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