Miracles and Baptism

Baptism of Barnie, his mom and younger brother

found big red ants all over the bathroom wall one night!

September 25, 2012

Hey family

Thats so great to hear the the open house is almost here, its going to be so great to have a temple so close to our house, I'm so excited to go see it in 2 years when I get back, I'm sure it will be finished when it needs to be, we do believe in miracles, God is a living god, and with our faith and works, a miracle will come to pass.

This week was a great week, and I did witness a miracle, the miracle of Forgiveness. Barnie and his mom and his younger brother, were all Baptized on Saturday. Even though he did live a sinful life before, he is now clean of sin, in the path that continues to Gods presence.

It was really great, even though before the baptism there wasn't any priest holders to come to be witnesses, not any worthy ones at least, so we had to make a bunch of calls, and we ended up being late, but after all of that they were baptized. they even had ordered 2 cakes and invited everybody over after to eat some cake.

by the way, there is no baptismal font in the branch, we have to travel to another town to do baptisms, and the branch didn't rent a bus t take us this time, but we just went it the normal bus. it was kinda a gong show, but they are now happy members of the church of Jesus Christ and that is what matters.

well, about what Guatemalans need... jobs, electricity, seats to sit on, food... ummm i donno.

the thing is that there are some that are soo poor that they don't even have milk for their babies, like a family that we are teaching, (we bought them milk yesterday and are going to secretly drop it off) and we sit on little cement blocks on the dirt floor when we teach them. They are a great family, they are going to be baptized, we just need to work on getting them married first, but in situations like that I don't really know what i would give them. but, little toys would make little kids happy, a little bit of jewelery would make a woman happy, but what the people really need is food and shelter, which most have to fight for in order to have it. but I'll keep thinking of ideas to help out the people.

so thats suuuuper funny that Jeremy is Danielle's District leader hahaha. I even joked around about that with some missionaries here when i told them about how they are in the same mission. theres just so much funny stuff to joke about there, and the time is short. but that is hilarious.

oh, i was able to interview that guy that i had to reject a few weeks ago, and he is now ready to be baptized. In fact tonight he will be baptized.

well theres not too much time left,

theres really nothing i need right now, i have two packages waiting in the office still, which ill get hopefully next week.

oh, also, you guys are confused, Their training program lasts 2 changes, so i will still be with the same comp, and i will still be training him. 

but yeah, i love you guys tons,

I'll be praying for the Calgary Temple Miracle as well, as well for each of you.

From Guatemala, with much love,

Elder Hopkins

Having Cake after the Baptism

Ashes and Lava!!

This is Volcano Fuego, taken a month ago.  It would let out puffs of smoke every once in a while, little did they know it was a pressure cooker brewing.  It erupted September 13 and Tanner got to watch.

This is a picture of Tanner in his 2nd area where he served right by the
Volcano Fuego (Sept/11 - Jan/12)

Volcano Fuego Erupts 40 miles from me Thurs. Sep. 13

At night we could see the lava pouring down

Time to buy a new umbrella

September 18, 2012

Buenas Dias family!!

haha I knew that you'd know about the volcano eruption already. It was pretty awesome. We were planning our day in the morning, and i got a call from the zone leaders and they told me to go out to see if we were far enough away to be able to go out and work, and i said that i thought we were, so then they called the President back and he said that my district could work. But there were many missionaries that couldn't go out for the morning. My 2nd area was super super close to that volcano, but in the area that I'm in now, I was close enough to get an awesome view, but far enough away to be able to work and far enough that the ash didn't get all the way to my little town. In the morning you could just see a huuuuuge cloud of volcanic ash coming from the volcano, and then that night, you could see lava shooting up from the volcano. Heres some pictures that i took, and some pictures of the newspaper the next day.

it was super cool, cuz since the beginning of my mission I've been saying that i want to see a volcano erupt, and what do you know, i did.

Thats cool that Vicki is going to temple square haha. but you know what they say, all the best looking missionaries go there. Thats also why they sent me as far away as they could from temple square.

so those pictures of the temple are pretty cool, looks like its just about ready to open! exciting.

and oh great, when i get back my eyes are going to hurt from seeing so many neon pants. has time been moving backwards up there since I've been in Guatemala? are we back in the 80s?

The young hip guatemala style when i got here was bright colored neon shirts with pictures of smurfs on them. right now the style is big neck neons shirts, so that one shoulder is sticking out, with elmos face on it. its so stupid haha. thank goodness i was grown in Canada.

that would be cool if you get an invitation to the temple open house over to Katy, tell her i say hi and i hope shes doing great!

So the other day my umbrella broke from the strong rain and wind, and i got SOAKED so i just had to take a picture of it ha. 

So Barney, his mom and brother are all ready for their baptism on saturday. we had to teach two lessons a day to the mom and brother since they are only here on weekends and we wanted to get them baptized asap, but they are excited, so this week I should have 3 baptisms. cool stuff. The Lord has been blessing us as we have also found 2 other families that are super PILAS! or in other words, are super AWESOME!

its looking like they will be baptized, but not until october we are planning.

well, i love you all tons, hope you are all doing great.

i know that i have 2 packages in the office waiting for me, so i just gotta wait until a conference or something, but they're there.

love ya all, choose the right!

From Guatemala, With Love,

Elder Hopkins

Newspaper Clippings - 33,000 were evacuated

Such a Great Week! and A trip to Panajachel

At Panajachel.  Lake Atitlan (the Waters of Mormon)

Cool Jacket I bought in Panajachel

This is my Calendar.  You can make any calendar church themed with cut outs from the Liahona! ha

September 11, 2012

Hey Family. 

Sounds like your doing good. cool little jeep, that'll be fun in the summer, good that the bathroom is done, its just normal? so that means no steam shower? no heated floor? no double shower head? oh well..... it will definitely be better than what i have now... cold shower that sand falls out of, cement walls, floor, very little light... it is better that what most people in my area have though...

Well, my week was... busy. It was actually one of the best weeks number-wise that I've had in my mission. I don't know if I've sent you pictures of the inside of the little house that was transformed into a chapel, but we had 81 people there this week, we basically didn't fit. There is plans to build a new chapel though. 14 of these people were investigators, yes we had 14 investigators attending church. It was awesome. Had some confirmations of the 2 that we baptized last week, and President Brough came to our branch to do the interview of Barney... and... He's good to go! We are planning on baptizing him on the 22nd. His mom and brother were so excited too, so we challenged them to baptism, and it looks like they are going to be baptized with Barney. They are only home on weekends so this past weekend, and this upcoming one we are going to have to teach them like crazy. Two lessons each day at least. But its good.

We have another 2 men that we are working with, they have the goal for the 22nd, but they are a little bit tougher. But were working hard with that, and hopefully well be able to get them to receive the remission of their sins on the 22nd as well.

I sent you another picture of my journal entry about it too.

Yesterday we went to Panajachel for pday as a zone. It was pretty cool. I basically just got some stuff for you guys to send home in the package I'm planning on sending.  We'll have to go there when I'm done my mission. Theres a few pictures of me overlooking the lake. Lake Atitlan, also known as the waters of Mormon. thats what the myth is.

We basically were in a crowded minivan from 9 till 5, with a time of an hour and a half in between of being in Panajachel. I don't know if it was that worth it.


Today is September 11th, also known as my half birthday. Mayble I'll treat myself to half an icecream cone. that also means that today is Carlys bday, so felicitaciones to her as well.

oh heres something funny that happened.... so i was sleeping in my hammock, the awesome one that i got custom made. and i woke up at midnight and what do you know, theres a tarantula on my leg. i freaked out and it crawled away real quick. I obviously couldn't just keep sleeping there, so i got down and got into bed under my bug net. but yeah, now i can say i woke up with a tarantula on me. ayyyy...

also, how do you make egg salad sandwiches? what else besides eggs are it it? I do not know, but I sure do like them.

well, Thats all i got for you this week. we're still working hard to get more baptisms to complete the goal of 300 this month.

To answer grandmas question i didn't get the package yet. i probably wont until next change. But I 'll get it eventually.

Well. I love you all. keep on keeping on. and keep on the classy.

From Guatemala, with Love,
Elder Hopkins

A "Perfect Week"

Baptism of  brothers, 8 and 10 years old

Me and my comp

My with "our" dog, (I sent him some dog bones to give it, ha ha)

I bought some more cool hammocks!

September 4, 2012

Hey Family.

Well, This has been quite the week, but I can say that we had a ''Perfect Week.''

That was the goal for this week, and we completed it.

On Tuesday I remember saying, ''Wow, The Lord really wants us to achieve this goal.'' and the next day wednesday I remember saying ''Wow, Satan really doesn't want us to achieve this goal.''

It was a week of difficulties, and a week of Miracles.I sent you pictures of my journal entries so that you have a little more information as well. 

But before I forget, because last week I did, Happy Birthday Sheri! and Happy Birthday Grandpa Hops! I hope it was a great one.

okay. So juan and Aaron apparently drank coffee on tuesday, and you gotta wait a week to be baptized, but President said they could be baptized cuz there kids. The thing is is that the people here have the tradition to drink a hot drink and dip bread in it, a dumb tradition I think, but they ran out of an acceptable hot drink, and the step dad, a member, went and bought coffee, knowing that its a sin, so they could have their stupid hot drink. I got really mad at them, the guy was somewhat offended, but I said it how it is. Well anyways, we had their baptism on sunday, we went down in a bus, no air conditioning unfortunately ha.

Barney couldn't be baptized this week, this Sunday President Brough has to come to interview him... for more information read my journal entry.

Nope, havent found any more tarantulas, but more mosquitoes are back, but yes, i did get the mosquito spray and such from the package. GRÁCIAS!
 So i had to do a bunch of interviews for the members of my district this week. it was a good experience. I had to reject one of them for baptism, but he just didn't have a testimony of Joseph Smith or Thomas Monson. It was what the Lord told me to do. He was a little disappointed, but i think he'll be baptized later on. he was wanting to get baptized and then he thought that the Lord would tell him that they were true Prophets... something like that. 

But in the District we had 6 baptisms, which was great.

hey, do you know a fun way to teach the 10 commandments with your hand, is there some sort of paper copy you could email me? that would be cool. also what would be cool is a trick quarter, the kind that you can make it look like you bite a piece off? kids here love magic haha.

The cocoa butter that you sent me is delightful. love it ha.

and I saw a commercial for the iphone 5 i think it was, I don't know if it was a fake commercial, but it looks too good to be true haha. crazy technology.

also I was looking through my comps pictures, and there was a picture of a sign that says 10:30 sleep, that I wrote and made when I was in the Guatemala MTC here, just on a piece of paper, and its still there ha ha, crazy.

Well, good luck in school, I don't even know what I want to do with my schooling, you're right mom haha. probably general studies at the U of C I was thinking.

well, times out quickly today.

Love you all so much! I bought some more cool hammocks, those are the pictures.

From Guatemala, with Love, Elder Hopkins.

 

Our bus ride to the baptism.. nope, no air conditioning, i was hoping!

Living in the Poorest House in the Mission (I'll say!)

My home - (never judge a book by its cover I say)

Bathroom

Door off of kitchen - leading to sink

Our pila -  sink

We not only wash our dishes here, but sometimes there is no running water, so we fill the sink with water and keep it in case we need to wash up in the morning here using the saved water

One side of the kitchen, microwave, counter, black food cupboard

'

Other side of kitchen - fridge

Bedroom

Bedroom Study Area

"Closets"

   

Last Companion's birthday cake

Training his New Companion, Elder Palomera, From Puerto Vallarta  Mexico

In English it means:  Extraordinary Coaches

In the backyard there was a big iguana, that the house owners caught, and cooked and ate it, so i took a picture of it. I've yet to try Iguana meat yet though, some day...

August 28, 2012

Hey Fammmmmm Que Tal Están??

(Tanner's response to hearing that his Grandparents got their mission call to New Delhi, India)

Well, thats some  exciting news this week, INDIA! thats crazy. when i first read it i thought it said INDIANA, but nope, its INDIA! thats going to be such a cool experience, as crazy, maybe even crazier than Guatemala. They have great food there, at least the food they sell in calgary that they call indian food is great food. Grandpa and nanny Tina are going to come back with a great accent ha.

Excited that Parker Landed in Moscow. thats a sweet picture of him in red square, so handsome, nice suit, nice tie, nice smile, thats going to be such a cool mission for him. Crazy language, lots of Delicious Borscht and perogies, yum yummm.

awesome that Vickie's papers are in too, A DONDE VA A IR?? SAAAABERRRRR

I'll do some clarifications, I was trained for 6 weeks, back in those days it was only for one change, and i don't think there was some big set up program. Elder Euteinier did train me for the whole 6 weeks, but now is back in beautiful Las Vegas, hittin the strip maybe. But now the training program is a 2 change, 12 week program. so i will most likely be here until his training is done, for 12 weeks.

My new comps name is Elder Palomera, From Puerto Vallarta Mexico. I think thats where we were at when we went to mexico, to Ixtapa, i think its the big city where we went fishing at, I don't know though, you should check that for me. But yes, training is good, it is a lot more work, I kinda have to teach our companionship studies now, and we have an extra hour every day of it, 2 hours in total, so about 4 hours every morning. some mornings we have to get up at like 5 30 now to get all the studies in. Also I have to be absolutely Perfect for the next 12 weeks it what President said, but that will be easy.... haha.

He does have a Mexican Accent haha , a very different accent from the one here, so at times its been a little tougher to understand him especially with all his mexican grammar and words that aren't used here in Guatemala, and it is a little bit more feminine ha, but its going good. 

Thats a cool sounding fireside you went to, I like what he said about putting it in the Lords hands. So tell me, whats going to happen for the big celebration, is Madison going to sing a taylor swift song in front of the Prophet?

So i have soo many cards to send, i haven't been able to send any for the last month cuz theres no post office, so sorry for the late responses that everyone is going to get, theres like 20 cards there, so what I'm going to do is send you a package of things, with the cards, so that you can mail them out, less cost and worry for me. but we're going to go to Santiago Amatitlan soon, a very tourist area, so I'll wait to send it so i can include some things from there in the package.

you should put a door between my room and madisons old room or something, so its like one big room for me haha, awesome! great idea hey?

So i was thinking this week, that everybody here calls us Angels, Everybody who has been baptized because of missionaries efforts, refers to them as Angels. Then i was thinking, and it is true, for two years we are not only missionaries, but we are Angels of the Lord for a lot of people. and this definition supports what it said in the scripture guide. I am so grateful for the opportunity that I have to act as an angel to so many people. I don't want to get this plaque taken off of me in 8 months ahhhhh, too soon. yes, yesterday i completed another month. time is just flying!

Well. thanks for the love, also we have 3 baptisms coming up this week, Barney, Juan and Aaron. Barney happens to be very large, we're gonna have trouble finding baptismal clothes this week haha.

From Guatemala, With Love,

Elder Hopkins

As the Missionaries Call it - Pregnant and about to be a Father!

Me and my district. Elder Hale, from Colorado, Elder Reyes, from Dominican Republic, Elder Haefner, from St. Louis, Hna Neghbor, from Utah, and Hna Steed, from Raymond AB.

"A" and his tremendous girls!

August 21, 2012

Hey Family!!.

Sounds like your all doing great in the busy city. Great that you could have some get aways.
So to answer your questions, yes there was another tarantula in the house haha. this was the third. ay ay ay, im going to come home with spider fears haha. but i did do a huuuuge house cleaning yesterday, sweeping and hosing down all the walls, there used to be so many spider webs everywhere, and dirt and dust. There still is a little. The problem is its open where the walls and roof meet, since its just a little tin roof. i havent taken pictures just because I've always forgotten, but I'll try to remember this week. I changed all the furniture arrangement too.

so yes tomorrow is changes. and only the missionaries that have changes go to it, and the rest have to wait till later to get their packages, but the mail usually comes through the district leaders through the zone leaders.

But....., yes we do have changes. my comp is leaving, and i am pregnant, or in other words tomorrow i am going to be a dad, or in other words, for the next two changes, i am going to be training, a brand new missionary!  It should be fun, difficult, and challenging, but fun. It's about a 50/50 chance of  it being a norte americano, or a latino. Yes, your missionary son is now going to be a Father, exciting.

I'm excited cuz i was never trained on the new training program, so i have no idea what its all about, so I'll get to experience it, from the teaching side. that could also be a disadvantage too, cuz im going through it for the first time with my kid too. but it will be a great learning experience. Pres Brough said that training will probably be the most difficult thing of the mission, but it will also be rewarding. so thats the news i got.

Juan Aaron and Barney all all doing good. they are going to be baptized on the 2nd. We reported them as set baptismal dates. We are working on a few more to be baptized in september, so that as a mission we can reach 300 baptism, something that has never been done here.

Hearing that you ate at that Indian food restaurant made my mouth water. that place is so sooooo good! lets go eat there when i get back. along with tons of other great restaurants. I think I will gain weight when I'm back! 

Speaking of my return, a kind of depressing topic, i was thinking I will get home right before fast sunday, so my homecoming talk would end up being the next Sunday which is Mothers Day, who knows, people will want to go to their ward with their moms, and all the moms that have missionaries will get sad haha, If you pick me up we can go to all the markets and load up on things to bring back from Guatemala.
But its still way too early to be speaking of this, i don't get home for another 2 years...

The picture i sent you are of “A” and his family, the two little girls are tremendous! so funny haha, hes the only non member, but its not looking like hes going to be baptized, we told him straight up that if he doesn't get baptized on the 2nd we are going to stop visiting him, which sucks, cuz its a great family, and they all love it when we come to visit.

I found a place that makes super awesome hammocks, and you can pick all the colors, nice type of knit, they're super comfy, so im gonna order 2 haha, it'll be like 50 dollars, but its worth it for these ones, the one i have is kinda crappy, but these will be great to bring home.

well, thats all for this week folks,
Love you all, keep on the straight and narrow, in all aspects of your lives.
From Guatemala, with much love,
Elder Hopkins

The Coast, More Tarantulas, & Garbage Picking

PICTURE OVERLOAD!

A Visit to the Coast

We were only there for an hour, but my feet got sunburnt!

Another Missionary wrote this in the sand to send to his girlfriend, so I thought I would take advantage of it and send it to you too (says "I Love You")

Hey familyyy! 

Sounds like you folks are keeping yourselves busy, i sure am too, busy busy busy.

Sounds like a fun BBQ. All i have to eat here are little restaurants that are fairly tasty, but I'm always scared that I'll have to use the bathroom all day after eating there ha. Had some good tacos on the coast, and this didn't make me sick but I was scared for the hour long bus ride after haha.

So before I forget, HAPPY BIRTHDAY MADISON!! 17?!?! thats crazy. I'm teaching someone who turns 17 on the 16th too, but she's living alone with some 25 year old from el Salvador haha. I'm glad you're not living like that. Have a great birthday! save me a piece of cake, I'll be there for the next one!

To answer your questions. I did try the ice thing air conditioner, it kinda works, not as good as I thought, but worth doing on a hot morning. I was told that it works better if you put the ice behind the fan, so it doesn't melt as fast. so yes I do have a small freezer.

Yes, I do have a cook and a laundry lady. our cook doesn't make that good of food though haha unfortunately, but it fills us up.

Yes, the water does go sometimes. The way that these pilas, or big sinks work, is that the middle of it is always filled up with water, you just keep it filled, and then you have buckets to scoop up water and use it to clean on the two sides, so when theres no water, our sink is still filled up.

Yes I keep my eyes open when I shower. I just hope the water doesn't give me eye infections, I don't know how I could do it with them closed. A tarantula would bite me! There was another in our house yesterday.

I had to climb down a well yesterday to get a blender, I really wanted a blender, I have a cool video of it, but its too big to send on here. there was a lot of spiders and stuff down there, spooky ha.

I do speak english alot with my comp, he's just starting out the mission, so his spanish isn't all there yet, but on the streets and all day I teach him things.

But yeah even though i have a cell phone, I almost always have to keep it in the house, kinda strange, its a rule, but its just for emergencies and on sunday mornings to get people to church.

But yeah, on pday the other day we went to the beach, it was pretty cool there were real big waves, its a surfing beach, there were a few, pretty cool. just kinda hung out, burned my legs and feet, drank a coco, it was fun.

The guy we were teaching, well it isn't looking too good for him to be baptized as of right now, he just doesn't really have the desire, which is sad, we even had a lesson with the branch President with him. But we have three lined up for Sept. 2 - Juan and Aaron, 10 and 8 years old, of a part member family, and Barney, 23 years old. so pray for them, and pray for my district. we will see miracles happen.

Thats all the time I've got today, love ya all, keep it classy.

From Guatemala, With Love,

Elder Hopkins

My New Area

Eating Sugar Cane

 

I come home pretty dirty every night!

Drinking Milk out of a bag, they sell tons of drinks just out of the bag here