Wednesday, January 27, 2016

"Zombie Apocalypse"

Hola Familia,

Well this week has been really cool and I am so happy with how everything is going.  I have come to realize how weak I am, and how much I still have to learn to be a better person.  I love this gospel because it makes me want to become better and to be the person that will help me gain salvation.  I love it.  I love being able to repent of my mistakes and know that I can be a clean and inspired person.  This week I have set goals to personally have more humility and love people more like Christ would. 

We had super cool family home evening this past week.  We talked about the atonement and how each person could apply it to their life.  I love knowing that each of us can use it to be better. 

Funny story:
On Tuesday we were on divisions and I was with an Elder from Utah and we were walking around and this drunk person started coming towards us and he was coming in hot haha.  So we started walking faster and faster.  The other Elder has this dog buzzer, like mine, but his has this alien sound thing so he turned around and started to point it at the drunk guy.  It just make him come faster and faster haha.  I felt like I was in a zombie apocalypse movie. (FYI: food storage - Spanish haha) It was quite intense haha.  I am so glad that he was so drunk that he couldn’t catch up to us.

Well our investigator Gunar is doing great.  He has so many questions that have made me study this gospel more profoundly.  I think that it is the best to have a question and look in the scriptures to find your answer.  I think that everything will go well with him.  I know that he will be a true convert when he gets baptized because he really wants to figure out the truth.

Wednesday was a hard day.  We had so many lessons planned that we were unable to get to all of them so in the end we fell through on some lessons.  I felt so bad, because these people were waiting for us.  It was so weird how fast the spirit can leave when you get frustrated.  It was sad that my companion and I got mad at each other but then we talked and everything was all right.  I learned a huge lesson that planning (Spanish version) is essential to make sure that everything goes how it should.  When two people are mad, you have to talk and figure it out on the spot or it will be terrible for a long time.

Timing is everything.  On Friday we were out looking for people in the morning and nobody was home so went to a lesson with Jenny.  We started to talk to her in her door and she was just so busy and frustrated with everything that was happening that she didn’t want to talk.  I asked for like 5 minutes to distract her from everything.  So she let us in and we just talked and shared a scripture.  It was so cool to see that this gospel can bring instant joy in our lives and let us forget the world.  It struck me and I know of its truth. "If ye lack wisdom" - (Spanish version)

So life is going super well and I am so grateful for everything.  I always think of new things that I can do and how I can be better.  I am so glad that we are members of this amazing church.  It truly brings the joy (Spanish version) that we need in our lives.

I love you all so much,

Elder Cooley



Monday, January 18, 2016

Life in Lightspeed - 20 Weeks to Go

 Hola Familia,

Well this week was super epic and I have learned so much that I will be able to apply to my life to be able to become more like God.

Well to start off I would like to tell some funny stories.

Tuesday : 4:13 p.m. 
We were out looking for some recent converts and people to teach and decided to go to a house.  So we have not had any luck in the past teaching him but we went anyways.  We knocked on the door and waited and then knocked again, and then out of nowhere a little old grandma came to the window in a towel.  Both of us were super surprised but it was so funny and she didn’t even care.  She then told us come back the next day.

Thursday : 8:33 p.m.
Well we were visiting some less active members that we are teaching and helping come back to church.  We started talking about how I went home because I was sick and how I am still sick.  So Peruvians have some pretty interesting health views.  They said that I should start to drink some breast milk to get healed.  That was a funny conversation haha.

Now onto the more spiritual experiences. 
We have an investigator named Gunar.  He is great and loves listening to us and is more then happy to follow what he should do to have a better life.  We were teaching him on Saturday and he wanted to see a baptism.  But there were none in the Zone and so we said that if we had one we would let him know.  Then we went with him to help the Elders Quorum (Spanish version) clean the church.  Little do you know there was a baptism from another Zone and Ward in our church that day.  It was so awesome that God literally gave him what he needed to see.  I know that God listens to us if we are faithful.

Then we were lucky enough to go and eat some picarones with the Relief Society.  They are awesome and it was a great experience to be with them and to help them.  So picarones are like a donut but crunchy and delicious.  Then they make this sauce from chancaca :) it is like a chocolate caramel sauce and wow, it is good.

Family home evenings are great here.  This week we were able to have four huge ones with about 10 people at each.  We are working with the Leon family and they are great.  They came to one that we had and it was huge.  We had over 20 people and the lesson was a lot of fun.  I am glad that we can learn the gospel and have fun at the same time. 

I really like a quote from Elder Uchdorf:

This gospel is so easy, just don’t complicate it and live it how it should be lived.  I know that we will be able to do so many things that will help us only if we live this gospel.

Okay so we have this family that lives in the middle of nowhere on top of this mountain.  We are still looking for a name for it, but it is terrible to hike haha.  Well we made it from the Church to their house in 23 minutes haha.  We were just sweating when we made it to the top haha.  We were able to talk about sealing and the temple.  It was so cool to see how they really want to do this right and just need to start with the basics and everything will turn out great. 

We were also watching the restoration video (Spanish version) and I really liked a quote by Joseph Smith (Spanish version).
That they things and the way that we treat our spouse in this life, would they want to stay with us for the eternities?

Well family I know that this gospel is so true and that it helps everyone become better and better.  I hope you all have a great week.

Love you all,
Elder Cooley














Wednesday, January 13, 2016

What Lack I Yet?

Hola Familia,

How amazing it is to be here on earth to learn and become better each and every day.  I am so glad that everything gets better and better when we try harder.  I know that God will bless us when we need help and give us relief when we think there is none.  I love this work and this gospel so much. 

This week we were able to find more people.  So we have been working with Carlos, he is a less active member and now just coming back to the church.  His family is not members.  One night we went with him and met his family.  We talked about faith and how if we do our part then everything will work out.  It was such a great lesson.

Then we went with another member and visited her friend.  It was such a cool lesson as well.  You can see that God really does prepare us to get closer to him if we do our part, but only if we are willing to change and want to change. 

Leadership was great. I know that if you surround yourself with successful people you will become successful. So make sure to have good friends and people that help you become who you want to be and not pull you down.

Well this week we had a really busy week.  Overall it has gone great and I am so glad that I am here.  I have been focusing a lot on the atonement (Spanish version) and the plan of salvation (Spanish version) that God has for us.  Wow it is incredible.  The atonement is so amazing; how it not only cleans away our sins but also gives us the courage to press forward. 

This week in my prayers I have been asking to see the things that I am lacking and how i can become better.  I know that it will be better and I can progress little by little when god can tell me what I need to do and all the things that will help me become better.

The talk that goes along with this is, "What Lack I Yet?" (Spanish version) it is a great talk.  I invite each and every one of you to read it and ponder the things that God wants for you to do.  If we are humble and teachable, the Holy Ghost will prompt us to improve and lead us home but we need to ask the Lord for directions along the way.  I know that each of us can improve and become something better.  All we have to do is to trust in God and do what he wants of us.  I know that this gospel is how we can get better and through the atonement we will be the person that God expects us to be.

So I have been working really hard to try and understand people and put myself in their situation.  I want to be the person that will understand them and help them know that God loves them.  It is so crazy that every single person in this world is going through something.  It may be little or very big but we need to help them and not to push them down.  But overall everything is great and I have found the charity for these people after doing trying to understand people more.

Well this week was great and overall everything is going well.

I love you all,

Elder Cooley

Sunday, January 10, 2016

Happy New Year's!!!!

Hola Familia,

Well this week has been amazing.  I am so glad to be back in the mission and to be a representative of Jesus Christ and serve the people here in Peru.  I have really learned to be better, to love people, be grateful for all the blessings that we have, and to realize the amazing lives that we have.

We were able to teach a ton of people this week.  Some of the best experiences that we had was teaching the Vega family.  They are a huge family and pretty much all of them are members.  So we were able to teach of the amazing lives that we have and all the many blessings we have. 

We found an old member that hasn’t been to church for a long time but he is awesome.  I want to help him have a Christ center life.  He had a ton of questions when we visited him but seems willing to make the needed changes in his life. 

Then we went and visited a less active family.  They are great.  We taught the plan of salvation.  I know that if we truly understand this plan then we would make the right decisions in our life and to be able to do the things that will give us eternal life.  This life is hard but is designed so we can be happy.  But how beautiful it is to be able to live one more day and learn new things.  This life never stops amazing me.  Enjoy it, and if your not enjoying it then doing something to change.  It all depends on us. 

I invite all of you guys to go and study the plan of salvation and see what you need to change in your life to be able to be happy and have a better life. 

New’s Years was epic haha.  The Peruvians know how to do fireworks for sure.  It is like the States times 20.  Literally the entire valley was doing fireworks haha.  It was great, I love starting a New Year and making new goals for everything.  I know that goals help us reach our full potential. 

Well family, have a great week.  Make goal if you have not yet.  I love you all so much.

Les amo,

Elder Cooley