Hello, Everybody! I hope everyone has had a good couple of weeks! These past couple of weeks have been long but good! The final week before the transfer, me and Elder Perschon were working hard to get Gabino and Lucas ready for their baptisms! We had to teach them all the things they needed to know before their baptisms! We went over the lessons, explained the commandments to them and explained to them how their baptisms would go down!
Before we were able to get them baptized, we got transfer news! My companion, Elder Perschon, got transferred to my old area (Greenfield/Soledad) while I would be receiving a new companion to train! I was super happy for Elder Perschon and I'm super grateful for the opportunity I had to serve with him! He was a great companion and an even better person! He is going to be an amazing missionary! I was excited/nervous to train a new missionary! I definitely knew it'd be a lot of work due to the language barrier, new environment/new people, the mission being extremely hard the first couple of weeks out, etc.
After saying goodbye to Elder Perschon on transfer day, I was companions with Elder Markham until both of us received our new companions! Elder Markham is a really good guy! We were able to find a couple people and teach some new friends! Some guy even invited us into his house to teach him! He wasn't too interested but he was a nice guy! On top of that, the best part of the day was being to see one of my best friends, ELDER ISAACSON! We were able to meet up a little and hang out at Chick-fil-a before going back go to our areas! After being with Elder Markham for a day and a half (the first day being spent driving him and his stuff up to his new area), I was able to pick up my new companion, Elder Rushforth!
Elder Rushforth is a really cool guy! He's from the D.C area and grew up there! Before coming on his mission, he spent a year at BYU Provo going to school, skiing, etc. He had just come from the Mexico MTC, so he was pretty slumped! The first week together, we really focused on getting Gabino and Lucas ready for their baptisms! Gabino passed his interview pretty easily (he had some struggles with coffee, but he was able to get past it pretty easily) and Lucas passed his interview easily. He had us stressing though because he was interviewed the day of his and Gabino's baptisms (22nd of December) and he showed up late! Luckily, he was able to make it in time and get his interview done before the service!
After the service, he and Gabino were baptized, and it went really well! Elder Perschon was able to come back down and baptize them while Hermano Norlan gave Gabino the Gift of the Holy Ghost while I was able to give Lucas the Gift of the Holy Ghost! It was a super awesome/spiritual experience! I was super happy for them, and it went really well!
After getting them baptized, me and Elder Rushforth begin getting to work! One of our first days together, we were able to go to our mission's Zone Christmas party where we were able to make gingerbread houses, have a devotional, listen to a testimony meeting, and eat with the other missionaries in the mission! Elder Isaacson was there again, so we hung out and talked a bunch; it was a good time!
After doing that, we then went to our ward's Christmas party! It was equally as fun! We got to spend time with Gambino, watched some traditional Mexican dancing routines, and took pictures with Santa and Mrs. Claus! The following day, however, Elder Rushforth got super sick! The night after he was throwing up the whole day, so we had to stay inside most of the day! Elder Rushforth is very similar to me, so I've been able to help him adjust to the mission! It's been pretty difficult for him as it was for me when I was in my first transfer! I've been able to help him talk things out and figure things we could to help him out! He was able to talk to President Larson and figure some things out, too!
Luckily, we had a pretty good Christmas Eve and Day. We were able to celebrate Christmas Eve with the Esquivels and BBQ with them! We were able to invite a couple of our friends, Joel (the cool guy that me and Elder Perschon were able to find) and Saad (a referral we had received! He was from Egypt but grew up with Christianity. He's able to speak English, Spanish, Egyptian, French, and Portuguese fluently which is extremely impressive. He was able to come and celebrate with us which was fun! We were able to teach him throughout the weeks about the Plan of Salvation, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and the Restoration. He really enjoyed our conversations but sadly out of the blue, he ghosted us, so we had to drop him 😔)
To end Christmas Eve night, we watched the Christ Child and shared how Jesus Christ has blessed us throughout our lives! It was honestly one of my favorite Christmas Eves and I'm super grateful for the experience I had! On Christmas day, we were able to talk with our families, made gingerbread houses, and played basketball and pickle ball with our Zone. It was pretty hard being away from my family again on Christmas day, but I'm grateful I'll be able to spend it with them the following year!
After the holidays, we continued teaching our friends trying to get them to progress! We've been having to help Gambino and Lucas as well after their baptisms! On New Years Eve, we had a curfew, so we spent it on a zoom call with the other missionaries in the mission, and we talked about emotional resilience 🤣.
We hit the New Year STRONG! (Also finished my blackout year 🥳) by finding a bunch of new friends! We had to sadly drop a lot of our friends who weren't progressing (Cirilo, Rodolfo, etc.) but we were also able to find a bunch of new friends as well! We've been able to continue to help teach and nurture our friend Edmon who we put on date for the 25th of January! He's our super cool friend from Nicaragua who absolutely loves the gospel already! We just have to teach him a couple more things and get him prepared a little more 😀! We also were able to find a man named Lonjas Lonjas and teach him a couple times in our chapel about the restoration! He's been able to come to church a couple times but has doubts/questions about certain things as his sister-in-law is a Jehovah's Witness; we'll see where we are able to go with him 🤣! We were also able to have a lesson with a man named Johny! He's a cool, super humble man from Nicaragua who's genuinely interesting in learning more! We were able to have a good lesson with him with Bishop!
Another of our really cool friends who we have found throughout the New Year is our friend Alexandria! We were able to meet in our chapel and talk with her about the gospel of Jesus Christ and the importance of accountability! She has grown up Catholic most of her life and wants to get her kids and herself baptized, so we explained to her the importance of authority and accountability. Her kids struggle with some issues, so we were able to help give her comfort! She is super cool and extremely interested in learning more! She's been able to come church and has a desire to continue to learn more! She's had a really hard life so hopefully we are able to help to continue to progress and find peace and joy in the gospel!
Another really cool friend we find, by just knocking doors, is our friend Carlos! He's invited us into his house a couple of times, and we've been able to have really good conversations with him! He asked us how he can serve a mission like us one day! We explained to him how callings and missions work in our church! He's super cool! I'm super excited to continue teaching him! We were also given the responsibility to teach one of the sister's friends named Luis! He's looking for a Community of Christ-minded people and wants to grow closer to Christ through the Gospel! We've only just began teaching him, but I'm excited to see how we can help him progress!
A couple of cool people we've found as well throughout the past couple of weeks are our friends Alma, Maria, and her daughter, Sonia and Carlos (a SUPER cool referral we received: We had a good lesson with them and helped them get to church! We are planning to have a lesson with them soon!) Emily, and of course Jose A.G (who we are still trying to help get baptized)!
On top of all of that, we've been given the task to go visit every single member in our area without callings and try and reactivate them! As you can tell, we've been pretty busy the past couple of weeks with so much work! It's been really good but quite stressful as well because I'm practically teaching and doing everything since my companion is brand new! It's been good though! I'm super happy with our teaching pool and we have so many friends with so much potential!
Some fun/funny things that have happened throughout the weeks include me almost getting attacked by a bunch of dogs, us having to help push a broken car off the side of the street, getting to go to Topgolf and the temple for our P days, visiting our members' dance studio, having to help a member in our ward find his lost ? because one of the English Elder's friends stole it 🤣, I was able to go to the hospital and give a member in our ward a blessing while she was pretty sick (also gave a blessing to some other members in our ward), got into a CRAZY hour-long conversation with some pastor about the silliest arguments, talked to a cool member of Stake High Council about his job at Apple, went to Chick-Fil-a with a bunch of recent converts in our ward, I'm helping a member in our ward with his mission papers, and we had a Zone Blitz where we all go together and ran around a parking lot together! That's about how my past couple of weeks have gone! Ik it's a lot but we've been super busy haha! I'm gonna start doing weekly emails from here on out! See you next week! Elder Copeland
