March 10, 2014

G'Day!

 

Thanks heaps for the e-mail this week! That's fantastic that the Elders there are working hard and I really like that idea you included that they used for helping members go and fellowship the families, we will definitely try that out here. Also glad to here that everything is ok for BYU this fall! Tell Tanner congratulations on his mission call, he'll love it. How is Ryan going with his mission? Thanks so much especially for getting the line of authority for me. It's really exciting to look at all in our line, especially seeing that there are just 3 people between me and prophets! So obviously we found out transfer news on Saturday and the news is that Elder Suan is staying and that I am also staying! Exciting! So this will be my 4th transfer in Mooroolbark and then I will only have 1 transfer left (scary!) so I might end up 'dying' in my mission here. That would be pretty cool if I did since not many people serve in only 4 areas on their mission. We're both really excited for this transfer because we feel heaps of great things will happen in the next few weeks. We found out something pretty cool this past week that was an answer to our struggle with language and the Gospel. One of the past missionaries from this mission who's living in our ward said that once on her mission she and her companion were teaching a Burmese family and they got from the mission office a DVD that was in Burmese that had testimonies from a lot of the first members there and how the family was really touched by it and felt the Spirit. So we were very happy to hear that and we will hopefully be able to get some from the office soon. That will no doubt be a massive help for our teaching pool and we hope it will be a turning point for several of our investigators in their conversions. Yes we are still teaching Ellen and Jobe, they just haven't been progressing much lately, Ellen because her Pastor told her she is only allowed to be baptized once in her life which caused some doubt and confusion with her, and Jobe just because he's been very busy with work and school. We did see him last week though and he is still reading, which is good, and we plan on inviting him to be baptized this coming week when we see him. We will try and especially encourage all our investigators to attend church this week because President and Sister Maxwell are coming to speak in our ward as part of our 40 Day Fast program. The program is going pretty well so far, all the members have people or activities they've committed to act upon and the follow-up is just starting with them so hopefully the fruits of their labors will start to show. We are still in sort of the same position as last week with a majority of our investigators: we are teaching them once or twice a week, they are reading and praying (if they are able to read English), but they are having a hard time attending church and aren't ready to accept dates for baptism. We had the idea though just last night to try and organize some sort of interfaith activity with the Chin Baptist church and our church. Whether its a big BBQ/picnic or some other activity, it would be a great help for both sides. On our side it would help the members have opportunities to become friends with them and learn more about them and their culture. And on their side it would help them have more English-speaking friends (most of them have none) and they would feel more comfortable with the church. So we will talk to Bishop about it this week and see how he feels about it. This month is also Temple month for us which is always a great experience. But anyway, that is essentially all that is new here at the moment, we are still as busy as ever and hope to continue to keep the momentum up this transfer. Also, on a cool little side note, in Burma they just recently received the first set of young proselyting missionaries and they already are having some good success! So that is great that the church will hopefully start growing more there. I hope you continue to see many blessings at home as well and that you have a great week! I love you heaps and I'll talk to you again soon!

 

Love,

 

Elder Hopkins