35th Baptism this week, Starting to get Baggy!

We colored our door with chalk

 Elder Hopkins must be starting to get a little "baggy" there isn't too much in his email about what actually happened in his mission last week! 

 

Mouse in the Pila!

Hey Family.

I'm good. 

We Baptised Sofia Yolanda Salazar de Molina on saturday. The Mother of Jorge that we recently baptized.

You will be coming soon, to pick me up!  Don't worry about getting the trip all planned out, I'll do most of it, I know Guatemala better than you guys. About the Tikal Ruins, I guess we just wont do that, cuz it will take up a ton of time, and its expensive, it would be a whole day, but you guys can look up on it, and if you wanna go its cool.

My suitcases are still in decent shape, I could continue to use them for sure. I don't want you guys to bring much stuff in your suitcases, cuz for a week, you don't really need much, and you'll buy stuff here, so we can just bring souvenirs home mainly.  I would recommend not bringing anything too valuable, unless you consider it necessary, like a phone or camera, etc.

I finally bought a blender now that my last companion took his with him.    

I'm happy about the dentist and doctor appointments you have booked for me when I get home, but I think you forgot to tell me what time my massage is going to be.  :)

So that sucks that madi's ankle got broken, I guess that means......... LOTS OF TUC TUC rides! whooo haha. I loved them the first time I was here. the only bad thing is that in Antigua there is a lot of walking required, and the streets are stone, not just flat, and the tuc tucs in Antigua are a little more expensive, like a dollar each ride or so, but we'll make it work, and she can tough it out.

one plan that I have, is go to a corte chop and all buy corte outfits!  haha, well at least the women. It'll be sweet and then you can wear them at my homecoming! (Corte is the traditional native dress like this)

photo from amslerPIX

I had a dream the other night, and this is what it was--
I was at home, in Calgary, and i had nothing to do. i was complaining cuz i didn't have any phone numbers of my friends, i was really sad so i went to the computer and went onto Google maps, and just looked at Guatemala on the satellite mode.
then I woke up and I was sad. ha.

there's for sure always mixed feelings while finishing the mission.

but I am really excited for you to come and see this wonderful country, from the busy capital, to the hidden mountains, to the easy going coast. it will be a good time. it will be really chill, and easy going I think since we have a whole week. so are you going to rent a vehicle or what after all. Try not to get one that's super nice looking, but get one that has tinted windows.

Well, i don't know what else to say.  Also try to see how much it costs to make phone calls here. it might be cheaper to just buy a cheap phone and buy minutes here to do the phone calls, cuz you don't have to buy a plan or anything here, its really easy to get a cell phone. 

Thanks for sending Madi's rugby pictures - madison is the one that get picked up? - I think the one that get picked up might be called the hooker. so maybe keep an eye on that one haha.

Hey, not to be baggy or anything, but you should get madi to do the following, get together all the cool music that I missed out on the last two years, all the cool rap and hip hop songs, and also like the folk and alternative stuff and put them on my phone so I can listen to them when I'm at my dentist appointments ect. that would be soooo greatly appreciated. also get the cool good movies together so we can watch them when i get back. It'll be like a movie a night for like 3 months. haha jk, but there's alot.

Well, adios.
From Guatemala, with love,
Elder Hopkins

We did Zone Leader training today for our Zone of 32 missionaries

Me with my Companions

 

Our Zone Roster

Baptism of Edgar Vasquez

Our House - Entrance

Study Area

 before we got it set up to house all 4 of us

Washing White Shirts by hand

April 16, 2013

Buenas Tardes Familia....

i heard it snowed up there, i might freeze when i get home, but thats okay.

Hey so this week was good, Fechas Metas, or goals for baptismal dates have been falling, but we are also putting alot more goals each week. "Y", "J's"  mom will be baptized this next saturday. Also her son  Juan has a fecha meta for the 28th of this month, and he already said yes. Also a couple named "R" and "E" are going to get married on the 27th, and at least "R" will be baptized, we are still working with "E". but yeah, we've been finding positive people.

We were going to have a wedding and another baptism this next weekend, but can't because of document issues. This woman is not yet in the system of people in Guatemala, she was only written in the physical books where she was born, like 4 hours away. Anyways, these books were destroyed, I don’t know if it was by mold, or a fire, but yeah, that sometimes happens here. So she almost doesn’t exist here in Guatemala, so shes gotta start a process to get her identification. It makes me mad that the poor government system is going to impede her baptism. 

It was a trial of my patience, which maybe I needed, but we keep on working.

Elder Martino, the area president of central america came to our ward here on sunday, just to do some business with the stake, so I got to know him again. on saturday we went with the ward missionary leader to buy white shirts from used clothes stores called paca, (you will see that they are everywhere), and then we had to wash them by hand and all that so that the recent converts we have could wear white shirts at church.

Today we had a Zone training, me and Elder Barahona prepared it for the zone, of 32 missionaries, a big zone. I feel that it went really well. it was about prayer.

But it went really well.

I think your list is wrong, I've baptized 33, 34 when you count Edgar on saturday.

GREAT WORK ON MAKING UP FOR SEMINARY MADI!! WAY TO GO! KEEP IT UP!

There's tons of little things I need to do that friday and saturday when I get back, like renew my licence, buy clothes, eat good food, go to the doctor to get the bomb, get all the little things done. maybe I'll just wait to see friends until the sunday at my homecoming talk.

yeah i think i am gaining weight again, hopefully its muscle weight, cuz i had lost 15 pounds of that.

Those are super sweet jerseys that Madi's rugby team has. I like em alot. those are some nasty bruises though, keep fighting! But don’t get too hurt cuz you gotta walk here in Guatemala. love ya'll.

Well, i don’t know what else to say. time is going by real fast.

From Guatemala, with love,

Elder Hopkins

Feels like I'm in a race to the finish!

My new companions, from left to right: Barahona, Hopkins, Rittscher, Morales

                                          Baptism of Giovano Barreintos - April 7, 2013

April 10, 2013

Hey fammmmm.

things are all well with me. im now with Elder Barahona from Honduras as my zone leader companion, and Elder Morales from Guatemala as the one that im training. Elder Barahona is also training Elder Rittscher.  Elder Rittscher is from Guatemala but his grandparents are from Germany, so he looks gringo, they came here in WW2 so they wouldn’t have to fight. Its a crowded house but we make it work.

This week was good, we had a baptism, after the general conference, which was as great as ever by the way. We baptized Giovano Barreintos,  a man I contacted on a bus about 5 weeks ago. We are now working with his catholic mother to get baptized, along with many others. We put a set baptismal date with the mother of Jorge last night, the one that was baptized the previous week,  but we're not gonna baptize her until the 20th we decided. We are working with many others to make this covenant with God, things are exciting. The clock is ticking, and there's still work to do. It's as if I were in the last moments of a close basketball game, not much time left, but still so much that I want to do, but I know that I've worked hard up to the moment so its just a matter of keeping it up.

So I think I would like still to go down to Snowflake for Elder Tanner's wedding, end of June. go down to chill with some good friends ha.  Elder Jaramillo might come too so it would be me just going down to chill with some good friends.

Hey I had a question, does Bishop Fibke want me to speak about anything specific at my homecoming talk? let me know so I can get thoughts together, and stories from the mish together. thanks.

oh yea, so i didn’t write yesterday cuz i was in the coast at a zone conference. sorry i didn’t tell you. next week will be normal.

well i gotta go, sorry i thought I had more time, I'll send more pictures next week!

Love you!

Elder Hopkins

When I told him about his Uncle Dwight's finger and sent him a picture

wow thats nuts, im glad only a finger was lost though, thats a blessing. i hope he keeps getting better. I'll put polysporin on me next time i get a cut ha.

love ya!

Best week I've had in the Mission! And Getting THREE new companions tomorrow

Baptism of Lety

Baptism of Luis & Marisol

Baptism of Jorge

Our Whole Zone

April 2, 2013

Hey Familyyyy!

I'm doing fantastic, this week was the best week I think I've had in the mission, lots of fun, lots of miracles, and lots of success.

Jorge and Lety did get baptized, and it was great, they are super pilas, they are going to be future leaders in the church, I am for sure of it. We went out with the stake president to visit some people, and we visited Jorge between his baptism and confirmation, and the stake president was shocked, and he said that he knows that Jorge will be a great leader too, and then Jorge started to cry, it was really spiritual. This man used to maintain himself outside passed out on the sidewalks from drinking so much, and he almost dies from it. Sometimes you just gotta hit rock bottom until you can shoot back up.

Also we had 2 other baptisms we weren’t expecting,  Luis & Marisol. We've been teaching them for like 5 weeks and they have always been really positive. well, on Sunday morning and church they told us that they would be baptized. we did divisions, my comp went to look for clothes, I finished teaching them some things, and then we got the interviews done, and they were baptized right after church. it was great.

Tomorrow we have changes, my companion is leaving, and I'm receiving three more haha. its kinda a different situation. So I'm going to receive a new zone leader companion, and I'm also going to receive a new companion who I am going to train, also my zone leader companion will have his companion that he's training. There just so many newbies coming in, and so many problems with the visas that even the Zone leaders have to train while being Zone leaders so that should help me stay really focused these last 6 weeks too.

Also this morning I talked to a man from my old area in Guajitos. It looks like old Alberto is almost ready to go to the temple and be sealed to his deceased wife. Hopefully I'll get to go with him for it in a couple of weeks.

I thought it was the iphone 4 that you all had, not the i-phone5.... it seems like the iphone 5 just came out here, maybe Guatemala is a little behind.

Is there flying cars, hoverboards, or teleporting up there in north america yet? saberrrrrrr

sucks that I won't be there for Mumford and Sons, I didn't even know they had a new album, well of coarse i didn’t, I'm here in Guatemala without technology.

Well, we got no easter dinner, that doesn't really exist here, its just the semana santa, where everyone goes to the pools and beach, get drunk, and kill more people. but everythings fairly normal now. as normal as Guatemala gets.

Yesterday I met an old crazy man that goes up to cement poles and sucks on them. yea, no joke, thats what he does all day. we think that he pretends they are a woman and that he's kissing them. but if you talk to the guy he seems like a fairly normal old man. crazy.

Have you looked at Guatemalan tourism and found something that you wanna do yet, wanna go up in a plane for a day to the big ruins in coban, I think that would be sweet. It would be like 250-300 each I think, for food and everything too. I'm just thinking that its not gonna be too much fun for you guys to just visit people in their homes that you can't even communicate with. Let me know what you wanna do!

well, i don’t know what else to say, I'll send some pictures now and tell you what they are. I'm not gonna send you all the pictures of the house that i took cuz i can only send one at a time and its takes a long time.

love you all, thanks for all the pictures you sent me, your all looking great.

Ps now i can respond to anybody’s email, of ANYONE.

From Guatemala, With Love,

Elder Hopkins

ps. at the end of june i wanna go down to Arizona cuz my good friend former Elder Tanner is getting married! I think its like June 26th or something