December 31, 2012

Feliz ano novo!!! Quase!!

Here in about 13 hours, everyone here will be celebrating the new year! And I'll be sleeping! At least trying to. They already have started off the day with a couple of loud fireworks, and it appears that it will only continue. Tons of people are driving around buying tons of fireworks today, so tonight should be a hard night to sleep. But that means that we are entering into the year that I come home!! Wooo!!! Only like 11 more months! Next Christmas will be the biggest party the Hopper house has ever seen. (Sorry, Drew. And perhaps Brad. Although Brad has more of a chance of making it there.)

This week was Christmas week.... Already told the family about that on the Google+... But it was pretty awesome. And this next week is New Years... So these couple of weeks are hard to work. But we will find people to teach and baptize!

I made cookies this week! We went to a member's house and I made cookies there. She said that there had already been Elders who have made cookies there, but the ones that I made were by far the best that she had ever tasted. Mom's recipe is the best one ever! They turned out pretty well, though it was a bit hard to cook them, since the ovens here are heated by gas, so the bottoms almost had to get burnt for the rest of the cookie to turn out good. 

So on Saturday morning, I opened the door to go outside and run for a bit, and in comes a little kitten!

 

So we're trying to figure out what to do with it, cause we keep trying to put it outside, but it keeps coming in. And the Elders of Ala 3 decide to feed it. They gave it some pasta. And it ate it. And now the cat is never leaving. And it needs to leave. We aren't allowed to have pets! But what do we do now?! It is a pretty cute cat, but it has to leave... Plus, cats have the nasty habit of peeing on everything soft. And we have a couch sitting outside in front of our house... It'll probably be full of cat pee here in a little bit. But we'll try to figure out something to do with the cat. Maybe it'll just leave one day. I doubt it, but we can all hope, right?

That's about all that happened this week. Teaching lessons, meeting new people, helping less active members, trying to have meetings with the bishopric....... All the typical things. We won't have any baptisms this week, but hopefully on the 12th we will have a couple. We're planning a few, but people need to start coming to church first! There were a lot of people missing from church this week. But it might have just been because of the holidays and all. Next week should be better.

Anyways, I hope you all have a good week and a fantastic new year! Love you all!

-Elder Hopper #1

Christmas Day 2012

Just got done with our Google Hangout with Elder Adam Hopper. Lost connection a lot and his host family lost power at two points and he had to change houses and then change back, but it was so good to spend a great part of our day with him! Before that, we got to talk with Elder Drew Hopper for a while. So good to hear their voices and just shoot the breeze for a bit. They both sound good and happy. Now, only 138 days until Mothers Day calls!

December 24, 2012

Merrrrryy Christmas Eve everyone!

This is definitely the weirdest Christmas I ever had, and will ever have, seeing as it's the only Christmas I'll spend on the mission. It's hot! And humid! And weird! And they don't decorate nearly as much in this town as they do back home. It's a rare sight to see a Christmas tree or Christmas lights, or things like that. And it's hot. Really hot. I successfully found the upper limit of the thermometer on my clock that Mom gave me. It's 122 degrees. And it was hotter than that. Yaaaay!!!

This week was terribly difficult for the work here in Araraquara. But let's start off with Tuesday. We had the mission Christmas conference. Which was alright. We had a training from President Prieto, and the secretaries, and all that junk. We had a talent show thing as well, but it was rather disappointing. Really nothing to write home about. But I got to see my old companions and talk about our old areas and all that jazz. So that was fun. 

After that, we got home and a new missionary joined us in our house. Elder Santos was living with us, but he went home. Now we have Elder Schleider. He actually already served in this area, but is now returning. He's from somewhere here in Brasil, and he's got a year and 7 months on the mission or something like that. It's good to have him here and he seems like a pretty cool guy.

I have been very much enjoying the presents for Christmas! And thanks, Fields family, for the ties and everyone else who sent little cards and helped out! It's very much appreciated and it keeps me happy. Only one more to open up tomorrow! I think I'll wait until the Google+ call to open in so it can be almost like a normal Christmas!

Christmas Jammies!
 

Well, that's all I got for this week. Hopefully in the next couple of days we'll have a baptism, but nothing confirmed yet. Fingers crossed and many prayers! Hope you all have a great Christmas! I'll talk to some of you tomorrow!

Love you all!

-Elder Hopper #1

December 17, 2012

Hellloooo family!

This week we had a baptism! Only one because the family of the little girl we were going to baptize started talking to her about how she's young and doesn't understand what baptism is... And basically while I was there talking to her family I felt much of the influence of the devil in their lives. They were about to start gambling, drinking, smoking, and listening to some rather dirty music. I really noticed how you lose your spirituality completely after a bit of time away from spiritual things. Their whole family has already been baptized into the church, by the way. All 14 of them. And all of them left the church already.

But the baptism was good! And here's a picture of the kid! His name is Felipe.

On Monday and Tuesday this week we went to the funeral services for the member of our ward. It was a pretty solemn place. And there were probably close to 300 people there. That man was a truly loved man. Turns out that he had had a dream the night before that he was working in the spirit world and his wife had a dream that he was in the spirit world as well. It's interesting how the Lord prepares us for what's coming up in our lives sometimes like that.

Tomorrow we have our mission Christmas conference! It should be pretty exciting. We'll be in Ribeirão Preto the whole day. All the missionaries in the whole mission are coming to it. I'm looking forward to it!

If all goes right, we'll have one more baptism this week. A woman who has been coming to church for some time now, but never has gotten the courage to be baptized. She watched the baptism that we had this week and it seems that she's more open to her own baptism now. We'll see! Hopefully she will accept to be baptized this week!

 Well, that's all I got! Oh! And apparently Oregon is famous in Brasil for it's 4x4 off-roading! Just look at the picture!

Love you all! Have a great week!

Elder Hopper #1

December 10, 2012

One year from today, Adam will be home!!!!!!

Hellllloooo family! 

This week was my first week in my new area! It was quite enjoyable, though quite hot. Do you guys remember a few years ago when I was all impressed because it was still 80 degrees outside at 10:00 PM? Well, it's a bit different here. When I wake up at 6:00AM it's still 85 usually. And then it just gets hotter the whole day. Oh how I love the heat here! (Can you sense the sarcasm?) But really, this area is awesome. I already love being here and can tell that I will enjoy working here a lot. 

On Saturday we had a ward activity where the ward went to a Chácara. Basically it's a place that you rent out that generally has a place for a barbecue, a soccer field, and a pool. Then there's just an area to sit and talk to people. Sadly, we could not go in the pool. Or play soccer. So we brought a couple of investigators and while they were out having fun, we talked with members of the ward and got to know them a little bit better. But our investigators liked it!

This week we should have two baptisms. One is a kid named Felipe, who is 14 and has been going to church for a while. His mom is already a member, but his dad isn't. He's actually a member of the Congregation of Brasil. And is very against his son getting baptized. Good thing he doesn't live here! So the first day I got here, we went and talked to Felipe and he finally accepted a date for baptism. It's interesting how some people are just waiting for the right person to come along and say something. Felipe had been taught by the missionaries for a couple months already, but never wanted to accept a baptism date. First day I get here, bam! He accepts. We all have people waiting for us specifically! The other baptism will be a girl named Bruna who is 8. She's the little sister of a young man who's visiting people with us on a regular basis now. So we should have two good baptisms this week! The first two of my new companion! He's only been on the mission for one transfer, so he's still pretty new altogether.

Only one other thing really happened this week. We got a call from the second counselor in the ward this morning saying that the old stake president, who is in our ward, died on his way home from an indexing training that he gave last night. He was driving late at night and got in an accident. His wife was with him, but she is doing well. She's in the hospital today, but it seems like she wasn't hurt too bad. Pray for her and her family! They'll need all the prayers they can get.

That's about all that happened this week. I love you all! Have a good week and enjoy the pictures!

This first picture is Anderson. Who will be my roommate at BYU-I when I get back.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The second is Jonas and Shirley the day I left Cidade Aracy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The third Is me and Elder Kuster,

 

 

and so is the fourth.

Some apostasy that's going on across the street from our church.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

-Elder Hopper #1

December 3, 2012

Transfers!!!!

This week we had transfers, and I got sent away from Cidade Aracy. It was a pretty sad parting from our Bishop. He actually cried a little bit. I almost did. But not quite. We found out only on Saturday night that I was leaving, so it didn't really give me any time to say goodbye to anyone, but I guess that's alright. It was cool because the transfer fell right on a fast Sunday so I was able to bear my testimony one last time in that ward and tell everyone that was there that I was leaving. 

Soooo today we left São Carlos at 6:00 AM and when we got to Ribeirão Preto, I found out I was going to Araraquara! So now I'm here with my new companion, Elder Kuster! And I became senior companion this transfer. So now I get all the responsibility and if anything goes wrong, it's my fault! Yaaaay! 

The new area that I'm in is quite a bit better off than Cidade Aracy. It's not quite the favela that my last area was. But it should be good! I'm pretty excited to get to work here. We met the Bishop here already today and he seems like a really cool guy and seems really excited to work. This transfer should be a good one!

Not much really happened this week. But I was talking to Jonas and Shirley (the couple that'll get married here in a little bit) and we were talking about Jonas going through the temple. They'll be married on the 10th, which means he could be baptized on the 10th. Which means that on December 10th, 2013 he could go through the temple. And guess who will be at the Campinas temple on that exact day? I will!! So if everything goes right and we get President to approve the baptism and confirmation done on the same day, I could go through the temple with him on the last day of my mission. I just thought that would be pretty cool. We'll have to see how all that works out. Now it's all up to Elder Guerra to get them through and baptize Jonas!

Also, Sônia might be baptized this week. But I guess I won't really know about that for a while. I hope it happens! Though it might be devastating to her and Beneditos' relationship... Benedito still isn't ready and it seems that Sônia's willing to get rid of him to be able to be baptized.

Anyways, that's all for this week. Next week I'll send some pictures! I love you all!

-Elder Hopper #1

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