November 26, 2012

G'Day!

Thanks so much for the wonderful e-mail this week! I was so thrilled to hear from all of the family! I'm very grateful for all of their great comments and am grateful for all of their continued love and prayers! Reading all of those definitely put a big smile on my face! So I guess first of all I should mention the transfer news. Drum roll! Elder Hirata.........he is staying in Pakenham! And Elder Hopkins......he is also staying in Pakenham! So not much of a change haha. We're both really happy and excited to keep working together in Pakenham! Especially I'm glad that I'm staying so that I can spend Christmas and the holiday season on familiar ground and with all the people that I've developed a strong friendship with and a great love for. I was definitely surprised at the news though, because for one, companions usually aren't together for 3 transfers (unless their both in a leadership position, such as Zone Leader) and two, I've been in the area for a long time now! I'll now be the longest serving missionary in the Pakenham area, although there's only been a Pakenham area for just over a year, but still something that amazed me! I've loved the area so much though so I have absolutely no quarrels with staying here another 6 weeks! Also, on a side note, Elder Rafferty actually got transferred again from his area so he's moved 3 times in the last 3 transfers haha. Don't know where he's going yet though, we'll hear on Tuesday. So that was definitely the big news of this past week and transfers are always a very exciting time! The rest of the week was really good as well though, although we didn't get as much accomplished as usually since we were riding around on bikes. I happened to actually enjoy riding the bikes around, however, because it was just a nice change from the car and it also helped get my leg muscles quite huge! Haha, just kidding. I did hope at some point in the mission to get the classic missionary experience, and my wish had been granted! On Saturday was probably the most difficult though, because the temperature was about 34 degrees Celsius, which would be about 93 degrees Fahrenheit! So we were quite roasted at the end of the day, but thankfully no bad sunburns! We were able to teach several good lessons this week, but we were unable to make too much more progress with our investigators. We were unable to set a baptismal date with Joan Willmott this week, so that was a bit disappointing after she told us last week that she was ready to be baptized, but I'm sure within this next transfer we'll be able to set a firm date with her. We also found out yesterday when we went to see David and Melissa (who are planning on their wedding happening in May) that David didn't want to come to church anymore. Not that he wanted to be separated from the Gospel, he just didn't want to come to actual church anymore. So we had an extra long lesson with them just talking about the reasons why David didn't want to come to church and trying to just create a good environment for the Spirit to be felt. It ended up going quite well and afterwards David didn't come right out and say he wanted to still come to church but he did say that he felt much better about it and that he felt the Spirit. We'll try to go around to see them more frequently and just encourage him and try and help him have a lot of good spiritual experiences. On a brighter side of things, this past week while we were tracting one day, we ended up tracting into a less-active lady (named Melissa) who had just moved into the area a few months ago. She said that she was baptized several years ago (about 6 or 7) and that when she came over to Australia she stopped going to church (why does that keep happening to everyone?). However, she said that she's keen on coming back to church, especially since the chapel is so close, she just has to try to get some Sundays off of work. She also has 3 kids, one of whom is of baptism age! So that was a wonderful miracle to find her this past week, and we hope to begin having lessons with her this week. There have been all sorts of members that haven't been to church in a while that are just coming out of the wood-works because there was another less-active family that's been in the area a while who just came to church again for the first time yesterday, so we'll try to go round and see them this week as well. So surprisingly that's all I can think of that's noteworthy from this past week, hopefully it will suffice, haha. But Elder Hirata and I look forward to having another great transfer together here in the great area of Pakenham! Thanks again for the great e-mail, and I hope all of you have a great week ahead as well! I love you, and I'll talk to you again soon!

Love,

Elder Hopkins

November 19, 2012

G'Day!

Thanks for another great e-mail this week, which I enjoyed reading! It sounds like it was an eventful week! Elder Hirata and I had a pretty busy week as well. We kicked off this past week with Zone Conference which was fantastic! In case you don't remember much from the other one about 3 months ago, Zone Conference is where two zones get together and have one big meeting together which President Lifferth and his wife attend as well as the APs. There are several talks and trainings that are always inspiring, and it goes from 9 am to about 3:30 pm. We had lunch in the middle of it, about 1 o'clock which was prepared and served to us by some of the members from the Pakenham stake. So the two zones that were there were the Pakenham zone, which we're in and that is all the missionaries from the Pakenham stake, and the Braeside zone, which was all the missionaries from the Braeside stake. In total there were probably about 60 missionaries there! It was an awesome meeting and there were some great talks given by President Lifferth and Sister Lifferth that really inspired us and motivated us to work harder. Also, President Sanders, the stake president of the Pakenham stake, gave a really great talk to us that really inspired me a lot personally. In President Lifferth's talk, however, he mentioned some very interesting and exciting facts. He mentioned what you'd already told me about the missionary calls per week jumping up from 700 or so, all the way up to 4,000! That's just incredible! Also he talked about how our mission, the Melbourne mission, would be affected by this new surge of missionaries. Right now, the mission has a total of 161 missionaries. But come January and February time, the number will jump up to 250 missionaries!! That number being the maximum number of missionaries that a mission can have at one time! That's pretty amazing! He said that there will be many new areas opening and that there will most likely be no less than 4 missionaries (two companionships) per ward. He also mentioned that because of this massive boost of missionaries that almost every missionary that's been through training themselves will be training these new missionaries! So that will be pretty interesting! That was definitely the biggest announcement of the day, and has all of the missionaries looking forward to that big wave of new Elders and Sisters. So after a big missionary gathering like that we were all really motivated for the rest of the week. Elder Hirata and I were able to have a really good week and see some wonderful progress with some of our investigators. One of the greatest things worth mentioning was that when we saw Joan Willmott this past week she told us that she was finally ready to be baptized! Woohoo! haha. So that was wonderful to hear and we're really excited for her to take that first big step in the Gospel. She'll most likely have a baptismal date set this coming week that will be for early next year, so I'll keep you updated with that (as long as it's still possible for me to keep you updated, who knows what will happen with transfers!). Speaking of transfers...yes this is the last week of the transfer and it has just flown by so fast! I can't even believe that  it's already been another 6 weeks here in Pakenham and I feel it's just gone to fast! It's been a really great transfer, however, and Elder Hirata and I have really worked hard and well together. His English continues to improve heaps each week and it won't be long before he'll sound like he's spoken it his whole life! So this past week we finally were able to have another lesson with the two people we'd met last transfer, Moana and LIna, who we were able to set baptismal dates with. Now obviously they won't be baptized yet since we still have heaps to teach them and they will have a lot of progress to make, but they still are keen as (or super interested for the non-Aussie speakers, haha) and have expressed a desire to start coming to some of the church YSA activities that are held quite often. So hopefully there are good things in the future for both of them. We also will find out within the next 2 weeks or so the day that Melissa and David will be able to be married so we can set a date for her baptism as well! So the fruits of our much labor are beginning to show forth and hopefully this last week of the transfer will bring forth even more blessings and miracles! So those are the main things of note that happened this past week and we look forward to working harder than ever for this final week of the transfer! My next e-mail will have the transfer news, so bring your popcorn for that one! Again, I appreciate so much all of the love and support and especially the prayers on my behalf and the behalf of the other missionaries. I know that it really makes all the difference in our missionary work! Well I hope that you all have a fantastic week ahead and a great Thanksgiving! I'll be celebrating by eating as much food as I can (although not many people will understand why!) to try and keep the spirit of Thanksgiving alive in Australia! I love you and I'll talk to you again soon!

Love,

Elder Hopkins

November 12, 2012

G'Day!

Thanks for the great e-mail! I always cherish every minute of reading them each week and love all the things you're able to include. This past week was a pretty good week. Definitely not as snowy as Utah right now! I'll definitely miss the white Christmases for the next 2 Decembers. Melbourne weather continues to just be a guessing game as this past week we had a couple of hot summer days, but mixed in were some rather rainy days (plus hail!). So you can never quite put away the winter clothes throughout the summertime. This past Wednesday was a pretty fun day because we went on exchanges for the day with the Zone Leaders, so Elder Rafferty and I were once again able to work together in Pakenham! We went around to see all of the main people that we taught when he was still here and they were all very happy and surprised to see Elder Rafferty so soon again. We had a lot of really great lessons as well and were able to make a lot of progress with many of our investigators. Working with Elder Rafferty again made me realize the big adjustment it's been working with Elder Hirata as he's still learning english. Not to say that Elder Hirata's english isn't good, because it is quite good, it's just sometimes more difficult for the investigators or the people that we teach to understand exactly what he's trying to say. But then I can't imagine now having to learn an entirely new language in such a short amount of time and being able to teach the gospel with it, so he's definitely doing a great job! You asked in your e-mail about us having the opportunity to do service projects, and to answer, we have heaps of opportunities for them! There are several opportunities per week for us to provide service so it's been really great to help out. One of the things that we help out with a lot is with what are called 'self-dig gardens.' Some people in the ward came up with the idea a little before I got to Pakenham and they're just raised garden beds that you build a certain way so that when you put in plants they just replenish and re-plant themselves after each growing cycle. So it's a really effective and good system and they produce heaps of vegetables. They're trying to get at least one garden bed at each member's home so we help out with that about once a week, or once every other week. Also, lately it's been getting into a tradition of helping someone move house each Saturday, haha. The past two weeks (as well as a few other weeks in the not too distant past) we've helped two different families move. Last week we helped a nonmember family move house, who'd met and become friends with a couple of the sisters in the ward, so that was good for us to be there and kind of introduce ourselves. This past Saturday we actually helped David and Melissa move house as well! Luckily they were just moving to a different house in the same general neighborhood so they're still in our area! We've also had many other opportunities to provide service and I really enjoy each change we get to help out. Not only does it provide a break from tracting, haha, but it always feels good to be able to give service to whoever may be in need. Church was really good this week as well. We were able to have several of the people we teach attend this week again, however, not quite as many as last week but still a good amount. Cruiz was able to be ordained a Priest in the Aaronic Priesthood, so that was a really special moment! The next step will be to get him and Chelsea each some sort of calling. We've also begun visiting another new less-active family as well, called the Sekene (pronounced Sakaynay) family. They're an awesome family and have just barely been coming to church again the past few weeks for the first time in a few years. Vince Sekene (the husband/dad) was baptized back in New Zealand several years ago but they all went a bit less-active when they moved over to Australia (seems to be a very frequent trend with the less-active members we visit, haha).  But they've been going very well too, and hopefully they'll be able to progress towards getting to the Temple as well. Well unfortunately I'm out of time, so I'll have to end there for this week. But we look forward to the last two weeks of this transfer! It's really flown by so fast so we'll try to make every moment count! Thanks again for all the wonderful love and support you give and especially all the prayers on our behalf! I love you and I'll talk to you again soon! Have a wonderful week ahead!

Love,

Elder Hopkins

November 5, 2012

G'Day!

Thanks for another great e-mail this past week. As always I really loved reading it and hearing about all the things that have gone on in the past week back home. This past week was a great one and we were able to see a lot of miracles happen. Cruiz and Chelsea were married this past Wednesday night and it went really well. Originally they'd just planned on getting married in Bishop's office with just them so they'd have it really low key. But over time the ward heard about it and the Relief Society decorated the chapel up for them and brought all sorts of refreshments as well, so it ended up being definitely more than they expected! It was well attended though and it was a fun evening for them. Their wedding happened to be on Halloween as well which was pretty neat. As a result of their wedding they were able to take the Sacrament for the first time in a very long time this past Sunday so that was a wonderful blessing for them. Back to Halloween for a second, it definitely wasn't as festive as what I'm used to. Australia doesn't really recognize Halloween as a holiday and only a very, very small amount of people will go out trick or treating. So it just felt like a normal day and nothing special, obviously for us it was the same as any other day for missionaries but since we didn't see any decorations up or anything it definitely felt plain haha. Another blessing that we witnessed this week happened with one of Pakenham's long time investigators Joan Willmott (the wife of recent convert Barry Willmott). Since I've been here she's never been very keen on reading the Book of Mormon or on praying to know if the church is true and what not. So we've tried and tried but nothing has really seemed to spark much interest in her. However, when we went to see them this past week she told us that she'd made the decision she wants to read through the whole Book of Mormon, cover to cover! We were quite stunned by that, especially since it was her own decision to read and not an assignment or something from us. We added our own encouragement to her after she told us and then also invited her to pray about the Book of Mormon as she reads. So it seems that the Spirit has been working in her and hopefully we'll be able to see her receive her answer about the truthfulness of the Gospel soon. Another pretty big miracle we had happen as well this past Sunday was that 8 of the less active members that we visit were able to attend church! So that was pretty great to see and most of them stayed for all 3 hours of church as well, which made it even more of a blessing! So that started off Sunday really well for us, and it got even better because the Mission President's Fireside was also this past Sunday night as well. The past couple of months we've been unable to attend because either we had noone to go (you always need to have either an investigator, recent convert, or less active member you teach to come to it if you want to go) or the ride for the people we did have to go had to cancel. So we finally got to go to it again because we had the WIllmotts, Cruiz and Chelsea, and another less-active couple Afa and Lisa attend the fireside so that was great. The fireside itself was really good and spiritual and all those that were able to come really loved it and said they'd love to be able to attend the next month's fireside as well. So we definitely look forward to that! The past week we were able to go much better with our teaching appointments and not as many cancelled as the previous week which was a miracle in itself. We also were able to continue to find heaps of people who were keen to hear more about the Gospel. So we'll continue to be busy this next week and we are constantly seeing the area progress and are developing a greater love for those that we teach as well as the people in Pakenham in general as we grow and learn to be more like the Saviour. Well thanks again for the e-mail this week and I look forward to talking to you again soon! Love you heaps!

Love,

Elder Hopkins