June 11, 2013

G'Day!

Thanks so much for the wonderful e-mail this week! Sorry I didn't e-mail yesterday, it was another public holiday here (the Queen's birthday) and so all of the libraries were closed. But I'm able to e-mail you today instead so that's good! This past week was another really great one with many blessings and miracles. The first of which actually happened a few minutes after I e-mailed you last week. So as I told you last week, Riannan's partner wasn't very accepting of her decision to investigate and we were afraid she wouldn't be able to continue taking lessons. However, as I said we had fasted for a miracle to happen we received a very immediate blessing. After e-mailing we received a call from Jess saying that Riannan would really like to receive a priesthood blessing because she was facing a lot of trials and challenges. So we were very humbled and excited to receive that news (that she wanted to receive a blessing, not from the fact that she had trials). So we immediately went and got ready to go see them at Jess and Rasta's house, and our ward mission leader Luke came with us as well to help. Riannan was there with several of her kids and was very happy to see us again. We explained about blessings a bit since she'd only heard of a blessing that same day and then we were able to give her a blessing of comfort and counsel. The spirit was very strong and she really felt it. She said that everything in the blessing was an answer to questions she'd had and difficulties that she'd been experience which she hadn't even mentioned before the blessing. She said she felt that a huge weight was lifted off of her shoulders as soon as 'amen' was said. So that was a testimony builder of the power of blessings to us and especially to Riannan who loved the experience! She told us that she will still take lessons with us as well as her son who turns 8 next month in July and she's determined to help her family become more unified through the gospel. So that was an awesome miracle and another testimony builder of blessings that come from fasting as well. I love fasting so much after all the miracles I've seen from it on the mission! Also, Tayah is going to be baptized this Saturday which will be great! Rasta will be the one baptizing her (I think I mentioned that last week?). Also on Saturday we receive the next transfer news, which obviously isn't the main event that day but still exciting. A lot of people have said that there will probably be very few transfers since President Lifferth is finishing just so that the mission can have a smooth transition with the coming of President Maxwell. We were able to see Joel again this past week (twice in fact) which was great. They're still doing really well and he's been doing much better with his reading as the first time we saw him we gave him a commitment to start reading daily again. He's started from 1 Nephi and is going to try to read the whole Book of Mormon and he's going well so far. On Sunday we also had another great blessing. We were finally able to see Jaryn again after a few months of not much contact. If you remember he was the Chinese investigator that was really keen that would come with the Wang family (who Candice Wang by the way comes back to Australia at the end of the month). We only were able to visit with him briefly because we'd had another scheduled appointment but we were able to set up another time to see him this week and begin teaching him again, which is awesome! He'll be really good to see again as he has a strong desire to learn about Christ and follow Him. Last Thursday for Ward Council we had the Wyndham Stake President come and train all of us on the rescue effort and our favorite--missionary work! It was really great and it was him saying that the members need to start taking a more active role in providing the missionaries with people to teach and also in going out on visits during the week with the missionaries or with their quorums on the rescue visits to those members who have fallen away. So hopefully that will help Geelong see even more success than it already is having. Well since it isn't our regular day to e-mail I'll have to cut it short today, but I'm really glad that you were able to have a great week this past week as well! I hope that you have a fantastic week this week as well and continue to see many blessings and miracles! I love you heaps and I'll talk to you again soon!

Love,

Elder Hopkins

June 3, 2013

G'Day!

Thanks heaps for the e-mail this week! I loved it as I always do. First of all, big congratulations to Ben on your mission call!! Going to Ghana will be incredible! You'll be a fantastic missionary and bless so many lives there. Also, I thought I'd mention a little bit about transfers again since I only mentioned who my companion was. So with all my companions: Elder Rafferty is still a Zone Leader for the zone that Pakenham is in, Elder Hirata is in an area called Sunbry and is doing well, Elder Rua is still in Pakenham!, Elder Matu'u is still in the place that he was in when he got moved (Echuka), and Elder Taufa is in an area called Glen Roy which he'd actually served in earlier in his mission. Also, Elder Rua told me that Tracey and Tommy are still heaps active and that they're going to the temple this month (not to get sealed yet, that can be in September) which is awesome. The Glosters are also still doing well and the other girl that wasn't baptized before was baptized this past weekend! And one last bit of exciting news is that Joan Willmott is hopefully getting baptized on the 15th of this month which would be so exciting! If she does hopefully President Lifferth will allow me to come down to see it since I was there helping teach the Willmotts for so long. So this past week was another really good one, and there work continues to increase. Tayah (Jess and Rasta's daughter) is still going excellent and when we see them again tonight we're thinking of moving her date up to this coming weekend because we feel she's ready to be baptized. She's very smart for her age and has a good understanding of the gospel. Also, a bit of sad news with Riannan, her partner that she lives with unfortunately wasn't as accepting to her learning as she thought so she has to put further lessons on hold for now. She still reads and prays, however, herself and with her kids which is awesome! We fasted this past weekend for the partner's heart to be softened though so hopefully that will help the situation. She's so prepared though so I have no doubt at some stage, whether sooner or later, she'll be baptized. Jess continues to be a missionary machine as she has a nan who she's been talking to about the gospel as well and the nan really wants to learn and be baptized as well! So we hope to see her sometime this next week and begin teaching her. Also, yesterday at church Jess and Rasta had their 7 month old baby, Hunni, blessed. Bishop Sandford was who they asked to bless her and Elder Malifa and I we're asked to participate in the blessing as well which was a wonderful experience! You asked about Joel as well, I haven't mentioned much about him lately because there wasn't much new to mention unfortunately. He and Camilla have been unbelievably busy these past 3 weeks so we haven't been able to see them to continue teaching lessons. Camilla started a 70 hour per week school course which commits a lot of their time. However, we did get to sit down with Joel for a little bit this past week and share a brief lesson which was nice. He still really wants to continue learning and progress towards baptism, he just needs to work on a few things a bit more until then. We have several new investigators who seem really keen and show a lot of potential. These few however, seem more like long-term investigators because they have quite a few things that have gone wrong in their lives as well as a lot of things that aren't in accordance with Heavenly Father's commandments. But the important thing is that they're very humble and want to change their lives, and as Alma says that if all we have is a desire than we only need to let that desire work in us until we can believe and have strong faith. It's also good that we're able to teach and help some people in this situation as well because I think you can feel the most joy and it can be the most rewarding experiences when you're able to see people make such big changes in their lives to come closer to God. So that has been good for us this past week. Also we've been doing well in finding new people to teach throughout the past weeks. Throughout my mission I've always liked tracting more than just talking to random people on the street or near the town centers because I felt it was easier to do and I found it less difficult to talk to people like that. However, this transfer we've tried only talking to people walking around and not do as much tracting, and it has gone really well. I think my perspective has changed to liking that way more now. I won't go into pros and cons or anything because anyone not a missionary probably wouldn't find it interesting or even understand haha. But we found quite a few people that way that we're going to see this week, so we look forward to that. We've also gone around to visit several old investigators that Elder Rua and I had taught the first transfer I was here but had lost contact with and we were able to see heaps of them and set up appointments to begin teaching them again which will be good! Well I'm starting to run short on time but I'm glad that you had a great week this past week and I hope that you have an even better week this week and continue to see heaps of blessings and miracles. I'm so thankful for you love, prayers, and support that helps me to keep going! I love you heaps and I'll talk to you again soon!

Love,

Elder Hopkins