This Is My Work

Hola Familia,

Well sorry that I was unable to talk with all you guys for the past two days.  I was in Arequipa at a leadership conference.  I was there with all the Zone Leaders and the Sister Leaders in the mission.  It was a super cool experience and I am so grateful that I was able to go and learn something and to help more people.  So we got there early Monday and we were able to go and eat at a nice restaurant with a bunch of other Zone Leaders.  After we went and played some soccer and then we got ready for the night.  We had a meeting that night with everyone and it was wonderful.  There are so many things that I learned about what I need to do better to help my Zone.  Then after we ate some wings, I haven’t eaten wings in a long time ha ha.  The next day we had meetings all day.  It was a long day but other than that it has been really awesome. 

Well this past week has been really good.  We were able to have three investigators come to Church and it was really awesome.  So hopefully we are going to be able to have some success and help these people make the decision to come unto Cristo (Christ) (Spanish version).  We have Cesar that is ready to be baptized and he really wants to change his life.  He is willing and he is doing everything that we are asking and he will be baptized this upcoming week.  Then we have Eva and Alfredo, who we need to teach some more and make sure that everything is alright and they are doing really good.  We were able to help Christian out a ton more and it was such an amazing experience.  When we went to go talk with him he was not excited and he did not want to be baptized anymore.  So we talked with him to see what happened and he just was down on himself and just couldn’t understand the scriptures that well, and so he just didn’t want to be baptized.  We were able to talk with him and help him realize that this is Satan (Spanish version) working on him and that he just needs to trust in God more and everything will be great.  It is so crazy how Satan can find every single weakness that we have and just take advantage of it and make us sad and unmotivated to do anything.  He is there waiting for anything that could let him into our lives.  I know that his work and his plan for us is to be unhappy and that God and Jesus want us to be happy and to always have joy (Spanish version) in our life.  We just need to trust in God a little more and actually put in practice (Spanish version) what we have learned.

Overall I am thoroughly enjoying my mission and the time is passing way too fast.  I just don’t know what to do.  I keep realizing that it is just flying by.  But I am working my hardest to never waste any time and to always be the best that I can be.  This week I was reading a lot in Jesus the Christ (Spanish version) and I really liked Christ teaching to his apostles about how he taught the people the basics and then if they wanted to learn more he would teach the deep doctrine from parables and everything.  We have the basic doctrine in our lives, all we have to do is search for the deep doctrine. 

I love you all and I hope that you all have a great week. I will see you all on Sunday :)

I love you,

Elder Cooley

1. Favorite scripture?

Favorite scripture was in Moses 1:39 (Spanish version)

2. So if you live with your Pensionista, do you live in a house or an apartment?

We live in a house I will get some pictures of it and send them to you this next week.  I will not be able to send pictures because we are in a sketchy internet.  I don’t want a virus and then lose everything.

3. Did you go to the dentist?  Who was messing around with your teeth?

No, we were at a member’s house and my companion was just messing around.  We were just posing for a picture, nothing happened.

4. As a Zone Leader do you still get to go tracking or do you spend the majority of your time working with the elders and sisters in your Zone?

We do everything as a normal missionary would do.  In addition we go and do calls at night and go and visit our Zone during the week.

5. Do you spend a lot of time with the ward helping them in this area?

Yes we have been working a ton with the Ward and it was been awesome.

6. Did Elder Holden get transferred or is he still in Aplao?

He is still in Aplao right now.

7. What is your companion’s name and where is he from?

His name is Elder Cornejo and he is from San Fernando, Chile.

8. Did you watch Ephraim’s Rescue and 17 Miracles in Spanish?  What did you watch them for?

We watched them both in Spanish and it was with some less active members and investigators.

9. What is something that you like about this new area over the other ones that you have been in?

It is a lot more modern and they have a lot of awesome things and just the people are super nice.

10. Have you read any new talks recently?

I read a talk that is what do you envision in life and it was awesome (video is below).