G'Day!
Thanks
so much for the fantastic e-mail this week! I loved reading it as
always and hearing about everything happening back home. Glad that all
is well and also that I was able to talk to you face to face on Skype
for Mother's Day! That was so much fun and it was definitely the
highlight of my week! Well this last week of the transfer was very busy
and exciting and we saw heaps of blessings and miracles. Where to start?
I guess I might as well start with the transfer news because that's
probably what you're hoping to hear the most. Well Elder Taufa is going
to be moving areas and I am going to be staying for another transfer in
Geelong! Wow! That will make 6 months in Geelong after this transfer.
However, this transfer is a bit interesting because it is only going to
be a 4 week long transfer due to scheduling with either President and
Sister Lifferth's departure or with the schedule of the
MTC's. So if we thought that the 6 week transfers went by really,
really fast than this next transfer will go by in the blink of an eye!
The following transfer after this next one though will be extra long (8
weeks!) in order to make up for the 2 weeks taken off of this one. But
I'm very happy to continue to be serving here in Geelong because I
really do enjoy serving here and we have a lot of potential for the next
couple of weeks with our investigators and teaching pool. The other
Geelong missionaries, Elder Bisby and Elder Pain, are both staying as
well, so not much change for Geelong. So I'll find out who my new
companion will be for this next transfer tomorrow at transfer meeting
and I'll let you know next week! I'll also let you know where my
previous companions are as well if I see them there. So there's the
news, pretty exciting. Now for the rest of this week. On Wednesday I
didn't actually end up going with Elder Taufa to the islander meeting.
We had been planning to ride up there with the Zone Leaders but one of
the Zone Leaders (who's just Australian and not from the islands)
decided it'd be more effective for us to just stay back and work for
about 6 hours instead. And it was certainly effective! Since we'd been
planning to go to the meeting they didn't really have any set
appointments scheduled so it was just going to be finding and searching
for new contacts and investigators for 6 hours. As we went out we just
tried to talk to everyone that we saw (we didn't really do any tracting
but just talking to people on the street or at the nearby train station)
and we saw so much success. Because we just worked really hard in that
time and were able to talk to pretty much everyone that we crossed paths
with we ended up finding 20 new people (not just any people but really
interested and solid new contacts) for them to teach! So that was a huge
miracle for us because it's difficult in the mission
for most areas to get 20 in a week. So we know the Lord was very
generous to us and after having that experience I can use that as kind
of a bar for the future of what we can reach if we have faith and really
work hard. So that was a really awesome experience that day, but the
day wasn't finished yet. After Elder Taufa and I got back to our area
about 6 p.m. we had a quick dinner before the other missionaries picked
us up for the ward splits that night. I went with one of the members to
go visit a lady that was on the ward list named Leslie. When we got
there her daughter (about 17) answered the door and was very nice and
then went to go grab her mom. Leslie then came to the door and was very
friendly and at first she said that she wasn't a member but after we
talked with her for a few minutes she said that her mom was an active
member in our ward and that she was baptized when she was younger but
hasn't been to church in a long time. And it also turns
out that the member I was with sort of knew her from a while ago as
well but he didn't make the connection before because the last name of
the list is different from when he knew her before, so it was an
inspired assignment! The daughter also stayed at the door with her mom
listening to us and seemed quite interested in what we had to say as
well. They said that we can come back again this week so that's great!
While I was there, Elder Taufa was out with a member of the Stake
Presidency visiting a less-active couple about 40 minutes from the
chapel that they'd visited the week before as well, named Rastafari (how
cool is that name?) and Jess. Rasta (as he likes to be called) is
actually the brother of one of the members in Pakenham that I knew quite
well. They're married and have a couple of kids but haven't been to
church in quite a while. However, when they've been visited the past few
weeks they've expressed that they really want to start being
involved in the Gospel again. And yesterday at church they ended up
coming, so that was a huge blessing to see! They stayed all 3 hours and
had a really great time and got to meet a lot of the ward. They want to
start coming every week again and also to talk with Bishop Sandford
about preparations so they can also go to the Temple to be sealed as a
family. And if that wasn't enough blessings and excitement there, they
also have a 9 year old daughter who they want to be taught and baptized
soon as well. So they're a fantastic family and we really look forward
to seeing them often and to begin teaching their daughter as well. So
Wednesday was a really great day for us, and Thursday was equally great
at Zone Conference. It was a really great meeting and good to be with
all the other Elders and Sisters there. The main focuses of the meeting
were teaching Repentance to our investigators (not just how we often
think of the big things, but even if they haven't
been keeping commitments like reading and praying), getting our areas
to a level where we're able to have baptisms weekly, and then increasing
the effectiveness of our personal study time. They also talked about a
few other things, but I was able to learn a lot from that meeting and
felt motivated to apply the things we learned to helped our area grow.
Saturday was also a really great day because the other missionaries in
Geelong had 3 baptisms (a mom, and her son and daughter) and we were
asked to participate. You'll be happy to know that I was the pianist for
the meeting, so I'm having opportunities come up to keep up my piano
playing. I was also asked by the family to be the one to baptize the
daughter, age 12, so that was really special to be a part of that! Elder
Bisby and Elder Pain performed the other baptisms. Then the next day at
church the 3 of us performed the confirmations for the same people that
we baptized, so that was a great experience
as well. It was the first time I'd confirmed anyone before so I was a
bit nervous but it ended up going really well and the spirit was felt.
So it's amazing that I've been out for half of the mission now! I've
learned more than I could ever imagine in these past 12 months and I'm
so thankful for all the incredible and miraculous experiences I've been
blessed with thus far. I thought I'd just include the most important
lessons (to me) that I've learned in this first part of my mission:
1. Act on every prompting we receive if it is something that is in line with the teachings and commandments of Heavenly Father
2. Willful obedience to all the Lord asks is the most beneficial attribute we can obtain in this life
3. Without faith, it doesn't matter how hard we work or how good we are at speaking or whatever it may be, we can do nothing
and 4. Patience with myself, my companions, and the Lord
Anyway,
I'm running out of time, but I've been able to get across most of what I
wanted to say! I really enjoyed this last week and I'm very excited for
this next transfer as well and I know that if my new companion and I
maintain a high level of faith and exact obedience then there are so
many blessings and miracles the Lord has prepared for our area. Oh and I
almost forgot, the mission president's fireside was also really great!
Since I'm short on time now, I can't talk much about it other than it
was focused on the Restoration of the Gospel. And one of the highlights
of the meeting was afterwards when I got to talk to President for a
minute and he said he's going to get our area a car for this transfer!
Woohoo! That will be an incredible
blessing and help to our area. My legs were shouting for joy when he
said that because they were getting bored with riding the bikes for the
past 6 months. We'll still use the bikes often though, but now we can go
and visit those who are further out which we weren't able to see much
or focus on because of our limited transportation. So anyway, thanks
again so much for the e-mail this week and for all of your wonderful
love and support and especially prayers on our behalf! I hope that you
have a fantastic week this week and look for opportunities for your own
missionary work. I love you heaps and I'll talk to you again soon!
Love,
Elder Hopkins
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