September 9, 2013

G'Day!

Wonderful to hear from you this week! We had a pretty busy week this past week, as it always is! We continue to be very blessed here in Wangaratta by the hand of the Lord in the work. And for the first time in several weeks nothing too drastic or major happened right after e-mails last Monday! Which was sort of a relief. But we did have a great Family Home Evening at the Laycocks with the less-active family I've been mentioning. That family is still continuing to progress well, and we were meant to have another family home evening tonight with them but they have to reschedule for another time this week because the father got called to stay at work longer today. One good thing though is that the Laycocks and us have been the ones taking charge of the Family Home Evenings with them so far (with like activities and lessons) but after the last one the family said they would like to take charge of it this week, which is great! That was kind of our goal from the start is to help them be able to do it themselves as a family, so this is a good start to that. On Tuesday (which is kind of our lesson day, because we always seem to have more appointments that day than any other) we saw some great miracles as well. Chantelle, the investigator I mentioned last week who came to the fireside at the Laycocks, is progressing really well. We were able to teach her with Elder and Sister Laycock and set a date for her to be baptized on October 5th, which would be wonderful! She is really soaking up everything really well and said herself in the lesson this last week that she can feel a change of heart happening in her, and that her faith has grown heaps from when we first met her. On Wednesday we had an exchange with the missionaries serving in Benalla (which is like 30 minutes from us, the closest of the missionaries in the zone to us). I was with Elder Huakau (from Tonga) and Elder Gabignaud was with Elder Sasulu (from Sydney). It was just a 4 hour long exchange but it was still a good experience and we were able to help them with a lot of things while we were there. The exchange was good preparation for Elder Gabignaud because on Thursday afternoon I went with the Zone Leaders down to Melbourne for the leadership meeting while Elder Gabignaud stayed with the Benalla elders. It was good for Elder Gabignaud to kind of come out of his shell more because both missionaries are islanders and Elder Gabignaud hadn't like ever seen an islander (Tongan, Samoan, etc.) in his life haha. If you don't know many islanders than you wouldn't understand why this would be an interesting experience for him. So with the meeting, the Zone Leaders and I traveled down and arrived in Melbourne Thursday night at like 10 and then just stayed at another missionary flat before leaving for the meeting the next morning. And unfortunately because the Zone Leaders had already been driving like 7 hours that day I got chosen to be the driver down to Melboune! Not that I don't like driving, just I appreciate a rest from it every now and again since Elder Gabignaud can't drive. So at the meeting it was all the District and Zone Leaders for the mission, even the ones from Tasmania who never get to come to anything! It was a great meeting, simply just teaching us how to be better leaders, how to conduct meetings, and how to work with different sorts of missionaries. I learned heaps from it and will try to start applying as much as I can! It was also good to see some of my previous companions who were there as well. So the meeting finished at about 3 but because of some other tasks that had to be done while we were down there we didn't end up getting back into Wangaratta (after picking up Elder Gabignaud of course) until about 9! So I was very tired! On Saturday the Benalla missionaries had a baptism which was held at our chapel, since they don't have a font in their building there, so our morning was spent helping get everything ready for it and also interviewing their baptismal candidate. And the rest of the afternoon we went out finding and contacting since we hadn't had any opportunity to do so in the week so far. We were able to see some great success from that and got some promising new investigators to teach. And I guess I will update you on Coral as well! She is still going excellent! We were able to have 3 lessons with her this past week and she has been remaining strong in living the word of wisdom which has been a wonderful miracle! We see her again tonight at another family home evening at a member's home. We have full faith and confidence that she will make it to this Saturday for her baptism and she is really excited for it! The branch is also very excited since they haven't had very many baptisms here in the past, with the most recent baptisms coming in April but before that there hadn't been any for several years! She will be a very strong member of the church! So this next week will be another extremely busy one with heaps of appointments and another trip to Melbourne! This time Elder Gabignaud gets to come as well though which will be good. It is a mission conference (so the whole entire mission will be there! except Tasmania....poor guys) held by Elder Pearson of the Quorum of the Seventy. If you remember he spoke to us earlier in the year in January and is a fabulous speaker and one of my favorite general authorities, so we are really looking forward to that, which will be on Thursday. So everything continues to go well here in Wangaratta! Thanks so much as always for your prayers! Hard to believe only 2 weeks left in the transfer! I hope you have a fantastic week this week and continue to see heaps of miracles as well. I love you and I'll talk to you again soon!

Love,

Elder Hopkins