December 29, 2014

Family we need to realize how things can always be worse, and to remeber the little things that we are so blessed to have every day. So the pic is of a taxi bay that we ride in every day its super packed haha and we take these everyday about 4 or 5 times and remember how big I am... I am really squished hahah but you learn to love them. Its still better then walking right :) Wow so I was feeling down in the dumps the past few weeks and l felt the weirdest feeling come over me last night, a feeling of shame and regret, but then about a hour later I said to myself why are you feeling like this? I realized its not because im out here and that I miss home, its because I'm not working as hard as I can be. Then I felt way better and as soon as I said that my spirit was lifted in a way I can't explain but I feel so much happier and I've got a new look on my goals. On what I want for the mission. I'm just going to try and loose my self in the work so here we go. This week should be rad :) always keep your head up or else you wont know where your going or what you need to do so stay positive love your work and dont think about what you could be doing, focus on what you are doing. Things are lookin up in in mada haha love you all Elder Cooley

December 15, 2014

So this week was great had zone conference which was rad. Super fun, I learned a ton about my purpose and all that great stuff. We had our first baptism and it went perfectly Elder Thompson baptized her perfectly and now I am done training. This Wednesday I get my new companion Elder Te'e. He is from Tonga and doesnt speak a lot of english from what I've heard, so looks like its going to be straight Malagasy this next transfer. Well the language is coming along, I'm getting a lot better still get lost a lot and cant say a whole lot but I know when someone is just trying to get me to give them money so im pretty good. I can say "no" and "sorry I dont have any" good thing im a good liar right haha. I'm sad that I have to say good bye to Elder Thompson he's been super chill and were pretty tight of buds, but he's going off to Provence... lucky haha. All is well, just lay back and kick it in my area is the plan. Normally a transfer is  6 weeks but becasue this last one was only 5 this next one is going to be 7. Maybe just maybe I might get to excape from tanna and head out to provence one day. I really hope so tannas rad, but the people here are really rude which makes me sad. Just because im white.  I'm sick of hearing the word "vaza"(dirty frenchman) everywhere haha. Oh well so yea alls good just rolling with the punches day by day lots of love :) elder cooley

December 8, 2014

This week has been so crazy. Its the begining of cyclone season so our house is malagasy made 'vita gasy' which means its rather poorly made. Our ceilling has more holes in it then a cheese grater and my bed got rather wet to say the least. Our down stairs got flooded bad...there is still about  5 inches of water and there is so much dirt everywhere. Its actually really great because you see cockroaches swimming around having the time of their lives haha.  I got a good video, but can't send them over mylds so you'll have to see it later. Besides our house being crap hahah I have good news and bad news so good news is we have a baptism coming up on the 13th, but its not Manda. Another investigator is ready and she passed the interview, so grand haha cant wait for Saturday at 3! The bad news is that Manda's work had a problem or something and they had to move, we have no idea where they have moved to either. Because the move and they didnt get legally married I'm really sad about it. Our plan this week is to find them and hopefully get them back on the plan to get married. This weeks been super crazy with ups and downs also crazy fact, this is my last week in training after this I'm on my own. Thompson will leave and I'll take charge of the area with my new comp. I'm doing alright with the language its coming little by little every day, I still suck dont get me wrong I'm really bad still, but I can teach and I can pick out a little bit more of what people say. I'm liking that. Well till next week love you all keep your self in check dont be something your not lots of love :) elder cooley

December 1, 2014

Hi! I did get 3 letters from jonny and chirs schmidt and conner parsons, I think they wrote them in seminary because they have like 7per written on them but still I think its freakin dope that they wrote me haha. This week has been a long one. The language is coming, yesterday a member and I went on a split to get more tpt. I taught all our lessons for Sunday and talking to him was chill. I can pick up a good amount of what they're saying haha but thats only if they talk to me super slow...so I guess nothing really to be proud of. I'm still trying to do my best with the language. So in about 2 weeks I will be done training and life will either really suck till I get better or by then I'll be able to manage... hopefully I can. Thompson's good helping me out every day, also talking about splits... I got to go with Elder Stringfellow and dang that was fun :) we tracked and talked pretty much all day then in our lesson with Laza, man we laid down some real faith and repentance :) he definitely knows that we need faith, no doubt and that we should repent evey day. I know I've said that people here have nothing, but this week teaching Manda I really noticed how hard life for them is. Something like 30,000ari (so about 10$) is about all they can save in about like 5 weeks, something that I had everyday that was really like nothing is so much here.They dont have anything but family. They all live in a house about the size of my room at home and everything in it is all they have. Seriously rough, but they still come to church every week. If they can get married legit by next week I'll be having my first baptism :) so excited keep them in your prayers. For Thanksgiving here we had pork tender loin and mashed spuds with green beans and rice of course. lots of love y'all, let me know about mail i really want some packages if we can do that haha :)  Elder COOLEY

November 24, 2014

Happy Thanksgiving Family!!!
So this last week was freaking awesome and super rough at the same time. I like to call it RICE AND ROACHES.
So for the first half, the RICE... The coolest thing in the world happened...I got to plant rice in the the patties super dope. We have this investor named Lanto and he lives way out in the middle of nowhere which is like a 1 hour and 30 minute walk from our church, up hill both ways no joke haha. So Saturday morning we always take this hike to go out and teach them, super chill, it reminds me of the cabin and hikes out there. So we get to their house and they are all working and the first thing they say is "mandroso" which means "come in" or "to progress" so Thompson and I are like sick!!! We throw off our shoes and socks and roll up our pants and just jumped in. Sooooo much funn even though I'm really bad at planting rice. After about a hour and a half of planting Lanto was all like yo it lunch time dawgs, lets get some grub! After planting they fed us the BEST RICE EVER haha so thats the peek of the week.

On to the second half, the ROACHES....so this week I have murdered about 20 cockroaches and 2 of these weird bugs. I don't know what they are but they are to fatt to move and they creep my out. I'm just like why are you so fat now you have to die!!!! I light them on fire with a bug spray and a lighter so yea im pretty hard core I guess. Along with that crap last night we had to drop this one dood named Paul he only wanted to bible bash with us and he was worse then I am at it so we gave up trying to teach him. Bummer I know, but as we were leaving this mental dood was all like why are you here so late and we were like dood we preach the word of God chill out, and he was like I'm going to sick my dogs on you if you dont leave and we were already mad because of what happened with Paul. Then he went off about how he owns this ground we walk on and how we are bad people. Then Thompson and I just said screw it left and decided not to go back there. That was a lame part of the week for sure.  I love the pics you sent! Hope mama bear is feeling better. I think im getting a reciding gum line because im brushing to hard. We drink so much coke and fanta im worried for my teeth, but its all good teeth are really dumb sometimes. Miss y'all, but stay happy and dont worry to much about me k im fine and im invincible so really im good focus on home this week kk lots of love hope to hear from yall today :)
Make today the best day of your life,

Elder CJC

November 10, 2014

WOW so this week has been quite a week! Last week the power died and it was seriously rough, but other then living with out power it was allll good. So just chillin right now in the cyber i got my books bound so thats cool. Let me break down a normal day in the mish, it kinda goes like this... we wake up at 6:30 and then work out, eat, and get dressed, then at 8 we start studying, then 9 companion studying, and 10 language studying. Then we go to or make lunch, and i have 2 favortie places for lunch. The hotely right by our house and i get a pork cutlet with pees and rice, or we go to this other hotely called fat guys haha and have steak with fries so so so gooooood hahaha love it. Then after lunch we go out to work and that can be going to a lesson to teach or tracking till we have a lesson. Most of our days have a lot of walking which is always fun. My legs are getting super ripped. So we are out working, walking, teaching, or taking fanta breaks, till around 7 then we head for home. To get anywhere we ride in taxi busses. These little busses fill with a max of 27 people at once with no room to breath. Thats a usual day so after we get home we cook dinner, shower, and get ready for the same thing tomorrow. So quick crazy story on wednesday there were so many little moths everywhere and we became covered in these nasty things so we decided to start running to get out of the swarm. The next thing i know is one flys straight up my nose and i start to die haha and then it comes out of my mouth rather amazing having a little explorer inside of your head only to come out a little cleaner. That was super nasty but kinda neat. I thought I was going to have bugs spawn from my head haha but i think im in the clear. Just living in jungle town so alls rather fun. If yall have any questions please ask and yea that would be great cant wait for some packages im not sure what i want but i know youll send me some great stuffs! I love yall! Work is good!

 every day is the best day of my life

Elder Cooley

Elder Cooley's house

New Suit

nice lining

in the jungle

lemurs

long day

his bff

October 27 2014

good morning mum how are you doing on this lovely day im quite well sorry to email later then the norm but just have been busy it being p day and all that but I'm good im having a new suit made it will be baby blue  so steez haha custom liner and all so legit. This week was really long and not much really happened. the cyber im at i cant send any pictures home sorry about that so i want you to send me a pic every once in a while of the things that you do just to keep me up to date with the family haha lol life is good also i bought like 15 ties for like a quarter a tie haha so im living the high life thats fo sure. Also i dont know if youve heard about this site called dear elder its pretty neat so check it out. I've been working on just being humble this week because i have no idea how to say anything and i miss being able to speak my mind. You cant when you have no clue what the heck any one is saying it really sucks you feel dumb and pretty useless not a great feeling but what can i say ive only been in country for about 4 weeks so what do i expect. Thats just life i hope the language starts to come by about 3 months in but it might take a full year depending how i spend my time studying sorry my spelling is going down hill fast to only writing malagasy words really messes with my English brain haha my comp is having trouble speaking english he makes alot errors but thats life hahaha. Its all just the way things roll so i can teach him english and he can teach me malagasy haha so in about 8 weeks then will have my first real transfer and ill probs stay in my area of analalmahitys but yea im good with that. I like my area and conf was good i loved the talk in pristhood sesh about asking christ is it so sick i didnt understand any of it on sunday though because it was all in malagasy. Thats alright just doing what i do. Later tonight were going to eat dinner at our bishops house and i hope i dont puke. Thats my goal haha so wish me luck party on and make sure every day is the best day of your life

October 19, 2014

elder cooley and his area

so this is my area where i work every day man is it great or is it great! haha so yea its pretty swell.  So my first week in this new area we've met quite a few investigators hahah and so far we have lined up about 6 baptism dates all in November and December. The work is going really well i think i dont have a clue whats really going on 90% of the time but whateves thats life so a lot of things over here dont make any sense like seriously. A lot of people here are insane but a nice way to put it is the "fomba gasy" aka the way of the malagasy people. So yea you just have to laugh at it and not think about it to much or you will go mad wondering why they are the way they are. I've been pretty sick so far but thats just mission life to always be tired and sick. The rice here isnt my favorite but when you're hungry you really dont care all to much haha ps the 2600 "ari" is 1 american dollar so yea not to much hahaha nothing like being a millionair when you're only 18 right haha. I'm glad to here every things good at home but yea life goes on no matter which side of the world you're on but just remember im just about 9 hours ahead of you so yea lets just say im a head of the times hahahahaha im so so so funny ill be sending more pics keep me up on all the little things love you all

hahahahahhahahahahahhahahha so yea living here is crazy sure shocked my system thats for sure but life is good, just laugh and life is great. I found out the secret of life, so im always pretty happy now because no matter where you are, this itty bitty thing can make your world a new place. Real quick wow did i take my life back home for granted, shoot is life hard here anything you touch here is filthy and discusting the grunge and grime here is on seriously i kid you not everything. Haha wow you really dont know how the world is till you go there. I really cant believe how spoiled I was and how thoughtless I was when it came to things, but alls good now. I've learned a ton not only about church things but more about life in gen. Dang we have it good at home. We've been blessed with so so much. Don't get werid on me and keep me up dated on everything kk tell me about music and movies and how you all are at home. I love you all so so so s os os os osos oso so so so so s oso so s much hahahah im so so funny but really i do love yall so keep it real be happy and love life 

Elder Cooley

From the Balcony

Where they buy Cokes and Fanta

LEMUR

His new area

dirty river

Mada

October 13, 2014

dang wow well where do i start so the start of the week was good had baptism dates lined up and on Friday guess what happened... well i have been emergency transfered to analamahitsy crazy yea i know so packed up and moved out that day but now im in a nice big house that is super sick love the new area to its part city with a bit of province its so mad i love it people are good i got to go to a lemur park today and wow they have got to be the coolest animals ever they are so soft and fluffy and their hands feel so so so cool but alls good i didnt get bit, so no worries.. i got hit by another car mirror today that kinda sucked but we have a swaray tonight which is like a dinner party so rice and loka for din din tonight yum the members here are get so helpful in mission work and they love to talk with us its rough out here and some days are deff better then others but all you can do is put your shoulder to the wheel and do what you can sorry for the lack of pictures these cybers kinda suck to write and send stuff out but ill try for next week

most trihumphant dudes    

dont go bogus mayn

Elder Cooley

October 5, 2014

what is up family ill tell you whats up MADAGASCAR IS WHATS FRICKING UP ahahahhaahha yea but what ever its just super sick here super beautiful here in tana i love it the people are so amazing the foods ok kinda hard on ya but good havent spewed yet taught like 10 lessons and im so lost i can barely understand anything just a heads up im typing on a french keyboard so its kinda hard to spell things right ill send some pics soon the computer im on is kinda broke and it wont send pics sorry i  cant tell you how many times ive almost died though hahah so on the streets there arent any road rules ok so people just snake through and get like centimeters away from you ive been hit by mirrors and stuff but ive had some pretty sick matrix dodges i really love it here the only things that suck are that it is so filthy and grimy eww and there are some really mental people that are pretty strange asking for money all the time being called vazas which is like dirty french man but who cares right my comp is elder thompson who is pretty chill hes not up tight so im happy as can be i hope every ones doing good have heard any conf yet it comes to us in like 3 weeks so yea thats cool i guess but wow is it diffrent here i feel like im in a new world no other way to explain it  so so so so so much is going on but there is always some sort of music playing here in both english and gasy ps thats how they say malagasy here just so ya know i feel kinda sick but the ap elder fox who is super trill told me your always sick but the only time you are really is is when you have 2 sicknesses yea i guess thats how it is here other then the grim its not all that bad i just wish i could speak more but what eves that will come miss yall like crazy ill write more later party on family 

Love 

Elder Cooley

October 2, 2014

YAY after 10,500 miles and 51 hours of traveling Elder Cooley has arrived in MADAGASCAR!
He is serving in Ankorondrano 1 in the main city of Antananarivo and his companion is Elder Thompson!
We are so excited to here more from Elder Cooley :)
*the picture is of Elder Cooley and President and Sister Adams in Madagascar.

September 25, 2014

hey family how are things so being my last week its been filled with packing and packing and packing i cant be more excited about getting out im honestly so excited to just be in the out side world and talk to normal people ya know im going to try and talk to people in the airport and just make some friends everyone here is just ready to leave but other then that a cool thing this week is a story of two brothers so two brothers who both want a education but lack the funds to do so in which they deiced that they would flip a coin the loser would go work in the mines to pay for the others schooling. So the brother that went off to college became a famous artist he became very wealthy but only because of his brother that sacrificed his own needs to help his brother become who he wanted to be i know i butchered this story but the point is that if we sacrifice something in our lives we can greatly enhance others that really makes you think of mission work  but one thing i thought also about mission work is another story about a chief Indian who speaks of his soul being two wolves in battle one being his desires, his success and his dreams and the other wolf which is his doubts, his fears and his weakness and he is asked the question of which wolf will win and his response is "which ever one i feed" i think that that is so sick because you can relate it to anything so yea hope to hear from you soon love you family :)

September 18, 2014

Dear Family,
Wow oh how my days fly by :) I got my visa and flight plan so this is my final week in the MTC. I am so excited to go! This week we skipped people in Madagascar.  We taught this family a lesson about faith in Christ and wow it's amazing how receptive to the gospel they are, and how much they love it with all their heart! I cant wait to get out to serve. I am feeling all right about my Malagasy but who knows what will happen when I get over there. I have loved learning all about the scriptures and definitely have a bunch of favorites! 2 Nephi 32:2-3 talks all about how if  you feast upon the words of Christ the words of Christ will tell you all the things that you should do. This helps me know that if I study the scriptures I will be able to teach the people of Madagascar, and they will understand me. I am so excited to serve, I hope you are all doing  well and I will leave with a favorite quote "What we do in this life echos through eternity."

Keep life in check and don't go crazy,
Tiako Ianao'reo (i love yall),
Elder Cooley

MTC PHOTOS

Elder Cooley sent us some great photos of his MTC experience.A few of them are just great candid shots of him and a few other elders. Also the bunk bed situation. Con loved the bottom bunk! And lastly the welts caused by a cream that released the toxins from his body ( he is still in Provo, Utah).  These photos are so much fun for us too look at! Glad he still has his sense of humor!

August 28, 2014

hey paps your the best. so break down of the first week, drop off get my books and go to class each day, We have class for about 10 hours each day except for tuesdays sundays and p day,  but really its been kinda chill. Our teachers are Brother Sell, Brother Binghman, and Brother Aldous. On the third day Brother Aldous left and went to India swag its ok. he was kinda fruity but he was chill. I like my district and every ones really chill i have a lot of new friends.  I love learning malagasy and I can pray and some other cool stuff too :) i do like learning and playing basketball and soccer its all a lot of fun. All the rules kinda suck but the worst is the food its not that it taste to bad it just makes you feel like sick. haha yea i really miss you all but i really just want to get out of here and serve i dont hate it here as much as i say i do but i do.... just so ya know other then that nothings happened. Miss you guys like crazy, i'm loving the packs youve sent ill send a letter letting you know how trill it is :). i just need some workout shirts and p day shirts.i really miss music and lucie and ryann and mom and dad but i mean thats expected so schwing  shes a babe.
LOVE ELDER COOLEY the really board mission-airy in the mtc also im getting fat and i hate it loves ya lots peace

And he is off to the MTC

Some pictures we took during our goodbye! We are so excited for Connor to be out serving!