Thanks
for another wonderful e-mail this
week, I always love reading them! We had a really good week this past
week with a lot of blessings and miracles. It was also a very busy week
too! We started off with Tuesday as an exchange with our District Leader
Elder Hasson, who happens to be in the other set of Geelong
missionaries so we didn't have to travel too much for that exchange
haha. But it went really well and we accomplished a lot. I was with
Elder Hasson in our area. As we tried to contact some of our
investigators we were unable to find many people home or available, so
we decided to contact some of the members on the ward list in the area
who we didn't know. The first name that we picked was Walle and Candice
Wang. We went to their house and when they opened the door they invited
us in straight away and were very happy to see us. We were kind of
expecting a different reaction from contacting some of these people so
it was a nice surprise. As we talked to them we found out they'd moved
to Melbourne about 3 years ago from China (near Beijing) and had met
with missionaries when they lived in the city and were baptized about 2
years ago. Then they moved over to this suburb of Geelong about 1 year
ago and weren't able to find out where the nearest church was or where
any members were who could help them. So after a while of searching for
some reason or another they weren't able to find one. So they said that
they were so excited to see missionaries at their door because they'd
been searching for the church in the area and also it was their only day
off of the week so we were very blessed to find them home. So we
invited them to church again and they were able to come to Stake
Conference this weekend and look forward to being in the Geelong ward
next Sunday! So that was quite a miracle to find them. On Wednesday was
Zone Conference and it went really well. There were a lot of inspiring
trainings and talks given and I was able to learn a
lot. For the sake of time I won't go into much detail about it but it
was good. On Saturday we had some really great lessons with some new
investigators. The first lesson we had was with a woman named Lorraine.
She'd moved next door to one of the members of the ward in December and
had come with him to church for the first time last Sunday and said that
she was interested to learn more (I can't remember if I told you that
part already or not?). Anyway, we were able to go and teach her for the
first time on Saturday at the member's home and it was a really good
experience. We found out about her background and then taught about half
of the first lesson focusing mainly on God's love for us and the Great
Apostasy. She understood what we were teaching really well and wants to
continue to learn more. We also had a lesson with an 11 year old boy
named Noah. He is Luke's (the returned missionary from last week)
half-brother. His mom is less-active but wants
Noah to have the missionary lessons now and Noah wants Luke to baptize
him now that he's off his mission. So we began teaching him and he's
looking to get baptized in March next month, so we're excited for him
and his family. Hopefully his mom will have a desire to return to church
as well through the experience. His dad is an active member in the
ward, however, so he'll be sure to bring him to church and help him
remain active which is good. Stake Conference was excellent yesterday.
It was a live broadcast from Utah that was being played at the same time
as all the other stakes and districts in Australia, which was pretty
cool. We had a few general authorities speak, Elder Baxter of the 70,
the 1st councilor of the Relief Society presidency, Elder Christofferson
of the 12, and most excitingly President Monson spoke as well! So that
was a great surprise to hear from the prophet and the other speakers.
They all had wonderful talks and President Monson's
focus was on 'going to the rescue,' or in other words helping to bring
back those members who've gone into inactivity. So hopefully that will
spark a new, more diligent effort in the members of Australia.
Throughout this past week we were able to find a lot of new
investigators as well who we will be seeing this coming week (which is
now the last week of the transfer) so we're excited to see the area
continue to grow! We also don't find out the transfer news until next
Saturday, even though the leaders already know the transfers, they just
want us to live in suspense haha. But we'll continue to work very hard
none the less to set up the work for the next transfer to be even more
successful. Thanks again for all of your love and support and especially
your prayers that help so much! I hope that you have a wonderful week
as well and have the opportunity to have missionary experiences, big or
small, yourselves! I love you and talk to you again
soon!
Love,
Elder Hopkins
No comments:
Post a Comment