June 25, 2012

How we going?

 

Thanks for the e-mail! This week has gone by really fast and I have a hard time keeping track of what day it is because they all blur together since it is mostly the same busy schedule each day! I'm loving every minute of it though, even the parts where we just go up to random people and start talking to them about religion, which is something I'd never dream of doing regularly! We've met some really interesting people so far, some in a good way and some were just a little different! One of them was a recent convert to the church but told us that he is going to be the prophet who relocates Zion and one of the ones to get killed in Jerusalem and a whole bunch of other stuff that were just kind of silly. We've been told by the ward mission leader not to go and visit him anymore haha. So the winter here isn't nearly as cold as Utah but it does get a little chilly from the wind. Also, the other day from the moment we woke up until we went to bed it rained ALL day long. And I mean every single second! That's something I'd never seen before. So last Wednesday we got a special opportunity to go through the Melbourne Temple with our whole Zone so that was a really great experience! It's a beautiful Temple. So most of the people we taught this past week were less-active members with a few non-members thrown into the mix. The Stake 1st Councelor in yesterday's ward conference talked about helping out the less-active members more and we've certainly been doing that so far! They're actually building a new ward building that's almost right next to our Flat because the old building was getting too crowded! The area we're in, Pakenham, is actually the fastest growing area (population-wise) in all of Australia! So that's pretty cool. So with that new building that will be done by July 8th, a lot of the less-active members said they'll be attending so hopefully they follow through with that and actually keep coming to church then! So Elder Rafferty has been here for just one transfer, or 6 weeks, and most of the investigators he had when I came in were ones that were found before he came into the area; so they've been having the lessons for quite some time. Most of them, unfortunately, have reached a point where they just aren't progressing much anymore. So we will continue to teach them but we're going to put all our focus now more on finding new people to teach! We're involving the members a lot in helping us find by them giving us some referrals, helping us build a big map of Pakenham so we can keep track of where we've been and info on each house, and in heaps of other ways! So we're really keen on somewhat starting fresh in the area and hopefully we'll see a lot of growth in the coming weeks! There are about 150 active members in the ward and they're all so good! It definitely has some of the strongest members of the church I've ever met! Before I came to Australia I wasn't sure how hungry I would be each night but it's quite the opposite! We have heaps of feeds (or dinner appointments) every week, sometimes two a night, so we're always stuffed with delicious food! Something interesting that the pure Aussies do (which there are very few of in our area) is that they don't have drinks served until after everyone has eaten everything on their plates! So it's definitely a little hard to wait to drink, especially when they serve hot or somewhat spicy food! The Pakenham ward has a lot of Tongans and Samoans in it which is pretty awesome! Definitely not something you'll see in Utah haha. Last week on Tuesday, Elder Bisby (who was in my MTC District) and his companion Elder Evans came and stayed the night before we journeyed to the Temple on Wednesday, so that was fun having some more people around! They're actually coming down again tomorrow for a follow-up interview with all the new missionaries (or 'goldens') with President Lifferth. So there weren't too many amazing teaching experiences this week that I can think of off the top of my head but I know as I continue to improve in my teaching that we'll increase our statistics for the area and have several amazing experiences to talk about next week! Well that's all for now, but I hope everything is going great at home! I miss you all!

 

Love

Elder Hopkins