Week 39 - February 22, 2021

 Halfway through!❤

You know what's wild?  This coming week I will hit my halfway mark!  9 months as a missionary.  I've honestly learned lots and can't wait for the things I will continue to learn. 

Our little branch:)  Me at the front translating.

This week was cool!  We had a lot of new people to teach. 

First, Ina!  If you've read any of my emails, you know that Africans love to party.  Honestly our number one place to find people to teach is parties.  So, a couple weeks ago, we went to a party and met Ina.  This week, we were finally able to teach her!  She is so cute and loves God so much.  She's awesome, and we are excited to get to know her. 

Next, when we were going to visit someone else this week, we met a new guy named Mobera.  All of the refugees here in Twin Falls go to Boise to buy African Food supplies, and it turns out this is the guy who sells it, and he is planning on moving to Twin Falls!  So, we taught him a lesson, and we are also going to find him a house!  It's so exciting.  We are officially real estate agents haha. 

We had a really cool experience at church this week!  Vestina, someone who loves us but is very skeptical to our message, came!  She comes often, but this week was different.  After church, a member went up to her and said, "This is the true church, and you need to be baptized!"  I mean we've told her this a billion times, but this time it stuck.  She walked up to me and said, (in Swahili), "I will learn more, and when I understand, I will be baptized.  She's awesome!  The power of members is real!

Here's my spiritual thought:

I've been listening to a lot of BYU devotionals recently (they're really good, y'all should listen to them).  I listened to one that talks about success and failure.  I feel like sometimes I place a lot of pressure on myself to succeed, and then when I don't, it's hard.  But, this talk talked about how as missionaries, we don't need 100 baptisms to be successful.  What matters is the level of sacrifice you put in.  If you put in hard work, and you work everyday, that's what matters.  Did you give 100% of your effort to the Lord?  Because that's all he asks.  He is proud when you try, not just when you succeed! 

Anyway, hope you all have a good week!  See y'all next week! 

With love,

Sister Copeland 

Pictures of the Week

1. We had a zone breakfast and I had this gem on my phone afterwards!

 

2. This guy is cutting up a full cow leg.  With a hoof.  It was wild. 

3. African food!

4. A Duolingo question that hit a little too hard lol

Week 38 - February 15, 2021

CRAZY.  CRAZY.  CRAZY.   SO MUCH HAPPENED THIS WEEK.  GET READY FOR A WILD RIDE. 

So, yesterday was Sunday!  Throughout the week, Sister Hyde and I invited literally our entire teaching pool to come to church, and we invited them daily.  Well, it ended up working pretty well.  Our goal for church attendance was 10 (we average around 8 each week), and we had 11!!!  It was awesome.  A lot of people who had never come before were there, and it was cool to see how it went.  In the middle of the Sacrament meeting, I got a text saying we would do a musical number.  I was on stage translating, my companion was sitting with an investigator, and Elder Pitcher was sitting at the piano. So, we communicated, honestly, really well from the stage and stuff. 

We decided to do "I am a Child of God,'' in Swahili.  So we got up there, all we knew was we were doing three verses and Pitcher would just follow us.  Sister Hyde was not informed that he would do a key change in the middle of the song, so after the second verse, I leaned over and whispered, "Get ready for a key change," and honestly, seeing that we had no beforehand knowledge of this musical number, we killed it.  We are a dynamic trio of impromptu musical numbers.  We've done it countless times haha. 

Also, there's this lady named Charlotte.  She speaks Swahili and Kinyarwanda, so one time, she helped us translate a lesson from Swahili to Kinyarwanda.  After the lesson, she was like, "I really feel the Spirit!"  And then, we could never catch her when she was home, but we see her all the time around the city!  So, we kept inviting her to church.  And, she came! and brought her kids and then her boyfriend!!  So we got to meet the whole family and become friends with all of them!  So excited. 

SO!  Do you remember the party I went to where we then were invited to the biggest African party of the year?  Well, we NEEDED African dresses for the party because all the girls will be wearing handmade dresses in the same fabric.  So, of course, we needed it!  So, this week, the fabric came in, and we met up with "the queen of sewing," who makes all the dresses for "Miss Africa Idaho."  She measured us and is now making the dresses!  Get ready for an email in March where I'll look so cool lol.

Another cool lesson was with a lady named Joan.  She was from the refugee Elders' area, and now that they're gone, we have all of their friends now in our area!  Joan is such a sweetheart!  She hadn't been taught very much but always said that she felt the Spirit.  So, we asked her if she wanted to be baptized, and she said yes!  She's still got to learn all the lessons and come to church a couple times, but we are excited for her!

As the Zone Leadership, Sister Nielson, Elder Pitcher, Elder Naumann, and I taught a District Leader Training.  And honestly, it was really fun to learn from one another!  Here's the highlights:  Elder Pitcher doing a handstand, Elder Naumann singing in Spanish, and all the Elders making paper airplanes.  Wild.  I promise it was productive and all of those things make sense in context ahha.

Now for the weirdest night of my mission:  We went over to a family's house and it was the parents' anniversary.  It was lowkey awkward.  They did this thing where the dad got down on one knee and gave her a ring and then flowers and then they hugged SO AWKWARDLY, and then just stood there and people were quiet except for the music playing in the background.  And then, we had a dance party, and then, I was teasing the youngest kid by trying to convince him that "Thick" was spelled "Thicccc."  We have a video of the debate and it's hilarious.  And then, we taught the gospel, and then we were gone haha.  Wild. 

Spiritual Thought:

As I've studied D&C these past couple weeks, I've learned a lot about missionary work and revelation, and how they are combined.  While listening to a podcast about Section 11 of the Doctrine and Covenants, someone said something that really struck me. 

"Private victories precede public victories."

What he meant by that is we need to be prepared to receive revelation.  There is not a formula to help people come closer to Christ, but when one prepares themselves by feasting on the word of God, they will be ready to be in a situation to help someone change their life.  I loved hearing this.  I know that I haven't seen a lot of "public victories" with helping people come closer to Christ, but I know that I am having more and more "private victories" as I start to read the scriptures and truly apply them in my life, and as I am patient, success will come, BUT NOT ON MY TIMETABLE, on God's time.  Because his time is so much better!

Well, what a long email.  Thanks for reading if you've made it all the way through!

I love you all.  And my Texas peeps, STAY WARM!  I'm praying for you all!

Love,

Sister Copeland

Pictures (mengi):

1. Decorating the Elders' door for Valentines Day!💙

2. Snow!

3. My fav kids :)

4. Best way to put this dish:  animal tongue, cinnamon rice, and beans.  Yeah... not fantastic.

5. Reallyyyy cute baby

6. More snow haha

7. The cutest valentine I've ever received. 

8. Another selfie haha

Week 37 - February 8, 2021

 Honestly, it was a crazy week!

This week we had lots and lots to do, with no time to rest! Which is how it's supposed to be!!  As I've said for awhile now, I can rest in 2022 lol. 

Mt. Dew, cause it was my birthday and I needed to party hard

So, as I said last week, I went to a leadership conference down in Pocatello where Shane Littlefield was the presenter.  He discussed different approaches for how to do missionary work and, honestly, he instilled a new fire in me!  I'm so excited to implement the things he taught.  One of those big things was being consecrated.  He said that there is a difference between being obedient and being consecrated.  Consecration requires obedience, but those who are obedient aren't always consecrated.  So, he told a story of an AP he had while he was a mission president that talked about how he wanted to be more consecrated, so he gave up basketball.  The mission president was confused and said, "You don't have to do that, basketball is not at all disobedient!" and the AP said, "I know, but the basketball game we play as a zone every week is super fun for me and I think about it all week.  Because I'm thinking about that, my mind isn't 110% focused on the Lord." THAT'S the difference.  I am an obedient missionary, but I decided this week that I would work on being more consecrated.  Me and Sister Hyde came up with a plan and went through with it.  And now, this week, we have seen so many blessings!  I know that it's because of our goal and desire to be more consecrated. 

So, this week, the other ZL's, my STL comp and I, got to teach what we learned last week to our whole zone.  It was a lot of fun!  We got to present all of these points and share how the work we put in this week was helping our work as missionaries, and we helped motivate them to do the same.  It was really great!  I even got to sing a solo song at the end (p.s. I honestly take Elder Pitcher's talent for granted... we hadn't practiced the song even once before we performed, and he had never actually played it... he just kind of listened to it, and then we performed it... when he goes, who's gonna accompany me lol?).  It was awesome!  Zone Council was a success, and it was awesome to be able to give a training at it!

This week, I also got to go on an exchange with Sister Tyler, a missionary serving in Kimberly right now.  It was fun to spend the day with her!  Funny story:  That morning, I had pulled out a granola bar to eat for breakfast, and she mentioned that she has a really severe allergy to nuts and so I had to wipe down our table, throw out the granola bar and brush my teeth so I didn't give my companion an allergic reaction!  It was wild lol, but luckily everything was okay haha.

We were able to take the next big step with our branch this week!  We now have 2nd hour classes!!!  We had a cute little primary singing time with all our favorite kids, a youth class with a couple youth in attendance, and an adult Sunday school class where people participated and had a lot of fun!  It was so cool.  

Primary for Swahili Branch!!!😄

The cutest kids ever after we taught the plan of salvation!

The branch is still mostly investigators, which was cool because we filled three full classes for people to go to, even though they weren't members yet!!!  We got really good feedback from everyone and it was amazing!  Also, for Sacrament meeting this week, our translator was sick, so... guess who translated?  That's right!  Me!  It was really cool though!  I sat at the front of the chapel with my fancy microphone and stuff, and then I spoke Swahili words into the microphone for everyone to listen to on their headphones. Normally, the meeting is entirely in Swahili, but because so many of the people who actually speak were sick, and it was a fast and testimony meeting, I just translated whatever parts of it were in English into Swahili.  I had a lot of fun and it really tested my language skills.  General conference, here I come!

Now a kind of funny story from this week.  There was someone we had been teaching who was really interested!  He asked really good questions and like when we came over. But, this last visit was a different story.  He listened to our lesson and then proceeded to try and convince us we were wrong and that what we believe was stupid.  He kept trying to catch us in our words, and wouldn't let us talk at all.  Finally, my companion jumped into the conversation, taught a fire principle about the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and then we both said we had to leave.  He proceeded to say, "We're not done here," and we just looked at him, said, "Yes, we are," and left. Honestly, wild experience.  We knew we needed to leave, and we were bold in that thought by telling him that.  Crazy.

Spiritual thought for this week!

I was reading the Restoration Proclamation given last year at General Conference.  I forget how good it is!  As I read it, I marked anything that related to the five lessons we teach as missionaries.  I read through it five times and marked each time a different lesson.  All five lessons were present!  The proclamation is so beautiful in it's wording and in its testimony that Christ lives, Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ love us, and that God still speaks to his children today.  I can testify that no matter what is thrown at me to make my testimony weak, it will not prevail because I know without a shadow of a doubt that the Book of Mormon and what Joseph Smith experienced in the 1800's happened.  It's real.  It's true.  "I knew it, I knew God knew it, and I could not deny it". - Joseph Smith

Well, that's about it for me this week!  I hope you all are doing well and that everything is going fine and dandy! Nakupenda kabisa sana, na ninyi ni moyoni wangu daima!

--Sister Copeland <3

Check out the blog! www.sistersydneycopeland.blogspot.com

Pictures of the Week

 African party, (honestly when am I not at an African party?) 

 

Phui, long story short he got stuck in New York on his way to Africa and needed a friend

Week 36 - February 2, 2021

 20 years old!

Hello!  So, if you're wondering why you didn't get an email from me yesterday, it's because my p-day was changed to today!  I had a leadership conference down in Pocatello, so all the STL's and ZL's had their p-day changed to today!  They still let me message people a little bit yesterday, so if you received a message from me, don't worry, I wasn't breaking the rules lol. 

Anyway, this week was cool! 

To start, like I said, we had a leadership conference down in Pocatello with Shane Littlefield, the guy who is like the head of the Mission Department for this part of the US and South America South.  So, he's kinda a really big deal.  Also, he knows a LOT about missionary work.  He honestly roasted us for like four hours, but now I have this insane fire to just WORK.  It's amazing how much he taught us about what we hear all the time, yet it opened my eyes!  It was amazing. 

I went with Sister Nielsen, who also is an STL.  She's so sweet and we had so much fun!  We got to go look at the temple in Poky, which is being built right now, and also take some fun pictures in this rainbow tunnel!  She is so fun and we had a blast. 

After that, I came home and realized my comp had put balloons in our entire house and got people to write me notes:) My birthday is today, and it was so sweet to know I'm loved! I'm grateful to have two decades of life completed!  🥳

So, this week has been a little crazy because we combined our area with the refugee (non-Swahili refugees) area.  So, we gained more people and had a lot of people we could find!  So, we did what's called a return and report, where you set goals and then go out and work all day and then meet up at the end and see how you did!  So, we had one to see how many people we could meet, teach a lesson to, and set up a return appointment with.  Typically, we find about 1-2 people a week, but on Friday, we found 5 people in one day!!!  It was awesome!!!  We are excited for the work that goes on in these areas. 

We, also, had stake conference this week!  And, it needed to be translated into Swahili.  So, we had a team of three. Brother Odera (honestly the coolest Kenyan dude you'll ever meet), Elder Pitcher (Swahili work king), and me (lol).  So, we sat in a room together for all of stake conference and worked to live translate into headphones for the people who spoke Swahili.  It was crazy but so fun!

 

Translating buddy and my #1 homie Elder Pitcher

My goal is to do it for General Conference one day!! 

Spiritual Thought: 

I was reading about Patience this week.  I started to read in Mosiah 28 about the desires of the Sons of Mosiah (the most fresh missionaries in the Book of Mormon).  They wanted to help others feel the same happiness they did, and they just wanted to do the work of the Lord.  But, they often weren't successful.  People were hard-hearted and weren't ready to listen.  But, the Lord counseled them in Alma 17:10-11, where he says:

 

"And it came to pass that the Lord did visit them with his Spirit, and said unto them:  Be comforted.  And they were comforted.

And the Lord said unto them also:  Go forth among the Lamanites, thy brethren, and establish my word; yet ye shall be patient in long-suffering and afflictions, that ye may show forth good examples unto them in me, and I will make an instrument of thee in my hands unto the salvation of many souls."

 

He also comforts them in Alma 26:27, where he says:

"Now when our hearts were depressed, and we were about to turn back, behold, the Lord comforted us, and said: Go amongst thy brethren, the Lamanites, and bear with patience thine afflictions, and I will give unto you success."

They were depressed and ready to turn away, but the Lord told them to hold out a little longer.  They worked a little longer and a little harder and eventually they were blessed with success, and the ability to help thousands come closer to Christ.  This was a great comfort to me.  They wanted so badly to be successful and for a while it wasn't happening.  But, the Lord told them to be patient, and keep working and success would come.  This past little bit I've been struggling with a similar thing.  I work so hard and I put in daily effort, but I haven't been seeing success.  So, this helped me to see that it really is the Lord's timing.  If we are patient and allow the Lord to work with us, success will come.  Maybe not when we want it, but when it will be best. 

Well, that's all for me this week, folks.  I'm grateful to be surrounded by such good people up here in Idaho.  I'm also grateful to be able to spend my birthday as a missionary!  Keep being amazing, and I love you all! 

- Dada Copeland

PICS:

1.  Cute baby, Onore

2. Shadrack, Sister Hyde, and me!

3.  Pic of me saying bye to our Africa elders

4. A member took us to a stake house and bought us creme brulee:)

5. A HUGE IDAHO POTATO!