April 22, 2013

G'Day!

Thanks for the wonderful e-mail this week I really enjoyed reading it. First off, I forgot to say thanks before for the letter I got from you that had all the letters from the Priest's quorum, that was a great surprise! I really enjoyed reading all of them and I just wanted to say thanks for all of them and Bro. Kershaw as well. Well this past week was quite eventful. We started off the week immediately after I finished e-mailing you with some pretty unfortunate news. The APs called us up and told Elder Matu'u that he had to pack his bags and catch a train by 6 p.m. that night because he was getting moved. However, it wasn't anything wrong on our side of things, there was another companionship in another Zone that weren't getting along and had to be emergency transferred so we were the unlucky companionship that they chose to switch with. So we went straight back to the flat after e-mails with the other missionaries for Geelong and helped Elder Matu'u get everything ready for his train that he had to catch in Melbourne city, and we didn't have much time to pack because it was kind of an 'all of a sudden' decision by the mission to do the move then. So eventually we got everything packed for Elder Matu'u and then hopped in the car and started heading for the city (which is about an hour and a bit drive from Geelong). So Elder Matu'u's train that he was supposed to catch was at 6:01 p.m. but we missed that one because there was a lot of traffic near the Southern Cross Station and we couldn't find out where we needed to park. So eventually we found a spot to park for a few minutes and when we called the mission office to tell them we missed the train they said that there was another one leaving at 6:22 p.m. and that if they just talked to the front ticket office that they could change it over at no cost. So we went into the station and we couldn't find the ticket office for like 10 minutes, but when we did they were able to change the ticket over to the next train. At this time it was like 6:21 p.m. and the train platform was at the other side of the train station so the 4 of us with suitcases and bags in our hands started running as fast as we could to catch the train, and because of the whole situation and the adrenaline rush of running to catch a train we were all laughing as we ran so it must've looked pretty comical for everyone else that saw as. So we finally made it to the train platform and just as we got there we saw the train's taillights just start to go around the turn not far in the distance, so it was like a moment out of movie, just missing the train by a matter of seconds. So we had to walk back to the car through the station and past all the people that we'd just run by before. So Elder Matu'u ended up having to stay in a nearby flat before catching another train the next day. His new area is called Echuka (I think that's how you spell it) which is 3 hours north of Melbourne by train, so it's pretty out bush. He said in a quick e-mail to me though that he is enjoying it so far and that the ward there is really nice, so that's good. So after we dropped off Elder Matu'u we went to pick up my new companion, who's name is Elder Taufa (t-ow-fa). His parents are both Tongan, but he was born in New Zealand and raised in Sydney, Australia. He's been out on his mission for about 15 months now and he's a good missionary from what I've seen so far. He and I ended up having a really great week this past week despite the circumstances we were under. We were able to teach another great lesson with Joel and Camilla this week and had some perfect fellowship from the ward there to help us teach. He's still progressing well towards his baptism date and is starting to talk like he is already a member, haha. The only thing is just that we have to finish teaching him all the lessons by then, we have about 4 more lessons we want to teach him with all the different commandments, but that shouldn't be much of an issue. We see them again tonight so we're excited for that. We were able to teach some other great lessons this past week as well, and we ended up finding heaps of new people that we can start teaching as well which was a great blessing. One of the coolest experiences we had with some new investigators was when we went by on Friday night to go and see one of our new contacts that Elder Matu'u and I had gotten a few weeks ago named William. He's Chinese and is about 24 or so years old. He happened to be home at the time (he's pretty hard to catch as he is at university and is also working) but he said we were very lucky because he had just yesterday called to change his work shift. So that in itself was already a bit of a miracle. Then 2 of his housemates in the house (we'd just been on the doorstep) who he said weren't religious at all said that we should all come in out of the cold. At this time they thought we were just friends of Williams from university. So we sat down and were just talking with them and finding out more about them (the housemates' names were Carmen and Felix). Then as we were talking I felt prompting to suggest we watch a little video clip, so they said that would be alright, although they weren't sure what or why, and at the time I wasn't sure either! So we put in a USB that had all the mormon messages on it and after I briefly introduced ourselves that we were missionaries and what we do. After that we watched a mormon message called "Moments that Matter Most" which is a pretty good message but also low-key on the doctrine side which was good for this situation. After we watched it the two housemates were almost in tears because they were touched by the message and also felt the spirit strong. We talked a bit about the video and the message in it and the spirit was felt very strong as they shared the feelings they had about the video, as well as William's thoughts. So afterwards we asked them if we could start teaching them more about Jesus Christ and the Gospel and they excitedly accepted! They also asked of their own initiative where and when church was because they want to start coming there as well. So that was a big miracle as well to see their enthusiasm for learning after they'd had an experience feeling the spirit, which is why missionary work can't be done if we don't have the spirit or the spirit isn't there. Also gave me a bigger testimony of following all of the little promptings we receive even if we don't really know why and especially if we don't know how to go about it, but just trusting in the Lord that he'll show and reveal to us the things that we need to do if he sees we've put our trust in him from the initial guidance we receive. There was also another really cool miracle that we experienced this past Sunday. We were fasting for Joel to keep progressing towards his date, but also that we could regain contact with Jaryn (if you remember him from several weeks ago) because it'd been a while since we talked to him. We'd been trying to call him and see him for about a month or so with absolutely no success, so we felt that fasting would give us the help we needed. So as soon as we ended the fast Sunday evening, we tried calling Jaryn and on like the second ring he picked up! We were able to talk with him for a few minutes and he said he has just been overwhelmed with his Master's course at university that he wants to wait until his exams are over so he can turn his focus to church. We can understand that he would be working hard being in a Master's course and also having an Asian background of diligent students. And since we know him as a person we know that it wasn't just some excuse but that he was sincere about his desire and he said he feels bad that he hasn't been able to see us and still really wants to learn. So we can see him again about the 2nd week of next transfer. So that was a pretty cool miracle for us with fasting! Even if we plea with Heavenly Father for something that may seem insignificant like being able to make a phone call, we can know and have faith that He will always answer our prayers and fasting with miracles and blessings. Also this past week was our quarterly interviews with President Lifferth, the last interviews we'll all have with him! So that was good as always to have the opportunity to talk 1 on 1 with him. President's comments helped me to have even greater motivation and feelings of gratitude as they always do. So there it is for this past week! Hopefully Elder Taufa and I can continue to have even better and better weeks than the great one we've already had this past week. The area is continuing to grow and the ward is also getting more enthusiastic about missionary work so hopefully that will also help us to be able to teach even more. I'm also excited to get the opportunity to Skype with you again very soon! I hope that you have a wonderful week ahead as well and that you continue to see a lot of blessings and miracles as well. As always, I'm very grateful for all the wonderful love and support that you give me to help the work to go well over here in Australia. I love you heaps and I'll talk to you again soon!

Love,

Elder Hopkins