August 27, 2012

G'Day!

How are ya? This week was again another wonderful and successful one. The first couple days of the week, however, made it seem like it was going to be a really long and difficult week. We had quite a few appointments fall through and when we went out finding we were having very minimal success. However, we continued working even harder and we ended up having a very successful weekend! It seemed like all the people we were able to meet that  didn't just shut the door on us right away seemed genuinely interested to learn more about the Gospel and a couple of them even invited us in right away! So that was a wonderful blessing to see! Also, our church attendance this week for the people that we teach was really good! Puot was able to make it to church for the first time! And even though we found out last minute that his member fellowship was unable to give him a ride we were still able to find someone who could take him which was a huge blessing! Puot stayed all 3 hours of church and seemed to really enjoy it and had a lot of people come and talk to him and become friends with him, so he said after church that he wants to come back next Sunday as well. We were also able to re-set his baptismal date for the 15th of September, and as long as he comes to church for the two Sundays before then he will be ready and prepared to be baptized on that day. Also at church one of the less-active members who we've been teaching, named Charlie, was able to come to church with his family for the first time in about 6 years! So that was so great to see him there. And it was even more amazing when he said he had just gotten done with work at 7 am that morning and still managed to get here even though he was extremely tired! So Sunday was a really great day to top off the week. Also, one of our investigators who's been having lessons for quite a few months, Joan Willmott (who's husband was baptized a few months ago), who is an older lady, really took some big steps this week in her progression. Two of her main difficulties have been reading the Book of Mormon and praying as Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ have showed us how to pray and not just saying written prayers. However, this past week she was able to read from the Book of Mormon and actually took notes on her reading as well! She was pretty excited to tell us about what she read so that was really great to see her progression there. Also we taught her a lesson about prayer and she has said that she will begin to pray regularly as she reads the Book of Mormon, and we've been able to see the amazing change in her attitude and countenance as she's taken those big steps this past week! This past week on Tuesday we had what's called a Zone Conference, which is similar to Zone Meeting except it's with two zones (so a lot of missionaries were there) and it went from 9 am to 3 pm. It was really great and I learned a lot as all the different trainings were giving. President and Sister Lifferth were there as well which was nice. For the conference we met in a chapel that was nearer to Melbourne city in a town called Springvale, which has a reputation for being predominantly Chinese and Vietnamese. It was amazing to see how many people were living there, because on one block there could be around 40 flats, and there were also heaps of people just roaming the sidewalks as well. We saw some really neat looking Buddhist temples though there for all the different languages (one of them I got a picture of which I'll include) but there were some for Cantonese, Vietnamese, and Chinese. It was easy to see after that though why pretty much all of the inner city missions and the surrounding areas are only for the foreign language missionaries because we didn't see any Aussies out and about while we were there! There isn't much else that has changed this past week with the other investigators we're teaching, as Tracey is still working towards September 22nd for her marriage and baptism, Melissa and David have just returned from their holiday in Brisbane (so hopefully we'll be able to set a date for her this week), but we do have a lot of new people we are now teaching so I know that we may have so more progressing investigators soon! Anyway I appreciate all the love and support you've given me so far! I hope you all have a wonderful week ahead! Talk to you again soon!

Love,

Elder Hopkins

 

 

August 20, 2012

G'Day!

 

Thanks for the e-mail! This past week has been a really succesful one and Heavenly Father continues to bless us so much! There was an investigator we were going to see last Monday night from New Zealand who told us before that she probably wouldn't be interested, but we persisted and went over to see her anyway. We brought one of the members with us who was from New Zealand so that was good fellowship for her. We just talked a lot about random things a first to create a comfortable environment and we actually found out that she had gone to church and young womens activities from age 9-15 (although she never was a member) so that was pretty neat! We then had a really good lesson about the Restoration of the Gospel and the best was at the end of the lesson when she told us that she was really glad that we finally caught up with her and taught her! So Elder Rafferty and I thought that was awesome that she went from 'not interested' to 'thanks for coming'! I'll definitely continue to be persistent with teaching now after having that experience and hopefully we'll be able to find more solid investigators as a result. Some of the best news this week was that Tommy and Tracy talked to the Bishop and set a date for their marraige and Tracy's baptism on the 22nd of September so that was so great to see that they're progressing so well! She definitely seems ready to be baptized because she knows a lot about the Gospel already and because they have extended family in the ward they'll be able to have the support to remain active in the church as well, which is the most important thing. Another great piece of news somewhat similar to that is that on Friday Melissa and David were going to go to their friend's wedding up in Brisbane, Australia but as the day to leave got sooner David wasn't going to be able to go because he needed to stay back to work because they didn't have enough to pay their rent if he didn't stay home. However, on Friday morning Melissa told us that almost magically the exact amount of money they needed for their rent was in their bank, which was something that they'd been praying about a lot! So that was a huge miracle for them that they'd both be able to go up to Brisbane now, and Melissa told us that because of this experience she knows that the things she needs to focus on when she and David return are getting married as soon as possible (which are the words she used) so she can be baptized! So that was such a wonderful thing to hear from her and all these miracles that keep happening with them show how much Heavenly Father loves them! Something neat that happened this Sunday was that there is a less-active man we've been teaching who was baptized 4 or so years ago but hasn't come to church once in 3 years. However, we'd set a goal for him a while back to come to church yesterday and he followed through! It also helped that it was a great Sacrament Meeting and all the speakers were wonderful. The Stake President even was there and spoke to us as well. Afterwards there were a lot of people that said hello to him and were friendly, and he told us that he definitely wants to be at church again every Sunday! We're really happy for him and also for a few of the other less-active members in the area who have been coming back to church again lately. We've continued to be so blessed this past week in finding new people to teach and look forward to teaching them all in the coming week. Puot was out of town this past week so he wasn't at church but he's promised to be there next Sunday! We'll probably have to move his date a week or two ahead just because it's kind of a rule that investigators need to come to church 2 or 3 times in a row before being baptized, which makes a lot of since! But we have no doubts that Puot will make it to whatever date it may be because he has been so ready to recieve the Gospel! Well the time has really been flying by and it's hard to believe that there are just 2 more weeks in this transfer so Elder Rafferty and I will work extra hard these coming days because one of us may be sent somewhere else for next transfers (usually you're never with a companion longer than 2 transfers). I'm very grateful for all of your continued love and support and especially your prayers because I know that we've been so blessed in our area as a result of that. There's a lot of exciting things coming up in the near future so I'm looking forward to continuing to serve faithfully! I look forward to talking to you again soon!

 

Love

 

Elder Hopkins

August 13, 2012

G'Day!

 

Thanks for the wonderful e-mail! This week was really good! At the beginning of the week (Monday-Wednesday) it seemed like it wasn't going to go very well at all because we had several cancellations with appointments and we didn't have much success tracting either. However, the rest of the week really picked up well and we were blessed with a lot of success! One of our investigators that I was talking about in a past letter, Puot (pronounced like Port), a 21 year old Sudanese man, has been progressing great and has a pretty solid baptismal date for the 1st of September (the last Saturday of this transfer) so that'd be really exciting if he was able to be baptized on that day because he'd be maybe the 2nd or 3rd Sudanese member in the Stake (which is about 1000 people large) even though there is a huge amount of Sudanese residents in the area. He speaks really good English though and is studying in school to be a lawyer! He really loves reading the Book of Mormon that we gave him a while back and he highlights it and everything so it's been really nice to see his excitement to learn and to follow Jesus Christ. Tommy and Tracy are also progressing really well and supposedly they've set a date with the Bishop for their marraige so hopefully we'll be able to set a date for her baptism during the coming week. Melissa and David are still doing really well, they haven't set a date for their marraige yet but obviously it is a long process and a big decision but they are moving towards it and they've already noticed the difference in their family that the Gospel has brought so they'll definitely get there in time. About a week and a half ago, though, we'd fasted so that David and Melissa would have extra strength in trying to live the Word of Wisdom, and this past week in a lesson David told us that he'd given up smoking cold turkey and he'd been off them for nearly a week already! He'd been smoking almost 50 cigarettes a day too and for him to go down to none at all was a miracle! So we were so happy for him and his commitment to re-living the Gospel (as he is already a member) and setting a good example for Melissa and their 2 kids. That experience definitely helped give me a stronger testimony of the power and blessings that come from fasting. This past Sunday was Stake Conference for the Pakenham stake and it was great! As I mentioned earlier, the stake is huge, and for Dad if you imagine the amount of people that are at the stake center at home for the Priesthood session of General Conference but doubled or tripled that's how many people were there! I'm certainly glad that I wasn't one of the speakers because I'm sure it was intimidating to look out over everyone. The speakers were wonderful, though, and there was one speaker who was a returned missionary from the Phillipines! He actually left on his mission when he was 26 years old, so he was definitely committed to the work when he left. He was telling some great stories about his mission and if I remember correctly he said that he and his comapanion at one point had no beds and no running water in their hut (yes, a hut) that they lived in, so that definitely made me feel blessed to be in a nicely equipped flat here. But we were able to have a couple people we teach come to the meeting so that was definitely an uplifting experience for them. So I'm sorry there isn't too much news or stories this week but I'm sure this next week will have a lot of great things to write about! Thank you so much for your love, prayers, and support. Elder Rafferty and I very much appreciate them and the Lord has greatly blessed us in our area and I'm sure it is a result of your prayers. I hope your week at home goes great and that it is enjoyable! I'll talk to you again soon!

 

Love

 

Elder Hopkins

August 6, 2012

G'Day!

 

Thanks for the wonderful e-mail! This past week was really great! Unfortunately though, about half of the appointments and lessons we had this week cancelled on us so that was a little dissapointing. However, we definitely made up for it in our finding because for this past week we've gotten 23 new people to go and teach, as well as some other investigators who are beginning to progress through the lessons well! One of those people that we're actually starting to share some little spiritual messages with is actually the Bishop's brother! So that's a pretty interesting experience! His brother hasn't been to church in about 30 years, so he's not even a member anymore but he's still very nice to us and he seems like he still believes that the church is true, so that's good! Melissa and David are continuing to progress towards a date for their marraige and still have a great excitement for the Gospel. There was another Mission President's Fireside last night and they were able to come to that so that definitely helped boost them spiritually and continue to inspire them to live the commandments. We had a referral this past week from one of the members for the address of her brother and his partner who are living together. They're actually in the exact same situation as Melissa and David are in, where the man (Tommy) is a less-active member and the women (Tracy) is the one who's ready to progress in the Gospel, and obviously they aren't married as well. So we set up a time to see them, and when we went over there for the first time to teach them a lesson, before we'd even really said anything, Tracy and Tommy told us that right now they're trying to find out the soonest they can get married for a small wedding and that they want the lessons while they're working towards the marraige so that Tracy can get baptized as soon as possible! So that was a pretty big miracle because for one you don't really have people tell you they want to be baptized before you've even taught them and also to have an unmarried couple tell you they want to get married as soon as possible is about as rare as it gets! We also found out yesterday that they were able to talk to the Bishop and they should be haven't a wedding through him in about 30 days, so she'll most likely be ready for baptism either the 2nd or the 3rd weekend in September, so that's probably been the most amazing experience of my mission thus far! We have a couple other investigators who are pretty close to baptism, some of them with a date, but we aren't sure how solid those dates are for baptism but we could end up with several baptisms in September. Pakenham continues to be an amazing area to serve in and I feel so blessed to be able to be one of the missionaries sharing the Gospel here. My faith in Jesus Christ has definitely increased because I don't think I've had an unanswered prayer yet and I am always showing gratitude to the Lord for the blessings he's given me. I hope to continue to be able to have amazing experiences in the week to come (hopefully our appointments will hold this time around!) and continue to find those people that Heavenly Father has prepared for Elder Rafferty and I to teach! I'm so thankful for all of your love and support. I hope everything continues to go great back home and that you're able to find missionary opportunities as well because there is no better service you can do for someone than sharing the Gospel with them! I've seen the blessings it brings to people's lives already in the short time I've been here. Anyway, thanks so much for writing me and I'll talk to you again soon!

 

Love

 

Elder Hopkins

July 30, 2012

G'Day!

 

Hello and thanks for the great e-mail! The weeks keep getting better and better here in Pakenham and this past week was especially successful! Elder Rafferty and I were able to get some of the highest numbers that Pakenham has had this past week, and obviously it's about the people and not the statistics but I can really see how the Lord has blessed us in this area to where we've been able to have great success! We were able to see Melissa and David this past week and they're still doing very well they were just very sick this past Sunday and weren't able to come so that was too bad. Right now they're both working to overcome some word of wisdom problems after we taught them the lesson for that, but they are really determined to do so and they know that they will be blessed for getting past them. Usually with Melissa and David we see them every Tuesday and Thursday evening, however this past Thursday during the day they called us and told us they'd have to cancel because they were preparing a birthday party for their now 1 year old daughter Mahli. So at first it was very dissapointing but then we thought that maybe the Lord wanted us to see someone else that night and the only way we could do so was if we were unable to see Melissa and David. So as we went on with the day we pondered on who else there was that we could see that might be effective. Eventually we decided to see one of our investigators named Port (from Kenya, but speaks great English) who we haven't seen for a few weeks because it's very hard to catch him at home. He'd been slowly progressing when were teaching him but then appoints with him were lost and our schedule became just too packed to find time to see him. So we came to his house at the time we would've had a lesson with Melissa and we were amazingly able to catch him while he was home! By the way, the reason that he's so difficult to catch is he is studying to be a lawyer and also he gets paid to play on a club soccer team so he has a lot of things to juggle. Anyway, we came in and taught him about the Plan of Salvation and he was very receptive to it. At the end of the lesson we challenged him to baptism for the 1st of September and he accepted! So that was a pretty great experience and hopefully he's able to follow through with the date as we teach him the rest of the lessons. That's an example that if something doesn't happen acoording to plan or even just how you want it that we shouldn't get discouraged because everything happens for a certain reason. We'll have a lot of work ahead of us this week, because we were able to get 15 new people to contact/teach and I'm sure there is someone in there that has been very prepared to hear the gospel by Heavenly Father. It's nice that Pakenham is the fastest growing town in Australia because there is never a shortage of work to be done and Elder Rafferty and I are never sitting around trying to think of what to do next. We continue to receive heaps of help from the members in the Pakenham ward which has really made a lot of the difference in our lessons and helping our investigators to progress towards baptism and increase the 'real growth' in the church that President Lifferth has emphasized. Speaking of President Lifferth we have the next mission president's fireside this coming Sunday so we're hoping to get several of the people we teach to come there because it's such a huge testimony building experience for anyone who attends! Anyway it has been a really awesome week and I'm looking forward to this coming week as well. I hope everything continues to go great back home and I am so grateful for all of your wonderful love and support! I'll talk to you again soon!

 

Love

 

Elder Hopkins