Thursday, November 29, 2012

Best week in this Area so far! Only one other Missionary in the mission has trained this much!

Thanks for the letter from everyone at the Family Reunion!

November 26, 2012

Muy Buenos Dias

First of all, Great news mom! Relief Society President! thats awesome!! what a blessing to be able to have more responsibility and work more with all the sisters in Tuscany ward. That will be a great opportunity for you!

Sounds like another great week for you guys as well as it was for me, the best week that I've had in this area so far. We had some really cool experiences, (i included a picture of my journal entry of it) we had a lot of success. We have a Baptismal date for the 15 of December with a man named “Pablo, and another four that will be baptized in the beginning of January after a trip that they have to do, otherwise they would be baptized sooner. Also there are three other kids that should be baptized in January. After a month and a half of no success, the Blessings are coming, if things all go well, we should have 8 baptisms by the end of January.

Pablo has come to church tons of times, but has always felt that he needs to personally change more before baptism. A couple weeks ago we kind of tricked him into coming to a baptismal service, and then that night, he told us, he was thinking a lot, and reading the book of mormon a lot, and then he had dreams of the church, and he now wants to be baptized. I just love the way that the Lord works! we had a really spiritual lesson with him in the chapel, and he agreed to be baptized. actually, that morning in my studies i received the revelation that we needed to give him a copy of the teaching record, so that he knows what lessons he needs to receive, and also the pamphlets of every lesson. it was great, and it got him really excited.
On Sunday we had a ton of people that came to church as well, well, not a ton, but a good number, 9. it was a great week.

Journal excerpt:   "Today my testimony was strengthened even more that this work is of the Lord.  So on Sunday, after "J" and "I" came to church, we visited them and met their mom.  From this point I knew that the perfect member to friendship them would be "E". So today we had a lesson all together.  She bore a super strong testimony of her conversion and then "J" asked if she had ever prayed to know if Joseph Smith was a true prophet.  Then she again gave a really strong testimony about her conversion and how she found out that Joseph Smith was a true prophet.  I then asked "J" to say the prayer, (It was already about 9:05 pm) in his prayer he started to cry, and said that he knew that Joseph Smith was a true prophet, and that what we told him is true.  His little sister and brother were both crying too, and hugged him after the prayer and the mom cried too.  We weren't going to challenge them to be baptized because it was already really late, but I just had to do it, so I did, for Dec. 15 but the problem is that he's going to be on vacation this next month with his dad, so we will have to work something out.  Anyways, we left there at about 9:20 pm and we were pretty far from the house, so we just started running as fast as we could, when 5 minutes later a tuctuc (taxi type thing) passed by, we flagged it down, it happened to be a member that we just had visited who had been telling us that he can't drive because they had just operated on his foot, but for some reason he was out driving.  He showed up like a superhero!, just in the time we needed it most, in a very unexpected way.  He drove us right home.  By the time we had entered into the house it was 9:29 with 50 seconds.  (only 10 seconds to spare) Just in time!! (in the training program, if I get home late, or do anything imperfect, I have to call the President to tell him).
I know this work is the Lords, he planned out this lesson perfectly, he even arranged a ride for us to get back home.  I am forever grateful for it.  I love my Heavenly Father. Goodnight."

This morning i had an interview with Pres. Brough, and he told me that there was only one other missionary in the mission that has taken part in as much training and I have. He told me that I should be very grateful that the Lord trusts me so much. It says in his presidents manual, that a trainer is the most important calling in a mission, so i feel blessed.

Thats so awesome that Lincoln got called to Barcelona, thats soooo cool, that will be an awesome mission. Everybody here are huge fans of the barcelona Soccer team. The spanish there is very different from the spanish here, thats for sure, but we can still communicate basically fine. I've met some people from spain here. Tell Lincoln Congratulations, and that I love him, I got a card from him the other day that I loved, and there will be one in the mail coming to him shortly.

So what I was thinking is that when you come to pick me up, that we stay here for a week anyways, to go see all the sights, and visit with all my converts, coming back on like the 22 or 23rd of May is what I was thinking, you guys gotta experiment the Guatemala experience! but yeah, i think that would be the best, then there will be no problem with any holidays or what not. I'm fine with waiting until next year to snowboard again, thats just the way that things have to be. I'm curious if the release date of Tyler Henry has changed as well, since he left one week after me, he might be getting home before me haha. let me know!

Also i want to wish Sam a happy birthday, since i wasn't able to get a letter in the mail to him in time. hes what, 23 now? hes getting quite old isn't he.. haha. Have a great year Sammy Boy!

Oh, so I'm probably going to stay with my comp next change as well, is what I'm thinking, its never a for sure thing, but its most probable. I'm hoping to stay at least, thats when I'm going to have all my baptisms! haha.

Here is what I included in the card that i sent to the Mission President today.

Buenos Dias Presidente. After a great week the first week of the change, things only got better. we had a great week actually.
We had a super spiritual lesson with the familia “G”, they basically know that the church is true and they want to be baptized, they were even crying in the prayer, and the joven said that he knows its all true. We dont have a specific date with them yet, because the oldest joven, is going to peten this week, and wont come back untill the end of December, he asked us where a church is there so that he can attend, but i imagine that the whole family wants to be baptized together, we are going to talk more about that with them today. WE have Pable, a man that has come to church like 20 times before, hes pilas, hes never felt too sure about baptism because he feels like her needs to personally change more. We attended a Baptismal Service with him a couple weeks ago when El Tejar had their last baptism, and he loved it, and has thought a lot about it, and has agreed to be baptized of the 15th of December. WE haven't taught him the word of wisdom, or law of chastity yet, even though were sure that hes living it fine and were pretty sure that he knows about it. We also have 3 young kids that were working with that i mentioned to you, that should be baptized in January if the Bishop Agrees with it.
The Lord sure has been blessing us, we are very Grateful, we know that the Lord does Perform Miracles.
Our faith has been increasing, and we've got to keep it high.
Thank you President for all that you do, and for the things the Lord does through you.

I'm sure that you will be a great Relief Society President mom, work hard, magnify your calling, and even more blessings will come.

Love you all so much, Happy Birthdays Sam and Ricky, Give one a Bone, and one a Hamburger for me, it doesn't matter who receives what.

Love you all, Sigan Elegantes!!
From Guatemala, with Love,
Elder Hopkins

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