Weekly Letter

Dear Friends and Family,

Last week I forgot to tell you about Morgan. Morgan has been a member of the church since 1975.  He was pretty active for a while but quit coming to church many years ago.  His excuse was he didn't feel comfortable around a lot of people. Early on we decided to visit him and invite him to activities and church.  He did come to the Christmas party, but that was the last time he came to the church.  We told our new sister missionaries about him and they paid him a visit and emphasized the importance of taking the sacrament at church.  He came to Sacrament Meeting last week, came to FHE on Monday and came to Sacrament Meeting again today.  He said he realized he needed the branch and the branch needed him.  He said he will be coming to FHE tomorrow and is excited that we have it each week. I told  him I wanted to hear his baptism story and he invited us to visit him at his home to tell us his story.

We were able to join with the sister missionaries in teaching a few lessons this past week.  We had a lesson with our friend Alex on Wednesday where the sister missionaries and us taught him about the Word of Wisdom and the Law of Chastity. The lesson earlier in the week was about the Law of Tithing and Fast Offerings.  He accepted everything.  The sisters went through the baptismal interview questions and he didn't have any questions or problems.  His baptismal date was for June 17.  But there was a little problem today.  He had been to church twice but missed church today. He has to attend Sacrament three times before he can be baptized, so it doesn't look like he can be baptized until the next week. We had a appointment set up for this afternoon and he didn't come; we think he was out of town and he doesn't have a cell phone so we couldn't get in touch with him.  Hopefully he will be here this week and he can come to church next Sunday and be baptized the following Saturday.  We helped with a lesson with Travis this past week.  He lives in a pretty rough area and he doesn't have a car, so the sisters and us are teaching him on the phone.  He is very humble and teachable and willing to read the Book of Mormon.  He set a baptismal date of Sept. 9.  He was close to his grandma who passed away not long ago and wants to be baptized on or near birthday on Sept. 6. We also helped teach a lesson to Barb yesterday.  She knew a little about our church and had some questions about the three degrees of glory.  We talked about the Sacrament and the covenants we make at baptism.  We talked about how we felt when we were baptized and how she could feel that as well.  She was going to try to come to church, but didn't make it today.  She is busy taking care of her grandkids and great-grandkids.  We did have another lady, Donna, come to church today.

We had quite a few visitors at Sacrament meeting today,  It looks like we will have some visitors nearly every week this summer. Today it was all Primary kids but our Primary president and our Primary teacher were both gone today, so the visitors taught their own kids. It's nice to have a bigger congregation once in a while.  We are looking forward to having Kristy and Josh and their family join us at church this coming Sunday.  Mom knows she will have at least two young women attend her class. It will be interesting to see if Father's day will bring any visitors.

We had a good experience with our sister missionaries this week.  We went to an assisted living facility with the sisters to visit a member of our branch that has been there a long time.  Sister Schurger brought her guitar and we we sang hymns to him and several other residents that wanted to join in.  It was good to see how much they appreciated that.  That was a good feeling moment for all of us.  Mom and I also went to a rehab facility where  we visited with another older branch member who had her leg amputated and will be there a while.  She was really happy to see us. We told her we would come back and bring her a treat.  She said she doesn't have a real favorite treat because she doesn't have enough teeth to chew anything too hard.  Then she said she really likes Twinkies and so does her roommate. We told her we would back another day with some Twinkies.

We got a new missionary this week.  Sister Stay went home this week and Sister Arnold replaced her.  Sister Arnold is a really sweet young woman from Harriman, Utah.  She and Sister Schurger are going to do great thing here in Oakland.  Because of transfers we didn't get to have District Council meeting this week.  We miss it and look forward to our next meeting on Friday.

Mom's scripture this week is from John 16:21.  "A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, because her hour is come: but as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world."  Mom really liked this scripture when she came across it today. She is glad she got to be a mother seven times.

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

Love,

Mom and Dad

Grandma and Grandad

Jamee and Kerry

Sister and Elder Cooper