Week 60 - September 22, 2018

Hello, family. 

I wasn't really able to inform you guys about what happened with changes this last week, but Elder Myers went home and Elder Mayberry came in and now is my companion here in Iñaquito!!  The cool thing is, is he was in my District in the coast for 2 months.  It's so weird to think that we are companions now.  I never thought that we would have ever been companions, but he is super cool and I'm super excited for this change that we have together.  He is from Saint David, Arizona.  If you don't know where that is, nobody does haha.  He started one change after me, so we have about the same amount of time in the mission.

(Elder Copeland's mother and sister, Lauren, were able to attend Elder Myers' at his homecoming in Layton, Utah.)

This week has honestly been super, super long.  I've been training Elder Mayberry as the financial secretary, so basically I'm just helping him understand what he should do in the offices.  This week we had to drop off the Elders and Hermanas in the airport and it was awful.  All of the Elders kept me up all night, and we left for the airport after that at 2 in the morning.  Turns out that one of the sisters had an earlier flight, so she didn't make it that night.  After that, I had to say bye to Elder Myers and Elder Cave:(... So after that we headed back over to the house and began to sleep and one of the Hermanas called me an hour later and told us that she needed a ride to the airport and nobody would take her.  So, I had to head back over to the airport with an hour of sleep and drop off more missionaries.  After, we went back and worked and at midnight we had to head back to  the airport and drop off another missionary.  Haha I got to know the airport super well this week haha.  It was a super long week with all of the things happening with the guys going home and the rest of them coming in... 

But we were also able to have some great spiritual moments this week.  We had a family night with President Murphy.  We brought over Giulliana (Juilliana) and taught her about the Word of Wisdom and the importance of it.  She has had a really hard time accepting it, so we were hoping President Murphy would be able to us out!  WE shared the talk from President Monson about the Word of Wisdom and how it blessed the soldier with more strength.  We asked her to live the Word of Wisdom for a whole month and she will know that it is a commandment of God.  She promised us that she would live the commandment and pray to God if she should be baptized.  She shared some good experiences about how during her scripture studies she has been noticing that all she has been thinking about is baptism.  It was super nice to know that she is thinking about it a lot.  I know that she will be baptized one day, she is honestly so prepared.  One of the biggest testimony builders that I have had in the mission is being able to see her progress. 

As well this week, we were able to stop by and teach Jhonny Pico.  About three weeks ago, some member called us over in the street while we were street contacting and told us that she wanted us to teach her dad.  So we went and presented ourselves and have been teaching him the past couple weeks.  He now has a baptismal date and is progressing super well.  We went and taught him with Esteban and taught him about baptism.  He is super excited and we have been receiving a bunch of help from the ward. So we are super excited for him and his baptism.  Such a miracle!

Not much more than that happened this week..  It was super long and hard, to be honest.  But we are excited and are going to try and continue to work hard, and we know that the Lord will bless us.  Thank you all for everything.  Love you all so much.  Elder Copeland

Fotos

Just some random fotos throughout the week

Week 59 - September 15, 2018

Dear Family,

Well, I don't even know where to start this.  Honestly, so many things have happened.  Without doubt, one of the craziest weeks of the mission so far . . .

Let's start with the bad news first.  This week while we were in the Offices, President came in on a Tuesday, which was super weird, because he never does.  He was talking to Elder Myers for a little bit and than called the rest of us in.  We all thought that we were going to talk about transfer week, but President informed us that Elder Myers has to go home…Honestly, I don’t think that I’d ever been so sad in my life.  It turns out that when Elder Myers went to the hospital the other week, it was his third incident with peanuts--all of them resulted in him going to the hospital.  And this time the doctor told us that if we would have waited five more minutes, he probably would have died… So, President and the doctors decided that it is far too dangerous for him to stay here… But it’s still super hard to here.  I've know Elder Myers since day one and he is one of the best missionaries that I know.  The mission is going to miss him big time…It’s been super hard for me to understand it, but you have to trust in the Lord.

This makes things super interesting here in the offices for us. Elder Myers was just about to train someone here in the offices as the Visa Secretary, but now President asked Elder Myers to train Elder Morris for these last five days of the change, which is so crazy because it always takes a long time to understand the tasks that you have to do in the offices.  Poor guy… So this week I was not companions with Elder Myers…I was with Elder Molina (Honduras) in a different sector, which was super awesome because I was super excited to go with him.  But now it gets even weirder. For changes, I’m going to go back to Iñaquito and train somebody in the offices for the next change.  So, instead of having six months here in the offices, I will only have four and a half.  Haha honestly super crazy!  I don’t even know how to explain what has been happening here in the mission haha. But I’m super excited to be able to go back to Iñaquito and serve the people there again.

Let's go to the good news now!  This week we had the baptism of Mariana!!!  I’m so happy that Elder Myers was able to finish with a baptism, but even more happy for her. She is honestly so amazing.  Every time that we talk to her about her baptism and the temple, she honestly gets so happy.  I want everyone to see what she does when we talk about it, it's so funny.  But we were able to have the baptism and it was a moment to remember.  I will never forget it.  We were able to have a lot of people attend the baptism, which is always something super special.  President and Hna Murphy came, as well as our other investigator, Guilliana!!  Ahhh I’m so happy here.

For more good news, like I explained more, I was able to be companions with Elder Molina this week,and honestly he is so awesome.  I have always wanted to be companions with him.  It’s kind of sad that we only had one week together, but it was an awesome week.  We got some work done here in La Luz.  One cool fact about Elder Molina is that he was ranked the 3^rd best Clash Royale player in the world.  He made money off of it, so freaking cool haha.  But we are hoping that we will be companions again in the future!!

This was hands down one of the most interesting weeks of my life, to be honest.  But it was something that you can learn off of.  I’ve continued reading in Helaman this week and honestly, it is so good.  There is so much information that is inside of it.  I hope some of you were able to read some parts of it and get something out of it.  I was talking to our ward mission leader who just got back from his mission and he was telling me about how he has already been having a hard time reading in his scriptures.  I hope we can always remember the power that one verse has in the Book of Mormon.  It is so important that we can put down social media, music, or Netflix for Christ.  If it’s too hard for you, I’m doing it for 2 years.  Love, Elder Copeland

The best people on the planet

Week 58 - September 8, 2018

Sup?!

To be honest this week was one of the fastest weeks of the mission.  Not too much happened, but honestly it felt like just yesterday.  I can’t believe how fast time is going here--it is beyond crazy.  It's great to hear that BYU won.  That’s always a great way to start off the week.  As well, to hear that my grandparents are being moved to the Frankfurt, Germany Mission with Dax is so awesome!  So excited for them!

This week started off super crazy though hahaha.  Turns out that Elder Myers is super allergic to peanuts and one of our mamits gave us peanuts without saying anything to us. Elder Myers just looked at me telling me that it was bad news.  We got out of the house as fast as possible and got to the house so he could take his Eppy Pen and rushed to the hospital as fast as possible.  Wow!  He honestly almost didn’t make it there, but we got him there and he made it out okay.  We were there basically the whole day, but wow what an adventure.  Super grateful that Elder Myers made it out okay.

As well, this week we had Mission Council in the house of President.  It’s always super fun to be able to see all of my buddies in the mission, as well.  It’s kind of sad because so many of them are leaving… But we had a great Council.  We talked about the importance of how in the Bible they are always going to mountain tops to communicate with God, and how now days we are blessed with the temples.  But more importantly, how we need to raise ourselves up and be better.  So, we went up to a spot in our mission super high up so that we would be able to remember our purpose as missionaries.  I loved it.  I thought that it was something that the mission needed.  

After Council, we had some of the Elders stay in our house, including Elder Harris.  He and I went out after and went contacting together.  It was so cool because the last time that I went out contacting with him was in the MTC.  Crazy to see how much we have changed.  Love that guy.

As well, this week I had interchanges with Elder Soto, our Zone Leader.  He is from Peru and is 25 haha.  But honestly, he is one of my best friends in the mission.  It is always super fun being able to be with him.  We had a lesson with some girl and it was awesome. We taught her about the Gospel of Christ and it was going great, then out of the middle of no where she just told us that she loved our message but that she likes women and that she doesn’t want to repent for it. So that was super weird haha, but it’s something that has been super interesting in the mission.  With some people there is just nothing you can do to change their minds. It’s super hard and sad, but what can you do haha.

That was basically our week.  We were able to finish up the rest of the lessons with Mariana before her baptismal interview and honestly she is so cool.  She understands everything so well.  It’s nice when we have members that help us out a ton.  So we're hoping to finish this transfer well. It’s super weird to think that I only have like 9 days left in the Iñaquito Ward.  I’m going to miss it so much.  I’ve been able to meet some of the best people that I know here, but I’m also super excited for next change in La Luz with Elder Molina.  He’s from Hondorus and is the coolest guy ever. Thank you all so much, even thought half of you didn’t get to this point, I still love you.  Love, Elder Copeland

Fotos,

Quito is so beautiful, some of the Volcanos that we can see every day

Elder Harris and I (Forever Bebe)

Our group at missionary council

Week 57 - September 1, 2018

Hello, family, 

It's me, Elder Copeland... What a marvelous, spectacular, fun, great, awesome, wonderful week!  We were able to see some more miracles here in Iñaquito!  I'm back on track writing you guys on time now haha.

We ended last week with the baptism of Deyamaris, as well as her little nephew, Samuel.  It was such an amazing experience.  

She was such a miracle that we were able to find here in this sector.  We saw God bless her in so many ways.  It was super cool to be able to see the difference in her throughout the time that we taught her.  She is from Venezuela and a lot of them have a lot of problems and are struggling with the situation that is happening in their country. But now, you can tell how much God can bless us.  It doesn't matter where we are from or our situation, we can always find happiness from the gospel.  One of the best experiences that I have had in the mission.

This week, as well, while we were at church, we were talking to one of our investigators, Mariana, and she told us that she basically received an answer and is ready to be baptized.  We went and talked to the bishop with her and we got all things figured out and were able to put a baptismal date on her for the 15th of September.  My last day here in this sector!  But, wow!  I honestly cannot believe it!  It was a complete miracle!  So, we went and taught her later that day, hoping that she didn't have a problem with the Word of Wisdom and for the first time in my mission, she had 0 problems.  It was such a testimony builder for me how Christ prepares his children to receive his blessings.

Another cool little experience that we had this week:  Elder Myers and I put as a goal to invite 150 people to come to church this week.  So, we went to a busy road and we were just contacting for hours and out of no where we hear "ELDERES" and we realized that only members know us by "Elders," so we went and talked to a girl and her sister and she told us that they were from Manabi (South Ecuador) and that they were visiting their dad.  We asked them if he was a member, and they said no and that they wanted us to present information to him.  We met him and he was super interested. It's weird because my entire time here in this sector I have contacted over 1000 people at least and only two of them have listened to us or accepted us.  And then, out of no where, the Lord puts people in our path that basically found us. So amazing!  I'm so grateful for the chance to see people's lives change.

This week I was reading in the beginning of Helaman and I think that it might be some of the most important information that we have in the Book of Mormon.  It talks about how the Church of Christ and how after all of the miracles that they saw in the wars FORGOT their Lord.  I feel like I see the same with a lot of people in the world.  After they receive the blessings they need such as a job, wife, family, a mission, education, and so much more, they almost always forget. They forget about the blessing and even more sad, they forget who gave them the blessing.  I challenge all of you to read the first five chapters of Helaman.  After that, look back and write down some of the biggest blessings that you have received in your life.  After, write down how you will always REMEMBER that the Lord gave you this blessing.  It is so beyond important that we do not forget the things that we have learned in this world.  The Book of Mormon is a testament of that. 

This P-day we went to a place called Mindo.  It is a little outside of Quito, and it is so beautiful.  It is surrounded by waterfalls.  You have to take a cable car at some point to cross a river.  It was one of the cooler P-days that I have had up until this point.  I'll send some pictures of it.   

I will, also, explain the pictures with the demon guys haha.  Right outside the office, there was a giant parade with all of the indigenous people and they just were going crazy.  So I decided to take some pictures hahaha!  

Thanks for everything, Love you all so much!

 

Also, I had to drop Elder Millett off at the airport, super weird. Going to miss that guy a lot.  Can't believe he's already gone.

Elder Copeland

Week 56 - August 25, 2018

HELLO, Fam! 

Hope you all had a great week this week.  This week was super awesome.  Last week I wrote early because we went to the Liga de Quito game, which was so fun!  The stadium is pretty big, to be honest, and it was a pretty good game.  The only problem was is that it ended in a tie.  But super fun time!

The rest of this week, as well, was great.  We had some really special moments.  This Sunday, we were able to receive a reference that was so cool.  She brought her kids and told us that she is ready to be baptized.  The only problem is, is that she just lives super far away and she is always busy, so we are hoping for a little miracle so that we can find her and teach her more!!  Also, Sofia my convert, gave a talk three weeks after her baptism.  I have never seen anything like it.  It was amazing!  So amazing to see how the gospel has blessed her life--and that she isn't scared to share it!

As well, we were able to find a way to contact new people in the street.  We go on the busiest road here in our sector and literally just go and talk to every single person.  We made a bunch of invitations for them to come to church, and a lot of people were super interested.  Elder Myers and I were able to contact close to 100 people in about an hour and a half. Super cool experience.  Later on, we went and contacted a reference that we received from some other missionaries and it was excellent.  He was beyond interested in the Book of Mormon.  He had so many questions for us, and he was super eager to know when we were going to come back.  So, we have a lesson with him this next coming week, and we are super excited.

Before the mission, I always hoped and thought that every time that I taught about the Plan of Salvation, people would love it and be crying because they were so happy to know about the plan that God has for us.  It turns out that it is not like that very often, and I have been waiting for a moment like that for a long time!  This week it finally happened.  About a month a go, we got a reference from Canada, and we tried to contact her for a while now and this week we had our 2nd lesson with her.  She invited her sister over, who lives in Canada, she just happened to be visiting.  About four months ago, their mother passed away and they are devastated about it.  It has been super hard in them.  That's how they got in contact with the church in Canada.  They had the funeral and their cousin, who is a member, introduced them to her bishop over there.  We decided to teach them about the Plan of Salvation, to hopefully give them some hope.  We were just talking to them about where we come from and from there they were hooked.  They were super interested.  We explained how God sent us here to be tested to see how much faith we have in him.  To be honest, we taught them a lot more.  This is just a summary.  You can't put moments like this into words.  So when we got to the part where we told them that they can be with their mom again, they just began to tear up and they couldn't believe it... We asked them if they think that maybe this happened to them so that they could go to the temple and later be able to be with their mother again.  They just realized in that moment that they had to change, and they knew in that moment that they could be with their mom again.  They were so excited and so emotional.  I don't know if I have ever felt the Spirit so strong in my life than how I did during this lesson.  It was a testimony builder for me that God does have a plan for us and that his plan is perfect.  How amazing is he that he would give us his Son so that his plan could be completed and we will be able to be with our loved ones again.  I wish everyone would have been able to feel the Spirit and love that we felt during that lesson.  They all had this much joy to know it.  It's sad that sometimes something hard has to happen for us to realize, but God loves us and wants us to be with him again.

Also, I am writing a little early again because we are going to have the baptism of Deyamaris in about an hour or two, so next week I will send you guys photos of the baptism!  Also, I'll be writing at a normal time!  Love you all so much.

I just wanted to finish with a quote from Elder Holland in a talk that I read.  It says:  "I have just said that the world you now enter holds challenges and difficulties.  In the days and years ahead, you may suffer some discouragement and disappointment.  On occasion you may feel genuine despair, either for yourself or for your children or for the plight and conditions of others.  You may even make a personal mistake or two, serious mistakes, perhaps, though I hope not- and you may worry that any chance to be happy and secure in life has eluded you forever.  WHEN such times come, I ask you to REMEMBER this:  This is the Church of the HAPPY ENDINGS.  Troubles need never be permanent nor fatal. Darkness always yields to light.  The sun always rises.  Faith, hope, and charity will always triumph in the end."  So amazing.  Learn about the gospel and live the Gospel of Christ and you will be happy!!

A pic of a dog that looks like Koda.  Also, to go along with the Plan of Salvation, I know I'll be with Koda again:')

Elder Copeland

Week 55 - August 18 - 2018

Bang!

Well, today I'm going to be writing a little earlier for a couple things.  First off, right after this we are heading over to the Liga de Quito game.  They are like the biggest soccer team in the country, and we are going to check them out, so I'm really excited for that.  We are going to have a good time with that.  But the game starts at 3:30, so after the game I wouldn't have time to write you guys. 

Also, today was a little weird usually for Pday.  We usually sleep in a little longer and just take our time having a little time free.  But today we got up early and headed over to the chapel and filled up the baptismal font for the baptism of Jakeline!!  It was such a good day.  The baptism was amazing.  I don't know if I have ever met someone so prepared for baptism.  She has had so many problems in her life and she has been waiting so long just to get rid of them. And today she was able to do that.  Such an amazing experience for me, a real testimony builder.

This week was a pretty good week for us.  We had some things that we got done.  We were able to visit this really cool reference that we got from Canada.  Her name is Juliana, she was super cool.  We went to go and visit her and she told us about how she came to know the church.  About two months ago, her mom passed away and she went up to Canada to be at the funeral of her mom.  She was devastated about it, and her sister is a member so she introduced her to the Bishop over there in Canada.  After about two months, she came back to Ecuador, and we were able to teach her about the Book of Mormon and read some parts really important.  She was so excited about the message that we shared, and she really does want to change.  I hope that we can do everything that we can to help her out.

Also, this week we had our Zone Conference and it was super good.  We talked a lot about service and how as missionaries we need to do more service.  It's so true. Sometimes we just hope that every house that we knock they are just going to accept us and be a miracle.  But sometimes we have to do our part and help them out and then we will receive the blessings of finding the chosen!  This was a super good week and it was awesome to see how the Lord has blessed us.  We are excited to see the baptism of Deyamaris next week.  Love you all.  Have a great week.

Love,

Elder Copeland

Also, we saw a little miracle this week.  About a month ago, we promised in the blessing of Deyamaris that she would get a job if she left coffee and lived all of the commandments of God.  She struggled with it for a really long time because she has about $0 and is really struggling.  Well, yesterday we passed by and found out that she did find a JOB!!!  NOt only that, but the Ward donated her a dress so that she feels more comfortable in the church, as well they donated her a bed that she didn't have before!!! MIRACLE!!  So freaking crazy! One of the cooler experiences that I've had in the mission. SHe was so grateful and started to tear up in front of us.  So amazing!  God loves his children.

Week 54 - August 11, 2018

Crazy Week - Part 2

Hellooooo, Elder Myers and I started off to a great start of the transfer.  The first week of the transfer as secretaries is called "Crazy Week," because honestly, it is super crazy for us.  This new change we had 21 new missionaries come in, which is the biggest group that the mission has ever seen.  So we had honestly so many things to do which was super stressful.  But the good news is, is that we did survive haha. The best part of the week was that we finished the week getting ice cream with President. Haha 

This week I had to do one of the sadder things yet.  Every change, I have to go and drop off the new guys in the airport and make sure that they get there safely and on the plane. This transfer, I had to drop off some of my best friends ever: Elder Haslam, Elder Castagno, Elder Palmer, and Elder Ericksen... Honestly, some of the best guys that I have ever met, even better missionaries.  Going to miss those guys a lot, to be honest.

 Some of Elder Copeland's Best Friends

But the good news is, is that 21 new missionaries did come in and they are going to help the mission a lot.  I was able to spend a lot of time with them this past week, and they are the coolest.  I have never seen missionaries so excited to come in and be missionaries.  It's weird because it feels like just yesterday I was in their spot not knowing anything about being a missionary and Spanish.  One of my favorite parts of the mission so far was being able to go in the street and talk to the people with the new missionaries.  They were honestly just so happy to hand out a Book of Mormon, and the thing is, they didn't understand anything that the people said.  Haha it was so funny, because I was the same way.  Really cool experience, I'm super excited to see how much they will improve.

This week while we were sitting in church, Jacqueline walked in and told us that she is willing to travel every single week so that she can be baptized.  WE got permission from President so that she can be baptized.  Honestly such a miracle.   She deserves to be baptized and is so prepared.  So that was a little miracle that we saw this week.   Also, we were able to pass by Deyamaris and explain some things, and she is still beginning to progress a lot.  But she was super sad because this Sunday while she was at church, someone told her that she has to dress better... She said it felt like a punch to the gut because she wants to, but she honestly has nothing.  She doesn't even have enough to buy a dress, so we are hoping that it won't be too big of a problem.  Just really annoying that the ward isn't helping her feel accepted in the chapel.  For me, it was a good message that we just can never judge anybody because it make a big impact on somebody.  Half the time we don't even understand the message.  We just need to love everyone.

This week I was reading in Alma again about the wars. Something that caught my attention is in Alma 55:31.  It says something very important.  It's talking about how the Nephites gave the Lamanites the wine to get them drunk so that they could sneak in and beat them.  But what the Nephites did was something super important.  It says, "But behold, the Nephites were NOT slow to remember the Lord their god in this their time of affliction..."  As humans, we all go through afflictions.  We can either be like the Lamanites and just take the easy path and later have the consequences, or we can be like the Nephites and take the harder path and be successful and stronger later on.  It just requires something very important.  We CAN NOT be "slow to remember our Lord."  We always need to remember him even in our afflictions.  There are so many examples and answers in the Book of Mormon.  We need to read it frequently.  Love you all, love the gospel, love our Savior Jesus Christ.

Also, happy birthday Dad!  Not very many people have their dad as their best friend.  Don't know where I would be without him!  Love you, Dad.  Elder Copeland