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!