Third World Fashion

Tall, dark, and handsome.

2012-01-29T21:19:00.000-07:00

Every time I think about men I come to the conclusion that there is one out there that is perfect for me. Tall, dark, handsome, with nice big eyes that lure me into his gaze and stare into my soul. I'm not too bad looking, after all. Great blue eyes, thick brownish hair, and when I remember to work on my physique, an almost perfect hour glass shape.
I'm funny. At least I think that I am. You know those people that walked down the street laughing their cans off about some distant memory?
I do that too, except that I'm laughing at a joke I just made up in my own head.
I'm smart too. I have a way of de-complicating things. Sometimes. I know how to listen and respond at all the right moments. I can correct and receive correction. Sometimes I can evoke in a person a desire to think a little differently about things.
How lucky I am to have been given these talents.
So now the question is, why can no man see that?
Or perhaps an even better question: Why haven't I found any men like that?
Inside of every human is a desire to be wanted. thought about. appreciated. And when you feel special to no one, your forget to feel special yourself. All rest assured: I am a woman of faith. Father's got a plan and I know it. But sometimes I get lost in the despair. Not necessarily because I don't date, because even if I were dating a thousand different men, that would still mean that I was single-ish. The thing that upsets me the most is the fact that it seems like there is no one to like.
Tall, dark handsome men roam the campus. Yet it seems they are all immature or married or both.
I'm not interested in romance. It actually turns me off. To a degree.
I just want a deeper rooted friendship, something like what I have with my brothers or best girlfriends, but that he likes to hold my hand sometimes too.

Who is God?

2012-01-27T08:32:00.001-07:00

While in Relief Society the other day, they were teaching us about modesty, a hot topic among the young single adult women crowd. I couldn't help but think the same question over and over again. What does this "immodesty" problem boil down to? What am I really? What is woman?!

One girl answered: We are daughters of God.

Yes, yes we are.

But that question dominated my thoughts for weeks. There must be than that. What does it mean to be a woman of God?

What is woman?

WHAT IS WOMAN?

Then today, while cooking up a bit of noodles and chicken, i discovered that I've been asking the wrong question all along.

I'm a daught of God, yes.

But...What is God?

Worry not, my dear posterity. I'm not doubting the existence of Him. I know He lives and watches oever me, but what is He?

A glorified man? Yes.

The Creator. Father of the Son. Alfa. Omega. Beginning. End. The Great I Am.

Yes, yes, yes.

But why is He all those things?

It's because He's a parent.

All of that so that we would choose Him, our Father.

And thus we look around ourselves. A world full of selfish, immature, rebelious kids. Ones that, no matter how hard He tries, will never listen. Like the tantrum-filled sixteen year old who refuses to stop doing drugs while the loving Father tells him no.

And now, my next question:

What is daughter?

To my very dear family. July 25, 2011

2012-01-06T23:32:00.001-07:00

Maybe you´re all waiting some big epistole, but to tell the truth, I really don´t have anything to say.

I mostly just feel like I´ve got another transfer coming. Like I´ll get the call and the Elder on the phone is going to say, Hermana Cooper, you´re going to Quito, you´ll be senior companion with Hermana Smith and you´ll be opening a new sector.

But it´s not like that.

Just got to keep breathing deeply, working hard, praying hard, looking in every minute for somebody somewhere that´s going to let us pass through the door. With a firm determination to be a new person every day. Looking for the answers and praying for guidance. Promising blessings and watching them be fulfilled.

The Atonement is increible, can I just say that?

God lives. I know it with all my heart. I have a purpose in life. We are all so much more than what strive to be. We live so below our potential. Joseph Smith was God´s prophet. The Book of Mormon is God´s word. It´s changed my life. It´s given me courage. I´ve changed so much. Christ is my Salvador.

I love Ecuador!

Love. Love. Love.

Hermana Cooper

...just two things. July 25, 2011

2012-01-06T23:31:00.003-07:00

The only two things that I really want when I get home is a subway sandwich and a bed to sleep on. I´m exhausted and don´t want anymore of this ecuadorian food.

¡Oigan! July 18, 2011

2012-01-06T23:31:00.001-07:00

Que es, pues.

Just wanted to say that. It´s a term from Quito and I love it.

Mormon 9:27-29

¨O then despise not, and wonder not, but hearken unto the words of the Lord, and ask the Father in the name of Jesus for what things soever ye shall stand in need. Doubt not, but be believing, and begin as in times of old, and come unto the Lord with all your heart, and work out your own salvation with fear and trembling before him.

Be wise in the days of your probation; strip yourselves of all uncleanness; ask not, that ye may consume it on your lusts, but ask with a firmness unshaken, that ye will yield to no temptation, but that ye will serve the true and living God.

See that ye are not baptized unworthily; see that ye partake not of the sacrament of Christ unworthily; but see that ye do all things in worthiness, and do it in the name of Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God; and if ye do this, and endure to the end, ye will in nowise be cast out.¨

Moroni was a very wise man. He had a way of teaching the gospel and understanding what really is repentance.

I don´t really know what to say about this scripture apart from that I really like it.

This marks one more day in my life. July 11, 2011

2012-01-06T23:30:00.001-07:00

Prayer is a rather interesting concept. I have found that my spiritual well-being is directly connected to the state of my prayers. When I do my prays with nothing but a list of thinks to give thanks for a ¨shopping list¨of things and favors that I need from God. We can never forget that it is the literally communication of the Creator of the Universe with His children. The bible dictionary says that...

¨Many of the so-called difficulties about prayer arise from forgetting this relationship.¨

When I remember my relationship with God, it draws me to prayer. It´s an opportunity to share my deepest feelings with the Person that really listens and understands. To ask forgiveness and help to overcome my weaknesses and gives me a chance to reach to the heavens and call for a divine assistance.

When I pray with faith, it gives a chance to my Father in Heaven to change the elements of my life into miracles and not just happenings. I begin to grow in my trust in my Father and take more steps in the dark but toward discipleship.

In a way I think that (part of ) the answer to the question that I made last week is the quality of our prayers. In Preach My Gospel it says that ¨effective prayer requires great effort.¨ Like it can never be a check list of things to do so that we can sleep soundly or to show a good example for somebody. It´s a time to be alone with our Creator. It should always be done with the intent to better our relationship Him.

One of my favorite scriptures about prayer is in 3 Nephi 14:7-8:

Ask, and it shall be given unto you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.

For every one that asketh, receiveth; and he that seeketh, findeth; and to him that knocketh, it shall be opened.

It teaches three very important concepts of prayer: asking, seeking, and knocking.

The asking part is easy, right? I would say that the majority of our prayers are full of asking. But our prayers, even in the asking should be guided by the Spirit. If your prayers lack the Spirit, change something. Before you pray, read a scripture, sing a hymn, meditate. Do something to prepare your mind and heart to speak to God. Then let the Spirit guide your prayer.

Seeking is a word full of action. It means that I just don´t want the answers, but I want guidance to be able to find them in the scriptures or the words of the living prophets. Then be willing to recognize the answer when it comes and being willing to sometimes recieve the answer ¨no.¨

Knocking, is also an action word. It means to act according to the revelation I receive. It´s something that requires faith. To go and do that which the Lord has commanded.

Hope that was something interesting. I felt like I learned something from it.

Love. Love. Love.

Hermana Cooper

Happy 4th of July!

2012-01-06T23:29:00.001-07:00

Hope that everyone had/is having a great forth of the July. Mines been good. To remember my country, I bought a hamburger. :)

We´ve kind of changed how we´ve been working, and we´ve seen great results.

We have a family that we are teaching that is a mom, dad, and their two daughters. Only one of their daughters is in the age of baptism though. They are the Familia Bermejo. We´ve been working with them and having felt like they´ve made any progress. They always read their Book of Mormon, but they never understood what it was they were reading. I was a little frustrated and to the point that I really didn´t know what else we could do for them. They´ve been having a lot of family problems and I know that reading will helpe them, but we didn´t know how to help them understand what they were reading.

The day Friday was an alright day, but we had planned to do divisions. I went with an Hermana from the ward to the familia Bermejo. Their baptismal date had just fallen through because they weren´t able to get married. It was super obvious that they had just fought or something, because they didn´t even want to look at each other. We taught what we had planned ( I seriously had no idea what else to do) and left the commitment that we had planned to leave. For some reason (which I now know was the Spirit) I felt like I should leave them a question to answer with their reading. 3 Nephi 9:13-20 with What does Christ expect from me? I left feeling like we really didn´t get far with the lesson and feeling bad that I didn´t put my heart into it.

The next day we went again to their house. When the Hermano opened the door he was super excited to see us (always a good sign). We sat down and asked them if they had read what we left them. They all pulled out their books, the 10 year old girl, Nicole, had written almost a page in her homework book. The parents got things out of the reading that were so much better than anything that we could have ever taught them. They were all reading, they were all praying. And yesterday at church, they had great experience. It was incredible.

We taught the lesson and were able to set a new baptismal date goal, and I think that this time, they really are going to be able to do it. I´m so grateful that I listened to the Spirit tell me to just leave one question.

I´ve been thinking a lot lately about what really is faith.

I think one of my favorite scriptures about faith is Helaman 5:10

¨And remember also the words which Amulek spake unto Zeezrom, in the city of Ammonihah; for he said unto him that the Lord surely should come to redeem his people, but that he should not come to redeem them in their sins, but to redeem them from their sins.¨

The part that calls my attention the most is the part that says that we won´t be redeemed in our sins, but from our sins.

That´s the problem us people. We think that for some reason it´s enough to just beleive, but it´s not. We have to constantly strive to be a different person. That´s the reason why this life is so hard, because it´s all about changing from the inside. Stopping doing the things that are easy but wrong and start fighting against the natural man. Too often we expect that Jesus will just fix it all, that He´ll give us the strength, that God will forgive us without our confessing to Him all of our sins.

But it´s not like that. It´s like a little kid playing in the mud that wants to keep playing in the mud but be clean at the same time. It´s impossible.

That is where the faith comes in. Faith is leaving behind the things that we sometimes rather do for the things that (after trying it) we realize have been better all along.

I hope all that made sense.

I have a question for all of you guys though, and I want to get all your answers because it´s a question taht I´ve been meditating for the last little while:

What is the difference between a believer and a disciple?

Something to think about.

Write me with your answers!

Love. Love. Love.

Hermana Cooper

...y cuando recibais éstas cosas... June 20, 2011

2012-01-06T23:28:00.003-07:00

I want to share something that I learned in the last zone conference.

Moroni 10:3-4
¨Behold, I would exhort you that when ye shall read these things, if it be wisdom in God that ye should read them, that ye would remember how merciful the Lord hath been unto the children of men, from the creation of Adam even down until the time that ye shall receive these things, and ponder it in your hearts.

And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost.¨

So this is basically what we base our entire belief on, right? The fact that it´s not just that we feel good in the church, or that our parents taught us that it´s true, or that one time I read the Book of Mormon, so I think that it´s true, but that I prayed and asked God and He touched my heart in a way that I could never deny, no matter what anyone says, that the Book of Mormon is the word of God, that Joseph Smith was a prophet, and that Jesus is my Savior.

But there is something a little more that is going on here. That is that someone will only recieve the answer if they have real intent.

What is real intent? A desire to know? I think that it´s a little more.

It´s the conviction to act according to the answer that we get. There is something that I´ve realized: that everything in the life that I do, should be done with real intent. None of this half-hearted, lazy anything. If I´m going to talk to somebody in the street, I´ve got to do it from the heart. If I´m going to study, I´ve got to do it from the heart. If I´m going to share my testimony, I´ve got to do it from the heart.

Could you imagine how the world would change if everyone did everything from the heart? With the full intention to complete to all the extent possible what should be done?

I think that´s the problem even with people who are baptized members of the church. We keep the commandments and go to church, but without real intent. It´s a half-hearted custom or tradition that keeps us from truely repenting and progression. Because that´s what it´s really all about. Changing. So do a self-evaluation, and think for a minute. Why do you go to church in the first place? To learn? If that´s the reason, are you learning? Why do you pray at night? To talk to God? Well, are you really talking to Him? Or just giving a list of blessings that you´re in need of? Why do you take the sacrement every week? To repent? So, are you repenting? Or just hitting your chest and saying, well, I´ve heard that no one is perfect, so that must mean that I´m not perfect either, so I should repent, I just don´t know what I should repent of...

This is what I´ve decided to do. To live from the heart and do things because it feels good, not because someone told me to do it.

God lives. I know it.

Love. Love. Love.

Hermana Cooper

Sorry that I didn´t write last week... June 13, 2011

2012-01-06T23:28:00.001-07:00

I had a change and on change days, basically head explodes.

I´m now in the coast (whoot) and dying of the heat and humitity. At least the days have been fresh lately and I´ve heard that we are moving into the cooler season. I hope so. I already walk around with a head ache all day...

My companion (yeah! only one!) is Hermana Moran. She´s from Panamá. She´s incredible. Works hard and loves what she does. I love her a lot already.

I´ve not had too many adventures lately, but I´ll let you all know when something exciting happens.

The place I´m in is called Santo Domingo. Google it.

Love. Love. Love.

Hermana Cooper

P.S. I´ll probably be getting home Tuesday Augost 2 at the night, because that´s usually how it turns out for us gringos.

Today is the 2nd of May

2012-01-06T23:27:00.002-07:00

So family, how are the wedding plans coming along. I hope that in all the excitement you haven´t forgotten about your sister that lives near the equator. :)

We´ve been having a lot of rain the whole last week until Saturday, then there was just sun all day long and I forgot to put sun screen on my arms and I got totally burnt to a crisp. The sun here hurts more because it´s not like at home where it hits you from one side. It´s a direct perpendicular hit and kills when you get burnt.

But on the Thurday last week, we were happily heading to a cita when out of the middle nowhere the whole heavens fell with hail and everything. We saught refuge under a ledge of a building and in seriously, five minutes, there was a river running down the street. The worst part about it: my umbrella is broken and I don´t have one, so me and my companion had to share the same broken umbrella of hers (she leaves next week and so doesn´t want to buy a new one).

I´m super sad that Hermana Alava ya goes to her house. She´s so hilarious. We always think of hilarious, full of apostacy things that we could do to cause a riot in the zone. Ha ha. But don´t worry, we will never do them. :)

Well, if I tell you all the awesome things that I´ve done lately in my life, I won´t have anything to talk about when you all call on the day Sunday.

Feliz Día todos.

Love. Love. Love.

Hermana Cooper

The children of Israel were trapped against the Red Sea before it was parted. April 25, 2011

2012-01-06T23:25:00.002-07:00

We´ve seen quite a few miracles lately. I´ve like to share one of them.

Last week we were at church and this guy shows up we had never seen before. It ended up that he lived in our sector, so we followed him home to know where he lived and to get a cita with him. Ends up that he´s from Spain and his girlfriend (that lives in Guayaquil) is a member and told him to go to the church. The first time that we went to visit him, we invited him to be baptized, and he accepted with no problem (of GOLD!). The next cita we were talking about Joseph Smith and how he shouldn´t just believe what we were teaching, but he should pray and ask God if it is true. He started telling us this story that the night before he showed up to the church, he was thinking about the church and why his girlfriend was a part of it. He prayed and asked God that night if the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is the true Church on the earth, and of course, God answered his prayer. That´s why he wants to get baptized. Not because he loves the fact that he can get married to his girlfriend forever, but because he prayed and asked God.

God answers prays. But like we always teach people, sometimes it takes time. We can´t expect to just get everything we want and when we want it. We´ve got to sanctify ourselves. Be and live the higher life and really have the faith that it´ll come true. Sometimes we feel like we are up against a wall. There isn´t any kind of escape, that the weakness or the temptation that we have will never let up, that we´ll never be able to over come the things that we are praying for help to over come.

However, it is possible. Like Paul V. Johnson of the Seventy said in the last general conference:

¨A pattern in the scriptures and in life shows that many times the darkest, most dangerous tests immediately precede remarkable events and tremendous growth. “After much tribulation come the blessings.”The children of Israel were trapped against the Red Sea before it was parted.Nephi faced danger, anger from his brothers, and multiple failures before he was able to procure the brass plates.Joseph Smith was overcome by an evil power so strong that it seemed he was doomed to utter destruction. When he was almost ready to sink into despair, he exerted himself to call upon God, and at that very moment he was visited by the Father and the Son.Often investigators face opposition and tribulation as they near baptism. Mothers know that the challenges of labor precede the miracle of birth. Time after time we see marvelous blessings on the heels of great trials.¨

Our problem is, however, that we don´t want to wait for God to work the miracle. We start to think that for some reason if we work harder or study more or walk more miles we can do it.

But we can´t. And we never will be able to do it.

Breathe. Take the time to love some body. Pray with all your heart for the rightous things in your life to come to pass. Ask for help to overcome temptation, to think clean thoughts and to feel the Spirit to testify that what you are doing is true.

We can never loose our faith or give up on trying, but neither can we forget to pray, give thanks, and ask for the help that we truly need.

Love. Love. Love.

Hermana Cooper

Estoy super gorda... April 18, 2011

2012-01-06T23:25:00.000-07:00

First things first. I´m going on a diet to loose weight before I get home. And I´m going to do excersizing too. I know that you all probably don´t recognize that fat, tan/burnt, blonde gringa in the picture, but it´s me...

We bought ecuadorian peanut butter the other day and ate it. It´s not too bad. I liked it.

I don´t really know what to talk about today...

How are the things for the wedding coming along? When am I going to get an invitation? Hope soon! Send me pictures of the preparations!

We went to the Mitad del Mundo today. It´s this monument that celebrates the ecuator but it´s not actually on the equator. Ha ha. It makes me laugh. I´m a little molested though because almost all of the pictures that other people took, I came out with my eyes closed. Whatever. That´s what I get for having little kids take pictures for me.

We wanted to go to the zoo but it was closed.

Oh! Just thought of a story to tell. So we were with our district leader and his companion the other night because he was coming with us to a cita. It was raining (as usual) and freezing cold (as usual). So we were standing out there next to the street that was fairly busy with lots of cars passing by. We were pretty safe though because all the big puddles were to the side of the street and the cars weren´t hitting them. Then, all of the sudden, woosh! we were soaked from head to toe from some car that hit the puddle on purpose (the driver swirved to get us good). Good thing that it was like, 8:30 and we just had to make a few phone calls before heading home for the night. It makes a good story but I was freezing. It´s been super cold lately. Plus with the rain... I bought myself another jacket even.

Well, that´s it people. I´m sorry that my life is so boring. Well, ít´s not that boring, just nothing too exciting happened this week.

Love. Love. Love.

Hermana Cooper

It rains a lot here. April 11, 2011

2012-01-06T23:22:00.000-07:00

Here are some more pictures for you all. The Hermana with me isn't my companion, we were just on divisions with the Hermanas from another zone.

That banana I'm holding isn't really a banana. It's called a verde. You cut it up really thin and then fry it and put salt on it and it's super rico. I love verde.

Missions are like medicine for your soul. It's 18 months of hard work to take out all that stuff about yourself that you've 1) never liked or 2) didn't know you had that was keeping you from moving forward.

But sometimes that's the funnest part. To see who you turn out to be and what God has always had in mind for you to have. It's not easy, and everyone has their own Getsemani (I definitely know what mine was) but you{re also a lot stronger for it.

One of the most profound of all the things that I've discovered is that sin is such a real load that people carry and that no matter how much that we say [I'm okay, I'm over that, I don't need to repent or change my way of thinking[, It's not true. We are devine creatures that have a internal connection with the Creator of the Universe that makes us feel guilt and sadness when we violate the laws of heaven. Maybe we can convince our selves that what we want is truely what will make us happy, but it will never be true. What every person truely desires to become is the person that God wants them to be. Every once in a while we get a glimpse of that person, and frankly, it's always far away. But it's not impossible.

The biggest hope that the Gospel gives us is the hope of change. That things can get better, that my weaknesses will become strengths, that I really can forgive that person for everything they've done and forget about it. People who don't have the gospel in their lives don't have that hope that one day, yes, things will be different. They are caught in only the life that they are surrounded by, without a single glimpse of hope that says there is a way out.

That's why I'm here. To helpe people change. That's really the purpose of the Gospel, to change us and make us more like our Father.

God lives. I know it.

Love. Love. Love.

Hermana Cooper

Adventure through the forest. March 21, 2011

2012-01-06T23:18:00.002-07:00

We had a pretty cool adventure this past Saturday. We were trying to
find a shortcut from where we were to an investigador´s house, so we
asked a teenage kid how we could do it. He told us some random pass
way where we would have to cross a river on a tree trunk. Well, we
were up for it, but didn´t know exactly what we were in for.

We get to the end of the road, and all that we could see was a forest
and a cow. We asked some people for directions, and they came down to
show us. Ended up being that we had to cross the river on a wobbly
almost-stick-tree-branch that was stuck in the mud on both sides of
the river. It was awesome.

Happy General Conference! April 4, 2011

2012-01-06T23:18:00.000-07:00

Hope that you all had a great General Conference and that you enjoyed it as much as I did!

How are things for the wedding coming along? I hope really well.

Here are some pictures for you all!

1) Hermana Reid and I at the planitarium. We went there as a zone for an activity a while back and took pictures of our selves there. It was a lot of fun actually and we learned about space in Spanish, which is always more intense than in English.

2)This is a cool fruit that only grows in a place called Guayllabamba. I forgot what it´s called, but it tastes like a mix of a pear and another exotic fruit called guanabana. Look it up. It´s rico! You pull apart all the little sections and suck on it until the little black seed comes out.

3)Hermana Reid and I at the Mitad del Mundo (middle of the world). It was really fun. We went there as a bunch of the hermanas that are in Quito.

4) Me next to a shrunken head. The indiginous of the jungle would cut off the heads of the dead people and shrink and preserve it as a trophy or simbol of remembering. This one is of a little kid that somebody murders because they were mad at their dad or something. But it was illigal-fied about ten years ago.

5) One of our investigators is listening to the Jehovah´s Witnesses. When the other missionary found out that she was listening to us too, she gave her this anti-Mormon magizine from her church. We didn´t want her to read it, so we asked her if she´d let us borrow it to ¨see what it says¨ which actually meant to put it with all the other anti-mormon junk that missionaries have accumilated in the house over time. I had folded it up and put it in my backpack and about a week later she asked me if she could have it back because the other missionary was asking for it. I didn´t want to it be obvious that I had folded it up, so I decided to iron it flat. It worked out okay, and our investigator never read it, so it was all worth it.

Well, I hope that you enjoy these photos. I know that those of you who remember how I looked in my pre-mission life will remember a skinny, dark-haired, woman with beautiful fair skin, and that the girl in the pictures doen´t really compare, but I just want to let you know that I´m working on loosing weight and when I get home, I´ll stay inside all day to get my color back to normal. Tranquil people, I will be beautiful once again.

Couple of stories... March 14, 2011

2012-01-06T23:13:00.003-07:00

A few miracles have happened this week and also funny stories. I{ll tell the funny ones first.

I got a package from Mom on Tuesday and was so happy that I decided to open it while walking out of the chapel. While checking out what was inside I seriously ran straight into a pole. Good thing I hit my knee first, otherwise it would have been a complete face-to-metal almost-from-a-movie hit. It was hilarious and we basically died laughing.

Yesterday we found a new family that we were teaching. Hermana Reid was asking them [Are you religious people?[ but instead of understanding religiosas the lady understood grasiosas, which means rude or badly educated. She started talking about how sometimes she yelled at her kids and got mad at her husband and stuff. I realized what she understood and almost couldn{t keep myself from laughing. It was killing me. Poor Hermana Reid was so very confused as to what in the world the lady was talking about. After the lesson, I almost fell over in the street I was laughing so hard. Oh man, that was quite the hilarious experience.

A family gave me liver the other day. Man that stuff is nasty. It has the texture of chewed up gum with crackers in it.

Now for the miracles:

Last Monday I washed the scripture cover that I have for my triple because I{d never done it and after like, ten months of being in the rain and dirt and nastiness, it was pretty in need of a wash (I also washed it for my Bible. I{m not one of those silly missionaries who don{t use their Bible). I set them on the ledge of the open window of our apartment to dry and forgot about them when we when to the super market. When we got back, only was there the one for my Bible. I was pretty upset and we said a prayer for finding it. We left and looked everywhere in the complex to find it, but we couldn{t. I was pretty upset. We told the guard there that if he found it, that he could keep it for us. The next day in the night when we were coming home, I was thinking about that maybe I{d never find it. We were making plans to go to the offices to by another one even. Then all of the sudden it was just sitting on the stairs when we got home. I was so happy! We went to tell the gaurd thanks the next day, but he was like, I have no idea what you are talking about. It was just a little miracle that I had in my life to help me remember that God answers prayers when we pray with faith.

The center of employment in Quito is basically the best place to get referrals from. We got a reference for the flia Males (please pray for them everyone!). The Elders were actually helping us out that day and found the house for us. When we went, they accepted to get baptized with no question in their hearts at all for the date we gave them. They told us that they wouldn{t be able to come to church yesterday, but all of them just showed up. They have the deepest desires to just change their lives and make a difference. It{s been so amazing to teach them. They are incredible and humble people that the Lord has seriously prepared for us to teach.

We also found a guy named Saul Nicolalde the other day, just contacting people in the street. We were waiting for a bus to come and he was there. We took out an appointment with him and when we went to their house and invited them to get baptized, they totally accepted it (pray for them too!). It{s a family of five (one is a little baby). They are so special!

God lives. I know it. It{s incredible to see the difference that the Atonement makes in the lives of people. It{s a cure for everything. It{s amazing to look back and see how far I{ve come from where I was. I feel like maybe in the first time in my life, I{ve started to become the person that I{ve always wanted to be, but was just too afraid to be it because of the pressure of friends or other people to be cool. Now I don{t care what people say. I just be who I want to be and change the things that God doesn{t like. It{s better to be popular in the eyes of Jesus than in the eyes of everyone else.

Amo esta obra. Amo mi familia y mi Salvador. Yo se que Jose Smith fue un profeta de Dios. Se que el Libro de Mormón es la palabra de Dios. Se que Cristo vive y que mi Padre Celestial vive también.

Love. Love. Love.

Hermana Cooper

FAMILY! March 7, 2011

2012-01-06T23:13:00.001-07:00

Hello family. Don´t worry, I´m not dead. Just didn´t have time to make it to the internet last week, that´s all.

We had Stake Conference yesterday and that was awesome.

Right now there is this holiday going on that´s called Carnaval. It´s where people throw all kinds of things at you: water balloons, spuma (which is like cheap shaving cream), flour, fruit, etc. Mostly water and spuma. And it doesn´t matter if you know them either. We are pretty easy targets, being gringas and women.

Yesterday we were walking down the street and I looked down at the ground and saw a big splat, so I said to Hermana Reid, ¨Look, someone just got pegged with a water balloon.¨ Seriously not 2 seconds later, WHOOSH, a water balloon hit me in the legs. Good thing it was just my legs and not my body. We laughed our cans off.

Anyway, until next week!

Love. Love. Love.

Hermana Cooper

Happy Presidents Day! February 21, 2011

2012-01-06T23:12:00.000-07:00

Happy Valentine´s Day! February 14, 2011

2012-01-06T23:10:00.001-07:00

Hello to you all! Hope that your Día de Amor y Amistad is the best that you´ve had ever in your life.

I don´t know how many people read this here email, but felicitaciones to Becky Fetzer and her wedding this weekend. That´s so exciting. And from the picture, you look really happy.

The mission president´s wife has a blog if you want to check it out. It´s sloanfamilymission.blogspot.com and it has pictures and stuff.

On Thursday I will have been a missionary for one year. Holy cow. I still feel so new, like I´m blundering around trying to figure out how to be a missionary and how to help people and whether or not I´m helping people with what I do. I learned something really profound this week:

I think that each one of us likes to be told ¨you have a lot of potential.¨ But the thing is, I think that it´s not something that we should rejoice about. If all that I have is potential, I really have nothing at all. The ability to do something means nothing until something is done. The people that we see all around us that never seem to have problems are the people that look for answers. People who look for solutions never have problems. Yes, they may have trials or difficulties or bad luck, but they well always find a way out, even if that way out is to let go or to smile and not let it get to you.

¨For behold, it is not meet that I should command in all things; for he that is compelled in all things, the same is aslothful and not a wise servant; wherefore he receiveth no reward.

Verily I say, men should be anxiously engaged in a good cause, and do many things of their own free will, and bring to pass much righteousness;

For the power is in them, wherein they are agents unto themselves. And inasmuch as men do good they shall in nowise lose their reward.

But he that doeth not anything until he is commanded, and receiveth a commandment with doubtful heart, and keepeth it with slothfulness, the same is damned.¨

D&C 58:26-29

So, just do the right thing. Do what you should. So many people say, ¨well, I don´t know if the Spirit is telling me to do this or not.¨ But they forget a very important part of it all. That the power is in them to choose.

Whelp people. That´s all.

Love. Love. Love.

Hermana Cooper

News from here for there. February 7, 2011

2012-01-06T23:09:00.000-07:00

That picture is a dipiction of what I like to do on p-day. YEAH!

Anyway...

Nothing really all that exciting has happened this week. We do have a really excellent family that we are teaching that is named the Familia Saant. They are indiginous from the rain forest. That is pretty cool. They are also incredibly humble. The Hermana is Blanca and her husband is Ronal (technicly not husband because they aren{t married yet, but whatever). They have two kids, Jacquiline and Jhon. They are the cutest family that I have ever seen. And they are extremely humble. They have almost nothing in their house, but every time we come, they always want to give us food to eat.

They ran away from the orient (that{s what they call the rain forest here) together because their families hate the fact that they are together. While they were telling us the story, Blanca just about cried and Hermana Castellani and I almost did too. It was so sad. But they want to get baptized. The only problem is that after last Saturday we haven{t been able to find them ANYWHERE. We passed by to bring them to church. They weren{t there. We went running all over the place in the market trying to find them, but to no avail. After the Sacrement meeting, we left to find them, but they weren{t there. Right after church, weren{t there. I seriously cried ( I cry a lot more nowadays...). So today the first thing on the list of things to do is find the Familia Saant. They need all the prayers they can get too.

Tomorrow we have a meeting with all the sisters in the whole mission! Woot! I{m pretty excited. It{s going to be excelante!

Today we went ice skating. That was pretty exciting and fun.

Seriously, nothing exciting happened this week.

President Sloan told me in my last interview that there isn{t going to be any more trio in all the mission after next Monday. That means that we are going to have a change and I really have no idea what{s going to happen. The most likely is that Hermana Reid and I will stay, but a lot of times the most likely thing to happen doesn{t happen, so you never know. Whatever happens, I{m going to be super sad. I love my companions! Hermana Castellani is so hilarious. I definately want to go to Argentina one day to visit her.

Hmm.... I hate it when I don{t think about what I[m going to write about when I get here.

Anyway.

Read the Book of Mormon every day. It feels good.

Love. Love. Love.

Hermana Cooper

A smack in the face I hope never to get again... January 31, 2011

2012-01-06T23:07:00.000-07:00

First, I´ll describe the pictures.

1. The other night we were late to an appointment, so we were running to try and get there on time. Calderon is super dusty all the time. I totally tripped on a rock and face planted it. I cut my knee a little, but my nylons, sadly, didn´t survive. It´s not the first time that I´ve fallen over either. I´ve done it two other times. Once when I was eating a roll and all of the sudden I was just laying down in the street. I have no idea how it happened. The other time was when I was eating an ice cream and I slid down this little grass incline onto my butt and my companion laughed her can off like she´d never seen anything so funny in her life. Until I reminded her of the time she fell over in the bus...

2. Hna Reid, Hna Castellani and I bought matching hats in the Otavaleño market in Quito last week. YEAH!

3. The cake that Hna Castellani made this morning. We don´t have an oven so she was making it on the stove. She didn´t know how to turn the flame down (there is a special trick to do it) so it all burnt on the bottom and was doughy in the middle.

4. We don´t have a microwave, so to cook the popcorn that you sent me, we cut open the bag and cooked it on the stove with oil. It turned out good!

This week was a rather humbling one. I felt the true meaning of D&C 121:43

Reproving betimes with sharpness, when moved upon by the Holy Ghost; and then showing forth afterwards an increase of love toward him whom thou hast reproved, lest he esteem thee to be his enemy;

God is a very loving Heavenly Father. But his love is showed even more when we make bad decisions. He lets us have the consequences to let us learn not to make the same mistakes twice.

So just do the right thing.

Love. Love. Love.

Hermana Cooper

You rock my life. That´s all. January 24, 2011

2012-01-06T23:04:00.000-07:00

First of all:

WHY IN THE WORLD IS EVERYONE GETTING MARRIED?!?!?!?!?!

Just wanted to get that out...

Becky, Liz, Kyle, Shareese, Caydee (already did it, but whatever...) who else haven´t I heard about yet?

I´m going to feel oh so very single when I get home. Oh well. Who cares. I expect photos and invitations people. I don´t care that I can´t come, I´ve just got to feel like maybe I´m a part of the party. At least for a moment.

I knew this would happen. Just didn´t sink in until it was happening, that´s all.

So this week was one of those tough ones. We are still working on the companionship unity thing. It´s kind of tough with three, but we´re getting there. We don´t fight or anything, we just aren´t best friends yet, and that makes it a little hard.

A couple of nights ago we had an adventure. We had to go pay a bill on the other side of the apartment building. I wanted to cut corners after word. So we went into one of the stair wells with the idea to go up to the roof and just cross into our apartment well. We get up to the roof, and there was a wall about chest high impiding our progress. So we decided to jump over it. Praying in gratitude that it was dark and no one could see us and also that the people in the apartment immediately below wouldn´t hear us, we all clammered over the wall on the roof. We then were laughing so hard that we could hardly walk and tried to make our way back down the stair well on the other side without falling on our faces. It was pretty exciting.

Reminded me of the time that me and Hermana Zenteno were trying to avoid the giant mud hole and submitted ourselves in to one of those grass things that separates the side walk only to find that on the other side there was thigh high barbed wire on the other side we had to jump. It was awesome. In skirts. Rock on.

Maybe the aren´t engagement or wedding pictures, but here you go people!

1. Us by the tuna in the grocery store.

2. The tattoo that I got from going to visit in the women´s jail in Quito. What an incredibly interesting experience. We just basically walked right in and they hardly checked anything on us. The prisoners were all in the courtyard with their visiters and some even had high heels and were all dressed up for the occasion.

3. The surgery we had to do on the bible of Hermana Castellani. The spine had broken and we had to tape/glue it all back together.

4. In a taxi on the way to Quito this morning. Our district leader didn´t tell us that we had to be there at 8:00 in the morning to get the Censo for Hermana Reid (the thing that makes her legal here). They told us at 9:00 in the morning while were studying. I was a little annoyed, but it made for an adventure.

Hope that you´ve all enjoyed your life recently. To all of those people that read my blog or that get these emails here´s a shout-out!

The Willardsen family, Blacks, Caydee and Alex, Mom, and everybody else!

Thanks for the packages and the letters and the Christmas wishes!!!

Love. Love. Love.

Hermana Cooper

After trying to think of something to say here, I decided not to put more than this. January 17, 2010

2012-01-06T23:00:00.000-07:00

Hello Family!

How are you all doing out there in Utah? Where it´s nice and cold and fresh?

Me? I´m burning my face off. It´s so hot here. The thing that´s sad, it´s probably only about 75 degrees, but when you´re used to rain every day and 60 degree high, it´s hot. Especially with nylons on. But it´s okay.

So I have a really great experience that I´d like to share with you all.

The other day we were just walking along on a road when Hna Castellani says: Is it okay if we knock a door?

So we did, and out comes Pablo. He told us that he has been recovering from drug addiction and that he has felt that God has helped him overcome all of this. He´s read EVERYTHING that we´ve given him to read and he told his mom that that day, he´s felt like God knocked on the door. It´s been a really incredible experience teaching him!

1. Zachary my brother!

2. Me with a Pony Malta. It´s a Columbian drink that an investigator gave to us that is one of the most disgusting things I´ve tasted in my life.

3. Me and Hermana Zenteno in the terminal in Otavalo. Sad, sad, sad day.

4. Our New Year´s Eve party with Hna. Baez and Hna. Castellani

5. Me and Hna Castellani on my Birthday!

6. I don´t know if you can see it, but I´m next to some mascara. That costs $17. 00

7. The baptism we had yesterday!

8. Me with some really big tuna.

9. Hermana Castellani, me and Hermana Reid taking a picture by all the tuna in the grociery store.

Hope that you enjoy the pictures!!!

Love. Love. Love.

Hermana Cooper

Happy Birthday! You{re training again! January 3, 2011

2012-01-06T22:48:00.000-07:00

So...

Thanks for the birthday wishes!

I hope that everyone had a happy new year and that you{ve got all your goals set for the year. I figured I{d make a list of the top 10 things that I learned this year:

1. The Book of Mormon is the most correct of any book on earth...and a mand would get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts, than by any other book. -Joseph Smith

2. I am truly a royal spirit daughter f Almighty God. I am a princess, destined to becaome a Queen. My own wondrous story has already begun. My once upon a tiem is now. - President Uctdorf

3. And again, it is given to some to speak with ^atongues. Doc &Cov. 46:24

4. ...Why is it that I have found favor in thy sight...all the people hate me...whereofr am I they servant? And the Lord said..Go forth and do as I have commanded thee, and no man shall piece thee. Open thy mouth, and it shall be filled, and I will give thee utterance, for al flesh is in my hands, and I will do as seemeth me good... my Spirit s upon you.. and thou shalt abide in me, and I in you; there fore walk with me. - Moses 6:31-34

5. ...come and fear not, and lay aside every sin, which easily doth beset you, which doth bind you down to destruction...and show unto your God that you are willing to repent of your sins... -Alma 7:15

6. ...the Lord had shown ...the intelligences that were organized beofre the world was. and among all these were many of the noble and great one. and God saw these souls that they were good. And he stood in the midst of them, and he said: These I will make my rulers...thour art one of them, thou wast chosen before thou wast born. - Abraham 3:22-23

7. ...will ye not now return unto me, and repent of your sins, and be converted, that I may heal you? - 3Nephi 9:13

8. ...Women should be women and not babies that need petting and correction all the time... -Eliza R. Snow

9. Reproving betimes with sharpness, when maoved uponby the Holy Ghost, and then showing forth afterwords an increase of love toward him whom thou hast reproved... - D&C 121:43

10. Be compassionate. Look at people{s circmstances. Don{t just call people to repentece, teach true doctrine, invite the Spirit, testirfy of Christ. Then ask them to put their lives in order so they can enjoy the blessings of the gospel.

God lives. I know it.

Love. Love. love.

Hermana Cooper

Hey Family! December 27, 2010

2012-01-06T22:45:00.001-07:00

How is everybody!

It was really fun to talk to everybody on Saturday! I hope that everyone finished off their Christmas fantasticly and that you´ll all have an incredible New Year!

So I´ve got news. I´ve been changed! I´m now in the north of Quito in a place called Calderon. My companions are Hermana Baez from Paraguay and Hermana Castellani from Buenos Aires Argentina in Monte Grande (just in case, Julia, that you served there or something). They are both really new. Hna. Baez has 3 months and Hna. Castellani 5 weeks. We´re in a trio, and I´m senior companion and I´m a little nervous. But they´ve told me the ward here is good, so I´m excited.

The change came as a big surprise. We woke up this morning at 6:30 to the door bell ringing and the district leader with his companion outside waiting. We both knew what that meant and I kind of didn´t want to believe it. But here I am, back in Quito.

I´m not going to lie, I cried a lot (but not as much as my first change). Mostly for the Hermana Zenteno. She is so incredible. Training was hard, but I know that she was also there to help me. To change, but to the person that I´ve always wanted to be.

It makes me sad that I´m not going to be able to be there to see the baptisms of a lot of people that are there, but it´s okay. I´ve done what I needed to do there, and now I´m needed somewhere else.

Otavalo wasn´t easy at all, and I think that I learned, more than anything, 101 ways not to be missionary. But I also learned 1001 ways how to pick myself up and move on, work hard, repent with all my heart and change. I´m exhausted from it, and I know that a new place doesn´t mean that life is going to be perfect or that I won´t have trails of faith, but I do know that change is just an opportunity to make a different approach, and avoiding falling in the same holes, and more than anything, to show my faith that this work can really happen.

What are all your plans for the New Year´s Eve? Party it up for me, eh? I´m pretty sure that I´m going to try and get to bed early that night.

Welp, tune in next week, same time, same place, and maybe I´ll have a story or two to share about what´s going down in

Calderon!

Love. Love. Love.

Hermana Cooper

Good Tidings of Great Joy December 20, 2010

2012-01-06T22:44:00.001-07:00

I think that sometimes we forget what Christmas is all about. And I´m not talking about ´giving instead of getting´ or the ¨true meaning of Christmas is the heart¨or even ¨I´ll be home for Christmas¨ And to be frank, I´m not really evern talking abut the baby Jesus.

Why did the angels say they had ¨good tiding of great joy¨? What was there to be so happy about? Why was HIs named called Wonderful, Counselor, the Mightly God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace?

How many times have we thought too much abut eh baby in the manger that we forget the man on the cross?

Don´t get me wrong, the choice that Christ made to come to the earth and be born is beyond-all-discription worthy of all my gratitude and adoration, but only because of what He was preparing to do.

¨...he shall beborn of Mary, at Jerusalem ...she being a virgen a precious and chosen vessel, who shall be overshadowed and conceive by the power of the Holy Ghost, and bring forth a son, yea, even the Son of God."

And he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith he will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people.

And he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities.

Now the Spirit knoweth all things; nevertheless the Son of God suffereth according to the flesh that he might take upon him the sins of his people, that he might blot out their transgressions according to the power of his deliverance; and now behold, this is the testimony which is in me.

Now I say unto you that ye must repent, and be born again; for the Spirit saith if ye are not born again ye cannot inherit the kingdom of heaven; therefore come ...that ye may be washed from your sins, that ye may have faith on the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sins of the world, who is mighty to save and to cleanse from all unrighteousness.

Yea, I say unto you come and fear not, and lay aside every sin, which easily doth beset you, which doth bind you down to destruction, yea, come and go forth, and show unto your God that ye are willing to repent of your sins and enter into a covenant with him to keep his commandments...¨

(Alma 7:10-15)

That´s why we have hope in Christmas. Not because a baby was born but because a Savior lived, died, and lived again.

That´s why ¨we talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ, and we write according to our prophecies, that our children may know to what source they may look for a remission of their sins.¨

(2 Nephi 25:26)

So I´d like to make an invitation. Maybe we should remember a little more why there is peace on earth.

That, after all, is why we celebrate Christmas.

I know that Christ lives and that He is my Savior. I know that I´m so incedibly weak and that I need Him in every moment.

Thank you for all your prayers and your love and your emails. They mean so so much.

Merrry Christmas!!!

Love. Love. Love.

Hermana Cooper

Censo! November 29, 2010

2012-01-06T22:43:00.002-07:00

It´s going to be short.

Yesturday was the national censo of Ecuador. Which means we couldn´t leave the apartment (even to go to church) all day long until 5:00 in the afternoon. It was pretty good actually. My companion and I had a mini-Relief Society lesson about hope and missionary work and womanhood. Then I read the Book of Mormon in Spanish for about 3 hours and we made pizza.

Hermana Zenteno says ¨Thanks!¨ for the recipe for pizza dough. She LOVED it.

Love. Love. Love.

Hermana Cooper

Happy Thanksgiving! November 22, 2010

2012-01-06T22:43:00.000-07:00

Hello Family!

How are you all? How are the plans for Thanksgiving coming along? I hope real good. :)

I got to the internet a little late, so I´m sorry if it´s short.

This last week we had our zone conference which was absolutely amazing. President Sloan taught us about the Book of Mormon and the part that it plays in the conversion and how extrememely important it is to teach directly from it. We also had Stake Conference this weekend and Elder Nash from the Seventy came. It was also amazing.

But the best part was that the Familia Santillan that we have been teaching for a while now came!!! We´ve been trying to get them to come to church for what it feels like five years now... But they came and Alexandra (the mom) was super excited to be able to have that same feeling that the speakers said they had felt: that they knew the church was true. And Fernando (the dad) felt like a lot of his prayers were answered. It was incredible. They are totally going to get baptized... :)

Hope that you all are enjoying the snow up there in Utah while I enjoy the rain. Everyday. I´m kind of tired of it. It´s cold.

Anyway. Happy Thanksgiving, and until next week!!!

Love. Love. Love.

Hermana Cooper

Today I ate a sandwich from the Mega Sanduche y Pizzería that was super delish. November 15, 2010

2012-01-06T22:40:00.001-07:00

Hey family!

How is everyone doing? Hope that you´re doing great and enjoying the rain as much as I am. Every day. All day. I heard that November, December and January are the rainy months where it rains every day. I like it, except when I get wet. Not a fan, but whatev.

We were able to teach a really beautiful lesson yesterday to the family of our bishop. We have this program called the Christmas Gift where we go to the leaders of the ward and teach a lesson about the doctrine of Christ and get to ask how they came to know the gospel (most everyone are converts).

So they told us this amazing story about how he used to work in Guayaquil, but all the missionaries in all the zone fasted so that he could come home and be with his family to recieve the missionaries. Then they told us about how different their whole life would be and everything. It was so spiritual. We then asked them if they knew anyone that they would like to share the gospel with. They then gave us two families! So we´ll be getting on that.

Hermana Zenteno is super amazing. She is PILAS (which literally means batteries, but can also mean HARDCORE). I love her so much, she´s so awesome. Just a shout out for her.

Anyway, we got here late and so I don´t have a mountain of time to write, but I hope that everyone is doing super great and that you are reading the Book of Mormon everyday because it´s AWESOME!

Love. Love. Love.

Hermana Cooper

P.S. I found this scripture the other day and thought it was hilarious that they built chairs for the sole purpose to lie to people:

Mosiah 11:11 And the seats which were set apart for the ^ahigh priests, which were above all the other seats, he did ornament with pure gold; and he caused a breastwork to be built before them, that they might rest their bodies and their arms upon while they should speak lying and vain words to his people.

I´ve sat here long enough trying to think of something put in the subject space. November 8, 2010

2012-01-06T22:39:00.001-07:00

Hey family!

How´s it going? Hope all well. :)

We are teaching this family named the familia Santillan. They are super great. The only thing that we are trying to help them to do is to come to church. Just need a little pus is all. They came one time with the mom of Fernando, but that was like, two months ago, so we´ve been trying to help them come again.

We passed by to see how they were doing on Saturday, but the husband wasn´t there. So we started to talk to Alexandra. She told us that she didn´t like to go to church because she felt like there were lots of hypocrits (when is true, but welcome to humanity). So we told her that everyone has weaknesses, but we can´t just look at the church for the people, etc...

Then she started telling us that she and her husband have been reading the Book of Mormon together. She told us that they´ve been having a lot of problems in their marriage, but since they´ve started reading the Book of Mormon and praying together, they´ve had so much more peace in the home. It was so beautiful, that little moment. I love to hear people decribe the difference that the gospel has made in their lives, even if it´s just a little thing, like a little more patience and peace.

What are all of your plans for Thanksgiving? I still don´t know exactly what people do here for Christmas, besides eat turkey. Whenever I ask, they just tell me, ¨The normal stuff that everyone does.¨ :)

I´m still in Otavalo, to answer your question Mom. :)

Thanks for everything!

Love. Love. Love.

Hermana Cooper

Hellos Family! November 1, 2010

2012-01-06T22:38:00.000-07:00

How´s it going everybody!

Let´s see...

Today is the day when everyone here eats bread in the shape of kids and drinks warm blackberry juice. Falicidades.

I do have a funny food story, but it´s a little different today.

So we made our own lunch today, it being p-day. We didn´t have a huge variety of things, so I made white sauce to put over pasta and put some spaghetti on to boil. The last time that I made noodles, they were a little undercooked, but not much. They tasted alright to me, but Hna Zenteno said they were way undercooked. I thought that she was just exaggerating.

I checked the noodles and they were perfect. I was about to turn them off, and Hna Zenteno was like, no they have a little more time. Okay. Whatever. She likes her noodles a little softer. A few minute later, I checked again. A little mushy, but not unbarable. So I turned it off.
¨No! They still have a lot of time left.¨
What? I was like, no they are a little over cooked.
She says, ¨No they still lack a little.¨
Then I realized that sometimes, part of a different culture is the way they cook their noodles.

So I pulled half of them out for me and let the rest cook for a while. In the end, I tried one, just to see how she liked them.

Let´s just say that I prefer my noodles not in a mush.

And she said that they still needed to cook a little longer.

Then I remembered one time when someone made me noodles and I wanted to gag because they were so overcooked. And I realized that maybe in this world, some people like their noodles nice and mushy.

Yum.

I´m sorry that this isn´t a Spiritual experience or anything to uplift you all today, but it was in my head, so I shared it.

Buen provecho.

Love. Love. Love.

Hermana Cooper

Happy Halloween! Woot! October 25, 2010

2012-01-06T22:37:00.001-07:00

Hey family!

My companion is absolutely awesome. She´s from Mexico and her name is Hermana Zenteno. I´m her trainer. Holy Cow. I don´t feel like I´m doing anything right but I´m just kind of praying like none other and working with all my heart. There isn´t anything else to do!

I hope that you all got my pictures last week. I don´t remember what they were of... just that I liked the ones that I sent.

I have a Spiritual/scary experience that I´d like to share with you all.

On Saturday we had a cita with an investigator that we have just barely started to teach in a place called San Roque. It´s about a half an hour from here and we only go out there about once a week. But the Elders that teach indiginous out there found him and passed on the reference to us. So we go out there and there wasn´t a woman in the house so we couldn´t teach anything and one made another appointment and were getting ready to leave. Hermana Zenteno said really suddenly, ¨Well, we need to go make a phone call and we´ll be back to tell you when we pass by again.¨ I thought it was a little odd, but said, ¨yeah, we´ll be back.¨ So we left and she said to me, ¨I have the scariest feeling right now.¨

We walked up to the nearest phone and called the Elders that teach out there to ask if they could pass by with our investigators at some point later that night and they said that they could. On our way down to tell the investigators this, Hermana Zenteno said to me, ¨I don´t know, maybe I´m just being wierd, but I feel like we should leave. ¨ I said, ´Okay, we´ll pass by with these investigators and tell them the Elders are going to pass by and then we´ll leave.¨ She said, ¨I don´t know, maybe we shouldn´t leave.¨ I then started to feel the same thing, like we should leave. So I told her, ¨ The Spirit speaks to us through feelings, and if you´re feeling that we should leave, then we´ve got to leave.¨ We passed and told the investigators and then went to catch the bus to Otavalo, even though we still had a couple of citas to go.

We got to Otavalo, with no plan of what we were to do, but feeling a strong feeling of peace, like we made the right choice and did the right thing to leave. It was kind of scary and I don´t know what would have happened if we would have stayed, but I´m so glad for Hermana Zenteno to tell me that she was feeling that having so that we could avoid whatever it was that we needed to avoid.

So there you go. I now have one of those kind of stories to tell, when the Spirit saved my life and I don´t know what would have happened. It´s just another testimony to me that missionaries really have a lot of heavenly help.

Sounds like everyone has fun plans for Halloween. Tell me what you´ve all done! Mike and Julia: are you going to have an awesome party? You´ll have to sent me pictures with Carsen as a SWAT dude and Abby as a Pirate. In the pictures that you´ve sent, I didn´t even recoginze Abby... She´s grown up so much! Crazy...

Here, according to what I´ve heard, they drink a drink called Morada. It´s like a cider or juice made with blackberries and cinnamon and all these different fruits. You could probably find the recipe on the internet if you looked for Morada in Ecuador for the Day of the Dead. They also eat Guaguas de Pan. Which, being interpretted means bread kids. I´ve heard that it´s super rico, so I hope that I get some and I´ll let you all know how it goes.

That´s pretty much all that I have to say for myself today. I hope that everybody is going well and enjoying all the chocolate and candy of the Halloween season!

Love. Love. Love.

Hermana Cooper

Los Demás. October 18, 2010

2012-01-06T22:36:00.000-07:00

7. The baptism of Jessica Pambaquispe. Seriously every young woman in this town is named Jessica. It´s a little dangerous when you don´t want everyone to know your first name. :)

8. This is the traditional dress of the Otavalañas. I had a dream last night that I had to dress like this. It was a little wierd and I was all distressed because I didn´t have the shoes. When they get married, its all white!

9. Me and Katy

10. At the volcano that I told you about that is now a lake.

11. I forgot to up date that I´m training! Her name is Hna Zenteno and she´s from Mexico. She made me enchiladas today that were super delicious.

12. Me eating pancakes. I know. How exciting...

Por fin! Puedo mandar photos! October 18, 2010

2012-01-06T22:31:00.000-07:00

Hey fam!

So I finally found a computer that´d take my camera! So I´ll just explain the photos.

1. This was at the baptism of Eudocia, the lady from Peru that is really awesome and has more faith than anyone that I know.

2. From the Birthday lunch of Hna Morris. Encebollado. It was alright. Not the most delicious thing on the planet but whatever.

3. My two favorite little girls. The daughters of Eudocia

4. Two weeks before, we went down this path. Now it´s blocked off. Ha Ha.

5. The parade that went right below our apartment.

6. I Love Otavalo! Need I say more?

Welp, there you go people. Images of my life.

Tears and Nerves. October 11, 2010

2012-01-06T22:26:00.000-07:00

Hola Familia!

¿Como están? Hope you´re good and that all of your dreams are coming true. Except for the nightmares.

We found two really awesome families this week. Both of them were street contacts and already they are progressing, so that´s super exciting!

So Hermana Morris is leaving for Panamá tomorrow at six in the morning. I´m pretty sad, not going to lie. She has been a super great companion. She´s got a lot a faith and likes to be obidient, which is how I like ém. We´ve had a lot of trials, but we are starting to see the fruits of our obidience and faith.

Yesterday was the day of changes, which means that we count up all the numbers we had that week, and give them to the District Leader, who then tells us if we are going to have a change or not. Obviously, I knew I was going to have one, since Hna Morris was going home, but the Zone Leaders hadn´t received the changes yet. We don´t have a telephone, so they told us that they were going to pass by the house at 9:20. Never came, never came. So we went to bed not knowing what was going to happen because after 6:30 in the morning this morning, I wasn´t going to have a companion, because she had to go to Quito. The next morning, at 5:55, somebody rings the doorbell, and there are the Zone Leaders with the news: You´re both going to Quito. Hna Cooper is going to train.

So I´m in Quito. Awaiting (with my beloved Hna Groesbeck and the amazing Hna Bajorge) for my ¨hija¨ to arrive fresh out of the MTC. There are two from Panamá, one from Mexico, one from the US, and one from Paraguay. Who knows who I´ll get! It´s kind of exciting, but at the same time I´m super nervous. I feel like I have to do everything perfect and teach her how to do everything perfectly. It´s going to be fun and humbling all at the same time. I know it.

I´m sorry that this is such a lame letter. I just read through it de nuevo.

Let´s see. I saw a dog the other day with half it´s face riped off. That was kind of exciting. About two weeks ago I watched a dog get run over by a bus. It was a horrifying experience. Exciting things happen around here I tell you. I also found a bug in my sheets that made me scream. I then flicked it onto the floor and smashed it with my sandel. Afterword I contemplated what a horrible death that would be...

I got offered coffee for the first time yesterday. Of corse I declined.

Well that´s all the news I´ve got. Hope that you enjoyed it!

Love. Love. Love.

Hermana Cooper

After a short time of being in the carcel. October 4, 2010

2012-01-06T22:25:00.001-07:00

Hey family!

So according to your lack of panic and worry in your emails, I´m
thinking that you didn´t hear anything about the recent political
dispute down here in Ecuador. I don´t really understand completely
what happened, but I know that the national police was upset about
some things and kind of went on strike for a couple of days. That
basically means that in the entire country there weren´t any police
for about five days. I´m super glad that I was in Otavalo, where it´s
peaceful, but I heard that there were some pretty big problems in the
bigger cities, thieves and robbings and stuff like that. They called
us while we were eating lunch and told us to go to our apartment
immediately, lock up all our valueables, open the door to no one, and
wait until the Zone Leaders came to tell us we could leave. Not going
to lie, I was a little frazzled and scared. We hid everything of
value as best we could and prayed our hearts out that we´d be safe.
The following days we could only be out until six, but now everything
is pretty much back to normal. We´ve just got to be super careful.

Of corse, General Conference was absolutely amazing. Helped me to
remember what I needed to do to be better and how to better touch the
hearts of the people here in Ecuador. I always bawl my face off in at
least one of the talks by President Monson. He´s such a good example
of a Christ-like person.

I ate a BLT today that was pretty delicious. Forgot to mention that
at the beginning.

Hermana Morris is going home on next Tuesday, so she´s leaving here to
go to Quito on next Sunday. Time flies so fast, I can´t believe that
we´ve already been together for three months, and now she´s leaving to
go home. It´s super sureal. I can´t beleive that I´ve been here for
five and a half monthes...

It sounds like everyone is really great and happy, going to dances,
buying puppies, planting stuff etc. Enjoy the fall weather for me.
I´m stuck in eternal spring. That´s alright though, I like it here.

Love. Love. Love.

Hermana Cooper

Hello everybody. September 27, 2010

2012-01-06T22:24:00.000-07:00

Hello family!

I didn´t eat anything particularly strange this week, but I did get a hold of some peanut butter and ate it on the pancakes that I made for me and Hermana Morris this morning, that was exciting.

Thanks for the package, by the way Mom. Me and Hna Morris much enjoyed the delicious suckers!

Hermana Morris is going home in two weeks. :( So we went to a volcanic crater that has filled itself with a lake. I took some awesome pictures there too. Too bad that this computer is dumb, otherwise, I´d send them...

We had a baptism this last week of Jessica Pambaquisbe (I couldn´t say it either for a long time). She is so amazing. She used to be out on the streets all the time, but somethings happened and she wanted to change her life. And now she has the Gift of the Holy Ghost. How great!

Hermana Morris´birthday is tommorrow and Eudocia (one of our new converts) is throwing a big party for her. Hna Morris thinks that it´s going to be small. He he he he....

I just read back through this letter and I´m sorry that it´s so boring. It makes my life sound borring, but it´s not really.

Oh yeah, the Relief Society General meeting was absolutely amazing. I basically bawled all through the talk of the prophet. I think that being on a mission makes me cry at almost everything.

Welp, that´s all.

Tune in for next week... GENERAL CONFERENCE!

WOOT!

Love. Love. Love.

Hermana Cooper

Word of the Wise: if you ask to be humbled, be ready for a wild ride... September 20, 2010

2012-01-06T22:23:00.001-07:00

First of all:

WE HAD A BAPTISM THIS WEEK!

Yeah, finally we had a baptism. Her name is Eudocia and she´s from Peru. She is the sweetest lady ever. She has so much faith and love for the Lord. Her husband is less active, but he´s working on coming back and now they can get sealed in the temple in a year! I can not even decribe to you my happiness for her.

Secondly, my weekly food report.

On the menu this week- cuero y papas. That´s right people who speak Spanish, leather and potatos. What is leather? Animal skin. What is cuero y papas? A delicious plate of pig skin and potatoes. Not quite as bad as the guatita, but it´s pretty high up there. Only gagged once, for those who were wondering. It´s a little jiggly. I couldn´t help but think while I was eating it that if it wasn´t so wet, maybe I could make a pair of boots out of it...

We had a really excellent activity this last Friday. We had a talent show and everybody in the ward participated and came. There was music and dancing and a lot of the members were there until 12:00 in the night. Don´t worry, we were obidient and didn´t dance and left early. Even Eudocia´s little girl Dayeli sang a song she made up and it was so cute. She had a dress like a princess and sang her little song.

So I´ve been working a lot on my patience. I thought that I was a patient person before I came to Otavalo. I know you´re probably wondering why we haven´t had a baptism for all this time. One of the reasons ( not all of them, because it´s rediculous to say that I have no fault in this by way of my own weakness and inability) is that the missionaries have a pretty bad reputation here of disobidience and the members don´t have a lot of confidence in us. It´s really sad, but true. So we´ve been working really hard to fight against that, but it takes patience. I didn´t think that I had a temper either, but recent experiences have taught me otherwise...

I´ve also been working on my charity. Moroni says that if we have faith and hope, but lack charity, our faith and hope is worth nothing. I think that charity isn´t so much to give to people, but to recognize what great things I have and give those things to other people so that they can enjoy it too. Like the Gospel. And like the cookies that you stowe away in your backpack to eat after you finish your fast.

Hope that I´ve given a bit of food for thought!

Love. Love. Love.

Hermana Cooper

Something inspirational... September 13, 2010

2012-01-06T22:22:00.001-07:00

kay, so as usual I´m going to report on the food that I´ve eaten this last week: guatita. Don´t know if you remember what it is, so let me remind you. Cow intestines. But, if you can beleive it, it was worse this time. Texture: melted rubber balls. Taste: (I´m not exaggering on this one, I´m dead serious) wet, dirty, dog. I seriously was gagging it down and the Hermana that made it for us was watching us eat it. Now every time that I catch a whiff of wet animal I want to hurl. Just writing about it is making me have nausia. ( I know that is totally Spanglish, but I don´t know how else to say it...)

CHANGE OF SUBJECT

I got a letter from a friend from high school this week, Brittany. It made me really think about why I´m here, so that´s what I´m going to write about.

Going on a mission was the absolute best decision I have ever made in my entire life. To anyone out there that reads this and is thinking about it, do it. do it. do it.

I have never felt so close to God and Jesus Christ in the whole of my existance, yet never felt more like a sinner either. I have never been more connected with myself, what I really want, what I feel like I was born to do, who I want to be. It´s like there is a channel of communication directly from God, the Father of my spirit, and my soul that was never there before. I´ve come to know the reality of spiritual health and how it controls everything that we think and feel. I´ve never better understood the Atonement and my desperate, personal need for Jesus Christ.

I´ve also never felt more love for other people. I can not count how many tears I´ve cried for the pride or ignorance or the stubborness or the dispare of the people around me. I feel like I have a huge responsibility to take care of the inner well being of every person that passes me on the street, every person that comes to church or that I talk to. I´ve never felt so guilty for not asking how someone was or passing by their house to make sure that they´ve read their scriptures or prayed to their Maker that day.

I think all the time about that talk that I listened to in the MTC by Elder Holland, that this is real life. That all that stuff that I did before was a false imitation of what it´s all about. This is my very short oppurtunity to see so clearly the hand of God in the breaking of hearts and the contriting of spirits (don´t know if those are words, but it sounds like they work). What miracle to see lives changed and the love that Christ has for every person on earth. Thinking about who I once was and who I am now, I feel like I´m a totally different person, that finally I´ve come to be the person that I´ve always wanted to be, but was scared because I cared too much about what everyone around me was going to say if I stood up for what I really wanted, deep down inside of it all.

I don´t want it to end. Thank goodness I´ve got a while left...

Love. Love. Love.

Hermana Cooper

To my beloved family and anyone else that reads this. September 6, 2010

2012-01-06T22:21:00.001-07:00

Hmmm...

This is the part where I think: I really should have thought about what I´m going to write before  I get to the internet café.

This week has been the week of the festival Yamor. He´s the the Indiginous god of the corn. People come from all over the world to be in Otavalo for this festival. We had to return to our apartment a bit early last Friday because the parade went right in front of our house and this festival is a bit dangerous for people to be just walking around at night. We watched the parade go by though, and that was pretty neat. They had all the traditional dresses from the different parts of Ecuador: Otavalo, Cayumbe, Santo Domingo, Esmeraldes, Guyaquil.   They all danced down the street and it was pretty cool. Especially from our balcony that was directly over it.

We´ve been teaching this family, the Familia Villacreses. The missionaries have been teaching them for a really long time (like, a year) and they haven´t gotten baptized. We finally got to the interview last Thursday for their baptism last Saturday, but alas, we are still without them being baptized. I know that they are going to get baptized this month, we´ve just got to figure our what it really is that is impeding them from getting baptized.

I´ve been trying to figure out the secret to success here in good ol´ Otavalo. I think that one of the biggest problems ( for the missionaries and  the members) is that nobody wants to take responsibility for anything. The missionaries are mad at the members for not kissing their feet and filling their laps with references and the members are mad at the missionaries for somethings that have happened here in the past. Really the only way to fix and accomplish anything is to just buck up and take the credit for the lack of faith or vision or understanding or godliness that we all have within us. If all that I ever do all day is look for the problems of other people, I´m never  going to accomplish anything in my life. That is why I say that the reason we haven´t had any baptisms recently is because it´s all my fault.

Just because I know that people ask this question a lot, my español is coming along great. Sometimes words come out that I didn´t even know I knew. I fumble when I get nervous or forget to have faith, but I think that if I was confined on a desert island where they spoke nothing but Spanish, I´d get along fine (as long as I had a dictionary for the tough words). It´s funny. It´s gotten to the point where I´m speaking in Spanish and all of the sudden an English word just slips out in the middle of the sentence, like my mind is finally putting the two things together. Then of corse there is the forgetting of words in English. It´s even more embarrassing when someone asks, ¨How do you say__________?¨ and I can´t remember. I´ve also started to say things, when I´m speaking in English, in the form they´d be in Spanish, like ¨What passed?¨ and ¨What great!¨ Then we all laugh (which means me and Hermana Groesbeck, I saw her last week at the women´s conference) our cans off and almost get hit by cars. Just kidding. I didn´t almost get hit by a car at that moment.

I´d also like to annouce that I´ve been rice-free for almost eight weeks now, and I´ve never felt any better.

Whelp, that´s all for now. Hope that everyone is doing great and that Kyle is recovering (and allowing himself to recover) and that you are all enjoying the delicious ice cream that is available up there in the States. We´ve found a place that is good, but not nearly as good as Cold Stone.

Love. Love. Love.

Hermana Cooper

The rest of the pictures of my life. August 30, 2010

2012-01-06T22:20:00.000-07:00

I love this first picture. It looks like I´m jumping but I´m just stepping down on the rock.

2) a view of Otavalo from a road in Otavalo

3) All of the Hermanas in all of Mission Ecuador Quito!

Woot!

Enjoy!

6 MONTHS! August 23, 2010

2012-01-06T22:17:00.000-07:00

First of all, I can{t believe that I{ve only got a year left of my mission already. I feel like it{s only April and September is already around the corner. Holy Cow. Plus it doesn{t help that the weather here is the weather of April all year around. I{m glad though. It{s perfect for missionary work. Walking from cita to cita and everything. It{s never really unbarealbey hot or cold.

Second. I hope that Kyle is alright. It gave me a pretty big scare when I found out that he was coming home. And I also don{t have his home email address.... Mom could you send it to me? Thanks! Yes, I cried a lot and felt completely hopeless and wanted to come home and be with all of my family. But I feel at peace now and I know that everything will be alright. I{ve just looked at it like an oppurtunity for me to show my faith that God always follows through. It just depends on us to do our part.

Oh, and before I forget, Julia, have you tried to edit my blog through the html code? Maybe that would let you copy and paste. Thanks for doing everything for me. That is super great.

We{re still working hard on our ward. They are a pretty tough egg to crack, but it{s alright.

I spoke in church yesterday. In Spanish (ah!) and I was pretty scared that I{d finish and everyone would say, [what was she trying to say?[ but they didn{t and it made me glad. I{ve been praying and praying this whole last wee to have the words God wanted for them in my mouth for the talk. I can never really descibe the feeling of the Gift of Tongues. It{s so crazy. I seriously just open my mouth and a whole spill of words that I never would have been able to string together all come out. I always feel a little dazed afterword too, like it was almost an out-of-body experience. My companion and I were talking to some of the Hermanos in the ward and they all said that there were some points that it seriously didn{t sound like a North American learning Spanish, but a serious Latina up there preaching the gospel. That made me really happy.

I talked about the difference between faith and hope. That hope, like it says in Ether 12:4 is a firm belief that there is something better waiting. Faith is the actions that we do to attain the things that we hope for, like it says in Moroni 7:40-42. Our ward has the problem that they have neither. It{s tough to work with, but I think that we{re making progress. The thing is that people don{t understand is that the laws of heaven say that if we do our part, the windows of heaven will seriously open and pour out the blessings. God wants to give us gifts. Up to the things that we don{t need. If I want a house, and I be obedient. I{ll get that house and I know it. How silly the people that cry out -where is God?- when they don{t do anything but pray in their time of crisis, but they don{t put any effort forth to go to the temple, to love their neighbor, to do their visiting teaching, to read the scriptures personally and in family, to hold family home evening. Instead they leave church early to sell fried pig or go to the beach. Then they cry out in desparation - where is God? I{m doing everything!-

I don{t know. I used to think that there were exceptions to the rules. That for some people, it was okay to have a boyfriend in high school, or not to go on a mission, or not read the scriptures or go to institute. What a silly way to think that the Supreme Creator, the God of the earth and heavens, doesn{t know what He{s talking about when He tells His children to do something.

What unworthy creatures we are.

Love. Love. Love.

Hermana Cooper

Yours from the center of the earth. August 9, 2010

2012-01-06T22:15:00.001-07:00

It makes my life sound more cool if I say I´m from the center of the earth.

First I´d like to thank my mother for sending me an awesome package. You are so sweet to send all that stuff to me. My companion and I very much enjoyed the popcorn. YUM! Especially because I once again tryed to make it myself and failed myserably.

I never was good at spelling. Nowadays that I speak Spanish all day my spelling ability has lessened, which is pretty unbelievable that it could ever get any worse...

Hermana Morris is very awesome. I´d just like to say that. She´s hilarious and we basically spend our time walking down the street laughing our cans off about one thing or another. It´s great.

I tried very hard to send pictures, but the computer won´t take my camera. I´m rather upset about it, but I´ll live.

We have one baptism scheduled for this Saturday of a lady named Eudocia. She´s from Peru and her husband is a less-active member since a few years. She really likes the church and has been praying for a long time to find the true church and where she should be. She´s got two little girls that are absolutely adorable named Caty and Danielie.

We´ve also been teaching the familia Pambaquisbe. The parents are called Antonio and Juanna. They´ve got one daughter named Jessica too (I swear, every family in this town is named Jessica. It´s a little weird to hear my name called every five seconds but people don´t even know it). Antonio really didn´t have any interest in the church more than just the fact that his wife did, that is until he read the Book of Mormon. We taught them about the Restoration of the Gospel on night and gave them a chapter to read (Alma 7) for that night. The next Friday we had an appointment with them at the church. They had gotten there like, a half an hour early and when we called them and found that out we went running  to the chaple. When we got there they were super excited to see us. We went in and sat down and started the lesson. The first thing we asked was, ¨So tell us, how did your reading go?¨ They started telling us that they read it together and had read more than what we had left for them to read and that they had liked it a lot. Antonio started telling us then that he had felt something special and had a real desire to learn more and more. Before this point he never really wanted to go to church or anything, but he told us straight up that after reading the Book of Mormon, he was going to talk to his boss and ask if he could get all Sundays off so that he could come to church with us.

That, my friends, is the power of the Book of Mormon. It moves people to change, to repent, to return to God. It helps people to feel a desire to aline their lives with what the Spirit tells them to do. A grown man, with lots of life experience and wisdom more than I have, wants to follow what a couple of young women suggest he do with his life. The Book of Mormon is so very true.

We´ve been trying to work with our ward here in Rumiñahui. They are a couple of lost sheep. For example: a near brawl started up in Relief Society yesturday over what song the choir was going to sing for ward conference next week. So we are working with them. We´ve been praying about what we should do and after a few visits with the members and the bishop we´ve decided to invite everyone in the ward to read the Book of Mormon together as a family before the end of the year. I know that the Book of Mormon is what this ward needs more than anything. After all, the Book of Mormon is the keystone of our religion, so if you aren´t reading the keystone, are you really living it?

We invited everybody yesterday in Sacrement Meeting and passed out one of those map things that you color in as you read. I´m thinking that it´s going to be pretty good if everybody does it.

Seriously, the Book of Mormon makes such a difference in the lives of the families that have made the sacrifice to read it. We can literally feel the difference as soon as we walk into the door of a house where the family reads and ¨feasts upon the words of Christ¨ together. The other houses feel like they have no hope. The member women sit and go on and on about their list of troubles and trials with faith or hope for anything better. They have no faith to go to the temple or share the gospel with their neighbors or make Christ the center of their lives.

I am so grateful for the chance that I´ve had to serve a mission. I never would have relized all this stuff. There is a serious spiritual reality that the world passes by as old fashioned or wishful thinking. Quite frankly, I don´t think that there is anything else that isreally worth living for. When it all comes down to the brass tacks, everybody is sort of the same. We all have the same worries and troubles. We all want to be somebody for Somebody. There is a natural inclination in everyone to look for something better, a better world, better life, something that really fills the soul.

That something is the Gospel of Christ and I know it.  Everyone needs Christ. It´s what we were born to have and live.  Everyone falls so short.  Everyone needs the mercy that overcomes justice by the power of the Atonement.  Everyone.

Hope you all feel inspired by my testimony to follow the Spirit and do what it is that the Holy Ghost is compelling you to do.

:)

Love. Love. Love.

Hermana Cooper

2012-01-06T22:14:00.001-07:00

Hmmm.... what to write, what to write. I hate it when I don´t think about this before I start.

First things first. I now haven´t eaten rice for two weeks. It has been the best two weeks (stomach-wise) of my entire mission. I think that I had good reason to not want to eat rice as a child. It seriously makes me sick to my stomach. I have a theory that the things we think are nasty as children are the things that will later make us sick to our stomach when we go to another country. I have one witness thus far that my theory is correct!

I also ate this really delicious soup last night made of spinach, potatoes, carrots, peppers, cheese, and milk. Basically, you boil the vegatables, blend them up in the liquifier and then heat it up with everything in it. The thing about the soups here is that with creamy soups ( like the ones made of potatoes and milk) are always eaten with popcorn. There´s a big bowl of popcorn in the middle of the table and instead of putting crackers, you put popcorn. Super rico!

Let´s see...

I feel like nothing really significant happened this week.

We did an invasion in one of the sectors of the elders in our district this week. It´s where we all split up with members on divisions and contact as many people as possible. The thing is though that the elders are in a Kichawa area and the people don´t speak Spanish. So I was basically all smiles while the member did all the talking. It was pretty cool to listen to though. There are some words that are the same in Spanish, like Mormon and God, so sometimes I knew what she was saying, but most of the time no.

The Indiginous here are super faithful. Almost all of the jovenes go on missions, even the women. They have this really cool outfit that they wear. The women have two-layered skirts and white blouses with lots of ruffles and embroydery and this little sandal-shoes and a cool gold-beaded necklace. The men grow out their hair really long and braid it down the back and almost always wear a hat. It kind of looks like a cowboy hat, but not really. Then when they are going to church or to a special occasion, the men wear all white, even down to their sandal shoes. Even the Stake President has hair nearly down to his waist!

That´s about all that I have to say for myself this week. Sorry it´s so lame. I really do feel bad.

Until next week!

Love. Love. Love.

Hermana Cooper

I don´t ever know what to put here. August 2, 2010

2012-01-06T22:13:00.002-07:00

Guaguas and other fancy things. July 26, 2010

2012-01-06T22:13:00.000-07:00

Buenas from Otavalo!

So maybe I´m finally over the fact that I´m here to stay and not in Quito anymore. I´m super sad, but that´s life in the mission. Plus, Otavalo isn´t nearly as cold as Quito. Thank goodness. I was seriously freezing all day every day.

Otavalo reminds me of a cross between a small farming town in Idaho and Park City. The open markets and all the fun places to shop in the centro plus all the people are artisians or farmers and the all bring their things to sell on Saturdays. The whole plaza is FULL of musicians and venders and food and tourists and beautiful things to buy. It is so AWESOME! Plus it´s absolutely beautiful here. Green and mountains all around and volcanos on both sides of the valley. On one of the volcanos is a big impression of a heart on the mountain. It´s so awesome. The garbage and the gas trucks play music as they pass through the streets like the ice cream man and the streets are almost completely free of trash and dog poo (very different from Quito). I´ll send pictures. I just forgot to take some before I came to write...

Hermana Morris is super cute. She´s from Panama and only has two months left in her mission. She really hopes to be here the whole time and I think that she will be. She loves to talk and I love to listen to her. She likes to help me a lot with my Spanish. I have had two conversations in English since I´ve gotten here, but other than that, it´s all been Spanish. I can tell I´m going to get a lot better with only a Latina companion.

I heard a lot from people that on your mission, you have lots of Déja Vu moments. It´s so true. I´ve had more here in Otavalo than in Quito even, like I´ve been here before and met these people. I feel a strong connection with the people here and it´s so cool.

We have a lot of work to do though. I kind of feel like the investigators lack a faith. There are quite a few new converts that are already inactive. We´ll definitely be working on that...

Being on a mission makes me think about a lot of things: what I want in my life, what really matters, why I believe in God, why I feel like the gospel is important. It´s interesting. Lots of self-reflection.

Last night we were at the bishop´s house for a Family Night. His daughter came in with a couple of non-member friends that had listened to the missionaries before, but hadn´t ever taken up the offer. While Hermana Morris was talking to them, I was thinking a little about what they needed to hear. I finaly dicided to share why  I´ve chosen to be a religious person in the first place. I did and when we left, it was still kind of brewing in my mind.

Why is it really that I´m a religious person? Never thought about it before I came out here to tell people all day every day about Jesus Christ. But I think that I´ve started to get a clue. More than anything, it gives me something to live for, Someone to answer to and turn to. Believing in God makes me feel like I¨m a part of something bigger and better than myself. I as a daughter of God am a part of this universe. And not just some dust speck that happens to breathe either. I really matter to Someone that knows how to create planets and oceans and solar systems. I really matter. That´s why I believe. I love to feel like I´m worth something more than just this life and nothing else.

Plus, I like to feel the Spirit. It´s exhilerating when all of the sudden a rush of another language just flies out of my mouth and I hadn´t even taken a minute to think about what I was going to say. Those are the moments when I know that I¨m being an instrument in the hands of God. When I´m doing nothing but opening my mouth and words come out. What a rush!

I love what Alma says in Alma 32:35. Is this not real? Are our lives not shaped by the Maker of all creation? Does the Creator of heaven and earth really care about me? How great that we can say yes to that question.

Just something to think about.

;)

Love. Love. Love.

Hermana Cooper

Otavalo! July 19, 2010

2012-01-06T22:10:00.001-07:00

I got changed this week. Seriously, I haven´t cried so hard in a really long time. I didn´t want to leave Quito. We have been teaching so many families that have been really progressing and we just found a brand new awesome family of gold. Plus, I love Hermana Groesbeck. She is so awesome and seriously one of my favorite people in the whole world. She is hilarious and smart and spiritual and has the biggest heart for absolutely everyone. I miss Hermana Rial too. She is so funny and I love joking around with her. She´s kind of trunky and I like to tease her about it. She really loves the gospel and understands it so well. I tell you, I´m a leaky faucet...

The first picture is of me and our member firiend Nacy Chango. She is so great. She´s a ward missionary and basically whenever we ask her if she can come with us, she always says yes. She was the one that threw the birthday party for Hermana Groesbeck.

These other two pictures are of Beatriz and Ernesto who got baptized last Saturday! I still cannot believe that he is got baptized. He had a toughened rock heart and now he is so light and free. He´d always recite poems to us and act out things. I´m going to miss them now that I´m in this new sector!

I´m in Otavalo nowadays. This is the sector where are the indigenous people come from and they speak another language: Kichua. But, luckily I´m in charge of one of the two Spanish wards (out of 18 wards in total). My companion is Hermana Morris from Panama and already I like her a lot. Our apartment is small but very cute and we live right next to a candy store (woot!). Otavalo is famous for it´s outdoor market with everything from sweaters to ponchos to blankets to nativity sets to jewelery to you name it. I´m not going to lie, I´m pretty excited about it.

Like I said, I was pretty upset when I found out I was going to be changed, but after I found out where I was going, I don´t know, I felt really calm and at peace. I feel like this is where I´m supposed to be and I know that there are people here that I can touch. Change is hard, but if I´m not changing, I´m not progressing, and the only way that I have the oppurtunity to become better is if I change. One of the genious things about being on a mission is the change. The minute that I get comfortable, the Lord changes something. It´s one of His ways of keeping us humble. When I don´t know what to do or where to go, I have no choice but to turn to Him.

Hmmm... Don´t know what else to say. Oh yeah. I decided this change that I´m going to tell everyone that my stomach is sensitive to rice and I can´t eat it. Because it´s true. I thought at one point before my mission that I´d be able to handle it. Sorry. Can´t.

That´s pretty funny that Ali was so picky about her food. I´d like to see her face with a big plate of Guatita: a mountain of rice with cow stomach and intestines cooked in peanut sauce. No. It wasn´t good at all.

And you wonder why the food here has made me a little sensitive.

Anyway... Enough about the gross things I´ve eaten.

I love you all and I hope everyone has a blast in their 100 degree whether while I bask in the eternal spring of 75 here in Ecuador. Yes. It rocks.

Love. Love. Love.

Hermana Cooper

I can´t believe I´ve already been here for almost two changes... July 12, 2010

2012-01-06T22:09:00.001-07:00

Hey family!

Sounds like everybody had an awesome time at camp! And it´s also very good hear that Kyle feels better. Don´t worry, the only water I drink is either the water that I buy or I drink it out of the filter they gave me at the MTC.

Seriously Mom, don´t feel like you are going to bore me with your emails. I really love to hear about everything that´s going down at home. Especially since you are the only one that writes to me.

I now hope that everyone else feels a heavy pit of guilt and shame within themselves for not supporting the most awesome sister missionary in Quito, Ecuador. :)

I didn´t know that you were pulling all the grass out! That´s exciting. You´ll have to send me a picture of it. My hair looks awesome by the way. Finally it´s short and easy and I don´t look like a train wreck everyday.

I´m going to tell you all about Ernesto. I told you about him last week but I don´t care because he´s super awesome. He´s partially deaf and his wife, Beatriz, is a new member since March. She was a convert in the Evangelical church I don´t know how long ago, but her son is a stake president in Ibarra and had her listen the missionaries. She has the most awesome testimony and is so strong. I love her so much! Anyway, so Ernest is super smart and used to be a newpaper anaylist or something (his 80th birthday is the 27th of this month) and he also used to do dramatizations of books for the radio (he was the voice of Dracula. He´s still got the scary laugh). When we first went there to teach him, it was like trying to talk directly to a very hard heart. He couldn´t hear us because of his hearing loss and it was just a lesson of basically yelling at him and him basically contending everything we said. It was really hard and a part of me was wondering if he was just one of those people that would never accept the gospel. But Beatriz was also a new convert, and we have to visit them too to help strengthen them in the good word of God. So we kept going back and going back. We then at a training by the assitants that said we needed to focus on the gospel better and more, meaning faith, repentence, baptism, and the gift of the Holy Ghost. So we decided to invite him to baptism. And as a shock to the both of us, he accepted!

After that, it still wasn´t easy. We´ve had to have him sit right next to us and we´ve practically yelled the lessons to him. He loves reading in the Book of Mormon and can get so much out of one verse, that´s basically all we plan for every lesson. Little by little his heart has been softened and literally his ears have been opened. Just as Ether 12:27 says, that if men will come unto Christ, He will show unto them their weaknesses. I seriously believe that if Ernesto could have heard us from the beginning, he would never have gotten anywhere. But as he has come unto Christ, his weaknesses have become strong. Ernesto´s hearing has little by little started to return. It´s been such a miracle. We taught him the Word of Wisdom the other night and he was hilarious. He was trying to convince us to let him have just one more glass of wine before he committed to live the Word of Wisdom. But finally he gave in. He gave us the last of his coffee (which we dumped down the nearest swearer drain on our way out) but he wanted to give the wine to somebody. If you knew his wife Beatriz, you´d have no worries that he´d ever drink another sip of wine again.

And this Saturday is his baptism. He knows it´s the right thing to do and I think that he´s excited. I´m so excited for him. I have seriously seen the miracle of conversion with him. The Holy Ghost can really touch any heart that is willing to hear. Even the ones you never think will change. Even Ernesto, the 80 year old poet who always used to refuse to pray, but now knows what he needs to do to be truely happy.

Chirst really lives. This is reality. It´s not just some fairy tale or something that would be nice if it were true. It is. The gospel of Jesus Christ is true. I know it.

I love you all. I miss you all. Oh, and Zach. Don´t put work before family reunions. Take it from someone that wishes I had my priorities straight and didn´t miss out on all the important stuff. We´re on the earth to live the gospel so that we can have our family for eternity. Not our jobs. :)

Hope to hear from you all soon!

Love. Love. Love.

Hermana Cooper

P.S. Ecaudor Quito is the best mission in the world.

Scene two of part of the life of me as a missionary. July 5, 2010

2012-01-06T22:08:00.001-07:00

1. Hermana Rial telling me that I´m the most rocking companion on the planet.

2. Quito! I took a lot of these kinds of pictures.

3. Me and my companions. Before Hna Rial joined us even!

4. Quito again.

5. The scary ladders we had to climb to get to the top of the cathedral

6. Mis compañeras!

7. Me and Hermana Groesbeck in our patriotic attire.

We also have another family named the familia Guanoluisa (yeah, I can´t say it either). They are really awesome and they are probably going to get baptized pretty soon. We have a 15 year old girl Paola Males that is getting baptized this Saturday. We need to look for more people though, that´s the thing. We´ve got plenty of people for July but need to get a move on for August.

Spanish is coming along. I´ve gotten a lot better since now I´ve got a companion that doesn´t speak any English. It´s really fun to be in a trio but hard at the same time. Two is just more ideal. But we all get along well together and we all have different strengths and weaknesses that we balance each other out.

I don´t know if you can tell, but I´m running out of things to say. I should have thought this out better. We made the cookie recipe that you sent for chocolate chips mom. We had to chunk up candy bars and it didn´t really work all that well. The cookies were good, but just missing the chocolatey goodness that they usually have.

We ate an entire jar of peanut butter in one week. We bought it at Supermaxi last p-day and ate the last of it with our crackers today. It was delicious and I want to buy some more. Which is something that I´m probably going to do.

I bought a jacket today too becuase I´m always freezing. It´s bright Tomato orange-red and it´s awesome. I´ll have to send you all a picture sometime.

Anyway, I´ll let you all free from this pretty boring email. Hopefully all is well and Kyle recovers soon. It´s kind of scary, not going to lie.

Oh, and Zach, you rock my life.

Love. Love. Love.

Hermana Cooper

Top 10 things that happened to me this week. June 28, 2010

2012-01-06T22:06:00.001-07:00

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Jessica Rose Cooper <jessica.cooper@myldsmail.net>
Date: Mon, Jun 28, 2010 at 2:29 PM
Subject:
To: danacooper@gmail.com, julia.cooper.ctr@hill.af.mil, Kyle Jourdan Cooper <kyle.cooper@myldsmail.net>, zachary cooper <zachary_cooper@hotmail.com>, randy@iatsmartdial.com, michaelalancooper@gmail.com

Okay, I´m going to see if I can get to ten things without first killing this insanely slow computer. These aren´t in any order either. Oh, and Mom, I´ll get that full body shot to you soon!

1. Ernesto accepted a baptismal date! - Ernesto is an old man that is very hard of hearing and super smart. He used to be an analyser for a newpaper or somethign, so when he reads the Book of Mormon is like a full-fledged analysis of what every single word means. It´s really great to talk to him, but is just that we´ve been visiting him for about a month and a half and haven´t even been able to teach him about Joseph Smith. But we did get through The Gospel of Jesus Christ, so that´s good.

2. I was late to a lesseon because the lady I was doing divisions with had to untangle her two pigs that were tied to a tree. It was awesome and reminded me greatly of the time that me and Caydee (and Justin) had to lasso that pig in the back yard.

3. I have a new companion! We´re a threesome now and she´s from Argentina. Her name is Hermana Rial and she is really great. It´s fun because if I´m confused about something in Spanish, I aask Hrna Groesbeck, but we´re forced to speack in Spanish because Hna Rial doesn´t speak English. Plus, they both rock.

4. Hrna Groesbeck bought me two sweaters in Otavalo (don´t worry, I gave her money for them)

5. Hugo Jr. and Ronny got baptized this last Saturday! Their parents can´t get baptized because Hugo Sr. needs to first get his divorce to got through, so their date is in September. It´s amazing how much these two jovenes have changed. When we first started to come to their house, they wouldn´t even leave the back room, but now when we come over, they just have big smiles on their faces and they accepted a date happily.

6. Doris found her ex-husband and he said that he´d do their divorce mutually. This means that 1) it´ll be about $300 cheaper and 2) she can get married and baptized this coming October.

7. Saturday for lunch I ate chicken stomach. Yes, it was disgusting. Yes, I didn´t chew but rather just swallowed it without thinking.

8. We ate another root beer float from the existing root beer we had left from a member in our ward that works for the US embassy and brought it back for us from the states.

9. I had a warm shower 5 of the 7 past days! This is a record, seeing as our shower is electric and only works when it wants to. I´ve become very good at taking both very cold and very hot showers. The technique is actually the same, the too hot is more comforttable though. At least you can stand on the side and soak up the steam.

10. One of the Senior missionary couples that just left gave us their popcorn popper and thus, I make popcorn every night.

Well, that´s it folks. The top-ten-in-no-particular-order-list-of-what-happened-this-week list. I´m doing well and haven´t gotten sick as of late, so maybe my stomach is finally used to eating this much rice!

Oh, and Mom, I don´t think that I´ll have time to make my own umbrella, and I think that nearly any one that you find will be better than the one I´ve got.

I don´t know how to rotate the picture, but it´s of me, Hna Groesbeck, and Hna Rial at the Bisilica in downtown historical Quito. Huge Catholic cathedral.

Ojalá that it´ll stop raining. July 5, 2010

2012-01-06T22:05:00.000-07:00

Hey Family!

Hope that Kyle´s alright. Let me know what happens.

Yesturday for the 4th of July me and Hermana Groesbeck dress in red, white, and blue for church. Hermano Saddler (a guy in our ward that works for the U.S. Embassey here) gave us root beer and we had root beer floats. It doesn´t feel like July though. I thought that it might had finally warmed up, but alas, not so. It´s raining pretty hard at the moment...

I cut my hair today. I think that it might be a little shorter than I wanted it. It´s about a little below my chin. It looks bad today because I haven´t done it yet, so I didn´t take a picture. I´ll take a picture for you and send it. Along with that full body shot for Caydee. :)

Let´s see... I never know what to say in these emails. Sounds like everybody had a good time at the reunion. I´ve had a pretty good time here. Teaching the gospel and stuff. We´ve got one family that is really stellar. The familia Salazar. The two sons, Ronny and Hugo Jr. got baptized last weekend and got the Priesthood yesturday. The dad needs to get divorced from his previous marriage and then marry Cecilia so that they can get baptized. The awesome thing about them is that they are more active in the ward than some of the members of 20 years. They go to every activity and it´s really great to see how much the gospel has changed their lives.

Here are some pictures for you guys:

1. Me and my companions eating lunch in a Chifa (Chinese Restaurant) in Rio Bamba. It was super delicious by the way.

2. The volcano Cotopaxi as seen from a moving bus on the way to Quito from Rio Bamba. Very cool. It´s just in the middle of this valley and all of the sudden there´s a HUGE volcano.

3. The Familia Salazar. Basically one of my favorite families in all of Ecuador.

4. All of us at Ronny and Hugo´s baptism. The Zone Leaders had two baptisms too, so it was like a big party of awsomeness!

5. A symese twin banana.

6. Me and Hermana Castro, my mini-missionary companion for two days while Hna. Groesbeck went to Esmeraldes.

7. Us in front of the Bicilica, a huge Catherdral that we went to last Monday for P-day. We climbed all the way to the top!

8. Hermana Groesbeck telling me that I´m the most awesome companion that she´s ever had.

Let´s see... I don´t know what to write about today. Thus I´m sending a million pictures. But I think this email is full and I´m waiting for it to complete attatching so that I can load up another letter with pictures.

I´ll tell you about Ernesto whilst I´m waiting. Ernesto is basically my favorite 80 year old man. It took us about a month and a half, but we finally have a baptismal date for the 17th. He´s super smart and when he reads the scriptures like he´s acting out a play. He writes poetry and recites it to us too. His wife, Beatriz got baptized last March and has the strongest testimony in the world. Ernesto has some crazy ideas, but he has the desire to get baptized, now we´ve just got to get him to pray about if the church is really the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. He never likes to pray with us, but whenever he does, I tell you, it´s like a poem. He uses huge words and I just love to hear the way that he expresses himself to his Heavenly Father.

Now I´m going to start another email so as to send more pictures.

New companions and it´s freezing. June 21, 2010

2012-01-06T22:00:00.002-07:00

Hello family!

How are you all doing? I hope well! Good to hear that Kyle´s alright. Kind of scared the pants off me when I hear nothing but that he has a possible fatal brain virus and has been in the hospital. But it´s all cleared up now. Also glad to hear that Steph is getting all ready for her new baby. Sweet. I also hope that Zach had a blast in Mexico.

Something pretty exciting happened this past week. One of the hermanas in the mission had to go home suddenly so I´m now in a threesome. Me, Hna Groesbeck, and Hna Rial. She´s from Buena Aires, Argentina (I thought of you Julia) and she´s super awesome. She is an amazing teacher and KNOWS the scriptures. It´s a little overwhelming to be with two of the best (according to the President´s standards) sisters in the mission, but then again, gives me a lot to learn from.

We´ve had a great lesson from the assistants this last week that has impacted the way that I teach a lot and I think is worth sharing:

President Sloan wants us to change our frame of mind. I think that as missionaries (myself definitely included in this one) feel like we have to make sure people know that there is a prophet, that Joseph Smith restored the church, and that the LDS church is the only one with the proper authority. That stuff is all true and is very important, and anyone who gets baptized needs to have a testimony of it too, but there is something more important. That is the gospel of Jesus Christ, faith in Him and His Atonement, repentance, baptism, the reception of the gift of the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end. Every time I make a contact, teach a lesson, or testify, I need to testify of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  That  is the message that missionaries bring.

The first lesson is about the restoration of the gospel, but in every principle, there has to be the gospel of Jesus Christ. God is our loving Heavenly Father because He gave us the gospel, the gospel blesses families, we have prophets in every dispensation to teach us the gospel, Christ established His gospel, during the apostasy the gospel was lost, Joseph Smith restored the gospel etc... It´s not enough to teach about Joseph Smith. He´s only significant because he restored the proper way to live with Heavenly Father through the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

We´ve really started to focus on that, and it´s amazing the difference it makes. There is so much more power in our lessons and they are centered completely around Christ. We even invited fourteen people to get baptized this week!

Anyway, that´s pretty much it for now, except that the weather has been FREEZING for about the last five days. And our electric shower head doesn´t work. But don´t worry. I love my companions, I love the Gospel, I love the Book of Mormon, and I really love Ecuador. It´s amazing. I still can´t believe that I´m here!

Love. Love. Love.

Hermana Cooper!

25 Things that I've learned so far in Ecuador June 14, 2010

2012-01-06T22:00:00.000-07:00

SAM Cox asked me to tell her what I've learned so far. That is actually impossible but I'm going to say just 25 of the things I thought of. They aren't the most important or in any particular order, but just what came to my mind.

1. Flea bites itch. ALOT!

2. Watch out for dog poop.

3. If you don't understand, just nod your head with a conserned look on your face.

4. Popcorn made on the stove is super delicious

5. Pizza tastes better warmed up on a frying pan rather than in a microwave

6. The words for face and car in Spanish are very similar. Along with payed and sin.

7. Just ignore the cat-calls and the random English sentences creepy men yell at you when you walk by

8. Mo-Tab ROCKS!

9. Don't tell people you liek something in their house. They'll give it to you.

10. Wear sunscreen when you are 10,000 fe above sea level.

11. If you're bus is leaving, run to catch it!

Now maybe somethings more on the Spiritual side:

12. The main reason why so many families are broken is becuase men don't learn how to control their passions (unfaithful, drunk, angry, etc..) and women don't know ho to lovingly demand respect.

13. God seriously does answer prayers

14. The church is more true than I ever thought

15. When you fight with your testimony, it grows

16. Obedience really is the first law of heaven. If you love God, you obey, it's that simple.

17. The closer you get to your Heavenly Father, the more you realize how far you've got to go.

18. Alcohol distroys lives and families.

19. Everyone needs the gospel. It's the plan Heavenly Father made for us.

20. General Conference is so amazing. It never really sunk in that Thomas S. Monson is literally a prophet the same way that Abraham, Moses, and Noah were.

21. No matter how strong the Spirit is or how much you study ro know or how much you pray for someone to accetp the gospel, they still have their agency and can still say no.

22. You sin when you forget your divine potenetial

23. Faith is getting on the bus to go to church without having the money to pay for it.

24. If everyone would just keep their baptismal covenent, there wouldn't be very many Mormons wtih non-member friends. A lot of them would get baptized.

25. All those missionaries that I thought were super nerdy because they alwyas said the Book of Mormon rocks were completely right all along.

Christ lives. I represent Him. He restored HIs church again on the earth and everyone can partake of the joy the gosple brings. My heart breaks when people say it's not for them. They don't realize the reality of what they're saying: that ETERNAL LIFE and ETERNAL BLISS just isn't for them, that teh reward God the Father has for them isn't as good as the plans they have for themselves. Have hope taht your mansion in heaven is so much more than the one you could ever have here.

Love. Love. Love.

Hermana Cooper

After a delicious meal of beans and sausage. June 7, 2010

2012-01-06T21:52:00.001-07:00

Hello Family!

So today for lunch we decided to eat the mystery can of beans and sausage. It was a little wierd so I don´t think that I´m going to suggest to anyone that they buy it.

I hope that you are all well and happy. I´d also like to let you all know that there are only two dogs in all of Ecuador that I´m fond of. One is the Familia Loor´s dog. His name is Espike. The other is this dog that lives by the church. Whenever he is going anywhere, he always does it with much determination and it´s awesome.

I think that I´ve finally figured out how to send pictures. I don´t know what order they´re in, but one is of me on the way to an investigadors house, the view of Quito from the investigador´s street. The view of the buildings from my apartment window. The can of beans and sausage that we ate for lunch. Me and Heramana Grosebeck with our awesome scarfs and gloves we had bought at the market that day.

We had an exciting experience happen to us this last Saturday that I´d like to share.

We´ve been teaching this guy Mesias. He was an investigador of the Elders before we came in. He and his lady aren´t married, but they´re working on getting her a divorce from another guy so they can get married so that she can get baptized (it happens alot. The marriage is cheap and the divorce is super expensive). He has almost read the entire Book of Mormon, they go to church almost every week, and he´s stopped drinking and the only problem is that they aren´t living the law of chastity. The thing is though, he´s always told us that he loves what we teach and loves is all, but doesn´t want to get baptized because he´s Catholic. I was getting super frustrated with him and I just wanted to drop him. I thought that he needed to be humbled and wanted to chew him out about how hell fire and damnation and all that, but Hermana Groesbeck (who obviously is a better person than I am) was patient and was determined to figure out what the real problem was. Well, last Saturday we were talking and he told us the real reason was that he was afraid. He knew that if he prayed, he´d get an answer. The thing that scared him, was that what if it was right: he´d have to change his life. What if it was wrong: he´d have to tell all of his Mormon friends that they are wrong, and he didn´t want to do that because it brought them so much happiness. We promised him that he´d recieve the answer that it was true, that we had, that his wife had, and that his friends had too, and that´s why it makes them so happy. I learned a really great lesson that day: that every thing has a deeper story. I didn´t know what was going on in his head and I was too hard-hearted to try and listen. We can´t give up on people. Just taking the time to let him know that we cared and that we wanted the best for him helped him to recognize why it really was that he hadn´t asked God.

It sounds you guys have a super fun summer ahead of you. When it gets super hot, just wish you were in Quito, where it´s only hot from noon to four, then it´s freezing. This place is pretty crazy.

I hope to hear from you all soon!

Love. Love. Love.

Hermana Cooper

In this situation, I was greatful it was a little dark... May 31, 2010

2012-01-06T21:50:00.000-07:00

Mom, you´d be proud of me. I have an interesting story to tell.

There is this lady in our ward here named Nancy. She is super great and got baptized last December after totally turning her life around. She used to be drunk all the time and her husband the same and they´d got to parties and come home and fight and all this stuff, but now their whole family is getting ready to go to the temple! Woot! Anyway....that wasn´t the story I was telling. She likes to expose us Greengas to Ecuador. Especially by way of things like Guatita, which is all of the really sick gross parts of the animal (instestines, tongue, stomach, etc.) cubed up, put with peanut sauce and served over rice. yum. Last Friday, I was able to partake of such a treat. Let´s just say that in this situation, I was greatful it was a little dark. That way, I didn´t have to see what the chewy sick looked like before I had to swallow, tyring not to really tasting it. I have a strict policy that if the meat is chewy, I don´t ask what it is. I found out later from Hermana Groesbeck what we just ate. Poor lady, she´d been feeling a little sick. The guatita didn´t help...

The US Embassy is in our ward boundries, so there are a few North Americans in our ward and one of the families invited us to dinner last night. Mom, you´d be so proud of me. She made a roast, and not kidding, it was the most delicious thing I´ve ever tasted. Man, it was so good. I couldn´t help but think of you trying to get me to eat meat all those years. Who knew that all you had to do is make me eat only meat that had been cooked in oil for a month and a have then make me roast and I´d totally love it. The rice situation, however, has only worsened, and when I get back, I will never eat rice again.

We had a baptism last Saturday! Maria Toapanta. She´s the sister of David. I don´t know if I told you about him, but he had a date, but on the night of the interview he kind of freaked. She is really awesome though. Her parents are supportive of her decision, but not of the church. She´s 14 and was very determined to do it. She really has a testimony of the Book of Mormon and wants so bad for the rest of her family to get baptized too. We´re going to keep working with the rest of her family.

We also met a really steller family yesterday. A lady from the ward talked to a taxi driver and he said he´d be willing to have us over and yesterday was the first day. He told us about how all in the same year, (2008) his wife got cancer and died, his son got cancer, and then his son got in an accident and had to have 5 surgeries. He had to sell his business and almost everything they had to pay for all the medical and now he´s a taxi driver trying to just earn enough money for his family to have food. The mericle of it all is that he´s not bitter at all and invited us over so he can get closer to God so he can be with his wife after he dies. The guy has a REAL eternal perspective. He basically told us that there was a reason for his wife to die so early and that it was God´s will and that was alright with him. Sometimes I think that we say ¨God´s will be done,¨ but we don´t really mean it. We get mad when something bad happens that isn´t our fault. I´m really excited to teach this family. They are something really special and in tune with the Spirit. While we were talking, Arturo (the dad) asked us about the Spirit and told us he´s had very Spiritual experiences and told us some things that had happened to him. I really hope that they progress and go to the temple!

I feel like I don´t have anything too exciting to tell about, but that´s about it. Until next week! I really love to read all of everybody´s emails. Congratulations on your new house Mike and Julia!

Love. Love. Love.

Hermana Cooper

In case you are wondering where Ecuador is!!!

2010-05-31T13:31:00.001-06:00

Pictures

2010-05-31T13:19:00.000-06:00

Just a few pictures!! Enjoy!