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