G'Day!
Thanks so much for the wonderful e-mail, I loved it! Well I'll have to start learning to type faster because I have a lot to say but the library in my new area has less available time then the other computers I've been able to use on the mission thus far. So hopefully that wont cause to much hassle. Well anyway the biggest news is obviously with my new area and new companion. First off, my new companion is actually brand new to Australia and his mission. His name is Elder Gabignaud and he's from John Day, Oregon (a little town of 2,000 people). So after a long streak of 6 companions not being from America, my 7th companion is. So he just got here on Wednesday (he and a lot of the other missionaries had served for like 2 1/2 weeks in the Washington D.C. South mission while waiting for their visas) after 20 somthing hours on planes and then a few hours after getting here we had to train up 2 1/2 hours to our new area. Since the transfer meeting was on Tuesday and the new missionaries didn't get in until Wednesday I just stayed with another missionary who was training as well in a nearby area for the night. The transfer meeting was a really fantastic one by the way since it was President and Sister Lifferth's last one! They put on a really nice program and all of the missionaries in the mission (except for the ones in Tasmania unfortunately) were allowed to come to it, so there were over 200 missionaries in the chapel. The spirit was very strong throughout the meeting and all of us missionaries were very sad to see President and Sister Lifferth go but we know they'll do great work back in Utah (I'll probably see them from time to time since they only live an hour or so away in Centerville) and I'm sure the new President and his wife will be great. The exchange of mission presidents officially takes place at the end of this month. I'll have to include some pictures next week because I forgot to bring my camera to the library with me. With some other transfer news, Elder Malifa and Elder Bisby didn't actually end up in a tri-ship but they just ended up putting 2 more Elders in Geelong, so that will be more helpful instead of one companionship covering both areas. Also some really exciting news, Joan Willmott did get baptized on the 15th of June as well! Barry Willmott got to baptized her and it went really well, so that's fantastic! I would've gone to it but of course we had the baptism in Geelong which took priority in this case. Not really any news with former companions because everything kind of stayed the same. Also, one really cool thing that I forgot to mention about Geelong last week, was that the person who dedicated the Geelong chapel was none other than President Thomas S. Monson! How awesome is that? Of course he wasn't the prophet back when the chapel was dedicated but I'm sure Geelong is destined for some amazing things if he was the one to do so. So anyway, the new area that we're serving in is called Wangaratta. It's way up north in Victoria not far from the New South Wales border. There's about 20,000 people who live here and the church here is actually just a small branch so it's like the complete opposite of Geelong. Our first Sunday yesterday was very different since there were 23 members who attended (25 if you include us) so it felt almost just like a small fireside haha. I think it's really awesome to see faithful members like that though who still come every week and serve in their callings. There's certainly a lot of work for us to do if we hope to accomplish our goal of turning it into a ward in the next 8 weeks, haha. We have already had the opportunity to participate a lot in the branch already as we are now the designated passers of the Sacrament, we had the opportunity to speak for a few minutes in Sacrament, and I'm actually the branch pianist haha (I'm sure you'd be happy about that Mom!). We've also each been asked to speak next Sunday in Sacrament meeting, so if we've ever been apprehensive about speaking or helping with a lot of ward/branch responsibilities that will all change now! I love the chance to be able to serve and participate more because then the branch will get to know us more as we get to know them more. It's also been interesting coming into the area since both of us are brand new to it and (even the senior missionary couple is new as well) since there unfortunately wasn't too much happening in the area before. But as we've organized the flat and all the past information and then gone out to start working from the ground up we've already seen heaps of blessings and miracles. The Lord was very generous to us as in just 3 days we found nearly 20 people that would like to learn about the church. So we were both very excited about that and we hope to see each of them this week and begin teaching them. I can't really talk about any investigators or less-actives that we're working with yet since we still don't know any well enough to describe them to you but hopefully by next week I'll have more to say about the work we're doing with some. What makes things even more stressing for us and the branch president (who's actually the senior missionary Elder here, Elder Laycock) is that 2 of the active families here are moving out of town soon which will definitely leave a bit of a whole in the branch seeing as that would take out the 1st councilor in the branch presidency, the Elders Quorum president, and the young women and gospel doctrine teacher. So exciting times in Wangaratta, haha. So we'll have to work extra hard here to help the branch continue on and so the membership can increase. The senior missionary couple, who are from Calgary, Canada, seem really great and dedicated though, so I think they will be a big help to the branch. We're trying to organize more activities where the members can invite people to though so that will hopefully get things started off a bit for missionary opportunities. We've also worked a lot with Elder Laycock to develop a lot of plans on how we can help the branch grow which we'll start working on as well. So Elder Gabignaud and I are excited to work here in Wangaratta and know we'll see heaps of miracles during this transfer. Thanks for all of your love and support and prayers as always! I love you heaps and I'll talk to you again soon!
Love,
Elder Hopkins
Thanks so much for the wonderful e-mail, I loved it! Well I'll have to start learning to type faster because I have a lot to say but the library in my new area has less available time then the other computers I've been able to use on the mission thus far. So hopefully that wont cause to much hassle. Well anyway the biggest news is obviously with my new area and new companion. First off, my new companion is actually brand new to Australia and his mission. His name is Elder Gabignaud and he's from John Day, Oregon (a little town of 2,000 people). So after a long streak of 6 companions not being from America, my 7th companion is. So he just got here on Wednesday (he and a lot of the other missionaries had served for like 2 1/2 weeks in the Washington D.C. South mission while waiting for their visas) after 20 somthing hours on planes and then a few hours after getting here we had to train up 2 1/2 hours to our new area. Since the transfer meeting was on Tuesday and the new missionaries didn't get in until Wednesday I just stayed with another missionary who was training as well in a nearby area for the night. The transfer meeting was a really fantastic one by the way since it was President and Sister Lifferth's last one! They put on a really nice program and all of the missionaries in the mission (except for the ones in Tasmania unfortunately) were allowed to come to it, so there were over 200 missionaries in the chapel. The spirit was very strong throughout the meeting and all of us missionaries were very sad to see President and Sister Lifferth go but we know they'll do great work back in Utah (I'll probably see them from time to time since they only live an hour or so away in Centerville) and I'm sure the new President and his wife will be great. The exchange of mission presidents officially takes place at the end of this month. I'll have to include some pictures next week because I forgot to bring my camera to the library with me. With some other transfer news, Elder Malifa and Elder Bisby didn't actually end up in a tri-ship but they just ended up putting 2 more Elders in Geelong, so that will be more helpful instead of one companionship covering both areas. Also some really exciting news, Joan Willmott did get baptized on the 15th of June as well! Barry Willmott got to baptized her and it went really well, so that's fantastic! I would've gone to it but of course we had the baptism in Geelong which took priority in this case. Not really any news with former companions because everything kind of stayed the same. Also, one really cool thing that I forgot to mention about Geelong last week, was that the person who dedicated the Geelong chapel was none other than President Thomas S. Monson! How awesome is that? Of course he wasn't the prophet back when the chapel was dedicated but I'm sure Geelong is destined for some amazing things if he was the one to do so. So anyway, the new area that we're serving in is called Wangaratta. It's way up north in Victoria not far from the New South Wales border. There's about 20,000 people who live here and the church here is actually just a small branch so it's like the complete opposite of Geelong. Our first Sunday yesterday was very different since there were 23 members who attended (25 if you include us) so it felt almost just like a small fireside haha. I think it's really awesome to see faithful members like that though who still come every week and serve in their callings. There's certainly a lot of work for us to do if we hope to accomplish our goal of turning it into a ward in the next 8 weeks, haha. We have already had the opportunity to participate a lot in the branch already as we are now the designated passers of the Sacrament, we had the opportunity to speak for a few minutes in Sacrament, and I'm actually the branch pianist haha (I'm sure you'd be happy about that Mom!). We've also each been asked to speak next Sunday in Sacrament meeting, so if we've ever been apprehensive about speaking or helping with a lot of ward/branch responsibilities that will all change now! I love the chance to be able to serve and participate more because then the branch will get to know us more as we get to know them more. It's also been interesting coming into the area since both of us are brand new to it and (even the senior missionary couple is new as well) since there unfortunately wasn't too much happening in the area before. But as we've organized the flat and all the past information and then gone out to start working from the ground up we've already seen heaps of blessings and miracles. The Lord was very generous to us as in just 3 days we found nearly 20 people that would like to learn about the church. So we were both very excited about that and we hope to see each of them this week and begin teaching them. I can't really talk about any investigators or less-actives that we're working with yet since we still don't know any well enough to describe them to you but hopefully by next week I'll have more to say about the work we're doing with some. What makes things even more stressing for us and the branch president (who's actually the senior missionary Elder here, Elder Laycock) is that 2 of the active families here are moving out of town soon which will definitely leave a bit of a whole in the branch seeing as that would take out the 1st councilor in the branch presidency, the Elders Quorum president, and the young women and gospel doctrine teacher. So exciting times in Wangaratta, haha. So we'll have to work extra hard here to help the branch continue on and so the membership can increase. The senior missionary couple, who are from Calgary, Canada, seem really great and dedicated though, so I think they will be a big help to the branch. We're trying to organize more activities where the members can invite people to though so that will hopefully get things started off a bit for missionary opportunities. We've also worked a lot with Elder Laycock to develop a lot of plans on how we can help the branch grow which we'll start working on as well. So Elder Gabignaud and I are excited to work here in Wangaratta and know we'll see heaps of miracles during this transfer. Thanks for all of your love and support and prayers as always! I love you heaps and I'll talk to you again soon!
Love,
Elder Hopkins
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