Monday, February 27, 2017

Week 30 - February 27, 2017

Wow!  Seven Months Down!!    

Another month down already!  Next thing ya know, I'll be at 10 calling you guys for Mothers' Day, then 12 and halfway done with my mission!  Time is picking up faster and faster each month.  This week was great!  We were teaching all day every day.  It felt like I was back at Aberdeen University!  Lisburn is a wee town of miracles and Elder Nelson and I are loving it!


Tuesday:  We had a great District Meeting, talked about our areas and how we can continue to strengthen them!  After DM, we had a lesson with Kirstie, who is doing swell, then a lesson with a 75 year old man named John who is a Protestant but likes everything we teach him.  It's funny--he gets really off topic, but all his questions he has had his whole life about his church and God we we answered in the Restoration and Plan of Salvation and I don't think he processed it all.   We then had some good finding and a lesson with Mannie and a less active named Ian who doesn't want to go to church because he likes golfing on Sundays, can't blame the guy right? ;)  Jokes.



Wednesday:  Another great day of lessons!  We showed Mannie, "The Prophet of the Restoration" movie.  It was great, such a powerful film!  Then we had some lessons with a Recent Convert named Telis who's Portuguese.  His little siblings were jumping all over us telling us they wanted to come to church, it was funny.  We then had a lesson with a less active who wanted to meet up named Julie.  She brought her 8-year-old daughter with her as well named Jorgia, who wants to learn about the church and be baptised AHH!!  We set a date with her for April 1st and also to help get Julie get re activated.  That is exciting!  We will see how that all goes! 



Thursday:  We met with Kirstie and taught her some more.  Then we had a new investigator named Amy meet with us, who said she will try and read about the Book of Mormon.  We taught Mannie again haha, just a complete legend.  We are having such powerful lessons with him.  He is excited for his baptism.  It will also be his birthday on his confirmation!  Later on in the night, we had Ward Coordination and Book of Mormon class.  Mark Ballard.  Absolute Legend.  I love that man.  When I tour my mission, the first people I will visit are my converts and Mark Ballard.  He will drop everything to come help us whenever he can!  Lotta respect for him.



Friday:  We started off the morning with a lesson with Candace!  Ah man, she is so spiritual.  We talked to her about the Plan of Salvation and she absolutely loved it!  She told us she wants to be baptized in April once she finishes all her Tai Kwon Do for good, so that gives us a good amount of time to just teach her everything and get her prepared, exciting stuff!  We later on had a lesson with a investigator named Ilkka from Sweden, turned into a Bible bash.  He said he respects us though and how bold I was with him and proclaiming the truth I know though, so fair enough!  Sometimes gotta do what you gotta do!  Another great lesson with Mannie in the evening.  We talked to him about the Word of Wisdom.  He wants to follow it, but has a smoking problem, but that's okay!  Elder N had a stop smoking program for missionaries to use from his other comp!  It was made by missionaries in Dublin in 1989, and it still works!




Saturday:  What a fun day haha.  We had a lesson with Mannie.  We told him to bring all of his smoking stuff.  The program started off with him completely ripping all his cigs in half and signing a paper and a bunch of other steps.  It was brilliant hahaha!  This program completely stops someone smoking in only seven days!  We had Mark help us with the lesson.  He used to drink a lot before he was baptized and was in the Army, so he is great support for Mannie!  The rest of the day we did some finding and set some stuff up for this coming week!



Sunday:  Church! We had Kerri and Mannie come to church, both who have the date of the 11th!  The others all couldn't make it for various reasons, which were actually legit.  Luckily the ones who are coming to their dates soon were there, so it was okay that the others missed, just gotta get them this next Sunday!  We went and visited another less active and then did some planning for our week!  I love the Sabbath! 



That was my week the best I can remember!  We, also, went to another castle, and the city today,  did some exploring . . .

 (Belfast City)















 (Touring Carrickfergus Castle.  The sign states:  "Crammed with over 900 years of history, Carrickfergus Castle has guarded the approach to Belfast Lough since 1177.  Besieged in turn by the Scots, Irish, English, and French, the castle saw action right up to World War II.")
 

 






 

 



then the Titanic MuseumMannie came with us.  That was well good!
 



 


 


I am loving N.I. (Northern Island).  Such a prepared place.  God is truly blessing us with miracles lately.  It is great!  I can't wait for this coming week ahead of meI love you all and stay safe! 😇🍀

Elder Copeland

Tuesday, February 21, 2017

Week 29 - February 20, 2017

Hiya, guys.  I'm Lovin' Lisburn! 

It was good to hear from you yesterday!  Sorry about getting back to you a little late.  We got back pretty late yesterday and at that point we had a dinner appointment and two lessons to finish up the night!  We've been really busy this past week, and have seen so many blessings and miracles!  

Tuesday:  We had a great District Meeting in the morning, and had some Boojums after!  Three  out of our four lessons fell through, which was tough, but we were able to do some great finding and found some pretty cool people!  We had dinner at our Ward Mission Leader's and ah man, I love that guy so much.  He is named Mark Ballard from England.  He served in the Army and is a convert.  He was called to be Ward Mission Leader about a week before we got here, so is new as well.  He has done so much for us these past three weeks.  I have no clue how to ever repay him.  He comes out to less actives with us, he drives us around, he feeds us, and he works every day from 2 am to 3 or 4 pm, has three daughters, and his wife has a broken foot right now, so he is driving them all over the place. ABSOLUTE LEGEND.  I love that man, I thought I would just say that haha, anyways a good day!

Wednesday:  We had some lessons with some new people and it was incredible!  We taught a man named John who is in his 70's and loves the Bible.  We taught him the Plan of Salvation and he had some great questions.  We actually just taught him today as well haha.  He is doing well, just needs to now read the Book of Mormon and gain a testimony of it!  We also had a lesson with a man named Mannie.  Mannie's family is from Hong Kong, he has lived in Belfast his whole life and he is great!  He used to be Catholic, but has been trying to find more truth.  We taught him the Restoration and had a really powerful lesson with him.  He committed to be baptized on March 11th!! 

Thursday:  Lots of finding and some teaching to some Recent Converts. I got into like an hour Bible bash with some guy on the street.  I literally just wanted to walk away but he wouldn't let me!  He kept throwing all this rubbish at me and I literally just kept reading the Bible to him.  He had no clue what to say most of the time.  In the end, I managed to place a Book Of Mormon though and gave him our number ;)  We had our BOM Class in the evening as well.  Mannie came to it, he loved it!!

Friday:  Lots of finding, and some lessons, another with Mannie!  Taught him the Plan of Salvation, he loved it!

Saturday:  We went on exchanges up in Portadown with the Elders.  I got to go with Elder Kilgour from England who is nice and green!   Everyone in Portadown is Portuguese speaking for some reason, so we had some cool lessons.  One, we were able to use a Recent Convert and have him translate the entire lesson back and forth between us.  It was great!  Although we couldn't understand each other directly, the Spirit was able to testify of what we taught.  That is an incredible blessing our Heavenly Father has given us!  It was a great day!  We worked hard and had fun! 

Sunday:  Church!  Mannie and Kirstie (the one waiting until March to be baptized so that she will be 18) came with us!  We had some really great classes and they both loved it!  This ward is great at fellowshipping investigators and flippen FEEDING US!  OH MAN, they are feeding us 6/7 dinners this coming week, Legendary!!  We had some planning afterwards and some chapping!

So that was our week, it was well good!  We also got some sweet pics from Giants Causeway yesterday that I will send!  
 
 
 
 



 



 




 



 


 

Elder Nelson and I are getting along great!  He is a good kid.  We know how to work hard but have fun at the same time, and that is what makes time go by quickly!  I can't wait for this coming week and for the miracles in store for us as long as we do our part!  I love you guys and will talk to you soon! 

-Elder Copeland

Monday, February 13, 2017

Week 28 - February 13, 2017

Hiya, guys! 

This week was really good, it flew by so fast, I barely remember it haha.  Seems like time is always picking up out here as I get further out!  I am loving Lisburn.  This area, the ward, my comp, and the Northern Irish people are incredible!  Anyways, I'll go through my week though! 

 (Elder Copeland's companion who is from Canada allowed Elder Copeland to try on his gift from Canada.)

Tuesday:  We had our District Meeting in Belfast!  We got up and traveled down by train. Our District is pretty cool.  It's us, the Portadown Elders, and a senior couple in Portadown as well!  We had a lot of good instruction on loving our investigators, and looking at them as our eternal friends who have been waiting for us to bring them this message of salvation!  It was pretty deep, I enjoyed it.  We had a few more cool things taught in there. After District Meeting, we met with some other missionaries and went and got lunch in the city at a place called Boojums, it was INCREDIBLE!  It's like Chipotle, but 10x better!  That was good criac (fun, entertainment).   We then headed back to our area and had a few lessons and some GQ'ing!

Wednesday:  Today was well good!  We got a text from a former investigator girl named Kirstie asking us to meet up.  We met with her and she explained how she had been meeting missionaries for a few months, but she was in England for awhile.  She is back now, and WANTS TO BE BAPTIZED!  Long story short, she is 17 and turns 18 in March. She has been waiting to turn 18 so her parents can't stop her, pretty crazy story.  She is awesome!  We will be working with her for the next few weeks just re-teaching her everything and preparing her to be baptized on March 24th!!  
 
Later on, we did some more GQ'ing until dinner.  We went over to dinner with a man named Jason Smyth, his wife, and little girl.  We had no clue who he was until we realized, that he is THE JASON SMYTH!!!!   
 (Click on the link below to learn more about Jason Smythe.)
 
There ya go, that'll explain it.  Turns out they moved into this ward a few months ago and are new as well!  SOOO FLIPPEN COOL!  He let us hold his new gold medal that he won at Rio!  He is the fastest Paraolympic Runner in the World!!!  AHH!  Anyways that was cool. 
 
After dinner we had a lesson with an investigator family the Sisters had been teaching.  The family is Colin and Kandace Winters, from South Africa!  They are both incredible people. We got to know them a bit more.  Long story short with them as well, Kandace knows the Book of Mormon is true.  She wants to get baptized, as well as her two kids who are 9 and 13!!  She just is struggling with a few things, so we are going to help re-reach her everything and get her with a date this week!  SO MANY MIRACLES!  Honestly one of the most amazing days of my mission so far!  One to remember!

Thursday:  Another great day!  We had another lesson with Kirstie, then some Gq'ing, and found some really cool investigators!  We then traveled back down into the city and had our Interviews with President Donaldson!  I talked to him for only a tiny bit.  We were some of the last interviews he had for the day, and he was exhausted.  From 9 am until 6 pm, he was just interviewing the missionaries in the Belfast Zone.  He just told me to keep working hard and is proud of me! :)  Later on in the evening, we had Ward Coordination and our BOM Class we teach every Thursday.  It's weird.  I feel like a teacher when we get up and talk about what were reading with the class, but really I'm the one learning so much more about the BOM!  I love it!

Friday:  A pretty good day!  Lots of finding and a few lessons with Recent Converts.  We were freezing though, it was pouring rain in every flippen direction, classic Ireland!  We called a lot of investigators in the phone as well and set some stuff up for the coming week!

Saturday:  A full day of Finding, with pretty much no success!  That was a tough one.  I tried to visit Robert McGregor, Dad's friend, but he was actually in Vegas with my parents haha!  Pretty funny!  It was a really cold day though, and wet as usual!!  Not much more to it!

Sunday:  A great Sabbath!  We were able to have four of our friends at church! :)  Lots of planning and calling as well as some finding!

So that was my week best as I can remember!  It was one of the fastest of my mission so far!  I love my new area, and even though it's hard, I can feel the Lord's hand in all that we do, and I know that as long as we are obedient and diligent in our work, we will see miracles!  I love you all, have a great week, talk to you soon! :) 
 
Elder Copeland

 (Elder Copeland, "These are some pics of my Flat! I flippen love it!")