October 28, 2013

Hello everyone!

 

This week was pretty good for us. We had a good amount of success, but it'll be building for the next couple of weeks. We've finally figured out how to work well in this city. Every place has it's own difficulties, and here it's been finding good people to teach. We've decided to follow the apostles' advice (go figure) to keep the chapel open. So what we did the majority of this week, was we sat in front of the church, inviting people to come in and visit, just to see what the chapel is like. Most of the people we talk to accept, and then we have the chance to show them around while talking about our beliefs. It's rare for the people to not allow us to get their address to go to their houses. So this week we'll spend a good amount of time going to the houses of these people and all that good stuff.

 

We also are going to a couple of English schools in the area to help out and to find some people that are willing to hear the gospel. This last week, we met a guy named Everton at one of the classes who is really cool. We went to his house on Saturday to talk to him a bit and invite him to an activity at the church that night. He accepted to go to the activity and liked it a lot. He goes to the quadrangular church, which I'm pretty sure is the four square church in the States, and lives with a pastor from a Baptist church. Interesting combination. But he seems really interested in the gospel and wanted to come to church on Sunday but had already promised someone else that he would help them out with their car. So we'll invite him this week! He seems pretty promising.

 

That's all I got this week! Hope you all have a good one! 5 weeks left!

 

Love you all!

-Elder Hopper #1

October 21, 2013

Hello family!

 

This week was another roller-coaster of emotions, and looks like it won't be the last. Let's start with Maria.

 

Well, you all remember the story I told last week. We were ready to leave Maria and never teach her again. But we decided to try again with her. So we went to her house on Tuesday and invited her to a Family Home Evening with her son and his wife the next day. We went, and it was all great. We had a good time and we were all happy. On the way home, (a member gave us and her a ride home) we were talking about baptism and how she felt terrible that she hadn't been baptized last Saturday. Then she told us to to mark her baptism for Saturday. So we did! We visited her again on Friday and she was all excited to be baptized and all. Then on Saturday, we got a call from her while we were helping out at an English school. She didn't want to be baptized anymore. Her mom was having health problems and she had to bring her to the hospital, and Maria had been asking people if she should be baptized or not... And they obviously said no. So we went to the hospital. When we got there, Maria's mom was about to get let out already, so we waited for them, and planned to get Maria a ride home and talk to her in the car. We had parked the car in front of the church because it's close to the hospital, so we went there with Maria. We stood outside of the church just talking to her for a while about everything, and she got mad at us (we really didn't do anything to make her mad) and started walking away. She didn't even want a ride home anymore. So she stormed off and we sat there... and tried to figure out what had just happened. Well, we still don't know. But we went inside the church to drown our sorrows in the chocolate cake we had made for her. Which turned out pretty good, by the way. So we aren't going to go back to Maria's house anymore. We'll wait for her to call us.

 

We had a good experience, too! On Thursday we had a multi-zone conference. For part of the conference, President Canuto wanted to do a live practice. So the zone leaders (us) had to go out and find some people to teach! We went out and walked around a park a bit, talking with everyone there, but everyone was on lunch break about to go back to work. But then we talked to a guy named Caio. He was also on lunch break, and had 5 minutes to be back to work. We told him we would only need him for about 20 minutes, and he said, "I have to go back to work... but something is telling me I need to go with you guys." So he went with us! He ended up being about an hour late for work, but it was a really good experience for us and for him. He is really ready to hear the gospel. The bummer is that he doesn't live in our area... Or even the stake. So we won't hear about how it goes with him until a lot later. But it was a great experience!

 

Well, that's the exciting stuff for this week. I hope you all have a great week this week! I love you all!

 

-Elder Hopper #1

October 14, 2013

Hello family!

 

This week we actually got to work. And it was hoooooot. But we're working, so that doesn't matter!

We knocked on a door this week and the guy opened the door, walked to the gate, and said, "are you guys Americans?" Which we responded in the affirmative, and he said that he lives in Texas. He came here to visit his family for a bit, but he's going right back to Texas to his family. It was a pretty cool conversation, and interesting how it all worked out. But he didn't want to let us into his house. So that was a bummer.

 

The major happenings for this week were that we worked quite a bit with a lady named Maria. Her son, Janio, is a member of the church since about three years ago, and Maria was never able to be baptized because she smokes. But she wants to be baptized and knows that the church is true. So we went to her house on Tuesday, talked a bit about baptism and the church and all, and marked to return on Thursday. We went there, and the spirit was SUPER strong in the lesson. We made promises to her, gave her a blessing, and invited her to be baptized on Saturday. We returned on Friday to do the baptismal interview, and she had decided that she wasn't going to be baptized again. We asked if she had been praying and reading the scriptures, but she said no. There's the problem. So we talk to her a bit, share experiences, and she decides that she wants to be baptized again. The interview goes well and she passes. We then get a call from her Saturday morning saying that she doesn't want to be baptized, and that she doesn't even want us to go to her house anymore. She, once again, hadn't read the scriptures nor prayed. So we went to her house. We talked to her again, told her about the consequences of her decisions, read Alma 40 with her, talked about the blessings she could have, and the spirit was even stronger than the day we invited her to be baptized the first time. But she denied it. She simply said she did not want to be baptized. So we left her house very sad and pretty down. But then we went to someone else's house, talked to them for a bit, and everything was better. The mission is a huge roller coaster of emotions. But Maria wasn't baptized this week. 

 

That's about all that happened this week. Next week we'll have the Multi-zone conference with President Canuto. It'll be the one that I give my last testimony...... 7 weeks left... Wow. That went by fast.

 

I hope you all have a good week! I love you all!

 

-Elder Hopper #1

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October 7, 2013

Hellllllo family!

 

This week, we basically didn't work. So this email miiiight just be a little boring. Monday we had leadership council, Tuesday we went to a different area to work, Wednesday was our P-Day, Thursday and Friday we working, and Saturday and Sunday were conference. So we spent most of our time this week outside of our area. But conference was awesome, so that's okay. 

 

The biggest news is that today we have transfers! Buuuut nothing happened to me or Elder Galleguillos. We're both staying here for another 5 weeks (5 week transfer instead of 6 this time). But we'll also have another companionship in our ward this transfer! They'll be living with us and dividing the area. It sounds like the Elder that's coming is Elder Tomaz, who Elder Galleguillos just trained and was with before those emergency transfers, and he's going to train as well. But that's just the rumors as we have not officially been told what's going on yet. We should find out in an hour or so.

 

Other than that.... You should all go watch all the sessions of General Conference. There is no way I can say everything I want to about it in just this email. But it helped me out a ton. There's always something we can learn from it. And it's proof that those men are really called by God and have the Apostolic keys here on the Earth. I'm so happy to belong to this church and to be able to say that we have a true prophet in our days. We are so blessed!

 

Well, hope you all have a good week! Love you all!

 

-Elder Hopper #1

October 2, 2013

Weird things happen on the mission: Part 2

 

Well, last Monday night, after Elder Mesquita and I got home from working, we got a phone call from President Canuto. He called to tell Elder Mesquita to pack his bags again. He was being transferred to Havaré, one of the areas that's furthest away from Americana, and he would be companions with Elder Cabral. And Elder Galleguillos would be my companion. Remember him from Araraquara? He was living with me there and now he's my companion! I was pretty sad to hear the Elder Mesquita would be leaving, but at least I got a good companion. Now we're super excited, we're going to work a ton, and we're going to help this ward grow! Also, we'll be getting another companionship in our house next week when we have the transfer. Should be great!

 

I also told Elder Galleguillos about 7 months ago that we would be ZL together. Called it.

 

I don't really have much to say... I'm just excited to work and to be able to help out more people to be happy! I'm gonna include a picture of our zone, as we'll have transfers next week and it will change. We will have two more companionships in the zone, one with us, and one in Santa Bárbara D'Oeste. 

 

Well, hope you all have a great week and YOU SHOULD ALL WATCH CONFERENCE!!!!!! It's going to be aweeeesoooooome!

 

Love,

Elder Hopper #1