I was in Paris this past week because they had a big meeting for all of the Zone Leaders and District leaders. My companion's a district leader so we went. And when I was there for legality a few weeks ago, I didn't get to go to the mission home, I've never been to the mission home yet.  The transfer ends next week so my companion will be finished on Wednesday next week. His parents are picking him up and they're going and visiting some cool places he has served in for the week after the transfer, but he won't be a missionary then.  

I haven't eaten anything really cool ever other than that duck... unless you think French cereal is cool.

For language study, its hard to find things to do. I'm still just learning how to speak basic stuff. So what we've been doing lately is watching movies like The Testaments and church stuff like that in French with English or French subtitles. And I also have this book from the MTC that is really helpful. Its like a textbook or workbook, something like that. Its really useful. And another thing to do is to just memorize verbs/words from flashcards. 

That's awesome Kyle's home and that Sam's leaving. I'll find out next week who my new companion will be and if I'm staying or leaving to a new city.

There are a lot of Muslims here. Some of them come up to us and ask about who we are, because we're dressed differently. We tell them that we're missionaries for the church of Jesus Christ and we explain a little bit of what we do. But they're usually never interested in meeting with us. Thats okay though. Have a good week!

When we were in Paris, we stopped by the Louvre just for a second. We didn't go in or anything but I took some pics.

I got the package a couple of days ago, thanks. The deoderant is well needed. I never want to use french deoderant because its disgusting so whenever you send packages, always send some deoderant!!! 

Anyways, when i went to legality in paris i saw a few friends from the MTC, like Elder Eldredge. And we have to go to Paris again this week so maybe we can go see some more cool stuff! I havent seen a mime yet and i want to find that little statue of liberty thats in Paris too. Anyways Orleans doesnt really have any cool things at all to see on Pday. There are lots of castles around but they're all out of our area and it would take all day to go there and back.

The language is fine, i just cant understand people when they talk to me. Its so annoying! But i actually feel better about it than 2 weeks ago. its weird. And in every lesson i share a testimony on whatever it is. We gave some Book of Mormons to two Jehovah Witnesses people the other day haha... No one thinks my name is French. They still cant pronounce it. 

Also, I ate duck a few days ago! It was super good! It tastes like roast beef!

July 15, 2013

On Friday we went to Paris for legality stuff. The train that we were going to go back on had some crash on the tracks or something like that so we couldnt go back home. So for that night we stayed with some missionaries who live in one of the Paris areas. And so the next morning we had lots of free time so we checked out the Notre Dame and Eiffel Tower really quick. Then we got tickets for the train that eventually got us home.  You don't really talk to people on the train but sometimes people talk to us on the bus.

Its been scorching hot the past 2 weeks so theres no need for an umbrella.

And we're supposed to email the president once a week which I do.

And for the Bastille Day thing...  nothing happened at church for it, and later in the evening we went downtown and nothing was there. haha But there were some shops and bands playing by the big river that runs through the city for it. And i heard fireworks go off around 11 at night but I was feeling pretty sick so i just stayed in bed. 

July 1, 2013

Next week I have to go to Paris for some legality stuff so I'll finally be able to see some of Paris...hopefully.

Yeah i saw the broadcast. it was cool. I didnt see hayden but i saw tanner. haha

With Steve, its hard to do anything with him until he can find a job so he can move in to his own apartment so he can come to church. And its hard for members to fellowship him because they dont know english and he doesnt know french.....

I dont have any free time on P day to do anything! We get done with studys at 11 then we have to take the bus which only comes twice an hour to our bus stop to go to the store for shopping and then we have to go to the church for emails or vice versa. So that takes around 5-6 hours to do and then its time for dinner before 6 oclock then Pday is over... And no i havent had to speak in church. 

So in our little house there's this shelf with a ton of Book of Mormons in a lot of different languages, and i was looking through some and i found this one in Norwegian and inside the front cover was this little note. I'll send a picture of it. hahaha

(This is a picture of a family we know.  The little boy in the front on the left was Cooper's Young Men's leader, Steven Ashton).

This week is the transfer week! They havent sent out the email of all of the transfers yet but i'm pretty positive im staying here with Elder Reed. 

After that missionary fireside, hopefully they let missionaries get on facebook soon cause ive been dying to! haha kidding..

A cool story here: We were on the tram that goes around the city and this man comes up to us and starts talking to us, in English! We said he wanted to meet with us sometime to talk about God and so we met with him the next day. He lives in this Evangelical church that is in the basement of this little apartment complex so its pretty small. So we taught him about the Restoration and stuff and he loved it. Then he tells us he was baptized in our church!! Pretty crazy. He told us he's living in that Evangelical church cause the preacher there is letting him stay there for free until he finds an apartment to live in. So thats pretty nice from that preacher. But both of our church meetings are at the same time on Sunday

 and he feels obligated to go to that one because he lives there... haha And Elder Reed and I have noticed its been quite a while since hes gone to church haha. He came to this ward barbeque we had and asked if we had some coffee for him to drink, so its been a while. But he has been baptized and confirmed and is in church records. Anyways, his name is Steve, he's originally from Nigeria but has lived in Spain for the past 8 years. He had to leave Spain because of some economical crisis and he cant get a job so he came to France to look for one. So thats cool. 

Pictures from Cooper's Zone Conference

My companion and I picked out the same ties the very first day of transfers when we were in Paris because you both wear them to zone conference.  Elder Ballard couldn't make our zone conference.  He only stayed in Paris and our conference was in Angers, a different city.  But in September we're going to have a mission conference and Elder Oaks will be there so that will be awesome.  Yes, it is really humid here and I need to get a hair cut soon.  Elder Reed is a good companion.  He helps me with a lot of stuff.  We went to this members house and had a quick little spiritual thought with her.  We later found out that she doesn't go to church a lot, so it was good we visited her.

June 10, 2013

It was another rough week.  No lessons again but we have a lot of member visits this week and we're going to try and have the members help us!  Also, our Zone Conference is this week and that'll be fun!

As for my excercising, I have about 30-45 minutes right when I wake up to do some exercise.  I've been too tired to do anything at that time so I really haven't done much.  But I did go for a nice little jog on Saturday.  No news about the temple here.  It'll be a while still.  As for being called Elder, I got use to that the first day at the MTC!!!  The showers here are normal but the washer and dryer machines are different.  It's weird but I'm used to it now.

French is really hard but I'll try hard to speak French as much as I can.  I live with a native who doesn't know much English at all so that's kind of good.

That's all! c ya
Coop