Howdy!  This past week was great being able to hear from Elder Rasband, a lot of what he spoke about had things to do with "The Divine Call of a Missionary" talk that he gave in conference a few years ago.  He spoke of the love of the Savior for all those engaged in His work.  He also shared another tidbit of what happened in that experience with Elder Eyring.  He told how Elder Eyring asked the representative from the Missionary Department how many senior couples were needed and he said,"300".  Then he asked, "how many do we have to assign today?", to which the representative replied,"36".  The Lord needs a lot of senior missionaries too and they definitely help out a lot.  A senior couple in the mission that has been here for 2 years is going home at the end of this month and a new couple has come to replace them but it's great to have their awesome examples in this work and the Lord definitely needs more.

This past week we were biking down the road when a car pulled up beside us and the lady inside said she wanted to talk to us.  As she pulled over and got out she told us how she had been researching a lot about the Church and had many questions.  She was genuinely interested and we committed her to come to church to see for herself.  We then told the English elders and they have been teaching her.  Also, with our communications with the English elders I found out that a man I had first street contacted and referred to them had gotten baptized.  I had OYM'd him and during the process bore testimony to him of the Book of Mormon and left him a copy along with a reading assignment.  When the English elders went to teach him he said he had read and he is currently keeping up with the ward's Book of Mormon reading schedule by getting up every morning and reading from. Now to describe this man, Rodney, the best thing that comes to mind is Mosiah 14:2, he was definitely not a pleasing sight.  One thing I've seen that helps me approach random people and talk to them about Jesus has been when I imagine that they are a long lost sibling that had never heard about the gospel, and of course to always remember Christ and his atonement because that's when the Spirit comes and we are lead to know what to say.  

Well, I love y'all, hope all is well and have a great week!

Con gran amor,

Elder Cooley

Dear Family,

This past week was great!  The weather in Texas is pretty bi-polar, one day it'll be hot and the next it'll be cold.  That's pretty crazy what happened to Adam, that's great that he's alive and all.  I really need to repent for not taking as much pictures and I need to get better at writing in my journal; it's fun to read it sometimes and look back at how much the Lord has richly blessed me.  Ethan Jones is home!  I need his address, porfa, or if you could just have him write me that'd be great too.  Hace mucho que he escuchado de el!  

As for things this week, we had zone conference yesterday in which we received a lot of training on the Restoration and how to teach the first lesson better to investigators.  It was pretty awesome; my testimony of the restoration was increased as President Saylin taught it to us and then shared with us the First Vision.  This Friday, Elder Rasband is coming to speak to the 3 Houston missions.  

As for this past week, on Tuesday we decided to try some people on some old potential investigator forms we had in the Area Book from a few years back.  We knocked on the door of a family and after a little talking they let us in and we were able to teach them. We were also able to teach a family that we had been wanting to teach since about a month ago.  All in all, we found and taught some great people this past week.  I know this work is true and that we have been commissioned by the Lord Jesus Christ to do this work, I know that Joseph Smith is a prophet of God and that since then God has continued to call prophets to instruct us.

I love y'all and hope you have a great week!

Con gran amor, Elder Cooley

Que hay de nuevo?

Alicia's baby is coming pretty soon, crazy!  This past week was great! We did have a Halloween party; it was a 3-ward trunk or treat event. We were able to get some investigators to attend and they really seemed to enjoy it. 

  

On Tuesday night we were able to teach the nephews of a less active couple that we have been reactivating, they were baptized about 4 years ago and sealed soon thereafter but had fallen away due to the hardships of life. We were also able to teach the mother of the husband. She had come to church a lot about 20 years ago and loved it but had never felt ready for baptism so we're excited to help her resolve her concerns. Our bishop has asked us to go visit all the less actives and see how they're doing so we've been doing a lot of that recently. I've been reading a lot from the General Conference talks, and they are really good, there were a lot who spoke of opening our mouth and sharing what we know. We also had the primary program in our ward and it was pretty impressive how these little kids memorized their parts and how funny it was to watch the younger ones wave at their families and try to keep still.

Here are some pictures from the temple trip and some other things. Anyways, hope you all have a great week.

Love, Elder Cooley