HELLO
WOW THIS WEEK WAS AMAZING! I am just going to get right into it. We have this finding training that we have been doing and at the beginning of the week we made a goal with 4 sets of sisters that we would get 40 new investigators by the end of the week. Which was a definite STRETCH goal. (Stay tuned for the rest)
I went on exchanges with the STL, Sister Hammond (who goes home in 7 weeks), and I LOVED IT. We woke up at 5:45 to go play basketball with a bunch of the elders and it was a party! During our comp study, I had asked if she had the feelings of where the spirit guided her and told her where to go and what to say. She answered "kind of, but nothing as strong as what a lot of other missionaries talk about", after a long discussion we decided that we were going to LOOK for all the ways we had been guided by the spirit that day. After a lot of bad luck with finding, she said that she wanted to go to an apartment complex, so we drove down Golflinks (which has a LOT of complexes) and we decided that on the count of 3 we were going to choose what side of the road we were going to pick a complex from. First try, we both pointed opposite... and so we decided to REALLY think about it and choose. Second try, we both pointed the same way. We drove down the road and none of the complexes stood out to us... eventually we had passed them all and had to turn around. On the count of 3 we were going to name one of the complexes that we felt like going to, and when we counted this chick said nothing and I yelled out a name HAHA, so we chose mine. Well she missed the first turn and realized that the other one was an exit, so we quickly decided to turn into the next complex so we could flip around and in the parking lot there was a man who was standing outside of his door. Sis Hammond was like "Maybe that's him?" and we were getting ready to pray and then she was like "Nope right now, let's talk to him, cmon." I laughed and said, "No prayer?" "Prayer in your heart let's go." And so we got out super quick and started to talk to him. After a long discussion, we learned that this man had been struggling super hard and was super interested in meeting with us! (ANSWER TO PRAYER) We had definitely been guided to find this guy. We also got a chance to go on the airforce base here to teach someone and it was so fun!!!
Next miracle. The Palo Verde sisters area is kinda dead right now, so we did a blitz in their area (all sisters go there and find people for them). Sister Johnson and I had a LOT of bad luck and doors slammed, rude comments, etc. and we got pretty down about some of the things people had said. We had 5 minutes left to find and we decided to say a prayer. After saying it, we walked around this complex and this man came up to us and asked what we were doing. We told him we were missionaries and before we could finish he was taking us to meet his family HAHA. We set up an appointment with them and were talking about the Book of Mormon when he cut off conversation and took us to another family that we set up appointments with too! It was definitely a miracle for us that day.
Next miracle, so we decided to do a blitz in our area just for fun because the sisters love doing it. And once again, Sister Johnson and I got some rough comments and doors slammed so we decided to pray, again((; and we had gotten all the way back to our complex with no luck and there was a lady who was sitting at a bench and I complemented her on her shirt and she began to talk to me about how she had to wear certain clothes because of skin cancer, and her whole life story and she mentioned that she had always been curious about our church because everything she had heard, she loved, but didn't really know how to learn more. So we set up an appointment and are meeting with her this week!!!
FINAL MIRACLE, so altogether with our 8 investigators and the other sisters we had 39 news/40. And it was 8:45 and Sister Johnson and I were talking about how no one was probably out finding and we only needed 1 MORE to hit the goal. So I tried to convince her that we needed to take the trash out and go find someone with the 15 minutes we had left. So we prayed about it and went out HAHA. We had attempted to talk to 3 people but none of it worked. We were walking back to our apartment and I felt like we weren't done looking yet. So with our flip flops and vans, dresses, and no phone or anything we left the complex and walked the street HAHA. We passed these two women and started talking. We talked for FOREVER and we finally got to share a message with them and set up a time to meet with them. (2 MORE NEWS) And so we had successfully HIT 40 NEW INVESTIGATORS. (We totalled 42 by the end)
I mentioned to you all that I was struggling to be guided by the spirit, etc. but this week was a HUGE answer to my prayers and a testimony builder. The power of prayer is UNREAL and I was able to witness that a lot this week.
Today we woke up at 6:15 to go hike Tanque Verde Falls and it was so fun! We went with all the sisters in our zone and I loved it. There were so many dogs on the hike HAHA. I love the sisters in my zone and I was happy that we all got to go on a hike together. The pictures look like trash because none of us got ready, so don't mind that HAHA.
Sorry there aren't any funny stories this week, but it was a week of MIRACLES. The subject line explains that anytime we would be out finding, my comp would get hungry or have a feeling we should go by a certain food place to find and anytime we did finding based on when she was hungry we found someone HAHA. It was incredible. She hates me for it, but I think it is so funny. But what I am trying to say is that I know that I would not have experienced and had the opportunity to learn everything that I have so far if it wasn't for this mission. MISSIONS ARE THE BEST! A lot of you have asked me about whether you should go or not, GO. GO GO GO. They are SO much fun and I have loved every second of the past couple weeks. You don't get this experience anywhere else, I will always be so grateful for it.
Have a good week((:
btw: I cannot use Google hangouts unless it is with family now. SO I can still get them from you all, but I will respond to them on emails((: Thank you all for your emails, I am sorry if I haven't responded to them yet!!!
And if you send me your addresses, I will write you a letter. Soooo ya'll get on that. (:
Love,
Sister Cooper
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