January 20, 2014

G'day!

 

Thanks for the e-mail! This past week was an awesome week! We set a record for lessons taught in Mooroolbark at 24 this week, which kept us very busy! It was good as well to be able to be in lessons in people's homes most of this week because it was the hottest week in Victoria history (or at least for a really long time). There were 4 consecutive days of 41 plus degrees and one day was up to 47 (which in Fahrenheit is 116!!), so by the end of the week Elder Lau and I were cooked medium-well. But the Lord always blesses us in the face of opposition, even if the opposition is the weather, and so we were blessed to have heaps of lessons and find many new people to teach. You mentioned Shannon and Van, so update on them is Shannon doesn't feel ready yet but is still attending church each week, and we have stopped teaching Van because his family didn't like us coming around. But on the bright side there is a new investigator from Burma as well who said he would work towards baptism in the end of February. We continue to find heaps of people from Burma to teach, and one miracle of sorts this past week was that we found out that at this next transfer there will be a missionary from Burma coming to the mission! So the leaders and Bishop have already contacted President Maxwell about the missionary coming to Mooroolbark haha so we hope that he does because he would be a huge help in converting many people to the Gospel and crossing the language barrier. We also had a pretty cool little miracle that happened as a result of diligence last Monday. So we went to see Wendy again with the sister missionaries in Croydon because they both spoke Chinese (Elder Lau's is rusty since his 1st language is Cantonese) and when we were there Wendy was there with a friend from the ward who was also a female. Obviously we can't go into a house without an additional male there so we said that the sisters would stay and we would go somewhere else to work. However, Wendy said to come in (she not being familiar with the missionary rules and having cooked us some food) and even the member said to just come in since it wasn't like we would do anything wrong. But we stayed firm and said we couldn't come in and so we went to try and find something else to do. As it turned out, we went to try to see a new contact we had talked to over 3 weeks ago who we couldn't contact and they happened to be home!  We were able to teach them a good lesson and they seem really keen to learn. So even though it was something small it was a good testimony to us of the importance of being diligent to all rules (or commandments) even if the situation seems harmless and likely wont cause any problems, because we wouldn't have seen our contact if we had stayed for a lesson with Wendy. We also introduced a new idea to the ward this past Sunday to help with the missionary work in the area. It was suggested by one of the sister missionaries and it's called a '40 day fast.' It's where the ward picks a day to start (we did it so the 40 days end the day before testimony meeting) and then member families are assigned (or sign up) each of the 40 days to fast together for missionary opportunities or names of people to teach and then when they think of the name or find the person to set a time for them to come into their home with the missionaries. Also, on the day a family is assigned to fast, at the end of the fast they will make time to have the missionaries into their home (either briefly or have them for dinner) so they can discuss with them how the fast went and if they had seen anything come of it yet. Obviously not everyone will have something happen on the day so it could be a few days or a week later that the missionaries have to come again for a follow-up visit. But it seems like a really exciting program. As well, to help the members remember their commitment and day, they will each be given a paper saying what day they are fasting and what time the missionaries can come (or something like that). We are starting it in the Mooroolbark ward on February 16th I believe, and ending on April 5th. I thought I would describe that program in more detail since Dad you're on the bishopric and perhaps you could talk to them about that as well for the Dimple Dell ward since the church around the world is focusing on the missionary efforts. But we're very excited for that nonetheless and know it will bring about some great miracles and strengthen the ward. Simone is still going alright, still working with the word of wisdom so she might be baptized a couple of weeks from now. Hopefully I will still be in the Mooroolbark area for that! Transfer news is given to us this coming Saturday but obviously the Lord's will trumps our own, but we have our quarterly interviews with President Maxwell this Wednesday so maybe I can slip in a few words about staying. Haha just kidding, whatever the Lord decides will be right. It still is so crazy to think after this week I'll only have 3 transfers left on the mission! It goes so quickly so I'll be sure to make the most of my time remaining. Anyway, my time is up for today but as always I'm grateful for all you do and your wonderful examples! Thanks for praying for the missionaries there too, I know prayers make all the difference! I hope I get heaps of opportunities to help them out after I'm back. Well have a wonderful week! I love you heaps and I'll talk to you again soon!

 

Love,

 

Elder Hopkins