Week 26: Lucky to get out the door in time

Tanner helping a member pick off the corn kernels so they can make tortillas.

Hey Fam. whats up?
The rain has come to a stop pretty much thank goodness.
I got pretty sick this week, but dont worry, I'm fine now. but the best part is when I got sick...
So Elder Martino, of the 70 came and had a conference with us. we had a nice lunch and then we were sitting in the chapel, in the 2nd row, while he taught us in the aftersoon. I wasn't feeling too good, but I didnt want to get up and leave while a general authority was speaking to me 2 feet away. but then all of I sudden I got really sick and got up and just ran out. lucky I got out the door in time to throw up everywhere, not in the chapel. and luckily everyone gets sick here so it wasnt anything that people were really super surprised by or anything. then I had to take a one hour bus ride home on the windy mountain roads. after a few unplanned stops we made it home, and I had some time to rest and to get better. but I'm fine now, so don't you even worry, cuz I know you are.

Oh and that couch and coffee table are at a member's house, we dont have a couch or anything. but I actually thought and still think their house is a pretty nice house for here.
and the photo that you were wondering about, i think we are just at some member's house eating lunch after church.

So this week we set a baptismal date! for our investigator Lily S. Her baptism is planned for next sunday after church! she super awesome, and receives everything so easily. after she gained a testimony of the book of mormon, and joseph smith, she recieves all the comandments easily. we have had alot of member help with her to make it possible. so if all things go well, next week you should receive a photo of us at her baptism.

We find out if we are getting transfered next Monday in the night, and the actually transfer day is the day Brendon and Zach enter the MTC, and you will found out if I got transfered in 2 weeks then. Kinda funny how basically my 6 month mark, Danny´s one year mark, and Zach and Brendons first day mark are all the same day, at least within a few days. Tyler Parker and Jesse should all be leaving in about 6 months so this 6 month gap trend keeps going. get your papers in boiss! love you all!

That's funny how all those friends of mine went and hung out at grandma and grandpa's. Would have been fun to be there too ha, and wierd and funny I guess that madison went and hung out with a bunch of my friends. She's just growing up so fast.

That's awesome that you guys are in Hawaii, that sounds like you are having a great time, and sounds like a cool bike ride down the volcano. We'll have to do that some day together ha.

Love you all tons! Keep it cool, like it sounds like you guys are,like I know you are is better to say. I tried to talk to a guy in my district about the gospel, in English, for an example of a door contact, but I just couldn't do it. I can not talk about the gospel in English anymore. I just speak about it in Spanish too darn much.
Keep it classy.
-Elder Hopkins

 some random kids that wanted a picture taken of them, cuz a camera is super cool technology

Sitting on some dirt with my area in the back

With Elder Martino of the Seventy



We ate at subway one day and it was super good.



A hat I found in the church. I guess they don't know Pilsner is beer.

Week 25: Rain, Rain, Rain and Cold, Super High Kites, Dogs with Dreadlocks

With my area in the background

 October 17, 2011

Hey guys whats up??

That it some great news you sent me. so crazy.. Jeremy going Chinese speaking in France. Chinese in France. that would be hard ha. I was thinkin yesterday how it was Zach´s farewell. i love that boy so much. hes gonna be so great. same with Brendon, only 6 more days till his big farewell day. Tell them both I love them so much and I say felizidades. or happinesses, which is actually congratulations.

So I will answer the questions first. The weather.... rain, rain, rain, and cold! I sent some photos of some of the paths that we often walk. one in a muddy river, the other is a muddy lake with a waterfall pouring off the side. and it has been so so muddy. I've been wearing my boots basically everyday, and am so glad i have them. I've been wearing my long sleeved shirts with sweaters most of the time. who knew Guatemala could be so cold? I bought a nice cardigan from a pile of used clothes that was on the ground in the park in my town that a guy was selling. only 5 Quetz or about 60 cents. It was a good buy. Also i made a warm wheatie! haha. but there's not really any wheat here, so its just a cloth bag with rice in it that i warm up in the microwave to keep me warm. I'm glad i have it, ha.

No i haven't really been to sick yet on my mission. I mean my bowels and stomach were bothering me for like 3 days a couple weeks ago, but nothing too bad. Right now i kinda have a sore throat cough and cold, but luckily the people here eat halls like they're candy,(and i think a lot of them just think that it is candy) so absolutely everywhere sells them.

 

We don't have a cocinera in this area, or a cook i guess it is, but there's a place that sells good food, a meal, for 17 quetz, only 2 more then a cocinera charges, and the food is better i think, so its pretty good. we eat a lot of chicken. a meal at this place consists of a meat,(chicken or beef) with rice and a salad with a lime for the dressing, with tortillas of coarse and a drink. hmm for breakfasts, I either eat pancakes,(they have flavoured pancake mix here, i prefer banana), cereal, or eggs. i eat a lot of eggs... usually an egg sandwich with ketchup, mayo and hot sauce. and I drink a can of real juice fruit nectar stuff called del frutal. i usually have a small snack during the night and maybe some ramen at night.

OKAY. i think I'm good on the questions now.

Just some random stuff that i wanna mention is the kids here fly kites so so much, and they fly higher then I've ever seen a kite fly, like its incredible, and they're only made of like a few sticks and tissue paper. I'll take some picture of some one day, cuz on November first everyone flies kites in the cemetery, that's what they do for the day of the dead, their version of Hallowe'en.

Also a lot of dogs have actual dreadlocks, its kinda funny. just cuz their so dirty and live on the street, so dreadlocks form.

Well I'm alive and well, workin in the obra.(work) the one lady we are preparing for baptism wasn't home all week cuz she was away in the capital working, so we couldn't really do anything with her, but tonight we plan on setting a baptismal date and everything. Her name is Lily. S. The president set some new standards of excellence, one is to have 50 % of lessons with a member present, I'm glad to say we were able to do so this week, with our 20  lessons.

Well the time flew by and my time is almost up.

P.S. we are not allowed to chat on here anymore, only email. It's a new rule. just to let you know, mind you we never really catch each on the computer at the same time to email/chat back and forth anyhow.

I love you all so much, keep doing what you doing, if what you're doing is good.

LOVE YOU FRIEND, 

ELDER HOPKINS

This is one path that turned into a muddy river.

The path that turned into a river slash lake with a waterfall pouring off it.

Me pretending to make corte (their native dress) women do this for hours and hours, and take like 20 days to finish a top. sells for like 250 quetz, so like 30 dollarsish. one day you and madi are each going to buy a native dress outfit, and wear it for my homecoming talk.

Just some of me and my comp eating

Eating again.

Week 24: Setting big goals!

October 10, 2011 (Thanksgiving Monday)

Hola Familiaaa!

(Tanner asked for us to send him some pictures, so I asked him if he was feeling homesick at all)

No, I just asked for the pictures cuz we always put pictures on our agenda so i wanted some to put on, so i can show off my family, maybe relate to people that I'm a real person. Thats what a lot of missionaries here do.

How I track my computer time is yes, there is a timer, at some places the computer turns off after an hour, and some places you just gotta get off.  We always email as a district, so theres not really a problem with being obedient.

and yeah, the lightning lady died. We went over there to give them a Resurrection pamphlet, and the dead lady was lying there, and they were prepping here for the funeral with preservatives, and they had like a big cross and weird incense burning. It was kinda weird.

yeah me and my companion get along, sometimes we'll argue about something dumb, but you just gotta let it go cuz its not worth it. but yeah you just gotta be humble, and yeah we are getting along. i am happy, yes, I am happy I am on my mission, its sometimes hard, but sometimes i think, what  would i be doing if i wasn't here, haaa something not as good as this for sure.

the gas detector thing is fine, i talked to the president about it when he came over for house inspections the other day. we just turn of the gas when we aren't using it to cook. they might be changing all the mission houses to electric stoves, so they just gotta figure it out.

thats cool about the new dr pepper thing. (Dr. Pepper 10 in the States) I'm in Antigua right now and they sell dr pepper here, too bad i cant drink it.

hmmm this goall..... honestly i don't know if we'll be able to do it. the thing is, when i got to this area, they only had one person they were teaching, and this person is looking like she will be baptized maybe at the end of this month. usually every area has people that are at least progressing a little bit, but ours had none. so its hard to find a person, teach them everything, bring them to church 3 times, and baptize them all in the same month. the rule is they have to come to church three times, so only the people we bring to church this next sunday have the possibility of being baptized this month.

hmmm so one thing that happened this week is that my companion and I decided to set a big goal for ourselves because the day before we only had one lesson and found only 2 new people.  That night I wasn't feeling very good about it so my companion and I talked and decided to set a goal that the next day we would contact 100 people in a day,  Basically we didn't come close to the goal, but we did contact 40 people, and ended up having 6 lessons, and 4 of them were with new people. Today other missionaries were asking me, "how did you have 40 contacts in one day???" and then when they found out we had 6 lessons too they were like wowww haha. we are together with a bunch of other missionaries today because we were practicing a song to sing in zone conference tomorrow, and then later this month when a member of the 70 comes to talk to us.

well im sure there are a ton of grammar and spelling mistakes in this email cuz im really rushed today, but i love you all so much!! (I fixed them, yes there were a lot)!
love Elder Hopkins

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

Email to Madison his sister today

That sucks that my tree is gone! oh poverty... like all the houses i teach in here! i didn't know what poverty was before, but now i do. i have no idea what i wrote my speech on in grade 11, i never did like social ha.
well love you whole bunches! as grandma would say. i sent you a card last week. maybe it will get there in a couple weeks.
love you! byee 

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

Email to Grandparents Hopkins today

Thanks for the pictures grandma and grandpa! sure are pretty, and alot different from the volcanos here. i don't have to much time to write today, but i am starting to run low on those pages for my journal you gave me. was wondering if you could send me a new package of them. thank you love you tons!
Elder hopkins

Cozy Feet

We enjoyed watching General Conference in our slippers that Tanner had sent us from Guatemala in our Christmas package we received early.

Week 23: General Conference - being fed by the Spirit and fried chicken, tortillas, ice cream...

October 3, 2011

Hello!

Well This week was Awesome, I remember hearing that Sam Tuner Absolutely loved conference when he watched  it his first time on his mission, after hating to watch it at home. And Basically, I absolutely loved it too! I was sad when it was over. It was a really fun time hanging out with a bunch of gringos too. We almost had to watch it in Spanish, but we ended up being able to travel about an hour to Patzacia to watch it. There were 8 of us from our zone that traveled there, and also 2  were there from the other zone.  We watched it in a small room, on the church TV, and the chairs were pretty comfortable actually. We went to many of the fried chicken places here and bought tortillas for lunch on Saturday, and then because everyone always goes out for food after the priesthood session, but we obviously had to travel back asap after, we went out for Ice cream before the priesthood session.  It was an awesome time.  Its weird to think that 6 months ago I was actually there in Salt Lake for conference, but yes, conference was awesome.

My new area is good, lots of hills to walk up and down in the mountains. We are starting to work differently which is starting to bring us success.  We found 15 new people this week, 3 families. There is a reward with the missionaries in this stake, that if we can baptize a family, or 3 people this month, we get to go eat dinner with the stake president, mission president, and all those who reached this goal. So that is what we are working on. It will be hard, because we literally had 0 progressing investigators when I got here, but we are working hard on finding people and getting them to the waters of baptism as soon as possible. So this is our goal. It will be very difficult in this area, but not impossible.  With the Lord it can happen.
Well, how transfers did work. we took our heavy bags to a chapel, and we have a meeting. we all find out our new companions, and head to our area. after much walking, and carrying my heavy suitcases up and down many large staircases, we arrived at our bus stop. From there we put my suitcases on the roof of the bus, and traveled for about 2 hours to my area. Got here, unpacked a little bit, and got to work. My house is smaller, but a little nicer. we don't have a backyard or anything, in fact, we live above a libreria, a little office supply store. We have the same electric shower, same desks, same beds as almost all the other mission  houses. Its a nice area. i feel safe. In fact when I tell people i was in Villa Canales, they say oh wow, its dangerous over there. so don't worry about me, I'm safe.

I googled the town he is living in and found this information:

San Andres Itzapa is a small town about 6 miles south of Chimaltenango, which is close to Antigua. It is very rare for tourists to visit there. Most have never even heard of it. But it does have some fame among the mayan followers of Ry Laj Man, better known by most as Maximon, the one true god in the Guatemalan Highland villages. The goings on every Sunday is a sight to behold. People lined up for hours around the church which is the permanent home for the awaiting their chance to make offerings and ask for blessings. Offerings are usually rum and cigarettes. The small Mayan ladies dressed in their colorful garb smoke fat cigars as they wait their turn. This is a bit like the Mayan counterpart to an audience with the Pope, except that Maximon is a higher ranking diety.


That's funny that you found some information about that church. We have to pass it to get to our church. It's a big lot fenced in by big cement walls. Outside they sell their little idols of a man wearing a suit with a big cigar.  They burn live hens and stuff for offerings.  Also there's a church here called the Canadian church. Its a catholic church i think. many years ago a bunch of Canadians came to this town and built a lot of houses is what I'm told. There's even a plaque about it with a maple leaf here.

Yes i did get all your packages that you have told me about,  besides this 6 month one from grandma.
Oh, yesterday we did something a little out of the ordinary, well we gave a blessing, which isn't out of the ordinary, but the person who received it was. Its was a super old lady, who was under an avocado tree, and it got hit by lightning, the two people beside her died, but she didn't. When we gave her the blessing, she was lying in bed, she already looked dead, wrinkly skin, coarse messy grey hair, closed eyes, and her breathing was more like gasping. She had been in bed for three days without eating anything hardly. Basically i think she's going to die, if shes not already dead. But we gave her a blessing, and her daughter a blessing of comfort. As a result of this, we have 4 new investigators, because this family are not members, but friends of members.
Well I wanted to ask you to send me some things, maybe just email me some files. two or three good family pictures, specifically some of the train pictures. and the picture of my snowboarding that i had as a profile picture, when I'm going of that jump in snowbird in Utah. dad will know what one.

That's awesome that you already got the Christmas package! I'm glad you like the stuff. Maybe I'll be able to send another before Christmas, since Antigua is close by.  but I'm not promising anything, its kinda expensive, well it is. ha. but yeah that jersey I sent, everyone in our zone bought.I'm really not going to wear it here on the mission, cuz I have other shirts, so I decided to send it home so its there when I get there.
Well, I love you all, so so much. Keep being the awesome people you are.

from Guatemala, With Love,
Elder Hopkins

Tanner's Grandma asks him about the native birds
Tanner says:
Quetzals are actually very rare, and hardly seen in the wild. but yes in the Book of Mormon, that picture of Abinadi in front of the king and with Alma, have Quetzals in them. The Book of Mormon was here!


P.S.
Some pics! my area is near Antigua, well like a half hour in bus, but there;s a McDonald's there! yum! the most crazy fancy biggest McDonald's I've ever seen, with a big courtyard and fountains. I'm a fan of classy fast food. Also this man is a recent convert here that sells really cool jewelery in Antigua, and he gave me a wallet for free.(top picture) Also we made invitations to general conference. Here's some pictures of us during General Conference. Hope you loved it as much as I did. Dad now knows how to raise a girl. Love you all!

Week 22: Transferred to the Mountains: houses made of dirt

My new companion, Elder Martinez, from Honduras

September 26, 2011  - Transferred to 2nd Area

Hello.

Well the habits that I have developed like Dad is his morning routine. Like squishing things to put in the garbage, I don't know, stuff like that haha. Thats exciting so many people are all going on missions! and its exciting that Brendon and Zach leave so soon. The next change in my mission is the day that Brendon and Zach enter the MTC. How exciting! That's nice that dad is going to take Lincoln out for wings after the general Priesthood session next weekend, I wish I could come haha. But yeah I'm not too sure whats going to happen for General Conference, I'm excited though. We get to go to this place the church owns here that its like a big building and big fields that the church uses for youth camps and stuff. Hopefully well get to watch it in English and buy lots of food for it haha. well see.


Well.... You guessed it, I got transferred. I'm now in the Zone Chimaltenango, in a town called San Andres Itzapa. Its kind of up in the mountains, and everyone wears the typical native dress called Corte. A lot of people here speak cachiquel also, but luckily they speak spanish too. It's a little colder than my last area, more hilly, and there are absolutely no addresses! NO house numbers, NO street numbers. NADA! So its kinda hard to remember where someone lives. Also street contacting is very difficult cuz they just say "Yeah, I live over there, by a big pila (sink/fountain/clothes washing thing) and my house is made of dirt".

There's a lot of houses here made out of dirt but generally its more wealthy than my last area, there's some nice houses too.

My district leader told me that I'm sent here to help motivate my new companion, so we are going to work hard and have success. The people are different up here in the mountains, and it seems that they have a a little bit harder of heart, but we just gotta look for the chosen sheep here.

Oh also i got all those envelopes you sent me! whoohoo! The Taylor Swift t-shirt is my only prized possession I own here now. I wear it every morning and night. And I loved the card from Madison! Fantastic. and I haven't used the flea collars because in this area, there's no fleas! whoo hoo. But i will hang onto them in case I will need them in the future. Thanks so much for all!

hhmmmm what else to say. i feel like I'm relying a lot more on the Lord in this area, and growing for that. This area is hard, when i feel like we didn't have much success in a day, my comp says it was a very successful day for this area, but we are going to raise the standards here.

An experience I had yesterday, we were contacting all day, not having too much success. I was just thinking about what we can do different, and was carrying a prayer in my heart. As we passed a house, my companion told me that they contacted it before, and they didn't want to have anything to do with the missionaries, but all of a sudden, without even thinking, just following a feeling I had, I knocked on the door and a lady came by and immediately let us in. She has a boy that can't walk, his legs are like noodles, and he was pushing himself along the floor with his hands. We left a message about the resurrection, and how we will receive perfect bodies. It was the only lesson we had the whole day. Any little prompting from the Holy Ghost, we NEED to act on. Only with that we will be able to recognize the spirit of God with more clarity in our lives.

Well, i am well, and healthy. I love you all so much. keep it classy.
From Guatemala, with love,
Elder Hopkins

YESSS! i got my Taylor Swift tshirt!! and I love it more than you can imagine.

Week 21: Becoming more and more like his Dad

Too bad I can't ride this bike!

another hill to walk up??!!

My area - Villa Canales

Elder Varela and I

Every change we get a newsletter and I got my name in it cause we had Family Baptism

Hola!

Thank you for the information on fleas! still can feel them crawling on my body sometimes.

We still haven't had our house inspection from the Mission President's wife, but we keep our house clean anyways. and about changes, yes this Wednesday is transfer day / changes again. We find out tonight if one of us is going, but I think I'm going to be here at least another change. We'll see. I'll let you know where I am next week.

Anyways, I was thinking, for christmas, it would be sweet to have some waterproof bags, like from MEC, that would fit just my scriptures, and maybe a smaller one for my camera too. you have a set of Spanish scriptures so big enough that I could put those in it, PLUS another Spanish bible, just that size would be great. and maybe some tiny mesh bags. Those are handy. Only if you can, I can make do without them. I made a little waterproof box for my scriptures, out of cardboard and alot of packing tape.

Also I'll just throw this out there, but as I've been sitting here there has been 2 mini earthquakes, which are really cool I think, its like I'm on a ride at a theme park, with everything shaking. they aren't too rare here.

The picture frames I buy, I put a picture of the person we baptize in it and give it them. It's for them, but I do print out a photo of each one and put it in a little album I have.

Oh the letters I received were from Carly Ruiz, Jessica Bachinsky, and Erin Harker. and all three have cards in the mail coming back to them!

Sometimes I feel like I'm becoming more and more like dad, and I wonder if all the little habits he has he developed on his mission. who knows.

Well I sent a lot of photos to you and don't have too much time to write. Just been working like usual, trying to have lessons IN the homes of members. There is a statistic of 1 in every 3 investigator that goes to church and has lessons in the houses of members get baptized. So we managed to have three this week which was great.

I sent Tanner some pictures of his brother's mustache and beard – his comment
I am jealous. I want that beard ha ha.

well I'm gonna end now so maybe I can chat with you!

until next week!

Elder Hopkins

Just some hill in my area that we were walking up

We had a family home evening with a family in our ward, and i love their kids, so fun  (glad to see him sharing the glow in the dark bracelets, pencils and other items his family is sending for just this purpose)

It was raining and no one had umbrellas with them so our district leader sheltered us.

We played capture the flag in the rain with our zone and took a photo after