Great week April 22, 2013

This week was great. The pollen has died down and the weather is sooo nice. It's been great. And we found a lot of new people to work with. One of them is named Patrick. He's a 19 yr. old from Haiti and is a Haitian dancer. He's a really cool guy. he came to church yesterday and he loved it. He's taking his GED on thursday and we're going to go give him a blessing before the test. Really excited for him. We also had a man named Daron at church. He's someone the missionaries had taught in the past but we haven't been able to teach because he is so busy with work but was able to come yesterday. He's in his 40s but looks like 25 seriously. He's from Jamaica and has an awesome accent. Hopefully we can get started with him again we'll see. On Wednesday we had a potential investigator come to a game of Capture the Flag so we got to play that. It was super fun except right before it started the wind was blowing super hard and all this pollen fell from the trees. There was so much it looked like the trees were on fire or something it was crazy! Tony's been out of town which stinks I hope I get to teach him again soon because I'm pretty sure I'm getting transfered next week. Not positive though I'll find out next Monday. \

Other than that nothing much else to say... We're gettiing fed a lot which is awesome. Didn't have dinner once this week so we went to Jersey Mike's Subs. Man it's so good like best subs ever. AZ needs to get Zaxby's , Jersey Mikes, and Mellow Mushroom. But I've been enjoying Suwanee a lot more recently. Elder Freitas and I get along good most the time and we have fun with the Sister missionaries since we see them everynight at dinner. And everything's becoming green again it's nice.

Well thanks for those who wrote and those who didn;t repent! Just kidding but it's good to hear from you guys I love you all. I'm loving the mission and Georgia and everything that it entails.


Elder Spencer Cooper

Yo! April 15, 2013

Hey everyone,
So first! They have changed the rule about emailing. We're allowed to email friends! So if you'll send me an email this next week I'll be sure to email you back! My email is spencer.cooper@myldsmail.net

I attached some pics. The first is the two new sisters in our ward. They aren't really new anymore, but a member fixed them a greenie dinner and it was hilarious. The second is my shoe with pollen all over it, the 3rd is our investigator Tony

What a strange week. Went by so fast in some ways and really slow in others. Wednesday we had Tony come to institute with us. It was cool but the discussion was super deep. But he met a lot of the YSA and so that was good. On Thursday I went to a leadership training meeting. It was two days long 6 hrs each. Long, but so good. I loved it the spirit was so strong there and I had a great time seeing some other missionaries. President Wolfert gave an awesome training too. Then on Saturday we met a couple of really cool black guys at a recent converts house. We tought them briefly about the restoration and gave them a Book of Mormon. The spirit really spoke to one of them and were excited to see him again. Yesterday we ate dinner with an awesome family. They showed us a video called Reach Out and Share. I would suggest watching it if you can find it online it's amazing. It's about how he sent a Mormon message called "Dayton's Legs" to a lady who lives in Scottsdale and she felt the spirit so strong. The people from "Dayton's Legs" actually live in Gilbert and they ended up meeting. The Lady and her family ended up getting baptized. It was so cool. The video Reach Out and Share was shared on KSL in Utah between conference sessions last year.

Anyways, yeah on Tuesday this thick cloud of yellow fell on everything. I was like "Holy pollen Batman!" Seriously every car was just covered there was pollen on everything it was nasty.

I'm loving this work and I'm excited for this next week, I'm confident good things will happen in the work!

Elder Cooper

Crazy Week, April 8, 2013

This week was soooo crazy! So we got a car for a couple days so Elder Freitas could do his driving test. It was nice to have a car, especially since the beginning of the week was pretty cold. But Elder Freitas has been kinda sick so we've had trouble getting out and working. Oh and so we go to the DMV to do the driving test and the lady tells us we have to make an appointment. We go to make and appointment and the earliest one was in May. So that was lame. Our Zone Leaders had four people get baptized on Saturday and I was able to do the baptismal interviews for them. It was amazing and really helped me remember there are elect people out there searching for the truth. The baptism went great as well the spirit was strong. An man conference was so legit! All the talks were so good. My favorites were probably Elder Cardon  about repentance, Elder Uchtdorf's in preisthood, Elder Holland's (as always) and Elder Christofferson's about redemption. But it was all awesome. I can't believe how much more I get out of conference out here and just enjoy it in general. It's so cool, I mean it's literally like God speaking to the entire world.  We didn't have anyone attend conference though which was kind of a bummer.

That's really exciting about your choir mom! Hope you guys can keep gaining the recognition you deserve.

This next week should be great. Tomorrow we're having a meeting where we're going to find out some rule changes and stuff so that's cool. Then later in the week there's a leadership training meeting that lasts two days, I've heard it's really good.

Also wanted to say thanks Palmers so much for the awesome package! Hope to write you soon. I'm loving the bacon.

Man the weather has gotten so nice here. Everything is blossoming and blooming it's gorgeous. There's so many cherry trees here it's really cool. Today we played tennis and the weather was perfect for it.

Hope you're all doing well and thanks to everyone for the letters and stuff. I know this gospel's true and I know there's nothing more important I could be doing right now in my life than spreading the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Love

Elder Spencer Cooper

EASTER April 1, 2013

Great week. Elder Freitas and I have been really enjoying serving together. We have been working hard but we're still struggling to find new people to teach. We have many potential investigators but we're just having trouble getting in with people to teach them. On Easter we went to a families house and had ham, funeral potatoes, rolls, all that good stuff. But I had the best meal I've had in Suwanee this week. Salmon cooked with dill and lemons and spinach ravioli. So amazing. The weather was super cold at the beginning of the week but now is really nice. We've had a couple of crazy days where everything has fallen through but we're hoping for a more productive week. The day before Easter one of the Sister's investigators was baptized. It was really cool.  He's a totally different person since introduced to the gospel. We were able to participate in his confirmation and priesthood ordination yesterday. It was great, especially since it was Easter. Elder Freitas is a lot of fun. He is taking his driver's licence test in a couple days so we got a car for 2 days. I thought we'd have it for a week so I was kind of bummed but I'm still happy we got it for a while. Excited for conference!

Wish I could write more but we're super crunched on time today promise next week will be longer.

Love this work and the Gospel.

Elder Cooper

March 25, 2013

So I thought I sent an email last week but for some reason it didn't send, so I sent it again today. Sorry about that!

Oh also family, I sent a package today with all my CDs, besides Lamb of God. Our mission president changed the music rule and asked us to send home any music that wasn't gospel related basically. So that's why you're getting a box full of soundtrack music. Also the Kenny G CD isn't really Kenny G it's a mix tape of pop LDS music. Elder Wight, my trainer, gave that to me for Christmas as a joke because I hate Kenny G so much. I also hate pop lds... but yeah. Don't throw or give away though I still want all that music!

So I got my new companion this week! His name is Elder Freitas and he is from Brazilia, Brazil. His English is very good especially since he's only been speaking it for like 3 months really because he's been in the Portugese branch the rest of the time. It's pretty cool helping him learn English and we get along pretty great. It's been really cold this week though and he hates the cold, plus he's been getting over the flu so we haven't been able to do a ton of work. We did make some good progress with Renan who's Miriams husband. He had said he wasn't interested but Elder Freitas can speak Spanish too so they connected with that and I'm hopeful he'll sit in on the lessons now. We're seeing them on Wednesday. We also met with Tony a couple times, but that hasn't been going so well. He says he knows the Bible is true and since the Book of Mormon conflicts with it, (which it doesn't) he thinks it's not true. The things he thinks conflict are so strange and don't really make sense. But we're eating dinner with him tonight and hopefully we'll be able to help him feel the spirit and teach him what he needs to know.

Like I said it's been really cold. I thought it was going to be warm for a while but alas not so. It snowed today! I mean barely but still it's cold. Oh and yeah we had a tornado warning last Monday but nothing too crazy happened. It poured rain and hail for like 5 minutes but other than that it was all good.

We're hoping to meet with a couple other people we met this week too but it's still been tough to find new investigators. We had a stake fast for missionary efforts yesterday so we're faithful that will help.

We had dinner with a guy yesterday who can speak the African language where they use the clicks and junk. So cool!

Um other than that I'm excited for Easter. Our ward choir is pretty good and I'm hoping some people will come to hear them.

Hope everything is goin well back home. I'm really starting to enjoy the Suwanee ward more now and I've definitely been having better spirits lately. I love this work and the people I'm blessed to be able to work with. Oh and thanks for the picture Mom. The one of the flowers I got but the other ones didn't come through so I dunno. Bye!

Elder Spencer Cooper

Strange Week March 18, 2013

Hey everyone,

This week was pretty good. It seemed very long though. On Tuesday we exchanged and I went to another area for the day. That was great had a really good time there. And got Brusters ice cream which is the best ice cream ever. Back in my area Elder Wight and Childs found a couple that we're teaching tonight. They are excited to read the Book of Mormon and learn more so we're really excited to meet with them tonight. They also found a man named Alvin who was just real interested and we're meeting with him later this week. On Friday we met with Tony again. We had a great lesson with him. He's so dang smart. We're actually playing basketball with him today.

The weather has been so nice. Got up to low 80's this week. Aparrently it's supposed to get down to the thirties sometime this week though :/ But there was tons of people outside to talk to which was cool. Except saturday cause there was a beerfest going on so we kind of avoided the town center area.

So I don't know if I've said this yet but was thinking about it this week. I used to be such a picky eater and I have no clue why. Like there are so many things I used to hate that I love now. Like mushrooms. Don't know why I thought they sucked cause they were delicious.

Transfer calls were today. Found out Elder Childs is going to my first district. Excited for him. I'm staying in Suwanee and getting a companion who is a portugese elder named Elder Fraitas. I'm excited because I heard he's a great missionary but I will miss Elder Childs.

Glad to hear your trip went so well Mom. Hope your choir can get some more recognition soon because it seems to definitely deserve it.

Love you all

Elder Cooper

Awesome Week March 11, 2013

Hey,

This week was pretty awesome. On Tuesday we went on exchanges with the zone leaders. It was so great .We were contacting in a neighborhood and saw a woman sitting on her porch. When we went up and talked to her she told us she was a Jehovah's Witness, but didn't go to church any more because of some stuff she disagreed with. Anyway she read somewhere in the Bible that the lost sheep would be found by the disciples of Christ. And on 3 separate occasions she ran into LDS missionaries at 3 different locations. She let us into her house and we left a blessing with her. After the blessing we asked if we could come by and she said to come by in two hours. So two hours later we taught her the first lesson. She loved it and the spirit taught her so well. She kept saying, "Why don't the Witnesses have prophets?" She even called her mom and asked her during the lesson. She committed to baptism on the 30th of March. She's in the area for the Zone Leaders so i don't get to teach her but am really excited for her nonetheless.

The weather was super cold on Wednesday, but after that it was amazing. Great time to contact. We talked to tons of people. Got some really good potential investigators. So we're really excited and hoping to meet with a lot of new investigators this next week.

Yesterday I played a special musical number in church. It was an arrangement I made of "I'll Go Where You Want Me to Go" with a bit of "Called to Serve" It went okay.  I wasn't super proud of the arrangement and I messed up a bit but it went okay. Everyone seemed to like it at least. It was for a sister's farewell who's going to Italy.

Um for pants... Probably 30 waist 32 length or maybe 32/32 and either black or gray would be good.

Crazy everything that's going on back home... glad to here from some of you this week thanks a ton for writing.

So that's about it this week. We basically contacted and tracted all week. Next week is transfer calls so I'll know if I'm getting a new companion  or area next Monday.

Take Care!

Elder Spencer Cooper