Week 18 - November 27, 2017

Chao, Pisuli and Roldos!

Tuesday. Today we got up really early and taught one of our investigators, Rosita, and she loved the Plan of Salvation lesson.  She wants us to teach her family now.  We, also, taught this new family that has been struggling, and they want us to come come back, which was awesome.

Wednesday.  Today we had verifications with our whole group in Quito.  I got to see all of the buddies from the MTC, which was awesome, and it was such a good learning experience.  President taught us so much. 

Thursday.  THANKSGIVING!  Yeah, they don't celebrate that here haha.  But we had some really good lessons and a lot of the people are getting close to knowing the importance of the Gospel.  It would help if they went to Church, but they just don't really understand.  But the people are so amazing here.

Friday.  Today I went on an Inter-Cambio with Elder Harrison in the other district with was fun.  But every one cancelled on us, and we just walked around looking for them.

Saturday.  Today all of our lessons that we had planned didn't work out, but for some reason we were just knocking doors and people were accepting us, and it was so amazing. We, also, challenged ourselves to talk to every single person that we can, and it helped us so much.  We found so many guys.

Sunday.  Well, as you can tell, it was the end of transfers and training (Mom, I'm a missionary now!) and I'm leaving Elder Ayuso and Pisuli and Roldos.  

And, honestly, today we just went around saying bye to people and it was honestly so hard.  I can't believe how these people changed my life in my short three months that I was with them.  I'm going to miss this sector so much and all of the people in it. And now I'm in Cayambe and I'm so excited.  It's in between Quito and Otavlo, and I'm so excited to be here.  My new companion is Elder Millet from Seattle.  He's such a cool guy.

Here are some photos of some of the people that changed my life forever.  Love, Elder Copeland

Week 17 - November 20, 2017

One more week of training!

This week, honestly, was pretty uneventful, but it's all good. This next week is Thanksgiving, and I wanted to say that I'm grateful for all of you and all of the things you have done for me.

Tuesday.  Today was a pretty good day.  We got some good work done.  We have a investigator that we taught today that loves everything about our gospel, but she has a lot of problems at home.  But, we taught her about prophets and she loved the lesson and wants to keep learning more every day.

Wednesday.  We were contacting all day and got the door slammed in our faces for three hours straight hahah, but it's honestly funny how the people react here.  But, we did end the day finding one person which paid off for us which made me so happy.  We also taught Angel and Ximena, and they're getting really close to baptism.  They just won't get married. So frustrating.

Thursday.  Today we got up really early to go teach a future investigator, and it was so good.  She's really Catholic, but she was really interested in our message.  She wants us to come back and teach her again and help her kids in English, which is always really fun. 

Friday. Today we had a lesson that was honestly so cool. We have been teaching this guy, and we finally got to teach his wife and his family.  It was so good.  They loved the message and want to keep learning more.  I'm really excited for them.  They are so cool!

Saturday.  Honestly. not much happened today.  We contacted all day and only found one, and he thought that Joseph Smith saw aliens hahah, but we explained it better to him.  Afterwards, we taught Angel and Ximena again.

Sunday. I gave my first talk in Spanish today, which was such a cool experience.  I don't know how well I did, to be honest, but I felt pretty good haah.

Today, we went paintballing which was fun.  Here's two pictures of Elder Cave and I.

And our Christmas tree.

Week 16 - November 13, 2017

Hola, Familia,

Tuesday.  Today, honestly, was really hard for us.  We have had two investigators that were progressing really well, and one of them hasn't been reading in the Book of Mormon for weeks, and it is so hard to find her.  I think that she'll be okay. She has just needed a lot of money.  And our other investigator, Alejandra, loves our message and her family is the best, but she told us that she only wants to be a Catholic because her family is Catholic, so that was pretty sad for us.

Wednesday.  Today Elder Choque left on an emergency transfer, which was pretty sad.  He was awesome, to be honest.  But Elder Warner came who went to LONE PEAK, also, so we have all of the Lone Peak missionaries in Ofelia, which is awesome.  Today we were contacting and we found a really cool investigator who is in the Army, and he loved every second of our message.  He was begging us to come back when he gets back from his work trip.

Thursday.  We did some service today with some members. Ahhah, it was so tiring, but pretty fun.  After, we had a good lesson with Victor again.  He loves everything, just won't come to church.  I don't know why.  Also, we had a great lesson with Angel and Ximena, and they're doing so much better, which makes me so happy.  Also, I ate chicken feet and pig kkin and it was awful ahahah. 

Friday.  Today we had a really cool experience.  We knocked no more then 10 doors and 4 people listened to us, which is incredible.  But one of them told us that she didn't need the Book of Mormon in her life cause she has the Bible.  We showed her some scriptures about the Book of Mormon in the Bible, and she just didn't really care.  And after we told her that she could be with her loved ones forever, and she stopped talking and told us that we had to teach her more. So we taught her the Plan of Salvation and that she can be with her brother and mom again with this plan.  She was crying the whole time.  It was so cool and such a good experience for me knowing that people don't have the peace the Plan of Salvation can give them in their life.

Saturday.  Not too much happened today.  We finally got to teach Digna today, and she's doing a lot better now and is progressing.  We, also, helped her move, which was pretty fun.  And we read some scriptures with Angel and Ximena, which was good and talked to them about their family. Ximena told us that she wants her daughter to serve a mission, which got me really excited. 

Sunday.  We had nobody show up to church, which was awful and so sad, but it's all good.  And we were reading a chapter with Victor during a lesson, and he can't read well, so we read to him.  We were reading and we looked up from our scriptures and he was out fully sleeping.  We woke him up and he had no idea what was going on.  Hahah it was so funny.

Today, we went to the middle of the world, so I got some pictures of that.  Also, a photo with the Lone Peakers in the middle of the world.

Also a photo with Darth Vader​

 Elder Copeland

Week 15 - November 6, 2017

Whats up, Fam!!  Great week here in Ecuador!

Tuesday.  HALLOWEEN, but it's not celebrated here haha.  It was pretty weird not seeing little kids run around the streets, but it was still a good day.  We had interviews with Pres Murphy, and they were so good.  He is such a good man.  After, we had some great lessons with some of our investigators, and we got to see one investigator that we haven't seen in forever.  It was so awesome to see her again.

Wednesday.  Today I went on an intercambio with Elder Choque, and he knows no English, so this was like the first day in the mission were I couldn't speak English at all the whole day, which went better then I thought.  We taught some great lessons and some of the members here expect the missionaries to do everything haha.  One member's kid ran away and she wanted us to go and find him.  We just told her we couldn't help her, and she got mad at us ahahahl.

Thursday.  We witnessed a fight today!  This girl was passed out on the ground and all of these Black people were trying to punch the cop, but he just left.  The police here do very little! We went to Angel and Ximena's house and Angel wasn't there because he was drinking.  Ximena was so sad and she told us that she doesn't want to marry him.  It was so sad to hear that from her, and it made us so sad because he was doing so well.

Friday.  Today we were in Quito the whole day for a Zone Conference with Elder Fallebela, and it was so good.  He has a program for missionaries to receive more references and some other stuff that I loved so much.  I, also, got to see Elder Harris, McClesse, and Johnson, which was so awesome.  We ended receiving 90 references from the program, which was soo nice for us.

Saturday.  Was such a good day today.  We found a really cool nuevo investagator.  But to end the day, we went to Angel and Ximena's house and both of them were there and Ximena was telling him that she wanted to live alone and Angel was so sad.  He was crying the whole time, and it was so sad for me because they're like a family to me.  Angel told us that he wants to change and that he wants to go through the temple.  We told him this is his last chance.  So I told him that if he lived a perfect month of the gospel, reading every day, coming to church every week, he would not want to drink anymore and his family life would get better.  He told us that he wants this so badly.  It was such a cool experience for me, and I know that they can do all of this stuff and that they know the church is true.  They are so closeeee ahhh.

Sunday.  Angel and Ximena came to church with their whole family, which was awesome.  We had so many good lessons today.  We found two new Neuvos, and they both loved our message and asked us to come back soon (doesn't happen very often).  We have this investigator that has met with the missionaries before but had lots of doubts, so he asked us, and the Book of Mormon had every single answer.  He told us that he really wants to read it now, which was cool.  

And after we went to Angel and Ximena's house.  They were so happy today, and the Spirit was so strong.  We showed them the "Hope of God's Light" video and they loved it.

Hope of God's Light

(Click on the link above to see this fantastic video for yourself.  Interesting fact:  Elder Copeland's dad played on the same basketball team as this young man did in high school.)

Great week here.  Love and miss you all so MUCH!

Love, 

Elder Copeland