SET YOUR ANCHOR

We had a busy week.

It is kinda an interesting situation we got here.  We have some people we meet with, but we dont do the typical lessons with them.  Some are more serious than others.  We are working though and helping some battle smoking and drinking. That's a long fight, so we are just trying to be a consistent source of support. We have someone else that is actually progressing a lot I think.  She actually came to church! She lives really far away and we havent been able to go out and visit her yet.  We are planning on doing that this week hopefully.  We usually will call and kinda do a lesson or a check on the phone with her. 

There are a lot of Samoan places to eat here.  It is amazing.  There is also this Greek place where we get some Gyros sometimes.  The ladies there love us and basically want to marry us, so we go in sometimes to talk and laugh.  It hurts the wallet though.  But I have been saving my whole mission so i got some of my MSF saved up so it's not that bad.  We are working on the fun part of things to do.  We are going to try to go slack line contacting soon so that should be fun.  

Our zone training meeting was this past Friday. We are in the

Thank you for the pictures Jacque Stratton :) 

Bucharest zone so we had to take a three hour train down on thursday night.  We stayed in my old apartment that I was in when I was serving in Buc.  Ill tell ya, it was probably the worst sleeping arrangements or worst sleep I got on the mission so far haha.  The conference actually went super well.  I was able to stay awake, and the Zone Leaders and STLs did a really good job, so I actually got a lot outta the meeting.  Prez was also trying a new type of outline or way of doing the meeting.  It ended up being really refreshing.  We talked a lot about being yourself.  President also told us that generally our first contact with a person should not be about the church.  That type of contacting doesnt work here so they are really focused on people using

their talents and being creative and themselves and just getting to work basically.  So after the meeting we go over to the mission office.  I got a great surprise.  The Bairs were there!  We had a really nice conversation.  I love them so much they just make me laugh. It was good for my soul. They are over in Brasov right now. Boy I would love to serve with them.  It just made me really happy to see them.  After the office we went to a park to meet up with the zone and do some contacting.  Some played their guitars and Violins while the rest went around and talked to people.  That is something nice about being in Buc.  There are always big things going on with missionaries.  Alright so the end of the night consisted of us missing our train to go back to Craiova... haha kinda stunk we had to wait another 2 hours or so before the next train came to the station. To pass the time we got some ice cream cones at McDonalds... so it wasnt that bad haha.  We didnt get home and in bed till like 2 am so we were just exhausted to say the least.

The next morning we had made plans to go work in our Branch president’s garden (that's also why we didnt just spend the night in Buc cuase we needed to get back)  So we woke up kinda early and went over to our Branch president’s house and helped him out.  We got a solid 2 or 2 and a half hours in.  They then fed us an amazing meal.  After we finished eating we went into the living room.  We all then just passed out for like 10 or 15 minutes.  We literally took a nap with our branch president! haha he is super chill!  It was also really needed.  All this farming and gardening experience I am getting on my mission really makes me want to have a garden some day.  Not like a little dainty one, but one that I need to actually put some effort into.  That would be kinda dope.

Anyways I dont know if i have mentioned this yet, but in the mission we are doing this thing called POP.  It is basically just a short 2 minute role play about a certain topic in the lessons.  With every POP you are supposed to have a scripture.  There is certain POP that I really like.  One cause it is simple. Two because it is easy.  Three cause it can actually be pretty deep.  It is the one I have up my sleeve. I want to share the scripture with you cause it is one of my favorites.. actually like in my top 5. :) It's Ether 12:4

Wherefore, whoso believeth in God might with surety hope for a better world, yea, even a place at the right hand of God, which hope cometh of faith, maketh an anchor to the souls of men, which would make them sure and steadfast, always abounding in good works, being led to glorify God.

So this scripture is awesome for a couple of reasons.  I really like how it says so clearly that faith is the anchor.  It keeps us abounding in the good works.  Faith is what makes a steady and ready when the storms of life come.  That is obvious conclusion right.  But going a little deeper.  What happens to a boat not during a storm?Just out on the water?  It still drifts right?  The water will typically always keep you moving just a little bit.  So it's that anchor of faith that we need constantly.  Especially during the "calm" times when there is no storm.  Sometimes we even lift the anchor just a bit to "go out exploring" a bit. But when you find that good place where you are supposed to be drop that anchor and dont let the water make you drift.  Ether 12 is a great chapter.  I recommend it :)

That's about it for this week. Things are good, and my companion is good. I'm lucky to have him right now. I love you all so much! Talk to ya soon!

Love 

Elder Cooper

PS. I actually forgot this.  This week we only had one hour of church!.... it was so nice! haha I loved it a little to much I think :).  But no I didnt get to just relax. It was Elder C's turn but we have that American guy who comes sometimes and he gave a talk. Usually we have a member who is a good translator do the translating, but he wasnt at church.  So I had to do it.  It's really the first time where I have just flat out been put on the spot to on the go translate for someone for like 30 minutes.  It was kinda rough, but overall it was fine haha :)  I would've also had to teach Sunday school, but everyone had to catch train or go back to work so literally everybody left after the first hour.