December 29, 2014 - Here is a quick update from Dakota's letters and pictures from our Christmas Call.  Such a lovely Christmas and looking forward to the new year!

This week was really good but yesterday and today are kinda miserable because it is pouring rain. We taught 30 lessons this week which was crazy!! usually we get like half that...or at least in Lanett we got half of that but its a new area and it is new numbers. It is so cool to see how much more receptive people are down here when it is Christmas and a lot of people are thinking about it. The He is the Gift initiative is working really well too, so that is super cool. It is the reason we were able to teach so many lessons. I am slacking at getting you guys scriptures this month but partially cause you got all of them for me on my advent calendar so I will start those back up next week for the new year.

Elder Saurey and I are trying to get a group started here in Fitzgerald next week so that will be a lot of work and that will be super nice and cool and it will make it easier for people to come to church so they will become more active. So far it isn't that much more work being a district leader but I was just assigned a few weeks ago.

Well anyway we had tons of fun this week. Also, Elder Saurey is teaching me how to play guitar. We are looking forward to 2015.
Love, Elder Cobler

December 12, 2014 - One of the members from Dakota's mission called me to tell me Dakota was transferred to Fitzgerald Georgia.  He said they really love Dakota in Lanette, he is a great missionary, a lot of fun and they will miss him.  

We are looking forward to hearing about his new adventure and changes.

I am also adding a link to the movie he mentions in his letter below:

He is the Gift - With a great Intro from ThePianoGuys

Excerpts from Dakota's Letters for the last few weeks.  I am behind so pretty much cutting and pasting what he wrote to us in order to save time.  No filtering:

December 8, 2014 - The library closed early so just a brief note: I get transferred tomorrow.  I was assigned to be a district leader and am extremely excited to hear about where I get transferred. More next week.

December 1,2014
This week was really good. Fantasy in Lights was super cool last week. On wed we learned about the Chruch's cool new Christmas initiative called He is the Gift. It is a cool new video. I have never felt the spirit so strongly just from watching a video. I love it and I love getting to show it to people.

After we did that we headed down to Columbus to test my blood because I have been feeling so tired. My ferratin was a 60 which was good but my Vitamin D was still low "a little bit" at 27.6 and it is from 30-100 so the doctor doubled my vitamin D intake so now i take 1100% of the DV which is crazy. I think it is because when i got low iron i stopped drinking milk which was a big part of my Vitamin D but who knows. late that night we had our scrip study that we were supposed to teach but i felt exhausted. I finally prayed and Heavenly Father prompted me that I should just tough it out and He will give me the strength just like he has in the past. It was an awesome study even though we were late. it was on 1 Nephi 6 which was only 6 verses long so that will be the scrips of the week because of how much we were able to get out of them. Also I will add Helaman 5:12 because we played Jenga on Thanksgiving and I made the foundation really unstable and so it was super hard for everyone else. It was a really cool thanksgiving cause i even got to do my own turkey trot which was really slow. 19:35. I did it though. Thanksgiving was cool. The members live in a cabin in the middle of nowhere so it was really cool. it was a really good and fun week :) Love you tons

November 24, 2014

On Wednesday I was on an exchange in Lagrange GA but not really anything spectacular happened other than talking to people at an old folks home. It was really sad to see how much they had to suffer because they were all very miserable and couldn't really remember things. It made me extra thankful for the health I have. On Thursday a member from Elder B's last area came to visit us so that was really fun and then on Saturday we did a crazy day. We biked 17 miles down to this new area took a few pictures and then biked 4.5 miles back where we came from to a members house and we almost got eaten by a German shepherd that chased us for like 400 meters. then we biked 4.5 miles back to a different members house for dinner and they have a German shepherd that almost ate us too. after that they wouldn't let us bike home in the dark so they made us wait so we could get a truck to take our bikes but it was still a nice day and the bike ride was super nice. Other than the bike ride not really much else happened and it was a pretty good week.

November 17, 2014
The other day it did get down to 20 degrees but it warmed up a little bit in the day. That was just at night time. this morning it was pretty warm but it was pouring rain.

This week was a really fun week and good one. This weeks scrips are Alma 17:3, 26:12,29,37, 31:10, 29:4, and 2 Nephi 31:19&20. Oh and Alma 26:5&6 but i wanted to talk about that one so i didn't count it in the 7. A few weeks ago we had a member give a talk about temples. it was really cool. I just wanted to give you a heads up about it a little because the way he talked about it is cool. as missionaries our goal is not to get people baptized but to get them to the temple where we truly receive eternal life so in the scripture it talks about the Sheaves as everyone that has been baptized and the Garners are the temples so I thought i would just talk about that so you guys pick up on it. we taught a cool lesson about it last night that really touched the family to go to the Temple. The Temple is such a cool experience where you can feel the spirit so strongly. It is definitely one thing i miss most. 

On Saturday I cooked the chicken wrapped in bacon with rice thing and almost killed us because i tried to rush it and i didn't let the chicken defrost all the way so it didn't finish cooking.

Oh and one of our members here that is a way good singer made it onto the Glorious final cut. David Archuleta sang it for the Meet the Mormons video and then they had a contest. they submitted 420 videos and he was one of the few that got picked. if you go watch it he is like the 5th one and he is a big black dude wearing a yellow polo shirt. His family is the one we taught about the temple. On Friday the Elders from Lagrange thought they got locked out of their apt so they stayed with us...the dorks had a key to the top lock the whole time and they weren't really locked out...it was kinda funny. so i got in a pranking mood so if you can think of any good mild pranks to pull on E B they would be greatly appreciated. On Saturday I dumped a huge bucket of Ice water on him while he was showering and Last night while he was going to the bathroom I flipped the breaker to all of the lights in our apartment and convinced him that the power went out because it was raining. I was going to see if i could make it last a few days but it was too funny so i had to tell him...he even heard the breaker click when i turned it off but he still thought the power went out hahahaha.

Oh and the last cool experience of the week. On Thursday we had a zone training meeting. We were asked to get a scripture for every single principle we teach and memorize them a while back when Elder Kopishcke came to our mission. there are 42 total principles. we were told we were going to get tested at ztm. Later our ZL picked on us to show him our scripture...ya we haven't been able to memorize them because I am trying to read the whole BOM first. Anyway we got up there and he acted like an investigator that was struggling with the BOM. Elder B immediately threw me under the bus and expected me to find a specific scripture he was thinking of. Luckily I was able to find it. As soon as I started reading it the spirit hit us all like a train and it helped me find a new thing in the verse. It is Ezk 37:15 I believe and it talks about the stick of Judah and Ephraim and combining them together but out of the 100 times I have showed that scripture to people I had never picked up on it. At the very end it talks about how they will become one in thine hand and so I was able to relate it to him.

Needless to say we threw it in his face and walked away because the spirit was so strong. The meeting was super good and motivational. It was a super awesome week. 

November 10, 2014
I learned something really really cool!!!! Josh Snyder served in this exact same branch and all of the members especially Bennie told me a little about his mission here so that was cool.

Last Monday was kind of interesting. first. We had interviews on Tuesday and nobody to cut our hair except for the sister missionaries so they cut our hair but they aren't allowed to come in our apt so we had to do it on our back porch and the clippers didn't have a long enough cord so we had to use xmas lights as an extension cord so that was kinda funny.

Interviews were really good. It is so fun to be around other missionaries and to get to talk to President and Sister Cottle. The scriptures I picked for the week are all in Alma. 25:6, 26:12, 32:19, 37:13, 37:36&37, 39:11, 42:22.

Excerpts from Dakota's Letter on November 3, 2014

He assigned us the following scriptures of the week for study: Alma 12:14, 13:20, 16:16&17, 17:10, 32:19, 34:31-34, and 3 Nephi 18:1-12.

He also challenged us to do the following.:
Yesterday we listened to a talk by President Eyring called O Remember Remember. It was really cool and it talked about keeping a journal or some sort of list of blessings you recieved each day or different things you are thankful for. i guess those 2 things are kind of the same thing since we should always be thankful for our blessings so i wanted to challenge you guys to do that and then on thanksgiving you will have a big list of blessings that you guys are thankful for that you will be able to pray and thank Heavenly Father for.  

Stories from his letter:
Not really a lot happened this week but we did have an investigator that told Elder Bleyle she was having dreams about him and her being boyfriend and girlfriend and them going on dates and kissing so that was kinda funny and weird and now he gets teased by all the members here about it, especially Bennie.

On Tuesday we were able to pull a pretty good prank on the sisters. They were in macon at transfer meeting all day so at dinner we practiced to pick their lock so we could do something to their apt but while i was practicing we saw lizards so we decided to catch them but we didnt know what we wanted to do with them so finally we decided we would sneak them into the sisters apartment somehow so we gave them a random dish and said it was food which it was but it had lizards with it so when they got in their apartment they opened it and the lizards jumped out just like they did while we were trying to get it all set up and get them in the same container as the food.

We left the Sisters the note below

This last experience was the worst but best. We went to an investigators house to teach her but all of her family was drinking so we just said hi and talked a little bit before we left. She is having a tough time with her family right now and her daughter is going to jail today because she is turning herself in.We were talking to Betty, our investigator and sharing our testimonies about how the gospel can help and bless families no matter what is going on in their lives but her son in law kept interrupting. we finally split up so I talked to Betty and EB talked to her son in law. Finally I was able to share my testimony with her and then he started talking about how Jesus Christ is like Santa Clause to him and how he is just some fake character but he believes in God. Then he started talking about how he would lay down in the dirt right there and pay for all of the sins of the whole neighborhood right then and there. After that he said some very vulgar things about Christ so we left. I HAVE NEVER REALIZED HOW MUCH I TRULY LOVE MY SAVIOR UNTIL HE SAID WHAT HE DID.  I am so thankful that Christ did what he did for us and that Heavenly Father was willing to sacrifice Him for us because I know that we would not be able to be here today if it wouldn't have happened.

Love you and miss you guys a bunch

Love Elder Cobler

October 27, 2014 - Hi All, Here are some snippets from the latest update we received:

This last week Dakota went tracting and knocking on random doors which he hadn't done since the first day he got there. He ran into a lady that wasn't interested and it was Elder Bleyle's turn to talk so he was talking and she was telling them to go away. All of the sudden she looked at Dakota "super weirdly" and says "ooooooo you got a glow about you, you are glowing like and angel or something" He told her why he was and then she told them that she was busy cooking at the moment so they could come back and share a message with her some other time.

Sunday they went to a concert at a Baptist Church...one of their members was singing in it and then some kids from a bible study they go to were playing so they went to support them. Dakota said "It was actually really really cool". He took a picture at the bible study. He wasn't sure if it was going to be his last time at the bible study or not but he didn't get transferred so he will be in Lanett for another 6 weeks for sure.

Last Wednesday he went on shepherding visits but they weren't able to see their recent convert so they went to go see Tim and PJ. He is the one that dropped them and told them not to come back they worked their magic and were able to share Joseph Smith's first vision with him and talk about that a little bit. They were on splits with members so he got to drive around in a Camaro the whole time which was kinda cool. He says not as cool as the spitfire though.

He is doing well and sends his love.  He hasn't had a chance to write many of you back. By the time he gets through email and sends us the update he is usually out of time.  But he really appreciates all the letters and emails, and wants you to know he is very thankful for your prayers and well wishes.

He asks us regularly how our scripture study is coming.  Here are the scriptures for the week:
Alma 5:21,40&41,7:7,20,26&27,9:12,19-24

October 20, 2014

This week was a really good week!! On Saturday I baptized my first 2 people but they aren't my baptisms because it was the Sisters that were teaching them. That isnt what matters though. What matters is that we were all able to help 3 people come closer to Christ.

Later that night I ate quail for my first time. It was actually really really good.

On Wednesday we had zone conference in Columbus where we watched Meet the Mormons. It was a way way good movie. It was so cool to get to be able to watch it. Last Monday was really crazy after we emailed. We went to get on base and we found out that the member driving our car had an expired license so when we went to get on the military base he got way chewed out and almost taken to jail but then they just told us to switch drivers so it was alright. Bowling and the infantry museum were super fun and really cool. I will put a few pictures on dropbox of the baptism and all that.

One of the kids we baptized was crazy! Elder Bleyle baptized him first and then i baptized his brother and his mom. as soon as i finished baptizing his brother he tried to jump in the baptismal faunt. Elder Bleyle barely caught him in time so he wasn't able to jump luckily. Oh and the night before when we went to practice the baptism with them he kept petting everyones heads and kept copying us and playing with my ears. He was crazy!!

We had 2 really cool experiences this last week. Our investigator that fed us quail told us some really cool things. Well her daughter did anyway. Apparently our investigator had been struggling with life and was about to give up on life. That day is the day that we showed up and we have been helping her to be happier ever since. It is so cool to see how much happier the Gospel can make people. It just shows that it truly is Christ's church established on the earth. The other cool thing that happened to us is we had an investigator that dropped us really bad. apparently his wife got mad at him for it and somehow we saved the friendship that we have with them. His brother is a street preacher and we are pretty sure he talked to him about us and told him not to talk to us but anyway we somehow saved the friendship and now they always ask us questions that we are able to answeer with the gospel so that was really cool. they take us out to dinner every once in a while and they give us water every time they see us on our bikes. Its really funny when he calls us bro to0.

I finally got revenge on Elder Bleyle. He always gives me a bad time about how my bike always falls apart and he finally got a flat tire this week. He had to walk his bike all the way home and then we had to get a new tube cause we weren't able to patch it. It was a really good and easy way to get people to talk to us though so that was really good. Well I guess I will talk to you guys next week! Love ya and miss ya!

Love Elder Cobler

October 13, 2014

Hey Mom!
You will have to send me pictures from those family gathering type things with Nyal and Haywood. i would say just put them in a different folder that I will make for you guys called stuff from home :) Actually since we are low on time it would be nice if you could do that for me :)

I PROMISE THAT AS YOU RELY ON THE LORD HE WILL HELP YOU THROUGH THOSE HARD TIMES. YOU JUST HAVE TO EXPERIMENT WITH IT AND GIVE IT A TRY. THATS WHAT ALMA 32 IS ALL ABOUT. Oh and speaking of that my scriptures are Mosiah 23:27, Mosiah 29:20, Helaman 13:14, Alma 5:40, Alma 11:37, 1 Nephi 1 :19&20, and 2 Nephi 6:11

We had a crazy good week this week but a lot of kinda weird experiences like some crazy guy that we couldnt even understand kissed me and one guy we know pretty much runs Lanett we are pretty sure and he used to be in a bike gang but we decided he is still part of the Banditos which is like a really bad bike gang that runs the state of Alabama and we are pretty sure he is like a head guy in that cause when we asked he just kinda laughed about it anyway he is super chill and he reads the BoM all the time and backs it up to all of his friends but i feel like I already told you about him. And then there is another guy who is one of our members uncle that always tries to bible bash but we always destroy him and he still thinks he wins...It is really dumb but oh well.

Oh funny experience...On wednesday we were just getting to the apartment at night and we got a call from a member that wanted to give us left over pizza so since we never get fed we hustled over there and got it. On the way there we needed 1 more contact to hit our goal so we saw this car pull up and knew it was our chance to hit our goal. I rode straight up to them and started talking and it ended up being 2 college girls that seemed really interested in us...the problem was that they were interested in us and not the gospel...anyway, we went and got the pizza and then headed back home while i rode 1 handed but we got to a hill and I had to shift so i reached across and ended upl pushing the handle bar and it made me turn right into the curb where i flipped over the handle bars and did a superman right into a plastic pole that i destroyed...The pizza was fine which was the important part...a few seconds later Elder Bleyle asked me what halppend so as dumb as i am I went to show him instead of tell him but this time I turned the other way which was right into him and it made us both wreck...It was hilarious but way more devastating even though we weren't hurt the pizza went everywhere cause i didn't close the box right...oh well we decided to give it to the sisters :)

Keeping the breakfast pancake tradition alive:

Well Talk to you next week!! Love you guys tons!
Love Elder Cobler

October 5, 2014

We had a really tough week this last week with talking to everyone and with teaching people but there was all valid reason behind it so I wasn't too worried about it. Plus it was good motivation to do better this week. A lot of stuff happened this week but not a lot of super interesting things. Just little things like getting attacked by ants so i have ant bites all over my ankles and getting chased by a dog.

Earlier in the week I was able to give another training in District meeting but this time it was a lot better and I was able to learn a lot more for myself this time as well. We finally taught the guy that took my picture while I was mowing the lawn and because he was a preacher it was really really cool. On Thursday I had a pretty rough day because i kept forgetting to take my iron but it finally put me out enough to where I will remember to take it every day.

Conference was so good! I loved it! it was kinda depressing when it ended though. I wish i could just listen to their wisdom all day long! It was really cool to have the people speak in their native languages as well. I loved hearing about how everything here on earth is in preparation for something whether it is for something here or for something that is in the post mortal life. My question that i came to conference with was what can I improve on and how can i do it. It was really cool to know that I can improve on preparing for things and then In Richard G. Scott's talk which was by far my favorite I learned that I can improve on preparing by praying and studying in the scriptures and how that is the best preparation of all. It is so cool to me to finally understand the scriptures and before I forget my scriptures for this week are Proverbs 3:5&6, Alma 13:24 & 34:31-34, Mosiah 23:27 & 21:14-15, 2 Nephi 25:26 and last 3 Nephi 14:1-11

Grandma and Grandpa sent me a bunch of food for my birthday so I should be able to eat healthier.

Love you guys tons and miss you. Cant wait to hear from you next week
Love Elder Cobler

September 29, 2014

I get along with my new companion really well and am having a really good time. This week we stole a rug from the sister missionaries to do our ab work on but the sisters stole it back.

I am really looking forward to conference. I can't wait to hear what your favorite parts were and why.

This week we are thankful for the lord's help.  We have been working with one of our investigators and have really needed help in using simple words to explain things because she isn't very educated.


We had a really really good and productive week this week. On Friday we went to a car show because there were a lot of people to talk to. That night we found a scorpion in the house. I taught it the gospel before I got rid of it.  We also taught some statues about chastity this week.

Scriptures for the last two weeks:
2 Nephi 31:19&20
Mosiah 18: 8-10 & 26
Mosiah 15:26 & 11
Alma 13: 3&4, 17: 10&11, 7:22&23,
Ether 7:24-27
Mosiah 23:22-24
Jacob 6:8-10
Jacob 4:4-5
1 Nephi 19:24, 3:17-18


All is well.
Love you tons!

September 22, 2014

My new companion is awesome and kinda reminds me a little bit of john and some of the things he used to say. Just tell him to email me or something so I can talk to him. I want to get his address too so I can send him a letter.

We havent gotten to go to the gym much because we bike so much now and we are always too tired to wake up. we usually bike over 20 miles a day and a lot of times we bike really fast so we really get our heart rate up. I will try to get to the gym more this week or at least get our for runs in the morning with more of the things you recomended. Im really excited for this transfer with Elder Bleyle and can't wait for everything we are doing! We are working super hard and a lot of times we work harder than Elder Merrill and I ever did.

September 15, 2014

Well this week was pretty good but our numbers were really low because we didnt get to do much missionary work cause we were busy getting Elder Merrill ready to go home. I did finally get your package and i believe it took 10 days to get here. Also it is really hot outside which means chocolate melts so the cookies were kinda messy but they were still good. I have only taken the liquid iron once because i dont have it with me right now. right now i am staying in lagrange georgia with the elders here but just until tomorrow when i get my new companion. There appartment here is roach infested so its really nasty and i wont leave anything out anywhere. I also havent really eaten much since i got here yesterday afternoon because i dont know where the roaches have been so im starving. Its alright though because we are going back to lanett tonight because i arranged a service project for one of our investigators so i will be able to eat and do all of that stuff tonight when we stay at our clean apartment. Im definitely looking forward to that moment. and for the moment that i get to spray all of my items that i brought with me here in our bug spray. Letting elder merrill go was really hard but i didn't really have much of a choice so i guess its whatever. Im really excited for my area to become a bike area though and yes i do drink plenty. i would get migraines all the time if i didnt with how hot it is down here so i almost always have a bottle with water in it.

This last week was really fun and last week we talked to my first open gangster. He had a red bandana that we kept looking at and finally he told us that we didnt need to be worried about it and that he doesnt have it because he is a member of the Bloods but just because he was affiliated with them...shows how educated the people are down here cause im pretty sure affiliation and membership in gangs is the same thing. Anyway we talked to him for quite a while and he told us a bunch of his friends that we should go see that need Christ in their lives more and he told us all about how the news makes gangs in lanett seem worse than they really are and how they exaggerate how many members there are and how there are only 600 gang members and not as many as the news says and how they only kill people that are asking for it so that was really comforting...not. Oh and i also messed up my bike this last week. I was going down a really steep hill and then had to jump off the curb and i was going really fast and the road wasnt wide enough to turn so i slammed on the brakes and my back wheel and chain slammed into the curb on the other side of the road but its ok! I fixed it all and it is back to original condition. I just had to pull the chain off all the way and work with it a little bit because i bent a link and so it wouldnt move but i was able to get it straightened all out and its all fixed now. Oh last week i forgot to send my weekly scriptures so here are both last weeks and this weeks.
Jarom 1:7
Mosiah 1:6&7, 2:41, 4:30, 7:19&33, 9:17&18, 10:10,11&19, 11:24
Joshua 1:9
2 Nephi 4:34
Jacob 7:25

Dad, that long run sounds miserable but i definitely miss those kinds of runs and cant wait to do them again. Hopefully i am still able to run a lot in the mornings with my next companion but im not sure yet. Ill find out on tuesday and then let you know next monday. I should be able to get them up and out the door though cause you know how moody i can get if i dont run. We will see i guess.

Well i guess ill get to talk to yall next week with my new companion.
Love ya and miss ya tons and thanks for the packages :)
Elder Cobler

September 8, 2014
The picture i put on here is apparently all over in a bunch of baptist churches all over the country so that's really cool. I was mowing the lawn a couple weeks ago and this guy drove by in a taxi and then he said he was prompted to turn around and take a picture. Well this last week he found us again which really isnt hard here because i could run from one end of the 3 cities to the other in like 20 minutes. Well anyway the other day he found us again and held out his phone. we were trying to sneak up on an investigator because everytime she sees us she runs because she got on the internet and read a lot of false doctrine about our church but right when we got into their sight he pulled up in his taxi and stopped us. He held out his phone and showed us the picture. When he took it i thought he was some creep so that is why Im scowling at him. anyway, he told us all about how he blew up a huge poster of it and put it up in his church because he is a pastor and then how he emailed it out to a bunch of other pastors all over america and tons of them put it up in their churches as well and put the caption "What will you do to share the gospel with others?" It was really cool and he told us we could come by anytime and share with him so that was really cool. I had my first super depressing week this week...our most precious investigator randomly dropped us because she didnt understand the coffee part of the WoW...5 minutes before she texted us we were talking to the sisters in our area and telling them about how she will for sure be baptized. It was really sad. We all just sat there and moped for like 20 minutes until it was 9:30 we had to go home. She was totally fine with the rest of the WoW and she even let us take her cigarettes and ash tray...ASH TRAYS ARE DISGUSTING!!!!!!! When we went over it with her the first time she was like oh ya i can get over coffee easy i dont even drink caffeinated  coffee so Ill be fine and then the next night she texted us and told us to stop coming by. We did go teach her daughter a lesson last night which was really hard. She told us all about how she loved it when we came by and how she loved church and how she especially liked me but she didn't want to stop drinking coffee. Sorry Ill stop ranting about my investigators now. Its so much fun out here with Elder Merrill. We get a long really really well now and we get along with the sisters really well too. It makes missionary work a lot more fun. Later this week we are going to pick their locks and steal their excercise bike that they stole from us and we are going to go get a rug from their apartment that they are attached to since we have no carpet in our entire apartment and we only have one little hallway rug so we cant do our nightly ab workouts that my companion made. Now the whole mission does it. Its been a really rough week weather wise as well. it gets really really foggy in the morning but it still isnt even close to the foggiest it gets here. The past couple days it has been pouring rain and not even an umbrella helps. That will really be rough for the rest of the time im here in this area though because at my interview on tuesday I volunteered to give up our car because our mission has 7 cars too many so they have to sell some of them so I turned my area into a biking only area so that will be fun until its winter and not when it rains or when its too hot or humid or rainy...in other words its going to be rough because it is always hot humid or rainy here so we'll see what happens.

Hi All,
Below is the compilation/summary of Dakota's letters through September 7.  I will try and updates once in a while but it won't be every week. Also here is his mailing address:

Elder William Dakota Cobler
400 Northside Crossing
Macon, GA 31210


Week One
In the MTC -    My companion,  and I were called to be zone leaders. We will be over a couple of Districts and it is the highest calling you have at the MTC. My companion is Elder Holt. He grew up on a farm in Enterprise, Utah. He is awesome and we get along really well.
    The spirit is very strong here at the MTC. I am learning the power of prayer. It is really cool to know he answers my prays. I was having trouble relaxing Sunday night and asked my Heavenly Father for help. On Monday morning the first thing we talked about was just that. It is comforting to know that as I encounter hardships and daily stress, I can let the Lord take care of all of that.
    We have begun teaching investigators. It is really cool how easy it is to teach the investigators  There is a center here that has a mix of members and non-members, we go there to teach actual lessons to the investigators. It is crazy how when I read the scriptures, a certain scripture stands out, and later when I go to teach an investigator that scripture was just what they needed to hear. We try to teach to the needs of the investigator. It is amazing how all the investigators so far all needed to know and realize the same thing.  God really is there and He loves us. When they realize that, it is really cool and they understand that they don't want to hurt their Heavenly Father anymore.
    The food is pretty good here at the MTC. It is making me fat, up to 135 pounds. So I need to run more. I was able to go for a 5 mile run on Saturday. I should be able to run some more throughout the week. It has been cool to run into so many other runners from High Schools from Utah. I've seen Jared Croft from Hillcrest, Trevor Leavitt from Davis, some Riverton guys and went to the temple this morning with Andrew Brewer from Bingham. It was nice to be able to talk to him.  
    We have a lot of classroom time here studying the scriptures. It can make the days long and we don't get a lot of sleep. Except for the occasional nap I sneak doing some "extra praying" while in class. I might not get a P day next week because I will be leaving the MTC and flying out to Georgia on Monday at 3:30 am. I look forward to reading everyone's emails and will send out a new one when I get the next opportunity.

Week Two
 Travel to Macon, Met the mission president and headed to their first assignment - in Valley Alabama

Week Three
well...my bike didnt come. He also didnt have the right address in his system but im in a driving mission right now so im fine and my companion wont have his bike until this thursday so we are just driving and then on thursday one of our zone leaders is letting me borrow his bike until mine gets here. It should be on its way by now i hope but you should check. I dont know if ill be able to use dropbox or not so i might have to just try and email a few pictures every week until you get all of them but I asked PResident cottle about it since he has to approve every website we use. I dont really have tons of time to write people so youll have to let them know that they will have to wait a couple weeks to get replies sometimes. And letters are always more appreciated because then i can have them whenever and reply almost whenever as well. Even though they take longer to get here. they told us to have you guys continue sending things to the mission home address because its just easier since we dont know where or when we are being transferred and our addresses are changing and things like that so just send everything first class mail through the post office or she cant forward them. so everything has to be first class. Especially packages. You can send anything you want whenever you want We already have a few investigators that are going to be baptized which is really cool because they havent had any in our area for quite some time. The Elders that were here before us struggled a little bit i think but thats alright. we all struggle with different things. Our appartment is nasty so i cant wait to clean it all up today. we probably wont even make a dent though. We'll see. My companion is a really good missionary and has been the President's assistant for the past 6 months which is the longest you can stay somewhere. IVe really learned how important it is to just trust that the lord will take care of us if we do what He asks. I gained a really strong testimony of this when i was reading in 1 Nephi 6 yesterday to one of our investigators but my computer time is about to expire so ill have to write more about everything next week.
Love, Elder Cobler
Sorry I didn't get to write more.

Week Four
My bike is finally in Georgia but I dont pick it up until wednesday when we have a zone conference in Macon where there is an Area 70 that is here to speak to us. He is also here to come to our stake conference next week. I Think im going to write letters to you all from now on and then ill just reply to the quick emails. Just send letters to the mission home and then she forwards them to us since our address changes when we get transferred to a new area. Also I was wondering if you could send me a recipe for some oat and peanut butter no bake cookies that are quick to make. Our home made version is different every time... I started running again and we found a gym so my companion can go lift weights while i run but the furthest i have made it in one run is 5 miles since we are only there for 40 minutes and we have to bike 3 miles there and back at 5:45 in the morning so it is really dark on the way there. Lanett is kind of a sketchy area especially near the projects cause there is tons of gang violence and shootings but we stay out of the projects so its ok. Also if there is going to be trouble that we are about to walk into people will usually tell us that we dont want to go in that ceertain area for a little while so they warn us. We are having tons and tons of success so that is really good but i will write more to you in letters. Talk to ya next week.
Love ya tons,
Elder Cobler
PS I attached a picture of my companion and then one of his friends and his friends companion who is one of the new missionaries that came from the MTC with me. Oh and dont forget to tell people to write me letters instead of giving them my email so give them the address for the mission home instead of giving them my email.

Mid Week Letter
We almost hit all of the standards of excellence which is really really really rare. My companion has only done it 1 time and out of all the missionaries in our mission that have leadership positions he was the only one. The only one we didn't hit was investigators at church. That one is the hardest to hit because we can't control that one le we can for the others. We only had 1 investigator at church and the stand for excellence is 4. I loved reading my scriptures this past week. I made a goal for this week to try and find 5 scriptures to help others as I read for my hour in the morning. We'll see how it goes. Reading them is one of my favorite ways to calm myself and find answers to my prayers. I'm always being told by people that if I want to talk to God I need to pray but if I want Him to talk to me then I need to read my scriptures. My favorite scriptures lately have all been about the plan of salvation. I love 2 Nephi Chapters 2 & 9=11. That's what they are all about. I'm really trying to learn about the P.O.S. I can tell that He has a ton in store for me later in my life that wouldn't be possible without me serving a mission. Last week I had some crazy experiences from almost drunk girls thinking we were strippers to exploring the ghetto. The people are all so nice.

We had quite the crazy week here! We had a zone conference on Wednesday with one of the 70 and then we had stake conference this weekend with him and the area 70 that is over our area. We learned tons! some of my favorite things from this week were my daily scriptures though. I started doing this new thing where i pick a scripture every day. One of the days I had to pick 2 of them though. They are 2 Nephi 25:29, D&C 112:27-29, Proverbs 3:5, 2 Nephi 22:2, Mosiah 27:25-30, Alma 13:3&4, 2 Nephi 28:32, and Alma 32:27-29. President Cottle authorized dropbox for me so i uploaded a few pictures. I was told by Elder Kopischke to invite everyone to come up with a question they might have. Then we have to invite them to come to church and promise them they will receive an answer to their question. He made us all do it at zone cofnerence and every single one of us received an answer. It was amazing. It is going to be so much easier to get people to church on Sunday because we have really been struggling with that. The other crazy thing that happened this week was we got lost in the woods but it was alright. I think i talked a little bit more about it in my running log but i just got my 2 minute time warning for the computer so i better try and wrap it up in case she doesnt let me add more time on. Ill try to add more in my letter if i get a chance to write one. Ive been exhausted so i sleep every chance i get. so we'll see if i write letters when i get home or not. There isnt really all that much more to write about. But she just gave me more time to write so its all good. Im getting really bad about eating. I finally broke 140 lbs but all i eat is pb&js so i dont get how im gaining so much weight cause im sweating tons too. My bike is awesome. I love it. it did have a huge scratch in it from shipping though but i dont think you can see it in the pictures.

Week Five/Six
Well we had an amazing week. I almost broke 145 lbs this last week but I got back down a little bit and ill get more down today because I should be able to run around 15 miles today. We'll see. This last week we had the coolest experience possible. Elder Merrill says its the coolest thing that has happened his entire mission. We were sitting in the front yard teaching an investigator and this car drives past us. All of a sudden the man and woman started reversing back to us. The man got out of the car and started yelling. We were a little worried at first but it was the best thing that could've ever happened. He yelled at our investigator that he better listen to us and do everything we say because we were "good ol' joseph smith Mormon boys." We went to talk to him really quick so we could get his contact information and then finished our lesson. On Thursday we went to go visit him and his wife. We learned that he was a less active member and that he had taken his wife to different Mormon historical sites like the Jail and Nauvoo. Apparently something happened to his wife at Nauvoo that really changed her. HIs wife is a Methodist minister. She had been searching for the missionaries for quite a while. The day they drove past us they were getting her some medicine at the CVS down the street. As they left he told his wife that he had the feeling there is something cool down this road so he wanted to go explore it. As they drove down the road she constantly told him how it was not good and how there was nothing down the street except for old  dumpy houses. Then they ran into us. The only problem is she will be out of town for the next few weeks so we can't start teaching the lessons but I know that she will be baptized for sure because she told us all about how the Nauvoo temple president came and talked to her and how she really wants to get married to her husband in the Nauvoo temple. I really missed you guys tons lately. I'm really glad that 1/2 price milkshakes at sonic is finally over because I think that might be why I was gaining so much weight because other than that all we ever eat is rice and maybe beans and chicken. But we mostly just eat rice. Also it really is true about Kool-Aid. Everyone down here drinks tons of it. Oh well though I like it. Im kinda nervous for this next week though. Tomorrow we have interviews with President Cottle and then after that on Wednesday I have to give a training on Charity and love in our district meeting so we will see how that goes. I kinda knew our district leader was going to decide to have me give a training but I don't really know why he wants me to do it. It's my companion that was the last assistant, not me. Ive only been out here for 4 weeks! Im pretty sure he is psycho. I also learned how hard giving blessings is. I had to give 2 this last week and in one of them I thought I was going to die. Im pretty sure if I would have sweated anymore than I already was then I would have passed out from dehydration...Sorry Im so dramatic. It makes things more fun. My favorite scriptures this week were 2 Nephi 31:16-18,33:10, Jacob 3:1, 4:11, 6:11, Moroni 7:43&44, and Enos 1:13.  I love it out here. But we run in to some pretty psycho and scary people around here. Almost everyone drinks or smokes or does both and half the people we teach we have to teach them when they are half drunk because they just don't know when to stop. This last week we dropped all of our investigators that live in the Ghetto or the projects cause things started getting out of hand. It is kind of a bummer but we will let the sisters in our area have everyone in the Ghetto from now on so we can be safer. Love ya tons and remember that it isn't possible to have too much Charity. If everyone in the world was as Charitable as possible then the entire world would have the gospel. Always love everyone and care about them. Help them in anyway you can. Lose yourself for others. I know it is hard but when you do it I promise you will be blessed. Talk to ya soon! Miss you and love you!
Love, Elder Cobler
Ps the few pictures I added are just of the road we have to drive on when we go to this recent converts house that we are teaching how to read. It's kind of a sketchy house and the last missionaries got a knife pulled on them by the neighbors but they haven't done or said anything to us.