Thanks so
much for the e-mail this week! I loved reading it and appreciated all
your notes. First of all, hopefully you weren't too worried when you
didn't receive an e-mail yesterday. Remember when I told you last week
that we'd be having a meeting with Elder Pearson of the 70? Well for our
side of the mission that happened to be on Monday, while the other side
of the mission was on Tuesday. So we left our flat at 6:30 a.m. and
didn't return until 7 p.m.! So unfortunately there was no possible way
for me to e-mail you yesterday, however, I'm using the extra little bit
of time we get each week to e-mail you a quick letter today. So since I
don't have much time at all to write I'll have to just fly through
everything. First of all, the news you're all waiting for, my new area
is in the Geelong area. Since you probably aren't familiar with
Melbourne's geography, Geelong is about an hour or two outside of
Melbourne city on the west side of it. So quite a big change from
Pakenham about the same distance from the city but on the east side.
Geelong is also quite a large city, comparable a bit to San Francisco,
because our area goes ride up the beach! Pretty cool since I haven't
seen a beach since we've been in California. And also, the situation has
now gone from bikes to no bikes, haha. So my companion and I have just
been walking around and using public transport (buses), although our
area is quite large. However, the Geelong area actually has 4 Elders in
the ward, so two different areas, north and south, and we're in the
south Geelong area. The other Elders have a car though so we sometimes
catch rides with them to appointments. Next big news is regarding my new
companion! His name is Elder Rua (Roo-ah) and he is from Tahiti! This
is only his second transfer in the mission so I'm his follow-up trainer
since his 1st companion finished his mission last transfer. So that's
pretty exciting to be working with a missionary still fresh in the
field. His English is also really, really good considering he never
spoke it before the mission and ended up only getting 3 weeks in the MTC
to learn, so that's one miracle he's experienced. He's also really
funny, his personality is like the exact same as my roommate Michael
from BYU so we get along really well with having fun but also working
really hard. Our area isn't nearly as big of a teaching pool as Pakenham
had become, so there's a lot of room for progress and improvement.
However, we've already seen a lot of success by organizing all the
teaching records from past missionaries and trying to find some new
investigators to add to our list. The Geelong ward is actually the
biggest ward on paper in all of Victoria, however, the attendance is
quite low, so there's heaps of less-actives and inactives throughout the
ward list. So that's one of the goals Elder Rua and I have, to go
through the ward list and try to visit all the members on it in our part
of Geelong and see if we can find some less-actives who are ready to
come back and live the Gospel again. My birthday on Thursday went well,
it wasn't much different than any other day but I did enjoy opening your
package with all of the goodies! That definitely helped make it a great
day! Elder Pearson at the conference was also incredible! I'd never
heard him speak before but after hearing him talk with us I want to hear
him every General Conference! He was such a wise and powerful teacher
and the spirit was so strong each time he spoke. The blessing he gave
all of us at the end with his testimony was also really special and
powerful. The room was so quiet as he was speaking then that you
literally could hear no sound at all during the breaks in his speech. I
loved the opportunity to hear a general authority speak in person and so
close. That was definitely a highlight for the week. Well sorry I don't
have much time to talk this week, I tried to include all the main
things that I could think of quickly. Thanks for the e-mail again and
for all of your love and support! I will definitely talk to you next
Monday (Sunday for you) for sure, so I will talk to you again then! Have
a wonderful week, love you!
Love,
Elder Hopkins
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