April 1, 2013

Dear Mom,
    It's beautiful out here right now, just beautiful! However, the cold front is still here. When the sun comes out Brighton turns into a whole different city. Unfortunately, for two weeks in the summer I won't be able to stay in Brighton due to Gay rights demonstrations and nudes on the beach. 
      So another baby is born huh? Tell Daniel I'll be glad to meet him when he can walk! Elder Ormsby and I are so STOKED for General Conference. All of us are joking that there will be another huge announcement coming out like China opening or something. The past two days the plague hit our flat: Elder Ormsby was sick in bed all of Saturday (leaving me with nothing to do but study), and Sunday we managed to get to church on time. Daylight Saving's time started without us knowing! You can imagine our shock when we saw it was 9:00 instead of 8:00! I blessed the bread at sacrament, gave the closing prayer, and during 5th Sunday helped Elder Ormsby give a lesson in teaching others around us. The meeting for 5th Sunday focused on the new "I'm a Mormon" initiative starting April 8th. It's a huge blitz. London will be pounded with advertising: 200 buses with ads on them, all of Charing Cross station is COVERED with ads for mormon.org.uk, as well as other stations such as Picadilly Circus, billboards on overpasses and so on. We have a 4 week window here to take advantage of this. It's in response to the Book of Mormon Musical here in London.
      Nonetheless, Elder Ormsby and I have now a huge focus on University students. The mission president instructed us to go to the Universities and find those who will come to the gospel there. As well, the Lord may have provided a way for us to do so: we received a referral of a man who works in the administration building in the University of Sussex the day after we were given our mission. But, we have to wait until Spring Break is over in 2 weeks. We were told to think outside the box in our efforts, and so have the idea to organize classes telling people what the Book of Mormon is and dispelling myths about Mormons. We are working with our ward mission leader on this idea. Our YSA program is such where there are many ladies but few guys. We need to get more guys! Ali will try to help us out by coming with us to the University when the time comes. 
      In the meantime, we will be working on more "Lost Sheep" files (checking up on less actives and move-ins) as well as a few Chinese and Ali's friends. On Thursday I go on exchanges with the District Leader, Elder La Mazza from Germany who is a great guy. Our district alone has done 2/3 of the teachings in Crawley zone, and our goal is to beat a district in Poole which has the most teachings. 
      I received your letters! I wrote back, you should get yours in a day or two. Fun fact for Heather, the English think the West Coast Accent sounds totally generic and normal (I thought so!). Also, one of them was wondering why so many villains have British accents. I told her it's probably because it sounds so sophisticated and cunning, like they are smarter in some way. 
     I have attached some pictures like always, some of the drive to Crawley for Zone meeting and one of University of Sussex Campus, as well as one of Brighton from atop a hill we climbed. I love you Mom! Think of me during General Conference!
                                                                                                                                           Elder Cooper