Week 44 - March 29, 2021

10 months and and a branch!

WE OFFICIALLY HAVE A BRANCH!  There were so many feelings I had that day as they called people for the Branch Presidency.  I was so happy that the work we had been doing paid off, I was excited for all the work that can be done in the future, and I am grateful to God for his hand in this work.  I take zero credit for this.  This is GOD'S WORK.  And I'm just happy to be a part of it.

Because Sister Hyde is leaving next week, some refugees threw a party for her!  They invited us to Skate Land and we went roller skating!  I've never been, so it was so fun!  They are the cutest!  Also, the music was a very nice touch.  I've missed the radio. 

Cutest party with the cutest girls.

I don't wanna brag, but this week we built a trampoline.  With no instructions.  And we kinda killed it.  We may have done a few things out of order, but in the end, it looked and worked like a real trampoline!!!  I was proud.

 

Something else fun that happened!  There were some Elders who used to serve in the Swahili district, and they came and said hi!  I've never met them, but I've heard so many stories.  It was good to meet them!  They took our District out to dinner, and it was so fun!

Another African party.  Yep.  Another.  This one wasn't as fancy as last time, but still wild.  When someone dies, even if they don't know the person, they have a 3-day party, and so, this weekend it was hard to get people to church because they partied for quite a while.  But, we ended up going to the party and seeing people.  It was crazy!  People were so shocked when I spoke the language.  Which is funny.  Cause I've been here 10 months.  Wild night lol. 

A miracle for the week was that Simon and his whole family came to church!!  He has been a person who would ALWAYS refuse to come to church, and now, he is driving his family to church!!!  Amazing!!! 

Well, honestly that's all I remember about this week. Lol. 

Here's a spiritual thought!!!

I read this quote this week and loved it!

"One might wonder, could the Savior redeem us from spiritual death if He had not first suffered the consequences of our sins?  Or, could he exalt an ordinary individual if he had not first internalized the woes of mortals?  On one hand, the Atonement was an exercise of incredible power, enabling Christ to endure the total human plight.  On the other hand, the atoning process was the acquisition and then the manifestation of incredible power to overcome that plight, as demonstrated by the power to resurrect, to redeem, and to exalt.

Could it be that the exercise of the power to endure was essential to the acquisition of the power to overcome?"

Sometimes we need to endure hardships to have the power to continue to fight!  So take your trials head on with the Lord.  He will help you end up on top. 

Well, I love you all!!

Dada Copeland 

Pictures of the Week: 

Saying bye to Elder Bryce who went home

Week 43 - March 22, 2021

 Saving a life (literally) AND souls...

Ok.  So you know how I said last week was crazy?  Believe it or not this week was crazier.  If you want a list of the events, scroll to the bottom.  The info in the bulk of this email is about two major events haha.

Morning Sunrise

Saving a Life- Well, first off, I need to explain the first half of my subject line.  I did indeed save a life.  (Well, God saved a life by putting people in the right place at the right time.)  So, I was on a short exchange with another Sister and we left a church building to go back to our companions.  As we drove away, Sister Nielson made a wrong turn.  So, we made a U-turn, and as we did, we saw a kid walking along the sidewalk, and then he fell really hard onto his face.  After he fell, he didn't move at all, and wasn't getting up.  So, we pulled over, and I asked him if he was okay.  He looked at me, and I noticed his eye was super swollen, and his face was covered in blood.  So, I asked him if he wanted me to call someone.  He kept refusing, saying he was just tired and wanted to go home.  I kept saying he should let me call someone and he kept refusing.  

So, because he wouldn't listen, we walked straight across the street and got the Elders to help us, because it was a teenage boy and it was only me and another sister.  As the Elders walked out with us, the kid was walking again, and fell even harder.  At that exact moment, a seminary teacher walked up to us, which was a miracle.  He just so happened to be teaching outside that day.  And, some other Sisters happened to drive up right at that moment, and before they knew what was happening, the kid got into their car and passed out. Luckily, the seminary teacher was able to help us get him out, and get him to a place where he could lay down and we could watch him while he called the ambulance.  Because he had a bloody head and was semi-unconscious, they got there fast.  A policeman showed up and started asking us questions, too. The boy, also, started vomiting a lot, so they were really worried about him.  They got him on oxygen, put in an I.V., a head brace, and then quickly put him on the ambulance.  We then helped clean up, answered a few more questions, and then they were off.  Sadly, we never got to hear the end of the story.  Everyone pray that he gets the help he needs!

Ambulance Extravaganza

Saving Souls (well, starting them down that path)- Now for the second half of my subject line.  If you'll think back to about 6 months ago, for Sister Hyde's year mark, we broke the mission record and taught 32 lessons in a day.  Well, it is now approaching the end of Sister Hyde's mission, and she hit her 18 months as a missionary this past Thursday.  SO OBVIOUSLY, we had to break our own record again.  

We geared up for the day ahead by starting with a morning hike, and praying on the large rock to start a fast!  After that, we got ready and set out for the day around 9 am.  We did personal study outside, so we could talk to people, and then had to take a quick pause to do a leadership meeting.  After the leadership meeting, we contacted every refugee and their dog, but didn't get many responses.  So, we decided to then visit every refugee and their dog (ironically, I saw more dogs this day than any other day on my mission lol).  We were off to a good start!  We even got a call from a refugee that is moving to Twin Falls soon and wants us to help her find a house.  God placed so many opportunities in our path so that we could reach our goal.  

9:15 pm rolls around, and we had only 29 lessons. We thought and racked our brains for who else we could teach, but we had to go home for curfew.  As we were driving home, I said, "I have faith God will provide a way to reach our goal. We fasted and prayed for this goal and He knows that.  I've got faith.  Just watch."  We went home, and broke our fast so we could eat dinner.  As soon as our prayer ended for our fast, messages from people started flying in.  Refugee after refugee replied to our messages.  They continued until 10:45.  We taught lessons until we shut our eyes to go to bed, and because of God's help and the power of fasting and prayer, we ended up teaching 36 LESSONS that day.  I am so thankful that God helped us accomplish a goal we had set.

 

Spiritual Thought- This email is already really long, but I wanted to share a short spiritual thought.  This week really testified to me that God is aware of each of us.  He knows our deepest desires, he knows our weaknesses, our strengths, and what we need most to come closer to Him.  And then, He provides.  I've learned to love goal-setting on my mission, because when I show God through a well-planned-out goal that I want to help His children, he will provide a way.  And when a kid gets in a bad situation and needs help, he puts the people in his path that will keep him alive, exactly when he needs it.  I can bear witness that God is aware.  He is keeping a watchful eye on all His children and wants to help us return to Him.  TRUST GOD.  He will never let you down. 

ALSO, SALT LAKE APPROVED US TO UPGRADE TO A BRANCH!  YOUR'E READING THE WORDS OF A MISSIONARY IN THE TWIN FALLS 20TH BRANCH!  This is the start of it all.  Alma 4:4.

Here's all of the other out-of-context events from this week cause I don't have space to write about them:

-my face got infused with LED light and electrical pulses, because apparently it's relaxing

Spa Day

-I spent 2 hours in a T-Mobile store buying an 8 year old a phone

-someone gave us two elk teeth and a used thing of Chapstick as a gift

-Sister Hyde's family came to town and we did their laundry

-we met a guy who has the whole Bible in his brain

- a lady told me I would go to heaven because I folded her laundry

-we got a kid on-date for baptism his first lesson with us

-one of our friends progressed faster in 2 minutes than the rest of the time we've been teaching him combined

-I did all of this with a fever for 50% of the week

--Sister Copeland

Week 42 - March 15, 2021

 The week we've all been waiting for.

Wow.  Well, it was finally here.  The party that has been talked about for ages finally happened.  So, as I have said for many weeks, this party is the biggest African party of the year.  The reason for the party was to celebrate International Women's Day!  So, every mother/older girl matched with outfits in the same fabric.  So, we had our fancy African dresses, of course.

 

To prepare for this party, and especially my dance performances, we had to practice for our dance performance! Beatrice, our teacher, just told us simple steps that may happen, but didn't really give us any instructions!  And I realized, there won't be any choreography because all it is is a "follow the leader" kinda thing.  So it was stressful haha.  The videos are long, so if you want the dance video, let me know, and I'll share a link with you.  Haha

Well, the party was a blast.  It made me remember all the college parties I went to, because let me tell you, these Africans party hard.  We danced, we sang, and the peak of the night was dancing the African cha cha slide, aka yope.  We got a shout out from the DJ after that, too.  We kinda killed it.

 

The party ended up being so much fun!  It's a night and an experience I will remember for the  rest of my life.

 

We even got featured on someone's FB story

Another amazing thing from this week was that President Southward came and taught a lesson with us!  The Spirit was so strong, and you could really see Fausta and her siblings thinking really hard.  I hope this gives them a desire to be baptized! 

Heres a really quick spiritual thought! 

1 Corinthians 4:20:

"For the kingdom of God is not in word, but in power."

I love this scripture because it really shows the importance of the priesthood!  It shows that for a church to be the kingdom of God, it needs not just the words of God, but his power.  That's the priesthood!  I know this church is God's kingdom on earth because the priesthood power is here! 

Well, I'm sure there's more that happened this week, but it's all been a blur haha. 

Love you all! 

With love, Sister Copeland

Week 41 - March 8, 2021

 Hello!  This week went actually HARAKA KABISA.  It was busy-busy, but a lot of fun! 

Here's the highlights!

☆Setting Up Houses- This week, we got to set up three new houses for refugees!  That means more and more people are coming into the country, which is so exciting!  There will be so many more people we can love and teach in the upcoming weeks which is fantastic!

☆African dance- So, if you've been reading my emails, you'll remember that there is a huge African party this next week! So, we got our DRESSES! which is so exciting.  But, that's not it.  On Sunday, we went over to Beatrice's house, and she was leaving her house.  We asked where she was going, and she told us she is getting another dress for us because we are going to be dancing at the party.  Like as a performance.  And, according to her, it's the most important dance of the evening. So, catch me dancing some African dance on Saturday.  I'll take videos! 

☆Ledwina - So, as a refugee missionary, I was sure that I knew all the refugees in Twin Falls, or at least heard of them. But, I guess that's not true!  We got a member referral this week for a refugee family who are friends with a member family.  So, we went over and taught their family and it was amazing!  So, it'll be good to start teaching them!

☆Snowshoeing- So, being a leader in the Idaho Pocatello Mission has its perks!  President likes to make our monthly leadership conferences fun instead of just another meeting. So, this month, all the STL's and ZL's got to go snowshoeing in Pocatello!  It was harder than I thought but honestly so fun and GORGEOUS!  I'll attach pics of it below!

☆Fast Sunday- Fasting is insane.  Let me tell you.  Sundays are usually hard days for us because we use all our energy to prepare and make sure the branch goes well, and then after church we have no energy.  And, you would think that fasting means you have less energy!  But, in reality, I had so much energy!  Fasting gives power to just do it and get going on the day.  Fasting is powerful and I have a testimony of that! 

Spiritual Thought! 

I read this week an article called, "The Fourth Missionary."  It talks about different levels of consecration and sacrifice a missionary can give.  One of my favorite points in there is the fact that when we are asked to sacrifice everything, the most important thing we can sacrifice to the Lord is our heart/will. Because, everything else are all things he has given to us, and we would just be giving them back.  Our will and our heart are the only thing we can give to him that he doesn't already have. It's the true measure of our love for God.  So, I've been working on giving my will to Christ, and I'll do that by doing missionary work with gladness and love in my heart.

Well, that's all for me this week!  Watch out for a sick email next week!  The African party is on Saturday, and I have a feeling its gonna' be fire 🔥

Love you all! 

Sister Copeland

Pictures of the Week:

Pics from a morning hike with the Elders!

We saw a portion of the river and falls that I had never seen before.  It was beautiful!

Lunch with Elders in the canyon!

 Cute baby

I got my hear "did"

Week 40 - March 1, 2021

 What a CRAZY week! 

Here's the wild points: 

☆ MY SWAHILI GRANDMAS BIRTHDAY:  My favorite person in the world turned 56 this week!!!  We went over with some members and brought her a cake and some flowers!  The members also gave her a Book of Mormon in her mother tongue (lingala) and this cute sweater!  She was so excited about the Book of Mormon especially!  She's my favorite person.  She calls me her baby, and I love her. 

My Swahili gma and her Book of Mormon and the first balloon she's ever had! 

☆Dharr Mann:  You may be wondering why the legendary dhar mann (insert Noel Miller screaming sound) is in my subject line.  Well, if you don't know, Africans LOVE Dhar Mann.  They full on praise the dude.  He is a guy that makes these YouTube videos about bad people who have an experience that makes them realize they are bad people and they become good people.  They are acted out by these actors, and are a little cheesy haha.  So, we went over to try and contact this lady that we've been trying to teach for AGES. We went over, no answer.  We then went over to someone else's house and she walks in.  Miracle!  Anyway, she invites us over.  We walk to her house.  And then, we asked if we could share a message.  She said no, because she needed to eat first.  So, she put on Dhar Mann videos while she cooked. We asked if she wanted us to come back later, she said no. We asked if we could help, she said no.  So, we sat and watched the Dhar Mann videos.  I kid you not, 3.5 HOURS LATER, she finally let us share a message and we left.  It was hilarious.  But, we got to teach her and it went well! 

☆ Sofia and the WHOLE CHURCH:  So, this week, we invited Sofia to come to a baptism, so she could see it before she got baptized herself.  (She's not allowed right now because her mom wants her dad to come and he's in Africa.... so... yeah) but, when she came to the baptism, she said, "I want the WHOLE CHURCH to come to my baptism."  We said, we can make that happen!  Haha.  She's a cutie. 

☆ TOAST:  So, this is the greatest thing I've ever done.  We, as leadership, decided to come up with a zone motto!  Here's the backstory.  A week or so ago, we had a R&R and we did a toast bar.  Before the toast bar, Elder Mcclaws said, "I love toast," random, but it was funny at the time.  Or at least Elder Pitcher thought it was.  So, when it was time to choose a motto, we put out a poll, and Elder Pitcher's suggestion was, "I love toast."  And of course, it won.  So, we then had to come up with a way to relate it to missionary work.  I came up with this acronym:  Teaching Others About Spiritual Truths. (T.O.A.S.T.).  Iconic.  So, now we have more zone unity than ever before and it's amazing.  We all just go around talking about how much we love toast! Haha. 

Toast 🚫🧢

Here's a spiritual thought for your week!

D&C 19: 15-20

 

15 Therefore I command you to repent—repent, lest I smite you by the rod of my mouth, and by my wrath, and by my anger, and your sufferings be sore—how sore you know not, how exquisite you know not, yea, how hard to bear you know not.

16 For behold, I, God, have suffered these things for all, that they might not suffer if they would repent;

17 But if they would not repent they must suffer even as I;

18 Which suffering caused myself, even God, the greatest of all, to tremble because of pain, and to bleed at every pore, and to suffer both body and spirit—and would that I might not drink the bitter cup, and shrink—

19 Nevertheless, glory be to the Father, and I partook and finished my preparations unto the children of men.

20 Wherefore, I command you again to repent, lest I humble you with my almighty power; and that you confess your sins, lest you suffer these punishments of which I have spoken, of which in the smallest, yea, even in the least degree you have tasted at the time I withdrew my Spirit."

These scriptures are ones that I love.  First off, I love it because Christ is talking.  This is one of the only times where Christ talks about the Atonement in his own words.  In the Bible and Book of Mormon we here it from others, but here, we hear it from him.  It's amazing.  Second, it shows how perfect the Plan of God is.  He will never force anything upon us. Agency is central to this plan.  God didn't force Adam and Eve to fall, he didn't force anyone to come to earth, and he doesn't even force everyone to accept the grace and salvation of Jesus Christ.  So, we all need to evaluate ourselves.  The Atonement is right there for us to use it!  Are we using it?  It's the greatest gift ever given but if we don't use it, we gave to suffer those consequences. 

Anyway, what a great week!  I posted for my 9 months as well if y'all wanna check out that! 

I love you!  Send me emails! 

- Sister Copeland ♡

Pictures of the Week:

 

1-2. Transfers! Here's some pics of me and my homies 

3. Betina and me cheesin'

4. BELLAMY (AKA THE CUTEST KID) her hand on my cheek is how she sat for a long time

 

5. Betina holding my hand:)