I was baptized in. I remember very little. Mostly how confused I was as a kid when everyone would bear their testimony and say how they knew that this is the only true church. For me, I understood that to mean that that church building was the only true church. Not completely knowing that they meant the organization as a whole and not the individual building. Haha good times. What I do remember though is how I felt on my baptism day. I know I have a journal that has a small page in very big letters that talks about how I felt.
This week was an awesome week! We had zone conference and it was amazing. President Egbert talked about the Atonement and narrowed it down into seven main points:
1. Forgiveness of sins
2. Ressurrected bodies
3. Justice satisfied
4. Resist Satan
5. Strength in trials
6. Power to change
7. Heals infirmities
All of these seem very simple and they are, but there are so many places in the scriptures that talk about what Christ has to go through in order to make these things possible, how we access it, all that fun stuff. He challenged us to find the scriptures we knew about  the Atonement and to put them into one of these seven categories.
A favorite example of mine that was shared in zone conference was the example of what is known as the Morpho butterfly. I wish I had a picture to show you about it, but basically it is an amazing example of God's creation. It is fairly large and is just this amazing bright blue. President Egbert used that example to symbolize the power the Atonement has to change us. We go from caterpillars to butterflies thanks to the Atonement it was a cool way of visualizing that for me.
I really loved a talk that a return missionary gave for district conference since that was also this past weekend. He talked about how the Book of Mormon gave him confidence as a missionary to answer people's questions and teaching. He talked about how he could go into a lesson and know that he would get to teach with Nephi or Moroni, or Lehi because he was using their words. Then, whenever the investigator had a question he couldn't directly answer he would jokingly think to  himself "Alright Nephi do you want to help me  out here? I think you've got this." Pretty funny plus I liked the visual.
I'm running out of time so I'll have to stop for right now. But I realized that of all the things I can say I've learned the most about on my mission, I have learned so much about the Atonement. I am so grateful  for that. I would not trade it for  anything. Obviously I still have a lot to learn about it and the rest of the gospel, but that realization came to me as I sat in zone conference this last Friday.
I love you all! Hope you have a great week!
Love,
Elder Cole Cooper

Don't Know What To Put In This Line Anymore

Hey family! Thanks for the email. Tell Tom I said hi, that guy is awesome. Man that's crazy to hear the Smith's moved. They will be missed. The ward is not going to look the same when I get back.
As for this week there is so much that I'm not sure I'll remember everything. So I'll start with what was probably the coolest thing.
On Wednesday there was a worldwide missionary broadcast, where several general authorities spoke; Neil L. Anderson, L. Whitney Clayton, David A. Bednar, Dallin H. Oaks and others. Apparently, it was the first worldwide devotional that the missionary department had held in almost a decade. They talked about how we as missionaries are to teach repentance and baptize converts. They talked a lot about the fundamental things missionaries get drilled into their heads all the time. I think my favorite is when Dallin H. Oaks spoke. He talked about how the ordinances of the fulness of the gospel are necessary in order to reach exaltation and that nowhere else can ordinances be found. He talked about how exaltation cannot be achieved by just simply "living a good life" not even living a good "Christian life" can do it. Basically the message was that missionaries shouldn't fear to raise a warning voice when they realize that eternal life, exaltation itself, hangs in the balance. If we don't tell people that then we deny them the opportunity to exercise their agency and change. That was a lot of paraphrasing and I'm sure more of it was what I learned from the Spirit but I liked it. I think it was a good reminder to go back to fundamental things. It reminds me of what President Uchtdorf said last conference about keeping things simple.
The next highlight involves a story. So, one of the investigators that we visit lives down a long overgrown road. It's overgrown because she is really the only one that lives down that road. On Friday we were biking down that road and saw out of the corner of our eyes what looked to be like a black  rubber hose, but when we turned around to be sure, it was actually a snake! I'm pretty sure it was an anaconda. Now, anacondas can get big, so to make sure my fish doesn't get bigger as I tell this story this anaconda was probably three feet long. As me and Elder Buehler pulled out our cameras to take a picture Elder Buehler jokingly said "Touch it" Now, most missionaries in order to assure their families that they are ok and that they needn't worry, would say something along the lines of "We laughed about that and then took this sweet picture and had a great lesson." But you guys haven't withheld any information about what is going on at home, (I'll use Keri's car crash as an example but there have been other things) so I will not withhold information from you guys. I reached down and touched this snake. Now I did not do this because of peer pressure, in my mind I was half-planning to do it already so the joke was just encouragement.  I must have held my hand there for about three seconds when he jumped back. I moved my hand out of the way in time so he missed. So the most important message from this story is that I'M OK! What this all resulted in though was a really good picture Elder Buehler got mid-jump! I'll send it to you guys in another email. Needless to say I got lucky and will probably, maybe not, be touching snakes in the future. JK, I won't touch any more snakes. Later on in the day there was a snake at an investigators house that got scared and ran away but still freaked out the investigator pretty bad. I felt bad for her.
Now for some spiritual stories. We found a less-active! Turns out he was baptized in Guyana several years ago and was just getting ready to leave for his mission when he got scared and the thought of a mission became too much so he did not go, and as a result, did not go to church from that point on. He moved to Suriname about three years ago and said that he wanted to come back but couldn't because the church was so far away and the services were only in Dutch. It was really cool when we tried to see how much he could remember  by sharing the Restoration. His neighbor sat in and I nearly broke down to see that he still remembered almost every detail about the Restoration and could explain it perfectly. We found out a little later in the lesson that he holds the Melchizedek Priesthood which is gold when you are trying to start up a group. It just goes to show that people more than likely still believe in the gospel when they go less-active.
Last story from the week comes from an investigator named "C." She recently had a co-worker die unexpectedly in a plane crash so when we came over she was still somewhat shaken. She broke down towards the beginning of the lesson and we took the rest of the time to have a really good lesson on the Atonement. It's the kind of lesson you live for as a missionary because  there is no doubt in your mind what you are sharing is inspired and is  what they need.
Well that was it from this week! Hope you all have a great one as well!
Love you!
Elder Cooper

Commewijne has officially begun!!!

Hey everyone! Well to start off the email this week I have to say that the first sacrament meeting in Commewijne was a success! It felt a little different because we were just sitting in chairs in someone's home. There was a total of 20 people there. So we just moved to form a circle after sacrament meeting and had sunday school with just the 20 of us. But it was still awesome! Everyone was very excited. The branch president wants to send the pictures he took to the local news of the Dutch Liahona and see if we can get in haha. If we do then I will be sure to get that magazine.

We also moved into our apartment. it's a very nice apartment. It may look a little small but I kinda like it that way. When it's smaller there is less room for clutter. That was always my pet peeve when I was in other apartments, because they were bigger. Missionaries in the past would just use the extra space to store things they didn't want to throw away or take the time to organize. Like the last apartment for example was just a closet full of stuff. There is no way that would fly in this apartment though. Dad, do you remember those times when you would randomly come into my room and try to help me clean off my desk and organize all my stuff and have all the things organized in draws with everything having it's own place? Well it worked. I've kinda become OCD about having a clean organized desk, so now I'll have to help my son when he gets his own desk, and then he won't learn until his mission just how true that was. The lessons you just have to learn on a mission are too many to count. Haha

We had a really cool day on Saturday. Just three back to back lessons meeting with sincere people. 

It has been really fun opening up Commewijne! People here have never seen missionaries. Many of them aren't even Christian. You can walk up to people and know they haven't seen missionaries or the Book of Mormon before and you can just talk about it. It'll be fun to see how next Sunday goes!

That was it from this week! I did get the package! Thank you guys so much for your emails! It really does mean a lot.

Love,

Elder Cooper

Commewijne is starting!

Hey family! Thanks so much for all the emails. Carson, I'm super happy for you that you got to bless the sacrament for the first time yesterday. That was definitely a very spiritual experience for me every time I did it. I enjoyed it. Sometimes I wish I got the chance to do it more often. I don't think I got to do it with Dad for my first time so that just makes it even more special. It was also a really cool experience to get to pass the sacrament to all the people in the ward that can't make it to church because of health issues. It's hard right after church because you're hungry and a little tired and you want to get out of church clothes, but it's worth it.
As for this week the big news is that by 5 o' clock Surinamese time tomorrow, we will be in a new apartment! It's been a long time coming, it's definitely taught me to be patient with things. I'll be sure to take a picture of what our study room setup looked like before I leave. As you can guess, it was quite crowded. Also, the first sacrament service in Commewijne is going to be held in this Sunday! Everyone is pumped, the group leader has been called and we are going to help him with setup this Wednesday or Thursday. Because there are only a small group of people guaranteed to come, church is two hours instead of three. Hopefully now that we are going to be moved in we will see the work just sky rocket.
This week was a crazy one. A lot of appointments that we had made with people fell through. Which was a little frustrating but we took it as the Lord trying to lead us to someone who is truly prepared and there were some cool experiences!
One of them was when we went to a guy named "M." We had made an appointment with him on Tuesday which did not work out and so we tried him again on Thursday. He turned out to be a really cool guy. We taught him about the Restoration and he had several good questions about it. He was asking stuff like how is the priesthood given, who is it given to, all that stuff. Best part of the lesson was at the end when we asked if there were questions and he just said, "Well no, it just seems like the ball is in my court now." It's little things like that that tell you someone is ready to act, which is sweet.
Another cool moment was when we got to go to the new group leaders home. He asked if we could share a quick message with him and his family and then he would take us to a couple of family members and friends that he knew in the neighborhood. It was sweet! We met them all and set up appointments with them. It's cool to see all the excitement members are having about the group getting started. It gets all of us excited as well.
I've been thinking a lot this week about how it has been going trying to start up this new area. It's hard sometimes because besides two or three families the only people you have to visit are the ones you find. A lot of the time you make an appointment with someone and then when it comes time for the appointment they bail and come up with an excuse. It's frustrating, but it's all part of the fun of starting up a completely new area. It makes me think about how a lot of other prophets and missionaries started their areas. Ammon came into his new area and simply served and loved the people. The sons of Mosiah went and taught the Lamanites and almost turned back it got so hard. Alma gave up the judgement seat and the comfort of his own home to try and call the church to repentance. In all of these cases though the Lord had something prepared for them, Alma found his companion Amulek, the sons of Mosiah and Ammon had the Anti-Nephi-Lehis, it would have been easy for them to say "This is too hard" and just turn back. But they didn't. They knew the Lord had something for them and they stuck to it. I think we all experience that at some point in our lives. We get thrown into a new environment and it obviously gets too hard and the temptation is to just give up, but I like what I heard Elder Buehler tell an investigator this week. "There is little growth in a comfort zone and there is little comfort in a growth zone." I know the Lord has something prepared for us whenever he calls us to do something that is new, uncomfortable, or foreign to us. It's been a fun lesson to learn that and I'm still learning a lot about the truthfulness of that.
Thank you guys so much for all the emails! Have a great week!
Love,
Elder Cooper
P.S To explain some of these pictures: McDonalds never fails to deliver and as you can tell by the picture, I was impressed with their new idea of adding the tomato sticker label to their chicken mac.
The next one is a house the sisters found in their area. Nicknamed the "Smurf house" haha good stuff.
The last one is a picture of probably the best mango I've ever had. Most mangos here are very stringy and you mostly suck on them. This mango though was perfect. Wish you guys could have tried it.

Happy New Year!

Hey family! Thanks for all the birthday wishes. Those skit pictures looked awesome.
Well for starters, never try to fly under the radar when it's your birthday. You will have people swoop in and make it the biggest thing haha. I had told one of the zone leaders (who we happen to be staying in the same apartment with)  a couple weeks ago that my birthday was today. I was half expecting him to forget and then when he saw me open up the birthday presents he would remember. Well, I was wrong. On Sunday night when they were out teaching he told one of the member families that they work a lot with, and who I know fairly well mostly from being in Paramaribo for awhile now, that my birthday was tomorrow. So. . . they made a recording of them singing the Surinamese version of happy birthday and that recording became the alarm we woke up to today. If that wasn't enough two of the boys from that family came over in the middle of studies and had bought a cake. So much for keeping it a secret. I told them all thanks. It was incredibly nice of them. They are a really cool family, (I don't say that just because they brought the cake either) The mother and the father want to be baptized but have to be married first. They are planning on getting married in 2016. All of them are incredibly nice and it's easy to see that they will make great members.
As far as what I do today, not that much. We are going to the mall to get Elder Buehler some things he wants, maybe I'll buy something as well if I see something. :)
Thank you guys so much for all the Christmas gifts by the way, I really enjoy the music, it's nice to be able to listen to music after going without for awhile.
This week was an awesome week. So many tender mercies from the Lord in finding people. One lady we found on Christmas was really cool. We were biking around trying to figure out what exactly we would do, when we heard her greet us really friendly, almost calling out for our attention. We decided to turn around and see why she was so nice and come to find out, the Lord has been somewhat involved in her life. She told us a story where her son had a car hit him at the age of 7 and it was not looking good for him. She shared how that was bringing him to the hospital, not only wondering if he was going to be ok, but if she was going to be able to pay for all the medical expenses. This part of the story was not so clear, but what we think happened is that elders were in the hospital that day probably visiting a member to give them a blessing, and they got asked to give a blessing to her kid while they were there. The elders left after that and while this lady, her name is "G", was wondering what was going to happen, the nurse came in and told her that her son was good to go home. She recognized that the Lord had healed her child but never really saw the elders again. It was really cool to talk to her and hear that story, she was just so excited.
Another cool miracle from the week was when we went and shared a Christmas message at the same family's house we Skyped at. They had invited a couple of friends and one of those families has a son that is doing a foreign exchange program in the States. This son is staying with a Mormon family while he is there. They take him to church every Sunday. I don't believe in coincidence.
Lot's of other things happened, but it's so much in one email. I love you guys so much. Please tell everyone I said hi! I hope you all have a great new year!
Have a great week!
Love,
Elder Cole Cooper

BIG NEWS!!

In the vast stretches of the flat greenland of Suriname there lies a river that bears the solemn name of the country. This river has a surprisingly rich history; a German WWII ship has been sunk and the remnants can still be seen from the shoreline. But this river is also a barrier. A barrier for missionary work. On the West side of the river the church is somewhat established and enjoys the blessings of five well-spread branches. But East of the river, there lays a city named Commewijne, (coma-wine-a) untouched by missionaries. All white, ready to be harvested. Missionaries and the leadership of Suriname counseled together for many a night and many a day to determine when the time would be just right to send the Lord's forces across the river into the untouched, unharvested city of Commewijne. Several events showed promise, a bridge reaching 100+ feet high was built and allowed the citizens of Commewijne and Paramaribo to cross the historic Suriname river and it allowed them to more closely interact one with another. But the time was not yet ripe, until December 12, 2015. A day when the Lord would declare to the missionaries and the church in Suriname to go. Go and cross the bridge and enter the untouched, unharvested city of Commewijne. "For behold the field is white already to harvest."

Ok, I had to type that up to give this news some context. It'll make more sense as I explain. This last Saturday we received transfer calls. Elder Hardy is partially leaving Paramaribo North and is going to be companions with one of the elders he knew in the MTC. Part of the Paramaribo North area will still be his area, but a part of the area that belonged to other missionaries is part of his area now. It's called Munder.
As far as what happens to me, well that's where the first paragraph of this email comes in. I have been asked to go and open up a group in the city of Commewijne. This area is across the Suriname river, over the Commewijne bridge. Missionaries have never worked there before, and up until this point there was not enough members living there to justify starting serious missionary work there. But now, there are several members and families living there and a sufficient amount of Melchizedek Priesthood holders that the Lord can now open up work in that area. I am really excited and it was cool to see how the members living in Commewijne responded when they heard the news. Me and Elder Hardy got to go with President Verway to meet them on Sunday to give them the news. Every member offered their home as a place to meet and were really excited to hear about missionaries finally crossing the river. One member went so far as to talk about building an apartment and buying a plot of land for a church building to be built there. He was excited. I am excited too!
I am going to be with an elder that has been in the mission field for about three months. His name is Elder Buehler. I've never met him so it'll be cool to get to meet him.
Don't worry about me leaving anything behind. We are driven in a truck/van for transfers so I don't have to pack up too much, or pack with the idea of losing weight. I will be able to take all of my christmas gifts and decorations, and belongings, etc. It'll be fun, it'll be an adventure and it'll be hard, but the members are willing to help and I'm excited to get to work with them.
I will still be able to get packages/letters that you send to Suriname so that's good as well.
I think I'll end this week's email with this verse in Alma 6
4: And thus they began to establish the order of the church in the city of [Commewijne]
5: Now I would that ye should understand that the word of God was liberal unto all, that none were deprived of the privilege of assembling themselves together to hear the word of God.
6: Nevertheless the children of God were commanded that they should gather themselves together oft, and join in fasting and mighty prayer in behalf of the welfare of the souls who knew not God.
I know this is a sign of the Lord hastening the work here in Suriname. This work is true. Thank you guys so much for the emails! I love you!
Have a great week!
Elder Cooper

Hey Family! (Letter Written Dec. 7th)

Hey family! Mom that's cool you're in the Primary Presidency. I know you're going to get really good at that calling. I can see it for sure.
As far as this week goes it was a very normal week. Highlight of the week is probably when we took a member of the Relief Society to go and visit "E." She is the funniest sister in the whole Paramaribo branch. We talked about the love God has for us, how he is willing to hear our prayers and answer them. This sister, her name is Sister "S", talked about how she has seen God's love in her life. Her and "E" also shared each others conversion story, so that was cool. The funniest part of the whole appointment was at the end when as we were leaving Sister "S" said "I love you guys!" "E" then said, "love? I don't know if I would say that!" Sister "S" then turned to her and said "What? You don't love the elders?! Oh sister that's bad!" Pretty funny.
Bro. "B" came to church again this week and after we talked with the branch president he said Bro. "B", in an interview, has promised to come every week. We are excited for him to start making steps into full activity again. He is such a cool guy.
Thursday we went to the visa place to check on the progress of our visa's, and now I can say after a little less than a year and a half of being in Suriname. . . I am officially legal! Haha fun stuff.
Saturday we had a contacting blitz that was really fun! It's cool to just go and talk to people on the street as you see them. Hopefully we get the chance to follow up on some of the people we talked to.
Sorry it's so short this week! But transfers are this weekend and who knows where I will be going. I think the only thing I'm sure of is that I'm leaving the area. It's rarely heard of for an elder to spend so long in one area and I doubt I stay longer. I'm excited to give you guys the news next week! Have a great week!
Love you guys!
Elder Cooper

Christmas Without Snow

Hey family! Glad to hear that Thanksgiving was good for all of you guys. I'm excited to try that smoked turkey when I get home.
Just to let you guys know I got your Christmas package. Not Grammy's yet, but I'm sure it's on the way. Elder Hardy and I really liked the hats that you guys sent the 12 days of Christmas thing in. We have started a new tradition where during nightly planning we wear them.  I also have to wear it when I do nightly phone calls. We also had fun decorating the tree and our apartment with Christmas things. Not sure how you can have Christmas in 90 degree weather and with popsicles instead of hot chocolate but that's what we are doing here. I'm excited for Christmas, I promise I have not opened any of my presents. (Even the one that it is easy to tell that they're contacts) :)
This week had several very cool experiences. I will start with our success with Bro. "B."  Bro. B is a Melchizedek Priesthood holder that has been less-active for a long time. At least several years. We found him a couple of months ago and have been consistently visiting him with members and also just ourselves. At first he wasn't showing any signs of coming back and a lot of times we wondered if we should stop and try and focus our efforts somewhere else. About a month ago he started saying he was going to come back to church and two weeks ago he came to just sacrament meeting. Then this week he actually took us to church and stayed all three hours which meant we didn't have to bike haha. He is now committed to coming to church every week! It has been cool to get a testimony of working with less-actives. A lot of the times our efforts don't seem to mean much. I can't tell you how many times we said to ourselves we may need to focus on someone else. Something kept us coming back though and now we are starting to see the fruits of it. I am thoroughly convinced that the majority of less-actives out there still know the gospel is true. The problem is hardly ever with the doctrine, it usually finds its roots in feeling at home. Sometimes they leave because they just need to go somewhere where they are welcome. Of course we are not done with Bro. B.  There are still things for us to do to help him, but we are starting to see fruits, and we are excited.
   
This and other things are experiences that are the biggest testimony builders for me of two important truths. The first one is that God is fully prepared and willing to give us second chances. He is chock full of them. He knows he is not dealing with a broken car, or a broken toy, but with broken people. People that need Christ's Atonement. If we make just one step toward him in an effort for help he stretches out his hand and takes ten steps toward us.
It also has built my testimony of the Book of Mormon and the word of God. The only thing that kept us from dropping an investigator this week was the fact that he was reading the Book of Mormon. Not just reading it, but asking sincere questions about it. We knew that one could only read that for so long before the doctrine of Jesus Christ would begin to sink in. After talking with our investigator this week a little bit  it was clear to see that was exactly what happened. I know that through God, we can change. Permanently.
I hope you all have an amazing week! Love you guys!
Elder Cooper

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hey guys! Thanks so much for all the emails! Hope you guys have a great Thanksgiving on Thursday. We actually celebrated Thanksgiving today at a member family called the "S's." They are a really nice family. I don't know if you guys remember me ever telling an experience from the MTC where we got to meet a member from Suriname. Every time a new missionary comes along he shares the story of how he met us in the MTC last year haha. Either way, Bro. S is retired and so he gets to travel a lot. He has actually been to all the temples in Utah. Him and his wife prepared a great Thanksgiving.. Turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes, corn, etc. All the missionaries in Suriname were there. So, don't worry about us not getting to celebrate Thanksgiving. We are good here.
We had a baptism this week! Her name is E. She is an older lady from Guyana who made a lot of progression in the short time that we have known her. We actually almost stopped teaching her at first because she seemed adamant that she would not be baptized. But after inviting her to pray about it she came around. Within two weeks of our first meeting with her she came to church, then General Conference, and every sacrament meeting after that. She also read the Book of Mormon and had no question or doubt that it was true. It was really cool to see how the Relief Society President had supported her and helped us teach her. It'll mean so much for E when she can rely on her during struggles.
As far as the rest of the week goes, it's actually hard to say. We focused really hard on helping E make this baptism because we knew how hard Satan can work on investigators. Another highlight of the week was probably getting to go home teaching with one of the members to a less-active. We have been trying to do everything we can to get this member to come back. She was actually baptized in May of this year but has just not been feeling healthy enough to go to church the past month. She did not come to church this week, but seeing her home teacher just brightened up her day. They talked for a good 20 minutes or so before we actually got into the lesson. It was definitely a testimony builder for me that as a missionary, in fact just as a child of God, I can't do it alone. We visited her twice a week but she did not look as excited as when she saw a member from the branch.
I was thinking a lot about repentance this week and how important it is to help investigators understand it. A lot of the time as missionaries, and also so that we can keep things simple and easy to understand, we talk about repentance as a five or six step process that we go through before we receive forgiveness. As I was studying it though and pondering about it, I realized it's actually a lot more like what the GA's have been trying to teach about the Sabbath Day. What I mean by that is all the lists or steps are nice, especially when we need help understanding repentance or the Sabbath Day. But once we understand it, we can feel comfortable "throwing away the list" as Elder Nelson put it and realize that repentance is actually bringing our will in line with God's. That process can take more than just the five or so steps, and it may take more than just a week. It may take several steps, several weeks, even a whole lifetime. When I came to that realization it made me want to approach repentance with a lot more spiritual preparation behind it, to approach it with the question of, "what do I do or think that is not in line with what God does or thinks?" I don't know, it was a cool realization to come to for me.
Anyways! Love you guys so much! Have a great week!
Love,
Elder Cooper

Crazy Week

So, this week was just absolutely crazy. In a good way of course, but very crazy.
It started off on Tuesday with zone conference. President Egbert, in case you guys didn't know, needed to go through an eye surgery a couple of weeks ago in the DR and had to stay there for about two weeks while he recovered. (Reading his weekly reports on what exactly had happened and how he was recovering was really cool for me because I want to go into eye surgery). He barely made it to Suriname on Tuesday. He flew into four countries in the course of 24 hours. I feel like that kind of travel can only happen in a place like the West Indies. So he made it to the scheduled day of zone conference and it was amazing. We talked so much about how we can hold better branch councils and work more with the members. It's interesting when we discuss things like that because we all try and imagine (as elders) what an effective branch council is like but we never sat in one at home and it's hard to tell when a branch council here is effective or not. I just imagine what it might be like to sit in a branch council with Bishop Sumner, or now Bishop Angerhofer and I can't help feeling like it's always how best to help people with a little bit of explanation on all kinds of doctrine. Maybe you can help me out on that one Dad? Anyways, it was really good. President Egbert encouraged us to visit more members and instruct them on how to better fulfill their callings. Zone conference always inspires me so I'm just pumped to go out and work.
Elder Hardy and the elders in his MTC group had to fly out to Guyana with about two hours left in zone conference so I felt bad for him because that would have made me a little upset. You might have to go to his mom for more details, but what I can say is that he went there before they had planned a return flight so he stayed there for about four days. In that time he was able to fall into a trench, basically just full of mud, tar, grime, and other assorted gross things. He was also bit by a ton of mosquitos and played monopoly. Good news is that we are back together.
As far as what I did in those four days. . . almost nothing! One of the elders that I was going to be in a trio with for the time Elder Hardy was gone started to get sick so for two of the four days me and Elder James just hung out in Elder James' apartment while the other elder slept. Me and Elder James worked together when I first came to Paramaribo North so we just caught up, talked about different struggles and successes in our missions. Fun stuff.
 I did get to go teaching with one of the AP's on Wednesday though. He is really cool. His name is Elder Sheen. He is a different type of leader for sure, in a good way. One of the first assistants that makes me feel like I can mostly be myself around him and not worry about what he thinks. He is a farmer from Canada so you could tell he just worked hard. He is an incredibly good teacher as well, I learned several things from him.
As far as our baptism, because Elder Hardy wasn't here and I couldn't really go teaching we could not prepare "E" well enough for last Saturday. After explaining all this she understood and prayed about it and wants to get baptized this Saturday on the 21. We are really excited for her. The members have been really helpful in picking up where we slack off or are not as organized so it's really cool to see.
As far as when I'm released August 21st sounds about right. My card that says I can proselyte and preach the gospel expires on the 22 of August so I imagine I would go home right before or right after that. I can ask President Egbert about it. I know some elders leave a transfer early but I will really like to avoid doing that. I'll let you know when I found out a little more.
Anyways, I think I have some pictures to send that I could not get to work last week. The picture of the package is a joke Elder Carpenter played on Elder Hardy. He had to deliver the package to us and before he handed it off he had written that cheesy note. The funniest part was that he did not immediately tell us he had done it. So to be honest, when I saw that note, I thought his mom had really written him that. Too funny.
I love you guys! Thanks so much for the emails and support. Tell Mitch and Cam I said hi! Have a great week!
Love,
Elder Cooper

The Refiner's Fire

Service Project at Palm Garden

Repainted the Playground

International Service Day

with the Branch in Suriname

All these pictures are from Elder Hardy and his Mom. (((HUGS)))

Cole forgot to send us some this week.

Hey family! Don't worry about the subject line. This week was actually really good!
To start off I do have to talk about the reason why the subject is what it is. On Thursday, we ran by one of our investigators named "B" He is a great guy. He teaches English and is very educated. In the last month or two that we have known him he has always admitted to struggles about his faith in God and especially faith in leadership, which made the concept of prophets very hard to accept. We were willing to work with him but when we tried to visit him after missing an appointment on Thursday his cousin came out and told us that he wasn't home and that he did not feel like he could meet with us further because of conflicting beliefs. It was really sad. We still want to call him and ask him about it personally but for right now it seems like he has dropped us. I know the only reason why the Lord would do that is because there are other people that need our help and focus. I know the Lord has other prepared people for us.
Despite that sad experience, the week was actually really good. We had a less-active we have been working very closely with finally come back to church after several years. He could only come to first hour, but that is a great first step. We hope we can see him start to come back more, because he is a Melchizedek Priesthood holder so the branch needs him.
We also had a lot of fun on international service day! There is a place called Palm Garden in the city that has just a bunch of palm trees everywhere. We helped to sand and repaint a playground in the garden. The other branches were busy in other parts of Suriname. It was a big enough thing we actually made the news!
Everyone is still on track for their baptismal dates! "E" came to church on Sunday and if everything goes well she will be baptized on Saturday. We are really excited for her.
I've taken a little too long writing this week, but next week will be quite a bit because zone conference is happening sometime this week. I'm pretty excited. It's always fun.
I love you guys! Hope you have an amazing week!
Love,
Elder Cooper

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

Lots of News!

Branch Mission Leader

Gospel Principles Class

Cola-Creek

Hey family! I'm glad to hear how everyone is doing good, even if it wasn't the most exciting week. There is a lot I feel like I want to talk about so I'll get right to it.
About the music, I've been trying to figure out what options I had and what I could do. Basically, the policy President Egbert came out with makes my speaker ok. But not the ipod I use it with it because it can access radio and has a touch screen. The speaker works by bluetooth so I don't know how many devices are out there that can use bluetooth and at the same time not access the radio or have a touch screen. As far as what can be on the playing device, I feel like really only hymns, MOTAB, and some, not all, of music from EFY would be appropriate. The idea is reverent music, which makes even some of my classical music not ok. I would really just like the instrumental versions of the hymns, especially on guitar if that's even there. I appreciate you guys trying to help though, if it becomes too difficult please don't worry about it. I've gone three weeks without it so far, I don't think too much will change in a year.
As far as what happened this week...we had a convert of about two years get a calling that more or less makes him a ward missionary. We went to visit him a couple of days after he had received this calling and he challenged us to go out contacting with him to try and find 10 new people. He said he wanted to form a stake.  I can't tell you how much these people want that. We went out with him on Saturday to find these people and found a couple of really promising people. We are excited for them and for him with his new calling.
Another highlight of the week was yesterday during church where we had a good attendance for gospel principles class. There were members and investigators that spoke English, Dutch, and Portugese. The class was in English and one Portugese member who knows just a little bit of English translated the input they gave. It was really cool to see everyone participating despite the clear language barrier. I really feel like participation in Sunday school is what helps people to stay active in the church, it's so much more edifying when everyone gets to share inputs and experiences.
To explain some of the pictures,
The one of just me and a guy with a beard is a picture of our branch mission leader! Super humble, super cool guy, the church has helped to completely turn his life around.
There are a couple from gospel principles yesterday
There are also a couple from our P-day activity today. We went to a place called Cola Creek. So named because the water is said to look like Coke, I'll let you guys decide. We played a lot of volleyball and celebrated a sister missionary's birthday. Fun stuff.
I love you guys so much! The last thought I want to share is something that came from Elders quorum yesterday. We talked about how the welfare program got started with Ezra Taft Benson. The elders quorum discussed a lot about how being self reliant means doing as much as we can to help ourselves before the Lord and others would come in to help us. I felt very grateful when I realized how much my parents had emphasized the principle of hard work, not just by talking about it, but also in actually living by those principles. Thank you for helping me to understand that, I thought a lot about people here who do not always grow up in circumstances that allow them to enjoy the benefits of loving parents who teach their children everything. Thank you guys so much for that example.
I love you guys so much.
Have an amazing week!
Love,
Elder Cooper

Baptismal Dates

Hey family! It sounds like we are not allowed to go to Boise State games unless they play in a bowl game. To throw down the stats, in regular season games we have shown up to Boise State is 1-2, but in bowl games that we attend Boise State is 4-1. :) Good news is that we are a young team with time to improve.
This week was a great one. One of our investigators named "E" has made a lot of progress the last transfer. She has been to church twice now and attended a session of General Conference. Yesterday was the first time she attended all three hours. We had interviews on Tuesday which I always enjoy. After our interview with President Egbert we went and taught her, and I think being on the spiritual high inspired her to pray about being baptized on the 14th of November. When we went to her again on Friday she agreed to be baptized. It was great to see the Lord working in her life to answer her prayers.
 I write in my journal, but I think the only events I really make sure to write down are interviews and baptisms. In my interview with President Egbert we talked a lot about how as a leader you have to earn the respect of people and not demand it. He shared a story about how a bishop had had a lot of success with the ward where he was, especially in helping people to come back. When a new bishop got called, he, needless to say had huge shoes to fill. But because of the members' faith in the Lord they respected him at first because of his calling, and as time went on he earned the respect of the ward by his actions. I realized how good of a goal that is, to strive for the respect of people not because you hold a certain position, but because you take a sincere interest in their lives and you have earned their respect by your works and by the example you try to be.
We also talked about the Atonement and the power that God has to deliver us from trials. After that discussion I thought a lot about how the Lord might deliver us from a trial. In the beginning of 1 Nephi, Laman and Lemuel bind Nephi with cords and plan to leave him there to die. Then Nephi prays for strength to have the binds broken. I think one of two things could have happened after that prayer, the bindings could have just suddenly loosened and fell limp to the ground or Nephi needed to struggle and fight before the cords could be broken. I think it was the latter that really happened. Often times the way the Lord delivers us from a trial is not by moving us away from the obstacle, or moving the obstacle out of our path but giving us the strength and motivation to jump over it. It was a cool discussion.
Transfers are in a little more than two weeks. I honestly don't know what'll happen to me. I will at that time have spent four transfers here in Paramaribo North and I spent five in Wanica North. I sometimes catch myself thinking that it is just as likely I stay here for five transfers just like in Wanica. I'm not sure how I feel about that. There are pros and  cons. I'm sure I'll know by the end of the transfer.
The cyber where I'm at is known for causing SD cards to crash so I'm playing the safe side this week. Next week for sure. I love you! Thanks for all your support! Have an amazing week!
Love,
Elder Cooper