ACTIONS SPEAK LOUDER THAN WORDS

Dear Family,

Not exactly sure what this e-mail's going to be like, I'm just SO full of so many emotions right now. I know Heavenly Father is helping to make me even stronger. It sure does make you a lot more sensitive to things.

Just from reading your e-mail, looking back on my life, etc. I’m literally overwhelmed with gratitude. Words cannot describe the joy and gratitude I feel right now; no, only actions can express that.

That's something I've really learned about myself in Rotterdam. The last two companions I've had have been experts in the gospel. They know the scriptures, they know the doctrine, and they can preach it with power and conviction to the convincing of every soul. Quite honestly that will never be a natural talent of mine, but I can improve, as always. I guess I'm more of just a basic principles guy. I have taken the opportunity to learn as much as I possibly can from them, they are great missionaries, but I also need to not feel bad about where I come from, and my stance. I may not be a scholar, in many people's eyes, I may not always have the gift of speech or preaching, but I have the gift of action.

The gospel has never been just words, ideas or concepts to me, it's a way of life. The best life. The only way to live if you truly understand it. Especially out here on a mission the tendency I have had to take what I learn and do something about it has increased (I don't even know if I had that before but it's a REALLY big part of who I am now). When other are talking The Spirit usually whispers to me what I need to do because of it. That's my lot in life: to do.

Neither of us is better than the other. Both sides are needed. He who can preach the gospel and he who can live it. And as we learn from each other by listening and watching we can one day reach that balance that will allow us to both be with our families forever in the Celestial Kingdom. So in the end who's the real winner? We both are, so there's no problem. 

I now have a belief and understand when they say that any righteous young man and young woman can make a marriage work. I may not be experiencing marriage, but I'm comparing it to the closest thing I've got. Elder K and I have very little in common from a worldly standpoint. So how does it work? It works because we are united in our goal. We both want to give our everything to help the zone see success and we both have a testimony of this church. When me and Elder K are working, we are working and we work together well. We are able to push aside the things of the world and do the work given to us, balancing each other where needed. 

It's a really interesting dynamic and I'm convinced, for me, I need to marry someone with common interests now but I am also convinced any two righteous people can make a marriage work, they just have to be willing to work their tails off. And that's where the difference is- with some people it will come naturally and with some you'd have to work your entire life to stay together. That's why we date, so we can find what we want, what is best for us and quite honestly what works. Neither is better than the other, they're merely different. However they revolve around the same principles- hard work and a unified goal/vision for the future. 

A great example of this was Zone Training. It went REALLY well, exactly like we had hoped. We tried to take this one away from the spectacle that they had become, or the 2 hours straight of listening to someone talking and instead we focused on the 'training' part, like it's should be. We spent the majority of the 4 hours given to us training with the missionaries. We did a ton of role-plays and having the others actually work things out with others. Super interactive and super effective!  Again another increaser of my testimony of action! As they put the principles into practice during the training they gained testimonies of planning for their lessons better. Focusing personal study on investigators, coordinating during companionship study, etc. We heard of a lot of miracles that have come from this. If nothing else we are all more confident in giving lessons and we are teaching with more clarity and power than ever before. I love this zone! :)

I seriously have grown SO much in this place it's indescribable. I will forever be grateful for Rotterdam and the lessons it's taught me, the person it's made me. Rotterdam made me stand up and be a big boy. I am who I am and I'm trying to make that better. Punt. Thanks experiences here I am more solid in who I am and am learning to be more firm in standing up for my beliefs and sticking up for myself. It's a work in progress, but I'll get there. 

Definitely not the easiest week, but I've learn a lot and it's going to be more valuable than gold to me in the walk of time, that I know.

I love you all SOOOO much! You have no idea how happy it makes me when I read e-mails and I see how you're all progressing SO much! You are all SOOO amazing I can hardly believe it! Promise me now that we always stick together. Together we are an unstoppable force! And I honestly couldn't do it without a single one of you. I need you all specifically, just as we all need each other specifically. That's why we've been put together right? :)

LOVE YOU ALL!!!

Elder Cooper 

Reporting to you live from Gotham City

Culture Note: Gas. O mij hemel. This is for everyone in America who complains about gas prices. I've just been driving around dropping between 50 or 75 euros per fill up not really thinking anything about it aside from "Yeah, it's a little pricier than Utah but no biggie." NO. We decided to convert the numbers yesterday and it blew. my. mind. Do you realize how blessed we are in America? What do we pay there? 3-5 dollars per gallon? (Haven't been there for awhile maybe it's different). According to our calculations here in Nederland gas is 10 dollars per gallon!!! We spend nearly 100 dollars every time we fill up!!! That's crazy! So yeah, this week I'm feeling very grateful for where I live and having a bit more compassion towards why we only have about 10 cars in this mission...

Sister Brown just arrived home!  It's amazing the friendships formed
on missions.  These two served in Almere together.  (taken at the
conference with Elder Ballard.  Thank you for the picture Sister Brown!)

AGING, A NOT SO PRETTY PROCESS :)

 Let me just say, I love reading my e-mails about home life. Every time I read it I feel like I'm home for 7 or so minutes :). 

Remember how I mentioned a mission is like a mini-life? Hee hee, I'm getting to experience the 80-death section right now. I am SO TIRED! Not only sometimes, like all the time.  On top of that, my memory and ability to

Back in the day :) 

comprehend is fading fast and I don't know why! :( I think this is what it must feel like to be old. Your whole life if there's something wrong with you you can just change or fix it and simply move on, but apparently not at this age. When your body just simply starts failing, when you just literally cannot remember things or when someone can say a sentence to you three times and it still makes just as much sense (which is none) while you pretend you got it cause you don't want to feel dumb.) I wish SO bad that I was talking about Dutch right here, but I'm talking about English hahaha! I sometimes literally don't understand English! Not only that but I just say weird things all the time and get my words confused and then we're all laughing cause half the time I'm speaking straight up nonsense. I've officially earned the nickname 'Grandpa Cooper' out here haha :D. At least I can laugh through most of it though right? 

I've learned the importance of listening to your elders. They have SO much to share! I mean I know this is only a 2 year thing, but bear with me. I've been working out here non-stop for nearly two years. I've seen a lot. I've experienced a lot. I've got a lot of good advice and counsel stored up in this brain of mine. Yet nobody asks to listen except for those furthest from you. I wonder if that is how it begins to feel as we age? or how a parent feels with a teenager that could benefit from counsel, but has to learn for themselves? 

That's why I made a resolve on my mission to take every opportunity I can to sit at the feet of those much older than me and learn from them. Ask their stories, seek their counsel, apply it in my life, there's SO MANY valuable things that they say! And I'm not even talking about me anymore. I'm referring to those who have

wisdom, for example, this amazing 72 year old man in our ward here. We go over there every other Sunday and I just suck it all in. He loves to talk and share his life

experiences and what he's learned, so I bring a pen and paper and take as many notes as I can because the things he says are brilliant! At least the things he says which the Spirit points out to me are, there gonna change my life. That's why I'm super excited for California trips and why I get sad that Grandma and Grandpa Cooper passed away while I have been here. I had SO much more to learn from them :(. But I'll get to listen to them on the other side right? So it'll be ok. And for now I've got Grandma and Grandpa Green who's knowledge is valuable and desirable. I can't wait. 

                                                 

Vlissingen

Almere

Almere

Now don't think that I just want my way.  In a good companionship it's never just my way or his way, when either of us come to the other with ideas, the other one listens, then we discuss and we NEVER let the other one feel stupid or like their idea was stupid. So sometimes my ideas are stupid :), but a good companion will listen, and after talking it out make the switch together. It should never feel like one is trying to convert the other completely to the others side, but a companionship should get there

Sint-Niklaas

together. This luxury I have experienced a few times out here. Companions should be able to have the ability to talk, to compromise, and come up with unified plans.  It's not always easy, but it's worth it to try. 

Sint-Niklaas

Alkmaar

Alkmaar

Rotterdam

Rotterdam

I was thinking and I realized it has a lot to do with how we process things, and learning to make it work. For example, Elder Krebs is a great missionary and when we're on exchanges and doing the work we do it fantastically together, but we are very different.  In an area where he is apathetic I'll be sympathetic. In an area where I'm nonsensical and inefficient he is on the ball and efficient. Where he gets results, I produce encouragement and moral boosts. He's a sports guy and an engineer, I'm a artsy person and a thinker, we're simply different.  Different is good though, even great when you learn to work together. We are both hard workers and we both love the work, so it's great.

As for other things in the mission:

Rotterdam actually has two wards :). It's literally one of the only cities (possibly the only one) with that. Most everywhere it's one unit per city at the most. The church is very developed down here but they still struggle with the same things every ward does and of course have their own personal challenges as well (just like everyone). Mission-wise it is very different from the rest of the mission, I mean we're in one of the most diverse cities in the world! When we're working in the area that's assigned to us we talk with very few Nederlanders, but they're still there. 

 It's gonna be a busy transfer. We've got Zone Training, Temple Conference in October, tons of exchanges, my last mission leader council, it's going to be "go, go, go" right to the very end and I couldn't be happier about that! I'm gonna finish this thing up strong and do it right!

Thank you all SO much for loving me, for caring for me and for listening to me and valuing me :). It means the world to me now, cause you don't get that in the world. At least not like you do at home. Good luck with everything this week! I'll be thinking and praying for you!

LOVE YOU!!!

Elder Cooper

Culture Note: Nederlanders are green people! They are very eco-friendly and not only as a government initiative, most of them are truly behind it too. As such here in Rotterdam there's this really interesting thing called a 'millieau zone' or something like that. Basically if you drive a car that's older than a certain year through it you can get a ticket because something about that year changed how cars exhaust is or something like that. Then you'll get things like tickets if you throw away paper or batteries, you just have to recycle everything. Even being out here nearly two years it's still an adjustment. :) 

AND IT STAYS THE SAME!

Transfer Week!

Seeing as you are all probably wondering where I'll be for the next six weeks I'll start off with it. I will be staying in Rotterdam South for another transfer! That means total I'm going to have spent 6 months of my mission in Rotterdam- that's 1/4 of my entire mission! Guess it's a good thing I love this place then huh? I do love this place now, just so you know. It's really grown on me. And with Elder Krebs it's great cause we work hard, are on the same page and we just get things done! I love that. And since this basically is my Gotham, I kind of want to use the trams a lot more this transfer. Usually we're always in the car, but if I'm going to spend 6 months in one city I wanna know it inside and out. In the car as well as on the streets. 

Now this one will probably lose me some friends...but I think I have to be a Feyenoord fan...I mean I've spent a ton of time here and only went on exchanges to Amsterdam...I'd feel like a traitor if I was an Ajax fan. For everyone offend by this, I beg your forgiveness and you're always welcome to try and convert me back ;). (Gotta love missionary logic for choosing soccer teams haha!)

 For everyone who doesn't know what that was all about- Feyenoord is the biggest soccer team in Rotterdam and has a huge rivalry with Ajax. People here LOVE their soccer with their entire souls :). You literally cannot serve in Europe and not become a huge soccer fan after, I feel like that's impossible. So I had to take sides eventually, and we as missionaries choose our favorite teams based on the cities we serve in which means when I can I'm also rooting for AZ and Lokeren :).

As I have looked back I realized I haven't really talked a whole lot about what goes on from day to day here on the mission, but I also believe that's why other elders hate e-mailing and why they are most of the time so short. We do the same thing every day! Every week as well! If we were just to report on the chronological happenings of our weeks we would hate writing! It would just be explaining the same things over and over and over again. Church Sunday, numbers at the end of the night, P-day, District Meeting (sometimes with an exchange after), exchanges, contacting, looking up old and potential investigators, filling out the Area Book, riding bikes, buses, trains and trams everywhere, and then rinse and repeat. For leaders it's a little different but not much. For us all those work days are just exchanges. Spent the whole week on those and it was great :) but I'd much rather talk about the things I learned this week, the spiritual experiences I've had, the spiritual knowledge I've gained and mainly just talk about what's on my mind at the time. That's how I've always written my e-mails, or at least how I've learned to write them.

That leaves the question- so Elder Cooper, what's on your mind today? Lots of stuff actually, but we'll see what comes out.

Utah is a very big part of what helped make me me and I wouldn't be where I am today without it. One of my biggest

Back in the day my trainer helped me realize that I
should be grateful for Utah

pet peeves of this day is anti-Utah conversations, because I know how destructive it was to my soul (I was so negative about living there) and how often it carried me away, one step closer to the edge. But I don't engage in those conversations any more. I could try to defend it, and probably should but the spirit of contention is of the devil and if there's anything I've learned within the past few weeks it's that anything said with negative intentions takes the Spirit away and nobody is uplifted. And like Elder Halstrom explained to us on Thursday, if you try and instruct without simultaneously uplifting and inspiring it is all in vain and nobody learns. 

Now that was a cool experience. Elders Dyches, Halstrom and Ballard came to the Netherlands on Thursday to talk to us as a mission and later to the Den Haag Stake (The Hague).

It was a really good conference and we learned a lot of things from them, but you know what the great part is? It's still the same spirit. There is definite power and authority that came from Elder Ballard. You could literally feel it when he came in the room and it just descended like a calming blanket on my nervous soul. He delivered a powerful message according to the Spirit and instructed us on how to be better missionaries, yet everything I learned that day doesn't compare to the lesson Heavenly Father had me learn from it. 

It just felt the same. We were still learning from the Spirit. Even though it was an apostle of the Lord speaking to us I have felt that same confirming spirit radiating from passionate district leaders, caring companions and loving bishops. It doesn't matter who is speaking, if they are speaking with the Spirit and their words penetrate your heart then it is Heavenly Father speaking directly to you. I saw this especially in what Elder Ballard did after he was finished speaking, he turned the time back over to President Robinson! Now normally that is against all policy. After the presiding authority speaks no one else can speak and the meeting ends, yet Elder Ballard turned the time over to President Robinson and left the building. In other words this example confirmed what the Spirit had taught me, President Robinson's words were just as important, just as valuable and inspired as were Elder Ballard's, because it is the same Spirit, it is the same Heavenly Father and whether it "is by [His] voice or by the voice of [His] servants it is the same". 

One last thing I learned this week about standing up for what we believe in. You always picture it as these clearly defined moments where you see or hear something you're against and you do something about it (usually accompanied by dramatic music or a speaker). Now that's basically what it is but what I learned is that these moments kind of sneak up on you. Twice this week I ran into this and it's only now looking back on these experiences that I realized I didn't stand up for what I believed in. Not because I was too scared and not because my beliefs were shaken, simply because I didn't realize it was a moment where I needed to be standing up! It snuck right by! Only after those moments where I could look back I realized I shouldn't have just been involved in those situations but I should have said something. Turns out recognizing the moment is half of the battle, especially when it's amongst friends and allies, the last people in the world who you'd expect to have to "stand up" around. So I'm working on it. :)  

Life is good, the mission is good and we are truly seeing success! In fact more than this mission has seen in at least a year! Truly this is a blessed time to be a missionary and to become converted to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

LOVE YOU ALL! Hope everything keeps going well! Thanks for always being there for me and for loving me enough to listen to me vent, be excited and all those other roller coaster emotions I go through. Sure couldn't do this (or eternity) without you guys!

LOVE YOU!

Elder Cooper  

LESSONS LEARNED

You know what I just decided I really like? When people I love succeed :). I just get so excited! I wish we could all just succeed all the time, but I guess we wouldn't learn anything that way huh?

So I had this really weird moment last night in my nightly prayers. As they tend to do in my nightly prayers my thoughts began to wander and things just kept piling up. Do you ever have those moments where you feel the whole world piling up on your shoulders? Cause I do. I just started realizing

everything I want to do, the time periods I'll have to do it in, the practicality of it all, the lack of memory in my brain to remember to do these things, etc. Balancing life just sounded really hard last night and kind of stressed me out.

Eventually I realized, "Well this isn't a prayer anymore." and just got in bed to continue my actual prayer. The Lord was able to bless me with peace and rest as I just tried to forget about it all and take it one step at a time. Step one: get to sleep. So I did :). I love when prayers are answered. 

But still there's just SO many people to reach and SO little time! It's impossible for one man to do it all, really. If one tries they'll get overwhelmed super fast. I just glance at all the people who have come into my sphere of influence on a mission alone and I want to pass out. I know a lot of these people need me, but I also need others. Interesting how that works. 

Aside from that it was a good, but normal week. One highlight was our lesson with T, a recent convert, and his fiance. They took us to the beach for dinner and a lesson and it was

amazing. I never realized how busy Rotterdam was until that moment. Rotterdam is always moving, there's always noise or buildings or smells; your senses are being constantly attacked. But then we sat on the beach and there was just peace. People laughing, playing, not too warm not too cold, the Spirit was able to speak to us SO strongly! It was really good for my soul as well as theirs. We talked about life as a new member, struggles we all go through and just chatted. Ah, one of the best nights. We all needed that.

You know I think we all need that now and again. Moments where you can be relaxed, in good company or alone, where you can let your guards down and be safe, where you can just let all of your cares wash away to the sounds of crashing waves. Yeah...I like that idea.

Haha :) I'm looking at this e-mail and I guess this whole being asked to watch over a group of people, well I take it very seriously. You can run yourself to the ground worrying about them but if you don't then they ask you to watch over more

cause you can take it. I'm starting to understand why the leaders of the church here are exhausted. Every worthy active man in most of the churches here has a calling and they just keep on getting them cause we need them, but I can't imagine doing this the rest of my life! Whew! I'm kind of just prepping for being exhausted the rest of my life haha! Even if you don't have an extra calling we ALL have home teaching and visiting teaching, and quite honestly that's more important than all the rest of the callings in the church put together!

I am convinced that a church grows and functions well when home teaching gets done/when the members are cared for. Those heavy responsibilities I've mentioned above? Those aren't necessary if everyone will but do what they are asked and fulfill their home and visiting teaching assignments. I think I'm going to start working under the assumption that everyone is a valiant home or visiting teacher because that makes my soul feel better. Imagine if that was the case? Everyone would be taken care of. We would never have to worry about people being alone or not taken care of because at very least they have their home teachers and if anything goes amiss they can let us know and focus on helping them. In that world individuals don't have to put the world on their shoulders, cause we all carry each others burdens.

That's the purpose of home teaching. That's the promise we

made at baptism, and now I'm starting to see why! It's one of the ways in which the Lord helps us keep our Baptismal Covenant to "mourn with those that mourn" and "comfort those who stand in need of comfort". I've seen it a million times the other way. Without such a beautiful idea being executed relationships crumble, inactivity sky rockets and churches decay. And I know I can't change the world, but I can at least change myself; and do a little better every day.

Despite how it may sound sometimes, things are going great here. I've never worked harder in my life and have never found more fulfillment or happiness in the work than the Lord has blessed me with in Rotterdam. This place has, like all my other cities, turned into a very special place for me, and taught me. It's the place I learned to love the work.

That just seems like such a good place to end it I couldn't keep going haha! But I love you all!!! SO happy everything is going good right now so remember to be thankful everyday.

LOVE YOU ALL!

Elder Cooper the First (haha, always wanted to say that)

Cultural Note: Guess I'll do a language one today :). When you speak Dutch there's this really difficult rule that forces you to completely rearrange the way you think and organize your thoughts! There are exceptions, but for the most part you can only use one verb normally. After you use one verb the rest of them have to go to the end of the sentence (unless there's a conjunction or question word used). It's really interesting to speak because when you talk you have to have everything you want to say already planned in your head so you can put it in between the two verbs. Whereas in english a lot of the times I knew the verbs but I wasn't sure about the rest. It's really helped me think about what I'm saying before I say it. Probably why the Dutch have learned to just straight up say exactly what's on their mind :).

"...TO ACT FOR THEMSELVES AND NOT TO BE ACTED UPON..."

Wow we just had a busy week!

With the wonderful sister missionaries! (Thanks for
the picture Sister Anjewierden)

To summarize it all we had exchanges on Tuesday, Zone Conference on Wednesday, more exchanges on Thursday and Friday and Joint Teach Day with the sisters on Saturday. SUCH a productive week! 

It was one of those weeks where you don't necessarily learn a lot but instead one where all that learning is put into action and you make something happen. I was reading again in "The Teachings of Brigham Young" and again I LOVED it! He just has a way of putting into words what I've always believed but never knew how to say and never had anything to really back me up before. Anyway in chapter 3 he talks a lot about action, which is a topic I'm very fond of, and in it he says, "Our religion is not merely theory; it is practical religion, to bring present enjoyment to every heart." So I guess this week was really good for me :). Put everything into practice and now I have joy in my heart.

I have a very strong testimony of action. Not exactly where that came about, can't remember if I had it back home or if it got developed out here but man I'm passionate about it now! As everyone very well knows- I love Batman. In the movie "Batman Begins" he gave me another reason to love him, namely this quote: "It's not who I am underneath, but what I do that defines me." I know a lot of people have a problem with this quote, but I love it. And so does Brigham Young, "Every act is first a temporal act." How did I get there? With what I've always lived by and what you taught me- many times the action will precede the feeling behind it.

On rare occasions we can get that desire to do something right first and then we act on it, but it doesn't really work that way for me. For me personally I have to start acting first before I desire to do it and I attribute that idea to how I've reached this point in my mission. Don't like contacting? Go out and do it while simultaneously trying to figure out how to like it. If you don't like doing it and you continue to focus on why you don't like something then nothing is going to change. But if you go at it with an attitude of learning to like it, then miracles happen. After a lot of time, you'll find the activity or commandment a huge blessing or privilege instead of a forced requirement or restriction.

Enge Beaver

Action also supplies us with protection and guidance. Brigham Young said, "Every individual that lives according to the laws that the Lord has given to his people, and has received the blessings that he has in store for the faithful, should be able to know the things of God from the things which are not of God." It's just the most beautiful gift ever! And really looking at it can't we replace action with free agency? If not they are at least inseparably bound together. NO WONDER we fought so hard to protect our agency in the Pre-mortal Existence!

Woah...that was cool :). I love getting inspiration as I write. Reminds me of one of the things I wanted to say actually. I was sitting in sacrament meeting yesterday and my thoughts were brought to Zion. I realized that Zion was a city, something a lot smaller than I was picturing. Then I thought of one of the smallest groups of people for a comparison and I thought of a neighborhood, specifically our neighborhood. Can you imagine if we as a neighborhood established that amongst ourselves/if that was how we all acted?! I love the image that comes to mind, so I think I'll continue to picture Zion like that for a while. And it all starts with doing something. No longer waiting to see what someone is going to do for you, but instead being preoccupied with doing something for someone else. Whether that be someone in the family or your neighbor doesn't matter. The more we serve others the more things fall into place and the more joy we find in life :). Least that's what I've seen. But never forget to take care of yourself! You can't save someone who is drowning if you don't have the strength to swim!

"I'm happy for my friends of all religions" 

Speaking of water- the rain has semi-stopped. One of the days this week the sun stayed out, but for the most part the sky is still trying to drown us. Hypothetically it should be getting colder from here on out, but the coldest months in the Netherlands are around February so I should be good for a while.

My companion is still fantastic and I'm loving my time with him :). We have a good pattern going on and we just balance each other out really nicely well bouncing off each other. This week we found two potential investigators! Legit ones! I was SO stoked to teach them. I haven't found a potential investigator in my own city in 5 transfers (so since February)! We've been given referrals and members have brought others to us, but as for finding through door knocking and street contacting that's true, or maybe I've just forgotten. Either way it's been at least 2 and I'm really excited to start teaching them. :) Especially this one lady. 

She was SUPER friendly and a lot of what she already believed matched up with the church. By the end of the conversation she looks at us and says, "After talking to you two, I feel like I'm missing something." So we set up an appointment with her. We had to reschedule it but hopefully it will be sometime soon!

Last thing for the day, yesterday was a very special day for

me. We were sitting in church, the gospel principles class,

The four of us who are still home

and we were talking about families and eternal marriages. The Spirit came over me SUPER strong and I remember just how much I miss my brothers! Not only that but I just miss you guys SO much! Luckily not in a bad way, it was actually a really spiritually up-building moment. 

Elder Cooper's brother,
currently serving in Romania

We teach investigators out here that "Because families are ordained of God, they are the most important social unit in time and in eternity. God has established families to bring happiness to His children, allow them to learn correct principles in a loving atmosphere, and prepare them for eternal life. The home is the best place to teach, learn, and apply principles of the gospel of Jesus Christ. A home established on gospel principles will be a place of refuge and safety. It will be a place where the Spirit of the Lord can abide, blessing family members with peace, joy, and happiness. "

  

That is SO true with our family! Everything I've ever learned, all my biggest lessons were learned there. Not only from the teaching but from what we did with each other. Merely from spending time with my brothers and playing with them I learned lessons like patience, how to lead councils, organization, the importance of making a plan and to put aside the things I really wanted to do to ensure that we all had a good time. Joy comes quicker when everyone is happy. 

These 3 playing their toys "practicing" so they
are ready to play with Elder Cooper.
He is their hero.

I value those memories and those lessons SO much. Memories I have of just going through life with you all teach me SO much. Both you and Dad never judging me, but love me unconditionally. The way you raised me has taught me of the love of God and of how He raises us here on earth.

So yeah, I am grateful for families. I cannot WAIT to get back to mine :)! But for now I help others get back to theirs and I finish my work here, cause I'm not done. There's still a lot left to do.

Love you all! I LOVED hearing about everything that's changing :) You're all growing up so fast! I can't wait to remeet everybody.Sam, Cody, Dallin SOOOO proud of you :). 

LOVE YOU ALL!!!

Elder Jonathon Cooper

Culture Note: Moving in the Netherlands is a PAIN! Especially if you're living in an apartment. See here in the Netherlands you are required by law, once you leave a residence, to strip it completely bare! Now this may just be for apartments but the idea is you need to rip out the flooring, tear off the wallpaper, everything has to go. Then the person or family who moves in has to redo everything. Great if the previous owner wrecked the place, but otherwise kind of just a pain. 

Mission Leadership Council (picture from the mission blog)