WOW! ONE YEAR!
One year has passed since I entered the MTC and started my journey as a missionary... I can't even believe about how fast time has gone. I'm going to try and make this letter a little better. I'm going to describe what happened this week and the miracles that we saw. But as well, I'm going to try and include some of my thoughts and miracles that I have seen over the past year of my life and what has happened.
This week we had some really memorable moments. First off, this Sunday President Murphy invited us over to a Family Home Evening at the mission house. He told us to invite as many investigators as we liked, so we got three of our investigators with a date, Sofia, Deyamaris, and Jacqueline to come with us. We were with President, Sister Murphy, and Cole (their son). We taught Lesson 3, The Gospel of Jesus Christ. Wow! It was one of the most incredible lessons that I've had up until this point in the mission. President Murphy taught about baptism and all of our investigators were crying and felt the Spirit so strong. All of them were so excited for their baptism after. More importantly, Sister Murphy made some brownies with ice cream after. So good, never thought I would miss brownies so much. Super cool experience.
On the 26th, the day that we hit a year, we had a great day. We passed by and talked to Sofia to see how she was doing. She was doing awesome. She had some of her nephews over at her house and they asked us what we believe in. We explained some stuff and we told them about the Word of Wisdom and the guys told us that they have a big problem with smoking weed haha. Also, they told us that they live in the States, so we just talked to them a bunch in English. They were just visiting their family here in Quito. Later on in the lesson, they guy pulled out some weed right in front of us and straight starting smoking right in front of us... They were looking for a reaction from us,haha so we just left and didn't even think about them. They were disappointed that we didn't say anything or react at all haha so weird. But Sofia was super cool about it and just told them to leave and honestly, it is sad to see that she has to live with that stuff. Later on in the day, we went to go and eat, and because it was our year mark, we went big and got CHILIES haha. It was by far the best meal that I have had in a year. Honestly, such a blessing.
After, President Murphy asked us to go over to the hospital and give a blessing to some girl. It was a super cool experience, to be honest. After, we went to the offices and burned our shirts on the roof. Honestly so cool! I got some great pictures of it. Great day, can't complain.
Also, this Friday, we had the baptism of Sofia and honestly it was one of the coolest baptisms that I've been a part of so far. It was pretty stressful because she called us in the day asking to be able to read a chapter in the Book of Mormon because she was really nervous, so we gave her a chapter to read (Helaman 5.) We got a call like three hours after and she told us that she wouldn't be able to be baptized tonight. So, we had our ward mission leader call her and somehow she changed her mind. Such a blessing! We got to the church and like nobody was there, so we got kind of frustrated. But after awhile, so many people came and they brought cake to celebrate her birthday. It was so perfect. The perfect way to end the week!:)
To be honest, this past year has been one of the greatest years of my life up until this point. But, as well, it has been one of the hardest. I can't even explain about how much I have missed everything: My mom, family, food, Koda puppy boy, football, Otto, traveling, relaxing, friends, food, Star Wars, Mtn. Dew, oh and also food, and the list can go on and on. I felt like I've been doing great here in the mission, but I've also gone through so many challenges in the mission as well. Learning the language has been really hard for me, and it requires so much patience, time, effort, faith, and so much more. Like I said before, it's also been hard to miss some of the things back home. I didn't get to see baby Otto be born, neither will I be able to see him for the first year of his life. Didn't get to see Lauren graduate. Don't get to see Hannah go onto high school. Didn't get to go on trips with the family, the Super Bowl, Jazz games, as well as golf with Connor and Taylor. I have to live with people who sometimes drive me crazy, I walk in the freezing cold rain contacting people, or in the coast I had to walk through the blazing heat sweating into my eyes, getting rejecting by about every person that I came in contact with, getting yelled at from the crazy guys on the street, getting robbed (oops, forgot to tell you, Mom,) getting made fun of, feeling alone, and the list continues to go on and on. But the weird thing I can say is that I have never been happier in my entire life. And these challenges have made me into a better person. I'm so grateful for everything that I have been through in the mission. Honestly, it doesn't make any sense to me that I've been so happy because I should not be this happy. The most important thing for me now is to be able to finish the day, praying to know if I've done everything that I could have done to serve the Lord. I now know that the Lord communicates with us, and when we do the things that he needs us to do, he will always bless us. If you are considering going on a mission, it shouldn't even be a question... GO. And if you have already been on a mission, well then look back and learn from it. Every day here is a blessing as well as a lesson.
I've gained a strong and true testimony of my Savior, Jesus Christ, as well as his Atonement, his sacrifice where he bled from every pore for us and died on the cross. More importantly, after that, he rose on the third day, and broke the bands of the death. I know that he lives and that he loves me. I've gained a testimony of repentance and the blessing we have to repent and be better everyday--one of the most important things that I've learned up until this point. A lot of people think that it is bad to repent, but that is a purpose, to repent and be better. Without doubt, I know that the Book of Mormon is true. The words in this book are the words of God to guide us in our life. Joseph Smith was a prophet of God as well as Russell M Nelson is a Prophet today. I am so grateful for this Gospel and the happiness that it brings into my life in this moment and for eternity. I know the secret to happiness is to serve others and to forget about yourself and just go to work. More importantly, to do what is says in the scriptures and always keep the commandments of God and you will always "prosper in the land."
I look back on this year to things that I have been able to accomplish, and I feel like I have improved so much in my life in every aspect. I feel like I have learned so many important lessons in my life. Some of my favorite parts of my mission have been being able to see the conversion of my investigators and to see how happy they are after their baptism. Being able to see family Trujillo and Madruñero has been life changing along with the other baptisms. It is a testimony that this is the actual restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. The good news is, is that I have one year more to give it all that I got and to be able to see even more miracles!
START THE COUNT DOWN MOM!!:) Love, Elder Copeland
Some AMericans came to our ward
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