Hey! How's it going? That's good to hear that Sis. Anderson is doing better! And about Rylee's wedding, cool beans. It seems like everyone's getting married but I love being out here and not really having to deal with any of it.

So this past Wednesday I received my new companion, Elder Soutas. He's from South Jordan, Utah and is awesome. He's only 1 transfer ahead of me so it's been fun to go around as fairly new missionaries and talk to people and such. We also received 2 green sisters into the district and there are 2 missionaries who are going home the end of this transfer. Elder Jensen went to the Houston area and is now serving as a district leader.

We had a district meeting that reiterated a training we received about teaching Baptism through the Restoration and it was awesome to see that as we used the training that same night we were able to commit 3 new people to baptism. It amazes me how the Lord knows what he's doing and he'll guide his servants to do what he needs if we just implement what he has already given us. I hope to do the same this next week as I listen to conference that I'll be able to come away with things to improve on and plans to do so. I encourage you all to do so and I know the Lord will bless us for our faith to follow what he has given us. Sorry I don't have much to write but hope you all have a great week!

Love, Elder Cooley

Hey!  How's the life?  Sounds like a fun filled week!  This past week I received letters from Chase Petersen, Sean West, and Zach Carpenter.  It was good to hear from all them and to hear that they are having a great time.  So, concerning transfers.... I am staying in Galveston!  But sadly, Elder Jensen is leaving,  but has been called as a district leader so that will be a great opportunity for him.

Dijorkaef got baptized this past Friday, somewhat unorthodoxly seeing as how he was afraid of water, which we didn't find out til the baptism, but after about an hour it happened so that was awesome.

Just this morning we realized that we received Jesus (our recent convert) as a referral in December.  For some reason though we never contacted him (mostly because he lives in Texas City and we don't have transportation to get off the island much).  But in February was when he contacted us on the streets.  I realized that even though we could have taught him sooner, the Lord, as a tender mercy, allowed us to meet paths so that Jesus could receive the gospel.  Anyways, love y'all and hope you have a great week!

Elder Cooley

HEY! Hope all is going well with everyone, it sure seems like it. It's great to hear all the temple blessings that people are experiencing. Well this past week was awesome; we had the baptism of Jesus this past Saturday. After Elder Jensen performed the baptism Transito Trejo, a recent convert gave the talk on the Holy Ghost and then Jesus bore his testimony. Then at the end of the baptism we hugged and he reminded us of the day we met. We were biking around when he pulled up in a van behind us and jumped out of the passenger’s seat. This past Saturday he told us how they almost drove another way but he felt that they should drive that way. It was definitely a testimony to me how the Lord places his prepared servants in the way of those who are prepared. Other than that, we went to court this morning. We had to testify that a member was coming out with us for community service hours so that was fun. This past week we were able to teach a lot of lessons with members present which is definitely a blessing to both the members and the investigators. The work goes a lot better when the members are involved. Anyways, can't really remember much beside the baptism, oh yeah, I got to confirm Jesus, it was awesome being able to do it in Spanish. This past week we have set the goal to always speak Spanish, and if we're talking to other missionaries who don't, then we translate each other. Anyways, hope you all have a great week!

Love Elder Cooley

PS. New mission office address is:

Texas Houston South Mission

602 Eldridge Road

Sugar Land, TX 77478

(Please be sure to let family and friends know that our address is changing as mail arriving to the old address will be returned to sender. The post office has informed us that they will only forward mail addressed to the mission- not mail addressed to individual missionaries. You can likely remedy this problem by having the addressee be: Texas Houston South Mission, Attn: [your name]. However, friends and family should be careful not to send mail to the new address before March 25 as it will be undeliverable)

PPS. Happy birthday MOM! Hope you have a great week! LOVE YA!

Hey! That's awesome about Henry's wedding and Myrna's this upcoming week! Tell them both congratulations for me. Sounds like a lot of great things are happening in the ward and such.

So this last week has been awesome! Since we were only on the island Monday-Wednesday we worked as hard as we could and we were able to find a family to teach and hopefully they start progressing. Then Thursday we had our final day of mission conference, my favorite so far. Then Friday and Saturday we worked in Pasadena with Elders Cortez and Tidwell in an English area, we basically just knocked doors all day, and met some interesting people along the way. While there I really gained an appreciation for the area I'm in and how greatly we are blessed. So this Saturday, Jesus is getting baptized and that'll be awesome. Hopefully we can get Dijorkaef baptized this week too. While I was in Pasadena I realized the difference between an English ward party and a Spanish one... and I'm pretty sure when I get home I'm going to a Spanish ward/branch.

Also this week I met an interesting character. He introduced himself as TJ. As we talked he told us how he was Christ in his former life and how he was back as TJ Evans this time. He also told us how Galveston will be the New Jerusalem (I can see where he's coming from on that one because Galveston is pretty awesome) and how Bin Laden and Dick Cheney are the Antichrists. Along with all sorts of other interesting things, but the amazing part was that he honestly believes it. He then gave us 2 options, we could either go with him to Uruguay or stay here and finish our mission and possibly die. All in all I think I'll stay here.

Anywho, the work here is going great. This past week I realized the importance of home teaching and member missionary work from Acts 6 along with a talk by Bruce R. McConkie called "Let the Word Go Forth". Also I've noticed my sacrament meetings have been a lot more meaningful since I've been studying it a lot lately. Well, hope all is going well at home and with everyone, have a great week!

Elder Cooley