November 26, 2012

Helloooo!! Another week gone by, 2 more rain storms gone through, and quite a bit of good happening here! I'll start with Monday. Last Monday, anyways.

After I got off the computer, we went home, made lunch, and then I laid down to take a nap. As I was trying to sleep, there was a huge BANG and flash of light as lightning struck less than a mile away from our house. And then the rain started. I rushed outside and grabbed all my clothes from outside, and the rain started pouring harder and harder. So I was sitting in our doorway, bewildered with the hard rain and random hail, waiting for a motorcycle on the side of the road to be washed away, when Elder Guerra told me it was raining inside the house. Which makes no sense, considering our house is.... a house, right? Well, I was wrong. Water was coming down from almost all of the light fixtures, in all but one of the rooms in our house. And it started leaking down the walls and through the roof. Our house got SOAKED. Luckily, the rain didn't get my bed wet, but the water falling from the ceiling got Elder Guerra's bed wet. Most of our other stuff was relatively untouched by the rain, but our floors were covered in water. At some point you will all see the video that we made when it was raining. It was a lot of rain. So the first picture is the water coming down our wall, and the second is the rain falling from our ceiling.

Then, on Wednesday we went to the registry office where Elder Guerra and I were witnesses for a marriage that will take place on the 10th, and then we will baptize the husband on the 15th and possibly rebaptize the wife. We'll see! Should be fun!

The other day, Elder Guerra and I were talking about what we wanted in investigators. We wanted an investigator that would say, "I want to know if this church is true. I want to follow Christ and I will do everything I have to in order to get there." Then, the very next day, we went to a new investigators house where she said pretty much exactly that. She had gotten in an argument with her grandmother, who told her that she was already baptized as a baby and didn't need to be baptized again, but the girl told her grandma that it was now her turn to make the decision and that she wanted this for herself. Soooo we were blessed with exactly what we wanted! I don't think there is anything that compares to the feeling that you get when you hear those words come out of the mouth of an investigator. It's pretty fantastic. She'll be baptized here in a couple of weeks.

Well, that's about all that happened this week. This is the last week of the transfer so who knows what will happen next week! 

I love you all! Hope you all have a fantastic week!

-Elder Hopper #1

November 19, 2012

Hello Family!

Happy Thanksgiving in a couple of days! That's definitely a holiday that I miss, if not for the food, just for spending time with the family. But That means that I only have one more on the mission! 

This week was a pretty good week. Not too much exciting happened, but we did mark with Shirley and Jonas to go to the marriage registry place to be the witnesses for their marriage, which will happen on Wednesday this week! So a couple weeks into the future we should have the baptism of Jonas and re-baptism of Shirley! Yaaaay! Also today Sônia and Benedito were going to Leme to talk to their marriage papers dude to get that all figured out. Hopefully they'll get everything sorted out today and they'll get married here in a couple weeks as well! I just fear that they will have to wait until after the transfer (which is on the 3rd of December) to get baptized and maybe I'll leave this area.... I hope that doesn't happen, but it's all the will of the Lord!

I'm getting over my cold, so that's good. But it seems that I've passed it to my companion and another Elder in our zone. But that's alright. At least I'm not sick anymore!

I don't have much news this week, but I hope you're all doing well! I included a couple of pictures; the first one is of a wall of a school here (all the schools look like prisons and are completely enclosed here) where it looks like they're paying someone to do a cool mural. I'll try to take pictures of other parts of the wall as it is really cool. The other two pictures are puzzles. You guys get to figure out what's wrong in them! I'll try to remember next week to tell you guys. Just funny little things in Brasil.

 

 

I hope you all have a fantastic week! Love you all!

-Elder Hopper #1

Oh, and Donald, if you read this, I hope all is well with you and that you stay excited to get back out there! It's totally worth it and you'll be incredibly blessed for your sacrifice and work!

November 12, 2012

Good morning family and everyone else to happens to stumble upon this email and read it!

We had a BAPTISM!!!!!!!!! WOOOOOO!!! Julia was baptized this week! It was really cool. That whole family is getting more excited now. Benedito is getting more responsible and will... run behind? Correr atrás... the marriage papers and him and Sônia will get marrried here pretty soon then be baptized! Yay! So many good things happening! We don't have a baptism marked for this week, but that's alright. It's so good to have a baptism! And I confirmed someone for the first time in my life! Yaaaaay!

I've got a couple of pictures on here, first of the baptism then of me in Benedito's truck. This is his job and his life and his love! Well, besides Sônia, of course. But we all know how boys are with their trucks. And no, I didn't get to drive it... Stupid rules...

We had a lady this week who actually wanted to "discuss" religion with our bishop this week. We knocked on her door out of the blue (we weren't even knocking doors), and she got all offended and asked us who sent us. But nobody, besides God of course, had! So she got a little bit angry with us, but then we just said a prayer at her house, marked a day to come back with the bishop and left. We went back with bishop, and he pretty much shot down everything that she said. It was kind of funny. She really had no knowledge but thought that she did until bishop came in and destroyed every point that she brought up. But her son came to church on Sunday! We're going to go back and teach her son, whose name is Alessandro, with bishop again and it should be good. 

It's kind of scary to hear about those earthquakes in Guatemala! I hope everything's alright with Drew! I'm sure he'll get a lot of service opportunities now. Should be fun!

That's all I got for this week! I love you all! Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Hopper #1

November 5, 2012

Bom dia família!

Well, first things first, I got a new companion. Elder Guerra. The brother of Lainey's new friend, Antonio. He's been out here for a little over 1 year and 2 months, so he's got a bit more time than me. He just came from the mission office where he was working as executive secretary for 6 months. So it was a little bit of adapting for him when he got here - it's a bit different working out here in the field! But we're getting along really well. He's a cool guy and it's good to be out here with him. Maybe in the next couple weeks I'll send a picture if I can get a cable for my camera.

So last week I talked a little about Julia and how she went to church for the first time and loved it, right? Well on Friday she went with the youth to the temple. Obviously she couldn't enter, but she helped take care of the garden outside a little bit with them, and then waited outside the temple for them while they were doing the ordinances inside. She came back, and said she absolutely loved it. She's super excited, already doing Personal Progress, she has tons of friends in the Young Womens organization, and is just having a great time. Her baptism is scheduled for this Saturday night! We're all really excited for her. 

Oh, and Sônia has decided that she's going to be baptized. She got a new job where she is out of the house the whole week, and she actually sleeps at the house of a lady that she is taking care of. She has started not even sleeping here in Aracy. So she can be baptized at any point now. We'll see how that goes!

There's a sister in our zone that might be going home this week as well. Her name is Sister José. She's been having some health problems and is not doing well at all. It's really sad to see her going through this as she's a really nice person and a really good missionary. It's been really good to have her here in this zone. Pray for her that she'll get better!

I think that's about all that happened this week. We ended up working a lot in different areas this week, so not much happened here. Next week should be more exciting with a baptism and with more good stuff! And we're gonna eat esfihas this weekend as well! Wooooo!!!!

 

Love you all!

-Elder Hopper #1

October 29, 2012

Good morning people back home!

So today we had transfers. Elder Stewart is no longer my companion, and left Cidade Aracy after 6 months of being there. He was pretty sad. But it was a good week! As I said last week, this transfer was extended a week, and Elder Stewart and I saw various reasons why it's good that he stayed for this last week. There were still a couple of things that he needed to do here before he left. And thus we see the Lord's hand in our work one more time! (The last part of that phrase translated into Portuguese sounds better than it does in English...) But now he's gone, and I'm with............... I have no idea yet. I'm actually here at the LAN house with the Elder's from Ala 3A and Ala 3B. Both of their companions got transferred as well, so we're all just waiting because nobody has told us who our new companions are yet! But here in about an hour they should be here and we will know. Almost our whole zone got changed. Only one companionship stayed the same.

Remember Sônia and Benedito? Remember their daughter, Júlia? And how she was working at the Mundial Church? (Which is an ironic name considering it isn't worldwide..) Well, a couple of weeks ago there was a fight between a few of the people that worked there and the pastor... I don't remember if I told you guys about that. But there was. And Júlia decided that she wasn't gonna go to that church anymore. So what did we do? Invited her to church, of course! Yesterday was the first time that Sônia came to church in 3 weeks, Benedito in 4 or 5, and the first time ever for Júlia! And she loved it! When she got home from church, Sônia said that Júlia wouldn't stop talking about it! She really liked it, and actually said that if she had known that our church is like it is earlier, she would've already gone a long time ago. Funny how people keep saying that our church is something it's not when they haven't ever gone... So now we're working with her, and planning on setting a baptismal date for the 10th of November!

Speaking of November, that came super fast. I hit 10 months yesterday! And Drew hits 8 here in a week or so! 

Oh, and Guilherme, our baptism last week, received the Aaronic priesthood yesterday as well. His brother went and talked to our Bishop and is working on going on a mission. Jonas is working really hard to stop drinking, and has found quite a liking to beer without alcohol. So it's all going great in that family! Just gotta wait for the marriage papers to come through and we'll have a baptism and a re-baptism!

That's about it for this week. I love you all and hope you have a good week!

-Elder Hopper #1

October 22, 2012

Baptism this week! Wooooo!!!! We finally had a baptism that we've been working so hard to get! His name is Guilherme, and I'll go ahead and tell the story of him and his family right off the bat. So he is 12 years old, and he had been practically raised in the church. His mom, Shirley, had taught seminary for 7 years, taught institute for a couple more, and had been a huge power in this area. Theeeeen she made a little mistake and got excommunicated. Or I guess we could say that it was a pretty big mistake. But we won't get into the details there. A while ago, Elder Stewart and I were by her house and we were pretty thirsty, and so we decided to drop by and see if she had a bit of water that we could drink. So  we went in, she gave us some water and talked to Shirley for a while. Turns out that she has a pretty big desire to return to church! And bring her new husband with her who knows nothing about the church! His name is Jonas, by the way. The next week, Shirley went to church, and brought Jonas, Guilherme, and her other son, Gustavo with her. So the whole family was there! From that point, we started teaching Jonas the lessons, and we ended up finding out that Guilherme was never baptized! When he turned 8, Shirley and her husband were in the process of separating, so he never got around to getting baptized. So we started teaching them both, but Guilherme already knew everything. And by everything, I mean everything. Down to all the stories in the Book of Mormon. He practically taught us the story of Amon (I have no idea if that's how you spell his name in English anymore...). So we baptized him this week! Jonas has a baptism date set for the 3rd of November, but the marriage papers are still processing, so he might have to wait a little bit longer. And Gustavo is going to talk to Bishop Fabiano this week to talk about preparing to go on a mission, and Shirley is returning! Oh my goodness it is an awesome feeling to have a lost sheep come back into the fold. 

Then we've got Vanderlei and his family. He was another member that made a tiny mistake and got excommunicated (I guess these people really aren't making tiny mistakes, but that's alright) but wants to return. His daughter had a baby last week, so he's been pretty crazy running around helping her out with all that. We haven't visited his daughter in quite a while (she doesn't live with him), but we're going to try later today.

So this first picture is one of Guilherme, right before the baptism, which was crazy, by the way. There was a special someone who realllly did not want that baptism to happen. A special someone who doesn't like it when another person is baptized, especially when it's helping a super powerful family return to the church.







The second picture is a water balloon that we filled up a couple weeks ago. It was quite fun. Also, shortly after this picture was taken, the balloon exploded inside that tank. It was a very sad moment.

Well, I think that's all I got this week. We're currently on the 7th week of this transfer (weird, huh?) and we should find out at the end of this week what's happening with us!

Love you all! Have a great week!

-Elder Hopper #1

Ocotober 15, 2012

Hello family!

This week was a pretty good week. A bit difficult, but still really good. We are starting a new program here in our mission, which includes saying prayers in peoples' houses to help them with whatever difficulty they are having. But to start it off really, we did a fast. And before the fast, we took a whole day off of work to clean our house intensely. And even after a whole day of cleaning, we didn't have enough time to clean everything. It was rather tiring. On Thursday we had interviews with President Prieto, so that was good. Then later that day we had a training with the assistants. We spent a lot of time that day not working, so we basically lost two days of work last week. But we still managed to work a lot! 

So after the fast that we did, we said a prayer that basically was one of the most spiritual moments of my life. Elder Stewart and I both had things in mind that we had written down that we were praying and fasting for, and we switched lists, and prayed for these things for one another. I won't tell you guys what I asked for, but I'll just let you know that I got the biggest spiritual confirmation of my life after Elder Stewart said one of the things that I asked. I know with certainty that that thing will happen. I'll let you guys know what it was later, after it happens ;)

 

Also, our ward got a second counselor yesterday! The ward had been without one for about 6 months since they got a new bishop, but a less active that my companion helped reactivate was called as the second counselor! It was great to see him receive that calling. He's definitely someone that will help this ward a lot.

 

One last thing - we just got an email from the mission secretaries saying that this transfer (which was supposed to end after this week) will be extended another week. We'll have a 7 week transfer! One more week with Elder Stewart! Woooo!!!

 

Well, I love you all and hope you all have a fantastic week!

-Elder Hopper #1