an english dictionary - y

yearling: something that has freshly completed a year

This post actually has little to do with London and everything to do with the fact that the day I left it, I had my one year anniversary of being home from my mission.

Missions are nothing short of beautiful.  I heard once that the amount of time I spent on a mission ends up being about 1.5% of my life.  Who would have thought that 1.5% would be a tiny hinge on the course of my life that has turned me completely around?

When I left my beloved Ecuador, one of my biggest worries was that I would stop progressing.  As a missionary my journey to become a better person seemed intensified.  Guilty pleasures were never pleasurable.  I felt terrible when an act of selfishness only begun to cross my mind and I was very aware of what I could be doing better.

People had told me that's the hardest part: the abrupt halt from moving forward.

Maybe I'm lucky though, because I feel like with me, that hasn't been the case.

I've learned that part of faith is me being happy about following the Spirit.  Being angry about the answers I get (but following it anyway, like the way I used to eat squash to please my mother) means I obviously don't have the faith to know that God's plan will make me way happier than my lame plan will. -Doc & Cov 68:6

I've learned that prayers are seriously answered.  I've always known it, but I just seems to solidify every time that it happens.

I've learned that the Spirit can sometimes be hard to understand and follow, but that He's always right.

I've learned that men and women are super different.  Women are amazing when they glory in their womanhood (men are too, but I'd rather think about myself).  I still don't quite know what that (the womanhood thing) means, but when I figure it out, I'll let you know.

I've learned that the most awesome and fantastic person that I can be is myself.

I've learned that my brother Zachary is and always will be a way better person than I am.

I've learned that every kid should cut their parents a lot of slack.

I've learned that I should only do the things that I feel good about.

I've learned that forgiveness is so, so, so real and that God always will give me the second chance I ask for.

I've learned that when things are done, they are done and regrets will never change anything.

I've learned again that the Gospel is real. Jesus is real. The church is real.

And thank Heaven for that.

To my very dear family. July 25, 2011

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

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

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

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!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Happy Valentine´s Day! February 14, 2011

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 a slothful 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