Family!
Hope all is going well at home. Wanted to start with a shout out to my Mom. Love you Mom!
Monday. Today after going to the lake, we went and visited a family that was going to get baptized and now we have to push pack the date. The little kids got put into a soccer league that plays on Sunday until the end of April, which was kind of frustrating. But after them, we went looking for everybody and nobody was there. They all disappeared or something--it was really weird. So we did some contacting at night, running into Catholics that didn't want to listen to us haha.
Tuesday. Today was probably one of the longest days of the mission so far haha. We started off with doing the District Council, and it was awesome. I'm getting more used to giving the Council now, which I'm starting to love to give. After, had one of the hardest days. We had a great day set up and everything fell through. We didn't have an appointment with anyone until 8... We contacted and looked for some other investigators for the other 8 hours haha. My feet were dying. I just wanted to sit down, but nobody really accepted us. We've been doing a new thing that for us to be able to count a new investigator, they have to accept the baptismal invitation. It's been really hard being able for people to accept the baptismal invitation. So, it's been really hard to find some people with good potential and that actually accept the baptismal question in the first time at their door. But at 8, we finally got to our first appointment and it was with Fam Cabezes. We came to their house just to come and answered all of their questions. It was a solid lesson. It helped them feel better for their baptism.
Wednesday. Today we had a Zone Conference in Otavalo that was unreal. We talked a lot about the story of the Sons of Mosiah. It's such a good story, and have I been able to go back and look at it so many times and it has helped me so much in the mission. Sister Murphy taught us so much about how and what they did to be better missionaries. I was, also, able to some of my buddies, Elder Ayuso, Elder Millett, Elder Johnson, and Elder Bogren. It was so awesome to see all of them. The only Companion that was not there was Elder Harris. I was pretty sad about that.
All of Elder Copeland's companions--except Elder Harris, who he was sad not to see.
Afterwards, we got back to our sector and went and taught a family about Alma 32 and how they can really know if the message that we are teaching them is actually real. They loved it! They were asking us why they didn't know about our church before and a bunch of stuff like that. So we invited them to be baptized and they accepted!! I'm so excited for them and hoping and praying that they continue to progress.
Thursday. Today I was able to do a division with Elder Campbell. He's from Idaho and he's such a good guy. He's got about 1 year and a half in the mission, but this was my first Division as a District Leader, so I was pretty nervous, to be honest. We started off the day awesome. We went contacting for a little bit and found this one guy and we asked him if he's ever heard of the Book of Mormon. He told us that he has one... We asked him how and he told us that he found it in a trash can about 5 years ago and he has no idea what it really is but he loves to read it and thinks that it's such an awesome story. So he told us that we need to come back another day because he didn't have time at the moment. But I think that it's such a cool story that we were able to find this guy that has been waiting for 5 years to know the importance of this Book. I'm so excited to go back. After, we were able to visit one of our investigators that is 15 years old and has a kid that's a 1.5 years old. We talked to her and she told us that she wants to get baptized, so we talked about ideas of what she can do to get baptized. She's so awesome. I hope that she can actually find a way to get baptized. After, we talked to Juan and he told us that he also wants to get baptized, but he has a problem because he's not married. So we spent a lot of time making a plan for him to get married. The people here are honestly so amazing. I hope that we will be able to find a way for them to get married.
Friday. Today was a good day. We didn't have really anything planned for the afternoon, so we went contacting and found some awesome people. We found this guy that his parent used to beat him. We presented the Book of Mormon and he was so excited to know more about the Book of Mormon and was really excited to read it. After, we went to the house of one of our investigators and it turns out that her aunt died and she was so sad. So we talked a lot about the Plan of Salvation with them to help them feel a little better. After, we had a lesson with Vivianna, and she decided that she needed to move her baptism date back because she did not feel ready for the 24th. We were able to talk to her more about what she needs to do to feel more prepared for the 7th of April.
Saturday. Today we started the day off going up to Otavalo so that I could do my first baptismal interview as a District Leader. I was so terrified. I didn't know if my Spanish was going to be good enough, but the Lord blessed me so much and it was such a good testimony builder. The Lord blesses you when you need it. After the interview, we went to the house of our mommita. I always tell her that her hamburgers are the best when it's just more rice and chicken, and she always laughs at the joke. But we got there and she actually made us hamburgers, and they were actually pretty good. They're like one of my favorite families on the planet. After, we had this lesson with this guy. He's a Christian, but he's studying about Atheism. So we talked to him and gave him a Book of Mormon and he read some. Then he went off on us... We watched some Anti-Mormon stuff about Joseph Smith and Temples and he just went off on us. Hahahah he got mad at us because on the card we have a picture of Jesus Christ HAHA. It was such a joke! I started just laughing at him and he got mad saying that he's better than us and that he should be on a mission instead of us. But yeah that was fun HAHA! After, we went by some of our investigators and they didn't have any time for us, so we just contacted. At night, it's almost impossible to contact and have someone talk to us.
Sunday. Today, we were able to have Vivianna come to church and she brought her old boyfriend that she doesn't live with anymore. I guess something bad happened with them, but she told us that he really needs help and she just wants to help him. She's so awesome. After church, we went to lunch and I had to eat the hooves of a COW. Oh my gosh! It was so awful! I could see the hairs on the meat that I was eating! Then we had to stop by Family Cabezes and see why they didn't come and it was because they were sleeping. I got so frustrated with them because their baptisimal date fell through because they were sleeping. But yeah, welcome to the mission haha! But after them, we had a lot of good things happen. We talked to Danny and Veronica and they told us that they are planning on getting married so that can be baptized. After, we taught her neighbor and she accepted the baptismal invitation. But a cool thing that happened todayl I had this feeling to go and visit this old investigator that stopped listening to the missionaries. We stopped by and talked to them and they were so happy to see us and they told us that they need us to come back. Not only that, but they're a family of 9!! It was so awesome! I'm so excited to go back and talk to them more.
Monday. Today we just went to a really old tree. We had to hike up to it and yeah it's old and cool.
Book of Mormon. This week i was able to keep reading in Alma and I was reading Alma 36. It's about Alma telling his story of conversion and how he was still able to repent of his sins. He was an awful person, but he changed his life. I looked at it how even his friends and family were able to forgive him. That's even a bigger part of repentance is to be able to forgive others. So my invitation with everyone is to forgive someone for something that they have done wrong in the past. It may change their life... Love you all!
Love, Elder Copeland
Cayambe
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