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

September 10, 2012

G'Day!

Thanks for the great e-mail this past week! This week was a very busy one being the first week of the new transfer and especially since I have a new companion! So my new companion for at least the next 6 weeks is Elder Hirata. He is from Japan and actually was on the same plane over to Australia as me so I knew him a little already! So that was a surprise! And since we've been out the same amount of time on our missions, I guess it makes me the senior companion since I've been serving in Pakenham already. So now I have a little more pressure because I have to kind of take the lead in the teaching situations. But I'm glad that I have the added responsibility because it'll help me to grow more as a missionary than just being the junior companion again. I can't feel too overwhelmed though because if you remember my MTC companion Elder Smith, he is going to be training a brand new missionary and has also been appointed District Leader, so he certainly has a lot on his plate! Haha. Elder Hirata seems like he will be a great companion, though, and he speaks very good English even though he's only really spoken it for about 5 or so months. It's taken us some time to kind of find a smooth flow together in our teaching but we're already becoming more fluid and working well together. Elder Hirata is actually 21 years old so has seniority over me in that regard haha, so that's good that he's out on his mission now! He has a very strong spirit about him and he knows the gospel very well so already he's brought a lot of blessings to Pakenham! So just to kind of give you an idea of how the transfer meetings go, on Tuesday all the missionaries getting moved around, leaving, or who are Zone Leaders or APs (Assistants to the President) come to the chapel that is right next to the Melbourne Temple in a town called Wantirna. The meeting starts off with a brief message given by President Lifferth and then a musical number. Then the moment everyone has been waiting for occurs and the APs read off all the new companionships and the area they'll be serving in. So eventually they go to "...Serving in the Pakenham area will be Elder Hopkins and Elder Hirata..." then you get up and go sit down with your new companion. After that all the departing missionaries get up and bear their last testimonies in front of all the missionaries, so as I'm sure you could guess most of them shed some tears. Then all the missionaries sing "God Be With You 'Til We Meet Again" before the meeting adjourns and everyone travels back to their respective areas. So it was an excellent meeting and was exciting not only to find out who my new companion was but to also see who everyone else will be serving with and in what area! So anyway, this first week of the transfer was a pretty good one. However, we faced challenges right away as we had several days where nearly all or most of our set appointments cancelled or fell through. So that was rather unfortunate and we spent a lot of our time tracting, with one day tracting for nearly 5 hours! We spent a bit of time just kind of sitting in the car deciding what we should do, so after this past week I've learned to be more prepared by thinking of more back-up plans in our daily planning sessions. We were able to find a lot of prepared people to teach, though, amidst our many hours of tracting so hopefully there are some good things that will come of that! Sunday didn't prove too successful either as we had just one investigator who attended church, which was way less than we were expecting. However, on the bright side of things we had one of our highest, if not our highest, attendance for less-active members that we teach so that was great to see! One of the biggest focuses I think for Pakenham missionaries has been less-active members so we always have heaps of families to visit and encourage to come back to church. One really cool thing that happened in this past week was with a new investigator. Elder Rafferty and I had tracted into a man, his wife and 2 sons from New Zealand and he invited us to come back (most New Zealanders know the missionaries so his first greeting to us was "Elders! How are ya?"). So on Saturday Elder Hirata and I went back to see them and teach them a lesson. The man, Inia (e-knee-ah), was the only one there though with his cousin. So a lot of the time we just spent talking to him and building a good relationship with him. We found out that a lot of his relatives, including his Dad, where LDS members! He also told us that his wife, Robyn, actually joined the church about 10 years ago but has been less-active ever since they moved over to Australia. So that was pretty amazing to find out that information about him! Elder Rafferty and I were actually the first missionaries they'd met since they've lived in Australia so that's pretty amazing as well! So things are still looking very bright for the coming transfer here in Pakenham and I look forward to working with Elder Hirata and continuing to grow as a missionary and as a person. Thanks so much for all of your love and support as always, I know that Heavenly Father has blessed us very generously because of it! I hope that you all have a wonderful week ahead as well! I'll talk to you again soon!

Love,

Elder Hopkins

September 3, 2012

G'Day!

Hello once again! Thanks for the e-mail! It's been a wonderful week, and seeing as it was the last week of the transfer we worked extra hard and were blessed with so much success! So to start off I'll just let you know of the transfer news. So this past transfer will be the last one that Elder Rafferty and I will be companions! Elder Rafferty will be going and I will be staying in Pakenham! I'm so happy that I'll be able to continue to serve in this area because I love it so much and there is so much work to be done and a lot of exciting things are coming up in the near future! Usually you don't find out where your new area is until transfer meeting (which is tomorrow morning on Tuesday) but Elder Rafferty actually just found out that he'll be leaving to serve in Tasmania!! So that is really exciting for him and I'm sure he will love serving down there and continue to have a lot of success! So on Tuesday I will find out who my new companion will be so that will be pretty exciting to see! Whoever it is I'm sure they'll be great! So anyway, back to the week. Going all the way back to last Monday on P-Day, Elder Rafferty and I actually got the great opportunity to get a ride from a member in the ward up to a place called Healsville Sanctuary. It's like a zoo but with all the indigenous animals to Australia, so it's really cool! We got to see all sorts of cool animals, and I'll include some of the pictures of them. Unfortunately my camera battery died like halfway through so some of the animals I was unable to get a picture of so that was too bad! Again this week we were able to have a lot of success in finding new people to teach. A lot of the people that we've been finding for the past 2 transfers as a whole haven't been too solid and only a couple of them are we still teaching. However, we don't get discouraged because there's a cool little statistic thing that I heard that goes something like: For every 1000 new contacts (or people to go and see for the 1st time) there will be 500 new investigators and out of that 100 progressing investigators and from that 10 baptismal dates and ultimately 1 baptism. So just because we may find heaps of people and then none of them turn out to be very interested we should just try keep trying harder because that person who is ready to be baptized may be that 999th or 1000th new contact that we find. A cool experience that happened this past week was there was a new guy that moved in to the ward boundaries within the past 2 weeks who is a less-active member. He is origionally from Taiwan and served a mission as well! We went and visited him a couple of times after we found out he'd moved in and then we brought him out teaching with us on Friday. The first lesson we had was with someone who we were going to see for the first time. Her name is Anne and in another house she used to live in she was actually visited by missionaries before! So when we went in to teach her we just kind of started off normally and then when Daniel (the new move-in) introduced himself he started talking about when he joined the church and then bore a really powerful testimony which brought the spirit in so much just right from the start. And then because of that spiritual environment we were able to extend a baptismal invitation very smoothly and more easily, and she said that if she found these things were true she would be baptized! So that was definitely a great experience for us! Church was really great this past Sunday and one of the best things about it was that Edward, if you remember him from several weeks ago who we'd kind of lost contact with, was able to come to church after we'd finally gotten to see him again and invite him. He had a really great experience there and is thinking about coming back again so hopefully he'll be able to be progress again in the Gospel. The past 2 days have been pretty hectic because we've been trying to see everyone that we teach and all the members we're friends with so Elder Rafferty can say his final goodbye's to them. So we'll jump right back into that after we've finished our e-mails! I hope that you've had a wonderful past week as well and that you all have a great week ahead! I'm looking forward to all the exciting things that will be happening including finding out who my new companion is, although I am sad that Elder Rafferty will be going! But I'm grateful for all your continued love and support, we've so many blessings and miracles here in Pakenham and I know without a doubt that a lot of it has come about because of all of your prayers. Anyway, thanks again for the e-mail and I'll talk to you again soon!

Love

Elder Hopkins