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