Weekly Letter

Dear Family and Friends.

We had a fantastic week. Not too much missionary work, but a lot of time and great adventures with Ben, Holli, Eliza and Kristine (Ben's Mom). I'll try to tell you what we were able to do and see without going into too much detail and boring you.  We left Oakland Monday morning at 6:30 and headed to Gettysburg. This was one of our favorites.  We had a bus tour with a very knowledgeable tour guide.  We were kind of surprised at the magnitude of all of it. We learned of the different key battles and were on the sites where it all happened. There was a solemnity to it and gave us a great feeling of gratitude for the all the sacrifices made.  We then continued on to Lancaster County which is Amish country.  We went to the Shady Maple Amish Smorgasbord.  The place is huge and has a great selection of really good food. We had a chance to talk about some of our beliefs with the lady that was waiting on our table. Our missionary tags get a lot of looks and this lady kept looking at my tag and so I started a conversation with her and let here know we are missionaries.  She shared a story of her daughter who died of cancer and she really missed her.  I told her about our belief in eternal families and she seemed really touched.  I told her that if two young men in white shirts and ties or two young women nicely dressed ever knocked on her door she needed to listen to them.  We then headed to Washington D.C.  On the freeway to D.C. the temple just pops up all lit up. It's beautiful.  We went to the temple visitor's center and around the grounds a little. It was a good way to start our visit to Washington D.C.

Our first visit on Tuesday was to the Arlington National Cemetery.  We were amazed at the size of it.  It has more than 600 acres and over 400,000 people are buried there. They said there is at least one burial there every day.  We were able to watch the changing of the guard at the tomb of the unknown soldier. I was a solemn experience. We then went to the National Mall area and visited the National Archives Museum.  This is where the original Declaration of Independence and the Constitution are housed. We then went to the National Holocaust Museum. We were there nearly three hours and the man that welcomed us said if we looked carefully at everything there it could take nearly twelve hours.  It was an solemn and heart-wrenching tour. We then went to Hank's Oyster Bar on the Wharf for dinner.  Ben and I were the only ones brave enough to eat the raw oysters, but everyone enjoyed the good seafood. We then took a night bus tour to see some of the monuments and memorials. We had a funny tour guide that kept us entertained. We had stops at the Lincoln Memorial, the Marine Corp. memorial, the Korean War Memorial and the Viet Nam War memorial.  We drove past the Capitol Building but couldn't visit there.

Wednesday we went to the Jefferson Memorial, the Washington Monument and to the World War II memorial.  We went to the Smithsonian American History Museum which was very entertaining. That's about all our poor legs and feet could take. One side note, if you ever go to the American History Museum don't buy a salad at the cafeteria; they charge you $16.95 a pound for a green salad. 

From there we headed home to Oakland and the Ritchies went on to Pittsburgh to fly out the next day.  We can't thank Ben and Holli enough for sharing their vacation with us.  It was like a dream come true for us, probably a once in a lifetime experience.

Thursday was back to work at the hospital and Friday was our District Council meeting, which we always enjoy.  We took out some birthday cards and candy bars on Saturday and then had dinner with the Flanagan's. As we said at the first of this letter, it was a great week.

Mom's scripture this week is from 2 Nephi 1:7. It says, "Wherefore, this land is consecrated unto him whom he shall bring. And if it so be that they shall serve him according to the commandments which he hath given, it shall be a land of liberty unto them; wherefore, they shall never be brought down into captivity; if so, it shall be because of iniquity;  for if iniquity shall abound cursed shall be the land for their sakes, but unto the righteous it shall be blessed forever."  She thought this was fitting for the trip we just made.  We know that God's hand was in the establishing of this country.

That's all for this week.  We love you and pray for you daily.

Mom and Dad

Grandma and Grandad

Jamee and Kerry

Elder and Sister Cooper