Week 9 - July 27, 2020

Jambo marafiki zangu! (Hello, my friends!)

This week was great!  I always have such a good time!  This area is awesome, and I have so much fun with all the people and the other missionaries! 

This week, I was able to go on a transfer with Sister DeGooyer, another STL in our zone.  It was awesome!  This never happens because I'm still in training, but I got to LEAD OUT MY AREA!  That's when you are basically running the show for that day.  I chose who we saw, I chose what we taught, I chose everything!  I got to teach so many lessons!!! It was amazing!  Sometimes Sister Hyde doesn't like to teach the Restoration, so she let me do it while I was on exchanges haha.  It was amazing! 

We, also, got to film a video for pioneer day this week!  We sang, "Come Come Ye Saints" in four different languages and also filmed scenes as pioneers to put over top of us singing.  It was cool!  Look it up on my Facebook:) 

We had church for the first time!!!!  I had to speak which I wasn't nervous about at all until I realized I'm the only speaker... and these people haven't been to church in months and they're expecting it to be good... but I think it went well!  It was super fun!  We had some investigators come and they liked it, which is good! 

My spiritual thought for the week comes from Alma 36, my favorite chapter in the Book of Mormon!  I was reading it again this week for "Come Follow Me," and I remembered how much I love it!  My favorite verses this time were verses 24 and 25 which are:

"24 Yea, and from that time even until now, I have labored without ceasing, that I might bring souls unto repentance; that I might bring them to taste of the exceeding joy of which I did taste; that they might also be born of God, and be filled with the Holy Ghost.

25 Yea, and now behold, O my son, the Lord doth give me exceedingly great joy in the fruit of my labors". 

I love the line that states that his labors gave him great joy.  I know that when we work hard, God sees our effort and blesses us more than we could imagine.  I love the quote that says, "The Lord loves effort because effort brings reward."  One of the most important things we can do is try. We know and God knows that we won't be perfect, but it is the desires of our hearts that matter. 

I love you all and I love this gospel!  Keep being amazing. 

Btw, here's a little tidbit of info for you.  My mission president is amazing, and if you happen to drive through Twin Falls, let me know and I can set up a time to see you!  Just letting you know!

Anyways, have a great week!  See you next week! 

Kwa Heri! Nakupenda KABISA! 

-Sister Copeland <3

www.sistersydneycopeland.blogspot.com

Pictures of the Week:  

Puppies that a member had!

Cute kids:)

Week 8 - July 20, 2020

HABARI MARAFIKI ZANGU!

I've officially been in the field for one month!!

I hope y'alls lives are going GREAT!  I know mine is.  I've honestly never been happier.  There's something so special about being totally devoted to service 100% of the time.  I know God blesses us and he is totally guiding everything I do. 

This week honestly was a blur haha.  It felt like it went by so fast!!!  But, something super sick that happened was that I can teach the restoration in Swahili!  Not because it's memorized but because I can actually speak the things I want to say!!!  The gift of tongues is real my friends.  Very real.

 Mwamini and Mapenzi

Here's some exciting things from this week:

1. MWAIBOLA HAD HER BABY- there's a lady that we teach that came to America six months pregnant and finally had her baby!  His name is Baraka, which means blessing in Swahili. He's sooo cute.  Even when he projectile vomited ALL over us.  I don't mean spit up.  I mean projectile vomited haha. 

2. AKWELA- The dad of some girls we teach is deaf, but I, by some miracle, talked with him for like an hour.  He told me about his life and his family in Africa, and how much he loves Mungu (God).  He's such a sweet spirit and we love to talk to him.

3. MINI TRANSFER- Because the world is crazy and a lot of missionaries are being reassigned, we have a mini transfer like twice a normal transfer.  So, we got two new Elders, but I don't know them very well yet.  Hopefully, they are as fun as the ones who left!!

4. SHOSHONE- I got to see Shoshone Falls for the first time this week!  It's beautiful!!!  We went this morning for p-day exercise!  It's amazing. 

That's about it for this week!  It went kinda fast! 

My spiritual thought for this week comes from Alma 33:23:

"And then may God grant unto you that your burdens may be light, through the joy of his Son."

I love this verse!  He spent the entire chapter talking about faith, and then ends with the truth that when we have faith, God makes our burdens LIGHTER!  I know this to be the truth!  I constantly say to myself, "Go with the flow."  That's my way of showing my faith.  I need to not worry so much about what's going to happen, but how I'm going to use that to show God that I trust and love him.  I love this gospel and the truths it teaches!

Ningependa kushiriki ushuhuda wangu.  Najua kwamba Mungu anakupenda na anakujua.  Najua kwamba imani inaweza kukusaidia na kila kitu maishani mwako!  Najua kwamba Kanisa La Yesu Kristo La Watakatifu Wa Siku Za Mwisho ni kanisa la Mungu na Kitabu Cha Mormoni ni maneno wa mungu.  Napenda Mungu KABISA!

Nakupenda sana!  Amani na baraka:)

(Translation:    I would like to share my testimony.  I know that God loves you and knows you.  I know that faith can help you with everything in your life!  I know that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the church of God and the Book of Mormon is the word of God.  I LOVE GOD Absolutely!) 

Rafiki yako, 

Sister Copeland❤

Week 7 - July 13, 2020

Foreign mission in the states:)

JAMBO! Habari? (Hello!  How are you?)

I've officially started calling my mission a foreign mission in the states because dang.  There's so many things that I get to learn about the culture and language of these people.  I love it so so much. 

So, if you're wondering how my Swahili's going, it's actually going really well!  Not to brag, but I am already speaking better than the Elder who has been here for a transfer longer than me:) I love the language so much and want to just sit there and study it all day.  The hardest part is not having a place to start, and it's all up to me.  So, I'm doing the best I can to study the vocab I'll use most and the grammar. Eventually my vocab and understanding will build, which is awesome!  My favorite word right now is "labda" which means maybe/probably. 

Here are some fun things that happened this week. 

1. FOOD!  So, as you may have guessed, African food is very different from American food.  I see the craziest stuff. Luckily, I've learned how to describe my gluten free diet in Swahili so they don't get offended when I can't eat it, because a lot of the food isn't gluten free.  The craziest thing we got fed this week was fufu and fish.  But, the fish was not cleaned or cut at all.  It was a full on fish, head, eyes, fins, bones and all.  I attached a picture!  

Fufu is also just flour and water mixed together and tastes like bready playdoh.  I haven't eaten since it made me sick, but I'm not too mad about that haha. 

2. Moving Msafiri- There is a man named Msafiri, and he lived in this tiny apartment with his kids and grand kids.  On Friday, we helped him move.  We walked in to help and they were still cooking, nothing was packed, and they didn't have anything to put the stuff in.  It was crazy!  We got to work and helped them move all of their stuff in like three hours.  It was awesome.  The only thing that was sketchy was that their house was INFESTED with cockroaches.  And when I say infested, I mean infested.  We would open the cupboards and at least 20 crawled out of the food.  We also got one of the bags out of their closet and as soon as we set it on the ground, cockroaches swarmed out of the bag.  It was so gross!  They didn't seem to care though hahah.  Also, their bedroom had black mold CRAWLING UP THE WALLS.  It definitely was not safe to live there.  

I felt so bad for them. But, it really opens my eyes to how grateful I am for the life I've been able to lead and motivates me to help them even more. 

3. Swahili Hour!- We've started doing this thing where we only speak in Swahili from 9-10:30.  It's hard but it's amazing for learning the language!  It's super fun, actually. 

Here's my spiritual thought for the week.  It's from the Sermon On the Mount in the Bible.  I studied mostly the footnotes from the Bible and how it relates to the Book of Mormon.  I love how much the Book of Mormon and the Bible connect and support each other.  One of the footnotes is based on from Matthew 5:3, which reads "Blessed are the poor in Spirit: for they shall Inherit the kingdom of God."  It connects to the Savior teaching the Nephites in the Book of Mormon, but what he says there, is 3 Nephi 12:3, which reads, "Blessed are the poor in spirit who come unto me."  I love the clarification that we get from the Book of Mormon.  It teaches us that not only do we need to be humble and teachable, but we need to take action.  That's what faith is. Believing and then TAKING ACTION.  We shouldn't ever be stagnant! 

Anyways, it's been a great week!  Hope y'all are doing well!

Pictures of the Week

1. Hiking!

2. The sweet girls who drew all over my face with dry erase marker

3.  Llamas and sheep that live right by our house

Nakupenda KABISA! (love you lots!)

-Sister Copeland <3

Week 6 - July 6, 2020

JAMBO!

 

This week was wild, let me tell ya. (I feel like I'm gonna say that every week haha)

(MANY children braiding my hair.)

We started out with a little corona scare.  Two of the missionaries that we had been hanging out with all of last Monday got sick on Tuesday.  Like, REALLY sick. One of them had been in our house, one of them had been driving our car all day, and we just had a lot of encounters with them. So.... while we were waiting for their test results to come back, we had to quarantine in case one of us was carrying it. It gave me an excuse to DEEP CLEAN our house and our car.  It was great!  Luckily, both of them came back negative, and we were out that night!

This week, we had a lot of amazing progress not only in our investigators, but in ME!  The gift of tongues is seriously so real.  I got to share a scripture, talk about it, and bear my testimony in Swahili like four times in one day this week.  IT WAS AMAZING!  I remember thinking that its so cool that the gospel can reach everyone no matter who they are or what language they speak.  It is a WORLDWIDE church.

Some of the highlights this week:

1. We have a family that we have been teaching that I swear is the sweetest family you'd ever meet.  They have four kids who LOVE the Lord and want to follow him.  We are hoping that we can get them to commit to baptism this week!  It's so cool.  One of  them even told me that she read the Book of Mormon and prayed about it and she heard a voice tell her "yes."  So cool!  I know that was the Spirit.

2. Another highlight is that we had a baby shower for one of our investigators.  She is very new to the United States.  So, she had NOTHING for the baby.  The Relief Society in our ward donated and bought everything from a stroller, to a bed, to a car seat, to clothes, and more.  It was amazing.  She felt so loved and is any day from having that baby!

3. In one of the families we teach, we have only really been focusing on the kids, because the mom doesn't speak English OR Swahili, and the dad is deaf.  BUT, I had the idea last night when we were over there to sing, "Love one Another," and SIGN it for him!  It was so cool.  He felt so appreciative.  He proceeded to bear his testimony to me in sign language and through the Spirit.  I understood most of what he was saying and got to connect with him.  The gospel is amazing.  We could learn and feel the Spirit and communicate WITHOUT words.  God is so good.

4. Finally, the fourth of July!  We had a little bbq and sparkler party with the Elders.  It was SO fun, and we got some crazy pictures of our district with sparklers.

My spiritual thought for the week is based on a video I want you all to watch.  This is Elder Kambale.  

He is serving in Colorado, but we have worked with him because we are working with his cousins and he can translate way better than we can.  This video is him telling his story.  He grew up in the Congo, and as his family tried to flee to escape war, he was kidnapped by soldiers and taken to a POW camp.  He went through some terrible and awful things, but he kept his spirits up.  He eventually made it to the US and met the missionaries.  His testimony is so beautiful and no matter who you are, this video will warm your heart.  Please watch it.  I know God is watching over us. 

Here is the link to the video: 

Elder Kambale's Conversion Story

(Start at the 4:55 mark since he is setting up and waiting for others online until that time.)

My favorite quote I heard this week was, "Just because it feels like time is standing still doesn't mean God is."  That's so true.  When we are struggling and feel like God has abandoned us, understand that he hasn't.  He knows you.  He is aware of you.  TRUST and be patient:)

Anyway! Its been a good week! Can't wait for the next one!

NAKUPENDA! Kwa Heri!

-Sister Copeland <3

www.sistersydneycopeland.blogspot.com

Pictures of the Week:

1. Picture of the canyon we hiked to this morning.

2. Me and Mwamini!