First Time Doing Exchanges

Hey you guys! First off, I want to apologize for not emailing on Monday. Because Suriname's Independence Day was yesterday all the places to email were closed Monday and Tuesday.
So since my companion is district leader he has to go on exchanges with all the elders in the district each transfer. So this week I went on exchanges twice. The first exchange was in Uitkijk (pronounced out-kike, the i is the same as bike). Uitkijk is basically the jungle. It is the least populated area the missionaries work in Suriname and they do real biking there. Elder Horton, the missionary who has spent the past few transfers there, decided he would take me to a part of the area that is half an hour away from the apartment by bike. It was crazy. It was easily the most biking I've done in a day this transfer. It was also really beautiful. It's not like total jungle going through dirt roads and stuff. It's just not as populated as Paramaribo or Wanica where I work. By the time we had exchanged and gotten out it only left us enough time to see three appointments before we had to get home. Elder Horton is a cool elder. He is actually a certified pilot and pilot instructor. He was telling me all about different kinds of planes including the F-22, which is America's best jet. He also explained to me the importance of language study. He said when he first got here it was tough.He couldn't speak the language well and he had to work hard. In his words, harder than any other elder. But now, he is easily the best with the language. He does his personal study in Dutch which no other missionary does. He would quiz me and ask me what the words were for different things. Really obscure things. For example, he asked me what the word for kidney is in Dutch. I had no clue. It just goes to show how important it is to work hard. It's like you told me dad---there will be work.
The second exchange was a little different. I went with Elder Mercier (it's a french name so it sounds like mercy-ay). While we were out in my area we made a contact that gave us their address and phone number. As they were leaving he told me to call it and check to make sure it worked since they sometimes give fake numbers. There were two problems with that though, 1. We met them outside of their house so they wouldn't be able to answer even if the number did work. and 2. If they give us a fake number it means they're not interested. That's not to say the day went bad. He actually saved my skin when I realized I didn't have anything to share with a recent convert appointment we had.
Our area also got a huge boost this week. We did a contacting blitz in the city. Basically the members and the missionaries contact people on the street, get their name and address, and then all the areas get the people who are in their area. We have 30 or so people we need to call and make appointments with for the week so that will be cool to see how it goes.
Well that's pretty much all I have! Good luck this week!
Elder Cole Cooper

Hold Fast To Your Successes

Hey! So this week has been awesome. It had its ups and downs but I liked this week. We were able to meet with the guy that had stopped with us and helped with our bikes and I like him. We gave him a Book of Mormon and he says he will read a little.  Also my bike has been a little bit more consistent which is nice.
One of the highlights of the week for me was visiting one of the very few contacts we were able to make. It was late in the day and we decided to make a couple of contacts before an appointment. We get to the end of the street and the guy that comes out starts talking to us and asking what we do. He then begins to explain how the Bible is the greatest book and how we always have to go back to the Bible. We offered him a Book of Mormon and explained it and he said I'm not against this book, and I'll read it but the Bible is the greatest book. He wasn't too receptive to everything which I understand but it was nice because he defended his faith a little bit and explained himself. Most people try to be nice and let us in but they tell us almost nothing about their belief or questions. I'm excited to follow up a little bit because he seems like a cool guy to teach and I could see him being really good at defending the LDS church.
I love you guys. I want you to know that even though we go through trials, and tough times it's worth it and there's always something we can get out of it. My mission has had some good days and not so good days and it's only the first transfer, but I love that. Every little success we can find we take it. I want you to know that the same thing happens in our lives and during trials. We have little successes in between our trials and the best advice I can give in my short 18 years of experience is to hold fast to those successes. I promise you that they're there, and even if they're not many there are still some you may never be able to count. A quick conversation over the phone with someone might have actually helped them in their trial.
I don't know where that came from, I just feel like it needed to be said.
I love you guys! Keep me posted! Have a great week!
Love
Elder Cooper
(His email was short this week. We told him that we had to put Rocky down because he had cancer.)

Broken Bike Leads Us To Investigator

Hey guys! I'm glad that we figured out a dropbox and a way to send packages. I'm excited to see what gets sent. Writing letters through the regular mail is a good idea. I think that'll help if you keep the emails shorter. I always enjoy reading them but I would also like to email other missionaries that are out. I can also focus on writing my long email a little more and make it more composed than the past couple weeks have been. I will try to write you personal letters too. 

Where to start with this week? My bike decided to break down this week which was not fun. It started when we were riding back from exchanges and I hit a rock that popped the inside tube and made a hole in the outside tire. We took it to a guy who replaced both of them. The outside rubber was bald anyway and it needed replacing. After that the bike worked fine until the bearings decided to wear out. This meant the tire would barely move when I pedaled. We had to take it back to the same guy and have it fixed again. Now at this point I think we are all good, I can go and not worry about it. That was until I hit a pothole. It wasn't a huge pothole, the bike had taken stuff like it before, but the guy who fixed the inner tube and outside rubber used a bad quality inner tube  and not only that but he didn't put it in carefully so the tube got pinched which made it even more likely to pop. So after hitting this pothole the inner tube burst and had a decent sized hole, unable to pumped. We had no choice but to cut our day short and walk home with our bikes. The one thing that was cool is that while we were walking home a guy on his own bike stopped next to us and asked about the bike and told us where we could go to get parts. (We already knew where we wanted to go it was just nice for him to suggest something) From there he actually biked with us back to our street and so we turned it into a contact and set up an appointment to meet him. Who knows maybe my bike was supposed to be a piece of work this week? I'm excited to meet him again. He seemed nice. Today we were able to replace the inner tube and the bike is working fine so far, here's hoping it stays that way. 

Other than that the week was fine. A couple of appointments didn't work out, but that's part of the culture. People set appointments and forget they even set something. Or they set up an appointment and then don't want to meet anymore and just ignore you. It's ok, even though it was a bit of a trial we still had some successes. A less active is now consistently coming to church and the one progressing investigator made it to church for the second week in a row. I'll gladly take any success I can. 

To paint a picture of the area...It is interesting let's say. The neighborhood streets are narrow and made of dirt/sand. Most roads have a gross sort of canal, where all there is standing water. It could be sewage or used water from the houses nearby, I'm not sure. Algae grows on it a ton and they are usually full of trash. 

Chois, the store that mom checked out online, is probably the nicest store, which we can only visit once a week if that. Most stores or "winkels," as the locals call them, are basic. Fresh quality fruit or vegetables are hard to come by unless you go to Chois or another store called "Best Mart," which I have not been to. Bread you can get at the "winkels" so long as you plan to use it soon. 

The members of the church are incredibly friendly and fun to talk to. Most people will let you talk to them and listen. A couple people have even fed us. 

I love you guys! I miss you like crazy but I know there will be blessings for all of us.

I'll try the dropbox! Here goes nothing! 

Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Cole Cooper 

2nd Week

Trinidad

We see a lot of this kind of bird in Suriname.

(Weekly Nat Geo) :)

Hey guys! So it sounds like the method of transportation wasn't mentioned in my last email. I'm on a bike!
That was awesome to hear about how Halloween was for you guys, and Keri's birthday. The people in my area have heard about it but they don't celebrate it. The majority of the holidays celebrated here are Hindu holidays. The last one was called Dwhali. (Not sure about the spelling).
1. How is the weather?
As for the weather…IT IS HOT. Imagine yourself as sweaty as you've ever been. Now it's on your arms and you are in Sunday clothes. I need to buy a handkerchief because you cannot wipe yourself with your sweaty arm or nice shirt. The thing about rain here is that when it does rain it's not heavy and it doesn't last. At least at this time of the year. So I guess that's why it's a pretty safe bet for the weather app to say it always rains.
I really want to eat healthy here. Most of the diet is rice and chicken and to buy anything else is tough. Today we went to a store called Chois. I bought a lot of fruit and veggies. Mom, would you mind sending me a recipe or two? Keep in mind we do not have a lot of access to the food you guys have there. I can cook,. I just need something to go off of.
2. How is your companion?
My companion is great. He is really patient. He is willing to try people even if we are confident they won't keep commitments. We had all of Saturday booked. The branch had a service that we were sure we would have to leave early due to the appointments, but by the end of the day we had learned that none of them ended up working out. People say they will be at their house and then you come and they are not there or they let you in but don't keep commitments. Or they avoid you. I almost think I'd rather have the door slammed in my face.?????
Funny thing about doors is that we don't knock. We stand outside of their house and yell "Klop Klop" (Dutch for knock knock) Kinda funny. Everything can get a little bit frustrating but we will figure it out.
3. How are the members and investigators?
Funny story from this week. We had a plan to go to a less active's house and try and help her become reactivated but I think she is just interested in finding different churches not in coming closer to Christ or hearing the gospel. We spent about 20 minutes on her doorstep as she explained to us that the meetings in our branch are "zai" (boring). She said she would like to see instruments and people clapping…. this… that… and the other thing. She also claimed that a branch in Parimaribo was clapping and singing loud (which isn't true) It was funny. I wanted to say something like "I feel ya, I would love a rock band in church too.”
We will see how this week works out. We are trying to schedule member visits and get referrals from them, rather than people we contact not showing interest.
This letter has been all over the place, but just know that with all the ups and downs it's been a great week. I'm excited and looking forward to this one. Oh and please send one or two recipes Mom. I want to eat healthy but we're a little limited.
I will try to get a dropbox set up since I think I will have a lot more pictures. All the pictures I send will be in different email.
I hope this email answered most of your questions.
Love you guys!
Elder Cole Cooper

1st Week in Suriname

Hey everyone! I made it to Suriname! I'm here safe, and everything went well traveling here. First things first. I feel really bad because this week was hectic and I came into the internet cafe and realized I had taken no pictures! I feel really bad. But I promise there will be like 10 next week. I want you to see my apartment, companion, and a couple of the people that I met that are really cool.
To start out, I'll talk about my companion. Elder Beckstrand is from North Ogden Utah and has been out in the mission field for 1 1/2 years. He served in Alabama the first bit of his mission, and then got his visa. He is cool. He's soft spoken and he is really patient with people. He sees the good and even though people have a hard time making it to church he is patient, still loves them, and can see what they can become.
The apartment is nice. Since the humidity gets bad they don't have carpet. So it's all tile. Every apartment has a filter so even if the water wasn't filtered it would be fine. Elder Beckstrand has used an unfiltered faucet to brush his teeth and has never been sick from it. Apparently most of the water in Suriname is fine. Our apartment also has air conditioning which is really nice when we get home at the end of the day.
I like the area and the branch. It's different here. The people live in really humble circumstances. Almost half of the people we visit live in wood shacks that don't take up a lot of space. They are really nice people though for the most part. There is one recent convert named B- who only speaks the local language called Sranan Tongo and French. It's tough teaching him because Sranan is a basic language so words like Agency don't exist. He has a French book of Mormon and he reads and highlights what he likes. He can only read so much and so fast in French or Dutch though. I can only imagine how tough it is for him in church. The meetings are in Dutch and so he can only can get so much out of it. It would be an easy excuse for him not to come but he comes anyway. In Gospel Principles he read quietly aloud to me from the Dutch copy of the Book of Mormon. It was really cool to see. I'll get a picture with him this week so you can see. He is really awesome.
We have focused a lot this last week on less actives and recent converts. On average they have about 65 people come to church and you need a 100 to have a building made. Right now they just rent out a building. My first Sacrament meeting was a Primary Program. All the kids were dressed in lime green and shared their testimonies and small talks. It was cool. The members are nice and I'm excited to meet more of them and to get to know them better.
As for the language I have a hard time understanding the people. They speak with a "wa" the same way we pronounce the letter, but it's tough because all I had heard in the MTC was pronounced with a "v" they also speak really fast! Especially the younger people. We visited one member who had two girls there that were like 17 or 18 years old. I'm not sure how they are all related, but the younger ones were saying all kinds of stuff about how dangerous the neighborhood was. It was basically a lot of rumors and nonsense. They asked for a Book of Mormon so we handed them out but we are not sure if they will begin to be progressing investigators.
As for the food, it's ok. It usually has curry in it, and most of the dishes here have chicken in them. It tastes fine but I know I won't want to have a lot more of it come a year from now. They have their own soda company which is pretty good. It's different a little bit from soda we have in America but the stuff in Suriname is still good. Fruit comes and goes out of season, which is crazy to think about. In America we always have access to whatever fruit we want, or vegetable. Here you have to wait until they come into season. What I will say is that we take a lot of things for granted. Just our home and the access to a variety of foods in general.
The music here is terrible too by the way. I swear it's the same music in the background just different words. I hate to say it, but one of the first things I will do when I get home is listen to good music. What was fun is when we went to an investigators home and someone had I'll Be There For You by Bon Jovi playing from a speaker. It was a nice change from the music here.
The climate here is hot. They say that this is also the hottest time of the year and that this year in particular is one of the hottest years in a long time. Just in time for me to make it.
Well I've got to run but I will see you all next week! With pics!
Love
Elder Cooper

Finished with the MTC!!

Me and Brother Norton

An Elder who went to Sweden

My weekly submission to Nat Geo

Hey guys!! I just wanted to thank everybody that sent me a letter or package while I was here. It means a lot and it confirmed to me what I already knew and that is that I'm loved.
So everyone wants to know if me and my district got our visas and I think we are good to go. All of us got our individual flight plans and it shows us landing in Trinidad. I guess they tell you by where your travel plan says you're going. Needless to say we are all super excited.  
As far as contacting you guys, the rules they gave us are that parents can't meet their missionary at the airport. What we can do though is use some calling cards (like the ones you gave me Mom) and call during our layovers. I don't know how it works and I don't how long we will have to go through security and customs but I will do my best to send out a quick call to you as often as I can. 
I know they will need to see my collar bone Mom, I'm ready for it. I also have all the important documents in the same place, as well as my passport. It'll be good. We're in a group of 17 so we'll have each other's backs. I guess there are 12 others going to the West Indies at the same time. I'm honestly so ready to go. The food here is just not doing it for any of us any more. We also could use a bit of a change in routine. 
So just yesterday was our last lesson with one of our teachers. He and his family are going on a vacation so he is leaving tomorrow. We have had some amazing spiritual experiences with him. We joke that he will be a prophet some day. His name is Brother Norton. I'll include a picture. 
So on Monday he went into a two hour long spiritual thought that answered some of our doctrinal questions. It was sweet. He is really good with scripture references. Rather than just simply telling you, he took us to different scriptures from Old Testament, New, B.O.M D&C and Pearl of Great Price as well as teachings from the prophet Joseph Smith, and a quote by Kimball, to back up his answers. I'll summarize it down to the good parts. 
One of the things that we learned was that Jesus Christ attained Godhood before coming to the earth. A really interesting concept considering we have to come here and be tested before we can reach Godhood. Of course Jesus Christ was unique and had a different calling then us but Brother Norton shared a scripture from D&C 138:56 which reads "Even before they were born, they, with many others, received their first lessons in the world of spirits and were prepared to come forth in the due time of the Lord to labor in his vineyard for the salvation of the souls of men." So part of our agency might have included receiving these lessons. Almost like going to church every Sunday. 
The other thing that was interesting to learn was that we showed our faith in the pre-mortal life. The scripture Brother Norton referenced was Alma 13:3 "And this is the manner after which they were ordained-being called and prepared from the foundation of the world according to the foreknowledge of God," This means that God carefully watched us in the pre-mortal world and called us to different things according to that knowledge. "on account of their exceeding faith and good works." Sometimes I wonder why was I born in the Church. Why am I blessed to live in a good family while others are not? This scripture offers some explanation as to why. That doesn't make me better than anyone since unto whom much is given much is required. But what was significant from that verse for me was that somewhere deep in my soul is the disposition to do good works and to be faithful. Sometimes I doubt myself and I wonder how can I have more faith. I need to realize that I have been faithful and that I can be. I just need to walk up to it. It gave me strength and faith to realize that I can do this. And that I can do hard things, through the Lord. 
I really hope this makes sense and if it doesn't just tell me and I'll try to send a letter to clarify. 
I'm excited and ready to go! I hope you all have an amazing week. Everybody is "peacing" out so I'll have to say goodbye. I'll email again on Saturday!!
Love 
Elder Cooper

P.S The one with the selfie is an elder who went to Sweden and is really funny. And the third is the weekly submission to Nat Geo
P.S.S. As far as I know we won't have to worry too much about being out in the jungle. The areas don't go out very far is what Brother Norton told us. 

Week 6 Begins

Hey you guys!! "Hoe gaat het?"

Some good news. Conference was a fun change of pace from the monotony of the MTC. (You can tell I'm ready to get out of here). My favorite talk was a toss up between three. Elder Holland, who apparently was a favorite among all of us for his emotion and power. Elder Uchtdorf's talk on receiving personal revelation and using the right tools the same way astronomers view the night sky. If I had to choose one that stuck out to me that wasn't as obvious was D. Todd Christofferson on Saturday. He talked about personal accountability and being accountable for our actions stuff. He talked about how many people will make excuses for not reaching their potential. Some will say they lived in a poor family and couldn't get any opportunities, things like that. He shared the story of the mom who made all her kids read books and then report back to me. I interpreted that talk to mean that I am accountable for the success of my mission. If my mission isn't successful it won't be because of "negligence" from my mission president, or because my companion did/didn't do something, or a tough investigator. Odds are they are doing there part. It's on me to study, learn, grow, and then teach. There were plenty of talks that I liked and I took notes for almost all of them. 

So I'm debating which story I want to tell you. I think I'll explain the pictures of us with the headbands and the mustaches. So you can probably tell from the picture we don't take ourselves too seriously and try to have fun. Before gym we put on the headbands and mustaches, took some pictures and went off to play four square. I had never played the game before I got into the MTC, especially since it's more of elementary school playground game. But we make it competitive and try to keep it fun. Thus the headbands and mustaches, the fort, the assault tie headbands, etc. 

The other picture with us three in front of the temple is just a funny one. The sun was right in our eyes as I'm sure you can tell, and we decided to go one two three and then we'd open our eyes, but the elder taking the picture snapped it pretty quick. I think the picture says the rest. 

The other one is a super close up of angel Moroni, it was what I was going for the first time. 

The MTC is great but I'm ready to leave. We get our flight plans this Saturday, which is usually a good indicator of if you got your visa or not. We'll see. It's just a couple more weeks. The last week, after this Sunday, will be spent learning a second language specific to our mission. It's called Suranan Tongo, which according to our teacher that served there, is a language we will use for street contacts and Dutch will be used for lessons. We only get one week because it's really similar to English and will probably come fast. It definitely sounds cool. 

Anyways I got long winded this time, but I hope you guys enjoyed it. Week 6 starts right now. The time to leave is almost here. 

Totsiens! Veel success!

Love,

Elder Cooper  

P.S. Funny story about the g's. When I went to the laundromat the wash ruined only two pairs of g's. Just the top and bottoms of two sets... I ordered some new ones from the book store so I'm going to get those today. But that is definitely a tender mercy it didn't get all of my garments. All that happened was just purple spots on them. Don't know where from.

P.S.S. Speaking of the language, one thing I forgot to mention in the big email was that we took a Dutch test! The teacher, Brother Norton had 9 written questions and 1 oral question that we had to translate. The sentences were tough, but I didn't do bad. Just learned what I needed to fix. If I had the same motivation to do better in school that's how I would want tests to be. Not failing you or getting a grade, but just to see where you are at, and let you know where you can improve.