Elder Spencer Cooper

Write to him at:

Elder Spencer Cooper

Georgia Atlanta North Mission

1150 Cole Dr. SW

Lilburn, GA 30047









Monday, November 25, 2013

Interesting Transfers

So we got transfer calls this morning. I found out I'll be staying here and Elder Pasa Vaili will be going to my last area, ha ha. He's gonna have some crazy times in the boonies... But the weird thing is they just split our zone so I'll be in the new zone. President Wolfert actually called and asked me to be the new Zone Leader here. Sigh... I'm excited, I guess.   I know I'll love the experience it's just the extra responsibility on top of everything else that will be happening.  I'm really glad I'm staying here, and my new companion Elder Coleman is a boss. He's really cool and a super good missionary. I'll miss Elder Pasa Vaili though and one of the sister missionaries from our ward who was really cool is getting  shipped out too so that kinda sucks. But overall good news.
This week was a lot slower than the last couple. We only had one of the W. boys come to church, Anthony the 12 year old. He's the most solid too he's so cool. We taught him the Plan of Salvation and he loved it soaked it right up. Our awesome Ward Mission Leader Bro Lakip has a son that plays football for Clemson and Bro Lakip took Anthony and Alex to the game. So cool they really enjoyed it and because of their circumstances they probably never get to do things like that. What a G. We also met this old lady named Oretha from Liberia who we are teaching. She came to church and seemed to enjoy it. She is very hard to understand though... and we might pass her to the sister missionaries I'm not sure yet I want to see what Elder Coleman thinks.
Other than that it has been slow though. We dropped a couple investigators who aren't progressing at all and knocked some doors but had a hard time finding people this week. The holiday season makes missionary work a lot harder than usual because people are double busy. I forgot about that...
It got a lot colder this week holy cow! It's freezing out right now it was like 34 this morning. The last few days have been like that but it's supposed to warm back up in the next couple days. We are going to a couple different houses for Thanksgiving should be pretty awesome! The families feeding us are really cool.
Well I love my mission so much and I hope you all have an awesome Thanksgiving!!!
Elder SR Cooper

Monday, November 18, 2013

Great Week

This week was pretty awesome. The weather was pretty cold most the week but the last few days have warmed up even though they've been rainy. We found a pretty good number of new people to teach again this week. But we've been having the problem that we will have one lesson with someone and then we can't get in contact again with them. But that is a very normal thing. The best though was that yesterday Alex and Anthony came to church. They are two black kids we met a while back. They were at church last week too and their sisters and cousin were there but this time it was just them two. After church our Ward Mission Leader Bro Lakip brought them and us back to his house and we had lunch and a lesson. It was so awesome. We have had a really hard time getting into Alex's house to teach lesson's cause it's never a good time for his parents or whatever but when we were able to sit down in an environment where the spirit was there and there were no distractions it was great. They comitted to be baptized on Dec. 21. They are awesome kids and are really excited to keep coming and to be baptized. So cool. I really think if everyone would just do those small things like invite investigators to dinner or something it would help the work hasten so much. They also went to mutual on Wednesday and loved it.

That's about it though... I mean nothing really funny or crazy happened. This ward is so bombastic though man. They are so awesome and I really hope I stay here another transfer. Transfer calls are supposed to be this Saturday i think so I should know already when I email next. I'll be bummed if I am cause transfers are the day before Thanksgiving so if I had to pack up and go somewhere new for the holidays I'll be mad. But I mean it's really whatever the Lord wants. The work is going great though and I love this area and the missionaries I am serving around right now. Love you all

um bye

Elder Cooper
O I totally forgot to say we performed a special musical number in Sacrament meeting. It was an arrangement of Nearer My God to Thee I wrote. We had the 4 sister missionaries and my comp singing. It turned out pretty good. I keep forgetting to include things. Man life is hard when you have brain damage...

Monday, November 11, 2013

Great Week full of Miracles

This week was pretty amazing. We had 12 new investigators! We were expecting 9 at church and got 6 so that was very exciting too. We definitely experienced some miracles. We had one where we planned to go to one area to tract in the morning but Elder Pasa's bike broke down so we went to the bike shop. By the time we were done with that we only had about 20 minutes before we needed to head back so we decided to go to an apartment complex close by. The second door we knocked on there was a 17 year old kid who let us in right away for a harvest blessing. He only happened to be there because he was sick home from school that day. We left a blessing with him and then came back later in the week for a lesson. He's awesome and accepted a soft commit to baptism. We were a bit dissapointed when he didn't come to church but I am very hopeful for him. The Lord really leads us to his elect if we trust him and show our faith by working hard every day.
We also had a couple of mormon.org referrals we taught that were great. And we've found some more investigators by tracting and passed off from the sister missionaries. We have a great ward and they have been very supportive and helpful this last week in fellowshiping and in being willling to come to our aid when needed.
We had zone conference and I enjoyed it a lot it was a very spiritual meeting and I realized how much more I need to rely on the spirit in everything. Most of the trainings were on relying on the spirit and finding those who will recieve you. There was also one on flirting hahaha. With all these new sisters they gotta make sure we stay focused I guess. Also I've been playing a lot of special musical numbers recently it seems. I played one last week for a baptism with a ward member. It was actually the song Make Me Whole from The Lamb of God. But I wrote an arrangement of Nearer my God to Thee that we are doing next Sunday. All the sister missionaries and Elder Pasa Vaili are going to sing for it. Our sister missionaries are pretty bomb singers and Elder Pasa Vaili's Samoan so of course he can sing. And I'm playing one Tuesday for another missionary meeting. It's been good I love the ability to still play.

For Christmas.... well I love hot chocolate..... and that carmel zebra popcorn was awesome! But I dont really know. I guess whichever MoTab CD has If You Could Hie to Kolob on it. Really food is good though. Or just money as boring as that is but there are some clothes I could definitely buy. Oh and nice ties are always good. Plaid and stripes are my favorite for that. And my favorite brands are Chaps and Penguin but whatever looks good. Anyways I'll keep brainstorming.

Anyways I know this church is true and I love the Gospel so much. i was rereading conference this morning and I really kept seeing them say that God's Love is Always there, no matter what we go through, and no matter what we've done. I love my mission so much. Man it's the best. Even though Georgia traffic SUCKS and there are no street lights at all I swear. But really it's the best I'm starting to realize how much I love GA and how much I will miss it.

Loveyoubye

Elder Cooper

Monday, November 4, 2013

Good Week

It was a pretty good week.Sounds like your Halloween was pretty sweet. Ours was great for a missionary one. We got special permission to go to President Ernst's house and play scripture chase and have a big dinner and ping pong and foosball. It was us, the Spanish elders and the two sets of Sister Missionaries in our area. We also had a great ward Halloween party. It was at this members back yard. They have a MANSION.
 
 We had an awesome experience with a member family. We asked them if we could pray for their inactive children by name and had been doing so for a week. Then we met with them again this week and they said that their son is getting re-baptized and their daughter has agreed to meet with visiting and home teachers for the first time in years. It was great.
 
Our main investigator didn't come to church again so he's off date. I was pretty discouraged about that and I've just been getting down on myself lately because I haven't had a baptism since Woodstock (my first area). But I heard a great testimony yesterday that really inspired me and I bore my own which probably helped me more than anyone else. But anyways I've been doing real good and I've been having a great time in John's Creek.
 
Anyways love you all and I hope you are all doing well!
 
Elder Cooper