Have you noticed Elder Cooley Never Complains! -Momma Cooley

Like the usual I can not complain. I know that nothing belongs to me except for my attitude and how I react to the daily situations of my life. I know that I am nothing, as to my strength I am weak. I believe in a God that cares and catches the same vision that I have in my life. I believe in a loving savior. With how bad the world can get at times we are so blessed to have what we have. 

These past few days have felt strange, I don't sleep as well anymore. last night I laid there until 1:00 when I could finally fall asleep. I think that a lot is on my mind and it keeps me bright eyed until I can actually get some real rack time. I wake up and do my studies but it just doesn't feel the same. Life is good though and I am moving forward. I try hard to progress every day in some way or the other. I love reading the 23 psalms, in fact I have it memorized and love thinking about it. It is an outline to me for a humble yet strong life.

One of my friends out here just recently had his mom pass away. He said that he cant sleep either... boy do I feel small compared to that trial, but I guess we all have our own struggles that cant be compared to others. He asked me to draw him a picture of him and his mom as an angle sitting next to him. I drew him a rough draft and will be putting my spare time towards drawing him a good one. I really feel for the kid.

We met a new guy this week that is interested in having Bible studies with us and learning more about the church. He has never been interested in church before and said that he is envious of people that are able to live that kind o life style. We will be going over thee to visit with him more and see what questions he has. 

We went to the Book of Mormon play that was in town all this week and handed out books and cards to everyone. We had some good results from it and had fun. At first everyone thought that we were the cast for the play and once we told them that we were real missionaries they got a kick out of it and wanted to talk to us about the church. that play gets the church a lot of positive feed back.

We have had a lot of good visits this week and had a good time. I look forward to another great week and hope that y'all do too. 

Love Elder Cooley

Crawfish Boil... and Awesome News!

Hello Family and Friends,
That is some awesome news this week! I knew that I would one day get an email about Jesse and Kim's family. Congrats! I will be home for that date. I am happy for y'all. 

This week I went to a craw fish boil in Albany after the Giachetti family's temple sealing. we had an awesome time and had some GOOD food. I love that family. I think that they have had the biggest influence and most support for me in my mission out here. I saw some fire flies that night also... they were probably the last ones that I will see for a while seeing that I live in New Orleans. I played baseball, kickball and football the entire time with their kids and  all of the young adults there. It was all a blast and brought back some good memories. I saw a lot of friends that I haven't seen for a while.

I have been In contact with Fernando a lot since I am living in New Orleans again. He quite drinking completely with even more help from a different church and he is trying to start his own business now. He has come a long ways from when we were first with him. He is very happy and you can see the difference in him too. He has his own car now and does a lot of service for the other church such as driving their church bus and translating during their masses. He has also been a highlight to my mission and is a very good friend to me now.

I hope that y'all have an awesome week. 

Love,

Elder Cooley

Life is good.