Week 66 - August 31, 2021

 Friends and family of Sister Sydney Copeland,

This week has been insanely chaotic... that's probably the best way to explain it... Lots of ups and downs.

First off, Stake Conference was this past Sunday.  There was a new stake created!  It didn't change much for our branch, but it sure has been crazy!  Elder Valenzuela of the Seventy came, and he is absolutely awesome.  He tells the most tender stories.  Anyway, I also got to translate for Stake Conference this year!  We tried last year, which was the first time we tried translating.  It's safe to say that I've gotten a LOT better this past year at translating.  It went a lot smoother haha.

After Stake Conference, we got to take Patricia's family to see the temple!  When they pulled up they got so excited.  They took pictures, and it was just a beautiful thing for them!  The next day, we went to their house, and they got so excited when they knew we were there.  The temple really really helps them.  It was so cute to see them all there finally. 

Etienne is supposed to get baptized this upcoming Saturday! He is being worked on real hard by the adversary right now, so please pray that he will go through with it!  He is awesome, though.  We went through his baptismal interview, just to prepare him, and he is excited, he is just nervous. Please send all the prayers you can to him!!!

We were also able to have a Zone Conference this week with Elder Valenzuela, and he talked a lot about our purpose as missionaries.  He really explained how awesome it is that we have the opportunity to be a FULL TIME missionary.  And with that, he asked "Are you acting like a full time missionary or a part time missionary?"  Dang.  That hits hard.  Anyway.  It was awesome to hear from a member of the Seventy.

Also..... I wrote a song.  I know I know, it's been a long time coming, but I finally did it. I got to sing it at our mission conference, and people said really good things about it!  I am revising the little parts I'm not happy with, and then I'm gonna record it in the studio, and at that point, y'all can hear it!!  So keep a look out for my Facebook post of my song haha.

We are doing this super cool experiment with our teaching pool, branch, and mission.  It's called the Book of Mormon Experiment, which you may have heard of.  You take a page of the Book of Mormon and you mark all the references to God and Jesus Christ that you see.  So, we are doing this experiment with tons of people in our mission boundaries in 20+ languages.  It's gonna be super cool at the end!  It's a big project, but we are super excited about it!

One of the downs of the week was we received some news that there is a slight possibility that after I leave, the Swahili sisters may be no more.  But, we are keeping an open mind. Please pray that our mission leaders and us as well may be able to receive the revelation and answers we need on this situation.  Thanks:)

For a spiritual thought this week, I would love to share my testimony of revelation.  The heavens are never closed off to us.  Whenever we need answers, they are right there.  God is never going to close us off to where we can't get answers.  I've seen a lot of answers come to me on my mission, and I just wanted to talk about how grateful I am for that.  I am lucky to have God's hand and light in my life!  If you need answers, ask!

Thanks for tuning in!  It was a crazy crazy week.  Message me!  I miss yall.  See y'all in 64 days. 

-sister copeland:)

Pic of the Week:

BREAD