September 16, 2013

G'Day!

Thanks so much for your e-mail! Glad you had such a wonderful and busy week! Time goes by so quickly when you are able to stay busy with things. I got one of your packages this week (it had contact solution, some lollies, a shirt, and some other things as well), so thank you so much for that! Hopefully I will get the contacts soon as well since I am currently wearing my last pair! So this past week has been incredibly busy as well! We have been blessed with so many things to do and had heaps of success during the week. The most important and special piece of news from the past week is that Coral was baptized and confirmed a member of the church! It went wonderful and the was great support from the branch here through the whole event. There were even some of the people she knew from back in the ward she was going to a few years ago in Melbourne that came up and participated in the program! So that was great and Coral really loved it and felt really good throughout the whole thing. She will be a great member of the church and a blessing to the members and others here. There was actually kind of a miracle within a miracle from the baptism and confirmation. The past few days she had been feeling quite sick but still went through with the baptism and everything on Saturday, however, on Saturday night it got much worse and she had to go into emergency! When she finally got out of emergency at 5 a.m. (after having to wait in the waiting room for like 5 or so hours!) we found out it was a viral infection that she had. So she didn't get home until really, really late and hardly had any sleep, but somehow managed to get up and ready for church so she could be there for her confirmation (and her house is a fair way away from the chapel)! So that was really great to be able to see her commitment to the gospel through something like that, and even though she was very crook (which is Australian for 'sick') she still felt really good and at peace through it all. So that was definitely the highlight of our time here in Wangaratta so far! I attached a few pictures from the baptism, the first one being just Elder Gabignaud, Coral, and I, and the second is with Elder and Sister Laycock as well. So the rest of the week was excellent as well! We were able to have 17 lessons for the week, which was the most we have had since being in Wangaratta. So our teaching has been increasing which is wonderful, since teaching the gospel is our purpose as missionaries! Church was another bright spot in this past week as well, since we were able to have record attendance at church! There were 45 people who attended church on Sunday which was a huge miracle since in the past there were at most about 32 or so that came (and that happened rarely). And the amazing thing was there were still a few people that weren't there that normally would be because they were out of town! So the branch is getting stronger in Wangaratta which is a tremendous blessing. We were able to have an investigator family there at church for the first time which was great as well. There is a mom and her 3 kids, the oldest is 10 years old. She really enjoyed it and the kids especially loved primary, so she is really keen to come again next week. So there have been heaps of great things happening in our area, and we know that with just one more week in this transfer there will continue to be many miracles that we see! The Elder Pearson mission conference this past Thursday was fantastic as well! He is such a great and powerful speaker and really helped the mission through his comments. I really enjoyed it but didn't get as much enjoyment as I could have out of it because for most of the meeting I had a migraine! So that part of it wasn't too fun but I still took in most of what was said. Well it is so hard to believe that the transfer is almost over! It went by too quickly but we really enjoyed it and saw a great amount of miracles in all aspects of the work. I have really loved serving in Wangaratta and I hope that if I am blessed enough that I will continue to have the opportunity to serve here. Well this email wont be quite as long as the past few weeks due to our schedule for today, even though this past week had so many things happening! Thanks so much for all of your love, support and prayers! I would be nowhere without all of that! I hope that you have a great and miracle-filled week this week. I love you and I'll talk to you again soon!

Love,

Elder Hopkins

 Elder Gabignaud, new member Coral, and Elder Hopkins

 The Laycocks, new member Coral, Elder Hopkins, and Elder Gabignaud