April 21, 2014

G'Day!

Thanks for your e-mail! I loved reading it! Well I'll get right to the most anticipated part of the e-mail, the transfer news! So for the final transfer news of the mission the results are Elder Suan.....staying and Elder Hopkins.........also staying! So as they say in missionary terms--I will be 'dying' in Mooroolbark and Elder Suan will 'kill' me, haha. So we were very excited at that news and I was especially excited to finish in probably my favorite area of the mission, although I have only had 4 to choose from haha. Elder Suan will also be the 3rd compaion that I've spent 3 transfers with. And just to run through some other news that you might find interesting about my missionary companions. Elder Rafferty obviously has finished and is back in England. Elder Hirata is finishing this transfer, even though we were on the same plane over here he was in the MTC longer because he was learning English. Elder Rua is still doing well, he trains new missionaries like every transfer haha. Elder Matu'u has been in the same zone as me the past transfer and finishes 1 transfer after me. Elder Taufa finished in January. Elder Malifa I'm not sure where he's serving right now but is doing well. Elder Gabignaud is in a very country area, which is what he prefers haha. Yesterday we had a Easter Music Fireside for missionaries and their teaching pools and I was able to see Elder Afele again (and of course Elder Wood, but I see him every week at district meeting). So I will include a picture of us 3, which we say was probably our favorite companionship (tripanionship) of our missions, although every one has been very rewarding. Elder Wood has served the first year of his mission within the same missionary district but is now moving areas so he is kind of happy to see another part of the mission now haha. Elder Lau has been in the same area since he left Mooroolbark and will be staying there this transfer as well. So I just thought you might like to hear about how all of my past companions are doing. And also with the Mooroolbark Sisters, very sadly we will be losing one of them, Sister Baker. She has served very well here and she's actually going to Tasmania for her next area which is pretty cool. Sister Burton is staying and will get a new companion tomorrow. I also counted up and surprisingly I have only attended 6 transfer meetings in my whole mission, or in other terms I have attended 35% of the transfer meetings I have been in the mission for, where most missionaries attend a lot more. Since I've only had 4 areas and not too many companions things were pretty stagnant over the mission haha which has been a blessing I think! It's very sad to know there is only 6 weeks left to serve here in Australia and it feels very weird to think about finishing and probably still will for a while after the mission. Anyway, I'll tell you briefly about our week this past week because I don't have much time. It's a public holiday today here and so the libraries are all closed, so we're at an office supplies store borrowing their computers so we don't get as much time to e-mail. Also, transfer-eve p-days always seem busier than normal even if you aren't moving anywhere haha. The highlight of this past week was probably that we've started teaching another ex-part-member family in the ward. What I mean by that is the man used to be a member, but for whatever reason is no longer one, and the woman is not a member. Their names are Conrad and Carla and they are really nice. He's from the Phillipines and she's Aussie. Elder Wood, Elder Afele and I had visited them once almost 6 months ago now but have struggled to have any contact with them since. Bishop tries to keep in good contact with them though and had asked us to try and visit them again. We were on exhanges this past Wednesday and Elder Brown (the missionary I was with) and I went by their house and met Carla and set up a time to come back the next day. So Elder Suan and I visited them on Thursday and started off just getting to know them better and building up a good relationship of trust with them. After a good chat, we shared a message with them we had prepared on how the Gospel blesses our families (they have 2 kids) and especially carries us through hard times and trials. After talking about it and sharing a scripture we watched with them the Mormon Message "Mountains to Climb" (one of my personal favorites). It happened to be the perfect message/video because after that Carla started getting emotional as she said how it brought back vividly (John 14:26--Holy Ghost brings to our remembrance) some memories about how her dad had a lot of trials when she was really young and how she remembered him kneeling by the bed each night with her and praying (which is what one of the men was doing in the Mormon message) and apparently she never really understood why until that moment. She was so overwhelmed that she ended up having to leave the room for a few minutes and we continued just to talk with Conrad about the message. After she came back in we talked a bit more and were able to set up regular teaching appointments with them to go through the missionary lessons, which is great since missionaries haven't been able to do that with them in the past. So that was a big miracle for us this past week. Also, we were able to set up regular teaching appointments with another less-active part member family. So this transfer will I guess have a theme of teaching part member families haha which is fantastic! The rest of the week was good as well and we have been able to find a few new people to go back and teach as well. Elder Suan and I are very excited to work hard for my last 6 weeks and we hope to witness at least one conversion (not necessarily baptism) of someone we're teaching in that time. Thanks as always for you great love and support and I hope you had a great Easter! I love you heaps and I'll talk to you again soon!

Love,

Elder Hopkins

Elder Hopkins reunites with former companions Elder Wood and Elder Afele.