Week 5 - September 5, 2016

Wow! Another week down! 

Honestly, I have no clue how these weeks are flying by so fast.  I guess when I work hard and focus on why I am here, that is what happens!  I'll be honest, I forgot to take lots of photos this week because we were so busy.  But I took two random ones haha.  I guess I will go through my week now

Tuesday:  We started off with a district meeting over at the Aberdeen Stake Center.  A lot of good stuff was taught to us by the Zone Leaders and some other guys in the district and I also got to teach about the pre-earth life.  It was cool to get into a little more detailed doctrine about the pre earth.  Every single one of us are God's generals and we are sent down in such a wicked time on earth because we were his strongest children, always remember that.  If you ever are having a hard day (I have a few out here haha), just remember your purpose and where we should all strive to be one day!  After District meeting, we split back up into our companionships, except this time we were on exchanges. I got to go with Elder Tolk, who we found out lives right next to my grandparents and we probably hung out when we were younger.  It was pretty funny to make that connection, and we had a great day of GQ'ing and getting some new potential investigators.

Wednesday:  We woke up at 5:45 a.m. and met up with the District on the Aberdeen University Pitch.  We played ultimate Frisbee and it was a really good time.  I love everyone in my district, I can talk about them more in the future and I'll send a picture of them from last week! 

After Frisbee and studying, I got back with Elder Elsmore and  we had a pretty rough day.  All of our lessons fell through.  It's pretty frustrating to have these people tell and text us saying their gonna meet up with us, and when we get to the places to meet them, they stop responding and don't show.  But that's okay, it's life!  Instead we GQ'd a lot and got some pretty solid numbers.  Just a normal day on the mish!  I was feeling really homesick for some reason that day, but I pushed through it and remembered why I am here and that helped.

Thursday:  Another day full of lessons that actually happened!  It was great!  I have all the lessons down pretty well and me and Elder Elsmore are getting really good at teaching together.  It's fun when the person we teach is feeling the Spirit and we are making everything easy to understand!  A lot of people have dates and I'll let you guys know the progress on them as it comes closer to their baptismal dates.  Pray it works out!  

Friday:  Another exchange day!  I got to go with Elder Bradshaw from Arizona who has been out in the field for 15 months!  He has been in Scotland his entire mission.  I feel kind of bad, but he is a great guy.  We talked about football the entire day and got to teach some of his investigators, which went well.  I had a great day with him!

Saturday:  We started off with our studies, then headed back to the Stake Center for ZLC (Zone Leadership Council), although it wasn't for me since I'm not the District or Zone leader.  They wanted me to be in for their meeting.  So I got to see how everything works around here and really learned a lot.  It was a good experience for me and am thankful to have the ZL's and Elder Elsmore.  We're all so tight already and we have a good time.  Other than that, just more GQ'ing and lessons that fell through.  Elder Elsmore also taught me how to solve a Rubik's Cube which is pretty cool since we sat there waiting for people to show up all day.  Maybe a blessing in disguise! ;)

Sunday:  Fast Sunday was great!  We were starving cause we ate dinner so early the night before though.  I was really feeling the Spirit and Elder Elsmore told me to get up and share, so I did!  I don't think I have ever gotten up for a testimony meeting in my life, but as I bore my testimony about missions and how thankful I was for all the love and support I had felt from the ward and how much they do for us, I was really feeling the Spirit.  It was really powerful and I enjoyed it a lot.  I think I'll keep getting up for testimony hour now!  Other than that, we had a few more lessons which went really well, but we were beyond exhausted haha.  Dinner was great, I am getting pretty good at making Curry cause we eat it a lot.  I'll send a picture haha. 

Anyways that was my week as well as I can remember.  It went by really fast and I can't remember all the details, so I hope it sort of made sense.  I was feeling pretty homesick at times, especially since it is my birthday tomorrow and you don't really celebrate them out on the mission, you just work.  But I know that everyone back home is cheering me on and it means a lot to me and helps me get up every day.  I know some of you sent packages and thank you so much for that.  I don't know when I will get them sadly, since they need to be brought down from the mission home.  But I learned that you can send letters directly to my flat and I will look forward to when I do get those packages!  But in the meantime if you want to send just letters to me, which will get here a whole lot faster, my address is: 

40 Linksfield Gardens

Aberdeen, Scotland

AB24 5PF

United Kingdom

I hope school goes well this week for all of you and that you remember that when you focus on your Savior and serve him in any way you can, you will be blessed!  And that you are all Generals in God's army and we all need to keep striving to be more like Christ in everything we do.  I love you all and will talk to you soon!

Love, Elder Copeland