Thanks
for the great e-mail as always this past week! I'll have to
write a bit faster this week because we're short on time, but it
shouldn't be too much of a hassle. This past week was another great
week, and it was thankfully a week where we got to teach quite a few
lessons! We got to teach 14 lessons this week, and that probably doesn't
sound like too much but it is heaps better than the amount we had in
the first few weeks when we had to start from scratch. Hopefully that
number will continue to increase higher and higher so that we can be
busy pretty much all the time teaching people since that is really our
whole purpose for being here! This past week was also good because it
was the 1st week that we were able to do the missionary splits with the
Elders Quorum to go out and visit the 'lost sheep.' It was the 1st time
they'd ever done it in the branch so we were excited and happy that it
is getting started now, because I know it was so effective when we did
it in Geelong. So we'll be going to that again tomorrow
night. This first time we were trying to locate some people who no one
knew and find out if they still lived there and were able to update a
fair bit of information on them which was good. Nothing too miraculous
came out of it this time but we know there will be great things to come
from it in the future! Also the girl I told you about last week who was a
referral from a member closer to Melbourne (who's name is Coral by the
way), we were actually able to teach her 3 times during the week and it
went really well! We just taught her at the Wangaratta library since it
was a neutral area and we were able to resolve all of the concerns that
she has had as well as review many of the things that she was previously
taught by missionaries. She is pretty keen to get baptized soon even
though her family (especially her mum) is quite against it. She is
starting to re-feel the truthfulness of the Gospel and when you know it
is true there is nothing that can prevent
you from following it and God will always provide the means for you to
accomplish it. So we are excited to continue to visit her and help her
work towards baptism in the coming weeks. One cool experience sort of
relating to that, was that one of the days we were waiting to teach her
at the library there was a man who came up to us and said 'Hey, you
Mormon boys, are you?' and came up to us and starting talking to us. We
quickly found out that he was yet another very generous and kind soul
who was trying to save our souls from being completely lost in a so
called 'non-Christian faith.' Obviously we told him that we know that
this is Christ's true church restored to the earth and that he can know
for himself what we know. However, his problem then switched over to the
fact that our opinions and conviction couldn't possibly be of any worth
because we grew up learning about these things. So then because of the
perfect placement and timing of Heavenly Father
we went a few steps away to get one of the very active branch members
who was a convert in his middle-age years after searching in many
religions for truth, and then he came and offered a powerful testimony
and story of his conversion. So after that concern was handled, this man
essentially had the attitude of 'well, maybe you have some truth to
what you say, but I still think your really wrong!' He had refused to
tell us what religion he was apart of, which was fair enough, but we
know even though he had a pretty hard heart at the time that we were
able to plant some seeds which will hopefully bring an effect later on
in his life. Another memorable thing that happened this past week was
that Elder Gabignaud was able to give his first blessing in the mission
field to one of the members who was about to go into hospital tomorrow.
He was a bit nervous because he hadn't had too much experience but he
did great and the member said it was exactly what he
needed. And before we go too far off the topic of 'hard-hearts' there
was a man we found tracting on Saturday who fit this description quite
well. He had that classic "A Bible, a Bible, we have a Bible!" (2 Nephi
29) argument and was so adamant in his position (partly because he was
90 years old) that every time we would talk about anything regarding the
restored Gospel he would cut us off and slam his hand up and down on
his Bible and yell out something along the lines of "THIS IS ALL WE
NEED!" and he did that several times. We discussed heaps of other things
with him as well but to cut a long story short, eventually we got an
opportunity to explain briefly about the Book of Mormon and as I was
testifying of it to him and especially as I read Moroni's promise to him
(Moroni 10: 4-5) I felt the spirit so strongly, possibly the strongest
on my mission, of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. Unfortunately,
after he was a bit flustered and loss for
words, he came back to his old self and said the same things he did
before. The lesson I learned from that is that Heavenly Father will give
us opportunities frequently to testify and teach things to others, not
always for their benefit, but to strengthen our own testimonies of the
Gospel of Jesus Christ. I think I've found that on mission that some of
the more powerful spiritual witnesses I've had have come trying to teach
and testify to those who's hearts are just solid rock. Well, there were
a lot of things that were great that happened this week as always but
unfortunately I can't share them all. It's incredible to think that
there's only 2 weeks left in this transfer (and this is the longest
transfer I'll ever have, since it was 8 weeks) because it has just flown
by in the blink of an eye. You certainly begin to appreciate more
things when the time starts ticking on the clock as you come closer and
closer to the close of your mission. I know that
Elder Gabignaud and I will continue to see much success and miracles as
we continue to work hard and seek the Lord's help. I hope that you have
a fantastic week this week and see many miracles of your own! I love
you heaps and I'll talk to you again soon!
Love,
Elder Hopkins
No comments:
Post a Comment