Welp!
Once again sorry for the long email. Idk how but another week just flew by. I feel like all I do is go to bed and wake up. The days just fly by here. Some days it doesn't feel real to me that I am on a mission and that I won't go home for another 17 months.
Once again sorry for the long email. Idk how but another week just flew by. I feel like all I do is go to bed and wake up. The days just fly by here. Some days it doesn't feel real to me that I am on a mission and that I won't go home for another 17 months.
I am still happy as ever in St. John's. This area has so much potential. We just need to find the best way to ignite it. My companion and I are doing our best. We've noticed that the best way to love people and share the gospel here in St. John's... is to serve them.
On Tuesdays and Saturdays, we go to Starling. Starling is a senior living care facility. We go and help all the seniors write their life stories down and eventually make their stories into a big book. We are working with Lowell and Betty right now. Lowell was a business professor at University of Florida, so he is very particular on how he wants his stories written. He looks over each page 6 times before we can move on. Lowell has Parkinson s disease. Not gonna lie, there are times where I literally think I am going to have to catch him before he falls off of his chair. It breaks my heart.
Betty is the sweetest lady you will ever meet. She is 94 and she continually has to ask us to remind her how old she is. Man, I just love her. I don't think I have ever been told so many times about how beautiful I am. Her book is only about 20 pages long (which is super short compared to Lowell's). She can't remember much so when she does remember, we have to have our pens and paper ready to write down everything as fast as we can because she won't be able to repeat what she just said. After finishing her book, she made Sister Johnson and me these yarn pumpkins. Awe, she just melts my heart. I love going to Starling. They are my favorite days of the week.
The other service we do is we go to Jackie's. Jackie owns 10 acres of land. Her husband passed years ago. The missionaries have been coming to her house to do service every week for three years. She still hasn't opened up to having discussions, but I know she will eventually get there. Jackie's place is a little different than Starling (Starling literally looks like a 5-star hotel). At Jackie's, we scoop horse poop for three whole hours. It's hilarious cuz I actually kinda like it. Minus the smell....of course. It's crazy how once you start serving someone...no matter the act, you immediately love it. Just pray I don't get bit by a moccasin snake. They are everywhere (at least that is what Jackie was telling us).
I love it here. This week, I've been thinking a lot about my blessings and blessings in general. Compare our blessings to a pile of wood. This wood pile has all the potential to give us all the light and warmth we need. We just need to strike the match. Sometimes striking the match can be a little tricky. We do not earn blessings....we must be qualified to receive blessings. Earning blessings means...we are doing the work all by ourselves. Qualifying means we are given help. Each one of us needs that help. Through Jesus Christ's Atonement, each and every one of us is capable in qualifying for our blessings through our efforts and hard work.
My dad sent me this this morning from Elder Uchdorfs Instagram post lol:
"I would like to share with you an experience from my boyhood. When I was 11 years old, my family had to leave East Germany and begin a new life in West Germany overnight. My parents operated a small laundry business in our little town. I became the laundry delivery boy. I delivered laundry on a bike before and after school for quite a few years. I loved flying and thought being a pilot would be my thing.
Most of the time, I was not overly excited about the bike, the cart, or my job. Sometimes the cart seemed so heavy and the work so tiring that I thought my lungs would burst, and I often had to stop to catch my breath. Nevertheless, I did my part because I knew we desperately needed the income as a family, and it was my way to contribute. Many years later, when I was about to be drafted into the military, I decided to volunteer instead and join the Air Force to become a pilot. I loved flying and thought being a pilot would be my thing.
To be accepted for the program, I had to pass a number of tests, including a strict physical exam. The doctors said, "You have scars on your lungs which is an indication of a lung disease in your early teenage years, but obviously you are fine now." The doctors wondered what kind of treatment I had gone through to heal the disease.
Until the day of that examination, I had never known that I had any kind of lung disease. Then it became clear to me that my regular exercise in fresh air as a laundry boy had been a key factor In my healing from this illness. Without the extra effort of pedaling that heavy bicycle day in and day out, I might never have become a jet fighter pilot and later a 747 airline captain.
We don't always know the details of our future. We are surrounded by challenges on all sides. But, with confidence in God and faith in His promise that His spirit will always be with us, you never need to fear the future. Of course you will experience disappointment. But discouragement, no, that does not have to be! You can always have hope for a good future whenever you are in life."
I loved this. We all must trust that through our efforts, our blessings will come.
I love you all.
Have an AMAZING week
CTR
<3 Sister Copeland
Pic of the Week
Sooo sweet--being remembered with love, greetings, and cookies by a relative in the area of one of Sister Copeland's neighbors in Utah!
