Week 4 - August 29, 2016

Another week down already, what in the world? 

Time flies by so fast out here in Aberdeen.  This week was complete chaos!  But I loved every single second of it and wouldn't want to be anywhere else in the world right now!  I'll just write each day and what I can remember from it again since that seems to be the best way to do it!

Monday- This was last P day and I e-mailed you guys, but after we e-mailed we went out and hit on the driving range at the golf course near our house and I got some cool pictures and a pretty good video so I thought I would mention it and send that stuff.

 

Tuesday- Nothing too special today.  We woke up, did our personal and companion studies, then headed out the door.  We got our monthly schedule showing us when our District and Zone meetings are along with days for baptisms.  We had another solid lesson with Vicky, who is learning more every week and is a great new convert, working hard to read the Book of Mormon and learn more about the gospel.  After that, we were walking to our flat and almost got nailed by this bus.  I'm not kidding!  We were a few inches from getting destroyed haha.  The Lord was definitely looking out for us.  I forgot to say that jay-walking is legal here, so everyone runs all over the streets.  It's pretty nuts.  We GQ'd for a few hours, got some potential investigators' numbers, then called it a day.  My hair was getting pretty long, so Elder Elsmore gave me a cut in our flat, and it turned out pretty well! 

Wednesday- Such a great day.  We woke up earlier and ran to the golf course and putted around for our morning exercise when we got a call letting us know two Elders from the Shetland Islands were coming to stay with us for a few days.  Their names are Elder Rich from Ut, and Elder Watson from Arizona. We did a companion swap and I went with Elder Watson for the day.  We didn't have any lessons planned out, so we literally GQ'd for 6 HOURS.  It was a lot of hard work, but we were definitely blessed for it.  We got like 15 new numbers of people who seem pretty solid.  I probably walked a marathon that day, but after that we all went over to a new member's home for dinner and it was fantastic!  The members here work so hard to stay dedicated, and I have a lot of respect for the few, but very strong ones here!

Thursday- ZIT DAY ( Zone Interview Training).   All four of us Elders in our little flat stayed up late talking about super deep doctrine, so we were all pretty dead at 6:30 am haha, but we got up and got ready and headed over to our church.  President Donaldson and the APs and Sister leaders (Or whatever their called) had some awesome lessons for us.  I got to meet all the other island Elders and I'll tell you, they are all crazy haha!  I think they needed a break from the islands cause there's only two on each one and no progress gets done there, sadly.  But I got to talk to President and I learned a whole bunch of stuff.   It was a really good day!  After ZIT, we went back to the flat, did our studies, then got ready for bed, We were at ZIT all day long haha. 

Friday- The Shetland Elders' last day with us.  We did kind of the same thing as Wednesday, but I went with Elder Rich instead.  We had a LOT of success, me and Elder Rich get along really well, and we made a ton of people laugh in the streets which made them want to listen to our message.  It was great.  We had a few new investigators' lessons too!  We taught a guy named Max, who is an atheist and a math genius but wants to find out if God is real, so we taught him lesson one.  Then we had another lessons with Zsolt which was great, just on the Plan of Salvation and what not.  Then we had a lesson with a new investigator named Billy.  AH how do I even describe him.  He is like 70 and the BIGGEST Aberdeen football fan in the world.  He is the sweetest guy ever, his entire house is lined up with football jerseys and guess what, I gave him a book of Mormon and a pamphlet, and he asked me what size of shirt I was, then gave me TWO Football jerseys!!  They're so sweet I wear them all the time at night and man Billy is really solid.  I feel like he is gonna get baptized.  We then sent the Shetland Elders back off to their island and that was our day.  So many miracles took place on Friday.  Everyone was real happy about the work done. 

Saturday- I was back with Elder Elsmore, and we GQ'd for a few hours and had a couple lessons planned.  Every single one of our lessons fell through except for David, which went well as always cause he is so solid.  So a little disappointing day but not too big of a deal.  We got a couple new investigators' numbers which is great.  We then had a dinner appointment with another member family.  They made us home made pizzas, root beer floats, and even gave Elder Elsmore and I a cake to take home since we both have birthdays.  Mines in a week.  I can't believe it haha.  A pretty good day all in all.

Sunday- Another normal Sunday.  We went to church.  We picked up John Howard who hadn't been to church for 6 months so that was good, but other then that all we did was GQ and have another lesson with Billy who is great haha.  He drew a picture of Jesus for us and asked us to bring him more pictures of Jesus so he could hang them up with his jerseys.  It was funny.  Nothing else I can remember that was exciting. 

Monday (Today)- Today has been great!  We woke up, did our studies, and then headed out to meet the District at the bus stop.  We all went out to this massive lighthouse and these cool rocks on the shore which I took a ton of pictures of and will send.  It's been fun.  

Then we went and ate at KFC which was funny haha.  It isn't like the ones in America.   After I finish e-mailing, we're gonna go buy our groceries for the week and I'm gonna get some of the European church clothes because I look like a parachute out here.  Everyone wears such fitted clothing which actually looks pretty sharp as long as I don't get fat haha. 

 

Well, that was my week.  It was a really good one!  I made a lot of new friends, learned a lot, and had fun with it too.  I miss everyone back at home a little bit.  So many people are at college just having a blast, but I know that as I continue to work hard and serve the Lord, I will be blessed.  I hope everyone has so much fun with school and remembers to rely on the Lord for help in all things!  Oh and a couple people asked me what my address is here since it is my birthday next Tuesday.  If you would like to send me packages, (Which would mean the WORLD to me), you can send them to the mission home:

Scotland/Ireland Mission

51 Spylaw Road,

Edinburgh,

Scotland, EH10 5BP

and I should get them in a week or two.  Any letters and pictures would make me incredibly happy and if you do want to send anything else, thank you so much!  I love you all and will keep working hard here!  Enjoy all the pictures and videos!

Elder Copeland

Week 3 and Starting Week 4 - August 22, 2016

WOW! 

I have no clue where to start this email.  It's been chaos for me, but I am going to try my very best to get everything in that's happened this week!  I hope you guys all have a great week with school and work! 

Anyways onto my week.  We left the MTC and headed to the Mission home in Scotland.  It was hard to say goodbye to all my friends I had made there, but they're all going to be incredible missionaries and I know I'll see them again!  

Once we got to the mission home, we hopped back onto the bus we came in and headed out with the Mission President (who is awesome) to Pratts Hill, where Parley P Pratt dedicated this land to the missionaries.  It was a great view and we all got to pray and devote ourselves for these next 2 years to serve here, and I got a couple pics.

  

After that, we went back to the mission home and were there for about 6 hours where we learned what's going to happen on the missions, where our first area will be, and who our companion is, all that good stuff.  I was assigned to serve with Elder Elsmore, in the Scotland, Aberdeen City area. 

We immediately had to get on a bus, drive to the train station, and hop on a train to be able to get to our flat for the night.  There is so much to explain about everything haha.  I'll try my best to get it all in, in the short amount of time I have. 

Elder Elsmore is 19 years old (Just barely, his b day was Saturday) from Mona, Utah.  He went to a 3A high school, plays golf, and is the District Leader here and an incredible missionary!  He has been out for 11 months and It's crazy cause I am only two weeks older than him but he seems so much older.  He is the youngest missionary to ever come out on this mission.  He got here a month after he turned 18, so crazy.  I could go on about all the fun we have already had, but he is a great guy.  We do really well together and are pretty similar and he can cook well so that helps, too.  I can talk more about him over the next weeks since I will be with him for awhile haha.  

But now onto Aberdeen!  Our flat is right next to the Aberdeen sports village and lets just say this city is verrrryyyyy gray.  Like every single thing in this city is gray, except the cars because everyone drives posh ones here which is nice.  I know it's the granite city, but due to the lack of sun you think they would maybe color up their buildings to help out? 

I love the city and didn't have a chance to take many pics of it, but I can throughout the weeks.  We also live next to a golf course.  We're gonna go hit some balls after emailing, and we're right next to the beach!  I hope this is all making sense.  There is so much to explain haha. 

Anyways, the people here are pretty nice, everyone is atheist and always tell us we're wasting our time, but when you do find the people who want to listen, it makes it all the better.  I haven't knocked on any doors yet.  All we do is GQ (Golden question, as in just on the streets asking people to have a lesson with us) and teach planned lessons.  Luckily, Elder Elsmore and I can be pretty entertaining.  I'll try and briefly go through my days here since I don't have a ton of time.

Thursday- First day out on the streets of Aberdeen, Elder Elsmore set up some member lesson appointments to help me get familiar with teaching.  It was fun.  We then went and GQ'd for a few hours and had pretty good success setting up some lesson times for the coming days.  I got to meet two new members to the church named David and Becky. David is the most Scottish man I have ever seen, and even after a week I can barely understand him.  English is NOT English here.  The accents can be very mild or extremely crazy--tough to understand, so I am trying my best but I feel bad when I have to ask them to repeat what they told me 5 times and Elsmore just laughs.  Becky is a really nice girl who just got baptized, too.  She has a walking disability but is so sweet and helped me not be so nervous to teach.  It was a good day to get adjusted into the crazy schedule and try to learn how to cook on our own.. yikes haha.

Friday- We had some more lessons planned.  We met with a guy named Jim.  JIM IS CRAZY first off.  He has some sort of mental disability and claims that musicians like Johnny Cash are the true Prophets on earth.  He has been an investigator for 20 years and claims he'll be baptized at some point, just doesn't want to right now cause he loves to drink after a 'long day' of painting weird art hah.  We also went and had a great lesson with another recent convert guy named Mac Donnel.  He is from Nigeria here for college (It's called "University" here) and I forgot to mention that there are a lot of Nigerians and other ethnicities because of the University Of Aberdeen that is here--actually a lot of university age kids in general who will usually talk to us, so that is nice.  Anyways had a few more lessons, it is hard to remember because the days blend so quickly here, and then GQ'd.  I don't have time, but there are so many miracles I see here every day as we GQ and teach. God's presence is so close when you are on a mission and the Spirit flows through me stronger then I have ever felt!

Saturday- Was Elder Elsmore's birthday.  He said that you don't celebrate them on your mission, you just keep working and that kind of bummed me out since mine is in two months.  But we had a ward BBQ and it was nice to meet the members in our ward.  Not a lot of them, but they are the true saints of the church because they work so hard with little support to make the church run effectively, I love them a lot already.  After the BBQ, some more lessons and GQ'ing, not enough time for details sorry ;/  But I will say this, every Saturday there is a big football (soccer) game at the Aberdeen stadium which is right by our flat.  We were walking home just as the game finished and so there were hundreds of people looking at us like we were aliens.  A lot of people came up yelling in our face how we were wasting our time, (some other choice words haha) how God isn't real, and how dumb we are for doing this.  I really was down, and was verrryyy angry to say the least haha pushing my way through the crowds.  I wanted to walk over to these people and tell them how we sacrifice two years of our life for this gospel, and how it could change there lives, but I knew they wouldn't listen.  They thought it was funny.  So I walked very angrily and Elder Elsmore just smiled and said, "Elder, how do you think Jesus felt when people mocked him in the streets?"  It softened my heart and made me realize, we gotta feel a little of what the Savior has been through to grow. ;)

Sunday- Church!  It feels just like home at church and made me happy to be able to bless the sacrament (Which we'll do a lot I'm guessing) and have some great lessons with some investigators and the sister missionaries in our ward who are really nice and fun to be with! After Church we had some more lessons and GQ'd a lot. After that we went in to our flat, cleaned it all up (Even though it is very small it gets messy fast when are always in a hurry) and called all the missionaries in the district.  Since Elder Elsmore is DL, I get to see everything he does and learn how to do it myself so if I do become the DL when he leaves this area, I'll be ready.  I truly am grateful for him as my companion.  I love him a lot already and same with the other missionaries, members, and investigators.  I have never loved people more then I have here.  And I really have an increased love for everyone back at home :)

I hope this email made a little bit of sense. It was a lot of changes, and a lot has happened in such a little amount of time.  But when you are serving on the Lord's time, it speeds up very quickly and gives us a little insight to how time works for him.  I miss everyone a lot and even if I can't send super big emails to you guys, I read every one of them and they make my day and my week 1000 times better!  I am loving my mission and am working as hard as I can from 6:30 a.m.-10:30 p.m., 7 days a week.  I will speak to you guys soon and hopefully I can make it all a little more clearer when the chaos dies down, or maybe that is just how the mission is haha.  I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!  Have an amazing week, keep choosing the right and you will be blessed for It no matter how hard it may be!  I'll send some pictures to you guys and I can't wait to hear from you all soon. CHEERS! :)

Elder Copeland

Elder Copeland Has Arrived! August 16, 2016

Dear Brother & Sister Copeland,

On 16 Aug 2016, we welcomed Elder Carter Copeland to the Scotland/Ireland Mission.  He arrived safely from the Missionary Training Center and we are excited to have him in our mission.  I interviewed him and felt his spirit and desire to serve our Heavenly Father.  One of our very best missionaries, Elder Elsmore, has been assigned to be his trainer.

Sister Donaldson and I will have the opportunity to meet with your son for a personal interview every two to three months.  In addition, we will see him periodically at Zone Conferences and other training meetings. Each week your missionary will be writing me a letter of his activities as well as a personal note.   He will also meet regularly with his district and zone leaders where he will be trained with other missionaries.  Therefore, with interviews, zone conferences and our weekly letters I should be able to help him meet any challenges he may have, and answer any questions you may have.

We are grateful for the part you have played in preparing your son to serve in this important work. We would encourage you to write him weekly letters of encouragement. Letters from home provide a powerful sustaining effect on the confidence and morale of our missionaries.

If you at any time have a concern about your missionary, please feel free to contact us here at the Mission Home in Edinburgh.  We testify of the truthfulness of this work and are grateful to be a part of it.

Sincerely,

George R Donaldson

George R Donaldson, President
Scotland/Ireland Mission
51 Spylaw Road
Edinburgh Scotland
EH10 5BP

Email:  2018500@ldschurch.org
Phone:  +44 131 337 1283

                                                                 What eer thou art, act well thy part

D&C 123:17

Therefore, dearly beloved brethren, let us cheerfully do all things that lie in our power; and then may we stand still, with the utmost assurance, to see the salvation of God, and for his arm to be revealed.

Letter to Elder Copeland's Parents from England Missionary Training Center President - August 12, 2016

Dear Family,

Your son will be departing the England Missionary Training Centre on Tuesday morning, 16^th August.  We want you to know how much we have enjoyed having him with us. 

Elder Copeland is a fine young man and we are grateful for the opportunity we have had to work with him on a daily basis.  He is well-prepared for his mission and he continues each day to grow spiritually.  He is developing good teaching skills and is excited about the work.  He is ready for full time service in the Scotland/Ireland Mission.

We love this young man and are grateful to you for all you have done to prepare him for this wonderful time in his life.  Your love and continued support are important to his success.   Letters are always greatly anticipated and appreciated.  Please address all future mail to:

Scotland/Ireland Mission

51 Spylaw Road

Edinburgh

Scotland EH10 5BP

United Kingdom

May you and your family be blessed as he continues to serve our Heavenly Father.

Sincerely,

President & Sister Preston

England Missionary Training Centre

Week 2 - August 10, 2016

WOW, Another week down already. 

Time goes by so fast here in the MTC!   It's crazy that I leave next Wednesday to my mission president's home with the rest of the Scotland/Ireland missionaries.  I'm beyond excited to see where I will be assigned to serve for my first area and who my trainer companion will be!  But, I am going to miss the Elders in my District and the friends I've made who aren't going to Scotland/Ireland and all the memories and experiences gained here.  Luckily, I have another week with all of them, and I'm going to enjoy every minute of it!  I'll talk about each of my days a little bit now and what we did.

Thursday:  Such a good day!  My whole Zone went to Preston City and Ribble River to learn a little bit about the LDS church history here!  The pictures I'm sending are of the square where the first Mormon missionaries ( Heber C. Kimball and Orson Hyde) taught about the gospel!  There's a little pillar with a lamb and a PP on it in the square which means the "Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ."  So many people were converted and wanted to be baptized that they all ran down to the Ribble River where we got to visit, too. 

 

Next, we went to the home of where President Hinckley lived as he served his mission.  After we talked about him for a little bit, we all hopped back into our big bus, and headed to another little village with a church from the 12th century!  It was so cool to go around England for the day and I had a lot of fun learning about the church history sights here in England.  This Thursday I get to go to Manchester City and proselyte for the first time, so I'll make sure to take lots of pictures while I am there!

Friday:  Another day of hard work and studying in the MTC.  I want to mention how incredible my teachers, Brother Ajona from Spain, and Brother Gibbons from Ireland are. They teach the gospel really well and help us teach the "Preach My Gospel" lessons in ways that are simple and can make sense for an investigator!  I love them and they have helped me grow and learn a lot these past two weeks.  It's going to be hard to leave these guys because they've really helped our District out a lot!  Friday night was a pretty funny.  Me and some of the guys started a little tie trading thing in our room and next thing you know, 40 guys are all in our tiny little room trading ties around.  It was hilarious, Just a bunch of teenage guys all trying to negotiate with pounds, ties, and anything they could trade to get what they want, and I actually got some pretty cool ties out of it haha.

Saturday: Lots of teaching lessons to our investigators (Our teachers playing the roles). Elder Kroes and my lessons are being taught more through the Spirit than the pages of PMG as each day passes by, and it's helped me become more confident in what I am teaching since it's the Spirit guiding me and it's from the heart.  I've learned that the most important part of being a missionary is becoming the investigator's friend first, learning to love the person, and then teaching to their needs, always letting them know how much God loves them.  I can't wait to start teaching real people!

Sunday:  We had Fast Sunday and it was incredible!  We had a lot of lessons about Joseph Smith and what he went through in his lifetime.  I felt the Spirit so strongly as we watched the Joseph Smith movie and was crying like all of the sisters haha.  I'm beyond thankful for the Prophet and what did he for all of us.  He truly was a prophet of God and was visited by our Heavenly father and his Son to restore the gospel of truth back to the earth.  Because of his hard work and sacrifices, I am able to have this gospel of happiness in my life, and I have the ability to share it with people  who don't know about it and help them to feel its happiness and the blessings that they will receive from it for this life and the next.

Monday:  A lot of learning, studying, and teaching.  We've played a lot of soccer here  (every day for and hour and a half ) as exercise for the past two weeks.  I wish I would have played this sport in high school.  It's unreal and I am actually getting pretty good at it with the help of Elder Calle and Elder Arias on my team haha.  I'm gonna buy like 15 jerseys while on my mission from all over and by the time I'm coming home, I'll be the biggest soccer fan in the world.  I'll know more about this sport and probably like it more than American football haha.

Tuesday: Just like the other days, a lot of lessons and everyone was going a little bit crazy for P-day.  Everything we learned or taught was 10 times funnier and there was a lot of laughing haha.  In general, a lot of laughing goes on in the MTC.  Especially at night upstairs in the Elders' rooms.  Having 16 hour days of hard work makes everyone pretty tired.  But, the MTC is one of the happiest, spiritual places I have ever been to in my life. The people here are all incredible, especially my teachers and District.  I love them all and as we've gotten closer, it's made me a little sad to have to be leaving them in a short week. Being a District Leader has been one of the best experiences of my life, and I hope that I will have this opportunity again in the next two years!

Today has been pretty nice. We jogged to the store, and got some gifts for each other because my District is doing a little Secret Santa thing.  Then, we got dressed and went and did baptisms for the dead.  The temple here is incredible.  I have never seen a cooler baptismal font and It was awesome to attend it with my District.  Later today, we are going as a Zone to a Temple Session and it will be Elder Chillpagiri's first time going to the temple. They don't have a temple in India and this will be the only time he gets to attend one maybe in his life!  It makes me more grateful to be able to drive 10 minutes away to a temple and really has humbled me and shown me how blessed I truly am.  

This week is gonna fly by, and we're doing a lot of fun things here before we leave.  I am going to continue to work as hard as I can for my family, friends, and especially the Lord.  I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH.  Thank you for the e-mails.  It means a lot, and even if I can't respond to everyone with a long message, keep doing it, please!  I love this church and the happiness it brings me, and I'll talk to you all again soon. :)

Elder Copeland

P.S.  Sorry!  We had to go to our temple session.  We just finished and they gave us some more time with the computers.  The temple here is beautiful!!  I had such an incredible experience today, and I will miss going to the Lord's home a lot for two years.  The peace there isn't found anywhere else on the earth and it was awesome to go through with my District.  Here are some pictures from my week though.  I love you all and hope you have a great week!

Week 1 - August 3, 2016

WOW!  I can't believe I've been here for a week now. 

It's gone by so incredibly fast and I have had already the coolest experiences ever.  I don't even know how to fit it all into one email, but I'll try my best to explain what happened every day, so bear with me if this first email's a little rough haha.

Wednesday- Me and about 30 other elders and sisters all landed in the Manchester airport after 15 hours of flying, where we were picked up by a huge bus and a lot of British Elders.  It was cool to be able to go through the Salt Lake City and Orlando Airports with all of these guys, and I became friends with a lot of them so quickly.  As soon as we arrived here, we were assigned our rooms, companions, and our District.   Our District's room has five other guys in it including me and it's pretty small!  We then were assigned our companions.  My companion's name is Elder Kroes (sounds like "Cruise," sort of) who is from Germany! There is soooo much I could talk about him because I've gotten to know him a LOT over this first week, but I'll try and simplify it.  Elder Kroes speaks pretty well in English and is a really intelligent guy.  He likes to read and write a lot and isn't a huge fan of the outdoors and sports, aka soccer here.  He knows so much about the gospel and can tell you any scripture you want to know off the top of his head.   We're pretty much opposite in many ways, but he is a great guy.  I love him and I'm going to keep trying my best to get closer to him!  Next, we were introduced to our District ( which the guys in my room are, and there are some sisters).  My district is the Ammon District and I was called to serve as our District Leader!!  I could talk about every single person in my district for hours already, but I'll just write a little bit about each of them. 

 The Ammon District

 The England Missionary Training Center

 Such beautiful surroundings.

Elder Cottle- He's from St. George serving to Manchester and likes the outdoors and is really easy to get along with.  I love him a lot.

Elder Chillpagiri- He's from India serving to Manchester,  and he is the nicest guy ever.  He never has been outside of his country, is such a funny guy, and I respect him a lot.  He speaks with the Indian accent, and he likes to act like he is Pi Patel and has a tiger named "Richard Parker" to make us all laugh haha.

Elder Calle Bungato- He is from Spain serving to Manchester and doesn't speak much English, but he always comes to me when he has a question about what a word means or how to say something properly.  He's a funny guy and has the biggest smile ever.  I love him and we get along really well.

Elder Arias- He is from Colombia serving to Manchester and LOVES soccer!  He and Elder Calle talk a lot in Spanish and it's fun to mess around with them and speak a little Spanish with them.  He makes me laugh every day and I love him.

Elder Krous- I've talked a little about him.  Our group is trying to get him more involved since he doesn't like sports like we all do.  It will take time, but I already see improvement.

Sister Zimmerman- She is from Utah serving to Scotland/Ireland.  She was on her debate team at school.  

Sister Brousseau- She is from Utah, too, serving to Scotland/Ireland, and she has the kindest sweetest personality I've ever met.  I feel like I could tell her anything and she would just be there to support me haha. 

Sister Mejean- She is from France and is going to serve in Arizona but has been waiting for her Visa for almost a month now, so she's stuck here!  She's super funny.  I get along with her well and the District really likes her experience and how much she helps us all out in learning how everything works at the Missionary Training Center.

I love my District so much, and it's awesome to lead these guys and help them out.  Being District Leader can be hard sometimes, and the extra responsibility and tasks I have to do can be tough.  But I'm working as hard as I can to be a good example to all of them and pray that I can continue to do that.

Thursday- We got to start our first lessons with our investigators today!  It's really cool what they have here.  They call it TRC.  It's rooms with cameras that record the lesson we teach with our investigators ( who are just teachers playing roles) so that we can see how well we are doing and what we need to improve on.  We've been studying for hours and hours a day to be able to teach to our investigators the lessons in preach my gospel! 

Friday- More lessons were taught and we had a really powerful lesson on prayer which helped us teach an investigator more about.  There wasn't too much else from today.  It went by so fast, I barely even remember it.

Saturday- We got to start Saturday off playing some soccer and my district KILLED IT. Elders Calle and Arias are unreal at soccer, and I just get the ball to them and they work magic.  Elder Kroes doesn't really like playing, but he comes and plays anyway because they want me to play and I can't if Elder Kroes leaves haha.  We had a few more lessons that day and other than that, nothing new!

Sunday- My District was in charge of the Sacrament for all the MTC.  What a cool experience to pass to all Elders and Sisters.  There's so many of us and it helps to know that everything I'm feeling here, so are the 96 others.   In addition, some of them are learning Greek and German on top of just the lessons.  I can only imagine how tough that must be!  After Sacrament, my District walked over to the temple two minutes  away and got a bunch of cool pictures of it.  We'll be able to go through it in two weeks after they are done cleaning it!

 

 

 

 

Monday- I can barely remember Monday other then the fact that we played more soccer, learned more lessons, taught more investigators, and ate more food.  I forgot to mention how much they feed us and holy cow, I'm so scared of gaining weight here.  I know a guy who's put on 15 pounds in the 4 weeks hes been here, and I refuse to let myself go like that, so I have been trying to eat healthier and work out harder when I can.

Tuesday- Same as the other days, more and more lessons learned and investigators taught.  Elder Krous and I are starting to get our teaching together more smoothly and are working on bouncing the conversation back and forth between me, him, and our investigator.  It's 16 hour days of studying and it can get really boring and hard at some points, but I continue to try my best here!

I know this was a HUGE email and I am so sorry about that!  There is just so much to talk about in such a short amount of time that it's hard to decide what to put into this email and what to leave out.  I'll leave it with this though, The work is good and the studying is long. But I love the people so much and especially my District.  We are all brothers already and I don't know what I'm going to do without them next to me.  I'm working as hard as I can for myself, my District, and my investigators, so pray that I can continue to be motivated to do these things.  

I love you all so much and please send me letters and emails this week.  i would really love some pictures from all of you mailed or emailed to me!  It's fun to talk about our families and friends with each other, so please do that :).  I love you all and I'll write to you again real soon!  Pray for the missionaries.  We're working really hard here!

Elder Copeland