Dear Fam,

Sounds like you had a lot of fun in Chicago with Alicia, Tharon, Pepper, and Dakota.  I've heard the city is quite a place to be and I hope to serve in Houston some day soon.  That is awesome to hear that Alicia has another little one in the oven.  It still amazed me to hear Gage talk and it's crazy how all those little ones are growing up so fast.

As for things in Texas, this past week has been one of many changes.  We had a zone conference this past Thursday and the main theme of the conference was our purpose as missionaries, which is to invite others to come unto Christ through the restored gospel.  As we learned about how we can be more purpose driven in our work we also have adopted a new schedule.  Our weekly planning session will now be on Monday, district meetings on Tuesday along with email, P-day on Thursday (until 4:30), and then a half hour of planning for church again on Friday.  Along with that, the way we report our numbers have changed, we used to report our numbers weekly.  As such the prophetic council to get 10 OYM's a day turned into 70 a week which ended in a mad rush at the end of the week for most missionaries.  We have focused more on talking to everyone.  During the whole conference I felt like the law of Moses had been fulfilled and the higher law of the gospel had been ushered in.  Where our old "Standards of Excellence" focused a lot on what we DO, the new Standards focus more on what we ARE.  Then in priesthood on Sunday we read through a talk given this past conference called "Que clase de hombres y mujeres habeis de ser?"   I forget who gave it, but it definitely brought a lot of those thoughts to mind.

As for this past week we have struggled to find new investigators and I'm still trying to catch a vision of what the Lord wants for this area however I have immense hope that great things will happen this week, especially with the new changes. We've been able to get more members out with us which will really help; teaching with members is the best.  An investigator we have right now is Jesus Rodriguez.  He is a very sincere guy; he's been reading and praying and he'll be coming to a fireside this weekend which will help a lot.  As for everything else, thanks for all the prayers.  I hope you all continue to see the Lord's hand in your lives and have a blessed week!

Los Quiero,

Elder Cooley