Weekly Letter

Dear Family and Friends,

We'll start with the reason we are sending this just a little bit late.  As you know, this is a long 4th of July weekend so we had a lot of visitors at church today. Mom taught the youth Sunday School lesson this week and had at least 18 kids in her class, none from our branch. Some of those visitors included Mom's cousin Valerie Wride and her family.  We have probably mentioned this in an earlier letter, but Valerie's son Adam owns a cabin on Deep Creek Lake.  So Valerie invited us to dinner yesterday.  It is such a beautiful setting. The cabin is 40-50 feet from the lake and is surrounded by trees.  They said that their handyman came by last week to do some work and a bear crawled into his truck.  He had a Burger King sack with some food in it and some pizza bites.  The bear ate the pizza bites but left the Burger King sack alone. What do bears know that we don't?  We also saw a bear off to the side of the road on our way there. We had a good meal and an even better visit.  They are really nice people and it was really nice for Mom to visit with her cousin again.

Our highlight this week was another trip to the Washington D.C. temple. It was kind of a branch temple visit but only the Flanagans, Debbie Piper and Mom and I ended up going.  The Flanagans had family names and we each had a family name for an endowment session.  We did baptisms, confirmations, initiatory, endowment and sealings. Kim Flanagan was able to do all the temple work for her grandmother and sealed her grandma and grandad to each other.  Brian was able to do the work for his uncle and sealed his aunt and uncle to each other. It was a long but very enjoyable day at the temple. And to top it off, we stopped to eat at Cracker Barrel. We didn't get home until after 1:00 and I'm sure we broke a mission rule for that. Thank goodness we are a senior couple.  

The rest of the week was a pretty typical week for us.  We had some good member visits. We were able to have a good long visit with an inactive member that others said wasn't approachable.  It might have helped that we gave him a birthday card and a candy bar for his birthday, but it was a really enjoyable visit at the front door. Tuesday at the Institute we fixed pulled pork sandwiches and Mom's potato salad and everyone seemed to enjoy that. We had a pretty decent attendance this week, but it is really hard to guess how many young adults will be there any given week.  Some weeks we are tired at the end of the night, but it's worth it. Our new member, Alex, gave the opening prayer in Sacrament Meeting and bore his testimony.  The missionaries had lesson with him that we helped with.  We talked a little more about Priesthood and also about receiving a Patriarchal Blessing.  He was excited about that.  He is such a good guy.

The humidity is starting to kick in.  Luckily that temperatures have been mild.  Our towels aren't drying out and we sweat pretty easily.  Hopefully the temperatures will stay low for the next six weeks.

My scripture this week comes from out Sunday School lesson yesterday.  It is found in John 21:15-17. "So when they had dined, Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these?  He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee.  He saith unto him, Feed my lambs. He saith unto him again the second time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? He saith unto him, Yea Lord; thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my sheep. And he saith unto him the third time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? Peter was grieved because he said unto him the third time, lovest thou me? And he said unto him, Lord thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee. Jesus saith unto him, Feed my sheep."

It must be important if Jesus repeated the same thing three times. We are all shepherds. Look around and find those that need help either temporally or spiritually. We can be their shepherds.

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

1. Brian and me

2. Mom, Debbie, me

3. Flanagans and us