CHANGE IS A GOOD THING AND UNITY IS KEY

Hm...what to write this week. I never know, sometimes it just all comes to me and sometimes not... But I'll do my best. :)

First off:  Doing fantastic :) working hard, staying busy, time is flying!

Second, before I forget: The Beards :). Basically there was absolutely no reasoning behind them haha! I had been on exchanges for two days and hadn't brought my razor with me so you could really see it coming in. We were heading off to

Are we glad we got an explanation?  Not sure! 

bed when I looked in the mirror and saw it. So what did I do? I decided to color it in so I could see what I would look like with facial hair. I only colored in what I could see, so if I ever grow out my facial hair that's exactly what it'll look like! haha! Well Elder Krebs sees me doing this and decides that he wants to have one as well. So he gives himself one and we have a photo shoot. It was fantastic. We basically looked like mafia men or spies or something :). Oh the things you do on a mission.

Well I guess one theme of this week is I'm really noticing changes! Not only back home but out here too! We had Mission Leader Council this week and it was really good, but really different as well. I'm SO old here! Literally I'm in the

Top 10. The weird part about it is seeing the future leaders rise. You sit there in a meeting where everyone used to be older than you, where all "the greats" of your mission had sat and realize there's only one other missionary in that room

View from the apartment window.  "I know right"

older than you (mission wise). This new group of leaders is going to be great and is going to do awesome things for the mission, the transition is interesting.  Excited to see what they can do though.

On that note of change I just want to bear my testimony on unity. Something else our mission changed recently was Mission Leader Councils. We used to have them only once a transfer, but last transfer the whole mission started having them every other week and it's been fantastic! When we did it here in Rotterdam it made all the difference. I have also gained a testimony of communication, trusting other people with important decisions and the council system. When done properly it works wonders.

The most inspired decision of my mission was made in such a council. We had all these different problems in the zone that were being brought up to the council. As we talked about it we realized if we could fix the biggest problem, all the other problems would solve themselves! So we began to

"This is just another view from my window" 

brainstorm and it all came back to Preach My Gospel. We realized all the answers to our problems were in there and that that book would increase the understanding between us better than any other source. As we realized this the Spirit overwhelmed us all in the room. For the first time since the council was organized all eight of us were in complete agreement and knew exactly what we needed to do. We put together a plan and have been executing it to this day.

The response has been fantastic and ever since it's been working perfectly. The missionaries are becoming better missionaries and the understanding between missionaries and members as increased a TON! I've also seen it on a mission wide level. Last week (the second week after we started this across the mission) the mission had a super good week :). The Lord truly does open up the windows of heaven when we are unified with each other. Something tells me that's going to be a helpful tip in the future.

Well I love you all! Glad to hear things are not only going good but that they are moving forward in a good direction :). Wouldn't want anything else for you guys. Thanks for keeping me updated and for loving me unconditionally! I sure do love you all! Till next week!

Love,

Elder Cooper

P.S. Remind me one day to show you the journal entry for this week, I think that's where all the Spiritual thoughts went this week haha :).

Culture Note: Literally, we've been keeping track, it has rained every single day since Elder Krebs got here- that's 3 whole weeks and counting! Not even little sprinkles either, it's raining hardcore! But that's not the weird part. Usually what happens is it rains super heavily and then a few hours later all the

clouds disappear and the sun shines bright for a few hours until the rain comes back. It's just this one long continuous cycle that keeps on going. Never have I been so grateful for a car as I am now because amidst all this rain and sun we are part of a really funny miracle :). 

It's rained for three weeks straight and me and Elder Krebs have only gotten wet once! "Oh that's cause you have a car!" you say. Yes it is, partially. The weird thing is that more than once we go somewhere to do missionary work, finish, get back in the car dry and then the heavens open and Noah's Flood begins all over again. We've literally been missing the rain by seconds :D. I think it's up there with one of the greatest miracles of my mission hahahaha!