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