July 22, 2013

Hi mom,

     Haha the only thing with hot weather in England is that only half of the homes, at best, have air conditioning! It's supposed to be 34 degrees C one of these days (maybe today). On Friday it was the first time I was "out of action" so to speak; I had bad bowels, if you know what I mean, the entire day and was in bed resting. Not sure what it came from, but now I'm making sure to drink plenty of fluids. Nothing as bad as it could be in the Philippines! Okay this week we got a baptismal date! We took our investigator and her recent convert son (along with her friend who's an outstanding member-missionary) to the temple visitor centre. It was so packed last Saturday with probably 2 stake temple days happening at once. It was a miracle that everything worked out so well. Just getting to the temple was a fight against the adversary; Elder Castro and I took the trains and took a slightly different route than planned (we worked it out in time though) and "Auntie" Emma's car (who was taking our investigator and her son) was having troubles on the motorway! After enough prayer though, and through the grace of God they arrived and we showed them  around. Do you know we saw a kind of new edition of the Prophet of the Restoration video? It was INCREDIBLE. Most everyone was in tears at least once during the movie. The Spirit was so strong. No one could deny it or say that the church was not true. After walking on the grounds, the familiar comments arose that the temple was like "heaven on earth". She accepted the invitation to be baptised on Aug, 24. 

     Speaking of which, I will be 19 by then! As a matter of fact, Mom, your birthday in July 31! That is coming up so soon! If only the royal baby could be born already so I could send you a little present for that. 

      So we got the letter and Heather's comics. Oh my goodness you should have seen us, I think I got a stomach cramp from laughing. Elder Castro liked the sausage sandwich story most. I appreciated the driving story best! Tell Heather we are so grateful for those. Humour is necessary in life. As for your letter Mom, I love the insight and update. Did you know that Elder Castro loves the little John Bytheway book you sent me? He's been coming up with quotes of his own. One of them this week was "Missionary = Visionary". He goes home August 7, in 2 weeks now. Sad. Pray for us this week: we are crazy missionaries in the heat haha. Lots of love.

Elder Cooper

    P.S. I know just the comic to send Heather.