Week 38 - April 24, 2017

Hiya, fam! 

Good to hear from you guys.  This week went by way too fast!  It's good to be in my new area, I am loving Glasgow City!  It's massive and all we do is GQ the Uni and the City Centro all day, back to what I love!  I, also, hit my 9 months this week, I swear it was last week that I was writing saying I hit my 8 months.  Time just keeps picking up!  But anyways, I'll go through my week now.

Tuesday:  We didn't have a district meeting, so we just GQ'd the entire day!  I got to say bye to some of the members in Lisburn as well.

Wednesday:  My last day in Lisburn.  I had to say bye to Kirstie and Mannie.  I was sad to leave them, but excited for their futures and to hear about how much they will progress and grow in the church.  I packed up my bags and David had us over for dinner again.  He brought his friend who had escaped Iraq to become a Christian, and it was really cool to hear his story.  How blessed are we to be able to worship God without the fear of being killed for it, such a humbling experience. 

Thursday:  We hopped on the train in the morning and headed over to the City.   I said goodbye to Elder Nelson, what an amazing guy.  We didn't serve a ton of time together, but we had some amazing experiences and always were laughing and had great success.  I'll see him again nay worries :)  I got on the bus with the rest of the Elders leaving Ireland and we got to the docks then took the boat over to Scotland.  After the boat, we took another bus to Glasgow!  I met Elder Wang and we took my bags back to our flat.  I am in the Glasgow Chinatown flat as it's called hahah.  I'll take some pics of it this week, it's nice!  We didn't have a lot of time left in the day, but we GQ'd for a while.  I'll tell you guys about my comp.  

Elder Wang is from a small town outside of Beijing, China.  He is a convert to the church! About two years ago, some family friends began to teach him about God and about the church.  He flew to Hong Kong and was baptized and then decided to come out and serve a mission.  He has been out for about a year now, nobody in his family but his mum is a member.  He was able to baptize her before he left.  His English is pretty good, but not perfect.  He just goes to town with the Chinese people.  I just stand there and smile and say a few words and he talks to them.  He might be the hardest working missionary I have ever met.  I'm excited to serve with him! 

Friday:  We had a full day of finding and I got to know the city a little bit better.  Our area is shared with 12 other teams.  It's a wee bit competitive, and we literally just have the entire city to find in.  We hit up the University Of Glasgow in the morning because there are a TON of Chinese people here!!  Later on we went into the city centre, I love it.  There's just thousands of people from all over the place walking around and a bunch of missionaries all GQing and having fun!  We got an advantage though because Elder Wang can speak Chinese and they all talk to him!  In the evening, we went to the Church for two baptisms the sisters were having.  We went out for ice cream afterwards with all the Chinese.  They love me because I am American and tall, its hilarious.  They have really broken English, but they understand everything I say well!  It's fun trying to learn how to speak Mandarin, and they are the funniest people I know.

(This place is massive, I LOVE IT.  I haven't got a ton of pics yet, but I will get more this week.  We are going on a hike today as well, so that will be fun!  Here are a few of the city.)

Saturday:  Another day of finding!  We were able to sit down and teach a Chinese girl named Leslie (Oh, btw, they just create English names, usually after flowers haha)  We taught her the Plan of Salvation and about the Godhead, she loved it!  There was another baptism in the evening the other sisters were having, and we invited her to come along.  We GQ'd some more and got some potentials for the week ahead.  Leslie came with us to the baptism and said she felt a peace afterwards that she hadn't felt before.  We invited her to church for the next day.

Sunday:  The Glasgow Ward is a bit different then other wards.  Since we share the building with the Springboig Ward, our church starts at 10, but we start with Elders Quorum, then Gospel Principles, then Sacrament.  Leslie was able to come along to church.  Gospel Principles is divided into two classes, an English class and a Mandarin class.  All the other missionaries go to the English class and I go with Elder Wang who teaches the Mandarin class hahaha.  I don't understand a single word of what anyone is saying, so I just kind of zone out and study on my own.  But it was good!  We were able to teach Leslie after church with another recent convert named Cox.  She committed to being baptized on the 4th of May!  WOO!  After that, we just went finding some more in the city.  We had an on the spot lesson with a man named Ross from Canada, it was good.  We taught the Plan of Salvation and he said he would meet up some more with us this week. 

So that was my week, pretty fun.  We are gonna go hard and find a bunch of new people to teach, I am excited to see how successful we can become as we put our faith in God and do our part to find those prepared to receive the gospel.  I love you guys and will talk to you next week!  

Elder Copeland

OH BTW: Here is my new Address!!!  Send me letters plz!  You can send packages to the mission home--it's not far away :)  Thanks! 

2 Tamshill Street, Flat 0/1  

Glasgow G20 9QT

Scotland

Week 37 - April 17, 2017

Heya fam, good to hear from you all again. 

 

 

I hope you all enjoyed your Easter Holiday :)  They get two weeks off here after Easter for Holiday, think the missionaries get that as well? haha.  This week was a good one.  It was a wee bit slow, but we had some great experiences.  We also had MOVES CALL!  I'm excited! I'll go through my week now:

Tuesday:  We headed over to Belfast for our District Meeting.  We got to go with the Chinese District and it was a lot of fun.  They are all killing it with all of the Chinese in the UK.  I don't know how they can speak that language then just flow right back into English when we ask questions or talk to them.  Crazy.  But it was good!  Afterwards we had some lessons with recent converts and did some finding.

Wednesday:  We did some more service for David, his house still needs loads of work.  We helped sand some more and began to paint.  Brought me back to the days of painting with Dad, it was well good!  Afterwards, we did loads more finding.  David our Born-again friend had us over for dinner.  Nice guy, just confused.  He thought that Mormons didn't think we were gonna be saved and I had to explain to him a lot.   He loves America though and at the end, he gave this 15 minute prayer thanking God for Trump, asking him to bless America, to continue to build walls and what not, and to help Canada out.  It was hilarious.  I have never heard a more enthusiastic prayer.

Thursday:  A full day of finding, I guess the week before Easter is ditch Lisburn week cause there was nobody on the streets.  Dang.  We did have a lesson with a new Investigator named NIgel though and it went well!  He goes to a church in town, but we talked about the Holy Spirit teaching us truth and we ran out of time cause we had to go to a dinner appointment, but he told us he wants to meet this week and learn about our church!  That was good!  Later on in the evening Book of Mormon Class!

Friday:  Another day of finding.  Mannie took us out to lunch though which was great!  I love that guy haha.  In the evening, the ward had a wee Easter activity for the primary.  We got to hide eggs and candy all over the church for them.  I love the kids in this ward--they're hilarious.  I think people forget how clever kids can be and how much they really do know!

Saturday:  Today was Moves Call!  Elder Rich and Burgess who had been down In Dublin were dropping off their comps going home and were passing through Lisburn on the way back.  We went out to lunch with them and then did some finding!  All the missionaries know about Lisbornagain and they really wanted to bash haha, which is dumb.  But we went onto Bow street and what do ya know, that really angry bald guy was there.  He came right up to Elder R, Elder B, and I, and started trying to yell all of his usual anti-stuff.  We absolutely destroyed him.  I feel bad, but at the same time.. He came up to us, and all we did was answer all of his questions and anti-stuff with scriptures from the Bible, Ah well.  It was good to see them though.  Later on in the evening, we got our Moves Calls!  I am going to Glasgow City Centre to serve with Elder Wang!  I AM PUMPED!!  I am back in the city and another uni as well.  Our district has a ton of legends in it and we have like eight missionaries in our ward.  It will be a lot of fun and I know that Elder Wang is a machine.  I think I'll have to learn some Chinese though ;)  I couldn't have asked for a better area to go serve in!

Sunday:  Today was Easter!  We had a great sacrament service.  Since Easter is all about families and the Savior, I missed you guys a lot.   But it was nice to reflect on the importance of the Atonement, and how it has CHANGED my life.  I am thankful for Jesus Christ, for his sacrifice so that I can live with all of you forever.  What a blessing.   We went finding for the rest of the day.  I really appreciated just reflecting on the true meaning of Easter Sunday this year without all of the noise of the world.

 

 Later on in the evening though, we went with David to his church service.  It was interesting.  Not once was the Atonement even mentioned.  All they talked about was the Spirit, and sang a lot haha.  One lady was like screaming and speaking in gibberish-definitely not the gift of tongues going on right there.  It was probably weirder then all the rest of the churches I have been to.   But ah well, funny as always for Elder Nelson and me.

That was my week!  Sorry, it wasn't the most exciting one, lots of finding, but it was good still.  I just wanted you all to know how much I love you guys, and how grateful I am for this gospel.  So many people are confused out here, and I want nothing more then to help them answer all of their questions.  We are blessed to have the knowledge of eternal families with our loved ones and Heavenly Father.  I am excited for Glasgow, but I'll miss the people of Lisburn, Elder Nelson, and all of the memories made here.  I can't wait to talk to you guys next week and tell you all about it :) 

 

Elder Copeland

Week 36 - April 11, 2017

Hiya, guys! 

It was good to hear from all of you today!  This week was brilliant!  We had some really incredible experiences and were able to have Kirstie's baptism!  Thank you to all of you for your continued prayers and fasts for her and for us, it payed off :)  I'll go through my week like always now!

Tuesday:  We had our district meeting down in Portadown.  We talked a lot about the importance of the Book of Mormon and did some role plays on it.  We then got a lift back with Elder and Sister Angel and they came and taught Kirstie with us!  They talked to her about any questions or concerns she may have had, and that she isn't the first to have to get baptized without any family support.  The Angels were converts.  They use to be Catholics, so it was good for them to relate and help her out!  After Kirstie, we were finding for the rest of the day.

Wednesday:  We had another lesson with Kirstie!  We planned more of her baptism out, and how she was going to get there.  Afterwards, we went finding all day again!  Later on in the evening, we went over to Mike's and had a short spiritual message with him and talked to him about Conference. 

Thursday:  Another full day of finding, not a lot of lessons went through this week.  We talked to Kirstie a wee bit more to make sure she was still ready to go!  Elder Angel came and told us that the Portadown Elder had gotten E-moved.. sad to see them go so quickly, but it happens!  It's only us, the Portadown sisters, and the Angels in a district now, with no district leader haha!  Not much else happened today.

Friday:  We went over to less-active David's home again and did some more service.  We sanded more of the walls and helped pull out some radiators.  I don't think I have ever talked about radiators here, but they are the worst!  Back home we just have a nice central heating system in all the homes, but here they got these massive, bulky, brick looking radiators all over the homes.  They take up a load of space and are annoying.  Elder Nelson got black liquid all over his jeans as we were ripping one out and taking it outside, it was pretty funny!  David wants to start hearing the missionary discussions again, so we hope we can help him get back out to church!  We told him we would get a few guys over with us to help him fix up his place, cause it needs a LOT of work.  Afterwards we taught Kirstie again! She brought her friend along who is a Methodist.  She said she was coming to her baptism and supports her, so that was good to at least have a friend there for her!  We taught Recent Convert Andrew again as well.  He showed us this video of him laying down in his bed, and he was claiming that you could see his grandma boxing Satan in it.. We were trying not to die laughing haha!  Other then that just some more finding! 

Saturday:  Today was the day for Kirstie!  We actually were called Friday evening by Pres. Thompson (He takes care of the missionaries in Ireland and works with the Stake Presidencies) who wanted to talk to us and then take us out to lunch!  He gave us great advice on ways to work within the ward better!  He then took us to Frankie and Benny's and I ordered this massive 'American Burger' with a bunch of meat, bacon, and macaroni and cheese in it, it was well good!  The rest of the day we were running around the church setting everything up for the baptism.  We cleaned the font again, and then moved tables and chairs and what not.  The baptism was incredible!  Kirstie's friends, along with a bunch of members were able to attend!  Elder Nelson was able to baptize Kirstie, and as she came out of the water smiling and laughing she was so happy! :)  Definitely proud of all the work we did, and how brave she was in making that decision to follow the Savior's example!  One of the best days of my mission!

Sunday:  I was able to confirm and give the Holy Ghost to Kirstie!  That was brilliant!  Our Born-Again pal David came to church as well.  He was asking some lame questions second hour and all I kept asking him was had he ever read through the Book Of Mormon to answer his questions?  All he has done was 'Cross-referenced' over to it through Bible study.. yea.. No one will EVER receive an answer of the truth of the Book of Mormon if they do not SINCERELY read it, ponder, and pray to ask if it is true.  It really isn't that hard of a concept.   Anyways, the rest of the day was good, finding and going over to Mike's for a wee bit to see how he was doing!

So that was my week the best I can remember!  It was a great one!  Today we went over to Tollymore Forest and hit another castle up as well.  I'll send loads of pics! 

 Pictures of Tollymore Castle

 Pictures of Dundrum Castle

OH, and if you haven't seen the new video on mormon.org, check it out!  It's the #PrinceOfPeace.  The new Easter video about remembering the importance of Jesus Christ and his perfect example to us. 

 
This Saturday will be Moves Call, I don't think I will be leaving, but you never know!  We will see next week.  I love you all and am grateful for all that you do.  I will talk to you soon! :)

Elder Copeland 

Week 35 - April 3, 2017

Hiya fam :) 

It was good to hear from you.  I can't believe you are all in the nice warm weather of Maui, while I am looking outside and seeing nothing but gray skies and rain.. One day I'll see the sun again!  I hope one of you understands the title of this email.  "Look up to God, open your mouth, and drink it!"  It's from Elder Yoon Choi, or as Mannie said, his Uncle's talk, haha 😂 .  This week was pretty good!  I don't have a ton of time, and I will try to put everything in I remember best, but a lot happened!!!

Tuesday:  We had our district meeting down in Portadown!  The senior couple in our district, the Angels (Ironic because they are angels) fed us a massive breakfast, it was well good!

(Breakfast with the Angels.)

 (Random pics of us waiting for our train after Conference.)

 (Can you see the H & W Samson And Goliath?  Look it up ;)  Samson and Goliath are the twin shipbuilding gantry cranes situated at Queen's Island, Belfast, Northern Ireland.) 

 ​Elder McCappin and I ( He is my Gpa!-Elder Elsmore's Father) Absolute Legend!!​  (The Elder's keep track of who trained who in their heritage.) 

 (Elder Copeland stated, "Finally got to see Michael!")

After DM, we went on exchanges.  I went with Elder Gunderson from Cali.  He is a bit older, but loves golf and is a chill dude.  We had some good criac!  We GQ'd the entire day, trying to speak to Brazilians, but most of them don't even speak English.  We set up a few lessons for them though and we had fun working hard.  Later on in the evening, we went back to Lisburn, and Dad's friends picked us up and took us over to Boston Grill.  WOW!  That whole experience was incredible.  Great people, great food, and a lot of laughs.  Thank you for all that you do, Dad.  They made me realize even more how many lives you help.  I love you!  Such a good day!  (Maybe you could send some pictures from that, I didn't see any!)

Wednesday:  We had a great lesson with Kirstie.  She had been getting anti'd even more. Her friend's mom bought her a book that is 350 pages long about a lady who worked at BYU, left the church, and started her own church.  It is actually ridiculous how some people react when they leave the church, Alma 24:30!!  Church is true!  We talked to her about having that faith in God and trusting in him to help her along her journey!  As we were teaching her in this cafe, another lady named Kayla sitting near us started to ask us some questions.  She was from Wisconsin but married a lad over here.  We ended up moving over and teaching her the entire Plan Of Salvation!  She is a Born Again Christian, so she has a lot of questions, but it was good!  She told us she would bring her husband along this coming week and meet up with us again.  After those great lessons, just some finding! 

Thursday:  We had a full day of finding!  Found some solid potentials we should be seeing this week.  Finding is still a bit slow lately, but as long as we stay positive and have faith, we will find prepared people!  We had Book of Mormon Class in the evening.  Elder Nelson taught about Moroni, what a righteous dude!  Great example for all of us to look up to and strive to have as much faith and obedience as he did and his people!

Friday:  We were suppose to have a lesson with Candice today, but she had to cancel.  Her daughter had to go to the doctors.  She is leaving for a vacation with her fam as well for the next two weeks, so that bites, a lot.  Hopefully if I am still here, we can get her into the waters of baptism!  She will get there one day though.  It's all about timing with her!  Elder McCappin and Elder Selander were passing through Lisburn on their way back to Dublin, long story, but we talked to them for a wee bit.  It was good!  Got some pics.  Other then that, just finding alllll dayyy.

Saturday:  We had a great day!  We got to go over to a less active member's home and do some service for a few hours!  They are re-doing their home, so we scraped wallpaper off of the ceiling.  It felt weird wearing normal clothes, and they took us to lunch afterwards, and no one was looking at me funny!  Until I started talking with my American Accent haha, Different looks though!  We later on had a lesson with a man named Tiko from Figi.  He is normally in England but has been meeting with missionaries for awhile.  He is a Methodist and had some crazy stories!  He was in the army for 24 years and was in Afghanistan on patrol one day and got sniped in his arm.  He lifted his sleeve and had a MASSIVE SCAR. The bullet broke his bone and pieces of the bullet sprayed into his lung.  He said as he was laying there coughing up blood, he heard God tell him it was going to be okay.  He had been fasting for a few days with no food only water before that, trying to strengthen his relationship with God.  He was really in tune with the Spirit and a great guy.  He had some questions about the church's past I helped answer, and then I bore my testimony to him about the power of the Book Of Mormon and challenged him to read Alma 32 and pray about the book and read it all the way through!  He said he would do it, and that if he was ever in Lisburn again, he would meet up.  After Tiko, we ran over to the church with Mannie. We ordered some pizzas, and we three watched the Saturday Morning Session of Conference on the computer, it was amazing!! I took a bunch of notes from each speaker of Conference, and I was thinking I could just take some pictures of that, because there is no way I can go through all of the talks and what were my favorites and all of that. 

Sunday:  We headed over to Holywood Road Ward's Building to watch the Priesthood session, Saturday evening session, and Sunday Morning session live!  I took a million notes and I honestly don't have the time to write all about it right now.  But some of my favorite speakers were:  Elder Uchtdorf's Sons of Thunder talk, my trainee and I will be called that ;), Elder Holland's Crazy Musical themed, all of us have a part to play, talk, it was deep mate, I gotta study that one.  Elder Gary B. Sabin's talk about letting the world go, and hanging onto eternity, using that comparison of an inflatable punching bag getting back up! Elder Neil Anderson's talk about how the happiness of our spouse is more important than our own pleasure--kind of a future one that will be important haha.  Elder Yoon Choi's talk about his family conversion and about being a mission president in a rainy mission!  Love that quote.  I titled this as, we gotta do that on the Scotland/Ireland Mission!  Dallin H. Oaks' talk, and of course President Monson's short but sweet testimony on the Book of Mormon. That man has served God his entire life, bless him.  I love the leaders of our church, and their stories and experiences help me out through the tough times!  That was just a few notes I have.  I will take a pic of more of them, but man, it was good.  I still have Sunday Evening session as well to listen, too, sweet!  What a great Conference!  Thankful to be out here on the mission, and am going to apply what they taught into my service!  I was talking to Kirstie having a good conversation on Faith and she sent us this text saying she wants to be baptized on the 8th, even if she has to go against her parents.  WOW, so much respect for her and her decision.  That means this week we have a lot of planning to do if all goes according to plan.  I pray that God will help us make this all work out and that their hearts will be softened and that he will bless her!

So that was my week in a wee email!  Too many stories and experiences to ever tell in an email, but that's why I can just tell you the rest when I get home :)  I am thankful for all of you and your continued love and support to me.  I will talk to you all soon.  Enjoy Spring Break for me, I got work to do 😉😇

Elder Copeland

 Monday - Elder Copeland wrote:  "We hiked up to Belfast Castle today as well.  It was fun! :)