November 18, 2013

G'Day!

 

Hope you have had a wonderful week this week! This past week was definitely one of the most miraculous weeks of the mission! There is so much that I could talk about so I hope I will have time to get all of the miracles down. So I guess first of all, the highlight of the week was that our investigator Mary (Myat Khin in Burmese) was baptized and confirmed on Saturday! It was a wonderful service and a blessing to be a part of it. She was baptized and confirmed on the same day because since she is still learning English and is about 69 she gets nervous when she's in front of a lot of people so Bishop gave the 'OK' for her to be confirmed at the service as well. I had the opportunity to do one of the talks before she was baptized (on baptism) and then I also participated in her confirmation. Elder Wood was the one who baptized her since he was the first missionary to find her and it was also his first baptism of the mission, so that was special for him! Elder Afele performed the confirmation. It all went great and the Spirit was strong there, and there was good support from the members that did attend. Mary was then sustained before the ward as a member yesterday at church. She was very happy and relieved after the baptism because in the days leading up to the baptism she had several trials going on. Not physical trials, but more of mental trials as in Satan trying to get at her mind and convince her it is not right and so on. Ever since Stake Conference last week she had been extra worried about the baptism and eventually her mind became so overwhelmed that she decided she wouldn't be coming back to church and left to go see her old pastor in Wantirna (the city that the Temple is in). So she went back there and stayed with the pastor and his family, but when she slept there the night before her baptismal interview she had like a vision in her dream that caused her to realize she needed to come back, which she did! We couldn't quite understand all of what she described the dream to be because she had trouble putting it into English, but it had something to do with seeing unclean people that had leprosy or some type of skin disease (maybe the same dream Peter had in the Bible! haha) but nevertheless Heavenly Father was able to guide her back to the Gospel so she could be baptized! So that was just one of the many miracles this week, onto some of the others. So we have some investigators Simone and Jack (who I may have mentioned before I'm not sure, they are a single mom and her 12 year old son) who we've been teaching for just a few weeks. Simone had contact like 12 years ago with the church and her family all joined the church but she didn't. Now her family has all left the church but she has a huge desire to follow Jesus Christ in her life now and do what's right so she excepted the invitation to see the missionaries again when Elder Wood and Elder Afele tracted into her just before I got here. She's Australian and has had a basic Christian background. Since we've been teaching her, her main concern has just been being able to accept the Book of Mormon as the additional word of God. We'd had some good discussions with her but about 2 weeks ago when we came to our lesson she was quite distraught. We soon found out that she had stumbled upon some anti-Mormon material on the internet as she was looking for information on the church (which I think I told you about before). We were thankfully, with the guidance of the Spirit, able to answer a lot of the concerns that had been brought up by this material and just testified of the importance of reading and praying about the Book of Mormon to receive her answer if the church is true. She then told us how she had been praying (but not reading yet, unfortunately) to know if the church is true but asked God specifically to put a purple flower in her garden as a sign to show her it's the right path. She had never had a purple flower before nor planted anything like it so she felt it would be an unmistakeable sign of truth. We were kind of hesitant and uneasy about that and told her that God usually doesn't work by odd signs like that but mostly through the feelings the Holy Ghost gives us. She said ok and promised that she would try praying for those feelings more diligently as she read (it'd been a few days already since she asked for a purple flower with no signs of one). So a few lessons went by and we thought we were teaching them pretty well but she still didn't seem to be receiving her answer to the truth of the things we'd taught. We weren't sure what would help her but we prepared a pretty good lesson for her on Thursday on how to receive an answer from the Holy Ghost and recognize it and also the purpose and role of the Book of Mormon. We went there with our fellowship and sat down with them and began our lesson. We started talking about the Book of Mormon and she asked if there were any evidences of it either in discoveries in the world or in the Bible. Elder Afele showed her the 'other sheep I have, which are not of this fold' comparison between John 10:16 in the Bible and 3 Nephi in the Book of Mormon. Simone read the 3 Nephi verses twice over and had a very concerned/questioned look on her face. Then all of a sudden asked her son to come with her out in the backyard so she could talk with him in private. We didn't know what to think but we were worried she was going to come back in and ask us to leave or something. However, she came back in and they were both looking quite shocked and happy. Simone then told us how when she went outside that morning she found in her garden a tall purple flower! We then went outside to see it as well, and sure enough there was a single purple flower beginning to bloom. It was such a miracle! Elder Afele, Elder Wood and I were all kind of stunned seeing as we didn't expect such an answer to come, but we were certainly humbled and our faith was strengthened in the power Heavenly Father has to answer any prayer that we need answered. They were at church yesterday and we see them again tonight and will talk about baptism, because she said as soon as she knows what's true she will be baptized. So that was a big obvious miracle for us! Another miracle was one of the members in the ward, Harmony Byrne (who just recently came back out of inactivity), gave her friend a Book of Mormon on Wednesday who has really been struggling as of late and who she felt was ready to receive the Gospel. Her friend accepted the Book of Mormon and also an invitation to meet with the missionaries, so Harmony called us after her meeting with him and arranged for us to go see him the next night (Thursday). Her friend is named Tenzen and is and 18 year old Australian. At the moment he has just been staying at the Maroondah hospital mental health clinic, not because he has any mental deficiencies but because he had a bit of a mishap with some security guards and they wanted to keep him there a few days to make sure he's sane (he gets out tomorrow). Tenzen is a very spiritual person and is so sensitive to the Spirit's promptings. We shared mainly about how God is our loving Heavenly Father, about the role of Jesus Christ in God's plan and the importance of following Him, and also a little bit about the Book of Mormon. Tenzen said he felt so good throughout the lesson and when we shared with him Galations 5:22-23 (the different feelings the Holy Ghost gives us) he said how he felt an overload of all those feelings. He then accepted an invitation to be baptized. He's been very prepared in many ways, and even before our lesson with him he had decided that he would read the Book of Mormon every night until he finished it. We've taught him one other time since then and we are very excited to see him progress! We've seen so many other miracles this week and have several others progressing towards baptism as well, so the Lord is pouring out blessings upon us! It's been really good being in a tripanionship at the moment because we're all determined to be hard working and exactly obedient which we know is what has brought so many blessings. So anyway, I've run out of time! I didn't get to say all I wanted to but hopefully I've given you enough reading material already, haha. I love you heaps and miss you! Have a wonderful week this week! Talk to you again soon!

 

Love,

 

Elder Hopkins

 

Elder Afele, Elder Wood, new member Mary (Myat Khin), and Elder Brandon Hopkins

 

November 11, 2013

G'Day!

 

Thanks so much for the great e-mail this week! It's good to hear that you are staying pretty busy! This past week was another really good one. Stake Conference was really great yesterday and all the speakers were excellent and the spirit was very strong there! There were about 5 or 6 speakers in total (all of them spoke between 5 and 10 minutes, except Elder Hallstrom who spoke for about 40 minutes) so it turned out really well. We also had a great lesson yesterday with one of our investigators who has been kind of investigating the church for over 2 years! Her name is Shannon and she is 20 years old and from Australia. In the lesson yesterday we talked more about the blessings that we get from baptism and how it is just the first step, or the gate, to our path towards eternal life. We were able to set a baptismal date for the 14th of December which will be awesome to see her progress towards that day. That is the last weekend of the transfer as well, and I don't know if I had already mentioned yet or not but this transfer is actually 7 weeks long to make up for the 5 week transfer last time. It's funny because some of the missionaries (Elder Gabignaud for example) have only had one normal transfer thus far because the past transfers including this one have been 7 weeks, 5 weeks, 6 weeks, and 8 weeks haha. So who knows if we'll ever get a normal transfer again! It should be really good though since we have seen so much success so far as a tripanionship. Next week is when the new missionaries come in though so we'll see if anything changes with that, but we haven't heard anything yet so it will likely stay the same. Perhaps the most memorable event of the past week happened on last Monday night. There is a train station close by our flat that we GQ (or talk to people on the street) at nearly every night when we have finished all our appointments for the day, and this particular night there was a really, really drunk guy roaming around causing trouble. So first off, there is like a ramp that you walk up to go into the train station and Elder Wood was walking up it to go and talk to some people and this guy walks out and goes right up to his face and is just like "HEY BRO! HEY!" with his arms outstreched like an eagle taking flight...and then just keeps walking. Elder Wood could smell the alcohol pretty strong off him and just went on to talk to him. The guy was pretty out of it because he was walking around pretty weird. Anyway, like 10 minutes later or so Elder Wood was talking to another group of people (I think he just didn't like Elder Wood or something because he didn't really come up to Elder Afele or I at all...at least not yet! haha) and the guy came back again and did a simlar thing, drink in hand, and just got up in his face and was like "HEY YOU! WHAT DID YOU SAY TO ME??? BETTER WATCH IT!" and Elder Wood just talked to him for a second and then the guy walked off again. So finally, we were about to head back to the car and drive home and we were all standing near the station when he came out a third time from the station with another bottle in hand that was like foaming and dripping all over the place and this time charged at Elder Wood and Elder Wood kind of ducked and jumped back a bit. Then as the drunk guy was walking off again just yelling random stuff, he just took a few steps and turned around and threw the bottle at us pretty fast, luckily we all have skills that rival the people in The Matrix and were able to dodge it, but Elder Afele got some of the drink on his suit. Then after that he left and we didn't see him again. So anyway, this was a very momentous occasion for us because it was the first projectile any of us have had thrown at us on the mission! So anyway, I guess onto more important things haha. The Melbourne Cup was on Tuesday (a big horse race) and so it was a public holiday that day, not that it made much difference to us but the town was certainly a little more busy than normal. We had a lesson that day with some other investigators (a single mom and her son) and it was a pretty interesting lesson. She unfortunately had read some anti-mormon literature on the internet that had made her very upset and wonder if any of what we had said was true. But as often the case is we asked the simple question, "Have you read and prayed about the Book of Mormon?" and the answer as it too often is was, "No..." So after answering several of her questions brought about because of what she read we were able to recommit her to read and pray over the past week and we are going back to see her tomorrow and hope that she was able to overcome that stumbling block towards her progression. Andy also had a trial as well this week (most of our investigators had trials this week unfortunately) because someone that he knew had passed away that he was hoping to have the chance to apologize too but hadn't done so before they passed away so he was very distraught. We had a really powerful lesson with him though about a lot of things but unfortunately he wanted to take a break for a little while from church so we will try to contact him again in the next few weeks to see if he is feeling better. We also were able to get a few new investigators this week that seem very promising. It was really cool on Thursday night after Ward Council we were at the station again and I found one guy named Nick who is about 20 and was really cool. After talking for a few minutes I was able to teach him about and give him a Book of Mormon. I felt pretty good about that because that was actually the first time I'd placed a Book of Mormon just street contacting someone, because usually we just give away cards and pamphlets. Just so you understand how we do street contacting, by the way, we will all split off (but still within sight and sound of each other) and talk to people individually so that way we are able to talk to more people. We went back to see Nick again yesterday and he seems like he will be able to be a really good investigator. Mary is also still progressing really well. She came to Stake Conference yesterday and so now everything looks set for her baptism on Saturday. She has just been feeling a bit nervous about it as of late though so we hope that she stays strong. Anyway, I am almost out of time this week so I will have to finish up, but things are going excellent here! I love you and miss you and hope you have a wonderful week filled with miracles! Thanks for feeding the missionaries there as well, I am sure they appreciate that very much! I hope they share spiritual thoughts with you when they come because we are supposed to, so if they haven't been just ask them to next time. Anyway, thanks for all you do to help support me! I love you and I'll talk to you again soon!

 

Love,

 

Elder Hopkins

November 4, 2013

G'Day!

 

Thanks so much for the wonderful e-mail this week! I loved it as I always do! I'm glad that you had a great week and that Elder Dearing was able to be sent off to Ghana safely! So anyway, the big news obviously is my new area and companionship. So the new area is called Mooroolbark and it is like an hour and a half away from Pakenham or so, so it's still fairly close to the city area. It's a pretty nice city from what I have seen of it so far. It's mostly Australians that live here from what I've seen as well as heaps of Burmese people. The ward here also seems really good, there are about 150 or 160 who attend regularly each week but the ward has quite a few people in Stake callings so it fluctuates a lot in attendance. And so my companionship actually isn't a companionship at all, it's another tripanionship! In other words there are 3 of us together again. The mission has heaps of tripanioships now but some of them will be split apart mid-transfer because that's when the new missionaries come in so we'll see if that happens to us or not. It has been so good so far though and we have seen so many miracles come about! My companions are Elder Afele and Elder Wood. Elder Afele is from Canberra (the capital of Australia) but was actually born here in Melbourne. His parents were born in Samoa but since he was born in and grew up in Australia he isn't like my companion Elder Matu'u who was actually from Samoa. He has been out on his mission for about 13 months, so he came out here 2 transfers after me. Elder Wood is a very special companion because he holds the honor of being my very first Utah companion! Haha. I was kind of hoping to go for a record and serve my whole mission without having a companion from Utah as well haha since everyone eventually has one, but Elder Wood is awesome! He is from Logan and has been out on his mission for about 4 or 5 months. We have all been getting along really well and we work and teach very well together so it has been an awesome tripanionship so far. So I will try to describe some of the miracles that we've seen in the past week. The most recent one happened on Sunday. There is an investigator named Andy who Elder Wood and Elder Afele (who were together for 1 transfer before) had been teaching for a while who was really nice but hadn't been progressing too much and was quite sad a lot due to bad circumstances going on in his life. However, he finally came to church for the first time yesterday and had a really great experience! We went to see him later on in the afternoon (by the way church is at 1 pm here!! we share the chapel with another ward that meets earlier) and he had completely changed! He was really happy and energetic and mentioned how one of the testimonies at church really touched his heart and changed his outlook on a lot of things. It was funny because the lady who's testimony he was talking about actually said at the beginning of her testimony that she didn't want to get up (she was the next to last one to get up) but the spirit was really strongly pushing her to get up the whole meeting! So what a blessing she got up to share her testimony because it made all the difference for Andy. And before we left his house he actually asked if he could offer the closing prayer and he offered probably the most sincere and beautiful prayer we all had heard on our missions. He was just saying that he wants to really know if this is true and he wants to be able to have the blessings that God has to give us and how he wants to feel as happy as he did then all the time! So that was the first time I'd met him but Elder Wood and Elder Afele said it was a miraculous change from what he was before. We see him again this week so we are excited to see the progress he makes. Another miracle was when we were teaching a long time investigator named John who is an older man and in a wheelchair. He had been really struggling with accepting Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon so in our lesson with him we focused on how we can get an answer the Book of Mormon is true. It would take to long to include all the details but essentially we were working through the Spirit as a tripanionship so well that we would think of something and someone else would say it! So everything ran so smoothly and the spirit was so strong and we feel he has what he needs now to know it's true. There is also a Burmese lady who is in her 70s that we are teaching named Mary and she will be getting baptized on the 16th of November, so we are very excited for her. Her english is ok but not the best so for the lessons with her we just have her read out of a Burmese pamphlet of the topic we're teaching as we follow along in the English pamphlet and then she explains back to us in English what was taught. Her understanding is really good and she loves church and is excited to be able to be baptized and participate in the things that come along with it, even tithing and fast offerings! Haha. We also were able to teach a really good lesson with someone that we found tracting early in the week named Daniel. We didn't know this when we first met him but we found out he actually works for like the Australian version of the CIA but not quite as secretive as that. He has some amazing stories and has actually received a bullet wound. He's only in his late 20s but is very smart and knowledgable about religions. He is an honest seeker of truth and as we just were giving a simple explanation of some of the beliefs and functions of the church he became really intrigued because he hadn't really learned much about the LDS church before. Eventually we introduced the Book of Mormon to him and he is very keen to read it! He mentioned that it was funny timing because he was soon leaving for about 6 months or so for a mission off the coast but that he would take the Book of Mormon with him and read it. So those are just a few of the miracles we saw this week but there were countless! I think this could end up being one of my favorite companionships and the area is really great as well! So we are excited for this next week and look forward to the many more miracles that we will see as we continue to work hard. We actually have Stake Conference next week at the chapel next to the Temple and Elder Hallstrom of the Presidency of the Seventy will be there! So that will be a wonderful experience! Anyway thanks for all your love and support and especially prayers! I hope that you have a wonderful week this week as well and see many miracles! I love you heaps and I'll talk to you again soon!

 

Love,

 

Elder Hopkins

October 28, 2013

G'Day!

 

Thanks for the e-mail this week, I really enjoyed hearing from you! The past week was good! The highlight was that there was a baptism for our area on Saturday! It was for a 13 year old girl from a returning less-active family. Elder Rafferty and I had tried to visit this family several times while we were here the first time but never really had much success, so it was really good to see that they had opened up more to the missionaries and that the kids were obviously being blessed because of it. We were able to have to some good lessons as well and find several new people to teach. Also, before I forget to mention it, tomorrow is the official transfer day and surprisingly and unfortunately I am in fact moving again. Several of the other Elders there are also moving, so clearly it was just intended as a temporary move, so we will see where I end up! It's been said that there are going to be some big and important changes in the mission this transfer so we will see what is meant by that, or if it is really even anything big! So because I am moving and some of the others as well, today's e-mail might be a bit shorter than usual, but next week should be back to normal. One cool thing this past week that benefited the 3 of us was that several of the members that we saw this past week (whether doing service for them or just talking with them) mentioned how grateful they were for us missionaries and were mindful of the sacrifices that we make! So that was really comforting to hear that since normally noone ever says their appreciation in those words, and encouraged us to keep working hard. So whenever you see the missionaries be sure to tell them how much you appreciate them and the work they do because even though all the members I'm sure feel that way, it is often not expressed in words. So I wish I could've stayed longer back in Pakenham because it's such a wonderful area but I guess I should consider myself lucky that I was able to come back even if it was for a short time. Amazing to think that I only have 5 transfers left on the mission! It will go by so quickly I'm sure, but I will make sure to make it the best time of my mission so when I look back I can remember that I finished strong. Well I told you that it would be a shorter e-mail this week but I'm grateful as always for the wonderful love and support that you give me! I hope that you have a wonderful week! I love you heaps and I'll talk to you again soon!

 

Love,

 

Elder Hopkins

October 21, 2013

G'Day!

Thanks so much for your great e-mail! And I enjoyed the little add in from uncle Pete! Well this week was very interesting, but I will try to describe it adequately. So you probably still remember when Elder Matu'u and I were companions and how we had that sudden change fiasco right? Well once was bad enough, but very unfortunately it has happened again! I have no idea why they had to choose Elder Gabignaud and I as the companionship to split but whatever the reason there is nothing we could do about it. This time I was the recipient of the move, and just as it happened before they called us early in day and said have everything ready to go in like 2 hours. So I know we are supposed to be humble and submissive to things like this but needless to say I was pretty upset and especially thought it was frustrating that I didn't even get to go around as normal to see all of the magnificent people we had worked around and with in Wangaratta. I only got to go and quickly visit Elder and Sister Laycock, and they were also very sad! So when we got down to Melbourne I was still pretty unhappy about it all, but the only thing that made the situation at least a little bearable was the other area they were putting me in. You will never guess where it is.......back in Pakenham! So at this moment I am e-mailing you in the library that I was previously e-mailing you in for 7 months. So it's really great to be back in the area and see all of the people again that I knew, with some new faces as well, but I really wish it could've been under better circumstances. I got a little card last Thursday though from the members of Wangaratta branch and Elder and Sister Laycock thanking me for the things Elder Gabignaud and I did there, so that was really nice and helped cheer me up a bit. I'm pretty glad I was sent back here though because if I was just sent to some other random area in the mission I might not be as cheerful or okay with the situation as I am now. But I guess frustrating things happen on the mission and you just have to deal with them and move ahead, but I will greatly miss Wangaratta! And the silly thing as well is that transfer news is just this coming Saturday so there would've have been moves anyway just a few days later. So anyway, enough pity for myself, I will tell you about some other things. So the companions that I have (that's right companion-s as in plural) right now are Elder Lammi (from Bundaberg, Australia) and Elder Maono (from Tahiti). We are in the same flat as I was in before when I served here but we also share it with another companionship, Elder Aroita (from Tahiti as well) and Elder Cook (from Arizona). So there are 5 missionaries in 1 flat! Apparently President Maxwell is doing this a lot throughout the whole mission for kind of two reasons, one being that there are so many missionaries in the mission (after the new ones come in there will be over 280)  and the second being that he changed the transfer dates so the new missionaries will get in after the transfer starts so there will be heaps of 3-way companionships like the one I am in now. The flat surprisingly though isn't too crowded, and by some miracle we all manage to get warm showers in the morning! Our companionship is on bikes as well, so we look like a small bikey gang riding around town since there is 3 of us. Our companionship covers the eastern side of Pakenham and the other companionship covers the west side. I guess instead of just updating you on exactly what all we did the past few days I will just update you on some of the people you might remember. So the Ward has grown quite a bit, there are over 200 members that attend each Sunday and since they are still using the old child care center as the meetinghouse it gets pretty crowded. There have been several move ins as well as some move outs. Cruiz and Chelsea for example have moved out of the ward, so unfortunately I don't get to see them. Afa and Lisa and their family, as well as the other returning less-active family the Sekene's have stayed fully active and are both going to the Temple soon to be sealed together! So that was great to hear. The Willmotts are going well (Barry and Joan) and are also preparing to go to the Temple to be sealed mid next year since Joan was baptized (as I mentioned a while back) in June and has to wait a year. Rodney Dean, if you remember him who was the only non-member in the Dean family (he is the Dad), was baptized just a few weeks ago which was wonderful! They are also doing great. David and Melissa have kind of been the same as they were when I left, they are just waiting til they get married (which is early this December) before Melissa can be baptized. The Glosters, who were the 2 kids that we prepared for baptism last December are still fully active as well and the 3 child was baptized a few months ago. So most of the people (as well as others who I didn't mention because I don't remember if I had told you about them before) that Elder Rafferty, Elder Hirata and I had been teaching during those 7 months have stayed pretty strong in the Gospel. And that is the greatest joy of missionary work is seeing lasting conversion. As the famous scripture in Alma 17:2 says how Alma was overjoyed to see that his brethren were still brethren in the Lord. So even though it was under pretty unfortunate circumstances I am looking forward to working in Pakenham again for however long they have me here again. Amazing to think that I only have 5 more transfers after this one has finished! It goes by unbelievably fast, especially after the first year is past. It's even more amazing that in all this time I have only served in 3 areas, while now going back to my first area. I would much rather serve in areas for a longer time though rather than move every transfer because I love building good relationships with the members and people we teach and having the blessing to see an area grow and progress over a period of time. Well I guess that is the news for this week, you are probably as shocked as I was at it. Anyway, I hope you have a fantastic week this week and continue to see many blessings and miracles at home! I was also very happy to hear you were able to have the missionaries over for dinner! Speaking as a missionary, we love eating at member homes! Haha. I love you and miss you! Talk to you again soon!

Love,

Elder Hopkins

October 14, 2013

G'Day!

Thanks for the great e-mail this week! I'm grateful for all the things you include and the stories you share that help brighten up my week! Well the past week was pretty good, we were able to get several new investigators, including beginning to teach a part member family who hasn't been to church for a few years but has 2 young boys of baptism age who they want to have baptized soon. So that was wonderful to start teaching them! The rest of our teaching pool is doing very well as well, and Coral was able to have a much better week and able to make good progress on several things! I know that is definitely a result of your added prayers and concern for her, especially when you went to the Temple, thank you so much! Our Zone also had interviews this past week with President Maxwell which was good! It's always a great opportunity to get some one on one time with the mission president, even if it isn't for a long amount of time. So that took up a lot of our Friday because we had to drive around and pick up some other missionaries as well. I'm kind of going quickly through these things because I know you wanted to hear about my thoughts on General Conference so I wanted to save enough time to talk about it. Before I go into which ones I liked and several specific quotes that impacted and impressed me, I just wanted to make one observation that I felt as I listened to the talks and saw a recurring theme. If you remember a lot of the talks, especially in the Sunday morning session, were about putting the Lord first and avoiding the worldly pursuits and ideas that are becoming more and more prevalent. Obviously we know that the world will get to a worse and worse point before the second coming but perhaps the amount of talks on this topic signifies that it will soon become much harder to live the life of a disciple of Jesus Christ and if we aren't focused on the Gospel 100% of the time then there may be an increased onslaught from the adversary to distract our attention and lead us off the straight and narrow path. So that's just one thought I had after listening to all the talks, as well as the emphasis as always on increased member missionary work. I would say I agree with Dad in saying that Elder Holland's talk was the most powerful to me. I hadn't heard a general authority really speak about such a topic before and who better to talk about it than him! I thought it was perfectly delivered and most certainly will be a blessing to many lives since nearly all of us nowadays are impacted either directly or indirectly by some form or another of Depression. I thought his counsel was also wonderful to anyone without such a condition as well, of just simply outlining a way to stay happy and positive in a world that will try to force unnecessary gloom and despair down our throats, whether by circumstances or people around us or just simply by our own doubts. So anyway, as you asked for and I previously did, here are some good quotes that I really liked. Elder Hales gave all of us some great counsel that applies not only to general conference, but every meeting of the church we attend, in saying, "What is said is not as important as what is heard and what is felt." Sister Carole M. Stephens said, "When we take the Sacrament we don't just renew our baptismal covenants but all our covenants." Elder Edward Dube said, "It is not about where we serve, but how we serve," as well as "The past is to be learned from but not to be lived in," and, "Faith is always pointing to the future," and lastly, "It isn't so much about what we have done or where we have been but about where we are willing to go." Elder Bednar (who's talk was fantastic as well) said, "The grateful are rich in contentment, and the ungrateful suffer in the poverty of discontentment." President Uchtdorf said, "Doubt your doubts, before you doubt your faith." Elder S. Gifford Nielsen gave a wonderful pattern for success for member missionaries in setting forth the 3 step process of 1. Specifically pray to bring someone closer to Christ every day (notice it doesn't say bring someone into the church, but simply bring someone closer to Christ, which can be done in many ways) 2. Pray for missionaries and investigators by name every day (specifically for the ward or branch you are a part of) 3. Invite a friend to an activity within or without your home. Elder Timothy J. Dyches said, "Christ heals body, mind, and spirit and His healing begins with faith." And in Elder Jeffrey R. Holland's talk there were these wise counsels to those suffering any form of depression, or even those not suffering, "Never lose faith in your Father in Heaven above all else...it is there for you all the time...faithfully pursue time-tested Gospel practices...talk to Priesthood leaders and receive blessings...take the Sacrament weekly...believe in miracles...if the bitter cup doesn't pass, drink it and be strong...be alert to signs around us, and in us...fatigue requires rest...if we don't take time now to be well, we will take time later to be ill...Heavenly Father wants us to use both the church/priesthood and the other things we are blessed with (example: the medical field)...(and finally and I believe most importantly he stated boldly and lovingly:) do not vote against the preciousness of life by ending it." Elder Randy D. Funk shared the process of becoming a good missionary by saying, "Humble yourself, abide in His word, and hearken unto His spirit." President Uchtdorf stated beautifully in saying, "Our destiny isn't determined by the number of times we fall but by the number of times we rise back up," and, "There is a difference between the sorrow that leads to repentance, and the sorrow that leads to despair." President Henry B. Eyring spoke of asking others to help you or fulfill callings by stating, "You aren't asking them to help you, you are telling them 'The Lord wants to bless you'." Some good counsel in the next session by him as well for a pattern to happier family life was, "Put yourself where you feel the Lord's forgiveness...accept and magnify every calling you receive...serve others to be more worthy of the Holy Ghost." Elder Dallin H. Oaks said, "Man's law cannon make moral what God deems immoral." Sister Bonnie L. Oscarson said, "Conversion comes through living the principles and sacrificing for them." Elder Richard J. Maynes said regarding having spiritual strength, "...comes at a price: dedication, perseverance, and self-discipline." And the last quote which I will include is from Elder Neil L. Anderson who said in regards to the priesthood and men, "A man may open the drapes to let in the light and warmth of the Sun, but he does not own the sun, light, or warmth." Well those are some of the quotes that really touched me and which I will try to apply in my life. Hopefully you enjoyed seeing and reading them! Anyway that has put me out of time for today, but thank you so much for all of your love and support and most of all prayers for me as well as for all those we are working with here in Wangaratta. I love this work and I love the Gospel! Have a fantastic week this week and I will talk to you again soon! I love you!

Love,

Elder Hopkins