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