Weekly Letter

Dear Friends and Family,

It's been a quiet week.  Our friend Brian Flanagan had a severe kidney infection this last week.  It was causing him a lot of pain added to the pain he is always dealing with.  He asked if I could come over and give him a blessing which I was happy to do.  No one else was around to help me give the blessing so I did it myself.  When we took him a hamburger the next day the kidney pain was pretty much gone. For Brian, a hamburger is like a pain killer, so he really enjoyed that.  We have another brother in the branch named Glen Piper who has been in the hospital and rehab center for the last several weeks.  He came home this week so we took dinner over to him and his wife.  We are just trying to serve those around us however we can.  We served at the hospital again this week.  We only missed one week but it seemed like we were gone for a long time. We were back at the Institute cooking for the kids again this week.  We made spaghetti this time and they really seemed to enjoy it.  We were back with the young missionaries on Friday.  Just like at the hospital, we only missed one week but it seemed like we were gone a long time.  Our district is having some good success.  They are teaching quite a bit and just had a baptism.  They have two or three more baptisms scheduled.  

Our highlight this week was having a "ramp" dinner with the Flanagans, the Emmers and the Elders.  Ramps are leek-like plants that grows wild in West Virginia.  The taste is kind a mix of green onion and garlic.  They say you don't want to eat them raw because you will stink like an onion the next day, bad enough that people won't want to be next to you.  It's a long process to cook them.  They clean them, boil them for a long time and fry them. They serve them over fried potatoes.  The rest of our dinner consisted of a bean soup, ham, cornbread and deviled eggs.  For dessert we had applesauce cake.  The cake isn't a part of the traditional ramp dinner, but it was still good.  The ramps are harvested in the spring and so the ramp dinner kind of kicks off spring in this area.

The grass is greening up, trees are starting to get their leaves.  In the lower valleys it is really starting to look like spring with flowering trees. It's really pretty.  The temperatures are very spring-like and we are getting interment showers. It's a pretty time of year.

We had no young women again this week.  Mom had the lesson all prepared and nobody bothered to come, so she got to attend my lesson.  She's still working hard to get the Young Women's program going.  She had some training from the Stake Young Women president after church with her councilor and the Branch President.  She's trying to change a culture here and eventually things will get going.

One of our speakers in Sacrament Meeting today talked about our agency.  We often call it free agency but that term is not used anywhere in scripture where it is called agency or moral agency.  We all have the right to choose, that is fundamental to Christ's plan. Satan wanted to take that agency away from us. The scripture she used was in 2Nehpi 2:27-28. It reads, "Wherefore, men are free according to the flesh; and all things are given them which are expedient unto man.  And they are free to choose liberty and eternal life, through the great Mediator of all men, or to choose captivity and death, according to the captivity and power of the devil; for he seeketh that all men might be miserable like unto himself.  And now, my sons (and daughters), I would that ye should look to the great Mediator, and hearken unto his great commandments; and be faithful unto his words, and choose eternal life, according to the will of his Holy Spirit."  Jesus Christ wants us to be happy with Him and our Heavenly Father.  Satan wants us to be miserable like him.  To me, that makes the choice a no-brainer.

Have a good week. We love you all and pray for you daily.

Love,

Mom and Dad

Grandma and Grandad

Jamee and Kerry

Sister and Elder Cooper