Week 15 -- Cuidad Sandino

Christmas tree

 I got the package and opened it! Thank you so much. I'll be honest, I nearly cried when I saw the bag of caramel corn from Disneyland, and the tin of smoked oysters. And whether or not I was supposed to, I opened the cards as well, and I really loved them. I got the music as well (Woohoo! Disney!), and a lot of it is Christmas themed, so I don't feel so guilty about opening them. But seriously, thank you all so much. I can't tell you how much it means to me that, at least on some level, I can have a white Christmas. And it means even more to know that the white Christmas was given to me by my family and friends. It really made me feel loved, and that's more than I could have hoped for with a "normal" Christmas present. Thank you all so much.

For me, not a whole ton has really happened this week. We did have this thing called a verification meeting, for all of the missionaries that came in at the same time as me, where they basically checked to see how everyone was progressing with their training. It was fun, getting to see most of the people from my old District. It's also kind of weird to think that I'm already more than half way through my training. After that, I'll be a normal missionary.

A message to friends and family: (translation) Merry Christmas
you filthy animals! (Home Alone 2)

     And as for people we're teaching right now, we're still teaching almost all new people. But there is one guy that we contacted named Freddy. It was just a quick contact towards the end of the day, but before we could even say anything about church, he said something along the lines of, "Do you boys have a church?" Obviously, we quickly responded yes, and then he said, "Where is it, and when does it start?" We told him, and he just said, "Okay, I'll be there." It really shocked us, because that kind of just doesn't happen in Nicaragua. We came back a few days later, placed a Libro de Mormón, and that Sunday, he was completely ready when we passed by, and was totally willing to come with us to church, which also never happens. So now we're teaching him, and his niece, her husband, and their son all say they're going to come next Sunday. All in all, it was a really cool, and rather strange, experience. Awesome, but strange. 

     And as for something we're struggling with right now, that would actually be a different family. Their names are Ruth and Brittney. Ruth is Brittney's mom, and we've been teaching them for about six weeks now. They're set to be baptized this weekend, but one thing is kind of holding them back. They're both great investigators. They like the Church, they like going to church, they like what we teach, and they both have testimonies of the Gospel. The only problem being that Ruth was raised as a Jehovah's Witness. Which, in Nicaragua at least, means that her entire family is Jehovah's witness as well. She doesn't so much not want to be baptized, as much as she's just afraid that if she does, her family will reject her. Which, again, in Nicaragua, is very possible. So here's what I want you all to pray for, if you wouldn't mind. Two things: first of all, that Ruth and Brittney's hearts will be softened, and that they will feel comforted that this is the right choice for them, but also that her family's hearts will be softened as well. That just because she is choosing to be different from them, it doesn't mean that she deserves to be shunned. 

And finally, house keeping: Skyping will very likely happen between 2 and 4 o'clock my time, so 1 and 3 o'clock your time. Thank you so much for sending all of that so me, I really appreciate it, and make sure you give Linus a hug for me. And right now, I don't have any Christmas photos of me, but I have photos of me, and Christmas photos. So that might work? Anyways, I love you all, as always, and I am so excited to see you all on Friday!

Love,

Cooper

Week 14 -- Cuidad Sandino

In front of Lake Managua

Elder Elison didn't end up getting changed this week, to everybody's surprise. The other zone leader, Elder Hironaka, ended up getting bumped up to Assistant to the President. So fortunately, I get to go through training with just a single trainer, which is nice. Unfortunately, Elder Elison has now been in this area for six months, and is starting to go a little stir crazy. He'll be fine though. We started tracting in an area that hasn't been touched in a few years by missionaries, so it's at least of a little bit of a change for him. And time-wise, things get a little weird on the mission. The weeks generally fly by, but the months are dragging a bit. It's crazy to think that I've already gone through three months of my mission, but at the same time, it's crazy that it's only been three months. And add the fact that it's Chrismas next week, and it's even weirder. We did buy a Christmas tree today, though, so that was fun. And wow, had I forgotten how small my room is back home. I hope Isaac is going to be willing to give it up in about two years ;)

Cooper and his trainer, Elder Elison

I'd have to say that the most memorable thing about this week was the opportunity to be in a choir. Thursday night, we get a call from the APs saying that Elder Elison and I are going to be in a small Chrismas Choir whith three other Elders and four sisters. We had a practice on Friday night and Saturday afternoon, then sang that Saturday night for all of the stake presidents, district presidents, President Russel, Elder Maravilla (one of the area 70s for Central America) and their wives. We sang Silent night, where during the first verse, the choir hummed and I read the Nativity story, and a medly of four hymns whose names I can't quite remember at the moment. It was a lot of fun. And as for people we're teaching, we don't really have any that I haven't written about yet. But we'll probably have more next week, and I'll write about them then.

Volcano Momotombo

As for where I shop, what I eat, etc, I shop at a place called Maxi Palí, which is basically like a really small Walmart. Breakfast and Dinner we usually prepare for ourselves (we don't really do planned dinner appts., but sometimes members/investigators will feed you). And then Lunch, we have Hermana Virginia, who I wrote about earlier. The Most common thing we eat here is rice, generally in the form of gallo pinto, which is basically rice and red beans, fried in a little bit of oil. And to drink, it's almost always Coke, some form of fruit drink, which they call refresco, or Pino lillo, which is a drink made out of corn that is good, but extremely difficult to describe. 

But anyways, that's been my week! I love you all!

Love,

Cooper

Week 13 -- Cuidad Sandio

I know for a fact that that was an awesome Gospel Doctrine lesson. At the very least, better than our Gospel Principles teacher trying to explain the concept of exaltation to a group of investigators who have only had the Restoration lesson. But honestly, I know that you were great :) 

So, for my week! It's been a little interesting. We've basically baptized all of our investigators who can be baptized at this point, so we've done a lot of knocking doors. We've found a lot of interesting people this week, but we'll see how many of them want us to keep coming back. And there's been a few interesting things happening this week. First of all, today is Purisima.

Poisonous Caterpillar 

It's a catholic holiday, also called Day of the Mother, where all of the Catholics get together and, well, worship the virgin Mary. It's..... Interesting. But it makes it a little bit harder to work the week before because Sandino is a little bit more dangerous during holidays. But yeah. Dad can peg on a little bit at the end, if he wants, because from what I hear it's even bigger in Spain than it is here. Also, changes are this week. Unfortunately, Elder Elison is probably leaving, because he has about 6 months in Zona Sandino right now. So I'm going to have a "step-dad", someone who finishes out the last six weeks of my training. It'll be interesting. But yeah. Today has actually been a pretty fun P-day! We went out to Bello Amanacer, one of the districts in our zone, an some zone business.

Star fruit from the tree in a mew member's yard

But while we were there, we actually visited one of Elder Hironaka's converts, who has a bunch of fruit trees in his yard. So I got a bunch of pictures of those, which I will send after I'm done writing this letter. But yeah! Then we went to the Mercado, which is basically just a big outdoor market. I didn't actually get any pictures there, for fear of getting robbed, but if you look at pictures from the markets in Israel, you'll get a pretty good idea.

Well, that's about all for this week! I love you all!

Love, Cooper

Week 12 -- Cuidad Sandino

Mauricio's family

Wow. Your week has been a lot more interesting than mine, I'll say that much. Except for the fact that I'm in Nicaragua. Where it is still very much not cold. And yes, of course I want a picture of the Christmas tree. I may not be there to decorate it, but I do want to at least be able to see it. And think about it: after this Christmas tree, there's only one more that I won't be able to decorate. So it's almost exciting, I suppose? I'd also love to get a picture of Isaac's (my) room, once he's done with it. But yeah. I miss the snow, but I'm out doing the Lord's work, so I think it's a pretty fair trade-off. 

As for my week, we technichally didn't get a lot of work done, as far as the numbers say. But trust me when I say that we had a really, really busy week. First of all, we got 6 baptisms this week! Mauricio and his three kids (Brittany, Kenneth, and Jhazell), and Heyssell were Elder Elison's and mine investigators (and I got to baptize all of them!), and Elder HIronaka and Elder Seneca baptized Steve. And because E. Hironaka and Elison are Zone Leaders, all four of us spent a lot of time outside of our area, doing interviews, getting people excited for baptism, getting permission to baptize minors, and stuff along those lines. There were actually several times that I had to work with a member because E Elison was out doing zone business, and we needed someone working in our area. That was stressful for a few reasons (don't speak the language well, member doesn't speak English, I barely know the area, etc.), but those days actually ended up going pretty well. And as far as Thanksgiving goes, we didn't do much, but the mission gave each missionary 100 cordobas, so we got the zone together for some pizza in the chapel's cultural hall. It wasn't exactly as good as your cooking, but it made due. But yeah. That was my week. 

View from President Russell's house

A family we're teaching right now is Sylvia (Heyssell is actually her sister), Alejandro, and their three kids. They're awesome investigators, go to church every week, want to get baptized, but for them, we're waiting for a divorce with Alejandro's ex-wife. Like in the states, divorces take a LOT longer than marriages. But hopefully it'll go through in the next couple of weeks, so we can baptize them, and they can start planning for the temple, which is also something they want to do. All in all, they're a great family who can't wait to become members of the church. 

As for how the language is coming right now, I'm definitely still not fluent. A ton better than my first day, but I still have a long way to go. Basically, what's still really kicking my trash is the conversational Spanish. I can understand around 75% of the lessons, but when people just start talking to me, I get lost really easily. It can get kind of frustrating at times, but I can definitely say that I've seen the Lord's hand in my life, as far as Spanish goes. The gift of tounges is a very, very real thing, and I'm very, very grateful for it. 

Anyways, that's pretty much it for this week. Tomorrow December starts! I know that it'll be a good month. I love you all, and I'm always so glad when I get your letters each week! Thanks for all of your support!

Love,

Cooper

Week 11 - Cuidad Sandino

 The entrance of our house 

Our kitchen (that sink doesn't actually work....)

I really am sorry that my emails have been... less than spectaclar. But I promise that I will try to do better. I will ask that everyone realizes, though, that I am in fact sitting in a very, very hot room paying to use a computer with a keyboard that has keys that doesn't work, in the middle of the slums of a third world country. That doesn't give me an excuse, but still. I feel like I deserve a little slack :)

As for me, there were two interesting things that I can remember this week. First of all, I got my first baptism! His name is Freddy, and he's this older man who lives right next to an Evangelical church (of course, so do most of us, but that's beside the point), and I actually got to be the one who baptized him. It was amazing. Then the other one, which is slightly more humorous, is one of our contacts was kind of crazy. First, she asked me if I ainted (dyed) my hair. When I said I didn't she said she wanted to marry me. When I said no, she asked if I was afraid of her/Nicaraguans. When I said no, she asked me to marry her again. It was fun. We left her with a amhlet about the law of chastity. Super fun. And our investigators right now are awesome. We have about 8 baptisms lined up for this Saturday. One of them, Mauricio, we're actually getting him married to his wife tomorrow. His family is amazing. He has three kids, Brittney, Kenneht (not a spelling error), and Jazeth. They all love the gospel, and honestly, the only reason we're not batizing the wife is because she's never home to teach. But they're always asking for more scriptures to read, more things to learn. Like I said, great family. 

As for one of the "extras," I'll try to cover one of those a week. The woman that fixes our meals is named Virginia (or mamá, as she likes to tell people). She has a fairly large family, whose names I'm still learning. We haven't seen her in a while though, because her daughter just had a baby, who is having health problems. 

Anyways, I'm out of time, but I hope that letter was a bit better. I love you all, and I can't wait to hear from everyone again next week!

Con amor, 

Cooper

week 10 - Cuidad Sandino

Baptism of the little girl in the middle, Francis

I honestly don't even care that nothing much happened this week, I'm just glad that I'm getting to hear from you each week. Plus, it's very true that exciting is not always a good thing. But I'm glad everyone survived the week! As for me, things are actually going pretty well. We had two baptisms this week! They were both Elder Hironaka and Seneca's investigators, but because Zone leader companionships work a little bit differently, they were technically all of ours. And Elder Elison and I are feeling a lot better at this point, so we're back out working. As for other stuff that happened this week.... Not much really did, to be honest. The week is kind of blending all together. Time works weird on a mission. It seems like hardly any time has passed since last P-day, but at the same time, it feels like I've been on a  mission for my entire life. It's strange. But one very good thing that happened this week is that the mission office found my English Quad! I never told you all this, but I had left my scriptures on the airplane on the way here. As soon as I realized they were gone, I thought they were a lost cause. But I mentioned it to Hermana Russell, she said she'd call the airport to look for them, and the next day we got a call saying that they had been found. It really is a small and tender mercy. I'll have my scriptures back within the week! 

Rambutan

And about those pictures, I'll do my best! As always, I can feel everyone's love here in Nicaragua, and it's amazing. Thank you all for the emails!

Love

Cooper

Week 9 - Cuidad Sandino

Mateare

I am more jealous of Winter than you can even imagine. It's very hot here. I may just lay down in the snow when I get home, I don't even care how cold I'll be. But anyways, The week went pretty well here in Sandino. Well, Except for the lasat couple of days. But I'll go over that in a second. Nicaragua is a really nteresting place. There are stray dogs everwhere, and the traffic is a weird mix of cars, mopeds, motos (moped taxis) and horse drawn carriages. Yeah. I really do think I'm starting to get used to the heat and the language, but it's going to be a process. And it's kind of cool, being a Zone Leader's companion (did I mention that in my last email?), because every once in a while I'll get to go to other districts while Elder Elison does interviews. I went to a place called Mateare the other day, which was beautiful. It was poorer than Sandino, but cleaner, somehow. But then, towards the end of the week, both E. Elison and I got sick. For me, it was just just a stomach bug, but he had Chickengunya. But hey, we got 16 people to church, so that worked out! and we have 5 baptisms planned for this week, and so hopefully that works out as well. But yeah! That was my week. 

Semi-ariel view of Sandino

Housekeeping: Our kitchen is a little dismal. Just a hotplate with two mini fridges. But as far as the package goes, I would love some rootbeer extract, beef jerkey, and any little Christmas comfort foods that you think will keep. But as far as other stuff goes, I would love a letter from anyone who feels like writing one, and something small to remind me of Provo. Also, Pte Russell is a lot less strict with music than we thought he would be. So with the music sd card, you could incluse some good Disney music, and possibly a movie soundtrack or two (specifically, a Lord of the rings/Hobbit soundtrack would be awesome), that would be great. Anything else you decide to include would be awesome.

One last thing. Presidente Russell told me to ask you that if he called you and asked you to full out brag to him about me, what would you say? This will only go to me, but he told me to ask. 

But yeah, that's basically it! Again, like I said, I have very little time. But I love reading all of your emails! Thank you all so much. I love you all.

Love,

Cooper

Week 8 -- Cuidad Sandino

Bedroom

Our street that we live on (del Gallo mas gallo una cuadra alago)

 Wow. First time writing from Nicaragua. I don't even know what to say. This week feels like it's lasted forever. It's as if I've been here my entire life. But honestly, I don't say that as a bad thing. I love Nicaragua. It's hot, It's humid, but the people are amazing. As you already know, my trainer's name is Elder Elison. My first area is Sandino, basically the ghettos of Managua. It's super poor, and fairly run down, but the people are humble, and willing to hear our message and follow Christ. We brought 15 people to church yesterday, and we have about 15 baptisms planned for this month. It's crazy how quickly the work is progressing here.

As for me, my flight went pretty well. I sat next to other missionaries for my flights, which was fun. Getting into the country wasn´t tough at all, and my first day of training went well, without too many surprises. Then, the next day, we were assigned companionships, and started working the streets. I´m sorry, I haven´t taken a lot of pictures. If you look like a tourist, you're a lot more likely to get robbed. I also found out that President Russell doesn't allow us to use Dropbox. Which was disappointing, but oh well. I do have a few pictures that I´ll be sending though. 

Bathroom -- the shower is a pipe sticking out of the wall

As far as my Spanish goes, I understand very little, but it's getting better. and life here in Sandino, in general, is going great! And for food, Rice and beans, with the occassional plaintain! It´s great! I have even less time than before to use the computer, so I´ll basically just be sending this big email now, and that's more or less it. I still really appreciate the emails I get though! And if anyone asks me a direct question in an email, I'll try to answer it. But for the most part, it'll just be this.

Well, I love you all, and I really can feel the love all the way over here in Nicaragua! 

Love, Cooper

Proof of Life!

Update

So, Cooper is off to Nicaragua! We were able to talk to him this morning and he sounds great. He is ready to get to Nicaragua and really start! Thank you all for your support and prayers. He can really feel the love from all of you. It will be next week before he can write again, his fist prep day in the field. In the meantime, I will let all of you know what part of Nicaragua he ends up in as soon as I hear from his mission president.

Week 6 -- MTC

I'd be lying if I said that I wasn't looking forward to Christmas for that exact reason. Experiencing Christmas in Nicaragua will be an amazing experience, but honestly, I would gladly trade it to talk to all of you in person. I guess Skype will have to do, though! But I'm also really looking forward to just calling you from the airport. And now, thinking that I have basically four days before I leave the country for 22 months, I'm starting to freak out a tiny bit. Both from excitement, and from nervousness. I'm just looking forward to the point where I'm able to understand someone talking to me without having to think about it. But honestly, I feel like I'm proficient enough at the language right now that when I get to Nicaragua I won't completely drown. Which will (hopefully) be good. But anyways, I'm glad you had such a great week, and I'll definitely take you up on that Bingo offer once I get back :) I can't wait to be able to come back and see all of my family. If you thought it was great after a week, I can only imagine how amazing it'll be after two years!

As for my week, it's actually been fairly boring, with a few notable exceptions. The first being that I got pretty sick on friday, enough that I ended up going to the MTC clinic (these guys really do have everything!). According to the doctor, I probably had the NORA virus, which is fairly common in the MTC. But on the bright side, I got to leave the MTC campus to pick up a prescription (for the nausea) at the BYU student health center. It was exciting, I got to see a tiny bit more of Provo than I had in the past month, even if I wanted to throw up the entire way there and back. The second of these actually happened that same day, which is that I got my travel plans! I'm actually going to Nicaragua, and not Texas (not that I have anything against Texas...)! I get to wake up and be at the MTC travel office by 3:35 on Monday morning, which is.... great, I guess? We don't actually have any train schedules, put my guess is that we'll probably be leaving the MTC between 3:45 and 4:00 to catch the frontrunner up to the airport. My flight leaves at about 8:30 I believe (I don't actually have my travel plans on me right now, so I'll correct that time in a different email, if need be).

Getting ready to leave! Good-bye MTC, hello Nica!

I'll probably end up calling you at around 6:45 or 7:00, depending on when we get to the airport. But then I get routed through Atlanta Georgia, have a 3 hour layover, and finally a flight into Managua, Nicaragua. Four days! Third, we had a devotional from Chad Lewis, a TE for BYU football about 15 years ago, who ended up going on to play for the Eagles, and during that, Taysum Hill also bore his testimony. It was definitely a really cool experience! And finally, I got your packages! The Elders in my district and I loved the guacamole, and I'm definitely getting some use out of that Dr. Pepper you sent me. The Scotcheroos are coming out some time today, probably. But the two things that I got in that package that I really cared about were the photo album and the letter from Evie. The photo album made me cry (not surprising). You really did a great job with it, so thank you so much for that. And I always love my letters from Evie. As soon as you said that another letter from her was coming in the package, I got really excited. I'll try to respond to her before I leave, but the next few days will be really hectic, so it's very possible that her next letter will be from Nicaragua. And one last thing, I just want to thank everybody for all the dear Elders this week. It really is cool to hear from everybody I leave, and some of you have given me some really great advice, which I appreciate more than I can say. I will be keeping every single one of those letters that I get, so I can read them while I'm in the field. I really can feel the love from each of you.

As for housekeeping, there's a few things. Once I get to Nicaragua, I'm not sure when the next time my P-day will be, so I'm not sure when the next time I'll be able to write is. But I will do my best to make sure that I send emails out as soon as I can. And I'm also not sure how much time I'll have to write, so my emails might become a little bit shorter. Second, if anybody wants postcards/snailmail letters, make sure you get your physical address to me somehow. I'll try my best to send out as many as I can. Third, if anyone ever decides to spend the fortune to send a package to me in the field, make sure you tape a picture of Jesus to the box in a way that it won't get detached. it won't work every time, but it makes it a little bit more likely that the package won't get destroyed/searched as it comes into the country. And I think that's pretty much it.

To end, I just want to say how much I love all of you, and how much I'm grateful that you are my friends and family. Knowing that you're all thinking of me, at least a little bit has helped me get through the first six weeks of my mission, and I know it'll help me get through the last 22 months. I can't wait to see you all!

Love

Cooper

Week 5 -- MTC

I love being able to hear about all the stuff you guys are doing. I'm kind of living vicariously through all of you, because weird as it may sound, studying for 10 hours a day is not the most exciting thing ever. I love it, and it's great, but definitely not super exciting. But things are actually going really well here at the MTC. We just hit the month mark, and we should be receiving our travel plans tomorrow. Basically, we're all both terrified and excited to get out of the MTC. 

But ready or not, Nicaragua here we (most of us) come!

I actually don't have a whole lot to say. I will say though, it's really weird how I'm bumping into so many people that I know. From the ward, I've seen and talked to Bishop Tanner (doing whatever it is he does at the MTC), Brother James (working on some wiring, I believe), and Sister Freedman (working at the temple). Plus, I should be seeing Morgan sometime in the next week, as well. In addition to that, I keep seeing a bunch of missionaries that I know, both from here in Provo, and from Idaho Falls as well. It's definitely interesting. 

Make sure to tell Isaac that once that tux is tailored, it'll look awesome on him. As for housekeeping, there's not much that I really need. Honestly, just whatever you want to send me, I'll be happy with. That being said, getting the picture album and the pictures of my friends that granddad took would be great. But other than that, I'll be happy with what you send. And if you send me those audio files, I should be able to listen to them, but I won't be able to download them. But I would love to be able to hear some of those songs! And also, I found the wrap station. All is well. 

Well, that's mostly it, I think. Sorry that the email was so short, but not a lot of exciting stuff is happening, and the days are kind of blending together. But I did just send some letters in the mail, so you should be getting those fairly soon, hopefully. Well, I love all of you, and I can definitely feel the love from here in the MTC. In fact, I'm sure I'll be able to feel it all the way from Nicaragua, too. 

Love,

Cooper

Week 4 -- MTC

I'm definitely having a great time here at the MTC! I completely agree with you, just lasting Sabbath to Sabbath is tough sometimes. But definitely more doable than trying to last 100 weeks all at once. Like I've been saying, I know I'm in the right place, and now I know that as long as I'm not focusing on myself, the time goes by a lot faster. So hopefully, before I know it, I'll be back home and going to school and being stressed about homework rather than about the message I'm sharing with investigators. 

Conference was awesome. I've never been focused on the talks like I was this session. It really is a different experience, listening to find out answers for someone other than yourself. It's cool, because not only do you find answers to what you're looking for in order to help someone else, but you also get answers for questions that you might not have even realized you had. Seeing three new apostles get sustained was definitely a unique experience, and I'm glad that I got to witness that while at the MTC.

That Sunday, we got a devotional from Vocal point! It was pretty awesome. They sang, of course, which was amazing. But in between each song, each of them gave us a short message and bore their testimony. It was amazing. It was a really cool way to end conference weekend. Plus, i mean, it was Vocal Point! They're awesome! We also had a devotional from Linda K. Burton, the General Relief Society President. She basically talked about having faith in the prophets, and about the importance of having a testimony of Christ. It was really powerful, and I'm glad we got to hear from her.

The only really other interesting thing to really talk about my experiences this week would probably be about our investigators. We have three, in case I haven't actually mentioned that before: Travis, Marisól, and Diana. Travis and Marisol also happen to be our teachers, Hno. Draut and Hna. Lamb. Travis thinks that the Book of Mormon is true, and feels good about it when he prays, but doesn't want to commit to baptism before he knows for sure that it's true. Marisól is super interested in the Plan of Salvation, and in being able to be with her family forever. She seems really receptive to what we're saying (as long as we're talking about things that relate to her, we learned that the hard way), and I think she is really starting to feel the truth of it. And Diana is currently trying to decide if the Book of Mormon is true, and she says that she hasn't received any answers as of yet. But we talked with her a little bit about prayer and the Spirit, and I'm really hopeful for her. Then on Wednesday, we taught a woman named Ivette. Ivette is actually a different companionship's investigator, but yesterday, she was just walking around and decided to pop into our class during study time. And then she just... asked for help. So, as a district, we gave her a lesson. And it was probably one of the most powerful lessons I've ever been a part of. I can't even describe it. It was just... beautiful.

As for housekeeping, I got the package, and I loved it. You put some stuff in there that I didn't even know I wanted, but that I definitely needed. And yes, my room is now squeak free. I'm drinking that Dr. Pepper warm, and I don't even care. Caffeine is del-- I mean... Dr. Pepper is delicious. Yes. That is definitely what I meant. 

For the stuff that you want to know, my district is definitely quirky, to say the least. I love each and every one of them, and they are my family away from family, but they're all crazy. I'll actually be trying to send a couple of letters by snail mail, so I'll talk about my District and companion in those. As for what's been challenging, definitely the language, but also learning how to ask the right kind of questions at the right time. It's harder than it sounds. The food is okay, but there's definitely a lot of it.

I'm out of time to email, but as always, I love all of you, and I really do enjoy any Dear Elders and letters and emails that I get from ya'll. It's good to hear from people who I don't spend 24 hours a day with (again, love my district, but after about 500 hours with a person, things start getting.... interesting).

Love

Cooper

edit from Aimee: If you want to send Cooper a DearElder letter, scroll down to week 2 for instructions. It's a free service and he gets to read them the day they come, not just P-day. Just make sure you pick the Provo-MTC mission, NOT Nicaragua.

Week 2 -- MTC

Mom,

It's good to know where I get the getting-emotional-when-you-read-a-letter gene from. Now I know who to blame it on :) But that ER shift sounds... fun, I suppose? For a nurse, at least. As for the workers, I'm surprised that dad didn't just start yelling at them in Spanish. But anyways, hopefully you got some sleep after dad left. As for me, I've really enjoyed the letters I've gotten from you and from all of my friends. It's nice to be able hear from everybody while it's still an opportunity. And as for the package, it's all fine. As long as I get it eventually :) 

This week (and part of last, I suppose) has been pretty great. My Spanish keeps getting better, and my companion and I are continually getting better at teaching. Literally the day after I emailed you last, one of our investigators, Travis, became our second teacher, Hermano Draut. It was a surprise, to say the least. But he's a fantastic teacher, and we continue to teach Travis. Hna. Lamb also became an investigator, a 42 year old woman named Marisol. She's a devout Catholic, and our first couple of lessons haven't gone super well, but Elder Seneca and I have a pretty good plan for our next lesson. On Sunday, we had a devotional from Elder Stephen Allen of the Seventy. He gave us a fantastic talk on how we should be devoting all of our attention to God, because we are now official representatives of the LDS church. He also talked about how and why we shouldn't be idiots while in the mission field. it was a great talk. Then on Monday, we watched Elder Scott's funeral service. It was really cool, because not only was it interesting to find out just how great a man E. Scott was, but we also found out that he was the apostle who dedicated Nicaragua for the preaching of the Gospel. And on Tuesday, we had a talk from Elder Claudio R.M. Costa, from the Brazil area seventy presidency. He gave a really cool talk about his own conversion story, and talked about just how huge an impact we could have by converting a single person. Other than that, my week's been pretty normal. 

I guess just for a little bit of housekeeping, if you haven 't sent that package yet, would you mind putting a can of WD-40 in it as well? The sheer amount of things that squeak in our room is ridiculous. And also Dr. Pepper, because I have never needed caffeine more in my life. Did I mention how squeaky our room is? Also, I've started dumping my pictures into dropbox. I do not vouch for the normality of any of the pictures that may end up there.

Anyways, I just want to say how much I love and miss you, and how much I love and miss any of my friends and family that may end up reading this on my blog. I know that I'm supposed to be exactly where I am, but that doesn't always make the journey any less difficult. But I do just want to testify of how strong the spirit here is, and how important that is in our lives. I know for a fact that there is no possible way that I would not only manage to learn a language in six weeks, but also be able to sit in a classroom studying for 12+ hours a day studying without some very powerful outside help. I love you all, and thank everybody for any letters they have or will send. We all always look forward to mail time, it's a huge picker-upper during the day. 

Love you all, 

     Elder Hopkin (Cooper? How the heck am I supposed to end these?)

Week 1-- MTC

Cooper mentions Dear Elder in his email. This is a free letter service for kids that are currently in the MTC. You can write a letter and have it delivered that same day, as long as it's before noon. To write him you need his name (JOHN Hopkin) his Unit # (212) and his departure date (OCT26), his mission (NIC-MAGS) is optional. That's it! Please send him a note if you have a minute. Even if it's just the word Hi! 

Mom,

I'm totally not homesick. Totally.

Elders Isham, Black, Peterson, Hadley, Meza, Hopkin, Seneca, and Jonovich

I definitely haven't thought of running the block and a half back home, and yours and dad's letters and emails most definitely didn't make me cry. I definitely did not cry front of all the elders in my district. In all seriousness though, I do seriously miss home, but at the same time, I definitely know that this is where I'm supposed to be right now. The work is difficult, the language is hard, my companion is hard to get along with sometimes, but through all this, I can feel my testimony growing every day. In that video that we watched, the elders that spoke weren't lying. You can always feel the spirit in this place. Which is good, because we all definitely need the gift of tongues. But it's definitely a thing, because I know for a fact that I know more Spanish now than I even came close to in school. 

Anyways, to answer some of your questions: My companion's name is Elder Seneca. He's from Northern Virginia, and he's going to the Nicaragua Managua South mission, like me (in fact, most of our district is, but I'll cover that in a sec). He's kind of a quiet kid, and really likes rules, but is probably one of the most studious (I can't think of a better word for it) missionaries in the district. We have some friction, but he's my companion, and I don't think it was by random chance that we were assigned to each other. In my district, we have 11 missionaries in total. By companionship, there's Elderes Seneca and Hopkin (hey, that's me!), Elderes Peterson and Jonovich (E. Jonovich is the DL), Elderes Black and Isham, Elderes Meza and Hadley, and Hermanas Hawkins, Tobey, and Hussey. We're from all over, the closest probably being E. Peterson from Morgan, and Hna. Hussey from SLC. Almost all of us are going to the Nicaragua Managua Sur Mission, except for E. Jonovich, who's going to El Salvador, E. Hadley and Hna. Tobey in Mexico, and E. Meza in Chicago. We're definitely a quirky district, but I love each and every one of them. We're a family. Which, since I don't have direct access to all of you, is definitely a blessing. 

As for schedule, it's more or less the same every day. About nine hours of study time, which includes personal/companionship/language study, teaching investigators, and class with Hna. Lamb, our spanish teacher. We currently have two investigators, Travis and Diana. We've had three lessons with Travis, and he's said that he would get baptized if he felt like what we've been teaching him is true, so that's what we're trying to help him know, at this point. As for Diana, we've only had one lesson with her, but we committed her to reading the Book of Mormon, and about praying about its truth. Diana is Catholic though, so the talk about baptism is going to be... interesting. Alongside all of that, we have choir and devotionals every Tuesday and Sunday. The devotionals are really cool, because we get some really cool people who come to talk to us. On Sunday it was the man who does Music and the Spoken Word (I've forgotten his name), and on Tuesday is was Elder Cardon of the Seventy. All in all, it's been really interesting, and I've definitely never studied this much in my entire life. The whole "MTC experience" is taking some getting used to, but I feel like I'm adjusting pretty quickly. I don't think the homesickness will ever truly go away though, there'll just be some times where I get distracted from it. 

For housekeeping, there are a few things that I need other than the raincoat. If at all possible, it would be great if you could send me my towel that I'm pretty sure I forgot in the downstairs bathroom, and one of my sweatshirts would be a good thing as well. Besides that, there really isn't a lot that I can think of that I really need. I'll be very receptive of anything you would like to send me :) The only other thing I can think of along these lines is that it would be great if you could get my Dear Elder information everybody, and send the information to this email as well. It's fun getting letters during the week, and it would be nice to hear from people on more than just my P-day. I'll be checking my email again just really quick at around 5:30 or so later today, so if you could send me that info quickly, that would be fantastic. And finally, my tentative return date is currently set for August 28.

To finish, I just want to say that I really love and miss you all more than I could possibly describe. I know that I'm where I'm supposed to be, doing what I'm supposed to do, but that doesn't mean it isn't so impossibly difficult to go two years without seeing the people I love. Thank you for all of your prayers, and know that you are all in my prayers every night as well. And tell Evie I love her, but that I definitely don't miss loading the dishwasher :) 

Love,

Cooper

P.S.: Pictures! More to come, eventually.

Week 0 - The Drop Off

We dropped Cooper off at the MTC on Wednesday, September 16, 2015. It was POURING rain and the missionary assigned to help him that day didn't have an umbrella! So we rushed through our good-byes and then watched as he walked away. He looked so happy and excited. We are going to miss him so much, but we are so proud of him.