Week 51 - July 14, 2018

Hello, Friends and Family. 

Honestly, this week was not the craziest thing ever.  I'm going to try and keep my letters as interesting as I possibly can during my time here in the offices.

We started this week off with a killer Sunday.  We had a record of five investigators at church.  The ward has been helping us out a ton here.  The missionaries haven't had five investigators at church in almost the past two years, which is crazy.  It's even harder that we spend most of the time in the offices.  We were able to visit some recent converts in the night time and it was great.  They were all from Venezuela, and we just talked to them and taught one of their new friends.  It was pretty cool.  She didn't want to listen to us at first because she told us that she just thought that our church was for rich people and racist.  We explained the Book of Mormon and she got extremely interested.  We answered all of her doubts, and she got super interested and excited to learn more and read the Book of Mormon.

This week has been a pretty busy week for me in the offices. My comp just basically just leaves me to do what I should normally do and I'm not completely used to everything yet, so it's been pretty stressful.  But it should only take a week or two more to be able to get everything down.  But it's been a great experience up to this point.  One of my favorite parts is that we get to know President Murphy even better, and more importantly is that sometimes Sister Murphy brings in cookies!!  Haha

Also, I was able to do an interchange with our Zone Leader, Elder Christensen.  It was pretty cool because he used to be in my district when I was in Cayambe.  So it was a good time to be able to catch up on the mission before he heads out at the end of the change.  We contacted basically the entire day... But something cool that happened is that I got my first new investigator contacting houses here in my new sector. Haha it took about three weeks, but miracles happen!

Our investigator, Sofia, showed us that it is impossible to have a perfect investigator.  We found out that she has a problem with the Word of Wisdom... But she gave us a lot of hope.  She explained to us how she has been trying to leave it for the past two months and has only fallen like four times. She has been working super hard and we have gotten such good support from the ward to help her out, which is such a blessing.  We were able to meet her friend that introduced her to the church.  He's a returned missionary.  He served in Brazil, and he got home about a year ago... But the sad part is that he is already less-active and isn't the best example for Sofia.  It was kind of sad that I had to see that a missionary could end up like that.  But we passed by the next day with our ward mission leader, and she opened up to us a ton.  We got her going again and she got super excited again.  She got really excited to set up a plan on how we can avoid all of these temptations that she has been having with the Word of Wisdom.

Honestly, not the most exciting week that I've had in the mission.  Today we just went to the chapel and played some ping pong for the first time in about a year.  If you are wondering if I won, I did... Haha Love you all.  Elder Copeland

And a throw back to last week with Pres Murphy 

Week 50 - July 7, 2018

I'm AN UNCLEEEE!!! 

Congrats to Ellie and Taylor for having their first baby!! I couldn't be happier for them, more for me because I know I'm his favorite uncle!  Love you Otteson!!

Wow!  Kind of a little crazy of a week!  We've had a lot of stuff do to in the office and in the field!  Also, Ellie had her baby, like I mentioned before.  I'm super sad that I couldn't be there, to be honest.  But I know I'm where I'm supposed to be.  Otteson will have to wait just one year more.  Also, it was the 4th of July!  I hope you all enjoyed your 4th of July.  In the offices, we don't have any Mamitas, so we basically eat out always.  So on the 4th of July, we went BIG and got really good hamburgers!  It was so great!  

I felt like such an American.  There was unlimited fries and drinks!  There wasn't that many fireworks, which was kind of a bummer... but everything is going good for me here in the mission.  I feel like I'm just in the groove of the mission.  Weeks just pass by super fast.  It's honestly kind of sad.  I want time to slow down more so that I can still enjoy the mission while I can.  I'm so beyond grateful for the mission, without a doubt the best decision my life.  I've felt the love of Christ stronger than ever being able to see people's lives change.

This week has been kind of rough for us to be honest.  When I got called to Ecuador, I thought that it would be super easy to baptize and to find people.  But wow!  This sector has been really difficult for us.  As of right now, we only have one investigator (Sofia), and I'm not going to complain.  She is super super cool and such a miracle.  But the rest of the time, we just contact or go in the offices the whole day.  The office work is kind of fun.  It's kind of cool being able to see how the church works to keep a mission working.  But wow, contacting in this sector is super hard.  Nobody has been even letting us talk to them.  We went to a giant park one day and contacted about everybody that we saw and just nothing for a good amount of time.  But after about an hour and a half, we went and found three Venezuelans at the park playing baseball.  It was just like a little baseball field, the only one in Ecuador.  One of them had a Giants hat, so I told them about how Seth got drafted by them and they got really interested.  Then they asked us to play a little bit with them, so we got to bat, pitch, and play in the field.  These guys were actually really good.  They played professional in Venezuela but had to move because of the things that have happened there.  So after awhile, my companion was pitching and the Venezuelan guy ripped one right into the ribs of my Ccomp!  HAHA it had to be one of the funniest things I've ever seen.  My comp couldn't breath or anything.  It was super funny.  You had to be there to see it.  

But the good thing that we did was get their contact info to go and visit them, so that was pretty good.

Some other good things that happened this week is we were able to meet with our Bishop on Sunday.  It was a completely different house than all of my other Bishops.  He has a really good job and has visited hundreds of places around the world.  He is super cool and we talked to him about what we need to do to help him in his ward.  It was super effective and got a lot done.   While we were there, he gave us some Guarana, a Brazilian drink that we brought back from Brazil. Reminded me so much when we went down as a family.

We had only one lesson this entire week, it was with Sofia. We passed by and taught her about the Word of Wisdom.  We were really nervous that Sofia would have a problem with wine and coffee, so we taught her the commandment and she had a couple questions.  She told us that one of her friends already taught her the Word of Wisdom so she had already stopped drinking coffee and wine for an entire week!! Haha she is honestly such a miracle!

Also, this week we had our Leadership Council.  President only invites the Zone Leaders and the Secretaries to see what we can do better as a mission in general.  It was really great.  President taught us a lot of really good things.  It was cool, as well, because I was able to see Elder Harris again as well as Elder Vega and Haslam.  I missed those guys so much.  

Also, this week we were able to go to Zone Conference.  I was able to see a lot of my old buddies which was cool, like Elder Palmar, my first District Leader.  President taught us some great things about how we can be better missionaries.  It was a lot of time in meetings, but they were great.

 Elder Palmar and Elder Copeland

 Elder Copeland and Elder Haslam

Today for P-day we went crazy and hiked to the top of Pinchincha.  

It is right above Quito and you take a gondola about half way up and you can see basically all of Quito! Quito is hands down one of the most beautiful cities that I've seen.  Seeing it from up there was so beautiful.  After, we decided to keep going until we got to the tippy top.  It was one of the hardest hikes that I've ever done. We were about 15,000 feet above sea level, so it was super hard to breath and it was very cold.  We had to climb up sand hills, rock climb, and so many more things.  It was one of the best feelings that I've ever had in my life when we got to the top. We just pushed ourselves super hard.  It definitely paid off in the end, which was great.

As well this week, I was able to read about the Anti-Nephi-Lehites--one of the best stories in the Book of Mormon.  They were such horrible people, but than they because converted to Christ.  Often we judge people from things that we hear about them, but if this group of people was able to change, I believe that anyone could change.  They were willing to lose their lives than to sin again.  The best gift that Christ ever gave to me and to all of us, is that we can CHANGE.  He made it possible for the sinners of the world, including us, to be better tomorrow and the next day.  And if we did do something bad today, well we have tomorrow to be better! How amazing is our Savior Jesus Christ!  Love, Elder Copeland

Week 49 - June 30, 2018

Hey, Family!

Well, I wasn't able to write you Monday too much, but I hope that you guys realized that I now will be writing every Saturday at about this hour.  I'm probably going to have to change the format of how I do my letters because in the offices the days are very different than how they were before. Honestly, they kind of feel the same.  But I love it here so much in the offices.  It's a complete different lifestyle than it has been in any other sector so far.  As the Finance Secretary, I'm in charge of a good amount of things.  It's pretty stressful because I have to do almost everything perfect because a lot of the things that I do are very important and confidential.  I have to do all of the payments of every missionary, house, medical stuff and basically everything that goes on in the mission that you don't even realize as a normal missionary.  But it's honestly been super fun up to this point.

Elder Ross is my new comp.  He is from Spokane, Washington.  He's a really good guy.  We have gotten along really well.  He has been the financial secretary for the past five months, so he already knows the system really well.  He's been helping me out and training me to be the next secretary.  He's a great guy.  I've really enjoyed being with him up to this point.  Not only that, he is from my same group, so we will be celebrating one year together!  Also, with me going to the offices for these next six months, that means that next transfer Elder Myers is going to be my next companion, another Elder from my group! 

The sector that we are in is called Iñaquito.  It has been one of the hardest sectors in the entire mission for the past couple years.  It is like exactly in the middle of Quito.  All of the people here actually have really good money.  There are definitely a lot of good things about this sector.  First, we have by far the best house in the mission.  It honestly is a joke how nice it is.  We have three showers, a really nice kitchen, and about 35 beds.  We always have to use it when we have meetings in Quito, so there are always missionaries staying at our house.  A bunch of missionaries were at our house this week, so we basically slept like 8 hours in 3 days. It was so hard.  I was always super tired this week.  Also, our sector has the best food in the mission.  We have a bunch of restaurants that are super good.  Also, we were able to see a tender mercy this week.  We got a reference from the Sister Missionaries this week named Sofia.  We went to meet her this week, and she is such a miracle.  She is already super prepared and talking about how excited she is to keep listening to us.  Honestly, she is one of the biggest miracles in the mission that I've seen.  Also, I met a guy in my ward that served in the same mission as Collin Magee.  He's so cool. We also have a super cool ward mission leader.  It makes me super excited to be here. 

Also, this week a lot of great missionaries went home... Elder Johnson, Elder Morton, Elder Welch, Elder George and so many more.  It was honestly super sad to say bye to them. They are some of the best missionaries that I have ever met. The night before they finished, they all stayed in our house, so it was awesome.  We stayed up basically all night just talking to them.  But something cool is that I was able to see Elder Johnson and his family.  They delivered a package for me, which was such a great blessing.

There have been some tough days as well here.  Because of everyone being rich here in our sector, it has been super hard to contact.  One day, we contacted about 50 houses and not a single person even listened to us... Not a single person.  It was pretty frustrating to be honest.  But I can say that I know that we did our part.  Also, we do spend a little bit of time in the office, so it's hard to go out and contact and teach people everyday.  But I've been super happy, and I've loved every second of my time here so far.

Today we went to the Zoo.  Now that I have P-day on Saturday, the Zoo is open!  It was actually super fun!  I forgot how much I love zoos haha.  Reminded me of when the Bird in Australia was attacking mom haha.  But here's some pics from the zoo.

Thanks for everything.  Love you all so much!  Elder Copeland

Week 48 - June 25, 2018

Hellos, Fam!! 

So another change went down and you can kind of tell that I'm not in the Coast in any more... I left and I'm heading to the Offices in Quito!!  It will be really different from past 11 months.  I'll be going as the Finance Secretary with Elder Ross!!  Elder Ross is, also, from my group, so that will be so fun!  He is from Spokane, Washington.  Also, I will NOT have PDAY on MONDAY any more, I will be able to write you guys every SATURDAY!  I'm super excited for another chapter of the mission!  It's sad to see a lot of the old missionaries leave like Elder Johnson, Elder Morton, Elder George, and so many more. They are some of the best missionaries that I know.  But everything is good.  I'm super excited for these next four changes in the offices.  But I'll let you guys know how I finished my last week here in the Coast!

Tuesday. Today we were able to have our District Meeting in the morning.  

After, we got back to our sector and contacted for a little bit.  We were able to find these two guys that were super interested in the Book of Mormon.  It was a great lesson.  After, we went and taught this one guy named Jackson.  He's a great guy and we taught him about the Restoration.  But what happened is that he honestly was just not that interested in the message, so that was kind of bummer.  We finished the day going to visit a reference and his family that we received.  We talked to him about the family and he told us that he wants to keep learning more because he has had a drinking problem.  He told us that he needs us to come back so that we can help him out.  It was actually really cool to be able to see how a message of the family can help someone want to change.

Wednesday.  Today we went out and contacted before lunch in the farthest place that we could.  We were able to find this single mom and some of her kids.  They were super cool. Also, we were able to talk to Paola and put another marriage date on her, so that was pretty cool.  Also, she accepted a baptismal date.  So she's starting to progress really well. After, we kept going and found this less-active family that hasn't come to church in like two years.  It was a cool little miracle because they have been waiting for the missionaries for a long time.  After, we were able to teach the guy that we found about one week ago.  His name is Ediin.  He loves to talk about all of the old rappers like Tupac with me haha.  He's super cool.  We taught him about the Restoration and he loved it.  He told his brother and friends that they had to come and listen to us as well, and they all loved it, as well. After we went and talked to Geovanni, the guy that we poured his beer down the sink, and were able to check up on him and teach him about he gospel of Jesus Christ.  He's doing well and improving every single day.

Thursday.  Today we went and had a Moronita with the Elders from Forestal.  It was awesome! It was nice to be able to catch up with them.  After, we went and talked to a recent convert about her doubts and her questions.  It was a super spiritual lesson.  We talked about the importance of the covenant that we did with God when we got baptized.  After, we went and talked to Bladimer and his daughter about baptism and how they need to prepare themselves for their baptism.

Friday.  Today I had interchanges with Elder Moody )Riverton, Utah.= It was super awesome.  I learned a lot from him.  He's only got six more weeks in his mission.  We were able to visit the less-actives that we found the other day, and we taught his wife and daughter.  It was a pretty good lesson, and I really hope that they will be able to come back to church.  Also, we were able to talk to Eddi and we put a baptismal date on him.  He was really excited.  We asked him how he was going to be able to leave beer and stuff like that, and he was very positive about it and said that he doesn't feel the need to drink.  It was such a great lesson.

Saturday.  Today was the day of changes and man it was really stressful for me.  We were able to visit some converts. While we were talking to some investigators, we got a phone call from President and he told me that he needed me in the offices.  It's been really hard to baptize in the offices because we don't have a lot of time to contact.  Also, we are in the hardest sector in the mission.  But he told me that he trusts me and knows that we will be able to baptize.  The rest of the day we started saying bye to a lot of the members and investigators.

 Lots of good-byes!

Sunday.  Today we went to church, ate lunch, said bye to a couple people, and the rest of the day I was traveling to Quito!  Elder Copeland

Elder Copeland was excited to see a very good family friend's name on the Mission flag--Lauren LeFrandt.  

Week 47 - June 18, 2018

The Life!

First, I have to start this week off with two big shout outs to my little sis, Lauren, who just turned 18 on the 14th!!  Feliz Cumpliaños!  

Also, Happy Fathers Day!  Thanks, Dad, for being the best dad on the planet.  Honestly don´t know where I would be without you.

Tuesday.  Today we started the day off going to the District Meeting.  After we came back and had some good lessons with our investigators.  We were able to talk to Xiomara about her baptism and how she feels about it.  She told us that she's doubting a lot of things, so we told her to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it.  After, we went and taught Jessica a bunch of things so that she can get ready for her baptism.  It was a pretty good lesson, but it was a lot of information. But she did well and learned a lot.  We then went to the house of Family de la Cruz.  We watched a video and it was like the first time that we could feel the Spirit in their house.  It was so strong.  I really hope that it will make a bigger impact on them.

Wednesday.  Today we had interchanges and I went over to the sector of Elder Mayberry )Arizona.= It was such a good time to be with him.  He´s so fun.  We were able to visit a lot of their investigators, and they are really awesome.  We were contacting and we knocked on this door and within 2 seconds, the man told us to come in.  We talked to him about the Book of Mormon and he was interested in it, but then 

he asked us if we were one of the churches that only say that our church is true.  And we got kind of nervous because sometimes people get really bugged when we say that, so we had to explain it really slowly and in a way that he could understand.  After, he told us to come back and that he wants to learn more.  It was actually such a cool lesson.  In the sector of Aire Libre, the Bishop sells hamburgers and one of them is called the Tsunami.  It is giant!  All of the missionaries have the challenge to see if they can eat the whole thing.  Yes, I was able to finish it. 

 

Thursday.  Today we had a lot of lessons fall through.  We ended up contacting for a very long time.  This one guy let us in and just started drinking in front of us and his daughters.  It was so sad.  After a little bit, we just basically left because it was just so dumb.  We were, also, able to find this really cool guy and we shared the Book of Mormon with him.  He was really interested.  It was such a great lesson.  We finished the day talking with Jessica again.  We finished up all of the lessons, and we got her all set up for her baptismal interview.

Friday.  Today was a pretty weird day.  We had to go to Xiomara in the morning to see if she got her answer about what she should do.  We got there and she told us that she does not want to get baptized... Heartbreaker... SO that sucked, she said that she just doesn't feel like she needs to be baptized again... So we basically just told her that she didn't understand baptism.  But she told us that she only wants us to come over and visit her.  So we left her and told her that we need to teach the people that want to change. After, we went and taught Paola, and it went so good with her.  We taught her some more commandments and she still understands super well.  After, we went to go and check on Jessica to see if she was ready for her interview and she just told us that she is not going to get baptized next week... It was like a shot to the heart when I heard that. She told us that she wasn't ready and that she needs more time to think about it.  I feel like that's been one of the hardest parts about the mission for me is that we can't change the agency of other people.  We can put in 100% of our effort and do everything that we can to help someone, but sometimes they just don´t want to change.  But at least one good thing happened today.  We went to the house of Rocio, Danna, and Ninoska and it was pretty cool.  We had a family night and Danna ) who just got baptized about a month ago= gave the message.  It was pretty to cool to see one of my converts share what they have learned.

Saturday.  Today I was pretty frustrated with our investigators because a lot of them just don´t want to change. So we basically spent the entire time into finding new investigators.  We were able to find a lot of cool investigators that I hope will end up have some potential in the future.  After, we were talking with our ward mission leader and we got a call from the other sector that they needed to use our chapel so that they could have a baptism.  Their chapel ran out of water and they needed to use our baptismal font, so we had to leave and help them get the font ready for their baptism.  Also, another thing that happened in the middle of this.  We were supposed to have a big activity in the church to find new investigators, and the bishop called me like 30 minutes before and told us that we aren't going to have the activity anymore... So that kind of sucked because we had been inviting our investigators there for the entire week and than it just went down the drain...

Sunday.  Today started off awful... None of our investigators came to church.  There are not a lot of things worse than that--especially when we worked so dang hard this week.  But after, we went to go and visit Rocio and her family again and her brother was there, Giovanni.  He was a little drunk. When he saw us, he just started crying telling us that he needs our help and that he wants to change so bad.  So we taught him a little bit with the rest of his family, and we got him really excited so that he was able to change.  We set up a plan for him so that he could avoid the temptation of beer. To make things short, we ended the lesson pouring the beer down the sink after hugging and cheering haha.  It was actually a pretty cool lesson and I hope that he can just change... after, we had a couple good lessons with some investigators and some members. 

Also, a pretty cool experience happened this past week.  The other Sunday we were walking home to the house and this guy from across the street yelled for us and said, "MORMONS!  HOW ARE YOU BROTHERS?!" in English.  So we went over and talked to him and it turns out he was born in Nicaragua, then after a little he moved to California, after that Mexico, after that Costa Rico, and after that ECUADOR.  He is Jewish and told us all about his beliefs, and we just sat there and listened to him.  He told us that he was looking for a place to buy an apartment and we told him where he could.  He called me two days later and told me he found an apartment in a different sector, so I passed his number over to Elder Morton that works over there.  They went and taught him two times and the guy told us that he was really confused about all of his beliefs and that our message makes so much sense.  He is now reading the Book of Mormon, going to church, and listening to the missionaries so that one day he can get baptized.  Super cool experience.  He is one of the kindest guys that I've ever met.  Love, Elder Copeland

Photos

Some Homies

Me walking up a hill

The Zone at the Beach. 

Elder Morton's last P'day.  One of my best friends ever.

Week 46 - June 11, 2018

Another week here in Ecuador... 

Tuesday.  Today was a little bit crazy.  We had a lot of lessons set up and they basically fell through.  So I've been trying to help  my comp talk more with the people because he is really scared.  So we just started talking to every single person on the street.  We ended up finding eight people!  It was pretty cool.  The last two weeks we've been getting rejected a lot, but today we didn't get rejected at all.  Also, we had a lesson with Xiomara, and a member came with us.  I've been having my comp take over the situation in the lessons more, and he started off and he went sooo out of order I was so confused... The member asked us after what happened, and I didn´t have an answer because it was so confusing haha.  But that was basically it for today.  We found a lot of people, which was really awesome.

Wednesday.  Today we started off going to Alejandra and Karelis and taught some of the commandments.  They had no problem at all.  We later went and taught Paola about a lot of the churches and the difference between every single one of them.  It was actually a pretty cool lesson.  I've never had a lesson like that.  Later, we went to visit Marilu and she just wants to have a better life, so we taught her some more about the Book of Mormon and other truths, but it´s really hard to help her when she can't read.  Also, it's really hard when her husband and kid just started smoking right in front of us.  It's so sad.  After, we stopped by and taught Jessica and it was great.  She feels good about her baptism and other things like that.  She´s progressing really well.  We taught her about some of the commandments, and she didn't have any problems.

Thursday.  Today we started trying something new.  We tried contacting our neighbors.  Usually, when we contact, we contact really far away.  So we started contacting and were able to find some great people. It's funny.  Sometimes we think that the best investigators will be the ones that live the farthest away or the last house on the street.  But sometimes it´s the ones that are closest to you.  After, we went to go and teach Xiomara again and it was really rough. We taught the Word of Wisdom and she has a huge problem with coffee. She says that she wants to stop but doesn't believe that she can.  Ugh! It´s so frustrating because she's ready for baptism but we will probably have to change her date now...

Friday.  Today we went and had an interchange with the Zone Leaders!  We went to their sector and basically contacted the entire day.  We only had one lesson the entire day haha.  I went out with Elder Hoyos who's from Bolivia.  It was pretty fun to be able to see more parts of Ecuador.  But honestly nothing special happened today haha.

Saturday.  Today we went and taught Karelis and Alejandra and it sucked hahah.  They are so prepared for their baptism and we told them that about 100 times.  So we told them that they were going to have their interview this next coming week.  They told us that they didn't want to get baptized and they are not ready... It was so frustrating because they are more than ready.  So for now, they are not getting baptized... After, we went contacting and found some cool people.  Also, we talked to Paola about tithing.  She had a doubt at the beginning of the lesson, but at the end of the lesson, she loved it.  It was actually pretty cool to see the Spirit testify to her during the lesson.

Sunday.  Today we were able to have a good amount of investigators come to church.  We were hoping for a miracle with Alejandra, but no she didn't come haha.  But we were able to have a couple others come, which was good.  After, we found one of our investigators for the first time in six weeks haha.  It was so good to see him.  After, we talked to Bismark for a very long time.  We talked to him about his doubts he has with the church.  We went and cleared all of the doubts that he had.  It was pretty fun.  He's such a cool guy.  After, we went contacting in the street and found a couple that is actually married for like the first time here in the coast.  Later, we passed by some investigators and shared the story of Nephi and the broken bow.  It's got to be one of my favorite stories ever.  He´s the best example ever of a disciple of Christ.  I love how in this story everyone is complaining about how hard it was for them, but Nephi just goes and makes his own bow and gets food for his family. Then his family was all happy and thanked the Lord.  

I feel like we do the same honestly.  We just wait and complain for the miracle instead of going out and getting it ourselves.  We were walking home after and this Jew from California called for us and we went and talked to him for a really long time.  It was pretty interesting.  We was talking about his religion and it was different because it was like the first time that I've heard someone talk in English for awhile.

Yeah, that is basically it.  Nothing special happened this week.  A couple heart breakers, but you get used to those really fast.  Love, Elder Copeland

Said bye to my first shoes

Beach