The Holy Week, turns into the Least Holy Week

It's semana Santa! A lot of processions carrying idols

Some fun with chalk in our house

a big pollo campero chicken

A nice restaurant I will take you to

this is a tree called a ceiba, they are huge!

March 26, 2013

Hey Famm.

thanks for all the pictures, i always love them.

this week was a good week, we put some more fechas, and got a great weekend lined up, really the next 3 weekends should be great.

We took Jorge to a baptismal service, and he brought his mom and niece. we basically challenged the niece to be baptized in the service, and she said yes. the next day in primary she had an awesome time. her name is Martina and is 9, she says she wants to be baptized now. also Jorge's mom wants to be baptized, but we're still working on that, cuz shes attending a different church on thursdays because they pay for her grandaughters schooling, and they them to,  also she works on sunday so she leaves sacrament meeting right after the sacrament to get to work on time. but we'll be focusing more on her after these next baptisms.

also we have investigators named Luis & Marisol and they are on track for baptism, it should happen soon. Marisol brought her niece to church too, and she absolutely loved it, she telling everybody that she going to be going to the mormon church now. its great cuz now we can open up to her family and teach them all.

This last week i saw a group of canadians, from vancouver. its always funny talking to people from other churches that come down here for one week after graduation mission trips. they always are shocked that we walk all over the place alone, and their spanish is always very minimal. it makes us feel pretty cool haha.

So this week is the semana santa, all week long of vacations, and all week long of processions, of people carrying idols through the streets, and putting idols outside their houses. also lots of drunks and other sins as well. its sad how the ´holy week´ turns into the least holy week there is.

This next wednesday are changes, or ´tomorrow in 8´as they say here. april 3. My companion is for sure leaving, and im going to be getting a new comp, a latino i think, which is good, it will help me to stay more focused.

Today we are having a missionary activity throughout the stake, in which we are going to watch the movie, 17 miracles. it should be fantastic, we have a lot of investigators that are going to come. and this movie is going to touch their hearts.

about the emailing my friends thing, im not allowed to respond to any yet, until we discuss the subject in zone leader council this thursday, so hopefully next week i'll be able to respond to them.

thats sweet that dads going skiing, again. ha, ill be there for opening day next year!

Me and my comp saw the new iphone 5 the other day, it looks sooooo sweet, i cant wait to have technology in my hands again ha.

i finished the book of mormon today in english, so that was cool, yeah i'd say its true!

well, i don't really know what else to write. i ate a cotton candy flavoured ice cream cone yesterday, that was sweet too.

oh, we have an investigator named Lety that needs to be married before baptized, but cant get married until the 6th of april, so what she did to be able to be baptized sooner was that she moved out of her own house and shes going to live with her aunt until she gets married. now thats commitment. so she'll be baptized on saturday. along with Jorge and his niece.

well. i think thats it.

from guatemala, with love,

Elder Hopkins xoxo

All is Well in Amatitlan

Me and My Comp at Lake Amatitlan, the lake in our area, its super dirty though, no one swims in it

 

My birthday - me and my comp eating my cake at our cocineras house

some wood I chopped and the house in the background, yes that's a house, its where some recent converts live

me and an old man, with his hat and his cane. he's 87 but always so positive and happy, it was his birthday on sunday., he's a recent convert.

me at the area offices with some elders

me and the bus we hired when we went to Antigua, I was collecting all the money

 March 19, 2013
Hey fammm.

All is well in Amatitlán. This past week was really good. A lot of miracles happening. That man named "J" has made a lot of progress. I attached my journal entry about it, so i wont mention tons of it here. also we found a lot of really positive new investigators this week, who came to church also. awesome.

My birthday was good, my comp bought a cake, it was delicious, but i didn't really tell anyone about my birthday, it was just nice to work in the Lords vineyard without making a deal out of MY birthday. but yeah, good week.

The rumor is true, i can write, and anybody can write me emails now, to tanner.hopkins@myldsmail.net

I will gladly accept emails that anybody desires to write me. I'll even try to write back too! but land mail is always the best obviously. (I wouldn't mail anything past April 5, he will be home before it gets to him)

I'm safe, and well, I still have my camera, it didnt get stolen. don't you worry, but this week I got tons of pictures for you. enjoy.

Well that's a surprise that kati anne is leaving so soon on a mission, I can not say that that sucs, cuz that's so awesome that shes going to go out and serve the Lord, but i will miss seeing her when i get home. i guess 3.5 years isn't that long for not seeing an old friend ha but yeah, tell her i say congrats! and go baptize all of Mississippi!

I actually did write madison a card yesterday! but I didn't have time to send it off, but next monday it will be in the mail, we'll see what gets to Canada first, the card, or me.

Life is weird for both me and my comp right now. We're both super excited and super sad that we end the mission soooo soon.

Sometimes in the morning when I'm soo tired getting out of bed I think, how am I going to do this for another long day, but in the afternoon, after being with the people, seeing miracles, I don't want it to ever stop.

I had a dream that I came home, and there was a song on the radio, an english version of a spanish song that I really like, and I was like, what is this garbage!! and I was really sad and then I just missed Guatemala and started to cry in the dream. 

I have never once cried for missing home, or even when I left Canada I didn't cry, but I think the first real time I cry is when I get on that plane and leave this amazing country.  maybe i can get the mish extended even longer? haha.

well I dint know what else to write, I'm just thinking about how I'm super hungry right now. I'm on divisions with some elders in the zone so I hope that their cocinera makes good food, and a lot of it ha. if not, I can always fill up on tortillas.

thanks for sending me pictures!!! I loved them!

Well, send me more pictures next week, I am starting my one hundredth week this week. crazy.

From Guatemala, with Love, 

Elder Hopkins

Journal Entry:

March 12, 2013

Today was an amazing day!  We witnessed the miracle of a child of God receive the confirmation that this Church is true.  "JS", used to be a huge drinker.  He was evangelical, but a year ago he started drinking and he was basically always drunk.  A few weeks ago, he drank too much, was intoxicated and nearly died.  But now he cannot stand the taste or smell of Alcohol.  We started teaching him, he was willing to listen, but really didn't seem that positive.  We somehow touched his heart and convinced him to come to church.  We passed by at 7:30 am and he was all ready.  At church he was quiet, and stayed for all 3 hours.  We went back today, Tuesday, and watched the hour long video about Joseph Smith.  He got all ready, changed into Sunday clothes and had a note pad and took notes.  After the video he shared his thoughts.  He said that he loved church, he was inspired and started to study the Book of Mormon and to pray.  He wrote a journal of the things he felt.  He said he was asking God for a sign, to know if the church is true.  He asked that his 4 kids, that didn't visit him in a year, would come to visit them.  The next day they did.  He asked for another sign, He had no food but asked that he could eat his favorite food and the next day, God provided it.  Afterwards he felt bad for tempting God by asking for signs but that he has no doubt that this is the true church (I think God really wants him to be baptized from the signs that he gave him).  We then talked and I was going to challenge him to be baptized on the 24th, but as I said it, the words wouldn't come out, and I had to say on the 30th.  It was the strongest experience.  But he said that he is completely willing to be baptized on the 30th, as that is a date that we had mentioned before.  

In the short time that I've known this man, he has changed drastically.  He also wants to go help out with a service project this Saturday with the ward members.  I guess that sometimes you do have to hit rock bottom before coming to the surface.  This is God's work. 

I'm content

My new area

March 12, 2013

Hey Famillyyyy

Thanks for all your wonderful emails always, and thank you for all the great pictures!

This week has been good, I'm content, we don't have any for sure baptismal dates that we've reported, but we have a lot of goals.

There's this one investigator named “J” that used to be a huge drunk, in fact, he drank so much a short time ago that he almost died, but what a great blessing in disguise, because he now cannot stand the taste or smell of alcohol. So he's stopped drinking, and he was listening to us, he wasn't that positive at first, but then we got him to church on Sunday, and yesterday we visited him and he absolutely loved it, it made him want to read a bunch of the book of mormon. He even started to write down all his feeling about God, like a journal, and he wants to go to a service project to help build a roof this saturday, he suddenly got super pilas! it was a great blessing.

The other family, “L & M” , “M” had to work, but “L” came to church, and he loved it as well, he's really positive. The two actually are just boyfriend/girlfriend, and live in separate houses, but they are almost always together during the day.

Yesterday we went to Antigua and I found some cool things that I got, we'll for sure hit up the market there when you're here.

To answer your questions, I do have a cook, and a laundry lady, haven’t gotten a blender cuz i just use Elder Jaramillos, but next change when he's not here, I'll probably get one.

I'm proud that Madi could give a good talk, great job! I really hope that she can make an extra effort and graduate seminary, I'd be really proud of her. And just a reminder, that beige jacket that shes wearing in the picture you sent me, yeahhh... im gonna want that back in 2 months. gracias. haha.

I never knew that my shelf had been falling down, I thought I did a good job putting that up. that sucks.

that's dope that costa vida is in canada now. Its true that one receives blessings from serving a mission.

well, what else to tell you, all is well in sión.

From Guatemala, with love,

Elder Hopkins xoxo

Madi says:

Happy Birthday, I can't believe you're 21 already, my little boy is growing up!!

Love Madi

Tanner's response:

madi your such a goof, thank you, love you!!

************************

Thank you mom and dad for the birthday wishes!! i sure love you guys, and I'm glad that I'm your son.

see you soon!

Elder Hopkisito

Many members stay warm in bed instead of coming to church

March 5, 2013

hey fammmmm.

Not tooo much is knew here, just finished giving a zone training about the book of mormon, it went well, we've got a good zone, and there's energy and excitement in it. 

This week was tough cuz we had tons of meeting and we were doing divisions with the zone, so its was a little tough number wise, we didn't have the stats that we wanted, until the weekend. wow, the weekend was soo good! in two days we did what a lot of time is done in one week. we were really blessed.

Church attendance wasn't so hot though, only 2 came from our area, and let me tell you why, its cuz when its cold out, guatemalans do not get out of bed! It was quite chilly here on sunday morning. we had tons of people telling us that they wold come, and we left the house at 6:40 am to go pass by for them all, but we had no luck. but next week will be better.

Also the family that we found, the one i told you about when there was the shooting, yea, they are super super positive. I'm almost sure that they will be baptized, but maybe in like a month, cuz the lady works every second sunday, so we gotta get that resolved and then she has to come at least 3 times before being baptized.

That's so good to here that Parker is being blessed with baptisms in Mother Russia. God Bless him.

and yeah, telling me that dad had knee deep powder at lake louise does make me a little jealous and baggy, but don't you worry, I'll be back in no time, but I'll come back to summer.

haha, me and elder Jaramillo are so baggy together, we're both almost done and we like a lot of the same things, but its all good , and long as we keep working its alright to be baggy every once in a while.

Thats cool that madi got invited to go to victoria island. I lost track of where the Carters were, I thought they might be on a boat in the middle of the Indian sea or something, but cool. so is she going to go to victoria? i would think that would be sick.

and wow, putting a blender in the terms of dollars instead of quetzales makes it seem a lot cheaper. that's like how much someone makes in 2 hours of work, not what someone makes it a whole week and a half, like it is here.

well, we have a lot of really positive investigators, but still none with set baptismal dates, but they will come, we are praying. actually there's a super pilas lady named Leti that just needs to get married, but she should be getting all the papers this week, so that will be a quick one.

i don't know what else to say, i feel like this week has gone by really fast, i haven't taken any more pictures yet, which i will so don't worry.

This week we caught a small lizard and made  habitat for it is a dish, covered it with plastic and poked holes it in so it had air, but i thought lizards needed lots of sun, so i left it in the sun, and we came home to a shrivelled up lizard lying dead on its back. oh well, straight to the reino celestial.

I went to President Broughs house for the first time the other day, it was cool, we had a zone leader counsel there, he had alot of chocolate that we ate, and cheesecake.

heyy, thats something you gotta make me after the mish too, your homemade cheesecake, soo good!

cuz i remember one time we were in costco i think, and i wanted to buy cheesecake, but then you said that you would just make your cheesecake, but i don't think you ever did, so you owe me! haha

heyyy, you guys need to look on the internet about cool stuff and cool places to go here in Guatemala, and tell me about some stuff you want to do, so we can all have it planned, there a member who lives in front of me that knows a lot about tourism and is starting his tourism company and he could help us out, but i don't know if theres anything you would want to do.

and look us Santa Terisita spa, Guatemala, on google, its a cool tourist spa that's actually in my area, if only i could do that kinda stuff right now, but i just thought that that might be interesting to you to know.

well, im hungry, so im gonna go eat.

From Guatemala, with Love,

Elder Hopkinsss xoxo