April 29, 2013

Time is weird here. I feel like I've been here forever but it goes really fast though. I only got one or two dearelder letters last week...........They put 3 letters on one actual letter. It was kind of weird. Keep em coming!

 I haven't seen any mice or rats but we plugged up all of the holes in our room so they can't come in! Anyways, send some more potato chips, like Pringles and Doritos, and just a lot of variety of stuff. I have a ton of chocolate stuff, so not too much of that.  Anyways, the shoes I want are the ones that I have in my closet, the silver/gray/green lining ones. Those are really sturdy. I don't know what kind of Eccos I have but I'll email you tomorrow or sometime and let you know.

We all get along really good in my District. And we watch "The District" all the time in class!! I even saw the blonde guy from The District here at the MTC one day! I don't know what he was doing, but it was weird seeing him in real life. Yeah, my P-days are on Monday, but I don't what it'll be in two weeks when I'm gone. 

I'm going to try and figure out how to send a package home so I can send home some shoes, the bed sheets and other stuff I don't want. I'll get to it eventually.

 The baby looks just like a regular baby... And Chase is wearing the same Orem hat, shirt, and blue shorts in that picture I bet. 

I thought the Nuggets were really good! Oh well, the Warriors are really good too. Good thing the Jazz weren't in the playoffs. They really don't belong, as I can tell by seeing how the Spurs and OKC are doing. Since OKC doesn't have Westbrook and the Nuggets are going to get beat, I think it'll be Clippers/Spurs in the conference finals. I have the Spurs beating them easily, like 4-1.

About the volleyball team, it seems like they're always #1 and projected to win it all. But they always fail. Maybe it'll finally change. One of the nights here I saw a ton of stadium lights on at BYU somewhere. I think it was a baseball game.

Funny story. I was at the temple in the locker room when Bro. Gammett walked right past me! He didn't even notice me!! I didn't stop to talk to him so don't tell him that I saw him. haha.

That's nice about Austin and Shanae. I'll see them soon! I'm probably going to be one of the "host" missionaries this week for when the new missionaries come in on Wednesday. That'll be cool. I'm going to try and do it this week and next week so I can see everybody I know come in.

I'm guessing Will will go to Asia somewhere. Speaking Mandarin. The missionary from Thailand tells me about Asia a lot, when I ask. Sounds really cool. He's ridden elephants!

Good thing McRae and Travis are moving in so they can take care of Ziggy!!!

Yeah I can go out on to the field now. One lap on the field running is a half mile so I run a lot. They actually just opened up the field last week. When we go to France, I heard this rumor that they send all the new missionaries to Belgium first because they speak clearer and better French there.

I told Chase this, but one of the missionaries in my district is from Thailand, and Thailand is home of the killer Goonch fish!!! I asked him about it and he's seen one. Actually, he's eaten one! that was funny.

see ya,

Coop

April 23, 2013

     That's cool about the baby. You can send pictures to me because my email is connected to gmail so it's basically just another gmail account. When I was in San Francisco the person driving us around was just some Philippino guy who works at the airport. hahaha he said he drives around the missionaries doing the same thing every week for about 20 years! haha. 

     About the French............ teaching a lesson (more specifically the Restoration) isn't that hard at all but actually going around speaking it just everyday use is hard. My teacher who just came back from that mission is really weird... He's an odd guy. But kind of cool. He said the mission president is really cool so at least that’s good news.  We have two 3-hour classes a day, 1 session with one teacher and the other with another teacher. Then for most of the day we're supposed to study but it's hard to because there isn't really anything to study other than memorizing phrases which is kind of useless. But I've been trying to work on memorizing verbs and all the different tenses.

     I hate the bunk beds. I'm on the top and it's freezing every morning so my throat hurts really bad for half of the day. And last night, some guys saw a rat running around so that  freaked me out last night and yes the 6 of us all are in the same room........... 

     Please tell grandma happy birthday from me. I don't have time to write her an email. Sorry.

     My mission is in like 2 or 3 branches. The French speaking missionaries going to Canada and African islands are in the branches also. I'd say there are about 50 people in a branch. During our "Gym Time" (1 hour every day) I play basketball and run laps. But the basketball gets boring really fast because of dumb rules and so I just go run on the "track." The track is 10 laps to a mile, which is terrible. But I ran 30 laps yesterday. It was miserable.  

     On P-day we do laundry and that's about it. At 4 we have to go do "service" which is setting up chairs for the weekly Tuesday night devotional. So that cuts my P-day short unfortunately. Also, I'm not supposed to tell you when I go to the temple but we have a scheduled temple time we go on a certain day of week........................it's P-day. Hahahaha

     That’s good news about Ziggy (the football player and the dog) and McRae and Travis. By the way, dearelder.com is super easy. Every one in my district gets like 5 dearelder letters a day........just saying.....

Anyways, Bye. c ya.

Coop

April 17, 2013

Hey,

 

I went to San Francisco on Tuesday. I didn't go with any of the Elders in my district though. I'm actually really lucky and blessed to be with the people in my district. They're really cool. I'm scared for when we leave that we'll be with other people hahaha these guys are my good friends now!

 

When we were driving to airport, we drove on University Parkway... We went past Kohls, the mall, Yogurtland, Hillcrest, (and for Chase) Dicks and Big 5.... 

 

When I was at the airport I saw the news about the Marathon. How terrible. On another note, I also talked to this random guy there and he works for the church (what a coincidence) and he said that in a month or two they've set up a system so they can transport missionaries from the MTC to the airport by using Trax. Like how Camron goes to work. That's cool.

 

So I'm trying to remember all of the questions mom/dad/maren/chase/everyone else asked me in the letters. Here it goes.

 

Elder Ganjanakrit (guy from Thailand) was baptized in 2000. He was 12 years old. His parents and brother got baptized also but his brother isn't very active now. His ancestry is mostly from China. So he's mostly Chinese. He teaches all of us Thai and Mandarin. I know how to say hi, bye, thank you, and banana. Funny story...... The word for banana in Thai is "gway." But if you say it any other way like guoay, wooay, way, goooway, it means elephant nuts..... haha So in class Elder Eldredge said really loud and clear, "I like to eat gway!" But he said it the other way and Ganjanakrit started laughing really loud and we all were laughing and it was hilarious.

Another thing about Ganjanakrit, He also has graduated from college! That's weird. He graduated with a degree in business. 

One last thing, and the most important................... I've already told you in a letter, but........ use DearElder.com to write me whenever you want!!!!!!!!

It's super fast, easy, and convenient. Just search for me then write me a letter. You can send as many as you want. I get the letters after Lunch and Dinner

everyday!!! So you can send me a letter just telling me about the day, everyday! And anyone can use it!

 

I also found out my ending date for when I'm done being a missionary and come home: March 17, 2015... I dont know why they told us that now, but whatever.

 

Well, see ya. Love, Coop

 

P.S. What happened with the Jazz? I hope they didn't make it. If they did, they're just going to get swept by the Thunder.

April 9, 2013

Hey,

 

So this is my email I'm using now. I'll send emails and pics and stuff through this email every week. But like I said in my letter, I'm not going to send pics until I'm out of here. You only get 30 minutes of computer time on your P-day, and there are only about 10 computers throughout the whole MTC that can actually upload pics (which takes about 15 minutes to do), and it is always packed with people in there so I just won't send any pics yet. And there aren't really anything to take pictures of anyways....

 

Anyways, my companions name is Elder Turley. He's from Tremonton, Utah, and he's 19 and goes to Utah State. He's pretty cool. We get along well. Elder Eldredge is in my district too, like I said in the letter, and he's really funny. There's also Elder Stucki, from AF, and Elder Bates, from West Point, Utah. We're all 19 except for Elder Ganjanakrit, who is 25... He's from Thailand. He teaches us Thai all the "thaim." We all get along really well, surprisingly. There are also 5 girls in our district too. One's from California somewhere but moved to Utah a few months ago, one's from Highland, one's from AF, one's from Alpine, and one is from Alaska. She tells us about Alaska all the time and how awesome it is. She said that during the summer the sun is up for about 22 hours. And during the winter the sunrise is at 10:30am and the sunset is at 3:30pm. That would be miserable. And the one girl from Alpine said she knows our cousin Sierra by the way.

 

So, cool story from Sunday. There was the weekly Sunday devotional here at night but the speaker was actually Vocal Point! You know, the acapella group from BYU. They all sang hymns and some of them talked about their missions as well. It was pretty cool.

 

French is really hard. It's hard for me to memorize all of the phrases but I'm still trying! Also, I don't feel like our teacher is teaching us that well either........ But she told us a disgusting story though. She went to France on her mission also and she said that before she left the MTC, they all had to have a physical. But instead of a urine test, they had a poop test... Weird. She also told us that her companion at the MTC was Elizabeth Smart. So I guess that's her claim to fame.

 

So we have to teach this "investigator" totally in French every so often and it's really hard, obviously. So yesterday Me and Elder Turley were teaching him about prayer, but ironically we forgot to say an opening prayer. hahahaha

 

Another thing, some people in our district have gotten their itinerarys to fly to San Francisco this Thursday to get their visas. Apparently the French embassy is there.  I haven't gotten anything yet but I probably will soon. So I guess i'll be in San Francisco this Thursday. I'll take some pics there I guess. And hopefully we can get tickets to a Giants game... jk.

 

Any surprising news from Orem? What about the Final Four? I'm guessing Lousiville beat Michigan in the championship. Also if anybody is preparing for a mission, tell them to start memorizing the Purpose for missionaries in Preach my Gospel in English and whatever other language they're going to speak, as well as the First Vision from JSH 1: 16-17. You definitely need to know that.

 

Also, the food here is not that good... It's just normal cafeteria food from BYU.. and they have Creamery ice cream also, but it's not that good either.

One more thing, if you can send a bottle of body wash. The bar of soap will not last long at all! Body wash would be way more helpful.

 

Well, my 30 minutes are up. See ya!

 

Love, Coop