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