December 31, 2012

G'Day!

Thanks so much for this week's e-mail, I loved hearing from you again! It was especially a huge blessing to be able to talk with you on Skype, it was wonderful to be able to see you again! Thanks especially for the Christmas presents as well as thanks to everyone else who sent something to me, it meant so much and made it a really wonderful Christmas day! This past week was really, really good and it flew by so fast, in large part because of the Holidays! On Monday we had a really nice Christmas Eve dinner with a family from the ward with some of their extended family as well. It was really good and we were so full afterwards! They gave us some nice treats to take back with us as well which was so generous of them! Christmas turned out really well as well (obviously mainly because I got to Skype with you!) and we were able to spend some time at 4 of the members' homes. We had some really delicious food and certainly didn't go hungry! It was nice to just have some time to enjoy with the members and relax just a bit on Christmas. It was also kind of nice that on Christmas morning it was actually a bit cold! So it helped make it feel a bit more like a Christmas in Utah instead of Australia haha. But obviously we couldn't rest for long because it was back to the regular work the next day! Despite it being the week of Christmas and a lot of people being really busy or out of town, we were still able to get a good amount of lessons in. It was really exciting this week because we were finally able to set a baptismal with Joan Willmott! We set it for the 9th of February so we really hope and pray she'll be ready on that day. That's the first time since I've been here in Pakenham that we've been able to set a date like that, so that was a huge blessing for us. We weren't able to see Rodney this past week, but we were told by his wife that he made it the whole month of December living the Word of Wisdom perfectly! That was a big miracle for us to see and it's been awesome to see how their whole family has been blessed from Rodney's commitment and determination. She said it's been pretty difficult for him but he's really put a lot of effort into staying strong which is so awesome to hear! We continue to pray that he'll be able to go another month as well keeping this commandment. Since we weren't able to see them this past week, we weren't able to try to set a date with Rodney, but we hope to be able to this coming Friday when we have an appointment with them! Well, the biggest miracle for us this week missionary-work wise was definitely the baptism of the Gloster children this past Saturday! It was such a wonderful day for them and for their family and the service went really well, with a lot of members attending to help support them. Jaynielee (age 10) and Mathew (age 12) were both baptized by Bishop and confirmed by him as well at church on Sunday. Erin Sky (age 9) said she wasn't ready to be baptized yet earlier in the week, so she didn't end up being baptized on the same day as the other 2 children, but she wants to wait to be baptized on her birthday which comes up on May 27th. So that will still be really good for her to be baptized and confirmed then! Mathew and his older brother Jack (age 14) also were both ordained as Deacons and received the Aaronic Priesthood at church yesterday as well! So it was just a really wonderful series of events for the Gloster family and it seems like they'll all do really well in the Pakenham ward. Brother Gloster also was at church for all 3 hours yesterday for the first time in a very long time, so that was really awesome to see as well. Another big miracle we witnessed was that David (Melissa's partner) came to church as well yesterday! After he'd told us that he wasn't going to come to church any more and we'd tried to help him see the importance of it, we certainly weren't expecting to see him there. So we look forward to when we see them this week and have the opportunity to ask him what prompted him to come this past Sunday. The whole week was really great and filled with lots of blessings and miracles, but unfortunately I don't have time to mention all of them! I really hope we're able to have a lot of success this coming week seeing as it's the last week of the transfer! We find out the news this coming Saturday of who's staying and who's going so we'll hope for good news! It will be an exciting transfer no matter what news though, since it will be the beginning of all the new missionaries coming in! So we'll work very hard this week and help Pakenham continue to grow. Thanks so much again for the e-mail, and especially for all of your love and support and prayers, it helps so much and I'm eternally grateful for all of it. I hope that you have a wonderful week ahead as well and a fantastic New Year! I love you!

Love,

Elder Hopkins

December 24, 2012

G'Day!

Thank you so much for the wonderful e-mail this week! I loved getting it and reading it as always. Merry Christmas-Eve as well! It doesn't feel like Christmas one bit over here. I think for two main reasons, one being that as missionaries we really don't have any time at all to get into the festive spirit or do any celebration type things, and two being that it's the exact opposite temperature that I'm used to this time of year. So it definitely will be an interesting Christmas season this year. I guess first off it's nice that the world didn't end on the 21st a few days ago! haha. I wonder what everyone was saying after they realized life was just continuing on, especially for those who sincerely believed that was going to be the end. Well this past week was one of the fastest weeks of the mission so far! It just flew by soooo quick and I can't believe it's already Monday again. I think the main reason was that we had the big, all-day Christmas conference on Thursday, so we had to squeeze everything we normally would do on Thursday into any empty time on the other days that we had. The Christmas conference went really well though and it was an awesome experience! They said that there were about 180 missionaries there (which doesn't include the 20 or so from Tasmania, who had their own conference down there). It was especially fun to see all of the other missionaries I've gotten to be good friends with that have moved to other areas. The first half of the conference was a really nice devotional type thing in which they read off the Christmas story, while after every paragraph or so they'd have a musical number or a video or have us all sing a Christmas hymn. So that was really nice and it was good for feeling the Spirit. They also had some of the missionaries that were the only ones in the mission from their home country talk about how they celebrated Christmas with their families. They had one from Pakistan, Kenya, Canada, and I can't remember the other one at the moment. But they all did a really good job and it was cool to hear some of the different traditions that they each did. After the devotional we all went and had a huge feed that they'd prepared for us (it'd have to be really huge to feed 180 hungry missionaries). It was so delicious and definitely filled us up. After the lunch, they set up the cultural hall for the second half of the day which was a talent show. It actually turned out really well and there were a lot of cool talents that people had. A lot of them did some sort of musical talent, whether it was just singing, or guitar and singing, or even beat boxing and singing (which was pretty cool)! Elder Hirata actually participated in it (because Sister Lifferth called us and asked him to) and he played a pretty difficult piano rendition of "If You Could Hie to Kolob." He did really well considering he'd had about 2 hours total practice time and since it was a pretty hard song to play. So that was neat! There were also some people who did some dances which were cool, and then some slideshows, and the longest one was about a 23 minute skit which was pretty funny! So that was a really awesome experience there and I think everyone really enjoyed it. I certainly look forward to whatever they do next Christmas. On the regular missionary work side of things we had a pretty good week. The Glosters did switch the baptism to the 29th (this Saturday) so that the Dad could be there for it, so that will be a really great day this week. The kids have already learned heaps since we've taught them just two times and they remember everything quite well. Rodney has still been doing really well, and is now probably our most progressing investigator. He's been living the Word of Wisdom perfectly since we taught him about it and the best thing is that he's recognized a lot of blessings that their family has received since he's done so. That's probably the most important thing, because when you see the Lord bless you once for doing something, you from now on will continue to do so because you know that it's a true commandment, so hopefully that will be the case with Rodney as well. We found out one cool experience with one of the less-active families that we visit regular this past Saturday. It was with the Sekene family (Vince is actually using the computer next to us in the library right now, haha). Last visit with them we'd given them a challenge to read the Book of Mormon daily for the coming week because that was something that they'd been a bit slack on. So they happily accepted the challenge when we gave it to them. When we saw Bro. Sekene on Saturday and talked to him he said their family had experienced so many blessings since they've kept that challenge. I guess I wont go into too much detail of what the blessings were but he said that they had just received a massive amount of unexpected blessings that really helped them and were much needed. So that's always a testimony builder to me to see when others are able to enjoy the wonderful blessings that come from keeping the commandments, even when it's one of the much basic or simple such as reading the scriptures each day. It's just a proof that Heavenly Father knows each of us and all of our efforts that we do each day, big or small, and will always provide the things we truly need. Those experiences that Rodney and the Sekene family had are the kind that you truly seek and want because those are what provide a testimony of the Gospel and are something you can always turn back to if you ever are in a difficult situation or ever have any doubts that Heavenly Father is there and if this is his true church. We really hope that this coming week we'll be able to set a baptismal date with Rodney because we feel that he's ready and feel that the Spirit has really been working in him and we know he and his family have seen so many blessings since he's begun to live the Gospel. This past week we also had quite a tough experience with a less-active man that we teach. He was really, really depressed lately because he missed his kids (one who had died very young and the others who I'm guessing were taken from him). He also was sad at the state of life he's in because he's let himself go a lot in the past few years. He told us that recently he'd also had a lot of suicidal thoughts but he'd tried hard to push them away. When we were there he told us that he felt the was no point for him to be here any more. However, we were able to have a really good, long and powerful lesson with him about the plan of salvation and how God has a plan for each one of us and if we still here on Earth it's for a specific reason. He seemed like the lesson helped him a lot, the hardest part for him was understanding why his daughter died so young. We told him we didn't obviously know the reason why her time had come, only Heavenly Father knows that, but that because she passed on when she did that she'd be going straight to the Celestial Kingdom. He appreciated that knowledge, and through the help of another member who he's close with he was able to be consoled and ended up coming to church yesterday and had a wonderful experience. So we had a lot of good lessons this past week and look forward to a lot more this week. I especially look forward to Christmas tomorrow and being able to talk to you! As I always say, I appreciate so much all the love and support and especially the prayers on our behalf. I hope that you have a wonderful Christmas season! I'll talk to you tomorrow!

Love,

Elder Hopkins

December 17, 2012

G'Day!

Thanks for the great e-mail for this week! I always love hearing about everything cool that's going on back home. I feel like this past week went by really quick as well and there were heaps of good things that happened. We witnessed a lot of miracles this week that I'll mention. The family I mentioned last week who's three kids are preparing to be baptized are really great when we went to see them this week. They were very nice and the kids seem to be really excited for their baptisms. We set the date with them on Tuesday when we taught them for the 22nd of December, which was awesome! Talking to our Ward Mission Leader yesterday, though, he said that when he went by to see them and just confirm some things for the day that the Mom said they may have to push the day back a week because they're unsure if the Father will be able to make it on that day, so we'll find out for sure later today, but even if they have to push it back that's of course ok because it will still be great for the family and obviously will be a special day no matter what day it is. The next miracle we had this week came on Thursday. We were at the library for our weekly 30 minutes on the church website and towards the end of our time there, there walked in a African man who looked familiar. After a few seconds I realized that it was Puot! (If you remember him, the Kenyan man who was about to be baptized but got kicked out of his house and we lost contact with him) So we waved him over and he came and talked to us for a little while. He said that he was only in Pakenham for the day so we were very lucky to catch him! We were able to get his new address (in a town called Cranbourne which isn't too far from here) and said that we'd be able to have the missionaries there come visit him. So that was an awesome blessing and we were very happy to see Puot again, as he was as well to see us. The third miracle for the week had to do with Rodney. Last week we taught him about the Word of Wisdom, which we had been told had been his only real issue in the past (just with coffee and tea and he would have an occasional drink for social reasons). So when we taught him this time he understood really well and at the end the spirit was there so we were able to challenge him to live the Word of Wisdom for at least the rest of December. He said he couldn't make any guarantees but he would try his best to do so. So we considered that a really good blessing to get him to commit to that. When we saw his wife, Sister Dean, yesterday she told us that Rodney has been doing really great so far with the challenge to live the Word of Wisdom! So we thought that that was a big miracle for us, and we really look forward to seeing him this week and getting his opinion on how he's seen it help him both physically and spiritually already. And now for the fourth miracle of this past week (heaps this week, eh?) which happened yesterday at church. During Sacrament meeting, about halfway through, there was a lady who I didn't recognize that came and sat down next to us (we were sitting on the row closest to the door). After Sacrament meeting was over, we found out that her name was Karen. She was actually a non member and had just decided to rock up (come) to church yesterday for the first time to see what we were all about. She said that she'd seen it heaps of times just driving past and it intrigued her so she decided that she'd like to just come check it out. Now obviously that's an incredible miracle in and of itself, but it kept going with her. She not only stayed and came into the gospel principles class (the missionary class) but also went to relief society as well! Some active members have a hard time wanting to stay all 3 hours, haha! Obviously we didn't see her in the Relief Society hour, but throughout the missionary class (the lesson was on charity, a perfect and low-key principle of the Gospel to introduce someone to) she was very attentive and was following along in the book and everything. The members that joined us to help in the class told some great stories as well which helped the spirit to be there. So after the 3rd block, we went to talk to her again. She said that she really loved church, and that she hopes to be back next week as well!! She also mentioned she's interested in joining the ward choir (they sang in Sacrament that meeting) and that after the busy holidays are over she's keen to have us around to teach her more about the church and the Gospel! Wow! That was definitely one of the most incredible things that's happened to me on my mission so far, and is awesome to see that she had courage enough to come on her own to check it out. I'm sure we'll see many more miracles to come with her in the near future. She and the Relief Society president exchanged phone numbers and e-mail addresses so they'll be in contact with each other for the time being. This transfer has really been filled with miracles thus far and it's been really great to see. This next week will be packed as! We have heaps of lessons and appointments planned out and we will be constantly busy (hopefully, at this point not everything is confirmed). Also, this Thursday there will be the big missionary Christmas devotional which should be really fun. All the missionaries from the Melbourne mission, except those in Tazzy (Tasmania), will be there and it will go from 10:30 a.m. until 4 p.m. I'll save all the program details til next week when I can give you all the specifics of what went on. So anyway, our week was excellent and we are really excited for this next week and all the exciting things that are going to be happening this time of year! Thanks again for the wonderful e-mail and especially all the love, support, and prayers on our behalf! I love you and I hope you have a wonderful week ahead as well! I'll talk to you again soon!

Love,

Elder Hopkins

December 10, 2012

G'Day!

Thanks once again for another great e-mail! I really enjoyed it! This week was incredibly busy and eventful and Elder Hirata and I saw a lot of miracles. Well on Wednesday we did get to go to the Temple and that was an incredible experience as always! It was wonderful to be able to feel the spirit there and receive heaps of personal guidance and revelation. I learn so much each time I get to go through the Temple and my resolve to be better grows each time as well. After the Temple on Wednesday, one of the member couples in the ward took us out to dinner. We got permission from President Lifferth last Sunday to go with them because they wanted to take us to a restaurant in the city. So that was really cool to experience a bit of the city! It was just a little street restaurant that served souvlakes (I'd never heard of them before but they're really good!). We weren't quite in the city center but still close enough were it felt as congested as the city haha. It's unbelievable how busy it is there. They said that on the weekends the traffic can make you take about 2 hours just to go a couple of blocks! The area we were in also had some incredible houses as well which I'm sure would cost a fortune. But that was really fun to go up there with them. This past week Elder Hirata had quite a bit of bike trouble haha. On Thursday towards the end of the day, he got a flat tire. Now Elder Hirata had never changed a tire before and it'd been so long since I'd done it that I'd forgotten how to. So he just called up some other missionaries and they walked him through it step by step. We had to walk over to the nearest shopping center (which was quite close to our flat) to buy a new tire and a little repair kit just in case. So we got the old tire off and the new one on just fine, so we thought everything was all good once again. However, when we went to fill it up with air again the next day it was still remaining flat. So we inspected it again and when Elder Hirata used a kitchen knife to pry off the old tire he had accidentally poked a hole in the inner tire tube as well! So we had to walk back to the shopping center to buy some more supplies before we finally got everything fixed. So the whole ordeal took us about 4 hours, haha. But the Elder Hirata vs. Bike match still had round 2 to go. When we were riding down a steep hill coming back from an appointment, he took out his planner to check something and while he was looking at it he didn't notice a big bump on the sidewalk. I was behind him a little way and I just saw him fly a few feet in the air and fall almost in slow motion! Haha. He just fell in the grass though and he wasn't hurt besides a scratch or two. We realized later that he must've lost his bike lights when it happened because, come nighttime, his light appeared to have broken off the holder. So today we stopped by the shopping center again so he could buy a new light. So that was quite a crazy week for him, haha. Now on the actually missionary side of things, it was a really good week. Despite us not having a lot of time to work this week, because of the Temple and city trips and the whole bike thing, we ended up still getting in heaps of lessons, and saw some of our main investigators make some great progress. Melissa nearly quit smoking this week, she'd given it up for two days but then had one again. She said that she's down to just one a day though which is the best she said she's ever done! So that's been really good news, and we're helping her to pick a day to fast to help her receive extra strength, spiritually and physically. Also last Sunday, our investigator Rodney Dean fasted, and throughout this whole past week he was reading and praying individually and with the family every day! So that was huge progress to see with him and we can see that it is blessing his life. Hopefully soon he'll feel ready to make to the commitment to be baptized. Yesterday, at church, we had the biggest miracle of all. One of the less-active families who's just been coming back to church the past 2 or 3 weeks, has requested us to come teach their 3 unbaptized children (ages, 9, 10, and 11)  and baptize them before Christmas! Wow! So that was a huge blessing to receive that request and that will be so wonderful for the family and especially for the children. We'll be seeing them this Tuesday and will set a baptism date with them then (likely the 22nd of this month). So that'll be a great Christmas present for the Pakenham Ward! So we're really looking forward to begin to teach them this week. So a couple days within the past few weeks have been really hot and made us appreciate more the fact we had an air conditioned car! The hottest it's gotten so far in Pakenham has been 44 degrees Celsius (about 111 degrees Fahrenheit!)! That was just brutal, haha. But we've slowly been getting used to being in the heat here so hopefully it never gets too bad for us. Well we're really excited for all of the great things coming up this holiday season and continue to hope to see many miracles as we work hard. I hope that you continue to enjoy the winter and the holiday season back home! Thanks again for the wonderful e-mail. I'll talk to you again soon!

Love,

Elder Hopkins

 Elder Hopkins and Elder Hirata on their bicycles.

 Cruiz and Chelsea at their wedding, with Elder Hopkins and Elder Hirata.

 Rodney and Angie Dean and family.

 Cruiz and Chelsea with Afa and Lisa and family.

 Vince Sekene and his boys with Elder Hopkins and Elder Hirata.

 The Melbourne Temple at night.

 (Left to right) Elder Hirata, Elder Hopkins, Ward members, Barry and Joan Willmott.

The ugliest spider Elder Hopkins has ever seen.

Elder Hopkins' District, Zone Leaders, and assistants from the last transfer.

December 3, 2012

G'Day!

 

Thanks for the wonderful letter this week, I really loved reading it! I'm glad that there's been a lot of fun things happening back home! Unfortunately I'm a bit short on time this week so it will have to be a brief letter but I'll include heaps of pictures from the past little while as well, so hopefully that will make up for it. Last night was the Mission President's Fireside again and it went really well, they just did a Christmas program with a lot of really good musical numbers so it definitely helped everyone get into the Christmas spririt. Hard to believe it's Christmas in just a few weeks! Santa will probably be wearing shorts and a t-shirt over here, so it will be different not having a white Christmas this year. Also, if you can e-mail me what time you would like to do the Christmas day call/skype and what time it would be over here that'd be great, then I can talk to some of the members to see who would be available to lend their computer to us. Church also went really well, we had 8 of the less-active members we teach come to church again so that was a huge blessing! The most progress in the Pakenham area I think are coming from the less-active members which is great, so hopefully we'll be able to increase the investigator side of the work to catch up with them. This coming week we get to go to the Temple again so that should be really enjoyable and help re-invigorate our spirits. I always treasure the experiences at the Temple since we only have the opportunity to go once every 3 months, so it will definitely be wonderful to be back there again. It's been difficult lately to find any solid new investigators which has been a bit discouraging. However, as we work more with the members to try to get some good referrals from them it should bring some blessings there. Right now it's actually the start of the summer break for the school kids here (weird, eh?) so hopefully we'll be able to get a lot of the young adults out with us to help teach. So we're excited for that, however, their summer break is just 6 weeks so we'll have to make the time count! Well unfortunately I have to end the letter already, but next week I'll be sure to make it a good e-mail! I hope you enjoy the pictures that I send though! Thanks so much for all the continued love and support and especially the prayers! It makes all the difference. I hope that you have a wonderful week ahead and I love you very much! Talk to you again soon!

 

Love,

 

Elder Hopkins

November 26, 2012

G'Day!

Thanks so much for the wonderful e-mail this week! I was so thrilled to hear from all of the family! I'm very grateful for all of their great comments and am grateful for all of their continued love and prayers! Reading all of those definitely put a big smile on my face! So I guess first of all I should mention the transfer news. Drum roll! Elder Hirata.........he is staying in Pakenham! And Elder Hopkins......he is also staying in Pakenham! So not much of a change haha. We're both really happy and excited to keep working together in Pakenham! Especially I'm glad that I'm staying so that I can spend Christmas and the holiday season on familiar ground and with all the people that I've developed a strong friendship with and a great love for. I was definitely surprised at the news though, because for one, companions usually aren't together for 3 transfers (unless their both in a leadership position, such as Zone Leader) and two, I've been in the area for a long time now! I'll now be the longest serving missionary in the Pakenham area, although there's only been a Pakenham area for just over a year, but still something that amazed me! I've loved the area so much though so I have absolutely no quarrels with staying here another 6 weeks! Also, on a side note, Elder Rafferty actually got transferred again from his area so he's moved 3 times in the last 3 transfers haha. Don't know where he's going yet though, we'll hear on Tuesday. So that was definitely the big news of this past week and transfers are always a very exciting time! The rest of the week was really good as well though, although we didn't get as much accomplished as usually since we were riding around on bikes. I happened to actually enjoy riding the bikes around, however, because it was just a nice change from the car and it also helped get my leg muscles quite huge! Haha, just kidding. I did hope at some point in the mission to get the classic missionary experience, and my wish had been granted! On Saturday was probably the most difficult though, because the temperature was about 34 degrees Celsius, which would be about 93 degrees Fahrenheit! So we were quite roasted at the end of the day, but thankfully no bad sunburns! We were able to teach several good lessons this week, but we were unable to make too much more progress with our investigators. We were unable to set a baptismal date with Joan Willmott this week, so that was a bit disappointing after she told us last week that she was ready to be baptized, but I'm sure within this next transfer we'll be able to set a firm date with her. We also found out yesterday when we went to see David and Melissa (who are planning on their wedding happening in May) that David didn't want to come to church anymore. Not that he wanted to be separated from the Gospel, he just didn't want to come to actual church anymore. So we had an extra long lesson with them just talking about the reasons why David didn't want to come to church and trying to just create a good environment for the Spirit to be felt. It ended up going quite well and afterwards David didn't come right out and say he wanted to still come to church but he did say that he felt much better about it and that he felt the Spirit. We'll try to go around to see them more frequently and just encourage him and try and help him have a lot of good spiritual experiences. On a brighter side of things, this past week while we were tracting one day, we ended up tracting into a less-active lady (named Melissa) who had just moved into the area a few months ago. She said that she was baptized several years ago (about 6 or 7) and that when she came over to Australia she stopped going to church (why does that keep happening to everyone?). However, she said that she's keen on coming back to church, especially since the chapel is so close, she just has to try to get some Sundays off of work. She also has 3 kids, one of whom is of baptism age! So that was a wonderful miracle to find her this past week, and we hope to begin having lessons with her this week. There have been all sorts of members that haven't been to church in a while that are just coming out of the wood-works because there was another less-active family that's been in the area a while who just came to church again for the first time yesterday, so we'll try to go round and see them this week as well. So surprisingly that's all I can think of that's noteworthy from this past week, hopefully it will suffice, haha. But Elder Hirata and I look forward to having another great transfer together here in the great area of Pakenham! Thanks again for the great e-mail, and I hope all of you have a great week ahead as well! I love you, and I'll talk to you again soon!

Love,

Elder Hopkins

November 19, 2012

G'Day!

Thanks for another great e-mail this week, which I enjoyed reading! It sounds like it was an eventful week! Elder Hirata and I had a pretty busy week as well. We kicked off this past week with Zone Conference which was fantastic! In case you don't remember much from the other one about 3 months ago, Zone Conference is where two zones get together and have one big meeting together which President Lifferth and his wife attend as well as the APs. There are several talks and trainings that are always inspiring, and it goes from 9 am to about 3:30 pm. We had lunch in the middle of it, about 1 o'clock which was prepared and served to us by some of the members from the Pakenham stake. So the two zones that were there were the Pakenham zone, which we're in and that is all the missionaries from the Pakenham stake, and the Braeside zone, which was all the missionaries from the Braeside stake. In total there were probably about 60 missionaries there! It was an awesome meeting and there were some great talks given by President Lifferth and Sister Lifferth that really inspired us and motivated us to work harder. Also, President Sanders, the stake president of the Pakenham stake, gave a really great talk to us that really inspired me a lot personally. In President Lifferth's talk, however, he mentioned some very interesting and exciting facts. He mentioned what you'd already told me about the missionary calls per week jumping up from 700 or so, all the way up to 4,000! That's just incredible! Also he talked about how our mission, the Melbourne mission, would be affected by this new surge of missionaries. Right now, the mission has a total of 161 missionaries. But come January and February time, the number will jump up to 250 missionaries!! That number being the maximum number of missionaries that a mission can have at one time! That's pretty amazing! He said that there will be many new areas opening and that there will most likely be no less than 4 missionaries (two companionships) per ward. He also mentioned that because of this massive boost of missionaries that almost every missionary that's been through training themselves will be training these new missionaries! So that will be pretty interesting! That was definitely the biggest announcement of the day, and has all of the missionaries looking forward to that big wave of new Elders and Sisters. So after a big missionary gathering like that we were all really motivated for the rest of the week. Elder Hirata and I were able to have a really good week and see some wonderful progress with some of our investigators. One of the greatest things worth mentioning was that when we saw Joan Willmott this past week she told us that she was finally ready to be baptized! Woohoo! haha. So that was wonderful to hear and we're really excited for her to take that first big step in the Gospel. She'll most likely have a baptismal date set this coming week that will be for early next year, so I'll keep you updated with that (as long as it's still possible for me to keep you updated, who knows what will happen with transfers!). Speaking of transfers...yes this is the last week of the transfer and it has just flown by so fast! I can't even believe that  it's already been another 6 weeks here in Pakenham and I feel it's just gone to fast! It's been a really great transfer, however, and Elder Hirata and I have really worked hard and well together. His English continues to improve heaps each week and it won't be long before he'll sound like he's spoken it his whole life! So this past week we finally were able to have another lesson with the two people we'd met last transfer, Moana and LIna, who we were able to set baptismal dates with. Now obviously they won't be baptized yet since we still have heaps to teach them and they will have a lot of progress to make, but they still are keen as (or super interested for the non-Aussie speakers, haha) and have expressed a desire to start coming to some of the church YSA activities that are held quite often. So hopefully there are good things in the future for both of them. We also will find out within the next 2 weeks or so the day that Melissa and David will be able to be married so we can set a date for her baptism as well! So the fruits of our much labor are beginning to show forth and hopefully this last week of the transfer will bring forth even more blessings and miracles! So those are the main things of note that happened this past week and we look forward to working harder than ever for this final week of the transfer! My next e-mail will have the transfer news, so bring your popcorn for that one! Again, I appreciate so much all of the love and support and especially the prayers on my behalf and the behalf of the other missionaries. I know that it really makes all the difference in our missionary work! Well I hope that you all have a fantastic week ahead and a great Thanksgiving! I'll be celebrating by eating as much food as I can (although not many people will understand why!) to try and keep the spirit of Thanksgiving alive in Australia! I love you and I'll talk to you again soon!

Love,

Elder Hopkins

November 12, 2012

G'Day!

Thanks for the great e-mail! I always cherish every minute of reading them each week and love all the things you're able to include. This past week was a pretty good week. Definitely not as snowy as Utah right now! I'll definitely miss the white Christmases for the next 2 Decembers. Melbourne weather continues to just be a guessing game as this past week we had a couple of hot summer days, but mixed in were some rather rainy days (plus hail!). So you can never quite put away the winter clothes throughout the summertime. This past Wednesday was a pretty fun day because we went on exchanges for the day with the Zone Leaders, so Elder Rafferty and I were once again able to work together in Pakenham! We went around to see all of the main people that we taught when he was still here and they were all very happy and surprised to see Elder Rafferty so soon again. We had a lot of really great lessons as well and were able to make a lot of progress with many of our investigators. Working with Elder Rafferty again made me realize the big adjustment it's been working with Elder Hirata as he's still learning english. Not to say that Elder Hirata's english isn't good, because it is quite good, it's just sometimes more difficult for the investigators or the people that we teach to understand exactly what he's trying to say. But then I can't imagine now having to learn an entirely new language in such a short amount of time and being able to teach the gospel with it, so he's definitely doing a great job! You asked in your e-mail about us having the opportunity to do service projects, and to answer, we have heaps of opportunities for them! There are several opportunities per week for us to provide service so it's been really great to help out. One of the things that we help out with a lot is with what are called 'self-dig gardens.' Some people in the ward came up with the idea a little before I got to Pakenham and they're just raised garden beds that you build a certain way so that when you put in plants they just replenish and re-plant themselves after each growing cycle. So it's a really effective and good system and they produce heaps of vegetables. They're trying to get at least one garden bed at each member's home so we help out with that about once a week, or once every other week. Also, lately it's been getting into a tradition of helping someone move house each Saturday, haha. The past two weeks (as well as a few other weeks in the not too distant past) we've helped two different families move. Last week we helped a nonmember family move house, who'd met and become friends with a couple of the sisters in the ward, so that was good for us to be there and kind of introduce ourselves. This past Saturday we actually helped David and Melissa move house as well! Luckily they were just moving to a different house in the same general neighborhood so they're still in our area! We've also had many other opportunities to provide service and I really enjoy each change we get to help out. Not only does it provide a break from tracting, haha, but it always feels good to be able to give service to whoever may be in need. Church was really good this week as well. We were able to have several of the people we teach attend this week again, however, not quite as many as last week but still a good amount. Cruiz was able to be ordained a Priest in the Aaronic Priesthood, so that was a really special moment! The next step will be to get him and Chelsea each some sort of calling. We've also begun visiting another new less-active family as well, called the Sekene (pronounced Sakaynay) family. They're an awesome family and have just barely been coming to church again the past few weeks for the first time in a few years. Vince Sekene (the husband/dad) was baptized back in New Zealand several years ago but they all went a bit less-active when they moved over to Australia (seems to be a very frequent trend with the less-active members we visit, haha).  But they've been going very well too, and hopefully they'll be able to progress towards getting to the Temple as well. Well unfortunately I'm out of time, so I'll have to end there for this week. But we look forward to the last two weeks of this transfer! It's really flown by so fast so we'll try to make every moment count! Thanks again for all the wonderful love and support you give and especially all the prayers on our behalf! I love you and I'll talk to you again soon! Have a wonderful week ahead!

Love,

Elder Hopkins

November 5, 2012

G'Day!

Thanks for another great e-mail this past week. As always I really loved reading it and hearing about all the things that have gone on in the past week back home. This past week was a great one and we were able to see a lot of miracles happen. Cruiz and Chelsea were married this past Wednesday night and it went really well. Originally they'd just planned on getting married in Bishop's office with just them so they'd have it really low key. But over time the ward heard about it and the Relief Society decorated the chapel up for them and brought all sorts of refreshments as well, so it ended up being definitely more than they expected! It was well attended though and it was a fun evening for them. Their wedding happened to be on Halloween as well which was pretty neat. As a result of their wedding they were able to take the Sacrament for the first time in a very long time this past Sunday so that was a wonderful blessing for them. Back to Halloween for a second, it definitely wasn't as festive as what I'm used to. Australia doesn't really recognize Halloween as a holiday and only a very, very small amount of people will go out trick or treating. So it just felt like a normal day and nothing special, obviously for us it was the same as any other day for missionaries but since we didn't see any decorations up or anything it definitely felt plain haha. Another blessing that we witnessed this week happened with one of Pakenham's long time investigators Joan Willmott (the wife of recent convert Barry Willmott). Since I've been here she's never been very keen on reading the Book of Mormon or on praying to know if the church is true and what not. So we've tried and tried but nothing has really seemed to spark much interest in her. However, when we went to see them this past week she told us that she'd made the decision she wants to read through the whole Book of Mormon, cover to cover! We were quite stunned by that, especially since it was her own decision to read and not an assignment or something from us. We added our own encouragement to her after she told us and then also invited her to pray about the Book of Mormon as she reads. So it seems that the Spirit has been working in her and hopefully we'll be able to see her receive her answer about the truthfulness of the Gospel soon. Another pretty big miracle we had happen as well this past Sunday was that 8 of the less active members that we visit were able to attend church! So that was pretty great to see and most of them stayed for all 3 hours of church as well, which made it even more of a blessing! So that started off Sunday really well for us, and it got even better because the Mission President's Fireside was also this past Sunday night as well. The past couple of months we've been unable to attend because either we had noone to go (you always need to have either an investigator, recent convert, or less active member you teach to come to it if you want to go) or the ride for the people we did have to go had to cancel. So we finally got to go to it again because we had the WIllmotts, Cruiz and Chelsea, and another less-active couple Afa and Lisa attend the fireside so that was great. The fireside itself was really good and spiritual and all those that were able to come really loved it and said they'd love to be able to attend the next month's fireside as well. So we definitely look forward to that! The past week we were able to go much better with our teaching appointments and not as many cancelled as the previous week which was a miracle in itself. We also were able to continue to find heaps of people who were keen to hear more about the Gospel. So we'll continue to be busy this next week and we are constantly seeing the area progress and are developing a greater love for those that we teach as well as the people in Pakenham in general as we grow and learn to be more like the Saviour. Well thanks again for the e-mail this week and I look forward to talking to you again soon! Love you heaps!

Love,

Elder Hopkins

October 29, 2012

G'Day!

Thanks for another wonderful e-mail this week! This past week was alright, but definitely wasn't the most successful. This was definitely not the week for set appointments, because we had nearly every appointment cancel (and their were heaps of them set) after Tuesday. So we weren't able to teach as many lessons as we would've liked to, but we found other ways to do some work in the area. However, one of the lessons that didn't fall through on Saturday was really excellent. We were going to have another lesson with Cruiz and Chelsea (the less-active family, who are also getting married this week, which will be awesome!) but one of their family friends was visiting there, named Dave, who's a non-member. Several of his kids are members of the church however after they met missionaries, and his son is actually preparing for a mission. He still didn't know much about the church, though, and had heaps of questions for us. We were able to answer all of them really well and Cruiz and Chelsea actually helped answer a lot of them too, and Dave said afterwards he liked all of the answers that he'd heard and said he actually really likes Mormons now! After we finished answering his questions we had just a really brief spiritual thought which they all appreciated and the Spirit was there. Dave said after all was over, "I think I'm going to be coming to church tomorrow!" And low and behold the next day he was in a shirt and tie at church! He loved church as well, and he even got up in the Gospel Principles class (for the investigators, new members, and less-active members coming back) and told a brief life story, which was pretty amazing, and bore a short testimony! So that whole series of events was a huge miracle for us this week! Definitely made an otherwise slow week seem like a really great one. So since there were so many cancellations this week, we had plenty of extra time for tracting! YAY! Haha. But our finding went really well this week and we got heaps of potential new investigators, so we've got our work cut out for us this next week. We also were able to go back and teach that other new investigator (who's lawn was broken from last week), who's name is Falo, about the Restoration and at the end we committed him to read and pray about the Book of Mormon and he happily accepted! So hopefully he will be able to sincerely read and pray and then receive his witness of the truthfulness of the restored Gospel. So there unfortunately isn't much to write down this week because not too much happened. But this coming week is looking like it will be pretty jam-packed with exciting things so hopefully I'll be able to make up for the lack of stories this week in next week's e-mail. All the other investigators we have are still going well. The baptismal dates are still looking promising, however, Michael's will change from Nov. 17th since he and his girlfriend would have to be married to reach that day, but they're planning to be married in the early months of next year. Melissa and David are now planning on getting married between early January and February (it all depends on when David's mom can come down from Samoa to see the wedding) so that's really exciting news and then after that Melissa will be able to be baptized. Tracey is still doing really well and we should be starting the recent convert lessons with her this week. It's been pretty hectic for them lately because Tommy is on a really tight contract for the next couple of months that's been keeping him away from home for many days at a time. But anyway, there's still heaps of exciting things happening in Pakenham! Elder Hirata and I look forward to working hard this next week and continue to build up the Lord's kingdom in this area. Thanks for all the love and support you continue to give me, I'm so grateful to have all the support to keep me going through everything on the mission. Well anyway I hope you have a wonderful week and that Heavenly Father continues to bless you! I love you and I'll talk to you again soon!

Love,

Elder Hopkins

October 22, 2012

G'Day!

Thanks so much for such a great e-mail this week! It's been a really good week for Elder Hirata and I as well. Since it was the first week of the transfer we wanted to work really hard and set the standard for ourselves for the other 5 weeks in the transfer to come. And on a cool little side note, Elder Rafferty is no longer in Tasmania! After a short 6-week stint in the city of Launceston, he is back up on the mainland and is now serving as one of the Zone Leaders over the Pakenham Zone! So that'll be really cool to be able to work closely with him again and I know he'll do a great job and help the Zone progress heaps. So also because of that I personally wanted to do extra well this week to show Elder Rafferty that Pakenham is still doing well. So we were able to teach a lot of good lessons this week seeing as it was one of the few weeks were nearly none of our appointments cancelled or fell through! We didn't make any spectacular progress with our main investigators but we were able to provide some good spiritual lessons for each of them. One really neat thing that we found out this week, is Michael, the new investigator we found about 2 weeks back, told us that he and his girlfriend are planning on getting married soon now. That was really good to hear and we were very happy for him, and also a bit relieved because that was going to be one of the possible roadblocks in him progressing to be baptized if he continued to live with his girlfriend as unmarried. We also mentioned to him that the Bishop is able to perform marriages as well for essentially no cost and he sounded really keen to talk to him about it, so that was good! Another really neat experience this past Saturday, was after we finished providing some service for a member we were going to go straight to another appointment, however, we felt that we needed to do some tracting really quickly before we did so. So as we were driving along we decided just to stop on a random street that looked like people were home on. So as we got out and were going up to the first house on the street a man came out from the garage to meet us and identified us as 'mormon missionaries' and then told us that he wasn't really interested. Well anyone we meet that knows who we are as missionaries we try to talk to a bit to find out where they know us from, so as we talk to him for a minute he said that several of his relatives are members of the church and that one of his cousins served a mission, so that's how he knew missionaries. He also mentioned briefly that he was just out back trying to fix his lawnmower, so we immediately offered to help and he thought that was very kind of us so he invited us in. We didn't end up doing anything with the lawnmower but just sat down with him and talked and just found out more about him. In the interest of time, essentially we learned that he'd recently just come back to his faith (born again Christian) after he'd hit rock bottom, and he said that if we'd come to his house any sooner, like a week or so ago, he would've just turned us away, but we ended up seeing him at the perfect time (let alone when he was home and not at work) and he felt like we'd met him for a reason so he really wanted us to come back and talk to him about what we have to share. So that was a really cool miracle and probably the best thing that happened to us this week. It also gave us a greater testimony towards always following promptings we receive. That Saturday night we had the great opportunity to go to a ward party that they were having in honor of the Pakenham ward's 1 year anniversary since it was first formed. So that was a really fun event, and a couple of the people that we visit (less-actives and 1 investigator) were there as well. Sunday was pretty good as well, however, our church attendance for investigators was a disappointing 0, being the lowest of my mission, so that was a bit of a downer  but nothing that could overshadow the good rest of the week that we were able to have. Hopefully next Sunday will be able to make up for it, though! Well not too much else out of the ordinary happened this past week that I can think of mentioning right now, since it was just a normal week without either of us being transferred. But we look forward to another great week ahead, and I continue to be very grateful for all the blessings we've received, and I've received personally, in this great area. Thanks for all the love and support you provide which really helps me to keep pressing forward through all the work! I hope that you have a wonderful week ahead as well and that the Lord continues to bless you so much! I'll talk to you again soon!

Love,

Elder Hopkins

October 15, 2012

G'Day!

Thanks for the great e-mail as always! I'm glad that everything has been going well back home! It's been a very eventful and blessed week these past seven days for us, so where to start? I guess I'll begin with the transfer news which we received early Sunday morning. Elder Hirata will be staying here in Pakenham and I..........will also be staying! So that was very exciting news for us since we've really enjoyed this past transfer together and were able to accomplish a lot of great things in setting up what looks to be a very promising next 6 weeks! I love serving in Pakenham so much so I'm really glad that I'll have the opportunity to serve a 4th transfer here and continue to teach all of the great investigators and less-active members in the area. That was the news that was biggest for us this week but there was also heaps of other great events. Obviously General Conference was such a blessing to be able to attend this past weekend, and it was definitely one of the best that I've seen (and one of the only where I've stayed awake all of the sessions! haha). But all of the talks were very inspiring and I was able to learn and grow a lot from it and able to receive a lot of personal revelation as they talked as well. I think my favorite talk would have to be Elder Holland's as well, and not just because he's my favorite apostle to listen to. I loved the power that he spoke with and the way that he told the story as well. One of the phrases from his talk that really hit me as well was when he mentioned about returned missionaries who've baptized someone before and about them remaining steadfastly faithful and so on. That was relevant to me since Tracey's baptism wasn't too long ago. So although his was probably my favorite talk, I still had many others that I thoroughly enjoyed and were close seconds. Unfortunately I forgot the notes that I took from the conference back at the flat so hopefully I can remember most of the talks that impacted me in this e-mail! I don't know if you remember Elder Hawk's talk (from the Quorum of the Seventy) about a testimony of the Book of Mormon but that was one of my favorites as well. I really liked the stories that he mentioned and I feel like a lot of the material from his talk can help me as a missionary in talking to others about the Book of Mormon. I also was rapidly writing things down during President Uchtdorf's talk in the Saturday Morning Session because nearly everything he was saying was very profound and very true. Since I don't have my notes handy I can't remember much of the specifics, but his is definitely worth re-watching or re-reading as it had a lot of inspiring thoughts. President Monson's talks were always good of course and I really enjoyed President Eyring's talks as well. I love how President Eyring seems to always have the spirit with him so strongly as he speaks which makes me always love to listen to him and his wonderful messages that he gives. One talk that I thought was very interesting was Elder Oaks' address. He definitely must've had a lot of courage to give that talk! I think everyone that spoke though was fantastic and each had their own wonderful insight to the different principles of the Gospel and continued guidance that Heavenly Father has instructed them to give to us. I was quite shocked at Elder Boyd K. Packer's condition when he spoke! I don't remember him being in that state last conference so hopefully he's still able to be with us for a little while, but who knows. But conference was great and provided a wonderful spirit for all of us missionaries to carry with us through these next couple of weeks. So this last week of the past transfer was quite good. There wasn't too much out of the ordinary the past several days except normal missionary work. However, on this past Thursday we received a referral from the APs for a girl that they'd just met who lived in Pakenham. They told us that the girl, Moono (a Samoan name), said that they could come by on Friday morning, so after they'd given us the information we went to see her. She let us in straight away, which was nice, and her cousin Lina (who's house it was) was there as well. So we talked with them a bit to find out more about them and it turns out that Moono was a former member of the church, but a while ago she was baptized into the 7th Day Aventist church. So that was some pretty interesting info to find out! But anyway, we were able to teach a really powerful lesson on the Restoration and they were genuinely interested throughout. They asked heaps of good questions, which we were able to answer, and they felt that what we were teaching them was true. The spiritual climate by the end of the lesson allowed us to extend the invitations to read the Book of Mormon and pray to know if it is God's word and also if Joseph Smith was a prophet, which they both were excited to do. We also were able to commit them to a baptismal date of December 1st as they receive their answer to their prayers and know that this is Heavenly Father's restored church. So that was a wonderful experience and we look forward to teaching them again this week! So with Michael from last week, and now Moono and Lina, there are some great promising investigators for us to help and teach this next transfer which we really look forward to. All of our other investigators and less-active members are still going well. Tracey is still doing well and we'll continue to teach her and provide her with spiritual messages when she's available. Melissa and David are still preparing for marriage. And most of the less-active families we've been visiting and teaching have been coming to church regularly again and a couple of the men have been moving up in the priesthood, which is very exciting for us to see. The Pakenham ward is really growing and the members in the ward continue to be a great help to us as we work here in the area. So Elder Hirata and I are greatly anticipating this next transfer and know that we'll continue to experience wonderful blessings and miracles as we continue to work hard and excercise our faith! Thanks for all of your love and support and I hope that you have a wonderful week ahead as well! Talk to you again soon!

Love,

Elder Hopkins

October 8, 2012

G'Day!

Thanks for the great e-mail, I was excited to hear from you! This past week was a pretty good and flat out (busy) one for us with heaps of blessings and miracles. Back on Tuesday we had Zone Meeting again which is always great. This time, though, it was more like District Meeting with the Zone Leaders because some of the companionships that live pretty far out were told to sit this one out (you'll understand why soon). But it was still a great meeting and we talked a lot about how we can improve as a Zone, specifically in our finding efforts (Tracting, talking to people on the street, getting referrals, etc.). We also talked about the new goal that President Lifferth and the Assistants set for us, which is that each Zone should get 5 baptisms each month, which our Zone ended up getting this past month but is still a fairly lofty goal to achieve. So after discussing the expectations, we talked heaps about things that could help us as a Zone achieve this goal, with the main ideas ending up being 'Zone Prayer' every Thursday at 10 a.m. (every companionship in the Zone prays at the same time for a specific purpose), miracle callouts (the Zone Leaders gather one miracle of the week from each companionship and then read them off in a voicemail that's sent to everyone, for the purpose of helping to motivate us and let us know of all the great things that are happening throughout the Zone), and a 'Zone Fast' (pretty self-explanatory, we all fast on the same day as a Zone for a specific purpose). So these three things should be a great benefit to all of us as a Zone and we're all excited for each of them. The following day, Wednesday, we had President interviews with President Lifferth back at the stake center in Narre Warren (hence why the missionaries far out were asked to stay home during Zone Meeting so they didn't have to travel huge distances 2 days in a row). So that was fun to be there with all the Zone again as well as President and Sister Lifferth. It's always good to have the opportunity to sit down and talk with President 1 on 1, although it wasn't much of interview, because he basically asked me two questions, "Are you keeping the commandments," and "Is Elder Hirata ready to be a trainer?" haha so it was quite a short meeting but still a good experience because President Lifferth is such a great man and has an awesome spirit about him. So we were at the interviews with all the missionaries for only about 2 hours or so, so after that we just went back to work. On Thursday we had our first Zone Prayer which was cool as (in case you didn't know, Aussies like to put 'as' at the end of things to mean something like 'very', so in this case 'very cool') and this first one was for the purpose of everyone in the Zone being led and guided to those who Heavenly Father has prepared for us to teach the Gospel to. So being a part of that gave us some renewed faith and an excitement to see what blessings we could receive from that. So later on in the day we went and began tracting a certain street that we'd picked and the first person that opens the door to us is named Michael and he was the nicest and humblest guy we've met and he seemed quite keen (interested) to have us back and hear about our message (the Restoration). So already we could see that the Zone Prayer had an effect on our efforts. The rest of the day went really well especially when we had a feed at a member's home, the Skipwiths (from New Zealand). They really like having us over now because they all lived in Japan for a while so they enjoy talking with Elder Hirata in Japanese and also making us Japanese food for dinner, which is very good! Also this time, they were extremely generous in giving us each a New Zealand All Blacks (the biggest Rugby team) custom made T-shirt and hat! We were so excited to get those and are going to wear them every chance we get now. So we greatly expressed our gratitude to them for those gifts. On Friday we had exchanges with our District Leader, Elder Krix, and for that exchange I was with him in Pakenham and Elder Hirata and Elder Gaffney (Elder Krix's companion) went to work in the Narre Warren North area. So we had a pretty good exchange, not so much in the statistics category but we had some solid lessons and a lot of fun because Elder Krix is crack up (funny)! He's from Sydney, Australia and this is his last transfer on his mission so that must be a pretty wild feeling for him to be going home in such a short time from now, and it was cool for me because I'm the last person to go on exchanges with him. So I was able to learn a lot from him and his experience. So on Saturday we spend a lot of time with a young less-active couple named Cruiz and Chelsea because in the morning we went and shared a lesson with them about the Holy Ghost and Enduring to the End. It went really well and at the end we watched a Mormon Message that tied in with the principle of Enduring to the End but also it seemed like it was tailor-made for them because it was like watching their life play out before them because the situation in the video was exactly the same as one they'd had recently and even the young couple in the video had the exact same age and gender of the kids as Cruiz and Chelsea so they were able to relate really well and it helped them feel the spirit well. Then later on in the day we went over again to have a big feast with them to kick off fasting for fast Sunday which was delicious (and a bit unhealthy, haha). Sunday was an awesome day as well. Church was really good, however, I think a lot of people forgot about daylight savings time because the numbers were a bit low to start but it ended up filling up eventually. After church we went to go and see Michael (from Thursday) again to teach him the first lesson about the Restoration of the Gospel. When we saw him he was just as friendly and nice as before so he let us in. We started off really well and answered all of his early questions that he had and the spirit was very strong there as we went through Joseph Smith's first vision with him. At the end of the whole lesson he accepted the Book of Mormon and was happy to read and pray about it to receive an answer of its truthfulness. We also invited him as he comes to know of the truth to be baptized on November 17th and he gladly accepted! So that was a wonderful teaching experience for us and a great miracle resulting from the efforts of the Zone Prayer! That was a great way for us to end the past week on a high note. This next week is the last week of the transfer so we'll be sure and work extra hard and put in our best. We'll find out this Saturday night the news on if we're staying or going. Also general conference is this weekend for Australia so that will be a wonderful opportunity to go and watch that and be enlightened by all of the general authorities and the Prophet! Well that's us and hopefully you have a wonderful week ahead as well back home and I'm so grateful for all your love and support that's definitely help us with the work here in Pakenham. Always be looking for missionary opportunities as well because there's nothing more rewarding and important that we can do than by helping someone come closer to Jesus Christ. Well thanks again for the e-mail and I'll talk to you again soon!

Love,

Elder Hopkins

 Elder Brandon Hopkins and Elders in the Zone.

Elder Brandon Hopkins and Elder Hirata looking tough in their New Zealand "All Blacks" (rugby team) T-Shirts.

October 1, 2012

G'Day!

 

Thanks so much for the wonderful e-mail! I loved reading it and hearing about all the fun things that happened over the past week. I'm glad that you enjoyed the e-mail from last week! I don't know how many will be that long because most weeks haven't been that eventful! Although they probably would be to you, it just is same old missionary work things to us! This past week was pretty good! We accomplished a lot of great things. However, the weather didn't help much in our efforts because we had soooo much rain! When we were out tracting on Friday the rain just became too much even with our huge umbrellas. It ended up being one of the worst rain storms I've ever seen! Melbourne weather seems to like to change its mind a lot, so hopefully this week will be a nice and sunny one. Since we're on Friday, we also had the wonderful opportunity in the morning to go up to the Melbourne Temple with all the other missionaries (just the Elders this time) in our Zone. It was a great experience and very special seeing as we only get to go every 3 months here. So that definitely provided us with a wonderful spirit and helped motivate us to continue to work hard in this wonderful work. The following day (Saturday) was a pretty big day for Melbourne because it was the big Grand Final for the AFL (Aussie Football League), which is the biggest sport followed by the state of Victoria. So lots of people were talking about the game, and even though we didn't watch any of it we probably had the whole game told to us by others anyway! haha. On Wednesday we had a really great lesson with one of our investigators named Rodney (I don't remember if I've told you about him before or not?). We did kind of a different lesson than normal, where we had his whole family come join us, who all are members, and then watched a mormon message and following that had kind of a little testimony meeting about how the Gospel blesses families. It went really well and one of the best things was that we invited one of the less-active members in the ward (the one I mentioned last week) to come out teaching with us and we had him help us with this lesson with Rodney. He shared a really great and powerful testimony which you could tell helped Rodney to feel the spirit, and it helped the less-active member to feel the spirit as well. So it was a two-in-one lesson in a way because both men benefited from the lesson. Also, a couple days later when we went to see the less-active member and his family again he said how he loved coming out to teach with us and that he'd really like to help us out again! So that was really awesome for us to see, and we look forward to having him out with us again. We've been able to have some great news this past week regarding Melissa and David, that being that they were able to speak with Bishop Smith of the Pakenham ward and they're going to get married! They don't know the exact date yet, they're still talking about it, so it may be while I'm still in Pakenham or it could be in a year, but either way we were both very happy and excited for them because we know that they'll be so blessed in their decision and also when Melissa will be able to be baptized after their wedding. So they've been going really well still and are probably our main people that we're teaching right now. On the other side of the spectrum, however, we lost one of the less-active members that we've been teaching since I first got here with Elder Rafferty. It was rather sudden because he'd been progressing so much, especially lately, but he just said that he was done with the church. So that was a bit dissapointing but hopefully over time whatever has happened will dissipate and he'll be ready to come back to church again. But every time one door closes another always open if you continue working because we have a new less-active member (and hopefully her non-member family too) to teach. The member's name is Robyn, and she was baptized about 8 years ago and has only been less-active since she and her husband Inia moved to Australia. Now that I'm writing this I think that I've already told you a little bit about them before, haha. But anyway we just saw them for the first time in many weeks yesterday and Robyn said that she and her family would be at church this next week (fast Sunday for us) and that she'd like to be retaught the missionary lessons to have her memory refreshed, so that will be really excellent! Nearly all of our main people that we visit and teach now are less-active members, which isn't a bad thing at all because the more active members in the church the more missionary efforts can progress. So a lot of our focus is there right now as we continue to try and search out some new, strong investigators to the church. Also, I think I forgot to mention that last week one of speakers in Sacrament cancelled last minute so they called us and asked me to speak in Sacrament meeting! So I had to pull a 'Dad' and basically do an impromptu talk for about 12 minutes or so. That along with everything else that we have to do speaking-wise on a mission has definitely made me less nervous or afraid of public speaking! I just thought I'd share that little note. Anyway this coming week will be busy since we'll be having Zone Meeting again as well as interviews with President Lifferth, so it should be good. Thanks again for the great e-mail and I hope you have a fantastic week ahead! Talk to you again soon!

 

Love,

 

Elder Hopkins

 

September 23, 2012

G'Day!

 

Thanks so much for the great e-mail! I love reading them each week and enjoy hearing about all the stuff you are doing back home. This past week was a fantastic one! So the main news is obviously with Tommy and Tracey. Their wedding and baptism did go through and it was perfect! Back on Thursday they asked if I would baptize Tracey so I gladly accepted and it was an honor to do so! It was the first time obviously that I'd ever baptized anyone before so I was a bit nervous as well, but it went quite well and I didn't mess up so I only had to do it once so that was good! So for the wedding, it was supposed to start at 1 pm in the afternoon so Elder Hirata and I, as well as Bishop Smith of the Pakenham ward, got there around 11:30 to clean the chapel and set up the font for the baptism. That didn't take too much time and we finished about 12:40. However, at 12:45 no one had shown up to the chapel yet and we started to get a little worried! Was it at a different chapel? Did they not want to go through with it anymore? But after frantically calling all sorts of people we found out they were just on their way and were just running late. According to some of the members, Samoan time runs about an hour behind everyone else haha. So eventually everyone started showing up. Tracey and Tommy eventually got here at 1:50 or so and then the wedding commenced at 2:00. The wedding went really well and there were heaps of people there, over 150. If you invite one member of Samoan family, all the extended relatives and their friends come as well haha. Immediately after the wedding was finished there was about a 25 minute break where Tracey could get changed into baptismal clothes, as well as myself. After that we came back and everyone took some pictures and then the baptism service proceeded. They had some good speakers and then a great musical number by some of the members. It was pretty funny though, because since Tracey is now the only member in her family there were a lot of non-members there and after all the talks/musical numbers there would be a lot of clapping which obviously isn't the typical procedure, but that's ok. Then we went and had the actual baptism which as I mentioned before went really well! There was an extra amount of clapping after I baptized Tracey haha. But it was a really great experience and a very spiritual one as well. After the baptism, we got changed back into regular clothes and then they had the wedding reception. We wanted to stay for the big feed (meal) because we felt that we'd earned it. However, we didn't expect it'd be another hour before we actually got to even see any food. The parents of Tommy and Tracey really had a lot to say when they were asked to speak about them and the wedding and baptism haha. However, all of them, as well as some of the other talks at the wedding and baptism service, were in Samoan so Elder Hirata and I didn't understand much! When we finally got the food though it was definitely worth it as I feel like they took all of the food supplies that Australia had to offer and put it on a table! There was sooo much food, a lot of it I'd never even heard before. But we had all sorts of Samoan food, such as Tauro, Chop Suey, Green Banana, and Elder Hirata even ate Octupus brain without even knowing it haha. It was all pretty good though (except the Octupus brain according to Elder Hirata) and we were quite stuffed by the time we'd left after they'd served dessert as well. So that was definitely the most special event of the week and I definitely will never forget that experience! I wish I'd taken a few more pictures though (I'll include some) but in the moment you don't think about it too much! However, other than the baptism there were quite a few other miracles as well. Hopefully I'll have time to list off a few. One just little one is that last Sunday we'd met someone and left a Restoration pamphlet (which kind of summarizes the message of the Restoration of the Gospel) with them and said we'd come back by next week. He didn't seem very interested though. And yesterday (Sunday again) we were going around and trying to see all of the new contacts we'd gotten and when we got to this one guys house he told us that he'd read the pamphlet and he really enjoyed it and said it opened up his eyes a lot! He said that it helped him a lot so he actually gave it to one of his mates to read as well! He said he wasn't quite ready to have us teach him yet though, which is ok, but he said in a little time he might feel ready. I think because he came from saying he wasn't religious at all last week he still has to take it all in a little bit from what he read. Another amazing and humbling miracle from this past week happened with a less-active couple. In order to tell the story though I have to back up a little bit. We were going to teach Brother and Sister Willmott that day (Bro. Willmott is a member, and Sis Willmot isn't. I think I mentioned them sometime before?) and they've basically been taught everything twice over. So sometimes it's difficult to think of what to teach them. So as I was pondering on what to teach them I felt like we should just watched a certain Mormon Message entitled "In the Spirit of Thanksgiving" and then just discuss it with them. So we had that lesson without any trouble and nothing was out of the ordinary. We then went to this less-active couple's house for a lesson that night and we had prepared a lesson to share with them but as we talked with them at the beginning the man asked why they needed to go to church if they didn't take the sacrament (this man had a word of wisdom problem thus not wanting to take the sacrament unworthily) and then mentioned how he'd been experience heaps of trials since they've been coming back to church the past few weeks, such as their car breaking down completely twice! And I remember looking at their old teaching record and seeing that they'd had similar questions about coming to church before so Elder Hirata and I just did our best to share scriptures, quotes, and our own thoughts and testimonies about the importance of coming to church no matter what and after all of that he said that he did feel like he should be going to church anyway. Then I had the impression to share the same Mormon Message that we'd watched with the Willmotts earlier with the couple now. So i suggested that we do so and as we watched it I was astonished at the complete relevance that it had to the man and his questions and he said after we watched it that there was no way we'd watched it earlier that day. He said that he'd definitely be at church on Sunday (which he did!) and that if we hadn't come and shared that then he might have gone inactive again. So Elder Hirata and I thought that was pretty amazing because we wouldn't have shared that video if we hadn't watched it earlier and it wasn't still fresh in our minds. So unfortunately I'm running out of time so that will be all I can share for this week, but as you can see we had such an incredible week and we're looking forward to this next one! So thanks again for the e-mail and all of your continued love and support and prayers! I've definitely felt extremely blessed on my mission thus far and I know that such feelings will only continue as time goes on. I hope you have a wonderful week as well and feel Heavenly Father's blessings in your lives! Talk to you again soon!

 

Love,

 

Elder Hopkins

September 17, 2012

G'Day!

 

Thanks for the e-mail. This past week was a very interesting one but at the same time it was a too eventful one either. On Tuesday we had another Zone Meeting and that was pretty good. The Zone has gotten really big and there were about 22 or so Elders and Sisters there. The Zone Leaders definitely have their work cut out for them! That was about the only main event this week, however. The first part of the week, Monday-Thursday, was quite unsuccessful finding-wise, as no one that we met was very interested at all in the Gospel and through the many hours we spent just tracting only 2 people said that we could come back and share a message with them. So that was hard enough to deal with but on Thursday I hadn't felt very well at all and we actually had to go home early that night because I felt very ill and I ended up being quite sick (not sure if it was the flu or something that I'd eaten) so that wasn't too pleasant either. On Friday I couldn't do really anything so unfortunately we had to stay in the flat because I wasn't in a condition to drive and Elder Hirata doesn't have a driver's liscence (not sure if I'd mentioned that last week, but I wonder if that is going to be a continuing trend with my companions? haha) so we just tried to work there. But the point of me listing off all these unfortunate things that happened isn't to make you feel bad for me or to just be a pessimist but to show that sometimes (as I'm sure most everyone knows) Heavenly just heaps on trials to see how we will respond and then give us blessings as we endure. So on Saturday we went back out again to work and both Saturday and Sunday were very successful and good days as we were able to set up a lot of appointments to teach and were able to get in a lot of good lessons. Also on Sunday when we went tracting for maybe 3 or 4 hours nearly every person we met was kind and interestecd to have us back to share more with them! So that was such a blessing and we certainly wouldn't have been able to see that happen if we'd just gotten discouraged from the rest of the week and decided to just not try as hard or perhaps not want to tract as much for fear of more rejection. Another great blessing from the weekend was that at church we were able to have nearly all of the less-active members that we visit and teach come to church and they all had a great experience and stayed for all the meetings! So it turned out to be a decent week despite all the trials and difficulties we had at the beginning of the week. So everything is still looking good for Tracey's wedding and baptism this coming Saturday so that'll be really exciting to see. Also either Elder Hirata or I might be the one to baptize her so we'll see how that goes! But she'll be a great new member and I'm confident she'll remain very strong in the church because she has heaps of good family support in the ward and surrounding area. After her there aren't too many others that are looking like they'll be ready to baptized very soon. Melissa and David are still doing good but they still haven't set a date for their marraige so until then she can't progress too much more than she already has in the Gospel. As always we have a lot of new people to go and teach this coming week so hopefully some of them turn out to be really prepared and ready to receive the blessings of the Gospel. A lot of our focus lately has been on some of the less-active members because it's definitely important to make sure the people that are already members are strong in the Gospel because that in turn will help in bringing new people into the fold. We also found out this past week that we'll be able to go to the Temple again this month on the 28th so we're all very excited for that! The Temple is definitely something you cherish a lot here because we only get to go once every 3 or so months, so it's very special when we finally get to go again! But I think that pretty much covers the main news for this week! Thanks so much for all your wonderful love and support, I certainly wouldn't be able to continue to work hard without knowing that I have loved ones encouraging me! I hope you have a fantastic and blessed coming week and I will talk to you again soon!

 

Love,

 

Elder Hopkins